When illegal card dealer and recovering heroin addict Frankie Machine gets out of prison, he decides to straighten up. Armed with nothing but an old drum set, Frankie tries to get honest work as a drummer. But when his former employer and his old drug dealer re-enter his life, Frankie finds it hard to stay clean and eventually finds himself succumbing to his old habits.
Two different social classes collide when Cary Scott, a wealthy upper-class widow, falls in love with her much younger and down-to-earth gardener, prompting disapproval and criticism from her children and country club friends.
One evening, Hammer gives a ride to Christina, an attractive hitchhiker on a lonely country road, who has escaped from the nearby lunatic asylum. Thugs waylay them and force his car to crash. When Hammer returns to semi-consciousness, he hears Christina being tortured until she dies. Hammer, both for vengeance and in hopes that "something big" is behind it all, decides to pursue the case.
A confession to a priest from a thief leads to the priest's life being threatened by his gang.
Pseudonym Dr. Falke follows his wife through disguises and deceptions in postwar Vienna.
A description of placer gold mining in the Yukon. East of Dawson City giant dredges cut deep into the creek beds, leaving behind monstrous coils of waste as the gold-bearing gravel is washed. The film shows how gold is trapped and hand-sorted, finally to emerge as precious gold brick.
Paolo Anselmi is a happily single man. He lives in a flat with a friend but is forced to leave when the friend gets married. He then goes to a boarding house where he flirts with a girl but ditches her when she proposes marriage. When he goes and visits his mother he finds out that she is also trying to find the right girl for him. Is he going to surrender this time?
Accountant and would-be song-writer Willy inadvertently gets into a live TV game show and is tasked with finding, presenting and performing with a motley band of six amateur musicians within 90 minutes.
The life story of a salt-of-the-earth Irish immigrant, who becomes an Army Noncommissioned Officer and spends his 50 year career at the United States Military Academy at West Point. This includes his job-related experiences as well as his family life and the relationships he develops with young cadets with whom he befriends. Based on the life of a real person.
The first manned spacecraft, fired from an English launchpad, is first lost from radar, then roars back to Earth and crashes in a farmer's field, and is found to contain only one of the three men who took off in it; and he is unable to talk but appears to be undergoing a torturous physical and mental metamorphosis.
Fumiko, mother of two children and wife of an unfaithful man, shares her family life with her budding vocation as a poet. The beginning of her successful literary career coincides with her divorce and her breast cancer diagnosis. In the last stage of her life, she meets a young journalist from Tokyo who wants to write a story on her life.
A struggling painter begins taking inspiration from the dreams of his friend and roommate, a comic book fan who narrates an adventure story while he sleeps, but unbeknownst to the latter, the artist of his favorite comic book lives in the same building as they do with the model for her drawings.
Three World War II buddies promise to meet at a specified place and time 10 years after the war. They keep their word only to discover how far apart they've grown. But the reunion sparks memories of youthful dreams that haven't been fulfilled -- and slowly, the three men reevaluate their lives and try to find a way to renew their friendship.
Japan, 1137. The Taira family, a samurai clan, becomes involved in the disputes between Emperor Toba and the monks of Mount Hiei.
A swashbuckling heritage reveals itself as the adopted son of 19th-century Spaniards develops into a suave lady-killer.
Two female agents from a rival gang are sent to disrupt the operations of a gold-smuggler's caravan in Africa.
Nineteenth-century Paris comes vibrantly alive in Jean Renoir’s exhilarating tale of the opening of the world-renowned Moulin Rouge. Jean Gabin plays the wily impresario Danglard, who makes the cancan all the rage while juggling the love of two beautiful women—an Egyptian belly-dancer and a naive working girl turned cancan star.
A cash-strapped electrical engineer with a criminal past vows to go straight when he marries his longtime girlfriend, but he has second thoughts when the mob offers big money for his wiretapping services.
This was the first attempt by Warner Brothers to make the movie classic into a series. It was part of a revolving group of shows that included Kings Row on a show called Warner Brothers Presents.
Soldiers of Fortune is a 1955 syndicated half hour American television adventure series. It starred John Russell as Tim Kelly and Chick Chandler as his sidekick Toubo Smith who were international adventurers. Each episode would take place in a different country. Many of the film crew had worked at Republic Pictures studios with the show filmed on Republic's backlot then used by television's Revue Productions. The show was constantly rerun on American television into the 1960s. The show was sponsored for two years by 7 Up soft drink. One year after Soldiers of Fortune was cancelled, John Russell went on to star as Marshal Dan Troup in the successful ABC/Warner Brothers western series Lawman.
A six-part British television travel series written, directed, and presented by Orson Welles for ITV in 1955. Filmed entirely in Europe, the series follows Welles through Vienna, the Basque Country, Madrid, Paris’s Saint-Germain-des-Prés, and London’s Chelsea Pensioners, blending travelogue, cultural portraiture, and personal essay. Moving between documentary observation and reflective commentary, the episodes combine interviews, local history, and Welles’s distinctive narration into a series that functions as both travel film and cinematic essay.
First Performance is a Canadian dramatic television series which aired on CBC Television from 1956 to 1958.
Orson Welles' Sketch Book is a series of six short television commentaries by Orson Welles for the BBC in 1955. Written and directed by Welles, the 15-minute episodes present the filmmaker's commentaries on a range of subjects. Welles frequently draws from his own experiences and often illustrates the episodes with his own sketches.
Sketch comedy starring Eddie Cantor as host
TV Reader's Digest is the title of a 30 minute American television anthology drama series which aired on the ABC from 1955 to 1956. Based on articles that appeared in Reader's Digest magazine, the episodes based on true stories which were varied in their themes, plots and content. Themes included crime, heroism, mystery, romance, and human interest. Episode writers included Frederick Hazlitt Brennan, Cleveland Amory and Frank Gruber. Some of the actors who were cast in the episodes included: Claude Akins, Leon Askin, Jean Byron, Chuck Connors, Peter Graves, Tod Griffin, Francis McDonald, Max Showalter, John Howard, Lee Marvin, Gene Raymond, Jerry Paris, and Michael Winkelman.
Playbox was a British children's television show that ran on BBC from 1955 to 1964. Presenters who appeared on it included Eamonn Andrews, Rolf Harris, Tony Hart, Cliff Michelmore and Johnny Morris
Masked scientific government agent is pitted against a rogue army, led by a mystery man known only as "The Ruler", which is attempting to conquer the solar system by first decimating earth's climate through various futuristic devices which Cody must meet with earth's own futuristic technology. [Intended to be a limited-run television series, Commando Cody: Sky Marshal Of The Universe was first released theatrically in 1953 as a twelve-chapter movie serial; it was not shown on television until 1955. The Commando Cody character was first introduced in Republic's earlier movie serial Radar Men from the Moon; however, "Sky Marshal" is actually a prequel, with the first chapter dealing with Cody's origins and the acquisiton of his staff as seen in "Radar Men".]
Norby is an American sitcom television series that aired from January 5 until April 6, 1955 on NBC in color. RCA's color system wasn't used until the fall of 1954. This is the first color show that I'm aware of.
William Thompson, an American intelligence agent, goes on missions deep behind enemy lines to gather information about threats to American security and protect American diplomats abroad.
Damon Runyon Theater is an American television program that presented dramatized versions of Damon Runyon's short stories. Hosted by Donald Woods, the program, sponsored by Anheuser-Busch's Budweiser beer, aired for a total of 39 episodes on CBS from April 1955 through February 1956.
Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion was a half-hour black-and-white television series about the French Foreign Legion starring Buster Crabbe in the title role. Crabbe's real-life son Cullen Crabbe played the Legion mascot, with cowboy sidekick Fuzzy Knight playing himself as Legion comedy relief. The series premiered on NBC on 13 February 1955 and ended its first run with the 65th episode shown on 7 December 1957. It was shown for many years in syndication on American television under the title Foreign Legionnaire.
Captain Kangaroo was an American children's television series which aired weekday mornings on the American television network CBS for nearly 30 years, from October 3, 1955 until December 8, 1984, making it the longest-running nationally broadcast children's television program of its day. In 1986, the American Program Service integrated some newly produced segments into reruns of past episodes, distributing the newer version of the series until 1993. The show was conceived and the title character played by Bob Keeshan, who based the show on "the warm relationship between grandparents and children." Keeshan had portrayed the original Clarabell the Clown on The Howdy Doody Show when it aired on NBC. Captain Kangaroo had a loose structure, built around life in the "Treasure House" where the Captain would tell stories, meet guests, and indulge in silly stunts with regular characters, both humans and puppets. The show was telecast live to the East Coast and the Midwest for its first four years and broadcast on kinescope for the West Coast, as Keeshan would not perform the show live three times a day, and was in black-and-white until 1966. The May 17, 1971 episode saw two major changes on the show: The Treasure House was renovated and renamed "The Captain's Place" and the Captain replaced his navy blue coat with a red coat. In September 1981, CBS shortened the hour-long show to a half-hour, briefly retitled it Wake Up with the Captain, and moved it to an earlier time slot; it was later moved to weekends in September 1982, and returned to an hour-long format. It was canceled by CBS at the end of 1984.
A groundbreaking Canadian anthology series blending documentary and dramatization, Perspective explored social issues, Canadian identity, and everyday life through a mix of real-life stories and fictional dramatizations. Hosted by Fred Davis and produced by the National Film Board of Canada, the series ran for three seasons on CBC Television between 1955 and 1958.
Stage 7 is the title of a United States TV drama anthology series that aired in 1955. This program premiered in December 1954 with the title Your Favorite Playhouse with all episodes being repeats from other series. The program's 25 episodes showcased the talents of actors and actresses such as Charles Bronson, Edmond O'Brien, Gene Barry, Phyllis Coates, Frances Rafferty, Macdonald Carey, and Phyllis Thaxter. Some directing was done by Quinn Martin.
