Cornel Wilde (1912-1989) was an Oscar®–nominated Hungarian-American actor and film director. Wilde’s career started with small roles in the early 1940s….but quickly progressed to leading man roles by the end of the 1940s. He would continue to act, produce and direct for another 4 decades. His IMDb page shows 69 acting credits from 1936 to 1987. This page ranks 44 Cornel Wilde movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, cameos and his movies not released in North America theaters are not included in the rankings.
Cornel Wilde Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Cornel Wilde 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 Cornel Wilde movies by movie title and movie trailers.
- Sort Cornel Wilde movies by co-stars of his movies.
- Sort Cornel Wilde movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost
- Sort Cornel Wilde movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Cornel Wilde movies how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations each Cornel Wilde movie received and how many Oscar® wins each Cornel Wilde movie won.
- Sort Cornel Wilde 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.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Cornel Wilde
1. Kornél Lajos Weisz was born in Privigye, Kingdom of Hungary (now Prievidza, Slovakia) in 1912.
2. Cornel Wilde and his family came to the United States in 1920. They Americanized their names and Kornel took the name Cornelius Louis Wilde.
3. Cornel Wilde qualified for the United States fencing team for the 1936 Summer Olympic Games. Wilde did not go to the Olympics, instead he took an acting role in a play.
4. Cornel Wilde’s big break was befriending Sir Laurence Olivier. Wilde taught Olivier fencing and was later cast in Olivier’s stage version of Romeo and Juliet (1940). Wilde’s small part lead him to a movie contract with Warner Brothers.
5. Cornel Wilde’s 44 movies grossed over $3.60 billion in adjusted box office gross. Those movies earned 19 Oscar® nominations…winning 3 Oscars®.
6. Cornel Wilde was married two times and had two children. He was married to actress and co-star Patricia Knight from 1937 to 1951. He was also married to actress and co-star Jean Wallace from 1951 to 1981.
7. One of Cornel Wilde’s most famous roles was playing high-wire artist, The Great Sebastian. This was a huge challenge to Wilde because he was afraid of heights. Despite Burt Lancaster’s background as a real-life circus acrobat, he was bypassed by Wilde for the role of The Great Sebastian, a fact Cecil B. DeMille regretted when he learned that Cornel was afraid of heights.
8. Check out Cornel Wilde‘s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
Check out Steve’s Conrel Wilde You Tube Video.
In the days of my youth Chopin was regarded by audiences as Cornel Wilde’s ‘prestige’ role even though Paul Muni was the top-billed star in the film, A Song to Remember. However although Cornel at the time was nominated for an Oscar for the portrayal some critics and film historians in recent times have not been too kind to Cornel’s Chopin, one for example saying that in the movie Wilde interpreted Chopin as “a Rock Hudson type heartthrob”. Two other actors who have played Chopin in films are.
1/Polish actor Czeslaw Wollejko in 1952’s Youth of Chopin.
2/Piotr Adamczyk in 2002’s Chopin: Desire of Love. Piotr too is Polish.
Best POSTERS for me in your Wilde video are (1) 1st one for California Conquest (2) all for Omar Khayyam (3) Devil’s Hairpin (4) Wintertime (5) Treasure of Golden Condor [perhaps my fave Wilde movie] (6) final one for Lancelot and Guinevere (7) Hot Blood (8) foreign language one for Constantine (9) first one for Sons of Musketeers (10) the entire set for 1001 Nights –very bold stuff from you, especially the final one! (10) 2nd one for Song to Remember (11) first one for Naked Prey (12) 1st one for Forever Amber (13) 1st one for Big Combo and (14) the most stunning poster I have ever seen for Bogie’s High Sierra
BEST STILLS (1) Lancelot & Guinevere (2) Constantine (3) Centennial Summer (4) with Kirk (5) with Ginger (6) with Betty Hutton on her own (7) with Chuck and Hutton (8) with my Richard – how young they both looked! (9) Cornel with Bogie and (10) Leave Her to Heave.
