Craig Stevens Movies

This was the last in a string of spoofs that found the comedy duo tangling with various classic Universal Studios monsters. In this case, Slim (Bud Abbott) and Tubby (Lou Costello) play American detectives who cross wits with Dr. Henry Jekyll (Boris Karloff) in Edwardian-era London when they visit to compare techniques with their British counterparts. Meanwhile, Dr. Jekyll is conducting the usual lab experiments on animals before injecting himself with serum, transforming into the vicious Mr. Hyde and launching a killing spree against fellow doctors who scoffed at him. Slim and Tubby participate in the ensuing investigation, and havoc breaks out when Tubby himself is injected, with predictable results. Karloff lends gravity to the film, but by the time this one followed up earlier efforts like Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein and Abbott And Costello Meet The Mummy, the team had mostly exhausted the series' comic possibilities. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

Handsome young plumber Jack Staley (Lee Philips) supplements his income by blackmailing his female customers, threatening to tell their husbands of their "illicit" romances. But Staley's career as an extortionist comes to a formidable roadblock when he tries the same shakedown on Margot Brenner (Phyllis Thaxter). It turns out that Margot has a bit of a larcenous streak as well...and she's just a shade smarter than both Jack and her husband (played by Carl Betz). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Buchanan (Randolph Scott) rides alone through Texas, en route to his future home of Mexico. He is sidetracked during a stopover in a lawless border town, where Mexican youth Juan (Manuel Rojas) sits in jail, awaiting trial for the killing of the local bully. It seems that the dead man had several influential relatives who intend to string up poor Juan before justice can be served. Championing the boy's cause, Buchanan methodically sets out to undermine the villains by playing one against the other. As was customary in the Randolph Scott-Budd Boetticher films of the 1950s, Buchanan Ride Alone offers unrelenting tension and innumerable plot twists until its explosive finale. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this sci-fi crime drama set in Los Angeles during the 21st century, a criminal mastermind creates chaos by tapping into police computers. It is up to a special agent and his female android to stop him before all is lost. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Lieutenant Commander Joe Blake (Fred MacMurray), Lt. Tim Griffin (Regis Toomey), and Lt. Swede Larson (Louis Jean Heydt) are longtime US Navy flying buddies, about to be transferred to different posts when Larson suffers a blackout during high-altitude maneuvers and cracks up. Navy doctor Douglas Lee (Errol Flynn) insists on trying to save him with an immediate operation, and the mortally injured pilot dies on the table. This sets the stage for a long, lingering, and bitter hatred between Blake and Lee -- which is only exacerbated when Lee chooses to become a flight surgeon so he can help to find a solution to the problem of high altitude blackout. Lee is assigned to medical research with Lt. Cdr. Lance Rogers (Ralph Bellamy), a flight surgeon whose dedication to high-altitude research has left him unfit for further flying. Their work proceeds through small triumphs and terrible tragedy, and Lee and Blake keep crossing paths, unwillingly -- they not only don't like each other personally, but end up competing for the attentions of the same woman (Alexis Smith) at one point. But they're forced to work together for the good of the service, even after Lee grounds Tim Griffin as medically unfit to keep flying. A fresh tragedy shows Blake that Lee has always been looking out for the best interests of the pilots, and they begin working together in earnest, at last. Blake pushes his piloting skills to their limit and beyond, and he soon finds a purpose and dedication that he's never known before -- and then he learns that he may have to be grounded because of his own deteriorating medical condition. While Lee frets over having to give the news to his friend, the only question for Blake is whether he will be able to see the final test of Lee's high-altitude pressure suit through to the end. ~ Bruce Eder, 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

Such was the prevailing mood among filmgoers in 1943 that God Is My Co-Pilot was allowed to show a spiritual shaft of light in the sky and several scenes of enemy pilots spitting up blood when shot down by American bullets. The film was based on the best-selling novel by fighter pilot Col. Robert Lee Scott Jr., who fought in the Pacific during World War II. At 34, Scott was told he was too old to fly in combat, but he proved his worth as a member of the Flying Tigers. Dennis Morgan plays Scott with pious sincerity, while the more traditional "regular guy" roles went to such stalwarts as Dane Clark and Alan Hale. Like most aerial combat films of the era, God Is My Co-Pilot soars highest when its characters stay off the ground and away from all that pontificating dialogue. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The West Coast's answer to Broadway's Stage Door Canteen, the Hollywood Canteen was created as a GI morale-booster by film stars Bette Davis and John Garfield. The Canteen was established so that Our Boys on leave in Tinseltown could have a good time with good food and good dancing -- and, as a bonus, rub shoulders with their favorite movie personalities, who functioned as waiters, chefs, busboys and dancing partners. Since the 1944 all-star flick Hollywood Canteen was produced by Warner Bros., it was only to be expected that the celebrities seen herein would consist mostly of Warner Bros. contract players. The frail plot concerns a soldier on medical leave (played by Robert Hutton) who falls in love with lovely leading lady Joan Leslie (played by Joan Leslie) while visiting the Canteen. Bette Davis and John Garfield are on hand to emcee the Canteen's variety acts, and to act as cupids for the Hutton/Leslie romance. The "supporting cast" includes the likes of The Andrews Sisters, Jack Benny, Joe E. Brown, Eddie Cantor, Sidney Greenstreet, Paul Henreid, Peter Lorre, Ida Lupino, Dennis Morgan, Roy Rogers, S.Z. Sakall, Barbara Stanwyck, and the Jimmy Dorsey and Carmen Cavallaro musical aggregations. Virtually everyone involved donated their salaries to the Canteen fund--even Jack Benny. As with most of these patriotic wartime star rallies, the results are a mixed bag: the best sequences include Benny's violin "duel" with Joseph Szigeti and Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers introducing Cole Porter's Don't Fence Me In. Hollywood Canteen won three Oscar nominations, more for its good intentions than its inherent excellence. Still, don't pass up the opportunity when this "movie star salad" shows up on cable TV. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Katherine "Katie" Standish (Ann Blyth) has been raised in a restrictive small town by her prudish Aunt Priscilla (Elizabeth Patterson). When Katie heads to New York to help out her improvident Uncle Nathaniel (Cecil Kellaway), she experiences an emotional and romantic awakening. The catalyst for all this is Greenwich Village artist Peter Van Arden (Mark Stevens), much to the dismay of Katie's nerdish hometown fiancé Stuart Grumby (Craig Stevens). The film's finale would be repeated with variations in 1967's The Graduate. Katie Did It was amusingly assembled by Frederick De Cordova, Universal's resident all-purpose director, who went on to produce and direct The Tonight Show during the Johnny Carson years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This French sex farce is translated in English as The Trout. Joseph Losey directed and co-wrote the film, which stars Isabelle Huppert as Frederique, a young woman living on her family's rural trout farm. Frederique is trapped in a dull marriage to a rube. She decides to leave him and the trout farm for the city; she wants to make her living in the financial sector. She ends up in a cutthroat corporate world and meets up with the sophisticated Lou (the legendary Jeanne Moreau). Frederique finds herself trading sexual favors for corporate advancement and becoming more deeply involved in a complicated series of business dealings. Eventually, she longs for a return to her simpler life on the trout farm. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

Jack Carson and Robert Hutton make a curious but copacetic comedy duo in the Warner Bros. musical Love and Learn. The stars are cast as Jingles and Bob, a pair of would-be songwriters hoping to get a break on Broadway. Along comes Barbara Wyngate (Martha Vickers), a wealthy young woman who hopes to make it on her own in the Big Apple. Hiding her true identity, Barbara helps the boys behind the scenes without their knowing it. Inevitably, Jingles and Bob clash over Barbara's affections, a problem that isn't resolved until the last possible moment. Craig Stevens, TV's future Peter Gunn, is featured in another of those "stuffed shirt" characterizations in which he was then specializing at Warners. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Craig Stevens offers a seminal version of his "Peter Gunn" TV characterization in Allied Artists' Murder Without Tears. Stevens plays homicide detective Steve O'Malley, who doesn't buy Warren Richards' (Eddie Norris) alibi that he killed Mrs. Norris while suffering an alcoholic blackout. If Richards is able to persuade the jury that he wasn't responsible for his actions, he'll get off, and under the "double jeopardy" law will not be forced to stand trial again. O'Malley intends to see that Richards is duly punished -- even if he has to take matters in his own hands. Joyce Holden co-stars as the woman torn between her love for O'Malley and her obligation to Richards. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide