Irene Dunne Movies

Want to know the best Irene Dunne movie?  How about the worst Irene Dunne movie?  Curious about Irene Dunne’s box office grosses or which Irene Dunne movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Irene Dunne movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place.

Irene Dunne (1898 – 1990) was one of the most popular actresses in Hollywood from the early 1930s through the late 1940s.   Dunne earned 5 Best Actress Oscar® nominations.  Her IMDb page shows 51 acting credits from 1930-1962.   This page will rank Irene Dunne movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information.  To do well in our overall rankings a movie has to do well at the box office, get good reviews by critics, be liked by audiences, and get some award recognition.

Irene Dunne and Cary Grant in The Awful Truth (1937).

Irene Dunne and Cary Grant in The Awful Truth (1937). They appeared in three movies together.

Irene Dunne Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.

Irene Dunne Movies Can Be Ranked 5 Ways In This Table

The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”.  Rank the movies anyway you want.

  • Sort by Irene Dunne movies by her co-stars
  • Sort Irene Dunne movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Irene Dunne movies by yearly domestic box office grosses
  • Sort Irene Dunne movies by 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 Irene Dunne movie received.
  • Sort Irene Dunne 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 Irene Dunne Table

1.  16 of Irene Dunne’s movies crossed the magical $100 million mark.  That is a percentage of 41.02% of her movies listed.  Her top box office hit was White Cliffs of Dover (1943) which barely beat out Life With Father (1947) and A Guy Named Joe (1944).

2.  An average Irene Dunne movie grossed $111.30 million in adjusted box office gross.

3.  Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter.  32 of Irene Dunne’s movies are rated as good movies…or 82.05% of her movies.  Her highest rated movie is 1948’s I Remember Mama.

4.  13 of Irene Dunne’s movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 33.33% of her movies.

5.  4 of Irene Dunne’s movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 10.25% of her movies.

6.  An average Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 60.00.  29 of Irene Dunne’s movies scored higher that average….or 74.35% of her movies.  The Awful Truth (1937) got the highest UMR Score while Thirteen Women (1932) got the lowest UMR Score.

Irene Dunne in Theodora Goes Wild (1936)

Theodora Goes Wild (1936) is one of five Irene Dunne movies that earned her a Best Actress Oscar nomination.

Possibly interesting things about Irene Dunne

1. Irene Dunne was born in Louisville, Kentucky on December 20, 1898.

2. Irene Dunne’s track to Hollywood.  After her father died when she was 12, her family moved to Madison, Indiana.  In Madison, she started taking music lessons.  Her singing ability would take her to New York City.  Her ultimate goal was to be part of the Metropolitan Opera Company but that did not work out.  She did however start appearing in plays.  Her part in the musical Show Boat led to her first movie contract with RKO.

3. Irene Dunne was married one time…to Dr. Francis Griffin from 1928 until his death in 1965…they had one daughter.

4.  Irene Dunne was nominated for 5 Best Actress Oscars®.  Those 5 movies were 1930’s Cimarron, 1936’s Theodora Goes Wild, 1937’s The Awful Truth, 1939’s Love Affair and 1948’s I Remember Mama.

5.  Irene Dunne co-starred with Cary Grant in 3 movies.  1937’s The Awful Truth, 1940’s My Favorite Wife and 1941’s Penny Serenade.

6.  The missing Irene Dunne movies that are not included on this page with their critic/audience rating:

  • Leathernecking (1930) 70.0%
  • Bachelor Apartment (1931) 58.0%
  • The Secret of Madama Blanche (1933) 64.0%I

7.  Irene Dunne’s Cimarron (1931) won the Best Picture Oscar® but it is ranked as the second-worst of the 92 Best Picture Oscar® winners according to critics and audiences.  Only 1929’s The Broadway Melody has a lower critic/audience rating.

8.  As I searched and searched for Irene Dunne box office numbers…I found a very impressive Irene Dunne fan site.  http://www.irenedunnesite.com/  is loaded with tons more information on Irene Dunne and her movies. This site is highly recommended.

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

This is actually the 3rd home for Cogerson Movie Scores.  We started writing these pages over 4 years ago. Our first page was called a hub and it was found on HubPages.com.  After some success there we started our own website…CogersonMovieScore.com.  So after a combined 3.5 million views we are moving again.  For those used to our old movies tables…I agree I liked the older tables better….but these new tables do offer a sort button and a search button….they are starting to grow on me and I hope they grow on you.  Please excuse our mess as we build UltimateMovieRankings into a pleasant viewing experience.

For comments….all you need is a name and a comment….please ignore the rest.

56 thoughts on “Irene Dunne Movies

  1. Hollywoods very best! Beautiful- fabulous voice and she could act!.. Another hollywood gem who deserved but never got a Oscar

  2. I love Irene Dunne movies. About the above list, I want to add that I think The Secret of Madame Blanche is one of my very favorites. That movie is quintessential Irene Dunne.

  3. I have been a great fan of Irene Dunne for the last 3 or 4 years or so. I am 74 and grew up after her career was already nearly over. But thanks to TCM actually found her and have collected all of her movies which was a bit of a chore. All except Leathernecking. Are you by chance the person I read about that is planning to write a book about her? A good book should be written. I make tons of notes when I find new facts about her and note observations about her by watching and rewatching her great performances.She is probably the one great actress who kept her private life private. The things I have read convince me that she was one of the greatest “believers” in her Lord and Saviour and conducted her life accordingly. The respect she deserved I think she did get even if she didn’t get the Oscar she deserved. I do really believe she should still get a Lifetime Achievement Award however because it is never too late for that!! How could we make that happen?

    1. Hey Sally. Glad a great fan of Irene Dunne found this page. I am also a fan of hers…..but I am not writing a book on her. I think a book on her is a great idea. There are a few out there…but nothing done recently. Sadly, I do not see her getting a Lifetime Achievement Oscar…..if she were still around…I could easily see it. Not giving her some accolades, is one of the Academy’s bad marks. Good comment. I enjoyed reading your enthusiasm on Irene Dunne.

  4. Hey Lisa…..awesome comment. Love hearing how classic movies and actors/actresses from the Golden Era find their way into the hearts of other generations. She is very very funny in The Awful Truth. I can now picture your dad laughing at that scene. Her two Cary Grant comedies are my favorite Dunne movies….not a huge fan of Penny Serenade. I agree with your comment that she had an extraordinary life. Glad a Dunne fan found this page.

  5. Thanks for the fantastic information on my favorite actress of Hollywood’s Golden Era, Miss Irene Dunne. I was first hipped to her by my dad when AMC premiered on cable TV in the 1980’s. He had grown up watching her movies during her heyday of the 1930s and 1940s. The fact that she hails from our hometown of Louisville, KY is just icing on the cake! I remember my dad (a generally stoic fellow) laughing himself silly over Miss Dunne’s party crashing scene in “The Awful Truth”. I rediscovered this film in 2013 and began researching Miss Dunne’s career. She certainly led an extraordinary life, one free from the sensationalism to which so many stars fall prey.

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