Luise Rainer (1910-2014) was a Two time Oscar®-winning German actress. Most of her movie career was during the 1930s. She is one of the few thespians to win back to back Oscars®. Others on that short list? Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Jason Robards and Tom Hanks. This page ranks 10 Luis Rainer movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows (10 roles) and her movies (4 movies) not released in North America theaters are not included in the rankings. This page comes from a request by bob cox and a “second” by Lupino.
Luise Rainer Movies Ranked By Combination of Box Office, Reviews and Awards (UMR Score) *Classic UMR Table (the one with all the stats is the second table)
Luise Rainer 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 Luise Rainer movies by co-stars of her movies.
- Sort Luise Rainer movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Luise Rainer movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Luise Rainer movies how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations each Luise Rainer movie received and how many Oscar® wins each Luise Rainer movie won.
- Sort Luise Rainer 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.
- Use the search and sort button to make this page very interactive.
LMU Of Munich Film Professor Lupino’s Possibly Interesting Facts on Luise Rainer
1. Luise Rainer was born January 12, 1910 in Düsseldorf, Germany into a jewish family
2. Luise Rainer was discovered by legendary stage director Max Reinhardt and became a member of his company in Vienna, Austria. She became a well known stage actress in both Vienna and Berlin.
3. Luise Rainer made her film debut in 1932, in the German/Austrian co-production Desire 202 (referring to a perfume) and followed this with 2 more films before being discovered by a talent scout and being offered a seven year contract by MGM. Since the Nazi regime was already becoming a strong force, Rainer ended her European career and left for Hollywood.
4. Won her 2 Oscars for her second and third American movie.
5. Claimed to have based her tour de force performance in the famous telephone scene in The Great Ziegfeld on Cocteau’s one woman play La Voix Humaine/The Human Voice.
6. Preferred her performance of O Lan to anything she had done during her Hollywood career and was full of praise for director Sidney Franklin
7. Married famous playwrite Clifford Odets in 1937 (divorced 1940).
8. Named Melvyn Douglas as her favorite leading man
9. After the death of Irving Thalberg, who shared a lot of her artistic visions, she constantly clashed with Louis B. Mayer, who was more interested in beautiful people than beautiful performances to grace his pictures. After threatening to kill her career if she remained difficult once too often, Rainer walked out of her contract and left Hollywood for good.
10. Returned once for one Paramount movie in 1943, then, like Dietrich, joined the war effort, touring North Africa and Italy, boosting the morale of soldiers there.
11. Found lasting happiness in her second marriage (1945 to 1989, her husband’s death)
12. Was offered movie roles during her long absence from the screen, most notably in Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, but argued with the director about a “sex scene” of sorts she was supposed to act out with Marcello Mastroianni and finally withdrew despite her admiration for the director.
13. Lived in Switzerland and later in London, was in good health until the age of 102, made a “small comeback” in The Gambler in 1997 and was widely praised for her performance. She was a frequent and whitty guest on TV shows, impressing viewers with her sharp memory and funny remarks like “I spent my 90th birthday swimming in the dead sea, injecting some life into it”.
14. Luise Rainer died December 30, 2014 in Belgravia, London, at the age of 104.
15. Check out Luise Rainer‘s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
LMU of Munich Professor Lupino’s thoughts on Luise Rainer:
“I feel that her O Lan role in 1937’s The Good Earth is one of the finest screen creations I have seen to date, and as most of you know, I have seen quite a few movies in my lifetime. Yet, I do have my reservations about her overall thespian talents as captured on film.
I watched only my fourth LR movie over the weekend and this one proved what I already suspected- Miss Rainer may only be second to Bette Davis when it comes to falling back on mannerisms. Strangely, these mannerisms are highly effective when viewed in one film, but seem to show quite a limited range when witnessed in film after film.
What am I talking about? Her delicate beauty and elfin appearance seem to be inevitably partnered with that faint, whispering voice, soulfull eyes always ready to fill with tears and that Rainer giggle, trying to hide the tears when in fact it is nothing but a showcase for her shaken emotional state. As I said already, I have only seen 3 movies apart from The Good Earth, so maybe I am too harsh in my judgement. But I felt that in both, The Great Waltz and Dramatic School, those mannerisms almost detached her from the other players, as if Rainer’s character existed in a parallel world to everyone else.
Maybe like Davis she needed a good director to keep her acting tricks at bay, or maybe, as she often claimed herself, she didn’t understand what was going on in her films and thus didn’t really know what else to do with her part. Seeing her as O Lan and knowing that the great Max Reinhardt as well as Clifford Odets were taken in by her acting chops, I tend to believe that Rainer and Hollywood simply was a miss-match. Would love to see more of her movies, but haven’t been lucky yet.
What I love about the stats here is that they prove that her movies were not box office duds and thus killing her career prematurely as I have read quite often. Her 8 MGM films brought in over a billion $, and only 2 failed to reach the 100 million $ mark domestically. No Davis, Hepburn, Stanwyck or Garbo had such a “run” in the mid 30’s.
My favorite Luise Rainer films are The Good Earth and The Great Ziegfeld, and although neither The Great Waltz nor Dramatic School are anywhere close to my favorite movies, they are entertaining enough for various reasons.”
I’ve seen just one of Luise Rainers films – The Good Earth. I watched it a few times over the years and have a copy of it in my movie collection.
Watching the film as a kid the scene that stuck in my mind was the swarm of locusts coming over the hill and attacking their crops, it frightened me. I loathe insects and one of them landing on me would have freaked me out.
I’ve seen bits of The Great Ziegfeld and The Great Waltz from various documentaries and shows on TV.
Good trivia by Lupino, the only info missing is which films she won her two Oscars for, one of them has to be The Good Earth, the other? Ziegfeld? Waltz?
Vote Up!
Hey Steve
1. Well I double you total. It is so rare for me to double your tally when we are looking at older subjects….but I will take my bow…..thank you thank you. It took a lot of hard work to accomplish this…..but in the end….I am so proud of myself….lol.
2. Tally count…Flora 7, me 2 and you 1.
3. I really enjoyed The Good Earth….not thinking a movie like that could be made today….can’t see a current movie star playing an Oriental person with tons of makeup on…..the outcry would be loud and far reaching.
4. Ah….I remember the “The Attack Of The Locusts” in The Good Earth very well…..I am sure that is why The Swarm scared you so much…..it brought the terror of your childhood….nothing to do with the quality of that movie…lol.
5. To answer your Oscar question…all you have to do is look in the table….her wins are listed under The Good Earth and Great Ziegfeld.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Luise Lupino.
Bruce, Lupino, I was looking at the Oscar tables and didn’t think to look under the film titles, how blind is that? 🙂
Looking at the Oscar tables you can’t tell if the actor won an award or can you?
There was a 1950s monster movie featuring giant locusts swarming into a city, climbing skyscrapers etc. I hated looking at the closeups of these creatures. Repulsed by them.
In nature documentaries I would look away when they featured close ups of insects, especially when they were eating each other.
Hey Steve….for acting Oscar nominations and Oscar wins…the thespian gets it mentioned under the movie title column…..if it was just a nomination…..it is in gray text….if it is a win….they get the gold text. The same rule goes with movies that get a Best Picture Oscar nomination….gray for nomination and gold for win. Looking at your boy Chuck…you can quickly see the three movies that got Best Picture nominations….and the two that won Best Picture….https://www.ultimatemovierankings.com/charlton-heston-movies/ good feedback as always.
Steve, of course you’re right. Luise got her second Oscar for The Good Earth, while her first was for playing Anna Held, first wife of The Great Ziegfeld.
As you said….two Oscars for her first three American movies….and we thought Christoph Waltz was good for getting two Oscars in 3 years.
Christoph Waltz IS good…but Luise was a wee tiny little bit better.
Still strange for me to see Waltz’ name appear on an international website…when for years he was known to me as an actor in german made for TV movies and all sorts of TV episodes. He really made it big- and deservedly so.
Interesting about Christoph Waltz…..one day we will do an UMR page on him….he has become a very busy actor here in the states. From a German tv star to a two time Oscar winner…he has a wonderful ride.
LUPINO Thanks for requesting this.
WORK HORSE “
Don’t let them say your video’s too short
Cause I don’t care, in a storm it’s any port, Bruce!”
Which is my way of saying that all that I have ever been aware of concerning Luise’s career is that she was with Muni in The Good Earth so that I will take whatever I can get about her regardless of its brevity.
Accordingly this little Rainer treat greatly interests me and earns from me a Lensman Vote Up – plus, plus, plus! I enjoyed the comprehensive Possibly Interesting Facts and overall I will specifically comment on
(1) Lupino’s excellent post in the comments section. Very informative. LUPINO For once you have matched The Master!
(2) Luise’s box office. Bruce you’ve listed only 10 of her movies [so Myrna can breathe a sigh of relief!] but 60% of them crashed through your magical 100 million barrier which is good.
(3) Fact 12 mentions her row with Fellini over a sex scene. Thank goodness Bertolucci and Brando didn’t try to involve her in any way in Last Tango in Paris! She’d have been 61 then but why should ancient males like Arnie, Sly and Willis have all the fun?
INTERVIEWER [Talking to celebs coming out of NY Last Tango premier] “What did you think of the movie Mr Marx?
GROUCHO [aged 81] “A compelling tragedy.”
INTERVIEWER: “A tragedy? I thought it was about sex.”
GROUCHO: “At my age that’s a tragedy!”
I have often wondered whether the likes of Groucho and Bob Hope arrange plants to set up these types of exchanges as the questions always enable a funny to be cracked.
HI FOLKS
Lupino’s Possibly Interesting Facts were so jam-packed that it took me about 3 readings to fully realise that here it wasn’t a case of Lupino matching The Master as I said at first but the Master had actually “stolen” from the pupil!
Nevertheless top marks Work Horse for having the “editorial” wisdom to include Lupino’s possibly interesting facts as an OFFICIAL section of this page and congrats to you too Lupino for earning such an honour.
Hey Bob…yep his facts were so good….they almost got an UMR page of their own. Good job Lupino.
Hey Bob
1. Thanks for checking out our latest UMR page.
2. Glad the shortness of the movie table did not bother you…..lol.
3. Her 1930s career is pretty impressive…..box office success….two Oscars…….it makes it even sadder that she got pushed out of the way…..”What could have been!”
4. Funny Groucho comment….his jokes have aged very well.
5. I agree 100% with you about Lupino’s contribution……he did an excellent job of putting this together.
Good stuff as always.
Dear Sires,
thy kind words are humbly accepted by this non deserving pupil 😉
Glad you liked my interesting facts post…took me hours to write, since I didn’t know what I could/should leave out. The unedited post would really have needed a page of its own 🙂
And Bruce- Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Luise Lupino???
Hey Lupino….your contribution is greatly appreciated.
HEY LUPINO
Don’t call us “sires”. Bruce doesn’t like us conjuring up on his site the kind of “breeding” image that that description invokes!
Great to hear from you as always though.
Hey Bob…very funny.
Hello Bruce,
Thank you for doing this request so quickly!
I tried to do another Interesting Facts assembly, but feel I left out so much…although it is already massive 🙂
– Luise Rainer was born January 12, 1910 in Düsseldorf, Germany into a jewish family
– Was discovered by legendary stage director Max Reinhardt and became a member of his company in Vienna, Austria. She became a well known stage actress in both Vienna and Berlin.
– Made her film debut in 1932, in the german/austrian coproduction Desire 202 (referring to a perfume) and followed this with 2 more films before being discovered by a talent scout and being offered a seven year contract by MGM. Since the Nazi regime was already becoming a strong force, Rainer ended her european career and left for Hollywood.
– Won her 2 Oscars for her second and third american movie.
– Claimed to have based her tour de force performance in the famous telephone scene in The Great Ziegfeld on Cocteau’s one woman play La Voix Humaine/The Human Voice.
– Preferred her performance of O Lan to anything she had done during her Hollywood career and was full of praise for director Sidney Franklin
– Married famous playwrite Clifford Odets in 1937 (divorced 1940)
– Named Melvyn Douglas as her favorite leading man
– After the death of Irving Thalberg, who shared a lot of her artistic visions, she constantly clashed with Louis B. Mayer, who was more interested in beautiful people than beautiful performances to grace his pictures. After threatening to kill her career if she remained difficult once too often, Rainer walked out of her contract and left Hollywood for good.
– Returned once for one Paramount movie in 1943, then, like Dietrich, joined the war effort, touring North Africa and Italy, boosting the morale of soldiers there.
– Found lasting happiness in her second marriage (1945 to 1989, her husband’s death)
– Was offered movie roles during her long absence from the screen, most notably in Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, but argued with the director about a “sex scene” of sorts she was supposed to act out with Marcello Mastroianni and finally withdrew despite her admiration for the director.
– Lived in Switzerland and later in London, was in good health until the age of 102, made a “small comeback” in The Gambler in 1997 and was widely praised for her performance. She was a frequent and whitty guest on TV shows, impressing viewers with her sharp memory and funny remarks like “I spent my 90th birthday swimming in the dead sea, injecting some life into it”.
– Luise Rainer died December 30, 2014 in Belgravia, London, at the age of 104.
Hey Lupino…..glad you like this page. More importantly….thanks for putting this list of facts together….you will notice that they are now part of the page…..with you getting a “By” credit. Interesting information you found….thank you very much for your efforts.
I have seen 7 Louise Rainer movies.
The highest rated film I have seen is The Good Earth.
The highest rated film I have NOT seen is Big City.
The lowest rated film I have seen is Dramatic School.
My favourite Louise Rainer movies are:
The Great Ziegfeld
The Great Waltz
The Good Earth
The Emperor’s Candlesticks
Hey Flora……wow 70% of her movies seen….very impressive…..I have only seen The Good Earth (my favorite) and The Great Ziegfeld (not a musical fan)….but her accomplishment of winning back to back Oscars is a rare for sure. Thanks for checking out this “baby page”…but at least it did not take long to count the movies seen…lol.
This is one of the shortest pages ever done…..probably only James Dean (3 movies) and Judy Holliday (9 movies) have shorter pages….but a request is a request. I have two of these movies…but they are the Top 2 movies ranked.