Paul Bartel

Directing

Paul Bartel

Born 1938-08-06 · Brooklyn, New York, USA

Paul Bartel (August 6, 1938 – May 13, 2000) was an American director, writer and actor.

Acting credits

The Usual Suspects poster
8.2

Held in an L.A. interrogation room, Verbal Kint attempts to convince the feds that a mythic crime lord, Keyser Soze, not only exists, but was also responsible for drawing him and his four partners into a multi-million dollar heist that ended with an explosion in San Pedro harbor – leaving few survivors. Verbal lures his interrogators with an incredible story of the crime lord's almost supernatural prowess.

The Usual Suspects

1995

Escape from L.A. poster
5.9

Into the 9.6-quaked Los Angeles of 2013 comes Snake Plissken. His job: wade through L.A.'s ruined landmarks to retrieve a doomsday device.

Escape from L.A.

1996

Gremlins 2: The New Batch poster
6.5

Young sweethearts Billy and Kate move to the Big Apple, land jobs in a high-tech office park and soon reunite with the friendly and lovable Gizmo. But a series of accidents creates a whole new generation of Gremlins. The situation worsens when the devilish green creatures invade a top-secret laboratory and develop genetically altered powers, making them even harder to destroy!

Gremlins 2: The New Batch

1990

Piranha poster
5.9

When flesh-eating piranhas are accidentally released into a summer resort's rivers, the guests become their next meal.

Piranha

1978

Joe's Apartment poster
5.8

A nice guy has just moved to New York and discovers that he must share his run-down apartment with a couple thousand singing, dancing cockroaches.

Joe's Apartment

1996

The Living End poster
6.7

Two HIV-positive young men — a semi-employed film critic and a hot hustler — tear off on a cross-country crime spree.

The Living End

1992

Into the Night poster
6.5

Ed Okin used to have a boring life. He used to have trouble getting to sleep. Then one night, he met Diana. Now, Ed's having trouble staying alive.

Into the Night

1985

Big Bad Mama poster
5.7

Circumstances force a mother and her two daughters to get into bootlegging and bank robbing, and travel across the country pursued by the law.

Big Bad Mama

1974

National Lampoon's European Vacation poster
6.2

The Griswolds win a vacation to Europe on a game show, and so pack their bags for the continent. They do their best to catch the flavor of Europe, but they just don't know how to be be good tourists. Besides, they have trouble taking holidays in countries where they CAN speak the language.

National Lampoon's European Vacation

1985

Death Race 2000 poster
6.2

In a boorish future, the government sponsors a popular, but bloody, cross-country race in which points are scored by mowing down pedestrians. Five teams, each comprised of a male and female, compete using cars equipped with deadly weapons. Frankenstein, the mysterious returning champion, has become America's hero, but this time he has a passenger from the underground resistance.

Death Race 2000

1975

Amazon Women on the Moon poster
5.9

Centered on a television station which features a 1950s-style sci-fi movie interspersed with a series of wild commercials, wacky shorts and weird specials, this lampoon of contemporary life and pop culture skewers some of the silliest spectacles ever created in the name of entertainment.

Amazon Women on the Moon

1987

Basquiat poster
6.6

The brief life of Jean Michel Basquiat, a world renowned New York street artist struggling with fame, drugs and his identity.

Basquiat

1996

Citizen Steve poster
6.0

On the occasion of the 40th birthday of the almighty filmmaker Steven Allan Spielberg, inquisitive reporter Clip Maxwell attempts to uncover the truth behind his undisputed rise to the throne of the Amblin Empire.

Citizen Steve

1987

Posse poster
5.5

A group of mostly black infantrymen return from the Spanish-American War with a cache of gold. They travel to the West where their leader searches for the men who lynched his father.

Posse

1993

Chopping Mall poster
5.8

High-tech robots equipped with state-of-the-art security devices have been recruited as the new mechanical "night watchmen" for the Park Plaza Mall. When a jolting bolt of lightning short-circuits the main computer control, the robots turn into "killbots" on the loose after unsuspecting shoppers!

Chopping Mall

1986

White Dog poster
6.6

Samuel Fuller’s throat-grabbing exposé on American racism was misunderstood and withheld from release when it was made in the early eighties.Today, the notorious film is lauded for its daring metaphor and gripping pulp filmmaking. Kristy McNichol stars as a young actress who adopts a lost German shepherd, only to discover through a series of horrifying incidents that the dog has been trained to attack black people, and Paul Winfield plays the animal trainer who tries to cure him. A snarling, uncompromising vision, White Dog is a tragic portrait of the evil done by that most corruptible of all animals; the human being.

White Dog

1982

Shakedown poster
5.8

When a local drug dealer shoots a dishonest cop in self-defense, lawyer and renegade undercover cop join forces to clear him. But when their investigation leads them into a maze of greed and corruption, they learn that in a town where everything is for sale, anything can happen.

Shakedown

1988

Hi, Mom! poster
6.3

Vietnam vet Jon Rubin returns to New York and rents a rundown flat in Greenwich Village. It is in this flat that he begins to film, 'Peeping Tom' style, the people in the apartment across the street. His obsession with making films leads him to fall in with a radical 'Black Power' group, which in turn leads him to carry out a bizarre act of urban terrorism.

Hi, Mom!

1970

Desire and Hell at Sunset Motel poster
5.7

Right after Disneyland opens in Anaheim, California, in 1955, a toy salesman in town for a convention brings his wife with him so they can both go to Disneyland. They stay at a rundown place called the Sunset Motel nearby. Soon the wife is having an affair with a man staying at the motel. The husband hires a psychotic criminal to spy on them, the wife and her lover plan to murder the husband, and the voyeuristic motel manager is spying on everybody.

Desire and Hell at Sunset Motel

1992

The Devil's Child poster
4.5

A woman's mother makes a last-minute deal with the Devil to save her daughter's life, not realizing that her daughter's life is her stake. The daughter lives but with no chance of children. 20 years later, she mysteriously becomes pregnant after meeting a dashing stranger. Yet people are dying around her...

The Devil's Child

1997

Twin Sitters poster
6.4

An evil business executive is releasing dangerous toxins and the Barbarian Brothers set out to stop his evil work.

Twin Sitters

1994

Follow That Bird poster
6.4

Big Bird is sent to live far from Sesame Street by a pesky social worker, who thinks it would be better for him to live with other birds. Unhappy, Big Bird runs away from his foster home, prompting the rest of the Sesame Street gang to go on a cross-country journey to find him.

Follow That Bird

1985

Frankenweenie poster
7.0

When young Victor's pet dog Sparky (who stars in Victor's home-made monster movies) is hit by a car, Victor decides to bring him back to life the only way he knows how. But when the bolt-necked "monster" wreaks havoc and terror in the hearts of Victor's neighbors, he has to convince them (and his parents) that despite his appearance, Sparky's still the good loyal friend he's always been.

Frankenweenie

1984

Skeletons poster
4.2

A heart attack moves a Pulitzer winning journalist to leave NY for the peace of a small New England town, but he soon finds himself pulled into a case of a man accused of killing his gay lover with the blade of a shovel. Wanting to keep the case quiet, the town turns against the journalist and his family when he begins digging into its secrets, until finally the accused man is found hanging in his cell and the truth comes out about more than just the killing.

Skeletons

1997

Behind the camera

Death Race 2000 poster
6.2

In a boorish future, the government sponsors a popular, but bloody, cross-country race in which points are scored by mowing down pedestrians. Five teams, each comprised of a male and female, compete using cars equipped with deadly weapons. Frankenstein, the mysterious returning champion, has become America's hero, but this time he has a passenger from the underground resistance.

Death Race 2000

1975

Cannonball poster
5.6

Coy "Cannonball" Buckman and his blazing red Pontiac enter the Trans-America Grand Prix, an underground road race spanning the continent in which there are no rules, no speed limits and no heed for the law. En route, Buckman jockeys with an international ensemble of racers for a $100,000 purse. But there are none more important than Cade Redman, his direct competition for a guaranteed spot on the elite Modern Motors racing team.

Cannonball

1976

Cannonball poster
5.6

Coy "Cannonball" Buckman and his blazing red Pontiac enter the Trans-America Grand Prix, an underground road race spanning the continent in which there are no rules, no speed limits and no heed for the law. En route, Buckman jockeys with an international ensemble of racers for a $100,000 purse. But there are none more important than Cade Redman, his direct competition for a guaranteed spot on the elite Modern Motors racing team.

Cannonball

1976

Lust in the Dust poster
6.0

Assaulted by outlaws, donkey-riding Rosie joins a silent drifter's search for gold in the Old West.

Lust in the Dust

1985

Eating Raoul poster
6.5

A prudish married couple feel put upon by the swingers living in their apartment building. One night, by accident, they discover a way to both rid themselves of the “perverts” down the hall and simultaneously realize their dream of opening a restaurant.

Eating Raoul

1982

Eating Raoul poster
6.5

A prudish married couple feel put upon by the swingers living in their apartment building. One night, by accident, they discover a way to both rid themselves of the “perverts” down the hall and simultaneously realize their dream of opening a restaurant.

Eating Raoul

1982

Private Parts poster
5.6

In the sleaziest corner of Los Angeles, the King Edward Hotel has a new arrival in the form of Cheryl, a runaway teen. She's hoping to put her life back together but somewhere in the musty halls of the King Edward lurks another guest — who just loves to chop people apart!

Private Parts

1972

Private Parts poster
5.6

In the sleaziest corner of Los Angeles, the King Edward Hotel has a new arrival in the form of Cheryl, a runaway teen. She's hoping to put her life back together but somewhere in the musty halls of the King Edward lurks another guest — who just loves to chop people apart!

Private Parts

1972

Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills poster
5.4

A wealthy Beverly Hills resident who has just become a widow, Clare Lipkin temporarily takes on her friend Lisabeth as a house guest. As the two women deal with their upper-class woes, Clare's driver, Frank, and Lisabeth's servant, Juan, make a wager to see who can be the first to seduce the other's boss.

Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills

1989

The Longshot poster
5.2

Four losers borrow money from gangsters to bet on a "sure thing", but lose. The gangsters go after them to get their money.

The Longshot

1986

Not for Publication poster
4.7

A tabloid reporter and her new photographer, who've recently started working for the mayor of New York City, stumble upon evidence of conspiracy and political corruption that may involve their beloved mayor.

Not for Publication

1984

Not for Publication poster
4.7

A tabloid reporter and her new photographer, who've recently started working for the mayor of New York City, stumble upon evidence of conspiracy and political corruption that may involve their beloved mayor.

Not for Publication

1984

Mortuary Academy poster
3.8

"Police Academy" clone, about some nerds who inherit an academy for morticians, which is run by a corrupt closet necropheliac. Of course, the most incompetent students possible are accepted, so that the academy will fail, and all sorts of wacky hijinks ensue.

Mortuary Academy

1988

Naughty Nurse poster
5.0

A doctor and nurse sneak away for a kinky encounter, only to be interrupted by a cop... with a secret of his own.

Naughty Nurse

1969

Naughty Nurse poster
5.0

A doctor and nurse sneak away for a kinky encounter, only to be interrupted by a cop... with a secret of his own.

Naughty Nurse

1969

Naughty Nurse poster
5.0

A doctor and nurse sneak away for a kinky encounter, only to be interrupted by a cop... with a secret of his own.

Naughty Nurse

1969

Demonella poster
NR

Music producer Arnold Silverstein is desperate for a song hit so when the Devil - a woman - supplies him with the answer to his dreams, a piece called 'Demonella' he is anxious to fulfill his part of the deal, to give the Devil his mother's secret recipe for chicken soup to serve her celebrity guests in Hell.

Demonella

1993

Demonella poster
NR

Music producer Arnold Silverstein is desperate for a song hit so when the Devil - a woman - supplies him with the answer to his dreams, a piece called 'Demonella' he is anxious to fulfill his part of the deal, to give the Devil his mother's secret recipe for chicken soup to serve her celebrity guests in Hell.

Demonella

1993

Utterly Without Redeeming Social Value poster
4.5

A psychologist interviews the members of a therapy group for people with sexual issues as to why they're in the group.

Utterly Without Redeeming Social Value

1969

Shelf Life poster
6.3

Trapped in a bomb-shelter for thirty years, three adult children act out scenes from television shows in an imitation of 1960's life.

Shelf Life

1993

The Secret Cinema poster
5.3

Welcome to the Secret Cinema, now featuring a series of films on the real-life misadventures of Jane, a New York City office secretary. See Jane being sexually harassed by her boss, Mr. Troppogrosso. See Jane get dumped by her boyfriend, Dick. See Jane humiliated in lots of ways. And here's the kicker: Jane doesn't know that her life is being filmed, or that she's being set up by some of the people closest to her. But she's starting to have her suspicions.

The Secret Cinema

1967

The Secret Cinema poster
5.3

Welcome to the Secret Cinema, now featuring a series of films on the real-life misadventures of Jane, a New York City office secretary. See Jane being sexually harassed by her boss, Mr. Troppogrosso. See Jane get dumped by her boyfriend, Dick. See Jane humiliated in lots of ways. And here's the kicker: Jane doesn't know that her life is being filmed, or that she's being set up by some of the people closest to her. But she's starting to have her suspicions.

The Secret Cinema

1967

The Secret Cinema poster
5.3

Welcome to the Secret Cinema, now featuring a series of films on the real-life misadventures of Jane, a New York City office secretary. See Jane being sexually harassed by her boss, Mr. Troppogrosso. See Jane get dumped by her boyfriend, Dick. See Jane humiliated in lots of ways. And here's the kicker: Jane doesn't know that her life is being filmed, or that she's being set up by some of the people closest to her. But she's starting to have her suspicions.

The Secret Cinema

1967

No artwork available
NR

Two aspiring Italian actors, hoping to become movie stars, dream of moving to New York City to study at the Actors Studio. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2011.

Progetti

1962