Want to know the best Paul Muni movies? How about the worst Paul Muni movies? Curious about Paul Muni box office grosses or which Paul Muni movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Paul Muni 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.
Paul Muni (1895-1967) was an Austria-Hungarian born American Oscar® winning actor. His IMDb page shows 29 acting credits from 1929-1962. This page ranks 22 Paul Muni movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. His six television appearances and his one cameo were not included in the rankings.
Drivel Part: Recent I did a “Who Is The Next Marlon Brando?” page….and in that page I suggested that Daniel Day-Lewis was the New Paul Muni. Well after writting that page…it occurred to me that maybe we should do a Paul Muni page….plus it is a requested page….so now we have a Paul Muni page.
Paul Muni Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Paul Muni 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 Paul Muni movies by co-stars of his movies
- Sort Paul Muni movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Paul Muni movies by adjusted worldwide box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions) *** If domestic and worldwide totals are the same then worldwide is unknown.
- Sort Paul Muni 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 Paul Muni movie received.
- Sort Paul Muni 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.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Paul Muni
1. Frederich Meshilem Meier Weisenfreund was born in Lemberg…which is now known as Lviv, Ukraine. He immigrated to the United States when he was 7.
2. Frederich Weisenfruend was highly skilled in using makeup techniques. At the age of 12 he played an 80-year old on stage….he did the makeup!
3. Growing up, Frederich’s nickname was “Moony”. When he signed a movie contract with Fox in 1929, his name was simplified and anglicized to Paul Muni
4. Paul Muni received an Best Actor Oscar® nomination for his very first movie (1929’s The Valiant) and his very last movie (1959’s The Last Angry Man). Only Muni and James Dean can make that claim!
5. Paul Muni is one of only six actors to receive an Oscar® nomination for Best Actor for his first screen appearance. The other five actors are: Orson Welles, Lawrence Tibbett, Alan Arkin, James Dean and Montgomery Clift.
6. Paul Muni received 6 Best Actor Oscar® nominations…or 1 for every 3.66 movies he made. For comparison: Meryl Streep has one acting Oscar® nominations for every 2.84 movies made. Bruce Willis is 0 for 60 movies.
7. Paul Muni won the Best Actor Oscar® for 1937’s The Life of Emile Zola.
8. Paul Muni was only married once and did not have any children. Off screen he was a very shy person.
9. Paul Muni on acting: “A writer can write in an attic, or on top of a bus. Or with a sharp stick in some wet cement. To act, an actor has to have words. A stage. a camera turning. I can’t go into the middle of Times Square, stop traffic and start acting.”
10. Check out Paul Muni‘s 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.
1 I liked Muni’s opening quote in your video about not being interested in stardom as he considered stars as people who couldn’t really act. I think I’ve changed my mind and am now prepared to concede to Bruce and John that Myrna was the biggest female star ever!
2 Ironically though as I’ve mentioned before on this site Muni was the only movie performer of whom I personally am aware that was NEVER billed other than first in any of his non-cameo roles, with Elvis probably runner up having been given other than the top spot only once in his 33 movies. Accordingly even if Paul personally truly did despise stardom moviemakers and his co-stars certainly thought that his prestige was considerable. Your posters amply illustrate these points as your video includes 20 of the 22 films Muni made. [Helpfully The Creator has given us grosses for all 22 movies.] Indeed your excellent Bordertown poster shows Muni billed alone above the title with Bette Davis billed below it. Other fine posters that I admired were those for Hi Nellie, Counter Attack, Black Fury, The World Changes, Juarez and a really remarkable one for Hudson’s Bay.
3 I liked the black and white stills of Muni as Emile Zola and Louis Pasteur and the one of Paul with Bette Davis in Bordertown but better than even those was that from The Good Earth which for me was one of the most striking that you have ever produced and which in my opinion should make it criminal for anyone to give the Muni video less than 9.4/10. The Creator and you are agreed on all Top 5 movies with the top 3 placed in a slightly different order. You both are very close on your Top 5 scoring too with each of you giving an average critical score of approx. 80%. Whilst I would agree with Bruce that technically I Am a Fugitive from Chain Gang deserves No 1 my personal Muni favourite was A Song to Remember with Cornel Wilde as Chopin.
Hi Bob, glad you enjoyed the posters and stills. I was surprised that A Song to Remember didn’t make the top 10, the highest score was 7, from Rotten Tomatoes.
