John Barrymore Movies

barrymore-j-11111Want to know the best John Barrymore movies?  How about the worst John Barrymore movies?  Curious about John Barrymore box office grosses or which John Barrymore movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which John Barrymore 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.

John Barrymore (1882-1942) was an American actor. He appeared in movies from 1912 to 1941.  He became famous around the world for his stage work…..most notably for his performances as Hamlet and Richard III.  His portrayal of Hamlet led to him being called the “greatest living American tragedian”. This page will look at his movie career.. His IMDb page shows 65 acting credits from 1912-1941. This page ranks 42 John Barrymore movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information.  His shorts and many of his early silent films were not included in the rankings.

Drivel part:  Recently, Hurricane Matthew left us without power for an extended period of time.  During this down time, I spent some quality time with my box office sources and noticed I had lots of box office grosses on many of Barrymore’s movies.  Since this was a requested (Flora) UMR subject, we decided to go ahead and publish a page on Drew’s grandfather.

Greta Garbo & John Barrymore in 1932's Grand Hotel
Greta Garbo & John Barrymore in 1932’s Grand Hotel

John Barrymore Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.

John Barrymore 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 John Barrymore movies by co-stars of his movies
  • Sort John Barrymore movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort John Barrymore movies by yearly domestic box office rank
  • Sort John Barrymore 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 John Barrymore movie received.
  • Sort John Barrymore 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.

Possibly Interesting Facts About John Barrymore

1. John Sidney Blyth was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1882.  Barrymore was taken from his father’s stage name

2. John Barrymore’s Hamlet (1922) was the longest-running Broadway production of the play with 101 performances until John Gielgud played the part for 132 performances in 1936.

3. One third of the Barrymore siblings that were making movies back then.  John was the only one of the three Barrymore siblings (John, Ethel Barrymore and Lionel Barrymore) to never win or even be nominated for an Academy Award; he is now considered the finest actor of the three.

4. 1932’s Rasputin and the Empress was the only film in which all three Barrymore siblings – John Barrymore, Ethel Barrymore and Lionel Barrymore – appeared together.

5. John Barrymore is the grandfather of Drew Barrymore.

6. John Barrymore was a good friend of Errol Flynn, who subsequently played Barrymore in 1958’s Too Much,Too Soon, a film about Barrymore’s daughter Diana Barrymore.  I imagine there are some stories in that friendship.

7. Speaking of which (#6) After Barrymore’s death, his friends – including Errol Flynn and Raoul Walsh – gathered at a bar to commiserate on John’s passing. Walsh, claiming he was too upset, pretended to go home. Instead, he and two friends went to the funeral home and bribed the caretaker to lend them Barrymore’s body. Transporting it to Flynn’s house, it was propped up in Errol’s favorite living room chair. Flynn arrived and described his reaction in his autobiography: “As I opened the door I pressed the button. The lights went on and – I stared into the face of Barrymore… They hadn’t embalmed him yet. I let out a delirious scream… I went back in, still shaking. I retired to my room upstairs shaken and sober. My heart pounded. I couldn’t sleep the rest of the night.”

8. Check out John Barrymore‘s career compared to current and classic actors.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.

Not Enough Stats For You? How About Adjusted Worldwide Box Office Grosses on 23 John Barrymore Movies?

Steve’s John Barrymore YouTube Video

Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences. 
(Visited 1,098 times)

28 thoughts on “John Barrymore Movies”

  1. BRUCE:
    1 I found the Flynn//Barrymore story most amusing and one of the points that immediately occurred to me was that Flynn’s real life reaction was in sharp contrast to the way in which his heroic characters on screen behaved in frightening situations. Maybe that pal of mine had something when he predicted that Wayne would have hidden when the bad guys came to town looking for him !

    2 Barrymore was apparently a frequent visitor to a beach bungalow which Flynn shared with David Niven and which naturally was the venue for many alcohol-fuelled parties so that Carole Lombard nicknamed it Cirrhosis by the Sea, meaning that many of those celebs who frequented it risked ending up with that disease because of alcohol abuse. Apparently Barrymore would get stoned out of his mind at the gatherings and when the volume of liquid proved too much for him he would use the fireplace. Reportedly that Sodom and Gomorrah for Hollywood hell raisers closed down when Flynn and Niven fell out.

    3 I have said before that George C Scott reckoned that the 3 best American actors in his lifetime were Barrymore, Brando and Monty Clift, and indeed in his day Barrymore was widely regarded as Hollywood royalty. His great name and fame does not though appear to be closely matched by a vertiginous box office record, and indeed in many of the films listed above he was not the main star and was in some not even given equal billing to the stars.

    4 Nonetheless overall this was a satisfying tribute to a renowned actor of yesteryear and is therefore most welcome, so great stuff Bruce.

    Reply

    1. Hey Bob….thanks for the thoughts on Mr. Barrymore.
      1. I like that story too….in the Kevin Kline/Errol Flynn movie….he tells the story….seems it was one of Flynn’s favorite stories. It would be interesting to see these movie heroes in real situations….though I think it is safe to say Harrison Ford is calm in the movies and in real life (based on his airplane rescues and close calls).
      2. Very cool trivia…in part 2…I had not heard of any of that. Maybe I should check out one of Niven’s autobiographies…seems his life was more wild than I ever imagined.
      3. I think Barrymore’s success in the theater overshadowed his movie success….you are correct is box office numbers are ok…but far from other all-time greats. I loved him in Midnight…that was a very pleasant surprise.
      4. Glad you enjoyed this tribute…it was a fun one to research.

      Reply

      1. 1 Excellent observation about Barrymore’s greatness resting more on his artistic achievements courtesy of the stage. It raises the old question though as to how a magnificent artistic reputation balances out on the scales of greatness when weighed against enormous popularity/box office.

        2 Perhaps Sir Maurice Micklewhite in one of the many homespun interviews he has delighted us with down the years gives us at least a ghost of a clue to his thinking on the subject. By the early 1970s he and Sir Sean had become probably Britain’s two popular and bankable stars and at the close of an interview about the forthcoming filming of Sleuth (1972) with Sir Larry the interviewer asked him who would be getting top billing and Sir M
        immediately answered scathingly “Olivier OF COURSE!”

        3 On the other hand we have always had celebs who hve to do little but ‘exist’ to draw great attention to themselves and the Gabors are a prime example of that. George Sanders married both Zsa Zsa Gabor and Magda Gabor at different times and sadly he committed suicide at the age of 65. Later a comedian morbidly quipped that he was surprised that anybody who had been hitched to TWO of the Gabor sisters had lasted until even 65.

        4 Audie Murphy is another celeb whose on screen activities were matched by his heroics in real life. Speaking of Harrison Ford always reminds me of Luke Skywalker’s delicious one-liner to the initially mercenary Hans Solo when bidding the latter farewell in the 1st Star Wars “Look after yourself Hans, it’s what you do best!”

        BOB

        Reply

        1. Hey Bob.
          1. It would have been awesome if they could have captured his performances on stage….but it was before that was possible. Some of Richard Burton’s stage performances can be seen that way….too bad Barrymore’s performances are gone forever.
          2. Caine has many great stories about Olivier and Sleuth…..I like that Olivier came to equally respect Caine by the end of the making of Sleuth…I think they ended up being in about 5 movies together …though none as great as Sleuth.
          3. Mmmmm….I did not realize Sanders had been married to any Gabors…much less two Gabors….Top Billed from TCM loves Sanders….maybe it is time to do a Sanders page.
          4. Good point on Audie and heroism….and it is always good to see a Star Wars quote.
          Thanks for sharing your movie knowledge.

          Reply

  2. John Barrymore has never appeared on the Oracle of Bacon Top 1000 Center of the Hollywood Universe list (he died 58 years before the first list). These are the few people who appeared on the 2000 list who appeared in a picture with him (2000 rank listed).

    Counsellor at Law (1933) – 651 Melvyn Douglas
    Hold That Co-Ed (1938) – 222 Bess Flowers, 982 Billy Benedict
    Marie Antionette (1938) – 94 Robert Morley, 100 Ian Wolfe
    Maytime (1937) – 100 Ian Wolfe, 606 Alberto Morin
    Midnight (1939) – 222 Bess Flowers, 562 Paul Bryar
    Reunion in Vienna (1933) – 671 Eduardo Cianelli
    Romance in the Dark (1938) – 299 Fritz Feld
    Romeo and Juliet (1936) – 100 Ian Wolfe
    Spawn of the North (1938) – 56 Henry Fonda, 234 Akim Tamiroff, 410 George Raft
    State’s Attorney (1932) – 959 Leon Ames
    The Great Profile (1940) – 27 Marc Lawrence, 571 Charles Lane, 783 James Flavin
    The Invisible Woman (1940) – 571 Charles Lane
    True Confession (1937) – 299 Fritz Feld, 969 Byron Foulger
    Twentieth Century (1934) – 571 Charles Lane
    World Premiere (1941) – 299 Fritz Feld

    I came up with 21 Oscar winners he appeared in a film with.

    A Bill of Divorcement (1932) – Katherine Hepburn
    Arsene Lupin (1932) – Lionel Barrymore
    Beau Brummel (1924) – Mary Astor
    Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925) – Clark Gable, Gary Cooper, Janet Gaynor, Joan Crawford, Lionel Barrymore, Mary Pickford
    Counsellor at Law (1933) – Melvyn Douglas
    Dinner at Eight (1933) – Lionel Barrymore, Marie Dressler, Wallace Beery
    Don Juan (1926) – Mary Astor
    Grand Hotel (1932) – Joan Crawford, Lionel Barrymore, Wallace Beery
    Land of Liberty (1939) – Joseph Schildkraut
    Marie Antionette (1938) – Barry Fitzgerald, Norma Shearer, Joseph Schildkraut
    Midnight (1939) – Claudette Colbert, Don Ameche, Mary Astor
    Night Flight (1933) – Clark Gable, Lionel Barrymore
    Rasputin and the Empress (1932) – Ethel Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore
    Romeo and Juliet (1936) – Norma Shearer
    Spawn of the North (1938) – Henry Fonda
    The Great Profile (1940) – Anne Baxter
    The Show of Shows (1929) – Loretta Young, Mary Astor
    True Confession (1937) – Hattie McDaniel

    Anybody remember John Drew Barrymore or Diana Barrymore??

    Reply

    1. Hey Dan
      1. Not surprised at all that he did not make the list….way too many years passed between his death and the Bacon list. I see Bess but no Arthur….seems Bess has been the most popular when looking at these recent lists you have posted.
      2. 21 Oscar winners is pretty good…especially considering his career was about half way done when the Oscars were born. I think Ameche had to wait the longest to finally get his Oscar. I loved Ameche and Barrymore’s performance in Midnight…recommend it if you have not seen it.
      3. The answer to your question…..not thinking many people remember that generation of Barrymores…..maybe Drew’s kids will continue the Barrymore greatness.

      Reply

  3. John Barrymore, ‘The Great Profile’ as he was called… hmm I’ve only seen a few of his films, let me check… just 5 films out of the 42 listed – Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dinner at Eight, Twentieth Century, Grand Hotel and The Invisible Woman.

    Maytime and Marie Antoinette top the charts, not really interested in either of them.

    Errol Flynn’s Baryrmore story seems a bit far-fetched, did that really happened? hmm

    Drew Barrymore’s grandad eh, I wonder if she’s seen any of his films.

    Those worldwide grosses are a a rarity, where else on the web can you find that info?

    Another expert movie page Bruce, Voted Up!

    I think you’ve done Lionel, so only Ethel left?

    Reply

    1. Hey Steve….well we are tied with 5 movies each. I have not seen his top two movies either. One of the ones I have seen that you have not is Midnight. I actually just saw that about a month ago. It was really good…good humor…good performances….and by far my favorite J. Barrymore role.

      As for the Flynn story…..he told it a lot…so I thinking it has some truth to it….and some “added” truth as well. I was very happy to find all of these worldwide box off grosses….not sure who is trying to find that information out…but it is here for a very long time.

      As always thanks for sharing your thoughts.

      Reply

  4. I have heard of him. I of course know his granddaughter. But not thinking I have seen many if any of his movies. I am sure Flora greatly appreciates you doing this page for her. Who is the next current star?

    Reply

    1. Hey Stein…since your comment I have published a Gary Oldman page. As for Flora she is currently on a break from UMR.com…..but I think she will really enjoy this page. Thanks for the feedback on our John Barrymore page.

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.