George Chakiris Movies

In this violent pseudo-erotic horror outing, a serial killer fancies himself a vampire until his wanton ways attract the attention of a real bloodsucker. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Robert Louis Stevenson's novel is satirized in this comedy about a scientist (Mark Blankfield) who is hopelessly addicted to his latest invention, a strange white powder. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Kiss Me and Die was a February, 1974 installment of ABC's late-night Wide World Mystery anthology. This 90-minute goosepimpler stars George Chakiris as an American in search of his missing brother. He traces his vanished sibling to a small, cloistered British village. There he meets an odd couple named Lanceford, played by Jenny Agutter and Anton Diffring. Somebody knows something, and somebody isn't telling. Kiss Me and Die was videotaped in England by director John Sichel, a Wide World Mystery regular. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

“The Big Cube” of the title is slang for a sugar cube dipped in LSD, which is omnipresent throughout the movie. Adriana Roman (Lana Turner) is a famous actress who is retiring from the stage to marry wealthy Charles Winthrop (Dan O’Herlihy), a situation that displeases Winthrop’s daughter Lisa. While hanging out at a nightclub called “Le Trip,”Lisa is shown the bizarre effects that LSD-laced sugar cubes can have when added to a drink. She also meets Johnny Allen, a drug dealer who, once he learns that Lisa comes from money, is anxious to marry her. While Adriana and Winthrop are away, Lisa and Johnny hold a wild drug and sex party at her home. When her father walks in on it, he forbids Lisa’s marriage. Soon thereafter, Winthrop drowns at sea, but Adriana follows his orders that Lisa will be disinherited if she marries Johnny. The two plot their revenge by lacing Adriana’s sleeping pills with LSD, to the point that she goes mad and is committed to an asylum. Lisa and Johnny marry, but when Johnny takes Lisa’s best friend to bed, Lisa regrets her actions. She tells Frederick Lansdale, a playwright friend of her stepmother’s, what she has done. He has the notion of writing a play based on Adriana’s experiences, and convincing Adriana to play the lead role. Amazingly, going through this experience cures Adriana – just as Lansdale hoped it would. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide

In this espionage comedy, an American and a Russian agent find themselves double-crossed by a double agent who works for both of them. Also involved are a naive IBM computer operator, and the telephone operator at the hot-line center in Stockholm. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This story of love and espionage focuses on political turmoil as a small nation struggles to free itself from colonial rule, and one man tries to serve both justice and his own heart. In the late 1950s, the island of Cyprus is under the political control of Great Britain, but groups of Cypriot activists are fighting for the country's independence. Maj. McGuire (Dirk Bogarde) is an English military leader who is on the trail of Haghios (George Chakiris), a terrorist leader who guides the struggle for freedom in Cyprus. Juno Kozani (Susan Strasberg) is an American student of archeology who visits friends on the island, only to discover that they're helping to hide Haghios from the police and the British military. McGuire is convinced that Kozani knows Haghios' whereabouts, but while she has told McGuire nothing, Haghios is convinced that Kozani has turned him in and threatens to kill her. Desperate, Kozani seeks protection from McGuire, who allows her to hide out in his apartment. Put into close contact, McGuire and Kozani fall in love, but when his superiors find out that he's been keeping her in hiding, McGuire is transferred to Greece. Kozani follows him there, only to discover that a mysterious man has been following them. The High Bright Sun has also been released under the titles McGuire Go Home! and A Date with Death. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Vincent (George Chakiris) is a gentleman thief who steals the Mona Lisa from the Louvre. He falls in love with the pretty young maid Nicole (Marina Vlady), whose main goal in life is to marry a wealthy man, but Vincent is unable to tell Nicole what his vocation is or that he is financially stable if not rich. The police begin to follow the duo, beginning the chase scene that takes up the major part of the film. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In this sentimental romance scripted by director Luigi Comencini and Marcello Fondato, leading-lady Claudia Cardinale rises above the tepid screenplay to turn in one of her better efforts. Set in a small Italian village in the 1940s, La Ragazza di Bube tells the story of a woman who falls in love with a complete stranger (George Chakiris). The stranger turns out to have killed a fascist policeman during World War II and is sent to jail for 14 years. The woman pines for the convict and waits out his sentence, spurning the love of a writer (Marc Michel) who wants to marry her. Chakiris is typically stiff, and Carlo Rustichelli's passionate score makes more of the situation than is warranted, but Cardinale's controlled, low-key performance keeps the film from becoming too overwrought. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Featuring an all-star cast and on-location shooting in Japan, where the story is set, three US Air Force rescue pilots must overcome their personal problems and differences to embark upon a dangerous mission to save raft-bound Japanese survivors from a murderous storm-tossed sea. As they head for their location, the film flashes back to chronicle the pasts of each pilot to make clear their mixed feelings about their upcoming assignment. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this romantic comedy, a free-wheeling member of the U.S. Air Force goes AWOL. While traveling, the man and his girlfriend encounter another young couple. Both men are dressed exactly alike and are driving the same kind of bike. When the women climb aboard the wrong bikes, romantic mayhem ensues. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

Romeo and Juliet is updated to the tenements of New York City in this Oscar-winning musical landmark. Adapted by Ernest Lehman from the Broadway production, the movie opens with an overhead shot of Manhattan, an effect that director Robert Wise would repeat over the Alps in The Sound of Music four years later. We are introduced to two rival street gangs: the Jets, second-generation American teens, and the Sharks, Puerto Rican immigrants. When the war between the Jets and Sharks reaches a fever pitch, Jets leader Riff (Russ Tamblyn) decides to challenge the Sharks to one last "winner take all" rumble. He decides to meet Sharks leader Bernardo (George Chakiris) for a war council at a gymnasium dance; to bolster his argument, Riff wants his old pal Tony (Richard Beymer), the cofounder of the Jets, to come along. But Tony has set his sights on vistas beyond the neighborhood and has fallen in love with Bernardo's sister, Maria (Natalie Wood), a love that, as in Romeo and Juliet, will eventually end in tragedy. In contrast to the usual slash-and-burn policy of Hollywood musical adaptations, all the songs written by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim for the original Broadway production of West Side Story were retained for the film version, although some alterations were made to appease the Hollywood censors, and the original order of two songs was reversed for stronger dramatic impact. The movie more than retains the original choreography of Jerome Robbins, which is recreated in some of the most startling and balletic dance sequences ever recorded on film. West Side Story won an almost-record ten Oscars, including Best Picture, supporting awards to Chakiris and Rita Moreno as Bernardo's girlfriend, Anita, and Best Director to Robbins and Wise. Richard Beymer's singing was dubbed by Jimmy Bryant, Natalie Wood's by Marni Nixon (who also dubbed Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady), and Rita Moreno's by Betty Wand. The film's New York tenement locations were later razed to make room for Lincoln Center. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

For its first broadcast of the 1956-57 season, the monthly CBS variety anthology Ford-Star Jubilee offered a full-color salute to composer Cole Porter. Opening with (what else?) "Another Opening, Another Show (from Porter's Kiss Me Kate), the 90-minute special featured an all-star cast performing a veritable cornucopia of the songwriter's hits. Highlights included Dorothy Dandridge's renditions of "You Do Something to Me" and "My Heart Belongs to Daddy"; Oklahoma costars Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones, dueting on a medley of Porter love songs; dancers Sally Forrest and George Chakiris (still five years away from his Oscar win for West Side Story performing to the tune of "Night and Day"; trumpeter Louis Armstrong, belting out "Blow Gabriel Blow"; and a few Porter comedy numbers, sung by Peter Lynd Hayes and Mary Healy. Also appearing in this live telecast were singer Dolores Gray, actor George Sanders and Cole Porter himself, with a filmed segment featuring Bing Crosby, who was then starring in a movie version of Porter's 1934 Broadway musical Anything Goes. David Rose conducted the orchestra for You're the Top, which currently exists in black-and-white kinescope form. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide