Want to know the best Ava Gardner movies? How about the worst Ava Gardner movies? Curious about Ava Gardner’s box office grosses or which Ava Gardner movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Ava Gardner movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which ones got the worst reviews? Well you have come to the right place…. because we have all of that information and much more.
Ava Gardner (1922-1990) was an American actress, who the American Film Institute ranked as one of the Top 50 Screen Legends of all time. Gardner for many years was considered to be the most beautiful woman in the world. Gardner is ranked as the 25th best actress, right behind #24 Mary Pickford. One of our goals is to do a movie page on all 50 Screen Legends. After completing this page we have now written movie pages on 42 (or 84%) of those performers……leaving only 6 actresses and 2 actors that still need movie pages. Speaking of Mary Pickford….we are actually working on a Pickford movie page. However when we were researching box office information on Pickford from 1909 through 1919 ….we got lost….we got confused…..we got scared and we came running back to doing a Gardner page. One day we will figure out how to write a comprehensive movie page on Mary Pickford….but until then we hope you enjoy this Ava Gardner movie page.
Her IMDb page shows 69 acting credits from 1941-1986. This page will rank 40 Ava Gardner movies from Best to Worst in seven different sortable columns of information. Uncredited roles, bit parts, shorts and television appearances were not included in the rankings.
Ava Gardner 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 Ava Gardner movies by the year the movie was made
- Sort Ava Gardner movies by co-stars of her movies
- Sort Ava Gardner movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost.
- Sort Ava Gardner movies by domestic yearly box office rank
- Sort Ava Gardner 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 Oscar® wins each Ava Gardner movie received.
- Sort Ava Gardner movies by Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score. UMR 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…if you type in “Clark Gable” in the search box….the 3 Gardner/Gable movies will pop right up.
Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Ava Gardner Table
- Sixteen Ava Gardner movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 40.00% of her movies listed. Earthquake (1974) was her biggest box office hit.
- An average Ava Gardner movie grosses $107.70 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 21 of Ava Gardner’s movies are rated as good movies…or 52.50% of her movies. The Killers (1946) was her highest rated movie while City on Fire (1979) was her lowest rated movie.
- Thirteen Ava Gardner movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 32.50% of her movies.
- Three Ava Gardner movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 7.50% of her movies.
- A “good movie” Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score is 60.00. 22 Ava Gardner movies scored higher that average….or 55.00% of her movies. The Hucksters (1947) got the the highest UMR Movie Score while City on Fire (1979) got the lowest UMR Movie Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Ava Gardner
1. Ava Lavina Gardner was born in Grabtown, North Carolina in 1922….she was a Christmas Eve baby.
2. Ava Gardner was nominated for one acting Oscar®…Best Actress for Mogambo (1953) and one acting Golden Globe®….Best Actress for Night of the Iguana (1964).
3. Ava Gardner’s biggest box office hit was 1974’s Earthquake. Earthquake is also one of her least liked movies by critics and audiences. In our 23,000 movie database it is one of the biggest box office hits with the lowest critic audience rating. It joins all the Transformers movies and Armageddon in that strange club.
4. Ava Gardner was continuously under contract at MGM from 1941-1958.
5. Ava Gardner’s own singing voice was used in her breakthrough role in The Killers (1947). Much to her disgust…MGM dubbed her voice in the rest of her MGM movies.
6. According to the American Film Institute, Ava Gardner is the 25th greatest female star of all-time.
7. Ava Gardner was married three times in her life but did not have any children. All three of her marriages were very much in the public eye….the Angelina Jolie of the 1940s and 1950s? Her first marriage was to actor Mickey Rooney from 1942 to 1943. Her second marriage was to singer Artie Shaw from 1945-1946. Her third and final marriage was to Frank Sinatra from 1951-1957. Her three husbands were eventually married to a total of 20 brides between them.
8. Our favorite Ava Gardner quote comes from Louis B. Mayer. He said….. “She can’t talk, she can’t act, she’s terrific”.
9. Ava Gardner turned down or was seriously considered for these roles: Elizabeth Taylor role in Cleopatra, Elizabeth Taylor role in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Doris Day role in Love Me or Leave Me, Capucine role in The Pink Panther and Geraldine Page in Sweet Bird of Youth.
10. Check out Ava Gardner’s movie career compared to current and classic stars on our Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time page.
Another excellent video upgrade. One of AFI’s Screen Legends. Overall I have seen 14 of these movies with #3 being the one I most recently watched….felt it was ok. More random thoughts….. #1 The Killers is excellent…and she is equally excellent in that one. #4 On The Beach is another Gardner movie I really enjoyed. #14 The Hucksters is an ok movie. #19 Earthquake..is an epic disaster movie….though I never bought the ending….Heston picked the wrong girl. #18 Roy Bean…should have been awesome #15 Snows of Kill…..not a favorite Peck flick. I hafe not seen #15 Knights of the Round Table or #7 55 Days at Peking….but I want to. Voted up and included on our Gardner UMR page.
HI STEVE I have already commented at length about Ava in posts of 21 Oct and 21 Dec 16. Goodness what a relatively long time ago! The gist of my previous comments about Ava was that her career fascinates me because to the best of my knowledge she was never in a big hit that did not include another major star and yet she was at one time almost the most talked-about movie star around and AFI included her as one of its Legends.
NOS 40-21
Best POSERS for me are Ghosts on the Loose, Whistle Stop, The [chilling] Devil’s Window, 2 excellent ones for My Forbidden Past with Big Bob, The Angel Wore Red and Permission to Kill both with my Dirk, raunchy one for The Little Hut, Masie Goes to Reno, Singapore starring Ava and our Fred [remade later as “Istanbul” with Flynn and Cornell Borchers] and the very original first one for Bhowani Junction.
My notes have list just 3 STILLS in part one but they were all pleasing – opening one of “feeding time at the zoo”, Ava as ‘Venus’, and with Niven and Granger in The Little Hut. I never saw that one but the three were marooned on a desert island and there was a whole fuss when it came out in 1957 because the story revolved around suggestions of wife sharing on the desert island – considered a daring plot line back then.
To be continued ….. and Part 2 has a whole raft of stills for viewers to admire.
Hi Bob, thanks for reviewing the first half of my Ava Gardner video expansion, it is appreciated. Glad you enjoyed the pretty pictures, she was a stunner wasn’t she? Yep there are 15 stills in total on this video.
I’ll be uploading another Hollywood beauty in a few hours time, she also has a top rated film noir at no.1. All three ladies this week have film noir in the top spot.
AVA GARDNER VIDEO 1-20 ENTRIES
POSTERS My pick of the best. First one for Judge Roy Bean, both cracking ones for The Cassandra Crossing, The Bible, the 2nd one For East Side West Side, Mogambo, the 1st one for Pandora and Flying Dutchman, Mogambo, foreign language one for 55 Days at Peking, excellent opening one for The Barefoot Contessa and in the 2nd one for that movie Bogie complete with his ‘signature’ cigarette, two highly original ones for The Killers, Ava displaying her brassiere in The Bribe, and a grinning King Gable being well-emphasised in The Hucksters poster.
STILLS (1) the Cowboy of the Century with Ava in Knights of the Round Table (2) Clark with her in Mogambo (3) Flynn and her in Sun also Rises (4) Ava with Chuck and Niven In a sumptuously coloured one from 55 Days at Peking.!] (5) again a scrumptious coloured solo one of Ava as The Barefoot Contessa (6) Ava with Burt in The Killers (7) her laughing on set with the Great Greg and I think Astaire? and (8) Ava with Burton in 1964’s Night of the Iguana. Look at the number of female co-stars he had in that one. At the time the publicity boys worked overtime spreading the hype that Liz stayed on location and set throughout the shooting of that movie to make sure Ava, Debs Kerr or new teen sensation “sex kitten” Sue Lyon {Lolita herself] didn’t run off with Richard Walter Jenkins Jr !
In para 3 of my 4.27 am post on 21 Oct 2016 I commented on your ratings and made the usual comparisons with those of The Big Guy. Nothing has changed. Overall your ‘extended play’ Gardner video is easily worth 97.5% in my book. Excellent!
Hi Bob, thanks for reviewing and rating the second half of my revised and expanded Ava Gardner video, much appreciated.
I think that is Fred Astaire in that still from On the Beach. Ava Gardner had a cameo role at the beginning of Fred’s musical The Band Wagon.
It’s been ages since I last saw The Night of the Iguana, might be worth another look. I just wish it was in color. No excuse to carry on making B/W films well into the 1960s. Plus they look gloomy and murky compared to the beautifully photographed B/W films of the 1940s.
When I was a kid I thought The Night of the Iguana was a monster movie and I was looking forward to watching it on TV, imagine my disappointment when I finally did see it. 🙂
Ava had 3 films scoring 10 out of 10 from my sources – Show Boat, The Killers and On the Beach. Two more scored 9 – Mogambo and Seven Days in May.
Highest rated at IMDB is a tie between The Killers and Seven Days in May with Night of the Iguana in 2nd place. Highest at Rotten Tomatoes is The Murderers followed by Six Days in June. Bruce’s critics top 2 matches mine.
Ava on her first screen test – “There wasn’t a thing that I could do. I couldn’t act, I was the first to be eliminated in high school plays. I had no training whatsoever. I was just a pretty little girl. But I loved the idea, because I loved movies.”
Ava on her career – “Christ, what did I ever do worth talking about? Every time I tried to act, they stepped on me. That’s why it’s such a goddamn shame, I’ve been a movie star for 25 years and I’ve got nothing, nothing, to show for it.”
Poor little Ava, but she still made it to the AFI’s Top 50 Greatest American Screen Legends chart. There should have been room for Lana Turner too. (don’t start that again Steve!) 😉
HI STEVE
Thanks for fine feedback, quotes etc.
I too initially thought Night of the Iguana was a horror flick. Actually when it came out Burton entered the Quigley Poll of top 10 box office stars for the first time. He was number 10 on the 1964 list and there was a huge fuss over the fact that he temporarily pushed Liz out of the 10. Indeed I vividly recall that his Quigley entry enabled his publicists to hype him up as “Hollywood’s New King.”
Actually talking about the OLD King I saw a documentary last night about Gable and in it they claimed his war service prematurely aged him. Indeed I had meant to say in my Gardner comments that I thought that some of your stills of Ava with Clark reflected how swiftly he HAD aged, so well done in conveying accuracy.
If I recall correctly you won me round to your view that Lana should be in any Top 25 female Legends but I’ll return to that topic when I respond to your Turner “extended play” which I have just started viewing.
Speaking of Fred Astaire in On the Beach, he gave a wonderful performance in a non-musical film as a race car driver.
1 Film stars can be attracted to issues that will often surface as a central theme in their films. We have discussed how McQueen seemed preoccupied with escaping in his movies. In Ava’s case from time to time there would be the physical incapacity of her on-screen love interest.
2 For example in The Sun Also Rises she loves Ty Power’s journalist Jake Barnes but because of war injuries Jake could never consummate their relationship. In Barefoot Contessa she marries Nobleman Rossano Brazzi who then informs her he can never consummate the marriage. The irony is that posters for the film tell us that the Nobleman has married “The World’s Most Beautiful Animal”.
3 In real life Ava was certainly one of the latter and as Bruce illustrates above AFI cited her among its legends. Accordingly I regard her as one of the important stars of the classic era so I have been eagerly awaiting for this update
1 In all of her highest grossing movies in the table above Ava was never billed higher than second and had always a great star like the King, Ty Power or Bob Taylor to help her carry the movie. Thus in the 1950s her box office power was questioned by film journalists and I have always been ambivalent about her inclusion in the AFI Legends lists.
2 However she was GLAMOROUS and indeed your poster for her Bogie movie The Barefoot Contessa calls her “The World’s Most Beautiful Animal”. Indeed such was her feminine appeal that in the 1950s the boys in the”locker room” as The Donald would express it would when referring to her remove from her surname the G and replace it with H. Because of all this and as a lady who married BOTH Sinatra and Joe Yule Jr she must have had a pretty strong character I was always been historically interested in Ava’s career so I welcomed your video.
3 COMMENTS (a) the scores are some of the lowest I’v seen so far in your videos (b) deliciously witty opening quote and particularly stunning posters for Bhowani Junction and My Forbidden Past (3) you and Bruce are in sync with about 3 of your top 5 but he gives 55 Days at Peking just a 15th slot and your inclusion of it in your Top 5 reminds me of a sitcom that I saw years ago where the comedian proclaimed “I’m gonna throw MY OWN party and I’LL decide whose invited.” (4) Ava mad 2 films with Stewart Granger whom we recently discussed and they were Bhowani Junction and Little Hut and you and Bruce give the former OK ratings but were clearly very dismissive of the latter. I agree but ironically according to Wikipedia because of high production costs Bhowani Junction although the bigger grosser lost money whereas Little Hut turned a profit.
4 Stewart and Ava were life long friends and Granger would often visit her in her reclining years. Possibly hinting at suicide he said that on his final visit before her death at just 67 officially from pneumonia she had become so disenchanted with everything that he thought that she had lost the will to live. If so that was a very sad end to a once vibrant life and career. .
CORRECTION
Bruce made 55 Days at Peking joint 14th in his audience/critic column – apologies for misquote Bruce.
Hi Bob, looking at my files Ava did get a lot of low scores, only three movies got the full 10 and they were On the Beach, Showboat and The Killers. On the Beach received average scores elsewhere and it dropped down the chart. 55 Days at Peking had an average score of 7 but because the others did even worse it managed to get into the top 5.
The Little Hut got low scores across the board. I was surprised I remember enjoying the film when I last saw it.
Thanks for posting!
Hey Bob and Steve….your video (Steve’s) was a fun one to see…while your comments (Bobs) were enjoyable to read. I read in one of her biographies that she was not too impressed with her own career….seems she was underestimating her performances. Funny line about Donald and Ava. I have not seen The Little Hut….but Steve’s memory of it makes me somewhat interested in seeing it. Thanks for the Ava talk….it is greatly appreciated.
Hi
One of her best performances was in Mayerling. She played the Empress Elizabeth to Franz Joseph of Austria. It was a supporting role but she was fantastic in it. Unfortunately the movie didn’t do great box office. I think she was like a lot of the great glamour queens, she was never taken seriously as an actress. And yet when given a chance she rose to the occasion. Films like On the Beach and Night of the Iguana, proved that she was more than just a pretty face.
In a way her private life got in the way of her actual film career. Marriages to Mickey Rooney, Arty Shaw and Frank Sinatra kept her in the front pages. But it did little for her actual acting career. It’s a shame she didn’t have one outstanding role like say Rita Hayworth in Gilda or Lana Turner in Postman Always Rings Twice. I always liked her in Showboat, but her voice was dubbed and some of the producers wanted to use Lena Horne, who probably would have been better in the role. Nevertheless Ava looked lovely in the part.
Hey Chris. Hmmmm….I had never even heard of Mayerling before I started doing these pages….I will have to add that one to the list of movies to watch. I do not think Ava even took her self serious as an actress. I agree with you about Night of the Iguana….I did not like that movie at all but she was really good in that one. Earthquake might be her most famous role but even in that one….you have to wonder why Heston picked her versus his young mistress at the end of the movie. You would think that with the success of The Killers…which used her voice for the singling part…..they would have let her sing in the musicals she appeared in after The Killers. As always thanks for talking movies.
Ava Gardner had The Barefoot Contessa. Actually was received better in Europe than United States.
Hey AMF…..thanks for sharing that information…..if you have some actual overseas numbers, I would really be interested in seeing them. Thanks for stopping by.