John Kemeny

Producer

April 17, 1925 (87 years)

† November 23, 2012

Budapest

Biography

John Kemeny was a Hungarian-Canadian film producer whom the Toronto Star called "the forgotten giant of Canadian film history and...the most successful producer in Canadian history."

Filmography

6.9

Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors

The Lightning League drives white and silver vehicles with assorted weaponry, and are led by a teenager named Jayce. The villains are organic green vegetable-based creatures called the Monster Minds, who tend to take the shape of black and green vehicles. They travel via large green organic vines which can grow in and across interstellar space, and sprout seeds that rapidly grow into further Monster Minds. They are led by Saw Boss.

6.4

The Wraith

Packard Walsh and his motorized gang control and terrorize an Arizona desert town where they force drivers to drag-race so they can 'win' their vehicles. After Walsh beats the decent teenager Jamie Hankins to death after finding him with his girlfriend, a mysterious power creates Jake Kesey, an extremely cool motor-biker who has a car which is invincible. Jake befriends Jamie's girlfriend Keri Johnson, takes Jamie's sweet brother Bill under his wing and manages what Sheriff Loomis couldn't; eliminate Packard's criminal gang the hard way...

7.0

Quest for Fire

In the prehistoric world, a Cro-Magnon tribe depends on an ever-burning source of fire, which eventually extinguishes. Lacking the knowledge to start a new fire, the tribe sends three warriors on a quest for more. With the tribe's future at stake, the warriors make their way across a treacherous landscape full of hostile tribes and monstrous beasts. On their journey, they encounter Ika, a woman who has the knowledge they seek.

6.1

The Gate

Three young children accidentally release a horde of nasty, pint-sized demons from a hole in a suburban backyard. What follows is a classic battle between good and evil as the three kids struggle to overcome a nightmarish hell that is literally taking over the Earth.

6.8

Atlantic City

In a corrupt city, a small-time gangster and the estranged wife of a pot dealer find themselves thrown together in an escapade of love, money, drugs and danger.

4.5

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.

7.4

Ice Castles

Alexis is on top of the world until a tragic accident dashes her hopes and dreams of becoming a world-class figure skater. Only with the help of those who love her can she prove to the world — and herself — that she still has the potential to realize her dreams.

6.6

When Trumpets Fade

In WWII Western Germany, Private David Manning reluctantly leaves behind a mortally wounded fellow soldier and searches for survivors from his platoon, only to learn from commanding officer Captain Pritchett that they have all been killed in action. Despite requesting a discharge on the grounds of mental disability, Manning is promoted to sergeant and assigned to lead a new platoon of young inductees.

5.1

The Boy in Blue

Ned Hanlan was Canada's most successful sculling champion at the turn of the 20th century. This dramatization of his life begins in his youth, when the wild young man is informally adopted by a gambler who promotes Ned on the sculling circuit, betting on the boy's rowing skills solely to make money off him. Later, a ruthless businessman named Knox takes over Ned's career, but when Ned realizes how dishonest Knox is, he finds another manager. Walter is an inventor and the first honest man Ned has dealt with in his career and, under Walter's guidance, Ned rises to great success in the sculling world.

5.8

Dead Silence

Three escaped convicts take a group of deaf students hostage.

5.5

Gate II

It's been five years since Terry's friend Glen discovered The Gate to hell in his backyard. Glen has now moved away and Terry begins practicing rituals in Glen's old house and eventually bringing back demons through The Gate and leading to demoniac possession and near world domination.

5.3

The Blood of Others

In the German-occupied Paris, Helene is torn between the love for her boyfriend Jean, working for the resistance and the German administrator Bergmann, who will do anything to gain her affection.

5.5

The Park Is Mine

A Vietnam vet takes forceful control of Central Park to remember those who served and died in the Vietnam War.

6.0

The Josephine Baker Story

Biography of the African-American who became a major performer in the Paris cabarets of the 1920s and 1930s. The film follows her life beginning as a struggling performer in 1917 St. Louis, her frustrations leading to her move to France, and follows to her death in 1975. Written by John Sacksteder

6.5

Nowhere to Hide

Marine officer Rob Cutter and his wife Barbara have a son named Johnny. Rob discovers that two newly delivered helicopters in his squadron have crashed because a defective part, a C-ring, has been made of a weaker, less expensive alloy. Before Rob can go public with this, Rob is killed on the orders of corrupt General Howard, who did not want Rob to go public with the defective part. Howard believes that Barbara, who is also a marine, now has the part, so Howard and his henchmen set out to kill Barbara and Johnny and get the part, but Howard is underestimating what Barbara is willing to do to protect Johnny.

6.1

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz

The younger son of a working-class Jewish family in Montreal, Duddy Kravitz yearns to make a name for himself in society. This film chronicles his short and dubious rise to power, as well as his changing relationships with family and friends. Along the way the film explores the themes of anti-semitism and the responsibilities which come with adulthood.

6.0

White Line Fever

An independent trucker with a pregnant wife fights cargo crooks and the big shot they work for.

5.9

Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story

A biographical portrayal of Simon Wiesenthal, famous Nazi Hunter. From his imprisonment in a Nazi Concentration Camp, the film follows his liberation and his rise to become one of the leading Nazi hunters in the world, bringing such criminals to justice as Adolf Eichmann and Klaus Barbee. (Written by Anthony Hughes)

5.8

The Bay Boy

A Roman Catholic teenage boy in Glace Bay, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia during the 1930s faces various growing-up problems: Should he become a priest? What should he do about the murder he witnessed, committed by a local cop and upstanding parishioner? And how far should he go with his girlfriend, who happens to be the murderer's daughter?

4.0

Hungarian Requiem

1958. In the cell of the condemned, seven men await the signs of an approaching execution. All of them recall their pasts and envision their wish-dreams.