Lee Van Cleef Movies
Following a wartime tour with the Navy, New Jersey-born Lee Van Cleef supported himself as an accountant. Like fellow accountant-turned-actor Jack Elam, Van Cleef was advised by his clients that he had just the right satanic facial features to thrive as a movie villain. With such rare exceptions as The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1954), Van Cleef spent most of his early screen career on the wrong side of the law, menacing everyone from Gary Cooper (High Noon) to the Bowery Boys (Private Eyes) with his cold, shark-eyed stare. Van Cleef left Hollywood in the '60s to appear in European spaghetti Westerns, initially as a secondary actor; he was, for example, the "Bad" in Clint Eastwood's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966). Within a few years, Van Cleef was starring in blood-spattered action films with such titles as Day of Anger (1967), El Condor (1970), and Mean Frank and Crazy Tony (1975). The actor was, for many years, one of the international film scene's biggest box-office draws. Returning to Hollywood in the late '70s, He starred in a very short-lived martial arts TV series The Master (1984), the pilot episodes of which were pieced together into an ersatz feature film for video rental. Van Cleef died of a heart attack in 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1990
Piecing together exciting film footage of martial arts performances, Deadliest Art demonstrates the reasons for the popularity of martial arts combat in visual entertainment. The history of the art, including basics of the Eastern philosophies that govern it, provides insight along with the demonstration of various types of martial arts fighting. Touching on the skills and frame of mind necessary to perform feats of this kind, this film showcases the beauty of defense without weapons, as well as special techniques required to incorporate the use of weapons, and the ways in which the martial arts have been showcased in the film industry. ~ Sarah Sloboda, All Movie Guide
- 1988
In this made-for-HBO thriller, Pierce Brosnan stars as an ex-convict who seeks revenge on the racetrack partner (Tom Skerritt) who framed him. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pierce Brosnan, Tom Skerritt, (more)
Fred Olen Ray always manages to attract major names to his bargain-basement actioners, and Armed Response is no exception. The scene is Chinatown, where Yakuza boss Mako yearns to get his hands on a stolen jade statue. David Goss, son of retired cop Lee van Cleef and the brother of Vietnam veterans David Carradine and Brent Huff, is hired by Mako to deliver half a million dollars to the crooks who've got the statue. Things go awry, ending in a shootout. Mortally wounded, Goss brings the statue home, at which point a vengeful Carradine picks up the storyline. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Carradine, Lee Van Cleef, (more)
- 1982
In this routine action-adventure film patterned after the trend-setting Raiders of the Lost Ark, a GI is requested by the Allies in World War II to come back to the Philippines after the war has ended and find the Golden Cobra, a sacred image worshipped by the Awoks (predating George Lucas' Ewoks by one year). When he does return, the ex-GI, Bob (David Warbeck), is not alone. He has two allies in the form of June (Almanta Suska) and her uncle (Alan Collins), who are searching for June's twin sister, April, lost in the jungle many years earlier. Anyone who has seen Raiders is likely to stay one step ahead of the action. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Warbeck, Christopher Connelly, (more)
- 1980
Patrick McGoohan does his patented "carrying the world on my shoulders" bit in The Hard Way. McGoohan is cast as Conner, a worldly, weary professional assassin. On the verge of retirement, he is cajoled by former associate McNeal (Lee Van Cleef) into doing one last job. Expecting a routine assignment, Conner is in for quite a jolt when he learns the identity of his target. Co-star Van Cleef effectively matches and sometimes surpasses McGoohan's trenchant cynicism. Filmed in 1979 for British television, The Hard Way was released theatrically the following year. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1977
The made-for-TV Fatal Chase stars Lee Van Cleef as taciturn U.S. marshal Ike Scanlon. Designed as the pilot for a weekly series, the film finds Scanlon escorting a mob witness (Tony Musante) to a federal trial. Since the witness is a hit man, there are plenty of people both inside and outside the Mob who'd like to see him dead. Featured in the cast are Fatal Chase's producer/writer Edward Anhalt and director Jack Starrett. Originally telecast as Nowhere to Hide on January 5, 1977, Fatal Chase has also been released as Scanlon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Spaghetti meets chop-suey in the Italian/Spanish/Hong Kong production Blood Money. Lee VanCleef plays an adventurer in search of a treasure buried somewhere in the orient. The clues are tattooed on the backs of four lovely young ladies. This translates to lots of exposed epidermis, not to mention a surplus of blood-and-gore. VanCleef emerges from the confusion with his reputation intact, but most of the supporting actors were never heard from again. Blood Money was produced by Sir Run Run Shaw, Hong Kong's leading purveyor of box-office bonanzas. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Van Cleef, Lo Lieh, (more)
A Mexican revolutionary offers four marauding outlaws a million bucks to destroy an arsenal owned by the Mexican army. The arsenal gets blasted, but the million bucks doesn't get delivered in this "outsmart the outsmarters" and "double-cross the double-crossers" western saga. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Van Cleef, Gina Lollobrigida, (more)
- 1970
Lee Van Cleef plays a fiercely independent river ferryman in the Old West. Bandit Warren Oates, fresh from decimating a local town, rides up with his gang and demands that Van Cleef transport the crooks and their booty across the river. He refuses, and is taken prisoner. Biding his time, Van Cleef is able to turn the tables on the vicious gang. Heavily influenced by the ultraviolent "spaghetti western" school, Barquero attempts to add a contemporary note to the proceedings by having Warren Oates take an hallucinatory "trip" after smoking an unidentified weed. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Van Cleef, Forrest Tucker, (more)
- 1968
Unlike Clint Eastwood, who in the 1960s was cast as the Man With No Name, Beyond the Law star Lee Van Cleef has a name, and a very functional one. Van Cleef is known to one and all as Bandit Turned Sheriff. Actually, a more appropriate cognomen would be Bandit Turned Sheriff But Still a Bandit, since Van Cleef only pretends to reform so that he can steal a cavalry payroll. Since it's hard to watch Beyond the Law with a straight face to begin with, the producers wisely decided to turn this spaghetti western into a semi-comedy. Released in Italy in 1967 as Al Di La Della Legge, Beyond the Law was distributed in the US in 1971. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Van Cleef, Antonio Sabato, (more)
- 1967
Jonathan Corbett (Lee Van Cleef) is one of the top lawmen in the State of Texas. He's so good at what he does, that he's been approached by Brokston (Walter Barnes), a wealthy speculator and power-broker, about running for the United States Senate. But there's one job that needs doing first which, if Corbett can finish it, will put him in an unchallengable position -- he has to hunt down and capture (dead or alive, with the emphasis on "dead") Cuchillo Sanchez (Tomas Milian), who's wanted for raping and killing a 12-year-old girl. Corbett does what he does best, pursuing Sanchez relentlessly and on his own level of intense brutality, past the border and into Mexico -- but along the way, Corbett learns what life is like for peasants like Sanchez, and what men like Brokston have to do with it. And he discovers that Sanchez may not be the murderer that Corbett thinks he is. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Van Cleef, Tomas Milian, (more)
- 1967
This 1967 spaghetti western stars a master of that genre, Lee Van Cleef, as an aging, half-mad gunfighter. In an effort to regain his fearsome reputation, Van Cleef shoots down a local sheriff. He then finds he must deal with his young protégé Giuliano Gemma, who happened to be the sheriff's best friend. The climactic showdown finds Van Cleef facing down his former Gemma, with each man knowing the other's every move and thought. Also known as Day of Anger, this superior Italian oater was originally released as I Giorni dell'Ira. Its director was onetime Sergio-Leone-assistant Tonino Valerii. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Van Cleef, Giuliano Gemma, (more)
- 1966
In the first episode of a three-part story, President Grant (William Bryant) asks Jason (Chuck Connors) to find out the reason that maverick general George Armstrong Custer (Robert Lansing) has been making public attacks against the Grant adminstration's Indian policy. Outwardly, it seems that Custer is concerned only with the safety of the white settlers who have nested in the territory controlled by Chief Crazy Horse (Michael Pate). But as Jason soon learns to his chagrin, his former West Point comrade Custer has an ulterior motive that may result in wholesale slaughter. Excerpts from "Call to Glory" were later combined with scenes from two other Branded episodes, "Fill No Glass for Me" and "Now Join the Human Race", to form the direct-to-video "feature film" Blade Rider: Revenge of the Indian Nations. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1966
In the second episode of a three-part story, Presidential emissary Jason McCord (Chuck Connors) has managed to disuade his former West Point comrade General Custer (Robert Lansing) from sparking an Indian war to further his own political ambitions. Shortly thereafter, Chief Crazy Horse (Michael Pate) arrives in Washington to plead for peace and fair treatment of his people from General Sheridan (John Pickard). Alas, Sheridan's philosophy is that the only good Indian is a dead Indian--and this time, Jason may not be able to prevent a bloodbath. Excerpts from "Call to Glory" were later combined with scenes from two other Branded episodes, "Fill No Glass for Me" and "Now Join the Human Race", to form the direct-to-video "feature film" Blade Rider: Revenge of the Indian Nations. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1966
In the concluding episode of a three-part story, sinister forces have conspired against both General Custer (Robert Lansing) and Indian chief Crazy Horse (Michael Pate), making a final bloody confrontation at the Little Big Horn all but inevitable. Acting on behalf of President Grant, Jason McCord (Chuck Connors) has received evidence that Indian shaman Sitting Bull (Felix Locher) did not murder a crooked Indian agent as claimed. Racing against time, McCord hurries to convey this information to Custer--who has already gathered his 7th Cavalry for a rendezvous with destiny. Excerpts from "Call to Glory" were later combined with scenes from two other Branded episodes, "Fill No Glass for Me" and "Now Join the Human Race", to form the direct-to-video "feature film" Blade Rider: Revenge of the Indian Nations. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This pulse-pounding follow-up to Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars brings back Clint Eastwood as the serape-clad, cigar-chewing "Man With No Name." Engaged in an ongoing battle with bounty hunter Col. Douglas Mortimer (Lee Van Cleef), the Man joins forces with his enemy to capture homicidal bandit Indio (Gian Maria Volontè). Both the Eastwood and Van Cleef characters are given understandable motivations for their bloodletting tendencies, something that was lacking in A Fistful of Dollars. In both films, however, the violence is raw and uninhibited -- and in many ways, curiously poetic. Leone's tense, tight close-ups, pregnant pauses, and significant silences have since been absorbed into the standard spaghetti Western lexicon; likewise, Ennio Morricone's haunting musical score has been endlessly imitated and parodied. For a Few Dollars More was originally titled Per Qualche Dollaro in Più; it would be followed by the last and best of the Man with No Name trilogy, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, (more)
- 1965
Though he hardly relishes the assignment, Jason (Chuck Connors) agrees to help a rural undertaker haul a coffin into town. Little does Jason know that the coffin's occupant is a very-much-alive outlaw who intends to rob the local Wells Fargo office. J. Pat O'Malley makes a return appearance as lovable reprobate Rufus L. Pitkin in this episode, which also includes a suitably menacing performance by the great Lee Van Cleef. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1965
When the ladies of Mayberrry complain about the hootchie-kootchie dancers at a travelling carnival, Andy is forced to close the show down. As a result, the carnival's "one man band", Jerry Miller (Jerry Van Dyke) is thrown out of work. Feeling sorry for Jerry, Andy hires the man as a potential replacement for departing deputy Barney-and lives to regret it. Written by Bob Ross, "Banjo-Playing Deputy" originally aired May 3, 1965, as the final episode of The Andy Griffith Show's fifth season; it was also the series' last black-and-white episode. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1963
Returning to work after a four-week absence, Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) makes up for lost time by agreeing to represent cantankerous orange grower Amos Keller (Arthur Hunnicutt). To get even with Amos for messing up his plans to bulldoze the local orange groves, land developer Gerald Thornton is suing the old coot, claiming to have been bitten by Amos' dog Hard Tack. Things turns deadly serious, however, when Thornton is murdered and Amos' granddaughter Sandra (Natalie Trundy) is charged with the crime. Watch for future spaghetti-western icon Lee Van Cleef in a supporting role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1963
Hired by a bank to collect $10,000 from rancher Dan Tibner (Nestor Paiva), Paladin (Richard Boone) finds that Tibner has been murdered and the money stolen. Suspicion immediately falls upon a band of gypsies that has been roaming around the ranch, but Paladin is convinced that there is more to the story than meets the eye. Famed flamenco guitarist Laurindo Almeida is prominently featured in this, the 225th and final episode of Have Gun, Will Travel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
