Best movies like Smart Alec

A wealthy mine owner's wife gets him to hire Jean Scholast, a footloose adventurer, as a reward for saving her. Unbeknown to the wife, Scholast is a fortune hunter and soon poisons the husband and marries the wife.

The operators of 'Silver Haven', a cultish group bilking gullible rich people out of money, is set to inherit a large sum after the deceased woman's heir also dies. Leader Joesph Jones decides to hurry the process along and kidnaps Wally Benton, his fiancé, and a friend, to further this goal. Wally, 'The Fox', is a radio sleuth who solves murders on the air. Jones wants him to devise a perfect murder, and isn't above killing others sloppily along the way to get his foolproof murder plot.

Mira Sacky (Bessie Barriscale) will inherit a fortune if she is able to come up with ten thousand dollars for lawyers' fees. Since she has no money of her own, the only way she can think of raising the funds is to marry someone wealthy. When she gets the attention of Michael Ordsay (Jack Holt), she quickly asks him to marry her. It seems to be a mismatch, so Mira obtains the needed money from his kindly father (Tom Guise), and heads for Rome, where she undergoes voice training and becomes an operatic star.

It all begins with the discreet romance between the Creole maid Lea Mariotte and her young boss, George Brissac, an amoral bourgeois who plans to inherit his uncle's fortune and marry a young woman from a good family. After an incident where she kills a man, she is saved from the gallows by Fabian, a ship's captain, who has personal reasons for antagonizing the Brissacs. He takes care of her and falls in love with her, but doesn't tell her. She, in turn, takes the opportunity to return to her lover Brissac's arms, forcing him to marry her after seeing him murder his uncle.

Edward "Teddy" Bare is a ruthless schemer who thinks he's hit the big time when he kills his older wife, believing he will inherit a fortune. When things don't go according to plan, Teddy sets his sights on a new victim: wealthy widow Freda Jeffries. Unfortunately for the unscrupulous criminal, Freda is much more guarded and sassy than his last wife, making separating her from her money considerably more challenging.

Upon her release from a mental institution where she was recovering from a suicide attempt, Andrea McBride applies for the position of nanny for a handsome, wealthy surgeon, Dr. James Lewis, a widower with two children. Another applicant is hired, but she dies in an accident and Andrea gets the job after all, excelling and quickly becoming part of the family. Then Lewis' girlfriend, Dr. Julia Bruning, is mysteriously killed. When his boss tells Lewis of impending cutbacks at the hospital, the boss is murdered. Meanwhile, Lewis' teenaged daughter Fawn begins piecing together the history of the new nanny and discovers that Andrea may be responsible for these and other killings - but Fawn had better hurry, because the slayings are getting closer to home

Carrie Remington seems like any other struggling waitress who's had a run of bad luck including a recent divorce. Things seem to be improving when she moves in with Ashley Dunnfield, a young woman from a wealthy background who's trying to make it on her own without assistance from her father, Richard. Ashley is thrilled when Carrie helps to win her father over, but when Carrie starts dating Richard, Ashley starts digging into her past and finds out that there is much she didn't know about her new roommate's sinister history.

Millionaire industrialist Steven Taylor is a man who has everything but what he craves most: the love and fidelity of his wife. A hugely successful player in the New York financial world, he considers her to be his most treasured acquisition. But she needs more than simply the role of dazzling accessory.

Princess Triloff, an emigrée from Czarist Russia, escapes to America where she becomes a patron of the arts. She falls in love with the verses of impoverished poet Owen Carey and becomes his anonymous benefactor. When Owen inherits a fortune from his rich Uncle Krakerfeller, he assumes his uncle's identity and confers his own upon an impoverished friend, Frank Manners. At a resort, Owen meets the princess and falls in love with her, but is chagrined to discover that she is enamored with Manners. The princess finally discovers Owen's real identity and the two fall in love.

