Jess Hahn

Acting

Jess Hahn

Born 1921-10-29 · Terre Haute, Indiana, USA

Jess Hahn's career is a bit of an oddity, being one of very few American actors to establish himself in French cinema in the early 1960's. He acted exclusively in French productions for the duration of his career with the exception of the Marlon Brando vehicle "The Night of the Following Day" in 1968, which was filmed in France. He also appeared in several international coproductions and low budget films by French exploitation director Jean Marie Pallardy, for which he is arguably best-known to contemporary audiences.

Acting credits

The Trial poster
7.4

Arrested for an unnamed crime, Josef K. is trapped in a surreal bureaucratic maze where justice is unknowable and guilt is assumed.

The Trial

1962

The Novices poster
4.8

Sister Agnès runs away from her convent in Brittany and seeks refuge in Paris with prostitute Mona Lisa. With absolutely no qualifications, the young novice has a hard job finding work, so Mona Lisa tries to teach her the ropes of the oldest profession of them all!

The Novices

1970

Triple Cross poster
6.1

Safecracker Eddie Chapman is languishing in prison on the island of Jersey when the Nazis arrive. An adept manipulator of situations, Chapman convinces the Germans to use him to spy on the British. And when the would-be traitor arrives home, he convinces the English to use him as a double agent -- in exchange for a full pardon.

Triple Cross

1966

Teheran '43 poster
6.4

This story starts in 1980 in Paris as the memories of Andrei Borodin, a Soviet agent, take the action back to 1943 during the Teheran meetings of Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill. A high-ranking Nazi officer developed a plan to assassinate the three world leaders in order to undermine the Allied forces. He commissioned the German agent Max Richard to carry out his plan, but it failed miserably due to the quick action and thinking of Andrei. While in Teheran, Andrei met a French woman, Marie Louni, living in the city and they had a brief but intense affair. Nearly four decades later, the Nazi officer has been captured - but not for long. Freed by terrorists, the officer is hunting down the German agent who failed to carry out the planned assassinations. Max lives at Françoise, a young French woman, who hides him.

Teheran '43

1981

Mama Dracula poster
3.5

A female vampire must bathe in the blood of virgins in order to stay alive. The trouble is that virgins are in short supply nowadays, and she is running into major problems in finding one.

Mama Dracula

1980

The Great Spy Chase poster
6.8

A cold-war spy parody. After the death of an armaments manufacturer, an international group of spies is drawn into a high-stakes battle of wits to obtain the valuable military patents which have been inherited by the lovely widow.

The Great Spy Chase

1964

Nathalie poster
6.6

Haute Couture model in Paris becomes involved in the activities of two rival jewel thief gangs.

Nathalie

1957

What's New Pussycat? poster
5.9

A playboy who refuses to give up his hedonistic lifestyle to settle down and marry his true love seeks help from a demented psychoanalyst who is having romantic problems of his own.

What's New Pussycat?

1965

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

La Galette du roi poster
4.5

In this conventional, broadly comic farce of greed and royal matrimony, nearly bankrupt businessman Victor Harris is marrying Maria-Helena, a princess who comes with a dowry that is made up of one half of her island kingdom. Her father, the cowardly King Arnold III is counting on the money this marriage will bring him. The country is now almost bankrupt because of the king's gambling debts. As Harris and the king look forward to their illusory profits from the royal merger, other characters add some liveliness to the otherwise predictable story.

La Galette du roi

1986

The Grand Duel poster
6.0

A grizzled ex-sheriff helps a man framed for murder to confront the powerful trio of brothers who want him dead.

The Grand Duel

1972

The Tricyclist poster
5.7

Antoine Peyralout is baker Mouillefarine's tricycle delivery man. Comical and stuttering, Antoine shows more interest in the local soccer team than in professional integrity. A wedding cake pays the price for it and the young man is dismissed. Not dispirited in the least, Antoine decides to go to Nice, where his favorite team will play the final of the Cup. On his merry (and eventful) way, he has the opportunity to save a pretty camper, Popeline, with whom he falls in love. Once in Nice, he discovers that Dabek, the brilliant goal-keeper is not up to his task following bad news...

The Tricyclist

1957

The Vintage poster
6.0

A young Italian fugitive and his older protective brother hide among the grape pickers at a vineyard in Provence, France.

The Vintage

1957

Les Gorilles poster
6.4

A confused pair of airport luggage carriers get involved in the disappearance of some suitcases.

Les Gorilles

1964

Bad Man's River poster
5.0

Robber Roy King loses his wife, Alicia, to revolutionary Montero. Despite their rivalry they collaborate in an attempt to rob the Mexican government of one million dollars.

Bad Man's River

1971

Cartouche poster
6.3

In the 18th century, Louis de Bourguignon is working with the Malichot's gang, but their ways are too 'unethical' for him. He creates his own band, acting under the name of Cartouche, making audacious robberies of the rich people, and even distributing the takings with the poor. Thus, cartouche attracts the people's sympathies, Venus's love, and hate from the Police and Malichot... Cartouche can escape all the traps they set at him - except the entrapments of love. Eventually, he will be saved by a woman, at her own cost.

Cartouche

1962

A Woman Like Satan poster
5.4

Handsome and rich Spanish gentleman abandons his wife and riches for his love of a young girl of poor stock who taunts and degrades him.

A Woman Like Satan

1958

Honey, Scare Me poster
5.0

A crime story writer comes to the French Alps for vacation. However, an envelope given by a strange man, would put him in a conflict between two teams of spies. A young blonde hotel burglar will help him get out of this mess.

Honey, Scare Me

1958

Up to His Ears poster
7.0

A millionaire realizes he really wants to live after he has hired an assassin to kill him.

Up to His Ears

1965

White Fire poster
4.3

While working in a diamond mine located in the desert, Bo and Ingrid, two siblings who survived a massacre as children, make a surprising discovery.

White Fire

1984

The Wise Guys poster
7.9

Hector Valentin returns to France from Canada when he inherits a small sawmill. He has difficulties restarting the run-down operation which has inefficient workers and is hampered by the dirty tactics of its bigger...

The Wise Guys

1965

The Mysterious Island poster
5.6

1865, The American Civil War: Five POW manage to escape by balloon from Fort Richmond. Caught in a storm and with the balloon damaged they find themselves 'shipwrecked' on a volcanic desert island somewhere in the Pacific. Just before crash landing their leader, the brilliant engineer Cyrus Smith falls to his apparent death in the raging waters, but later turns up completely unharmed and with no memory of how he was saved. His fellow castaways are: the famous journalist Gedeon Spilett, the salty sailor Bonaventure Pencroff, the orphaned boy Harbert Brown and the black servant of Smith, Nab. The dog Top also joined them in the escape.

The Mysterious Island

1973

Rita the Field Marshal poster
5.2

A waitress helps a scientist flee the Nazis.

Rita the Field Marshal

1967

Atlantic Wall poster
6.2

1944. Léon Duchemin owns a restaurant with his sister. His clients are Germans, Résistance et black marketeers. Léon unwillingly joins the Résistance when a British pilot is shot down and hides in his attic and, through a series of mishaps, he accidentally steals the plans for Hitler's V1 missiles.

Atlantic Wall

1970