Want to know the best Joan Fontaine movies? How about the worst Joan Fontaine movies? Curious about Joan Fontaine box office grosses or which Joan Fontaine movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Joan Fontaine movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
Joan Fontaine (1917-2013) was a British-American Oscar® winning actress. Fontaine is probably best remembered for being a very frightened lady in back to back Alfred Hitchcock movies: 1940’s Rebecca and 1941’s Suspicion. Her IMDb page shows 71 acting credits from 1935-1994. This page will rank 39 Joan Fontaine movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, uncredited roles and 5 of her very early movies were not included in the rankings. To do well in our overall rankings a movie has to do well at the box office, get good reviews by critics, be liked by audiences and get some award recognition.
Drivel part of the page: After not writing about an actress for 18 straight movie pages…this Joan Fontaine marks the second straight actress we have written about. This Fontaine page comes from a request by Søren and Flora. The main sources used when it comes to finding the box office information came from end of the year Variety magazines, MGM ledgers, RKO ledgers and the books Joan Fontaine A Bio-Bibliograpy and No Bed Of Roses: An Autobiography (by Fontaine).
Joan Fontaine 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 Joan Fontaine movies by co-stars of her movies
- Sort Joan Fontaine movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Joan Fontaine movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Joan Fontaine movies 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 Joan Fontaine movie received.
- Sort Joan Fontaine movies by Ultimate Movie Ranking (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 Joan Fontaine Table
- Seventeen Joan Fontaine movie crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 43.59% of her movies listed. Frenchman’s Creek (1944) was her biggest box office hit.
- An average Joan Fontaine movie grosses $107.20 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 29 of Joan Fontaine’s movies are rated as good movies…or 74.35% of her movies. Rebecca (1940) is her highest rated movie while Flight to Tangier (1953) is her lowest rated movie.
- Thirteen Joan Fontaine movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 33.33% of her movies.
- Five Joan Fontaine movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 12.82% of her movies.
- An average Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score is 39.86. 22 Joan Fontaine movie scored higher that average….or 37.28% of her movies. Rebecca (1940) got the the highest UMR Score while In Decameron Nights (1953) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Joan Fontaine
1. Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1917 to English parents. She took her stage name from her step-father, George Fontaine.
2. Joan Fontaine older sister is two time Best Actress Oscar® winner, Olivia de Havilland. Joan and Olivia are the first sisters to win Oscars® and the first ones to be Oscar®-nominated in the same year.Apparently Joan and Olivia had a lifelong feud. You can read more about that here.
3. Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland never worked together….but they came close once. They briefly thought about starring in a little movie called A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). Olivia was going to play the Vivien Leigh role and Joan was going to play the Kim Hunter roe.
4. Joan Fontaine was nominated for 3 Oscars®. Her first nomination was for 1940’s Rebecca, 2nd nomination and only win was for 1941’s Suspicion, and her third nomination was for 1943’s The Constant Nymph. Fontaine never received a Golden Globe® nomination.
5. Joan Fontaine had lots of interests away from Hollywood. She was a licensed pilot, champion balloonist, expert horse rider, prize-winning tuna fisherman, a hole-in-one golfer, Cordon Bleu chef and licensed interior decorator.
6. Joan Fontaine was the last surviving cast member of George Cukor’s The Women (1939) until she passed away in December 2013. The Women had over 130 roles in this movie, all played by women.
7. Joan Fontaine was married four times and had one child….Debbie Dozier.
8. Joan Fontaine was one of Fred Astaire’s many dance partners. She however thought her movie with Astaire, A Damsel in Distress (1937) set her career back four years. At the premiere, a woman sitting behind her loudly exclaimed, “Isn’t she awful!” during Fontaine’s onscreen attempt at dancing.
9. Joel Hirschhorn’s Rating The Movie Stars book (the inspiration for this website) rated every single Joan Fontaine performance on a 1 to 4 star basis. These 8 Fontaine movies were deemed her very best performances. Rebecca (1940), Suspicion (1941), The Constant Nymph (1943), The Affairs of Susan (1945), Letter From An Unknown Woman (1948), Something To Live For (1952), Until They Sail (1957) and Tender Is The Night (1962)
10. Check out Joan Fontaine‘s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
The FIVE Fontaine movies that escaped us….1937’s A Million To One, 1937 The Man Who Found Himself, 1938’s Maid’s Night Out, 1938’s Blond Cheat and 1938’s The Duke of West Point. Will keep searching for those box office numbers…but not thinking they will ever be found.
Want more stats? Coming right up…15 Joan Fontaine Adjusted Worldwide Box Office Grosses
- Born To Be Bad (1950) $71.70 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- Certain Smile, A (1958) $67.40 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- Constant Nymph, The (1943) $282.50 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- Damsel in Distress, A (1937) $190.00 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- From This Day Forward (1946) $152.10 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- Gunga Din (1939) $510.30 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- Ivanhoe (1952) $483.40 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- No More Ladies (1935) $163.10 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- Quality Street (1937) $42.60 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- Serenade (1956) $120.70 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- Sky Giant (1938) $65.20 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- Suspicion (1941) $244.40 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- Tender Is The Night (1962) $76.70 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- Until They Sail (1957) $61.00 million in adjusted worldwide box office
- Women, The (1939) $282.60 million in adjusted worldwide box office
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For comments….all you need is a name and a comment….please ignore the rest.
Hey, another good site. I have many many of her movies. She was a good actress. I had heard of her feud with her sister – such a shame – family is so important. Interesting that they both had interesting careers in the same business. She was a stinker in Born To Be Bad and Serenade.
Thanks again for this one.
Hey BERN1960…glad you liked my Fontaine page. I agree it was a shame that she and her sister come never overcome whatever the problem was. Both had great careers. I read that she enjoyed her role in Born To Be Bad….maybe she should have played more “stinker” roles. Thanks for the nice words.
I loved Joan Fontaine in Rebecca but have to confess I’ve only seen a few of her films. Looking at the list I count only 8 movies I know I have watched out of the 39 listed here.
Rebecca is my favorite of her films and one of my most watched Hitchcock films. I bought the Criterion DVD which includes a booklet and plenty of extras.
Other favorites include Gunga Din, Ivanhoe and Suspicion. From the top critics list I haven’t seen Letter from an Unknown Woman, The Women and Jane Eyre.
It is sad that she and her sister never made up. How old is Olivia now she must be nearing 100?
Lots of facts and figures on one of the Hollywood Greats. Nice work Bruce. Voted Up.
Hey Steve.
1. Well your 8 movies…takes down my 6…..but our combined total of 14 falls to Flora….that sounds kinda of familiar does it not?
2. The wife and I re-watched Rebecca a few months ago…..still a great movie…..the more I watch that movie…the more I think Judith Anderson is the reason the movie is so good.
3. I might have only seen 6 of her movies….but I have seen and enjoyed your Top 4.
4. I really want to see Letter From An Unknown Woman….it seems that many sources rate that as her best performance….that seems like a good reason to track that one down.
5. Olivia will turn 100 this July 1st. She is the oldest living acting Oscar winner.
6. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Bravo Bruce. There is so much box office information here that I didn’t have and I’m very grateful for this page on Joan Fontaine. I greatly admire 1940’s Rebecca but my favorite films with Joan Fontaine are 1943’s Jane Eyre and The Constant Nymph. Thanks again Bruce for another classic actress page. And Thanks for all these wonderful pages. I feel like a kid in a candy store. By the way I just saw J.J. Abrams “Star Wars” and I loved it.
Hey Lyle….glad you like these classic pages so much. I feel really good about the box office numbers for most of the movies here….though I will say all 3 1953 movies are questionable. The wife has suggested I use a Confidence Score for the box office number….while most would get an A….those 3 movies would be in the C range. As I had to piece together their box office number without all the pieces of the puzzle. Have I mentioned that I dislike movies from Paramount, Columbia and Universal?…lol. I have not seen either of your two favorite Joan movies…I will have to check them out.
Glad you liked Star Wars 7…..I enjoyed it as well. It was a return to the movies I liked as a kid….versus the horrible middle movies Lucas made from 1999-2005. And finally….glad you like our candy store…take all the candy you want. Getting close to wrapping up one of your requested pages…Mr. Peter Lorre.
Hi, Bruce!
Thanks for the Joan Fontaine page and the heads up that it was nearly complete. Yes, the second straight actress page after a long draught.
Interesting that Joan and Olivia nearly worked together on a movie. Not all famous siblings did have feuds-the Barrymore siblings got on well. They worked together several times.
A lot of siblings actually don’t work together on the same film ever. I remember a clip from TCM with Steve Forrest talking about his brother Dana Andrews and how they never got the chance to work together. I have seen Joan’s movie with Dana, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt. It’s an intense drama.
Re: A Damsel in Distress: I re-watched that recently. She and Fred did not have many dancing scenes. Most of his dancing was either alone or as a trio with George Burns and Gracie Allen.
The highest ranking movie I have seen is Rebecca at number 1.
The lowest ranking film I have seen is Until They Sail at number 34.
The highest ranking film I have not seen is This Above All at number 7.
Views By Ranking:
I have seen 5 of the top 5.
I have seen 8 of the top 10.
I have seen 12 of the top 20
I have seen 15 of the top 30
I have seen 18 of her listed 39 films.
I have not seen any of the films you could not find.
My top five Joan Fontaine films are:
Rebecca
Suspicion
The Women
Jane Eyre
Letter From an Unknown Woman
I love Gunga Din, but her screen time isn’t long enough to make it crack my top 5.
I’ve never been disappointed by her performance in any film. However, despite the star power in Island in the Sun, I have never been interested in watching it a second time.
I have seen all three of her nominated movies. The Constant Nymph is a poignant movie that is beautiful. I need to be in the right mood to see it.
Cheers,
Flora
Hey Flora.
1. As always thanks for the visit and the comment.
2. I did not even realize that it had been so long since actresses….but two in a row….and the next one will be a female as well….though the gotta admit I never thought I would do a movie page on the next person’s job.
3. I did not know that Steve Forest and Dana Andrews were brothers….that is pretty cool…thanks for sharing that.
4. Tally counts….you top it with 18, Steve is at 8 and I am at 6. ….18 to our combined 14.
5. Somehow I missed Until They Sail when I did my Paul Newman page….when it popped up I was like …”Where did this movie come from?”….but I guess it was there all the time.
6. Your %s….100%, 80%, 60% and then 50%… seems the UMR score is good for this page.
7. I have seen 3 of your Top 5…I want to see Jane Eyre….and Letter From An Unknown Woman that made my list of movies to watch…..there is always at least one that I find when I end up researching and reading about a movie page subject.
8. Gunga Din was one of my dad’s favorite movies…I just rewatched it a few months ago….it is still a fun movie to watch.
9. Interesting about Island In The Sun…..that was her final box office hit….I was surprised how well it did…..I guess the power of Mason….as that was during his peak.
10. Constant Nymph looks interesting too.
Thanks for sharing your Fontaine thoughts.
I love Joan. She has been one of my favourites for a very long time. Her performance in Rebecca is amazing. I always felt sorry for her because Laurence Olivier gave her such a hard time because Vivien Leigh was not cast in the movie. What a jerk, especially with her performance being the best part of the movie. But she got hers, as she won an Oscar before he did. Still sad about her passing away. Love Joan.
Hey Mary Mary. Glad a Fontaine fan found my latest movie page. I read that Olivier made filming Rebecca a little rough for her….that is a shame. Yep she got her Oscar first….but Olivia got two after that….that should have made great family reunion stories…instead they never hardly talked….thanks for stopping by and commenting.