Mary Astor Movies

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

Mary Astor (1906-1987) was an Oscar® winning American actress.    She made many movies but her performance  as Brigid O’Shaughnessy in 1941’s The Maltese Falcon is easily her most famous role.   Astor’s IMDb page shows 156 acting credits from 1921 to 1964.  This page will rank Mary Astor movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, movies that were not released in North American theaters were not included in the rankings.  To do well in our overall rankings a movie has to do well at the box office, get good reviews by critics, be liked by audiences and get some award recognition.

1941’s The Maltese Falcon

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

1941’s The Great Lie

Mary Astor 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 Mary Astor movies by co-stars of her movies
  • Sort Mary Astor movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Mary Astor movies by yearly domestic box office rank
  • Sort Mary Astor movies by how they were received by critics and audiences.  60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
  • Sort Mary Astor movies by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each movie received.
  • Sort Mary Astor 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.
  • Blue link in Co-star column takes you to that star’s UMR movie page
1944’s Meet Me In St. Louis

The Best of IMDb Trivia on Mary Astor

1. Lucile Vasconcellos Langhanke was born Quincy, Illnois in 1906.  Apparently Lucile Vasconcellos Langhanke did not look good on marques so she changed her name to Mary Astor.

2.  Mary Astor’s first screen test was directed by Lillian Gish.

3. When talkies arrived, Mary Astor’s voice was initially considered too masculine and she was off the screen for a year.

4. Mary Astor was the sister-in-law of Howard Hawks and cousin-in-law of Carole Lombard.

5. Bette Davis was originally cast as Sandra Kovak, the hot-tempered but talented pianist, in The Great Lie (1941) but instead opted for the smaller role of Maggie Van Allen in a bid to let her good friend Astor save her film career. As a result, Astor won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar® for her performance.  Astor thanked Bette Davis in her acceptance speech.

Check out Mary Astor’s career compared to current and classic actors.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.

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17 thoughts on “Mary Astor Movies”

  1. I saw 11 including 6 of top 8. 10 and favorite : maltese falcon. 9 and favorite: palm beach story. 9s not favorites: dodsworth, act of violence. hidden gems: the kennel murder case and across the pacific both 8s.
    I was so frightened by hush hush sweet charlotte ,as an 8 year old , 55 years ago when I saw it as a first run that I have never revisited it.
    I just watched meet me in saint louis with my mother 2 days after her 88th birthday. they have a movie every night at her assisted living home and she and her boyfriend go almost every night.
    he is a movie buff . she still throws a dinner party for 50 twice a month for her social club. what a dynamic lady. she was too busy for movies until the latest boyfriend and now we have a common interest, movies. mother was an acquaintance of greer garson (who I met)who came to one of her parties over 40 years ago.

    Reply

    1. Hey bob cox. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Mary Astor. 11 is a very solid tally count. No surprise that you have The Maltese Falcon at a 10….one of the greatest movies ever made! I am right there with you on Dodsworth…a good movie…but a one and done movie that has aged horribly. I want to see The Kennel Murder Case….maybe I will be able to track that one down in the near future. That is awesome about the nightly movie showing at your mom’s home. Added a bonus….that her boyfriend is a movie buff. Great to hear that she is still doing so well. My mom is preparing for Xmas dinner …she is a few years younger than your mother….great to see both of moms doing so well. Even more awesome about your family and Greer Garson…..my grandmother meet her frequent co-star Walter Pidgeon. Good stuff. Good to hear from you…hope your holiday goes well.

      Reply

  2. Mary Astor has never been on the Oracle of Bacon Top 1000 Center of the Hollywood Universe. These are the actors on the list she is connected too. A couple of oddities; she connects to one person on the list through a 1923 film and she connects to another through another 1936 epic with the ominous title of ” Trapped by Television”!

    48 JOHN CARRADINE Brigham Young (1940)
    48 JOHN CARRADINE The Hurricane (1937)
    49 GEORGE KENNEDY Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)
    53 JOHN SAXON This Happy Feeling (1958)
    79 BRUCE DERN Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)
    109 DAVID NIVEN Dodsworth (1936)
    109 DAVID NIVEN The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)
    127 BURT LANCASTER Desert Fury (1947)
    142 MARC LAWRENCE Brigham Young (1940)
    142 MARC LAWRENCE Trapped by Television (1936)
    146 MARTIN BALSAM Youngblood Hawke (1964)
    168 ROBERT WAGNER A Kiss Before Dying (1956)
    172 MICKEY ROONEY The World Changes (1933)
    172 MICKEY ROONEY Upperworld (1934)
    228 JOSE FERRER Return to Peyton Place (1961)
    241 AKIM TAMIROFF Fiesta (1947)
    242 AVA GARDNER Blonde Fever (1944)
    242 AVA GARDNER Young Ideas (1943)
    305 JOSEPH COTTEN Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)
    309 ROBERT TAYLOR The Power and the Prize (1956)
    467 PAUL FIX Ladies Love Brutes (1930)
    467 PAUL FIX The Devil’s Hairpin (1957)
    469 VINCENT PRICE Brigham Young (1940)
    471 PETER GRAVES A Stranger in My Arms (1959)
    512 KEYE LUKE Across the Pacific (1942)
    605 LIONEL STANDER Page Miss Glory (1935)
    634 DEBBIE REYNOLDS This Happy Feeling (1958)
    646 ELIZABETH TAYLOR Cynthia (1947)
    646 ELIZABETH TAYLOR Little Women (1949)
    656 CAMERON MITCHELL Cass Timberlane (1947)
    672 WALTER PIDGEON Listen, Darling (1938)
    708 JOHN DEHNER Youngblood Hawke (1964)
    717 ROBERT RYAN Act of Violence (1948)
    725 BARRY SULLIVAN Any Number Can Play (1949)
    781 EDWARD ANDREWS YOUNGBLOOD HAWKE (1964)
    782 EDWARD G. ROBINSON The Bright Shawl (1923)
    782 EDWARD G. ROBINSON The Little Giant (1933)
    782 EDWARD G. ROBINSON The Man with Two Faces (1934)
    801 BETTE DAVIS Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)
    801 BETTE DAVIS The Great Lie (1941)
    854 PAT O’BRIEN Page Miss Glory (1935)
    867 PETER LAWFORD Little Women (1949)
    941 CURT JURGENS This Happy Feeling (1958)
    HM (746) ROSSANO BRAZZI Little Women (1949)

    Mary appeared with 35 Oscar winners which isn’t bad since the Oscars didn’t exist for the first years of her career

    BETTE DAVIS Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)
    BETTE DAVIS The Great Lie (1941)
    BURL IVES The Power and the Prize (1956)
    BURT LANCASTER Desert Fury (1947)
    CHARLES COBURN A Stranger in My Arms (1959)
    CHARLES COBURN The Power and the Prize (1956)
    CLARK GABLE Any Number Can Play (1949)
    CLARK GABLE Red Dust (1932)
    CLAUDETTE COLBERT Midnight (1939)
    CLAUDETTE COLBERT The Palm Beach Story (1942)
    DAVID NIVEN Dodsworth (1936)
    DAVID NIVEN The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)
    DEAN JAGGER Brigham Young (1940)
    DON AMECHE Midnight (1939)
    DONALD CRISP DON Q SON OF ZORRO (1925)
    DONALD CRISP RED DUST (1932)
    DONALD CRISP THE RUNAWAY BRIDE (1930)
    DONNA REED Thousands Cheer (1943)
    ELIZABETH TAYLOR Cynthia (1947)
    ELIZABETH TAYLOR Little Women (1949)
    FREDRIC MARCH Ladies Love Brutes (1930)
    GEORGE ARLISS A Successful Calamity (1932)
    GEORGE ARLISS The Man Who Played God (1922)
    GEORGE KENNEDY Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)
    GINGER ROGERS Upperworld (1934)
    GLORIA GRAHAME Blonde Fever (1944)
    HATTIE MCDANIEL THE GREAT LIE (1941)
    HUMPHREY BOGART Across the Pacific (1942)
    HUMPHREY BOGART The Maltese Falcon (1941)
    JAMES CAGNEY Other Men’s Women (1931)
    JANE DARWELL Brigham Young (1940)
    JANE DARWELL Jennie Gerhardt (1933)
    JESSICA TANDY Blonde Fever (1944)
    JOANNE WOODWARD A Kiss Before Dying (1956)
    JOSE FERRER Return to Peyton Place (1961)
    LORETTA YOUNG The Show of Shows (1929)
    MARTIN BALSAM Youngblood Hawke (1964)
    MELVYN DOUGLAS And So They Were Married (1936)
    MELVYN DOUGLAS There’s Always a Woman (1938)
    OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)
    PAUL LUKAS Dodsworth (1936)
    PAUL MUNI The World Changes (1933)
    RONALD COLMAN The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)
    SPENCER TRACY Cass Timberlane (1947)
    THOMAS MITCHELL THE HURRICANE (1937)
    VAN HEFLIN Act of Violence (1948)
    WALTER HUSTON Dodsworth (1936)

    Reply

    1. Hey Dan…..thanks for these lists of Mary Astor trivia. Not surprised she is not on the Oracle list now….but I bet….if this list had been out there in the 1950s…she might have been a Top 20 thespian. I sadly could only include 50 of her movies….she probably should have at least 100 movies on the table…granted most were silent movies….and those grosses appear to be lost forever…as are some of the movies as well.

      Interesting about her connection….I tried to find information on Trapped By Television…as that sounds like an interesting movie…especially since television was such a new technology then. Her most frequent co-star on the first list is Edward G. Robinson….that is a good person…one of the Hollywood legends for sure. 35 Oscar winners is pretty good total…especially since many of her movies were pre-Oscars. Good stuff as always. Thanks as always.

      Reply

  3. Great to see another classic actress! Mary Astor is a favourite of mine.

    I have seen 28 Mary Astor movies, including 8 of the top 10 and 13 of the top 15.

    There were also some films that did not make the list that I have seen.

    Favourite Mary Astor films:

    The Maltese Falcon
    Meet Me in St. Louis
    The Prisoner of Zenda
    Dodsworth
    Little Women
    The Kennel Murder Case
    The Great Lie
    The Hurricane
    The Palm Beach Story
    Red Dust
    Across the Pacific
    Act of Violence
    A Kiss Before Dying
    Paradise For Three

    Other Mary Astor Movies I Have Seen:

    Thousands Cheer
    Any Number Can Play
    Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte
    Cass Timberline
    Fiesta
    Return to Peyton Place
    There’s Always a Woman
    Claudia and David
    Page Miss Glory
    Listen Darling
    The World Changes
    Cynthia
    Other Men’s Women
    The Man With Two Faces

    Reply

    1. Hey Flora. Thanks for the visit, comment and tally count. Yes….sadly many Mary Astor movies are missing from this page. Almost her entire silent career and about 10 of her “talkies” are missing. Not thinking those silent movies will ever be included…..box office numbers from back then are very rare. Tally count: Flora 28 and Cogerson and Steve with a combined total of 16 (9 for Steve and 7 for me). 6 of my 7 seen are on your favorites list….with Maltese Falcon easily being my favorite Mary Astor movie. The only missing movie not on your list that I have seen is Midnight…I would higher recommend that one…it actually made my Top 10 a few years ago….as I just saw it for the first time very recently. Good comment..as always.

      Reply

  4. In my early days, let it be said long before the Work Horse came into my life, I tended to confuse Mary Astor and Myrna Loy. Both looked a bit alike to me in some films and their acting styles seemed similar at times. The association came also in another form: at first I though Astor was called Mary Asta, my probably being under too much of the influence of the Cogerson Queen’s own Thin Woman movie series, endless TV repeats of which I used to watch on Sunday afternoons with my father – we both loved Bill Powell and Little Asta.

    Between 1920 and 1929 Astor made droves of silent films. In her talkies heyday she was, as is faithfully recorded in the tables above, in a number of important films such as The Great Lie. Thousands Cheer, Meet Me in St Louis, Cass Timberlane, Palm Beach Story and two Bogie films – Across the Pacific and Maltese Falcon. Meet Me in St Louis is a perennial Christmas favourite and indeed my daughter, grandson and I are going to see a special rerun of it next month at our local cinema. Heck, on the Cogerson comprehensive Xmas movies page St Louis get ranked overall 1 spot above even Dire Hard!

    The two performances that I will most remember Mary for though are ones where she played contrasting roles – (1) as Walter Huston’s nice girl mistress in 1936’s Dodsworth and (2) as Bogie’s femme fatale in Maltese Falcon directed of course by Walter’s famous son the Great John [how’s that for Dannery?]

    The 4 films from which I remember Mary in the decade 1949-1959 are Any Number Can Play, A Kiss Before Dying, The Devil’s Hairpin and Stranger in My Arms [aka And Ride a Tiger]. Regarding the latter, one of my 1950s idols is once again slighted on Cogerson: the male lead in that one is the great Jeff Chandler and he and June Allyson are billed alone above the title. Where does that Work Horse fella get these cast lists from?

    Rightly Youngblood Hawke and Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte are listed in Bruce’s tables as Mary’s two final films. Though as Bruce states they were both released in 1964, Hush Hush was actually the very final one: Youngblood Hawke was filmed around March 1963; and Charlotte made June-November 1964 and quickly released in Dec 64 one month after Hawke.

    Certainly the prolific and talented ‘work horse’ Mary deserves her Cogerson page and a splendid one it is at that, chock-a-block as it is with Mary’s many talkies with a few silent rarities thrown in for good measure. so “Voted Up!”

    Reply

    1. Hey Bob
      1. Thanks for the visit, the comment and for sharing your thoughts on Mary Astor.
      2. I can easily see getting Mary Astor and Myrna Loy mixed up….both from the side time period…both looking somewhat alike….and both appearing in movies with the same stars.
      3. Astor became a star during the silent era…sadly…I was unable to find box office grosses on most of those movies….I suspect….she might challenge Loy’s box office numbers if I found all of her grosses….granted Loy has another 30 movies with unknown grosses.
      4. Dodsworth was a massive success…but I think it has aged horribly….but the performances are top notch….probably the best of Walter Huston’s career.
      5. As for the UMR co-stars…..I guess you can blame editor’s choice….I have room for two names…and personal preference is one main reason (call that the Willis/Caine rule)….UMR subjects get listed over non-UMR stars, and popularity of the page is a factor….in this case….the database put them in that order (see the trailer page)….but I went ahead and replaced Dee with Chandler.
      6. Thanks for the kind words…sorry so many of her movies are missing…but at this point…I figured I should “get out” the 50 Astor movies I have fully researched.
      Good stuff as always.

      Reply

      1. HI BRUCE: Thanks for the comprehensive and thoughtful feedback [not to mention your recognising the greatness of Jeff Chandler!] It’s possible that what seems dated has some relation to how old oneself is. I think that I am over a quarter of a century older than you and my perspective may therefore be, whilst certainly no better than yours, at least DIFFERENT.

        Walter was around 53 when he played Sam Dodsworth and at that age Fred, Randy and Joel were still being addressed on the screen as “young man”; and compared with Sly, Arnie et al Sam should have been in diapers! However in contrast to the likes of Dean, Brando and Elvis when I was growing up in the 1950s, Sam is ‘elderly’ and I would have had no interest in him back then. Today though I can emphasize with him as a mature adult.

        Conversely the likes of Star Wars and the action/superhero franchises to me seem dated. Culturally and historically, despite their enhanced look from modern techniques and special effects, they appear to me as being on the same plane as the old Flash Gordon type plots and characters in the 1940s/50s serials which I used to love but lost interest in long ago.

        So Ming the Merciless and his gang have today been replaced by Ivan Drago, Darth Vadar and The Evil Emperor and their crew and instead of the Flash Gordon and Captain Silver [in The Sea Hound serial] characters that Larry Buster Crabbe played we have kindred spirits like Skywalker and Solo prancing around – endlessly it seems.

        Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games is Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Nyoka The Jungle Queen [played by Frances Gifford] back in the 1941 serial and Larry Crabbe has been replaced with the likes of Stallone, The Rock and Statham; and Larry himself conceded that A list people such as Old cantankerous considered it beneath themselves to sit with the likes of Crabbe at the studio canteen dinner table!

        So each to his own as the saying goes. As I have mentioned previously if everyone had liked Cooper the Duke would have probably been a B list star; if everyone had agreed with Joel there would have been no Brando. As it is, every other year when in February I return from my winter holiday in sunny climes I like to quickly sink back into my comfort zone so as soon as I unpack my suitcases, my Dodsworth DVD is taken down from the shelf and given a rerun.

        However maybe some people would think that I too had ‘aged horribly’! I would though rather watch Sam Dodsworth and the types of characters that Sir M played in Youth, Educating Rita and Little Voice than the, to me, one-dimensional figures such as Rocky and Indie; though I still find Harry Palmer an interesting and intriguing character.

        Reply

  5. Mary Astor eh good choice. I’ve seen 9 of the 50 films on the chart. Favorites are – The Maltese Falcon, Meet Me in St. Louis, The Prisoner of Zenda and Across the Pacific.

    Top rated films i haven’t seen include – Dodsworth and Midnight.

    Good actress though I always felt she was miscast as the femme fatale in The Maltese Falcon, Hedy Lamarr or Jane Greer would have been more believable as the temptress.

    Meet Me in St. Louis was a monster hit at the box office in the 1940s, I might watch it again this Xmas. Judy Judy Judy! I’ve always had a soft spot for the legend that was Judy Garland.

    Good stuff Bruce. Vote Up!

    Reply

    1. Hey Steve….thanks for checking out our Mary Astor page. Tally count…you 9 and me 7. Looking at Flora’s total…our combined total does not come close to her total of 28. Of your favorites…The Maltese Falcon is my favorite as well. I finally saw Meet Me In St. Louis earlier this year. I have seen both of the critical favorites you missed. Dodsworth is very out dated….but Midnight is a very good movie. I would recommend Midnight. Interesting point about her being miscast in The Maltese Falcon…..Lamarr and Greer might have been better…..but I like the way she played the part. Judy Garland is having a nice 2019…..the movie Judy has put her back in the spotlight….and if Renee Z. gets an Oscar nomination….that spotlight will get even brighter….good stuff as always.

      Reply

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