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Movies that feel like Safety Last! (1923)

If you loved Safety Last!, the closest films we have are Seven Chances (1925), Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) and The Circus (1928). All three share Safety Last!'s witty and playful feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 10 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video and Criterion Channel and others, checked against today's data.

When a store clerk organizes a contest to climb the outside of a tall building, circumstances force him to make the perilous climb himself.

🍅 97% Rotten Tomatoes8.1 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Fred C. Newmeyerwittyplayfulromantictendertense
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If Safety Last! hit the spot, these will too

Seven Chances poster
Seven Chances
1925 · dir. Buster Keaton
🍅 94%7.8comedy · romance

Common ground in both: clock and silent film

The difference: Not nearly as tense as Safety Last!

Struggling stockbroker Jimmie Shannon learns that, if he gets married by 7 p.m. on his 27th birthday -- which is today -- he'll inherit $7 million from an eccentric relative.

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Steamboat Bill, Jr. poster
Steamboat Bill, Jr.
1928 · dir. Charles Reisner
🍅 96%7.8comedy · romance

Common ground: black and white

The just-out-of-college, effete son of a no-nonsense steamboat captain comes to visit his father whom he's not seen since he was a child.

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The Circus poster
The Circus
1928 · dir. Charlie Chaplin
🍅 97%8.1comedy · drama · romance

Both keep coming back to the same thing: black and white

The difference: Sits closer to drama than Safety Last! does

Charlie, a wandering tramp, becomes a circus handyman - soon the star of the show - and falls in love with the circus owner's stepdaughter.

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Our Hospitality poster
Our Hospitality
1923 · dir. John G. Blystone
🍅 97%7.8comedy · romance · thriller

The same mix in both: wit, then play

A young man falls for a young woman on his trip home; unbeknownst to him, her family has vowed to kill every member of his family.

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The Navigator poster
The Navigator
1924 · dir. Buster Keaton
🍅 100%7.5comedy · action · adventure

Both are built on the same subject: silent film

The difference: Leans harder into action than Safety Last! does

The wealthy and impulsive Rollo Treadway decides to propose to his beautiful socialite neighbor, Betsy O'Brien. Although Betsy turns Rollo down, he still opts to go on the cruise that he intended as their honeymoon. When circumstances find both Rollo and Betsy on the wrong ship, they end up having adventures on the high seas.

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The Cameraman poster
The Cameraman
1928 · dir. Edward Sedgwick
🍅 100%8comedy · romance · drama

Both land romance and tenderness at once

A photographer takes up newsreel shooting to impress a secretary.

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One Week poster
One Week
1920 · dir. Buster Keaton
🍅 100%8.1comedy

Both lean on wit more than on comedy

Newlyweds receive a build-it-yourself house as a wedding gift—and the house can, supposedly, be built in "one week". A rejected suitor secretly re-numbers packing crates, and the husband struggles to assemble the house according to this new 'arrangement' of its parts.

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The General poster
The General
1926 · dir. Clyde Bruckman
🍅 92%8.1comedy · war · romance

Playful romance in both cases

During America’s Civil War, Union spies steal engineer Johnny Gray's beloved locomotive, 'The General'—with Johnnie's lady love aboard an attached boxcar—and he single-handedly must do all in his power to both get The General back and to rescue Annabelle.

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City Lights poster
City Lights
1931 · dir. Charlie Chaplin
🍅 95%8.5comedy · drama · romance

Thriller with a pulse of romance, in both cases

A tramp falls in love with a beautiful blind flower girl. His on-and-off friendship with a wealthy man allows him to be the girl's benefactor and suitor.

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His Girl Friday poster
His Girl Friday
1940 · dir. Howard Hawks
🍅 99%7.8comedy · romance

Comedy built on tenderness, twice over

Walter Burns is an irresistibly conniving newspaper publisher desperate to woo back his paper’s star reporter, who also happens to be his estranged wife. She’s threatening to quit and settle down with a new beau, but, as Walter knows, she has a weakness: she can’t resist a juicy scoop.

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It Happened One Night poster
It Happened One Night
1934 · dir. Frank Capra
🍅 98%8.1comedy · romance

Witty romance, and it commits to that

A runaway heiress makes a deal with the rogue reporter trailing her but the mismatched pair end up stuck with each other when their bus leaves them behind.

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The Philadelphia Story poster
The Philadelphia Story
1940 · dir. George Cukor
🍅 100%7.8comedy · romance

Playful thriller, and it commits to that

When a rich woman's ex-husband and a tabloid-type reporter turn up just before her planned remarriage, she begins to learn the truth about herself.

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The best-reviewed films that share Safety Last!’s defining feeling.