James Craig Movies

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

Mickey Rooney returned to his "home" studio MGM, after a three-year absence, in the location-filmed melodrama The Strip. Rooney is cast as Stanley Maxton, an aspiring drummer who has the misfortune to fall within the orbit of bookie Sunny Johnson (James Craig). Out of the goodness of his heart, Stanley introduces aspiring actress June Tafford (Sally Forrest) to Johnson, hoping that the latter's Hollywood connections will help the girl find success. Stanley also quits the rackets to play drums at a nightclub owned by his pal Fluff (William Demarest). Things take a sorry turn when Johnson decides to make a play for June; Stanley interferes and gets beaten up by the bookie's goons. June's response to this outrage results in tragedy for everyone. The Strip is a surprisingly downbeat effort for producer Joe Pasternak, a man usually associated with happy, wholesome Technicolor musicals. The film is highlighted by jazz performances from Louis Armstrong, Jack Teagarden, Earl "Fatha" Hines and Barney Bigard. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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

Eagle-Lion studios inaugurated its new "big budget" western policy with 1948's The Man From Texas. James Craig stars as the El Paso Kid, who can't make up his mind whether to be an upstanding, decent citizen or a masked bandit. He continues to vacillate all through the picture, much to the dismay of his wife Zoe (Lynn Bari, in a rare sympathetic performance). Among those benefitting from the Kid's "good" spells is the Widow Weeks (Una Merkel), who's in danger of losing her farm. Singing star Johnnie Johnston wanders in and out of the proceedings as a frontier balladeer, occasionally commenting upon the action -- a device later used to better effect in Lang's Rancho Notorious and Zinneman's High Noon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After 15 entries, MGM's "Dr. Kildare" series came to a quiet end with Dark Delusion. Although Dr. Leonard Gillespie (Lionel Barrymore), crusty chief surgeon at Blair General Hospital, is officially the leading character, most of the footage is devoted to Gillespie's outspoken protégé, Dr. Tommy Coalt (James Craig). The film's central crisis involves Cynthia Grace (Lucille Bremer), a spoiled socialite suffering from a blood clot. Not unexpectedly, Tommy falls in love with Cynthia (much to her parents' dismay), and soon he's drawing up plans to marry the girl and setting up private practice in a smaller town. Coincidentally, this was the same sort of dilemma facing Gillespie's most famous protégé, Dr Kildare, in the initial series entry Young Dr. Kildare (Perhaps MGM was hoping to bring things full circle with a new "Dr. Coalt" series) ~ 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

An earnest rural melodrama set among Norwegian immigrants in Wisconsin, Our Vines Have Tender Grapes is a slightly updated version of George Victor Martin's 1940 novel. Edward G. Robinson stars as Martinius Jacobson, a farmer devoted to his wife Bruna (Agnes Moorehead) and precocious seven-year-old daughter Selma (Margaret O'Brien), whom he lovingly calls "Jente Mi." Along with her freckle-faced five-year-old cousin, Arnold (Jackie "Butch" Jenkins), Selma lives a carefree, joyous life, which is only temporarily clouded by the sudden death of Ingeborg Jensen (Dorothy Morris), an emotionally disturbed young women whose stern father (Charles Middleton) had refused to let her attend school despite the pleas of newly arrived schoolmarm Viola Johnson (Frances Gifford). The latter is quietly falling in love with Nels Halvorson (James Craig), the town newspaper editor, but cannot envision herself as a rural wife. She changes her mind when, inspired by young Selma, the entire town of Fuller Junction come to the aid of Bjorn Bjornson (Morris Carnovsky), who has lost his livestock when lightning struck a newly erected barn. When Selma generously donates her pet calf to the impoverished farmer, the townspeople in general, and Martinius in particular, follow suit, prompting Viola to reconsider her harsh views of country life and retract her letter of resignation to the school board. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Oriental Dream is the TV title for the 1944 Technicolor version of Kismet. Ronald Colman plays Hadji, "king of beggars" in the days of the Arabian Nights. Posing as a prince, Colman woos Marlene Dietrich, the favorite wife of the evil Wazir (Edward Arnold). Meanwhile, Colman's daughter Joy Ann Page falls in love with handsome Caliph James Craig--while the Wazir connives to get Page into his own harem. Several plot convolutions later, Colman ends up with Dietrich, Page winds up with Craig, and the Wazir winds up six feet under. Kismet was based on the war-horse stage play by Edward Knoblock, previously filmed in 1920 and 1930 with the play's original star Otis Skinner. The title Oriental Dream was bestowed upon the 1944 Kismet when it was remade as a musical in 1955. The earlier version had its musical moments as well, notably a delicious dance number spotlighting Dietrich, painted gold head from head to toe; an additional dance sequence was cut, but later showed up in the Abbott and Costello comedy Lost in a Harem (1944). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Robert Z. Leonard, who must have taken room and board at MGM, was the directorial hand behind this slight domestic drama. Lana Turner is the bride, John Hodiak the groom. James Craig is the odd man out, who pursues Turner when Hodiak is off fighting the war. Bored by domesticity, Turner welcomes Craig's attentions, but impending motherhood straightens out her priorities. Nearly two hours of celluloid are expended on a story that any other studio would have zipped out in seven reels. Marriage Is a Private Affair was based on a slightly steamier novel by Judith Kelly. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In her seventh outing as irrepressible vaudeville entertainer Maisie Revere, Ann Sothern aided the war effort by working the swing shift in an airplane factory. Taking in a seemingly suicidal co-worker, Iris (Jean Rogers), Maisie can only watch as the girl steals her beau, handsome pilot James McLaughlin (James Craig). Promising to be faithful to James, who is going away on a training course, Iris promptly flirts with everyone in pants, much to chaperone Maisie's chagrin. When Maisie catches the selfish Iris in the middle of staging yet another "suicide," the vaudeville trouper turned everyone's favorite riveter threatens to spill the beans to Lieutenant James. In retaliation, Iris accuses Maisie of spying for the Nazis but everything is cleared up before the fadeout. MGM had at first assigned the male lead to newcomer Jim Davis, but he proved too inexperienced and the role eventually went to Craig, the studio's all-purpose Clark Gable lookalike. (As a consolation, Davis played a G.I. instead.) Starlet Jean Rogers, formerly Dale Arden in Flash Gordon (1936), does surprisingly well in her unsympathetic part and, doubled only partially by Jacqueline Wiere, performs a funny acrobatic number with the Wiere Brothers. Sothern leads a rousing chorus of the morale-boosting "There's a Girl Behind the Boy Behind the Gun" and remains her usual delightful self throughout what is one of MGM's better wartime potboilers. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Though officially based on a Saturday Evening Post story by Clarence Buddington Kelland, RKO Radio's Valley of the Sun was obviously inspired by the blockbuster comedy western Destry Rides Again (indeed, both films were directed by George Marshall). James Craig stars as Indian scout Jonathan, whose pro-Native American sentiments do not rest well with crooked civilian Indian agent Jim Sawyer (Dean Jagger), who intends to benefit from an impending tribal uprising. Court-martialed on a trumped-up charge fomented by Sawyer, Jonathan escapes the stockade with the help of a friendly sergeant and rides off to Washington DC, hoping to forestall an all-out Indian war. En route, he makes the acquaintance of Sawyer's snooty fiancee Christine (Lucille Ball), forcing her into a marriage for plot reasons too complicated to go into here. After juggling comedy and melodrama for nearly eight reels, the film turns serious towards the climax, when the fate of the protagonists falls into the hands of level-headed Indian chieftan Cochise (Antonio Moreno) and his hotheaded rival Geronimo (Tom Tyler). RKO's first big-budget western in several years, Valley of the Sun lost $158,000 at the box office, temporarily discouraging any followups. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide