James Griffith Filmography

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Synopsis: Huckleberry Finn joins Tom Sawyer and Jim, a runaway slave, as they escape down the Mississippi River on a raft. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Synopsis: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a 1979 made-for-TV adaptation of Washington Irving's classic ghost story. Humor is the drawing card in this version, with Jeff Goldblum a delightfully nerdish Ichabod Crane, Dick Butkus an appropriately nasty Brom Bones, and Meg Foster as spirited Katrina van Tassel. Read More

Speedtrap

Synopsis: A female cop and a male private detective team up to bring car thieves to justice in this actioner. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Tom Edison: The Boy Who Lit up the World

Desperate Women

Synopsis: Originally made for television, this western concerns three unjustly convicted female prisoners. While being transported to prison, their guards die of water poisoning and a former contract killer helps them survive. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide Read More

Dynamo

Synopsis: After the death of Bruce Lee in 1973, a slew of imitators invaded the world of the kung fu flick. One of the more well-known is Bruce Li (aka Ho Chung Tao), who continued making sequels and what one might charitably call homages well into the 1980s. Dynamo would, were it just another kung fu Read More

Emergency!: All Night Long

Synopsis: Fed up with low-quality television programs, John (Randolph Mantooth) stays up all night--for several consecutive nights--to develop his own TV game show. Back on the job, John joins Roy (Kevin Tighe) in treating an ex-jazz singer who may have heart problems. Other emegencies on tonight's docket Read More

Flood!

Actors: Barbara Hershey

Synopsis: Having already exhausted the dramatic possibilities of fire with The Towering Inferno, producer Irwin Allen turns to water in the made-for-TV Flood! The film is set in a small community, conveniently (for the purposes of the plot) located near a huge earthen dam. As the flood waters rise and the Read More

The Streets of San Francisco: Alien Country

Synopsis: Previously seen on Streets of San Francisco as a Latino cop determined to purge his old barrio neighborhood of drug pushers, A Martinez appears in this episode in the radically different role of a hapless illegal alien named Rudy Costa. During a raid by immigration officials, a security guard is Read More

The Streets of San Francisco: The Drop

Synopsis: A kidnapping has occurred, and the ruthless abductor has posted a ransom. Among the kidnaper's demands is that detective Mike Stone (Karl Malden) deliver the ransom himself. Stone agrees to this condition, even though he suspects that he is walking into a murder trap. Future Hardy Boys regular Read More

Seven Alone

Synopsis: A septet of settler's children find themselves orphaned and alone following a disaster on the Oregon trail. This fact-based, family-oriented adventure chronicles their cross-country odyssey as they make their way westward. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Little House on the Prairie: To See the World

Actors: Michael Landon, Karen Grassle, Melissa Gilbert, Victor French

Synopsis: Having lived most of his life on a farm, Johnny Johnson (Mitch Vogel) sets out to experience what the world has to offer. Mr. Edwards (Victor French) tags along to make sure that Johnny doesn't get in over his head. Even so, Johnny succumbs to the charms of a young barmaid named Mimi (Jane Alice Brandon Read More

Kojak: How Cruel the Frost, How Bright the Stars

Synopsis: Crime doesn't take a holiday on Christmas Eve, and detectives Kojak (Telly Savalas) and Stavros (Demosthenes) have plenty to keep them busy. For starters, there's a gun-wielding man on the loose, determined to kill his cheating wife--and anyone else who gets in his way. At the same time, Stavros Read More

The Streets of San Francisco: Jacob's Boy

Synopsis: Brock Peters plays the central figure in this story, a man charged by Stone (Karl Malden) and Keller (Michael Douglas) with a murder that he didn't commit. Unfortunately, once he surrenders his fingerprints to the authorities, he will be exposed as the same person who ran away from a homicide Read More

Emergency!: Understanding

Synopsis: The doctors at Rampart set their sights on a diabetic patient who, intentionally or otherwise, repeatedly forgets to take his insulin shots. Another crisis situation arises from a frantic phone call from an anonymous woman who claims to have overdosed on drugs. Elsewhere, the team attempts to Read More

Heaven with a Gun

Actors: Glenn Ford, Carolyn Jones, Barbara Hershey, John Anderson, David Carradine

Synopsis: Jim Killian (Glenn Ford) is a reformed gunslinger who takes a job as a local preacher in Vinagaroon, Arizona. He arrives during a time of conflict between shepherds and cattlemen who are engaged in a bloody range war. When Coke Beck (David Carradine) hangs a local Indian, the victim's daughter Read More

Dial Hot Line

Synopsis: Vincent Edwards, four years removed from Ben Casey, enters another branch of the healing profession in the made-for-TV Dial Hot Line. Edwards plays Matt Lincoln, a community psychiatrist who is patched into a "hot line" telephone for those troubled souls unable to afford therapy. This TV movie Read More

Hail, Hero!

Actors: Michael Douglas, Arthur Kennedy, Teresa Wright, John Larch, Charles Drake

Synopsis: Hail, Hero! stars Michael Douglas in his screen debut as long-haired college student Carl Dixon. Reversing the usual procedure in late-1960s films, Dixon decides to quit school and enlist in the Army, even though he's already run afoul of the law as a Vietnam protestor. It is our hero's intention Read More

Seven in Darkness

Actors: Sean Garrison, Barry Nelson, Arthur O'Connell

Synopsis: Seven in Darkness has the distinction of being the first made-for-TV "ABC Movie of the Week." The "seven" are all blind people, passengers on a flight en route to a convention for the visually impaired. The plane crashes, forcing the sightless seven to struggle for survival in the hostile Read More

Day of the Evil Gun

Actors: Glenn Ford, Arthur Kennedy, Dean Jagger, John Anderson, Paul Fix

Synopsis: Warfield (Glenn Ford) is the dispassionate ex-gunslinger who joins forces with peaceful neighbor Forbes (Arthur Kennedy) to help him track down the Apache Indians who have kidnapped Warfield's wife and children two months prior. In searching for the abductees, the hardened gunslinger eventually Read More

Bonanza: Judgement at Olympus

Actors: Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, David Canary, Barry Sullivan

Synopsis: While visiting the remote community of Olympus, Candy is accused of murdering the son of town boss A.Z. Wheelock (Arch Johnson). Things don't look very rosy for the Ponderosa ranchhand: Determined to see Candy hang, Wheelock has paid off both the district attorney and a drunken eyewitness. Read More

Mission: Impossible: The Astrologer

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Peter Graves, Barbara Bain, Martin Landau, Greg Morris, Peter Lupus

Synopsis: Baltic freedom fighter Nikolai Kurzon (Bob Tiedemann) has been kidnapped by Colonel Alex Stahl (Steve Ihnat), leader of the secret police in Kurzon's homeland. To rescue both Kurzon and his thousands of followers, the IMF must make it appear that Stahl has sold out his government. To accomplish Read More

Perry Mason: The Case of the Misguided Model

Synopsis: Model Sharon Camody (Mary Ann Mobley) has an excellent chance of being hired as the spokeswoman for White Snow Soap--so long as she is able to keep her unsavory past a secret from the public. Unfortunately, Sharon is targetted for a shakedown by blackmailer Ed Grover, who subsequently turns up Read More

F Troop: Johnny Eagle Eye

Synopsis: Fresh from a nearly decade-long stint as Jeff Stone on The Donna Reed Show, Paul Petersen appears in this episode as Johnny Eagle Eye, the nephew of Hekawi chief Wild Eagle (Frank De Kova). Aware of Johnny's prowess with a rifle, O'Rourke (Forrest Tucker) schemes to make a fortune by disguising Read More

A Big Hand for the Little Lady

Actors: Henry Fonda, Joanne Woodward, Jason Robards, Jr., Charles Bickford, Burgess Meredith, Kevin McCarthy, Paul Ford, Chester Conklin, Mae Clarke

Synopsis: The action in A Big Hand for the Little Lady centers around a high-stake poker game. The participants include some of the wealthiest men in the West (among them Jason Robards Jr., Kevin McCarthy, Charles Bickford and Paul Ford). Into this rarefied atmosphere trudges impoverished farmer Henry Read More

Perry Mason: The Case of the Fatal Fetish

Synopsis: In her third and final Perry Mason appearance, Fay Wray is incongruously cast as voodoo dancer Mignon Germaine, the mother of DA Hamilton Burger's new assistant Larry (played by future talkshow host Gary Collins). Though Burger (William Talman) tries to warn Larry that the young man's girlfriend Read More

Motor Psycho

Crew: Screen Story

Actors: Steven Oliver, Haji, Alex Rocco, Holle K. Winters, Joseph Cellini

Synopsis: This exploitation film delivers the typically sadistic and fast-paced action expected from cult director Russ Meyer. Alex Rocco stars as veterinarian Corey Maddox, whose wife is raped by a motorcycle gang. The three hoods are led by Brahmin (Stephen Oliver), who was a Section 8 in Vietnam. They Read More

The Fugitive: When the Bough Breaks

Crew: Screenwriter

Synopsis: Eluding the local authorities, Richard Kimble (David Janssen)--aka "Peter Broderick"--hops a freight car containing three other passengers: A hobo named Preacher (Royal Dano), a woman named Carol (Diana Hyland), and a little baby. Carol claims to be the infant's mother, and further insists that Read More

Advance to the Rear

Actors: Glenn Ford, Stella Stevens, Melvyn Douglas, Jim Backus, Joan Blondell

Synopsis: Union Colonel Brackenby (Melvyn Douglas) and his second-in-command, Captain Heath (Glenn Ford), attempt to command a rather inept cavalry unit during the Civil War. General Willoughby (Jim Backus) heads them out West on assignment rather than allowing them to foul things up where it counts. They Read More

The Fugitive: Corner of Hell

Synopsis: On the run from both Lt. Gerard (Barry Morse) and a rural sheriff (Dabbs Greer), Kimble (David Janssen) ends up on a patch of land controlled by a family of murderous moonshiners. The Sheriff refuses to venture any further in their pursuit of Kimble, warning Gerard of terrible consequences should Read More

The Untouchables: The Torpedo

Synopsis: Holly Westra (Charles McGraw) has been chief "enforcer" for gangster Victor Kurtz (John Anderson) for years, but age and infirmity may be catching up with the old gunman. In fact, there's a strong possibility that Holly may not have enough nerve to defend Kurtz from a rival gangster--especially Read More

The Fugitive: The Homecoming

Synopsis: Kimble (David Jansen) takes on the alias "David Benson" when he goes to work for Allan Pruitt (Richard Carlson) and Pruitt's second wife Dorina (Gloria Grahame). At the same time, Mr. Pruitt's troubled daughter Janice (Shirley Knight) returns home from a long hospital stay, having suffered a Read More

Have Gun, Will Travel: The Savages

Synopsis: A French art collector named Pireaux (Patric Knowles) is anxious to meet a reclusive English sculptor named Spencer (James Griffith). Paladin (Richard Boone) is called upon to escort Pireaux to Spencer's hideaway, somewhere in the far wilderness. Complicating matters is the presence of Pireaux's Read More

How the West Was Won

Actors: James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Gregory Peck, Debbie Reynolds, Richard Widmark, George Peppard, Karl Malden, John Wayne

Synopsis: Filmed in panoramic Cinerama, this star-studded, epic Western adventure is a true cinematic classic. Three legendary directors (Henry Hathaway, John Ford, and George Marshall) combine their skills to tell the story of three families and their travels from the Erie Canal to California between 1839 Read More

Have Gun, Will Travel: The Predators

Synopsis: Fulfilling his latest assignment, Paladin captures a cruel and crafty killer named John Tyree (Richard Jaeckel). But that is hardly the end of the story: Now Paladin and his prisoner must embark upon a long and thirsty trek through the desert in order to bring Tyree to trial. In search of water Read More

Have Gun, Will Travel: The Waiting Room

Synopsis: All previous lawmen hired to escort the outlaw Wilder brothers (James Griffith, Harry Dean Stanton) to their hanging in Dakota territory have been murdered by the brothers' friends. Now Paladin (Richard Boone) has been engaged to take on the daunting task of seeing that the Wilders are brought to Read More

Bonanza: The Burma Rarity

Actors: Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, Beatrice Kay

Synopsis: Con artists Morgan (Wally Brown) and Axe (Dave Willock) flimflam Clementine Hawkins (Beatrice Kay), a former dance-hall girl turned boarding-house keeper, with an elaborate scam involving "The Burma Rarity", a priceless emerald. Inasmuch as Ben Cartwright introduced Clementine to the crooks, he Read More

Perry Mason: The Case of the Posthumous Painter

Synopsis: The plot gets under way when artist Jack Culross (Britt Lomond) fakes his own suicide so that his paintings will increase in value. Upon discovering that her husband is still alive, Culross' wife Edna (Lori March) tracks him down and angrily confronts him. Not long afterward, Culross is found dead Read More

Bonanza: Silent Thunder

Actors: Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, Stella Stevens

Synopsis: Stella Stevens guest-stars as Ann Croft, a sheltered deaf-mute girl. Joe Cartwright tries to teach Ann sign language, only to be thwarted by the girl's fiercely overprotective father Albie (Albert Salmi). In the course of John Furia Jr.'s teleplay, Ann ends up saving her father's life, and also Read More

The Amazing Transparent Man

Actors: Marguerite Chapman, Douglas Kennedy

Synopsis: This appallingly bad sci-fi film about an invisible bank-robber (Douglas Kennedy) was shot back-to-back with Beyond the Time Barrier on the grounds of the Texas State Fair in Dallas. The usual cackling and crime is included, most of which was done better in The Invisible Man. Marguerite Chapman is Read More

Spartacus

Actors: Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov

Synopsis: Spartacus (Kirk Douglas) is a rebellious slave purchased by Lentulus Batiatus (Peter Ustinov), owner of a school for gladiators. For the entertainment of corrupt Roman senator Marcus Licinius Crassus (Laurence Olivier), Batiatus' gladiators are to stage a fight to the death. On the night before Read More

North to Alaska

Actors: John Wayne, Stewart Granger, Ernie Kovacs, Fabian, Capucine

Synopsis: Those familiar only with Johnny Horton's song hit North to Alaska might not be aware that the song came equipped with a movie. John Wayne and Stewart Granger star as a couple of lucky miners in Alaska Territory during the '98 gold rush. Since the Duke is the only man he can trust, Granger sends Read More

The Big Fisherman

Actors: Howard Keel, Susan Kohner, John Saxon, Martha Hyer, Herbert Lom

Synopsis: The lush romanticism of director Frank Borzage (Seventh Heaven, Street Angel) is subsumed by the plodding reverence of producer Rowland V. Lee's screenplay (co-written with Howard Estabrook), based on the best-selling novel by Lloyd C. Douglas. Howard Keel stars as a stalwart Simon-Peter, the Read More

Maverick: Duel at Sundown

Synopsis: Long before their teaming in the 1998 theatrical feature Space Cowboys, James Garner and Clint Eastwood shared screen time in this hilarious Maverick episode. As a favor to his old friend Jed Christiansen (Edgar Buchanan), Bret Maverick (Garner) agrees to break up the romance between Jed's Read More

Man from God's Country

Actors: George Montgomery, Randy Stuart, James Griffith, Gregg Barton, Kim Charney, Susan Cummings

Synopsis: In this western, a trigger happy sheriff is asked to step down by the townsfolk who want to have a quieter, safer town. He obliges and then travels to Sundown where he and a war buddy team up and drive all the criminals out of the town. When the streets are safe, he then falls in with a saloon Read More

Frontier Gun

Actors: John Agar, Joyce Meadows, Barton MacLane, Robert Strauss, Lyn Thomas

Synopsis: 3DFrontier Gun3D is another of the moderately interesting low-budget westerns turned out by 20th Century-Fox's Regal Films subsidiary in the late 1950s. John Agar plays Jim Crayle, who offers his services as voluntary marshal when crazed gunman Yubo (Robert Strauss) inaugurates a reign of Read More

Seven Guns to Mesa

Synopsis: A routine stagecoach ride becomes a terrifying experience when it is ambushed by desperadoes who hold the passengers hostage while trying to figure out how to rob a shipment of gold. Rootin' tootin' western action ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Bullwhip

Actors: Guy Madison, Rhonda Fleming, James Griffith, Don Beddoe, Peter Adams

Synopsis: When seen today, Bullwhip seems to be a dry run for the 1975 Jack Nicholson-Mary Steenburgen western Goin' South. To save himself from being hanged on a trumped-up murder charge, frontiersman Guy Madison agrees to marry whip-wielding spitfire Rhonda Fleming. Once the ceremony is over, Fleming Read More

Return to Warbow

Actors: Philip Carey, Catherine McLeod, Andrew Duggan, William Leslie

Synopsis: In this western, a convict escapes from prison to search for the considerable loot he and his gang had stolen off a stage coach 11 years before. Before heading for the pokey, the outlaw left the loot with his boozy brother. Originally, the plan had been to split the cash with his two cohorts. Read More

Perry Mason: The Case of the Negligent Nymph

Synopsis: While on a fishing trip, Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) and Paul Drake (William Hopper) reel in a most unusual "catch": a beautiful girl named Sally Fenner (Peggy Castle), who had jumped into the ocean while fleeing a pack of guard dogs on the island estate of George Alder (David Lewis). Naturally Read More

New Day at Sundown

The Guns of Fort Petticoat

Actors: Audie Murphy, Kathryn Grant, Hope Emerson, Jeff Donnell, Jeanette Nolan

Synopsis: In this western, a cavalryman disobeys his officer's command to massacre Indians at Sand Creek, goes AWOL and heads for his home in Texas where he wants to protect the women who will soon bear the brunt of the Indians' revenge. Because he defected from the cavalry, his friends and neighbors Read More

The Domino Kid

Actors: Rory Calhoun, Kristine Miller, Andrew Duggan, Yvette Dugay, Peter Whitney

Synopsis: Rory Calhoun both starred in and put up the money for the Columbia oater The Domino Kid. As the title character, Calhoun's mission in life is to rid the earth of the five outlaws who destroyed his ranch and killed his father. Before the film is ten minutes old, the Domino Kid has killed four of Read More

Raintree County

Actors: Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Eva Marie Saint, Nigel Patrick, Lee Marvin

Synopsis: Conceived as a Gone With the Wind for the CinemaScope generation, Raintree County wasn't quite as successful as its role model, but it still proved a moneyspinner for MGM. Elizabeth Taylor stars as a spoiled Southern belle who falls in love with pacifistic Indiana youth Montgomery Clift. Though Clift Read More

Omar Khayyam

Actors: Cornel Wilde, Michael Rennie, Debra Paget, Raymond Massey, John Derek

Synopsis: Frank Freeman Jr., son of the longtime head of Paramount Pictures, made his debut as producer with the opulent but empty Omar Khayyam. Cornel Wilde stars as the legendary Persian poet, here depicted as not only a philosopher but a scientist, politician and great lover. As the Persians gear up for Read More

The Vampire

Actors: Abel Salazar, Ariadne Welter, German Robles

Synopsis: Small-town doctor Paul Beecher (John Beal) is given some strange pills by a dying elderly researcher. Later, when Paul gets a severe headache, his young daughter accidentally gives him the mystery pills. He's later puzzled by a series of strange deaths in which all the blood was drained from the Read More

The Amazing Colossal Man

Actors: Glenn Langan, Cathy Downs, William Hudson, James Seay, Larry Thor

Synopsis: A "Shock Theater" perennial since it was first released to television in the early 1960s (stretch-framed to pad out its running time), The Amazing Colossal Man is firmly in the "So Bad It's Good" category. While overseeing the atomic tests in the Nevada desert, Army colonel Glenn Langan is exposed Read More

Anything Goes

Actors: Bing Crosby, Donald O'Connor, Zizi Jeanmaire, Mitzi Gaynor, Phil Harris

Synopsis: Anything Goes is a Technicolor-and-Vistavision remake of the 1936 film of the same name, which in turn was based on Cole Porter's hit 1934 Broadway musical. The 1956 bears little relationship plotwise to its predecessors, except for the fact that most of the story takes place aboard a luxury Read More

The Killing

Actors: Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Marie Windsor, Elisha Cook, Jr., Vince Edwards, Jay C. Flippen

Synopsis: The Killing was director Stanley Kubrick's first major film effort -- though, like Kubrick's earlier films, it was economically produced with an inexpensive cast. In a variation of his Asphalt Jungle role, Sterling Hayden plays veteran criminal Johnny Clay, planning one last big heist before Read More

The First Texan

Actors: Joel McCrea, Felicia Farr, Jeff Morrow, Wallace Ford, Abraham Sofaer

Synopsis: Cashing in on the popularity of TV's Davy Crockett and the jukebox favorite "Yellow Rose of Texas", Allied Artists came up with the CinemaScope biopic The First Texan. The title character is Sam Houston, played with rugged assuredness by Joel McCrea. The film begins when Houston leaves Tennessee Read More

Rebel in Town

Actors: John Payne, Ruth Roman, J. Carrol Naish, Ben Cooper, John Smith

Synopsis: Rebel in Town was the third issue from Bel-Air Productions, a firm co-founded by film execs Howard W. Koch and Aubrey Schenck. While the title character is played by John Smith, top billing goes to John Payne as ex-Union officer John Willoughby. When Willoughby's young son (Bobby Clark) snaps his Read More

Tribute to a Badman

Actors: James Cagney, Don Dubbins, Stephen McNally, Irene Papas, Vic Morrow

Synopsis: The catch-all title Tribute to a Bad Man had been floating around MGM for years (at one point, it was the working title for The Bad and the Beautiful) before it was finally affixed to this big-budget western. Originally intended as a vehicle for Spencer Tracy, the film was recast with James Cagney Read More

Phantom of the Jungle

Synopsis: In this adventure, set in the dark African jungles, visiting American scientists inadvertently enrage the local natives when they steal a sacred golden tablet. Fortunately a jungle dwelling doctor helps the insensitive brutes return the tablet before they are killed by the natives. ~ Sandra Read More

At Gunpoint

Actors: Fred MacMurray, Dorothy Malone, Walter Brennan, Tommy Rettig, Skip Homeier

Synopsis: One of the best of the High Noon derivations, At Gunpoint is the story of reluctant hero Fred MacMurray. When a band of gunmen invade a small frontier town, storekeeper MacMurray fires off a lucky shot and kills the leader. Hailed as a hero, MacMurray realizes deep down that he's a coward. When Read More