Best movies like Side Show
A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Side Show Starring Winnie Lightner, Charles Butterworth, Guy Kibbee, Evalyn Knapp, and more. If you liked Side Show then you may also like: Zoo in Budapest, Vivacious Lady, Water for Elephants, Wonderland, Napoleon and Samantha 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.
A circus side show performer tries to discourage her younger sister from following in her footsteps.
Side Show
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Vivacious Lady
College town life gets turned upside down after a button-down botany professor secretly weds a sizzling night-club singer.
Water for Elephants
In this captivating Depression-era melodrama, impetuous veterinary student Jacob Jankowski joins a celebrated circus as an animal caretaker but faces a wrenching dilemma when he's transfixed by angelic married performer Marlena.
Wonderland
There's little wonder in the working-class lives of Bill, Eileen, and their three grown daughters. They're lonely Londoners. Nadia, a cafe waitress, places personal ads, looking for love; Debbie, a single mom, entertains men at the hair salon after hours; her son spends part of the weekend with her ex, a man with a hair-trigger temper. Molly is expecting her first baby and its father acts as if the responsibility is too much for him.
Napoleon and Samantha
Two young children, who, rather than part with an old pet lion who was once a circus performer, go on a perilous mountain trek to stay with a recluse friend.
O'Shaughnessy's Boy
A circus wild animal trainer searches for the son who was taken away from him by a meddling relative years earlier.
Jinx
The circus comes to town, and the town's orphans are treated to a day at the circus. The circus troupe's 'Jinx' girl causes so many problems for the performers and performances that, to escape punishment, she has to run away. She mingles with the orphans and runs away to join an orphanage.
At the Circus
Jeff Wilson, the owner of a small circus, owes his partner Carter $10,000. Before Jeff can pay, Carter lets his accomplices steal the money, so he can take over the circus. Antonio Pirelli and Punchy, who work at the circus, together with lawyer Loophole try to find the thief and get the money back.
Big Top Pee-wee
Paul Reubens stars as Pee-wee Herman in his second full-length film about a farmer who joins the circus after a storm drops a big tent in his front yard. Pee-wee, along with an outlandish cast of animals and circus performers, puts on the best show ever.
The Birthday Party
Mickey's friends throw him a surprise birthday party at Minnie's house. The chef brings out the cake (with 2 candles); Mickey manages to blow all the cake onto the chef's face, while the candles stay lit. He unwraps his present: a miniature piano. He plays a duet of I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby with Minnie, followed by an instrumental version of The Darktown Strutter's Ball, which everyone dances to (including Mickey and Minnie, while the piano stools keep playing). Mickey then plays There's No Place Like Home on the xylophone, then accompanies Minnie on another piece, after which the xylophone gets frisky and eventually dumps Mickey in the fish bowl.
Carousel
Billy Bigelow has been dead for 15 years. Now outside the pearly gates, he long ago waived his right to go back to Earth for a day. He has heard that there is a problem with his family: namely with his wife Julie Bigelow, née Jordan, and his child he hasn't met. He would now like to head back to Earth to assist in rectifying the problem; but before he may go, he has to get permission from the gatekeeper by telling him his story. Adapted from the Rodgers and Hammerstein hit Broadway musical.
Fallen Hearts
Heaven is now happily married and ready to settle back in her hometown. But after a trip to Farthinggale Manor, Heaven is persuaded to stay. Lured by her grandfather to live amidst the wealthy and privileged Heaven seems to have it all until the ghosts of her past rise up once more, threatening her precious new life.
Sister Cities
Based on the internationally-acclaimed play by Colette Freedman, the story of 4 estranged sisters who reunite for their mother’s alleged suicide.
The Circus
Charlie, a wandering tramp, becomes a circus handyman - soon the star of the show - and falls in love with the circus owner's stepdaughter.
He Who Gets Slapped
Story of an inventor who, suffering betrayal in life, makes a career of it by becoming a clown whose act consists of getting slapped by all the other clowns. He falls in love with another circus performer, and those who betrayed him enter his life yet again.
Billy Rose's Jumbo
The daughter of a circus owner fights to save her father from a takeover spearheaded by the man she loves.
Laugh, Clown, Laugh
A despairing clown suffering a broken heart and a self-indulgent count who uncontrollably laughs learn to help each other with their problems, but both fall in love with the same young woman.
Donovan's Reef
After her great aunt's death, a high-society woman arrives on a Hawaiian island in search of the heir - the father she has never met.
The Greatest Show on Earth
To ensure a full profitable season, circus manager Brad Braden engages The Great Sebastian, though this moves his girlfriend Holly from her hard-won center trapeze spot. Holly and Sebastian begin a dangerous one-upmanship duel in the ring, while he pursues her on the ground.
Gypsy
Ambitious stage mother Rose Hovick wants desperately for her daughter, June, to become the vaudeville star she never was. With the help of savvy but kind-hearted agent Herbie Sommers, Rose realizes her aspirations for June, but when her new star rebelliously elopes, June's shy sister, Louise, reluctantly steps into the spotlight, transforming herself into the legendary burlesque star Gypsy Rose Lee.
Lady of the Night
The story of two baby girls, born near in proximity but worlds apart in society: Molly Helmer, the daughter of a thief, and Florence Banning, the daughter of the judge who sent Molly's father to prison. The girls' lives come together as they reach the age of eighteen, when Florence leaves the security of the exclusive Girls Select School, and Molly, now orphaned, begins her life after reform school.
Merry Andrew
When eccentric English teacher Andrew Larabee needs a raise in order for his fiancée to marry him, his interest in archaeology leads him to an ancient statue's burial site. But when he finds a traveling circus directly above the statue's location, he accidentally becomes part of the act. With a newfound passion for performance and an attraction to the beautiful acrobat Selena, Andrew must decide what is truly important to him.
Paid in Full
Two sisters fall in love with the same man. After the wedding, the new husband realizes he may have married the wrong sister.
Tweety's Circus
Sylvester Cat pays a visit to a closed-to-business circus and finds Tweety Bird in one of the cages. Tweety escapes and a mad chase ensues. Meanwhile, Sylvester must flee from an uncaged lion he angered earlier.
Circus Shadows
A phoney "psychic" ring tricks a pretty young circus performer into working for them.
Here Come the Waves
Show business twin sisters Rosemary and Susie, one serious and the other a scatterbrain, join the WAVES and both fall in love with crooner Johnny Cabot.
Sophie & Sheba
Growing up at a zoo, young ballet dancer Sophie always loved animals - but none as much as her pet elephant Sheba. When her parents are forced to sell Sheba to a travelling circus, Sophie has no choice but to runaway and join him on the road to get him back.
Murder in the Private Car
Ruth Raymond works on the telephone switchboard of a large NYC office building. One day, a private detective informs her that she is actually the daughter of railroad tycoon Luke Carson, and that she had been kidnapped as a baby 14 years ago by Luke's vindictive brother Elwood, and placed with strangers.
The Big Circus
A circus owner tries to keep his financially troubled circus on the road, despite the efforts of a murderous saboteur who has decided that the show must not go on.
A Ghost in Monte Carlo
A chance meeting between British nobleman and lovely young Mistral foils a plot by her manipulating Aunt Emilie to avenge the death of her sister, Mistral's mother, who died in childbirth. But when an unscrupulous blackmailer and a rapacious Rajah enter the plot, the growing attraction between Lord and convent girl becomes yet more fraught with Danger.
Ava's Magical Adventure
Eddie is a 10-year-old girl who runs away from home with her best friend Ava, a 2-ton circus elephant. They are pursued by everyone from the police to the circus' owner
Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise)
A young woman runs away from an abusive home and pre-arranged marriage only to be frustrated in her attempts to find happiness with a handsome engineer.
Fixer Dugan
Charlie Dugan is a quick-thinking boss of a traveling circus playing small towns in Missouri and Kansas.
What Every Woman Knows
Aspiring young Scottish politician John Shand enters into an unusual agreement with the wealthy Wylie family -- if they fund his education, he must marry their daughter, Maggie. Staying true to his word, John weds Maggie and begins a successful career, thanks largely to his savvy wife. The couple's relationship is placed in jeopardy when John faces temptation in the form of the lovely aristocrat Lady Sybil Tenterden.
King of the Jungle
A white youth raised in the jungle by animals is captured by a safari and brought back to civilization as an attraction in a circus.
The Circus Queen Murder
Suave, lip-reading DA Thatcher Colt plans to get away from the big city for a while. So he and his secretary, Miss Kelly hop on a train for an Upstate NY town called Gilead. They expect a calm oasis, but when a small time circus rolls into town they soon find themselves caught up in a sordid tale of marital infidelity, murder, cruelty to animals, and cannibalism.
The Boy Who Stole the Elephant
A frontier huckster, Colonel Ryder, and a young orphan, Davey, operate a travelling tent show. They are loaned an elephant by an old friend, Molly, who is also a rival circus owner. Davey trains the elephant and the two soon become inseparable. When the Colonel loses the elephant in gambling, Davey steals the elephant and begins a 20-mile search for Molly, the rightful owner.
The Dolly Sisters
Two sisters from Hungary become famous entertainers in the early 1900s. Fictionalized biography with lots of songs.
The Return Of Peter Grimm
The ghost of a recently deceased family patriarch tries to help his surviving relatives, in part by preventing a marriage that he knows will go wrong.
Tomorrow, the World!
German boy Emil comes to live with his American uncle who tries to teach the former Hitler Youth to reject Nazism.
Chad Hanna
Country boy joins a circus in the 1840s and falls in love with the bare-back rider. Later he falls in love with another circus runaway.
The Main Attraction
An affable drifter on the lam for a murder he didn't commit hides out in a circus.
I'm from the City
Pete Pepper is a shy, timid circus performer who is scared to death of horses, but rides like a whirlwind when he has been hypnotized by "Ollie" Finch. Pete is entered as a competitor in a wild-west cross-country obstacle race...and has to ride without being hypnotized.
Frozen Fever
On Anna's birthday, Elsa and Kristoff are determined to give her the best celebration ever, but Elsa's icy powers may put more than just the party at risk.
Zoo in Budapest
Zani is an unusual young man who has spent his entire life in a zoo in Budapest. His only true friends are the zoo's animals. When Zani meets Eve, a young orphan girl, they fall in love. To be together Eve must somehow escape from her strict orphan school. When she does she and Zani must hide overnight in the zoo - where everyone is looking to find them.