Joyce Taylor Movies

This animated color feature finds a mother and her two young cubs eagerly waiting for Santa Claus to visit them in Yellowstone National Park. A kindly forest ranger who first told them about the jolly old elf is persuaded to impersonate Santa, and the young bears help him save the holiday. The film is aimed at a target audience of wide-eyed pre-schoolers. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This three part horror story is taken from the writings of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Vincent Price stars in all three tales starting with Dr. Heidegger's Experiment". Heidegger (Sebastian Cabot) attempts to restore the youth of four elderly friends. In a ghastly and ghoulish scene, a bride in her wedding gown returns to life after being dead for forty years. Although her spirit is alive, her body is ravaged by forty years of grave rot. "Rappaccini's Daughter" finds Price as a demented, overprotective father inoculating his daughter with poison so she may never leave her garden of poisonous plants. Part three, "The House of the Seven Gables" has Beverly Garland, Richard Denning, and Jacqueline de Wit accompanying Price, who retains his horror hero status that alternates between villain and victim. The characters portrayed by Price are a natural continuation of the Edgar Allen Poe stories produced by Roger Cormam. Sidney Sallow directed this feature in which the cinematic apple falls far from the literary tree. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Once again, the loyalties of the Cartwright clan are divided by the ongoing Civil War. Confederate sympathizer Judge Terry (Harry Townes) hopes to use the Cartwrights' influence to become the governor of Nevada. As a byproduct of this political finagling, Joe Cartwright falls in love with the Judge's daughter Morvath (Joyce Taylor), infuriating-and ultimately alienating-his brother Adam, who remains faithful to the Union Cause. Weaving throughout the proceedings is celebrated British secret agent Bill Stewart (Barry Kelly). The fact-based teleplay for "The War Comes to Washoe" was written by Alvin Sapinsley; the episode originally aired on November 4, 1962. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Featuring footage from two real forest fires seamlessly edited into the story's nail-biting climax, this thrilling crime drama chronicles the redemption of three young punks who are captured by a local sheriff while robbing an Oregon gas station. Unfortunately, during the arrest, the propitious lawman neglects to check the female crook for weapons and she whips out a gun. The three delinquents then take him hostage. They then head for the forest to spend the night. The female tries unsuccessfully to seduce the cop. The next morning one of the guys wants to kill him, but instead dies himself. Meanwhile a search and rescue team looks for the missing sheriff. They crooks are captured and the young boy claims that the cop raped the young girl. A heated argument ensues. The fire begins when the young boy throws a lit cigarette upon the ground. As a result of his thoughtlessness, a town is endangered and must somehow be evacuated before a terrible disaster ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

If Warner Bros.' pageantlike The FBI Story resembles an episode of Jack Webb's Dragnet at times, it's probably because the screenplay was by veteran Dragnet scrivener Richard L. Breen. The film meticulously details the history of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, from its formation in 1924 to the present day (1959, that is). The story is told through the eyes of FBI agent Chip Hardesty (James Stewart), who narrates the film. We see the FBI tackling such villains as the Ku Klux Klan, the mob, the Nazis and the communists. Subplots include the struggle by the federal agents to be given permission to carry firearms, a plight driven home when Hardesty's best friend (Murray Hamilton) is killed by gun-toting Baby Face Nelson (William Phipps). Offsetting moments like these are scenes of Hardesty's home life with his wife Lucy (Vera Miles), who at first opposed her husband's joining the bureau but who later becomesJ. Edgar Hoover's biggest fan. Excessively sentimental at times (it seems that the Hardesty family can never hold a party without receiving a terse telegram announcing yet another personal tragedy) and saddled with a rambling, stop-and-start continuity, the overall success of The FBI Story hinges upon its individual episodes, including a wowser of a pre-credits sequence involving matricidal mad bomber John Graham (Nick Adams). Since the film was made at a time when the FBI was considered to be of spotless reputation, don't expect to see any scenes of the bureau wiretapping civil rights leaders--or, for that matter, J. Edgar Hoover prancing around in drag. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide