Movies like The Great Gabbo (1929)
The best movies like The Great Gabbo (1929) are Pure Country 2: The Gift (2010), Save the Last Dance (2001) and I Still Believe (2020). If The Great Gabbo hooked you with its music and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedPurple Hearts (2022)8.0/10 from 2,979 votes
- NewestRuth & Boaz (2025)Released 2025
Pure Country 2: The Gift (2010)
Three angels bestow the gift of song to a young girl, who must follow a series of rules in order hold on to it during her rise to fame and fortune.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSave the Last Dance (2001)
After the death of her mother, Sara moves to the South Side of Chicago to live with her father and gets transferred to a majority-black school. Her life takes a turn for the better when befriends Chenille and her brother Derek, who helps her with her dancing skills.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Still Believe (2020)
The true-life story of Christian music star Jeremy Camp and his journey of love and loss that looks to prove there is always hope.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHigh Strung Free Dance (2018)
Zander Raines, a dazzling and tempestuous young choreographer, gives the break of a lifetime to two hopeful artists when he casts a stunning contemporary dancer, Barlow, and innovative pianist, Charlie, in New York’s most-anticipated new Broadway show: Free Dance. But the move throws off the show’s delicate creative balance when Charlie falls hard for Barlow, while Zander embraces her as his muse.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHigh Strung (2016)
When a hip hop violinist busking in the New York subway encounters a classical dancer on scholarship at the Manhattan Conservatory of the Arts, sparks fly. With the help of a hip hop dance crew they must find a common ground while preparing for a competition that could change their lives forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStar! (1968)
Gertrude Lawrence rises to stage stardom at the cost of happiness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCenter Stage: Turn It Up (2008)
All self-taught dancer Kate Parker has ever wanted to do was perform with the American Academy of Ballet. But when she doesnt make it after auditioning, she learns that it takes more than precision and perfection to succeed in the dance world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRuth & Boaz (2025)
A talented singer leaves the Atlanta music scene and starts over in small-town Tennessee, where she finds love and new purpose but can't escape the past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPure Country (1992)
Dusty Chandler is a super star in the country music world, but his shows have the style of a '70s rock concert. One day he takes a walk - out of his overdone concerts to find his real country roots. He's helped and hindered by friends and staff, but pushes on in his search for a real music style as well as a real romance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStreetDance 2 (2012)
After suffering humiliation by the crew Invincible, street dancer Ash looks to gather the best dancers from around the world for a rematch.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNot Easily Broken (2009)
A car accident and shifting affections test the bond between a married couple.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPurple Hearts (2022)
An aspiring musician agrees to a marriage of convenience with a soon-to-deploy Marine, but a tragedy soon turns their fake relationship all too real.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Secret: Dare to Dream (2020)
A widow with three children hires a handyman to fix her house during a major storm. When not doing home repairs, he shares his philosophy of believing in the power of the universe to deliver what we want.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLove Everlasting (2016)
Bridger is a young outsider who's always wanted more. He and his mother flee an abusive home, eventually finding a small town in the middle of nowhere. Once there, Bridger finds true acceptance with another misfit.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNobody Has to Know (2022)
After a stroke and no memories from his past, Phil encounters Millie who inhabits a desert part of Isle of Lewis. She will shortly entrust him with his deepest secret : they were in love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNine Lives (2005)
Captives of the very relationships that define and sustain them, nine women resiliently meet the travails and disappointments of life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Magic of Ordinary Days (2005)
Pregnant out of wedlock, an educated young woman is pressured by her father into an arranged marriage with a lonely farmer in this drama set during WWII.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBlind (2017)
A novelist is blinded in a car crash that killed his wife and several years later rediscovers his passion for life and writing when he embarks on an affair with the neglected wife of an indicted businessman.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHome by Spring (2018)
When an ambitious event planner gets an opportunity she can’t refuse, she goes undercover as her boss and returns to her rural hometown. With the help of her family and the man she left behind, she pulls off the perfect spring retreat, but will she discover home is where her heart is?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTeen Spirit (2019)
A shy teenager living on the Isle of Wight dreams of pop stardom. With the help of an unlikely mentor, she enters a singing competition that will test her integrity, talent, and ambition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Cloth Peddler (1965)
Set in Baku at the turn of the 20th century, a young successful businessman Asgar wishes to marry. He wants his bride to be the choice of his heart, however, Azerbaijani tradition restricted him from communicating with the lady as a lover before marriage. So Asgar decides to disguise himself as a mere cloth peddler and the young woman Gulchohra falls in love with him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & music
The Wave (2025)
A music student’s testimony ignites a feminist uprising on her campus, where protest becomes performance and collective voice becomes an act of resistance.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music & drama
Lili Marleen (1981)
The story of a German singer named Willie, who while working in Switzerland, falls in love with a Jewish composer named Robert, whose family is helping people to flee from the Nazis. Robert’s family is skeptical of Willie, thinking she could be a Nazi as she becomes famous for singing the song “Lili Marleen”.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPaganini (1973)
Operetta concerning the love affair of Niccolò Paganini, the violinist, and Élisa Bonaparte, the younger sister of Napoleon.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music & drama
Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (1931)
On the South Pacific island of Bora Bora, a young couple's love is threatened when the tribal chief declares the girl a sacred virgin.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisInu-Oh (2022)
A cursed dancer and a blind musician — both ostracized by society — become business partners and inseparable friends as their larger-than-life concerts propel them to stardom in 14th century Japan.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & music
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Chorus Line (1985)
A group of dancers congregate on the stage of a Broadway theatre to audition for a new musical production directed by Zach. After the initial eliminations, seventeen hopefuls remain, among them Cassie, who once had a tempestuous romantic relationship with Zach. She is desperate enough for work to humble herself and audition for him; whether he's willing to let professionalism overcome his personal feelings about their past remains to be seen.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRent (2005)
In New York City's gritty East Village, a group of bohemians strive for success and acceptance while enduring the obstacles of poverty, illness and the AIDS epidemic.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGolden Orchestra (2016)
When Chizuru joins as a teacher at Umega High School, she hears an amateur orchestra perform. Reminiscing her old days of playing the violin, she decides to enroll in one.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & music
I am from Austria (2017)
"I am from Austria" is a jukebox musical consisting of the songs by the Austrian songwriter Rainhard Fendrich. The musical premiered in September 2017 in Raimund Theater in Vienna. The plot circles around Emma Carter, a Hollywood star with Austrian roots, who who returns to her native country for the Vienna Opera Ball and to promote her new movie.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music & romance
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Great Gabbo?
The closest matches to The Great Gabbo are Pure Country 2: The Gift (2010), Save the Last Dance (2001) and I Still Believe (2020). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Great Gabbo?
Start with Pure Country 2: The Gift (2010), the closest match to The Great Gabbo.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Great Gabbo?
Purple Hearts (2022), rated 8.0/10 by 2,979 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Great Gabbo?
Ruth & Boaz (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Great Gabbo?
Yes: Pure Country 2: The Gift (2010), Save the Last Dance (2001) and I Still Believe (2020).
How are movies similar to The Great Gabbo chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Great Gabbo, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.