Alan Ladd Movies

Want to know the best Alan Ladd movies?  How about the worst Alan Ladd movies?  Curious about Alan Ladd box office grosses or which Alan Ladd movie picked up the most Oscar nominations? Need to know which Alan Ladd 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.

In the hierarchy of movie-tough guys, Alan Ladd (1913-1964), is an honored name.  Ladd was an American actor who found success in film during the 1940s and early 1950s.  We think the best current comparison to Ladd is Bruce Willis.  Each specialized in box office hit action movies and each got very little respect for their acting abilities.  Ladd’s IMDb page shows 98 acting credits from 1932-1964. This page will take a statistical look at 50 Alan Ladd movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information.  His uncredited roles, his cameo roles and his television appearances were not included in the table.

Drivel part:  So after getting sidetracked on some other UMR movie page projects….we felt it was time to start knocking out some of the performers from our Request Hotline page.  So Søren, Flora & Dan…here is finally your requested Alan Ladd UMR movie page.

Alan Ladd in 1942’s This Gun For Hire

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

1942’s The Glass Key

Alan Ladd 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 Alan Ladd movies by his co-stars
  • Sort Alan Ladd movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Alan Ladd movies by yearly domestic box office rank
  • Sort Alan Ladd 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 Alan Ladd movie received.
  • Sort Alan Ladd movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score.  UMR puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
Alan Ladd in 1964's The Carpetbaggers...his last movie was the biggest box office hit of his career
Alan Ladd in 1964’s The Carpetbaggers…his last movie was the biggest box office hit of his career

Possibly Interesting Facts About Alan Ladd

  1. Alan Walbridge Ladd was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas on September 3rd, 1913.

2. Alan Ladd was a swimming and diving champion in high school.

3. Alan Ladd has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 1601 Vine Street.  He received his star in 1960.

4.  Alan Ladd He and Veronica Lake made seven movies together: 1942’s This Gun For Hire, 1942’s The Glass Key, 1942’s Star Spangled Rhythm,  1945’s Duffy’s Tavern, 1946’s The Blue Dahlia (1946), 1947’s Variety Girl and 1948’s Saigon (1948). In Variety Girl (1947), Star Spangled Rhythm (1942) and Duffy’s Tavern (1945), they appear as themselves.

5.  Alan Ladd was the visual inspiration for the original illustrations of superhero Green Lantern/Alan Scott (created in 1940). Ladd was 27 years old at the point. The Green Lantern’s full name is Alan Ladd Wellington Scott.

6.  Alan Ladd was ranked in the annual Top 10 Box Office Stars 3 times:  His was ranked 10th in 1947, 4th in 1953 and 6th in 1954.

7.  Alan Ladd was married two times in his life. He had 3 children.  His son, Alan Ladd, Jr. won an Oscar® for producing 1995’s Braveheart.  His son, David Ladd, earned a Golden Globe® nomination for Best Supporting Actor in 1958’s The Proud Rebel.  His daughter, Alana Ladd, appeared in four of her father’s movies….including a part in Shane.  His granddaughter, Jordan Ladd, has over 50 IMDb acting credits.

8.  Alan Ladd was strongly considered for or actually attached to these roles:  Kirk Douglas role in Detective Story, Gregory Peck role in Roman Holiday, James Dean role in Giant, John Wayne role in The Sons of Katie Elder, Spencer Tracy role in Bad Day At Black Rock and William Holden role in Submarine Command.

9.  Check out Alan Ladd’s movie career compared to current and classic stars on our Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time page.

10.  Many people might have first discovered Alan Ladd in 1982’s Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid.  Check out You Tube view to see his brief but impressive appearance in that movie ..

Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.

Figured it might be interesting to see the process of what it takes to put these pages together.  How we put together our Alan Ladd page.

Steve’s Alan Ladd You Tube Video

 

(Visited 2 times)

114 thoughts on “Alan Ladd Movies”

  1. HI STEVE Further to my recent posts a close inspection of hard stats as distinct from simply paying attention to guys blowing off steam and engaging in subjective hyperbole reveals that (1) Joel was inconsistent OR (2) Hirsch and WH weren’t singing off the same hymn sheet as often as we thought OR (3) both (1) and (2) apply.

    The WH gives the films of Mr Mumbles a very high “good” rating of 75.67% which compares with a 67.08% rating for Hirschhorn pet Bette Davis and the following ratings for WH’s own idols-

    Archie Leach /76.19% – Queen Myrna/74.28%
    Sir Maurice/56.52% – Mr Gimme More/39.43%

    Miss Loy of course has the status on this site of being the greatest thing to come along since the pyramids were built and indeed I have often wondered if it is true that in 6 days God made the Heaven and Earth, on the 7th day He rested and then on the 8th Day He made Myrna. Yet that awful mumbling chap shades her % of good movies..

    The consensus among film historians and critics has long been that Archie is among a select group of actors with the highest number of classic movies in their filmographies, yet there is only 0.52% separating Arch and Mr M in the Cogerson love concerned

    It should also be noted that in Bruce’s excellent and wide-ranging review of the 1950s decade Mr Mumbles has the highest critic/audience score of 76.6%, the best UMR score of 66.92% and was the 7th highest average grossing star of the 1950s. Some going t!

    Therefore logic would seem to dictate that if ole Marbles Mouth was the all-round dud and great waste of space that Hirsch suggested, his massive shortcomings would have adversely affected the quality of his movies. No?

    Reply

    1. Hey Bob. Interesting breakdowns on Loy, Brando and Grant. I always get a kick out of your studies. Hopefully as you continue to digest the Joel book, you will see it is not necessarily his thoughts on movies that I enjoyed and agreed with….but that it was the format in which he presents his ratings that always impressed me. It was my IMDb before IMDb ever existed. Marlon and Cary are movie legends. Loy was a movie star. A subtle difference but a huge difference. Good feedback as always.

      Reply

      1. HI BRUCE

        Joel’s book is packed with important information which as I’ve said is enormously valuable to me so I can overlook his odd swipe at one of my idols.

        Thanks for the usual thoughtful feedback

        Reply

    1. HI STEVE

      Thanks for passing on to me the Ladd Jr link. I’ll watch it later when I get the house to myself and will pass on to you any points that are worth mentioning. My son is home for a spell and would wreck my computer if I showed a Ladd-related video as the computer is in our main living room.

      For now I will just say

      1/Alan jr was always proud of his father and used to keep his photograph on the wall of his office at 20th Century Fox.

      2/Historically Junior is credited with giving George Lucas permission to make Star Wars when all other big wigs opposed it.

      3/Laddie Jr is the image of the “old Block” and is personally worth $75 million net.

      4/Anyone on this site not hitherto a Laddie Sr fan has probably now been won over with the knowledge that The Master approved of him.

      Thanks again for your courtesy.

      Reply

      1. I knew once I let the cat out of the bag that The Master admired Laddie the latter would get a lot of attention on this site!

        Reply

        1. Bob, it’s not a video interview, just print.

          It does contain some trailers to his fathers films.

          Bruce, at least we know Joel is an Alan Ladd fan, and I think he liked Joan Crawford too.

          Reply

          1. HI STEVE Thanks for the clarification and I’ve now read the Ladd Jr article and it had a lot of information in it that was new to me so I’m grateful to you. Bruce and other Myrna Loy fans should take note of the comments by David Ladd [Laddie’ other son who appeared with his Dad in The Proud Rebel (1958)]. David says of the Great Alan Senior.

            He was a big star – and you didn’t need anyone else but that big star in a film. Spencer Tracy was a great actor ——-But you always had to put Spencer Tracy in a movie with Katharine Hepburn or with Clark Gable. You didn’t have to do that with a big star.” This quote ideally complements another by one film historian who said “Alan Ladd is a great star. We know that because all of his films make money and there is rarely anything in them but him.”

            I am afraid The Master held a mixed opinion of my Joan-

            “In her good films Crawford was the equal of Davis. The problem was, few of her films were that good”

            Have we here located the first chink in the combined Work Horse/Hirsch armour? Is there a clash of opinions between pupil and mentor? On his Crawford page Bruce opined that almost 47% of my Joan’s movies were good using WH’s Rotten Tomatoes yardstick. That compares with an under 40% Cogerson overall rating for Mister Gimme More’s movies. My Alan gets a 50% rating from WH which is not much higher than Joan’s and as I have said Hirsch admired Laddie

  3. HI STEVE

    You’re in good company because I’ve mentioned before that when campaigning for the presidency in 1980 Ronnie was chided by the Democrats for having been merely a B movie actor who never “got the girl” and he hit back with “I’m proud of that fact for in Hollywood the B tag meant bringing a movie in on budget and that what I propose to do for America if elected!” Then looking round at Nancy he said “And by the way I did get THE girl!”

    Reply

  4. 1 HI MO A short distance from where I live is a parochially famous street corner named after some vague local legend of Belfast’s distant past called John Long ad so nicknamed “John Long’s Corner.” My son has sarcastically re-nicknamed it “Long Ladd’s Corner” and in fact it’s just a few hundred yards from the old Castle cinema where as boys my friends, brothers and I watched many a Ladd movie.

    2 Anyway I have always liked the story about Pacino who was nicknamed “Little Al at college but when some of his old friends and school chums were interviewed after Godpop 1972 one of them said “He’s Big Al now!”

    3 POSTERS in 1-23 that stood out for me. All the Young Men, Lucky Jordan, China, And Now Tomorrow, Chicago Deadline, OSS, Captain Carey USA [probably best remember for introducing the classic hit song Mona Lisa. My son goes nuts when I refer to the number as “Alan Ladd’s Mona Lisa”!] Branded, The McConnell Story [aka Tiger in the Sky] The Great Gatsby, The Glass Key, Shane and Whispering Smith – “Whispering Smith! When you don’t hear a sound at all but turn round as see somebody has suddenly appeared behind you, that’s Smithy!” [Robert Preston in the movie]

    4 STILLS These I loved. With Poitier, with best friend and virtual “employee” in movies Bill Bendix, Ladd sitting down with Loren [no stand-on boxes required there!] with Donna Reed, a bare-chested Laddie in 2 years Before the Mast [your own poster was somewhat restrained as certain ones show Alan with massive superimposed Arnie-type muscles] and of course the ever iconic Shane and the ones with Ladd and Lake [ I always thought they would have made a great Thin Man team.]

    5 You and Bruce agree on just 4 out of the 10 best reviewed [though Bruce has picked some strange ones]Laddie flicks and overall I thought your video merited a 99.5 % rating.

    6 Film historians have pinpointed 1959 as the year in which Laddie’s days as a top star were over [his Man in the Net flopping dismally as shown above] after which to revive it he was constantly “on the lookout for another Shane,” as one observer put it. One of his efforts was to try to get Mr Mumbles and Eva Marie Saint to co-star with him in The Cavalrymen which in the end didn’t proceed.

    Reply

    1. Hello again Bob, thanks for the review, very generous rating, info, trivia, comment, quote, anecdote, comparison and evaluation, much appreciated.

      Glad you liked the posters and stills.

      hmm I suppose that’s as close to a full whack 100% score that I’m going to get from Bob Roy… unless I one day produce a video consisting of nothing but Alan Ladd or Richard Widmark movie stills. Which is not impossible. 🙂

      Ladd was well matched with Veronica Lake, she had the perfect look for film noir, plus she was so tiny even Ladd towered over her. [Bob winces]

      Only one Alan Ladd film scored 10 out of 10 and you can guess which one – Shane. There is one 9 – The Glass Key, no 8s.

      Shane tops all the charts including Bruce’s UMR and Critics charts. The Carpetbaggers tops the adjusted box office chart.

      Reply

      1. 1 HI MO. Thanks for the feedback. A lot of work went into my Ladd posts but naturally it was a “labour of love”!

        2 On the subject of Ladd I have mentioned the 1948 movie Whispering Smith, “Long Ladd’s Corner” and the nearby Castle Cinema.I loved that movie and one night in 1952 my pals and I were standing at Long Ladd’s Corner actually chatting about Laddie when one of my mates mentioned that Whispering Smith Hits London was showing at the Castle.

        3 The mention of “London” should have made us more cautious but we immediately assumed Ladd had made a follow-up to his western and unthinkingly we all rushed over to the Castle only to find that the new “Smithy” was not the Ladd hero but a character in a minor Brit detective movie about Scotland Yard the police HQ and starred US B movie actor Richard Carlson [It Came from Outer Space] and a host of English nonentities who made your Jane Russell and Dorothy Lamour look like A list stars!

        4 Oh you Brits! Anyway the original poster for the rip-off movie is reproduced on Wikipedia and the tag line is “Mad killers stalk Yank Sleuth” In the US the film was called Whispering Smith vs Scotland Yard.

        Reply

  5. 1 HI MOSES I see that you’ve saved the good wine for near the last! Bogie and Laddie were good friends and would often sit together on sets watching other actors perform but they were in a friendly rivalry as to who was “The screen’s toughest tough guy,” which was sort of their variation of Taylor’s Cowboy of the Century. In one way Laddie had the edge in real life because he had been an athlete and a lifeguard in his youth whereas Bogie was a physical wreck for most of his top star career.

    2 However whilst apparently Bogie “took no c**p” from his wives/partners Laddie was henpecked according to best friend William Bendix, who told of how Laddie was always cheery and chatty when alone with his co-stars and/or friends but would suddenly fall silent when his wife appeared on the scene. [Does that sound like anyone we know on this site?!]

    3 Best POSTERS in 45 to 24 in your Ladd video were I thought Duel of Champions, Desert Legion, Black Knight, Paratrooper [aka The Red Beret] One Foot in Hell [in which Laddie played a villain for the first time possibly since Philip Raven in This Gun for Hire.] Drumbeat, Red Mountain [historians reckoning that the title was Laddie again taking a sideways swipe at his hated “Commies” in the McCarthy era] The Iron Mistress, Saigon, The Badlanders [a western remake of Huston’s classic Asphalt Jungle] Wild Harvest, Saskatchewan and Hell below Zero. In the latter film Laddie administered a sound thrashing to Sir Maurice’s mentor Sir Stanley Baker.

    4 I see the Part One Grinch has returned as my notes recorded only 3 STILLS [which I liked] in the first half of the video. Is that a young M & L with Laddie in the opening one? The 2nd was of Laddie with I think the future Mrs Joe Cotten, Patricia Medina. But hang on a moment! I thought that you were currently concentrating on legendary and by definition A list performers so what’s a B movie Jungle Queen doing with Alan in the Wild Harvest still, your 3rd one? I got the impression anyway that B list actresses didn’t cut it with you!

    5 I found your opening quote by Ladd rather ironic. In a flashback in The Great Gatsby they show episodes in Jays Gatsby’s boyhood but instead of hiring a boy actor they got away with keeping the camera a slight distance from Laddie’s face and had him dash about in short trousers! Wayne might have been the greater legend but he couldn’t have pulled off that feat!

    Reply

    1. Hi Bob, thanks for reviewing the first 6 minutes of my Alan Ladd deluxe edition video, it is appreciated. Glad the pictures were to your liking.

      Only 3 stills eh, sorry about that. I like b movie actors, who doesn’t? My favorite genre science fiction is filled with b movie actors and actresses.

      Onto part 2 of your review…

      Reply

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