Entertainment
The Best Movies Based On Plays
List Rules
Films that were based on a play, but NO musicals. Vote up the best movies that were originally stage / theatre productions.
There are tons of famous plays, and the glitz and glamour of attending the theatre is a truly unique experience. While few things are more powerful than the excitement of live theatre, many plays were just so good, they were begging to be turning into a movie. Tennessee Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and A Streetcar Named Desire were both made into successful film adaptations, and Glengarry Glen Ross was originally based on a David Mamet play. What are the best movies based on plays? Vote up the best films below and see where your favorites rank.
This movies on this list were all based on plays and have been ranked by users as the best. They span many genres as well, including films adapted from Shakespeare plays. Whether you like drama, thrillers, hilarious comedy, or even musicals, there is certainly a movie here that you will enjoy.
Vote up the best plays turned into movies so the best film makes it to the top of the list.
Ranked by
- 1Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh, Kim Hunter
- Released: 1951
- Directed by: Elia Kazan
Based on the play by Tennessee Williams, this renowned drama follows troubled former schoolteacher Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh) as she leaves small-town Mississippi and moves in with her sister, ...more - 2Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal
- Released: 1966
- Directed by: Mike Nichols
History professor George (Richard Burton) and his boozy wife, Martha (Elizabeth Taylor), return late one Saturday night from a cocktail party at the home of the college president, Martha's father. ...more - 3Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid
- Released: 1942
- Directed by: Michael Curtiz
Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), who owns a nightclub in Casablanca, discovers his old flame Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) is in town with her husband, Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid). Laszlo is a famed rebel, ...more - 4Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore
- Released: 1992
- Directed by: Rob Reiner
Lt. Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise) is a military lawyer defending two U.S. Marines charged with killing a fellow Marine at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. Although Kaffee is known for seeking plea ...more - 5Cary Grant, Raymond Massey, Priscilla Lane
- Released: 1944
- Directed by: Frank Capra
Writer and notorious marriage detractor Mortimer Brewster (Cary Grant) falls for girl-next-door Elaine Harper (Priscilla Lane), and they tie the knot on Halloween. When the newlyweds return to their ...more - 6Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives
- Released: 1958
- Directed by: Richard Brooks
After Brick Pollitt (Paul Newman) injures himself while drunkenly revisiting his high school sports-star days, he and his tempestuous wife, Maggie (Elizabeth Taylor), visit his family's Mississippi ...more - 7Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, John Fiedler
- Released: 1968
- Directed by: Gene Saks
When fussy Felix (Jack Lemmon) becomes suicidal over his impending divorce, he accepts an offer to move in with his best friend, messy Oscar (Walter Matthau). Felix drives Oscar crazy with his ...more - 8Morgan Freeman, Jessica Tandy, Dan Aykroyd
- Released: 1989
- Directed by: Bruce Beresford
Daisy Werthan (Jessica Tandy), an elderly Jewish widow living in Atlanta, is determined to maintain her independence. However, when she crashes her car, her son, Boolie (Dan Aykroyd), arranges for ...more - 9F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Jeffrey Jones
- Released: 1984
- Directed by: Milos Forman
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce) is a remarkably talented young Viennese composer who unwittingly finds a fierce rival in the disciplined and determined Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham). ...more - 10Dustin Hoffman, Kate Reid, John Malkovich
- Released: 1985
- Directed by: Volker Schlöndorff
This made-for-TV adaptation of Arthur Miller's revered stage drama focuses on Willy Loman (Dustin Hoffman), an aging traveling salesman in the midst of a major crisis. Burdened by financial woes and ...more - 11Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison, Stanley Holloway
- Released: 1964
- Directed by: George Cukor
In this beloved musical, pompous phonetics professor Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison) is so sure of his abilities that he takes it upon himself to transform a Cockney working-class girl into someone who ...more - 12Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin
- Released: 1992
- Directed by: James Foley
When an office full of New York City real estate salesmen is given the news that all but the top two will be fired at the end of the week, the atmosphere begins to heat up. Shelley Levene (Jack ...more - 13Sally Field, Dolly Parton, Shirley MacLaine
- Released: 1989
- Directed by: Herbert Ross
M'Lynn (Sally Field) is the mother of bride-to-be Shelby Eatenton (Julia Roberts), and as friend Truvy Jones (Dolly Parton) fixes the women's hair for the ceremony, they welcome a helping hand from ...more - 14Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams
- Released: 2008
- Directed by: John Patrick Shanley
In 1964 the winds of change are sweeping through Sister Aloysius' (Meryl Streep) St. Nicholas school. Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a charismatic priest, is advocating reform of the school's ...more - 15Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil, Ruby Dee
- Released: 1961
- Directed by: Daniel Petrie
This lauded drama follows the Youngers, an African-American family living together in an apartment in Chicago. Following the death of their patriarch, they try to determine what to do with the ...more - 16Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Bob Cummings
- Released: 1954
- Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
Ex-tennis pro Tony Wendice (Ray Milland) wants to have his wealthy wife, Margot (Grace Kelly), murdered so he can get his hands on her inheritance. When he discovers her affair with Mark Halliday ...more - 17Daniel Day-Lewis, Winona Ryder, Paul Scofield
- Released: 1996
- Directed by: Nicholas Hytner
After married man John Proctor (Daniel Day-Lewis) decides to break off his affair with his young lover, Abigail Williams (Winona Ryder), she leads other local girls in an occult rite to wish death ...more - 18Denzel Washington, Viola Davis, Stephen Henderson
- Released: 2016
- Directed by: Denzel Washington
Troy Maxson (Denzel Washington) makes his living as a sanitation worker in 1950s Pittsburgh. Maxson once dreamed of becoming a professional baseball player, but was deemed too old when the major ...more - 19Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Denzel Washington
- Released: 1993
- Directed by: Kenneth Branagh
In this Shakespearean farce, Hero (Kate Beckinsale) and her groom-to-be, Claudio (Robert Sean Leonard), team up with Claudio's commanding officer, Don Pedro (Denzel Washington), the week before their ...more - 20Peter O'Toole, Katharine Hepburn, Jane Merrow
- Released: 1968
- Directed by: Anthony Harvey
It's Christmas 1183, and King Henry II (Peter O'Toole) is planning to announce his successor to the throne. The jockeying for the crown, though, is complex. Henry has three sons and wants his boy ...more - 21Kenneth Branagh, Julie Christie, Billy Crystal
- Released: 1996
- Directed by: Kenneth Branagh
In the only unabridged film version of the classic play, here updated to the 19th century, Prince Hamlet (Kenneth Branagh) is traumatized by the revelation that his father was murdered by the present ...more - 22Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart
- Released: 1940
- Directed by: George Cukor
This classic romantic comedy focuses on Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn), a Philadelphia socialite who has split from her husband, C.K. Dexter Haven (Cary Grant), due both to his drinking and to her ...more - 23Anne Bancroft, Patty Duke, Victor Jory
- Released: 1962
- Directed by: Arthur Penn
Blind and deaf after suffering a terrible fever as a baby, young Helen Keller (Patty Duke) has spent years unable to communicate, leaving her frustrated and occasionally violent. As a last chance ...more - 24
Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles, Joseph Gordon-Levitt- Released: 1999
- Directed by: Gil Junger
Kat Stratford (Julia Stiles) is beautiful, smart and quite abrasive to most of her fellow teens, meaning that she doesn't attract many boys. Unfortunately for her younger sister, Bianca (Larisa ...more - 25Glenn Close, John Malkovich, Michelle Pfeiffer
- Released: 1988
- Directed by: Stephen Frears
The Marquise de Merteuil (Glenn Close) and the Vicomte de Valmont (John Malkovich) display the petty jealousies and jaded insouciance of life in France's royal court in the 18th century, casually ...more
