Ernest Borgnine Movies
With a receding hairline, broad, jowly face, caterpillar eyebrows, bulgy eyes, and an incongruent but charming gap-toothed grin, versatile veteran actor Ernest Borgnine's resemblance to a pug dog pretty much relegated him to character roles, but occasionally he was given the opportunity to play leads, and when he did, proved himself a powerful performer.Born Ermes Effron Borgnino in Hamden, CT, to Italian immigrants, he spent five years of his early childhood in Milan before returning to the States for his education. Following a long stint in the Navy that ended after WWII, Borgnine enrolled in the Randall School of Dramatic Art in Hartford. Between 1946 and 1950, he worked with a theater troupe in Virginia and afterward appeared a few times on television before his 1951 film debut in China Corsair. Borgnine's stout build coupled with his homely face led him to spend the next few years playing villains. In 1953, he won considerable acclaim for his memorable portrayal of a ruthless, cruel sergeant in From Here to Eternity. He was also praised for his performance in the Western Bad Day at Black Rock. Borgnine could easily have been forever typecast as the heavy, but in 1955, he proved his versatility and showed a sensitive side in the film version of Paddy Chayefsky's acclaimed television play Marty. Borgnine's moving portrayal of a weak-willed, lonely, middle-aged momma's boy attempting to find love in the face of a crushingly dull life earned him an Oscar, a British Academy award, a Cannes Festival award, and an award from both the New York Film Critics and the National Board of Review. After that, he seldom played bad guys and instead was primarily cast in "regular Joe" roles, with the notable exception of The Vikings in which he played the leader of the Viking warriors.
In 1962, he was cast in the role that most baby boomers best remember him for, the anarchic, entrepreneurial Quentin McHale in the sitcom McHale's Navy. During the '60s and '70s, Borgnine's popularity was at its peak and he appeared in many films, including a theatrical version of his show in 1964, The Dirty Dozen (1966), Ice Station Zebra (1968) and The Wild Bunch (1969). Following the demise of McHale's Navy in 1965, Borgnine did not regularly appear in series television for several years. However, he did continue his busy film career and also performed in television miniseries and movies. Notable features include The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and Law and Disorder (1974). Some of his best television performances can be seen in Jesus of Nazareth (1977), Ghost on Flight 401 (1978), and a remake of Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front (1979). In 1984, Borgnine returned to series television starring opposite Jan Michael Vincent in the action-adventure series Airwolf. The series ended in 1986; his career has continued to steam along though he generally plays much smaller roles. Between 1995 and 1997, he was a regular on the television sitcom The Single Guy. In 1997, he also made a cameo appearance in Tom Arnold's remake of Borgnine's hit series McHale's Navy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Based on Harold Robbins' bestseller, The Adventurers stars Yugoslav heartthrob Bekim Fehmiu as Porfirio Rubirosa clone Dax Xenos. Having suffered mightily as a child in a fictional South American country due to the political activities of his parents, Xenos grows up to become a sleazy, sexually manipulative playboy. He romances middle-aged widow Olivia de Havilland, then dumps her after he's run through her fortune. He then takes up with heiress Candice Bergen, who bears his child. When the kid is killed and Xenos turns his back on her, Bergen finds solace in lesbianism. All the while, Xenos is fomenting revolutions aimed at toppling the Trujillo-like despot (Alan Badel) responsible for the death of his father. The Adventurers received a lot of magazine coverage due to a poolside nude scene and the "guess who this is supposed to be?" nature of the cast of characters. But it failed to establish Bekim Fehmiu as an international star. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bekim Fehmiu, Charles Aznavour, (more)
A Confederate deserter battles a Mexican bandit when the deserter's child dies for lack of milk. Warner (George Hilton) receives word his girlfriend is dying and about to give birth to the couple's child. The woman is the daughter of Don Pedro Sandoval (Ernest Borgnine), who hates all gringos and Warner in particular. Warner sets out for Juarez, but is captured by a Confederate unit and jailed. He escapes with two other men when they flee from their grave-digging detail. Warner arrives in Juarez where he finds his lover has died of cholera after having given birth to a baby boy. Sandoval gives the squalling, sickly infant to Warner, but the locals refuse to help Warner find milk for the baby. One callous rancher drops a bottle of milk rather than help the hated gringo. The baby dies, and Warner and his men join a group of outlaw monks led by the Padre (Leo Anchoriz). Warner seeks revenge on those who would not help his cause. Staying one step ahead of the cholera epidemic and the Confederates. Warner returns to the rancher who dropped the bottle and drowns him in a bucket of milk while the townsfolk watch in horror. The gang continues to rob and pillage, taking refuge in a bar and pawing at the saloon girls. Warner then sets his sights on Sandoval. He tracks the bandit to a bull ring where the two fight with knives for the inevitable showdown. The film is plagued by poor English dubbing. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ernest Borgnine, George Hilton, (more)
- 1969
The Italian-Spanish Vengeance is Mine should not be confused with the 1948 British film or the 1980 Japanese production of same name. Spaghetti-western veteran George Hilton plays a man who spends the early portions of the film seeking out the person who allowed his family to die of disease during the Civil War. When that man (Ernest Borgnine) turns out to be unrepentant, it's all cat-and-mouse until the climactic showdown. A certain amount of sweaty intensity elevates this Spanish-Italian oater. Vengeance is Mine was released in Europe as Quei Dispe Rati Che Puzzano di Sudore et di Morte. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
"If they move, kill 'em!" Beginning and ending with two of the bloodiest battles in screen history, Sam Peckinpah's classic revisionist Western ruthlessly takes apart the myths of the West. Released in the late '60s discord over Vietnam, in the wake of the controversial Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and the brutal "spaghetti westerns" of Sergio Leone, The Wild Bunch polarized critics and audiences over its ferocious bloodshed. One side hailed it as a classic appropriately pitched to the violence and nihilism of the times, while the other reviled it as depraved. After a failed payroll robbery, the outlaw Bunch, led by aging Pike Bishop (William Holden) and including Dutch (Ernest Borgnine), Angel (Jaime Sanchez), and Lyle and Tector Gorch (Warren Oates and Ben Johnson), heads for Mexico pursued by the gang of Pike's friend-turned-nemesis Deke Thornton (Robert Ryan). Ultimately caught between the corruption of railroad fat cat Harrigan (Albert Dekker) and federale general Mapache (Emilio Fernandez), and without a frontier for escape, the Bunch opts for a final Pyrrhic victory, striding purposefully to confront Mapache and avenge their friend Angel. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, (more)
- 1968
Film star Lylah Clare is dead, but her legend lives on. Movie-producer Barney Sheean (Ernest Borgnine) hires Elsa Brinkmann (Kim Novak), the living image of the late Lylah, to star in a film based on Ms. Clare's life. Barney hires director Lewis Zarkan (Peter Finch), Lylah's former husband, to transform the talentless Elsa into a facsimile of the deceased screen queen. Elsa not only learns to imitate Lylah but, at crucial junctures, becomes the dead woman. While restaging the accident that killed Lylah, the obsessed Zarkan deliberately drives Elsa to her doom -- and in so doing reveals his complicity in the death of his wife. The film ends with Lylah's onetime housekeeper (Rosella Falk), gun in hand, lying in wait for Zarkan to return home while her TV blasts forth a grotesque (and possibly symbolic) dog-food commercial. A trash masterpiece, Legend of Lylah Claire works so hard at vilifying the Old Hollywood (there's even a vicious Hedda Hopper caricature) that it's a wonder the actors could keep a straight face. The film was based on a 1962 Dupont Show of the Week TV drama co-written by Wild in the Streets creator Robert Thom. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kim Novak, Peter Finch, (more)
- 1968
A pair of crooks conspire to rob the ticket booth at the Los Angeles Coliseum during a Rams game. Before they can perform the heist, the two must find precisely the right henchmen to join them. Each potential gang member must undergo a rigorous test of skill. Thanks to care and precise planning, the caper comes off smoothly and afterward the gang leader (Jim Brown) hides the money in the apartment of his ex-wife (Diahann Carroll). She only agrees to keep the money on the provision that he reform so they can get back together. Unfortunately, the wife's lust-crazed landlord (James Whitmore) busts into her house the next day and tries to rape her. During the struggle he kills her and then takes the loot. Later a crooked cop (Gene Hackman) investigates. Meanwhile, when the gang members learn that the loot is missing, they suspect a double-cross and engage in a huge battle. The cop finds the money and at first keeps it for himself. The head crook eventually figures out that the cop has it and so goes to him to make a little deal. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jim Brown, Diahann Carroll, (more)
A top-secret Soviet spy satellite -- using stolen Western technology -- malfunctions and then goes into a descent that lands it near an isolated Arctic research encampment called Ice Station Zebra, belonging to the British, which starts sending out distress signals before falling silent. The atomic submarine Tigerfish, commanded by Cmdr. James Ferraday (Rock Hudson), is dispatched with orders to get to Ice Station Zebra carrying three passengers, a Englishman going by the name of David Jones (Patrick McGoohan), a Soviet turncoat named Boris Vaslov (Ernest Borgnine), and an American Marine officer, Captain Anders (Jim Brown), who is supposed to command the Marine unit assigned to the mission. Jones is problem enough, as he is in command of the mission and he prefers to withhold as much information as it's possible to do from Ferraday, even at the risk of the Tigerfish's safety. Add to that the fact that Anders is suspicious of Vaslov, and Vaslov seems much too inquisitive and is telling even less of what he knows about the mission, and Ferraday has his hands full trying to get these men to the polar ice -- 600 miles of dangerous travel -- in just two days. When an attempt to break through the ice -- coupled with some timely sabotage -- kills one man and nearly destroys the boat, the men surrounding these contending parties start to understand just how high the stakes are for everyone. It turns out that the Soviets want what was aboard that satellite as much as the West does; indeed, both sides are frantic to get it, and, just as much, to keep the other side from getting it -- and they're prepared to take it by brute force. Once Ferraday and his men arrive at Zebra, they find a disaster and still more mystery, with most of the men dead and the object that Mr. Jones is supposed to secure nowhere in evidence, and he and his two fellow men of mystery suddenly showing their killing instincts quite freely. And with the storm clearing from the Soviet side first, their planes and their paratroops are closing in on Ferraday, and his relative handful of men. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, (more)
Director Robert Aldrich took what he considered a hopelessly old-fashioned script by Lukas Heller and Nunnally Johnson and fashioned The Dirty Dozen into one of MGM's biggest moneymakers of the 1960s--and the sixth highest-grossing film in the studio's history. Lee Marvin plays Major Reisman, assigned to coordinate a suicide mission on a French chateau held by top Nazi officers. Since no "normal" GI can be expected to volunteer for this mission, Reisman is compelled to draw his personnel from a group of military prisoners serving life sentences. This "dirty dozen" includes a sex pervert (Telly Savalas), a psycho (John Cassavetes), a retarded killer (Donald Sutherland), and the equally malevolent Charles Bronson, Trini Lopez, Jim Brown, and Clint Walker. On the dim promise of receiving pardons if they survive, the criminals undergo a brutal training program, then are marched behind enemy lines dressed as Nazi soldiers, the better to overtake the chateau and kill everyone in it--including the innocent wives and mistresses of the German officers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, (more)
The title character (Rod Taylor) is a drifting gunslinger, who enters a Southwestern fort and immediately becomes embroiled with its commander (John Mills). In the end, the wanderer helps the fort guard against attacks from Indians. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rod Taylor, Ernest Borgnine, (more)
- 1966
A heartless actor scrambles to the top of show business' sleazy summit in this drama. Frank Fane (Stephen Boyd) is a Hollywood leading man who is desperate to boost his career by winning an Academy Award, and he doesn't care who he has to betray to achieve his goals -- including his former best friend and PR man, Hymie Kelly (Tony Bennett), lonely acting coach Sophie Cantaro (Eleanor Parker), slimy agent Kappy Kapstetter (Milton Berle), and long-suffering girlfriend Kay Bergdahl (Elke Sommer). However, as Frank waits for his name to be called, certain that victory is in his grasp, fate has a little secret in store for him. The Oscar marked Tony Bennett's onscreen acting debut. The screenplay, based on the novel by Richard Sale, was written in part by award-winning author Harlan Ellison, who is known to often take comical potshots at the film, which he considers a low point in his career. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Boyd, Elke Sommer, (more)
Based on Elleston Trevor's novel, The Flight of the Phoenix opens with a well-staged plane crash in the middle of the Sahara desert. The pilot (James Stewart) and the navigator (Richard Attenborough) do their best to maintain order among the survivors, a group of oil men not well-suited for survival in the desert wastes. Some of those who appear to be the most resourceful reveal themselves to be inept or cowardly, while other less prepossessing types -- notably bespectacled Standish (Dan Duryea) -- demonstrate surprising inner reserves of strength. The ultimate fate of the survivors rests in the hands of Heinrich Dorfmann (Hardy Kruger), who uses the wreckage of the old plane to design a new one. The Flight of the Phoenix was dedicated to the memory of veteran stunt pilot Paul Mantz, who was killed while filming the take-off scene of the new plane. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Stewart, Richard Attenborough, (more)
- 1965
The Blue-Eyed Horse is an hour-long farce starring Joan Blondell as an inveterate horse player and Ernest Borgnine as her beleaguered husband. The film opens with Borgnine standing before judge Paul Lynde, trying to explain why his wife has disappeared. The police suspect foul play, offering as evidence the strained relationship of the couple and the debts incurred by Blondell's gambling. Only Borgnine knows (or thinks he knows) the incredible truth: wife Blondell has been magically transformed into a horse! The Blue-Eyed Horse was originally telecast on November 23, 1966, on the NBC anthology The Bob Hope Chrysler Theatre. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1964
Captain Wallace Binghamton (Joe FLynn), St. Comdr. Quinton McHale (Ernest Borgnine) and Ensign Charles Parker (Tim Conway) brought their wacky antics to the big screen for this feature, spawned from the popular '60 television program of the same name. McHale and his crew get involved in a betting scam aboard their PT boat. Soon, they find themselves owning money to a group of Marines. In order to pay off their debts, they plan a sure-fire way of making money--involving the transportation of a disguised racehorse on board their boat. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ernest Borgnine, Joe Flynn, (more)
This 1962 Biblical epic was adapted by Christopher Fry from the novel by Pär Lagerkvist. Anthony Quinn stars as Barabbas, the thief who was pardoned in place of Jesus. For the rest of his life, the guilt-ridden criminal tries to justify his existence and to determine his place in the scheme of things. Along the way he encounters the self-righteous pomposity of Pontius Pilate (Arthur Kennedy), the stoning of Sara (Katy Jurado), the gladiatorial sadism of Torvald (Jack Palance), and the burning of Rome. The film's unbilled Christ is played by Roy Magnano, the brother of Quinn's second-billed costar Silvia Mangano. Watch for the genuine solar eclipse during the Crucifixion sequence, an effect that director Richard Fleischer spent several days preparing for. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Quinn, Silvana Mangano, (more)
- 1961
This uneven but interesting drama by director and writer Renato Castellani tells the tale of a brigand and the people who become involved with him. Michele Rende (Adelmo di Fraia) is both a town legend and a hot-tempered young man who is thrown in prison after being accused of a murder he did not commit. Unwilling to submit to trial, Michele escapes and heads up into the hills, from which vantage point he helps poor farmers to carry out the illegal acquisition of unused farm lands. A local boy, Nino (Francesco Seminirao) has come to worship Michele like a real hero and later, Michele falls in love with Nino's sister. It is this last relationship that eventually leads to tragedy for all concerned. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- 1961
Gina Lollobrigida plays a Lady of the Evening who is wooed by wealthy young Anthony Franciosa. She leaves him in the dark concerning her checkered past. Alas, Franciosa's father Ernest Borgnine knows everything about Lollobrigida, and breaks the bad news to his son. Aghast at first, Franciosa is willing to forgive Lollobrigida. But since the Production Code was still tenuously in effect, Lollobrigida can't possibly enjoy a happy ending, so she obligingly kills herself. Based on a novel by Tom T. Chamales, Go Naked in the World was written and directed by Ranald MacDougall, and did you know that MacDougall was the husband of Nanette Fabray? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gina Lollobrigida, Anthony Franciosa, (more)
- 1961
An episodic, funny, though uneven spoof of human manners and foibles, this comedy by Vittorio de Sica begins in Naples when a disembodied voice announces to the city's residents "The Last Judgment will begin at 6:00 p.m." Naturally, not all are immediately willing to accept this statement -- but not for long. As comic vignettes unfold, the good citizens soon become even better as they try to undo past and present sins, just in case. There is a long list of top actors that show up briefly in the story, everyone from Alberto Sordi to Jimmy Durante, Melina Mercouri, Anouk Aimée, Vittorio Gassmann, and many, many others. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vittorio Gassman, Renato Rascel, (more)
- 1960
Based on real incidents in the life and death of Lt. Joseph Petrosino (Ernest Borgnine) of the New York police force, this tale set between 1906-1909 details the history of the lieutenant's fight to prove Sicilian Mafia involvement in crimes in his city. Lt. Petrosino has a series of dangerous close calls as he distinguishes himself by saving singer Enrico Caruso from a Mafia bomb outside the Metropolitan Opera, and by also saving the father of Adelina (Zohra Lampert) the woman he loves. Several other exploits eventually lead to Petrosino's trip to Sicily to nail evidence for the Mafia's activities in New York, and for a final meeting with destiny. This represented the last screen credit of scenarist Bertram Millhauser, who died in 1958; he had received his penultimate credit nine years before that, on the 1949 Tokyo Joe. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ernest Borgnine, Zohra Lampert, (more)
- 1960
An unexceptional spy drama by Andre De Toth, Man on a String is based on an autobiography by counterspy Boris Morros, here given the name of Boris Mitrov and played by Ernest Borgnine. Mitrov was born in Russia but had been a citizen of the U.S. for some time when he joins up with a Russian spy network. He is caught out by the CIA, and they offer him a deal: go to the USSR and spy for our side, or else. Boris' boss is Bob Avery (the handsome Kerwin Mathews) and Colleen Dewhurst is Helen Benson, the lone female in the story. Clichéd dialogue aside, the scenes shot in Moscow and Berlin add convincing realism to the action. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ernest Borgnine, Kerwin Mathews, (more)
