The Best 38 films of Robert Ryan
by jacobyjhn-18-315763 | created - 08 Feb 2015 | updated - 10 Feb 2015 | PublicWonderful actor, Robert Ryan, created many memorable screen characterizations over his long film acting career. And, perhaps was not fully recognized for the wonderful actor he was. Here are 38 of his very best.
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1. Crossfire (1947)
Approved | 86 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A man is murdered, apparently by one of a group of demobilized soldiers he met in a bar. But which one? And why?
Director: Edward Dmytryk | Stars: Robert Young, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan, Gloria Grahame
Votes: 9,710 | Gross: $1.30M
2. The Set-Up (1949)
Approved | 73 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Sport
Expecting the usual loss, a boxing manager takes bribes from a betting gangster without telling his fighter.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Robert Ryan, Audrey Totter, George Tobias, Alan Baxter
Votes: 10,092
3. The Racket (1951)
Approved | 88 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
In New York, two honest cops try to hinder a crime syndicate from moving into the precinct and also to prevent the mob's plan of electing a corrupt prosecutor to a judgeship.
Directors: John Cromwell, Mel Ferrer, Tay Garnett, Edmund Grainger, Nicholas Ray, Sherman Todd | Stars: Robert Mitchum, Lizabeth Scott, Robert Ryan, William Talman
Votes: 3,366
4. The Wild Bunch (1969)
R | 135 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
An aging group of outlaws look for one last big score as the "traditional" American West is disappearing around them.
Director: Sam Peckinpah | Stars: William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Edmond O'Brien
Votes: 90,415 | Gross: $12.06M
5. The Professionals (1966)
PG-13 | 117 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
An arrogant Texas millionaire hires four adventurers to rescue his kidnapped wife from a notorious Mexican bandit.
Director: Richard Brooks | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan, Woody Strode
Votes: 18,850 | Gross: $19.54M
6. Billy Budd (1962)
Approved | 123 min | Adventure, Drama, War
When a kind-hearted sailor is made to join an English vessel at war in 1797, he finds himself caught between devotion to his crewmates and obedience to their hated, cruel master-at-arms.
Director: Peter Ustinov | Stars: Robert Ryan, Peter Ustinov, Melvyn Douglas, Paul Rogers
Votes: 4,914
7. The Iceman Cometh (1973)
PG | 239 min | Drama
A salesman with a sudden passion for reform has an idea to sell to his barfly buddies: throw away your pipe dreams. The drunkards, living in a flophouse above a saloon, resent the idea.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Lee Marvin, Fredric March, Robert Ryan, Jeff Bridges
Votes: 1,880
8. Back from Eternity (1956)
Approved | 97 min | Adventure, Drama
After a commercial plane crash lands in a South American jungle, the passengers and pilots must patch up the engines and escape the cannibal-infested area.
Director: John Farrow | Stars: Robert Ryan, Anita Ekberg, Rod Steiger, Phyllis Kirk
Votes: 1,636
9. King of Kings (1961)
PG-13 | 168 min | Biography, Drama
The temporary physical life of the Biblical Savior, Jesus Christ.
Director: Nicholas Ray | Stars: Jeffrey Hunter, Siobhan McKenna, Hurd Hatfield, Ron Randell
Votes: 9,032 | Gross: $14.48M
10. 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: 24,269
11. Ice Palace (1960)
Approved | 143 min | Adventure, Drama, History
After WW1, Zeb and Thor start a cannery business in Alaska but eventually they drift apart with Zeb becoming unscrupulous and Thor becoming involved in Alaskan politics.
Director: Vincent Sherman | Stars: Richard Burton, Robert Ryan, Martha Hyer, Jim Backus
Votes: 409
12. Lawman (1971)
R | 99 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
A lawman from Bannock arrives in Sabbath to arrest all the cattlemen whose wild celebration the year before resulted in the accidental death of an old man.
Director: Michael Winner | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, Lee J. Cobb, Robert Duvall
Votes: 5,910 | Gross: $5.94M
13. The Tall Men (1955)
Approved | 122 min | Western
Two brothers discharged from the Confederate Army join a businessman for a cattle drive from Texas to Montana where they run into raiding Jayhawkers, angry Sioux, rough terrain and bad weather.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: Clark Gable, Jane Russell, Robert Ryan, Cameron Mitchell
Votes: 3,231 | Gross: $12.00M
14. Lonelyhearts (1958)
100 min | Drama
Eager for a job, journalist Adam White accepts the lowly position of columnist for the advice-giving section of the Chronicle but he often clashes with his cynical editor, Shrike.
Director: Vincent J. Donehue | Stars: Montgomery Clift, Myrna Loy, Robert Ryan, Dolores Hart
Votes: 1,423
15. Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)
Approved | 96 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
In need of quick money, a fallen former cop recruits a hard-bitten ex-con and a debt-ridden nightclub singer to pull off a bank job. But as the animosity between them boils over, the entire plan threatens to implode.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan, Gloria Grahame, Shelley Winters
Votes: 5,569
16. 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: 4,358
17. Flying Leathernecks (1951)
Approved | 102 min | Action, Drama, War
Major Kirby leads The Wildcats squadron into the historic WWII battle of Guadalcanal.
Director: Nicholas Ray | Stars: John Wayne, Robert Ryan, Don Taylor, Janis Carter
Votes: 5,524
18. Beware, My Lovely (1952)
Approved | 77 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A mentally disturbed handyman on the run, for reasons even he doesn't understand, takes a job at the house of a lonely war widow in 1918.
Director: Harry Horner | Stars: Ida Lupino, Robert Ryan, Taylor Holmes, Barbara Whiting
Votes: 2,350
19. 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: 12,669
20. Battle of the Bulge (1965)
Not Rated | 167 min | Drama, History, War
A dramatization of Nazi Germany's final Western Front counterattack of World War II.
Director: Ken Annakin | Stars: Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw, Robert Ryan, Dana Andrews
Votes: 17,813 | Gross: $11.12M
21. The Busy Body (1967)
Not Rated | 101 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery
Sid Caesar stars as the bumbling right-hand man of mob boss Robert Ryan, who is sent to find a corpse buried in a suit lined with stolen mob money.
Director: William Castle | Stars: Sid Caesar, Robert Ryan, Anne Baxter, Kay Medford
Votes: 381
22. The Iron Major (1943)
Passed | 85 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
Coach Frank Cavanaugh returns to college football after World War I, then gradually goes blind.
Director: Ray Enright | Stars: Pat O'Brien, Robert Ryan, Ruth Warrick, Leon Ames
Votes: 277
23. Marine Raiders (1944)
Approved | 90 min | Drama, War
A U.S. Marine major tries to keep his captain on the right track through combat on Guadalcanal, training new recruits in San Diego, and a relationship with a WAAAF while on leave in Australia.
Director: Harold D. Schuster | Stars: Pat O'Brien, Robert Ryan, Ruth Hussey, Frank McHugh
Votes: 390
24. Berlin Express (1948)
Approved | 87 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A multinational group of train passengers become involved in a post-World War II Nazi assassination plot.
Director: Jacques Tourneur | Stars: Merle Oberon, Robert Ryan, Charles Korvin, Paul Lukas
Votes: 3,599
25. Best of the Badmen (1951)
Approved | 84 min | Western
The outlaws of the Clanton and Younger gangs are the heroes of this fictionalized biography.
Director: William D. Russell | Stars: Robert Ryan, Claire Trevor, Jack Buetel, Robert Preston
Votes: 699
26. Clash by Night (1952)
Approved | 105 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
Mae Doyle comes back to her hometown a cynical woman. Her brother Joe fears that his love, fish cannery worker Peggy, may wind up like Mae. Mae marries Jerry and has a baby; she is happy but restless, drawn to Jerry's friend Earl.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Ryan, Paul Douglas, Marilyn Monroe
Votes: 7,363
27. Hour of the Gun (1967)
Approved | 100 min | Drama, Western
Marshal Wyatt Earp kills a couple of men of the Clanton gang in a fight. In revenge, Clanton's thugs kill the Marshal's brother. Thus, Wyatt starts to chase the killers together with his friend Doc Holliday.
Director: John Sturges | Stars: James Garner, Jason Robards, Robert Ryan, Albert Salmi
Votes: 4,600
28. Inferno (1953)
Approved | 83 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
A tough, hard-driving business tycoon suffers a broken leg and is left to die in the desert by his scheming wife and her greedy lover.
Director: Roy Ward Baker | Stars: Robert Ryan, Rhonda Fleming, William Lundigan, Larry Keating
Votes: 1,801
29. City Beneath the Sea (1953)
Passed | 87 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Two American divers are distracted by fair ladies and skulduggery while trying to salvage a gold ship off Jamaica.
Director: Budd Boetticher | Stars: Robert Ryan, Mala Powers, Anthony Quinn, Suzan Ball
Votes: 701
30. Horizons West (1952)
Approved | 81 min | Western
Two brothers end up on opposite sides of the law in post-Civil War Texas.
Director: Budd Boetticher | Stars: Robert Ryan, Julie Adams, Rock Hudson, Judith Braun
Votes: 1,169
31. Day of the Outlaw (1959)
Not Rated | 92 min | Drama, Western
Blaise Starrett is a rancher at odds with homesteaders when outlaws hold up the small town. The outlaws are held in check only by their notorious leader, but he is diagnosed with a fatal wound and the town is a powder keg waiting to blow.
Director: André De Toth | Stars: Robert Ryan, Burl Ives, Tina Louise, Alan Marshal
Votes: 4,426
32. House of Bamboo (1955)
Approved | 102 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Planted in a Tokyo crime syndicate, a U.S. Army Investigator attempts to probe the coinciding death of a fellow Army official.
Director: Samuel Fuller | Stars: Robert Ryan, Robert Stack, Shirley Yamaguchi, Cameron Mitchell
Votes: 4,098
33. Her Twelve Men (1954)
Passed | 91 min | Comedy, Drama
An inexperienced female teacher is hired at a private elite school for boys where she raises a few eyebrows among the all-male faculty.
Director: Robert Z. Leonard | Stars: Greer Garson, Robert Ryan, Barry Sullivan, Richard Haydn
Votes: 498
34. The Proud Ones (1956)
Approved | 94 min | Western
Marshal Cass Silver has to deal with his old nemesis, a corrupt gambler, and his hired guns come to town as well as recurring bouts of blindness.
Director: Robert D. Webb | Stars: Robert Ryan, Virginia Mayo, Jeffrey Hunter, Robert Middleton
Votes: 1,631
35. Bombardier (1943)
Passed | 99 min | Drama, War
Major "Chick" Davis is convinced that high-level bombing will win the next war. He convinces the powers-that-be to set up a bombardier school. He efficiently sets about training the USAAF's first generation of high-level bombardiers.
Directors: Richard Wallace, Lambert Hillyer | Stars: Pat O'Brien, Randolph Scott, Anne Shirley, Eddie Albert
Votes: 897
36. Return of the Bad Men (1948)
Approved | 90 min | Western
When part of Oklahoma Territory becomes officially part of the U.S., Vance Cordrell is forced to deal with some of the most infamous outlaws of the Old West.
Director: Ray Enright | Stars: Randolph Scott, Robert Ryan, Anne Jeffreys, George 'Gabby' Hayes
Votes: 909
37. The Canadians (1961)
TV-PG | 85 min | Western
When 6000 Sioux flee to Canada, they are permitted to stay. But a Montana rancher and his cowboys, in search of stolen horses, kill all inhabitants of a Sioux village and claim they only wanted to free a white squaw who had been kidnapped.
Director: Burt Kennedy | Stars: Robert Ryan, John Dehner, Torin Thatcher, Burt Metcalfe
Votes: 297
38. Golden Gloves (1940)
Approved | 66 min | Crime, Drama, Sport
Bill Crane, an up and coming honest boxer, runs afoul of Taggerty and his fellow racketeers by fighting fair. They set out to ruin Crane but with the support of his girl Mary and newspaperman Matson the pugilist stands up to the mob.
Director: Edward Dmytryk | Stars: Richard Denning, Jeanne Cagney, J. Carrol Naish, Robert Paige
Votes: 66
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