Paul Wendkos

Directing

Paul Wendkos

Born — Died

1925-09-20 — 2009-11-12

Place of birth

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Known for

Directing

Credits

41 titles

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Paul Wendkos (September 20, 1922; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – November 12, 2009; Malibu, California) was an American television and film director. Following wartime service in the US Navy and attending Columbia University on the GI Bill Wendkos made his first feature, a documentary on a school for the blind called Dark Interlude in 1953. Wendkos's first feature film was The Burglar . Wendkos's fluid camera technique caught the attention of the head of Columbia Pictures chief Harry Cohn who not only wished to distribute the film, but put Wendkos on a contract. A variety of films followed for Columbia beginning with the hard-hitting crime drama The C…

Known for

Guns of the Magnificent Seven poster
5.4

When Mexican revolutionary leader Quintero is left to rot in jail by the forces of President Diaz, it's up to his subordinate, Max, to bust him out. With $600 in hand, he crosses the border into America and hires Chris Adams, a mercenary of considerable skill, who uses the rest of the cash on more hired guns. After the team is rounded out by experts on close-combat fighting, explosives, and knife-throwing, they set off to free Quintero.

Guns of the Magnificent Seven

1969

Betrayal poster
7.0

Dramatization of the 1971 case involving a young woman who sued her psychiatrist for luring her into a sexual relationship with him under the guise of therapy.

Betrayal

1978

Cannon for Cordoba poster
5.6

In 1912, during the Mexican Revolution, the border between Texas and Mexico is on flames due to savage raids by Mexican bandits who call themselves freedom fighters, so the US government entrusts to General Pershing the capture of General Héctor Córdoba, the most notorious among them.

Cannon for Cordoba

1970

Hell Boats poster
8.1

A war drama of motor torpedo boats which did much unsung work in WW2, but the naval battles merely provide an exciting story in which an even more special romantic drama is wrapped up.

Hell Boats

1970

Gidget poster
6.0

Due to an accident while swimming in the sea, Francis meets the surfer Moondoggie. She's fascinated with his sport and starts to hang out with his clique. Although they make fun of her at first, they teach her to surf and soon she's accepted and given the nickname "Gidget". But it's hard work to become more than a friend to Moondoggie.

Gidget

1959

Face of a Fugitive poster
5.7

A man who was falsly accused for murder escapes the sheriffs and starts a new life in a town at the border of the States to Mexico. But he cannot settle in peace as his chasers are trying to find him.

Face of a Fugitive

1959

Film credits

Behind the camera

Guns of the Magnificent Seven poster
5.4

When Mexican revolutionary leader Quintero is left to rot in jail by the forces of President Diaz, it's up to his subordinate, Max, to bust him out. With $600 in hand, he crosses the border into America and hires Chris Adams, a mercenary of considerable skill, who uses the rest of the cash on more hired guns. After the team is rounded out by experts on close-combat fighting, explosives, and knife-throwing, they set off to free Quintero.

Guns of the Magnificent Seven

1969

Betrayal poster
7.0

Dramatization of the 1971 case involving a young woman who sued her psychiatrist for luring her into a sexual relationship with him under the guise of therapy.

Betrayal

1978

Cannon for Cordoba poster
5.6

In 1912, during the Mexican Revolution, the border between Texas and Mexico is on flames due to savage raids by Mexican bandits who call themselves freedom fighters, so the US government entrusts to General Pershing the capture of General Héctor Córdoba, the most notorious among them.

Cannon for Cordoba

1970

Hell Boats poster
8.1

A war drama of motor torpedo boats which did much unsung work in WW2, but the naval battles merely provide an exciting story in which an even more special romantic drama is wrapped up.

Hell Boats

1970

Gidget poster
6.0

Due to an accident while swimming in the sea, Francis meets the surfer Moondoggie. She's fascinated with his sport and starts to hang out with his clique. Although they make fun of her at first, they teach her to surf and soon she's accepted and given the nickname "Gidget". But it's hard work to become more than a friend to Moondoggie.

Gidget

1959

Face of a Fugitive poster
5.7

A man who was falsly accused for murder escapes the sheriffs and starts a new life in a town at the border of the States to Mexico. But he cannot settle in peace as his chasers are trying to find him.

Face of a Fugitive

1959

The Mephisto Waltz poster
6.0

A frustrated pianist himself, music journalist Myles Clarkson is thrilled to interview virtuoso Duncan Ely. Duncan, however, is terminally ill and not much interested in Myles until noticing that Myles' hands are ideally suited for piano. Suddenly, he can't get enough of his new friend, and Myles' wife, Paula, becomes suspicious of Duncan's intentions. Her suspicions grow when Duncan dies and Myles mysteriously becomes a virtuoso overnight.

The Mephisto Waltz

1971

Recoil poster
NR

Recoil is a feature film edited from two episodes of "The Detective" and released in Europe as a theatrical motion picture. A detective attempts to nail an underworld figure for the numbers game he is running, after he is acquitted of killing his brother.

Recoil

1963

The Great Escape II: The Untold Story poster
5.5

Allied prisoners tunnel out of a stalag, then return to avenge fellow escapees executed by the Nazis.

The Great Escape II: The Untold Story

1988

Guilty Until Proven Innocent poster
7.1

A teenage high school drop-out Bobby McLaughlin is accused of the murder of a local drug dealer he says he didn’t commit. When he is convicted with little evidence, his father begins a fierce struggle to free his son from prison.

Guilty Until Proven Innocent

1991

Bloodlines: Murder in the Family poster
5.0

Stewart and Neil Woodman plot to have their parents murdered.

Bloodlines: Murder in the Family

1993

The Awakening of Candra poster
8.0

Based on the true-life story of teenage bride Candra Torres who was abducted in 1976 while on a honeymoon camping trip in the High Sierras.

The Awakening of Candra

1983

The Delphi Bureau: The Merchant of Death Assignment poster
9.0

The Delphi Bureau is a top-secret spy cadre answerable only to the U.S. president. The organization may have just one field operative, a supposed researcher named Glenn Garth Gregory. He gets his orders from an in-the-know Washington, D.C. socialite, and he relies on a resource that makes him a one-of-a-kind asset: his photographic memory. This adventure-packed, tongue-in-cheek pilot sets the pace and style for the 1972-73 series it launched. In it, Gregory sets out to find who's behind the disappearance of jets, tanks and other surplus weaponry. He'll be variously hunted by an assassin, tossed in jail for murder, half-buried inside a grain elevator and forced to cling to the undercarriage of a tractor while the driver tries to shred him under its tilling blades. One breathless escape after another invariably seems to land our hero in another jam.

The Delphi Bureau: The Merchant of Death Assignment

1972

A Match Made in Heaven poster
6.4

A dying widow plays matchmaker to her 32-year-old unmarried son and sets him up with a nurse that she meets.

A Match Made in Heaven

1997

The Legend of Lizzie Borden poster
6.9

A dramatization of the famous 1893 Massachusetts trial of the woman accused of murdering her father and stepmother with an ax.

The Legend of Lizzie Borden

1975

Angel Baby poster
6.1

A woman who believes she has been chosen by God to heal people is taken in by a greedy promoter and his shrewish wife to make the rounds of the rural South.

Angel Baby

1961

Attack on the Iron Coast poster
5.4

The film depicts an account of Allied Combined Operations Headquarters commandos executing a daring raid on the German-occupied French coast during the Second World War. The story is based on the commando raid on the French port of St. Nazaire.

Attack on the Iron Coast

1968

Gidget Goes to Rome poster
5.1

Francis, now 17, is still in love with Moondoggy. She can persuade her parents to allow them a journey to Rome, together with two of her and two of his friends. However they have to take an adult with them, so they choose Peter's eccentric aunt. In Rome they get the beautiful guide Daniela, who's fascinating the guys and making especially Gidget jealous. She starts looking elsewhere herself.

Gidget Goes to Rome

1963

Secrets poster
7.0

A young woman trapped in an unhappy marriage goes from affair to affair in her search for the "secret" to happiness.

Secrets

1977

Good Cops, Bad Cops poster
4.2

Made-for-TV drama about one of the largest crimes in history—the 1980 robbery of the Boston Depositors Trust by a group of policemen. Capt. Gerry Clemente is the leader of a gang of rotten cops who take their piece of Boston's criminal offerings. The crimes are petty at first, but soon, Clemente sets his sights on a bank that promises a big score. Can the gang pull it off before a case is built against them?

Good Cops, Bad Cops

1990

Tarawa Beachhead poster
6.6

A soldier is expected to never question the actions of his commanding officer, but when a Marine sees his CO breaking the law, he finds himself facing a difficult dilemma in this provocative war drama.

Tarawa Beachhead

1958

Blood Vows: The Story of a Mafia Wife poster
8.0

A fashion designer marries a lawyer only to discover that his father is an imfamous mafia don.

Blood Vows: The Story of a Mafia Wife

1987

Gidget Goes Hawaiian poster
5.1

Francis is desperate: her parents want to force her to come with them on vacation to Hawaii - just during the two weeks when her beloved "Moondoggy" is home from College. When he suggests her to go for it, she's even more in panic - doesn't he care to be with her? So she sets out for Hawaii in the worst mood. On the plane she meets the sociable Abby, who gives her the advice to forget about Jeff - and regrets it shortly after, when Francis follows the advice and steals her boyfriend Eddie, a famous dancer. But then Jeff discovers he's missing Francis...

Gidget Goes Hawaiian

1961

The Strangers in 7A poster
6.3

A building superintendent and his wife are held hostage in their apartment by a sadistic would-be bank robber and his spaced-out accomplices.

The Strangers in 7A

1972

The Burglar poster
5.7

Burglar Nat Harbin and his two associates set their sights on wealthy spiritualist Sister Sarah, who has inherited a fortune -- including a renowned emerald necklace -- from a Philadelphia financier. Using Nat's female ward, Gladden, to pose as an admirer and case the mansion where the woman lives, they set up a perfect break-in. Things get complicated afterwards.

The Burglar

1957

Rage of Angels: The Story Continues poster
5.8

Jennifer's life changes when Warner, now Vice President of the United States, decides to see her and her son, Joshua. At the same time, Jennifer is unaware that James Moretti, an underworld figure, holds her responsible for the death of his brother. Moretti determines to blackmail her and Warner into halting a Justice Department indictment against another underworld figure. Further complicating Jennifer's life is her mother, who abandoning her as a child, reappears with a new identity, Marchesa Allabrandi.

Rage of Angels: The Story Continues

1986

A Wing and a Prayer poster
5.0

An air-traffic controller faces the challenge of her career when she is forced to guide a disabled airplane to safety, unaware that her husband is aboard.

A Wing and a Prayer

1998

Six Against the Rock poster
4.8

In May of 1946, Alcatraz inmate Bernie Coy initiates a carefully thought out plan to escape the island prison. His plan, carried out with five accomplices, falls apart when they can't obtain a key to unlock a door leading to the yard.

Six Against the Rock

1987

The Ordeal of Dr. Mudd poster
5.3

The story of the doctor who faced charges of conspiracy after he assisted John Wilkes Booth by setting his broken leg after he had assassinated Abraham Lincoln.

The Ordeal of Dr. Mudd

1980

White Hot: The Mysterious Murder of Thelma Todd poster
7.5

When '30s film star Thelma Todd dies mysteriously, her relationship with New York mobster Lucky Luciano is investigated.

White Hot: The Mysterious Murder of Thelma Todd

1991

The Chase poster
4.0

In Denver, a fleeing bank robber kills a cop and kidnaps an old man to hold as a hostage. He is chased by the police and a news helicopter, which films the entire incident. Based on a true story.

The Chase

1991

The Chase poster
4.0

In Denver, a fleeing bank robber kills a cop and kidnaps an old man to hold as a hostage. He is chased by the police and a news helicopter, which films the entire incident. Based on a true story.

The Chase

1991

The Bad Seed poster
6.1

Rachel is a 9-year-old girl who is perfection itself - unless she's crossed or challenged. Several disturbing recent incidents have led Rachel's mother Christine to suspect that her child is a latent murderess. Upon discovering that she herself is the daughter of a convicted killer, Christine becomes convinced that sweet little Rachel is a "bad seed" - an inherent killer who feels no remorse because she doesn't know any better.

The Bad Seed

1985

Cocaine: One Man's Seduction poster
6.9

A 47-year-old real estate salesman gets trapped in the insidious web of cocaine addiction.

Cocaine: One Man's Seduction

1983

The Death of Richie poster
7.0

A sensitive but confused teenager feels pressure from all directions and turns to drugs, which causes problems for him in school and at home.

The Death of Richie

1977

The Five of Me poster
9.3

Henry Hawksworth is a man menaced by a multiple personality. There is Dana, the conservative family man; Johnny, violent and sociopathic; Peter, creative and childish; and Phil, protective and unemotional. "Dana" falls in love with Ann and marries her. Following a crime, "Johnny" is arrested and tried. In court, Henry's multiple personalities are painfully revealed.

The Five of Me

1981

Trial: The Price of Passion poster
7.0

Down-on-his-luck lawyer Warren Blackburn defends wealthy Texan Johnnie Faye Boudreau, who is accused of murdering her husband.

Trial: The Price of Passion

1992

The Ordeal of Patty Hearst poster
6.5

The story of the kidnapping of newspaper heiress Patty Hearst by members of a radical guerrilla organization, as seen by the FBI agent in charge of her case.

The Ordeal of Patty Hearst

1979

Special Delivery poster
5.5

A gang of thieves plan a daring bank robbery, making their escape across the rooftops of Los Angeles. The police are quickly called in, however, and only one of the robbers, Murdock, makes a clean getaway. Unfortunately, in order to do so, he is forced to dump the stolen cash into a mailbox, which he then finds is locked until midnight, forcing him to wait until the mailman makes his late night pickup. As he waits, he discovers that his hiding place has been observed by several other people, all of whom want a share of the loot.

Special Delivery

1976

No artwork available
6.8

This made-for-television film documents the takeover of the TWA airliner in flight from Athens to Rome in 1985. The focus is on the flight attendant, Uli Derickson, whose courage and hope helped save all but one of the passengers on the plane. The movie chronicles the first 2 days and the aftermath.

The Taking of Flight 847: The Uli Derickson Story

1988