Superb nostalgic video with 36 entries giving it plenty of strong content that is well worth 98% rating in my book. You and Bruce agree on 4 of Cornel’s Top 6 best reviewed movies. My own Top 10 fave Wilde films are listed in my 23 Nov 18 post below to Bruce.
Hi Bob, thanks for the review, generous rating, info and comparison, much appeciated. Glad you liked the posters, stills and lobby cards.
Looking at your 10 favorites from your comment below, 8 are on the video, the 2 missing films are Saadia and Operation Secret. I had 40 of his films filed but wanted to streamline the video and 4 films were knocked out.
His lowest scorer on the video ‘Sharks Treasure’ was out too originally but I liked the posters and I wanted to include all 8 of the films he directed.
Looking at the posters Cornel Wilde was first billed on 20 of the 36 films on my video.
There are no 10 out of 10 scores from my sources in Wilde’s filmography, but there is one 9 and it’s for the much-maligned Greatest Show on Earth. Nine films score 8 out of 10 including High Sierra and Leave Her to Heaven.
Leave Her to Heaven tops IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes charts for Wilde, and mine too. Bruce has that film at no.2 with High Sierra tops on the UMR.
Cornel Wilde on Paul Muni – “He was very difficult to work with. He said he didn’t want to hear how I did it, he had no interest in how I portrayed it, he had his own conception of Frédéric Chopin and he told me he’d worked on his role in relation to that conception, and he didn’t care how I played it. And that was the approach to teamwork on that film.”
HI STEVE Thanks for your very useful feedback to my Cornel Wilde post including your billing breakdown and Cornel’s quote about Muni.
Actually before he hit the big screen in 1950 Mr Mumbles co-starred with Paul in the 1946 stage production of A Flag is Born. By all accounts The Great Mumbler idolised Muni and looked up to him in the way that later young actors in turn worshipped at the feet of Ole Mumbles himself. Also in the play with Mr M and Muni was Celia Adler, the half-sister of Stella Adler who founded the famous Actors’ Studio that Brando, Dean, Monroe etc all gravitated round. Also in the cast of A Flag is born was the lovely Rita Gam who was Cornel Wilde’s co-star in Saadia – see below. Rita latter married Sidney Lumet who directed Marlon in 1960’s The Fugitive Kind. [The Dan in me is sure shining through here!]
I was pleased that your video included 8 of the 10 films that I had listed in my 23 Nov 2018 post. The 2 that you didn’t include are among those that especially stick out in my memory for the following reasons.
1/Operation Secret is a war/spy drama in which I will always remember Cornel pronouncing the name of the Russian dictator Stalin as “Staleen”! I saw it on a double bill in 1953 with Stop, You’re Killing Me starring Brodie Crawford and Claire Trevor.
2/I saw Saadia, also in 1953, on a double bill with Take the High Ground starring the Widmark so beloved of Flora and me.
Actually I was half-surprised to see my 23 Nov 18 post still there as I had thought that maybe some prestigious film library or museum would have snapped it up by now as a prized exhibit. Anyway look after yourself.
Cornel was never on the Oracle of Bacon Top 1000 Center of the Hollywood list. These are the few people on the current list who appeared with him.
44 CHRISTOPHER LEE Beyond Mombasa (1956)
206 RIP TORN Beach Red (1967)
307 MICKEY ROONEY The Comic (1969)
321 CHARLTON HESTON The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
439 CARMEN ARGENZIANO Sharks’ Treasure (1975)
464 IAN MCSHANE THE FIFTH MUSKETEER (1979)
747 BEAU BRIDGES The Fifth Musketeer (1979)
816 ANTHONY QUINN Knockout (1941)
816 ANTHONY QUINN The Perfect Snob (1941)
934 SHELLEY WINTERS A Thousand and One Nights (1945)
Who is Carmen Argenziano? He is on the 2000 list also!
The following actors were on the 2000 list but have since fallen off. All appeared with Cornel.
32 KIRK DOUGLAS The Walls of Jericho (1948)
54 STUART WHITMAN Passion (1954)
68 KATHLEEN FREEMAN The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
68 KATHLEEN FREEMAN The Norseman (1978)
77 JOSE FERRER The Fifth Musketeer (1979)
98 HERBERT LOM Star of India (1954)
100 IAN WOLFE A Song to Remember (1945)
100 IAN WOLFE The Bandit of Sherwood Forest (1946)
119 RICHARD WIDMARK Road House (1948)
125 VINCENT PRICE Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
141 ANNE BANCROFT Treasure of the Golden Condor (1953)
147 LLOYD BRIDGES The Fifth Musketeer (1979)
151 CESAR ROMERO Flesh and Bullets (1985)
151 CESAR ROMERO Wintertime (1943)
158 JOSEPH COTTEN Two Flags West (1950)
169 JOHN DEHNER California Conquest (1952)
169 JOHN DEHNER The Scarlet Coat (1955)
180 LEE VAN CLEEF The Big Combo (1955)
192 YVONNE DE CARLO Flesh and Bullets (1985)
192 YVONNE DE CARLO Passion (1954)
194 LAWRENCE TIERNEY The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
219 ELISHA COOK JR. Manila Calling (1942)
221 JOHN CRAWFORD The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
222 BESS FLOWERS It Had to Be You (1947)
222 BESS FLOWERS Lady with Red Hair (1940)
222 BESS FLOWERS The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
222 BESS FLOWERS Wintertime (1943)
232 ROY JENSON Operation Secret (1952)
244 WALTER GOTELL Sword of Lancelot (1963)
248 ARTHUR KENNEDY High Sierra (1941)
248 ARTHUR KENNEDY Knockout (1941)
251 MEL FERRER Saadia (1953)
251 MEL FERRER The Norseman (1978)
271 PETER BROCCO Hot Blood (1956)
271 PETER BROCCO The Comic (1969)
273 GEORGE COULOURIS A Song to Remember (1945)
273 GEORGE COULOURIS No Blade of Grass (1970)
291 LEE GRANT Storm Fear (1955)
299 FRITZ FELD The Comic (1969)
321 LAUREN BACALL Woman’s World (1954/I)
323 GEORGE SANDERS Forever Amber (1947)
323 GEORGE SANDERS The Scarlet Coat (1955)
344 JAMES STEWART The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
354 CYRIL CUSACK Saadia (1953)
359 KARL MALDEN Operation Secret (1952)
379 ANN DORAN The Walls of Jericho (1948)
394 ALDO RAY Flesh and Bullets (1985)
404 JACK ELAM Edge of Eternity (1959)
404 JACK ELAM The Norseman (1978)
406 EDMOND O’BRIEN The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
459 DABBS GREER Edge of Eternity (1959)
459 DABBS GREER The Scarlet Coat (1955)
464 JOHN ALDERSON The Scarlet Coat (1955)
467 VAN JOHNSON The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
499 JESSICA TANDY Forever Amber (1947)
503 RICHARD CONTE The Big Combo (1955)
508 ROBERT BLAKE Treasure of the Golden Condor (1953)
534 BOB HOPE The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
542 PAUL FIX The Devil’s Hairpin (1957)
553 DAN O’HERLIHY At Sword’s Point (1952)
553 DAN O’HERLIHY Operation Secret (1952)
562 PAUL BRYAR Shockproof (1949)
562 PAUL BRYAR Treasure of the Golden Condor (1953)
565 MARNE MAITLAND Saadia (1953)
570 YAPHET KOTTO Sharks’ Treasure (1975)
592 WHIT BISSELL The Big Combo (1955)
617 PAUL FREES The Comic (1969)
617 PAUL FREES The Scarlet Coat (1955)
621 RICHARD JOHNSON Saadia (1953)
682 RAY TEAL Road House (1948)
682 RAY TEAL The Bandit of Sherwood Forest (1946)
688 GRAHAM STARK Sword of Lancelot (1963)
707 DARREN MCGAVIN A Song to Remember (1945)
712 FINLAY CURRIE Treasure of the Golden Condor (1953)
731 JOHN HOYT The Big Combo (1955)
740 GEORGE CHANDLER It Had to Be You (1947)
783 JAMES FLAVIN High Sierra (1941)
783 JAMES FLAVIN Life Begins at Eight-Thirty (1942)
783 JAMES FLAVIN Shockproof (1949)
786 LLOYD NOLAN Exclusive (1937)
786 LLOYD NOLAN Manila Calling (1942)
797 SIMONE SIGNORET Four Days Leave (1950)
806 NINA FOCH A Song to Remember (1945)
806 NINA FOCH A Thousand and One Nights (1945)
816 CARLETON YOUNG Woman’s World (1954)
824 FRANK WILCOX Knockout (1941)
824 FRANK WILCOX Lady with Red Hair (1940)
824 FRANK WILCOX The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
859 MYRON HEALEY It Had to Be You (1947)
863 ALAN HALE JR. At Sword’s Point (1952)
863 ALAN HALE JR. Four Days Leave (1950)
863 ALAN HALE JR. The Fifth Musketeer (1979)
894 PHILIP VAN ZANDT A Thousand and One Nights (1945)
894 PHILIP VAN ZANDT At Sword’s Point (1952)
894 PHILIP VAN ZANDT The Bandit of Sherwood Forest (1946)
894 PHILIP VAN ZANDT The Big Combo (1955)
905 RON RANDELL Beyond Mombasa (1956)
905 RON RANDELL It Had to Be You (1947)
915 IVAN TRIESAULT A Song to Remember (1945)
925 RAYMOND BURR Passion (1954)
932 NIGEL DAVENPORT No Blade of Grass (1970)
962 OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND The Fifth Musketeer (1979)
963 FRANK FERGUSON Shockproof (1949)
963 FRANK FERGUSON The Walls of Jericho (1948)
969 BYRON FOULGER The Scarlet Coat (1955)
975 MAUREEN O’HARA At Sword’s Point (1952)
975 MAUREEN O’HARA The Homestretch (1947)
994 ELLEN CORBY Forever Amber (1947)
Cornel appeared with 26 Oscar winners; all but Olivia De Havilland and Lee Grant have passed on.
ANNE BANCROFT Treasure of the Golden Condor (1953)
ANNE BAXTER The Walls of Jericho (1948)
ANTHONY QUINN Knockout (1941)
ANTHONY QUINN The Perfect Snob (1941)
BING CROSBY The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
CELESTE HOLM Road House (1948)
CHARLTON HESTON The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
DONNA REED Beyond Mombasa (1956)
EDMOND O’BRIEN The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
GEORGE SANDERS Forever Amber (1947)
GEORGE SANDERS The Scarlet Coat (1955)
GINGER ROGERS It Had to Be You (1947)
GLORIA GRAHAME The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
HUMPHREY BOGART High Sierra (1941)
JAMES STEWART The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
JESSICA TANDY Forever Amber (1947)
JOSE FERRER The Fifth Musketeer (1979)
KARL MALDEN Operation Secret (1952)
LEE GRANT Storm Fear (1955)
MARY ASTOR The Devil’s Hairpin (1957)
OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND The Fifth Musketeer (1979)
PAUL MUNI A Song to Remember (1945)
REX HARRISON The Fifth Musketeer (1979)
SHELLEY WINTERS A Thousand and One Nights (1945)
SIMONE SIGNORET Four Days Leave (1950)
TERESA WRIGHT California Conquest (1952)
VAN HEFLIN Woman’s World (1954/I)
WALTER BRENNAN Centennial Summer (1946)
I noticed A Thousand and One Nights on your list. It is not included in the UMR table. I have seen that movie also, so I have seen 10 Cornel Wilde movies.
See…Dan…..people do look at your lists.
Good eye Flora….I did not have box office grosses for that movie….but a quick check at the Harrison Reports….allows me to “neighborhood guess” the gross……so it should be part of the page so.
Hey Dan
1. As always…thanks for the massive lists (though the first one is actually pretty small).
2. Never heard of Carmen Argenziano either…..but a quick check on IMDb shows over 200 credits…including 18 or so since 2017…so he is still going strong….and he is only 75…he might work another decade.
3. Good ole Bess Flowers gets 4 movies on the second list. Surprised Kirk Douglas was highest match….seems many get a match before hitting the 30s.
4. Oscar winning co-star tally seems a little low….but not everybody can be Michael Caine….lol.
Good stuff.
Dan, thanks. good to see shelley winters hanging on , a great actress.
I have seen 9 Cornel Wilde movies including 7 of the top 8.
The HIGHEST rated movie I have seen is The Greatest Show on Earth.
The highest rated show I have NOT seen is Centennial Summer.
The LOWEST rated film I have seen is The Scarlet Coat.
Favourite Cornel Wilde Movies:
Road House – a favourite Richard Widmark film
Leave Her To Heaven
The Greatest Show on Earth
High Sierra
Woman’s World
Lady with the Red Hair
Other Cornel Wilde Movies I’ve Seen:
A Song to Remember
At Sword’s Point
The Scarlet Coat
Hey Flora….thanks for checking out our Cornel Wilde Movie Ranking Page. Tally count…..Bob with at least 10, you with 9, me coming in at 4 and Steve currently sitting in last place with 3. So you have seen 7 of the Top 8……looks like you watched the right ones. I have seen 4 of your Top 6 favorites….only missing Lady with the Red Hair and Road House (yep another classsic Widmark movie that I have not seen yet.). So his Oscar nominated performance in A Song To Remember did not get the movie on your favorites….I find that interesting….maybe his performance was outstanding in an average movie. Good feedback as always.
RE: A Song to Remember – It has been a long time since I have seen this movie and I could not remember it. I went to Letterboxd to check my ranking and I did give it 4 stars out of 5, so I should have included it among my favourites.
Cornel was a another big B movie hero of mine in the 1950s Your table above includes my top 10 faveWilde stand-alone B movies which are-
Operation Secret
At Sword’s Point [aka Sons of the Musketeers]
Saadia
Passion
Treasure of the Golden Condor [remake of Ty Power’s Son of Fury]
The Big Combo
Storm Fear
Scarlet Coat [double bill here with Cagney’s Tribute to a Badman]
Beyond Mombasa
The Devil’s Hairpin.
Your average rating for those 10 movies is 58.8% and the average gross is $40 million approx. Your figures do faithfully reflect limited audiences for, and so-so adult critical approval of, the 10.
However small boys like I was do not think the same way as adults and those movies and their like brought me immense pleasure when I was growing up [if Joel EVER HAD a boyhood we might well have been surprised at what pleased HIM during it!]
Anyway you have rightly identified the pick of the 10 – The Big Combo which you have awarded a healthy 78% rating and indeed made it your 3rd highest reviewed Wilde movie [smart observation] It co-starred as the main villain the excellent Richard Conte whose Barzini Don Corelone shrewdly identified as the covert lead villain in 1972’s Godpop some 17 years later. Interesting Larry/Wilde story.
Once again you have reacquainted me with the movies of a boyhood hero with grosses as icing on the cake so “Voted Up”. Indeed more B movie guys would be most welcome!
Hey Bob. Thanks for the feedback on Mr. Cornel Wilde. I have seen a single movie of your Top 10 B movies that you listed. Of those 10…..At Sword’s Point, The Big Combo and Treasure of the Golden Condor interest me the most. Interesting breakdown of the Wilde stand alone movies…..in best Yoda voice…. “awesome they not are those stats”.
Speaking of Joel…I actually thought Joel had done a breakdown on Wilde….turns he had not. Good mention of Richard Conte. Glad this page let you recapture some of those boyhood memories. Good stuff as always.
HI BRUCE
Thanks for the feedback.
The Big Combo and 1953,s Treasure of Golden Condor would be a good pair to check out if you can. The latter is technically inferior to Ty Power’s original version, 1942’s Son of Fury and certainly entertaining fellow though he was Cornel didn’t have Ty’s star power [no pun intended!] but I actually still preferred the Wilde remake and for some reason that escapes me I never liked the 1942 movie, and I was a BIG fan of Tyrone in the 1950s.
As usual with all brave men I stand alone – IMDB gives Son of Fury 71% and Golden Condor 63% and your scores are respectively 67% and 58%.
RELATED TRIVIA Son of Fury was Frances Farmer’s last credited movie before her series of arrests and confinement to a mental institution. She played the “bitch” of the movie, contrasting with good girl Gene Tierney. Their roles in the remake were taken respectively by Anne “Robinson” Bancroft [listed in your co-stars link column though the part was a supporting one] and Constance Smith as the lead heroine. I preferred Constance to Gene – naturally as Miss Smith was born in Limerick Ireland!
You seem to regret the fact that Joel didn’t get to appraise Cornel but I think you expect too much – even the Spanish Inquisition couldn’t round up EVERYBODY!
Hey Bob….thanks for the re-visit on Cornel’s movies. Standing alone is a good thing…sometimes…lol. Good trivia on Farmer and Son of Fury. One day Francis will get an UMR page. As for Joel…I just have high expectations for him….so I always assume he did a breakdown on new UMR subjects….lol.
A worthy subject Bruce. (Bruce grumbles “all my subjects are worthy”) I will be doing a video on Cornel Wilde early in the new year.
Looking at the chart… just 3 films that I know for sure I’ve seen. Whoa! I expected more. They are – High Sierra, Leave Her to Heaven and The Greatest Show on Earth.
Interesting trivia, especially about DeMille’s circus epic, he should have picked Burt Lancaster, who was a real circus acrobat, not someone who’s afraid of heights.
Wilde was popular in his time, $3.6bn total in adjusted dollars is impressive.
Good stuff Bruce. Vote Up!
Hey Steve
1. Thanks for checking out, commenting, providing kind words and your tally count.
2. Only 3?….I am shocked….I thought you were going to destroy my total of….drumroll…..4 Cornel Wilde movies seen.
3. The 4 I have seen….three match your 3 (High Sierra, Leave Her to Heaven and The Greatest Show on Earth) and Woman’s World (a movie I really really enjoyed).
4. I might have seen The Norseman….I was a huge Lee Majors fan back then….thank you The Six Million Dollar Man…..and it seems that would have been a perfect movie for HBO to show when I was watching HBO all the time in the early 1980s….I just can’t remember any details on that movie….but seeing how low it is ranked…..thinking…it was such a clunker….that my brain has wiped that memory completely…..lol.
5. I kept seeing his “fencing” mentioned every where I looked while “researching” this page….so felt I had to include it. So the return of the trivia section for this page. Burt, Chuck and Jimmy all in The Greatest Show On Earth…..sounds like an even bigger movie.
6. For some reason….I have always gotten Victor Mature and Cornel Wilde mixed up in my mind….probably because I have not seen many of either of their movies.
Good feedback.
cogerson, I met Lee Majors. my grandfather was the football team doctor in richmond ,ky.
where Lee played football for eastern Kentucky. my family legend says that when Lee auditioned for television his voice was too high. my grandfather funded the voice lessons to lower his voice 2 octaves and enabled his casting in the big valley and subsequent 6 million dollar man. I met him on my grandfathers boat , I was probably between 8 and 10 years old. over 50 years ago.