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George Stevens Movies

stevens 11111Want to know the best George Stevens movies?  How about the worst George Stevens movies?  Curious about George Stevens’s box office grosses or which George Stevens movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which George Stevens movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.

George Stevens (1904-1975) was a two-time Oscar® winning American film director.  Besides directing he was a popular screenwriter and cinematograper.  His IMDb page shows over 200 credits from 1926 to 1999. This page will only be taking a look at the 25 full length directed George Stevens movies.  Movies will be ranked from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. His short films and documentaries were not included in the rankings.

Drivel part of the page:  So far we have written 172 actor pages, 82 actress pages and only 40 director pages.  So seeing that we have done so few director pages…we figured it was time to do a page on another legendary director.  This was actually a request many years ago…..just have since lost the name of the person that made the request.  Still I hope who ever made this request is still visiting this website….because we finally have a George Stevens UMR page.

George Stevens directing Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean in 1956's Giant
George Stevens directing Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean in 1956’s Giant

George Stevens 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 George Stevens movies by co-stars of his movies
  • Sort George Stevens movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort George Stevens movies by adjusted worldwide box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort George Stevens movies how they were received by critics and audiences.  60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie
  • Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each George Stevens movie received.
  • Sort George Stevens 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.
CreditRank Movie (Year) UMR Co-Star Links Review % Oscar Nom / Win S UMR Score
CreditRank Movie (Year) UMR Co-Star Links Actual B.O. Domestic (mil) Adj. B.O. Domestic (mil) Adj. B.O. Worldwide (mil) B.O. Rank by Year Review % Oscar Nom / Win S UMR Score
1 Giant (1956)
AA Best Picture Nom
AA Best Director Win
James Dean &
Rock Hudson
27.10 616.9 922.1 3 86 10 / 01 99.5
2 Shane (1953)
AA Best Picture Nom
AA Best Director Nom
Alan Ladd &
Jean Arthur
22.70 473.5 669.2 5 87 06 / 01 99.5
3 A Place in the Sun (1951)
AA Best Picture Nom
AA Best Director Win
Montgomery Clift &
Shelley Winters
10.00 250.0 492.9 10 76 09 / 06 99.2
4 The More the Merrier (1943)
AA Best Picture Nom
AA Best Director Nom
Jean Arthur &
Charles Coburn
5.10 214.3 314.9 57 82 06 / 01 99.1
6 I Remember Mama (1948) Irene Dunne &
Barbara Bel Geddes
7.60 238.5 300.2 23 88 05 / 00 99.0
5 Swing Time (1936) Fred Astaire &
Ginger Rogers
5.40 270.7 436.3 12 85 02 / 01 98.5
9 Woman of the Year (1942) Katharine Hepburn &
Spencer Tracy
5.50 238.3 333.5 32 81 02 / 01 98.0
7 Gunga Din (1939) Cary Grant &
Joan Fontaine
8.00 359.3 756.6 8 80 01 / 00 97.4
11 Vivacious Lady (1938) James Stewart &
Ginger Rogers
4.20 193.0 273.7 37 82 00 / 00 97.0
8 The Talk of the Town (1942)
AA Best Picture Nom
Cary Grant &
Ronald Colman
3.10 135.5 187.8 87 84 07 / 00 96.1
10 The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)
AA Best Picture Nom
AA Best Director Nom
Shelley Winters 6.60 136.9 189.0 38 74 08 / 03 94.7
13 A Damsel in Distress (1937) Fred Astaire &
Joan Fontaine
4.00 194.2 281.7 41 65 02 / 01 93.3
14 Penny Serenade (1941) Cary Grant &
Irene Dunne
3.20 144.0 193.9 72 79 01 / 00 92.0
15 The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) Charlton Heston &
Sidney Poitier
18.80 230.6 333.4 11 50 05 / 00 89.0
15 Alice Adams (1935)
AA Best Picture Nom
Katharine Hepburn &
Fred MacMurray
1.60 85.4 114.6 78 81 02 / 00 88.6
16 Vigil in The Night (1940) Carole Lombard &
Peter Cushing
1.90 84.9 128.1 105 64 00 / 00 76.7
17 On Our Merry Way (1948) Henry Fonda &
James Stewart
4.10 127.5 190.1 87 49 00 / 00 75.7
18 Something To Live For (1952) Ray Milland &
Joan Fontaine
2.80 63.1 63.1 127 64 00 / 00 70.2
19 Annie Oakley (1935) Barbara Stanwyck &
Melvyn Douglas
1.20 64.7 92.3 109 62 00 / 00 68.9
20 Quality Street (1937) Katharine Hepburn &
Joan Fontaine
0.90 43.9 63.5 174 64 01 / 00 64.4
21 Laddie (1935) Gloria Stuart &
Donald Crisp
0.70 38.6 38.6 164 56 00 / 00 47.3
22 The Nitwits (1935) Robert Woolsey &
Bert Wheeler
0.90 47.0 47.0 146 52 00 / 00 43.5
23 Kentuck Kernels (1934) Robert Woolsey &
Bert Wheeler
0.90 48.6 48.6 122 51 00 / 00 42.6
24 Bachelor Bait (1934) Stuart Erwin 0.60 33.4 38.8 164 51 00 / 00 32.4
25 The Only Game in Town (1970) Warren Beatty &
Elizabeth Taylor
4.50 36.7 36.7 60 35 00 / 00 8.9

Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above George Stevens Table

  1. Eleven George Stevens movie crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark.  That is a percentage of 44.00% of his movies listed. Giant (1956) was his biggest box office hit.
  2. An average George Stevens movie grosses $123.60 million in adjusted box office gross.
  3. Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter.  18 of George Stevens’s movies are rated as good movies…or 72.00% of his movies.  Shane (1953) was his highest rated movie while The Only Game In Town (1953) was his lowest rated movie.
  4. Sixteen George Stevens movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 64.00% of his movies.
  5. Eight George Stevens movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 32.00% of his movies.
  6. An good Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score is 40.00.  15 George Stevens movie scored higher that average….or 60.00% of his movies. Giant (1956) got the the highest UMR Score while The Only Game In Town (1953)got the lowest UMR Score.
stevens 33333
George Stevens directing Alan Ladd & Van Heflin in 1953’s Shane.

 Possibly Interesting Facts About George Stevens

1.George Stevens was born in Oakland, California in 1904.

2. George Stevens broke into the movie business as a cameraman, working on many Laurel and Hardy short films.

3. George Stevens won the Oscar® for Best Director twice: 1951’s A Place in the Sun  and 1956’s Giant. Neither film won Best Picture, and both starred Elizabeth Taylor.

4. George Stevens and Ang Lee are the only directors to win the Oscar® for Best Director more than once without one of the films also winning Best Picture.

5. George Stevens and the casting decisions on 1956’s Giant.  (1) Stevens wanted to cast fading star Alan Ladd, whom he’d previously cast in Shane (1953), as Jett Rink, but his wife advised against it. The role went to James Dean.  (2)  Stevens asked Rock Hudson whom he preferred as his leading lady, Grace Kelly or Elizabeth Taylor. Hudson picked Taylor, who was cast and ended up becoming lifelong friends with Hudson.  (3) Clark Gable was considered for the Hudson role, but was rejected as too old by producer Jack L. Warner.  

6. George Stevens’ Shane (1953) is considered one of the greatest Westerns ever made.  The American Film Institute ranks as the 3rd best Western of all-time.

7. George Stevens directed 16 different actors in Oscar®-nominated performances: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Charles Coburn, Jean Arthur, Oskar Homolka, Irene Dunne, Barbara Bel Geddes, Ellen Corby, Montgomery Clift, Shelley Winters, Brandon De Wilde, Jack Palance, James Dean, Rock Hudson, Mercedes McCambridge and Ed Wynn.  Coburn and Winters won Oscars® for their performances in one of Stevens’ movies.

8.  George Stevens was married two times. He had one child.

9. George Stevens’ cumulative movie totals:  Adjusted domestic box office:  $2.82 billion.  His movies received 65 Oscar® nominations….winning 14 times.

10.  Check out George Stevens‘s career compared to current and classic actors.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.

Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences. 

If you do a comment….please ignore the email address and website section.

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32 thoughts on “George Stevens Movies”

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Older comments
  1. Mickey Morrow says:
    December 30, 2017 at 3:31 am

    I am concerned that the brilliant 1936 film “Swing Time” starring Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire is missing from your “ultimate” list. From what I have read about this RKO smash hit, Ginger was
    highly impressed by the skills of Mr. Stevens. The box office would have placed this Rogers/Astaire film in the top ten. There must be a reason you have omitted this entry but it is rather puzzling to me. I would appreciate hearing from you on this query. The list as it is seems very accurate and well researched.

    Reply
    1. Cogerson says:
      December 30, 2017 at 9:37 am

      Hey Mickey Morrow…..wow…..you are so correct. At first I thought the database had dumped the movie….but under closer review…..it is human error (all fingers pointing at me) that caused this error. Thanks for spotting the error. Swing Time is now on the table…and sits in a pretty good seat too…..as it is now ranked as Stevens’ 5th best movie. All the other stats that have been fixed…as all the %s were based on 24 movies and not 25 movies. Once again…..thanks for the headsup….and thanks for the kind words about our Stevens’ UMR page.

      Reply
  2. Chris says:
    June 16, 2016 at 4:54 pm

    Hi

    I made a point of watching More The Merrier on youtube and it was quite good. I wouldn’t say an all time classic but enjoyable. Jean Arthur was superb and Charles Coburn was especially good.
    Does Cary Grant do his role in the later version?

    Reply
    1. Flora Breen Robison says:
      June 16, 2016 at 5:53 pm

      Cary Grant does the Charles Coburn role. Jim Hutton does the Joel McCrea role. So Cary Grant loses the girl –
      that is right – CARY GRANT LOSES THE GIRL – in his final film Walk, Don’t Run.

      He did that deliberately so people knew he was retired.

      Reply
    2. Cogerson says:
      June 16, 2016 at 8:17 pm

      Hey Chris….Flora is 100% correct….even though Cary does not get the girl….it seemed that Samantha Eggar would have been better off with Cary than Hutton…..not thinking anybody thought Jean Arthur should have ended up with Charles Coburn….the power of Mr. Cary Grant.

      Reply
      1. Flora Breen Robison says:
        June 16, 2016 at 9:18 pm

        LOL! Jean Arthur and Charles Coburn! Not the couple I had in mind.

        Reply
  3. bob says:
    June 13, 2016 at 4:04 pm

    1 I really lapped up the George Stevens page.

    2 This is the first time I have ever seen a Shane worldwide gross and its relative modesty surprises me. Generally there doesn’t seem to have been in those days the overseas market for US films that has existed in more modern times. [ Last Tango in Paris for example had an actual 1973 US gross of of around 36m and an overseas gross of approx 60m. Applying pro-rata Bruce’s inflated domestic gross figure for Tango to the worldwide gross and its inflation adjusted worldwide figure is around 460m; and it was reportedly made for just the equivalent of a trifling 5. 8m in today’s dollars.

    3 I have read that Stevens’ Shane was actually made in 1951; but because for some reason Paramount did not initially have much faith in its commercial value it was kept on the shelf until 1953. Historians have suggested that this was bad news for Ladd as he had moved to Warner Bros by the time Shane was released and Paramount had therefore no interest in promoting his Oscar opportunities.

    4 I was very impressed with the worldwide gross for A Place in the Sun; it has hitherto been difficult to find even a consistent domestic gross for the film, Some commentators reckon that this is the greates film ever to be made about America.

    Reply
    1. Cogerson says:
      June 13, 2016 at 4:38 pm

      Hey Robert Roy….thanks for checking out our latest….most of the overseas numbers came from the MGM ledgers. Some of the worldwide numbers…..like Shane’s came from a book…which is not my favorite source…but it was that or nothing. Hard to believe Last Tango in Paris was that popular….that is one of those Brando movies that I find very hard to finish. I read the same thing about Shane….damn Paramount! Paramount has become my least favorite studio when it comes to older movies and research…..so every time I see Paramount….I feel like Jerry Seinfeld when he saw Newman…lol.

      I have the rental number for Place in the Sun at 3.5 million…..and just a little less for the worldwide number….it was a solid hit….but not a Earth shaking monster hit.

      Reply
      1. Flora Breen Robison says:
        June 13, 2016 at 5:10 pm

        I’ve seen last Tango in Paris. I had no trouble finishing it, but I have not seen it more than once.

        Reply

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