
Mel Welles
Actor · 1924 – 2005 · New York City, New York, USA
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Mel Welles (February 17, 1924 - August 18, 2005) was an American film actor. His best-remembered role may be that of hapless flower shop owner Gravis Mushnik in the 1960 low-budget Roger Corman dark comedy, The Little Shop of Horrors (which featured Jack Nicholson as a masochistic dental patient). Not much is known of Welles' early life, except that he was born Ira Meltcher in New York City. He graduated from Mt. Carmel High School, in 1940. He went on to receive a Bachelor of Arts degree from Penn State University, a Master of Arts degree from West Virginia University, and a Ph.D. in psychology from Columbia University. Welles held a number of jobs during his lifetime; at one time or another he worked as a clinical psychologist, radio DJ, television actor, writer and film director. He did some stage work before traveling to Hollywood, where in 1953 he appeared in his first film, Appointment in Honduras. His favorite role (The Little Shop of Horrors) was also his last in the U.S. for many years. In the early 1960s, he left the United States to act, produce and direct primarily in European film productions including the cult horror films Maneater of Hydra (1967) and Lady Frankenstein (1971). His fluency in five languages proved to be most helpful. He also served as a film consultant. Later he returned to the U.S., appearing in a number of films, doing voice work, and teaching voice acting. Probably his most widely seen work in the late 1970's was his English adaptation of the Japanese television show, "Spectreman" which was seen on UHF and cable across the United States. While he shares writing credit with two other people, it's clear that most of the English voice work, and the offbeat humor, is his. In 1998, Welles took to the stage in a community theater production of Little Shop of Horrors (musical) as Mushnik, the role he created in the original Roger Corman film. Welles had never performed in the musical and was happy to be asked to do the role, which he described as a "mitzvah" for Scotts Valley Performing Arts. Jonathan Haze, who played Seymour in the original film, attended the opening, and Welles also received a visit from Martin P. Robinson, the designer of the Audrey II plant puppets used in the off-Broadway production (Robinson is also famous for his puppetry on Sesame Street). Welles was working on a horror screenplay, tentatively titled House of a Hundred Horrors, at the time of his death. Description above from the Wikipedia article Mel Welles, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Movies24
Movie6.3HorrorComedySeymour works in a skid row florist shop and is in love with his beautiful co-worker, Audrey. He creates a new plant that not only talks but cannot survive without human flesh and blood.
The Little Shop of Horrors
1960 · 484 votes
Movie6.8DocumentaryMusicThough legendary lyricist Howard Ashman died far too young, his impact on Broadway, movies, and the culture at large were incalculable. Told entirely through rare archival footage and interviews with Ashman’s family, friends, associates, and longtime partner Bill Lauch, Howard is an intimate tribute to a once-in-a-generation talent and a rousing celebration of musical storytelling itself.
Howard
2018 · 57 votes
Movie5.8HorrorScience FictionHigh-tech robots equipped with state-of-the-art security devices have been recruited as the new mechanical "night watchmen" for the Park Plaza Mall. When a jolting bolt of lightning short-circuits the main computer control, the robots turn into "killbots" on the loose after unsuspecting shoppers!
Chopping Mall
1986 · 416 votes
Movie6.6ComedyThe friendship of a group of young friends struggling with teen sex, drugs, and work is jeopardized by a romantic interest which may turn pals into bitter rivals.
The Last American Virgin
1982 · 266 votes
Movie5.9HorrorThrillerA New York City cop and an expert criminologist trying to solve a series of grisly deaths in which the victims have seemingly been maimed by feral animals discover a sinister connection between the crimes and an old legend.
Wolfen
1981 · 264 votes
Movie6.1WesternAfter a stagecoach holdup, Frank Slayton's notorious gang leave Ben Warren for dead and head off with his fiancée. Warren follows, and although none of the townspeople he comes across are prepared to help, he recruits two others who have sworn revenge on the ruthless Slayton.
Gun Fury
1953 · 50 votes
Movie5.9AdventureHorrorBud and Lou, two stranded American archaeologists, run afoul of an Egyptian cult with big plans to resurrect the mummified corpse of Klaris, guardian of his Princess Ara's treasure-filled tomb. When Lou accidentally eats the cursed medallion needed to find the ancient treasure, the two become targets of the cult's leader, his goons, a mysterious femme fatale, and the mummy of Klaris himself!
Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy
1955 · 126 votes
Movie6.0CrimeDramaMovie star Charlie Castle draws the ire of Hollywood producer Stanley Hoff when he refuses to sign a new seven-year contract. Castle is sick of the low quality of the studio's films and wants to start a new life. While his estranged wife supports him in the decision, Castle's talent agent urges him to reconsider. When Castle continues to be uncooperative, Hoff resorts to blackmail in order to get his way.
The Big Knife
1955 · 99 votes
Movie6.6CrimeThrillerA police detective falls for the bank robber's girlfriend he is supposed to be tailing.
Pushover
1954 · 77 votes
Movie6.5DramaHistoryRyevsk, Russia, 1870. Tensions abound in the Karamazov family. Fyodor is a wealthy libertine who holds his purse strings tightly. His four grown sons include Dmitri, the eldest, an elegant officer, always broke and at odds with his father, betrothed to Katya, herself lovely and rich. The other brothers include a sterile aesthete, a factotum who is a bastard, and a monk. Family tensions erupt when Dmitri falls in love with one of his father's mistresses, the coquette Grushenka. Two brothers see Dmitri's jealousy of their father as an opportunity to inherit sooner. Acts of violence lead to the story's conclusion: trials of honor, conscience, forgiveness, and redemption.
The Brothers Karamazov
1958 · 52 votes
Movie5.6DramaRomanceYoung and restless Nick Adams, the only son of a domineering mother and a weak but noble doctor father, leaves his rural Michigan home to embark on an eventful cross-country journey. He is touched and affected by his encounters with a punch-drunk ex-boxer, a sympathetic telegrapher, and an alcoholic advanceman for a burlesque show. After failing to get a job as reporter in New York, he enlists in the Italian army during World War I as an ambulance driver. His camaraderie with fellow soldiers and a romance with a nurse he meets after being wounded propel him to manhood.
Hemingway’s Adventures of a Young Man
1962 · 17 votes
Movie6.2Science FictionFive individuals from five nations, including the USA, USSR, and China, suddenly find themselves on an alien saucer, where an alien gives each a container holding three capsules. The alien explains that no power on earth can open a given container except a mental command from the person to whom it is given, then anyone may take a capsule and, by speaking a latitude and longitude at it, cause instant death to all within a given radius: thus each of the five has been provided with the power of life and death. Then, they are given 27 days to decide whether to use the capsules, and returned to the places from which each one came...
The 27th Day
1957 · 38 votes
Movie5.2Science FictionHorrorA group of scientists travel to a remote island to study the effects of nuclear weapons tests, only to get stranded when their airplane mysteriously explodes. The team soon discovers that the tests have given rise to crabs mutated into intelligent, impervious, telepathic giants intent on increasing their numbers by breeding, then travelling to populated areas to feed, and which do not intend to be stopped by their discoverers.
Attack of the Crab Monsters
1957 · 86 votes
Movie5.0ThrillerHorrorA young woman is driving alongside a lake. She has an accident and the car plunges into the water. Her body is then possessed by the spirit of an 18th-century witch who was killed by local villagers, and is bent on avenging herself on them.
The She Beast
1966 · 49 votes
Movie3.3ComedyDramaGood-looking but virginal "rockstar" teen Tommy tries to score with some of the local high school girls. But a classmate's mom decides to make a man out of him.
Homework
1982 · 23 votes
Movie5.6MusicRomanceA silver-tongued poet and self-proclaimed "King of the Beggars" searches old Baghdad for a rich bachelor to marry his dreamy daughter, Marsinah. Along the way, he poses as the renowned sorcerer Hajj and gets in and out of scrapes with an elderly thief, a dim-witted wazir, and his wife. Meanwhile, his daughter develops feelings for a handsome caliph.
Kismet
1955 · 18 votes
Movie7.3CrimeDramaOn an airliner bound for Hong Kong, Tony, a career crook who deals in stolen diamonds, agonizes over whether he should stick with his girlfriend or pursue Pamela, an intriguing novelist with whom he's instantly infatuated. Viewing Tony's dastardly deeds as great material for her new book, Pamela gladly encourages him to continue his criminal behavior.
Flight to Hong Kong
1956 · 5 votes
Movie2.8ActionComedyFollows the rivalry between a small-town Southern sheriff and a small-town delinquent who steals cars and then destroys them with the sheriff’s daughter by his side.
Smokey Bites the Dust
1981 · 8 votes
Movie3.8ActionAn American narcotics agent takes her squad to Mexico, where she must break up a drug-smuggling gang that has also kidnapped her boyfriend.
Commando Squad
1987 · 10 votes
Movie6.0ActionRomanceAn American woman arrives in Hong Kong to unravel the mystery of her missing photographer husband. After getting nowhere with the authorities, she is led by some underground characters to an American soldier of fortune working in the area against the Communists. He promises to help find her husband.
Soldier of Fortune
1955 · 33 votes
Movie6.8DramaWesternIn bustling era of 19th-century Louisiana, sugar is as valuable as gold, and pirates like Lili Scarlet will do anything to get it. After robbing Jules Tulane’s estate of his crop, Scarlet takes over Tulane’s land debt and forces him to pay or go to prison. In exchange for postponing his debt, Scarlet allows Tulane’s son, André, to work as her servant. When André and Scarlet fall in love, it leads to jealous rage from Scarlet’s former paramour, expert swordsman Hugo — and when Hugo looks to raid the Tulane estate again, it is up to André and Scarlet to take him down and save the estate.
Duel on the Mississippi
1955 · 12 votes
Movie5.9WesternJoe Branch, reputed to be the son of Jesse James, comes riding into Coffeyville Kansas, looking for proof one way or the other regarding the question of who his father was.
Jesse James vs. the Daltons
1954 · 7 votes
Movie4.4DramaRomanceA Greek artisan is commissioned to cast the cup of Christ in silver and sculpt around its rim the faces of the disciples and Jesus himself. He travels to Jerusalem and eventually to Rome to complete the task. Meanwhile, a nefarious interloper is trying to convince the crowds that he is the new Messiah by using nothing more than cheap parlor tricks.
The Silver Chalice
1954 · 40 votes
Movie2.5ActionFantasyThree kingdoms have been overtaken by three evil lords and only Tyor, a teenage boy with magical powers, can restore peace to the land with the help of a bumbling elder, wizard and a hero in each kingdom. Tyor fights alongside them and eventually becomes a powerful wizard in his own right.
Wizards of the Lost Kingdom II
1989 · 35 votes
Series14
TV7.0ComedyWesternThe Maverick boys - Bret, Bart, Beau and Brent - are a clan of well-dressed dandies, gamblers who'd much rather make their money playing cards than messing up their fine clothing with actual work. Sly and clever, none of the Mavericks are much for acts of derring do, but they can be courageous when the situation calls for it. Most often, however, they live by their wits and considerable charm.
Maverick
1957 · 43 votes
TV7.3WesternAction & AdventureHave Gun – Will Travel is an American Western television series that aired on CBS from 1957 through 1963. It was rated number three or number four in the Nielsen ratings every year of its first four seasons. It was one of the few television shows to spawn a successful radio version. The radio series debuted November 23, 1958. The television show is presently shown on the Encore-Western channel. Have Gun – Will Travel was created by Sam Rolfe and Herb Meadow and produced by Frank Pierson, Don Ingalls, Robert Sparks, and Julian Claman. There were 225 episodes of the TV series, 24 written by Gene Roddenberry. Other contributors included Bruce Geller, Harry Julian Fink, Don Brinkley and Irving Wallace. Andrew McLaglen directed 101 episodes and 19 were directed by series star Richard Boone.
Have Gun, Will Travel
1957 · 44 votes
TV6.2WesternDramaCheyenne Bodie was a big man, a former army scout who went west after the American Civil War and drifted from job to job, here a cowboy, there a lawman, and always a larger-than-life hero. CHEYENNE is an American western television series of 108 black-and-white episodes broadcast on ABC from 1955 to 1963. The show was the first hour-long western, and in fact the first hour-long dramatic series of any kind, with continuing characters, to last more than one season. It was also the first series to be made by a major Hollywood film studio which did not derive from its established film properties, and the first of a long chain of Warner Brothers original series produced by William T. Orr.
Cheyenne
1955 · 26 votes
TV7.8MysteryDramaA television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock featuring dramas, thrillers, and mysteries.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
1955 · 266 votes
TV6.8WesternAction & AdventureThe Lone Ranger is an American western television series that ran from 1949 to 1957, starring Clayton Moore with Jay Silverheels as Tonto. The live-action series initially featured Gerald Mohr as the episode narrator. Fred Foy served as both narrator and announcer of the radio series from 1948 to its finish and became announcer of the television version when story narration was dropped there. This was by far the highest-rated television program on the ABC network in the early 1950s and its first true "hit".
The Lone Ranger
1949 · 36 votes
TV7.8DramaThis show started in New York City, with Broadway actors and actresses. It then moved to Hollywood, California, where Hollywood actors and actresses headed the cast.
The Ford Television Theatre
1952 · 4 votes
TV6.0WesternThe Texan was a Western television series starring popular B movie actor Rory Calhoun, which aired on the CBS television network from 1958 to 1960.
The Texan
1958 · 6 votes
TV6.3DramaWestinghouse Desilu Playhouse is an American television anthology series produced by Desilu Productions. The show ran on CBS television between 1958 and 1960. Two of its 48 episodes served as pilots for the 1950s television series The Twilight Zone and The Untouchables.
Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse
1958 · 6 votes
TV8.0DramaI Led Three Lives is an American drama series which was syndicated by Ziv Television Programs from October 1, 1953 to January 1, 1956. The series stars Richard Carlson. The show was a companion piece of sorts to the radio drama I Was a Communist for the FBI, which dealt with a similar subject and was also syndicated by Ziv from 1952 to 1954.
I Led Three Lives
1953 · 1 votes
TV6.7DramaAn honest professional gambler operates a floating casino.
Mr. Lucky
1959 · 6 votes
TV7.5The Walter Winchell File is the title of a television crime drama series that initially aired from 1957 to 1958, dramatizing cases from the New York City Police Department that were covered in the New York Daily Mirror. The series featured columnist and announcer Walter Winchell, John Larch, George Cisar, Robert Anderson, Robert Brubaker, Dolores Donlon, and Gene Barry, a year before he was cast in the lead of NBC's Bat Masterson. Thirty-nine episodes were produced; the first twenty-six aired on ABC during the 1957-1958 season, and the final thirteen were seen in syndication in 1959. Among the guest stars was the child actor Dennis Holmes, who played 7-year-old Allie Marisch in the 1957 episode "Thou Shalt Not Kill."
The Walter Winchell File
1957 · 2 votes
TV6.0ComedyPrivate Secretary is an American sitcom that aired from February 1, 1953 to September 10, 1957 on CBS, alternating with The Jack Benny Program on Sundays at 7:30pm EST. The series stars Ann Sothern as Susan Camille "Susie" MacNamara, devoted secretary to handsome talent agent Peter Sands, played by Don Porter.
Private Secretary
1953 · 2 votes
TV7.5Action & AdventureTales of the 77th Bengal Lancers is a television series broadcast in the United States by NBC during its 1956-57 season. In a period in which much of the programming on U.S. television consisted of Westerns, Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers could best be described as an "Eastern". It consisted of the adventures of a fictional regiment of the famed real-life cavalry of the British Indian Army. The leading characters were the 77th's officers: the commander, Colonel Standish and two of his lieutenants, William Storm and Michael Rhodes. Rhodes was portrayed as a Canadian, purportedly because the actor portraying him, a native of New Jersey, could not be coached to produce a credible British accent.
Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers
1956 · 2 votes
TV6.7Action & AdventureJungle Jim is a 26-episode syndicated adventure television series which aired from 1955 till 1956, starring Johnny Weismuller, as Jim "Jungle Jim" Bradley, a hunter, guide, and explorer in, primarily, Africa. The program should not be confused with Ramar of the Jungle, but is based on the Jungle Jim comic strip created by Alex Raymond and Don Moore. Starring with Weismuller were Martin Huston as Jungle Jim's teenage son, Skipper; Dean Fredericks as Haseem, the Hindu manservant, and Neal, a chimpanzee from the World Jungle Compound, as Tamba. Paul Cavanagh played Commissioner Morrison in nine episodes. Produced by Harold Greene, the series was filmed by Screen Gems, a subsidiary of Columbia Pictures. The program aired in 158 American media markets and in thirty-eight other nations.Earl Bellamy directed the first four episodes of the new series. The series capitalized on the popularity of Weismuller, who had just completed his last film of Tarzan, the jungle character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Jungle Jim was a low-budget offering that relied heavily on stock footage and was not renewed beyond its original episodes.
Jungle Jim
1955 · 3 votes