Juliet Mills Movies

Twenty-two year old Carla Tate (Juliette Lewis) is a slightly mentally challenged young woman who has spent several years at a sheltered private boarding school. Now she's coming home to her wealthy parents in northern California who are emotionally ill-equipped to deal with her and are guilt ridden over sending her away in the first place. The biggest limitation Carla must now overcome is her overprotective mother Elizabeth (Diane Keaton). When she takes a class at a trade school, Carla soon meets the equally challenged Daniel (Giovanni Ribisi). Despite his limitations, he maintains a job in a bakery and lives alone. Carla dares to dream of independence and love despite her mother who refuses to view her as an adult. When Daniel fails his class, his father cuts off his funds. Facing a move to Florida to live with his mother, the two turn to each other and find a way to stay together to face a world of adult opportunities and responsibilities. ~ Ron Wells, Rovi

In the sequel to Waxwork, young Mark Loftmore (Zach Galligan) and his girlfriend Sarah (Monika Schnarre) manage to escape the deadly wax museum before it is destroyed. However, one deadly wax hand escapes destruction and follows Sarah home, murdering her stepfather before she manages to destroy it. When Sarah is accused of the murder, she and Mark must travel back in time to stop the still-present evil. ~ Iotis Erlewine, Rovi

Originally titled Judith Krantz' Till We Meet Again, this two-part soaper covers forty-three years in the lives of three women. In 1913, French chanteuse Lucy Gutteridge embarks upon a successful showbiz career. She marries a champaigne heir and bears two daughters, played by Courtney Cox and Mia Sara. The story follows the trials and tribulations of mother and daughters through three wars and an infinite number of romances. A dash of adventure is provided by Courtney's activities as a stunt pilot, while there's glamour aplenty as Mia becomes a world-renowned movie star. The best scenes take place during World War 2, with the horrors of the battlefield running second place to the ladies' boudoir escapades. Barry Bostwick, who seems to have been in every Judith Krantz movie ever made (at least, that's what TV Guide told us back in 1989), costars as Courtney's erstwhile lover. Partly filmed in England, Till We Meet Again was first telecast November 19 and 21, 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Bruce Beresford directed this adaptation of David Williamson's play (Williamson also scripted) about the ever-widening gap between professional sport and its boardroom intrigues. Jack Thompson is Laurie, a once popular ball player on the Australian Rules football circuit, but now an ineffective coach who tries to spark a mediocre football team into winning the league championship. But as he struggles to motivate his players, he becomes increasingly disenchanted with the sport as he witnesses how big business interests have become the main motivation of the game that has turned the game that he has devoted his life to into a heartless and insensitive sports franchise. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Norman Panama's penultimate directorial effort, Barnaby and Me was originally filmed for Australian television. The title character is a talented Koala Bear, who is to Australian fans what Benji is to Americans. Pausing in his escape from a vengeful mobster, American con artist Caesar falls in love with Juliet Mills, whose daughter Sally Boyden keeps Barnaby as her pet. The kooky koala teans up with Caesar for a series of picaresque adventures. It's hardly The Sting, but it's easy to take. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Bradford Dillman and Juliet Mills stars in the British TV movie Demon, Demon. Dillman plays an archeology professor who wants to divorce his wife Mills. The grounds include incompatability-as well they should since Juliet sometimes behaves (literally) like a woman possessed. It transpires that she is in fact under the influence of a centuries-old demon, who has an aversion to be denied anything. Lensed on videotape, Demon Demon made its American debut November 4, 1975, as part of the late-night ABC Wide World Mystery anthology. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This hysterical horror film was the most successful of numerous Italian possession films produced in the wake of The Exorcist. Lead Juliet Mills (Nanny and the Professor) was married to co-screenwriter Roberto d'Ettore Piazzoli at the time, which might explain her willingness to curse in a guttural voice, spin her head, and throw up in this crude and sexist film. Mills plays the cheating wife of San Francisco record producer Gabriele Lavia (Profondo Rosso) and gets pregnant after a fling with Richard Johnson. What Mills doesn't know is that Johnson is a Satanist, and she is bearing the Antichrist. Child star David Colin, Jr. returned in the otherwise unrelated Beyond the Door II, while director Ovidio Assonitis went on to rip off Jaws with the giant octopus-epic Tentacoli. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

