Favorite Michael Curtiz Film
by TheMovieSmith | created - 11 Mar 2019 | updated - 07 Apr 2019 | PublicHitchcock, Ford, Hawks, Wilder, and Curtiz. Hollywood Director Michael Curtiz may not be as well known as the other prolific Hollywood directors but in a career that started with silent pictures and spanned over fifty years Curtiz directed some of the Golden Era's most memorable films. Which of his most well known films is your favorite?
Discuss the list here
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1. Casablanca (1942)
G | 102 min | Drama, Romance, War
A cynical American expatriate struggles to decide whether or not he should help his former lover and her fugitive husband escape French Morocco.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains
Votes: 506,370 | Gross: $1.02M
2. White Christmas (1954)
G | 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: 31,226 | Gross: $30.00M
3. The Comancheros (1961)
PG | 107 min | Action, Adventure, Romance
Texas Ranger Jake Cutter arrests gambler Paul Regret, but soon finds himself teamed with his prisoner in an undercover effort to defeat a band of renegade arms merchants and thieves dealing with the Comanches known as Comancheros.
Directors: Michael Curtiz, John Wayne | Stars: John Wayne, Stuart Whitman, Ina Balin, Nehemiah Persoff
Votes: 7,986
4. This Is the Army (1943)
121 min | Comedy, Musical, War
In WWI dancer Jerry Jones stages an all-soldier show on Broadway, called Yip Yip Yaphank. Wounded in the war, he becomes a producer. In WWII his son Johnny Jones, who was before his ... See full summary »
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: George Murphy, Joan Leslie, George Tobias, Alan Hale
Votes: 950 | Gross: $20.83M
5. King Creole (1958)
PG | 116 min | Crime, Drama, Musical
A rebellious young man takes a job as a nightclub singer to make ends meet, attracting the attention of a local crime boss.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Elvis Presley, Carolyn Jones, Walter Matthau, Dolores Hart
Votes: 4,307
6. Captain Blood (1935)
F | 119 min | Action, Adventure
After being wrongly convicted as a traitor, Peter Blood, an English physician, is sent to exile in the British colonies of the Caribbean, where he becomes a pirate.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Lionel Atwill, Basil Rathbone
Votes: 12,570
7. The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
G | 102 min | Action, Adventure, Romance
When Prince John and the Norman Lords begin oppressing the Saxon masses in King Richard's absence, a Saxon lord fights back as the outlaw leader of a rebel guerrilla army.
Directors: Michael Curtiz, William Keighley | Stars: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, Claude Rains
Votes: 45,965 | Gross: $3.98M
8. Passage to Marseille (1944)
PG | 109 min | Adventure, Drama, War
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: 3,869
9. Mildred Pierce (1945)
PG | 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: 21,828
10. Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
PG | 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: 19,296
11. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
G | 126 min | Biography, Drama, Musical
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: 13,714 | Gross: $11.80M
12. The Egyptian (1954)
139 min | Biography, Drama, History
In ancient Egypt, a poor orphan becomes a genial physician and is eventually appointed at the Pharaoh's court where he witnesses palace intrigues and learns dangerous royal secrets.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Jean Simmons, Victor Mature, Gene Tierney, Michael Wilding
Votes: 3,437
13. Life with Father (1947)
118 min | Comedy
A financier from New York City rules his numerous family, consisting of his wife and his four sons, with the meticulousness of a bookkeeper.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: William Powell, Irene Dunne, Elizabeth Taylor, Edmund Gwenn
Votes: 4,492
14. Virginia City (1940)
121 min | Action, Drama, History
Union officer Kerry Bradford escapes from Confederate Prison and is set to Virginia City in Nevada. Once there he finds 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: 2,139
15. Santa Fe Trail (1940)
110 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
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: 3,169
16. The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936)
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: 4,397
17. The Sea Hawk (1940)
14A | 127 min | Action, Adventure, History
Geoffrey Thorpe, a buccaneer, is hired by Queen Elizabeth I to nag the Spanish Armada. The Armada is waiting for the attack on England and Thorpe surprises them with attacks on their galleons where he shows his skills on the sword.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Errol Flynn, Brenda Marshall, Claude Rains, Donald Crisp
Votes: 8,871
18. The Sea Wolf (1941)
100 min | Adventure, Drama
After being fished out of the sea by a sealer, 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: 3,170
19. The Breaking Point (1950)
PG | 97 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An otherwise moral captain of a charter boat becomes financially strapped and is drawn into illegal activities in order to keep up payments on his boat.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: John Garfield, Patricia Neal, Phyllis Thaxter, Juano Hernandez
Votes: 2,550
20. The Hangman (1959)
87 min | Western
U.S. Marshal Bovard comes to a small border town to identify and arrest a fugitive, but the whole town seems determined to prevent the Marshal from doing his job.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Robert Taylor, Tina Louise, Fess Parker, Jack Lord
Votes: 711
21. Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)
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: 4,449
22. Black Legion (1937)
83 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
When a hard-working machinist loses a promotion to a Polish-born worker, he is seduced into joining the secretive Black Legion, which intimidates foreigners through violence.
Directors: Archie Mayo, Michael Curtiz | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, Dick Foran, Erin O'Brien-Moore
Votes: 2,618
23. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1960)
PG | 107 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
Mark Twain's 1851 story about two runaway friends, a fostered white boy and an escaped black slave, who sailed on a raft down the Mississippi River in search of freedom and adventure.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Tony Randall, Eddie Hodges, Archie Moore, Patty McCormack
Votes: 1,279
24. Marked Woman (1937)
96 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Thriller
A crusading DA persuades a clip joint "party girl" to testify against her mobster boss after her innocent sister is accidentally murdered during one of his unsavory "parties".
Directors: Lloyd Bacon, Michael Curtiz | Stars: Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Lola Lane, Isabel Jewell
Votes: 3,394
25. Romance on the High Seas (1948)
99 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
Romantic misunderstandings abound when spouses suspect each other of being unfaithful, and a nightclub singer takes a cruise under a false identity.
Directors: Michael Curtiz, Busby Berkeley | Stars: Jack Carson, Janis Paige, Doris Day, Don DeFore
Votes: 1,817
26. Young Man with a Horn (1950)
PG | 112 min | Biography, Drama, Music
A young trumpeter enjoys highs (musical success, fame, and fortune) and lows (sour marriage, death of his mentor, bout with alcoholism).
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall, Doris Day, Hoagy Carmichael
Votes: 2,897
27. The Proud Rebel (1958)
PG | 103 min | Western
A Confederate veteran living in the Yankee North struggles with his son's shock induced muteness and the hate of the Northerners.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Alan Ladd, Olivia de Havilland, Dean Jagger, David Ladd
Votes: 1,321
28. Kid Galahad (1937)
102 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
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: 3,004
29. Flamingo Road (1949)
PG | 94 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
A small town corrupt 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: 2,303 | Gross: $2.26M
30. The Unsuspected (1947)
PG | 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: 2,357
31. Trouble Along the Way (1953)
PG | 111 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
An ex-football coach is hired by a small Catholic college to train its football team in the hopes of winning games and making money to save the school from bankruptcy.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: John Wayne, Donna Reed, Charles Coburn, Tom Tully
Votes: 1,570
32. The Walking Dead (1936)
66 min | Crime, Horror, Sci-Fi
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: 2,300
33. Dive Bomber (1941)
132 min | Drama, War
A military surgeon teams with a ranking navy flyer to develop a high-altitude suit which will protect pilots from blacking out when they go into a steep dive.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Errol Flynn, Fred MacMurray, Ralph Bellamy, Alexis Smith
Votes: 1,561
34. The Kennel Murder Case (1933)
PG | 73 min | Crime, 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: 2,891
35. The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)
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: 4,938
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