Want to know the best Joan Bennett movies? How about the worst Joan Bennett movies? Curious about Joan Bennett box office grosses or which Joan Bennett movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Joan Bennett 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.
Joan Bennett (1910-1990) was an American stage, film and television actress. Bennett appeared in more than 70 motion pictures from the era of silent movies, well into the sound era. Her IMDb page shows 98 acting credits from 1916-1982. This page will rank 56 Joan Bennett movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Her television appearances and some movies made between 1928 and 1932 were not included in the rankings. This page comes from a request by Brando90.
Joan Bennett 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 Joan Bennett films by co-stars of her movies
- Sort Joan Bennett films by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Joan Bennett films by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Joan Bennett films 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 Joan Bennett film received.
- Sort Joan Bennett films 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 Joan Bennett Table
- Thirteen Joan Bennett movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 23.21% of her movies listed. Her biggest hit was Nob Hill (1945)
- An average Joan Bennett movie grosses an average of $74.02 million in adjusted domestic gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 30 Joan Bennett movies are rated as good movies…or 53.57% of her movies. Scarlet Street (1945) was her highest rated movie while Twin Beds (1942) was her lowest rated movie.
- Eight Joan Bennett movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 14.28% of her movies.
- Two Joan Bennett movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 3.57% of her movies.
- An average Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 40.00. 20 Joan Bennett movies scored higher than that average….or 35.71% of her movies. Father of the Bride (1950) got the the highest UMR Score while Twin Beds (1942) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Joan Bennett
- Joan Geraldine Bennett was born in Fort Lee, New Jersey in 1910.
2. Joan Bennett was born into a theatrical family. Her father, mother and two older sisters (Constance & Barbara) were all involved in acting…so real surprise when Joan followed their footprints.
3. Filming on 1932’s She Wanted a Millionaire was interrupted for 6 months when Joan Bennett broke her leg in a fall from a horse.
4. Joan Bennett made five films for Fritz Lang, more than any other American actor or actress who worked with him.
5. Joan Bennett was a finalist for the part of Scarlett O’Hara in 1939’s Gone with the Wind. Vivien Leigh got the role at the last minute. Her thoughts on that? “I wish Vivien would have stayed in England.”
6. Joan Bennett was married four times and had four children. Her second marriage was to producer Walter Wanger.
7. In 1951 Walter Wanger was convicted of attempted murder in the shooting of talent agent Jennings Lang. Lang was the agent of Joan Bennett, then Wanger’s wife, and Wanger discovered the two of them were having an affair. He caught them in the act, and wound up shooting Lang. Wanger served a four-month sentence.
8. Billy Wilder came up with the idea for 1960’s The Apartment after reading all the details of Wanger and Bennett’s personal lives that were revealed in the scandal in interesting fact #7. Some of the details revealed included how executives were using people’s apartments as “meeting places”. So the next time you see The Apartment….think of Joan Bennett.
9. Joan Bennett’s movies from 1930 to 1939 earned $1.81 billion in adjusted domestic gross. That puts him in 47th place when looking at all the stars of that decade. 1930’s Top Box Office Stars.
10. Joan Bennett’s movies from 1940 to 1949 earned $1.56 billion in adjusted domestic gross. That puts him in 86th place when looking at all the stars of that decade. 1940’s Top Box Office Stars.
Check out Joan Bennett’s movie career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
Check Out Steve’s Joan Bennett You Tube Video
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.
Cogerson
Have seen 19 of your listed Joan Bennett movies. Interesting thread for me as I had no idea why Joan Bennett dyed her hair, but I must say she was much more interesting as a brunette than as a blonde. Of course, she was also more mature and often playing gutsier noir roles.
I had never heard of the Wanger shooting incident until reading your comment on it. It does appear that the scandal badly hurt her career as she more or less stopped landing A list roles. Her sister Constance has been mentioned. Her career also declined abruptly–after the mid-thirties–but i am under the impression it was because of lack of interest on her part as she went into business with a line of cosmetics and I think fashion, and more or less abandoned Hollywood.
As for Joan, what really sticks in my mind are The Woman in the Window and Scarlet Street with her femme fatale leading poor Eddie Robinson to perdition.
