Cyd CharisseFilmography

Gene Kelly: Anatomy of a Dancer

Actors: Stanley Tucci, Gene Kelly

Synopsis: On the short list of great cinema dancers, Gene Kelly led a multi-faceted career that included acting, directing, and choreography. This documentary, narrated by Stanley Tucci, offers a look at the man's driving work ethic and his rich talent that led to such memorable classics as Singin' in the Rain Read More

Marilyn Monroe: The Final Days

Actors: Marilyn Monroe

Synopsis: First shown on American Movie Classics, Marilyn Monroe: The Final Days covers the production of "Something's Got to Give," a romantic comedy starring Monroe, Dean Martin, and Cyd Charisse. Monroe was fired during filming shortly before her death, and the movie was eventually scrapped. The Read More

Frank Sinatra Memorial

Actors: Frank Sinatra

Synopsis: Family, friends, and associates recall "The Chairman of the Board" in this compilation video that salutes the world renowned, sometimes controversial singer and celebrity Francis Albert Sinatra (1915-1998). Born in Hoboken, NJ, Sinatra became one of the world's most admired all-around Read More

Music Classics, Vol. 9

Synopsis: The 1940s was a monumental decade for the United States. Amid World War II, economic recovery, and the start of the Cold War, American music provided a soundtrack to a generation. The Music Classics line from MPI Home Video attempts to offer the chance to relieve the era with a ten-volume series Read More

Musicals Great Musicals: The Arthur Freed Unit at MGM

Synopsis: This is a documentary film about the work of a legendary producer of musicals. After winning his laurels in 1939 as the assistant producer of The Wizard of Oz, MGM set up a whole studio for Arthur Freed. He began his career as a singer/songwriter and as an actor, (he appeared with the Marx Brothers Read More

Frasier: The Adventures of Bad Boy and Dirty Girl

Synopsis: In the conclusion of a two-part story, former antagonists Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) and Kate Costas (Mercedes Ruehl) are now enmeshed in a torrid romance. In fact, "torrid" hardly covers it: The two can't keep their hands off each other, either in or out of the office. When they end up "doing it" Read More

That's Entertainment! III

Actors: June Allyson, Cyd Charisse, Lena Horne, Howard Keel, Debbie Reynolds, Gene Kelly

Synopsis: In 1974, MGM Studios released its first compilation of musical highlights from 45 years of Hollywood extravaganzas. Entitled That's Entertainment!, it was a big box-office hit and inspired a second compilation two years later. Eighteen years went by before MGM tried again. The third installment of Read More

Visioni privati

Actors: Jessica Forde, Patrick Bauchau, Anthony Caldarella, Antonio Alveario, Maurizio Puglisi

Synopsis: There have been quite a few spoofs of Hollywood, and a similar number of spoofs about filmmaking in general. This is one of the few spoofs which is about film festivals and, in particular, the Taormina festival in Italy. It was shot during the 1988 festival using many of the actual participants in Read More

Easy Energy Shape-Up

Fred Astaire Learn to Dance [Video Series]

Synopsis: A dance instruction series from the Fred Astaire Studios, with instructors Lee and Peggy Santos. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Swimsuit

Actors: William Katt, Catherine Oxenberg, Nia Peeples

Synopsis: William Katt, Catherine Oxenberg and Nia Peeples star in this comedy about an advertising agency who are about to lose their biggest client, the Saltaire Swimwear Company, until they come up with a brilliant idea -- create a swimsuit model talent search. Saltaire loves the idea and the media eats Read More

Stars of the Century

That's Dancing!

