Movies like The Yellow Balloon (1953)
The best movies like The Yellow Balloon (1953) are Each Dawn I Die (1939), Time Without Pity (1957) and Footsteps in the Fog (1955). If The Yellow Balloon hooked you with its thriller and crime, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedOdd Man Out (1947)7.3/10 from 237 votes
- NewestMurder in Three Acts (1986)Released 1986
Each Dawn I Die (1939)
A corrupt D.A. with governatorial ambitions is annoyed by an investigative reporter's criticism of his criminal activities and decides to frame the reporter for manslaughter in order to silence him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTime Without Pity (1957)
Alec Graham is sentenced to death for the murder of his girlfriend Jennie, with whom he spent a weekend at the English country home of the parents of his friend Brian Stanford. Alec’s father, David Graham, a not-so-successful writer and alcoholic who has neglected his son in the past, flies in from Canada to visit his son on death row. David then goes on a quest to try and clear his son’s name while battling “the bottle.”
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFootsteps in the Fog (1955)
A Victorian-era murder mystery about a parlour maid who discovers that her employer may have killed his first wife.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDark City (1950)
War hero Danny Haley fleeces out-of-town dupes in a rigged poker game. He and his pals see Arthur Winant as an easy mark, but they've reckoned without Winant's homicidal brother, who wants revenge after Arthur commits suicide.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Web (1947)
A brash young lawyer takes a short-term, high-paying job as bodyguard for a slick business exec being threatened by a former partner, and quickly realizes he may be in over his head.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Locket (1946)
A dark personal secret drives a young woman to use every man she encounters.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Kiss Before Dying (1956)
A college student tries to get rich quick by wooing two wealthy sisters.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this5 Against the House (1955)
Former war-time Army buddies now students in college decide to rip off a Reno casino.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Naked City (1948)
After a former model is drowned in her bathtub, Detective James Halloran and Lieutenant Dan Muldoon attempt to piece together her murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhirlpool (1950)
The wife of a psychoanalyst falls prey to a devious quack hypnotist when he discovers she is an habitual shoplifter. Then one of his previous patients now being treated by the real doctor is found murdered, with her still at the scene, and suspicion points only one way.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBrighton Rock (1948)
Centring on the activities of a gang of assorted criminals and, in particular, their leader – a vicious young hoodlum known as "Pinkie" – the film's main thematic concern is the criminal underbelly evident in inter-war Brighton.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOdd Man Out (1947)
Belfast police conduct a door-to-door manhunt for an IRA gunman wounded in a daring robbery.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWitness to Murder (1954)
A woman fights to convince the police that she witnessed a murder while looking out her bedroom window.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Glass Key (1942)
A crooked politician finds himself being accused of murder by a gangster from whom he refused help during a re-election campaign.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Blue Lamp (1950)
P.C. George Dixon is a long-serving traditional copper who is due to retire shortly. He takes a new recruit under his aegis and introduces him to the easy-going night beat. Dixon is a classic ordinary hero but also anachronistic, unprepared and unable to answer the violence of the 1950s.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLady in the Lake (1946)
Private eye Phillip Marlowe wants to get out of the detective racket and into crime writing. But when he's called to the office of editor Adrienne Fromsett, it's not to talk about his story ideas — she wants him to locate the missing wife of her boss, Mr. Kingsby. The assignment quickly becomes complicated when bodies start turning up.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSleep, My Love (1948)
A woman wakes up in the middle of the night on board a train, but she can't remember how she got there. Danger and suspense ensue.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMurder in Three Acts (1986)
In Acapulco, Hercule Poirot attends a dinner party in which one of the guests clutches his throat and suddenly dies. The causes seem to be natural until another party with most of the same guests produces another corpse.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Mirror Crack'd (1980)
Jane Marple solves the mystery when a local woman is poisoned and a visiting movie star seems to have been the intended victim.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlind Date (1959)
Painter Jan Van Rooyer has been art teacher to Jacqueline Cousteau, an older Frenchwoman who becomes his lover. But when she turns up dead, Van Rooyer must explain their relationship to the police to clear his name.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & thriller
The Gambler and the Lady (1952)
A greedy but successful professional gambler wants to join the British Establishment when he falls in love with a blue-blooded lady. But first he must mend his ways and then dump his nightclub singer girl friend. She's not so easy to get rid of, neither is his past.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & thriller
Chase a Crooked Shadow (1958)
A woman who lives in Spain has trouble convincing anybody that a complete stranger has taken her dead brother's identity.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Man Who Watched Trains Go By (1952)
A Dutch company's owner bankrupts his own company, burns the incriminating ledgers and plans to run to Paris with the company funds but he is caught in the act by his accountant who challenges his actions, leading to a reversal of roles.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
They Drive by Night (1938)
“Shorty” Matthews having recently been released from prison visits his girlfriend in London only to discover her murdered. Fearing he will be wrongly accused of being the culprit he disappears amongst the long-distance lorry driving community. Meanwhile, the real killer, unassuming ex-schoolteacher Walter Hoover, continues to prey on London women. As Shorty had feared he has become the main suspect. He returns to London with old flame Molly to prove his innocence.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & thriller
Obsession (1949)
A British psychiatrist devises a devilish revenge plot against his wife's lover.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPanic (1963)
In this crime melodrama, a Swiss woman finds herself unwittingly involved in a plot to steal from her employer, a London diamond merchant. Her boyfriend is behind the scheme. First he sends two accomplices disguised as German jewelers to see the boss. He is not fooled by their ruse and is killed while the woman is knocked unconscious. She awakens with amnesia and begins aimlessly wandering the London streets. Thinking that his girl has squealed to the police, her boy friend begins scouring the town to find her. Meanwhile, she is taken in by a boxer who returns to the ring to win the money needed to get her out of the country. Trouble ensues when her lover finally finds her after the match and begins beating on the exhausted fighter.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
Never Let Go (1960)
John Cummings, an unsuccessful London cosmetics salesman, has his unpaid-for car stolen by a hood in the employ of Lionel Meadows, sadistic organiser of a car conversion racket. As the vehicle is uninsured, and since the police seem indifferent, Cummings decides to find it himself — and gets himself involved in an underworld battle.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & crime
Cosh Boy (1953)
Roy Walsh is a brash and enterprising thug who bullies his friends into subservience. He and his gang assault and rob people on the street, but things get increasingly dangerous when their behavior escalates to larger crimes.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & crime
The Long Memory (1953)
An innocent man is released from prison after 12 years and tracks down the witnesses who lied about him in court.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & thriller
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Yellow Balloon?
The closest matches to The Yellow Balloon are Each Dawn I Die (1939), Time Without Pity (1957) and Footsteps in the Fog (1955). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Yellow Balloon?
Start with Each Dawn I Die (1939), the closest match to The Yellow Balloon.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Yellow Balloon?
Odd Man Out (1947), rated 7.3/10 by 237 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Yellow Balloon?
Murder in Three Acts (1986) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Yellow Balloon?
Yes: Each Dawn I Die (1939), Time Without Pity (1957) and Footsteps in the Fog (1955).
How are movies similar to The Yellow Balloon chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Yellow Balloon, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.