John RussellFilmography

Under the Gun

Actors: Sam Jones, John Russell, Michael Halsey, Nick Cassavetes

Synopsis: Singer and former Miss America Vanessa L. Williams makes her screen debut in this crime-action film. Mike Braxton (Sam Jones) is a policeman in St. Louis, Missouri. He responds to an urgent summons from his brother Tony (Nick Cassavetes), a cop in Los Angeles. Mike gets to L.A. and finds that his Read More

Amazing Grace and Chuck

Actors: Jamie Lee Curtis, Alex English, Gregory Peck, William L. Petersen, Joshua Zuehlke

Synopsis: When young Chuck Murdock (Joshua Zuehlke) visits a nuclear missile site, he learns that one bomb would destroy the earth in less time than it would take a piece of silverware to drop from his hand to the floor. This information sends the sensitive boy into existential angst. Wondering why anybody Read More

Sorority House Massacre

Actors: Angela O'Neill, Wendy Martel, Pamela Ross, Nicole Sue Rio, John Russell

Synopsis: Although the title would indicate that female college students are the targets, this is an equal-opportunity slasher film, as both sexes are victims of gruesome murders. From her hospital bed, Beth (Angela O'Neill) is the lone survivor of the butchery in a sorority house that was home to her Read More

Pale Rider

Actors: Clint Eastwood, Michael Moriarty, Carrie Snodgress, Chris Penn, Richard Dysart

Synopsis: A mysterious and possibly otherworldly stranger comes to the rescue of a frontier town in this Western, which was strongly influenced by the George Stevens classic, Shane. The peace of a small mining community is shattered when Coy LaHood (Richard Dysart), the ruthless proprietor of a powerful Read More

Phar Lap

Actors: Tom Burlinson, Martin Vaughan, Judy Morris, Ron Leibman, Celia Deburgh

Synopsis: Phar Lap, the legendary New Zealand-bred racing horse, is as well-known today for his mysterious death as for his fabulous accomplishments in life. Beginning at the end, the film flashes back to the day that Phar Lap, despite his lack of pedigree, is purchased on impulse by trainer Harry Telford (Martin Vaughan Read More

Honkytonk Man

Actors: Clint Eastwood, Kyle Eastwood, John McIntire, Alexa Kenin, Verna Bloom

Synopsis: Clint Eastwood put his tough-guy image on hold for this personal project, which follows a musician taking one final chance at the big time. Red Stovall (Eastwood) is a would-be country singer who has been bouncing around the margins of the music business for years. With nowhere in particular to Read More

Uncle Scam

Actors: Tom McCarthy, Maxine Greene, John Russell, James E. Myers, Sharon Victoria

Synopsis: G-men do their darnedest to play "Candid Camera" and capture bribe takers on film in this dumbell comedy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Changeling

Actors: George C. Scott, Trish VanDevere, Melvyn Douglas, John Colicos, Jean Marsh

Synopsis: Peter Medak's The Changeling is among a handful of films, including The Haunting (1963), Ghost Story (1981), and Lady in White (1988), that have successfully recreated the intimate, drawing-room atmosphere of supernatural horror fiction. After his wife and daughter are killed in a snowbound car Read More

The Outlaw Josey Wales

Actors: Clint Eastwood, Chief Dan George, Sondra Locke, Bill McKinney, John Vernon

Synopsis: Clint Eastwood's fifth film as a director and eighth Western as a star (ninth if you count Paint Your Wagon), The Outlaw Josey Wales chronicles the hero's violent journey westward after the Civil War. With fresh memoris of his family's slaughter by Red Leg soldier Terrill (Bill McKinney) Read More

Smoke in the Wind

Synopsis: This western chronicles the struggle of a post-Civil War mountain family to prove that they did not betray the Confederate side during the conflict. The film contains the last film appearance of Walter Brennan. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Fugitive Lovers

Synopsis: A gangster becomes enraged when a young man prevents his wife from killing herself and then proceeds to run off with her. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide Read More

Lord Shango

Actors: Lawrence Cook, Marlene Clark, Wally Taylor, Bill Overton

Synopsis: In this horror film, black African Christians confront the traditional religion of their peers when a Yoruban priest is drowned after attempting to stop the Christian baptism of a young girl and her mother. Trouble ensues when the priest comes back to life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Emergency!: Understanding

Synopsis: The doctors at Rampart set their sights on a diabetic patient who, intentionally or otherwise, repeatedly forgets to take his insulin shots. Another crisis situation arises from a frantic phone call from an anonymous woman who claims to have overdosed on drugs. Elsewhere, the team attempts to Read More

Attack at Noon Sunday

Alias Smith and Jones

Actors: Ben Murphy, Roger Davis

Synopsis: First telecast January 5, 1971, Alias Smith and Jones was the pilot for the popular TV series of the same name. This genial rip-off of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid stars Pete Duel as Hannibal Heyes and Ben Murphy as Kid Curry, two notorious Western bandits who have become folk heroes because Read More

Noon Sunday

Synopsis: The scene a remote South Sea island. A minor skirmish between rival soldiers snowballs into a potential catastrophe. A standoff between "us" and "them" threatens to heat up the cold war to the boiling point. There's plenty of preliminary bloodletting before the final high-noon showdown. Mark Read More

Blood Legacy

Synopsis: Blood Legacy was also released as Legacy of Blood (as was a like-titled, though dissimilar, 1978 film). Looking older than dirt, John Carradine plays a crotchety millionaire who wills his fortune to his estranged children. There is, of course, a proviso. The kids, all grown up and none too savory Read More

Cannon for Cordoba

Actors: George Peppard, Giovanna Ralli, Raf Vallone, Pete Duel, Don Gordon

Synopsis: In this limp western melodrama, when Mexican bandit Hector Cordoba (Raf Vallone) attacks a U.S. Army fort a few miles from the Mexican border, General John Pershing (John Russell) orders Captain Rod Douglas (George Peppard) to organize a group of soldiers to cross the border into Mexico to capture Read More

If He Hollers, Let Him Go

Actors: Dana Wynter, Raymond St. Jacques, Kevin McCarthy, Barbara McNair, Arthur O'Connell

Synopsis: James Lake (Raymond St. Jacques) is an escaped black convict imprisoned for a murder he didn't commit. Leslie Whitlock (Kevin McCarthy) offers James money to kill his wife, Ellen (Dana Wynter). He declines and tries to look up his old flame Lily (Barbara McNair), but discovers his own brother is Read More

Fireball Jungle

Synopsis: Cars are crashing everywhere in this action film that tells the story of Nero Sagittarius, a mobster, and his partner Cateye Meares are determined break into the Southern stock-car circuit. Their entry is opposed by Steve Cullen as it was Meares who killed his brother. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Read More

Buckskin

Actors: Barry Sullivan, Joan Caulfield, Wendell Corey, Lon Chaney, Jr., John Russell

Synopsis: Chaddock (Barry Sullivan) is the straight-shooting marshall of Gloryhole, Montana. Wealthy rancher Rep Marlowe (Wendell Corey) practically owns the town by way of his gambling saloons, shady land deals and hired guns who intimidate the law-abiding citizens. Sheriff Tangley (Lon Chaney Jr.) calls Read More

Hostile Guns

Actors: George Montgomery, Yvonne De Carlo, Tab Hunter, Brian Donlevy, John Russell

Synopsis: U.S. Marshal Gid McCool (George Montgomery) leads a wagon train of convicted felons to Huntsville prison in this routine western. The only female among the crooks is the dancehall girl Laura Mannon (Yvonne De Carlo), McCool's former flame. When McCool cannot be swayed from completing his lawful Read More

Fort Utah

Actors: John Ireland, Virginia Mayo, Scott Brady, John Russell, Robert Strauss

Synopsis: An insane, renegade cavalryman leads his vicious band of outlaws into a series of brutal raids against settlers and local Indians in this western. Fortunately, a former gunslinger and a brave Indian agent ride up to save the imperiled pioneers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Apache Uprising

Actors: Rory Calhoun, Corinne Calvet, John Russell, Lon Chaney, Jr., Gene Evans

Synopsis: Jim Walker Rory Calhoun is a hero who fights Indians and crooks who plan a series of stagecoach robberies in this routine western. He defends the honor of a woman (Corinne Calvet) wrongly accused of having a bad reputation. Johnny Mack Brown plays the local Sheriff Ben Hall, with Lon Chaney, Jr. Read More

Maverick: Hadley's Hunters

Synopsis: Bart (Jack Kelly) is framed for crimes he didn't commit by sadistic sheriff Horace Hadley (Edgar Buchanan) and his equally odious deputy Jones (played by future Oscar winner George Kennedy). The two crooked lawmen specialize in hunting down and murdering innocent men, then claiming that their Read More

Rio Bravo

Actors: John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, Angie Dickinson, Walter Brennan

Synopsis: Set in Texas during the late 1860s, Rio Bravo is a story of men (and women) and a town under siege. Presidio County Sheriff John T. Chance (John Wayne) is holding Joe Burdette (Claude Akins), a worthless, drunken thug, for the murder of an unarmed man in a fight in a saloon -- the problem is that Read More

Yellowstone Kelly

Actors: Clint Walker, Edward Byrnes, John Russell, Ray Danton, Andra Martin, Claude Akins

Synopsis: Based on a book by Clay Fisher, this 1959 western has a cast loaded with television stars of the era. Clint Walker of TV's Cheyenne appears as the title character, a trapper who befriends the American Indian tribes in his hunting territory in 1867. When the U.S. cavalry is attacked by Kelly's Read More

Maverick: Rage for Vengeance

Synopsis: In this reworking of the earlier episode "The Jeweled Gun", attractive widow Margaret Ross (Catherine McLeod) asks Bret (James Garner) to provide protection while she heads to a Montana bank, there to deposit a large sum of money. Margaret claims to be worried that the men who killed her husband Read More

Fort Massacre

Actors: Joel McCrea, Forrest Tucker, Susan Cabot, John Russell, Anthony Caruso

Synopsis: In this western, an embittered cavalry sergeant must take over his regiment after their commanding officer is killed during an ambush. To save them, he leads the troop through Apache territory because it is the quickest way to reach the fort. The members of the regiment do not trust their new Read More

Maverick: The Lonesome Reunion

Synopsis: Making the acquaintance of pretty Abigail Taylor (Joanna Barnes) in the lobby of a Denver hotel, Bret (James Garner) cannot help but notice that the lady has a tight grip on a hatbox. Abigail insists that the box contains important documents, and that there is a sinister stranger who is out to Read More

Hell Bound

Actors: John Russell, June Blair, Stuart Whitman, Margo Woode, George Mather

Synopsis: Drugs are the focus of the exploitation film set in the Los Angeles harbor. The plot centers around a villain's evil scheme to raid a ship and abscond with surplus war drugs. To help him get backers for the heist, he begins showing criminals a slide show depicting his scheme. A young woman Read More

Untamed Youth

Actors: Don Burnett, Mamie van Doren, Lori Nelson, John Russell, Eddie Cochran, Lurene Tuttle

Synopsis: Untamed Youth is a camp classic, so stupefyingly awful that it's actually festive. The villains are cotton grower Tropp (John Russell) and corrupt female judge Mrs. Steele (Lurene Tuttle), who conspire between them to ship female convicts to work on Tropp's farm for starvation wages. Two of the Read More

The Dalton Girls

Actors: Merry Anders, Lisa Davis, Penny Edwards, Sue George, John Russell

Synopsis: It's called The Dalton Girls because there aren't any Dalton Boys left. After all the members of the notorious Dalton outlaw gang have been killed or arrested, their sisters decide to pick up where the boys left off. Led by Holly Dalton (Merry Anders), who since killing a man in self-defense has Read More

Hell's Outpost

Actors: Rod Cameron, Joan Leslie, John Russell, Chill Wills, Jim Davis

Synopsis: This "modern" western stars Rod Cameron as opportunistic Korean war veteran Tully Gibbs. Posing as a friend of the late son of mine owner Kevin Russel (Chill Wills), Tully intends to work the mine for all it's worth and then pull out. By and by, Tully slowly turns honest, but the same cannot be Read More

The Last Command

Actors: Sterling Hayden, Anna Maria Alberghetti, Richard Carlson, Arthur Hunnicutt, Ernest Borgnine, J. Carrol Naish

Synopsis: The Republic super-production The Last Command is a partial remake of the same studio's Man of Conquest (1939). But whereas the earlier film concerned itself with the exploits of Texas patriot Sam Houston, Last Command concentrates on Houston associate James Bowie, played by Sterling Hayden. When Read More

Jubilee Trail

Actors: Vera Ralston, Joan Leslie, Forrest Tucker, John Russell, Ray Middleton, Pat O'Brien

Synopsis: Based on a novel by Gwen Bristow, Jubilee Trail is a sprawling, all-star western from the Republic Studio mills. Despite is vaunted budget, the plot is strictly B-picture material. Ambitious California landowner Charles Hale (Ray Middleton) hopes to add to his riches by marrying off his brother Read More

Fair Wind to Java

Actors: Fred MacMurray, Vera Ralston, Robert Douglas, Victor McLaglen, John Russell

Synopsis: Republic Pictures' notion of an "epic", Fair Wind to Java manages to pack in enough entertainment value to send the adventure fans home happy. Tough South Seas skipper Fred MacMurray goes hunting for pearls on a forbidden Javanese island. Native girl Vera Ralston (never mind her Czech accent) Read More

The Sun Shines Bright

Actors: Charles Winninger, Arleen Whelan, John Russell, Stepin Fetchit, Russell Simpson

Synopsis: Director John Ford, notoriously difficult to please, regarded The Sun Shines Bright as his favorite film. Laurence Stalllings' screenplay is based on several short stories by Kentucky humorist Irvin S. Cobb, some of which had previously been cinematized in Ford's 1934 Will Rogers vehicle Judge Priest Read More

Hoodlum Empire

Actors: Brian Donlevy, Claire Trevor, Forrest Tucker, Vera Ralston, Luther Adler

Synopsis: The Kefauver Committee's ongoing investigation of organized crime spawned several "Torn from Today's Headlines!" films in the early 1950s. Republic's Hoodlum Empire concerns the efforts by gangster Joe Gray (John Russell) to get out of the rackets after WW II. Part of Gray's "reclamation" is to Read More

Oklahoma Annie

Actors: Judy Canova, John Russell, Grant Withers, Roy Barcroft, Emmett Lynn

Synopsis: Judy Canova continues to bring home the box-office bacon for Republic Pictures in Oklahoma Annie. Judy plays Judy, Queen of the Cowgirls, a backwoods shopkeeper who falls in love with new sheriff Dan Fraser (John Russell). In order to stay in close proximity with the handsome lawkeeper, Judy Read More

Man in the Saddle

Actors: Randolph Scott, Joan Leslie, Ellen Drew, Alexander Knox, Richard Rober

Synopsis: Rancher Randolph Scott rides right into a romantic triangle in this moody western. He is forced to stand by as his mercenary girl friend (Joan Leslie) is lured away by a wealthy neighboring rancher (Alexander Knox). When the neighbor is killed, Scott is accused of the murder, and spends the Read More

Fighting Coast Guard

Actors: Brian Donlevy, Forrest Tucker, John Russell, Richard Jaeckel, William Murphy

Synopsis: The Coast Guard is highlighted in this propaganda drama set during WW II. In addition to the usual blend of romance and military adventure, the film also features an interesting glimpse in to the training of the young Guards as they prepare for war. The story centers around a crew of shipyard Read More

