Movies like The Small World of Sammy Lee (1963)
The best movies like The Small World of Sammy Lee (1963) are The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976), Exotica (1994) and Rounders (1998). If The Small World of Sammy Lee hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedNight and the City (1950)7.5/10 from 302 votes
- NewestAnora (2024)Released 2024
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)
Cosmo Vittelli, the proprietor of a sleazy, low-rent Hollywood cabaret, has a real affection for the women who strip in his peepshows and the staff who keep up his dingy establishment. He also has a major gambling problem that has gotten him in trouble before. When Cosmo loses big-time at an underground casino run by mobster Mort, he isn't able to pay up. Mort then offers Cosmo the chance to pay back his debt by knocking off a pesky, Mafia-protected bookie.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisExotica (1994)
In the upscale Toronto strip club Exotica, dancer Christina is visited nightly by the obsessive Francis, a depressed tax auditor. Her ex-boyfriend, the club's MC, Eric, still jealously pines for her even as he introduces her onstage, but Eric is having his own relationship problems with the club's female owner. Thomas, a mysterious pet-shop owner, is about to become unexpectedly involved in their lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRounders (1998)
Poker addict Mike McDermott knows the game inside out, but loses his money one night in a game to Russian-American gangster Teddy KGB. Promising his partner Jo he'll give up, he meets up with best friend Lester 'Worm' Murphy, just out of prison and owing lots of money to the wrong kind of people. McDermott becomes his co-guarantor and now there's only one way to raise the money, the pair have to get back into the game.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Joker is Wild (1957)
A Prohibition-era nightclub crooner has his career is cut short when his throat is slashed by a mob boss.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisKing Creole (1958)
Delinquent Danny Fisher flunks out of high school, quits his job as a nightclub busboy, and one night gets the chance to perform. Success is imminent and local crime boss Maxie Fields wants to hire him to perform at The Blue Shade. Danny declines, but Fields won't take no for an answer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHard Eight (1997)
A stranger mentors a young Reno gambler who weds a hooker and befriends a vulgar casino regular.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Bank Job (2008)
Terry is a small-time car dealer trying to leave his shady past behind and start a family. Martine is a beautiful model from Terry's old neighbourhood who knows that Terry is no angel. When Martine proposes a foolproof plan to rob a bank, Terry recognises the danger but realises this may be the opportunity of a lifetime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCrissCross (1992)
A 12-year-old boy comes of age in 1969 Key West against the backdrop of the Apollo moon landing, when he begins to sell cocaine so his mother can stop stripping.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe King of Marvin Gardens (1972)
Jason Staebler lives on the Boardwalk and fronts for the local mob in Atlantic City. He is a dreamer who asks his brother David, a radio personality from Philadelphia, to help him build a paradise on a Pacific Island, which might be just another of his pie-in-the-sky schemes. Inevitably, complications begin to pile up.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisClubbed (2008)
An underworld drama set in the early 1980s, about a lonely factory worker whose life is transformed when he becomes a nightclub doorman.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJohnny O'Clock (1947)
When an employee at an illegal gambling den dies suspiciously, her sister, Nancy, looks into the situation and falls for Johnny O'Clock, a suave partner in the underground casino. Selfish and non-committal by nature, Johnny slowly begins to return Nancy's affection and decides to run away with her, but conflict within his business threatens their plans. As Johnny tries to distance himself from the casino, his shady past comes back to haunt him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLet Him Have It (1991)
In 1950s England, slow-witted Derek Bentley falls in with a group of petty criminals led by Chris Craig, a teenager with a fondness for American gangster films. Chris and Derek's friendship leads to their involvement in the true case which would forever shake England's belief in capital punishment.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Grissom Gang (1971)
Violent crime caper set in 1930s Kansas in which a gang kidnap an heiress and attempt to recover a ransom. However, the scheme is jeopardised when the leader falls in love with their beautiful captive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Fluffer (2001)
Self-effacing, boyish Sean moves to LA to pursue a career in movies but finds it tougher than he imagined. He stumbles onto porn star Johnny Rebel - a handsome, muscled dream of men and women alike - who awakens Sean’s deep obsession.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisTrouble Man (1972)
It seems that masked men are knocking over the floating crap games of Chalky and Pete. Chalky and Pete hire the cool, loose, elegant Mr. T to fix things. Then, the masked manipulators set up the death of a collector for a rival gang lord. It looks like it's up to T to hold a gang war from breaking out, keep the police off his back, and earn his fee from Chalky and Pete.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJungleland (2020)
Stanley manages his boxer brother Lion but when a devastating loss in the ring leaves the pair in debt, an opportunity to recoup the cash leads to a series of misadventures that threaten to break the bond between them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNight and the City (1950)
Londoner Harry Fabian is a second-rate con man looking for an angle. After years of putting up with Harry's schemes, his girlfriend, Mary, becomes fed up when he taps her for yet another loan.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDomino (2005)
The story of the life of Domino Harvey, who abandoned her career as a Ford model to become a bounty hunter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisHardball (2001)
An aimless young man who is scalping tickets, gambling and drinking, agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of getting a loan from a friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Krays (1990)
Twins Ronnie and Reggie Kray are raised in east London, under the influence of their hateful but doting mother Violet. As they grow up, Ronnie's violent nature takes over, and Reggie follows his brother's lead. The two become notorious crime lords who rule over the East End club scene. But at the height of their power, the brothers veer into different lives, giving the older crime bosses a chance to reclaim what the Krays took from them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGlaciers (2021)
Robby Miller (Bralyn Stokes), a former army soldier leaves the military after his wife's sudden death to raise his son JJ (Jackson Hammer). As the pressures of single fatherhood and his wife's death start to build, Robby finds himself in a place he never thought he'd be.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Barbershop (2002)
A day in the life of a barbershop on the south side of Chicago. Calvin, who inherited the struggling business from his deceased father, views the shop as nothing but a burden and waste of his time. After selling the shop to a local loan shark, Calvin slowly begins to see his father's vision and legacy and struggles with the notion that he just sold it out.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBuffalo '66 (1998)
Billy is released after five years in prison. In the next moment, he kidnaps teenage student Layla and visits his parents with her, pretending she is his girlfriend and they will soon marry.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAnora (2024)
A young sex worker from Brooklyn gets her chance at a Cinderella story when she meets and impulsively marries the son of an oligarch. Once the news reaches Russia, her fairytale is threatened as his parents set out to get the marriage annulled.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Earrings of Madame de... (1953)
In late 19th century France, the Countess Louise, wife of a wealthy general, sells the earrings her husband gave her on their wedding day to pay off her secret debts, then claims to have lost them. Her husband quickly learns of the deceit, which is the beginning of many tragic misunderstandings, all involving the earrings, the general, the countess, and her new lover, the Italian Baron Donati.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGonin (1995)
Five men plot to steal a large sum of money from the local yakuza, but everything does not go as planned and the men find themselves hunted down by contract killers.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRolling Vengeance (1987)
A truck driver builds a special, eight-ton monster truck to help get revenge against the rednecks who killed his family.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Root Of Girl (TBA)
Forced by her poor father to live with a well-off man, a young girl must find a way to escape her new abusive home.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Lucky Girl (2001)
Katlin is a high school student whose obsession with gambling leads to her accumulating a mountain of debt. Her habit also causes a high degree of family tension.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Hillside Strangler (2004)
Kenneth Bianchi is a security guard whose attempts to become a police officer are repeatedly thwarted. He moves to California to live with his cousin Angelo and dates a string of women, becoming increasingly preoccupied with sex. Eventually the cousins decide to start an escort agency. After violently killing a prostitute they thought had betrayed them, Kenneth and Angelo begin committing a series of crimes that become a media sensation.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Small World of Sammy Lee?
The closest matches to The Small World of Sammy Lee are The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976), Exotica (1994) and Rounders (1998). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Small World of Sammy Lee?
Start with The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976), the closest match to The Small World of Sammy Lee.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Small World of Sammy Lee?
Night and the City (1950), rated 7.5/10 by 302 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Small World of Sammy Lee?
Anora (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Small World of Sammy Lee?
Yes: The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976), Exotica (1994) and Rounders (1998).
How are movies similar to The Small World of Sammy Lee chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Small World of Sammy Lee, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.