After gaining experience in various of the trades associated with filmmaking, Kramer began writing scripts for movies and radio programs in the late 1930s. His first production experience was with the films So Ends Our Night (1941) and The Moon and Sixpence (1942). Kramer's success as an independent producer with such films as So This Is New York (1948), Champion (1949), Home of the Brave (1949), and The Men (1950) established him as a major figure in Hollywood. Notable among the other films he produced are Death of a Salesman (1951), High Noon (1952), The Member of the Wedding (1952), The Wild One (1954), The Caine Mutiny (1954), and, as producer and director, The Pride and the Passion (1957), On the Beach (1958), Inherit the Wind (1960), Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1962), Ship of Fools (1965), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), Oklahoma Crude (1973), and The Runner Stumbles (1979).