Martin Ransohoff

Martin Ransohoff (born November 30, 1926) is a cinema and television producer, and member of the Ransohoff family. He graduated from Colgate University in 1949 and is on a list of Distinguished Alumni. He founded the film production company Filmways, Inc. in 1960 and remained with the company until 1972. Filmways started making TV commercials, moved into documentaries then sitcoms; by 1963 Filmways were making $13 million a year. In 1972 he became an independent producer. He attempted to "create" female movie stars during the 1960s; the actresses who achieved the greatest success under his tutelage were Ann-Margret, Tuesday Weld and Sharon Tate, who featured in several of his films from 1964 until her death in 1969. He is a cousin of neurosurgeonJoseph Ransohoff. The Beverly Hillbillies brought Ransohoff his first success in 1962 and thereafter he turned his attention to films. Ransohoff went on to produce such films as American Pop.

Works

Sharon Tate: Murdered Innocence

Sharon Tate is a rising young star before her life ends in a shocking murder.

Release Date: 2002-10-29

Character: Self

Vote Count: 1

Turbulence

On a flight transporting dangerous convicts, murderer Ryan Weaver manages to break free and cause complete chaos throughout the plane. As various people on board fall victim to Weaver, it is ultimately down to flight attendant Teri Halloran to keep the aircraft from crashing, with on-ground support from an air traffic controller. While Halloran struggles to pilot the plane, Weaver continues to terrorize the surviving members of the crew.

Release Date: 1997-01-09

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Vote Count: 254

Guilty as Sin

Before a criminal lawyer knows what has happened, she is forced to defend a wife killer she knows is guilty.

Release Date: 1993-06-04

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Vote Count: 137

Welcome Home

Jake died in Vietnam; his family mourned him, then moved on. When he reappears, quite alive, the question is, what must he do and how will his family respond to him?

Release Date: 1989-09-29

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Vote Count: 5

Physical Evidence

A police officer suspended and now accused of murder is forced to join forces with his court-appointed attorney to assemble the pieces of a deadly puzzle to find the missing link before time runs out.

Release Date: 1989-01-27

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Vote Count: 52

Switching Channels

A television news chief courts his anchorwoman ex-wife with an eleventh-hour story.

Release Date: 1988-03-05

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Vote Count: 72

The Big Town

It is 1957. J.C. Cullen is a young man from a small town, with a talent for winning at craps, who leaves for the big city to work as a professional gambler. While there, he breaks the bank at a private craps game at the Gem Club, owned by George Cole, and falls in love with two women, one of them Cole's wife.

Release Date: 1987-09-25

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Vote Count: 51

Jagged Edge

After a wealthy heiress is murdered in her beach house, her devastated husband becomes the prime suspect. He hires a lawyer who hasn’t taken a criminal case in years, and as they work together, a complicated romance develops amidst the trial.

Release Date: 1985-10-04

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Vote Count: 271

Class

Naive Midwestern prep student Jonathan bonds with his more worldly roommate, Skip, who takes the small-town boy under his wing. At Skip's urging, the inexperienced Jonathan is emboldened to seek out older women in the cocktail lounges of nearby Chicago, where he meets and beds the alluring Ellen, who unfortunately turns out to be Skip's mother. The division between the friends is further deepened when a cheating scandal engulfs the school.

Release Date: 1983-07-22

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Vote Count: 187

Hanky Panky

Naïve Michael Jordon is drawn into a web of government secrets when a girl carrying a mysterious package gets into a taxi with him. When she's later murdered, Michael becomes the chief suspect and goes on the run.

Release Date: 1982-06-04

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Vote Count: 63

American Pop

The history of American popular music runs parallel with the history of a Russian Jewish immigrant family, with each male descendant possessing different musical abilities.

Release Date: 1981-02-13

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Vote Count: 111

A Change of Seasons

Marriage takes a sour turn when a middle-aged husband falls for a young and sexy woman. Things get even more complicated when his wife starts a hot affair with a younger lover of her own.

Release Date: 1980-12-01

Department: Writing

Job: Story

Vote Count: 27

The Wanderers

The streets of the Bronx are owned by '60s youth gangs where the joy and pain of adolescence is lived. Philip Kaufman tells his take on the novel by Richard Price about the history of the Italian-American gang ‘The Wanderers.’

Release Date: 1979-07-13

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Vote Count: 202

Nightwing

Killer bats plague an Indian reservation in Arizona.

Release Date: 1979-06-22

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Vote Count: 38

Co-Ed Fever

Co-Ed Fever is an American sitcom that aired on CBS in 1979. The series attempted to capitalize on the success of the motion picture National Lampoon's Animal House. It was the third of three "frat house" comedy series to air in early 1979. CBS cancelled Co-Ed Fever after only one episode, and all three series were off the air by the end of April 1979. The series was so low rated it never made it to its regular time slot, Monday night, instead having aired as a "special preview" the night before. In 2002, Co-Ed Fever ranked number 32 on TV Guide's 50 Worst Shows of All Time list.

Release Date: 1979-02-04

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Episode Count: 6

Vote Count: 1

Silver Streak

A somewhat daffy book editor on a rail trip from Los Angeles to Chicago thinks that he sees a murdered man thrown from the train. When he can find no one who will believe him, he starts doing some investigating of his own. But all that accomplishes is to get the killer after him.

Release Date: 1976-12-03

Department: Production

Job: Executive Producer

Vote Count: 338

The White Dawn

In 1896, three survivors of a whaling ship-wreck in the Canadian Arctic are saved and adopted by an Eskimo tribe but frictions arise when the three start misbehaving.

Release Date: 1974-07-21

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Vote Count: 15

Save the Tiger

A businessman's professional struggles begin to conflict with his personal life over the course of two days.

Release Date: 1973-02-14

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Vote Count: 86

Fuzz

Police in Boston search for a mad bomber trying to extort money from the city.

Release Date: 1972-07-14

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Vote Count: 42

See No Evil

In the English countryside, Sarah Rexton, recently blinded in a horse riding accident, moves in with her uncle's family and gallantly adjusts to her new condition, unaware that a killer stalks them.

Release Date: 1971-09-02

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Vote Count: 119

10 Rillington Place

The story of British serial killer John Christie, who committed most or all of his crimes in the titular terraced house, and the miscarriage of justice involving Timothy Evans.

Release Date: 1971-02-10

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Vote Count: 201

The Moonshine War

A federal agent attempts to make some real money before the alcohol ban is lifted so he sets his sights on the whiskey cache of an old army buddy.

Release Date: 1970-06-30

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Vote Count: 11

Catch-22

A bombardier in World War II tries desperately to escape the insanity of the war. However, sometimes insanity is the only sane way to cope with a crazy situation.

Release Date: 1970-06-24

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Vote Count: 314

Hamlet

Tony Richardson's Hamlet is based on his own stage production. Filmed entirely within the Roundhouse in London (a disused train shed), it is shot almost entirely in close up, focusing the attention on faces and language rather than action.

Release Date: 1969-12-21

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Vote Count: 13

Castle Keep

During the Battle of the Bulge, an anachronistic count shelters a ragtag squad of Americans in his isolated castle hoping they will defend it against the advancing Germans.

Release Date: 1969-07-23

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Vote Count: 74

Ice Station Zebra

A top-secret Soviet spy satellite -- using stolen Western technology -- malfunctions and then goes into a descent that lands it near an isolated Arctic research encampment called Ice Station Zebra, belonging to the British, which starts sending out distress signals before falling silent. The atomic submarine Tigerfish, commanded by Cmdr. James Ferraday (Rock Hudson), is dispatched to save them.

Release Date: 1968-10-23

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Vote Count: 168

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Peter Hall's film adaptation of Shakespeare's comedy, filmed in and around an English country house and starring actors from the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Release Date: 1968-09-30

Department: Production

Job: Executive Producer

Vote Count: 10

Our Mother's House

Seven British children bury their mother and hide her death, until their long-lost father returns.

Release Date: 1967-09-14

Department: Production

Job: Executive Producer

Vote Count: 43

Don't Make Waves

Carlo Cofield vacations to Southern California, where he quickly becomes immersed in the easy-going local culture, getting entangled in two beachside romances.

Release Date: 1967-06-20

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Vote Count: 33

Eye of the Devil

A French nobleman deserts his wife because of an ancient family secret.

Release Date: 1966-11-18

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Vote Count: 57

All Eyes on Sharon Tate

Promotional short film on an aspiring young actress Sharon Tate and her first film Eye of the Devil (1966).

Release Date: 1966-09-06

Character: Self

Vote Count: 3

The Cincinnati Kid

An up-and-coming poker player tries to prove himself in a high-stakes match against a long-time master of the game.

Release Date: 1965-10-15

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Vote Count: 284

The Loved One

Newly arrived in Hollywood from England, Dennis Barlow finds he has to arrange his uncle's interment at the highly-organised and very profitable Whispering Glades funeral parlour. His fancy is caught by one of their cosmeticians, Aimee Thanatogenos. But he has three problems - the strict rules of owner Blessed Reverand Glenworthy, the rivalry of embalmer Mr Joyboy, and the shame of now working himself at The Happy Hunting Ground pets' memorial home.

Release Date: 1965-10-11

Department: Production

Job: Executive Producer

Vote Count: 42

The Sandpiper

A free-spirited single mother forms a connection with the wedded headmaster of an Episcopalian boarding school in Monterey, California.

Release Date: 1965-06-23

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Vote Count: 48

The Big Sur

This MGM short film narrated by Richard Burton promotes its upcoming major release "The Sandpiper" (1965), starring Burton and his then wife Elizabeth Taylor. Panoramic shots of the ocean, the seashore, and the desert segue into the artistic community with various of its well-known artists at work and play. It all leads to clips from the film being made.

Release Date: 1965-05-01

Character: Self

Vote Count: 1

The Americanization of Emily

American sailor Charlie Madison falls for a pretty Englishwoman while trying to avoid a senseless and dangerous D-Day mission concocted by a deranged admiral.

Release Date: 1964-10-27

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Vote Count: 73

Action on the Beach

Behind the scenes look at the D-Day special effects created in filming The Americanization of Emily (1964).

Release Date: 1964-09-01

Character: Self

The Wheeler Dealers

Henry J. Tyroon leaves Texas, where his oil wells are drying up, and arrives in New York with a lot of oil money to play with in the stock market. He meets stock analyst Molly Thatcher, who tries to ignore the lavish attention he spends on her but, in the end, she falls for his charm.

Release Date: 1963-11-14

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Vote Count: 20

Boys' Night Out

Fred, George, Doug and Howie are quickly reaching middle-age. Three of them are married, only Fred is still a bachelor. They want something different than their ordinary marriages, children and TV-dinners. In secret, they get themselves an apartment with a beautiful young woman, Kathy, for romantic rendezvous. But Kathy does not tell them that she is a sociology student researching the sexual life of the white middle-class male.

Release Date: 1962-06-21

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Vote Count: 26