Want to know the best Elia Kazan movies? How about the worst Elia Kazan movies? Curious about Elia Kazan’s box office grosses or which Elia Kazan movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Elia Kazan 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.
Elia Kazan (1909-2003) was an Oscar® winning director, producer, writer and actor. He is considered one of the most influential directors in Broadway and Hollywood history. He won two Best Director Oscars® and received a Honorary Oscar® in 1999. His IMDb page shows 21 directing credits from 1937-1976. This page ranks 19 Elia Kazan movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. His 2 documentary short films were not included in the rankings.
Drivel part of the page: Today I had to babysit my house as a brand new heating and air condition unit were being installed (at a cost of 15K) into my house. Figuring this would be a good time to write a new page (normally I write after my little ones have gone to sleep) I sat down to write a new UMR page. At this point I could not figure out which person to do next. After some internal debate, I decided to knock another director off of my list of great directors to write about. Sitting on top of that list was Mr. Elia Kazdan. That fact and the fact Helakoski had recently requested a page on him….sealed the deal and we now have a Kazdan page.
Elia Kazan 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 Elia Kazan movies by the stars of his movies.
- Sort Elia Kazan movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Elia Kazan movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Elia Kazan 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 Elia Kazan movie received and how many Oscar® wins each Elia Kazan movie won.
- Sort Elia Kazan 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.
Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Elia Kazanl Table
- Ten Elia Kazan movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 52.63% of his movies listed. Gentleman’s Agreement (1947) was his biggest box office hit.
- An average Elia Kazan movie grossed $121.70 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 16 Elia Kazan movies are rated as good movies…or 84.21% of his movies. On the Waterfront (1954) is his highest rated movie while The Arrangement (1969) is his lowest rated movie.
- Thirteen Elia Kazan movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 64.42% of his movies.
- Nine Elia Kazan movie won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 47.36% of his movies.
- An average Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 40.00. 15 Elia Kazan movies scored higher that average….or 78.94 of his movies. Gentleman’s Agreement (1947) got the the highest UMR Score while The Visitors (1972) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Elia Kazan
1. Elias Kazantzoglou was born in the Fener district of Istanbul. He emigrated to the United States when he was four years old
2. Elia Kazan’s nickname was “Gadg“. That was short for gadget. He got the nickname because he was small, compact, and handy to have around.
3. Elia Kazan went to the Yale University School Of Drama for two years. He left Yale and found success as a New York theatrical director.
4. Elia Kazan was nominated for 7 Oscars®. He received 5 Best Director nominations, 1 Best Producer and 1 Best Screenplay nomination. He won Best Director Oscars® for 1947’s Gentleman’s Agreement and 1954’s On The Waterfront.
5. Elia Kazan directed 21 different actors in Oscar®-nominated performances: James Dunn, Celeste Holm, Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire, Anne Revere, Jeanne Crain, Ethel Barrymore, Ethel Waters, Karl Malden, Vivien Leigh, Kim Hunter, Marlon Brando, Anthony Quinn, Eva Marie Saint, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, Jo Van Fleet, James Dean, Carroll Baker, Mildred Dunnock and Natalie Wood. Dunn, Holm, Malden, Leigh, Hunter, Quinn, Brando, Saint and Van Fleet all won Oscars® for their performances in Kazan films.
6. Elia Kazan and Method Actors. He is the only person to direct James Dean, Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift and Robert DeNiro.
7. Elia Kazan was married three times in his life and had 5 children.
8. Check out Elia Kazan‘s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.
Only 19 movies? I expected more. Kazan was a controversial figure, when he was presented with an Honorary Oscar Award by Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro in 1999 there were many in the audience who did not applaud. During the communist witch-hunts of the 1950s Kazan provided the names of other communists in the movie industry, effectively destroying the careers of friends and colleagues.
I’ve only seen 7 of the 19 listed, my favorites being On the Waterfront, East of Eden, Viva Zapata and Panic in the Streets.
Stellaaaaaa! I’m not a big fan of A Streetcar Named Desire either.
I am surprised to see Gentleman’s Agreement topping the UMR chart and Waterfront all the way down at no.3, both films won Best Picture but Waterfront was far superior and a critical and box office success. Why Bruce why? [bursts into tears]
No worries I’m not blacklisting this page but forgive me if I don’t stand up. 😉
Nice work Bruce. Voted Up!
Hey Steve…..yep only 19 movies….he only has 21 directing credits. I guess he got tired of making movies…he lived 27 years after his last movie. I just avoided his black list issues. I can see why some people did not applaud him when he got his Honorary Oscar.
Tally count….me and Flora tied at 11….and you are at 7. I am not a fan of Streetcar either.
As for Gentleman’s Agreement over On the Waterfront….guess what you were correct…I forgot to add in Kazan’s Best Director Oscar and Golden Globe….that moved the UMR score up on Waterfront and passed all to be the UMR top movie. Might be a first…you fuss about a score…and then it gets changed.
Glad you did not blacklist this page…it, your comment and visit and greatly appreciated.
Cool move Bruce. On the Waterfront up where it belongs (wasn’t there a song…?) . Sorry to see I came last on the tally, but it’s Kazan so I shouldn’t feel too bad. 🙂
You speak….and I listen…it least in this case…lol. After reading your comment I was looking at the two movies and could not figure out why Gentleman was beating Waterfront….so I had to go back to the database to find my mistake. I appreciate the headsup.
He was one of the greats. Even more impressive was his Broadway career. I liked this one way more than your previous page.
Hey Stein. Thanks for commenting. I read a little about his Broadway career, so I will bow to your expertise on that subject. Glad you like this one better. Nice to see you return to our pages.
Okay, so now that you have completed the page,
I have seen 11 of his films.
The highest I have seen is Number 1: On the Waterfront
The lowest I have seen is Number 14: Pinky
The highest raked film I have not seen is Number 7: Wild River
I admire Gentleman’s agreement very much, but it is difficult to watch.
Hey Flora
1. Thanks for returning.
2. So you are at 11….I am at 11 too. Wow I must admit I am shocked. All I need is for Steve to have seen one….and we will take you down….lol.
3. I actually have not seen all of Panic in the Streets…I have seen about 70% of it….but not enough to include it on my tally count.
4. I agree with you about Gentleman’s Agreement.
As always thanks for sharing your movie thoughts.
Thank you Bruce Cogerson. That was quick. My ma and granny loved his movies. Many times we would watch on the waterfront and streetcar named desire back to back. So glad to see that both have nice numbers. I am sending my ma this link. Love it…thanks again.
Glad you found your requested page. It was actually one of the quickest turnarounds….from request to page. Thanks for sharing your memories of your mother and grandmother. Streetcar and On the Waterfront would make a good Brando double feature for sure…..though I admit I am not much of a fan of Streetcar. Thanks for the visit, the request, the comment and the nice words.
Bruce:
You hit publish before you put in all 19 movies you were going to rank. I realize you were probably called away, but I thought that I would add a comment now because I am going to try not to be online this weekend as I have a solo to sing on Sunday and must get my rest. And well, why not say hello.
$15K?
Wow.
My thing about this director is that I admire the movies, but well -I have to ignore who the director was.
I love Panic in the Streets. That is my favourite.
I really hate Splendor in the Grass.
Wild River is on my to-see list.
I’ve never heard of Number 10.
Flora
Hey Flora….thanks for the two comments. I forgot to set the table to all…versus the default setting which is only 10 movies. But it is fixed now.
1. First of all…I hope you have a great time on Sunday and that your solo goes well.
2. When we bought this house….the home inspection said the heating/air unit was old…and would need to be replaced soon….well it made it through 2 winters and 1 summer….but after it had to be replaced…at a cost of $15,000. Tonight as the temperature drops we have no heat…..our two little ones are sleeping on the floor in our room as we use the heater they left. Tomorrow all will be fixed.
3. As for Mr. Kazan….many classic movies but he is not my favorite. I have watched Streetcar 3 times….and have liked it less each time out. I find Gentleman’s Agreement very very dated. Of his “classics” I like On the Waterfront the most.
4. Splendor in the Grass is not a fun movie to watch…too sad and too depressing in my book.
5. As for #10….I had not heard of it either….but it is actually high on my list to watch. It got 4 Oscar nominations….won the Golden Globe for Best Picture….and has stellar reviews. I imagine it is going to be hard to find America America.