André De Toth Movies

Director Adam Guzinski takes the helm for this post-apocalyptic short film concerning a group of boys led by a child who believes himself to be the Antichrist. As the leader of the group goads his peers into taking part in a series of potentially dangerous games, events quickly start to get out of hand. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

With the Civil War settled, New York could focus solely on the business of business and getting rich. Central Park finally became a true park instead of a shantytown, and "Boss Tweed" ran the city like his own private fiefdom, ultimately leading to the rise of righteous reformers such as Theodore Roosevelt. This is the third episode of the epic PBS documentary series about the "Big Apple." Topics covered include the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. The program takes the story of New York to the last years of the 19th century, a time when the city expanded well beyond the confines of Manhattan Island. Highlights include period photographs, archival paintings, and engravings, as well as commentary by numerous guests including Ruth J. Abram, founder of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum; novelist Caleb Carr (The Alienist), architect Robert A. M. Stern; writer Jean Strouse; and historian John Kuo Wei Tchen. Other features include dramatic readings by guests including Frances Sternhagen, Eli Wallach, and George Plimpton. Directed by Ric Burns and narrated by David Ogden Stiers. ~ Steve Blackburn, All Movie Guide

Calling Prohibition a "noble experiment," New York congressman Fiorello La Guardia then declared the law unenforceable. Throughout most of New York City, this was the correct assessment. This is the fifth episode of the epic PBS documentary series about the "Big Apple." Also covered in this program is the deportation of pacifist and anarchist Emma Goldman during the "Red Scare" of 1919; the horse-drawn wagon bombing of the Morgan Bank in 1920, which killed 30 people; the change of Harlem from a German-Jewish neighborhood to a mostly black one; the "Harlem Renaissance"; the "Jazz Age"; the rise of radio as entertainment; the invention of the Broadway musical; and the construction of the Empire State Building. Highlights include archival newsreel footage and photographs, as well as commentary from a variety of guests including historian David Levering Lewis, construction consultant Joel Silverman, architect Robert A.M. Stern, historian Ann Douglas, and historian Joshua Freeman. Directed by Ric Burns and narrated by David Ogden Stiers. ~ Steve Blackburn, All Movie Guide

In 1994, the British Film Institute commissioned a set of films to mark the centenary of the movies. They would trace the history of several national cinemas, and the BFI's choice for interpreting the history of American film fell to director Martin Scorsese, a longtime champion of film history and preservation. Scorsese's approach to his subject is director-centered, as he examines the tension inherent in the struggle of an artist wishing to make a personal statement against the collaborative nature of films and the commercial pressures of the Hollywood moviemaking factory. Segments of this series are devoted to the director as storyteller (examining narrative devices in the Western, gangster film, and musical), illusionist (technical tricks), smuggler (imbedding personal messages), and iconoclast (bucking the system to make films his own way). The series is replete with telling clips, not just snippets or shots, but entire scenes which illustrate Scorsese and co-director Michael Henry Wilson's points. Other filmmakers, including John Ford, Francis Ford Coppola, Billy Wilder, and Orson Welles, are seen in archival footage or interviews created for the series, offering their own take on the art of filmmaking. Scorsese doesn't discriminate between filmmakers with glossy reputations and those who always worked on the fringe of public awareness. If anything, he goes out of his way to champion mavericks like Samuel Fuller whose "visceral cinema" never enjoyed box-office success or awards. Personal Journey was first shown on British TV, released in limited fashion to theaters in the United States, and shown here on TV as well. A tie-in book was published in 1997 by Miramax Books; it contains the entire script for the series, excellent black-and-white stills, and dialogue from some of the clips. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide

Jim Brown and Lee Van Cleef team up for this western set on the Mexican border. Brown is Luke, who escapes from a chain gang after learning that a fortune in gold is hidden in the Mexican fortress of El Condor. He joins up with the snake-eyed crook Jaroo (Lee Van Cleef) and together they round up a tribe of Apaches, headed by Santana (Iron Eyes Cody), to attack the fort -- convincing the Indian renegades that the fort houses food and guns greatly needed by the Apaches. During their first crack at taking the fort, Luke and Jaroo are captured by the fort's commandant, Chavez (Patrick O'Neal). Claudine (Marianna Hall), the wife of the commandant, falls in love with Luke and she aids them in their escape from the fort. Later on, she is instrumental in getting Luke and Jaroo's band into the fort -- diverting the gaze of the fort's defenders by disrobing in front of a well-lit bedroom window. Chavez escapes, but Santana is shot by Jaroo after discovering that Jaroo deceived him. With Santana shot, the Apaches leave the fort, carrying the food and ammunition. Now the only ones left to defend the defenseless fort are Luke, Claudine, and Jaroo. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Harry Palmer (Michael Caine), the reluctant secret agent from The Ipcress File (1965) and Funeral in Berlin (1966) -- both (like the source for this movie) based on novels by Len Deighton -- is back again in Ken Russell's Billion Dollar Brain. Having left Britain's espionage service, Palmer is scraping out a living as a private investigator, but he's still willing to give his old boss Colonel Ross (Guy Doleman) the bum's rush out of his office when he comes calling, offering a raise and promotion if he'll return. But Palmer ends up working for Her Majesty's government anyway -- a letter arrives, with a key and money, and telephoned instructions by a mechanical voice connect him up with a carefully sealed parcel (filled with what an x-ray reveals as eggs) that he must transport to Helsinki. No sooner does he get there than he discovers that an old friend, Leo Newbigin (Karl Malden), and his young lover Anya (Françoise Dorléac) are behind the trip, and that the man who was supposed to receive the parcel is dead. The eggs contain dangerous viruses stolen from a secret British laboratory, and England wants them back and wants to know why they were stolen. That assignment immerses Palmer in a deadly game of deception, double-dealing, and triple-crosses on all sides, as he finds that Leo is working for a privately operated intelligence network, set up by a rabidly right-wing Texas oil man, General Midwinter (Ed Begley Sr.).

The billion-dollar super-computer of the title, built by Midwinter, runs a network of spies and assassins aimed at the destruction of the Soviet Union. That interests Palmer's old friend, Soviet security chief Colonel Stok (Oskar Homolka, in an almost movie-stealing performance), very much, and he, too, wants to know what Palmer knows. And then there's Leo, who has taken millions from Midwinter, supposedly to establish a secret underground in Latvia, waiting for the signal to rise up against the Soviets occupying their country that will spread across the Baltics and beyond and bring down the Soviet government. He's taken the money, but all Harry find when he goes into Latvia is motley bunch of broken-down black marketeers whose orders are to kill him and make it look like the work of the Soviets. And there's Anya, who is sleeping with Leo, trying to seduce Harry, and seems to have an agenda all her own, but in whose interest? If it's all a little confusing, so was the book on which it was based, but there's enough striking visual material, courtesy of cinematographer Billy Williams, and engrossing performances (and a wry sensibility), courtesy of director Ken Russell and screenwriter John McGrath, that the leaps in plot, logic, and setting don't matter that much, and it is great fun. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Steve Reeves trades sandals and togas for the frilly, functional outfits common to 17th-century buccaneers in Morgan the Pirate. As the real-life Sir Henry Morgan, Reeves is sold into slavery and forced to work on a Panama plantation. He is purchased by haughty Valerie Lagrange; they fall in love, and as punishment Reeves is condemned to toil in the galley of a Spanish vessel. He leads an escape, overtakes the ship, and establishes himself as a pirate captain. In true Captain Blood fashion, he eventually catches up with his former amour LaGrange, laying waste to most of Panama in the process. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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

