38 thoughts on “Jean Simmons Movies”

1. Jean Simmons is the # 99 most connectible actor of the 1950’s.

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2. Hi, Jean Simmons was not only beautiful but very talented.The fifties was definitely her decade. Although less remembered than Grace Kelly or Audrey Hepburn, she had a good run of movies.It was interesting that you mentioned that she was first choice for Roman Holiday. But to be fair, I don’t think that she would have been as good as Hepburn. I always loved the Big Country with a great cast. However I have to say that Carol Baker’s part was more interesting. Footsteps In the Fog is a movie worth seeing. Her early British movies were really good. For some reason in the sixties she just seemed to die out. Nevertheless she left a great body of work.

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   1. 1 It is interesting that Chris compares Jean Simmons with Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly because collectively they carried relatively few films as major successes at the box office without being paired with a top Hollywood male star. For example:

      (1) Grace had just The Swan in which she was top billed and it lost money for MGM. All her other like High Noon, Mogambo, Country Girl, Rear Window, High Society had her teamed with respectively Cooper, Gable/Gardner, Crosby/Holden,Jimmy Stewart, Sinatra and again Crosby. Even in Dial M for Murder Ray Milland was top billed and of course Hitch was one of the few directors who had in his own right the box office pulling power normally enjoyed by just the stars.

      (2) Jean was top billed in a few movies such as This Could Be the Nigh and Home before Dark but Bruce’s chart does not credit them with a big box office take and It’s difficult to detect among Bruce’s stats ANY Simmons stand-alone move that was a major commercial success. Even when top billed in fine grosser The Egyptian she had Victor Mature and Gene Tierney as co-stars. Young Bess in which she had top billing and the title role lost money for MGM

      (3) Of the 3 Audrey was probably the winner in stand-alone terms as she carried for example the commercially successful Nun’s Story and Wait Until Dark and arguably Breakfast at Tiffany’s because Peppard was not a star when that one was released and IT made him a star. She probably also deserves much credit for My Fair Lady as Rex Harrison was not a star of the magnitude of say Cary Grant or Golden Holden though Sexy Rexy has always been closely associated on stage and screen with My Fair Lady and Professor Higgins. Bruce’s figures suggest that many of Audrey’s other stand-alone movies were low grosses and/or flops [for example They All Laughed/Green Mansions/ Bloodline] whereas her first 5 movies,which were commercially successful Roman Holiday, Sabrina, War and Peace, Love in the Afternoon and Funny Face had Peck, Holden/Bogie ,Fonda, Cooper and Astaire in them respectively.

      2 However AFI clearly took factors other than box office success into account when drawing up its Legends lists and although Jean was the only one of the 3 not to make the female Legend’s list all of them gave a number of compelling performances that are of great artistic credit to them. Just as selected examples I would quote Audrey’s Holly Go Lightly, Grace’s The Country Girl and Jean’s spellbinding portray as the institutionalised depressed woman in the socially -conscious Home before Dark, which examined both insanity issues and anti-Semitism in some of the academic professions in America in the 1950s. I also loved Footsteps in the Fog and indeed it holds a certain amount of nostalgia for me as it is the first movie that saw after leaving school and prior to starting to work for a living.

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      1. CORRECTION TO MY LAST POST

         Holly Go Lightly should of course have read Holly Golightly and given the general context of my post I maybe should have emphasised that on the original poster Audrey was billed alone above the title though George may have been given same-sized on the screen. Cue for Lupino to ignite a further argument if appropriate – and I’m not being sarcastic!

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         1. 🙂

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      2. Hey Bob.
         1. Excellent breakdown on Hepburn and Simmons.
         2. I think 98% of all actresses have been dependent on strong co-stars. Even Katharine Hepburn’s biggest hits have another legend in the movie.
         3. I think Barbra Streisand might be one of the exceptions to these.
         4. Everytime I do a page….a movie jumps out at me to watch….in this case it was Footsteps in the Fog.
         Good stuff.

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         1. HI BRUCE I generally agree with your conclusion though when I talk about stand-alone movies within the context of stardom I am meaning the likes of for example Irene Dunne being able to carry movies on occasions without a box office giant like The Duke or Gable. And there WERE a few females who could do that in the classic era and apart from Dunne examples are:

            (1) Bette Davis in the 1940s – Now Voyager, co- star Paul Henreid/Little Foxes, co-star Herbert Marshall/The Great Lie, co-star George Brent/The Corn is Green, co-star John Dall

            (2) Joan Crawford – Mildred Pierce, co-star Jack Carson/A Woman’s Face, co-star Melvyn Douglas/ Possessed (1947) co-star Van Heflin/Flamingo Road, co-star Zachary Scott.

            [All of the movies quoted crashed the Cogerson 100 million barrier and Davis/Crawford carried more beside the ones mentioned].

            (3) Betty Grable and Deanna Durbin made a whole string of films that because they were of a special type were undoubtedly “Grable” and “Durbin” movies with the male usually being very much 2nd fiddle.

            (4) In the silent era many movies seemed to be largely built around stand-alone Giants like Chaplin, Doug Fairbanks Sr. and Mary Pickford though it is probably reasonable to surmise that in those infancy days the movies hadn’t got going long enough to build up a massive reservoir of great stars.

            (5) I agree with you that in more modern times Babs could “open” a stand-alone movie.

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   2. Hey Chris….thanks for sharing your thoughts on Jean Simmons. You never know….she could have rocked in Roman Holiday….and Audrey Hepburn might not have made it big. Alternate history is fun to think about. I can easily see Simmons riding the Roman Holiday success and becoming a more known legend.

      One day I will finish my Alternate James Dean page that I have been thinking about for a very long time. In that scenario….he listens to Alec Guinness, gets rid of the car that killed him….and has a 30 year movie career.

      I agree with you about Baker in The Big Country. When I think about the Big Country…..it takes awhile to even think about her role…..Peck, Heston, Baker, Burl Ives and Charles Bickford all overshadow her in that movie.

      I want to see Footsteps in the Fog. I wish I had more of her 1940s English movies on the page…..maybe one day. Good stuff.

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3. Wow, I’m absent for 2 days and already a new page and 25 comments on Jean Simmons! Thanks Bruce for all this information on her films and her career, and Steve, for another entertaining video. Together, they provide a good snapshot of Simmons’ work. I’ve seen only 12 of her films, but I have always found her interesting and very pleasant to watch. Funny, Bruce, that you say you used to mix her up with Jennifer Jones. To my wife, I usually refer to Jean Simmons as “that actress you always mix up with Audrey Hepburn” ;). Yet, when one looks at all her films, including the early ones where she had supporting roles (Great Expectations, Black Narcissus), she has appeared in quite a number of classics. She was effective playing dark and deceptive in Angel Face, and rather wild in The Grass Is Greener and Mr. Buddwing, but I prefer Simmons in her gentle, nurturing roles such as in The Big Country, Spartacus, and perhaps best of all, as an earnest evangelic playing off nicely against fire and brimstone Burt Lancaster in Elmer Gantry.

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   1. Hey Phil…gotta keep the site….fresh…which is strange when talking about a site that deals a lot of it’s time on movies over 50 years old…lol. Steve’s video was only 9 months ago….amazed that it took us this long to get this page done.

      Your tally of 12 puts you down with me. Lupino lead the way….with Bern1960 being 2nd with 14 Simmons movies watched….then a massive tied for 3rd place with 13….then we get to you at 12 and me at 11…..seems I am the caboose way too many times when it comes to these classic performers.

      I could include Hepburn in the Simmons/Jones mix up. I imagine if Hepburn had not become such a huge star….I would get all three mixed up. I can also see non-movie buffs being very mixed up by that trio. All petite brunette beautiful women.

      Of the Simmons movies you mention….I liked The Big Country and Sparacus the most. I did not like Black Narcissus or The Grass Is Greener very much. Being a huge Cary Grant fan….you would think The Grass is Greener with that cast would be awesome…..but in my mind…the story is the main drawback versus the star’s performances.

      Great feedback as always.

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