The Best 50 Films of James Stewart
by jacobyjhn-18-315763 | created - 29 Jan 2015 | updated - 10 Feb 2015 | PublicThe wonderful Jimmy Stewart is perhaps the most beloved and talented movie actor in history. His acting talent immense, his every man quality unparalleled, his American identity, unquestioned. James Stewart is a true American hero on and off the screen, a war hero and an Army General. It is a privilege to suggest 50 of his best films.
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1. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
PG | 130 min | Drama, Family, Fantasy
An angel is sent from Heaven to help a desperately frustrated businessman by showing him what life would have been like if he had never existed.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell
Votes: 498,261
2. Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
Not Rated | 161 min | Drama, Mystery
An upstate Michigan lawyer defends a soldier who claims he killed an innkeeper due to temporary insanity after the victim raped his wife. What is the truth, and will he win his case?
Director: Otto Preminger | Stars: James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Arthur O'Connell
Votes: 71,178 | Gross: $11.90M
3. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Passed | 129 min | Comedy, Drama
A naive youth leader is appointed to fill a vacancy in the U.S. Senate. His idealistic plans promptly collide with corruption at home and subterfuge from his hero in Washington, but he tries to forge ahead despite attacks on his character.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Claude Rains, Edward Arnold
Votes: 121,214 | Gross: $9.60M
4. Vertigo (1958)
PG | 128 min | Mystery, Romance, Thriller
A former San Francisco police detective juggles wrestling with his personal demons and becoming obsessed with the hauntingly beautiful woman he has been hired to trail, who may be deeply disturbed.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore
Votes: 426,001 | Gross: $3.20M
5. The Flight of the Phoenix (1965)
Approved | 142 min | Adventure, Drama
After an oil company plane crashes in the Sahara, the survivors are buoyed with hope by one of the passengers, an airplane designer who plans for them to build a flyable plane from the wreckage.
Director: Robert Aldrich | Stars: James Stewart, Richard Attenborough, Peter Finch, Hardy Krüger
Votes: 22,371
6. Rear Window (1954)
PG | 112 min | Mystery, Thriller
A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbors from his Greenwich Village courtyard apartment window and, despite the skepticism of his fashion-model girlfriend, becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey, Thelma Ritter
Votes: 521,060 | Gross: $36.76M
7. The Spirit of St. Louis (1957)
Approved | 135 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
Charles 'Slim' Lindbergh struggles to finance and design an airplane that will make his New York to Paris flight the first solo transatlantic crossing.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: James Stewart, Murray Hamilton, Patricia Smith, Bartlett Robinson
Votes: 8,593
8. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Not Rated | 112 min | Comedy, Romance
When a rich woman's ex-husband and a tabloid-type reporter turn up just before her planned remarriage, she begins to learn the truth about herself.
Director: George Cukor | Stars: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart, Ruth Hussey
Votes: 73,715
9. Harvey (1950)
Approved | 104 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Due to his insistence that he has an invisible six foot-tall rabbit for a best friend, a whimsical middle-aged man is thought by his family to be insane - but he may be wiser than anyone knows.
Director: Henry Koster | Stars: James Stewart, Wallace Ford, William H. Lynn, Victoria Horne
Votes: 58,170
10. Call Northside 777 (1948)
Approved | 112 min | Drama, Film-Noir
Chicago reporter P.J. McNeal re-opens a decade-old murder case.
Director: Henry Hathaway | Stars: James Stewart, Richard Conte, Lee J. Cobb, Helen Walker
Votes: 10,213
11. Rope (1948)
Approved | 80 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Two men attempt to prove they committed the perfect crime by hosting a dinner party after strangling their former classmate to death.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: James Stewart, John Dall, Farley Granger, Dick Hogan
Votes: 153,330
12. You Can't Take It with You (1938)
Passed | 126 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
The son of a snobbish Wall Street banker becomes engaged to a woman from a good-natured but decidedly eccentric family not realizing that his father is trying to force her family from their home for a real estate development.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Jean Arthur, James Stewart, Lionel Barrymore, Edward Arnold
Votes: 27,853 | Gross: $4.66M
13. The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
Passed | 152 min | Drama, Family, Romance
The dramatic lives of trapeze artists, a clown, and an elephant trainer are told against a background of circus spectacle.
Director: Cecil B. DeMille | Stars: James Stewart, Charlton Heston, Betty Hutton, Cornel Wilde
Votes: 16,007 | Gross: $36.00M
14. How the West Was Won (1962)
G | 164 min | Adventure, War, Western
A family saga covering several decades of Westward expansion in the 19th century, including the Gold Rush, the Civil War, and the building of the railroads.
Directors: John Ford, Henry Hathaway, George Marshall, Richard Thorpe | Stars: James Stewart, John Wayne, Gregory Peck, Henry Fonda
Votes: 23,238 | Gross: $46.50M
15. The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
PG | 120 min | Drama, Thriller
An American doctor and his wife, a former singing star, witness a murder while vacationing in Morocco, and are drawn into a twisting plot of international intrigue when their young son is kidnapped.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: James Stewart, Doris Day, Brenda de Banzie, Bernard Miles
Votes: 69,409 | Gross: $10.25M
16. Winchester '73 (1950)
Passed | 92 min | Action, Drama, Western
A cowboy's obsession with a stolen rifle leads to a bullet-ridden odyssey through the American West.
Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: James Stewart, Shelley Winters, Dan Duryea, Stephen McNally
Votes: 21,929
17. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
Approved | 123 min | Drama, Western
A senator returns to a Western town for the funeral of an old friend and tells the story of his origins.
Director: John Ford | Stars: James Stewart, John Wayne, Vera Miles, Lee Marvin
Votes: 82,116
18. Two Rode Together (1961)
Passed | 109 min | Drama, Western
A corrupt marshal is pressured by his army friend into negotiating the release of white captives of the Comanches, but finds that their reintegration into society has its consequences.
Director: John Ford | Stars: James Stewart, Richard Widmark, Shirley Jones, Linda Cristal
Votes: 6,923
19. Carbine Williams (1952)
Unrated | 92 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
David Marshall Williams is sent to a prison farm where he works in the tool shop and eventually develops the precursor of the famous M-1 Carbine automatic rifle used in World War II.
Director: Richard Thorpe | Stars: James Stewart, Jean Hagen, Wendell Corey, Carl Benton Reid
Votes: 2,094
20. Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation (1962)
Approved | 116 min | Comedy, Family
Mr. Hobbs wants to spend a quiet holiday at the beach, but his wife has invited all their family to stay with them.
Director: Henry Koster | Stars: James Stewart, Maureen O'Hara, Fabian, Lauri Peters
Votes: 5,853
21. Take Her, She's Mine (1963)
Approved | 98 min | Comedy
A father's attempts to protect his college-age daughter from trouble backfire and he finds himself in the middle of scandal after scandal.
Director: Henry Koster | Stars: James Stewart, Sandra Dee, Audrey Meadows, Robert Morley
Votes: 1,504 | Gross: $7.41M
22. Cheyenne Autumn (1964)
PG | 154 min | Drama, History, Western
The Cheyenne, tired of broken U.S. government promises, head for their ancestral lands but a sympathetic cavalry officer is tasked to bring them back to their reservation.
Director: John Ford | Stars: Richard Widmark, Carroll Baker, Karl Malden, Sal Mineo
Votes: 6,431
23. The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
Not Rated | 99 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Two employees at a gift shop can barely stand each other, without realizing that they are falling in love through the post as each other's anonymous pen pal.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch | Stars: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Frank Morgan, Joseph Schildkraut
Votes: 38,364 | Gross: $0.20M
24. The Mortal Storm (1940)
Passed | 100 min | Drama
The Roth family leads a quiet life in a small village in the German Alps during the early 1930s. When the Nazis come to power, the family is divided and Martin Breitner, a family friend, is caught up in the turmoil.
Director: Frank Borzage | Stars: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Robert Young, Frank Morgan
Votes: 5,999
25. The Shootist (1976)
PG | 100 min | Drama, Romance, Western
A dying gunfighter spends his last days looking for a way to die with a minimum of pain and a maximum of dignity.
Director: Don Siegel | Stars: John Wayne, Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard, James Stewart
Votes: 26,760
26. Night Passage (1957)
Approved | 90 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A fired railroad man is re-hired and entrusted to carry a ten thousand dollar payroll in secret, even though he is suspected of being connected to outlaws.
Director: James Neilson | Stars: James Stewart, Audie Murphy, Dan Duryea, Dianne Foster
Votes: 4,530
27. Strategic Air Command (1955)
Approved | 112 min | Action, Drama, War
An ex-pilot and current baseballer is recalled into the U.S. Air Force and assumes an increasingly important role in Cold War deterrence.
Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: James Stewart, June Allyson, Frank Lovejoy, Barry Sullivan
Votes: 4,072
28. The Man from Laramie (1955)
Not Rated | 103 min | Drama, Western
Newcomer Will Lockhart defies the local cattle baron and his sadistic son by working for one of his oldest rivals.
Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: James Stewart, Arthur Kennedy, Donald Crisp, Cathy O'Donnell
Votes: 11,981
29. No Highway in the Sky (1951)
Not Rated | 98 min | Drama, Thriller
An aeronautical engineer predicts that a new model of plane will fail catastrophically and in a novel manner after a specific number flying hours.
Director: Henry Koster | Stars: James Stewart, Marlene Dietrich, Glynis Johns, Jack Hawkins
Votes: 4,442
30. The Jackpot (1950)
Passed | 85 min | Comedy
Bill Lawrence wins a jackpot worth $24,000 on a radio quiz program. His happiness, and that of his family, is short-lived after he discovers he'll be compelled to sell the prizes in order to pay an amount of $7,000 income tax on them.
Director: Walter Lang | Stars: James Stewart, Barbara Hale, James Gleason, Fred Clark
Votes: 1,274
31. The FBI Story (1959)
Approved | 149 min | Crime, Drama, History
A dedicated FBI agent recalls the agency's battles against the Klan, organized crime and Communist spies.
Director: Mervyn LeRoy | Stars: James Stewart, Vera Miles, Murray Hamilton, Larry Pennell
Votes: 3,875
32. Bell Book and Candle (1958)
Approved | 106 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
A modern-day witch likes her neighbor but despises his fiancée, so she enchants him to love her instead.
Director: Richard Quine | Stars: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon, Ernie Kovacs
Votes: 13,065
33. Firecreek (1968)
Approved | 104 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A peace-loving, part-time Sheriff in the small town of Firecreek must take a stand when a gang of vicious outlaws takes over his town.
Director: Vincent McEveety | Stars: James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Inger Stevens, Gary Lockwood
Votes: 4,050
34. The Rare Breed (1966)
Approved | 97 min | Western
An English woman and her daughter enlist the aid of a cowboy to try and get their hardy hornless bull to mate with the longhorns of Texas, but have to overcome greedy criminals and the natural elements.
Director: Andrew V. McLaglen | Stars: James Stewart, Maureen O'Hara, Brian Keith, Juliet Mills
Votes: 3,958
35. The Cheyenne Social Club (1970)
GP | 103 min | Western
An aging cowboy finds to his embarrassment that the successful business he has inherited from his brother is actually a house of prostitution.
Director: Gene Kelly | Stars: James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Shirley Jones, Sue Ane Langdon
Votes: 5,066 | Gross: $0.11M
36. The Naked Spur (1953)
Passed | 91 min | Drama, Thriller, Western
A bounty hunter trying to bring a murderer to justice is forced to accept the help of two less-than-trustworthy strangers.
Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: James Stewart, Janet Leigh, Robert Ryan, Ralph Meeker
Votes: 12,633
37. The Glenn Miller Story (1954)
Approved | 115 min | Biography, Drama, Music
Biography of bandleader Glenn Miller from his beginnings to his death over the English Channel in December 1944.
Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: James Stewart, June Allyson, Harry Morgan, Charles Drake
Votes: 9,688
38. The Far Country (1954)
Passed | 97 min | Romance, Western
A self-minded adventurer locks horns with a crooked lawman while driving cattle to Dawson.
Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: James Stewart, Ruth Roman, Corinne Calvet, Walter Brennan
Votes: 8,597
39. Malaya (1949)
Passed | 98 min | Adventure, Drama, War
Newspaperman Royer convinces government officials of a plan to obtain rubber by smuggling it out from under the Japanese. Carnahan is let out of prison to help.
Director: Richard Thorpe | Stars: Spencer Tracy, James Stewart, Valentina Cortese, Sydney Greenstreet
Votes: 1,444
40. The Stratton Story (1949)
Passed | 106 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
Star major league pitcher Monty Stratton loses a leg in a hunting accident, but becomes determined to leave the game on his own terms.
Director: Sam Wood | Stars: James Stewart, June Allyson, Frank Morgan, Agnes Moorehead
Votes: 3,337
41. Made for Each Other (1939)
Approved | 92 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
While on a business trip, an ambitious young lawyer meets and immediately falls in love with a stranger. They wed the following day, and tragedy soon strikes.
Director: John Cromwell | Stars: Carole Lombard, James Stewart, Charles Coburn, Lucile Watson
Votes: 4,085
42. Vivacious Lady (1938)
Approved | 90 min | Comedy, Romance
A professor marries a nightclub singer, much to the consternation of his family and friends back home.
Director: George Stevens | Stars: Ginger Rogers, James Stewart, James Ellison, Beulah Bondi
Votes: 4,174
43. The Last Gangster (1937)
Passed | 81 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A gangster is jailed for ten years after his wife becomes pregnant. He becomes bitter when she divorces him and remarries.
Director: Edward Ludwig | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, James Stewart, Rose Stradner, Lionel Stander
Votes: 1,700
44. Bend of the River (1952)
Approved | 91 min | Action, Adventure, Drama