Signe Hasso Movies

Chaim Sigerski (Martin Balsam), an Auschwitz survivor who runs a Holocaust museum, is convinced that his old friend Isaac (Than Wyenn) did not die in a traffic accident, but was instead deliberately murdered by a fugitive Nazi war criminal. Finding the authorities indifferent to his suspicions, Chaim turns to medical examiner Quincy (Jack Klugman) for help. As a result, Quincy ends up butting heads with Cornelius Sumner (Norman Lloyd), a wealthy and influential activist who denies that the Holocaust ever happened. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

It's hate at first sight when Magnum (Tom Selleck) is hired to protect arrogant prima ballerina Kendall Chase (Andrea Marcovicci), who has been receiving death threats. Despite their mutual animosity, Magnum and Kendall ultimately fall for each other--a plot development almost as unexpected as the revelation that T.C. (Roger E. Mosley) is a lifelong ballet fan! Meanwhile, Rick (Larry Manetti) embarks on an investigation that seems to be separate from the main plotline...but isn't. Cast as Kendll Chase's mentor-manager, guest star Signe Hassso essayed virtually the same role in the earlier and quite similar Starsky and Hutch episode "A Body Worth Guarding". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Sherlock Holmes in New York is a topnotch TV movie starring Roger Moore (surprisingly effective as Holmes) and Patrick MacNee (an intelligent, compassionate Watson). The Great Detective travels to the Big Apple of the 1890s to thwart arch-villain Moriarty, who plans to devalue the world's gold supply. Holmes is also reunited with his lost love Irene Adler (Charlotte Rampling), whose honesty--or lack of it--is just as much in doubt as it had been in Doyle's Scandal in Bohemia. The film combines the razor-sharp deductions of Holmes with the deeper, darker aspects of his character. Sherlock Holmes in New York underwent numerous script and concept changes while the producers awaited the availability of Roger Moore, who in the mid-1970s was being kept busy as James Bond. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Signe Hasso guest stars as Madame Vasiliev, a self-styled psychic operating out of her own "Chapel of the Mind." Though Stone (Karl Malden) and Keller (Michael Douglas) suspect that Madame Vasiliev is a phony, they cannot deny that most of her prognostications have come true--and thus the two cops are forced to work alongside the Madame in hopes of locating a kidnapped girl. Cast as the victim's mother is Diana Douglas, the real-life mother of series costar Michael Douglas. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Code Name: Heraclitus is an expanded version of a TV drama first seen in January of 1967 on Bob Hope Chrysler Theatre. Stanley Baker stars as a British spy who investigating the past of Signe Hasso, the widow of secret agent Kurt Kasner. Hasso is suspected of selling cold war secrets to the Communists. To ascertain the truth, it is necessary to "rebuild" Kasner and send his living counterpart behind the Iron Curtain. Though originally advertised in TV Guide as a two-part Chrysler Theatre drama, it appears as though Code Name: Heraclitus was whittled down to 60 minutes for its first telecast, then later released in its uncut form to European movie houses. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The reactor at the Broadridge experimental nuclear station runs out of control when two unstable elements accidentally come into contact. As Dr. Marshall (George Macready), the station director, struggles to understand what is happening, deadly radiation pours out of the reactor furnace, killing the men trying to control it and replacing them inside their anti-radiation suits with creatures made of pure electromagnetic energy. Marshall is the sole survivor among the scientists and seems incapable of coping with the danger, overwhelmed by his fear of radiation and the seemingly inevitable chain reaction boiling up in the furnace. With help from his wife, Laurel (Signe Hasso), he finds the courage that he needs and deduces what is happening -- the combination of heavy elements bombarded with cosmic radiation has ripped open an inter-dimensional hole, through which these "particle creatures" are entering, and they are trying to widen the opening. The only chance to stop them is to initiate a fusion reaction that could seal the inter-dimensional hole and cut the creatures off from their energy source, destroying them. But does Marshall have the time or strength, in the minutes left to them, to prepare a jury-rigged hydrogen bomb? ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

The Swedish The True and the False was produced by actress Signe Hasso, who also stars in the film, which was lensed in two different languages to broaden its appeal. On the eve of her wedding a young bride-to-be (Hasso) decides to do a little light reading. Her first selection is Balzac's La Grande Breteche, a story of infidelity and revenge in which the girl imagines herself and her fiancé (William Langford) in the leading roles. She then looks over DeMaupassant's The Old Maid, imagining herself as the tragic heroine and her future husband as the soldier who loves her. As she puts down her books, the girl sees her marital future in a whole new light. Signe Hasso does just fine in her multiple roles; less successful are the other cast members, who seem to have been hired for their physical suitability rather than their thespic talents. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cary Grant's utter credibility in the role of a brilliant, world-famous brain surgeon Dr. Eugene Norland Ferguson is the single element that keeps Crisis afloat. While vacationing in a politically unstable Latin American country, Ferguson and his wife, Helen (Paula Raymond), find themselves the unwilling house guests of dictator Raoul Farrago (José Ferrer). Suffering from a brain tumor, Farrago insists that Ferguson operate at once. The "crisis" of the title arises when revolutionary leader Gonzales (Gilbert Roland) demands that Farrago be killed on the operating table -- and kidnaps Dr. Ferguson's wife to bind the bargain. Unaware of his wife's plight, Ferguson proceeds with the operation, setting into motion a series of events leading to a grimly ironic denouement. Director Richard Brooks adapted the screenplay of Crisis from a story by George Tabori. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Richard Basehart stars as an ex-convict who has problems finding employment on the outside. He takes a job as a lab assistant in a seedy sanitarium, bringing him in contact with a number of disreputable characters. Basehart learns that the sanitarium is a front for a robbery syndicate; will he resume a life of crime, or will he turn the tables on the crooks? Though an inexpensive production, Outside the Wall benefits from a handpicked, powerhouse supporting cast. The director was Crane Wilbur, an expert at moody melodrama whose career stretched way back to The Perils of Pauline (1914). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Bearing traces of such earlier hits as My Favorite Blonde and The Ghost Breakers, Where There's Life is one of the best of Bob Hope's postwar vehicles. The inimitable Mr. Hope is cast as New York radio personality Michael Valentine, who's poised to marry his long-time fiancee Hazel O'Brien (Vera Marshe). But destiny takes a hand when, in the far-off kingdom of Barovia, King Hubertus II (William Edmunds) is felled by an assassin's bullet. To avoid a revolution, the King's cabinet hurriedly searches for Hubertus' sole heir -- who, according to all reliable sources, is one Michael Valentine. Gorgeous General Katrina Grimovich (Signe Hasso) is dispatched to New York to bring Valentine back to Barovia, while a group of insurrectionists, headed by Krivoc (George Coulouris) and Stertorius (George Zucco), conspire to kill Valentine before he can ever leave American soil. When Valentine is apprised of his royal lineage, he assumes that he's the victim of a practical joke perpetrated by his announcer Joe Snyder (George Zucco). Once he's convinced that it's no joke, Valentine and Katrina scurry about the streets of Manhattan, dodging potential assassins at every turn -- not to mention keeping out of the way of Hazel's muscle-bound policeman brother Victor (William Bendix), who assumes that Valentine is merely trying to weasel out of his wedding. Full of bright dialogue and hilarious gag situations, Where There's Life is vintage Bob Hope. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A Scandal in Paris is a liberal adaptation of the life story of Eugène François Vidocq, who was French prefect of police during the Napoleonic era. George Sanders stars as Vidocq, who spends most of the film as an aimless rogue willing to lie, cheat, and steal for his own comfort. The women who affect Vidocq's life include a saucy cabaret entertainer (Carole Landis) for whom Vidocq steals, and a good woman (Signe Hasso) for whom he straightens himself out. Fledgling director Douglas Sirk displayed his love of the Baroque (both in decor and characterizations) that would distinguish his later high-budget Universal soap operas. Most prints of A Scandal in Paris bear the film's alternate title, Thieves' Holiday. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmed in semi-documentary fashion, House on 92nd Street is a "now it can be told" drama about the smashing of a Nazi spy ring operating the U.S. Thanks to covert surveillance, the FBI learns of the presence of several suspicious persons in NYC. William Eythe is a German-American college student approached by the spies to become a secret Nazi operative. Eythe instead heads directly to FBI chief Lloyd Nolan and offers his services as a double agent. His mission is to locate the head of the spy ring, an unseen figure known only as Mr. Christopher, and to that end Eythe infiltrates the ring, headquarted in a town house on 92nd street. Among the conspirators are an erudite German colonel (Leo G. Carroll) and the beautiful female owner of the house (Signe Hasso). Part of the plot involves the smuggling to Germany of America's atomic secrets by a weak-willed document clerk (played by Gene Lockhart, one of the best "cringers" in the business). Dwelling a bit too long on the meticulous research techniques of the FBI, House on 92nd Street picks up momentum in the final sequence, wherein "Mr. Christopher" is revealed and double agent Eythe barely escapes with his skin intact. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide