Theodore BikelFilmography

Modern Life

Synopsis: After offering an up-close look at life in a farming community in the French hillsides in Profils paysans: L'approche and Le Quotidien, filmmaker Raymond Depardon returns to the village of Le Villaret in this documentary. Marcel Privat and his brother Raymond Privat have spent nearly their whole Read More

Isn't This a Time! A Tribute Concert for Harold Leventhal

Actors: Arlo Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Leon Bibb, Theodore Bikel, Peter, Paul and Mary

Synopsis: In the early '60s, revolutionary music producer and promoter Harold Leventhal's contributions to the American folk scene forever changed the face of modern music. In addition to being the man who gave Bob Dylan his first major concert hall performance, Leventhal also managed such folk legends as the Weavers Read More

Taste of Passover: A Celebration of the Joys and Music of the Holiday

Synopsis: PBS home video presents a passionate look at the celebration of Passover. This festive and insightful documentary is hosted by Theodore Bikel, an acclaimed Broadway actor and singer. The beautiful and unique ethnic music of the holiday is performed by Boston's New England Conservatory, a gospel Read More

Babylon 5: In the Beginning

Actors: Bruce Boxleitner, Claudia Christian, Michael O'Hare, Mira Furlan, Richard Biggs, Andreas Katsulas

Synopsis: The long-awaited "backstory" for the popular syndicated science-fiction saga Babylon 5 was provided some five years after the series premiered, courtesy of the two-hour movie special Babylon Five: In the Beginning. Set in the year 2278, the film takes a backward glance at the Earth-Minbari war, as Read More

Second Chances

Actors: Tom Amandes, Kelsey Mulrooney, Stuart Whitman

Synopsis: In this inspiring drama based on a true story, Sunny Matthews (Kelsey Mulrooney) is a young girl whose life is shattered after she suffers severe leg injuries in an auto wreck which also claims the life of her father. Despondent over her tragedy, Sunny sinks into a deep depression, until she Read More

Shadow Conspiracy

Actors: Charlie Sheen, Donald Sutherland, Theodore Bikel, Linda Hamilton

Synopsis: Presidential advisor Bobby Bishop (Charlie Sheen) is hunted by an unknown assailant in this political thriller. With the help of Chief-of-Staff Jake Conrad (Donald Sutherland) and the newspaper journalist Amanda (Linda Hamilton), he uncovers an assassination plot to kill the President and his Read More

Murder, She Wrote: Amsterdam Kill

Synopsis: The scene is a writers' conference in Amsterdam, attended by (among many others) Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) and her British friend Nigel Allison (Joseph Maher). Things take a sinister turn when Nigel is kidnapped--whereupon the victim's so-called friend Collin Biddle (Marcus Gilbert) Read More

Jewish Holidays Video Guide

Synopsis: This video covers the customs and traditions of each Jewish holiday along with some historical background ~ All Movie Guide Read More

In the Month of Kislev

Actors: Theodore Bikel

Babylon 5: TKO

Actors: Michael O'Hare, Claudia Christian, Jerry Doyle, Mira Furlan, Andreas Katsulas

Synopsis: Garibaldi tries to interfere when an old friend prepares to participate in the "Mutai", a deadly nonhuman Martial Arts combat. Elsewhere, Ivanova comes to grips with her father's death with the help of Rabbi Koslov (Theodore Bikel). Fans of Harlan Ellison will enjoy the fleeting in-joke involving Read More

Law & Order: Snatched

Synopsis: Theodore Bikel guest stars as millionaire Sol Bregman, a longtime friend of District Attorney Adam Schiff (Steven Hill). When his son is snatched by kidnappers, Bregman refuses to cooperate with the police. The reasons for Bregman's behavior go far beyond mere concern for his son's well-being. Read More

Benefit of the Doubt

Actors: Donald Sutherland, Amy Irving, Rider Strong, Christopher McDonald, Graham Greene

Synopsis: In this suspense thriller, a woman wonders if she can trust her memory when her father returns from prison a very different man from the violent psychopath she remembers. Karen (Amy Irving) is a single mother who twenty years ago delivered the testimony that put her father Frank (Donald Read More

The Assassination Game

Actors: Robert Rusler, Theodore Bikel, Denise Bixler, Doug Wert

Synopsis: In this political espionage thriller, a rookie CIA agent is unofficially assigned to keep a fanatical Lithuanian assassin from vengefully killing Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet leader whom the killer blames for the death of his own family. The film was made during the Eastern bloc political tumult Read More

Crisis in the Kremlin: The Last Days of the Soviet Union

Synopsis: Originally The Assassination Game, the title of this spy flick was changed at the last minute in the interests of topicality. Robert Rusler heads the cast as a wet-behind-the-ears CIA agent. When a major international crisis looms, Russier is forced to align himself with world-weary KGB agent Theodore Bikel Read More

Shattered

Actors: Tom Berenger, Bob Hoskins, Greta Scacchi, Joanne Whalley, Corbin Bernsen

Synopsis: Wolfgang Petersen directed this intricate suspense thriller, based on the novel by Richard Neely and starring Tom Berenger as Tom Merrick, who begins to suspect the auto accident that caused his memory loss may not have been accidental. The film begins with a car crash over a seaside cliff in San Read More

Memories of Midnight

Synopsis: Adaptation of Sidney Sheldon's novel features an amnesiac who works to recover her identity and the Greek billionaire who works to make sure that she never does. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Murder, She Wrote: The List of Yuri Lermentov

Synopsis: Len Cariou makes his first series episode in nearly two years in the recurring role of suave and slightly untrustworthy British secret agent Michael Hagarty (formerly "Haggerty", at least according to the TV Guide listings). This time Hagarty is in Washington at the same time that his old friend Read More

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Family

Synopsis: Safely returned to his own self after briefly being possessed by the Borg, Captain Picard must face a another, more personal crisis. Returning to his home village during a repair stopover on Earth, Picard has an uncomfortable reunion with his envious older brother Robert (Jeremy Kemp). Meanwhile Read More

See You in the Morning

Actors: Jeff Bridges, Alice Krige, Farrah Fawcett, Drew Barrymore, Lukas Haas

Synopsis: This film is a somewhat contrived pairing of two divorcees who are giving it a second go. They're up against considerable odds, however, because the children of each are not too pleased with their new "parent." Jeff Bridges stars as the husband and Alice Krige plays his second wife. ~ All Movie Read More

The Final Days

Actors: Ann Hearn, Lane Smith, Amanda Wyss

Synopsis: The three-hour TV docudrama The Final Days was based on the Bob Woodward/Carl Bernstein chronicle of President Richard M. Nixon's last months in the White House. Given his behavior during the entire Watergate imbroglio, Nixon cannot help but come off as a paranoid power-abuser. As played by Lane Smith Read More

Murder, She Wrote: When the Fat Lady Sings

Synopsis: Keith Michell returns in the role of Dennis Stanton, an ex-jewel thief turned insurance investigator. Jessica (Angela Lansbury) links up with her old friend Dennis when she arrives in San Francisco to attend the opening of a prestigious opera. Before long, things become "operatic" for real when a Read More

Christine Cromwell: Things That Go Bump in the Night

Synopsis: In this episode, defense attorney Cromwell investigates the case of a woman accused of killing her rich husband. She discovers an underlayer of greed and adultery. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

A Stoning in Fulham County

Actors: Olivia Burnette, Maureen Mueller, Ken Olin, Ron Perlman

Synopsis: A Stoning in Fulham County spends much of its screen time in a rural North Carolina Amish community. The tendency of the Amish to shun all modern convenience and to keep to themselves has fomented hostility from their neighbors. When the baby daughter of Amish couple Ron Perlman and Maureen Mueller Read More

Murder, She Wrote: Indian Giver

Synopsis: Native American George Longbow (Bernie White), a member of the Algonquin tribe, shows up in Cabot Cove bearing a seemingly authentic land grant which states that Longbow owns the entire community. One of the locals is displeased by George's presence, threatening dire consequences if the Indian Read More

Dark Tower

Actors: Michael Moriarty, Jenny Agutter, Carol Lynley, Theodore Bikel, Anne Lockhart

Synopsis: A successful architect (Jenny Agutter) is in the middle of a large building project, but a series of murders among the construction crew disrupts her plans. She gradually realizes that the unseen force is actually the ghost of her long-dead husband. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide Read More

Very Close Quarters

Actors: Shelley Winters, Paul Sorvino, Theodore Bikel, Farley Granger, Lee Taylor Allen

Synopsis: Never released theatrically, this sex comedy is set in an apartment in Moscow with one bathroom, one kitchen and 31 inhabitants. While this may make the rent affordable for everyone, it's no help when filming inside such a set. A few of the major characters are Vera (Lee Taylor Allen), whose Read More

Prince Jack

Actors: Robert Hogan, James F. Kelly, Kenneth Mars, Lloyd Nolan, Cameron Mitchell

Synopsis: This pseudo-documentary on the life of President John F. Kennedy stars Robert Hogan as the President, James F. Kelly as Robert Kennedy, and Kenneth Mars as Lyndon Johnson, and includes some actual documentary footage intercut with the major dramatic events in Kennedy's Presidential career. Because Read More

The Return of the King

Actors: Orson Bean

Synopsis: The second of Rankin/Bass' animated TV specials based on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, Return of the King plots the quest to defeat the evil wizard Sauron. Frodo, nephew of The Hobbit protagonist Bilbo Baggins, vows to destroy the Ring, even if it costs him his own life. He carries the Ring to the Read More

All in the Family: A Girl Like Edith

Actors: Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, Danielle Brisebois, Theodore Bikel

Synopsis: Theodore Bikel returns as Bronx butcher Alvin Klemmer, the man who fell in love with Edith during All in the Family's eighth season. Insisting that he's gotten over his infatuation with Edith, Alvin introduces the Bunkers to his new fiancée, a mittel-European woman named Judith Klammerstadt. But Read More

The Amazing Spider-Man: The Curse of Rava

Synopsis: Curse of the Rava was originally a 60-minute episode of the sporadically telecast series The Amazing Spider-Man. Nicholas Hammond stars as photojournalist Peter Parker, whose close encounter with a radioactive spider has turned him into a reluctant superhero. This time around, Parker/Spiderman Read More

All in the Family: Love Comes to the Butcher

Actors: Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, Rob Reiner, Sally Struthers, Theodore Bikel

Synopsis: Theodore Bikel guest stars as Bronx butcher Alvin Klemmer. Regular customer Edith Bunker is flattered by Klemmer's old-world graciousness, until she realizes that the butcher has fallen in love with her. Written by Phil Sharp, "Love Comes to the Butcher" first aired on February 5, 1978. Audience Read More

The Stingiest Man in Town

Synopsis: Walter Matthau gives voice to Scrooge in this animated version of A Christmas Carol. Other noted voices include Tom Bosley, Theodore Bikel, Robert Morse and Dennis Day. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Charlie's Angels: Angels on a String

Actors: Farrah Fawcett-Majors, Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith, David F. Doyle, Theodore Bikel

Synopsis: While the Angels are taking a well-deserved vacation at a fashionable resort, Sabrina (Kate Jackson) senses that all is not well with another vacationer, a prominent Polish freedom advocate named Professor Peter Wycinski (Theodore Bikel). Sabrina's instincts prove to be on target when Wycinski is Read More

Columbo: The Bye-Bye Sky High IQ Murder Case

Synopsis: The setting for this 2-hour Columbo TV drama is a club for geniuses. One of the members is Theodore Bikel, whose business partner Sorrell Booke has been embezzling funds to keep Bikel's wife (Samantha Eggar) in luxury. Murdering Booke, Bikel calls upon his reserves of brilliance to cover up all Read More

Testimony of Two Men

Synopsis: The inaugural presentation of the syndicated "Operation Prime Time" anthology, the three-part, six-hour miniseries Testimony of Two Men was based on the 1968 best-seller by Taylor Caldwell; it originally aired in three separate two-hour installments. Sprawled over the course of several generations Read More

Victory at Entebbe

Actors: Julius Harris, Helen Hayes, Elizabeth Taylor, Kirk Douglas, Richard Dreyfuss, Burt Lancaster

Synopsis: Within months after the spectacular July 4, 1976 rescue of hostages from Uganda's Entebbe airport, there were two competing TV movies on the subject. The longest (and least) of the two was Victory at Entebbe, hurriedly shot on videotape. The story begins when Arab terrorist capture a civilian Read More

Little House on the Prairie: Centennial

Actors: Michael Landon, Karen Grassle, Melissa Gilbert, Melissa Sue Anderson

Synopsis: Walnut Grove's upcoming centennial celebration is threatened by a sudden upsurge in taxes and road assessments. Angry over having to dig deeper into their pockets, the citizens seriously consider cancelling the celebration altogether. It takes the humble words of a recent Russian immigrant (Theodore Bikel Read More

American Documents [Video Series]

Synopsis: A patriotic series of historical documentaries, each program makes extensive use of archive photos, rare newsreel footage and excerpts from Hollywood films. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide Read More

Murder on Flight 502

Synopsis: While bound for London from New York, the occupants of a 747 are terrorized by a mad bomber. The jet's pilot (Robert Stack) and several brave passengers must thwart the plot. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide Read More

The Mike Douglas Show: July 17, 1974

Synopsis: In the 1960s and '70s, Mike Douglas was the host of one of America's most popular TV talk shows. In his 22 years on the air, Douglas was famous for presenting a dizzying variety of entertainers and newsmakers, and this video features 75 minutes of great moments from the show's heyday. Guests Read More

The Little Ark

Actors: Monica Achterberg, Tim Beekman, Jos Bergman, Martin Brozius, Bussy, Manfred DeGraff, Wik Jongsma, Jos Knipscheer, Maurits Koek, Noisette, Heleen Pimentel, Heleen VanMeurs, Guus Verstraete

Synopsis: This heart-rending family-oriented drama chronicles the adventure of two Dutch children who temporarily lose their father and mother during the great flood of 1953. Fortunately, they and their animals are taken in by a salty old boatman who helps them reunite with their father. ~ Iotis Erlewine Read More

200 Motels

Actors: The Mothers of Invention, Theodore Bikel, Ringo Starr, Janet Ferguson, Lucy Offerall

Synopsis: Less a movie than a purposely crude series of musical vignettes and inside jokes for die-hard fans, Frank Zappa informs viewers in the opening scene that "Touring can make you crazy, ladies and gentlemen, and that is what 200 Motels is all about." The rest of the plot-less production is filled Read More

Fiddler on the Roof

Actors: Topol, Norma Crane, Leonard Frey, Molly Picon, Paul Mann

Synopsis: Norman Jewison's adaptation of the long-running Broadway musical is set in the Ukranian ghetto village of Anatevka (the film was actually lensed in Yugoslavia). Israeli actor Topol repeats his London stage role as Tevye the milkman, whose equilibrium is constantly being challenged by his poverty Read More

Killer by Night

Synopsis: Killer by Night is reminiscent of such early 1950s film noir exercises as The Killer That Stalked New York and Panic in the Streets. The police of a large city are plagued with two crises at once: A diphtheria epidemic and a triple murderer. With the help of health officials Robert Wagner and Diane Baker Read More

Ironside: The Summer Soldier

Synopsis: Theodore Bikel guest stars as Armenian immigrant Arschag Divinian, who--conveniently for plot purposes--is the uncle of a friend of police officer Eve Whitfield (Barbara Anderson). A tobacco dealer, Divnian is being blackmailed by his two disreputable nephews to allow them to prepare synthetic Read More

Darker Than Amber

Actors: Rod Taylor, Suzy Kendall, Theodore Bikel, Jane Russell, James Booth

Synopsis: John D. McDonald was not altogether pleased with what Hollywood did to his novel Darker Than Amber, but audiences were generally satisfied. Private eye Travis McGee (Rod Taylor) and his cohort Meyer (Theodore Bikel) rescue the beautiful Vangie (Suzy Kendall) from drowning. Vangie has been Read More

My Side of the Mountain

Actors: Ted Eccles, Theodore Bikel, Tudi Wiggins

Synopsis: Thirteen-year old Teddy Eccles is a devotee of Thoreau, as most everybody else was in 1969. Eccles decides to spend a one-year sabbatical in the Canadian woods. His immediate companion is his pet raccoon; his spiritual companion is idealistic librarian Chris Wiggins, who supplies Eccles with books Read More

The Desperate Ones

Actors: Maximilian Schell, Raf Vallone, Irene Papas, Theodore Bikel, Maria Perschy

Synopsis: In this drama, two Polish brothers escape from a Russian labor camp and try to join the exiled Polish Army in Afghanistan. While awaiting the man who will sneak them over the border, they rent a room. There, one of them falls in love with the landlord's wife, and the other for a local waitress. Read More

Mission: Impossible: The Cardinal

Actors: Peter Graves, Barbara Bain, Martin Landau, Greg Morris, Peter Lupus

Synopsis: Borrowing a page from "The Man in the Iron Mask," an impostor poses as Cardinal Soucheck (Paul Stevens), the much-beloved spiritual leader of a Balkan nation, while the real Cardinal languishes in prision. It is all part of a scheme by would-be dictator General Zepke (Theodore Bikel) to gain Read More

Sweet November

Actors: Sandy Dennis, Anthony Newley, Theodore Bikel, Burr de Benning, Sandy Baron

Synopsis: Sarah Deever (Sandy Dennis) is an idealistic young woman living in Brooklyn. Her altruistic nature finds her taking in visitors for a month at a time to help them in their time of need. Charlie Blake (Anthony Newley) is her latest reclamation project, a cardboard-box factory worker and owner of an Read More

The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming!

Actors: Carl Reiner, Eva Marie Saint, Alan Arkin, Brian Keith, Jonathan Winters

Synopsis: Just because The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming was vastly overrated by contemporary critics does not make it any less amusing. The story gets under way when a Soviet submarine accidently gets lodged in a sandbar on the coast of a New England town. In his feature film debut, Alan Arkin Read More

Sands of the Kalahari

Actors: Stuart Whitman, Stanley Baker, Susannah York, Harry Andrews, Theodore Bikel

Synopsis: Stranded in the African wilds by a plane crash, a disparate group of passengers' worst enemy isn't weather or wild animals but a fellow traveler. A delayed flight causes several South African travelers to charter a small plane from unctuous pilot Sturdevan (Nigel Davenport). Among the group: Dr. Read More

Last Chapter

Synopsis: Historic film from pre-war Vilna, Warsaw, Bialystock, Cracow and Lvov bring to life the Jewish culture which had its own political, social and economic features before the German invasion during World War II. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Combat!: Mountain Man

Synopsis: The men of King Company continue their wartime odyssey as Combat launches its third season. On this occasion, Sgt. Saunders (Vic Morrow) faces the daunting task of leading his men over a snowcapped mountain peak which may or may not be festooned with Germans. The only person who knows enough of Read More

My Fair Lady

Actors: Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison, Stanley Holloway, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Gladys Cooper

Synopsis: At one time the longest-running Broadway musical, My Fair Lady was adapted by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe from the George Bernard Shaw comedy Pygmalion. Outside Covent Garden on a rainy evening in 1912, dishevelled cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn) meets linguistic Read More

Corridor 400

Synopsis: Listed in some video catalogues as a feature film, Corridor 400 is an hour-long drama first telecast December 27, 1963, on NBC's Bob Hope Chrysler Theatre. Suzanne Pleshette stars as Anita King, an undercover FBI agent. Posing as a nightclub singer, Anita gets a job in a nightclub owned by Theodore Bikel Read More

The Twilight Zone: Four O'Clock

Actors: Theodore Bikel, Moyna MacGill, Phyllis Love, Linden Chiles

Synopsis: Rod Serling adapted the teleplay for this Twilight Zone episode from a short story by Price Day, which first appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. Decked out in coke-bottle glasses and greased-down hair, Theodore Bikel is malevolence personified as Oliver Crangle, a self-appointed Read More

Naked City: Murder is a Face I Know

The Blue Angel

Actors: Curd Jürgens, May Britt, Theodore Bikel, John Banner, Fabrizio Mioni

Synopsis: May Britt attempts to follow in the footsteps of Marlene Dietrich in this glossy Hollywood remake of the German classic. Professor Immanuel Rath (Curt Jurgens) is shocked to discover a number of his students have been frequenting a nightspot called the Blue Angel, where a scandalous entertainer Read More

A Dog of Flanders

Actors: David Ladd, Donald Crisp, Theodore Bikel, Max Croiset, Monique Ahrens

Synopsis: Based on a novel written in 1872, this charming tale of a young boy and his dog is leisurely and heart-warming. Nello (David Ladd) and his grandfather Daas (Donald Crisp) manage to make ends meet by delivering milk from the nearby farms to the city of Antwerp. Nello's most deeply felt ambition is Read More

The Angry Hills

Actors: Robert Mitchum, Elisabeth Müller, Stanley Baker, Gia Scala, Theodore Bikel, Donald Wolfit

Synopsis: Robert Aldrich (Kiss Me Deadly) directed this cloak-and-dagger yarn (based on a bestseller by Leon Uris), filmed on sumptuous locations in Greece. Set in Athens in 1941, before the Nazis overran the country, Robert Mitchum plays American war correspondent Mike Morrison, who has come into the Read More

Woman Obsessed

Actors: Susan Hayward, Stephen Boyd, Barbara Nichols, Dennis Holmes, Theodore Bikel

Synopsis: The hardships faced by a widow and her eight-year-old son on a rugged Canadian ranch provide the basis of this gripping outdoor adventure. She lost her husband to a forest fire. To help her run the ranch, she hires a handy man. A handsome, but taciturn fellow who has known much tragedy, he works Read More

I Want to Live!

Actors: Susan Hayward, Simon Oakland, Virginia Vincent, Theodore Bikel, Wesley Lau

Synopsis: Grim, almost unbearably intense, I Want To Live is the story of the life and execution of Barbara Graham (Susan Hayward) a perjurer, prostitute, liar and drug addict. The product of a broken home, Graham works as a shill, luring gullible men into crooked card games. She attempts to go straight Read More

Fraulein

Actors: Dana Wynter, Mel Ferrer, Dolores Michaels, Maggie Hayes, Theodore Bikel

Synopsis: About the only perils that heroine Dana Wynter avoids in Fraulein are being tied to the buzzsaw and chased across the ice by bloodhouds. Wynter plays a German girl of genteel upbringing who is forced to wake up and smell the coffee when her family is killed in a WW2 air raid. She helps American Read More

I Bury the Living

Actors: Richard Boone, Theodore Bikel, Peggy Maurer, Howard I. Smith

Synopsis: Unjustly ignored by many books on the horror film, I Bury the Living is a bone-chilling little mood piece, almost completed dominated by Richard Boone. Expertly avoiding the obvious throughout the film, Boone gives a thoroughly credible performance of a troubled man who labors under the Read More

DuPont Show of the Month: The Bridge of San Luis Rey

Actors: Judith Anderson, Hume Cronyn, Viveca Lindfors, Eva Le Gallienne, Rita Gam

Synopsis: Previously filmed twice in Hollywood, Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey was brought to television in this lavish, live, star-studded DuPont Show of the Month adaptation. The story essentially begins at the end -- July 20, 1714 -- when the famous San Luis Rey Read More

The Defiant Ones

Actors: Tony Curtis, Sidney Poitier, Theodore Bikel, Charles McGraw, Cara Williams, Lon Chaney, Jr.

Synopsis: Convicts Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier escape from a chain gang. Curtis' character, John "Joker" Jackson, hates blacks, while Poitier's character, Noah Cullen, hates whites. However, the men are manacled together, forced to rely on each other to survive. Captured at one point by a lynch-happy Read More

Hallmark Hall of Fame: There Shall Be No Night

Actors: Charles Boyer, Katharine Cornell, Ray Walston, Bradford Dillman, Theodore Bikel

Synopsis: First staged on Broadway in 1940 with Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne and Montgomery Clift in the starring roles, Robert Sherwood's Pulitzer Prize-winning play There Shall Be No Night was originally set in Finland in the years before the outbreak of WW2. For this Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation, the Read More

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Hands of Mr. Ottermole

Synopsis: A strangler is plaguing fog-bound London, and each time the culprit strikes, two men are the first to arrive at the murder scene. One of them is Ottermole (Theodore Bikel), the police sergeant investigating the murders; the other is an obnoxious newspaper reporter (Charles Davis). Trouble is, the Read More

Escape from the Iron Curtain

Synopsis: A Hungarian Secret Service official attempts Western political asylum. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

The Pride and the Passion

Actors: Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, Sophia Loren, Theodore Bikel, John Wengraf

Synopsis: As was his custom, producer/director Stanley Kramer made some iconoclastic casting decisions when mounting his $5 million production The Pride and the Passion. Adapted from The Gun, a novel by C. S. Forester, the film is set in Spain during the Napoleonic wars. Captain Anthony Trumbull (Cary Read More

The Enemy Below

Actors: Robert Mitchum, Curd Jürgens, Theodore Bikel, Russell Collins

Synopsis: The Enemy Below is a study of submarine warfare from the vantage point of both sides. Robert Mitchum plays the captain of an American destroyer, who despite having lost his family in the war endeavors to let his head rule his heart in combat. Curt Jurgens co-stars as a German U-boat commander Read More

The Vintage

Actors: Anna Maria Pier Angeli, Mel Ferrer, John Kerr, Michèle Morgan, Theodore Bikel

Synopsis: There's a curious, unsettling "feel" to MGM's The Vintage, perhaps because of its curiously selected cast. Mel Ferrer and John Kerr play a couple of Italian brothers, Giancarlo and Ernesto Barandero, who escape to France after Ernesto kills a man. Attaining jobs in a vineyard run by Louis Morel Read More

Flight from Vienna

Synopsis: A man seeking asylum takes desperate actions to prove his sincerity in this drama. The man is an important Hungarian official trying to defect to England. The British are unsure of his true loyalties and ask him to prove his loyalty to them by returning to his home and smuggling out a scientist Read More

Above Us the Waves

Actors: John Mills, John Gregson, Donald Sinden, Michael Medwin

Synopsis: Judging by the number of times it has shown up on TV, Above Us the Waves may be American viewers' favorite British war film. Most of the film is set in a British midget submarine, commandeered by John Mills. The sub's mission (together with its "fellow" vessels) is to sink the German battleship Read More

The Colditz Story

Actors: John Mills, Eric Portman, Christopher Rhodes, Lionel Jeffries, Bryan Forbes

Synopsis: During World War II, the impenetrable Colditz castle in Germany was selected as the site for a POW camp. The Germans reason that, since Colditz has been virtually impossible to get into or out of for centuries, it is ideal for housing the most contentious allied prisoners. British officer John Mills Read More

Chance Meeting

Actors: Odile Versois, David Knight, Joseph Tomelty, Paul Carpenter, Theodore Bikel, David Kossoff

Synopsis: Also known as Chance Meeting, The Young Lovers can be described as an Iron Curtain romance. The boy, Ted (David Knight), works as a code expert at the American Embassy in London. The girl, Anna (Odelle Versois), is the daughter of a communist dignitary. When Ted and Anna fall in love, they find Read More

The Divided Heart

Actors: Cornell Borchers, Yvonne Mitchell, Armin Dahlen, Alexander Knox, Geoffrey Keen

Synopsis: Based on a true story, The Divided Heart is an effective, high-gloss British soap opera. Cornell Borchers stars as Inga, a young German woman who disappears and is presumed killed during WW2. Inga's infant son is placed in an orphanage; years later, the boy is adopted by childless couple Sonja Read More

Forbidden Cargo

Actors: Nigel Patrick, Elizabeth Sellars, Terence Morgan, Jack Warner, Greta Gynt

Synopsis: Nigel Patrick plays a suave but dead-serious British narcotics agent in this sporadically exciting crime melodrama. Patrick is determined that the drug traffic will not spread into his territory. He finds an unexpected ally in Joyce Grenfell, an inveterate bird-watcher. Ms. Grenfell aids Patrick Read More

The Love Lottery

Actors: David Niven, Peggy Cummins, Anne Vernon, Herbert Lom, Charles Victor

Synopsis: David Niven returns to his native England to star in the frothy comedy The Love Lottery. Niven plays a Hollywood movie star who is the "prize" in a lottery dreamed up by his press agent. The lucky lady who "wins" Niven will be able to spend a week in his company. Sensing the silliness of the whole Read More

The Little Kidnappers

Actors: Duncan MacRae, Jean Anderson, Adrienne Corri, Theodore Bikel, Jon Whiteley

Synopsis: In this charming 1954 feature, Harry and Davy are two orphans living with their grandparents in Nova Scotia. Their autocratic grandfather gives them a "spare the rod spoil the child" kind of upbringing. All the boys really want is a dog, all the other kids have them, but their grandfather won't Read More

A Day to Remember

Actors: Stanley Holloway, Donald Sinden, Joan Rice, Odile Versois, James Hayter

Synopsis: Based on The Hand and the Flower, a novel by Jerrard Tickell, A Day to Remember stars Stanley Holloway as Charley Porter, captain of London darts team. When the team travels to the French town of Boulogne for the annual darts tournament, a good time is had by all--and more besides. Jim Carver (Donald Sinden Read More

Never Let Me Go

Actors: Clark Gable, Gene Tierney, Theodore Bikel, Bernard Miles, Richard Haydn, Belita

Synopsis: Clark Gable's next-to-last MGM film was the Cold War melodrama Never Let Me Go. Filmed in England, the story finds American journalist Philip Sutherland (Gable) desperately trying to retrieve his Russian-ballerina bride Marva Lamarkins (Gene Tierney) from behind the Iron Curtain. Stymied by Read More

Melba

Actors: Patrice Munsel, Robert Morley, John McCallum, John Justin, Alec Clunes

Synopsis: American opera and musical-comedy soprano Patrice Munsel plays the title role in this filmed biography of famed Australian diva Nellie Melba. The story begins on Nellie's father's cattle farm, where she grew up under her given name of Nelly Mitchell. While studying in Paris with the great Madame Read More

Desperate Moment

Actors: Dirk Bogarde, Mai Zetterling, Phillip Friend, Albert Lieven, Frederick Wendhausen

Synopsis: Based on a novel by Martin Albrand, Desperate Moment is set in postwar Germany. Simon van Halder (Dirk Bogarde) serving a life term for murder, escapes to prove innocence. After linking up with his girlfriend Anna de Burgh (Mai Zetterling), Simon relates, in flashback, the events leading up to his Read More

Moulin Rouge

Actors: José Ferrer, Colette Marchand, Suzanne Flon, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Katherine Kath, Christopher Lee

Synopsis: Moulin Rouge is the story of 19th century French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, portrayed by José Ferrer. The film records his frustration over his physical handicap (the growth in his legs was stunted by a childhood accident), his efforts to "lose" himself in Paris' bawdy Montmartre district Read More

The African Queen

Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, Robert Morley, Peter Bull, Theodore Bikel

Synopsis: After years of wooing director John Huston via good reviews, film critic James Agee was given a chance to write the screenplay for a Huston picture. Adapted from a novel by C.S. Forester, The African Queen stars Humphrey Bogart in his Oscar-winning portrayal of Charlie Allnut, the slovenly Read More

Ayer: Our Spanish Heritage

Synopsis: This film, starring Theodore Bikel, introduces younger viewers to the story of the Spanish Jews. The program traces the origins of Jews in Spain, following their stories until their eventual expulsion in 1492 under the terrifying reign of the Spanish Inquisition. ~ Rob Ferrier, All Movie Guide Read More

The Four Sons: A Guide to Passover

T.G.I.S. (Thank Goodness It's Shabbat) a Guide to Sabbath Traditions

The Lost Wooden Synagogues of Eastern Europe

Synopsis: Some historians believe that prior to World War II, more than 1,000 wooden synagogues stood all over eastern Europe. Theodore Bikel narrates this award-winning film about how a Hebrew University group recently discovered six of these structures. When filmmakers journeyed to the modern-day area Read More