Richard Fleischer Filmography

Million Dollar Mystery

Crew: Director

Actors: Eddie Deezen, Wendy Sherman, Rick Overton, Mona Lyden, Douglas Emerson

Synopsis: A government worker (Tom Bosley) informs several diner patrons of a $4 million treasure he stole from a group of Libyans and then hid, but dies before uttering more than a few clues. What follows is a mad dash for the cash. As part of the film's promotion, the sponsors offered $1 million to the Read More

Red Sonja

Crew: Director

Actors: Brigitte Nielsen, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sandahl Bergman, Paul L. Smith, Ernie Reyes, Jr.

Synopsis: Brigitte Nielsen appears as warrior woman Sonja, who unites with a couple of other gladiator types (including Arnold Schwarzenegger) to overthrow the evil queen Gedren (Sandahl Bergman) and avenge the deaths of Sonja's family. This story descends from the writings of Robert E. Howard (author of Conan Read More

Conan the Destroyer

Crew: Director

Actors: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Grace Jones, Wilt Chamberlain, Mako, Tracey Walter

Synopsis: Based on a character created by Robert E. Howard, this fast-paced, occasionally humorous sequel to Conan the Barbarian features the hero (Arnold Schwarzenegger) as he is commissioned by the evil queen Taramis (Sarah Douglas) to safely escort a teen princess (Olivia D'Abo) and her powerful Read More

Tough Enough

Crew: Director

Actors: Dennis Quaid, Carlene Watkins, Stan Shaw, Pam Grier, Warren Oates

Synopsis: In this sports-oriented drama, Art Long (Dennis Quaid), a loser as a country singer, starts competing in local fist-fight matches in order to bring home a little extra cash -- and is caught up in his successes enough to continue on to the big national finals. Predictable from the first round Read More

Amityville 3-D

Crew: Director

Actors: Tony Roberts, Tess Harper, Robert Joy, Candy Clark, John Beal

Synopsis: The third installment in the haunted-house saga discards any pretense of being based on actual events in order to provide the requisite cheap thrills sought by audiences during the short-lived 3-D revival of the early '80s. When a skeptical reporter (Tony Roberts) with a penchant for debunking Read More

The Rise and Fall of Idi Amin

Crew: Director

Synopsis: While Idi Umin Dada terrorized Uganda with a barbaric, 8-year, depotic rule, he portrayed himself to the world at large as a fat buffoon, albeit in military garb. How the press corps managed to perpetuate that image in the face of his army's rampage against an estimated 500,000 Ugandan victims of Read More

The Jazz Singer

Crew: Director

Actors: Neil Diamond, Laurence Olivier, Lucie Arnaz, Catlin Adams, Paul Nicholas, Franklyn Ajaye

Synopsis: Pop singer Neil Diamond stars in this ill-begotten second remake of Al Jolson's seminal 1927 musical The Jazz Singer. The moth-eaten story concerns a cantor's son who desires success as a pop singer, despite the wishes of his imperious father. The film takes place in the present day with Yussel Read More

Ashanti

Crew: Director

Actors: Michael Caine, Peter Ustinov, Beverly Johnson, Omar Sharif, Kabir Bedi, Rex Harrison

Synopsis: Released simply as Ashanti, this search-and-rescue film was adapted by scenarist Stephen Geller (Slaughterhouse-Five) from Evano, a novel by Alberto Vasques-Figueroa. Odious middle-eastern slave trader Peter Ustinov sets the plot in motion by kidnapping Beverly Johnson, the wife of World Health Read More

The Prince and the Pauper

Crew: Director

Actors: Oliver Reed, Raquel Welch, Mark Lester, Ernest Borgnine, George C. Scott

Synopsis: A poor commoner and a young prince each find out how the other half lives in this adventure story based on the classic tale by Mark Twain. Tom Canty (Mark Lester) is a young man from a laboring family who bears a striking resemblance to Prince Edward (also played by Lester), the son of King Henry Read More

The Incredible Sarah

Crew: Director

Actors: Glenda Jackson, Daniel Massey, Yvonne Mitchell, Douglas Wilmer, David Langton

Synopsis: Every so often, an actor or actress will achieve a fame which transcends any memory of their work, and he or she becomes synonymous with the word "star." Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923) was one such person. A commanding performance by Glenda Jackson towers over this episodic drama chronicling the Read More

Mandingo

Crew: Director

Actors: James Mason, Susan George, Brenda Sykes

Synopsis: Richard Fleischer directed this lurid historical drama based on the novel by Kyle Onstott. The story begins on a run-down plantation lorded over by Warren Maxwell (James Mason) and his son Hammond (Perry King). Hammond travels to New Orleans where he buys a top-of-the-line slave, Mede (Ken Read More

The Spikes Gang

Crew: Director

Synopsis: In this western, an outlaw is wounded in battle and manages to escape to the home of two helpful runaways who help him recuperate. During this time, the outlaw regales them with thrilling tales of his adventurous exploits. His stories inspire the lads to form a gang of their own; the outlaw is Read More

Mr. Majestyk

Crew: Director

Actors: Charles Bronson, Al Lettieri, Linda Cristal, Lee Purcell, Paul Koslo

Synopsis: Elmore Leonard's script for Mr. Majestyk was, like his novel, supposed to have concentrated on the plight of Chicano migrant workers; but what emerged on screen was extensively reshaped into a standard Charles Bronson vehicle. Battle-weary Vietnam veteran Vince Majestyk (Bronson) settles down in Read More

The Deadly Kiss

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Deadly Kiss and Beautiful But Deadly are alternate titles for the Godfather knockoff The Don is Dead. Anthony Quinn is appointed mob leader after the reigning Don expires. Syndicate functionaries Frederic Forrest and Al Lettieri, sons of the deceased don, refuse to align themselves with Quinn Read More

Soylent Green

Crew: Director

Actors: Charlton Heston, Edward G. Robinson, Leigh Taylor-Young, Chuck Connors, Joseph Cotten, Brock Peters

Synopsis: Richard Fleischer directed this nightmarish science fiction vision of an over-populated world, based on the novel by Harry Harrison. In 2022, New York City is a town bursting at the seams with a 40-million-plus population. Food is in short supply, and most of the population's food source comes Read More

The Don Is Dead

Crew: Director

Actors: Anthony Quinn, Frederic Forrest, Robert Forster, Al Lettieri, Angel Tompkins

Synopsis: In this organized crime drama (one of many that came in the wake of The Godfather, Tony (Frederic Forrest) and Vince (Al Lettieri) are two brothers whose father is a high-ranking Mafia kingpin; they've followed him into the family business, operating a profitable drug ring. While waiting for a Read More

The New Centurions

Crew: Director

Actors: George C. Scott, Stacy Keach, Jane Alexander, Scott Wilson, Rosalind Cash

Synopsis: Joseph Wambaugh's best-seller about patrol-car cops in urban Los Angeles is given a competent yet antiseptic treatment by director Richard Fleischer. The film has a bad-tasting us-versus-them mentality in its depiction of patrolmen-civilian interaction, and its hopeless atmosphere carries over Read More

See No Evil

Crew: Director

Actors: Mia Farrow, Dorothy Alison, Robin Bailey, Diane Grayson, Brian Rawlinson

Synopsis: This riff on Wait Until Dark is a mixed bag but still manages to offer a few surprises. Brian Clemens' script starts off with a clever premise and offers some solid moments of suspense. Unfortunately, See No Evil begins to drift in its final third, when it introduces one too many plot Read More

The Last Run

Crew: Director

Actors: George C. Scott, Tony Musante, Trish VanDevere, Colleen Dewhurst

Synopsis: George C. Scott stars in The Last Run as an aging mob driver hoping to make one last big haul and retire. Harry Garmes (Scott) is persuaded by his old cronies to drive escaped criminal Paul Ricard (Tony Musante) and his girlfriend, Claudio Schemer (Trish VanDevere), across Spain to safety. Garmes Read More

10 Rillington Place

Crew: Director

Actors: Ray Barron, Richard Attenborough, Judy Geeson, John Hurt, Pat Heywood, Isobel Black

Synopsis: 10 Rillington Place is the true story of British mass murderer John Reginald Christie, played with chilling "normality" by Richard Attenborough. Throughout the late '40s, Christie lures middle-aged women to his London flat promising to cure their ailments with nitrous oxide, then kills them Read More

Tora! Tora! Tora!

Crew: Director

Actors: Martin Balsam, So Yamamura, Joseph Cotten, Tatsuya Mihashi, E.G. Marshall

Synopsis: This 25-million dollar epic collaboration accurately recreates the events that led to the Japanese attack on the American naval base during World War II. With Germany's invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, the wheels are set in motion by Japan to plan the attack. After internal differences in Read More

Che!

Crew: Director

Actors: Omar Sharif, Jack Palance, Cesare Danova, Robert Loggia, Woody Strode

Synopsis: In this badly misconceived pseudo-biography of the legendary Cuban revolutionary -- played, incredibly, by Omar Sharif -- Che Guevara takes up the cause as a rebel fighter under the direction of Fidel Castro, played -- also incredibly -- by Jack Palance. Guevara, a young Argentine doctor, proves Read More

The Boston Strangler

Crew: Director

Actors: Tony Curtis, Henry Fonda, George Kennedy, Mike Kellin, Hurd Hatfield

Synopsis: The Boston Strangler adopts the split-screen technique then in vogue (see also The Thomas Crown Affair) to relate the true story of self-confessed mass murderer Albert DeSalvo. Adapted by Edward Anhalt from the book by Gerold Frank, the film covers the years 1962 to 1964, during which time a dozen Read More

Doctor Dolittle

Crew: Director

Actors: Rex Harrison, Samantha Eggar, Anthony Newley, Richard Attenborough, Peter Bull

Synopsis: Rex Harrison, although not at all like the portly man described in Hugh Lofting's charming series of children's stories, is sheer perfection as the kindly animal doctor in Leslie Bricusse's musical fantasy Doctor Dolittle. Sadly, Harrison is the only thing nearing perfection in this overstuffed Read More

Fantastic Voyage

Crew: Director

Actors: Stephen Boyd, Raquel Welch, Edmond O'Brien, Donald Pleasence, Arthur O'Connell, William Redfield

Synopsis: Stephen Boyd heads a team of scientists sent on a bizarre experimental mission. Through a revolutionary and as-yet untested process, the scientists and their special motorized vehicle are miniaturized, then injected into the blood stream of a near-death scientist (Jean del Val). Their mission is Read More

Barabbas

Crew: Director

Actors: Anthony Quinn, Silvana Mangano, Arthur Kennedy, Katy Jurado, Jack Palance, Harry Andrews, Vittorio Gassman, Ernest Borgnine

Synopsis: This 1962 Biblical epic was adapted by Christopher Fry from the novel by Pär Lagerkvist. Anthony Quinn stars as Barabbas, the thief who was pardoned in place of Jesus. For the rest of his life, the guilt-ridden criminal tries to justify his existence and to determine his place in the scheme of Read More

The Big Gamble

Crew: Director

Actors: Stephen Boyd, Juliette Greco, David Wayne, Gregory Ratoff, Fernand Ledoux, Sybil Thorndike

Synopsis: This adventure melodrama concerns Vic Brennan (Stephen Boyd), who persuades his family to put up money for him to leave Dublin for the remote African town of Jebanda in order to start up a truck-hauling business. The family agrees to give Vic the money under the stipulation that his cousin Samuel (David Wayne Read More

Crack in the Mirror

Crew: Director

Actors: Orson Welles, Juliette Greco, Bradford Dillman, Alexander Knox, Catherine Lacy

Synopsis: Three stars appear in two separate but intertwined stories of romantic triangles gone wrong in this ambitious drama. In the first segment, Hagolin (Orson Welles) is a loutish construction worker with an unhappy wife, Eponine (Juliette Greco). The wife becomes involved with a swarthy working man Read More

These Thousand Hills

Crew: Director

Actors: Don Murray, Richard Egan, Lee Remick, Stuart Whitman, Albert Dekker

Synopsis: Don Murray stars as a humble cowboy with aspirations for bigger things. He borrows money from his dance-hall girlfriend Lee Remick to buy a ranch, then dumps Remick in favor of banker's daughter Patricia Owens. Murray runs for political office, and in so doing is compelled to join a posse in Read More

Compulsion

Crew: Director

Actors: Orson Welles, Dean Stockwell, Bradford Dillman, Diane Varsi, E.G. Marshall

