Walter Slezak

Acting

Walter Slezak

Born 1902-05-03 · Vienna, Austria

Walter Slezak (3 May 1902 – 21 April 1983) was a portly Austrian character actor who appeared in numerous Hollywood films. Slezak often portrayed villains or thugs, most notably the German U-boat captain in Alfred Hitchcock's 1944 Lifeboat, but occasionally he got to play lighter roles, as in 1962's The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm. He also played a cheerfully corrupt and philosophical private detective in the 1947 film noir Born to Kill and appeared as Squire Trelawney in the 1972 version of Treasure Island.

Acting credits

Come September poster
6.8

Robert Talbot, an American millionaire, arrives early for his annual vacation at his luxurious Italian villa. His long-time girlfriend Lisa has given up waiting for him and has decided to marry another man. Meanwhile, his sneaky business associate Maurice secretly misappropriates the villa as a hotel while Talbot is away. The current guests of the "hotel" are a group of young American girls.

Come September

1961

Call Me Madam poster
6.2

Washington hostess Sally Adams becomes a Truman-era US ambassador to a European grand duchy.

Call Me Madam

1953

Lifeboat poster
7.4

During World War II, a small group of survivors is stranded in a lifeboat together after the ship they were traveling on is destroyed by a German U-boat.

Lifeboat

1944

Treasure Island poster
5.9

Young Jim Hawkins finds himself serving with pirate captain Long John Silver in search of a buccaneer's treasure, in this short adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale.

Treasure Island

1972

The Pirate poster
6.5

A girl is engaged to the local richman, but meanwhile she has dreams about the legendary pirate Macoco. A traveling singer falls in love with her and to impress her he poses as the pirate.

The Pirate

1948

Sinbad the Sailor poster
6.0

Daredevil sailor Sinbad embarks on a voyage across the Seven Seas to find the lost riches of Alexander the Great. His first stop is the port of Basra, where his ship is seized and scheduled for auction. In his attempt to win it back, he befriends beautiful concubine Shireen. But when her master, the nefarious Emir, calls her back to duty, Sinbad must interrupt his adventure to save the "Jewel of Persia."

Sinbad the Sailor

1947

Born to Kill poster
6.7

A calculating divorcée risks her chances at wealth and security with a man she doesn't love by getting involved with a hotheaded murderer.

Born to Kill

1947

The Princess and the Pirate poster
6.9

Princess Margaret is travelling incognito to elope with her true love instead of marrying the man her father has betrothed her to. On the high seas, her ship is attacked by pirates who know her identity and plan to kidnap her and hold her for a king's ransom.

The Princess and the Pirate

1944

Cornered poster
6.2

A World War II veteran hunts down the Nazi collaborators who killed his wife.

Cornered

1945

People Will Talk poster
7.1

A successful, unorthodox doctor befriends a young woman with suicidal ideations due to her pregnancy by her ex, a military reservist killed in action.

People Will Talk

1951

The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm poster
5.9

The Grimm brothers Wilhelm and Jacob, known for their literary works in the nineteenth century, have their lives dramatized. Wilhelm fights to write something entertaining amongst the sea of dry, non-fiction books they write and he sets about collecting oral-tradition fairy tales to put into print. Their life story is countered with reenactments of three of their stories including "The Dancing Princess," "The Cobbler and the Elves" and "The Singing Bone."

The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm

1962

The Inspector General poster
6.6

An illiterate stooge in a traveling medicine show wanders into a strange town and is picked up on a vagrancy charge. The town's corrupt officials mistake him for the inspector general whom they think is traveling in disguise. Fearing he will discover they've been pocketing tax money, they make several bungled attempts to kill him.

The Inspector General

1949

Riff-Raff poster
6.2

A private detective foils the plans of villains attempting to take over Panamanian oil fields while he searches for a valuable map hidden in plain sight.

Riff-Raff

1947

White Witch Doctor poster
6.5

Ellen Burton arrives in Africa to join Dr. Mary as her nurse, bringing modern medicine to the native peoples. Lonni Douglas, an animal wrangler and fortune hunter, agrees to take her upriver, despite his misgivings about her suitability for Africa. They battle escaped gorillas, hostile natives, infected lion wounds, and hostile witch doctors to reach their destination and on the way, they fall in love. Will their contrasting interests doom their romance?

White Witch Doctor

1953

Addio giovinezza! poster
8.0

The movie is about a student in Turin during the 1920s (moved up from the earlier versions) and his love for a a seamstress. The student, Mario, is played by Walter Slezak; the girl Dorina by Carmen Boni. The femme fatale Elena (Elena Sangro) threatens the relationship. When school days end, seen here as a kind of transitory idyll, it is "farewell to youth" as the title states, and a melancholy goodbye to youthful romances as well to allow new lives to take form.

Addio giovinezza!

1927

Step Lively poster
6.7

Fly-by-night producers dodge bill collectors while trying for one big hit.

Step Lively

1944

The Spanish Main poster
6.4

Laurent van Horn is the leader of a band of Dutch refugees on a ship seeking freedom in the Carolinas, when the ship is wrecked on the coast of Cartagene, governed by Don Juan Alvardo, a Spanish ruler. Alvarado has Laurent thrown in prison, but the latter escapes, and five-years later is a pirate leader. He poses as the navigator on a ship in which Contessa Francesca, daughter of a Mexican noble, is traveling on her way to marry Alvarado, whom she has never seen. Laurent's pirates capture the ship and Francesca, in order to save another ship, gives her hand-in-marriage to Laurent, who sails her to the pirate hideout. This irks his jealous pirate comrades Anne Bonney and Captain Benjamin Black. They overpower Laurent and send Francesca to Alvarado, and then Mario du Billar, a trusted right-hand man, makes a deal to deliver Laurent to Alvarado.

The Spanish Main

1945

Mein Leopold poster
10.0

No synopsis available yet.

Mein Leopold

1924

Salome, Where She Danced poster
4.1

During the Austrian-Prussian war, Anna Marie is a dancer who is forced to flee her country after she is accused of being a spy. She ends up in a lawless western town in Arizona, where she uses her charms and dancing skills to transform herself into "Salome" during her dance routines.

Salome, Where She Danced

1945

Emil and the Detectives poster
6.2

When Emil travels by bus to Berlin to visit his family, his money is stolen by a crook who specializes in digging tunnels. While following the thief, Emil runs into Gustav, a young boy who gathers up all his friends to help Emil find the money. However, they get into more trouble than they bargained for when Emil's pickpocket turns out to be mixed up with a couple of notorious bank robbers.

Emil and the Detectives

1964

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in the Foreign Legion poster
6.1

Jonesy and Lou are in Algeria looking for a wrestler they are promoting. Sergeant Axmann tricks them into joining the Foreign Legion, after which they discover Axmann's collaboration with the nasty Sheik Hamud El Khalid.

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in the Foreign Legion

1950

Heidi poster
6.3

Heidi is an orphaned girl initially raised by her aunt Dete in Maienfeld, Switzerland. In order to get a job in Frankfurt, Dete brings 5-year-old Heidi to her grandfather, who has been at odds with the villagers for years and lives in seclusion on the alm. He at first resents Heidi's arrival, but the girl manages to penetrate his harsh exterior and subsequently has a delightful stay with him and her best friend, young Peter the goat-herd.

Heidi

1968

Confidentially Connie poster
5.8

Texas cattleman Opie Bedloe comes to Maine to visit his son Joe, a college instructor, and his wife Connie in the hopes of persuading Joe to give up his teaching career and come back to Texas and take over the ranch. When Opie finds out that Connie, who is expecting a baby, can not afford the steaks she yearns for on Joe's salary, Opie, who believes that pregnant women gotta have meat, arranges for the local butcher, Spangenberg to cut his prices in half (with Opie paying the difference) so that Connie can have the meat she desires.

Confidentially Connie

1953

Ten Thousand Bedrooms poster
5.6

In this musical-comedy, Dean Martin plays an American hotel mogul who becomes smitten with a young Italian woman (Anna Maria Alberghetti) when buying a hotel in Rome. To marry this gal, he has to get her three older sisters married off.

Ten Thousand Bedrooms

1957