Best movies like The Bands Plays On

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A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like The Bands Plays On Starring Robert Young, Stuart Erwin, Ted Healy, Preston Foster, and more. If you liked The Bands Plays On then you may also like: Undefeated, Wildcats, Over the Goal, The Quarterback, Rise and Shine 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.

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Undefeated

Set against the backdrop of a high school football season, Dan Lindsay and T.J. Martin’s documentary UNDEFEATED is an intimate chronicle of three underprivileged student-athletes from inner-city Memphis and the volunteer coach trying to help them beat the odds on and off the field. For players and coaches alike, the season will be not only about winning games — it will be about how they grapple with the unforeseeable events that are part of football and part of life.

Wildcats

Molly is a high school track coach who knows just as much about football as anyone else on the planet. When a football coach's position becomes vacant, she applies for the job, despite snickers from fellow staff members and her former husband.

Over the Goal

The Carlton State star quarterback is wrongly thrown in jail, almost guaranteeing a major loss as well as costing the college a donation which would save the school from closing.

The Quarterback

Elmer Stone, quarterback of the 1899 Colton College football team vows to remain a student until Colton beats its biggest rival, State University. Twenty-seven years later, Elmer is still in school and is a classmate of his son, Jack. Other than driving a milk wagon in his spare time, Jack is also the quarterback of the football team. A matter of his eligibility comes up but he is cleared and goes out to do-or-die for Colton against State University. Maybe they will win The Big Game, and Jack's father can get a life...and a job.

Rise and Shine

The college president, the head cheerleader and a gambling gangster try to keep a flunking football star in the game

Rose Bowl

Paddy O'Riley and Ossie Merrill, Bellport high school football heroes, enroll in distant colleges; Paddy at a small school in the East, where he is barely a substitute, and Ossie at a powerhouse-football school, where he is an instant star and all-American candidate. They leave behind Cheers Reynolds, who is fond of Paddy, who works in her family's drugstore, but she loves Ossie almost as much as he loves himself. Paddy makes friends with team fullback Dutch Schultz, who accompanies him on vacation, and they arrive back in Bellport just as Ossie is also coming home on break. Florence Taylor is also in town on a film junket. Unknown to any of the others, Paddy and Florence had gone to high school together. Back at school and three years later, Paddy and Dutch learn that their football team could get invited to the coveted Rose Bowl to play against Ossie's team, if it could get enough publicity (pre-BCS days) that would attract a large crowd...

The Freshman

Harold Lamb is so excited about going to college that he has been working to earn spending money, practicing college yells, and learning a special way of introducing himself that he saw in a movie. When he arrives at Tate University, he soon becomes the target of practical jokes and ridicule. With the help of his one real friend Peggy, he resolves to make every possible effort to become popular.

The Gladiator

A man returns to college and is talked into joining he football team and is a real joke on the team, until he is given a drug that gives him super strength.

Little Giants

When Danny O'Shea's daughter is cut from the Peewee football team just for being a girl, he decides to form his own team, composed of other ragtag players who were also cut. Can his team really learn enough to beat the elite team, coached by his brother, a former pro player?

Division III: Football's Finest

This ensemble comedy follows the Pullham University Bluecocks, a small liberal arts college with a Division III football program (the lowest division in the NCAA). When the head coach unexpectedly dies, the future of the flailing football program is in jeopardy, as they have not had a winning season in decades. In a desperate attempt to create some media attention for the athletic program and the university, President Georgia Anne Whistler hires known lunatic and felon, Coach Rick Vice, for what could be the football programs final season.

Win That Girl

A gridiron rivalry between two colleges is entering its third generation, and the Norton family (father and grandfather were members of teams defeated by rival squads captained by members of the Brawn family) rears Johnny Norton, 3d, to be a star football player. The lad is underweight, however, and initially shows a talent only for drop kicking. During the big game, Johnny is substituted for another player and leads his team to victory, winning for himself the love of Gloria Havens.

Two Minutes to Play

Martin Granville Jr., a star track-and-field athlete, has intentions of going to Claxton College, but changes his mind when he meets Pat Meredith, a co-ed at a rival college, changes his mind team and goes to college there, just as his father Martin Granville Sr., an alum of the school, had wished. But his father has ordered him not to play football. "Dad" Granville, has offered a $100,000 endowment to his old school, not knowing his son has joined the football team, but is going to withdraw it if his son plays in the Big Game against Claxton.

The Spirit of Stanford

Columbia's Spirit of Stanford is built around the talents of a real-life college football star, in this instance all-American quarterback Frankie Albert.

Home Team

Two years after a Super Bowl win when NFL head coach Sean Payton is suspended, he goes back to his hometown and finds himself reconnecting with his 12-year-old son by coaching his Pop Warner football team.

Maker of Men

Bob plays football badly so his father Coach Dudley, his girlfriend Dorothy and his school reject him. He joins a rival college team and aims to defeat his dad's team.

Maybe It's Love

A very young Joan Bennett tops the cast as Nan Sheffield, the daughter of a college president. The nominal leading man is Tommy Nelson, the black-sheep son of a wealthy alumnus. Though Nelson is an ace football player, President Sheffield refuses to enroll the boy because of his bad reputation, whereupon Tommy's father withdraws his financial backing and bars his son from ever setting foot on Sheffield's campus. Falling in love with Nan, Tommy signs up with the college under an assumed name, giving up his wastrel ways to lead the football team to victory. Joe E. Brown steals the show as Speed Hanson, a goofy gridiron star who emits a loud and long yell whenever scoring a touchdown (this was, in fact, the first film in which Brown's famous "Yeeeeowww" was heard -- but certainly not the last).

Pigskin Parade

Bessie and Winston "Slug" Winters are married coaches whose mission is to whip their college football team into shape. Just in time, they discover a hillbilly farmhand and his sister. But the hillbilly farmhand's ability to throw melons enables him to become their star passing ace.

Safety

The story of Ray-Ray McElrathbey, a freshman football player for Clemson University, who secretly raised his younger brother on campus after his home life became too unsteady.

That's My Boy

Jack Jackson, the greatest football player in Ridgefield College history, is disappointed that his only son Junior is an uncoordinated, allergy-ridden bookworm. He uses his athletic reputation and standing as #1 alumni contributor to pressure the coach to take Junior onto the team. In addition, he pays the tuition of Junior's financially needy classmate Bill Baker, a potential all-American, with the understanding that he will room with Junior and mentor him athletically and socially. Junior's initial efforts as quarterback prove disastrous and further complications arise when the room mates both fall in love with the same co-ed.

The Time, the Place and the Girl

A musical comedy that follows the progress of a college All America football player whose swollen head is deflated when, after graduating , he takes a job as a Wall Street stock salesman. While poor at selling, he knows how to charm women and his boss has him concentrate his efforts on disposing of bad stock to gullible females, one of whom turns out to be the wife of his boss. The film is considered lost, with only its soundtrack remaining.

Father Was a Fullback

Coach George Copper's college football team is losing game after game, much to the dismay of stiff-and-stuffy but influential alumni Roger Jessup, and also having trouble at home with his oldest daughter, Connie. The team keeps losing and Coach Cooper is about to lose his job as his efforts to win the last game of the season, against the team's Big Rival, end in disaster. But, unknown to he and his wife, Elizabeth, Connie has sold an article, called "I Was a Bubble Dancer" to a 'True-Confession" magazine, and the girl-who-couldn't-get-a-date becomes suddenly popular and, because of her, the high-school football star from another town decides to play his college-ball for Coach Cooper. Jessup is forced to keep Cooper on as the school's football coach.

The Iron Major

William 'Frank' Cavanaugh is a top football coach who gave up his career to enter WWI where he became a hero. After the war he went back to coaching where he ended up having one of the best winning percentages in football history.

College Coach

Ruthless Coach Gore creates turmoil at a college by hiring players and alienating students. Along the way, the coach loses his wife Claire Gore to a grandstanding player. Inside look at college football of the 1930s replete with fake grades, non-student players, and the importance of football to a college's reputation.

One Minute to Play

"Red" Wade, a star high-school football player, has intentions of going to Claxton College, which has a powerhouse football team, but changes his mind when he meets the sister of the pitiful Paramlee team and goes to college there, just as his father, an alum of the school, had wished. But his father has ordered him not to play football. "Dad" Wade, has offered a $100,000 endowment to his old school, not knowing his son has joined the football team but is going to withdraw it if his son plays in the Big Game against Claxton. This puts "Red" between a rock and a hard place.

Smith of Minnesota

This biopic takes an in-depth look into the life of Minnesota All-American football player Bruce Smith. The story is framed by a screenwriter's interview with the famed halfback. In order to garner information, the scenarist is assigned to live with Smith. During the film, Smith shares his thoughts on football and anecdotes from his life.

Backfield in Motion

When Nancy and her teenage son move to Deerview, the small, old-fashioned community will never be the same. Nancy soon realizes she is the only woman in town who would rather crack a joke than an egg. But the town gets their biggest laugh when Nancy organizes a mother-son football game with the unathletic housewives.

Hold That Co-ed

An egotistical politician believes he can win votes by turning a small college's hapless football squad into a championship team.

Second String

American football coach Chuck Dichter has worked wonders with the Buffalo Bills, and is even confident to crown his career with a Super Bowl victory, but before the play-offs an oyster food-poisoning wipes out his first team for a month. Dan Heller, an insurance salesman and former college quarterback, who was hired -relactantly, but his wife twisted his arm- just for practice, now has to captain and train a bunch of rookies and old-timers against the hardest adversaries. Dichter decides to sign up triple Super Bowl-winner Tommy Baker in Dan's place...

Sweetheart of the Campus

Ruby Keeler teams with the Nelsons (of TV and radio fame) as the singer in Ozzie's band. The setting is a college campus which is suffering from monetary woes, but somehow Ozzie's band manages to attract enough attention to increase the enrollment and keep the school from having to shut down.

Sunny Skies

Story of a football hero whose temper and drinking threaten his spot on the team, and his romantic life. His naive comical roommate remains his steadfast supporter.

The Forward Pass

Marty Reid, the star quarterback at Sanford College, is constantly singled out by the opposition for punishment, and he swears to his pal, Honey Smith, and to Coach Wilson that he will quit the game forever. Ed Kirby, who dislikes Reid, calls him yellow, and Wilson gets Patricia Carlyle, the college vamp, to induce Reid to play. At a sorority dance, where only football players can cut in, Kirby persecutes Reid by dancing with Pat, and as a result Reid does apply to play in the game.

Fighting Youth

A radical campus group persuades student Carol Arlington to lead a protest of a college's football team. She manages to recruit Larry Davis, even though he is a star player for State's team.

Most Precious Thing in Life

An unwed mother watches as her illegitimate son is raised by others. Director Lambert Hillyer's 1934 drama stars Jean Arthur, Richard Cromwell, Donald Cook, Anita Louise, Jane Darwell, Mary Forbes and Ward Bond.

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