Burt LancasterFilmography

The Phantom of the Opera

Actors: Jean-Pierre Cassel, Ian Richardson, Burt Lancaster, Teri Polo, Charles Dance

Synopsis: This adaptation of Gaston Leroux's indefatigable "grand guignol" piece The Phantom of the Opera stars British actor Charles Dance as Erik the Phantom. This adaptation by playwright Arthur Kopit soft-pedals the horrific elements of the story to concentrate on the love the tragic Erik bears toward Read More

Voyage of Terror: The Achille Lauro Affair

Actors: Eva Marie Saint, Burt Lancaster

Synopsis: This made-for-television film Voyage of Terror: The Achille Lauro Affair chronicles the true story of the 1985 hijacking of an Italian cruise ship by a group of Palestinians. Voyage of Terror is primarily told through the viewpoint of Leon and Marilyn Klinghoffer (Burt Lancaster and Eva Marie Saint Read More

The Jeweller's Shop

Synopsis: Based on a novel by Pope John Paul II, this reverent tale focuses on a pair of married Polish couples whose children meet decades later in North America. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

Field of Dreams

Actors: Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan, James Earl Jones, Ray Liotta, Burt Lancaster

Synopsis: "If you build it, he will come." That's the ethereal message that inspires Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) to construct a baseball diamond in the middle of his cornfield. At first, "he" seems to be the ghost of disgraced ballplayer Shoeless Joe Jackson (Ray Liotta), who materializes on Read More

Benny Carter: Symphony in Riffs

Synopsis: Narrated by Burt Lancaster, Benny Carter: Symphony in Riffs provides a comprehensive overview of the life and career of jazz saxophonist Benny Carter. Widely known as one of the originators of the big band sound, Carter's influence can still be heard in modern jazz and big band performances. Read More

Rocket Gibraltar

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Suzy Amis, Patricia Clarkson, Frances Conroy, Sinéad Cusack, John Glover, Bill Pullman, Macaulay Culkin

Synopsis: On the occasion of wealthy patriarch Burt Lancaster's 77th birthday, his Long Island home is invaded by well-meaning family members. Lancaster is bored by the well-meaning interference of his grown children, but he thrives on the company of his grandchildren, especially 5-year-old Macaulay Culkin Read More

Legacy of the Hollywood Blacklist

Race to Oblivion

Synopsis: Learn about the horrors of nuclear war through the use of interviews with Hiroshima survivors. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Vaeter und Soehne

Synopsis: This German drama chronicles the lives of a family of industrialists whose lives are forever changed by Hitler and WW II. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Control

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Kate Nelligan, Ben Gazzara, Kate Reid

Synopsis: Fifteen strangers who have volunteered for an experiment in isolation are forced to deal with an even larger problem in this film from Italian director Giuliano Montaldo. A research group in Germany wants to study the effects of isolation in a nuclear shelter on human subjects and assembles a Read More

Tough Guys

Actors: Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Dana Carvey, Charles Durning, Alexis Smith, Eli Wallach

Synopsis: Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas team up one last time in Tough Guys. Harry Doyle (Lancaster) and Archie Lang (Douglas) are two old-time train robbers, who held up a train in 1956 and have been incarcerated for thirty years. After serving their time, they are released from jail and have to adjust Read More

On Wings of Eagles

Synopsis: On Wings of Eagles was adapted for television from the best-selling book by Ken Follett. Inspired by fact, the story involves the daring rescue of two American business executives, held captive in Tehran during the US Embassy takeover of 1979. Retired Special Forces colonel Arthur D. "Bull" Simons Read More

Barnum

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Hanna Schygulla, John Roney, Sandor Raski, Patty Maloney

Synopsis: This made-for-television film chronicles the life of 19th-century American showman P. T. Barnum. Using flashbacks (and flash forwards) the earliest efforts of his career are shown, through the formation of the "Greatest Show on Earth" with his partner Bailey, with many interesting things in Read More

Little Treasure

Actors: Margot Kidder, Ted Danson, Burt Lancaster, Joseph Hacker, Malena Doria

Synopsis: In a weakly-limned story that starts off on one foot and then quickly jumps to another, Margot Kidder plays Margo, a stripper out looking for her long-lost father (Burt Lancaster) in a remote area of Mexico. After she arrives, Eugene (Ted Danson), an American settled in Mexico for the duration Read More

Scandal Sheet

Actors: Lauren Hutton, Pamela Reed, Robert Urich, Burt Lancaster

Synopsis: Burt Lancaster is eminently hissable as a tabloid publisher in the made-for-TV Scandal Sheet. The current target of Lancaster's smears is alcoholic actor Robert Urich, who is on the verge of making a comeback through the auspices of his movie-star wife Lauren Hutton. Ruthlessly going after Urich Read More

Sherrill Milnes: An All-Star Gala

Synopsis: In this collection of excerpts from seven theatrical masterworks featuring some of the greatest opera talents ever to grace the stage, Peter Schrier offers a stunning rendition of Cosí Fan Tutte's "Un'aura amorosa", Placido Domingo and Sherrill Milnes team to perform "Dio, che nell'alma infondere Read More

Local Hero

Actors: Peter Riegert, Burt Lancaster, Fulton Mackay, Denis Lawson, Norman Chancer, Peter Capaldi

Synopsis: Bill Forsyth's whimsical tale of sweet-natured corporate rapacity features standout performances by Burt Lancaster and Peter Riegert. Lancaster plays Texas billionaire Felix Happer, who would rather gaze at the stars than worry about his multi-national oil company. Happer dispatches Mac MacIntyre (Peter Riegert Read More

The Osterman Weekend

Actors: Rutger Hauer, John Hurt, Craig T. Nelson, Dennis Hopper, Chris Sarandon

Synopsis: A man discovers that his best friends are actually spies -- or are they? -- in this thriller based on Robert Ludlum's best-selling novel. John Tanner (Rutger Hauer) is the host of a television news show who once a year spends a long weekend with three of his best friends from college, Bernard Read More

Marco Polo

Actors: Ken Marshall, Denholm Elliott, Tony Vogel, Anne Bancroft, John Gielgud

Synopsis: Thirteen months and ten million dollars were lavished upon this ten-hour, four-part TV miniseries about legendary globetrotter Marco Polo. Newcomer Ken Marshall played the title character, a 14th century Venetian explorer who, among other accomplishments, firmly established the "silk route" Read More

The Life of Verdi

Actors: Ronald Pickup, Carla Fracci, Renzo Palmer

Synopsis: This lavish, 10-hour European miniseries plots the life and times of the famous composer Giuseppe Verdi. Filmed on-location, the series also provides stellar interpretations of Verdi's work by Maria Callas and Luciano Pavarotti. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide Read More

The Thing

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, T.K. Carter, David Clennon, Keith David

Synopsis: John Carpenter's The Thing is both a remake of Howard Hawks' 1951 film of the same name and a re-adaptation of the John W. Campbell Jr. story "Who Goes There?" on which it was based. Carpenter's film is more faithful to Campbell's story than Hawks' version and also substantially more reliant on Read More

La Pelle

Actors: Marcello Mastroianni, Burt Lancaster, Claudia Cardinale, Ken Marshall

Synopsis: The Italian La Pelle was released in English-speaking countries as The Skin. Set in the twilight of World War 2, the film is a compendium of bitter recollections concerning the Allied liberation of Naples. These memories were originally bundled together in book form by Curzio Malaparte, played Read More

Cattle Annie and Little Britches

Actors: Burt Lancaster, John Savage, Rod Steiger, Diane Lane, Amanda Plummer

Synopsis: This offbeat and atmospheric western is set in 1893, as a gang led by longtime outlaws Bill Doolin (Burt Lancaster) and Bill Dalton (Scott Glenn) is on the verge of falling apart due to time and fatigue. A pair of teenage girls who long to be part of the outlaw mythos of the west meet up with Read More

Atlantic City

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Susan Sarandon, Michel Piccoli, Kate Reid, Robert Joy

Synopsis: Burt Lancaster stars as Lou, an aging mob flunkey, barely making a living in Atlantic City. Susan Sarandon plays Sally, a casino croupier whose husband Dave (Robert Joy) steals a large supply of drugs from the mob. When he is killed, the narcotics pass to the unwilling Sally. Lou, in the midst of Read More

Zulu Dawn

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Peter O'Toole, Simon Ward, John Mills, Nigel Davenport

Synopsis: This film depicts the events prior to the devastating conflict that occurred in 1879 when British soldiers were held siege by thousands of Zulu warriors. Fifteen hundred soldiers were killed in the epic battle. This film portrays the tensions existing between the tribal factions and the British Read More

Arthur Miller on Home Ground

Actors: Arthur Miller, Inge Monath

Synopsis: This 1979 documentary chronicles the first 64 years in the life of Arthur Miller (b. 1915), an important 20th-century American playwright, novelist and all-around man of letters. Miller also wrote several screenplays, notably for The Misfits and The Crucible. The last was based on his Read More

Go Tell the Spartans

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Craig Wasson, Jonathan Goldsmith, Marc Singer, Joe Unger

Synopsis: Go Tell the Spartans is set in Vietnam during that period in which American troops were euphemistically termed "advisors". Reluctantly dispensing much of that advice is veteran American major Asa Barker (Burt Lancaster). Though he knows what works and what doesn't on the battlefield, Barker is Read More

Twilight's Last Gleaming

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Charles Durning, Melvyn Douglas, Paul Winfield

Synopsis: Soured on America by his experiences as a POW in Vietnam, General Lawrence Dell (Burt Lancaster) hopes that his government will someday tell the truth about the Southeast Asian debacle, thereby allowing his country to embark upon a healing process. Regarded as a dangerous embarrassment by the Read More

The Island of Dr. Moreau

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Michael York, Nigel Davenport, Barbara Carrera, Richard Basehart

Synopsis: In The Island of Dr. Moreau, which is based on a novella by H.G. Wells, Braddock (Michael York) is a decent young Englishman who has unaccountably been saved from being thrown overboard from a ship sailing in a remote area of the Pacific by the mysterious Dr. Montgomery (Nigel Davenport). Dr. Read More

Exploring the Unknown

Synopsis: Parapsychology. Covers ESP, kirlian photography, telekinesis and other psychic phenomena. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

The Cassandra Crossing

Actors: Sophia Loren, Richard Harris, Ava Gardner, Burt Lancaster, Martin Sheen

Synopsis: This bizarre entry into the disaster film genre concerns a group of hapless passengers aboard a transcontinental luxury train who are infected with a viral plague by a group of terrorists. Burt Lancaster plays military man Mackenzie, who wants to send the train across a rickety bridge so all the Read More

Moses

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Anthony Quayle, Ingrid Thulin, Irene Papas, Mariangela Melato

Synopsis: Originally filmed for British television as a six-hour miniseries, Moses appeared in the U.S. in 1975 as a 2 1/2-hour theatrical release. God's lawgiver (Burt Lancaster) is chosen by God to deliver the Israelites out of Egypt, across the Red Sea and into the promised land of Canaan. ~ John Bush Read More

1900

Actors: Robert De Niro, Gérard Depardieu, Burt Lancaster, Sterling Hayden, Donald Sutherland, Dominique Sanda

Synopsis: Bernardo Bertolucci's 255-minute 1900 was a gargantuan undertaking, requiring the resources of three European countries and a trio of American movie studios. Set in the Italian town of Parma, the film's continuity backtracks from Liberation Day in 1945 to the occasion of composer/patriot Giuseppe Verdi Read More

America at the Movies

Actors: Charlton Heston

Synopsis: The American Film Institute put together this movie of film clips from all eras of American filmmaking as a Bicentennial tribute to the country. Narrated by Charleton Heston, the 83 film clips included all relate to American history, or reflect on the character of Americans. The clips are grouped Read More

Victory at Entebbe

Actors: Julius Harris, Helen Hayes, Elizabeth Taylor, Kirk Douglas, Richard Dreyfuss, Burt Lancaster

Synopsis: Within months after the spectacular July 4, 1976 rescue of hostages from Uganda's Entebbe airport, there were two competing TV movies on the subject. The longest (and least) of the two was Victory at Entebbe, hurriedly shot on videotape. The story begins when Arab terrorist capture a civilian Read More

Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson

Actors: Paul Newman, Joel Grey, Kevin McCarthy, Harvey Keitel, Allan Nicholls

Synopsis: "Truth is whatever gets the loudest applause." Debunking western myths even more than he did in McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971), Robert Altman's Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson (1976) sardonically explores the gap between western history and legend in show biz-obsessed Read More

Ali the Fighter

Actors: Joe Frazier, Burt Lancaster, George Foreman

Synopsis: Ali the Fighter was made in 1975, when the Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier fight was still fresh in everyone's memory banks. Thus, a generous portion of the documentary's running time is given over to graphic footage of that famous bout. Filmmaker William Greaves frames these scenes with a fine thumbnail Read More

Gruppo di Famiglia in un Interno

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Silvana Mangano, Helmut Berger, Claudia Marsani, Stefano Patrizi

Synopsis: An introverted American professor (Burt Lancaster) has retired to an Italian house, but finds his life interrupted when a decadent family moves upstairs. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide Read More

The Midnight Man

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: William Splawn, Richard Winterstein, Burt Lancaster, Susan Clark, Cameron Mitchell, Morgan Woodward, Harris Yulin

Synopsis: One night after finishing his rounds as security chief at Jordan College, Quartz Willinger (Cameron Mitchell) stops by an after-hours club for a drink and walks in on the middle of a robbery, during which he is savagely beaten by three hillbilly thugs. While recovering from his injuries, he needs Read More

Scorpio

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, Paul Scofield, John Colicos, Gayle Hunnicutt

Synopsis: This spy thriller from future Death Wish (1974) director Michael Winner stars Burt Lancaster as the enigmatic Cross, a CIA agent who has hired a government assassin, Jean Laurier (Alain Delon), to kill an Arab terrorist. Once they return home, Laurier is arrested by his superior, McLeod (John Colicos Read More

Executive Action

Actors: Deanna Darrin, James MacColl, Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, Will Geer, Gilbert Green, John Anderson

Synopsis: If you think that Oliver Stone invented the "political paranoia" movie, take a glance at Executive Action sometime. Based on Mark Lane's Rush to Judgment, the conspiracy theorist's bible, Executive Action perpetuates the popular urban legend that John F. Kennedy was assassinated at the behest of a Read More

The Fighter

Synopsis: Joe Frazier's life and career are profiled in this exciting film. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Ulzana's Raid

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Bruce Davison, Jorge Luke, Richard Jaeckel, Joaquin Martinez

Synopsis: One of the best films by often-underrated director Robert Aldrich, this stark, brutal Western is also an effective allegory of America's involvement in the Vietnam War. Set in Arizona during the late 1880s, the film begins with experienced scout McIntosh (Burt Lancaster) and idealistic U.S. Read More

Valdez Is Coming

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Susan Clark, Jon Cypher, Barton Heyman, Richard Jordan

Synopsis: Adapted from an Elmore Leonard novel, Valdez is Coming stars Burt Lancaster in the title role. A scrupulously honest Mexican-American marshal, Bob Valdez is double-crossed and humiliated by wealthy, unscrupulous rancher Jon Cypher. Since Cypher has the law on his side, Valdez is obliged to mete Read More

Lawman

Actors: Bill Brimley, Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, Lee J. Cobb, Sheree North, Joseph Wiseman

Synopsis: In Lawman, Burt Lancaster is Jered Maddox, a dedicated marshal with an inflexible adherence to upholding the law at all costs. Riding into a nearby town to pick up a group of local carousers who, during a drunken spree, killed an old man, Maddox meets up with Vincent Bronson (Lee J. Cobb). Bronson Read More

King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis

Synopsis: Having tackled every known film subject in his long career, from musicals to murder mysteries, Sidney Lumet tries his hand at documentary in King: A Filmed Record...Montgomery to Memphis. Lumet co-directed and co-produced the film with another Hollywood luminary, Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Beyond Read More

Airport

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, Jean Seberg, Jacqueline Bisset, George Kennedy

Synopsis: Airport had enough plot and enough star power in its cast for three feature films, and it only encompassed about half of the complexity or characters found in Arthur Hailey's best-selling potboiler. Essentially built around 12 harrowing hours at a major Midwestern airport, the film had everything Read More

The Gypsy Moths

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, Gene Hackman, Scott Wilson

Synopsis: John Frankenheimer directed this low-key drama about three men who stage a sky-diving thrill show and what happens when they roll into a small town in Kansas. Mike Rettig (Burt Lancaster) is the oldest of the group and more than a bit jaded; Joe Browdy (Gene Hackman) is the fast-talking MC who Read More

Jenny is a Good Thing

Castle Keep

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Patrick O'Neal, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Peter Falk, Scott Wilson, Bruce Dern

Synopsis: This decidedly different war movie follows Maj. Abraham Falconer (Burt Lancaster), a tired, one-eyed Army officer, as he leads eight men into Belgium where they hope to take a much-needed rest at a 10th century castle. The master of the house, Henri Tixier (Jean-Pierre Aumont), welcomes them with Read More

Big Game America

Synopsis: Narrated by Burt Lancaster, this video is a look back at pro football's first half century. Created by NFL Films, this Polygram release includes clips of historic battles from the gridiron. Part of the studio classics edition, this tape is a tribute to every pre-millionaire athlete who ever Read More

The Swimmer

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Janet Landgard, Janice Rule, Diana Van Der Vlis, Tony Bickley, Kim Hunter

Synopsis: John Cheever's "misery in suburbia" short stories, brief and to the point, have always proven excellent TV fodder. Director Frank Perry's The Swimmer, adapted for the screen by Perry's wife Eleanor, is a rare, and for the most part successful, attempt at offering a Cheever story in feature-length Read More

The Scalphunters

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Shelley Winters, Telly Savalas, Ossie Davis, Armando Silvestre

Synopsis: For his third feature outing, director Sydney Pollack helmed this comedic western starring (Burt Lancaster) as fur trapper Joe Bass. While heading for the trading post for his pay after a successful hunting season, Bass runs into a band of Kiowa Indians, who offer to trade the educated slave Read More

The Professionals

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan, Jack Palance, Claudia Cardinale, Woody Strode

