Best movies like The Black Stuff

When ship's fireman Peter McCabe walks out on his long-suffering wife, he leaves her impoverished, with two young daughters and a boy born soon after his departure. After an absence of fourteen years McCabe returns, sacked and humiliated, trailing trouble in his wake.

The role of African Americans in the recovery years of the Great Depression is the subject of this informational short, which offers an idealized depiction of life in a segregated society. The highlight, by far, is rare footage of Orson Welles’s “Voodoo Macbeth,” produced in 1935 for the New York Negro Unit of the WPA’s Federal Theatre Project.

The gold mine belonging to "Gun" Barlow is worked out, and Barlow attempts to buy adjacent land, with the hopes his gold vein will continue, from town postmistress Marion Saunders who, keeping a vow she made to her father on his death-bed, refuses.

Tricked into joining the RAF by a wily judge, wide boy Horace Pope sets his sights on the main chance, teams with slow-witted, good-hearted gypsy Pedlar Pascoe, and works up a lucrative racket in conning both his colleagues and the RAF. By means of various devious schemes Pope and Pascoe manage to avoid the front lines until they are sent to France - where they find themselves making unexpected and uncomfortably close contact with the enemy.

A gang of criminals plan to use a marriage agency that they won during a card game, to arrange a lucrative marriage for one of their number.

A shrewd millionaire who owns races horses for publicity for his automobile business, claims ownership of a female horse trainer's thoroughbred in order to get the trainer.

The gang is trying just about anything to pass the time during their summer vacation. As usual, Mickey and Jack are trying to win the affections of Mary. In the interim, the village blacksmith, "Dad" Anderson, receives a lucrative contract to produce a creation of his: a sail-propelled scooter. The gang is lucky enough to get a hold of a few of these scooters, and happily sail down the city streets.

In 1950, a group of unlikely criminal masterminds commits the robbery of the century. Led by Tony Pino, a petty thief fresh out of prison, and Joe McGinnis, who specializes in planning lucrative capers, the gang robs Brink's main office in Boston of more than $2 million. However, things begin to go awry when the FBI gets involved, the cops start cracking down on the gang and McGinnis refuses to hand over the loot...

Mamie Van Doren plays Samantha, a hard working modern woman who, because of a chance encounter with senatorial candidate Frank Carlton (Ted Knight), is offered a job by conniving campaign runner Eric (Buddy Parker) aiming to work for the prospective senator. She agrees and we are then shown the complicated way various relationships shape the campaign and how it all falls apart.

A spiritual journey into the highlands of Harar, immersed in the rituals of khat, a leaf Sufi Muslims chewed for centuries for religious meditations – and Ethiopia’s most lucrative cash crop today. A tapestry of intimate stories offers a window into the dreams of youth under a repressive regime.

Gypsy Carmen drives men wild in 1820s Spain, especially the dragoon Don Jose.

In order to secure a lucrative contract, a businessman hires a woman to pose as his wife at a business dinner when his own wife can't make it. Unfortunately, the woman he hires is the wife of an insanely jealous prizefighter.

The MacIver brothers (Michael Redgrave, Griffith Jones) build the first ship to cross the Atlantic by steam power alone.

A successful New York architect with a beautiful wife and an adoring young son is forced to reevaluate his outwardly idyllic life after a chance meeting with an urban designer reveals the cracks in the foundation of his paradise.

A fiesty, sexy and manipulative gypsy disrupts the lives of a conservative farm family.

A seasoned professional killer is finally offered the big cash score that has always eluded him, but there's a catch. He and five other rival criminals must work together to complete a series of jobs dictated by a mysterious and anonymous employer. It quickly leads to numerous set-ups, double crosses and wild car chases.

A priest relates the tale of his friend, a WWI veteran, to the Post-War Planning Committee. Unable to get a job upon his return from the war, he puts off his marriage and works for a bootlegger. He is forced to take a rap for his boss, goes to prison, and forms a gang.

The story of the infamous Purple Gang - a ring of bootleggers, hijackers and killers in 1920's Detroit.

Tony, the new kid at school, befriends gang leader Young, whose top rival is Chan. When Young defeats Chan in battle, two mysterious men offer Tony and Young jobs at a security agency, with one of their new clients being among the city's most notorious drug dealers.

"Side Show" Saunders gains the respect of shopowner Holly Farrell and the townsfolk when he gives up entertaining with his trick horse and dog and goes to work in the general store.

In San Francisco, Sylvia Douglas and her fiancée, James Callahan, a reformed crook, make their getaway after Jim, disgusted with his inability to find a job, un-reforms and steals a diamond necklace. Graham, a detective, gives chase to a desolate island in the South Pacific where a rum-running gangster, Murdock, holds him captive. Callahan becomes infatuated with a native girl, Leona, and Sylvia turns to Graham for protection against the offensive Murdock. A volcano eruption causes problems for all.

After leaving the British Secret Service, David Somers (played by Trevor Howard) finds work cataloging butterflies at the country house of Nicholas and Jess Fenton. After the murder of a local gamekeeper, suspicion (wrongfully) falls on their niece, Sophie Malraux (Jean Simmons). Somers helps Sophie to escape arrest and they go on the run together. After a cross-country chase they arrive at a coastal city with the intention of leaving the country by ship. All's well that ends well after the true identity of the murderer is revealed.

A local bakery is rumored to have the secret recipe to finding true love on Feb. 14, drawing in a TV reporter to investigate.

When a holiday rom-com movie shooting in her town needs a costume designer, Kerry, a local shop owner, steps into the role. While working on the movie, she rediscovers her passion for costume design and finds herself falling for Brad, the film’s famous leading man.

Gibbs is a laborer at the docks who, through his hard work and good judgment, becomes a millionaire on Wall Street. He becomes acquainted with the Van Dusens, who have lost their fortune. Mrs. Van Dusen pushes her daughter Marie into a loveless marriage with Gibbs so that the family can retain its social standing. Gibbs realizes, however, that his money cannot buy his wife's affection.

Hoping to raise enough capital to finance a legitimate business and leave behind his life of crime, Liverpool underworld boss Ged Brennan sends his brother Ratter and a crew to pull a daring final heist. But when Ratter kills a drug kingpin during the job, Brennan must turn to rival crook Franner to avert an all-out gangland war.

When a talented chef returns to her Texas hometown, she winds up entering the town's famous BBQ cook off and gets more than she bargained for when the surprise judge turns out to be her high school love.

A disgraced ex special forces agent turns to a demon that offers him a job as a soul hunter. Chaos ensues when a former associate goes on a killing spree with the soul hunter as his main target.

A wealthy drug lord offers $2-million to anyone who can spring his son "Lenny" from prison. A jail break is attempted...and botched...as Lenny works on a chain gang. He is forced to flee into the swamp with a jail guard in tow, and money-hungry thugs on his tail, who are in pursuit of the $2-million bounty.

In 1979 Clive Sinclair, British inventor of the pocket calculator, frustrated by the lack of home investment in his project,the electric car, also opposes former assistant Chris Curry's belief that he can successfully market a micro-chip for a home computer. A parting of the ways sees Curry, in partnership with the Austrian Hermann Hauser and using whizz kid Cambridge students, set up his own, rival firm to Sinclair Radionics, Acorn. Acorn beat Sinclair to a lucrative contract supplying the BBC with machines for a computer series. From here on it is a battle for supremacy to gain the upper hand in the domestic market.

A small fishing village must procure a local doctor to secure a lucrative business contract. When unlikely candidate and big city doctor Paul Lewis lands in their lap for a trial residence, the townsfolk rally together to charm him into staying. As the doctor’s time in the village winds to a close, acting mayor Murray French has no choice but to pull out all the stops and begin The Grand Seduction.

Terry and Gemma are forced to take refuge in a sinister and dilapidated caravan park after their coach breaks down. During the unplanned stay, visitors and residents begin to be bumped off one by one under grizzly circumstances.

Linguistics Ph.D. student Julie Walters can speak almost every language you can imagine. Things turn upside down for Julie when handsome Dan, the curator at the museum she dreams to work at, contacts her to get some French classes, and is all about doing it the fun way!

A cookbook literary agent with culinary training is tasked with helping elevate the brand of a food channel personality known for his convenience-oriented recipes. However, as the agent works with her client on a new cookbook, playfully clashing over everything from ingredients to tastes, she must choose between following the directions or her heart.

An out of work artist discovers a special Christmas temp agency that matches her with a handful of festive jobs, but falls into a creative rut while juggling holiday preparations and feelings for the agency's HR manager.

A Liverpool tug boat captain finds he's won a fortune on the penny pools and it changes his life. However, after giving up his job and throwing a large expensive party, he discovers that he may not really have won after all.

