Tango Here and There
by jposburn | created - 09 Jul 2018 | updated - 28 Apr 2021 | PublicA list in progress of films with a tango element, dance, music, or song, that may be dramatically important (or not) but doesn't make the full movie a "tango film." The dance styles are all over the place and sometimes promiscuously mixed... Argentine, ballroom, international, americano, interpretive. The order isn't a ranking. My notes can be read under "detail view." See also my lists of "Narrative Tango Films" and "Tango Documentaries."
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1. Some Like It Hot (1959)
Passed | 121 min | Comedy, Music, Romance
After two male musicians witness a mob hit, they flee the state in an all-female band disguised as women, but further complications set in.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, George Raft
Votes: 283,453 | Gross: $25.00M
Tango in drag with a stiff arm.
2. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
Passed | 110 min | Drama, Film-Noir
A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson
Votes: 236,367
"Valentino said there's nothing like tile for the tango."
3. Apartment Zero (1988)
R | 124 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
In early 1980s Buenos Aires, a struggling movie theater owner takes in a roommate but suspects he is responsible for a series of political assassinations.
Director: Martin Donovan | Stars: Hart Bochner, Colin Firth, Dora Bryan, Liz Smith
Votes: 4,236 | Gross: $0.67M
A disturbing psycho-sexual political thriller with overtones of Hitchcock and Highsmith. Tango weaves in and out of the soundtrack and there is a cabaret scene of a tango singer. It's never quite a tango film, however, and the references drop away well before the end.
4. Tempest (1982)
PG | 140 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
John Cassavetes gives a compelling performance as a man confronting a mid-life crisis with extraordinary results for everyone around him.
Director: Paul Mazursky | Stars: John Cassavetes, Gena Rowlands, Susan Sarandon, Vittorio Gassman
Votes: 2,700 | Gross: $5.01M
Paul Mazursky's magical update of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" reconciles friend and foe with a tango dance party, stiff-armed but strangely tender, rather than dinner and a court masque.
5. Le Bal (1983)
109 min | History, Musical
Dance moves, music and fashion mark the passage of time inside a Paris dance hall, throughout fifty years of history.
Director: Ettore Scola | Stars: Étienne Guichard, Régis Bouquet, Francesco De Rosa, Arnault LeCarpentier
Votes: 3,029
A wordless history of a fictional Paris dance hall. Not a "tango film," but tango has a heightened significance as it winds through multiple periods and survives competing fads.
6. Love and Other Disasters (2006)
R | 90 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
An American intern at U.K. Vogue helps her friends find love.
Director: Alek Keshishian | Stars: Brittany Murphy, Matthew Rhys, Catherine Tate, Santiago Cabrera
Votes: 14,729
The always appealing Brittany Murphy dances a tango - rather well.
7. Scent of a Woman (1992)
R | 156 min | Drama
A prep school student needing money agrees to "babysit" a blind man, but the job is not at all what he anticipated.
Director: Martin Brest | Stars: Al Pacino, Chris O'Donnell, James Rebhorn, Gabrielle Anwar
Votes: 328,639 | Gross: $63.90M
Al Pacino and Gabrielle Anwar's famous tango to "Por una cabeza."
8. Avellaneda's Moon (2004)
143 min | Comedy, Drama, Sport
The story of a social and sports club in a Buenos Aires neighborhood and of those who try to save it from being closed.
Director: Juan José Campanella | Stars: Ricardo Darín, Eduardo Blanco, Mercedes Morán, Valeria Bertuccelli
Votes: 5,647
"Luna de Avellaneda" is a beautifully poetic movie about a neighborhood club threatened by hard times and vulture developers. It opens with a flashback to a 1950s carnival overflowing with tango, romance, sport, and procreation.
9. Underground (1995)
Not Rated | 167 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Two underground black marketeers, Marko and Blacky, sell weapons to the Communist resistance in wartime Belgrade, living the good life along the way.
Director: Emir Kusturica | Stars: Predrag 'Miki' Manojlovic, Lazar Ristovski, Mirjana Jokovic, Slavko Stimac
Votes: 61,238 | Gross: $0.17M
A WWII Yugoslav resistance fighter drinks and dances with his actress-lover during an Allied bombardment, and tango, recurrent on the soundtrack, is the opening theme of a carnivalesque subterranean wedding.
10. Rent (2005)
PG-13 | 135 min | Drama, Musical, Romance
In New York City's gritty East Village, a group of bohemians strive for success and acceptance while enduring the obstacles of poverty, illness and the AIDS epidemic.
Director: Chris Columbus | Stars: Taye Diggs, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Rosario Dawson, Anthony Rapp
Votes: 55,913 | Gross: $29.08M
A bracing scene is Tango Maureen.
11. Soldier of Orange (1977)
R | 165 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
During World War II, Dutch students join the resistance movement against the German occupation of the Netherlands.
Director: Paul Verhoeven | Stars: Rutger Hauer, Jeroen Krabbé, Susan Penhaligon, Edward Fox
Votes: 13,871
Same sex Nazi and Resistance tango.
12. One Deadly Summer (1983)
R | 133 min | Drama, Mystery
A young woman who oozes sensuality arrives in a small town and marries the local mechanic. Was it love at first sight? What links her enigmatic presence to the family's piano? Is it curiosity or is it something far more sinister?
Director: Jean Becker | Stars: Isabelle Adjani, Alain Souchon, Suzanne Flon, Jenny Clève
Votes: 5,355
In the midst of this tonally, dramatically, and emotionally complex film there comes, as though to make it even more so, "La cumparsita."
13. The Conformist (1970)
R | 113 min | Drama
A weak-willed Italian man becomes a fascist flunky who goes abroad to arrange the assassination of his old teacher, now a political dissident.
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci | Stars: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Stefania Sandrelli, Gastone Moschin, Enzo Tarascio
Votes: 33,683 | Gross: $0.54M
Tango tends to pop up in films about fascism.
14. Indochine (1992)
PG-13 | 160 min | Drama, Romance, War
Eliane adopts Camille, whose Vietnamese parents were friends. In 1930, a French navy officer is interested in Eliane (owns 60km2 plantation) and later in Camille. There's an uprising in Vietnam against French colonial power.
Director: Régis Wargnier | Stars: Catherine Deneuve, Vincent Perez, Linh-Dan Pham, Jean Yanne
Votes: 10,944 | Gross: $5.73M
Catherine Deneuve and Linh Dan Pham (as an adopted daughter) dance a tango symbolic of the fading French colony.
15. The Plague (1992)
R | 148 min | Drama
In the 1990s, a South American city suffers the outbreak of a plague. The people react in different ways: Dr. Rieux tries to cure the sick, two French journalists expect sensational headlines, pious believers lament this God-given scourge.
Director: Luis Puenzo | Stars: William Hurt, Sandrine Bonnaire, Jean-Marc Barr, Robert Duvall
Votes: 974
This interesting version of Camus' "The Plague" includes an impressive tango by Carolina Iotti and Estanislao Herrera in which the performance cliché of the woman's back arched in the man's arms takes a shocking and sardonic turn.
16. Gran Casino (1947)
92 min | Drama, Musical
A prison escapee becomes involved with an independent oil well owner threatened by corporate thugs, who do their dodgy business in the glamorous Grand Casino.
Director: Luis Buñuel | Stars: Libertad Lamarque, Jorge Negrete, Meche Barba, Agustín Isunza
Votes: 883
Someone sings in that casino - Libertad Lemarque directed by Luis Buñuel. There's also some good fun with porteño slang in an early scene.
17. El hijo pródigo (1969)
102 min | Drama, Crime, Mystery
A lawyer convinces his client to cheat on a famous singer with great wealth, thus eliminating him and collecting the insurance. What nobody expects is that the farce is uncovered sooner than they thought.
Directors: Servando González, Ángel Rodríguez | Stars: Libertad Lamarque, Carlos Lico, Julián Bravo, Adriana Roel
Votes: 11
Libertad Lemarque, seeking her wayward son, sings "Nostalgias."
18. Upside Down (I) (2012)
PG-13 | 109 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Adam and Eden fell in love as teens despite the fact that they live on twinned worlds with gravities that pull in opposite directions. Ten years after a forced separation, Adam sets out on a dangerous quest to reconnect with his love.
Director: Juan Solanas | Stars: Jim Sturgess, Kirsten Dunst, Timothy Spall, Blu Mankuma
Votes: 73,926 | Gross: $0.10M
Kirsten Dunst dances with Pablo Verón in a topsy-turvy ballroom.
19. Easy Virtue (2008)
PG-13 | 97 min | Comedy, Romance
A young Englishman marries a glamorous American. When he brings her home to meet the parents, she arrives like a blast from the future - blowing their entrenched British stuffiness out the window.
Director: Stephan Elliott | Stars: Jessica Biel, Ben Barnes, Kristin Scott Thomas, Colin Firth
Votes: 22,454 | Gross: $2.66M
Tango scene with Jessica Biel and Colin Firth.
20. Prix de beauté (Miss Europe) (1930)
93 min | Drama, Romance
Lucienne, typist and gorgeous bathing beauty, decides to enter the 'Miss Europe' pageant sponsored by the French newspaper she works for. She finds her jealous lover Andre violently ... See full summary »
Director: Augusto Genina | Stars: Louise Brooks, Georges Charlia, Augusto Bandini, André Nicolle
Votes: 666
The great Louise Brooks plays a woman who enters a beauty contest and pursues a film career in defiance of a possessive husband. When she wins, she dances a tango that is played in her honor. The music re-emerges as a theme in a romantic tragedy that was Brooks' first sound film (she is convincingly dubbed in French).
21. True Lies (1994)
R | 141 min | Action, Comedy, Thriller
A fearless, globe-trotting, terrorist-battling secret agent has his life turned upside down when he discovers his wife might be having an affair with a used-car salesman while terrorists smuggle nuclear war heads into the United States.
Director: James Cameron | Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, Bill Paxton
Votes: 280,831 | Gross: $146.28M
Schwarzenegger parodies Connery's Bond tango.
22. Never Say Never Again (1983)
PG | 134 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
A S.P.E.C.T.R.E. agent has stolen two American nuclear warheads, and James Bond must find their targets before they are detonated.
Director: Irvin Kershner | Stars: Sean Connery, Kim Basinger, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Max von Sydow
Votes: 73,124 | Gross: $55.50M
Connery's Bond tangos with Kim Basinger.
23. Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)
PG-13 | 120 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
A bored married couple is surprised to learn that they are both assassins hired by competing agencies to kill each other.
Director: Doug Liman | Stars: Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Adam Brody, Vince Vaughn
Votes: 541,279 | Gross: $186.34M
Spies and assassins love tango.
24. Valentino (1951)
Approved | 102 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
Italian immigrant Rudolph Valentino makes it big in silent Hollywood, but he ends up struggling between his career and the woman he loves.
Director: Lewis Allen | Stars: Eleanor Parker, Richard Carlson, Patricia Medina, Joseph Calleia
Votes: 338
If there's Valentino, there must be tango.
25. Valentino (1977)
R | 128 min | Biography, Drama
In 1926 the tragic and untimely death of a silent screen actor caused female moviegoers to riot in the streets and in some cases to commit suicide.
Director: Ken Russell | Stars: Rudolf Nureyev, Leslie Caron, Michelle Phillips, Carol Kane
Votes: 2,151
Nureyev directed with style and excess by Ken Russell.
26. El derecho a la felicidad (1968)
105 min | Comedy, Romance
The three daughters of a mature marriage and their problems with their respective boyfriends.
Director: Carlos Rinaldi | Stars: Juan Carlos Altavista, Silvia Balán, María Aurelia Bisutti, Rodolfo Crespi
A great version of "Garua" sung by Goyeneche in his prime.
27. The Devious Path (1928)
107 min | Drama, Romance
Neglected by her husband, an ambitious lawyer, Irene seeks variety in Berlin's nightlife, drugs and flirtations included.
Director: Georg Wilhelm Pabst | Stars: Gustav Diessl, Brigitte Helm, Hertha von Walther, Jack Trevor
Votes: 432
A silent film by G.W. Pabst that includes a scene in which tango and foxtrot alternate in Weimar Berlin.
28. Secrets of a Secretary (1931)
71 min | Drama
When her father dies, a wealthy young women discovers that she's not wealthy at all--her father lost all of his money in the 1929 stock market crash and she's now officially broke. She ... See full summary »
Director: George Abbott | Stars: Claudette Colbert, Herbert Marshall, Georges Metaxa, Betty Lawford
Votes: 158
Nightclub tango...
29. Always Goodbye (1938)
Approved | 75 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A woman must decide between two men: one she loves, the other she admires and respects.
Director: Sidney Lanfield | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Herbert Marshall, Ian Hunter, Cesar Romero
Votes: 628
Nightclub tango...
30. Outpost in Morocco (1949)
Approved | 92 min | Adventure
After escorting an Emir's daughter to her father's stronghold, French Foreign Legion Captain Gerard's unit joins an isolated Moroccan outpost facing imminent attack by rebel Bedouin tribes.
Director: Robert Florey | Stars: George Raft, Marie Windsor, Akim Tamiroff, John Litel
Votes: 502
Nightclub tango...
31. Under the Pampas Moon (1935)
Approved | 78 min | Musical, Romance, Western
Cesare Campo is a hard-riding and hard-loving Argentine gaucho. Yvonne LaMarr is a famous Parisian singer on her way to play an engagement in a Buenos Aires cabaret. THe plane she is flying... See full summary »
Director: James Tinling | Stars: Warner Baxter, Ketti Gallian, John Miljan, J. Carrol Naish
Votes: 126
Cobra tango.
32. Anchors Aweigh (1945)
Passed | 140 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Musical
A pair of sailors on leave try to help a movie extra become a singing star.
Directors: George Sidney, Joseph Barbera, William Hanna | Stars: Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, Gene Kelly, José Iturbi
Votes: 9,433
A very free form tango by Gene Kelly to "La cumparsita."
33. Broadway (1942)
Approved | 91 min | Crime, Drama, Music
George Raft, playing himself, recalls his days on Broadway, where he acquired a reputation as a great dancer--and also one as a brawler, a ladies man and an associate of some of the city's most notorious gangsters.
Director: William A. Seiter | Stars: George Raft, Pat O'Brien, Janet Blair, Broderick Crawford
Votes: 132
George Raft knew some tango.
34. The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939)
Approved | 93 min | Biography, Drama, Musical
The story of the dancing team who taught the world to two-step.
Director: H.C. Potter | Stars: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edna May Oliver, Walter Brennan
Votes: 2,790 | Gross: $1.12M
I don't think tango is really Fred Astaire's thing.
35. Way Out West (1937)
Passed | 66 min | Comedy, Family, Western
Stanley and Ollie are enlisted to deliver the deed to a goldmine in a small village, only for it to be stolen.
Director: James W. Horne | Stars: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Sharon Lynn, James Finlayson
Votes: 8,986
A tango moment with Laurel and Hardy.
36. Flying Down to Rio (1933)
Passed | 89 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
A bandleader woos a Latin flame who is already engaged to his employer.
Director: Thornton Freeland | Stars: Dolores Del Río, Gene Raymond, Raul Roulien, Ginger Rogers
Votes: 4,024 | Gross: $2.01M
Among the many Latin dances - tango.
37. Schindler's List (1993)
R | 195 min | Biography, Drama, History
In German-occupied Poland during World War II, industrialist Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazis.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley, Caroline Goodall
Votes: 1,450,130 | Gross: $96.90M
Again, that strange perceived affinity between tango and times of fascism.
38. Evita (1996)
PG | 135 min | Biography, Drama, History
The hit musical based on the life of Eva Perón (Evita Duarte), a B-picture Argentinian actress who eventually became the wife of Argentinian president Juan Domingo Perón, and the most beloved and hated woman in Argentina.
Director: Alan Parker | Stars: Madonna, Jonathan Pryce, Antonio Banderas, Jimmy Nail
Votes: 37,569 | Gross: $50.05M
The tango elements include an extremely inauthentic dance between Madonna and Antonio Banderas.
39. Strictly Ballroom (1992)
PG | 94 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
A maverick dancer risks his career by performing an unusual routine and sets out to succeed with a new partner.
Director: Baz Luhrmann | Stars: Paul Mercurio, Tara Morice, Bill Hunter, Pat Thomson
Votes: 29,397 | Gross: $11.74M
Ballroom, not Argentine, but tango is in the mix.
40. Death on the Nile (1978)
PG | 140 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
As Hercule Poirot enjoys a luxurious cruise down the Nile, a newlywed heiress is found murdered on board. Can Poirot identify the killer before the ship reaches the end of its journey?
Director: John Guillermin | Stars: Peter Ustinov, Mia Farrow, Simon MacCorkindale, Jane Birkin
Votes: 39,822
Tango a la Agatha Christie, Niven and Ustinov leading with stiff arms.
41. Wild Tango (1993)
R | 124 min | Biography, Drama, Music
A biopic based on the life of one of the pioneer argentine rock stars 'Tanguito'. The movie tells the story of his rise and fall from grace, encompassed in violent times of a military regime.
Director: Marcelo Piñeyro | Stars: Fernán Mirás, Cecilia Dopazo, Imanol Arias, Antonio Birabent
Votes: 1,757
The milieu is Argentine rock, but the star is called Tanguito and there is tango in the film, as metaphor and love-making.
42. Alice (1990)
PG-13 | 106 min | Comedy, Romance
A spoiled Manhattan housewife re-evaluates her life after visiting a Chinatown healer.
Director: Woody Allen | Stars: Mia Farrow, William Hurt, Joe Mantegna, June Squibb
Votes: 15,338 | Gross: $7.33M
"La cumparsita" as a romantic and emotional motif.
43. Flawless (1999)
R | 112 min | Crime, Drama
An ultraconservative security guard suffers a debilitating stroke and is assigned to a rehabilitative program that includes singing lessons with the drag queen next door.
Director: Joel Schumacher | Stars: Robert De Niro, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Miller, Chris Bauer
Votes: 19,999 | Gross: $4.49M
A touchingly simple tango danced during the emotional and physical recuperation of a cop debilitated from a stroke.
44. Addams Family Values (1993)
PG-13 | 94 min | Comedy, Fantasy
The Addams Family try to rescue their beloved Uncle Fester from his gold-digging new love, a black widow named Debbie.
Director: Barry Sonnenfeld | Stars: Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia, Christopher Lloyd, Joan Cusack
Votes: 109,551 | Gross: $48.92M
Tango, flamenco, paso doble, all rolled into one.
45. One from the Heart (1981)
R | 107 min | Drama, Musical, Romance
A couple has a fight after living together 5 years in Las Vegas. They go out and celebrate 4th of July, each with a new partner. Breakup?
Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Frederic Forrest, Teri Garr, Raul Julia, Nastassja Kinski
Votes: 7,228 | Gross: $0.64M
Raul Julia and Teri Garr tango, sorta.
46. L'étoile de Valencia (1933)
88 min | Drama
Because a sailor once told Pedro Savedra his wife Marion cheated on him he left her. Learning later that it was nothing but a practical joke, Pedro decides to find her and to win her back. ... See full summary »
Director: Serge de Poligny | Stars: Brigitte Helm, Jean Gabin, Raymond Aimos, Joe Alex
Votes: 29
Includes the French tango "Fidèle" sung by Brigitte Helm.
47. StreetDance 2 (2012)
85 min | Drama, Music, Romance
After suffering humiliation by the crew Invincible, street dancer Ash (Hentschel) looks to gather the best dancers from around the world for a rematch.
Directors: Max Giwa, Dania Pasquini | Stars: Falk Hentschel, Sofia Boutella, George Sampson, Stephanie Nguyen
Votes: 9,533
Tango in a boxing ring with the man blindfolded, not a bad scene.
48. Volver (I) (2006)
R | 121 min | Comedy, Drama
After her death, a mother returns to her home town in order to fix the situations she couldn't resolve during her life.
Director: Pedro Almodóvar | Stars: Penélope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas, Blanca Portillo
Votes: 107,459 | Gross: $12.90M
A flamenco version of the title song colors this excellent film de Almodóvar.
49. Gatica, the Monkey (1993)
136 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
An Argentina film, which narrates the life of Argentine boxer José María Gatica, from his childhood until his tragic death in Buenos Aires in 1963.
Director: Leonardo Favio | Stars: Edgardo Nieva, Horacio Taicher, Juan Costa, María Eva Gatica
Votes: 613
"Quiero verte una vez mas" is sung in a pivotal scene.
50. Volver (1982)
90 min | Drama
An Argentine-executive of a multinational-returns home from exile to close a factory and he meets his ex-girlfriend and former best friend in this look at the political and social situation... See full summary »
Director: David Lipszyc | Stars: Héctor Alterio, Graciela Dufau, Rodolfo Ranni, María Rosa Gallo
Votes: 61
The significant absence of tango in the film proper is accentuated by the Piazzolla soundtrack.
51. The Red Poster (1976)
90 min | Drama
A company wants to make a play about Mont Valerien resistant fighters who were shot by the Nazis and the French collaborators.
Director: Frank Cassenti | Stars: Roger Ibáñez, Pierre Clémenti, László Szabó, Malka Ribowska
Votes: 62
Tango is a haunting motif in this lyrical tragedy of the French Resistance.
52. Burn (2002)
10 min | Short
Burn is a narrative collage, with people and allegorical creatures. A house burns from the inside while its occupants focus on the emotional issues of their lives. The inhabitants serve ... See full synopsis »
Directors: Patrick Jolley, Reynold Reynolds
Votes: 49
A creepy, hypnotic short, and then Goyeneche.
53. Frida (2002)
R | 123 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
A biography of artist Frida Kahlo, who channeled the pain of a crippling injury and her tempestuous marriage into her work.
Director: Julie Taymor | Stars: Salma Hayek, Alfred Molina, Geoffrey Rush, Mía Maestro
Votes: 95,300 | Gross: $25.89M
Salma Hayek and Ashley Judd dance a sexually complex, flamenco-tinged tango.
54. Amorina (1961)
90 min | Drama, Musical, Romance
A woman feels abandoned by her husband and children.
Director: Hugo del Carril | Stars: Tita Merello, Hugo del Carril, María Aurelia Bisutti, Alberto Bello
Votes: 55
Despite the presence of Hugo del Carril and Tita Merella as man and wife, tango appears just once in this melodrama of infidelity and mental collapse, when they watch couples dancing in a way that contrasts with the distance of their own relationship.
55. Chicago (2002)
PG-13 | 113 min | Comedy, Crime, Musical
Two death-row murderesses develop a fierce rivalry while competing for publicity, celebrity, and a sleazy lawyer's attention.
Director: Rob Marshall | Stars: Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, Taye Diggs
Votes: 243,313 | Gross: $170.69M
Tango jail number.
56. Kochaj i tancz (2009)
118 min | Romance
A brand new journalist goes behind the scene of a dance and music organization. She finds her true love and a suppressed dream of hers.
Director: Bruce Parramore | Stars: Mateusz Damiecki, Izabella Miko, Violetta Arlak, Anna Bosak
Votes: 1,172
Includes a rather good and very sensuous choreographed tango.
57. Shall We Dance? (1996)
PG | 136 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
A successful but unhappy Japanese accountant finds the missing passion in his life when he begins to secretly take ballroom dance lessons.
Director: Masayuki Suô | Stars: Koji Yakusho, Tamiyo Kusakari, Naoto Takenaka, Eri Watanabe
Votes: 11,730 | Gross: $9.68M
Ballroom dancing and self-fulfillment; tango is in the mix. Much better than the remake.
58. The Gallopin' Gaucho (1928)
Passed | 6 min | Animation, Short, Comedy
Mickey rides up to a cantina and does a tango with Minnie. When a big cat steals her away, Mickey gives chase, riding a drunken ostrich. At the hideout, Mickey has a swordfight with the cat.
Director: Ub Iwerks | Star: Walt Disney
Votes: 1,051
Mickey Mouse as a gaucho on the run. He dances a tango with Minnie, which results in her abduction by a cat. There follows a pursuit across the pampas.
59. Take the Lead (2006)
PG-13 | 118 min | Drama, Music
A dance teacher offers to conduct detention for a group of misfit students by teaching them ballroom dancing. He overcomes their insecurities and prejudices, to enter them in a dance competition.
Director: Liz Friedlander | Stars: Antonio Banderas, Rob Brown, Yaya DaCosta, Alfre Woodard
Votes: 26,654 | Gross: $34.74M
A film about the virtuous effects of ballroom on adolescents; a sexy show tango in an early scene convinces them.
60. Shall We Dance? (2004)
PG-13 | 106 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
A romantic comedy where a bored, overworked Estate Lawyer, upon first sight of a beautiful instructor, signs up for ballroom dancing lessons.
Director: Peter Chelsom | Stars: Richard Gere, Jennifer Lopez, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci
Votes: 49,585 | Gross: $57.89M
A stereotypical tango between Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez, but not without its good points.
61. The World's Greatest Lover (1977)
PG | 89 min | Comedy
A neurotic baker travels to Hollywood to attend a talent search for an actor to rival the great Valentino. Although not an actor, through blind luck he succeeds, to a certain degree.
Director: Gene Wilder | Stars: Gene Wilder, Carol Kane, Dom DeLuise, Fritz Feld
Votes: 2,213 | Gross: $21.58M
There are a couple of tango parodies in this Valentino spoof with Gene Wilder, the best being a drunken walk that veers briefly into a tango foot pattern.
62. Finnischer Tango (2008)
90 min | Comedy
Nearly killed by his suicidal friend's tragic drive, young accordionist Alex embarks on a search for meaning. To this rascal, however, that means coming up with a phony handicap so he can ... See full summary »
Director: Buket Alakus | Stars: Christoph Bach, Mira Bartuschek, Fabian Busch, Nele Winkler
Votes: 103
Finnish tango barely appears in this serious comedy about an accordionist who feigns disability to escape a heavy metal band after him to collect a debt, but comes into its own in the final scene on the North Sea.
63. Moulin Rouge! (2001)
PG-13 | 127 min | Drama, Musical, Romance
A poor Bohemian poet in 1890s Paris falls for a beautiful courtesan and nightclub star coveted by a jealous duke.
Director: Baz Luhrmann | Stars: Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, John Leguizamo, Jim Broadbent
Votes: 299,284 | Gross: $57.39M
El tango de Roxanne.
64. Felicidades (2000)
PG-13 | 100 min | Comedy, Drama
Shows how several characters spend Christmas Eve in Buenos Aires, and how their lives intersect.
Director: Lucho Bender | Stars: Luis Machín, Gastón Pauls, Silke, Pablo Cedrón
Votes: 763
There's an early walk through a Christmas market in Buenos Aires in which a couple dancing tango adds to the holiday ambience.
65. The Party (I) (2017)
R | 71 min | Comedy, Drama
Janet hosts a party to celebrate her new promotion, but once the guests arrive, it becomes clear that not everything will be going down as smoothly as the red wine.
Director: Sally Potter | Stars: Timothy Spall, Kristin Scott Thomas, Patricia Clarkson, Bruno Ganz
Votes: 21,007 | Gross: $0.75M
Pugliese floods the eardrums at a dramatic moment. As this is from Sally Potter, writer-director of "The Tango Lesson," that is enough to merit inclusion.
66. Gilda (1946)
Approved | 110 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
A small-time gambler hired to work in a Buenos Aires casino discovers his employer's new wife is his former lover.
Director: Charles Vidor | Stars: Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, George Macready, Joseph Calleia
Votes: 35,254
There's surprisingly little tango in this classic film noir set ostensibly in Buenos Aires and Montevideo, but there is some.
67. The Man Who Captured Eichmann (1996 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 96 min | Drama, History, War
The story of the 1960 hostile extraction of the Nazi war criminal, Adolf Eichmann, by the Mossad to Israeli justice.
Director: William A. Graham | Stars: Robert Duvall, Arliss Howard, Jeffrey Tambor, Jack Laufer
Votes: 802
This list generally avoids televisual shows and series, but this TV movie anticipates Robert Duvall's "Assassination Tango" in a short sequence that features a glimpse of the great dancer Geraldine Rojas at the venerable German restaurant Edelweiss.
68. Another Tango (2018)
Unrated | 82 min | Drama, Romance
Former high school sweethearts reluctantly reunite for a dance competition and attempt to save the small town's failing dance studio.
Director: Sean Michael Beyer | Stars: Lexi Giovagnoli, Brant Daugherty, Sarah Blades, Tomoko Karina
Votes: 356
Not a tango-driven film at all, but it culminates with a ballroom show tango, preceded by rehearsals.
69. Transgression (1931)
Passed | 70 min | Drama
Elsie sets out for a holiday in Paris and develops an affair while her husband spends a year working in India.
Director: Herbert Brenon | Stars: Kay Francis, Paul Cavanagh, Ricardo Cortez, Nance O'Neil
Votes: 375
If you are Kay Francis trying to break off an affair with a dashing Spanish nobleman she meets in Paris, it is probably best to decline his invitation to dance a final tango.
70. Flor de durazno (1917)
90 min | Drama
In a small town of Córdoba Fabián is formally of boyfriend with Rina. This in turn has affair with Germán, who leaves the young woman when she becomes pregnant.
Director: Francisco Defilippis Novoa | Stars: Carlos Gardel, Ilde Pirovano, Argentino Gómez, Celestino Petray
Votes: 31
This early silent movie starring future tango star Carlos Gardel doesn't have a tango theme, but it can be watched in a version with dubbed narration and dialogue and a Gardel soundtrack. This isn't so far from how some silents were originally presented, with live vocals and musicians, but whether that was true in this case is subject to additional research.
71. Escuela de música (1955)
86 min | Comedy, Musical
About an industrialist with lots of money and a singing teacher forced to leave school because she lacks financial resources. Thanks to their singing skills, they will join in a tour through different countries of Latin America.
Director: Miguel Zacarías | Stars: Libertad Lamarque, Pedro Infante, Luis Aldás, María Chacón
Votes: 110
There's just one tango in "La escuela de música," a romantic musical comedy about a women's orchestra touring South America, but it's sung by Libertad Lemarque
72. Duelle (1976)
Not Rated | 121 min | Drama, Fantasy, Mystery
The Queen of the Night battles the Queen of the Sun over a magical diamond that will allow the winner to remain on Earth, specifically in modern day Paris.
Director: Jacques Rivette | Stars: Juliet Berto, Bulle Ogier, Jean Babilée, Hermine Karagheuz
Votes: 1,783
One of the settings in this eccentric mythological fantasy from Jacques Rivette is a Parisian hostess club in which (as happened in old Buenos Aires) the men bought cards to dance with the women. Tango is one of the dances, and there's an extended sequence leading up a key dramatic incident.
73. In Name Only (1939)
Approved | 94 min | Drama, Romance
After a wealthy man finds out his wife is a gold digger, he meets and falls for a widowed mother, and complications ensue.
Director: John Cromwell | Stars: Cary Grant, Carole Lombard, Kay Francis, Charles Coburn
Votes: 3,546
Kay Francis movies seem to attract brief but pointed tango references. In this one, the philandering Cary Grant has it out with one of his affairs as couples dance authentically close to a live band. Francis, it should be said, is no saint herself in this one.
74. Wonder Bar (1934)
Passed | 84 min | Crime, Drama, Musical
Harry and Inez are a dance team at the Wonder Bar. Inez loves Harry, but he is in love with Liane, the wife of a wealthy business man. Al Wonder and the conductor/singer Tommy are in love ... See full summary »
Director: Lloyd Bacon | Stars: Al Jolson, Kay Francis, Dolores Del Río, Ricardo Cortez
Votes: 737
Tango can be fatal - "Gaucho Dance" with Dolores del Rio and Ricardo Cortez, also a gay moment on the dance floor and an unfortunate and increasingly offensive blackface extravaganza.
75. Trouble in Paradise (1932)
Passed | 83 min | Comedy, Crime, Romance
A gentleman thief and a lady pickpocket join forces to con a beautiful perfume company owner. Romantic entanglements and jealousies confuse the scheme.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch | Stars: Miriam Hopkins, Kay Francis, Herbert Marshall, Charles Ruggles
Votes: 16,152 | Gross: $1.04M
"Just a little tango?" The dance and music play a small but very witty part in this classic comedy.
76. Stolen Holiday (1937)
Approved | 80 min | Drama, Romance
Nicole Picot is working as a model in a Paris dress salon when she is picked by Stefan Orloff to help him convince a wealthy investor that he is well connected. She is to wear an expensive ... See full summary »
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Kay Francis, Claude Rains, Ian Hunter, Alison Skipworth
Votes: 621
Kay Francis in Paris again, so there's high society tango at an elegant ball. And who but Claude Rains could speak the line: "Only pretty young men from Buenos Aires should dance"?
77. The Keyhole (1933)
Passed | 69 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Anne Brooks is being blackmailed by her old dancing partner Maurice. They married when she was young but broke up after which he said he was getting a quickie divorce. Anne married the much... See full summary »
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Kay Francis, George Brent, Glenda Farrell, Monroe Owsley
Votes: 662
"Nice tune, isn't it?" says George Brent to Kay Francis as couples dance shipboard to "La Cumparsita," the first of several tangos on the soundtrack of this elegant romantic comedy.
78. The Goose and the Gander (1935)
Approved | 65 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Wife #1 wants ex-husband to catch second wife being unfaithful.
Director: Alfred E. Green | Stars: Kay Francis, George Brent, Genevieve Tobin, John Eldredge
Votes: 489
There's a pivotal social dance early on, with partner switching and cutting in and wandering romantically off to the terrace, that sets the table for this perfect little farce. The dancing doesn't look much like tango (to be fair, we don't see the feet), but the music is instantly recognizable to any tanguero.
79. Living on Velvet (1935)
Passed | 80 min | Drama, Romance
Terry Parker (George Brent) is shattered by the crash of his airplane which killed his parents and sister, and adopts a listless attitude toward life. But romance enters in the person of ... See full summary »
Director: Frank Borzage | Stars: Kay Francis, Warren William, George Brent, Helen Lowell
Votes: 475
George Brent and Kay Francis dance a tango when they meet, and the rest is history.
80. Dance, Fools, Dance (1931)
Approved | 80 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
After the death of her father and loss of the family fortune, Bonnie (Joan Crawford) gets a job as a cub reporter while her brother (William Bakewell) becomes involved in bootlegging.
Director: Harry Beaumont | Stars: Joan Crawford, Cliff Edwards, Lester Vail, William Bakewell
Votes: 1,243
Joan Crawford and Lester Vail dance a lively tango to "A media luz" in the first scene of this Chicago gangland, newsroom, Prohibition era yarn.
81. Melodías de América (1942)
94 min | Comedy, Musical
Romance starts in Rio between a Mexican tenor being wooed for a Buenos Aires production, and an Argentine gal who has won a soap contest and who he thinks is rich.
Director: Eduardo Morera | Stars: Juan Carlos Altavista, Armando Bo, Carmen Brown, Rafael Carret
Votes: 9
An engaging revue of song genres in the Americas told via a showbiz romance during the filming of a movie of the same name as the one we are watching. Tango pops up twice - in a social dance scene (in which a violation of tango etiquette is amusingly reacted to) and in a cameo of the great Nelly Omar singing "El aguacero" in a recreated pampas setting.
82. Buenos Aires, verano 1912 (1966)
78 min | Drama, Comedy
The son of a politician who tries to follow the same path as his father, gives up when he discovers his fraudulent dealings.
Director: Oscar Kantor | Stars: Augusto Bonardo, Ubaldo Martínez, Beto Gianola, Cristina Banegas
In a film portraying a time of political change in Argentina, Edmundo Rivero, in the role of Funes, sings a politically charged milonga.
83. The Legend of the Holy Drinker (1988)
Not Rated | 128 min | Drama
An alcoholic homeless man is given two hundred francs by a stranger, who requests that when he can he will return the money to Saint Therese in the cathedral.
Director: Ermanno Olmi | Stars: Rutger Hauer, Anthony Quayle, Sandrine Dumas, Dominique Pinon
Votes: 2,165
There is a short but poetic tango, with a perfectly timed series of corridas, in this hauntingly magic realist work by one of the great Italian masters.
84. Quartet (1981)
R | 101 min | Drama, Romance
Finding herself penniless after her art-dealer husband Stephan is convicted of theft, Marya Zelli accepts the hospitality of a strange couple, H.J. and Lois Heidler, who let her live in their home.
Director: James Ivory | Stars: Isabelle Adjani, Maggie Smith, Alan Bates, Anthony Higgins
Votes: 1,880 | Gross: $0.01M
Jean Rhys' love quartet via Merchant Ivory. When the point of crisis is reached in a Parisian cafe, dancers and orchestra shift with the mood and turn to tango.
85. Ceniza al viento (1942)
98 min | Drama
Different episodes that happen in each of the sections of a newspaper.
Director: Luis Saslavsky | Stars: Berta Singerman, Olinda Bozán, Pedro López Lagar, María Duval
Votes: 15
Although Tita Merello is one of the actors and Homero Manzi one of the writers, this is not a tango film. Rather, it is an ingenious intertwining of stories based on the genres implied by the sections of a newspaper. One of those stories comes to a head at a club at which there is one extended scene of social tango dancing that includes Merello.
86. India Song (1975)
Not Rated | 120 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Anne-Marie Stretter, wife of a French diplomat, lives in 1930s India. She takes many lovers as systems of oppression decay around her.
Director: Marguerite Duras | Stars: Delphine Seyrig, Michael Lonsdale, Mathieu Carrière, Claude Mann
Votes: 2,580
A profoundly musical and pictorial film about sexual decadence in the diplomatic corps of colonial India; the soundtrack composer is originally from Buenos Aires and tango has a strong presence, with implied social dancing out-of-frame and an internal erotic movement like tango in the most sustained scene of conversational seduction.
87. Wolfsburg (2003)
90 min | Drama
Philipp Gerber is a smart, self-satisfied car salesman. In an inattentive moment at the wheel of his car, he runs over a young boy riding a bike and drives away. As he has feelings of guilt... See full summary »
Director: Christian Petzold | Stars: Benno Fürmann, Nina Hoss, Antje Westermann, Astrid Meyerfeldt
Votes: 1,313
The course of events in this fascinating movie would have been vastly different had the principal female character agreed to go out with a co-worker who wants to introduce her to Argentine tango. He tries to lead her through some tentative steps on the sidewalk before she breaks it off.
88. Le Pont du Nord (1981)
Not Rated | 129 min | Adventure, Crime, Drama
Young unhinged female ex-con with a motorcycle helps a sickly young homeless woman in red discover what the map of Paris she took from her gangster boyfriend leads to.
Director: Jacques Rivette | Stars: Bulle Ogier, Pascale Ogier, Pierre Clémenti, Jean-François Stévenin
Votes: 1,337 | Gross: $0.01M
Piazzolla's "Libertango" accompanies Pascale Ogier's motorbike tour of the lion sculptures of Paris in this eccentric puzzle board of a film. Afterward, the faint strains of "Violentango" come in lightly as background music.
