Movies like The Man Who Came to Dinner (1941)
The best movies like The Man Who Came to Dinner (1941) are It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947), Christmas Eve (1947) and Christmas in Connecticut (1945). If The Man Who Came to Dinner hooked you with its comedy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Shop Around the Corner (1940)8.1/10 from 888 votes
- NewestHome Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)Released 1992
It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947)
A New Yorker hobo moves into a mansion and along the way he gathers friends to live in the house with him. Before he knows it, he is living with the actual home owners.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisChristmas Eve (1947)
The greedy nephew of eccentric Matilda Reid seeks to have her judged incompetent so he can administer her wealth, but she will be saved if her three long-lost adopted sons appear for a Christmas Eve reunion. Separate stories reveal Michael as a bankrupt playboy loved by loyal Ann; Mario as a seemingly shady character tangling with a Nazi war criminal in South America; Jonathan as a hard-drinking rodeo rider intent on a flirtatious social worker. Is there hope for Matilda?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Christmas in Connecticut (1945)
While recovering in a hospital, war hero Jefferson Jones grows familiar with the "Diary of a Housewife" column written by Elizabeth Lane. Jeff's nurse arranges with Elizabeth's publisher, Alexander Yardley, for Jeff to spend the holiday at Elizabeth's bucolic Connecticut farm with her husband and child. But the column is a sham, so Elizabeth and her editor, Dudley Beecham, in fear of losing their jobs, hasten to set up the single, childless and entirely nondomestic Elizabeth on a country farm.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Christmas Without Snow (1980)
Leaving her son behind at her parents' home in Omaha, Nebraska, recent divorcée Zoe attempts to start her life anew by moving to San Francisco. Seeking something to fill her lonely hours, she begins singing with a church choir. When new choirmaster Ephraim Adams is hired, Zoe finds his attitudes and ideas difficult to tolerate. Faced with the challenging task of satisfying Adams' unrelenting perfectionism, Zoe is tempted once more to run away from her problems.
Why it matches: Fans watch both
Remember the Night (1940)
Unexpected love blossoms when an assistant district attorney agrees to take a recidivist shoplifter home so she doesn't have to spend Christmas alone in jail.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBeyond Tomorrow (1940)
The ghosts of three elderly industrialists killed in an airplane crash return to Earth to help reunite a young couple whom they initially brought together.
Why it matches: Fans watch both
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Bishop's Wife (1947)
An Episcopal Bishop, Henry Brougham, has been working for months on the plans for an elaborate new cathedral which he hopes will be paid for primarily by a wealthy, stubborn widow. He is losing sight of his family and of why he became a churchman in the first place. Enter Dudley, an angel sent to help him. Dudley does help everyone he meets, but not necessarily in the way they would have preferred. With the exception of Henry, everyone loves him, but Henry begins to believe that Dudley is there to replace him, both at work and in his family's affections, as Christmas approaches.
Why it matches: Fans watch both
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHoliday Affair (1949)
Just before Christmas, department store clerk Steve Mason meets big spending customer Connie Ennis, who's actually a comparison shopper sent by another store. Steve lets her go, which gets him fired. They spend the afternoon together, which doesn't sit well with Connie's steady suitor, Carl, when he finds out, but delights her young son Timmy, who quickly takes to Steve.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Shop Around the Corner (1940)
Two employees at a gift shop can barely stand one another, without realising that they are falling in love through the post as each other's anonymous pen pal.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisSusan Slept Here (1954)
On Christmas Eve, suffering from a case of writer's block, screenwriter Mark Christopher and his gofer Virgil get an unexpected visit from Sergeant Maizel. Knowing Christopher is working on a juvenile delinquent script, the sergeant brings by delinquent Susan thinking she will inspire Christopher while providing a place for her to spend the holidays outside of juvenile hall.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
An American Christmas Carol (1979)
In Depression-era New England, a miserly businessman named Benedict Slade receives a long-overdue attitude adjustment one Christmas Eve when he is visited by three ghostly figures who resemble three of the people whose possessions Slade had seized to collect on unpaid loans. Assuming the roles of the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future from Charles Dickens' classic story, the three apparitions force Slade to face the consequences of his skinflint ways, and he becomes a caring, generous, amiable man.
Why it matches: Fans watch both
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Miracle on 34th Street (1955)
One Kris Kringle, a department-store Santa Claus, causes quite a commotion by suggesting customers go to a rival store for their purchases. But this is nothing to the stir he causes by announcing that he is not merely a make-believe St. Nick, but the real thing.
Why it matches: Fans watch both
A Christmas Carol (1954)
Miser Ebenezer Scrooge is awakened on Christmas Eve by spirits who reveal to him his own miserable existence, what opportunities he wasted in his youth, his current cruelties, and the dire fate that awaits him if he does not change his ways. Scrooge is faced with his own story of growing bitterness and meanness, and must decide what his own future will hold: death or redemption.
