Best movies like Emil and the Detectives

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Emil and the Detectives Starring John Williams, George Hayes, Mary Glynne, Clare Greet, and more. If you liked Emil and the Detectives then you may also like: Wiggle Your Ears, Jude, The Blue Bird, Emil and the Detectives, Pinocchio 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.

Erich Kästner’s beloved novel has been adapted for film or television six times since its publication in 1929; this 1935 British version was the first in English. Believed lost for decades, it was recently rediscovered by the BFI and has now been restored. The film moves the action from Berlin to London, where Emil goes to stay with his grandmother and cousin. Thereafter, the tale of Emil’s adventures with a gang of streetwise London children faithfully follows the original plot.

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Wiggle Your Ears

This is a really strange, but thought provoking film. Here, beloved Mary literally lets Harry Spear kick her behind, spend her money on him, and forces her to push his kiddie car, all so that she could get the occasional joy of watching Harry "Wiggle His Ears." Armchair Freudians and double-entendre fans will quickly get the "joke" here. He quickly dumps Mary for pintsized blonde bombshell Jean Darling. What happens? You'll see.

Jude

In late 19th-century England, Jude aspires to be an academic, but is hobbled by his blue-collar background. Instead, he works as a stonemason and is trapped in an unloving marriage to a farmer's daughter named Arabella. But when his wife leaves him, Jude sees an opportunity to improve himself. He moves to the city and begins an affair with his married cousin, Sue, courting tragedy every step of the way.

The Blue Bird

A pair of peasant children, Mytyl and her brother Tyltyl, are led on a magical quest for the fabulous Blue Bird of Happiness by the Fairy Berylune. On their journey, they are accompanied by the humanized presences of a Dog, a Cat, Light, Fire, Bread, and other entities.

Emil and the Detectives

When Emil travels by bus to Berlin to visit his grandmother and his cousin, his money is stolen by a crook who specializes in digging tunnels. Emil must get the money back as it is for his grandmother. While following the thief, Emil runs into Gustav, an enterprising young boy who gathers up all his friends to help Emil find the money. Emil's cousin also gets involved and they get into more trouble than they bargained for when Emil's pickpocket turns out to be mixed up with a couple of notorious bank robbers.

Thomas and the Magic Railroad

Mr. Conductor's supply of magic gold dust, which allows him to travel between Shining Time and Thomas's island, is critically low. Unfortunately, he doesn't know how to get more. Meanwhile, Thomas is fending off attacks by the nasty diesel engines. Getting more gold dust will require help from Mr. C's slacker cousin, his new friend Lily and her morose grandfather, plus the secret engine.

David Copperfield

Charles Dickens' classic tale of an orphaned boy's fight for happiness and the colorful characters who help and hinder him.

Retribution

When a mysterious caller puts a bomb under his car seat, Matt Turner begins a high-speed chase across the city to complete a specific series of tasks. With his kids trapped in the backseat and a bomb that will explode if they get out of the car, an everyday commute becomes a twisted game of life or death as Matt follows the stranger’s increasingly dangerous instructions in a race against time to save his family.

The Prisoner of Zenda

An Englishman vacationing in Ruritania is recruited to impersonate his cousin, the soon-to-be-crowned king after the monarch is drugged and kidnapped.

Seven Keys to Baldpate

A writer, looking for some peace and quiet in order to finish a novel, takes a room at the Baldpate Inn. However, peace and quiet are the last things he gets, as there are some very strange goings-on at the establishment.

A Tale of Two Cities

The exciting story of Dr. Manette, who escapes the horrors of the infamous Bastille prison in Paris. The action switches between London and Paris on the eve of the revolution where we witness 'the best of times and the worst of times' - love, hope, the uncaring French Aristocrats and the terror of a revolutionary citizen's army intent on exacting revenge.

The Thief Lord

A tale about two young boys, Prosper and Bo, who flee to Venice after being orphaned and dumped in the care of a cruel auntie. Hiding in the canals and alleyways of the city, the boys are befriended by a gang of young urchins and their enigmatic leader, the Thief Lord. From their home base of an old cinema theater, the children steal from the rich to support themselves and soon capture the interest of a bumbling detective. However, a greater threat to the children is something from a forgotten past - a beautiful magical treasure with the power to spin time itself

Twice Upon a Time

A pair of twin girls are separated when their parents divorce. They meet again by accident when they are both sent to the same Summer camp and they start to hatch a plot to get back together. - Steve Crook

The Lost Special

A lady reporter and two college students search for the "Gold Special," a train that disappeared without a trace.

Lantern Hill

In 1935 Toronto, Jane Stuart's mother has taken ill, and the two of them have temporarily moved in with her rich, snobbish grandmother, where Jane is verbally abused and her mother bullied. Jane is forced into a private academy, in which the other girls tell her that her father, whom Jane believes to be dead, is actually alive. Soon after, Andrew Stuart sends word that he would like to meet his long-lost daughter, so Jane is sent by train to Bright River to stay with him, where she encounters an old mystery that she must help her father overcome, new friends, and the chance to bring her father and mother back together again.

