Want to know the best Joel McCrea movies? How about the worst Joel McCrea movies? Curious about Joel McCrea box office grosses or which Joel McCrea movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Joel McCrea 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.
Joel McCrea (1905-1990) was an American actor whose career spanned 50 years. His IMDb page shows 95 acting credits from 1927-1976. This page ranks 65 Joel McCrea movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. His television performances, his uncredited roles, his cameos and some of his late 1920s and early 1930s movies (lack of box office information) were not included in the rankings.
Drivel Part: So later today we are headed to Las Vegas and Hollywood. In Las Vegas, WoC is a featured speaker at a conference. In Hollywood….I have an appointment at the USC (University of Southern California) to view the William Schaefer Warner Brother’s Ledgers. So before we leave for a week….we wanted to get a new page published. Recently it has come to our attention…that Joel McCrea was being unfairly discriminated against at UMR.com (as he did not have a UMR page). Well since we strongly believe that everybody should be treated equally and fairly…we have finally written a page on Mr. McCrea. So Lyle, Flora and Bob you request has been completed.
Joel McCrea Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Joel McCrea 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 Joel McCrea movies by co-stars of his movies
- Sort Joel McCrea movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Joel McCrea movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Joel McCrea 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 Joel McCrea movie received.
- Sort Joel McCrea 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.
Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Joel McCrea Table
- Fifteen Joel McCrea movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 23.05% of his movies listed. Union Pacific (1939) was his biggest box office hit.
- An average Joel McCrea movie grossed $68.50 million in adjusted domestic box office gross.
- That translates to a career adjusted box office of $4.45 billion.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 41 Joel McCrea movies are rated as good movies…or 63.07% of his movies. Sullivan’s Travels (1941) is his highest rated movie while Cry Blood, Apache (1970) is his lowest rated movie.
- Eleven Joel McCrea movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 16.92% of his movies.
- Two Joel McCrea movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 3.07% of his movies.
- An average Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 40.00. 32 Joel McCrea movies scored higher that average….or 49.23% of his movies. The More the Merrier (1943) got the the highest UMR Score while Cry Blood, Apache (1970) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Joel McCrea
1. Joel Albert McCrea was born in in South Pasadena, California in 1905.
2. Joel McCrea was good around horses. Even as a high school student, he was working as a stunt double and held horses for cowboy stars William S. Hart and Tom Mix.
3. Joel McCrea met the real Wyatt Earp in Hollywood in 1928 and ended up playing the iconic lawman in 1955’s Wichita.
4. Joel McCrea’s nickname was McFee.
5. Joel McCrea was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1969.
6. Joel McCrea was married 1 time. He married actress Frances Dee in 1933…..he passed away on their 57th anniversary….they had three children.
7. We found worldwide box office on 13 of Joel McCrea’s movies:
- The More The Merrier (1943) $211.50 million in adjusted gross
- Foreign Correspondent (1940) $ 188.90 million in adjusted gross
- The Outriders (1950) $ 109.30 million in adjusted gross
- Stars In My Crown (1950) $107.50 million in adjusted gross
- Primrose Path (1940) $103.20 million in adjusted gross
- Our Little Girl (1935) $99.50 million in adjusted gross
- The Lost Squadron (1932) $97.70 million in adjusted gross
- Three Blind Mice (1938) $86.80 million in adjusted gross
- The Common Law (1931) $85.10 million in adjusted gross
- The Silver Cord (1933) $83.50 million in adjusted gross
- Private Worlds (1935) $82.40 million in adjusted gross
- Bird of Paradise (1932) $82.10 million in adjusted gross
- The Most Dangerous Game (1932) $47.80 million in adjusted gross
8. Joel McCrea was infamously modest about his own acting abilities, often bordering on a soft-spoken contempt. The Top 2 actresses on the AFI Screen Legends list, Katharine Hepburn and Bette Davis, however spoke very highly of McCrea’s acting skills.
10. Check out Joel McCrea ‘s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.
Hello Bruce. Thanks for the great page on Joel McCrea. A very likable actor who was very successful in westerns but of course my favorites are Foreign Correspondent (1940), Sullivan’s Travels (1941), The Palm Beach Story (1942) and The More the Merrier (1942). Of McCrea’s westerns my favorites are Union Pacific (1939), Ramrod (1947), Four Faces West (1948), Stars in My Crown (1950), Cattle Drive (1951), Trooper Hook (1957) and the best of the lot is Sam Peckinpah’s Ride the High Country (1962). I’m also grateful to get box office information on another Jean Arthur film in Adventure in Manhattan. Thank you, Bruce.
Hey Lyle….glad you found your requested page. Our Default rankings has your top 4 in the Top 5…..makes me think we picked the right way to rank McCrea’s movies. Of the westerns you listed….the only one I have seen is Ride the High Country….I will have to check out some the westerns you listed. Adventure in Manhattan made some money…but boy were the reviews weak. Thanks for the comment and the visit.
Hi
When Maureen Stapleton won her Oscar in ’82 for Reds, she dedicated her win to Joel McCrea. Warren Beattie at the time looked quite puzzled, and I remember it being mentioned in the press. Anyway, McCrea had a very successful career, especially with Westerns. But for me his best performance was The Palm Beach Story, followed by Foreign Correspondent and Sullivan’s Travels.
Sadly I doubt few young people have heard of him. P.s. What happened the New Brando page?
Hey Chris…interesting about Stapleton and her Oscar dedication to McCrea….have to admit….I am like Beatty….trying to figure out the connection….will have to do some research on that. I have seen and enjoyed all three of your favorites….another I enjoyed was Internes Can’t Take Money. I agree not many young people remember Mr. McCrea…though his page is off to a good start. We know have a link for The New Brando…it is under site index and the subjects column.
I always liked These Three and hated The Great Moment, one of the worst movies of the 1940’s (mixing comedy and the story of anesthesia). There are very few people on the current Oracle of Bacon top 1000 Center of the Hollywood Universe that worked with Joel, they are;
Buffalo Bill (1944) – 681 Anthony Quinn
Cattle Drive (1951) – 198 Dean Stockwell
Frenchie (1950) – 781 Shelley Winters
Half a Sinner (1934) – 245 Mickey Rooney
Stars in My Crown (1950) – 198 Dean Stockwell
Union Pacific (1939) – 681 Anthony Quinn
Joel Himself never made the list. The following people on the 2000 list that appeared with him and have now fallen off are;
Adventure in Manhattan (1936) – 222 Bess Flowers, 982 Billy Benedict
Barbary Coast (1935) – 102 David Niven, 256 Hank Worden, 463 Edward G. Robinson
Border River (1954) – 192 Yvonne De Carlo, 290 George Wallace, 915 Ivan Triesault
Buffalo Bill (1944) – 740 George Chandler, 975 Maureen O’Hara
Cattle Drive (1951) – 93 Harry Carey Jr., 959 Leon Ames
Cattle Empire (1958) – 930 Bing Russell (Kurt’s father)
Colorado Territory (1949) – 100 Ian Wolfe
Come and Get it (1936) – 256 Hank Worden, 832 Don Brodie
Dead End (1937) – 611 Don ‘Red’ Barry
Foreign Correspondent (1940) – 100 Ian Wolfe, 323 George Sanders, 671 Eduardo Cianelli
Fort Massacre (1958) – 878 Denver Pyle
Frenchie (1950) – 256 Hank Worden, 963 Frank Ferguson
Gunsight Ridge (1957) – 245 Slim Pickens, 350 L.Q Jones, 740 George Chandler, 746 Herb Vigran
He Married His Wife (1940) – 151 Cesar Romero, 219 Elisha Cook Jr.
Hollywood Story (1951) – 221 John Crawford, 271 Peter Brocco, 503 Richard Conte, 532 Jim Backus
Internes Can’t Take Money (1937) – 571 Charles Lane, 786 Lloyd Nolan
Lightnin’ (1930) – 222 Bess Flowers
Primrose Path (1940) – 571 Charles Lane
Private Worlds (1935) – 222 Bess Flowers, 393 Charles Boyer
Ramrod (1947) – 50 Jeff Corey, 147 Lloyd Bridges, 682 Ray Teal
Reaching for the Sun (1941) – 740 George Chandler, 783 James Flavin
Ride the High Country (1962) – 165 R.G. Armstrong, 350 L.Q. Jones, 453 Warren Oates, 969 Byron Foulger, 978 John Davis Chandler
Rockabye (1932) – 395 Walter Pidgeon
Rough Shoot (1953) – 98 Herbert Lom
South of St. Louis (1949) – 824 Frank Wilcox
Splendor (1935) – 102 David Niven
Stranger on Horseback (1955) – 14 John Carradine, 185 Kevin McCarthy, 458 Dabbs Greer
Sullivan’s Travels (1941) – 969 Byron Foulger
The First Texan (1956) – 459 Dabbs Greer, 859 Myron Healey
The Great Man’s Lady (1942) – 571 Charles Lane, 740 George Chandler
The Great Moment (1944) – 969 Byron Foulger
The Gunfight at Dodge City (1959) – 302 Richard Anderson
The Lone Hand (1953) – 290 George Wallace, 878 Denver Pyle, 963 Frank Ferguson
The More the Merrier (1943) – 379 Ann Doran
The Most Dangerous Game (1932) – 783 James Flavin
The Oklahoman (1957) – 682 Ray Teal
The Outriders (1950) – 50 Jeff Corey, 362 James Whitmore, 362 Barry Sullivan
The Palm Beach Story (1942) – 222 Bess Flowers, 969 Byron Foulger
The Richest Girl in the World (1934) -222 Bess Flowers
The San Francisco Story (1952) – 192 Yvonne De Carlo, 599 John Doucette
The Sport Parade (1932) – 740 George Chandler
The Tall Stranger (1957) – 421 Michael Ansara, 544 Leo Gordon, 593 Whit Bissell, 682 Ray Teal
The Virginian (1946) – 27 Marc Lawrence
They Shall Have Music (1939) – 783 James Flavin
Three Blind Mice (1938) – 102 Dabid Niven, 219 Elisha Cook Jr., 936 Jose Nieto
Trooper Hook (1957) – 155 Royal Dano, 169 John Dehner
Two in a Crowd (1936) – 219 Elisha Cook Jr., 542 Paul Fix, 783 James Flavin
Union Pacific (1939) – 234 Akim Tamiroff, 783 James Flavin, 969 Byron Foulger
Wells Fargo (1937) – 786 Lloyd Nolan
Wichita (1955) – 147 Lloyd Bridges, 353 Peter Graves, 404 Jack Elam, 917 Robert J. Wilke
Woman Chases Man (1937) – 241 Broderick Crawford, 740 George Chandler
Woman Wanted 91935) – 571 Charles Lane, 783 James Flavin, 832 Don Brodie
Did you ever see Joel and Frances’ son Jody in the old AIP beach party films, he’s in a number of them. He looks like dad but is really goofy.
Joel worked with 18 Oscar winners that I could find including a number of times with Walter Brennan.
Banjo on My Knee (1936) – Walter Brennan
Barbary Coast (1935) – David Niven, Walter Brennan
Bed of Roses (1933) – Jane Darwell
Buffalo Bill (1944) – Anthony Quinn
Chance at Heaven (1933) – Ginger Rogers
Colorado Territory (1949) – Dorothy Malone
Come and Get it (1936) – Walter Brennan
Dead End (1937) – Humphrey Bogart, Claire Trevor
Foreign Correspondent (1940) – George Sanders, Edmund Gwenn
Frenchie (1950) – Shelley Winters
Half a Sinner (1934) – Walter Brennan
One Man’s Journey (1933) – Lionel Barrymore
Primrose Path (1940) – Ginger Rogers
Private Worlds (1935) – Claudette Colbert
Rockabye (1932) – Paul Lukas
South of St. Louis (1949) – Dorothy Malone
Splendor (1935) – David Niven
The Lost Squadron (1932) – Mary Astor
The More the Merrier (1943) – Charles Coburn
The Palm Beach Story (1942) – Claudette Colbert, Mary Astor
These Three (1936) – Walter Brennan
They Shall Have Music (1939) – Walter Brennan
Three Blind Mice (1938) – David Niven, Loretta Young, Jane Darwell
Union Pacific (1939) – Anthony Quinn
Woman Chases Man (1937) – Broderick Crawford
Hey Dan…..thanks for the Joel McCrea lists…sorry again that my link was wrong…will finally be able to fix that know that I have a computer again. List 1…..not many people left….I always find that bittersweet. List 2…..one of the things I look at when I am done with a page is the how many co-stars the subject had that have UMR pages….wow…looking at the co-stars and this list…he has some…but not nearly as many as I would have thought…especially with a career that lasted 50 years. List 3: 18 is pretty small to for such a long career. As for his son Jody….have seen any of the Beach movies in years….so when I saw him…I had no idea who his dad was….but it is cool they got to make at least one movie together. As always thanks for the information.
I don’t think you’ll find a page like this on Joel McCrea anywhere else on the net. Impressive!
eeek a lot more films than I expected.. byeee [come back Steve we need a tally!] oh okay I’ve watched 1,2,3.. 13 McCrea movies out of the 65 you’ve listed, that’s actually more than I expected. There are westerns on there I’ve seen but can’t remember the titles.
Favorites include Ride the High Country aka Guns in the Afternoon, The Most Dangerous Game aka The Hounds of Zaroff (bought on DVD, by the people who made King Kong and using some of the same sets and Fay Wray too!), Dead End, Union Pacific, The Virginian, Wichita, Buffalo Bill, Sullivan’s Travels and of course Hitchcock’s Foreign Correspondent.
The More the Merrier tops Foreign Correspondent on the UMR, hmmm… and Sullivan’s Travels is no.1 on the critics chart, I bought that a few months ago on blu-ray.
Another top job Bruce. Voted Up!
Hey Steve….thanks for the nice words on my McCrea page. 13 for you? Well….I am pretty close as I have seen 10 of his movies. I liked The Most Dangerous Game as well. Not thinking I have seen a single one of his movies that he made in the 1950s. I admit I was surprised The More The Merrier got the top spot too…..but that is what the numbers say. After some delays finally got a new page done.
swweeeetttt. he was a great cowboy.
Thanks for the comment and the visit Tyler.