Montgomery Clift Movies

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

When I recently got a request to do a Montgomery Clift (1920-1966) Ultimate Movie Rankings page I was somewhat surprised that he had not appeared in that many movies in his career.  He might not have made many movies….but many of the ones he made have become all time great movies.  From 1948’s Red River to 1961’s Judgment at Nuremberg….Montgomery Clift left a legacy of great screen performances.

His IMDb page only shows 18 acting credits from 1948-1966. This page will rank 17 Montgomery Clift movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. His television movie Hay Fever was not included in the rankings.

Montgomery Clift and Frank Sinatra in 1953's From Here To Eternity

Montgomery Clift and Frank Sinatra in 1953’s From Here To Eternity

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

Montgomery Clift 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 by Montgomery Clift’s co-stars of his movies.
  • Sort Montgomery Clift movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost.
  • Sort Montgomery Clift movies by their yearly box office rank
  • Sort Montgomery Clift 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 Montgomery Clift movie received.
  • Sort Montgomery Clift 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 Montgomery Clift Table

  1. Nine Montgomery Clift movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark.  That is a percentage of 52.94% of his movies listed. From Here To Eternity (1953) was his biggest hit.
  2. An average Montgomery Clift movie earned $138.10 million in adjusted box office gross.
  3. Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter.  12 of Montgomery Clift’s movies are rated as good movies…or 70.58% of his movies.  Red River (1948) was his highest rated movie while The Defector (1966) was his lowest rated movie.
  4. Eleven Montgomery Clift movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 64.70% of his movies.
  5. Five Montgomery Clift’s movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 29.41% of his movies.
  6. An average Ultimate Movie rankings (UMR) Score is 40.00.  12 Montgomery Clift movies scored higher that average….or 70.58% of his movies.  From Here To Eternity (1953) got the the highest UMR Score while The Defector (1966) got the lowest UMR Score.
Montgomery Clift in 1948's The Search

Montgomery Clift in 1948’s The Search

Possibly Interesting Facts About Montgomery Clift

1. Edward Montgomery Clift  was born in Omaha, Nebraska.  He was born minutes after his twin sister.  He went by the nickname “Monty” his entire life.

2.  Montgomery Clift’s path to stardom.  Clift appeared on Broadway at the age of 13.  Despite some Hollywood interest, Clift decided to stick with the theater and hone his acting skills.  In 1947 he decided to give Hollywood a chance.

3. Montgomery Clift first movie was the classic John Wayne western Red River (1948).  When Red River was delayed….Clift’s The Search (1948) actually hit theaters first.  He would earn a Best Actor Oscar® nomination for that role.

4. Montgomery Clift was nominated for 4 acting Oscar® nominations.  1948’s The Search, 1951’s A Place in the Sun, 1953’s From Here To Eternity and 1961’s Judgment at Nuremberg.

5. Montgomery Clift turned down these movies: Sunset Blvd (1950), East of Eden (1955), The Trouble With Harry (1955), Friendly Persuasion (1956), and Moby Dick (1956).

6. Montgomery Clift was great friends with Elizabeth Taylor.  They made three movies together….1951’s A Place In The Sun, 1957’s Raintree Country and 1959’s Suddenly, Last Summer.  During the filming of Raintree Country, he ran his Chevrolet into a tree after leaving a party at Taylor’s house; it was she who saved him from choking by pulling out two teeth lodged in his throat. Clift was about to appear opposite Taylor for a 4th time in 1967’s Reflections in a Golden Eye but he passed away before filming started.

7. Even though Montgmory Clift’s career was during an era when many movies were filmed in color,  fourteen of his movies were filmed in black and white.  That gives Clift and James Dean the same number of color movies (three).   That could explain why Dean is more of a modern icon than Clift.  These astute observations come from a comment from John.

8.  Montgomery Clift movies earned a total of 57 Oscar® nominations.  That is an average of 3.35 Oscar® nominations per movie.  Of the 100s of actors and actresses that I have done pages on…that is the highest average I have come across.  Actually in my entire database….only directors Steven Spielberg and James Cameron have better Oscar® nominations per movie averages.

9. Marilyn Monroe said of Montgomery Clift…..”the only person I know who is in worse shape than I am.”  Monroe and Clift appeared together in The Misfits (1961).

10.  In 1966 Montgomery Clift passed away at the age of 45.  The official cause of death was a heart attack.  On the night of his death The Misfits was playing on television.  His companion/aide asked if he wanted to watch it….Clift responded….”absolutely not”….those were his last words spoken.  I think those words can answer this question….Will Montgomery Clift will be forgotten?…..”absolutely not”.

10A.  I found this Monty Clift hub from Hub Pages’ Discovery2020….an interesting read.  Just follow this link to Montgomery Clift the Actors’ Actor

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57 thoughts on “Montgomery Clift Movies

  1. Montgomery Clift, whose first name (as known in his career) is that of a county in Pennsylvania, co-starred with at least 4 other actors/actresses whose last names are those of counties in Pennsylvania:

    Burt Lancaster – “From Here to Eternity” and “Judgment at Nuremberg”
    John Wayne – “Red River”
    Susannah York – “Freud”
    Marilyn Monroe – “The Misfits”

    If Joan Crawford had been cast in “From Here to Eternity”, she would have been one more.

    1. Hey Regina….that is some awesome trivia. A unique way to look at the histoy of Montgomery’s movie career and co-stars. Thanks for sharing this information.

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