The Green Eyed Monster

The Green Eyed Monster is a lost 1919 Black-and-White silent film action adventure with little to scant information as to its release. It was produced by the Norman Film Manufacturing Company, a historic all-black film production company. Various dates of release are quoted in 1919 and 1921.

St George's Day

Infamous London gangster cousins, Micky Mannock and Ray Collishaw, are at the top of the food chain, when their world is turned upside down as they lose a shipment of the Russian Mafia's cocaine in rough seas. Set in London, Amsterdam and Berlin, the story races across Europe at breakneck speed as Micky and Ray attempt to stay one step ahead of the Police. Can they pull off a daring diamond heist in time to put things right and retire to a "legitimate" way of life.

Alias Jimmy Valentine

The saga of Alias Jimmy Valentine began with the O. Henry story "A Retrieved Reformation". This surprise-ending tale was adapted into a stage play by Paul Armstrong, which subsequently was adapted to film several times

Swallows and Amazons

On holiday with their mother in the Lake District in 1929 four children are allowed to sail over to the nearby island in their boat Swallow and set up camp for a few days. They soon realise this has been the territory of two other girls who sail the Amazon, and the scene is set for serious rivalry.

Oliver Twist

Oliver Twist the modern filmed version of Charles Dickens bestseller, a Roman Polanski adaptation. The classic Dickens tale, where an orphan meets a pickpocket on the streets of London. From there, he joins a household of boys who are trained to steal for their master.

Mary Ryan, Detective

A female police detective (Marsha Hunt) enters jail to gain the confidence of a shoplifter and learn the identity of the leader of a stolen goods racket.

Alias Mr. Twilight

Geoffrey Holden (Lloyd Corrigan) is an elderly con-man who is a lovable old man when providing his beloved granddaughter (Gigi Perreau) with the simple luxuries of life, yet has no qualms when working a racket devised to relieve his victims of their property. Trudy Marshall is the governess of the granddaughter, and is in love with a detective (Michael Duane) who is about to expose the old man's unsuspected activities.

Tale of the Three Jewels

A Palestinian boy becomes entranced with a beautiful Gypsy girl and a fairy tale world she weaves amidst conflict in Gaza. The children explore nature, mysticism and what their future holds, while learning to live with the surrounding brutality c. 1990. Yusef's family scrapes by in a seaside camp while his father's in prison and his heavily-armed brother's on the run, parrying with Israeli troops. Salah, Yusef's schoolmate from a well-off Arab family strives faithfully to assist them, while Yusef helps an elderly, blind neighbor escape from his lonely abandonment into the North American dreamworld he's waited so long for.

The Sacred Flame

Colonel Maurice Taylor of the Royal Flying Corps is hopelessly injured in an airplane crash immediately following his marriage to Stella. Maurice is non-functional in most of the physical areas of marriage that count, but Stella attends to his other needs faithfully for three years. Then his brother, Colin, shows up from South America, and he and Stella fall passionately in love and are making plans to run away together. Mother Taylor is aware of the romance, as is Nurse Weyland, who is secretly in love with Maurice, and now hates Stella for her careless attitude toward Maurice's patiently-borne sufferings. Maurice is also aware of the affair. He has a talk with his wife and brother. Complications arise.

The New Adventures of Tarzan

A feature film. Tarzan, who has returned to Africa after living in England, sets off to Guatemala in search of an old friend who may have survived a plane crash there. Also in Guatemala are Ula Vale and Major Martling who are out to find the riches of the Green Goddess. They join forces after they learn that a competitor, Raglan, has already set out ahead of them. Tarzan has to rescue everyone after they are taken prisoner. When they get to the hidden city, Tarzan finds his friend alive and the fabulous treasure.

The Isle of Lost Ships

The Isle of Lost Ships is a 1929 talking film released in an alternative silent version with a Vitaphone track of effects and music. It was produced by Richard A. Rowland and distributed by Warner Bros..

The Salvage Gang

Four children try to raise money to replace a broken saw, taking them on an unexpected journey through the capital.

The Velveteen Rabbit

A lonely boy wins over his distant father and strict grandmother with help from a brave velveteen rabbit whose one wish is to become a real rabbit someday

Crosstrap

In this thriller, two gangs of jewel thieves battle it out in a deserted cottage. Murder ensues when the owners of the cabin show up. Listed as lost by the BFI.

Crime Unlimited

A young Scotland Yard police academy recruit tries to break up a gang of thieves.

Last Stagecoach West

The coming of the railroad to Cedar City spells the end of the stagecoach as the government gives the mail contract to the fastest means of delivery. McCord loses the stagecoach line gambling with the new buyer, but has enough hidden money to buy a ranch and some cattle. To make more money, he starts a gang to rob the railroad, express offices and steal cattle. But the railroads send out special agent Cameron to end his reign of violence.

The Man from Guntown

When Tim Hanlon arrives to tell Ruth McArthur her long lost brother has been killed, she mistakes him for her brother. He stays on to help her retain control of the dam her farther started. But DeLong is after the dam and having had McArthur killed, he now sends his man after Tim.

The Test

A fur trapper catches another trapper trying to steal his furs. He stops the thief, but later on the furs are stolen anyway. Rin Tin Tin Jr. tracks down the thief to try to get the furs back.

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