Mel TorméFilmography

Harold Arlen: Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Synopsis: Songwriter Harold Arlen is the subject of this documentary. Arlen wrote several songs for famous artists, but remained in the shadows as singers such as Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett received the acclaim. Arlen's most popular song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", the noted song from the Wizard of Read More

Monterey Jazz Festival: Forty Legendary Years

Synopsis: The world's longest running jazz celebration, The Monterey Jazz Festival has played host to some of the finest and best loved musicians in the history of the music, including Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughn, Count Basie, Thelonious Monk, Joe Williams, Dave Brubeck and Buddy Rich. Read More

Seinfeld: The Jimmy

Synopsis: The title of this episode refers to a character called The Jimmy who constantly refers to himself in the third-person in addition to making odd-looking athletic shoes. When Kramer attends a benefit for handicapped adults, fresh from getting Novocain at the dentist's office and decked out in a pair Read More

Buddy Rich: Jazz Legend, Volume 2 - 1970-1987

Synopsis: Buddy Rich: Jazz Legend is a colorful documentary that includes performances, interviews, and rare footage of this world-renowned drummer. Part 2: 1970-1987 features highlights of Rich's career as he stars on The Johnny Carson Show, with the Muppets, and in other performances around the world. Mel Torme Read More

Buddy Rich: Jazz Legend, Volume 1 - 1917-1970

Synopsis: Buddy Rich: Jazz Legend is a colorful documentary that includes performances, interviews, and rare footage of this world-renowned drummer. Volume 1: 1917-1970 features performances with the Artie Shaw, Harry James, and Tommy Dorsey bands, as well as Rich in a drum duo with Gene Krupa. Mel Torme Read More

The Return of Spinal Tap

Actors: Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, June Chadwick, Bob Geldof

Synopsis: The mock heavy-metal band Spinal Tap (actually comedians Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer) return to duty in this made-for-TV sequel to Rob Reiner's 1984 mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, filmed to promote the group's album Break Like the Wind. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

Night Court: Shave and a Haircut

Synopsis: As prank, a "National Lampoon"-like humor magazine offers a man-of-the-year award to Mel Torme. Unfortunately, Harry (Harry Anderson doesn't know it's a prank, and is willing to go to impossible lengths to get his idol to accept the prize. Meanwhile, Dan (John Larroquette) has teamed up with the Read More

Night Court: Opportunity Knock Knocks, Part 1

Synopsis: In the first episode of the two-part Night Court series finale (originally networkcast as a single one-hour special), Judge Harry T. Stone (Harry Anderson) considers stepping down from the bench when he receives a number of lucrative (and rather offbeat) job offers. Meanwhile, Christine (Markie Read More

The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear

Actors: Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley, George Kennedy, O.J. Simpson, Robert Goulet

Synopsis: Leslie Nielsen returns as the intrepid (and accident-prone) Lt. Frank Drebin in Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear, "un film de David Zucker." This second feature film from the "Police Squad!" series finds Drebin as a guest at a White House dinner, receiving an award for shooting his 1,000th drug Read More

Night Court: Santa on the Lam

Synopsis: Night Court's final Christmas episode finds Dan (John Larroquette) the unlikely counselor for a disillusioned department-store Santa (Hansford Rowe) who has taken him hostage. Meanwhile, Harry (Harry Anderson) has trouble shedding himself of Miss Hendley (Terri Hanauer), a lonely stranger whom he Read More

Night Court: Hey, Harry, F'Crying Out Loud--It's a Wonderful Life...Sorta

Synopsis: Night Court bows to 1990s sitcom tradition with this extended spoof (replete with black-and-white sequences) of the classic 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life. In the throes of despondency after being dumped by Margaret Turner, Harry (Harry Anderson) expresses the wish that he'd never been born. Read More

Colt Firearms Legends

Night Court: Melvin and Harold

Synopsis: The Night Courters believe they has scored a coup when they arrange for Mel Torme to sing at Harry's 40th birthday party. Alas, as the big evening approaches, it looks like the Velvet Fog will be a no-show. And the fault lies with Harry (Harry Anderson) himself: honoring duty over adulation, the Read More

Night Court: Strange Bedfellows

Synopsis: On the day of the state assembly election, Dan (John Larroquette) comes face to face with his opponent Joan Hobson (Janet Zarish) for the first time. Before the returns are in, Dan and Joan have put their political differences aside for an evening of pulsating passion! Meanwhile, Harry (Harry Read More

Mel Tormé: Standing Room Only

Actors: Mel Tormé

Synopsis: This benefit concert for the Brady Cancer Research Institute features a performance by singer Mel Torme including such songs as Bye Bye, Blackbird and What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide Read More

Night Court: I'm OK, You're Catatonic/Schizophrenic

Synopsis: John Astin returns as Buddy, perennial mental-home habitue and self-proclaimed stepfather of Judge Harry T. Stone (Harry Anderson). Obliged to spend an inordinate amount of time keeping Buddy from being permanently committed by his condescending brother Phil (Alex Henteloff), Harry may well miss Read More

The Snader Telescriptions: The Vocalists

Synopsis: Four of the twentieth-century's most beloved singers are featured in this installment in the Jazz Legends series from Storyville Films. "I May Be Wrong" by Peggy Lee, "The Nearness of You" by Sarah Vaughn, "Imagination" by June Christy, and "April Showers" by Mel Torme are just a few of the Read More

Daffy Duck: Quackbusters

Actors: Mel Blanc, Mel Tormé, Roy Firestone, B.J. Ward

Synopsis: This is one of the better Warner Brother's anthologies and features some of Daffy and Friends' greatest adventures that are linked by a horror theme that has Daffy trying to set up his own ghost exorcism service with Porky and Bugs. Among the older cartoon shorts presented is a new short, The Read More

Night Court: Christine's Friend

Synopsis: Dan (John Larroquette) and Harry (Harry Anderson) both angle for the attentions of Christine's gorgeous friend Heather (Sela Ward). After carefully weighing the options, Heather decides to spend the weekend with Dan, sending Harry spiraling into a depression. But worse is still to come: It seems Read More

Night Court: Leon, We Hardly Knew Ye

Synopsis: It had to happen: Harry's idol Mel Torme has shown up in the courtroom! Unfortunately, it looks as though Harry (Harry Anderson) will pass up the opportunity to meet the fabled Velvet Fog. It seems that he is bogged down with personal problems involving courtroom shoeshine boy Leon (Bumper Read More

Artie Shaw: Time Is All You've Got

Actors: Arlie Shaw & His Band, Helen Forrest, Evelyn Keyes, Polly Haynes, John Wexley

Synopsis: Born in 1910 in New York City, Arthur Jacob Arshawsky, better known to the world as Artie Shaw, went on to become one of the best clarinetists in American music history. Brigitte Berman uses interviews with Shaw, his colleagues, and his last wife Evelyn Keyes to provide needed insights. These are Read More

Mel Torme

Synopsis: "New York State of Mind," "Born in the Night," "Down for Double" and other songs are performed by Mel Torme. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

The Mel Torme Special

Hotel

Actors: Bette Davis, Morgan Fairchild, Shirley Jones, Erin Moran, Mel Tormé

Synopsis: Arthur Hailey's novel Hotel had already served as the inspiration for a 1967 theatrical film when this TV pilot came along on September 21, 1983. Bette Davis stars as Laura Trent, the entrenched owner of the Hotel St. Gregory (moved from the novel's New Orleans to San Francisco, to allow for Read More

Pray TV

Actors: Ned Beatty, Richard Kiley, John Ritter

Synopsis: The made-for-television Pray TV was the subject for hot debate long before its February 1, 1982 debut. This even-handed exploration of the televangelism business stars Ned Beatty as the Reverend Freddy Stone, whose religious empire nets $3 million annually. John Ritter co-stars as Rev. Tom Read More

Mel Torme and Della Reese in Concert

The Land of No Return

Actors: Mel Tormé, William Shatner, Donald Moffat

Synopsis: A popular television animal trainer finds himself forced to rely on his furred and feathered friends after his private plane crash lands in a snow-covered Utah mountain wilderness. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Snowman

Synopsis: In this wilderness adventure, an animal trainer finds himself snowbound in the rugged Rockies. His only companions are an eagle and his pet wolf. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

One Night Stand: Lionel Hampton and an All-Star Jazz Ensemble

Actors: Lionel Hampton

Synopsis: This program features a performance by jazz great Lionel Hampton, along with some of his famous musical colleagues. Lionel Hampton was the first musician to use the vibraphone -- the vibes -- as a jazz instrument. A member of Benny Goodman's jazz quartet in the 1030's, Hampton formed his own big Read More

Pineapple Rose

Synopsis: This episode of the weekly TV series Name of the Game was first telecast December 20, 1968. As in every 90-minute episode of Game, the story concentrates on the exploits of an employee of Crime magazine. This time the focus is on researcher Peggy Maxwell (Susan St. James), who is Read More

The Lucy Show: Lucy Puts Main Street on the Map

Actors: Mel Tormé, John Bubbles, Dan Rowan, Paul Winchell, Burt Mustin

Synopsis: In the conclusion of a two-part story, a reluctant Mooney (Gale Gordon) has joined Lucy (Lucille Ball) and her songwriter friend Mel Tinker (Mel Torme) in their efforts to save the small town of Bancroft from being demolished to make room for a new freeway. In hopes of bringing Bancroft's plight Read More

The Lucy Show: Main Street U.S.A.

Actors: Mel Tormé, John Bubbles, Paul Winchell, Barry Kelley, Burt Mustin

Synopsis: In the first episode of a two-part story, Lucy (Lucille Ball) turns activist to save the small town of Bancroft, which is slated to be demolished to make room for a new freeway. With sign in hand and slogans in her mouth, Lucy leads the citizens in a protest, blissfully unaware (at first) that her Read More

A Man Called Adam

Actors: Sammy Davis, Jr., Louis Armstrong, Ossie Davis, Cicely Tyson, Frank Sinatra, Jr., Peter Lawford

Synopsis: A star-studded cast invigorates this film of a jazz trumpeter (Sammy Davis Jr.) who experiences both the prejudices of the music industry and terrible guilt following the traffic accident that killed his family, a tragedy he feels personally responsible for. Co-stars include several giants of jazz Read More

The Swinger

Crew: Songwriter

Actors: Ann-Margret, Anthony Franciosa, Robert Coote, Yvonne Romain, Horace McMahon

Synopsis: The most interesting aspect of The Swinger is the name of the character played by Ann-Margret: the former Ann Margaret Olsson essays the role of Kelly Olsson. A naive small-town girl, Kelly aspires to become a writer in the Big City. When her stories are rejected because they aren't exciting and Read More

The Lucy Show: Lucy and the Music World

Actors: Mel Tormé, Lou Krugman

Synopsis: Mel Torme guests in this episode as an out-of-work songwriter named Mel Tinker. When Lucy takes a job as secretary to record-company executive Barney Miller (Lou Krugman), she tries to arrange a recording session for Mel. Alas, the songwriter is woefully behind the times and doesn't know how to Read More

Jazz Casual: Mel Torme

Synopsis: Nicknamed "the Velvet Fog," Mel Tormé sings a six-song set in this 1964 black-and-white episode of Jazz Casual, music critic Ralph J. Gleason's renowned series for National Educational Television (1960-1968). Known today primarily as a vocalist, Tormé was also an accomplished musician, arranger Read More

The Patsy

Actors: Jerry Lewis, Ina Balin, Everett Sloane, Phil Harris, Keenan Wynn

Synopsis: Toward the end of Jerry Lewis's Paramount studio period, Lewis slapped together this bitter comedy about Hollywood phoniness and fame that has to be the most rancid portrait of the Hollywood star system in the Rat Pack era this side of Clifford Odets. When a famous entertainer suddenly is killed Read More

The Judy Garland Show, Episode 15: The Christmas Special

Crew: Composer (Music Score)

Synopsis: In this 1963 holiday episode of The Judy Garland Show, a large crop of guest stars, including Judy Garland's three children, joins the singer for a bevy of classic and contemporary songs, most of them Christmas-themed. Opening with one of her signature tunes, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Read More

The Private Lives of Adam and Eve

Actors: Mickey Rooney, Mamie van Doren, Fay Spain, Mel Tormé, Martin Milner

Synopsis: This parody of Genesis caused an uproar before and during its release (the final version was reworked and cut) though its routine or worse cinematic level would not encourage large audiences. The story begins with a busload of men and women with hang-ups in the romance department, all heading for Read More

Walk Like a Dragon

Crew: Songwriter

Actors: Jack Lord, Nobu McCarthy, James Shigeta, Mel Tormé, Benson Fong, Josephine Hutchinson

Synopsis: Cowboy Line Bartlett (Jack Lord) comes to San Francisco and meets Kim Sung (Nobu McCarthy), a Chinese slave girl coveted by the manager of a whorehouse. To save her from this fate, Bartlett buys the girl himself and takes her home to serve as a housekeeper. His mother, Ma Bartlett (Josephine Hutchinson Read More

The Big Operator

Actors: Mickey Rooney, Steve Cochran, Mamie van Doren, Mel Tormé, Ray Danton

Synopsis: Mickey Rooney plays labor racketeer Little Joe Braun in this fast-paced and surprisingly violent drama about one man's determination to clean up his union. Bill Gibson (Steve Cochran) is Little Joe's nemesis and is one of the men who can testify that he saw the labor boss in an incriminating Read More

Girls' Town

Actors: Mamie van Doren, Mel Tormé, Paul Anka, Ray Anthony, Maggie Hayes

Synopsis: This sexually explicit, low-budget film makes no pretensions about being anything other than offensive. There is no plot since none is especially necessary. Director Charles Haas (his last film was the following year), opens with a scene of sexually active men and women at a party. Then one of Read More

