Best movies like A Wise Fool

Once a wealthy man, John Pollard now resides in reduced circumstances in Washington, D.C. with his pretty daughter Polly. Despite the poor conditions, Polly manages to move in good social circles and meets multimillionaire George Singleton and Lieutenant Richard Travers, at the home of Mrs. Madison Derwent. Also at the Derwent mansion is Baron Wootchi, a Japanese diplomat trying to obtain valuable plans that are in Travers' possession. Old Pollard owes Singleton money and tries to persuade his daughter to marry the millionaire. Polly refuses and accepts Travers' proposal instead, until her father informs her that Singleton can seize their house unless Polly pays off the debt by becoming his wife. Meanwhile the Baron offers Pollard $50,000 to produce the documents in Travers' keeping. Pollard steals the papers and goes to a roadhouse to turn them over to the Baron. Discovering the theft, Polly follows and confronts the Baron at gunpoint.

On marrying the boss's daughter, Richard takes his father-in-law's advice to hire a live-in domestic. He soon finds good help is hard to come by. Run-ins follow with dipsomaniacs, bank robbers, a Welsh lass who takes one look at London and runs, and an Italian charmer who turns the place into a bawdy house. Then when Ingrid arrives from Sweden things actually start to get complicated.

After obtaining a divorce from his second wife Emily, Roy Tappan marries Dora Carson, who has just divorced her husband. Left poor with two children, Emily marries Walter Heath, a former suitor, then discovers that she cannot live with her new husband because the divorce is not legal in her home state. Tappan and his new wife soon run out of money, each having thought the other was wealthy. His aunt promises to support him in exchange for his two children. He kidnaps the children and hides them from Emily in his aunt's home. After Emily and Walter find them, they go to Yellowstone Park, where they are considered legally married. Tappan follows and is killed after a fight with Walter when a boiling geyser throws him into the air and throws him onto the rocks below.

Socialite Anatol Spencer, finding his relationship with his wife lackluster, goes in search of excitement. After bumping into old flame Emilie, he lets an apartment for her only to find that she cheats on him. He is subsequently robbed, conned, and booted from pillar to post. He decides to return to his wife and discovers her carousing with his best friend Max.

After Michael Carter's fiancée commits suicide, Michael vows to seek revenge on his wealthy family, who sabotaged their marriage. He drives across the country angrily, and lands up at a saloon, where he is shot by an Indian, Pete. Pete's girlfriend, Tonita nurses Michael's wound and falls in love with him. Michael realizes this, proposes marriage to Tonita - a perfect revenge for his prejudice family. They marry and he takes her to New York, in full Indian dress hoping to embarrass the family.

During the last half of the 19th century writer Richard Darrell saves Don Carlos from two robbers, and is entrusted by Don Carlos to take a valuable necklace to Spain. Richard leaves his fiancé, Oriana, and starts the trip. He meets Wycroft, a henchman for Sir Francis Castteldow, an aristocrat out to steal Oriana from Richard. The latter is assaulted, robbed and nearly killed and, as a result, loses his memory. He marries a gypsy girl, Rosal, while Oriana, thinking him dead marries the dastardly Sir Francis. Everybody will meet again. Complications will arise.

Burt Lancaster plays Steve Thompson, a man who seals his dark fate when he returns to Los Angeles to find his ex-wife Anna Dundee (Yvonne DeCarlo) eager to rekindle their love against all better judgement. She encourages their affair but then quickly marries mobster Slim Dundee (Dan Duryea). To deflect suspicion of the affair, Steve Thompson leads Dundee into a daylight armored-truck robbery.

A carousing college professor's life takes a series of unimaginable turns, and all the old stories are given a new twist, when he begins to have surreal hallucinations and learns he may not be long for this world.

Eileen O'Hara lives as a member of a cult in a remote retreat in the Adirondacks with her father, an embittered man since his wife's infidelity years earlier. Because his wife was untrue, O'Hara is determined that his daughter, Eileen, shall never marry. Peyster Sproul was the man who had the affair Mrs. O'Hara's infidelity, and when he shows up as president of the Sagamore Club and attempts to buy O'Hara's land, the two men come to blows.

Sir Edward Pelham, married to a Russian Gypsy, fears that his daughter will follow in her mother's footsteps and arranges a marriage with her cousin, whom she does not love. During a trip to Nevada with her father, she meets engineer Bayard Delavel, who saves her life when she is bitten by a snake; when her father finds her with Bayard in his cabin, he forces them to marry. Believing that Nadine does not love him, Delavel leaves her and prepares to sue for divorce.

Carrie is a religious fundamentalist. But her mother decided to come-out-of-the-closet and marry another woman, which they have a daughter together with. Now, she is forced to move into a new house with people she cannot accept. The story takes place over the first two days at the strange house, as Carrie's new parents leave for a business trip and she must now take care of her step sister. As creepy occurrences lead to full blown terror, Carrie must learn to overcome her own fears and believes to save her little sister.

Patsy Brand is a chorus girl at the Pleasure Garden music hall. She meets Jill Cheyne who is down on her luck and gets her a job as a dancer. Jill meets adventurer Hugh Fielding and they get engaged, but when Hugh travels out of the country, she begins to play around.

Dowdy Sylvia accepts her boss' marriage proposal, even though he only asked her to avoid marriage to another woman. As a wealthy wife, Sylvia changes from ugly duckling to uninhibited swan and even contemplates having an affair with a man she meets during a trip to Paris.

Adrienne, the queen of the Frivolity Theater, is a self-centered vamp who steals other women's husbands. Her current conquest is Phillip Overman, and when Overman's wife pleads with the vamp to free her husband, Adrienne turns a deaf ear. Daisy, a chorine, is shocked by her colleague's callousness, but Adrienne asserts that she is only being practical. When she meets Pittsburgh millionaire Dave Wallace, Adrienne falls in love and casts Overman aside. Soon after their marriage, Adrienne learns that her husband is having an affair with Daisy, who is now the reigning queen of Broadway. She pleads with Daisy to release her husband, who responds by repeating the philosophy that Adrienne had given her. Despondently boarding a boat bound for Europe, Adrienne sees the Overmans, who are now happily reunited, and realizes the shallowness of her life.

American gas rationing during WWII results in comic mayhem as a lingerie executive finds his home overrun with showgirls.

Karmina, a young vampire (only 140 years old) flees her Translylvanian castle where she must marry the horrible Vlad to please her father, the mean Baron, and her mother, the eccentric Baronness. Karmina finds refuge in Quebec at the home of her aunt Esméralda, an older vampire who lives among humans thanks to a potion that temporarily transforms a vampire into one of them. Under the effect of the potion, Karmina falls in love with Phillipe, a charming church organist. But Vlad, the Baron and the Baronness soon show up in pursuit of her and turn a poor customs officer, Ghislain Chabot, into a vampire to aid them in retrieving her. Esméralda must become the great vampire of yesteryear to fly to the aid of the lovers.

Teen-aged sisters Jude and Maureen, living with their volatile father in Montréal, live a life of substance abuse, hustling and petty theft. After Jude's father kicks her out of the house for her abusive and thieving ways, Jude is forced to survive on the streets with the assistance of her odd assortment of friends, including middle aged pedophile Clarence, pre-teen male hustler Georgie, pimp Big Al, and Maureen's junkie boyfriend Gabe. Georgie has a crush on Jude, while Jude unrealistically fantasizes about a normal married life with Gabe. All the while, Jude is also trying to elude the sadistic Mink, who she inadvertently crossed

A circus performer becomes a ballerina and then begins her life of a career versus marriage and a home-life. She marries her first husband, her mentor and instructor, primarily out of gratitude. After his death, she marries an American thinking that can be her escape from the world of ballet. But she leaves him to return the dancing. She has a child but does not tell her husband. When her daughter is two-years-old, the husband finds out and takes the child to America. The ballerina continues to dance until her best dancing days have gone by.

Terry Dunniva, a retired sea-captain living in Marblehead, Massachusetts, adopts two children, Chrystal and Ned. As the girl grows to womanhood, Terry realizes his fatherly-love had grown to something stronger. He asks her to become his wife. Chrystal, who is in love with her foster-brother, consents rather than destroy Terry's happiness. On the day of their marriage, Ned returns from a long voyage with the intent of making Chrysal his wife. And, he, too, rather than destroy the happiness of his adopted-father, leaves to embark on an Artic voyage that might mean his death. When Terry learns of the sacrifice both Chrystal and Ned are making on behalf of his happiness, he takes Ned's place on the voyage and gets both to pledge that if he does not return, they will marry each other.

Joseph Greer is a wealthy businessman in New York City with all the trappings including a prim-and-proper secretary, Jenny McFarlan, who takes dictation during working hours and, at night, minus her eyeglasses, serves as his nightclub companion and mistress. Then his daughter,Beatrice, whom he has never seen, shows up and moves in with him. Beatrice is a grown-up flapper who loves jazz, pool parties, flaunting prohibition and carrying-on in general. Most of her carrying-on is with the family chauffeur and her father does not approve, says so, and fires the chauffeur. His parental-guidance technique backfires as Beatrice ups and elopes with the chauffeur. Later, the father has some problems with his business associates and loses his business and most of his fixtures and disappears. But Beatrice locates him and there is a happy reunion between father and daughter, especially since daughter has brought along Jenny to cheer him up.

Martin Stone chose freedom: in 1966, he took his young daughters, Deborah & Jacqueline and hit the road on a six-year adventure with America's wildest hippy community, the Hog Farm. Five decades later, Martin and his girls live very separate lives. Martin remained true to his counter-culture beliefs and today, lives "in community," sharing his rambling Montreal, Mile End apartment with young roommates who dig his alternative vibe. For Martin, being a hippy wasn't a phase, it's a way of life. His daughters, both now living in Philadelphia, decided on less eccentric existences. Martin and his girls give honest accounts of their lives together and why their paths and dreams ran so far apart. This is a film about choices and how they impact those we love.

An out-of-work Irish immigrant in Montreal remains hopeful that his luck is about to change but his disillusioned family grow tired of his pigheadedness and instability.

A quiet painter, separated from his wife for a year, receives a suitcase in the mail from his mother, whom he hasn't seen since infancy. He believes she abandoned him to his wealthy, paternal grandparents. The suitcase contains mementos and a diary, a long letter to him, written over the years, with details of her youth, her first job as a pianist at a cinema, the coming of talkies, her marriage, and how he came to live with his grandparents. As he reads through the materials and her story comes to life, his son Antoine, who's about 10 or 12, tries to break through his father's silence and sorrow by taking matters into his own hands.

Dressed as a clown, the clever rascal Grimm holds up the most secure bank of Montreal and takes 30 hostages. While confusing and ridiculing the police with his strange behavior, he calmly manages to rid the bank of a fortune. But then an unsatisfied companion arouses trouble...

Brooks Caldwell, (Cary Elwes) an erudite and handsome lawyer, seems to have it all: wealth, social status and a red hot career. His success is, in reality, a product of his marriage to his beautiful, socialite wife, Amanda, (Terri Polo) a wealthy timber heiress. Unlike most, who would remain content to enjoy a life of luxury and privilege, Brooks continues to risk everything by having extramarital affairs. Brooks' philandering, in addition to humiliating Amanda, has driven her to the point of a mental breakdown. Having been pushed over the edge, Amanda orchestrates a just and elaborate plan to bring her husband down. When Brooks leaves for a weekend romp with his latest squeeze, (Agnes Bruckner) his life quickly descends into a bizarre, nightmarish, downward spiral.

This French-Canadian crime/action drama, which satirizes U.S. crime films, was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 1972 and was well received. In the picture, perfectly ordinary people murder, steal, and torture one another with casual abandon in order to solve their everyday problems.

Alice Kendall is the darling of her social set, the sons and daughters of millionaires, although Alice's mother has impoverished herself to provide Alice with the luxuries she expects as her right. Mom blows what's left of her fortune to provide the best trousseau that money can buy when Alice marries Fred Garlan, and then wishes Fred lots of luck. Now, Alice is trying to coax Fred into buying her a new sable coat while Fred is busily trying to borrow enough money to keep his business afloat.

In Her Defense is a 1998 thriller directed by Sidney J. Furie. Lawyer Andrew Garfield begins having an affair with a deaf woman, played by Marlee Matlin, when one day her husband catches them. Andrew Garfield then kills him. From then on in the film, the lawyer must defend his lover who's blamed for the murder that he committed himself.

Successful businessman Joe Lampton is married to the wealthy Susan, has two children, and lives in the mill town of Warley in northern England. But his career seems to have plateaued, leaving him disillusioned. This feeling is only exacerbated when he discovers his wife's infidelity with local man Mark. So he takes up with attractive TV host Norah and moves with her to London, aiming to reignite the fire that drove him to the top.

A woman decides to steal her mobster boyfriend's car and a whole lot of his money, then tries to hide out in a small town. With a cop and a hit man on her tail, she makes friendly with a reformed criminal who will do whatever it takes to protect her.

Refusing to marry her stepmother's choice, Gail Prim leaves her life of luxury, after cutting her hair, dressing in her butler's clothes and stealing money and jewels from her father's safe. Spending the night in a barn, she introduces herself to the thieves already there as the Oskaloosa Kid, a wanted criminal, and barely escapes their struggle to get her loot. Meanwhile, the real Oskaloosa Kid kills Reginald Paynter and throws Nettie Penning, whom Reginald was trying to seduce, onto the highway.

After a tumultuous first marriage, Millie Blake learns to love her newfound independence and drags her feet on the possibility of remarriage. The years pass, and now Millie's daughter garners the attentions of men-- Men who once devoted their time to her mother.

Marilyn Parker decides not to accompany her husband Rex on his business trip to Europe when she receives a surprise visit from her mother.

After she had been raped by her father, a young woman leaves the town with her new born son. Years later, the son can't accept that his mother fell in love with someone else than the mythical father she had told him about.

Growing up in a poor working-class family, Laura decides not to marry the boy-next-door and instead accepts wealthy, older Will Brockton's invitation to move in with him. After falling in love with young up-and-coming newsman Jack Madison she leaves Brockton to wait for Madison's return from a long assignment. She runs out of money and becomes desperate, returning again to Brockton who, upon learning of Madison's sudden arrival, tells Laura she must inform Madison of her living situation or he will.

Elinor "Swifty" Forbes and her younger sister Marjory are the carefree daughters of wealthy J. D. Forbes. Their mother shows no restraint over her daughters, so they live among the flapper set. Lester Hodges, a songwriter, is enamored of Marjory, while Garside, who runs a card room, is interested in Swifty. While gambling at Garside's place, Swifty meets Roger Corbin, who works as an engineer at her father's business. Corbin falls in love with Swifty. When Mr. Forbes protests against both his daughters' behavior, they move out. Marjory marries Hodges, but eventually leaves him and returns to her parents. Swifty, who has gambled herself into debt, agrees to marry Garside. But when the couple are together in a café, prohibition agents raid the place.

A little girl wittness the death of her mother- expressly killed through negligence by the woman supposedly nursing the invalid mother back to health. The coniving nurse in turn marries the child's father thereby taking the dead woman's place and becoming the little girl's stepmother. After unwisely revealing to the stepmother that she knows the reason for her mother's death; Arore is abused by her stepmother who hopes that in torturing the child she can keep her silent. The father, who is absent during the day farming the land, closes his eyes or refuses to believe his new wife is abusive when confronted by the sight of his miserable burnt and beaten child.

Tired of rough winters, a Quebec family buys a motel in south Florida. But life is not easy down where motels grow faster than grass. Two bigger businessmen are out to get them for invading their turf. However, that is not even the beginning of their troubles...

Rémy is always between two planes, travels to Shanghai on business. During this trip, he takes the opportunity to cheat Dominique first with a woman, then with a man. Upon his return, his wife puts him out after showing him more than compromising photos of his Asian aspirations.

Two harum-scarums who think they are good stand-up comics try to make a career in showbiz, partly for the career, partly to seduce women. They try alternatively the scene, a movie set and TV. They only succeed in making a fool of themselves

Wealthy ranch owner Cheyenne Harry decides he needs a housekeeper, but his cowboys decide he needs a wife and advertise in an eastern newspaper. The ad is answered by Aileen Judson-Brown, as dictated by her fortune-hunting mother. Harry marries Aileen and a baby is born a year later. Deciding to gain more money and social standing, Mrs. Judson-Brown then tries to break up the marriage so that Aileen can marry Ferdie Van Duzen. Mrs. Judson-Brown steals the baby and tells Harry the baby has died and Aileen no longer loves him. Harry goes out West in sorrow, but when Mrs. Judson-Brown's butler wires Harry the truth, Harry locates the baby and discovers Aileen still loves him. The reunited family goes West together, leaving Mrs. Judson-Brown behind.

Harry, The Odd Fellow, is a tenement worker who lives alone in a shack alongside a warehouse and longs for the companionship of a wife and children like other men. One day he spies a pretty girl in his telescope and sends her by carrier pigeon a note that, alas, is received by the wrong party. The Girl marries and, poverty-striken, leaves her husband during a snowstorm. Harry takes her in, and minutes later her child is born. He works like a slave for the mother and child, pretending they are his own. Meanwhile, the husband finds her and comes to the shack on Christmas Eve as Harry is preparing to play Santa Claus. Not realizing the unhappiness she is causing him, The Girl thanks him profusely and leaves with her husband. Overcome, Harry sits overnight on the doorstep and the next morning is found frozen stiff except for his eyes--with amusing results.

A fact-based account of ordinary citizens who found themselves arrested and imprisoned without charge for weeks during the October Crisis in 1970 Quebec.

A young innocent falls for a compulsive gambler.

A young journalist is unhappy with society and contemplates what he can do about it.

Gardoni, a down-on-his-luck vaudeville performer, is taken in by a fellow performer, a clown who has a bicycle riding act. Gardoni shows his appreciation by stealing the clown's act and his girlfriend, whom he marries.

When a gangster's speakeasy is raided by the police, one of the people picked up is the gangster's pretty young girlfriend. A kind-hearted cop takes pity on her and helps her get out of that life. While waitressing to earn money for college, she meets a wealthy and handsome young man and they fall in love--but he doesn't know about her somewhat shady past and her relationship with the gangster.

Newly rich Mark Hadley drifts from his old-fashioned wife into a secret liason with Lila Millas, a pretty French girl. At the same time, he advises his daughter, Marjory, to break her ties with Kent Merrill...

Sunny sings in the streets to obtain funds for a country outing. A theatre owner hears her and takes her up. During a fishing trip Sunny is about to accept the theatre owner's proposal of marriage when his estranged wife turns up...

Agnes Belgradin is in love with a young doctor, Loring Brent. When Agnes' father dies, her mother takes her on a trip abroad. She insists that the young couple separate before they set sail, and promises that if they still love each other after a year they can reunite. But Mrs. Belgradin intercepts all the letters Agnes and Brent write one another, and convinces her daughter to marry a wealthy Australian millionaire.