Movies like Desire (1936)
The best movies like Desire (1936) are Macao (1952), Mata Hari (1931) and They Live by Night (1949). If Desire hooked you with its romance and crime, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedBefore Sunset (2004)7.8/10 from 3,989 votes
- NewestParis Can Wait (2016)Released 2016
Macao (1952)
Nick Cochran, an American in exile in Macao, has a chance to restore his name by helping capture an international crime lord. Undercover, can he mislead the bad guys and still woo the attractive singer/petty crook, Julie Benson?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMata Hari (1931)
A semi-fictionalized account of the life of Mata Hari, an exotic dancer who was accused of spying for Germany during World War I.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisYou 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 thisParis Can Wait (2016)
Anne is at a crossroads in her life. Long married to a successful, driven but inattentive movie producer, she unexpectedly finds herself taking a car trip from Cannes to Paris with Jacques, a business associate of her husband. What should be a seven-hour drive turns into a carefree two-day adventure replete with diversions involving picturesque sights, fine food and wine, humor, wisdom and romance - reawakening Anne's senses and giving her a new lust for life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
A married woman and a drifter fall in love, then plot to murder her husband.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
Lorelei Lee is a beautiful showgirl engaged to be married to the wealthy Gus Esmond, much to the disapproval of Gus' rich father, Esmond Sr., who thinks that Lorelei is just after his money. When Lorelei goes on a cruise accompanied only by her best friend, Dorothy Shaw, Esmond Sr. hires Ernie Malone, a private detective, to follow her and report any questionable behavior that would disqualify her from the marriage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisMonte Carlo (2011)
Three young women vacationing in Paris find themselves whisked away to Monte Carlo after one of the girls is mistaken for a British heiress.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPaulie (1998)
Paulie, a talking parrot, recounts his travels looking for his original owner to a Russian janitor who helps him to the end of his journey.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPushover (1954)
A police detective falls for the bank robber's girlfriend he is supposed to be tailing.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTake the Money and Run (1969)
Virgil Starkwell is intent on becoming a notorious bank robber. Unfortunately for Virgil and his not-so-budding career, he is completely incompetent.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & crime
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisPitfall (1948)
An insurance man wishing for a more exciting life becomes wrapped up in the affairs of an imprisoned embezzler, his model girlfriend, and a violent private investigator.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPeter Ibbetson (1935)
When his mother dies, young Peter Ibbetson leaves Paris and his best friend, Mary, behind to live with a severe uncle in England. Years later, Peter is an architect with little time for women, until he begins a project with the Duke and Duchess of Towers. When Peter and the duchess become great friends, she reveals that she is Mary — but the duke soon suspects his wife of infidelity and challenges Peter to a duel, threatening the pair's second chance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNo Man of Her Own (1950)
A penniless pregnant woman adopts the identity of a rich woman killed in a train crash.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGambit (1966)
Harry Dean is a career burglar set on stealing a piece of priceless art from the world's wealthiest man, Mr. Shahbandar. With the help of exotic showgirl Nicole Chang, he concocts the perfect scheme for how the robbery should go and lays it out point by point. However, when the team tries to execute the plan, perfection and reality don't quite match up, and Harry's vision begins to unravel in this twisty tale of a heist gone wrong.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Pink Panther (2006)
When the coach of the France football team is killed by a poisoned dart in the stadium at the end of a game, and his huge, expensive ring with the Pink Panther diamond disappears, the ambitious Chief Inspector Dreyfus assigns the worst police inspector – Jacques Clouseau – to the case.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisAntoine and Colette (1962)
Now aged 17, Antoine Doinel works in a factory which makes records. At a music concert, he meets a girl his own age, Colette, and falls in love with her. Later, Antoine goes to extraordinary lengths to please his new girlfriend and her parents, but Colette still only regards him as a casual friend. First segment of “Love at Twenty” (1962).
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBed and Board (1970)
Parisian everyman Antoine Doinel has married his sweetheart Christine Darbon, and the newlyweds have set up a cozy domestic life of selling flowers and giving violin lessons while Antoine fitfully works on his long-gestating novel. As Christine becomes pregnant with the couple's first child, Antoine finds himself enraptured with a young Japanese beauty. The complications change the course of their relationship forever.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLove on the Run (1979)
Now in his thirties, Antoine Doinel is a divorced proofreader in love with a record seller. Colette Tazzi, now a lawyer, buys his first published autobiography, leading them to a chance meeting.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Party (1980)
A thirteen-year-old French girl deals with moving to a new city and school in Paris, while at the same time her parents are getting a divorce.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Party 2 (1982)
After moving to a new city, a young French teenage girl falls in love with a boy and thinks of having sex with him, since her girl friends have already done it.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBefore Sunset (2004)
Nine years later, Jesse travels across Europe giving readings from a book he wrote about the night he spent in Vienna with Celine. After his reading in Paris, Celine finds him, and they spend part of the day together before Jesse has to again leave for a flight. They are both in relationships now, and Jesse has a son, but as their strong feelings for each other start to return, both confess a longing for more.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Killing (1956)
Career criminal Johnny Clay recruits a sharpshooter, a crooked police officer, a bartender and a betting teller named George, among others, for one last job before he goes straight and gets married. But when George tells his restless wife about the scheme to steal millions from the racetrack where he works, she hatches a plot of her own.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPlayboy of Paris (1930)
Yvonne, daughter of Philibert, a Paris cafe owner, is in love with dreamy, blundering Albert, a waiter, though he pays little attention to her. Philibert plans to marry his daughter to a wealthy Parisian, but upon learning that Albert is to come into a large inheritance, he conspires to place him under a longterm contract, confident that he willingly will pay a forfeit to break it.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & romance
Talk to Her (2002)
Two men share an odd friendship while they care for two women who are both in deep comas.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBad Education (2004)
When an old friend brings filmmaker Enrique Goded a semi-autobiographical script chronicling their adolescence, Enrique is forced to relive his youth spent at a Catholic boarding school. Weaving through past and present, the script follows a transvestite performer who reconnects with a grade school sweetheart. Spurred on by this chance encounter, the character reflects on her childhood sexual victimization and the trauma of closeting her sexual orientation.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Desire?
The closest matches to Desire are Macao (1952), Mata Hari (1931) and They Live by Night (1949). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Desire?
Start with Macao (1952), the closest match to Desire.
What is the highest-rated movie like Desire?
Before Sunset (2004), rated 7.8/10 by 3,989 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Desire?
Paris Can Wait (2016) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Desire?
Yes: Macao (1952), Mata Hari (1931) and They Live by Night (1949).
How are movies similar to Desire chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Desire, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.