Best movies like Paddy the Next Best Thing

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.

Set in a western town, the stooges are working as waiters in a saloon with the three girls they hope to marry. The proprietor of the saloon is a crook who, with his partner, has buried $40,000 of stolen money. The boys go prospecting in hopes of raising enough money to pay off the debts of their fiancée father, who owes money to their boss. They dig up the stolen money, which the crooks recognize as their loot and abscond with. A wild chase ensues, ending with the bad guy's car crashing into the Sheriff's office.

Jack Oakie plays Eddie Doyle, a gumball machine salesman who marries Pat Smith (Shirley Grey) knowing full well that the girl is on the rebound from a failed romance with aspiring Jewish doctor Max Silver (Leon Ames). But when Pat is nearly killed in an effort to protect her husband's gumball machines from hoodlums and is in need of a lifesaving operation, Eddie calls on Dr. Max

A mother tries to get her daughter to marry for money, but the daughter wants to marry for love.

Based on the best selling autobiography by Irish expat Frank McCourt, Angela's Ashes follows the experiences of young Frankie and his family as they try against all odds to escape the poverty endemic in the slums of pre-war Limerick. The film opens with the family in Brooklyn, but following the death of one of Frankie's siblings, they return home, only to find the situation there even worse. Prejudice against Frankie's Northern Irish father makes his search for employment in the Republic difficult despite his having fought for the IRA, and when he does find money, he spends the money on drink.

In 1950s Ireland and New York, young Eilis Lacey has to choose between two men and two countries.

A Brooklyn pier racketeer bullies boat-owners into paying protection money but two fed-up fishermen decide to eliminate the gangster themselves rather than complain to the police.

An American actor, impersonating an English butler, is hired by a rich woman from New Mexico to refine her husband and headstrong daughter. The complications increase when the town believes the actor/butler to be an earl and President Roosevelt decides to pay a visit.

Fatty is a farm hand at Mabel's father's place. He and Mabel love each other, but dad wants to marry Mabel off to the landowner's son in exchange for tearing up the mortgage. When Mabel and Fatty find out dad's plan, they elope, pursued by dad, the hopeful suitor, and the local constables.

Happily married for three years, Ann and David Smith live in New York. One morning Ann asks David if he had to do it over again, would he marry her? To her shock, he answers, "No". Later that day, they separately discover that, due to a legal complication, they are not legally married.

Little Delft, Michigan follows the customs of old-world Holland and is known for its Tulip Festival. The owner of the hotel insists that his seven daughters marry in order, from eldest to youngest.

A former prizefighter tries to help his son pay off his gambling debts.

With his sidekick Rusty, Jeff Harper sails to paradisiacal tropical isle Ahmi-Oni to bargain on behalf of his cattle baron father for land owned by transplanted Irishman Dennis O'Brien. But Jeff falls in love with O'Brien's daughter, Eileen, and even his father can't break them up after he arrives and himself falls under the spell of island splendor.

Broken hearts in Ireland. Sean is a great tenor, in semi-retirement, living in a village close to Mary, the woman he’s always loved. Mary’s aunt convinced her to marry a man for his money; he has recently deserted her, leaving her penniless. She and her two children, Eileen and Tad, move in with the selfish and austere aunt. Eileen is falling in love with Fergus, a young man who’s off to Dublin to seek his fortune. Sean is drawn out of retirement and goes on tour in America. At his first concert, he’s nervous and out of sorts until the last song, when peace descends on him like a gift. What has happened, and can family life be set right?

A poor-but-charming father and son try to enter high society by marrying rich English widows.

John Howard Payne leaves home and begins a career in the theater. Despite encouragement from his mother and his sweetheart, Payne begins to lead a life of dissolute habits, and this soon leads to ruin and misery. In deep despair, he thinks of better days, and writes a song that later provides inspiration to several others in their own times of need.

Forced by her mean-spirited father, Lord Chief Justice James O'Brien, to marry a man she doesn't love, Connaught O'Brien gives up hope of ever with her true love, Dermot McDermot. After her father dies and a hunted rebel leader returns to town, however, Connaught finds a renewed hope that the tides of oppression will shift and she might again find happiness. This silent romantic drama, set in Ireland, is the first film in which a then-unknown John Wayne is clearly visible.

Young gypsy girl Mary, is seduced by the immoral Robert Crane and abandoned. She is exiled from the gypsies and, along with her mother Zenda, known as "The Woman in Black," she vows revenge. Meanwhile, Crane blackmails Stella Everett's father into forcing her to marry him, even though she loves Frank Mansfield, Crane's rival for a congressional seat. Frank wins, but Stella still faces the prospect of marriage to Crane until Zenda comes to her with a plan. On their wedding day, after the vows are recited, when Crane lifts the veil from his wife's face, he is shocked to discover, that his new bride is Mary. Now Stella and Frank are free to marry, and Zenda has gained her revenge.

Jonathan Dakers' early ambition was to become a great surgeon and to marry Edie Martyn. But, on the death of his father, he is obliged to start work as a partner in a poor general practice in the Black Country. Edie falls in love with Jonathan's brother, Harold, who is killed in the Great War, and Jonathan marries her as planned. It is only afterwards that he realises he now loves another.

The Chinese prince T'Su Wong Shih loves Quan Yin, the daughter of a gardener, but his uncle wants him to marry a girl of his own class. Leaving to study in the United States, the young man promises his beloved that they two will be together soon. Having finished university, one day T'Su Wong Shih visits the market of San Francisco, and at an auction of slaves, he finds Quan Yin auctioned. To save her, he agrees to pay a price of five thousand dollars but, not possessing the full amount, he makes a deal with the auctioneer for a three-year extension in which he must work to raise the money needed to rescue the girl. T'Su Wong Shih has no great success until he manages to win a large sum in a lottery. However, Quan Yin is now in danger because a Chinese gangster wants to have it and, to do that, goes to threaten the auctioneer who is forced to comply. T'Su Wong Shih is then engaged in a struggle to liberate his beloved: he defeats the gangster, rescues Quan Yin and claims her as his...

