Want to know the best Joan Blondell movies? How about the worst Joan Blondell movies? Curious about Joan Blondell box office grosses or which Joan Blondell movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Joan Blondell 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.
Joan Blondell (1906-1979) was an Oscar® nominated American actress. She was a leading lady in the 1930s and 1940s and spent the remainder of her career in supporting roles. Her IMDb page shows 160 acting credits from 1930-1981. This page will rank 75 Joan Blondell movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Her many television appearances, a few not released in North American theaters and some early 1930s movies were not included in the rankings.
Joan Blondell 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 Joan Blondell films by co-stars of her movies
- Sort Joan Blondell films by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Joan Blondell films by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Joan Blondell films by 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 Joan Blondell film received.
- Sort Joan Blondell films by Ultimate Movie Rankings (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 Joan Blondell
Table
- Fourteen Joan Blondell movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 18.66% of her movies listed. Her biggest hit was Grease (1978)
- An average Joan Blondell movie grosses an average of $73.20 million in adjusted domestic gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 41 Joan Blondell movies are rated as good movies…or 54.66% of her movies. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945) was her highest rated movie while Kona Coast (1968) was her lowest rated movie.
- Eight Joan Blondell movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 10.66% of her movies.
- One Joan Blondell movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 1.33% of her movies.
- An average Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 40.00. 28 Joan Blondell movies scored higher than that average….or 37.33% of her movies. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945) got the the highest UMR Score while Kona Coast (1968) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Joan Blondell
- Rose Joan Blondell was born in New York in 1906.
2. After finishing 4th in the 1926 Miss America beauty contest…she turned her attention to a film career. In less than 4 years she was starring in movies!
3. Joan Blondell was married 3 times. Her first marriage was to Oscar® winning cinematographer George Barnes. Her second marriage was to actor/director Dick Powell. They had one child. Her third marriage was to Oscar® winning producer Mike Todd. They also had one child.
4. Joan Blondell made six movies with James Cagney at Warner Brothers – more than any other individual actress. Cagney said that the only woman he loved other than his wife was Blondell.
5. Joan Blondell was nominated for one Oscar®. She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for 1951’s The Blue Veil.
6. Joan Blondell was nominated for 2 Golden Globes®. She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for 1965’s The Cincinnati Kid and 1977’s Opening Night.
7. Joan Blondell felt that her best performance was as Aunt Sissy in 1945’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. So I imagine she would not argue that UMR has that ranked as her number one movie.
8. Check out Joan Blondell’s movie career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
WAIT! Not enough stats? Well here are adjusted Worldwide Box Office Grosses on 34 Joan Blondell Movies
- Adventure (1945) $419.70 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Back in Circulation (1937) $78.50 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Blondie Johnson (1933) $34.80 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Broadway Gondolier (1935) $112.80 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Bullets or Ballots (1936) $124.60 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Colleen (1936) $122.70 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Dames (1934) $158.70 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Footlight Parade (1933) $252.70 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- God’s Gift to Women (1931) $20.80 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) $568.60 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Gold Diggers of 1937 (1936) $157.20 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- He Was Her Man (1934) $86.80 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Illicit (1931) $65.30 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- I’ve Got Your Number (1934) $49.30 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Lawyer Man (1932) $44.80 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Lizzie (1957) $24.00 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Millie (1931) $75.00 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Miss Pacific Fleet (1935) $48.70 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Night Nurse (1931) $81.80 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Off The Record (1939) $57.10 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Sinner’s Holiday (1930) $32.80 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Sons o’ Guns (1936) $83.50 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Stand-In (1937) $111.60 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- The Crowd Roars (1932) $84.40 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- The Office Wife (1930) $87.70 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- The Opposite Sex (1956) $121.00 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- The Perfect Specimen (1937) $165.90 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- The Public Enemy (1931) $111.20 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- The Reckless Hour (1931) $36.60 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- This Could Be The Night (1957) $65.40 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Three Men On A Horse (1936) $121.10 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Three on a Match (1932) $49.00 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Traveling Saleslady (1935) $52.80 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Union Depot (1932) $123.40 million in adjusted worldwide gross
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences. Golden Globes® are the registered trademarks of the Hollywood Foreign Press.
Cogerson
Thanks for doing Joan Blondell. What jumped out at me is the high critical rating for Desk Set. I have seen it a couple of times, and would consider it only a slightly above average comedy. Perhaps I should seek to watch it again. To cut to the chase, I think it very odd to rate it over The Public Enemy, Footlight Parade, Gold Diggers of 1933, and The Cincinnati Kid. I guess your critics really dig Tracy and Hepburn films. T & H were indeed good at what they did, but I found Desk Set one of their lesser efforts.
Hey John.
1. Desk Set was considered state of the art technology back then….now it looks so dated…but at the time it really wowed critics and audiences.
2. Still…that being said…..it is not one of Spencer Hepburn’s better movies. One of the few times Spencer Tracy seems bored on screen.
3. So I would have to say I agree with you……but the numbers disagree with us……but it did fall our of the Top 3 at least.
Good feedback as always.
A heart-felt thanks for your report on the adorable, gorgeous, and extremely talented legendary star Joan Blondell. She was one of the most gifted, but unappreciated film stars of the Golden Age. She could do anything, comedy, drama, and musicals. She more than held her own with scores of legendary males stars: Clark Gable, Errol Flynn, James Cagney, Tyrone Power, and many more. At long last, some long overdue praise and recognition.
Hey Frank. Glad you enjoyed our Blondell page so much. I was very impressed with the role call of her leading men….the legends you mentioned…..not to mention Elvis Pressley, John Travolta, John Cassavettes, Steve McQueen, Burt Reynolds, Richard Pryor, Spencer Tracy…and the list goes on and on.
I wonder how many people shared the screen with Richard Pryor and Clark Gable. Glad we were able to give Ms. Blondell some attention to her truly impressive career.
Hello Bruce.
This is great. I remember I suggested this page after you had done your Dick Powell page.
I liked Joan Blondell in everything I saw her in. This page makes me happy. Thanks for doing it. There’s a lot of box office information here that I didn’t have but now I do because of you. This is my favorite website to visit. I’ve gotten more information here than any other website. Great job. Thanks again Bruce.
Hey Lyle…..maybe your comment was rattling around in my head….because when I was thinking about the next UMR subject…she popped up into my mind. When I saw she had 160 IMDb credits I initially thought it was going to be too hard….but a quick search of my database showed about 40 of her movies already in the database….thanks to James Cagney and Dick Powell.
Glad you like this page…I have since added in 34 movies with adjusted worldwide gross….that was almost half of the movies listed here….thank you Warner Brothers Ledgers.
Thanks for the kind words about our website…..comments like that keep us going!
I guess I’ve seen 25 of the listed movies, but Joan Blondell seemed to be in every other WB’s film of the 30’s, and many more titles sound vaguely familiar…My favs are the Golddiggers movies, the “Remember my forgotten Man” number is certainly a classic of early musicals. Other favs include Footlight Parade, Dames, Night Nurse, Public Enemy, A Tree grows in Brooklyn, Nightmare Alley, Cry ‘Havoc’!, The blue Veil, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, and The Cincinati Kid. Miss Blondell had a “bubbly” personality and was always ready with a wisecrack. While she never was a top star, her career was long and distinguished. She easily settled from leading ladies to supporting player, put on a few pounds along the way, and stayed a favorite with moviegoers. Her sister, Gloria Blondell, had a very minor film career, too. Thank you for doing this page on one of Hollywood’s many “Joans”, a workhorse more than a moviestar, but someone who brightened up many a movie with her personality and undeniable talent. The fun facts were also partly new to me, but I agree with Miss Blondell about Aunt Sissy- certainly one of her most successful characterisations!
Hey Lupino
1. 25 Blondell movies watched….very good…that tops Flora and myself….as you have seen 25, Flora has seen 20 and I am at 11…..with number 12 coming very very soon.
2. She was very busy in the 1930s….I found box office on 40 of her movies….but there are still about 8 or 9 more from that decade alone that I could not include on the page.
3. I have seen 6 of the favorites that you listed….with Cincy Kid, Tree Growing and Nightmare Alley being my favorites as well.
4. I did not even know a Glora Blondell existed….thanks for that tidbit of information.
5. Glad you agree with Blondell about Aunt Sissy….her performance gets a little over shadowed by James Dunn and his Oscar winning role.
Thanks for the feedback.
I’ve seen 20 Joan Blondell movies. The highest ranking film I’ve seen is 1: A Tree Grows In Brooklyn.
The highest raning film I have not seen is The Blue Veil.
The lowest ranking film I’ve seen is The Corpse Came COD.
My favourite films are:
Gold Diggers of 1933
Gold Diggers of 1937
Grease
It Happened In Brooklyn
Adventure
Hey Flora
1. Thanks for checking out our latest UMR page.
2. I have seen 11 of her movies….but I admit I do not remember her in movies like Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? and Grease….I remember there was an older waitress…..but had no idea it was a legend from the past.
3. I have seen only one of your Top 5…..but Adventure is the next movie that I will be watching so my tally will be reaching 12 very soon.
Good feedback as always.