Want to know the best Glenn Ford movies? How about the worst Glenn Ford movies? Curious about Glenn Ford’s box office grosses or which Glenn Ford movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Glenn Ford 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.
One of our first requested pages (5 years and 2 website homes ago) was for Glenn Ford (1916-2006). So why the delay? The main reason is that we generally stay away from Columbia Pictures performers. The reason for this reluctance, is the fact that it is almost impossible to find box office numbers for Columbia Pictures movies from 1930 to 1980. Getting box office numbers is one of the most important factors in our rankings. Recently we got another request for Ford. A deeper look into Ford’s career showed that many of his movies made Variety’s Top Grossing yearly movie charts. So Søren, Flora, William, Hinton66 and Tom….finally here is your requested page.
Glenn Ford (1916-2006) was a Canadian-born American Golden Globe® winning actor. Ford’s acting career covered 7 decades…from the 1930s to the 1990s. His IMDb page shows 110 acting credits from 1937-1991. This page ranks Glenn Ford movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, and movies not released in North America were not included in the rankings.
Glenn Ford Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Glenn Ford 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 Glenn Ford movies by co-stars of his movies.
- Sort Glenn Ford movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Glenn Ford movies by domestic yearly box office rank or by trivia for that movie
- Sort Glenn Ford 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 Glenn Ford movie received and how many Oscar® wins each Glenn Ford movie won.
- Sort Glenn Ford 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.
- Use the search and sort button to make this page very interactive.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Glenn Ford
1. Gwyllyn Samuel Newton Ford was born in Quebec, Canada in 1916. Ford was related to U.S. President Martin Van Buren.
2. Glenn Ford’s path to stardom: 1. After graduating high school started working in small theater groups. 2. Was taught horsemanship by Will Rogers. 3. Performed with West Coast stage companies. 4. Signed a movie contract with Columbia. 5. After some weak B movies hit a homerun with 1941’s So Ends Our Night. 6. After serving in the Marines during World War 2 he returned to movies. 7. In 1946, Ford appeared in one of his most famous roles, Gilda. Ford was a star the rest of his life.
3. Gummo Marx helped get Glenn Ford his first Columbia movie contract. Gummo was the 2nd youngest Marx Brother.
4. Glenn Ford was never nominated for an Academy Award®. For more on this please visit our Classic Actors Who Got Hosed By The Academy page.
5. Glenn Ford did get nominated for 3 Golden Globe® awards. He received nominations for 1956’s The Teahouse of the August Moon and 1957’s Don’t Go Near The Water. He won the Golden Globe® Best Actor for 1961’s A Pocketful of Miracles.
6. Glenn Ford was married 4 times. His first marriage to singer, dancer, actress Eleanor Powell was from 1943 to 1959. They had one child….Peter Ford who became an actor and writer.
7. Glenn Ford is credited with being the fastest “gun” in Hollywood westerns, able to draw and fire in 0.4 seconds.
8. Glenn Ford was among Hollywood’s Top 10 box office stars 3 times: He ranked 5th in 1956, 1st in 1958, and 6th in 1959.
9. Glenn Ford appeared in 5 movies with Rita Hayworth: The Lady in Question (1940), Affair in Trinidad (1952), The Loves of Carmen (1948), The Money Trap (1965) and of course Gilda (1946). The Ford/Hayworth team is one of the greatest in movie history.
10. Check out Glenn Ford‘s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
Finally: Just want to take a minute to acknowledge a very awesome book on Glenn Ford. Glenn Ford A Life by Peter Ford is a fascinating read. Book offers a look at both Ford’s screen life and his off screen personal life. If you like Glenn Ford then you have to check out this book. Glenn Ford A Life.
Steve’s Glenn Ford Updated You Tube Video
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences. Golden Globe® is a registered trademark of the Hollywood Foreign Press.
For comments….all you need is a name and a comment….please ignore the rest.
I finally got to see Fate Is the Hunter. It aired on Silver Screen Classics on Friday and I watched it last night. It is a taut investigative drama and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Hey Flora….you are on a roll….knocking off one of your “Widmarks” and now another “Ford”. Glad you enjoyed Fate Is The Hunter. Hope your roll continues.
My Top 12 favourite Glenn Ford films are in no particular order:
The Courtship of Eddie’s Father
Blackboard Jungle
Rough Company [aka The Violent Men]
Jubal
3.10 to Yuma
The White Tower
The Big Heat
The Teahouse of the August Moon
The Sheepman
The Fastest Gun Alive
Trial
Ransom
NOTES
1/ I agree with most people whose opinions I know that Teahouse [1956] was not a great film and I have not watched it too many times myself. However it will always retain a soft spot in my affections because it teamed two of my greatest idols from the 50s, Ford/Brando, and they had many scenes together in that movie. Also surprisingly The Work Horse gives it a 70% rating and 1950s lead Brit film critic Margaret Hinxman award it 4 stars and a special seal of merit, her highest rating for a movie and given only to exceptional ones in her opinion.
