Joe Turkel
Joseph Turkel (July 15, 1927 – June 27, 2022) was an American actor. A career character actor, he was noted for his craggy Bronx looks and distinctive, penetrating voice. Turkel worked steadily from 1949 to 1998 in both films and television, including in the Stanley Kubrick... Read full bio →
Featured Characters
Roles you can spot in Whatthemovie snapshots
The Dark Side of the Moon
It is the year 2022. A mysterious systems failure causes the crew of a spaceship to be stranded on the dark side of the moon, while rapidly running out of fuel and oxygen. They are surprised to discover a NASA space shuttle floating in space, and board it in the hope of salvaging some supplies.
Blade Runner
From the atmospheric vision of Ridley Scott comes this futuristic film noir declared by many as the greatest Science Fiction movie of all time. Based on the novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” by Philip K. Dick.
The Shining
The Shining is a Stanley Kubrick adaptation of Steven King’s horror novel of the same name. The film takes the viewer into a remote hotel where a Jack Torrance and his wife and son must live in for the winter. One of the scariest films of all times mixes up reality and makes isolation a psychological nightmare.
The Prisoner of Second Avenue
Mel Edison has just lost his job after many years and now has to cope with being unemployed at middle age during an intense NYC heat wave.
The Hindenburg
Colonel Franz Ritter, a former hero pilot now working for military intelligence, is assigned to the great Hindenburg airship as its chief of security. As he races against the clock to uncover a possible saboteur aboard the doomed zeppelin he finds that any of the passengers and crew could be the culprit.
The St. Valentine's Day Massacre
Chicago February 14th 1929. Al Capone finally establishes himself as the city's boss of organised crime. In a north-side garage his hoods, dressed as policemen, surprise and mow down with machine-guns the key members of Bugs Moran's rival gang. The film traces the history of the incident, and the lives affected and in some cases ended by it.
The Sand Pebbles
Engineer Jake Holman arrives aboard the gunboat USS San Pablo, assigned to patrol a tributary of the Yangtze in the middle of exploited and revolution-torn 1926 China. His iconoclasm and cynical nature soon clash with the 'rice-bowl' system which runs the ship and the uneasy symbiosis between Chinese and foreigner on the river.
Village of the Giants
Delinquent teenagers ingest a substance, grow 30 feet tall, and proceed to take over a small town.
King Rat
Fast-talking wheeler-dealer Corporal King is stuck in a Malaysian P.O.W. camp during World War II and uses bribery and larceny to take de-facto control of the camp.
Johnny Cool
A deported gangster trains an Italian convict to take over his operations in the U.S.
Famous Ghost Stories
TV pilot masterminded by Bert I. Gordon and Herts-Lion International. Vincent Price hosts and plays a poltergeist while introducing the ghost story to follow, which turns out be an edited version of Gordon's "Tormented."
Tormented
A jazz pianist (Richard Carlson) is haunted by his dead ex-lover's (Juli Reding) crawling hand and floating head.
The Boy and the Pirates
Young boy is magically transported back in time to a pirate ship on the high seas. Jimmy desires to be a pirate when one day he discovers a magic bottle on the beach. He makes a wish and suddenly finds himself aboard Blackbeard's ship. Soon he realizes that being a pirate isn't what he expected.
Warlock
A band of murderous cowboys has imposed a reign of terror on the town of Warlock. With the sheriff humiliatingly run out of town, the residents hire the services of Clay Blaisedell as de facto town marshal.
Verboten!
A young American serviceman, stationed in Germany after the fall of the Third Reich, jeopardises his..
The Purple Gang
The story of the infamous Purple Gang - a ring of bootleggers, hijackers and killers in 1920's Detroit.
The Bonnie Parker Story
In the 1930s, amoral blonde tommy-gun girl Bonnie Parker cut a swath of bodies across the South-West. Starting out on gas stations and bars with side-kick Guy Darrow she graduated to bank hold-ups with Darrow's brother and, after bloodily springing him, her jailed husband. But there was never any doubt who was in charge.
The Shadow on the Window
Three delinquents murder a prosperous farm owner at an isolated farm house. The one witness to the crime - the dead man's secretary - is then taken hostage.
The Midnight Story
After a San Francisco priest is murdered, a policeman, who's a close friend, starts an investigation.
Paths of Glory
Paths of Glory Paths of Glory is an anti-war film from Stanley Kubrick starring Kirk Douglas. The film takes place during World War I.
Jeanne Eagels
Biographical film based loosely on the life of 1920s stage star Jeanne Eagels.
House of Numbers
Story of twin brothers - one trying to help the other escape from prison.
The Killing
The Killing was Stanley Kubrick’s first film with a professional cast and the first time he achieved public recognition as the unconventional director he’s now know for. The story is of ex-prisoners who plan to set up a racetrack so they can live a life without monetary worries. One of the more exceptional films of the 1950’s.
Friendly Persuasion
The story of a family of Quakers in Indiana in 1862. Their religious sect is strongly opposed to violence and war. It's not easy for them to meet the rules of their religion in everyday life but when Southern troops pass the area they are in real trouble. Should they fight, despite their peaceful attitude?
The Naked Street
A reporter follows the story of a gangster (Anthony Quinn), his sister (Anne Bancroft) and her small-time hoodlum husband (Farley Granger).
Cell 2455, Death Row
A Death Row inmate uses his prison law studies to fight for his life. Based on a true story.
The Human Jungle
Danforth is assigned to take over the police department in a section of a large city saddled with juvenile delinquency, petty crimes, graft and also a recent unsolved murder of a strip-tease dancer.
The Glass Wall
Peter is a refugee who wants to make a better life for himself in America, but he doesn't have the proper papers. Desperate for entry, he jumps ship and flees to New York to search for a World War II veteran whom he helped during the war.
Halls of Montezuma
Richard Widmark leads an all star cast of marine leathernecks including Jack Palance, Robert Wagner, Karl Malden, Richard Boone and Jack Webb into battle on a heavily fortified island.
Fixed Bayonets!
The story of a platoon during the Korean War. One by one, Corporal Denno's superiors are killed until it comes to the point where he must try to take command responsibility.
Triple Trouble
Slip and Sach take the rap for a robbery they did not commit in order to uncover the real robbers, whom they suspect are led by a convict who gives orders to his gang outside via a short-wave radio stashed somewhere in the prison.
SOuthside 1-1000
The U.S. Secret Service goes after a counterfeiting ring by placing one of its Treasury agents inside a criminal mob.
Lucky Losers
Slip and Sach's boss, David J. Thurston, has allegedly committed suicide. Slip finds a book of matches with the name of a local nightclub on his boss' desk and finds out from Gabe that a gambling casino is being run out of it. Slip comes to the conclusion that the club had something to do with his boss' death and sets out to find his murderer.
Sword in the Desert
First American film about the conflict between Jewish nationalists and the British in the creation of the state of Israel.
City Across the River
Brooklyn youth Frank Cusack, good son and brother by day, is a gang member by night. The Dukes, seemingly likable dead-end-kids, are dangerously involved with racketeer Gaggsy Steens. Despite the efforts of Franks's parents, he and pal Benny get involved in a serious crime.
Angels in Disguise
Slip and the gang (Bowery Boys) stray from newspaper work to detective work.