John HodiakFilmography

Trial

Actors: Glenn Ford, Dorothy McGuire, Arthur Kennedy, John Hodiak, Katy Jurado

Synopsis: Adapted by Don M. Mankiewicz from his own novel, Trial is a surprisingly timely story of how justice can sometimes be compromised by "special interests". It all begins when Mexican youth Angelo Chavez (Rafael Campos) is placed on trial for the murder of a white teenaged girl. Battling the Read More

Dragonfly Squadron

Actors: John Hodiak, Barbara Britton, Bruce Bennett, Jess Barker, Gerald Mohr

Synopsis: Dragonfly Squadron is set in 1950 in the months before the beginning of the Korean War. John Hodiak stars as Major Mathew Brady, assigned to the base at Kongju to train South Korean troops for possible combat. These troops are to be used to protect civilians in the event of an evacuation, thus Read More

Ambush at Tomahawk Gap

Actors: John Hodiak, John Derek, David Brian, Maria Elena Marques, Ray Teal

Synopsis: Ambush at Tomahawk Gap is a characteristically brutal program western from Columbia's Wallace MacDonald unit. John Hodiak, John Derek, David Brian and Ray Teal play ex-convicts who ride into a Godforsaken western town. They're on the lookout for the loot that they buried from their last big "job." Read More

Conquest of Cochise

Actors: John Hodiak, Joy Page, Robert Stack, Rico Alaniz

Synopsis: Cashing in on the popularity of such pro-Native American films as Broken Arrow, Columbia's resident quickiemeister Sam Katzman came up with Conquest of Cochise. John Hodiak plays the eponymous Apache leader, who at the beginning of the film is seen conducting raids on the U.S.-Mexican border in Read More

Mission over Korea

Synopsis: In this Korean War drama, a strong-willed, stubborn greenhorn pilot becomes obsessed with avenging the death of his brother who died during an aerial skirmish with the deadly Chinese "volunteer" pilots. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Battle Zone

Actors: John Hodiak, Linda Christian, Stephen McNally, Martin Milner, Dave Willock

Synopsis: In this exciting Korean War-era actioner, two Marine combat photographers risk their lives on the front to chronicle the battles. When not behaving heroically up there, they are competing for the affection of a pretty Red Cross nurse. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Sellout

Actors: Walter Pidgeon, Paula Raymond, John Hodiak, Audrey Totter, Thomas Gomez

Synopsis: Gerald Mayer proved once more that he had talent above and beyond being the nephew of MGM-head Louis B. Mayer with his direction of The Sellout. The story begins with a bang, as big-city newspaper editor Haven Allridge (Walter Pidgeon) falls victim to the small-town tyranny of corrupt sheriff Read More

Across the Wide Missouri

Actors: Clark Gable, Ricardo Montalban, John Hodiak, Adolphe Menjou, Maria Elena Marques

Synopsis: Clark Gable is the largely nonheroic hero of the sprawling western Across the Wide Missouri. A cunning trapper who lives purely by his wits, Gable avoids being scalped by the Blackfoot Indians by marrying Maria Elena Marques, the chief's daughter. This marriage of convenience also allows Gable to Read More

The People Against O'Hara

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Pat O'Brien, Diana Lynn, John Hodiak, Eduardo Ciannelli

Synopsis: Fish-market worker Johnny O'Hara (James Arness) is named as a suspect when his boss -- with whom he had a dispute the previous day -- is shot to death in an apparent robbery. When he's arrested, his family appeals to their old friend James Curtayne (Spencer Tracy), who was once a renowned criminal Read More

Night into Morning

Actors: Ray Milland, John Hodiak, Nancy Davis, Lewis Stone, Jean Hagen

Synopsis: Ray Milland plays a happily married college professor whose wife and child perish in a fire. Despondent, Milland loses himself in drink, despite the efforts of his friends and fellow faculty members. He is on the verge of suicide before he is salvaged the love of Nancy Davis (who off-screen was Read More

Kate Smith Show, Part 1

A Lady without Passport

Actors: Hedy Lamarr, John Hodiak, James Craig, George Macready, Steven Geray

Synopsis: A Lady Without Passport stars Hedy Lamarr in the title role. Lamarr plays Marianne Lorress, a concentration-camp refugee who takes up residence in Cuba while waiting permission to enter the U.S. Immigration agent Pete Karczag (John Hodiak) decides to use Marianne as bait to entrap Palinov (George Macready Read More

Ambush

Actors: Robert Taylor, John Hodiak, Arlene Dahl, Don Taylor, Jean Hagen

Synopsis: Ambush is a tight, well-paced western, expertly assembled by veteran director Sam Wood, whose last film this was. Robert Taylor stars as an Indian scout, sent to rescue a woman who is somewhere deep in Apache territory. The woman's sister, naturally, goes along for the ride: she is played by Arlene Dahl Read More

The Miniver Story

Actors: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, John Hodiak, Leo Genn, Cathy O'Donnell

Synopsis: This sequel to the 1942 Oscar-winner Mrs.Miniver can be considered ill-advised, if only because the producers could never really hope to match the success of the original. Otherwise, The Miniver Story has its charms, not the least of which were the sterling performances of Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon Read More

Battleground

Actors: Van Johnson, John Hodiak, Ricardo Montalban, George Murphy, Marshall Thompson, James Whitmore

Synopsis: Incoming MGM production head Dore Schary ramrodded Battleground into the studio's schedule over the virulent protests of MGM boss Louis Mayer. The result was an award-winning box-office hit, as well as the beginning of the end of Mayer's power. This dramatization of the battles of Bastogne and the Read More

Malaya

Actors: Spencer Tracy, James Stewart, Valentina Cortese, Sydney Greenstreet, John Hodiak

Synopsis: Spencer Tracy and James Stewart team up for this World War II adventure, based on an supposedly true incident from World War II. Stewart plays John Royer, an ex-newspaper reporter with a backhand knowledge of Malaya, and Tracy plays a criminal named Carnaghan, doing time in Alcatraz for smuggling. Read More

The Bribe

Actors: Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner, Charles Laughton, Vincent Price, John Hodiak

Synopsis: Federal agent Robert Taylor journeys to a mythical South American community, there to break up a war-surplus contraband racket. American playboy Vincent Price is the brains of the outfit, aided and abetted by the disreputable Charles Laughton and John Hodiak. Ava Gardner, Hodiak's wife, takes over Read More

Homecoming

Actors: Clark Gable, Lana Turner, Anne Baxter, John Hodiak, Ray Collins

Synopsis: When Homecoming was first released in 1948, some observers felt that Clark Gable's unusually sensitive performance was based on his own memories of losing his wife Carole Lombard in a 1942 plane crash. Intriguingly, Gable's Homecoming co-star is Lana Turner, with whom it was rumored that he was 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 Arnelo Affair

Actors: John Hodiak, George Murphy, Frances Gifford, Dean Stockwell, Eve Arden

Synopsis: On the whole, the films of producer-writer-director Arch Oboler seldom came up to the lofty standards of his radio work, but each of his movie projects had a few meritorious moments. One of the better Oboler film efforts was The Arnelo Affair, produced by MGM in 1946. Frances Gifford delivers what Read More

Love from a Stranger

Actors: John Hodiak, John Howard, Ann Richards, Isobel Elsom

Synopsis: Based on the novel by Agatha Christie and play by Frank Vosper, Love From a Stranger isn't quite as good as the 1937 version of the same property. This time, Sylvia Sidney and John Hodiak play the roles originally filled by Ann Harding and Basil Rathbone. Falling under the romantic spell of 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 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

Somewhere in the Night

Actors: Charles Arnt, Richard Benedict, Whit Bissell, Richard Conte, Clancy Cooper

Synopsis: George Taylor (John Hodiak) is a war veteran suffering from amnesia with only two clues to his past: the bitter letter from a woman who hates him and another mysterious letter signed "Larry Cravat." Taylor goes to Los Angeles to meet Cravat. It turns out that Cravat is wanted for murder and the Read More

Two Smart People

Actors: Lucille Ball, John Hodiak, Lloyd Nolan, Hugo Haas, Lenore Ulric

Synopsis: One of two con-artists ends up arrested and given five days of freedom before he must go to jail. This comedy chronicles those five days. The man loves to eat; knowing that prison food is lousy, he decides to spend his days stuffing himself with the finest foods available. He is accompanied to Read More

A Bell for Adano

Actors: Luis Alberni, Gene Tierney, Henry Armetta, John Hodiak, William Bendix, Richard Conte, Roman Bohnen

Synopsis: Director Henry King's adaptation of John Hersey's novel is a faithful telling of the story of Major Joppolo (John Hodiak), who is assigned to administrate the Sicilian town of Adano after World War II and attempts to return it to its pre-war tranquility. His initial actions include feeding and Read More

Sunday Dinner for a Soldier

Actors: Anne Baxter, John Hodiak, Charles Winninger, Anne Revere

Synopsis: Charles Winninger plays an old seaman who rules the roost in his family, which resides on a Florida houseboat. His oldest granddaughter (Anne Baxter) draws up plans to invite a serviceman for Sunday dinner, just before the boy will be shipped out. Because of their ramshackle lifestyle, Winninger's Read More

Lifeboat

Actors: Tallulah Bankhead, William Bendix, Walter Slezak, John Hodiak, Hume Cronyn, Mary Anderson

Synopsis: Seeking a creative challenge after several years' worth of fairly elaborate melodramas, director Alfred Hitchcock stages all of the action in Lifeboat in one tiny boat, adrift in the North Atlantic. The boat holds eight survivors of a Nazi torpedo attack: sophisticated magazine writer/photographer Read More

Marriage Is a Private Affair

Actors: Lana Turner, James Craig, John Hodiak, Frances Gifford, Hugh Marlowe

Synopsis: Robert Z. Leonard, who must have taken room and board at MGM, was the directorial hand behind this slight domestic drama. Lana Turner is the bride, John Hodiak the groom. James Craig is the odd man out, who pursues Turner when Hodiak is off fighting the war. Bored by domesticity, Turner welcomes Read More

Maisie Goes to Reno

Actors: Ann Sothern, John Hodiak, Tom Drake, Marta Linden, Paul Cavanagh, Ava Gardner

Synopsis: In this eighth film in MGM's "Maisie" series, Ann Sothern is back as ever-stranded chorus girl Maisie Revier. As the story opens, Maisie has a steady non-showbiz job as a defense plant riveter (it's wartime, of course); still, she utilizes a two-week vacation to take a singing job in a Reno night Read More

A Stranger in Town

Actors: Frank Morgan, Richard Carlson, Jean Rogers, Porter Hall, Robert H. Barrat

Synopsis: All but forgotten today, A Stranger in Town serves as an excellent showcase for the dramatic talents of Frank Morgan. The star plays Supreme Court justice John Josephus Grant, who decides to take a break from his hectic schedule by going on a hunting vacation. Travelling incognito, Grant stops Read More

Song of Russia

Actors: Robert Taylor, Susan Peters, John Hodiak, Robert Benchley, Felix Bressart

Synopsis: One can only imagine the reaction of arch-conservative MGM head Louis B. Mayer when Song of Russia first tumbled over the spools in the studio projection room. It must be remembered, however, that back in 1944 it was politically expedient for Hollywood to offer hosannas to America's Russian Read More

Swing Shift Maisie

Actors: Jim Davis, Ann Sothern, James Craig, Jean Rogers, Connie Gilchrist, John Qualen

Synopsis: In her seventh outing as irrepressible vaudeville entertainer Maisie Revere, Ann Sothern aided the war effort by working the swing shift in an airplane factory. Taking in a seemingly suicidal co-worker, Iris (Jean Rogers), Maisie can only watch as the girl steals her beau, handsome pilot James Read More

I Dood It

Actors: Red Skelton, Eleanor Powell, Lena Horne, Patricia Dane, Richard Ainley, Sam Levene

Synopsis: In later years, director Vincente Minnelli would dismiss I Dood It as his worst picture, though a more deserving candidate for that "honor" would be Minnelli's valedictory film A Matter of Time. In this remake of Buster Keaton's Spite Marriage, Red Skelton plays pants-presser Joseph Rivington Read More