Best movies like The Gladiator

Kicking the pigskin for a skinful of laughs !

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like The Gladiator Starring Joe E. Brown, June Travis, Man Mountain Dean, Dickie Moore, and more. If you liked The Gladiator then you may also like: Yes Sir, That's My Baby, West Point, Words and Music, Nobody's Fool, Over the Goal 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 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.

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Know any good movies to watch like The Gladiator 1938. With a similar plot or stoyline. Suggest it.

Yes Sir, That's My Baby

At a college, a group of ex-GIs clash with their wives about over playing football.

West Point

Arrogant and wise-cracking Brice Wayne enrolls at the United States Military Academy at West Point and adjusts to life as a plebe. He tries out for the plebe football team, where he excels and shows up the varsity team. However, his ego is unrivaled, especially in competition with upperclassman Bob Sperry. At the same time, Brice meets a local girl named Betty Channing who cheers for him at football practices.

Words and Music

Phil and Pete compete for Mary's love and also in a contest for best song written by a college student.

Nobody's Fool

A naive country boy goes to New York City, where he gets mixed up with real estate swindlers.

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.

Rackety Rax

Gambler/racketeer "Knucks" McGloin takes note of just how much money and action (aside from the game itself) takes place around and about the annual Rose Bowl football game, and decides this is one sweet proposition and could be even sweeter if one had his own college and football game and had a large say beforehand as to the outcome of any game this team had. So he ups and creates his own college---Carnasie after his own neighborhood. His gangster rival. Gilatti, thinks this give McGloin a definite inside advantage and, if there is one thing a gambler can't abide, it is that someone has an inside advantage and they are not that someone. Gilatti gets himself a college football team. Education marches on.

Rise and Shine

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

The Dark Horse

This 1946 film stars Phillip Terry as a war veteran, who is persuaded by machine politico Donald MacBride to run for alderman. Ann Savage plays the "honest government functionary" with whom the hero falls in love. Terry finds that disreputable politicians are using his war record to push through some shady legislation, so he renounces these hacks.

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.

Horse Feathers

Quincy Adams Wagstaff, the new president of Huxley U, hires bumblers Baravelli and Pinky to help his school win the big football game against rival Darwin U.

Brown of Harvard

Tom Brown shows up at Harvard, confident and a bit arrogant. He becomes a rival of Bob McAndrew, not only in football and rowing crew, but also for the affections of Mary Abbott, a professor's daughter.

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.

Tillie the Toiler

While attending stenographer school, Tillie Jones meets office boy Mac, who falls in love with her at first sight. Though Tillie likes Mac as a friend, she continually throws him over for handsomer men.

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.

Harvard Here I Come

Slapsie Rosenbloom receives an award from the satirical Harvard Lampoon for his well-known stupidity. Instead of being enraged, Slapsie Maxie is delighted by the "honor", and promptly tries to enroll at the ivy-league university. Upon arriving on campus, he is pounced upon by a group of eccentric scientists led by Professor Alvin, who is convinced that Rosenbloom is the "missing link" that science has long been searching for.

Hi, Neighbor

A financially strapped college is transformed into a summer holiday resort with the help of music and radio stars.

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.

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.

Tucson

The story of Andy Bryant, a University of Arizona student whose grades suffer because of his preoccupation with an upcoming intercollegiate rodeo. Andy's father is more interested in embarrassing a rival at the rodeo than he is with his son's academic progress. When his lack of focus nearly causes a tragic accident in the university chemistry lab, Andy decides to hunker down and study.

The Lost Special

A lady reporter and two college students search for the "Gold Special," a train that disappeared without a trace.

All American Sweetheart

Cap Collender (Arthur Loft),a showboat gambling racketeer, ensnares a collegiate rowing team's coxswain, "Squirt" Adams (Jimmy Eagles), into the sports-gambling racket.

Eadie Was a Lady

In this amiable Columbia B musical, society girl Ann Miller escapes her Back Bay family by performing in the chorus line in a burlesque house. But trouble starts when her boss (William Wright) decides to build her up as a star. One of the many bread-and-butter Columbia productions graced by the contributions of Cole’s in-house dance studio. Cole dances behind Miller in “I’m Gonna See My Baby.” --Museum of Modern Art

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.

Start Cheering

After retiring from movies to get an education, a man discovers his ex-staff is trying to have him expelled.

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.

The Fighting American

On the wager that he will propose marriage to any girl selected by his fraternity brothers, Bill finds himself making love to Mary, an old-fashioned girl who is secretly in love with him…

The Big Game

A quarterback stands against gangsters out to control the college sports scene.

College Humor

A college professor and the school's star football player are both rivals for the same beautiful coed.

Swing That Cheer

Undeniably talented on the gridiron, Bob Potter is equally undeniably an arrogant pain in the posterior. So swell-headed does Potter become that he can never admit to himself that his blocking-back teammate Larry Royal is equally responsible for Bob's success. To teach his pal a lesson, Larry feigns an injury and pulls out of the Big Game, forcing Bob to have a go at it alone.

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.

The Duke Comes Back

After winning the heavyweight championship, boxer Duke Foster (Allan Lane) quits the ring to marry socialite Susan Corbin (Heather Angel). When his businessman father-in-law Arnold (Frederick Burton) loses his fortune, Duke returns to the ring to raise money for him. Susan is furious that Duke is breaking his promise never to box again, and the stakes get even higher when a crooked promoter orders him to take a dive ... or else.

The Great Gildersleeve

A small-town blowhard runs for water commissioner while fighting to win custody of his niece and nephew.

Betty Co-Ed

The plot gets under way when Joanne, a carnival hootchy-kootchy dancer, is accepted into a snobbish college sorority when it is assumed that she hails from a blueblooded Virginia family.

She's Working Her Way Through College

Shapely burlesque dancer Hot Garters Gertie aka Angela Gardner meets her future drama professor. Her new landlady proves to be the professor's wife. Angela helps breath life into the annual school stage show...but someone has discovered her secret past.

Campus Rhythm

Radio singer Joan Abbott, known as the "Crunchy-Wunchy Thrush", does not want to renew her contract with the cereal sponsor, as she wants to go to college. But her guardian, her Uncle Willie signs the contract in order to pay off his own debts. But this time Joan won't take no for an answer and enrolls under an assumed name. When Joan goes missing, the radio institutes a search for Joan via a publicity stunt.

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.

You Can't Ration Love

In this WW II musical, a group of lovely college co-eds, realizing that there is a shortage of single young men, decide to begin rationing their dates so that all of them can have some fun. This is beneficial for the campus wimp who suddenly finds himself the hottest property on campus.

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.

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.

Youth on Parade

In this musical, a gang of college students decide to play a little trick by creating the perfect student. The fictional gal has everything a university would ever want. The trouble begins when the campus psych professor becomes determined to meet this girl. If the gang cannot bring her forward, they will be expelled. They hire a New York actress to portray the imaginary girl and all is well at the end. Songs include: "It Seems I've Heard That Song Before," "You're So Good to Me" "If It's Love," "Man," "Gotcha Too Ta Mee," "You Got to Study, Buddy." All the songs were penned by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne who went on to become one of Hollywood's top song-writing teams.

Blonde from Brooklyn

A brash young singer and an unemployed "jukebox girl" hire an elderly Confederate "colonel" to teach them to be "southern" so they can land a radio gig for sponsor Plantation Coffee. Comedy.

While Thousands Cheer

Kenny Harrington, the star football player of Gilmore College, leads his team to many victories, raising hopes that Gilmore will play in the "Peach Bowl," the championship playoffs of the Western conference. Unknown to Kenny, Downey, the head of a gambling syndicate, has placed a $100,000 bet against the Gilmore team.

In Love with Life

Professor John Sylvestus Applegate has been dismissed from his college teaching position for objecting too loudly to the predominant part that football and other sports play in the curriculum, and soon finds himself dead broke when publishers show no interest in the dry material he brings to them. He meets a young boy, Laury and his mother, Sharon in the park and is quite taken with them. He gets a job-prospect letter, as a private tutor, and applies at once. His employer is Mr. Morley, a surly, sour, mean-tempered old man who informs John he is to act as a tutor for his grandson, who turns out to be Laury. Sharon, Morleys daughter had eloped against her father's wishes and was abandoned by her husband after Laury's birth.

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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