Walter MatthauFilmography

The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg

Actors: Hank Greenberg

Synopsis: Hank Greenberg was the first great Jewish star in baseball; at a time when the game was still racially segregated, Greenberg became a first-class hitter for the Detroit Tigers (a host city not always known for its tolerance, as the career of Father Charles Coughlin will prove), nearly beating Babe Ruth Read More

The Hollywood Collection: Walter Matthau - Diamond in the Rough

Actors: Walter Matthau, Jack Lemmon, Julie Harris, Ozzie Davis, Roddy McDowall

Synopsis: When Walter Matthau died, America lost one of its warmest and most gifted actors. While starring opposite Jack Lemmon in hits like The Odd Couple or Grumpy Old Men, Matthau could always get a laugh just by smiling and flashing the world his sheepish grin. Though he struggled with personal problems Read More

Love After Death

Actors: Walter Matthau, Carol Burnett, John Stamos, Teri Polo

Synopsis: Adapted by Richard Vetere from his own play, the made-for-TV The Marriage Fool served to reunite Walter Matthau and Carol Burnett, the stars of the 1972 theatrical feature Pete 'n Tillie. Matthau is cast as widowed septuagenarian Frank Walsh, whose sedentary lifestyle is shifted into third gear by Read More

The Odd Couple II

Actors: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Christine Baranski, Barnard Hughes, Jonathan Silverman

Synopsis: Howard Deutch directed this sequel to the The Odd Couple (1968), originally adapted from the 1965 Broadway comedy by Neil Simon. Thirty years later, Felix Ungar (Jack Lemmon) and retired sportswriter Oscar Madison (Walter Matthau) meet at LAX and drive a rental car across the desert to attend the Read More

Out To Sea

Actors: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Dyan Cannon, Gloria de Haven, Brent Spiner

Synopsis: A pair of grumpy old men hit the high seas in this comedy. Small-time con man Charlie (Walter Matthau) fast-talks his considerably more straight-laced friend Herb (Jack Lemmon) into joining him for a luxury cruise on an ocean liner headed to the Bahamas. Charlie tells Herb that the trip is free Read More

I'm Not Rappaport

Actors: Walter Matthau, Ossie Davis, Amy Irving, Martha Plimpton, Craig T. Nelson

Synopsis: In this screen adaptation of the award-winning play by Herb Gardner (who also directed the film), Nat Moyer (Walter Matthau) and Midge Carter (Ossie Davis) are two elderly men who sit on the same park bench each afternoon and have developed a relationship based on playful verbal sparring. Nat is Read More

The Grass Harp

Actors: Piper Laurie, Sissy Spacek, Walter Matthau, Edward Furlong, Nell Carter

Synopsis: Based on the novel by Truman Capote, this often-witty coming-of-age drama looks at a young man growing up with an unusual family in the Deep South in the 1940s. After the death of his parents, Collin Fenwick (Edward Furlong) finds himself living in a small town with two of his aunts, Dolly (Piper Laurie Read More

Grumpier Old Men

Actors: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Ann-Margret, Sophia Loren, Burgess Meredith

Synopsis: In this sequel to the surprise hit Grumpy Old Men, life goes on much as it usually does in Wabasha County, Minnesota, with the only notable differences being that John Gustafson (Jack Lemmon) and Max Goldman (Walter Matthau) are getting along all right (or at least to the extent that they're Read More

Incident in a Small Town

Actors: Walter Matthau, Stephanie Zimbalist, Harry Morgan

Synopsis: Walter Matthau, Stephanie Zimbalist, and Harry Morgan star in this made-for-television drama, in which a judge in a small town discovers that the skeletons in his family closet are aired for all to see after he's named as a prime suspect in the murder of his son-in-law. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Read More

I.Q.

