Judy Morris Movies
Lead actress, onscreen from the early '70s. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1971
This Australian trilogy chronicles the lives of three very different young adults. In the first vignette, "Michael," an impressionable office worker becomes interested in the hippie movement after he sees a film on guerrilla warfare. In "Judy," a young woman desires to leave her dull life in a small town behind and live in the exciting city instead. The third story, "Toula," follows a young Greek girl torn between her parents' traditional ways and those of her contemporary peers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1973
Four Australian directors explore different angles of the title topic in this generally downbeat anthology. In "The Husband" a husband increases his arousal during lovemaking by imagining his wife in different sexual liaisons without realizing that his fantasy may based on fact. The second vignette "The Child" centers on the resentful son of a widow who is having an affair with another. While his mother is off galavanting with her new love, the boy is left in the care of a governess whom he grows to love. The poor boy begins to fear that his new friend will be fired as soon as his mother returns and so goes off on a walk to sort out his feelings. He wanders into a field and it is there he sees his governess making love to his mother's boyfriend. This causes the emotionally fragile lad to shatter and blindly run towards the river where he crazily hops into a boat and begins rowing into the current. The lover, wanting to save the child from harm dives in and tragedy ensues. In "The Priest," a priest wrestles with his love for a nun. Though they want to marry, the nun forces them to leave their orders in the correct way. It is a way filled with red-tape and takes so long that the relationship withers and they remain in their vocations. The final segment "The Family Man" deals with a slob of a husband who decides to celebrate the birth of his third child by having a little fling while his wife recuperates in hospital. He enlists the aid of a buddy and together they get drunk, pick up two floozies and head to his beachhouse. When the gals learn about his wife, they stomp out of the house. Time passes and the husband brings his family to the house for vacation. Much to his horror he finds that the two women have placed a large incriminating sign upon it leaving him to try to explain it all to his wife. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1974
Corin Redgrave plays a highly principled Australian doctor in Between Wars. As indicated by the title, the film concentrates on Redgrave's activities while the world around him is engulfed in combat. Arthur Dignam and Judy Morris are also featured. Between Wars was originally produced for Australian television in 1974. It was given a limited American theatrical and cable release 11 years later. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1975
This comedy, based on Barry Oakley's popular novel Salute to the Great McCarthy chronicles the adventurous and amorous exploits of an Australian country boy. The whole mess begins when the strapping lad is kidnapped and taken to Melbourne to play Australian Rules Football. The perpetrator and owner of the team is Colonel Humphries who also gives the young man a job in his insurance company. There the lad has great fun making love to a series of women--including the colonel's daughter. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Jarratt, Judy Morris, (more)
- 1975
In this detective drama, a private investigator looks into a murder and finds himself involved with blackmail, drugs, and beautiful women. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Thompson, Judy Morris, (more)
- 1976
A love triangle provides the basis of this subtle drama that centers upon a man living with one woman and loving another on the side. The trouble begins when the live-in catches him with the other. Though it hurts her at first, she and the other woman soon become close friends, much closer to each other than to the man who inadvertently introduced them. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Derum, Judy Morris, (more)
- 1977
This easygoing drama offers a look back at the early days of the Australian movie business, and it was based on the real-life adventures of pioneering Aussie exhibitor Lyle Penn. Maurice "Pop" Pym (John Meillon) loves motion pictures, and he wants to open a cinema of his own. But shortly after the turn of the century, financial support for such a venture is hard to come by, so Pop does the next best thing; with his young son and a piano player in tow, Pop carts his collection of silent films and a portable projection system from one small town to another across the continent, showing his pictures wherever and whenever he can. However, Pop quickly learns that he already has a rival; Mr. Palmer (Rod Taylor) has decided to go into the movie business as well, and with deeper pockets, he's able to afford better equipment than Pop's shoestring budget can provide. Ironically, Rod Taylor plays a character who was born in Texas but emigrated to Australia; Taylor was in fact born in Australia and became a film star when he moved to the U.S. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rod Taylor, John Meillon, (more)
- 1978
In this Australian drama, a man serves his six-year prison sentence for participating in a robbery and then tries to return home after his release. His former crime partners are waiting for him and angrily beat him up because he doesn't know where the loot from their last robbery is hidden. The hitchhiking ex-con is picked up by a mentally unstable model driving a 1938 sedan. Once they arrive, he learns that his mother has killed herself and that his girl friend has mysteriously disappeared. After that he and the model set out to find her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chris Hayward
- 1979
The plumber (Ivar Kants) shows up at the door of well-to-do Australian couple Robert Coleby and Judy Cowper. Though the plumber apparently hasn't been summoned, he is given unquestioned free reign in the household. He ends up staying several days, his work and personality growing weirder with each passing day. Housewife Cowper is driven to neurotic distraction by the plumber's presence and by his iconoclastic attitudes towards everything she holds dear. Then, the plumber walks out of the flat, never to return...leaving behind a residue of paranoia and shattered values. Filmed for Australian television, The Plumber may well be the most maddening 76 minutes ever committed to celluloid. Naturally, it only served to further the reputation of its gifted writer/director Peter Weir. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Judy Morris, Robert Coleby, (more)
- 1980
Fran (Judy Morris) is a 29-year-old university researcher whose biological clock begins to tick so loudly that no alarm is needed to wake her up -- if she does not find a suitable romantic partner soon, how in the world can she have any kind of a life at all? So she embarks on a series of false starts, one after the other, that seem to leave her worse for the wear. Her first long affair with a married man -- hardly a reasonable choice given her aspirations -- has been brought to a quick termination by the man's wife. Her next unfortunate liaison is with her boss, who has no intention of making any commitments. Another of her ill-advised suitors tries to rape her. As she goes from bad to worse, she ends up considering a plodding farmer willing to offer both marriage and commitment -- just what she wants, but not with him. The story only confirms the adage that after the age of 30 or so, all good men are always somewhere else. Fran is left to consider her options -- reset the clock or unplug it. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Judy Morris, Bill Hunter, (more)
- 1983
Phar Lap, the legendary New Zealand-bred racing horse, is as well-known today for his mysterious death as for his fabulous accomplishments in life. Beginning at the end, the film flashes back to the day that Phar Lap, despite his lack of pedigree, is purchased on impulse by trainer Harry Telford (Martin Vaughan). Phar Lap loses his first races, but Telford's faith in the animal is unshakable. Suddenly the horse becomes a winner, thanks to the love and diligence of stableboy Tommy Woodcock (Tom Burlinson). American-promoter Dave Davis (Ron Leibman) arranges for Phar Lap to be entered in several top races, where his "long shot" status results in heavy losses for the professional gamblers. Just after winning an important race in Mexico, Phar Lap collapse and dies; though the film never comes out and says as much, it is assumed that the horse was "murdered" by the gambling interests. The film is based on a book by Michael Wilkinson. The real-life Tommy Woodcock appears in the film as an elderly trainer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Burlinson, Martin Vaughan, (more)
- 1983
In this human drama, five passengers are held in isolation on a remote island in New Zealand to find out if any are carrying the cholera bacteria. They rebel and escape, unintentionally heading into the mountains. Among them are Eric (Tom Brennan) an American businessman, Keith (Roy Billing) a New Zealander, and Thomas (Ctibor Turba) a man from central Europe. After several days, the group is rescued by the somewhat introverted Victor (Nigel Davenport) a geologist studying volcanoes, a photographer, and a woman writer who is doing a book on Victor. The drama heads into a series of potential eruptions once it is revealed that Eric is in the weapons business, and Turba is a hired assassin with Eric as his target. Turba's animosity grows as he is cheated out of his intended victim and he is goaded beyond endurance by another member of the group. The various actors in this drama manage to evoke a range of depth in their characters that indicate there are several kinds of "strata" involved in this story. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nigel Davenport, John Banas, (more)
- 1984
Before he directed the cult classic Highlander (1986), music video creator Russell Mulcahy adapted this stylish, tongue-in-cheek horror film from the novel by Peter Brennan. Gregory Harrison stars as Carl Winters, a grief-stricken American husband who has come to a remote corner of Australia to seek answers in the death of his wife, a TV journalist who was investigating a story on kangaroo poaching. Carl meets Jake Cullen (Bill Kerr), a man obsessed with hunting down what he says is an enormous razorback boar that consumed his grandson. Although he was acquitted, most of the locals believe that Jake murdered the boy himself and invented the crazy story about a giant pig. Jake tells Carl that he believes the razorback is also responsible for his wife's death. At first skeptical, Carl becomes a believer when he encounters the beast. He and Jake track it to a dog food processing plant, where the owners are illegally butchering kangaroos for industrial use. The factory operators are also feeding the dog food to the gigantic razorback, increasing its size and carnivorous appetite. Joined by farmer Sarah Cameron (Arkie Whiteley), Carl and Jake set out to kill the powerful mutant. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gregory Harrison, Arkie Whiteley, (more)
- 1985
In a muddled story that seems to have a few missing pieces floating about, Niel (Paul Williams) protests the Vietnam War as a student at the university, as does his girlfriend Patricia (Judy Morris). The war itself separates both of them for an indeterminate period of time -- he inexplicably volunteers to go fight in 'Nam and is wounded, while she volunteers for the Viet Cong and is thrown in jail back home for that activity. Later, both end up married and living a comfortable life in Melbourne. Two of their seriously screwed-up friends have their own traumas to handle or mishandle, and no one seems to get along very well as a consequence. The plot holes in the story are a challenge to try and fill, even with the best imagination.
~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sigrid Thornton, Judy Morris, (more)
- 1986
The frontier of the title is Australia, the locale for this sprawling four-hour TV movie. Linda Evans stars as an American divorcee who marries an Australian cattleman (Tony Bonner). He dies in a plane crash, leaving Evans and her two teenaged stepchildren stranded on a drought- and debt-ridden ranch. She finds herself smack-dab in the middle of a feud between a covetous land baron (Jason Robards) and his idealistic son (Jack Thompson). With problems of her own, Evans refuses to take sides...until she falls in love with the son. The Last Frontier was filmed on location in Australia's Northern Territory and Barossa Valley. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1986
In this Australian entry into the early 1980s sub-genre of films dealing with families rejecting contemporary society for a life of freedom and non-conformity (Mosquito Coast, Lost in America), an Australian family tries to leave the suburbs and start afresh in the country. Connie (Judy Morris) and Lex (Barry Otto) are a happily married couple with a young son. They decide to leave the hustle and bustle of the city and purchase a farm two hours away from the city's noise. The problem is that Connie and Otto are not independently wealthy, and, until their farm becomes self-sufficient, one of them has to keep commuting into town to work. One solution to their dilemma is to hire a live-in baby-sitter. Connie hires Geraldine (Victoria Longley) and then their troubles really begin. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Judy Morris, Barry Otto, (more)
- 1986
Sometimes it just gets to be too much for a man. One day, successful mining engineer Martin Brown packs it in, leaving behind his wife and family and heading for a rural idyll in the hinterlands. Despite his best efforts to escape from the hurly-burly of competitive life, he must fend off the efforts of his greedy former boss to acquire the lush horse-farming estate he has wound up on. Curiously, his abandoned wife doesn't put up much of a fuss over his absence but seems most concerned about his rejection of the prevailing culture's values. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Waters, Judy Morris, (more)
- 1987
Set during the Great Depression, this Australian TV movie concerns the adventures of the Fletcher family. Dennis Miller and Judy Morris portray the Fletcher parents, who with their offspring head to the Outback to prospect for gold. The oldest Fletcher boy (Ken Talbot) is bullied by the son (Travis Latter) of another group of prospectors, but soon the boys become friends. When the boys come upon a nugget of gold in a nearby stream, everyone rushes to stake a claim--except for dad Fletcher, who has been incapacitated by an accident and may lose out on the upcoming bonanza. Colour in the Creek was first presented in the US on PBS' Wonderworks series in May of 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1989
"Luigi" (David Rappaport) is a Cockney immigrant to Australia, whose job as maitre d' in a high-toned Italian restaurant requires that he take on an ethnic monniker and phony accent. Over time, he has become the confidante of a trio of his customer, yuppie women, all of them friends with each other, who have just lost substantial amounts of money during a sudden drop in the stock market in 1987. Each of them is propelled by this into a series of humorous adventures, including a "rebirthing" session, and an attempted murder (using tainted jam), which they recount to Luigi and to each other over the course of the film. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wendy Hughes, Sandy Gore, (more)
- 1992
Adapted from the novel by Noel Barber, the four-part British-Australian miniseries The Other Side of Paradise stars Jason Connery as idealistic 1930s physician Chris Masters. Hoping to find a new purpose in life, Masters heads to the tiny South Pacific island of Koraluna, to set up a modern hospital with crusty Doc Reid (Richard Wilson). The protagonist's dedication to his duties are sorely tested by a deadly polio epidemic, and even more so by the advent of WWII. Along the way, Masters enters into a three-cornered romance with Reid's daughter, Paula (Josephine Byrnes), and with Aleena (Vivien Tan), daughter of the island's native king. The Other Side of Paradise was telecast by Britain's Central Television and by Australia's 10 Network in 1992; the series was subsequently reissued in a two-part version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