Scarface hit the top without any contribution from me, I was expecting Chain Gang to be no.1. But there is only a fraction of a point between them. The only one of the big five not to get 10 out of 10 was Louis Pasteur.
Paul Muni billed first on all his movies is an amazing achievement, the only Elvis film where he wasn’t billed first was Love Me Tender, his first film.
Thanks again for the kind words, rating, review and comment.
HI STEVE
1 Even where I occasionally disagree with your markings I am not too concerned as it is always interesting to compare different viewpoints and ratings anyway a consistent source of the pleasure that I derive from your videos is the first-class and at times breathtaking art work as in for example your Hudson’s Bay poster and the still from The Good Earth. I have now watched the Muni video 3 times.
2 I have similar sentiments regarding El Commandant’s site because whilst I value his opinions and critic/audience ratings provided he keeps producing stats I can live with the idea that he thinks Myrna Loy is the bees knees !
Stop the presses …..Bob can live with Myrna Loy as the “bee knees”……Joy To The World…..lol.
Seriously I agree with your thoughts on Steve’s videos.
Hey Steve …..at least our Top 5s are the same. Wow two (yours and mine) Paul Muni pages in less than 4 months. It is practically a Paul Muni revival…lol.
Hey Bob….great breakdown on Paul Muni and his billings. Not sure how many time Elvis and Muni are mentioned in the same sentence.
As for Steve’s video I agree ..,,it is another video filled with great posters….and our rankings are pretty close….good to see you think Chaingang is a worthy number one. 🙂
Hi Bruce,
Paul Muni was arguably the most prestigious actor at Warner Bros and possibly Hollywood. The impact Mr Muni had in Hollywood was undeniable. The fact that it was with less than two dozen roles attests to his talent and dedication.
Watching him on the stage must have been exhilarating.
The Good Earth remains, for me, the essence of true human drama and one of the greatest achievements in movie history.
Great page.
Marcel
Hey Marcel… I agree with your comment. To achieve so much in so few movies is amazing. Daniel Day Lewis is doing the same thing now….3 Oscar wins…in only 16 movies. Muni disappears in the Good Earth role….amazingly he did not win another Oscar for that movie. Though they did give his co-star an Oscar for that movie. Thanks for checking out one of our newer pages.
1 Because he made so few films and wasn’t really around much in movies in the 1950s when I was growing up I never prior to this new page realised that Paul Muni’s career spanned 30 years. Despite the man fine movies you have mentioned above it is often the case that when film journalists talk about him today it is Scareface that is highlighted as in Laurent’s post below
2 He was never a Top Box office star but was what was regarded as a ‘prestige’ actor in those days and he was tremendously admired by other great stars. For example Bette Davis who could be contrary about movie assignments was happy to support him in two movies, Bordertown and Juarez, and Marlon Brando who appeared opposite him on the stage in A Flag is Born 1946 said of Muni’s performance in that play “The best acting that I have EVER seen.”
3 Therefore Muni clearly deserves this interesting and illuminating page on the Corgerson comprehensive movie site [though it seems obvious that Brando never had the privilege of watching Young Bull on the warpath]. By profiling the Muni career you have once again shown the BREADTH as well as the depth of your site’s interest in movie stars so Guns Up.
BOB
Hey Bob
1. I agree with this comment 100%
2. I think “prestige” is an excellent way to describe him….just like our modern day Daniel Day-Lewis.
3. I did not know he and Marlon did a play together….I bet that would have been a good show to see.
4. Thanks for the great compliment on this page….it is greatly appreciated….and now I head to work….but I did provide a Irene Dunne page with some new stats.
BRUCE:
1 R e your 3. Marlon apparently idolised Muni and in modern times the actor Brando most admired was DeNiro and his favourite British star was the TV comedian Peter Bowles I know this site is for movie buffs but maybe Dan should start joining up the dots with the theatre.
2 Noticed the flag-up for the Dunne update and was delighted.
BOB
Hey Bob…..interesting to know that Muni was Brando’s favorite…I wonder how many of his fans…realize that Muni had an influence on him? Glad you saw the Dunne page….it will be forever be known to me….as my first UMR page. Bruce Willis was the first at HubPages…Charlize Theron was the first at CogersonMovieScore and Dunne for the hopefully the last webpage.
Paul Muni made few movies so he was never on the Oracle of Bacon top 1000 Center of the Hollywood Universe list. Here are the only people on the current list who have worked with him and they are both deceased.
Angel on My Shoulder (1946) – 912 Arthur Tovey
The World Changes (1933) – 245 Mickey Rooney
There are some people on the 2000 list who have now fallen off that worked with him. Rank is for 2000.
A Song to Remember (1945) – 100 Ian Wolfe, 273 George Coulouris, 707 Darren McGavin, 806 Nina Foch, 915 Ivan Triesault
Angel on My Shoulder (1946) – 783 James Flavin
Black Fury (1935) – 146 Mike Mazurki, 234 Akim Tamiroff, 832 Don Brodie
Bordertown (1935) – 918 Bette Davis
Commandoes Strike at Dawn (1942) – 147 Lloyd Bridges, 255 Alexander Knox, 851 Cedric Hardwicke, 894 Philip Van Zandt
Counter-Attack (1945) – 100 Ian Wolfe, 707 Darren McGavin, 894 Philip Van Zandt, 915 Ivan Triesault
Dr. Socrates (1935) – 27 Marc Lawrence
Hi, Nellie! (1934) – 740 George Chandler
Hudson’s Bay (1941) -100 Ian Wolfe, 125 Vincent Price
Juarez (1939) – 384 Gilbert Roland, 918 Bette Davis
Scarface (1932) – 410 George Raft, 542 Paul Fix
Stage Door Canteen (1943) – 410 George Raft, 507 Ralph Bellamy
The Good Earth (1937) – 278 Keye Luke, 344 James Stewart, 767 Philip Ahn
The Woman I Love (1937) – 611 Don ‘Red’ Barry
The World Changes (1933) – 740 George Chandler
I count 10 Oscar winners he appeared with.
Angel on My Shoulder (1946) – Anne Baxter
Bordertown (1935) – Bette Davis
Juarez (1939) – Bette Davis, Gale Sondergaard
Stage Door Canteen (1943) – Helen Hayes, Jane Darwell, Katherine Hepburn
The Good Earth (1937) – James Stewart, Luise Rainer
The Life of Emile Zola (1937) – Joseph Schildkraut, Gale Sondergaard
The World Changes (1933) – Mary Astor
Weird trivia. Did you know that our buddy Arthur Tovey was not on the 2000 list. There have been other lists in between, he was 978 about 2005 and 695 in 2014. Bess Flowers, 222 in 2000 was actually 111 in a later year despite not making a picture since 1967.
Actually Bess was 138 on the 2004 list. You can find the old lists on the Internet wayback machine site;
https://web.archive.org/web/20040807084908/http://www.oracleofbacon.org/center_list.html
Hey Dan….thanks for the link…I will have to take a deeper look at that one when I get home from work….greatly appreciated.
Hey Dan….List 1…..not surprised that Arthur T. is one of the two. List 2: That is actually pretty low as well. I guess only having 22 movies is going to hurt those numbers for sure. I am sure Daniel Day Lewis also has some pretty low numbers as well. List 3: Wow….only 10 Oscar winners…that actually really surprises me…..but I guess his movies focused on his roles versus good roles for other people….which would limit great actors from appearing in movies with him.
Hmmmmm…that is weird about Arthur not being on the 2000 list. Looks like Bess Flowers’ co-stars got busy during that time frame. As always….thanks for (1) sharing the lists (2) the visit and (3) the comment.
Hi
Muni was a fantastic actor. I think he was more an actor than a star. He reminded me of Paul Scofield, quite a shy person who hated all the limelight but was dedicated to his craft. No doubt the 30’s were his best movies years.
It’s years since I seen his movies but I enjoyed Scarface and Chain Gang. But my favourite was The Life of Emile Zola. I suppose you could say he was the 1930’s Daniel Day Lewis.
Hey Chris…I agree he was a great actor for his day. I wonder how he would do today. King of the Actors by Decade…in my humble opinion….Pre-1930s…Charlie Chaplin with John Barrymore hanging around. 1930s Paul Muni. 1940s Spencer Tracy 1950s Marlon Brando 1960s Richard Burton & Peter O’Toole 1970s Robert DeNiro 1980s Jack Nicholson 1990s Bruce Willis (just joking) Tom Hanks and the 2000s Daniel Day-Lewis.
I have only seen 5 of his movies….but I saw and enjoyed all the ones you mentioned. I agree Emile Zola was an excellent movie. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Mr. Muni.