The Fat Man

Actors: Jack Smart, Julie London, Rock Hudson, Clinton Sundberg, Jayne Meadows

Synopsis: The popular radio detective series The Fat Man was brought to the screen in 1951, with the series' original star J. Scott Smart retained in the title role. Smart plays porcine sleuth Brad Runyon, who tackles the mystery surrounding the murder of a Los Angeles dentist. With the assistance of Read More

The Barefoot Mailman

Actors: Robert Cummings, Terry Moore, Jerome Courtland, John Russell

Synopsis: To call The Barefoot Mailman episodic would be understating the issue: the film's story stops and starts so often that it appears to be three half-hour TV episodes strung together. No matter, since the premise is workable and the characters appealing. Though Robert Cummings is top-billed as Read More

Frenchie

Actors: Joel McCrea, Shelley Winters, Paul Kelly, Elsa Lanchester, Marie Windsor

Synopsis: Though the title role of Frenchie goes to Shelley Winters, top billing in this period actioner is bestowed upon Joel McCrea as sheriff Tom Banning. Hoping to find her father's murderers, New Orleans gambling-house proprietress Frenchie Fontaine (Shelley Winters) sets up shop in the Wild West. With Read More

Saddle Tramp

Actors: Joel McCrea, Wanda Hendrix, John Russell, John McIntire, Jeanette Nolan

Synopsis: Joel McCrea was still relatively new to westerns when he starred in Saddle Tramp. McCrea is cast as footloose and fancy free cowpoke Chuck Connor, who has no intention of settling down. Alas, this decision is made for him when Connor "inherits" the four recently orphaned sons of his best friend. Read More

Undertow

Actors: Scott Brady, John Russell, Dorothy Hart, Peggy Dow, Bruce Bennett

Synopsis: Undertow stars Scott Brady as a gambler just out of wartime military service. No longer interested in wagers and speculations, Brady wants only to open up a mountain vacation lodge. Before this can take place, Brady is framed for murder, and forced to hide out in the home of Peggy Dow. With the Read More

The Story of Molly X

Actors: June Havoc, John Russell, Dorothy Hart, Connie Gilchrist, Cathy Lewis

Synopsis: Crane Wilbur, whose film career stretched all the way back to The Perils of Pauline, brings the benefit of his accumulated directorial expertise to The Story of Molly X. The title character, played with verve by June Havoc, is a hard-bitten gun moll who takes over management of a criminal gang Read More

The Gal Who Took the West

Actors: Yvonne De Carlo, John Russell, Scott Brady, Myrna Dell

Synopsis: For some reason, whenever Universal used the word "Gal" in a film's title, Yvonne de Carlo usually headed the cast. In Gal Who Took the West, de Carlo plays Lillian Marlowe, an New York songstress who heads Thataway. She becomes the romantic bone of contention between the feuding O'Hara cousins Read More

Slattery's Hurricane

Actors: Richard Widmark, Linda Darnell, Veronica Lake, John Russell, Gary Merrill

Synopsis: Ex-navy pilot Slattery (Richard Widmark) works for a dope-smuggling ring. When he's not in the air, Slattery is making time with Dolores (Veronica Lake), the somewhat put-upon secretary of the ring's leader. Only upon meeting Aggie (Linda Darnell), the wife of his old navy buddy Hobson (John Russell Read More

Yellow Sky

Actors: Gregory Peck, Anne Baxter, Richard Widmark, Robert Arthur, John Russell

Synopsis: William Wellman's westerns always seemed a little claustrophobic, but in Yellow Sky the director's technique works to the film's advantage. Outlaw leader Gregory Peck takes refuge in a frontier ghost town. The only inhabitants are elderly James Barton and his pretty granddaughter Anne Baxter. Read More

Sitting Pretty

Actors: Robert Young, Charles Arnt, Maureen O'Hara, Clifton Webb, Ken Christy, Richard Haydn, Mary Field, Ed Begley, Sr., Louise Allbritton

Synopsis: Clifton Webb has the role of a lifetime as Lynn Belvedere, self-styled genius and expert on everything. Belvedere accepts the job of baby-sitting the troublesome children of Robert Young and Maureen O'Hara; he wins the job by calmly dumping a bowl of cold oatmeal on the head of the couple's most Read More

Forever Amber

Actors: Jane Ball, Linda Darnell, Edmund Breon, Cornel Wilde, Leo G. Carroll, Richard Greene, George Sanders, Robert Coote, Jessica Tandy

Synopsis: They said it couldn't be done, but they did it: Kathleen Winsor's "notorious", bestselling bodice-ripper Forever Amber actually made it to the screen in 1947 with full censorial approval. Of course, it was necessary to tone down the more erotic passages of Winsor's novel, but the end result 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

The Dark Corner

Actors: Lucille Ball, Clifton Webb, Mark Stevens, William Bendix, Cathy Downs

Synopsis: This grade-A example of "film noir" stars Mark Stevens as Brad Galt, an embittered ex-convict who returns to the private detective business upon his release. Sour and surly, Galt behaves himself only when he's around his faithful and adoring secretary Kathleen (top-billed Lucille Ball). When Read More

Wake up and Dream

Actors: John Payne, June Haver, John Ireland, Connie Marshall, Clem Bevans, Charlotte Greenwood

Synopsis: In this adventure, a young woman travels across Europe in search of her brother who was listed as missing in action during WW II. He had earlier told her that should he ever disappear, he could be found on a certain tiny island. She and her brother's girl friend head off and meet a strange old Read More

A Bell for Adano

Actors: Luis Alberni, Gene Tierney, John Hodiak, Henry Armetta, 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

Within These Walls

Actors: Thomas Mitchell, Mary Anderson, Edward Ryan, Mark Stevens, B.S. Pully

Synopsis: In this prison drama, a stern hanging judge is assigned to take over a chaotic prison. There he imposes an almost inhumanly strict regimen of discipline on the inmates. He is similarly rigid and harsh with his own two children. Later his compassionate daughter befriends a wrongfully convicted Read More

Don Juan Quilligan

Actors: William Bendix, Joan Blondell, Phil Silvers, Anne Revere, B.S. Pully

Synopsis: In this comedy, a barge captain with an Electra complex marries two women. He married the first because she laughed like his late mother. He married the other because she cooks like his mom. He soon finds himself in over his head. A good friend helps extricate him by devising an ingenious plot. Read More

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Actors: James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Claude Rains, Edward Arnold, Thomas Mitchell, Guy Kibbee, Eugene Pallette, Beulah Bondi, Harry Carey

Synopsis: Frank Capra's classic comedy-drama established James Stewart as a lead actor in one of his finest (and most archetypal) roles. The film opens as a succession of reporters shout into telephones announcing the death of Senator Samuel Foley. Senator Joseph Paine (Claude Rains), the state's senior Read More

Jesse James

Actors: Tyrone Power, Henry Fonda, Nancy Kelly, Randolph Scott, Henry Hull, Brian Donlevy

Synopsis: The real Frank and Jesse James were murderous thugs, light years away from the Robin Hood image imposed on them by revisionist dime novelists. But in 1939, 20th Century-Fox wasn't about to build an expensive Technicolor feature around the exploits of a couple of low-lives, thus Jesse James upholds Read More

Five of a Kind

Synopsis: The financial exploitation of Canada's Dionne Quintuplets rolled ever forward with 20th Century-Fox's Five of a Kind, the third Dionne feature-length vehicle. Under the watchful eye of kindly obstetrican Dr. Dafoe (Jean Hersholt), the lovable quints, now 4 1/2 years old, play with their pets and Read More

Always Goodbye

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Cesar Romero

Synopsis: Former doctor Jim Howard (Herbert Marshall) helps desperate Margot Weston (Barbara Stanwyck), pregnant and unmarried; when her son is born, Jim helps her place the baby with Phil Marshall (Ian Hunter) and his wife, on the condition that neither the Marshalls nor the child ever know Margot is his Read More