Frank De Kova
Biography: Frank DeKova parlayed a sinister scowl, piercing eyes and an all-around menacing attitude into a long career of playing cold-blooded trigger-men, rampaging Indian chiefs, brutal Mexican army officers and the like. So it would probably come as a shock to those who know his work to discover that, before he became an actor, he was--of all things--a schoolteacher. Born in New York in 1910, DeKova gave up teaching for the stage, and played in many Shakespearean productions before getting work on Broadway. One of his first starring roles was in the classic detective play "Detective Story", which got him noticed and brought to Hollywood. He debuted in Viva Zapata! (1952) as the devious Mexican colonel who sets up Zapata's assassination. For the next several years he played an assortment of gangsters, killers, gunfighters and Indians--with time out to play a prehistoric patriarch in Roger Corman's campy Teenage Cave Man (1958)--and did much television work, including a standout job as a Mafia hit-man assigned to kill Elliot Ness in Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse: The Untouchables: Part 1 (1959). The role for which he will be most remembered, however, is probably the one that was his most atypical: the scheming, somewhat untrustworthy but very funny Hekawi Chief Wild Eagle, the partner to Forrest Tucker's Sgt. O'Rourke in O'Rourke's various schemes to make money, in the western comedy series F Troop (1965). He showed a previously unknown talent for comedy and managed to steal most of the scenes he was in from such veterans as Tucker and Larry Storch. He died in his sleep in 1981.
Place of Birth: Not available
Birthday: March 17, 1910
Deathday: October 15, 1981
Popularity:
Known For
The Greatest Story Ever Told
1965-04-09
The Greatest Story Ever Told
Overview: From his birth in Bethlehem to his death and eventual resurrection, the life of Jesus Christ is given the all-star treatment in this epic retelling. Major aspects of Christ's life are touched upon, including the execution of all the newborn males in Egypt by King Herod; Christ's baptism by John the Baptist; and the betrayal by Judas after the Last Supper that eventually leads to Christ's crucifixion and miraculous return.
Genres: Drama History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1965-04-09
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Kiss of Death
1947-08-27
Kiss of Death
Overview: An ex-con trying to go straight must face a crazed criminal out for revenge.
Genres: Crime Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1947-08-27
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Heavy Traffic
1973-08-08
Heavy Traffic
Overview: An "underground" cartoonist contends with life in the inner city, where various unsavory characters serve as inspiration for his artwork.
Genres: Animation Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1973-08-08
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The Jayhawkers!
1959-10-15
The Jayhawkers!
Overview: Before the U.S. Civil War rebel leader Luke Darcy sees himself as leader of a new independent Republic of Kansas but the military governor sends an ex-raider to capture Darcy.
Genres: Action Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1959-10-15
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The Ten Commandments
1956-10-05
The Ten Commandments
Overview: Escaping death, a Hebrew infant is raised in a royal household to become a prince. Upon discovery of his true heritage, Moses embarks on a personal quest to reclaim his destiny as the leader and liberator of the Hebrew people.
Genres: Drama History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-10-05
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Hey Good Lookin'
1982-10-01
Hey Good Lookin'
Overview: An outrageous, affectionate look at coming of age in the Eisenhower era in Brooklyn.
Genres: Animation Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1982-10-01
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Split Second
1953-05-02
Split Second
Overview: Escaped convicts hold hostages in a ghost town targeted for a nuclear bomb test.
Genres: Drama Thriller Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1953-05-02
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Holiday for Sinners
1952-07-25
Holiday for Sinners
Overview: Three old friends reunite during Mardi Gras and try to forget their problems.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1952-07-25
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Atlantis: The Lost Continent
1961-05-03
Atlantis: The Lost Continent
Overview: A Greek Fisherman brings an Atlantean Princess back to her homeland which is the mythical city of Atlantis. He is enslaved for his trouble. The King is being manipulated by an evil sorcerer who is bent on using a natural resource of Atlantis to take over the world. The Atlanteans, or rather the slaves of Atlantis, are forced to mine a crystalline material which absorbs the suns rays. These crystals can then be used for warmth. The misuse of science has created weapons out of the crystals that can fire a heat ray to destroy whatever it touches.
Genres: Adventure Fantasy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1961-05-03
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American Pop
1981-02-13
American Pop
Overview: The history of American popular music runs parallel with the history of a Russian Jewish immigrant family, with each male descendant possessing different musical abilities.
Genres: Animation Music Drama History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1981-02-13
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The Slams
1973-09-26
The Slams
Overview: Rival prison factions surround a Los Angeles convict who has $1.5 million stashed on the outside.
Genres: Action Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1973-09-26
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Crossfire
1975-03-24
Crossfire
Overview: Vince Rossi is a cop who has been asked by the department to go undercover. Part of the process was being dismissed from the department and being branded a dirty cop. And his first job is to go after a mob boss.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1975-03-24
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Those Calloways
1965-01-28
Those Calloways
Overview: Story of Cam Calloway and his family, who live in a densely wooded area in New England. Cam dreams of building a sanctuary for the geese that fly over the area each year, and he tries several schemes to buy a nearby lake for this santuary. He is thwarted at every attempt, it seems; he and his son try to get enough furs from their trapping venture to get the money, but the bottom falls out of the fur market. He uses the little money they get for a down payment on the lake, thereby losing their house when he can't make the mortgage payment. They move to the lake, where their friends help them build a cabin. A salesman stops in town, and tries to get the people to sell their land for a tourist venture; Cam is outraged at his tactics and takes desperate measures after he himself is tricked.
Genres: Drama Family
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1965-01-28
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The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond
1960-02-03
The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond
Overview: Jack Diamond and his sickly brother arrive in prohibition New York as jewelry thieves. After a spell in jail, the coldly ambitious Diamond hits on the idea of stealing from thieves himself and sets about getting close to gangster boss Arnold Rothstein to move in on his booze, girls, gambling, and drugs operations.
Genres: Crime History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1960-02-03
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Shack Out on 101
1955-12-04
Shack Out on 101
Overview: A greasy spoon diner provides a base for a spy smuggling nuclear secrets.
Genres: Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1955-12-04
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Machine-Gun Kelly
1958-05-01
Machine-Gun Kelly
Overview: George Kelly is angry at the world and scared to death of dying. A career bank robber, Kelly gets his confidence from his Thompson SMG and his girl Flo. After a botched robbery, Flo, Kelly and his gang try their hand at a more lucrative job: kidnapping.
Genres: Crime Action
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1958-05-01
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The Brothers Karamazov
1958-02-20
The Brothers Karamazov
Overview: Ryevsk, Russia, 1870. Tensions abound in the Karamazov family. Fyodor is a wealthy libertine who holds his purse strings tightly. His four grown sons include Dmitri, the eldest, an elegant officer, always broke and at odds with his father, betrothed to Katya, herself lovely and rich. The other brothers include a sterile aesthete, a factotum who is a bastard, and a monk. Family tensions erupt when Dmitri falls in love with one of his father's mistresses, the coquette Grushenka. Two brothers see Dmitri's jealousy of their father as an opportunity to inherit sooner. Acts of violence lead to the story's conclusion: trials of honor, conscience, forgiveness, and redemption.
Genres: Drama History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1958-02-20
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Arrowhead
1953-08-03
Arrowhead
Overview: Director Charles Marquis Warren's 1953 western stars Charlton Heston and Jack Palance. Chief of Scouts Ed Bannon works for the US Army at Fort Clark, Texas and he dreams of aiding in bringing peace to the region, despite opposition from both the Army and the Apaches.
Genres: Action Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1953-08-03
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Day of the Outlaw
1959-07-01
Day of the Outlaw
Overview: Blaise Starrett is a rancher at odds with homesteaders when outlaws hold up the small town. The outlaws are held in check only by their notorious leader, but he is diagnosed with a fatal wound and the town is a powder keg waiting to blow.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1959-07-01
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Appointment with a Shadow
1957-09-01
Appointment with a Shadow
Overview: George Nader plays a reporter whose career is ruined by liquor. A comeback opportunity presents itself when Nader is a bystander at the arrest of a well-known criminal.
Genres: Crime Drama Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1957-09-01
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The Sword of Ali Baba
1965-04-01
The Sword of Ali Baba
Overview: Supposedly up to 70 percent of this feature was taken from the 1944 Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. Frank Puglia as Prince Cassim remains from the 21-year-old footage.
Genres: Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1965-04-01
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King of the Khyber Rifles
1953-12-23
King of the Khyber Rifles
Overview: Freshly arrived Sandhurst-trained Captain Alan King, better versed in Pashtun then any of the veterans and born locally as army brat, survives an attack on his escort to his Northwest Frontier province garrison near the Khyber pass because of Ahmed, a native Afridi deserter from the Muslim fanatic rebel Karram Khan's forces. As soon as his fellow officers learn his mother was a native Muslim which got his parents disowned even by their own families, he falls prey to stubborn prejudiced discrimination, Lieutenant Geoffrey Heath even moves out of their quarters, except from half-Irish Lt. Ben Baird.
Genres: Adventure Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1953-12-23
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The Man from Laramie
1955-08-19
The Man from Laramie
Overview: Will Lockhart arrives in Coronado, an isolated town in New Mexico, in search of someone who sells rifles to the Apache tribe, finding himself unwillingly drawn into the convoluted life of a local ranching family whose members seem to have a lot to hide.
Genres: Drama Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1955-08-19
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Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes
1974-11-01
Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes
Overview: In 1950s Harlem a vicious Italian gangster (Frank deKova) tries to muscle in on a black racketeer's (Paul Harris) numbers game.
Genres: Thriller Action Crime Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1974-11-01
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Johnny Firecloud
1975-08-01
Johnny Firecloud
Overview: An American Indian war veteran avenges the hanging of his grandfather by local thugs.
Genres: Drama Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1975-08-01
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The Don Is Dead
1973-11-14
The Don Is Dead
Overview: After his mistress is murdered, a Mafia leader goes after the killer with a bloody vengeance. Soon after the hunt begins, a gang war ensues.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1973-11-14
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Raiders of the Seven Seas
1953-05-27
Raiders of the Seven Seas
Overview: After staging a mutiny and commandeering his own ship, famed pirate Barbarossa (John Payne) takes hostage a spirited Spanish noblewoman named Alida (Donna Reed), intending to trade her to her fiancé, Capt. Jose Salcedo (Gerald Mohr), for a handsome ransom. But Barbarossa falls in love with Alida, who meanwhile discovers that the roguish swashbuckler is more honorable than her erstwhile betrothed.
Genres: Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1953-05-27
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Teenage Cave Man
1958-07-01
Teenage Cave Man
Overview: Roger Corman's post-holocaust quickie about an adolescent tribesman who dares to explore the feared "forbidden zone."
Genres: Adventure Science Fiction
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1958-07-01
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The Lone Ranger
1956-02-25
The Lone Ranger
Overview: The territorial governor asks the Lone Ranger to investigate mysterious raids on settlers by Indians who ride with saddles. Wealthy rancher Reese Kilgore wants to mine silver on Spirit Mountain which is sacred to the Indians.
Genres: Adventure Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-02-25
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Pillars of the Sky
1956-09-14
Pillars of the Sky
Overview: First Sergeant Emmett Bell faces off with Apache chieftain Kamiakin in this nuanced portrayal of racial tensions between Native Americans and white settlers in 1860s Oregon Country.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-09-14
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Drum Beat
1954-11-10
Drum Beat
Overview: President Grant orders Indian fighter MacKay to negotiate with the Modocs of northern California and southern Oregon. On the way he must escort Nancy Meek to the home of her aunt and uncle. After Modoc renegade Captain Jack engages in ambush and other atrocities, MacKay must fight him one-on-one with guns, knives and fists.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1954-11-10
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The White Squaw
1956-11-01
The White Squaw
Overview: A Swedish settler starts a war when he tries to drive Dakotas off their Wyoming reservation.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-11-01
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Johnny Moccasin
1956-06-06
Johnny Moccasin
Overview: Johnny Moccasin a white teenage boy is raised by an Indian tribe after his parents are killed in a wagon train massacre.
Genres: Western TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-06-06
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The Big Sky
1952-08-19
The Big Sky
Overview: Two tough Kentucky mountaineers join a trading expedition from St. Louis up the Missouri River to trade whisky for furs with the Blackfoot Indians. They soon discover that there is much more than the elements to contend with.
Genres: Adventure Western Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1952-08-19
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Reprisal!
1956-11-02
Reprisal!
Overview: New ranch owner Frank Madden, half Indian but posing as white, arrives just as an all white jury finds the three white Shipley brothers who lynched three Indians innocent. There is soon trouble between Frank and the Shipleys who are using Frank's land to graze their cattle. When the brother of one of the Indian victims kills a Shipley, Frank is accused and put in jail. The Shipleys then organize a lynch mob and head for the jail.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-11-02
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Santiago
1956-07-13
Santiago
Overview: Two American gun runners at odds with each other and looking to sell guns to the rebels during the Cuban War of Independence navigate a boat to Cuba. Along for the ride is a beautiful Cuban rebel in who both men are interested.
Genres: Adventure Action
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-07-13
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Fighter Attack
1953-11-29
Fighter Attack
Overview: World War II film set in German occupied Italy. A US fighter pilot is shot down in enemy territory during a raid against a German supply depot. He receives from Italian partisans in laying the groundwork for a new attack by his squadron.
Genres: War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1953-11-29
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The Desert Song
1953-05-30
The Desert Song
Overview: Shiek Yousseff, poses as a friend of the French while secretly plotting to overthrow them. Apposing Yousseff are the Riffs, whose secret leader, The Red Shadow, is Paul Bonnard, a professor who is studying the desert, and whose attacks on the supply trains intended for Yousseff keep the Riff villages in food. Foreign Legion General Birabeau arrives to conduct an investigation, accompanied by his daughter, Margot. Birabeau hires Bonnard to tutor her, and she is attracted to a Legionaire captain, Claud Fontaine. While the general, Bonnard and Fontaine pay a visit to Yousseff, an American newspaper man, Benji Kidd, discovers a secret way in and out of Yousseff's palace, with the aid of Azuri, a dancing girl in love with Bonnard. The latter is forced to resume his role as the Riffs leader, and kidnap Margot until he can convince her of Yousseff's treachery. But Yousseff's men attack the Riff camp and take Margot prisoner.
Genres: Music Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1953-05-30
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All the Brothers Were Valiant
1953-11-13
All the Brothers Were Valiant
Overview: In the South Pacific islands, two brothers, one good and one bad, fight over the same girl and over a bag of pearls.
Genres: Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1953-11-13
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Hold Back Tomorrow
1955-11-01
Hold Back Tomorrow
Overview: A condemned murderer, scheduled to hang in the morning, asks for the company of a woman in his final hours.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1955-11-01
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Cowboy
1958-01-23
Cowboy
Overview: Chicago hotel clerk Frank Harris dreams of life as a cowboy, and he gets his chance when, jilted by the father of the woman he loves, he joins Tom Reece and his cattle-driving outfit. Soon, though, the tenderfoot finds out life on the range is neither what he expected nor what he's been looking for...
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1958-01-23
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Cat in the Cage
1978-08-02
Cat in the Cage
Overview: A young man returns to his rich family's estate after a stay in a mental hospital. He finds that his father has married his deceased wife's nurse, who is secretly plotting with her lover
Genres: Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1978-08-02
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Strange Lady in Town
1955-04-12
Strange Lady in Town
Overview: Julia Garth, a female doctor, plans to introduce modern techniques of medicine to old Santa Fe in 1880, but is opposed by an established doctor, Rourke O'Brien.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1955-04-12
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Follow That Dream
1962-04-11
Follow That Dream
Overview: When the Kwimper family car runs out of fuel on a new Florida highway and an officious state supervisor tries to run them off, Pop Kwimper digs in his heels and decides to do a little homesteading. He and his son Toby and their 'adopted' children—Holly, Ariadne, and the twins—start their own little community along a strip of the roadside.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1962-04-11
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They Rode West
1954-12-04
They Rode West
Overview: A young cavalry doctor treats very sick Indians against orders, whom are forced to stay on unhealthy land, which could lead to a war.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1954-12-04
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Passion
1954-10-06
Passion
Overview: In old Spanish California, dashing cattleman Juan Obregon returns to the rancho of his friend Gaspar Melo, to find he's fathered a son on Rosa, one of Gaspar's identical twin daughters. Overjoyed, he plans to formalize his "unofficial" marriage. But trouble brews; Melo's land is of unclear title and the new Don Domingo hopes to grab it for his own profit. Violence results. Without even knowing who survived, Juan (accompanied by Rosa's tomboy sister Tonya) rides for revenge, through spectacular pastoral and wilderness scenery.
Genres: Adventure Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1954-10-06
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Ride Out for Revenge
1957-10-31
Ride Out for Revenge
Overview: When an Indian chief is murdered in a hateful town, a sympathizing ex marshal tries to stop the Indians from attacking for revenge.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1957-10-31
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Run of the Arrow
1957-09-05
Run of the Arrow
Overview: When the South loses the war, Confederate veteran O'Meara goes West, joins the Sioux, takes a wife and refuses to be an American but he must choose a side when the Sioux go to war against the U.S. Army.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1957-09-05
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Apache Territory
1958-09-01
Apache Territory
Overview: Logan Cates sets out to rescue a white woman captured by Apache Indians and prevent a war. On the way he is joined by a few civilians and a small band of soldiers at a water hole. They are ambushed and laid siege to by Apache. As their food and water supplies dwindle a storm arrives which enables Cates to put an escape plan into action.
Genres: Action Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1958-09-01
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The Wild Country
1970-12-16
The Wild Country
Overview: Uprooted from their comfortable home in Pennsylvania, James and Kate Tanner, along with their sons, Virgil and Andy, journey to the wild country of 1890s Wyoming to become farmers. Soon, they come face-to-face with tornadoes, bears and wolves. But through the hardships their love for each other endures, even when a local rancher sees the newcomers as "squatters" on his land, and will stop at nothing – including murder – to drive them out.
Genres: Adventure Family Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1970-12-16
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Mafia on the Bounty
1980-03-07
Mafia on the Bounty
Overview: A mob boss' plan to rub out his competition runs into trouble when his boat is attacked by a group of gay rights activists whose leader believes he is the legendary Captain Bligh .
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1980-03-07
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The Mechanic
1972-10-06
The Mechanic
Overview: Arthur Bishop is a veteran hit man who, owing to his penchant for making his targets' deaths seem like accidents, thinks himself an artist. It's made him very rich, but as he hits middle age, he's so depressed and lonely that he takes on one of his victim's sons, Steve McKenna, as his apprentice. Arthur puts him through a rigorous training period and brings him on several hits. As Steven improves, Arthur worries that he'll discover who killed his father.
Genres: Action Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1972-10-06
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The Legend of the Boy and the Eagle
1967-06-21
The Legend of the Boy and the Eagle
Overview: Eagles are the channel to the spirit world for a Hopi Indian boy who defies tribal law and frees a sacred, sacrificial eagle. He is banished from his village to the wilderness, but the eagle teaches him hunting skills and cares for him. He eventually returns, only to be bullied and taunted by the other village boys.
Genres: Adventure Family
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1967-06-21
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Coonskin
1975-08-20
Coonskin
Overview: Brother Rabbit, Brother Bear, and Preacher Fox rise to the top of the crime ranks in Harlem by going up against a con-man, a racist cop, and the Mafia.
Genres: Drama Animation Comedy Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1975-08-20
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Not One Shall Die
1957-01-01
Not One Shall Die
Overview: A short film by the United Jewish Appeal, directed by David Lowell Rich and starring Guy Madison, Felicia Farr and Agnes Moorehead, made by the core crew of many Columbia noirs, including cinematographer Burnett Guffey, art director Cary Odell, editor Al Clark, set decorator Frank Tuttle, and composer Morris Stoloff.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1957-01-01
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Valley of the Kings
1954-07-21
Valley of the Kings
Overview: Hard-boiled archeologist Mark Brandon is searching for ancient tombs in Egypt when he is approached by beautiful Ann Mercedes, who convinces him to help her fulfill her deceased father's life's ambition - to provide solid proof of the biblical Joseph's travels in ancient Egypt. As an ex-pupil of Ann's father, Mark accepts and the two embark on a search for the tomb of the Pharoah Ra Hotep, said to have had some connection with Joseph. The trail to the tomb is fraught with intrigue, betrayal, murder, and the possibility that the tomb itself has been emptied of all its artifacts by ancient looters.
Genres: Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1954-07-21
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