Sammy Davis, Jr. Filmography

Sammy Davis, Jr.: One Cool Cat

Synopsis: Sammy Davis Jr.: One Cool Cat is an hour-long documentary on the entertainer who ran with the Rat Pack and helped tear down a few of the racial barriers that hindered other black musicians. The film relies primarily on interviews with those who knew him and archival footage. ~ Perry Seibert, All Read More

Sammy Davis, Jr.: Singing at His Best

Synopsis: Sammy Davis Jr. was a remarkable entertainer who could sing, dance, and act with equal skill. This collection of rare television appearances captures him in his natural environment: on-stage in front of an enthusiastic audience. Sammy Davis Jr.: Singing at His Best includes the songs "The Birth of Read More

Hell's Highway: The True Story of Highway Safety Films

Actors: Helena Reckitt

Synopsis: As the 1950s drew to a close, high school hygiene films and VD cautionary tales gave birth to another, far more graphic sort of fear-inducing curriculum: the driver's-ed movie. Bearing such titles as Signal 30, The Third Killer, Wheels of Tragedy, and Highways of Agony, these films -- usually Read More

Best of the Andy Williams Show

Actors: Andy Williams

Synopsis: A retrospective of the acclaimed NBC variety series The Andy Williams Show. The show ran from 1962-1971, winning three Emmy awards for Best Variety Series and entertaining millions of viewers along the way. This video is a compilation of some of the greatest performances seen on the show Read More

Hullabaloo, Vol. 3

Synopsis: Some of the best rock & roll acts of the day appeared on the TV series Hullabaloo during its run from 1965 to 1966, and this home video release presents two half-hour episodes in their entirety. Gary Lewis hosts the first episode, with his father Jerry Lewis also stopping by; Gary and his group Read More

The Incomparable Nat "King" Cole

Actors: Nat "King" Cole

Synopsis: One of the best and most popular musicians of the 1950s and '60s, Nat "King" Cole was the first African-American entertainer to host his own television series, and many of the great musical talents of the day stopped by his studio to appear on The Nat "King" Cole Show. The Incomparable Nat King Read More

The Kid Who Loved Christmas

Actors: Trent Cameron

Synopsis: This made-for-TV drama--Sammy Davis, Jr.'s last--stars Trent Cameron as a young orphan who must fight against social workers in order to remain with his adoptive father, a widowed jazzman. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

An Evening with Sammy Davis Jr. & Jerry Lewis

Synopsis: Each installment of An Evening With presents a performer, band, group, or other public figure in a setting aimed to please fans looking for a representative sampling of what a particular person or group of people does best. In this video, entertainment legends Jerry Lewis and Sammy Davis Jr. bring Read More

Best of the Soupy Sales Show

Synopsis: Taken from the popular TV show, this video features segments with Soupy Sales and guests like Dick Clark, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., and others. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide Read More

Sammy Davis, Jr.: One in a Million

Synopsis: Follow the career of Sammy Davis, Jr. as he goes from child performer to well-known adult actor, dancer and singer. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Tap

Actors: Gregory Hines, Suzzanne Douglas, Sammy Davis, Jr., Savion Glover, Joe Morton

Synopsis: Gregory Hines plays the ex-convict son of a famed tap-dancer. Taking over his late father's Harlem dance studio, Hines can't shake memories of his childhood, when he was being touted as a dancing prodigy. Challenged to fulfill his destiny by his dad's old cronies--among them such terpsichorean Read More

The Cosby Show: No Way, Baby

Synopsis: Sammy Davis Jr. earned an Emmy nomination for his performance in this rare Monday-night episode of The Cosby Show. Davis is cast as Ray Palomino, the footloose, free-spirited grandfather of an unwed mother-to-be named Louisa (Leticia Herrera). Cliff (Bill Cosby) goes to near-impossible lengths to Read More

Michael Jackson: The Legend Continues

Frank, Liza & Sammy: The Ultimate Event

Hunter: Ring of Honor

Synopsis: Sammy Davis Jr. guest stars as Benny Shaffer, veteran trainer of up-and-coming boxer Sonny Ruiz (Scott Colomby). When Ruiz's manager and doctor are murdered, both Shaffer and the boxer fall under suspicion. With the help of police detective Hunter (Fred Dryer), Shaffer hopes to prove that the real Read More

Blushing Bloopers

Synopsis: See bloopers that would not make it past the network censors. Star Trek, Gunsmoke, Laugh-In, Peyton Place, Happy Days, The Waltons, The Lone Ranger, Mash, The Newlywed Game and many more shows are featured. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Moon over Parador

Actors: Richard Dreyfuss, Raul Julia, Sonia Braga, Jonathan Winters, Fernando Rey

Synopsis: Jack Noah (Richard Dreyfuss) is all actor: Self-possessed, obsessive, vulnerable, and an addict for praise, his soul burns with "the craft." Having just finished a grade-Z straight-to-cable crime thriller in the fictional South American country of Parador, he gets the ultimate acting challenge Read More

Stars of the Century

Carol Burnett: My Personal Best, Vol. 1

Synopsis: Hosted by the funny lady herself, this compilation video contains four of her favorite vignettes gleaned from her highly-rated, long-running television variety series. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Elvis: The Echo Will Never Die

The Perils of P.K.

Actors: Kaye Ballard, Sheila MacRae, Heather MacRae, Larry Storch

Synopsis: This comedy drama examines a fading film star who divides her time between the couch in her psychiatrist's office and her memories of past glories. The latter are told in a series of episodes with cameo roles by well-known names: Kaye Ballard, Sammy Davis, Jr., Anne Meara, and many others. At one Read More

Billy Crystal: Don't Get Me Started

All the Best: Steve Allen

Synopsis: These are the funniest pieces taken from one of the all-time funny TV men, Steve Allen. These takes from his hit The Steve Allen Show series, are priceless. Featured with Allen in these takes are such notables as Johnny Carson, Sammy Davis Jr., Don Knotts, Jerry Lewis and Zsa Zsa Gabor. ~ All Read More

Sammy Davis, Jr.: Best of Live

Actors: Sammy Davis, Jr.

Synopsis: This one hour concert video captures a performance by the legendary singer Sammy Davis Jr. recorded in Germany in 1985. The show features many of Davis' classics and hits including "New York, New York," "I'm Singing In The Rain," "The Lady Is A Tramp," and "Mr. Bojangles." ~ Cammila Albertson, All Read More

That's Black Entertainment: The Missing Link of American Cinema History

That's Dancing!

Actors: Gene Kelly, Sammy Davis, Jr., Mikhail Baryshnikov, Liza Minnelli, Ray Bolger

Synopsis: Nine years after his last compilation of musical-movie highlights (That's Entertainment, Part II), producer Jack Haley Jr. offers another enjoyable nostalgia-fest, That's Dancing. Unlike his earlier films, which were confined to the output of MGM, That's Dancing offers vignettes from the best of Read More

The Jeffersons: What Makes Sammy Run?

Actors: Sherman Hemsley, Isabel Sanford, Marla Gibbs, Roxie Roker, Ned Wertimer

Synopsis: Having previously (and memorably) guest-starred on All in the Family, Sammy Davis Jr. returns to Norman Lear-land in this episode of The Jeffersons. Hoping to escape his fans -- not to mention a snoopy reporter -- Sammy pseudonymously sublets the apartment across the hall from George and Louise Read More

Cannonball Run II

Actors: Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, Shirley MacLaine, Marilu Henner, Dean Martin

Synopsis: (Burt Reynolds) as J.J. McClure takes off across the country again in this rickety sequel to Cannonball Run. A sheik has offered $1,000,000 to the first driver to reach a destination in Connecticut from Redondo Beach, California, inspiring J.J. and others to go for the gold. With cameos from more Read More

Cracking Up

Actors: Jerry Lewis, Herb Edelman, Foster Brooks, Buddy Lester

Synopsis: Jerry Lewis reprises his previous movie persona, this time as Warren Nefron, a man unable to successfully kill himself, while Herb Edelman is Dr. Jonas Pletchick, the psychiatrist out to cure him of his failure, in this undistinguished slapstick comedy. Many of Lewis' past routines crop up again Read More

Alice in Wonderland

Actors: Donald O'Connor

Synopsis: This 1982 made-for-TV version of the Lewis Carroll classic Alice in Wonderland features an all-star cast. Such celebrities as Donald O'Connor, Maureen Stapleton and Eve Arden struggle to perform while buried under mounds of makeup and tons of eccentric costuming as Carroll's alternate-world Read More

Bonjour Monsieur Lewis

Actors: Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, Mel Brooks, Marty Feldman, John Landis

Synopsis: The genuine love felt by the people of France for American comedian Jerry Lewis has become something of a topic for incredulous humor in the United States over the years, but if there was any doubt as to whether the many jokes overstated the case, this exhaustive six-hour hagiography from director Read More

The Cannonball Run

Actors: Burt Reynolds, Roger Moore, Farrah Fawcett, Dom DeLuise, Dean Martin

Synopsis: Burt Reynolds and director Hal Needham team up for the fourth time, this time bringing an all-star cast of characters on a cross-country car race in the vein of 1976 release The Gumball Rally. The police are the least of the Cannonballers' worries as they push the pedal to the metal in a race from Read More

Heidi's Song

Actors: Lorne Greene, Sammy Davis, Jr., Margery Gray, Michael Patrick Bell, Peter Cullen

Synopsis: Singing her way through life as life sings back at her, little orphaned Heidi (voice by Margery Gray) is bounced around from her aunt's house, to her grouchy grandfather's place, to a wealthy family in the big city, and never do the vocals subside nor does her spirit droop to anything lower than Read More

Sammy Stops the World

Actors: Sammy Davis, Jr., Dennis Daniels, Donna Lowe, Marian Mercer

Synopsis: Sammy Davis, Jr. basically plays tribute to himself in this version of Anthony Newly's Broadway/screen musical Stop the World--I Want to Get Off. As in that earlier show, this production started out as a stage show and as the tale progresses, the camera seldom moves. The story centers around a Read More

Baretta: Season 01

Crew: Musical Performer

Synopsis: Created by Stephen J. Cannell, the weekly, hour-long crime series Baretta rose from the ashes of 1973's 'Toma, a shortlived weekly based on the exploits of David Toma, a real-life undercover cop with a penchant for elaborate disguises. For the "new" series, only two vestiges of the original Toma Read More

Baretta [TV Series]

Crew: Singer

Actors: Robert Blake, Dana Elcar, Tom Ewell, Michael D. Roberts, Chino "Fats" Williams

Synopsis: Created by Stephen J. Cannell, the weekly, hour-long crime series Baretta rose from the ashes of 1973's Toma, a short-lived weekly based on the exploits of David Toma, a real-life undercover cop with a penchant for elaborate disguises. For the "new" series, only two vestiges of the original Toma Read More

James Dean: The First American Teenager

Synopsis: In this documentary, narrated by Stacy Keach, the tragic screen-icon James Dean is remembered. Footage from early television appearances, stills from his life, and clips from his three Warner Brothers films are interwoven with interviews with his co-workers. The soundtrack includes music from Elton John Read More

Gone With the West

Synopsis: An all-star cast including James Caan, Stefanie Powers and Sammy Davis, Jr. headlines this shoestring-budget revisionist western from 1975. Caan stars as Jud McGraw, a cowboy unjustly framed for a crime he didn't commit; he partners up with an ethically wronged Native American woman named Little Read More

Save the Children

Synopsis: This concert documentary chronicles the many acts that appeared during Jesse Jackon's Operation PUSH exposition held in 1972 in Chicago. Featured concert performers include Marvin Gaye singing "What's Going On," The Temptations with "Papa Was a Rolling Stone, " and Bill Withers performing "Lean on Read More

Poor Devil

Synopsis: In this comedy, a burned out bookkeeper thinks about selling his soul to Satan. His thoughts invoke the presence of a bungling messenger from the devil himself. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

All in the Family: Sammy's Visit

Actors: Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, Rob Reiner, Sally Struthers, Sammy Davis, Jr.

Synopsis: Written by comedian Bill Dana (aka Jose Jimenez), this classic episode represents the one and only time that All in the Family relied upon a guest star. It all begins when moonlighting cabbie Archie comes home bearing a briefcase left in his taxi by Sammy Davis Jr. Intending to return the Read More

I Love You, Billy Baker

Synopsis: I Love You, Billy Baker was the only two-part episode of the TV series Name of the Game. Sammy Davis Jr. plays Las Vegas superstar Billy Baker, who is known far and wide for his reluctance to grant interviews. He is particularly close-mouthed on the subject of a beautiful young dancer with whom Read More

The Trackers

Crew: Executive Producer, Screen Story

Synopsis: A rancher sets out to find the party responsible for killing his son and kidnapping his daughter. He enlists an arrogant professional tracker to help him in his search. Ernest Borgnine and Sammy Davis, Jr. star in this made-for-television western. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide Read More

One More Time

Actors: Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford, Esther Anderson, Maggie Wright, Leslie Sands

Synopsis: Rat-pack pals Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford reprise their roles of Charlie Salt and Chris Pepper, respectively, in this film that marks the directorial debut of comedian/writer Jerry Lewis. Lawford also plays Lord Sydney Pepper, the twin brother of Charlie who is a murder victim. Salt and Read More

The Pigeon

Synopsis: In his TV-movie debut, Sammy Davis Jr. plays a wisecracking private eye drawn into a web of murder and duplicity. Davis is suddenly attacked from all sides by crooks and cops alike, who seem to believe he's got something they want. Eventually he figures he's been set up as the fall guy for a Read More

Sweet Charity

Actors: Shirley MacLaine, John McMartin, Ricardo Montalban, Sammy Davis, Jr., Chita Rivera

Synopsis: Shirley MacLaine plays Charity Hope Valentine who, despite her job at a seedy dime-a-dance joint, is an incurable optimist. Charity never stops looking for true love and never seems to look for it in the right places. We first see her in the company of Charlie (Dante DiPaolo), a slimeball who Read More

The Beverly Hillbillies: Manhattan Hillbillies

Synopsis: In the conclusion of a three-part story arc, the Clampetts have taken up residence in New York's Central Park. It's all the handiwork of con artist Shifty Shafer (Phil Silvers), who has "sold" the hillbillies this choice bit of mid-Manhattan real estate. As the Clampetts erect a cabin and begin Read More

Salt and Pepper

Crew: Songwriter

Actors: Peter Lawford, Michael Bates, Ilona Rodgers, John Le Mesurier

Synopsis: Two steadfast members of Frank Sinatra's self-styled "clan," Peter Lawford and Sammy Davis Jr., are the stars of Salt and Pepper. The boys run a swinging nightclub in London's Soho district (which explains their awful "mod" wardrobe) and also reluctantly double as secret agents. Their current Read More

I Dream of Jeannie: The Greatest Entertainer in the World

Synopsis: Sammy Davis Jr. appears as himself in this episode, in which Tony (Larry Hagman) assures Gen. Peterson (Barton MacLane) that he will be able to book Sammy for an upcoming NASA party. Unfortunately, Davis is unable to fulfill his obligation, whereupon Jeannie (Barbara Eden) creates a duplicate Read More

Movin' with Nancy

Actors: Nancy Sinatra, Lee Hazlewood, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Frank Sinatra, Frank Sinatra, Jr.

Synopsis: Nancy Sinatra's hourlong 1968 network television special Movin' With Nancy was not the standard variety-hour special customary for stars of the time. There were no lip-synced or live songs on sound stages in front of audiences, and no spoken sketches. In essence, it's a collection of 15 music Read More

Alice in Wonderland

Actors: Janet Waldo, Doris Drew, Sammy Davis, Jr., Bill Dana, Zsa Zsa Gabor

Synopsis: A more appropriate title for this animated 60-minute special might have been Alice in Hanna-Barbera Land, since the cartoon producers have eschewed the original Lewis Carroll text and John Tenniel illustrations for something that more closely resembles The Jetsons or Scooby Doo. Updated to the Read More

A Man Called Adam

Actors: Sammy Davis, Jr., Louis Armstrong, Ossie Davis, Cicely Tyson, Frank Sinatra, Jr., Peter Lawford

Synopsis: A star-studded cast invigorates this film of a jazz trumpeter (Sammy Davis Jr.) who experiences both the prejudices of the music industry and terrible guilt following the traffic accident that killed his family, a tragedy he feels personally responsible for. Co-stars include several giants of jazz Read More

Frank, Dean & Sammy: An Evening with the Rat Pack

Actors: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Johnny Carson

Synopsis: After this show originally aired in 1965 on a closed-circuit TV transmission under the title The Frank Sinatra Spectacular, an edited version was screened during 1997 in the NYC/L.A. theaters of the Museum of Television & Radio as The Rat Pack Captured: The Only Television Performance. The Read More

Nightmare in the Sun

Actors: John Derek, Aldo Ray, Arthur O'Connell, Ursula Andress, Sammy Davis, Jr.

Synopsis: In this crime drama, a bored, but seductive wife of a wealthy old ranch goes cruising for trouble and finds it when she picks up a hapless hitchhiker who soon falls under her sexy spell. Like a fly to a spider's web, he is drawn to her bedroom. Unfortunately, the old rancher sees him leaving and Read More

Robin and the Seven Hoods

Actors: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Falk, Bing Crosby

Synopsis: The Rat Pack packed it in after this sprightly musical comedy that owes more than it should to Damon Runyon's stories and Frank Loesser and Abe Burrows's classic musical Guys and Dolls. Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen's bright and snappy score features such songs as "Style", "Bang-Bang" and the Sinatra Read More

Johnny Cool

Actors: Henry Silva, Elizabeth Montgomery, Marc Lawrence, Richard Anderson, Telly Savalas, Jim Backus, Joey Bishop

Synopsis: In this offbeat crime drama, Mafia boss Johnny Colini (Marc Lawrence) has run afoul of the law and is being deported back to his native Sicily. Colini is not at all happy about this, and after he saves the life of a young thug, Johnny Giordano (Henry Silva), he knows the perfect way for Giordano Read More

Of Love and Desire

Crew: Songwriter

Actors: Merle Oberon, Steve Cochran, Curd Jürgens, John Agar, Steve Brodie

Synopsis: Boiling over with sexual shenanigans and general sleaziness the Mexico-set tale centers on a confused socialite who falls in love with an American engineer who was hired by her half- brother to oversee his mining outfit. At first the attraction between the girl and the Yank is purely sexual, but Read More

Convicts Four

Actors: Ben Gazzara, Stuart Whitman, Ray Walston, Vincent Price, Rod Steiger

Synopsis: Based on the autobiography of convicted killer John Resko (played here by Ben Gazzara), this routine biographical drama looks at the crucial years between 1931 and 1949 in the convict's life. That period begins when Resko is convicted of killing a store owner and is sentenced to life in prison. Read More

Sergeants 3

Actors: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop

Synopsis: The 1939 adventure classic Gunga Din is transferred from British India to the American West, courtesy of Frank Sinatra's "Clan." Sinatra, Dean Martin and Peter Lawford play three cavalry officers, always ready for a brawl but willing to die for each other if need be. Sammy Davis Jr. a cavalry Read More

Die Dreigroschenoper

Actors: Sammy Davis, Jr., Curd Jürgens, June Ritchie, Hildegarde Neff

Synopsis: Hampered by over-orchestrated music, smeary color photography and (in the English version at least) poor dubbing, this 1963 French/German adaptation of the Kurt Weill-Bertolt Brecht piece The Three Penny Opera nonetheless has its attractions. Not least of these is the central performance of Curt Jurgens Read More

Pepe

Actors: Cantinflas, Dan Dailey, Shirley Jones, Carlos Montalban, Vicki Trickett, Bing Crosby

Synopsis: Popular Mexican comedian Cantinflas (Mario Moreno) plays the title character in this star-studded, amusing comedy drama by George Sidney. Pepe is the same sort of impoverished stereotype Cantinflas made famous in several of his comedies; in this case he is a hired hand on a ranch who chases down a Read More

Ocean's Eleven

Actors: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford, Angie Dickinson

Synopsis: During a Los Angeles Christmas, a group of 82nd Airborne vets assembles under the leadership of gamblin' man Danny Ocean (Frank Sinatra) to rip off four Las Vegas casinos just after the stroke of midnight on New Year's Day. Playboy Jimmy Foster (Peter Lawford) joins in the scheme because he's sick Read More

Porgy and Bess

Actors: Sidney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis, Jr., Pearl Bailey, Brock Peters

Synopsis: A stellar line-up of African-American actors and musical stars helped to bring DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin's classic operetta to this screen in this lavishly-produced adaptation. Porgy (Sidney Poitier) is a crippled man living in the shantytown of Catfish Row who has fallen in love with Bess (Dorothy Dandridge Read More

The Frank Sinatra Collection: Frank Sinatra with Sammy Davis Jr.

Synopsis: Francis Albert Sinatra (1915-1998) went a long way for a kid from Hoboken, NJ. He became one of the world's most admired singers, a recording star, a radio star, and an Academy Award-winning actor. By the 1960s, however, he was feeling the heat of rock & roll. Part of a ten-tape collection, this Read More

Anna Lucasta

Actors: Eartha Kitt, Sammy Davis, Jr., Frederick O'Neal, Henry Scott, Rex Ingram

Synopsis: Playwright Philip Yordan stirred up controversy with his 1944 Broadway production Anna Lucasta, the sexy saga of a family of avaricious African-Americans. Such was the notoriety of the play that Columbia Pictures couldn't resist optioning it for a film version. Since this was 1949, Columbia took Read More

Sweet and Low