
Writing
Dean Riesner
Born 1918-11-03 · New Rochelle, New York, USA
Dean Riesner (November 3, 1918, New Rochelle, New York – August 18, 2002, Encino, California) was an American film and television writer. Riesner's father, Charles Reisner, was a German American silent film director, and Dean began acting in films at the age of five as "Dinky Dean". His most notable role was in Charlie Chaplin's 1923 film The Pilgrim. His career at this young age ended because his mother wanted her son to have a real childhood. As an adult, his first job in films was as a co-writer of the 1939 Ronald Reagan movie Code of the Secret Service. Riesner won an Oscar for directing Bill and Coo (1948), a feature film with a cast of real birds, costumed as humans, acting on the world's smallest film set. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Riesner worked primarily in television, including writing for Rawhide and the "Tourist Attraction" episode of The Outer Limits, although he occasionally contributed to feature films like The Helen Morgan Story. In 1968 he landed a job working on the Clint Eastwood action film Coogan's Bluff, and this in turn would lead to him writing several other Eastwood features throughout the 1970s. Riesner helped pen the screenplays for two Eastwood films in 1971, Play Misty for Me and the original Dirty Harry. In 1973 he provided an uncredited rewrite for High Plains Drifter, and in 1976 he was one of the writers to draft The Enforcer, the third Dirty Harry thriller. That same year he provided the teleplay for NBC's highly rated miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man, starring Nick Nolte. In 1979 he wrote an early draft screenplay for The Godfather Part III, but his script was discarded when Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo finally agreed to collaborate on a third entry in the series. Riesner continued to write into the 1980s, though most of his work from that period went uncredited. Those films include Das Boot, The Sting II, and Starman. Riesner died in 2002 of natural causes. He had been married to actress Maila Nurmi, better known as the horror hostess Vampira.
Acting credits
6.9The Tramp is an escaped convict who is mistaken as a pastor in a small town church.
The Pilgrim
1923
9.0Angela comes to Hollywood with only two things: Her dream to become a movie star, and Grandpa. She leaves an Aunt, a brother, Grandma, and her longtime boyfriend back in Centerville. Despite seeing major movie stars around every corner, and knocking on every casting office door in town, at the end of her first day she is still unemployed. To her horror, when she arrives back at their hotel, she finds that Grandpa has been cast in a movie by William DeMille and quickly becomes a star during the ensuing weeks. Her family, worried that Angela and Grandpa are getting into trouble, come to Hollywood to drag them back home. In short order Aunt, Grandma, brother, boyfriend and even the parrot become superstars, but Angela is still unemployed...
Hollywood
1923
7.4Three Chaplin silent comedies "A Dog's Life", "Shoulder Arms", and "The Pilgrim" are strung together to form a single feature length film. Chaplin provides new music, narration, and a small amount of new connecting material. "Shoulder Arms" is now described as taking place in a time before "the atom bomb".
The Chaplin Revue
1959
NRBegins with a child-cast parody of "The Kid." The Adams portion finds the guy chased about town because they are looking for some crook in a gray derby...and Jimmie happens to have one.
Grief
1921
6.3Con men Calvin Churchill and Clip McGurk know how to fix a horse-race or boxing match. Calvin wants to go straight and win back his estranged wife, but first the men must dodge a dogged IRS agent and bilk a bunch of aviation investors out of the backing boodle for a balloon excursion into the stratosphere.
It's in the Air
1935
7.0When her sister dies, a nightclub singer is left with her children. In order to raise the children properly, she leaves her singing career and takes her new family to a farm. However, her greedy manager--seeing his "cash cow" slipping away--goes to court to have her declared legally incompetent.
Everybody Dance
1936
4.7A gang of bank robbers is pursued by an insurance investigator.
Assigned to Danger
1948
4.4This portrayal of small town life before the War is based on a small boys determination to get to see the circus, over all obstacles. Escaped lions, lightheaded blackmail of his father, and playfully planting stolen papers on his sisters boyfriend are all in a days work for little Henry Peck.
Peck's Bad Boy
1921
7.0Clint Eastwood tells us how he yearned to be a director from the time he was on "Rawhide" to finally obtaining the approval of his mentor, Don Siegel. He then asked Lew R. Wasserman, a Universal executive, if he could direct a story called "Play Misty For Me." Lew said yes but that he wouldn't be paid as the director. Clint agreed and began to locate the cast and crew he desired.
Play It Again: A Look Back at 'Play Misty for Me'
2001
7.0In a kingdom in fifteenth century Italy, Duke Roberto overthrows the king and abandons his heir Gigi in the wilderness to die. However, he is discovered by a troupe of Gypsy acrobats and emerges as their star performer.
A Prince of a King
1923
5.2The daughter of a soap manufacturer heads to the wild and woolly west to sell her daddy's product.
The Traveling Saleswoman
1950
7.5A newspaper reporter investigates the near-fatal shooting of a medical scientist.
The Cobra Strikes
1948
8.0Tad's dream is to attend a military academy so he can grow up to be a great soldier and a war hero, like his father. What he doesn't know is that his father, Slag, is actually a thief and a derelict. Slag robs a factory in order to get the money to send Tad to military school, then gets a job at the academy's horse stables to be close to his son, who doesn't know he's alive.
Square Shoulders
1929
7.0Tubercular Frank James has become a born again and retired from his career as an outlaw with his family but a look-a-like outlaw causes suspicion to fall back on him.
Gunfire
1950
Behind the camera
8.1A German submarine hunts allied ships during the Second World War, but it soon becomes the hunted. The crew tries to survive below the surface, while stretching both the boat and themselves to their limits.
Das Boot
1981
7.5When a madman dubbed 'Scorpio' terrorizes San Francisco, hard-nosed cop, Harry Callahan – famous for his take-no-prisoners approach to law enforcement – is tasked with hunting down the psychopath.
Dirty Harry
1971
6.5When a young rape victim takes justice into her own hands and becomes a serial killer, it's up to Dirty Harry Callahan, on suspension from the SFPD, to bring her to justice.
Sudden Impact
1983
6.3Coogan, an Arizona deputy sheriff goes to New York to pick up a prisoner. While escorting the prisoner to the airport, he escapes and Coogan heads into the city to recapture him.
Coogan's Bluff
1968
6.7Dirty Harry Callahan returns again, this time saddled with a rookie female partner. Together, they must stop a terrorist group consisting of angry Vietnam veterans.
The Enforcer
1976
7.4Charley Varrick robs a bank in a small town with his friends, but instead of obtaining a small amount of money, they discover they stole a very large amount of money belonging to the mob. Charley must now come up with a plan to not only evade the police but the mob as well.
Charley Varrick
1973
6.6A brief fling between a late-night radio disc jockey and an obsessed female fan takes a frightening turn when another woman enters the picture.
Play Misty for Me
1971
5.6Detective Rita Rizzoli is accustomed to donning costumes and going undercover to nail crooks. But she'll be required to use all of her get-ups and more when a major cocaine ring is suspected of turning out a potent new strain of the drug, called "Fatal Beauty." With the help of her partner and a former bodyguard for a local cartel, Rita will do whatever it takes to find out who's dealing Fatal Beauty and stop them.
Fatal Beauty
1987
4.7Hooker and Gondorf pull a con on Macalinski, an especially nasty mob boss with the help of Veronica, a new grifter. They convince this new victim that Hooker is a somewhat dull boxer who is tired of taking dives for Gondorf. There is a ringer. Lonigan, their victim from the first movie, is setting them up to take the fall.
The Sting II
1983
5.8Although loudmouthed braggart Jerry Plunkett alienates his comrades and officers, Father Duffy, the regimental chaplain, has faith that he'll prove himself in the end.
The Fighting 69th
1940
5.3Torch singer Helen Morgan rises from sordid beginnings to fame and fortune only to lose it all to alcohol and poor personal choices.
The Helen Morgan Story
1957
4.3The captain of a downed airliner must help his crew and passengers survive on a deserted jungle island in the midst of a power struggle - an adult version of "Lord of the Flies."
Lost Flight
1970
5.6Circuit-riding Texas lawyer Timothy Higgins defends a former girlfriend against a murder charge stemming from an extortionist's threat to reveal her shady past. Through adroit courtroom work, Higgins is able to acquit her and reveal who actually shot the fatal bullet.
The Man from Galveston
1963
5.6Comedian Bob Hunter is aided by his French counterpart Fernydel and two beautiful blondes when he is targeted for death by a powerful European counterfeiting ring.
Paris Holiday
1958
NRA down-and-out vaudeville comedian, Buddy McCoy, becomes a successful silent movie star, but experiences tragedy in his personal life. May Marley is an alcoholic friend who Buddy tries to help.
The Big Slide
1956
8.0A professional football player is accused of murdering the man who attacked his sister. His brother, an investigate reporter, sets out to prove his brother's innocence.
The Keegans
1976
5.0A pilot devises a plan to airlift hay to thousands of ranch cattle stranded and dying due to severe winter weather.
Operation Haylift
1950
7.0Skipalong Rosenbloom is the star of a heavily commercialized TV kiddie show, presided over by a smarmy announcer. He is at odds with western bad guy Butcher Baer.
Skipalong Rosenbloom
1951
6.7The feathered residents of Chirpendale are terrorized by an evil black crow by the name of "The Black Menace". But to the citizen's rescue comes a brave young taxi puller named Bill! In other words, every single role in this film is played by birds. Actual birds.
Bill and Coo
1948
6.7The feathered residents of Chirpendale are terrorized by an evil black crow by the name of "The Black Menace". But to the citizen's rescue comes a brave young taxi puller named Bill! In other words, every single role in this film is played by birds. Actual birds.
Bill and Coo
1948