Want to know the best George Stevens movies? How about the worst George Stevens movies? Curious about George Stevens’s box office grosses or which George Stevens movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which George Stevens movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
George Stevens (1904-1975) was a two-time Oscar® winning American film director. Besides directing he was a popular screenwriter and cinematograper. His IMDb page shows over 200 credits from 1926 to 1999. This page will only be taking a look at the 25 full length directed George Stevens movies. Movies will be ranked from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. His short films and documentaries were not included in the rankings.
Drivel part of the page: So far we have written 172 actor pages, 82 actress pages and only 40 director pages. So seeing that we have done so few director pages…we figured it was time to do a page on another legendary director. This was actually a request many years ago…..just have since lost the name of the person that made the request. Still I hope who ever made this request is still visiting this website….because we finally have a George Stevens UMR page.
George Stevens 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 George Stevens movies by co-stars of his movies
- Sort George Stevens movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort George Stevens movies by adjusted worldwide box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort George Stevens 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 George Stevens movie received.
- Sort George Stevens 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 George Stevens Table
- Eleven George Stevens movie crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 44.00% of his movies listed. Giant (1956) was his biggest box office hit.
- An average George Stevens movie grosses $123.60 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 18 of George Stevens’s movies are rated as good movies…or 72.00% of his movies. Shane (1953) was his highest rated movie while The Only Game In Town (1953) was his lowest rated movie.
- Sixteen George Stevens movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 64.00% of his movies.
- Eight George Stevens movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 32.00% of his movies.
- An good Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score is 40.00. 15 George Stevens movie scored higher that average….or 60.00% of his movies. Giant (1956) got the the highest UMR Score while The Only Game In Town (1953)got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About George Stevens
1.George Stevens was born in Oakland, California in 1904.
2. George Stevens broke into the movie business as a cameraman, working on many Laurel and Hardy short films.
3. George Stevens won the Oscar® for Best Director twice: 1951’s A Place in the Sun and 1956’s Giant. Neither film won Best Picture, and both starred Elizabeth Taylor.
4. George Stevens and Ang Lee are the only directors to win the Oscar® for Best Director more than once without one of the films also winning Best Picture.
5. George Stevens and the casting decisions on 1956’s Giant. (1) Stevens wanted to cast fading star Alan Ladd, whom he’d previously cast in Shane (1953), as Jett Rink, but his wife advised against it. The role went to James Dean. (2) Stevens asked Rock Hudson whom he preferred as his leading lady, Grace Kelly or Elizabeth Taylor. Hudson picked Taylor, who was cast and ended up becoming lifelong friends with Hudson. (3) Clark Gable was considered for the Hudson role, but was rejected as too old by producer Jack L. Warner.
6. George Stevens’ Shane (1953) is considered one of the greatest Westerns ever made. The American Film Institute ranks as the 3rd best Western of all-time.
7. George Stevens directed 16 different actors in Oscar®-nominated performances: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Charles Coburn, Jean Arthur, Oskar Homolka, Irene Dunne, Barbara Bel Geddes, Ellen Corby, Montgomery Clift, Shelley Winters, Brandon De Wilde, Jack Palance, James Dean, Rock Hudson, Mercedes McCambridge and Ed Wynn. Coburn and Winters won Oscars® for their performances in one of Stevens’ movies.
8. George Stevens was married two times. He had one child.
9. George Stevens’ cumulative movie totals: Adjusted domestic box office: $2.82 billion. His movies received 65 Oscar® nominations….winning 14 times.
10. Check out George Stevens‘s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
If you do a comment….please ignore the email address and website section.
Only 24 films for George Stevens? I thought it’d be more.
One of the great Hollywood directors but looking at the list I’m surprised to find I’ve only seen 6 of his films. They are – Gunga Din & Shane (my two favorites from the list), Woman of the Year, Talk of the Town, Giant and The Greatest Story Ever Told.
I have A Place in the Sun in the collection but never got round to watching it. Other top rated films I’ve missed include – The More the Merrier,The Diary of Anne Frank and I Remember Mama (a 1970s horror movie was titled I Dismember Mama).
Shane is his greatest film despite what the UMR chart says, and one of the best westerns ever made. The classic battle between good and evil in it’s purest form and smiling Jack Palance was evil personified. The 1950s was the best ever decade for westerns.
The Greatest Story Ever Told was meant to be Stevens crowning achievement but the result was dull and plodding, it looks great though and Alfred Newman’s score was sublime. John Wayne of all people had a cameo as the centurion and gets to drawl… “Truly this maan… was the son of gaad” 🙂
Another winner Bruce. Voted Up!
I’ve had The Greatest Story Ever Told on my to-see list and it has been on several times and I’ve recorded it. But because my PVR is always nearly full, I still have not watched it despite the epic cast.
I think you’ll like it Flora, the star-studded cast includes Rock Hudson as Joseph, Doris Day in her famous role as Mary and Richard Widmark of course is John the Baptist.
I’m looking forward to the film. 🙂
For those of you reading this who don’t know that Steve and I joke on this site -Steve is being funny. Day, Hudson, and Widmark are all favourites of mine and are NOT in the film. HAHAAHAHAAHAHHAHA!
John the Baptist is played of course by the actor who played Moses and Ben Hur – Mr. epic movie himself – Mr. Charelton Heston.
Day and Widmark are about the only ones NOT in the cast. Having just watched Robert Ryan playing John The Bapist in The King of Kings….I can see Widmark as John too…..thanks for all the comments.
Hey Steve.
1. As always…thanks for the visit and the comment.
2. Tally count…Flora 14…me a close 12….and you 6.
3. I have only seen parts of The Greatest Story Every Told….but I just watched 1961’s King of Kings…which is pretty much the same story.
4. Place in the Sun is very good….with my favorite Clift role….watching he try and get rid of Shelley Winters when Elizabeth Taylor arrives in his life. A stunning movie for 1951…..movie heroes did not normally act that way.
5. Shane did well on the UMR chart….Stevens’ 2nd Oscar gave him the edge…but both are among the highest ranked movie in our database.
6. Being a Wayne fan….I have seen the clip of him saying that line….but have yet to see the movie….so I am sure I will get the depth he speaks those words…when it is surround by hours of the movie.
As always….thanks for the input.
Hi
When he was filming Alice Adams, him and Hepburn fought over a particular scene. But eventually she came to respect him and realised what a talent he was. She chose him over George Cukor for Woman of the year. I recently watched it and thought it started off very well but sort of died a death towards the end.
I’ve yet to see it but I’m making a point of seeing More the Merrier, as it looks quite good. I’ve already stated how I feel about Shane and Place in the Sun.
Giant is another one I missed but is on the list to see in the future.
He was undoubtedly a very talented director. He must have been very fond of Cary Grant and Elizabeth Taylor.
Great page, what;s coming next.
Ps. Ever think of doing one of the great studio heads, like Warner, Louis B Mayer, Sam Goldwyn. Although I realise some were producers and some were overall heads of studios so it might be difficult, but it’s just a thought. Thanks anyway.
The More the Merrier is a lot of fun. It is one of my favourite comedies.
Glad you enjoy The More The Merrier so much. Charles Coburn is excellent in that one….Oscar winning excellent.
Hey Chris.
1. Interesting about Great Kate and George having issues with their first movie together.
2. At that point in time…he was an up and coming director…while she was already an Oscar winner…I imagine that might cause them to butt heads.
3. I liked More The Merrier….but I watch Cary Grant’s version more often…as I am a huge Cary Grant fan.
4. I am literally stunned that you have not seen Giant….I would have guessed that if you had only seen one of these movies…Giant would have been the one you would have seen.
5. Giant is worth seeing…but I actually found it very slowly paced….and I did not buy James Dean as an old man……he looked like an actor in bad makeup. Taylor was stunning though.
6. I think he got along with Grant, Fontaine, Taylor, Hepburn and Jean Arthur a lot…..and they made some great movies together.
7. Next on the classic side is Laurent’s request of Josef von Sternberg……and on the current side is Michael J. Fox.
8. I think Goldwyn is already on the request list…Warner and Mayer not until now…..those pages would be massive….though recently I was looking at my massive MGM book and thought I should get all of the movies in the box listed with domestic and worldwide box office….that would a close to 1000 movie page.
Hi, Bruce.
I love George Stevens movies. Glad to see another page on a director.
The highest ranking movie I have seen is #1: Giant.
The lowest ranking movie I have seen is #18: Annie Oakley.
The film I saw for the first time the most recently is #15: Vigil in the Night. Great film.
The highest ranking film I have not seen is #10: The Diary of Anne frank. I’m not sure when I will see this.
Altogether I have seen 14 George Stevens movies.
Thought I would make a separate reply of my favourite 5 movies of George Stevens :
1. Giant
2.Gunga Din
3. Shane
4. A Place in the Sun
5. The More the Merrier.
I have seen and liked all of your Top 5….with Gunga Din, Shane and A Place In The Sun the best….The More the Merrier is good…but if I want to see that story I always go back to Cary Grant’s swan song Walk Don’t Run….which was the remake 20 some years later. Thanks for the comment and the visit.
Hey Flora….I had one of my old notebooks out and saw a list of requests from Hub Pages….and George Stevens was the only one not done….I could not make out the requestee…..and can not remember…so far nobody is claiming Mr. Stevens.
Tallly count: Flora 14…me 12 (pretty close) and Steve 6. So the win goes to Flora and Canada….OH CAAANNNNAAAADDDDDAAAAAA
Well if you liked this director….then you might like the next two subjects…Michael J. will be the next current person and Josef von Sternberg will be the next classic page.
Hooray! Canadian radar! 🙂 Love Mike.
I am surrounded by Canadians…..lol.
Hi Bruce,
Shane was one of the favorite western of my father. I also think it’s a great western. It’s a good idea to make a page about directors. I really like directors. I also want to reapply you a page on Joseph Von Sternbeg.
Hey laurent. Shane is a classic for sure. My dad liked that one too….not enough to crack his Top 5…but probably in his Top 10. We have done directors in the past….just not too often. You will be happy to know that Joseph Von Sternberg will be the next classic page we do….I am done to researching 4 of his silent movies….one was hit and the other three were disappointments. Then I will be ready to publish his page. Should be ready by tomorrow or Wednesday at the latest.
🙂 Yes! another director!
When I read that Laurent was “reappying” for von Sternberg….I actually realized I already had most of the movies done….so I figure I needed to make the people of France happy and honor their request.
One of the great ones. Seems he is the one that gets left off when people are talking about the great directors of all time. My favorites are the top three in your table. Love Giant. Love Shane and Love A Place In The Sun. Like This One.
Hey Helakoski….glad you liked our George Stevens page. I agree with you….he does not get mentioned too often when great directors are mentioned. Glad our UMR Score picked up your Top 3 movies. Thanks for the visit.