Martin Jurow Movies

Melissa Gilbert acquits herself well in this old-fashioned family drama about a gritty Texas orphan named Charlie (Gilbert), a substitute parent for her brothers, determined to succeed in life by converting an unmanageable rodeo horse into an equestrian champion. The transformation from equine dross to championship dressage is not an easy road, and helping Charlie is the often tipsy but tough Foster (Richard Farnsworth), as well as Matt, the man who captures her heart (Michael Schoeffling). After they succeed in training the actually talented horse, they head for the blue grass and bluer blood of Kentucky, where the equestrian and racing elite hold court over all, including newcomers from Texas. Now they have to coax the horse to make it through the formal dressage, cross-country, and jumping competitions -- and to do that in top form. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this easily predictable romantic comedy, Gail (Anne Archer) is a no-nonsense geologist from the East Coast and John (Terry Jastrow) is a down-home, intuitive Texan whose expertise lies in guessing where petroleum is located -- Gail, as a geologist, is not in the habit of guessing. As the two meet and work together on a wildcat well in Texas, their romantic and financial fortunes are transparently tied together, and nothing at all comes as a surprise after their first initial meeting and disagreement. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Tony Curtis stars as The Great Leslie, a hero among heroes whose purity of heart is manifested by his spotlessly white wardrobe. Leslie's great rival, played by Jack Lemmon, is Professor Fate, a scowling, mustachioed, top-hatted, black-garbed villain. Long envious of Leslie's record-setting accomplishments with airships and sea craft, Professor Fate schemes to win a 22,000-mile auto race from New York City to Paris by whatever insidious means possible. The problem is that Fate is his own worst enemy: each of his plans to remove Leslie from the running (and from the face of the earth) backfires. Leslie's own cross to bear is suffragette Maggie Dubois (Natalie Wood), who also hopes to win the contest and thus strike a blow for feminism. The race takes all three contestants to the Wild West, the frozen wastes of Alaska, and, in the longest sequence, the mythical European kingdom of Carpania. This last-named country is the setting for a wild Prisoner of Zenda spoof involving Professor Fate and his look-alike, the foppish Carpanian king. When Leslie and Fate approach the finish line at the Eiffel Tower, Leslie deliberately loses to prove his love for Maggie. Professor Fate cannot stand winning under these circumstances, thus he demands that he and Leslie race back to New York. The supporting cast includes Peter Falk as Fate's long-suffering flunkey Max, Keenan Wynn as Leslie's faithful general factotum, Dorothy Provine as a brassy saloon singer, Larry Storch as ill-tempered bandit Texas Jack, and Ross Martin as Baron Von Stuppe. The film also yielded a hit song, Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer's The Sweetheart Tree. The Great Race was dedicated to "Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The unlikely duo of Steve McQueen and Jackie Gleason star in this military comedy-drama. Gleason is Master Sergeant Max Slaughter, a corpulent man perfectly content with his solitary life in the Army, where his room and board are paid for and free sodas are his for the taking. His comrade, the more ambitious Sergeant Eustis Clay (McQueen), looks forward to leaving the service and making a big success of himself in business. Nevertheless, Eustis worships the ground that the kindly Max walks on and introduces him to a pretty teenager, Bobby Jo Pepperdine (Tuesday Weld). This sets off the ire of Bobby Jo's would-be suitor Sergeant Fred Lenahan (Lew Gallo), a tough military policeman who's already got a bone to pick with Eustis, leading to a tragic turn of events for Eustis and Max. The script for Soldier in the Rain (1963) was co-written by Blake Edwards. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

In this comedy drama, two troubled college freshmen find themselves united by their mutual family woes and so decide to spend the summer together in a beachhouse belonging to the boy's mother. They are platonic friends until the girl gets in trouble during a sailing accident and is rescued by a handsome Coast Guardsman who finds the pretty lass irresistible and starts showing up regularly at the beachhouse with his friends. Wild parties ensue and great fun is had until the boy's mom suddenly appears. Seeing that her son is cohabitating with a woman, she immediately makes lurid assumptions, the result of which makes the two mixed-up kids realize that they have somehow fallen in love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Gary Cooper plays a frontier doctor with a checkered past who works in a rowdy Montana mining camp. Cooper falls in love with Maria Schell, a young Swiss girl whom he has treated for shock after she was the victim of a holdup. He finances Schell's grubstake, which makes her rich. When Schell's unscrupulous partner Karl Malden tries to have his way with the girl, Cooper kills Malden. Sentenced to an immediate hanging, Cooper is saved when Schell offers to give the town her valuable mine. A surprise hit in 1959, The Hanging Tree was based on an award-winning novel by Dorothy M. Johnson. The film not only yielded a hit theme song by Mack David and Jerry Livingston, but also served as the film debut of George C. Scott, who plays Cooper's doctor predecessor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide