The Best 50 films of James Mason
by jacobyjhn-18-315763 | created - 09 Feb 2015 | updated - 10 Feb 2015 | PublicThe excellent, prolific actor, James Mason with his pleasing manner and wonderful voice, created many indelible screen characterizations over his over 50 year acting career. Here are 50 of his finest efforts.
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1. North by Northwest (1959)
Approved | 136 min | Action, Adventure, Mystery
A New York City advertising executive goes on the run after being mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, and falls for a woman whose loyalties he begins to doubt.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Jessie Royce Landis
Votes: 346,115 | Gross: $13.28M
2. The Verdict (1982)
R | 129 min | Drama
An outcast, alcoholic Boston lawyer sees the chance to salvage his career and self-respect by taking a medical malpractice case to trial rather than settling.
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Paul Newman, Charlotte Rampling, Jack Warden, James Mason
Votes: 45,972 | Gross: $54.00M
3. Odd Man Out (1947)
Approved | 116 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A wounded Irish nationalist leader attempts to evade police following a failed robbery in Belfast.
Director: Carol Reed | Stars: James Mason, Robert Newton, Cyril Cusack, F.J. McCormick
Votes: 11,417
4. The Boys from Brazil (1978)
R | 125 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A Nazi hunter in Paraguay discovers a sinister and bizarre plot to rekindle the Third Reich.
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner | Stars: Gregory Peck, Laurence Olivier, James Mason, Lilli Palmer
Votes: 30,569 | Gross: $19.00M
5. Lolita (1962)
Not Rated | 153 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
A middle-aged college professor becomes infatuated with a 14-year-old girl.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: James Mason, Shelley Winters, Sue Lyon, Gary Cockrell
Votes: 108,780 | Gross: $9.25M
6. The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel (1951)
Approved | 88 min | Biography, Drama, War
The story of the final years of the respected World War II German general, Erwin Rommel.
Director: Henry Hathaway | Stars: James Mason, Cedric Hardwicke, Jessica Tandy, Luther Adler
Votes: 6,708
7. 5 Fingers (1952)
Approved | 108 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
During WWII the valet to the British Ambassador to Ankara sells British secrets to the Germans while trying to romance a refugee Polish countess.
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Stars: James Mason, Danielle Darrieux, Michael Rennie, Walter Hampden
Votes: 5,467
8. Heaven Can Wait (1978)
PG | 101 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
A Los Angeles Rams quarterback, accidentally taken away from his body by an overanxious angel before he was meant to die, returns to life in the body of a recently murdered millionaire.
Directors: Warren Beatty, Buck Henry | Stars: Warren Beatty, James Mason, Julie Christie, Jack Warden
Votes: 23,516 | Gross: $81.64M
9. Georgy Girl (1966)
Approved | 99 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A traditional girl (Lynn Redgrave) resists the advances of a swinger (James Mason) who wants her as his mistress in 1960s London.
Director: Silvio Narizzano | Stars: James Mason, Alan Bates, Lynn Redgrave, Charlotte Rampling
Votes: 4,243 | Gross: $16.87M
10. The Pumpkin Eater (1964)
Not Rated | 118 min | Drama
Beautiful Mother of five Jo leaves the banality of her marriage to second husband Giles to wed her passionate screenwriter lover, Jake Armitage. As suspicions of Husband Jake's philandering grows, Jo's sanity spirals.
Director: Jack Clayton | Stars: Anne Bancroft, Peter Finch, James Mason, Janine Gray
Votes: 2,841
11. Bigger Than Life (1956)
Not Rated | 95 min | Drama
A seriously-ill schoolteacher becomes dependent on a "miracle" drug that begins to affect his sanity.
Director: Nicholas Ray | Stars: James Mason, Barbara Rush, Walter Matthau, Robert F. Simon
Votes: 8,145
12. Julius Caesar (1953)
Not Rated | 120 min | Drama, History
The growing ambition of Julius Caesar is a source of major concern to his close friend Brutus. Cassius persuades him to participate in his plot to assassinate Caesar but they have both sorely underestimated Mark Antony.
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Stars: Louis Calhern, Marlon Brando, James Mason, John Gielgud
Votes: 12,873
13. Cry Terror! (1958)
Not Rated | 96 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Thriller
Duped by former Army pal Paul Hoplin into building a time-bomb, New York shop owner Jim Molner and his family become hostages of Hoplin who uses bomb-threats to extort money from airlines.
Director: Andrew L. Stone | Stars: James Mason, Rod Steiger, Inger Stevens, Neville Brand
Votes: 1,701
14. Voyage of the Damned (1976)
PG | 155 min | Drama, War
The tragic 1939 voyage of SS St. Louis carrying hundreds of German Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany that seemingly no nation is willing to save from certain doom.
Director: Stuart Rosenberg | Stars: Faye Dunaway, Oskar Werner, Lee Grant, Sam Wanamaker
Votes: 3,405
15. 11 Harrowhouse (1974)
PG | 94 min | Comedy, Crime, Thriller
Independent diamond broker and his girlfriend attempt a heist at a major Diamond Exchange house in London.
Director: Aram Avakian | Stars: Candice Bergen, Charles Grodin, James Mason, Trevor Howard
Votes: 1,218 | Gross: $0.61M
16. Age of Consent (1969)
R | 98 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
A grizzled Australian painter decides to jolt his stale creativity by moving to a remote island on the Great Barrier Reef, where he takes on an alluring, uninhibited young woman as his muse.
Director: Michael Powell | Stars: James Mason, Helen Mirren, Jack MacGowran, Neva Carr-Glynn
Votes: 3,719
17. Lord Jim (1965)
Not Rated | 154 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
After being discredited as a coward, a 19th century seaman lives for only one purpose: to redeem himself.
Director: Richard Brooks | Stars: Peter O'Toole, James Mason, Curd Jürgens, Eli Wallach
Votes: 4,262
18. Mayerling (1968)
PG-13 | 140 min | Drama, History, Romance
Based on real life events that led to tragic deaths of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and his lover Baroness Mary Vetsera.
Director: Terence Young | Stars: Omar Sharif, Catherine Deneuve, James Mason, Ava Gardner
Votes: 1,758
19. The Desert Rats (1953)
Approved | 88 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Richard Burton plays a Scottish Army officer put in charge of a disparate band of ANZAC troops on the perimeter of Tobruk with the German Army doing their best to dislodge them.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Richard Burton, James Mason, Robert Newton, Robert Douglas
Votes: 5,298
20. The Prisoner of Zenda (1952)
Approved | 96 min | Adventure, Mystery, Romance
An Englishman vacationing in a Ruritarian kingdom is recruited to impersonate his cousin, the soon-to-be-crowned king, after the monarch is drugged and kidnapped.
Director: Richard Thorpe | Stars: Stewart Granger, Deborah Kerr, James Mason, Louis Calhern
Votes: 4,005
21. Caught (1949)
Approved | 88 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An ambitious young LA department store model gets her wish of marrying a millionaire but she eventually discovers that rich life isn't always a happy one.
Director: Max Ophüls | Stars: James Mason, Barbara Bel Geddes, Robert Ryan, Frank Ferguson
Votes: 4,354
22. Yellowbeard (1983)
PG | 96 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
After serving two decades in prison, Yellowbeard (Graham Chapman) breaks out determined to recover the treasure that he buried so long ago, alongside his son, old crew, and the British Navy.
Director: Mel Damski | Stars: Graham Chapman, Peter Boyle, Cheech Marin, Tommy Chong
Votes: 8,540 | Gross: $4.30M
23. Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)
Approved | 129 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy
An Edinburgh professor and assorted colleagues follow an explorer's trail down an extinct Icelandic volcano to the earth's center.
Director: Henry Levin | Stars: James Mason, Pat Boone, Arlene Dahl, Diane Baker
Votes: 19,564 | Gross: $10.00M
24. Genghis Khan (1965)
Approved | 120 min | Adventure, Drama, History
During the thirteenth century, the shy Mongol boy Temujin becomes the fearless leader Genghis Khan, who unites all Mongol tribes and conquers most of Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.
Director: Henry Levin | Stars: Stephen Boyd, Omar Sharif, James Mason, Eli Wallach
Votes: 2,533 | Gross: $0.00M
25. Child's Play (1972)
PG | 100 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
At an exclusive boys' school, a new gym teacher is drawn into a feud between two older instructors, and he discovers that everything at the school is not quite as staid, tranquil and harmless as it seems.
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: James Mason, Robert Preston, Beau Bridges, Ron Weyand
Votes: 1,621 | Gross: $0.13M
26. The MacKintosh Man (1973)
PG | 98 min | Thriller
A member of British Intelligence assumes a fictitious criminal identity and allows himself to be caught, imprisoned, and freed in order to infiltrate a spy organization and expose a traitor.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Paul Newman, Dominique Sanda, James Mason, Harry Andrews
Votes: 5,220 | Gross: $3.30M
27. Cross of Iron (1977)
R | 119 min | Drama, War
German commander Hauptmann Stransky places a squad in extreme danger after Sergeant Rolf Steiner refuses to lie for him.
Director: Sam Peckinpah | Stars: James Coburn, Maximilian Schell, James Mason, David Warner
Votes: 29,161
28. Murder by Decree (1979)
PG | 124 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Sherlock Holmes investigates the murders commited by Jack the Ripper and discovers a conspiracy to protect the killer.
Director: Bob Clark | Stars: Christopher Plummer, James Mason, David Hemmings, Susan Clark
Votes: 6,594
29. The Man Between (1953)
Not Rated | 100 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
In post-WW2 Berlin, when travel to the East was still possible, the sister of a British officer from West Berlin is abducted by Communist agents and taken into the Soviet sector where her eventual rescue is arranged by a German smuggler.
Director: Carol Reed | Stars: James Mason, Claire Bloom, Hildegard Knef, Geoffrey Toone
Votes: 2,522
30. Prince Valiant (1954)
Approved | 100 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A young Viking prince strives to become a knight in King Arthur's Court and restore his exiled father to his rightful throne.
Director: Henry Hathaway | Stars: James Mason, Janet Leigh, Robert Wagner, Debra Paget
Votes: 2,948
31. The Marriage-Go-Round (1961)
Approved | 98 min | Comedy
A Swedish woman wants her American host to father her baby.
Director: Walter Lang | Stars: Susan Hayward, James Mason, Julie Newmar, Robert Paige
Votes: 395
32. The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)
Approved | 188 min | Drama, History, War
The death of Marcus Aurelius leads to a succession crisis, in which the deceased emperor's son, Commodus, demonstrates that he is unwilling to let anything undermine his claim to the Roman Empire.
Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: Sophia Loren, Stephen Boyd, Alec Guinness, James Mason
Votes: 10,144 | Gross: $4.75M
33. The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960)
PG | 123 min | Biography, Drama, History
A chronicle of Oscar Wilde's libel suit against the Marquis of Queensberry and the tragic turn his life takes because of it.
Director: Ken Hughes | Stars: Peter Finch, Yvonne Mitchell, James Mason, Nigel Patrick
Votes: 1,120
34. Madame Bovary (1949)
Passed | 114 min | Drama, Romance
A provincial doctor's wife's romantic illusions about life and social status lead her to betray her naive husband, take on lovers, and run up ruinous debts.
Director: Vincente Minnelli | Stars: Jennifer Jones, James Mason, Van Heflin, Louis Jourdan
Votes: 2,903
35. A Touch of Larceny (1960)
Not Rated | 93 min | Comedy
Royal Navy Commander Max Easton fakes his defection to the Soviets in order to sue the slandering newspapers for the money he needs to woo a fancy American woman.
Director: Guy Hamilton | Stars: James Mason, George Sanders, Vera Miles, Oliver Johnston
Votes: 658
36. Botany Bay (1952)
Approved | 93 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
In 1787, American medical student Hugh Tallant and British convicts are sent from London to New South Wales on a ship commanded by the evil Captain Gilbert.
Director: John Farrow | Stars: Alan Ladd, James Mason, Patricia Medina, Cedric Hardwicke
Votes: 575
37. One Way Street (1950)
Approved | 79 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
After stealing a gangster's money and his girlfriend, a doctor heads for a small village in Mexico.
Director: Hugo Fregonese | Stars: James Mason, Märta Torén, Dan Duryea, Basil Ruysdael
Votes: 783
38. Alibi (1942)
66 min | Crime, Mystery
A bar hostess (Lockwood) is used by a killer to obtain an alibi.
Director: Brian Desmond Hurst | Stars: Margaret Lockwood, Hugh Sinclair, James Mason, Raymond Lovell
Votes: 72
39. Death Cell (1941)
Approved | 73 min | Mystery
James Mason as a private detective, whose father is a Scotland Yard man, takes a case involving extortion and kidnapping. A young girl is kidnapped from a nursing home and he advises the ... See full summary »
Director: Lawrence Huntington | Stars: James Mason, Mary Clare, Margaret Vyner, Gordon McLeod
Votes: 37
40. The Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel (1937)
Approved | 88 min | Drama, History, Romance
Paris is Burning. Under the iron fist of Robespierre, hundreds are executed, by the swift and bloodstained guillotine. Through these acts of injustice a new heroism is born - the League of The Scarlet Pimpernel.
Director: Hanns Schwarz | Stars: Barry K. Barnes, Sophie Stewart, Margaretta Scott, James Mason
Votes: 348
41. The Mill on the Floss (1936)
95 min | Drama
Romeo and Juliet in 1930s England. The owner of the mill and the local lord are in conflict over water rights. The lord wins threatening the mill owner with financial ruin.
Director: Tim Whelan | Stars: Frank Lawton, Victoria Hopper, Griffith Jones, Geraldine Fitzgerald
Votes: 130
42. Mandingo (1975)
R | 127 min | Drama, History, Romance
An 1840s slaveowner trains one of his slaves to be a bare-knuckle fighter.
Director: Richard Fleischer | Stars: James Mason, Susan George, Perry King, Richard Ward
Votes: 4,217 | Gross: $2.43M
43. North Sea Hijack (1980)
PG | 95 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
When terrorists take over two oil rigs, and threaten to blow them up if their demands are not met, an eccentric anti-terrorism expert volunteers his unique commando unit to stop them.
Director: Andrew V. McLaglen | Stars: Roger Moore, James Mason, Anthony Perkins, Michael Parks
Votes: 5,817
44. Inside Out (1975)
PG | 97 min | Comedy, Crime, Thriller
Thirty years after WW2, a team of former GIs and German soldiers plans to retrieve Nazi loot hidden in the Soviet occupied East Germany, its exact location only known to an imprisoned Nazi war criminal.
Director: Peter Duffell | Stars: Telly Savalas, Robert Culp, James Mason, Aldo Ray
Votes: 654