Julie Adams Movies

Philandering husband Courtney Masterson (Joseph Cotten) and his paramour, Peg Valence (Julie Adams), are attacked by a robber named Rudy (Don Gordon). Fortunately, Courtney and Peg manage to overpower their assailant and lock the man in the trunk of Masterson's car. At this point, Courtney should have gone to the police -- except that he doesn't, knowing full well that he'll have to explain to the authorities why he's in the company of Peg and not his wife. So should the couple allow Rudy to go free? Well...he could turn out to be a blackmailer...couldn't he? ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In modern-day Salem, MA, Phyllis and Ben Kendall (Julie Adams, James Franciscus) purchase an old house from local eccentric Amelia Gastell (Charity Grace). The location of the house is perfect in every respect save one -- there are no playmates in the neighborhood for the Kendalls' 9-year-old daughter Kate (Susan Gordon). Soon, however, Kate begins playing with an imaginary friend whom she calls Letty -- the same name of a child who died in Salem way back during the "witch hunt" of 1692. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Originally prepared for European release under the title Catchfire, Backtrack wasn't given a wide distribution until 1991, and then only to capitalize on the Oscar win of Silence of the Lambs star Jodie Foster. In Backtrack, Foster plays a youngish innocent who witnesses a mob hit. Professional assassin Dennis Hopper is contracted to silence Foster for keeps. Instead, he falls in love with her. Directed by star Hopper, Backtrack has some of the feel of his earlier, better Easy Rider: the cast is populated by such old Hopper chums as Dean Stockwell, Charlie Sheen, Joe Pesci, Bob Dylan, Vincent Price and Julie Adams; and, like Easy Rider, it looks as though the story was improvised during filming. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this dreadful low-budget horror film, a small town is up in arms over the arrival of a Satanic heavy-metal band called Black Roses to play at the local high school. The parents are right to be concerned, for the band has made a deal with the Devil and turns the teens into zombies who murder their parents. Reactionary and poorly-made, this comes off as a teen horror movie aimed at old people who think rock music is a menace. Julie Adams and Ken Swofford show up, but the 3-D video box is more interesting than the movie. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

Arthur Kennedy stars as a blinded war veteran struggling to adjust to his affliction in peacetime. He must overcome his pugnacious attitude towards any problem he can't think his way out of--and he must learn to temper his inbred racial prejudices. Peggy Dow plays the woman who loves Kennedy enough to be cruel to him during his bouts of self-pity. Refusing to lapse into sentimentality, Bright Victory, based on the novel by Bayard Kendrick, is one of the best of the "against all odds" films of the 1950s. Arthur Kennedy's performance won him the New York Critics' Circle award, but not the Oscar he so richly deserved. Trivia note: new Universal contractee Rock Hudson receives 18th billing for his bit role as a soldier in this film. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

John Hurt plays the British jockey Bob Champion in this true story of how Champion overcame cancer and the rigors of chemotherapy for an impressive personal and professional comeback. Just as Champion is in the middle of a vacation in Kentucky, he finds out he has cancer, and, like others before him, submits to the full, painful treatments of multiple injections and radiation, suffering as much or more from the cure as from the illness (these treatments are graphic). Gaunt and nauseous, Champion also endures realistic meetings with his doctors that hold forth no guarantee of a cure. His eventual remission leads to yet another grueling physical schedule to get him back into shape for the Grand National Steeplechase -- a 30-fence, well-publicized race that offers difficult hurdles for both the horses and their jockeys. If the 115-minutes running time of this film were cut in places, it would create a better, trim and slim, fast-paced telling of an even more focused tale. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Universal Pictures introduced audiences to yet another classic movie monster with this superbly crafted film, originally presented in 3-D. The story involves the members of a fossil-hunting expedition down a dark tributary of the mist-shrouded Amazon, where they enter the domain of a prehistoric, amphibious "Gill Man" -- possibly the last of a species of fanged, clawed humanoids who may have evolved entirely underwater. Tranquilized, captured, and brought aboard, the creature still manages to revive and escape -- slaughtering several members of the team -- and abducts their sole female member (Julie Adams), spiriting her off to his mist-shrouded lair. This sparks the surviving crewmen to action -- particularly those who fancy carrying the girl off themselves. Director Jack Arnold makes excellent use of the tropical location, employing heavy mists and eerie jungle noises to create an atmosphere of nearly constant menace. The film's most effective element is certainly the monster itself, with his pulsating gills and fearsome webbed talons. The creature was played on land by stuntman Ben Chapman and underwater by champion swimmer Ricou Browning -- who was forced to hold his breath during long takes because the suit did not allow room for scuba gear. The end result was certainly worth the effort, proven in the famous scene where the Gill Man swims effortlessly beneath his female quarry in an eerie ballet -- a scene echoed much later by Steven Spielberg in the opening of Jaws. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi

When the continual bickering of a married couple threatens to tear them apart, an angel is sent to help them get back together and start making babies in this fantasy. The husband is a busy producer for theatrical shows so the angel disguises himself as a wealthy Westerner looking to invest in a show. He meets the couple at a casino where the angel discovers a special gift for gambling. He is so good that the IRS threatens to intervene and he must be rescued by another angel. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Francis Joins the WACS was the fifth in Universal's comedy series about a talking Army mule and his hapless human companion. Thanks to a bureaucratic snafu, ex-GI Peter Sterling (Donald O'Connor) is called into acitive duty and assigned to a WAC unit, headed by Major Simpson (Lynn Bari). It is Sterling's task to train the women to be camouflage experts, but the ladies resent his presence, assuming that Peter has been sent to discredit their unit. But with the help of Francis, the WACs manage to win the annual War Games, and to flummox misogynistic General Kaye (Chill Wills, who also provides Francis' voice). Julie Adams, then billed as Julia, provides the love interest. ZaSu Pitts also appears in Francois Joins the WACs, recreating the role she'd played in the first Francis installment back in 1949, while other uniformed females include Mamie Van Doren and Allison (Attack of the 50-Foot Woman) Hayes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Goodbye Franklin High is one of the most elusive of baseball pictures, even harder to locate than Ty Cobb's Somewhere in Georgia. The film stars Lane Caudell as a high school athlete who must choose between the certainty of college or the possibility of a baseball career. Everyone associated with the boy has a different opinion, making the final decision all the more dramatic. Julie Adams and William Windom play Caudell's parents, Ann Dusenberry is his girl friend, and Darby Hinton (formerly a child actor on the TV series Daniel Boone) is his good buddy. Produced by the here-and-gone Cal Am Artists Company, Goodbye Franklin High was lauded by film critics upon its initial release, but prints no longer appear to be generally available, either on TV or in video stores. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Economically utilizing the Universal Studio itself as a "set," Hollywood Story is a murder mystery centered in the film capital. The story concerns a long-unsolved homicide case involving several silent-film stars (an echo of the William Desmond Taylor scandal of 1922). Producer Richard Conte decides to make a movie based on the case, and to this end rounds up its surviving participants, including a once-great star/director (Henry Hull) reduced to bit parts. The denouement holds no surprises for mystery fans, but is effectively staged by director William Castle. Hollywood Story is given the aura of verisimilitude by the presence of several silent-movie celebrities (including William Farnum and Francis X. Bushman) as "themselves." Also appearing in an unheralded bit part is Elmo Lincoln, moviedom's first "Tarzan." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Milton Berle is both guest star and cowriter of this episode, which was clearly inspired by the rantings of provocative TV talkshow host Joe Pyne. Playing completely straight, Berle is cast as vituperative TV personality Ross Howard, who hopes to parlay both his war record and his media notoreity into a political career. Not surprisingly, Howard has made dozens of enemies throughout his career, one of whom begins sending him death threats. Despite his distate for Howard's tactics, Ironside (Raymond Burr) agrees to protect the man from his unknown would-be murderer--a difficult assignment that becomes even more so when Howard's alcoholic wife is killed by a car bomb. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Peter Fonda stars as a diamond mine security officer who fakes a robbery in order to gain the respect of the group of mercenaries he needs to help him pull off the biggest heist in history. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi