Bringemovies
← Browse Movies
A Sporting Chance
TITLE DETAILS

A Sporting Chance

1919-06-28 · 60 min · ★ 6.0

Mystery · Drama · Comedy

John Stonehouse (William Russell) checks into a hotel, intending to commit suicide. But instead he winds up helping a girl, Gilberte Bonheur (Fritzi Brunette), out of a jam. He finds her bending over a man who she has apparently killed, and since he's about to kill himself anyway, he offers to assume the blame. Throw a valuable emerald into the works, and the fact that the dead man suddenly comes back to life, and Stonehouse -- not to mention the audience -- becomes thoroughly befuddled by it all. Everything clears up, however, when Gilberte gives him a theater ticket -- it turns out that everything he went through was the plot to a stage play, enacted in real life by the actors. The critics roasted the play, saying it wasn't true to life, and this was their proof that the situations really could happen. Gilberte retires from acting when Stonehouse proposes.

Open detail page

Trailers are previews, not full movies.

No authorized playback source configured. Use the legal watch options below.

Production details

Directors
Henry King
Production companies
American Film Company, William Russell Productions Inc.
Countries
United States of America
Status
Released

Top Cast

William RussellWilliam RussellJohn Stonehouse
Fritzi BrunetteFritzi BrunetteGilberte Bonheur
George PeriolatGeorge PeriolatEdward Craig
J. Farrell MacDonaldJ. Farrell MacDonaldLuther Ripley aka Kennedy
Lee HillGeorge Cornhill
Harvey ClarkHarvey ClarkAaron Witt
Perry BanksAnthony James

Title information and images are supplied by TMDb. Explore our discovery guide for advice on comparing metadata and legal viewing options.

Where to watch

Availability provided by JustWatch via TMDb. Offers can change. Provider links are listed on TMDb; full playback requires a separately authorized source.

Availability not listed for this country.

Recommendations

Short Cuts
★ 7.2
Short Cuts1993Drama · Comedy

Many loosely connected characters cross paths in this film, based on the stories of Raymond Carver. Waitress Doreen Piggot accidentally runs into a boy with her car. Soon after walking away, the child lapses into a coma. While at the hospital, the boy's grandfather tells his son, Howard, about his past affairs. Meanwhile, a baker starts harassing the family when they fail to pick up the boy's birthday cake.

After Hours
★ 7.5
After Hours1985Drama · Comedy

Desperate to escape his mind-numbing routine, uptown Manhattan office worker Paul Hackett ventures downtown for a hookup with a mystery woman.

Dinner at Eight
★ 6.8
Dinner at Eight1933Drama · Comedy

An ambitious New York socialite plans an extravagant dinner party as her businessman husband, Oliver, contends with financial woes, causing a lot of tension between the couple. Meanwhile, their high-society friends and associates, including the gruff Dan Packard and his sultry spouse, Kitty, contend with their own entanglements, leading to revelations at the much-anticipated dinner.

The Hudsucker Proxy
★ 7.1
The Hudsucker Proxy1994Drama · Comedy

A naive business graduate is installed as president of a manufacturing company as part of a stock scam.

Six Degrees of Separation
★ 6.4
Six Degrees of Separation1993Mystery · Drama · Comedy

The story of a young, gay, black, con artist who, posing as the son of Sidney Poitier, cunningly maneuvers his way into the lives of a white, upper-class New York family.

Shock Corridor
★ 7.0
Shock Corridor1963Mystery · Drama

With the help of his girlfriend Cathy and Dr. Fong, a psychiatrist, ambitious journalist Johnny Barrett poses as a madman in order to be admitted to a mental institution where a bloody murder has been committed.

Black Widow
★ 6.4
Black Widow1954Mystery · Drama

When a young stage hopeful is found dead, suspicion falls on her mentor, a successful Broadway producer.

Barton Fink
★ 7.5
Barton Fink1991Drama · Comedy

A renowned New York playwright is enticed to California to write for the movies and discovers the hellish truth of Hollywood.

Deathtrap
★ 6.7
Deathtrap1982Drama · Comedy

A Broadway playwright puts murder in his plan to take credit for a student's script.

Corner Office
★ 6.5
Corner Office2023Mystery · Drama · Comedy

In this office satire, Orson, a straight-laced employee, retreats to a blissfully empty corner office to get away from his lackluster colleagues. But why does this seem to upset them so much?

The Player
★ 7.2
The Player1992Mystery · Drama

A Hollywood studio executive is being sent death threats by a writer whose script he rejected - but which one?

Barney's Version
★ 7.0
Barney's Version2010Drama · Comedy

The picaresque and touching story of the politically incorrect, fully lived life of the impulsive, irascible and fearlessly blunt Barney Panofsky.

The King of Comedy
★ 7.8
The King of Comedy1982Drama · Comedy

Aspiring comic Rupert Pupkin attempts to achieve success in show business by stalking his idol, a late night talk-show host who craves his own privacy.

The Truman Show
★ 8.2
The Truman Show1998Drama · Comedy

In a picture-perfect seaside town, an insurance salesman begins to realize that his entire existence may be staged and observed by a vast unseen audience as part of a long-running real-time reality TV show.

Agatha and the Midnight Murders
★ 6.2
Agatha and the Midnight Murders2020Mystery · Drama

As bombs fall on London, writer Agatha Christie decides it is time to kill off her most famous creation.

The Hospital
★ 6.7
The Hospital1971Mystery · Drama · Comedy

Dr. Bock, the chief of medicine at a Manhattan hospital, is suicidal after the collapse of his personal life. When an intern is found dead in a hospital bed, it appears to Bock to be a case of unforgivable malpractice. Hours later, another doctor, who happens to be responsible for another case of malpractice, is found dead. Despondent, Bock finds himself drawn to Barbara, the daughter of a comatose missionary.

The Mask of Dimitrios
★ 7.1
The Mask of Dimitrios1944Mystery · Drama

A mystery writer is intrigued by the tale of notorious criminal Dimitrios Makropolous, whose dead body was found washed up on the shore in Istanbul. He decides to follow the career of Dimitrios around Europe, in order to learn more about the man. Along the way he is joined by the mysterious Mr. Peters, who has his own motivation.

The Last Word
★ 6.6
The Last Word2017Drama · Comedy

A retired businesswoman – who tries to control everything around her – decides to write her own obituary. A young journalist takes up the task of finding out the truth, and the result is a life-altering friendship.

Party Monster
★ 5.8
Party Monster2003Drama · Comedy

The New York club scene of the 80s and 90s was a world like no other. Into this candy-colored, mirror ball playground stepped Michael Alig, a wannabe from nowhere special. Under the watchful eye of veteran club kid James St. James, Alig quickly rose to the top... and there was no place to go but down.

Suicide Kings
★ 6.6
Suicide Kings1997Drama · Comedy

Carlo, a former mobster, is abducted by five privileged young men desperate to raise a $2 million ransom to save the sister of a friend. As Carlo plays mind games, however, his captors splinter -- each wondering whether one of their own had a hand in the crime.

Similar titles

A Couch in New York
★ 5.8
A Couch in New York1996Comedy

A burnt-out New York psychoanalyst exchanges apartments with a Parisian woman. When his patients arrive, they talk to her and then pay. He returns early and becomes a patient as well.

Lot in Sodom
★ 6.5
Lot in Sodom1933Drama

Lot in Sodom is a sensual depiction of the Sodom and Gomorrah story filled with sinewy and semi-clad bodies, delirious bacchanals devoted to physical pleasure, and a searing, cataclysmic finale depicting the fall of a city devoted to sins of the flesh.

Little Odessa
★ 6.5
Little Odessa1994Drama

Long separated from his family, hitman Joshua returns to Brighton Beach for a contract killing for the Russian Mafia. His abusive father, Arkady, banned him from returning after Joshua committed his first murder. He takes up residence in a hotel, and soon everyone knows he has returned. He goes home to visit his dying mother, Irina, and prepares for the assassination, getting drawn back into the criminal community he left behind.

The Soul Keeper
★ 6.6
The Soul Keeper2003Drama

Zurich, 1905. Nineteen-year-old Russian Sabina Spielrein is put by her parents in a psychiatric hospital, suffering from a severe form of hysteria and refusing to eat. A compassionate doctor, Carl Gustav Jung, takes her under his care and, for the first time, experiments with the psychoanalytical method of his teacher Sigmund Freud. Thus is born a sweeping story of love and passion, of body and soul, soaring to the utmost heights, but also plunging to the darkest depths of the 20th century.

The Wizard of Oz
★ 5.5
The Wizard of Oz1925Comedy

A farm girl learns she is a princess and is swept away by a tornado to the land of Oz.

Ratter
★ 5.2
Ratter2015Drama

Emma is a young and beautiful graduate student just starting a new life in New York City. Like most people her age, she is always connected - her phone and laptop are constant companions, documenting her most intimate moments. What she doesn't realize is that she's sharing her life with an uninvited and dangerous guest. A hacker is following Emma’s every move. When the voyeuristic thrill of watching her digitally isn't enough, the situation escalates to a dangerous and terrifying level.

The Captive
★ 5.7
The Captive2000Drama

Ariane lives with Simon in his large Paris flat. Simon is obsessed with her: he wants to know everything about her, secretly follows her when she goes out, asks questions all the time, even in the most intimate moments. Ariane seems to take it all in stride, but Simon realises that she's hiding something.

The Linguini Incident
★ 6.6
The Linguini Incident1991Comedy

A waitress, a barman and an underwear designer try to rob a New York restaurant where two of them work.

The Bachelor
★ 9.0
The Bachelor1984Drama

Crispin is a soltero who has undergone several heartbreaks with women, broken family ties, and his own personal conflicts. In his evolution as a man, he shows his weakness, his strengths, his confusion.

Orchid Moon
Not rated
Orchid Moon2023Drama

Lost in a whirlpool of loss and regret, Harry Bradshaw attempts to find innocence.

The Doll
★ 7.4
The Doll1919Comedy

The misadventures of an effete young man who must get married in order to inherit a fortune. He opts to purchase a remarkably lifelike doll and marry it instead, not realizing that the doll is actually the dollmaker’s flesh-and-blood daughter in disguise.

The Woman Who Took the Local Paper
★ 6.2
The Woman Who Took the Local Paper2016Mystery · Drama

A man and a woman committed double suicide in Kanazawa City. Immediately after the incident, Yoshiko Shiota, a woman living in Tokyo, contacts the local newspaper of Kanazawa, saying she wants to read the novel serialized in it by Ryuji Sugimoto. How did this woman know the novel is serialized in the newspaper? And why does she want to start reading it in the middle of the story? Which article was she actually interested in? Sugimoto cannot help making his own investigations about Yoshiko, but the more he searches, the more astonishing facts come to light...

Sounds from a Town I Love
★ 5.6
Sounds from a Town I Love2001Comedy

A montage of short scenes of New Yorkers talking on their cellphones, evoking snippets of conversation overheard in passing on the streets of Manhattan. Intended as a celebration of the people of New York City after the events of September 11, 2001.

Madame DuBarry
★ 6.5
Madame DuBarry1919Drama

The story of Madame DuBarry, the mistress of Louis XV of France, and her loves in the time of the French revolution.

The Lady Confesses
★ 4.5
The Lady Confesses1945Mystery · Drama

An estranged wife shows up after a nearly 7 years of disappearance -- thought to be dead, to prevent her husband from marrying his new love until someone kills her.

Breaking Plates
Not rated
Breaking Plates2024Drama · Comedy

A unique hybrid of documentary, silent film, drama and dance, 'Breaking Plates' puts revolutionary women of the past on the screen with present day filmmakers. Contemporary women talk to characters from 100 years ago, reanimate their antics and emulate their mayhem moves. As early 21st century performers step into the clothes of their early 20th century counterparts, battling their haywire machines, exploding gags, and eruptive bodies, they learn to wield humour as a weapon against the structures that contain them today.

Under the Rainbow
★ 5.1
Under the Rainbow1981Comedy

In World War II era Los Angeles, the manager of the Culver Hotel leaves his nephew in charge for a weekend. The nephew changes the name to the Hotel Rainbow and overbooks with royalty, assassins, secret agents, Japanese tourists, and munchkins. Secret Service agent Bruce Thorpe and casting director Annie Clark find romance amidst the intrigue and confusion.

When Time Ran Out...
★ 5.3
When Time Ran Out...1980Drama

An active volcano threatens a south Pacific island resort and its guests as a power struggle ensues between the property's developer and a drilling foreman.

Without a Trace
★ 5.4
Without a Trace1983Mystery · Drama

English professor Susan Selky lives alone in a Brooklyn apartment with her young son, Alex. When Alex fails to return home from school one afternoon, a frantic Selky contacts the police. Detective Al Menetti, a father himself, takes an interest in the case that quickly turns into an obsession. As a devastated Selky struggles to come to terms with Alex's disappearance, Menetti steps out from behind the badge to continue investigating.

The Contestant
★ 5.8
The Contestant2007Drama · Comedy

Martín's lucky hit when he wins the most lucrative prize in television history puts his life upside down.

Your favorites

Recently viewed

Watch

Choose an authorized server.

Full video from an operator-configured authorized source. Official trailers use a separate player. If a server fails, retry or select another authorized server.

Legal watch options

Official trailer

Trailer preview only. Press Play to start.

Privacy choices

Favorites stay in your browser. Movie images load from TMDb. YouTube trailers contact YouTube only after you allow external media and choose a trailer. Advertising consent, if ads are enabled, is managed separately by the operator’s certified CMP.

Privacy policy

After allowing external media, choose the trailer button to load its player.