Randolph Scott Movies

74 thoughts on “Randolph Scott Movies”

1. Randolph Scott appeared in 38 color movies, 36 through 1959. His first color movie was Jesse James in 1939. He appeared in 10 color movies in the 1940’s, 25 color movies in the 1950’s (of a total of 27) and 2 in the 1960’s.

   Scott is easily the most prolific color performer I have found in the classic era–through the 1950’s.

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   1. Hey John….so Randolph Scott was the “King of Color Movies”…I wonder how many of his major fans realized this…..did Bob realize this…..or was this something he had not thought of before. I know that is the case when it comes to me, Cary Grant and color movies. Thanks for opening my eyes to this fact.

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2. Cogerson

   What really stands out looking at this list is the obverse relationship between Scott’s high placement in the Quigley polls (top 25 from 1948 to 1956, top ten 1950-1953) and declining grosses. It could be that Scott just continued to pull them in with his westerns in the small towns while others were fading around him–like a car that slows from 50 mph to 40 but seems to be going faster as all the other cars slow from 60 to 30 mph.
   As I mentioned on another post, even though the domestic grosses were sinking in the late fifties, the movies Scott produced himself made money due to foreign takes, according to the author of The Films of Randolph Scott. Scott was too shrewd a businessman to have kept making losing propositions.

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   1. Hey John….I think the fact that Scott was so productive during those years that even though the grosses were going down…..he was always opening a movie every three or four months….so he always stayed fresh in their minds when it came time to vote on the top draws.

      Good point about the cars slowing down faster than Scott’s car. The same can be said about a horse race…people think a closing horse is flying at the end….when it reality it is just slowing down slower than the other horses.

      Good points…thanks for sharing them.

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      1. Cogerson

         I recommend going over to you tube and watching the 2013 Brooklyn Handicap. There is quite a flying horse down the stretch.

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         1. Hey John….Caldioscopio proves my point….lol….goodness he came along way from behind…and in the slop too…..great video…..thanks for the heads up.

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3. Hello Bruce. This is great. I don’t know where you dug up all this box office information but this page is great. I recently did my own Ray Milland page and was surprised that I came up with 55 box office figures just off the internet. I still have been unable to track any box office figures for two of my favorite Milland films both from 1944, “The Uninvited” and “Ministry of Fear”. Thanks for all the box office information

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   1. Hey Lyle….my main sources of information are Variety, Warner Brothers Ledgers, RKO Ledgers, 20th Century Fox by Audrey Soloman, MGM ledgers, Wiki and Laurent from Paris. Using these sources….I am able to also use the Harrison Reports to pinpoint grosses….even though they only describe in word versus numbers.

      That is awesome that you have been able to find 55 grosses on Milland….I have looked at doing a UMR page on him…..but all of his years at Paramount…have scared me away…..I strongly dislike Paramount and their lack of financial disclosure….lol.

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      1. Hey Lyle….let’s see…..what do I have on The Uninvited and Ministry of Fear.

         First up The Uninvited……for some reason Variety did not post a Top Rentals for that year or 1945. But they do list all of the movies that reached 3 million in rentals. In 1944 only 17 movies reached that mark….and The Uninvited did not make that list…..so the ceiling is 3 million in rentals. My Paramount book offers up nothing (no surprise there) except for that the song “Stella By Starlight” was a hit. Power Stats book = nothing. Wiki = nothing. No Paramount ledgers exist……so turning to the Harrison Reports.

         Harrison Reports reports The Uninvited performed Very Good to Good…..other movies that earned that ranking include….A Guy Named Joe ($3.97 million in rentals), Lady in the Dark ($3.00 million in rentals), Double Indemnity ($2.60 million in rentals), Show Business ($2.00 million in rentals), Pin Up Girl ($2.00 million in rentals), Jane Eyre ($1.80 million in rentals) and Shine on Harvest Moon ($2.60 million in rentals). So by plugging in these numbers into my wife’s (WoC) program (which takes into account average, mode, mean , outliers and other math concepts (like the known ceiling)…the rough rentals of The Uninvited would be around $2.54 million in rentals. Obviously this is not the exact address but I feel pretty sure it is in the right neighborhood. That would translate to $215.00 million in today’s box office.

         Things are so good for Ministry of Fear….doing the same path of The Uninvited….got us to the Harrison Report again….it got listed as “fair”….that puts it’s rental in the $400 to $500K….range or about…$38 million in today’s box office.

         That is how I calculate some of the box office grosses….it is so much easier when a movie hits Variety’s Top Rental chart…in the end…..these are educated guesses…..and sadly those guesses will never be proven right or wrong….I blame Paramount….lol.

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4. 1 With the possible exception of Wayne/McCrea/Cooper, Scott is probably the major star who is most associated with the western genre. However for a long time many of his westerns had so much of a similarity about them that historians opine that his legend might not have survived to the extent it has had it not been for the 7 westerns that he made with Bud Boetticher near the end of his career with many critics regarding them as small gems of the western genre.

   2 Yet they almost didn’t go to Scott at all. The first of them Seven Men from Now was made in 1956 by Wayne’s Batjac Company and initially Duke was personally going to play the lead but a busy schedule prevented that and the role was offered to Joel McCrea and Robert Preston before Scott was signed.

   3 The above table recognises the quality of the 7 films by awarding them a respectable average critic/audience score of 75.3 with a massive 83.0 going to the best of them Seven Men from Now. Although their average adjusted box office gross is just $37.2 they nevertheless are said to have turned a modest profit overall as they were each shot on a shoestring budget.

   4 Other readers have mentioned Scott’s shrewd business sense away from the set and indeed he and his friend Joel McCrea are said to have both ended up Hollywood’s richest stars of their day with the possible exception of Hope. Indeed sometimes their movies would playfully hint at their aptitude for accumulating wealth as in the case of Witchita where McCrea as Wyatt Earp joins a cattle herd and as he’s sleeping one ruffian suggest to the other that they rob him and the other questions whether he’d have much money on him, to which the first ruffian replies “He doesn’t look like the sort of guy who’d not have a load of money !” In Gunfight at Dodge City Joel as Bat Masterson rides into town and immediately buys a saloon in a lucrative business transaction.

   5 Anyway Randy made so many movies that it was going to take a very comprehensive survey to cover them adequately and this page with it’s fine updates is certainly that especially with its 19 worldwide stats. BOB

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   1. Hey Bob….this is our “post” for tomorrow….November 7th – Randolph Scott Page Updated….20 new movies and worldwide box office on 19 of his movies….so you have discovered our secret…sometimes we do the updates in advance…and then do the posts…..this makes getting to work on time much easier.

      1. I agree with the first part of your comment…100%.
      2. I have read that Wayne was glad the movie was so successful for his company….but realized he had missed out on a great part. I imagine if Wayne had made Seven Men From Now….it might be considered one of his all-time great movies.
      3. I think the Boetticher/Scott movies created one of the first cult following groups…I can easily see fans of those movies pointing out how much better those movies were than the standard westerns that were being released.
      4. Without a doubt Randolph Scott was just as successful off the screen as he was on the screen. The things I read say he was worth about $100 million when he passed….which would put him as a billionaire in current money.
      5. Glad you found the worldwide box office numbers this time…..that is where they will be located from now on….unless….I have worldwide for 75% or more…then they will be included on the table.
      Hope your weekend getaway is coming well.

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      1. 1 Hi Bruce I had a great weekend thanks and talking of holidays do you think that Steve making Duke’s No 2 in his Granger Top 5 is his way of doing “homage” to you?

         Sam crossed the Majestic mountains to the valleys far below,
         He talked to his team of huskies
         As he mushed on through the snow,
         With the Northern Lights a runnin’ wild
         In the Land of the Midnight Sun,
         Yes Sam McCord was a mighty man
         In the year of nineteen-one
         North to Alaska, go north the rush is on.

         2 Thanks for the additional feedback about Randy. That Wayne had scheduling commitments was the tactful reason given for him excluding himself from Seven Men from Now and ultimately letting Scott have the part but I read elsewhere that finances within Duke’s production company which produced the movie were tight and it was decided to film the movie as a B for which Wayne’s salary would be have been too expensive so they went after McCrea, Preston and then Randy any of whom the would be able to get ‘on the cheap’. However that was just business and Duke visited Randy on the set and they had a right old friendly chin-wag.

         3 Also Scott may have been working for a reduced salary but as usual where business was concerned he came up smiling because Randy got on so well with Boetticher that they agreed to do the further 6 movies together,three of which were produced by Scott/Brown Productions and two by the Ranown that you mention , both of which were Randy/Harry Joe Brown companies. The 6th one Westbound was a straight Warners production and you have rightly in my view identified it as the weakest of the series though still giving it a respectable 68. Although Seven Men from Now and Westbound were not Scott/Brown productions the entire Boetticher set of seven Scott movies became known as the “Ranown Cycle”.

         I

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         1. Hey Bob.
            1. Glad you had a great weekend.
            2. Not thinking North to Alaska being 2nd on Steve’s video had anything to do with me. Just the fact that it was one of Granger’s better movies. I wonder where it will be ranked when I do a Granger page.
            3. Sounds logical about Wayne and Seven Men From Now…still it would have interesting to see Wayne in the role.
            4. Scott ended his career on a high note with his movies with Budd and his last one with Peckinpah.
            Glad you have found the updated Scott page.

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5. Night and Day is indeed a color movie…..so I might be correct.

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