Best movies like Papa Was a Preacher

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Papa Was a Preacher Starring Robert Pine, Georgia Engel, Dean Stockwell, Imogene Coca, and more. If you liked Papa Was a Preacher then you may also like: Walking Tall: Lone Justice, Wesley, Written on the Wind, Naughty Dallas, North Dallas Forty 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.

Edwin Porter, a Methodist minister, is sent to a little church in the small town of Sterling, Texas, to try to save it from financial insolvency. The move is sudden and is complicated by the fact that Porter’s wife and eight children are all very comfortable in the large, successful church they have been serving in Dallas.

selected filters: Sort: Default

You may filter the list of movies on this page for a more refined, personalized selection of movies.

Still not sure what to watch click the recommend buttun below to get a movie recommendation selected from all the movies on this list

Know any good movies to watch like Papa Was a Preacher 1986. With a similar plot or stoyline. Suggest it.

Walking Tall: Lone Justice

In Dallas, witnesses against a drug-lord are murdered in a safe-house.The testimony of FBI agents becomes the only chance to keep him in prison. They are lodged in another safe-house, but the place is invaded and the agents are executed. However, Kate is only wounded, and her boyfriend Nick believes there is a traitor in the agency and takes her to his ranch to protect her life.

Wesley

The year is 1732. John Wesley, an irritatingly self-righteous instructor at Oxford is offered the chance to go to the new colony of Georgia, where he hopes to preach to the Indians. John struggles with his failure and fears and is finally experiences the peace he longed for: "I felt my heart strangely warmed." Wesley begins to preach about his experience of saving faith, but is turned out of most churches in London. Despite opposition, mob violence that seeks to break up their meetings, Wesley and his "Methodies" establish social ministries to the poor that transformed the face of England. Today, almost 75 million people worldwide trace their spiritual heritage back to John Wesley.

Written on the Wind

Mitch Wayne is a geologist working for the Hadleys, an oil-rich Texas family. While the patriarch, Jasper, works hard to establish the family business, his irresponsible son, Kyle, is an alcoholic playboy, and his daughter, Marylee, is the town tramp. Mitch harbors a secret love for Kyle's unsatisfied wife, Lucy -- a fact that leaves him exposed when the jealous Marylee accuses him of murder.

North Dallas Forty

A semi-fictional account of life as a professional football player. Loosely based on the Dallas Cowboys team of the early 1970s.

One Foot in Heaven

Episodic look at the life of a minister and his family as they move from one parish to another.

The Railway Children

Set at the turn of the 20th century, The Railway Children tells the story of three Edwardian children and their mother who move to a country house in Yorkshire after their father is mysteriously taken away by the police.

Rolling Home

An elderly rodeo rider, his young grandson and their injured horse help transform the lives of various citizens in a small town. Released in 1946.

Jewel

In the 1940s a 40-year-old woman with five healthy children gives birth to a girl with Down's syndrome.

John Wesley

When young John Wesley is saved from the flames burning his family's home, he believes God has chosen him for a higher mission. He grows up to become a minister in the Church of England but disapproves of concern within the church over the social position of the clergy. He concerns himself more with the common people and with individual religious experiences. He tries to accomplish his purposes by remaining within the church but the methodical way in which he and his followers go about their duties soon sets them apart as a special group jeeringly called Methodists.

Journey Into Light

John Burrows, an ordained minister from a small village in the East, envisions himself with a larger congregation. He is mortified when his wife drunkenly interrupts a sermon, then despondent after her suicide. Burrows travels to Los Angeles for a fresh start, but takes to the bottle himself and ends up arrested for public intoxication. A skid-row con man, Gandy, finds him a bed at a flop house, while a street preacher, Doc Thorssen, and daughter Christine take him to a local mission. Christine is blind. She falls in love with Burrows, enjoying his discussions of the spirit and the soul but knowing little of his past. One day she is struck by a streetcar and knocked unconscious, causing Burrows to once again question his faith. He ultimately accepts the Lord's will and is offered a better place to live and preach. Burrows decides he is better suited to the mission, with Christine by his side.

Juke Joint

Bad News Johnson, a con artist from Memphis, Tennessee, arrives in Dallas, Texas, accompanied by his dim sidekick July Jones with only twenty-five cents between them. The duo arrange to become boarders at the home of Louella "Mama Lou" Holiday, who is fooled into believing Johnson is an acting teacher from Hollywood. Mrs. Holiday agrees to give the men free room and board if they will provide poise lessons to her daughter, an aspiring beauty queen named Honey Dew.

The African Queen

At the start of the First World War, in the middle of Africa’s nowhere, a gin soaked riverboat captain is persuaded by a strong-willed missionary to go down river and face-off a German warship.

Asteroid

With the discovery of an incoming asteroid, the government of America formulate a plan to destroy it. When the plan fails, all the world can do is wait. The main impact zone is revealed to be Dallas, Texas. Generally, the plot follows the lives and reactions of several characters: an astronomer, her father, her son, two firefighters from Kansas, two young doctors in Dallas and the heads of the government agency in charge of the situation.

Country

Jewell and Gil are farmers. They seem to be working against the odds, producing no financial surplus. Gil has lost hope of ever becoming prosperous, but Jewell decides to fight for her family.

The Eternal City

Leone, a Papal guard, is devastated when his wife drowns herself after mistakenly thinking that he had abandoned her. He turns over his son David to be brought up by nuns, then enters a monastery. David is brought to London and is raised to be a beggar and thief until he is rescued by Dr. Roselli, an Italian political refugee, who raises David with his daughter Donna Roma. Years later David gets heavily involved in Italian politics and incurs the enmity of the corrupt Italian Prime Minister, which leads him to discover the hidden secrets of his family's past--and present.

Sullivan's Travels

Successful movie director John L. Sullivan, convinced he won't be able to film his ambitious masterpiece until he has suffered, dons a hobo disguise and sets off on a journey, aiming to "know trouble" first-hand. When all he finds is a train ride back to Hollywood and a beautiful blonde companion, he redoubles his efforts, managing to land himself in more trouble than he bargained for when he loses his memory and ends up a prisoner on a chain gang.

Eddie Macon's Run

Eddie Macon is running from a nightmare... running to a dream... running for his life and his time is running out. He's escaped a Texas prison for the second time (risking life imprisonment if caught) to make it back to his wife and son. Relentlessly pursued by ruthless truant officer, Carl Marzack, who feels he must prove he can still 'get his man' by returning Macon to jail at any cost.

Happiness C.O.D.

A young man, hard-pressed to pay off his mortgage and support his family, decides that he'll get money any way he can--honestly or otherwise.

I'd Climb the Highest Mountain

A minister from the Deep South is assigned a new parish and moves with his wife to a town in Georgia's Blue Ridge Mountains, where he tends to the spiritual and emotional needs of his small flock.

State Fair

Texan farmers the Frake family head for the Texas State Fair in Dallas. The parents are focused on winning the competitions for livestock and cooking. However, their restless daughter Margy and her brother Wayne meet attractive new love interests.

All the Way Home

In the early 1900's Tennessee, a loving family undergoes the shock of the father's sudden, accidental death. The widow and her young son must endure the heartache of life following the tragedy, but slowly rise up from the ashes to face the hope of renewed life.

Return of the Texan

A young widower named Sam Crockett returns from Kansas City to his small hometown in rural Texas, bringing with him his feisty grandfather and two young sons, Steve and Yoyo. He tries to make a go of the old family homestead but faces financial problems and pressures from his well-to-do neighbor, Rod Marshall. He also begins an on-again-off-again romance with Rod's sister-in-law, even though she's engaged to wed the town's doctor. Events come to head when Sam's grandfather suffers a stroke.

All Mine to Give

This is a story based on fact that follows a husband and wife who emigrate from Scotland to Wisconsin in the 1850s. They work very hard and become welcome citizens of their new town, Eureka. They have six children. They prosper in the husband's boat-building business. But when their eldest is 12, tragedy strikes the family, and the 12-year-old is burdened with a terrible task which he handles as well as any adult could.

The Work and the Glory III: A House Divided

Joshua Steed returns to Missouri a wealthy man with a beautiful wife; however, the past has a way of catching up. Soon Joshua is tangled in a web of rumors, deception and betrayal that threatens to tear his family apart. Back in Kirtland, financial trouble riddles the foundations of the fledgling Church causing a division, and questioning of the Prophet Joseph Smith's divine calling. Has he lost his prophetic gift? Hundreds of Saints immigrate to Missouri, where Governor Boggs raises an army - with Joshua at its head - to address the "Mormon Problem." When the militia receives orders to attack the Mormon settlement, only Joshua can save his family from the gathering mob.

The Child in Time

A successful writer of children's books, Stephen Lewis is confronted with the unthinkable—he loses his only child, four-year-old Kate, in a supermarket. In one horrifying moment that replays itself over the years that follow, Stephen realises his daughter is gone. Kate's absence sets Stephen and his wife on diverging paths as both struggle with an all-consuming grief.

Dead Before Dawn

Based upon a true story. Wife with young family finds life becoming unbearable with her successful, but violent and abusive, husband. After filing for divorce, she quickly learns that her husband, through fear of his personal life embarrassing his clients, has commissioned an assassin to murder her before going to court. Unfortunately, for him, the hired assassin turns out to be an FBI agent. The FBI convince her that she must “pretend” to have been murdered in order to prove her husband’s involvement.

Prophet's Prey

Filmmaker Amy Berg sheds light on the sexual, financial and spiritual abuses heaped upon members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by their former leader, Warren Jeffs.

The Fastest Gun Alive

Whenever it becomes known how good he is with guns, ex-gunman George and his wife Dora have to flee the town, in fear of all the gunmen who might want to challenge him. Unfortunately he again spills his secret when he's drunk. All citizens swear to keep his secret and support him to give up his guns forever -- but a boy tells the story to a gang of wanted criminals. Their leader threatens to burn down the whole town, if he doesn't duel him.

This Time for Keeps

A young newlywed (Robert Sterling) finds working for his nasty father-in-law difficult.

Full of Life

A father-in-law's visit makes life even more complicated for a struggling writer and his pregnant wife. Director Richard Quine's 1956 film stars Judy Holliday, Richard Conte and Salvatore Baccaloni.

Daddy

Oliver Watson has never been luckier: he is a successful advertising executive, shares a marriage of eighteen years with Sarah and has three loving kids: 17-year-old Ben, 15-year-old Melissa, and 9-year-old Sam. His perfect life suddenly falls apart when his wife Sarah announces that she wants to enter a graduate school 200 miles away from home, as she regrets that she gave up her bohemian protester's life and promising writing career to become the wife of a conservative traditionalist. Oliver unsuccessfully tries to save his marriage, until Sarah announces that she is seeing someone else. The children start acting out as a reaction and life is complicated by the death of Oliver’s mother and accepts a job in L.A. where he falls in love with Charlotte Sampson. Life again challenges Oliver when Charlotte is offered her dream job on Broadway.

The Parson of Panamint

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.

Gentle Julia

A shy newspaperman nearly gives up when his girlfriend falls for the new guy in town till Withers sets things right.

Men of Boys Town

Father Flanagan raises funds, helps a disabled boy, and saves an older boy from reform school.

An Ideal Husband

In An Ideal Husband, an ambitious government minister, Sir Robert Chiltern, is on an assured smooth ascent to the top. Until Mrs Cheveley appears in London with damning proof of his previous financial chicanery, that is.

My Brother's Shoes

Dallas, a successful executive with a beautiful wife, dreams of having a family, while his gay brother Austin dreams of winning a local drag show. By a twist of fate, the brothers switch bodies and have to see how the other lives.

All the King's Horses

A Hollywood actor visits a mythical country where he looks like the king and confuses the queen.

Silent Victim

An abusive husband is angered that his wife is having trouble conceiving a child. One night, after leaving his house following a fight, she overdoses on pills. After bringing her to the ER to save her, the husband discovers that she was, in fact, pregnant and had lost her child in the process of attempting suicide. Distraught, he decides to sue her for "property damage" and "breach of trust", among other things. She hires her feminist friend from New York to defend her, which is a difficult task in the southern town of Newnan, Georgia, which is predominantly pro-life. Written by Anthony Ventarola

The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald

The Dallas trial of Lee Harvey Oswald, President John F. Kennedy's alleged assassin, is enacted as it might have occurred. After the defense enters pleas of "not guilty" and "not guilty by reason of insanity," 23 witnesses for the prosecution testify. No verdict is returned.

JFK: The Lost Bullet

JFK: The Lost Bullet is a documentary by National Geographic that tries to answer the question: "Who killed John F Kennedy?" It re-evaluates the famous Zapruder film that shows the murder of JFK and states that Zapruder stopped filming and missed the first shot fired which changes the timeline of the bullets fired making it possible that Lee Harvey Oswald could have fired three shots. It argues that the magic bullet that hit JFK and Governor John Connally was in fact possible. The documentary also features other home movies taken on the day.

Rocky Road

When a Wall Street firm downsizes, a well-to-do trader finds himself living with his parents and driving their ice cream truck.

Though None Go With Me

Elizabeth Leroy devotes her life to serving God but her faith is tested over the years as she has to overcome many hardships and sorrows.

While I Was Gone

Jo Beckett leads a comfortable life with a successful veterinary practice, a devoted husband, and a beautiful home in a lovely small town outside of Boston. Still, she is strangely dissatisfied with her life. One afternoon, a man brings his dog into her veterinary practice to be treated, and Jo recognizes him as Eli, a former housemate from her bohemian days more than 20 years ago. When he invites her to lunch at a fancy hotel in Boston, she goes with the intention of sleeping with him. Instead, Eli reveals a secret to Jo that returns her to the darkest moments of her past and threatens to destroy life as she knows it.

The Oldest Living Graduate

Henry Fonda stars as Col. J. C. Kincaid, crusty patriarch of a Texas family. Kincaid's weak-willed son Floyd (George Grizzard) wants to get into the old man's good graces so that he can develop the Colonel's vast land ownings. Floyd arranges a city-wide celebration lauding Kincaid as the oldest living graduate of a nearby military academy. The festivities serve only to make the already sour Kincaid even more truculent and miserable. Adapted from Preston Jones' 1974 play and originally telecast live from Dallas' Southern Methodist University on April 7, 1980.

In His Steps

When a homeless man interrupts the comfortable routine of First Church of Raymond, life will never be the same for the apathetic congregation. Convicted by the vagrant's words, Pastor Henry Maxwell, Rachel Winslow, Virginia Page, Alex Powers, and Jasper Chase are thrust into a journey of discovering what life is like beyond "Christianity as usual." But as they find themselves opposed by family strife, church politics, and scorned lovers, will they be able to keep their commitment, or will they be dragged back into fruitless lives?

George Strait: The Cowboy Rides Away

It was a concert fit for a king. Filmed live from his final show in Dallas, Texas, George Strait performs some of his most-loved hits and shares the stage with many famous friends. You'll love the reigning ACM and CMA entertainer of the year's duets with Jason Aldean, Kenny Chesney, Eric Church, Sheryl Crow, Vince Gill, Faith Hill, Alan Jackson, Miranda Lambert and Martina McBride. The special features new interviews with Strait, along with a selection of his incredible 60 No. 1 hits performed at the farewell tour, including "Fool Hearted Memory," "I Can Still Make Cheyenne," "Check Yes Or No" and "The Cowboy Rides Away."

California

"The war with Mexico serves to bring together American officer and Mexican senorita, the former all ardent and the latter defiant because of the fact that their countries are at war. Coincident with the American victory is the successful conquest by the 'gringo' of the girl's heart."

Homebound

A successful young man must return to his childhood small town in Texas to help his father. His father, who's ill, wants him to take over the family business, a dilapidated bar. Secretly the young man wants to burn down the bar because he blames it for the death of his own mother and the illness of his father.

Pink Tights

When a circus troupe comes to a small, extremely conservative New England town, the residents go to their minister to have him protest the scandalous fact that the female tightrope walker wears a pair of pink tights. When she has an accident and is forced to recuperate at the minister's house, he has to hide her in order to avoid even more of a scandal. Mazie Darton, a high-wire performer with a traveling circus, longs for a peaceful country life. Forced to stay in a small town while laid up with an injury, Darton is spurned by the conservative townspeople. Rev. Jonathon Meek, the local parson, befriends the circus troupe, especially Darton. But he, too, opens himself to criticism from his flock, who protest his closeness with the show people. Eventually, Darton's boyfriend arrives and the pair become closer. The parson fades from the scene as a possible mate for Darton, who ends up winning the hearts of the townspeople.

More custom members lists

Sort results by:

X close
Default
Clear filters
...