Actors: Tim Robbins, Meg Ryan, Walter Matthau, Lou Jacobi, Gene Saks

Synopsis: Legendary scientist Albert Einstein (played here by Walter Matthau) takes a break from theoretical physics to try to set up his intellectual niece with a handsome auto mechanic in this romantic comedy. The movie's central conceit is that Einstein's brilliance extends to matters of the heart Read More

Grumpy Old Men

Actors: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Ann-Margret, Burgess Meredith, Daryl Hannah

Synopsis: This cheerful holiday comedy, a surprise box office smash, featured a generous dollop of raunchy, crude humor and was greatly elevated by the presence of masterful performers in the lead roles. Jack Lemmon is John Gustafson, an ice-fishing Minnesota native who has been feuding with his neighbor Read More

Dennis the Menace

Actors: Walter Matthau, Mason Gamble, Joan Plowright, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson

Synopsis: John Hughes continues the trend he began with the Home Alone series in Dennis the Menace, the Hughes-scripted film version of Hank Ketcham's long-running comic strip, cartoon show, and television comedy. The film opens as Dennis (Mason Gamble) is seen careening down a sidewalk in a beautiful and Read More

Against Her Will: An Incident in Baltimore

Actors: Walter Matthau, Susan Blakely, Harry Morgan, Brian Kerwin, Bruce Kirkpatrick

Synopsis: In a sequel to the superior movie entitled The Incident, a small-town lawyer goes against the State of Maryland, suing on behalf of an institutionalized mental patient for release. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide Read More

JFK

Actors: Kevin Costner, Sissy Spacek, Joe Pesci, Tommy Lee Jones, Gary Oldman

Synopsis: The November 22, 1963, assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy shocked the nation and the world. The brisk investigation of that murder conducted under the guidance of Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren distressed many observers, even though subsequent careful investigations have been Read More

Mrs. Lambert Remembers Love

Synopsis: A foster home-bound 9-year-old and his aging grandmother run from the authorities in this drama. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

The Incident

Actors: Barnard Hughes, Walter Matthau

Synopsis: Joseph Sargent's made-for-TV drama, set during World War II, stars Walter Matthau as an attorney coerced into defending a German POW who is accused of murdering the town physician (Barnard Hughes), Matthau's best friend. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

Il Piccolo Diavolo

Actors: Roberto Benigni, Walter Matthau, Nicoletta Braschi, John Lurie, Stefania Sandrelli

Synopsis: Father Maurice (Walter Matthau) is called on to perform an exorcism of a demon from a fat lady in this offbeat comedy. What emerges is Giuditta (Roberto Benigni) a narcissistic, fun-loving devil with a penchant for nonsensical sayings, and the devil attaches himself to Father Maurice for a series Read More

The Couch Trip

Actors: Dan Aykroyd, Walter Matthau, Charles Grodin, David Clennon, Donna Dixon

Synopsis: Michael Ritchie's The Couch Trip follows a long line of Hollywood films (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Disorderly Orderly) in which the psychos are seen as saner than the psychiatrists. Charles Grodin plays Dr. George Maitlin, a pompous radio self-help guru, who is having his own personal Read More

AFI Lifetime Achievement Awards: Jack Lemmon

Synopsis: Hosted by the American Film Institute, this video is a tribute to to career of Jack Lemmon. Included are excerpts from: The Odd Couple, The Fortune Cookie and The Apartment. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide Read More

Pirates

Actors: Walter Matthau, Damien Thomas, Richard Pearson, Cris Campion, Charlotte Lewis

Synopsis: Although the title evokes a swashbuckling adventure, Roman Polanski's Pirates tuns out to be a seagoing tale with a bit of a difference. Captain Red (Walter Matthau) runs a hardy pirate ship with the able assistance of Frog, a dashing young French sailor (Cris Campion). One day Capt. Red is Read More

AFI Lifetime Achievement Awards: Billy Wilder

Synopsis: Hosted by the American Film Institute, this video is a tribute to career of Billy Wilder. Included are excerpts from the following: The Apartment, Some Like it Hot and Sunset Boulevard. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide Read More

Movers and Shakers

Actors: Walter Matthau, Charles Grodin, Vincent Gardenia, Tyne Daly, Bill Macy

Synopsis: The "movers and shakers" in this weak comedy limned by Charles Grodin do not refer to a religious sect, but the big-wigs in Hollywood who determine how the next many millions are to be spent. Two parallel stories occupy center stage. On the one hand, Joe Mulholland (Walter Matthau) has made a Read More

The Survivors

Actors: John Goodman, Walter Matthau, Robin Williams, Jerry Reed, James Wainwright, Kristen Vigard

Synopsis: Director Michael Ritchie spoofs survivalists in this rambling black comedy. Donald Quinelle (Robin Williams) is a successful young executive who is called to his boss' office one morning and is fired by a parrot sitting in the CEO's chair -- a method the company uses to axe high-powered execs. Read More

I Ought to Be in Pictures

Actors: Walter Matthau, Ann-Margret, Dinah Manoff, Lance Guest, Lewis Smith

Synopsis: Neil Simon based his screenplay for I Ought to Be in Pictures on one of his more serious theatrical pieces. Walter Matthau is top-billed as Herbert Tucker, a struggling screenwriter who suddenly finds his 19-year-old daughter, Libby(Dinah Manoff), on his Hollywood doorstep. Having deserted his Read More

Buddy Buddy

Actors: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Paula Prentiss, Klaus Kinski, Dana Elcar

Synopsis: As if in some way Billy Wilder sensed that Buddy Buddy would ultimately turn out to be his final feature film, Wilder lets loose scatter-shot stingers at a wide range of pop-culture targets -- from sex clinics, to 60 Minutes, to movie references, to disco, to Betamax video recorders. Based on Read More

First Monday in October

Actors: Walter Matthau, Jill Clayburgh, Barnard Hughes, Jan Sterling, James Stephens

Synopsis: The election of Sandra Day O'Connor to the Supreme Court rendered the premise of First Monday in October anachronistic before the picture was even released; ignoring this, however, the film is supremely entertaining (no pun intended). Jill Clayburgh stars as Ruth Loomis, the first lady justice Read More

Portrait of a 60% Perfect Man

Actors: Billy Wilder, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau

Synopsis: Billy Wilder's acerbic wit and indomitable talent shine through in this documentary by Annie Tresgot. Michel Ciment, the French critic, interviews Wilder about his life and movie-making, and Tresgot also brings in discussions with Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon. Few directors have been as Read More

Hopscotch

Actors: Walter Matthau, Glenda Jackson, Ned Beatty, Sam Waterston, Herbert Lom

Synopsis: Walter Matthau plays a CIA agent who's been confined by office politics to a desk job. The disgruntled Matthau quits the service and heads to Europe, where he links up with former lover (an fellow ex-agent) Glenda Jackson. All goes smoothly until Matthau acts on the advice of yet another retired Read More

Little Miss Marker

Crew: Executive Producer, Producer

Actors: Walter Matthau, Julie Andrews, Tony Curtis, Bob Newhart

Synopsis: Screenwriter Walter Bernstein made his directorial debut with Little Miss Marker, a re-make of the Damon Runyon story that has been filmed many times before (most notably as Little Miss Marker with Shirley Temple, Sorrowful Jones starring Bob Hope, and the Tony Curtis vehicle 40 Pounds of Read More

Funny Business

Synopsis: A video collection of scenes from film comedies from the early talkies to the movies of the '50s, including scenes with the Marx Brothers, W.C. Fields, Mae West, Laurel and Hardy, Hope and Crosby, and Abbott and Costello. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Saturday Night Live: Walter Matthau

Actors: Walter Matthau, Garrett Morris

Synopsis: This 1978 episode of Saturday Night Live is hosted by Walter Matthau and features musical guest Garrett Morris. ~ Skyler Miller, All Movie Guide 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

Casey's Shadow

Actors: Walter Matthau, Alexis Smith, Robert Webber, Murray Hamilton, Andrew Rubin

Synopsis: Cajun quarter-horse trainer Lloyd Bourdelle (Walter Matthau) struggles to eke out a decent living for himself and his three sons Buddy, Randy and Casey (Andrew A. Rubin, Stephen Burns and Michael Hershewe). Their prize horse is thoroughbred foal Casey's Shadow, named after the youngest son (Hershewe Read More

California Suite

Actors: Alan Alda, Michael Caine, Bill Cosby, Jane Fonda, Walter Matthau, Richard Pryor, Maggie Smith

Synopsis: Playwright Neil Simon turned to the hotel setting he used so successfully in his stage-play (later a movie) Plaza Suite to explore four more human dramas in his play California Suite, which was adapted into this quite successful movie. In the first episode, the divorced couple of Bill and Hannah Read More

The End

Actors: Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, Sally Field, Strother Martin, David Steinberg

Synopsis: At the beginning of The End, Wendell Sonny Lawson (Burt Reynolds) is informed by his doctor that he's dying from "the same thing Ali MacGraw had in Love Story." Lawson's first reaction is to cry uncontrollably, much to the discomfort of his fellow elevator passengers. He heads to a nearby church Read More

House Calls

Actors: Walter Matthau, Glenda Jackson, Art Carney, Richard Benjamin, Candice Azzara

Synopsis: Recently widowed Dr. Nichols (Walter Matthau) finds himself ill at ease in re-entering the singles scene. Then he meets Ann Atkinson (Glenda Jackson), a patient recuperating from a jaw operation. Freshly divorced from a philandering spouse, Jackson is as reluctant to inaugurate a lasting Read More

The Bad News Bears

Actors: Walter Matthau, Tatum O'Neal, Vic Morrow, Joyce Van Patten, Ben Piazza, Jackie Earle Haley

Synopsis: The success this underdog comedy from director Michael Ritchie almost single-handedly spawned the kids' sports film boom of the 1980s and '90s. When beer-breathed ex-minor-league ball player and professional pool cleaner Morris Buttermaker (Walter Matthau) agrees to coach a little league team in Read More

The Sunshine Boys

Actors: Walter Matthau, George Burns, Richard Benjamin, Lee Meredith, Carol Arthur

Synopsis: In this 1975 adaptation of Neil Simon's stage play, director Herbert Ross presents the story of two old-time Vaudvillians played by Walter Matthau and George Burns in his first starring role since 1939's Honolulu. After decades apart, the cantankerous duo is persuaded to reunite for a television Read More

The Gentleman Tramp

Synopsis: Gentleman Tramp utilizes clearer-than-usual vintage filmclips to trace the life and career of comedy giant Charlie Chaplin. This made-for-TV documentary was produced in the wake of Chaplin's "special Oscar" win of 1972 and the subsequent renewal of interest in his work. Walter Matthau provides the Read More

Earthquake

Actors: Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, George Kennedy, Lorne Greene, Geneviève Bujold

Synopsis: Los Angeles is the natural site for a film about earthquakes: they happen there frequently, and the landscape is familiar to moviegoers from thousands of films. A huge number of ongoing vignettes which include cameos from numerous celebrities and stars are tied together by the ongoing efforts of Read More

The Front Page

Actors: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Carol Burnett, Susan Sarandon, Vincent Gardenia

Synopsis: This third film version of the 1928 Ben Hecht/Charlie MacArthur Broadway hit The Front Page was the first one permitted to utilize all the salty profanities in the original play. Director Billy Wilder cast his two favorite leading men, Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, as ace reporter Hildy Johnson Read More

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three

Actors: Thomas LaFleur, Maria Landa, William Snickowski, Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Martin Balsam, Hector Elizondo, Earl Hindman

Synopsis: On a quiet midday in New York, along the Lexington Avenue subway line, the train designated "Pelham One Two Three" -- so named for its station of origin and time of departure -- makes its way down the East Side of Manhattan. One by one, three men board the train, and at 28th Street, a fourth man Read More

The Laughing Policeman

Actors: Dave Belrose, Walter Matthau, Bruce Dern, Louis Gossett, Jr., Albert Paulsen, Anthony Zerbe