This WWII espionage drama is based on the true tale of a British spy, as told in the story by J. Alvin Kugelmass. Alex Schottland (Jack Hawkins) is a career agent for England, having served during WWI. He is assigned to Nazi Germany and rises to the rank of general as WWII breaks out. His contact is Cornaz (Felix Alymer), who pretends to be a clock seller. But Cornaz's identity is discovered, and he is brutally murdered. Schottland overcomes suspicions and makes contacts with a new British agent, Lili Geyr (Gia Scala), who is a nightclub singer. His love for her is first feigned as part of the spy game -- then becomes real. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

The painfully true story of welterweight boxing champion Barney Ross is detailed in Monkey on My Back. Cameron Mitchell stars as Ross, whose meteoric ring career is interrupted when he joins the Marines at the outset of WWII. A highly decorated hero, Ross contracts malaria oversees and is given morphine to assuage the pain. By the time he returns to the states, Ross is a confirmed drug addict. Before he can rise to the top again, he must hit rock bottom and his descent into the hell of narcotics dependency is graphically illustrated (so much so that the film was almost denied a Production Code seal). Though a cured Barney Ross served as technical advisor for Monkey on My Back, he ended up suing the producers for defamation of character -- and lost. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A car with two men visible in it pulls up to a Los Angeles service station at night, with a single attendant (Dub Taylor) working. As he starts to pump the gas, he doesn't see the third man come around the side until it's too late and he's knocked cold. The trio carries out their robbery but before they can finish, a motorcycle cop rolls up. A gun battle ensues, and one of the robbers is shot, as is the police officer. Now a manhunt is on for the trio, all escapees from San Quentin who were making their way south; the other two give the wounded man enough money to get to the apartment of a former cellmate of one of them, Steve Lacey (Gene Nelson). But Lacey is genuinely trying to go straight and live a clean, honest life with his wife, Ellen (Phyllis Kirk), and wants nothing to do with anyone he knew in prison, or with harboring an escaped prisoner. He's even more unhappy when Dr. Otto Hessler (Jay Novello), another ex-con and a veterinarian, arrives to treat the gunshot victim. But when the hood dies, matters get even more complicated -- Lacey's life becomes a nightmare as the police arrive, led by the hardboiled Det. Sgt. Sims (Sterling Hayden), who doesn't believe that any hood ever goes straight. Sims doesn't believe that Lacey's claim of knowing nothing of the escapees, and is ready to send him back to prison on a parole violation -- even though his parole officer (James Bell) believes him -- when he won't cooperate. And worse still, the other two escapees, Doc Penny (Ted de Corsia) and Ben Hastings (Charles Buchinsky, aka Charles Bronson), force their way into Lacey's home, insisting on hiding out there and threatening Ellen. And as they're now a man short, they want Steve's help on a major heist they're planning -- and will kill Ellen if he doesn't cooperate. Soon Lacey is up to his neck in a daylight bank robbery, timed to the minute, and his wife is at the mercy of a mentally deficient, sexually deviant confederate (Timothy Carey), while the police still seem to be following every trail but the right one. Steve realizes that he is the only one who is going to be able to save himself or his wife from this nightmare, and isn't convinced that he'll get out of it alive -- but by then, between being put on him by Sims and his unwanted companions, he's prepared to die in order to save Ellen. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Despite its title, Tanganyika was largely filmed in the wilds of Universal City. Set in 1900, the film stars Van Heflin as safari guide John Gale, hired to launch a manhunt for the murderous Abel McCracken (Jeff Morrow). Deep in the territory controlled by the Nukumbi tribe, McCracken has been using the natives for his own reign of terror agains the British settlers of Tanganyika. Along for the chase are McCracken's honest brother Dan (Howard Duff), schoolmarm Peggy (Ruth Roman), and two precocious kids (Noreen Corcoran, Gregory Marshall). Gale's motives have nothing to do with justice, or even the charms of Peggy; he hopes to stake a claim on a piece of valuable African real estate. A climactic man-to-man battle between Gale and McCracken brings the proceedings to a rousing conclusion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide