Movies like The Citadel (1938)
The best movies like The Citadel (1938) are The Painted Veil (1934), Of Human Bondage (1934) and The Rains Came (1939). If The Citadel hooked you with its drama and romance, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedI Can't Think Straight (2008)7.5/10 from 341 votes
- NewestThe Christmas Cure (2017)Released 2017
The Painted Veil (1934)
The wife of a doctor in China falls in love with a diplomat.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Of Human Bondage (1934)
A young man finds himself attracted to a cold and unfeeling waitress who may ultimately destroy them both.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Rains Came (1939)
Indian aristocrat Rama Safti returns from medical training in the U.S. to give his life to the poor folk of Ranchipur. Lady Edwina and her drunken artist ex-lover Tom Ransome get in the way, but everyone shapes up when faced by earthquake, flooding, and plague.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)
Throughout the late 19th-century and early 20th-century, Mr Arthur Chipping rises from a shy, nervous teacher to the beloved, revered headmaster of Brookfield School, with his life and career shaped by his love for his wife and his unwavering dedication to his students.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOf Human Hearts (1938)
This is a story about family relationships, set in the time before and during the American Civil War. Ethan Wilkins is a poor and honest man who ministers to the human soul, while his son Jason yearns to be a doctor, helping people in the earthly realm. It is a rich story about striving for excellence, the tension of father-son rebellion, and the love of a mother that can never die.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Madame Curie (1943)
Poor physics student Marie is studying at the Sorbonne in 1890s Paris. One of the few women studying in her field, Marie encounters skepticism concerning her abilities, but is eventually offered a research placement in Pierre Curie's lab. The scientists soon fall in love and embark on a shared quest to extract, from a particular type of rock, a new chemical element they have named radium. However, their research puts them on the brink of professional failure.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Edge of the World (1937)
A way of life is dying on a remote Scottish island, but some of the inhabitants resist evacuating to the mainland.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Skin Game (1931)
An old traditional family and a modern family battle over land in a small English village.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisOur Daily Bread (1934)
John and Mary Sims are city-dwellers hit hard by the financial fist of The Depression. Driven by bravery (and sheer desperation) they flee to the country and, with the help of other workers, set up a farming community - a socialist mini-society. The newborn community suffers many hardships - drought, vicious raccoons and the long arm of the law - but ultimately pull together to reach a bread-based Utopia.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Good Earth (1937)
China, during the rule of the Qing Dynasty. The arranged marriage between Wang Lung, a humble farmer, and O-Lan, a domestic slave, will endure the many hardships of life over the years; but the temptations of a fragile prosperity will endanger their love and the survival of their entire family.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Stars Look Down (1940)
Davey Fenwick leaves his mining village on a university scholarship intent on returning to better support the miners against the owners. But he falls in love with Jenny who gets him to marry her and return home as local schoolteacher before finishing his degree.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Bright Leaf (1950)
Two tobacco growers battle for control of the cigarette market.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Blossoms in the Dust (1941)
Edna marries Texan Sam Gladney, operator of a wheat mill. They have a son, who is killed when very young. Edna discovers by chance how the law treats children who are without parents and decides to do something about it. She opens a home for foundlings and orphans and begins to place children in good homes, despite the opposition of "conservative" citizens, who would condemn illegitimate children for being born out of wedlock. Eventually Edna leads a fight in the Texas legislature to remove the stigma of illegitimacy from birth records in that state, while continuing to be an advocate for homeless children.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Imitation of Life (1934)
A struggling widow and her daughter take in a black housekeeper and her fair-skinned daughter. The two women start a successful business but face familial, identity, and racial issues along the way.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGrand Hotel (1932)
Guests at a posh Berlin hotel struggle through worry, scandal, and heartache.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIn Name Only (1939)
A wealthy man falls for a widow but is locked into a loveless marriage with a woman who has contrived to convince his parents she is the ideal wife.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLes Misérables (1935)
In 19th century France, Jean Valjean, a man imprisoned for stealing bread, must flee a relentless policeman named Javert. The pursuit consumes both men's lives, and soon Valjean finds himself in the midst of the student revolutions in France.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGreat Expectations (1946)
In this Dickens adaptation, orphan Pip discovers through lawyer Mr. Jaggers that a mysterious benefactor wishes to ensure that he becomes a gentleman. Reunited with his childhood patron, Miss Havisham, and his first love, the beautiful but emotionally cold Estella, he discovers that the elderly spinster has gone mad from having been left at the altar as a young woman, and has made her charge into a warped, unfeeling heartbreaker.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAlice Adams (1935)
In the lower-middle-class Adams family, father and son are happy to work in a drugstore, but mother and daughter Alice try every possible social-climbing stratagem despite snubs and embarrassment. When Alice finally meets her dream man Arthur, mother nags father into a risky business venture and plans to impress Alice's beau with an "upscale" family dinner. Will the excruciating results drive Arthur away?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934)
Remarkable poet Elizabeth Barrett is slowly recovering from a crippling illness with the help of her siblings, especially her youngest sister, Henrietta, but feels stifled by the domestic tyranny of her wealthy widowed father. When she meets fellow poet Robert Browning in a romantic first encounter, her heart belongs to him. However, her controlling father has no intention of allowing her out of his sight.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Mrs. Miniver (1942)
Middle-class housewife Kay Miniver deals with petty problems. She and her husband Clem watch her Oxford-educated son Vin court Carol Beldon, the charming granddaughter of the local nobility as represented by Lady Beldon. Then the war comes and Vin joins the RAF.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSeventh Heaven (1937)
A Parisian sewer worker longs for a rise in status and a beautiful wife. He rescues a girl from the police, lives with her in a barren flat on the seventh floor, and then marches away to war.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
One Way Passage (1932)
A terminally ill woman and a debonair murderer facing execution meet and fall in love on a trans-Pacific crossing, each without knowing the other's secret.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938)
A wealthy society doctor decides to research the medical aspects of criminal behaviour by becoming one himself. He joins a gang of thieves and proceeds to wrest leadership of the gang away from its extremely resentful leader.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Story of Louis Pasteur (1936)
A true story about Louis Pasteur, who revolutionized medicine by proving that much disease is caused by microbes, that sanitation is paramount and that at least some diseases can be cured by vaccinations.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Perfect Ending (2012)
This intimate drama follows Rebecca, a woman who has kept her sexuality a secret from her friends but chooses to reveal it to a stranger. While Rebecca's revelations may not yield the results she expects, a perfect ending is still in reach.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisI Can't Think Straight (2008)
Tala, a London-based Palestinian, is preparing for her elaborate Middle Eastern wedding when she meets Leyla, a young British Indian woman who is dating her best friend. Spirited Christian Tala and shy Muslim Leyla could not be more different from each other, but the attraction is immediate and goes deeper than friendship. But Tala is not ready to accept the implications of the choice her heart has made for her and escapes back to Jordan, while Leyla tries to move on with her new-found life, to the shock of her tradition-loving parents. As Tala's wedding day approaches, simmering tensions come to boiling point and the pressure mounts for Tala to be true to herself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Christmas Cure (2017)
A doctor returns home for Christmas to find that her father has decided to retire from his own practice. After reuniting with her high school sweetheart, she wonders if she should stay and take over her father's practice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Magic of Ordinary Days (2005)
Pregnant out of wedlock, an educated young woman is pressured by her father into an arranged marriage with a lonely farmer in this drama set during WWII.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Citadel?
The closest matches to The Citadel are The Painted Veil (1934), Of Human Bondage (1934) and The Rains Came (1939). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Citadel?
People who watched The Citadel most often go on to The Painted Veil (1934), Of Human Bondage (1934) and The Rains Came (1939).
What is the highest-rated movie like The Citadel?
I Can't Think Straight (2008), rated 7.5/10 by 341 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Citadel?
The Christmas Cure (2017) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Citadel?
Yes: The Painted Veil (1934), Of Human Bondage (1934) and The Rains Came (1939).
How are movies similar to The Citadel chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Citadel, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.