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.
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Lee Phelps appeared in 12 films with Spence. George Chandler, Charles Sullivan and Harry Strang were with him in 10.
Hey Dan….Lee Phelps was a very busy man. Not aware of the three in the 10 Spencer movies. Thanks for the information.
STEVE/JOHN
1 I really do feel that a close inspection of Wikipedia’s poster for Thirty Seconds over Tokyo should be mandatory for the pair of you. Spencer Tracy was keen to play the prestigious supporting role of Col Jimmy Doolittle and anyway he wanted to do everything he could to assist his protege Van Johnson who had the lead role in the film along with Robert Walker.
2 Even that fierce old billing warrior Tracy accepted that it would have been disproportionate for his name to come first in that movie so Johnson and Walker are first named – BUT – Tracy’s name is in far larger lettering than theirs and in fact matches the size and bold type of the title of the film whereas the names of Johnson and Walker are in small faint letters.
3 I did not like Tracy as a person as I considered him a contrary and nasty s**t but boy was that man a true star! – the Real Deal as the saying goes. Whilst Gable was nicknamed the King of Hollywood in my own mind I always nicknamed Spence The King of Billing and today his poster live on as a testament to the Giant that he was in that respect.
Hey Bob…..good comparison of Depp, Sinatra and Travolta. I agree 100% they are very fickle indeed.
Hey Bob….I wonder if Tracy and Bogart fought over billing when the were making Up the River in 1930. Too bad they did not make another movie after they became screen legends. Thanks for sharing this billing information….your knowledge on this matter is truly impressive.
In view of the immense importance of this issue to the entire movie industry I’m sorry that I did not mention it more in previous posts.
WIKIPEDIA MOVIES BILLING PART 2 – COMPETITIVE BILLING
When making Strange Cargo (1940) Joan Crawford knew that Gable was now as big a name at the box office as she was thanks to Gone with the Wind. But her competitive nature was challenged when someone unwisely reminded her that only rival Norma Shearer had gotten top billing over Gable for Idiot’s Delight, made the previous year. What was good enough for Norma was good enough for Joan, who lobbied for – and got – top billing in Strange Cargo. Gable only shrugged and went about his business. Both of their names were above the title, what difference did it make? It made a lot of difference to Joan, not so much due to pettiness or megalomania, but rather because she saw any sign of diminishment as a sign that she was slipping. Although Gable may have been her nominal leading man in so many of her early movies, everyone knew that he had been supporting her, in what the public perceived as “Joan Crawford movies.” His status in Hollywood may have changed, but hers had not. She would not be “sup-porting” him in Strange Cargo – or any other movie. His name could go above the title, but it could not go above hers.
Spencer Tracy was originally cast to play the lead opposite Humphrey Bogart in The Desperate Hours (1955) but when neither actor would relinquish top billing, Tracy withdrew and was replaced by Fredric March, who took second billing to Bogart.
Spencer Tracy would also later back out of co-starring in the 1965 film The Cincinnati Kid when he learned he would have to take second billing behind the film’s star Steve McQueen. The role Tracy had been cast in went instead to Edward G. Robinson, whom McQueen had idolized from childhood. Cary Grant had been offered the Tracy part before Robinson but he too would not accept second billing to McQueen
Gene Hackman had his name completely removed from the posters of The Firm (1993) rather than have it subordinated to Tom Cruise. Hackman is mentioned only on the screen. However he had in 1978 for Superman the Movie secured equal above the title billing after his idol Marlon Brando despite both men having supporting roles and the star of the film Christopher Reeve was billed under the title. This was a double compensation for Hackman who said he had taken the Lex Luthor part only so as he could be in a “Brando movie”
As both Tony Curtis and Jerry Lewis wanted top billing for Boeing Boeing (1965), their animated names appeared in a spinning, circular fashion in front of an airplane engine’s rotating nacelle.[6] . For the posters, the names made an X, Lewis’ going up from the bottom left and Curtis’ going down from the upper left
For the Ocean’s Eleven film and sequels the producers wanted Clooney to be the first name a casual viewer of the advertising would see.
Hi Bob
I see you put my name up for this being directed at, so my reaction–very interesting stuff. I would dispute a couple of points. Whatever Joan thought, Gable was as big, and in fact much bigger, at the box office long before Gone with the Wind. Mutiny on the Bounty, San Francisco, Saratoga, and Test Pilot were all bigger at the box office than any film Joan had appeared in or would ever appear in. And Gable’s nickname of “The King” (which I believe he never liked) came from winning a poll conducted by Ed Sullivan in 1938 with 20 million fans voting. Sorry to mention this, but Myrna Loy won that poll’s female side as The Queen of the Movies.
I don’t believe these billing issues are quite as definitive as you feel. There are all kinds of factors involved, but one is that a squeaking wheel gets the grease. Doesn’t make that wheel more important than all the others.
Gable, for example, didn’t seem to care that much about billing, at least in the 1930’s. He was billed under not only Crawford, but Garbo, Shearer, John Barrymore, Hayes, Laughton, and Davies, that I know of. He was bigger at the box office than all of them through the thirties.
There were others who didn’t seem to care about billing that much. Katherine Hepburn for one. Henry Fonda for another. Hepburn and Fonda were billed under other stars a lot, but when all is said and done, they are going to make most short lists of the top classic era stars, such as the AFI (which had Hepburn #1 among females, and Fonda #6 among males)
Back to Gable. He wasn’t inclined to dispute billing with Crawford. But what if he had? What if he said, “Give me top billing or I walk the instant my contract expires.” My guess is MGM would have acquiesced in giving him top billing over Crawford after around 1935 or so.
Just a question. Elizabeth Taylor was given top billing over Marlon Brando in Reflections in a Golden Eye. In your eyes, does this make Taylor a bigger star than Brando?
Hey John…..good points throughout this comment. It looks like I will be updating our Gary Cooper page soon….looks like his career box office grosses is rising again. I think billing only becomes an issue when two or more legends appear in a movie together….in the end it does really matter …because…they are all legends. That being said it is fun to read all the billing fights that Bob has been collecting over the years. As always thanks for the visit and the comment.
HI JOHN
1 If Gable didn’t care about billing why did he have his contract stipulate that he was guaranteed top billing? One report that I read said that he was growing tired of being forced to take 2nd billing to ‘prima donas’
2 Elizabeth Taylor WAS bigger than Marlon Brando when Reflections in a Golden Eye was made. The Godfather probably reversed that though.
3 I think though that back in the classic era it’s largely academic what the stars wanted unless they had a contract as the producers decided what billing would be in their best interests. That’s happening even today to some extent as the George Clooney and Johnny Depp example that Bruce and I have given demonstrate.
4 Anyway we don’t want to keep straying into Groundhog Day so let’s agree to differ because as I’ve said before “A man convinced against his will remains unconvinced still.” For example they used to believe the world was flat and they would fall off it if they went near the edge.
5 Great chatting to you though as always and I hope you have a good new year.