Best movies like The History of Mr. Polly

Stoic and heartbroken, Einar Gilkyson quietly lives in the rugged Wyoming ranchlands alongside his only trusted friend, Mitch Bradley. One day, the woman he blames for the death of his only son arrives at his door broke, desperate and with a granddaughter he's never known. But even as buried anger and accusations resurface, the way is opened for unexpected connection, adventure and forgiveness.

The stooges are singing waiters who are enlisted by a doctor to try and cheer up a little girl. It seems that the girl's father is a banker who was kidnapped with $300,000 worth of bonds. Failing to cheer up the girl, the stooges go out looking for the father and by a series of coincidences wind up in the bad guys hideout. The villains return and after a wild fight the boys free the missing man.

What seems to be a chance encounter one day at a coffee shop leads to a full-fledged romance, but the couple must fight for their relationship to survive the craziness that is show business.

Jonas Trapp falls in love with the beautiful Jessie, a wealthy girl out of his humble class. Against the wishes of her snobbish aunt, she marries him, later faking a pregnancy to win her aunt's consent. But Jonas tires of living off of his wife's family, and eventually deserts her to become a buffalo hunter. 11 years later, with his self-made fortune, he sets out to return home, only to be set upon by three sadistic marauders, who steal his money and leave him for dead. Rescued by a farmer who nurses him back to health, Jonas becomes consumed by the desire for revenge. As fate would have it, all three men live close to Jonas' former home. Matters quickly get worse when Jonas reunites with his wife, only to discover that she is now engaged to Renne.

Simon, a young Jewish man emigrating to the US, adopts the daughter of a dying woman on the ship. After he settles in the US, he eventually builds up a successful business as a pawnbroker and auctioneer. His adopted daughter Ruth falls in love with a young Wall Street broker, and her father invests his fortune in the young man's firm. However, a crooked broker at the firm causes Simon to lose all his money, and he must start all over again. He sets out to track down the crooked broker and get his money back.

Shaun Russell takes her son and daughter on a weekend getaway to her late father's secluded, high-tech vacation home in the countryside. The family soon gets an unwelcome surprise when four men break into the house to find hidden money. After managing to escape, Shaun must now figure out a way to turn the tables on the desperate thieves and save her captive children.

Story of Cam Calloway and his family, who live in a densely wooded area in New England. Cam dreams of building a sanctuary for the geese that fly over the area each year, and he tries several schemes to buy a nearby lake for this santuary. He is thwarted at every attempt, it seems; he and his son try to get enough furs from their trapping venture to get the money, but the bottom falls out of the fur market. He uses the little money they get for a down payment on the lake, thereby losing their house when he can't make the mortgage payment. They move to the lake, where their friends help them build a cabin. A salesman stops in town, and tries to get the people to sell their land for a tourist venture; Cam is outraged at his tactics and takes desperate measures after he himself is tricked.

When a beautiful girl offers Casey Morrow a lot of money for a mystery job, Morrow doesn't ask too many questions. But when the girl's father is found murdered the following day and Morrow's coat is soaked with blood perhaps a little more caution should have been exercised. An intriguing story of deception, greed and immorality.

"If I had the money, I'd buy me a banjo!" says struggling sales clerk Arthur Kipps. Soon he'll inherit enough to buy a whole bloomin' orchestra. But can his newfound wealth buy happiness?

The Dashwood sisters, sensible Elinor and passionate Marianne, whose chances at marriage seem doomed by their family's sudden loss of fortune. When Henry Dashwood dies unexpectedly, his estate must pass on by law to his son from his first marriage, John and wife Fanny. But these circumstances leave Mr. Dashwood's current wife, and daughters Elinor, Marianne and Margaret, without a home and with barely enough money to live on. As Elinor and Marianne struggle to find romantic fulfillment in a society obsessed with financial and social status, they must learn to mix sense with sensibility in their dealings with both money and men.

San Francisco police officer Frank Connor is in a frantic search for a compatible bone marrow donor for his gravely ill son. There's only one catch the potential donor is convicted multiple murderer Peter McCabe who sees a trip to the hospital as the perfect opportunity to get what he wants most: freedom. With McCabe's escape, the entire hospital becomes a battleground and Connor must pursue and, ironically, protect the deadly fugitive who is his son's only hope for survival.

Four English women, unhappy with their lives, rent an Italian villa on holiday.

Nick Garcos comes back from his tour of duty in World War II planning to settle down with his girlfriend, Polly Faber. He learns, however, that his father was recently beaten and burglarized by mob-connected trucker Mike Figlia, and Nick resolves to get even. He partners with prostitute Rica, and together they go after Mike, all the while getting pulled further into the local crime underworld.

When Polly Fisher, a circus aerialist, is hurt while performing, she is taken to the house of a nearby minister, John Hartley. As she recuperates, they fall in love with each other and secretly marry. But when the truth leaks out , John's congregation rebels at having a circus woman as their minister's wife, and he is fired. Polly decides to leave John in hopes of giving back to him the calling that means so much to him. But fate steps in and rearranges all plans.

An industrialist and a pianist meet on a trip and fall in love. Through a quirk of fate, they are reported dead in a crash though they weren't on the plane. This gives them the opportunity to live together free from their previous lives. Unfortunately, this artificial arrangement leads to greater and greater stress. Eventually the situation collapses when they come to pursue their original, individual interests without choosing a common path.

Wealthy, sheltered Lina McLaidlaw is swept off her feet by charming ne'er-do-well Johnnie Aysgarth. Though warned that Johnnie is little more than a fortune hunter, Lina marries him anyway and remains loyal to her irresponsible husband as he plows his way from one disreputable business scheme to another. Gradually Lina comes to the conclusion that Johnnie intends to kill her in order to collect her inheritance.

Unmarried teenage lovers turn to desperate measures after their clandestine tryst results in an unplanned pregnancy.

Packard Schmidt is a burnt-out, middle-aged college English professor. In a desperate attempt to restore some sense of vitality to his lonely existence he embarks on a series of impulsive romantic exploits resulting in a cavalcade of disaster both personally and professionally. These disasters change and educate Pack and serve eventually as a meditation on the meaning and power of desire, loss, and love.

A promising young composer is tempted away from his devoted wife by a fortune-seeking woman who cares more for his prospects than for him.

Johnny Broderick, arson squad investigator, and his assistant, Ben Howard,, investigate a warehouse fire and find evidence of arson. Lawyer William Yarbo is behind the series of incendiary fires that have been plaguing the city. Keely Hariss, an actress, inherited the warehouse from her father. Yabro calls on her and says that he and her father had heavily insured the building and planned to burn it and collect, and also tells her she must accept half of the insurance money or he will see that she is blamed for the arson. "Pop" Bergen, the father of Marily Bergen, is the torch man hired by Yarbo, and he perishes in one of the conflagrations. Yarbo learns that Keely is cooperating with Broderick and he enters the movie studio where she is working, determined to kill her. Written By Les Adams

In the Depression, Pete and Sidney are good kids, working hard, giving money to their parents, and engaged for three years while they save to get married. Each has a selfish mother: Sydney's is cold, Pete's is clingy. Sidney's mother is looking for her own happiness, no matter how much that search harms her daughter and long-suffering husband; and, the longer the engagement lingers, the more pressure Pete's mom puts on Sidney to break it off and set her son free. "After Tomorrow" is Pete and Sidney's favorite song, but with illness, poverty, and temptation: will that good day ever come?

Getsel, a wandering Purim player, comes to a Galica village and gets a job with Reb Nuchem, the shoemaker. He falls in love with Esther, the shoemaker's daughter, but knows she is in love with a wandering circus player. However, Getzel is content in his work and dreams. Esther's father inherits a fortune and attempts to marry her to a man of his choice, but she flees with Getzel to Warsaw, where he meets and marries the circus player. Getzel returns to the village and is blamed for Esther's disappearance until she shows up and explains what happened. Getzel shoulders his pack and wanders on to another village.

Based upon a description in a film publication,[3] Katherine Van Riper (Clayton) is an extravagant young society girl who is very much in debt, and her wealthy aunts and uncle refuse to give her any money. Katherine is desperate enough that she is considering marrying the wealthy Montee Buck (Hiers), although she is in love with the westerner Tom Jaffrey (Fillmore), who says he is poor. Finally, Katherine decides to sell the famous Van Riper pearls, pay off her debts, and marry Tom. However, upon examination the jewelry turns out to be paste, with her father having sold the genuine pearls several years earlier before his death. Montee is assured by the aunts that Katherine will marry him and tells this to Tom. Tom is about to leave town when Uncle James (Ricketts) steps in and pays off Katherine's debts, leaving the niece free to marry Tom.

When Bob Hart, a widowed police detective trying to raise a rebellious teenage daughter, inherits a Montana horse ranch, he jumps at the opportunity to leave Los Angeles for the open range. Soon after arriving, Bob accepts the position as county sheriff and discovers that the seemingly bucolic countryside is far from tranquil. His problems include wolves who attack his stock, ruthless developers trying to take over the town and a female veterinarian with a chip on her shoulder, while trying to build a new home.

Ryevsk, Russia, 1870. Tensions abound in the Karamazov family. Fyodor is a wealthy libertine who holds his purse strings tightly. His four grown sons include Dmitri, the eldest, an elegant officer, always broke and at odds with his father, betrothed to Katya, herself lovely and rich. The other brothers include a sterile aesthete, a factotum who is a bastard, and a monk. Family tensions erupt when Dmitri falls in love with one of his father's mistresses, the coquette Grushenka. Two brothers see Dmitri's jealousy of their father as an opportunity to inherit sooner. Acts of violence lead to the story's conclusion: trials of honor, conscience, forgiveness, and redemption.

Steve Kostain, nephew of the owner, begins working at a steel mill to learn the business from the bottom up. He rooms with a steel working family, the McNamaras, and falls for the daughter, "Red", who is already involved with another steelworker. Although he is at first has a hard time with his co-workers, he eventually wins them over, and also wins the girl.

A group of inmates escape from Dartmoor prison. They hide out in the English country side but are doggedly chased by police.

Mike Billing's newspaper series about quasi-illegal gambling parties in Mayfair have so far been works more of imagination than genuine journalism. But when he and his columnist girlfriend, Jenny Drew, finally manage to infiltrate one of them, it leads quickly to trouble. The party's organiser is found murdered the next morning, and a number of suspects begin to emerge. But which of them killed Lucky Lewis?

Businessmen Oliver Darcy and Brian Douglas have been quietly embezzling money from their employers for months. When Oliver's daughter is mysteriously kidnapped, the two men take desperate measures to protect their illegal fortune and get the girl back without the help of the police. What begins as a simple plan quickly explodes into a maelstrom of violence and betrayal when a call girl, a dirty cop and a gang of thugs learn of the crime and arrange their own ways of collecting the ransom money.

Eying a large inheritance, a reporter marries a rich woman with failing health. When she begins feeling healthy after the wedding, the reporter takes drastic measures to make sure his wife dies.

A corrupt sheriff knows the secrets of everyone in town and uses that information to go unchallenged. But after the arrest of an innocent teenager, the new doctor cannot keep quiet and tries to get the community to stand up for what is right.

While settling his father’s estate, Finn Conrad becomes suspicious as to why the man left a nurse $50,000. His dad knew her for less than two months before he died. Just before Christmas, Finn wants what to reclaim what he considers his family’s money, going undercover to investigate the bed and breakfast the nurse has recently taken over. When Finn meets Willa, he discovers she’s not a conniving gold digger at all, but a woman in need who put the money to good use. When she discovers his true identity, will it keep Willa from ever trusting him again?

Dave and Chito are working for Melburn who is looking for wild horses. Olmstead has his men looking for then also. When Dave finds them first, Olmstead buys them from Melburn and then kills him. A clue leads Dave to Olmstead's where he breaks in and finds the murder weapon. When he takes his evidence to the Marshal he learns Olmstead has been murdered and he is the one under arrest.

A small town politician, kept from marrying the love of his life, eventually marries another woman and his career ascends, but he secretly continues the relationship with his true love.

An arson investigator goes undercover to break up a ring that sets fires in order to collect the insurance.

A young boy goes to desperate lengths to save the family dog when his father agrees sell it to the local butcher.

Resort developer Madison Lane is tasked with finding a location for a new ski resort. Her boss tells her to take a trip to Christmas, Colorado, to consider the location. On her way into town, Madison has a minor fender-bender with the town’s welcome sign. Town Sheriff Gage McBride gives Madison a ride into town so she can attend her meeting with the mayor while the car is towed and repaired. Little does Madison know that the town is on a mission to convince Madison that Christmas is the best place for the new ski resort.

A con man who stages phony "lucky legs" beauty contests and leaves town with the money is found with a surgical knife in his heart by Mason.

Burt, a clever ex-con, has changed his identity and has managed to land a job as a deputy in small town in upstate New York. On the 4th of July, while the drunken Sheriff Paisley is busy with the local parade and festivities, Burt quietly steals a million dollars in cash from the cellar safe in the local rich old widow's house. Unsuspected, Burt makes plans to live the rest of his life in the lap of luxury in a far off place with his attractive girlfriend, local hash house waitress Jeanette. But when a crisis of conscience hits him like a wave of ice cold water, he starts to think twice about his dastardly deed, and how that purloining of the old lady's money is wrongly affecting his friends as well as innocent locals. But will Burt do the right thing?

After the untimely death of her husband, shy Joan (a part-time cleaner) has to make money fast to keep from losing her home. She asks Fred, her sleazy boss, if she can work more hours - but instead, he takes on sexy air-head, Sharon and fires Joan. Now, she's forced to resort to extreme measures to avoid her home being repossessed. Aided by Sharon, and her two friends/former work-mates (65 year-old eccentric Enid, and desperate Mavis), Joan becomes the Madame of a do-it-yourself co-operative brothel... A brothel with no sex!

A private eye and her sidekick solve the case of a dead client.

Amy Winslow wants to go to art college but can't get her financial aid approved. A help wanted ad leads to a couple that will let her move into their quiet guest home rent free, a dream come true except that Joan wants Amy to be a surrogate mother for her next child. Little does Amy know the dark sinister reasons behind her desire, the scandalous death of Joan's first infant child and the fear she might hurt her next baby. The baby is adopted before Amy wakes up in the hospital, leading to a dangerous confrontation to claim the child finally for her own.

The story takes place during the colonization of the Laurentian region in Quebec towards the end of the 19th century (approx. 1885-90), near Sainte-Adèle. An unscrupulous man, Séraphin Poudrier, dominates the small community using his wealth. Mayor of the village, he will marry Donalda Laloge, after her father, unable to repay his debt, gives her to him in marriage. Donalda, a gentle and submissive woman who was promised to the handsome Alexis Labranche, rather, he will live his life according to the wishes of this petty and contemptuous miser, but will never let his situation get him down.

When Alfred Polly fails to find fulfilment as a shop keeper, he leaves his wife and sets out on the open road to see where freedom leads.

Feeling lost and disconnected, with no family of his own, veteran Sherman Oliver sets out to the countryside in search of the soldier who saved him back in the war. That man, Franklin Page, has long since moved on - to a wife, two children, and a reliable job in a reliably safe and quiet rural town. The stability Franklin worked so hard to establish is soon threatened, and the violence he believed he'd left behind in the war begins to re-emerge and cloud over both the household and the town itself.

Based on Mary McGarry Morris' best-selling novel! A struggling mother takes in a mysterious stranger. Is she opening her heart to love ... or harboring a criminal? Mary Fermoyle is a divorcee who must work to keep her family from falling into the throes of poverty. Her vulnerability quickly becomes an easy target for smooth-talking con-man Omar Duvall, who seduces Mary and her family with promises of easy money and success. Eventually she uncovers his lies and discovers for the first time her important contributions to her family and community.

Will a mysterious stranger's past wreak havoc on a quiet Amish community after they've opened their doors -- and hearts -- to him and his son?

As college students Jake and Jan struggle to stay afloat in the current economic climate, a lucrative business opportunity presents itself through their angel investor and landlord, George. After an unfortunate series of events, the deal suddenly falls apart, and the couple, now further in debt, takes drastic measures to eliminate George to collect a large sum of money. But things do not always go to plan and after numerous failed attempts to wipe out their intended target, the couple goes on the run with George in close pursuit to even the score.

High school sweethearts Maddie and Nate reconnect when Nate returns to their hometown to lecture at the hospital. Still hurt from their breakup, Maddie tries to avoid him. However, they eventually form a friendship, and Nate helps her as she secures funding to expand her cupcake shop. Just as Maddie and Nate rekindle their romance, Nate learns that a career opportunity awaits him in Boston. Devastated, Maddie returns the promise ring he gave her long ago and prepares for the grand reopening of her shop. Nate soon realizes how much he left behind, and must decide if his future lies in Boston with work or in his hometown with Maddie.

As Christmas nears, a financial advisor starts seeing a recurring number: 624. It’s the time she wakes, an address, the change at a Christmas shop. She’s told the number is from a Christmas angel to help make her heart’s secret wish come true. A numbers person, she calls it a statistical coincidence. But when she discovers the number’s meaning, she finds love.