Nehemiah Persoff Movies

Not the 1955 film, but a television version filmed two years earlier, Marty is the story of a lonely New York man (Rod Steiger) who finds solace with an equally introverted woman. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

Director Alfred Hitchcock lets us know from the outset that The Wrong Man is a painfully true story and not one of his customary fabricated suspense yarns, through the simple expedient of walking before the camera and telling us as much (this introductory appearance replaced his planned cameo role as a nightclub patron). The real-life protagonist, musican Christopher Emmanuel Balestrero, is played by Henry Fonda. Happily married and gainfully employed at the Stork Club, Balestrero's life takes a disastrous turn when he goes to an insurance office, hoping to borrow on his wife's (Vera Miles) life insurance policy in order to pay her dental bills. One of the girls in the office spots Balestrero, identifying him as the man who robbed the office a day or so earlier. This, and a few scattered bits of circumstantial evidence, lead to Balestrero's arrest. Though he's absolutely innocent, he can offer no proof of his whereabouts the day of the crime. Lawyer Frank O'Connor (Anthony Quayle) does his best to help his client, but he's up against an indifferent judicial system that isn't set up to benefit the "little man". Meanwhile, Balestrero's wife becomes emotionally unhinged, leading to a complete nervous breakdown. As Balestrero prays in his cell, his image is juxtaposed onto the face of the actual criminal-who looks nothing like the accused man! Utilizing one of his favorite themes-the helplessness of the innocent individual when confronted by the faceless bureaucracy of the Law-Hitchcock weaves a nightmarish tale, all the more frightening because it really happened (the film's best moment: Fonda looking around the nearly empty courtroom during his arraignment, realizing that the rest of the world cares precisely nothing about his inner torment). Hitch enhances the film's versimilitude by shooting in the actual locations where the real story occured. His only concession to Hollywood formula was the half-hearted coda, assuring us that Mrs. Balestrero eventually recovered from her mental collapse (she sure doesn't look any too healthy the last time we see her!) Watch for uncredited appearances by Harry Dean Stanton, Bonnie Franklin, Tuesday Weld and Charles Aidman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

An overbearing woman is determined to force her two kids to turn her struggling rice plantation into a success. Unfortunately, it is located on the Indochinese coast and is being threatened by rough seas; all that stands between the paddies and the ocean is a small seawall. More trouble comes in the form of a government agent who tries to get them to abandon the land. After falling in love with the beautiful daughter, the agent abandons his mission. But then her brother tires of his mother's constant harping and flees to Bangkok and this leads to more problems. Featuring an international cast, much of the film was shot on location in Thailand. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This action-filled police drama chronicles the difficult first year of a rookie cop. The trouble begins on his very first day on the beat when he has a conflict with the criminally connected owner of the local tavern. Against the more moderate advice of his experienced partner, the rookie insists on strictly enforcing every law on the books. His unbending toughness creates hard feelings with the neighborhood toughs and soon he becomes their target. He becomes quite upset when a drunken woman leaps from his window to her death. He is then suspended. Later he redeems himself by solving a murder and bringing the corrupt tavern owner to justice. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Peter Van Hook (Alan Ladd), alias The Dutchman, is nearing the end of a stretch in Yuma Territorial Prison for a gold robbery that he didn't commit. Released early with the unwitting -- and unwilling -- help of fellow inmate John McBain (Ernest Borgnine), he sets about getting even with the men and the mining company whose original owner got him into trouble, in a plan of double- and triple-crosses for which he needs the reluctant help of McBain. The latter wants nothing more than to go back to the life of a rancher -- and then he discovers something equally important in life, when he steps in to help a victimized Mexican woman (Katy Jurado). Suddenly, McBain is very interested in the Dutchman's scheme, and with the help of explosives expert Vincente (Nehemiah Persoff), they pull off what looks like an absolutely perfect robbery of a gold mine -- even the evidence that a crime was committed ends up being covered up. But Cyirl Lounsberry (Kent Smith), the financier who's supposed to fence the gold, has other ideas, and a crooked lawman (Adam Williams) to back him up. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

The premiere episode of The Untouchables takes place just after the events of the series' two-hour Desilu Playhouse pilot, as Chicago gang boss Al Capone is escorted to Federal prison on a tax-evasion charge. With "Scarface" out of the picture, several Capone lieutenants compete for the honor of occupying their boss' empty chair, including his chief lieutenant Frank "The Enforcer" Nitti (Bruce Gordon) and the brutal-but-businesslike mob bookkeeper Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik (Nehemiah Persoff). Meanwhile, Federal agent Elliot Ness (Robert Stack) invites a new member to his "Untouchables" team: Enrico Rossi (Nick Georgiade), a former assistant barber who has witnessed a brutal ganglang slaughter masterminded by Nitti. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Nehemiah Persoff stars as Lanser, who inexplicably finds himself aboard a British ship in a fogbound sea in the year 1942. Somehow, some way, Lanser knows that the ship and its passengers are doomed to a watery grave, but no one will believe him. As it turns out, Lanser has "inside information" -- without giving the game away, it can be said that he is his own executioner. Future TV-series stars Patrick Macnee and James Franciscus appear in significant supporting roles. Written by Rod Serling and first telecast December 4, 1959, "Judgment Night" represents one of the few times that Twilight Zone ran into sponsorial interferences -- instead of drinking tea, the ship's very British crew consumes coffee, as prescribed by sponsor General Foods. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This romantic drama set in a Venezuelan jungle is based on a novel by W.H. Hudson about Rima, a mythical "bird-woman" and her love for Abel, a man running from political assassination. In this adaptation, Rima (Audrey Hepburn) is a real woman living in the jungle with her adopted grandfather Nuflo (Lee J. Cobb). Abel (Anthony Perkins) escapes his pursuers and meets Rima after a local tribe has taken him under their wing. The unlikely couple fall in love but Abel is haunted by his desire to go back into his world to avenge his father's murder at the hand of his political rivals. While he is struggling with his own dilemma, the local tribe is beginning to believe that Rima is an evil spirit they must destroy. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Rod Steiger is the screen's first "method mobster" in the title role of Al Capone. The film traces Big Al's progress from a torpedo in the hire of Chicago gangster Johnny Torrio (Nehemiah Persoff) to Capone's takeover of the Windy City's bootlegging operations, and his ultimate downfall at the hands of the IRS. Rod Steiger delivers every line with maniacal gusto, as though it will be his last; sometimes he sounds like Frank Gorshin doing a Rod Steiger impression, but for the most part it is a dynamite performance. Featured in the cast are Murvyn Vye as Bugs Moran, Joe De Santis as Big Jim Colosimo, Lewis Charles as Hymie Weiss, Robert Gist as O'Banion, and James Gregory and Martin Balsam as composite characters, respectively based on honest Chicago cop John Siege and duplicitous newspaper reporter Jake Lingle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Nehemiah Persoff, who appeared in the premiere Untouchables episode as mob accountant Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik, returns to the series in the role of crooked gambler Johnny Fortunato. Elliot Ness (Robert Stack) is reunited with his former school chum Frank Barber (Jack Warden), now the owner of the Chicago Sports Palace--and one of many entrepreneurs forced to pay tribute to Fortunato. A series of violent incidents convince Ness that Barber and his girlfriend Chickie (Madlyn Rhue) are in desperate need of police protection. What Elliot doesn't know is that old buddy Frank is setting him up as a dupe in an elaborate scheme to blackmail Fortunato and his flunkeys. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Michael Curtiz's The Comancheros was a deceptively complex movie -- so enjoyable, that it masked some of the best character development seen in a John Wayne vehicle that was not directed by John Ford or Howard Hawks, and so well made that it got by with some of the most violent action seen in a major studio release of the era. It also bridged the gap between Ford's The Searchers and the upbeat buddy movies of the late '60s and '70s (The Sting, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, etc.). It's 1843 in the Republic of Texas, and Jake Cutter (John Wayne) is a two-fisted Texas Ranger who runs across a gang of white renegades, called the Comancheros, who are trading guns and other contraband with marauding Comanches from a secret hideout in Mexico. Substituting for a repentant gun-runner, he goes undercover as a partner with Crow (Lee Marvin), a vicious half-breed who is a contact man with the Comancheros and knows the whereabouts of their hideout in Mexico. But Crow manages to get himself killed, and Cutter is forced to throw in with Paul Regret (Stuart Whitman), a bystander who also happens to be an itinerant gambler wanted for killing a man in a duel in New Orleans, to complete his mission. It turns out that Regret is a more decent man than most, and he and Cutter, despite some different outlooks on right and wrong, take a liking to each other. Their quest eventually takes them south of the border, where they find the Comancheros and their leader, Graile (Nehemiah Persoff), a bitter, brilliant cripple -- think of The Sea Wolf's Wolf Larsen in a wheelchair -- who has established a landlocked pirate society, and his daughter Pilar (Ina Balin). The only thing that keeps Cutter and Regret alive when they enter the camp is that Pilar and Regret have a history, and she still has feelings for him, enough so that she won't tell what she knows about Cutter and who he is. The two men must play on Graile's greed and Pilar's love in the explosive surroundings of the Comancheros' camp, while figuring out a way to stay alive long enough to get word to the rangers about where they are -- and to survive the attack that must inevitably follow.

Director Michael Curtiz was ill for part of the shoot, and Wayne took up the slack, but The Comancheros displays some of the same freewheeling charm and deep passions that informed classic films of his such as Captain Blood, The Adventures of Robin Hood, and The Sea Hawk. Wayne and Whitman between them manage to evoke some of the rambunctiousness of Errol Flynn, and when Balin (one of the sexiest leading ladies ever to grace a John Wayne movie) arrives onscreen, the testosterone level shoots up even higher and the sexual sparks fly. The film's 105 minutes go by very fast, and this is a movie whose ending comes almost too soon. Curtiz's final film is one that leaves audiences with a smile, but also wanting more, which was a pretty good way to go out. John Wayne's daughter, Aissa Wayne (who subsequently went into a law career) appears in a small role. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Greedy family members engage in bitter infighting over the ownership of a circus. It all begins as a ruthless, corrupt father gets in trouble with the law leaving all but his youngest sons to begin a vicious battle over the business. This is the third variation of Jerome Weidman' novel I'll Never Go There Any More. The other two are Broken Lance, a western version, and House of Strangers, set in the big city. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide