Charles Bickford Filmography

Fatal Confinement

Synopsis: Fatal Confinement originated as an hour-long TV pilot film titled Royal Bay. Joan Crawford stars as a reclusive woman living with her daughter in a California coastal town. A business firm, headed by Charles Bickford, wants to buy her property. The sudden intrusion of the outside world Read More

Della

Days of Wine and Roses

Actors: Jack Lemmon, Lee Remick, Charles Bickford, Jack Klugman, Alan Hewitt

Synopsis: In this addiction melodrama, Joe Clay (Jack Lemmon), a promising adman, meet his future wife Kirsten (Lee Remick) at a party. Once married, the pressures of his business lead Joe to seek solace in liquor. Kirsten joins him in his nocturnal drinking sessions, and before long both are confirmed 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 Big Country

Actors: Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Carroll Baker, Charlton Heston, Burl Ives

Synopsis: In The Big Country Gregory Peck plays a seafaring man who heads west to marry Carroll Baker, the daughter of rancher Charles Bickford. Bickford is currently embroiled in a water-rights feud with covetous Burl Ives, so both he and his daughter are hoping that Peck can take care of himself. But Read More

Playhouse 90: Days of Wine and Roses

Synopsis: The devastating effects of alcoholism provide the basis for this episode of the Playhouse 90 television series. The tale centers on an ambitious young executive and his wife. Heavy drinking seems to be a mandatory part of their hectic social schedule and this takes them on a disastrous ride to the Read More

Playhouse 90: Charley's Aunt

Actors: Art Carney, Jeanette MacDonald, Tom Tryon, Orson Bean, Jackie Coogan

Synopsis: Art Carney plays the title role, so to speak, in this live, 90-minute Playhouse 90 adaptation of Brandon Thomas' classic stage farce Charley's Aunt. The play's basic premise--Oxford undergrad Lord Fancourt Babberly (Carney) must pose as the elderly aunt of his roommate Charley Wyckeham so that Read More

Clipper Ship

Synopsis: A shipboard romance is the basis for this drama that chronicles the love between a beautiful woman and a man slated for execution as the cruise upon a ship headed for South America. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Mister Cory

Actors: Tony Curtis, Martha Hyer, Charles Bickford, Kathryn Grant, William Reynolds

Synopsis: Mister Cory represented the first of several successful collaborations between star Tony Curtis and director Blake Edwards. Adapted from a story by Leo Rosten, the story details the rise of Mr. Cory (Curtis) from summer-resort busboy to high-stakes gambler. Along the way, Cory uses several close Read More

You Can't Run Away From It

Actors: June Allyson, Jack Lemmon, Charles Bickford, Paul Gilbert, Jim Backus

Synopsis: You Can't Run Away From It is a musical remake of Frank Capra's Oscar-winning classic It Happened One Night, complete with same-named characters and word-for-word scene reconstructions. It all begins when spoiled heiress Ellie Andrews (June Allyson) is literally kidnapped from the altar by her Read More

Prince of Players

Actors: Richard Burton, Maggie McNamara, John Derek, Raymond Massey, Charles Bickford

Synopsis: Screenwriter Philip Dunne doubled as director on the elaborate filmed biography Prince of Players. Richard Burton stars as the eminent American tragedian Edwin Booth, whose life and career is thrown into turmoil after his younger brother John Wilkes Booth (John Derek) assassinates Abraham Lincoln. Read More

Man Behind the Badge

Synopsis: Based on true police stories, these two episodes of the 1954 series are hosted by Charles Bickford and feature real-life police officers. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide Read More

Deadline Decision

Synopsis: When a news editor reports a kidnapping of a child, the boy's life is threatened. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell

Actors: Gary Cooper, Charles Bickford, Ralph Bellamy, Rod Steiger, Elizabeth Montgomery

Synopsis: In this 1955 Otto Preminger film, Gary Cooper stars as World War I hero Brigadier General Billy Mitchell. The film recounts Mitchell's efforts to prove the viability of a strong air force. The hidebound military higher-ups refuse to finance aviation any further, figuring that the strength of the Read More

Not as a Stranger

Actors: Olivia de Havilland, Robert Mitchum, Frank Sinatra, Gloria Grahame, Broderick Crawford, Charles Bickford

Synopsis: Ambitious but impecunious medical student Lucas Marsh (Robert Mitchum) marries the older and (in this film, at least) not especially attractive Kristina Hedvigson (Olivia de Havilland) so that she can pay his tuition fees. Kristina loves Lucas, but he loves nothing but his work. Emotionally Read More

A Star is Born

Actors: Judy Garland, James Mason, Jack Carson, Charles Bickford, Tommy Noonan

Synopsis: The 1954 musical remake of A Star is Born could have been titled A Star is Reborn, in that it represented the triumphal return to the screen of Judy Garland after a four-year absence. The remake adheres closely to the plotline of the 1937 original: An alcoholic film star, on his last Read More

The Last Posse

Actors: Broderick Crawford, John Derek, Charles Bickford, Wanda Hendrix, Warner Anderson

Synopsis: After his Oscar win for All the King's Men, Broderick Crawford found himself working out his Columbia contract in a string of rapidly deteriorating films. The Last Posse was a middling western, the sort that the studio sent out as bottom-of-bill attractions for their prestige pictures. The posse Read More

The Raging Tide

Actors: Richard Conte, Shelley Winters, Stephen McNally, Charles Bickford, Alex Nicol

Synopsis: The Raging Tide stars Richard Conte as San Francisco crime boss Bruno Felkin. After killing off a rival, Felkin tries to arrange an alibi with his girlfriend Connie Thatcher (Shelley Winters). Unfortunately, she isn't available, obliging Felkin to hide out on a fishing boat owned by Ilmael Linder (Charles Bickford Read More

Elopement

Actors: Clifton Webb, Anne Francis, Charles Bickford, William Lundigan, Reginald Gardiner

Synopsis: In this romance, an industrial designer is bitterly disappointed when he discovers that upon graduation his daughter decides to elope with her psychology professor rather than pursue a career. The professor's family is also not pleased by the union. Both families, who despise each other, try to 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

Branded

Actors: Alan Ladd, Mona Freeman, Charles Bickford, Robert Keith, Joseph Calleia

Synopsis: Rancher Charles Bickford comes to believe that drifter Alan Ladd is his long-lost son. In truth, Ladd is a crook, in league with Brian Keith to con Bickford out of his fortune. Intending to go through with the scheme, Ladd has second thoughts when Bickford and his "mother" Selena Royle shower him Read More

Guilty of Treason

Actors: Charles Bickford, Paul Kelly, Bonita Granville, Richard Derr, Berry Kroeger

Synopsis: Made in the same atmosphere and paranoia that spawned the infamous Joseph McCarthy, this is an anti-communist propaganda movie looking more at the dark side of communism than at its subject matter--the life and times of Joszef Cardinal Mindszenty of Hungary. Mindszenty was imprisoned as an enemy Read More

Riding High

Actors: Bing Crosby, Coleen Gray, Charles Bickford, Frances Gifford, Raymond Walburn

Synopsis: Anxious to remain active in the 1950s, director Frank Capra wanted to prove to Paramount Pictures that he could deliver an "A" picture on a modest budget. To that end, Capra bought the rights of his 1934 film Broadway Bill from Columbia, and remade it under the title Riding High. He then hired Read More

Whirlpool

Actors: Gene Tierney, Richard Conte, José Ferrer, Charles Bickford, Eduard Franz, Barbara O'Neil

Synopsis: In this compelling and unusual psychological melodrama Ann Sutton (Gene Tierney), a woman tormented by her secret kleptomania seeks help from a unscrupulous hypnotist David Korvo (Jose Ferrer). Although she is married to a successful psychiatrist (Richard Conte), and has no need to steal the Read More

Roseanna McCoy

Actors: Farley Granger, Joan Evans, Charles Bickford, Raymond Massey, Richard Basehart

Synopsis: The saga of the Hatfield-and-McCoy feud is romanticized in Samuel Goldwyn's Roseanna McCoy. Newcomer Joan Evans stars as the title character, whose elopement with Johnse Hatfield (Farley Granger) serves to further fuel the flames of the deadly mountain feud. The opposing patriarches, Devil Anse Read More

Command Decision

Actors: Clark Gable, Walter Pidgeon, Van Johnson, Brian Donlevy, Charles Bickford

Synopsis: Command Decision is a stagebound but consummately acted adaptation of William Wister Haines' Broadway play. Clark Gable, starring in the role essayed on Broadway by Paul Kelly, plays Air Force Brigadier General "Casey" Dennis. With time at a premium, Dennis sends waves of bomber squadrons into Read More

The Babe Ruth Story

Actors: William Bendix, Claire Trevor, Charles Bickford, Sam Levene, William Frawley

Synopsis: The Plan 9 From Outer Space of baseball biopics, The Babe Ruth Story is definitely in the "So Bad It's Good" category. An outrageously miscast William Bendix stars as George Herman "Babe" Ruth, who as depicted herein is a childish, misunderstood oaf who happens to be one of the greatest Read More

Johnny Belinda

Actors: Jane Wyman, Lew Ayres, Charles Bickford, Agnes Moorehead, Stephen McNally, Jan Sterling

Synopsis: After years of dumb-blonde and best-friend roles, Jane Wyman proved her skills as a dramatic actress -- and won an Academy Award in the bargain -- in Johnny Belinda. Adapted from a stage play by Elmer Harris, the story takes place in Nova Scotia, where deaf-mute Belinda (Wyman) leads a lonely Read More

Four Faces West

Actors: Joel McCrea, Frances Dee, Charles Bickford, Joseph Calleia, William Conrad

Synopsis: When the family land is threatened with foreclosure, honest, hard-working rancher Ross McEwen (Joel McCrea) resorts to bank robbery in order to come up with the necessary cash. Although he leaves the bank an I.O.U., Sheriff Pat Garrett (Charles Bickford) is sent out to catch the criminal as he Read More

The Farmer's Daughter

Actors: Keith Andes, Loretta Young, James Arness, Joseph Cotten, Ethel Barrymore, Art Baker, Charles Bickford, Harry Davenport, Lex Barker

Synopsis: When Loretta Young stepped up to accept her Academy Award for The Farmer's Daughter, the ever-youthful leading lady, who'd been in films since 1928, sighed "At long last!" Young is cast as Katie Holstrum, an independently-minded Swedish girl who leaves her family's Minnesota farm to take a 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

The Woman on the Beach

Actors: Joan Bennett, Robert Ryan, Charles Bickford, Nan Leslie, Walter Sande

Synopsis: A WWII Coast Guard veteran, Lt. Scott Burnett (Robert Ryan), is plagued by nightmares of his combat days. One day, he meets a woman, Peggy Butler (Joan Bennett), walking on a beach, picking up pieces of wood. Butler is married to a grumpy, blind painter, Ted Butler (Charles Bickford). Despite his Read More

Duel in the Sun

Actors: Griff Barnett, Jennifer Jones, Gregory Peck, Joseph Cotten, Charles Bickford, Sidney Blackmer, Lionel Barrymore, Harry Carey, Lillian Gish

Synopsis: In David O. Selznick's Duel in the Sun, Jennifer Jones stars as half-breed Pearl Chavez, whom everyone has tagged as a "bad girl" foredoomed to an unhappy end. She is taken into the home of wealthy, greedy rancher McCanles (Lionel Barrymore) and his kindly wife Laura Belle (Lillian Gish), who'd Read More

Captain Eddie

Actors: Fred MacMurray, Lynn Bari, Charles Bickford, Thomas Mitchell, Lloyd Nolan

Synopsis: Famed WW1 aviator Eddie Rickenbacker once more entered the public's consciousness during WW2 when, while serving as an Air Force officer, he and several other pilots crashed into the Pacific. While the world anxiously awaited news of his fate, Rickenbacker and a handful of survivors floated for 19 Read More

Fallen Angel

Actors: Alice Faye, Dana Andrews, Linda Darnell, Charles Bickford, Anne Revere

Synopsis: Otto Preminger directed this stylish film noir exercise, intended as a follow-up to his surprise hit Laura. Kicked off a bus traveling cross-country for not being able to come up with the fare, down-and-out press agent Eric Stanton (Dana Andrews) ends up in Walton, a small coastal town in Read More

A Wing and a Prayer

Actors: Don Ameche, Dana Andrews, William Eythe, Charles Bickford, Cedric Hardwicke

Synopsis: Former president Ronald Reagan may have genuinely believed that he was referring to a real-life act of selfless wartime bravery whenever repeating his "We'll bring this one down together" anecdote. In fact, he was merely quoting a scene from the above-average World War 2 drama A Wing and a Prayer. Read More

The Song of Bernadette

Actors: Jennifer Jones, Charles Bickford, Gladys Cooper, Vincent Price, Lee J. Cobb

Synopsis: The Song of Bernadette is a reverent recounting of the life of St. Bernadette of Lourdes. As a teen-aged peasant girl growing up in the tiny French village of Lourdes in the 19th century, Bernadette (Jennifer Jones) experiences a vision of the Virgin Mary in a nearby grotto. At least, she believes Read More

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Actors: Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman, Akim Tamiroff, Katina Paxinou, Arturo de Cordova, Vladimir Sokoloff

Synopsis: Based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls is a romantic drama set against the turbulent tapestry of the Spanish Civil War. Gary Cooper plays Robert Jordan, an idealistic American fighting with a Spanish guerilla band. He is assigned to blow up a crucial bridge in order to Read More

Mr. Lucky

Actors: Cary Grant, Laraine Day, Charles Bickford, Gladys Cooper, Alan Carney

Synopsis: One of Cary Grant's most financially successful 1940s vehicles, Mr. Lucky finds Grant atypically cast as a shifty, out-for-number-one gambler. Having dodged the draft by adopting the identity of a dead man, Grant sets his sights on purchasing a fancy gambling ship. To raise the necessary funds, he Read More

Tarzan's New York Adventure

Actors: Johnny Weissmuller, Maureen O'Sullivan, Johnny Sheffield, Virginia Grey, Charles Bickford

Synopsis: This final "Tarzan" entry from the MGM assembly line is arguably one the least effective of the series, though it certainly has its adherents. It all begins when Boy (Johnny Sheffield), adopted son of Tarzan (Johnny Weissmuller) and Jane (Maureen O'Sullivan), is kidnapped from the jungle by Read More

Reap the Wild Wind

Actors: Ray Milland, John Wayne, Paulette Goddard, Raymond Massey, Robert Preston

Synopsis: Cecil B. DeMille's Technicolor historical spectacle Reap the Wild Wind was to have starred Gary Cooper, but Cooper's prior commitment to Goldwyn's Pride of the Yankees compelled DeMille to recast the leading role with John Wayne. The film, set in the mid-19th century, centers around Key West Read More

Riders of Death Valley [Serial]

Actors: Jean Brooks

Synopsis: The Saturday matinee crowd got two cowboy stars for the price of one in this lavishly budgeted western serial starring former singing cowboy Dick Foran and Buck Jones. The latter contributed deadpan humor to the proceedings, making Jones perhaps the highest paid B-western comedy relief in history. Read More

Burma Convoy

Actors: Charles Bickford, Evelyn Ankers, Frank Albertson, Cecil Kellaway, Willie Fung

Synopsis: This action film is set in Asia during World War II and follows the exploits of a truck driver who must investigate the mysterious death of his younger brother. The trucker had been driving in convoys along the dangerous Burma Road between Rangoon and Chungking for a long time when he decided it Read More

Girl from God's Country

Actors: Chester Morris, Jane Wyatt, Charles Bickford, Kate Lawson

Synopsis: In this drama, a devoted, caring physician leaves his home and moves to Alaska to escape arrest after he performs euthanasia upon his terminally ill father. In the ever-snowy reaches of northernmost Alaska, the doctor begins administering to the poverty-stricken Inuit. While he has willingly Read More

Queen of the Yukon

Actors: Charles Bickford, Irene Rich, George Cleveland, Guy Usher

Synopsis: This adventure is based on Jack London's tale of a Northwestern woman who owns a riverboat who sends her daughter to boarding school and then discovers that she cannot afford to be reunited with her. In desperation, she sells the boat to a wealthy mine owner. This results in the independent miners Read More

South to Karanga

Actors: Charles Bickford, James Craig, John Sutton, Maurice Moscovich

Synopsis: Charles Bickford and James Craig are the rough-and-ready leads in Universal's South to Karanga. Running guns in South Africa, Bickford and Craig are hired to deliver ammunition to a mining community. The reason: the natives are restless (again!) Our heroes come through in smashing form, making the Read More

Stand up and Fight

Actors: Wallace Beery, Robert Taylor, Florence Rice, Helen Broderick, Charles Bickford

Synopsis: Directed with customary haste by Woody Van Dyke, Stand Up and Fight is an excellent dual vehicle for veteran Wallace Beery and up-and-coming Robert Taylor. Set in the American west in the mid-19th century, the story concerns the efforts of empire-building Blake Cantrell (Taylor) to construct a Read More

Thou Shalt Not Kill

Actors: Charles Bickford, Owen Davis, Jr., Paul Guilfoyle, Granville Bates

Synopsis: As indicated by its title, Thou Shalt Not Kill is a strange blend of religiosity and crime melodrama. Charles Bickford plays Reverend Chris, a popular neighborhood clergyman who hopes to clear young Allen Stevens (Owen Davis Jr.) from a murder charge. Complicating matters is the fact that the real Read More

Romance of the Redwoods

Actors: Charles Bickford, Jean Parker, Al Bridge, Gordon Oliver, Ann Shoemaker

Synopsis: Set in a northern California logging community the trouble in this western begins when a lumberjack is killed while sawing down a tree. No one believes it was accidental as everyone is aware that the deceased had just stolen the heart of his partner's girl. Unfortunately, the partner, while Read More

Our Leading Citizen

Actors: Susan Hayward, Joseph Allen, Jr., Charles Bickford, Elizabeth Patterson

Synopsis: A big city lawyer returns to his tiny home town to enter the firm of his late father. His father's partner is happy to have him, but the partner's lovely daughter is even happier.. Every one is happy until the young attorney decides to represent the local villain, a ruthless factory owner who Read More

One Hour to Live

Actors: Charles Bickford, Doris Nolan, John Litel, Samuel S. Hinds, Paul Guilfoyle

Synopsis: One Hour to Live affords John Litel, usually cast as rock-solid businessmen and incorruptable attorneys, the opportunity to play a double-dyed villain. Litel is cast as crooked fight manager Rudy Spain, who orders the murder of a boxer (Jack Carr) who has turned honest. By having his dirty work Read More

Mutiny in the Big House

Actors: Charles Bickford, Barton MacLane, Pat Moriarity, Dennis Moore, William Royle

Synopsis: A frequent visitor to contemporary TV cable services, Monogram's Mutiny in the Big House affords stalwart supporting player Charles Bickford top billing as a prison chaplain, with jailhouse-flick veteran Barton MacLane billed second as a hardened con. The nominal hero, however, is fourth-billed Dennis Moore Read More

Of Mice and Men

Actors: Burgess Meredith, Lon Chaney, Jr., Betty Field, Charles Bickford, Roman Bohnen

Synopsis: This 1939 film version of John Steinbeck's classic novel was a surprising choice for comedy producer Hal Roach; in fact, Roach had no intention of filming the property until forced to do so as a result of a lawsuit brought by director Lewis Milestone. Burgess Meredith stars as itinerant farm Read More

Street of Missing Men

Actors: Charles Bickford, Harry Carey, Tommy Ryan, Mabel Todd, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams

Synopsis: Sad-eyed Ann Dvorak plays Jo, the "café hostess" of the title. Poor put-upon Jo doesn't know it, but she's being used by her gangster boyfriend Eddie Morgan (Douglas Fowley), who relies upon her as an alibi to cover up his recent crimes. Likeable sailor Budge (Bruce Bennett) is in love with Jo Read More

Valley of the Giants

Actors: Wayne Morris, Claire Trevor, Frank McHugh, Alan Hale, Donald Crisp, Charles Bickford

Synopsis: This third film version of Peter B. Kyne's Valley of the Giants benefits from the breahtaking Technicolor location photography of Sol Polito. Hero Bill Cardigan (Wayne Morris) is a lifetime resident of California's Tall Timber country. When evil land-despoiler Howard Fallon (Charles Bickford) Read More

The Storm

Actors: Charles Bickford, Barton MacLane, Preston S. Foster, Tom Brown

Synopsis: The Storm is standard hard-guy stuff starring three of Hollywood's hardest: Charles Bickford, Barton MacLaine and Preston S. Foster. The film is set aboard a ship, where hostilities run high between two radio operators who happen to be brothers. During the climactic storm at sea, however, everyone Read More