Ivan Goff

Writing

Ivan Goff

Born — Died

1910-04-17 — 1999-09-23

Place of birth

Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Known for

Writing

Credits

25 titles

Ivan Goff (17 April 1910 – 23 September 1999) was an Australian screenwriter, best known for his collaborations with Ben Roberts including White Heat (1949), Man of a Thousand Faces (1957), Legend of the Lone Ranger (1981), and the pilot for Charlie's Angels (1976). Goff was born in Perth, the son of two concert musicians. He attended Perth Boys High School (1922) and Perth Modern School (1923-26), and grew up in Claremont. At 15, he began writing for a local newspaper, but soon became dissatisfied with the isolation he felt. "Living in Australia made me crazy", he later said in an interview. "It took a month for a book to get to Australia, a year for a play and forever for an idea."

Known for

White Heat poster
7.7

A psychopathic criminal with a mother complex makes a daring break from prison and then leads his old gang in a chemical plant payroll heist. After the heist, events take a crazy turn.

White Heat

1949

Portrait in Black poster
5.7

A pair of lovers plot to kill the woman's rich husband.

Portrait in Black

1960

Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. poster
7.0

Captain Horatio Hornblower leads his ship HMS Lydia on a perilous transatlantic voyage, during which his faithful crew battle both a Spanish warship and a ragged band of Central American rebels.

Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N.

1951

The Legend of the Lone Ranger poster
4.9

When the young Texas Ranger, John Reid, is the sole survivor of an ambush arranged by the militaristic outlaw leader, Butch Cavendich, he is rescued by an old childhood Comanche friend, Tonto. When he recovers from his wounds, he dedicates his life to fighting the evil that Cavendich represents. To this end, John Reid becomes the great masked western hero, The Lone Ranger. With the help of Tonto, the pair go to rescue President Grant when Cavendich takes him hostage.

The Legend of the Lone Ranger

1981

Band of Angels poster
6.3

Living in Kentucky prior to the Civil War, Amantha Starr is a privileged young woman. Her widowed father, a wealthy plantation owner, dotes on her and sends her to the best schools. When he dies suddenly Amantha's world is turned upside down. She learns that her father had been living on borrowed money and that her mother was actually a slave and her father's mistress.

Band of Angels

1957

Man of a Thousand Faces poster
6.8

The turbulent life and professional career of vaudeville actor and silent screen horror star Lon Chaney (1883-1930), the man of a thousand faces; bearer of many personal misfortunes that even his great success could not mitigate.

Man of a Thousand Faces

1957

Behind the camera

White Heat poster
7.7

A psychopathic criminal with a mother complex makes a daring break from prison and then leads his old gang in a chemical plant payroll heist. After the heist, events take a crazy turn.

White Heat

1949

Portrait in Black poster
5.7

A pair of lovers plot to kill the woman's rich husband.

Portrait in Black

1960

Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. poster
7.0

Captain Horatio Hornblower leads his ship HMS Lydia on a perilous transatlantic voyage, during which his faithful crew battle both a Spanish warship and a ragged band of Central American rebels.

Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N.

1951

The Legend of the Lone Ranger poster
4.9

When the young Texas Ranger, John Reid, is the sole survivor of an ambush arranged by the militaristic outlaw leader, Butch Cavendich, he is rescued by an old childhood Comanche friend, Tonto. When he recovers from his wounds, he dedicates his life to fighting the evil that Cavendich represents. To this end, John Reid becomes the great masked western hero, The Lone Ranger. With the help of Tonto, the pair go to rescue President Grant when Cavendich takes him hostage.

The Legend of the Lone Ranger

1981

Band of Angels poster
6.3

Living in Kentucky prior to the Civil War, Amantha Starr is a privileged young woman. Her widowed father, a wealthy plantation owner, dotes on her and sends her to the best schools. When he dies suddenly Amantha's world is turned upside down. She learns that her father had been living on borrowed money and that her mother was actually a slave and her father's mistress.

Band of Angels

1957

Man of a Thousand Faces poster
6.8

The turbulent life and professional career of vaudeville actor and silent screen horror star Lon Chaney (1883-1930), the man of a thousand faces; bearer of many personal misfortunes that even his great success could not mitigate.

Man of a Thousand Faces

1957

Midnight Lace poster
6.6

Kit Preston begins to unravel when she receives threatening telephone calls informing her she's soon to be murdered.

Midnight Lace

1960

My Love Came Back poster
4.9

Amelia is a gifted violinist who is in danger of quitting the Brissac Academy of Music. Julius arranges to have a scholarship given to her through his employee Tony so that Julius can escort Amelia to every musical event in the city. The trouble begins when he cannot meet her one night and Tony goes in his place. Tony believes that Julius and Amelia are a couple and then son Paul thinks that Tony and Amelia are a couple as he is sending her the money. The worst part is that Amelia might leave classical music for swing music with classmates Dusty, Joy and the band.

My Love Came Back

1940

Green Fire poster
6.3

In Colombia, mining engineer Rian Mitchell discovers Carrero, the lost emerald mine of the Conquistadors, but has to contend with notorious local bandit El Moro's gang and with coffee planter Catherine Knowland's love.

Green Fire

1954

Shake Hands with the Devil poster
6.5

In 1921 Dublin, the IRA battles the "Black & Tans," special British forces given to harsh measures. Irish-American medical student Kerry O'Shea hopes to stay aloof, but saving a wounded friend gets him outlawed, and inexorably drawn into the rebel organization by his former professor Sean Lenihan, who has "shaken hands with the devil" and begun to think of fighting as an end in itself. Complications arise when Kerry falls for a beautiful English hostage, and the British offer a peace treaty that is not enough to satisfy Lenihan.

Shake Hands with the Devil

1959

Serenade poster
5.6

A wealthy woman discovers a vineyard worker with a beautiful operatic singing voice. She helps make him a star but then breaks his heart. He flees in misery to Mexico where he meets a sweet farm girl.

Serenade

1956

King of the Khyber Rifles poster
5.9

Freshly arrived Sandhurst-trained Captain Alan King, better versed in Pashtun then any of the veterans and born locally as army brat, survives an attack on his escort to his Northwest Frontier province garrison near the Khyber pass because of Ahmed, a native Afridi deserter from the Muslim fanatic rebel Karram Khan's forces. As soon as his fellow officers learn his mother was a native Muslim which got his parents disowned even by their own families, he falls prey to stubborn prejudiced discrimination, Lieutenant Geoffrey Heath even moves out of their quarters, except from half-Irish Lt. Ben Baird.

King of the Khyber Rifles

1953

O. Henry's Full House poster
6.9

Five O. Henry stories, each separate. The primary one from the critics' acclaim was "The Cop and the Anthem". Soapy tells fellow bum Horace that he is going to get arrested so he can spend the winter in a nice jail cell. He fails. He can't even accost a woman; she turns out to be a streetwalker. The other stories are "The Clarion Call", "The Last Leaf", "The Ransom of Red Chief", and "The Gift of the Magi".

O. Henry's Full House

1952

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

Come Fill the Cup poster
7.0

Alcoholic newspaperman Lew Marsh hits bottom, loses his job and is rehabilitated by Charley Dolan. After six years on the wagon he gets his job back and devotes himself to other recovering alcoholics.

Come Fill the Cup

1951

Goodbye, My Fancy poster
6.4

Agatha has fond memories of her romance with college president Dr. James Merrill, when she was a student and he was her professor, and wants to see if there is still a spark between them.

Goodbye, My Fancy

1951

Sunset in Wyoming poster
7.0

By stripping all the timber from the land, a lumber baron threatens everyone with flooding. Gene won't let that happen.

Sunset in Wyoming

1941

Backfire poster
5.9

When he's discharged from a military hospital, ex-GI Bob Corey goes on a search for his army buddy Steve Connolly. A reformed crook, Connolly is on the lam from a trumped-up murder rap, and Corey hopes to clear his pal. Tagging along is Army nurse Julie Benson, who has fallen for Corey.

Backfire

1950

Diagnosis: Murder poster
6.1

A psychiatrist plots to murder his wife so he can be with his mistress, but his wife mysteriously disappears before he can carry out his plan.

Diagnosis: Murder

1974

Charlie's Angels poster
NR

The Angels head for wine country to discover what happened to a missing man before he's declared legally dead and the estate goes up for grabs.

Charlie's Angels

1976

Charlie's Angels poster
NR

The Angels head for wine country to discover what happened to a missing man before he's declared legally dead and the estate goes up for grabs.

Charlie's Angels

1976

I Was a Criminal poster
8.0

Aka Passport to Heaven. In Prussia shoemaker Voight needs a residence permit to get a job, but can only get a job if he already has a permit. He dons a captain's uniform to order a platoon of soldiers to Koepenick to take over the Town Hall to get his permit.

I Was a Criminal

1941

Prejudice poster
8.0

Joe Hanson, who believes himself to be tolerant of other races and religions, gradually comes to realize that he is prejudiced against many of them.

Prejudice

1949

Affetmeyen Kadın poster
9.0

No synopsis available yet.

Affetmeyen Kadın

1964

The Second Sin poster
10.0

After a jeweler is shot dead, Michael Gray is taken into custody. He is defended by the experienced Anton Rossouw.

The Second Sin

1966