Want to know the best Walter Brennan movies? How about the worst Walter Brennan movies? Curious about Walter Brennan’s box office grosses or which Walter Brennan movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Walter Brennan movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which got the worst reviews? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
Walter Brennan (1894-1974) is the only person in the history of people to win 3 Best Supporting Actor Oscars®. Brennan specialized in playing cantankerous old men. He appeared in some of the greatest westerns ever made: 1940’s The Westerner, 1946’s My Darling Clementine, 1948’s Red River and 1959’s Rio Bravo. Not to say all of Brennan’s movies were westerns….as he also appeared in many other non-western classics: 1935’s Bride of Frankenstein, 1941’s Meet John Doe, 1941’s Sergeant York, 1942’s The Pride of the Yankees, 1946’s To Have And Have Not and 1969’s Support Your Local Sheriff.
His IMDb page shows 244 acting credits from 1925-1975. This page ranks Walter Brennan movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, cameos and movies not released in North America were not included in the rankings.
Walter Brennan Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Walter Brennan 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 Walter Brennan movies by co-stars of his movies.
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- Sort Walter Brennan movies how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations each Walter Brennan movie received and how many Oscar® wins each Walter Brennan movie won.
- Sort Walter Brennan 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.
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Check Out Steve’s Walter Brennan You Tube Video
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HI STEVE: Thanks, again, for the thoughtful and explanatory feedback that I’ve come to expect from you.
I note your reference to Walt playing “loveable grandpas”. In fact whether he was playing villains/crooks or good guys he often had paternal/avuncular sounding names. For example in My Darling Clementine he was called “Old Man Clanton”; in Support Your Local Sheriff he was the evil “Pa Danby”; in John Garfield’s Nobody Lives Forever Brennan’s ageing con man was named “Pop Gruber”. Also Walt was-
1/”Pop Courteen” in Brimstone
2/”Uncle Jesse” in Goodbye My Lady
3/”Uncle George” in The Way to the Gold
4/”Pop Gillis” in Who’s Minding the Mint
5/simply “Grandpa” in Tammy and the Bachelor.
Isn’t it wonderful though that you, The Master and I all had the same thoughts about Walt’s versatility? Don’t tell WH however because it’s liable to make him jealous. I don’t think that when it comes to movies he has the same strength in analytical powers as that which has been enjoyed by the Big Three – ie Hirsch, Steve and Bob! Anyway keep safe.
HI STEVE: Thanks, again, for the thoughtful and explanatory feedback that I’ve come to expect from you.
I note your reference to Walt playing “Old Grandpas”. In fact even when playing villains/crooks he often had paternal/avuncular sounding names. For example in My Darling Clementine he was called “Old Man Clanton”; in Support Your Local Sheriff he was the evil “Pa Danby”; in John Garfield’s Nobody Lives Forever his ageing con man was named “Pop Gruber”. Also Walt was-
1/”Pop Courteen” in Brimstone
2/”Uncle Jesse” in Goodbye My Lady
3/”Uncle George” in The Way to the Gold
4/”Pop Gillis” in Who’s Minding the Mint
5/simply “Grandpa” in Tammy and the Bachelor.
Isn’t it wonderful though that you, The Master and I all had the same thoughts about Walt’s versatility? Don’t tell WH however because it’s liable to make him jealous. I don’t think that when it comes to movies he has the same strength in analytical powers as that which has been enjoyed by the Big Three – ie Hirsch, Steve and Bob! Anyway keep safe.
BEST POSTERS [Continued]
15/To Have and Have Not – FL one
16/two for Bad Day at Black Rock. Relatively short. Some prints only 78 mins in length.
17/first one for Rio Bravo – both iconic though
18/FL one for Red River- “The story of a boy, a man and the Red River D ranch”
19/first one My Darling Clementine – Glad to see it is No 1. Truly lovely movie despite being b/w
20/Slightly risqué poster to match the title!
MY PICK OF STILLS
Not as many of those as usual; but I like what was there: Centennial Summer/Nobody Lives Forever [typical bleak Garfield fare] Far Country/Northwest Passage/Westerner/Pride of the Limeys/To Have and Have Not/Rio Bravo/Red River.
98% personal satisfaction rating from me. Surprisingly short though, wasn’t it!!!?
BEST POSTERS IN BRENNAN VIDEO [FL=FOERIGN LANGUAGE]
1/Dakota -FL one
2/Brimstone
3/1st one for Stand by for Action
4/Swamp Water – Walt billed 1st for a change
5/first one for Home in Indiana – I love that film.
6/two for Task Force
7/Barbary Coast. Eddie in reality thumped Hopkins on set about politics
8/Support Your Local Sheriff
9/The Far Country- both. Vintage heyday Jimmy!
10/first one for The Westerner
11/Fury – though with hindsight that Tracy fellow was a terrible bore for my money.
12/Sgt York – not my type of movie
13/The Proud Ones – a half blind law officer trying to keep the peace!
14/Kentucky – marvellous movie
In PART 3: Posters continued and stills ‘reviewed’
I remember reading that in the 1950s students at acting classes in the United States who wanted to become character actors were advised by their tutors to watch the films of Walter Brennan: he was the definitive character actor in the opinion of many.
He was in practice virtually a “one trick pony” because Hollywood liked casting him as the loveable, slightly batty sidekick but with a strong moral character who seemed to have been put on this earth simply to serve the interests of heroes like my Jimmy, Cooper and The Duke in films like Meet Joel Doe, Red River [an obligatory colour in the McCarthy era!] The Far Country and Rio Bravo.
However when allowed free of his bondage Walt could change type and show considerable versatility as in Cooper’s The Westerner and in Fonda’s My Darling Clementine in which he was the perfect personification of chilling devious evil. He could turn his hand to musicals as well: Vernon and Irene Castle with Astaire/Rogers and Nice Girl? with my Deanna.
“One of Hollywood’s greatest sidekicks, Walter Brennan was rarely placed centre stage though he often stole the show. He had a knack for lending his ease and naturalness to the films he appeared in. He most often played the seemingly dim-witted partner to romantic heroes, but his warmth and humour ensured he didn’t have to be the butt of the jokes.———– He was the first actor to win three Oscars———Though versatile ———Brennan is best remembered as a western actor.”
[The Master – I rest my own case!]
Hi Bob, thanks for reviewing my Walter Brennan video, the generous rating and info are much appreciated. Happy you liked the picture gallery.
Brennan has an impressive filmography, I didn’t want to produce another lengthy video so I thought a top 40 at 10mins would be plenty for Brennan.
I tried to choose some of his more diverse roles, he played a lot of ‘loveable grandpa’ and ‘crazy old coot’ roles. Surprised to see he was the lead actor in some of these, like Swamp Water and Home in Indiana.
As you mention in one of your posts he could also play evil effectively well – Old Man Clanton in My Darling Clementine. Won an Oscar for playing Texas legendary hanging Judge, Roy Bean.
Six films scored 10 out of 10 from my sources – Sergeant York, Pride of the Yankees, To Have and Have Not, Bad Day at Black Rock, Rio Bravo and Red River. Eight more scored 9 out of 10 including Fury and The Westerner.
Tops at IMDB is a tie between Rio Bravo and To Have and Hav Not, no.1 at Rotten Tomatoes is Red River.
“I never made a movie I wouldn’t take my family to see.”
“When I see a good western . . . I just sit there. I was thrilled with Red River, because I believed in it. John Wayne was so good, I believed in him.”