Fred MacMurray Movies

fred 11111Want to know the best Fred MacMurray movies?  How about the worst Fred MacMurray movies?  Curious about Fred MacMurray’s box office grosses or which Fred MacMurray movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Fred MacMurray movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.

Fred MacMurray (1908-1991) was an American actor who appeared in more than 80 movies.  MacMurray also gained famed for playing Steve Douglas on the popular television show, My Three Sons, from 1960 to 1972.  His IMDb page shows 98 acting credits from 1929-1978. This page will rank 76 MacMurray movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Cameos, shorts and television appearances were not included in the rankings.

Drivel part of the page:  Seems I have been aware of Fred MacMurray most of my life.  Growing up it seemed that he was always on television.  During the week…  I would watch My Three Sons reruns three or four times a week.  Back then the highlight of the week (we only had 5 channels back then kids) was the Disney Movie Of The Week on Sunday nights.  Often one of MacMurray’s Disney movies would be the movie shown.   It took many years for me to realize that MacMurray actually had a massive movie career that had nothing to do with Disney or My Three Sons. Well this page (requested by Flora) is going to look at his entire movie career.

Barbara Stanwyck & Fred MacMurray in 1944's Double Indemnity
Barbara Stanwyck & Fred MacMurray in 1944’s Double Indemnity

Fred MacMurray 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 Fred MacMurray movies by co-stars of his movies
  • Sort Fred MacMurray movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Fred MacMurray movies by yearly domestic box office rank or trivia
  • Sort Fred MacMurray 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 Fred MacMurray movie received.
  • Sort Fred MacMurray 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 Fred MacMurray Table

  1. Twenty-five Fred MacMurray movie crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark.  That is a percentage of 32.89% of his movies listed. The Caine Mutiny (1954) is his biggest box office hit.
  2. An average Fred MacMurray movie grosses $105.60 million in adjusted box office gross.
  3. Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter.  43 of Fred MacMurray’s movies are rated as good movies…or 56.57% of her movies.  Double Indemnity (1944) is his highest rated movie while The Swarm (1978) is his lowest rated movie.
  4. Twenty Fred MacMurray movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 26.31% of his movies.
  5. One Fred MacMurray movie won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 1.31% of her movies.
  6. An average Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score is 40.00.  42 Fred MacMurray movie scored higher that average….or 55.26% of his movies. Double Indemnity (1944) got the the highest UMR Score while An Innocent Affair (1948) got the lowest UMR Score.
Fred MacMurray in 1961's The Absent Minded Professor
Fred MacMurray in 1961’s The Absent Minded Professor

Possibly Interesting Facts About Fred MacMurray

1. Frederick Martin MacMurray was born in Kankakee, Illinois.

2. Fred MacMurray was a very talented musician.  Before acting he was in numerous bands….his specialty was playing the saxophone.

3. Fred MacMurray was the first person to be named a Disney Legend…this occurred in 1987.

4. Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert starred in 7 movies together.  Their movie partnership was one of the most successful in the history of movies.  Their seven movies grossed over $948 million in adjusted box office gross.

5.  Fred MacMurray was married twice. He and Lillian Lamont were married from 1936 to 1953…they had two children.  From 1954 until his death in 1991 he was married to actress, June Haver…..they also had two children.  John Wayne is the person that introduced MacMurray and Haver.

6. Fred MacMurray most famous role is in 1944’s Double Indemnity.  He Initially turned down his most the role because he didn’t think his fans would want to see him playing a darker character.

7. Fred MacMurray starred in 4 movies that received a Best Picture Oscar® nomination: 1935’s Alice Adams, 1944’s Double Indemnity, 1954’s The Caine Mutiny and 1960’s The Apartment.  The Apartment won.

8. Fred MacMurray never received an Oscar® nomination…but did receive a Golden Globe Best Actor nomination for 1961’s The Absent Minded Professor.

9.  Fred MacMurray’s movies grossed over $7.59 billion in adjusted domestic box office.  His movies earned 48 Oscar® nominations….winning 5 times.

10.  Check out Fred MacMurray‘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. 

If you do a comment….please ignore the email address and website section.

Final notes:  Two things to cover.  (1) There are a few MacMurray movies not ranked.  They were  from his very very early Paramount days.  (2) Some of the box office numbers on the MacMurray massive table are from an internet source that no longer exists.  Not sure how accurate the numbers are…but it was a choice between using these numbers or to exclude the movies from the table.  I discovered the website about 3 or 4 years ago…and wrote down all of the box office numbers they had.  Sadly that website has gone to internet heaven….and I never found out where they were getting their numbers.  A blown opportunity.

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40 thoughts on “Fred MacMurray Movies”

  1. Hi

    I always liked MacMurray and like a lot of people from my generation, it was through Disney. Films like The Absent Minded Professor and The Happy Millionaire. I remember him singing the song, I was bit by an alligator. He had a very affable personality, which suited his Disney roles perfectly and his successful sitcom.
    In the 30s and 40s, he was a perfect leading man to some of the great females of the screen, especially in comedies. But he went up a total different level as Walter Neff in Double Indemnity. Billy Wilder clearly seen something beyond all that easy go lucky charm, that there was truly a dark side. I cant believe that he didn’t get a nomination. I suppose Paramount were pushing for Crosby that year, but with all due respect to Crosby, there’s no way you can compare the performance of Father O’Malley to that of Walter Neff. I love the scene at the end where he goes to kill Stanwyck, you hear the music from the street being played, while he doesn’t realise that she is trying to kill him as well and they end up killing each other.
    “It’s straight down the line and the last stop’s the cemetery.”
    He never did anything as great, I’m surprised no other great directors like Hitchcock, took him on.

    Reply

    1. Hey Chris
      1. Glad to know I am not the only one with the same memories on Mr. MacMurray.
      2. I remember that song well…I used to sing it too….which is bad because I can not sing at all…lol.
      3. His list of co-stars in the 1930s and 1940s is impressive…Lombard, Hepburn, Colbert, Stanwyck…and other than Hepburn he made at least 4 movies with each of them.
      4. It is a shame that he did not get recognized for Double Indmenity….you might be right that Paramount got behind Crosby so much they forgot about Fred.
      5. I think he and Hitch would have been a good team…I can easily see MacMurray in Dial M For Murder or The Trouble With Harry.
      As always thanks for sharing your thoughts on movies.

      Reply

  2. I suppose like many people I first knew Fred MacMurray thru his Walt Disney films of the 60s, later I started watching him in more dramatic roles.

    I wasn’t expecting so many films on the list and I’ve only seen 10 of them, well he wasn’t appearing in many films that appealed to me, that’s my excuse. 🙂 There must have been more especially the Disney films but I can’t remember them.

    Movies I’ve seen include – Double Indemnity, The Caine Mutiny, The Swarm, Dive Bomber, Absent Minded Professor and Son of Flubber.

    Chart topping films I’ve missed include – The Egg and I, Smoky, Follow Me Boys, Woman’s World and Remember the Night.

    I’m not the biggest MacMurray fan obviously but he did make some interesting films. Voted Up!

    Reply

    1. Hey Steve. Good to see we have the same memories of MacMurray. He was the Disney guy and My Three Sons guy for most of my childhood. I still remember the first time I saw The Caine Mutiny….I was stunned that he was pretty much the bad guy in the movie. I actually saw that before I saw he in Double Indemnity. Another memory we share…is how the Disney movies have merged into one movie…that makes it hard to separate which ones we have seen and which ones we missed.

      Flora 30 Steve 10 me 9….even combined…we still almost get doubled by Flora. The Egg and I was ok. I liked Follow Me Boys…primarily because it has a young Kurt Russell . I want to see Remember the Night as well. As always thanks for stopping by and sharing your movie knowledge.

      Reply

      1. I always wondered, why is it called ‘The Egg and I’? Such an odd title, does he go on adventures with an egg in his pocket? 😉 Yes FM wasn’t very nice in The Michael Caine Mutiny, to give it it’s full title. A strange film I actually felt sorry for Bogie in that one, he definitely had problems. Talking of Caine, who can forget that much loved Irwin Allen classic The Swarm? I haven’t.

        Reply

        1. The Egg and I….is about a successful business man who gives it all up to raise chickens and their eggs. The movie had Ma and Pa Kettle as supporting characters….who became huge based on their work here. I like it The Michael Caine Mutiny….which is how Caine picked his last name. He was on the phone as they were talking about a name change for his career. The Caine Mutiny could be seen on a theater marque from his phone….and the rest is history. Fred went out with a bang…as The Swarm was disaster movie…in more ways than one.

          Reply

  3. What I meant by proper I meant long …

    I am a big fan of Fred and I was able to cross off a lot of to-see films of his and of his two favourite leading ladies – Colbert and Lombard – due to his recent Star of the month on TCM.

    There are still a lot I am missing.

    Looking over your list, I have seen 30 movies.

    I won’t go through my seen films by tens.

    I will say that ther eare still some recorded movies from the Star of the Month look at him which are PVR-recorded that I have not seen.

    A couple of movies of these were deleted before I got a chance to see them.

    Miracle of the Bells was not available in Canada on TCM, but I understand that it is available – or was – online for a while.

    Basically, I have seen a large number of the top movies, and then ther are a lot of movies in the middle I am missing, and then I have seen more near the bottom.

    I have now seen all four of the movies he made with Stanwyck.

    Fred is to me very underrated. He was adaptable. He could do comedy, drama, noir, western – pretty much everything.

    The most recently seen for the first time movie sof his for me were Callaway Went Thataway- Very funny – and Woman’s World which I discussed on lauren Bacall’s page.

    My favourite movie is Double Indemnity.

    My favourite war drama is The Caine Mutiny.

    My favourite comedy I cannot decide.

    My favourite western changes over time.

    Cheers,

    Flora

    Reply

    1. Hey Flora.
      1. Tally count….Flora 30 Steve 10 me 9….wow I thought I was going to get second place…but came up a little short
      2. Glad his TCM Star of the Month helped you see so many of his movies
      3. I have seen 6 of his top 9…then I fall off a cliff…as I have only seen 3 of the last 66 movies
      4. I agree he was able to do many different types of movies
      5. I also really enjoyed Double Indemntiy and the Caine Mutiny…. I like how his character gets called out at the end of Caine.
      6. Glad you liked your requested “Fred” page.
      Probably will never be able to find the missing Fred movies….once again Paramount strikes again

      Reply

  4. Hi, Bruce!

    Thanks for my requested page of Fred.

    I will take a more detailed look at the page and which of his films I have seen either later tonight or tomorrow, and give you a proper comment when I can spend more time at it.

    I love Fred’s career.

    Flora

    Reply

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