Dramas based on classic literature on Netflix
Last updated May 15, 2024
Masterpiece Classic: The Mystery of Edwin Drood
2012 | NR | 3.6 out of 5 StarsCentering on a provincial choirmaster's fixation with a 17-year-old girl, this chilling adaptation of Charles Dickens's unfinished final novel spins a disturbing tale of obsession, addiction and the darkness that lurks in men.
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Midnight Cowboy
1969 | NR | 3.6 out of 5 StarsTo earn cash as a freelance sex stud and work toward his dream of becoming a kept man, hayseed hustler Joe Buck heads to New York City, where an improbable friendship blossoms when he meets seedy con man Ratso Rizzo.
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Cruel Intentions
1999 | NR | 3.6 out of 5 StarsQuenching a thirst for dangerous games, promiscuous Kathryn Merteuil challenges her stepbrother to deflower their headmaster's daughter before summer ends. If he succeeds, he gets to bed Kathryn. If he fails, she'll win his most prized possession.
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Little Lord Fauntleroy
1995 | NR | 3.6 out of 5 StarsBased on Frances Hodgson Burnett's classic novel, this inspiring story of redemption follows the good fortune of Cedric Errol (Michael Benz), who is rescued from poverty in 1870s New York City and becomes one of England's upper crust. With the help of his strict British grandfather (George Baker), Errol is eventually elevated to the title of Lord Fauntleroy, the future Earl of Dorincourt, and his life is forever changed.
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The Last Picture Show
1971 | NR | 3.6 out of 5 StarsThere's not much to do in the windswept Texas hamlet of Anarene, where the town's only cinema is about to close forever. So high schoolers Sonny (Timothy Bottoms) and Duane (Jeff Bridges) lust after incorrigible flirt Jacy Farrow (Cybill Shepherd) while trying to chart their uncertain futures. When Duane heads for Korea after joining the service and Jacy gets shipped off to college, Sonny is left behind in a veritable ghost town.
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Catch-22
1970 | NR | 3.6 out of 5 StarsCapt. Yossarian (Alan Arkin) tries to escape the travesties of World War II by convincing his Air Force commanders that he's crazy. Hilarity ensues -- but so does reality as he watches his close friends (Martin Sheen and Art Garfunkel) die in the ridiculousness of war. Mike Nichols directs this cinematic adaptation of Joseph Heller's scathing black comedy about a small group of flyers in the Mediterranean in 1944.
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Death of a Salesman
1985 | NR | 3.6 out of 5 StarsDustin Hoffman won an Emmy for his first-rate performance as embittered traveling salesman Willy Loman, who's forced to dispense with delusions of success and come to grips with his failed career, encroaching senility and a disintegrating family.
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The Buccaneers
1995 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsThis top-notch adaptation of Edith Wharton's novel tells the story of sisters Nan and Virginia St. George (Carla Gugino and Alison Elliott) and their friends Lizzy Elmsworth (Rya Kihlstedt) and Conchita Closson (Mira Sorvino). Shunned as "new money" by elitist New York society, the foursome travels to London to look for husbands, where they soon find themselves courted by numerous suitors. But as old and new worlds clash, something has to give.
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The Talented Mr. Ripley
1999 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsCharming sociopath Tom Ripley maneuvers into the lush life of Dickie, a young heir vacationing in Italy. Hired to persuade Dickie to return to America, Tom embraces Dickie's posh lifestyle and takes extreme measures to hold onto it.
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Morituri
1965 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsA perilous game of cat and mouse ensues when a German defector -- employed by the British -- poses as a Nazi officer to gain entry onto a freighter to disarm explosives on the vessel, which is carrying a valuable load of crude rubber.
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The Crucible
1996 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsPlaywright Arthur Miller's parable of the 1950s anti-communist crusade (thinly veiled here as the Salem, Mass., witch trials of 1692) receives lush treatment in this Oscar-nominated film adaptation from director Nicholas Hytner. After being spurned by her married lover (Daniel Day-Lewis), young Abigail Williams (Winona Ryder) stirs up a frenzy of hysteria and fear with accusations of witchcraft. Joan Allen earned an Oscar nod for her role.
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A Room with a View
1986 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsIn this adaptation of E.M. Forster's novel, Lucy travels to Florence with her chaperone in tow. There, she falls for a fellow countryman's moody son. But like any proper Englishwoman of that era, she must fight her feelings, and it's a losing battle.
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The Buccaneers
1995 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsFour sisters shunned as "new money" by elitist New York society travel to London to look for husbands, where they're courted by numerous suitors. But as old and new worlds clash, something has to give.
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The Wings of the Dove
1997 | NR | 3.4 out of 5 StarsIn the wake of her mother's death, Kate Croy (Helena Bonham Carter) moves in with her wealthy Aunt Maude (Charlotte Rampling), who, not wanting her niece to follow in her mother's footsteps by marrying a commoner, introduces Kate to rich gentleman Lord Mark (Alex Jennings). Kate prefers the penniless Merton Densher (Linus Roache), yet she also enjoys fine things and schemes to win not only Densher's love, but an heiress's money.
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Anna Karenina
1948 | NR | 3.4 out of 5 StarsWhen a debonair army officer sweeps Russian noblewoman Anna Karenina off her feet, the resulting scandal destroys her societal standing. But her proud spouse refuses to dissolve the marriage and keeps Anna from seeing her son.
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I Capture the Castle
2003 | NR | 3.3 out of 5 StarsTo save the crumbling English castle in which he resides, James Mortmain attempts to marry off his young daughters, love-welcoming Rose and love-thwarting Cassandra, to Simon and Neil, the two wealthy American men who've arrived to take ownership.
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The Four Feathers
2002 | NR | 3.3 out of 5 StarsIn Victorian-era Sudan, British officer Harry Faversham resigns right before a battle against Mahdi rebels, prompting his fiancée and friends to brand him a coward. Little do they know he's going undercover for a chance to redeem himself.
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Vanity Fair
2004 | NR | 3.3 out of 5 StarsIn this sumptuous film version of William Makepeace Thackeray's famous novel, lower-class vixen Becky Sharp uses her good looks and considerable wit to climb her way up the precipitous social ladder of 1820s London.
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The Man Who Laughs
2012 | NR | 3.3 out of 5 StarsScarred by his kidnappers as a child, Gwynplaine now makes a living from his disfigurement in a traveling show, where his only friend is blind Déa. His loyalty to her is tested when he learns that he's heir to a wealthy, influential family.
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Mandingo
1975 | NR | 3.3 out of 5 StarsThis controversial potboiler set in antebellum Louisiana chronicles the decline of the slave-breeding Maxwell family. Son Hammond marries his Southern belle cousin Blanche, but the two bed their slaves instead of each other.
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Trishna
2011 | NR | 3.2 out of 5 StarsRaised in rapidly changing rural India, well-educated Trishna is torn between cultural tradition and her own desires when she falls in love with a British businessman who has returned to India to work in his family's hotel business.
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Dangerous Liaisons
2012 | NR | 3.2 out of 5 StarsTwo experts in seduction, Mo Jieyu and her ex-lover Xie Yifan, decide to entertain themselves with a wager involving the innocent beauty Du Fenyu. But when Xie begins falling in love with Du, the cruel erotic game begins to backfire on the players.
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Bang the Drum Slowly
1973 | NR | 3.2 out of 5 StarsBruce Pearson (Robert De Niro) is a dedicated baseball player who's hiding a secret: He has Hodgkin's disease. His only confidante is the team's star pitcher, Henry Wiggin (Michael Moriarty), who covers for him as he faces not only a waning season but a slowly fading life. Vincent Gardenia received an Academy Award nomination for his role as the team's coach in this tearjerker based on Mark Harris's 1950s novel.
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The Day of the Locust
1975 | NR | 3.1 out of 5 StarsHollywood is where starry-eyed dreamers reach for the sun, and it's where many of them are scorched, too. This 1975 film made an impression for its portrayal of desperados who ache to make it big, but fail, in the entertainment industry of the 1930s.
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The Killer Inside Me
2010 | NR | 3.1 out of 5 StarsWest Texas Deputy Sheriff Lou Ford is harboring a dark secret. Though the small town's residents think he's a bit dense, Ford is, in fact, afflicted with a "sickness" that turns the mild-mannered peace officer into a brutal, psychotic killer.
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