The Best 30 films of Spencer Tracy
by jacobyjhn-18-315763 | created - 10 Aug 2011 | updated - 24 Jan 2015 | PublicOne of the greatest actors of all time, Tracy was so far ahead of his time and there was never a false note in any of his performances. He was the consumate movie actor and created many indelible screen characterizations over his wonderful career. Here are 30 of his very best, intended as a tribute to the great Spencer Tracy.
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1. Inherit the Wind (1960)
Passed | 128 min | Biography, Drama, History
Based on a real-life case in 1925; two great lawyers argue the case for, and against, a Tennessee science teacher accused of the crime of teaching Darwin's theory of evolution.
Director: Stanley Kramer | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Fredric March, Gene Kelly, Dick York
Votes: 32,746
2. Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
Approved | 179 min | Drama, War
In 1948, an American court in occupied Germany tries four Nazis judged for war crimes.
Director: Stanley Kramer | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Marlene Dietrich
Votes: 85,343
3. Captains Courageous (1937)
G | 117 min | Adventure, Drama, Family
A spoiled brat who falls overboard from a steamship in the 1920s gets picked up by a New England fishing boat, where he's made to earn his keep by joining the crew in their work.
Director: Victor Fleming | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Freddie Bartholomew, Lionel Barrymore, Melvyn Douglas
Votes: 10,915
4. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
Approved | 108 min | Comedy, Drama
A couple's attitudes are challenged when their daughter introduces them to her African-American fiancé.
Director: Stanley Kramer | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier, Katharine Hepburn, Katharine Houghton
Votes: 48,886 | Gross: $56.70M
5. Father of the Bride (1950)
Not Rated | 92 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
The father of a young woman deals with the emotional pain of her getting married, along with the financial and organizational trouble of arranging the wedding.
Director: Vincente Minnelli | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett, Elizabeth Taylor, Don Taylor
Votes: 12,524 | Gross: $8.84M
6. The Last Hurrah (1958)
Approved | 121 min | Drama
Frank Skeffington is an old Irish-American political boss, running for re-election as mayor of a U.S. town for the last time.
Director: John Ford | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Jeffrey Hunter, Dianne Foster, Pat O'Brien
Votes: 4,153
7. Broken Lance (1954)
Approved | 96 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
The saga of the Devereaux rancher family, set in 1880's Arizona.
Director: Edward Dmytryk | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Robert Wagner, Jean Peters, Richard Widmark
Votes: 4,301 | Gross: $8.28M
8. Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
Passed | 81 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A one-armed stranger comes to a tiny town possessing a terrible past they want to keep secret, by violent means if necessary.
Director: John Sturges | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis, Dean Jagger
Votes: 24,232
9. The Old Man and the Sea (1958)
Not Rated | 86 min | Adventure, Drama
An old Cuban fisherman's dry spell is broken when he hooks a gigantic fish that drags him out to sea.
Directors: John Sturges, Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Felipe Pazos, Harry Bellaver, Richard Alameda
Votes: 8,632
10. Adam's Rib (1949)
Not Rated | 101 min | Comedy, Romance
Domestic and professional tensions mount when a husband and wife work as opposing lawyers in a case involving a woman who shot her husband.
Director: George Cukor | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Judy Holliday, Tom Ewell
Votes: 22,907
11. Woman of the Year (1942)
Passed | 114 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Rival reporters Sam and Tess fall in love and get married, only to find their relationship strained when Sam comes to resent Tess' hectic lifestyle.
Director: George Stevens | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Fay Bainter, Reginald Owen
Votes: 10,989
12. State of the Union (1948)
Approved | 124 min | Comedy, Drama
An industrialist is urged to run for President, but this requires uncomfortable compromises on both political and marital levels.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Van Johnson, Angela Lansbury
Votes: 4,166
13. Pat and Mike (1952)
Not Rated | 95 min | Comedy, Romance, Sport
Pat is a women's sports sensation unless her fiancé is around. Her new shady manager Mike keeps them apart and develops feelings for her.
Director: George Cukor | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Aldo Ray, William Ching
Votes: 6,149
14. Boys Town (1938)
Passed | 96 min | Biography, Drama, Family
When a death row prisoner tells him he wouldn't have led a life of crime if only he had had one friend as a child, Father Edward Flanagan decides to start a home for young boys.
Director: Norman Taurog | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney, Henry Hull, Leslie Fenton
Votes: 6,344
15. Desk Set (1957)
Approved | 103 min | Comedy, Romance
Two extremely strong personalities clash over the computerization of a television network's research department.
Director: Walter Lang | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Gig Young, Joan Blondell
Votes: 9,531
16. Fury (1936)
Not Rated | 92 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
When a wrongly-accused prisoner barely survives a lynch-mob attack and is presumed dead, he vindictively decides to fake his death and frame the mob for his supposed murder.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Sylvia Sidney, Spencer Tracy, Walter Abel, Bruce Cabot
Votes: 13,719
17. Edison, the Man (1940)
Passed | 107 min | Biography, Drama
82 year old inventor and entrepreneur Thomas Alva Edison is honored in 1929 and he reflects back on his sixty year career of scientific achievement.
Director: Clarence Brown | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Rita Johnson, Lynne Overman, Charles Coburn
Votes: 1,775
18. The Seventh Cross (1944)
Passed | 112 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
In 1936, seven prisoners escape from a concentration camp. The Nazis put up seven crosses for demonstrative executions. This story about one of the fugitives, who relies on own courage and compassion of people to avoid the seventh cross.
Director: Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Signe Hasso, Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy
Votes: 2,957
19. San Francisco (1936)
Passed | 115 min | Drama, Music, Romance
A Barbary Coast saloonkeeper and a Nob Hill impresario are rivals for the affections of a beautiful singer, both personally and professionally, in 1906 San Francisco.
Director: W.S. Van Dyke | Stars: Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald, Spencer Tracy, Jack Holt
Votes: 6,100
20. Boom Town (1940)
Passed | 119 min | Drama, Romance, Western
Two buddies who rise from fly-by-night wildcatters to oil tycoons over a ten-year period both love the same woman.
Director: Jack Conway | Stars: Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Claudette Colbert, Hedy Lamarr
Votes: 3,779 | Gross: $9.17M
21. Northwest Passage (1940)
Passed | 126 min | Adventure, Drama, History
Langdon Towne and Hunk Marriner join Major Rogers' Rangers as they wipe out an Indian village. They set out for Fort Wentworth, but when they arrive they find no soldiers and none of the supplies they expected.
Directors: King Vidor, Jack Conway, W.S. Van Dyke | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Robert Young, Walter Brennan, Ruth Hussey
Votes: 3,900
22. It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963)
Approved | 210 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
A group of motorists witnesses a car crash in the California desert, and after the driver's dying words indicate the location of a hidden stash of loot, they turn against each in a race across the state to get to it.
Director: Stanley Kramer | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Milton Berle, Ethel Merman, Mickey Rooney
Votes: 46,056 | Gross: $46.30M
23. Libeled Lady (1936)
Passed | 98 min | Comedy, Romance
When a socialite sues a big paper for libel, the editor responsible calls in the help of his ignored fiancée and a former employee to frame her and make the false story seem true.
Director: Jack Conway | Stars: Jean Harlow, William Powell, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy
Votes: 8,902
24. Test Pilot (1938)
Passed | 119 min | Drama, Romance
Jim is a test pilot. His wife Ann and best friend Gunner try their best to keep him sober. But the life of a test pilot is anything but safe.
Director: Victor Fleming | Stars: Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy, Lionel Barrymore
Votes: 2,741
25. Stanley and Livingstone (1939)
Approved | 101 min | Adventure, Drama, History
Tasked by his editor, American reporter Henry M. Stanley travels to a dangerous and uncharted region of East Africa to find the missing Scottish pioneer missionary Dr. David Livingstone.
Directors: Henry King, Otto Brower | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Nancy Kelly, Richard Greene, Walter Brennan
Votes: 1,544
26. Father's Little Dividend (1951)
Not Rated | 82 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Shortly after coming to terms with his daughter's marriage, a father faces the prospect of becoming a grandfather.
Director: Vincente Minnelli | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett, Elizabeth Taylor, Don Taylor
Votes: 4,288 | Gross: $6.81M
27. Without Love (1945)
Approved | 111 min | Comedy, Romance
In Washington, D.C. during World War II, Jamie Rowan enters into a loveless marriage with scientist Pat Jamieson and becomes his assistant. Struggles bring them closer together.
Director: Harold S. Bucquet | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Lucille Ball, Keenan Wynn
Votes: 2,714
28. A Guy Named Joe (1943)
Passed | 120 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
A dead World War II bomber pilot, Pete Sandidge becomes the guardian angel of another pilot, Ted Randall. He guides Ted through battle and helping him to romance his old girlfriend, despite her excessive devotion to Sandidge's memory.
Director: Victor Fleming | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Irene Dunne, Van Johnson, Ward Bond
Votes: 2,910
29. 20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932)
Passed | 78 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Brash hoodlum Tom Connors enters Sing Sing cocksure of himself and disrespectful toward authority, but his tough but compassionate warden changes him.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Bette Davis, Arthur Byron, Lyle Talbot
Votes: 2,958
30. Tortilla Flat (1942)
Passed | 105 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Danny, a poor northern Californian Mexican-American, inherits two houses from his grandfather and is quickly taken advantage of by his vagabond friends.
Director: Victor Fleming | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Hedy Lamarr, John Garfield, Frank Morgan
Votes: 2,043
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