Movies like The Girl He Didn't Buy (1928)
The best movies like The Girl He Didn't Buy (1928) are Fire with Fire (1986), The Best of Me (2014) and My Brilliant Career (1979). If The Girl He Didn't Buy hooked you with its romance and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedGabriel's Inferno: Part III (2020)8.3/10 from 1,097 votes
- NewestLove Me Love Me (2026)Released 2026
Fire with Fire (1986)
A tough, street-smart kid serving a sentence in a state youth reformatory meets a beautiful, innocent girl studying at a nearby convent. When forbidden love blossoms between them, they must fight the prison authorities, their parents and the law.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Best of Me (2014)
A pair of former high school sweethearts reunite after many years when they return to visit their small hometown.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisMaria's Lovers (1984)
A World War II prisoner returns home to his childhood sweetheart. However, back home, he discovers that he has to compete to win her love.
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 thisEndless Love (2014)
A privileged girl and a charismatic boy's instant desire sparks a love affair made only more reckless by parents trying to keep them apart.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Fugitive Kind (1960)
Val Xavier, a drifter of obscure origins, arrives at a small town and gets a job in a store run by Lady Torrence. Her husband, Jabe M. Torrance, is dying of cancer. Val is pursued by Carol Cutere, the enigmatic local tramp-of-good-family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGabriel's Inferno: Part III (2020)
The final part of the film adaption of the erotic romance novel Gabriel's Inferno written by an anonymous Canadian author under the pen name Sylvain Reynard.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies 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 thisMoonlight Mile (2002)
As he copes with the death of his fiancee along with her parents, a young man must figure out what he wants out of life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNewness (2017)
In contemporary Los Angeles, two millennials navigating a social media–driven hookup culture begin a relationship that pushes both emotional and physical boundaries.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWay Down East (1920)
A naïve country girl is tricked into a sham marriage by a wealthy womanizer, then must rebuild her life despite the taint of having borne a child out of wedlock.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Crowd (1928)
John, an ambitious but undisciplined New York City office worker, meets and marries Mary. They start a family, struggle to cope with marital stress, financial setbacks, and tragedy, all while lost amid the anonymous, pitiless throngs of the big city.
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 thisLove Me Love Me (2026)
After her brother's death, June moves to Milan for a fresh start, finding comfort in Will, the perfect honor student at her new international school. But when his troubled best friend James—hiding a dangerous life in clandestine MMA fights—sparks a rivalry that quickly turns into irresistible attraction, June must choose between safety and a love that upends everything she thought she wanted.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
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 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 thisBreathe (2017)
Based on the true story of Robin, a handsome, brilliant and adventurous man whose life takes a dramatic turn when polio leaves him paralyzed.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe History of Love (2016)
The story of a long-lost book that mysteriously reappears and connects an old man searching for his son with a girl seeking a cure for her mother's loneliness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBrand Upon the Brain! (2007)
After returning home to his long-estranged mother upon a request from her deathbed, a man raised by his parents in an orphanage has to confront the childhood memories that have long haunted him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDernier amour (1916)
Ninon, a veteran stage artist, resides in her villa in Provence, surrounded by admirers as veteran or more than her. A film crew arrives at the gardens of the town to film some scenes in that beautiful spot. The director and screenwriter of the team will notice the charms of Ninon.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
The Face under The Face (2025)
A SILENT STORY - An aging refugee clown in Paris masks trauma with silent street performances. Beneath his painted smile lie resilience and displacement’s sorrow, a wordless elegy to those surviving unseen.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Joyless Street (1925)
In 1921, we follow two women - Marie and Grete - from the same poor Viennese neighborhood, as they try to better the lives of themselves and their families during the period of Austrian postwar hyperinflation.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOne Way Street (1925)
Bobby Austin is sent to Madrid on a diplomatic mission. He is followed by Lady Sylvia Hutton, a society adventuress who is infatuated with him. She takes him on a yachting trip to Monte Carlo where he meets Kathleen Lawrence, a notorious "kept" woman, who tries to save him from the ruin that Lady Sylvia bears in her wake.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Torture of Cuauhtémoc (1910)
Lost short film about the death of the last Aztec Emperor.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Agony!! A Shameful Act (1995)
Pinku distributed by Shintoho
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The House Behind the Cedars (1927)
Rena is a young woman of mixed race. Although she is romantically pursued by an upwardly mobile African American named Frank, Rena does not decide in his favor. Her appearance allows her to pass for white, as she is of majority European ancestry, although she has grown up in the black community. She meets and falls in love with George Tryon, a young white aristocrat. But as their relationship deepens, Rena believes she has to acknowledge her African ancestry. Considered a lost film.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Peer Gynt - Part 1: Peer Gynt’s Youth (1919)
Based on Henrik Ibsen's play.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Brute (1920)
The brute is a gambler, boxing manager and underworld boss who mistreats a young woman. She is forced into marriage with him for money after her original fiance is thought dead. When that man returns, he attempts to rescue her.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Weihnachtsglocken 1914 (1914)
Two young men serving at the front. One comes from a good family, the other's family is poor. But the sister of the middle-class son falls in love with his poor comrade when he returns home for Christmas.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Girl He Didn't Buy?
The closest matches to The Girl He Didn't Buy are Fire with Fire (1986), The Best of Me (2014) and My Brilliant Career (1979). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Girl He Didn't Buy?
Start with Fire with Fire (1986), the closest match to The Girl He Didn't Buy.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Girl He Didn't Buy?
Gabriel's Inferno: Part III (2020), rated 8.3/10 by 1,097 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Girl He Didn't Buy?
Love Me Love Me (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Girl He Didn't Buy?
Yes: Fire with Fire (1986), The Best of Me (2014) and My Brilliant Career (1979).
How are movies similar to The Girl He Didn't Buy chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Girl He Didn't Buy, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.