Audie Murphy Movies

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

Audie Murphy (1925-1971) was one of the most decorated American combat soldiers of World War II.  After the war, Murphy became a movie star. His most famous role was playing himself in 1955’s To Hell and Back.  That movie was based on his 1949 memoirs of the same name. His IMDb page shows 51 acting credits from 1948-1969. This page ranks Audie Murphy movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, documentaries and shorts were not included in the rankings.

Drivel part of the page:  Seems like Audie Murphy has been on our request hotline for a very long time.  So long ago that we can not remember if Dan, Lyle or Laurent requested him first. Well, finally we have finished our Audie Murphy page.  Sadly, when we got to the 1960s….. box office numbers for his movies became very hard to find.  So, 4 of his movies did not make the following table:  Those movies are listed in the “Possibly Interesting Facts” part of the page with their critic audience rating.

Audie Murphy in 1955's To Hell and Back
Audie Murphy in 1955’s To Hell and Back

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

Audie Murphy 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 Audie Murphy movies by co-stars of his movies
  • Sort Audie Murphy movies by actual domestic box office grosses (in millions)
  • Sort Audie Murphy movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Audie Murphy movies by yearly box office rank
  • Sort Audie Murphy movies how they were received by critics and audiences.  60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie
  • Sort Audie Murphy 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.

Audie Murphy and James Stewart in 1957's Night Passage
Audie Murphy and James Stewart in 1957’s Night Passage

Possibly Interesting Facts About Audie Murphy

1. Audie Leon Murphy was born in Kingston, Texas in 1925.  He was the seventh of twelve children.

2. Audie Murphy became a national hero during World War II as the most decorated combat soldier of the war. Among his 33 awards was the Medal of Honor, the highest award for bravery that a soldier can receive.

3.  When James Cagney saw an article on Audie Murphy in Time Magazine concerning his war heroics….Cagney decided to sign Murphy to a movie contract and brought him to Hollywood.

4.  Audie Murphy disliked the name “Audie” when he was a kid and usually went by his middle name, Leon. In the Army, he discovered that “Leon” was considered synonymous with rednecks, and spent the rest of his life going by “Audie” or “Murph.”.

5. Clint Eastwood versus Audie Murphy?  Yep it almost happened.  Murphy was offered the villain role in 1971’s Dirty Harry.  Sadly he died in a plane crash before filming began.

6. Audie Murphy was inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame.

7. Audie Murphy was married two times.  He had two children.

8. Audie Murphy is one of the few actors/actresses in our database to have made over 30 movies and not have one of their movies nominated for a single Oscar® in any category.  The others?  Jennifer Aniston, Elvis Presley and Abbott & Costello.

9.  Audie Murphy has a wonderful official fan website.  Lots of Murphy stuff can be found at www.audiemurphy.com.

10. Check out Audie Murphy ‘s career compared to current and classic actors.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.

Astute readers will notice that four movies are missing….we were unable to find any box office information on them but here are those nine movies. Listed by the best rated ones according to critics and audiences

  1. 1962’s Six Black Horse  – 62.50% – critic audience rating
  2. 1966’s The Texican –  60.25% – critic audience rating
  3. 1969’s A Time For Dying – 53.00% – critic audience rating
  4. 1965’s Einer spielt falsch – 49.00% – critic audience rating

 

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158 thoughts on “Audie Murphy Movies

  1. AUDIE PART TWO
    STEVE In the 1950s Audie Murphy, John Payne and Rory Calhoun were my personal top B list western/action heroes and whilst I accepted that they were not stars of the status of the likes of Cooper, Wayne and Jimmy Stewart they did churn out a prolific body of work in low budget projects that a youngster like me could thoroughly enjoy.

    In a way though in Audie’s case that has come to be ironic because my favourite Murphy performance with hindsight is not in a heroic role but as baddie hit man John Gant in 1959’s No Name on the Bullet which was released over here on a double bill with Cagney’s Never Steal Anything Small.

    Audie’s sole stand-alone A movie box office hit was his autobiographical To hell and Back. I don’t like war films so I was not too interested in that one but I went to see it because it was on a double bill with Tony Curtis’ boxing flick The Square Jungle.

    MURPHY EP VIDEO 1-22 Best POSTERS for me Kansas Raiders, Tumbleweed, Six Black Horses, Quiet American, all superb, Posse from Hell, the entire set for Destry [a B movie remake of my Jimmy’s 1939 classic], No Name on the Bullet, To Hell and Back and the foreign language ones for World in my Corner, 7 Ways from Sundown, Night Passage, Red Badge of Courage and Guns of Fort Petticoat co-starring Kathryn Grant Crosby [ie W o Bing].

    Glut of STILLS in top 22 entries my pick of which are lobby card for Kansas Raiders, Audie with Wandra Hendrix his wife for a short period, as The Cimarron Kid, with Laddie [for me a collector’s item] with “Mrs Robinson” and supporting actor Charles Drake a friend of Audie whom Murphy put in several of his own films, Audie the boxer, Murphy with Lori nelson whom you and I have already discussed this week, and Audie at war in To Hell and Back.

    Easily a 98% rated presentation in my book especially items 1-22. You and Yancey Cravat agree on Murphy’s Top 3 best reviewed films in the exact same order – Red Badge of Courage, To Hell and Back and No Name on the Bullet. Glad to see both of you have No Name on the Bullet in your Top 3

    “Book review” in Part 3

    1. AUDIE MUTPHY PART 3 I am about ¾ way through the Audie Murphy book that Bruce sent me from his last holiday and as well as being an entertaining trip down memory lane for me the book now is a valuable additional reference source for the many westerns and one or two other films that my 1950s/60s B movie western idol made.

      It is a fully comprehensive book including as it does every movie that Audie ever made with (1) synopsis of the plot (2) cast list (3) critical reaction to each move (4) Cogerson-type “Possibly Interesting” background facts and information about Audie and the making of many of the films (5) loads of technical details of each movie such as colour, studio, director of photography etc (6) running times of the movies and (7) shooting schedule and release date of each movie.

      I feel that to the movie buff the very last piece of information which is not too often given is invaluable in putting a star’s particular movie or performance into the overall context of his/her career. See for example Footnote in my Part One post about Audie’s debut movie which knowledge of filming schedules and release dates provided by Sue Gossett author helped me clarify.

      In reading through the book I have once again been transported back to my 1950s matinee days of watching Murphy movies like Column South, Tumbleweed, Ride Clear of Diablo, No Name on the Bullet, Gunsmoke [doubled-billed over here with an Abbott and Costello movie] and Duel at Silver Creek in which almost every character had a nickname – Lightning [the sheriff] Brown Eyes [Lightning’s femme fatale love interest] and Rat Face and Johnny Sombrero [two of the bad guys] .

      Audie himself is nicknamed The Silver Kid and in the closing scene the heroine asks him “What’s your real name? I can’t be called Mrs Silver Kid all my life.” Perhaps W o C should take note of THAT assertion by the heroine!

      Also a few of the mentions linked Audie with some stars among my A list idols-

      (1) In Beyond Glory his debut movie Audie played Laddie’s roommate and Alan mentored the young Murphy who later reflected “Alan Ladd gave me the best advice I ever got in Hollywood.”

      (2) In 1956 ‘s Joe Butterfly a comedy set in post Workd War 2 Tokyo Audie played a Glenn Ford Teahouse type soldier constantly getting into the hair of the Army top brass aided by a Japanese con man called Joe Butterfly, played by Burgess Meredith. Most of the artistic praise went to Burgess but Sue Gossett the book’s author comments “The picture suffered from inevitable comparison with Teahouse of the August Moon, Joe Butterfly being a character similar to Sakini played by Marlon Brando in the latter film.”

      (3) About Audie’sa unusual bad guy in 1957’s Night Passage one critic wrote “Stacked up agains the seasoned James Stewart Audie reveals a sheer talent for acting. He holds his own against Stewart throughout the film.”

      Had an author repeated a review about almost any other actor matching my Jimmy in a 1950s western in particular I would have been furious, but as we’re talking about Audie here I’ve decided to forgive Sue! Indeed from my viewpoint the overall book merits a hearty Lensman “Vote Up!”

      1. Bob, thanks for the book review. Who was the author if I may ask?

        Clive Hirschhorn? [Bob yelps] There is an author of movie books named Clive Hirschhorn, I don’t think he’s related to Joel. I was scanning my book shelves a few days ago and saw that name, almost made me jump. 😉

        He wrote a series of large hardcover books on the famous movie studios – The Columbia Story, The Universal Story, The Warner Bros Story etc etc and I bought them all years ago. Very good they are too, each movie made by the studios has it’s own review and it’s packed with good quality stills. Maybe I should take snapshots of some of them for my videos. 🙂

      2. Hey Bob (1) Glad you are enjoying the Audie book we found for you. (2) Even gladder it is offering up some new information….I would have bet it is rare you read new stuff on Murphy or Peck or Brando. (3) Good tidbit about Ladd giving him good advice. (4) Night Passage is one of my favorite Murphy movies…..so I agree with the mini-review found in the book. (5) Even better that the book is a “time machine”……really enjoy that compliment the best. Good review and feedback.

        1. HI BRUCE Glad you liked Night Passage as it teamed two of my all time favourite cowboy actors [sorry Robert Taylor that Stewart was named Cowboy of the Century and not you but Audie too would have deserved that accolade more than you in my opinion!]

          An added bonus for me is that Night Passage included too Dan Duryea who supported Jimmy and Audie separately on several occasions and Night Passage brought together all 3 actors on that only occasion.

          You promised me once that you would try to catch No Name on the Bullet and the fact that both you and Steve rate it as Audie’s all-time No 3 should encourage you to pursue your quest for that movie.

          In her book Sue compares Audie’s Joe Butterfly with the similar Teahouse of August Moon. She also comments on the fact that critics were divided about the worth of Audie’s 1957 The Quiet American which was remade by Sir Maurice in 2002.

          It’s a pity that Sue whose book was apparently written in 1996 did not have the opportunity to compare the much later Micklewhite version with Murphy’s although of course the roles were different Murphy playing Alden Pyle The Quiet American himself and Sir M playing Thomas Fowler the journalist in the 2002 version.

          As it is you give Audie’s version just 62% and Sir M’s a high 80%. Having seen both I agree with you and felt that the Micklewhite remake had the added advantage of being the more faithful to Graham Greene’s classic book. Also of course Sir Maurice got Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for his performance in the remake.

    2. Hi Bob, thanks for the review, rating, info, trivia, comment, correction and comparison, it is appreciated. Glad you liked the posters, stills and lobby cards.

      I’ve only seen a few of these films so I bow to your greater knowledge concerning America’s most decorated cowboy, sorry, I meant soldier.

      You would think Audie Murphy would have been offered more war movies than westerns but he seems to have comfortably found his niche as one of the top Hollywood cowboys of his time and I think he’s even shorter than Alan Ladd.
      [cue gasps, Bob winces]

      There are no 10 out of 10s in Audie’s filmography but there is a 9 – The Red Badge of Courage. There are two scoring 8 – No Name on the Bullet and The Unforgiven.

      No.1 Audie movie at IMDB is To Hell and Back which scored 7.4. Tops at Rotten Tomatoes is Seven Ways from Sundown which scored 7.8.

      Good to see Bruce and I have the same top 3 and in the same order, how often does that happen? To Hell and Back tops the UMR and box office charts.

      According to IMDB Audie was chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history, in 55th place.

      “I can’t ever remember being young in my life.”

      1. HI STEVE Thanks for your usual comprehensive and eagerly-awaited response to my Murphy 3-parter. I should add that I am pleased that you and I at last agree on at least SOMETHING about the screen’s greatest orator.of the classics.

        In a nutshell I greatly admire the uniqueness and cleverness of Chaplin’s work but slapstick is not my sense of humour, preferring as I do verbal comedy such as one finds in the TV sitcoms Cheers and Frasier so I don’t like many of Charlie’s films.

        So it is that I admire MB for his acting and versatility but have only found roughly 1 in 3 of his movies of interest whereas ALL of for example Jimmy Stewart’s movies particularly in his heyday have greatly entertained me. Which leads on naturally to another slender Dan-like link and a further quote.

        I clearly recall that in 1973 my Jimmy was leaving a special re-run of one of his old films with his wife when an interviewer put her on the spot by asking her what she thought of her hubby’s performance in the film.

        Sternly Gloria Stewart responded that it was every bit as good as Marlon Brnado’s Oscar winning one at the academy Awards that year in The Godfather to which Jimmy modestly and quietly added “Thank you my dear.”

        Ladd at 5ft 6 and quarter was actually shorter than Murphy who was 5ft 8 inches and indeed Audie was just slightly shorter than Sly at 5ft 9 and half inches who you and the Work Horse seem to think is some kind of screen giant.

        The Murphy book was written by Sue Gossett who has in fact personally autographed the copy Bruce sent me.

        Before you go publicising this Clive Hirschhorn guy let’s make sure he is not Joel’s “smarter brother”. Certainly he’s unlikely to be Joel’s less smart one!

        1. Bob, I’ve looked up Clive Hirschhorn on wikipedia and it doesn’t mention a brother named Joel.

          Clive was born in South Africa in 1940 and was a long time movie critic for the Sunday Express. He has interviewed many Hollywood greats including Mae West, Dietrich, Judy Garland, Hitchcock and James Stewart.

          “Hirschhorn maintains an ongoing collection of film- and theater-related material which is not for sale, with the aim to make it one of the most comprehensive private collections of film and theater material in the world. ”

          So Ladd was shorter than Murphy, does this mean that only Mickey Rooney was shorter than Alan Ladd amongst the male Hollywood greats?

          It’s interesting watching Ladds classic films and seeing how cleverly the director and cameraman work around his height so he never seems too small. Pairing him with Veronica Lake was a definite plus, she wasn’t even 5ft tall.

          1. HI STEVE

            I’ m growing fonder of Clive Hirschhorn by the minute. Let’s look out for more trivia about him.This site could do with comments about a Hirschhorn who is actually interesting.

            Joe Yule Jr was 5ft 2 inches. Spencer Tracy was also considered to be relatively short for a Great given that he was in the era of leading men who were normally screen “giants” like Scott, McCrea, Wayne and Stewart and yet Tracy was the exact same height as Stallone is or at least WAS as Sly may have shrunk a bit being so ancient!

            Your favourite orator at 5ft 9 was half an inch shorter than Stallone/Tracy.

            Anyway I have now cleared my backlog of posts on your videos and can concentrate on your current work

          2. Bob, you caught up with my videos fast, I salute you.

            Let’s not forget all the short modern actors like Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Downey Jr, Tom Cruise and James McAvoy. Some of them about the same height as Ladd or even shorter.

      2. Hey Steve…..it is a shame that the Hirschhorns are not brothers….I bet if you searched their family history they are some how connected to each other….Hirschhorn is certainly not a very common name. Yep we agree on the Top 3……glad you finally seeing things my way….lol.

        1. BRUCE

          Steve sure started a panic with me when he introduced the name of Clive Hirschhorn as the way Steve’s post is worded I thought that he was implying that Sue Gossett was really an alias for Clive who was in turn an alias for Joel.

          Authors sometimes adopt alternative pen names for different subject matters that they write about. For example Frank Richards who wrote the famous British Billy Bunter books used the alias of Hilda Richards in his other series of books about Billy’s sister Bessie He called himself Martin Clifford when he wrote the books about Tom Merry & Co of St Jim’s school in England. Indeed his REAL name was Charles Hamilton and he wrote under 20 different aliases in all.

          However reflection made me realise that I was starting to “cry before I was hurt” because it was most unlikely that Sue could have been a Joel/Clive alias as in her book she describes Audie’s Joe Butterfly as inferior to Teahouse of the August Moon whereas Joel would have castigated ANY BRANDO film as inferior to another of its kind.

          Phew! I feel as if I have just narrowly escaped being hit by a speeding express train. As it is this Clive guy seems to be in a select band along with Flora and yourself as he is clearly commendably a “culture vulture” in being a jealous keeper of movie memorabilia.

    3. Hey Bob…..nice final review of Steve’s video. Speaking of Rory Calhoun….today is his birthday too (see previous comment about Esther Williams’ birthday being on August 8th as well). Great minds thinking alike when it comes to Audie’s Top 3 critically movies. Good stuff as always.

      1. HI BRUCE

        Thanks for feedback on my comments about Steve’s video and the Audie book.

        I forgot to mention that the book contains many fine stills from Murphy’s films and among those I like best is one of Audie and Laddie in Beyond Glory.

        Both were in the prime oft their looks in 1947 and were very handsome and photogenic.

        Thanks again for an excellent read and additional reference source.

  2. AUDIE MUTPHY PART ONE
    STEVE Audie, Rock, Jeff Chandler and Tony Curtis were Universal flilms’ main contract stars in the 1950s but in the late 1940s and the early part of the 50s decade they were when they were in main roles largely consigned to low budget programmers [films released on a double bill with another movie].

    Curtis and Hudson progressed to prestige movies and blockbusters and Chandler was promoted to roles with all the big leading ladies of the day such as Loretta Young,Crawford, Turner, Jane Russell and Esther Williams. However Audie remained in almost all of his leading roles a B movie cowboy actor – thank goodness!

    MURHY EP VIDEO 44-23. No STILLS but best POSTERS Battle of Bloody Beach, Drums across the River, 1st one for Showdown, both ones for Duel at Silver Creek, Column South, the two opening ones for The Texican, The Wild and the Innocent, Joe Butterfly, Ride Clear of Diablo and the foreign language ones for A Time for Dying and 1958’s The Gun Runners. The last named film is the 2nd remake of Bogie’s To Have and Have Not, the previous remake being John Garfield’s The Breaking Point in 1950

    NOTE: You have listed Texas Brooklyn and Heaven as Audie’s first film whereas Beyond Glory with Ladd was actually Murphy’s debut according to Sue Gossett author of the book Bruce gifted me. The confusion arises from the following criss-cross of chronology:
    Beyond Glory filming dates Oct-Nov 1947 Release date SEPT 48
    Texas Brooklyn Heaven filming dates Jan-Feb 1948 Released JULY 48
    Beyond Glory was filmed first but released second and in a wayboth you and Sue can claim to be right

    To be continued……..

    1. Hey Bob….good breakdown on Steve’s Audie video. Good point about Universal’s main stars….sad that three of them passed away pretty early. Speaking of Esther Williams….it is her birthday today (August 8th). Glad you were able to use “the book” to straighten Steve out….lol. The best $1.50 I ever spent….lol.

  3. HI BRUCE

    The Audie Murphy book that you sent me was waitng for me on my return from holiday today and very welcome it was too. As I’ve said before Audie and Rory Calhoun are probably my two favourite 1950s B movies western stars.

    On my holiday I had looked at along with Steve’s other new videos his Murphy extended play [which I will comment on in due course] and that had whetted my appetite for further reading about Audie at the present moment so the arrival of your book was timely.

    It was decent of you to think of your viewers on your own holiday to the extent that you took the trouble to buy and send one of them a book and when I have read it I will let you have my detailed thoughts on it.

    Much appreciated.

    1. Hey Sir Bob…..glad the book made it safely over the Atlantic Ocean….did you notice that the author of the book signed it? Glad you safely made it back home. Take some time, read the book and recover from your two weeks in Paris. Sounds like you had a great time.

      1. HI BRUCE

        Yes I did notice the author signed the book. A rare find indeed.

        It helps me forget the time when Flora told me all about her vast collection of movie memorabilia but then explained that she prized everything in it so much that she couldn’t sell me any of the items!

        At least now I have a keepsake from SOMEBODY on this site! Bet though that you, like Flora with her goodies, wouldn’t part with anything autographed by any of The Big Four Joel, Caine, Grant or Willis!

        1. Hey Sir Bob….I actually walked out of the store with two autographed books….the one on the Audie book….and a Michael Medved (of Golden Turkey fame) autograph. Can’t say I blame Flora…..my autographs will be with me for a very long time……and are priceless to me.

          1. HI BRUCE

            I admire both you and Flora for your dedication to memorabilia that prevents you from being mercenary.

            If you are asking for any further celeb autographs don’t make the mistake that a TV presenter called Simon Dee did over here when interviewing Ray Milland in the late fifties or early sixties and saying “My mother idolised you when she was little girl Mr Milland.”

        2. I was wondering what the gift was that Bruce was sending you, Bob. I know you are a big Audie Murphy fan. I look forward to reading your thoughts on the book.

          Yes indeed, I would not part with my autographs. I remember that conversation. 🙂

          Again, glad to hear you are back and enjoyed your vacation in France.

          1. HI Flora

            As I’ve said to Bruce I respect people who won’t give up for money things that are of an artistic value to them. Not enough people value “heritage” in my view.

            It’s good to see from your posts that you are in fine form these days for providing this site with your useful comments.

          2. Hey Flora….I got the book for a dollar….it actually took about 26 times the amount of the book to ship….lol. The book store is awesome….lots and lots of used movie books….each time we go to Alabama…we stop at least twice (there are 3 stores along out travels)….sadly I was not able to find a Richard Widmark or Gregory Peck book. One time I found and bought a Heston book….but Steve did not want it……always keeping my eye open for awesome UMR contributors.

    1. Hey bob cox….well your zero is not too far behind my 4….I would say Night Passage is his best performance….while To Hell And Back is his most famous movie…..as a movie it is merely…..ok. The true story is amazing. Good stuff.

  4. Steve’s Murphy video is now included in page. My thoughts on the expanded video.

    “I like the revised and expanded video. I am very aware of him…..but I have not seen many of his movies. Only 4 of the ones on the video….or less than 10%. I have seen 4 of the Top 5. I liked #5 Night Passage…..a good Murphy role….#4 The Unforgiven….not as good as you would expect…especially with so many legends in front and behind the camera. #2 To Hell And Back….his most famous role. #1 Red Badge of Courage…the version I saw was only a little over a hour long….makes you want to see the full John Huston version. Voted up and shared.”

    1. Bruce, I’ve seen the same 4 you have, Flora has seen 4 too but with Gunfight at Comanche Creek instead of Night Passage. From what I’ve read Audie’s best performance was in Red Badge of Courage. He essentially played himself in To Hell and Back, it must have been weird for him re-enacting those battles.

      Thanks for commenting, appreciate the vote and share.

      1. Well damn it….we can’t have a three way tie with 4….I will have to find me an Audie Murphy movie to watch today. Actually….with the vast movies near me, through all the local libraries (the benefit of having 7 cities sitting on top of each other) finding Audie Murphy movies have always been a challenge for me to find.

        My dad loved talking about Murphy and To Hell and Back. I agree it had to be weird to play yourself. As for Red Badge of Courage…..it’s running time has always fascinated me….IMDb says the running time is 69 minutes….apparently there was lots of fighting on the final cut….seems to beg for a John Huston’s Final Cut addition….I bet that movie would be close to double the 69 minutes.

        Glad to share your video……though I still wonder if it gets you views….if somebody watches the video on the page…versus going towards your You Tube channel….well I hope it does.

        1. I rarely look at google analytics so I don’t have a clue where the views are coming from but I’m sure your sharing them helps and it is much appreciated. When I become a youtube millionaire, in about 50 or 60 years time, I’ll give you a share of the wealth. 🙂

          1. Sounds like a deal…..let’s see….I will be either 101 or 111 when it happens…..I will go to Disney in Florida with the proceeds and ride the roller coasters….lol.

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