Synopsis: Compulsion is a compelling, stylish thriller, loosely based on the famous 1924 murder trial of thrill-killers Loeb and Leopold, two homosexual students who murdered a young boy to demonstrate their intellectual superiority. Artie Straus (Bradford Dillman) is a sadistic, mother-dominated bully. Read More

The Vikings

Crew: Director

Actors: Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, Ernest Borgnine, Janet Leigh, James Donald, Alexander Knox

Synopsis: Inspired by the novel The Viking by Edison Marshall, The Vikings was lensed on location in Norway under extremely adverse weather conditions. Adding to the difficulty was the fact that star Kirk Douglas and director Richard Fleischer never quite found a common ground, and for years thereafter Read More

Bandido

Crew: Director

Actors: Robert Mitchum, Ursula Thiess, Gilbert Roland, Zachary Scott, Rodopho (Rudy) Acosta

Synopsis: Bandido is set during the Mexican civil war of 1916. Robert Mitchum stars as a sleepy-eyed soldier of fortune who finds himself in the middle of the fracas. At first refusing to take sides, Mitchum eventually casts his lot with insurrectionist Gilbert Roland. On the opposite side of the fence is Read More

Between Heaven and Hell

Crew: Director

Actors: Robert Wagner, Terry Moore, Broderick Crawford, Buddy Ebsen, Robert Keith

Synopsis: Robert Wagner stars as insensitive Southern landowner who gets a much-overdue dose of humility and democracy when he's drafted into the army. Unable to curb his arrogance, Wagner runs afoul of a sadistic military officer (Broderick Crawford), who makes it his mission in life to break the Read More

Violent Saturday

Crew: Director

Actors: Victor Mature, Richard Egan, Stephen McNally, Virginia Leith, Lee Marvin, Tommy Noonan

Synopsis: Three bank robbers (J. Carroll Naish, Lee Marvin, Stephen McNally) case a small Arizona mining town prior to pulling a holdup. The audience get to know the various townsfolk as they're scrutinized by the crooks. Victor Mature plays a man who is a disappointment to his son because he didn't serve Read More

The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing

Crew: Director

Actors: Ray Milland, Joan Collins, Farley Granger, Luther Adler

Synopsis: Evelyn Nesbit Thaw, the real-life personality so brilliantly (albeit briefly) portrayed by Elizabeth McGovern in Ragtime (1981), is given the full biopic treatment in 20th Century Fox's The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing. Since the real Mrs. Thaw served as technical advisor for the film, it isn't Read More

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Crew: Director

Actors: Kirk Douglas, James Mason, Paul Lukas, Peter Lorre, Robert J. Wilke

Synopsis: This 1954 Disney version of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea represented the studio's costliest and most elaborate American-filmed effort to date. Kirk Douglas plays a trouble-shooting 19th century seaman, trying to discover why so many whaling ships have been disappearing of late. Read More

Arena

Crew: Director

Actors: Gig Young, Jean Hagen, Polly Bergen, Barbara Lawrence

Synopsis: Bob Danvers, an arrogant, irresponsible rodeo star, retaliates for losing his wife by having an affair with a pretty fan in this melodrama. His wife, Ruth, really loves him, but she can no longer handle his selfishness and leaves. Hob has his moment of truth at a major Tucson rodeo when his Read More

The Happy Time

Crew: Director

Actors: Charles Boyer, Louis Jourdan, Marsha Hunt, Kurt Kasznar, Linda Christian

Synopsis: The Happy Time was adapted from the long-running Broadway play by Samuel Taylor, which in turn was based on the novel by Robert Fontaine. Set in Quebec during the early part of the 20th century, the film concentrates on the activities of a large French-Canadian family headed by Charles Boyer. Most Read More

The Narrow Margin

Crew: Director

Actors: Charles McGraw, Marie Windsor, Jacqueline White, Gordon Geberl, Queenie Leonard

Synopsis: The Narrow Margin is generally considered a "model" B picture; some film buffs go farther than that, labelling this 1952 RKO suspenser as the best low-budget studio production ever made. Nail-hard detective Walter Brown (Charles McGraw) is assigned to protect gangster's widow Mrs. Neall (Marie Windsor Read More

Armored Car Robbery

Crew: Director

Actors: Charles McGraw, Adele Jergens, William Talman, Douglas Fowley, Steve Brodie

Synopsis: Some auteur critics feel that director Richard O. Fleischer did his best work while laboring in the "B" mills of RKO Radio. Fleischer's minimalist noir exercise Armored Car Robbery stars William Talman as the chief crook and Charles McGraw as the detective dogging his trail. A shade Read More

Follow Me Quietly

Crew: Director

Actors: William Lundigan, Dorothy Patrick, Jeff Corey, Charles D. Brown

Synopsis: Lieutenant Harry Grant (William Lundigan) and Sgt. Art Collins (Jeff Corey) have been handed the unenviable assignment of tracking down "The Judge," a mysterious serial murderer responsible for seven deaths over the past few months. The police have plenty of clues and forensic evidence, but no Read More

Make Mine Laughs

Crew: Director

Actors: Ray Bolger, Joan Davis

Synopsis: Make Mine Laughs was the second of three RKO Radio "pastiche" films, largely comprised of musical and comedy highlights from previous RKO productions. Comedian Gil Lamb hosts the proceedings, finding time to make satirical comments about the opening credits and to perform his "swallowing the Read More

Bodyguard

Crew: Director

Actors: Lawrence Tierney, Priscilla Lane, Phillip Reed, June Clayworth, Elizabeth Risdon

Synopsis: Granite-jawed Lawrence Tierney is the Bodyguard in this second-echelon noir thriller. Invited to resign from the LA police, short-tempered Mike Carter (Tierney) hires on to protect wealthy dowager Eugenia Dyson (Elizabeth Risdon). Before the film has reached its halfway point, Carter has been Read More

Trapped

Crew: Director

Actors: Lloyd Bridges, John Hoyt, Barbara Payton, James Todd, Russ Conway

Synopsis: When nearly perfect counterfeit 20-dollar bills start turning up, the Treasury Department recognizes them as the work of Tris Stewart (Lloyd Bridges), a man already doing a long prison stretch. They offer Stewart a break on his sentence if he'll help them find out who got hold of his old plates Read More

The Clay Pigeon

Crew: Director

Actors: Bill Williams, Barbara Hale, Richard Quine, Richard Loo

Synopsis: Richard O. Fleischer made his feature-film directorial debut with the well-crafted melodrama Clay Pigeon. Inspired by a true story, the film stars Bill Williams as Jim Fletcher, whose wartime experiences in a Japanese POW camp have left him with profound emotional problems. Awakening from a coma Read More

Design for Death

Crew: Director

Actors: Hans Conried

Synopsis: This 48-minute cautionary documentary was the brainchild of Theodore S. Geisel, better known to generations of children as Dr. Seuss. An expert on Oriental history, Geisel and his wife Helen hoped to steer audiences clear of war by underlining the unheeded warning signs of WWII. Utilizing captured Read More

So This Is New York

Crew: Director

Actors: Henry Morgan, Rudy Vallee, Bill Goodwin, Leo Gorcey, Virginia Grey

Synopsis: Radio humorist Henry Morgan made his film debut in So This is New York. Based on The Big Town, a collection of stories by Ring Lardner, the film traces country bumpkin Morgan's progress as he uses an inheritance to take a trip with his wife (Virginia Grey) and sister-in-law (Dona Drake) to the New Read More

Banjo

Crew: Director

Actors: Sharyn Moffett, Jacqueline White, Walter Reed, Una O'Connor, Herbert Evans

Synopsis: In this sentimental children's yarn, a little girl is orphaned when her father, a Georgia plantation owner, is trampled by a frightened horse. Now the child and her beloved dog Banjo must reside with her cold, unfriendly aunt in Boston. The proper old woman will not allow the dog in her house and Read More

Child of Divorce

Crew: Director

Actors: Sharyn Moffett, Regis Toomey, Madge Meredith, Walter Reed, Una O'Connor

Synopsis: A remake of 1934's Wednesday's Child (itself based on a play by Leopold L. Atlas) RKO's Child of Divorce stars 11-year-old Sharyn Moffett in the title role. When her parents (Regis Toomey and Madge Meredith) break up, Sharyn finds herself in the middle of a bitter custody battle. It soom becomes Read More