Actors: Gene Kelly, Sammy Davis, Jr., Mikhail Baryshnikov, Liza Minnelli, Ray Bolger

Synopsis: Nine years after his last compilation of musical-movie highlights (That's Entertainment, Part II), producer Jack Haley Jr. offers another enjoyable nostalgia-fest, That's Dancing. Unlike his earlier films, which were confined to the output of MGM, That's Dancing offers vignettes from the best of Read More

Murder, She Wrote: Widow, Weep for Me

Synopsis: The opening episode of Murder She Wrote's second season marks the first occasion in which matronly mystery writer and amateur sleuth Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) assumes a different identity in the cause of justice. Summoned to a Caribbean resort by a desperate letter from her old friend Read More

Portrait of an Escort

Synopsis: The made-for-TV Portrait of an Escort stars Susan Anspach as a divorcee in financial straits, has a daughter to support. She takes a job with a professional dating service, charging fifty dollars per customer. Anspach last client of the evening turns out to be a man whose intentions are apparently Read More

Warlords of Atlantis

Actors: Doug McClure, Peter Gilmore, Shane Rimmer, Lea Brodie, Michael Gothard

Synopsis: Also known as Seven Cities to Atlantis, this is a youth-oriented, British-produced adventure fantasy which uses rather ordinary special effects. In Victorian England, an explorer, Greg Collinson (Doug McClure), leads an unlikely expedition to discover the lost continent of Atlantis. Among the team Read More

Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood

Actors: Bruce Dern, Madeline Kahn, Art Carney, Phil Silvers, Ron Leibman

Synopsis: This spoof makes fun of a certain famous German shepherd movie star from the 1920s. The mayhem begins when the head honcho of a financially struggling studio turns a lost dog into a legend. The story features a number of old stars making cameo appearances. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Call Her Mom

Synopsis: "Mom" is Connie Stevens, who stars in this made-for-TV comedy. Stevens plays a small-town waitress who is appointed the housemother for a rambunctious fraternity house on the local college campus. The frat boys assume that freewheeling Stevens will allow them to party to their hearts' content, but Read More

Maroc 7

Actors: Gene Barry, Cyd Charisse, Elsa Martinelli, Leslie Phillips, Denholm Elliott

Synopsis: It's Funny Face meets Rififi in Maroc 7, starring Cyd Charisse as Louise Henderson, an editor for a slick and chic fashion magazine who utilizes her jet-setting life style as a front for an international jewel-smuggling operation. Abetting her in the scheme is the magazine's top photographer and Read More

The Silencers

Actors: Dean Martin, Stella Stevens, Daliah Lavi, Victor Buono, Arthur O'Connell, Cyd Charisse

Synopsis: Columbia Pictures tried to create a tongue-in-cheek American James Bond with this, the first of five motion pictures based on the character of Matt Helm, a spy created in a series of novels by Donald Hamilton. Dean Martin stars as Helm, a boozing, womanizing cad of a spy coaxed out of retirement Read More

Assassination in Rome

Actors: Cyd Charisse, Hugh O'Brian

Synopsis: Danger and romance are in plentiful supply in one of Europe's most beautiful cities in this sophisticated thriller. Shelley North (Cyd Charisse) is an American tourist who has come to Rome on a vacation with her husband. When he disappears without warning, Shelley visits the American embassy in Read More

Two Weeks in Another Town

Actors: Kirk Douglas, Edward G. Robinson, Cyd Charisse, George Hamilton, Daliah Lavi

Synopsis: One of Hollywood's great directors, Vincente Minnelli, turns a jaundiced eye towards the film industry in this drama about the inner workings of the movie business. Jack Andrus (Kirk Douglas) is an actor whose career has gone into a tailspin along with his personal life; after a severe bout with Read More

Five Golden Hours

Actors: Ernie Kovacs, Cyd Charisse, George Sanders, Kay Hammond, Dennis Price

Synopsis: This Ernie Kovacs cult comedy was the last film directed by Mario Zampi and follows the exploits of Aldo Bondi (Kovacs) who earns his living off wealthy widows. When he consoles the beautiful and impoverished Baroness Sandra (Cyd Charisse), he makes the mistake of falling in love with her. That Read More

Black Tights

Actors: Zizi Jeanmaire, Moira Shearer, Cyd Charisse, Roland Petit, Dirk Sanders

Synopsis: Black Tights is a filmed ballet anthology divided into four all-dance episodes. "The Diamond Cruncher" spotlights Ziza Jeanmaire as a lady mobster who gives up her life of crime for the love of a good man. "Cyrano de Bergerac" stars Roland Petit (who also choreographed) as Cyrano and Moira Shearer Read More

The All-Star Christmas Show

Actors: Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, George Burns, Milton Berle, Jack Benny

Synopsis: Produced for the Armed Forces overseas, this is a holiday spectacular created for Christmas. Fifty of the top stars of Hollywood in the 1950s turned out to be a part of this special. Some of these included: Bob Hope, George Burns, Bing Crosby, Danny Thomas, Dinah Shore, Shirley MacLaine, and Jane Russell Read More

Twilight for the Gods

Actors: Rock Hudson, Cyd Charisse, Arthur Kennedy, Leif Erickson, Charles McGraw

Synopsis: Adapted by Ernest Gann from his own novel, Twilight for the Gods bears traces of Gann's earlier The High and the Mighty. This "psychological adventure" stars Rock Hudson as Captain Bell, who crawls into a bottle after being court-martialed and discharged from the Navy. Reduced to skippering a Read More

Party Girl

Actors: Robert Taylor, Cyd Charisse, Lee J. Cobb, John Ireland, Kent Smith

Synopsis: Robert Taylor stars in director Nicholas Ray's Party Girl as the traditional Ray anti-hero: a criminal lawyer who's a little bit of both. Fronting for Chicago gang boss Lee J. Cobb during the late 1920s, Taylor manages to get Cobb-underling John Ireland off on a murder rap. Cobb throws a party to Read More

Silk Stockings

Actors: Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Janis Paige, Peter Lorre, Joseph Buloff, George Tobias

Synopsis: Silk Stockings, a musical version of the 1939 Greta Garbo film Ninotchka, was adapted for the stage by George S. Kaufman, Leueen McGrath (the then-Mrs. Kaufman) and Abe Burrows, with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The Broadway production, starring Hildegarde Neff and Don Ameche, ran 478 Read More

Meet Me in Las Vegas

Actors: Dan Dailey, Cyd Charisse, Agnes Moorehead, Lili Darvas, Jim Backus

Synopsis: A whole slew of guest stars makes Meet Me in Las Vegas a special treat for movie buffs. The central plot concerns wealthy rancher Chuck Rodwell (Dan Dailey), who takes a Vegas vacation with his mother (Agnes Moorehead). At the same time, ballerina Maria Corvier (Cyd Charisse) also arrives in Las Read More

It's Always Fair Weather

Actors: Gene Kelly, Dan Dailey, Cyd Charisse, Dolores Gray, Michael Kidd

Synopsis: Cooked up by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, It's Always Fair Weather could well have been titled On the Town Ten Years Later. Like 1949's On the Town (also a Comden/Green collaboration), this MGM musical follows the exploits of three servicemen buddies, played by Gene Kelly, Dan Dailey and Michael Kidd Read More

Brigadoon

Actors: Gene Kelly, Van Johnson, Cyd Charisse, Elaine Stewart, Barry Jones

Synopsis: Reportedly, Vincente Minnelli turned down the opportunity to film Brigadoon on location in Scotland insisting that MGM's studio mockups looked more Scottish than the genuine article. This lavish adaptation of the Lerner and Loewe Broadway musical stars Gene Kelly as an American tourist who Read More

Deep in My Heart

Actors: José Ferrer, Helen Traubel, Merle Oberon, Walter Pidgeon, Doe Avedon

Synopsis: Deep in My Heart is the MGM-ified biography of composer Sigmund Romberg, here played by José Ferrer. Evidently the scripters didn't feel that the life of Romberg (as set down by author Elliott Arnold, whose book was used as the film's basis) had enough drama to fill out two hours and ten minutes. Read More

The Band Wagon

Actors: Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Oscar Levant, Nanette Fabray, Jack Buchanan

Synopsis: One of the most subtle and sophisticated of the musical comedies that came out of MGM's Arthur Freed Unit in the '40s and '50s, The Band Wagon stars Fred Astaire as Tony Hunter, a movie star whose career is in a downturn. Looking for a boost, Tony decides to try starring in a Broadway musical. His Read More

Sombrero

Actors: Anna Maria Pier Angeli, Ricardo Montalban, Vittorio Gassman, Yvonne De Carlo, Cyd Charisse

Synopsis: This tuneful romantic melodrama is set in a tiny Mexican village and is comprised of three storylines. One tale concerns a pair of young lovers from rival villages who will not be able to marry until a long time feud is ended. In another tale, an heir to a large fortune falls in love with an Read More

Easy to Love

Actors: Esther Williams, Van Johnson, Tony Martin, John Bromfield, Edna Skinner

Synopsis: The Cole Porter title tune is but one of the musical highlights in the (literally) splashy Esther Williams musical Easy to Love. Reshuffling plot devices utilized in previous Williams vehicles, the film casts Williams as Julie Hallerton, the star of Ray Lloyd's (Van Johnson) aquacade. She loves Read More

Singin' in the Rain

Actors: Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds, Jean Hagen, Millard Mitchell

Synopsis: Hollywood, 1927: the silent-film romantic team of Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) and Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) is the toast of Tinseltown. While Lockwood and Lamont personify smoldering passions onscreen, in real life the down-to-earth Lockwood can't stand the egotistical, brainless Lina. He prefers the Read More

The Wild North

Actors: Stewart Granger, Wendell Corey, Cyd Charisse, Morgan Farley

Synopsis: Filmed on location in Canada, The Wild North stars Stewart Granger as renegade trapper Jules Vincent. Forced to kill in self-defence, Vincent hides out in the wilderness, obliging RCMP constable Pedley (Wendell Corey) to chase after him in some of the most treacherous territory in Northern Read More

Mark of the Renegade

Actors: Ricardo Montalban, Cyd Charisse, J. Carrol Naish, Gilbert Roland, Andrea King

Synopsis: MGM's Ricardo Montalban and Cyd Charisse were loaned to Universal for the Technicolor period piece Mark of the Renegade. Set in 19th-century California, the film stars Montalban as Marcos, in league with a band of pirates. Marcos falls into the hands of Don Pedro Garcia (Gilbert Roland), a despot Read More

Tension

Actors: Richard Basehart, Audrey Totter, Cyd Charisse, Barry Sullivan, Tom D'Andrea, Lloyd Gough

Synopsis: Warren Quimby (Richard Basehart) has a problem that he won't admit to: his wife, Claire (Audrey Totter), wants more fun and excitement out of life than the quiet, soft-spoken pharmacist can give her. So she steps out on him regularly, something that Warren refuses to recognize until the day she Read More

East Side, West Side

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, James Mason, Van Heflin, Ava Gardner, Cyd Charisse

Synopsis: Director Mervyn Leroy lends a burnished MGM gloss to this sordid tale of infidelity among rich New York East Siders. Barbara Stanwyck stars as Jessie Bourne, a charming society woman whose finds out that her husband Brandon (James Mason) is guiltily indulging in an illicit affair with the earthy Read More

The Kissing Bandit

Actors: Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, J. Carrol Naish, Mildred Natwick, Mikhail Rasumny

Synopsis: In this period musical, Ricardo (Frank Sinatra) is the son of a Mexican innkeeper who has come to California to take over a hotel owned by his family after the death of his father. Ricardo makes the startling discovery that his father was best known as a "kissing bandit," a dashing thief who Read More

Words and Music

Actors: Mickey Rooney, Perry Como, Judy Garland, June Allyson, Lena Horne, Gene Kelly

Synopsis: The life stories of Broadway tunesmiths Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart are prettified for the screen in MGM's Words and Music. Billed fourth, the colorless Tom Drake plays Rodgers, but never mind that: the film belongs to Mickey Rooney, as the dynamic, self-destructive Lorenz Hart. Read More

