Double Indemnity (1944), Gone with the Wind (1939), The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), Marty (1955), Old Acquaintance (1943), Separate Tables (1958), Dean Spanley (2008), The Little Thief (1989) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Old Maid movies.
Storyline: In 1938, Walter Neff, an experienced salesman of the Pacific All Risk Insurance Co., meets the seductive wife of one of his clients, Phyllis Dietrichson, and they have an affair. Phyllis proposes to kill her husband to receive the proceeds of an accident insurance policy and Walter devises a scheme to receive twice the amount based on a double indemnity clause. When Mr. Dietrichson is found dead on a train track, the police accept the determination of accidental death. However, the insurance analyst and Walter's best friend Barton Keyes does not buy the story and suspects that Phyllis has murdered her husband with the help of another man.
Plot Keywords: murder disguised as accident, femme fatale, double cross, insurance, based on novel, los angeles california, insurance fraud ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Scarlett is a woman who can deal with a nation at war, Atlanta burning, the Union Army carrying off everything from her beloved Tara, the carpetbaggers who arrive after the war. Scarlett is beautiful. She has vitality. But Ashley, the man she has wanted for so long, is going to marry his placid cousin, Melanie. Mammy warns Scarlett to behave herself at the party at Twelve Oaks. There is a new man there that day, the day the Civil War begins. Rhett Butler. Scarlett does not know he is in the room when she pleads with Ashley to choose her instead of Melanie.
Plot Keywords: narcissistic personality disorder, american civil war, black stereotype, battle of the sexes, high society, cotton, old maid ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: The young, handsome, but somewhat wild Eugene Morgan wants to marry Isabel Amberson, daughter of a rich upper-class family, but she instead marries dull and steady Wilbur Minafer. Their only child, George, grows up a spoiled brat. Years later, Eugene comes back, now a mature widower and a successful automobile maker. After Wilbur dies, Eugene again asks Isabel to marry him, and she is receptive. But George resents the attentions paid to his mother, and he and his whacko aunt Fanny manage to sabotage the romance. A series of disasters befall the Ambersons and George, and he gets his come-uppance in the end.
Plot Keywords: spoiled brat, forgiveness, jealousy, comeuppance, class differences, automobile, star ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Stuck as the last of six children at home with an overbearing Italian mother, the only child still unmarried, 34 year old socially awkward Bronx butcher Marty faces middle age with no prospects of marriage, and he faces permanent bachelorhood. But when he is goaded by his mother into going to the Stardust Ballroom one Saturday night, Marty unexpectedly meets Clara, a lonely teacher. Suddenly, Marty's future seems bright.
Plot Keywords: dance hall, bus stop, dancing, italian american, date, overbearing mother, teacher ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Jealous of best friend Kit, a critically acclaimed but financially unsuccessful author and playwright, Millie writes a novel, the first in a string of bestselling trashy novels. After eight years of neglect and taking a backseat to Millie's fame, her husband Preston leaves her. Another decade passes and Kit announces her intention of marrying the decade-younger Rudd. Millie thinks Preston wishes to reconcile, only to discover he is engaged. He also admits that he was in love with Kit, who had turned down his many advances. Feeling Kit to blame for the failure of her marriage, Millie flies into a rage and confronts Kit. Later, learning of Rudd's affection for Millie's daughter Diedre, Kit graciously steps aside to bless their union. In the end, Millie and Kit make up, sharing a champagne toast for each one's old acquaintance.—Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>
Plot Keywords: record store, fireplace, train station, reference to johannes brahms, manhattan new york city, empire state building manhattan new york city, older woman younger man relationship ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: It's the off-season at the lonely Beauregard Hotel in Bournemoth, and only the long-term tenants are still in residence. Life at the Beauregard is stirred up, however, when the beautiful Ann Shankland arrives to see her alcoholic ex-husband, John Malcolm, who is secretly engaged to Pat Cooper, the woman who runs the hotel. Meanwhile, snobbish Mrs Railton-Bell discovers that the kindly if rather doddering Major Pollock is not what he appears to be. The news is particularly shocking for her frail daughter, Sibyl, who is secretly in love with the Major.—Shannon Patrick Sullivan <shannon@mun.ca>
Plot Keywords: mother daughter relationship, ostracism, sexual repression, class differences, ex husband ex wife relationship, loneliness, old maid ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Each Thursday, a man approaching middle age calls upon his father, aged, caustic, nihilistic, and emotionally distant, perhaps from the loss of a son in the Boer War and his wife soon after. On this day, the son suggests they attend a visiting guru's lecture on the transmigration of souls. There they chat with a vicar and a soldier of fortune; dinner follows. Over glasses of Hungarian Tokay, the vicar, Dean Spanley, tells a story of friendship, freedom, and reincarnation. In what earthly way could this tale connect father and son?—<jhailey@hotmail.com>
Plot Keywords: horse, wine, clergyman, snow, scam, old maid, dead wife ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A penniless middle-aged spinster scrapes by giving piano lessons in the Dublin of the 1950s. She makes a sad last bid for love with a fellow resident of her rundown boarding house, who imagines she has the money to bankroll the business he hopes to open.—Morganalee
Plot Keywords: 1950s, card playing, catholic, church, cigarette smoking, commitment, confessional ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Taking place in pre-World War II England, aging sisters Ursula and Janet live peacefully in their cottage on the shore of Cornwall. One morning following a violent storm, the sisters spot from their garden a nearly-drowned man lying on the beach. They nurse him back to health and discover that he is Polish. Communicating in broken German while they teach him English, they learn his name is Andrea and that he is a particularly gifted violinist. His boat was on its way to America, where he is headed to look for a better life. It doesn't take long for them to become attached to Andrea, and they dote on him. Other townspeople, however, have their suspicions, especially when he befriends a Russian woman, Olga.—L. J.
Plot Keywords: suspicion, based on short story, sister sister relationship, broken ankle, violin, violinist, russian ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Harry Sanborn is an aged music industry exec with a fondness for younger women like Marin, his latest trophy girlfriend. Things get a little awkward when Harry suffers a heart attack at the home of Marin's mother Erica. Left in the care of Erica and his doctor, a love triangle starts to take shape.
Plot Keywords: female frontal nudity, wealth, marriage, sleeping, ambulance, 911, computer ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Emma Woodhouse is a congenial young lady who delights in meddling in other people's affairs. She is perpetually trying to unite men and women who are utterly wrong for each other. Despite her interest in romance, Emma is clueless about her own feelings, and her relationship with gentle Mr. Knightly.
Plot Keywords: matchmaker, female protagonist, duet, snob, singing, horse and buggy, dancing ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Olga, Masha and Irina Prozoroff (Louise Purnell) lead lonely and purposeless lives following the death of their father who had commanded the local army post. Olga attempts to find satisfaction in teaching, but secretly longs for a home and family. Masha, unhappy with her marriage to a timid schoolmaster, falls hopelessly in love with married Colonel Vershinin. Irina works in the local telegraph office, but longs for gaiety. Their sense of futility is increased by their brother's marriage to Natasha, a coarse peasant girl. She gradually encroaches on the family home until even the private refuge of the sisters is destroyed. They dream of starting a new life in Moscow, but are saddled with the practicalities of their quiet existence. Despite their failures, they resolve to seek some purpose and hope when the army post is withdrawn from the town.—alfiehitchie
Plot Keywords: period drama, based on play, death of father, aging, brother sister relationship, husband wife relationship, old maid ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Three American women, rooming together while working abroad in Rome, Italy, hope for romance and marriage. Frances, oldest of the three, has been fifteen years a secretary to novelist John Frederick Shadwell, a man whom she loves but whose reclusive nature prompts most people to believe him long since dead. Anita, one week away from returning to America (under the claim of getting married), finally bucks company rules (and gets caught) by finally accepting an invitation from an Italian co-worker to visit his family's farm for his sister's wedding. Newly arrived Maria soon sets her generally innocent eyes on Dino di Cessi, an actual prince with a reputation for womanizing, and makes a play for him by making herself his perfect match.—statmanjeff
Plot Keywords: fountain, brother sister relationship, father son relationship, chaperone, employer employee relationship, telephone call, interpreter ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: On Quality Street in 1805 England, a gentleman passerby is an event, not only for the lady being called upon, but also for the ever-nosy female neighbors. When Dr. Valentine Brown calls on 20-year-old Phoebe Throssel, she almost expects a marriage proposal; instead, he has come to tell her that he has enlisted in the army to fight in the Napoleonic Wars, with no romantic syllable spoken. 10 years later, Phoebe and her older sister Susan now run a school and neither has married. At first sight of Phoebe, Captain Brown hardly recognizes her--the years haven't been kind to her and she is no longer the pretty young thing he once knew. Heartbroken at his reaction, she decides to pay attention to her appearance, realizing that she has been neglecting it. When Captain Brown returns, he is again stunned, and his reaction spurs Patty, the Throssels' maid, to introduce her as Livvy, their visiting niece. Captain Brown seems enthralled with "Livvy"--as does many a young returning junior officer. Phoebe wades into the situation with no plan except to keep masquerading as Livvy, string along all the junior officers, and make Captain Brown jealous enough to propose marriage to her, which she will then rebuke as a ridiculous suggestion. Will Phoebe be able to pull off the scheme, which includes fooling the ever-knowing spinster Willoughby sisters, the Throssel sisters' closest friends? Or will Captain Brown's admission to Livvy make Phoebe change her plan of attack?—Huggo
Plot Keywords: based on play, doctor, disguise, aging, 20 year old, 30 year old, marriage proposal ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Cousin Bette is a poor and lonely seamstress, who, after the death of her prominent and wealthy sister, tries to ingratiate herself into lives of her brother-in-law, Baron Hulot, and her niece, Hortense Hulot. Failing to do so, she instead finds solace and company in a handsome young sculptor she saves from starvation. But the aspiring artist soon finds love in the arms of another woman, Hortense, leaving Bette a bitter spinster. Bette plots to take revenge on the family who turned her away and stole her only love. With the help of famed courtesan Jenny Cadine she slowly destroys the lives of those who have scorned her.—<CherylC894@aol.com>
Plot Keywords: nanny, pregnancy, baby, debt, dwarf, servant, dance ...
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