Van Heflin Filmography

Airport

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, Jean Seberg, Jacqueline Bisset, George Kennedy

Synopsis: Airport had enough plot and enough star power in its cast for three feature films, and it only encompassed about half of the complexity or characters found in Arthur Hailey's best-selling potboiler. Essentially built around 12 harrowing hours at a major Midwestern airport, the film had everything Read More

The Big Bounce

Actors: Ryan O'Neal, Leigh Taylor-Young, Van Heflin, Lee Grant, James Daly

Synopsis: Jack Ryan (Ryan O'Neal) is a cucumber picker who is fired after a fight with a Mexican-American (Victor Paul) co-worker. He finds work on a ranch owned by Ray Ritchie (James Daly). Soon his private secretary Nancy (Leigh Taylor-Young) is after Jack. She spends her free time in pursuit of hedonism Read More

Ognuno per Se

Synopsis: Ruthless Four follows four prospectors who are out to strike a big lode in the Nevada gold rush days. When one of the four hits the riches, he finds the other three are out to partake of the hard-earned find. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

The Man Outside

Actors: Van Heflin, Heidelinde Weis, Pinkas Braun, Peter Vaughan, Charles Gray

Synopsis: Bill McLean (Van Heflin) is a former CIA agent living in London. He had been fired when he stuck up for one of the men in his command who turned out to be branded a Russian defector. The embittered ex-agent combines forces with another operative to deliver a top Russian secret police official for Read More

Stagecoach

Actors: Ann-Margret, Red Buttons, Michael Connors, Alex Cord, Bing Crosby

Synopsis: Outbound from a small town recently besieged by Indians, a stagecoach carries several diverse characters. They include rummy sawbones Josiah Boone (Bing Crosby), dance-hall girl and prostitute Dallas (Ann-Margret), embezzling bank clerk Gatewood (Robert Cummings), pregnant army officer's wife Lucy Read More

The Thin Blue Line

Revolution In the 3 R's

Pro Football: Mayhem On a Sunday Afternoon

The Way Out Men

Once a Thief

Actors: Alain Delon, Ann-Margret, Van Heflin, Jack Palance, John Chandler

Synopsis: Once a thief, always a thief. This is the sorry lot of Eddie (Alain Delon), an ex-convict who tries his best to go straight. He marries Kristine (Ann-Margret), who bears him a child. Seeking out a new start in San Francisco, Eddie is dogged by vengeful cop Vito (Van Heflin), who thinks that the Read More

The Greatest Story Ever Told

Actors: Max von Sydow, Dorothy McGuire, Robert Loggia, Claude Rains, José Ferrer, Charlton Heston

Synopsis: Filmmaker George Stevens chose Monument Valley, Utah for his exterior sequences in The Greatest Story Ever Told, this ($20 million) adaptation of Fulton Oursler's best-selling book. The "Greatest Story" is, of course, the life of Jesus Christ, played herein by Max Von Sydow. The large supporting Read More

Teenage Revolution

Cry of Battle

Actors: Van Heflin, Rita Moreno, James MacArthur, Leopoldo Salcedo, Sidney Clute

Synopsis: Surely Benjamin Appel's novel Fortress in the Rice was more interesting than its static film adaptation Cry of Battle. Van Heflin plays a crusty soldier of fortune fighting with the Philippine partisans during World War II. James MacArthur co-stars as the wealthy, aimless son of a businessman who Read More

The Wastrel

Actors: Van Heflin, Ellie Lambetti, Franco Fabrizi, Michael Stellman

Synopsis: This is a standard, somewhat slow-paced drama about a much-needed transformation in a husband and father. Duncan (Van Heflin) is a womanizer who has no faith in the loyalty of any woman and cannot shake that attitude after he falls in love with Liana (Ellie Lambetti) and marries her. One of Read More

Sotto Dieci Bandiere

Actors: Van Heflin, Charles Laughton, Mylène Demongeot, John Ericson, Cecil Parker

Synopsis: Under Ten Flags is a fact-based British maritime epic set during World War II. Allied ships are being victimized by a German surface raider, which sails under friendly flags until moving in for the kill. Since so many nationalities were involved in making this film (both before and behind the Read More

Five Branded Women

Actors: Silvana Mangano, Vera Miles, Barbara Bel Geddes, Jeanne Moreau, Carla Gravina

Synopsis: Once branded himself by the House Un-American Activities Committee, award-winning director Martin Ritt focuses on the cruel branding of five women in this standard wartime drama. Some of his better-known films (The Spy Who Came In from the Cold, Norma Rae) also deal with the question of social and Read More

They Came to Cordura

Actors: Gary Cooper, Rita Hayworth, Van Heflin, Tab Hunter, Richard Conte, Michael Callan

Synopsis: Gary Cooper stars in one of his final roles in They Came To Cordura, Robert Rossen's moody study of the thin dividing line between heroism and cowardice. Cooper plays Major Thomas Thorn, a U.S. Army officer in the expedition into Mexico against Pancho Villa. Because he hesitated during a moment of Read More

La Tempesta

Actors: Van Heflin, Viveca Lindfors, Silvana Mangano, Geoffrey Horne, Robert Keith

Synopsis: Based on the Alexander Pushkin story The Captain's Daughter, Tempest is set in Russia during the reign of Catherine the Great. A Russian ensign named Peter Griniev (Geoffrey Horne), banished by Catherine (Viveca Lindfors) to a distant outpost, saves the life of Pugachov (Van Heflin), leader of a Read More

Gunman's Walk

Actors: Van Heflin, Tab Hunter, Kathryn Grant, James Darren, Mickey Shaughnessy

Synopsis: The highly variable Tab Hunter delivers his best film performance in the grim western Gunman's Walk. Hunter plays Ed Hackett, the son of gunslinger-turned-land baron Lee Hackett (Van Heflin). Out of respect (and fear) of his father, the hotheaded Ed is given a wide berth by the resentful Read More

3:10 to Yuma

Actors: Glenn Ford, Van Heflin, Felicia Farr, Leora Dana, Henry Jones, Richard Jaeckel

Synopsis: Desperate for money, frontier rancher Van Heflin holds outlaw Glenn Ford at gunpoint, intending to collect the $200 reward. While both men await the train to Yuma that will escort Ford to prison, the cagey outlaw offers Heflin $10,000 if he'll set Ford free. The rest of the film is a Read More

Patterns

Actors: Van Heflin, Ed Begley, Sr., Everett Sloane, Beatrice Straight, Elizabeth Wilson

Synopsis: Rod Serling's incisive "gray flannel suit" TV drama created such a sensation when Kraft Television Theatre first aired it live on January 11, 1955 that, in an unprecedented move, it was repeated four weeks later, on February 9, again live. Richard Kiley starred as Fred Staples, a bright young man Read More

Count Three and Pray

Actors: Van Heflin, Joanne Woodward, Philip Carey, Raymond Burr, Allison Hayes

Synopsis: This laid-back western manages to deliver a full quota of action, an agreeable dash of sentiment, and quite a few three-dimensional characterizations. Van Heflin plays Luke Fargo, a Civil War veteran who returns to his Southern homeland to find his house destroyed, his crops burned out, and the Read More

Battle Cry

Actors: Van Heflin, Aldo Ray, Mona Freeman, Nancy Olson, James Whitmore, Tab Hunter

Synopsis: Adapted by Leon Uris from his own novel, the film follows a group of World War II marines, from Basic Training to Battlefield. Major Van Heflin knows that his men are spoiling for a real fight, but must make do with the desultory skirmishes assigned them by the Brass. All this changes with an Read More

Black Widow

Actors: Ginger Rogers, Van Heflin, Gene Tierney, George Raft, Peggy Ann Garner

Synopsis: Broadway producer Peter Denver (Van Heflin) takes in young actress Nanny Ordway (Peggy Ann Garner) while his wife (Gene Tierney) is out of town. When Nancy is found murdered in his penthouse apartment, the two prime suspects are Peter and the neglected husband (Reginald Gardiner) of temperamental Read More

Tanganyika

Actors: Van Heflin, Ruth Roman, Howard Duff, Jeff Morrow, Noreen Corcoran, Gregory Marshall

Synopsis: Despite its title, Tanganyika was largely filmed in the wilds of Universal City. Set in 1900, the film stars Van Heflin as safari guide John Gale, hired to launch a manhunt for the murderous Abel McCracken (Jeff Morrow). Deep in the territory controlled by the Nukumbi tribe, McCracken has been Read More

A Woman's World

Actors: Clifton Webb, June Allyson, Van Heflin, Lauren Bacall, Fred MacMurray, Arlene Dahl

Synopsis: In this subtle 1954 comedy with feminist overtones, Clifton Webb plays Gifford, an executive with a large automobile manufacturer who is having trouble deciding who to hire as his chief sales manager. His three candidates are equally competent, so he brings their wives with them to New York Read More

The Raid

Actors: Van Heflin, Anne Bancroft, Lee Marvin, Richard Boone, Tommy Rettig

Synopsis: Based on a true story from the Civil War, this drama follows a band of Confederate POWS who escape from a New England prison head for Canada and begin planning to distract Union forces by looting and pillaging a Vermont town. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The South of Algiers

Actors: Van Heflin, Wanda Hendrix, Charles Goldner, Jacques Francois

Synopsis: Released in Great Britain as South of Algiers, Golden Mask thrusts it main characters into the dangerous environs of North Africa. An archeological expedition has trekked to Sahara to locate the legendary golden treasure mask. Also on the trail is a gang of murderous thieves, who hope that the Read More

Wings of the Hawk

Actors: Van Heflin, Julie Adams, Abbe Lane, George Dolenz, Antonio Moreno

Synopsis: Adapted from a novel by Gerald Drayon Adams, Wings of the Hawk stars Van Heflin as Irish Gallegher, an American mining engineer working in Mexico. When his gold mine is confiscated by the local government, Gallegher aligns himself with a renegade group of insurrectionists, led by Arturo (Rodolfo Acosta Read More

Shane

Actors: Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, Van Heflin, Brandon de Wilde, Jack Palance

Synopsis: The simple story of a Wyoming range war is elevated to near-mythical status in producer/director George Stevens' Western classic Shane. Alan Ladd plays the title character, a mysterious drifter who rides into a tiny homesteading community and accepts the hospitality of a farming family. Patriarch Read More

My Son, John

Actors: Helen Hayes, Van Heflin, Robert Walker, Dean Jagger, Minor Watson

Synopsis: Filled with the kind of Red Scare propaganda that must have delighted members of McCarthy's House Un-American Activities Committee, this drama chronicles the attempts of two All-American parents to save their son from the temptations of Communism. Unfortunately, they are too late. The arrogant and Read More

Weekend with Father

Actors: Van Heflin, Patricia Neal, Virginia Field, Richard Denning

Synopsis: This seminal Brady Bunch stars Van Heflin as a widower and Patricia Neal as a widow. Both parties have several children by their first marriages. Heflin and Neal fall in love and decide to marry, each hoping to adopt the other's kids. The couple idealistically subscribes to the "one big happy Read More

Tomahawk

Actors: Van Heflin, Yvonne De Carlo, Alex Nicol, Preston S. Foster, Jack Oakie

Synopsis: Tomahawk takes place during the Great Sioux Uprising of the 1860s. Van Heflin stars as famed frontier scout Jim Bridger, who labors valiantly and vainly to orchestrate peace between Indians and whites. Much of the action takes place at Fort Phil Kearney, the scene of one of the bloodiest battles Read More

The Prowler

Actors: Van Heflin, Evelyn Keyes, John Maxwell, Katherine Warren, Emerson Treacy

Synopsis: Webb Garwood (Van Heflin) is a cynical policeman who believes that success comes from lucky breaks. Responding to a prowler complaint at the home of Susan Gilvray (Evelyn Keyes), he is immediately attracted to her and her wealth. He returns to "check up" on Susan, and they begin an affair Read More

The Black Widow

Synopsis: Vernon Sewell, a mercurial filmmaker who preferred to lens his pictures on chunks of his own property, was the director of Black Widow. We don't know which of Sewell's real estate holdings served as the locale for this amnesia meller. We can, however, tell you that the film was inspired by the BBC Read More

Madame Bovary

Actors: Jennifer Jones, James Mason, Van Heflin, Louis Jourdan, Christopher [Alf] Kent

Synopsis: MGM circumvented the censorship that would otherwise have prevented a film version of Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary by adding a prologue and epilogue that assured any and all bluenoses that the story was strictly a work of fiction. James Mason appears as Flaubert, defending his inflammatory Read More

East Side, West Side

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, James Mason, Van Heflin, Ava Gardner, Cyd Charisse

Synopsis: Director Mervyn Leroy lends a burnished MGM gloss to this sordid tale of infidelity among rich New York East Siders. Barbara Stanwyck stars as Jessie Bourne, a charming society woman whose finds out that her husband Brandon (James Mason) is guiltily indulging in an illicit affair with the earthy Read More

Act of Violence

Actors: Van Heflin, Robert Ryan, Janet Leigh, Phyllis Thaxter, Mary Astor, Berry Kroeger

Synopsis: An unusually disturbing noir from a director better known for more mainstream fare like High Noon and From Here to Eternity, Act of Violence focuses on a WWII veteran haunted by his past. A film that was close to the director's heart, he said that it represented "the first time that I felt Read More

The Three Musketeers

Actors: Gene Kelly, Lana Turner, June Allyson, Van Heflin, Angela Lansbury

Synopsis: The third talkie version of Dumas' The Three Musketeers, this splashy MGM adaptation is also the first version in Technicolor. Gene Kelly romps his way through the role of D'Artagnan, the upstart cadet who joins veteran Musketeers Athos (Van Heflin), Porthos (Gig Young) and Aramis (Robert Coote) Read More

Tap Roots

Actors: Van Heflin, Susan Hayward, Boris Karloff, Julie London, Whitfield Connor

Synopsis: Set at the beginning of the Civil War, Tap Roots is all about a county in Mississippi which chooses to secede from the state rather than enter the conflict. The county is protected from the Confederacy by an abolitionist (Ward Bond) and a Native American gentleman (Boris Karloff). The Read More

B.F.'s Daughter

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, Charles Coburn, Keenan Wynn, Richard Hart

Synopsis: Barbara Stanwyck plays Polly Fulton, rebellious daughter of a wealthy industrialist (Charles Coburn). Polly marries a conservative economist professor (Richard Hart), but she chafes at his values and leaves him for socialist professor Van Heflin. Polly nearly ruins both her father's reputation and Read More

The Secret Land

Actors: Robert Montgomery, Robert Taylor, Van Heflin

Synopsis: The Secret Land is the Oscar-winning documentary of Admiral Richard Byrd's 1946-1947 Antarctic expedition. Robert Montgomery, Robert Taylor, and Van Heflin, all commissioned naval officers, alternate as the film's narrator. The footage of the expedition was taken by members of the U.S. Navy Read More

Green Dolphin Street

Actors: Patrick Aherne, Lana Turner, Van Heflin, Linda Christian, Gladys Cooper, Donna Reed, Bernie Gozier, Richard Hart, Edmund Gwenn

Synopsis: The 161-minute costume drama Green Dolphin Street is set in 1840, on an island off the coast of Newfoundland, (or at least, the MGM backlot facsimile of same). Boiled down to essentials, it's the story of two sisters, blonde Marguerite Patourel (Donna Reed) and brunette
Marianne Patourel Read More

Possessed

Actors: Griff Barnett, Joan Crawford, Van Heflin, Monte Blue, Raymond Massey, Geraldine Brooks, Nana Bryant, Stanley Ridges

Synopsis: We first meet Joan Crawford, star of the moody flashbackfest Possessed, wandering aimlessly through the city streets, moaning "David....David." She goes to pieces in public and is rushed to the mental ward, where a team of psychiatrists try to find out who she is and where she's been. Who she is Read More

Till the Clouds Roll By

Actors: June Allyson, Robert Walker, Judy Garland, Lucille Bremer, Gower Champion, Cyd Charisse, Joan Wells, Van Heflin, Bruce Cowling

Synopsis: MGM's Till the Clouds Roll By is the musicalized, and highly fictionalized, life story of beloved composer Jerome Kern, who gave his blessing to the production shortly before his death in 1946. As played by a gray-templed Robert Walker, Kern is a likeable but none too exciting sort who expresses Read More

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers

Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, Roman Bohnen, Van Heflin, Lizabeth Scott, Charles D. Brown, Ann Doran, Kirk Douglas, Judith Anderson

Synopsis: In The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, relationships formed in childhood lead to murder and obsessive love. The wealthy Martha Ivers (Barbara Stanwyck) is the prime mover of the small Pennsylvania town of Iverston. Martha lives in a huge mansion with her DA husband, Walter O'Neil (Kirk Douglas), an Read More

Land and Live in the Jungle

Actors: Van Heflin

Seven Miles from Alcatraz

Actors: James Craig, Bonita Granville, Frank Jenks, Cliff Edwards, George Cleveland

Synopsis: For his first directorial assignment at RKO Radio, Edward Dmytryk was handed the mile-a-minute topical meller Seven Miles From Alcatraz. James Craig and Frank Jenks star as cynical Alcatraz inmates Champ and Jimbo, who manage to escape from the "rock" and then take refuge in the lighthouse Read More

Presenting Lily Mars

Actors: Judy Garland, Van Heflin, Fay Bainter, Marta Eggerth, Richard Carlson, Spring Byington

Synopsis: A Booth Tarkington novel was the source for the so-so Judy Garland musical Presenting Lily Mars. Garland plays the title character, a small-town girl with big-city ambitions. She heads to Broadway hoping for stardom, but after a series of disappointments the best she can manage is an understudy Read More

Grand Central Murder

Actors: Van Heflin, Patricia Dane, Cecilia Parker, Virginia Grey, Samuel S. Hinds

Synopsis: Grand Central Murder was intended as a followup to the MGM "sleeper" Kid Glove Killer, with the earlier film's star, Van Heflin, appearing in a similar role. When bitchy actress Mida King (Patricia Dane) is bumped off in a private train car at Grand Central Station, police inspector Gunther (Sam Read More

Kid Glove Killer

Actors: Van Heflin, Marsha Hunt, Lee Bowman, Samuel S. Hinds, Cliff Clark

Synopsis: Kid Glove Killer is an expanded remake of They're Always Caught (1938), a 2-reel entry in MGM's "Crime Does Not Pay" series. Van Heflin stars as criminologist Gordon McKay, at present investigating the murder of of reform mayor Daniels (Samuel S. Hinds). What the audience knows, but McKay doesn't Read More

Seven Sweethearts

Actors: Kathryn Grayson, Van Heflin, Marsha Hunt, Cecilia Parker, Peggy Moran

Synopsis: This MGM musical lifts the premise of Pride and Prejudice and plunks it down into the early 1900s. S.Z. Sakall is a restaurateur who has decreed that his seven daughters must marry in order of age -- the oldest one first. Kathryn Grayson isn't the oldest, but she has the sweetest singing voice Read More

Tennessee Johnson

Actors: Van Heflin, Ruth Hussey, Lionel Barrymore, Marjorie Main, Regis Toomey

Synopsis: The tumultuous presidency of 17th-president Andrew Johnson is chronicled in this biopic. The story begins with Johnson's boyhood as the lad escapes from the ruthless tailor he has been apprenticed to. The young man flees to a new town where he is befriended by a caring schoolteacher who teaches Read More

The Feminine Touch

Actors: Rosalind Russell, Don Ameche, Kay Francis, Van Heflin, Donald Meek

Synopsis: An expert cast of farceurs goes through its customary paces in MGM's The Feminine Touch. Don Ameche plays college professor-turned-author John Hathaway, who hits upon a potential best-seller with his book on marital jealousy. He heads to New York with his lovely wife Julie (Rosalind Russell) Read More

H.M. Pulham, Esq.

Actors: Hedy Lamarr, Robert Young, Ruth Hussey, Charles Coburn, Van Heflin

Synopsis: MGM was doing so well in 1941 that it could afford the occasional "prestige" film with little box-office appeal. Based on the novel by J.P. Marquand, H.M. Pulham, Esq., stars Robert Young as a successful but stuffy Boston businessman. The glimmer of sadness in Young's eyes indicates that his Read More

Johnny Eager

Actors: Robert Taylor, Lana Turner, Edward Arnold, Van Heflin, Robert Sterling

Synopsis: Robert Taylor toughened up his image considerably with this gangster movie, which was unusual both in its plot and origins, having come from MGM, which was generally not known for its crime movies. Taylor plays a parolee who is pretending to follow the straight-and-narrow as a hardworking cabbie Read More

Santa Fe Trail

Actors: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Raymond Massey, Ronald Reagan, Alan Hale

Synopsis: Santa Fe Trail, Errol Flynn's third western, has precisely nothing to do with the titular trail. Instead, the film is a simplistic retelling of the John Brown legend, with Raymond Massey playing the famed abolitionist. The events leading up to the bloody confrontation between Brown and the US Read More

Back Door to Heaven

Actors: Wallace Ford, Aline MacMahon, Stuart Erwin, Patricia Ellis

Synopsis: William K. Howard, a once-prestigious director fallen on hard times in 1939, proved that he still had the "right stuff" with the modest tearjerker Back Door to Heaven. Wallace Ford stars as Frankie, a pugnacious drifter stigmatized by his reform-school upbringing. Frankie and his former Read More

The Outcasts of Poker Flat

Actors: Preston S. Foster, Jean Muir, Van Heflin, Virginia Weidler, Margaret Irving

Synopsis: Outcasts of Poker Flat is an adaptation of Bret Harte's western story of the same name, with elements of Harte's