Movies Like The Petrified Forest (1936)

The Petrified Forest is a 1936 crime, drama, romance, thriller film from Archie Mayo with a MovieMagicScore of 7.1/10. Here are 20 similar films, ranked by real viewer ratings — starting with The Last Stop in Yuma County and The Postman Always Rings Twice.

Crime Drama Romance Thriller

The Last Stop in Yuma County

2024

While awaiting the next fuel truck at a middle-of-nowhere Arizona rest stop, a traveling young knife salesman is thrust into a high-stakes hostage situation by the arrival of two similarly stranded bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty—or cold, hard steel—to protect their bloodstained, ill-gotten fortune.

7.0

MagicScore

The Postman Always Rings Twice

1946

A married woman and a drifter fall in love, then plot to murder her husband.

7.0

MagicScore

The Postman Always Rings Twice

1981

The sensuous wife of a lunch wagon proprietor and a rootless drifter begin a sordidly steamy affair and conspire to murder her Greek husband.

6.5

MagicScore

The Way of the Gun

2000

Two criminal drifters without sympathy get more than they bargained for after kidnapping and holding for ransom the surrogate mother of a powerful and shady man.

6.3

MagicScore

Stagecoach

1939

A group of people traveling on a stagecoach find their journey complicated by the threat of Geronimo, and learn something about each other in the process.

7.6

MagicScore

Jeopardy

1953

A woman is kidnapped when she goes to get help for her husband who is trapped on a beach with the tide coming in to surely drown him.

6.6

MagicScore

Illegal

1955

A hugely successful DA goes into private practice after sending a man to the chair -- only to find out later he was innocent. Now the drunken attorney only seems to represent criminals and low lifes.

6.4

MagicScore

The Racket

1951

The big national crime syndicate has moved into town, partnering up with local crime boss Nick Scanlon. McQuigg, the only honest police captain on the force, and his loyal patrolman, Johnson, take on the violent Nick.

6.3

MagicScore

U Turn

1997

When a desperate man’s car breaks down in a bizarre desert town while evading vengeful bookies, he becomes entangled in a dangerous love triangle. Caught between a married couple, he’s faced with deadly contracts to kill them both.

6.6

MagicScore

#10

Five Easy Pieces

1970

A drop-out from upper-class America picks up work along the way on oil-rigs when his life isn't spent in a squalid succession of bars, motels, and other points of interest.

7.1

MagicScore

#11

King of the Ants

2004

A young drifter, struggling to makes ends meet, accepts a job to kill a prominent accountant. When he isn't paid for the hit, revenge is now his path.

5.9

MagicScore

#12

Breakdown

1997

On their cross-country drive, a married couple, Jeff and Amy Taylor, experience car trouble after their SUV breaks down. Stranded in the New Mexico desert, the two catch a break when a passing truck driver offers Amy a ride to a nearby café to call for help. Meanwhile, Jeff is able to fix the car and make his way to the café, but Amy isn't there. He tracks down the trucker ― who tells the police he's never seen Jeff or his wife before. Jeff then begins a desperate, frenzied search for Amy.

6.9

MagicScore

#13

Party Girl

1958

Slick lawyer Thomas Farrell has made a career of defending mobsters in trials. It's not until he meets a lovely showgirl at a mob party that he realizes that there's more to life than winning trials. Farrell tries to quit the racket, but mob boss Rico Angelo threatens to hurt the showgirl if Farrell leaves him.

6.8

MagicScore

#14

Clay Pigeons

1998

Clay is a young man in a small town who witnesses his friend, Earl, kill himself because of the ongoing affair that Clay was having with the man's wife, Amanda. Feeling guilty, Clay now resists the widow when she presses him to continue with the affair. Clay unknowingly befriends a serial killer named Lester Long who murders the widow in an attempt to "help" his "fishing buddy."

6.2

MagicScore

#15

The Boy

2015

An intimate portrait of a 9 year old sociopath as he discovers his taste for killing.

5.7

MagicScore

#16

Fallen Angel

1945

An unemployed drifter, Eric Stanton wanders into a small California town and begins hanging around the local diner. While Eric falls for the lovely waitress Stella, he also begins romancing a quiet and well-to-do woman named June Mills. Since Stella isn't interested in Eric unless he has money, the lovelorn guy comes up with a scheme to win her over, and it involves June. Before long, murder works its way into this passionate love triangle.

6.5

MagicScore

#17

Moontide

1942

After a drunken night out, a longshoreman thinks he may have killed a man.

6.3

MagicScore

#18

Suspense

1946

The proprietor of an ice-skating revue promotes a peanut-vendor to a management position based on suggestions he made to improve the act of the show's star, who also happens to be the owner's wife. However, he soon begins to notice that his new manager is paying more attention to his wife than he believes is appropriate.

6.0

MagicScore

#19

Operation Red Sea

2018

A squad of the Jiaolong Commando Unit - Sea Dragon, a spec ops team of the Chinese Navy, carries out a hostage rescue operation in the nation of Yewaire, on the Arabian Peninsula, and fiercely fights against local rebel groups and Zaka, a terrorist organization.

7.4

MagicScore

#20

Nature of the Beast

1995

Two men, both hiding a deadly secret, are on a murderous rampage through the desert.

5.9

MagicScore

Frequently asked

What are the best movies like The Petrified Forest?

The top films similar to The Petrified Forest by MovieMagicScore are The Last Stop in Yuma County (7.0), The Postman Always Rings Twice (7.0), The Postman Always Rings Twice (6.5). Each shares crime/drama/romance/thriller themes and is ranked by real viewer ratings, not critics or studios.

Is The Petrified Forest worth watching?

The Petrified Forest holds a MovieMagicScore of 7.1/10 from 204 viewer ratings, putting it among the better-reviewed titles in its genre.

What kind of movie is The Petrified Forest?

The Petrified Forest (1936) is a crime, drama, romance, thriller film directed by Archie Mayo, starring Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart.

Where can I find more recommendations like The Petrified Forest?

Browse the full ranked list above, or explore more crime recommendations on MovieMagicScore, where every list is ordered by genuine viewer ratings.

Keep exploring

Movies like The Last Stop in Yuma County Movies like The Postman Always Rings Twice Movies like The Postman Always Rings Twice Movies like The Way of the Gun Movies like Stagecoach Movies like Jeopardy

About movies like The Petrified Forest

This ranked list pairs The Petrified Forest (1936), a crime and drama and romance and thriller film from Archie Mayo, with similar titles by genre, theme and cast overlap (fans of Leslie Howard take note). Unlike critic-driven sites, every position here is ordered by MovieMagicScore — a rating built only from real viewers, with no studio marketing or paid placement. Scores update as more people rate, so the list stays current.

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