Movies like The Life of Jimmy Dolan (1933)
The best movies like The Life of Jimmy Dolan (1933) are Lucky Star (1929), The Secret: Dare to Dream (2020) and Bad Girl (1931). If The Life of Jimmy Dolan hooked you with its drama and romance, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedAll My Life (2020)7.7/10 from 523 votes
- NewestOne Last Bloom (2023)Released 2023
Lucky Star (1929)
Mary, a poor farm girl, meets Tim just as word comes that war has been declared. Tim enlists in the army and goes to the battlefields of Europe, where he is wounded and loses the use of his legs. Home again, Tim is visited by Mary, and they are powerfully attracted to each other; but his physical handicap prevents him from declaring his love for her. Deeper complications set in when Martin, Tim's former sergeant and a bully, takes a shine to Mary.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisBad Girl (1931)
A man and woman, skeptical about romance, nonetheless fall in love and are wed, but their lack of confidence in the opposite sex haunts their marriage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Lost Husband (2020)
Trying to put her life back together after the death of her husband, Libby and her children move to her estranged Aunt's goat farm in central Texas.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlood and Sand (1941)
Bullfighter Juan Gallardo falls for socialite Dona Sol, turning from the faithful Carmen who nevertheless stands by her man as he continues to face real danger in the bullring.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Merry Christmas Match (2019)
Corey Calvin lives in a ski village where she works at her late father's local antique shop, having sidelined her her big city dreams of becoming a theater director. When Los Angeles hunk Ryder Donnelly comes into her shop, sparks fly and she starts to wonder what could be.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Ring of Endless Light (2002)
When 15-year-old Vicky Austin, her sister Suzy and little brother Rob visit their grandfather on Seven Bay Island, Vicky faces several unexpected challenges. Her beloved grandfather, retired Reverend Eaton, seems to be seriously ill, but tries to pretend that nothing is wrong. Vicky met the rich but emotionally troubled Zachary Gray the previous summer, and he reappears to renew the acquaintance. Another boy, 17-year-old Adam Eddington, recruits Vicky to help him with a research project, working with a dolphin called Basil. Vicky discovers she can communicate telepathically with the dolphin and his mate - and possibly with Adam as well
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Brilliant Career (1979)
A young woman who is determined to maintain her independence finds herself at odds with her family who wants her to tame her wild side and get married.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDangerous (1935)
Don Bellows finds former stage star Joyce Heath a penniless drunk and takes her to his Connecticut home for rehabilitation. He asks his fiancée Gail to free him and offers to sponsor Joyce in a play.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFlamingo Road (1949)
A stranded carnival dancer takes on a corrupt political boss when she marries into small-town society.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKitty Foyle (1940)
A hard-working, white-collar girl falls in love with a young socialite, but meets with his family's disapproval.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThey Won't Believe Me (1947)
On trial for murdering his girlfriend, philandering stockbroker Larry Ballentine takes the stand to claim his innocence and describe the actual, but improbable sounding, sequence of events that led to her death.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReturn to Peyton Place (1961)
Residents of the small town of Peyton Place aren't pleased when they realize they're the characters in local writer Allison MacKenzie's controversial first novel. A sequel to the hit 1957 film.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Ring (1927)
Both Jack Sander and Bob Corby are boxers in love with Mabel. Jack and Mabel wed, but their marriage is flat. The young wife looks to Bob for comfort.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisFalling in Love (1984)
During shopping for Christmas, Frank and Molly run into each other. This fleeting short moment will start to change their lives, when they recognize each other months later in the train home and have a good time together. Although both are married and Frank has two little kids, they meet more and more often, their friendship becoming the most precious thing in their lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll My Life (2020)
It was a chance meeting started by one of Sol’s friends trying to chat up Jennifer. However, in the end, it was those two who hit it off. Sol enjoyed Jen’s smile, her effort, and how silly she could be. Jen enjoyed Sol’s cooking, his athleticism, and that he would join her in fun moments. As you can imagine, love bloomed, and things got serious. Jen’s investment in Sol led to her pushing him to follow his dreams and even move in to save money. Sol’s investment in Jen well, it led to him proposing. But what started as a liver tumor grew into full-on cancer, so with a diagnosis of 6 months to live, Sol and Jennifer try to make the best of it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLovely, Still (2009)
A holiday fable that tells the story of an elderly man discovering love for the first time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSkater Girl (2021)
Prerna, a teenager growing up in rural India, comes of age when she’s introduced to the sport of skateboarding. As a result, she has to fight the odds to follow her dreams and compete in the national championship.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKid Galahad (1962)
After completing military service, Walter Gulick takes a job as a sparring partner at a gym, the owner of which sees potential in Walter as a professional fighter—and takes him under his wing.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhere the Red Fern Grows (1974)
Billy Coleman works hard and saves his earnings for two years to achieve his dream of buying two red-bone coonhound pups. He develops a new trust in life as he faces overwhelming challenges in adventure and tragedy roaming the river bottoms of Cherokee country with his dogs, Old Dan and Little Ann.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIn Gay Madrid (1930)
Ricardo, a young law student in his home town of Madrid, is a carefree playboy who loves nightclubs and courting pretty girls. His father hopes to instill a more serious attitude in his son by transferring him to a school in the rural town of Santiago. At Santiago, his father's old friend is to be his guardian. When Ricardo arrives at Santiago he joins a fraternity, and continues his carefree lifestyle while serenading and courting his guardian's daughter, Carmina.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
A Farewell to Arms (1932)
A tale of the World War I love affair, begun in Italy, between American ambulance driver Lt. Frederic Henry and British nurse Catherine Barkley. Eventually separated by Frederic's transfer, tremendous challenges and difficult decisions face each as the war rages on.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShooting Straight (1930)
A gambler wanted for murder hides under the guise of a clergyman.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
One Last Bloom (2023)
Forty years after leaving Japan for a boxing career in the U.S. that never panned out, Jin returns to restart his life with his old boxing buddies. When hotheaded young boxer Shogo asks for Jin’s help to get him back into the ring after an unfair loss, the two men decide to seize their final chance at glory. A boxing film so authentic that it inspired co-star Yokohama Ryusei to qualify as a pro boxer, Zeze Takahisa’s boxing drama is one of the veteran director’s most crowd-pleasing films thanks to the touching father-son bond at its core.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
They Made Me a Criminal (1939)
A boxer flees, believing he has committed a murder while he was drunk.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Doorway to Hell (1930)
A vicious crime lord decides that he has had enough and much to the shock of his colleagues decides to give the business to his second in command and retire to Florida after marrying his moll. Unfortunately, he has no idea that she and the man are lovers.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Two Seconds (1932)
A condemned murderer, in the process of being executed, relives the events that led to his being sentenced to die in the electric chair. Told in flashback, we witness a sleazy dancehall girl dupe a high rise riveter into marriage so she can live off of him. But when he loses his job and his marbles, she ends up supporting him with money from her side man--and misses no opportunity to rub it in his face that she's now supporting him in his emasculated state. As the animosity grows and things get more and more unbearable, he is eventually driven to desperate measures.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Champion (1949)
An unscrupulous boxer fights his way to the top, but eventually alienates all of the people who helped him on the way up.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOnce Upon a Time in Indian Country (2017)
A wild genre mix between a boxer film, urban western, road movie and music video, set at end of the summer holidays in a drab neighborhood in the outskirts of Hamburg suburbia. Young boxing talent Mauser is preparing for a pivotal competition when his father kills his step-mother and flees. Trying to find his father, Mauser embarks on a journey through the world of music, psychedelia, violence, love and a biblical thunderstorm. And what is with the Native American? "Once upon a time in Indian country" is a story that radiates both, heat and poetry.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Platinum Blonde (1931)
Ann Schuyler is an upper-crust socialite who bullies her reporter husband into conforming to her highfalutin ways. The husband chafes at the confinement of high society, though, and yearns for a creative outlet. He decides to write a play and collaborates with a fellow reporter.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Life of Jimmy Dolan?
The closest matches to The Life of Jimmy Dolan are Lucky Star (1929), The Secret: Dare to Dream (2020) and Bad Girl (1931). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Life of Jimmy Dolan?
Start with Lucky Star (1929), the closest match to The Life of Jimmy Dolan.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Life of Jimmy Dolan?
All My Life (2020), rated 7.7/10 by 523 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Life of Jimmy Dolan?
One Last Bloom (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Life of Jimmy Dolan?
Yes: Lucky Star (1929), The Secret: Dare to Dream (2020) and Bad Girl (1931).
How are movies similar to The Life of Jimmy Dolan chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Life of Jimmy Dolan, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.