Want to know the best Humphrey Bogart movies? How about the worst Humphrey Bogart movies? Curious about Humphrey Bogart ’s box office grosses or which Humphrey Bogart movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Humphrey Bogart 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.
Did you know that the American Film Institute ranked Humphrey Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema? Bogart however did not find an easy road to the title of greatest male star ever. After trying numerous jobs including playing chess for money he turned to acting in 1921. He found regular work on Broadway through the rest of the 1920s. When the Great Depression reduced the demand for plays, he turned his attention to movies. His first full length film was 1930’s Up the River which was directed by a very young John Ford and co-starred Spencer Tracy (also his first film). His first movie contract with Fox Films was terminated when they concluded he was not star material. Shortly there after he signed with Warner Brothers. Warner Brothers gave Bogart plenty of work from 1936 to 1940.
He appeared in twenty movies in that time frame, almost all the movies were low budget B movies. He did manage to get strong notices from two of the movies made during this time….1936’s The Petrified Forest and 1937’s Dead End. So by the end of the 1930s, Bogart either appeared as the one of stars in horrible low budget film, or as the 3rd or 4th lead in a higher budgeted movie. In the higher budgeted movies he would usually get the cowardly bad guy role and many times killed by James Cagney.
Two films in 1941 changed everything for Bogart. High Sierra was a surprise hit, it did very well at the box office and critics loved the movie and proved Bogart could carry a film. Later that year The Maltese Falcon was released to even bigger box office and an Oscar® nomination for Best Picture. After the success of those two films, Bogart found himself in better movies. In 1942 he made his greatest film, Casablanca. Bogart’s role of Rick in Casablanca would cement his trademark film persona, that of the hard-boiled cynic who ultimately shows his noble side. Bogart would appear in 29 more movies from 1943 to 1956, all of which were big budget and he was always the star. Some of his greatest success during this time would include 1944’s To Have and Have Not (his first film with 4th wife Lauren Bacall), 1951’s African Queen (won Oscar® for this movie), 1954’s The Caine Mutiny (his biggest box office hit) and 1956’s The Harder They Fall (his final movie). Humphrey Bogart passed away in early 1957 after a battle with cancer. John Huston’s eulogy says it all… “He is quite irreplaceable. There will never be another like him.”
His IMDb page shows 85 acting credits from 1928-1956. This page will rank Humphrey Bogart movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television appearances, shorts, cameos and uncredited movies that were included in the rankings.
Humphrey Bogart Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Humphrey Bogart 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 Humphrey Bogart movies by co-stars of his movies
- Sort Humphrey Bogart movies by actual domestic box office grosses
- Sort Humphrey Bogart movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost
- Sort Humphrey Bogart 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 Humphrey Bogart movie received.
- Sort Humphrey Bogart 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.
Humphrey Bogart Adjusted World Wide Box Office Grosses
Let’s take a quick moment to look at two of Bogart’s worst movies. Don’t worry you Bogart fans he thought these two movies were horrible too.
1937’s Swing That Lady: Bogart plays a wrestling promoter who brings his wrestler Joe, to the Ozarks, to wrestle a female hillbilly Amazon named Sadie Hills….naturally Bogart falls in love with Sadie and they all live happily ever after in this musical comedy…..Bogart’s thoughts on this movie….”It’s a stinker”
1938’s The Return of Dr. X: Bogart’s only science fiction movie….he plays a mad evil genius doctor who figures out a way to bring the dead back to life. For some reason Bogart refused to talk about this movie later in his life.
Check out Humprey Bogart‘s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
AFI’s Top 25 Screen Legend Actors….with links to our movie pages on the Screen Legend
If you do a comment….please ignore the email address request.
Great page Bruce. Humphrey is one of my favourite actors. I like him in any of his detective movies but especially like him in The African Queen.
Hey Jools99….Bogart is the man….I have been watching many of his movies since I wrote this hub…it seems writing a page on someone gets me motivated to watch and re-watch some of their movies. Recently I have watched In A Lonely Place, The Petrified Forest, Dark Victory and To Have and Have Not for the first time…and re-watched his classic movies Casablanca, Maltese Falcon and Beat the Devil…..all good to great performances by Bogart.
Great page. Bogart is probably my favorite classic actor. I could sit and watch those top-ten grossing films all day.
Hey KF Raizor…..I enjoy his movies as well…..ever since writing this hub I have been watching many Bogart movies for the first time and repeat viewings of some of his classics…The African Queen Blu-Ray is outstanding and makes it look like a brand new movie. I appreciate you stopping by and checking out my Bogart page.
I was watching TCM the other day. A movie called Crime Scene was on, and I am sure Bogart was in the cast, but cannot find it on any website. Was I wrong, and he was not in this movie?
Hey Sheryl….I rechecked Bogart’s filmography…but I do not see a movie called Crime Scene….do you remember who else was in the movie with him….sometimes they change the name of a movie….and I am thinking it was probably made in the mid 1930s….when his movies were not classics that the later ones became….sorry I am not able to identify the movie.
Bogart was in a movie called “Crime School” in 1938. Maybe?
I think you might be correct William F. Torpey…..I am attaching the IMDB summary for you Sheryl….hope this was the movie.
“A gang of underprivileged teenagers are sentenced to serve two years in a reform school after almost killing a criminal fence who attacked them”
Thanks for the help William.
Yes,it was Crime School, I was mistaken. Thanks so much for setting me straight!
Hey Sheryl…you are very welcome….and thanks again William for figuring out the right answer.
@Cogerson…Surprise, surprise, “The Caine Mutiny” on top of his box office hits.
“Casablanca” did become a classic with later audiences, I guess. Bogie did a lot of dark films — “The Harder They Fall”, “They Drive By Night”, “The Desperate Hours”, “The Roaring Twenties”, “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre”, etc. He also showed a romantic-comedic side with Hepburn in “The African Queen”, which I thoroughly enjoyed for its on-again, off-again romance.
And of course, with Bacall, the chemistry was unmistakable — “To Have and Have Not”.
I could stay on these movie columns all day! Enjoyable and fun!
Hey Barbsbitsnpieces…glad you are enjoying my classic career movie pages….I find that I enjoyed writing the older actors more than the current…if only because the information is harder to find and those almost fresher information. As for Bogey…I love his movies…especially some of the ones you mentioned like African Queen, To Have and Have Not and They Drive By Night…..as for Bacall it always fascinates me that Bogart’s wife is still around and still appearing in an occasional movie…their screen chemistry is off the charts….thanks for stopping by.
I’ve seen almost all of Bogart’s films now, including those where he had essentially bit parts
Regarding the Bogart/Bacall films, I rank them in this order:
To Have and Have Not
The Big Sleep
Key Largo
Dark Passage
I love mysteries and crime films and he starred in several classics. My favourites-besides Bacall films, are:
The Maltese Falcon
In a lonely Place
The Petrified Forest (he starred in the Broadway play)
The desperate Hours
Angels with Dirty Faces
Dead End
Deadline, USA
The Barefoot Contessa
Beat the Devil (unintentionally halarious in some places)
War films:
Casablanca
The Caine Mutiny
Other genres:
Sabrina
The African Queen
Hey FloraBreenRobinson….Bogart made a ton of great movies…..of the ones you listed I have seen them all except for Deadline USA. Beat the Devil is a very unusual movie….from what I have read….Bogart felt Huston had let him down by not having a better story in place when Bogart’s company produced the film….Huston also felt bad that their last movie together was Beat the Devil…..Huston wanted to make The Man Who Would Be King with Bogart and Gable. But Bogart got sick and could not make the movie. Thanks for checking out my Bogart page.