Want to know the best Frank Sinatra movies? How about the worst Frank Sinatra movies? Curious about Frank Sinatra’s box office grosses or which Frank Sinatra movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Frank Sinatra 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.
Talk about procrastinating! I originally got a request to do a Frank Sinatra movie page almost three years ago by Earle1670 from HubPages. Frank was bumped many times….but finally “The Chairman of the Board” has his very own UltimateMovieRankings page.
Frank Sinatra (1915-1998) was an American actor, director and of course singer. He won a Best Supporting Oscar® for his performance in From Here To Eternity. On this page we will be only looking at Sinatra’s movie career. Despite being in the shadows of his singing career…he managed to put together a pretty successful movie career. Including 20 movies that crossed the magical $100 million mark when looking at adjusted domestic box office dollars.
His IMDb page shows 65 acting credits from 1941-1987. This page will rank 46 Frank Sinatra movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television appearances, some of his movies made outside of the Hollywood system and his straight to DVD movies were not included in the rankings.
Frank Sinatra Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Frank Sinatra 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 Frank Sinatra movies by co-stars of his movies
- Sort Frank Sinatra movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost
- Sort Frank Sinatra movies by yearly box office rank
- Sort Frank Sinatra movies how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Frank Sinatra movie received.
- Sort Frank Sinatra 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 Frank Sinatra Table
- Twenty-eight Frank Sinatra movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 60.86% of his movies listed. From Here to Eternity (1953) was his biggest box office hit.
- An average Frank Sinatra movie grosses $132.40 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 26 Frank Sinatra movies are rated as good movies…or 56.52% of his movies. Manchurian Candidate (1962) is his highest rated movie while The Pride and the Passion (1957) is his lowest rated movie.
- Eighteen Frank Sinatra movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 39.13% of his movies.
- Four Frank Sinatra movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 8.69% of his movies.
- A “good movie” Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 60.00. 32 Frank Sinatra movies scored higher that average….or 69.56% of his movies. From Here to Eternity (1953) got the the highest UMR Score while First Deadly Sin (1980) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Frank Sinatra
1. Francis Albert Sinatra was born and raised in born in Hoboken, New Jersey.
2. Frank Sinatra’s voice carried him into movies. In the 1930s and 1940s Sinatra went from a saloon singer, to a band singer, to working with musical greats Harry James and Tommy Dorsey. As he gained more notoriety in the music world he started landing cameo singing roles in movies By the mid 1940s, he was starring in blockbuster movies.
3. Frank Sinatra had many nicknames…here are the most famous: The Voice, Chairman of the Board, Ol’ Blue Eyes, Swoonatra, The Sultan of Swoon and La Voz. Frank Sinatra has an incredible 321 (and counting) soundtrack credits on IMDb and has sold over 150 million records (and counting) in the world.
4. Frank Sinatra was married four times. His first marriage was to Nancy Barbato from 1939-1951…they had 3 children (singer actress Nancy Sinatra, singer Frank Jr. and Christina Sinatra) together. His second marriage was to actress Ava Gardner 1951-1957. His third marriage was to actress Mia Farrow 1966-1968. His final marriage was to writer Barbara Marx 1976-1998 (his death).
5. After Frank Sinatra’s movies Meet Danny Wilson (1951) and Double Dynamite (1951) bombed at the box office he got the dreaded label “box office poison”. Around this time From Here To Eternity was being cast. Sinatra really wanted to play the Angela Maggio role. The producer of the movie was strongly against using Sinatra and cast Eli Wallach in the role. However when filming started Sinatra had the role. There are many theories on how Sinatra got the role….my favorite is the Hollywood legend that parts of The Godfather are based on Frank Sinatra…..the “offer he can’t refuse” part.
6. Frank Sinatra turned down or was seriously considered for the following roles: On The Waterfront (Marlon Brando part), North by Northwest (Cary Grant part), Dirty Harry (Clint Eastwood part), Death Wish (Charles Bronson part), The Odd Couple (Walter Matthau part), The Graduate (Mr. Robinson), The Music Man (Robert Preston part), and Flaming Star (Elvis Presley). A part Sinatra really wanted to play but did not get was the Marlon Brando role in The Godfather.
7. Frank Sinatra did many cameo roles in his career. Blink and you might have missed him in Cannonball Run 2, The Oscar, The Road To Hong Kong, The List of Adrian Messenger, Around the World in Eighty Days, Meet Me In Las Vegas and Cast A Giant Shadow.
8. In 1963 his son was kidnapped. The kidnappers told Frank Sr. to call them from pay phones. During one call he ran out of coins, and briefly feared that it had cost him his son (the kidnappers gave him another chance). He paid the $250,000 ransom, Frank Jr. was returned, and the kidnappers were eventually caught. However, as a result of the payphone scare, Sinatra swore never to be caught without dimes again, and carried a roll of dimes with him constantly until his death.
9. Frank Sinatra was listed in Quigley Publications’ Top Ten Box Office Stars in 1956 (10th), 1957 (5th), 1958 (10th), 1959 (7th),1960 (8th), and 1962 (8th). 19 of his movies grossed over $100 million when looking at adjusted for inflation box office numbers. Check out Frank Sinatra’s movie career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
10. Three more quick facts: Frank Sinatra’s last starring role, The First Deadly Sin, was Bruce Willis‘ first ever movie appearance. When Bela Lugosi died broke….Frank Sinatra paid for his funeral. Frank Sinatra’s epitaph on his tombstone says “The Best Is Yet To Come”.
Check out Frank Sinatra‘s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
Steve’s expanded Frank Sinatra video is now on this page……our most recent comment on his You Tube channel.
Good ole Frank. Nice update. Seems writing our UMR Frank page…that I have been tracking down more Frank movies to watch. Going through our old comments…my tally was 10….wonder how much better it is 3 plus years later. #43 Marriage on the Rocks…ok comedy….near the end of the Rat Pack #39 Lady in Cement….his last good movie? #32 First Deadly Sin…blink and you miss Bruce Willis in his first screen appearance #29 Pride and Passion…another period piece Grant disaster #27 None But The Brave…good war flick #24 Can Can….fun movie…good MacLaine performance #18 Pal Joey…Frank at his peak #14 List of Adrian Messenger…cameo role #13 Robin and the 7 Hoods….fun movie #11 Von Ryan’s Express….good but not as good as The Great Escape
#10 Anchors Aweigh…Sinatra against character #9 Take Me Out To the Ball Game…very little baseball in this one #8 Ocean’s 11….classic…fun…what an ending #7 High Society…did not like this one at all…give me Philadelphia Story. #5 Guys and Dolls….one of the few musicals I like….Brando ain’t bad in this one #3 On The Town…the best Kelly/Sinatra movie #2 Manchurian Candidate…good movie…have not seen in years #1 From Here To Eternity…Frank’s Oscar movies…..so that is now 18…not too bad of an increase. Voted up….and shared. Nice video.
I see Bruce has added a thumbs up feature to the comments. Nice.
Hey Steve…..it is for the comments only….everytime I try to include them on the pages….it always messes something else up….like the Top Trending pages….or the counters of the pages. Glad you liked them.
Hi Bob, thanks for the review, rating, info, trivia, quotes, anecdotes, observation, evaluation and comparison, always appreciated.
Happy you liked the posters, stills and lobby cards.
Considering he started out as a very popular singer and not an actor, Frank did pretty well in Hollywood even winning an Oscar for Supporting Actor. By comparison his friend Dean Martin, also a popular singer, made even more movies but did not get any Oscar love at all.
Three Sinatra movies scored 10 out of 10 from my sources – From Here To Eternity, The Manchurian Candidate and On the Town.
Eight more scored 8 out of 10 including Man With the Golden Arm, High Society and Guys and Dolls. Bruce and I have the same top 3 but in different order.
Manchurian Candidate tops the IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes Sinatra charts.
Frank on Ava Gardner – “I love her, and God damn me for it.”
Frank on Charlton Heston – “That guy Heston has to watch it. If he’s not careful, he’ll get actors a good name.”
Frank on Brando – “…the most overrated actor in the world.”
Frank on John Wayne – “No man’s lifetime of work has given proof to the world that our flag is still there. John Wayne is in truth a star-spangled man whom so proudly we hail.”
Frank on Elvis Presley (1957) – “Sung, played and written for the most part by cretinous goons. His kind of music is deplorable, a rancid smelling aphrodisiac . . . it fosters almost totally negative and destructive reactions in young people.”
Frank on Elvis Presley (1977) – “There have been many accolades uttered about his talent and performances through the years, all of which I agree to wholeheartedly, I shall miss him dearly as a friend.”
Another member of Frankie’s rat pack will be uploaded on expanded video later today.
Thanks for your feed back. I agree with your summing up of Sinatra’s success and the recognition by others of Frankie’s and Dino’s achievements.
You have given us contradictory quotes from Sinatra about ELVIS. Frank also said kinder things about BRANDO on other days “When I want to choose the best way to interpret a dramatic role I take a leaf out of the book of Marlon Brando.”
I read also that when he and Marlon met in their later careers they were at least civil to each other. It’s possible that in the mid 50s the career-hungry Sinatra clawing his way back to the top saw Elvis as a threat and we know that Ole Blue Eyes coveted the roles in Waterfront and Guys and Dolls that went to Brando, but that the later,more successful Sinatra matured and mellowed as far as a cantankerous and quarrelsome guy like him ever can. [DINO “You haven’t been yourself all week Frank.” “Why’s that Dean?” “You haven’t hit anyone!”].
Frank hired to script write one of his movies a guy that was black-listed and WAYNE and the Hollywood “right wing” pressurised Sinatra into firing the person. The quarrel ended with fisticuffs in a restaurant with the Duke reportedly throwing Frank and Dino to the ground and trying to run away only to be chased by Frankie’s bodyguards, whom the Duke in self-defence reported thrashed in the car park before speeding off in his car.
I always enjoy your well-informed quotes and I should explain that whilst I usually quote verbatim as far as memory and research will allow, at times for decency sake I slightly alter one or two words that I don’t want to repeat on this site. For example whilst the Deanna Durbin quote in my Alexis Smith post is almost 100% and reflects accurately Deanna’s meaning Bruce would not have been pleased if I had completely expressed her observation in the way she did though she herself has made the same statement in a couple of variations
Just in the way the quality of even good movies is normally distinguished by a rating system such as stars or% I think that Bruce should have a two thumbs up system. For example one thumb up for posts such as yours and both thumbs up for comments like Joel’s and mine.
Hi Bob, good stuff as always, you should be writing movie books not whatsisname! 😉
I remember reading that Brando and Sinatra did not get along during filming of Guys and Dolls. I think things started off badly when Frank chased after Brando’s role in the musical and got the lesser part instead?
I can’t imagine those old Hollywood greats using the kind of foul language we use today but I guess they must have. There was a time when even the use of the word ‘damn’ in a movie was shocking to moviegoers.
Hey Steve….great quotes….I especially liked the one on Wayne….the Elvis and Brando ones are pretty harsh.
Hi Bruce, yep like Bob says Sinatra saw Elvis as a threat during the 50s, all those screaming fainting girls. But he started to warm to him during the 60s, even sung together in a TV special.
Sinatra’s daughter Nancy co-starred with Elvis in Speedway. In an interview Nancy was asked who her dream dinner date would be. She said: “Elvis. He always made me laugh. He was silly, funny and such a lovely guy to be around.”
Frank Sinatra is not on the IFA’s Greatest Legends list and I can only presume that this was because his enormous achievements as a singer tend to overshadow his tremendous accomplishments as a movie star in the minds of many. He is though on Time Magazine’s list of their perceived “100 Greatest People of the 20 Century” though again not for his movie credentials but for his fame and influence as a singer. Nevertheless he is one of as I’ve said before only 4 silver screen giants to make that Time list the other 3 being Chaplin, Monroe and Brando, so Frankie is in the company of some of the most celebrated Hollywood “Royalty” there.
When they made The Devil at Four O’Clock together in 1961 Spencer Tracy said in an interview that Frankie had more power in Hollywood at that time than many of the old studio system moguls and Spence to whom Sinatra ceded Tracy’s usual top billing in Devil at Four O’Clock morosely confided in a frend “Despite the billing it’s still a Sinatra picture.”
Thus I have always been puzzled that on the AFI lists instead of Sinatra is the likes of Orson Wells who was noted more as a cinematic all-rounder than for being particularly a top movie star. Unfortunately Bruce too ignores Frankie in his Top 100 stars chart but Bruce’s updated stats credit Frank with an overall adjusted domestic gross of around $6.5 billion, an average of just under $140 million per flick over 47 movies. That would have placed Sinatra inside Bruce’s Top 30 among the 100 . For me among the most serious omissions from lists such as AFI and Bruce’s are Frankie and Chuck Heston.
Sinatra VIDEO 45-21 Best POSTERS Marriage on the Rocks [I’ve not seen that risqué one before!] Sgts 3 [a western remake of Grant’s Gunga Din] the 1st one for Johnny Concho First Deadly Sin [a role Frankie inherited from Marlon who was 1st choice] first two for Come Blow your Horn, The Detective, 1st one for Can Can, Suddenly, the foreign language ones for 4 for Texas, Never so few, Naked Runner, Pride and the Passion and Kings Go Forth, and Assault on a Queen. The latter is particularly nostalgic for me as I saw it during one marvellous holiday in the Channel Islands.
STILLS Great opening ensemble one, Lady in Cement, Frankie with Rifle, Frank with the gorgeous Kathryn Grayson and lobby card for Tony Rome. To be continued….
SINATRA VIDEO 1-20 Best POSTERS for me are Pal Joey, The Tender Trap, The List of Adrian Messenger, Joker is Wild, Von Ryan’s Express, the 2nd one for Ocean’s 11, High Society, On the Town, a very original one for Guys and Dolls [we couldn’t afford the bus fare so a pal and I walked a 5 mile return journey to see that one! He shared my liking for Brando and Sinatra was HIS big idol. We also had it in common that we were both nuts about Chuck Heston, Duke Wayne and Glenn Ford ] a really racy poster for Man with the Golden Arm, the foreign language ones for Robin and the Seven Joels.and of course I was well pleased with the one for Frank with my Doris in Young at Heart which is credited with bringing in the “saloon singer” phase of Sinatra’s career.
I also thought the first poster for Pal Joey was terrific. At a round table discussion about the production of the movie the subject of billing came up and apparently Sinatra although he had the title role said “Of course Rita should have top billing. This will be a Columbia picture and Rita Hayworth IS Columbia. Besides on the poster Rita’s name will be above mine and Kim’s will be immediately below and that’s a sandwich I’ll be delighted to be in the middle of!”
Unfortunately when I went to see that movie back in 1957 television was starting to hit audiences at the more local cinemas over here and so I sat almost alone in a massive auditorium viewing the film, which was rather eerie.
Fine STILLS my pick of which are the Pal Joey trio, solo of a very young Frankie , him with Debbie Reynolds in The Tender Trap “[You’re the best girl I’ve ever dated and you deserve an award. Come up to my flat. That’s where I keep the prizes!”] the trio from Robin and the Seven Hoods, Frank with your fave musical star in Anchors Aweigh, Ole Blue Eyes with Angie Dickinson, Frank with Bing and Grace, Frankie with Larry Harvey and the Guys and Dolls foursome..
Your Gene was originally down for the lead role of Sky Masterson in the latter film and when he bowed out Frankie wanted it and sulked when it went to Brando. Actually the part of Nathan Detroit which was played by Sinatra in the movie was performed in s stage version by Patrick Swayze in London and turned into the lead with Patrick billed alone above the title on posters all over London.
Overall a superb video EP profile of an all time acting and singing Great and worth a 98% rating to me. . You and Bruce agree on 5 of Frankie’s Top 6 with you including in your 6 Some came Running whereas he goes for Von Ryan. Both are excellent choices in my book.
Hey Bob….enjoyed reading your breakdown and thoughts on Steve’s latest expanded video. Interesting and informative comments….just the way I like them.