91 Alan Ladd Movies, Ranked Best to Worst

A skilled gunfighter named Shane, having a mysterious past, rides into an isolated valley, sometime after the American Civil War. He is eventually hired as a farmhand by a local rancher Joe. Shane soon learns that the settlers of the valley are being harassed by rogues and henchmen of a ruthless cattle baron. 

This classic drama film examines the life and legacy of Charles Foster Kane, a character loosely based on the American newspaper magnates William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer. A critical success, it is considered to be one of the greatest films ever made. 

Upon his return from the war, John Chandler finds his life turned upside down. His wife died in a cannon fire and his son David, who witnessed the event, turned mute due to shock. The father son duo, along with their dog, travel to a town in Illinois in search of good treatment. However, they soon run into trouble when they meet sheep-herder Burleigh brothers.

Edward is a shipwrecked sailor who is rescued by a freighter carrying animals. After arriving at an island, he is welcomed by Dr Moreau, who introduces him to a shy and withdrawn woman named Lota. Edward soon begins to feel that something is wrong with the place, after he hears screams. He is convinced that Moreau is engaged in sadistic vivisection, and he tries to leave, but he is stopped by brutish-looking humanoid creatures resembling various animals. Dr Moreau soon reveals that he has been conducting genetic experiments on animals to turn them into human beings.

A young boy who is attending military school learns that his father, whom many considered to be a war hero, was actually a deserter, although he had received a Medal of Honor.

Britt Reid, a newspaper publisher, is fed up of crimes going on in his city, and decides to fight them on his own. He is assisted by his Korean valet Kato. Over time, they expose several underworld rackets. However, this leads them into conflict with ‘The Chief’, the hidden mastermind behind a 12 person criminal syndicate that is in charge of the rackets.  

Charles Stewart, the spoilt son of a shipping tycoon, is pressganged on one of his father’s ship, ‘Pilgrim', commanded by heartless Captain Thompson, where he witnesses the crew’s hardships and daily floggings. He befriends Richard Dana, a novelist trying to get first-hand experience of ship life. After suffering a scurvy outbreak and brutality beyond limits of endurance, the crew rises in mutiny.

Dr. Merek Vance, who has developed a serum to cure deafness, tries it on Emily Blair, who is rich but deaf. However, it doesn’t prove effective. Meanwhile, Emily’s sister Janice is having an affair with Emily’s fiancé, Jeff. Emily insists on trying Merek’s new serum, but falls in coma. Now, will Emily get over her deafness and marry the man she loves? 

Hendrik Heyst is a former British intellectual who has now chosen the life of a hermit after vowing to close himself off from the rest of the world. He is living alone on an island on the Dutch East Indies. His life takes a turn when a traveling showgirl named Alma, also fleeing from the world, is threatened by three cutthroats.

Rocky feels guilty thinking that he may have caused the death of his commanding officer in Tunisia. He decides to pay a visit to the officer’s widow, and they soon fall for each other.  

During the Japanese invasion of China, a cynical and macho profiteer meets a beautiful schoolteacher. Along with his friend, he helps protect her, her schoolgirls as well as a baby from the Japanese military.

After he learns that the ship he is working on is carrying slaves, Taylor, a sailor and abolitionist, plans the release of the slaves from his vessel. 

A musical made during WWII to entertain troops, raise funds and boost morale. Silent Era-Star, Billy Webster is now a gateman at Paramount studios. However, his Navy serviceman son, Johnny, thinks he is a studio executive. As Johnny is arriving with his shipmates, to preserve his illusion, Billy takes help of studio switchboard-operator, Polly, to put up a show with Hollywood’s mega-stars.

The partly-collage film is a parody, and homage to film-noir and detective movies. When a reputed cheese-scientist dies in a car-crash, his daughter, Juliet Forrest, who believes he was murdered for his secret formula, hires private investigator Rigby Reardon. As Rigby delves deep into complex clues, he comes across legends from the detective movies of the 40s and 50s, who help him unravel a wicked plot. 

Jack Ellery, who is staging opening night of Earl Carroll’s latest musical show, calls police-detective Bill Murdock when leading lady Ann Ware’s life is suspected to be in danger. As Bill investigates backstage, two ladies are found murdered. While the musical numbers continue, Bill has to find the murderer before the revue ends, else the killer can escape with exiting crowds.

This romantic adventure war drama film revolves around seven different people living in Madrid, whose lives are affected during the Spanish Civil War. To escape the war, some of the people try to escape by train. They include a woman named Carmelita, a newsman named Bill Dexter, and a fugitive named Eduardo.

Set in 1872 and based on true events, the film follows Indian fighter Johnny MacKay, who is assigned by President Grant to negotiate peace with Modocs from Northern California and Southern Oregon. Also, he is to escort an army colonel’s daughter, Nancy Meek. But following an incident, Modoc rebel Captain Jack turns hostile, so MacKay has to take up arms against him. 

Calcutta is a crime drama film, which revolves around Neale and Pedro, who fly cargo between Chungking and Calcutta. When their friend Bill gets murdered, they are drawn into the investigation. Neale meets Virginia, Bill’s fiancée, and soon becomes suspicious of a conspiracy. However, he also finds himself getting attracted to her.

Based on a play of the same name, this film tells the story of three vaudeville performers, George, Jerome and May, who pretend to be connoisseurs of new technology to get a job at a reputed studio. However, they are pressurized to demonstrate their ‘unique skills’. Therefore, George convinces the head of the studio to let them produce a film.

Those Were the Days! is a romantic comedy film which takes us to the lives of Petey and Martha Simmons, who remember their first meeting and romance in college, on their 35th anniversary. The film shows their early life in a flashback.

Known for throwing lavish parties in his home in Long Island, Jay Gatsby asks his neighbor Nick Carson to introduce him to his cousin Vicky, whom he loved before going off to war and now wants her back. Although Vicky is now married she is unhappy because her husband is having an extramarital affair. Will their love come to a happy ending? 

Believing that he is born to fly, a private in the Army medical corps goes AWOL to take private lessons in flying and when the military police come looking for him, he escapes by parachuting out of the aircraft. Eventually he becomes a pilot and performs many heroic deeds. But his wife is worried about him, especially when is he chosen as test pilot for a new jet.  

In the independent India of 1947, American arms-dealer Steve Gibbs flies in with weapons hoping to sell it to the Maharaja of Ghandahar, the province facing threat from a rebel attack. But Maharaja’s Prime Minister, a follower of nonviolence, wants to peacefully settle the dispute with the rebel leader Khan. Amidst these conflicts, Steve falls in love with British missionary’s blind daughter, Joan Willoughby. 

Chicago reporter Ed Adams comes across a deceased girl, Rosita Jean d’Ur, in a shady boardinghouse and retrieves her address-book. Despite the police declaring cause of death as tuberculosis, Ed calls people from her address-book, who, though alarmed, deny knowing her. Growing suspicious, he tenaciously puts all the puzzle pieces together, but encounters underworld murders and finds his own life at risk. 

In the post-Civil War era, cattleman and former-Confederate Chad Morgan struggles against long distances and corrupt cattle-buyer, Brog, who exploits the cattle-ranchers. Blamed by other ranchers for their loss, Chad stays back and befriends alcoholic ex-architect Joe Jagger. They convince railroad-men and Kansas town people to build a railroad-link to help cattlemen and farmers. But Brog creates trouble to maintain his control.

Hell on Frisco Bay is a crime drama film, which tells the story of a San Francisco police officer who gets out of prison, and starts looking for the mobsters who framed him for manslaughter.

New York mobster Lucky Jordan tries unsuccessfully to evade being drafted. He dodges work at boot campand then kidnaps the pretty WAC Jill and escapes in a car having important military papers. Back in the city, he finds rival Slip has taken his place and is after those papers to strike a deal with Nazis. Will Lucky sell the papers or save the nation?  

Based on W. R. Burnett’s novel The Asphalt Jungle, the movie sees recently released convicts Peter and John joining hands to steal gold from a mine and then sell it back to the owner - Cyril Lounsberry. The owner was responsible for Peter’s wrongful jail term. Accompanying them are dynamite expert Vincente, a Mexican-American woman Anita and Ada Winton, the mistress of Cyril.

Titled Saskatchewan in the USA, the film focuses on North-West Mounted Police Sub-Inspector O'Rourke. While returning from Canada with his adopted brother, Cajou, a Cree, he notices a burned train with a lady as the sole survivor. His inept commander, believing that it is the work of Cree, disarms them. O’Rourke is now forced to revolt against him to save the Mounties from Indian attackers. 

After the workers of a factory are laid off, they drown their sorrows at Duffy’s Tavern. Meanwhile, Saloonkeeper Archie recruits performers for a block party.

13 West Street is a crime drama film which revolves around Walt Sherill, a space engineer who gets assaulted randomly by a gang of rich juvenile delinquents. He decides to take revenge and hunt them out without any aid from the police. 

Noting the failing health of wealthy Henrietta Winslow, her greedy relatives gather around her isolated mansion hoping to inherit her fortune after her death. However, learning that she is in remission, someone murders her, following which it is revealed that no one will inherit anything until housekeeper Abigail Doone and all of her numerous cats die.

All the Young Men is an action war drama film, which takes us to the Korean War. When a lieutenant is killed, a black sergeant has to take charge of his squad. However, this proves to be a challenge, due to the racism being prevalent among the men in the squad. 

Husband-wife team, Slug and Bessie Winters are the newly appointed football coaches for the Texas State University, which mistakenly receives an invitation to play charity game against Yale University. The two work hard on the team, but an injured quarterback dampens the team’s spirits. Bessie comes across a farm-boy Amos, adept at hurling watermelons. Can he save the day for the team?

When advertising artist leaves his job in New York to settle down in sleepy town, he is not welcomed by the community, especially the adults, although the children become friendly with him. His wife is also unhappy about it and starts lashing out at him, falsely accusing him of beating her. Therefore, when she goes missing, he becomes the prime suspect. 

The Deep Six is a war drama film, which revolves around Navy Lieutenant Austin, who struggles to perform his duties while also observing his Quaker beliefs, during the Second World War.

John Braun is a healthy and athletic model who owns a fitness enterprise. He gets fatally ill, and the next day, he suddenly changes everything in his wall, leaving everything to his company. The next day, he is found dead in his room with the murder weapon missing. Eventually, renowned detective and crime novelist Ellery Queen arrives to solve the case, while the inheritors fight over Braun’s estate.   

In Williamsburg, Virginia, a young Jane ignores her rich upbringing when she weds a simple estate surveyor Matt Howard. The couple have a contented life but they have different political beliefs. The conservative Jane disapproves of Matt’s democratic ideas; however, he still goes ahead to join the American War of Independence against British.

Botany Bay is a 1952 drama film, which takes us to the year 1787. It tells us the story of a wrongly imprisoned medical student, who is being shipped along with other prisoners to Botany Bay. He also finds himself being victimized by the ship’s captain.  

Based on a novel All Through the Night, the film tells the story of a psychopath who kidnaps the attractive daughter of a police captain, and attempts to force himself on her.

While emigrating to the west with his pregnant wife, a former Confederate soldier makes an emergency stop at a small town because his wife has started feeling pain and unable to cover the cost of medicine he watches her die. Enraged, he now decides to take revenge, especially on three men whom he holds responsible.  

During the last days of the Civil War, rebel Confederate Captain Brett Sherwood, traveling across Colorado to join Quantrill, saves gold prospector Lane Waldron from being hanged for a killing committed by Brett. Lane is accompanied by his fiancée Chris who hates Quantrill for destroying her family. In a confrontation with Quantrill’s raiders, Lane gets killed, while Brett realizes the truth about mercenary Quantrill. 

This musical comedy short film revolves around entertainers Bob Hope and Bing Crosby who help a young woman who wants to reach Washington DC in order to pay a visit to her brother.

A gunrunner who used to be in the military, gets involved in the revolution in Cuba, after he crosses paths with an enemy from his past.

Diane North is a high-profile heiress who is stowing away in the trailer of Dr Lawrence Smith, a bacteriologist, in order to avoid getting married. Larry is driving cross country to San Francisco, where he plans to catch a ship to China, where he is looking forward to look for a cure for a serious ailment, alongside other experts. When he discovers Diane, she pretends to be a poor woman named Maggie Jones. Larry tries to get rid of her, but she begins to fall for him, and uses every trick to stay with him.

Logger Jim Hadley obtains government grant to cut forests for a prime prospect outside Northwestern town of Deep Wells. A conflict arises when the town’s people, led by rancher Laura Riley, oppose as felling of trees would lead to mudslides during monsoon and erosion of topsoil would destroy their range for cattle. Things come to a head when loggers refuse to withdraw.

Captain Caution is an action adventure film which tells us the story of a few soldiers who are being held prisoners by the British during the 1812 war. Together they make a plan to escape from captivity.

Desert Legion is an action adventure film which tells the story of Paul Lartal, a soldier serving in the French Foreign Legion, who leads his troops into an ambush. He himself is hit by a bullet, after which he is rendered unconscious. However, a beautiful desert princess comes to his rescue, and he eventually learns about a lost city in the desert mountains of Algeria.

All Over Town is a comedy film which tells the story of two pepole who try to stage a show in a theatre, despite the fact that the theatre is reputed for being jinxed.  

Distressed since his last few films are failing, a movie producer named Oliver Merlin chooses a young simple girl to critically evaluate his movies from the point of view of a common man. Things get interesting, when her advice eventually makes his latest film a success. 

After graduating from Virginia Military Institute, three friends - Dan, Billy and Bing - realize that life is not easy. On Billy’s invitation, Bing, his wife, Kate, and a toddler go to the apartment of Kate’s Uncle Harper in New York. When the promised ‘Job fixing’ backfires, Billy puts Bing’s baby on Uncle Harper’s airline and the resultant publicity earns them jobs at Harper’s airline.