Nina Foch Movies
Blonde, ice cool, and sophisticated actress Nina Foch has worked steadily in feature films and television since making her film debut in Return of the Vampire (1943). As a contracted starlet for Columbia Pictures, Foch spent several years appearing in many B-films before she was able to prove herself ready for bigger fare.Born to Dutch conductor/composer Dirk Fock and an American chorine/WWI-era pin-up girl, Foch was born in Holland but raised in Manhattan. Before enrolling in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts to study acting, she had briefly been a concert pianist and an amateur painter. As an actress, Foch gained experience with local theater and touring companies until signing with Columbia in 1943. In 1947, Foch made the first of many forays on Broadway. By the early '50s, she was being cast in secondary but better roles in such films as An American in Paris (1951) and Scaramouche (1952). In 1954, Foch appeared in Executive Suite for which she received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. But for a few television appearances and some stage work, Foch took a respite from acting in 1960 that lasted over ten years. She made a comeback in Such Good Friends (1971) and continued to appear sporadically in films as a character actress. Foch also worked steadily in television, was a respected drama coach in Hollywood, and taught at UCLA's School of Cinematic Arts for 40 years before her death in late 2008. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1976
Made for television, The Great Houdinis tells the life story of famed American illusionist/escape-artist Harry Houdini and his wife Bess. Studiously avoiding covering the same ground as the 1953 Houdini theatrical-film biopic, director Mel Shavelson's script for Great Houdinis spends a great deal of time on the conflict between Harry's Catholic wife Bess and his Jewish mother. The spiritualism angle so important to the Houdini story allows the 1976 film to recreate Houdini's meetings with "true believer" Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Again departing from the 1953 Houdini, this later film does not end with Houdini's death from peritonitis in 1926; instead, we watch as the widowed Bess desperately tries to make contact with her husband in the "other world," all the while debunking phony mediums, just as her husband had done. Paul Michael Glaser and Sally Struthers star as the Houdinis, with Ruth Gordon as Harry's mother Mrs. Weiss, Peter Cushing as Conan Doyle, Jack Carter as Houdini's brother, Adrienne Barbeau as his mistress, Nina Foch as a medium, and Vivian Vance as the all-around best friend/severest critic, who narrates the film. The Great Houdinis first aired on October 8, 1976. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Directed by Berry Gordy, Jr. as a vehicle for his star Diana Ross, Mahogany traces the life of a poor girl who makes it in the fashion world (first as a model, then designer) and deserts her boyfriend (Billy Dee Williams) in the meantime, hooking up instead with a photographer (Anthony Perkins). The song "Do You Know When You're Going To" (Gerry Goffin/Michael Masser) was Oscar-nominated. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Diana Ross, Billy Dee Williams, (more)
- 1973
The made for TV Female Artillery is a comedy, just in case the title didn't tip you off. Set in the Old West, the film stars Dennis Weaver as Deke Chambers, an outlaw on the lam from his old gang. Joining a wagon train, Deke aligns himself with a group of tough, well-armed pioneer women. When the gang attacks, the gals retaliate in noisy fashion. First telecast January 17, 1973, Female Artillery is elevated by the special effects wizardry of Albert Whitlock. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1971
- R
Based upon the novel by Lois Gould and adapted (under the pseudonym Esther Dale) by Elaine May, Such Good Friends focuses on Julie Messinger (played by Dyan Cannon), a woman with intense, often wild emotions that are held in check beneath a rather conventional façade. After her chauvinistic and self-centered husband Richard checks into the hospital for a simple mole removal that goes seriously wrong, Julie discovers that he has been titanically unfaithful to her. This is the straw that breaks the camel's back, and Julie decides it is time for her to break out of her shell, no matter what the consequences. She begins to exhibit a sexual interest in other men (sometimes indiscriminately, as when she seduces her family doctor, played by James Coco), and speaks her mind to others, including her egocentric mother (Nina Foch) and her hypocritical best friend (ennifer O'Neill). At the end, Julie wanders into Central Park and, presumably, a new life. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
- 1970
The FBI suspects a trucking firm of being the front for a sophisticated hijacking ring. To get to the truth, Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) goes undercover as a truck driver, while Colby (William Reynolds), posing as an ex-con, lands a job with the firm as dispatcher. Inevitably, Colby's cover is blown--but this may prove less dangerous to him than to the head hijacker (Edward Binns), who has been set up for murder by one of his own "pals". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1969
Gidget, the teenybopper surfer created by Frederick Kohner, grows up in the form of Karen Valentine (rather than such previous Gidgets as Sandra Dee and Sally Field). She leaves her friends and family at Malibu to head for New York, there to take a job as a guide at the United Nations building. Before this made-for-TV effort is over, Gidget teaches the U.N. delegates the true meaning of the words "foreign relations" by falling in love with handsome Edward Mulhare. Gidget Grows Up was one of several pilot films produced in hopes of reviving the 1966 Gidget series. This 1969 effort would be a waste of time if not for the presence of the ever-sneering Paul Lynde as Gidget's landlord. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1967
Prescription: Murder, a 1967 TV movie, represents the first appearance of Peter Falk as the rumpled but crafty detective Columbo. Gene Barry plays a distinguished doctor whose happiness is thwarted by his drunken wife (Nina Foch). Barry is in love with a pretty actress (Katherine Justice), and to smooth the path of his romance he murders his wife and arranges the evidence to pin the blame elsewhere. Enter Columbo, who seems to be slow on the uptake but who in fact is suspicious of the doctor's story. Snooping, prodding, puttering, and forever stopping at the doorway with the inevitable "just one more question," Columbo gets to the truth by playing a psychological trick on Barry, with the grudging cooperation of Barry's mistress. Written by Richard Levinson and William Link, Prescription Murder began life as a Broadway play in the late 1950s, starring Thomas Mitchell in the Columbo part (with a different character name), Joseph Cotten as the devious doctor, Agnes Moorehead as the victim and Patricia Medina (Mrs. Cotten) as the mistress. It would be adapted into a one-hour special on NBC in 1961 (with Bert Freed as the disheveled detective) before finally hitting weekly-series paydirt with Peter Falk in the lead. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Falk
- 1967
Nina Foch guest-stars as Clarissa, Ben Cartwright's snooty Eastern cousin. Swooping down upon the Ponderosa, the well-meaning but insufferable Clarissa manages to alienate all of the Cartwrights' friends-and even worse, causes ranch cook Hop Sing to tender his resignation. It has been suggested that Chester Krumholz' teleplay was specifically designed to prove that a regular female character would be disastrous for Bonanza. Whatever the reasons for its gestation, "Clarissa" originally aired on April 30, 1967. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, (more)
- 1965
In desperate need of transportation to take the wounded Kirby (Jack Hogan) to an aid station, Saunders tries to commandeer the truck driven by a French matron named Mme. Carmaux (Nina Foch). But the woman stubbornly refuses to cooperate: her vehicle is carrying a coffin intended for the body of her son, and she will not be stopped until the boy receives a proper burial. What begins as a stalemate evolves into an uneasy truce, with Saunders and Mme. Carmaux ultimately working together...sort of. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1963
In Volume 12 of a collection culled from the 1963-1965 science fiction anthology television series, scientists attempting to contact the spirit of a dead child are sucked into another dimension. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
Spartacus (Kirk Douglas) is a rebellious slave purchased by Lentulus Batiatus (Peter Ustinov), owner of a school for gladiators. For the entertainment of corrupt Roman senator Marcus Licinius Crassus (Laurence Olivier), Batiatus' gladiators are to stage a fight to the death. On the night before the event, the enslaved trainees are "rewarded" with female companionship. Spartacus' companion for the evening is Varinia (Jean Simmons), a slave from Brittania. When Spartacus later learns that Varinia has been sold to Crassus, he leads 78 fellow gladiators in revolt. Word of the rebellion spreads like wildfire, and soon Spartacus' army numbers in the hundreds. Escaping to join his cause is Varinia, who has fallen in love with Spartacus, and another of Crassus' house slaves, the sensitive Antoninus (Tony Curtis). The revolt becomes the principal cog in the wheel of a political struggle between Crassus and a more temperate senator named Gracchus (Charles Laughton). Anthony Mann was the original director of Spartacus, eventually replaced by Stanley Kubrick, who'd previously guided Douglas through Paths of Glory. The film received 4 Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actor for Ustinov. A crucial scene between Olivier and Curtis, removed from the 1967 reissue because of its subtle homosexual implications, was restored in 1991, with a newly recorded soundtrack featuring Curtis as his younger self and Anthony Hopkins standing in for the deceased Olivier. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, (more)
- 1959
In this routine business-story-cum-romantic-comedy, James Garner is Cash McCall, a wheeling and dealing tycoon, and Natalie Wood is Lory Austen, the daughter of failing businessman Grant (Dean Jagger). McCall's expertise lies in acquiring businesses about to go belly up, attaching them to successful enterprises and then taking a large tax deduction on the resultant equation. Those deals are enhanced when the once-failing business is then sold at a profit. This is a savvy gambit for late '50s movie fare, but its proponent begins to have second thoughts when he comes up against the attractive Lory -- who is not afraid of baring all for a good cause. The well-known co-stars and others like Nina Foch and E.G. Marshall do their best with a limited script. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Garner, Natalie Wood, (more)
- 1959
Agatha Christie's popular novel And Then There Were None (which isn't the original title of the novel, but it's easy to understand why the change was made) is the murder mystery this made-for-TV adaption is based upon. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- 1957
The only thing genuinely brave about Three Brave Men is the second word in the title. The film is based on the true story of a Navy employee who was fired as a security risk, then took the case to court to prove his loyalty to the United States. Ernest Borgnine plays the victimized employee, whose life is ruined simply because he once briefly participated in an alleged "Pinko" organization. Borgnine and his family are ostracized from the community when word leaks out about his so-called disloyalty. Lawyer Ray Milland takes Borgnine's case; he pleads so eloquently on behalf of his client's patriotism that the navy, represented by Eisenhower lookalike Dean Jagger, reinstates Borgnine. The problem in Three Brave Men is in how the material is approached. Instead of attacking the atmosphere of paranoia that fostered the Communist "witch hunts" of the 1950s, the crucifixion of Borgnine is treated as a necessary evil in the interests of "democracy." The low point comes at the end, when Ray Milland profusely thanks the Navy for their open-mindedness before his client has been exonerated. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ray Milland, Ernest Borgnine, (more)
- 1956
The seventh live presentation of the CBS drama anthology Playhouse 90 was "Heritage of Anger", written especially for television by Harold Jack Bloom. Ralph Bellamy heads the cast, as ruthless millionaire industrialist Eddie Hannemann. Naturally expecting his two sons to follow in his footsteps, Hannemann is outraged to discover that the "boys" would rather chart their own course in life. But more trouble is to come in the Hannemann household, thanks to the old man's sales manager Paul Fletcher (Lloyd Bridges), who wants to take over the business himself. Nina Foch and John Ericson costar in this drama, directed by a young John Frankenheimer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Based on the Holy Scriptures, with additional dialogue by several other hands, The Ten Commandments was the last film directed by Cecil B. DeMille. The story relates the life of Moses, from the time he was discovered in the bullrushes as an infant by the pharoah's daughter, to his long, hard struggle to free the Hebrews from their slavery at the hands of the Egyptians. Moses (Charlton Heston) starts out "in solid" as Pharoah's adopted son (and a whiz at designing pyramids, dispensing such construction-site advice as "Blood makes poor mortar"), but when he discovers his true Hebrew heritage, he attempts to make life easier for his people. Banished by his jealous half-brother Rameses (Yul Brynner), Moses returns fully bearded to Pharoah's court, warning that he's had a message from God and that the Egyptians had better free the Hebrews post-haste if they know what's good for them. Only after the Deadly Plagues have decimated Egypt does Rameses give in. As the Hebrews reach the Red Sea, they discover that Rameses has gone back on his word and plans to have them all killed. But Moses rescues his people with a little Divine legerdemain by parting the Seas. Later, Moses is again confronted by God on Mt. Sinai, who delivers unto him the Ten Commandments. Meanwhile, the Hebrews, led by the duplicitous Dathan (Edward G. Robinson), are forgetting their religion and behaving like libertines. "Where's your Moses now?" brays Dathan in the manner of a Lower East Side gangster. He soon finds out. DeMille's The Ten Commandments may not be the most subtle and sophisticated entertainment ever concocted, but it tells its story with a clarity and vitality that few Biblical scholars have ever been able to duplicate. It is very likely the most eventful 219 minutes ever recorded to film--and who's to say that Nefertiri (Anne Baxter) didn't make speeches like, "Oh, Moses, Moses, you splendid, stubborn, adorable fool"? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, (more)
- 1955
Once again Edward G. Robinson takes a script from the trash bin and makes it into a palatable movie. A remake of The Mouthpiece, this is the story of a district attorney with a conscience. When he discovers that a man he's sent to the electric chair was innocent, he takes to the bottle. His assistants encourage him to get off the booze, stop prosecuting and, instead, become a defense attorney. He agrees but his first client is a notorious gangster who has been in business for so long because of leaks from Robinson's own office when he was the district attorney. Push comes to shove and soon, through multiple machinations and mishaps, Robinson becomes the defender of his former assistant on charges of murder. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward G. Robinson, Nina Foch, (more)
- 1955
You're Never Too Young is a slapstick-with-songs remake of the 1944 Ray Milland/Ginger Rogers vehicle The Major and the Minor. Dean Martin plays the Milland part, while Ginger's shoes are filled by...Jerry Lewis? Lewis plays an apprentice barber who inadvertently crosses a homicidal jewel thief (Raymond Burr), and equally inadvertently hightails it out of town with the crook's jewels in his possession. Desperate to escape the crook's clutches, and lacking the necessary funds for a train ticket, Lewis disguises himself as a 12-year-old boy so he can travel half fare. He latches onto Dean, a music teacher heading for an all-girls school. After innumerable routines sparked by Lewis's adolescent disguise, the jewel thief catches up with him, leading to a rollicking climactic speedboat chase. Dean Martin has plenty of opportunities to serenade leading lady Diana Lynn (who'd played a supporting role in The Major and the Minor), while Jerry Lewis is in peak form doing his usual "waah-waah-waah" schtick. The original Billy Wilder/Charles Brackett script for The Major and the Minor was reshaped into You're Never Too Young by future bestselling novelist Sidney Sheldon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, (more)
- 1954
Actor Richard Carlson learned how to direct while starring in his popular TV series I Led Three Lives, then extended his directorial expertise to such theatrical second features as Four Guns to the Border. Rory Calhoun, George Nader, and Jay "Tonto" Silverheels play three desperate bank robbers who are halted in their escape by the plight of Colleen Miller and Walter Brennan. Miller and Brennan will be at the mercy of marauding Apaches unless the three desperadoes offer their services. Miller shows her gratitude to Calhoun with a steamy love scene that must have given the censors of 1954 conniptions. Four Guns to the Border ends on a sorrowful note, indicating that Richard Carlson wasn't preoccupied by cliches when occupying the director's chair. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rory Calhoun, Colleen Miller, (more)
Cameron Hawley's novel Executive Suite appeared around the same time as two other tales of big-business intrigue, the 1954 film A Woman's World and the 1955 Rod Serling teleplay Patterns. Elements of all three properties inevitably overlap. In Executive Suite, a furniture-store executive dies suddenly, resulting in a power play between five of his vice presidents. Julia O. Tredway (Barbara Stanwyck), daughter of the company founder and mistress of the president, must choose between solid family man McDonald Walling (William Holden), blackmail-prone Josiah Walter Dudley (Paul Douglas), ruthless Loren Phineas Shaw (Fredric March), duplicitous George Nyle Caswell (Louis Calhern), and eternal corporate bridesmaid Frederick Y. Alderson (Walter Pidgeon). Only Walling, the most honest of the bunch, refuses to campaign for the presidential chair. Despite the presence of the A-list leads and of supporting actors Shelley Winters, Dean Jagger, and Nina Foch, Executive Suite is a true ensemble effort, with everyone carrying like weight onscreen. The property was later adapted into a TV series, which owed more to Dallas than it did to the Hawley novel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Holden, June Allyson, (more)
- 1953
This tuneful romantic melodrama is set in a tiny Mexican village and is comprised of three storylines. One tale concerns a pair of young lovers from rival villages who will not be able to marry until a long time feud is ended. In another tale, an heir to a large fortune falls in love with an impoverished girl. His family is dead set against the match. When he is diagnosed with a fatal tumor, the man begs the girl to marry him, but she refuses and instead arranges for him to marry another. In the third story, a matador's comely sister falls in love with a street vendor. Unfortunately, the matador hates her beloved and to break them up permanently, slyly convinces the peddler to enter the dangerous bullring. Fortunately for the sister, her brother's scheme fails spectacularly. She then marries the peddler and makes an ironic discovery. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Maria Pier Angeli, Ricardo Montalban, (more)
