Jules Dassin

Directing

Jules Dassin

Born — Died

1911-12-18 — 2008-03-31

Place of birth

Middletown, Connecticut, USA

Known for

Directing

Credits

60 titles

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Julius "Jules" Dassin (December 18, 1911 – March 31, 2008) was an American film director, producer, writer and actor. He was a subject of the Hollywood blacklist in the McCarthy era, and subsequently moved to France, where he revived his career. Dassin quickly became better known for his noir films Brute Force (1947), The Naked City (1948), and Thieves' Highway (1949), which helped him to become "one of the leading American filmmakers of the postwar era." Dassin's most influential film was Rififi (1955), an early work in the "heist film" genre. It inspired later heist films, such as Ocean's Eleven (1960). Another piece it inspired was Dassin's own hei…

Known for

Film credits

2020s · 2 titles

2000s · 4 titles

Series credits

Behind the camera

Brute Force poster
7.3

Timeworn Joe Collins and his fellow inmates live under the heavy thumb of the sadistic, power-tripping guard Captain Munsey. Only Collins' dreams of escape keep him going, but how can he possibly bust out of Munsey's chains?

Brute Force

1947

Night and the City poster
7.5

Londoner Harry Fabian is a second-rate con man looking for an angle. After years of putting up with Harry's schemes, his girlfriend, Mary, becomes fed up when he taps her for yet another loan.

Night and the City

1950

Topkapi poster
6.5

Arthur Simon Simpson is a small-time crook biding his time in Greece. One of his potential victims turns out to be a gentleman thief planning to steal the emerald-encrusted dagger of the Mehmed II from Istanbul's Topkapi Museum.

Topkapi

1964

Topkapi poster
6.5

Arthur Simon Simpson is a small-time crook biding his time in Greece. One of his potential victims turns out to be a gentleman thief planning to steal the emerald-encrusted dagger of the Mehmed II from Istanbul's Topkapi Museum.

Topkapi

1964

Thieves' Highway poster
7.3

Nick Garcos comes back from his tour of duty in World War II planning to settle down with his girlfriend, Polly Faber. He learns, however, that his father was recently beaten and burglarized by mob-connected trucker Mike Figlia, and Nick resolves to get even. He partners with prostitute Rica, and together they go after Mike, all the while getting pulled further into the local crime underworld.

Thieves' Highway

1949

Rififi poster
7.8

Out of prison after a five-year stretch, jewel thief Tony turns down a quick job his friend Jo offers him, until he discovers that his old girlfriend Mado has become the lover of local gangster Pierre Grutter during Tony's absence. Expanding a minor smash-and-grab into a full-scale jewel heist, Tony and his crew appear to get away clean, but their actions after the job is completed threaten the lives of everyone involved.

Rififi

1955

The Naked City poster
7.2

After a former model is drowned in her bathtub, Detective James Halloran and Lieutenant Dan Muldoon attempt to piece together her murder.

The Naked City

1948

Uptight poster
6.8

Set against the backdrop of a community mourning the recent MLK assassination, Black militants building up an arsenal of weapons in preparation for a race war are betrayed by one of their own.

Uptight

1968

Uptight poster
6.8

Set against the backdrop of a community mourning the recent MLK assassination, Black militants building up an arsenal of weapons in preparation for a race war are betrayed by one of their own.

Uptight

1968

Uptight poster
6.8

Set against the backdrop of a community mourning the recent MLK assassination, Black militants building up an arsenal of weapons in preparation for a race war are betrayed by one of their own.

Uptight

1968

Never on Sunday poster
6.8

An American scholar in Greece sets about improving the local prostitute with whom he is infatuated.

Never on Sunday

1960

Never on Sunday poster
6.8

An American scholar in Greece sets about improving the local prostitute with whom he is infatuated.

Never on Sunday

1960

Never on Sunday poster
6.8

An American scholar in Greece sets about improving the local prostitute with whom he is infatuated.

Never on Sunday

1960

The Law poster
5.9

A gorgeous housekeeper turns the tables on the men in a small Mediterranean coastal town by using their own vicious drinking game.

The Law

1959

The Law poster
5.9

A gorgeous housekeeper turns the tables on the men in a small Mediterranean coastal town by using their own vicious drinking game.

The Law

1959

The Affairs of Martha poster
6.6

Members of a well-to-do small community become worried when it is revealed that one of their maids is writing a telling exposé.

The Affairs of Martha

1942

Reunion in France poster
6.5

Frenchwoman Michele de la Becque, an opponent of the Nazis in German-occupied Paris, hides a downed American flyer, Pat Talbot, and attempts to get him safely out of the country.

Reunion in France

1942

Phaedra poster
5.7

A modern retelling of the Greek myth of Phaedra. The young and fiery second wife of an extremely wealthy shipping magnate meets her estranged stepson Alexis and sparks immediately fly. Their love seems doomed from the beginning when she convinces him to come to Paris to meet his father.

Phaedra

1962

Phaedra poster
5.7

A modern retelling of the Greek myth of Phaedra. The young and fiery second wife of an extremely wealthy shipping magnate meets her estranged stepson Alexis and sparks immediately fly. Their love seems doomed from the beginning when she convinces him to come to Paris to meet his father.

Phaedra

1962

Phaedra poster
5.7

A modern retelling of the Greek myth of Phaedra. The young and fiery second wife of an extremely wealthy shipping magnate meets her estranged stepson Alexis and sparks immediately fly. Their love seems doomed from the beginning when she convinces him to come to Paris to meet his father.

Phaedra

1962

The Canterville Ghost poster
6.9

The descendent of a ghost imprisoned for cowardice hopes to free the spirit by displaying courage when under duress.

The Canterville Ghost

1944

Crack in the Mirror poster
7.5

Three stars appear in two separate but intertwined stories of romantic triangles gone wrong in this ambitious drama. In the first segment, Hagolin is a loutish construction worker with an unhappy wife, Eponine. The wife becomes involved with a swarthy working man, Larnier, and their passion knows no boundaries of caution or safety. Eventually, Eponine's and Larnier's lust drives them to madness, and they murder Hagolin. The second tale concerns an up-and-coming young lawyer, Claude, whose mentor is a highly successful veteran attorney, Lamerciere, with a beautiful young wife named Florence. Claude finds himself defending Larnier and Eponine, while Lamerciere dies of a heart attack after he discovers that Florence has been unfaithful to him with Claude.

Crack in the Mirror

1960

He Who Must Die poster
6.3

1920s Greece is occupied by the Turks. A country in turmoil with entire villages uprooted. A small community conduct their annual Passion Play. The leading citizens, under auspices of the Patriarch, choose the actors: a stuttering shepherd as Jesus, the town butcher as Judas, the town prostitute as Mary Magdalene, and so on. As the story unfolds, the Passion becomes a reality.

He Who Must Die

1957

He Who Must Die poster
6.3

1920s Greece is occupied by the Turks. A country in turmoil with entire villages uprooted. A small community conduct their annual Passion Play. The leading citizens, under auspices of the Patriarch, choose the actors: a stuttering shepherd as Jesus, the town butcher as Judas, the town prostitute as Mary Magdalene, and so on. As the story unfolds, the Passion becomes a reality.

He Who Must Die

1957

Circle of Two poster
4.8

In Toronto, 15-year-old aspirant writer Sarah Norton meets 60-year-old painter Ashley St. Clair in a cafeteria while hiding from her stalker boyfriend. Ashley hasn't painted for ten years. He agrees to read Sarah's poems. They start seeing each other at his studio and Sarah falls in love with him, but Ashley does not reciprocate her feelings.

Circle of Two

1981

The Rehearsal poster
5.4

An indictment of the Greek military junta of 1967–1974. The film tries to give a reconstruction of the events during the students' uprising in the Athens Polytechnic (November 1973) by documents, rehearsals, interviews, songs and poems.

The Rehearsal

1974

The Rehearsal poster
5.4

An indictment of the Greek military junta of 1967–1974. The film tries to give a reconstruction of the events during the students' uprising in the Athens Polytechnic (November 1973) by documents, rehearsals, interviews, songs and poems.

The Rehearsal

1974

10:30 P.M. Summer poster
5.3

A female traveling companion seduces a married man and his alcoholic wife.

10:30 P.M. Summer

1966

10:30 P.M. Summer poster
5.3

A female traveling companion seduces a married man and his alcoholic wife.

10:30 P.M. Summer

1966

10:30 P.M. Summer poster
5.3

A female traveling companion seduces a married man and his alcoholic wife.

10:30 P.M. Summer

1966

Nazi Agent poster
6.6

Humble stamp dealer Otto Becker has little to do with international politics, so when he receives a surprise visit from his estranged twin brother and Nazi spy, Baron Hugo von Detner, his world is thrown into turmoil. Threatening Becker with deportation, Hugo forces him to use his shop as a front for espionage.

Nazi Agent

1942

The Tell-Tale Heart poster
6.6

A man's sanity is a point of contention as he confesses to murdering an elderly man, driven by the victim's pale blue 'vulture eye', culminating in guilt-induced auditory hallucinations of the victim's beating heart.

The Tell-Tale Heart

1941

Two Smart People poster
6.6

Con woman Ricki Woodner and detective Bob Simms follow a prison-bound swindler Ace Connors on his five-day gourmet binge.

Two Smart People

1946

A Letter for Evie poster
6.9

During World War II, Evie O'Connor, a secretary at Trojan Shirt Company, yearns for a tall, strong man to love her. When she slides an anonymous note into a shirt-pocket meant for a dashing man, oafish Edgar 'Wolf' Larson receives the shirt and disregards the letter. After hearing Evie's words, short and bumbling John McPherson writes back, claiming to be Wolf. But trouble arises when Evie asks to meet him in person.

A Letter for Evie

1946

A Dream of Passion poster
6.2

Maya is a jet-setting Greek actress who returns to her homeland to undertake the role of Medea. Searching for inspiration and clues as to how a mother could kill the children she loves, Maya discovers Brenda, a Bible-spouting American woman serving time in an Athens prison for that very crime.

A Dream of Passion

1978

A Dream of Passion poster
6.2

Maya is a jet-setting Greek actress who returns to her homeland to undertake the role of Medea. Searching for inspiration and clues as to how a mother could kill the children she loves, Maya discovers Brenda, a Bible-spouting American woman serving time in an Athens prison for that very crime.

A Dream of Passion

1978

A Dream of Passion poster
6.2

Maya is a jet-setting Greek actress who returns to her homeland to undertake the role of Medea. Searching for inspiration and clues as to how a mother could kill the children she loves, Maya discovers Brenda, a Bible-spouting American woman serving time in an Athens prison for that very crime.

A Dream of Passion

1978

Young Ideas poster
5.3

A widowed lecturer's two grown children try to break up what they believe is her inappropriate romance with a staid college professor.

Young Ideas

1943

Promise at Dawn poster
5.5

A single mother raises her son in impossible circumstances first in Leningrad, then Krakow, and then France, and is over-ambitious about him but never gives in.

Promise at Dawn

1970

Promise at Dawn poster
5.5

A single mother raises her son in impossible circumstances first in Leningrad, then Krakow, and then France, and is over-ambitious about him but never gives in.

Promise at Dawn

1970