99 John Huston Movies, Ranked Best to Worst

Fred C. Dobbs and Bob Curtin, two American drifters seeking work in Mexico, are convinced by impoverished old prospector, Howard, to go to mine gold in the Sierra Madre Mountains. While they are successful in their mission, defeating bandits and overcoming harsh natural conditions, they are threatened by their growing fear, suspicion and jealousy of each other.

Soon after San Francisco detective Sam Spade takes a case from beautiful Ruth Wonderly, his partner and another man are found dead, and he is implicated in at least one murder. While investigating the murders, he finds out that she faked her identity, and encounters three dangerous criminals who are looking for a valuable Maltese Falcon statuette.

Los Angeles private detective Jake Gittes, who specializes in adultery cases, is hired by a woman to spy on her husband, high-profile engineer Hollis Mulwray. However, after he exposes Mulwray's affair with a young blonde woman, he is sued by the real Mrs. Mulwray, and gets further entangled into a conspiracy following the sudden death of Mr. Mulwray.

Rose and her brother are missionaries serving in German East Africa. Although they are warned by steamer captain, rough and ready Charlie that the WWI has broken up, they refuse to leave. But after her brother’s death, Rose accepts Charlie’s offer of safe passage; but while planning their escape Rose persuades Charlie to use the steamer to destroy a German gunboat.  

Key Largo is an action crime drama film which tells the story of Army veteran, Frank McCloud, who arrives at the Hotel Largo in Key Largo, Florida, in order to visit his deceased war comrade’s family, who owns the hotel. He sees that a gangster has been running things, but soon, a hurricane approaches as well. 

This action adventure film tells the story of two ex-non-commissioned officers of the British Indian Army. After leaving the army, they decide to set themselves up as Kings in Kafiristan, a land where no white man has set food since Alexander the Great. 

Released from prison, criminal Erwin ‘Doc’ Riedenschneider contacts a corrupt lawyer for financial backing before planning a major jewelry robbery. He hires a safe-cracker, a getaway driver and a gunman for the heist, which goes as planned. But an alarm results in shootout, killing one of them. What ensue is betrayal, deceit, murder and suicide, as the police hunt each one of them.

The Killers is mystery crime drama film which tells the story of an insurance investigator who uncovers a string of crimes, while trying to find the beneficiary of a murdered boxer.

A farmer from Tennessee who is a pacifist is drafted into the World War I. Despite his pacifist inclinations, he becomes one of the most celebrated war heroes.

High Sierra is an adventure crime drama thriller film which tells the story of a criminal who is planning a heist at a resort hotel, after his release from prison. He meets up with three people to assist him in the heist, which includes a clerk working in the same hotel, and two other people Red, and Babe.

The Night of the Iguana is a drama film which tells the story of Lawrence Shannon, who is working as a tour guide in Mexico. While leading a tourist group from a Baptist women’s college, he finds himself attracted to Charlotte, the younger niece of Judith, the group’s leader, after the girl tries to seduce him. However, Judith accuses Shannon of trying to seduce her, and declares that she is going to ruin him.

Based on a novel of the same name, this romantic drama film is about Heathcliff, an orphaned boy who is found on the streets by Mr Earnshaw.  He brings him home to live with his own children Cathy and Hindley. Over the years, Cathy and Heathcliff develop feelings for one another, although Hindley despises Heathcliff. However, their neighbor Edgar also falls for Cathy, and proposes to her. Heathcliff decides to disappear from her life forever.

Heaven Knows, Mr Alison is an adventure drama film which revolves around an American marine and a Irish nun, who are both shipwrecked on an island in the South Pacific. They find solace in each other, while hoping to be rescued.

While going through her divorce, Roslyn, a beautiful ex-stripper, meets a cowboy-turned-gambler Gay Langland and Guido Racanelli, a former aviator who had served in the Second World War. Both men instantly find themselves attracted to Roslyn, and on a whim, the three decide to move into Guido’s half-finished desert home.

Jezebel is a romantic drama film which tells the story of a beautiful and free spirited girl, who is also stubborn and vain. When her fiance leaves her due to this, she vows that she will get him back.

The sole survivor of a lost whaling ship starts narrating how the Captain of his ship had led them all to self-destruction due to his obsession with hunting a white whale.  

Wilson is a member of the War Crimes Commission, who travels to Harper, hoping to find Franz Kindler, whom he believes to the mastermind who planned the Holocaust. However, now he has taken on a new identity.

Fat City is a sports drama film which tells the story of Billy Tully, a boxer past his prime, who meets an 18-year-old named Ernie Munger. He sees a lot of potential in the youngster, and suggest him to look up Ruben, his former manager and trainer. Inspired by the skills of the kid, Tully decides to go back into boxing himself, although his life has been a total mess, since his wife left him.  

An ambitious but poor man from Southern United States starts up a church in the hope of becoming inspirational.

Hell’s Heroes is a Western drama film which tells the story of three bank robbers on the run who come across a woman who is about to give birth in a wagon. Before dying due to childbirth complications, she names the three bandits as the godfathers for her newborn.

Shortly after he rides into a West Texas border town named Vinegaroon, he is beaten up by the customers in a saloon and left to die. However, a young girl named Maria finds him and helps him, after which returns to town and shoots the three men who had wronged him. Seeing that the town is without law and order, he appoints himself as the judge, and decides to deliver justice in his own way.

A House Divided is a drama film which revolves around a widowed fisherman who falls for a woman, who is young enough to be his daughter. They soon get married. However, things get quite complicated when she falls in love with his son.  

Along with her kids, an American widow is kidnapped by an Arab chieftain, as he wants to embarrass the Sultan of Morocco. Things get complicated when this abduction gains international attention, and sparks the threat of armed intervention by the US. Meanwhile, the woman begins to develop feelings for her captor.  

Based on a novel named Saint Johnson, this western drama film revolves around a gambler Frame Johnson, who is also a former lawman. He is soon pushed to accept the job of a town marshal.

This Western romantic drama film takes us to post-Civil War Texas, and it revolves around the Zachary and the Rawlins families, who are quite close. Charlie, son of the Rawlins family, is interesting in courting Rachel, the adopted daughter of the Zacharys. However, the relationship between the families gets strained when it is suspected that Rachel was stolen as a child from the Kiowa tribe.

A group of rogues are on their way to Africa, hoping that they can get rich there.  They get stranded in Italy, where they meet a seemingly innocent British couple.

In 1930s Cuba, Manolo Valdes, a student revolutionary, is killed by the chief of the secret police, Ariete. His sister China, a bank employee, who witnessed the assassination joins the Cuban revolutionaries. Here she meets a Cuban American, Tony Fenner, who intends to first kill a high official of Cuban administration and then blow up the rest at the following funeral.

The movie follows eco-conservationist and environmentalist, Morel, who will do anything to protect the African wildlife from extinction in French Equatorial Africa. He is helped by nightclub hostess, Minna, and a disgraced former British officer, Major Forsythe, who wants to redeem himself. 

This is a World War II documentary propaganda film, depicting the daily lives of the US servicemen stationed at Adak Island during the Aleutian Islands Campaign. Because it concentrates more on their habitual activities than on actual combat, it is able to showcase the daily reality of their lives, generally ignored by other filmmakers. 

During the Second World War, a group of Allied prisoners agrees to play a football match against the Nazis. However, the Nazis are unaware of the fact that the prisoners want to use it as a way to escape from their captivity.

This short film provides the audience with a background on the development, writing, as well as signing of the Declaration of Independence of the US in 1776. The film also shows us the events surrounding the Constitutional Convention in 1787 as well as the inauguration of President John Adams in 1797.    

A young orphan who lives in an orphanage believes that her parents left her there by mistake. Eventually, a rich man named Oliver lets her live at his home to improve his image. However, Annie still longs to meet her parents. 

The Shakedown is a sports drama film which tells the story of Dave Roberts, a professional boxer who is part of a group that sets up fixed boxing matches. However, Dave’s life begins to change after he meets an honest woman and he rescues an orphan from an oncoming train. He begins to care for them, and eventually he has to decide whether to continue living his corrupt life, or stand up against those who have been making him take part in the corruption.  

This black comedy romance film tells us the story of two assassins who are hired to kill each other.  However, things get complicated as they end up falling in love.

To recover from a deadly submarine accident, Leslie Calvin travels to her aunt and uncle’s place in Louisiana. However, various people led by a mysterious guest, Mr. Sydney, conspire to make her doubt her sanity and kill her, to steal her inheritance. However, she has help in the form of Dr. George Grover.

Set in the background of the 1358 peasants’ uprising in northern France, the film follows a young Parisian as he journeys across the war torn country. On the way, he meets the daughter of a nobleman, the only survivor of her family and takes her along. Soon they fall in love and become lover; but that cannot save them from the turmoil around them. 

The motivating short film is aimed at encouraging young men to join American Army Air Force. Narrator James Stewart, actor and a Lieutenant in the Air Force, discusses prospects and various aspects such as the officer positions required for B-17 Bombers, and other ground support positions to be recruited. He explains the prerequisites for recruitment and training, also pay and other benefits. 

This Western film revolves around an Army deserter Capt. Viktor Kaleb, who is offered a pardon. He will be reinstated in the cavalry if he agrees to lead a Special Forces group in a raid against an Apache stronghold into Mexico. 

On Our Merry Way is a slapstick comedy film revolving around Oliver, who has lied to wife about being a reporter in a newspaper, though he is actually a clerk there. 

Based on a true story, Angela, the wife of gangster Saro, is an integral part of her husband's drug-dealing business and illicit activities. Life changes when Angela falls for Masino, one of Saro's flunkeys. 

During 1820s, Davey Haggart abandons his military duties to follow in his father’s footsteps and turn a thief, despite the fact that his highwayman father was hanged for his crimes. But his childhood friend Annie is determined to transform him, though she reluctantly shields him from the authorities. When finally the law catches up with him, Annie needs to take a call. 

This documentary war propaganda film examines the history of Japan from the 16th century to the 1930s. The film was meant to educate the American soldiers about Japan and its people and society.  

Battle for the Planet of the Apes is an action science fiction movie which takes us to the time ten years after the worldwide series of ape revolutions, and the brutal nuclear war among humans. When human atomic mutations are out to make life miserable for the peaceful ape tribe, it is up to Caesar to protect survivors of both species.

In this spy spoof, a retired James Bond is persuaded to rejoin the secret service to counter shadowy organization SMERSH, allegedly responsible for murdering secret agents. Sir James devises a plan to assemble a group of agents, all named James Bond 007, to confuse SMERSH. Each new Bond is assigned a specific role. Now Sir James must nab the brain behind SMERSH.  

Psychiatrist Saul Benjamin is smitten by a new patient, Chloe Allen, and becomes jealous of anyone else who comes close to her. He also starts neglecting his other patients, ending up being reviewed by a board of inquiry. Throughout the movie, he is warned and advised by the ghost of Dr. Sigmund Freud. 

The Bridge in the Jungle is an adventure drama film which tells the story of a crocodile hunter, who heads into the jungles of Mexico, although he has been warned that only Native Indians can survive in that place.   

This war drama film takes us to the time of the Second World War. The film revolves around two families, one German and one American. Sons and fathers of both families are fighting in the war, and the film portrays how it affects their lives. 

The Bermuda Traingle is a mystery horror film which revolves around the mysterious occurrences that take place when the passengers and crew members of a ship get stranded near the Bermuda Triangle during their trip.

This martial arts action film tells the story of a secret agent, whose partner is killed by an international drug cartel. He teams up with a karate expert and sets out to take them down.

Being chased by the police on charges of inflammatory writing, Marquis De Sade, revolutionary philosopher and writer, takes refuge in an abandoned family mansion. The film then takes a flashback and depicts his life, infamous for his erotic behavior.  

The film, set in the Middle Ages, follows aspiring warrior Taran, who is entrusted with magical oracular pig Hen Wen that knows the way to Black Cauldron which can create a mammoth army. Wicked Horned King, who wants to conquer the world, kidnaps Hen Wen. Taran, with brave Princess Eilonwy and other friends, must find the Cauldron before Horned King can seize it.