Movies like The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (1955)
The best movies like The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (1955) are The Cremator (1969), The Exterminating Angel (1962) and Monsieur Verdoux (1947). If The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz hooked you with its comedy and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Young and the Damned (1950)8.1/10 from 571 votes
- NewestTherapy Done Right (2026)Released 2026
- In SpanishThe Exterminating Angel (1962)Also in Spanish
The Cremator (1969)
In 1930s Prague, a Czech cremator who firmly believes cremation relieves one from earthly suffering is drawn inexorably to Nazism.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Exterminating Angel (1962)
After a lavish dinner party, the guests find themselves unable to depart... and, over the next few days, all of their elaborate societal pretenses and façades deteriorate as they are reduced to living like animals.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisMonsieur Verdoux (1947)
The film is about an unemployed banker, Henri Verdoux, and his sociopathic methods of attaining income. While being both loyal and competent in his work, Verdoux has been laid-off. To make money for his wife and child, he marries wealthy widows and then murders them. His crime spree eventually works against him when two particular widows break his normal routine.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCoup de Torchon (1981)
A pathetic police chief, humiliated by everyone around him, suddenly wants a clean slate in life, and resorts to drastic means to achieve it.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Ruling Class (1972)
When the Earl of Gurney dies in a cross-dressing accident, his schizophrenic son, Jack, inherits the Gurney estate. Jack is not the average nobleman; he sings and dances across the estate and thinks he is Jesus reincarnated. Believing that Jack is mentally unfit to own the estate, the Gurney family plots to steal Jack's inheritance. As their outrageous schemes fail, the family strives to cure Jack of his bizarre behavior, with disastrous results.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCul-de-sac (1966)
On the run and in search of help, two wounded gangsters find refuge in the secluded castle of a feeble man and his wife; however, under the point of a gun, nothing is what it seems.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSimon of the Desert (1965)
Simon, a deeply religious man living in the 4th century, wants to be nearer to God so he climbs a column. The Devil wants him come down to Earth and is trying to seduce him.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisO Lucky Man! (1973)
An ambitious coffee salesman has a series of improbable and ironic adventures seemingly designed to challenge his naive idealism.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
When his mother eloped with an Italian opera singer, Louis Mazzini was cut off from her aristocratic family. After the family refuses to let her be buried in the family mausoleum, Louis avenges his mother's death by attempting to murder every family member who stands between himself and the family fortune. But when he finds himself torn between his longtime love and the widow of one of his victims, his plans go awry.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLos tres huastecos (1948)
This is the story of three brothers - a priest, a soldier, and an outlaw - that are raised separately by their godfathers once their mother dies. They cross their paths again when the soldier and the priest move into two towns near the town the outlaw lives in. The drama will unfold once the three brothers meet each other.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Trial (1962)
Arrested for an unnamed crime, Josef K. is trapped in a surreal bureaucratic maze where justice is unknowable and guilt is assumed.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDiary of a Chambermaid (1964)
Celestine has a new job as a chambermaid for the quirky M. Monteil, his wife and her father. When the father dies, Celestine decides to quit her job and leave, but when a young girl is raped and murdered, Celestine believes that the Monteils' groundskeeper, Joseph, is guilty, and stays on in order to prove it. She uses her sexuality and the promise of marriage to get Joseph to confess -- but things do not go as planned.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Ladykillers (1955)
Five oddball criminals planning a bank robbery rent rooms on a cul-de-sac from an octogenarian widow under the pretext that they are classical musicians.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Lavender Hill Mob (1951)
A meek bank clerk who oversees the shipments of bullion joins with an eccentric neighbor to steal gold bars and smuggle them out of the country.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisÉl (1953)
Gloria encounters Francisco, a man whose social veneer betrays a truer self burrowed underneath.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Skeleton of Mrs. Morales (1960)
A taxidermist decides to murder his wife after having to put up with her after twenty years of hellish marriage.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & crime
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisViridiana (1962)
Viridiana is preparing to start her life as a nun when she is sent, somewhat unwillingly, to visit her aging uncle, Don Jaime. He supports her; but the two have met only once. Jaime thinks Viridiana resembles his dead wife. Viridiana has secretly despised this man all her life and finds her worst fears proven when Jaime grows determined to seduce his pure niece. Viridiana becomes undone as her uncle upends the plans she had made to join the convent.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Important Man (1961)
Animas Trujano is a colorful but irresponsible Indian in a small Mexican village. He hopes above all things someday to be chosen mayordomio of his village, a place of great honor usually conferred upon the wealthiest and most respected citizens. Animas has a loyal wife, but cheats on her and gambles away every cent they raise. Chances arise for Animas to turn over a new leaf and even hope realistically for the honor of mayordomio.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Two Monks (1934)
In a Gothic-styled monastery, a monk named Javier sees the face of another monk, Juan, and suddenly attempts to bludgeon him to death with a heavy crucifix. Both men then relate their own versions of a story of romantic rivalry between them.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
The Young and the Damned (1950)
A group of juvenile delinquents live a violent life in the infamous slums of Mexico City; among them Pedro, whose morality is gradually corrupted and destroyed by the others.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)
An upper-class sextet sits down to dinner but never eats, their attempts continually thwarted by a vaudevillian mixture of events both actual and imagined.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Man Who Wasn't There (2001)
A tale of murder, crime and punishment set in the summer of 1949. Ed Crane, a barber in a small California town, is dissatisfied with his life, but his wife Doris' infidelity and a mysterious opportunity presents him with a chance to change it.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisL'Âge d'or (1930)
The film consists of a series of tightly interlinked vignettes, the most sustained of which details the story of a man and a woman who are passionately in love. Their attempts to consummate their passion are constantly thwarted, by their families, by the Church and bourgeois society in general.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Firemen's Ball (1967)
The firemen of a provincial Czechoslovakian town throw a ball in honor of the old chief's retirement. There will be music and dancing, a beauty pageant and a raffle. The whole town will be in attendance. However, the proceedings are dogged by difficulty at every step. Workplace injuries, stolen prizes, a shortage of pretty girls... and fire.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Ogre of Athens (1956)
On New Year’s Eve, a timid bank clerk is mistaken for a notorious criminal mastermind who rules the streets of Athens. Embracing his mistaken identity comes with a price though, as his unwitting white lie begins to unravel.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCanoa: A Shameful Memory (1975)
A group of students arrives in a small town during a hiking expedition. Once there, the local priest accuses them of being communist agitators on the run from an army crack-down against student demonstrations in nearby Mexico City and rallies the townsfolk to lynch them. Based on a true story.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Doom Generation (1995)
Jordan White and Amy Blue, two troubled teens, pick up an adolescent drifter, Xavier Red. Together, the threesome embarks on a sex- and violence-filled journey through a United States of psychos and quickie marts.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Matador (2005)
The life of Danny Wright, a salesman forever on the road, veers into dangerous and surreal territory when he wanders into a Mexican bar and meets a mysterious stranger, Julian, who's very likely a hit man. Their meeting sets off a chain of events that will change their lives forever, as Wright is suddenly thrust into a far-from-mundane existence that he takes to surprisingly well … once he gets acclimated to it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBreaking News in Yuba County (2021)
An overlooked pencil-pusher catches her husband in bed with another woman, the shock of which causes him to die of a heart attack. So she buries his body and takes advantage of the growing celebrity status that comes from having a missing husband. But she quickly finds herself in over her head, dodging cops and criminals, all while trying to keep the truth from her sister, a local news anchor who’s desperate for a story.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisTherapy Done Right (2026)
A psychoanalyst who's lost faith in traditional therapy crosses every boundary to help a blocked novelist in this cutting Argentine dark comedy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz?
The closest matches to The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz are The Cremator (1969), The Exterminating Angel (1962) and Monsieur Verdoux (1947). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz?
People who watched The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz most often go on to The Cremator (1969), The Exterminating Angel (1962) and Monsieur Verdoux (1947).
What is the highest-rated movie like The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz?
The Young and the Damned (1950), rated 8.1/10 by 571 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz?
Therapy Done Right (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Spanish movies like The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz?
Yes: The Exterminating Angel (1962), Simon of the Desert (1965) and Los tres huastecos (1948).
How are movies similar to The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.