Hey John. Tally count: Lupino 23, you 19, 11 for Flora, 6 for me and 4 for Steve. Glad you found the information on her hair color and the Wanger scandal new and interesting. Not sure how many times you are finding new information here….so when I hear you did….gotta admit that makes us happy. I guess now that I have done a Joan page….I need to do a Constance page as well. I have to admit….her performance in The Woman in the Window is really the only one that has stuck with me…..granted I have only seen 6 of her movies. Thanks for stopping by.
Hello John,
about Constance Bennett: when you take a look at her career, you’ll notice her appearance in programmers (slightly over an hour long, B-list costars and directors) and supporting parts from 1940 on. In 1932, she received 150 000 $ for her services in one movie, by 1941 she had to content herself with 10 000 $ For me, this shows that she wasn’t finished with movies at all. Furthermore, she formed her own production company in 1945 and produced 2 movies starring herself- yet none brought home the once famous Constance Bennett name to the ticket buying public. So she lingered around in supporting parts more or less worthy of her talents (her last 50’s movie was in support of Monty Whoolley, Thelma Ritter and an up and coming Marilyn Monroe in Let’s make Love), then switched to TV- but constantly working as an actress past 1939. In 1966, she appeared in Madame X as the Mother in Law to Lana Turner, having gone through extensive plastic surgery in order to stay in demand a little longer. Unfortunately, Constance Bennett died in July 1965, months before the release of Madame X at the age of 60. Since she loved living in Pierre’s native France and had a lot of interests away from Hollywood, plus a long lasting 5th marriage from ’46 until her death, one can safely assume that she was not entirely devastated by the lack of good roles offered in Hollywood, though 😉
EDIT BUTTON: that Monroe Movie is, of course, As Young as You feel…
Got it.
Lupino
Thanks for the reply. I do think that quite of few of Constance Bennett’s credits in her later years were in live TV performances in New York. I assume, but could be wrong, that she kept her interest in acting, but indulged it only when it didn’t interfere with her business interests and especially her last marriage.
🙂
Hello John,
I guess we will never know for sure, but I agree with you that after her final marriage in 1946 Hollywood might have taken a backseat to marital bliss and personal happiness.
Your knowledge of Constance Bennett is truly impressive. Joel Hirschhorn in his Rating The Movie Stars book did not even include Constance. Joan got her due. I will be sure to include some of this trivia if…or more….to the point….when I do a page on her. Thanks again.
Joan was never on the Oracle of Bacon Top 1000 Center of the Hollywood Universe. There is only person on the 2016 list who worked with her and it’s an odd one.
13 UDO KIER Suspiria (1977)
The following people are from the original list in 2000 who have since fallen off and appeared in a film with Joan.
14 JOHN CARRADINE Man Hunt (1941)
14 JOHN CARRADINE The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo (1935)
25 RODDY MCDOWELL Confirm or Deny (1941)
25 RODDY MCDOWELL Man Hunt (1941)
27 MARC LAWRENCE The Housekeeper’s Daughter (1939)
50 JEFF COREY Girl Trouble (1942)
52 JAMES MASON The Reckless Moment (1949)
56 HENRY FONDA I Met My Love Again (1938)
56 HENRY FONDA Wild Geese Calling (1941)
100 IAN WOLFE The Son of Monte Cristo (1940)
125 VINCENT PRICE Green Hell (1940)
144 PETER USTINOV We’re No Angels (1955)
147 LLOYD BRIDGES The Wife Takes a Flyer (1942)
156 GREGORY PECK The Macomber Affair (1947)
160 ROBERT RYAN The Woman on the Beach (1947)
219 ELISHA COOK JR. Two in a Crowd (1936)
222 BESS FLOWERS Colonel Effingham’s Raid (1946)
222 BESS FLOWERS Father of the Bride (1950)
222 BESS FLOWERS For Heaven’s Sake (1950)
222 BESS FLOWERS Private Worlds (1935)
222 BESS FLOWERS Puttin’ on the Ritz (1930)
222 BESS FLOWERS She Couldn’t Take It (1935)
222 BESS FLOWERS The Woman in the Window (1944)
225 PAUL SMITH (I) There’s Always Tomorrow (1956)
271 PETER BROCCO The Reckless Moment (1949)
281 ELIZABETH TAYLOR Father of the Bride (1950)
281 ELIZABETH TAYLOR Father’s Little Dividend (1951)
299 FRITZ FELD Artists and Models Abroad (1938)
323 GEORGE SANDERS Green Hell (1940)
323 GEORGE SANDERS Man Hunt (1941)
323 GEORGE SANDERS The Son of Monte Cristo (1940)
375 PETER CUSHING The Man in the Iron Mask (1939)
393 CHARLES BOYER Private Worlds (1935)
394 ALDO RAY We’re No Angels (1955)
395 WALTER PIDGEON Big Brown Eyes (1936)
395 WALTER PIDGEON Man Hunt (1941)
395 WALTER PIDGEON The House Across the Bay (1940)
410 GEORGE RAFT Hush Money (1931)
410 GEORGE RAFT Nob Hill (1945)
410 GEORGE RAFT She Couldn’t Take It (1935)
410 GEORGE RAFT The House Across the Bay (1940)
423 BRETT HALSEY Desire in the Dust (1960)
459 DABBS GREER Father’s Little Dividend (1951)
463 EDWARD G. ROBINSON Scarlet Street (1945)
463 EDWARD G. ROBINSON The Woman in the Window (1944)
503 RICHARD CONTE Highway Dragnet (1954)
506 DOUGLAS FOWLEY Big Brown Eyes (1936)
506 DOUGLAS FOWLEY Desire in the Dust (1960)
506 DOUGLAS FOWLEY Two for Tonight (1935)
507 RALPH BELLAMY Trade Winds (1938)
507 RALPH BELLAMY Wild Girl (1932)
508 ROBERT BLAKE The Woman in the Window (1944)
520 WILLIAM SCHALLERT The Reckless Moment (1949)
542 PAUL FIX Doctors’ Wives (1931)
542 PAUL FIX Two in a Crowd (1936)
562 PAUL BRYAR Artists and Models Abroad (1938)
571 CHARLES LANE For Heaven’s Sake (1950)
571 CHARLES LANE Two for Tonight (1935)
592 WHIT BISSELL For Heaven’s Sake (1950)
606 ALBERTO MORIN The Son of Monte Cristo (1940)
623 RUSS TAMBLYN Father of the Bride (1950)
623 RUSS TAMBLYN Father’s Little Dividend (1951)
663 MILTON BERLE Margin for Error (1943)
692 ALIDA VALLI Suspiria (1977)
740 GEORGE CHANDLER Colonel Effingham’s Raid (1946)
740 GEORGE CHANDLER Doctors’ Wives (1931)
740 GEORGE CHANDLER Hollow Triumph (1948)
740 GEORGE CHANDLER Me and My Gal (1932)
744 DEAN JAGGER Thirteen Hours by Air (1936)
783 JAMES FLAVIN Two in a Crowd (1936)
786 LLOYD NOLAN Big Brown Eyes (1936)
786 LLOYD NOLAN She Couldn’t Take It (1935)
786 LLOYD NOLAN The House Across the Bay (1940)
786 LLOYD NOLAN The Man I Married (1940)
800 MARTHA HYER Desire in the Dust (1960)
800 MARTHA HYER The Woman on the Beach (1947)
811 ROBERT NICHOLS Navy Wife (1956)
832 DON BRODIE Big Brown Eyes (1936)
832 DON BRODIE The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo (1935)
832 DON BRODIE The Woman in the Window (1944)
867 RORY CALHOUN Nob Hill (1945)
925 RAYMOND BURR Desire in the Dust (1960)
969 BYRON FOULGER Margin for Error (1943)
969 BYRON FOULGER Scarlet Street (1945)
980 VICTOR MATURE The Housekeeper’s Daughter (1939)
982 BILLY BENEDICT I Met My Love Again (1938)
I count 25 Oscar winners Joan appeared in a film with;
BING CROSBY Mississippi (1935)
BING CROSBY Two for Tonight (1935)
CHARLES COBURN Colonel Effingham’s Raid (1946)
CLAUDETTE COLBERT Private Worlds (1935)
DEAN JAGGER Thirteen Hours by Air (1936)
DON AMECHE Confirm or Deny (1941)
DON AMECHE Girl Trouble (1942)
DONALD CRISP SCOTLAND YARD (1930)
EDMUND GWENN For Heaven’s Sake (1950)
ELIZABETH TAYLOR Father of the Bride (1950)
ELIZABETH TAYLOR Father’s Little Dividend (1951)
FREDRIC MARCH Trade Winds (1938)
GEORGE ARLISS Disraeli (1929)
GEORGE SANDERS Green Hell (1940)
GEORGE SANDERS Man Hunt (1941)
GEORGE SANDERS The Son of Monte Cristo (1940)
GREGORY PECK The Macomber Affair (1947)
HENRY FONDA I Met My Love Again (1938)
HENRY FONDA Wild Geese Calling (1941)
HUMPHREY BOGART We’re No Angels (1955)
JAMES DUNN Arizona to Broadway (1933)
JANE DARWELL There’s Always Tomorrow (1956)
JOSEPH SCHILDKRAUT THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK (1939)
KATHARINE HEPBURN Little Women (1933)
MARIE DRESSLER The Divine Lady (1929)
PAUL LUKAS Little Women (1933)
PETER USTINOV We’re No Angels (1955)
RONALD COLMAN Bulldog Drummond (1929)
RONALD COLMAN The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo (1935)
SPENCER TRACY Father of the Bride (1950)
SPENCER TRACY Father’s Little Dividend (1951)
SPENCER TRACY Me and My Gal (1932)
SPENCER TRACY She Wanted a Millionaire (1932)
WALTER BRENNAN The Texans (1938)
WARNER BAXTER Doctors’ Wives (1931)
WARNER BAXTER Vogues of 1938 (1937)
To think with all the movies I’ve seen I just saw for the first time this morning The Man Who Broke Monte Carlo with Ronald Colman and Joan Bennett on TCM.
Hey Dan….I have noticed that I always seem to find a person’s movies after writing a page on them. Glad you were able to watch The Man Who Broke Monte Carlo.
It looks like you and John both might have been watching The Man Who Broke Monte Carlo at the same time. Good stuff….thank you TCM.
Hey Dan….so only Udo stands. Very interesting piece of trivia there for sure. 7 Bess Flowers movies…..the most on the second list…..though the Udo trivia is far from a list…..lol. 25 Oscar winners is decent. Sadly two of her four Spencer Tracy movies did not make the page…as I do not have box office for either Me and My Gal or She Wanted a Millionaire. There is a Fox box out there that gives lots of early Tracy stats…but like a fool I did not write them down…and now I can not find that book again. Good information as always. Thanks for sharing it and checking out our latest page.
1 BRUCE Joan was an important star in her heyday and as you highlight above she had a long and prolific career from 1916 – 1982 (66 yrs). Her status as a top movie star declined sharply in the 1950s and her swan song in the big league was in the 2 ‘Father’ pictures with Tracy and Liz Taylor. After those she was 2nd billed to Richard Conte [decidedly a B list actor] in the 1954 Highway Dragnet and in We’re No Angels the same year she was billed well below the title and not above it with stars Bogie, Ustinov and Aldo Ray.
2 She subsequently played 2nd fiddle to Stanwyck in the 1956 There’s Always Tomorrow after which she made just 4 more movies over the rest of her career her final one being in 1977. You’ve mentioned her stage and TV appearances and she was also frequently on the radio between 1930 and 1950. My favourites among her movies were Secret Beyond the Door, Nob Hill with Raft and the 2 with Edward G, Scarlet Street and Woman in the Window [I Admired your black and white miniature of Joan and Eddie]
3 Joan’s legend has not fared as well as the likes of Davis and Hepburn and those other great stars on AFI’s Legnds list but in a sense that’s academic as it can be argued what really counts is the contribution that a star makes in his/her lifetime to keeping the wheels of the film industry turning and in that respect Joan certainly deserves her Cogerson page. Interesting detail about the Apartment connection and in relation to that was it Steve’s Lemmon video that put it into your head to do a Bennett page? It was the scandal that you mention that is partially blamed for the 1950s decline in her career. She always reminded me of Myrna Loy in looks and indeed I could have seen Loy playing Bennett’s role in the 2 ‘Father’ movies. I suppose that now that I’ve mentioned that and if you concur you will now look at ways in which to artificially boost Joan’s grosses !! Anyway goodd comprehensive profile from you as usual deserving a hearty Lensman “Vote Up”
Hey Bob
1. Thanks for checking out our latest classic movie star page.
2. Good breakdown on her career. Highway Dragnet was one of Roger Corman’s first movies…..he used “Dragnet” to capitalize on the success Jack Webb was having on television’s Dragnet…..so it seems the man started his marketing tricks right away.
3. Good to know we agree on Woman in the Window……it is one that Steve needs to watch for sure…as well as it’s sister movie Scarlett Street.
4. Actually…Brando90’s request triggered the Joan Bennett page….and when I realized I had over 30 of her movies already done…..she seemed like a good pick for the next UMR subject.
5. Thanks for the kind words.
Hey Bruce,
For me Bennett , Two sisters, Constance and Joan , i saw for each of them one or Two.
I remembered Father of the bride for Joan and Two faced woman with Garbo for Constance with a very funny scène with a mirror before going out for party.
And of course i Know that Fritz Lang directed Miss Joan Bennett several films.
But , Bruce , i think after that page for Joan, maybe You can do à Constance s page.
I think You have a request on her.
She Was a real great star of the Hollywood classical 30.
Maybe i am wrong but i think Miss Constance Bennett was married to a French Marquis
In France Joan stay in memory because the Fritz Lang movies, i am afraid that Constance Is in the shadow.
Good point, good page and good Day…
Pierre
Hey Pierre. Thanks for the feedback on Joan and Constance. I actually did not even pick up on the fact that they were sisters until the comments started coming in. Their careers pretty much had escaped me…..though I did enjoy Constance in Topper….but to me Cary Grant outshined her in that one for sure. Good stuff as always…thanks for the visit.
Joan Bennett always seemed to be in the shadow of sister Constance – at least in the 30’s, when blond, elegant Constance was a real star with tailor made roles while Joan, also blond and beautiful, was mostly relegated to sweet ingenue leading lady parts, supporting the male star in merely ornamental parts. One exception was her role as Amy in Little Women, were she was delightful as the sister who grew from a vain teenager into a sophosticated lady. But while Connie’s career started to slip in the late 30’s and never really recovered, Joan’s took off and lasted for years to come. Why? In 1938 she appeared along Fredric March in Trade Winds- playing a woman suspected of murder and, while escaping the law, changed her hair color from blond to a dark brown that seemed almost black in the b/w picture. Suddenly Joan resembled european sensation Hedy Lamarr much more than sister Connie, and she immediatly was a contender for the exotic, sultry female parts that she played right until the end of the next decade.
Joan Bennett is currently one of the stars whose movies I’m trying to “hunt down”. Up to now, I have managed to see 23 of the films listed above. My favs are her movies for Fritz Lang, The Man I married, The Macomber Affair, Woman on the Beach, The Reckless Moment and the above mentioned Little Women.
One final note on Joan Bennett, privat person: She was a very active member of both the Hollywood Democratic Committee and The Hollywood Anti-Nazi League and donated her time and money to many liberal causes – as a german, I always find it important to give credit to those who were not blinded by Nazi propaganda or indifferent to the all the suffering it brought to so many people.
Back to the topic of this page- Bruce, I really want to say Thank you for doing this page on the “brunette” Bennett sister, since I already put in so many requests I thought I’d better wait 5 years or so before asking for another page. I extend my thanks to Brando90 for his excellent taste 😉
Hey Lupino.
1. Tally count: 23 for you, 11 for Flora, 6 for me and 4 for Steve. So we are at 21 and you are at 23…..thinking you have done a good job tracking down her movies.
2. Her family was very talented. You know a lot more about the Bennett sisters than I do.
3. Good and interesting point how her hairstyle changed how she was viewed in movies.
4. Good to know that she had her eyes open back then…and not closed as so many people did during World War 2.
5. You can request away…at this point I think most of the major stars have been done….so requests are even more appreciated.
Thanks for the awesome feedback.
Hello Bruce,
you can expect some requests in the proper place soon 🙂
I guess your favorite Constance Bennett movie might be Topper…call me a clairvoyant…
I have a question concerning the gross of The Guy that came back: you have it listed here with a gross of merly 21 million, while on Linda Darnell’s page you have it with 40.9 million…still no blockbuster, but twice as much. Can you please clarify? Thank you.
Hey Lupino they match now. I was having some issues with the title. On the Linda Darnell page I had the movie listed as The Guy THAT Came Back….which was wrong…but had the right box office total….meanwhile on this page I had the right title…The Guy WHO Came Back but the wrong box office total. Well your comment fixed a few problems….one the confusion of not understanding why I could not find that movie on Darnell in my database….as it now makes sense…lol. And now both pages match…is what we try and do here. Thanks again.
You’re very welcome- and thank YOU for clarifying!