
Yoko Tani
Actor · 1928 – 1999 · Paris, France
Yoko Tani (谷洋子, Tani Yōko, 2 August 1928 – 19 April 1999) was a French-born Japanese actress and nightclub entertainer. Tani was born in Paris. Her birth name was Itani Yōko (猪谷洋子). She has occasionally been described as 'Eurasian', 'half French', 'half Japanese' and even, in one source, 'Italian Japanese', all of which are incorrect. French records (1958) show that her father and mother—both Japanese—were attached to the Japanese embassy in Paris, with Tani herself conceived en route during a shipboard passage from Japan to Europe in 1927 and subsequently born in Paris the following year, hence given the name Yōko (洋子), one reading of which can mean "ocean-child.". Tani would later play a diplomat's daughter in Piccadilly Third Stop. According to Japanese sources, the family returned to Japan in 1930, when Yoko would still have been a toddler, and she did not return to France until 1950 when her schooling was completed. Given that there were severe restrictions on Japanese travelling outside Japan directly after World War II, this would have been an unusual event; however, it is known that Itani had attended an elite girls' school in Tokyo (Tokyo Women's Higher Normal School, currently Ochanomizu University Senior High School), and then graduated from Tsuda University. She subsequently secured a Catholic scholarship to study aesthetics at the University of Paris (Sorbonne) under Étienne Souriau. Once back in Paris, Tani found little interest in attending university (although by her own account she persevered for two years despite understanding hardly anything that was being said). Instead, she developed a more compelling attraction to the cabaret, the nightclub, and the variety music-hall, where, setting herself up as an exotic oriental beauty, she quickly established a reputation for her provocative "geisha" dances, which generally ended with her slipping out of her kimono. It was here she was spotted by Marcel Carné, who took her into his circle of director and actor-friends, including Roland Lesaffre, whom she was later to marry. As a result, she began to get bit parts in films—starting as (perhaps predictably) a Japanese dancer, in Gréville's Le port du désir (1953–1954, released 1955)—and on the stage, with a role as Lotus Bleu in la Petite Maison de Thé (French adaptation of The Teahouse of the August Moon) at the Théâtre Montparnasse, 1954–1955 season. ... Source: Article "Yoko Tani" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Movies24
Movie6.5ComedyRomanceFamed movie director Paul Robaix breaks with tradition by not casting his actress-comedienne wife, Lucy Dell, in his latest film production, a version of Madame Butterfly. Undaunted, the resourceful Lucy wings her way to Tokyo and, masquerading as a Japanese geisha, lands the coveted role from her unsuspecting husband! But in front of the cameras (and behind the pancake makeup), Lucy faces greater challenges: her lecherous leading man - and a husband who is beginning to realize that his talented new "discovery" seems vaguely familiar...
My Geisha
1962 · 23 votes
Movie6.2ThrillerScience FictionThe evil Dr. Mabuse develops a death ray with which he threatens the world.
Movie5.5DramaActionPeplum movie from 1961
Movie6.1ComedyTV star Jason Steel reluctantly becomes the sounding board for his best friends' bored wives, and must fend off their advances while managing his own fragile relationship.
Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed?
1963 · 8 votes
Movie6.9DramaAdventureAn Eskimo who has had little contact with white men goes to a trading post where he accidentally kills a missionary and finds himself being pursued by the police.
The Savage Innocents
1960 · 46 votes
Movie6.2AdventureFantasySamson must rescue a beautiful Chinese princess from a marauding horde of warriors.
Movie4.9Science FictionA mysterious magnetic spool found during a construction project is discovered to have originated from Venus. A rocket expedition to Venus is launched to discover the origin of the spool and the race that created it.
Movie5.8DramaRomanceCynical British journalist Fowler falls in love with a young Vietnamese woman but is dismayed when a naïve U.S. official also begins vying for her attention. In retaliation, Fowler informs the communists that the American is selling arms to their enemy.
The Quiet American
1958 · 34 votes
Movie6.4RomanceDramaA British officer falls in love with his Japanese instructor at a military language school. They start a romance, but she is regarded as the enemy and is not accepted by his countrymen.
The Wind Cannot Read
1958 · 13 votes
Movie8.0ThrillerActionSecret agent John Drake (aka Danger Man) goes to Japan to infiltrate a secret society that specialises in murder.
Koroshi
1968 · 1 votes
Movie4.5AdventureItalian explorer rescues the daughter of the Mongol leader Kublai Khan, meets a hermit who has invented gunpowder and builds a cannon.
Marco Polo
1962 · 6 votes
Movie5.1ActionAdventureThree enemy agents lead a government security man on a perilous trail as the hunter becomes the hunted.
Movie7.0ActionAdventureWhen former Russian spy Max Stein is murdered, private investigator McGill inherits a key to a safe deposit box in a Lisbon bank – a box that contains secret intelligence documents and a cool million dollars! With both the CIA and rogue elements within the Russian intelligence community in hot pursuit, McGill puts his life on the line in a race to the fortune! Featuring a powerful performance from Richard Bradford as McGill, a discredited ex-CIA agent reduced to working as a private investigator, To Chase a Million is the exceptionally rare, feature-length version of the Man in a Suitcase two-parter Variation on a Million Bucks.
To Chase A Million
1967 · 1 votes
Movie6.7CrimeA playboy tries to recruit a gang, who include an American who needs cash to satisfy his wife's expensive tastes, and an old time expert cracksman, to rob a foreign embassy's safe, but trouble starts when the plan begins to go wrong.
Piccadilly Third Stop
1960 · 10 votes
Movie5.6ComedyA father discovers one day that one of his sons is a homosexual and the other, is the "gigolo" of a Japanese countess. He is first horrified, but finally accepts the situation because it brings him economical advantages.
Movie4.0ComedyA whimsical commedia all'italiana divided into four episodes.
Bianco, rosso, giallo, rosa
1964 · 4 votes
Movie5.7DramaHe was nicknamed Gueule d'ange (Angel's Face) because of his good looks, which enabled him to make a certain amount of money from wealthy ladies. Having given up on touching little Marie, he fell into the clutches of fashionable decorator Loina. Both love money, both go for it. Their characters bind them together. So much so that when Loina falls on hard times, Gueule d'ange would fly to help her. A loyal friend stops him. Loina leaves. Distraught, the handsome boy looks inward. It's time for him to settle down.
Movie5.0RomanceAdventurePhysicist Theodore Heldt, his young daughter Fern and his assistant Larry Gordon, on board a ship for a scientific expedition, are shipwrecked in the Pacific Ocean after a terrible storm. They find themselves safe and sound on an exotic desert island paradise. Several years pass, the professor dies and Fern and Larry, long in love and alone in the world, are united. One day, the ship they'd been waiting for appears, but the sailors are three smugglers who, instead of representing salvation, pose a threat to the young couple.
Movie6.0ActionAn Interpol agent is tasked with investigating the deaths of several other agents.
Movie9.0ActionAdventureA secret agent travels to Singapore in search of a secret formula. Just about everyone he trusts ends up betraying him.
Movie6.1Science FictionDramaRoutine tests on a traffic accident victim lead to shocking discoveries when the man's blood is found to be unidentifiable and x-rays reveal a disc embedded in his brain. His fabulous tale of being an escaped prisoner from an alien spaceship takes a turn for the sinister when the hospital staff realise that they're under a state of siege...
Invasion
1965 · 15 votes
- Movie7.0ThrillerDrama
A Japanese woman arrives in Vancouver seeking revenge against the businessman who ruined her family.
The Sweet and the Bitter
1967 · 1 votes
Movie4.0DramaCrimeThe woman prison has a cast all with a story of their own and with no dull or routine day. There is an employee who is divorced after her husband had an affair. She loves the jailed criminals and almost sees them as family. One day at a workshop someone faints while working hard to make money because she has a poor boyfriend. Another inmate is knocked up Another is a mother and has her child with her.
Movie7.5MysteryCrimeA horrific and, on the face of it, incomprehensible murder has just been committed on the unsympathetic person of a loan shark. The victim's body is found lifeless, but the circumstances of his death are far from clear. For want of anything better to go on, the police immediately suspect a penniless gentleman who had the bad idea and misfortune to be present at the time of the crime. The police don't take the time to look for other possible suspects, and are not at the end of their surprises. A dark story seems to lie behind this imbroglio of incoherent facts.
Series8
TV5.9DramaBen Casey
1961 · 15 votes
TV8.7DocumentaryFamilyCinépanorama
1956 · 3 votes
- TVDrama
Drama 61-67 is anthology drama series which took a different title, based on year of transmission, each year. It alternated with Armchair Theatre from ABC in the Sunday evening slot. The series was described at the time as epitomising ATV drama.
Drama 61-67
1961
TV7.2Action & AdventureDramaAccused of treason, a former U.S. intelligence officer based in London tries to clear his name, taking on freelance jobs around Europe as he searches for answers.
Man in a Suitcase
1967 · 10 votes
TV5.6DramaComedyAn anthology of erotic stories by famous writers like Guy de Maupassant, Nicolas Edme Restif de La Bretonne, Marquis de Sade, Giovanni Boccaccio, Marquis de Foudras, Daniel Defoe, Anton Tchekov, Jin Ping Mei, and Aristophanes.
TV6.0DramaComedyShirley's World is a British television sitcom initially aired on ABC during the U.S. 1971-72 television season, then by ITV in the United Kingdom. Co-produced by the British ITC Entertainment and American producer Sheldon Leonard, the short-lived series stars Shirley MacLaine as photojournalist Shirley Logan and John Gregson as her editor Dennis Croft.
Shirley's World
1972 · 4 votes
TV10.0CrimeL’Agence O is a famous Parisian private detective firm. Its premises are located in the Passage Choiseul. In front, Torrence leads the shop. In fact, the agency's team is complemented by Émilie le Roux, Mademoiselle Berthe and Barbet, who scrutinize clients through a one-way mirror located behind the desk. Getting hold of a man disguised as an old lady, solving the mystery of the Prisoner of Lagny or discovering who is blackmailing the painter Tigrane Alban does not worry the experts at the O Agency. Les Dossiers de l’Agence O is a French-Canadian television series in thirteen episodes of approximately 55 minutes created by Marc Simenon and broadcast first in Quebec from December 14, 1967 to March 13, 1968 on Télévision de Radio-Canada, then in France from March 11 to June 3, 1968 on the first channel of the ORTF.
Les Dossiers de l'Agence O
1968 · 3 votes
TV6.0DramaArmchair Theatre is a British television drama anthology series of single plays that ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by Associated British Corporation, and later by Thames Television from mid-1968.
Armchair Theatre
1956 · 6 votes