The Best William Wyler Movies Ranked And Where to Watch them

If you're looking for the best William Wyler movies of all time then here is a definitive list. We rank every movie directed by William Wyler based on their popularity score from IMDB from best to worst. Click on the ‘see more’ button to find out where to watch them in Australia covering all streaming services. In April 2024 there are 22 films in this list.

List of the Best Movies Directed by William Wyler In Order of Popularity

  1. Ben-Hur
  2. The Best Years of Our Lives
  3. The Heiress
  4. Roman Holiday
  5. The Big Country
  6. The Little Foxes
  7. The Children's Hour
  8. Dodsworth
  9. Mrs. Miniver
  10. The Collector
  11. The Letter
  12. Wuthering Heights
  13. The Desperate Hours
  14. How to Steal a Million
  15. Detective Story
  16. These Three
  17. Jezebel
  18. Funny Girl
  19. The Westerner
  20. The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress
  21. Carrie
  22. The Letter

Stream the top 22 Movies directed by William Wyler

1. Ben-Hur

Rated: G

8.1/10

In 25 AD,Judah Ben-Hur, a Jew in ancient Judea, opposes the occupying Roman empire. Falsely accused by a Roman childhood friend-turned-overlord of trying to kill the Roman governor, he is put into slavery and his mother and sister are taken away as prisoners. Three years later and freed by a grateful Roman galley commander whom he has rescued from drowning, he becomes an expert charioteer for Rome, all the while plotting to return to Judea, find and rescue his family, and avenge himself on his former friend. All the while, the form and work of Jesus move in the background of his life...

2. The Best Years of Our Lives

Rated: Approved

8.1/10

It's the hope that sustains the spirit of every GI: the dream of the day when he will finally return home. For three WWII veterans, the day has arrived. But for each man, the dream is about to become a nightmare.

3. The Heiress

Rated: Not Rated

8.1/10

Dull and plain Catherine lives with her emotionally distant father, Dr. Sloper, in 1840s New York. Her days are empty -- filled with little more than needlepoint. Enter handsome Morris Townsend, a dashing social climber with his eye on the spinster's heart and substantial inheritance.

4. Roman Holiday

Rated: Not Rated

8.0/10

Overwhelmed by her suffocating schedule, touring European princess Ann takes off for a night while in Rome. When a sedative she took from her doctor kicks in, however, she falls asleep on a park bench and is found by an American reporter, Joe Bradley, who takes her back to his apartment for safety. At work the next morning, Joe finds out Ann's regal identity and bets his editor he can get exclusive interview with her, but romance soon gets in the way.

5. The Big Country

Rated: Passed

7.9/10

Retired wealthy sea captain Jim McKay arrives in the vast expanse of the West to marry fiancée Pat Terrill. McKay is a man whose values and approach to life are a mystery to the ranchers and ranch foreman Steve Leech takes an immediate dislike to him. Pat is spoiled, selfish and controlled by her wealthy father, Major Henry Terrill. The Major is involved in a ruthless civil war, over watering rights for cattle, with a rough hewn clan led by Rufus Hannassey. The land in question is owned by Julie Maragon and both Terrill and Hannassey want it.

6. The Little Foxes

Rated: Approved

7.9/10

The ruthless, moneyed Hubbard clan lives in, and poisons, their part of the deep South at the turn of the 20th century. Regina Giddons née Hubbard has her daughter under her thumb. Mrs. Giddons is estranged from her husband, who is convalescing in Baltimore and suffers from a terminal illness. But she needs him home, and will manipulate her daughter to help bring him back. She has a sneaky business deal that she's cooking up with her two elder brothers, Oscar and Ben. Oscar has a flighty, unhappy wife and a dishonest worm of a son. Will the daughter have to marry this contemptible cousin? Who will she grow up to be - her mother or her aunt? Or can she escape the fate of both?

7. The Children's Hour

Rated: Not Rated

7.8/10

A private school for young girls is scandalized when one spiteful student, Mary Tilford, accuses the two young women who run the school of having a lesbian relationship.

8. Dodsworth

Rated: Passed

7.8/10

A retired auto manufacturer and his wife take a long-planned European vacation only to find that they want very different things from life.

9. Mrs. Miniver

Rated: Not Rated

7.6/10

English middle-class family, The Minivers, experience life in the first months of World War II.

10. The Collector

Rated: M

7.5/10

Freddie is an inept bank clerk with no future. His only hobby is collecting butterflies, which gives him a feeling of power and control that is otherwise totally missing from his life. He comes into a large sum of money and buys himself a country house. Still unable to make himself at ease socially, he starts to plan on acquiring a girlfriend - in the same manner as he collects butterflies. He prepares the cellar of the house to be a collecting jar and stalks his victim over several days.

11. The Letter

Rated: PG

7.5/10

After a woman shoots a man to death, a damning letter she wrote raises strong suspicions.

12. Wuthering Heights

Rated: Not Rated

7.5/10

The Earnshaws are Yorkshire farmers during the early 19th Century. One day, Mr. Earnshaw returns from a trip to the city, bringing with him a ragged little boy called Heathcliff. Earnshaw's son, Hindley, resents the child, but Heathcliff becomes companion and soulmate to Hindley's sister, Catherine. After her parents die, Cathy and Heathcliff grow up wild and free on the moors and despite the continued enmity between Hindley and Heathcliff they're happy -- until Cathy meets Edgar Linton, the son of a wealthy neighbor.

13. The Desperate Hours

Rated: Approved

7.5/10

Escaped convicts terrorize a suburban family they're holding hostage.

14. How to Steal a Million

Rated: Not Rated

7.5/10

A woman must steal a statue from a Paris museum to help conceal her father's art forgeries.

15. Detective Story

Rated: Approved

7.5/10

Tells the story of one day in the lives of the various people who populate a police detective squad. An embittered cop, Det. Jim McLeod, leads a precinct of characters in their grim daily battle with the city's lowlife. The characters who pass through the precinct over the course of the day include a young petty embezzler, a pair of burglars, and a naive shoplifter.

16. These Three

Rated: Passed

7.4/10

Martha and Karen graduate from college and turn an old Massachusetts farm into a school for girls. The friends are aided in their venture by local doctor Joe Cardin, who begins a relationship with Karen, and a prominent woman whose granddaughter, Mary, later enrolls in the new school. Mary soon reveals herself to be a spiteful child and tells a scandalous lie about Martha and Joe that threatens to destroy the lives of all involved.

17. Jezebel

Rated: Approved

7.4/10

In 1850s Louisiana, the willfulness of a tempestuous Southern belle threatens to destroy all who care for her.

18. Funny Girl

Rated: G

7.3/10

The story of the life of comedienne Fanny Brice, from her early days in the Jewish slums of the Lower East Side, to the height of her career with the Ziegfeld Follies, including her marriage to and eventual divorce from her second husband, Nick Arnstein.

19. The Westerner

Rated: Approved

7.3/10

Drifter Cole Harden is accused of stealing a horse and faces hanging by self-appointed Judge Roy Bean, but Harden manages to talk his way out of it by claiming to be a friend of stage star Lillie Langtry, with whom the judge is obsessed, even though he has never met her. Tensions rise when Harden comes to the defense of a group of struggling homesteaders who Judge Bean is trying to drive away.

20. The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress

Rated: Not Rated

7.3/10

This WW2 documentary centers on the crew of the American B-17 Flying Fortress Memphis Belle as it prepares to execute a strategic bombing raid on Nazi submarine pens in Wilhelmshaven, Germany.

21. Carrie

Rated: M

7.3/10

Carrie's dreams of adventure in the big city are quickly squashed as she discovers all that awaits her there is a bleak life of grueling and poorly paid factory work—that is, until a traveling salesman named Drouet steps into her life and changes her outlook.

22. The Letter

Rated: Not Rated

3.4/10

A playwright who begins to mentally unravel before premiere night. She is plagued by dreams and visions of being watched, but cannot decide if she is at the center of a manipulative plot or simply losing her grip on reality.