Movies like Macao (1952)
The best movies like Macao (1952) are You Only Live Once (1937), They Live by Night (1949) and Party Girl (1958). If Macao hooked you with its adventure and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedCape Fear (1962)7.4/10 from 671 votes
- NewestTwelfth Night (2012)Released 2012
You Only Live Once (1937)
Based partially on the story of Bonnie and Clyde, Eddie Taylor is an ex-convict who cannot get a break after being released from prison. When he is framed for murder, Taylor is forced to flee with his wife Joan Graham and baby. While escaping prison after being sentenced to death, Taylor becomes a real murderer, condemning himself and Joan to a life of crime and death on the road.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThey Live by Night (1949)
An escaped convict, injured during a robbery, falls in love with the woman who nurses him back to health, but their relationship seems doomed from the beginning.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisParty Girl (1958)
Slick lawyer Thomas Farrell has made a career of defending mobsters in trials. It's not until he meets a lovely showgirl at a mob party that he realizes that there's more to life than winning trials. Farrell tries to quit the racket, but mob boss Rico Angelo threatens to hurt the showgirl if Farrell leaves him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFallen Angel (1945)
An unemployed drifter, Eric Stanton wanders into a small California town and begins hanging around the local diner. While Eric falls for the lovely waitress Stella, he also begins romancing a quiet and well-to-do woman named June Mills. Since Stella isn't interested in Eric unless he has money, the lovelorn guy comes up with a scheme to win her over, and it involves June. Before long, murder works its way into this passionate love triangle.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSahara (1983)
Intent on winning a competition in place of her distinguished late father, beautiful young heiress Dale takes on the guise of a man and competes in his spot, embarking on a car race that crosses the unforgiving Sahara desert.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & drama
SnoozefestMovies 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 thisJohnny O'Clock (1947)
When an employee at an illegal gambling den dies suspiciously, her sister, Nancy, looks into the situation and falls for Johnny O'Clock, a suave partner in the underground casino. Selfish and non-committal by nature, Johnny slowly begins to return Nancy's affection and decides to run away with her, but conflict within his business threatens their plans. As Johnny tries to distance himself from the casino, his shady past comes back to haunt him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKing Creole (1958)
Delinquent Danny Fisher flunks out of high school, quits his job as a nightclub busboy, and one night gets the chance to perform. Success is imminent and local crime boss Maxie Fields wants to hire him to perform at The Blue Shade. Danny declines, but Fields won't take no for an answer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Big Combo (1955)
Police Lt. Leonard Diamond vies to bring a clever, well connected, and sadistic gangster to justice all the while obsessing over the gangster's girlfriend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
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 thisEach 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 thisRoad House (1948)
A night club owner becomes infatuated with a torch singer and frames his best friend/manager for embezzlement when the chanteuse falls in love with him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
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 & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe File on Thelma Jordon (1949)
Cleve Marshall, an assistant district attorney, falls for Thelma Jordon, a mysterious woman with a troubled past. When Thelma becomes a suspect in her aunt's murder, Cleve tries to clear her name.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPlunder Road (1957)
A spectacular heist starts to unravel as the crooks take it on the lam.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Dark Corner (1946)
Ex-con turned private investigator Bradford Galt suspects someone is following him and maybe even trying to kill him. With the assistance of his spunky secretary, Kathleen Stewart, he dives deep into a mystery in search of answers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAn Inspector Calls (1954)
An upper-crust family dinner is interrupted by a police inspector who brings news that a girl known to everyone present has died in suspicious circumstances. It seems that any or all of them could have had a hand in her death. But who is the mysterious Inspector and what can he want of them?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Set-Up (1949)
Expecting the usual loss, a boxing manager takes bribes from a betting gangster without telling his fighter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisCaught (1949)
Wide-eyed and poor young Leonora weds an obsessive millionaire named Ohlrig, but the marriage is loveless. Even worse, Ohlrig seems to have manic, violent tendencies. Eventually, young Leonora escapes her unhappy life and begins working with New York City doctor Larry Quinada, who she soon falls for. Unfortunately, Ohlrig refuses to grant his wife a divorce, and things get even darker for Leonora when she realizes she's pregnant with his child.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPépé le Moko (1937)
Pépé le Moko, one of France's most wanted criminals, hides out in the Casbah section of Algiers. He knows police will be waiting for him if he tries to leave the city. When Pépé meets Gaby, a gorgeous woman from Paris who is lost in the Casbah, he falls for her.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCape Fear (1962)
Sam Bowden witnesses a rape committed by Max Cady and testifies against him. When released after 8 years in prison, Cady begins stalking Bowden and his family but is always clever enough not to violate the law.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Majestic (2001)
Set in 1951, a blacklisted Hollywood writer gets into a car accident, loses his memory and settles down in a small town where he is mistaken for a long-lost son.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSad Love (1969)
Sevgi is a singer who works in a bar. Her boss Vural fancies her. Sevgi meets Selim and they fall in love. Selim is unaware of her job at the bar. Vural sends his men to Selim's father to tell him about Sevgi's job, thus prevents her marriage with Selim. Selim doesn't believe in all this. Vural shoots Selim out of jealousy, yet due to lack of evidence he gets released. Sevgi and Vural marry but she takes Selim's revenge in shooting Vural, having no reason to live anymore she shoots herself as well.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Maid in Manhattan (2002)
Marisa Ventura is a struggling single mom who works at a posh Manhattan hotel and dreams of a better life for her and her young son. One fateful day, hotel guest and senatorial candidate Christopher Marshall meets Marisa and mistakes her for a wealthy socialite. After an enchanting evening together, the two fall madly in love. But when Marisa's true identity is revealed, issues of class and social status threaten to separate them. Can two people from very different worlds overcome their differences and live happily ever after?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSerenade to Miette (2011)
A Short heroic film about a street magician, a professional illusionist, and the mafia.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure & crime
Twelfth Night (2012)
Shipwrecked on the coast of Illyria, Viola adopts a male disguise and enters the service of Duke Orsino, only to find herself part of a triangle of unrequited love. Meanwhile, in the household of the Countess Olivia, Sir Toby Belch and his unruly companions trick Olivia's strict and disapproving steward, Malvolio, into believing that she loves him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & drama
One Girl's Confession (1953)
Cleo Moore stars as Mary Adams, whose first step on the road to ruin is a $25,000 robbery. Mary hides the money, then confesses to the crime, secure in the belief that she can dig up the loot upon her release from prison.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & crime
Shockproof (1949)
Jenny Marsh, recently released from prison for killing a man, finds herself under the watchful eye of her parole officer, Griff Marat, who helps her secure a job caring for his ailing mother.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInside Job (1946)
A pair of married ex-convicts trying to go straight get jobs at a department store. A gangster who knows about their past threatens to expose it unless they agree to help him rob the department store.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
Like Macao and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Macao?
The closest matches to Macao are You Only Live Once (1937), They Live by Night (1949) and Party Girl (1958). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Macao?
Start with You Only Live Once (1937), the closest match to Macao.
What is the highest-rated movie like Macao?
Cape Fear (1962), rated 7.4/10 by 671 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Macao?
Twelfth Night (2012) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Macao?
Yes: You Only Live Once (1937), They Live by Night (1949) and Party Girl (1958).
How are movies similar to Macao chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Macao, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.