Richard Attenborough Movies

Want to know the best Richard Attenborough movies?  How about the worst Richard Attenborough movies?  Curious about Richard Attenborough box office grosses or which Richard Attenborough movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Richard Attenborough movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well, you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.

Richard Attenborough (1923-2014) was an Oscar®-winning English actor, producer, and director.   Most of Attenborough’s movies were ones in which acted.  He did direct 12 movies, including 1982’s Gandhi which won him Best Director and Best Producer Oscars®.   His IMDb page shows 78 acting and 12 direction credits from 1942 to 2007.  This page will rank Richard Attenborough movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows and movies that were not released in North American theaters were not included in the rankings.  To do well in our overall rankings a movie has to do well at the box office, get good reviews by critics, be liked by audiences, and get some award recognition.

Richard Attenborough directing 1982’s Gandhi

Richard Attenborough Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.

Richard Attenborough directing Michael Caine in 1977’s A Bridge Too Far

Richard Attenborough 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 Richard Attenborough movies by his co-stars
  • Sort Richard Attenborough movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Richard Attenborough movies by yearly domestic box office rank
  • Sort Richard Attenborough movies 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 Richard Attenborough movie received.
  • Sort Richard Attenborough movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score.  UMR puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
1963’s The Great Escape

Possibly Interesting Facts On Richard Attenborough

  1.  Richard Samuel Attenborough was born in Cambridge, England in 1923.

2.  Richard Attenborough joined the Royal Air Force during the Second World War and served in the film unit. He went on several bombing raids over Europe and filmed action from the rear gunner’s position.

3. Richard Attenborough’s life ambition was to direct Gandhi (1982).

4. Richard Attenborough made a cameo appearance as a patient wearing glasses in A Bridge Too Far (1977). This was his only acting role in a film that he directed.

5. Richard Attenborough directed Anthony Hopkins in five films: Young Winston (1972), A Bridge Too Far (1977), Magic (1978), Chaplin (1992) and Shadowlands (1993).

Check out Richard Attenborough’s career compared to current and classic actors.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.

1994’s Miracle on 34th Street

Richard Attenborough Movies Ranked By IMDb and Joel Hirschhorn’s Rating The Movie Stars book (these movies are mostly from his early English movie career and we can not find any box office grosses).

  1. The Angry Silence (1960) 83.20%
  2. Eight O’Clock Walk (1954) 80.20%
  3. The League of Gentlemen (1960) 73.80%
  4. All Night Long (1962) 72.60%
  5. Ducimer Street/London Belongs To Me (1948) 72.00%
  6. Breakout (1959) 71.40%
  7. The Outsider/The Guinea Pig (1948) 70.80%
  8. PT Raiders/The Ship That Died of Shame (1955) 70.80%
  9. Dancing With Crime (1947) 70.20%
  10. The Lost People (1949) 70.20%
  11. Desert Patrol (1958) 70.20%
  12. Journey Together (1945) 69.60%
  13. Secret Flight (1946) 69.60%
  14. Private’s Progress (1956) 69.60%
  15. Brothers in Law (1957) 69.60%
  16. Strange Affection/The Scamp (1957) 69.60%
  17. The Smugglers/The Man Within (1947) 69.00%
  18. The Man Upstairs (1958) 69.00%
  19. Jet Storm (1959) 67.80%
  20. SOS Pacific (1959) 67.20%
  21. The Hundred Pound Window (1944) 66.60%
  22. Boys in Brown (1949) 66.60%
  23. Hell Is Sold Out (1951) 65.40%
  24. The Baby and the Battleship (1956) 62.40%
  25. Father’s Doing Fine (1952) 61.80%

 

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61 thoughts on “Richard Attenborough Movies”

  1. Hmm for some reason I thought this was an old page but it’s new. I see… British films with no box office info was holding you back before. You have a separate box for them, good idea. You could add them to the main chart and simply add N/A to the box office box. Maybe because you won’t be able to calculate a UMR score for them puts you off?

    Anyway let’s see… I’ve seen 23 films from both charts, favorites include – The Great Escape, A Bridge Too Far, The Sand Pebbles, Gandhi, Chaplin, Jurassic Park 1 & 2,
    A Matter of Life and Death, and Brannigan.

    I saw Brannigan at the cinema back in the mid 70s, enjoyed it, still do. Dickie and the Duke, an odd combination.

    Jurassic Park was huge, nearly twice as successful as no.2 The Lost World.

    I liked Gandhi but it still pi**ed off when it won over ET at the Oscars.
    Sir Richard was a fan too –

    “ET was an infinitely more creative and fundamental piece of cinema than Gandhi. (Business partner) Diana Hawkins and I went to see ET in Los Angeles shortly before all the awards and we used language when we came out, to the extent of saying ‘we have no chance – ET should and will walk away with it’

    Without the initial premise of Mahatma Gandhi, the film would be nothing. Therefore it’s a narrative film but it’s a piece of narration rather than a piece of cinema, as such. ET depended absolutely on the concept of cinema and I think that Steven Spielberg, who I’m very fond of, is a genius. I think ET is a quite extraordinary piece of cinema.”

    Good work Bruce. Vote Up!

    Reply

    1. Hey Steve….yep this is a brand new page. We generated lots of new pages during your break. This and the Dirk Bogarde pages are test pages….as there are so many British movies that I can not find much on domestic box office. So pages like this one and ones coming on John Mills, Trevor Howard, Micheal Redgrave, Ralph Richardson and wait for it Peter Cushing will have huge sections with just the rating %.

      I have seen all of your favorites with the exception of A Matter Of Life and Death. As for The Great Escape…one of our favorites, one of our dad’s favorties and lots of others favorites. Easily the Attenborough movie I re-watch the most….with A Bridge Too Far picking up second place.

      I was irked when Chariots of Fire took out Raiders of the Lost Ark, but I did not have an emotional attachment to ET like I did Raiders…so I was not too miffed on that Oscar snubbed.

      FYI. My very first date was taking a girl named Tina to E.T., she was a red-head…..apparently I have a thing for red-heads….as I eventually married a red-head….hard to believe that date was almost 40 years ago. Good stuff as always.

      Reply

    3. “I liked Gandhi but it still pi**ed off when it won over ET at the Oscars.” I can’t believe that: a supposed patriotic Mancunian wanted an American production to trump a Brit one at the Oscars. Those Yanks do us no favours. Mr Gimme More won a Golden Globe in 1987 for his 1985-89 TV series Moonlighting performance. Do you think WH [and I’m sure he was watching back then] was sitting cheering on some Limey to trump Mr Moore?

      How many of you English guys across the pond REALLY believe in Brexit? Do any of you want to be TRULY free?

      Just now the lilac is in bloom,
      All before my little room;
      And in my flower-beds, I think,
      Smile the carnation and the pink;
      And down the borders, well I know,
      The poppy and the pansy blow.

      Here tulips bloom as they are TOLD;
      Unkempt about those hedges blows
      An English UNOFICCIALrose;
      And there the UNREGULATED sun
      Slopes down to rest when day is done,

      And wakes a vague UNPUNCTUAL star,
      A slippered Hesper; and there are
      Meads towards Haslingfield and Coton **
      Where das Betreten’s not verboten. ***

      Rupert Brooke: The Old Vicarage Manchester [Written 2012 in West Germany]

      **Coton Small English village near Cambridge
      *** Verboten. Prone to follow orders without question.

      Reply

      1. Bob, first of all… all my favorite films are American [Bob faints].

        Can you think of any British films you prefer over American? Take your time… [cue Bob thinking hard]

        Okay calm down I exaggerated a bit there but you have to admit most of our favorite films are the yankee americanos. Am I really going to choose Carry on Camping over Chuck’s Planet of the Apes because I need to be patriotic?

        Secondly, as you know I’m a huge sci-fi fan and science fiction has yet to win a Best Picture Oscar (unless you count The Shape of Water which is more weird monster movie than sci-fi).

        I like and respect Sir Dick’s Gandhi but I’d rather watch a naked little gray alien scuttling around and tripping over than a naked little brown man with a walking stick (for 3 hours!). Even Lord Attenborough was a fan see my quote above.

        Saying all this, I’m not that crazy about ET, it’s not among my 5 top favorite Spielberg films. But I prefer it to Senor Spielbergo’s highly rated Schindler’s List, which was too depressing.

        My favorite British film? hmm I’ll get back to you on that one. What’s yours?

        Reply

        1. “Even Lord Attenborough was a fan [of ET] see my quote above.” says Steve. Yes but I bet Dickie didn’t want it to win that night replies Bob!

          America is a much bigger and richer country than GB and flowing from that it has had the greater and more numerous stars and enjoys massive film output which in turn means that it has made more classics than has other country.

          So I would agree that most people will like more American films than any other kind. However whilst I have always loved the American cinema they have tended to give themselves the lion’s share of the Oscars etc over the years.

          Therefore all other things being equal if an Englishman/film is nominated I will normally be rooting for him/it – and I’m not even English!

          By “all other things” I mean provided none of my own top faves like Chuck/Brando/Greg or an Irish actor are in the running. For me the dreadful Carry On films would never come into the equation at all.

          For the record as you ask my fave all time Brit movies are The Third Man and Robert Donat’s version of Goodby Mr Cogerson which are respectively 1st and 72nd on The British Film Institute’s Top 100 Greatest all-time British films. See Part 2 for Top 20 and the Sir Maurice factor

          Reply

      2. Hey Bob…those Brit artsy movies always have an edge over blockbusters…..so I can feel Steve’s pain about ET…..I vividly remember being miffed that Chariots of Fire won over Raiders…I like the Brooke lyrics. Good stuff.

        Reply

        2. HI BRUCE: Steve cries foul when even Jason doesn’t get an Oscar. In the Civil Service where I worked top brass are given Knighthoods and other formal honours/titles for simply reaching a certain status in the hierarchy regardless of how well they perform their duties – ie it goes with the territory; and a lot of Brits who are in the acting profession enjoy the same privilege. There is a great culture of self-entitlement there.

          You guys seem to feel that these competent to awful tough-guy actors whom you worship should get an Oscar for simply being popular and enjoying hype whereas they are well paid for being for example box office. Oscars should be for exceptional work – not some routine franchises like Indie which is really an old 30s serial poshed up with special effects that Larry Buster Crabbe use to give us with his eyes closed – eg Flash Gordon; Captain Silver in The Sea Hound

          I was more entertained by Rory’s B westerns Red Sundown and Dawn at Socorro than I was by Marlon’s Streetcar -though his performance electrified me – but beyond doubt TECHNICALLY Streetcar was the more superior film with much better actors all round and the two Calhoun oaters were not traditional Oscar material.

          Reply

        3. Conversely I don’t think that you and Steve have ever come to terms with the fact that these ‘wonder boys’ of yours like Sly and Jace are atrocious actors though hype laughingly got Stallone a few noms which nobody who thought about it would ever take seriously,

          I loved Arnie in his heyday but I never fooled myself that he was in the DeNiro/Pacino/Hanks class so why should they give him an Oscar? Harrison Ford is a cut above those 3 but whilst he has always been competent I have never seen him give a performance that I thought deserved an Oscar. Artistically his best efforts were not even equal to Day Lewis’ routine ones. It is mere fan-sentiment to pretend otherwise.

          Brando has given us a broad range of roles down through the years: Zapata; Stanley; Antony; Napoleon; a song and dance man; an Okinawan interpreter; The Wild One; Terry Malloy; 2 cowboys heroes and a cowboy psychopath; a German officer; Godpop; and a homosexual in a performance which John Huston personally described as “the greatest performance that I have ever drawn from an actor.” Could Stallone/Statham/The Rock/Vin Diesel EVER have tackled THAT range of different parts – could he have performed such a range even badly?

          My advice for what is is worth: come out of denial and you will be able to watch these Oscar ceremonies without feeling the pain – “It’s the HOPE that kills us!” is an old saying which I know to be true because of Federer. Chuck/Sir Maurice/Mr Mumbles have all got Oscars – so it could be said that you/Steve and I have all had our pound of flesh. “Sufficient unto our days”!

          Reply

  2. But look: do we really want a bland site where all is sweetness and light and nobody disagrees? However an argument turns out surely friendly closely-contested debate and controversy add extra ‘meat’ to the site? Oh how I miss John!

    Anyway I can see no ‘happy ending’ to the MD debate. If you and WH are correct and Sir Maurice isn’t in it how can we be sure in future that Wiki and IMDB and others are reliable sources of information?

    CURRENT PRODUCTION NOTES on WIKIPEDIA
    “Morning Departure (released as Operation Disaster in the United States) is a 1950 British naval drama film about life aboard a sunken submarine, directed by Roy Ward Baker, and starring John Mills and Richard Attenborough. It is based on a stage play of the same name by Kenneth Woollard, which had also been shown as a live TV play by the BBC both in 1946 and 1948. It was the feature film debut of Michael Caine.”

    On the other hand if it transpires that Sir M IS in it WH will maybe want to throw at him the grosses of not just that movie but could also give him a cut/Split of the Brando and Charley Bill Stuart whopping big gross for Teahouse of the August Moon as a member of my amateur claims to have seen the young Sir M running around with a tray in that movie too.

    PS: Good point about the exchanges belonging more to Sir Maurice’s page especially if the Work Horse loses. I’ll start transferring them across when I have a moment.

    Reply

  3. Hi Bob, interesting debate between you and Bruce concerning Michael Caine’s movie debut. I’ve looked at a couple of his books, Caine doesn’t mention playing a teaboy in ‘Morning Departure’ aka ‘Operation Disaster’, but he does say he was a teaboy at the studio while they were making that movie. So maybe someone somewhere assumed he was in the movie too?

    “I was working as a tea boy for the producer Jay Lewis, who was making Morning Departure with John Mills. I’d never been to a film studio before and one day he took me with him to Pinewood. While we were there we ran into Walt Disney. As a little boy I was a huge fan of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Pluto and it gives me such pleasure now to watch the cartoons with the next generation of our family, my two-year-old grandson.”

    p.s. These chats would have been better placed at Caine’s page than Dickie’s.

    Reply

    1. HI STEVE: Thanks for your [as is normal observant] feedback. According to the quotes that WH produces Sir Maurice also says that when he made A Hill in Manchester he had never before had even a “speaking role on TV”. That suggests to me that he may have had a non-speaking role and if so all his filmographies indicate that chronologically it could have been in only Morning Departure which was made for TV in 1946 and released in cinemas in 1950.

      WH may have hit the nail on the head when he said somewhere that teaboy Mike could have strayed onto the set with beverages and the still-filming camera caught him; but as he was not paid as an actor on the project and clearly had no real role in the movie [which he could anyway think of as a TV movie] he maybe doesn’t feel like dwelling on the matter when talking about his movie career. If so it is still important in my view to put in a marker that the teaboy appearance was his first sighting on both a TV and cinema screen.

      Anyway so many respected sources [such as Wiki and IMDB] credit him with MD as his debut movie that you would think that [as any role in it was obviously obscure] at least ONE of them would have confirmed the matter by looking at the film itself as WH proposes to do when he gets his hands on a DVD. [He’ll be torn in two: he’ll want to be proven right; but will still be panting to catch a glimpse of Sir M in the throes of boyhood – win/win for him!] I just hope that when The Work Horse starts these arguments in future he doesn’t expect us all to be out a fortune buying DVDs to prove our point.

      Reply

    2. Hey Steve. Thanks for sharing this information. It sounds like it is from his latest book, which I do not own. I know I am disappointed in myself as well. I have never heard this Walt Disney story before. Now I really want to find that movie. Great stuff.

      Reply

      1. Bruce, the quote is from the book ‘The Elephant to Hollywood’ I have it on epub I’ll send you a copy, check your email.

        Reply

        1. Thanks, Steve. I appreciate you sending me a copy. I have noticed IMDb makes errors on the first movie. Numerous times I have seen somebody get credit for a movie that was made before they were born. Another time IMDb gave credit to Michael Caine credit for a role in an Al Pacino movie. It took them months to fix it. But overall, IMDb is the best online source out there. Thanks again.

          Reply

  4. Hey Bob….I guess we will chalk this up to “we agree to disagree”….at least until my Morning Departure arrives in the mail. So it is me and Sir Michael versus you….I like my odds…..lol. WoC and I are rebuilding a fence in our backyard….and I thought I was on vacation.

    Reply

    1. HI BRUCE:

      While you are waiting. Further to recent exchanges on this site it seems that Sir Maurice Micklewhite made his credited [and possibly spoken] film debut in 1956’s Hell in Virginia; but that possibly Morning Departure which was originally a 1946 television movie and then released in cinemas in 1950 may have been the first sighting of him on TV and in cinemas.

      One can google “IMDB Morning Departure TV movie” which shows him in the cast list of that movie and herald’s it as his debut albeit uncredited. In a side box on the same page all [ presumably] of Sir Mike’s films are listed and the first 7 mentioned are

      Morning Departure – 1946 [TV] 1950 [Cinema release]
      Teacher Beware aka Panic in the Classroom -1956/uncredited
      Hell in Virginia [aka A Hill in Virginia]- 1956/uncredited
      The Steel Bayonet -1957/uncredited
      How to Murder a Rich Critic -1957/supporting
      A Woman of Mystery -1958/uncredited
      Carve Her Name with Pride-1958/uncredited. The Work Horse’s Greatest Box Office actresses tables follow that instruction!

      The 128 movies listed in that side box should be of immense interest to ALL Micklewhite buffs as they describe many obscure pre-Zulu flics that he appeared in as a supporting and/or uncredited/cameo performer.

      In those movies he plays ‘nothing’ Split-like parts to then-contemporary Greats of the British cinema such as Richard Todd/Jack Hawkins/Richard Attenborough [maybe again]. He was even in a silly Norman Wisdom comedy The Bulldog Creed. He is again uncredited there and maybe today he would welcome that!

      Reply

  5. PART 4

    13/The moral of the Part 3 story is that the now Knight of the English Realm Sir Mike [an arch-Conservative by the way] night wish to forget his humble days as a walk-on [initially TV] teaboy and unintentionally let reference to it slip out in 3 of your post. Conversely even if he comes out and ‘pretends’ he wasn’t in it he will still be credited with it in MY databases. “When the legend’s more suitable than the truth print the legend!” [The Man who shot Liberty Valance starring Wayne/Stewart [1962].

    14/Because whilst Olivier might still be Britain’s most prestigious thespian as an ACTOR it is arguable that after Sir Sean the greatest worldwide box office attraction ever to emerge out of the subordinate British cinema is Sir Mike; and it pleases me in a fairy-tale sense to think that his first appearance on any screen should be as a humble teaboy. From the film buff’s perspective that if true is not mere trivia in the normal sense but knowledge of it is historically more important that knowing about Willis in Split or – dare Mr Roy even think it? – being aware that Brando was in Superman Returns. Meanwhile-

    “Well the people held their breath
    When they heard about Jesse’s death (yeah)
    And they wondered how poor Jesse came to die (how did he die?)
    It was one of his own guys, called Little Robert Ford
    And he shot Jessie James on the sly.”

    Reply

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