Lana Turner Movies

Want to know the best Lana Turner movies?  How about the worst Lana Turner movies?  Curious about Lana Turner’s box office grosses or which Lana Turner movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Lana Turner movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which movie got the worst reviews? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.

Gotta make mama happy. Since I started writing movie pages, my mother, BERN1960 , has been asking me for a Lana Turner page. So after putting her request off for for almost 2 years…. now…finally my Lana Turner tribute page is complete and published.

Lana Turner (1921-1995) was an Oscar® nominated actress that appeared in over 50 movies from 1937 to 1991. In 1937 Turner got her big break when she went to a Hollywood drug store for some soda pop and was discovered by a movie producer who happened to be in the same drug store. She would appear in her first movie, They Won’t Forget, later that year and immediately was noticed by the movie going public because of the tight sweater she wore in the movie. She became known as the “sweater girl”….a label that she strongly disliked. It only took her four years to go from supporting roles to leading roles in low budget movies to leading roles in the most prestige movies being made at the time.

By 1941 was sharing top billing with superstars James Stewart, Spencer Tracy and Clark Gable. Her peak movie years happened between 1941 and 1959. During this time frame she appeared in many blockbuster hits and numerous critical hits and was one of the biggest stars working in movies. Her IMDb page shows 61 acting credits from 1937 to 1985. This page will rank Lana Turner movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, cameos and movies that received limited North America releases were not included in the rankings.

Kirk Douglas and Lana Turner in 1952's The Bad and the Beautiful
Kirk Douglas and Lana Turner in 1952’s The Bad and the Beautiful

Lana Turner Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews, and awards.

Lana Turner Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In Ther Table

The really cool thing about ther table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.

  • Sort Lana Turner movies by the co-stars of her movies.
  • Sort Lana Turner movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Lana Turner movies by yearly domestic box office rank
  • Sort Lana Turner 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 Lana Turner movie received.
  • Sort Lana Turner movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR).  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 Lana Turner Table

  1. Twenty-three Lana Turner movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark.  That is a percentage of 46.00% of her movies listed. Peyton Place (1957) was her biggest box office hit.
  2. An average Lana Turner movie grossed $118.40 million in adjusted box office gross
  3. Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter.  26 of Lana Turner’s movies are rated as good movies…or 52.00% of her movies.  The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) is her highest rated movie while Bittersweet Love (1976) was her lowest rated movie.
  4. Nine Lana Turner movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 18.00% of her movies.
  5. Three Lana Turner movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 6.00% of her movies.
  6. A “good movie” Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 60.00.  35 Lana Turner movies scored higher that average….or 70.00% of her movies.  Peyton Place (1957) got the the highest UMR Score while Bittersweet Love (1976) got the lowest UMR Score.
John Garfield and Lana Turner in the classic film noir movie...The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946).
John Garfield and Lana Turner in the classic film noir movie…The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946).

Possibly Interesting Facts About Lana Turner

1. Lana Turner was born Julia Jean Turner in Wallace, Idaho in 1921. Throughout her life family members called her Judy. It was not until she was discovered that she became Lana.

2. Lana Turner’s list of co-stars is pretty impressive……4 movies with Clark Gable, 2 movies with Spencer Tracy, once with James Stewart, John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Gene Kelly, Ginger Rogers, Richard Burton and Anthony Quinn. She even appeared opposite two James Bonds years before they became Bond….Sean Connery and Roger Moore.

3. Lana Turner received one Oscar® nomination in her career. She was nominated for Best Actress in 1957’s Peyton Place. She never received a Golden Globe® nomination.

4. Lana Turner was married 8 different times to 7 different men. They included a rancher, a hypnotist, a movie producer, an actor, a restaurant owner, a department store owner and a millionaire socialite. Lana Turner had one daughter, Cheryl.

5. In 1958 Lana Turner and her boyfriend at the time, gangster Johnny Stompanato, were in a heated argument. In an effort to protect her mother, Cheryl Turner, killed Stompanato. The amount of media coverage of the killing has been compared to the O.J. Simpson trial in 1995. It was ruled a justifiable homicide.

6. Roles Lana Turner turned down or was seriously considered for: Anatomy of a Murder, Mogambo, The Sound and the Fury, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. On the other side of this fact….she did however get the role of one of her biggest hits, Green Dolphin Street, when Katharine Hepburn dropped out of the movie.

7. The first agent that had contact with Lana Turner was Zeppo Marx, Groucho’s brother.

8.  Check out Lana Turner‘s career compared to current and classic actors.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.

But wait….we have a few more Lana Turner Movie Stats….Adjusted Worldwide Gross on 22 Lana Turner Movies

Lana Turner Box Office Grosses – Adjusted World Wide

Jump to Domestic Box Office

Steve’s Updated Lana Turner You Tube Video

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86 thoughts on “Lana Turner Movies”

  1. 1 With the update Lana now has an overall adjusted domestic gross of nearly $6 billion which over 50 movies I consider quite healthy particularly as unlike some performers she generated those grosses in part through a reasonable number of stand-alone and/or top billed movies which represent 58% of the 50 listed here..

    2 The worldwide grosses are interesting because of among other things the circumstances of their individual contrasting magnitudes. For example Lana’s Green Dolphin Street in which she was the only really big A list star had a [for those days] massive adjusted WW gross of $442 million whereas Who’s Got the Action in which one would have expected her to benefit at the box office from her teaming with the ever-popular Dino had just a humble $77 million globally. The adjusted average ratio per movie for the 21 flicks concerned is 67.7% domestic/32.3% foreign

    3 Congratulations by the way Bruce for locating a few rarities in terms of WW grosses. For example both Portrait in Black and The Lady Takes a Flyer were I understand distributed by Universal International and Who’s Got the Action by Paramount and WW grosses for the movies of those two companies can be exceptionally difficult to locate. ADDITIONAL TRIVIA: There were plans which fell through for Sharon Stone at the height of her post Basic Instinct fame to remake in the Turner role Lady Takes a Flyer[Jeff Chandler in the 1958 movie]. If it had gone ahead I wonder if Richard Dreyfuss would have again been drafted in to play a daredevil pilot, in a remake and who would have got top billing?

    Reply

    1. Hey Bob…..thanks for checking out our updated Lana Turner page. The new total puts Turner in our Top Ten of box office actresses…headed by some lady named Loy. The domestic % is higher than normally…as it is close to 70%. She made Green Dolphin Street in her prime while the career was really slowing up by the time she made her Dino film.

      I do not know where I got those worldwide numbers….though if I had to guess….I would go with biographies and the Dino website….this proves the point WoC has been making for years…that I need to source my information. As always thanks for a great comment…and thanks for the visit.

      Reply

  2. 1 That the likes of Sophia Loren should be included in AFI’s Legends lists and Lana wasn’t is incomprehensible to me. Bruce has yet to provide her stats update but the table above even as it stands demonstrates that in the 40s/50s Lana was a tigress at the box office in a way that Loren never was, and adjustments already made elsewhere on this site show that when Bruce does give his Turner update it will take her number of Cogerson 100 million dollar smashers to over 20 whereas Loren’s update mightn’t give her more than 5.

    2 VIDEO COMMENTS (1) I loved the irony in the opening quote (2) sad to see Lana/Sir Sean in bottom place but agree (3) surprised at relatively low placing of Weekend at Waldorf but delighted at Johnny Eager in Top 5 as often underrated (4) you and the Oracle in his critic/audience coincide with three of your top five but are miles apart in your assessment of Peyton Place which you have at 4th and 19th respectively.

    3 Also Lana was such a glamorous star that it was easy to predict that she would give you rich pickings for posters selection. Joint ‘Oscars’ go to the ones from Rains of Ranchipur and the Sea Chase and awards for sauciest posters belong to the Prodigal and Who’s got the Action. There are some classy stills from certain movies into the bargain.

    4 To determine the extent of any star’s greatness I contend that you need an overview of both their artistic and commercial triumphs; but it also occurs to me that a study of the posters you are now reproducing will clearly illustrate why many of the performers in them made such an impact before the cameras. Great Stuff!

    Reply

    1. Hey Bob and Steve…..yet another fine addition to Steve’s massive video library. I just viewed and commented as well…plus I sent the link to my mother who loves Ms. Turner. Good thoughts on Lana T….Bob…thanks for sharing them.

      Reply

      1. Thanks Bob and Bruce, much appreciated. Bruce made the connection that Sean Moore and Roger Connery both starred opposite Turner before playing Bond. And If you look closely at the poster credits you’ll see Lazenby, Dalton and a young Brosnan were also in Turner’s movies… no don’t look I made that last bit up. 🙂

        Peyton Place, never saw it, had high ratings from all my sources, Maltin gave it 9 out of 10. That’s more than he gave The Omega Man! How dare he!

        I loved the hype on the poster for The Prodigal “This film cost a fortune!” and it’s still terrible!

        Cheers. Susie next.

        Reply

        1. 1 I remember going to see Turner and Moore in Diane and it was doing such poor business that it was the supporting feature to another flop called The Vintage starring Audrey Hepburn’s then husband Mel Ferrer.

          2 For some reason in the 1957/58 period 20th Century Fox got away with releasing and promoting as a special season of films with of course special high ticket prices Peyton Place, The Young Lions and Rock Hudson’s A Farewell to Arms. There is no doubt that domestically at any rate Peyton Place was by far the most successful of the three with Bruce according it $367 mil against $215 for Farewell to Arms and $182 for Lions though the Peyton Place figure has still to be updated.

          Reply

          1. Hey Bob….great story of your movie going trips in the late 1950s…..I really enjoy hearing stories about that..thanks for sharing.

            Peyton Place was a monster hit. Rock was at his peak….as was that guy who mumbled in The Young Lions…his name escapes me…lol.

            Good stuff 🙂

        2. Hey Steve….I wonder who has worked with the most Bonds….that has my mind spinning trying to come up somebody….Caine worked with Connery (The Man Who Would Be King), Moore (Bullseye) and Brosnan (The Fourth Protocol) can anybody top 3?

          Peyton Place was hit…and became a very successful tv series too….which made Mia Farrow and Ryan O’Neal famous…only 50 plus years ago.

          Good stuff here 🙂

          Reply

  3. hi I have just seen madame x and dr jeckyll and mr hyde I thought turner was superb in madame iwas surprised she didn’t get a Oscar nom mybe the changing tastes of the sixties had the film been made say 58, 59, it would have done better boxoffice iwasnt so keen on dr jeckyll I thought she was miscast. love your site

    Reply

    1. Hey Chris….I have seen both of those Turner movies…..I agree with you about Madame X…she should have gotten some Oscar love….at least a nomination….as for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde….it was better than I thought it would be….but her part is pretty ordinary….Spencer Tracy and Ingrid Bergman….easily take all the acting glory in this one. I am glad you like this site. You actually posted on the old website….but I am posting back on the new website.

      Reply

      1. Hey Kathy….thanks for a great compliment and comment….both are greatly appreciated. Glad you like this Lana Turner page. We do requests if you see…or someone on your forum sees someone missing from pages.

        Reply

    1. Hey Chris….since writing this page I have seen more of her movies…but like you she is not one of my favorites….although I agree she is pretty good in Postman. Thanks for the comment.

      Reply

  5. What a knockout she is and always will be on the silver screen! Just today I heard a reference to Lana Turner within the movie “Kill Bill 2” that the hubster was watching (again) where Bill’s surogate father figure talks about taking Bill to the movies as a five year old and discovers that he is partial to blondes. Anyhow, very entertaining and informative. She was one of my Dad’s favorite actresses.

    Reply

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