Taxi Driver (1976), Imitation of Life (1959), Imitation of Life (1934), Old Acquaintance (1943), One Way Passage (1932), Elizabeth (1998), Saving Face (2004), The Killing of Sister George (1968) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Soap Opera movies.
Storyline: Travis Bickle is an ex-Marine and Vietnam War veteran living in New York City. As he suffers from insomnia, he spends his time working as a taxi driver at night, watching porn movies at seedy cinemas during the day, or thinking about how the world, New York in particular, has deteriorated into a cesspool. He's a loner who has strong opinions about what is right and wrong with mankind. For him, the one bright spot in New York humanity is Betsy, a worker on the presidential nomination campaign of Senator Charles Palantine. He becomes obsessed with her. After an incident with her, he believes he has to do whatever he needs to make the world a better place in his opinion. One of his priorities is to be the savior for Iris, a twelve-year-old runaway and prostitute who he believes wants out of the profession and under the thumb of her pimp and lover Matthew.
Plot Keywords: taxi driver, child prostitution, mentally unstable, urban decay, manhattan new york city, neo noir, street life ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Aspiring actress Lora Meredith meets Annie Johnson, a homeless black woman at Coney Island and soon they share a tiny apartment. Each woman has an intolerable daughter, though, Annie's little girl Sarah Jane, is by far the worse. Neurotic and obnoxious, Sarah Jane doesn't like being black; since she's light-skinned (her father was practically white), she spends the rest of the film passing as white, much to her mother's heartache and shame. Lora, meanwhile, virtually ignores her own daughter in a single-minded quest for stardom.
Plot Keywords: african american, housekeeper, race relations, melodrama, ambition, adolescence, friendship between women ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Bea Pullman and her daughter Jessie have had a hard time making ends meet since Bea's husband died. Help comes in the form of Delilah Johnson, who agrees to work as Bea's housekeeper in exchange for a room for herself and her daughter Peola. Bea comes up with a plan to market Delilah's pancake recipe. The two soon become wealthy and as the years go on, their friendship deepens. Their relationships with their daughters, however, become strained. Ashamed of her mother, Peola seeks a new life by passing for white. Bea's love for her daughter is tested when she and Jessie fall for the same man.—<dbubbeo@cmp.com>
Plot Keywords: based on novel, funeral, runaway, racism, love triangle, race relations, single parent ...
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: Suave Dan Hardesty, a convicted murderer, is apprehended by Steve Burke, a police detective, in Hong Kong and accompanied on the SS Maloa headed for San Francisco. On board, Dan romances Joan Ames, a terminally ill socialite. She is unaware that his ultimate destination is San Quentin. Both realize that their time together is fleeting so they make a pact to meet at a Mexican night club on New Years Eve. When they part in San Francisco they know that the odds are against them.—Gary Jackson <garyjack5@cogeco.ca>
Plot Keywords: terminal illness, new year's eve, bartender, bullet, dancing, doctor, drunkenness ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: This film details the ascension to the throne and the early reign of Queen Elizabeth the First, as played by Cate Blanchett. The main focus is the endless attempts by her council to marry her off, the Catholic hatred of her and her romance with Lord Robert Dudley.
Plot Keywords: brutality, queen, catholic, throne, poisoning, orgy, inquisition ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: In Manhattan, the brilliant Chinese-American lesbian surgeon Wil is surprised by the arrival of her forty-eight year old widow mother to her apartment. Ma was banished from Flushing, Queens, when her father discovered that she was pregnant. The presence of Ma affects the personal life of Wil, who is in love with the daughter of her boss at the hospital, the dancer Vivian Shing. Once her grandfather has promised that her mother would only return to Flushing remarried or proving that it was an immaculate conception, Wil tries to find a Chinese bachelor to marry Ma.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Plot Keywords: lesbian love, mother daughter relationship, sex, bare breasts, lesbian romance, honor, fear ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: George lives with her lover, Childie and plays a cheerful district nurse in a BBC soap opera. However, her character is to be killed off, and George realises that the only other job she can get is the voice of a cow in a children's tv programme. Her life begins to fall apart as Childie has an affair with a predatory tv producer.—Paul Baker <bakerjp@unix.lancs.ac.uk>
Plot Keywords: nun, soap opera, lesbian, actress, jealousy, domination, alcohol ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A white-collar worker from a blue-collar family, Kitty Foyle has spent her so far short adult life in her hometown of Philadelphia or New York City. She has had two serious relationships, one associated with each city and each man with who she falls in love but in vastly different ways. "Philadelphia" is blue blooded Wyn Strafford VI. Wyn hires Kitty to be his secretary, he the editor for his pet project, a magazine, which is funded by family money. Kitty's now deceased father, despite liking Wyn as a person, warned Kitty against falling in love with him, regardless of his outward intentions, as his type always returned to his own kind. If she believes her father, Kitty may come to the realization that if a union with Wyn were to ever happen, it would not only be to him but to his family and their traditions, they who may have some say in the matter. After the magazine folds, it not making any money, Kitty is forced to look for another job, she feeling she would have more opportunities in New York City. Working as a sales associate at upscale Delphine Detaille parfumerie and cosmetics, Kitty meets "New York City" Mark Eisen. Mark is a public-health doctor who makes little money and thus who is cognizant about how he spends that money, most specifically when he will splurge on the luxuries in life, including on women. Simultaneous, each of the men proposes a future together with her, those futures which would take divergent paths and have different outlooks. Mark, specifically, is aware of there being a "Philadelphia" when he asks her to marry him. Kitty has to decide what kind of future she wants for herself in choosing which of the two proposals she will accept.—Huggo
Plot Keywords: philadelphia pennsylvania, snowglobe, single mother, salesclerk, speakeasy, high society, love triangle ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Mary Donnell was married at sixteen to a gangster and soon widowed. She works for unhappily married lawyer Lloyd Rogers. A client's son Jack elopes with her, but his father tracks them down and has the marriage annulled. Mary has a son. Unaware of this, the father remarries; his new wife is crippled in an auto accident. The lawyer, now dying, tells Mary he has left her money for her and her son, Rogers' widow suspects her husband may have been the father. Jack's ruthless father , upon learning that he is the grandparent of the child, threatens legal action to gain custody, but his son wants no part in separating little Jackie from his mother. Further, he reasserts his love for Mary and promises he will ask his now handicapped wife, Flip, for a divorce so that Jackie will have a real family. He instructs Mary to pack her belongings and get Jackie ready to leave so that the three can start a new life together. Before Jack has a chance to inform his now-handicapped wife, Flip, of these stunning developments, Flip pays an unexpected visit to Mary's apartment. To Mary's surprise, Flip makes a heartfelt, selfless plea for her to take Jack and make him happy as (in her words) she could no longer do. Mary is so struck by the offer and by Flip's true love for Jack, that she not only decides to cancel her plans to reunite with Jack, but also to ask Jack to adopt Jackie and, along with Flip, give him a 'proper' life in society. Jack enters the apartment and, in a whispered chat with Mary, is prevented from telling Flip that he ever had any intention of leaving her.—Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>
Plot Keywords: father son relationship, last will and testament, self sacrifice, reputation, remake, marriage proposal, mother son relationship ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Joy has always been fascinated by creating things, This pursuit was always supported emotionally by her maternal grandmother, Mimi. Joy feels that lack of practical support has led to others making fortunes on ideas she came up with years ago but could not act upon manufacturing. Despite being broke, Joy is the person in her extended family to whom everyone has always turned, in the process forgoing her own life, including not having attended college to help see her parents through their divorce. She works in an unsatisfying job as an Eastern Airlines ticket clerk; and lives with her mother Terry who spends all day in bed watching soap operas; her ex-husband Tony, a less than successful aspiring Latino Tom Jones wannabe; and their two children. Added to this mix is her father Rudy, the owner of a failing heavy-duty garage, which is managed by Joy's older half-sister Peggy, with whom she has somewhat of a strained relationship, and for which Joy does the books. Sharon, Rudy's latest ...
Plot Keywords: interracial relationship, bankruptcy, confrontation, sister sister relationship, live television, disappointment, dallas texas ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Celeste Talbert has been the queen of the soaps for over two decades. Montana Moorehead needs to get her out of her way before she can move on and begins her program to get her to leave. She hires an old boyfriend of Celeste to be on the show and has Celeste become a murderer in the script, but each attempt has unforseen consequences.
Plot Keywords: casting couch, rival, revenge, mistaken identity, jealousy, deception, celebrity ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Russian refugee Tanya Borisoff is suddenly abandoned penniless in Rangoon, Burma, by her lover, Tony Evans, who accepted a gunrunning deal from Nick, the owner of an amoral nightclub. Nick made the deal hoping to get Tanya as his main "hostess," which Tanya accepts after an initial refusal, just to make the best of a bad situation. She becomes notorious using the name "Spot White," but her affairs cause the commissioner of police to deport her. She reminds the commissioner of a previous tryst he had with her and extorts 10,000 rupees from him with which to make a new life. She uses a new name, Marjorie Lang, going to Mandalay, Burma, via the Irrawadi River by steamer, where she meets alcoholic Dr. Gregory Burton, who is on his way to help in an area plagued with a deadly contagious fever. As they slowly fall in love, she learns he's doing that to make amends for once operating on a patient while drunk, causing his death. She decides to go with him so they can put their pasts behind them together. But Tony is on the steamer too, and tries to convince Tanya he still loves her. Tony gets a wire from Nick telling him the police are on his trail and will pick him up at the next port, so he leaves evidence to suggest he took poison and jumped overboard, but actually he hides in the hold of the boat. The captain finds the evidence and believes Tanya murdered Tony, but at the urging of Dr. Burton and the first mate who finds the wire, he finally decides it was a suicide and frees her. When Tony returns to an astonished Tanya, he tries to convince her to open a club with him in Mandalay, where she could be a "hostess" again. Through with that life, she eyes the poison still in the cabin as Tony asks her to make him a drink.—Arthur Hausner <genart@volcano.net>
Plot Keywords: prostitution, location in title, potboiler, vindication, actress billed above the title, retribution, held at gunpoint ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Civilization and its discontents. Paul, an actor preparing for "Uncle Vanya" on Broadway, is mired in ennui. His agent tells him about an office where he can put his soul in storage. He does so then discovers that being soulless helps neither his acting nor his marriage; he returns to the office and rents, for two weeks, the soul of a Russian poet. His acting improves, but his wife finds him different, he sees bits of the borrowed soul's life, and he's now deep in sorrow. He wants his own soul back, but there are complications: it's in St. Petersburg. With the help of Nina, a Russian who transports souls to the U.S., he determines to get it back. Who has he become?—<jhailey@hotmail.com>
Plot Keywords: title directed by female, reference to anton chekhov, actress, doctor's office, shower, blond, wig ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Premarital sex, secrets, and society. At 17, shy Susan Slade is on her way to California after a ten-year stay at a remote Chilean mine where her father was chief engineer. Onboard ship, she's romanced by Conn White, a handsome mountain climber on his way to Alaska. Home in Monterey, Susan longs to hear from Conn. Two locals also take a shine to her - Hoyt Brecker, a horse wrangler who's the son of a criminal, and Wells Corbett, a sweet guy who lives in his high-society parents' shadow. Jump ahead two years, Susan has a desperate secret that her socially-conscious mother won't let her share. Can Susan find happiness - and what is it really that turns a girl into a woman?—<jhailey@hotmail.com>
Plot Keywords: pay phone, doorbell, marriage proposal, jealousy, jail cell, christmas present, convertible ...
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