Kim Novak Movies

Kim Novak

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

Kim Novak (1933-) is an American film and television actress.  Novak most famous role was in Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958)….which is considered by many to be the greatest movie ever made.   Her IMDb page shows 33 acting credits from 1953-1991. This page will rank 25 Kim Novak movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information.  Uncredited roles, bit parts, television roles and shorts were not included in the rankings.

Kim Novak in 1957’s Vertigo

Kim Novak 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 Kim Novak movies by co-stars of her movies
  • Sort Kim Novak movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Kim Novak movies by yearly domestic box office rank
  • Sort Kim Novak 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 Oscar® wins each Kim Novak movie received.
  • Sort Kim Novak movies by Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score.  UMR puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.

Stats and Possibly Interesting Stats From The Above Kim Novak Table

  1. Ten Kim Novak movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark.  That is a percentage of 40.00% of her movies listed.  Picnic (1955) was her biggest box office hit.
  2. An average Kim Novak movie grossed $90.90 million in adjusted box office gross.
  3. Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter.  15 Kim Novak movies are rated as good movies…or 60.00% of her movies.  Vertigo  (1957) was her highest rated movie while The White Buffalo (1977) was her lowest rated movie.
  4. Seven Kim Novak movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 28.00% of her movies.
  5. Two Kim Novak movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 8.00% of her movies.
  6. An “a good movie” Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score is 60.00.  14 Kim Novak movies scored higher than that….or 56.00% of her movies.  Picnic (1955) got the the highest UMR Movie Score while The White Buffalo (1977) got the lowest UMR Movie Score.

Possibly Interesting Facts About Kim Novak

1. Marilyn Pauline Novak was born  in Chicago, Illinois in 1933.

2.  Kim Novak won two scholarships to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.   Novak has become an well respected artist.  Examples of her work can be found at her website Kim Novak Artist.  Film buffs will really like the 9th painting down.  It is called……Vertigo/Vortex of Delusion.

3.  During the summer break in Kim Novak’s last semester of junior college, Novak went on a cross-country tour modeling for a refrigerator company at trade shows.  She was “Miss Deepfreeze” in the shows.

4.  Kim Novak/Miss Deepfreeze was spotted by an agent when the refrigerator tour stopped in Los Angeles.  This led her to signing a movie contract with Columbia Pictures.

5.  Columbia’s chief, Harry Cohn wanted (a) Novak to be the successor to Rita Hayworth and (b) wanted Novak to change her name to Kit Marlowe.   Novak fought to keep her name, and the two eventually compromised on “Kim Novak”.   One of Novak’s last roles was playing “Kit Marlowe” on the television show…Falcon Crest.

6. Kim Novak has been married two times.  Since 1976, Kim has been happily married to Robert Malloy, a veterinarian who shares her passion for animals and nature. Kim and her husband live on a ranch in Oregon where they raise llamas and horses, and frequently go canoeing. Kim is also an accomplished artist who expresses herself in oil paintings and sculptures.

7.  Kim Novak was the original choice to play Marion Wormer (the Dean’s wife) in 1978’s Animal House.

8. Kim Novak and Vertigo trivia part 1.  (a)  James Stewart was 49 and Novak was 24 when they made Vertigo.  (b)  Alfred Hitchcock thought Kim Novak was miscast in the movie.  (c)  Vertigo is considered the greatest movie ever made by Sight and Sound‘s movie poll.  (d)  Vertigo is ranked as the 79th best movie on IMDb.  (e) Vertigo is ranked 30th on our UMR best reviewed movies in our database.  (f) Novak and Barbara Bel Geddes’ characters never meet.  (g)  Novak’s character does not speak until a third of the way into the movie.

9.  Kim Novak and Vertigo trivia part 2.   Kim Novak went on strike during the filming of Vertigo.  She was striking for more money from her home studio Columbia, who was paying her $1,250 a week even though they were receiving $250,000 for her loan-out for Vertigo and one more picture. The ploy worked and Novak got a raise.

10. Check out Kim Novak’s movie career compared to current and classic stars on our Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time page.

Steve’s Kim Novak You Tube video goes very well with this page.

Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.  Golden Globes® are the registered trademark and service mark of the Hollywood Foreign Press.

35 thoughts on “Kim Novak Movies

    1. A little harder than you think….our formula looks at box office glory, reviews and award recognition. The movie you are guessing actually comes in 4th place because it got little Oscar love and was only a modest hit. If you sort by reviews by critics and audiences that movie jumps to 1st.

      1. in the most recent Sight and Sound once-a-decade poll of international critics, “Vertigo” was named the greatest movie of all time, followed by “Citizen Kane” and “Tokyo Story.” So many trashy movies are hits – “box-office glory” means nothing.

        1. Our page is a statistical review of Kim’s career. If you sort (and you can) my reviews by critics and audiences then Vertigo goes to the Top Spot. Of the 36,745 movies in our database….Vertigo is in 30th place….that falls behind Sight and Sound….but is ahead of IMDb’s 78th ranking. So we realize Vertigo is well respected.

  1. Hey Bruce, I think a page on Kim Novak was overdue, considering some of the less well-known leading ladies of the 50s you have gratified with a UMR page over the past few months! So thanks, it’s appreciated. I’ve always found her irresistibly attractive ever since I saw her in Picnic and Vertigo so many years ago. I’m surprised Hitchcock thought she was not right for the role in Vertigo. She’s maybe not the most talented actress but her presence and mysterious beauty in that film are a big asset to the movie. However, Hitch may not have been the best judge of leading ladies. His Tippie Hedren never went any-where after The Bird and Marnie! Picnic is one of my personal favorites, a perceptive social drama, romantic story and depiction of small town USA in the 1950s, livened up by a great cast.

    1. HI PHIL

      1 Thanks for your concluding remarks about Stuart Whitman and The Mark and I agree that the latter film was his high point.

      2 In an interview that I personally watched, Tippi claimed that because she spurned his romantic advances Hitch who had her under contract effectively killed off her career by not giving her any more of his own flicks and refusing to release her to other producers for roles worthwhile so that after the 1964 Marnie all she got were a couple of TV outings and the Chaplin/Brando flop A Countess from Hong Kong. If Marlon’s observations about filming with with Charlie are in any way accurate poor Tippi went from working for one tyrant to serving another!

      3 I a a great admirer of Golden Holden and like Picnic but I did think Bill was way too old for the part that he played. However I suppose we would need to give him a piece of poetic licence when we see ancients like Arnie, Sly, Harrison Ford and Gibson playing vibrant action heroes.who can jump off bridges onto speeding trains. My brother another great family film buff said to me recently “These days when I see Stallone, Ford and Schwarzenegger in particular mentioned I stay away from the movie.”

  2. I am another person who did not realize the Kim Novak page was new.

    I have seen 13 Kim Novak movies.

    My favourites are:

    Vertigo
    Picnic
    Bell, Book and Candle
    Pal Joey
    The Legend of Lylah Claire

    I have also seen:

    Boys’ Night Out
    Middle of the Night
    Pushover
    Jeanne Eagles
    Kiss Me Stupid
    Of Human Bondage
    The Mirror Crack’d
    Strangers When We Meet

    1. Hey Flora…..sorry I missed this comment….been busy…and spent a little time in the hospital…..but I am catching up. Thanks for your tally count…and comment. I like your Top 5….although I have not seen The Legend of Lylah Claire….it looked interesting. One of the benefits of including the trailers…is that I am seeing movies for the first time myself. The Legend of Lylah Claire looked like a movie I would enjoy…..and now seeing it make your Top 5 makes me want to see it even more. Good stuff.

  3. 1 HI STEVE In a 1956 interview Dorothy Malone said that she had asked Universal to bill her 4th in Written on the Wind because she felt that if she was given top star billing that could disqualify her from Oscar nomination in the supporting player category. Given that Rock Hudson and Lauren Bacall were in the leads it is hard to see how she could have got much further up the bill anyway but otherwise her instincts were sound because she did win the supporting actress Oscar AND a Golden Globe nomination.

    2 Many of my most nostalgic B movies produced in the 1950s have some excellent posters in your selections with the particularly pleasing ones for me being Tension at Table Rock, Law and Order [co-starring Mr. President] Tall man Riding, Quantez, Loophole, Private Hell 36 and Tip on a Dead Jockey. NB On the release posters the tagline was “The story of Frame Johnson the last of the great-shooting marshals.” A typical Ronnie character in those days! I saw that one on a double bill with the Brit comedy The Titfield Thunderbolt top-starring great English comedian Stanley Holloway later of My Fair Lady fame [“I’m getting married in the morning. Get me to the church on time!”]

    3 I thought the best posters for Dottie’s probably more or slightly more prestigious flicks were Artists & Models, South of St Louis, Pushover, Scared Stiff and The Last Sunset. Sadly in that one Dorothy didn’t get even EQUAL billing to Rock. Separate, special mention in my opinion should be made of the riveting poster for The Killer That Stalked New York and the stunner for Warlock with my Richard in iconic form.

    4 The batch of stills you have given us of Dorothy is among the best that I have ever seen from you and I cannot praise enough (1) her with Chandler (2) with Randy in The Nevadan (3) at her most female provocative staring out of a window with Richard Egan (4) looking happy with my Glenn on the set of Convicted (5) driving Rock – very appropriate because she drove him to distraction in the actual movie (6) with Bogie in The Big Sleep and (7) the opening solo still of beautiful Dorothy as well as the closing sexy solo of Dorothy in bathing costume (8) my very fafourite an unique one of Dottie with Fred in Quantez.

    5 When I see this wonderful collection I think it a pity you didn’t follow up your marathon posters presentation on Mr. America with a short montage devoted solely to stills. The Big Fella was massively photogenic in his time and was some looker when he was a young man in all those early westerns. I know that for you stills are not “the big picture” but we must remember that a key factor in the success of all those Great stars was their physical presence and exceptional looks in one way or another and nothing quite hones in on that like a well photographed still.

    6 Posters are the ideal for showcasing the entire film but Laddie with painted-on muscles in some posters for Red Mountain for example was not the real deal whereas some stills of Alan highlighted his beautiful features which were probably his main calling card in his heyday

    7Anyway Great stuff well worth 97.5% in my book. No WH page so far but the average rating for your Top 5 is 77.7% and compares with his 74.4% for the same 5 on the pages of Dottie’s co-stars. Your Top 5 were of course Big Sleep, Written on the Wind, Tarnished Angels, Man of 1000 Faces and Warlock – well done Dick or sorry “Richard”.

    “What a man tells a woman and a woman tells a man should be written on the wind and lost forever.” – 1956 Belfast release posters tagline.

    1. Hey Bob….good story on Dorothy Malone and her 4th billing….her approach worked…as she went home with the Oscar. Liked the breakdown on Steve’s Malone video.

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