Jo Morrow Movies
American actress Jo Morrow made her first film appearance at age 16. Signed to a Columbia contract in 1958, she played such teen-queen roles as Mary Lou in Gidget and a rock 'n' roll-loving foreign princess in Juke Box Rhythm (1959). She was also featured in the Columbia releases The Legend of Tom Dooley (1959), 13 Ghosts (1960), Our Man in Havana (1960) and Three Worlds of Gulliver (1960). She retired in 1962, then returned to films ten years later in a brace of lower-rung horror films, Terminal Island (1972) and Dr. Death, Seeker of Souls (1973). Jo Morrow's last film role to date was as a barmaid in 1973's Blume in Love. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1973
- R
After female prisoners arrive at an island prison full of male convicts, they are brutalized and fight back in an attempt to set up a more democratic system. This exploitative drama includes performances of Tom Selleck and Roger E. Mosley of television's Magnum P.I. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
John Considine does a cut-rate Vincent Price impersonation as the flamboyant Dr. Death, a thousand-year-old magician who has mastered he art of transferring souls from one body to another and thereby manages to perpetuate himself by jumping from one body to the next (which actually makes him more of a "Seeker of Bodies"). Apparently the Doc is a kindred spirit to the Alien, since his blood is a highly-corrosive acid that can strip flesh from bone, thus ensuring his personal safety. This is "Z"-grade fare that plays somewhat like a Herschell Gordon Lewis film, but without enough silliness to keep things amusing. The only point of interest keeping this film in circulation (mainly via late-night-cable) is the presence of sad-looking former Stooge Moe Howard in his last role as a perverted old man. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- 1971
Written by Harold Livingston, "The Merchant" guest-stars George Sanders in one of his final acting roles, as illegal arms dealer Armand Andressarian. To prevent Andressarian from completing an arrangement to sale guns to unfriendly guerilla groups in Africa and the middle East, the IMF swings into action. The success of the mission hinges largely on a fixed poker game, a past speciality of IMF agent Barney Collier. Leonard Nimoy and Lesley Ann Warren make their final series appearances. "The Merchant" originally aired on March 13, 1971, as the last episode of Mission:Impossible's fifth season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Graves, Leonard Nimoy, (more)
- 1964
Dan Duryea stars in this gritty medium-budget western as an unregenerate killer. His one saving grace is his affection for his foster son (Tony Young), whom he's raised from infancy. The boy grows up to be a sheriff, while Duryea continues his criminal activities in the company of his natural son. The ultimate showdown finds Young squaring off with his stepbrother, knowing full well that even if he wins, he'll lose in the eyes of some townsfolk--including his violence-hating fiancee. He Rides Tall combines western traditionalism with the gut-splattering gore popular in the early 1960s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tony Young, Dan Duryea, (more)
- 1963
Playwright Norman Krasna adapted his hit Broadway sex farce for the screen under the direction of Peter Tewksbury. Adam Tyler (Cliff Robertson) is an airline pilot who rents a pricey Manhattan apartment and has the weekend off. His prim sister Eileen (Jane Fonda), shows up to visit, complaining that her fiancée Russ (Robert Culp), is pressuring her to have premarital sex, threatening to break up their engagement if she doesn't comply. Adam tells his sister that she is right to resist, that men want to marry women who are virgins, then he leaves with plans to meet his lover, Mona Harris (Jo Morrow), in another city. Left alone, Eileen finds women's lingerie in her brother's closet and realizes that he has a double standard. She leaves, upset. While on a bus, she meets a man named Mike (Rod Taylor). They spend the day sightseeing, fall in love, and return to the apartment after a rainstorm drenches their clothes. Russ and Adam later arrive at the apartment at different intervals. Russ mistakenly believes that Eileen has cheated on him, so he storms out, leaving Eileen with her new love and Adam with plans to marry Jo. Jim Backus has a minor role as a flight dispatcher. Musician Peter Nero, who scored the film, appears in a cameo. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rod Taylor, Jane Fonda, (more)
- 1962
Presaging the upcoming Vietnam War without knowing it, this routine drama directed by Jack Warner, Jr. (his only directorial effort) is set in Vietnam where the recent battles with the French have concluded and two soldiers have remained in the country to set up their own plantation. Their lives are changed when two Americans are captured by communist forces. Unless the ex-soldiers do something about it, the Americans may just have to stay captured, or worse. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Ireland, Everett Sloane, (more)
- 1962
Entering into a poker game with a fellow named Jonesy (George Neise), Maverick ends up winning big--and as a result becomes the new owner of a frontier newspaper. But his victory turns hollow when Bart discovers that the paper is being sued for libel by a powerful senator (Lloyd Corrigan). Peter Breck makes a return appearance in the role of worldly gunslinger Doc Holliday. Some sources list this episode as having originally aired on March 11, 1962. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1961
On the verge of marrying jazz musician Eddy King (James Drury), Polly Courtland (Jo Morrows) lets out a shriek and runs out of the church. It turns out that Polly had seen George Sherwin (Grant Richards]), who was waving an envelope containing compromising photos of Polly's sister Midge (Lorrie Richards). Later confronting Polly, Sherwin promises to destroy the photos if she will give up Eddy and marry him. Inevitably, Sherwin is murdered and Eddy is charged with the crime--obliging Perry Mason (Perry Mason), who'd been a guest at the interrupted wedding, to handle his defense. Cast as nightclub singer Jonny Baker, future daytime-drama diva Constance Towers) sings "The Man I Love" and "The Thrill is Gone"; also, Barney Kessel, who composed the episode's jazzy musical score, appears as Spec Hollister. Finally, Karl Held joins the cast in the semi-regular role of Mason's legal assistant David Gideon, a character introduced (as a defendant!) in the previous episode "The Case of the Grumbling Grandfather". (Trivia note: though originally listed in TV Guide as Perry Mason's fifth-season opener, this episode was actually that season's third entry, preceded by two "leftover" episodes from Season Four). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Graham Greene wrote this witty comedy inspired by Cold War paranoia. Jim Wormald (Alec Guiness) is an Englishman selling vacuum cleaners in Cuba on the cusp of the revolution. Hawthorne (Noel Coward), a British intelligence agent, is looking for information on Cuban affairs and recruits Jim to act as a spy. Jim has no experience in espionage and no useful knowledge to pass along, but Hawthorne is willing to pay for his services, and since Jim's daughter Milly (Jo Morrow) has expensive tastes, he can use the money. To keep Hawthorne happy (and his paychecks coming in), he turns in reports on the Cuban revolution that are copied from public documents, "hires" additional agents who don't exist, and presents blueprints of secret weapons that are actually schematics of his carpet sweepers. However, Hawthorne and associate "C" (Ralph Richardson) think that Jim is doing splendid work and encourage him to continue; meanwhile, Capt. Segura (Ernie Kovacs), the elegantly corrupt chief of police, has been fooled by Jim's charade into believing he's a real spy -- and has also become attracted to Milly. Our Man in Havana also features Burl Ives and Maureen O'Hara in supporting roles. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alec Guinness, Burl Ives, (more)
The Three Worlds of Gulliver is perhaps the least known of the Charles H. Schneer-Ray Harryhausen collaborations of the 1960s, perhaps because it was withdrawn from circulation so soon after its initial release. Kerwin Mathews, star of the Schneer-Harryhausen classic Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (1957), stars as Jonathan Swift's globetrotting adventurer Lemuel Gulliver. The first "world" is Lilliput, populated with teeny-tiny people who are about to go to war because they can't agree over which end of an egg to crack. Gulliver's second stop is Brobdignag, where our hero is surrounded by giants. The third world is England, where Gulliver is thrown into a lunatic asylum when he tries to relate his astonishing adventures. Jo Morrow plays the thoroughly dispensable love interest. The script, by director Jack Sher and Arthur Ross, manages to retain a great deal of Swift's trenchant satire without detracting from the film's "fun for all ages" entertainment value. As always, Harryhausen's Dynamation special effects are superb. A lilting, semihumorous musical score by Bernard Herrmann is the icing on this cinematic cake. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kerwin Mathews, Jo Morrow, (more)
Gimmick-loving producer William Castle strikes again with this fun haunted-house thriller which invited audiences to find the hidden ghosts roaming about a haunted house through a special process called "Illusion-O" by which patrons could employ a special pair of red-and-blue-colored glasses to detect ghosts on the screen during the film's color-tinted sequences. The story is set in the mansion of the deceased occult scientist Dr. Zorba, whose nephew Cyrus and his family occupy the creepy estate and discover that they are not the only tenants. It seems the Doctor has been harboring 12 elusive specters on the premises, the appearance of which can only be detected through his final invention: a special pair of ghost-viewing goggles. To further complicate matters, it is learned that Zorba has stashed a small fortune somewhere in the house, and someone -- or something -- is determined to stop Cyrus and family from finding it. This film's original release featured an introduction from Castle, describing the "Illusion-O" process and demonstrating the proper use of the tinted glasses; he also appears in an epilogue stating that the glasses can be used to detect ghosts outside the theater! ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Herbert, Jo Morrow, (more)
- 1959
The Kingston Trio's hit song with the lyrics "hang down your head Tom Dooley, hang down your head and cry..." may have been the inspiration for this well-wrought drama, but the film stands on its own. Three Confederate soldiers learn too late that the stagecoach they just attacked, killing two Union soldiers, was off-limits because the Civil War was over. Killing the former enemy after peace has been declared is considered murder, so the three young men decide to head for refuge further south. One of the three, Tom Dooley (Michael Landon) takes a detour to find his Northern sweetheart and marry her before escaping. That, it turns out, was a fatal mistake and the beginning of a folk hero and a folk song. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Landon, Jo Morrow, (more)
- 1959
Teenager Francie Lawrence (Sandra Dee) is known to her surfing friends as "Gidget" or a "girl midget" (she is kinda on the short side). Unable to compete with the curvaceous bikinied lasses at the local beach, Gidget is assured by her understanding parents (Arthur O'Connell, Mary LaRoche) that boys will eventually pay attention to her. Turns out that Mom's right on the money, as surfers Moondoggie (James Darren) and Kahoona (Cliff Robertson) vie for Gidge's attention during the summer of her 16th birthday. Based on the novel by Frederick Kohner (who based the title character on his own daughter), Gidget was one of the surprise hits of 1959. The film spawned a host of theatrical and TV-movie sequels, not to mention the 1966 TV series starring Sally Field -- and the 1987 sitcom starring Caryn Richman. In addition, Gidget boosted the careers of several stars-to-be, including Yvonne Craig, Doug McClure and Tom Laughlin. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sandra Dee, Cliff Robertson, (more)
- 1959
A European princess and her aunt come to New York to buy clothes for the royal coronation, Riff Manson (Jack Jones) is employed by unknown clothier and former junkman Brodine (Hans Conried) to sway the royals to purchase his designs. Broadway revue rehearsals and parties provide the backdrop for the musical selection. George Jessel plays himself and sings "Spring Is The Time For Remembering". The princess (Jo Morrow) sings "Let's Fall In Love". Jones sings the title tune. Other songs are performed by the Earl Grant Trio, The Treniers and The Nitwits, while Johnny Otis renders the classic rock & roll anthem "Willie And The Hand Jive". ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jo Morrow, Jack Jones, (more)
