​The Best Movies and TV Shows for Everyone in Love with HBO’s 'The Gilded Age'

Watch it: Hello, Dolly! on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Disney+ ​​​

(Clockwise from left) Alison Elliott, Carla Gugino, Mira Sorvino and Rya Kihlstedt

BBC/Courtesy Everett Collection

The Buccaneers (1995)​

The premise: A coproduction of the BBC and PBS, this five-episode Masterpiece Theater miniseries is an adaptation of Edith Wharton’s unfinished final novel, set in the 1870s, when the author was a child. The story follows four wealthy American girls, played by Carla Gugino, 50, Mira Sorvino, 54, Alison Elliott, 51, and Rya Kihlstedt, 51, who travel to London to participate in the social season and land husbands — and, preferably, aristocratic titles. ​

Locations you can visit: Before the girls head off to Europe, that ultimate Gilded Age seaside playground, Newport, Rhode Island, serves as a backdrop, with scenes filmed at Chateau-sur-Mer, Marble House and the Cliffside Inn.​

Watch it: The Buccaneers on Amazon Prime, BritBox

Don’t miss this: 17 Entertaining Biopic Movies to Watch Now

The Portrait of a Lady (1996)​

The premise: Jane Campion, 67, directed this adaptation of the 1881 Henry James novel, originally released in installments in The Atlantic Monthly. American heiress Isabel Archer (Nicole Kidman, 54) travels to Europe to find herself, but soon becomes entangled in a trap set by Madame Serena Merle (Barbara Hershey, 73) and the devious art collector and con artist Gilbert Osmond (John Malkovich, 68). Think of it as a Gilded Age take on Dangerous Liaisons, with an acclaimed supporting cast that includes Christian Bale, Viggo Mortensen (63), Shelley Winters and John Gielgud.

Locations you can visit: You can follow in Isabel’s footsteps to the kinds of spots an American traveler might have visited in the 19th century, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Colosseum and the Palazzo Farnese in Rome. ​

Watch it: The Portrait of a Lady on Amazon Prime

Daisy Miller (1974)​

The premise: Another Henry James adaptation, another tale of a plucky American woman taking Europe by storm. In this comedy of manners, directed by Peter Bogdanovich, Cybill Shepherd (71) plays an American nouveau riche who visits Switzerland with her mother and brother. While there, she meets the wealthy expat Frederick Winterbourne (Barry Brown), who is charmed by her bright disposition but suspicious of her innocence and naivete. ​

Locations you can visit: Bogdanovich shot the film in the actual locations mentioned in the book, across Rome and the Swiss spa town of Vevey.​

Watch it: Daisy Miller on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, YouTube

The Alienist (2018-2020)​

The premise: Despite its name, the Gilded Age wasn’t all about glittering high society. In this gritty TNT psychological thriller, new police commissioner Teddy Roosevelt (Brian Geraghty) hires criminal psychiatrist Dr. Laszlo Kreizler (Daniel Brühl) and newspaper cartoonist John Schuyler Moore (Luke Evans) to investigate the murders of boy prostitutes in 1896 New York. It’s grim stuff. Dakota Fanning tags along as Sara Howard, the first woman employed by the NYPD, who joins in their search for the killer.​

Locations you can visit: Production designers reproduced 1890s New York on a back lot in Budapest, but you can still take in the real-life locations that inspired the sets, including Washington Square Park and Castle Clinton in Battery Park.

​Watch it: The Alienist on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, HBO Max

Tesla (2020)​

The premise: Ethan Hawke, 51, stars as the Serbian-American inventor and futurist opposite Kyle MacLachlan, 62, as Thomas Edison in this avant-garde biopic. Despite being set in 1880s New York, the movie has characters pulling out laptops and iPhones, talking to the audience and breaking into musical performances. Tesla even sings a mean “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.” The film is narrated by J.P. Morgan’s daughter Anne, who’s played by Eve Hewson — the daughter of Bono.​

Locations you can visit: At Thomas Edison National Historical Park in New Jersey, you can tour the inventor’s laboratory and residence, which were designed in 1887. Tesla’s lab in Colorado Springs was sadly torn down to pay his debts.​

Watch it: Tesla on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Hulu

The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)​

The premise: Based on Booth Tarkington’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1918 novel, this Orson Welles masterpiece charts the decline of the Amberson clan, once the wealthiest family in their Midwestern city (a thinly veiled Indianapolis), in the final decades of the 19th century. As the country rapidly industrializes, new-money robber barons begin to supplant those old American aristocrats, who can’t quite keep up with the times. Agnes Moorehead earned an Oscar nomination (one of four for the film) for her supporting role as Aunt Fanny, and in 2015, the BBC listed the movie at number 11 on their list of the greatest American films. ​

Locations you can visit: While the film was shot in Southern California, you can explore the Indianapolis neighborhood that inspired Tarkington’s novel. Now designated a historic district, Woodruff Place was developed in the 1870s and is filled with elegant Victorian mansions.​

(Left to right) Cary Grant, Frances Farmer and Edward Arnold

LMPC via Getty Images

Watch it: The Magnificent Ambersons on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Criterion Channel

The Toast of New York (1937)​

The premise: Edward Arnold stars as the real-life stockbroker and robber baron James Fisk in this Wall Street biopic. A scathing symbol of the nouveaux riches, he graduates from conning folks at medicine shows to smuggling cotton across the Mason-Dixon Line to eventually becoming a power player on the stock exchange. Soon, he and his partner Nick Boyd (Cary Grant) are fighting over the actress Josie Mansfield (Frances Farmer) as they plot against Cornelius Vanderbilt in hopes of cornering the gold market. What could go wrong? ​

Locations you can visit: You can feel like Fisk with a visit to the New York Stock Exchange, which moved to its current location in 1903, just after the heyday of the Gilded Age. ​​

Watch it: The Toast of New York on Amazon Prime, Apple TV