40 thoughts on “Brigitte Bardot Movies”

1. Brigitte Bardot… that must have been a bit of a challenge eh? Kudos for finding stats on this subject. From what I remember my dad was a fan of the French sexpot and the more curvaceous Ursula Andress.

   Ursula and Raquel Welch were my pinups as a teen, it helped that I’d seen more of their films and some were favorites of mine.

   I’ve seen 6 of the 42 films on the chart, more than I thought – Dear Brigitte, Shalako, Doctor at Sea, Viva Maria, Legend of Frenchie King and Helen of Troy.

   No favorites but I’ve seen Shalako and Helen of Troy 3 or 4 times over the decades.

   I have a copy of And God Created Woman (1956) in the collection but I have yet to watch it. The film that made her a star it caused a ‘huge uproar in the United States for its sexual content’.

   Good stuff Bruce. Vote Up!

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   1. Hey Steve. Yes indeed it was a challenge putting this page together. But in the end, it has given me an idea of how to do future French stars that are in Joel’s book. This is like the terrorist plane in Die Hard 2…..after Bruce crashes it….the other planes land by seeing it the flames from the crashed plane.

      Tally count: Steve 6, Bob 5 (all favorites…assume he has seen some that were not favorites), Greg 3, Flora 3 and Cogerson 0. Yes, I have managed to not see a single Brigitte Bardot movie.
      It sounds like checking out Shalako Viva Maria and Dear Brigitte is somehting I should do.

      And God Creaed Woman was pretty big over here, as well in your neck of the woods. Seems that one movie, made her a legend in good ole America. Good stuff as always.

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2. In item 1 of additional trivia in my previous post the Charles Bronson/Tony Curtis film that I meant to cite was 1970’s “You can’t win em All” and the interview took place that year and not of course in 1968. That correct title does of course excuse my own mistake but apologies anyway!

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   1. Hey Bob….fixed.

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3. Bardot is such a massive historical continental/worldwide icon and sex symbol that I have long regarded her as a prime candidate for a Cogerson page so naturally I now welcome one. [Great also to see my Dirk getting a co-star mention].

   It is good that Bruce has been able to round up a large whack of her French grosses as they indicate how big a box office draw outside the US and Canada she was***: the top dozen or so French earnings figures quoted [and even many of the lesser-grossing ones] are in my view impressive for belonging to just ONE country among many outside America. Good work there WH.

   Brigitte’s net worth today is $65 million according to Celebrity net Worth site. That’s very good for an actress whose career was not grounded in the Hollywood movie industry and also when one considers how much she must have spent over the years on her animal sanctuary [and also perhaps on hosting Brando!]. To her credit she has productively ‘shared’ her wealth. But let’s leave the final analysis to one who we are told knows EVERYTHING:

   “Many glamour stars who pout or play at being a sex kitten seem too knowing, too narcissistic. But Brigitte Bardot really SEEMED like a naughty child enjoying the fuss she was creating. ———– Journalists now take her more than seriously as an actress than they did in her heyday and her work in La Verité seems to justify their enthusiasm.” – Rating The Movie Stars 1983 page 33.

   ***ADDITIONAL TRIVIA
   1/In an interview in 1970 Tony Curtis who had just finished making Don’t Make Waves with Charles Bronson said that because Charlie’s films hadn’t cut much ice at the domestic box office overall American didn’t realise how gigantic a box office draw that he was outside the States. Bruce’s figures on Bronson’s page generally illustrate Tony’s point about Charlie’s domestic grosses.
   2/The film In the Name of the Rose starring Sean Connery did poorly at the box office in the United States: it played at 176 theatres and grossed $7.2 million on a $17 million budget.[ However, it was popular in many parts of Europe and grossed over $77 million worldwide[about $180 million in today’s money taking in a Cogerson adjusted domestic gross of only $18 million].

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   1. Hey Bob. Thanks for sharing the information on her net worth and for sharing the wise words from Joel and the Consumer Reports people. I picked her, because when I was looking through “the book” I figured she would be one of the hardest ones to research. After coming up with a few failed ideas (only using a table with review % and doing a Steve type YouTube video), I came up with using the French Box Office. The guy that runs BoxOfficeStory is friends with UMR Hall of Famer Laurent.

      Good thoughts on Charles Bronson and his overseas box office power. It reminds me of a story about Clint Eastwood. I think, Sophia Loren was traveling in the USA in the mid 1960s, and they asked her, who she wanted to met during her stay?. She said she wanted to met Clint. They (the all important they) asked, you mean the guy from Rawhide (tv show), and she was like….”No, the guy from the Sergio Leone movies.” Clint had become an international star well before becoming the Clint we now know.

      Good stats on The Name of the Rose. Good stuff as always.

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      1. A telling story about Clint Eastwood. Indeed as Clint in his early days was famous for TV’s Rawhide many people including myself didn’t take seriously his big screen career and didn’t regard him as a “real” movie star.

         Boy were those of us who thought like that ultimately made to look as silly as that guy long ago who said that Gable would never make a star because “his ears are too big!” – or the one whos proclaimed that the young Astaire was “balding” and would therefore never make the big time.

         Interesting that your source for BB’s French grosses is Box Office Story. I recall that when a Mr Roy joined this site about 8 or 9 years ago he acquainted you with the fact that Box Office Story credited Marlon Brando’s debut film The Men with an actual domestic gross of $7 million [which at a rough guess would adjust to around 135 in today’s dollars].

         As you often do in poor ole Mr Roy’s case you rubbished his information; but I see that Box Office Story is after all these years still holding firm on that $7 million actual figure for The Men [initially called Battle Stripe].

         Thank goodness that in Bardot’s case you have accepted Box Office Story’s figures as I think that they accurately broadly reflect Brigitte’s box office status in her heyday within the worldwide film business. In short your Bardot page is a highly satisfactory composite source of reference for a movie stats buff – well done!

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         1. Hey Bob….glad you liked my Clint story. Box Office Story and Laurent’s page are two more sources to use…as I wrap up the Joel book project…I will be leading heavily on those sources…as I knock out the numerous French subjects Joel listed. As for The Men….I stand by my number. I recently broke down and bought some of the Box Office Madness books. It gives The Men credit for being in the Top 10 three weeks….peaking in 7th place, dropping down to 8th place (second week), dropping out of the Top 10 (3rd week) and returning to 10th place (4th week). The Harrison Report gives The Men a “good to fair” rating. That puts The Men in the $2.5 million range versus the $7 million range. Good stuff as always.

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4. Brigitte was a lifelong friend of Marlon Brando and as Bruce indicates above Bardot was an animal rights lover. She had an animal sanctuary in Paris and in their much-later years Marlon still visited her there.

   One year in those later times the TV cameras caught Brigitte driving Marlon through the center of Paris in an open van packed with dogs. He was sitting- very solemnly – in the front passenger seat beside her wearing a massive hat and a weird-looking cloak; and the dogs in the rear were barking furiously out at other road-users.

   My father was watching the clip with me and [almost as much a Brando-hater as Joel Hirschhorn] dad shook his head in disbelief and said “As mad as two fruit-cakes!” The coverage mentioned that Marlon was later turned away from a store in Paris because he had forgotten to bring his money- the strange cloak that he was wearing had no pockets!

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   1. Hey Bob….thanks for sharing the somewhat unusual story of BB, Brando and the dogs. I am betting Marlon was having a good time….even if he did not buy anything. Good stuff.

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5. To me growing up in the 1950s Brigitte seemed the wonder of the age. Because of our youth combined with hitherto strict censorship we had never before been exposed to the continental type movies which as Bruce’s lead-in above appropriately suggests were very risqué in Bardot’s case.

   Back in those day the nearest thing that we had gotten to screen pornography was the likes of Randy Scott/Joel McCrea/Fred Astaire romancing women half their age in their otherwise circumspect movies.

   For example in 1953’s The Lone Hand Joel aged 48 marries 31 year old Barbara Hale [the future Della Street in the Perry Mason TV productions for over nearly 40 years]. Barbara’s father in the movie [actor Roy Roberts] was born in 1906 and McCrea in 1905!!

   In one of HIS westerns middle-aged Randy Scott is walking out of church with his ‘child bride’ when the preacher who is about Scott’s own age says to Randy “It’s good to see all the young men coming to church these days.”

   My fave Bardot movies in the tables above are Act of Love/Dear Brigitte/Helen of Troy/Shalako/And God Created Joel.

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   1. Hey Bob. Three good comments from you. Thanks for sharing how you viewed BB in the 1950s. Funny story about Scott and the preacher. Tally count: Steve 6, you 5, Flora and Greg 3 and Cogerson gets shut out.

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