by Fiona Underhill, Staff Writer

This is a ranking of all of Paul Newman’s live-action feature films, in which he plays a role that is not himself – therefore the only movies from his acting filmography not in the ranking are The Meerkats, Cars, and Silent Movie. The ranking covers everything from The Silver Chalice (1954) to the Road to Perdition (2002), which is 55 films – and yes, I have seen every single one. Paul Newman also directed five movies, but I’ve only included the ones that he also acted in here–Sometimes a Great Notion and Harry & Son.

Paul Newman was intensely self-critical of his acting, and also of the films he starred in, and he unfortunately only liked a small number of them. Like most actors whose careers spanned almost 50 years, his filmography is an extremely mixed bag – ranging from masterpieces to disasters. But, there are a lot of good movies on this list, covering a wide range of genres. Having now seen all of them, it’s a fascinating exercise in seeing a Hollywood star’s changing acting style and their career trajectory. It also tells a tale of a changing Hollywood covering almost the entire second half of the twentieth century.

Let’s dive into numbers 55-30.

The Ugly

55. The Outrage (Martin Ritt, 1964)
Newman worked with director Martin Ritt six times, and these films cover the entire span of quality–from one of his best films, to the absolute worst. The less said about this ill-advised Rashomon remake, in which Newman dons brown contact lenses to ‘play Mexican,’ the better.

54. When Time Ran Out (James Goldstone, 1980)
Newman re-teamed with Winning director Goldstone for what was supposed to rekindle the ‘winning formula’ of disaster movie The Towering Inferno. Even if you love disaster movies as much as I do, this volcano movie is impossible to defend and somehow manages to be boring and forgettable.

53. Hemingway’s Adventures of of a Young Man (Martin Ritt, 1962)
Newman has not much more than a cameo role here, in a bizarre performance that he transferred from the stage. His character, The Battler, is a drifter with a boxer’s cauliflower nose–it’s Newman as we’ve never seen him, but the experiment doesn’t work. AE Hotchner wrote the screenplay, and he would go on to become a life-long friend and Newman’s collaborator on Newman’s Own.

52. The Secret War of Harry Frigg (Jack Smight, 1968)
This WWII POW comedy is not very funny, and the only other notable actor in the ensemble is Happy Days’ Tom Boseley. Newman was famously competitive with Steve McQueen, but this is no The Great Escape (1963).

51. The Silver Chalice (Victor Saville, 1954)
This is the movie that almost killed Newman’s big screen career before it had even started. Newman absolutely despised everything about this film, not least the fact that he had to wear a ‘cocktail dress.’ It’s not quite as bad as he makes out, but not much better.

Not Great, Bob!

50. Pocket Money (Stuart Rosenberg, 1972)
Newman made four movies with Stuart Rosenberg, but this one, in which he co-starred with Lee Marvin, is a boring slog.

49. The MacKintosh Man (John Huston, 1973)
Fortunately, there aren’t many movies in which Newman attempted an accent – which were very much not his strong suit. Unfortunately, this was one of them. The pedigree of Huston and writer Walter Hill should have been great, but the only highlight of this Cold War thriller is James Mason.

48. The Helen Morgan Story (Michael Curtiz, 1957)
Curtiz is one of the great Hollywood directors, but this music biopic of a little-known singer, is extremely generic and forgettable. Even Mildred Pierce’s Ann Blyth cannot save it.

47. Harry & Son (Paul Newman, 1984)
This was a personal project for Newman, given that his son Scott had died in tragic circumstances in 1978. It’s a shame that the film doesn’t live up to its potential, as it would have required more vulnerability than Newman was capable of. As is often the case, his onscreen chemistry with Joanne Woodward is the highlight.

46. Lady L (Peter Ustinov, 1965)
This is a very 60s raucous sex comedy, but it doesn’t have anything like the charm or fizz of What a Way to Go! – Newman’s similarly-themed farce from the previous year.

45. Blaze (Ron Shelton, 1989)
Another sex comedy, but from much later in Newman’s career. This does contain a memorable sex scene, but doesn’t have much else going for it.

44. From the Terrace (Mark Robson, 1960)
This has similar themes to the previous year’s Young Philadelphians, but is not as captivating, despite Joanne Woodward’s presence.

43. Message in a Bottle (Luis Mandoki, 1999)
I have a higher tolerance for Nicholas Sparks movies than most, and this one does see Newman returning to his favorite theme of father-son relationships. But there’s not enough Newman here to really recommend it.

42. The Left-Handed Gun (Arthur Penn, 1958)
Admittedly, westerns are not my favorite genre, but it feels like the Billy the Kid story has been told better than it is here. Hurd Hatfield is a bonus though.

41. Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson (Robert Altman, 1976)
Any Robert Altman movie is worth your time, especially one starring Newman and co-starring Joel Grey. I just wish I loved this one more. It feels longer than Nashville, when it’s actually 40 minutes shorter.

Mid Tier

40. Torn Curtain (Alfred Hitchcock, 1966)
It breaks my heart that my favorite actor teaming up with my favorite director resulted in such a mid movie. Both Newman and Julie Andrews feel miscast in this Cold War thriller.

39. The Prize (Mark Robson, 1963)
Another Cold War thriller, in which Newman plays against type as a Nobel Prize winner. It’s a shame that Newman’s mid-60s thrillers weren’t better, as they can be one of the coolest sub-genres.

38. Where the Money Is (Marek Kanievska, 2000)
Nearly 30 years after The Sting, Newman returned to the heist caper genre and delivers a good performance, alongside Linda Fiorentino and Dermot Mulroney. The last decade of Newman’s career contained several twinkly-eyed silver foxes, who still absolutely had the juice.

37. Twilight (Robert Benton, 1998)
As much as I would have loved to have seen Newman as a vampire, this is actually a neo-noir and comes late enough in his career that Reese Witherspoon and Liev Shreiber are co-stars. Newman has fantastic chemistry with Susan Sarandon.

36. A New Kind of Love (Melville Shavelson, 1963)
Newman made this rom-com for his wife Joanne Woodward, and although it has some fun quirky moments, it doesn’t go all-out in terms of the 60s madness of What a Way to Go!

35. Quintet (Robert Altman, 1979)
There will be people blinking with disbelief that I’ve placed this Altman-Newman collaboration higher than Buffalo Bill. This was Newman’s only foray into science fiction of any kind, in this case, set in a bizarre dystopian frozen wasteland, and co-starring Bibi Andersson. It’s such a weird anomaly for Newman–it’s definitely worth watching for this reason alone.

34. Hombre (Martin Ritt, 1967)
Based on a book by Elmore Leonard, this film’s depiction of Native and Mexican characters is a slight improvement on what had gone before in the western genre. Tension is effectively ramped up throughout, with a nail-biting finale.

33. Exodus (Otto Preminger, 1960)
It is perhaps not that widely known these days that Newman was Jewish, and this was his only real attempt to connect with that heritage onscreen. This 3.5 hour epic will obviously be viewed very differently today, compared with 1960. The performances by Newman, Eva Marie Saint and Sal Mineo are enough to recommend it.

32. Fort Apache, The Bronx (Daniel Petrie, 1981)
It’s surprising that Newman didn’t play more cops during his career, but here he delivers a good performance in the midst of a complicated movie, which was protested even at the time for its depiction of the Puerto Rican and Black community surrounding an embattled precinct.

31. The Young Philadelphians (Vincent Sherman, 1959)
Family dramas and melodramas were a genre that Newman returned to again and again, and particularly those that depicted fraught father-son relationships. This is an interesting examination of a social climber within America’s class system.

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