Lana Turner Movies

Want to know the best Lana Turner movies?  How about the worst Lana Turner movies?  Curious about Lana Turner’s box office grosses or which Lana Turner movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Lana Turner movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which movie got the worst reviews? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.

Gotta make mama happy. Since I started writing movie pages, my mother, BERN1960 , has been asking me for a Lana Turner page. So after putting her request off for for almost 2 years…. now…finally my Lana Turner tribute page is complete and published.

Lana Turner (1921-1995) was an Oscar® nominated actress that appeared in over 50 movies from 1937 to 1991. In 1937 Turner got her big break when she went to a Hollywood drug store for some soda pop and was discovered by a movie producer who happened to be in the same drug store. She would appear in her first movie, They Won’t Forget, later that year and immediately was noticed by the movie going public because of the tight sweater she wore in the movie. She became known as the “sweater girl”….a label that she strongly disliked. It only took her four years to go from supporting roles to leading roles in low budget movies to leading roles in the most prestige movies being made at the time.

By 1941 was sharing top billing with superstars James Stewart, Spencer Tracy and Clark Gable. Her peak movie years happened between 1941 and 1959. During this time frame she appeared in many blockbuster hits and numerous critical hits and was one of the biggest stars working in movies. Her IMDb page shows 61 acting credits from 1937 to 1985. This page will rank Lana Turner movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, cameos and movies that received limited North America releases were not included in the rankings.

Kirk Douglas and Lana Turner in 1952's The Bad and the Beautiful
Kirk Douglas and Lana Turner in 1952’s The Bad and the Beautiful

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

Lana Turner Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In Ther Table

The really cool thing about ther table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.

  • Sort Lana Turner movies by the co-stars of her movies.
  • Sort Lana Turner movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Lana Turner movies by yearly domestic box office rank
  • Sort Lana Turner 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 Lana Turner movie received.
  • Sort Lana Turner movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR).  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 Lana Turner Table

  1. Twenty-three Lana Turner movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark.  That is a percentage of 46.00% of her movies listed. Peyton Place (1957) was her biggest box office hit.
  2. An average Lana Turner movie grossed $118.40 million in adjusted box office gross
  3. Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter.  26 of Lana Turner’s movies are rated as good movies…or 52.00% of her movies.  The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) is her highest rated movie while Bittersweet Love (1976) was her lowest rated movie.
  4. Nine Lana Turner movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 18.00% of her movies.
  5. Three Lana Turner movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 6.00% of her movies.
  6. A “good movie” Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 60.00.  35 Lana Turner movies scored higher that average….or 70.00% of her movies.  Peyton Place (1957) got the the highest UMR Score while Bittersweet Love (1976) got the lowest UMR Score.
John Garfield and Lana Turner in the classic film noir movie...The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946).
John Garfield and Lana Turner in the classic film noir movie…The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946).

Possibly Interesting Facts About Lana Turner

1. Lana Turner was born Julia Jean Turner in Wallace, Idaho in 1921. Throughout her life family members called her Judy. It was not until she was discovered that she became Lana.

2. Lana Turner’s list of co-stars is pretty impressive……4 movies with Clark Gable, 2 movies with Spencer Tracy, once with James Stewart, John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Gene Kelly, Ginger Rogers, Richard Burton and Anthony Quinn. She even appeared opposite two James Bonds years before they became Bond….Sean Connery and Roger Moore.

3. Lana Turner received one Oscar® nomination in her career. She was nominated for Best Actress in 1957’s Peyton Place. She never received a Golden Globe® nomination.

4. Lana Turner was married 8 different times to 7 different men. They included a rancher, a hypnotist, a movie producer, an actor, a restaurant owner, a department store owner and a millionaire socialite. Lana Turner had one daughter, Cheryl.

5. In 1958 Lana Turner and her boyfriend at the time, gangster Johnny Stompanato, were in a heated argument. In an effort to protect her mother, Cheryl Turner, killed Stompanato. The amount of media coverage of the killing has been compared to the O.J. Simpson trial in 1995. It was ruled a justifiable homicide.

6. Roles Lana Turner turned down or was seriously considered for: Anatomy of a Murder, Mogambo, The Sound and the Fury, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. On the other side of this fact….she did however get the role of one of her biggest hits, Green Dolphin Street, when Katharine Hepburn dropped out of the movie.

7. The first agent that had contact with Lana Turner was Zeppo Marx, Groucho’s brother.

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

But wait….we have a few more Lana Turner Movie Stats….Adjusted Worldwide Gross on 22 Lana Turner Movies

Lana Turner Box Office Grosses – Adjusted World Wide

Jump to Domestic Box Office

Steve’s Updated Lana Turner You Tube Video

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86 thoughts on “Lana Turner Movies”

  1. Lana Turner is one of my favorite and beautiful Golden age Hollywood stars. I loved Lana most in “Honky tonk” with Clark Gable, “The postman always rings twice” with John Garfield, “Ziegfeld girl” with James Stewart and Judy Garland, “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” with Spencer Tracy, “Weekend at the Waldorf” with Ginger Rogers, “The great Garrick” with Olivia de Havilland, and “The merry widow” with Fernando Llamas and Una Merkel. Oh, and Lana was also good in “Love finds Andy Hardy” with Mickey Rooney and “Green dolphin street” with Van Heflin. These listed are also the only Lana films I’ve seen, I haven’t seen them all yet. So far, there is no bad Lana Turner film

    Reply

    1. Hey Alichael. Glad to see a Lana Turner fan find this page. She is one of my mom’s favorite actresses as well. You have listed some great Lana Turner movies. Looks like you have lots more “new” Lana movies to watch. Imiatition of Life looks like one of her all-time classics that you have missed…that is worth checking out. Good comment.

      Reply

  2. Steve’s updated Lana Turner You Tube video has found a home on our Turner page.

    “One of my mom’s favorites gets an updated Lensman video. My first match is the silly #25 Who’s Got The Action. #20 The Sea Chase one of Wayne’s bigger hits…but not a favorite Wayne movie of mine #19 Portrait in Black….very soap operaish. #11 Madame X….her last good movie? #9 Love Finds Andy Hardy…actually just watched this one last week. #7 Dr. J and Mr. H…..a different look at this classic story…at least in how Mr. Hyde looks. #4 Peyton Place….huge Turner hit #3 Bad and the Beautiful…classic movie #2 Imitiation of Life…cult classic and #1 Postman Two Times….easily her best performance in my humble opinion. So that is 9 of 40….almost 25%….not too bad. Voted up and shared.”

    Reply

    1. Hello Bruce, I beat your tally by one, Flora has seen 27. I’m a big fan of the Spencer Tracy Jekyll & Hyde movie for various reasons, MGM production values, music by Franz Waxman and Tracy, Turner and Bergman all in one glossy package. Plus the make up for Hyde is a lot more subtle than usual, he doesn’t look like a big ape. Looking at our Lana Turner Charts the only similarity is we have the same no.1, that’s okay. Thanks again for the vote, comment and share, mucho apreciado.

      Reply

  3. I previously commented on your original Turner video on 12 Oct 2016 at 6.34am

    We suspect that perceived bad behaviour in a star’s private life has at times denied an Oscar to a performer who otherwise probably deserved it. For example many insiders think that book makers’ heavy favourite for an Academy Award, perennial movies bad boy Russell Crowe for A Beautiful Mind, lost out because on the eve of the 2002 Academy Awards Russell was in another of his regular public incidents involving anti- social /loutish behaviour.

    Similarly I have often wondered if the legacy of the unsavoury publicity from the murder of big time LA mobster Johnny Stompanato cost Lana a place on AFI’s Legends lists. Certainly as your videos on Turner amply demonstrate when aligned with WH’s stats Lana had more stand-alone box office success and a better box office record overall than many of the actresses who made the list and she was just as glamorous as most.

    TURNER EXTENDED VIDEO 40-21 – POSTERS I most like are Opening one for The Prodigal, Two Girls on Broadway, Love has Many Faces [racy] Latin Lovers, Marriage is a Private Affair, Dramatic School, The Flame and the Flesh, Who’s Got the Action [with Lana “in bed” with the great Dino] The Merry Widow, and a stunning original one for The Rains of Ranchipur. The latter was a remake of The Rains Came with Burton in the old Ty Power role of Rama Safi Unlike others on this site I prefer not to fawn over certain actresses so I will not mention the name of the woman who played the Turner part of Lady Esketh in the earlier movie.

    There are a few more STILLS than is often the case in the first part of your extended plays and I enjoyed particularly the “revealing” Lana in The Prodigal, Lana being hoisted by Big Jeff, the lobby card for Calling Dr Kildare, Burton with turban in Rains of Ranchipur, and especially the stills for Love Has Many Faces and Diane. In each of he latter two stills did Lana have in Bondage as a supporting leading man a future superstar too young in those days for me to identify with complete certainty in your photos? …..

    Reply

    1. STEVE

      In my question at the conclusion of my Part One Turner post today the two films to which I am referring are Another Time Another Place and Diane. For some reason in my mind I often confuse the first of those two movies with Love Has Many Faces. Apologies if I mystified you!

      Reply

      1. Hi Bob, thanks for reviewing the first half of my Lana Turner extended play video, it is appreciated. Glad you liked the picture gallery.

        Your post did confuse me for a second, especially when you mentioned stills for Love Has Many Faces and I didn’t include any. But the word ‘Bondage’ was a clue. Yep Lana starred with two Bond superstars back in the 50s, before they received their licence to kill.

        Yes that was Sean and Roger in those two stills. Let’s see Roger Moore was 28 when he started filming Diane in 1955 and Sean Connery was also 28 when he filmed Another Time Another Place in 1958.

        There’s a scene at the beginning of Thunderball (1965) where a girl says to Sean “Any time James, any place”, and Sean replies “Another time, another place” and drives off.

        That’s right UMR favorite Myrna Loy [Bob winces] played Lana’s part in The Rains Came and Tyrone Power played the Richard Burton part. Both films had excellent special effects during the climactic earthquake and flood.

        Reply

        1. Btw Bob, are you watching the videos on a desktop computer or laptop?

          How big is your computer screen? I upload all my videos in high definition. Are they sharp and clear on your screen?

          Reply

          1. HI STEVE
            Your videos are always crystal clear but my eyes are not what they used to be even with glasses, sometimes even the angle of a shot tricks me [I think Sir Sean was lying down in the Turner still – who wouldn’t!], and often my mind will have a much later image of some stars’ appearance. How I envy the likes of Harrison Ford and Arnie who seem to have eyes in the back of their heads in their action movies!

            Good quote about Another Time Another Place from Thunderball by the way.

        2. HI STEVE

          I think The Rains Came was the last time that Myrna ever had top billing over another really big star though it has to be said that Ty had not yet reached the zenith of his star power when that movie was made in 1939. 15 years later I stood outside The Castle cinema in Belfast queuing for a rerun of the movie and gazed up at the marquee. It has a massive photograph of Ty in turban with Myrna nowhere in sight. However she has the last laugh of course with eternal top billing on this site and I don’t think that even Charlie Bill will ever equal her immortality on Cogerson however many lives he leads!

          The last time I saw Sir Sean was not in a movie but sitting among the spectators at the 2012 Wimbledon tennis final between Roger Federer and Andy Murray and it seemed to me that the then-82 year old veteran was maybe losing the plot a bit. Being a Scot he naturally supported Andy but at one point when the concluding score for a set was called out Sir Sean started to wildly applaud and thump the air with his fist apparently not realising that it was Federer who had won the set [as indeed Roger did the match ultimately]

          Anyway regarding Lana – watch this space tomorrow!

          Reply

        3. TURNER EXTENDED VIDEO 1-20 ENTRIES A glut of fab POSTERS my favourites being the entire run of ones with Lana and an iconic Duke in The Sea Chase [though in my amateur movie buffs group they still taunt me over Big John’s Yankee accent as German Captain Karl Ehrlich] Portrait in Black, A Life of Her Own, a stunning one for Green Dolphin Street, Slightly Dangerous, Johnny Eager, a breathtaking one for Peyton Place, Bad and Beautiful and Postman Always Rings Twice.

          Super STILLS – (1) the lovely solo of the young Lana in Dr Cogerson and Mr Hirschhorn (2) her with Joe Yule Jr (3) The Big Three – Lana, Judy and Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler (4) Turner being menaced by the shadowy background figure of Mr Hirschhorn (5) Lana with The Cowboy of the Century in Johnny Eager (6) Lana with your fave [miscast] musical star on a bed with Lana in 3 Musketeers (7) her with Kirk Douglas (8) was that John Gavin with her in Imitation of Life? (9) two stills from Postman Always Rings Twice with Lana in seductive form (10) the lobby card of her with Garfield and (11) the two of Lana with King Gable in Homecoming and Honky Tonk.

          The amorous Billy Gable was renowned for romancing his female co-stars and indeed MGM, fearing scandal, had on a couple of occasions disciplined Gable for some of his tomcat ways [for example they reportedly loaned him out to Columbia for 1934’s It Happened One Night to keep him away from Crawford]. Carole Lombard apparently opined that Lana would make herself available to Clark and he and Turner had started working on 1942’s Somewhere I’ll Find You the day previous to Carole and her party ‘s scheduled return home by train. However apparently to get back to Hollywood and Gable by the quickest possible means Carole changed her plans and took the aircraft flight that ended in her tragic and untimely death.

          Dr Cogerson and you agree on 3 of Lana’s Top 5 films for critical rating, Bad and Beautiful, Imitation of Life and Postman. My own overall rating of your Turner “EP” is 98%. Some magical posters and stills in this one which make it par excellence in my book. I bow to you.

          Reply

          1. Hi Bob, thanks for the generous rating, review, info, trivia, comparison, observation and references to Dr. Cogerson & Mr. Hirschhorn which made me smile. Glad the posters and stills met with your approval.

            There are 20 glossy stills included in this video, which might be a record, not sure. Lana is so photogenic I couldn’t resist piling on the photos.

            So Clark Gable had an eye for the ladies eh even when he was supposedly happily married. And it all ended so tragically for 33 year old Carole Lombard.

            Lana Turner has two films scoring 10 out of 10 – Imitation of Life and The Postman Always Rings Twice. Two more scoring 9 out of 10 – Peyton Place and The Bad and the Beautiful.

            Highest rated at IMDB are The Good the Bad and the Beautiful, and Imitation of Life, both scoring 7.9. Highest at Rotten Tomatoes is The Postman Sometimes Rings Twice. Bruce’s critics chart has Postman at no.1, and Peyton Place is tops on the UMR chart.

          2. HI STEVE

            Thanks for the feedback and additional information.

            According to the documentary that I watched the other night Gable was never the same man after Lombard’s death. Despite his straying eye he valued her greatly as a companion and wife. Also if his untrustworthiness in Carole’s eyes was the indirect cause of her death and he was aware of that.he must have suffered from enormous guilt.

  4. Hi Bruce!

    I must admit that I am really shocked by the weak box office of Madame X- I know a few people here who really love that movie, it is featured in some of my books as a 60’s classic, it has been released to DVD…so although I think it must have looked pretty dated when it was released, I really thought that it was much more successful.This being said, I have seen 26 of the above listed films. Lana Turner might not have been the greatest actress, but she sure was STAR material. I love Postman, Jeckyll & Hyde, Imitation of Life, The Bad and the Beautiful, Ziegfeld Girl and Johnny Eager, among others. The highest ranking film I’ve seen is Peyton Place, the lowest I’ve seen is Persuction …but I’ve missed quite a few in between. Although I remember no specifics about her TV series The Survivors, I do remember that I was allowed to watch it as a kid and I never forgot her name, although I didn’t have a clue she was a big american moviestar back then. Also, I was very surprised to learn later in life that she was once married to Lex Barker, an actor who was enormously popular in Germany due to a string of box office hits playing Old Shatterhand in movies based on the novels of Karl May. Later, Turner appeared on Falcon Crest, and as her daughter Cheryl stated in her memoirs, was totally shocked when she was written out of that show after only one season- obviously Jane Wyman neither was willing to share the spotlight, nor to put up with Lana’s moviestar behaviour. A Life filled with scandals, romances, professional ups and downs, comebacks…yet with little acclaim from the critics. Seen today from a distance, Lana Turner worked well with a good script and a director who understood how to handle her, but in her day, I am afraid she was seen as just another amoral, talentless sexpot. Thanks for this page and the remainder of Miss Turner’s boxoffice glory, that lasted from the late 30’s well into the early 60’s.

    Reply

    1. Hey Lupino
      1. Feel pretty good about the number for Madame X….it was near the end of career…and her box office glory days were way behind her. Still the movie did get good reviews….her 8th best reviewed movies….which in the long run helps build a legacy more than box office.
      2. Tally counts….and some of these are probably not correct anymore
      Lupino ….26
      Flora….12
      Steve ….9
      Cogerson….7
      3. Good memory share of her television show….I was unaware of that one.
      4. Good thoughts on the legacy of Turner….I bet she is close to Angelina Jolie as we have now…granted…and hopefully it will remain that way Jolie has not had a murder in her life. But she has the ex-husbands….the tabloid fascination…the looks…..and lots of bad press.
      5. Glad you enjoyed this look at Ms. Lana Turner.
      3.

      Reply

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