Highest-Rated Movies about 'Adapted Screenplay'

Witness for the Prosecution (1957), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), Midnight Cowboy (1969), The Odd Couple (1968), The Petrified Forest (1936), Dinner at Eight (1933), The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1973), Design for Living (1933) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Adapted Screenplay movies.

#1. Witness for the Prosecution (1957)

Storyline: Britain, 1953. Upon his return to work following a heart attack, barrister takes on a murder case,. The case is defending American war vet Leonard Vole, a poor, out of work, struggling inventor who's accused of murdering his middle-aged lonely and wealthy acquaintance, Emily French. The evidence is circumstantial but points to Leonard as the murderer, butr the csse has constant revelations.

Plot Keywords: courtroom drama, mystery, crime, drama, film noir, classic, murder ...

Movie Details Click Here !

#2. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)

Storyline: The family of "Big Daddy" Pollitt convenes at his and Big Momma's. Among the attendees is alcoholic son, Brick; an ex-football player, who spends his time drinking and avoiding the ministries of his libidinous wife, Maggie - 'the cat'. As this gathering isn't so much as a gathering but a farewell (Big Daddy is terminally ill) a lot of memories and revelations which had been hidden come to the surface of both father and son.

Plot Keywords: drama, family, marriage, romance, desire, inheritance, deception ...

Movie Details Click Here !

#3. Midnight Cowboy (1969)

Storyline: Texas greenhorn Joe Buck arrives in New York City for the first time. Preening himself as a real "hustler", he finds that he is the one getting "hustled" until he teams up with down-and-out but resilient outcast Ratso Rizzo. The initial "country cousin meets city cousin" relationship deepens. In their efforts to bilk a hostile world rebuffing them at every turn, this unlikely pair progress from partners in shady business to comrades. Each has found his first real friend.

Plot Keywords: drama, usa, oscar, best picture, adapted screenplay, street life, friendship ...

Movie Details Click Here !

#4. The Odd Couple (1968)

Storyline: Felix's (Jack Lemmon) wife has left him and he is contemplating suicide. His friends sense his depression and one of them, Oscar (Walter Matthau), volunteers to take him in until he is fine again. The two of them are like chalk and cheese - Oscar is fun-loving, gregarious and slovenly, Felix is a shy, stay-at-home, obsessive-compulsive neat-freak. Being around Oscar brightens Felix up, but he quickly starts to irritate Oscar.

Plot Keywords: comedy, classic, 1960s, adapted screenplay, personality clash, divorce, friendship ...

Movie Details Click Here !

#5. The Petrified Forest (1936)

Storyline: Gabby lives and works at her dads small diner out in the desert. She can't stand it and wants to go and live with her mother in France. Along comes Alan, a broke man with no will to live, who is traveling to see the pacific, and maybe to drown in it. Meanwhile Duke Mantee a notorious killer and his gang is heading towards the diner where Mantee plan on meeting up with his girl.

Plot Keywords: film noir, crime, drama, thriller, hostage, fugitive, gangster ...

Movie Details Click Here !

#6. Dinner at Eight (1933)

Storyline: Millicent Jordan is pre-occupied with the plans she is making for a high-class dinner party. Her husband Oliver is in failing health, and he is also worried because someone is trying to buy up the stock in his shipping business - even his old friend Carlotta wants to sell her stock. Hoping to get help from businessman Dan Packard, he persuades Millicent, against her wishes, to invite Packard and his wife to the dinner. As Oliver's problems get worse, Millicent is increasingly quick-tempered because the plans for the party are not going smoothly. As the time for the dinner approaches, it appears that the hosts and the guests will all have plenty on their minds.—Snow Leopard

Plot Keywords: comedy, drama, classic, dark comedy, ensemble cast, 1930s, golden age hollywood ...

Movie Details Click Here !

#7. The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1973)

Storyline: From the Pullizer Prize winning play by Paul Zindel, this is the story of Beatrice Hunsdorfer and her daughters, Ruth and Matilda. A middle-aged widowed eccentric, Beatrice is looking for her life in the classified ads while all about her is the rubble of an unkempt house. All she needs is the right opportunity, she says puffing on a cigarette. Poorly equipped to survive the vagaries of modern life, she has nonetheless always managed to muddle through. Ruth, epileptic and making her way through the rebellious phase of adolescence, seems doomed to make the same mistakes as her mother. Quiet Matilda, on the other hand, seeks refuge in her animals and her schoolwork. "Jesus, don't you hate the world, Matilda?" Beatrice asks her youngest daughter. The title of the film is also the subject of Matilda's science project at school and serves as a metaphor for the way life affects each of us differently -- how some are able to find opportunity in adversity and thrive and how some succumb when the burden becomes too heavy. This is the story of slowly drowning and grasping desperately for a lifeline only to find that there's none there and you must save yourself. "No, Mama," Matilda says, "I don't hate the world." (Nell Potts, who stars as Matilda, is the stage name of Eleanor Newman -- Joanne Woodward's real-life daughter. She also appeared as the young Rachel in *Rachel, Rachel*.)—Mark Fleetwood <mfleetwo@mail.coin.missouri.edu>

Plot Keywords: drama, family, psychological, coming of age, mother-daughter relationship, loneliness, hope ...

Movie Details Click Here !

#8. Design for Living (1933)

Storyline: Two Americans sharing a flat in Paris, playwright Tom Chambers and painter George Curtis, fall for free-spirited Gilda Farrell. When she can't make up her mind which one of them she prefers, she proposes a "gentleman's agreement": She will move in with them as a friend and critic of their work, but they will never have sex. But when Tom goes to London to supervise a production of one of his plays, leaving Gilda alone with George, how long will their gentleman's agreement last?—Capel Cleggs <capelcleggs@my-deja.com>

Plot Keywords: comedy, romance, love triangle, classic, romantic comedy, golden age hollywood, noel coward ...

Movie Details Click Here !

#9. Counsellor-at-Law (1933)

Storyline: Crackerjack lawyer George Simon is a workaholic, and a successful one, at that. Having just gotten a woman acquited of a murder charge, he is juggling cases ranging from breaking a will to quashing the disorderly conduct charges against the son of a woman he knew in the old neighborhood, before he became a hot shot counsellor. He adores his wife Cora, who feels she married a bit below her station. His step-children think so, too. His secretary Rexy adores him, although he is oblivious to the fact. Threatened with losing his practice due to a discretion in a case seven years earlier, his wife leaves for Europe until the scandal blows over, and he comes to realize (just in time) who his true friends are.—Ron Kerrigan <mvg@whidbey.com>

Plot Keywords: legal, drama, courtroom, lawyer, new york, 1930s, social class ...

Movie Details Click Here !

#10. The Bad Seed (1956)

Storyline: Christine Penmark seems to have it all: a lovely home, a loving husband and the most "perfect" daughter in the world. But since childhood, Christine has suffered from the most terrible recurring nightmare. And her "perfect" daughter's accomplishments include lying, theft and possibly much, much worse. Only Christine knows the truth about her daughter and only Christine's father knows the truth about her nightmare.

Plot Keywords: psychological thriller, crime, drama, horror, film noir, mystery, evil child ...

Movie Details Click Here !

#11. Leaving Las Vegas (1995)

Storyline: Because his wife left him and took his son with her, screenwriter Ben Sanderson has started drinking, a lot. He's getting more and more isolated and he troubles women in bars because he wants to have sex with them. When he gets fired, he decides to leave everything behind and move to Las Vegas and drink himself to death. In Las Vegas he meets Sera, a prostitute with some problems as well who he moves in with.

Plot Keywords: drama, romance, tragedy, alcoholism, self-destruction, loneliness, redemption ...

Movie Details Click Here !

#12. A Hole in the Head (1959)

Storyline: Based on Arnold Schulman's Broadway play of the same name, this comedy finds widower Tony Manetta (Frank Sinatra) struggling to own and operate a Miami hotel. Irresponsible in both business and romance, Tony is dedicated to his young son, Ally (Eddie Hodges), though he butts heads with his own brother, Mario (Edward G. Robinson). When Mario agrees to help Tony out financially, the catch is that the bachelor has to settle down and find a mother for his son.

Plot Keywords: comedy, drama, family, romance, american, classic, black and white ...

Movie Details Click Here !

#13. Driving Miss Daisy (1989)

Storyline: An elderly Jewish widow living in Atlanta can no longer drive. Her son insists she allow him to hire a driver, which in the 1950s meant a black man. She resists any change in her life but, Hoke, the driver is hired by her son. She refuses to allow him to drive her anywhere at first, but Hoke slowly wins her over with his native good graces. The movie is directly taken from a stage play and does show it. It covers over twenty years of the pair's life together as they slowly build a relationship that transcends their differences.

Plot Keywords: drama, comedy, friendship, race relations, aging, generational conflict, american south ...

Movie Details Click Here !

#14. Watch on the Rhine (1943)

Storyline: Anti-Fascist German engineer Kurt Muller, with his American-born wife, Sara, and their three children, returns to the United States in 1940 after spending 17 years in Europe, where Kurt has engaged in underground resistance to the rising Nazi threat. Unscrupulous Romanian count Teck de Brancovis, a houseguest of Sara's family in Washington, D.C., discovers Kurt's secret and threatens to expose his activities to his contacts at the German embassy.—Jwelch5742

Plot Keywords: war, drama, espionage, nazis, resistance, family, moral dilemma ...

Movie Details Click Here !

#15. Fences (2016)

Storyline: Troy Maxson makes his living as a sanitation worker in 1950s Pittsburgh. Maxson once dreamed of becoming a professional baseball player, but was deemed too old when the major leagues began admitting black athletes. Bitter over his missed opportunity, Troy creates further tension in his family when he squashes his son's chance to meet a college football recruiter.

Plot Keywords: drama, family, race, america, 1950s, father-son relationship, marriage ...

Movie Details Click Here !