Want to know the best Humphrey Bogart movies? How about the worst Humphrey Bogart movies? Curious about Humphrey Bogart ’s box office grosses or which Humphrey Bogart movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Humphrey Bogart 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.
Did you know that the American Film Institute ranked Humphrey Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema? Bogart however did not find an easy road to the title of greatest male star ever. After trying numerous jobs including playing chess for money he turned to acting in 1921. He found regular work on Broadway through the rest of the 1920s. When the Great Depression reduced the demand for plays, he turned his attention to movies. His first full length film was 1930’s Up the River which was directed by a very young John Ford and co-starred Spencer Tracy (also his first film). His first movie contract with Fox Films was terminated when they concluded he was not star material. Shortly there after he signed with Warner Brothers. Warner Brothers gave Bogart plenty of work from 1936 to 1940.
He appeared in twenty movies in that time frame, almost all the movies were low budget B movies. He did manage to get strong notices from two of the movies made during this time….1936’s The Petrified Forest and 1937’s Dead End. So by the end of the 1930s, Bogart either appeared as the one of stars in horrible low budget film, or as the 3rd or 4th lead in a higher budgeted movie. In the higher budgeted movies he would usually get the cowardly bad guy role and many times killed by James Cagney.
Two films in 1941 changed everything for Bogart. High Sierra was a surprise hit, it did very well at the box office and critics loved the movie and proved Bogart could carry a film. Later that year The Maltese Falcon was released to even bigger box office and an Oscar® nomination for Best Picture. After the success of those two films, Bogart found himself in better movies. In 1942 he made his greatest film, Casablanca. Bogart’s role of Rick in Casablanca would cement his trademark film persona, that of the hard-boiled cynic who ultimately shows his noble side. Bogart would appear in 29 more movies from 1943 to 1956, all of which were big budget and he was always the star. Some of his greatest success during this time would include 1944’s To Have and Have Not (his first film with 4th wife Lauren Bacall), 1951’s African Queen (won Oscar® for this movie), 1954’s The Caine Mutiny (his biggest box office hit) and 1956’s The Harder They Fall (his final movie). Humphrey Bogart passed away in early 1957 after a battle with cancer. John Huston’s eulogy says it all… “He is quite irreplaceable. There will never be another like him.”
His IMDb page shows 85 acting credits from 1928-1956. This page will rank Humphrey Bogart movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television appearances, shorts, cameos and uncredited movies that were included in the rankings.
Humphrey Bogart Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Humphrey Bogart 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 Humphrey Bogart movies by co-stars of his movies
- Sort Humphrey Bogart movies by actual domestic box office grosses
- Sort Humphrey Bogart movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost
- Sort Humphrey Bogart 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 Humphrey Bogart movie received.
- Sort Humphrey Bogart 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.
Humphrey Bogart Adjusted World Wide Box Office Grosses
Let’s take a quick moment to look at two of Bogart’s worst movies. Don’t worry you Bogart fans he thought these two movies were horrible too.
1937’s Swing That Lady: Bogart plays a wrestling promoter who brings his wrestler Joe, to the Ozarks, to wrestle a female hillbilly Amazon named Sadie Hills….naturally Bogart falls in love with Sadie and they all live happily ever after in this musical comedy…..Bogart’s thoughts on this movie….”It’s a stinker”
1938’s The Return of Dr. X: Bogart’s only science fiction movie….he plays a mad evil genius doctor who figures out a way to bring the dead back to life. For some reason Bogart refused to talk about this movie later in his life.
Check out Humprey Bogart‘s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
AFI’s Top 25 Screen Legend Actors….with links to our movie pages on the Screen Legend
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As always, you’ve done an excellent job compiling the works of old Bogey. I don’t know what it is about Humphrey. Maybe he was just too homely for my taste. 🙂
Thanks for the compliment Fay, I would say he was the most homely looking superstar to ever appear in movies. His appearance is probably the main reason it took almost 11 years and 40 movies for him to hit the big time…thanks for stopping by.
Bogey was a great actor, Cogerson, and, as usual, you’ve done a fantastic job here. His performances in “Casablanca,” “The African Queen” and “The Caine Mutiny” alone put him at the top of the list. But I’m surprised his performance in “Sahara” gets so little attention. He was fabulous — and so was the movie. I only wish these great movies would be re-run on the big screen today (That would bring me back to the theaters in a hurry.)
Hey William….you made some great points. Sahara is in the Top 20….he just had some many great movies….thanks for stopping by
I am afraid I do not know much about him, but thanks for giving me some knowledge.
You are welcome AlabamaGirl…..he was a great actor….you should check out some of his greatest hits….movies like Casablanca and Maltese Falcon are great movies…thanks for commenting.
My favorite is The African Queen, followed closely by Casablanca. Could there be two more diverse characters than Rick and Charlie, yet both played so well?
Hey WillStarr….those are two great movies…..and you are correct they show Bogart’s acting chops…..they are two of the three movies he received his Oscar nominations for….the other being The Caine Mutiny…thanks for reading my Bogart movie page.
Interesting Cogerson – I’ve seen a few of his flicks (The Maltese Falcon was my fav). I wonder why he wouldn’t talk about the Return of Dr. X? Hmmm. Any who – great page
Hey Realhousewife…..I think Bogart was pretty much ashamed of some of the movies Warner Brothers made him do…back then you signed a contract for seven years and then the studio told them what movies to make…..somebody at Warners decided he was best in cheap low budget movies that Bogart hated appearing in…..during the same time frame other studios tried to borrow Bogart for higher profile roles….but Warner Brothers refused and stuck in movies like The Return of Dr. X ….which needless to say made Bogart a little upset…..thanks for commenting and reading the page