The Fearmakers

Actors: Dana Andrews, Dick Foran, Mel Tormé, Marilee Earle, Veda Ann Borg

Synopsis: In this drama, a Korean war veteran, a victim of brainwashing while he was a POW, finally goes back to his home in Washington, DC, where he resumes his job at a public relations-opinion research firm. He soon discovers that his company is being run by communists after his partner mysteriously Read More

Playhouse 90: The Comedian

Synopsis: Rod Serling wasn't telling whom he based the leading character of his TV play The Comedian upon, but sharp-eyed viewers could detect traces of everyone from Milton Berle to Red Buttons. Mickey Rooney stars as a top-rated television comedian who is all love-and-kisses when before the cameras but a Read More

The Jo Stafford Show [TV Series]

Actors: Jo Stafford

The Duchess of Idaho

Actors: Esther Williams, Van Johnson, John Lund, Paula Raymond, Clinton Sundberg

Synopsis: This formula Esther Williams musical casts the star as Midwestern carnival swimmer Christine Duncan, in love with bandleader Dick Layn (Van Johnson). Attempting to smooth the course of romance for her friend Ellen Hallet (Paula Raymond), Christine makes a play for Ellen's wealthy boss Douglas J. Read More

So Dear to My Heart

Actors: Bobby Driscoll, Beulah Bondi, Burl Ives, Luana Patten, Harry Carey

Synopsis: Like Disney's earlier Song of the South, So Dear to My Heart peppers its live action with animated sequences. In this film, however, it is the "live" story that lingers longest in the memory. Set in 1903, the film takes place on the small Kincaid farm. Twin sheep are born in the barn: one white 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

Good News

Actors: June Allyson, Morris Ankrum, Tom Dugan, Connie Gilchrist, Jane Green

Synopsis: This second film version of the DeSylva/Brown/Henderson Broadway musical Good News may not be the best of the Arthur Freed-produced MGM musicals, but it's certainly one of the peppiest. The film is set at Tait college during the Roaring 20s. The wisp of a plot involves Tait football-star Peter Lawford Read More

Janie Gets Married

Actors: Joan Leslie, Robert Hutton, Barbara Brown, Edward Arnold, Ann Harding, Robert Benchley, William Frambes

Synopsis: In this sequel to the 1944 teenage comedy Janie, Joan Leslie replaces Joyce Reynolds in the title role, playing the virtuous but amorous daughter of Edward Arnold and Ann Harding. Janie marries the soldier (Robert Hutton) she'd met in the earlier film, hoping to help him set the course of a Read More

Junior Miss

Actors: Peggy Ann Garner, Allyn Joslyn, Michael Dunne, Mona Freeman, Faye Marlowe, Barbara Whiting, John Alexander

Synopsis: Adapted from the high school drama-class perennial by Jerome Chodhorov and Joseph Fields, Junior Miss stars Peggy Ann Garner as a troublesome teenager. Garner means well, but can't help meddling in the affairs of her father (Allyn Joslyn) and other unsuspecting grownups. Most of the story revolves Read More

Let's Go Steady

Actors: Pat Parrish, Jackie Moran, June Preisser, Jimmy Lloyd, Arnold Stang

Synopsis: Let's Go Steady was Columbia's annual "audition" musical, spotlighting the studio's latest crop of young contractees. Cheated out of their bankroll by a phony music publisher, a group of talented youngsters come to New York, hoping to promote their songs with their own, self-stage musical revue. Read More

Ghost Catchers

Actors: Ole Olsen, Chic Johnson, Gloria Jean, Martha O'Driscoll, Andy Devine, Leo Carrillo

Synopsis: Colonel Breckinridge Marshall (Walter Catlett) of Clearwater, GA -- who puts on a big front but is actually only a step away from the poor house -- rents a luxurious townhouse in Manhattan in anticipation of the Carnegie Hall debut of his two daughters, singer Melinda (Gloria Jean) and Read More

Pardon My Rhythm

Actors: Gloria Jean, Patric Knowles, Evelyn Ankers, Marjorie Weaver, Walter Catlett

Synopsis: This youthful musical follows the romantic travails of a group of talented high school students and their charismatic high school bandleader. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Higher and Higher

Actors: Michèle Morgan, Jack Haley, Frank Sinatra, Leon Errol, Victor Borge

Synopsis: Higher and Higher was advertised by RKO Radio as "The Sinatra Show", and small wonder: In his first major film role, Frank Sinatra was easily the film's biggest box-office draw. Actually, Frankie was a last minute addition to the film, which began as a traditional adaptation of a popular Broadway Read More

Meet the Singers, Vol. 2

Swing Era: George Shearing

Synopsis: Alongside performance footage of the likes of Mel Torme and The Bob Cats, this edition of Swing Era highlights five numbers by blind pianist George Shearing, such as "Move," "I'll Be Around," and "I'll Never Smile Again." Released by Idem Home Video, the series includes classic performances by the Read More