Best movies like Charles Ives: A Good Dissonance Like a Man

Swellegant and elegant. Delux and delovely. Cole Porter was the most sophisticated name in 20th-century songwriting. And to play him on screen, Hollywood chose debonair icon Cary Grant. Grant stars for the first time in color in this fanciful biopic. Alexis Smith plays Linda, whose serendipitous meetings with Porter lead to a meeting at the alter. More than 20 of his songs grace this tail of triumph and tragedy, with Grant lending is amiable voice to "You're the Top", "Night and Day" and more. Monty Woolley, a Yale contemporary of Porter, portrays himself. And Jane Wyman, Mary Martin, Eve Arden and others provide vocals and verve. Lights down. Curtain up. Showtune standards embraced by generations are yours to enjoy in "Night and Day."

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 Film Journey to the Soul of India documents the life of sitar master Ravi Shankar in the late 1960s and early 1970s, following him on his return to India to revisit his guru, Bengali multi-instrumentalist and composer, Baba Ustad Allauddin Khan. It further explores Shankar's life as a musician and teacher in the United States and Europe, initiating those in the West to the exceptional world that is Indian classical music and culture. Through rare and candid footage shot in both India and the United States, Raga sheds light on Shankar's influences and collaborations, from Allauddin Khan to his famed dancer brother Uday Shankar, to his associations with Western musicians Yehudi Menuhin and George Harrison. Fully narrated by Shankar himself, the film reveals music as the soul of India and of Shankar's life.

Fictionalized biography of George Gershwin and his fight to bring serious music to Broadway.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is a remarkably talented young Viennese composer who unwittingly finds a fierce rival in the disciplined and determined Antonio Salieri. Resenting Mozart for both his hedonistic lifestyle and his undeniable talent, the highly religious Salieri is gradually consumed by his jealousy and becomes obsessed with Mozart's downfall, leading to a devious scheme that has dire consequences for both men.

In a dystopian future, insurance fraud investigator William Gold arrives in Shanghai to investigate a forgery ring for "papelles", futuristic passports that record people's identities and genetics. Gold falls for Maria Gonzalez, the woman in charge of the forgeries. After a passionate affair, Gold returns home, having named a coworker as the culprit. But when one of Gonzalez's customers is found dead, Gold is sent back to Shanghai to complete the investigation.

A fictionalised exploration of Beethoven's life in his final days working on his Ninth Symphony. It is 1824. Beethoven is racing to finish his new symphony. However, it has been years since his last success and he is plagued by deafness, loneliness and personal trauma. A copyist is urgently needed to help the composer. A fictional character is introduced in the form of a young conservatory student and aspiring composer named Anna Holtz. The mercurial Beethoven is skeptical that a woman might become involved in his masterpiece but slowly comes to trust in Anna's assistance and in the end becomes quite fond of her. By the time the piece is performed, her presence in his life is an absolute necessity. Her deep understanding of his work is such that she even corrects mistakes he has made, while her passionate personality opens a door into his private world.

Eoj is an alien who won a game show and the grand prize is a trip to earth to have sex with as many earth women as he can. Hildy is a reporter who is writing a biography on Eoj's adventures.

Like the play from which it derived, the film tells of the early struggles of composer Edvard Grieg and his attempts to develop an authentic Norwegian national music. It stars Toralv Maurstad as Grieg and features an international cast including Florence Henderson, Christina Schollin, Robert Morley, Harry Secombe, Oskar Homolka, Edward G. Robinson and Frank Porretta (as Rikard Nordraak). Filmed in Super Panavision 70 by Davis Boulton and presented in single-camera Cinerama in some countries, it was an attempt to capitalise on the success of The Sound of Music.

The partners of stage-producer J. J. Hobart gamble away the money for his new show. They enlist a gold-digging chorus girl to help get it back by conning an insurance company. But they don’t count on the persistence of insurance man Rosmer Peck and his secretary Norma Perry.

Daffy Duck is a life-insurance-peddler, who arrives uninvited at Porky Pig's door to persuade Porky to purchase an insurance policy, on the pretext that Porky's home is loaded with hazards. When Porky rejects Daffy's claim that accidents in the home are "waiting" to happen, Daffy rigs some accidents. But each time, the calamity strikes only Daffy, who is buried in clutter from a closet and blasted in the explosions of kitchen stove gas and a dynamite stick.

An advertising executive dreams of getting out of the city and building a perfect home in the country, only to find the transition fraught with problems.

The tragic story of world-renowned cellist Jacqueline du Pré, as told from the point of view of her sister, flautist Hilary du Pré-Finzi.

Fearing the apocalypse, an insurance salesman sets off into the woods on a solo hunting experiment.

Orphan prodigy singer runs away from her oppressive aunt and tricks a rural couple into adopting her.

A chronicle of the life of infamous classical composer Ludwig van Beethoven and his painful struggle with hearing loss. Following Beethoven's death in 1827, his assistant, Schindler, searches for an elusive woman referred to in the composer's love letters as "immortal beloved." As Schindler solves the mystery, a series of flashbacks reveal Beethoven's transformation from passionate young man to troubled musical genius.

Famed composer Gustav Mahler reflects on the tragedies of his life and failing marriage while traveling by train.

Composer, conductor and teacher Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky struggles against his homosexual tendencies by marrying, but unfortunately he chooses a wonky, nymphomaniac girl whom he cannot satisfy.

The story of the great Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) and his life and career during the rule of Stalin.

The true story of a former Greek Olympic boxer taken prisoner during World War II and sent to Auschwitz. There he was permitted to survive so long as he fought for the amusement of his captors. His father and brother were also held as insurance that he would continue to fight.

The portrait of Russian composer Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky focuses on his failed love affair.

Using never-before-seen archival footage, personal photos, first-person narratives, and cutting-edge, mouth-watering food cinematography, the film traces Julia Child's surprising path, from her struggles to create and publish the revolutionary Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961) which has sold more than 2.5 million copies to date, to her empowering story of a woman who found fame in her 50s, and her calling as an unlikely television sensation.

An insurance salesman inadvertently gets trapped after dark in an apartment building that is terrorized by a street gang called "The Vampires."

A tour guide in Chinatown and his girlfriend get mixed up with jewel thieves and murder.

The Three Stooges travel West where they become heroes by nabbing a gang of would-be robbers.

The story of the country and western singer Hank Williams.

Prof. Joseph Elsner guides his protégé Frydryk Chopin through his formative years to early adulthood in Poland. The professor takes him to Paris, where he eventually comes under the wing and influence of novelist George Sand and rises to prominence in the music world, to the exclusion of his old friends and patriotic feelings towards Poland.

Through interviews with colleagues and others who knew the creative genius whose innovations transformed the lives of millions, ONE LAST THING provides an inside look at the man and the major influences that helped shape his life and career.

In the 19th century, young Charles Dickens is a promising young writer who is obsessed with material success in his career. His misguided priorities are soon challenged when he encounters a mysterious little girl. That girl takes Dickens on a strange and moving journey in which he is shown the future he could have if he doesn't change his ways and, more importantly, he is shown a better purpose for his writing as a way of speaking for the oppressed who need his help. It is these events and lessons that would inspire Dickens to write an extraordinary Christmas tale that would become his greatest work, A Christmas Carol.

A fateful chain of events begin to unravel after two brash insurance salesmen go knocking on the wrong door and find themselves trapped in a stranger's basement.

A.C.Baker, advertising executive for an insurance company, approaches test pilot Terry Moore with a proposition that in return for using his picture and endorsement he will get a paid-for-a-year $1000 policy. High-risk Terry agrees. George MacAlister fires his secretary, Miss Tracy, just as she is typing up the policy and she, for spite, changes the amount from a thousand dollars to one million dollars. A.C. delivers the policy, without noticing the difference, to Terry at a party at the Frolics Club, a cheap joint wedged between a burlesque house and a flop house hotel. Three characters, an elderly hat-check "girl" known as Mother Hodges; Avery Jamieson, a broken-down actor; and bartender Harry Gargan are named beneficiaries. When the company discovers the error, A.C. is sent to get back the policy and, pending that, don't let Terry make any test flights.

Tough insurance investigator Mahoney goes to LA to look into the murder of a fellow investigator. It's found that the murdered man knew three different women — all blondes — and with each he had had a love affair. What is their connection to the crime? And will Mahoney bed all of them as well?

Ken Russell revisits the life of Elgar, with musical background provided by the composer's works.

"Meat Loaf" Aday is an overgrown Texas youngster, the son of a gentle woman dying of cancer and an alcoholic, abusive father. Tormented by his father and schoolmates over his size, he strikes out on his own after his mother's death, in an impossible task to prove himself to the world and to himself. A chance audition for a musical leads him to join forces with composer Jim Steinman, and together the two make music history with the operatic rock album "Bat Out of Hell." But the demons that drive Meat Loaf aren't assuaged by success, and eventually he must come to terms with them.

A biopic about the eminent composer Sir Arnold Bax.