Anthony Franciosa Movies
Anthony Franciosa burst onto the scene (after several years' servitude in bit parts) in the 1955 drug-addiction play A Hatful of Rain. He was brought to Hollywood to recreate his stage role in Rain-- winning an Oscar nomination for his part--but his first film appearance was as a taciturn nightclub owner in the MGM comedy This Could Be the Night. From 1957 through 1963, Franciosa essayed a number of hot-headed screen characterizations, including the role of tempestuous artist Francisco Goya in The Naked Maja (1960). Sensing he needed an image change in 1963, Franciosa changed his screen billing to the lighter "Tony Franciosa" and signed on as star of the frothy TV sitcom Valentine's Day (1964). Franciosa has since successfully juggled a film career with such weekly video series as The Name of the Game (1969-71), Search (1972), Matt Helm (1975), and Finder of Lost Loves (1984). From 1957-60 Tony Franciosa was married to actress Shelley Winters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 2003
The life and career of 1940s sex symbol Rita Hayworth (1918-1987) is affectionately but uncompromisingly recounted in this cable TV documentary, produced by Hugh Hefner and narrated by actress Kim Basinger. Born into a show business family, Rita Cansino was still a pre-teen when she attracted the attention of Hollywood with her sultry Latin looks and her remarkable dancing skills. With her first husband, the much-older Edward C. Judson, as her manager and agent, Rita managed to land a starlet contract at 20th Century Fox, then moved on to greater glory when, signed by Columbia Pictures, she was re-christened Rita Hayworth and given a more "all-American" image via cosmetic surgery, electrolysis, and a new crop of flaming red hair. Though her career was sometimes impeded by Columbia boss Harry Cohn, who was upset that she continued to fend off his advances, Rita ultimately achieved superstardom as the alluring star of such films as Cover Girl and Gilda. Alas, her private life was never quite as satisfying as her professional one: After breaking up with Judson, she entered into a well-publicized but ultimately unhappy marriage to Orson Welles, then, in quick succession, wed a foreign prince, Aly Khan; a popular singer, Dick Haymes; and a flamboyant movie producer, James Hill. Through it all, the painfully shy and retiring actress yearned to be simply a normal wife and mother, but the pressures and responsibilities of international stardom denied her this balm. Rita's final years were clouded by Alzheimer's disease, which ended not only her career but her life. Among the interviewees in this documentary are Hayworth's daughter Yasmin Aga Khan, who has devoted her life to helping other victims of Alzheimer's, and Rita's best friend, musical star Ann Miller. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kim Basinger, Yasmin Aga Kahn, (more)
- 1990
Not to be confused with the oft-filmed Fannie Hurst yarn Back Street, Backstreet Dreams is a contemporary drama of Humanity vs. the Streets. Jason O'Malley plays a New York hoodlum who doesn't trust his wife Sherilyn Fenn as far as he can throw her (and for good reason). The only person O'Malley truly cares for is his autistic son Shane, played by twin children Joseph and John Viezzi. Brooke Shields (who's better than you might think) enters the scene as a PhD candidate who hopes to get through to Shane. Now it is the unfaithful Fenn's turn to seethe with jealousy as Shields applies her "force holding" theory to Shane, she and O'Malley draw closer together. O'Malley is so taken by Shields' compassion that he severs his mob ties--but Big Boss Burt Young won't let him off so easy, and uses Shane as a "bargaining chip." Backstreet Dreams appears at times to be three films jumbled together; every time a story element starts rolling, it is exiled to the back burner in favor of another gratuitous subplot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brooke Shields, Jason O'Malley, (more)
In this graphically violent exploitation film, an insane colonel tests out his newly invented virus, HV8-B, designed to significantly alter the behavior of convicts serving life sentences. As soon as they are injected, the unwilling subjects become mad-killers. Later they become slimy walking corpses in various states of decay, constantly oozing highly contagious bodily fluids that infect the whole cellblock. Soon the uninfected inmates begin to riot. Now only wrongly-imprisoned Vietnam-vet Dennis Cole can stop the crazed colonel from turning them into killer zombies. Meanwhile, blonde biochemist Tanya works to find a vaccine to stop the terrifying erosion of humanity. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Saxon
- 1987
A blushing bride (Melissa Gilbert) doesn't catch on that something's fishy when her new husband (Joe Penny), last name "Moran", introduces her to his distinctly Italian family, who kiss each other's hands a lot. In fact, she doesn't tumble to the fact that her "perfect" spouse is a Mafiosa until it's Too Late. Before she knows what's happening, the wide-eyed (and soft-headed) girl is swept up in drug trafficking. To keep the Italian anti-defamation league at arm's length, the producers of this film contrive to have Tony Franciosa portray an Italian-American FBI agent who comes to the heroine's rescue. Blood Vows: The Story of a Mafia Wife was originally telecast January 18, 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The outlaws of country music--including Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson--team up and head across the Southwestern desert braving Indians, brigands and conflict in this made-for television version of John Ford's classic film. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1984
In this made-for-TV movie, a teenage boy runs away from home and joins a circus, discovering that his new life is not exactly what he thought it would be. When the boy is the witness to a murder, he must struggle to keep himself out of the killer's way. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- 1981
The time is WW II in the Emilia-Romagna countryside in Italy, and an American pilot's plane has just broken down near the farmhouse of a middle-aged widow, Francesca (Mariangela Melato) and her three young daughters. The widow has recently come back to her family's land and is picking up where she left off with long-lost friends and neighbors. The downed pilot, Ray (Anthony Franciosa), finds a safe refuge in the widow's farmhouse -- he needs a place to hide until the war ends and it is safe for him to join his military unit. Ray's presence brings out the wild dreams Francesca and her daughters and friends have had about a magical America, a country celebrated in song and dance -- not just in American films, but right there in the farmhouse and its vicinity. Ray is regaled with hearty interpretations of "Pennies from Heaven" and "Jeepers Creepers", and the neighbors and daughters have a riotous good time with the dancing and singing. In-between the light-hearted portrayal of America and its image, Francesca begins to fall in love with Ray, while suffering her own personal anguish as she tries to hide the death of her husband from her three daughters by saying he is in America. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mariangela Melato, Anthony Franciosa, (more)
- 1980
This 1980 British production is based on the trashy romantic novel of the same name by Jackie Collins. Fabulously-successful advertising executive David Cooper (Anthony Franciosa) is a jet-setting philanderer who has a woman in seemingly every port of call. His long-suffering wife Linda (Carroll Baker) finally gets fed up with his infidelities, and she sets out to even the score. Linda exacts her vengeance by having her own string of affairs at several exotic locations, and also by launching various nefarious schemes to entrap and embarrass her husband. Collins is credited as the screenwriter. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Franciosa, Carroll Baker, (more)
In this Italian drama, Wilma, an aging dance hall girl, befriends La Cicada, a feisty, free-spirited woman who refuses to have sex for money. Together, they go traveling and on the rode take up with the handsome Hannibal, who dreams of opening up his own truck stop/gas station. The two women end up helping him achieve his dream. The place becomes a nightspot which they name La Cicada and turn into a big success. During this time, Wilma marries Hannibal, but Wilma begins worrying that her husband would rather have the young, sexy Cicada. The younger woman proves that he does not want her. When her lovely 18-year-old daughter comes to call, Wilma really gets worried because like her mother, the daughter has also become a whore. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1978
Another of the many Arthur Hailey literary properties which were transformed into TV miniseries in the 1970s, the five-part, ten-hour Wheels took place in Detroit sometime in the late 1960s. Rock Hudson starred as Adam Trenton, executive in charge of project development at the fictional auto-manufacturing firm of National Motors. Ambitious and ruthless, Adam let nothing stand in the way of his development and production of a new, youth-marketed car known as the Hawk. Meanwhile, Adam's bored and neglected wife Erica (Lee Remick, who earned an Emmy nomination for her performance) drifted into an extramarital affair and a brief "career" as a shoplifter. Eventually, Adam himself acquired a mistress, who in turn fell in love with Adam's son Kirk (James Carrol Jordan). As if things couldn't get any seamier, Kirk's brother Greg (Howard McGillin) was plagued by a blackmailer, while crooked car dealer Smokey Stevenson (played by miniseries stalwart Anthony Franciosa) cooked up a sinister deal that threatened to destroy National Motors. Originally telecast from May 7 to 15, 1978 on NBC, Arthur Hailey's Wheels posted such disappointing ratings that, when it was later rebroadcast, the property was whittled down from ten hours to four -- with episodes three and four summarily dropped from the proceedings. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rock Hudson, Lee Remick, (more)
- 1977
Ostensibly a six-hour miniseries adaptation of Bert Hirschfield's novel Aspen, the program actually used only the title of the Hirschfield work; the plot proper was lifted from another novel by a different author, Bart Spicer's The Adversary. Set in the titular Colorado ski resort in the 1960s, the story line incorporated equal amounts of sex, greed, ambition, and murder, with the trial of accused rapist-killer Lee Bishop (Perry King) at the center of the storm, and the efforts by a gangster to grab up the local land, coupled with the amorous misadventures of a jet-setting glamour girl, taking up the slack whenever the plot threatened to lag. Despite a huge and varied cast, Sam Elliott emerged as the star of the proceedings in the role of straight-arrow attorney Tom Keating. Originally shown by the NBC network from November 5 to 7, 1977, Aspen was rebroadcast under the more lurid title The Innocent and the Damned. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sam Elliott, Perry King, (more)
- 1977
This wonderfully cheesy TV movie-of-the-week stars Tony Franciosa as a detective hot on the trail of a murderer whose mutilated and predominantly male victims are found encased in silken cocoons. He eventually tracks the killer's path to Los Angeles, where he discovers her true identity -- a woman who was bitten by black widow spiders as a child, who has developed the ability to transform herself into a gigantic spider-monster (as portrayed by a not-too-convincing rubber puppet). An odd diversion for director Dan Curtis, with a 1950's monster-movie mentality incongruous with his earlier TV features. The cast -- comprised of many familiar TV faces -- try to play their roles straight, despite the overall impression that the whole thing is a silly put-on. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Donna Mills, Anthony Franciosa, (more)
- 1975
In this detective adventure, the pilot episode for the short-livedTV series, suave Matt Helm gets involved with the smugglers who have been providing black market munitions to African mercenaries when he assigned to protect the life of a movie star. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Franciosa, Patrick Macnee, (more)
- 1974
Released several years after it was filmed, this standard Peter Sellers comedy focuses on Dick Scratcher (Sellers), a bumbling, roughly-hewn chief cook on a pirate ship trying to keep an unsteady control of things after he murders the captain. Once the captain is dead, Scratcher is the only one who knows where the pirate's stash lies hidden and that is the source of his control over everyone, even the second mate Pierre (Anthony Franciosa). Into this precariously balanced situation comes little Jeremiah (Richard Willis) who wants to learn all about sailing the high seas and becomes a third factor in the struggle for control of the ship and the hidden treasure. Meanwhile, Bill Bombay (Spike Milligan), another pirate captain, is also out for the same treasure, complicating everything. Both Sellers and Milligan launch into improvised routines -- but in general, the acting is frenetic and underpar while the story runs aground instead of pulling into port with a reasonable ending. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Sellers, Anthony Franciosa, (more)
- 1974
The lighthearted title of this made-for-TV film deftly sets the mood for the 74 minutes to follow. Ben Murphy stars as a rogueish Wild Bill Hickok, carrying on with an incongruously glamorous Calamity Jane (Kim Darby). Amidst the gambling and lovemaking, Will Bill must fend off a gang of vengeful gunslingers. This being a Roy Huggins production, we shouldn't be amazed that Rockford Files regular Stuart Margolin shows up as "Blind Pete". Also starring Jane Alexander (who'd later play Calamity Jane herself) and Tony Franciosa, This is the West That Was premiered December 17, 1974. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Across 110th Street is a violent urban thriller about a corrupt, older white cop (Anthony Quinn) and an honest, young African-American cop (Yaphet Kotto) chasing three robbers-cum-murderers who ran away with $300,000 that belonged to the Italian mob. The police must find them before the sadistic Mafia henchman Nick D'Salvio (Anthony Franciosa) reaches them first. The film has reached a cult status; the title song, performed by Bobby Womack, was later used in Jackie Brown, Quentin Tarantino's extended homage to the crime flicks of the 1970s. ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Quinn, Yaphet Kotto, (more)
- 1972
This unsold pilot film was reminiscent of the 1956 syndicated TV weekly The Tracer. Michael Witney plays the "catcher" of the title, a former agent of the Seattle Missing Persons Bureau. Now in private practice with his new partner, Harvard grad Jan-Michael Vincent, Witney hires out to people looking for "vanished" friends and relatives. His first assignment is to locate missing coed Catherine Burns, a quest complicated by a cumbersome murder. Anne Baxter guest stars as a car dealer who pops up with the Vital Clue. The film was lensed on location in Boston, Memphis, Atlanta and Hot Springs, Arkansas. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1971
I Love You, Billy Baker was the only two-part episode of the TV series Name of the Game. Sammy Davis Jr. plays Las Vegas superstar Billy Baker, who is known far and wide for his reluctance to grant interviews. He is particularly close-mouthed on the subject of a beautiful young dancer with whom he'd once been in love--and who now is very much dead. Crime magazine reporter Jeff Dillon (Tony Franciosa) wants to know why. Before his every-man-for-himself final monologue, Davis Jr. performs several energetic musical numbers; also seen to good advantage are special guest stars Ray Charles, Ike and Tina Turner, Dionne Warwick, Marilyn Michaelsa, Redd Foxx, Jack Carter, and Norm Crosby. I Love You Billy Baker was first telecast November 20 and 27, 1970. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1971
The Enemy Before Us stars Tony Franciosca as Crime magazine reporter Jeff Dillon. Back in his old neighborhood in New York's "Little Italy", Dillon hopes to take a break from his hectic responsibilities and recapture "something real" from his younger days. Unfortunately, he is bombarded by pain and disillusionment from every side: his stepmother (Katina Paxinou) is gravely ill, and her son (Lazaro Perez) is deeply involved with drug dealing. Orson Welles is heard on the soundtrack, reciting appropriate passages from Thomas Wolfe's You Can't Go Home Again. The Enemy Before Us first aired on October 16, 1970, as an episode of the weekly TV series Name of the Game. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1971
The all-purpose science fiction title Earth 2 was utilized in 1971 for this TV pilot film. Producer/writers Allan Balter and William Read Woodfield consulted both NASA and the Rockwell Corporation to guarantee a modicum of authenticity for their futuristic teleplay. The story takes place in "Earth II", a self-contained space station orbiting the earth which houses 2000 people. Gary Lockwood, star of 2001: A Space Odyssey, appears as the commander of the station (note to fans of "Alvin and the Chipmunks": Lockwood's character name is David Seville!) The anecdotal plot explores the everyday operations of Earth II and the various trials and tribulations of its denizens. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1971
Jim Hutton and Anjanette Comer have the misfortune to be honeymooning while a forest fire ranges all around them. But that's only the beginning, folks. The lovebirds are also being stalked by crazed hunters Tony Franciosa and Peter Lawford. Deadly Hunt is based on Autumn of a Hunter, a novel by Pat Stadley, but it also owes quite a lot to Richard Connell's The Most Dangerous Game. Made for television, the film debuted October 1, 1971. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1970
When an ancient and invaluable manuscript is found, a girl disappears increasing the mystery. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1970
When a young actress becomes suicidal, Jeff Dillon attempts to prevent her suicide attempts. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1970
A late millionaire's millions have disappeared, and Crime magazine reporter Jeff Dillon (Tony Franciosa) wants to find out why. Together with his crack researcher Peggy Maxwell (Susan Saint James), Dillon checks out the deceased man's relatives. Each, it seems, has a reason for wanting the man dead, and each had opportunity to make off with the inheritance. Lee Meriweather, Hazel Court, Yvonne De Carlo and Henry Jones are among the shifty-eyed suspects. Island of Gold and Precious Stones originated as a 90-minute episode of the TV series Name of the Game; it was first broadcast on January 16, 1970. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In this remake of his own La Danza Macabra, director Antonio Margheriti casts Anthony Franciosa as writer Alan Foster, who accepts a bet from Edgar Allan Poe (Klaus Kinski) and his friend Thomas Blackwood (Enrico Osterman). No one has ever survived a night in Blackwood's castle, but the skeptical Foster gladly accepts the dare. The castle is striking and scary, which soon begins to affect Foster's mind. He meets Blackwood's sister Elisabeth (Michele Mercier) and the jealous Julia (Karin Field). Julia's portrait had intrigued him earlier, but it is Elisabeth whom Foster beds, only to see her stabbed by a stranger. The attacker's body vanishes after Foster kills him, and he quickly realizes that the castle is inhabited by vampiric ghosts. Foster must survive the horrors of the night and hold on to not only his life, but his sanity as well. This is an atmospheric film, full of crypts, skulls and mist, and Margheriti's direction is assured. The acting is solid all around, with a fine supporting cast including Peter Carsten, Raf Baldassare, and Silvano Tranquilli, though fans of the original might miss Barbara Steele just a little. Overall, this is a worthy remake with some spooky moments and a well-written script by Bruno Corbucci and Giovanni Grimaldi. The music was composed by the prolific Riz Ortolani. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
