Want to know the best John Garfield movies? How about the worst John Garfield movies? Curious about John Garfield’s box office grosses or which John Garfield movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which John Garfield movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place …. because we have all of that information.
Before Steve McQueen before Marlon Brando….the rebel of Hollywood was John Garfield. John Garfield (1913-1952) was a 2 time Oscar® nominated actor. During his Warner Brothers contract days, Garfield was suspended by the studio an amazing 11 times. His IMDb page shows 34 acting credits since from 1938-1951. This page will rank 31 of his movies from Best to Worst in 6 different columns of sortable information. The missing three movies were either shorts or uncredited roles.
John Garfield Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In The Table Below
The really cool thing about ther table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.
- Sort John Garfield movies by Co-Star
- Sort John Garfield movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort John Garfield movies by adjusted worldwide box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions) *** If domestic and worldwide are the same then worldwide is unknown
- Sort John Garfield movies by critic reviews and audiences voting. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each John Garfield movie received.
- Sort John Garfield 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 John Garfield Table
1. Fifteen John Garfield movies crossed the magical $100 million mark. That is a percentage of 48.38% of her movies listed. Hollywood Canteen (1944) was his biggest box office hit.
2. An average John Garfield movie grosses $120.40 million in adjusted box office gross.
3. Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 27 John Garfield movies are rated as good movies…or 87.09% of his movies. Body and Soul (1947) was his highest rated movie while The Fallen Sparrow (1943) was his lowest rated movie.
4. Eleven John Garfield movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 35.48% of her movies.
5. Three John Garfield movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 9.67% of his movies.
6. An average Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score is 40.00. 24 John Garfield movies scored higher that average….or 77.41% of his movies. Gentleman’s Agreement (1947) got the the highest UMR Score while Out of the Fog (1941) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About John Garfield
1. This page was suggested by a John Garfield fan ….remember we here at UMR are happy to take recommendations for the next UMR page. Coming soon….Bill Murray, Montgomery Clift, Seth Rogen and Bob Hope.
2. John Garfield was born and raised in New York City.
3. John Garfield received two Oscar® nominations for acting. He was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar® for 1938’s Four Daughters and a Best Actor Oscar nomination for 1947’s Body and Soul.
4. John Garfield was married to his childhood sweetheart, Roberta Seidman, from 1935 until his death in 1952. They had three children…..Katherine (1938-1945), David (1942-1995) and actress Julie (1946-).
5. Famous roles that almost went to John Garfield. William Holden’s role in Golden Boy, Gary Merrill’s role in All About Eve, Marlon Brando’s role in A Streetcar Named Desire, Marlon Brando’s role in On The Waterfront and Frank Sinatra’s role in The Man With The Golden Arm.
6. John Garfield said “No actor can really be good until he’s reached forty.” Sadly he died of a heart attack at age 39….so we will never know how good an actor John Garfield would have been.
If you do a comment….please ignore the email address and website section.
Hi, Bruce.
TCM Tom requesting that you do a page on all the classic actors that you have done is a great boon for me to be able to find the era I want among the pages you did I hadn’t seen. In going down that page, I noticed John Garfield. I looked through the comments to see you and Steve have low totals. I am so glad you sought me out through my Mom. I have been enjoying these pages.
Yes, I am very familiar with John Garfield movies.
The highest rated movie I have seen s #1 Gentleman’s Agreement.
The highest rated movie I have not seen is #9 Thank Your Lucky Stars.
The lowest rated movie I have seen is #26 The Fallen Sparrow. That movie and #25 Between Two Worlds I saw recently for the first time. Both movies I recommend seeing. The former is a war suspense film and the second is a quirky life/afterlife drama.
Rankings:
I have seen 9 of the top 10
I have seen 18 of his top 20
I have seen 21 movies overall.
The only John Garfield I have started to watch and have been unable to finish is Dust Be My Destiny. Unlike other crime dramas or suspense films he made, I found my mind wandering and gave up on it about 40 minutes into it.
Gentlemen’s Agreement is an excellent film, but I have to be in the right mood to watch it. Peck or no Peck, it is a difficult film to watch. It is meant to be.
My top 5 John Garfield movies are:
The Postman Always Rings Twice
Destination Tokyo
They Made Me a Criminal
Humoresque
Between Two Worlds
I know Out of the Fog is listed last, but since it is directed by Ida Lupino I would like to see it. For reasons I don’t understand, I’ve never been able to have access to Body and Soul.
Cheers,
Flora
Hey Flora.
1. Glad you are enjoying that summary table. Back in the HubPages days it was all the people (current and classic)…now it is just the classic ones.
2. Even glader that we are getting your thoughts on the new website….so glad that I brought all of those comments from the old websites to the new websites. So are fun to go back and read.
3. Let’s back then I was at 4 and Steve was at 5….my current tally count is….now up to 5….as I have seen We Were Strangers in the last few months…not impressed.
4. So you destroy us….21 to a combined total of 10. Then again maybe Steve has been on a Garfield movie marathon….lol.
5. I really want to see Between Two Worlds….when I was reseaching this page that movie seemed like the most interesting of the ones that I had not seen.
6. 90% of his Top 20…very cool.
7. Interesting about Dust Be My Destiny….sorry you were not able to finish it.
8. Gentleman’s Agreement was a one and done movie for me….it is good but I have no interested in seeing that one again.
9. I have seen 2 of your Top 5…even more interesting that Between Two Worlds cracked your Top 5….now I really want to see it.
10. Out of the Fog….might be good….let me know when you see it….and if it deserves to be his lowest rated movie according to critic and audiences.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on John Garfield…..it is of course greatly appreciated.
I am the ultimate John Garfield fan…he is one of the best actors ever!!! He was tough yet sensitive in his movie portrayals. Rankings are all subjective…I love him in The fallen Sparrow…he was wonderful in it. He should have won an award for Pride of the Marines. He was terrific in The Breaking Point and his last movie He Ran all the way. He was good in everything he did. Who knows where he would be ranked as an actor had he lived to a ripe old age…in my book he is way up there
Hey Dennis….glad you found my Garfield page. I agree that rankings are subjective. The way I have this page set up…you can rank the movies anyway you want if you use the sort button at the top of the table. If you think box office is the best way to rank movies….the Top 3 Garfield movies would be Destination Tokyo, Postman Always Rings Twice and Gentleman’s Agreement (I excluded Hollywood Canteen). If you think critic reviews and audience voting are the most important…his Top 3 would be Body and Soul, Postman Twice, and Force of Evil. If you think Oscar nominations and wins are the way to go….then Gentleman’s Agreement, Air Force and Body and Soul would be the Top 3. My ranking system combines those three ways…which puts Gentleman’s Agreement, Postman and Air Force as his Top 3…(once again I am excluding Hollywood Canteen)…I think Best Performing John Garfield Movies would be a better title for my page….but that does not get many search hits…compared to Best John Garfield movies.
As for the movies you mentioned…I have sadly not seen any of the four. But I will add them to my list of movies to watch list. I appreciate the comment and the visit…both are greatly appreciated.
I highly recommend “Pride of the Marines,” in which Garfield portrayed real-life World War II Marine hero Al Schmid. It’s the movie that introduced me to Garfield when I caught it on TV back in the ’60s. Why he didn’t get an Academy Award nomination for it is a puzzle to me.
Hey Gary R. It seems that everytime I write a movie page I end up watching more movies of that person. In Garfield’s case I have seen 5 of his movies since writting the page. Pride of the Marines is one of the ones I want to see….and reading your comment makes me want to see it even more. Garfield got a nomination for one of his first movies….yet got ignored by the Oscar people for the rest of his career….that is a puzzle to me too. Thanks for checking out my Garfield page.
Lest we forget ” Humoresque ” where he stared down Joan Crawford.
@Pax….Humoresque is one of my mom’s favorties too.
The great issue with Garfield is that he’s a transitional actor, caught between the “star acting” and “modern acting.” GENTLEMAN’S AGREEMENT is a good example–the styles of the actors are all over the map. My favorite Garfield movie: THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE.
@Gary….I agree with about Gentleman’s Agreement….I like the Gafield Postman movie more than the Jack N. Postman movie
“Postman” is my favorite of Garfield’s too.
Thanks Michael W. for stopping by. Postman is ranked 2nd on my table.