Melvyn Douglas Movies

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

Melvyn Douglas (1901-1981) was a two-time Oscar® winning American actor.  Douglas went straight from being a Broadway star to be a leading man in theaters.  He would make movies from his debut in 1931’s Tonight or Never to 1981’s Ghost Story which was released after his death.  His IMDb page shows 112 acting credits from 1931-1981. This page will rank 67 Melvyn Douglas movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television appearances, 3 movies (The Wiser Sex, The Broken Wing & Our Wife) and one movie (The Hot Touch) not released in North American theaters were not included in the rankings

Melvyn Douglas and Peter Sellers in 1979’s Being There

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

Melvyn Douglas 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 Melvyn Douglas movies by co-stars of his movies.
  • Sort Melvyn Douglas movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Melvyn Douglas movies by yearly domestic box office rank
  • Sort Melvyn Douglas 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 Melvyn Douglas movie received and how many Oscar® wins each Melvyn Douglas movie won.
  • Sort Melvyn Douglas 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.

Melvyn Douglas was Great Garbo’s leading man in three movies

Possibly Interesting Facts About Melvyn Douglas

1. Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg was born in Macon, Georgia in 1902.  He would drop “Hesselberg” and start using his grandmother’s maiden name, Douglas, when he started acting professionally.

2. Melvyn Douglas developed his acting skills in Shakespearean repertory while in his teens and with stock companies in different parts of the country.

3.  Melvyn Douglas served in the United States Army during World War I and World War II.

4.  Melvyn Douglas was married two times and had three children.  His second marriage was to actress Helen “She” Gahagan.  Gahagan would eventually become a politician.  She was Richard Nixon’s opponent for the United States Senate seat from California in 1950.  It was Gahagan who popularized Nixon’s epithet “Tricky Dick”.

5.  One of Melvyn Douglas’ grandchildren is actress Illeana Douglas.  If you look at Illeana and Melvyn’s IMDb pages…..they both have 112 acting credits.  I like that stat a lot!

Illeana Douglas in 1990’s Good Fellas

6.  Melvyn Douglas used to jokingly apologize for ending the acting careers of Greta Garbo and Norma Shearer.  Douglas was Garbo’s last leading man in 1941’s Two-Faced Woman and Shearer last leading man in 1942’s We Were Dancing.

7.  Melvyn Douglas was borrowed by MGM from Columbia so much…..that they eventually just bought Douglas’ Columbia contract….because it was cheaper than paying the fees to borrow him.  MGM viewed Douglas as the replacement for William Powell.  Whenever Powell was not available for a role….Douglas got the part.

8.  Melvyn Douglas and billing.  Douglas – “Well, Freddie Bartholomew had first billing in Captains Courageous and that drove Spencer Tracy mad.  I was billed fourth – and couldn’t have cared less.  Joan Crawford once explained to me she was over Clark Gable and William Powell but under Norma Shearer.  Powell was under Jean Harlow but above Bob Montgomery and Myrna Loy.  Are you still with me?”  JFB (Just for Bob)

9.  Melvyn Douglas’ movies from 1930 to 1939 earned $2.71 billion in adjusted domestic gross.  That puts him in 24th place when looking at all the stars of that decade. 1930’s Top Box Office Stars.

10. Melvyn Douglas’ movies from 1940 to 1949 earned $1.39 billion in adjusted domestic gross.  That puts him in 96th place when looking at all the stars of that decade. 1940’s Top Box Office Stars.

11.  While serving during World War II, Douglas ended up in Burma.  He would met future co-star Peter Sellers there.  Years later they would star in 1979’s Being There.

12.  Melvyn Douglas was nominated for three Oscars®:  He won twice: 1963’s Hud and 1979’s Being There.  His third nomination was for 1970’s I Never Sang For My Father.

13.  Melvyn Douglas’ prank on Joan Crawford. Douglas – “I was very naughty one day.  I’d watch in amazement as Joan would arrive with a long retinue of servants, hairdressers, maids, personal assistants, even her chauffeur.  So next day I asked my brother, my chauffeur and whoever else I could dig up, and we went in a single line.  Joan was not amused and I got chewed out by director Clarence Brown, who told me he was having enough problems with Joan before this calumny!”  Sounds funny to me!

14. Melvyn Douglas was the fifth performer to win an Oscar®, an Emmy® and a Tony®.

15. Check out Melvyn Douglas’ career compared to current and classic actors.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time

Facts #8 and #13 come from a James Bawden interview found in the book Classic Film Stars – Interviews from Hollywood’s Golden Era.

Check out Steve’s Melvyn Douglas YouTube Video

 

Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.

(Visited 2,516 times)

43 thoughts on “Melvyn Douglas Movies”

  1. HI STEVE: Thanks for the as always thoughtful feedback including the additional information and extra supporting comment. I hope you enjoy your break.

    I have responded to 3 of WH’s new pages in the past week but so far have received no feedback whereas he has since churned out 5 further new profiles. He is of course entitled to set his own priorities

    “The Chief” can be a hard man to get hold of at any time in recent months but as the following report might suggest he could be even more the phantom of this site than he currently is,

    NEWS REPORT
    “Lines of voters stretched hundreds deep in northern Virginia and other parts of the state on the first day of early voting in the 2020 presidential election.”

    I suppose those of them who contribute to this site will be even scarcer to be seen here for a while than they currently are!

    Reply

    1. Hey Bob… I am working on it. Since school started, I have been working about 70 hours a week as a teacher….that has cut down time for my family and for my time with movies. I have seen one movie in the last two weeks…..that classic film Swamp Fire starring Johnny W. and Buster C. Knowing how crazy the week was going to be…I did stay up until 4:30 in the morning on Sunday night/Monday morning cranking out the pages you saw this week. I do not sleep much but going 60 hours on 4 hours sleep was tough on this old man. Anyway….I plan on catching up on comments while getting pages ready for next week. Next week in school will be even crazier as some of the students are returning to school. Then I get to teach in person and virtually.

      Reply

      1. “There are not enough hours in the day for me Harry.” said our next-door neighbour in the 1960s to my father over the hedge. The neigbour was holding down 3 jobs [one stanrting at midnight in a cross-town nightclub] and when he went on annual holiday he worked his passage on the ship over and back by tending bar while his family otherwise amused themselves on board.

        In Dickens’ David Copperfield Wilkins Micawber on the other hand was completely estranged from his family at intervals because he was too busy dodging creditors and hoping that “Something will turn up”; but his wife still adored him in the way that you doat on Hirsch and kept telling the Micawber children what a wonderful father they have. As Wilkins unable to go near his own front door crept across the London rooftops to join his family for their Christmas dinner they all waited in anticipation.

        Talking about waiting eagerly I am still waiting for my copy of Volume 2. There was some screw-up with my order at the Amazon end and I have had to re-order at no extra expense. Hopefully it will be here in a few days. I’m keenly looking forward to it.

        Reply

  2. Added Steve’s latest video to the page…..our thoughts on his video and Douglas’ career.

    Nice video on a two time Oscar winner. I have seen 10 of the 40 movies and a total of 12 movies when looking at movies not on the video. I have seen 70% of his Top 10….so I think I have been watching the right ones. Favorites would include #3 Being There, #5 Hud, #10 Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House and #9 The Americanization of Emily. Good video. Voted up and shared

    Reply

    1. Hi Bruce, I’ve seen 10 of the 40 on the video too, Flora way out in front with 26.

      Ages since I last watched Being There. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Hud. Or the sequel – Thud. Thanks for the comment, share and vote, much appreciated.

      Reply

  3. The earlier Anonymous post on this page is Part One of my post about your video. I don’t know what happened but if it was my fault I apologise. If it was WH’s fault though I doubt if you’ll get an apology.

    Parts 2 AND 3 of the post quickly followed Part One.

    Reply

  4. OVERALL a feast of vintage posters/stills/lobby cards that are “collectors’ items”. 98.5% satisfaction rating. Best STILLS/LOBBY CARDS :in my opinion

    1/My Forbidden Past
    2/The Gorgeous Hussy
    3/Annie Oakley
    4/They All Kissed the Bride
    5/We Were Dancing
    6/I Met Him in Paris
    7/Shining hour
    8/Sea of Grass
    9/Two Faced Woman
    10/As I Desire You
    11/Arsene Lupin Returns
    12/two for Angel
    13/ “There’s a fair-haired lassie at the door stair gazing!”
    14/Captains Courageous
    15/Hud
    16/Being There
    17/2nd one for Old Dark House
    18/Ninotchka – remade in 1957 as the Astaire musical Silk Stockings
    19/That Uncertain Feeling
    20/Ghost Story
    21/Third Finger Left Hand. ***

    ***Not sure why I picked this one: it seems like one to give the proverbial fingers sign to!

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.