Helen Craig Movies
American character actress Helen Craig worked steadily in films, early television, and on stage. She started out in San Antonio, Texas and then received formal dramatic training from such teachers as Dame May Whitty. In 1936, after touring with different theater groups, she debuted in New York. While there she met and married John Beal; they were together for nearly half a century. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1977
Several people overhear a phoned-in murder threat aimed at prominent ecologist Kenneth Krug (Eric Braeden). The caller seems to be a hooker with whom Krug is having an affair--and after a bloody shoot-out, it appears as if the woman has carried out her threat, even though no body is found. Investigating, Kojak (Telly Savalas) begins to suspect that the elusive "hooker" does not exist, and that the murderer was actually Krug's scheming wife Carol (Susan Sullivan). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Heroes is an old-fashioned social problem movie concerning a troubled Vietnam veteran and the loving woman who helps him to work out his problems. Henry Winkler plays Jack Dunne, a veteran who has a history of mental problems. Jack fools the hospital doctor Elias (Hector Elias) and escapes from the hospital with the intention of starting a worm farm with money collected from his fellow inmates. Jack hops aboard a bus, where he meets up with Carol Bell (Sally Field), who, invites Jack to join up with her on a trip to California. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Henry Winkler, Sally Field, (more)
- 1976
More ambitious and expensive than ABC's first "novel for television" miniseries QB VII, the eight-episode, 12-hour Rich Man, Poor Man was the one that truly put the genre on the map, its phenomenal success in the ratings making possible the even more spectacular Roots. Adapted from the mammoth novel by Irwin Shaw, the miniseries covers the years from WWII to the 1960s, detailing the vacillating fortunes of the immigrant Jordache brothers. "Rich Man" Rudy Jordache (Peter Strauss) is determined to use his hard-earned education -- and his inherent ruthlessness -- to carve out a business and political empire not unlike that enjoyed by Joseph P. Kennedy and his progeny. "Poor Man" Tom Jordache (Nick Nolte), a quick-fisted hothead, goes an entirely different route, first as a professional boxer, then as a functionary of the evil gangster chieftain Falconetti (William Smith). Naturally, both brothers become entangled in romance along the way, with Julie Prescott (Susan Blakely) ending up as Rudy's benighted spouse. Originally telecast on February 1, 2, 9, 16, 23, and March 1, 8, and 15 in 1976, Rich Man, Poor Man earned 20 Emmy nominations and led to a weekly sequel, Rich Man, Poor Man -- Book 2, in the fall of 1976 (this version necessitated a title change for the original, which was rebroadcast as Rich Man, Poor Man -- Book 1 in the spring of 1977). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Strauss, Nick Nolte, (more)
- 1976
While driving through a particularly treacherous stretch of woods, Olivia (Michael Learned) and her two youngest children Elizabeth (Kami Cotler) and Jim-Bob (David W. Harper) are stranded by a flat tire. In their efforts to find their way home, the three Waltons end up getting lost. After briefly taking refuge in a cabin owned by a bootlegging family, they are driven even deeper into the bear-infested woods--and now, storm clouds are ominously gathering on the horizon. Without tipping off the climax of this episode, it can be noted that the "hero" turns out be the least expected candidate. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1975
"Lizzie Borden took an axe/And gave her mother forty whacks/When she saw what she had done/She gave her father forty-one". New England spinster Lizzie Borden was acquitted of the charge of murdering her father and stepmother in 1892, but this made-for-TV movie, like most recreations of the murders and subsequent trial, adheres to the popular consensus that Borden was guilty. Elizabeth Montgomery takes a break from playing victims to portray the enigmatic Borden. The trial scenes are lifted directly from the original court records; scripter William Bast's speculation as to what really happened the night the elder Bordens were hacked to death is pure (but credible) conjecture. Accompanied by a "parental guidance suggested" tag, The Legend of Lizzie Borden was first broadcast February 10, 1975. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In Frank Perry's curious, off-center comedy Western, Jeff Bridges and Sam Waterston play Jack McKee and Cecil Carlson, a couple of cattle rustlers whose special target is taciturn rancher John Brown (Clifton James). Both men are outcasts by choice; McKee can't stand being around his stuck-up ex-wife (played by Doria Cook), while Carlson, an Indian, finds his fellow tribesmen too tradition-bound for his tastes. Together, they plan to lift themselves out of the penny-ante class with one big crime caper. Brown gets wind of their scheme, and sends private eye Henry Beige (Slim Pickens) after them. The cast is top-heavy with attractive women, ranging from Brown's bored wife, Cora (Elizabeth Ashley), to "camp followers" Betty Fargo (Patti D'Arbanville) and Mary Fargo (Maggie Wellman). Thomas McGuane authored the script; Jimmy Buffett provides the songs. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Bridges, Sam Waterston, (more)
- 1971
- R
This exploitative melodrama is set in northern Michigan where an exclusive private hunting club is located. There some of the country's richest, most powerful men come to relax and get closer to nature. Unfortunately, that means that they become engaged in debauchery and become brutal, amoral killers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1949
- NR
"This boy...and this girl...were never properly introduced to the world we live in." With this superimposed opening title, director Nicholas Ray inaugurates his first feature, They Live by Night. Farley Granger and Cathy O'Donnell play a "Bonnie and Clyde"-type fugitive couple, who in trying to escape their past are hell-bent down the road to Doom. Despite their criminal activities, Bowie (Granger) and Keechie (O'Donnell) are hopelessly naïve, fabricating their own idyllic dream world as the authorities close in. The entrapment -- both actual and symbolic -- of the young misfit couple can now be seen as a precursor to the dilemma facing James Dean in Ray's 1955 film Rebel Without a Cause. A box-office disappointment upon its first release, They Live by Night has since gained stature as one of the most sensitive and least-predictable entries in the film noir genre. The film was based on a novel by Edward Anderson, and in 1974 was filmed by Robert Altman under its original title, Thieves Like Us. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cathy O'Donnell, Farley Granger, (more)
"A woman loses her mind and is confined to a mental institution." That's the usual TV-listing encapsulation of The Snake Pit -- and like most such encapsulations, it only scratches the film's surface. Olivia de Havilland stars as an outwardly normal young woman, married to loyal, kindly Mark Stevens. As de Havilland's behavior becomes more and more erratic, however, Stevens comes to the sad conclusion that she needs professional help. She is sent to an overcrowded state hospital for treatment -- a curious set-up, in that, while de Havilland is treated with compassion by soft-spoken psychiatrist Leo Genn, she is sorely abused by resentful matrons and profoundly disturbed patients. Throughout the film, she is threatened with being clapped into "the snake pit" -- an open room where the most severe cases are permitted to roam about and jabber incoherently -- if she doesn't realign her thinking. In retrospect, it seems that de Havilland's biggest "crime" is that she wants to do her own thinking, and that she isn't satisfied with merely being a loving wife. While this subtext may not have been intentional, it's worth noting that de Havilland escapes permanent confinement only when she agrees to march to everyone else's beat. Amazingly, Olivia de Havilland didn't win an Academy Award for her harrowing performance in The Snake Pit (the only Oscar won by the film was for sound recording). While some of the psychological verbiage in this adaptation of Mary Jane Ward's autobiographical novel seems antiquated and overly simplistic today, The Snake Pit was rightly hosannahed as a breakthrough film in 1948. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Olivia de Havilland, Mark Stevens, (more)