On an Island with You

Actors: Esther Williams, Peter Lawford, Ricardo Montalban, Jimmy Durante, Cyd Charisse

Synopsis: The title of this MGM musical alone should tip you to the fact that Esther Williams is the star. In this one, she plays a movie star (what an innovation!), Rosalind Reynolds, who is on location in Hawaii to shoot a picture. Peter Lawford plays the film's naval technical advisor, Lt. Lawrence Y. Read More

Fiesta

Actors: Esther Williams, Akim Tamiroff, Ricardo Montalban, John Carroll, Mary Astor

Synopsis: Esther Williams moves from the swimming pool to the bull ring in this musical drama. Antonio Morales (Fortunio Bonanova) was once a champion bullfighter; now in retirement, Antonio and his wife (Mary Astor) have high hopes that their son Mario (Ricardo Montalban) will follow in his father's Read More

The Unfinished Dance

Actors: Margaret O'Brien, Cyd Charisse, Karin [Katharine] Booth, Danny Thomas, Esther Dale

Synopsis: An aspiring ballerina begins following a prima ballerina hoping that she will become her replacement. Unfortunately, another dancer is chosen, causing the determined twinkle-toes to cause a little accident to destroy the usurper's career. It works and the hapless ballerina's career is destroyed. Read More

Ziegfeld Follies

Actors: Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball, Lucille Bremer, Fanny Brice, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly

Synopsis: The presence of William Powell as legendary showman Flo Ziegfeld at the beginning of Ziegfeld Follies might lead an impressionable viewer from thinking that this 1946 film is a Technicolor sequel to the 1936 Oscar-winning The Great Ziegfeld. Not so: this is more in the line of an all-star revue Read More

Till the Clouds Roll By

Actors: June Allyson, Robert Walker, Judy Garland, Lucille Bremer, Gower Champion, Joan Wells, Cyd Charisse, Bruce Cowling, Van Heflin

Synopsis: MGM's Till the Clouds Roll By is the musicalized, and highly fictionalized, life story of beloved composer Jerome Kern, who gave his blessing to the production shortly before his death in 1946. As played by a gray-templed Robert Walker, Kern is a likeable but none too exciting sort who expresses Read More

The Harvey Girls

Actors: Judy Garland, John Hodiak, Ray Bolger, Angela Lansbury, Marjorie Main, Preston S. Foster

Synopsis: This glorified Technicolor commercial for the Fred Harvey restaurants stars Judy Garland as a 19th-century mail-order bride. Upon arriving in New Mexico, Garland discovers that her husband-to-be is the town drunk. She cuts her losses and takes a job at the local Harvey restaurant, an establishment Read More

Three Wise Fools

Actors: Margaret O'Brien, Lionel Barrymore, Edward Arnold, Thomas Mitchell

Synopsis: Even if the film had been released without opening and closing titles, it wouldn't have been hard to identify Three Wise Fools as an MGM production. Margaret O'Brien stars as Sheila O'Monhan, a wide-eyed Irish colleen who insists that she sees leprechauns (as, indeed, does the audience). She Read More

Mission to Moscow

Actors: Walter Huston, Ann Harding, Oscar Homolka, Gene Lockhart, George Tobias, Eleanor Parker

Synopsis: More so than most wartime films, Mission to Moscow must be viewed within the context of its times. Requested by President Roosevelt to make a film supportive of America's Russian allies, Warner Bros. turned to the memoirs of Ambassador Joseph H. Davies, who spent several years prior to WWII in the Read More

Something to Shout About

Actors: Don Ameche, Janet Blair, Jack Oakie, William Gaxton, Cobina Wright, Jr.

Synopsis: This backstage musical offers a peek at vaudeville behind-the-scenes. The story centers on a recently divorced woman who decides to use her generous alimony settlement to stage an old fashioned vaudeville show. Unfortunately her chief backer insists on being the star. Fortunately, at the last Read More