Want to know the best Spencer Tracy movies? How about the worst Spencer Tracy movies? Curious about Spencer Tracy’s box office grosses or which Spencer Tracy movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Spencer Tracy movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well, you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
Fox Films signed Spencer Tracy (1900-1967) to his first movie contract. His first movie was Up the River, directed by John Ford and co-starred another newcomer, Humphrey Bogart. For the next five years, Tracy appeared in nearly five films a year. Most of these films were low budget films that were forgotten as soon as they were produced. Just how bad were this movies? After making Dante’s Inferno in 1935, Tracy’s contract was terminated. Being fired was Spencer Tracy’s big break, as it allowed him to sign a contract with MGM. At MGM, Spencer Tracy became one of the greatest actors of all-time. This page has every movie he made from 1935 to 1967.
His IMDb page shows 78 acting credits from 1930-1967. This page will rank 60 Spencer Tracy movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, cameos and many of his early Fox Films’ movies that were not released in theaters were not included in the rankings.
Spencer Tracy Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Spencer Tracy 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 Spencer Tracy movies by co-stars of his movies.
- Sort Spencer Tracy movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Spencer Tracy movies by adjusted worldwide box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Spencer Tracy 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 Spencer Tracy movie received.
- Sort Spencer Tracy 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 sort and search buttons to make this table very interactive. For example type in “Katharine Hepburn” in the search box…and the Hepburn/Tracy movies pop right up
Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Spencer Tracy Table
- Thirty-one Spencer Tracy movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 51.66% of his movies listed. How the West Was Won (1963) was his biggest box office ht just barely holding off 1936’s San Francisco.
- An average Spencer Tracy movie grosses $149.80 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 43 of Spencer Tracy’s movies are rated as good movies…or 71.66% of his movies. Adam’s Rib (1949) is his highest rated movie while Plymouth Adventure (1952) was his lowest rated movie.
- Thirty Spencer Tracy movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 50.00% of his movies.
- Twelve Spencer Tracy movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 20.00% of his movies.
- An average Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 40.00. 42 Spencer Tracy movies scored higher than that average….or 70.00% of his movies. Boys Town (1938) got the the highest UMR Score while Up the River (1930) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Sir Spencer Tracy
1. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Tracy ninth among the Greatest Male Actors of All-Time.
2. He received 9 Oscar(®) nominations for Best Actor.…..he won twice…for 1937’s Captain Courageous and 1938’s Boys Town.
3. Spencer Tracy joins Luise Rainer, Jason Robards, Katharine Hepburn and Tom Hanks as the only actors to win back to back acting Oscars®.
4. Spencer Tracy had to drop out of the movies, Cheyenne Autumn and The Cincinnati Kid, due to health issues, both times his part was played by Edward G. Robinson.
5. In the Oscar(®) winning Pixar movie Up, Carl the main character is a combination of Spencer Tracy and Walter Matthau….the next time you see Up try and not think of Spencer Tracy whenever Carl is on screen….it can not be done.
6. Turned down Cary Grant’s role in The Philadelphia Story in order to make Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
7. Along with Katharine Hepburn, visited an ailing Humphrey Bogart almost daily as he was dying of cancer…..while Katharine Hepburn was with Spencer Tracy on the night he died. Tracy died only 17 days after filming of 1967’s Guess Who`s Coming to Dinner had been completed.
8. Has three films on the American Film Institute`s 100 Most Inspiring Movies of All Time. They are: Captains Courageous (1937) at #94, Boys Town (1938) at #81 and Guess Who`s Coming to Dinner (1967) at #35.
9. The John Tracy Clinic is a private, non-profit education center for infants and preschool children with hearing loss in Los Angeles, California. It was founded by Lousie Treadwell Tracy , wife of actor Spencer Tracy, in 1942. It provides free, parent-centered services worldwide. The Clinic has over 60 years of expertise in the spoken language option.
10. Recently I discovered one awesome Spencer Tracy tribute site. Highly recommend checking out The Greatest of All Spencer Tracy. This site has some awesome Spencer Tracy photos, links to Spencer Tracy information and much much more.
Check out Spencer Tracy’s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
Proof of possibly interesting fact # 5 about Spencer Tracy.
For comments….all you need is a name and a comment….please ignore the rest.
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.
WIKIPEDIA: BILLING IN THE MOVIES – PART ONE
” After the studio system’s collapse in the 1950s, actors and their agents fought for billing on a film-by-film basis and more stars began to demand top billing. Billing demands even extended to publicity materials, down to the height of the letters and the position of names.
One of the first “and-as” credits was afforded Spencer Tracy (as Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle) in the 1944 World War II film Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, since another top box office star of the time, Van Johnson, had top billing and Tracy was too big a star to receive second billing. [Tracy’s name was in far larger letters than Van’s or any other star’s.]
Sometimes, top billing will be given based on a person’s level of fame. For example, besides his brief appearance in Superman, Marlon Brando received top billing in both The Godfather and Apocalypse Now.
However, an instance of “equal importance” is The Towering Inferno (1974) starring Steve McQueen and Paul Newman. The two names appear simultaneously with Newman’s on the right side of the screen and raised slightly higher than McQueen’s, to indicate the comparable status of both actors’ characters.
Clark Gable had a top billing clause written into his MGM contract and made three major films in the 1930s with Spencer Tracy in supporting roles (San Francisco, Test Pilot, and Boom Town), but when Tracy renegotiated his contract during World War II, he had the same clause included in his own contract, effectively ending the hugely popular Gable-Tracy team.
For The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), James Stewart was given top billing over John Wayne in the movie’s posters and the previews (trailers) shown in cinemas and on television prior to the film’s release, but in the film itself, Wayne is accorded top billing.
Good stuff Bob, fascinating info on these great actors and their preoccupation with billing. I was aware of The Towering Inferno billing wars, I wrote an article on the making of the film at hubpages. And I wrote a separate article on John Berkey, the artist who designed the stunning poster art for that film (Berkey also created the iconic poster of Kong astride the World Trade Center for the 1976 remake King Kong).
Each star had to have equal billing on the film. Steve McQueen’s name is seen first – left to right and Paul Newman’s is first – top to bottom. Also as part of their contracts the two stars had exactly the same number of lines of dialogue in the script. And they would count each word to make sure they were equal. If Newman was given more lines to say, McQueen would demand more too. 🙂
https://entertainingwelsey.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/towering-inferno.png
GENERAL
1 At least Crawford was overt about it. I read that other stars pretended they knew nothing about the billing squabbles that were going on in their names and let their agents do the arguing. Brando and Loren for example feigned disinterest in the billing issue for Countess from Hong Kong whilst their respective Cogerson type agents arrived at the studio with long lists of box office grosses etc in support of the star that each represented and fought one another like cat an dog.
2 According to the Wikipedia article some stars get an unrealistic assessment of their own importance with for example little known actor Raul Juila demanding equal billing to Robert Redford in Havana (1990) and being told to get lost by the producers. Julia in a huff then elected to appear in the movie uncredited.
3 Things apparently went to a ridiculous length in the Boeing Boeing dispute with the studio being required to publish fresh cast lists in local papers every day alternating top position between Lewis and Curtis. At least Jerry hadn’t demanded that M & L be changed to Lewis and Martin a reverse billing situation that Lou Costello had tried impose on poor Bud Abbott.
4 Of course some performers have a different kind of fish to fry and can be very cunning about it. Monroe cheerfully accepted 2nd billing to Peck in Let’s Make Love and then when shooting began she arranged for her part to be gradually increased in size at the expense of Greg’s who walked out on the film and was replaced by Yves Montand.
TOWERING INFERNO
5 Apparently Golden also demanded top billing in that one but was told by Fox that he was no longer in the McQueen/ Newman box office league and would have to come 3rd.
6 Whilst the McQueen/Newman compromise was recognised as equal billing at the time that would no longer be the case today according to Wikipedia and the actor whose name appears on the left hand side of the poster – ie McQueen in the Towering Inferno card illustrated in your link – will be regarded as the one with first billing even if another actor’s name is raised slightly above the first actor’s as Newman’s was in the McQueen/Newman arrangement. Ironically though apparently when the McQueen/Newman negotiations opened Paul said he would accept either position in the billing and left the final choice to Steve. It is reported that McQueen subsequently boastfully broadcast it to all in sundry that he was the one would had REALLY got first billing and had thus got one over on Paul, and maybe that’s why their arrangement is no longer acceptable today to other stars.
Hey Bob…..I am always impressed with your billing issues. Before you comments….I think I was aware of a few billing fights….but my knowledge has improved leaps and bounds since you came “out of the shadows”. Hard to beleive that Raul Julia was equal to Redford…..but maybe that explains why Julia is not billed in Presumed Innocent as well….especially if he thought he show be above the title with Harrison Ford. Good stuff as always.
Hey Steve….I like the poster. I never understood why McQueen had a problem with Newman…..apparently it started when they both appeared in Somebody Up There Likes Me….Newman was the star….and McQueen had a small appearance….but somehow McQueen always felt he got shortchanged in that movie and blamed Newman. Makes no sense to me. I like the photo you attached.
Hey Bob……good information on billing. I thought Van Johnson was pretty much just starting out when 30 Seconds Over Tokyo came out…..plus Tracy is barely in the movie…..his part was probably filmed in 4 or 5 days.
As for Towering Inferno…..the fire reaches higher levels than McQueen or Newman reach in the posters….lol. Good stuff as always.
HI BRUCE
1 Thanks for your feedback on my comments. 30 Seconds over Tokyo was as you say a very early Van Johnson vehicle and he may have got the part because Tracy took him under his wing as a protege.
2 Agains as you say Tracy’s role was just a supporting one and as Johnson had the lead he was given first billing but Tracy’s name still dominates the poster because of its size and here was the pecking order on the posters –
30 SECONDS OVER TOKYO
Starirng
Van Johnson/Robert Walker
SPENCER TRACY
3. Billing knowledge is important to me because in conjunction with your stats it enables one to pinpoint the relative importance of great stars of the past in comparison with one and other. It was sad that two great stars like Tracy/Bogie could not compromise on billing so that we could enjoy their talents in a joint project when they were at the height of their acting powers. One of the last occasions when the McQueen/Newman compromise for Towering Inferno was used was for Righteous Kill where DeNiro was billed first and Pacino second but with his name raised slightly above Robert’s For Ride the High Country Scott and McCrea simply tossed a coin and how does a star lose face under that procedure whatever way the coin comes down?
4 Saw your reference to Antonia Quirke’s offering. I have never read the latter but I’ve seen photos of HER and she seems to be one very attractive lady.
Hey Bob…..you have made your point with lots of stats to back it up. I am sure the producers were very happy to have Tracy for that little bit of time. And even happier to make sure he was shown on the poster. I think Johnny Depp is a great current example. When was box office hot he was in all the promotions….Into The Woods he had a supporting role….but if you looked at the promotions it looked like a Depp movie. Now that he has cooled from bad marriage press and poor box office results it can not even appear in a trailer for his biggest and best franchise…..Pirates of the Caribbean.
BRUCE
1 The movie powers that be are a fickle and even ruthless crowd. I can quite see them wilfully doing that to Depp because when poor Michelle Pfeiffer’s star waned the orders went out that her name was not to be mentioned in any promotion material.
2 Indeed I can remember that for short time way back in the early 80s after Sat Night Fever and Grease and before he got his second wind it looked as if Travolta had no staying power and Hollywood’s perceived treatment of him was such that it enabled the Russian Government to score political points by criticising the “cruelty” of the US star system.
3 The Depp situation reminds one of that Bing/Frank song from High Society
“I have heard that in this clan
You are called the forgotten man.”
Anyway thanks for your interest in my billings comments.
Spencer Tracy made 10 color movies. His first color movie was Northwest Passage in 1940. He also narrated, but did not appear in, How the West was Won.
He appeared in good color movies, especially Bad Day at Black Rock.
Hey John…..10 is over 25% of his movies….that seems like a good percentage. Northwest Passage was one of my dad’s all-time favorite movies. Recently I re-watched that one with my wife….good adventure movie….it was surprisingly very violent….but I can see why he loved it so much. I agree with you about Bad Day At Black Rock. Thanks for the Spencer Tracy information.
STEVE:
1 Spencer Tracy was renowned for being protective of his billing and apparently even sulked on the Boom Town** set because MGM billed King Gable before him, but your Broken Lance poster adds a new twist by illustrating that in that movie Tracy would not accord even equal billing to Richard Widmark and the other stars in the film. Broken Lance was a western remake of the 1949 crime Film-Noir House of Strangers starring Eddie Robinson.
2 It’s hard to quarrel with your selections in the round and I would disagree with only the fine-tuning of some of the rankings in that I was surprised that Guess who’s Coming to Dinner and Mad Mad Word were not higher. *** What pleased me most were the very high placings given to Bad Day at Black Rock and Inherit the Wind and I was delighted to see minor gems like The Actress and 20,000 Years in Sing Sing being recognised albeit in only your bottom 10.
3 When Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner was first released Tracy was praised for his character’s last-act conversion to supporting the impending mixed marriage, but since then some critics have opined that although the intentions were good Spence was in reality being patronising and condescending to Poitier and Katharine Houghton in the movie. Anyway overall a Guns Up video.
** Boom Town was the last in a trio of Gable/Tracy films and it caused a Tracy biographer to observe that “It was the final one in which unusually one major star played the Eunuch to another top star.”
** * They do even worse in Cogerson in terms of audience/critic rating but their massive grosses pull them both up into his Top 8 in the UMR score.
Best wishes BOB
Hi Bob, looking at my files Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner didn’t do too badly in the rankings just out of the top 10 with a score of 7.7, it was a big hit and won Oscars but the critics weren’t too fond of it. Libeled Lady is a high scorer, I watched it once and wasn’t that crazy about it, was it really better than all those other Tracy films?
It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World is an odd movie, it’s a must have for comedy fans and I have it on DVD and Blu-ray, but I just don’t find it all that funny. All the shouting, screaming, mugging and pratfalls just doesn’t do it for me.
Boom Town was funnier and it’s not even a comedy. 🙂
Bruce has Boys Town topping the UMR chart and I don’t think it made the top 20 on my video, it was a big hit.
An interesting Tracy film that didn’t make the top 30 was Dante’s Inferno, worth watching for an astonishing sequence depicting a vision of hell full of naked people, the damned screaming in torment. Some scenes were taken from an earlier silent film with the same title.
🙂
Good comments here Bob…..:) I felt it was a shame that Tracy and Gable did not make any more movies together after Boom Town….and even sadder because it was an argument over billing.
Hey Dan….it looks like Tracy has three active actors left….Stanton (he is 90), Shatner (he is 85) and Wagner (he is 86)…though not thinking too many Stanton, Shatner or Wagner new movies are coming out. Though Wagner has 3 movies in pre-production…Shatner has 2 coming out and Stanton has 1 in pre-production. I wonder how many scripts call for a 90 year old actor? Arthur Tovey getting the top spot…cool. Good stuff!
Not top spot just alphabetically by film.
Yeah…I was just mentioning that Tovey was sitting at the top of the list of movies….he is looking down heaven and putting out how he is listed (no matter how) at the top of the list…lol.
Now for the rest of the story. These are the actors who appeared on the 2000 list who have fallen off who have appeared in a film with Spence. I think the lists were more balanced in the old days, like they seem to cover more years. Like 3 people he appeared with in 1931 in a film were on the list 69 years later. Ranks are 2000 ranks.
20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1933) – 918 Bette Davis
A Guy Named Joe (1943) – 467 Van Johnson, 894 Philip Van Zandt
Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) – 160 Robert Ryan, 236 Lee Marvin, 744 Dean Jagger
Big City (1937) – 542 Paul Fix, 740 George Chandler, 783 James Flavin
Boom Town (1940) – 222 Bess Flowers, 969 Byron Foulger
Broken Lance (1954) – 119 Richard Widmark, 232 Roy Jensen
Captains Courageous (1937) – 651 Melvyn Douglas, 832 Don Brodie
Cass Timberlane (1947) – 75 Cameron Mitchell, 222 Bess Flowers, 824 Frank Wilcox, 963 Frank Ferguson
Desk Set (1957) – 775 Dina Merrill
Disorderly Conduct (1932) – 507 Ralph Bellamy
Edison, the Man (1940) – 571 Charles Lane, 740 George Chandler, 969 Byron Foulger
Edward, My Son (1949) – 712 Finlay Currie
Father of the Bride (1950) – 222 Bess Flowers, 281 Elizabeth Taylor, 623 Russ Tamblyn
Father’s Little Dividend (1951) -281 Elizabeth Taylor, 459 Dabbs Greer, 623 Russ Tamblyn
Fury (1936) – 740 George Chandler, 989 Bruce Cabot
Goldie (1931) – 280 Billy Barty, 410 George Raft, 606 Alberto Morin
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967) – 231 Sidney Poitier, 964 Tom Heaton
How the West was Won (1962) – 56 Henry Fonda, 119 Richard Widmark, 137 Carroll Baker, 156 Gregory Peck, 179 John Wayne, 180 Lee Van Cleef, 232 Roy Jenson, 301 Lee J. Cobb, 344 James Stewart, 359 Karl Malden, 562 Paul Bryar, 623 Russ Tamblyn, 648 Harry Morgan, 657 Debbie Reynolds, 691 George Peppard, 816 Carleton Young
I Take This Woman (1940) – 395 Walter Pidgeon, 606 Alberto Morin
Inherit the Wind (1960) – 530 Norman Fell, 648 Harry Morgan, 682 Ray Teal
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) – 146 Mike Mazurki. 472 Terry-Thomas, 530 Norman Fell, 532 Jim Backus, 571 Charles Lane, 663 Milton Berle, 783 James Flavin, 877 Jerry Lewis
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) – 119 Richard Widmark, 222 Bess Flowers, 682 Ray Teal
Libeled Lady (1936) – 740 George Chandler, 982 Billy Benedict
Looking for Trouble (1934) – 571 Charles Lane
Malaya (1949) – 344 James Stewart, 384 Gilbert Roland, 548 Valentina Cortese, 824 Frank Wilcox, 984 Peter Mamakos
Mannequin (1937) – 542 Paul Fix, 740 George Chandler, 783 James Flavin
Me and My Gal (1932) – 740 George Chandler
Men of Boys Town (1941) – 301 Lee J. Cobb
Northwest Passage (1940) – 147 Lloyd Bridges, 256 Hank Worden, 682 Ray Teal
Now I’ll Tell (1934) – 783 James Flavin, 959 Leon Ames
Pat and Mike (1952) – 394 Aldo Ray, 532 Jim Backus
Plymouth Adventure (1952) – 147 Lloyd Bridges, 169 John Dehner, 464 John Alderson, 467 Van Johnson
Quick Millions (1931) – 410 George Raft, 959 Leon Ames
San Francisco (1936) – 917 Robert J. Wilke
Stanley and Livingstone (1939) – 851 Cedric Hardwicke
State of the Union (1948) – 326 Angela Lansbury, 467 Van Johnson, 571 Charles Lane, 732 Arthur O’Connell
Test Pilot (1938) – 783 James Flavin, 969 Byron Foulger
The Actress (1953) – 100 Ian Wolfe, 289 Anthony Perkins, 965 Mary Wickes, 973 Jean Simmons
The Devil at 4 O’Clock (1961) – 177 Marcel Dalio, 270 Frank Sinatra, 315 Jean-Pierre Aumont, 636 Gregoire Aslan
The Last Hurrah (1958) – 232 Roy Jenson, 612 Jeffrey Hunter, 783 James Flavin, 816 Carleton Young
The Mad Game (1933) – 506 Douglas Fowley, 542 Paul Fix
The Murder Man (1935) – 344 James Stewart, 740 George Chandler, 783 James Flavin
The People Against O’Hara (1951) – 53 Charles Bronson, 302 Richard Anderson, 379 Ann Doran, 520 William Schallert, 549 Strother Martin, 562 Paul Bryar, 617 Paul Frees, 671 Eduardo Cianelli, 903 Jack Kruschen, 963 Frank Ferguson, 984 Peter Mamakos
The Power and the Glory (1933) – 740 George Chandler
The Sea of Grass (1947) – 256 Hank Worden, 506 Douglas Fowley, 592 Whit Bissell, 651 Melvyn Douglas, 682 Ray Teal
The Seventh Cross (1944) – 499 Jessica Tandy, 508 Robert Blake, 555 Hume Cronyn
The Show-off (1934) – 571 Charles Lane
They Gave Him a Gun (1937) – 740 George Chandler
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) – 169 John Dehner, 467 Van Johnson, 959 Leon Ames
Tortilla Flat (1942) – 234 Akim Tamiroff
Without Love (1945) – 43 Keenan Wynn, 740 George Chandler, 783 James Flavin
Woman of the Year (1942) – 682 Ray Teal
Young America (1932) – 507 Ralph Bellamy
Hey Dan….seeing this lengthy list shows just how popular Spencer Tracy was…..good to Angela Landsbury on the list…I have thought about doing a page on her……but the length of her career has scared me away. How The West Was Won is filled with lots of Top 1000 performers….gotta be one of the best totals for a single movie. Thanks for sharing this Tracy list.
Spencer Tracy has 31 movies on your list that 100 million. Spencer who passed away in 1967 never appeared on the Oracle of Bacon Top 1000 Centers of the Hollywood Universe. These are the only actors on the current top 1000 to appear with him in a film.
Adam’s Rib – 912 Arthur Tovey
Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) – 142 Ernest Borgnine
Boys Town (1938) – 245 Mickey Rooney
Broken Lance (1954) – 271 Robert Wagner
Captains Courageous (1937) – 245 Mickey Rooney
How the West was Won (1962) – 40 Harry Dean Stanton, 220 Eli Wallach
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) – 245 Mickey Rooney, 684 Peter Falk
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) – 671 William Shatner, 704 Maximilian Schell
Men of Boys Town (1941) – 245 Mickey Rooney
Riffraff (1936) – 245 Mickey Rooney
The Mountain (1956) – 271 Robert Wagner
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) – 809 Robert Mitchum
Young Tom Edison (1940) – 245 Mickey Rooney