The 32 Best James Stewart Movies

Screwball comedies, Hitchcock nightmares and dusty frontier westerns all carry the same drawl here. Some made him a legend; others are the quiet gems classic-film fans keep recommending.

1. 1
   It's a Wonderful Life

   Frank Capra's 1946 fantasy drama in which Stewart plays George Bailey, a role that earned him a Best Actor Oscar nomination.
   1000pts
2. 2
   Vertigo

   Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 thriller with Stewart as Scottie Ferguson, voted the greatest film ever made in the 2012 Sight & Sound critics' poll.
   918pts
3. 3
   Shenandoah

   Andrew V. McLaglen's 1965 Civil War drama with Stewart as a Virginia farmer trying to keep his family out of the war.
   745pts
4. 4
   The Flight of the Phoenix

   Robert Aldrich's 1965 survival drama in which Stewart plays the pilot of a cargo plane that crashes in the Sahara.
   635pts
5. 5
   The Naked Spur

   Anthony Mann's 1953 western with Stewart as a bounty hunter, whose screenplay received an Academy Award nomination.
   635pts
6. 6
   Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation

   Henry Koster's 1962 family comedy with Maureen O'Hara that won Stewart the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the Berlin Film Festival.
   586pts
7. 7
   The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

   John Ford's 1962 western starring Stewart as lawyer Ransom Stoddard alongside John Wayne and Lee Marvin.
   532pts
8. 8
   Two Rode Together

   John Ford's 1961 western pairing Stewart, as a cynical marshal, with Richard Widmark.
   532pts
9. 9
   Destry Rides Again

   George Marshall's 1939 comic western in which Stewart plays a gun-shy deputy opposite Marlene Dietrich.
   532pts
10. 10
    The Shootist

    Don Siegel's 1976 western, John Wayne's final film, in which Stewart plays the doctor who diagnoses Wayne's dying gunfighter.
    469pts
11. 11
    The Stratton Story

    Sam Wood's 1949 biopic of pitcher Monty Stratton, who returned to baseball after losing a leg; it won the Oscar for Best Story.
    469pts
12. 12
    Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

    Frank Capra's 1939 political drama that brought Stewart his first Best Actor Oscar nomination as idealistic senator Jefferson Smith.
    469pts
13. 13
    The Spirit of St. Louis

    Billy Wilder's 1957 biopic in which Stewart plays Charles Lindbergh on his 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic.
    469pts
14. 14
    The Glenn Miller Story

    Anthony Mann's 1954 biopic of the big-band leader, with June Allyson as his wife; it won the Oscar for Best Sound Recording.
    469pts
15. 15
    The Man from Laramie

    The 1955 CinemaScope western that closed Stewart's run of five westerns with Anthony Mann.
    397pts
16. 16
    The Shop Around the Corner

    Ernst Lubitsch's 1940 romantic comedy set in a Budapest shop, co-starring Margaret Sullavan and later remade as You've Got Mail.
    397pts
17. 17
    The Greatest Show on Earth

    Cecil B. DeMille's 1952 circus drama, winner of the Best Picture Oscar, in which Stewart plays a clown who never removes his makeup.
    397pts
18. 18
    The Philadelphia Story

    George Cukor's 1940 comedy with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, for which Stewart won his only competitive Academy Award.
    313pts
19. 19
    Harvey

    Henry Koster's 1950 comedy in which Stewart plays Elwood P. Dowd, whose best friend is an invisible giant rabbit, earning an Oscar nomination.
    313pts
20. 20
    Broken Arrow

    Delmer Daves's 1950 western with Stewart as Tom Jeffords, who negotiates peace with the Apache leader Cochise.
    313pts
21. 21
    The Mortal Storm

    Frank Borzage's 1940 anti-Nazi drama co-starring Margaret Sullavan, set in a German family torn apart by Hitler's rise.
    313pts
22. 22
    Anatomy of a Murder

    Otto Preminger's 1959 courtroom drama with a Duke Ellington score, in which Stewart's defence lawyer Paul Biegler earned an Oscar nomination.
    313pts
23. 23
    Rope

    Hitchcock's 1948 crime thriller, his first in Technicolor, staged to look like a handful of continuous long takes.
    313pts
24. 24
    Bend of the River

    Anthony Mann's 1952 western in which Stewart leads a wagon train of settlers into Oregon.
    313pts
25. 25
    The Far Country

    Anthony Mann's 1954 western in which Stewart plays a cattleman driving his herd to the Klondike gold fields.
    313pts
26. 26
    Call Northside 777

    Henry Hathaway's 1948 docu-style film noir in which Stewart plays a Chicago reporter reopening a murder conviction.
    313pts
27. 27
    Bell, Book and Candle

    Richard Quine's 1958 romantic comedy in which Stewart falls for a witch played by Kim Novak, his Vertigo co-star that year.
    313pts
28. 28
    Rear Window

    Hitchcock's 1954 thriller in which Stewart plays a wheelchair-bound photographer spying on his neighbours, opposite Grace Kelly.
    213pts
29. 29
    Winchester '73

    The 1950 western that began Stewart's run of five westerns with director Anthony Mann, following a stolen prize rifle.
    213pts
30. 30
    How the West Was Won

    The 1962 Cinerama western epic, filmed by three directors, in which Stewart plays mountain man Linus Rawlings.
    213pts
31. 31
    The Man Who Knew Too Much

    Hitchcock's 1956 remake of his own 1934 film, pairing Stewart with Doris Day, whose song Que Sera, Sera won an Oscar.
    0pts
32. 32
    You Can't Take It with You

    Frank Capra's 1938 screwball comedy, the first of Stewart's films with Capra, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
    0pts

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