Jack Palance Movies
One of the screen's most grizzled actors, Jack Palance defined true grit for many a filmgoer. The son of a Ukrainian immigrant coal miner, he was born Volodymyr Palahnyuk (Anglicized as Walter Jack Palaniuk) on February 18, 1920, in Lattimer Mines, Pennsylvania. As a young man, Palance supported himself with stints as a miner, professional boxer, short-order cook, fashion model, lifeguard, and radio repairman. During WWII service, he enlisted in the AAC and piloted bombers, one of which crashed, knocking him unconscious in the process. The severe burns he received led to extensive facial surgery, resulting in his gaunt, pinched face and, ironically, paving the way for stardom as a character actor.Palance attended the University of North Carolina and Stanford University on the G.I. Bill and considered a career in journalism, but drifted into acting because of the comparatively higher wages. Extensive stage work followed, including a turn as the understudy to Anthony Quinn (as Stanley Kowalski in the touring production of A Streetcar Named Desire) and the portrayal of Kowalski on the Broadway stage, after Marlon Brando left that production. Palance debuted on film in Elia Kazan's 1950 Panic in the Streets, as a sociopathic plague host opposite Richard Widmark. He landed equally sinister and villainous roles for the next few years, including Jack the Ripper in Man in the Attic (1953), Simon the Magician (a sorcerer who goes head to head with Jesus) in The Silver Chalice (1954), and Atilla the Hun in Sign of the Pagan (1954). Palance received Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominations for his performances in both Sudden Fear (1952) and Shane (1953).
Beginning in the late '50s, Palance temporarily moved across the Atlantic and appeared in numerous European pictures, with Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 Le Mépris/Contempt a particular highlight. Additional big-screen roles throughout the '60s and '70s included that of Ronald Wyatt in Freddie Francis's horror episode film The Torture Garden (1967), the monastic sadist Brother Antonin in Jesús Franco's Justine (1969), Fidel Castro in Che! (1969), Chet Rollins in William A. Fraker's Western Monte Walsh (1970), Quincey Whitmore in the 1971 Charles Bronson-starrer Chato's Land, and Jim Buck in Portrait of a Hitman (1977).
Unfortunately, by the '80s, Palance largely disappeared from the cinematic forefront, his career limited to B- and C-grade schlock. He nonetheless rebounded by the late '80s, thanks in no small part to the German director Percy Adlon, who cast him as a love-struck painter with a yen for Marianne Sägebrecht in his arthouse hit Bagdad Cafe (1987). Turns in Young Guns (1988) and 1989's Batman (as the aptly named Carl Grissom) followed. In 1991, Palance was introduced to a new generation of viewers with his Oscar- and Golden Globe-winning performance in Ron Underwood's City Slickers. The turn marked something of a wish-fulfillment for the steel-tough actor, who had spent years believing, in vain, that he would be best suited for comedy. These dreams were soon realized for a lengthy period, as the film's triumph yielded a series of additional comic turns for Palance on television programs and commercials.
Accepting his Best Supporting Actor award at the 1992 Academy Awards ceremony, Palance won a permanent place in Oscar history when he decided to demonstrate that he was, in fact, still a man of considerable vitality by doing a series of one-handed push-ups on stage. He reprised his role in the film's 1994 sequel, City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold.
Over the years, Palance also starred in the TV series The Greatest Show on Earth (ABC, 1963-4), as a hard-living circus boss, and Bronk (CBS, 1975-6) as a pipe-smoking police lieutenant, as well as in numerous TV dramas, notably Rod Serling's Requiem for a Heavyweight (1956). From 1982-1986, he hosted the ABC revival of Ripley's Believe It Or Not. He also established himself as an author in the late '90s, by publishing the 1996 prose-poem Forest of Love. Accompanying the work were Palance's pen-and-ink drawings, inspired by his Pennysylvania farm; he revealed, at the time, that he had been painting and sketching in his off-camera time for over 40 years.
After scattered work throughout the '90s and 2000s, Jack Palance died on November 10, 2006 at his home in Montecito, California. He had been married and divorced twice, first to Virginia Baker from 1949-1966 (with whom he had three children), and then to Elaine Rogers in 1987. Two of his children outlived him; the third died several years prior, of melanoma, at age 43. ~ All Movie Guide
In this special feature, a group of people examine a variety of unexplained powers, including ESP, astrology, and magic. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
This Italian feature is about an ambitious criminal who attempts upward mobility in the criminal world. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- 1976
Aristide Massaccesi (aka Joe D'Amato) directed this strange sexploitation item starring Jack Palance as Judas, a hermit-like millionaire who keeps poisonous snakes. Judas falls for an exotic snake-dancer named Eva (Laura Gemser from the Black Emmanuelle movies) and pays her to come live with him. Judas' crazy brother Jules (Gabriele Tinti) is there, too, and tries to get his hands on his sibling's loot by freeing a deadly green mamba to kill all of Eva's friends. Eva gets her gruesome revenge by taking Jules to her home island and watching as the natives ram an eight-foot black cobra up his behind. Needless to say, this film is not for all tastes, but Palance turns in a nicely odd performance and fans of the genre should be amused. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
In this Italian sex comedy, a wealthy, widowed count has a heart attack and must have bed rest and no stress to recover. His avaricious relatives would rather see him dead. Knowing that he is a lusty fellow unable to resist a woman's charms, they hire a bombshell of a sexy nurse to meet his every need and cause a fatal coronary. Things don't go as planned when the nurse falls in love with her patient. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
One of two 1976 Italian-Israeli co-productions starring Lee Van Cleef and Leif Garrett (Joseph Manduke's Kid Vengeance was the other), this spaghetti Western stars Van Cleef in a dual role as twin brothers. One of the brothers, Father John, is gunned down by the ruthless Sam Clayton (Jack Palance), allowing Sam's gang to take over Juno City. Young Johnny (Garrett) crosses into Mexico to convince the priest's twin, a retired bounty hunter named Louis, to strap on his guns one more time and save the town. Van Cleef is compelling, even in his somewhat laughable wig, and the familiar cast also includes Richard Boone and Sybil Danning, but it somehow misses the mark. Irwin Yablans, who made his name with Halloween two years later, co-produced with Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Van Cleef, Jack Palance, (more)
- 1975
- R
In this African adventure, a greedy fortune hunter endeavors to get his hands on the untold riches lying buried in Central Africa. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1975
Jack Palance portrays undercover cop Lt. Alexander Bronkov, or "Bronk" for short. Bronk has a short fuse and an oversupply of compassion, which is not the best of all combinations when dealing with his rulebound higher-ups. In this made-for-TV movie, Bronk is assigned to bust up a drug ring, an assignment that puts him on the trail of corrupt officials in the government...and the police force. Bronk was the pilot for a weekly series starring Jack Palance, which ran from September 1975 to July 1976. Many viewers agreed with Palance's own public assessment of this short-lived project: "Stupid". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
TThough barely released to theaters, the tongue-in-cheek crime melodrama Four Deuces became a Late Late Show fixture in the '80s. Jack Palance plays Vic Morano, a high-ranking Prohibition-era mobster with a weakness for women. Vic's humanity begins surfacing when he falls for gorgeous blonde Wendy (Carol Lynley). The film's title refers to the name of his speakeasy, and to his gang, which consists of himself, Wendy, and a brace comic-relief hoodlums. The plot concerns Vic's ongoing war with rival hoodlum Chico Hamilton (Warren Berlinger). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The real name of director "Paul Elliotts" is Gianfranco Baldanetto, indication enough that The Great Adventure is not a Hollywood product. Adapted from a story by Jack London, the film features Fred Romer (aka Fernando Romero) as a young boy exploring the wilds of Alaska in the company of a large white dog. During a stopover in a gold-rush town, the boy is targeted as a sucker by the town boss (Jack Palance). Our hero is also flummoxed by a sexy dance-hall girl (Joan Collins). As the story unfolds, the boy is threatened by such less-imposing adversaries as wild wolves and bad weather. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1975
The long-standing blood feud between the Hatfield family of West Virginia and the McCoy clan of Kentucky is effectively dramatized in this made-for-TV movie. Jack Palance and Steve Forrest star as the family's respective patriarches, Devil Anse Hatfield and Randall McCoy. Remaining faithful to the facts (more so than the 1949 Sam Goldwyn production Roseanne McCoy), the film charts the fluctuating relationship between the two warring factions -- sometimes they actually made overtures of peace, which of course didn't last too long -- as well as the star-crossed romance between Devil Anse's daughter Rose Ann (Karen Lamm) and Randall's son Johnse (Richard Hatch). Featured in the cast are Palance's former wife Virginia Baker as Devil Anse's present wife Levicy and his daughter Brooke as Mary Hatfield. The Hatfields and the McCoys first aired January 15, 1975. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Another slice of processed cheese from Herman Cohen, producer of Trog and other such wonders. This cheap occult programmer (ostensibly based on the novel Infernal Idol by Henry Seymour) stars Jack Palance as a demented art dealer & antique-shop owner who performs nightly rituals in honor of the African god Chuku, whom he believes will reward him with unimaginable wealth and power if he merely offers up the occasional human sacrifice or two. His methods are fairly creative, ranging from impalement, slashing and burning, to scaring people to death with an ooga-booga fright mask. What could have been boring, exploitive drivel is elevated to passable mediocrity by an over-the-top performance from the leering Palance and occasionally stylish touches from slumming director Freddie Francis, but most viewers will be left wondering why they bothered at all. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- 1974
The Godchild is the seventh and (thus far) the last film version of Peter B. Kyne's Saturday Evening Post story "Three Godfathers." The threesome is herein played by Jack Palance, Jack Warden and Keith Carradine. Instead of bank robbers (as they were in most previous filmizations of the Kyne story), the trio are escaped Civil War POWS, eluding both the Confederates and the Apaches by hightailing it to the desert. They come upon a dying woman, who makes them promise to deliver her newborn child to safety. All three men lose their freedom and their lives in keeping this promise, but kept it is. The Godchild is fine as TV movies go; the only question is, why this story once again? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Palance, Jack Warden, (more)
This time, the overgrown-lizard hero is confronted by a mechanical doppelganger, courtesy of an army of extraterrestrial apes. Unable to best his metallic twin in combat, Godzilla seeks out the aid of Okinawan monster god King Seeser. The film is peppered with moments of humor; so much happens in the final reel that one is disappointed not to see the kitchen sink. After the TV popularity of The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla was rechristened Godzilla vs. the Bionic Monster. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Masaaki Daimon, Kazuya Aoyama, (more)
- 1973
Jack Palance and Lionel Stander, two familiar Hollywood faces in foreign films of the 1960s and 1970s, star in Con Men. Palance and Stander play a pair of frontier sharpsters who sell shares in a worthless gold mine. You guessed it: the mine begins to yield a fortune. Now our two anti-heroes must move Heaven and Earth to get their shares in the mine back. The original European title of this Italian/Spanish opus was Te Deum. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This TV-movie adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel of the "undead" was adapted by Richard Matheson and photographed by Oswald Morris. As the titular count, Jack Palance is a reluctant victim of an unwelcome fate, rather than a grinning bloodsucker. Nigel Davenport co-stars as Van Helsing, vampire-hunter deluxe, who pursues the count with his bagful of hammers and stakes. Much of the Stoker novel that had been eliminated in earlier versions has been restored by Matheson. Originally slated for telecast in October of 1973, Dracula was reshuffled to February 8, 1974, due to the late-breaking vice-presidential nomination of Gerald Ford. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1973
- PG
Taciturn Faye Dunaway insists upon drilling for oil in her small, unpromising patch of Oklahoma land. Drifter George C. Scott signs on to work the derrick, but only after Dunaway, who for unspecified reasons hates all men, warns him to stay at arm's length. Jack Palance, the strong-arm representative for a huge oil firm, dearly covets Dunaway's land, and when she refuses to sell he sends his hooligans to beat both her and Scott to bloody pulps. Driven from her land, Dunaway can't expect help from the "bought" courtrooms, so she fights fire with fire: together with Scott and her ne'er do well father John Mills, she takes back the land by force of arms. As they sit guarding the derrick, Dunaway and Scott draw closer, and when Mills is killed by a fall, Dunaway turns to Scott as her one last pillar of strength. Just as Palance and his goons are about to rush the land, the long-awaited gusher comes in. The oil surge lasts just long enough for every oil company within two hundred miles to bid for pumping rights. Once the well runs dry, however, Dunaway and Scott are left standing alone in their grimy field. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George C. Scott, Faye Dunaway, (more)
- 1972
- PG
In this western, an aspiring con artist learns the tricks of his chosen trade. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1971
Jack Palance must have been in 375 movies in the early 1970s. In Rulers of the City, Palance shares star billing with another "take the money and run" veteran Edmund Purdom. The two stars don't have as much screen time as the nominal male lead Al Cliver, however. The story is the old one about the young gangster who seeks vengeance for his father's murder. He insinuates himself into the upper circles of organized crime,then waits until the proper time to strike. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Charles Bronson stars in this revisionist western directed by Michael Winner. The film concerns an Apache half-breed, Pardon Chato (Charles Bronson), who finds himself pursued by a relentless posse, headed by Joshua Everette (Jack Palance), after Chato has killed a white sheriff. But when members of Everette's posse rape Chato's wife, Chato stops running. Instead, Chato reverses course and begins to hunt down the posse, seeking vengeful retribution for the rape. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Bronson, Jack Palance, (more)
- 1971
Italian action hero Bud Spencer stars in Maurizio Lucidi's comedy Western The Big and the Bad. While wandering through the West (which looks a lot like Spain), Spencer becomes intimate with the gorgeous Dany Saval -- discovering, all too late, that she is the younger sister of vengeful gunslinger Jack Palance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This politically oriented spaghetti western, chronicles the exploits of a mercenary who aligns himself with a revolutionary. Their goal is to liberate a peaceful professor and his students who are being held hostage in Texas. The mercenary's real reason for joining him is that the revolutionary knows the location of a cache of gold. En route to Texas they run into a strange wooden handed gunslinger who likes to smoke marijuana. The gunman is accompanied by his pet falcon. Tension between the mercenary and the rebel rise throughout the movie, but when the opposing forces attack, they unite. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Director John Frankenheimer, extrapolating from his earlier films The Gypsy Moths and Grand Prix, examines machismo and how men test themselves to the limits of endurance in The Horsemen. The film takes place in modern day Afghanistan. Uraz (Omar Sharif), the son of Tursen (Jack Palance), the stable master for a feudal lord, is a master horseman who lives by a primitive code of honor. Uruz's family honor is damaged when he breaks his leg playing the game which is the Afghani equivalent of polo. His father, who lost a lot of money betting on his son, will barely speak to him. To regain the family honor (and wealth) he must somehow re-learn how to ride -- after his injuries cost him his leg below the knee. In the face of great obstacles, and despite the derision and treachery of others, he gains the chance to play in the games given by the king of Afghanistan. The footage of the horsemanship in these dangerous and anarchic games is one of the real highlights of this film. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Omar Sharif, Leigh Taylor-Young, (more)
