Man on a String | |
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Directed by | André De Toth (as Andre De Toth) |
Screenplay by |
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Based on | My Ten Years as a Counterspy by Boris Morros with Charles Samuels |
Produced by | Louis de Rochemont |
Starring | |
Cinematography |
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Edited by | Al Clark |
Music by | George Duning |
Color process | Black and white |
Production company | RD-DR Productions |
Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 93 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Man on a String is a 1960 American spy thriller directed by Andre de Toth and starring Ernest Borgnine and Kerwin Mathews. [1] It was the last film that DeToth directed in the United States.
A government intelligence agency in Washington, D.C. wants agent Frank Sanford to follow Boris Mitrov, a film producer who appears to also be a Russian spy. Helen and Adrian Benson, a wealthy American couple with a home in Beverly Hills and a film studio, are communist sympathizers as well, in league with Colonel Vadja Kubelov, the top KGB man in the U.S.
Boris's office is bugged by his assistant, Bob Avery, a plant who is working for the Americans. Now that he has been caught red-handed, Boris is willing to turn double agent, going to Berlin under the pretense of making a documentary film there.
Helen is having an affair with Kubelov, but the Bensons' home has been bugged and they try to flee to Mexico. In the meantime, Boris is sent to Moscow to be entrusted with a new assignment, so Avery gives him a code word ("cinerama") to use should he find himself in danger.
Upon learning that Adrian intends to publicly expose Boris and Kubelov, Avery is able to alert Boris to return to Germany as soon as possible. A checkpoint is closed, but Boris shoots a police officer and escapes safely to West Berlin, only to end up in a fight for his life with a Russian assassin.
Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic wrote: "The dialogue and characterizations in this picture cripple the putative truth of the message it intends to deliver. This Grade C melodrama may exist in life, but that is insufficient excuse for it in art." [2]
Man on a String was released on DVD by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on March 4, 2011 via its DVD-on-demand system available through Amazon. [3]
Ernest Borgnine was an American actor whose career spanned over six decades. He was noted for his gruff but relaxed voice and gap-toothed Cheshire Cat grin. A popular performer, he also appeared as a guest on numerous talk shows and as a panelist on several game shows.
"Boy-Scoutz 'n the Hood" is the eighth episode of the fifth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 18, 1993. In the episode, Bart, intoxicated from an all-syrup Squishee, mistakenly joins the Junior Campers, a Boy Scout-style organization. Homer and Bart join a father-son rafting trip which goes awry when they are stranded at sea.
Boris Morros was an American Communist Party member, Soviet agent, and FBI double agent. He also worked at Paramount Pictures, where he produced films as well as supervising their music department.
Philadelphia, Here I Come! is a 1964 play by Irish dramatist Brian Friel. Set in the fictional town of Ballybeg, County Donegal, the play launched Friel onto the international stage. The play was first staged at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin on September 28, 1964.
Endre Antal Miksa de Toth, known as Andre de Toth, was a Hungarian-American film director, born and raised in Makó, Austria-Hungary.
André Hunebelle was a French maître verrier and film director.
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Kerwin Mathews was an American actor best known for playing the titular heroes in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), The Three Worlds of Gulliver (1960), and Jack the Giant Killer (1962).
Jack the Giant Killer is a 1962 American heroic fantasy adventure film starring Kerwin Mathews in a fairy tale story about a young man who defends a princess against a sorcerer's giants and demons.
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Ravagers is a 1979 American science fiction action film directed by Richard Compton and based on the 1966 novel Path to Savagery by Robert Edmond Alter. The screenplay concerns survivors of a nuclear holocaust, who do what they can to protect themselves against ravagers, a mutated group of vicious marauders who terrorize the few remaining civilized inhabitants.
The Stranger Wore a Gun is a 1953 American Western film directed by Andre de Toth and starring Randolph Scott and Claire Trevor. Based on the short story "Yankee Gold" by John W. Cunningham, the film is about a war criminal wanted for the slaughter of women and children who moves to Arizona to join a gold robbery but reconsiders and decides to change his life. The film is one of the first 3-D western movies; it earned an estimated $1.6 million at the North American box office in 1953. The supporting cast includes Joan Weldon, George Macready, Alfonso Bedoya, Lee Marvin, and Ernest Borgnine.
Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 2 is a Blu-ray and DVD box set by Warner Home Video released on October 16, 2012. It contains 50 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons and numerous supplements. Disc 3 is exclusive to the Blu-ray version of the set. Unlike Volume 1, which was released in a digibook, Volume 2 was released in a standard 1 movie case. This release was followed by Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 3
McHale's Navy is a 1964 American technicolor comedy film based on the 1962–1966 black and white television sitcom McHale's Navy starring Ernest Borgnine, Tim Conway and Joe Flynn, which had in turn originated with a one-hour anthology drama starring Borgnine entitled Seven Against the Sea. The film version was directed by series producer Edward Montagne and its supporting cast includes Carl Ballantine, Gavin MacLeod, Jean Willes, Claudine Longet, and George Kennedy. The film was followed by a sequel entitled McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force which did not feature Borgnine or Carl Ballantine. A remake entitled McHale's Navy, was released in 1997 and features an appearance by Ernest Borgnine playing a 75-year old McHale. The filming location for New Caledonia is the same as the one used in the series. For more information on the main characters see the TV series McHale's Navy. The movie was released on DVD for Region 1 on January 31, 2011.
Gummibärchen küßt man nicht is a 1989 West German comedy film. Despite featuring mainly American actors, the film was never released outside of Germany.
Pan-Americana is a 1945 American romantic comedy film produced and directed by John H. Auer, from a screenplay by Lawrence Kimble, based on a story by Auer and Frederick Kohner. RKO released the film on March 22, 1945, and the picture stars Phillip Terry, Audrey Long, Robert Benchley, Eve Arden, Ernest Truex, Marc Cramer, and Jane Greer (uncredited) in her feature film debut. The film was an example of the Good Neighbor policy encouraging Americans to travel to South America for holidays and the last of a film genre.
Events in 1917 in animation.