Top Ten Natalie Wood Movies Review

Born Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko in 1938, Natalie Wood rose to fame as a child actress, then segued into teenage roles, before becoming one of the biggest box office stars of the '60s. After a period of semi-retirement, she returned to acting in 1969, giving several fine performances before her tragic death by drowning in 1981.

As a boy, I fell in love with her by watching her old movies on TV, captivated by her incredible beauty, her sweetness, and her vulnerability.

Here now are my Top Ten Natalie Wood Movies:

1. Splendor in the Grass (1961): In Elia Kazan's film of William Inge's melodrama of forbidden teenage love, Natalie is beautiful and heartbreaking as Wilma Dean 'Deanie' Loomis, a girl from the wrong side of the tracks who falls madly, deeply in love with spoiled rich kid Bud Stamper (Warren Beatty). He goes off to Yale, she goes off the deep end. Wood's own fragile vulnerability made her performance achingly real. Warner Home Video.

2. Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969): After three years away from the camera, Wood returned to the screen as Robert Culp's incredibly hot wife in Paul Mazursky and Larry Tucker's insightful farce about the sexual revolution. With Elliot Gould and Dyan Cannon. CBS Home Video.

3. Rebel Without a Cause (1955): For her role as teenage bad girl Judy, Natalie received the first of three Oscar nominations. Her chemistry with James Dean is incredible, and the scenes where she, Dean, and Sal Mineo form a make-believe family while hiding out in an abandoned house are quite moving. Directed by Nicholas Ray. Warner Home Video.

4. Gypsy (1962): While Roslaind Russell couldn't belt 'em out the way that Ethel Merman did on Broadway in the role of Mama Rose Havoc, I have no complaints with the casting of Natalie Wood as Gypsy Rose Lee. Unlike in West Side Story, Wood was allowed to sing her own numbers, and she acquits herself admirably. And she's incredibly sexy. Directed by Mervyn LeRoy, with a score by Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim. Warner Home Video.

5. Inside Daisy Clover (1965): Unfairly maligned, this story of a tomboy who becomes a Hollywood legend is one of Natalie's finest performances. Sure, the script is trash, and the period details aren't always right, but Wood is captivating throughout. With Christopher Plummer, Robert Redford, and Ruth Gordon. Unfortunately, unavailable on DVD.

6. Love With the Proper Stranger (1963): While Wood and Steve McQueen are essentially miscast as Italian-American New Yorkers, they look so good together, it doesn't matter. Robert Mulligan directed this fine romantic comedy, which deserves a proper DVD release. 

7. The Searchers (1956): Natalie has a small but pivotal role in this, one of the greatest movies ever put on film. Directed by the great John Ford, with John Wayne, Ward Bond, and Jeffrey Hunter. Absolutely essential. Now available in Blu-Ray from Warner Home Video.

8. West Side Story (1961): While Marni Nixon may have dubbed Natalie's singing voice, it's the way that Wood lights up the screen as Maria that sticks with you after the credits have rolled. And although her Puerto Rican accent isn't perfect, again it doesn't matter. There's no question why Tony falls in love with her at first sight. Directed by Robert Wise. MGM Home Video.

9. Miracle on 34th Street (1947): Natalie shines as Susan Walker, a practical, pragmatic eight year old who doesn't believe in Santa Claus, until she meets Kris Kringle himself (Edmund Gwenn). A timeless holiday classic. With Maureen O'Hara and John Payne. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.

10. All the Fine Young Cannibals (1960) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1976): Wood co-starred with her husband Robert Wagner in both of these, and she's great, while he's not half bad. In All the Fine Young Cannibals, Wood plays Salome Davis, who marries Tony McDowell (George Hamilton) to get back at Chad Bixby (Wagner). As the tagline put it, "There are no rules...there is no limit...In the love-hungry world of these young sophisticates!" (unavailable on DVD). In Laurence Olivier's made-for-television production of Tennessee Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Wood makes a memorable Maggie the Cat, a performance I prefer to Elizabeth Taylor's in the movie version (Available as part of the Laurence Olivier Presents DVD boxed set from Acorn Media).

Honorable Mention:

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) with Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison.

The Green Promise (1949) with Walter Brennan.

Marjorie Morningstar (1958) with Gene Kelly

Kings Go Forth (1958) with Frank Sinatra and Tony Curtis.

Cash McCall (1960) with James Garner

Sex and the Single Girl (1964) with Tony Curtis and Henry Fonda.

The Great Race (1965) with Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon.

Penelope (1966) with Dick Shawn.

This Property is Condemned (1966) with Robert Redford

The Affair (1973) TV, with Robert Wagner.

Peeper (1975) with Michael Caine.

From Here to Eternity (1979) TV, with William Devane.

The Last Married Couple in America (1980) with George Segal.

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