Films of Kerwin Mathews

1955

Director: Phil Karlson
Cast: Guy Madison, Kim Novak, Brian Keith, Kerwin Mathews, Alvy Moore, William Conrad.

Still: Cast photo

Still: Kerwin Mathews, Jack Dimond, Alvy Moore

Pressbook Profile: Film Newcomer Checks on Love

Notes on 5 Against the House
-- In the mid-1950s Columbia Pictures was grooming Kim Novak as a replacement for Rita Hayworth. 5 Against the House presented her in one of her earliest co-starring roles and her image dominated the ad art. However, the same year (1955), she turned up in a bit in The Son of Sinbad, starring Dale Robertson. As far as we know, this film was unrelated to the later 7th Voyage of Sinbad, but if you have an active imagination you might try to picture Dale Robertson as Kerwin Mathews's son.
-- Alvy Moore later co-starred as Hank Kimball in the semi-legendary TV sitcom Green Acres.

The Garment Jungle

1957

Director: Vincent Sherman
Cast: Lee J. Cobb, Kerwin Mathews, Gia Scala, Richard Boone, Robert Loggia, Valerie French.

Still: The Garment Jungle: Title lobby card

Still: Kerwin Mathews: Waiting for scene setup

Notes on The Garment Jungle
-- The Garment Jungle, originally called "The Garment Center," is a film noirish story set in the dark and sinister world of the, uh, dress manufacturing business. The original director was Robert Aldrich, who was replaced by Vincent Sherman a few days before completion.
-- The film was released May 22, 1957 in Los Angeles.

Tarawa Beachhead

1958

Director: Paul Wendkos
Cast: Kerwin Mathews, Julie Adams, Ray Danton, Karen Sharpe.

Lobby card #3: Tarawa Beachhead

The Last Blitzkrieg

1958

Director: Arthur Dreifuss
Cast: Van Johnson, Kerwin Mathews, Dick York, Larry Storch.

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad

1958

Producer: Charles H. Schneer
Director: Nathan Juran
Cast: Kerwin Mathews, Kathryn Grant, Richard Eyer, Torin Thatcher.
Filmed in Dynamation.
Special effects by Ray Harryhausen, Music by Bernard Herrmann.

Still: Kerwin Mathews and Kathryn Grant

Still: Cyclops vs. Kerwin Mathews

Sinbad: Images

Notes on The 7th Voyage of Sinbad
-- This film gave Kerwin Mathews the first of several swashbuckling roles. Although The 7th Voyage of Sinbad was not the screen's first Sinbad story, it remains the most famous and most popular, with the versatile Mathews forever identified among film scholars as an action-adventure hero. Prior Sinbads had included Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Dale Robertson. Later Sinbads would include John Phillip Law and Patrick Wayne.
-- The "Dynamation" special effects, which included a cyclops, and really scary dragon and a giant bird, were by the screen's master illusionist of the day -- Ray Harryhausen. The 7th Voyage of Sinbad's single most enduring image is probably Mathews' duel with Harryhausen's sword-fighting skeleton.
-- The memorable musical score was by Bernard Herrmann. best known for his music for Citizen Kane, The Day the Earth Stood Still and a number of legendary Alfred Hitchcock films, including North By Northwest and Vertigo. A new recording of the 7th Voyage of Sinbad score was recently released on CD by Varese Sarabande.
-- Apart from 7th Voyage of Sinbad, director Nathan Juran often worked with many other giants of the silver screen. In 1957 he had directed Ronald and Nancy (Davis) Reagan in Hellcats of the Navy, but a year later he was back to bigger and much better things with 7th Voyage of Sinbad and Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman, the latter featuring Allison Hayes in the title role.
-- The 7th Voyage of Sinbad film was produced by Charles Schneer, a frequent collaborator with Harryhausen.

The Three Worlds of Gulliver

1960

Producer: Charles H. Schneer
Director: Jack Sher
Cast: Kerwin Mathews, Jo Morrow, June Thorburn, Lee Patterson.

Still: Kerwin Mathews #1

Still: Kerwin Mathews #2

Still: Kerwin Mathews and Jo Morrow

Notes on The Three Worlds of Gulliver
-- The film offered still more mind-boggling (for their time) special effects from Ray Harryhausen, this time in a process called "Superdynamation."
-- Once again the work of Mathews and Harryhausen is enhanced by the music of Bernard Herrmann.
-- Other screen versions of Jonathan Swift's classic tale included Max Fleischer's 1939 animated musical version, which featured the voices of Lanny Ross and Jessica Dragonette, and a 1977 part-live, part-animated musical version with Richard Harris. More recently television gave us Ted Danson in a mini-series version.
-- The Three Worlds of Gulliver reunited the successful team of Mathews, Harryhausen, Hermann and Schneer.

The Warrior Empress/Sappho, Venus of Lesbos

1960

Director: Pietro Francisci
Cast: Kerwin Mathews, Tina Louise.

Still: Kerwin Mathews and Tina Louise

Still: Portrait of Tina Louise

Notes on Sappho, Venus of Lesbos aka The Warrior Empress
-- We've never seen this movie and really can't imagine what it's about, but we do know that Mathews plays "Phaon," who's in love with Sappho, played by Tina Louise. Yes, that Tina Louise! Leonard Maltin calls the film a "senseless mixture of fantasy and adventure," which pretty much guarantees it's worth seeing.

Man on a String

1960

Director: Andre de Toth
Cast: Ernest Borgnine, Kerwin Mathews, Colleen Dewhurst, Alexander Scourby, Glenn Corbett.

Still: Kerwin Mathews

Notes on Man on a String
-- Ernest Borgnine was one of Hollywood's most distinguished actors and an Oscar-winner for 1955's Marty. He was also once married to Ethel Merman for very short period. None of these stellar achievements are enough to induce us to sit through one of this films, but, fortunately, Man on a String provides us with the necessary incentives of Kerwin Mathews and Glenn Corbett

The Devil at 4 O'Clock

1961

Director: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Frank Sinatra, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Kerwin Mathews, Barbara Luna.

Still: Spencer Tracy and Kerwin Mathews

Notes on The Devil at 4 O'Clock
-- If you have to watch a Spencer Tracy movie that doesn't have Katharine Hepbun in it, or a Frank Sinatra movie that doesn't have, say, Jill St. John in it, you might as well watch The Devil at 4 O'Clock, which at least has Barbara Luna, a raging volcano and Kerwin Mathew in it!
-- Co-star Jean-Pierre Aumont was once married to screen legend Maria Montez. Somehow this is ever so much more interesting to us than the star-crossed union of Ernest Borgnine and Ethel Mermen.

The Pirates of Blood River

1961

Director: John Gilling
Cast: Kerwin Mathews, Glenn Corbett, Christopher Lee, Oliver Reed.

Poster: Lobby Card

Notes on The Pirates of Blood River
-- The Pirates of Blood River was filmed in a process called Hammerscope, which may have something to do with piranha fish, but we're not certain. At any rate, it's from Britain's Hammer Studios.

Jack the Giant Killer

1962

Director: Nathan Juran
Cast: Kerwin Mathews, Judi Meredith, Torin Thatcher, Walter Burke, Roger Mobley, Barry Kelley, Don Beddoe, Dayton Lummis, Anna Lee, Helen Wallace.
Filmed in Fantascope.

Still: Kerwin Mathews

Still: Torin Thatcher and Kerwin Mathews

Pressbook Profile: Kerwin Mathews

Maniac

1962

Director: Michael Carreras
Cast: Kerwin Mathews, Nadia Gray, Donald Houston.
Filmed in Megascope.

Still: Kerwin Mathews and Nadia Gray

Shadow of Evil

1966

Director: Andre Hunebelle
Cast: Kerwin Mathews, Pier Angeli, Robert Hossein, Stuart Nesbitt, Dominique Wilms.
Filmed in Franscope.

Notes on Shadow of Evil
-- Originally released as: "Banco a Bangkok Pour O.S.S. 117," the film stars Kerwin Mathews as C.I.A agent O.S.S 117. The film was part of a series that had various other actors playing O.S.S 117.
--Mathews and leading lady Pier Angeli would co-star again in 1971's Octaman.

Battle Beneath the Earth

1967

Director: Montgomery Tully
Cast: Kerwin Mathews, Viviane Ventura, Robert Ayres.

The Viscount

(aka Vicomte regle ses comptes, Le)

1967

Director: Maurice Cloche
Cast: Kerwin Mathews, Edmond O'Brien, Fernanco Rey, Jean Yanne.

Poster: Detail from insert poster

Faccia D'Angelo/Zuker fur den Morder

(Reissued as "The Killer Likes Candy"

1968

Cast: Kerwin Mathews, Marilu Tolo . . .

Belgian poster: Face d'Ange/The Killer Likes Candy

A Boy . . . A Girl

Barquero

1970

Director: Gordon Douglas
Cast: Lee Van Cleef, Warren Oates, Forrest Tucker, Kerwin Mathews, Mariette Hartley.

Octaman

1971

Director: Harry Essex
Cast: Kerwin Mathews, Pier Angeli, Jeff Morrow.

The Boy Who Cried Werewolf

1973

Director: Nathan Juran
Cast: Kerwin Mathews, Elaine Devry, Scott Sealey, Robert J. Wilke.

Still: Kerwin Mathews as the werewolf

The Killer Likes Candy

Nightmare in Blood

1978

Director: John Stanley
Cast: Jerry Walter, Dan Caldwell, Barrie Youngfellow, Kathleen Quinlan, Kerwin Mathews.
Filmed in Techniscope.

Notes on Nighmare in Blood
-- Now available on DVD (2004).

TVNow provides a monthly schedule for Kerwin Mathews films showing on cable TV.

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