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Movies that feel like Sullivan's Travels (1941)

If you loved Sullivan's Travels, the closest films we have are The Palm Beach Story (1942), The Philadelphia Story (1940) and His Girl Friday (1940). All three share Sullivan's Travels's witty and playful feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 7 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on YouTube TV, Philo and fuboTV and others, checked against today's data.

Successful movie director John L. Sullivan, convinced he won't be able to film his ambitious masterpiece until he has suffered, dons a hobo disguise and sets off on a journey, aiming to "know trouble" first-hand. When all he finds is a train ride back to Hollywood and a beautiful blonde companion, he redoubles his efforts, managing to land himself in more trouble than he bargained for when he loses his memory and ends up a prisoner on a chain gang.

🍅 100% Rotten Tomatoes7.9 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Preston Sturgeswittyplayfulromantictenderepicmelancholy

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If Sullivan's Travels hit the spot, these will too

The Palm Beach Story poster
The Palm Beach Story
1942 · dir. Preston Sturges
🍅 94%7.5comedy · romance

The same hand behind both of them: Preston Sturges

The difference: Not nearly as epic as Sullivan's Travels

A New York inventor, Tom Jeffers, needs cash to develop his big idea, so his adoring wife, Gerry, decides to raise it by divorcing him and marrying an eccentric Florida millionaire, J. D. Hackensacker III.

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

Black and white runs into screwball comedy in each of them

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.

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

The same preoccupation in both: black and white

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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Bringing Up Baby poster
Bringing Up Baby
1938 · dir. Howard Hawks
🍅 97%7.8comedy · romance

Both keep circling back to screwball comedy

David Huxley is waiting to get a bone he needs for his museum collection. Through a series of strange circumstances, he meets Susan Vance, and the duo have a series of misadventures which include a leopard called Baby.

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

Witty where it counts, playful underneath

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 Awful Truth poster
The Awful Truth
1937 · dir. Leo McCarey
🍅 94%7.6comedy · romance

Romantic and tender in the same breath

Unfounded suspicions lead a married couple to begin divorce proceedings, whereupon they start undermining each other's attempts to find new romance.

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Charade poster
Charade
1963 · dir. Stanley Donen
🍅 95%7.8comedy · mystery · romance

Both trade on melancholy more than on being comedy

The difference: Leans mystery where Sullivan's Travels does not

After Regina Lampert falls for the dashing Peter Joshua on a skiing holiday in the French Alps, she discovers upon her return to Paris that her husband has been murdered. Soon, she and Peter are giving chase to three of her late husband's World War II cronies, Tex, Scobie and Gideon, who are after a quarter of a million dollars the quartet stole while behind enemy lines.

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50 First Dates poster
50 First Dates
2004 · dir. Peter Segal
🍅 45%6.8comedy · romance

Witty romance, and it commits to that

The difference: Reviewed a good deal more coolly

Henry is a player skilled at seducing women. But when this veterinarian meets Lucy, a girl with a quirky problem when it comes to total recall, he realizes it's possible to fall in love all over again…and again, and again. That's because the delightful Lucy has no short-term memory, so Henry must woo her day after day until he finally sweeps her off her feet.

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Modern Times poster
Modern Times
1936 · dir. Charlie Chaplin
🍅 98%8.5comedy · drama · romance

Great depression and jail, at the center of both

The difference: Plays it as drama more than Sullivan's Travels does

A bumbling tramp desires to build a home with a young woman, yet is thwarted time and time again by his lack of experience and habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time...

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American Pie poster
American Pie
1999 · dir. Paul Weitz
🍅 62%7comedy · romance

Adventure with a pulse of play, in both cases

The difference: 58 years apart, and the 1990s show

At a high-school party, four friends find that losing their collective virginity isn't as easy as they had thought. But they still believe that they need to do so before college. To motivate themselves, they enter a pact to all "score" by their senior prom.

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The Shop Around the Corner poster
The Shop Around the Corner
1940 · dir. Ernst Lubitsch
🍅 99%8comedy · drama · romance

Romantic comedy in both cases

Two employees at a gift shop can barely stand one another, without realising that they are falling in love through the post as each other's anonymous pen pal.

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Amélie poster
Amélie
2001 · dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet
🍅 90%8.3comedy · romance

Romance built on tenderness, twice over

At a tiny Parisian café, the adorable yet painfully shy Amélie accidentally discovers a gift for helping others. Soon Amelie is spending her days as a matchmaker, guardian angel, and all-around do-gooder. But when she bumps into a handsome stranger, will she find the courage to become the star of her very own love story?

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The best-reviewed films that share Sullivan's Travels's defining feeling.