John Craig Movies
Writer/director John Sayles' dramatization of the most infamous episode in professional sports -- the fix of the 1919 World Series -- is considered by many to be among his best films and arguably the best baseball movie ever made. This adaptation of Eliot Asinof's definitive study of the scandal shows how athletes of another era were a different breed from the well-paid stars of later years. The Chicago White Sox owner, Charlie Comiskey (Clifton James), is portrayed as a skinflint with little inclination to reward his team for their spectacular season. When a gambling syndicate led by Arnold Rothstein (Michael Lerner) gets wind of the players' discontent, it offers a select group of stars -- including pitcher Eddie Cicotte (Sayles regular David Strathairn), infielder Buck Weaver (John Cusack), and outfielder "Shoeless" Joe Jackson (D. B. Sweeney) -- more money to play badly than they would have earned to try to win the Series against the Cincinnati Reds. Sayles cast the story with actors who look and perform like real jocks, and added a colorful supporting cast that includes Studs Terkel as reporter Hugh Fullerton and Sayles himself as Ring Lardner. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Cusack, Clifton James, (more)
Adapted from Dennis Potter's landmark British TV miniseries and relocated to the United States during the Depression, Pennies from Heaven dramatizes how popular songs both shaped and reflected the thoughts of people living through economic (and emotional) hardship. Arthur Parker (Steve Martin) is a sheet music salesman who believes that he can spot a hit a mile away and wants to open his own store. But he can't get a bank loan and his wife Joan (Jessica Harper), who has savings left to her by her father, refuses to give him the money. Also, while Arthur has a fierce sexual appetite, Joan generally refuses his advances. While on the road, Arthur meets Eileen (Bernadette Peters), a shy schoolteacher as desperate for affection as Arthur is hungry for sex. They begin an affair, which leads to tragedy for both. Punctuating the drama of Pennies from Heaven are elaborate musical numbers in which the characters lip-synch to popular songs of the day, which at once lift their hopes and reflect their fears. Arthur's buoyant tap number to "My Baby Said Yes" and Eileen's saucy rendition of "Love is Good for Anything That Ails You" are reflections of their needs for money and love, and their pas de deux on "Let's Face the Music and Dance" is at once an escape and an acknowledgement of their hopelessness. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters, (more)
- 1974
- R
This sex farce stars Angus Duncan as a lothario on a mission to sleep with five very different women. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- 1974
- PG
This classy and creative low-budget thriller depicts an all-out war of attrition between a group of neglected, disgruntled senior citizens and the heartless city officials who evicted them from their Cincinnati low-rent apartment building, which has been tagged for destruction. Their campaign goes far beyond writing strong letters to their alderman -- they begin by savagely murdering the social worker who orders their removal (Linda Marsh, in a budget Nurse Ratched mode), then take a violent stand against any contractors who attempt to stray onto their turf. Tightly directed from a clever script, portraying its geriatric killers with wit and empathy but never shying away from shocking scenes of violence. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- 1971
Banyon is an A-number-one detective yarn set (very accurately) in the 1930s. Robert Forster, emulating John Garfield in virtually every scene, plays private eye Miles C. Banyon. Right now he's in dutch because a beautiful young woman has been found murdered--and Banyon's gun was the murder weapon. This state of affairs plunges the detective into a maelstrom of deceit and double-cross involving (among many elements) a Winchell-style radio commentator (Jose Ferrer), a paroled big-time gangster, a scar-faced assassin, and a Nazi Bund camp. Once he solves the main mystery, Banyon is faced with the unhappy Maltese Falcon task of exposing a close friend as a murderer. First telecast March 15, 1971, Banyon spawned a brief TV series one year later, with Robert Forster still in the lead. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Forster, Darren McGavin, (more)
Shirley MacLaine plays Charity Hope Valentine who, despite her job at a seedy dime-a-dance joint, is an incurable optimist. Charity never stops looking for true love and never seems to look for it in the right places. We first see her in the company of Charlie (Dante DiPaolo), a slimeball who steals her purse and pushes her into the Central Park pond. Next she stumbles into a one-night stand with Vittorio Vidal (Ricardo Montalban), an egotistical movie star; this comes to nothing when Vittorio's contrite girlfriend Ursula (Barbara Bouchet) comes calling, forcing Charity to spend the night hiding in the closet. Desperate to escape the dance hall, Charity heads to an employment agency, where a bureaucratic clerk (Alan Hewitt) informs her that she has no qualifications. Unhappily, Charity heads for the elevator, where she becomes trapped with the very shy -- and very claustrophobic -- Oscar Lindquist (John McMartin). Once they've gotten out of the stalled elevator, Charity begins dating Oscar, never telling him of her checkered past or her sordid dance-hall job. Oscar eventually finds out but assures her that it doesn't matter. However, at the engagement party held at the dance hall, Oscar's puritanical streak emerges. He walks out on Charity, leaving her alone and heartbroken once more. With the help of a group of flower children (among them Bud Cort and Kristoffer Tabori), Charity is able to pick herself up and start living "Hopefully Ever After." Sweet Charity was adapted from the 1965 Broadway musical of the same name, which in turn was inspired by the 1957 Fellini flick Nights of Cabiria. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shirley MacLaine, John McMartin, (more)
- 1968
- G
- Add The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band to QueueAdd The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band to top of Queue
Set in 1888, this tuneful fact-based Disney production concerns the attempts of a musically talented family of Dakota pioneers -- who are politically divided on the upcoming presidential election -- to wrangle an invite to that year's Democratic convention in cosmopolitan St. Louis. Incumbent Grover Cleveland is attempting to win his second straight election and is challenged by Benjamin Harrison. The results are that Cleveland won the popular vote, but Harrison won the electoral vote to be declared President of the United States. Cleveland would win the next election to become the only President to ever serve two non-consecutive terms. Walter Brennan, Buddy Ebsen, Janet Blair, Richard Deacon, Wally Cox, John Davidson and Leslie Ann Warren round out the adult cast. Along with the moppets, they sing and dance to espouse their political allegiances to the candidate of their choice. Look closely for Goldie Hawn in her first film role as a laughing chorine. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Walter Brennan, Buddy Ebsen, (more)
- 1967
Big bad bikers butt heads with a small-town sheriff in this bargain-basement sleaze-fest. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Cassavetes, Beverly Adams, (more)
Shock Corridor represents filmmaker Samuel Fuller at his most excessive, but few would have it otherwise. Peter Breck plays a ruthless journalist who believes that the quickest way to a Pulitzer Prize is to uncover the facts behind a murder at a mental hospital. To glean first-hand information, Breck pretends to go insane and is locked up in the institution. While pursuing his investigation, Breck is sidetracked by the loopy behavior of his fellow inmates. During a hospital riot, Breck is straightjacketed and subjected to shock treatment. By now almost as crazy as he's previously pretended to be, Breck begins imagining that his exotic-dancer girlfriend Constance Towers (a Samuel Fuller "regular") is actually his sister! Typical of the Fuller ouevre, the characters in Shock Corridor are either saved or destroyed by their individual obsessions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Breck, Constance Towers, (more)
- 1961
In this western, an Eastern gambler buys a mail-order ranch, heads out to claim it and discovers that the deed is unregistered, the rightful owner is dead, and that the land has been taken over by cattle rustlers. Strapping on the title weapon, the fellow rectifies the situation, but only after proving himself innocent of murder charges. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1931
Murder, blackmail and honor are the principal plot motivations of Silence. Clive Brook stars as Jim Warren, a gentleman thief who is sent to prison on a murder charge. Only after scores of plot twists and setbacks is the truth revealed: Warren is taking the rap for his old friend Phil Powers (Willard Robertson), who'd apparently killed blackmailing Harry Silvers (John Wray) rather than reveal the fact that Powers' foster daughter Norma (Peggy Shannon) is really Warren's illegitimate offspring. In a final surprise, it turns out that Powers was innocent as well! To reveal the true identity of the murderer would be to spoil the ending so cleverly set up by co-director Max Mercin, who penned the play upon which Silence was based. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clive Brook, Marjorie Rambeau, (more)
