Sidney J. Furie

Toronto-born Sidney J. Furie has enjoyed a distinguished career that has spanned over six decades. Having worked in every genre, Furie has directed films starring Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, Robert Redford, Diana Ross, Michael Caine, Peter O'Toole, Rodney Dangerfield, Barbara Hershey, Gene Hackman, Donald Sutherland, Laurence Olivier, and countless others. He is most known for the espionage classic The Ipcress File (1965), the landmark biopic Lady Sings the Blues (1972), the franchise-generating Iron Eagle (1986), the Scorsese-beloved horror saga The Entity (1982), and the Vietnam combat chronicle The Boys in Company C (1978), which later partly inspired Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket. His first two films, A Dangerous Age (1957) and A Cool Sound from Hell (1959), both independently financed, were two of the first English Canadian features ever made, produced before he emigrated to London in 1960. He became an important figure in the British New Wave, especially with The Boys (1962) and his realist drama The Leather Boys (1964), a critical darling that became a popular cult film.

Works

Cruel, Usual, Necessary: The Passion of Silvio Narizzano

Perhaps at first glance, the filmography of Silvio Narizzano appears unremarkable. Thanks to his sleeper hit Georgy Girl (1966), he's known largely as a "one-hit wonder" director. Upon closer inspection, however, likely no other filmmaker used cinema as effectively to exorcise personal demons in ways both ugly and beautiful. And few directors' sensibilities were more gay, both overtly and covertly. Film historian Daniel Kremer is your tour guide through an obscure, perplexing body of work heretofore ignored and often unfairly shunned. Cruel, Usual, Necessary: The Passion of Silvio Narizzano is an essay documentary of discovery.

Release Date: 2024-08-30

Character: Himself

Clear Lines of Sight: Sidney J. Furie at Paramount

Canadian-born filmmaker Sidney J. Furie made his name with British hits like The Young Ones (1961), The Leather Boys (1964), and The Ipcress File (1965). When he arrived in Hollywood, Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra wreaked havoc on his first major studio productions. In 1968, the newly emigrated director joined a stable of cutting-edge filmmakers at Paramount Pictures, under the new leadership of Bob Evans. His films saw both a stylistic departure and a shift in thematic focus. What was behind the evolution, and which aspects unite all of Furie's films?

Release Date: 2023-07-25

Character: Himself

Finding Hannah

On December 13th 1942, 3000 Jewish men, women and children deported from France were gassed on arrival in Auschwitz. Among them reportedly was a 14 year old girl, Hannah Cohen. She had left behind in Paris a young boyfriend who would spend a lifetime trying to find out what happened to her.

Release Date: 2023-01-13

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Drive Me to Vegas and Mars

Cowboy, a senior citizen ex-lawyer and gambler, is persuaded by his spunky seventeen year old neighbor, Rachel, to seek retribution for having been cheated in Las Vegas many years ago. So begins a wild adventure that marks a young girl's rite of passage into womanhood and an old man's bittersweet final awakening to life, love and happiness. Along for the ride is Maggie, Cowboy's salty ex-girlfriend, Buddy Boy, Cowboy's best friend, and Harold, an unusually young Vegas motel owner who falls hard for Rachel.

Release Date: 2018-12-31

Department: Directing

Job: Director

The True Adventures of Raoul Walsh

This is the first feature-length documentary on legendary director Raoul Walsh. In this 'memoir,' Walsh 'recounts' his career from the silent film era to the tumultuous 1960s. The documentary makes stunning use of rare, personal and production photos and footage, revealing Walsh's extraordinary, adventurous life on and off the set. From his apprenticeship with D.W. Griffith to his discovery of John Wayne and Rock Hudson, from the innovative 'The Thief of Bagdad' (1924) to the widescreen 'The Big Trail' (1930), from his classic work with Cagney, Bogart and Flynn to his mastery of every genre (musicals, comedies, Westerns, gangster, war), Walsh made Hollywood history. His life is nothing less than the story of Hollywood itself. Here's a full-bodied account of one of Hollywood's greatest legends.

Release Date: 2014-09-30

Character: Self

Vote Count: 3

The Dependables

Five retired ex-military men attempt the unthinkable and dust off their old uniforms for one last explosive mission. The team quickly discovers that they are up against an enemy from their past. This time, The Dependables mission is personal. With guns blazing, the group puts their lives on the line to defeat their arch nemesis and save their grandchildren.

Release Date: 2014-06-03

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 10

Conduct Unbecoming

United States Marine Nick Dodd is charged with callously killing several civilians in Afghanistan. A military trial ensues.

Release Date: 2011-12-20

Department: Directing

Job: Director

The Four Horsemen

Four high school football stars enlist in the Marines and head off to fight in the war in Iraq. When one of them is killed and another wounded, they return home only to find is extremely difficult to pick up the threads of their old lives. The memories of events in Iraq combined with the lack of public support pushes many of these men to the breaking point.

Release Date: 2008-03-18

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 13

The Veteran

Thirty years on from Vietnam, a government official is trying to track down soldiers who went missing in action, in the hope that it may lead her to her father. Meanwhile, a war veteran is forced to relive painful memories of how he was left for dead by his own platoon, and the heinous crimes he once committed while in the line of duty.

Release Date: 2006-01-01

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 16

American Soldiers

Iraq, 2004: during a routine sortie a US patrol is ambushed and the young soldiers are forced to put their training and skills into action fast. A determined foe with superior local knowledge, the Fedayeen insurgents soon draw them into close quarter combat and a desperate fight for survival.

Release Date: 2005-05-11

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 31

Direct Action

Frank Gannon, a veteran cop, is being hunted by his fellow police officers after they learned he has betrayed the brotherhood and exposed to the feds wide scale corruption of the LAPD. He has one day left to prove his case and survive.

Release Date: 2004-05-25

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 49

Detention

A heroic high school teacher leads a band of students trapped in school by violent drug-runners.

Release Date: 2003-07-05

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 56

Partners in Action

Drama about a former police officer who's framed for murder and a young boy who attempts to help him clear his name.

Release Date: 2002-10-31

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 3

Global Heresy

A rock band bursts onto the scene and then their frontman disappears on the eve of a European tour.

Release Date: 2002-09-03

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 22

The Fraternity

Some students at Runcie prep school form an elite club. The group is implicated in a cheating scandal and one of the club members dies mysteriously. Another member decides to try and discover the dangerous truth about Runcie.

Release Date: 2002-07-16

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 13

Under Heavy Fire

A group of Marines return to Vietnam with a news crew to relive their tragic war experiences.

Release Date: 2001-01-01

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 11

Road Rage

The highway to hell runs straight through a college campus in this compelling thriller about a killer truck. After helping a pretty co-ed out of a nasty domestic situation, Jim Travis gives the girl a lift home. But once on the road, the situation takes a white-knuckle twist as Jim gets into a frightening duel with a crazy truck driver.

Release Date: 2000-11-07

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 15

My 5 Wives

A three times divorced real estate tycoon who thought he was through with love gets more then he bargained for when he invests in some property for a ski resort in Utah.

Release Date: 2000-09-08

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 21

Hide and Seek

A desperate, childless couple kidnap a pregnant woman and lead her husband to believe that she is dead.

Release Date: 2000-05-23

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 47

18 Wheels of Justice

Justice Department undercover agent Michael Cates’s family was killed after he testified against crime boss Jacob Calder. Now Cates is working out of an 18 Wheeler under another undercover identity, that of Chance Bowman. As Cates wanders America listening to country music and helping people he is also dodging hit-men and still trying to take down Calder.

Release Date: 2000-01-12

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Episode Count: 1

Vote Count: 5

The Collectors

The head of the Louisiana Mafia sends two mobsters (Casper Van Dien, Rick Fox) to New York on a dangerous assignment to collect money.

Release Date: 1999-08-27

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 6

In Her Defense

A lawyer has to defend his lover who's accused of a murder he has committed himself. Now he has to defend her in court without implicating himself.

Release Date: 1999-04-23

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 11

V.I.P.

While attending a Hollywood premiere with a famous action star, a crazed fan pulls a gun—but her movie hunk turns into a coward, and it's Vallery who becomes the hero. Suddenly, she's thrown into a world of action and danger as owner of a Hollywood protection agency, Vallery Irons Protection (V.I.P.), taking risks to protect others at a price few are willing to pay.

Release Date: 1998-09-26

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Episode Count: 5

Vote Count: 63

Married to a Stranger

A woman develops severe amnesia after a blow to the head, and can no longer remember her family.

Release Date: 1997-09-28

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 2

Pensacola: Wings of Gold

Pensacola: Wings of Gold is a syndicated American action/adventure drama series based at the Naval Air Station Pensacola in Pensacola, Florida.

Release Date: 1997-09-15

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Episode Count: 7

Vote Count: 12

The Rage

FBI Special Agent Travis is trying to catch a deranged serial killer and is doing his best despite having a new and unexperienced partner in the form of Kelly McCord. It turns out that the serial killer is an entire army of disgruntled CIA mercenaries from Vietnam.

Release Date: 1997-08-15

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 12

Top of the World

In Las Vegas for a quicky divorce, a just-paroled ex-cop and his wife wander into the Top of the World Casino, run by the shady Charles Atlas. They win big, right as the casino is being robbed. The police believe their big win was a staged diversion, and the two of them become suspects. Over the course of the evening and next morning, the two attempt to escape to surrounded casino, and to prove their innocence, as well as to save their marriage.

Release Date: 1997-05-01

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 17

Hollow Point

Livingston is trying to merge the Russians, Chinese and Italian gangsters into one group with huge amounts of money and power. FBI agent Susan and DEA agent Max are trying to stop them.

Release Date: 1996-10-21

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 29

Iron Eagle on the Attack

While Chappy Sinclair is saddled with a bunch of misfits and delinquents for his flight school, he turns to his protégé Doug Masters to assist him in rounding them into shape for an important competition. During their training, they stumble upon a group of subversive air force officers who are dealing in toxic waste as a sideline.

Release Date: 1995-12-01

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 40

Michael Caine: Breaking the Mold

A documentary about actor Michael Caine. Narrated by Caine himself, it includes interviews of his family, friends and colleagues and clips from some of his films.

Release Date: 1994-02-01

Character: Self

Ladybugs

To climb the corporate ladder to success, a businessman agrees to coach his company's all-girl soccer team with the help of his secret weapon: his fiancee's son.

Release Date: 1992-03-27

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 160

Iron Eagle III

Chappy discovers a drug-smuggling scheme at his own air base. It turns out that the lives of some village people in Peru are at stake, and he decides to fly there with ancient airplanes and friends to free them.

Release Date: 1992-01-09

Department: Writing

Job: Novel

Vote Count: 65

The Taking of Beverly Hills

A chemical spill has caused the occupants of Beverly Hills to be forcibly evacuated. A retiring football player left behind, finds that the toxic gas emulating from the spill is a bogus front for a heist set up by fired police officers out to plunder the city of all its valuables. Finding himself siding with a corrupt cop who was once apart of the plan until he discovered the city's mayor had just been blown away, by one of the chief crooks in charge. Now both on the run with no help in sight...both must do whatever they can to stop these murderous looters.

Release Date: 1991-10-10

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 40

Iron Eagle II

Chappy Sinclair is called to gather together a mixed Soviet/U.S. strike force that will perform a surgical strike on a massively defended nuclear missile site in the Middle East. Chappy finds that getting the Soviet and U.S. Pilots to cooperate is only the most minor of his problems as he discovers someone in the Pentagon is actively sabotaging his mission.

Release Date: 1988-11-11

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 84

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace

With global superpowers engaged in an increasingly hostile arms race, Superman leads a crusade to rid the world of nuclear weapons. But Lex Luthor, recently sprung from jail, is declaring war on the Man of Steel and his quest to save the planet. Using a strand of Superman's hair, Luthor synthesizes a powerful ally known as Nuclear Man and ignites an epic battle spanning Earth and space.

Release Date: 1987-07-24

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 1274

Iron Eagle

When Doug's father, an Air Force Pilot, is shot down by MiGs belonging to a radical Middle Eastern state, no one seems able to get him out. Doug finds Chappy, an Air Force Colonel who is intrigued by the idea of sending in two fighters piloted by himself and Doug to rescue Doug's father after bombing the MiG base.

Release Date: 1986-01-17

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 307

Purple Hearts

A Navy surgeon and a nurse fall in love while serving in Vietnam during the war. Their affection for one another provides a striking contrast to the violence of warfare.

Release Date: 1984-03-30

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Vote Count: 13

The Entity

Single mother Carla Moran is raped and attacked by an invisible force. She begins therapy with Dr. Phil Sneiderman, a psychiatrist who believes Carla's traumatic past is motivating her to commit self-induced injuries, rather than anything supernatural.

Release Date: 1982-09-30

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 491

Night of the Juggler

An ex New York cop is desperate to find his kidnapped daughter.

Release Date: 1980-06-06

Department: Directing

Job: Co-Director

Vote Count: 19

The Boys in Company C

Disheartened by futile combat, appalled by the corruption of their South Vietnamese ally, and constantly endangered by the incompetence of their own company commander, the young men find a possible way out of the war. They are told that if they purposely lose a soccer game against a South Vietnamese team, they can spend the rest of their tour playing exhibition games behind the lines.

Release Date: 1978-02-02

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 74

Gable and Lombard

A biography about the love affair between 1930s Hollywood superstars Clark Gable and Carole Lombard.

Release Date: 1976-02-11

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 5

Sheila Levine Is Dead and Living in New York

Sheila Levine – an innovative, bright, but painfully introverted individual – arrives in New York City to take an apartment with a partygoing roommate. There, she experiences love and heartache in equal measure.

Release Date: 1975-12-01

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 8

Petrocelli

Petrocelli is an American legal drama which ran for two seasons on NBC from September 11, 1974 to March 31, 1976. Tony Petrocelli is an Italian-American Harvard-educated lawyer who gave up the big money and frenetic pace of major-metropolitan life to practice in a sleepy city in the American Southwest. He and wife Maggie live in a trailer in the country while waiting for their new house to be built, and travel around in a beat-up old pickup truck. For a quiet rural area, Petrocelli seems to have no trouble running into his share of murderers to defend.

Release Date: 1974-09-11

Department: Creator

Job: Creator

Vote Count: 23

Night Games

A Harvard-educated, big-city lawyer moves to a small Arizona town to set up practice. His first case is defending a beautiful socialite accused of murdering her husband. This is the pilot TV movie for what would become the Petrocelli TV series.

Release Date: 1974-03-16

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Vote Count: 1

Hit!

A federal agent whose daughter dies of a heroin overdose is determined to destroy the drug ring that supplied her. He recruits various people whose lives have been torn apart by the drug trade and trains them. Then they all leave for France to track down and destroy the ring.

Release Date: 1973-09-18

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 22

Lady Sings the Blues

Chronicles the rise and fall of legendary blues singer Billie Holiday, beginning with her traumatic youth. The story depicts her early attempts at a singing career and her eventual rise to stardom, as well as her difficult relationship with Louis McKay, her boyfriend and manager. Casting a shadow over even Holiday's brightest moments is the vocalist's severe drug addiction, which threatens to end both her career and her life.

Release Date: 1972-10-12

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 64

Little Fauss and Big Halsy

The friendship between two Arizona dirt bike racers is tested when they both lust for an attractive runaway young woman who joins them on the racing circuit.

Release Date: 1970-10-21

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 23

The Lawyer

Tony Petrocelli, a bright young lawyer practicing in the rich cattle town of Baker, becomes embroiled in a murder case.

Release Date: 1970-03-10

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Vote Count: 5

The Naked Runner

Sam Laker is an American industrialist, working in Britain, who has just been awarded an international award for industrial design. He is planning to travel to East Germany to attend a trade show and show off his invention, taking his 10 year old son with him for a holiday. Meanwhile a British Intelligence officer who served with Laker in the Second World War decides to use the opportunity of Laker's trip and his lack of an intelligence profile to coerce him into carrying out an assassination.

Release Date: 1967-07-19

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 6

The Appaloosa

A man tries to recover a horse stolen from him by a Mexican bandit.

Release Date: 1966-09-15

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 66

The Ipcress File

Sly and dry intelligence agent Harry Palmer is tasked with investigating British Intelligence security, and is soon enmeshed in a world of double-dealing, kidnap and murder when he finds a traitor operating at the heart of the secret service.

Release Date: 1965-03-18

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 299

Wonderful Life

Cliff Richard and The Shadows are hired to star in a movie shot amid the lush tropical scenery of the Canary Islands. A sunny seaside spectacular, filled with romance, excitement and high spirits - not to mention a dozen musical numbers.

Release Date: 1964-06-03

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 6

The Leather Boys

Reggie and Dot are a young South London couple who get married before they really get to know each other. After the marriage, they quickly begin to drift apart. Dot seems content to pursue her own interests, until Reggie meets Pete, a fellow cyclist, and begins to explore his own identity.

Release Date: 1964-03-08

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 19

The Boys

A night watchman at a garage is found murdered, and four teddy boys are put on trial for the crime. Witnesses and suspects give differing accounts of the lead-up to the crime, and the truth emerges.

Release Date: 1962-08-31

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 4

The Young Ones

Nicky and his friends find that their youth club is in danger of being flattened to make way for a new office block unless they can come up with £1500 to pay the new owner, the ruthless property tycoon Hamilton Black. To help raise the cash, Nicky records a song and his friends broadcast it via a pirate radio station, touting him as "The Mystery Singer" - the plan works and interest in their up and coming show is heightened by this new but unknown heart-throb. But Nicky has an even bigger secret and one that he cannot share, even with his girlfriend Toni... Hamilton Black is his father.

Release Date: 1961-12-19

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 13

Three on a Spree

A young man will inherit a huge fortune--8 million pounds--but to qualify, he must spend a million pounds in just two months. Easy to do? That's what you think!

Release Date: 1961-06-28

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 3

The Snake Woman

A doctor in 1890 England, in order to cure his wife's "sick mind," injects her with snake venom. She later gives birth to a daughter whom the villagers call "The Devil's Baby" and in a fit of fear they end up burning the family's house down. Years later a Scotland Yard detective is sent to the village to investigate a rash of deaths that are caused by snakebite.

Release Date: 1961-04-26

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 14

During One Night

Story of a young U.S. Army officer, stationed in England during World War II, who is suddenly conscious of a desire to "prove" himself sexually.

Release Date: 1961-02-01

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 5

Doctor Blood's Coffin

After being thrown out of medical school for ethical violations, Dr. Peter Blood returns home to a small Cornish village, where he sets up a research laboratory in a secluded cave. There, he attempts to revive the dead, using kidnapped humans -- who he views as unworthy of life -- for their body parts, specifically, their hearts.

Release Date: 1961-01-01

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 28

A Cool Sound from Hell

To the dismay of his girlfriend, Charlie is introduced to the beatnik scene when he falls in love with a hep chick named Steve. But when he discovers Steve is mixed up with a vicious drug ring, he has to decide where his values really lie.

Release Date: 1959-01-01

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Vote Count: 1

A Dangerous Age

Teenage lovers are continually thwarted in their attempts to get married.

Release Date: 1957-09-09

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Vote Count: 1

Sidney J. Furie: Fire Up the Carousel!

This full-length documentary examines the life and career of the Toronto-born filmmaker Sidney J. Furie, a journey that spans over 60 years, from Canada to London and finally to Hollywood. In the midst of the Furie's own remembrances, he directs two last personal projects, shot digitally on shoestring budgets, from the first solo scripts he has written since 1961. 'Drive Me to Vegas and Mars' is a comedy about aging and letting go, while 'Hannah Cohen' is a Holocaust-themed love story set and shot in Israel. Sidney J. Furie: Fire Up the Carousel is an intimate portrait of a unique, prolific, and quietly influential filmmaker, a man with an impressive resumé who has stood behind the camera on great films such as The Ipcress File (1965), Lady Sings the Blues (1972), The Boys in Company C (1978), The Leather Boys (1964), The Entity (1982), The Appaloosa (1966), Little Fauss and Big Halsy (1970), and many others.

Character: Himself

Hudson's Bay

Hudson's Bay is a 1959 Western television series set in Canada and starring Barry Nelson and George Tobias. Sidney J. Furie directed 14 out of the 20 episodes.

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Episode Count: 39

Vote Count: 1