Best movies like Banjo on My Knee

Josephine Spiggins is thinking of marrying John Spear, the stuffed-shirt son of a department store owner. When John's free-spirit brother Tony returns from touring the South Seas in his boat, the "Vagabond Lady," Jo is attracted to him instead.

Adam Larey becomes a fugitive from justice when he escapes after being blamed for a crime he did not commit. He wanders into the desert wastelands and joins an outlaw gang who prey on gold prospectors. Years later, he meets his wife and her gold-prospecting father as they have come there seeking their fortune, and not knowing the danger of the treacherous desert wastes, the poisoned-water holes and the outlaw bands of marauders who roam the desert in search of the gold found by others. He comes to their aid and, eventually, manges to clear his name of the false charge against him.

A hard-living dockworker finds religion until his brother is murdered.

An ex-convict tries to connect with the daughter who doesn't even know he exists.

Jim "Lucky" Moore, an insurance salesman, comes up with a novel policy for his friend, Steve: a 'love insurance policy', that will pay out $1-million if Steve does not marry his fiancée, Cynthia. The upcoming marriage is jeopardized by Steve's ex-girlfriend, Mickey, and Cynthia's disapproving Aunt Kitty. The policy is underwritten by a nightclub owner, Roscoe, who sends two enforcers - Abbott and Costello - to ensure that the wedding occurs as planned.

A musician's ex-wife wants him back after he finds love and success.

This short Depression-era documentary describes the importance of the Mississippi River to the United States and laments the environmental destruction committed in the name of progress, particularly farming and timber practices and their impact on impoverished farmers.

To avoid the rigors of the law, Gilda flees New Orleans and hides on a Caribbean island where the worst criminals can ask for asylum. Besieged by the scum of the earth, Gilda will soon find out that she has found refuge in hell.

Nightclub singer Della Mason witnesses a murder and is forced by the killer to flee with him from the scene of the crime. Escaping from the gangster, she secretly boards the ship of Captain Josiah Storm, a woman-hater, and the ship sails from San Francisco headed for China. Della is discovered by Jim Benton, the ship's first mate and he pleads her case to the captain. He leaves her in under the protection of Minnie at "Minnie's Joint in Shanghai, until her innocence can be established.

In 1856, slave Eliza plans to marry George with the consent of the Shelbys, her masters, but George's owner prevents the wedding. A few years later, Eliza flees with her son, Harry, after learning the Shelbys plan to hand them over to a crooked creditor to prevent foreclosure. George also escapes and goes on the run while Eliza and Harry are captured and brought back home. Mother and son are separated as George tries to find them both.

A tough, womanizing high-stakes gambler known only as Tennessee has an uneasy relationship with Duchess, madam of a thinly-disguised bordello, and no other friends at all. But he's saved from murder by a lonesome cowpoke ('My friends call me Cowpoke'), in town to meet his fiancée Goldie on the steamboat. When she arrives, there's a mysterious undercurrent between Goldie and Tennessee, whose newfound friendship with Cowpoke is destined to be severely tried...

After robbing a sea captain in New Orleans, a beautiful saloon girl flees and assumes a dead woman's identity.

In this comedy, a pair of ex-Marines team up and get involved in a nightclub. Trouble ensues when they both fall in love with a feisty woman and begin fighting over her.

Based on an AJ Cronin novel, a disgraced doctor exiled to the Canary Islands, meets and falls in love with a married woman.

On the wharfs of San Francisco, saloon girl Toy, also known as Mary, lives over Mother Bright's bar. When Como Murphy, a fugitive from the law, hides in her room, she falls in love with him. He explains that after he spoke out about the rights of man to a crowd, a riot ensued, during which a policeman was killed. Como took the gun from the killer, but is thought to be guilty of the crime himself. Como, who reciprocates Mary's love, spends the night with her, but leaves to keep her out of danger. He joins the crew of a ship sailing to China after he is befriended by Turk, a big lumbering sailor who is also in love with Mary. Each man is unaware that they love the same woman.

Renfrew of the Mounties hunts brother-and-sister gold hijackers.

Norma Martin is an American movie star in France trying to avoid the attention of men. Going to visit a friend in Southern France, she finds herself "married" to a playboy song writer Ralph Forbes she hadn't yet met. Some of his lady friends then show up. Some very good sequences, but also some flat spots. Her "husband's" house is very Hollywood deco and some of the costumes are very good.

In old New Orleans, a beautiful adventuress juggles the attentions of a rich banker and a dashing sea captain.

An Irish rascal and inveterate gambler uses his considerable skills at the gaming tables of New Orleans to become fabulously rich.

A railroad worker accepts a colleague's offer to stay in his home, but when his friend is called out one night to stop a runaway train, he makes a play for the man's wife.

In this high-seas adventure, a woman creates a great rift between old friends: an experienced older diver, and his younger protege. They become enemies when a gold-digger marries the latter. She soon leaves him in favor of a wealthy yachtsman. She is aboard his boat when an accident occurs. The two divers must salvage the costly boat before it sinks.

Buster Crabbe and Johnny Weissmuller battle it out in Cajun country! Johnny, a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi, is seduced away from his fiance (Carol Thurston) by a rich outsider (Virginia Grey) who's nursed him back to health after a serious accident. She owns a large piece of the swamp and has outlawed hunting on her property. His rival Mike (Crabbe) is a trapper who harbors deep resentment for Johnny and his new wealthy friends. When he feels Johnny is responsible for the hunting ban, he resorts to destructive acts of vengeance.

In the South Pacific islands, two brothers, one good and one bad, fight over the same girl and over a bag of pearls.

Occupants of a London boarding house become suspects as a string of murders are discovered.

Northern lawyer John Reynolds travels to New Orleans to try and clean up the local crime syndicate based around a lottery. Although he meets Julie Mirbeau and they are attracted to each other, the fact that her father heads the lottery means they end up on opposite sides. When her father is killed, Julie becomes more and more involved in the shady activities and in blocking Reynolds' attempts at prosecution.

In 1834, Charles Stewart (Alan Ladd), the spoiled, dissolute son of a shipping magnate, is shanghaied aboard the Pilgrim, one of his father's own ships. He embarks upon a long, hellish sea voyage under the tyrannical rule of Captain Francis Thompson (Howard Da Silva), assisted by his first mate, Amazeen (William Bendix). One of his crewmates is Richard Henry Dana Jr. (Brian Donlevy).

After three years on the run, Jim Guthrie returns with the scar of a rope burn on his neck. In a flashback, we learn how he was framed for murder but then escaped from the lynch mob just as he was about to be hung. Tired of running, he has returned to find the real killer and the Sheriff has given him just three hours to do it.

Hard-boiled newspaper reporter Larry Doyle (Robert Armstrong) goes a bit too far in celebrating a work bonus and wakes up on a train bound for St. Louis with only a buck on his person. To remedy the problem, Doyle pawns the revolver he's carrying. When the gun is subsequently used in a murder, Doyle's problems only multiply. In the meantime, he's also fallen in love with a comely stranger (Maxine Doyle) he convinced to impersonate his wife.

A Southern Belle must work in a gambling house to pay off her father's debts, which drove him to suicide. She then meets a man who sweeps her off her feet and takes her away from it all.

As he looks over the dusty, deserted remains of the western "boom town" of Panamint, grizzled old prospector Chuckawalla Bill Redfield recalls the town's glory days. Looming large in Chuckawalla's reminiscences is the day that young and apparently mild-mannerd minister Philip Pharo rode into town. In his own gentle but forceful fashion, Pharo managed to bring the town's lawless element into line, mollify the local bluenoses, and win the heart of likeable dance-hall girl Mary Mallory.

Reformed racketeer "Lucky" Leeds flees from the police when he thinks they are about to arrest him for a murder he didn't commit. He and his wife Patti fly to his privately-owned remote island and have to crash land. Also on the island is a group of shipwrecked people, including a German professor, his daughter, an English journalist, a wealthy widow, a sailor and a Nazi Agent.

An island fugitive and his bride make room for a shipwrecked detective.

A shipful of fugitives from justice pulls up on a Pacific Island where there are no extradition laws. The island is a magnet for the scum of the earth, as well as a few honest guys who were framed. Into this den of iniquity swims socialite Dorothy Sebastian, who jumped off a yacht after apparently murdering her lecherous host. To remain on the Island, Sebastian is told that she must pay $5,000 to head honcho Fred Kohler -- and if she hasn't got the money, it is implied, there are other methods of collection.

A young boy is forced to leave his family in the South and move in with relatives he doesn't know in New York.

British Army captain Geoff Roberts carries on an affair with Alva, the wife of the cruel Victor Sangrito. Sangrito, however, is well aware of the affair, as he uses his beautiful wife to lure men into romance with her, then blackmailing them to save their careers.