Howard Duff Movies

Burt Lancaster had one of his first starring roles in this hard-hitting prison drama. Capt. Munsey (Hume Cronyn) is a cruel, corrupt prison guard who has his own less-than-ethical ways of dealing with inmates, enough so that Joe Collins (Lancaster) -- the toughest inmate in the cell block -- has decided to break out. Collins tries to persuade Gallagher (Charles Bickford), the unofficial leader of the inmates and editor of the prison newspaper, to join him, but Gallagher thinks Collins' plan won't work. However, Collins does have the support of his cellmates, most of whom, like himself, wandered into a life of crime thanks to love and good intentions. Tom Lister (Whit Bissell) was an accountant who altered the books so he could buy his wife a mink coat. Soldier (Howard Duff) fell in love with an Italian girl during World War II and took the rap for her when she murdered her father. Collins pulled a bank job to raise money to pay for an operation that could possibly get his girl out of a wheelchair. And Spencer (John Hoyt) made the mistake of getting involved with a female con artist. After Munsey drives Tom to suicide and prevents Gallagher from obtaining parole, Gallagher joins up with Collins and his men in the escape attempt. Director Jules Dassin would next direct the influential noir drama The Naked City; six years later, he would move to Europe after political blacklisting prevented him from continuing to work in the United States. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Young model Jean Dexter is knocked unconscious and drowned in her own bathtub in her Manhattan apartment, and a lot of jewelry that she supposedly owned is missing. The Naked City is actually about six days in the life of New York City that coincide with the murder and the subsequent investigation by Lt. Dan Muldoon (Barry Fitzgerald) and Detective James Halloran (Don Taylor). The account of their work, and the workings of the New York City police department, is interspersed with brief vignettes about the life of the city around them, and, especially, the reaction of residents to the murder and the newspaper reports of the progress of the case. Muldoon and Halloran first must determine why she was killed, which may (or may not) have to do with how a woman with a minimal income came by the jewelry -- was it a love affair gone bad (and if so, with whom?), or something more complex and sinister? Retracing the final 18 months of the victim's life, their investigation reaches out to a mysterious "Philip Henderson" with whom she was supposedly linked romantically, and to Frank Niles (Howard Duff), who's a little too fast-and-loose with the truth when he doesn't have to be to make Muldoon comfortable; to make things more complicated, Muldoon determines that there were at least two men involved with the actual commission of the murder. The victim turns out to have led a wild life, filled with men and parties, and was tied up with several sordid figures. Their investigation carries them into the highest and lowest ends of New York's social strata to find the killer, and it turns out there are a lot of interlocking reasons why at least three men might've wanted her dead. In the process, we get glimpses of the private lives of the detectives, which was something new in movies at this time; in the midst of all of this activity, the writers set up a fascinating contrast, in adjacent scenes, between Halloran, his wife, and their young son looking toward the future, with the parents of the dead woman, looking back with bitter regret and recriminations -- no movie ever presented in more subtle fashion the contrast between the zeitgeist of the 1930s and that of the postwar era. The final chase on the Williamsburg Bridge is one of the classic pieces of suspense cinema, as the armed and desperate killer races up the walkway past children playing and adults strolling, while detectives close in on foot from behind and patrol cars come up from ahead, with crowded subways rolling past, and then into the superstructure of the bridge for a stand-off and shootout. Sharp-eyed viewers will spot future character leads Paul Ford, James Gregory, John Marley, Kathleen Freeman, and Arthur O'Connell as well as familiar faces Tom Pedi, John Randolph, Molly Picon, and Walter Burke in the supporting cast. Cinematographer William Daniels and editor Paul Weatherwax won Oscars for their work, but awards might just as easily have been presented to director Jules Dassin, writers Albert Maltz and Malvin Wald, composers Miklos Rozsa and Frank Skinner, and, most notably, to producer/narrator Mark Hellinger, who intoned the closing monologue, which opens with one of the most famous tag lines in movie history: "There are eight million stories in the Naked City." ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Red Canyon was one of several medium-budget, Technicolor westerns turned out by Universal-International between 1949 and 1959. Howard Duff plays wandering cowpoke Lin Sloane, who spends most of the film trying to capture a fabled wild stallion. While thus occupied, he finds time to romance Lucy Bostel (Ann Blyth), daughter of the region's most influential horsebreeder (George Brent). Conflicts arise when Lucy intends to race the captured stallion, much to the dismay of her father; there's also a major brouhaha involving Sloane's disreputable family heritage. Red Canyon was adapted by Maurice Geraghty from a rugged novel by Zane Grey. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In Johnny Stool Pigeon, the title character's name is really Johnny Evans (Dan Duryea). Evans is an imprisoned crook whose wife died as a result of a vicious narcotics ring. Federal agent Howard Duff works out a deal with Evans, who agrees to help the agent infiltrate the gang. After making connections up and down the West Coast, the gang is brought to heel by the combined efforts of Evans, the agent, and a reformed gun moll (Shelley Winters). Johnny Stool Pigeon was one of a group of intriguing Universal second features directed by future horror-film maestro William Castle between 1948 and 1951. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Roger Quain (Howard Duff) arrives in Europe to look after the welfare of two zoo-bound black panthers. Catherine Ulven (Marta Toren), a secret agent for an unnamed country, decides to smuggle a valuable piece of film to America by hiding it in the collar of one of the big cats. If it were this easy, the film would be over in ten minutes. Instead, enemy agents Denson (Philip Friend), Paradou (Robert Douglas) and Kopel (Dorn) target Roger, Catherine, and the panthers for extermination. Thus the stage is set for a thrill-packed pursuit through the mountains of Switzerland. Spy Hunt is based on the somewhat more credible novel Panther's Moon by Victor Canning. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Mona Freeman plays Bonnie Lee, who is--surprise!--not the Lady from Texas in this well-constructed Universal western. A lowly kitchen helper at a large ranch, Bonnie seeks the aid of self-styled do-gooder Dan Mason (Howard Duff). It seems that Bonnie's elderly friend Miss Birdie (Josephine Hull) is in danger of being victimized by villains Cyril and Mabel Guthrie (Craig Stevens, Barbara Knudson). Mason is reluctant to help out until he gets to know Miss Birdie, a feisty Civil War widow who refuses to believe that her husband has been dead these 20 years. Guthrie tries to have Miss Birdie declared incompetent so that he can claim her land, but Mason isn't about to let that happen. Thus it is that Josephine Hull, fresh from her Oscar win for Harvey, is the titular Lady From Texas, even though she's contractually consigned to third billing. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Steel Town top-bills Ann Sheridan, but the bulk of the story is carried by John Lund. Cast as Steve Kostane, the nephew of a steel-plant proprietor, Lund must prove his value to by learning the business from the ground up as a steelworker. It isn't easy: throughout the film, Kostane is weighed down by personal problems that threaten to overwhelm him -- and to financially ruin the little steel town where he works. Sheridan does her usual competent job as "Red" McNamera, the down-to-earth restaurant cashier who ends up the romantic bone of contention between Kostane and veteran open-hearth worker Jim Denko (Howard Duff). A heart-pounding climax finds Kostane rescuing Red 's father (William Harrigan) from a horrible fate. Steel Town was lensed on location at California's Kaiser-Fontana steel plant. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a young woman is hired to take care of an eerie old mansion. There she finds herself entangled with an enigmatic murderer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Private Hell 36 was one of the last feature-length efforts by Filmmakers, a company created by producer Collier Young and his then-wife Ida Lupino. Young and Lupino also wrote the script for this grim crime melodrama, wherein two detectives Cal Bruner (Steve Cochran) and Jack Farnham (Howard Duff Lupino's future husband) are assigned to track down $300,000 stolen in a bloody hold-up. The two cops manage to locate $80,000 of the booty, whereupon Bruner, not the most ethical of men, suggests that he and Farnham split the money 50-50 and keep their mouths shut. Also involved in this conspiracy is a nightclub singer (Ida Lupino), whose motivations are a tad on the mysterious side. When Farnham decides to turn honest and hand the money over to his superiors, Bruner responds with the business end of his revolver. The very small cast is rounded out by Dean Jagger as the detectives' boss and Dorothy Malone as Duff's understandably worried wife. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Lex Barker trades his Tarzan loincloth for buckskins in the Universal western Yellow Mountain. Barker stars as gold prospector Andy Martin, who has a serious falling out with his partner Pete Menlo (Howard Duff) over the affections of pretty Nevada Wray (Mala Powers). But Andy and Pete patch up their differences to rescue Nevada's father (William Demarest) from the evil machinations of land baron Bannon (John McIntire). William Fawcett, who looks like he was born during the original Gold Rush, once more goes through his "grizzled old prospector" routine. Yellow Mountain was one of a group of Universal oaters designed as double-feature fodder in larger markets, and main-feature status in smaller movie houses. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Yvonne de Carlo is at her most smokily exotic in the Republic "special" Flame of the Islands. Filmed on location in the Bahamas, the story focuses on Rosalind Dee (Ms. DeCarlo), a cabaret singer who aspires to enter High Society. To this end, she comes into possession of a great deal of money through rather underhanded means. Rosalind forms a partnership with gambling-club owners Wade Evans (Zachary Scott) and Cyril Mace (Kurt Kasner), building the establishment into a gathering place for the Elite. Along the way, she attempts to rekindle a romance with randy playboy Doug Duryea (Howard Duff), but it is true-blue Kelly Rand (James Arness) who rescues Rosalind from gangland intrusion in the final reel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Director Lesley Selander, a western specialist with humble ambitions whose work has fostered a minor cult, was the man behind the megaphone in Broken Star. Bill Williams stars as a deputy sheriff who encounters stiff resistance when he investigates the murder of a Mexican. Only dance hall girl Lita Baron and marshal Addison Richards seem interested in bringing the culprit to justice. When Williams locates the guilty man, he wishes he hadn't; it turns out to be his best friend and fellow deputy Howard Duff. Striking a blow for tolerance (in standard western terms, of course), Broken Star is a solid medium-budget job from a modest but talented craftsman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Shortly before committing himself to the TV sitcom Mr. Adams and Eve, Howard Duff starred in the dust-caked western Sierra Stranger. After rescuing Sonny Grover (Ed Kemmer) from a brutal beating, well-meaning Jess Collins (Duff) discovers that Sonny is the town no-good. The far-from-grateful Grover later tries to gun down Collins during a stagecoach holdup. A good samaritan no longer, Collins dedicates himself to bringing Grover to justice. Sierra Stranger is blessed with one of those supporting casts that film buffs pray for: John Hoyt, Dick Foran, George E. Stone, Barton MacLane, Byron Foulger, Henry Kulky et. al. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide