Want to know the best Howard Hawks movies? How about the worst Howard Hawks movies? Curious about Howard Hawks’ box office grosses or which Howard Hawks movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Howard Hawks 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.
I first discovered Howard Hawks when I was in high school. During a sick day, I was flipping through the channels when I stopped on 1938’s Bringing Up Baby. Bringing Up Baby starred Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn and was directed by Howard Hawks. I was so impressed with Bringing Up Baby, that I started to seek out more Cary Grant and Howard Hawks movies. I then discovered that Howard Hawks was responsible for many classic movies.
His IMDb page shows 52 directing credits from 1926-1970. This page will rank 35 Howard Hawks movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Some of his silent movies were not included in the rankings.
Howard Hawks 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 Howard Hawks movies by co-stars of his movies
- Sort Howard Hawks movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Howard Hawks movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Howard Hawks 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 Howard Hawks movie received.
- Sort Howard Hawks 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.
Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Howard Hawks Table
- Twenty-three Howard Hawks movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 65.71% of his movies listed. Sergeant York (1941) was his biggest box office hit.
- An average Howard Hawks movie grosses $154.90 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 30 Howard Hawks movies are rated as good movies…or 85.71% of his movies. Rio Bravo (1959) is his highest rated movie while Red Line 7000 (1965) is his lowest rated movie.
- Eleven Howard Hawks movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 31.42% of his movies.
- Four Howard Hawks movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 11.42% of his movies.
- A “good movie” Ultimate Movie Rankings Score is 60.00. 31 Howard Hawks movies scored higher that average….or 88.57% of his movies. Sergeant York (1941) got the the highest UMR Score while Red Line 7000 (1965) got the lowest UMR Score.
Seven Possibly Interesting Facts About Howard Hawks
1. Howard Hawks only received one Oscar® nomination for Best Director (1941’s Sergeant York) but he was given an Honorary Oscar® in 1974. His good friend, John Wayne, presented Hawks the Oscar®.
2. Howard Hawks directed some very famous actors/actresses numerous times: John Wayne (5 times), Cary Grant (5 times), Gary Cooper (3 times), Marilyn Monroe (3 times), Walter Huston (3 times), Humphrey Bogart (2 times), Lauren Bacall (2 times) and Edward G. Robinson (2 times).
3. In 1996 Entertainment Weekly voted Howard Hawks as the 4th greatest director of all-time.
4. Howard Hawks was the co-director of The Outlaw.…the other director was Howard Hughes. In 1935 Hawks replaced another legendary director, William Wyler, during the making of Barbary Coast. The next year, Hawks was fired before completing Come and Get It.…the man who replaced him?…the same William Wyler.
5. Howard Hawks was married three times in his life. His first marriage to Athole Shearer produced his only son and only daughter. Athole Shearer was the sister to Oscar® winning actress Norma Shearer.
6. And now we get to the mystery of the movie The Thing From Another World. Howard Hawks is not listed as the director of the movie, but rumors have swirled for years that he directed the movie and gave credit to his longtime editor, Christian Nyby. Since I believe in the rumor, I have included the movie in this movie page.
7. Check out Howard Hawks‘ career compared to current and classic actors and directors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
Steve Lensman’s Howard Hawks You Tube Video
If you do a comment….please ignore the email address and website section.
Steve’s Latest Expanded Video Has A Home At UMR….Mr. Howard Hawks
“Howard Hawks is one of my favorite directors…..so glad to see this revised and expanded video. Wow not too impressive…0 for 40 to 31. #30 Rio Lobo…..not one of his better westerns #28 Come and Get It….seen it barely remember it #26 Lando of the Pharaohs….what an ending! #24 Man’s Favorite Sport…ok romantic comedy #23 I Was A Male War Bride…not one of my favorite Cary Grant movies. #19 Hatari….good movie…pretty big hit #18 Monkey Business….not as funny as it’s repuatation makes it seem #14 Gentlemen Prefer Blondes….Monroe at her peak #13 The Thing….one of my dad’s favorite movies #12 El Dorado…one of my favorites…watch this Wayne movie on a regular basis #11 Sgt. York…one of the biggest hits of the 1940s.
#10 Ball of Fire….classic movie. #9 20th Century…did not like this one…too date #8 Only Angels Have Wings….ah….a good Grant/Hawks movie #7 To HAve and Haven Not…classic film noir #6 His Girl Friday…masterpiece #5 Rio Bravo…one of the best all-time westerns #4 Scarface…on of the best all-time gangster movies #3 Red River….great except for ending #2 Bringing Up Baby….the movie that made me a Cary Grant fan #1 The Big Sleep….on of Bogie’s Top 3 movies. So after a weak start…finished with 20…..or half of the 40…but 66% of the Top 30. Voted up….and shared as Post of the Day at you know where.”
Hi Bruce, good review, your 20 out of 40 beats my 19, Flora beats us both with 25. Rio Bravo, Red River and El Dorado are three of my favorite westerns. Rio Lobo not so much. Bringing Up Baby I watch every Christmas, usually at midnight.
The Big Sleep is another favorite but even the people that worked on it aren’t sure what was going on with that story. Land of the Pharaohs has become a camp classic thanks to Joan Collins scheming villainess, poor Jack Hawkins, but the ending is memorably nasty. Thanks for the comment, vote and share, much appreciated.
HI STEVE
Thanks for the feedback on Part One Hawks. It’ll encourage me to fire ahead with completion of Part 2. I’ve actually been through it twice already in taking notes and there’s a glut of stills to enthuse over.
Your views on Margot Robbie are well expressed but -darn it! – I was expecting an argument from you about my lack of enthusiasm for her progress to date. I’m deflated!
PS Apologies to the lady – I spelt her name Margo in my own post . I think the mistake arose out of what’s called “thought association”. I started off talking about the great Bette and of course her almost “household name” character in All about Eve is called Margo Channing.
Bob, have you seen Margot in any movies? Or just read about her in the papers? I know you’re not a big fan of this decade’s cinema offerings.
Although to film historians, respected critics and even to really dedicated movie buffs among “the man in the street” Howard Hawks is a classics-spinning Legend, renowned film critic Leonard Maltin still didn’t think that Hawks got the recognition he deserved. Maltin described Howard as “the greatest director never to become a household name” in the way that Hitch and John Ford did for example
In American politics Democrats famous for their “liberal, caring” philosophy are often know as Doves whilst perceived strong right-wing politicians in the Republican party and even some of the southern “Dixiecrats” are at times referred to as Hawks. I always thought that there was an irony in the Dan like slender link that someone called Hawks even in real life should have made the great John Wayne classics such as Rio Bravo and Red River as politically my John was undoubtedly regarded as a hawk! [For example some political commentators have on occasion referred to real life US military chiefs in favour of interventionist policies as “the John Wayne generals”.]
NB: Strictly speaking Hawks and Doves relate primarily to pro and anti war political attitudes respectively but are also used sometimes in a wider political context to distinguish between alleged hard-right and soft left stances. Ironically for my own idol Wayne one dictionary is very specific and describes a Hawk as someone who is very Gung-ho about going to war but avoids personal military involvement!
HOWARD HAWKS VIDEO 40-21 Best POSTERS I thought were Red Line 7000, Today We Live with my Joan Crawford getting billed above Cooper, The Crowd Roars, the stunning first two for Land of the Pharaohs [Brit Hawkins for once getting star billing] The Dawn Patrol [featuring the now-forgotten silent movie and early talkies hero Richard Barthelmess] foreign language one for Road to Glory, I was a Male War Bride [aka You Can’t Sleep Here but awful film in my eyes under whichever title] and the saucy trio from pre “Code” days Fazil, Fig Leaves and Paid to Love.
Only 2 STILLS according to my notes – Cagney with moustache in Ceiling Zero and “Give em hell John!” – but was that a still or a lobby card? Anyway overall an enthralling Part One for me and obviously Part 2 response tomorrow.
Hi Bob, thanks for reviewing the first half of my Howard Hawks video deluxe, appreciate the triva, glad you liked the picture gallery.
John Wayne has been popping up in quite a few stills in my expanded series of videos the past few weeks, I hope that makes up for the complete lack of stills in the John Wayne Top 100 video I uploaded last year.
100 movies for one actor! Still boggles the mind that I went ahead with that pet project of mine, at over 22 minutes it’s my longest video. Well, there’s only one John Wayne.
The Rio Lobo poster is the main poster for the film not a lobby card (or should that be Lobo Card?), the artwork is interesting is it a photo or painting? It looks a bit like a colored photo.
I’ve added DGA info to Howard Hawks video, DGA stands for Director’s Guild of America and recognises film achievements that Oscar might miss. Hawks received DGA nominations for Red River and Rio Bravo but nothing from Oscar. Amazingly for a director of his stature his only Oscar nomination was for Sergeant York.
Look forward to part 2 of your review.
Hi Bruce,
I’ve seen 22 of his movies, but I desperately search Dawn Patrol. But with french subtitles. Yes, I admit : I’m not very good in english…. It doesn’t exist in DVD in France, and I would really like to see this film. If somebody… I would be very grateful to him.
Hey Laurent…..had to dig deep to get a tally count….you are looking good….with a silver for France.
Tally count…Steve 25, you 22, me 17 and Flora 14.
As for the Dawn Patrol the next time I see it at my local libraries…I will see if it includes a French subtitle menu….and will let you know. Thanks for checking out our Howard Hawks page.
Great Howard Hawks page. One of my favorite film makers. Keep up the good work.
Hey Lyle….thanks for checking out my Hawks page. He is one of my favorites as well. I appreciate the kind words.