Synopsis: Grant (Ralph Bellamy) is a wealthy rancher who hires four mercenaries to retrieve his wife, Maria (Claudia Cardinale), from the clutches of the desperado Raza (Jack Palance) in this Western adventure set in 1917. Dolworth (Burt Lancaster) is a munitions expert who joins gunslinger Fardan (Lee Read More

The Hallelujah Trail

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Lee Remick, Jim Hutton, Pamela Tiffin, Donald Pleasence

Synopsis: In The Hallelujah Trail, Lee Remick plays temperance leader Cora Templeton Massingale, who is determined to halt a shipment of whiskey headed for Denver. The shipment is being escorted by the US cavalry, under the guidance of Col. Thadeus Gearhardt (Burt Lancaster). As the Denver miners thirstily Read More

The Train

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Paul Scofield, Jeanne Moreau, Michel Simon, Suzanne Flon

Synopsis: John Frankenheimer directs Burt Lancaster in the tense spy thriller The Train. Lancaster plays Labiche, a French railway inspector. Allied forces are threatening to liberate Paris, so Col. Franz von Waldheim (Paul Scofield) is ordered to move the priceless works of art from the Jeu de Paume Museum Read More

Seven Days in May

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Fredric March, Ava Gardner, Edmond O'Brien

Synopsis: Adapted by Rod Serling from the best-selling novel by Fletcher Knebel and Charles Waldo Bailey II, Seven Days in May was allegedly inspired by the far-right ramblings of one General Edwin Walker. Burt Lancaster plays General James M. Scott, who, convinced that liberal President Jordan Lyman (Fredric March Read More

The Leopard

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, Claudia Cardinale, Paolo Stoppa, Rina Morelli, Serge Reggiani

Synopsis: Arguably Luchino Visconti's best film and certainly the most personal of his historical epics, The Leopard chronicles the fortunes of Prince Fabrizio Salina and his family during the unification of Italy in the 1860s. Based on the acclaimed novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, published Read More

The List of Adrian Messenger

Actors: George C. Scott, Dana Wynter, Clive Brook, Gladys Cooper, Herbert Marshall

Synopsis: Adrian Messenger (John Merivale) asks his friend, British colonel Anthony Gethryn (George C. Scott), to check on the whereabouts of the eleven men named on a written list. Not long afterward, the plane on which Messenger is travelling is deliberately blown up. The mystery killer slipped the bomb Read More

A Child Is Waiting

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Judy Garland, Gena Rowlands, Steven Hill, Bruce Ritchey

Synopsis: Produced by Stanley Kramer, A Child is Waiting is set in an institution for the mentally handicapped, with many actual residents playing supporting and bit roles. Doctor Burt Lancaster and instructor Judy Garland often find themselves at odds over teaching methods, with Garland preferring an Read More

Birdman of Alcatraz

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Karl Malden, Thelma Ritter, Neville Brand, Betty Field, Telly Savalas

Synopsis: In this film based on a true story, Burt Lancaster plays Robert Stroud, a withdrawn prison inmate who cures a sick bird that flies into his cell and eventually becomes a world-renowned ornithologist -- all while serving a life sentence. An overbearing warden (Karl Malden) eventually transfers Read More

Judgment at Nuremberg

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Marlene Dietrich, Maximilian Schell, Judy Garland, Montgomery Clift, Werner Klemperer

Synopsis: After the end of World War II, the world gradually became aware of the full extent of the war crimes perpetrated by the Third Reich. In 1948, a series of trials were held in Nuremberg, Germany, by an international tribunal, headed by American legal and military officials, with the intent of Read More

The Young Savages

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Dina Merrill, Shelley Winters, Edward Andrews, Larry Gates, Vivian Nathan

Synopsis: The Young Savages is what used to be called a "thinking man's picture" about a potentially lurid subject: urban juvenile delinquency. A blind Puerto Rican boy is knifed to death in Spanish Harlem, and three teenage gang members are accused of the crime. Politically ambitious assistant DA Burt Lancaster Read More

Elmer Gantry

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Jean Simmons, Dean Jagger, Arthur Kennedy, Shirley Jones

Synopsis: Elmer Gantry (Burt Lancaster), a drunken, dishonest street preacher allegedly patterned on Billy Sunday, wrangles a job with the travelling tent ministry conducted by Sister Sharon Falconer (Jean Simmons). Thanks to Gantry's enthusiastic hellfire-and-brimstone sermons, Sister Sharon's operation Read More

The Unforgiven

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Audrey Hepburn, Audie Murphy, John Saxon, Charles Bickford, Lillian Gish

Synopsis: One of Hollywood's most famous and acclaimed directors, John Huston guides this western with an unerring hand -- the cast of notable stars is no drawback either. Setting up the story with a series of suspenseful scenes, Huston has a mysterious stranger on horseback come into a small community in Read More

The Devil's Disciple

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Janette Scott, Eva Le Gallienne

Synopsis: This film version of George Bernard Shaw's satirical take on the American Revolution had a troubled production history (with a director change in mid-production), but nevertheless boasts a cutting performance by Laurence Olivier. Shaw's tale depicts his version of how the British lost the American Read More

Take a Giant Step

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Johnny Nash, Ruby Dee, Frederick O'Neal, Ellen Holly

Synopsis: Young (19-year-old) reggae and rhythm-and-blues singer Johnny Nash stars in this conventional coming-of-age story about a well-heeled, Afro-American teen trying to find his way in a white-man's world. The realities of that world hit Spencer (Nash) hard, and at first he looks for solace and comfort Read More

Run Silent, Run Deep

Actors: Clark Gable, Burt Lancaster, Jack Warden, Brad Dexter, Don Rickles

Synopsis: The contrasting acting styles of Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster serve to increase the already high tension level of the WW2 drama Run Silent, Run Deep. Gable plays submarine commander "Rich" Richardson, who assumes command of the USS Nerka. Because his previous sub was sunk by the Japanese under Read More

Separate Tables

Actors: Rita Hayworth, Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Wendy Hiller, Burt Lancaster

Synopsis: Based on Terence Rattigan's play, Separate Tables is about a number of characters and their adventures at a British seaside hotel. Among the guests are an alleged war hero (David Niven), a timid spinster (Deborah Kerr) and her domineering mother (Gladys Cooper), and a divorced couple (Burt Read More

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming, Jo Van Fleet, John Ireland

Synopsis: Of the many filmed versions of the October 26, 1881, O.K. Corral shootout in Tombstone, Arizona, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral was one of the most elaborate and star-studded. Burt Lancaster plays Wyatt Earp, the renowned lawman, while Kirk Douglas is consumptive gambler (and gunfighter) Doc Holliday Read More

Sweet Smell of Success

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison, Martin Milner, Sam Levene

Synopsis: Ernest Lehman drew upon his experiences as a Broadway press agent to write the devastating a clef short story "Tell Me About Tomorrow." This in turn was adapted by Lehman and Clifford Odets into the sharp-edged, penetrating feature film Sweet Smell of Success. Burt Lancaster stars as J. J. Read More

Trapeze

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Gina Lollobrigida, Katy Jurado, Thomas Gomez

Synopsis: Former circus aerialist Burt Lancaster was the logical choice to star in the Technicolor drama Trapeze. Lancaster plays a crippled acrobat, disabled after attempting to perform a dangerous triple mid-air somersault. Tony Curtis co-stars as an aspiring aerialist who coerces Lancaster into teaching Read More

The Rainmaker

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Katharine Hepburn, Wendell Corey, Lloyd Bridges, Earl Holliman

Synopsis: N. Richard Nash's play The Rainmaker has always attracted the most flamboyant of performers, and this 1956 film version is no exception. Burt Lancaster all but bursts from the screen with his arm-waving portrayal of a confidence artist who works the drought-ridden Southwest, promising to bring Read More

The Rose Tattoo

Actors: Anna Magnani, Burt Lancaster, Marisa Pavan, Ben Cooper, Jo Van Fleet, Virginia Grey

Synopsis: Scripted by famed playwright Tennessee Williams, The Rose Tattoo stars Anna Magnani as Serafina Delle Rose, a Sicilian woman who now lives in the American South. As the film opens, she is still mourning the death of her beloved husband, constantly telling herself stories of their time together. Read More

Marty

Crew: Producer

Actors: Ernest Borgnine, Betsy Blair, Esther Minciotti, Augusta Ciolli, Joe Mantell

Synopsis: Paddy Chayefsky's Oscar-winning slice-of-life drama is a heartwarming story about Marty Pilletti (Ernest Borgnine), a lonely Bronx butcher. Marty is a burly but gentle man, easing into middle age without much hope for romance or a career. He lives at home with his mother (Esther Minciotti), a kind Read More

The Kentuckian

Crew: Director

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Dianne Foster, Diana Lynn, John McIntire, Una Merkel, Walter Matthau

Synopsis: Produced and directed by star Burt Lancaster, The Kentuckian is a leisurely western occasionally punctuated by spurts of startling brutality. The recently widowed Lancaster heads towards Texas with his son Donald McDonald. Most of the folks he meets, notably winsome schoolmarm Diana Lynn Read More

Apache

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Jean Peters, John McIntire, Charles Buchinsky, John Dehner

Synopsis: Apache was based on Paul I. Wellman's novel Broncho Apache, which in turn was inspired by a true story. Burt Lancaster plays Massai, a lieutenant of the great Apache warrior Geronimo (here depicted as an old man, played by Monte Blue). Though his tribe has signed surrender terms with the Read More

Vera Cruz

Crew: Co-producer

Actors: Gary Cooper, Burt Lancaster, Denise Darcel, Cesar Romero, Sarita Montiel

Synopsis: Produced by Burt Lancaster's own company, Vera Cruz teams Lancaster with the venerable Gary Cooper. The story, set during the Mexican revolution of 1866, casts Coop and Lancaster as Ben Trane and Joe Erin, two rival soldiers of fortune who team to fight for the highest bidder. The two men come to Read More

Three Sailors and a Girl

Actors: Jane Powell, Gordon MacRae, Gene Nelson, Sam Levene, George Givot

Synopsis: Though it isn't obvious at first glance, Three Sailors and a Girl is the fourth screen version of the George S. Kaufman stage comedy The Butter and Egg Man. The titular gobs are Jones, Twitch, and Parky, played respectively by Gordon MacRae, Gene Nelson, and Jack E. Leonard. On leave in New York Read More

His Majesty O'Keefe

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Joan Rice, Andre Morell, Abraham Sofaer, Archie Savage

Synopsis: Captain David O'Keefe is a character based on the real-life 18th-century American who introduced modern agricultural methods to the South Seas. Lest you think that His Majesty O'Keefe is merely a feature-length version of your local TV station's agribusiness report, be advised that O'Keefe is Read More

South Sea Woman

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Virginia Mayo, Chuck Connors, Barry Kelley, Arthur Shields, Hayden Rorke

Synopsis: Burt Lancaster and Virginia Mayo, the stars of 1950's Flame and the Arrow, are reteamed in the lusty adventure romp South Sea Woman. It all begins at the military trial of Marine sergeant O'Hearn (Burt Lancaster), facing a court-martial for desertion. In flashback, O'Hearn recalls how he was Read More

From Here to Eternity

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr, Donna Reed, Frank Sinatra

Synopsis: The scene is Schofield Army Barracks in Honolulu, in the languid days before the attack on Pearl Harbor, where James Jones' acclaimed war novel From Here to Eternity brought the aspirations and frustrations of several people sharply into focus. Sergeant Milt Warden (Burt Lancaster) enters into an Read More

Come Back, Little Sheba

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Shirley Booth, Terry Moore, Richard Jaeckel, Philip Ober

Synopsis: In the original Broadway production of this William Inge play, Shirley Booth played Lola Delaney, the vulgar, dumpy, less-than-bright "shotgun bride" of recovering alcoholic Doc Delaney, played on stage by Sidney Blackmer, who won a Tony award for his efforts. When time came to film the play, Shirley Booth Read More

The Crimson Pirate

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Eva Bartok, Nick Cravat, Torin Thatcher, James Hayter

Synopsis: Half affectionate parody and half enthusiastic tribute to the swashbuckling pirate epics of the 1930's and 40's, The Crimson Pirate stars Burt Lancaster as Captain Vallo, the smiling leader of a pack of unscrupulous pirates. While on the high seas, Vallo and his men spy a well-stocked merchant Read More

Jim Thorpe - All American

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Charles Bickford, Steve Cochran, Phyllis Thaxter, Dick Wesson

Synopsis: Burt Lancaster stars as Jim Thorpe, the Native American sports whiz whom many consider the greatest athlete of the 20th century. We first see Thorpe as a child on the reservation, highly resistant to the notion of going to school. He proves to be an excellent student, eventually attending the Read More

Vengeance Valley

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Robert Walker, Joanne Dru, Sally Forrest, John Ireland

Synopsis: The old "Cain and Abel" plot device is redefined within Western terms in MGM's Vengeance Valley. Burt Lancaster stars as ranch-hand Owen Daybright, who has been raised as a son by rancher Arch Stroble (Ray Collins). Stroble's natural son Lee (Robert Walker) has always been envious of Owen, who in Read More

Ten Tall Men

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Jody Lawrance, Gilbert Roland, Kieron Moore, George Tobias

Synopsis: For his initial effort from his own Norma Productions, Burt Lancaster picked a winner in Ten Tall Men. Lancaster stars as "Sergeant Mike," a two-fisted Foreign Legionnaire presiding over a lovable band of mercenaries, sneak thieves and cutthroats. While sitting in the stockade for the umpteenth Read More

The Flame and the Arrow

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Virginia Mayo, Robert Douglas, Nick Cravat, Aline MacMahon, Frank Allenby

Synopsis: The first of actor Burt Lancaster's filmic associations with partner Harold Hecht, The Flame and the Arrow finds Lancaster cast as Dardo, an Italian Robin Hood battling the occupying Hessian troops. Dardo's stake in the matter becomes personal when his former wife Francesca (Lynne Baggett) moves Read More

Mister 880

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Dorothy McGuire, Edmund Gwenn, Millard Mitchell, Minor Watson

Synopsis: Based on a true story, Mister 880 is the whimsical tale of an elderly gentleman (Edmund Gwenn) who dabbles in counterfeiting. He makes only enough "funny money" to support himself, but the fact that his work is so amateurish (he can't even spell "Washington") arouses the indignation of the Read More

Rope of Sand

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Peter Lorre, Sam Jaffe

Synopsis: Producer Hal Wallis evidently hoped to recapture the magic of his earlier Casablanca with 1949's Rope of Sand. To that end, he hired three of Casablanca's supporting players: Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, and Peter Lorre. This time, Henreid is the villain, a sadistic police inspector named Paul Read More

All My Sons

Actors: Edward G. Robinson, Burt Lancaster, Mady Christians, Howard Duff, Louisa Horton, Frank Conroy

Synopsis: Based on the play by Arthur Miller, All My Sons is a drama of man's duty to man that retains a potent impact. Edward G. Robinson plays a manufacturer of parts for World War II airplanes who lives a full, satisfied life in a small town. But his idyll is shattered by the arrival of the fiancée of Read More

Criss Cross

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Yvonne De Carlo, Dan Duryea, Stephen McNally, Richard Long

Synopsis: Steve Thompson (Burt Lancaster) returns home after a few years of knocking around the country following his divorce from good-time girl Anna (Yvonne De Carlo). Getting his old job back driving an armored car, and not even convincing himself that he's making a new start, he also wants his old wife Read More

I Walk Alone

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Lizabeth Scott, Kirk Douglas, Wendell Corey, Kristine Miller

Synopsis: On the run from the cops, bootleggers Frankie Madison (Burt Lancaster) and Noll Turner (Kirk Douglas), find themselves racing up to an enormous roadblock. The two split up, agreeing that if one was caught, the other would operate their nightclub and save half the profits for his partner. The Read More

Sorry, Wrong Number

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Burt Lancaster, Ann Richards, Wendell Corey, Harold Vermilyea, Ed Begley, Sr.

Synopsis: When Lucille Fletcher took on the challenge of expanding her classic 30-minute radio suspenser Sorry, Wrong Number into an 89-minute feature film, she opted on the Citizen Kane approach, filling the plotline to the brim with revelatory flashbacks. Barbara Stanwyck stars as bedridden hypochondriac Read More

Kiss the Blood off My Hands

Actors: Joan Fontaine, Burt Lancaster, Robert Newton, Lewis L. Russell, Aminta Dyne

Synopsis: In this film noir drama, Bill Saunders (Burt Lancaster) is a former Prisoner of War living in England whose experiences have left him emotionally unstable and prone to violence. One night, while drinking in a pub, he gets into an argument with the owner which quickly escalates into a brutal Read More

Variety Girl

Actors: Eric Alden, Mary Hatcher, Olga San Juan, William Bendix, MacDonald Carey, DeForest Kelley, Joan Caulfield, William Demarest, Frank Faylen, Stanley Clements

Synopsis: This story of two young hopefuls who come to Hollywood is merely a thin device to feature almost every star working for Paramount Studios in 1947. Mary Hatcher plays Catherine Brown, a woman of humble origins who arrives in Hollywood, where she meets another wanna-be movie star, Amber La Vonne Read More

Brute Force

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Hume Cronyn, Charles Bickford, Yvonne De Carlo, Ann Blyth

Synopsis: Burt Lancaster had one of his first starring roles in this hard-hitting prison drama. Capt. Munsey (Hume Cronyn) is a cruel, corrupt prison guard who has his own less-than-ethical ways of dealing with inmates, enough so that Joe Collins (Lancaster) -- the toughest inmate in the cell block -- has Read More

Desert Fury

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Lizabeth Scott, Mary Astor, John Hodiak, Wendell Corey

Synopsis: Desert Fury is a rarety for the 1940s, a Technicolor "film noir." Set in a Nevada gambling town, the story concerns the various misadventures, romantic and otherwise, of Paula Haller (Lizabeth Scott), the rebellious daughter of gambling-house proprietress Fritzie Haller (Mary Astor, who steals the Read More

The Killers

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond O'Brien, Albert Dekker, Jeff Corey, Sam Levene, Jack Lambert

Synopsis: The Killers uses Ernest Hemingway's short story as a springboard for a complex film noir. Two mysterious men (William Conrad and Charles McGraw) muscle their way into a small town and kill an aging boxer (Burt Lancaster, making his screen debut), who offers no resistance and seems to be welcoming Read More