Phil Silvers Filmography

The Happy Hooker Goes to Hollywood

Actors: Martine Beswicke, Adam West, Phil Silvers, Richard Deacon, Edie Adams

Synopsis: The notorious madam Xaviera Hollander travels to Tinseltown to film her illustrious autobiography in this comedy. The trouble begins when she encounters a few crooked producers looking to exploit her. Look for a variety of second-string and cult stars including Martine Beswick, Dick Miller, and Adam West Read More

There Goes the Bride

Actors: Tom Smothers, Twiggy, Martin Balsam, Sylvia Syms

Synopsis: Retrograde even at the time of its 1980 release, this filmed version of the mid-'70s play by the same title stars Tom Smothers as Timothy Westerby, the bumbling father of the bride, and his imaginary dance partner, Polly (Twiggy). Events of the chaotic wedding day are told in flashback as Westerby Read More

Nelvanamation, Part 2

Synopsis: This animated anthology is comprised of a few television cartoons from Nelvana Studios and includes "The Jack Rabbit Story." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Goldie and the Boxer

Actors: Phil Silvers, O.J. Simpson, Melissa Michaelsen, Vincent Gardenia

Synopsis: All but forgotten in recent years, the made-for-TV Goldie and the Boxer enjoyed a new lease on life when it was resyndicated to TV in the mid-1990s to capitalize on the notoriety of its star, O. J. Simpson. An old-fashioned tearjerker from the Champ school, the film stars Simpson as unknown boxer Read More

Racquet

Actors: Bjorn Borg, Bobby Riggs, Bert Convy

Synopsis: Bert Convy is the lead fellow here who appears as a tennis pro who uses his fondness for matched points to his advantage as he plays stud-man to his wealthy female clients in order to gather funds enough for his own tennis club. This lame effort includes a cameo by tennis great Bjorn Borg and a Read More

Hey Abbott!

Synopsis: Narrated by Milton Berle, Hey Abbott! is a videotape compilation of highlights from Abbott & Costello's numerous television programs. The tape includes routines like "Who's on First," "The Birthday Party," "Floogle Street" and "Oyster Stew." ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide Read More

The Cheap Detective

Actors: Peter Falk, Ann-Margret, Eileen Brennan, Sid Caesar, Stockard Channing, Dom DeLuise, Louise Fletcher, John Houseman, Madeline Kahn, Scatman Crothers

Synopsis: Spoofing the entire 1940s detective genre, and his own performances as a bumbling private detective, Peter Falk plays Lou Pekinpaugh, a San Francisco private detective accused of murdering his partner at the instigation of his mistress, the partner's wife, Georgia Merkle (Marsha Mason). Police Read More

The Chicken Chronicles

Actors: Phil Silvers, Ed Lauter, Steve Guttenberg, Lisa Reeves, Meredith Baer

Synopsis: Set in the 1960s, the film concerns a high-school senior (Steve Guttenberg, in his first film role) who works at a restaurant while trying to capture the attention of an attractive girl (Lisa Reeves). ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide Read More

The Night They Took Miss Beautiful

Synopsis: In this drama, five beauty aspiring beauty queens are abducted in a hijacked airplane. Also upon the plane is a strain of deadly virus. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The New Love Boat

Actors: Lauren Tewes, Fred Grandy, Bernie Kopell, Gavin MacLeod

Synopsis: The New Love Boat was the third pilot film for the long-running TV series. After several casting missteps in the two earlier films, the series' regular characters are herein solidified: Gavin McLeod as Capt. Stubing, Bernie Kopell as Doc, Fred Grandy as Gopher, Ted Lange as Isaac and Lauren Tewes Read More

Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood

Actors: Bruce Dern, Madeline Kahn, Art Carney, Phil Silvers, Ron Leibman

Synopsis: This spoof makes fun of a certain famous German shepherd movie star from the 1920s. The mayhem begins when the head honcho of a financially struggling studio turns a lost dog into a legend. The story features a number of old stars making cameo appearances. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

All Trails Lead to Las Vegas

Synopsis: All Trails Lead to Las Vegas is an ersatz feature film comprised of two episodes from the TV series Get Christie Love. Teresa Graves stars as Christie, a policewoman on the staff of the LAPD special investigations unit. The episodes represented herein find Christie going undercover to solve a Read More

The Strongest Man in the World

Actors: Kurt Russell, Joe Flynn, Eve Arden, Cesar Romero, Phil Silvers

Synopsis: Kurt Russell returns as Dexter Riley, the dedicated student of Medfield College who just can't stay out of trouble, in this follow-up to The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes and Now You See Him, Now You Don't. In this story, Dexter is trying to devise a formula for a chemistry project that will increase Read More

The Beverly Hillbillies: Honesty Is the Best Policy

Synopsis: In the conclusion of a two-part story arc, con man Shifty Shafer (Phil Silver) has inveigled Jed Clampett into yet another risky investment. This time, Shafer has convinced Jed to bankroll a drilling project, designed to siphon the smog from Los Angeles! In the course of events, both Shifty and Read More

The Beverly Hillbillies: Honest John Returns

Synopsis: Phil Silvers returns as Shifty Shafer, con man extraordinaire. Still passing himself off as the benevolent "Honest John," Shifty again tries his darnedest to fleece the Clampett family. This time around, Shifty elicits Jed's aid in a fraudulent scheme to rid Los Angeles of its smog problem. Kathleen Freeman Read More

The Beverly Hillbillies: Jed Buys the Capitol

Synopsis: In the conclusion of a three-part story arc, the Clampetts are still in Washington, DC, still determined to hand over their entire fortune to the president as a means of ending America's pollution crisis. Con man Shifty Shafer (Phil Silvers) hopes to get a piece of the Clampetts' financial pie by Read More

The Beverly Hillbillies: The Clampetts in Washington

Synopsis: In the second episode of a three-part story arc, the Clampetts arrive in Washington, DC, where they plan to donate their entire fortune to the cause of ending air pollution in America. Though they intend to pay a visit to President Nixon, they are sidetracked by their old acquaintance Honest John Read More

The Boatniks

Actors: Robert Morse, Stefanie Powers, Phil Silvers, Norman Fell, Mickey Shaughnessy

Synopsis: The inept Ensign Garland (Robert Morse) battles a trio of jewel thieves in this Walt Disney comedy. Garland starts by spilling paint on the lovely Kate Fairchild (Stephanie Powers). Harry (Phil Silvers), Max (Norman Fell) and Charlie (Mickey Shaughnessy) try to recover the jewels accidentally Read More

Hollywood Blue

Actors: Mickey Rooney, June Wilkerson

Synopsis: Hollywood Blue is a compilation of scenes taken from cinematic pornography over the years. Mickey Rooney and June Wilkerson are interviewed and give their thoughts about the late Jane Mansfield. Supposedly, Marilyn Monroe is the subject of one film where the female writhes on the floor in her Read More

The Beverly Hillbillies: Jed Buys Central Park

Synopsis: With Elly May's Ozark wedding called off, the Clampett family begins casting about for another potential husband. Figuring that he'll have better luck in a new location, Jed draws up plans to visit New York. Unfortunately, he falls into the clutches of a chap named "Honest John" -- actually con Read More

The Beverly Hillbillies: The Clampetts in New York

Synopsis: In the second of three episodes filmed in New York City, Phil Silvers guest stars as glib con artist Shifty Shafer. Posing as one "Honest John," Shifty has already sold Central Park to the impressionable Clampetts. Now for good measure, he throws in the Staten Island Ferry ("picked up last month Read More

Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell

Actors: Gina Lollobrigida, Shelley Winters, Phil Silvers, Peter Lawford, Telly Savalas

Synopsis: Gina Lollobrigida delivers a bright comic turn in Melvin Frank's farce concerning Carla, an Italian woman who, during World War II, had affairs with three American soldiers who served in the U.S. Army Air Force -- Phil Newman (Phil Silvers), Justin Young (Peter Lawford), and Walter Braddock (Telly Savalas Read More

A Guide for the Married Man

Actors: Walter Matthau, Robert Morse, Inger Stevens, Sue Ane Langdon, Claire Kelly

Synopsis: Ed Stander (Robert Morse), with the help of an all-star cast, teaches Paul Manning (Walter Matthau) the fine art of philandering in A Guide for the Married Man. Paul, happily married to sexy Ruth (Inger Stevens), has no burning desire to cheat, but Ed makes the prospect sound very attractive. Read More

Follow That Camel

Actors: Phil Silvers, Jim Dale, Peter Butterworth, Charles Hawtrey, Kenny Williams

Synopsis: Though not advertised as such, Follow That Camel was an entry in Britain's long-running "Carry On" series. Phil Silvers stars as Sgt. Nocker, a self-styled hero of the Foreign Legion. Nocker's feet of clay are readily apparent to young recruit Bertram Oliphant West (Jim Dale), but "orders is Read More

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

Actors: Zero Mostel, Phil Silvers, Buster Keaton, Jack Gilford, Michael Crawford

Synopsis: Director Richard Lester uses the Burt Shevelove/Larry Gelbart/Stephen Sondheim Broadway musical hit as a launching pad for some of his wildest slapstick gaggery. Zero Mostel repeats his stage role as Pseudolus, the cunning Roman slave who'll do anything to win his freedom. The plot hinges on three Read More

The Lucy Show: Lucy and Phil Silvers

Actors: Phil Silvers, Mary Jane Croft, Tol Avery

Synopsis: Per the episode's title, Phil Silvers appears as Oliver Kasten, the gung-ho efficiency expert hired to get the bank in top shape. Within a few minutes, Kasten has demoted the "inefficient" Mr. Mooney (Gale Gordon) and promoted Lucy (Lucille Ball) to the position of administrative assistant. Read More

Gilligan's Island: The Producer

Actors: Phil Silvers

Synopsis: Phil Silvers, whose own Gladasya Productions held a controlling interest in Gilligan's Island, appears in this classic episode as celebrated Hollywood producer Harold Hecuba. While on a world-wide talent search for his latest epic, Hecuba lands on the Castaways' island. Hoping to persuade the Read More

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

Actors: Spencer Tracy, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, Mickey Rooney, Ethel Merman, Phil Silvers, Dick Shawn, Jimmy Durante, Buster Keaton

Synopsis: With this all-star Cinerama epic, producer/director Stanley Kramer vowed to make "the comedy that would end all comedies." The story begins during a massive traffic jam, caused by reckless driver Smiler Grogan (Jimmy Durante), who, before (literally) kicking the bucket, cryptically tells the Read More

40 Pounds of Trouble

Actors: Tony Curtis, Phil Silvers, Suzanne Pleshette, Claire Wilcox, Larry Storch

Synopsis: Damon Runyon's story "Little Miss Marker" gets a mid-'60s update in this comedy. Steve McCluskey (Tony Curtis) is the manager of a nightspot in Lake Tahoe owned by Bernie Friedman (Phil Silvers). Steve is the kind of guy who has heard every sob story in the book and is not easily impressed, but Read More

Judy Garland and Her Guests Phil Silvers and Robert Goulet

Actors: Judy Garland, Robert Goulet, Phil Silvers

Synopsis: This 1963 television performance was meant to be somewhat of a comeback effort for singing and screen legend Judy Garland. Indeed, the short-lived Judy Garland Show was introuduced quickly thereafter. Along with co-stars Robert Goulet, who was at the time reeling from the Broadway success of Read More

The Beverly Hillbillies [TV Series]

Synopsis: Created by Paul Henning, The Beverly Hillbillies was, next to The Andy Griffith Show, the most successful of CBS' "rural" sitcoms, not to mention one of the most consistently popular comedy series of all time. Its premise was as old as...well, as old as the hills: a family of ignorant country Read More

Summer in New York

Synopsis: New York City is celebrated in this comedy special featuring sketches, songs and dance numbers by Broadway star Carol Haney along with a cameo appearance by the cast of Silvers' Sgt. Bilko series. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Just Polly and Me

Actors: Phil Silvers, Polly Bergen

The Slowest Gun in the West

Actors: Phil Silvers, Jack Benny, Bruce Cabot

The Ballad of Louie the Louse

Actors: Phil Silvers

Star Gazing

Synopsis: This video contains a star-studded broadcast of the 1959 Emmy Awards Ceremony. It also contains a lively comedy short from 1931. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Phil Silvers Show: Season 01

Top Banana

Actors: Phil Silvers, Danny Scholl, Judy Lynn, Jack Albertson

Synopsis: Shot on location in New York City's Winter Garden Theatre, this is essentially a filmed performance of Phil Silver's hit Broadway show in which he plays a moody and egotistical television comic (allegedly patterned after Milton Berle). Trouble begins when the ratings for Jerry Biffle's (Silvers) Read More

Lucky Me

Actors: Doris Day, Robert Cummings, Phil Silvers, Eddie Foy, Jr., Nancy Walker

Synopsis: Lucky Me is a mixed-bag musical from Warner Bros., adhering to a tried-and-true formula that was wearing just a bit thin in 1954. Candy (Doris Day), Hap (Phil Silvers), Duke (Eddie Foy Jr.) and Flo (Nancy Walker) are four small-time performers who find themselves stranded in Miami. Forced to take Read More

Summer Stock

Actors: Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Eddie Bracken, Gloria de Haven, Marjorie Main

Synopsis: Summer Stock represented Judy Garland's swan song at MGM. Garland plays the owner of a New England farm which entrepreneur Gene Kelly hopes to convert into a summer theatre. Gloria DeHaven, a member of Kelly's troupe, also happens to be Garland's sister. Aware that the farm is having financial Read More

If I'm Lucky

Actors: Perry Como, Harry James, Carmen Miranda, Phil Silvers

Synopsis: The second of Perry Como's two starring vehicles for 20th Century-Fox, If I'm Lucky is an easygoing remake of 1937's Thanks a Million. Como plays the old Dick Powell role as Allan Clark, an entertainer who is maneuvered into politics by conniving manager Wally (Phil Silvers, in the role originated Read More

Diamond Horseshoe

Actors: Betty Grable, Dick Haymes, Phil Silvers, William Gaxton, Beatrice Kay, Margaret Dumont

Synopsis: The real Diamond Horseshoe was a Las Vegas nightclub created by impresario Billy Rose, which spotlighted old-time stars from the early 20th century recreating the songs and skits that had made them great. Rose allowed 20th Century-Fox to use the name "Diamond Horseshoe" for a Technicolor musical Read More

A Thousand and One Nights

Actors: Cornel Wilde, Evelyn Keyes, Phil Silvers, Adele Jergens, Dusty Anderson

Synopsis: Thousand and One Nights is an occasionally strident but generally successful satire of the popular Universal Jon Hall/Maria Montez epics. Cornel Wilde stars as a twentyish Aladdin, whose magic lamp yields two genies: Collosus-like Rex Ingram (repeated the role he played in 1940's Thief of Baghdad 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

Take it or Leave it

Actors: Phil Baker, Phil Silvers, Edward Ryan, Marjorie Massow, Stanley Prager

Synopsis: A game show provides the backdrop for this drama that centers on an earnest young husband who desperately needs $1,000 to pay for his wife's obstetrician. To get it fast, he brings his wife and best friend to a radio station where the game is broadcast. He is chosen for the show. Unfortunately Read More

Something for the Boys

Actors: Carmen Miranda, Michael O'Shea, Vivian Blaine, Phil Silvers, Perry Como, Sheila Ryan

Synopsis: The Cole Porter Broadway musical Something for the Boys was brought to the screen by 20th Century Fox with three new non-Porter tunes thrown in. The dated libretto (by Herbert and Dorothy Fields) involves a crumbling Southern plantation which is converted into a home for servicemen's wives. Read More

Cover Girl

Actors: Rita Hayworth, Gene Kelly, Lee Bowman, Phil Silvers, Otto Kruger, Jinx Falkenburg, Eve Arden

Synopsis: Thanks to its Jerome Kern/Ira Gershwin/Yip Harburg score and the luminescence of stars Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly, Cover Girl has taken on a legendary status in recent years. In truth, the film has a banal and predictable premise: a chorus girl (Hayworth) is given a chance for stardom by a Read More

Four Jills in a Jeep

Actors: Kay Francis, Carole Landis, Martha Raye, Mitzi Mayfair

Synopsis: Four Jills in a Jeep is the (mostly) true story of a four-girl USO team, entertaining American troops overseas. Kay Francis, Martha Raye, Carole Landis and Mitzi Mayfair play "themselves," recreating their recent whirlwind tour of Europe and North Africa. This wisp of a plot takes a back seat to Read More

Coney Island

Actors: Betty Grable, George Montgomery, Cesar Romero, Phil Silvers, Charles Winninger

Synopsis: Everything clicks in this tuneful, colorful and profitable Betty Grable musical. The star plays Katie Farley, a gyrating saloon entertainer in turn-of-the-century New York. Convinced that Katie is destined for Bigger Things, Coney Island impresario Eddie Johnson (George Montgomery) tries to turn Read More

A Lady Takes a Chance

Actors: Jean Arthur, John Wayne, Charles Winninger, Phil Silvers, Mary Field

Synopsis: Manhattan working girl Jean Arthur bids goodbye to her three erstwhile suitors (Grant Withers, Hans Conried and Grady Sutton) to take a bus tour of the west. En route, she meets handsome rodeo-star John Wayne, whose bucking bronco hurls him directly into her lap. Stranded in a tank town with Wayne Read More

Just off Broadway

Actors: Lloyd Nolan, Marjorie Weaver, Phil Silvers, Janis Carter, Richard Derr

Synopsis: A private investigator flees from jury duty to prove the defendant's guilt in this detective story. He and his girlfriend, a reporter, begin looking into the suspect's alibis and discover that in addition to the murder he stands trial for, the man has also killed two others. Afterward, the Read More

My Gal Sal

Actors: Rita Hayworth, Victor Mature, Carole Landis, John Sutton, Phil Silvers, James Gleason

Synopsis: A pregnant Alice Faye was forced to bow out of this colorful Fox musical, which instead went to Rita Hayworth, whom the studio borrowed from Columbia. Hayworth plays the highly fictitious Sally Elliott of the title, a musical star teaming up with Indiana boy Paul Dresser (Victor Mature), a runaway Read More

Roxie Hart

Actors: Ginger Rogers, Adolphe Menjou, George Montgomery, Lynne Overman, Nigel Bruce

Synopsis: Based on the Ben Hecht/Charlie McArthur play Chicago, Roxie Hart is a short-but-sweet satire of highly publicized court trials. Ginger Rogers plays showgirl Roxie Hart, whose no-good husband kills a man and insists that Roxie take the blame, since juries seldom send a woman to the chair. She Read More

Footlight Serenade

Actors: John Payne, Betty Grable, Victor Mature, Jane Wyman, Phil Silvers, James Gleason

Synopsis: Victor Mature plays an arrogant champion boxer who opts for an acting career on Broadway. He falls in love with his costar Betty Grable, who's secretly married to actor John Payne. Unwilling to make public her marriage lest it adversely affect her career, Grable is unsuccessful in fending off Read More

Tom, Dick and Harry

Actors: Ginger Rogers, George Murphy, Alan Marshal, Burgess Meredith, Phil Silvers, Joe Cunningham

Synopsis: Working girl Ginger Rogers (who dresses like movie star Ginger Rogers, despite her meager salary!) cannot decide which of her three suitors will march her down the aisle. Will it be fast-talking automobile salesman George Murphy, wealthy Alan Marshall, or free-spirited, eternally unemployed Burgess Meredith? Read More

All Through the Night

Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Conrad Veidt, Kaaren Verne, Jane Darwell, Frank McHugh

Synopsis: Humphrey Bogart plays Gloves Donahue, a rough-hewn but essentially decent New York gambler. The Runyonesque plot gets moving when Gloves tries to find out what's holding up his favorite restaurant's daily shipment of cheesecake. Paying a call on the bakery, Gloves stumbles into a Nazi spy ring Read More

Lady Be Good

Actors: Eleanor Powell, Ann Sothern, Robert Young, Lionel Barrymore, John Carroll

Synopsis: The 1924 George Gershwin stage hit Lady Be Good was brought to the screen by MGM; any resemblance (beyond the Gershwin score) to the original play is purely accidental. The MGM scriveners came up with a new story concerning married songwriters Ann Sothern and Robert Young, who can't live with each Read More

The Penalty

Actors: Edward Arnold, Lionel Barrymore, Marsha Hunt, Robert Sterling, Gene Reynolds

Synopsis: In this crime drama, a ruthless gangster's son is soon following in his father's footsteps. When his daddy kills an FBI agent and a cabby, the boy sees it all. Fortunately the courts intervene and send the lad off to live with a family of farmers. Country living agrees with the boy and soon with Read More

The Wild Man of Borneo

Actors: Frank Morgan, Mary Howard, Marjorie Main, Billie Burke, Donald Meek

Synopsis: In this comedy drama, a medicine show con-man pretends to be a wealthy man to impress his long-lost daughter who is slated to inherit a vast fortune. Unfortunately, she turns out to be someone else's daughter. Later he finds his own and discovers that she has less money than he does. They decide Read More

You're in the Army Now

Actors: Jimmy Durante, Jane Wyman, Phil Silvers, Regis Toomey, George Meeker, Donald MacBride

Synopsis: In the wake of Abbott & Costello's Buck Privates, every studio in Hollywood began cranking out service comedies. Warner Bros.' contribution to this trend was You're in the Army Now, featuring the unlikely but undeniably chucklesome duo of Jimmy Durante and Phil Silvers. The stars are cast as Read More

Ice-Capades

Actors: James Ellison,