36 John Garfield Movies, Ranked Best to Worst

Body and Soul is a sports drama film which tells the story of Charley Davis, who becomes a boxer, against the wishes of his mother. As he finds more and more success in his boxing career, shady characters begin to surround him. Soon, he finds himself facing difficult choices after he meets Roberts, an unethical promoter.

Nick Smith, owner of a roadside diner, hires a drifter Frank Chambers to work at his restaurant. Soon, Frank begins an affair with Nick’s pretty wife Cora. The two eventually think of murdering Nick as well as seizing all his assets. Although they succeed, a local prosecutor Kyle starts to suspect them.

Footlight Parade is a musical comedy film which tells the story of Chester Kent, a Broadway director, who was once well-known for his musical comedies. With changing times, he begins to produce musical numbers called ‘prologues’, which are shown in movie theatres before the main feature is shown. Things get terrible for him, as one of his rivals is constantly stealing some of his ideas, probably with assistance from someone inside his own company. Meanwhile, his secretary has started falling for him, but Kent is so overwhelmed with his work that he doesn’t realize it.

Philip Green is a widowed journalist who has just moved to New York City with his son and his mother. When a magazine publisher asks him to write an article on antisemitism, he doesn’t show much interest initially, but soon, he gets inspired to adopt a Jewish identity, so that he can write about his first-hand experiences.

A con man Nick Blake, agrees to pursue a wealthy widow Gladys Halvorsen for her money. However he finds himself genuinely falling in love with the beautiful lady. His associates do not approve of his change of heart and his ex-girlfriend arrives to get her share in the profit. Meanwhile, Gladys’s business manager becomes suspicious of Nick’s real intention.

Adam is a musician, who has been blessed with four daughters, Emma, Thea, Kay and Ann, who are musical prodigies just like him. Out of them, Kay seems to be the most skilled, and she also has great promise as a performer. Their lives take a turn with the arrival of a troubled young composer.

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.

Just as a single mother, with four grown up daughters, decides to remarry, her freewheeling husband turns up. Missing for last twenty years and declared dead, he initially receives a cool reception from his daughters, but gradually wins their affection, endorsing his youngest daughter’s relationship with a maverick, who reminds him of himself.  

John Alexander, running off after killing someone in self-defense, takes the name Johnny Blake, and saves life of oil-field foreman Hap O’Conner while working for him. Later, they meet again at Hap’s friend Wildcat’s oil-rig, where both fall for Wildcat’s daughter Linda. Johnny is about to escape before getting arrested, when a fire at the oil-rig forces him sacrifice his freedom and he returns to extinguish it.  

Dangerously They Live is a romantic drama spy thriller film which tells the story of Jane Graystone, an undercover intelligence officer who suffers from temporary amnesia after an accident. However, her doctor, Dr Lewis, an intern, decides to give her protection until she is able to completely recover. Soon, he begins to suspect that Jane might be faking her amnesia.

Blackwell’s Island is a crime drama film, which tells the story of a New York Reporter, who infiltrates a crime syndicate after he befriends ‘the boss who is serving time inside Blackwell Island prison.

When a print-shop owner’s death is regarded as suicide, and the journalist who links this death to an extremist group ‘Crusaders’ gets murdered, Assistant District Attorney Howard Malloy digs deep in this case with assistance from a distinguished judge’s widow. As he unearths the Crusaders’ connections with influential businessmen and politicians, he encounters nightclub singer Barbara. Is she a friend or foe?

Swingtime in the Movies is an Oscar nominated short musical comedy film which tells the story of a waitress who receives an opportunity to work in a movie of film director Nitvitch.