Nehemiah Persoff Movies

A murder investigation uncovers a plot that could destroy the world as we know it in this thriller. When a scientist doing research on nuclear weapons is murdered during a hospital stay, federal investigator Dave Pomeroy (Howard Duff) is called in to find out who killed him and why. With the help of Dr. Paula Stevens (Linda Cristal), the late scientist's assistant, Pomeroy learns that the scientist fell victim to a group of communist renegades whose members include two brilliant but unstable weapons experts, August Best (Nehemiah Persoff) and Myra Pryor (Anne Jeffreys). Pomeroy discovers that Best and Pryor have constructed an atomic bomb of their own -- and that they're threatening to use it to start World War III, forcing the detective to take swift action to prevent worldwide devastation. Panic in the City also features Dennis Hopper in the small role of Goff, just a year before Easy Rider would make him a star. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this suspenseful crime drama, a lawyer begins investigating the theft of some priceless Macedonian national treasures from a religious shrine. The film is made up of two episodes from the TV show Trials of O'Brien. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A team of research scientists believe they have discovered a superior intelligence. Jim Tanner (George Hamilton) and his pretty partner Margery Lansing (Susan Pleshette) have discovered the entity through their work on human endurance. The Power is able to control the minds of others, but Jim can't substantiate his suspicions that the force comes from one of the members of the scientific staff. A series of murders has Jim under suspicion by the police, as he tries to uncover the identity of the killer. Yvonne De Carlo, Earl Holliman, and Miss Beverly Hills also star in this sci-fi mystery. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Nehemiah Persoff guest stars as Pancho Rodriguez, exiled dictator of the banana republic of Equario. Invading the island with his own personal firing squad, Rodriguez immediately proclaims himself ruler over the castaways--and to prove he's not kidding, he sentence Gilligan (Bob Denver) to be shot. However, Rodriguez' plans go awry, and before long he has changed his tune and is offering Gilligan the opportunity to become dictator in his place...thereby setting up a terrific, and oddly disturbing, dream sequence. This is producer-creator Sherwood Schwartz's favorite Gilligan's Island episode. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Suspense builds around the investigation of a plane crash that caused 53 deaths in this dramatic adaption of Ernest K. Gann's novel. Authorities systematically eliminate probable causes, finally placing blame on the pilot, who was seen drinking before the flight. The airline's director of flight operations, Sam McBane (Glen Ford), knowing the pilot's excellent WW II record, refuses to accept the authorities' conclusions and begins his own investigation. With the help of the only survivor, a stewardess (Suzanne Pleshette), McBane re-creates the events leading to the crash in an attempt to discover the true cause. The character of the incriminated pilot, Captain Jack Savage (Rod Taylor), is revealed through a series of flashbacks, from a wartime army camp (with a cameo by Jane Russell) to the climactic moment of the thrilling crash. Milton Krasner's crisp cinematography earned him an Oscar nomination. ~ Lucinda Ramsey, All Movie Guide

Ubiquitous Untouchables guest star Nehemiah Persoff makes his final appearance as criminal mastermind Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik. Determined to drive Guzik out of the bootlegging business, Elliot Ness secretly begins supplying Jake's rivals with illegal booze. Ness hopes this heightened competition will force Guzik to import a huge new shipment of liquor, thereby bringing the crook out in the open so the Feds can close in. Knowing that Ness is watching every move he makes, Guzik enters into an unholy alliance with an old enemy, "Bugs" Moran, to ship in the liquor undetected. Problem is, Moran still holds Guzik partly responsible for the St. Valentine's Day Massacre which wiped out Bug's gang--and worse, so does a vengeful young punk whose thirst for vengeance will bring about practically everyone's downfall. Appearing as Bugs Moran in this episode is Harry Morgan (Dragnet, M*A*S*H, succeeding such previous Morans as Lloyd Nolan and Robert J. Wilke. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

No sooner have they been released from prison than the four Stryker brothers pick up where they left off, assuming control of a string of night clubs and all illegal traffic within. In dire need of extra money to keep their operation afloat, the brothers plan to rob a mail shipment--and to this end, they coax a professional arsonist named Jaeger (Nehemiah Persoff in a less villainous role than usual) out of retirement. Only when the Strykers renege on their promise to pay Jaeger the 20 grand they promised him does the scheme unravel, allowing Elliot Ness (Robert Stack) to mete out justice. Frank Sutton, aka Gomer Pyle USMC's Sergeant Carter, makes the first of four Untouchables appearances, here cast as the youngest and most timorous of the Stryker brothers. ~ 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

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

Only one of three films directed by screenwriter Charles Lederer, known for movies as disparate as The Thing (1951) and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), this crime comedy-drama-musical obviously defies categorization. Mixing James Cagney as a gangster out to control a big union, with musical numbers and cute songs is about like mixing onions and vanilla pudding. Jake MacIllaney (Cagney) wants to be elected president of Longshoreman's union 26 and, being a top mob boss, is used to getting his way. He is not past almost any stunt or method of coercion to get votes. Dan Cabot (Roger Smith) is Jake's lawyer, and after Jake meets Cabot's wife Linda (Shirley Jones), he sets his sights on conquering her affections. Disregard the husband, he can be taken care of. Setting this to music introduces some entertaining songs (I'm Sorry -- I Want a Ferrari) but the seriousness of the mobster's immorality and power is hard to reconcile with a perky tune about not stealing the small stuff. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Set in an isolated, snow-covered town in the far West, this story has a renegade army officer named Jack Bruhn (Burl Ives) and his henchmen riding into the town threatening their worst to the men and women there. Blaise Starrett (Robert Ryan) decides to agree to Bruhn's demands for someone knowledgeable to lead them away from the law and the town, to safety. Mortally wounded himself, Bruhn opts to take Starrett up on his offer in one last act of generosity toward the townspeople, sparing them the mayhem threatened by his men. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The launching pad for Billy Wilder's comedy classic was a rusty old German farce, Fanfares of Love, whose two main characters were male musicians so desperate to get a job that they disguise themselves as women and play with an all-girl band in gangster-dominated 1929 Chicago. In this version, musicians Joe (Tony Curtis) and Jerry (Jack Lemmon) lose their jobs when a speakeasy owned by mob boss Spats Columbo (George Raft) is raided by prohibition agent Mulligan (Pat O'Brien). Several weeks later, on February 14th, Joe and Jerry get a job perfroming in Urbana and end up witnessing a gangland massacre in a parking garage. Fearing that they will be next on the mobsters' hit lists, Joe devises an ingenious plan for disguising their identities. Soon they are all dolled up and performing as Josephine and Daphne in Sweet Sue's all-girl orchestra. En route to Florida by train with Sweet Sue's band, the boys (girls?) make the acquaintance of Sue's lead singer Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe, in what may be her best performance). Joe and Jerry immediately fall in love, though of course their new feminine identities prevent them from acting on their desires. Still, they are determined to woo her, and they enact an elaborate series of gender-bending ruses complicated by the fact that flirtatious millionaire Osgood Fielding (Joe E. Brown) has fallen in love with "Daphne." The plot gets even thicker when Spats Columbo and his boys show up in Florida. Nominated for several Oscars, Some Like It Hot ended up the biggest moneymaking comedy up to 1959. Full of hilarious set pieces and movie in-jokes, it has not tarnished with time and in fact seems to get better with each passing year, as its cross-dressing humor keeps it only more and more up-to-date. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide