Anthony Franciosa Filmography

City Hall

Actors: Al Pacino, John Cusack, Bridget Fonda, Danny Aiello, Martin Landau

Synopsis: Three A-list screenwriters -- (Nicholas Pileggi, Bo Goldman, and Paul Schrader) -- contributed to the script of this idealistic political drama. John Pappas (Al Pacino) is the popular, ethical Mayor of New York; Kevin Calhoun (John Cusack) is his even more idealistic and principled deputy. When a Read More

Double Threat

Actors: Sally Kirkland, Andrew Stevens, Sherrie Rose, Chick Vennera, Gary Swanson

Synopsis: In this erotic thriller (which at the same time parodies many stereotypical elements of the genre), Monica Martel (Sally Kirkland) is a one-time sex symbol whose career has seen better days. Hoping for a comeback, Monica agrees to appear in a steamy murder mystery, but there's a catch: while the Read More

Backstreet Dreams

Actors: Brooke Shields, Jason O'Malley, Sherilyn Fenn, Tony Dean Fields, Burt Young

Synopsis: Not to be confused with the oft-filmed Fannie Hurst yarn Back Street, Backstreet Dreams is a contemporary drama of Humanity vs. the Streets. Jason O'Malley plays a New York hoodlum who doesn't trust his wife Sherilyn Fenn as far as he can throw her (and for good reason). The only person O'Malley Read More

Ghost Writer

Actors: Audrey Landers, Judy Landers, Jeff Conaway, Anthony Franciosa, David F. Doyle

Synopsis: When a movie star's ghost takes to haunting a writer's home on the beach, the two put their heads together to uncover the truth behind her suspicious demise. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide Read More

Zombie Death House

Actors: John Saxon

Synopsis: In this graphically violent exploitation film, an insane colonel tests out his newly invented virus, HV8-B, designed to significantly alter the behavior of convicts serving life sentences. As soon as they are injected, the unwilling subjects become mad-killers. Later they become slimy walking Read More

Blood Vows: The Story of a Mafia Wife

Actors: Melissa Gilbert, Joe Penny

Synopsis: A blushing bride (Melissa Gilbert) doesn't catch on that something's fishy when her new husband (Joe Penny), last name "Moran", introduces her to his distinctly Italian family, who kiss each other's hands a lot. In fact, she doesn't tumble to the fact that her "perfect" spouse is a Mafiosa until Read More

Stagecoach

Synopsis: The outlaws of country music--including Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson--team up and head across the Southwestern desert braving Indians, brigands and conflict in this made-for television version of John Ford's classic film. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Side Show

Synopsis: In this made-for-TV movie, a teenage boy runs away from home and joins a circus, discovering that his new life is not exactly what he thought it would be. When the boy is the witness to a murder, he must struggle to keep himself out of the killer's way. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide Read More

Summer Heat

Synopsis: No relation to the 1987 film of the same name, 1983's Summer Heat is an R-rated "con on the run" affair. Bruce Davidson plays a starry-eyed young shepherd who manages to get himself a stiff jail sentence. With the help of girl friend Susan George, Davidson makes his escape. Hot in pursuit of the Read More

Tenebre

Actors: Anthony Franciosa, John Saxon, Daria Nicolodi, Giuliano Gemma, Mirella D'Angelo

Synopsis: Dario Argento leaves a distinct and bloody impression with this Italian horror film that took the slasher genre to graphic new limits at the time of its release. Novelist Peter Neal (Anthony Franciosa) jets into Rome to promote his new book. Simultaneously, a killer obsessed with Neal begins a Read More

Kiss My Grits

Death Wish 2

Actors: Charles Bronson, Jill Ireland, Vincent Gardenia, J.D. Cannon, Anthony Franciosa

Synopsis: Paul Kersey's (Charles Bronson) self-appointed one-man vigilante squad goes bi-coastal in Michael Winner's sequel to his Death Wish. Kersey has taken up residence in Los Angeles, but lunatic violence follows him across the country like toilet paper sticking to his shoe. Kersey's Spanish cook is Read More

Daughter of Death

Actors: Anthony Franciosa, Isabelle Mejias, Sybil Danning, Cindy Girling, Paul Hubbard

Synopsis: This sombre European melodrama was also released as Julie Darling. A teenaged girl witnesses the rape and murder of mother. Because she hated her mom, the girl feels responsible for her death. Later on, her dad remarries. Despising her stepmother as much as she did the original article, Julie Read More

Help Me Dream

Actors: Mariangela Melato, Anthony Franciosa, Paola Pitagora, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Alexandra Stewart

Synopsis: The time is WW II in the Emilia-Romagna countryside in Italy, and an American pilot's plane has just broken down near the farmhouse of a middle-aged widow, Francesca (Mariangela Melato) and her three young daughters. The widow has recently come back to her family's land and is picking up where she Read More

La Cicala

Synopsis: In this Italian drama, Wilma, an aging dance hall girl, befriends La Cicada, a feisty, free-spirited woman who refuses to have sex for money. Together, they go traveling and on the rode take up with the handsome Hannibal, who dreams of opening up his own truck stop/gas station. The two women end Read More

The World Is Full of Married Men

Actors: Anthony Franciosa, Carroll Baker, Sherrie Cronn, Paul Nicholas, Gareth Hunt

Synopsis: This 1980 British production is based on the trashy romantic novel of the same name by Jackie Collins. Fabulously-successful advertising executive David Cooper (Anthony Franciosa) is a jet-setting philanderer who has a woman in seemingly every port of call. His long-suffering wife Linda (Carroll Baker Read More

Firepower

Actors: Sophia Loren, James Coburn, O.J. Simpson, Eli Wallach, Anthony Franciosa

Synopsis: Set in the Caribbean, Firepower is one of those "celebrity salads," featuring a glittering all-star cast. Sophia Loren heads the ensemble as Adele, the widow of a murdered chemist. Believing that a multimillionaire industrialist is the culprit, Adele determines that she can expect no help from the Read More

Arthur Hailey's Wheels

Actors: Rock Hudson, Lee Remick, Blair Brown, John Beck, Ralph Bellamy

Synopsis: Another of the many Arthur Hailey literary properties which were transformed into TV miniseries in the 1970s, the five-part, ten-hour Wheels took place in Detroit sometime in the late 1960s. Rock Hudson starred as Adam Trenton, executive in charge of project development at the fictional Read More

Curse of the Black Widow

Actors: Donna Mills, Anthony Franciosa, Patty Duke

Synopsis: This wonderfully cheesy TV movie-of-the-week stars Tony Franciosa as a detective hot on the trail of a murderer whose mutilated and predominantly male victims are found encased in silken cocoons. He eventually tracks the killer's path to Los Angeles, where he discovers her true identity -- a woman Read More

Aspen

Actors: Sam Elliott, Perry King, Gene Barry, Martine Beswicke, Joseph Cotten

Synopsis: Ostensibly a six-hour miniseries adaptation of Bert Hirschfield's novel Aspen, the program actually used only the title of the Hirschfield work; the plot proper was lifted from another novel by a different author, Bart Spicer's The Adversary. Set in the titular Colorado ski resort in the 1960s Read More

Matt Helm

Actors: Anthony Franciosa, Patrick Macnee, Ann Turkel, Gene Evans, Hari (Harry) Rhodes

Synopsis: In this detective adventure, the pilot episode for the short-livedTV series, suave Matt Helm gets involved with the smugglers who have been providing black market munitions to African mercenaries when he assigned to protect the life of a movie star. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Drowning Pool

Actors: Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Anthony Franciosa, Murray Hamilton, Gail Strickland

Synopsis: Paul Newman returns as private detective Lew Harper is this tale of blackmail and murder based on a novel by Ross MacDonald. Iris Devereaux (Joanne Woodward), the wife of a wealthy oilman from Louisiana, hires Harper after she receives a threatening letter. A blackmailer is threatening to tell Read More

Ghost in the Noonday Sun

Actors: Peter Sellers, Anthony Franciosa, Spike Milligan, Clive Revill, Peter Boyle

Synopsis: Released several years after it was filmed, this standard Peter Sellers comedy focuses on Dick Scratcher (Sellers), a bumbling, roughly-hewn chief cook on a pirate ship trying to keep an unsteady control of things after he murders the captain. Once the captain is dead, Scratcher is the only one Read More

This Is the West That Was

Actors: Kim Darby, Stuart Margolin

Synopsis: The lighthearted title of this made-for-TV film deftly sets the mood for the 74 minutes to follow. Ben Murphy stars as a rogueish Wild Bill Hickok, carrying on with an incongruously glamorous Calamity Jane (Kim Darby). Amidst the gambling and lovemaking, Will Bill must fend off a gang of vengeful Read More

The Catcher

Actors: Anne Baxter

Synopsis: This unsold pilot film was reminiscent of the 1956 syndicated TV weekly The Tracer. Michael Witney plays the "catcher" of the title, a former agent of the Seattle Missing Persons Bureau. Now in private practice with his new partner, Harvard grad Jan-Michael Vincent, Witney hires out to people Read More

Across 110th Street

Actors: Anthony Quinn, Yaphet Kotto, Anthony Franciosa, Paul Benjamin, Ed Bernard

Synopsis: Across 110th Street is a violent urban thriller about a corrupt, older white cop (Anthony Quinn) and an honest, young African-American cop (Yaphet Kotto) chasing three robbers-cum-murderers who ran away with $300,000 that belonged to the Italian mob. The police must find them before the sadistic Read More

Web of the Spider

Actors: Peter Carsten, Karin Field, Anthony Franciosa, Klaus Kinski, Michele Mercier, Silvano Tranquilli

Synopsis: In this remake of his own La Danza Macabra, director Antonio Margheriti casts Anthony Franciosa as writer Alan Foster, who accepts a bet from Edgar Allan Poe (Klaus Kinski) and his friend Thomas Blackwood (Enrico Osterman). No one has ever survived a night in Blackwood's castle, but the skeptical Read More

The Enemy Before Us

Synopsis: The Enemy Before Us stars Tony Franciosca as Crime magazine reporter Jeff Dillon. Back in his old neighborhood in New York's "Little Italy", Dillon hopes to take a break from his hectic responsibilities and recapture "something real" from his younger days. Unfortunately, he is bombarded by Read More

I Love You, Billy Baker

Synopsis: I Love You, Billy Baker was the only two-part episode of the TV series Name of the Game. Sammy Davis Jr. plays Las Vegas superstar Billy Baker, who is known far and wide for his reluctance to grant interviews. He is particularly close-mouthed on the subject of a beautiful young dancer with whom Read More

Earth 2

Synopsis: The all-purpose science fiction title Earth 2 was utilized in 1971 for this TV pilot film. Producer/writers Allan Balter and William Read Woodfield consulted both NASA and the Rockwell Corporation to guarantee a modicum of authenticity for their futuristic teleplay. The story takes place in "Earth Read More

The Deadly Hunt

Actors: Jim Hutton

Synopsis: Jim Hutton and Anjanette Comer have the misfortune to be honeymooning while a forest fire ranges all around them. But that's only the beginning, folks. The lovebirds are also being stalked by crazed hunters Tony Franciosa and Peter Lawford. Deadly Hunt is based on Autumn of a Hunter, a novel by Read More

Blind Man's Bluff

Synopsis: Blind Man's Bluff originally aired as an episode of the TV series Name of the Game. Ex-district attorney Jack Klugman gives Crime magazine reporter Tony Franciosa a phony story. It's all part of a complex plan for revenge. Klugman was blinded several years earlier, and his wife's (Coleen Gray) Read More

Island of Gold and Precious Stones

Synopsis: A late millionaire's millions have disappeared, and Crime magazine reporter Jeff Dillon (Tony Franciosa) wants to find out why. Together with his crack researcher Peggy Maxwell (Susan Saint James), Dillon checks out the deceased man's relatives. Each, it seems, has a reason for wanting the Read More

Jenny Wilde Is Drowning

Synopsis: When a young actress becomes suicidal, Jeff Dillon attempts to prevent her suicide attempts. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

The Prisoner Within

Synopsis: In this drama, a young man is challenged by an Army officer to undergo prisoner of war training. He accepts the challenge. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Other Kind of a Spy

Synopsis: In this drama, industrial espionage is discovered after a chemical plant blows up. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The King of Denmark

Synopsis: When an ancient and invaluable manuscript is found, a girl disappears increasing the mystery. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

A Man Called Gannon

Actors: Anthony Franciosa, Michael Sarrazin, Judi West, Susan Oliver, John Anderson

Synopsis: This routine western finds Gannon (Tony Franciosa) as a lone drifter on the Kansas plains. He never looks for any trouble because trouble always manages to find him. Gannon takes on a young Eastern dude named Jess (Michael Sarrazin) and teaches him the ropes of being a cowboy. The two end up in Read More

The Incomparable Connie Walker

Synopsis: The Incomparable Connie Walker was first broadcast as the January 24, 1969 episode of the TV series Name of the Game. Conway "Connie" Walker (Ivan Dixon) is the first black mayor of a large unnamed city. In addition to suffering the slings and arrows of racism, Walker is the target of accusations Read More

Collector's Edition

Synopsis: Collector's Edition is a 90-minute episode of the TV series Name of the Game. Tony Franciosa stars as Jeff Dillon, investigative reporter for Crime magazine. Guest star John Saxon plays photographer Peter Max (no relation, we assume, to the poster artist of the same name). Max had once saved Read More

The Black Answer

Synopsis: A well-intentioned but hopelessly dated TV drama, Black Answer boasts an impressive African-American cast, including Ivan Dixon, Raymond St. Jacques, Abbey Lincoln and Herb Jeffries. Tony Franciosa stars as Crime magazine reporter Jeff Dillon, investigating the fire-bombing death of a black Read More

Keep the Doctor Away

Synopsis: A doctor who is really a bungling killer is revealed by a investigator in this crime drama. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Laurie Marie

Synopsis: Little Heather Harrison plays the title character in the 90-minute TV drama Laurie Marie. When Laurie Marie gets lost on the vast country estate of millionaire industrialist Robert Coates (Mark Richman), he posts as $10,000 reward for anyone who can return the girl unharmed. This results in a Read More

Shine On, Shine On, Jesse Gil

Synopsis: This drama chronicles the complexities of small-town politics after a murder occurs. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

In Enemy Country

Actors: Anthony Franciosa, Anjanette Comer, Guy Stockwell, Paul Hubschmid, Tom Bell

Synopsis: Occasionally listed as In Enemy Hands (evidently a working title), In Enemy Country is a war film with "A" ambitions and a TV-movie budget. Wartime secret agents Col. Charles Waslow-Carton (Tony Franciosa) and Lt. Col. Philip Braden (Guy Stockwell) infiltrate enemy lines, posing as POWs. Their Read More

The Taker

Synopsis: In this suspenseful drama, Glen Howard, a magazine publisher, refuses to support a crooked political candidate and finds himself blackmailed. The story comes from an episode of the Name of the Game TV series. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Sweet Ride

Actors: Anthony Franciosa, Michael Sarrazin, Jacqueline Bisset, Michael Wilding, Sr.

Synopsis: On California's Malibu Beach in the late 1960s, young people are enjoying a life with few responsibilities and plenty of romantic opportunities. Denny McGuire (Michael Sarrazin) is a beach bum without ambition. His roommate Collie Ransom (Tony Franciosa) is a professional tennis player who soaks Read More

The Fear of High Places

Synopsis: Fear of High Places, first telecast September 20, 1968, was the opening episode of the weekly 90-minute TV adventure series Name of the Game. The series featured three stars: Gene Barry, Tony Franciosa and Robert Stack, each playing employees of Crime Magazine, and each appearing once every Read More

Fathom

Actors: Anthony Franciosa, Raquel Welch, Ronald Fraser, Richard Briers, Greta Chi

Synopsis: Raquel Welch breaks the surly bonds of Earth and loves every minute of it in this lighthearted spy spoof. Fathom Harvill (Welch) is an American skydiver touring Europe with a U.S. parachute team when she's approached by Douglas Campbell (Ronald Fraser), a Scottish agent working with American Read More

A Man Could Get Killed

Actors: James Garner, Melina Mercouri, Sandra Dee, Robert Coote

Synopsis: This late-'60s spy spoof also borrows a page from late-'50s Alfred Hitchcock, with its everyday man becoming embroiled in the violent and baffling world of international espionage. When American businessman William Beddoes (James Garner) is traveling in Lisbon, he's mistaken for an English spy Read More

Fame is the Name of the Game

Actors: Jack Weston

Synopsis: Originally telecast November 26, 1966, Fame is the Name of the Game was the first official entry in NBC-TV "Project 120" series of made-for-TV movies (after two false starts in 1964). Tony Franciosa plays a magazine writer investigating the suicide of a beautiful girl. He uses the girl's address Read More

Assault on a Queen

Actors: Frank Sinatra, Virna Lisi, Anthony Franciosa, Richard Conte, Alf Kjellin

Synopsis: Assault on a Queen is a complex, exciting crime-caper film in which a gang of clever mercenaries try to rob the famous luxury liner, the Queen Mary. Mark Brittain (Frank Sinatra) is hired by wealthy Italian adventuress Rosa Lucchesi (Verna Lisi) and her German partner-in-crime, Eric Laufftiauer (Alf Kjellin Read More

The Swinger

Actors: Ann-Margret, Anthony Franciosa, Robert Coote, Yvonne Romain, Horace McMahon

Synopsis: The most interesting aspect of The Swinger is the name of the character played by Ann-Margret: the former Ann Margaret Olsson essays the role of Kelly Olsson. A naive small-town girl, Kelly aspires to become a writer in the Big City. When her stories are rejected because they aren't exciting and Read More

Rio Conchos

Actors: Richard Boone, Stuart Whitman, Anthony Franciosa, Wende Wagner, Warner Anderson

Synopsis: A huge shipment of rifles are stolen in Texas sometime shortly following the close of the Civil War. It turns out the rifles are going to Apaches who are being recruited by a disgruntled Rebel officer (Edmond O'Brian) who wishes to resurrect the war. Richard Boone and company are sent to reclaim Read More

The Pleasure Seekers

Actors: Ann-Margret, Anthony Franciosa, Carol Lynley, Gardner McKay, Pamela Tiffin

Synopsis: 20th Century-Fox gussied up its 1954 hit Three Coins in the Fountain for the 1960s, and the result was The Pleasure Seekers. Three American girls in search of wealthy husbands head to Madrid. Ann-Margaret is an aspiring performer, Carol Lynley is a secretary, and Pamela Tiffin is an art student. Ann-Margaret Read More

Naked City: One, Two, Three, Rita Rakahowski

Senilita

Actors: Anthony Franciosa, Claudia Cardinale, Betsy Blair, Philippe Leroy, Nando Angelini

Synopsis: Two popular lead actors star in this conventional story of unrequited love, directed by Mauro Bolognini. Emilio (Anthony Franciosa) is caught in the midst of a heavy-duty mid-life crisis when he runs into sexy Angiolina (Claudia Cardinale), voluptuous and frivolous in equal measure. In spite of Read More

Period of Adjustment

Actors: Anthony Franciosa, Jane Fonda, Jim Hutton, Lois Nettleton, John McGiver

Synopsis: This was the first feature-length film directed by the very successful George Roy Hill. Based on a Tennessee Williams' novel, this standard comedy-drama focuses on two married couples who are both having a hard time of it, at least for now. The first couple, Isabel and George Haverstick (Jane Fonda Read More

Go Naked in the World

Actors: Gina Lollobrigida, Anthony Franciosa, Ernest Borgnine, Luana Patten, Will Kuluva

Synopsis: Gina Lollobrigida plays a Lady of the Evening who is wooed by wealthy young Anthony Franciosa. She leaves him in the dark concerning her checkered past. Alas, Franciosa's father Ernest Borgnine knows everything about Lollobrigida, and breaks the bad news to his son. Aghast at first, Franciosa is Read More

Career

Actors: Dean Martin, Anthony Franciosa, Shirley MacLaine, Carolyn Jones, Joan Blackman

Synopsis: Playwright James Lee adapted his off-Broadway play for the screen in this high-strung adaptation, directed by Joseph Anthony. In this simplistic, backroom show-business-success saga, Anthony Franciosa plays Sam, a struggling young actor who will forsake his family and take any type of menial job Read More

The Naked Maja

Actors: Ava Gardner, Anthony Franciosa, Amedeo Nazzari, Gino Cervi, Lea Padovani

Synopsis: The slow pacing of this fanciful tale about the life and one reputed love of the Spanish artist Francisco Goya makes for an uneven drama. Anthony Franciosa is the artist, and Ava Gardner plays his paramour, the Duchess of Alba. While the Prime Minister of Spain schemes to betray his country to Read More

The Story on Page One

Actors: Rita Hayworth, Gig Young, Anthony Franciosa, Mildred Dunnock, Hugh Griffith

Synopsis: A suspenseful courtroom drama, The Story on Page One was the second and last film directed by the distinguished American playwright Clifford Odets (who also wrote the screenplay). Jo (Rita Hayworth) and Larry (Gig Young) are lovers accused of murdering Jo's husband. Their trial lawyer, Victor Read More

The Long, Hot Summer

Actors: Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Anthony Franciosa, Orson Welles, Lee Remick

Synopsis: While often regarded as one of America's greatest novelists, William Faulkner produced work that did not always translate well to the screen; it's ironically appropriate that this movie, based on several of Faulkner's short stories, is often regarded as one of the best films based on his work Read More

Wild Is the Wind

Actors: Anna Magnani,