Judee Morton Movies

In the first half of a two-part story (originally telecast as a single two-hour episode), the Baldwin sisters are visited by two English youngsters, Tess and Pip Wrayburn (Sally Boyden, Jeff Cotler), who have been evacuated to the States in the wake of the London blitz. While spending Christmas with the Walton family, the Wrayburn kids prove to be standoffish and impossible to get along with, due to the likelihood that both of their parents have been killed in the bombing--a tragedy that has a devastating effect on Olivia (Michael Learned) as well. At the same time, Erin (Mary Elizabeth McDonough) has difficulty adjusting to the death of her friend G.W. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Inspector Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) launches a search for the "inside man" who has masterminded a series of meticulously planned robberies in New York's diamond district. Piecing the clues together, Erskine concludes that at least one of the men who pulled off the most recent heist is a trained athlete--very likely a well-known circus performer. A terrific shootout at an airport baggage terminal caps this exciting episode. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Determined that his grandson Ed (Buck Taylor) will attend school rather than follow family tradition and become a miner, old Tom Rule (John McIntire) decides to sabotage the New Mexico mine where Ed works. What Tom doesn't know is that the mine is located near a huge deposit of tungsten, a mineral vital to the defense of the U.S. Thus, FBI Inspector Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) arrives on the scene when the booby-trapped mine caves in --leaving Tom trapped inside with Erskine's assistant Jim Rhodes (Stephen Brooks). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

TV buffs will undoubtedly relish this episode, in which future M*A*S*H "good guy" Wayne Rogers is cast as a psychotic killer, and future flint-eyed action star Kurt Russell appears as a terrified teenager. When Dan Winslow (Russell), the son of millionaire Marshall Winslow (Lew Ayres), is kidnapped by Logan Dupree (Rogers), the elder Winslow grows impatient with the FBI's handling of the case. Against the specific orders of Inspector Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.), Winslow alerts the media of Dan's plight--and in so doing may dig his son's grave. Featured in the cast is Ed Asner as Dupree's nervous henchman, and William Reynolds, later to join the regular F.B.I. cast as Special Agent Tom Colby, as an FBI field operative. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Ever on the lookout for a quick buck, Uncle Joe (Edgar Buchanan) gets himself a justice-of-the-peace license, the first step in transforming the Shady Rest into a Honeymoon Lodge. Alas, after pronouncing Walter Shepherd (Tommy Ivo) and Elsie Gregg (Judee Morton) man and wife, Joe learns that his license is invalid--and now Kate (Bea Benadaret) and the girls must do some quick maneuvering to get Walter and Elsie legally hitched before...well, just before. (Trivia note: according to TV Guide, the role of Walter was to have been played by Jonathan Beeman) ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Tom Gregory (Robert Hutton), a Los Angeles-based sports reporter, is flying into L.A. and lands his private plane after a rough descent through some kind of opaque midair disturbance, only to find the airport deserted. He meets Professor Galvin (Robert Burton) and his two daughters, Bonnie (Judee Morton) and Lisa (Susan Hart), who tell him that the city has been overrun by huge, hulking slime-covered subterraneans called Slime People, who appeared out of the sewers and other underground water concentrations. Appearing out of a strange thick fog apparently generated by a device of their own, they've killed hundreds, possibly thousands, panicked the population, fought the army to a standstill, and have now cut off the city with a wall of solidified fog. Gregory doesn't believe them completely, despite the presence of slaughtered corpses on the highways and back roads, until he gets to the television station where he works and screens the news footage. The quartet also makes contact with a young marine, Calvin Johnson (William Boyce), who was cut off from his unit and left for dead by the creatures. They manage to elude the Slime People and try to work out a plan for survival, making contact along the way with Norman Talliver (Les Tremayne), an eccentric writer, who is soon dispatched by the creatures. They discover the Slime People are impervious to harm by bullets or other convention weapons, their skin sealing up any wound instantly, but they can be killed by their own hollow-pointed spears, which don't allow wounds to close. That helps in fighting them off one-on-one, and the professor's reasoning that salt would be effective against slug-like creatures gives them a second weapon against the Slime People. But clearing them all out and freeing the city requires an assault against the creatures' own stronghold, which becomes even more essential when Bonnie is taken prisoner. Gregory and Cal manage to keep the Slime People busy long enough for the professor to destroy their fog-generating device. Overwhelmed by fresh air and sunlight, the Slime People start to collapse dead in their tracks, and the army is soon back in charge, doing what amounts to a literal mopping up operation. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

TV actor Tom Poston stars as Prof. Jonathan Jones in this early feature-film appearance, a standard comedy-fantasy oriented to the youngsters. The good professor has come into possession of "zotz," a coin that has three magical properties. It can either cause intense pain if its bearer points an accusing finger at an intended victim or it can make things move in slow-motion, with the right command. If the accusatory finger and the command are used simultaneously, the victim dies. Naturally, just about everyone wants this coin. The hapless professor is soon involved in problems at school, at the Pentagon, and worse yet, with a group of commie agents who have their own designs on the coin. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Bank teller Lee Remick is accosted in her garage one dark night by asthmatic psycho Ross Martin. He forces her to go through with an elaborate robbery scheme, threatening to kill Lee's teen-aged sister Stefanie Powers if the police are summoned. FBI agent Glenn Ford suspects that something is amiss and advises Lee to play along with Martin, hoping in this way to capture this dangerous criminal with a minimum of bloodshed. Unfortunately, Martin is as clever as he is deadly, always managing to stay one step ahead of Ford. The now-famous climax of Experiment in Terror finds the feds closing in on Martin during a crowded night baseball game at San Francisco's Candlestick Park. Experiment in Terror is based on the Gordons' novel Operation Terror. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this socially conscious drama, based on a true-story, a high school teacher gets in trouble for having his students write compositions describing their feelings about sex. He is suspended; his students unite to defend him. A confrontation with the prudish school board ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi