Want to know the best Walter Wanger movies? How about the worst Walter Wanger movies? Curious about Walter Wanger box office grosses or which Walter Wanger movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Walter Wanger 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.
Walter Wanger (1894-1968) was an Oscar® nominated film producer. Wanger developed a reputation as an intellectual and a socially conscious movie executive who produced provocative message movies and glittering romantic melodramas. His IMDb page shows 70 producing credits from 1929-1963. This page ranks 61 Walter Wanger movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, documentaries and shorts were not included in the rankings.
Drivel part of the page: Walter Wanger? Who is Walter Wanger? That was my question when I saw that Stein requested a page on Walter Wanger. I am sure many people reading this page are asking the same exact question….Who is Walter Wanger? After spending about a week researching his movie career I would say the best ways to describe him would be he was “like” David O.Selznick’s younger and less successful movie producing brother (not actually related). Or as the Forrest Gump of movie making…as it seemed no matter which way he turned he stumbled into movie history….from 1921’s The Sheik to 1963’s Cleopatra. I found the book: Walter Wanger, Hollywood Independent by Matthew Bernstein very helpful when answering the question Who is Walter Wanger?
Walter Wanger 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 Walter Wanger movies by co-stars of his movies
- Sort Walter Wanger movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Walter Wanger movies by yearly box office rank
- Sort Walter Wanger movies by Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Walter Wagner movie received.
- Sort Walter Wanger movies how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie
- Sort Walter Wanger 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 Walter Wanger Table
- Eighteen Walter Wanger movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 29.50% of his movies listed. Cleopatra (1963) was his biggest box office hit.
- An average Walter Wanger movie grosses $87.80 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 36 Walter Wanger movies are rated as good movies…or 58.8% of his movies. Scarlet Street (1945) is his highest rated movie while A Night In Paradise (1946) is his lowest rated movie.
- Fourteen Walter Wanger movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 22.95% of his movies.
- Three Walter Wanger movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 4.91% of his movies.
- An average Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR )Score is 40.00. 31 Walter Wanger movies scored higher that average….or 50.81% of his movies. Stagecoach (1939) got the the highest UMR Score while Navy Wife (1956) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Walter Wanger
1. Walter Feuchtwanger was born in San Francisco, California in 1894. Wanger would later attend Dartmouth College…where he became friends with Stein’s (the person that requested this page) grandfather.
2. After college, Walter Wanger served in the air force on the Italian front during World War I. He joined the staff of President Woodrow Wilson as an attaché after the armistice, attending the peace conference in Paris.
3. After the war, Walter Wanger turned his attention to movie making. One of his first successes was buying the rights to 1921’s The Sheik, which made a star out of Rudolph Valentino.
4. After years of working at Paramount and Columbia….Wanger branched out and became one of the most successful independent movie producers working in Hollywood. At the peak of his career, his salary was exceeded only by that of MGM’s Louis B. Mayer.
5. Walter Wanger was twice elected as president of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and, at the height of his influence, he was able to successfully lobby the Academy to introduce Best Foreign Film and Best Documentary as categories to the Oscars®.
6. Walter Wanger received two Honorary Oscars®.
7. Walter Wanger was married two times. He had two children. Both of his marriages were to actresses: Silent star Justine Johnstone and Joan Bennett.
8. In 1951 Walter Wanger was convicted of attempted murder in the shooting of talent agent Jennings Lang. Lang was the agent of Joan Bennett, then Wanger’s wife, and Wanger discovered the two of them were having an affair. He caught them in the act, and wound up shooting Lang. Wanger served a four-month sentence. Despite that conviction he quickly returned to his career to make a series of successful films. His experiences there resulted in his producing the seminal prison film classic 1954’s Riot in Cell Block 11.
9. Billy Wilder came up with the idea for 1960’s The Apartment after reading all the details of Wanger’s personal life that were revealed in the scandal in interesting fact #8. Some of the details revealed included how executives were using people’s apartments as “meeting places”. So the next time you see Fred MacMurray in The Apartment….think of Walter Wanger.
10. Check out Walter Wanger ‘s career compared to other UMR movie subjects. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.
I’ve seen 21 of the listed movies, and I have about 4 more taped waiting to be watched.
I always associate Wanger with Joan Bennett, his wife, and the star of many of his films.
Excellent total , Lawrence.
I was worried that my total of 16 was going to take home the Gold and that is such a low total.
I’m thrilled to be bumped down to silver.
I am a big fan of Joan Bennett myself.
That means that you have gold for USA. I have silver for Canada. And Steve has bronze for England/new England as Bruce calls it.
Hey Larry….you have watched a serious amount of movies….as you are topping the classic pages and the current pages. Tally count….Larry, 21, Flora 16, Steve 12 and me 6…very impressive.
I agree she and Bennett made many movies….I think I will be associating him with Susan Hayward as well…they seem to have a good working relationship.
As always….thanks for stopping by and commenting.
1 Thanks for the confirmation about Cleo.
2 Also of interest was the information about Wagner’s own finances, which I assume is genuine. it’s said in his final years Bud lived from hand to mouth in some dingy dwelling, claimed he couldn’t pay his bills, and ran up debts. Yet when he died an estate worth 21 million dollars was revealed; and according to Wikipedia money still goes into it from occasional movie reruns and marketing projects with which he was involved. Some time ago the courts ruled that his estate’s entitlement to any residual income from Godfather TV repeats for example had expired
3 Kevin McCarthy was advised by his agents that his association with Monty might be harming his career because of Clift’s reputed romantic inclinations. Kevin did what he was told but it made no difference.
Hey Bob.
1. Yep after the disaster of Cleopatra….nobody was willing to invest anything when it came to him making more movies…..a forced retirement indeed.
2. Wanger spent so much time wheeling and dealing….he never thought about saving money….and in the end he had almost nothing to show for such a long movie career….financially that is. Only $21 million for Bud…I can see why he was struggling…I can not even imagine trying to live on only $21 million…..lol.
3. McCarthy had a decent career….he worked for almost 70 years…..with over 200 credits…not many people can make that claim.
BRUCE
1 Have you seen the Internet list of the “15 greatest films of all time” as selected by “358 directors” ?
2 A large part of it is comprised of art films with which probably only buffs in the main
would be familiar such as Bicycle Thieves and the original Breathless. Indeed the No 1 film on the list is Tokyo Story (1953).
3 That should please me as the two central characters were grandparents. The Hollywood of old had little interest in allowing central stage to folks of my current generation. How could
it ? The big stars who were old enough to play guys like me were often too busy being ‘young man’.
4 Even when one of them played someone roughly his own age it was glamorised and he was depicted as an ‘exceptional’ person who could sweep young co-stars off their feet. He never seemed to have children let alone grandchildren?
5 I remember one of the taglines for But Not for Me : “O You Gay*** Old Dog Mr Gable”
In the press and fan mags Grant was repeatedly referred to as “The Aged Charmer”
6 The cardinal rule of yesterday’s Hollywood seemed to be “don’t be old and don’t be too progressive”. There is now plenty of evidence on the Net that in its films Hollywood to some extent pulled its punches at times in criticising Hitler for fear of harming grosses in the German market. Indeed one article claims that a prominent Nazi was given an office in Hollywood so that he could vet relevant films before their release.
7 Anyway here are the the films on the list that are more ‘mainstream’ and with which most moviegoers would probably be familiar. Placings on the list are given beside the title and you will note the gaps.
2001 (2)
Citizen Kane (3)
Taxi Driver (5)
The Godfather (7)
Vertigo (8)
Apocalypse Now (10)
.
You will observe the absence of GWTW, that there is no more than one Hitch film and that the only director with two movies is Francis Ford.
Best wishes BOB
*** Gay in those days was not of course used in today’s context.but rather conveyed happiness.
Hey Bob.
1. I pretty much look at every list that comes out….how Vertigo is so highly ranked I never understand….yes it it good…but it does not even make my Top 5 Hitch movies.
2. As for the director’s list….it actually seems more in line with my thought process. Tokyo Story is good….but not a ground breaking “gotta” see it again and again. Compared to Citizen Kane….listen to Robert Ebert’s commentary on that one is like watching the movie for the first time.
3. I have no problem with GWTW not being listed….I like it a lot more than I used to….but it is still aways away from all-time greatness in my book.
4. I think the word “gay” has gone through the most changes of any word in the English language over the last 80 years. Imagine if Cary Grant said “Because I just went *GAY* all of a sudden!” today……he might get labeled a racist or a sexiest.
5. I am sure you know…that Grant line is from Bringing Up Baby.
6. “don’t be old and don’t be too progressive”…I like that.
Thanks for all of your thoughts today.
BRUCE
1 Thanks for the info about the REPEATED changes in Gay. I never knew that.
2 Grant was already under the microscope. According to one of his wives on the morning after their honeymoon he told her that breakfast would arrive shortly and the door to an adjoining suite opened and Randolph Scott came through with a laden tray.
3 Kane used to be top of everyone’s best picture list; but I’ve seen it as low as No 8 in recent times.
4 Agree with you about Vertigo… However my son did a long paper on it for a University exercise and he says that here are many layers of art in the movie. Scottie is one of his favourite characters and he detests Shane. Maybe the conflicting tastes my pop and I had is genetic !.
Best wishes BOB
Hey Bob.
1. Here to help….lol.
2. I have read many books on Cary Grant….and they all have a spin on the Scott/Grant relationship…..where there is smoke there is fire….but generally I only concentrate on their movies.
3. Citizen Kane was number 1 everywhere on lists….I wonder how far it will drop on those lists….I am hoping it will start climbing back up.
4. This comment made me laugh….which is amazing as it is very very late here.
Thanks for the movie information. Going to knock out that Frank update tomorrow.
1 A friend of both Scott/Grant said there was not even fire. He claimed that they shared an apartment at one stage because they were both mean with money and wanted to economise.
2 I agree with you totally about ignoring gossip. It’s good for a bit of background (and your Possibly Interesting Facts is very useful that way)and can be fun to inject but my main interests are acting and especially grosses. To paraphrase
Michael Douglas’s Wall Street “Money never gossips” “frankly it wouldn’t give a damn” if Bud really turned himself int a wall when he met David Lean,
Best wishes BOB
Hey Bob
1. That is actually the side of the story I choose to believe….but I can see why that arrangement would get the gossip going….especially when they were still roommates after each became stars. Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman were roomies before stardom….and Michael Caine and Terrence Stamp were roomies before stardom….but they went their different ways after that.
2. I agree with you 100%.
Walter who? Sure you spelt his surname correctly Bruce old chum? [cue childish giggles] Of course I’ve heard of Walter’s Wanger [stop it Steve!] Oh alright… not that familiar with the person but I’ve seen his name come up on some of my favorite movies and usually in larger print than the directors, much larger.
I’ve seen at least 12 of the 61 films here listed, maybe more but that’s how many I know for sure. Favorites include – Stagecoach, Foreign Correspondent, The Cocoanuts, Cleopatra and Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
I don’t think I’ve seen Scarlet Street which is topping the critics chart and 2nd on the UMR, if I have I can’t remember it, let me check and see if it’s in the collection… nope. I do have Queen Christina here but it’s one of a bunch of Greta Garbo films I’ve yet to watch.
You Only Live Once is in my collection but I can’t remember watching it, I have seen the 1967 sequel starring Sean Connery many times over the decades. 🙂
Btw I think you’ve misspelt Salome on the chart.
Is this the sites first producer page Bruce? Voted Up!
STEVE:
1 I remember an episode in the sitcom Frasier where a guy rings the latter’s radio prog for advice about a compulsion to let things unduly annoy him Frasier as was his form gives him a little lecture and in the process corrects his grammar. He then asks the guy to say what’s currently worrying him. “Right now it’s smart-ass know-it-alls who correct people’s grammar.” was the reply.
2 I have written to Bruce pointing to minor contradictions in a few of his figures. I did so because in relation to the correct figure it was simply a case of “I must know I must now'” However I still felt guilty.
3 You like me were acting in good faith in that you were possibly trying to assist him in bringing the greatest possible perfection to his lists. Or maybe you were just pulling his leg !
4. I hope therefore that he will realise that neither of us is a pedant and that we are aware that in the light of the huge mass of stats and info that he keeps churning out he is bound to make the odd mistake. Indeed he would be ‘not of this world’ if he didn’t make occasional mistakes in face such a heavy workload. His strong point in the matter is that he will immediately correct a mistake once he knows of it.
5 Anyhow thanks for reminding me of Salome When She Danced [have I spelt it right Frasier?]. I’ve never actually seen it but that title has intrigued me ever since I was a boy.
6 Am looking forward to reading more of your very well informed posts so keep em coming.
Best wishes BOB
PS YOURS TRULY deserves to be corrected : I’ve put when instead of where.
Hi Robert, Flora and I have been correcting Bruce’s speeling mistaiks since our hubpages days, we’re not being mean you understand and he does appreciate it. He has corrected mine too several times. Usually it’s done by email but on this occasion being as lazy as I am I mentioned it in my post.
Talking of Salome, I watched Rita Hayworth writhing around in front of Charles Laughton not too long ago. Not a great film but worth a look for the cast, I don’t think there was a minutes worth of action in the entire film, unusual for biblical films of the time. An epic it certainly was not.
AFTERNOON STEVE:(It’s just after 2.30 pm here)
1 Thanks for the explanation. I thought your wording was a bit tongue-and cheek and it”s great to see humour being applied to serious subjects. We George Clooney fans like the humorous approach. Sometimes that can backfire though as I feel that at times Flora thinks I’m being serious when I’m just trying to be harmlesslyfunny.
2 However my post was more about me than you as I had always felt guilty about making an issue of slight contradictions in Bruce’s figures and wanted to ‘purge’ myself. My only regret was that I was unable to work Duke into the context so I decided to give Kelsey a run as he is my fave TV star. [He had a supporting part in a DeNiro movie (15 Minutes was the title I think) and he said in an interview that he was in awe of DeN during the shooting
3 I never saw the Hayworth Salome but she seemed to me to be too old for the part. Wasn’t Salome just a teenager?
4 Being pedantic again I used to pronounce the name as SA lome whereas I have recently heard it pronounced SALOM e
Best wishes BOB
Hey Steve….your corrections are always greatly appreciated….my spilling skells have always been a weekness fur sure. My proof reader (Katie the oldest daughter) is at a teaching conference in Washington DC….so I am left alone with my poor spilling skells.
I am sure Charles Laughton did not appreciate Hayworth’s twerking skills as much as most of the male population would have back then.
Hey Bob.
1. One of Steve’s great commenting skills is his tongue-and-cheek approach. Sarcasm is sometimes very hard to pick up via comments and e-mails.
2. One of our main goals is take make the site dynamic…..that way when I change one stat….it automatically changes all the other places the movie exists….For example.. The Towering Inferno….if I change a number on the movie….I then have to remember to go to my Astaire, Holden, Redford, Newman, Jones pages and change it there too….currently my expert computer programmer is busy working on something for France’s Laurent….which makes me think…..hey….what about me?….lol
3. If Steve commented without humor…I would wonder if he was alright…..lol.
4. In the end…..when somebody points out an error….I only get upset with myself for making the mistake…and I am only happy when somebody point out that error. Recently somebody pointed out an error that had been on my pages since 2011…..I found that shocking that it went that long without being noticed.
I have to admit….compared to my first pages…..I do very little proofing before hitting the publish button.
Pretty sure I have seen that episode….I am pretty much a snob when it comes to watching television shows…..with some exceptions….Kelsey Grammer’s Frasier and Boss were two excellent shows I really enjoyed. Today I wait until the shows reach DVD and then I binge watch the shows I like….The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones are the two shows I am currently one year behind….which makes avoiding spoilers are almost full time job.
Hey Steve.
1. I agree Walter who? In the end….I have to give the man credit….he had a pretty good life. In most cases I feel the main movie table is the best part of these pages….I am thinking the possibly interesting facts is the best part here.
2. Tally count….Flora 16, you 12 and me 6…..my 6 probably explains why I was not really aware this man existed until just a short time ago.
3. I have seen all 5 of your favorites….did you notice that your boy directed a scene in The House Across The Ocean? I am sure when they were making Foreign Correspondent…Walt asked Hitch for a favor.
4. Scarlet Street …had the same stars, writer and director of The Woman in the Window….which was made the year before….I think they even used the same sets…I liked Woman….but like you I have not seen Scarlet Street.
5. I can not believe you have not seen Fonda in the first Bond….lol.
6. Thanks for the headsup on Salone versus Salome ….that error has been fixed…..it is greatly appreciated.
7. Yep the first producer has made UMR.com. David O. Selznick is excited….and wants to know when his turn is…Edith Head told him to calm down….as she has been waiting for the second costume designer to get a page and the wait is now months and months old….lol
As always….thanks for the comment and visit.
I’m excited too. I love producers and look forward to Selznick and Louis B. Meyer and the Warner brothers and……..!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have seen Scarlet Street. Love it.
Okay, Bruce.
I will focus on the movie aspect of this movie producer instead of the legal issues.
I looked up Walter Wanger when I read that he was a requested page and I discovered that he was a successful film producer.
I think it would be more accurate that Selznick was his partner in movie production as I do not think they were related, although the top of he page makes it sound like they were brothers.
Movie producing is not really understood I don’t think for how important it is. A producer is in charge of every aspect of he movie.
His ranked films:
The highest ranked film I have seen I number 1: Stagecoach
The highest ranked film I have *not’* seen ironically stars a favorite of mine, Henry Fonda, who made a lot of movies: number 8: The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, and yes I’m a fan of Fred M. too
And I must, of course, as a Hitchcock fan mention how much I love Foreign Correspondent, but rarely see it.
The total number of films I’ve see is only 16, unfortunately – although I’ve heard of most of them.
Just like me to write an essay on a man whose films number in the 60s but I’ve seen 16.
Favourites:
Stagecoach
Foreign Correspondent
Algiers
Smash Up: story of a Woman
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Arabian Nights.
1 In its last years Walter’s career lurched from one extreme to the other.
2 On the one hand he made the very successful low budget sci-fi cult classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers starring the marvellous greatly overlooked young Kevin McCarthy.[he hung around with Clift and Brando but sadly was just the “third wheel”
3 Conversely though Walt did the extravagant Cleopatra which is supposed to have nearly bankrupted 20th C Fox. Taylor’s antics were blamed to some extent for the massive cost of the film but then Hollywood always looked about for scapegoats when things went wrong and in those days the media was always keen to write controversial articles about Liz Taylor especially when Burton came on the scene.
4 Anyway Cleo seems to have been Wagner’s last film and if there is any connection between that and the film’s financial difficulties perhaps Bruce will be able to bring it out in his Possibly Interesting Facts.
Best wishes BOBBY
Hey Bob.
1. I think it is safe to say his career was a roller coaster…lots of highs and lows…..the saddest thing I read was that at his passing…his estate was only worth $18,000….such a small number for a guy that earned millions in his career.
2. The main book I used for this research talked in great detail about Body Snatchers…Wanger made some very good decisions while making that movie. I am sure McCarthy was happy to be the third wheel….when he got to hang out with Bud and Monty.
3. The making of Cleopatra would make a great movie…..maybe told from Wanger’s viewpoint as all the craziness would be fun to watch.
4. I think two movies killed Wanger the most financially…Cleopatra (it forced him into retirement) and Joan of Arc (actually Joan did more damage to him than Cleo did).
Thanks for your take on Mr. Wanger.
Thanks for confirming the Cleo take.
Apparently Kevin was advised to stay away from Monty because of the
Hey Flora
1. Thanks for checking out our latest page.
2. Generally I stay away from scandals here…..but his legal issues were a huge part of his legacy.
3. I tweeked the …he was like David O’s brother….they were not related at all.
4. I agree producing a movie is an underrated job….but probably one of the most important jobs.
5. Wanger was a huge reason for Henry Fonda becoming a star…..those early Fonda/Wanger movies helped Fonda get noticed.
6. Tally count….Flora 16, Steve 12….and me…all the way down at 6.
7. I have seen half of your Top 6…..with Stagecoach and Body Snatchers being my favorite two Wanger movies.
8. Did you realize that Hitch directed a scene for Wanger in The House Across The Ocean….I found that interesting.
As always…thanks for stopping by and sharing your vast knowledge.
Of course legal issues are a huge part of his legacy. What I meant was that as a woman, I was not going to discuss it and instead wait for a man with a sense of humour like Steve to talk about them. I mean, I meant that I was not going to focus on his attempted murder conviction in my first comment as I wanted to talk about his movies.
But since I have now talked about movies, yes, he had money issues and temper issues and I don’t think I will ever be able to watch another film of his again without thinking of his conviction.
Hey Flora….Got it. It is sad that his personal issues became such a big part of his legacy. When I was researching him…the book I was reading showed a picture of him going into the prison…..I was like what was this all about….that was when I first heard about his legal issues. Kind of surprised that I had never heard about it before. It is kind of cool that he is the “real story” behind The Apartment.
Yes, producers are great at making stars. Henry’s son is a producer, but as Peter is also an actor on screen he would have had a page eventually here anyway.
And of course, in talking about actors/producers, I always like to bring up Gregory Peck. Very astute producer he was.
AFTERNOON FLORA MACDONALD:
1 I would agree with you about Greg’s production skills. Look at Cape Fear for example.
2 However William Wyler disagreed with both of us. He and Greg didn’t get on when making the Big Country. Wyler said that he thought that Greg was wasteful with money.
There is a scene in the movie involving a herd of cows and Wyler claimed that Greg as producer paid a huge sum to have a large number of cows transported across the States. Wyler argued that this was overkill and that all that he, Wyler, needed was a few cows as he could create the illusion of a large herd with trick camera work.
Bobby -I have the DVD of The Big Country. I have seen all of the extras on it. Remember, I am a big expert on Gregory Peck. This film and his disagreement with Wyler is mentioned extensively in the documentary Conversation with Gregory Peck.
Hey Flora….good points.
By the way, this was the first I had heard about Hitch directing part of the film.
Hey Flora…learn something new all the time…that little piece of trivia….now makes me curious about the movie…..and wonder why he did the scene and why he did the scene.