Want to know the best James Mason movies? How about the worst James Mason movies? Curious about James Mason’s box office grosses or which James Mason movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which James Mason movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
James Mason (1909-1984) was an English actor who appeared in movies for over 50 years. His first appearance was in 1935’s Late Extra and his last appearance was 1985’s The Assisi Underground. James Mason appeared in many British quota quickie movies from 1935 to 1948. After appearing in over 25 of these low budget films, Mason started getting noticed for the movies The Wicked Lady, Odd Man Out and The Seventh Veil.The success of those movies got the attention of Hollywood.
In 1949 James Mason appeared in his first American film, Caught. Once his Hollywood career got started, he appeared in many classic movies like 1953’s Julius Caesar, 1954’s A Star Is Born, 1954’s 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea and 1959’s North by Northwest. For a great movie page on James Mason’s North by Northwest check out this page from film historian, Steve Lensman… North by Northwest Illustrated Reference.
Highlights for Mason in the 1960s were 1962’s Lolita and 1966’s Georgy Girl. As he neared the end of his career he scored two more major hits in 1978’s Heaven Can Wait and 1982’s The Verdict. James Mason and his very distinguished voice earned 3 Oscar® nominations for acting over his career
His IMDb page shows 154 acting credits from 1935-1985. This page will rank James Mason movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, cameos and movies that were not released in North American theaters were not included in the rankings.
James Mason Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews, and awards.
James Mason 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 James Mason movies by co-stars of his movies.
- Sort James Mason movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort James Mason movies by domestic yearly box office rank
- Sort James Mason 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 James Mason movie received.
- Sort James Mason 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 buttons to make this a very interactive page.
Possibly Interesting Facts About James Mason
1. James Mason had no formal acting training. He can thank the quota quickie era for getting his start in movies. This is the 3rd or 4th time I have mentioned the quota quickie era. So what is the quota quickie era?
2. The quota quickie era was a ten year Act in England that required English theaters to show a percentage of movies made in England. This need to have English made films helped create many English production companies that could generate many movies in a very short time on a low budget.
3. James Mason was nominated for 3 acting Oscars®. His three nominations were for 1954’s A Star Is Born, 1966’s Georgy Girl, and 1982’s The Verdict. James Mason also was nominated for 3 Golden Globes®. He won one Golden Globe® for A Star Is Born.
4. Here is one for you Flora….James Mason was a huge cat lover all of his life. In 1949 James Mason and his wife Pamela wrote the book, The Cats in Our Lives. His first cat’s name was Top Boy.
5. James Mason was married twice in his life. His first marriage was to Pamela Ostrer, from 1941 to 1964. They had two children, a son named Morgan and a daughter named Portland. His second marriage was to Clarissa Kaye from 1971 to his death in 1984.
6. James Mason was the father-in-law to Belinda Carlisle who is lead singer in the rock group The Go-Gos.
7. Roles James Mason either turned down or was seriously considered for:….The African Queen, Whose Afraid of Virginia Wolfe, The Paper Chase, The Bridge on the River Kwai and Doctor Zhivago.
8. James Mason was not the first choice for 1954’s A Star Is Born, which is probably his greatest performance. Mason got the part after Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, James Stewart, Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift all passed on the part.
9. James Mason was almost involved in three James Bond projects. (1 ) He was hired to play James Bond in a television version of From Russia With Love in 1958, but the it was never produced. (2) He was one of the many contenders to play Bond in Dr. No, but Sean Connery got the part. And (3) He was offered the role of Hugo Drax in 1979’s Moonraker but he turned down the part….too bad because I think he would have made a great Bond villian.
10. Check out James Mason’s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
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For comments….all you need is a name and a comment….please ignore the rest.
Wow, that was interesting about James Mason. I thought he had a great distinctive voice and thought that he did a great job in A Star Is Born and also The Verdict. I have seen quite a few of his movies and enjoyed them. Lolita was ahead of its time and thought he played a disgusting old man in that one. GOOD ACTING THOUGH. THANKS FOR THE HUB COGERSON. 11 HARROWHOUSE WAS A GOOD HEIST JOB AND WOULD LIKE TO SEE IT AGAIN. I WILL HAVE TO KEEP MY EYE OUT FOR THAT WHEN THERE ARE OLDER FILMS ON TV.
Thanks for stopping by BERN1960….I have yet to see A Star is Born…but I did enjoy The Verdict and Lolita….and yes he did play a disgusting old man taking advantage of a young girl…but it is based on a very famous novel. Thanks for mentioning 11 Harrowhouse…I well keep an eye out for that one as well.
Yes, Sue lyon was 14. It’s difficult to not feel sympathy for Humbert Humbert because of Mason’s performance. Sellers’s character really tortures his mind.
Now…I’ve done for the day and finally (after 6:30pm) I feel I can take as long as I want to read instead of quickly answering comments on my hubs. As soon as I am finished I will go straight to Steve’s hub from this one. I LOVE North By Northwest.
I will discuss the top ten lists first. Keep in mind that the overall percentage of films will be off because I’ve seen more of the British films than just three, although not a large number of them. And yes, those three films are vital that you include. I think it is possible that I may end up with a higher percentage than I really have seen if you were to count his entire movie career (Canada gets a lot of British films even when US does not.) As for his overall big screen performance, not just these films on this hub, it is not quite a third of his career that I’ve seen
Top ten box Office:
I have seen 9 of these. The only one I haven’t seen is Island in the Sun.
Top ten critics scores:
I have seen 8 of these. I have not seen Bigger Than Life or The Last of Sheila.
Top Ten Movie Score list:
I have seen nine of these (missing #10 as I’ve already stated).
I will discuss the Movie Score list in a separate post as this is already long.
p.s. yes, there area lot of quickie Canadian movies that were made. I don’t know if they have been preserved though.
First of all” A reminder that Charade from 1953 is completely different from the Cary Grant film. I remember being confused the first time I had heard of it as “hmm. I don’t remember him in it.)
My comments on the overall Movie Score list.
I have already stated that I’m at 90% for the top ten.
Top 20: I have seen 16 or 80% (note: TCM aired Caught not too long ago, but it didn’t own the rights to air it in Canada so I missed it.) From here I start to fall noticeably.
Top 30: I have seen 20 or 67%
Top 40: I have seen 25 or 63%.
I have seen only one between 41 and 50, so I will go straight to the final tally:
I have seen 27 of 73 films which is 37% of his films and far higher than the 31% of his overall big screen career that I’ve seen if you included every big screen film he ever made.
I note that Steve has seen 24. I wonder: Steve, how many of his British films have you seen besides the three that are included here? I have seen Fire Over England, for example.
My favourite film of his overall is North By northwest, but he is not the first-listed leading man. My favourite film where he is the first-listed leading man is A Star Is Born.
Lolita is fabulous and it is one of my favourite performances of his, but Sellers keeps it out of my favourites. And as much as I admire The Verdict and have seen it several times, constantly hearing Newman swear keeps it out of my favourites too. I watch it on tv, but I am not interested in owning a copy.
I try to avoid The Boys From Brazil’s last 20 minutes or so as I’m not interested in seeing Dogs attack or the fact that the list of little Hitlers remains secret. I rarely watch it at all.
Oh and I have seen him in Christie’s Evil Under the sun, but it is not the best of the films with Ustinov.
Here are my *other* favourites (besides NByNW and ASIB) in alphabetical order. They are heavy in the suspense/drama side with a couple noticeable exceptions:
5 Fingers
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
The Blue Max
The Desert Fox
Georgy Girl
Heaven Can Wait
Julius Ceasar
Murder By Decree
Odd Man Out
The Veiled Lady
Hey Flora…well in the movie tally, I am once again in last place as you and Steve easily beat my totals…27 to 24 to 9. Of the favorites you listed I have only seen 3 of those movies. The two movies that are now on my “to watch” list are A Star Is Born and Five Fingers. I had never heard of Five Fingers but after reading about Five Fingers it seems like a very interesting movie…and Mason got great reviews for the movie.
I am not surprised at all that Murder by Decree made the list…as James Mason as Dr. Watson was a perfect match….as well as Christopher Plummer as Sherlock Holmes. Probably the third James Mason movie I will be trying to track down will be his 2nd Oscar nominated performance in Georgy Girl.
Not sure where the rest of the comment went…but I will try to redo it….I was talking about North by Northwest….North by Northwest is one of my favorite movies of all time…Cary Grant is awesome, Hitchcock is at his finest and Mason is perfect as the vain villian. And finally I just want to thank you for taking the time to really go through these hubs and coming up with some great comments..they are greatly appreciated.
Flora, Fire Over England is the only film James Mason appeared in that Cogerson hasn’t listed and I’ve seen. I didn’t recommend it to Bruce because Mason had a small part in the film and he’s low in the cast list. Flora Robison plays… sorry Flora Robson plays Queen Elizabeth I in this and she reprised the role in the Errol Flynn classic The Sea Hawk (one of my favourite swashbucklers) Laurence Oliver, Vivien Leigh and Raymond Massey also starred.
Cogerson, I saw Georgy Girl ages ago and would like to see it again, your James Mason hub has me interested in seeing a whole bunch of films again and for the first time. Job well done sir.
Hey Steve thanks for the information on Fire Over England…in my haste to eliminate all the English quota quickie movies I did not even see this movie on his IMDB credits. But it is the only one of his movies during that time frame that I had heard of before I wrote this hub.
I am sure I will see Georgy Girl in the next month or two…so I know what you mean about how these hubs generate interest in seeing movies either again or for the first time.
And Lolita was even younger in the book, 12! She’s 14 in Kubrick’s film. I think Sue Lyon was 14 or 15 when she played Lolita?
Thanks for the information on Lolita….Steve Lensman and Flora Robison….I have not seen the movie in many years and I have never read the book.
Hey Flora…well Star Wars is a classic and Sir Alec Guinness in the 1977 original is pretty good…he even got an Oscar nomination for the role.
You need to watch The Last of Sheila it has always reminded me of an Agatha Christie movie…as it is a murder mystery and the clues are right there out in the open…and you can figure out who the killer really is…and Mason is outstanding in the role. I had not heard of Bigger Than Life..but this is the movie he made after the success of A Star Is Born….which is scoring high on the critic chart but did not make much money and pretty much sent him to a career of supporting roles.
As for your Top Ten totals….they easily beat mine…as I have only seen 4 of his Top Ten box office hits, 4 of his Top Ten critic/audience movies and 4 of the Top Ten Movie Score movies. I am sure over the next few months I will so more James Mason movies….which is what seems to happen when I write a hub on somebody…when I did the Barbara Stanwyck hub and had seen 2 of her movies now I am almost up to 7…as I am currently watching The Furies
Cogerson you have provided yet another great hub on one of our favorite Hollywood stars. James Mason, as Flora said, always put in a stellar performance regardless of the rest of the movies appeal. And the voice is recognizable by all movie fans.
Flora I think I have you to point at for me whistling the Alfred Hitchcock television show intro these days – that’s your laugh of the day.
Hey Mckbirdbks. Thanks for stopping by and leaving a very comment. I agree James Mason made his movies better, you know somebody was a star when you can hear his voice in your head when you think about him.
Hey Cogerson, I found a 2004 news report on the top 10 most successful films in the UK adjusted for inflation and it’s surprising to see two old 1940’s James Mason films rubbing shoulders with Titanic and Star Wars. Here’s the link –
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4051741.s…
And thanks for posting a link to my new Hitchcock hub! 🙂
Steve: I will be over to see your North By Northwest hub tonight. It is second only to Rear Window in my list of favourite Hitch films and various other stuff you probably already know.
mckbirdbks-I love that music. Ironically, the music was not written for the show. They took an existing composition.
Hey Flora, Steve’s new hub is a good one…with some awesome photos. Strange that we both published a James Mason movie page on the same day.
Regarding that top ten list that Steve linked: I have seen many of these. It is easier to say what I have *not seen*: I have not seen Stars Wars and I have not seen Titanic. There is no reason why I haven’t seen Stars wars, but I remember deliberately avoiding Titanic-a lot of my close group of friends did too. Our way of being independent in not seeing a blockbuster that everyone had seen. (We liked being misfits.)
Hey Steve…thanks for the link…yep good old James has #9 and #10 on that list. Thanks for letting me know that those two movies needed to be on the hub. You gotta love the internet…it seems almost every piece of information you want can be found on the internet.
I have some work I need to get done before I properly comment on this hub and which I’ve seen and prefer , but I wanted to check in. Like Steve, I am a big fan of James Mason. I find that even when a movie he makes isn’t a good one, his performance is solid. (Such as the quickie movies you mention-not his fault the movies aren’t gems.) I can’t remember the name of the actress, but one artist said that she could listen to Mason recite names out of the phone book. I must agree. His voice is dynamite. Right now, I will only talk about your interesting facts.
Canada had the same act under her being part of England. It was the only way to ensure that Canada saw Canadian films.
I’ve seen all of his nominated films. They are all films I have seen multiple times.
I knew he was a cat lover, but I did NOT know about the book. I must find it!
Morgan Mason appears in his wife’s music video for Heaven Is a Place on Earth.
None of the actors wanted to act opposite Garland. They knew that she would be the star and take over the project. Yet, Mason was moving. I cried for him. I did not cry for March in the original, and I usually prefer the original. Not here.
Now here is a fact for you. James and Pamela owned the home that was once owned by Buster Keaton. By that time Keaton was forgotten. They decided to renovate their home and found a boarded up/plastered over closet-with the original reels of The General. Keaton was so unfamous by then that Mason actually found his phone number in the phone book. The General was re-released and Keaton died famous and rich-as he should.
So ends this longer than I intended comment. Will be back later.
Hey Flora…first of all thanks for checking in….and thanks for commenting on my interesting movie pages….I did not realize that Canada had the same act but as you mentioned before Canada was not yet an independent country back then. So are there lots of Canadian quickie quota movies out there?
I agree about his voice….one of the best ever in the movie business. The book he wrote was published in 1949, so I imagine it might be pretty hard to find…Mason also drew the artwork that is in the book.
I actually read the fact about Mason buying Buster Keaton’s old mansion and finding the missing reels….talk about finding a treasure….I look forward to your comments about his movies.