Mort Mills Movies

In a reversal of the situation in the sixth-season episode "Encore," in which a gangster was persuaded that he had gone back in time from 1971 to 1937, the IMF must jump forward some 27 years in the seventh-season Mission:Impossible entry "Two Thousand." Vic Morrow guest-stars as master thief Joseph Collins, who has stolen 50 kg of plutonium. To find out where Collins has stashed the deadly material, the IMF contrives to convince Collins that he has been in hibernation until the year 2000 --- and that a nuclear holocaust has tranformed the US into a police state. Most of this episode was filmed on location in the ruins of a hospital leveled by the California earthquake of February 1971. Written by Harold Livingston, "Two Thousand" first aired on September 23, 1972. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A cavalry unit in Colorado is conducting two important cargoes to Fort Reunion, home of the 11th Colorado Volunteers: Cresta Marybelle Lee (Candice Bergen), the fiancée of an officer in the unit until two years ago, when she was taken by the Cheyenne, and who just escaped; and Captain Battles (Dana Elcar), the paymaster, with a strongbox containing gold. The men are tired -- almost asleep in their saddles -- and frustrated, and doubly so by the presence of Cresta, whose beauty and reputation (by virtue of living two years with "savages") is driving them to distraction; all except for Honus Gant (Peter Strauss), a neophyte trooper and wide-eyed innocent. The detachment is ambushed by a Cheyenne war party and the only survivors are Cresta and Honus, who learn to tolerate each other as they struggle across the wilderness and the desert in search of help. An encounter with white trader Isaac Q. Cumber (Donald Pleasence), a profiteer who is running guns to the Indians, nearly results in their deaths, and Honus is seriously wounded.

Cresta goes off in search of help and is picked up by a cavalry scout and brought to the 11th Colorado, whose commanding officer, Col. Iverson (John Anderson), is planning a punitive strike against a peaceful Cheyenne encampment over the massacre of the paymaster's party. Cresta tries to secure help for Honus but Iverson is too busy planning bloodshed, and her fiancé, Lt. McNair (Bob Carraway), is just too eager to pick up where he left off with her to listen to her warnings. She rides out on her own and returns to the village where she'd spent the previous two years, while Honus manages to survive to reach Iverson. He ends up along for the assault on the village, which takes place despite the chieftain Spotted Wolf (Jorge Rivera) flying a flag of truce and an American flag given him at a previous negotiation with the whites. The Native Americans defend themselves when fired upon with artillery and rifles, and all hell breaks lose -- virtually all of the men in the village are killed in the first assault, and then the soldiers spot the women, children, and old men, and there begins an orgy of rape, mutilation, beheadings, dismemberment, and torture before Honus' horrified eyes by joyously shrieking soldiers. Cresta kills a soldier who tries to rape her and intends to die with her Native American family but is pulled out, only to watch the slaughter continue. In the end, Honus is left to be marched back to Fort Reunion as a prisoner for trying to stop the killing, and Iverson expresses pride and satisfaction at what he's done, while Cresta and a tiny handful of survivors -- almost all old men and women -- watch in mute horror and anger. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

Mark (Don Mitchell) comes face to face with the Blue Berets, a group of Chicano dropouts turned freedom fighters. The leader of the group is Manolo Rodriguez (played by former UCLA drama student A Martinez in his first important TV role), who is determined to fight for the rights of his people--even if it means using a cache of stolen weapons to back up his rhetoric. Should Ironside (Raymond Burr) arrest the Blue Berets on a charge of conspiracy to commit treason, or should he wait the group out until wiser heads prevail? (Intriguingly, the word "machismo" was so little known in 1969 that the original TV Guide synopsis for this episode had to provide a definition!) ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Hawaii Five-O's Jack Lord stars in this odd little thriller directed by Gunnar Hellstrom. Lord plays a Hungarian man named Lipa who meets the beautiful Mickey (Susan Strasberg) while wandering the highways of Arizona. Mickey runs a gas station in the desert with her mother (T.C. Jones) and two sisters and invites Lipa to stay with them. He does, not knowing that the entire family is stark-raving mad. The usual psychological games ensue, with Lipa being attacked by a rattlesnake, seduced by the psychotic sisters, and run over with a car before figuring out the predictable truth -- that "Mom" is really a man. Gorgeous photography by Vilmos Zsigmond and some amusingly sadistic set-pieces accent this enjoyably trashy thriller. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

The sacred gold seal of the Far Eastern nation of Kuala Rokat has been stolen. Masterminding the heist is American industrialist Taggart (Darren McGavin), who intends to hold on to the seal despite the danger of a major diplomatic breakdown. The IMF is assigned to recover the seal, a job that requires a trained cat named Rusty and a healthy dose of the occult. Written by William Read Woodfield and Allan Balter, "The Seal" made its first network TV appearance on November 5 1967. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Thoroughly immersed in the mystery novel Inspector Foot of Scotland Yard, Joe Cartwright begins to fancy himself an ace detective. Attempting to apply the latest Scotlard Yard techniques to prevent a bank robbery, Joe causes more trouble than he's worth-while his dad Ben and Sheriff Coffee end up in jail! The episode's key fight scene is a deliberately spoof of the then-popular Batman TV series. Cowritten by Bonanza star Michael Landon and Oliver Crawford, "Joe Cartwright, Detective" was first shown on March 5, 1967. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A double agent has to contend with enemies on both sides of the political fence as well as the woman he loves in this thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Prof. Michael Armstrong (Paul Newman) is an gifted American physicist who, at the height of the Cold War, decides to defect to East Germany. To his surprise, his fiancée, fellow scientist Sarah Sherman (Julie Andrews) follows him, and she soon discovers Armstrong is no traitor, but acting as a secret undercover agent. As Armstrong attempts to ingratiate himself with political and scientific factions in East Germany, Gromek (Wolfgang Kieling) becomes his guide, though Armstrong is aware he's a government agent assigned to trail him, and as he tries to shake Gromek, Armstrong realizes his new "friend" knows what his real agenda happens to be. Torn Curtain was one of the rare Hitchcock films from his "classic" era which did not feature a score by Bernard Herrman; due to objections from his studio, Hitchcock removed Herrman from the project, though excerpts from the score he had begun were included as a bonus on the film's DVD release in 2002. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Curly Joe De Rita) leave Boston for the Wild West when they are fired from the Society for the Preservation of Wildlife. With Eastern editor Kenneth Cabot (Adam West), the boys find themselves in lawless Wyoming and the target of every infamous gunslinger of the era. With help from Annie Oakley (Nancy Kovak), the Stooges and Cabot fight the likes of Billy the Kid, Johnny Ringo, Jesse James, Cole Younger, and the Dalton Gang, and soon Wild Bill Hickok and Bat Masters arrive in a blaze of bullets. Watch for longtime Stooges foil Emily Sitar in a triple role as Aberrant, a U.S. cavalry Colonel, and the Witch Doctor, with Henry Gibson as Charlie Horse, and Murray Alper as Chief Crazy Horse. Ellwood Ullman provides the screenplay from the story by director Norman Maurer, Moe's son-in-law. With character names like the Sunstroke Kid and Trigger Mortis, this last of the Stooges feature films ranks among the best. Annie has a fight in the middle of town with Belle Starr (Sally Starr), and the cowardly editor Cabot proves his bravery and falls for his heroine Annie. Years later in a tribute to history's longest running comedy trio, Adam West fondly remembered his experience in making The Outlaws Is Coming with the Stooges. West would score his biggest career plume with the television series Batman, but he was obviously in awe of working with Larry, Moe, and Curly Joe. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Thanks to Martin's malfunctioning CCTBS time machine, Tim (Bill Bixby) is stuck in the Kansas of 1870. In his efforts to repair the machine, Tim zaps outlaws Jesse and Frank James (Mort Mills, L.Q. Jones) forward to 1965--where they materialize in Tim's kitchen and promptly take Martin (Ray Walston) and Mrs. Brown (Pamela Britton) hostage. Revelling in the situation, the James boys draw up plans to rob and plunder throughout history, forcing Martin to come up with some creative chicanery to scare the brothers back to their own time! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Working as a bellboy at a desert resort hotel, Kimble (David Janssen)--or as he is now calling himself, "Fred Tate"--cannot help but notice that the manager is cancelling reservations and asking the other employees to leave. The mystery is resolved when several military officers show up at the hotel to brainstorm a secret Army project. Unfortunately, the officers suspect that Kimble is an enemy spy and place him in custody. Ultimately, the nervous fugitive is forced to demonstrate his medical skills without arousing further suspicion as to his true identity--and at the same time expose the real spy. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Now calling himself "Bill Martin", Kimble (David Janssen) arrives in a town where several women have fallen victim to a serial killer. A local vigilante committee, by nature suspicious of all outsiders, immediately assumes that Kimble is responsible for the killing spree. Joanne Mercer (June Harding), a mentally challenged girl shunned by the community, takes pity and Kimble and allows him to hide in her cellar--little imagining that the real murderer is likewise hiding only a few feet away. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Using the alias "Joseph Walker", fugitive Richard Kimble (David Janssen) hires on as a fruitpicker in a farming community. His coworkers, many of whom are illegal immigrants, are highly suspicious of "Walker", ironically believing that he is a police officer. Ultimately, Kimble wins the other workers' trust by saving the lives of a pregnant woman and her unborn child, and helping to fight a forest fire--an act of selfless bravery which unfortunately may result in the fugitive's capture, thanks to roving reporter Johnny Peters (Peter Helm). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi