Movies like The Bells (1918)
The best movies like The Bells (1918) are Stranger on the Third Floor (1940), The Unforgivable (2021) and Winged Creatures (2009). If The Bells hooked you with its crime and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedIn Cold Blood (1967)7.5/10 from 463 votes
- NewestInside Man (2023)Released 2023
Stranger on the Third Floor (1940)
Newspaper reporter Michael Ward plunges into a nightmare of guilt, fearing that his "evidence" has sentenced the wrong man to death.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Unforgivable (2021)
A woman is released from prison after serving a sentence for a violent crime and re-enters a society that refuses to forgive her past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWinged Creatures (2009)
A psychotic man opens fire in a diner, murdering numerous people before killing himself. The survivors struggle in different ways following this horrendous event: a doctor doubts his own instincts and elects to use an experimental medical procedure on his wife, while a gambler believes he's on a lucky streak. A waitress begins engaging in promiscuous sex, and a young girl whose father is among the dead gains unexpected fame.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisTrue Believer (1989)
Eddie Dodd is a burnt out former civil rights lawyer who now specializes in defending drug dealers. Roger Baron, newly graduated from law school, has followed Eddie's great cases and now wants to learn at his feet. With Roger's idealistic prodding, Eddie reluctantly takes on a case of a young Korean man who, according to his mother, has been in jail for eight years for a murder he didn't commit.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIn Cold Blood (1967)
After a botched robbery results in the brutal murder of a rural family, two drifters elude police, in the end coming to terms with their own mortality and the repercussions of their vile atrocity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBeyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956)
A newspaper publisher, wanting to prove a point about the insufficiency of circumstantial evidence, talks his possible son-in-law Tom into a hoax in an attempt to expose ineptitude of the city's hard-line district attorney. The plan is to have Tom plant clues leading to his arrest for killing a female nightclub dancer. Once Tom is found guilty, he is to reveal the setup and humiliate the DA.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPanic (2000)
Alex is going through a midlife crisis and it has become a very difficult time for him. His marriage is struggling, he's worried about his son, and his job of killing people for his family has become the most stressful part of his life. He seeks the help of a therapist and meets a woman in the waiting room that he connects with.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCry of the City (1948)
Petty crook and cop-killer Martin Rome, in bad shape from wounds in the hospital prison ward, still refuses to help slimy lawyer Niles clear his client by confessing to another crime. Police Lt. Candella must check Niles' allegation; a friend of the Rome family, he walks a tightrope between sentiment and cynicism. When Martin fears Candella will implicate his girlfriend Teena, he'll do anything to protect her. How many others will he drag down to disaster with him?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSiberian Education (2013)
The story of a gang of children growing up in a community of banished criminals, in a forgotten corner of the former Soviet Union. This community rejects the world outside. The only law it obeys… is its own. Against this backdrop two best friends, Kolyma and Gagarin, gradually become fierce enemies as they find themselves on opposite sides of the strict code of honour of the ‘honest criminal’ brotherhood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThey Made Me a Fugitive (1947)
After being framed for a policeman's murder, a criminal escapes prison and sets out for revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Sound of Fury (1950)
A family man – desperate for a job – latches onto a friend who encourages him into being a criminal.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAbove the Rim (1994)
Story of a promising high school basketball star and his relationships with two brothers, one a drug dealer and the other a former basketball star fallen on hard times and now employed as a security guard.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBelly (1998)
Tommy Bundy and Sincere are best friends as well as infamous and ruthless criminals and shot-callers in the hood. Respected by many but feared by all. As the police are closing in on them and new players are looking for a come up, will their reign last?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInside Man (2023)
Based on true events. A disgraced police detective seeking redemption goes undercover to expose a violent crime syndicate. But as he sinks deeper into the mob, the price for absolution may be higher than he can afford.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRun (1991)
When a law student accidentally kills the son of a mob boss in a fight, he finds himself relentlessly pursued by the mob and the police.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Blue Gardenia (1953)
Upon waking up to the news that the man she’d gone on a date with the previous night has been murdered, a young woman with only a faint memory of the night’s events begins to suspect that she murdered him while attempting to resist his advances.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll Day and a Night (2020)
While serving life in prison, a young man looks back at the people, the circumstances and the system that set him on the path toward his crime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRogue Agent (2022)
Conman Robert Freegard poses as an undercover MI5 agent and kidnaps countless victims amidst a high-stakes manhunt, until the woman who fell for him brings him to justice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Pelican Brief (1993)
A law student's theory about the recent deaths of two Supreme Court justices embroils her in a far-reaching web of murder, corruption, and greed.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIn the Blood (2014)
When her husband goes missing during their Caribbean vacation, a woman sets off on her own to take down the men she thinks are responsible.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisShadows of the Sea (1922)
An idealistic sea captain, Dick Carson (Conway Tearle), is wounded by revenue officers while smuggling arms to a South American country. He finds aid and refuge at the home of Dr. Jordan (J. Barney Sherry) whose young wife, Dorothy (Doris Kenyon), is being courted by Andrews (Crauford Kent), who kills the doctor in a quarrel. To avoid the revenue officers, Carson takes them aboard his ship and sets sail for the Far East. He and Dorothy fall in love but, first, he must deal with a mutiny on his ship.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
Garragan (1924)
Filmed and set in Germany this drama starred American leading lady Carmel Myers with sets designed by the art director Heinrich Beisenherz.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Gypsy Trail (1915)
Gypsy Willie Buckland recalls to his friend why he and his wife return each year to that same spot to hear the chimes in the village church. In his youth he and little gypsy maid Jane were friends and sweethearts. When Willie’s father died, he went to the city where he met "The Painted Woman," spending his last cent on her, but they had genuinely fallen in love and he promises to stay with the woman, who is fatally ill, until she dies. Penniless and ill, he wanders out into the street and thence to the meadows, where he is found by Jane and nursed back to health. Fearing his love may not be true, she tells him that if he finds her wherever she may wander, one year from that date, that she will believe him and marry him. A long weary year passes when he arrives in that very village just as the chimes are ringing, and there he finds Jane. His story finished, Buckland points to Jane and their children with a happy smile.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Der 10. Pavillon der Zitadelle (1917)
German silent film
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Unconquered Woman (1922)
Helen offers herself in marriage to the winner of a poker game in order to obtain money to replace what her brother has stolen. Antonio, a half-breed, is the winner, but Helen is saved from fulfilling her bet by Bruce Devereux when he doubles the stakes and wins the girl. She marries Bruce but leaves for New York when she finds the marriage to be a fake one. There she marries her previous music teacher, but he proves to be faithless, leaving her with a small son. Bruce returns and assures her he had not arranged for a fake marriage. Her present husband, not able to cope with the pressures of his many affairs, kills himself, leaving Helen free to remarry Bruce.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Barriers Burned Away (1925)
In 1871, a Chicago undercover detective gets a job as a porter in a disreputable saloon to get information on a stolen painting, which he believes will be fenced there by thieves. He soon falls in love with the saloon owner's daughter, who believes him to be just a porter. Soon his undercover work puts him and the girl in danger, from both the criminals who stole the painting and the infamous Chicago Fire of 1871.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Paid in Full (1914)
Joe Brooks is taken advantage of by his employer, Captain Williams, who is a jealous former suitor of Joe's wife, Emma. Williams puts Joe in charge of the company's payroll money and has detectives set a trap for him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Paradise Lost (1911)
The Parson and his friend Pete, a worthless inebriate of the village, in a drunken sleep by the roadside. His cure has been tried often, but in vain. The Parson's friend suggests a novel scheme, that of taking him to his home, waking him there and make him believe he is in paradise; then feeding him wine until he is asleep again, placing him back in the same place in the road. The scheme worked to perfection and it looks as if the village saloon will get no more of Pete's money for drink.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
How She Triumphed (1911)
Mary, an orphan, comes to live with her aunt. Being in rather poor health and what some might call homely, the poor girl despairs of ever receiving any attention either from her pretty cousins or their gentlemen friends. One of the cousins, however, who is an athletic girl, takes her in hand. The first dose of medicine is a bout at boxing, then a run along the country road, followed by a cold plunge. This is kept up daily for two months, at the end of which time no one would know Mary, such a transformation having taken place. The other girls are now in fearful dread of losing their sweethearts, as they seem too well pleased with the result.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Making of O'Malley (1925)
A policeman falls for a teacher, and befriends her students. A gang of bootleggers threatens his newfound joys.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Bells?
The closest matches to The Bells are Stranger on the Third Floor (1940), The Unforgivable (2021) and Winged Creatures (2009). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Bells?
Start with Stranger on the Third Floor (1940), the closest match to The Bells.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Bells?
In Cold Blood (1967), rated 7.5/10 by 463 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Bells?
Inside Man (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Bells?
Yes: Stranger on the Third Floor (1940), The Unforgivable (2021) and Winged Creatures (2009).
How are movies similar to The Bells chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Bells, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.