House of Cards
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
John Guillermin
George Peppard
Inger Stevens
Orson Welles
Keith Michell
Ralph Michael
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Young American Reno Davis, in Paris, is engaged by the lovely widow Anne de Villemont as a tutor for her precocious 8-year-old son, Paul, and takes up residence in a mansion already crowded by her family, servants, and other people such as psychiatrist Hubert Morillon, whose patient, the mistress of the house, drinks heavily to allay her premonition that Paul is the object of a kidnaping plot. Reno's suspicions become aroused, and after his friend Louis Le Buc is murdered and the de Villemonts disappear, he discovers their true identity as the core of a rightwing secret society bent on the overthrow of the French Government and the annexation of Algeria. Under suspicion for the murder, he finds Anne, who is being held captive, and the two flee Dijon by train for the Villa Frascati in Italy, where Paul is rumored to be held captive. There Reno uncovers an agents' list coveted by Morilion, who is in reality Sebastian de Villemont (Anne's "dead" husband who conceived his own demise at the hands of terrorists in order to return secretly to Paris as the head of the organization). In a struggle for the list, de Villemont is killed by one of his own henchmen and Reno escapes with the now legitimate widow Anne to Rome to save Paul from the designs of the organization's rival pretender to power, Charles Leschenhaut. Leschenhaut agrees to exchange the boy for Reno's list, but instead he orders Paul to avenge his father's death, for which he has claimed Reno responsible. But Paul is affected by memories of his early friendship with the American and turns the gun on Leschenhaut, who backs fearstruck through a railing and plunges to his death.
Director
John Guillermin
Cast
George Peppard
Inger Stevens
Orson Welles
Keith Michell
Ralph Michael
Maxine Audley
William Job
Peter Bayliss
Patience Collier
Barnaby Shaw
Ave Ninchi
Renzo Palmer
Francesco Mule
Rosemarie Dexter
Raoul Delfosse
Perrette Pradier
Geneviève Cluny
James Mishler
Jean Louis
Jacques Roux
Jean Hebey
Jacques Stany
Paule Albert
Crew
Cesare Allione
Frank Arrigo
Giuseppe Banchelli
Pierre Barouh
Dick Berg
James P. Bonner
Tony Brandt
Aurelio Crugnola
Kurt Doubravsky
Milton Feldman
Harriet Frank Jr.
Cesare Gambarelli
Larry Germain
Joseph Gershenson
Giorgio Di Roma
Alexander Golitzen
David A. Hammond
Edith Head
Francis Lai
Francis Lai
John Mccarthy Jr.
John Merrick
Alberto Pizzi
Piero Portalupi
Irving Ravetch
Don Record
Vasco Reggiani
Paolo Rolli
Ferdinando Ruffo
Itala Scandariato
Fred S. Wallach
Waldon O. Watson
Bud Westmore
J. Terry Williams
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Screen credits give Bonner as scriptwriter; this is a pseudonym for Ravetch and Frank. Some sources credit Pizzi with photography.
