Wolfgang Lukschy Movies

Telly Savalas, James Mason and Robert Culp join together to discover a hidden cache of $6 million in Nazi gold in this action caper retitled both Hitler's Gold and The Golden Heist. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

This all-star crime caper stars Mickey Rooney as an American airline purser whose greed gets the better of him. During a 24-hour layover in Beirut, he transports a cache of stolen goods, which brings him to the attention of a smuggler (Walter Slezak). Lex Barker is the pilot who reluctantly tries to bail the avaricious Rooney out. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

La Guerre Secrete is divided into four separate vignettes, each scene representing a day in the life of international espionage agents. Stories involve a secret agent (Vittorio Gassman) who goes undercover as a kidnapper, an attempt to impede a Russian attack on two submarines, and an undercover agent confronting a traitor in the Berlin offices of the CIA. Linking the stories is Robert Ryan as a US Intelligence chief. Terence Young directed the English-language sequences, while Christian-Jacques and Carlo Lizzani handled the French and Italian sequences, respectively. German director Werner Klinger's name does not appear on the US credits of The Dirty Game, inasmuch as his scenes were cut from all American prints. Dirty Game sank without a trace on its initial release, only to pop up on television, intermittently, throughout the '70s. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This colorful western saga finds Old Surehand (Stewart Granger) and his comical sidekick Old Wabble (Paddy Fox) hot on the trail of a cold-blooded murderer. His brother has been killed, and the heroic duo sets out to bring the varmint to justice. Meanwhile, Surehand must mediate the trouble brewing between the settlers and the Comanche Indians -- who threaten to go on the warpath. Female interest for Surehand is provided by Letitia Roman. The General (Larry Pennell) is the main bad guy in this routine oater. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

By the time Sergio Leone made this film, Italians had already produced about 20 films ironically labelled "spaghetti westerns." Leone approached the genre with great love and humor. Although the plot was admittedly borrowed from Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo (1961), Leone managed to create a work of his own that would serve as a model for many films to come. Clint Eastwood plays a cynical gunfighter who comes to a small border town and offers his services to two rivaling gangs. Neither gang is aware of his double play, and each thinks it is using him, but the stranger will outwit them both. The picture was the first installment in a cycle commonly known as the "Dollars" trilogy. Later, United Artists, who distributed it in the U.S., coined another term for it: the "Man With No Name" trilogy. While not as impressive as its follow-ups For a Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966), A Fistful of Dollars contains all of Leone's eventual trademarks: taciturn characters, precise framing, extreme close-ups, and the haunting music of Ennio Morricone. Not released in the U.S. until 1967 due to copyright problems, the film was decisive in both Clint Eastwood's career and the recognition of the Italian western. ~ Yuri German, Rovi

The Longest Day is a mammoth, all-star re-creation of the D-Day invasion, personally orchestrated by Darryl F. Zanuck. Whenever possible, the original locations were utilized, and an all-star international cast impersonates the people involved, from high-ranking officials to ordinary GIs. Each actor speaks in his or her native language with subtitles translating for the benefit of the audience (alternate "takes" were made of each scene with the foreign actors speaking English, but these were seen only during the first network telecast of the film in 1972). The stars are listed alphabetically, with the exception of John Wayne, who as Lt. Colonel Vandervoort gets separate billing. Others in the huge cast include Eddie Albert, Jean-Louis Barrault, Richard Burton, Red Buttons, Sean Connery, Henry Fonda, Gert Frobe, Curt Jurgens, Peter Lawford, Robert Mitchum, Kenneth More, Edmond O'Brien, Robert Ryan, Jean Servais, Rod Steiger and Robert Wagner. Paul Anka, who wrote the film's title song, shows up as an Army private. Scenes include the Allies parachuting into Ste. Mere Englise, where the paratroopers were mowed down by German bullets; a real-life sequence wherein the German and Allied troops unwittingly march side by side in the dark of night; and a spectacular three-minute overhead shot of the troops fighting and dying in the streets of Quistreham. The last major black-and-white road-show attraction, The Longest Day made millions, enough to recoup some of the cost of 20th Century Fox's concurrently produced Cleopatra. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Originally titled Die Toten Augen von London, this German melodrama is the second film version of Edgar Wallace's The Testament of Gordon Stewart. The story centers on a seemingly kindly blind man who covertly controls a sinister criminal organization comprised of sightless henchmen. Actually, he isn't blind at all, but the police are (figuratively speaking) until lovely Karin Baal foils the villain's scheme. Dead Eyes of London was released in the US in 1965 as Dark Eyes of London. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The search for the notorious German Field Marshal's legendary treasure forms the basis of this adventure that chronicles the efforts of a small group of people, each with a different design on the loot, to find it. One fellow wants to use the money to help the families of war veterans; another wants to get a scoop for his newspaper, and one wants to sell the treasure to enemy foreign powers. Though they eventually find it, all their efforts end up in vain. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this version of the popular Swedish romantic novel by Selma Lagerlof, a maid tries to commit suicide after her sleazy employer impregnates her. She is saved. Later when her cad of a boss is killed, the maid is finally allowed to marry her true love. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi