James MacArthur Movies

When a tornado takes her meteorologist husband's life, his wife and colleague devotes her own life to prove his theories that violent twisters are predictable. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Filmed on location at Alcatraz Island, this two-part "whole story" actually concentrates on a handful of the denizens behind the cold grey walls of "The Rock". Michael Beck plays the real-life Clarence Carnes, an Oklahoma Choctaw Indian said to be the youngest man ever incarcerated in the notorious maximum security prison. Serving a 99-year sentence for a gas station holdup and murder, Carnes makes periodic attempts to escape, the final attempt being the most violent. Many of the subordinate characters are fictional (as are most of the details concerning Carnes' escape efforts); the one exception is Robert Stroud, the "Birdman of Alcatraz", here portrayed by Art Carney as a gentle, kindly philosopher. Telly Savalas, a costar of the Burt Lancaster vehicle Birdman of Alcatraz, also guest starred in the 1980 film. Originally titled Alcatraz and Clarence Carnes, this made-for-TV movie wavers between gritty realism and "I'm bustin' outta here!" artifice. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ex-lawman turned rancher Jed Cooper (Clint Eastwood) is moving a small herd of cattle when a group of nine men on horseback, led by Captain Wilson (Ed Begley Sr.), ride up and accuse him of having stolen the cattle and killed their owner. Refusing to believe his account, they string him up by the neck and leave him for dead, but they don't do the job right. Cooper is dangling there, barely alive, a few minutes later when Deputy U.S. Marshal Bliss (Ben Johnson) spots him and cuts him down. He survives the next few days in Bliss' tumbleweed wagon with the other prisoners, and is later cleared of any wrongdoing and released by Judge Fenton (Pat Hingle), just in time to witness the hanging of the man who really murdered the owner of the cattle and took Cooper's money. Cooper still wants revenge on the nine men who tried to hang him, but Fenton insists that he leave the bringing of them to justice to his deputy marshals. As it happens, Fenton is in desperate need of deputy marshals for the territory that he oversees, and he also knows that Cooper was a good lawman. Cooper, in turn, is now broke and in need of a job, and does want to see justice done. They strike an uneasy bargain, Cooper agreeing to wear a badge and bring in the men he's looking for -- alive -- for trial. The latter proves easier said than done, however, when the first of them that he spots tries to draw on him when he makes the arrest. One of the hanging party, Jenkins (Bob Steele), soon turns himself in and provides the names of the others. Cooper takes Stone (Alan Hale Jr.) alive, but the hapless blacksmith is later shot by the local sheriff (Charles McGraw) while trying to escape. The other men, led by Wilson, have no intention of dying, or even being brought to trial, without a fight. Two of them go on the run out of the territory, while Wilson and two of the others decide to take the law into their own hands once again. Meanwhile, Cooper becomes a hero when he single-handedly brings back a trio of rustlers who are also guilty of murder. This leads to Cooper's first confrontation with Judge Fenton, who, in a gripping scene, explains why it is essential that he be as seemingly quick to hang a man as he is. Unless the people are convinced that the law will do its job -- including hanging men who deserve it -- they will keep taking the law into their own hands and there will be more lynch mobs like the one that tried to kill Cooper. In the course of his quest for justice, Cooper also makes the acquaintance of Rachel (Inger Stevens), a young woman with her own search for justice, haunted by her own ghosts, and the two of them are drawn together, no more so than when Wilson and two of the others try to gun Cooper down in cold blood. The final confrontation between Cooper and Wilson escalates in violence to its savage, irony-laced conclusion. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Future Hawaii 5-0 regular James MacArthur guest-stars as Jase Fredericks, who tries to protect his inheritance, and his life, from his selfish uncle Bingham (Ford Rainey). The Cartwrights become involved when the conflict between Jase and Bingham boils down to Jase's prize stallion. Patricia Hyland costars as Jase's wife Kathy. Originally broadcast on December 3, 1967, "Check Rein" was written by Robert I. Holt and Olney Sherman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Saunders (Vic Morrow) and his squad are assigned to help engineer officer Captain Cole (James Daly) find a suitable location to build a bridge. At the same time, Cole's son Jack (James MacArthur), a war correspondent, has arrived in hopes of mending a long-standing rift between himself and his father. The situation comes to a head when the principal characters are trapped in a farmhouse surrounded by Germans. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Told via flashback by a saloon keeper to a census taker in a tiny Texas town, this brutal, adult-oriented western offers the tale of a drifter who settles down to marry a woman he doesn't love so he can get at her inheritance. When that is exposed, the drifter flees and does not return for eleven years. He rides back into town with a fortune that he earned while hunting buffalo. The town's crooked banker and two thugs ride out to greet him. Thinking that the only way the reprobate could have gotten so much money is from rustling cows, they engineer a brutal reception that results in his being branded with a big "T." Naturally, the drifter passes out during his painful ordeal and when he finally comes to and learns the truth about the situation immediately gallops off to get his bloody revenge. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

An American widower and his 18-year-old daughter live on a Caribbean houseboat. Romance and adventure ensue when they invite the bored nephew of a millionaire to leave his uncle's yacht and stay with them. Though there is an immediate spark between the girl and her new friend, romance is delayed by the arrival of the nephew's former business partner. Together, the two young men invest in an underwater treasure-hunting expedition that unfortunately only brings up a few skeletons. The disappointed nephew returns to his uncle's yacht and there realizes that he is in love with the girl. He returns to ask for the girl's hand. Her father is delighted, leaves the newlyweds to their honeymoon and sails his houseboat to a new place. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Bedford Incident was an attempt by Columbia Pictures -- which had previously made Dr. Strangelove and released Fail-Safe -- to tap the well of public anxiety surrounding nuclear weapons and the Cold War one more time. Reporter Ben Munceford (Sidney Poitier) is allowed aboard a navy ship on patrol near the Arctic Circle, under the command of Captain Eric Finlander (Richard Widmark). His job is to observe the ship in action and do an article on Finlander, a hard-as-nails sailor and a dedicated anti-Communist with a patriotic zeal that's extraordinary even in a man of his rank and position. Finlander's main problem, however -- when he's not sparring with the reporter -- is tracking and hunting a Soviet sub that he knows is patroling the same waters. What alarms Munceford (and the audience) is that Finlander acts like there is an actual "hot" war going on; he drives his men mercilessly, up to and past the breaking point, trying to hunt down the submarine and force it to surface, and nothing -- not the questions of the reporter, the angry protests of the newly-arrived medical officer (Martin Balsam), or the quietly voiced concerns of retired U-Boat commander Commodore Shrepke (Eric Portman), aboard as an observer, can get him to relent. Then, when it looks like Finlander has been proved right and has gotten away with his provocation of the "enemy," a mistake by one over-tired young officer (James MacArthur) suddenly unleashes all of the destructive power with which Finlander has been flirting. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Surely Benjamin Appel's novel Fortress in the Rice was more interesting than its static film adaptation Cry of Battle. Van Heflin plays a crusty soldier of fortune fighting with the Philippine partisans during World War II. James MacArthur co-stars as the wealthy, aimless son of a businessman who joins the partisan cause for a lark. He is toughened up by Heflin and romanced by local girl Rita Moreno. Life's just full of surprises, isn't it? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Using a technique that involves the kind of ensemble acting seen in later long-running, large-cast television programs, director David Swift has tried to tie together the stories of five young interns in this routine drama. One of the interns is a woman who is at odds with the chief surgeon (Telly Savalas), another is involved in an ill-advised abortion simply because he has fallen in love with the patient, a glamorous model (also in real life, played by Suzy Parker). Other stories involve romances that turn out well or ill, depending on the case. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Disney produced this historical adventure of old Scotland, based on the classic novel by Robert Louis Stevenson. James MacArthur stars as David Balfour, a wealthy lad cheated out of his inheritance and sold into servitude by his duplicitous and greedy uncle, Ebenezer (John Laurie). Aboard the ship where he's been made cabin boy, David meets Alan Breck Stewart (Peter Finch), a Jacobite loyalist who thinks the vessel's skipper (Bernard Lee) is transporting him back to Scotland. When David learns otherwise, he and Alan become a team, escaping the ship and taking off across the Highlands. Accused falsely of murder, the pair must clear their names, evade redcoat troops, and restore David's fortunes. Although director Robert Stevenson was no relation to the famed author, the studio claimed otherwise at the time of the film's release, for publicity purposes. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

The first portion of this Walt Disney Presents episode is a behind-the-scenes preview of the upcoming Disney theatrical feature Swiss Family Robinson. Hosted by three of the film's stars, John Mills, Dorothy McGuire and Janet Munro, the segment details the difficulties encountered by the production crew while filming on location in the West Indies' island of Tobago -- an island so uninhabited that even the animals had to be shipped in from the States. The second half of the episode consists of the Oscar-winning "True Life Adventure" short subject Water Birds, previously telecast as part of the Disneyland installment "A Trip Through Adventureland and Water Birds." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmed on location in Switzerland, Walt Disney's Third Man on the Mountain was based on Banner in the Sky, a book by James Ramsey Ullman. James MacArthur plays a Swiss youth who vows to be the first to scale a formidable Matterhorn-like mountain called the Citadel. The fact that MacArthur's father was killed attempting a similar climb only strengthens the boy's resolve. Though discouraged by his mother and uncle, MacArthur prepares for his ascent by taking practice climbs with his friends, learning vital lessons about safety and cooperation along the way. Finally, MacArthur begins making his way up the Citadel in the company of four other hardy souls. The title is a giveaway as to who doesn't reach the top of the mountain first; even so, there's a happy, satisfying ending for the so-called "loser." The film's breathtaking full-color shots of the Matterhorn are brilliantly augmented by the matte work of the legendary Peter Ellenshaw. Watch for Helen Hayes, the mother of Third Man on the Mountain star James MacArthur, in an amusing cameo role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide