Movies Like For the Defense

If you liked For the Defense (1916), a drama movie directed by Frank Reicher, here are 20 movies with a similar feel, based on TMDB's recommendations. Each one links to its cast, trailer and where it's streaming.

1
Edmond (2006)
★ 6/10Also drama
Seemingly mild-mannered businessman Edmond Burke visits a fortuneteller and hears a remark that spurs him to leave his wife abruptly and seek what is missing from his life. Encounters with strangers and unsavory people…
2
While the City Sleeps (1956)
★ 6.9/10Also drama
Newspaper men compete against each other to find a serial killer dubbed "The Lipstick Killer".
3
Scarlet Street (1945)
★ 7.6/10Also drama
Cashier and part-time starving artist Christopher Cross is absolutely smitten with the beautiful Kitty March. Kitty plays along, but she's really only interested in Johnny, a two-bit crook. When Kitty and Johnny find…
4
The Deep End of the Ocean (1999)
★ 6.6/10Also drama
A three-year-old boy disappears during his mother's high school reunion. Nine years later, by chance, he turns up in the town in which the family has just relocated.
5
Wonderstruck (2017)
★ 6.1/10Also drama
The story of a young boy in the Midwest is told simultaneously with a tale about a young girl in New York from fifty years ago as they both seek the same mysterious connection.
6
Eleanor the Great (2025)
★ 6.8/10Also drama
94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.
7
Oliver Twist (1948)
★ 7.6/10Also drama
When 9-year-old orphan Oliver Twist dares to ask his cruel taskmaster, Mr. Bumble, for a second serving of gruel, he's hired out as an apprentice. Escaping that dismal fate, young Oliver falls in with the street urchin…
8
Plunder Road (1957)
★ 6.9/10Also drama
A spectacular heist starts to unravel as the crooks take it on the lam.
9
The Keys of the Kingdom (1944)
★ 7.1/10Also drama
A young priest, Father Chisholm is sent to China to establish a Catholic parish among the non-Christian Chinese. While his boyhood friend, also a priest, flourishes in his calling as a priest in a more Christian area…
10
Belle (2013)
★ 7.1/10Also drama
Dido Elizabeth Bell, the illegitimate, mixed-race daughter of a Royal Navy admiral, plays an important role in the campaign to abolish slavery in England.
11
The Wrong Man (1956)
★ 7.1/10Also drama
In 1953, an innocent man named Christopher Emmanuel "Manny" Balestrero is arrested after being mistaken for an armed robber.
12
Gaslight (1944)
★ 7.5/10Also drama
A newlywed fears she's going mad when strange things start happening at the family mansion.
13
The Defiant Ones (1958)
★ 7.2/10Also drama
Two convicts—one white, one black—escape while chained to each other.
14
Nightmare Alley (1947)
★ 7.2/10Also drama
A roustabout joins a traveling carny and schemes to figure out the mind-reading act of Mademoiselle Zeena and her alcoholic husband.
15
'G' Men (1935)
★ 6.6/10Also drama
James “Brick” Davis, a struggling attorney, owes his education to a mobster, but always has refused to get involved with the underworld. When a friend of his is gunned down by a notorious criminal, Brick decides to…
16
Cry of the City (1948)
★ 6.7/10Also drama
Petty crook and cop-killer Martin Rome, in bad shape from wounds in the hospital prison ward, still refuses to help slimy lawyer Niles clear his client by confessing to another crime. Police Lt. Candella must check…
17
The Dark Past (1948)
★ 6/10Also drama
A gang hold a family hostage in their own home. The leader of the escaped cons is bothered by a recurring dream that the doctor of the house may be able to analyze.
18
Nancy (2018)
★ 5.8/10Also drama
Nancy becomes increasingly convinced she was kidnapped as a child. When she meets a couple whose daughter went missing thirty years ago, reasonable doubts give way to willful belief.
19
Flowers in the Attic (2014)
★ 6.7/10Also drama
After the sudden death of their father, four children face cruel treatment from their ruthless grandmother.
20
A Little Princess (1995)
★ 7.6/10Also drama
When her father enlists to fight for the British in WWI, young Sara Crewe goes to New York to attend the same boarding school her late mother attended. She soon clashes with the severe headmistress, Miss Minchin, who…