89. Promise at Dawn (2017)
131 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
A man recounts his life, from his childhood through his experiences in World War II, and the story of his self-sacrificing mother, who raised him alone.
Director: Eric Barbier | Stars: Pierre Niney, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Didier Bourdon, Jean-Pierre Darroussin
Votes: 3,848
The young Romain Gary dances a tango to cheer up his mother as a child and later, as a young man, to celebrate his first literary success. The style is stiff-arm international, which may have been right for the period.
90. Le Beau Serge (1958)
Not Rated | 98 min | Drama
After long absence, a man returns to his hometown only to find his best friend has become an alcoholic.
Director: Claude Chabrol | Stars: Gérard Blain, Jean-Claude Brialy, Michèle Méritz, Bernadette Lafont
Votes: 3,764
The first New Wave film, not by Godard but by Chabrol. There's a pivotal scene involving a provincial French social dance, and the first set is of tango. Tango is not tangential for Chabrol: it is a significant recurring motif in "The Bridesmaid" (2004).
91. Pelota de cuero (1963)
The film focuses on the rise and decline of a long-time footballer at Club Boca Juniors. A player who does not want to change colors and can not conceive of any alternative but to play in the club he loves.
Director: Armando Bo | Stars: Alberto Barcel, Nelly Beltrán, Armando Bo, Victor Bo
Votes: 16
A soccer movie, with a tango tribute to the iconic Argentine sport.
92. Su última pelea (1948)
Director: Jerry Gómez | Stars: Santiago Arrieta, Armando Bo, Marcos Caplán, Augusto Codecá
Ángel Vargas sings the tango “A pan y agua” by Cobián and Cadícamo.
93. Lost in Paris (2016)
Not Rated | 83 min | Comedy
Fiona visits Paris for the first time to assist her myopic Aunt Martha. Catastrophes ensue, mainly involving Dom, a homeless man who has yet to have an emotion or thought he was afraid of expressing.
Directors: Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon | Stars: Emmanuelle Riva, Pierre Richard, Emmy Boissard Paumelle, Céline Laurentie
Votes: 3,631 | Gross: $0.69M
This flip over-the-top comedy is cartoonishly entertaining. And if it's Paris, there must be tango dancing, twice, in scenes both touching and comic.
94. Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears (1980)
PG | 150 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Three young provincial women come to Moscow in search of what people in all the capitals of the world are looking for - love, happiness and prosperity. Their destinies develop exactly as the character of each of the girls suggests.
Director: Vladimir Menshov | Stars: Vera Alentova, Aleksey Batalov, Irina Muravyova, Aleksandr Fatyushin
Votes: 14,285 | Gross: $2.50M
Social dance to "EL Choclo," international style, at a club to combat loneliness - one of many wise musical touches to this delicate Russian dramedy.
95. Kamikaze (II) (2014)
TV-14 | 94 min | Action, Comedy, Drama
Slastan, from Karadjistan, is willing to immolate himself on a plane from Moscow to Madrid, but a storm forces a change in his plans.
Director: Álex Pina | Stars: Álex García, Eduardo Blanco, Verónica Echegui, Carmen Machi
Votes: 1,593
Among the stranded vacationers in this comic thriller from Spain is an Argentine singer whose repertoire includes...tango.
96. Just a Gigolo (1978)
R | 147 min | Drama
After World War I, a war hero returns to Berlin to find that there's no place for him--he has no skills other than what he learned in the army, and can only find menial, low-paying jobs. He decides to become a gigolo to lonely rich women.
Director: David Hemmings | Stars: David Bowie, Sydne Rome, Kim Novak, David Hemmings
Votes: 1,151
David Bowie as the gigolo in this wry but strangely affecting satire of Weimar decadence and the creeping catastrophe to come. Tango - not Argentine, although it is claimed to be so once - is inevitably in the gigolo's repertory.
97. Cold Tango (2017)
107 min | Drama, History, War
He miraculously escaped death to return to the house where lives the love of his life. But the hope of happiness turns into a terrible discovery. His beloved is the daughter of his enemy.
Director: Pavel Chukhray | Stars: Rinal Mukhametov, Yuliya Peresild, Yelisey Nikandrov, Asya Gromova
Votes: 298
The poster image is deceptive, but there is tango - not Argentine but Eastern European, in this disturbing drama of the Holocaust and Stalinism in Lithuania.
98. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)
Not Rated | 91 min | Drama, Musical, Romance
A young woman separated from her lover by war faces a life-altering decision.
Director: Jacques Demy | Stars: Catherine Deneuve, Nino Castelnuovo, Anne Vernon, Marc Michel
Votes: 31,327 | Gross: $0.03M
When the young lovers go out, the first dance is a tango.
99. Nancy (2018)
Not Rated | 85 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Nancy becomes increasingly convinced she was kidnapped as a child. When she meets a couple whose daughter went missing thirty years ago, reasonable doubts give way to willful belief.
Director: Christina Choe | Stars: Andrea Riseborough, Ann Dowd, J. Smith-Cameron, Steve Buscemi
Votes: 3,591 | Gross: $0.08M
"Tango di Tina," briefly danced to.
100. Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House (2017)
PG-13 | 103 min | Biography, Drama, History
The story of Mark Felt, who under the name "Deep Throat" helped journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncover the Watergate scandal in 1972.
Director: Peter Landesman | Stars: Liam Neeson, Diane Lane, Marton Csokas, Tony Goldwyn
Votes: 14,703 | Gross: $0.77M
Barely, but there's tango dancing at the home of Deep Throat.
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