Best movies like Way Down East

A simple story for plain people.

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Way Down East Starring Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, Lowell Sherman, Burr McIntosh, and more. If you liked Way Down East then you may also like: Unwed Mother, The Wind, Wuthering Heights, Orphans of the Storm, The Other Boleyn Girl 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 naive country girl is tricked into a sham marriage by a wealthy womanizer, then must rebuild her life despite the taint of having borne a child out of wedlock.

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Unwed Mother

A young, sweet girl from the country moves to Los Angeles with her mother and meets a young man who she thinks is just perfect. That is until she gets pregnant and he's on his way to jail.

The Wind

When Letty Mason relocates to West Texas, she finds herself unsettled by the ever-present wind and sand. Arriving at her new home at the ranch of her cousin, Beverly, she receives a surprisingly cold welcome from his wife, Cora. Soon tensions in the family and unwanted attention from a trio of suitors leave Letty increasingly disturbed.

Wuthering Heights

Young orphan Heathcliff is adopted by the wealthy Earnshaw family and moves into their estate, Wuthering Heights. Soon, the new resident falls for his compassionate foster sister, Cathy. The two share a remarkable bond that seems unbreakable until Cathy, feeling the pressure of social convention, suppresses her feelings and marries Edgar Linton, a man of means who befits her stature. Heathcliff vows to win her back.

Orphans of the Storm

France, on the eve of the French Revolution. Henriette and Louise have been raised together as sisters. When the plague that takes their parents' lives causes Louise's blindness, they decide to travel to Paris in search of a cure, but they separate when a lustful aristocrat crosses their path.

The Other Boleyn Girl

A sumptuous and sensual tale of intrigue, romance and betrayal set against the backdrop of a defining moment in European history: two beautiful sisters, Anne and Mary Boleyn, driven by their family's blind ambition, compete for the love of the handsome and passionate King Henry VIII.

Queen Christina

Queen Christina of Sweden is a popular monarch who is loyal to her country. However, when she falls in love with a Spanish envoy, she must choose between the throne and the man she loves.

Ramona

Based on the Helen Hunt Jackson novel of 1884 about a young woman of partial Native American descent, who experiences love and loss in 1800s California.

The Adventurers

The wealthy playboy son of an assassinated South American diplomat discovers that his father was murdered on orders of the corrupt president of the country- a man who was his father's friend and who, in fact, his father had helped put into power. He returns from living a jet-set life in Europe to lead a revolution against the government, only to find out that things aren't quite as black and white as he'd assumed.

All That Heaven Allows

Two different social classes collide when Cary Scott, a wealthy upper-class widow, falls in love with her much younger and down-to-earth gardener, prompting disapproval and criticism from her children and country club friends.

Anna Karenina

In Imperial Russia, Anna, the wife of the officer Karenin, goes to Moscow to visit her brother. On the way, she meets the charming cavalry officer Vronsky to whom she is immediately attracted. But in St. Petersburg’s high society, a relationship like this could destroy a woman’s reputation.

The Big Parade

The story of an idle rich boy who joins the US Army's Rainbow Division and is sent to France to fight in World War I, becomes friends with two working class men, experiences the horrors of trench warfare, and finds love with a French girl.

The Blot

Professor Griggs, teaching at the college, doesn't get paid a living wage; his next door neighbor, successful shoemaker Olsen, has money and plentiful food, while the Griggses have hardly any. When the professor's rich student Phil West falls for beautiful Griggs daughter Amelia and also befriends the poor Reverend Gates (a young man who is also in love with Amelia), he observes the difference in his life and theirs and tries to help make a difference.

Bright Eyes

An orphaned girl is taken in by a snobbish family at the insistence of their rich, crotchety uncle, even as her devoted aviator godfather fights for custody.

Priscilla

When teenage Priscilla Beaulieu meets Elvis Presley at a party, the man who is already a meteoric rock-and-roll superstar becomes someone entirely unexpected in private moments: a thrilling crush, an ally in loneliness, a vulnerable best friend.

The Heiress

Dull and plain Catherine lives with her emotionally distant father, Dr. Sloper, in 1840s New York. Her days are empty — filled with little more than needlepoint. Enter handsome Morris Townsend, a dashing social climber with his eye on the spinster's heart and substantial inheritance.

Sense and Sensibility

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.

The Docks of New York

A blue-collar worker on New York's depressed waterfront finds his life changed after he saves a woman attempting suicide.

The Family Secret

The daughter of a wealthy man secretly marries a man below her station— one whom her father violently disapproves of. The father, in an excess of parental concern, separates the lovers by sending his daughter away so that she might forget her lover, unaware of their married state. During this time, she gives birth to a daughter. After some months, the young mother returns to her family manor and presents her father with his new granddaughter, which causes a most unfortunate scene. Unbeknownst to the young woman, her enraged father falsely accuses his son-in-law of theft and has him incarcerated in order to separate the lovers in an irrational attempt to force his daughter to forget this "unworthy" young man.

Flesh and the Devil

When lifelong best friends Leo and Ulrich return home after completing their military training, Leo meets the stunning Felicitas at a railway station and is mesmerized by her beauty. A scandal follows, for which Leo is sent away. Returning home three years later, he discovers that much has changed.

Les Misérables

Jean Valjean, a Frenchman imprisoned for stealing bread, must flee a police officer named Javert. The pursuit consumes both men's lives, and soon Valjean finds himself in the midst of the student revolutions in France.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

In 1856, slave Eliza plans to marry George with the consent of the Shelbys, her masters, but George's owner prevents the wedding. A few years later, Eliza flees with her son, Harry, after learning the Shelbys plan to hand them over to a crooked creditor to prevent foreclosure. George also escapes and goes on the run while Eliza and Harry are captured and brought back home. Mother and son are separated as George tries to find them both.

Sin Takes a Holiday

Dowdy Sylvia accepts her boss' marriage proposal, even though he only asked her to avoid marriage to another woman. As a wealthy wife, Sylvia changes from ugly duckling to uninhibited swan and even contemplates having an affair with a man she meets during a trip to Paris.

How to Commit Marriage

A young couple decide to live together and they wind up having a baby. They decide they should give the baby up for adoption. The baby's Mother's parents wind up adopting the baby using a fake name.

The Girl Downstairs

A wealthy playboy surreptitiously romances a scullery maid to gain access to her mistress with whom he is in love, but doesn't count on the maid falling in love with him.

The Heart of Me

Drama set in 1930s London with two sisters, Madeleine married to Rickie, and Dinah, who falls in love with him. Rickie and Dinah begin an affair which is to have repercussions throughout all their lives.

Of Human Bondage

Medical student Philip falls in love with Mildred, a waitress. Although she is a flirt, they have a love affair. But when Philip is told about her constant infidelity, they break up. Mildred quits her job and becomes a prostitute. But Philip is still in love with her.

The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing

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.

Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Thomas Hardy's classic epic remains one of the most popular novels, this TV adaptation vividly depicts the powerful tale of a peasant girl whose life is torn apart by the love and jealousy of two men. Justine Waddell stars as the hapless Child of Nature who is tossed around by the dark forces of fate. Jason Flemyng is the dark and sinister Alec D'Urberville whose relentless pursuit of Tess triggers the heroine's downfall. Oliver Milburn plays the handsome young Angel Clare, the caring rebel who falls deeply in love with Tess.

Playgirl

If you remember Shelley Winters from "The Poseidon Adventure" or "Bloody Mama," you might tend to forget what a knockout she was early in her career. This film will give you the chance to see her as a sexy nightclub singer teaching her just-in-from-the-sticks friend Colleen Miller the ropes in New York City. When Winters finds out that her married boyfriend Barry Sullivan has fallen for Miller, the recriminations...and bullets...start to fly!

Living on Velvet

A lay-about falls for his best friend's fiancee. The two of them run away from a life of privilege to one of middle-class normalcy. When an influx of money enters their life, their differences come to light.

The Forbidden City

The daughter of a Chinese mandarin is sentenced to death for her secret marriage to an American. Their child, raised in the mandarin's palace, grows up and escapes to seek her father, now a high-ranking official in the Philippines.

Bread

Bread is a socially engaged drama which follows the fate of a woman struggling to pull herself out of poverty as she’s ruthlessly exploited by a string of men.

The White Sin

Wealthy playboy Grant Van Gore means to have his way with his beautiful maid, the innocent Hattie Lou. He swears his love to the naive girl, and in an act so heinous as to defy belief, has the captain of his yacht perform a fake marriage ceremony. He ruins poor Hattie Lou, and then abandons her ashore the very next morning. A year later, the destitute girl and her starving baby are wandering the streets. When she sees a newspaper headline announcing that Grant has drowned at sea, Hattie Lou hatches a desperate plan for survival. She will present herself to the wealthy Van Gore's, who cannot fail to provide for their late son's widow and child!

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