2/Much later they were together again in Superman 1978 but shared no scenes and had only supporting roles. However whether intentional or not I thought it was a nice touch to reunite that old firm by making Marlon Supe’s Krypton father and Glenn the earthly father of The Man of Steel.
Bruce, Bob, Flora, thanks for checking out my old Cat Celebs page at Hubpages. I was going to do a Dogs and Celebs page but never got round to it.
Adding Steve’s updated Glenn Ford You Tube Video.
“Almost like a mini-movie of Glenn Ford…pretty sweet. I will make sure to share this video with Glenn’s son Peter….who I have communicated with a few times over the years. So I have seen 14 of the 50…..my total after writing our Glenn page was single digits…..so that and the influence of Flora has my tally growing. Favorites include #1 3:10 To Yuma….both versions are stellar #3 The Big Heat, #5 The Blackboard Jungle and #9 Jubal….which I only recently watched. #19 Midway is a movie I have been thinking about re-watching…what a cast. Another fine updated. Voted up and included on our Glenn page.”
Hi Bruce, your tally of 14 beats my 13, Flora is way ahead with 42 movies seen! We have similar favorites and of course Superman, the film that started the ball rolling and comic book movies are still incredibly popular today. Will people ever get bored of them? Probably. Thanks for the comment, vote and share, much appreciated.
Does Peter know Bob has been calling his dad “Charley Bill” for decades? 😉
POSTERS 1-25. Best for me are Man from the Alamo, foreign language one for Undercover Man, a truly magnificent one for Cowboy, the foreign language one for Human Desire, the brilliant 1st one for The Violent Men Experiment in Terror, very original ones for The Sheepman, the 1st one for Teahouse of the August Moon, the 1st one for Jubal [which I gather was a western reworking of Shakespeare’s Othello with Borgnine in the Othello part and Charley Bill (CB) as Cassio- ie Jubal Troop] the very underrated Dear Heart and The Big Heat. However I have to single out for extra special praise (i) 3.10 to Yuma’s poster as it is the most stunningly original one that I personally have ever seen for that movie, (ii) the two great, and again highly original , ones for the 1962 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
The latter movie along with 1960’s Cimarron ended CB’s days as a very top star. According to Wiki MGM suffered a combined loss of 80 million in 2018 dollars from those two films which wiped out a substantial part of the profits from the 12 MGM movies that CB made in his heyday years between 1955-1959. Some movie historians today are kinder to the artistic qualities of CB’s 4 Horsemen but still don’t regard it as a classic
My pick of STILLS are CB with Gloria in Human Desire, the lobby card for Courtship of Eddie’s Father, CB with Shirley in The Sheepman, with Mr Mumbles in a nice coloured one from Teahouse, in Fastest Gun Alive [the colour here is nice too but the actual film was in black and white] CB with Rita as the fabled Gilda, CBas Pa Kent in Superman 1978 and with Chill Wills in Man from the Alamo. I recall queuing up for a long time to see that one back in 1953. It was great to see the old Teahouse firm back together again In Superman 1978 after 22 years though overall the intervening years had been kinder to Mr Mumbles than to CB as in Superman the former is billed above the title and CB below it and among the also-rans. Ah well! – I suppose ALL of my idols can’t ALWAYS come out top after so many years.
I have no need to tell you how much I welcomed your CB video and anyway an overall rating of 98.5% speaks for itself. You and The Work Horse agree on 4 of the Top 5 critically acclaimed CB movies. Surprisingly WH leaves out of his 5 Blackboard Jungle – what a contrary guy!
Bob, thanks for the generous rating, review, info, trivia and comparison, always appreciated. Happy you liked the posters, stills and lobby cards.
Didn’t know Jubal was a take on Othello, interesting. Have to watch it again.
I’m looking at that second Yuma poster and it reminds me of the old Levi adverts in magazines. I wonder if that was the intention? Complete with B/W photo and the white title in a red box. What do you think?
Bruce includes Superman II on his Glenn Ford chart, from what I remember Ford only appears for a few seconds during flashback scenes in the opening credits.
Three Glenn Ford movies scored 10 out of 10 from my sources – Gilda, Superman and Yuma. Three more scored 9 – Teahouse, Big Heat and Blackboard Jungle.
Top rated at IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes is The Big Heat. Bruce has Superman at no.1 with Big Heat second, and I have Yuma at the top with Supes at no.2.
Glenn Ford on the Bard of Avon – “Americans playing Shakespeare are really ridiculous.” (shhh don’t let Mumbles hear you)
“If they tried to rush me, I’d always say I’ve only got one other speed, and it’s slower.”
“The Western is a man’s world and I love it.”
(20 of the 50 films in the video are westerns)
HI STEVE
Thanks for feedback and additional information and quotes.
HI STEVE
Had I realized that my using aliases/nicknames was annoying you I would have stopped the practice long ago. The only one that I really want to annoy on this site is of course The Work Horse!
I suppose my compulsion to use the aliases stems from your own motive for not immediately identifying the actors/actresses in your stills – you hope that other viewers will have a bit of fun in working out who they are. I saw a photo of William Powell the other night in which he was very young and hadn’t yet grown his signature moustache and even little Asta wouldn’t have know who he was!
It should not be difficult in most cases to ID the person that I’m writing about when I use that person’s nickname . For example most movie buffs know who The Duke is, with even Frasier’s Dad in the TV sitcom referring to Big John by that nickname.
Even if a viewer is unfamiliar with the reincarnation background stories the composition of my posts on your Glenn Ford video should enable it to quickly dawn on a viewer that Glenn and Charley Bill are one and the same.
Googling Sir Maurice Micklewhite will immediately tell the viewer that he is Sir Michael Caine. As for Mr Mumbles, if your take on the quality of his diction is correct the whole world would probably have little trouble in guessing who HE is!
So when for example in my comments I make a sequence of statements such as “Charley Bill nearly walked off the set of Affair in Trinidad because he felt Rita’s part was being built up at the expense of his,” the film buff will I’m confident soon be able to put 2 and 2 together. Conversely very young people whether film fans or not would often not have a clue about whom I was talking even if I referred to Glenn Ford. Remember as I’ve said before 50% of university students surveyed didn’t know who Clark Gable was – and that was 25 years ago!
Anyway have a good weekend. I look forward to your next presentation.
Hi Bob, I’d gotten used to all your nicknames and aliases, I was just thinking of other people who might innocently peek at our scribblings and wonder who we were talking about.
Ironically I might have been the one that started you off with the nicknames when I casually referred to Brando as Mr. Mumbles a couple of years ago. You seemed to like that nickname. 🙂
I’ve just uploaded an ‘epic’ expanded video on another of your favorites.
As you will appreciate Charley Bill Stuart [henceforth referred to as CB] is one of those idols whom I have carried over from my very early days as a moviegoer in my youth. In the Belfast of the 1950s CB’s appeal seemed contagious because not only was he one of those performers who appeared to have a wider following inside Northern Ireland movie houses than even his massive worldwide popularity suggested but his name was regularly on the lips of many friends and acquaintances of mine.
For example one work colleague was completely obsessed with him and at the drop of a hat could spout the current position regarding CB’s latest and forthcoming movie output and the current CB trivia doing the rounds. The only other movie stars that I can recall who had the disproportionate box office clout of CB in the Belfast of the 1950s were possibly The Duke, Burt Lancaster, Jeff Chandler and my Doris. [“Myrna Who?” the Work Horse would have been challenged to explain!]
VIDEO ENTRIES 50-26 Best POSTERS in my book. A Time for Killing [aka The Long Ride Home and featuring the first CREDITED role of Harrison J Ford], Don’t go Near the Water, The Americano, The Last Challenge [aka Pistolero of Red River] The Desperadoes, teaming Glenn with Randy [though I couldn’t spot the latter’s name on the 2nd of your posters for that movie] foreign language one for Lust for Gold, Cimarron [a box office flop which helped end CB’s top star days] both ones for Secret of Convict Lake, foreign language one for Loves of Carmen, the saucy one for The Rounders, and with Hayworth in Affair in Trinidad. Reportedly CB threatened to walk out in the latter as he thought they were building up Rita’s part too much at the expense of his.
Superb STILLS in Part One for me are – CB with canine friend, lobby card of CB with the lovely Stella, the young CB ready to draw, the two Bills –CB with William Franklin Beedle Jr in The Man from Colorado, and CB relaxing on the set of Convicted with the young and beautiful Dottie Malone
To be continued———
Bob, thanks for reviewing the first half of my Glenn Ford bigger and better video, it is appreciated. Glad the various pictorials were pleasing.
For the uninitiated the ‘Charley Bill’ Bob is referring to in his post is an obscure nickname for Hollywood great Glenn Ford. Bob doesn’t like to use actors well known names if he can get away with it. 😉
I was wondering if that was Glenn’s pet dog in the opening still, I’ve seen other pictures of him with dogs. I’m a cat person myself and at hubpages years ago I created a photo page of celebrities with their cats. James Mason, Olivier, Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, Brando and James Dean among them. I’ll post a link in a separate post if you want to have a look at famous cat people.
A link to my Celebrities with Cats page at Hubpages –
https://hubpages.com/entertainment/Cats-and-Celebs-A-Gallery
Well that is a blast from the past…..commented on that “puppy” 6 years ago……where does the time go?
HI STEVE
Interesting your cat link. That collection goes back some way as many of the celebs were very young in it.
I am a great cat person myself and Bardot is of course a great animal lover and in fact runs an animal sanctuary
Anyway thanks for sharing these remarkable photos with us other viewers.
Thanks for the link to your Celebrity with Cats page. Like Bruce, I commented on that hub six years ago. It was great looking at all the adorable cats with stars again. It was a great mix of classic and current stars.