Virginia Mayo Filmography

Murder, She Wrote: Hooray for Homicide

Synopsis: Jessica (Angela Lansbury) arrives in Hollywood, where her first mystery novel "The Corpse Danced at Midnight" is being made into a movie. Unfortunately, Jessica is displeased by the decision of film producer Jerry Lydecker (John Saxon) to "juice up" her novel with heavy doses of sex and violence Read More

French Quarter

Actors: Virginia Mayo, Lindsay Bloom

Synopsis: This intriguing odd-ball melodrama has supernatural overtones and was especially made for drive-in theaters. The strange tale is set in the notorious Storyville red-light district of New Orleans and begins in the early 1900s as it chronicles the life of a young prostitute and her co-workers. The Read More

The Haunted

Actors: Virginia Mayo

Synopsis: The Haunted, a supernatural thriller concerning demonic possession, witchcraft and mysterious deaths, was produced, written and directed by Michael DeBaetano and filmed in Arizona. An average thriller, the film contains some good moments and a veteran cast including Aldo Ray and Virginia Mayo. Read More

Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood

Actors: Bruce Dern, Madeline Kahn, Art Carney, Phil Silvers, Ron Leibman

Synopsis: This spoof makes fun of a certain famous German shepherd movie star from the 1920s. The mayhem begins when the head honcho of a financially struggling studio turns a lost dog into a legend. The story features a number of old stars making cameo appearances. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Fugitive Lovers

Synopsis: A gangster becomes enraged when a young man prevents his wife from killing herself and then proceeds to run off with her. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide Read More

Fort Utah

Actors: John Ireland, Virginia Mayo, Scott Brady, John Russell, Robert Strauss

Synopsis: An insane, renegade cavalryman leads his vicious band of outlaws into a series of brutal raids against settlers and local Indians in this western. Fortunately, a former gunslinger and a brave Indian agent ride up to save the imperiled pioneers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Castle of Evil

Actors: Scott Brady, Virginia Mayo, Lisa Gaye, David Brian, Hugh Marlowe

Synopsis: A bunch of hopeful heirs arrives on an isolated island to hear the will of a horribly scarred, mad scientist. They must not only find the person who is responsible for his disfigurement, but also survive the rampages of a vicious robot the scientist has made in his own image. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Read More

Young Fury

Actors: Rory Calhoun, Virginia Mayo, Lon Chaney, Jr., Richard Arlen, John Agar

Synopsis: In this western, a gunslinger runs from the Dawson gang and decides to return home to the wife he abandoned many years before. There he finds that his infant son has grown into a thuggish hellion who has been lead to believe that his mother is dead. He also hates the father who left him. The Read More

La Rivolta dei Mercenari

Synopsis: In this drama, a widowed duchess finds herself drawn to leader of a mercenary band. The cavalier leader offers to save her from her avaricious, land-grabbing neighbor, but then suddenly goes to work for him when the neighbor pays a hire price. This enrages the duchess, but fortunately, he comes Read More

Jet over the Atlantic

Synopsis: A onetime pilot, now a convicted killer in the custody of the FBI, is the only hope of an overseas flight carrying a bomb. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

Westbound

Actors: Randolph Scott, Virginia Mayo, Karen Steele, Michael Dante, Andrew Duggan

Synopsis: A fast-paced western with a romantic twist, this was one of the last films pairing director Budd Boetticher and popular cowboy hero Randolph Scott before Scott's retirement. John Hayes (Scott) left the Civil War behind him when he took on the job of managing the Overland Stage Lines out of a small Read More

Fort Dobbs

Actors: Clint Walker, Virginia Mayo, Brian Keith, Richard Eyer, Russ Conway

Synopsis: In this western, an accused killer is able to escape lynchers by trading coats with a dead man he found lying beside the road with an arrow in his back. He soon happens upon a farm. As the farm is under Comanche attack when he arrives, the man immediately saves the life of a woman and her son. He Read More

The Story of Mankind

Actors: Ronald Colman, Hedy Lamarr, Vincent Price, Agnes Moorehead, Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Peter Lorre, Dennis Hopper, Chico Marx

Synopsis: Future "Master of Disaster" Irwin Allen produced this curious but inarguably fascinating adaptation of Henrik Willem Van Loon's best- selling historical volume. A Celestial Tribunal has been convened to decide the fate of the Earth after the invention of nuclear weapons, with The Devil (Vincent Price Read More

The Big Land

Actors: Alan Ladd, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O'Brien, Anthony Caruso, Julie Bishop

Synopsis: Produced by Alan Ladd's own Jaguar company, The Big Land stars Ladd as Texas cattleman Morgan. As a means to expedite shipment of his stock to Missouri, Morgan convinces several Kansas farmers to build a small town as a railroad link between the Rio Grande and Kansas City. He is opposed in this by Read More

The Tall Stranger

Actors: Joel McCrea, Virginia Mayo, Barry Kelley, Michael Ansara, Whit Bissell

Synopsis: Joel McCrea essays the title role in this moody little western. McCrea is a Union officer wounded in battle, who joins up with a wagon train heading westward. He is ostracized by those passengers who'd fought on the Confederate side, though leading lady Virginia Mayo welcomes his presence. McCrea Read More

Congo Crossing

Actors: George Nader, Virginia Mayo, Peter Lorre, Michael Pate, Rex Ingram

Synopsis: George Nader stars as David Carr, a construction engineer operating in the Belgian Congo. In true jingoistic fashion, Carr wants to introduce the local natives to civilzation by re-zoning the Congotanga Falls region. Because this region is currently exempt from extradition, a small colony of Read More

The Proud Ones

Actors: Robert Ryan, Virginia Mayo, Jeffrey Hunter, Robert Middleton, Walter Brennan

Synopsis: A small Kansas town braces itself for the arrival of the first Texas trail herd. The marshal (Robert Ryan) expects trouble from the herd drivers, who'll be thirsty and lascivious after months on the trail. The town's saloon owner (Robert Middleton), anticipating a business boom, wants to remove Read More

Great Day in the Morning

Actors: Virginia Mayo, Robert Stack, Ruth Roman, Alex Nicol, Raymond Burr

Synopsis: When gold is discovered in the Colorado Territory at the start of the Civil War, Confederate Owen Pentecost (Robert Stack) and Union agent Stephen Kirby (Alex Nicol) battle with each other in a struggle to obtain the most gold to give to their respective armies. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide Read More

Pearl of the South Pacific

Actors: Virginia Mayo, Dennis Morgan, David Farrar, Murvyn Vye, Lance Fuller

Synopsis: Refreshingly, the tropical melodrama Pearl of the South Pacific never takes itself too seriously. Virginia Mayo heads the cast as a phony missionary, in cahoots with crooks Dennis Morgan and David Farrar. The trio intend to make off with a fortune in black pearls, which rests in an underwater Read More

King Richard and the Crusaders

Actors: Rex Harrison, Virginia Mayo, George Sanders, Laurence Harvey, Robert Douglas

Synopsis: Roundly panned when it was first released, this CinemaScope film version of Sir Walter Scott's The Talisman can now be enjoyed on a "high camp" level. George Sanders plays King Richard the Lionhearted, while his arch-foe Saladin is over-acted by Rex Harrison. One of Richard's objectives during the Read More

The Silver Chalice

Actors: Virginia Mayo, Anna Maria Pier Angeli, Jack Palance, Paul Newman, Natalie Wood, Walter Hampden

Synopsis: Paul Newman made his screen debut in the gloriously nonsensical costume epic The Silver Chalice. Freely adapted from a novel by Thomas B. Costain, the film casts Newman as Basil, a first century Greek sculptor who is sold into slavery by his wicked uncle. Transported to Rome, Basil manages to Read More

Devil's Canyon

Actors: Virginia Mayo, Dale Robertson, Stephen McNally, Arthur Hunnicutt, Robert Keith

Synopsis: RKO Radio's second 3D production, Devil's Canyon is a combination western and jail-break picture. The scene is Arizona Territorial Prison, wherein 500 desperate men are incarcerated. The inmates become even more desperate when female outlaw Abby Nixon (Virginia Mayo) is likewise locked up. As the Read More

She's Back on Broadway

Actors: Virginia Mayo, Gene Nelson, Frank Lovejoy, Steve Cochran, Patrice Wymore

Synopsis: Virginia Mayo stars in this unofficial follow-up to her 1952 musical hit She's Working Her Way Through College. Mayo plays movie star Catherine Terris, who after three box-office flops in a row, returns to the Broadway stage whence she came. Her co-star in this endeavor is Rich Sommers (Steve Cochran Read More

South Sea Woman

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Virginia Mayo, Chuck Connors, Barry Kelley, Arthur Shields, Hayden Rorke

Synopsis: Burt Lancaster and Virginia Mayo, the stars of 1950's Flame and the Arrow, are reteamed in the lusty adventure romp South Sea Woman. It all begins at the military trial of Marine sergeant O'Hearn (Burt Lancaster), facing a court-martial for desertion. In flashback, O'Hearn recalls how he was Read More

She's Working Her Way Through College

Actors: Virginia Mayo, Ronald Reagan, Gene Nelson, Don DeFore, Phyllis Thaxter

Synopsis: She's Working Her Way Through College is a completely depoliticized remake of the liberal-minded comedy The Male Animal (1942). Virginia Mayo plays an exotic dancer, Angela Gardner, who decides to improve her mind; she enrolls in a college where Professor John Palmer (Ronald Reagan) teaches Read More

The Iron Mistress

Actors: Alan Ladd, Virginia Mayo, Joseph Calleia, Phyllis Kirk, Alf Kjellin

Synopsis: Though its title would seem to indicate a medieval swashbuckler, The Iron Mistress is actually based on the life of American frontiersman Jim Bowie. Alan Ladd stars as the fearless, knife-wielding Bowie, who is first seen arriving in New Orleans to sell a supply of lumber. Bowie falls in love with Read More

Along the Great Divide

Actors: Kirk Douglas, Virginia Mayo, John Agar, Walter Brennan, Ray Teal

Synopsis: Raoul Walsh injects his expected artistry in the otherwise journeyman western Along the Great Divide. Feeling responsible for his father's death, marshal Kirk Douglas seeks redemption. He gets his chance when he saves murder suspect Walter Brennan from a lynch mob. The grateful Brennan accompanies Douglas Read More

Starlift

Actors: Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, Virginia Mayo, Gene Nelson, Ruth Roman

Synopsis: Starlift was Warner Bros' attempt to revive the "all-star patriotic musical" format which had worked so well during WW II. The wisp of a plot concerns Mike Nolan (Dick Wesson) and Rick Williams (Ron Hagherty), San Francisco-based airmen who serve as crew members on a shuttle to Korea. To impress a Read More

Painting the Clouds with Sunshine

Actors: Dennis Morgan, Virginia Mayo, Gene Nelson, Lucille Norman, S.Z. Sakall

Synopsis: Painting the Clouds with Sunshine was a remake of the 1929 musical Gold Diggers of Broadway, which no longer exists for comparison (though its first remake, Gold Diggers of 1933, has been safely preserved). Carol (Virginia Mayo), Abby (Lucille Norman) and June (Virginia Gibson) arrive in Las Vegas Read More

Captain Horatio Hornblower

Actors: Gregory Peck, Virginia Mayo, Robert Beatty, Terence Morgan, Denis O'Dea, James Robertson Justice, Moultrie Kelsall

Synopsis: Gregory Peck stars as the title character in this swashbuckling saga of the high seas based on C.S. Forester's novel. In 1807, Hornblower is given a special assignment by the British Navy: he is to deliver a supply of weapons to El Supremo (Alec Mango), a Latin American rebel leading an uprising Read More

The Flame and the Arrow

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Virginia Mayo, Robert Douglas, Nick Cravat, Aline MacMahon, Frank Allenby

Synopsis: The first of actor Burt Lancaster's filmic associations with partner Harold Hecht, The Flame and the Arrow finds Lancaster cast as Dardo, an Italian Robin Hood battling the occupying Hessian troops. Dardo's stake in the matter becomes personal when his former wife Francesca (Lynne Baggett) moves Read More

The West Point Story

Actors: James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, Gene Nelson

Synopsis: James Cagney delivers a vibrant performance as a down-on-his-luck Broadway musical director in The West Point Story, featuring songs by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne. Cagney plays out-of-work director Elwin "Bix" Bixby, who reluctantly accepts a job from producer Harry Eberhart (Roland Winters) to Read More

Backfire

Actors: Virginia Mayo, Gordon MacRae, Edmond O'Brien, Dane Clark, Viveca Lindfors

Synopsis: When he's discharged from a military hospital, ex-GI Bob Corey (Gordon MacRae) goes on a search for his army buddy Steve Connolly (Edmond O'Brien). A reformed crook, Connolly is on the lam from a trumped-up murder rap, and Corey hopes to clear his pal. Tagging along is Army nurse Julie Benson (Virginia Mayo Read More

Red Light

Actors: George Raft, Virginia Mayo, Raymond Burr, Gene Lockhart, Barton MacLane

Synopsis: Infused with religious themes, this crime drama is considered a minor example of film noir. Set in Los Angeles, it tells the grim story of vengeful embezzler Nick Cherney, who plots murderous revenge after he is fired from Johnny Torno's freight company. He gets it by killing Johnny's Read More

Flaxy Martin

Actors: Virginia Mayo, Zachary Scott, Dorothy Malone, Tom D'Andrea, Helen Westcott

Synopsis: Virginia Mayo is Flaxy Martin in this complicated Warner Bros. melodrama. Flaxy is a bad girl but good company, especially when she's around criminal attorney Walter Colby (Zachary Scott). When Colby begins to have second thoughts about his gangster cohorts, Flaxy arranges a murder frame, forcing Read More

White Heat

Actors: James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O'Brien, Steve Cochran, Margaret Wycherly

Synopsis: In later years, James Cagney regarded White Heat with a combination of pride and regret; while satisfied with his own performance, he tended to dismiss the picture as a "cheap melodrama." Seen today, White Heat stands as one of the classic crime films of the 1940s, containing perhaps Cagney's best Read More

The Girl From Jones Beach

Actors: Ronald Reagan, Virginia Mayo, Eddie Bracken, Dona Drake, Henry Travers

Synopsis: Ronald Reagan plays a George Petty-type magazine illustrator who creates a "perfect girl" from a composite of the features of several models. While relaxing at the beach, Reagan meets a lovely young schoolteacher (Virginia Mayo) who is the living image of his imaginary girl. Sensing a terrific Read More

Colorado Territory

Actors: Joel McCrea, Virginia Mayo, Dorothy Malone, Henry Hull, John Archer

Synopsis: Though not acknowledged by contemporary reviewers, Colorado Territory is a westernized remake of the 1941 crime drama High Sierra. Raoul Walsh, director of the earlier film, returns to helm the remake, doing a grand job on both occasions. Joel McCrea stars in the Humphrey Bogart role, playing a Read More

Always Leave Them Laughing

Actors: Milton Berle, Virginia Mayo, Ruth Roman, Bert Lahr, Alan Hale

Synopsis: Milton Berle was enjoying the first flush of his television success when his musical-comedy movie vehicle Always Leave Them Laughing hit the screens. Though his character name is Kip Cooper, Uncle Miltie more or less plays himself: an ambitious comedian who rises to fame by stealing other Read More

Smart Girls Don't Talk

Actors: Virginia Mayo, Bruce Bennett, Tom D'Andrea, Richard Rober, Helen Westcott

Synopsis: Despite the film's title, socialite Linda Vickers (Virginia Mayo) isn't smart enough to steer clear of the gambling den operated by gangster Marty Fain (Bruce Bennett). Forced to join Fain's operation, Linda gets mixed up with duplicity and murder-not to mention a torrid romance with the gangster Read More

A Song is Born

Actors: Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo, Benny Goodman, Hugh Herbert, Steve Cochran

Synopsis: A Song is Born is a musical remake of the 1941 comedy Ball of Fire, with the same producer (Sam Goldwyn) and director (Howard Hawks) at the helm. It will be recalled that the original film, co-scripted by Billy Wilder, was an amusing spin on "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," wherein seven Read More

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Actors: Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo, Boris Karloff, Fay Bainter, Ann Rutherford

Synopsis: James Thurber wasn't too happy with the Sam Goldwyn film adaptation of his 1939 short story The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, but the Technicolor musical comedy proved to be a cash cow at the box office. Danny Kaye stars as Walter, a milquetoast proofreader for a magazine publishing firm. Walter is Read More

Out of the Blue

Actors: Turhan Bey, George Brent, Hadda Brooks, Julia Dean, Ann Dvorak

Synopsis: If Eagle-Lion's Out of the Blue looks more like a slick Warner Bros. product at times, it's because the film was peopled by former Warners personnel, both in front of and behind the cameras. George Brent and Carole Landis play the Earthleighs, tenants in a roomy Greenwich Village apartment. When Read More

The Kid from Brooklyn

Actors: Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo, Vera-Ellen, Steve Cochran, Eve Arden

Synopsis: Danny Kaye's The Kid From Brooklyn is a virtual scene-for-scene remake of Harold Lloyd's The Milky Way (1936), with music and Technicolor added to the proceedings. Kaye is cast as timid milkman Burleigh Sullivan, who through a fluke knocks out prizefighting champion Speed McFarlane (Steve Read More

The Best Years of Our Lives

Actors: Fredric March, Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Harold Russell, Virginia Mayo

Synopsis: The postwar classic The Best Years of Our Lives, based on a novel in verse by MacKinlay Kantor about the difficult readjustments of returning World War II veterans, tells the intertwined homecoming stories of ex-sergeant Al Stephenson (Fredric March), former bomber pilot Fred Derry (Dana Andrews) Read More

Wonder Man

Actors: Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo, Vera-Ellen, S.Z. Sakall, Donald Woods, Steve Cochran

Synopsis: Danny Kaye plays the first of his cinematic dual roles in Goldwyn's Wonder Man. Kaye appears as timid librarian Edwin Dingle and Edwin's extroverted twin brother, nightclub entertainer Buzzy Bellew. When Buzzy witnesses a gangland shooting, he himself is rubbed out by mob boss Ten-Grand Jackson (Steve Cochran Read More

Up in Arms

Actors: Danny Kaye, Dinah Shore, Dana Andrews, Constance Dowling, Louis Calhern

Synopsis: It is said that producer Sam Goldwyn had a habit of addressing his new star of the 1940s, Danny Kaye, as "Eddie", confusing Kaye with Eddie Cantor. If true, it may be because Kaye's first starring film for Goldwyn, Up in Arms, was a remake of Cantor's Whoopee--which in turn was a musical version Read More

Seven Days Ashore

Actors: Wally Brown, Alan Carney, Marcy McGuire, Gordon Oliver, Virginia Mayo

Synopsis: Ostensibly a vehicle for RKO Radio's new comedy duo Wally Brown and Alan Carney, Seven Days Ashore actually casts Brown & Carney in subordinate roles. The plotline is carried by furloughed sailor Dan Arland (Gordon Oliver), who while docked in San Francisco gets mixed up with three amorous Read More

The Princess and the Pirate

Actors: Bob Hope, Virginia Mayo, Walter Brennan, Walter Slezak, Victor McLaglen

Synopsis: In his second film for producer Sam Goldwyn, Bob Hope is felicitously teamed with luscious Goldwyn contractee Virginia Mayo. Hope plays Sylvester the Great, a two-bit entertainer "touring" the West Indies in the 18th century. Mayo is Princess Margaret, who is kidnapped by a rough, tough buccaneer Read More

Jack London

Actors: Michael O'Shea, Susan Hayward, Osa Massen, Virginia Mayo, Harry Davenport, Frank Craven

Synopsis: This ambitious filmed biography of writer-adventurer Jack London is somewhat compromised by its too-tight budget. Michael O'Shea is well cast as London, whose rugged adventures range from the high seas to the Klondike. London's insatiable wanderlust causes friction in his marriage to the lovely Read More

Follies Girl

Actors: Wendy Barrie, Doris Nolan, Gordon Oliver, Anne Barrett, Arthur Pierson

Synopsis: Though Wendy Barrie never quite achieved stardom in A pictures, she could always count on top billing in Hollywood's B product. In PRC's Follies Girl, Barrie plays dress designer Anne Merriday, who becomes the object of middle-aged millionaire J. B. Hamlin's (J.C. Nugent) affections. To save his Read More