Want to know the best Dick Powell movies? How about the worst Dick Powell movies? Curious about Dick Powell box office grosses or which Dick Powell movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Dick Powell movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
Dick Powell (1904-1963) was a singer, actor, producer and director. Powell’s career is pretty impressive as he successful went from a singer…..to successful supporting character (early 1930s)….to a successful leading man in comedies, dramas and thrillers (1935-1954). In the 1950s he became a successful producer and film director. His IMDB page shows 72 acting and 6 directing credits from 1932-1963. This page will rank 61 Dick Powell movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Shorts, documentaries and television performances were not included in the rankings.
Drivel part: Well…we thought this page was at the request of TCM’s Top Billed. Top Billed has been working on a weekly January blog that looks at select classic performers. Turns out we wrote down the wrong performer…as he had not requested a Dick Powell page. We blame the movie…..The King’s Vacation….I had that movie written down in my notes…..and we picked the wrong star of that movie. Well since I did all the research on Mr. Powell…we figured we should go ahead and share the information. Not sure if I can get a George Arliss page done before the end of the week.
Dick Powell 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 Dick Powell movies by co-stars of his movies
- Sort Dick Powell movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Dick Powell movies by adjusted worldwide box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions) *** If worldwide and domestic totals are equal then worldwide grosses are unknown
- Sort Dick Powell 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 Dick Powell movie received.
- Sort Dick Powell movies by Ultimate Movie Ranking (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 Dick Powell Table
- Twenty-two Dick Powell movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 36.07% of his movies listed. Star Spangled Rhythm (1942) was his biggest box office hit.
- An average Dick Powell movie grosses $90.70 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 30 Dick Powell movies are rated as good movies…or 49.18% of his movies. The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) is his highest rated movie while The Conqueror (1956) is lowest rated movie.
- Thirteen Dick Powell movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 21.31% of his movies.
- Four Dick Powell movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 6.55% of his movies.
- An average Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score is 39.86. 37 Dick Powell movies scored higher that average….or 60.65% of his movies. Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) got the the highest UMR Score while Riding High (1943) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Dick Powell
1. Richard Ewing Powell was born in Mountain View, Arkansas in 1903.
2. In 1932, Warner Brothers signed Dick Powell to a movie contract after seeing Powell perform as the Master of Ceremonies at the Enright Theater and the Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh, PA.
3. Dick Powell spent most of the 1930s playing boyish crooners in many successful Warner Brothers musicals. His frustration with the never changing roles resulted in Powell buying his way of his contract in 1940.
4. Dick Powell was the first actor to play the famous fictional detective Phillip Marlowe. He played Marlowe in 1944’s Murder, My Sweet.
5. Dick Powell was never nominated for an Oscar® or a Golden Globe®….but he does have 3 stars on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.
6. Dick Powell was married 3 times and had 4 children. His second marriage was to frequent co-star Joan Blondell. His finally marriage was to actress June Allyson.
7. Dick Powell’s daughter, Ellen Powell, has 22 IMDb credits in the makeup department. She worked on 1998’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and 2003’s Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. His son, Dick Powell Jr., played his father in 1975’s The Day of the Locust.
8. Dick Powell’s adjusted career domestic box total is $5.53 billion.
9. Dick Powell is one of many members of the cast and crew of 1956’s Conqueror that eventually died of a type of cancer. The Conqueror is sometimes called “An RKO Radioactive Picture.” It was filmed near a nuclear test site, and the set was contaminated by nuclear fallout. After location shooting, contaminated soil was transported back to Hollywood in order to match interior shooting done there. Over the next 20 years, many actors (John Wayne) and crew members developed cancer.
10. Check out Dick Powell‘s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
If you do a comment….please ignore the email address and website section.
1. STEVE My favourites among Powell’s later films were Cornered, To the Ends of the Earth, Pitfall, Bad and the Beautiful and especially Cry Danger. Dick turned to direction in the 1950s and directed 5 movies 3 of which I found quite competent – Split Second and his two with Mitchum, The Hunters and The Enemy Below. Dick also directed one TV movie in 1959, Woman on the Run starring my Joan surprisingly billed 2nd to Charles Bickford. IMDB gives it a meagre 20% rating. Dick also produced films but I never knew that until I read the excellent Facts passages on his Cogerson page.
2 The best posters for me involving Powell the actor were Johnny O’Clock, Station West, Pitfall, Murder my Sweet, Gold Diggers of 1935 and Gold Diggers of 1937. I thought that the posters for the 3 directorial films that I have mentioned were also excellent.
3 Good STILLS were the hoofer trio in Dames [sexy poster!] with Kay Francis in Wonder Bar, and the ensemble one from 42nd Street. However my very favourite still was the coloured one for Christmas in July which combines its photography with wording which gives the names of the movie and its stars – beautiful! You and Bruce agree on all 5 of Powell’s Top 5 but I support him in making Bad and Beautiful No 1 whereas it’s your 5th. Your video covered very adequately Powell’s two different acting careers and his directorial outings and had a witty opening quote so a pleasing 95% rating is well deserved.
4 Your poster for Abbott & Costello In the Navy illustrates the compromise billing that used to be arranged when stars from outside a film series “guested” with the stars of the series. As this was an A & C movie they naturally got 1st billing but whilst surnames were the same size Powell’s first name was in bigger letters than theirs. I also saw that compromise in a poster of yours for one of The Thin Woman movies whereby Bill Powell was mentioned first but Loy’s Christian name was in bigger lettering than Bill’s with surnames the same size. [Don’t tell WH!]
Hi Bob, thanks for the review, rating, observation, comparison, comment, trivia and billing info!
Happy you enjoyed the posters and stills.
Looking at my files, only two of Dick Powell’s films recieved 10 out of 10 from my sources – 42nd Street and Murder My Sweet. There is less than one point between the top 5 anyway so it was a close run thing.
From a historical standpoint only one film here really stands out and that is 42nd Street, hugely influential and it’s success made musicals a major draw at the box office for decades to come, until the late 60s at least.
Let’s segue to that other famous ‘Powell’ – an interesting observation about Myrna Loy billing on the Thin Man series, I’ve had a look at some posters and you’re right – her name is in block capitals on a couple of posters while only William Powell’s last name is capitalised. My theory is that his name was longer than Myrna’s and they tried to make her name stand out more? I dunno.
HI STEVE
(1) Nice to see Murder my Sweet get some 10/10 recognition. I think it was my favourite Philip Marlowe film though others prefer Bogie’s Big Sleep. Anyway I was relieved to see that John hasn’t – yet! – started another row about which came first Murder my Sweet or Farewell my Lovely. If I recall correctly he kept that nitpicking going quite a while.
(2) On a Sunday afternoon I used to listen to a request programme that regularly had Ruby Keeler singing about “Sexy ladies do something shady in naughty, bawdy 42nd Street” and I often wondered if it was a pre-Code movie or if that recording wasn’t in the original print of the film at least without a bit of editing..
(3) You could be onto something about the larger lettering in the Christian name being a device to make Loy “stand out more” MGM were probably at their wit’s end about how to make people notice Loy as it is likely audiences were focusing more on Bill and little Asta.
Still I am claiming a highly original post in that it highlighted for once Crawford getting 2nd billed whilst part of Loy’s billing was elevated for whatever reason. In fact my 4 brothers, all film buffs too, used to nickname Myrna “Miss 2nd billing”
It’s also worth observing how foreign posters of American films sometimes alter the billing, for instance on the US poster for Invisible Stripes (1939) George Raft is billed first and Bogart is 4th billed but the Italian poster of the film has Bogart 1st billed above Raft. Presumably the film was finally released in Europe after The Maltese Falcon made Bogie a star.
Hello Bruce.
I actually check out your UMR page several times a week though I don’t often comment. Your website is my favorite one to visit. I enjoy nearly every page in your website that I’ve checked out. I have gotten more box office information from your site than any other. I also enjoy reading other film fan’s comments. I love movies more than just about anything. I just checked out your 2016 Hall of Fame page and I thank you for including me. I feel honored. Thank You.
Hey Lyle….very cool….in my house we call that “Theory of Repetition”…you mention a singer…and then the next song on the radio is by that singer…..you mention a friend’s name…and then you run into them in a store. Well…Theory of Repetition was in over drive….I mention you….and then the next time I got on the computer….there was your comment.
Glad you have gotten so much use out of this website….and glad is among your favorites to visit.
Your Hall of Fame induction was well deserved….as we have greatly appreciated your comments, suggestions and visits.
Stein….another inductee….as started signing his comments…SteinHOF….which is how Hall of Famers sign their name after getting that honor….it cracks me up everytime I see it…..lol.
Hello Bruce.
Thanks for the great page on Dick Powell. I like all the Busby Berkeley musicals he did but my favorite roles of Dick Powell are Murder My Sweet (1944) and The Bad and the Beautiful (1952). Now that you’ve done such a good job on a Dick Powell page it would be nice to see a page on one of his co-stars and also one of his wives, the great Joan Blondell. Thanks again Bruce.
Hey Lyle…..believe it or not but my wife and I were just talking about you….I was thinking out loud that it had been awhile since you had commented….and that I was not sure you knew you made it into our Hall of Fame of commenters (our 2016 year in review page)…..and then tonight up pops a comment from you.
I liked The Bad and the Beautiful as well…..though I am ashamed that I have not seen Murder, My Sweet….lol. I plan on watching that one in the near future. You know I thought the same thing when I kept seeing Joan Blondell’s name showing up as Powell’s co-star. I think there are 8 or 9 of her movies here. I actually did not know they were married until I wrote this page.
Thanks for the comment and the visit.
Dick Powell never made the Oracle of Bacon top 1000 Center of the Hollywood Universe list. There are 5 people on the current list who appeared in a film with him, unfortunately they all have passed on.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935) – 245 Mickey Rooney
Cry Danger (1951) – 966 Kathleen Freeman
The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) – 966 Kathleen Freeman
The Reformer and the Redhead (1950) – 912 Arthur Tovey, 966 Kathleen Freeman
The Tall Target (1951) – 937 Robert Easton
The following people on the original list in 2000 appeared with him but have since fallen off the list. Rank is for 2000.
42nd Street (1933) – 571 Charles Lane
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935) – 280 Billy Barty, 962 Olivia De Havilland
Blessed Event (1932) – 571 Charles Lane, 740 George Chandler
Broadway Gondolier (1935) – 740 George Chandler
College Coach (1933) – 179 John Wayne
Cornered (1945) – 969 Byron Foulger, 994 Ellen Corby
Dames (1934) – 222 Bess Flowers
Flirtation Walk (1934) – 542 Paul Fix
Footlight Parade (1933) – 280 Billy Barty, 740 George Chandler
Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) – 280 Billy Barty, 571 Charles Lane
Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935) – 832 Don Brodie
Happiness Ahead (1934) – 740 George Chandler
Happy Go Lucky (1943) – 222 Bess Flowers
Hard to Get (1938) – 962 Olivia De Havilland
Hollywood Hotel (1937) – 299 Fritz Feld
It Happened Tomorrow (1944) – 222 Bess Flowers, 740 George Chandler
Johnny O’Clock (1947) – 301 Lee J. Cobb, 356 Phil Brown, 806 Nina Foch
Just Around the Corner (1933) – 918 Bette Davis
Meet the People (1944) – 508 Robert Blake, 859 Myron Healey
Model Wife (1941) – 740 George Chandler
Mrs. Mike (1949) – 585 Hamilton Camp
Murder, My Sweet (1944) – 146 Mike Mazurki
On the Avenue (1937) – 222 Bess Flowers, 506 Douglas Fowley
Page Miss Glory (1935) – 81 Lionel Stander, 832 Don Brodie
Pitfall (1948) – 379 Ann Doran, 925 Raymond Burr
Riding High (1943) – 506 Douglas Fowley, 783 James Flavin
Right Cross (1950) – 221 John Crawford, 296 Kenneth Tobey, 742 Ricardo Montalban, 963 Frank Ferguson
Rogues’ Regiment (1948) – 125 Vincent Price, 420 Maurice Marsac, 562 Paul Bryar, 599 John Doucette, 767 Philip Ahn
Shipmates Forever (1935) – 222 Bess Flowers, 783 James Flavin
Stage Struck (1936) – 222 Bess Flowers
Star Spangled Rhythm (1942) – 118 Woody Strode, 187 Ray Milland, 534 Bob Hope
Station West (1948) – 599 John Doucette, 925 Raymond Burr
Susan Slept Here (1954) – 657 Debbie Reynolds, 746 Herb Vigran, 994 Ellen Corby
The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) – 32 Kirk Douglas, 222 Bess Flowers, 310 Steve Forrest, 362 Barry Sullivan, 384 Gilbert Roland, 395 Walter Pidgeon, 459 Dabbs Greer, 583 Paul Stewart, 915 Ivan Triesault
The Tall Target (1951) – 271 Peter Brocco
To the Ends of the Earth (1948) – 222 Bess Flowers, 731 John Hoyt, 915 Ivan Triesault
True to Life (1943) – 192 Yvonne De Carlo, 379 Ann Doran
Twenty Million Sweethearts (1934) – 571 Charles Lane, 740 George Chandler
You Never Can Tell (1951) – 562 Paul Bryar
Dick appeared by my count with 18 Oscar winners.
42nd Street (1933) – Warner Baxter, Ginger Rogers
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935) – James Cagney, Olivia De Havilland
Big City Blues (1932) – Humphrey Bogart
College Coach (1933) – John Wayne
Convention City (1933) – Mary Astor
Footlight Parade (1933) – James Cagney
Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) – Jane Wyman
Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935) – Alice Brady, Walter Brennan
Gold Diggers 0f 1937 (1936) – Jane Wyman
Happiness Ahead (1934) – Jane Darwell
Hard to Get (1938) – Olivia De Havilland
Hollywood Hotel (1937) – Susan Hayward
Just Around the Corner (1933) – Bette Davis
Page Miss Glory (1935) – Mary Astor
Right Cross (1950) – Lionel Barrymore
Stage Struck (1936) – Jane Wyman
Star Spangled Rhythm (1942) – Ray Milland, Bing Crosby, Susan Hayward
The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) – Gloria Grahame
The King’s Vacation (1933) – George Arliss
The Singing Marine (1937) – Jane Darwell, Jane Wyman
Twenty Million Sweethearts (1934) – Ginger Rogers
Wonder Bar (1934) – Jane Darwell
In 1952 Dick along with David Niven, Charles Boyer and Joel McCrea started 4 Star Television which put 4 Star Playhouse on TV. McCrea left before the action started, replaced By Ida Lupino. The studio would produce a number of television series over the next 15 years or so.
Besides 4 Star Playhouse and Powell’s Zane Grey Theater other notable series they had included Richard Diamond Private Detective, Wanted: Dead or Alive, The Rifleman, The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor, Burke’s Law and it’s spinoff Honey West, The Big Valley and the first Smothers Brothers Show (1 season comedy series 1965-66 season). Dick Powell died a very rich man.
Hey Dan….thanks for the information on Dick Powell.
1. There goes Mr. Rooney….I imagine he is on many people’s…..and not just extras….seems whenever you share this information…he is listed about 75% of the time.
2. As for the second list….you got the big (John Wayne) and the small (Billy Barty) listed….not to mention so many other big stars like Douglas, Reynolds, Price and de Havilland…the rest are pretty much unknown to me….other than you having listed them before on other pages.
3. I would say his 18 Oscar winners is below average for a star with 61 movies….and that he spent so decent amount of time at all the studios.
4. His television work was pretty impressive….he seemed to have a great ability to adapt to the rapidily changing entertainment world.
Good comment as always 🙂
Cogerson
Dick Powell appeared in three color movies. There were the musicals Happy Go Lucky & Riding High in 1943, and his last theatrical acting appearance, Susan Slept Here in 1954.
Interestingly, Powell was from Arkansas and was at home in westerns as he later proved as the host of The Zane Grey theatre on American TV. Yet he made only one western movie that I am aware of, the solid Station West in 1948. Having known him first from the Zane Grey theatre, I was naturally surprised to later see him in his forties noirs and even more surprised to see his smiling Jim, sappy crooner, turns in the 1930’s.
Hey John…thanks for the color/black and white information. I think he almost directed as many color movies as he starred in. I think his transition from boy comic relief to Phillip Marlowe tough guy is one of the best ever. Good comment.