Want to know the best Merle Oberon movies? How about the worst Merle Oberon movies? Curious about Merle Oberon box office grosses or which Merle Oberon movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Merle Oberon 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.
Merle Oberon (1911-1979) was an Oscar®-nominated Anglo-Indian actress. Film stardom came when she appeared in 1933’s The Private Life of Henry VIII. She starred in 29 movies from 1933 to 1948, before he career started slowing up. Her IMDb page shows 61 acting credits from 1928-1973. This page will rank 36 Merle Oberon movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information.
Oberon’s seven television appearances, her 11 uncredited roles, her 4 movies not released in North America and her 1 unfinished movie (I, Claudius) were not included in the rankings. But wait…that leaves 2 movies. Ok…sadly we were unable to find box office information on 1934’s Thunder in the East and Vegabond Violinist….so they did not make the page either. This page comes from a request by Cameron and Lupino.
Merle Oberon 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 Merle Oberon films by co-stars of her movies
- Sort Merle Oberon films by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Merle Oberon films by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Merle Oberon 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 Merle Oberon film received.
- Sort Merle Oberon 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 Merle Oberon Table
- Seven Merle Oberon movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 19.44% of her movies listed. Her biggest hit was Stage Door Canteen (1943)
- An average Merle Oberon movie grosses an average of $81.70 million in adjusted domestic gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 18 Merle Oberon movies are rated as good movies…or 50.00% of her movies. Wuthering Heights (1939) was her highest rated movie while Of Love and Desire (1963) was her lowest rated movie.
- Thirteen Merle Oberon movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 36.11% of her movies.
- Five Merle Oberon movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 13.88% of her movies.
- An average Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 40.00. 16 Merle Oberon movies scored higher than that average….or 44.44% of her movies. Wuthering Heights (1939) got the the highest UMR Score while Of Love and Desire (1963) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Merle Oberon
- Estelle Merle O’Brien Thompson was born in Bombay, India in 1911.
2. The name “Merle Oberon” was the brain child of director, producer Alexander Korda. When Korda cast her in 1933’s The Private Life of Henry VIII…that was the name he billed her under.
3. Because of facial scars the actress sustained in a London car crash in 1937, her future husband, cinematographer Lucien Ballard, designed a compact spotlight that he coined the “Obie” (Oberon’s nickname). Mounted on the side of the camera, the device lights the subject head on, thus reducing the incidence of unflattering facial lines and shadows.
4. Merle Oberon was only nominated for one Oscar®. Surprisingly it was not for 1939’s Wuthering Heights….it was for 1935’s Dark Waters.
5. Merle Oberon is the only Asian actress to be nominated for a Best Actress Oscar®.
6. Merle Oberon was married four times and had two children. Her first marriage was to director Alexander Korda. When Korda was knighted in 1941….Oberon was became Lady Korda.
7. Check out Steve’s Merle Oberon Video….
8. Check out Merle Oberon’s movie 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.
Cogerson
I never thought about it before, but it is interesting that both Scarlett O’Hara and Melanie Wilkes were born in Asia, I assume in southern India and southern Japan respectively.
Cogerson
“Merle Oberon is the only Asian actress to be nominated for a best actress Oscar.”
This is an interesting point. She was the only one who was an ethnic Asian, but Vivien Leigh was also born in India, and Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine were both born in Japan. A technical question, but what do you think?
Hello John,
All through her life, Merle Oberon kept her “half-cast status” a secret. Her mother, who was a native Indian, lived with her pretending to be her maid- that is how afraid Oberon was this secret would see the light of day. In 1949, 12 years after her mother’s death, she commissioned a painting of her mother from an old photograph, instructing the painter to lighten her mother’s complexion in the painting to hide the fact that she was part-Indian. The mini series “Queenie” (Oberon’s nickname), based on the book of the same name written by Michael Korda (nephew of Oberon’s first husband Alexander Korda), gives a detailed, though partly fictionalized- all the names are changed, f.ex.- account of Oberons life in India, England and Hollywood.
Hey John and Lupino. I think Lupino has done a great job of answering your question Bob. Reading that behind the scenes stuff makes me think about the Lana Turner Classic, Imitiation of Life. Pretty sure Leigh and de Havilland were born there just not with Indian parents.
Bruce,
Joan and Olivia were born in Tokyo, Japan while Vivien Leigh was born in Darjeeling, India…all three of them NOT into mixed marriages 🙂
BTW, throughout her Hollywood career Oberon claimed to have been born in Tasmania, like Eroll Flynn.
Joel Hirschhorn’s become a special guest commenter on your site Bruce, and from beyond the grave too, much to Bob’s chagrin. 😉
I forgot I did a video on Oberon, thanks for linking it. I have the memory of a goldfish.
I’ve seen 5 of the 36 films listed. Wuthering Heights, Desiree, Private Life of Henry VIII, The Lodger and The Oscar.
Has Hirshhorn reviewed Desiree yet? Brando as Napoleon! To be truthful not the best Brando film I’ve seen from the 1950s, it’s a romantic drama. I liked his much-maligned Fletcher Christian far more than his Napoleon. I did enjoy Rod Steiger as ‘Boney’ in Waterloo. That was an epic movie, incredible battle scenes. Herbert Lom played Napoleon in War and Peace (1956).
Well that’s it. I think I’ve chatted enough about Oberon.
Good work as always Bruce. Voted Up!
HI STEVE
1 I enjoyed your backchat and further information in response to WH’s Oberon page and my Garner post to you. I’ve said before that Olivier thought that Brando’s performance as “Boney” was underrated which in answer to your question means that Hirschhorn MUST have been involved in a review of it at some stage. Lord Larry explained that “Nappy” was a poseur and that Marlon’s portrayal faithfully reflected that. An added bonus for Brando fans was that the performance was entirely mumbles-free. That’s me talking and of course his Lordship made no mention of mumbling.
2 You mention Steiger and Lom’s Napoleon outings and I enjoyed the Steiger one. Boyer of course also played the emperor in the 1937 Conquest with Garbo. However some of the more highbrow film historians suggest that the definitive Napoleon was played on the screen by French actor Albert Dieudonne in the 1927 silent French film “Napoleon” written, produced and directed by Abel Gance and many historians also proclaim that movie a masterpiece. If you ever get the opportunity of testing whether you agree with their opinion choose an occasion like a holiday when you have plenty of time on your hands because although the film has been released in various lengths none of them is short. IMDB for example reviews a 4hr version while Wikipedia quotes a version just short of 6 hrs. As I say have a good weekend.
Bob, I bought a 3-disc blu-ray edition of Abel Gance’s Napoleon a couple of months ago but still haven’t got round to watching it. Restoration by film historian Kevin Brownlow. According to the back cover it’s 332mins long! There’s a 20mins sequence which used three cameras and projected onto three screens, an early form of cinerama? An epic film ahead of it’s time. I should watch it one of these days.
HI STEVE
What a coincidence! Must be the masterpiece that is claimed for it when someone of your fine taste buys it. When you get around to watching it I’d be interested in your opinion.
Hey Steve…I second Bob’s comment….let us know what you think about the movie when you see it.
Hey Steve…I am envious of you for owning that movie…..I bought Spencer Tracy’s Inherit the Wind about a year ago….it has been sitting on my DVD case just waiting for me to finally see that one.
Hey Bob. I have been trying to track down and watch Gance’s Napolean for years. Ever since reading about that movie in one of the Danny Peary Cult Movie books. Good information.
Hey Steve
1. Thanks for the visit, the comment and the tally.
2. Yep Joel has been making lots of appearances here…..I think his first paragraph for each of his stars is a pretty quick look at their careers.
3. Wow….I thought I could Top your tally of 5…..but I can not…as I am down at the very low total of 3.
4. Brave man talking badly about Desiree……lol. I have not seen it before so I have no opinion other than knowing your, Bob and Joel’s opinion.
5. Thanks for the vote up.
HI BRUCE
1 I posted comments about Merle when I responded to Steve’s video 2 months ago ago and for the record you and he agree on 4 of Merle’s Top 5 the Odd Man Out being Dark Angel which is your No 5 but for which he substitutes The Lodger in his own 5. The Lodger is of course though your No 6 for critic/audience.
2 DAN TIME Film historians have highlighted that the screen longevity of Mr Mumbles enabled him to get to act with Legends of the classic era such as Sinatra, Glenn Ford, Greer Garson, Liz Taylor and Dean Martin as well as with modern giants like Nicholson, Pacino and DeNiro. Appearing in A Countess from Hong Kong saw him acting with a MALE legend of the silent era as Chaplin apart from directing had a cameo as a steward in that one. Well [as illustrated in your delicious coloured miniature above] Merle was Josephine to the Butter Boy’s*** Napoleon and there Mr M was appearing alongside a former great FEMALE star who had made at least one silent film albeit in an uncredited role, The Three Passions in 1928. It takes my breath away at times to think that SIR MAURICE’S career began way back in 1956 and that he too has rubbed shoulders with important modern stars AND with those of yesteryear.
3 Anyway I warmly welcome this page as a companion piece to Steve’s Oberon video [which sadly has attracted only 284 views to date] and shall enjoy recording the grosses in my databank so Thumbs Up though it does surprise me that you are still keeping Desiree’s healthy gross in your lists as we have been told that “Nobody cared” about that movie !!
***One sarcastic Joel like Brando hater used to sarcastically call ole Mumbles that because of a notorious scene in Last Tango.
Hey Bob…good to know that Steve and UMR have similar rankings. Yep Brando makes a wonderful bridge from those first Hollywood stars to the modern stars. As was Sir Micheal. She is off to a decent start when it comes to views….maybe I should have done her page earlier.
Merle Oberon once confessed to Eddie Fisher, “I can have anything I want, but I don’t have love. I’ve chosen the wrong friends.” This reality is a considerable contrast to her screen image. Onscreen, Oberon was often wealthy, glamorous, and totally in command of her life. She was also, when the script permitted, a capable actress.
My Top 3 Oberon Performances….all 4 star performances in my book, Rating The Movie Stars
1936’s These Three
1944’s The Lodger
1944’s Dark Waters
Hey Mr. Hirschhorn her quote about her not being able to find love is one that has been rattling around my head ever since I read it in your book oh so many years ago. Glad that quote has found a home in our comment boxes.