Mike and Dave, two Northern British idiots sponging off the state, find themselves drunk with a case load of cash and the vague memory of a dodgy job offer. But when the sinister Mr. Martin comes to check his 'task' has been completed, Mike and Dave must learn to tell the truth or be lost in a lie forever.

A Liverpool gang member wins a singing contest is then called up for National Service where he clashes with another soldier.

The filmmakers were given remarkable freedom to record the historic 1984 contract negotiations between the United Auto Workers and General Motors Corporation. Bob White, labour leader of the Canadian branch of the UAW, must also confront his American counterpart from Detroit and succeeds in arriving at a contract that is significantly Canadian. His members had already given him a mandate to fight for independence from the American union. This is an invaluable document for anyone interested in the complexities of United States-Canada relations. It's an extraordinary film about revolutionary events.

It’s Jolie’s first time going back home to Louisiana since her devastating break-up with Foster Burke. Seeing him is inevitable as their parents run the town’s annual Christmas Market together, but when she discovers Foster is bringing home a new girlfriend, Jolie cannot bear the thought of going home alone and seeing them together. Her best friend Naomi suggests that Jolie bring her flaky brother, Jack, home for Christmas as he has no plans this year. Jolie, a professional web designer, is hesitant; so, Naomi, a lawyer, creates a Christmas contract to give them both something they want—a buffer for those awkward moments around Jolie’s ex and a website to help sell Jack’s upcoming novel. Unbeknownst to them, the Christmas contract proves to be so much more than what they signed up for.

Captain Grace Garland, a decorated U.S. veteran, returns home after two tours of Search and Rescue in Afghanistan. After being separated from her beloved K9 partner, Grace must rediscover the magic of Christmas. When she finds herself stranded in the town of River’s Crossing a couple weeks before Christmas, the local judge, Joe Peterson, offers her a place to stay on his property and takes it upon himself to show Grace everything she has been missing; Christmas, family, community, and love.

To save her family hotel's Christmas show, talent booker Claire must ask for help from her ex-boyfriend Ryan, the lead guitarist of a now-famous band that fired her as their manager years ago.

A modern retelling of Shakespeare's Othello set within the music scene of East London. Oz and Ivan are lifelong friends and music producers. When Oz gets offered a lucrative recording contract, he makes the decision to separate from Ivan professionally. This rejection turns to rage, as Ivan plots to undermine Oz's success and get him kicked off the label. The plan kickstarts an escalation of jealousy and paranoia in Oz. With deadly consequences.

Jimmy McGovern's depiction of the mid 90s Liverpool dockers strike. Featuring script contributions from Irvine Welsh and the real dockers themselves

Theater manager James Guthrie's (Melvyn Douglas) career depends on famed soprano Elsa Terry (Grace Moore) singing in his Buenos Aires opera house, however, Elsa breaks the contract in favor of a more lucrative deal in Paris. Desperate, James begins showering her with flowers and candy in an attempt to woo her to the Argentinian opera house. When Elsa overhears James confess to his friend Pancho that he'd be willing to resort to kidnapping to get Elsa to Argentina, she mistakenly believes his motives to be solely romantic.

In this old-time Western from director George Sherman, peaceable cowpoke Jack Summers takes the job of sheriff to help his adopted town in its bid to beat out a nearby settlement for a lucrative railroad contract. Trailcross is trying to get the new railroad and Stevens wants it to go to Mason City. Jack and sidekick Nevady arrive and when Jack faces down Stevens' men, he is made Marshal. The townspeople raise money for the railroad and entrust it to Jack. But Stevens plants two of his henchmen as Jack's escorts and they rob him. With the Railroad Officials due to arrive, Jack must retrieve the money.

A ranch manager falls in love with a banker's daughter, but after a quarrel with the girl's parents, flee across the border into Mexico.

After a bad day with her boss, friend, husband, babysitter etc., Anne goes to a bar. A man offers to solve her problems. As a joke, she signs a napkin. Hours later, the boss is dead.

When a wealthy couple can’t decide on a wedding theme, they hire two wedding planners, Taylor and Ben, to compete for the job by proposing two very different styles. As they compete for the lucrative gig, Taylor and Ben playfully sabotage each other’s efforts but are growing closer together than either of them realise.

Avery, a socialite on the path to follow in her powerful political family’s footsteps, is harboring a secret dream to be a fashion designer and work for Lisette Monique. When notorious upper east side player Oliver offers Avery the chance to work for Lisette in exchange for publicly dating him in order to rehab his bad boy so he can keep his trust fund, Avery must choose between her family’s expectations and risking it all to be a designer.