Joseph Cotten Movies
Born to a well-to-do Southern family, Joseph Cotten studied at the Hickman School of Expression in Washington D.C., and later sought out theater jobs in New York. He made his Broadway debut in 1930, and seven years later joined Orson Welles' progressive Mercury Theatre company, playing leads in such productions as Julius Caesar and Shoemaker's Holiday. He briefly left Welles in 1939 to co-star in Katharine Hepburn's Broadway comeback vehicle The Philadelphia Story. Cotten rejoinedWelles in Hollywood in 1940, making his feature-film debut as Jed Leland in Welles' Citizen Kane (1941). As a sort of private joke, Jed Leland was a dramatic critic, a profession which Cotten himself had briefly pursued on the Miami Herald in the late '20s. Cotten went on to play the kindly auto mogul Eugene Morgan in Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons in 1942, and both acted in and co-wrote Journey Into Fear, the film that Welles was working on when he was summarily fired by RKO. Cotten remained a close friend of Welles until the director's death in 1985; he co-starred with Welles in Carol Reed's The Third Man (1949) and played an unbilled cameo for old times' sake in the Welles-directed Touch of Evil (1958). A firmly established romantic lead by the early '40s, Cotten occasionally stepped outside his established screen image to play murderers (Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt [1943]) and surly drunkards (Under Capricorn [1949]). A longtime contractee of David O. Selznick, Cotten won a Venice Film Festival award for his performance in Selznick's Portrait of Jennie (1948). Cotten's screen career flagged during the 1950s and '60s, though he flourished on television as a guest performer on such anthologies as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Fireside Theatre, The Great Adventure, and as host of The 20th Century-Fox Hour (1955), The Joseph Cotten Show (1956), On Trial (1959), and Hollywood and the Stars (1963). He also appeared in several stage productions, often in the company of his second wife, actress Patricia Medina. In 1987, Cotten published his engagingly candid autobiography, Vanity Will Get You Somewhere. He died of pneumonia in 1994 at the age of 88. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1953
Joseph Cotten stars in A Blueprint for Murder as Whitney Cameron, a man who harbors a deep and abiding affection for his pretty sister-in-law Lynne Cameron (Jean Peters). When one of Lynne's stepchildren dies, the autopsy indicates that the child was poisoned. Despite his feelings for Lynne, Whitney can't help but feel that she was responsible for the child's death--and that she intends to go on killing until she becomes sole heir of her late husband's estate. The "moment of truth" occurs during a climactic ocean voyage which consumes nearly a third of the film. A Blueprint for Murder was written and directed by Andrew L. Stone, whose legendary insistence upon "realism" at all costs was such that it's a wonder he didn't persuade Peters to commit a real murder. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joseph Cotten, Jean Peters, (more)
A Delicate Balance is the 1973 film adaptation of Edward Albee's Pulitzer Prize-winning play. Katharine Hepburn and Paul Scofield play an old married couple, Agnes and Tobias, who much prefer to be alone. Each time someone visits them, their "delicate balance" is threatened. The first intruder is Agnes' inebriated sister, Claire (Kate Reid). The next is their much-divorced daughter, Julia (Lee Remick). The limit is reached when well-meaning friends Harry (Joseph Cotten) and Edna (Betsy Blair) show up unexpectedly and threaten to stay forever. In keeping with the austerity of the other American Film Theatre presentations, director Tony Richardson eschews his usual cinematographic pyrotechnics here. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Stretching the Airport concept as far as it will go, this third film in the series sticks a jet full of old actors 50 feet underwater in the Bermuda Triangle. Oxygen (and credibility) grows short, and Jimmy Stewart plays an art collector targeted for a heist. Jack Lemmon is the unfortunate pilot, and Christopher Lee shows up along with Brenda Vaccaro, Joseph Cotten, and Olivia de Havilland. Jerry Jameson, auteur of The Bat People, was selected to helm this entry featuring that film's star, Michael Pataki. George Kennedy, the only man to appear in all four Airport films, is along for the ride as well. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Lemmon, Lee Grant, (more)
- 1964
One of the most famous of unsold TV pilots, Alexander the Great stars William Shatner in the title role. Nine months in the making, this lavish 60-minute drama recreates the battle between the Greeks and Persians at Issus (filmed near St. George, Utah). Hoping to attract as wide an audience as possible, producer Albert McCreery included an elaborate orgy sequence, with Alexander consuming mass quantities of wine as dancing girls undulate all around him. According to costar Adam West, it was this element that lost Alexander the Great several potential sponsors. The film gathered dust for four years after its production, then was given a single showing January 26, 1968, as an installment of the ABC anthology series Off to See the Wizard. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1955
Alfred Hitchcock's second directorial effort for his popular suspense anthology is one of the series' best ever episodes. Joseph Cotten stars as William Callew, a hard-nosed and hard-hearted businessman who holds in contempt such human failings as sentiment, pity, and tears. While racing to keep an appointment in New York, Callew is involved in a spectacular car accident. Awakening, he finds that he is completely paralyzed, unable to move or speak -- though we hear his every thought on the soundtrack. Everyone who comes across Callew assumes that he is dead, including the police and the coroner...and as the episode draws to its conclusion, the horrified Callew is being wheeled into the autopsy room of the morgue! "Breakdown" was re-filmed for the 1985 revival of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, with John Heard in the Joseph Cotten role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1959
Philandering husband Courtney Masterson (Joseph Cotten) and his paramour, Peg Valence (Julie Adams), are attacked by a robber named Rudy (Don Gordon). Fortunately, Courtney and Peg manage to overpower their assailant and lock the man in the trunk of Masterson's car. At this point, Courtney should have gone to the police -- except that he doesn't, knowing full well that he'll have to explain to the authorities why he's in the company of Peg and not his wife. So should the couple allow Rudy to go free? Well...he could turn out to be a blackmailer...couldn't he? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1958
During a Christmas office party, executive Tony Gould (Joseph Cotten) is confronted in his office by his secretary -- and mistress -- Shelley (Chris White). Fed up with being strung along by the married Tony, Shelley threatens to reveal their relationship if he doesn't divorce his wife immediately. In desperation, Tony strikes Shelley down, killing her instantly -- only to discover that he has locked himself in his office, and will be trapped therein for the next three days. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1977
Ostensibly a six-hour miniseries adaptation of Bert Hirschfield's novel Aspen, the program actually used only the title of the Hirschfield work; the plot proper was lifted from another novel by a different author, Bart Spicer's The Adversary. Set in the titular Colorado ski resort in the 1960s, the story line incorporated equal amounts of sex, greed, ambition, and murder, with the trial of accused rapist-killer Lee Bishop (Perry King) at the center of the storm, and the efforts by a gangster to grab up the local land, coupled with the amorous misadventures of a jet-setting glamour girl, taking up the slack whenever the plot threatened to lag. Despite a huge and varied cast, Sam Elliott emerged as the star of the proceedings in the role of straight-arrow attorney Tom Keating. Originally shown by the NBC network from November 5 to 7, 1977, Aspen was rebroadcast under the more lurid title The Innocent and the Damned. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sam Elliott, Perry King, (more)
- 1971
This made-for-television feature (which premiered on the ABC Movie Of The Week) attracted slightly more interest than usual, due in part to the presence an unusually recognizable supporting cast (including several players, such as Joseph Cotten, Keenan Wynn and Dewey Martin, who'd had real film careers, going back to the 1940's), and Star Trek's Leonard Nimoy in the lead. Nimoy plays Commander Phil Kettenring, the captain of the nuclear submarine Wayne, which has been assigned a critical, top-secret mission involving a less than completely cooperative scientist (Malachi Throne). What Kettenring doesn't know is that the Eastern bloc enemy (this being the middle of the Cold War) is already on to the mission. They've not only got a fairly clever trap set for the sub in mid-ocean, but have also infiltrated the crew at key points. As the Wayne's and her commander's problems mount, the crew begins to lose confidence in Kettenring, threatening not only the mission, but the safety of the sub. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
This above-average horror film concerns a young couple (Antonio Cantafora, Elke Sommer) who manage to revive a cruel sorceror-Baron (Joseph Cotten) from the 1500s. Posing as a cripple, the Baron assimilates back into society and buys back his old castle, where he begins torturing and murdering innocent locals in his dungeon. Veteran filmmaker Mario Bava's direction is assured, and Euro-horror buffs will enjoy the cast, which includes Massimo Girotti ("Terence Hill" of spaghetti western fame), Luciano Pigozzi, Umberto Raho, and young Nicoletta Elmi (Profondo Rosso). ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- 1949
"What a dump!" That's the classic line delivered by Bette Davis at the halfway point of Beyond the Forest, her final Warner Bros. effort of the 1940s. Some Davis devotees feel as though this vituperative utterance is the high point of an otherwise turgid melodrama; others consider the line a succinct assessment of the entire film. Based on a best-selling novel by Stuart Engstrand, the film stars Davis as Rosa Moline, a small-town girl with big-city ambitions. Trapped in a dull marriage to just-getting-by lawyer Lewis Moline (Joseph Cotten), Rosa plots and plans to sexually entrap millionaire industrialist Neil Latimer (David Brian). That Rosa's scheme is doomed from the start is telegraphed at every juncture by Max Steiner's sledgehammer musical score (few will ever want to hear the song "Chicago" again after this). Hampered by the censorship standards of the era, the film is prevented from being as frank as the novel; in one scene, for example, Rosa is obviously visiting an abortionist, but the sign on the door reads "Psychiatrist." A standard entry in most film historians' "Worst Movies" lists (even Davis herself hated it), Beyond the Forest is rather entertaining in its own schlocky fashion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bette Davis, Joseph Cotten, (more)
A meandering mule and an old prospector find gold and adventure in the Grand Canyon in this family programmer. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joseph Cotten
- 1978
- R
This big-budget adaptation of James Michener's best-selling novel stars Michael Sarrazin as Mark Miller, a low-level American diplomat given a dangerous assignment. Ellen Jasper (Jennifer O'Neill) is the daughter of a prominent U.S. politician who has married Nazrullah (Behrooz Vosoughi), an Iranian colonel. However, she's fallen in love with Zulfigar (Anthony Quinn), a Bedouin rebel leader, and has run off with him. Miller is instructed to find Ellen and bring her back to the United States, and while he's able to complete the first part of his assignment, Ellen simply refuses to leave Zulfigar's side. Caravans was a co-production between American and Iranian firms, but it had the misfortune of being released just as relations between the two nations began to sour, which did nothing to help the film at the box office. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Quinn, Michael Sarrazin, (more)
- 1980
Nick (Mike Conners) is the owner of a luxury liner and casino which cruises its way to action and adventure for those on board. Lackluster direction by Don Chaffey is not aided by a cast including Gary Burghoff, Joseph Cotten, Lynda Day George, Bo Hopkins and Robert Loggia, who seem to all be slightly embarrassed to be in the film. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- 1981
This film is based on Winston Churchill's memoirs of his leadership of England from Dunkirk to D-Day. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
Orson Welles first feature film -- which he directed, produced, and co-wrote, as well as playing the title role -- proved to be his most important and influential work, a ground-breaking drama loosely based on the life of William Randolph Hearst which is frequently cited as the finest American film ever made. Aging newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles) dies in his sprawling Florida estate after uttering a single, enigmatic final word -- "Rosebud" -- and newsreel producer Rawlston (Phil Van Zandt) sends reporter Jerry Thompson (William Alland) out with the assignment of uncovering the meaning behind the great man's dying thought. As Thompson interviews Kane's friends, family, and associates, we learn the facts of Kane's eventful and ultimately tragic life: his abandonment by his parents (Agnes Moorehead and Harry Shannon) after he becomes the heir to a silver mine; his angry conflicts with his guardian, master financier Walter Parks Thatcher (George Coulouris); his impulsive decision that "it would be fun to run a newspaper" with the help of school chum Jedediah Leland (Joseph Cotten) and loyal assistant Mr. Bernstein (Everett Sloane); his rise from scandal sheet publisher to the owner of America's largest and most influential newspaper chain; his marriage to socially prominent Emily Norton (Ruth Warrick), whose uncle is the President of the United States; Kane's ambitious bid for public office, which is dashed along with his marriage when his opponent, corrupt political boss Jim Gettys (Ray Collins), reveals that Kane is having an affair with aspiring vocalist Susan Alexander (Dorothy Comingore); Kane's vain attempts to promote second wife Alexander as an opera star; and his final, self-imposed exile to a massive and never-completed pleasure palace called Xanadu. While Citizen Kane was a film full of distinguished debuts -- along with Welles, it was the first feature for Joseph Cotten, Everett Sloane, Ray Collins, Agnes Moorehead, and Ruth Warrick -- the only Academy Award it received was for Best Original Screenplay, for which Welles shared credit with veteran screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, (more)
- 1970
Irwin Allen, praised in some circles as a science fiction genius and damned in others as a shameless schlockmeister, produced and directed this fanciful TV-movie. Set in the 21st century, the film concentrates on a group of colonists dwelling in a modernistic underwater city called Pacifica. The emphasis is on drama rather than special effects, as we see the deep-sea denizens struggling to cope with the pressures of their new existence--and their own personal animosities. Stuart Whitman heads a large cast of TV veterans, including Time Tunnel regulars James Darren, Robert Colbert and Whit Bissell, and onetime Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea star Richard Basehart (as the US President). Expanded from a short "demo" pilot film, City Beneath the Sea is the one Irwin Allen project that could have matured into a truly worthwhile TV series; unfortunately no network was interested in subsidizing this expensive effort. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This half-baked but entertaining disaster film (not to be confused with America's The Concorde - Airport '79) deals with the attempts of an evil corporation to sabotage the Concorde before it hurts their own airline business. James Franciscus plays a reporter who teams up with Mimsy Farmer (Macchie Solari) to save the plane and its passengers from certain doom. Venantino Venantini co-stars with Edmund Purdom, Van Johnson, and Joseph Cotton, while cultists should look for porn star R. Bolla (appearing as Robert Kerman) in the tower, and some simply pathetic miniature effects. Kerman was also in Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust and Umberto Lenzi's Cannibal Ferox. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- 1969
John Gavin stars as Santa Fe marshal Ben Cutter, whose homecoming is blighted when he finds his town has been taken over by a Mexican bandit gang. Accompanied by two of the less frightened townsfolk--a small boy (Manuel Padila Jr.) and the boy's mother (Marisa Pavan)--Cutter sets out to rid the town of the interlopers. This TV movie was the pilot for a weekly series, slated for a CBS timeslot. Half a dozen scripts were prepared before the network decided to turn thumbs down. Cutter's Trail was originally telecast in a 90 minute slot, then expanded to two hours for syndication. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1980
- R
Slow-moving and low-key, this psychological thriller about killings in a large, dark mansion has a classic setting and characters: Meredith Stone (Patricia Pearcy) is the nurse who comes to care for the invalid Ivar Langrock (Joseph Cotten), and Gabriel (John Dukakis) is his grandson who comes to visit after spending some time in a commune. A face looking out of the window of a locked room provides a clue that there might be some additional characters involved in this drama. One by one, people at the house are clubbed to death -- and the mystery continues until the story behind that face is made known. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patricia Pearcy, David Hayward, (more)
- 1970
Devious socialite Gene Barry stands to come into one million dollars. The catch is (and don't ask us why) that he must convince the authorities that he's dead. He arranges to switch identities with Lloyd Bridges, who is terminally ill. Diane Baker plays Barry's wife, who must needs be willing to "take this stranger" for the plan to succeed. Do You Take This Stranger? was a made-for-TV entry in NBC's Tuesday Night at the Movies. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In this grim, violent crime drama, a hit man murders a politician and then boards a ship to New York. During the voyage, the assassin abducts the captain's daughter, holds her captive in his cabin and rapes her while her father agonizes over what he should do. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
In David O. Selznick's Duel in the Sun, Jennifer Jones stars as Pearl Chavez, whom everyone has tagged as a "bad girl" foredoomed to an unhappy end. She is taken into the home of wealthy, greedy rancher McCanles (Lionel Barrymore) and his kindly wife Laura Belle (Lillian Gish), who'd once been the sweetheart of Pearl's recently executed father (Herbert Marshall). Almost immediately, Pearl becomes the object of an emotional tug-of-war between McCanles' virtuous son Jesse (Joseph Cotten) and wicked ne'er-do-well offspring Lewt (Gregory Peck). After killing a man (Charles Bickford) who'd tried proposing to Pearl, Lewt becomes a fugitive, secretly working to undermine the railroad that threatens to cut across McCanles' land. The level-headed Jesse tries to negotiate with the railroad men, and as a result is ordered from the ranch by McCanles. While all this is going on, Pearl, sick to death of being told what a bad job she is, decides to become the Jezebel everyone assumes she is. Duel in the Sun was based on the novel by Niven Busch, who'd written the work hoping that his wife Teresa Wright would play Pearl--but that was before Selznick fell head over heels in love with Jennifer Jones. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Griff Barnett, Jennifer Jones, (more)
- 1953
The three stories in this anthology are all set beside the Nile River and are narrated by Joseph Cotten. The first story deals with the potentially dangerous, tumultuous love affair between a knife-thrower and his partner. The knife thrower is married and when his wife finds out about the affair, she gives him an ultimatum that could result in the end of the girl. In the second story, a caravan to Mecca finds itself afflicted with cholera. Now the leader must decide what to do. In the last story, two Yankee con artists attempt to sell holy bread. One of them really wants to use the sacred loaves to smuggle diamonds out of the country. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann Stanville, Jackie Craven, (more)
The final directorial project the legendary Orson Welles completed during his lifetime, F for Fake is less a documentary than an example of cinematic free association on the topic of trickery. Much of the film is in fact drawn from other sources, most notably an unfinished documentary by Francois Reichenbach on the notorious Elmyr de Hory, whose extremely skillful forgeries of famous paintings caused scandals amongst art collectors and experts. In an additional bit of irony, de Hory's interviewer is author Clifford Irving, who became infamous due to a forgery of his own: a falsified autobiography of Howard Hughes. Welles openly re-edits and manipulates this footage, using it as a spine for his own commentary, arguing that there is an extremely close relationship between art and lying, and citing instances from his own career to prove the point. Through a combination of documentary and staged footage, Welles attempts to illustrate the artifice behind all filmmaking, even that of a supposedly non-fiction variety. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Orson Welles, Oja Kodar, (more)