Major John Peel returns to England, following Napoleon's Waterloo defeat, and renews his acquaintance with Lucy Merrall, but she tells him she is engaged to be married. He later learns that, Cravens, the man she is to marry already has a wife. He also learns that Craven cleaned out Lucy's father in a crooked gambling game, and Lucy is paying the price to hold the family home together.

Based upon a description in a film publication,[3] Katherine Van Riper (Clayton) is an extravagant young society girl who is very much in debt, and her wealthy aunts and uncle refuse to give her any money. Katherine is desperate enough that she is considering marrying the wealthy Montee Buck (Hiers), although she is in love with the westerner Tom Jaffrey (Fillmore), who says he is poor. Finally, Katherine decides to sell the famous Van Riper pearls, pay off her debts, and marry Tom. However, upon examination the jewelry turns out to be paste, with her father having sold the genuine pearls several years earlier before his death. Montee is assured by the aunts that Katherine will marry him and tells this to Tom. Tom is about to leave town when Uncle James (Ricketts) steps in and pays off Katherine's debts, leaving the niece free to marry Tom.

Grace Leonard, a typical woman of the New York stage, beautiful but old in sin, seduces William Craig, who becomes a thief in order to shower luxuries upon her. He is sentenced to prison and emerges five years later as a sad-faced, gray-haired man, entirely cured of his mad passion for La Valencia. But she sees him and her old passion is stirred, meaning nothing to her that since his release from prison, he has fallen in love and married a good woman who knows nothing of his past. When William is not swayed by her fascinations, Grace threatens to expose his past life.

After the death of his father and a second wedding of his mother, David Copperfield suffers from his tyrannical stepfather, Mr. Murdstone. The mother dies shortly after the death of another child, whereupon Mr. Murdstone sends David to London, where he has to work for a starvation wage.Here he makes some new friends, but soon flees from the capital of England to his aunt Traddles in Canterbury, where he is adopted by her.

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.

Avery, a blogger with a string of disappointing Valentine’s Days, is ready to give up on love when she meets handsome veterinarian Brenden. When Avery finds out Brenden blames his recent break up on her blog and is the one leaving her angry comments, she begins to question whether the bond they’ve began to build is a true love story or yesterday’s news.

The holiday season is in full swing when Emma learns that the resort where she used to spend Christmases with her family is being redeveloped.

The naive Evelyn Warren, elected school teacher of the year by Time Magazine, goes to Las Vegas, where she loses a lot of money. In order to pay her debts, casino manager Matt Braddock asks her to take care of his sad little daughter Diana.

Widow Abby Abbott is having serious money problems and has to dip into the family trust in order to pay for her daughter Susan's college tuition. The catch: Abby must also become a co-ed or she can't touch the money. After passing her entrance exams, Abby goes to college and becomes very popular, especially with a handsome English professor whom Susan has a crush on.

Marsha, a con artist with a conscience, has agreed to take on an unusual scheme in order to pay off a debt to a lawyer who helped out her brother. An elderly millionaire is about to die, and the entire fortune has been willed to a stripper named Jean, who is unaware of the windfall awaiting her. Marsha's task is to get to know Jean well enough that she can impersonate her at the reading of the will and take the inheritance for herself. Taking a job at the same strip club, the pair soon bond, but will Marsha's feelings for her new friend outweigh her need to help pay off her brother's debt?

Guillaume is a good young man. He has never taken hard drugs in his life, doesn't plan on trying, and has an honest job. Everything goes chaotic when he witnesses his father's attempted suicide over a heavy gambling debt. In order to pay out his father's debt in a record time, Guillaume follows his best friend, Manu, into the difficult world of drug dealing.

Clark Davis adventurous dreams of seeing the world are put into jeopardy after he and a friend start a fight which damages a local cafe. Through a plea deal with the Sheriff and café owner Millie, Clark works off his sentence as a farmhand for the Barlow sisters, Ellen and Cassie. Older sister Ellen doesnt understand Cassies friendly nature with Clark; she agreed to the Sheriffs offer only because the farm has become too much to maintain alone. Clark is slowing winning Ellen over, but suddenly suffers a traumatic head injury in a fall. After Ellen nurses him back to health, her former fiancé returns to win her back. Will Clark travel on or stay behind where love begins?

Dick Rawlins, a cowpoke on the Jackson ranch, is in love with Inez, the beautiful daughter of the ranchowner; planning to ask Inez to marry him, Dick goes to town to buy her an engagement ring, eventually going into hock to Bob for $500. When Dick returns to the ranch, he learns that he has been fired as the result of a mysterious stranger's testimony. Dick goes to the bunkhouse and sacks out; while asleep, he dreams that at Bob's request he has faked a suicide in order to avoid paying his debts.

When an ex-dancer marries a man for his money she is suprised find he is a real skinflint. She owes a lot of money to a loan-shark who is after her. However, her husband does carry a lot of insurance

The adopted Irish daughter of the Rosensteins, Second Avenue pawnshop owners, Rose is much sought after by Tim McCarthy, a wealthy Irish contractor many years her senior. Meanwhile, Nat, her adopted brother, is accused of stealing from his firm and is arrested and put in jail; Rosenstein, heartbroken, becomes seriously ill.