Don Murray Movies

In this musical comedy, a gang of con artists swindle a group of naive, starstruck investors into backing a dreadful musical that has no hope of succeeding. This garners the crooks a nice chunk of change until one of the investors dies and his lovely, canny executor insures that the show will become a smash. Songs include: "That's My Girl," "The Music in My Heart Is You," "Take It Away" (Jack Elliott), "For You and Me," "Sentimental," "Hitchhike to Happiness" (Kim Gannon, Walter Kent), and "720 in the Books" (Jan Savitt). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this cinemadaptation of William Inge's Broadway comedy Bus Stop, Marilyn Monroe is cast as Cherie, a fifth-rate nightclub chanteuse who captures the heart of Montana rodeo champ Bo (Don Murray). He, in turn, kidnaps Cherie and bundles her off to the roadside bus stop of the title. Gradually, the headstrong Bo learns that you can't rope a gal the same way you lasso a steer, but before this happens his face is rearranged by gallant bus driver Carl (Robert Bray). By this time, however, Cherie has fallen in love with her impulsive but basically good-hearted abductor. Others in the cast include Arthur O'Connell as Bo's level-headed travelling companion and "protector" Virgil, Betty Field as down-to-earth bus stop proprietress Grace, and Eileen Heckart as Cherie's confidante Vera. The film later inspired a 1961 TV series. A few TV prints of Bus Stop still exist bearing the alternate title Wrong Kind of Girl. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A Hatful of Rain, based on the stage play by Michael V. Gazzo, is the story of a drug addict's debilitating effect on his family. Don Murray has managed to keep his addiction secret from his pregnant wife Eva Marie Saint and his boorish father Lloyd Nolan, but Murray's brother Anthony Franciosa knows the truth. Murray hits up Franciosa for money to support his habit, but even this is not enough as the addiction deepens and Murray finds himself beholden to a vicious pusher (Henry Silva). Murray is unable to cope with his private hell until he confesses to his wife and father that he's a junkie and needs help. Considered the last word in realism in 1957, A Hatful of Rain seems slightly antiquated in the light of the drug-abuse excesses of the 1990s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Don Murray stars as a humble cowboy with aspirations for bigger things. He borrows money from his dance-hall girlfriend Lee Remick to buy a ranch, then dumps Remick in favor of banker's daughter Patricia Owens. Murray runs for political office, and in so doing is compelled to join a posse in search of his best friend Stuart Whitman, who has turned rustler. Anxious not to compromise his climb to the top, Murray stands by in silence as Whitman is lynched. In the end, however, Murray regains his essential decency when he is shot while trying to protect his ex-girlfriend Remick from bullying land baron Richard Egan. Based on a novel by A. B. Guthrie Jr., These Thousand Hills may look and sound like a western, but it has "film noir" written all over it. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

TV producer Aaron Spelling first came up with the story for this standard western set in a small town just after the American Civil War. Mitch (Alan Ladd) has tragically lost his wife during a problem in her pregnancy because he could not come up with $1.87 for the medicine she needed. A little twisted right from the beginning, he vows revenge. In the first step toward his goal, he gets the post of deputy sheriff from the repentant townspeople. In the second step, he murders the sheriff and then recruits a gang of disreputable toughs to steal $100,000 and bankrupt the town. In the last and fatal part of his plan for vengeance, he turns on his own gang of thieves. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The first of Allen Drury "all names changed to protect the guilty" political novels, Advise and Consent was brought to the screen by producer/director Otto Preminger. The film hinges upon the appointment of Robert Leffingwell (Henry Fonda) to Secretary of State. Leffingwell has been hand-picked by the President (Franchot Tone), meaning that there'll be a battle on the Senate floor between adherents of and opponents to the current administration. Among the participants are veteran Dixiecrat Charles Laughton, freshman Senator Don Murray and powerseeker George Grizzard. Burgess Meredith also shows up as a man who is brought into the Senate to "prove" that Leffingwell is a communist. To neutralize Murray, Grizzard threatens to dredge up a homosexual incident in Murray's past, which results in the latter's suicide. Advise and Consent is a slow and old-fashioned film, coming to life only when Laughton and Grizzard are on screen--and in the climax, in which the fate of Leffingwell's appointment is left in the hands of acting President Lew Ayres. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

From at least the 1930s on to the 1970s, the upbeat protestant minister, Reverend Norman Vincent Peale, ministered to the well-heeled and upwardly mobile of the United States from his pulpit at the Riverside church on Fifth Avenue in New York City. At least as positive-thinking as the similarly cheery Dale Carnegie (How To Win Friends and Influence People), his lift-yourself-by-your-bootstraps message of good cheer was perceived as unorthodox by many within the churches he grew up in. After many decades of preaching his message, summed up in his best-selling book The Power of Positive Thinking, he was enshrined as a sort of secular saint. His influence reached to Presidents and corporate heads, and his name became synonymous with a kind of extraverted wholesomeness which has long since vanished. This biopic traces his career in the most respectful possible manner. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Based on a novel by Louis L'Amour, this western, filmed on location in Spain, chronicles the quest of an ex-con to locate a fortune in stolen gold and to get even with his treacherous former partners. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Borgia Stick opens with a funeral: the "guests of honor" are also the film's stars, Don Murray and Inger Stevens. In flashback, we learn that Murray and Stevens were for all intents and purposes a happily married suburban couple. Before long, we discover that the couple wasn't married at all, nor were they particularly happy. In fact, Murray and Stevens were employees of an all-powerful crime syndicate, plunked down in suburbia to lay the groundwork for a mob takeover. When the couple decides to go straight, they sign their own death warrant....maybe. A tremendous improvement over the handful of made-for-television films that preceded it, The Borgia Stick was the first TV movie to enjoy favorable notices from the critics. Its first telecast on February 25, 1967, was one of the highest-rated events of the 1966-67 season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Set in first century England, The Viking Queen is a loose retelling of the legend of Boadicea (also sometimes known as Boudica), the queen of the native Britons, who were known as the Iceni. In the year 60 A.D., the Roman governor general Justinian (Don Murray) attempts to rule over the island from wisdom as well as strength, believing that winning over the hearts of the Iceni people will work better for the Empire than brutalizing them. He has help from his cultured advisor Tiberion (Niall MacGinnis), and finds an ally (and much more) in Salina (Carita), the daughter of the late King Priam (ilfred Lawson), who has been chosen to rule the Iceni. Together, Justinian and Salina attempt to share responsibility for ruling the island nation, and to make the laws and the tax system fairer for the Iceni -- they also discover that they actually love each other and want to marry. Their romance and their attempts at bringing more civilized rule are thwarted by treachery on both sides. Among the Iceni, the Druids, led by the high priest Maelgan (Donald Houston), oppose the Romans because their rites (involving human sacrifice) have been banned, and Maelgan wishes Salina to fulfill the destiny that he has prophesized for her: to take up arms against the invaders. The wealthy Iceni merchants, led by the procurer Osiris (Dennis Shaw), oppose Justinian because of the higher taxes that he has imposed on them. Among the Romans, Justinian's military commander, Octavian (Andrew Keir), doesn't care for diplomacy or persuasion, except at the point of a sword. Conspiracies abound in both camps, which leads to Justinian being called away, and, in his absence, Octavian destroys the treaty between the two peoples. Finally, Salina is forced to take up arms and lead her people in open revolt against the Romans. The two would-be lovers face each other in battle, where, in the achieving victory, Justinian learns precisely how fierce and proud a warrior and a queen Salina is. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

This amusingly weird, painfully threadbare production pits a town of lethargic ex-hippie parents against their own offspring, who have been transformed into pasty-faced zombies (with cute little black fingernails) after their school bus passes through a cloud of radioactive fallout from a nearby nuclear plant. The kids' condition makes it difficult to for their deadbeat parents to reach out to them, thanks to their newly-acquired tendency to turn everyone they touch into an overcooked brisket in two seconds flat. In keeping with zombie-movie rules of engagement (as established in Night of the Living Dead), the bodies begin piling up before the nominal hero (local sheriff Gil Rogers) arrives at an effective zombie-killing method -- which in this case involves cutting off the children's hands. The most entertaining moments in this cheap and silly film come from its painfully bad attempts at horror and -- even more laughable -- social commentary. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

The year is 1876. The place is Medalia, MN. With the Jesse James and Cole Younger gangs cutting a murderous swath through the land, the citizens of Medalia brace themselves against an outlaw invasion. Normally, the townsfolk could turn to their marshal, Sam Garrison (Don Murray), for salvation; but alas, it has been years since Sam has picked up a gun, and both his nerves and his trigger hand are gone. Made for television, The Intruders first aired November 10, 1970, on NBC, while most viewers were watching the vastly superior TV movie Tribes on ABC. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide