Want to know the best Claude Rains movies? How about the worst Claude Rains movies? Curious about Claude Rains box office grosses or which Claude Rains movie picked up the most Oscar nominations? Need to know which Claude Rains 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.
If there was a Mount Rushmore of great movie character actors…joining Walter Brennan, Lionel Barrymore and Christopher Walken would be Claude Rains (1889-1967). Raines was an English 4-time Oscar® nominated actor of stage and screen whose career spanned 46 years. Rains’ IMDb page shows 79 acting credits from 1920 – 1965. This page will take a statistical look at 52 Claude Rains movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. His cameo roles, his television appearances and movies not released in North America were not included in the table.
Drivel part: So this weekend we (the family) were supposed to be in Philadelphia. We went to bed Thursday night packed and ready to go first thing Friday morning. All our carefully made plans went right out the window at 3:30 A.M….when our youngest child (Emily) showed up in our room saying she did not feel well and was burning up with fever. Well…..18 hours later she is feeling better and our Philly trip is canceled. So with some unexpected free time, we figured we would finish and publish this Claude Rains page on Friday versus our plan of publishing on Monday.
Claude Rains 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 Claude Rains movies by his co-star in the move
- Sort Claude Rains movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Claude Rains movies by adjusted worldwide box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Claude Rains 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 Claude Rains movie received and
- Sort by many Oscar® wins each Claude Rains movie won.
- Sort Claude Rains 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.
- Use the search and sort button to make this page very interactive.
- If there is a link in the co-star column….that link takes you to that performers’ UMR movie page
Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Claude Rains Table
- Twenty-eight Claude Rains movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 52.83% of his movies listed. Lawrence of Arabia (1962) was his biggest box office ht when looking at adjusted domestic box office gross.
- An average Claude Rains movie grosses $123.50 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 39 of Claude Rains’ movies are rated as good movies…or 75.00% of their movies. Casablanca (1942) is his highest rated movie while Anthony Adverse (1936) was his lowest rated movie.
- Eighteen Claude Rains movie received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 34.61% of his movies.
- Eight Claude Rains movie won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 15.38% of his movies.
- A “good movie” Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score is 60.00. 36 Claude Rains movies scored higher than that average….or 69.23% of his movies. Casablanca (1942) got the the highest UMR Score while The Paris Express (1952) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Claude Rains
- William Claude Rains was born in Camberwell, London in 1889.
2. Claude Rains served in the First World War in the London Scottish Regiment. He served alongside fellow actors Basil Rathbone, Ronald Colman and Herbert Marshall. At one time, he was involved in a gas attack that left him nearly blind in one eye for the rest of his life.
3. Claude Rains was a teacher at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art before coming to Hollywood, whose students included John Gielgud.
4. Claude Rains appeared in two Best Picture Oscar® winners: 1942’s Casablanca and 1962’s Lawrence of Arabia.
5. Claude Rains was married 7 times in his life. He had one child, actress Jennifer Rains. Rains screen name is Jennifer Rains and has 39 IMDb acting credits.
6. Claude Rains was offered but turned down these roles: Dr. Pretorius in 1935’s Bride of Frankenstein, Frollo or Qasimodo in 1939’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Professor Higgins in 1938’s Pygmalion, Mr. Doolittle in 1964’s My Fair Lady, Klaatu in 1951’s The Day the Earth Stood Still and Henry Potter in 1946’s It’s a Wonderful Life.
7. Claude Rains was nominated for 4 Best Supporting Actor Oscars®: 1939’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, 1942’s Casablanca, 1944’s Mr. Skeffington and 1946’s Notorious.
8. Claude Rains 52 movies listed here grossed $6.42 billion in adjusted domestic box office. Earned 77 Oscar® nominations….winning 23 times.
9. Check out Claude Rains’s movie career compared to current and classic stars on our Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time page.
10. There are two movies that did not make the page that we really wanted to: 1934’s The Man Who Reclaimed His Head and 1935’s The Last Outpost. We could not find any box office information on those two movies…so they were not included. Actually we have been looking for years now when it comes to The Last Outpost….maybe one day.
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.
Hi
Rains is one of the finest character actors ever to appear on screen. I couldn’t imagine Casablanca without him. He worked well with Bettie Davis, especially in Mr Skeffington. Years later Davis herself said that he was one of her favourite co-stars. I think my favourite Rains performance would be in Notorious as a secret Nazi. The scene where he discovers that his wife is an American agent and he goes to wake up his mother is brilliant.
It was interesting that he was considered for the Potter role in It’s a Wonderful Life. Although Barrymore I thought was a great choice.
It’s amazing that he served alongside all those actors in the Great War. Little did they know their future lay in Hollywood.
Hey Chris….I agree with you 100%….he is one of the greatest character actors ever….and has one of the greatest voices in movies. The greatness of Rains is that his performance in Notorious is just one of so many great performances. For me his role in Casablanca is my favorite. “I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!” is actually my favorite Rains reading in that movie.
I imagine Barrymore and Rains were the first choices for many of the secondary parts in the 1930s and 1940s. Seeing the future Hollywood legends in the trenches of World War 1 sounds like a great story for a movie…I would go and see it. Thanks for sharing your Rains movie thoughts…as always it is greatly appreciated.
Hey, I thought that Claude Rains was a very good actor. In some roles such as Notorious he was a stinker. I have seen most of his movies – did not know that he made as many as he did. Interesting that he was married seven times and only one child. Thanks for the information. ANOTHER GOOD JOB WITH GOOD RESEARCH.
Hey BERN1960….thanks for checking out my Rains page. I still add the personal stuff about marriages and children…just for you. I agree he was awesome in Notorious. Thanks for the comment and the nice words….both are greatly appreciated.
This is what I mean by cool discoveries, who would think Claude Rains appeared in 28 films that crossed the 100 million mark.
Hey Dan… I agree…his 28 is pretty impressive. He benefited from two big things….(1) he was in so many good movies….(2) at the peak of the movie business…they say baseball was the national pasttime back then…but I think the numbers show going to the movies is what more people did make then.
Bruce:
I’ve posted a link to this page on two threads on TCM:
My Hitchcock page under favourites, and a page on Casablanca in General Discussions.
Thank you Flora…I will go there and check out the links….I greatly appreciate all of the support.
The great Claude Rains, one of my favorite character actors. Was Rains ever top-billed on a movie? Bruce? I think maybe just The Invisible Man.
I’ve seen 18 films from this list. Most of my favorites are in Flora’s post – Lawrence of Arabia, Robin Hood, Casablanca, Notorious, The Sea Hawk, The Wolfman and not visible in her post – The Invisible Man.
Lawrence in 3rd position on the UMR, ooh one of the most critically acclaimed epics of all time and Best Picture winner knocked out by two old black and white films. I can’t complain much Casablanca is one of my top 10 favorite movies. I like Mr. Smith a lot but it’s not a film I watch over and over. Lawrence is in my top 5, maybe top 3.
Robin Hood is another top favorite and most probably the greatest swashbuckler of all time, Rains was perfect as the sneering Prince John. Notorious is one of Hitchcock’s greatest thrillers and Rains was a sympathetic villain. My all time favorite Rains performance is as Captain Renault in the endlessly watchable and quotable Casablanca. “Round up the usual suspects”.
Rains movies I’ve yet to see include Now Voyager, Kings Row and Mr. Skeffington.
Another excellent addition to your series Bruce. Have you got Peter Lorre listed? Voted Up!
The Invisible Man was not visible because I could only see him not hear him. I love it too.
🙂
Hey Steve.
1. Rains was topped bill many times….just not in any of his famous movies.
2. Tally count…Flora 28, Steve 18….and me down in third place with 11….I got off to such a great start seeing 10 of the Top 11…..then only 1 the rest of the way.
3. Mr. Smith Goes To Washington got the edge over Lawrence…mainly because Rains got one of his Oscar nominations for Mr. Smith. On my all-time Best UMR movie chart Lawrence is a Top 10 movie while Mr. Smith sits in 66th place.
4. I agree with you 100% about his roles in Robin Hood and Notorious….and it does not get any better than his performance in Casablanca….how he did not win an Oscar for that all-time classic role is very confusing.
5. That got to think….who beat our Rains for that Supporting Actor…so I had to look it up…Charles Coburn in the romantic comedy The More The Merrier….which is a nice movie…and Coburn is just fine in the role…BUT Rains was easily the better of those two.
6. Cary Grant ended his movie career playing the Coburn role in Walk Don’t Run…..sadly Grant did not get an Oscar like Coburn did for the role.
7. Kings Row is good….though his part is pretty small….it least I think it is….because I barely remember it. Mr. Skeffington is worth checking out….it is a Bette Davis movie….but Rains steals the movie. I thought Now Voyager was ok….not my favorite Rains movie.
8. I have about 25 Peter Lorre movies done…..that is only about a third of his movies….as finding his box office information is pretty difficult.
As always….thanks for sharing your movie thoughts.
Hey Flora. I read that the producers of Crime Without Passion actually promoted the movie as Rains debut…since you could only hear him in The Invisible Man. Glad you liked that movie…somehow I have managed not to watch The Invisible Man….hope to take care of that in the near future.