Want to know the best Marlene Dietrich movies? How about the worst Marlene Dietrich movies? Curious about Marlene Dietrich’s box office grosses or which Marlene Dietrich movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Marlene Dietrich 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.
Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992) was an Oscar® nominated German-American actress and singer. On American Film Institute’s Top 50 Screen Legends list, Dietrich was ranked as the 9th best actress. Right behind #8 Judy Garland and right before #10 Joan Crawford. Her film career lasted almost 60 years. One of the main reasons for such a long successful career was her ability to re-invent herself, professionally and characteristically. So we figured it was about time to give one the silver screen’s first sex symbols her very own Ultimate Movie Rankings movie page.
Her IMDb page shows 56 acting credits from 1919-1978. This page will rank 30 Marlene Dietrich movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Her German silent films, cameos, television appearances and movies not released in North America were not included in the rankings.
Marlene Dietrich Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews, and awards.
Marlene Dietrich 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 Marlene Dietrich movies by co-stars of her movies
- Sort Marlene Dietrich movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Marlene Dietrich movies by yearly box office rank
- Sort Marlene Dietrich 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 and how many Oscar® wins each Marlene Dietrich movie received.
- Sort Marlene Dietrich 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 Marlene Dietrich Table
- Fifteen Marlene Dietrich movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 46.88% of her movies listed. Shanghai Express (1932) was her biggest box office hit…not counting her cameo role in Around The World In 80 Days.
- An average Marlene Dietrich movie grosses $121.10 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 24 of Marlene Dietrich’s movies are rated as good movies…or 75.00% of her movies. Witness for the Prosecution (1957) is her highest rated movie while Just A Gigolo (1978) was her lowest rated movie.
- Ten Marlene Dietrich movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 31.25% of her movies.
- Three Marlene Dietrich movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 9.37% of her movies.
- A “good movie” Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 60.00. 26 Marlene Dietrich movies scored higher that average….or 81.25% of her movies. *Morocco (1931) got the the highest UMR Score while Just A Gigolo (1978) got the lowest UMR Score. *Around The World In 80 Days excluded.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Marlene Dietrich
1. Marlene Dietrich was born Maria Magdalene Dietrich in Berlin, Germany.
2. Marlene Dietrich’s road to stardom Cliff Notes style….she started out as a cabaret singer, then she started appearing in German silent films, next she caught the eye of director, Josef Von Sternberg. Von Sternberg cast her in the German and English versions of Blue Angel. Blue Angel was a hit and Dietrich became one of the first sex symbols in film.
3. Marlene Dietrich was nominated for one Oscar® (Morocco) and one Golden Globe® (Witness For The Prosecution).
4. According to the American Film Institute, Marlene Dietrich is the 9th greatest female star of all-time.
5. Marlene Dietrich starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s Stage Fright (1950)….they experienced some friction while making the movie. Hitchcock provided one of my favorite quotes while researching this page. On Dietrich…Hitchcock said….”Marlene Dietrich is a professional – a professional actress, a professional dress designer, a professional cameraman.”
6. Marlene Dietrich was married one time in her life. Her marriage to Rudolf Sieber was from 1924 to his death in 1976. They actually only lived together for five years…but they never got divorced. I wonder if they celebrated their 50th anniversary? They did have one daughter together….and four grandsons. Hey BERN1960…I have a piece of Dietrich trivia you might be interested in….I just did not want to put it in this page.
7. Roles Marlene Dietrich turned down or was seriously considered for: Pal Joey (Rita Hayworth role), All About Eve (Bette Davis role), Whatever Happened To Baby Jane (Joan Crawford role), and Stagecoach (Claire Trevor role). One role she really wanted but did not get was Irene Dunne’s role in I Remember Mama.
8. Marlene Dietrich was voted the 43rd Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly. Dietrich was also the first German actress to be Oscar® nominated.
9. Marlene Dietrich received the U.S. War Department’s ‘Medal of Freedom‘, in 1947, for entertaining American troops in WWII and her strong stand against Naziism.
10. Check out Marlene Dietrich‘s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time. To check out some awesome movie posters of Marlene Dietrich’s movies check out Steve Lensman’s Marlene Dietrich Movie Posters page.
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.
Das ist fantastisch!
Dass es euch gefault
Hi
In the year 2000, I was in Blackpool, England on holiday and I met an old man. We started talking and he told me that he worked as a camera man in England during the 30s. Most of the movies were just B movies but one he did mention was Knight without Armor. He was surprised that I knew it. He said that Dietrich, despite all her glamour, was very easy going and friendly to the crew.
My own favourite would be Destiny Rides Again and Witness for the Prosecution.
Hey Chris….that is a cool story about your time in Blackpool. I have to admit I had never heard of Knight Without Armor until I did this page. I imagine the old man you meet back then would have had many many wonderful stories to share. Good to know that Dietrich was easy going and friendly. I am right there with you about Destry Rides Again and Witness for the Prosecution. Usually the movies I like on my movie page subjects…always end up with a picture on my webpage….as you see on this one Destry and Witness have photos. As always thanks for the visit and comment.
Hi
I noticed on your list of Dietrich movies that you mention that Robinson and Raft had a fist fight. Apparently Robinson was trying to give Raft tips on acting and Raft was having none of it. But I think if I’m correct, they appeared in another movie later on so they must have got over their squabble.
The Garden of Allah was one of the most luscious looking movies ever in colour and Dietrich looked sensational. It probably cost so much money that it couldn’t make a profit.
I think she was an acquired taste, she was very glamorous and beautiful and a lot of her movies, especially in the 30s, would appeal to film students but I don’t think she would have a mass audience now.
I noticed you haven’t done a page on Susan Sarandon or Jim Carrey, a suggestion for the future perhaps?
Hey Chris…..they made another movie together but it was 14 years later….in A Bullet For Joey….one of the books I read said that it was a very “frosty” reunion. 14 years? I held a grudge against the cable for about that long….lol. I will have to check out The Garden of Allah. It is another one of her movies that I was unaware of before I wrote this page….but the budget was spent on the look of the movie. I agree with you about her being an acquired taste.
Susan Sarndon and Jim Carrey are on the short list of requested current performers to do so you will see at least one of them very soon….now the classic performers have a long and winding road…when it comes to requests.
I very enjoy this hub. She’s one of my favorite star. One of my best western is Fritz Lang’s Rancho notorious, and I think Witness for prosecution is one of the best trial movie with anatomy of murder. Thanks for this page. Please, can you tell me the actual box office of Shangaï Express ?
Hey logan…very happy to see that you enjoyed my latest movie page. I have not seen Rancho Notorious but in one of my favorite books of all time…Joel Hirschhorn’s Rating The Movie Stars…they have that movie listed as one of her best performances. So I am adding it on my “Movies to Watch List”.
Ok Shanghai Express….I have it’s actual box office gross at $5,280,000 back in 1932/1933. According to Paramount the movie earned the studio 3 million dollars…..that number does not really match with the numbers I have. One book said the movie earned $3,700,000 on a 700,000 budget in it’s first run. That seems to be an example of a studio giving itself too much profit…as the theaters where the movie showed takes a pieced of the pie. Wiki’s Top Movies of 1932 list Shanghai Express as the number one movie of the year….but it did not reach Variety’s Top Films of 1930s….and the threshold of that is 3 million in retails. Needless to say finding the actual box office grosses in the 1930s is very challenging….but I have many sources that say Shangai Express was the biggest box office hit of her career.
Thanks for your answer. It’s very interesting for me because the americans movies between the 30’s to 50’s are my favorite classics films. And I like to know the box office for them. Thanks again for your work.
Hey logan….I think you should explore some other pages on my site…I have lots of movie pages on stars of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. I actually think this is a better site index….than the one linked here…..I highly recommend checking it out. Years of work in these links.
http://cogersonmoviescore.com/site-index.html
I discovered her because of Madonna. Madonna was and is a Dietrich fan. When I read “her ability to re-invent herself, professionally and characteristically” I immediately thought of Madonna. I bet she followed Marlene’s blueprint. I have not seen Shaghi Express but if it is that highly rated I will have to check it out.
Hey Candice…..good points about Madonna and Marlene….I had not thought of that before…but you comment makes perfect sense to me. Pretty sure Dietrich was one of the people mentioned in Madonna’s big hit…Vogue. Thanks for opening my eyes to that comparison.
I like it. She is one of my favourites of all time. No matter how good a movie was she made it better and no matter how bad a movie was she made it worth while to watch. Sharing this page on Facebook.
Hey Melanie…..Thanks for the following….(1) Checking out my Dietrich page. (2) Taking the time to write a comment (3) Sharing my latest page on Facebook….all are greatly appreciated. Glad I did a movie page on one of your favorites.