Philip Van Zandt Filmography

Fifi Blows Her Top

Synopsis: Joe Besser's French wartime girlfriend, Fifi (Vanda Dupre), moves in next door to the boys in this Three Stooges comedy two-reeler, a remake, with plenty of stock footage of Love at First Bite (1950). Christine McIntyre, who had retired in 1954, and Heinie Conklin appeared courtesy of the old Read More

The Lonely Man

Actors: Jack Palance, Anthony Perkins, Neville Brand, Robert Middleton, Elisha Cook, Jr.

Synopsis: Based on a 1941 movie entitled Shepherd of the Hills, this is the story of a gunfighter who decides to return home after 17 years to make amends with his son. The son blames him for his mother's death and the reconciliation is difficult. Although there are many side action lines -- old enemies Read More

Man of a Thousand Faces

Actors: James Cagney, Dorothy Malone, Jane Greer, Jim Backus, Robert Evans, Marjorie Rambeau

Synopsis: One screen legend tips his hat to another as James Cagney portrays horror film icon Lon Chaney in Man of a Thousand Faces. Joseph Pevney's bio-pic takes a somewhat whitewashed view of Chaney's career, but Cagney is nothing short of riveting in the lead. The film begins as Chaney, the son of two Read More

The Pride and the Passion

Actors: Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, Sophia Loren, Theodore Bikel, John Wengraf

Synopsis: As was his custom, producer/director Stanley Kramer made some iconoclastic casting decisions when mounting his $5 million production The Pride and the Passion. Adapted from The Gun, a novel by C. S. Forester, the film is set in Spain during the Napoleonic wars. Captain Anthony Trumbull (Cary Read More

Outer Space Jitters

Synopsis: This is one of the funnier shorts made by the latter day Three Stooges lineup of Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Joe Besser. The boys are assistants to Professor Jones (Emil Sitka) and they have traveled from Earth to the planet Sunev (which a title informs us is "Venus" spelled backwards). The Read More

Shoot-Out at Medicine Bend

Actors: Randolph Scott, James Craig, Angie Dickinson, Dani Crayne, James Garner

Synopsis: A bizarre western that at times veers dangerously close to outright burlesque, Shoot-Out at Medicine Bend concluded Randolph Scott's long-term contract with Warner Bros. and sat on the shelf for nearly two years before being dumped on the double-bill market in 1957. Scott and two fellow cavalry Read More

The 27th Day

Actors: Gene Barry, Valerie French, George Voskovec, Arnold Moss, Stefan Schnabel

Synopsis: A locked-in-the-fifties science fiction film, The 27th Day begins with five different people from five different countries suddenly disappearing from view. They have been gently abducted by the agent (Arnold Moss) of a faraway dying planet, who gives each of the five earthlings a "killing capsule" Read More

Uranium Boom

Actors: Dennis Morgan, Patricia Medina, William Talman, Tina Carver, Philip Van Zandt

Synopsis: In this drama, two prospectors search the Colorado Territory for precious radioactive metal. They find large deposits and become rich men. Unfortunately, their friendship almost disintegrates after they fall in love with the same sexy woman. She pits them against each other. Fortunately, their Read More

Hot Stuff

Synopsis: Containing a wealth of stock footage from the earlier Fuelin' Around (1949), this Three Stooges two-reeler features a gang of spies who mistake Larry for the inventor of a top secret rocket fuel. Christine McIntyre, who had retired from films in 1954, Philip Van Zandt, and Jock Mahoney all Read More

Around the World in 80 Days

Actors: David Niven, Cantinflas, Robert Newton, Shirley MacLaine, Charles Boyer

Synopsis: Razzle-dazzle showman Michael Todd hocked everything he had to make this spectacular presentation of Jules Verne's 1872 novel Around the World in 80 Days, the second film to be lensed in the wide-screen Todd-AO production. Nearly as fascinating as the finished product are the many in-production Read More

Our Miss Brooks

Actors: Eve Arden, Gale Gordon, Robert Rockwell, Jane Morgan

Synopsis: Our Miss Brooks had been a radio and TV sitcom hit thanks to the considerable input of star Eve Arden. The film version of Our Miss Brooks was not quite as successful (why pay for something that you can get at home every week for free?), but it admirably captures the spirit of the original audio Read More

Untamed

Actors: Tyrone Power, Susan Hayward, Richard Egan, John Justin, Agnes Moorehead

Synopsis: Tyrone Power is a Dutchman, and Susan Hayward is an Irish lass. If you believe that, then the rest of Untamed will go down a lot easier. Power is a Boer calvary commander attempting to bring peace to his South African homeland. He has an affair with Hayward, a married woman whose husband is killed Read More

I Cover the Underworld

Actors: Sean McClory, Joanne Jordan, Ray Middleton, Jaclynne Greene

Synopsis: In this drama, a divinity student endeavors to help the police break up the rackets by impersonating his jailed brother, a gangster. In his disguise, he gets into his brother's gang and cons them into to uniting with other gangs to improve efficiency. He then coerces them into keeping careful Read More

To Catch a Thief

Actors: Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, Jesse Royce Landis, John Williams, Charles Vanel

Synopsis: A jewel thief is at large on the Riviera, and all evidence points to retired cat burglar Cary Grant. Escaping the law, Grant heads to the Cote D'Azur, where he is greeted with hostility by his old partners in crime. All of them had been pardoned due to their courageous activities in the wartime Read More

The Big Combo

Actors: Cornel Wilde, Richard Conte, Brian Donlevy, Jean Wallace, Robert Middleton

Synopsis: Police Lt. Leonard Diamond (Cornel Wilde) is criticized by his superior Capt. Peterson (Robert Middleton) for his obsessive but fruitless investigation of organized crime boss Mr. Brown (Richard Conte). Peterson calls it a waste of the taxpayers' money motivated by Diamond's love for Brown's Read More

The Adventures of Superman: King for a Day

Synopsis: Cub reporter Jimmy Olsen (Jack Larson) is mistaken for Prince Gregory of Burgonia (Chet Marshall), who has been targeted for assassination. Putting his life on the line, Jimmy agrees to impersonate Gregory, the better to bring the would-be killer out in the open. Once the not-so-well-hidden Read More

Bedlam in Paradise

Synopsis: Following Gypped in the Penthouse, a rare original comedy short, the battle-fatigued Three Stooges returned to revamping one of their old shorts, Heavenly Daze (1948), by adding a few new scenes without going to the expense of hiring a supporting cast. The audience, according to producer/director Read More

Yankee Pasha

Actors: Jeff Chandler, Rhonda Fleming, Mamie van Doren, Lee J. Cobb, Bart Roberts, Hal March, Benny Rubin, Christiane Martel

Synopsis: Yankee Pasha has the potential for silliness, but is commendably played straight by most of the participants (exceptions being such professional funsters as Hal March and Benny Rubin). Jeff Chandler plays American frontiersman Jason, who springs into action when his sweetheart Roxanna (Rhonda Fleming Read More

Playgirl

Actors: Shelley Winters, Barry Sullivan, Colleen Miller, Richard Long, Gregg Palmer

Synopsis: Shelley Winters was still in the sex-symbol phase of her career when she headed the cast of Universal's Playgirl. Ms. Winters plays Fran, a nightclub vocalist whose main squeeze is married publisher Mike Marsh (Barry Sullivan). When Mike makes a play for new employee Phyllis Matthews (Colleen Miller Read More

The High and the Mighty

Actors: John Wayne, Claire Trevor, Laraine Day, Robert Stack, Jan Sterling

Synopsis: For The High and the Mighty, director William Wellman made a point of using Cinemascope to heighten the dramatic content of a confined screen space -- in this instance, the cockpit of a plane in flight. Copilot Dan Roman (John Wayne) seems a lot more in control of things than Captain John Sullivan Read More

Knock on Wood

Actors: Danny Kaye, Mai Zetterling, Torin Thatcher, David Burns, Leon Askin

Synopsis: With the exception of the brilliant The Court Jester, Knock on Wood must rank as the best of Danny Kaye's movie vehicles. Capitalizing on the star's recent successful engagement in London, the film casts Kaye as a neurotic American ventriloquist performing in England and Europe. In a parody of the Read More

Three Ring Circus

Actors: Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Joanne Dru, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Elsa Lanchester, Wallace Ford

Synopsis: According to some eyewitness reports, the feud between Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis was at its peak during the filming of Three Ring Circus. Other observers have noted that the boys behaved with thorough professionalism throughout the shoot. Whatever the case, the film offers a comparatively Read More

Dragon's Gold

Actors: John Archer, Hillary Brooke

Synopsis: Completed in 1953, Dragon's Gold was released by United Artists early the following year. John Archer (the father of present-day leading lady Anne Archer) stars as an insurance investigator, sent to China to locate a missing client. The official story is that the client stole $7 million from his Read More

Musty Musketeers

Synopsis: A remake, with stock footage, of the earlier Fiddlers Three (1948), this Three Stooges comedy short features the boys as court musicians attempting to prevent an evil potentate (Vernon Dent via stock footage) from marrying a lovely princess (Virginia Hunter, again via stock footage). Added cast Read More

Knutzy Knights

Synopsis: A remake of the Three Stooges' earlier Squareheads of the Round Table, this two-reel comedy features the boys as troubadours attempting to save Princess Elaine (Christine McIntyre) from a fate worse than death. Miss McIntyre, who had retired by 1954, and Jock Mahoney as the romantic leads appeared Read More

Scotched in Scotland

Synopsis: For their final two-reel comedy of 1954, the Three Stooges remade their earlier The Hot Scots (1948), playing detective school graduates shipped of to Scotland's Glenheather Castle to guard a treasure. Christine McIntyre, Theodore Lorch (who had died in 1947), Herbert Evans, and Charles Knight all Read More

Gog

Actors: Richard Egan, Constance Dowling, Herbert Marshall, John Wengraf, Philip Van Zandt

Synopsis: When two scientists at a top-secret government installation devoted to space research are killed -- in their own test chamber, seemingly by an experiment gone awry -- Dr. David Sheppard (Richard Egan) is sent out from Washington to investigate. Sheppard mixes easily enough with the somewhat Read More

Prisoners of the Casbah

Actors: Gloria Grahame, Cesar Romero, Turhan Bey, Nestor Paiva, Paul Newlan

Synopsis: When Gloria Grahame signed her contract at Columbia Pictures, she had no idea the studio would require her to appear in anything available. Rather than go on suspension, she consented to star in the "Arabian nights" fiasco Prisoners of the Casbah, but her discomfort with the assignment is obvious Read More

Three Sailors and a Girl

Actors: Jane Powell, Gordon MacRae, Gene Nelson, Sam Levene, George Givot

Synopsis: Though it isn't obvious at first glance, Three Sailors and a Girl is the fourth screen version of the George S. Kaufman stage comedy The Butter and Egg Man. The titular gobs are Jones, Twitch, and Parky, played respectively by Gordon MacRae, Gene Nelson, and Jack E. Leonard. On leave in New York Read More

The Adventures of Superman: Crime Wave

Synopsis: This slam-bang episode opens with a montage of highlights from previous Superman entries, illustrating a crime wave that has swept over Metropolis. Declaring war against every racketeer in town, Superman (George Reeves) rounds up such hoodlums as Nick Marone (Phil Van Zandt and Big Ed Bullock (Al Read More

A Perilous Journey

Actors: Vera Ralston, David Brian, Scott Brady, Charles Winninger, Hope Emerson

Synopsis: The much-maligned Vera Ralston turns in an acceptable performance as star of Republic's A Perilous Journey. Though seemingly inspired by MGM's Westward the Women, the film was actually based on The Golden Tide, a novel by Vingie Roe. In the year 1850, a group of 49 young women charter a Read More

Captain John Smith and Pocahontas

Actors: Anthony Dexter, Jody Lawrance, Robert Clarke, Stuart Randall

Synopsis: Whether true or not (evidence indicates "not"), the legend of Captain John Smith and Pochahontas is one of history's great romantic stories. This 1953 filmization of the story was made on a near-nonexistent budget. Anthony Dexter, who two seasons earlier had starred in the unsuccessful biopic Valentino Read More

Ride, Vaquero!

Actors: Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner, Howard Keel, Anthony Quinn, Kurt Kasznar

Synopsis: Set in the southernmost regions of Texas, Ride, Vaquero stars Robert Taylor as a steely-eyed gunman named Rio. In league with Mexican bandit Jose Esqueda (Anthony Quinn), Rio participates in the sacking of Brownsville. Only one man seems to have the intestinal fortitude to stand up to the Read More

Clipped Wings

Actors: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bernard Gorcey, Renie Riano, Todd Karns

Synopsis: When the Bowery Boys go to visit a friend on an Air Force base, they are pulled into an investigation to discover why their friend is being accused of treason. Accidentally enlisting in the service, they continue their investigation and eventually stumble on a Nazi plot. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Read More

The Adventures of Superman: Superman in Exile

Synopsis: Project X, an experimental nuclear reactor located just outside of Metropolis, runs out of control and threatens the city and the surrounding area for 100 miles around with a devastating radioactive explosion. Superman (George Reeves) arrives barely in time and shuts the reactor down, but in the Read More

Spooks

Synopsis: The first of two misguided Three Stooges comedy shorts released in 3-D, Spooks mainly consisted of flying pies as the boys enter a haunted house in search of pretty Norma Randall. Veteran Stooges regulars Philip Van Zandt and Tom Kennedy also appeared. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide Read More

The Girl Who Had Everything

Actors: Elizabeth Taylor, Fernando Lamas, William Powell, Gig Young, James Whitmore

Synopsis: A good man tries to warn his daughter away from a bad man who has stolen her heart in this melodrama. Steve Latimer (William Powell) is a successful defense attorney who has gone out of his way to give his daughter Jean (Elizabeth Taylor) every advantage in life. However, Steve's generosity and Read More

Because of You

Actors: Loretta Young, Jeff Chandler, Alex Nicol, Frances Dee, Alexander Scourby

Synopsis: Fans of Loretta Young were rather taken aback by the early scenes of Because of You, wherein Young is seen as brash, uninhibited bleach-blonde Christine Carroll. On the verge of marrying gangster Mike Monroe (Alex Nicol), Christine is arrested by the cops, and sent to prison on the strength of Read More

Thief of Damascus

Actors: Paul Henreid, John Sutton, Jeff Donnell, Lon Chaney, Jr., Elena Verdugo

Synopsis: Generous portions of stock footage from 1948's Joan of Arc are somehow worked into the Arabian Nights proceedings of Thief of Damascus. His tongue firmly in cheek, Paul Henreid plays the title character, aka Abu Amdar. The plot has something to do with an evil desert chieftain (John Sutton) who Read More

The Pride of St. Louis

Actors: Dan Dailey, Joanne Dru, Richard Hylton, Richard Crenna, Hugh Sanders

Synopsis: Pride of St. Louis is the story of one of baseball's most colorful characters, Jerome Herman "Dizzy" Dean. While playing amateur ball in 1928, Dizzy (Dan Dailey) is hired by the St. Louis Cardinals. He spends a year or so playing with the Cards' Texas farm team, during which time he woos and wins Read More

Yukon Gold

Synopsis: In this Yukon adventure, a gold mining community is rocked by a murder. A Mountie investigates and encounters a female gambler. Action ensues, but justice prevails. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Macao

Actors: Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell, William Bendix, Thomas Gomez, Gloria Grahame

Synopsis: The tendency is to scoff at Macao as just another example of Josef von Sternberg's late-career exercises in exoticism; true, it has its problems, including a weak plot and a slightly hasty pace, but it is still an extraordinary film for its time and its personnel. The real sparkplug for the movie Read More

Viva Zapata!

Actors: Marlon Brando, Jean Peters, Anthony Quinn, Joseph Wiseman, Arnold Moss

Synopsis: Produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and directed by Elia Kazan, this film follows the life of Mexican revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata (Marlon Brando) from his peasant upbringing, through his rise to power in the early 1900s, to his death. The film presents an interesting but fictionalized picture of Read More

Son of Ali Baba

Actors: Tony Curtis, Piper Laurie, Susan Cabot, William Reynolds

Synopsis: In this swashbuckling adventure-satire, Kashma Baba's famous father Ali, sends the reluctant youth to military school to prepare him for the troubles ahead. Meanwhile, an evil Caliph kidnaps and enslaves an Arabian princess as part of his plan to steal Ali Baba's fabulous treasure. He then sends Read More

At Sword's Point

Actors: Cornel Wilde, Maureen O'Hara, Dan O'Herlihy, Robert Douglas, Gladys Cooper, June Clayworth

Synopsis: At Sword's Point is about the sons of Dumas' Three Musketeers--one of those "sons" being of the female persuasion, played by Maureen O'Hara. As the swash-buckling daughter of Athos, O'Hara joins the offspring of Aramis and Porthos, portrayed respectively by Dan O'Herlihy and Alan Hale Jr., as well Read More

Mask of the Avenger

Actors: John Derek, Anthony Quinn, Jody Lawrance, Arnold Moss, Eugene Iglesias

Synopsis: Auteur theorists may have trouble discerning the "signature" of director Phil Karlson in the Columbia costume adventure Mask of the Avenger. John Derek stars as Capt. Renatu Dimorna, the son of an Italian aristocrat, who vows revenge after his father is murdered during the European political Read More

Ghost Chasers

Actors: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Jan Kayne, Bernard Gorcey, Lloyd Corrigan

Synopsis: The Bowery Boys once more frolic about in an "old dark house" setting in Ghost Chasers. The story finds Slip Mahoney (Leo Gorcey) and his gang endeavoring to expose a phoney seance racket. Slip's pal Sach is aided and abetted in this endeavor by a genuine ghost, a jovial 17th-century wraith named Read More

The Desert Fox

Actors: James Mason, Cedric Hardwicke, Jessica Tandy, Luther Adler, Everett Sloane

Synopsis: The Desert Fox is a superb filmed biography of German general Erwin Rommel, concentrating on the period between his retreat from North Africa and his government-decreed death. A brilliant tactician, Rommel earns the respect not only of his own men but of the enemy. Unfortunately, Adolph Hitler (Luther Adler Read More

His Kind of Woman

Actors: Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell, Vincent Price, Tim Holt, Charles McGraw

Synopsis: His Kind of Woman directed by veteran John Farrow, is a convoluted mystery thriller which tries unsuccessfully to combine slapstick comedy with excessive violence, resulting in a film that depends more on stereotypes than on plot development. Nick (Raymond Burr), is a deported gang boss who needs Read More

Three Arabian Nuts

Synopsis: In the first two-reel comedy of 1951, the Three Stooges fall into possession of Aladdin's famous lamp, conjuring up what Shemp insists on calling a "genius." Three Arabian Nuts is regarded one of the better "non-Curly" Stooges vehicles. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide Read More

Ten Tall Men

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Jody Lawrance, Gilbert Roland, Kieron Moore, George Tobias

Synopsis: For his initial effort from his own Norma Productions, Burt Lancaster picked a winner in Ten Tall Men. Lancaster stars as "Sergeant Mike," a two-fisted Foreign Legionnaire presiding over a lovable band of mercenaries, sneak thieves and cutthroats. While sitting in the stockade for the umpteenth Read More

Submarine Command

Actors: William Holden, Nancy Olson, William Bendix, Don Taylor, Arthur Franz

Synopsis: Submarine Command reunites the romantic leads from Sunset Boulevard, William Holden and Nancy Olsen. Holden is cast as Commander White, who during an enemy attack orders that his submarine dive to avoid destruction. Though his action saves his crew, it results in the death of the machine-gunner Read More

Two Dollar Bettor

Actors: John Litel, Marie Windsor, Steve Brodie, Barbara Logan, Robert Sherwood

Synopsis: Dependable supporting actor John Litel is top-billed in the independently produced Two Dollar Bettor. Litel plays John Hewitt, a respectable widower who takes the first step on the road to depravation when he makes his first-ever bet at the race track. Consumed by gambling fever, Hewitt is reduced Read More

The Petty Girl

Actors: Robert Cummings, Joan Caulfield, Elsa Lanchester, Melville Cooper, Audrey Long

Synopsis: Back in the 1930s, '40s and '50s, artist George Petty was famous for his "Petty Girl" illustrations; lovingly detailed renderings of ripe young damsels wearing next to nothing, and sometimes not even that. In The Petty Girl, George Petty is portrayed by Robert Cummings, while Joan Caulfield Read More

Dopey Dicks

Synopsis: Classic comedy is on the menu in this home video collection that serves up a trio of Three Stooges short subjects featuring Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Shemp Howard. In Dopey Dicks, the Stooges happen upon a mad scientist who needs a human head, complete with brain, for his latest creation, a Read More

Indian Territory

Actors: Gene Autry, Pat Buttram, Gail Davis, Kirby Grant, James Griffith

Synopsis: Columbia's final release for 1950 was the Gene Autry western Indian Territory. Set during the Reconstruction Era, the story finds Autry working as an undercover agent for the U.S. cavalry. His mission: to neutralize a former Austrian army officer named Curt Raidler (Phil Van Zandt), who is leading Read More

Where Danger Lives

Actors: Robert Mitchum, Faith Domergue, Claude Rains, Maureen O'Sullivan, Charles Kemper

Synopsis: Faith Domergue, the latest of Howard Hughes' protegees, made her film debut in 1950's Where Danger Lives. Domergue plays Margo Lannington the wife of Frederick Lannington (Claude Rains), an elderly millionaire possessed of a sadistic streak. Robert Mitchum co-stars as Jeff Cameron, a poor soul who Read More

The Jackpot

Actors: James Stewart, Barbara Hale, Natalie Wood, James Gleason, Fred Clark, Patricia Medina, Alan Mowbray

Synopsis: The Jackpot is a generally pleasing satire of quiz programs. James Stewart stars as Bill Lawrence, an average Joe who picks up the phone one day, answers a simple question, and suddenly finds himself the recipient of a radio quiz-show jackpot. Tons of prizes are shipped to Lawrence's house, to the Read More

The Blonde Bandit

Actors: Dorothy Patrick, Gerald Mohr, Robert Rockwell, Larry Blake, Charles Cane

Synopsis: Dorothy Patrick is The Blonde Bandit in this Republic time-filler. The script establishes a degree of sympathy for Gloria Dell (Patrick) by depicting her as more sinned against the sinning. Involved in a holdup masterminded by bookie Joe Sapelli (Gerald Mohr), Gloria is given a chance for Read More

Between Midnight and Dawn

Actors: Mark Stevens, Edmond O'Brien,