Want to know the best Mario Lanza movies? How about the worst Mario Lanza movies? Curious about Mario Lanza box office grosses or which Mario Lanza movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Mario Lanza movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
Mario Lanza (1921-1959) was a famous American tenor who turned his attention to making movies in the late 1940s and the 1950s. Lanza quickly became a Hollywood film star. His IMDB page shows 10 credits from 1944-1959. This page will rank 8 Mario Lanza movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. His his uncredited role in 1944’s Winged Victory and his television appearance on Shower of Stars (1954) were not included in the rankings.
Drivel part of the page: This Mario Lanza page comes from a request by BERN1960. For those that do not know…BERN1960…..would be my mother. I have not seen a single Mario Lanza movies….but I can recognize his voice. That is because growing up in my house….his records played many many times….as Lanza has be one of my mom’s Top 3 singers of all-time. So here you go BERN1960….a look at Mario Lanza’s short but successful career.
Mario Lanza 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 Mario Lanza movies by co-stars of his movies
- Sort Mario Lanza movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Mario Lanza movies by adjusted worldwide box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Mario Lanza 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 Mario Lanza movie received and how many Oscar® wins each Mario Lanza movie won.
- Sort Mario Lanza 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 Mario Lanza Table
- Two Mario Lanza movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 25.00% of his movies listed. The Great Caruso (1952) is his biggest box office hit.
- An average Mario Lanza movie grosses $93.60 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Mario Lanza’s career adjusted domestic gross is $748.80 million.
- Mario Lanza’s career adjusted worldwide gross is $1.54 billion.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 5 Mario Lanza movies are rated as good movies…or 62.50% of his movies. The Student Prince (1954) is his highest rated movie while Seven Hills From Rome (1957) is lowest rated movie.
- An average Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score is 40.00. 5 Mario Lanza movies scored higher that average….or 62.50% of his movies. The Great Caruso (1952) got the the highest UMR Score while Seven Hills From Rome (1957) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Mario Lanza
1. Alfred Arnold Cocozza was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1921.
2. He adopted the stage name Mario Lanza, for its similarity to his mother’s maiden name, Maria Lanza
3. Mario Lanza was to a seven year contract with MGM when Louis B. Mayer heared Lanza sing at a concert.
4. MGM had hoped Mario Lanza would become their “singing Clark Gable“.
5. Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, Andrea Bocelli, and Jerry Hadley all credit Mario Lanza as an inspiration to them in pursuing their chosen careers. I guess those are famous singers…lol.
6. The saga of The Student Prince. Mario Lanza and the film’s director (Curtis Bernhardt) did not get along during filming. The end result was that Lanza walked off the set and vowed not to return as long as Bernhardt was the director. The studio took an injunction against Lanza for damages and losses. He could not perform in public, on radio, or in the recording studio for the remaining time of his contract with MGM. A solution was reached in May 1953: the studio would remove the embargo on Lanza if he would allow his voice to be used while another actor played the part of the prince. So the movie ended up with Lanza’s voice going out of Edmund Purdom’s mouth.
7. Mario Lanza was married one time and had 4 children.
8. Mario Lanza died of an apparent pulmonary embolism at the age of 38 in 1959. At the time of his death he was still “the most famous tenor in the world“.
9. Three Mario Lanza movies were nominated for an Academy Award®. 1950’s The Toast of New Orleans and 1952’s Because Your Mine received 1 nomination….while 1951’s The Great Caruso was nominated for 3 Oscars®….winning one time.
10. Check out Mario Lanza’s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
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Did not realize he made movies too. I agree with the other comments, truly sad he passed away so young.
Hey SteinHOF….yep his movie career was short but pretty successful….passing away that young is indeed tragic…especially with having 4 kids too. Thanks for checking out our latest page.
1 I have always wanted to see a Lanza page on this site but never requested one as I thought that it may have been thought that Mario made too few films for a worthwhile profile but the Possibly Interesting Facts make up for the shortage of movies.
2 The drama of The Student Prince is explained in Possibly Interesting Facts and I can remember posters and marquees at the time proclaiming “PURDOM ACTS LANZA SINGS”. Lanza’s inflated sense of self-importance which led to his non-appearance in The Student Prince was evident throughout his career and for example in his first CREDITED** movie That Midnight Kiss he demanded but was refused top billing over the already well-established Kathryn Grayson.
3 Also musical historians have opined that he was so carried away with his portrayal of The Great Caruso that he kidded himself that he could sing as well as the unique Enrico whereas classical music scholars see Mario as a cut below the giants of tenor singing such as Caruso, Gigli, Schipa and Bjorling and they feel that Lanza’s status as a tenor was exaggerated to a degree by the fact that he was a great Hollywood star for a time***. In 1951 and 1952 Mario reached 13th and 23rd in Quigley and got into the Top 10 in British popularity charts those years.
4 It has been suggested that gluttony was responsible for bringing on the heart attack that prematurely killed him and also for damaging his career. One film critic at the time said that at the end For the First Time, his final movie, was “the only little film he could get”. It had cost just $500,000 to make [about $4 million today] but because of its small budget and its foreign revenues exceeding domestic ones it made an overall profit of around $1.7 million [approx. 14 million in 2017] despite low US grosses as demonstrated above.
5 Regardless of those negative factors that I have mentioned I liked Lanza’s films and still enjoy his recordings, his singing of the festive Christmas Tree and the art song Lolita particularly impressing me.
**He had an uncredited role as part of a chorus in Winged Victory 1944.
***I see that in the British Broadcasting Company Music Magazine’s list of the 20 Greatest Tenors of All Time Placido Domingo is No 1 and Caruso is second. Lanza is not mentioned among the 20 but my own favourite tenor John McCormack is ranked 16th – happy days!
Hey Bob….then I am glad my mom picked a good UMR subject that you liked. This was a very easy page to write….as all of his movies had domestic and worldwide rentals. This is the 2nd smallest movie total….that I have given a performer his own page. James Dean and his 3 movies would be that record holder.
Good information on his billing battles and his issues. I read one description of him…was as a Shakespeare tragedy character….lots and lots of issues. As is our rule we do not mention the really bad negative stuff in the page….but yes….he had lots of issues and addictions. His final two movies did not do well in the USA…but the world still liked his movies.
Glad you like his singing of Christmas tree….my mom still has him in heavy rotation at her house….glad Mr.McCormack cracked the Top 20. I know almost nothing on this subject…so I will gladly use your expertise to form an opinion on the matter…..good stuff as always.
I’ve seen a minute or two of Mario Lanza singing from clips included in the fab MGM compilation movie That’s Entertainment! but that’s about it. I don’t think I’ve seen any of his films from beginning to end.
The only two films here that look interesting to me are – Toast of New Orleans, because David Niven’s in it, and Serenade which also stars Vincent Price.
Looking at the trivia – I didn’t know Lanza died so young. He certainly made his mark and was very famous in his time.
Good work Bruce. Vote Up!
Hey Steve….once again…the both of us get shut out. That is 2 of the last 3 pages. But…hey my mom is happy to see this page…..lol. I figured you would have already seen the Price movie. I give you edge in the tally…because I have never seen the That’s Entertainment movies…thanks for the comment and visit.
Tally count
BERN1960….4 Mario movies watched or 50%
Flora …..4 Mario movies watched or 50%
Steve….0….Mario movies
Cogerson 0…Mario movies
*Maybe we need to turn in our movie buff cards…lol.
I have seen 4 of Mario Lanza’s movies. He was a great singer, but I am not a fan of his acting as much. TCM recently had a day of his movies. I have seen The Great Caruso, The Toast of New Orleans, Seranade, and The Seven Hills From Rome.
Hey Flora….thanks for the tally count, visit and comment. I imagine TCM could easily show his entire movie career in one day. I have not seen any Lanza movies….heck I have never seen a single one of his movies on DVD or VHS. You would think with The Great Caruso being so popular (almost half a billion in worldwide box office) that it would be a little easier to find the movie. So the two Canadians are tied with 4…when it comes to the Lanza tally count. 🙂
Hey, thank you for this site. I still play Mario Lanza music here at home and still enjoy his voice.
My favorite movies are The Great Caruso, Because You’re Mine and Serenade. I knew that it was his voice in The Student Prince. It is unfortunate that he had such a short life. Thank you for doing this on Mario Lanza. Your mother appreciates it very much. MERCI BEAUCOUP!
Hey BERN1960…glad you found and glad you like your requested Mario Lanza movies…..so your tally is 4 movies? That ties Flora for the top spot….and is 50% of his movies. Your son the movie buff has never seen a single Lanza movie….I know…hiding my face in shame. Thanks for listing your favorites…The Great Caruso was by far his most successful movie….Because You’re Mine produced some of his most popular music…and freely admit I know almost nothing about Serenade. Thanks for the visit and the comment.