James Craig Movies

A Lady Without Passport stars Hedy Lamarr in the title role. Lamarr plays Marianne Lorress, a concentration-camp refugee who takes up residence in Cuba while waiting permission to enter the U.S. Immigration agent Pete Karczag (John Hodiak) decides to use Marianne as bait to entrap Palinov (George Macready), the brains of an alien-smuggling ring. Pete eventually falls in love with Marianne, but she despises him for using her--at least until fade-out time. Despite the tattoo on her arm, it is difficult to believe that Hedy Lamarr has survived a Nazi concentration camp; she appears instead to have staged a desperate escape from the MGM makeup department. This aside, A Lady without Passport is an acceptable (and commendably short) crime meller. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This campy oddity -- featuring John Carradine in one of his patented walk-on roles -- pits some silly facsimile of a motorcycle gang against an even sillier stuntman in a deep-pile shag suit who is supposed to be the legendary humanoid lurker of the Northwestern wilderness. It seems Bigfoot has developed an understandable liking for buxom human females (including Joy Lansing and one-time Russ Meyer regular Haji), whom he abducts and carries off to his scenic woodland retreat and ties to ridiculously scrawny trees. Apparently the bike boys are jealous -- abducting curvaceous cuties is also a favorite pastime of theirs -- and they embark on an uncoordinated rescue mission. Predating mid-'70s Bigfoot-mania (sparked by the famous home-movie sightings), this goofy outing is probably more entertaining than Legend of Boggy Creek and a dozen other "serious" pseudo-documentaries on the subject. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Boys' Ranch was conceived as a showcase for MGM's newest juvenile star, Jackie "Butch" Jenkins. James Craig is billed second as baseball player Dan Walker, who sets up a Texas ranch for disadvantaged city kids. Jenkins plays Butch, the cutest and most precocious of the boys, while Skip Homeier is Skippy, an unregenerate juvenile delinquent who thinks that Walker's ranch is for "suckers". Eventually, Homeier is won over, but only after a series of intense dramatic complications. MGM had done variations of this story several times before, in such films as Boys Town and Lord Jeff, but audiences never seemed to tire of the formula. Boys Ranch was filmed on location at a real-life boys' ranch near Amarillo, Texas. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this a briefcase containing four wills is found next to the unconscious body of a man. He lies beside a plane crash. Each of the wills is made out to the man. Meanwhile a recent widow and a man work together to get the money her husband died for. They almost get it when they are accosted by the man who was found lying beside the planed. He claims to be a Nazi spy who is trying to get the money and use it to escape to Germany. The couple captures the spy and donates the money to their government. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Directed by former set designer William Cameron Menzies, this minor Civil War effort from low-budget producers King Brothers stars James Craig and Guy Madison as former West Point roommates now on opposing sides in the war between the states. Assigned to delay General Sherman's march toward Atlanta, Major Clay Clayborn (Craig) and 20 rebel volunteers take position on top of Devil Mountain where they proceed to bombard Union supply trains, at first almost unimpeded. Unaware that his best friend is leading the rebels, Union major Will Denning (Madison) prepares to blow up the entire mountain but Clay's former fiancé, Kathy Summers (Barbara Payton), manages to persuade him to cease fire while she negotiates a deal. Filmed in inexpensive Super Cine Color, Drums in the Deep South was produced independently and awarded an RKO release. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The then-popular government agents, the so-called G-Men, took to the air in this standard 15-chapter serial thriller courtesy of Columbia Pictures. Hal Andrews, known under the colorful alias "The Black Falcon," and his two fellow operatives, Bart Davis (Robert Fiske) and John Cummings (James Craig), track down the villain who killed one of their colleagues. The murderer proves to be the head of a gang of saboteurs who are planning a strike on the country's air defense. Lorna Gray, later known as Adrian Booth, lent a bit of feminine appeal to the otherwise decidedly masculine goings-on. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Fort Vengeance starts out as a western and ends up as a "northern." Trouble-making brothers Dick (James Craig) and Carey (Keith Larsen) skeedaddle to Canada when things get too hot for them in the states. The brothers join the Royal Canadian Mounties, where their knowledge of Indian activities make them invaluable. But Carey's recklessness causes the Blackfeet Indians to almost go on the warpath--and also leads to Carey's becoming a reluctant murderer. To prevent a massacre, the heartbroken Dick must track down his own brother. The film's climax is both downbeat and upbeat, depending upon one's point of view. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Marjorie Main's first solo starring vehicle for MGM finds the formidable character actress cast as a tough-but-tender female outlaw. Living on her tumbledown ranch in Oklahoma territory, Annie Goss (Main) shelters her desperado sons (Henry Morgan, Paul Langton) from the authorities. While planning to pull up stakes and return to Missouri, the Goss family befriends marshal Lloyd Richland (James Craig), who suspects that Annie's offspring are responsible for a recent train robbery, but is hesitant to arrest them because he believes that their motivations were noble. Likewise befriended by Gentle Annie and her brood is a stranded waitress named Mary Lingen (Donna Reed), with whom Richland falls in love. If the film can be said to have a villain, it is surly Sheriff Tatum (Barton MacLane), who unlike the soft-hearted Richland is determined to uphold the letter of the law. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Spunky Joan Blondell is practically the whole show in the diverting comedy Good Girls Go to Paris. Blondell is cast as ambitious college-campus waitress Jenny Swanson, who yearns to see the sights in Gay Paree. She gets her chance by latching onto British exchange professor Ronald Brooke (Melvyn Douglas), who is en route to the City of Light. Once she sets foot on French soil, Jenny proves the veracity of the film's title by straightening out the wayward family of dyspeptic millionaire Olaf Brand (Walter Connolly)-though for a while it looks as though she's a "bad girl", merely out to take the Brands for every penny they've got. In later years, Joan Blondell ruefully recalled that the film's original title was Good Girls Go to Paris Too, but the Hays Office nixed that harmlessly suggestive monicker. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Paramount borrowed John Wayne from Republic Pictures for the studio's second screen version of Zane Grey's Born to the West, which was also the Western's original release title. A couple of drifters, Dare Rudd (Wayne) and Dinkie Hooley (Sid Saylor), arrive in a Wyoming town hoping for a handout from Dare's rancher cousin, Tom Fillmore (Johnny Mack Brown). Dare takes but one look at Tom's girlfriend, Judy Worstall (Marsha Hunt), and decides to stay in town. He obtains the job of chuck wagon cook, but Judy, who is falling for the charming newcomer, convinces Tom to give Dare a job with more responsibilities. To get rid of a potential rival and to prove Dare's irresponsibility once and for all, Tom assigns his cousin the job of selling the herd. Unbeknownst to either Tom or Dare, however, saloon owner Bart Hammond (Monte Blue) also has his greedy eye on the herd and sets a trap for Dare. Hell Town used quite a bit of stock footage from the original silent version, Born to the West, which had starred Jack Holt. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Surprisingly, the Paramount Technicolor actioner Hurricane Smith was not produced by the studio's Pine-Thomas unit (it sure sounds like one of their efforts), but instead by "outsider" Nat Holt. John Ireland plays the title character, a 19th-century mercenary stranded in the South Seas with his pals McGuire (Forrest Tucker) and Brundage (Richard Arlen). When slavetraders come calling, Smith and his confreres steal the traders' ship and head for Australia, in hopes of searching for buried treasure. To raise some quick money, the trio agrees to rent "their" vessel to scientist Gorvahlsen (James Craig), who brings Dr. Whitmore (Murray Matheson) and the doctor's half-Polynesian daughter Luana (Yvonne DeCarlo) along on a scientific expedition. It gradually dawns on Smith that Gorvahlsen and Whitmore are actually fortune hunters, hoping to claim the treasure for themselves. But which side is the lovely Luana on during the film's unending series of crosses, double-crosses and triple-crosses? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

James Lake (Raymond St. Jacques) is an escaped black convict imprisoned for a murder he didn't commit. Leslie Whitlock (Kevin McCarthy) offers James money to kill his wife, Ellen (Dana Wynter). He declines and tries to look up his old flame Lily (Barbara McNair), but discovers his own brother is now married to the sultry nightclub singer. James returns to Leslie, and the trio travel towards a mountain retreat. James and Ellen escape and try to find the murderer who had framed James years before. He experiences prejudices from police and civilian alike before the trail leads to the dead girl's stepfather. Due to the constant sexual and racial overtones this film is considered an exploitation feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide