Want to know the best Hedy Lamarr movies? How about the worst Hedy Lamarr movies? Curious about Hedy Lamarr box office grosses or which Hedy Lamarr movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Hedy Lamarr 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.
Hedy Lamarr (1914-2000) was an Austrian and American film actress and inventor. She was one of the most popular actresses making movies from the 1930s to the early 1950s. Her IMDb page shows 35 acting credits from 1930-1958. This page will rank 26 Hedy Lamarr movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Her early German movies and her few television appearances were not included in the rankings. This UMR page comes from a request by Bob.
Hedy Lamarr Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Hedy Lamarr 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 Hedy Lamarr films by co-stars of her movies
- Sort Hedy Lamarr films by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Hedy Lamarr films by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Hedy Lamarr films by 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 Hedy Lamarr film received.
- Sort Hedy Lamarr films by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score. UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Hedy Lamarr
- Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler was born in Vienna in 1913.
2. In the early 1930s, Hedy Kiesler began to work in the Vienna film industry, first as a script girl, and soon as an actress. She would appear in 4 movies with 1933’s Ecstasy reaching North American theaters.
3. In London 1937, Hedy Kiesler met Louis B. Mayer, who was scouting for talent in Europe. Mayer persuaded her to change her name to Hedy Lamarr, choosing the surname in homage to the beautiful silent film star, Barbara La Marr. He brought her to Hollywood in 1938 and began promoting her as the “world’s most beautiful woman”.
4. Louis B. Mayer brought Hedy Lamarr to Hollywood in 1938 and began promoting her as the “world’s most beautiful woman”. Mayer had hoped he had found the next Greta Garbo or Marlene Dietrich.
5. Hedy Lamarr was married six times. She had three children.
6. Hedy Lamarr owned the mansion used in 1965’s The Sound of Music.
7. Hedy Lamarr was the inspiration for the DC Comics antiheroine and Batman’s love interest, Catwoman.
8. Hedy Lamarr was one of the few stars with whom costume designer Edith Head admitted she did not like working. The others were Claudette Colbert and Paulette Goddard.
9. Hedy Lamarr is a member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Some of her inventions included an improved traffic light and a frequency-hopping signal that could not be tracked or jammed. The United States Navy started using this technology in 1962.
10. Hedy Lamarr’s movies from 1940 to 1949 earned $2.82 billion in adjusted domestic gross. That puts her in 37th place when looking at all the stars of that decade. 1940’s Top Box Office Stars.
Check out Hedy Lamarr’s movie career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
But Wait….We Have More Hedy Lamarr Stats….Worldwide Adjusted Box Office Grosses
- Boom Town (1940) $511.50 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Ziegfeld Girl (1941) $300.70 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- White Cargo (1942) $220.40 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Her Highness and the Bellboy (1945) $219.00 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Tortilla Flat (1942) $216.90 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Crossroads (1942) $193.50 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Lady of The Tropics (1939) $184.50 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Comrade X (1940) $178.80 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Experiment Perilous (1944) $172.30 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- Algiers (1938) $168.90 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- I Take This Woman (1940) $124.00 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- A Lady Without A Passport (1950) $51.40 million in adjusted worldwide gross
- The Story of Mankind (1957) $17.50 million in adjusted worldwide gross
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.
I have seen 13 Hedy Lamarr movies.
My favourites are Boom Town and Algiers.
The other movies I have seen are:
Samson and Delilah
Ziegfeld Girl
H.M. Pulham, Esquire
My Favorite Spy
Tortilla Flat
Experiment Perilous
Comrade X
The Conspirators
Let’s Live A Little
A Lady Without Passport
The Story of Mankind
Hey Flora
1. 13 is easily the winner of the tally contest…currently….Lupino generally stays away on the weekend…so your lead might not be safe.
2. Tally – Flora 13….Steve is at 5…and I am a lowly 2.
3. Good to see one of the two I have watched is on your favorites list…..as I have seen Boom Town and Samson and Delilah.
4. Algiers was her American debut….and she got off to a good start for sure….I have not seen it….but it is on my list of movies to watch.
Good feedback as always.
I like Hedy a lot as a star/person/actress, especially for that incredible, over-developed brain of hers (is there anything sexier in a human being?). But, honestly, that filmography! No wonder she spent most of her free time seeking out intellectual peers, doing research, and inventing things. God bless Hedy.
Hey Anonymous……thanks for stopping by and commenting on our latest page. Good looking and smart….that is a great combination….I put WoC (Wife of Cogerson) in that group as well. I imagine there is lots of time on movie sets to have some outside interests….especially today…..but Hedy Lamarr used her time wisely. Good feedback.
Hedy was one of the great screen beauties, but I knew her mostly from Samson and Delilah. DeMille’s epic was panned by those awful snobbish movie critics but it was the biggest crowd-pleaser of 1950, the film premiered December 1949 in the US. A year later an even bigger epic took the box office crown, Quo Vadis, and I think that fared better with those horrible nasty cruel critics. And than in 1952 came [Enough Steve!]
I’ve seen just 5 of the 26 films listed, Samson and Boom Town are my two favorites.
An inspiration for Catwoman eh, did not know this.
Did you know Tom Jones composed the popular theme song for Samson and Delilah? He was just 9 years old at the time.
I have yet to see her Swedish porn movie, or was it Austrian?
Good work on Hedly, sorry Hedy Lamarr’s movie page Bruce. Vote Up!
Hey Steve.
1. As always….thanks for taking the time to comment and check out our latest page.
2. I agree my sources did not think too highly of Samson and Delilah….it did alright…but certainly not as stellar as would think such an epic should have gotten.
3. So you are at 5…..well that beats me….as I am at 2…..it is her two highest UMR movies…Samson and Delilah and Boom Town.
4. I barely rememer her in Boom Town her star wattage was dim compared to Tracy and Gable…..not to mention Colbert.
5. That was an awesome requirement for little Tommy…..for some reason….I have never heard that before….must be part of London Lore….lol.
6. Her porn movie might be interesting to see….I bet it would be rated PG-13 or PG.
7. Does England have a rating system like that? Not thinking the MPAA carries much weight in your neighborhood.
Good feedback as always.
HI JOEL
1 As that guy Bob keeps saying “Somebody should be taking a note of this” because for the first time for as long as I remember I actually agree with you. Hedy was an important star in her day but there was something that was lacking in her which prevented her from breaking into the Legends category of a Bergman, Davis or Crawford. Perhaps despite that sexy body and beautiful face an inner coldness conveyed itself to audiences.
2 You are probably aware that your pupil, Bruce Cogerson, omitted Hedy from the co-star links column on MY page. I am relieved that he hasn’t omitted me from Hedy’s new page as if he had it would have made me so mad that I would have again started pulling down pillars on everyone.
3 Still honor where honor is due and I will record that your boy is shaping up well under the guidance of yourself and that very nice wife of his and the profiles of movie stars produced on this site are top notch with Hedy’s too being very interesting, comprehensive and informative.
4 I was quite taken with among many other things the Boom Town miniature still above but a bit disappointed that your pupil couldn’t have airbrushed out of it that b*****d Tracy. The old sourpuss was all smiles for the photographer but I’m told that once the photo was taken he wouldn’t speak to the other 4 stars because he was in the sulks about Big Clark being billed before him. The nerve! Who did he think Gable was anyway – some Myrna Loy type who was used to being passed over for top billing?
5 Anyway overall your student has given us a very satisfying page on Hedy so pass on my congratulations to him. I always like comparing your pupil’s ratings with those of his pal Steve because Steve is his own man and no offence Joel but he will not be unduly influenced by you or anyone else. Steve and your protégé agree on 4 of Hedy’s Top 5 movies. Unfortunately the one that your boy has excluded is my Samson which Steve lists as his No 3 and your pupil ranks as No 12 for critic/audience merit. Was that your negative influence at work again Joel? though I have seen some critics taking the view that that Lansbury girl who has been over-promoted on this site perhaps weakened what was in all other respects an excellent movie. I have left a copy of this post on Steve’s U Tube Videos page.
Hey Victor….good to know you and Joel agree on Hedy. I might go back and put Hedy on the Victor Mature page…you never know….lol. As for Samson and Delilah….I think this is a good example of Joel not being a heavy influence on the ratings and rankings….according to Joel Samson and Delilah was a Top 3 movie for Hedy….yet my sources do not back that up….and thus it is in 12th place when sorting the movies…..but in 2nd…in the UMR score column. Good feedback as always.
HI BRUCE
Even though I see Samson as a Top 3 film I am pleased that you have “done your own thing” over the rating and not allowed your Svengali to dictate the terms.
Hey Bob….believe it or not….when we first started doing these rankings back in 2011….we did not even think about including Joel’s ratings….probably due to the fact that most of the movies current movies and Joel’s book was published in 1983. I like Joel….but I am not blindingly following him…lol.
When Hedy Lamarr first appeared on film, she was considered by many to be the most beautiful girl in the world. She had a built-in notoriety as well since her European movie, Ecstasy, featured scandalous nude shots. But even though Lamarr was a competent actress, she rarely set the screen on fire. Lamarr was puzzling; she seemed sultry, but her sex appeal was curiously bland. She gave one vivid portrayal as Delilah in De Mille’s fast-moving and lively, Samson and Delilah. By her own admission she was “difficult”, and with her box office fast failing, lost interest.
Thanks Joel for your Rating The Movie Stars thoughts on Hedy Lamarr. Looking at your book….here are your Top Hedy performances.
4 Star Performances
1938’s Algiers
1941’s H.M. Pulham Esq.
1950’s Samson and Delilah
3 Star Performances
1933’s Ecstasy
1940’s Boom Town
1942’s Tortilla Flat
1944’s Experiment Perlious
1944’s The Conspirators
1947’s Dishonored Lady
1951’s My Favorite Spy