Touch of Evil is a 1958 American film noir written and directed by Orson Welles, who also stars in the film. The screenplay was loosely based on the contemporary Whit Masterson novel Badge of Evil (1956). The cast included Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Joseph Calleia, Akim Tamiroff, and Marlene Dietrich.
The year 1950 in film involved some significant events.
Strother Douglas Martin Jr. was an American character actor who often appeared in support of John Wayne and Paul Newman and in Western films directed by John Ford and Sam Peckinpah. Martin played the prison captain in the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke, in which he uttered the line, "What we've got here is failure to communicate." The line is number 11 on the American Film Institute list of 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes.
Broken Arrow is a 1950 American Western film directed by Delmer Daves and starring James Stewart, Jeff Chandler and Debra Paget. The film is based on historical figures but fictionalizes their story in dramatized form. It was nominated for three Academy Awards, and won a Golden Globe Award for Best Film Promoting International Understanding. Film historians have said that the movie was one of the first major Westerns since the Second World War to portray the Indians sympathetically.
Jeff Chandler was an American actor, film producer, and singer, best remembered for playing Cochise in Broken Arrow (1950), for which he was nominated for an Oscar. He was one of Universal Pictures' more popular male stars of the 1950s. His other credits include Sword in the Desert (1948), Deported (1950), Female on the Beach (1955), and Away All Boats (1956). In addition to his acting in film, he was known for his role in the radio program Our Miss Brooks and for his musical recordings.
A leading man is a complimentary term for the actor who is the primary male protagonist in a film, television show, or play, usually the main character who can be an action hero or any sort of man, often including a love interest to the leading lady. A leading man is sometimes an all-rounder; capable of being comical and/or heroic, singing, dancing, and acting at a professional level.
The Roots of Heaven is a 1958 American adventure film made for 20th Century Fox, directed by John Huston and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck. The screenplay by Romain Gary and Patrick Leigh Fermor is based on Romain Gary's 1956 Prix Goncourt-winning novel of the same name. The film stars Errol Flynn, Juliette Gréco, Trevor Howard, Eddie Albert, Orson Welles, Paul Lukas, Herbert Lom and Grégoire Aslan. Huston later said that Roots of Heaven "could have been a very fine film. And largely owing to me was not a good film at all."
Walter Reed was an American stage, film and television actor.
George Garfield Nader, Jr. was an American actor and writer. He appeared in a variety of films from 1950 to 1974, including Sins of Jezebel (1953), Congo Crossing (1956), and The Female Animal (1958). During this period, he also did episodic television and starred in several series, including NBC's The Man and the Challenge (1959–60). In the 1960s he made several films in Germany, playing FBI agent Jerry Cotton. He is remembered for his first starring role, in the low-budget 3-D sci-fi film Robot Monster (1953), known as "one of the worst films ever made".
"The Third Man Theme" is an instrumental written and performed by Anton Karas for the soundtrack to the 1949 film The Third Man.
Albert Zugsmith was an American film producer, film director and screenwriter who specialized in low-budget exploitation films through the 1950s and 1960s.
The Lady Takes a Flyer is a 1958 American CinemaScope Eastmancolor comedy-drama romance film released by Universal Pictures. It was directed by Jack Arnold and written by Danny Arnold based on a story by Edmund H. North.
Drango is a 1957 American Western film produced by Jeff Chandler's production company Earlmar Productions, written and directed by Hall Bartlett, and released by United Artists. Starring Chandler in the title role, the film also features Ronald Howard, Joanne Dru, Julie London and Donald Crisp. Set in the town of Kennesaw, Georgia in the months immediately following the American Civil War, the story depicts the efforts of a resolute Union Army officer who had participated in the town's destruction during Sherman's March determined to make amends.
The Tattered Dress is a 1957 CinemaScope film noir crime film released by Universal Pictures and directed by Jack Arnold. It stars Jeff Chandler, Jeanne Crain, Jack Carson, Gail Russell and Elaine Stewart.
Istanbul is a 1957 American CinemaScope film noir crime film directed by Joseph Pevney, and starring Errol Flynn and Cornell Borchers. It is a remake of the film Singapore, with the location of the action moved to Turkey. The plot involves an American pilot who becomes mixed up with various criminal activities in Istanbul.
Virgil William Vogel was an American television and film director. His career spanned nearly sixty years, directing episodes of Wagon Train, Bonanza, The Big Valley, and Mission: Impossible, among other series. He was earlier a film editor.
Sign of the Pagan is a 1954 American historical drama film directed by Douglas Sirk, shot in CinemaScope, and released by Universal Pictures. The film stars Jeff Chandler, Jack Palance, Ludmilla Tchérina, and Rita Gam.
Tip on a Dead Jockey is a 1957 American drama film directed by Richard Thorpe and starring Robert Taylor and Dorothy Malone. It is based on The New Yorker 1954 short story by Irwin Shaw.
This is a bibliography of books by or about the director and actor Orson Welles.
John Hugh Elliott was an American actor who appeared on Broadway and in over 300 films during his career. He worked sporadically during the silent film era, but with the advent of sound his career took off, where he worked constantly for 25 years, finding a particular niche in "B" westerns.
