Directing

Alvin Rakoff

Born

1927-02-18 (99)

Place of birth

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Known for

Directing

Credits

38 titles

Alvin Rakoff is a Canadian television, stage, and film director, who has spent the bulk of his career in England and directed more than 100 television plays, as well as a dozen feature films and numerous stage productions.

Known for

Film credits

Behind the camera

Death Ship poster
5.1

Survivors of a tragic shipping collision are rescued by a mysterious black ship which appears out of the fog. Little do they realise that the ship is actually a Nazi torture ship which has sailed the seas for years, luring unsuspecting sailors aboard and killing them off one by one.

Death Ship

1980

Crossplot poster
5.6

A successful London ad-exec hires a beautiful Hungarian girl to pose for some modeling shots, little realising that she has overheard an assassination plot and is now being hunted by some dangerous killers.

Crossplot

1969

City on Fire poster
5.1

An ex-employee of a city oil refinery creates an explosion at the facility which starts a chain-reaction of fires that engulf the entire city.

City on Fire

1979

King Solomon's Treasure poster
4.9

Three adventurers lead an expedition into darkest Africa in search of the treasure of King Solomon, and on the way encounter hostile natives, volcanoes, dinosaurs and a lost Phoenician city ruled by a beautiful queen.

King Solomon's Treasure

1979

King Solomon's Treasure poster
4.9

Three adventurers lead an expedition into darkest Africa in search of the treasure of King Solomon, and on the way encounter hostile natives, volcanoes, dinosaurs and a lost Phoenician city ruled by a beautiful queen.

King Solomon's Treasure

1979

An einem Freitag um halb zwölf poster
7.1

An enigmatic woman recruits a gang of specialised criminals to rob a US Army payroll armoured truck bound for Marseilles. However, things don't go exactly as planned.

An einem Freitag um halb zwölf

1961

Romeo and Juliet poster
7.6

Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona where we lay our scene, from ancient grudge break to new mutiny where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes a pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life whose misadventur'd piteous overthrows doth with their death bury their parents' strife.

Romeo and Juliet

1978

The Treasure of San Teresa poster
6.4

After World War II, an ex-spy returns to Germany to search for a cache of jewels he hid in a Czechoslovakian convent.

The Treasure of San Teresa

1959

No artwork available
NR

Charles Battle has been 'hammered' in the London Stock Exchange, to the point where he may be bankrupted.

The Breadwinner

1982

Dirty Tricks poster
5.5

A Harvard University student finds a strange letter that seems to be signed by George Washington. When trying to contact an expert (Prof. Chandler) to authenticate it, he is murdered but the letter disappears. Then Chandler, who does not know anything about the case, gets chased by the mafia and haunted by a TV reporter (Polly Bishop).

Dirty Tricks

1981

A Talent for Murder poster
6.9

A famed mystery writer and her doctor ex-lover solve her daughter-in-law's murder.

A Talent for Murder

1983

The Dame of Sark poster
NR

1976 play. During the Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands, Dame Sybil Hathaway comes up against her invading masters.

The Dame of Sark

1976

Passport to Shame poster
6.1

British melodrama about a cabbie befriending a girl caught up in the white slave trade.

Passport to Shame

1958

A Voyage Round My Father poster
7.4

A successful lawyer struck with blindness in middle age continues his battles in the courtroom with the assistance of his family. As his son deals with bitter memories of their relationship, he also seeks his father's respect and love and in the process learns to love in return.

A Voyage Round My Father

1984

The Best of Friends poster
3.7

Adapted from their letters and journals, this is a portrayal of the unique 25-year friendship shared by Dame Laurentia McLachlan (Benedictine nun), Sir Sydney Cockerell (museum curator), and George Bernard Shaw (playwright/critic).

The Best of Friends

1991

No artwork available
3.8

Towards the end of their lives, two men from very different worlds discover that one of them was in love with the other one's wife for more than thirty years.

Mr. Halpern and Mr. Johnson

1983

A Haunting Harmony poster
6.0

A young member of a choir becomes friends with a ghost in a school of English cathedral.

A Haunting Harmony

1993

Hoffman poster
7.0

A businessman blackmails his young secretary into spending a weekend with him.

