Want to know the best Montgomery Clift movies? How about the worst Montgomery Clift movies? Curious about Montgomery Clift’s box office grosses or which Montgomery Clift movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Montgomery Clift movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
When I recently got a request to do a Montgomery Clift (1920-1966) Ultimate Movie Rankings page I was somewhat surprised that he had not appeared in that many movies in his career. He might not have made many movies….but many of the ones he made have become all time great movies. From 1948’s Red River to 1961’s Judgment at Nuremberg….Montgomery Clift left a legacy of great screen performances.
His IMDb page only shows 18 acting credits from 1948-1966. This page will rank 17 Montgomery Clift movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. His television movie Hay Fever was not included in the rankings.
Montgomery Clift Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Montgomery Clift 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 by Montgomery Clift’s co-stars of his movies.
- Sort Montgomery Clift movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost.
- Sort Montgomery Clift movies by their yearly box office rank
- Sort Montgomery Clift 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 Montgomery Clift movie received.
- Sort Montgomery Clift 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.
Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Montgomery Clift Table
- Nine Montgomery Clift movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 52.94% of his movies listed. From Here To Eternity (1953) was his biggest hit.
- An average Montgomery Clift movie earned $138.10 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 12 of Montgomery Clift’s movies are rated as good movies…or 70.58% of his movies. Red River (1948) was his highest rated movie while The Defector (1966) was his lowest rated movie.
- Eleven Montgomery Clift movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 64.70% of his movies.
- Five Montgomery Clift’s movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 29.41% of his movies.
- An average Ultimate Movie rankings (UMR) Score is 40.00. 12 Montgomery Clift movies scored higher that average….or 70.58% of his movies. From Here To Eternity (1953) got the the highest UMR Score while The Defector (1966) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Montgomery Clift
1. Edward Montgomery Clift was born in Omaha, Nebraska. He was born minutes after his twin sister. He went by the nickname “Monty” his entire life.
2. Montgomery Clift’s path to stardom. Clift appeared on Broadway at the age of 13. Despite some Hollywood interest, Clift decided to stick with the theater and hone his acting skills. In 1947 he decided to give Hollywood a chance.
3. Montgomery Clift first movie was the classic John Wayne western Red River (1948). When Red River was delayed….Clift’s The Search (1948) actually hit theaters first. He would earn a Best Actor Oscar® nomination for that role.
4. Montgomery Clift was nominated for 4 acting Oscar® nominations. 1948’s The Search, 1951’s A Place in the Sun, 1953’s From Here To Eternity and 1961’s Judgment at Nuremberg.
5. Montgomery Clift turned down these movies: Sunset Blvd (1950), East of Eden (1955), The Trouble With Harry (1955), Friendly Persuasion (1956), and Moby Dick (1956).
6. Montgomery Clift was great friends with Elizabeth Taylor. They made three movies together….1951’s A Place In The Sun, 1957’s Raintree Country and 1959’s Suddenly, Last Summer. During the filming of Raintree Country, he ran his Chevrolet into a tree after leaving a party at Taylor’s house; it was she who saved him from choking by pulling out two teeth lodged in his throat. Clift was about to appear opposite Taylor for a 4th time in 1967’s Reflections in a Golden Eye but he passed away before filming started.
7. Even though Montgmory Clift’s career was during an era when many movies were filmed in color, fourteen of his movies were filmed in black and white. That gives Clift and James Dean the same number of color movies (three). That could explain why Dean is more of a modern icon than Clift. These astute observations come from a comment from John.
8. Montgomery Clift movies earned a total of 57 Oscar® nominations. That is an average of 3.35 Oscar® nominations per movie. Of the 100s of actors and actresses that I have done pages on…that is the highest average I have come across. Actually in my entire database….only directors Steven Spielberg and James Cameron have better Oscar® nominations per movie averages.
9. Marilyn Monroe said of Montgomery Clift…..”the only person I know who is in worse shape than I am.” Monroe and Clift appeared together in The Misfits (1961).
10. In 1966 Montgomery Clift passed away at the age of 45. The official cause of death was a heart attack. On the night of his death The Misfits was playing on television. His companion/aide asked if he wanted to watch it….Clift responded….”absolutely not”….those were his last words spoken. I think those words can answer this question….Will Montgomery Clift will be forgotten?…..”absolutely not”.
10A. I found this Monty Clift hub from Hub Pages’ Discovery2020….an interesting read. Just follow this link to Montgomery Clift the Actors’ Actor
If you do a comment….please ignore the email address and website section.
Nice work Bruce. I’ve only seen 6 of Monty’s films. I need to catch up on some of the others, especially A Place in the Sun which won 6 Oscars. I watched one of my favorite westerns Red River, again fairly recently after reading an excellent bio on John Wayne. Wayne didn’t think the fight at the end would be believable because Clift looked so small and slight in comparison to the ‘duke’ but with some good editing they made it work. Clift was gay but he had the hots for Elizabeth Taylor saying “Liz is the only woman I have ever met who turns me on.”
Hey Steve. My Monty tally count is 8. A Place In The Sun is a pretty good movie…it is worth checking out. I imagine you are happy with where Red River ended up in the rankings? 2nd overall……2nd in box office and 1st in critic and audience rating. Elizabeth Taylor was very sexy when she was hanging out with Monty. As always thanks for checking out my latest.
Hello – I have seen all but two of his movies and I thought he was a good actor. I did not know that Red River with John Wayne was his first movie – that was a winner!!!! Thanks again for the interesting facts. GO COGERSON…I wonder how many young people today would know who he was…THANKS.
Hey BERN1960…..glad your comment went through. Wow your tally count of 15 easily beats my count of 8. His career started off with a bang….Red River is a classic and The Search got him an Oscar nomination….not a bad first year in the movie business. Not thinking too many young people know him at all…..but as they get older they will discover some of his work. As always thanks for the visit and the comment.
Owned
As to whether young people today know Monty, you will find lots of them who idolize him & other classic film icons on Twitter, #TCM Party.
Hey Harriet…..thanks for the information. I will have to check those places out. Thanks for stopping by.
When I was going through this website and looking at the pictures I kept thinking Clift looks like Owen Wilson or maybe Tom Cruise. Does anybody else see that?
Hey Owen Lookalike…..I see what you mean…..he does look like Owen in some of these photos. I do not see Cruise as much though……if only Monty had a crooked nose….lol.
Anyone else think if a prime Monty was around nowadays he’d be a huge star and a happier star? His sexuality caused him major major guilt and probably one of the reasons he died so young. Today with personal sexuality being more how do I say more “forgiving” I think he would thrive.
Hey Gary….I am sure it would be easier for him if he was around today….but I have a feeling he would still keep his sexuality private even today. But that being said…he would probably just as big today as he was back then. Thanks for stopping by.
Wonderful look at Monty’s career. It’s just a shame that they don’t make actors of this caliber anymore. Almost 50 years since his death? Seems like only yesterday. He seemed like a troubled soul. My favorite Monty movies are The Search and Wild River.
Thank you PRKiss….I agree they do not make actors like this anymore. I have not seen either of your two favorites..I will have to check them out