Robert PrestonFilmography

Finnegan Begin Again

Actors: Mary Tyler Moore, Robert Preston, Sylvia Sidney

Synopsis: Written by Walter Lockwood and directed by Joan Micklin Silver, Finnegan Begin Again is a whimsical comedy drama about a late-blooming romance. Robert Preston plays a Mike Finnegan, 65-year-old newspaperman resigned to wasting his time on a lonely hearts column and caring for his ailing Read More

The Last Starfighter

Actors: Lance Guest, Robert Preston, Dan O'Herlihy, Catherine Stewart, Barbara Bosson

Synopsis: Trailer-park teenager Lance Guest regularly escapes from his humdrum existence by playing the video game Starfighter. His expertise at this recreational endeavor attracts the attention of affable stranger Robert Preston. Before he knows what's happening, Guest is whisked by Preston into the Read More

September Gun

Synopsis: Robert Preston seems to be having the time of his life in the made-for-TV September Gun. The "Music Man" is cast as a long-in-tooth gunfighter who forms an uneasy alliance with Catholic nun Patty Duke Astin. The single-minded sister wants to erect a sanctuary for a group of Apache orphans. Preston Read More

Going Berserk

Crew: Songwriter

Actors: John Candy, Eugene Levy, Alley Mills, Pat Hingle, Elizabeth Kerr

Synopsis: In this comedy, a stuffy congressman is dismayed when he discovers that his beloved daughter intends to marry limousine driver John Bourgignon (John Candy). While intending to put on a good show for his father-in-law to be, John is captured by some political opponents of the congressman. His Read More

Going Hollywood

Rehearsal for Murder

Synopsis: Richard Levinson and William Link serve up another Thinking Man's murder mystery with the made-for-television Rehearsal for Murder. Playwright Robert Preston is on the verge of marrying glamorous film star Lynn Redgrave. But a scant few hours after her Broadway debut, Redgrave is found dead, an Read More

Victor/Victoria

Actors: Julie Andrews, James Garner, Robert Preston, Lesley Ann Warren, Alex Karras

Synopsis: On the verge of starvation in 1930s Paris, erstwhile entertainer Victoria (Julie Andrews) is rescued by gay cabaret performer Toddy (Robert Preston). What she needs to succeed, opines Toddy, is a gimmick. What if she becomes a male impersonator? Better still: what if she becomes a male Read More

S.O.B.

Actors: Julie Andrews, William Holden, Marisa Berenson, Larry Hagman, Robert Loggia

Synopsis: In this biting comedy satirizing Hollywood cynicism from writer-director Blake Edwards, Felix Farmer (Richard Mulligan) is a motion picture director whose career is on the skids. Having just completed a family musical that is sure to be a $30 million flop, Felix knows that his days are numbered Read More

The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg

Actors: Robert Preston

Synopsis: Filmed in Vermont, The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg is based on one of Mark Twain's more mysoginistic works. Mysterious stranger Robert Preston shows up in Hadleyburg, a town that prides itself upon the honesty and integrity of its leaders. Preston offers $40,000 in gold to the anonymous Read More

The Chisholms

Synopsis: The Chisholms was a three-part miniseries adapted by Evan Hunter from his own novel. Covering the years 1842 through 1844, the dramatization follows the westward trek of the Chisholm family. Patriarch Robert Preston is driven from his midwestern homestead by a feud. Starting down the Ohio river, Preston Read More

Semi-Tough

Actors: Burt Reynolds, Kris Kristofferson, Jill Clayburgh, Robert Preston, Bert Convy

Synopsis: Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristofferson star as two pro-football pals who both fall for the team-owner's very rich daughter. Kind of goofy, kind of funny, and somewhat endearing--those are the qualities that surface in this light-hearted comedy built upon an extremely predictable scenario. ~ All Read More

My Father's House

Actors: Robert Preston, Cliff Robertson

Synopsis: A magazine editor (Cliff Robertson) suffers a heart attack and begins to reminisce about the happy childhood he spent with his father (Robert Preston). The memories cause him to wonder about the family he has raised since growing up. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide Read More

Mame

Actors: George Chiang, Lucille Ball, Robert Preston, Bea Arthur, Kirby Furlong, Bruce Davison

Synopsis: Lucille Ball stars in this film version of the hit Jerry Herman Broadway musical, which featured an electrifying performance by Angela Lansbury. As Patrick Dennis' plucky and resilient Auntie Mame, Ball's low-pitched, growling moan of a voice (a spine-chilling reminder of the sound of Linda Read More

Junior Bonner

Actors: Steve McQueen, Robert Preston, Ida Lupino, Ben Johnson, Joe Don Baker

Synopsis: Sam Peckinpah eschews his slow-motion bullet ballets for this quiet character study of ex-rodeo cowboy turned drifter Junior Bonner (Steve McQueen), who returns home to Arizona to reconcile with the family he hasn't seen in years. Bonner is shocked to see that the solid family he was hoping to Read More

Child's Play

Actors: Paul Alessi, Anthony Barletta, Kevin Coupe, Christopher Hoag, Stephen McLaughlin, Robert D. Randall, Robbie Reed, James Mason, Robert Preston, Beau Bridges, Ron Weyand, Charles White

Synopsis: Leon Prochnik adapted the evocative Robert Moresco play Child's Play for the screen, with Sidney Lumet assuming directorial duties. Beau Bridges stars as a young teacher at an exclusive Catholic boy's boarding school named Paul Reis. An outbreak of violence and brutality among the students has Read More

All the Way Home

Actors: Jean Simmons, Robert Preston, Pat Hingle, Aline MacMahon, Thomas Chalmers

Synopsis: A seven year old and his mother cope with his father's death in an auto accident. His grieving mother is in denial, and the rush of well-meaning relatives fails to help the situation. The boy observes the reaction of adults to the death of his father, taking refuge in the world and games of Read More

Island of Love

Actors: Robert Preston, Tony Randall, Giorgia Moll, Walter Matthau, Betty Bruce

Synopsis: In this different type of gangster farce with a few flaws here and there, Robert Preston is Steve Blair, a superlative con artist whose sidekick Paul Ferris (Tony Randall) is a boozy writer currently working on a cartoon. Steve gets the idea of producing a movie based on Genesis in the Bible and Read More

The Music Man

Actors: Robert Preston, Shirley Jones, Buddy Hackett, Pert Kelton, Ronny Howard, Hermione Gingold, Paul Ford

Synopsis: Meredith Wilson's hit 1957 Broadway musical was transferred to the screen in larger-than-life fashion in 1962. Robert Preston repeats his legendary stage performance as fast-talking con man Harold Hill, who goes from town to town selling citizens on starting a "boy's band," then extracts money Read More

How the West Was Won

Actors: James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Gregory Peck, Debbie Reynolds, Richard Widmark, George Peppard, Karl Malden, John Wayne

Synopsis: Filmed in panoramic Cinerama, this star-studded, epic Western adventure is a true cinematic classic. Three legendary directors (Henry Hathaway, John Ford, and George Marshall) combine their skills to tell the story of three families and their travels from the Erie Canal to California between 1839 Read More

The Dark at the Top of the Stairs

Actors: Robert Preston, Dorothy McGuire, Eve Arden, Angela Lansbury, Shirley Knight

Synopsis: Robert Preston plays the flip side of his eternally ebullient Professor Harold Hill in Dark at the Top of the Stairs. Preston portrays an early 20th-century harness salesman, fully aware that his product is rapidly becoming obsolete. He tries to compensate for his own lack of self-esteem by Read More

Playhouse 90: Made in Heaven

Synopsis: Adapted by Hagar Wilde from his own 1946 Broadway play, this TV version of Made in Heaven offered the once-in-a-lifetime pairing of Imogene Coca and Robert Preston. After several years of marriage, Elsa and Zachary Meredith (Coca, Preston) have a tendency to take each other for granted. All this Read More

The Last Frontier

Actors: Victor Mature, Guy Madison, Robert Preston, James Whitmore, Anne Bancroft

Synopsis: Victor Mature is in rare form in this otherwise uneven cavalry Western about a trapper who prevents a Little Big Horn-type disaster. Having been robbed of a year's worth of skins by marauding Indians, Jed Cooper (Mature), Gus Hideout (James Whitmore), and Mungo (Pat Hogan) sign on at a nearby Read More

Child of the Regiment

Synopsis: Bigotry and interracial adoption form the basis of this drama. The trouble begins when an Army captain and his wife adopt a Japanese orphan. Suddenly they find themselves facing unanticipated prejudice. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Face to Face

Actors: James Mason, Gene Lockhart, Michael Pate, Robert Preston, Albert Sharpe, Marjorie Steele, Sean McClory

Synopsis: RKO's Face to Face joined the "multistoried film" bandwagon set in motion by the Somerset Maugham omnibus films of the late 1940s. Produced by Huntington Hartford, Face to Face consists of two classic American short stories, each running approximately 45 minutes. Directed by John Brahm, "The Read More

When I Grow Up

Actors: Bobby Driscoll, Robert Preston, Martha Scott, Sherry Jackson, John McGovern

Synopsis: When I Grow Up is an uncharacteristically modest film from producer Sam Spiegel (during his "S. P. Eagle" years). Bobby Driscoll plays a young boy who feels neglected and misunderstood at home. Preparing to run away, Bobby chances across an old diary once kept by his grandfather (Charley Read More

Cloudburst

Actors: Robert Preston, Elizabeth Sellars, Colin Tapley, Sheila Burrell, Harold Lang

Synopsis: Teeny-tiny Hammer pictures built its reputation on second-feature melodramas before graduating to gore-encrusted horror epics. Cloudburst is a low-key thriller starring American actor Robert Preston, whose casting assured a certain degree of business in the States. Preston plays a code expert Read More

My Outlaw Brother

Actors: Mickey Rooney, Wanda Hendrix, Robert Preston, Carlos Muzquiz

Synopsis: This medium-budget western is also known as My Brother, the Outlaw and Outlaw Brother. Mickey Rooney plays an Eastern dude who heads westward to visit his brother Robert Stack. When ranger Robert Preston informs Rooney that Stack is a wanted outlaw, the Mick refuses to believe it. But when Read More

Best of the Badmen

Actors: Robert Ryan, Claire Trevor, Jack Buetel, Robert Preston, Walter Brennan

Synopsis: Though RKO Radio Pictures was, in 1951, still faithful to the concept of "B" westerns starring Tim Holt, the studio was more than capable of turning out an "A" oater from time to time. Best of the Badmen stars Robert Ryan as a former Union officer who persuades a fictional vigilante group which Read More

The Sundowners

Actors: Robert Preston, Robert Sterling, Chill Wills, John Litel, Cathy Downs

Synopsis: Filmed in a two-tone process called Cinecolor, The Sundowners is a compact little western making good use of an old Hollywood chestnut. Robert Preston and Robert Sterling play two brothers who find themselves on opposite sides of the legal fence. Since Sterling rather than Preston has the mustache Read More

Tulsa

Actors: Susan Hayward, Robert Preston, Pedro Armendáriz, Lloyd Gough, Chill Wills

Synopsis: Tulsa was, in 1949, the most elaborate production released to date by the Eagle-Lion corporation-though all evidence, especially the technical credits, suggests that the film was put together at Universal-International, then merely distriibuted by Eagle-Lion (who made a fortune at the box office). Read More

The Lady Gambles

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Preston, Stephen McNally, Edith Barrett, John Hoyt

Synopsis: Barbara Stanwyck plays a woman whose addiction to gambling all but ruins her life. Stanwyck's husband Robert Preston tries to stand by her side, but even he is driven away by her gambling mania. Stanwyck lies, cheats and steals in order to raise capital for her addiction, descending from Read More

Blood on the Moon

Actors: Robert Mitchum, Barbara Bel Geddes, Robert Preston, Walter Brennan, Phyllis Thaxter

Synopsis: One of the best "psychological" westerns of the 1940s, RKO Radio's Blood on the Moon stars Robert Mitchum as itinerant cowboy Jim Garry. Riding into a Texas Indian reservation, Garry finds himself embroiled in a deadly feud between cattle ranchers and homesteaders. He befriends both Amy Lufton (Barbara Bel Geddes Read More

Whispering Smith

Actors: Alan Ladd, Brenda Marshall, Robert Preston, Donald Crisp, William Demarest

Synopsis: This fact -based western follows a soft-spoken railroad detective (Alan Ladd) as he brings a murderous ring of robbers to justice and rekindles an old flame. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Big City

Actors: Margaret O'Brien, Robert Preston, Danny Thomas, George Murphy, Karin [Katharine] Booth

Synopsis: MGM's all-purpose title The Big City was deployed once more for this treacly 1948 drama. To prevent orphaned Midge (Margaret O'Brien) from being sent to an institution, Protestant minister Andrews (Robert Preston), Jewish cantor Feldman (Danny Thomas) and Catholic cop Patrick O'Donnell (George Murphy Read More

The Macomber Affair

Actors: Gregory Peck, Robert Preston, Joan Bennett, Reginald Denny, Carl Harbord

Synopsis: When a man dies under suspicious circumstances, the law must decide if it was murder or an accident. Francis Macomber (Robert Preston) is a wealthy, carefree gentleman who hires Robert Wilson (Gregory Peck), an expert hunter, as his guide when he sets off on a safari in Kenya. Francis' wife Read More

Wild Harvest

Actors: Alan Ladd, Dorothy Lamour, Robert Preston, Lloyd Nolan, Richard Erdman

Synopsis: Alan Ladd and Robert Preston star as Joe Madigan and Jim Davis, rival grain harvesters in the Midwest's wheat country. The animosity between Joe and Jim intensifies upon the arrival of duplicitous Fay Rankin (Dorothy Lamour). Choosing Jim, Fay demands that she be supported in the manner in which Read More

Night Plane from Chungking

Actors: Robert Preston, Ellen Drew, Steven Geray, Soo Yong

Synopsis: An adequate wartime filler, Night Plane from Chungking features Robert Preston as the captain of the titular aircraft. En route from Chungking to India, the plane crashes, leaving captain and passengers stranded in a jungle surrounded by Japanese troops. It has been learned that one of the Read More

Star Spangled Rhythm

Actors: Victor Moore, Betty Hutton, Eddie Bracken, Anne Revere, Walter Abel

Synopsis: Star-Spangled Rhythm is a typical wartime all-star musical-comedy melange, this time from Paramount Pictures. The slender plot involves the efforts by humble studio doorman Pop Webster (Victor Moore) to pass himself off as a big-shot Paramount executive for the benefit of his sailor son Jimmy (Eddie Bracken Read More

Wake Island

Actors: Brian Donlevy, Robert Preston, MacDonald Carey, Albert Dekker, Barbara Britton

Synopsis: The winner of four Oscar nominations, Wake Island was one of the first major Hollywood films to deal with America's forced participation in World War II. The first two reels takes place in the weeks prior to Pearl Harbor, as Wake Island military commander Brian Donlevy carries on a friendly Read More

Reap the Wild Wind

Actors: Ray Milland, John Wayne, Paulette Goddard, Raymond Massey, Robert Preston

Synopsis: Cecil B. DeMille's Technicolor historical spectacle Reap the Wild Wind was to have starred Gary Cooper, but Cooper's prior commitment to Goldwyn's Pride of the Yankees compelled DeMille to recast the leading role with John Wayne. The film, set in the mid-19th century, centers around Key West Read More

This Gun for Hire

Actors: Veronica Lake, Robert Preston, Laird Cregar, Alan Ladd, Tully Marshall

Synopsis: Though billed fourth in This Gun For Hire, Alan Ladd was catapulted to stardom in the role of Phillip Raven, a ruthless professional killer with a long-suppressed streak of decency. After successfully pulling off his latest murder, Raven reports to his boss, effeminate fifth columnist Willard Read More

Parachute Battalion

Actors: Robert Preston, Edmond O'Brien, Nancy Kelly, Harry Carey, Buddy Ebsen

Synopsis: In this patriotic war drama, a unit of Army recruits train for a parachute corps. One is an arrogant football star who finds jumping a kick. Another is a coward who eventually finds his courage. Finally there is a chronic bumbler. The coward and jock find themselves competing for the affections of Read More

The Lady from Cheyenne

Actors: Loretta Young, Robert Preston, Edward Arnold, Frank Craven, Gladys George

Synopsis: In this western, a schoolteacher battles for women's rights in mid 19th century Wyoming. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Pacific Blackout

Actors: Robert Preston, Philip Merivale, Eva Gabor, Louis Jean Heydt

Synopsis: Midnight Angel was the title of this Paramount actioner when it was first released in December of 1941. But by the time the film reached the hinterlands, America had entered WW2, and thus it was that Midnight Angel was rechristened Pacific Blackout, which remained its title to this very day. Read More

New York Town

Actors: Fred MacMurray, Mary Martin, Robert Preston, Akim Tamiroff, Lynne Overman

Synopsis: Fred MacMurray is a breezy New York street photographer; Mary Martin is a small town girl hoping to make her fortune in the Big Apple. Fred and Mary meet, bicker, fall in love, fall out of love, fall in love again, and so it goes. The main story is occasionally leavened by subplots involving such Read More

The Night of January 16th

Actors: Robert Preston, Ellen Drew, Nils Asther, Donald Douglas, Maggie Hayes

Synopsis: Ayn Rand's Broadway stage hit The Night of January 16th was distinguished by a clever gimmick, wherein members of the audience sat in the jury box while a fictional murder trial was conducted: the outcome of the play was thus totally in the hands of the spectators, and accordingly Rand penned two Read More

Moon over Burma

Actors: Dorothy Lamour, Robert Preston, Preston S. Foster, Doris Nolan, Albert Basserman

Synopsis: Dorothy Lamour once again wraps a variety of alluring costumes around her hourglass frame in the Paramount bread-and-butter feature Moon Over Burma. Lamour is cast as Aria Dean, an American showgirl stranded in Rangoon. It doesn't take long before Aria becomes the romantic bone of contention Read More

Northwest Mounted Police

Actors: Gary Cooper, Madeleine Carroll, Preston S. Foster, Paulette Goddard, Robert Preston

Synopsis: Cecil B. De Mille directed this lavish all-star spectacular paying tribute to America's neighbors to the North. In 1885, as Louis Riel (Francis J. McDonald) tries to organize Indians and French settlers into a fighting force that will battle against the ruling British, Texas Ranger Dusty Rivers (Gary Cooper Read More

Typhoon

Actors: Dorothy Lamour, Robert Preston, Lynne Overman, J. Carrol Naish

Synopsis: Typhoon was Paramount's answer to Samuel Goldwyn's The Hurricane, even utilizing the same leading lady, Dorothy Lamour. The film is set in a small island off Dutch Guinea. Two sailors (Robert Preston and Lynne Overman) make the acquaintance of a young white girl (Lamour) who has been living on the Read More

Beau Geste

Actors: Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, Robert Preston, Brian Donlevy, Susan Hayward

Synopsis: This second of three movie versions of P.C. Wren's adventure novel Beau Geste is a virtual scene-for-scene remake of the 1927 silent version. We open on the now-famous scenes of a remote, burning desert fort, manned by the dead Foreign Legionnaires, then flash back to the early lives of the Geste Read More

Union Pacific

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, Akim Tamiroff, Robert Preston, Lynne Overman, Brian Donlevy

Synopsis: Cecil B. DeMille takes us back to the 1860s, then rebuilds the first intercontinental railroad in Union Pacific. The real-life spectacle is occasionally interrupted by the fictional adventures of railroad overseer Joel McCrea, postmistress Barbara Stanwyck (with an incredible Irish brogue), and Read More

Disbarred

Actors: Gail Patrick, Robert Preston, Otto Kruger, Sidney Toler, Helen MacKellar

Synopsis: Gail Patrick plays a brilliant but naive country lawyer brought to the city to defend gangster Sidney Toler. She is subsidized by pillar of society Otto Kruger, who is actually the "big boy" behind the city's rackets. Ms. Patrick must prove that Toler didn't own a weapon that he is accused of Read More

King of Alcatraz

Actors: Gail Patrick, Lloyd Nolan, J. Carrol Naish, Harry Carey, Robert Preston

Synopsis: We never actually see J. Carroll Naish in Alcatraz, but there's no doubt he's the "king" of the title. Most of the action takes place aboard a passenger ship, which Naish has boarded incognito in hopes of escaping prosecution. Naish and his gunmen take over the ship, complicating the lives Read More

Illegal Traffic

Actors: J. Carrol Naish, Mary Carlisle, Robert Preston, Judith Barrett, Pierre Watkin

Synopsis: J. Carroll Naish positively oozes immigrant gangster charm in this fairly entertaining thriller from Paramount. He plays Louis Zonta, an immigrant gangster running a racket that transports wanted criminals. At their wits end, the authorities send in undercover agent Bent Martin (Robert Preston) to Read More