Otto Preminger Movies

Otto Preminger (1905-1986) was a 3 time Oscar®-nominated director.   Originally from Austria-Hungary, Preminger came to the United States and found fame first in theater and then in movies.   He would end up directing over 35 movies in a career that lasted 5 decades.    Preminger also appeared in front of the cameras…most notably in 1953’s Stalag 17.  His IMDb page shows 58 directing and acting credits from 1931 to 1986.   This page ranks 38 Otto Preminger movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, some of his early British movies and his movies not released in North America theaters are not included in the rankings.

William Holden and Otto Preminger in 1953’s Stalag 17

Otto Preminger Movies Ranked By Combination of Box Office, Reviews and Awards (UMR Score) *Classic UMR Table (the one with all the stats is the second table)

Otto Preminger directing his all-time great movie…Laura

Otto Preminger 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 Otto Preminger movies by co-stars of his movies.
  • Sort Otto Preminger movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Otto Preminger movies by yearly domestic box office rank
  • Sort Otto Preminger 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 Otto Preminger movie received and how many Oscar® wins each Otto Preminger movie won.
  • Sort Otto Preminger 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.

27 thoughts on “Otto Preminger Movies

  1. The most embarrassing scene in Bunny Lake was when Laurence and Olivier and Noel Coward were engaged in a conversation in a bar and had to pause to watch The Zombies sing on television (apparently to justify listing the group among the credits.)

    Prior to the release of the film, Preminger was quoted as saying that if this movie didn’t make a star out of Carol Lynley, nothing would.

    1. Hey Nick…..thanks for the trivia on Bunny Lake Is Missing. I have not seen that movie yet….but it is on my list of movies to watch. I will check out that scene of The Zombies singing…Sir Larry and The Zombies…sounds like a good combination. Well….I guess Otto was right….Carol Lynley never became a massive star. Thanks for stopping by.

      1. Thanks for your superb website. (Thanks also for the image you have planted on my mind of a rock group called Sir Larry and the Zombies – I can just imagine Olivier jamming with the band.)

        1. Hey Nick…glad you like my idea of Sir Larry and the Zombies….this was of course before Larry got old and could not stand rock music like he did in The Jazz Singer….lol.

  2. I’ve seen 8 of the 38 films on the chart, I expected more. My favorites – Stalag 17, Laura and River of No Return.

    I watched In Harms Way again recently, some good model work during the sea battles but it’s a long-winded soap opera. I’m not a big fan of ‘domestic drama war movies’. If I’m going to watch a war film I want to see action, battles, soldiers fighting, not soldiers and generals arguing with their wives and kids. The one big exception is From Here to Eternity, which was very well done.

    Good to see Stalag 17 top the critics chart, my second favorite prisoner of war movie.

    Otto had a four year affair with Dorothy Dandridge the subject of a recent UMR page.

    Good stuff Bruce. Vote Up!

  3. I was watching the Bunny Lake Is Missing trailer. Looks like Otto was trying to be Hitchcock with Psycho. Based on the limited box office success, he did not succeed at all. The trailer looks like the Julianne Moore movie from a few years ago, got remember the name, but now I am wondering if aliens were involved in Bunny Lake.

    1. Hey SteinHoF16….when I am adding these videos….usually I am only listening to them as I do the “stuff” to create the trailer page….when I heard Otto talking about not letting anybody in once the movie starts…..I wondered if somehow the trailer was for Psycho instead of Bunny Lake. Good point about it sounding like Moore’s The Forgotten. Good to hear from you.

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