The Films of Michael Curtiz
by tseybert | created - 20 Feb 2014 | updated - 21 Dec 2018 | PublicMy favorite director is probably Akira Kurosawa, but I think I'm probably more fascinated by Michael Curtiz. He was a studio director in Hollywood's Golden Age, so he cranked out a lot of fluff, but it is some really incredible fluff. He made a variety of films and I think it's amazing how good he was at almost every type of film he tackled. Anyway, I'm putting together a list of the Curtiz films I've seen just to help me keep track. Michael Curtiz: Great studio director or greatest studio director?
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1. Casablanca (1942)
PG | 102 min | Drama, Romance, War
A cynical expatriate American cafe owner struggles to decide whether or not to help his former lover and her fugitive husband escape the Nazis in French Morocco.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains
Votes: 602,742 | Gross: $1.02M
This is, quite possibly, the best movie ever made.
2. The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
PG | 102 min | Action, Adventure, Romance
When Prince John and the Norman Lords begin oppressing the Saxon masses in King Richard's absence in 1190s England, a Saxon lord fights back as the outlaw leader of a resistance movement.
Directors: Michael Curtiz, William Keighley | Stars: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, Claude Rains
Votes: 54,220 | Gross: $3.98M
3. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
Passed | 126 min | Biography, Drama, Family
The life of the renowned musical composer, playwright, actor, dancer, and singer George M. Cohan.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: James Cagney, Joan Leslie, Walter Huston, Richard Whorf
Votes: 16,776 | Gross: $11.80M
4. Mildred Pierce (1945)
Approved | 111 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A hard-working mother inches towards disaster as she divorces her husband and starts a successful restaurant business to support her spoiled daughter.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden
Votes: 28,431
5. God's Gift to Women (1931)
Passed | 72 min | Comedy, Romance
A Parisian descendant of Don Juan vows to stop philandering in order to win the hand of a virtous young lady with a disapproving father.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Frank Fay, Laura La Plante, Joan Blondell, Charles Winninger
Votes: 449
6. The Mad Genius (1931)
Passed | 81 min | Drama, Horror, Romance
A crippled man finds a boy and vows to make him a great dancer.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: John Barrymore, Marian Marsh, Charles Butterworth, Donald Cook
Votes: 749
7. Doctor X (1932)
Unrated | 76 min | Comedy, Crime, Horror
A wisecracking New York reporter intrudes on a research scientist's quest to unmask The Moon Killer.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Lee Tracy, Preston Foster
Votes: 4,220 | Gross: $0.88M
8. The Cabin in the Cotton (1932)
TV-G | 78 min | Drama
A tenant farmer's son is caught in the middle of owner-tenant disputes when he falls for the plantation owner's seductive daughter.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Richard Barthelmess, Bette Davis, Dorothy Jordan, Hardie Albright
Votes: 1,867
9. 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: 2,951
10. Female (1933)
Passed | 60 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Alison Drake, the tough-minded executive of an automobile factory, succeeds in the man's world of business until she meets an independent design engineer.
Directors: Michael Curtiz, William Dieterle, William A. Wellman | Stars: Ruth Chatterton, George Brent, Lois Wilson, Johnny Mack Brown
Votes: 1,890
11. Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)
Passed | 77 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
The disappearance of people and corpses leads a reporter to a wax museum and a sinister sculptor.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Glenda Farrell, Frank McHugh
Votes: 6,787
12. The Kennel Murder Case (1933)
Passed | 73 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Philo Vance, accompanied by his prize-losing Scottish terrier, investigates the locked-room murder of a prominent and much-hated collector whose broken Chinese vase provides an important clue.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: William Powell, Mary Astor, Eugene Pallette, Ralph Morgan
Votes: 4,031
13. The Keyhole (1933)
Passed | 69 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Anne Brooks is being blackmailed by her old dancing partner Maurice. They married when she was young but broke up after which he said he was getting a quickie divorce. Anne married the much... See full summary »
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Kay Francis, George Brent, Glenda Farrell, Monroe Owsley
Votes: 656
14. Mandalay (1934)
Passed | 65 min | Drama
Abandoned by her lover, a woman becomes the main "hostess" in a decadent nightclub, but tries to put her past behind her on a steamer to Mandalay.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Kay Francis, Ricardo Cortez, Warner Oland, Lyle Talbot
Votes: 1,113
15. Jimmy the Gent (1934)
Passed | 67 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
An unpolished racketeer, whose racket is finding heirs for unclaimed fortunes, affects ethics and tea-drinking manners to win back the sweetheart who now works for his seemingly upright competitor.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: James Cagney, Bette Davis, Allen Jenkins, Alan Dinehart
Votes: 2,031
16. Front Page Woman (1935)
Passed | 82 min | Comedy, Romance
A woman reporter tries to prove she's just as good as any man, but runs into trouble along the way.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Bette Davis, George Brent, Roscoe Karns, Wini Shaw
Votes: 1,711
An early Bette Davis film that has to be seen to be believed! This is one of those crazy, crazy, crazy 1930s movies about journalism that probably influenced the way newspapers were portrayed in Superman comic books.
17. Captain Blood (1935)
Passed | 119 min | Action, Adventure, History
After treating a Monmouth rebel against King James II in 1680s England, a young Irish doctor is exiled as a slave to Jamaica where he captures a Spanish galleon and becomes the most feared pirate of the Caribbean.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Lionel Atwill, Basil Rathbone
Votes: 15,646 | Gross: $2.96M
18. The Walking Dead (1936)
Passed | 66 min | Crime, Drama, Horror
After hapless pianist and ex-con John Elman is framed for murder, he is resurrected by a scientist after his execution.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Boris Karloff, Ricardo Cortez, Edmund Gwenn, Marguerite Churchill
Votes: 3,041
Karloff is brought back from the dead by scientific means and things get ugly for the gangsters who set him up for the death penalty. A great Karloff film, horror mixed with gangland intrigue, with a little movie science thrown in. An interesting hybrid film.
19. The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936)
Approved | 115 min | Action, Adventure, Romance
A major countermands orders and attacks to avenge a previous massacre of men, women, and children.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Patric Knowles, Henry Stephenson
Votes: 5,451
Not one of Curtiz' best films but still a rousing adventure tale.
20. Kid Galahad (1937)
Passed | 102 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Fight promoter Nick Donati grooms a bellhop as a future champ, but has second thoughts when the 'kid' falls for his sister.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Wayne Morris
Votes: 3,907
A fun boxing picture with the triple threat of Edward G. Robinson, Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart. The boxer is played by Wayne Morris, who many viewers will remember from Paths of Glory.
21. Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
Passed | 97 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A priest tries to stop a gangster from corrupting a group of street kids.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan
Votes: 23,095
22. Dodge City (1939)
Approved | 104 min | Western
A Texas cattle agent witnesses first hand, the brutal lawlessness of Dodge City and takes the job of sheriff to clean the town up.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Ann Sheridan, Bruce Cabot
Votes: 5,734
In a way, it's just another Michael Curtis-Errol Flynn-Olivia de Haviland adventure movie. But it's still pretty good.
23. The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)
Approved | 106 min | Biography, Drama, History
A depiction of the love/hate relationship between Queen Elizabeth I and Robert Devereux, the Earl of Essex.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Donald Crisp
Votes: 6,128
Bette Davis as Elizabeth I of England. If you need to know anything else whilst deciding whether or not to watch this movie, then it's probably not for you.
24. Virginia City (1940)
Passed | 121 min | Western
Union officer Kerry Bradford escapes from Confederate Prison and is set to Virginia City, Nevada, where he finds out that the former commander of his prison, Vance Irby, is planning to send $5 million in gold to save the Confederacy.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Errol Flynn, Miriam Hopkins, Randolph Scott, Humphrey Bogart
Votes: 2,937
Humphrey Bogart is a Mexican. There's a certain greatness in his performance that is hard to describe. The first half of this movie - in which Confederates plot to steal a fortune in silver in Nevada and use it to fund the Southern war effort - is quick and fun and has some great scenes. It kind of falls apart at the end.
Humphrey Bogart is the least of this movie's problems.
25. Santa Fe Trail (1940)
Not Rated | 110 min | Drama, War, Western
In 1854, Jeb Stuart, George Custer and other graduates from West Point are posted to Kansas to help pacify the territory before railroad construction to Santa Fe can resume.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Raymond Massey, Ronald Reagan
Votes: 4,124
I'm not a big fan of this movie, but it is kind of crazy at times. Errol Flynn is Jeb Stuart. Ronald Reagan is George Custer. Raymond Massey is abolitionist John Brown. Fate brings them all together on the Santa Fe Trail.
26. The Sea Wolf (1941)
Approved | 100 min | Adventure, Drama
After being fished out of the sea by a sailer, three fugitives find themselves prisoners of the ship's brutal skipper who refuses to put them ashore and they hatch an escape plan during a crew mutiny.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Ida Lupino, John Garfield, Alexander Knox
Votes: 4,381
Based on the novel by Jack London. Edward G. Robinson is "Wolf" Larsen. Also stars John Garfield and Ida Lupino.
27. This Is the Army (1943)
Approved | 121 min | Musical
A soldier wounded in the War (WWI) becomes a producer and stages a show for the forces.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: George Murphy, Joan Leslie, George Tobias, Alan Hale
Votes: 1,323 | Gross: $20.83M
28. Passage to Marseille (1944)
Passed | 109 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
Five patriotic convicts are helped to escape imprisonment in Devil's Island so they can fight for occupied Free French forces against the Nazis.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Claude Rains, Michèle Morgan, Philip Dorn
Votes: 5,011
Must be seen just for its out-of-control flashback-within-a-flashback story structure. And for Sydney Greenstreet as a disagreeable Vichy general.
29. Life with Father (1947)
Passed | 118 min | Comedy, Family
A straitlaced turn-of-the-century father presides over a family of boys and the mother who really rules the roost.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: William Powell, Irene Dunne, Elizabeth Taylor, Edmund Gwenn
Votes: 6,365
This is fun because of the great cast - William Powell, Irene Dunne and Elizabeth Taylor.
30. The Unsuspected (1947)
Approved | 103 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
The secretary of an affably suave radio mystery host mysteriously commits suicide after his wealthy young niece disappears.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Claude Rains, Joan Caulfield, Audrey Totter, Constance Bennett
Votes: 3,620
This is probably the most under-rated movie on the list. Claude Rains is amazing.
31. Flamingo Road (1949)
Approved | 94 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
A corrupt small town sheriff manipulates local candidates to the state legislature but he eventually comes into conflict with a visiting carnival dancer.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Joan Crawford, Zachary Scott, Sydney Greenstreet, David Brian
Votes: 3,577 | Gross: $2.26M
Joan Crawford and Sydney Greenstreet act the hell out of this!
32. White Christmas (1954)
Not Rated | 120 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
A successful song-and-dance team become romantically involved with a sister act and team up to save the failing Vermont inn of their former commanding general.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, Vera-Ellen
Votes: 50,984 | Gross: $30.00M
33. We're No Angels (1955)
Not Rated | 106 min | Comedy, Crime, Romance
Three Devil's Island escapees hide out in the house of a kindly merchant and repay his kindness by helping him and his family out of several crises.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Peter Ustinov, Aldo Ray, Joan Bennett
Votes: 10,737
It's been a while since I saw it. The main thing I remember is that it's WEIRD. If you're curious about a movie that teams Humphrey Bogart and Peter Ustinov, you might want to give this a chance.
34. The Man in the Net (1959)
Unrated | 98 min | Crime, Mystery
A struggling artist in a small town becomes the prime suspect when his wife mysteriously disappears.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Alan Ladd, Carolyn Jones, Diane Brewster, John Lupton
Votes: 785
Alan Ladd and Morticia Addams in a slightly-above-average crime thriller.
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