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 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
- 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.
- An average Montgomery Clift movie earned $138.10 million in adjusted box office gross.
- 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.
- Eleven Montgomery Clift movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 64.70% of his movies.
- Five Montgomery Clift’s movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 29.41% of his movies.
- 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.
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
If you do a comment….please ignore the email address and website section.
1 Monty sustained damage that radically altered his facial appearance and this was noticeable
in the later parts of Raintree County (1957) as the accident occurred before he completed the film.
2 He complained in an interview that journalists often became preoccupied with his changed face at the expense of their paying attention to his career and work.
3 Also some columnists morbidly invited their readers to spot the point in Raintree County where Monty looked different.
BOB
Hey Bob.
1. Yep…Elizabeth Taylor is credited with saving his life….as he was leaving her party when he got into the accident.
2. I could see that would be very frustrating for Monty…especially since he still gave some quality performances after the accident…The Misfits and Judgement at Nuremberg…come to mind.
3. I have actually not seen Raintree County….but I think…..I would be on the look out for the change…..human nature I guess.
Thanks for the sharing your Monty knowledge.
I have seen 10 of Monty’s films. I Confess and A Place in the Sun, I think, are my favorites. So handsome in both. Although I understand his accidrnt was horrendous, it’s hard to fathom how much it changed his striking features. His acting style was unmatched. A real tribute to his much too short.life. Really need to add his other films to my must sees…
Hey Carla….thanks for stopping by….seeing 10 of his movies is pretty impressive….you have me beat pretty easily. I, Confess does not seem to get much attention….especially compared to other Hitchcock movies and other Clift movies…but I also enjoyed that one. Who knows what he might have accomplished without the accident….I really think the accident is one of the main reasons his off screen life spiraled out of control. Glad you found this page….I enjoyed reading your comment.
As well as the obvious brilliant acting, the true legacy Clift left behind was his realization that it was always the work that counts. 17 films chosen by script and not fame or fortune. A lesson that influences Daniel Day Lewia and should be learned by many more of today’s fine actors and actresses.
Hey William M. I like and agree with your comment. Good point about his movie picks influencing Daniel Day-Lewis. 17 movies and not a bad one amongst the group. Thanks for checking out our Monty Clift page.
1 In the early 50s the credited forerunners of the new movies acting style were Montgomery Clift, Marlon Brando and James Dean. Chronologically at lease Monty could be said to be the leader of the pack as his film career began before theirs
2 However since then Brando and Dean have been recognised by AFI as two of the Greatest Screen Legends of All Time whereas Monty has not been included in that list.
3 As Bruce indicates though discerning historians. critics and film buffs will not quickly forget Monty’s acting triumphs and certainly he has left behind a far greater body of prestigious work that Dean.
4 Other Greats like Sinatra, Monroe, Dean Martin, Liz Taylor and Katie Hepburn were reportedly very fond of Monty and his professional peers greatly admired his acting skills: “Montgomery Clift, Marlon Brando and John Barrymore are the three greatest American actors that I’ve seen in my lifetime.” – George C Scott.
5 During the making of Suddenly Last Summer with Monty Liz and Katie Hepburn gossip columnists put about the false rumour that the three stars were constantly at each others so the three of them organised a photo-shoot in which they were all crowded onto a sofa laughing hilariously with their hands round each other’s throats !
6 As is well known Monty’s Big Star days were prematurely terminated by his 1956 car accident which ruined his face and caused his descent into alcohol and drug addiction but.even then his acting continued to attract fine notices.
7 Maximilian Schell got the Oscar for Judgement at Nuremberg and Monty was nominated but passed over for Best Supporting Actor. However English critics at the time reckoned that Monty’s performance was the most riveting in what was a great all-star cast.headed by Spencer Tracy and comprising other Greats Widmark, Lancaster, Garland and Dietrich.
8 Obviously it was a part that he seriously coveted because he said in a later interview that he initially asked for a high fee but when that was rejected he told the producers he would do the film for nothing rather than lose the role.
9 Coincidentally I saw an episode of Frasier yesterday in which his dad,Martin is watching A Place in the Sun. Just as Monty picks up the phone to ring someone in the film the phone in the Frasier household rings and Martin freezes the Monty movie and picks up the house phone and says to Frasier:”Isn’t that a coincidence? It’s as if Montgomery Clift was ringing me.!” Frasier replies “Give him my regards.”
10 I am pleased that Bruce did this further Monty ‘revival’ as his films are a big part of the nostalgia of my boyhood days. SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER CATHY REALISED SHE WAS BEING USED FOR SOMETHING EVIL.
BOB
Hey Bob.
1. Yep Clift was first. I think it is great trivia that Fred Zinnemann directed the first performances of both actors….and in back to back years too. I wonder what he thought about them BEFORE they hit the bigtime.
2. Dean is a legend….but I think…he is the worst pick of the 25 on the Screen Legends List. He was good in his 3 movies….but 3 movies is 3 movies…..that is not a career…..for Danny Trejo that is a month’s worth of work.
3. Clift from 1948 to 1955 put out one classic after another….and then after his accident…he made more classics.
4. George C. Scott…probably knew a thing or two about good actors….I actually saw a great John Barrymore performance very recently….1939’s Midnight…..he was a blast to watch in that one.
5. You forgot William Shatner when you were mentioning all those great actors in JAN….without Captain Kirk….that movie would have fallen apart….lol.
6. Good behind the scenes on Judgement.
7. I like when movies or tv shows have a real movie playing in the background….I immediate stop thinking about what I am watching…and try and figure out which movie they are watching.
8. Glad you liked this Monty Clift update….this was one of the first of many UMR pages…..as it never lived at HubPages or my first site…CogersonMovieScores.
Si incluyes a la pedante de Elizabeth Taylor como coestrella bien pudiste considerar a Marilyn Monroe en Misfits.
He had some great co-stars. He made them better and they made him better. Thanks for stopping by.