Lee J. Cobb Movies

Often trailers and coming attractions are of as much or more interest to viewers than the actual movie. Included here are some of the trailers and coming attractions seen in the Academy Award-winning Best Pictures from 1927's Wings to 1959's Ben Hur, also including The Bridge on the River Kwai, On the Waterfront, The Greatest Show on Earth, The Lost Weekend and others. ~ Tana Hobart, Rovi

In this drama, an escaped mental patient threatens to blow up a city unless two important public officials kill themselves in public. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Lee J. Cobb's last film is in this light romantic comedy starring Roger Moore as Michael Scott, an arms dealer who comes complete with a sophisticated playboy patter for the ladies. During war games, Michael attempts to sell weapons to NATO forces by trying to interest NATO general Steedman (Lee J. Cobb) in his wares. Opposing his sale is feminist reporter Julia Richardson (Susannah York), who is not impressed with either his job or his come-hither endearments. But, as happens to most movie feminists, she ends up putting her values on the back burner and she falls in love with Michael. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

The made-for-TV Dr. Max is cut from the same cloth as The Last Angry Man. Lee J. Cobb stars as a taciturn elderly doctor who chooses to work in a dingy Baltimore neighborhood and minister to those far less fortunate than themselves. His refusal to succumb to the creature comforts of a more lucrative practice causes a great deal of friction between himself and his family. In traditional "movie of the week" fashion, however, the old medico proves to have a lot more sense than those around him. Dr. Max was first telecast April 4, 1974. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Last Circus Show is an Italian weeper that has everything but the bloodhounds and the ice floes. Renato Ceste stars as a wide-eyed urchin who struggles to reunite his divorced parents. Suddenly Ceste falls ill, and may die at any minute. His final request is to see a circus with his mom and dad. What are James Whitmore, Lee J. Cobb and Cyril Cusack doing in this pile of drivel? The Last Circus Show is also known as The Balloon Vendor, a literal translation of the Italian title Venditore di Palloncini. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Marshal Sam McCloud (Dennis Weaver) falls in love in Showdown at the End of the World. Unbeknownst to the New York-based peacekeeper, his lady friend (Jaclyn Smith) is up to her earrings in danger. Unwittingly involved in a drug-smuggling operation, the girl is likely to be killed unless McCloud lays off his current investigation. Bradford Dillman and Lee J. Cobb head the guest cast of this 90-minute episode of the TV series McCloud. Showdown at the End of the World premiered January 7, 1973. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This romantic western drama, based on the best-selling novel by Marilyn Durham, stars Burt Reynolds as Jay Grobart, an outlaw married to an Indian woman named Cat Dancing. When Cat is raped and murdered, a distraught Grobart kills the man responsible for the crime; he soon pulls a robbery with the help of his friends Dawes (Jack Warden) and Billy (Bo Hopkins), and is now on the run from the law. While in transit, Grobart and his partners run across Catherine (Sarah Miles), a woman running away from her abusive husband Crocker (George Hamilton). Catherine is abducted by Dawes and Billy, but Grobart protects her from their violence and threats of rape. As Grobart and Catherine get to know each other, they find themselves falling in love, and despite his lawless past, she admires him for avenging the death of the woman he loved. Grobart, Catherine, and the men travel to the Indian village where Grobart lived with Cat Dancing and their son; however, Lapchance (Lee J. Cobb), a bounty hunter hired by Crocker, is on their trail to bring Catherine back to her husband. The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing was one of Burt Reynolds' first major starring roles after Deliverance elevated him to full-fledged film stardom following years in television and low-budget pictures. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In Lawman, Burt Lancaster is Jered Maddox, a dedicated marshal with an inflexible adherence to upholding the law at all costs. Riding into a nearby town to pick up a group of local carousers who, during a drunken spree, killed an old man, Maddox meets up with Vincent Bronson (Lee J. Cobb). Bronson is the local town boss, and Maddox discovers that the men he is looking for work for him. Unlike most western heavies, Maddox, although he is powerful and unscrupulous, abhors violence. But violence is something Maddox cultivates. A major confrontation between the reluctant Bronson and the intransigent Maddox builds -- particularly when Maddox enlists the help of weak-willed local sheriff Cotton Ryan (Robert Ryan). ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Justice runs red in the deep South in this powerful drama. Steve Mundine (Lee Majors) is a young lawyer who, shortly after marrying his sweetheart Nella (Barbara Hershey), takes a position with a law firm in a small Southern town, run by his uncle Oman Hedgepath (Lee J. Cobb). L.B. Jones (Roscoe Lee Browne) is a well-to-do African-American funeral director who comes to Hedgepath's firm in search of legal representation. Jones wishes to divorce his wife Emma (Lola Falana), but his grounds make the case a hot potato -- Jones has learned Emma has been having an affair with Willie Joe Worth (Anthony Zerbe), a white police officer who is the father of Emma's unborn child. Worth does not want his affair dragged into a court of law, so he and his fellow officer Stanley Bumpas (Arch Johnson) violently take matters into their own hands. The last feature film from legendary Hollywood director William Wyler, The Liberation of L.B. Jones was based on a novel by Jesse Hill Ford. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Gino (Jean Servais) breaks out of jail and visits his friend Tony (Gary Lockwood) with a plan to rob an armored car. Although both men are motivated by greed, Tony says no to the risky proposition. When Gino is killed by some trigger-happy cops, Tony decides to avenge his death by going ahead with the robbery. Tony, a Vegas blackjack dealer, takes up with Ann (Elke Sommer), the private secretary of Shorsky (Lee J. Cobb), the owner of the armored-car company. With the help of some inside information from Ann, Tony and his henchmen pull off the heist, and the car seems to disappear in the desert. Treasury agent Douglas (Jack Palance) is called in to solve the mystery of the vanishing truck. As he closes in, the gang gets nervous when they can't open up the truck and everyone pulls out their guns in an unbridled display of greed and paranoia. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Set in Sicily, this violent crime drama tells the tale of an Italian cop who heads to a small island town to look into the death of a construction supplier. Once there he is shocked by the influence the Mafia has over the people and even himself. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Clint Eastwood stars as Walt Coogan, an Arizona deputy sheriff who has been sent to New York City to extradite escaped killer James Ringerman (Don Stroud). On arrival, he's forced to wait by NYPD detective Lieutenant McElroy (Lee J. Cobb), who informs him that Ringerman is recovering from a bad acid trip at Bellevue Hospital. After briefly flirting with attractive probation officer Julie Roth (Susan Clark), Coogan heads for Bellevue, where he's able to con the hospital's staff into releasing the criminal. The cop and the fugitive are on the way to catch a flight back to Arizona, when Ringerman's hippie girlfriend Linny (Tisha Sterling) and a large accomplice spirit the killer away, leaving Coogan unconscious. Luckily, Julie is the girl's probation officer, and Coogan manages to get her address from the woman's files while getting to know her better. He tracks the girl to a popular psychedelic club, whereupon, deciding she likes the deputy, she takes him back to her apartment for further interrogation. The first in a series of films on which Eastwood would collaborate with director Don Siegel, it features a memorable scene in which a battle fought with billiard balls and cue sticks suggests the birth of a new martial art. Although its seemingly innocuous scenes of sex and violence drew criticism at the time, it served as the source for television's considerably more benign McCloud, starring Dennis Weaver as the laconic fish out of water. ~ Michael Costello, Rovi

Meanest Men in the West is basically a pair of episodes of The Virginian, chopped up by Universal Pictures' editing department and mashed together (with help from some voice doubles) into what could almost pass for a coherent plot. Judge Henry Garth (Lee J. Cobb), owner of Shiloh ranch, becomes the object of a revenge plot by Kalig (Lee Marvin), a criminal whom the judge sent away to prison for ten years. In the recut version of the two shows (of which the first was directed and written by Samuel Fuller), Kalig sends his half-brother (played by Charles Bronson, in footage from a completely unrelated episode of the show) to kidnap Garth's ranch foreman, the Virginian (James Drury). Not all of it makes sense, but since the two stories were never supposed to be related, that's understandable. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi