Want to know the best Robert Mitchum movies? How about the worst Robert Mitchum movies? Curious about Robert Mitchum’s box office grosses or which Robert Mitchum movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Robert Mitchum movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
The American Film Institute published their 50 Greatest Screen Legends in 1999. To qualify the performer had to have made their screen debut before 1950. The list presented the Top 25 actors and the Top 25 actresses of all time. One of my goals here on this website is to write a page on the 50 Greatest Screen Legends. With the publication of this page I am now exactly half way to my goal…..as I have done a page on 17 of the Greatest Actors and 8 of the Greatest Actresses. Which gets us to the subject of this page …..coming in at #23 on the Greatest Screen Legend Actors poll is Robert Mitchum.
Robert Mitchum (1917-1997) was an Oscar® nominated actor who appeared in 135 acting roles in movies and television between 1942 and 1997. He first gained fame appearing in the World War II movies, 1944’s Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo and 1945’s The Story of G.I. Joe. In the late 1940s, early 1950s he appeared in some of the greatest film noir movies ever produced….1947’s Out of the Past, 1950’s Undercurrent and 1952’s Angel Face. Other high watermarks in his career included…1954’s River of No Return(Marilyn Monroe), 1955’s The Night of the Hunter, 1962’s Cape Fear, 1967’s El Dorado and 1973’s The Friends of Eddie Coyle.
His IMDb page shows 135 acting credits from 1942-1997. This page will rank 82 Robert Mitchum movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, cameos and movies that were not released in theaters were not included in the rankings.
Robert Mitchum Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Robert Mitchum 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 Robert Mitchum movies by co-stars of his movies.
- Sort Robert Mitchum movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Robert Mitchum movies by yearly box office rank or trivia
- Sort Robert Mitchum 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 Robert Mitchum movie received.
- Sort Robert Mitchum movies by Ultimate Movie Ranking (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 buttons to make this a very interactive page.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Robert Mitchum
1. How he got to Hollywood. Robert Mitchum was born in Connecticut in 1917, moved to California in 1936, got a job working as a machine operator and was pushed by his sister to join the local theater guild.
2. As a machine operator he suffered a nervous breakdown that resulted in temporary blindness. To avoid stress he decided to try and become an extra in the movies. It was a decision that worked out very well indeed.
3. One producer did numerous screen tests on Robert Mitchum….and even after numerous tests the producer could not decide if Mitchum was the worst actor ever or one of the most natural actors ever. The screen tests and the extra work eventually led him to the low budget Hopalong Cassidy movie serials.
4. His first real break was getting a supporting part in a big budget high profile movie….. 1944’s Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo. The next year he got an Oscar® nomination for The Story Of G.I. Joe as Best Supporting Actor. This would turn out to be his only role that got him a nomination for acting (that includes Emmy®, Tony® and Golden Globes®)….135 roles and 1 nomination.
5. Robert Mitchum was married one time in his life and that was to Dorothy Mitchum for 57 years. They had two sons….Christopher and James and one daughter Petrina.
6. In 1948 Robert Mitchum was arrested, convicted and served jail time on charges for possession of marijuana. At the time of his arrest it was assumed this would destroy his promising career…instead it seemed to back up his tough guy anti-hero persona…. his career only lasted another 49 years.
7. Roles Robert Mitchum turned down over his career…..George C. Scott’s role in Patton, Gene Hackman’s role in The French Connection, a role in The Wild Bunch, and the Tony Curtis part in The Defiant Ones.
8. Later in his career, he became the King of the mini-series as he starred in not one not two but three of the most popular mini-series ever….1983’s The Winds of War, 1985’s North and South and 1988’s War and Remembrance.
9. Robert Mitchum’s voice is considered to one of the most distinctive voices to ever be heard on movie screens. This very deep singing voice was recorded on numerous records over the years and has been heard in many of his movies.
10. Probably the best Robert Mitchum tribute site is The Ultimate Robert Mitchum Headquarters. Every Mitchum fan should be checking out this website….as it is filled with many many awesome Mitchum links.
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.
Check out Robert Mitchum’s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time
AFI’s Top 25 Screen Legend Actors….with links to our movie pages on the Screen Legend
For comments….all you need is a name and a comment….please ignore the rest.
I read in your about page that you had updated this page.
I have seen 40 of his movies listed – most of them in the top half.
I love how you encourage enthusiasm and don’t put people down.
Hey Flora…thanks for coming back and checking out my Mitchum update. Looking at the comments…from….scary…..years ago….my tally has gone from 15 to 29. Closing the gap. the great thing about Letterboxd…..it makes it real easy to keep track of the movies I have watched. This link show my reviews of the 8 Mitchum movies I have in the last 2 and half years. http://letterboxd.com/cogerson/tag/robert-mitchum/films/
Hello Bruce. This is one of my favorite of your movie ranking pages but you have 1060’s “Home from the Hill” with a $1,980,000 gross when I have discovered according to the Eddie Mannix ledger that “Home from the Hill” made $3,275,000 in domestic rentals and $5,075,000 in worldwide rentals and cost “$2,354,000. So I think it should rank a little higher. Thanks for this great page.
Hey Lyle.
1. Thanks for the catch. That moved Home From The Hill from 33rd place to 19th….and almost got the 18th spot.
2. IMDb gives the box office at just over $2 million gross…..thinking I used that number and failed to look for another number because…..
3. A quick look at the Top Grossers of 1960..in Variety’s January 4th 1961 issue there is Home on the Hill in 20th place for the year. I have probably looked at that issue a 1000 times…and never even connected the dots.
4. Probably one of my biggest mistakes…..I remember I screwed up From The Terrace when I did my Myrna Loy page…looking at that same table….I see From The Terrance in 1th place…maybe I need to look at all of my 1960 movies in my database.
5. Once again thanks for pointing out that error. Finding box office from yesteryear is difficult enough without me making dumb mistakes.
Also….that gives Home From The Hill…a worldwide box office of $130.70 million in adjusted box office.
After re-reading my comment….this gives more fuel to my wife and her thought process….she has been telling me for a very long time that I need to enter all the movies in the Variety issues into the database ……I have resisted doing that because I enjoy finding the movies when I am researching a page. Maybe I will have to finally go back and start entering those movies.
Hi
Mitchum came across as one of the most laid back movie stars ever. With the droopy eyes and the cigarette in his mouth, he gave the image that he didn’t give a damn about anything. Of course truth be told, nobody could be that laid back and leave such a legacy of work that he did.
It was sad that he was never really recognised by the Academy. I once read that when he was working with Greer Garson, it took about 50 takes for one scene and he said after that, I refuse to take Hollywood serious.
I think his best film was ‘Night of the Hunter’ and yet it hardly made a dime. I also enjoyed ‘Ryan’s Daughter’ a very underrated performance as the shy school teacher. In the 80s, he made The Winds of War, the critics gave it an awful slating but I think he actually won a Golden Globe for it, which was more than the Academy ever did.
I also really liked ‘The River of No Return’ ‘Sundowners’ and ‘Scrooged.’ When he was making ‘Undercurrent’ with Katharine Hepburn, she told him that he had no talent and that he wouldn’t last. Boy did she get it wrong.
Hey Chris….I agree with you on Mitchum….his acting style seemed so natural and relaxed that people took him for granted. He got his one Oscar nomination in the mid-40s….and then they ignored him. Interesting stuff about Katharine Hepburn and Greer Garson.
Night of the Hunter is a classic. Ryan’s Daughter made me want to go to Ireland and see all of that beautiful locations seen in that film. Mills got the Oscar love in that one….but it was one of Mitchum’s best performances.
The Sundowners really surprised me. I just saw it for the first time last year. Surprised it does not get talked about very often. Some many great scenes and great performances in that one. Critics might have gone after Winds of War….but it was a ratings smash. Glad the man won an award for his acting. One of a kind.
Thank you so much for linking my Robert Mitchum tribute site to yours!! “The Ultimate Robert Mitchum Headquarters”
I have a list of RM movies at my site. You can use them to add to your list if you are missing any:
http://robertmitchum.webs.com/FILMOGRAPHY.html
Thanks for the link Jane. On my rankings I did not include tv movies or ones that did not see North American theaters. The ones I would like to include are his early westerns…..do you have any box office information on those Zane Grey movies?
Thank you Jane….hopefully…..we can help each other out when it comes to getting some extra traffic….I think our two sites go pretty well together.
Robert Mitchum was one of the great film stars. I liked many of his films. Some of my favorites are “Out of the Past” (1947), “The Night of the Hunter” (1955), “Heaven Knows Mr. Allison” (1957), “The Wonderful Country” (1959), “The Sundowners” (1960), “Cape Fear” (1962) and later on in his career “The Zakuza” (1974). Another great page, Bruce. My late wife told me she had a crush on Mitchum when she was a teenager and her first husband kind of looked like Mitchum. Thanks for another great page.
Hey Lyle…..all I like all of your favorites too….with exception of The Wonderful Country….which I have never heard of before…..I will have to check that one out. The Sundowners is a movie that does seem to get much attention. Kerr and Mitchum made a great screen couple. I love the sheep shearing contest in that one. Interesting story about your late wife and her Mitchum crush. Finally getting near the end of moving these movie pages to the new website. I was dreading Bob’s page because he has some many movies. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.