Michael Dante Filmography

Cage

Actors: Lou Ferrigno, Reb Brown, Michael Dante, Mike Moroff, Marilyn Tokuda

Synopsis: If you've seen TV wrestling, you know what a "caged" bout is. In Cage, it's for real; two testosterone-pumped behemoths are placed in a cage where they duke it out to the death. Lou Ferrigno plays Billy Thomas, the muscle-bound Vietnam vet who is finagled into cage-fighting by a group of mobsters. Read More

Return from the River Kwai

Actors: Timothy Bottoms, Michael Dante, Edward Fox, Chris Penn, George Takei, Nick Tate

Synopsis: This poorly received sequel to the classic 1957 movie The Bridge over the River Kwai, is also based on a true story, as told in the book by Joan & Clay Blair, Jr. This story begins where the previous one left off, with the blowing up of the marvelous bridge. Here, the Australian POWs are rounded Read More

The Messenger

Actors: Fred Williamson, Sandy Cummings, Val Avery, Michael Dante, Christopher Connelly

Synopsis: This enjoyably sleazy action film stars Fred Williamson as Jake Turner, a burglar who also happens to be an ex-con and a former Green Beret. When Turner's drug-addicted wife dies, he begins murdering the dealers and mobsters whom he holds responsible, including genre favorite Joe Spinell (Maniac). Read More

The Big Score

Actors: Fred Williamson, John Saxon, Richard Roundtree, Nancy Wilson, Ed Lauter

Synopsis: A Chicago cop is wrongly accused of theft and dismissed from the force. In order to clear his name, he goes after the real culprits -- without the extra baggage of police regulations that might have made his task more difficult if he were still active in the department. This script was originally Read More

Beyond Evil

Actors: John Saxon, Lynda Day George, Michael Dante, Mario Milano, Janice Lynde

Synopsis: Middle-aged newlyweds Larry (John Saxon) and Barbara (Lynda Day George) spend their honeymoon at a palatial Caribbean mansion, unaware that it is inhabited by the vengeful spirit of a notorious voodoo witch queen who was murdered a century ago. The woman's evil spirit promptly begins precipitating Read More

Cruise Missile

Synopsis: Cruise Missile takes its time getting to its much-anticipated climax, but by and large it's worth the wait. Peter Graves heads a special task force, assigned to literally save the world. A wacko has gotten hold of a nuclear cruise missile, and has threatened to touch off World War 3. What possible Read More

The Farmer

Actors: Gary Conway, Angel Tompkins, Michael Dante, George Memmoli, Timothy Scott

Synopsis: In this actioner, a WW II vet attempts to run his own farm and finds himself in dire straits when he cannot pay his mortgage. In desperation, he hits up a gangster for financial aide. Unfortunately, in exchange for money, the gangster wants the vet to kill a few people. The would-be farmer does Read More

Winterhawk

Actors: Leif Erickson, Woody Strode, Denver Pyle, L.Q. Jones, Michael Dante

Synopsis: This melodramatic adventure follows the exploits of a young Blackfoot Indian who goes to the Anglos for some badly needed smallpox serum. Instead of helping him, they attack. The young man is enraged and retaliates by kidnapping two young people from the unfriendly settlement. He takes them Read More

Shining Star

Actors: Harvey Keitel, Ed Nelson, Cynthia Bostick, Bert Parks, Jimmy Boyd

Synopsis: This cult favorite from director/producer Sig Shore featured the music of Earth, Wind and Fire and had a #1 soundtrack album, but went belly-up at the box-office. That's a shame, because what other film offers viewers Harvey Keitel as a record producer who skates at an all-black disco rink, Bert Parks Read More

Willard

Actors: Bruce Davison, Ernest Borgnine, Elsa Lanchester, Sondra Locke, Michael Dante

Synopsis: This film is based on the novel Ratman's Notebooks, by Stephen Gilbert. Bruce Davison is Willard Stiles, a 27-year-old mama's boy whose repressions are bottled up inside and come to the fore in his nervous nail-biting. As one character describes Willard, "Willard is basically an extrovert, but Read More

Legend of Custer

Synopsis: The Legend of Custer is an expanded version of the pilot film for the weekly Custer television series. Wayne Maunder stars as "Old Yellow Hair," who in the early 1870s is shipped off to command a Cavalry post in the Black Hills. Here he is introduced to a crew of misfits and goldbricks, whom he Read More

Custer [TV Series]

Actors: Wayne Maunder, Slim Pickens, Peter Palmer, Michael Dante, Robert Simon, Grant Woods

Perry Mason: The Case of the Feather Cloak

Synopsis: Perry (Raymond Burr) and Paul (William Hopper) arrive in beautiful Hawaii to investigate the viability of a land deal between Jarvis Logan (John Van Dreelen) and the Pan-Pacific Hotel chain. Logan wants to purchase Kameamea Point, which cuts into his property straight down the middle, but the deal Read More

Bonanza: The Brass Box

Actors: Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, Ramon Novarro, Michael Dante

Synopsis: Former silent-movie idol Ramon Novarro guest-stars as Jose Ortega, a prevaricating old windbag who claims to possess a Spanish land grant deeding him the Ponderosa and most of the surrounding territory. Of course, nobody believes Ortega, and everybody takes turns beating him up. Rescued from Read More

Harlow

Actors: Carol Lynley, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Ginger Rogers, Barry Sullivan, Hurd Hatfield

Synopsis: Hurriedly assembled to capitalize on the Paramount feature of the same name, Magna Pictures' Harlow was shot in less than two weeks, utilizing a glorified TV-kinescope process called Electronovision. Carol Lynley is physically an excellent choice to play 1930s Hollywood "platinum blonde" Jean Harlow Read More

Arizona Raiders

Actors: Audie Murphy, Michael Dante, Ben Cooper, Gloria Talbott, Fred Graham

Synopsis: Action expert William Witney glosses over the inaccuracies and inconsistencies in Arizona Raiders. Audie Murphy and Ben Cooper play members of Quantrill's Raiders, hoping to avenge the fallen South after the Civil War. Murphy and Cooper are captured by a Union officer (Buster Crabbe) (effectively Read More

Apache Rifles

Actors: Audie Murphy, Michael Dante, Linda Lawson, L.Q. Jones

Synopsis: This western presents a more sympathetic view of Native Americans than is usually found in the genre as it tells the tale of the army commander of an Arizona outpost who despises all Indians until he falls in love with a beautiful missionary girl. He must change his ways because one of her parents Read More

The Naked Kiss

Actors: Constance Towers, Anthony Eisley, Michael Dante, Virginia Grey, Patsy Kelly

Synopsis: Kelly (Constance Towers), a prostitute who wants to transform her life, beats up her pimp, takes the 75 dollars he owes her, and leaves town. Winding up in the small town of Grantville, she turns a trick with Griff (Anthony Eisley), who is actually the sheriff. After paying her for sex, Griff Read More

Operation Bikini

Actors: Tab Hunter, Frankie Avalon, Scott Brady, Jim Backus, Gary Crosby

Synopsis: This conventional wartime drama is comprised of an inexplicable mix of moods and genres as a U.S. submarine in World War II heads out to the island of Bikini in the South Pacific to destroy the remains of a sunken sister ship. The ruined ship has some delicate radar equipment on board that cannot Read More

Kid Galahad

Actors: Elvis Presley, Gig Young, Lola Albright, Joan Blackman, Charles Bronson

Synopsis: This musical boxing drama finds Walter (Elvis Presley) as a recently discharged soldier looking forwork in New York's Catskill Mountains. He happens across Grogan's Gym, a boxing emporium that helps perfect the "gentle art." Proprioter Willie Grogan (Gig Young) and trainer Lew (Charles Bronson) Read More

Seven Thieves

Actors: Edward G. Robinson, Rod Steiger, Joan Collins, Eli Wallach, Alexander Scourby

Synopsis: Discredited professor Edward G. Robinson organizes a seven-person criminal gang. Robinson plans to steal a fortune from the underground vaults of the Monte Carlo casino. Despite a few tense moments, the plot moves like clockwork. Alas, Robinson isn't around long enough to enjoy the fruits of his Read More

Maverick: Betrayal

Synopsis: While travelling on a stagecoach, Bart Maverick (Jack Kelly) strikes up a conversation with Ann Saunders (Pat Crowley), an Easterner who claims to have come West to meet her cousin. En route, the coach is robbed, and Bart cannot help but notice that Ann seems to be acquainted with one of the Read More

Perry Mason: The Case of the Dangerous Dowager

Synopsis: Wealthy widow Matilda Benson (Kathryn Givney) rules over her children like a dowager empress, threatening to cut them out of her will for the slightest infraction. Even so, the children can't help but get involved with crooked gambler Danny Barker (Robert Strauss), who ends up murdered after Read More

Westbound

Actors: Randolph Scott, Virginia Mayo, Karen Steele, Michael Dante, Andrew Duggan

Synopsis: A fast-paced western with a romantic twist, this was one of the last films pairing director Budd Boetticher and popular cowboy hero Randolph Scott before Scott's retirement. John Hayes (Scott) left the Civil War behind him when he took on the job of managing the Overland Stage Lines out of a small Read More

Fort Dobbs

Actors: Clint Walker, Virginia Mayo, Brian Keith, Richard Eyer, Russ Conway

Synopsis: In this western, an accused killer is able to escape lynchers by trading coats with a dead man he found lying beside the road with an arrow in his back. He soon happens upon a farm. As the farm is under Comanche attack when he arrives, the man immediately saves the life of a woman and her son. He Read More

Maverick: The Third Rider

Synopsis: Good samaritan Bart Maverick (Jack Kelly) offers assistance to two tired travellers with only one horse. They repay his generosity by stealing his horse--and then framing him for bank robbery and murder. When one of the thieves is killed, the other escapes with a posse hot on heels. . .while Bart Read More

Raintree County

Actors: Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Eva Marie Saint, Nigel Patrick, Lee Marvin

Synopsis: Conceived as a Gone With the Wind for the CinemaScope generation, Raintree County wasn't quite as successful as its role model, but it still proved a moneyspinner for MGM. Elizabeth Taylor stars as a spoiled Southern belle who falls in love with pacifistic Indiana youth Montgomery Clift. Though Clift Read More

Maverick: Stage West

Synopsis: Having been summoned Westward by a letter from her husband, who claims to have a valuable silver mine, Linda Harris (Erin O'Brien) arrives to find that she is now a widow. Enlisting the aid of Bret Maverick (James Garner), Linda embarks upon a perilous journey through Indian territory in search of Read More

Jeanne Eagels

Actors: Kim Novak, Jeff Chandler, Agnes Moorehead, Charles Drake, Larry Gates

Synopsis: Kim Novak is clearly out of her depth as legendary Broadway actress Jeanne Eagels, but one can't fault her for trying very hard. As this filmed biography gets under way, wide-eyed Eagels finds herself stranded in a tank town by a smooth-talking traveling salesman. Carnival operator Sal Satori Read More

Somebody Up There Likes Me

Actors: Paul Newman, Anna Maria Pier Angeli, Everett Sloane, Eileen Heckart, Sal Mineo

Synopsis: Once you get past the fact that handsome Paul Newman could never pass for plug-ugly boxer Rocky Graziano in real life, you will be able to accept Somebody Up Their Likes Me as one of the more accomplished movie biopics of the 1950s. Based on Graziano's autobiography (co-written with Rowland Read More