Michael Ansara Movies
Though best known for his Native American characterizations, Michael Ansara is actually of Lebanese extraction. Ansara, born in Syria and raised in Lowell, Massachusetts, entered Los Angeles City College in 1941, planning to become a doctor. His shyness in class prompted his professor to suggest that Ansara take a dramatics course to bolster his self-confidence. The medical profession's loss turned out to be the acting community's gain: after training at Pasadena Playhouse, Ansara blossomed as a classical actor with such groups as the Hollywood Players' Ring. The role that brought Ansara to the attention of Hollywood's higher-ups was his brief, uncredited appearance as the tormented Judas in The Robe (1953). He went on to be cast as Cochise in the 1956 TV series version of the 1950 20th Century-Fox feature Broken Arrow; while the role brought him fame and fortune, Ansara noted that "the acting range was rather limited. Cochise could do one of two things--stand with his arms folded, looking noble; or stand with his arms at his sides, looking noble." He was allowed a more flexible acting range, as well as a wider vocabulary, in his next Indian assignment, that of Harvard-educated federal marshal Sam Buckhart in the 1959 western series Law of the Plainsman. In both this assignment and Broken Arrow, the rather hirsute Ansara was required to keep his chest shaven at all times. More recently, Ansara has been active in the lucrative world of TV cartoon voiceover work. Michael Ansara was married for several years to actress Barbara Eden. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
An interesting low-budget entry in the post-Jaws animals-run-amok genre (which also owes more than a little to Hitchcock's The Birds), this noisy, violent thriller features the prophetic premise of a widening gap in the ozone layer (thanks to human indulgences in hairspray and other aerosol products) which unleashes brain-frying radiation and causes assorted woodland creatures to go for the throats of unsuspecting Sierra backpackers. As if that weren't horrific enough, the poor kids are also placed in the position of defending themselves against a rampaging Leslie Nielsen -- whose hammy performance will probably have fans of the Naked Gun series and their ilk waiting for a punch line that never arrives. Perennial B-movie couple Christopher George and Lynda Day George round out the cast. Day of the Animals is also known as Something Is out There. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christopher George, Leslie Nielsen, (more)
- 1977
- PG
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This adventure is based upon the true life exploits of 17th-century missionary, Father Francisco "Kino" Kin who was instrumental in developing the Southwest and fought hard to keep the murderous conquistadors from slaughtering the Apaches. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1976
At a demolition site, a human skeleton is found encased in cement. This is precisely the evidence needed by Lt. Kojak (Telly Savalas) to reopen a "cold" murder investigation--eighteen years after the killing took place. Veteran character actors Ned Glass and Marjorie Bennett) are prominently featured in this episode, which was initially slated to air on February 22, 1976. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This handsomely-mounted historical epic concerns the birth of the Islamic faith and the story of the prophet Mohammed -- who, in accordance with the tenants of Islam, is never seen or heard (any physical depiction of the prophet is considered a heinous sin within the faith). In Mecca in the 7th century, Mohammed is visited by a vision of the Angel Gabriel, who urges him to lead the people of Mecca to cast aside the 300 idols of Kaaba and instead worship the one true God. Speaking out against the corrupt political and military leaders who rule Mecca, Mohammed and his followers struggle to worship God as they see fit, which eventually leads them into exile in Medina. However, one day God gives Mohammed a message to return to Mecca and take up arms against their oppressors -- while recruiting as many followers as they can along the way. With the help of his uncle, a brave warrior named Hamza (Anthony Quinn), Mohammed and his followers return to Mecca to liberate the city in the name of God. The Message (originally screened in the U.S. as Mohammed, Messenger of God) proved to be highly controversial during its production and initial release. Unfounded rumors had it that Mohammed would not only be depicted in the film, but that he was to be played by Charlton Heston or Peter O'Toole. This resulted in angry protests by Muslim extremists, until director Moustapha Akkad hired a staff of respected Islamic clerics as technical advisors. The advisors butted heads with Akkad, and they quit the production, which led the Moroccan government to withdraw their permission to film in their country. In time, Akkad ended up shooting on location in Libya under the sponsorship of Muammar Qaddafi, which presented a whole new set of political and practical problems for the filmmakers. Finally, when the film was scheduled to premier in the U.S., another Muslim extremist group staged a siege against the Washington D.C. chapter of the B'nai B'rith under the mistaken belief that Anthony Quinn played Mohammed in the film, threatening to blow up the building and its inhabitants unless the film's opening was cancelled. The standoff was resolved without explosion or injuries, though the film's American box office prospects never recovered from the unfortunate controversy. The Message was shot in two versions, one in English and one in Arabic (entitled Al-Ris-Alah), with different actors taking over some of the roles due to language requirements. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Quinn, Irene Papas, (more)
- 1976
Though there's no love lost between Jim Rockford (James Garner) and fellow ex-convict "Joey Blue Eyes" DiMinna (Michael Ansara), Beth (Gretchen Corbett) persuades Jim to come to Joey's aid when the man is victimized by a crooked corporation. DiMinna owns a small restaurant which the corporation dearly covets, and the powers-that-be are not above extortion and physical violence--mostly directed at Joey's daughter Paulette (Suzanne Charney)--to get what they want. Figuring that it takes a crook to catch a crook, Jim stage-manages an elaborate swindle to foil the villains...with peril-prone Paulette at the center of things again. Appearing as loan shark Bert Striker is James Luisi, who later joined the Rockford Files cast in the role of antagonistic police detective Doug Chapman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
The made-for-TV Barbary Coast is a tongue-in-cheek western in the Maverick tradition, produced by a former writer-director of that series, Douglas Heyes. Dennis Cole plays Cash Conover, a San Francisco saloonkeeper of the 1870s. William Shatner co-stars as Jeff Cable, an undercover policeman who works hand in glove with Conover to fight crime on the Coast. Conover and Cable team up with the lovely Cleo (Lynda Day George) to tackle a vicious mob, headed by one Diamond Jack Bannister (Michael Ansara). Throwing a bit of Wild Wild West into the stew, Cable pops up from time to time wearing disguises and sporting outrageous accents. First telecast May 4, 1975, Barbary Coast was the pilot for the short-lived TV series of the same name. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Horror journeyman Larry Cohen, writer and director of numerous quirky horror projects, made his first foray into the genre with this low-budget cult favorite about a murderous mutant baby on a suburban rampage. The story opens with a delivery-room massacre as the newborn child of Frank and Lenore Davies (John P. Ryan and Sharon Farrell) answers the doctor's slap by tearing him to pieces -- along with a few other medical personnel -- before fleeing the hospital for whereabouts unknown. The subsequent hunt for the killer baby creates a rift between Frank, who wants the child destroyed, and Lenore, whose maternal instincts convince her that her child is not deliberately homicidal but merely frightened and defending itself. The baby's bloody rampage continues with several murders (including the creepy scene in which the terrible tyke savages the neighborhood milkman), until it is cornered by Frank and a police task-force. At the crucial moment, Frank has a sudden change of heart and tries to defend the infant from the police. Despite painfully low production values that render the monster scenes a bit silly (Rick Baker's creepy-looking but inarticulate baby model was simply pulled along on a string), Cohen's concept shines through, presenting a skewed but sincere interpretation of family values that could only be pulled off in the horror genre (see also Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes for another example). The script makes passing suggestions that the mutation was a result of an inadequately tested fertility drug, a concept explored more fully in the sequel It Lives Again and quite extensively in the third installment, Island of the Alive. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Ryan, Sharon Farrell, (more)
- 1974
Winston Hibler, who produced many of those Disney "True Life Adventures" of the 1950s, was at the controls of The Bears and I. Patrick Wayne plays Bob Leslie, a Vietnam veteran who heads to the Canadian Rockies when he's discharged. Here he adopts three bear cubs, whose mother has been killed. Leslie also helps an Indian tribe reclaim the land that is rightly theirs. The Bears and I was based on a book by Robert Franklin Leslie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1973
Call to Danger was a title that had already been applied to two unsold pilot films before this TV movie made its first appearance in February of 1973. Like the previous 1968 Call to Danger, the 1973 film stars Peter Graves as a federal agent who enlists "ordinary" people to solve crimes. Headquartered in Washington DC (where most of this film was shot), Graves selects his erstwhile agents by means of a computer. The case at hand is the retrieval of an underworld informer who has been kidnapped. Peter Graves appeared in Call to Danger even while his series Mission: Impossible was in production; there was talk that Mission: Impossible would soon be cancelled, and Graves wanted a pilot film to fall back on. Come September of 1973, there was neither hide nor hair of Mission: Impossible, Call to Danger or Peter Graves on any network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1973
Art thief Van Cleve (Ed Nelson) steals $5 million worth of priceless pre-Columbian artifacts. To determine the hiding place of the precious booty, the IMF hatch a scheme whereby Van Cleve becomes convinced that he has precognitive powers. Essential to the mission's success is an outsized simulated earthquake. Originally telecast on March 2, 1973, "The Western" was written by Arnold Peyser and Lois Peyser. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Graves, Greg Morris, (more)
When a Cape Kennedy space mission is interrupted by terrorists, Senator Stockwell (John Carter) turns to a massive computer for an analyzed report of which secret agents to trust with the case. The electronic brain suggests the Doll Squad, a crack team of highly trained female spies who are as beautiful as they are deadly. Their leader, Sabrina Kincaid (Francine York), is sent to round up the girls, but there's a mole in the Senator's organization, and the first two agents she contacts are murdered. Intelligence reports reveal that the head of the terrorist operation is Eamon O'Reilly (Michael Ansara), an ex-government agent and Sabrina's former lover. O'Reilly sends a carrier pigeon to the Senator with instructions to send back secret nuclear weapon plans, and threatens national disaster if he refuses. The mole is rooted out and the location of O'Reilly's secret island hideout is discovered, so Sabrina rounds up the rest of the Doll Squad and the ladies charter a boat. Once on shore, the girls are kidnapped, and O'Reilly explains his nefarious plans to Sabrina: He is going to spread bubonic plague across the civilized world and rule what is left with supreme power. But if she so desires, he'll inoculate her with the antidote and she will reign by his side as Queen. The Doll Squad fights back, using an arsenal of secret weapons, plastic explosives, and their own seductive charms to defeat O'Reilly's henchmen and save the world. ~ Fred Beldin, All Movie Guide
- 1973
In this dark drama, filmed in the Mojave Desert, a conniving wife and her lover leave her husband, who broke his leg, alone in the desert to die. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arthur Hill, Diana Muldaur, (more)
- 1972
- PG
This gag-filled movie makes a stab at examining the women's liberation movement but never quite gets there. The effects of the movement are shown through a series of comic and romantic episodes between men and women. The story is loosely tied together as the research of Sheila Hammond (Jacqueline Bisset), a fashion magazine editor who is preparing an article on women's liberation. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1972
The Fergusons are a family of nomadic con artists, led by the father-son team of Angus (George Voskovec) and Albert (Michael Ansara), who have managed to bilk an entire San Francisco neighborhood in their latest scam. The newest addition to the clan is greedy son-in-law Josh Evans (Christopher Jones), who adds murder to their litany of crimes. With Stone (Karl Malden) and Keller (Michael Douglas) breathing down their necks, the Fergusons' family solidarity is rapidly disintegrating--and in the process, the lives of several innocent bystanders are placed in jeopardy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1972
- R
This gory gothic horror film marks the final appearance of actress Agnes Moorhead (though one year later, she did provide a voice in the animated film Charlotte's Web) who plays the terminally ill, wheelchair bound Southern matriarch Delilah. She is an unpleasant woman surrounded by desperately avaricious, insane relatives who realize that she has hidden $600,000 somewhere on her property. The greedy family will stop at nothing to get that loot, even if it means chopping each other up with axes. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1970
Hoping to expose a card sharp named Martino (Herbert Rudle), Tony (Larry Hagman) insinuates himself into a card game along with Roger (Bill Daily), Dr. Bellows (Hayden Rorke) and Gen. Schaeffer (Vinton Hayworth). But thanks to the intervention of Jeannie (Barbara Eden), Bellows and Schaeffer become convinced that Tony is the cheater, and not Martino. Worse still, a mobster muscles into the action, relegating poor Roger to a dunk in the ocean with his feet in cement! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1970
- PG
Have you ever longed for the day when James Brown, Martha Raye, and Col. Harland Sanders would appear in a movie together? Well, that's barely the tip of the improbable casting iceberg in this bizarre cold-war spoof. The leaders of the American intelligence organization the S.S.A. ("Super Secret Agency") are becoming increasingly alarmed by the disappearance of a number of B-list celebrities, who are being spirited off to Communist Albania. Eager to bring the fading stars back to the Land of the Free, the S.S.A. come up with a simple plan: They'll find four typical guys in their mid-twenties, have them form a rock group, make them into international stars, and wait until they get invited to play a gig in Albania, which will allow them to find out what's become of Rudy Vallee, Butterfly McQueen, and Huntz Hall, among others. Unemployed philosopher Michael A. Miller, Native-American honor student Ray Chippeway, phys-ed major Dennis Larden, and male model Lonny Stevens are drafted by the S.S.A., and after some intensive training by experts (Trini Lopez shows them a few guitar chords, and Richard Pryor gives them a crash course in soul), they become an overnight sensation as The Phynx (yes, it's pronounced "Finks"). Their album sells 17 million copies on the strength of songs like "What Is Your Sign?," and their groupies have to be cleared away by forklift. But fun and games have to go to the back burner when Albanian ruler Markevitch (George Tobias) and his wife, Ruby (Joan Blondell), invite the Phynx to perform at the behest of their son. Pat O'Brien, Xavier Cugat, Patty Andrews, and Dick Clark are just a few of the other notables who make cameo appearances in The Phynx, which had a very brief theatrical release before being sold to television in the early '70s. Legendary songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller penned the songs performed by The Phynx (and Stoller composed the background score), though for some reason they're not covered nearly as often as "Jailhouse Rock," "Hound Dog," or "Yakkety Yak." ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Miller, Ray Chippeway, (more)
Chris (George Kennedy) is the lone survivor of the original seven gunmen who is recruited to help in a peasant struggle in Mexico. Colonel Diego (Michael Ansara)is the ruthless military commandant of a Mexican prison holding the leader of the revolt. With knife expert Levi Morgon (James Whitmore) and firearms experts Keno (Monte Markham), P.J. (Scott Thomas) and Slater (Joe Don Baker), they enlist the help of the giant black man Cassie (Bernie Casey) and two others to rescue the leader of the proposed revolt. The evil Diego employs his torturous and inhuman practices on both sides of the prison walls in a effort to stop the heroes from rescuing the prisoner in this action packed western saga. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Kennedy, James Whitmore, (more)
- 1969
Even though Tony (Larry Hagman) and Jeannie (Barbara Eden) are now husband and wife, Jeannie's wicked lookalike sister (also played by Barbara Eden) hasn't abandoned her efforts to break up the couple. Jeannie II's latest scheme is to pose as the "real" Jeannie while conducting a very public romance with handsome astronaut Biff Jellico (played by Barbara Eden's then husband Michael Ansara), thus disgracing her sister. Meanwhile, Jeannie remains blissfully ignorant of what her sibling is up to--until it's almost too late. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1969
- R
Set up like a version of the Maltese Falcon, this routine detective yarn by Roger Corman features Vic Morrow as Harry Black, a hard-living, tough-skinned American in trouble. Two dangerous factions want to get their hands on some engraving plates stolen from the British mint, and Harry is trapped in the middle. The staged car chases, the seductive woman (Suzanne Pleshette) who wants Harry for her own reasons, Monte Carlo and Istanbul locations, the dramatic musical score, and all the earmarks of a low-grade James Bond spy thriller date this drama to the 1960s. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vic Morrow, Suzanne Pleshette, (more)
- 1968
National Intelligence Agent Dan Street (Richard Egan) is on the trail of some stolen laser rubies. It is assumed the agents will come after the raygun itself for their evil purposes. Count Romano (Michael Ansara) is the swimsuit-import mogul who tries to keep his head from going under while working for the enemy agents. The key to the mystery lies with Dutch (John Ericson), a Korean War veteran who fell into the hands of the brainwashing communists. Patricia Owens is Dan's love interest in this plodding suspense film. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Egan, Patricia Owens, (more)
- 1968
This combination romantic comedy and political satire finds fashion photographer Ben Morris (James Garner) traveling to Latin American for an assignment with the beautiful model Alison (Eva Renzi). Their arrival in a small village draws suspicions from Colonel Ceyala (Fabrizio Mioni). The Colonel is out of favor with his superiors, and quickly tags the shutterbug as a CIA agent. The couple is stranded when the adventurer guide Ryderbeit (George Kennedy) hijacks their helicopter after shooting the pilot. Alison and Ben unwittingly buy a map to a lost diamond mine, and Ben is suspected of killing the copter pilot. Ryderbeit returns to get his hands on the map and finish off the lost couple, now comically lost in the dense jungle. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Garner, Eva Renzi, (more)
- 1968
Vic Powers (Lloyd Bridges) leads a specialized rescue unit known as the Flying Fish. When an American economics professor is kidnapped by a malevolent Latin American dictator, the call goes out to recover the victim. The unit is equally adept in or out of the water. Ricardo (Nico Minardos) is the resident beachcomber recruited to provide the team with valuable information vital to recovering the missing professor. The specialized unit travels by air, land and sea to meet their objective and races against time to avoid an international incident that could tip the balance of power in favor of the dictator. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lloyd Bridges, Nico Minardos, (more)
- 1968
The crews of the Enterprise and an enemy Klingon vessel find themselves in uncomfortably close quarters during this episode of the 1960s science fiction series. When both the Enterprise and a Klingon warship claim to be responding to a distress call from a disputed planet, Captain Kirk attempts to settle the matter diplomatically, agreeing to beam a number of the Klingons aboard his ship. However, almost immediately after the Klingons are aboard, the Enterprise is hit with turbulence; the resulting damage traps the Klingons and a number of Enterprise crew members together in the same part of the ship. Old hatreds soon rise to the surface, and the tension brings the groups to the brink of a private war -- but the situation soon changes when they realize that a mysterious third party may have had a hand in orchestrating the conflict for purposes of its own. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
