Sort by Popularity - Most Popular Movies and TV Shows tagged with keywords "california", "melodrama"
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1. Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990–2000)
TV-PG | 44 min | Drama, Romance
A group of friends living in Beverly Hills, California make their way through life from their school days into adulthood.
Stars: Jason Priestley, Shannen Doherty, Luke Perry, Jennie Garth
Votes: 37,637
2. Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
R | 90 min | Comedy, Drama
A group of Southern California high school students are enjoying their most important subjects: sex, drugs and rock n' roll.
Director: Amy Heckerling | Stars: Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, Robert Romanus
Votes: 115,898 | Gross: $27.09M
3. Romeo + Juliet (1996)
PG-13 | 120 min | Drama, Romance
Shakespeare's famous play is updated to the hip modern suburb of Verona still retaining its original dialogue.
Director: Baz Luhrmann | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Claire Danes, John Leguizamo, Harold Perrineau
Votes: 245,052 | Gross: $46.35M
4. The Graduate (1967)
PG | 106 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A disillusioned college graduate finds himself torn between his older lover and her daughter.
Director: Mike Nichols | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross, William Daniels
Votes: 288,697 | Gross: $104.95M
5. The Fabelmans (2022)
PG-13 | 151 min | Drama
Growing up in post-World War II era Arizona, young Sammy Fabelman aspires to become a filmmaker as he reaches adolescence, but soon discovers a shattering family secret and explores how the power of films can help him see the truth.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Michelle Williams, Gabriel LaBelle, Paul Dano, Judd Hirsch
Votes: 117,228
6. Melrose Place (1992–1999)
TV-14 | 60 min | Drama, Romance
Classic serial drama around a group of friends living in Melrose Place, California.
Stars: Heather Locklear, Andrew Shue, Courtney Thorne-Smith, Thomas Calabro
Votes: 13,302
7. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
Passed | 110 min | Drama, Film-Noir
A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson
Votes: 236,727
8. Inside Daisy Clover (1965)
Approved | 128 min | Drama, Music, Romance
A tomboy turned movie star deals with the cruelty of Hollywood.
Director: Robert Mulligan | Stars: Natalie Wood, Christopher Plummer, Robert Redford, Ruth Gordon
Votes: 4,286
9. The Stand (1994)
Not Rated | 90 min | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
After a deadly plague kills most of the world's population, the remaining survivors split into two groups - one led by a benevolent elder and the other by a malevolent being - to face each other in a final battle between good and evil.
Stars: Gary Sinise, Molly Ringwald, Jamey Sheridan, Laura San Giacomo
Votes: 38,461
10. The Room (2003)
R | 99 min | Drama
In San Francisco, an amiable banker's seemingly perfect life is turned upside down when his deceitful fiancée embarks on an affair with his best friend.
Director: Tommy Wiseau | Stars: Tommy Wiseau, Juliette Danielle, Greg Sestero, Philip Haldiman
Votes: 95,100 | Gross: $0.22M
11. The World's Fastest Indian (2005)
PG-13 | 127 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
The story of New Zealander Burt Munro, who spent years rebuilding a 1920 Indian motorcycle, which helped him set the land speed world record at Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats in 1967.
Director: Roger Donaldson | Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Diane Ladd, Iain Rea, Tessa Mitchell
Votes: 58,689 | Gross: $5.13M
12. Changeling (2008)
R | 141 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
After Christine's son goes missing, she reaches out to the LAPD to find him. But when they try to pass off an impostor as her son to quieten public protests, she refuses to accept him or give up hope.
Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Angelina Jolie, Colm Feore, Amy Ryan, Gattlin Griffith
Votes: 265,411 | Gross: $35.74M
13. River's Edge (1986)
R | 99 min | Crime, Drama
A high school slacker commits a shocking act and proceeds to let his friends in on the secret. However, the friends' reaction is almost as ambiguous and perplexing as the crime itself.
Director: Tim Hunter | Stars: Crispin Glover, Keanu Reeves, Ione Skye, Daniel Roebuck
Votes: 20,734 | Gross: $4.60M
14. East of Eden (1955)
PG | 118 min | Drama
Two brothers in 1910s California struggle to maintain their strict, Bible-toting father's favor as an old secret about their long-absent mother comes to light.
Director: Elia Kazan | Stars: James Dean, Raymond Massey, Julie Harris, Burl Ives
Votes: 48,854
15. First Daughter (2004)
PG | 106 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
The daughter of the U.S. President heads off to college where she falls for a graduate student with a secret.
Director: Forest Whitaker | Stars: Katie Holmes, Marc Blucas, Michael Keaton, Amerie
Votes: 27,370 | Gross: $9.06M
16. White Oleander (2002)
PG-13 | 109 min | Drama
A teenager journeys through a series of foster homes after her mother goes to prison for committing a crime of passion.
Director: Peter Kosminsky | Stars: Michelle Pfeiffer, Renée Zellweger, Robin Wright, Alison Lohman
Votes: 34,106 | Gross: $16.35M
17. Dead Ringer (1963)
Approved | 116 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
The working-class twin sister of a callous, wealthy woman impulsively murders her out of revenge and assumes her identity. But impersonating her dead twin is more complicated and risky than she anticipated.
Director: Paul Henreid | Stars: Bette Davis, Karl Malden, Peter Lawford, Philip Carey
Votes: 6,449
18. House of Sand and Fog (2003)
R | 126 min | Crime, Drama
An abandoned wife is evicted from her house and starts a tragic conflict with her house's new owners.
Director: Vadim Perelman | Stars: Jennifer Connelly, Ben Kingsley, Ron Eldard, Frances Fisher
Votes: 72,652 | Gross: $13.01M
19. The Kid (1921)
Passed | 68 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
The Tramp cares for an abandoned child, but events put their relationship in jeopardy.
Director: Charles Chaplin | Stars: Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Jackie Coogan, Carl Miller
Votes: 135,004 | Gross: $5.45M
20. The Sandpiper (1965)
TV-14 | 117 min | Drama, Romance
A free-spirited single mother forms a connection with the married headmaster of an Episcopalian boarding school in Monterey, California.
Director: Vincente Minnelli | Stars: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Eva Marie Saint, Charles Bronson
Votes: 3,811 | Gross: $15.26M
21. Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993)
PG-13 | 120 min | Action, Biography, Drama
A fictionalized account of the life of the martial arts superstar.
Director: Rob Cohen | Stars: Jason Scott Lee, Lauren Holly, Robert Wagner, Michael Learned
Votes: 32,895 | Gross: $35.11M
22. Same Time, Next Year (1978)
PG | 119 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A married man and a married woman end up sleeping with each other, and decide to meet at the same place every year on the anniversary of their one night stand. As the years go by, they observe changes in each other and their relationship.
Director: Robert Mulligan | Stars: Alan Alda, Ellen Burstyn, Ivan Bonar, Bernie Kuby
Votes: 6,675 | Gross: $19.70M
23. Penny Serenade (1941)
Not Rated | 119 min | Drama, Romance
A couple's big dreams give way to a life full of unexpected sadness and unexpected joy.
Director: George Stevens | Stars: Cary Grant, Irene Dunne, Beulah Bondi, Edgar Buchanan
Votes: 8,079
24. Greed (1924)
Not Rated | 140 min | Drama, Thriller, Western
The sudden fortune won from a lottery fans such destructive greed that it ruins the lives of the three people involved.
Director: Erich von Stroheim | Stars: Gibson Gowland, Zasu Pitts, Jean Hersholt, Dale Fuller
Votes: 10,777 | Gross: $0.16M
25. The Damned Don't Cry (1950)
Approved | 103 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A New York socialite climbs the ladder of success man by man until a life among rich gangsters gives her what she thought she always wanted.
Director: Vincent Sherman | Stars: Joan Crawford, David Brian, Steve Cochran, Kent Smith
Votes: 3,576 | Gross: $1.54M
26. Hells Angels on Wheels (1967)
Approved | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
At first, gas station attendant Poet is happy when the Hell's Angels gang finally accepts him. But he's shocked when he learns just how brutal they are.
Director: Richard Rush | Stars: Adam Roarke, Jack Nicholson, Sabrina Scharf, Jana Taylor
Votes: 2,703
27. Strange Bargain (1949)
Approved | 68 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
In order to cash-in a life insurance policy, a failing business owner asks one of his employees, who has financial woes of his own, to aid him in disguising his suicide into a robbery-murder.
Director: Will Price | Stars: Martha Scott, Jeffrey Lynn, Harry Morgan, Katherine Emery
Votes: 866
28. Petulia (1968)
R | 105 min | Drama, Romance
An unhappily married socialite finds solace in the company of a recently divorced doctor.
Director: Richard Lester | Stars: Julie Christie, George C. Scott, Richard Chamberlain, Arthur Hill
Votes: 3,414
29. I Never Sang for My Father (1970)
GP | 92 min | Drama, Music
A man living in the towering shadow of his aging father finds it difficult to start a new chapter in his life by marrying his girlfriend and moving to California.
Director: Gilbert Cates | Stars: Melvyn Douglas, Gene Hackman, Dorothy Stickney, Estelle Parsons
Votes: 3,002 | Gross: $0.85M
30. Moment by Moment (1978)
R | 102 min | Drama, Romance
Trisha Rawlings, a Beverly Hills socialite suffers from loneliness following the separation of her womanizing husband Stu. Strip, a young drifter, became infatuated with her and, develops a May/December relationship with her.
Director: Jane Wagner | Stars: Lily Tomlin, John Travolta, Andra Akers, Bert Kramer
Votes: 1,340 | Gross: $10.96M
31. Angel Face (1952)
Approved | 91 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Ambulance driver Frank Jessup is ensnared in the schemes of the sensuous but dangerous Diane Tremayne.
Director: Otto Preminger | Stars: Robert Mitchum, Jean Simmons, Mona Freeman, Herbert Marshall
Votes: 9,038
32. The Man I Love (1946)
96 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Music
A homesick, no-nonsense lounge singer decides to leave New York City to spend some time visiting her two sisters and brother on the West Coast. Eventually she falls in love with a down-and-out ex-jazz pianist.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: Ida Lupino, Robert Alda, Andrea King, Martha Vickers
Votes: 1,331
33. Key Witness (1947)
Passed | 67 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Milton Higby, an inventor of gadgets that don't sell finds himself accused of a crime he didn't commit---the killing of a girl he had just met---, and takes to the open road with the police... See full summary »
Director: D. Ross Lederman | Stars: John Beal, Trudy Marshall, Jimmy Lloyd, Helen Mowery
Votes: 239
34. The Human Comedy (1943)
Passed | 117 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
Teenager Homer Macauley stays at home in small-town Ithaca to support his family while his older brother Marcus prepares to go to war.
Director: Clarence Brown | Stars: Mickey Rooney, Frank Morgan, James Craig, Marsha Hunt
Votes: 2,454
35. Decoy (1946)
Approved | 76 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A mortally wounded female gangster recounts how she and her gang revived an executed killer from the gas chamber, to try and find out where he buried a fortune in cash.
Director: Jack Bernhard | Stars: Jean Gillie, Edward Norris, Robert Armstrong, Herbert Rudley
Votes: 2,196
36. About Mrs. Leslie (1954)
Approved | 104 min | Drama, Romance
A rooming-house landlady recalls her past in flashbacks.
Director: Daniel Mann | Stars: Shirley Booth, Robert Ryan, Marjie Millar, Alex Nicol
Votes: 702
37. The Ice Follies of 1939 (1939)
Passed | 82 min | Drama, Music, Romance
An ice skater jeopardizes her marriage after she becomes a movie star.
Director: Reinhold Schünzel | Stars: Joan Crawford, James Stewart, Lew Ayres, Lewis Stone
Votes: 1,055
38. Ramona (1936)
Approved | 84 min | Drama, Romance
Half-Indian girl brought up in a wealthy household is loved by the son of the house against his family's wishes and loves another Indian employed by the household.
Director: Henry King | Stars: Loretta Young, Don Ameche, Kent Taylor, Pauline Frederick
Votes: 370
39. My Blood Runs Cold (1965)
Approved | 104 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Disturbed young man meets a girl he believes to be a long-dead ancestor.
Director: William Conrad | Stars: Troy Donahue, Joey Heatherton, Barry Sullivan, Nicolas Coster
Votes: 360
40. Night Into Morning (1951)
Passed | 86 min | Drama, Romance
Berkeley university professor adjusts (using alcohol) to tragic fire deaths of wife & son.
Director: Fletcher Markle | Stars: Ray Milland, John Hodiak, Nancy Reagan, Lewis Stone
Votes: 584
41. Old San Francisco (1927)
Passed | 88 min | Drama, History, Romance
In San Francisco, a villainous land owner with underworld connections seeks to steal the property of an old Spanish family.
Director: Alan Crosland | Stars: Dolores Costello, Josef Swickard, Anders Randolf, Charles Emmett Mack
Votes: 413
42. Ramona (1928)
80 min | Drama, Romance
After refusing to marry her adopted brother, a half Native-American Mexican woman flees to marry a Native man.
Director: Edwin Carewe | Stars: Dolores Del Río, Warner Baxter, Roland Drew, Vera Lewis
Votes: 168
43. The Woman in Red (1935)
Approved | 68 min | Drama
A polo player's wife becomes the mystery woman in a Long Island horsy-set murder trial.
Director: Robert Florey | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Gene Raymond, Genevieve Tobin, John Eldredge
Votes: 838
44. High Voltage (1929)
Passed | 63 min | Drama
A busload of passengers gets stranded in a snowstorm and take refuge in an abandoned church, where they run into a mysterious man who may be on the run from the law.
Director: Howard Higgin | Stars: William Boyd, Carole Lombard, Owen Moore, Phillips Smalley
Votes: 433
45. Fishbowl California (2018)
TV-MA | 83 min | Comedy, Drama
A man struggling to find purpose in life is enlightened by a drunk ailing widow.
Director: Michael A. MacRae | Stars: Katrina Bowden, Kate Flannery, Richard Riehle, Tim Bagley
Votes: 933
46. Flight Lieutenant (1942)
Approved | 80 min | Action, Drama, Romance
A disgraced pilot determines to regain the respect of both his son, now a test pilot for the Army, and the men he once flew with.
Director: Sidney Salkow | Stars: Pat O'Brien, Glenn Ford, Evelyn Keyes, Jonathan Hale
Votes: 213
47. Sold for Marriage (1916)
Passed | 50 min | Drama, Romance
A poor Russian girl's beauty leads her unscrupulous uncle to bring her to the United States. There he is going to sell her into a marriage with a rich old man she has never met. But her ... See full summary »
Director: Christy Cabanne | Stars: Lillian Gish, Frank Bennett, Walter Long, Allan Sears
Votes: 118
48. 13 Hours by Air (1936)
Approved | 80 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
Airline pilot Jack Gordon (Fred MacMurray) on a flight from New York to San Francisco, is immediately attracted to beautiful passenger Felice Rollins (Joan Bennett). Known as a "lady's man"... See full summary »
Director: Mitchell Leisen | Stars: Fred MacMurray, Joan Bennett, Zasu Pitts, John Howard
Votes: 185
49. Crazylegs (1953)
Approved | 87 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
The story of the life and career of football star Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch (who plays himself).
Director: Francis D. Lyon | Stars: Elroy 'Crazylegs' Hirsch, Lloyd Nolan, Joan Vohs, James Millican
Votes: 193
50. Daughters Courageous (1939)
Approved | 107 min | Drama, Romance
Nan Masters, a single mother living with her four marriageable daughters, plans to marry Sam Sloane, businessman. Out of the blue her 1st husband Jim returns after deserting the family 20 ... See full summary »
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: John Garfield, Claude Rains, Jeffrey Lynn, Fay Bainter
Votes: 753