Sam Wanamaker Filmography

D.W. Griffith: Father of Film

Synopsis: A biography of this pioneering film director who elevated a novelty to an early art form. Early footage is included from his days as an actor and scenes from some of his best known work. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Bloodlines: Murder in the Family, Part 1

Actors: Mimi Rogers, Elliott Gould, John Pleshette, Sam Wanamaker

Synopsis: The first of two-parts, this courtroom drama chronicles the struggle of two upper-class brothers as they attempt to prove themselves innocent of killing their parents. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Bloodlines: Murder in the Family, Part 2

Actors: Mimi Rogers, Elliott Gould, John Pleshette, Sam Wanamaker

Synopsis: The second of a two-part feature, this fact-based drama centers on the wife of one of two brothers accused of killing their parents. As the trial progresses and the accusations become increasingly plausible, the wife must decide what to do with her life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

City of Joy

Actors: Patrick Swayze, Pauline Collins, Om Puri, Shabana Azmi, Art Malik

Synopsis: In this drama, a wealthy American doctor learns some important lessons about life in one of the poorest cities on Earth. Max Lowe (Patrick Swayze) is a Houston surgeon who has grown weary of the bureaucracy of American medicine. When he loses a patient on the operating table, Max impulsively Read More

Pure Luck

Actors: Martin Short, Danny Glover, Sheila Kelley, Sam Wanamaker, Scott Wilson

Synopsis: This wacky buddy comedy was the fifth in a series of Hollywood remakes of films by French director Francis Veber, none of which were box office successes. Sheila Kelley is Valerie Highsmith, an heiress who, despite her family's wealth, suffers from horribly bad luck. On a vacation to Mexico, she Read More

Guilty by Suspicion

Actors: Robert De Niro, Annette Bening, George Wendt, Patricia Wettig, Sam Wanamaker

Synopsis: The directorial debut of producer Irwin Winkler, Guilty by Suspicion is a sobering account of one movie executive's woes in dealing with the political fallout from the McCarthy Era Hollywood blacklist. Robert De Niro stars as David Merrill, a film director in the 1950s whose obsession with his Read More

Always Remember I Love You

Actors: Stephen Dorff

Synopsis: On his 16th birthday, Stephen Dorff discovers that he is adopted. This in itself is not so traumatic, but the worst is still to come: His adoptive parents had bought him from a baby broker, who kidnapped the infant from his natural mother. Dorff rejects the protestations of love from his "mother" Read More

Running Against Time

Synopsis: Hoping to prevent his brother's Vietnam death and to prevent the JFK assassination, a time-travelling college professor goes back to the '60s but can't find his way out. Trapped in a time warp, he can't effect a change because he can't return to his present time. This made-for-cable movie is Read More

The Shell Seekers

Actors: Angela Lansbury

Synopsis: The made-for-TV The Shell Seekers was based on the best-selling novel by Rosamunde Pincher. Heading the cast is Angela Lansbury as Penelope Keeling, a reclusive British matron of comfortable means who suffers a near-fatal heart attack. While recovering, Penelope determines that her attack was a Read More

Columbo: Grand Deceptions

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Robert Foxworth is special guest murderer in the two-hour Columbo drama Grand Deceptions. Foxworth plays a retired Army colonel, currently fronting a paramilitary organization. He preaches duty, honor and country, all the while dipping into the organization's funds. When a colleague threatens to Read More

Judgment in Berlin

Actors: Martin Sheen, Sam Wanamaker, Max Gail, Jürgen Heinrich, Heinz Hoenig, Harris Yulin

Synopsis: In 1978, an East German waiter used a toy gun to hijack a Polish airliner heading for East Berlin and forced the pilot to land at an American Air Force base in West Germany. The best-selling book about the ensuing trial of the hijacker -- written by the presiding judge, Herbert J. Stern -- is Read More

Secret Ingredient

Synopsis: The daughter of a wealthy American entrepreneur is sent to a monastery on a remote Yugoslavian mountainside, where it is rumored the monks have developed an exquisite cognac recipe. The money-making American wants his daughter to get the recipe so they can market the spirits. Things complicate Read More

Baby Boom

Actors: Diane Keaton, Harold Ramis, Sam Wanamaker, James Spader, Pat Hingle, Sam Shepard

Synopsis: Management consultant Diane Keaton has no time in her life for anything except her high-profile job. All this changes when she inherits a 14-month-old infant from a pair of recently deceased-and very distant-relatives. Intending to put the child up for adoption, she discovers that she has grown Read More

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace

Actors: Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman, Jackie Cooper, Mariel Hemingway, Marc McClure, Jon Cryer

Synopsis: Superman (Christopher Reeve) tries to save the world from nuclear destruction at the hands of Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) in this action film featuring the man of steel. In a speech to the United Nations, Superman declares he will rid the world of all nuclear weapons. Arch-villain Luthor emerges Read More

Sadie and Son

Synopsis: Sadie (Debbie Reynolds) is a salty, streetwise New York cop, forced into early retirement. Her son (Brian McNamara) is a rookie police officer. Carl Kleinschmidt's script contrives to have Sadie and Son become partners: she performs a heroic deed while in "civvies," and is restored to the force. Read More

The Two Mrs. Grenvilles

Actors: Ann-Margret, Claudette Colbert, Stephen Collins

Synopsis: Claudette Colbert made her first screen appearance in 25 years in the 2-part TV movie The Two Mrs. Grenvilles. The story involves social-climbing actress (read: "chorus girl") Ann-Margret, who marries American-aristocrat naval ensign Stephen Collins, the son of Ms. Colbert (the two female stars Read More

Raw Deal

Actors: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kathryn Harrold, Sam Wanamaker, Paul Shenar, Robert Davi, Darren McGavin

Synopsis: A former FBI agent is recruited to root out the gangsters who killed a fellow agent's son in this Arnold Schwarzenegger action film. After being booted out of the bureau for excessive violence, Kaminski (Schwarzenegger) lives in small-town exile with his bitter wife, Amy (Blanche Baker). He gets Read More

Deceptions

Actors: Stefanie Powers

Synopsis: Stefanie Powers does double duty as twin sisters in the two-part TV movie Deceptions. Stefanie #1 is a glamorous globetrotter; Stefanie #2 is a drab New Jersey housewife. On a whim, the two siblings exchange identities, leading to a dizzying series of unexpected complications. Filmed on location Read More

Embassy

Synopsis: Nick Mancuso stars in the made-for-TV Embassy. Cast as an American ambassador stationed in Rome, Mancuso's life is thrown into turmoil by a crucial computer chip. When not trying to keep U.S. defense secrets from falling into the wrong hands, he must juggle the affections of his Read More

The Aviator

Actors: Christopher Reeve, Rosanna Arquette, Jack Warden, Sam Wanamaker, Scott Wilson

Synopsis: Based on a novel by Ernest Gann and set in 1928, this story starts out focusing on aviation and then flies in another direction at about three feet worth of altitude. Christopher Reeves is Edgar Anscombe, a pilot of a Stearman biplane running a mail route between the states of Washington and Read More

Heartsounds

Actors: Mary Tyler Moore, James Garner, Sam Wanamaker, Wendy Crewson, David Gardner

Synopsis: Successfully sustaining its dramatic intensity for 150 minutes, Heartsounds was adapted by Fay Kanin from the autobiographical best-seller by Martha Weiman Lear. James Garner stars as Mrs. Lear's husband, Manhattan urologist Harold Lear. At 53, Lear suffers a debilitating heart attack. His Read More

The Ghostwriter

Synopsis: Ghostwriter was based on the 1979 Philip Roth novel, part of his unofficial "Zuckerman trilogy". Based loosely on an incident in Roth's own youth, the story, set in 1956, centers around 23-year-old novelist Nathan Zuckerman (Mark-Lynn Baker). Nathan's insistence upon writing about the Holocaust Read More

Irreconcilable Differences

Actors: Ryan O'Neal, Shelley Long, Drew Barrymore, Sam Wanamaker, Allen Garfield

Synopsis: In this human-scale drama/comedy, a pair of Beverly Hills parents, Albert (Ryan O'Neal) and Lucy (Shelley Long) first come together as a couple interested in writing (she) and teaching (he), but Albert's life takes an upscale turn when he starts both writing and then directing in Hollywood. As he Read More

Berrenger's

Synopsis: The short-lived prime-time TV soap opera Berrenger's was introduced with this 90-minute opener. Berrenger's is a fancy New York department store, owned by family patriarch Simon Berrenger (Sam Wanamaker). Simon announces his plans to merge with another store, much to the dismay of his son Paul (Ben Murphy Read More

Detective Sadie & Son

Synopsis: In this comical made-for-TV crime drama, a salty middle-aged policewoman on the cusp of early retirement decides to remain on her beat so she teams up with her son, a brand-new cop. The trouble is, he really would rather have been a stand-up comic and only joined the force to please his mom. Read More

The Concrete Jungle

Actors: Jill St. John, Tracey E. Bregman, Barbara Luna, June Barrett, Peter Brown

Synopsis: When she's wrongfully convicted for participation in a drug-smuggling ring, a woman (Tracy Bregman) winds up in a women's prison, where she toughens up during several brutal encounters. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide Read More

I Was a Mail Order Bride

Synopsis: Determined to prove that the men who answer advertisements for mail-order brides are nothing more than jerks and lechers, Chicago magazine writer Kate Tosconi (Valerie Bertinelli) places a typical "object matrimony" ad and awaits the inevitable drooling replies. Meanwhile, L.A. lawyer Robert Read More

Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years

Actors: Robert Hardy, Sian Phillips, Nigel Havers, Chloe Salaman, Tamsin Murray-Leach

Synopsis: As indicated by its title, this British miniseries concentrated on the years between the two world wars, when the eminent Winston Churchill (Robert Hardy) was politically out of favor in his own country. Acutely aware of the danger looming in a newly re-armed Germany, Churchill vainly tried to Read More

Aida (San Francisco Opera)

Crew: Director

Actors: Margaret Price, Luciano Pavarotti

Synopsis: This production of Giuseppe Verdi's enduringly popular opera Aida features Margaret Price as the title character, and Luciano Pavarotti as Radames. This production was staged at San Francisco's War Memorial Opera House in 1981. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide Read More

Our Family Business

Actors: Ted Danson, Deborah Carney, Sam Wanamaker

Synopsis: Originally designed as a pilot for a television series, this crime drama tells the tale of two Italian-American brothers trying to survive in the underworld of organized crime. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Killing of Randy Webster

Crew: Director

Synopsis: After allegedly stealing a customized van, 17-year-old Randy Webster (Gary McCleery) is chased down by the Houston police. Randy is killed in a car crash; on his body is found a weapon, supposedly the one used in the commission of the van theft. But Randy's father (Hal Holbrook) suspects that the Read More

The Competition

Actors: Richard Dreyfuss, Amy Irving, Lee Remick, Sam Wanamaker, Joseph Cali, Ty Henderson

Synopsis: Can two prodigies fall in love and stay in love, even when they are competing against one another in an international piano competition? Richard Dreyfuss and Amy Irving attempt to answer that question in The Competition. Richard Dreyfuss plays Paul Dietrich, a shabby prodigy slouching past the Read More

Private Benjamin

Actors: Goldie Hawn, Eileen Brennan, Armand Assante, Sam Wanamaker, Harry Dean Stanton

Synopsis: Devastated when her brand-new husband Albert Brooks) drops dead on their wedding night, Jewish American princess Judy Benjamin (Goldie Hawn) is receptive to the pitch delivered by a duplicitous recruiter for the Women's Army Corps. Quickly adivsed by topkick Captain Lewis (Eileen Brennan) that she Read More

My Kidnapper, My Love

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Actor Sam Wanamaker directed this made-for-television drama about an abduction with a twist. When a disabled news vendor kidnaps a wealthy girl in an effort to get ransom money, he unexpectedly finds the emotionally disturbed young woman falling in love with him. The film was adapted from Oscar Read More

Da Dunkerque alla Vittoria

Actors: George Peppard, George Hamilton, Horst Buchholz, Capucine, Anny Duperey, Sam Wanamaker

Synopsis: The internationally produced From Hell to Victory is evocative of the works of Erich Maria Remarque. Several close friends of varying nationalities are separated by WW II. German Jurgen Dietrich (Horst Buchholz) is isolated from his old chums by his loyalty to the Fatherland. Still, he and his Read More

Charlie Muffin

Actors: David Hemmings, Pinkas Braun

Synopsis: David Hemmings plays Charlie Muffin, a working-class British secret agent who suffers fools and aristocrats not at all well, and as such is in constant conflict with his superiors. Unlike James Bond, Charlie bleeds when you prick him...and he cares, deeply. Britain's M16 unit reluctantly assigns Read More

Holocaust

Actors: Fritz Weaver, Rosemary Harris, Joseph Bottoms, James Woods, Sam Wanamaker, Michael Moriarty, Tovah Feldshuh, Meryl Streep

Synopsis: The now-legendary miniseries Holocaust first aired as a presentation in NBC's Big Event series. Written by Gerald Green, the story begins in the Germany of 1935. We are introduced to the family of Jewish doctor Joseph Weiss (Fritz Weaver) his wife Berta (Rosemary Harris), his brother Moses (Sam Wanamaker Read More

Death on the Nile

Actors: Peter Ustinov, Jane Birkin, Lois Chiles, David Niven, Bette Davis, Mia Farrow, Angela Lansbury

Synopsis: Peter Ustinov began his long association with the Hercule Poirot character of murder mystery novelist Agatha Christie with this lavish but financially disappointing follow-up to the popular Murder on the Orient Express (1974). During a luxurious pleasure cruise down the Nile aboard a lavish vessel Read More

Billy Jack Goes to Washington

Actors: Tom Laughlin, Delores Taylor, E.G. Marshall, Terasa Laughlin, Elmer Bernstein, Sam Wanamaker

Synopsis: The fourth film starring Tom Laughlin as Billy Jack, Billy Jack Goes To Washington was a loose remake of Frank Capra's Mr. Smith Goes To Washington. The story begins with Billy receiving a pardon for the trumped-up charges that put him behind bars in The Trial Of Billy Jack. To curry favor with Read More

Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger

Crew: Director

Actors: Patrick Wayne, Taryn Power, Margaret Whiting, Jane Seymour, Patrick Troughton

Synopsis: Famed stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen concocts a collection of fantastic creatures -- including a saber-tooth tiger, a chess-playing baboon, a giant walrus and three banshees -- for this follow-up to The Golden Voyage of Sinbad. Patrick Wayne stars as Sinbad, who seeks the hand of Princess Read More

The Sell Out

Actors: Richard Widmark, Oliver Reed, Gayle Hunnicutt, Sam Wanamaker, Vladek Sheybal

Synopsis: In this action-packed spy drama, a retired CIA agent reluctantly returns to espionage at the request of his treacherous student, who messed up and went to the Soviet side. Now the agent wants out, causing both the US and the USSR to send out their best hit men to get him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Read More

Voyage of the Damned

Actors: Faye Dunaway, Max von Sydow, Oskar Werner, Malcolm McDowell, Orson Welles

Synopsis: Often described as "Ship of Fools with a conscience," Voyage of the Damned is based on a true story. In 1939, the Nazis ostentatiously loaded a luxury liner with hundred of Jewish refugees from all walks of life. The ship then tried to drop anchor in Havana, Cuba-only to have its passengers Read More

The Spiral Staircase

Actors: Jacqueline Bisset, Christopher Plummer, John Phillip Law

Synopsis: This made-for-television remake of a taut thriller from 1946 concerns a small-town psycho stalking disabled female victims, whom he shoots with a silencer pistol. His next intended prey is a poor young woman who cannot speak. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Mousey

Synopsis: In Mousey a made-for-TV thriller, a disturbed and obsessed man seeks to regain his son from his overbearing, controlling wife. Kirk Douglas, nick-named "Mousey" by his high-school student, is left by his wife, Laura (Jean Seberg) who also takes her young son who "Mousey" has adopted. "Mousey" Read More

The Law

Synopsis: This acclaimed muckraking drama by future Hollywood A-lister John Badham (Saturday Night Fever, WarGames) peels the lid off of the Los Angeles criminal justice system for a sobering glimpse of its many facets -- exploring every angle, from defense attorneys to solicitors to prosecutors. The Read More

Catlow

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Based on a novel by Louis L'Amour, this comedic western tells of a thieving man who tries to get his hands on two million dollars of government cash while trying to avoid his friend--who happens to be a lawman. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide Read More

The Executioner

Crew: Director

Actors: George Peppard, Joan Collins, Judy Geeson, Oscar Homolka, Charles Gray

Synopsis: Set in England, The Executioner stars American actor George Peppard as John Shay, a British spy. Shay is convinced that there's a double agent at large, and he's further convinced that it's his former colleague Adam Booth (Keith Michell). Having set himself up as judge and jury, Shay now intends Read More

The File of the Golden Goose

Crew: Director

Actors: Yul Brynner, Charles Gray, John Barrie

Synopsis: This crime drama finds American agent Novak (Yul Brenner) sent to Scotland Yard to help uncover a gang of forgers, murderers and counterfeiters. Even when the British agent Thompson (Edward Woodward) is assigned to help, Novak still remains suspicious of everyone. From Liverpool, the duo traces Read More

Danger Route

Actors: Richard Johnson, Carol Lynley, Barbara Bouchet, Sylvia Syms, Diana Dors

Synopsis: British agents drop like skeets in this convoluted espionage film. Jonas Wilde (Richard Johnson) is a successful British secret agent who wants to hang up his license to kill and retire. His superior, Canning (Harry Andrews), agrees to accept his resignation if he agrees to one last case Read More

The Day the Fish Came Out

Actors: Tom Courtenay, Colin Blakely, Candice Bergen, Ian Ogilvy

Synopsis: Life on a remote Greek resort island is forever changed when two atomic bombs are accidentally dropped there when a NATO plane flies overhead. This comedy chronicles those changes. When the pilots realize they've lost their load, they bail out of their plane and head for the island to get help. Read More

Warning Shot

Actors: David Janssen, Ed Begley, Sr., Keenan Wynn, Sam Wanamaker, Lillian Gish

Synopsis: LAPD detective Sgt. Tom Valens (David Janssen) is a ten-year veteran of the force who has had more than his share of hard luck lately -- his marriage is a wreck, and he hasn't fully recovered from a serious wound suffered in the line of duty a year ago. He and his partner, Sgt. Ed Musso (Keenan Wynn Read More

Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines

Actors: Stuart Whitman, Sarah Miles, James Fox, Alberto Sordi, Robert Morley

Synopsis: Ken Annakin's large-canvas comedy Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines is set in 1910. In order to boost circulation of his newspaper, Lord Rawnsley (Robert Morley) offers 10,000 pounds to the first person who can fly across the English Channel. A huge number of hopefuls enter the Read More

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

Actors: Richard Burton, Claire Bloom, Oskar Werner, Sam Wanamaker, George Voskovec

Synopsis: Based on the novel by John Le Carre, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold stars Richard Burton as a dispirited, end-of-tether British secret agent. He comes in from "the cold" (meaning he is pulled out of field operations) to act as a undercover man behind the Iron Curtain. To make his staged Read More

The Outer Limits: A Feasability Study

Synopsis: In Volume 29 of a collection culled from the 1963-1965 science fiction anthology television series, a neighborhood is transported from Earth to an alien world that plans to use humankind as its slaves. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

Man in the Middle

Actors: Robert Mitchum, France Nuyen, Barry Sullivan, Trevor Howard, Keenan Wynn

Synopsis: Based on Howard Fast's novel The Winston Affair, this WW II-era crime drama is set in India and chronicles the attempts of an American military attorney to defend a lieutenant who shot a British officer in cold blood. Many witnesses were present and the question the lawyer must answer is whether Read More

Taras Bulba

Actors: Tony Curtis, Yul Brynner, Christine Kaufmann, Sam Wanamaker, Brad Dexter

Synopsis: The spectacular hordes of Cossack horsemen flying across the steppes to do battle with first one enemy and then another are the highlights of this otherwise thinly scripted costume drama set in the 16th century in the Ukraine. After the Cossack leader Taras Bulba (Yul Brynner) makes a pact with Read More

The Battle of the Sexes

Actors: Peter Sellers, Robert Morley, Constance Cummings, Jameson Clark, Ernst Thesiger

Synopsis: In this 1959 comedy, Robert MacPherson (Robert Morley) inherits his family's textile business in Edinburgh, Scotland, then hires American efficiency expert Angela Barrows (Constance Cummings) to bring the business into the modern age. The House of MacPherson has long been known as a manufacturer Read More

The Criminal

Actors: Stanley Baker, Sam Wanamaker, Gregoire Aslan, Margit Saad, Jill Bennett

Synopsis: Directed by American expatriate Joseph Losey, the British The Criminal is a gloom-wallow elevated by superb performances. Top crook Stanley Baker plans a clever bank robbery. It goes off hitchless, but the clerk responsible for "laundering" the stolen money insists upon a bigger percentage of the Read More

The Secret

Actors: Sam Wanamaker, Mandy Miller, Andre Morell

Synopsis: In this crime drama, an American loses all his money and finds himself stranded in England. He finds hope when he meets a female smuggler who has brought jewels into the country inside a teddy bear. Just before he talks her into helping him, she is pushed off of a cliff. He becomes the prime Read More

Mr. Denning Drives North

Actors: John Mills, Phyllis Calvert, Eileen Moore, Sam Wanamaker, Herbert Lom

Synopsis: Mr. Denning (John Mills) is bedeviled by a blackmailer with whom his daughter Liz (Eileen Moore) has fallen in love. In a sudden fit of rage, Denning murders the scoundrel. Panicking, he drives northward with the corpse in the back seat, dumps the body in a lonely rural area, and carefully Read More

Christ in Concrete

Actors: Sam Wanamaker, Lea Padovani, Kathleen Ryan, Bonar Colleano, Charles Goldner

Synopsis: On the outs in Hollywood due to the blacklist, director Edward Dmytryk briefly operated in England in the late 1940s. Though filmed in its entirety in London, Dmytryk's Give Us This Day is set in New York during the depression. Fellow blacklistee