Want to know the best Ida Lupino movies? How about the worst Ida Lupino movies? Curious about Ida Lupino box office grosses or which Ida Lupino movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Ida Lupino movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which ones got the worst reviews? Well you have come to the right place…. because we have all of that information and much more.
Ida Lupino (1918-1995) was an American actress and director. Her IMDb page shows over 140 acting and directing credits from 1932-1978. This page will rank 41 Ida Lupino movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television appearances, shorts, and bit parts were not included in the rankings. This page comes from a request from Lupino (no relation).
Ida Lupino 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 Ida Lupino movies by movie titles and trailers to those movies
- Sort Ida Lupino movies by co-stars of her movies
- Sort Ida Lupino movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Ida Lupino movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Ida Lupino movies by how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations each Ida Lupino movie received.
- Sort by how many Oscar® wins each Ida Lupino movie received.
- Sort Ida Lupino movies by Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score. UMR puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Ida Lupino Table
- Fourteen Ida Lupino movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 34.15% of her movies listed. Hollywood Canteen (1944) was her biggest box office hit.
- An average Ida Lupino movie grosses $77.70 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 31 Ida Lupino movies are rated as good movies…or 46.15% of her movies. High Sierra (1941) is her highest rated movie while The Devil’s Rain (1975) was her lowest rated movie.
- Five Ida Lupino movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 12.19% of her movies.
- Zero Ida Lupino movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 0.00% of her movies.
- A “good movie” Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 60.00. 24 Ida Lupino movies scored higher than that average….or 58.53% of her movies. Hollywood Canteen (1944) got the the highest UMR Score while The Devil’s Rain (1975) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Ida Lupino – Courtesy of UMR Hall of Famer Lupino
1. Ida Lupino was born on February 4th, 1918 in Herne Hill, London, into a showbusiness family. She died August 3d, 1995 (aged 77) in Los Angeles, California. Lupino is an Italian surname. Her ancestors came from Bologna, Italy.
2. Ida Lupino wanted to be a writer, but in order to please her father, Lupino enrolled in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She started to appear in movies in 1931, at the tender age of 13.
3. By 1934, she had signed a deal with Columbia Pictures, but fell ill with Polio, making it impossible for her to work as an actress. Rather than succumbing to her illness, she sought out other creative means. While on bedrest, she composed “Aladdin’s Suite” in 1935. This piece of music was performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in 1937.
4. After recovering, she began to appear in movies again, and in 1939 had her “breathrough” opposite Ronald Colman in The Light That Failed. This was followed by They Drive By Night, a sort of remake of the Paul Muni/Bette Davis film Bordertown. Lupino, billed behind George Raft and Ann Sheridan, gathered rave reviews and got first billing for the first time in her next movie, which to this day remains one of her best known: High Sierra.
5. During her time as a contract player at WB, she often went on suspension for rejecting scripts, that often were Bette Davis’ rejects in the first place. She said that during these suspensions she hung arround at various filmsets, learning the craft of a director by watching and studying the best of them.
6. Ida Lupino was the second woman to be admitted to the Director’s Guild. Dorothy Arzner was the first.
7. Ida Lupino was married three times: to actor Louis Hayward, producer Collier Young and actor Howard Duff, her longest marriage. She had a daughter with the womanizing Duff, Bridget, in 1952. At birth, Bridget only weighed 4 pounds and almost died.
8. On top of acting in and directing movies in the 50’s, Lupino became very activ on television, both as an actress (Mr. Adams and Eve, a sitcom costarring Howard Duff, Four Star Playhouse) and director (Twilight Zone, Boris Karloff’s Thriller). She directed her last theatrical movie in 1966, 13 years after her next to last directorial effort for the big screen.
9. In later years, Ida Lupino sometimes quite visibly sported wigs in her acting assignments. This was due to the fact that she was nearly bald.
10. About her career in Hollywood, Miss Lupino joked: As an actress, I was the poor man’s Bette Davis. Now, as a director, I’ve become the poor man’s Don Siegel.
11. Today, Miss Lupino’s career as a director in both movies and on television has earned her a prominent place as an “auteur du cinemà” and as a forerunner in a male dominated business, paving the way for other female directors.
12. A short overview about Ida Lupino’s work as a director can be seen here (article published by the British Film Institute):
http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/lists/ida-lupino-director
13. Musician Paul Bley recorded a song in honor of Miss Lupino entitled “Ida Lupino”, composed by his then-wife Carla Bley, for his 1965 album “Closer”. The instrumental Jazz piece can be heard here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsbDIX8VSkk
14. Check out Ida Lupino’s career compared to current and classic actors and actresses. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
Steve’s Ida Lupino You Tube Video
My first memory of Ida Lupino was seeing a giant rat lying on top of her in Food of the Gods. Saw that with another American International giant animal film Empire of the Ants with Joan Collins (back in the days of double features). Ida was never on the Oracle of Bacon list and these are the people on the 2016 list who appeared in a film with her. Only actors who appeared in a film she acted in are listed.
112 ROD STEIGER The Big Knife (1955)
142 ERNEST BORGNINE The Devil’s Rain (1975)
409 JOHN TRAVOLTA The Devil’s Rain (1975)
655 TOM SKERRITT The Devil’s Rain (1975)
671 WILLIAM SHATNER The Devil’s Rain (1975)
781 SHELLEY WINTERS The Big Knife (1955)
897 TONY CURTIS Woman in Hiding (1950)
900 JOE DON BAKER Junior Bonner (1972)
912 ARTHUR TOVEY On Dangerous Ground (1952)
926 BILL MCKINNEY Junior Bonner (1972)
I think in Infinity Wars they made reference to Kevin Bacon but I’m not sure if it was meant toward people who have heard of the Oracle of Bacon. The following people were on the 2000 list and have since fallen off who appeared in a flic with her. I like those actors in pre 1935 or so films that connect with her like Roland Culver, Jack Hawkins and John Mills.
14 JOHN CARRADINE Anything Goes (1936)
26 JACK PALANCE The Big Knife (1955)
27 MARC LAWRENCE The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt (1939)
43 KEENAN WYNN The Devil’s Rain (1975)
76 EDDIE ALBERT Out of the Fog (1941)
76 EDDIE ALBERT The Devil’s Rain (1975)
100 IAN WOLFE On Dangerous Ground (1952)
108 DUB TAYLOR Junior Bonner (1972)
119 RICHARD WIDMARK Road House (1948)
122 JOHN MILLS The Ghost Camera (1933)
125 VINCENT PRICE While the City Sleeps (1956)
132 GLENN FORD Lust for Gold (1949)
146 MIKE MAZURKI Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943)
160 ROBERT RYAN Beware, My Lovely (1952)
160 ROBERT RYAN Hard, Fast and Beautiful (1951)
160 ROBERT RYAN On Dangerous Ground (1952)
169 JOHN DEHNER Hollywood Canteen (1944)
187 RAY MILLAND Forever and a Day (1943)
213 BEN JOHNSON Junior Bonner (1972)
222 BESS FLOWERS Anything Goes (1936)
222 BESS FLOWERS In Our Time (1944)
222 BESS FLOWERS The Bigamist (1953)
222 BESS FLOWERS They Drive by Night (1940)
222 BESS FLOWERS Yours for the Asking (1936)
234 AKIM TAMIROFF Paris in Spring (1935)
248 ARTHUR KENNEDY Devotion (1946)
248 ARTHUR KENNEDY High Sierra (1941)
255 ALEXANDER KNOX The Sea Wolf (1941)
278 KEYE LUKE Anything Goes (1936)
296 KENNETH TOBEY The Bigamist (1953)
323 GEORGE SANDERS While the City Sleeps (1956)
345 WILLIAM PRINCE Hollywood Canteen (1944)
345 WILLIAM PRINCE Lust for Gold (1949)
345 WILLIAM PRINCE Pillow to Post (1945)
379 ANN DORAN The Hard Way (1943)
406 EDMOND O’BRIEN The Bigamist (1953)
410 GEORGE RAFT They Drive by Night (1940)
410 GEORGE RAFT Yours for the Asking (1936)
451 DANA ANDREWS While the City Sleeps (1956)
459 DABBS GREER Private Hell 36 (1954)
463 EDWARD G. ROBINSON The Sea Wolf (1941)
508 ROBERT BLAKE Pillow to Post (1945)
549 STROTHER MARTIN The Big Knife (1955)
562 PAUL BRYAR Lust for Gold (1949)
571 CHARLES LANE Sea Devils (1937)
575 JACK HAWKINS I Lived with You (1933)
585 HAMILTON CAMP Outrage (1950/I)
599 JOHN DOUCETTE Lust for Gold (1949)
611 DON ‘RED’ BARRY Junior Bonner (1972)
651 MELVYN DOUGLAS On the Loose (1951)
682 RAY TEAL Deep Valley (1947)
682 RAY TEAL Hollywood Canteen (1944)
682 RAY TEAL Road House (1948)
740 GEORGE CHANDLER The Light That Failed (1939)
744 DEAN JAGGER Private Hell 36 (1954)
767 PHILIP AHN Anything Goes (1936)
783 JAMES FLAVIN High Sierra (1941)
783 JAMES FLAVIN Hollywood Canteen (1944)
783 JAMES FLAVIN Life Begins at Eight-Thirty (1942)
783 JAMES FLAVIN Pillow to Post (1945)
783 JAMES FLAVIN Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943)
786 LLOYD NOLAN My Boys Are Good Boys (1978)
790 ROLAND CULVER Her First Affaire (1932)
811 ROBERT NICHOLS Jennifer (1953)
816 CARLETON YOUNG While the City Sleeps (1956)
824 FRANK WILCOX They Drive by Night (1940)
832 DON BRODIE On the Loose (1951)
851 CEDRIC HARDWICKE Forever and a Day (1943)
894 PHILIP VAN ZANDT The Hard Way (1943)
915 IVAN TRIESAULT Escape Me Never (1947)
915 IVAN TRIESAULT In Our Time (1944)
918 BETTE DAVIS Hollywood Canteen (1944)
918 BETTE DAVIS Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943)
960 CLAUDIO BROOK The Devil’s Rain (1975)
962 OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND Devotion (1946)
962 OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943)
963 FRANK FERGUSON On Dangerous Ground (1952)
963 FRANK FERGUSON The Man I Love (1947)
972 RICHARD BOONE The Big Knife (1955)
982 BILLY BENEDICT Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943)
Ida appeared with 33 Oscar winners which I actually found impressive. Okay she’s in a few all star Warner Brothers musicals and the U.K. film Forever and a Day all of which have a ton of actors in their cast which help her count. But who knew the low budget The Bigamist which she directed and starred in had 4 Oscar winners in it’s cast! I think that wrong grammatically.
BARRY FITZGERALD The Sea Wolf (1941)
BEN JOHNSON Junior Bonner (1972)
BETTE DAVIS Hollywood Canteen (1944)
BETTE DAVIS Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943)
BING CROSBY Anything Goes (1936)
CELESTE HOLM Road House (1948)
CHARLES COBURN Forever and a Day (1943)
CHARLES LAUGHTON Forever and a Day (1943)
CLAIRE TREVOR Hard, Fast and Beautiful (1951)
DEAN JAGGER Private Hell 36 (1954)
DONALD CRISP FOREVER AND A DAY (1943)
DOROTHY MALONE Hollywood Canteen (1944)
DOROTHY MALONE Private Hell 36 (1954)
EDMOND O’BRIEN The Bigamist (1953)
EDMUND GWENN Forever and a Day (1943)
EDMUND GWENN The Bigamist (1953)
ERNEST BORGNINE The Devil’s Rain (1975)
GARY COOPER Peter Ibbetson (1935)
GEORGE SANDERS While the City Sleeps (1956)
GIG YOUNG Escape Me Never (1947)
GIG YOUNG Lust for Gold (1949)
HATTIE MCDANIEL THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS (1943)
HUMPHREY BOGART High Sierra (1941)
HUMPHREY BOGART Hollywood Canteen (1944)
HUMPHREY BOGART Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943)
HUMPHREY BOGART They Drive by Night (1940)
JACK PALANCE The Big Knife (1955)
JANE DARWELL The Bigamist (1953)
JANE WYMAN Anything Goes (1936)
JANE WYMAN Hollywood Canteen (1944)
JOAN CRAWFORD Hollywood Canteen (1944)
JOAN FONTAINE The Bigamist (1953)
JOHN MILLS The Ghost Camera (1933)
MELVYN DOUGLAS On the Loose (1951)
OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND Devotion (1946)
OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943)
RAY MILLAND Forever and a Day (1943)
ROD STEIGER The Big Knife (1955)
RONALD COLMAN The Light That Failed (1939)
SHELLEY WINTERS The Big Knife (1955)
THOMAS MITCHELL MOONTIDE (1942)
THOMAS MITCHELL OUT OF THE FOG (1941)
THOMAS MITCHELL WHILE THE CITY SLEEPS (1956)
VICTOR MCLAGLEN Forever and a Day (1943)
VICTOR MCLAGLEN Sea Devils (1937)
WALTER HUSTON The Light That Failed (1939)
Hey Dan
1. Great lists as always.
2. Looking at the first list….it looks like she has a chance to stay connected for a little while longer….especially with Shatner and Skeritt continue working.
3. Looking at the second list….you look for Arthur….while I always look for Bess……there she is with 5 movies….lots of great actors on this list.
4. And finally the Oscar winning co-stars…..33…..pretty good total….better than average when looking at all the other actresses.
5. Thomas Mitchell…our newest UMR page made 3 movies with her….Out of the Fog and The Sea Wolf are the Ida movies I most want to watch.
6. Lots of great names on the Oscar list…..with only Olivia de Havilland still being around….the power of Olivia who is quickly coming up on her 102nd birthday….July 1st is her birthday.
Good stuff as always.
Hello Bruce,
thank you for making this page “official” 😉
As my nickname might give away, I’m a huge fan of this actress, producer and director. I have seen 31 movies of the actress, plus all of her cinematic directorial efforts. Two of my favorite films didn’t make the chart above, they are Life begins at Eight-Thirty ( based on the play The Light of Heart by Emlyn Williams) and Ladies in Retirement, with Lupino’s then husband Louis Hayward. Although she only had a bit part in Peter Ibbetson, this one is also a favorite of mine. Her breakthrough came in ’39 with her performances in The Light That Failed and They Drive By Night, a remake of Davis’ Bordertown…as in the original film, Lupino’s mad scene is one for the books. High Sierra was the first time Lupino received top billing in an A picture, Moontide starred her along french superstar Jean Gabin, while Out Of The Fog was one of two movies she made with John Garfield. The Hard Way earned her the New York Film Critics Circle Award as best actress of 1943. Lupino was great in The Deep Valley, as the repressed daughter of Fay Bainter, suffering from a severe stutter for most of the film. She played a torch singer in Road House, singing in her own voice, described by another character in the movie as being able to “do more without a voice than anyone I’ve heard”. By the late 40’s, Lupino made less important pictures at the major studios, but started to direct and produce a handful of low to medium budgeted films and shortly would start to try her hand at television. She remained active acting in movies, though, but her films as an actress didn’t have the impact at the box office her 40’s movies usually had. Still, some of my favorite Lupino performances are from the 50’s: Woman in Hiding, Beware, My Lovely, On Dangerous Ground, Private Hell 36, The Big Knife, While The City Sleeps and the exploitational Women’s Prison, where she hams it up as the seemingly closeted lesbian brutal warden EMILIA VAN ZANDT (what a name!), making life miserable for a cast that included Cleo Moore, Jan Sterling, Audrey Totter and Phyllis Thaxter. Ida Lupino remained active both as an actress and director, but mainly on television. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen Junior Bonner yet, and what I’ve seen of her 70’s movies was just awful…although she did win some award as best supporting actress for the horror film The Devil’s Rain ..not among my favorites, though.
I did not elaborate on Lupino’s considerable talent as a director, but here is a link to an interesting article from the British Film Institute, published in 2018 about her work behind the camera:
http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/lists/ida-lupino-director
Hey Lupino….thanks for the link…..maybe one day she will get more credit for her ground breaking career moves.
Hey Lupino…..I guess you have demonstrated enough knowledge on Ida Lupino for me to believe that you are a fan of her work….it was close….but in the end I was happy to give you the benefit of the doubt….lol.
Great comment on Ida. I enjoyed the mini-reviews and breakdowns on her movies. You have me really interested in checking out more of her movies. Glad to be able to include your Possibly Interesting Facts into the page….because without you….this page would still be in the pre-production stages of UMR….lol.
Your 31 tally is the winner of her tally count….only Flora, really gave you a run for the money. Thanks for the feedback.
Is this a new page? It does not appear among the menu of new pages. I was just checking out Steve’s Ida Lupino’s video on youtube and and now notice she has been honored with a UMR page as well. It’s interesting as Steve’s video made me realize that Lupino was at some point a bigger star than I ever thought she was, particularly in the 40s? I only remember seeing her in They Drive by Night, Road House and Junior Bonner, and that was a while ago. All the comments (on the Steve’s Youtube and this one) make me interested to check out more of her films.
Hey PhilHOF17….her peak was her Warner Brothers days in the 1940s. As for it being new? Yep it is new….but since it is not complete I did not really push the page. There are many movies not listed that new further research…..but figured I would extend an olive branch to Lupino…and show what movies I did have box office numbers on.
I have seen 22 Ida Lupino movies – two more than were in Steve’s Ida Lupino video.
The highest ranking film I have seen is Hollywood Canteen.
The highest ranking film I have NOT seen is Thank Your Lucky Stars.
The lowest ranking film I have seen is Hard, Fast, and Beautiful.
My favourite Ida Lupino movies are:
Road House
The Sea Wolf
The Hitchhiker
High Sierra
While the City Sleeps
On Dangerous Ground
Beware My Lovely
They Drive By Night
The Light That Failed
The Trouble With Angels
Hey Flora
1. Thanks as always for the visit, the comment and the tally count.
2. Your 22 destroys my very small tally count.
3. I have seen two of your favorites…..both of her Bogie movies….High Sierra and They Drive By Night.
4. I have wanted to see The Sea Wolf for awhile…..but seeing Road House at the top of your list makes me interested in that one.
Good stuff as always.
“Though less publicized in her heyday than Bette Davis or Joan Crawford, Ida Lupino was often better than either one of them. She was intense, believable, and totally without affectation. The strong woman image that Ida Lupino excelled at in performances proved true in real life. She has become the most significant female director that Hollywood has yet produced” – 1983
4 Star Ida Lupino Performances From Rating The Movie Stars
1940 The Light That Failed
1940 They Drive By Night
1941 High Sierra
1941 The Sea Wolf
1941 Out of the Fog
1941 Ladies in Retirement
1943 The Hard Way
1944 In Our Time
1947 Deep Valley
1948 Road House
1949 Lust For Gold
1952 On Dangerous Ground
1953 The Bigamist
I figured Lupino would enjoy this breakdown of Lupino
Bruce, I wonder what made you think that….:) 🙂 🙂
Thanks a lot!
Great comment on Miss Lupino, I’ve seen all of Mr. Hirschhorn’s 4 star Lupino performances, might add another one or two, but totally agree with those mentioned.