Albert Dekker Movies

Set amidst the steamy underworld of Bermuda and Jamaica, this spy adventure chronicles the exploits of a female spy trying to investigate the mysterious murders of two colleagues before an important meeting between the world's most powerful leaders. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Jack Landau directed this 1966 televised production of Tennessee Williams' fantastical one-act play. In it, Martin Sheen stars as Kilroy, an American GI who finds himself in the surreal landscape of a fictitious Latin American nation where he interacts with several characters who have fallen into meaningless and destitute lives. The play also features performances by Tom Aldredge, Michael Baseleon, Albert Dekker, Hurd Hatfield, Kazimir Kokich, and Lotte Lenya. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Scripter Paddy Chayevsky altered his successful stageplay for this routine cinematic version of Middle of the Night, emphasizing the self-centered interests of the relatives and friends who surround Jerry Kingsley (Fredric March). Jerry is a widower, a lonely but successful clothing manufacturer who falls in love with Betty Preisser (Kim Novak), one of his employees. The employee-boss relationship is one hurdle the erstwhile couple have to overcome, another is the thirty-year difference in their ages, and the last is the attitudes of the couples' relatives -- each close relative (mother, daughter, sister) feels marginated by the relationship, left out in the cold, forgotten. These attitudes do not bode well for any future walk up the aisle. Director Delbert Mann is best known for his 1955, award-winning Marty. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Don Murray stars as a humble cowboy with aspirations for bigger things. He borrows money from his dance-hall girlfriend Lee Remick to buy a ranch, then dumps Remick in favor of banker's daughter Patricia Owens. Murray runs for political office, and in so doing is compelled to join a posse in search of his best friend Stuart Whitman, who has turned rustler. Anxious not to compromise his climb to the top, Murray stands by in silence as Whitman is lynched. In the end, however, Murray regains his essential decency when he is shot while trying to protect his ex-girlfriend Remick from bullying land baron Richard Egan. Based on a novel by A. B. Guthrie Jr., These Thousand Hills may look and sound like a western, but it has "film noir" written all over it. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmed in 1958 and released by United Artists in 1959, Machete is set on vast Puerto Rican plantation. Juano Hernandez plays a modern-day Iago who plants seeds of jealousy in the mind of plantation owner Albert Dekker. Hernandez insists that Dekker's curvaceous new wife is making time with foreman Carlos Rivas. Unlike Iago, however, Hernandez is telling the truth. Even though Blanchard knows that Dekker regards Rivas as the son he never had, she's more than willing to betray her husband. The plot is resolved by a last-reel fire. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This truncated screen version of John Steinbeck's best-seller was the first starring vehicle for explosive 1950s screen personality James Dean, who plays Cal Trask, the "bad" son of taciturn Salinas valley lettuce farmer Adam Trask (Raymond Massey). Although he means well, Cal can't stay out of trouble, nor is he able to match the esteem in which his father holds his "good" brother Aron (Richard Davalos). Only Aron's girlfriend Abra (Julie Harris) and kindly old sheriff Sam Burl Ives) can see the essential goodness in the troublesome Cal.
When Adam invests in a chancy and wholly unsuccessful method of shipping his crops east, his wealth plummets. In an effort to save the business, Cal obtains money from his estranged mother (the proprietor of a whorehouse) and invests it in a risky new bean crop. The gamble pays off (thanks in no small part to the war), but Adam refuses to take the money from Cal, and the resultant quarrel causes Adam to have a stroke. Released the same year as Rebel Without a Cause, East of Eden provided Dean with his first Oscar nomination, for Best Actor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Paul Newman made his screen debut in the gloriously nonsensical costume epic The Silver Chalice. Freely adapted from a novel by Thomas B. Costain, the film casts Newman as Basil, a first century Greek sculptor who is sold into slavery by his wicked uncle. Transported to Rome, Basil manages to enjoy a measure of freedom when his captors discover his sculpting talents; he also marries another slave, the demure Deborra (Pier Angeli) and dallies with the sensuous Helena (Virginia Mayo), the mercenary partner of court magician Simon (Jack Palance). The plot congeals when Basil is commissioned to create a silver receptacle for the chalice from which Jesus Christ drank at the Last Supper. Lorne Greene, likewise making his screen bow, is all portentous speeches and prophetic observations as the apostle Peter. Of the many silly highlights, the silliest -- and most memorable -- occurs when the unhinged Simon is possessed with the notion that he can fly with the gods (Palance's performance in this episode must be seen to be believed). When The Silver Chalice was first released, poor Paul Newman was roundly panned as a third-rate Brando; one reviewer noted that he "delivers his lines with the emotional fervor of a Putnam Division conductor announcing local stops." No one has been more vocal in the drubbing of Newman's performance than Newman himself. When the film was first aired on TV in Los Angeles in 1961, the actor took out a full-page apology in the trade papers. In recent years, however, Paul Newman has pointed to The Silver Chalice with pride, observing that he was able to overcome a bad beginning and endure as a screen favorite for over four decades. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a story by Paddy Chayefsky, this is the tale of a man who is being forced to retire from his job, at the age of 65, and decides to fight back. Impersonating the head of the company, he sets out to convince them to get rid of their outmoded retirement policy and gives a creditable speech on the dignity of man, gaining national attention. This movie features good performances, but it will probably be remembered more for the bit part played by a young Marilyn Monroe as the boss' secretary. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide

Barbara Stanwyck and Walter Huston give standout performances in this dark, psychological western, which Martin Scorsese has compared to the work of Dostoevsky. T.C. Jeffords (Huston) is a cunning and highly successful ranch owner who has announced his engagement to a wealthy socialite, Flo Burnett (Judith Anderson). This news is not warmly received by his daughter Vance (Stanwyck); she had a romance of her own with gambler Rip Darrow (Wendell Corey) foiled by her father, and Vance does not care for her light-headed stepmother-to-be. Vance is driven into a violent rage by T.C.'s Machiavellian actions, and when he kills a good friend of Vance's (a ranch hand he believes was helping Mexicans squat on his land), she swears revenge on her father and joins forces with Darrow to see that violent justice is done. The Furies proved to be Walter Huston's last film; he died within a few months of its release. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Lex Barker first stepped into the loincloth of the Lord of the Jungle in Tarzan's Magic Fountain. The story gets under way when Tarzan rescues a long-lost aviatrix named Gloria (Evelyn Ankers), who has been kept youthful by the magic fountain of the title. Bad guys Trask (Albert Dekker) and Dodd (Charles Drake) try to exploit the recuperative waters for mercenary purposes. They accompany the rapidly aging Gloria on an expedition back to the secluded valley where the magic waters flow. When the villains make their evil intentions known, Tarzan swings into action. Brenda Joyce plays Jane, just as she had in the last of the Johnny Weissmuller "Tarzan" entries. Tarzan's Magic Fountain was co-scripted by horror-film vet Curt Siodmak. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Search for Danger was the last entry in the "Falcon" film series, which began at RKO in 1941 and was sequestered at low-budget Film Classics by the end of the 1940s. Professional magician John Calvert stars as the debonair amateur sleuth known to friend and foe alike as The Falcon. This time our hero must contend with not one, but two baffling murders. It all begins when the Falcon goes on the prowl for the missing partner of gamblers Kirk (Albert Dekker) and Gregory (Ben Welden), who has skipped town with $100,000. The leading-lady responsibilities are handled by Myrna Dell, decked out in several enticing low-cut gowns. The mystery angle is well-handled, with a reasonably surprising solution. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide