In a crime film, a crime is always committed — usually a murder. It is solved as a rule by the lead character(s), most often a police officer or private detective. The crime takes place near the start of the film. Either the audience witnesses the crime and knows from the outset who the perpetrator is, or it is only clear what crime has been committed. The detective or team unravels the case as the film unfolds.
People:
- victim,
- perpetrator / murderer,
- police officer(s) / private detective,
- the investigator's team,
- witnesses,
- suspects,
- family, friends and colleagues of the victim.
Features:
- alibi,
- motive,
- murder weapon,
- blood,
- traces,
- interrogations.
Witnesses and perpetrators are often nervous and tangle themselves in contradictions.
The detective is usually highly self-assured and bluffs hard. He puts forward suppositions as if they were proven facts in order to test others' reactions.
Unexpected twists generate special suspense. Suspense can also be heightened by music.
Dramaturgical structure:
The crime film knows three basic variants which dissolve the relationship between viewer and character differently:
- Whodunit — the crime is visible, the perpetrator unknown. Audience and detective search together. The appeal lies in the puzzle (Murder on the Orient Express, Agatha Christie).
- Howcatchem / Columbo principle — the audience knows the perpetrator from the start. The suspense lies in how the investigator cracks the case and brings the culprit down.
- Whydunit — perpetrator and act are clear; the question is why. Often psychologically or socially shaded (Nordic Noir, psychological thrillers).
Typical action runs through four phases: crime → investigation with several suspects → second body or setback → resolution and confrontation. A plot twist shortly before the end is genre standard.
Motives:
Perpetrators' motives are typically:
- money (greed) (best avoided in improv),
- jealousy,
- (disappointed / unrequited) love, the victim's affair,
- revenge, settling a slight,
- power,
- psychopathology.
In improv, motives should arise from the relationships between the characters.
Typical conflicts and cases:
- family murder — the killer sits at one's own table,
- inheritance murder — a sudden death, many beneficiaries,
- jealousy drama — a relationship breaking down,
- revenge for an old wrong that comes to light,
- serial offender — a pattern is recognised,
- kidnapping / ransom demand on a ticking clock,
- economic and insurance crime,
- drug milieu, protection racket, organised crime,
- missing person who may not be dead at all,
- the "cold case" — an unsolved case reopened decades later.
Typical stylistic devices:
- door creaks — suspense,
- investigator playing confused — perpetrator gets cocky and slips up,
- tense music,
- forensic exams, conversations with the medical examiner,
- chases on foot, by car,
- action scenes,
- tangled relationships, difficult life situations,
- verbal duels, status fights, rivalries among investigators,
- several suspects,
- the obvious-non-suspect turns out to be the perpetrator,
- alibi missing or fake,
- perpetrator as a thoroughly nasty person,
- contract killing,
- interrogation,
- apartment or other room entered with weapon drawn,
- surveillance (sitting in a car, on foot),
- violence: shootings, brawls, knife attacks,
- milieu (red-light district, club scene, drugs),
- red thread of clues (a photo, a business card, an inscribed initial),
- red herring — a false trail leading to an innocent person,
- the "speaking object" (a diary, an answering machine, a forgotten phone),
- the repeated image of the act in flashbacks,
- the witness who knows more than she says.
Typical locations:
- investigators' office,
- interrogation room, possibly with one-way mirror,
- inside a car,
- church and graveyard with open grave at the funeral,
- mortuary / pathology,
- crime scene with cordon and forensic team,
- victim's apartment with personal items,
- bar, nightclub, red-light milieu,
- villa or company of the wealthy family,
- lonely country road, abandoned factory, harbour at night.
Subgenres:
- Whodunit / classic puzzle mystery — Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers,
- Police procedural — teamwork, daily routine (Tatort, Law & Order, The Wire),
- Private detective film — the loner with method (Sherlock Holmes, Philip Marlowe),
- Film noir / neo-noir — dark, rainy, morally ambiguous,
- Nordic Noir — Scandinavian gloom, social themes (Wallander, The Bridge, The Killing),
- Cozy mystery — charming, cosy, amateur sleuth (Miss Marple, Murder, She Wrote),
- Courtroom film — trial, closing speeches, final confession on the stand,
- Heist film — the planned job from the perpetrators' angle (Ocean's Eleven),
- Forensic series — scientific investigation in focus (CSI, Bones),
- Thriller borderland — speed and threat dominate over the puzzle.
Typical figures / authors:
- Edgar Wallace: door creaks, tense music,
- Kojak: lollipop, bald head,
- Miss Marple (Agatha Christie): old-English atmosphere,
- Sherlock Holmes: chequered pattern, hat, magnifying glass, perpetual rain,
- Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde,
- Columbo: "innocence personified", "Just one more thing …",
- CSI etc.: meticulous scientific forensics,
- investigator teams with their quirks, conflicts and banter,
- Tatort (ARD) — regional commissioners with rough edges,
- Hercule Poirot — the little grey cells and the moustache,
- Philip Marlowe (Raymond Chandler) — hard-boiled private eye, voiceover,
- Inspector Maigret (Georges Simenon) — Paris atmosphere, calm persistence,
- Wallander (Henning Mankell), Sarah Lund (The Killing), Saga Norén (The Bridge) — Nordic Noir investigators,
- Sherlock (BBC), Luther, Broadchurch — modern detective series.
Tips for improv theatre:
- Start with the crime. The case is the dramatic backbone — establish the act and the victim early; every subsequent scene can then become a clue.
- Don't invent every clue yourself — let your fellow players plant clues (a found object, an observation), and build on them.
- Draw motives from the relationship. Greed rarely sustains a scene; jealousy, betrayal, humiliation will.
- Clear status gap between investigator and suspects — the detective stays calm and superior, even when she has nothing.
- Columbo trick: the investigator plays low status ("Such a stupid question, but …") to lure the perpetrator into carelessness.
- Plan a red herring — a suspicious figure who turns out innocent raises the tension.
- Don't resolve too early. The resolution belongs at the end; until then, only suspicions count.
- Interrogation as the core scene. Two people, one table, one question — that's enough for a strong image.
- A detail that comes back. Something from the first scene (a sentence, an object, a delay) cracks the case at the end.
- Take the perpetrator seriously. The murderer, too, has a reason; that's what lifts the genre above a mere who's-who.