Why it matches: Fans watch both
The More the Merrier (1943)
It's World War II and there is a severe housing shortage everywhere - especially in Washington, D.C. where Connie Milligan rents an apartment. Believing it to be her patriotic duty, Connie offers to sublet half of her apartment, fully expecting a suitable female tenent. What she gets instead is mischievous, middle-aged Benjamin Dingle. Dingle talks her into subletting to him and then promptly sublets half of his half to young, irreverent Joe Carter - creating a situation tailor-made for comedy and romance.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHoliday (1938)
Johnny Case, a freethinking financier, has finally found the girl of his dreams — Julia Seton, the spoiled daughter of a socially prominent millionaire — and she's agreed to marry him. But when Johnny plans a holiday for the two to enjoy life while they are still young, his fiancée has other plans & that is for Johnny to work in her father's bank!
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTwo-Faced Woman (1941)
A woman pretends to be her own twin sister to win back her straying husband.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Kris Kringle, seemingly the embodiment of Santa Claus, is asked to portray the jolly old fellow at Macy's following his performance in the Thanksgiving Day parade. His portrayal is so complete that many begin to question if he truly is Santa Claus, while others question his sanity.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944)
A small-town girl with a soft spot for American soldiers wakes up the morning after a wild farewell party for the troops to find that she married someone she can't remember.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Philadelphia Story (1940)
When a rich woman's ex-husband and a tabloid-type reporter turn up just before her planned remarriage, she begins to learn the truth about herself.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisI'll Be Seeing You (1944)
Mary Marshall, serving six years for accidental manslaughter, is given a Christmas furlough to visit her closest relatives, her uncle and his family in a small Midwestern town. On the journey, she meets Zach Morgan, a troubled army sergeant on leave from a military hospital. Although his physical wounds have healed, he suffers from PTSD and is subject to panic attacks. The pair are attracted to one another and, in the warm atmosphere of the Christmas season friendship, blossoms into romance, but Mary is reluctant to tell him of her past and that she must shortly return to serve the remainder of her sentence.
Why it matches: Fans watch both
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMeet Me in St. Louis (1944)
A year in the life of a turn-of-the-century middle class family, leading up to the opening of the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNo Time for Love (1943)
An upper-class female reporter is (despite herself) attracted to a hulking laborer digging a tunnel under the Hudson River.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
I Love You Again (1940)
Boring businessman Larry Wilson recovers from amnesia and discovers he's really a con man...and loves his soon-to-be-ex wife.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBachelor Mother (1939)
Polly Parrish, a clerk at Merlin's Department Store, is mistakenly presumed to be the mother of a foundling. Outraged at Polly's unmotherly conduct, David Merlin becomes determined to keep the single woman and "her" baby together.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Palm Beach Story (1942)
A New York inventor, Tom Jeffers, needs cash to develop his big idea, so his adoring wife, Gerry, decides to raise it by divorcing him and marrying an eccentric Florida millionaire, J. D. Hackensacker III.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Lady Eve (1941)
It's no accident when wealthy Charles falls for Jean. Jean is a con artist with her sights set on Charles' fortune. Matters complicate when Jean starts falling for her mark. When Charles suspects Jean is a gold digger, he dumps her. Jean, fixated on revenge and still pining for the millionaire, devises a plan to get back in Charles' life. With love and payback on her mind, she re-introduces herself to Charles, this time as an aristocrat named Lady Eve Sidwich.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHome Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)
Instead of flying to Florida with his folks, Kevin ends up alone in New York, where he gets a hotel room with his dad's credit card—despite problems from a clerk and meddling bellboy. But when Kevin runs into his old nemeses, the Wet Bandits, he's determined to foil their plans to rob a toy store on Christmas Eve.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Great Outdoors (1988)
It's vacation time for outdoorsy Chicago man Chet Ripley, along with his wife, Connie, and their two kids, Buck and Ben. But a serene weekend of fishing at a Wisconsin lakeside cabin gets crashed by Connie's obnoxious brother-in-law, Roman Craig, his wife, Kate, and the couple's two daughters. As the excursion wears on, the Ripleys find themselves at odds with the stuffy Craig family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhat About Bob? (1991)
Before going on vacation, self-involved psychiatrist Dr. Leo Marvin has the misfortune of taking on a new patient: Bob Wiley. An exemplar of neediness and a compendium of phobias, Bob follows Marvin to his family's country house. Dr. Marvin tries to get him to leave; the trouble is, everyone loves Bob. As his oblivious patient makes himself at home, Dr. Marvin loses his professional composure and, before long, may be ready for the loony bin himself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHome Alone (1990)
Eight-year-old Kevin McCallister makes the most of the situation after his family unwittingly leaves him behind when they go on Christmas vacation. When thieves try to break into his home, he puts up a fight like no other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Man Who Came to Dinner?
The closest matches to The Man Who Came to Dinner are It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947), Christmas Eve (1947) and Christmas in Connecticut (1945). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Man Who Came to Dinner?
People who watched The Man Who Came to Dinner most often go on to It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947), Christmas Eve (1947) and Christmas in Connecticut (1945).
What is the highest-rated movie like The Man Who Came to Dinner?
The Shop Around the Corner (1940), rated 8.1/10 by 888 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Man Who Came to Dinner?
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Man Who Came to Dinner?
Yes: It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947), Christmas Eve (1947) and Christmas in Connecticut (1945).
How are movies similar to The Man Who Came to Dinner chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Man Who Came to Dinner, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.