Marta Kristen Movies

This $90 million science fiction adventure is adapted from the television series, created by Irwin Allen, which originally ran on CBS from 1965 to 1968. The original series employed a Swiss Family Robinson in outer space premise; sent to colonize a planet in the Alpha Centauri system, the Robinson family was thrown off course by a stowaway and was left wandering from planet to planet (and changing along the way from a black-and-white series to a color series). The 1998 remake is set in the year 2058, when the United Global Space Force sends Professor John Robinson (William Hurt) and family -- wife Maureen (Mimi Rogers), daughter Judy (Heather Graham), teen Penny (Lacey Chabert), and 10-year-old Will (Jack Johnson) -- on a promotional space jaunt to herald the "offshore" future for the human race (now saddled with eco problems on Earth). Major Don West (Matt LeBlanc), more accustomed to fighting menacing Global Sedition forces, is reluctant to sign on as the Jupiter II pilot but quickly changes his mind after he gets a good look at Judy in her fetish-fashioned space togs. Space spy Dr. Smith (Gary Oldman), hired to sabotage the mission, programs in problems but winds up aboard the craft unconscious. Once awake, he summons the Robinsons from suspended animation, and they save the ship just in time, passing through hyperspace to arrive near an Earth ship where they encounter space-pet Blawp and hordes of teethy spiders. A spider bite makes the villainous Smith mutate, one of some 750 special effects, from animatronics (Jim Henson Creature Shop) to CGI, and other adventures await throughout the galaxy. Cameos include actors from the original series, including June Lockhart and Robot Voice Dick Tufeld. In a curious coincidence, the TV series took place in the future of 1997, the year this movie was produced. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

The "FYI"-ers fly off to Lillehammer, Norway, there to cover the 1994 Winter Olympics. Normally, such an assignment would not prove troublesome. This time, however, Murphy Brown (Candice Bergen) is on hand, and before long she has virtually toppled the Norwegian government with her "compassionate" interview of young champion skater Inge Sorenson (Kathleen McClellan). And yes, that's Marta Kristen, onetime "Judy Robinson" of Lost in Space fame, as Inge's mother. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

When a group of honest farmers are in danger of losing their land, it is up to the Wildside Chamber of Commerce to come to their aid. ~ Iotis Erlewine, Rovi

Marta Kristen, who once upon a time played Judy Robinson on TV's Lost in Space, joins former Dr. Kildare regular Kathy Kersh in The Gemini Affair. Though both look rather long in tooth, the ladies play a couple of young, star-struck lasses who yearn for fame and fortune. They decide that the shortest distance to their dreams is a straight line to Hollywood. You're way ahead of us: Marta and Kathy are in for several disillusionments and disappointments, mostly sexual in nature. Like the two stars, film veteran Anne Seymour seems to be slumming as she goes through the weary motions of The Gemini Affair. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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, Rovi

Switching from black-and-white to color for its second season, Lost in Space also abandons all pretense of being a serious space opera, opting instead for the "camp" approach popularized by the previous season's big TV hit Batman. As a result, the Space Family Robinson (Guy Williams, June Lockhart, Marta Kristen, Bill Mumy, and Angela Cartwright), their pilot Don West (Mark Goddard), duplicitous and cowardly stowaway Dr. Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris), and the steadfast Robot are visited by a cornucopia of outrageous characters ranging from a clumsy magician (played by "Grandpa Munster" himself, Al Lewis) to a misplaced Don Quixote type (Hans Conried) to a scurvy space pirate (Albert Salmi) -- complete with a robot parrot on his shoulder! In keeping with the general frivolity, Dr. Smith has become a much broader and more clownish figure, utterly divesting himself of the cold-blooded villainy he briefly displayed at the beginning of season one. Having spent all of the past season on a single planet, the travelers manage to get the Jupiter II in working order, blasting off into the void again -- only to be marooned on still another uncharted world! Of the 30 episodes telecast during season two, several stand out, among them "The Golden Man," a well-intentioned if a bit heavy-handed lesson in tolerance and "appearances are deceiving"; and "A Trip Through the Robot," wherein a miniaturized Will Robinson (Bill Mumy) and Dr. Smith embark upon a "fantastic voyage" to repair the robot's damaged innards. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

As originally conceived by executive producer Irwin Allen, the weekly, 60-minute Lost in Space was to have been a relatively serious sci-fi opus called The Space Family Robinson. Set in 1997, the series focused on astrophysicist Dr. John Robinson (Guy Williams), his wife, Maureen (June Lockhart); and their children, Judy (Marta Kristen), Will (Bill Mumy), and Penny (Angela Cartwright), all of whom were blasted into space on the "Jupiter II." Placed in suspended animation, the family was on a mission to colonize a planet in the Alpha Centauri star system four light years from Earth. But the Jupiter II's computer malfunctioned, the ship was thrown way off course, and the family woke up several years ahead of schedule to find themselves lost in space. In the series pilot, the main characters were joined by Jupiter II's pilot, Don West (Mark Goddard) -- and no one else. CBS was impressed by Space Family Robinson, but the network insisted upon a title change and also demanded that a villain be added to the proceedings. Thus the project was re-christened Lost in Space, and the pilot episode was reshot so the Jupiter II's malfunction was due to the treachery of an enemy spy named Dr. Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris), who had sabotaged a robot aboard the ship and programmed it to kill the Robinsons and abort the mission. Unfortunately for Dr. Smith, he was accidentally trapped in the Jupiter II and hurtled into space along with the Robinsons, hence the new title of the pilot show, "The Reluctant Stowaway" (portions of the original pilot, which was top-heavy with expensive special effects, were edited into the series' first five episodes). It had been planned that both Dr. Smith and the killer robot would be eliminated from the series after its inaugural five-episode story arc, but CBS saw potential in both characters and insisted that they be retained.

The network's decision proved to be a brilliant one in terms of the series' ratings: gradually morphing from a cold-hearted assassin to a supercilious, cowardly buffoon, Dr. Smith was easily the show's most popular character -- next to the now-benign robot, who turned out to be a veritable cornucopia of useful technical information and also came in handy when warning the Robinson family of impending danger. Between the Lost in Space pilot and the series proper, it had also been decided to drop the original intention of serializing the episodes, though each installment ended with a coming-attractions "cliffhanger." Finally, what started out as a straightforward, straight-faced endeavor gradually evolved (or, in the minds of less enchanted viewers, devolved) into a semi-humorous exercise in Batman-style camp, replete with such colorful guest villains as a scurvy space pirate (with a robotic parrot), a Brandoesque space-cruising cycle bum, and even a huge talking carrot! The first season, filmed in black-and-white, found the Robinsons stranded on an uncharted planet. The series switched to color for the second season, in which the "Jupiter II" was repaired and the space travelers blasted off -- only to be marooned on another mysterious planet. Season three did a more efficient job of living up to the series' title, as the Jupiter II hopped from planet to planet, galaxy to galaxy, though no closer to "home" than before. The 83 episodes of Lost in Space have flourished in syndication and on such cable-TV services as The Sci-Fi Channel ever since the series' initial CBS run, which lasted from 1965 to 1968. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Savage Sam is the sequel to the successful Disney film Old Yeller. This time, the boys take off after a band of Apache kidnappers who have snatched the children of lazy neighbor Bud Searcy (Jeff York). With their true-blue bloodhound Sam, the kids take off with Brian Keith to take back the missing children. The viewer may be confused with the lightheartedness that accompanies the gravity of such an abduction and then is abandoned in favor of a more serious flavor later in the film. Norman Tokar directed this uneven feature that fared far less better at the box office than is predecessor. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Alfred Hitchcock himself directed this nailbiter, featuring prolific child actor Billy Mumy. When his uncle Rich (Steve Dunne) returns from Africa, little Jackie Chester (Mumy) is delighted, knowing that Rich has brought him a surprise. Secretly rummaging through his uncle's luggage, Jackie finds what he thinks is a toy gun. Only it isn't a toy, but the real article -- fully loaded. For the rest of the day, Jackie goes all over town, aiming (but not firing) the gun at various human targets...while his frantic parents conduct a desperate search for the boy, hoping to catch up with him before a tragedy can occur. The most memorable (and frightening) sequence in this episode is shot from Jackie's point-of-view as he looks down the barrel of the gun -- a camera angle reminiscent of one Hitchcock had previously deployed in his 1945 theatrical feature Spellbound. As a bonus, Hitch foregoes his usual comic epilogue to deliver a stern warning about inappropriate use of firearms. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi