Robert Stack Movies
The son of a wealthy California businessman, Robert Stack spent his teen years giving skeet shooting lessons to such Hollywood celebrities as Carole Lombard and Clark Gable; it was only natural, then, that he should gravitate to films himself after attending the University of Southern California. At age 20, he made his screen debut in Deanna Durbin's First Love (1939) in which he gave his teenaged co-star her very first screen kiss. Two years later he appeared opposite his former "pupil" Carole Lombard in the Ernst Lubitsch classic To Be or Not to Be (1942). After serving with the navy in WWII he resumed his film career, avoiding typecasting with such dramatically demanding film assignments as The Bullfighter and the Lady (1951), The Tarnished Angels (1957), and John Paul Jones (1959). He earned an Academy Award nomination for his performance as a self-destructive alcoholic in Written on the Wind (1956). In 1959 he gained a whole new flock of fans when he was cast as humorless federal agent Elliot Ness in TV's The Untouchables, which ran for four seasons and won him an Emmy award. He continued playing taciturn leading roles in such TV series as Name of the Game (1969-1971), Most Wanted (1976-1977), and Strike Force (1981), and from 1987 to 2002 was the no-nonsense host of the TV anthology Unsolved Mysteries. Not nearly as stoic and serious in real life, Stack was willing to spoof his established screen image in Steven Spielberg's 1941 (1979) and Zucker-Abraham-Zucker's Airplane! (1980). The warmer side of Robert Stack could be glimpsed in the TV informational series It's a Great Life (1985), which he hosted with his wife Rosemarie, and in his 1980 autobiography, Straight Shooting. Though film appearances grew increasingly sporatic through the 1990s, Stack remained a familiar figure to television viewers thanks to syndicated reruns of Unsolved Mysteries well into the new millennium. Memorable film roles in 1990s included lending his voice to Beavis and Butthead Do America (1996) and appearing as himself in the 1999 comedy drama Mumford. In October of 2002 Stack underwent successful radiation treatment for prostate cancer. On May 14, 2003, Robert Stack's wife Rosemarie found the actor dead in their Los Angeles home. He was 84. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1968
Witness was the second episode of the TV series Name of the Game. Robert Stack stars as Dan Farrell, senior editor of Crime magazine. When a Mafia informant is assassinated, Farrell looks for the only other witness to a major mob crime. That person is Joan Hackett, who allegedly committed suicide eight years earlier. Farrell discovers that Hackett is living in a faraway village under an assumed name; unfortunately, he is being followed by the mob assassin. Witness was first telecast on September 27, 1968. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1968
The Bobby Currier Story is a 90-minute episode from the TV series Name of the Game. The titular Currier (Brandon de Wilde) is a young, small-town perennial loser. He kidnaps Tisha Sterling, daughter of local sheriff Steve Forrest, and goes on a Charles Starkweather-style murder spree. Dan Farrell (Robert Stack), senior editor of Crime magazine, tries to unearth the circumstances that turned the hapless Currier into a murderer. The Bobby Currier Story was first broadcast February 21, 1969. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1967
Originally titled Le Soleil des Voyous, Action Man teams two veteran international film stars: France's Jean Gabin and America's Robert Stack. Gabin plays an ex-criminal, now reformed and ensconsed in a respectable executive job. Stack plays an unreconstituted crook who wants to inveigle Gabin into one last caper. The crime goes off like clockwork, but drug dealers who want a piece of the action kidnap Gabin's wife Suzanne Flon and hold her for ransom. Stack ends up sacrificing his own life to save those of Gabin and Flon. Based on a novel by J. M. Flynn Action Man is the sort of bread-and-butter fare that director Jean Delannoy, famed for his earlier spiritual classics La Symphonie Pastorale (1946), Le Jeux Sons Faits (1947) and Diary of a Country Priest (1950), dealt with in his twilight years. In certain gamier markets, Action Man was released as Leather and Nylon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Gabin, Robert Stack, (more)
- 1967
Asylum for a Spy stars Robert Stack as a CIA agent who becomes an alcoholic, believing himself responsible for the death of two close friends. The Russians believe that Stack would be useful in fingering potential soviet defectors. The Americans plans to use Stack's inebriated state to get him into a mental hospital, and there locate an enemy spy. Stack's girl friend (Felicia Farr) merely wants to get him to pull himself together. Asylum for a Spy was originally telecast on April 2 and April 9, 1965, as Memorandum for a Spy, a two-part drama on NBC's Bob Hope Chrysler Theatre anthology. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1966
This episode is a wild and wacky spoof of the old TV series The Untouchables, which like The Lucy Show was a Desilu production (what a coincidence!). Struck by Lucy's resemblance to notorious gun moll Rusty Martin, Eliot Ness-like federal agent Briggs (who else but Robert Stack?) persuades Lucy (Lucille Ball) to pose as the moll in order to track down the money stolen by recently paroled gangster Big Nick (played by Bruce Gordon, who'd portrayed Frank Nitti on The Untouchables). The episode's nostalgia appeal is greatly enhanced by the rat-tat-tat narration of Walter Winchell -- and as a bonus, Lucy (as Rusty) performs a con brio rendition of "My Heart Belongs to Daddy." At the end of the show, Lucy breaks character and invites Robert Stack and Bruce Gordon to take a bow, thereby acknowledging her studio audience for the first and only time onscreen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Stack, Bruce Gordon, (more)
- 1966
When he's given an ancient Chinese medallion, a photographer (Robert Stack) has no idea that it contains a map which leads to a former emperor's treasure horde. Unfortunately, several nefarious elements are aware of the fact. The film was originally titled Hell to Macao. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Stack, Elke Sommer, (more)
In 1944, with Paris on the verge of Liberation by the allies, Adolph Hitler ordered that the City of Light be blown up and burned to the ground. General Dietrich Von Choltitz, after much rumination, decided that he didn't want to go down in history as the man who destroyed Paris. His refusal to follow Hitler's orders would make him a pariah in Germany for the rest of his life; nor was his gesture ever rewarded by the Allies. From this very human story in the midst of one of the most inhuman conflicts in history grew the screenplay (by Gore Vidal and Francis Ford Coppola) of the all-star, internationally produced Is Paris Burning? Whereas the earlier The Longest Day was able to support a castful of celebrities and brief subplot vignettes, Is Paris Burning? seems more weighted down than weighty. Still, a modern audience will have fun playing "spot the star" throughout the film, especially when those spotted stars include the likes of Gert Frobe (as Choltitz), Jean-Paul Belmondo, Alain Delon, Kirk Douglas (as Patton), Glenn Ford (as Bradley), Yves Montand, Simone Signoret, Robert Stack, and even Anthony Perkins as a wide-eyed GI. Filmed on a gargantuan scale, Is Paris Burning? was based on a book by Larry Collins and Dominique LaPierre. The film was lensed in black and white, save for the Technicolor finale (in the original road-show prints). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Paul Belmondo, Charles Boyer, (more)
- 1963
The Guest is a filmed adaptation of the Harold Pinter play of the same name. Donald Pleasence plays a laconic tramp, who is invited to stay in the home of Robert Shaw, on the implied promise that he, Pleasence, will be hired as caretaker. Shaw's off-in-the-coop brother Alan Bates is delighted to have Pleasence around...to "play" with. In the manner of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Shaw and Bates uses Pleasence as a punching bag for their own hang-ups. Photographed with the proper degree of claustrophobia by Nicolas Roeg, The Caretaker was independently produced by a celebrity consortium including Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Peter Sellers, and Noel Coward. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alan Bates, Donald Pleasence, (more)
- 1963
A "bad movie" with a fervent fan following, The Caretakers is set in a bleak mental institution. Joan Crawford plays the hard-bitten head nurse (we first see her taking a karate lesson!) who is dead set against the progressive theories of new doctor Robert Stack. After a few minutes' exposure to the inmates, half the audience has sided with Crawford. The most disturbed individual in the place is Polly Bergen, who never speaks when screaming will do. But thanks to the compassionate treatment of Dr. Stack, it is Bergen who saves the day by preventing fellow inmate Barbara Barrie from burning the institution to the ground. Virtually every scene in The Caretakers is a gem of glorious excess, including the obligatory shock-treatment vignette. The film strives to avoid subtlety, but its fans wouldn't have it any other way. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Stack, Polly Bergen, (more)
- 1962
In hopes of breathing life into the series' dormant ratings, ABC moved The Untouchables from the Thursday to Tuesday evening, removing the threat of NBC ratings-grabbing Sing Along with Mitch and counterprogramming the now four-year-old crime drama opposite the presumably "soft" competion of The Dick Powell Show and The Jack Benny Program. Alas, both of the competing programs held tightly to their timeslots, and The Untouchables was cancelled. In the months before the inevitable axing, the series' producers tried to hypo the show by encouraging star Robert Stack to lighten up his portrayal of flinty-eyed 1930s treasury agent Elliott Ness and make the character more human and vulnerable. There are also a handful of attempts to generate audience interest by offering potential Untouchables spinoffs. One of these, "Elegy", was planned as the pilot for a series starring Barbara Stanwyck as Lt. Aggie Stewart of the Bureau of Missing Persons. Two others, "Bird in the Hand" and "Jake Dance", were designed as trial balloons for a weekly show featuring Dane Clark as Dr. Victor Garr of the US Public Health Service. And finally, Scott Brady was headlined in "The Floyd Gibbons Story", an effort to transform colorful one-eyed journalist and globetrotter Gibbons into a viable TV-series leading man. More interesting than these failed pilots are the guest appearances by a number of stars in the making during The Untouchables' fourth and final season. The episode "Snowball" featured not only Robert Redford but also Star Trek's future "Chekov" Walter Koenig; Robert Duvall was given ample screen footage in "Blues for a Gone Goose"; and though Lee Marvin is officially the guest star in "A Fist of Five", it was hard to ignore the up-and-coming James Caan in a supporting role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1962
Robert Stack plays a dual role in this episode, as Federal agent Elliot Ness and his lookalike, two-bit bookie Whitey Steele. Posing as Whitey, Ness heads to San Francisco in hopes of smashing a heroine distribution ring operating out of a racetrack-infromation service run by hoodlums Joe Kulak (Oscar Beregi) and Gregory Pindar (Eduardo Ciannelli). Tension begins to mount when it looks like Ness' cover will be blown right in the middle of a huge gangland convention attended by the top mobsters from 24 different cities. Murray Hamilton steals the show as a shady newspaper reporter who never lets anyone (least of all the audience) know which side he's really on. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1961
Earning its highest-ever ratings during its second season, The Untouchables rapidly spiralled downhill during Season Three, ending up only 41st out of the 50 top shows. No, treasury agent Elliot Ness (Robert Stack) and his team had not finally been gunned down by the minions of gang boss Frank Nitti (Bruce Gordon), nor had the series' producers been laid low by the complaints of special-interest groups who objected to the series' violence and preponderance of Italian villains. What was killing The Untouchables was its Thursday-night competition on NBC, the comparatively innocuous and benign musical series Sing Along with Mitch! Even so, the episodes this season were well up to par, with a wealth of prominent guest actors: Peter Falk, Telly Savalas, Lee Marvin, Martin Landau, Dyan Cannon, Patricia Neal, Martin Balsam and Cloris Leachman. Also seen during Season Three in comparatively minor roles were two actors on the cusp of stardom: Leonard Nimoy and Ed Asner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1961
The makeshift feature film Alcatraz Express originated as "The Big Train", a two-part episode of the Untouchables TV series. Al Capone (Neville Brand) is about to be sent to prison in Atlanta on a tax-evasion charge. Federal agent Elliot Ness (Robert Stack) doesn't like this set-up, and insists that Capone be shipped by train to San Francisco, thence to Alcatraz Island. Capone immediately begins drawing up plans to escape from the feds while en route to "The Rock". Costarring Bruce Gordon (as Frank Nitti), James Westerfield and Robert F. Simon, "The Big Train" was originally telecast January 5 and 12, 1961. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1960
Perhaps inevitably, the more popular the ABC crime drama The Untouchables became, the louder the series' detractors complained. Reaching its ratings peak as America's eighth-most-watched program during its second season, the series, which elaborated in the most violent fashion imaginable on the career of treasury agent Elliot Ness (Robert Stack) as he and his team of "Untouchables" challenged the criminal element of Depression-era Chicago, was besieged by a flock of clean-up-TV advocates, church and school groups, and especially the Italian Anti-Defamation League, which condemned the series for its preponderance of Italian villains. Executive producer Desi Arnaz argued that many of the real-life gangsters were indeed Italian, whereupon their critics counter-argued that the scriptwriters tended to use Italian-sounding names even for the series' fictional bad guys. Everyone from the Longshoreman's Union (which threatened not to deliver the sponsors' product) to singer Frank Sinatra converged upon Arnaz, and there were even rumors that The Mob had put out a contract on the beleagured producer (reportedly, the higher-ups figured that killing Desi wouldn't be worth the trouble). Finally, the producers agreed that, beginning with the series' third season, none of the fictional gangsters would be Italian, and that the genuine Italian miscreants would be counterbalanced with honest, upright and incorruptible Italian-American supporting characters--notably Nick Georgiade in the recurring role of "Untouchable" Enrico Rossi. Highlights of Season Two include Elizabeth Montgomery's bravura, Emmy-nominated portrayal of a duplicitous gun moll in the opening episode, "The Rusty Heller Story"; "Jack 'Legs' Diamond", with future Law&Order star Steven Hill in the title role and Robert Carricart as Lucky Luciano; "Augie 'The Banker" Ciamino" with Keenan Wynn, who ironically had played straight-arrow "Untouchable" Joe Fuselli in the series' two-hour pilot; and "Mr. Moon", which garnered a great deal of critical attention due the starring performance by 23-year-old Victor Buono. And as had happened with the first season "The Unhired Assassin", the second season of The Untouchables is distinguished by another elaborate two-part episode, "The Big Train", which brings Neville Brand back as Ness' number one nemesis Al Capone--and which got the producers into trouble (again!) by suggesting that the incarcerated Capone had been given preferential treatment in the Atlanta Pentitentiary. Also in the tradition of "The Unhired Assassin", "The Big Train" was later released theatrically as Alcatraz Express. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone are Cliff and Laurie Henderson, a married couple on a vacation with their young daughter (Tammy Marihugh), taking their first sea voyage aboard the aging ocean liner Claridon. All is well for them, but not for the ship below decks, where a fire has broken out. The engine room crew, led by Chief Engineer Steven Pringle (Jack Kruschen) and 2nd Engineer Walsh (Edmond O'Brien) extinguish the blaze, but the ship's captain (George Sanders) refuses their request to shut down the boilers and check for further damage. Disaster follows as the boilers explode, taking Pringle with them and blasting a hole through to the upper decks and an opening to the sea that's not only too big to patch but allowing in too much water for the pumps to handle. Still, the Captain won't order the passengers to the lifeboats -- he hopes that the engine room crew under Walsh can hold the bulkhead and keep the ship afloat. Meanwhile, Cliff has to rescue his daughter from their wrecked stateroom, and must do what he can to help Laurie, who is trapped beneath a huge piece of steel bulkhead, while the ship slowly loses its battle with the sea. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone, (more)
- 1960
The 1962 theatrical release of The Scarface Mob was created from the first two episodes of the famously popular 1959 TV series, The Untouchables. It stars Robert Stack as the courageous agent whose job is to corral the powerful mobster Al Capone. Nevill Brand plays Capone and Walter Winchell adds flavor as the Dragnet-style narrator. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Stack, Neville Brand, (more)
- 1959
Guns of Zangara was the theatrical title given to this two-part pilot film for the Untouchables TV series. Robert Stack plays Elliot Ness, detective in charge of a special unit of incorruptible Chicago cops during the early 1930s. When it becomes obvious that President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt will repeal Prohibition, several nervous gangsters put out a contract on FDR. The man appointed to be principal assassin is Zangara, who plans to pull off the job while Roosevelt is visiting Chicago's Mayor Cermak at the 1933 World's Fair. With Ness on the case, the assassination is thwarted, though Cermak is mortally wounded. Guns of Zangara betrays its TV origins only in its limited budget and built-in "action breaks" that had formerly accommodated commercials. This film and another Untouchables two-part pilot (The Scarface Mob) were released theatrically in Europe, and subsequently included in Warner Brothers' domestic TV movie package. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1959
Robert Stack stars in this sea-faring historical epic as John Paul Jones, the first great hero of the American Navy. While originally a loyal soldier of the King's army, Jones in time becomes a fervent supporter of the American Revolutionaries, and he volunteers to lead the colonists' ragtag fleet to impressive victories against the British Navy; during a battle against the British ship Serapis, Jones utters the deathless words "I have not yet begun to fight." While his brave and intelligent leadership helps win America its freedom, his appeals to Benjamin Franklin (Charles Coburn) and the other leaders of Congress to strengthen the United States Navy fall on deaf ears; Jones is eventually branded a troublemaker, and in time, he is ordered to Russia, where he is to help guide the fleet of Catherine The Great (Bette Davis). Jones leads the Russian Navy to stunning victories in the Black Sea, reestablishing his reputation as one of the great military minds of his day. John Paul Jones also features a rousing score by the great film composer Max Steiner. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Stack, Marisa Pavan, (more)
- 1959
Introduced as a highly successful two-party dramatization on the CBS anthology Desilu Playhouse, The Untouchables officially began its four-season ABC run in the fall of 1959, with Robert Stack returning as grim-visaged 1930s treasury agent Elliot Ness and Neville Brand making token appearances as his nemesis Al Capone ("Big Al" would virtually disappear from the series proper after the Capone estate threatened to sue producer Desi Arnaz for unfairly profiting on the Capone name). The premiere episode, "The Empty Chair", depicts the power struggle to control all illegal activities in Chicago after Capone's arrest for income-tax evasion in 1931. Nehemiah Persoff is the series' first guest star, cast as real-life hoodlum Jake Gusik, while Bruce Gordon is established as Capone's heir apparent Frank Nitti, who would get his own episode, "The Frank Nitti Story" (what else?) a few weeks later. Other genuine lawbreakers depicted during Season One include Ma Barker, played by Claire Trevor in an episode that incurred the wrath of the FBI for suggesting that Ness was largely responsible for Barker's downfall; George "Bugs" Moran, enacted by Lloyd Nolan; Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll, portrayed by Clu Gulager; Dutch Schultz, impersonated by Lawrence Dobkin; and Wally Legenza, cold-blooded leader of the vicious Tri-State Gang, played by William Bendix. The highlight of the season is the two-part "Unhired Assassin", reenacted the unsuccessful attempt by a fanatic named Zangara (Joe Mantell) to assassinate president-elect Franklin Roosevelt; Robert Middleton played Zangara's ultimate victim, Chicago mayor Anton Cermak, in this extended episode, which was later released theatrically as Guns of Zangara. Though The Untouchables never got any higher than 43rd in the ratings during its first season, the series was nonetheless very popular with fans and not so popular with advocates of non-violent television, who would of course become more vocal as the series became more successful in subsequent seasons. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1958
The Gift of Love is a remake of 1946's Sentimental Journey, with Lauren Bacall in the role originated by Maureen O'Hara. Upon learning that she hasn't long to live, Bacall, the devoted wife of Robert Stack, adopts young Evelyn Rudie so that her husband will never be lonely. After his wife's death, however, the pragmatic Stack grows weary of little Evelyn, who prefers a "fantasy world" to real life. Stack returns the girl to the orphanage, whereupon Bacall's spirit intervenes to set things right. The material was maudlin back in 1946, and even more so in 1958; still, it's nice to see that Lauren Bacall could play a sweet, benign role when given the opportunity. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lauren Bacall, Robert Stack, (more)
- 1957
William Faulkner's novel Pylon was optioned by Universal producer Albert Zugsmith, who used it as the source for his 1957 production The Tarnished Angels. Robert Stack is a disillusioned World War One ace eking out a living as a barnstorming pilot/parachutist during the early 1930s. New Orleans newspaperman Rock Hudson runs across Stack at a two-bit carnival. He becomes fascinated with Stack's fall from grace, and latches onto him. As he is drawn into Stack's iconoclastic, individualistic lifestyle, Hudson finds he is also drawn to the pilot's long-suffering wife, Dorothy Malone. Jack Carson is on hand as Stack's chief mechanic, whose anger over the pilot's abusive treatment of Malone explodes into tragedy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rock Hudson, Robert Stack, (more)
Perhaps the definitive Douglas Sirk production, Written on the Wind is based on the novel by Robert Wilder. The story revolves around the Hadleys, a wealthy but thoroughly debauched family of Texas oil millionaires. Robert Stack is self-destructive alcoholic Kyle Hadley, while Dorothy Malone won an Oscar for her equally vivid potrayal of Kyle's nymphomaniac sister Marylee. Kyle manages to win beautiful, level-headed advertising executive Lucy Moore (Lauren Bacall) away from his best friend, virile Hadley Oil geologist Mitch Wayne (Rock Hudson), but Lucy soon comes to regret her decision to marry into the hell-on-earth Hadley family. When Lucy becomes pregnant, Kyle assumes that Mitch is the father, leading to a maelstrom of fever-pitch emotionalism and stark tragedy. Before he quite knows what is happening, Mitch is on trial for murder; the one person who can clear him is the craven Marylee, who demands Mitch's sexual favors as the price for her testimony. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall, (more)
- 1956
When gold is discovered in the Colorado Territory at the start of the Civil War, Confederate Owen Pentecost (Robert Stack) and Union agent Stephen Kirby (Alex Nicol) battle with each other in a struggle to obtain the most gold to give to their respective armies. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Virginia Mayo, Robert Stack, (more)
