Best movies like Sham

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.

"The Unknown" was the final entry in Columbia’s I Love A Mystery series. A woman hires two detectives to keep her alive long enough to claim her inheritance.

Film adaptation from the novel by D.H. Lawrence, discovered after the celebrated author's death in 1930, a romantic love story tells of a prim young English girl who is sexually attracted to a seductively virile gypsy. The climatic dam burst is linked with the consummation of her desire.

Snooty heiress decides to track down her dead sister's kids, who are living a Bohemian life with their uncle in Greenwich Village. Once she finds them, she discovers that the Bohemian life is fun and free of the constraints her country-club life places on her. But she decides to take the uncle to court anyway to free him from the kids so he can paint.

Despite loving another man, a young woman is talked into marrying a wealthy and boorish prince in order to help her financially-strapped father.

Three castaways all from differing levels of society reach and board a deserted schooner in mid-ocean.

Born and raised in poverty, Marguerite Clark has learned to expect very little out of life and thus is rather surprised to learn that she is the niece of a wealthy financier. Alas, this puts a crimp in her romance with a handsome young architect, who has long despised the financier for causing the downfall of the architect's father.

Jane Eyre is an orphan who was raised by her aunt until she came to Thornfield Hall as governess to the young ward of Edward Rochester. But Jane is attracted by the intelligent and energetic Sir Rochester, a man of almost twice her age. But just when Sir Rochester seems to pay attention to her, he invites the beautiful and wealthy Blanche Ingram to stay at his house.

Constellation chronicles the lives and loves of an African-American family in the deep South as they are forced to come to terms with a tumultuous past marked by an unrequited interracial affair. The film explores the way in which the family patriarch must confront his demons amidst the changing racial fabric of society and his own family.

Wealthy Jervis Pendleton acts as benefactor for orphan Judy Abbott, anonymously sponsoring her in her boarding school. But as she grows up, he finds himself falling in love with her, and she with him, though she does not know that the man she has fallen for is her benefactor.

The Dashwood sisters, sensible Elinor and passionate Marianne, whose chances at marriage seem doomed by their family's sudden loss of fortune. When Henry Dashwood dies unexpectedly, his estate must pass on by law to his son from his first marriage, John and wife Fanny. But these circumstances leave Mr. Dashwood's current wife, and daughters Elinor, Marianne and Margaret, without a home and with barely enough money to live on. As Elinor and Marianne struggle to find romantic fulfillment in a society obsessed with financial and social status, they must learn to mix sense with sensibility in their dealings with both money and men.

An unhappy, self-centered woman runs off with her sister's husband, wreaking havoc and ruining the lives of those around her.

In Mansfield Park, poverty-stricken Fanny Price is sent away to live with her wealthy uncle and aunt at Mansfield Park. As she struggles to adapt to her new lifestyle she begins to attract the attentions of suitors, learning about the sexual politics of high society along the way.

A mother starts to get worried when she finds out that some wealthy friends have been invited to dinner with her somewhat screwball family.

A hard-boiled nightclub owner saves a beautiful young girl from drowning. He promptly falls in love with her, but she prefers a younger, more-genteel lover.

Annie, left orphaned after the death of her mother, goes to live in an orphanage where she tells her fellow orphans stories of ghosts and goblins. The matron of the orphanage finds Annie's closest relative, the abusive Uncle Thomp. Her uncle who puts her to hard work doing hard labor on his farm, belittling her all the while. Big Dave, a neighbor and tough cow-poke sees this and comes to her aid. Dave becomes her protector. Eventually Annie goes to live with Squire Goode and his large family. There, she entertains the children of the household with her stories, but sees her abusive aunt and uncle as her chief tormentors. She tells stories of how the goblins will take away the children if they are not good. Each story she tells is illustrated. War breaks out and Dave, who Annie adores, enlists. Uncle Thomp, hearing that Dave has been killed in action, takes pleasure in telling Annie the news. Broken-hearted, Annie falls ill and dies in bed, surrounded by family.

Tells the true story of Gwen Terasaki, who falls in love with, then marries a Japanese diplomat. When war breaks out they find animosity and trouble from both sides.

Classes clash when a poor riveter and wealthy society woman fall in love with each other, much to the shock of her friends and family.

The story of three sisters and the men they marry: one is happily married but childless, the second promiscuously escapes an unhappy, loveless marriage, and the third is tortured by the mental cruelties inflicted by a domineering husband.

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...

Franklyn Starr, a talented and wealthy young musician, suffers a double misfortune in the sudden loss of his hearing and in the death of his Mother to whom he is deeply attached. He loses his generous, joyous nature and transforms into a gloomy and despondent misanthrope.

A wealthy London nobleman hires a pretty but poor young girl to distract his playboy son from marrying a golddigger. Complications ensue when the girl and the father begin to fall for each other, and things get even more complicated when the son declares his love for her, too.

"The County Fair" begins with a nasty rich guy threatening to turn an old lady onto the street--unless her niece (who lives with her) marries this man's son. While she's dead set against it, the niece is a sweet thing and would do anything to help her aunt--even marry the rich jerk. However, a possible way out is presented. When a poor young man is taken in and fed, he turns out (naturally) to be a jockey and thinks he can win the $3000 prize at the fair and save the farm.

Christabel Caine has the face of angel and the heart of a swamp rat. She'll step on anyone to get what she wants, including her own family. A master of manipulation, she covertly breaks off the engagement of her trusting cousin, Donna, to her fabulously wealthy beau, Curtis Carey. Once married to Curtis herself, Christabel continues her affair with novelist Nick Bradley, who knows she's evil, but loves her anyway.

Bank clerk William Marble is desperate for money to pay his family's bills. When his wealthy nephew visits, Marble asks him for a loan, but the young man refuses. Marble decides to kill his nephew. It is a twisted path to justice after Marble is transformed by the crime he committed and the wealth he gains.

The Devil Never Sleeps is a “whodunit” documentary about family secrets. Filmmaker Lourdes Portillo received a phone call informing her of the mysterious death of her wealthy Mexican uncle Oscar. Officially ruled a suicide, Portillo’s relatives claimed murder, offering several possible suspects including a business partner, a ranch hand, and Oscar’s young widow who stood to inherit everything. Traveling to Mexico, Portillo attempts to learn the truth about her powerful uncle. Using interviews, old snapshots and home movies, she finds a complicated web of family secrets, intrigue, rumor and betrayal that makes her enigmatic uncle’s murder seem ever more likely, yet ever more obscure. As the Mexican saying goes, “When evil is lurking, the devil never sleeps.”

Angry, because he is making too many headlines with his gang-busting activities, the police chief transfers Lt. Lewis Nagel to the sleepy suburban town of Fairview, where he is followed by reporter Steve Withers because he knows Nagel will find a story.

Attorney Joshua Scranton hires "Budge" Edwards and Larry Donovan, who has just bought into Edwards' detective agency, to protect Estelle Hudson, a client of his who is to inherit three-million dollars the next Thursday. He tells them he has reason to believe the girl is in danger from five relatives who stand to benefit from her death.

A grandmother's will leaves her fortune to a few, mostly to her great-niece Ann. Ann will only receive her inheritance once she marries, with the approval of three of her stuffed-shirt relatives and without scandal. Otherwise the estate goes to the cat and dog hospital. Ann, not needing the money, rebels by seeking scandal with a gigolo.

Gemma, a big city architect, must fly to the Hawaii in order to handle the estate of her late Aunt. At her Aunt's request, she must first renovate the house. Ben, a handsome country-boy contractor helps her revive the home and in the process revitalizes Gemma.

Sally, a girl of the tenements, is being raised by three bachelor foster-fathers, a pawnbroker, an organ-grinder and a peddler, and is very happy preparing their meals and keeping the house, while the old men bask in the attention she gives them. However, this happy home is broken up when Sally wealthy aunt appears on the scene and takes Sally back to her luxurious penthouse in order to give her the advantages of money and social position. But Sally's heart is back across the river with her plumber sweetheart, Jimmie Adams.

“Lies in Plain Sight” tells the story of Eva and her blind cousin Sofia (Martha Higareda), who were inseparable as children, with Eva the loyal companion who helped Sofia through her tough adolescent years. When Eva suddenly commits suicide, Sofia rushes home to her father, Hector (Benito Martinez), and Eva’s parents, Marisol (Rosie Perez) and Rafael (Yul Vásquez), to find answers. But the more she delves into Eva’s life, questioning her past boyfriends Ethan (Chad Michael Murray) and Christian (Christoph Sanders), the more Sofia realizes that their childhood was actually filled with dark, disturbing secrets.

Marie Devere and Helen Gray are two sophisticated, gold-digging chorus girls on the look-out to marry a rich man, who measure the men they meet by their Bradshaw ratings. They befriend Lettie Crain, a country girl who comes near being deceived by Bartley Mortimer, a rich playboy. She is saved by another girl, Cynthia Kane, whose life Mortimer has ruined, and Lettie finds happiness with Bob Garrett, a poor but honest working man.

Ellen, a young American girl who married a European prince and moved to his country, is preparing to return to the US, after having paid off all the debts left by her now-deceased husband. However, when she returns early, no one recognizes her and even her aunt Kate mistakes her for the princess' dressmaker. Her ex-boyfriend Joe, who recognizes her immediately, suggests that Ellen continue with the charade and have some fun, but a series of misunderstandings causes trouble for her.

Wealthy playboy Grant Van Gore means to have his way with his beautiful maid, the innocent Hattie Lou. He swears his love to the naive girl, and in an act so heinous as to defy belief, has the captain of his yacht perform a fake marriage ceremony. He ruins poor Hattie Lou, and then abandons her ashore the very next morning. A year later, the destitute girl and her starving baby are wandering the streets. When she sees a newspaper headline announcing that Grant has drowned at sea, Hattie Lou hatches a desperate plan for survival. She will present herself to the wealthy Van Gore's, who cannot fail to provide for their late son's widow and child!