Want to know the best Orson Welles movies? How about the worst Orson Welles movies? Curious about Orson Welles’s box office grosses or which Orson Welles movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Orson Welles 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.
One of our goals here at Ultimate Movie Rankings is do a career movie page on every member of the American Film Institute’s Top 50 Greatest Screen Legends list. Orson Welles (1915-1985) is ranked as the 16th greatest actor on that list. Welles is just behind #15 Gene Kelly and just ahead of #17 Kirk Douglas.
Orson Welles was an American actor, director, writer, and producer who worked in theater, radio, and film. In 1937 he gained notoriety for his adaptation of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. In 1938 he broadcast one of the most famous radio shows ever…The War of the Worlds. In 1941 he released his movie masterpiece Citizen Kane. Citizen Kane is consistently ranked as one of the all-time greatest films. Orson Welles on his early success…”I started at the top and worked down”.
His IMDb page shows 123 acting credits, 54 writing credits and 48 directing credits from 1934-2015. This page will rank 76 Orson Welles movies in two separate tables. The first table ranks 42 Welles movies from Best to Worst in seven different sortable columns of information. Television shows, his many shorts and cameos were not included in the rankings. The second table ranks another 34 Welles movies but does NOT include box office results. To calculate our Ultimate Movie Rankings score box office grosses are required so the movies had to be separated from the movies that box office grosses are known.
Drivel part of the page part 1: When I think about Orson Welles usually my mind will go to one of his all-time classic movies like Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, Touch of Evil and The Third Man. Those movies were not known to me as a kid, but Orson Welles was known to me for three reasons: (1) Welles’ “Paul Masson will sell no wine before its time.” commercials. (2) Welles’ role as Lew Lord in The Muppet Movie and (3) Welles’ movie about Nostradamus….The Man Who Saw Tomorrow….. scared the hell out of me when I was younger. So no matter how old I get, my first memories of Orson Welles will always be that “Old guy in The Muppet Movie, that did wine commercials, and made a movie that convinced me the world would end before 2000”.
Drivel part of the page part 2: I have written close to 300 movie pages over the years. This by far was one of the most difficult pages to complete. Usually we are able to find box office numbers on about 70% to 90% of the movies a performer appeared in. This time we were only able to find box office numbers on a little over half of the Welles movies. So not wanting to exclude half of Orson’s movies we included a second table that shows everything but box office grosses. We might not know the actual box office for those movies….but….we do feel confident that the 34 movies listed in the second table made next to nothing when it comes to box office grosses.
Orson Welles Movies Can Be Ranked 7 Ways In This Table
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.
- Sort Orson Welles movies by co-stars of his movies.
- Sort Orson Welles movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Orson Welles movies by domestic box office rank
- Sort Orson Welles movies how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations each Orson Welles movie received and how many Oscar® wins each Orson Welles movie won.
- Sort Orson Welles 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.
- Use the search and sort button to make this page very interactive.
Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From Our Orson Welles Tables
- Fourteen Orson Welles movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 33.33% of his movies listed. A Man for All Seasons (1966) was his biggest box office ht when looking at adjusted domestic box office gross.
- An average Orson Welles movie grosses $71.90 million in adjusted box office gross….only the 40 movies that box office grosses are known.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 53 of Orson Welles’s movies are rated as good movies…or 70.66% of his movies. Citizen Kane (1941) is his highest rated movie while Royal Affairs in Versailies (1954) was his lowest rated movie.
- Thirteen Orson Welles movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 17.33% of his movies.
- Four Orson Welles movie won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 5.33% of his movies.
- A “good movie” Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 60.00. 24 Orson Welles movies scored higher than that average….or 57.14% of his movies. A Man for All Seasons (1966) got the the highest UMR Score while Royal Affairs in Versailies (1954) got the lowest UMR Score.
Orson Welles Movies Can Be Ranked 5 Ways In This Table
The big difference in this table is the fact that there are NO BOX OFFICE GROSSES listed. All the movies listed did play in North American theaters….just can not find ANY box office stats on these movies. That being said all of these movies barely made a dent in North American box offices.
- Sort Orson Welles movies by the year they were made.
- Sort Orson Welles movies by his job in the movie
- Sort Orson Welles movies by co-stars of his movies.
- Sort Orson Welles movies how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations each Orson Welles movie received and how many Oscar® wins each Orson Welles movie won.
- Use the search and sort button to make this page very interactive.
| Rank | Movie (Year) | Year | Welles' Job In Movie | Co-Stars | Audience Critic Rating | Oscar Nom / Win |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F For Fake | 1973 | Actor, Writer, Director | Elmyr de Hory | 83.5% | 00 / 00 | |
| Tajna Nikole Tesle | 1980 | Actor | Peta Bozovic | 73.5% | 00 / 00 | |
| Ro.Go.Pa.G. | 1963 | Actor | Directed by Jean-Luc Godard | 71.0% | 00 / 00 | |
| Three Cases of Murder | 1955 | Actor, Director | Elizabeth Sellars | 69.5% | 00 / 00 | |
| Confidential Report | 1955 | Actor, Writer, Director | Michael Redgrave | 68.3% | 00 / 00 | |
| South Sea Adventure | 1958 | Narrator | Diane Beardmore | 68.0% | 00 / 00 | |
| I'll Never Forget What's 'isname | 1967 | Actor | Oliver Reed | 67.5% | 00 / 00 | |
| The Enchanted Journey | 1984 | Voice Role | Jim Backus | 67.2% | 00 / 00 | |
| Malpertius | 1971 | Actor | Mathieu Carriere | 67.0% | 00 / 00 | |
| Someone to Love | 1988 | Actor | Sally Kellerman | 66.3% | 00 / 00 | |
| Twelve Plus One | 1969 | Actor | Sharon Tate | 66.0% | 00 / 00 | |
| The Battle of Sutjeska | 1973 | Actor | Richard Burton | 65.5% | 00 / 00 | |
| The Sailor From Gilbratar | 1967 | Actor | Vanessa Redgrave | 65.0% | 00 / 00 | |
| Tepepa | 1969 | Actor | Tomas Milian | 64.5% | 00 / 00 | |
| The New Media Bible: Book of Genesis | 1979 | Narrator | Topol | 64.0% | 00 / 00 | |
| Hot Tomorrows | 1977 | Voice Only | Ken Lerner | 63.5% | 00 / 00 | |
| The Battle of Austerlitz | 1960 | Actor | Directed by Abel Gance | 63.0% | 00 / 00 | |
| Ten Days Wonder | 1971 | Actor | Anthony Perkins | 62.8% | 00 / 00 | |
| Napoleon | 1955 | Director | Jean-Pierre Aumont | 62.5% | 00 / 00 | |
| Lafayette | 1961 | Actor | Jack Hawkins | 61.8% | 00 / 00 | |
| Hot Money | 1983 | Actor | Michael Murphy | 60.5% | 00 / 00 | |
| Trouble in the Glen | 1954 | Actor | Victor McLaglen | 59.0% | 00 / 00 | |
| Trent's Last Case | 1952 | Actor | Michael Wilding | 58.0% | 00 / 00 | |
| To Build A Fire | 1969 | Narrator | Ian Hogg | 57.5% | 00 / 00 | |
| Ten Little Indians | 1974 | Voice Only | Oliver Reed | 53.0% | 00 / 00 | |
| David and Goliath | 1960 | Actor | Ivica Pajer | 52.5% | 00 / 00 | |
| The Last Roman | 1968 | Actor | Laurence Harvey | 47.0% | 00 / 00 | |
| Oedipus The King | 1968 | Actor | Christopher Plummer | 44.5% | 00 / 00 | |
| House of Cards | 1968 | Actor | George Peppard | 44.3% | 00 / 00 | |
| Necromancy | 1972 | Actor | Pamela Franklin | 44.0% | 00 / 00 | |
| Ferry To Hong Kong | 1959 | Actor | Curd Jürgens | 42.0% | 00 / 00 | |
| Where Is Parsifal? | 1984 | Actor | Tony Curtis | 41.5% | 00 / 00 | |
| Royal Affairs in Versailies | 1954 | Actor | Michel Auclair | 40.0% | 00 / 00 |
Possibly Interesting Facts About Orson Welles
1. George Orson Welles was born May 6, 1915, in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Babe Ruth hit his first home run the day Welles was born.
2. Orson Welles was an orphan at the age of 15. His mother passed away when he was 7 and his father passed away when he was 15.
3. Orson Welles had one of the most recognizable deep voices in all of film, radio or television.
4. Orson Welles and John Houseman founded their own repertory company, which they called the Mercury Theater in 1937.
5. The original Mercury Theater company included such actors as Joseph Cotten, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Arlene Francis, Norman Lloyd and Vincent Price..
6. Orson Welles was married three times. His second marriage was to actress, Rita Hayworth from 1943 to 1948. Welles had 4 children.
7. Orson Welles was nominated for three Oscars®. All three of his nominations came for Citizen Kane (1941). He was nominated for Best Director and Best Actor….he won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar®. Welles received a Honorary Oscar® in 1971. Welles received one Golden Globe® nomination….Best Supporting Actor in 1982’s Butterfly.
8. Orson Welles is one of only six actors to receive an Oscar® nomination for Best Actor for his first screen appearance. The other five actors are: Paul Muni, Lawrence Tibbett, Alan Arkin, James Dean and Montgomery Clift.
9. Roles Orson Welles almost got: Marlon Brando role in The Godfather, Darth Vadar voice in Star Wars, Mr. Rourke role on television’s Fantasy Island. Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now and either the Friar Tuck or King Richard role in Errol Flynn’s classic The Adventures of Robin Hood.
10. Orson Welles and Yul Brynner died on the same exact day. Longtime friend Joseph Cotten did not attend Welles memorial service…..but he did send the following Shakespeare sonnet….”But if the while I think on thee, dear friend, All losses are restored and sorrows end”.
Check out Orson Welles’s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time. A fun Orson Welles website to check out is Steve Lensman’s Orson Welles Movie Posters.
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences. Golden Globes® are the registered trademark and service mark of the Hollywood Foreign Press.
AFI’s Top 25 Screen Legend Actors….with links to my movie pages on the Screen Legend
Steve Lensman’s Orson Welles You Tube Video
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.
For comments….all you need is a name and a comment….please ignore the rest.
Hi, Bruce.
We had horrible wind storm damage earlier this week in British Columbia with lots of power outage. That would probably have been around the time you wrote about John Candy. I’ll write about him on his own page.
Re: Ryan Reynolds: I have seen one of his movies: The Notebook, which I saw on the big screen with a girlfriend and loved. So I won’t bother commenting on his page.
I am so glad you decided to have a second table of movies that Welles made with no box office information so you can see the scope of his talent. I’ve seen the 1974 version of Ten Little Indians (I’ve seen all versions, but the original version And Then There Were None is the best and most likely reviewed). That is the only one of the second table that I have seen.
I have read the book Trent’s Last Case so I would enjoy seeing the movie.
Now: the first table with movies that do have box office information:
The highest rated film I have seen is, of course, Citizen Kane at Number 1.
The highest rated film I have yet to see is Chimes At Midnight at Number 4. It aired on TCM during their 100th birthday celebration of OW, but I didn’t see it. It will re-air again. I managed to Miss Othello and Macbeth too. But others I got to see for the first time among those I had previously missed.
The lowest rated film I have seen is Casino Royale at 39 which I did not enjoy.
By rankings: I’ll start out by 5’s and then switch to 10’s
I have seen 4 of the top 5
I have seen 8 of the top 10 (still not seen A Man For All seasons)
I have seen 11 of the top 15
I have seen 13 of the top 20
I have seen 15 of the top 30
I have seen 16 of the 40 movies which have box office information and 17 movies overall.
Movies I have not seen but am looking forward to seeing are Chimes at Midnight, A Man For All Seasons, Othello and Voyage of the Damned.
My top 5 Orson Welles movies are:
A Touch of Evil (restored as he wanted it after he died)
The Third Man
Citizen Kane
The V.I.P’s
The Lady From Shanghai.
The other films I have seen which I’d recommend are The Stranger, The Trial, The Magnificent Ambersons, Journey Into Fear, Compulsion, Moby Dyck, Jane Eyre, and Tomorrow is Forever
I have started to watch Catch-22 several times and been unable to watch it. I will continue to try since the cast is great but I’m not sure I’ll be able to do it.
Cheers,
Flora
Hey Flora.
1. Hope you survived your bad weather.
2. Just saw your John Candy comment….thank you.
3. You are excused from commenting on Mr. Ryan Reynolds…lol.
4. I figured I had better add the second table….because I am sure the people that find this page over the years will be huge Welles fans…..and they will be searching for these movies….granted many were unknown to me.
5. So between you, me and Steve…we have seen 1 of those movies that do not have box office numbers. Pretty sure only Welles fans will be searching out those titles.
6. I think Citizen Kane is easily the one movie that almost every film fan has seen.
7. Chimes at Midnight is high on my list of movies to watch too.
8. Casino Royale is a horrible movie….with all the talent in that movie it is amazing how bad the movie is.
9. So one the first table you me and Steve are at 16….with you getting the edge with your viewing of Ten Little Indians. That is probably the closest tally count ever.
10. I am actually amazed that I am right there with you and Steve with 16 movies seen…my classic movie watching has greatly improved over the last 5 years.
11. I like 4 of your Top 5 favorite Welles movies…I did not enjoy V.I.P.S. at all. I would probably include of the two Tyrone Power movies in my Top 5.
12. Catch-22 has some funny moments….but it takes a lot to get through to those moments…..so I can easily see how you have been unable to finish it.
As always…your movie thoughts are greatly appreciated.
Glad to see Citizen Kane at the top. My grandfather actually helped Chesley Bonestell with some of the background art for Citizen Kane. That was something he was very proud of.
Hey Haney….thanks for the visit and thanks for the comment. That is very cool about your grandfather helping out with Citizen Kane. I have to admit I was not aware of Chesley Bonestell until I looked him up on IMDb. I agree that is indeed something to be proud of. Thanks for sharing that information.
We must be roughly the same age as I have the same memories of Welles. I graduated high school in 1983. Muppets check, Nostradamus check, and Paul Masson check. You might shocked but have not seen all of Citizen Kane. I think I watched some in a film class in college but never saw it from start to finish. Lots of information on this page.
Hey Chancy83…I graduated in 1985….so our ages are very close. Apparently we were seeing the same things back then when it comes to Orson Welles. Citizen Kane is good…but the thing that amazes me is the way Welles made the movie….he was changing how movies got made….and some of the tricks are still used today. Thanks for stopping by.
A shame we can’t edit our comments after we post them. 🙂
I fixed them for you….the power of Cogerson….lol.
Cheers Bruce, much appreciated. And I promise to check my speeling before posting from now on.
You can spill the werds anywey you want.
John Candy and now Orson Welles, two fat actors in a row, is Oliver Hardy next? 🙂
One of the all time greats. His famous quote “I started at the top and worked my way down” which you’ve posted somewhere on the page, is so apt. His first film, Citizen Kane, is regarded by many critics and film buffs as the greatest movie ever made, and he was just 26 when he directed and starred in it.
Let’s see… 1,2,3… I’ve seen just 16 of the 40 films you’ve listed in the first chart. I don’t think I’ve seen any from the second chart though I’ve heard of a couple of them.
Welles most famous role of course is as Unicron in Transformers the Movie, oh what a way to end a career!
What’s this? The Muppet Movie at no.2 on the ‘ultimate’ moviescore, beating the likes of Citizen Kane, Touch of Evil and The Third Man, yikes! That should stir up a hornets nest among film buffs and Welles aficianados. Is The Muppet Movie even a proper movie? Maybe you should have given it it’s own little chart, a chart of one. 🙂
The critics chart is far more accurate, the big three at the top and… oh dear The Muppet Movie sneaking in at no.8, the pain, the pain!
I have Chimes at Midnight here in the collection but haven’t seen it yet, it’s practically highly rated by Welles fans. I have to watch it one of these days, along with Macbeth and Othello.
Excellent work Bruce. Voted Up. Keaton next?
Oh and thanks for the link, much appreciated.
Now problem…hope it gets some traffic for you.
Hey Steve….I am so glad to be done with Mr. Welles. This page took forever….and then to end up with so many movies without box office totals is very disappointing. I think all three things…the stage plays, the War of the Worlds broadcast and Citizen Kane combined to give him the genius tag that he still holds today. And at 26….he was just a baby…..a genius baby.
I am also a 16 on the first table…and 0 on the second table. Flora has not checked in awhile….even with the latest pages being Canucks….but I think Orson will get here back on the page…and probably to destroy our tally counts.
Orson hated Transformers The Movie….even though he got to work with Judd Nelson. Imagine what he would think of the Michael Bay Transformers movies. And now a word about The Muppet Movie. Forget his performance in Citizen Kane, The Third Man and Touch Of Evil…you want to see some good acting….watch Orson with Kermit the Frog….their scenes are truly powerful. Kermit has said numerous times that his work with Orson is easily the best of his career. I actually debated putting the movie in the page….but IMDb does not say it is a cameo….and Orson is shown on the original movie poster….so in some ways Welles helped that movie become a major box office hit. But knowing people would strongly dislike it being 2nd….I went with the critic/audience rating as the default mode for the page. Just to try and hide that 2nd place finish….thanks for bringing it up….lol.
His Othello and MacBeth movies barely got shown when he finally got them to theaters. That had to be hard on Welles to spend that much time (4 years for one of the movies) on the movie and then to have it ignored by audiences. Chimes at Midnight is the one Welles I want to see the most. Buster Keaton will be the next and last member of the Top 25 Actors AFI list….not sure when I want to tackle that monster.
Finally….did you…a Welles fan realized he made The Battle of Austerlitz in 1960, The Battle of Neretva in 1969 and The Battle of Sutjeska in 1973? That actually caused lots of confusion when I was researching Welles’ movies. As always….thanks for stopping by, thanks for commenting and thanks for talking movies.
So many films we’ve barely even heard of let alone watched are listed on this page, but how many are worth watching? Maybe Flora can tell us.
With Buster Keaton you should just list the feature length films he made, at least an hour long, can’t be that many.
I agree with you 100%. On the second list I had only heard of Royal Affairs in Versailies. I included them because I am sure some serious Orson Welles fans will eventually find this page and will be looking for a movie like…Ro.Go.Pa.G.
I will have to do that for Buster Keaton….seeing he is the last one to do…I will be checking out his IMDb page very soon…thanks for the suggestion.