The Craving on AllMovie

Most moviegoers tend to associate Francis Ford with the "loveable drunk" characterizations he essayed for his director brother John in the 1930s and 1940s. In the teen years, however, Francis Ford was not only a virile action hero, but an accomplished director in his own right. In The Craving (aka Delirium), Ford plays a recovering boozer who creates a revolutionary new explosive. Villain Peter Gerald tries to wrest the secret formula away from Ford by coercing Our Hero back to liquor. To that end, Gerald engages the service of lovely May Gaston, who has been hypnotized to lead Ford down the road to ruin. The Craving was cowritten by Francis and John Ford, who usually avoided the sort of pulpish melodrama that seeps through this film's 5 reels.