Best movies like The Last Performance

In the darkly phantasmagorical world of the carnival magician and sideshow hypnotist, the gruesome "illusions" of Montag the Magnificent are unique in that they seem to become retroactive reality long after the the tricks are done. Is it coincidence, or circumstantial evidence of the world's most diabolically ingenious murders? When an underground journalist begins to investigate the strange deaths, the truth proves to be far more bizarre and disturbing than anything he or his readers might have imagined.

A sleazy politician sends an agent after his ex-fiancee, who fled to Mexico with incriminating film of him.

A twist on the morality tale of forbidden love between the beautiful Belle and the feared Beast. As the villagers are being brutally murdered and the Beast is hunted down as the one responsible for the mayhem, Belle and Beast team up to defeat the real killer; the power-hungry witch's malevolent troll.

After a run-in with the law, an angry maladjusted young man starts calling himself "Hate". One night he saves a girl from a lusty Assistant District Attorney. He falsely accuses them of robbery, so they go on the run and make things worse.

"Jellicle" cats join for a Jellicle ball where they rejoice with their leader, Old Deuteronomy. One cat will be chosen to go to the "Heavyside Layer" and be reborn.

In this tearful crime melodrama, a waitress becomes so taken with her dream of living in posh luxury and comfort that she leaves her honest boyfriend the district attorney to take up with a notorious gangster who lavishes her with stolen furs and fabulous diamonds. She has no idea that the crook is only using her as a pawn in his scheme to learn the DA's secrets. When she finally does learn the truth, she gives up her life for truth, justice and love.

Two warriors in pursuit of a stolen sword and a notorious fugitive are led to an impetuous, physically-skilled, teenage nobleman's daughter, who is at a crossroads in her life.

A South American gunrunner uses an island in Hawaii as his base of operations. A squad of beautiful government agents is sent to put him out of business.

A French diplomat who's recovered from amnesia is blackmailed over crimes he can't remember.

Seymour Krelborn is a nerdy orphan working at Mushnik's, a flower shop in urban Skid Row. He harbors a crush on fellow co-worker Audrey Fulquard, and is berated by Mr. Mushnik daily. One day Seymour finds a very mysterious unidentified plant which he calls Audrey II. The plant seems to have a craving for blood and soon begins to sing for his supper.

Members of a circus troupe "adopt" Lili Daurier when she finds herself stranded in a strange town. The magician who first comes to her rescue already has romantic entanglements and thinks of her as a little girl. Who can she turn to but the puppets, singing to them her troubles, forgetting that there are puppeteers? A crowd gathers around Lili as she sings. The circus has a new act. She now has a job. Will she get her heart's desire?

For the ventriloquist Gabbo his wooden dummy Otto is the only means of expression. When he starts relying more and more on Otto, he starts going mad.

Now that Frollo is gone, Quasimodo rings the bell with the help of his new friend and Esmeralda's and Phoebus' little son, Zephyr. But when Quasi stops by a traveling circus owned by evil magician Sarousch, he falls for Madellaine, Sarouch's assistant.

A young turn-of-the-century newspaper man finds he can get hold of the next day's paper. This brings more problems than fortune, especially as his new girlfriend is part of a phony clairvoyant act.

Don Gallico is an inventor of stage magic effects who aspires to become a star in his own right. Just before his first performance his act is shut down by capricious manager Ross Ormond who wants Gallico's brilliant buzz saw effect for the act of The Great Rinaldi, an established star. With this defeat, and the humiliation of having already lost his wife Claire to Ormond, Gallico decides it is time to take matters into his own hands.

Donald continually heckles Mickey's magic act, but Mickey bests him at every turn. Donald shoots off a magic pistol that causes all the stage props to fall down on them at the finish of the act.

A couple of young, out-of-work archaeologists in Egypt discover evidence of the burial place of the ancient Egyptian princess Ananka. After receiving funding from an eccentric magician and his beautiful daughter, they set out into the desert only to be terrorized by a sinister high priest and the living mummy Kharis who are the guardians of Ananka’s tomb.

In a Scottish sanitarium, a brilliant research psychiatrist works on a treatment for dementia praecox. He falls for his altruistic female lab assistant and they begin a passionate, tragic relationship.

A young writer saves a desperate young woman from committing suicide. They eventually fall in love and marry, but their marriage faces some serious roadblocks.

Ollie Trinke is a young, suave music publicist who seems to have it all, with a new wife and a baby on the way. But life deals him a bum hand when he's suddenly faced with single fatherhood, a defunct career and having to move in with his father. To bounce back, it takes a new love and the courage instilled in him by his daughter.

As a youth, Eddie came into the town with his gang to rob the bank, but was caught and convicted. Marshal Ben helped him to become a honorable citizen. Now, many years later, the gang returns to again rob the bank. On their flight they shoot the Marshal. Eddie is the only one to identify the murderer - but is in doubt if he shall be loyal to his new or his old friends.

A notorious Mexican bandit goes all soft and mushy when he falls for a beautiful senorita. Warner Bros.' Captain Thunder contains some of the darndest Mexican accents you've ever heard in your life. The star is Hungarian-born Victor Varconi, portraying a legendary south of the border outlaw who tries to force Canadian senorita Fay Wray to marry a rival rustler whom she despises. She pleads with the bandito so pathetically that he is moved to grant her a single wish. Without hesitation she chooses her poor but true love. The bandit king, being a somewhat honorable fellow grants the wish and without a twitch, guns down the wicked cattle thief. Fortunately the film was played for comedy, a wise decision since it probably would have garnered laughs as a straight drama anyway.

The famous matinee idol and blackface comedian, Don Wilson, heads out of town to escape adulation. There, calling himself Harry Mann, he accidentally joins a traveling acting troupe, and falls in love with Ginger Bolivar, who runs the troupe and stars in their Civil War melodrama. Don's producer sees the play, and thinks it's a comic masterpiece, and just what Don's Broadway show needs. But when Ginger finds out she's been played for a fool, will she forgive Don?

A psychotic man stalks three innocent people whom he believes are responsible for his brother's death.

Broadway showgirl Evelyn Nesbit (Joan Collins) is the object of affection of two men: playboy architect Stanford White (Ray Milland) and wealthy but unstable Harry Thaw (Farley Granger). She marries Thaw, but White’s continued pursuit puts him in the path of Thaw’s volatile temper. Inspired by true events that occurred at the turn of the 20th century.

A woman lives in Acapulco with moochers and a husband who married her for her money.

A group of bored college students unleash a murderous demon while playing a dice game made from human knucklebones.

Marc, a young snake expert, works at a museum in Geneva. He loves snakes, to the point that he owns many and even takes a bath with his huge pet python. He meets and falls in love with a beautiful young woman named Malenka, who is the assistant--and mistress--of an older herpetologist professor. Marc discovers that not only is the "professor" a fraud but also a dangerous psychotic who had at one time seduced Marc's mother, and Marc believes that the longer Malenka stays with him, the greater danger she's in.

A mysterious hypnotist reverts his beautiful assistant back into the form of a prehistoric sea monster that she was in a past life.

A Papago Indian returns to his reservation after a prison term and searches for his brother's killer.

Boston Blackie, in the 11th film of the Columbia series, indulges in some wit-trading with a squirmy spiritualist who deals in blackmail, murder and the occult. "Blackie" out to help his pal, "Runt," recover some jewels, finds himself involved in the homicides, and also finds himself as the prime suspect, and now has to find the real culprit in order to clear himself. So "Blackie,", a man of many talents and already a proved magician from cases past, shows he knows a little bit about dancing skeletons, walking phantoms and spiritualism himself, and holds a séance to unmask the murderer.

Like the first entry, this one is played mostly for laughs, with Radio's Mister District Attorney. James Ellison replacing Dennis O'Keefe as feckless assistant DA P. Cadwallader Jones. The publisher of a tony fashion magazine is murdered, requiring Jones to sift through a colorful array of suspects. He is helped along by snoopy girl reporter Terry Parker.

During her birthday celebration, Tess and Logan find themselves swept up in a world that isn't always what it seems when the headlining magician at the Magic Manor winds up dead.

A beautiful young concert pianist is torn between her attraction to her arrogant but brilliant maestro and her love for a farm boy she left back home.

Lowe plays Chatrand the Great, a magician with great hypnotic and magical powers. During his evening performance at an upscale theater, a murder occurs. A hand wearing a sinister spider ring raises a revolver, the lights go out, and a shot rings out! When the lights come on, the body of a patron is lying on the floor, dying. Who is the mysterious killer? What is the strange secret of Lowe’s clairvoyant, amnesia-plagued assistant? After the police restrain the audience from leaving, Lowe uses his magical powers to help expose the killer. Watch for the terrific séance scene where weird ghost-like creatures float above the stage.

A resourceful thief helps a handscome prince fight an evil wizard and win the hand of a beautiful princess.

Larry 'Hutch' Hutchdale, gentleman thief, is keeping an eye on the newly-arrived Princess Orloff of Russia...and not just because of her curvaceous figure. The woman's jewel necklace is worth a fortune. But her secretary, Natalie Knowles, is secretly a famed cat burglar, and wants the necklace for herself. The two thieves outwit each other at every turn, all the while realizing they're a perfect match. But the star-crossed lovers have a surprise on their hands when they realize the jewels are a fake, and the princess an imposter! Hidden Aces was Charles Hutchison's seventh and final appearance as 'Hutch' Hutchdale, the character he originated in 1921's Hurricane Hutch.

Johnny Ginsberg (George Jessel) is a tailor's assistant whose ambition is to become a successful conjurer/magician. He joins a carnival and fails but not before apprehending a gang of jewel thieves and gaining the love of Mary (Audrey Ferris), the girl he adores.

The doctor (Lionel Barrymore) has a Kansan (Van Johnson), an Australian and an Asian from Brooklyn to choose from.

One of Mark Rappaport's later narratives (which won the Gold Hugo for Best First Feature at the Chicago International Film Festival in 1979), Impostors is an off-kilter comedy/mystery focused on two magicians trying to find Egyptian jewels, their promiscuous assistant, and a man who loves the assistant.

After being abandoned in the desert by his abusive stepfather, Phillip finds himself cruelly cast into a game of life or death until a beautiful orphan named Lucy and her boyfriend Jack come to his rescue. The three runaways patrol the desert and live as petty thieves, but they soon find that the fight for survival against nature may become a fight for survival against each other.

On her way to the theater, Vera, star of a Russian vaudeville troupe, is rescued from a falling girder by Eugene Foster, a wealthy broker who persists in his efforts to win the girl. Foster engages the troupe to perform at his home, and Vera, stunned by a fall, awakens to find Foster pleading his love, while Norodin, her partner who loves her, sees them embrace. Norodin, who performs an underwater stunt, asks Vera not to be present for his act and causes her to believe him dead; heartbroken, Vera tells Foster of her mistake; and enraged, he attempts to seize her. The magician appears, pins Foster to the wall with knives, and advises him to leave before the last blade is thrown.

Hollywood celebrities assist magicians in a program of magic and illusion.

Scattergood Baines, Coldriver's most popular citizen, neighborly counselor and sly old fox, entices a Broadway producer to Coldriver to see the gay musical extravaganza Baines is staging for the benefit of the U.S.O. He is also promoting the singing career of his latest local protégé, Betty Palmer. There are a few problems but the Sage of Coldriver manages to keep pulling the right strings.

Vaudevillian Joe Pitt sweeps young Sally Patter off of her feet and steals the lovestruck girl away from her small-town family to join his act. She winds up heartbroken, pregnant and broke when Joe runs off with the magician's sexy assistant. Sally bravely persists and her immense dancing and singing talent gain the notice of prominent producer, Wade Valentine. Under Valentine's tutelage, she rockets to Broadway stardom while Joe Pitt is reduced to waiting on tables. Alone, Sally proudly gives birth to a baby son. Wade proposes marriage to his beloved protege and it appears that Joe Pitt may never learn about the son he has fathered.

After his homeless brother Matthew is murdered, Sgt. Andrew Holloman trains a group of bums in order to catch the killers.

Early '30s comedy-mystery involving magicians, fake psychics and murder.

To avert war between their countries an official marriage is arranged between Crown Prince Boris of Moraine and Princess Flavia of Norvia. Prince Karl of Norvia sees in the alliance an opportunity to gain control of both kingdoms but upon visiting Boris finds him unyielding and independent. Flavia, shedding her stately dignity in the palace garden, is accosted by the flirtatious Boris, who believes her to be the princess' cousin; and falling in love, he realizes that he cannot go through with the planned marriage.

A deranged 15th Century prison colony chaplain exploits his power to get money for his church including murder and grave robbing committed by his vampire mistress and one-eyed hunchback assistant.

Storyteller and Conceptual Magician Derek DelGaudio attempts to understand the illusory nature of identity and answer the deceptively simple question 'Who am I?'