Top Ranked Films of Leo McCarey

Leo McCarey
4 titles, 70th in points with 11,916

McCarey had a great touch with comedy, directing the best Marx Brothers film, and his own top rated film, Duck Soup. He won a directing Oscar® for 37’s The Awful Truth, a sparkling comedy with Cary Grant and Irene Dunne, then a 2nd for directing, and 1st for writing, for Going My Way (1944), which also netted Oscars® for best picture, and for actors Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald. However, it made no polls this time, it wasn’t even mentioned.

These are all the films of classic American director McCarey’s that made the top 1000 in our 2011 update of the Top Ranked 1000 Films on the Net, all polls.

1. Duck Soup (1933) #53
2. The Awful Truth (1937)  #515
3. Make Way for Tomorrow (1937) #633
4. Affair to Remember, An (1957) #791 This is the inferior remake of his own Love Affair (1939)

Out of the top 1000
5. Bells of St. Mary's, The (1945) #1988

To this list I would definitely add Love Affair (1939), a poignant love drama remade as a glossy 50’s color magazine looking shoot as An Affair to Remember with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr in the roles originally played by Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne. I didn’t find this version as moving, and consider Love Affair McCarey’s best drama.

See the full list of top ranked 100 directors here: Top Ranked 100 Directors, 2011 Edition