Want to know the best Louis Jourdan movies? How about the worst Louis Jourdan movies? Curious about Louis Jourdan box office grosses or which Louis Jourdan movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Louis Jourdan 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.
Louis Jourdan (1921-2015) was a French actor. Jourdan was known for his movie roles in The Paradine Case (1947), Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), Gigi (1958), The Best of Everything (1959), The V.I.P.s (1963). I came to know Louis Jourdan from his one-two punch in the early 1980s. 1982’s Swamp Thing and 1983’s Octopussy were movies I watched many times as a teenager. His IMDb page shows 87 acting credits from 1939 to 1992. This page will rank Louis Jourdan movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows and many of his French movies were not included in the main stat table…but they do get a small shout out at the end of the page.
Louis Jourdan Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews, and awards.
Louis Jourdan 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 any way you want.
- Sort Louis Jourdan movies by his co-stars
- Sort Louis Jourdan movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Louis Jourdan movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Louis Jourdan 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 Louis Jourdan movie received.
- Sort Louis Jourdan movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score. UMR puts box office, reviews, and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Louis Jourdan
1. Louis Robert Gendre was born in Marseille, France, in 1921. Jourdan was his mother’s maiden name.
2. Louis Jourdan’s first movie was 1939’s Le Corsaire opposite Charles Boyer. Filming was interrupted by the Second World War and was never resumed. Louis Jourdan was part of the French Resistance during World War II. He helped publish and distribute newspapers for the Underground.
3. Louis Jourdan played the Maurice Chevalier role in “Gigi” on stage at the age of 63. Chevalier was 70 and frail when he did the movie Gigi (1958).
4. Louis Jourdan was supposed to be the Bond villain in Moonraker. He had to wait until Octopussy was made to join the illustrious group of Bond villains. The eyeball in the stuffed sheep’s head that Jourdan eats in Octopussy was made out of marzipan.
5. In 2010, Louis Jourdan received the ‘French Legion of Honor.’ The French Ambassador to the U.S presented the medal in Los Angeles, California.
Check out Louis Jourdan’s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
Louis Jourdan’s Missing French Movies That Did Not Make The Above Table
Movie Title and Audience and Critic Rating
1944’s Les petites du quai aux fleurs 73.00%
1953’s Rue de l’Estrapade 72.50%
1944’s Twilight 69.50%
1940’s Comedy of Happiness 69.50%
1941’s Her First Affair 66.00%
1962’s Dark Journey 65.50%
1942’s L’arlésienne 65.00%
1940’s Ecco la felicità 64.50%
1961’s The Story of the Count of Monte Cristo 63.00%
1957’s Escapade 61.00%
1942’s La belle aventure 59.00%
1941’s Parade en 7 nuits 58.50%
1975’s Piange… il telefono 58.00%
1945’s La vie de bohème 57.00%
1977’s The More It Goes, The Less It Goes 56.00%
1962’s Disorder 55.50%
1967’s To Commit a Murder 53.00%
1967’s The Young Rebel 51.50%
1963’s Mathias Sandorf 51.00%
1961’s Amazons of Rome 47.50%
1966’s The Sultans 46.50%
Steve’s Louis Jourdan YouTube Video
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Added Steve’s Louis Jourdan YouTube video to this page. Our thoughts on his video and Jourdan’s career found below.
Good video. Good subject. This is one of those rare times that your video has more movies than my movie page on a subject. I have seen 10 of the movies in the video. Favorites would include #4 Madame Bovary, #13 Octopussy and Swamp Thing. Voted up and shared
Hi Bruce, all I needed for my chart were the ratings and posters, while you have to hunt down box office grosses for your chart. Your tally of 10 watched out of the 30 on the video beats my 5, Flora has seen 11. Thanks again for the comment, vote and share, much appreciated.
IN THE 1977 TV MOVIE MAN IN THE IRON MASK RICHARD CAHAMBERLAIN PLAYED PHILLIPE/LOUIS AND NOT EDMOND DANTES AS I STATED IN MY PREVIOUS POST. RICHARD DID PLAY DANTES IN THE 1975 TV MOVIE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO AND JOURDAN PLAYED DANTES/THE COUNT IN THE 1961 FILM
SORRY FOR THE ERROR BUT YOUR OWN VIDEO GETS IT RIGHT – that’s why you are the more respected viewer on this site!!
IT STRIKES ME THAT A MAN IN AN IRON MASK COULD BE QUITE FLAVOR OF THE MONTH TODAY – THOUGH NOT IN THE WHITE HOUSE!
IMDB REVIEW “I watched the 1975 version with Richard Chamberlain as Edmund Dantes and Louis Jourdan as Prosecutor Villefort. In this 1961 version, Louis Jourdan portrays Edmund Dantes, and does a far superior job of it.”
My last sightings of Louis were on the small screen as the guest villain in 1978’s Columbo episode Murder Under Glass; and as the legendary Dumas hero D’Artagnan in the 1977 TV movie The Man in the Iron Mask with Richard Chamberlain as the imprisoned hero Edmond Dantes [who later became the aristocratic Count of Monte Cristo].
Two years before that Louis had played the villain of the piece de Vilefort in the 1975 TV movie The Count of Monte Cristo with Chamberlain again taking the role of Dantes/Monte Cristo. However way back in 1961 the younger Louis had gotten HIS turn at playing Edmond Dantes/The Count in the French-Italian film version of The Count of Monte Cristo. Can you follow all that Dan? –Steve’s video well-illustrates the situation.
BEST STILLS/LOBBY CARDS IN STEVE’s VIDEO [simply EXCELLENT OVERALL giving me overall pleasure to the tune of 99%]
1/Louis with Dana Andrews – two iconic 1950s figures!
2/Dangerous Exile
3/Made in Paris
4/with Sir Maurice – great teaming!
5/Bird of Paradise
6/Count of Monte Cristo 1961
7/Julie
8/Can Can
9/Anne of the Indies
10Octopussy
11/Paradine Case – beautiful colour but a Hitch film I never warmed to despite the presence of Royal Dano in the lead
12/VIPs
13/two for The Swan
14/3 Coins in the Fountain – how the ladies swooned and screamed at Louis in a cinematic trailer that I saw
15/Count Dracula – how photogenic Louis was!
16/Madam Bovary
17/two for Letter from an Unknown Thin Woman – pity she didn’t remain so: ignorance is bliss!
18/Gigi
“Gigi, am I a fool without a mind?
Or have I merely been too blind to realize?
Oh Gigi, why you’ve been growing-up before my eyes?
Gigi, you’re not at all that funny awkward little girl I knew
Oh no, overnight there’s been a breathless change in you
Louis’ roots were in the European continental cinema of the 1940s but with his beautiful features he became one of the great leading-men heartthrobs of the Hollywood 1950s in films like Anne of the Indies, Gigi, The Swan and Three Coins in the Fountain. Often “real men” in those days laughed at such “pretty boys” as Louis; but Jourdan loved serious acting [and Steve’s opening quote by Jourdan illustrates his attitude in the mater] and he was very interesting and entertaining to watch for my money.
He was moreover a Brando devotee and he credited Marlon with being the “Don Quixote” of actors who tilted at professional windmills to show actors like Louis himself what was possible on the screen and what was not.
TOP 20 BEST POSTER ENTRIES in STEVE’s VIDEO – 3 viewings by me so far
1/two for Amazons of Rome
2/set for The Bride is too Beautiful3
3/first one for No Minor Vices
4/Swamp Thing – I hope they drained it!
5/2 for Dangerous Exile – sadly lovely Belinda Lee was killed in a car accident aged just 25. Like Diana Dors Belinda was promoted aS another of Britain’s “blonde sexpot” answers to Hollywood’s MM.
6/the set for Cervantes
7/first one for Decameron Nights
8/first 2 for Bird of Paradise – Chandler on brink of major stardom
9/The Count of Monte Cristo 1961
10/two real crackers for my Doris’ crime thriller Julie – one of her RELATIVELY minor 50s movies resulting in just a MODEST profit. Following the success of the dramatic Love Me or Leave Me she was keen to do more serious acting instead of signature usual perceived “mush”.
11/foreign language one Paradine Case top-starring Royal Dano.
12/The Swan
13/Count of Monte Cristo 1975
14/Madam Bovary
15/Anne of the Indies – one of the first movies I ever saw
16/Year of the Comet
17/first 2 for Made in Paris
18/Silver Bears
19/Leviathan – highly atmospheric.
20/2nd one for Gigi
Hi Bob, thanks for the review, generous rating (ooh), info and song lyrics, always appreciated. Happy you liked the posters, stills and lobby cards.
There was a time when I only really knew Louis Jourdan as the villain in Octopussy and as Count Dracula in a highly rated BBC movie. Later I saw him in other films like The Paradine Case, not one of my favorite Hichcock movies, and Gigi of course.
I had to laugh at the Royal Dano references, well, Bruce brought it on himself. 😉
I sometimes add the names of characters actors have played on the video, especially for their best films or if they’ve played famous fictional or historical characters.
One film scored 10 out of 10 from my sources – Gigi, three more scored 9 – Letter from an Unknown Woman, The Happy Time and Madame Bovary.
Letter from an Unknown Woman is no.1 on IMDB charts (and Bruce’s critics chart) and Gigi tops Rotten Tomatoes (and my chart).
Louis Jourdan on Gregory Peck – “He can be funny, which is fortunate; otherwise such perfection would be unbearable.”
“I’m proud to be a Frenchman, but I resent the image people have of the stupid, continental charmer. Against that type of role I fight pitilessly.”
Hey Steve….good quotes that you included.
Hey Bob…good information on Louis Jourdan, Steve’s posters and all the information you included in your comments.
i saw 6 including 5 of top 6. 10 and favorite 3 coins in a fountain, 9 gigi. no hidden gems.
Hey bob cox. Thanks for checking out our L.J. page. Thanks for the mini-reviews. Glad you like Three Coins in the Fountain. Gigi is ok…but I would only put it as a 7. Good stuff.