Synopsis: Stuart Rosenberg's taut police thriller, based on the Martin Beck novel by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahlöö, concerns a serial killer who is targeting bus riders. When a bus full of innocent commuters are killed on a San Francisco street, Jake Martin (Walter Matthau) is assigned to track down the Read More

Charley Varrick

Actors: Walter Matthau, Joe Don Baker, Felicia Farr, Andrew Robinson, John Vernon

Synopsis: Don Siegel directed this offbeat crime thriller which stars Walter Matthau as the titular Charley Varrick. Varrick is a small-time stick-up man who, in tandem with his partner Harman Sullivan (Andrew Robinson), makes plans to rob a small bank in New Mexico. Varrick and Sullivan are expecting a Read More

Awake and Sing!

Synopsis: Walter Matthau stars in this made-for-TV adaptation of Clifford Odets' classic stage drama (which became one of the inaugural production of the famed Group Theater in the mid-'30s). The Berger family are an extended Jewish family living in the Bronx who are struggling to survive in the face of Read More

Pete 'n' Tillie

Actors: Walter Matthau, Carol Burnett, Geraldine Page, Barry Nelson, René Auberjonois

Synopsis: Based on Peter DeVries' novel Witch's Milk, Pete 'n' Tillie stars Walter Matthau and Carol Burnett in the title roles. Middle-aged when they first meet, eternally joking Pete and repressed "old maid" Tillie don't immediately hit it off. Gradually, their friendship deepens into love and culminates Read More

Kotch

Actors: Walter Matthau, Deborah Winters, Felicia Farr, Charles Aidman, Ellen Geer

Synopsis: For his only directorial effort, Jack Lemmon selected his old friend and habitual co-star Walter Matthau to play the central character. Joseph P. "Kotch" Kotcher (Walter Matthau) is an irksome 72-year-old who lives with his son (Charles Aidman) and daughter-in-law (played by Lemmon's wife Felicia Farr Read More

Plaza Suite

Actors: Walter Matthau, Maureen Stapleton, Barbara Harris, Lee Grant, Louise Sorel

Synopsis: It is not uncommon for actors to double and triple in roles while appearing in the "omnibus" plays of Neil Simon. Plaza Suite was the first film version of a Simon play to carry over the multiple-role device to the screen. Walter Matthau appears in all three one-act playlets comprising Plaza Read More

A New Leaf

Actors: Walter Matthau, Elaine May, Jack Weston, George Rose, William Redfield

Synopsis: Elaine May wrote and directed (credits May attempted to have removed after the studio made extensive cuts in the film) this dark and funny comedy about marriage, murder, and money. May also stars as Henrietta, a shy and clumsy wallflower, who is also heir to a large pile of money. Indigent playboy Read More

Patton: Old Blood and Guts

Synopsis: Patton: Old Blood and Guts profiles the life and career of General George Smith Patton Jr., one of the most important military figures of the 20th century. From his childhood dreams of glory to his education at West Point to his service in Mexico in 1917 and dramatic victories during World War II Read More

Cactus Flower

Actors: Irene Hervey, Walter Matthau, Ingrid Bergman, Goldie Hawn, Jack Weston, Rick Lenz, Vito Scotti

Synopsis: Goldie Hawn won an Oscar for her performance as a Greenwich Village free spirit in Cactus Flower. Middle-aged dentist Winston (Walter Matthau) is enjoying an affair with Toni (Goldie Hawn) but doesn't want to be hemmed in by marriage. He prevails upon his non-glamorous assistant Stephanie (Ingrid Bergman Read More

Hello, Dolly!

Actors: Barbra Streisand, Walter Matthau, Michael Crawford, Louis Armstrong, Marianne McAndrew

Synopsis: Twenty-seven-year-old Barbra Streisand seemed an inappropriate choice for middle-aged, match-making widow Dolly Levi, but her energy carries her right through the role and dominates the lackluster movie around her. The plot, drawn from Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker (itself based on a Read More

Candy

Actors: Charles Aznavour, Marlon Brando, Richard Burton, John Huston

Synopsis: In this big-budget adaptation of Terry Southern's satiric sex farce (the sort of project that could get an immediate green light in the late 1960's and at practically no other time before or since), Ewa Aulin is Candy, a sweet young woman who doesn't seem entirely aware of the powerful sexual Read More

The Secret Life of an American Wife

Actors: Walter Matthau, Anne Jackson, Patrick O'Neal, Edy Williams, Richard Bull

Synopsis: This light romantic comedy finds Victoria (Anne Jackson) the 34-year-old wife of public-relations man Tom Layton (Patrick O'Neal). Tom's biggest client is a big movie star (Walter Matthau), and Tom drops everything to insure that, while in New York, his client is surrounded by beautiful women Read More

The Odd Couple

Actors: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, John Fiedler, Herb Edelman, David Sheiner

Synopsis: Compulsive neatnik Felix Unger (Jack Lemmon) is thrown out of his house by his divorce-bound wife. He wanders aimlessly through the streets of New York, toying with the idea of suicide, before gravitating to the apartment of his best friend, incorrigibly sloppy sportswriter Oscar Madison (Walter Matthau Read More

A Guide for the Married Man

Actors: Walter Matthau, Robert Morse, Inger Stevens, Sue Ane Langdon, Claire Kelly

Synopsis: Ed Stander (Robert Morse), with the help of an all-star cast, teaches Paul Manning (Walter Matthau) the fine art of philandering in A Guide for the Married Man. Paul, happily married to sexy Ruth (Inger Stevens), has no burning desire to cheat, but Ed makes the prospect sound very attractive. Read More

The Fortune Cookie

Actors: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Ron Rich, Cliff Osmond, Judi West

Synopsis: The British title of Billy Wilder's classic comedy was Meet Whiplash Willie -- for, despite Jack Lemmon's star billing, the movie's driving force is Oscar-winning Walter Matthau as gloriously underhanded lawyer "Whiplash" Willie Gingrich. CBS cameraman Harry Hinkle (Lemmon) is injured when he is Read More

Mirage

Actors: Gregory Peck, Diane Baker, Walter Matthau, Kevin McCarthy, Jack Weston

Synopsis: A dazed man, David Stillwell (Gregory Peck), wanders down the stairs of a New York skyscraper during a power blackout, only vaguely aware of who he is, where he's been, and why he has this nagging feeling that danger lurks all about him. Stillwell does know that many of the people in the building Read More

Ensign Pulver

Actors: Burl Ives, Walter Matthau, Tommy Sands, Millie Perkins

Synopsis: The crew of the USS Reluctant is at it again in this comedy sequel to Mister Roberts. The story opens toward the end of WWII as the great ship drops her cargo at various island bases. Their captain is an unbending tyrant. Young Pulver aspires to become a doctor just like his hero and mentor, the Read More

Fail-Safe

Actors: Henry Fonda, Walter Matthau, Frank Overton, Dan O'Herlihy, Edward Binns, Fritz Weaver, Larry Hagman

Synopsis: Based on the novel by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler, Fail-Safe is set for the most part at Strategic Air Command headquarters, where a misguided transmission sends a squadron of bombers hurtling towards Russia, fully prepared to drop their atomic weaponry on Moscow. Air Force commander Frank Overton Read More

Personal Touch

Goodbye Charlie

Actors: Tony Curtis, Debbie Reynolds, Pat Boone, Joanna Barnes, Ellen Burstyn, Ellen McRae

Synopsis: George Axelrod's Goodbye Charlie flopped on Broadway with Lauren Bacall in the lead, but fared a little better as a film vehicle for Debbie Reynolds. Charlie (Harry Madden) is an inveterate philanderer who is shot dead by jealous husband Walter Matthau. Through a celestial fluke, Charlie's soul Read More

Who's Got the Action?

Actors: Dean Martin, Lana Turner, Eddie Albert, Nita Talbot, Walter Matthau, Paul Ford, John McGiver

Synopsis: Lawyer Dean Martin's gambling habit is beginning to get on the nerves of his wife Lana Turner. To keep the money in the family, Lana talks Dino's law partner Eddie Albert into acting as Martin's bookie. Not only does this plan not work, but it also rouses the ire of Runyonesque gangster Walter Read More

Island of Love

Actors: Robert Preston, Tony Randall, Giorgia Moll, Walter Matthau, Betty Bruce

Synopsis: In this different type of gangster farce with a few flaws here and there, Robert Preston is Steve Blair, a superlative con artist whose sidekick Paul Ferris (Tony Randall) is a boozy writer currently working on a cartoon. Steve gets the idea of producing a movie based on Genesis in the Bible and Read More

Charade

Actors: Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matthau, James Coburn, Ned Glass, George Kennedy

Synopsis: Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn star in this stylish comedy-thriller directed by Stanley Donen, very much in a Hitchcock vein. Grant plays Peter Joshua, who meets Reggie Lampert (Hepburn) in Paris and later offers to help her when she discovers that her husband has been murdered. After the funeral Read More

Lonely Are the Brave

Actors: Kirk Douglas, Gena Rowlands, Walter Matthau, Mike Kane, Carroll O'Connor

Synopsis: Although it never quite escapes the pitfalls of pretension, this film was Kirk Douglas's bid for the affections of the art house crowd, and it remains one of his best efforts. The star plays unreconstructed "rugged individual" Jack Burns, who rides throughout the modern west knocking down man-made Read More

Naked City: Don't Knock It 'Til You've Tried It

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Cop for a Day

Synopsis: Hoodlums Phil (Walter Matthau) and Davey (Glenn Cannon) stage a daring daylight robbery of a bank messenger, whom hotheaded Davey shoots and kills. It turns out that there was a witness to the murder, a young woman (Carol Grace) now in police custody. Scheming to knock off the witness before she Read More

Naked City: The Man Who Bit a Diamond in Half

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Very Moral Theft

Synopsis: In love with Harry Wade (Walter Matthau), the impressionable Helen (Betty Field) is willing to do anything to protect her man from harm. Thus, when Harry tells her that his lumber business is in deep financial trouble, she dutifully embezzles 8,000 dollars from her realtor employer to help Harry Read More

Strangers When We Meet

Actors: Kirk Douglas, Kim Novak, Ernie Kovacs, Barbara Rush, Walter Matthau

Synopsis: Sexual misconduct in white-collar suburbia is the topic of this routine melodrama involving two neighboring couples. Architect Larry Coe (Kirk Douglas), unhappy with his wife Eve's (Barbara Rush) fixation on their bank balance, starts taking an interest in Maggie Gault (Kim Novak), whose husband Read More

Gangster Story

Crew: Director

Actors: Walter Matthau, Carol Grace, Bruce McFarlan, Garrett Wallberg, Raiken Ben Ari

Synopsis: Actor Walter Matthau directed his first and only feature film with the black-and-white crime drama Gangster Story. In an unusual noncomedic role, Matthau plays Jack Martin, a local gangster who wants to run his own crime syndicate in the neighborhood run by Earl Dawson (Bruce McFarlan). They Read More

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Dry Run

Synopsis: Would-be gangland assassin Art (Robert Vaughn) is given a test by his boss, Barbossa (David White) -- a test that will prove fatal should Art fail. Assigned to kill an out-of-favor Barbossa henchman named Moran (Walter Matthau), Art bungles the job. Surprisingly, Moran doesn't kill Art, but Read More

The Voice in the Mirror

Actors: Richard Egan, Julie London, Arthur O'Connell, Walter Matthau, Troy Donahue

Synopsis: In this sensitive drama, a commercial artist is devastated by his tiny daughter's death and takes to drinking to numb the terrible pain. Soon he has become a full-blown alcoholic. His loving wife and caring doctor are unable to help. He wants to stop drinking, but he simply cannot until he meets Read More

King Creole

Actors: Elvis Presley, Carolyn Jones, Walter Matthau, Dolores Hart, Dean Jagger

Synopsis: Elvis Presley delivers one of his finest early performances in King Creole. Elvis plays a teenager named Danny Fisher, who is forced to drop out of school to help support his ineffective father (Dean Jagger). Drawn to trouble like a magnet, Danny is saved from a jail term by New Orleans Read More

Ride a Crooked Trail

Actors: Audie Murphy, Gia Scala, Walter Matthau, Henry Silva, Joanna Moore

Synopsis: Audie Murphy heads the cast of the better-than-usual oater Ride a Crooked Trail. It all begins when gunslinger Joe Maybe (Murphy) is mistaken for a famed U.S. marshal. This wouldn't be so bad, except for the fact that Joe has already drawn up plans to rob the town's bank with his cohort Sam Teeler Read More

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Crooked Road

Synopsis: While driving along a country road, Harry Adams (Richard Kiley) and his wife (Patricia Breslin) are pulled over for speeding. This begins a chain reaction of events which lead to the inescapable conclusion that the town in which the Adamses are stranded is chock-full of crooks and grafters Read More

Onionhead

Actors: Andy Griffith, Felicia Farr, Walter Matthau, Joe Mantell

Synopsis: In his third starring feature, Onionhead, Andy Griffith plays a character somewhere inbetween the bucolic ingenuousness of Will Stockdale in No Time for Sergeants and the hotheaded truculence of Lonesome Rhodes in A Face in the Crowd. Griffith is cast as Al Woods, a college student majoring in Read More

Slaughter on Tenth Avenue

Actors: Richard Egan, Jan Sterling, Dan Duryea, Julie Adams, Walter Matthau

Synopsis: Though Slaughter on Tenth Avenue's background music relies heavily on the Richard Rodgers composition of the same name, the film itself bears no relation to the ten-minute ballet for which Rodgers wrote the piece. Instead, this Albert Zugsmith-produced crime meller attempts to expose waterfront Read More

A Face in the Crowd

Actors: Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, Anthony Franciosa, Walter Matthau, Lee Remick

Synopsis: The meteoric popularity of Arthur Godfrey was allegedly the basis of the 1957 drama Face in the Crowd. Andy Griffith makes a spectacular film debut as Lonesome Rhodes, a philosophical country-western singer discovered in a tanktown jail by television talent coordinator Patricia Neal and her Read More

Dr. Seuss: How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Actors: Walter Matthau

Synopsis: Original drawings from the book by Dr. Seuss make up this reading of the children's novel by rough-voiced actor Walter Matthau. A visual presentation of Seuss' original book and music, this video was produced in 1957, shortly after the publication of the book itself. In what has become a classic Read More

Bigger Than Life

Actors: James Mason, Barbara Rush, Walter Matthau, Robert Simon, Christopher Olsen

Synopsis: Based on an article in the New Yorker, Nicholas Ray's Bigger Than Life stars James Mason (who also produced the film) as elementary school teacher Ed Avery, a thoughtful, gentle man, with a loving wife, Lou (Barbara Rush), and a young son, Richie (Christopher Olsen), who loves him. Avery is Read More

The Indian Fighter

Actors: Kirk Douglas, Elsa Martinelli, Walter Abel, Walter Matthau, Diana Douglas

Synopsis: The Indian Fighter is trail guide Kirk Douglas, who agrees to shepherd a wagon train through Sioux territory. Douglas tries to convince the Sioux to leave his charges alone, but such hotheads as drunken white trader Walter Matthau and embittered Indian brave Harry Landers escalate the tensions. Douglas Read More

The Kentuckian

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Dianne Foster, Diana Lynn, John McIntire, Una Merkel, Walter Matthau

Synopsis: Produced and directed by star Burt Lancaster, The Kentuckian is a leisurely western occasionally punctuated by spurts of startling brutality. The recently widowed Lancaster heads towards Texas with his son Donald McDonald. Most of the folks he meets, notably winsome schoolmarm Diana Lynn Read More

Suspense

Atomic Attack

Synopsis: In this sobering film, a family living 50 miles outside of New York must escape the fallout from a nuclear bomb dropped upon the Big Apple. ~ All Movie Guide Read More