Want to know the best Charles Laughton movies? How about the worst Charles Laughton movies? Curious about Charles Laughton’s box office grosses or which Charles Laughton movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Charles Laughton movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which got the worst reviews? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
Charles Laughton (1899-1962) might have been the greatest character actor of all-time. Laughton went from being a hotel clerk to studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art to stage success on London stages to becoming an Oscar® winning actor in Hollywood. Laughton starred in over 50 movies from 1929 to 1962.
His IMDb page shows 65 acting credits from 1928-1962. This page currently ranks 45 Charles Laughton movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, cameos and movies not released in North America were not included in the rankings.
Charles Laughton Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.
- Sort Charles Laughton movies by co-stars of his movies.
- Sort Charles Laughton movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost
- Sort Charles Laughton movies by domestic yearly box office rank
- Sort Charles Laughton movies how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations each Charles Laughton movie received and how many Oscar® wins each Charles Laughton movie won.
- Sort Charles Laughton movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score. UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
- Use the search and sort button to make this page very interactive.
Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Charles Laughtonl Table
- Nineteen Charles Laughton movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 42.22% of his movies listed. Spartacus (1960) was his biggest box office hit.
- An average Charles Laughton movie grosses $107.20 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 33 Charles Laughton movies are rated as good movies…or 73.33% of his movies. Witness for the Prosecution (1957) is his highest rated movie while Girl From Manhattan (1948) is his lowest rated movie.
- Seventeen Charles Laughton movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 37.77% of his movies.
- Four Charles Laughton movie won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 8.88% of his movies.
- An average Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 40.00. 30 Charles Laughton movies scored higher that average….or 66.66% of his movies. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) got the the highest UMR Score while Girl From Manhattan (1948) got the lowest UMR Score.
Adjusted Worldwide Grosses on 12 Charles Laughton Movies
- Barretts of Wimpole Street, The (1934) $245.70 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Bribe, The (1949) $135.90 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Forever And A Day (1943) $156.30 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Man From Down Under, The (1943) $85.60 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) $508.50 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Payment Deferred (1932) $33.50 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Stand By For Action (1942) $266.20 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- They Knew What They Wanted (1940) $73.30 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Tuttles of Tahiti, The (1942) $73.40 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Under Ten Flags (1960) $53.10 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- White Woman (1933) $54.00 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Young Bess (1953) $183.00 million in adjusted worldwide gross
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences. Golden Globes® are the registered trademark of the Hollywood Foreign Press.
Charles Laughton appeared in four color movies.
The first was Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kid (in Super-Cinecolor) in 1952.
Laughton appeared in Salome and Young Bess in 1953, and Spartacus in 1960.
Spartacus is his one color classic.
Hey John….thanks for the comment. Wow Mr. Laughton has not generated much talk here. Guess he is a forgotten star. When I think about him, it is always in black and white. Spartacus is a great movie…but far from my favorite Laughton role….thanks for the information and the comment.
I somehow missed this page, must have thought it was an old one. The great Charles Laughton, nice work.
Alfred Hitchcock once said “You can’t direct a Charles Laughton film, the best you can hope for is referee”
Flora beats me again, I’ve seen just 15 of the films listed here. But I did manage to beat Bruce. 🙂
A bit surprised to see Mutiny on the Bounty knocking Spartacus down to 2nd place on the moviescore but it did win the Best Picture Oscar. I like both films. Other favorites include Witness for the Prosecution, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Night of the Hunter and Sign of the Cross. I have yet to see Hobson’s Choice and The Barretts of Wimpole Street.
Keep em coming Bruce. Voted Up!
Hey Steve….well I have been very productive lately….so I could easily see how you missed this one. We will just make this a “verbal warning”….lol. Good quote by Hitch on Laugh. Yep Flora wins again….19 to 15 to 8. Mutiny on the Bounty’s Oscar win for Best Picture helped it take the top spot….but both movies are ranked very high in my database. Mutiny is at #20…while Spartacus is at #209…that is out of 25,000 plus movies. I have not seen either Hobson’s Choice or Barretts either. Flora highly recommends Hobson’s Choice. Thanks for your thoughts on Mr. Laughton.
Hi, Bruce.
I see that Steve has not answered this page, but I want to answer this one next because it was done next after WB.
I am always more likely to watch a movie if Sir Charles Laughton is in it. I am one of the long line o people sorry that the reaction to his only directing credit kept him from directing another movie.
I just re-watched Jamaica Inn a couple of nights ago. More of an adventure film than a suspense film, you can still see the Hitchcock style. And of course the screen debut of Maureen O’Hara whom he discovered.
I recently got to watch the nearly 3 hour movie Marie Antoinette which I had recorded when Norma Shearer was star of the month. I should return to her page and update my totals. Laughton was originally offered the role of the King, but other commitments kept him from being able to do it and Robert Morely made his screen debut in the film instead.
To the rankings:
The highest ranking film I have seen is Mutiny on the Bounty at Number 1.
The highest ranking film I have not seen is Sign on the Cross at number 4.
The lowest ranking film I have seen is Payment Deferred at number 32.
I have therefore seen:
4 of the to 5 movies
8 of the top 10 movies
10 of the top 15 movies
13 of the top 20 movies
17 of the top 25 movies
19 movies overall of the movies you have listed.
My favourite 5 movies are:
Night of the Hunter
Witness For the Prosecution
Mutiny on the Bounty
Hobson’s choice
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Cheers,
Flora
Hey Flora.
1. I sent Steve an email with 5 or 6 links….thinking he did not realize he skipped this page….but sending out 5 or 6 links…probably makes it look like work…lol.
2. I agree with you about The Night of the Hunter….it is even sadder that he never really knew he had directed a masterpiece…as think his only directed movie was just starting to rebound from the disasterous box office run
3. I have not seen Jamaica Inn or Marie A….but I want to see both. I actually had a copy of Jamaica Inn in my hands the other day….but for some reason I put it back.
4. Sign of the Cross is very well done…I actually found the Roman Coliseum scenes way more frightful than any of the scenes in Gladiator and other current movies.
5. Your %….80%, 80%, 66%, 65%, and 68%….good trends for the validity of my ranking system…lol.
6. So you are at 19…my tally is 8. Thinking Steve will top my tally…..not sure he will get to your tally.
7. Of your Top 5….I have seen all of them and enjoyed all of them with the exception of Hobson’s Choice….it was only until recently that I even became aware of that movie.
8. There are actually not that many Laughton movies missing from the table….I just think the box office numbers for the missing movies might not ever be seen.
Thanks for the comment and the visit….both are greatly appreciated.
Hi
Laughton was one of the greatest actors ever. But a lot of his movies in the 30s are so dated that probably wouldn’t hold much appeal nowadays. But The Hunchback of Notre Dame still shines. I watched it recently on T.V. His performance as Quasimodo is genuinely moving, I’m surprised he at least didn’t get a nomination.
And of course Mutiny on the Bounty is also very good. Later on in his career, Witness for the Prosecution is a great show. And in his last role, although supporting, he was brilliant as a senator in Advise and Consent.
Hey Chris….I agree with you. Laughton was the type of actor that made every movie better. Finding a bad Laughton performance is hard to do. His Quasimodo is one of his best performances….with the makeup job being sensational! Mutiny on the Bounty and Witness for the Prosecution got him Oscar nominations….and they were well deserved. I almost watched Advise and Consent the other day, but my borrowed library DVD copy was scratched very badly and the disk would not play. One day I will check that one out. Thanks for your Laughton thoughts…as always thanks for stopping by and talking movies.
Thanks Bruce, for all the recent pages on Charles Laughton, Betty Grable, Peter O’Toole, Walter Brennan, Natalie Wood, Rita Hayworth and Vincent Price. I love your webpage. I wish you a Happy New Year.
Hey Lyle….thanks for the nice comment. Glad you are enjoying all the latest pages. The other day I was looking at one of my biggest competitors for views on the internet. Finally it clicked in my head that even my pages which I feel are far from complete are way better than what they have…that I should just release what I do have. For instance I have 33 Laughton movies ranked…they have 1 Laughton movie. http://www.the-numbers.com/person/82560401-Charles-Laughton#tab=acting I feel my uncompleted page is 1000 times better than their Laughton page. Hope you are your family have a great New Year too.