Victoria Vickers, a little East End Cockney girl, is left a vast fortune by an uncle in America. She is finally discovered hop-picking in Kent by her solicitor, who has given up the search and gone off on a photographic holiday instead! The conditions of the legacy are that she must spend three years learning to be a lady before she inherits absolutely. 'Vicky' does her best, but she is not happy in high society. Meanwhile her old East End beau Bert accepts a loan from her in order to 'better himself' and starts a highly-successful fish-and-chip shop business. He takes elocution lessons and buys gentleman's clothes in the hopes of aspiring to her hand. But Vicky, who thinks he has deserted her now she is a fine lady, is lonely enough to accept an offer of marriage from her guardian's spendthrift son, and when Bert reads of the engagement in the newspapers he abandons London and goes down to live in Kent where they were once happy together.

A boy from the country inherits $10 million, and decides to go to New York City to live it up.

Rev. John Morton, who is determined to follow as closely as possible the teachings of Jesus, inherits a considerable fortune when his uncle dies. Shortly thereafter he succumbs to the wiles of Mary Carlson and marries her. To Mary's dismay, John uses his money for charitable work. When John learns that not only has Mary been unfaithful to him but she was also his uncle's mistress and became Mrs. Morton in order to share the inheritance she believed to be rightfully hers, he sends her away with his secretary.

Marshovia, a small European kingdom, is on the brink of bankruptcy but the country may be saved if the wealthy American Crystal Radek, widow of a Marshovian, can be convinced to part with her money and marry the king's nephew count Danilo. Arriving to Marshovia on a visit, Crystal Radek change places with her secretary Kitty. Following them to Paris, Danilo has a hard time wooing the widow after meeting an attractive young woman at a nightclub, the same Crystal Radek who presents herself as Fifi the chorus girl. Plot by Mattias Thuresson.

Oliver stands to inherit a large fortune from his rich Uncle Bernal, with the condition that he be happily married. But when Mrs. Hardy walks out just before Uncle Bernal is due for a visit, Stanley is pressed into duty (and into drag) to impersonate Oliver's loving spouse.

Walsingham Van Dorn has a fancy name but no money until he inherits 40 million dollars from a pair of wealthy, but wicked, uncles.

A 12-year-old orphan who has just inherited a fortune is trapped on an island with his uncle, a former British intelligence commander who intends to kill him. A young girl is the boy's only ally against the sarcastic uncle, who uses hypnotism, a pool of sharks, fire, and poisonous mushrooms as weapons.

George McAllister (John Carroll), the black sheep of a wealthy family who has squandered his share of the family inheritance, lives in constant jealousy, hatred and resentment of his half-brother Barry (Robert Paige), who has been supporting him. George gets his girlfriend, Carlotta Duval (Vera Ralston), a job as Barry's nurse, with the idea being to marry him, kill him, and inherit his money—and marrying George. But instead of going ahead with the original plan, she finds that she is really in love with Barry.

Paul Gregory (William Sylvester) is an accomplished composer despite his blindness, and his beautiful wife Anne (Barbara Shelley) seems to be the perfect supporting wife. But unknown to Paul, she is having a passionate affair with Ricky (Alexander Davion), a struggling artist. Keen to support her artist lover and give them more time to make love, she persuades Paul to commission Ricky to paint her portrait. But Paul senses their affection for each other, and threatens to cut Anne off without a penny. Desperate to keep both her lover and Paul s money, Anne plots the perfect murder and asks Ricky to carry it out...

Vernon Praiseworthy is a clumsy but lovable dope who stands to inherit his uncle's fortune. The condition is that he travel the rails as a penniless hobo just as his uncle did in the dark days of the depression. That seems simple enough until he gets involved in a dog-napping plot. Written by Jerry Roberts

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.”

As his mother’s illness progresses, a wealthy young man hires a perfect caregiver. But their lives start to spiral into a deadly affair as the caregiver seemingly tries to make herself a permanent facet of the wealthy family.

Christina, the daughter of a Greek-immigrant family who does not share their belief that a woman's place is with her husband at the fireside, is a trick-shot artist. With her Uncle Jim, a strolling troubadour, and his sidekick Andy, a mandolin player, heads west to make her fortune.

Patricia Woodhouse has been estranged from her sister for quite a few years due to a family feud. Suddenly she receives a letter detailing the sudden death of her sister Susanna Baylock, Patricia returns to pay her respect where she meets Annabel Blair (Susanna's help). Annabel informs Patricia that she has now inherited the Baylock residence, but something isn't right with this house it's harbouring a very old secret, one which Patricia needs to learn before it's too late.

After inheriting a magical gold watch from his multimillionaire uncle's estate, Robert Hays and his girlfriend, Pam Dawber, soon discover not only that he can stop time with the watch, but also that it holds the secret to his late uncle's fortune -- a secret that others fall over themselves trying to steal.

A woman inherits a fortune, causing her husband and his lover to plot her demise by poisoning her. The only trouble is it only places her in a deep coma that resembles death. When an accident occurs in the embalmer's office he doesn't complete the embalming process, causing her to be buried alive. Awakening from the grave, she claws her way out and seeks revenge against the two who caused her supposed demise

The Woods family gathers at a cabin resort to hear the last will and testament of their wealthy patriarch George Woods ten years after his death. All vying for the much-anticipated Woods' fortune, the players include his greedy sister and her grandson, an eccentric niece and two ambitious nephews, his mistress, and his missing daughter's husband with their amnesiac granddaughter. Before the players can stake their claim to the family fortune, each must survive the family attorney's investigation into the mysterious disappearance of Woods' adopted daughter Mona. Why did Mona suddenly run away before the death of Woods? Will she show up to claim her fortune, or was her disappearance the result of a conspiracy? As the story unfolds, family members turn on each other and murder is the weapon of choice to reveal a dark secret.

A nurse is hired to take care of a mean, cantankerous woman. It turns out that the nurse and her boyfriend are after the woman's fortune. When the woman turns up dead in a bathtub full of blood the couple begin to search for the money, but they soon begin to suspect that the woman isn't really dead - or her ghost has come back to avenge her.

A young American girl visits Paris accompanied by her fiancee and her wealthy uncle. There she meets and is romanced by a worldly novelist; what she doesn't know is that he is a blackmailer who is using her to get to her uncle.

Burglar Nat Harbin and his two associates set their sights on wealthy spiritualist Sister Sarah, who has inherited a fortune -- including a renowned emerald necklace -- from a Philadelphia financier. Using Nat's female ward, Gladden, to pose as an admirer and case the mansion where the woman lives, they set up a perfect break-in. Things get complicated afterwards.

Geoffrey is desperately in love with Mavis, who lives at his boardinghouse and is also pursuing a writing career. Unable to marry her because of his poverty, in his anger he curses God for abandoning him. Soon Geoffrey meets Prince Lucio de Rimanez, a wealthy, urbane gentleman who informs Geoffrey that he has inherited a fortune, but that he must place himself in the Prince's hands in order to enjoy the fruits of his inheritance. What Geoffrey doesn't know is that Prince Lucio is actually Satan.

A boy's father is an unjustly accused fugitive, and the boy's scheming uncle plots to become the youngster's guardian and take over the family fortune.

The only key to a young woman's fortune lies in a marking on the leg of a horse called The Ghost of the Gauchos. But the woman's guardian, her uncle, plots to steal her wealth.

Struggling artist finds a century old diary and along with the diary comes the ghost of a girl with unfinished business in the mortal world.

When her father, an indigent artist, dies, Sylvia Lacey goes to live with her Aunt Martha and her uncle, Judge Trent, in New England, where she is unwanted and humiliated. Though she and John Dunham, her uncle's young law partner, fall in love, she believes he intends to marry the daughter of a wealthy neighbor.

Steve Porter, a young American bachelor and fully intending to remain as such, inherits a fortune but must get married in order to claim it.