Movies like Playing the Game (1918)
The best movies like Playing the Game (1918) are Go West (1940), Go West (1925) and Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971). If Playing the Game hooked you with its comedy and western, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedScooby-Doo! Shaggy's Showdown (2017)7.7/10 from 209 votes
- NewestTerror on the Prairie (2022)Released 2022
Go West (1940)
A con man heading west to search for gold teams up with a pair of scheming brothers along the way. The trio soon find themselves in the middle of a feud between two rival families and two underhanded land developers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGo West (1925)
With little luck at keeping a job in the city a New Yorker tries work in the country and eventually finds his way leading a herd of cattle to the West Coast.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSupport Your Local Gunfighter (1971)
A con artist arrives in a mining town controlled by two competing companies. Both companies think he's a famous gunfighter and try to hire him to drive the other out of town.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Cowboy and the Frenchman (1988)
A grizzled, hard-of-hearing cowboy, Slim, and his two friends, Dusty and Pete, capture a mysterious, well-dressed Frenchman.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisScooby-Doo! Shaggy's Showdown (2017)
When the Scooby gang visits a dude ranch, they discover that it and the nearby town have been haunted by a ghostly cowboy, Dapper Jack, who fires real fire from his fire irons. The mystery only deepens when it’s discovered that the ghost is also the long lost relative of Shaggy Rogers!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & western
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWay Out West (1937)
Stan and Ollie try to deliver the deed to a valuable gold mine to the daughter of a dead prospector. Unfortunately, the daughter's evil guardian is determined to have the gold mine for himself and his saloon-singer wife.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & western
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Paleface (1948)
Bob Hope stars in this laugh-packed wild west spoof co-starring Jane Russell as a sexy Calamity Jane, Hope is a meek frontier dentist, "Painless" Peter Potter, who finds himself gunslinging alongside the fearless Calamity as she fights off outlaws and Indians.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPaint Your Wagon (1969)
A Michigan farmer and a prospector form a partnership in the California gold country. Their adventures include buying and sharing a wife, hijacking a stage, kidnapping six prostitutes, and turning their mining camp into a boom town. Along the way there is plenty of drinking, gambling, and singing. They even find time to do some creative gold mining.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972)
Outlaw and self-appointed lawmaker Judge Roy Bean rules over an empty stretch of the West that gradually grows, under his iron fist, into a thriving town, while dispensing his his own quirky brand of frontier justice upon strangers passing by.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPardners (1956)
Rich momma's boy Wade Kingsley Jr. an Eastern dude, tries to follow in his murdered father's footsteps by returning to the West to partner up with Slim Moseley Jr.,the son of his father's former partner. Wade overcomes Slim's initial reluctance to accept him by using his fortune to buy a prize cow and new car to help Slim in his job as foreman on the Kingsley family ranch, currently under siege by a gang of outlaws called "masked raiders." Wade generously tries to pay off the ranch's mortgage with $15,000 of his own money, but unfortunately neither "pardner" realizes that respected banker Dan Hollis, the son of their fathers' murderer, is the leader of the gang.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFrom Noon Till Three (1976)
Bank robber Graham Dorsey spends a few hours with beautiful widow Amanda Starbuck, in which time his gang takes part in a disastrous holdup. Learning of his comrades' demise, Dorsey goes on the lam. Believing her short-term lover was killed by the law, Amanda decides to make the most of having had a liaison with the supposedly deceased desperado by writing a book about him. Much to his confusion, the still-living Dorsey watches as his name becomes legendary.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & western
SnoozefestMovies like thisMcLintock! (1963)
Aging rancher and self-made man, George Washington McLintock is forced to deal with numerous personal and professional problems. Seemingly everyone wants a piece of his enormous farmstead, including high-ranking government men and nearby Native Americans. As McLintock tries to juggle his various adversaries, his wife—who left him two years previously—suddenly returns. But she isn't interested in George; she wants custody of their daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Million Ways to Die in the West (2014)
As a cowardly farmer begins to fall for the mysterious new woman in town, he must put his new-found courage to the test when her husband, a notorious gun-slinger, announces his arrival.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDestry Rides Again (1939)
Tom Destry, son of a legendary frontier peacekeeper, doesn’t believe in gunplay. Thus he becomes the object of widespread ridicule when he rides into the wide-open town of Bottleneck, the personal fiefdom of the crooked Kent.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRamrod (1947)
A cattle-vs.-sheepman feud loses Connie Dickason her fiance, but gains her his ranch, which she determines to run alone in opposition to Frank Ivey, "boss" of the valley, whom her father Ben wanted her to marry. She hires recovering alcoholic Dave Nash as foreman and a crew of Ivey's enemies. Ivey fights back with violence and destruction, but Dave is determined to counter him legally... a feeling not shared by his associates. Connie's boast that, as a woman, she doesn't need guns proves justified, but plenty of gunplay results.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMan Without a Star (1955)
A wandering cowboy gets caught up in a range war.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMonte Walsh (2003)
Monte Walsh and Chet Rollins are long-time cowhands, working whatever ranch work comes their way, but "nothing they can't do from a horse." Their lives are divided between months on the range and the occasional trip into town. Monte has a long-term relationship with prostitute Martine Bernard, while Chet has fallen under the spell of the widow who owns the hardware store. Camaraderie and competition with the other cowboys fill their days, until one of the hands, Shorty Austin, loses his job and gets involved in rustling and killing. Then Monte and Chet find that their lives on the range are inexorably redirected.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBarbarosa (1982)
Karl Westover, an inexperienced farm boy, runs away after unintentionally killing a neighbor, whose family pursues him for vengeance. He meets Barbarosa, a gunman of near-mythical proportions, who is himself in danger from his father-in-law Don Braulio, a wealthy Mexican rancher. Don Braulio wants Barbarosa dead for marrying his daughter against the father's will. Barbarosa reluctantly takes the clumsy Karl on as a partner, as both of them look to survive the forces lining up against them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
SnoozefestMovies like thisBoss Nigger (1975)
Two black bounty hunters ride into a small town out West in pursuit of an outlaw. They discover that the town has no sheriff, and soon take over that position, much against the will of the mostly white townsfolk.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTerror on the Prairie (2022)
A pioneering family fights back against a gang of vicious outlaws that is terrorizing them on their newly-built farm on the plains of Montana.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSauce and Senoritas (1920)
Saucy slapstick comic short featuring mishaps and misunderstandings with the titled ladies.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
The Exalted Flapper (1929)
Princess Cecelie of Capra, a small Alpine nation, visits the U.S. with her mother, Queen Charlotte, and becomes enamored with Jazz Age culture. The princess refuses an arranged marriage with Prince Boris of Dacia, unaware that they have already fallen in love during a chance meeting.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
The Troublesome Baby (1910)
Martin is hurriedly called to High Beach to close a big deal with the president of a construction company stopping there.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
After the Ball (1910)
A wife is waiting for her fun-loving husband to return from a club masquerade. The husband returns home with two companions who set up a diversion to transform the wife's wrath into compassion. She becomes aware of the joke and, rolling pin in hand, suggests that the friends leave her alone with her husband.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Drama in the Futurists' Cabaret No. 13 (1914)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Dave's Love Affair (1911)
Dave is sweet on May and she likes him, so while he is sitting with her on the front steps, he all togged out in his glad clothes, his boy pals play a trick on him by sending him a note about a certain Clarice. Of course, Clarice is a myth, but may is too jealous to believe his denial, so sends poor Dave away. The boys, however, are sorry when they see their grief-stricken pal so down in the mouth, and hasten to right the wrong their joke had occasioned. Dave now realizes that the course of true love ne'er did run smooth.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Under the Tonto Rim (1928)
Gold miner Edd Denmeade loves Lucy Watson, the sister of the official mining claim recorder. Denmeade suspects Watson of killing his father, who after a poker game was shot by a gambler "who shuffles with one hand." The real murderer, Sam Spralls, has convinced Watson that he killed Denmeade and threatens to expose him unless Watson assigns him all the gold claims. Spralls assembles a band of killers to jump the claims when Watson complies. Eventually, Denmeade learns the identity of the killer when he sees Spralls shuffle a deck of cards. He forms a vigilante party and rids the community of Spralls and his gang.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both western
Scrambled Wives (1921)
Mary Lucille Smith, a schoolgirl who elopes with John Chiverick, gets her marriage annulled by her father, and later pretends to be a widow to romance another man, Larry McLeod, leading to chaotic mix-ups and hidden identities at a party where Chiverick's new wife also shows up, all about mistaken identities, secret pasts, and comedic marital mishaps.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Nobody's Kid (1921)
Because of the circumstances of her parents' marriage her grandfather rejects their child, Mary. Following her their deaths she is placed in an orphanage where Mary finds hardship.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Sherlock Bonehead (1914)
Chief of Police Ivorytop and Chief of Detectives Sherlock Bonehead, of Rottenport, fall in love with Helen, a girl from the city
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Like Playing the Game and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Playing the Game?
The closest matches to Playing the Game are Go West (1940), Go West (1925) and Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Playing the Game?
Start with Go West (1940), the closest match to Playing the Game.
What is the highest-rated movie like Playing the Game?
Scooby-Doo! Shaggy's Showdown (2017), rated 7.7/10 by 209 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Playing the Game?
Terror on the Prairie (2022) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Playing the Game?
Yes: Go West (1940), Go West (1925) and Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971).
How are movies similar to Playing the Game chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Playing the Game, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.