Movies Like The Telephone Rings in the Evening

If you liked The Telephone Rings in the Evening (1959), a comedy and thriller movie directed by Kōzaburō Yoshimura, here are 19 movies with a similar feel, based on TMDB's recommendations. Each one links to its cast, trailer and where it's streaming.

1
Ricky Gervais: Mortality (2025)
★ 7/10Also comedy
Ricky Gervais tackles life, death and the state of the world in a brutally honest special that spares no topic, even his own mortality.
2
Hard to Die (1990)
★ 6/10Also comedy and thriller
While doing the inventory for a lingerie outlet in a high rise office building, five attractive women are terrorized by a series of bizarre killings. They suspect that the strange janitor, who witnessed another series…
3
Hostile Takeover (2025)
★ 6.9/10Also comedy and thriller
Follows Pete, a professional hitman, as he faces a group of assassins after the boss of a crime syndicate suspects disloyalty due to his attendance at Workaholics Anonymous meetings.
4
LaRoy, Texas (2024)
★ 6.8/10Also comedy and thriller
Broke and depressed, Ray is mistaken for a dangerous hitman and given an envelope of cash. Along with his P.I. friend Skip, he must escape the actual hitman to make it out of LaRoy alive.
5
Gotcha! (1985)
★ 6/10Also comedy and thriller
A student on a trip to France is tricked into smuggling secrets across the Iron Curtain by a sexy spy.
6
Self Reliance (2024)
★ 5.9/10Also comedy and thriller
When a man is offered a million dollars to play a game in which hunters try to kill him, he thinks he has found the perfect loophole: they can only attack when he’s alone. His only problem is that none of his friends…
7
Bad Apples (2026)
★ 6.9/10Also comedy and thriller
A struggling primary school teacher is forced to take drastic action because of a foul-mouthed, violent student, and uncovers how her community will turn a blind eye to the most outrageous events to preserve harmony…
8
Stretch (2014)
★ 6.2/10Also comedy and thriller
A hard-luck limo driver struggling to go straight and pay off a debt to his bookie takes on a job with a crazed passenger whose sought-after ledger implicates some seriously dangerous criminals.
9
The Wrong Guy (1997)
★ 6.8/10Also comedy and thriller
Nelson Hibbert expects to become the new president of Nagel Industries, but Mr. Nagel gives the promotion to another employee. When Nelson barges into Nagel's office to confront him, he finds Nagel's been murdered…
10
The Dream Team (1989)
★ 6.1/10Also comedy and thriller
Four mental patients on a field trip in New York City must save their caring chaperone, who ends up being taken to a hospital in a coma after accidentally witnessing a murder, before the killers can find him and finish…
11
The Corrupted (2019)
★ 6.1/10Also thriller
Set ahead of the 2012 London Olympics, the film follows Liam, an ex-con trying to win back the love and trust of his family. He has lost everything at the hands of a local crime syndicate run by Clifford Cullen, who…
12
All the Devils Are Here (2025)
★ 6.2/10Also thriller
After a heist, four criminals lay low in a remote safehouse, waiting for orders. As paranoia builds, one thing becomes clear — the real threat may not be outside, but among them.
13
Thunderstruck (2012)
★ 6.2/10Also comedy
After NBA star Kevin Durant switches talent with 16 year old Brian, the teenager becomes the star of his high school team, but Durant starts struggling and eventually learns an important lesson.
14
The Best Man (2023)
★ 6.1/10Also thriller
Mercenaries seize control of a remote resort hotel during a wedding and it's up to the best man, the groom and their drunken best friend to stop the terrorists and save the hostages.
15
Fun with Dick and Jane (1977)
★ 6.6/10Also comedy
When an upwardly mobile couple find themselves unemployed and in debt, they turn to armed robbery in desperation.
16
Wardriver (2026)
★ 7.4/10Also thriller
He’s a Wardriver: a hacker who steals from banks, not people—until he’s noticed. Now the money turns violent, and the woman caught in it could save him or kill them both.
17
Off the Grid (2025)
★ 6.5/10Also thriller
After a morally-bankrupt company tries to weaponize a brilliant scientist's revolutionary technology, he goes off the grid to safeguard humanity. When the company sends a strike force to find him, they make their…
18
Bad Sister (2015)
★ 6.6/10Also thriller
As a top student at St. Adeline's Catholic Boarding School, Zoe senses that something is not quite right about the school's new nun-- a sense proven to be true when it is revealed the "good' nun is an imposter with a…
19
Ca$h (2010)
★ 5.9/10Also thriller and comedy
A stroke of good luck turns lethal for Sam Phelan and his wife Leslie when they are faced with a life-changing decision that brings strange and sinister Pyke Kubic to their doorstep. As Pyke leads Sam and Leslie on a…