Hal Bartlett co-wrote and directed this film curiosity, based on Richard Bach's best-selling fable, featuring an overbearing music score by Neil Diamond. The story begins as a flock of seagulls are pecking at the garbage left by a boat that has dumped a bunch of fish heads in the surf. One of the seagulls, Jonathan (voice of James Franciscus), would rather leave his life of garbage-picking and fly high in the sky to see other parts of the earth. Jonathan leaves the flock and flies around the world. He travels so far that he reaches an aviary heaven, where he meets Maureen Seagull (voice of Juliet Mills). Maureen introduces Jonathan to new experiences, and Jonathan returns to the flock to tell them the news. The other seagulls scorn him, but then they take notice when he heals a seagull that has died. Then the entire flock greets him as "the Son of the Great Gull." ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

A sequel to the 1973 TV movie The Letters, this film is also based on the premise of a bundle of letters, presumed lost in a plane crash, being delivered one year late, resulting in profound changes (happy, sad etc.) in the lives of the recipients. This time around, the three delayed letters were all written by the sweethearts of the deliver-ees. Among those affected by the missives are a young couple cruelly separated by the wheels of justice, a housewife involved in a extramarital relationship, and a pair of "wealthy" jetsetters who aren't all that they seem to be. As before, Henry Jones ties the three stories together as the avuncular postman. Originally telecast October 3, 1973 on ABC, Letters From Three Lovers was like its predecessor a pilot film for an unsold TV series. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Oh! What a Lovely War is an every-man-for-himself adaptation of Charles Chilton's 1963 play, as staged in London by Joan Littlewood. The tragedy of World War I is redefined in bawdy music-hall terms, beginning with a verbal free-for-all involving the Crowned Heads of Europe. The war is presented as the "new attraction" at the Brighton Amusement Pier, complete with syrupy cheer-up songs, shooting galleries, free prizes and a scoreboard toting up the dead. Throughout the proceedings, the camera concentrates on a middle-class family, whose five sons end up as cannon fodder. The final image is a veddy proper British picnic on a graveyard. Of the many fleeting satiric images parading past the camera, one of the most indelible is the sight of several generals playing leapfrog as the world all around them goes to hell in a handbasket. The awesome all-star cast includes Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, Maggie Smith, John Gielgud, Michael Redgrave, Jack Hawkins, John Mills, Susannah York, Dirk Bogarde and Phyllis Calvert. We haven't seen this many Englishmen in one place since the last Wimbledon match. The whole affair was supervised by Richard Attenborough, making his directorial debut (a question: why was he up to the challenge of this musical extravaganza, yet seemed helpless in the face of 1985's A Chorus Line?). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

One of the earliest made-for-TV movies in NBC's "World Premiere" manifest, Wings of Fire stars Suzanne Pleshette as fearless aviatrix Kitty Sanborn. Hoping to save her father's flagging business, Kitty enters an international air race. Back on land, she tries to cope with the fact that her former sweetheart Taff Maloy (James Farentino) has married someone else. Old pros Ralph Bellamy and Lloyd Nolan lend credibility to the timeworn storyline, which might have had more bite if NBC hadn't made silly editorial changes to Stirling Silliphant's teleplay (according to the writer, the network refused to okay a love scene on a Carribean beach unless he wrote a bear into the proceedings!) Originally titled Cloudbuster, Wings of Fire first aired on February 14, 1967. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this British comedy, a new nurse comes to replace her predecessor, the town pump, in an English country town. Soon, she herself becomes grist for the nasty town rumor mill. Fortunately, she becomes friends with the town doctor, his son, and shop owner. As the nurse is a dreadful driver, she gets into an accident with a wealthy farmer who falls in love with her. Later he attempts to evict a young couple staying on his property, but the nurse argues for the woman who is almost ready to have a baby. It is she that delivers the babe in a field thereby winning her the affection and respect of the villagers and the wealthy farmer. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi