Best movies like Desperate

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Desperate Starring John Savage, Meg Foster, Chris Burke, Liane Langland, and more. If you liked Desperate then you may also like: Whirlpool, The Old Man and the Sea, Rendezvous with Annie, Junior Prom, Key Largo and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.

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In this thinly-veiled, though uncredited, new version of Hemingway's "To Have and Have Not," here a prospective series pilot, an ex-sailor living in Key West, chartering out boats and struggling to forget his past, is lured into a dangerous rendezvous with Cuban gunrunners.

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Know any good movies to watch like Desperate 1987. With a similar plot or stoyline. Suggest it.

Whirlpool

The ex-girlfriend (Juliette Greco) of a German fugitive hides with the captain (O.W. Fischer) and crew of a ship on the Rhine.

The Old Man and the Sea

Based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway. Santiago goes out on his usual fishing trip and makes a huge catch, the biggest of his life. Then a shark attacks and tries to steal his catch.

Rendezvous with Annie

A homesick American soldier stationed in England during World War II makes an unauthorized trip to see his wife and returns to England with only two people knowing he was home for a few hours. When she learns that she is pregnant, she does not disclose that her husband had paid her a visit as to not get him into trouble. The townspeople are unanimous in their condemnation of her. But, after his discharge, he enlists the aid of a nightclub singer, the only other person who knew he came home.

Junior Prom

During the Whitney High School student government election, a rich man’s son tries to pay his way into office with promises of new athletic uniforms. His desperate competitors decide to stage a series of song and dance spectacles to try to garner votes.

Key Largo

A hurricane swells outside, but it's nothing compared to the storm within the hotel at Key Largo. There, sadistic mobster Johnny Rocco holes up - and holds at gunpoint hotel owner James Temple, his widowed daughter-in-law Nora, and ex-GI Frank McCloud.

To Have and Have Not

A Martinique charter boat skipper gets mixed up with the underground French resistance operatives during WWII.

Santiago

Two American gun runners at odds with each other and looking to sell guns to the rebels during the Cuban War of Independence navigate a boat to Cuba. Along for the ride is a beautiful Cuban rebel in who both men are interested.

Girls! Girls! Girls!

When he finds out his boss is retiring to Arizona, a sailor, Ross Carpenter, has to find a way to buy the Westwind, a boat that he and his father built. He is also caught between two women: insensitive club singer Robin and sweet Laurel.

Desert Command

Tom Wayne rescues Clancy, Renard and Schmidt in the Arabian desert and they join him in going after El Shaitan, a bad guy who is never seen as he tries to wipe out the Foreign Legion. Feature version of the movie serial, The Three Musketeers (1934).

Escape from Hell Island

The plot concerns a Key West charter boat captain persuaded to help smuggle Cuban refugees to Florida. When a refugee is killed while escaping, he loses his license and becomes involved with a married woman, whose jealous husband wants him dead.

The Lesser Evil

A young woman's peaceful existence is shattered when she is abducted by the crew of a boat of smugglers, who then also turn against their captain.

Macao

A man on the run in the Far East is mistaken for an undercover cop.

Sea Fever

The crew of a West of Ireland trawler—marooned at sea—struggle for their lives against a growing parasite in their water supply.

Devil Monster

A schooner disappears at sea without a trace. Years later, evidence of possible survivors prompts the mother of the schooner's mate Jose to hire a tuna boat to investigate. They discover the lad living happily on a South Seas island, and, when he refuses to leave with them, they abduct him. However, Jose gets revenge by leading the ship into the lair of a mysterious giant manta ray.

Woman Trap

A gangland murder is the motivating factor of this fast-moving crime drama. George Murphy stars as reporter Kent Shevlin, whose investigation of the murder leads to a tenure as a temporary FBI agent.

The Bribe

United States Federal agent Rigby travels to the Central American island Carlotta to investigate a stolen aircraft engines smuggling racket.

Flight Lieutenant

A disgraced pilot determines to regain the respect of both his son, now a test pilot for the Army, and the men he once flew with.

Missile Monsters

A warlord from Mars recruits an Earth industrialist with a Nazi past to manufacture weapons by means of which Mars can take over the Earth. Feature version of the 1951 movie serial "Flying Disc Man from Mars".

The Gun Runners

Remake of "To Have and Have Not" based on Hemingway short story. Plot reset to early days of Cuban revolution. A charter boat skipper gets entangled in gunrunning scheme to get money to pay off debts. Sort of a sea-going film noir with bad girl, smarmy villain, and the "innocent" drawn into wrong side of law by circumstances.

Long Lost Son

Fourteen years after her son and estranged husband were presumed lost at sea, Kristen believes she glimpses them in the background of a friend's recent vacation video.

This Is Kate Bennett...

In this pilot for a prospective TV series, Kate Bennett is an investigative TV news reporter whose life is imperiled, along with that of her young daughter Jennifer, after she doggedly pursues the story of a sniper attack on several nurses.

Seven Were Saved

A nurse is taking an amnesia victim, who was imprisoned by the Japanese during WW II, to the United States in a plane piloted by Richard Denning. The passengers include a Japanese colonel on his way to Manila to face war-crime charges, and a couple who were married on the day they were liberated from a Japanese prison camp. During the flight, the colonel breaks away from his guards, causes the plane to go out of control, and it crashes into the sea. The survivors get into a rubber boat and go through a minor-league version of "Lifeboat, with no Alfred Hitchcock sightings, until Air-Sea Rescue pilot Jim Willis rides to the rescue.

Jungle Queen

A young girl journeys to Africa to find her father, an explorer who vanished in the jungle.

Mercy Island

The beautiful Florida Keys provide the setting of this adventure that tells the tale of a fun-filled fishing trip that becomes a nightmare when the charter boat is wrecked on an isolated island. Unfortunately, there are very few provisions and the group must fend for themselves. They are eventually assisted by a hermit, but before that one of the group goes insane, and another is eaten by an alligator.

92 in the Shade

A young drifter returns to his home in Key West, Florida and attempts to open a fishing charter business, provoking a dangerous feud with a rival fishing sea captain.

The Georgia Peaches

A Southern gal who runs her family's auto repair shop, her aspiring country singer sister, and their stock-car racing friend who runs moonshine on the side are conned into working as government undercover agents to track down a dangerous criminal in this pilot to a prospective series.

Rendezvous Hotel

A madcap family caters to assorted unpredictable guests availing themselves of the title resort's advertised bliss in this pilot to a prospective series.

Broken People

Broken People (2023) Brett and Jake meet in a bar and decide to drown their sorrows in whiskey, forgetting the past, ignoring the future, and exploring life, love, and tragedy together for one fateful night.

When We Were Young

Prospective series pilot about eight 1959 high school graduates in a Northern California town preparing to go off into the world.

The Right To Romance

Against her better judgment, a dedicated and hard-working plastic surgeon (Ann Harding) finds herself falling in love with a playboy (Robert Young). Drama.

I Shall Never Forget

A Canadian RCAF Pilot is shot down over the Ukraine. Here he is rescued and learns of the plight the Ukrainians face in WW2 in relation to both the Nazis and the Russians

Unlawful Passage

Erotic thriller about a rich couple who hires a new sailboat captain who's unbeknown to them also a drug smuggler.

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