Want to know the best Fredric March movies? How about the worst Fredric March movies? Curious about Fredric March box office grosses or which Fredric March movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Fredric March 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.
Fredric March (1897-1975) was an American 2-time Oscar® winning actor. March had great success in movies and on the stage. His IMDb page shows 86 acting credits from 1921-1973. This page will rank 52 Fredric March movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, cameos and movies that were not released in theaters were not included in the rankings.
Drivel part of the page: Between 1929 and 1933 Fredric March made an incredible 26 movies. Sadly we were only able to find box office information on 7 of those movies. Which means we are missing 19 Fredric March movies. Even sadder is the fact that those numbers will probably never be known. We blame Paramount Pictures. On the good side of things we have every March movie made from 1934 to 1973 included in the page. This Fredric March page was requested by Chris and John.
Fredric March 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 Fredric March movies by co-stars of his movies.
- Sort Fredric March movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Fredric March movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Fredric March 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 Fredric March movie received and how many Oscar® wins each Fredric March movie won.
- Sort Fredric March 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 Fredric March Table
- Twenty Fredric March movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 38.46% of his movies listed. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) was easily his biggest box office hit when looking at adjusted domestic box office gross.
- An average Fredric March movie grosses $102.50 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 39 of Fredric March movies are rated as good movies…or 75.00% of his movies. Seven Days in May (1964) is his highest rated movie while Anthony Adverse (1936) was his lowest rated movie.
- Twenty-one Fredric March movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 40.38% of his movies.
- Six Fredric March movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 11.53% of his movies.
- An average Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 40.00. 35 Fredric March movies scored higher than that average….or 67.30% of his movies. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) got the the highest UMR Score while It’s A Big Country (1951) got the lowest UMR Score.
Ten Possibly Interesting Facts About Fredric March
1. Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel was born in Racine, Wisconsin in 1897.
2. So how did Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel become Fredric March? He took shorten versions of his own Fredrick name and his mother’s maiden name (Marcher) and put them together to make his screen name.
3. Fredric March was an artillery lieutenant in the U.S. Army during World War I.
4. Fredric March’s break through movie was 1931’s The Royal Family of Broadway. He received a Best Actor Oscar® nomination for that role….which was based on actor John Barrymore.
5. Fredric March received 5 Oscar® nominations and 3 Golden Globe® nominations in his career. He won 2 Oscars® and 1 Golden Globe®.
6. Fredric March is the only actor to win 2 Oscars® and 2 Tony® awards.
7. Fredric March was married twice…..he had two children.
8. Fredric March was the acting idol of both William Holden and Marlon Brando. In a 1955 poll, March was voted as the Best Film Actor by a two to one margin.
9. Fredric March spent 3 weeks in a hospital after wrapping up 1932’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The extensive makeup almost caused permanent damage.
10. Fredric March’s favorite personal film was 1946’s The Best Years Of Our Lives….and he has requested that film historian, Steve Lensman, should watch that one.
Check out Fredric March’s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
And finally…..we have adjusted Worldwide Box Office Grosses on 10 Fredric March Movies
- The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944) $199.50 adjusted worldwide box office
- Anna Karenina (1935) $230.80 adjusted worldwide box office
- Anthony Adverse (1936) $309.40 adjusted worldwide box office
- The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934) $245.70 adjusted worldwide box office
- Executive Suite (1954) $187.40 adjusted worldwide box office
- Inherit the Wind (1960) $69.80 adjusted worldwide box office
- It’s A Big Country (1951) $31.30 adjusted worldwide box office
- Mary of Scotland (1936) $143.90 adjusted worldwide box office
- Susan and God (1940) $94.30 adjusted worldwide box office
- Trade Winds (1938) $169.10 adjusted worldwide box office
Academy Award®, Tony® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.
For comments….all you need is a name and a comment….please ignore the rest.
Fredric March was TCM’s Star of the Month. As a result, my total number of Fredric March movies seen rose to 30 movies. I notice that in my original comment, I only mentioned my total and my favourite movie being The Best Years Of Our Lives. I wonder when I started to use the style of comment I make when I’ve seen more than 6 titles (eg. Highest rated seen. not seen, lowest rated seen).
I meant to say that Fredric March was Star of the Month for March. I couldn’t fix that omission.
Hey Flora…the edit comment button is back….not earlier enough to help this comment….but it will be here for the next comment….I hope…at least.
Hey Flora…I went and looked at your previous comments…and your tally has risen greatly over the last 27 months…from 14 to 30. I however, have only gone from 11 to 12. Not sure when you changed your comment format…..but it has been awhile. Best Years of Our Lives is one of the highest rated movies in our database…a classic movie for sure…..one day, Steve (he has never seen it), will now what we are talking about…lol.
1 STEVE Thanks for the additional; comments and information. Lensman-related thoughts seem to come into my mind a lot these days because last night I watched Chuck’s 1970 Julius Caesar. This was an English language version but I think you told me that there was a 1953 version that required sub titles for people to be able to follow the dialogue. Actually it seems that just about everybody on this site wants to have a go at the 1953 one for the site’s Creator at a stroke reduced its adjusted box office from around $120 to 86 million
3 WH doesn’t seem to have picked up on Chuck’s 1970 offering but Chuck did a 1950 version as well and WH gives it a high 79.5% marking for critic/audience though abysmal box office. No doubt if say Sir Maurice had made two versions of Julius Caesar both would have been included in Cogerson though WH has been otherwise exceptionally generous to Chuck listing Heston as a co-star on his own site and in one of his own movies the 1977 Crossed Swords. The Heston 1970 Caesar version is regarded in as way as a ‘morbid’ collector’s item because Jason Robards as Brutus apparently was completely real-life drunk in all of his scenes. Jason was a self-confessed alcoholic at one time but gave up the drink though I am not sure if he stayed on the wagon permanently, Chuck is one of the probably few people to have appeared in the same movie as each of 3 of your country’s most celebrated actor knights Sir John Gielgud [as Caesar] in the 1970 movie and with both Sir Ralph Richardson Sir Laurence [ultimately Lord] Olivier in the 1966 Khartoum. Do I get 9/10 for a good effort here Dan ?though no doubt you could take it much further.
1 Three things that Dan could tell us that March and OldCantankerous had in common was both were double Oscar winners, both were in Inherit the Wind, both played Dr Jekyll and both played Mr Hyde. Sorry that’s 4 things! Unfortunately on the negative side of the balance sheet they are almost unique in standing together as two of the stars of any importance whatsoever whom Myrna Loy got billed above [Cantank in the 1938 Test Pilot and Fred in Best Years of Our Lives] though to be fair to Old C he was still on his way up and had not yet secured that top billing contract which he signed in 1940. Of course Freddy never quite made the Legends category in which Old C ended up.
2 The quality of the artwork was virtually even throughout but my purely personal pick were Chris Columbus, Crawford/March in Susan and God, The Buccaneer, Sign of the Cross, The Desperate Hours and the stunning one [and the still] from Jekyll & Hyde. Also deserving highlighting was the first of the two posters from Anna Karenina which was simply sumptuous. I loved too the stills from Eagle and the Hawk with March and Lombard and Lake and Freddy in I Married a Witch. I mentioned previously that Lake claims she had to ask the director to interrupt the shooting of Witch because in a scene where Fred sat by her bedside his hands were out of sight of the camera and he stated to get fresh with her.
3 You and the Work Horse agree on 4 of Fred’s Top 5 but my favourite March movies were 7 Days in May, Executive Suite and Hombre and although all do well in your video you surprisingly have 7 Days in May in a relatively low 9th place whereas it is the No 1 critic/audience rating of WH so that in a sense in the end Fred was billed above Myrna because Beast Years of Our Lives was just Bruce’s No 2 [“Et tu Bruceus?”] Naturally I commend him on his excellent taste on this occasion! Overall though the artwork in this video was magical and deserving 9.5/10 Well done again
STEVE
Apologies I should have highlighted previous post was meant primarily for you.
Hi Bob, thanks for the review, rating, trivia, comaprison and billing info!
Seven Days in May is one of my favorites, I love that final meeting between March and Lancaster, but that’s as high as I could take it. Bruce’s critics were a lot more generous towards it.
Seems that few films can best the Myrna Loy epic The Best Years of Our Lives. But wait…I’m almost sure I had that film in second place recently but can’t remember which video, maybe I’m confusing my charts with Bruces.
March’s Jekyll and Hyde is a big favorite of mine as you might have guessed but have to confess to a preference for the Spencer Tracy version, it’s my personal favorite Jekyll and Hyde movie. I love the MGM production values on that plus you have Tracy, Bergman, Turner, Hunter and Crisp, and an excellent music score by Franz Waxman. Okay the makeup is a lot more subtle than March’s neanderthal Hyde.
I Married a Witch is another favorite of mine, I’ve watched that quite a few times too. Can you blame March and his ‘wandering’ hands? But from what I’ve read Veronica Lake was tiny, they try to make her a bit taller in the movies but even Alan Ladd towered over her. 🙂
Years ago I went to the library at Lincoln Center, which is dedicated to Theater, music, film, ballet and television which had every TV guide for New York published. Variety listed annually back then all the movie ratings for network TV for the previous season, all reruns, 3rd runs, made for TV films etc. TV Guide in New York through May 1968 listed under a film when it was making it’s New York television debut. Occasionally they’d show Hartford or New Haven also. I just wrote down every NY film debut that I found. After May 1968 an ad for a film might say N.Y. premiere. I even bought from E-Bay some of the old catalogs when the studios were first selling their pictures toTV. Those don’t list dates because every market is different and this is basically to get a TV station to air them. I have some Universal, some Screen Gems (Columbia and some Universal), 7-Arts (some Fox and Warner Bros) and the first Warner one, 13 packages of 58 films each for 1956. Each package has 4 films that can’t be shown till 1957 (Casablanca, Adventures of Robin Hood etc). I had an old movie book where I listed all the dates beside combined fom the sources, maybe 7800 films but the book was falling apart so I had to toss it. There are others not on that list I pulled from because they debuted in under 5 years (most network from 1965 on) and some local. Think March in Hombre or tick…tick…tick.
Hey Dan…..great comment…..I can not believe you threw away that old movie book….I keep all of my old movie books…..no matter how many times my wife says I need to condense my collection. I have a Danny Peary Cult Movie book…Volume 2 that is missing over half the pages….but it still sits in my book case.
That is great information on how your wrote down the premiere dates….I think the old catalogs would be a blast to read….back in my video store days the studios would send out this awesome looking pre-sale sheets that gave lots of information on the movie…..as they tried to get stores to buy more copies. Back then, I was a huge Judd Nelson fan….and I got my hands on the Blue City sheet….that was a prized possession for a decent amount of time. I remember one of the reviews of that movie was….”It seems to be edited with a chainsaw”….I was such a Nelson fan….I tried to figure out a way to make that sound not so bad……but as the years have passed….I have come to believe that the movie truly was edited by a chainsaw….sorry I just went off topic.
Anyway…fascinating bits of trivia and knowledge on movies and there television debuts…thanks for sharing the information…it is greatly appreciated.
I have some of the old film rental guides, from say 1954 to 1982 where you could rent films for schools and private screenings and certain companies represented a lot. One had all the MGM’s, Paramount, American International, RKO, Fox and New World. The United Artists catalog had all the United Artists films plus all pre 1949 Warner Brothers. I have ones for the U.K. including a Rank catalog and one for Universal who also represented Paramount in the U.K. Actually I think the two companies were combined overseas for all distribution. These catalogs would start with their biggest hits say Star Wars, Grease, Rocky movies and as you went through the books the films would get weirder. Some represent 2000 or so films. They would all list the rental rates say from 50% of the take to $200 down to $5! These would be all for one showing based on the expected audience.
Hey Dan…..interesting information. I was not aware you could rent the movies. That seems like a difficult way for a studio to earn $5 on an older movie. I imagine the home entertainment killed that market. Those film rental guides are probably a lot of fun to flip through and read. Cool stuff.
These are the only actors on the current Oracle of Bacon top 1000 Center of the Hollywood Universe list who have worked with Frederic March.
Tick…tick…tick (1970) – 313 George Kennedy
Alexander the Great (1956) – 767 Robert Rietty
Executive Suite (1954) – 781 Shelley Winters
The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954) – 245 Mickey Rooney, 622 Ralph Moratz
The Buccaneer (1938) – 681 Anthony Quinn
The Young Doctors (1961) – 194 Ben Gazzara, 427 George Segal
I count 41 Oscar winners for Fred;
Tick…tick…tick (1970) – George Kennedy
A Star is Born (1937) – Janet Gaynor
All of Me (1934) – Thomas Mitchell
An Act of Murder (1948) – Edmond O’Brien
Another Part of the Forest (1948) – Edmond O’Brien
Anthony Adverse (1936) – Olivia De Havilland, Edmund Gwenn, Gale Sondergaard
Bedtime Story (1941) – Loretta Young
Design for Living (1933) – Gary Cooper, Jane Darwell
Executive Suite (1954) – Shelley Winters, William Holden
Good Dame (1934) – Walter Brennan
Hombre (1967) – Paul Newman, Martin Balsam
Honor Among Lovers (1931) – Claudette Colbert, Ginger Rogers
I Married a Witch (1942) – Susan Hayward
Inherit the Wind (1960) – Spencer Tracy
It’s a Big Country (1951) – Ethel Barrymore, Gary Cooper
Ladies Love Brutes (1930_- Mary Astor
Les Miserables (1935) – Charles Laughton
Make Me a Star (1932) – Claudette Colbert, Gary Cooper
Man on a Tightrope (1953) – Gloria Grahame
Manslaughter (1930) – Claudette Colbert
Mary of Scotland (1936) – Donald Crisp, Katherine Hepburn
Middle of the Night (1959) – Martin Balsam, Lee Grant
Nothing Sacred (1937) – Hattie McDaniel
One Foot in Heaven (1941) – Gig Young
Paramount on Parade (1930) – Gary Cooper
Seven Days in May (1964) – Martin Balsam, Burt Lancaster, Edmond O’Brien
Smilin’ Through (1932) – Norma Shearer
The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934) – Charles Laughton, Norma Shearer
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) – Harold Russell, Teresa Wright
The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954) – William Holden, Grace Kelly
The Buccaneer (1938) – Anthony Quinn, Walter Brennan
The Desperate Hours (1955) – Gig Young, Humphrey Bogart
The Devil (1921) – George Arliss
The Iceman Cometh (1973) – Lee Marvin, Jeff Bridges
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956) – Gregory Peck, Jennifer Jones
The Road to Glory (1936) – Lionel Barrymore, Warner Baxter
The Sign of the Cross (1932) – Charles Laughton, Claudette Colbert
Tonight is Ours (1933) – Claudette Colbert
Trade Winds (1938) – Thomas Mitchell
Fred appeared with the Oscar winner from the first Academy awards in 1927 for best actress, Janet Gaynor and he appeared with the best actor winner of 2009, Jeff Bridges, a gap of 82 years!
One of the pictures not on your list, 1930’s Laughter, I saw on a double bill at a revival house with 1930’s Honey. Both pictures starred Nancy Carroll. This may have been at Theatre 80 on St. Mark’s Place in Manhattan say 35 years ago.
Select Fredric March film TV debuts on broadcast television in New York City (films that took 5 years or longer to debut). Local or L means the films debuted different times, channels, months or years in other cities. Network or N the film is debuting everywhere at the same time and date. Again local is New York City only.
Best Years of Our Lives (1946) – July 4, 1965 WCBS (local)
Sign of the Cross (1932) – Sep. 30, 1962 WCBS Channel 2 (local)
Bridges at Toko-Ri (1955) – Sep. 14, 1965 NBC (network)
Anthony Adverse (1936) – Nov 27, 1959 WCBS (local)
Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956) – Sep. 6, 1964 – WCBS (local)
Adventures of Mark Twain (1944) – Apr. 21, 1961 WCBS (local)
Executive Suite (1954) – Sep. 30, 1963 – NBC (network)
Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934) – May 10, 1960 WCBS (L)
Desperate Hours (1955) – Nov. 6, 1965 WNBC (N)
Road to Glory (1936) – Mar. 8, 1959 – WNBC (L)
Alexander the Great (1956) – Feb. 8, 1964 – WCBS (L)
Dark Angel (1935) – Aug 16, 1966 WCBS (L)
Royal Family of Broadway (1930) – Dec. 19, 1960 WCBS (L)
Affairs of Cellini (1934) – Mar. 7, 1963 WCBS (L)
Death Takes a Holiday (1934) – Feb. 2, 1960 WCBS (L)
Anna Karenina (1935) – Jan 28, 1960 WCBS (L)
Eagle and the Hawk (1933) – May 30, 1960 WCBS (L)
Susan and God (1940) – Aug 22, 1963 WCBS (L)
Christopher Columbus (1949) – Oct. 12, 1956 WCBS (L)
Middle of the Night (1959) – Sep. 4, 1966 WCBS (L)
Death of a Salesman (1951) – Feb 25, 1961 WCBS (L)
Act of Murder (1948) – Jun 17, 1960 WCBS (L)
Another Part of the Forest (1948) – Jun 16, 1962 WCBS (L)
Man on a Tightrope (1953) – Dec. 9, 1961 WNBC (N)
Good Dame (1934) – Sep 17, 1962 WCBS (L)
It’s a Big Country (1951) – July 3, 1962 WOR (Channel 9 L)
New York had 7 broadcast channels then, 3 network affiliates, WCBS (channel 2), WNBC (channel 4) and WABC (channel 7). There were 4 independents, WNEW (channel 5), WOR (channel 9), WPIX (channel 11) and WNTA (channel 13), now WNET (it’s call letters now as a PBS station) but it was independent till early 1962. Channel 2 WCBS debuted over half the movies that debuted on the local side. They had the pre 1949 libraries of MGM, Warners and Paramount. They had stuff from the other studios also. Channel 9 WOR was an RKO station and had the rights to all RKO films forever unless it was Disney or Goldwyn. Paramount pictures started coming to TV in 1959 after Paramount tried back then to do pay TV. Goldwyn pictures were the last fairly good batch released to TV starting in 1965. WNTA tried to become a Fox Network in 1957. Fox sold NBC a number of films starting Saturday Night at the Movies in 1961. But they tried the same a year earlier on WNTA with All About Eve being their first premiere. In New York when WNBC network debuted How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) in 1961the local part of the station on the 11:30 movie at night debuted East of Eden (1955).
I don’t know why the comment is appearing twice.
Hey Dan…I fixed that issue.
Hey Dan…List 1….good to see George Segal on the list….I have thought he might make a good UMR subject…he had a pretty good run as a leading man….and heck even 50 years later he is still appearing in movies. Seems Jeff Bridges should be on that list…he is a March co-star and he has been making movies for 50 years….he just got a Golden Globe nomination today….pretty sure he was the only March co-star to do that today….lol.
List 2….41 fellow Oscar winners seems about average…..still almost one Oscar winner per movie. Colbert keeps popping up on that list…not thinking I realized they made that many movies together….granted a couple of them were Paramount star movies.
It is very frustrating that there are so many movies missing on this page….interesting double feature on two movies that do not have much press….as I have never heard of those movies….cool that you have a good memory of seeing them.
List 3: I liked looking at the time gaps of those movies….this of course begs the question how do you have this information? I have one book that lists the Top 50 viewed movies on network television as of December 1976….some interesting to me facts….Gone With the Wind two parts #1 and #2…The Wizard of Oz has 7 spots on the Top 50….John Wayne’s McLintock sits in 29th place. Five Branded Women (never heard of this one) is 43rd. Other two parters in the Top 50 include The Great Escape (28th & 30th), The Godfather (13th & 5th) and The Ten Commandments (22nd & 35th).
Last section: Interesting look at how New York did their television stations. We (Virginia) had NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS and one UHF channel…..later we got a second UHF channel. Great comment.