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- 1973
John Saxon and Joseph Cotten head the guest cast in this episode, wherein homicide detectives Stone (Karl Malden) and Keller (Michael Douglas) investigate an elaborate scam that has gone fatally awry. Unscrupulous coin dealer Vince Hagopian Jr. (Saxon) has arranged to purchase several valuable "gold eagles" from millionaire collector John R. James (Cotten). Though he is supposed to sell the coins on behalf of Mr. James, Hagopian has hatched scheming to double his earnings by substituting counterfeit coins--a scheme which obliges him to commit murder to cover his tracks. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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)
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
- 1972
In this drama, a wealthy US heiress and her partner embark upon their annual journey to Rome to play scopa, an Italian card game, with a financially struggling couple. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1972
Jeannot Szwarc, the director responsible for so many episodes (both good and bad) of the Night Gallery TV series, was the helmsman of The Devil's Daughter. This small-screen Rosemary's Baby clone stars Belinda Montgomery as a young woman targeted by a group of Satanists. It seems that Belinda's soul was purchased from the Devil when the girl was born, with payment due when she reaches the age of 21. Shelley Winters is at her overbearing best as the head of the cultists, while horror-flick vets Joseph Cotten and Jonathan Frid do their utmost to create the proper demonic atmosphere. Colin Higgins, who moved on to such prestige projects as Silver Streak and Foul Play, conjured up the script for The Devil's Daughter. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Belinda Montgomery, Shelley Winters, (more)
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
- 1972
Olivia De Havilland plays a middle-aged woman who has recently been released from a mental institution after suffering a breakdown. She insists one evening that she can hear the muffled scream of a woman emanating from beneath the ground. Since no one else can hear these screams, De Havilland is dismissed as a crank. But Ms. De Havilland is steadfast in her conviction that the screams are real, and to that end investigates on her own. She discovers--at the peril of her own life--that the screams are those of a woman buried alive at a construction site by her recluse husband. Losing credibility long before the denouement, The Screaming Woman is based on a vastly superior short story by Ray Bradbury, in which the protagonist is not an adult ex-mental patient but a precocious little girl with a reputation for lying. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Long thought dead, the victim of a horrible accident, Dr. Anton Phibes (Vincent Price) still lives, surrounded by art-deco bric-a-brac and attended by mute beauty Vulnavia (Virginia North). Outwardly normal in appearance, Phibes actually wears a rubber mask, covering his hideously deformed countenance; giving away the artifice is the fact that, when he dines, he takes his food through his neck rather than his mouth. Able to speak only when plugging a wire into his damaged vocal chords, Phibes elucidates his plan to murder the medical team whom he holds responsible for the death of his wife. Each of the killings is patterned after the ten deadly plagues. Phibes saves his worst for last: trapping chief surgeon Dr. Vesalius in his lair, Phibes forces the hapless medico into a race against time to save the life of his own son. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vincent Price, Joseph Cotten, (more)
- 1971
- R
This lurid but entertaining Italian/Spanish twist on the Frankenstein legend begins with Baron Frankenstein (Joseph Cotten) being assisted in his research by his sultry daughter Tania (Sara Bay). The doctor's first attempt at a stitched-together creation results in a lumpy, pop-eyed monstrosity with little of the expected respect for its creator. In fact, the monster begins its rampage by murdering the Baron and escaping into the surrounding village. The younger Frankenstein returns from medical school with newly-acquired surgical expertise and a desire to follow in her late father's footsteps. She soon begins work on a creation of her own by transplanting the brain of her brilliant but deformed assistant Charles (Paul Müller) into the body of a brawny handyman. The result is a handsome and powerful male creature not only capable of destroying the original monster, but virile enough to satisfy his creator's overwhelming sexual appetites. Tania is apparently quite eager to test the latter, and she does quite frequently, as indicated in the film's numerous softcore sex scenes. This lengthy romantic interlude is cut short when the first monster returns to finish what he started. Directed by Mel Welles (who B-movie fans will remember as Gravis Mushnik from Roger Corman's cult classic Little Shop of Horrors), this film plays like a sexually-obsessed version of an early Hammer production. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- 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
- 1970
In this drama, the second in the "Ironside" series, the Chief becomes marked for murder after he witnesses the execution of hospital security guard. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1970
When an ancient and invaluable manuscript is found, a girl disappears increasing the mystery. ~ All Movie Guide
- 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
- 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
This 25-million dollar epic collaboration accurately recreates the events that led to the Japanese attack on the American naval base during World War II. With Germany's invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, the wheels are set in motion by Japan to plan the attack. After internal differences in the government, the Japanese quickly mobilize plans for the assault. Key American personnel ignored warnings of the possibility of Japanese aggression. The first part of the film divides scenes from both countries. Part two contains spectacular battle scenes of the bombing that destroyed the American naval base of operations in Hawaii. Governmental errors on both sides add to the confusion, but the Japanese ultimately carry out the deadly mission. The film did well in Japan, did not do well in the he United States, and took years to make back the production costs. It remains an insightful and well crafted World War II action drama that was the result of years of negotiations between the two countries. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martin Balsam, So Yamamura, (more)
- 1969
- R
Christine (Jacqueline Bisset) is the young bank teller who is bored with her job and her husband. She leaves for Las Vegas where she scores a job as a chorus girl. The beautiful Christine does not have the talent to parlay the job into an upwardly mobile career. She marries an older man and becomes a "kept woman." Tommy Marcott (Jim Brown) is the greeter at a casino who poses for pictures with the guests and marries Christine. When Christine is invited to dinner by Roosevelt Dekker (Ramon Bieri), she is beaten up by her host. Tommy tracks down the construction magnate at a local golf course and beats him to a pulp. Danny (Corbett Monica) is the comic who gives Christine her first tour of Vegas and his bedroom. Christine hires a pilot to skywrite an obscenity that sums up her feelings about her experience. Joseph Cotten also appears in this drama of a naive young woman nearly swallowed up by the seamier side of the Las Vegas nightlife. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jacqueline Bisset, Jim Brown, (more)
- 1969
A superb throwback to the "films noir" of old, The Lonely Profession puts icing on the cake with a strong dose of 1960s realism--within reasonable TV-movie limits. Harry Guardino plays a businesslike private eye assigned to trail the mistress (Ina Balin) of a Hughes-like reclusive millionaire. When he catches up with her, the two spend an evening in a motel. Guardino wakes up; the woman does not. Now facing a murder rap, Guardino must get to the bottom of the killing and determine why he's been set up as the fall guy. To do this, he opens his own probe of the dead woman's past. Lonely Profession was a special favorite of its director Douglas Heyes, who is best known to TV buffs for his work on Maverick and Twilight Zone. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Godzilla maven Inoshiro Honda helmed this quaint, old-fashioned fantasy adventure (loosely styled after 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea) about the crew of a damaged deep-sea craft who are taken aboard a high-tech atomic submarine dubbed "Alpha," commanded by the Nemo-like Captain McKenzie Joseph Cotten. The Captain then transports them to the underwater city of Latitude Zero, whose inhabitants are dedicated to monitoring and protecting human civilization. Cotten's next mission involves the rescue of a Japanese doctor from the clutches of the diabolical Dr. Malic Cesar Romero, whose scientific experiments include the transplanting of human brains into various animals. Mindless fun, with some marginally effective underwater model effects, and Honda even throws in a few giant rubber-suit monsters for old times' sake. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joseph Cotten, Cesar Romero, (more)
- 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
Petulia is Richard Lester's ode to the Swinging Sixties: a time of psychedelic instability when neither those who were square, nor those who were hip, really had it right. George C. Scott is Archie Bollen, a divorced San Francisco doctor in the midst of "discovering himself." Julie Christie is Petulia Danner, a peculiar young beauty recently married into an established family. Archie's sterile apartment and detached, bemused manner exemplify his inability to emote. Petulia's forward nature and desperate tenderness betray her fear of her sullen, abusive, pretty-boy husband (Richard Chamberlain). The physician and the newlywed embark on a schizophrenic love affair amid Pepsi references, automated motels, roller derbies, and a cameo by Big Brother and the Holding Company -- but they never achieve the daring to truly change their lives. ~ Aubry Anne D'Arminio, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julie Christie, George C. Scott, (more)
- 1968
In this second half of a two-part story (originally telecast as a single two-hour episode), Ironside (Raymond Burr) is in the hospital awaiting an operation that may cure his paralysis--or bring about his death if things go wrong. In typical fashion, the detective is able to put aside his own worries and solve a number of problems facing his fellow patients. Meanwhile, a homicidal drug thief steps up his efforts to bump off Ironside, who is the only witness to his most recent killing. The huge guest cast includes Joseph Cotten as the chief surgeon, Troy Donahue as a priest, former child star Margaret O'Brien as a patient, and future Jaws costar Lorraine Gary as a nurse. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1968
Ironside departs from its usual one-hour format with this extended episode, originally telecast in a two-hour slot and later syndicated as a two-parter. While witnessing a murder committed by a drug thief, Ironside (Raymond Burr) incurs a shock to his spinal chord which may enable doctors to operate and cure his paralysis. The bad news is that the operation might also kill the detective--if the homicidal thief doesn't knock him off first! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1967
In this war drama, an Army intelligence officer stationed in Saigon labors to discover the identity of the double-agent in his department who has been sending classified information to the Soviets. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
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
- 1967
The success of several 1960s-era cat-burglar movies depended upon the suave and agreeable machinations of the film's antiheroic hero, as he stylishly worked to remove surplus wealth from the obscenely wealthy. That formula reaped a box-office bonanza, and here the producers are back with it again, with Jeff Hill (George Hamilton) learning the ropes of being a gentleman-thief from the redoubtable Ace of Diamonds (Joseph Cotton). Unfortunately, there is a reason these fine gents weren't cast in the original films, and despite good performances (and direction) all around, the magic just didn't strike this time. Three female movie stars (Carroll Baker, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Lilli Palmer) play themselves as the burglar's wealthy victims. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Hamilton, Joseph Cotten, (more)