Hoffman

1970

No artwork available
NR

When a US Naval captain shows signs of mental instability that jeopardizes the ship, the first officer relieves him of command and faces court martial for mutiny.

The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial

1958

No artwork available
NR

When a US Naval captain shows signs of mental instability that jeopardizes the ship, the first officer relieves him of command and faces court martial for mutiny.

The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial

1958

Say Hello to Yesterday poster
4.4

Approaching middle-age and stuck in an unfulfilled marriage, a suburban British housewife allows herself a sexual fling with a brash young hunk she meets on a commuter train.

Say Hello to Yesterday

1971

Say Hello to Yesterday poster
4.4

Approaching middle-age and stuck in an unfulfilled marriage, a suburban British housewife allows herself a sexual fling with a brash young hunk she meets on a commuter train.

Say Hello to Yesterday

1971

The Kitchen poster
NR

Alvin Rakoff's adaptation of Arnold Wesker's The Kitchen for Play of the Week. The Kitchen, first preformed in 1957, was Wesker's first work and his most performed play. The Kitchen has been produced in sixty cities including Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo, Paris - where it was the first widely recognized production by Théâtre du Soleil in 1967, Moscow, Montreal and Zurich.

The Kitchen

1977

The Adventures Of Don Quixote poster
10.0

A self-proclaimed "knight" and his hapless squire travel the Spanish countryside, attacking "giants" that are really windmills in his attempt to win the love of the fair Dulcinea.

The Adventures Of Don Quixote

1973

The Comedy Man poster
7.1

A middle-aged stock actor goes to London to try the big time. After much frustration, he lands a job doing TV commercials, gaining wealth and recognition. He eventually gives it all up to return to stage work and keep his pride.

The Comedy Man

1964

Gas and Candles poster
NR

Black comedy play about two pensioners struggling to manage on an old-age pension and living in a high-rise block of flats.

Gas and Candles

1991

Heart to Heart poster
8.0

A television interviewer is determined to get a coup on a dodgy cabinet minister.

Heart to Heart

1962

Heart to Heart poster
8.0

A television interviewer is determined to get a coup on a dodgy cabinet minister.

Heart to Heart

1962

The Ransom of Red Chief poster
9.0

Based upon a famous O. Henry short story, two crooks think they have an opportunity to make a quick buck by kidnapping a rich man's son. Ironically, the hostage takers become the hostages as they pay through the nose becoming the butts of the kid's stunts.

The Ransom of Red Chief

1959

No artwork available
NR

Mr and Mrs Stafford decide to run an "open" marriage, which, of course, relies on complete honesty.

The Quiet Days of Mrs Stafford

1981

Fireworks for Elspeth poster
NR

Will they starve her? Shave her head? Force her to wear a hair shirt? Elspeth's friends and family react with horror, grief and even derision to her desire to become a nun. She experiences her parents' hurt, her fiancee's feeling of betrayal, her friends' incomprehension - and her own obstinate joy.

Fireworks for Elspeth

1983

No artwork available
NR

A lonely middle-aged businessman blackmails a typist into spending the weekend at his large house in the country. She expects the worst, but he concentrates on something she doesn't expect - making her fall in love with him.

Call Me Daddy

1967

No artwork available
NR

1799: George, Prince of Wales and heir to the throne of mad King George III, awaits the Pope's judgement on his marriage to the twice-widowed Mrs. Fitzherbert.

Husband to Mrs. Fitzherbert

1975

Three Dangerous Ladies poster
6.0

Three unrelated horror shorts from 1975 UK horror anthology series "Classics Dark and Dangerous" edited together into one horror film anthology with three segments. Each story features a woman who willingly or unwillingly spreads evil.

Three Dangerous Ladies

1977

No artwork available
7.0

A clergyman noted for his support of left-wing causes, leaves his considerable estate to a Conservative member of parliament. Adaptation of the novel by John Mortimer.

Paradise Postponed

1986

No artwork available
6.5

A vampire terrorizes a quiet English town.

Mrs. Amworth

1975

No artwork available
NR

Story set in Jamaica about Mary holidaying unattached and ready to philander. Henry isn't exactly what the opportunity seems to demand.

Cheap in August

1975