30 best movies based on plays
by vinsond21 | created - 15 Dec 2010 | updated - 06 Jan 2017 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
PG | 122 min | Drama
Disturbed Blanche DuBois moves in with her sister in New Orleans and is tormented by her brutish brother-in-law while her reality crumbles around her.
Director: Elia Kazan | Stars: Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden
Votes: 114,263 | Gross: $8.00M
2. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
Not Rated | 108 min | Drama
Brick is an alcoholic ex-football player who drinks his days away and resists the affections of his wife. A reunion with his terminal father jogs a host of memories and revelations for both father and son.
Director: Richard Brooks | Stars: Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives, Jack Carson
Votes: 53,385 | Gross: $17.57M
3. Romeo and Juliet (1968)
PG | 138 min | Drama, Romance
When two young members of feuding families meet, forbidden love ensues.
Director: Franco Zeffirelli | Stars: Leonard Whiting, Olivia Hussey, John McEnery, Milo O'Shea
Votes: 34,738 | Gross: $38.90M
4. The Importance of Being Earnest (1952)
Not Rated | 95 min | Comedy, Drama
When Algernon discovers that his friend, Ernest, has created a fictional brother for whenever he needs a reason to escape dull country life, Algernon poses as the brother, resulting in ever increasing confusion.
Director: Anthony Asquith | Stars: Michael Redgrave, Richard Wattis, Michael Denison, Walter Hudd
Votes: 6,359
5. The Lion in Winter (1968)
PG | 134 min | Biography, Drama, History
1183 A.D.: King Henry II's three sons all want to inherit the throne, but he won't commit to a choice. When he allows his imprisoned wife Eleanor of Aquitaine out for a Christmas visit, they all variously plot to force him into a decision.
Director: Anthony Harvey | Stars: Peter O'Toole, Katharine Hepburn, Anthony Hopkins, John Castle
Votes: 34,186 | Gross: $22.28M
6. A Man for All Seasons (1966)
G | 120 min | Biography, Drama, History
The story of Sir Thomas More, who stood up to King Henry VIII when the King rejected the Roman Catholic Church to obtain a divorce and remarry.
Director: Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Paul Scofield, Wendy Hiller, Robert Shaw, Leo McKern
Votes: 37,135 | Gross: $28.35M
7. Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982)
PG | 109 min | Comedy, Drama
A fan club of die-hard James Dean fans meet on the 20th anniversary of his death and reconnect, opening old wounds and facing new ones.
Director: Robert Altman | Stars: Cher, Karen Black, Sandy Dennis, Sudie Bond
Votes: 5,160 | Gross: $0.84M
8. Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)
Approved | 114 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A surgeon is assigned the case of a young woman whose aunt wants her lobotomized to cover up a family secret.
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Stars: Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn, Montgomery Clift, Albert Dekker
Votes: 17,189 | Gross: $13.90M
9. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
Not Rated | 131 min | Drama
A bitter, aging couple, with the help of alcohol, use their young houseguests to fuel anguish and emotional pain towards each other over the course of a distressing night.
Director: Mike Nichols | Stars: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal, Sandy Dennis
Votes: 79,850
10. Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962)
Not Rated | 174 min | Drama
At the end of a long and hot summer day, members of one family gather in a large house. Everyone has something painful and offensive to say, and their silence is even worse.
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Katharine Hepburn, Ralph Richardson, Jason Robards, Dean Stockwell
Votes: 5,918
11. Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
PG | 99 min | Comedy, Drama
An old Jewish woman and her African-American chauffeur in the American South have a relationship that grows and improves over the years.
Director: Bruce Beresford | Stars: Morgan Freeman, Jessica Tandy, Dan Aykroyd, Patti LuPone
Votes: 117,477 | Gross: $106.59M
12. The Ruling Class (1972)
PG | 154 min | Comedy, Drama, Musical
A member of the House of Lords dies, leaving his estate to his son. Unfortunately, his son thinks he is Jesus Christ. Their other, somewhat more respectable family members plot to steal the estate from him; murder and mayhem ensue.
Director: Peter Medak | Stars: Peter O'Toole, Alastair Sim, Arthur Lowe, Hugh Owens
Votes: 6,797
13. Doubt (I) (2008)
PG-13 | 104 min | Drama, Mystery
A Catholic school principal questions a priest's ambiguous relationship with a troubled young student.
Director: John Patrick Shanley | Stars: Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Viola Davis
Votes: 136,021 | Gross: $33.42M
14. Picnic (1955)
Approved | 115 min | Drama, Romance
Emotions are ignited among the complacent townsfolk when a handsome drifter arrives in a small Kansas community on the morning of the Labor Day picnic.
Director: Joshua Logan | Stars: William Holden, Kim Novak, Betty Field, Susan Strasberg
Votes: 9,828
15. You Can't Take It with You (1938)
Passed | 126 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
The son of a snobbish Wall Street banker becomes engaged to a woman from a good-natured but decidedly eccentric family not realizing that his father is trying to force her family from their home for a real estate development.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Jean Arthur, James Stewart, Lionel Barrymore, Edward Arnold
Votes: 27,895 | Gross: $4.66M
16. Sleuth (1972)
PG | 138 min | Mystery, Thriller
A man who loves games and theater invites his wife's lover to meet him, setting up a battle of wits with potentially deadly results.
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Stars: Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine, Alec Cawthorne, John Matthews
Votes: 50,135 | Gross: $4.08M
17. Amadeus (1984)
R | 160 min | Biography, Drama, Music
The life, success and troubles of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as told by Antonio Salieri, the contemporaneous composer who was deeply jealous of Mozart's talent and claimed to have murdered him.
Director: Milos Forman | Stars: F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge, Roy Dotrice
Votes: 427,516 | Gross: $51.97M
18. Deathtrap (1982)
PG | 116 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery
A Broadway playwright puts murder in his plan to take credit for a student's play.
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Michael Caine, Christopher Reeve, Dyan Cannon, Irene Worth
Votes: 15,421 | Gross: $19.28M
19. Noises Off... (1992)
PG-13 | 101 min | Comedy
A travelling theater group find so much action going on behind-the-scenes, they almost ruin the performances.
Director: Peter Bogdanovich | Stars: Michael Caine, Carol Burnett, Denholm Elliott, Julie Hagerty
Votes: 12,238 | Gross: $2.28M
20. Barefoot in the Park (1967)
G | 106 min | Comedy, Romance
Paul, a conservative young lawyer, marries the vivacious Corie. Their highly passionate relationship descends into comical discord in a five-flight New York City walk-up apartment.
Director: Gene Saks | Stars: Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, Charles Boyer, Mildred Natwick
Votes: 20,474 | Gross: $19.99M
21. Equus (1977)
R | 137 min | Drama, Mystery
A psychiatrist attempts to uncover a troubled stable boy's disturbing obsession with horses.
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Richard Burton, Peter Firth, Colin Blakely, Joan Plowright
Votes: 8,740
22. The Odd Couple (1968)
Passed | 105 min | Comedy
A New Yorker newly separated from his wife moves in with his best friend, a divorced sportswriter, but their ideas of housekeeping and lifestyles are as different as night and day.
Director: Gene Saks | Stars: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, John Fiedler, Herb Edelman
Votes: 37,404 | Gross: $44.53M
23. Julius Caesar (1953)
Not Rated | 120 min | Drama, History
The growing ambition of Julius Caesar is a source of major concern to his close friend Brutus. Cassius persuades him to participate in his plot to assassinate Caesar but they have both sorely underestimated Mark Antony.
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Stars: Louis Calhern, Marlon Brando, James Mason, John Gielgud
Votes: 12,854
24. Hamlet (1948)
Approved | 154 min | Drama
Prince Hamlet struggles over whether or not he should kill his uncle, whom he suspects has murdered his father, the former king.
Director: Laurence Olivier | Stars: Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, John Laurie, Esmond Knight
Votes: 18,369 | Gross: $7.09M
25. Our Town (1940)
Not Rated | 90 min | Drama, Family, Romance
Change comes slowly to a small New Hampshire town in the early 20th century.
Director: Sam Wood | Stars: William Holden, Martha Scott, Fay Bainter, Beulah Bondi
Votes: 2,970
26. Butterflies Are Free (1972)
PG | 109 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
A blind man moves into his own apartment against the wishes of his overprotective mother and befriends the freethinking young woman next door.
Director: Milton Katselas | Stars: Goldie Hawn, Edward Albert, Eileen Heckart, Paul Michael Glaser
Votes: 5,954 | Gross: $0.25M
27. The Taming of The Shrew (1967)
Approved | 122 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Brutish, fortune-hunting scoundrel Petruchio tames his wealthy, shrewish wife, Katharina.
Director: Franco Zeffirelli | Stars: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Cyril Cusack, Michael Hordern
Votes: 8,675 | Gross: $8.00M
28. The Sunshine Boys (I) (1975)
PG | 111 min | Comedy
A vaudeville duo agree to reunite for a television special, but it turns out that they can't stand each other.
Director: Herbert Ross | Stars: Walter Matthau, George Burns, Richard Benjamin, Lee Meredith
Votes: 6,687
29. A Chorus of Disapproval (1989)
PG | 92 min | Comedy, Drama, Musical
Widower Guy is transferred to an English coastal town, where he joins an amateur operatic society to "meet people" and "have fun".
Director: Michael Winner | Stars: Jeremy Irons, Anthony Hopkins, Richard Briers, Barbara Ferris
Votes: 948 | Gross: $0.22M
30. Play It Again, Sam (1972)
PG | 85 min | Comedy, Romance
A neurotic film critic obsessed with the movie Casablanca (1942) attempts to get over his wife leaving him by dating again with the help of a married couple and his illusory idol, Humphrey Bogart.
Director: Herbert Ross | Stars: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Jerry Lacy
Votes: 27,982 | Gross: $2.30M
31. Master Harold ... and the Boys (2010)
PG-13 | 87 min | Drama
Hally, a white South African adolescent, is stuck between his intolerant father's view of him and those of his caregiver, Sam, a Black waiter who is Hally's friend and teacher. Hally is ... See full summary »
Director: Lonny Price | Stars: Ving Rhames, Freddie Highmore, Patrick Mofokeng, Jennifer Steyn
Votes: 582
32. The Boys in the Band (1970)
R | 118 min | Drama
Tempers fray and true selves are revealed when a heterosexual accidentally intrudes on a homosexual party.
Director: William Friedkin | Stars: Kenneth Nelson, Peter White, Leonard Frey, Frederick Combs
Votes: 5,884 | Gross: $7.63M
33. Betrayal (1983)
R | 95 min | Drama, Thriller
An affair between a literary agent and his best friend's wife. The story unfolds in reverse-chronological order.
Director: David Hugh Jones | Stars: Jeremy Irons, Ben Kingsley, Patricia Hodge, Avril Elgar
Votes: 1,743
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