Howard Da Silva
Birthday: 1909-05-04 Place of Birth: Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Synopsis
Howard Da Silva (born Howard Silverblatt) was an American stage, screen, and television actor.
Acting
Garbo Talks
When New York accountant Gilbert Rolfe finds out his mother has a brain tumor, he is devastated. His incorrigible mother, Estelle, has one last wish: to meet the great Greta Garbo. Gilbert, wanting to do this last thing for her, sets out on a wild goose chase through the streets of New York City to track down the iconic star, at the expense of his personal life and much to the chagrin of his wife, Lisa. Can he find Garbo before it's too late?
Mommie Dearest
Renowned actress Joan Crawford, at the height of her career, adopts two orphans — Christina and Christopher — to fill the lonely gap in her personal life. However, as her professional and romantic relationships sour, Joan's already callous and abusive behavior towards Christina intensifies.
Power
Loosely based on the life of Jimmy Hoffa, this traces the rise of Tommy Vanda (Joe Don Baker) from a Chicago dock worker to an influential labor leader who, like Hoffa, finds himself behind bars in a federal prison, and not long after, taken for a ride by shady men never to be seen again.
I'm a Stranger Here Myself
A portrait of legendary filmmaker Nicholas Ray while he is working as a film professor at a college in upstate New York.
Smile Jenny, You're Dead
Harry Orwell has been retired from the force ever since he caught a bullet that lodged inoperably in his back. But that doesn’t mean the man called Harry O is out of the action. Moonlighting as a private sleuth, fighting off daily back pain and typically traveling by public bus instead of his own car (“It gives a man a chance to think”), he’s on the trail of the lowlife who murdered his pal’s son-in-law. It won’t be the only time the killer strikes before Harry closes in. David Janssen (The Fugitive) portrays dogged detective Harry in the telefilm that was the second of two pilots preceding his memorable Harry O series. Among the highlights: young Jodie Foster as Liberty, the wise-beyond-her-years homeless waif Harry befriends.
The Great Gatsby
Nick Carraway, a young Midwesterner now living on Long Island, finds himself fascinated by the mysterious past and lavish lifestyle of his neighbor, the nouveau riche Jay Gatsby. He is drawn into Gatsby's circle, becoming a witness to obsession and tragedy.
The Missiles of October
Based in part on Robert F. Kennedy's book, "Thirteen Days," this film profiles the Kennedy Administration's actions during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
1776
Colonial representatives gather in Philadelphia with the aim of establishing a set of governmental rules for the burgeoning United States. Benjamin Franklin and John Adams charge Thomas Jefferson with the task of writing a statement announcing the new country's emancipation from British rule.
Nevada Smith
Nevada Smith is the young son of an Indian mother and white father. When his father is killed by three men over gold, Nevada sets out to find them and kill them. The boy is taken in by a gun merchant. The gun merchant shows him how to shoot and to shoot on time and correct.
The Outrage
At a disused railway station, three men -- a con artist, a preacher, and a prospector -- discuss the recent trial and sentencing of the outlaw Juan Carrasco for the murder of a man and the rape of his wife. In their recounting, the three explore the conflicting testimonies of the parties involved in the crimes. Disconcerting new questions arise with each different version of the event.
David and Lisa
Teenager David Clemens develops a hysterical fear that he will die if he comes into physical contact with another person. Perturbed, David's overbearing mother places him in a home for mentally disturbed young people, but David remains withdrawn from the other patients and his psychiatrist. Over time, however, David grows interested in 15-year-old Lisa, who suffers from multiple personalities – one who can only speak in rhyme, and the other, a mute.
Fourteen Hours
A young man, morally destroyed by his parents not loving him and by the fear of being not capable to make his girlfriend happy, rises on the ledge of a building with the intention of committing suicide. A policeman makes every effort to argue him out of it.
M
Remake of the 1931 Fritz Lang original. In the city, someone is murdering children. The Police search is so intense, it is disturbing the 'normal' criminals, and the local hoods decide to help find the murderer as quickly as possible.
Tripoli
In 1805, the United States battles the pirates of Tripoli as the Marines fight to raise the American flag.
The Underworld Story
A blacklisted reporter brings his shady ways to a small-town newspaper after being fired from a big city daily.
Wyoming Mail
In 1869, the United States begins a railroad mail service to the West Coast which proves highly tempting to train robbers, in particular an organized gang with one of the mail's supposed guardians in their pay. Prizefighter Steve Davis, a former army intelligence man, is hired to track down the gang and save the Territorial Mail Service. Steve goes undercover in territorial prison, leans Morse Code from a fellow prisoner, breaks jail, infiltrates the gang...and finds time to romance dance-hall singer Mary, who proves to have hidden depths...
Three Husbands
When a recently deceased playboy gets to heaven and is granted one wish--granted to all newcomers--he requests that he be able to see the reactions of three husbands, with whom he regularly played poker, to a letter he left each of them claiming to have had an affair with each's wife.
They Live by Night
An escaped convict, injured during a robbery, falls in love with the woman who nurses him back to health, but their relationship seems doomed from the beginning.
Border Incident
The story concerns two agents, one Mexican (PJF) and one American, who are tasked to stop the smuggling of Mexican migrant workers across the border to California. The two agents go undercover, one as a poor migrant.
Unconquered
England, 1763. After being convicted of a crime, the young and beautiful Abigail Hale agrees, to escape the gallows, to serve fourteen years as a slave in the colony of Virginia, whose inhabitants begin to hear and fear the sinister song of the threatening drums of war that resound in the wild Ohio valley.
Two Years Before the Mast
In 1834, Charles Stewart (Alan Ladd), the spoiled, dissolute son of a shipping magnate, is shanghaied aboard the Pilgrim, one of his father's own ships. He embarks upon a long, hellish sea voyage under the tyrannical rule of Captain Francis Thompson (Howard Da Silva), assisted by his first mate, Amazeen (William Bendix). One of his crewmates is Richard Henry Dana Jr. (Brian Donlevy).
The Blue Dahlia
Soon after a veteran's return from war his cheating wife is found dead. He evades police in an attempt to find the real murderer.
The Lost Weekend
Don Birnam, a long-time alcoholic, has been sober for ten days and appears to be over the worst... but his craving has just become more insidious. Evading a country weekend planned by his brother and girlfriend, he begins a four-day bender that just might be his last - one way or another.
Tonight We Raid Calais
A British commando is on a one-man raid to destroy a bomb factory in Nazi-occupied France. He must enlist the aid of French farmers to complete his mission.
The Omaha Trail
The coming of the railroad to the West triggers an Indian war.
Juke Girl
During the depths of the Great Depression a hitch-hiker Steve Talbot and jukebox-joint hostess Lola Mears stumble into Cat-Tail Florida where farmers and pickers struggle under the buyer who rules by monopoly, dirty contracts and violence. Steve helps organize against the buyer, leading to further escalation ending in a lynch mob.
Bullet Scars
Dr. Steven Bishop is taken to the hideout of Frank Dillon and his gang to treat the wounded Joe Madison. Joe's nurse sister Nora Madison is also taken. Dillon tells Bishop that if Joe dies, he will be killed, but Bishop knows he will be either way. Joe dies, but Nora and Steve conceal it from Dillon and send a plea for help in a prescription that Bishop writes in Latin.
Native Land
By the start of World War II, Paul Robeson had given up his lucrative mainstream work to participate in more socially progressive film and stage productions. Robeson committed his support to Paul Strand and Leo Hurwitz’s political semidocumentary Native Land. With Robeson’s narration and songs, this beautifully shot and edited film exposes violations of Americans’ civil liberties and is a call to action for exploited workers around the country. Scarcely shown since its debut, Native Land represents Robeson’s shift from narrative cinema to the leftist documentaries that would define the final chapter of his controversial film career.
The Big Shot
Duke Berne, former big shot but now a three-time loser, fears returning to crime because a fourth conviction will mean a life sentence. Finally, haunted by his past and goaded by his cohorts, he joins in planning an armoured car robbery.
