Austin Green Movies
- 1969
- PG
Liza Minnelli is Pookie Adams, a relentlessly kooky coed in The Sterile Cuckoo. The film's focus, however, is on Wendell Burton (likewise making his first screen appearance) as reserved young college student Jerry. He is actively pursued by the unpredictable Pookie, who helps him to survive his first months in school. Gradually, however, it is obvious that Jerry is outgrowing Pookie. Both, however, have benefited from the relationship (he has gained self-confidence, she is now able to come to grips with her unhappy home life) and their parting is a tender one. Not unlike his stars, Alan J. Pakula was making his directorial bow with The Sterile Cuckoo, which earned an Oscar nomination for its theme song "Come Saturday Morning." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Liza Minnelli, Wendell Burton, (more)
Time Warp is the alternate title for the moderately budgeted Journey To the Center of Time. The scene is a research center, where experimental time-travel is in its formative stages. The center's directors are informed that, if they don't prove the efficacy of their research within 24 hours, they will lose their funding. A journey through time, commandered by scientist Lyle Waggoner is rapidly set in motion. Zapping 5000 years into the future, the time travellers confront a hostile band of extraterrestrials, who intend to conquer the world. The problem: how to get back to the "present" to avoid such a catastrophe (their first return attempt lands the travellers smack dab in the middle of the stone age). The all-former-star cast includes Scott Brady, Gigi Perreau and Anthony Eisley. Time Warp director David L. Hewitt had been here before in his The Time Travellers (1964). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1965
In this charming fantasy, a young lad is heading home from a hard day of playing hooky from school when he catches a frog in a pond. As he continues toward his home, he also encounters a kindly leprechaun who gives him seven magical coins with the power to grant him seven wishes. The boy then journeys through an enchanted wood where puppets come to life and a gypsy girl becomes a princess. He then discovers that his "frog" is really a spell-bound knight. Using a wish, the boy frees the knight who takes the lad over the rainbow to his home. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1964
Maurice Chevalier plays Philip Dulaine, a supposedly dying millionaire, while Sandra Dee co-stars as Cynthia, the elderly man's granddaughter. To allow Dulaine to die happy, Cynthia promises to find a husband. Actually, Dulaine is only pretending to be at death's door to get Cynthia married off. Subsequent complications involve Cynthia's personal choice for a husband, Warren Palmer (Andy Williams), and Dulaine's selection, Paul Benton (Robert Goulet). Deanna Durbin fans will quickly detect that I'd Rather Be Rich is a remake of Durbin's It Started With Eve (1941), with a gender switch (in the original, Robert Cummings is the grandson, and Durbin is the instant fiancee) and with Maurice Chevalier filling the sizeable shoes of Charles Laughton as the foxy grandpa. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sandra Dee, Robert Goulet, (more)
- 1962
Prior to carrying out the orders of her boss Morley Thielman (George Neise) by placing a briefcase containing $100,000 in a train station locker, Janice Wainwright (Elaine Devry) stops at the office of Perry Mason (Raymond Burr), informing the lawyer that she thinks Thielman is being blackmailed. Janice's last stop is in Las Vega to meet Thielman's ex-wife--but instead, she is arrested and charged with her boss' murder. In his efforts to defend Janice, Perry must discredit the testimony of witness Fred Carlyle (James Callahan), who insists that he saw Janice's distinctively shapely silhouette through the shades of Thielman's window just before the murder. This episode is based on a 1960 novel by Perry Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In this early '60s drama that serves as an expose to the problem of campus hazing, a undergrad who is deathly afraid of dead bodies must remove a ring from the finger of a corpse as a frat-house initiation requirement. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1962
Albert escapes from South American fishermen who saved her from drowning and subsequently wish to throw her back in because the fish are few. An Amazon jungle adventure proves exciting and Albert falls in love with Sutton. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1961
Released about five weeks before the Adolf Eichmann trial began in Jerusalem on April 11, 1961, this docudrama by director R.G. Springsteen was quickly dashed together to take advantage of the trial, and it shows. Overplaying Eichmann's venality and lacking any depth in characterization, the story unfolds in several large segments. Eichmann (played by Werner Klemperer), as head of Dept. IV, B4 or "Jewish affairs/evacuation affairs, personally ordered, or watched, or supervised the extermination of Jews in Germany and the nations under its occupying forces. These years are shown in the first part of the film; the second half deals with Eichmann's escape from an American POW camp, his four years under cover in Germany, aided by an association of Nazi SS members (ODESSA), his escape in 1950 to Argentina through Italy, and his capture on May 11, 1960. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Werner Klemperer, Ruta Lee, (more)
- 1961
As the Civil War limps to a close, Confederate widow Lavinia Godwin (Joanne Linville) sits grimly on the porch of her ruined mansion, watching a seemingly endless parade of wounded soldiers drag themselves down the road in front of her property. One of the soldiers, a Southern sergeant (James Gregory) with a wooden leg, stops to rest, engaging the embittered Lavinia in conversation. As they talk, a sudden horrific realization hits them both -- a realization confirmed by the climactic appearance of "the last casualty of the Civil War." Originally telecast October 6, 1961, "The Passersby" was scripted by Rod Serling. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joanne Linville, James Gregory, (more)
- 1957
Future "Master of Disaster" Irwin Allen produced this curious but inarguably fascinating adaptation of Henrik Willem Van Loon's best- selling historical volume. A Celestial Tribunal has been convened to decide the fate of the Earth after the invention of nuclear weapons, with The Devil (Vincent Price) and The Spirit of Man (Ronald Colman) debating if humankind should be allowed to continue or be exterminated once and for all. Both men present examples of human behavior at its best and worst, including Dennis Hopper as Napoleon, Hedy Lamarr as Joan of Arc, Virginia Mayo as Cleopatra, Peter Lorre as Nero, Edward Everett Horton as Sir Walter Raleigh, and Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, and Chico Marx as, respectively, Peter Minuit, Sir Isaac Newton, and a monk (yes, the producers had the daring and vision to cast the Marx Brothers without having them play any scenes together). The Story of Mankind proved to be the last film for both Ronald Colman and Hedy Lamarr; it was also the last time the three Marx Brothers appeared in the same film, though the individual Marxes appeared in a few films following this. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ronald Colman, Hedy Lamarr, (more)
