Alfred L. Werker

Framed for murder, Jim Guthrie barely escapes lynching by the town mob, becomes a wanted fugitive for three years but returns to find the real killer. Jim Guthrie (Dana Andrews) is a fugitive who has been run out of town after being nearly lynched for the murder of a man he did not kill. He returns, bearing the physical and mental scars of his experience, determine to clear his name. The would-be-lynchers , fearing that Guthrie will exact some kind of revenge for their anti-social treatment to him, set out to get him before he gets them. Laurie Mastin (Donna Reed) is the pregnant girl he left behind who marries another man. The real killer is identified. —Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net> After three years on the run, Jim Guthrie returns with the scar of a rope burn on his neck. In flashback we learn how he was framed for murder but then escaped from the lynch mob just as he was about to be hung. Tired of running, he has returned to find the real killer and the Sheriff has given him just three hours to do it. —Maurice VanAuken <mvanauken@a1access.net>

After a disgruntled rancher and his sons rob at gun-point a rival rancher, the town forms a posse to go after the culprits but the ensuing events are muddled by unclear facts, false testimony, old scores, secrets, murder and stolen money. When the anxiously awaited posse returns with neither prisoners nor the stolen money, we learn in flashback what happened. Having been cheated by Sampson Drune, a rancher, his brother and his son have robbed him and fled. A posse led by Drune took off after them and although unwanted, the town's drunken Sheriff joins them. The Sheriff's influence on Jed, the adopted son of Drune, was the key to Jed later revealing who actually killed Drune, the robbers, and what happened to the money. —Maurice VanAuken <mvanauken@a1access.net> Complicated by flash-backs and flash-forwards, a posse of basically honest citizens track down a trio of outlaws responsible for robbing a wealthy New Mexico cattle baron, and decide to keep the recovered money for themselves. Honest Sheriff John Frazier (Broderick Crawford), an alcoholic, joins the posse and is mortally wounded during the foray and is unaware the cash has not been returned. He is expected to die at any moment and, as far as the greedy men in his posse are concerned, the sooner the better. —Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>

The master sleuth hunts his archenemy, Professor Moriarty, who is planning the crime of the century. When Sherlock Holmes arrives in court moments too late to give evidence against Professor Moriarty, the professor is acquitted. Soon afterward, he develops a scheme for stealing the crown jewels from the Tower of London. In order to get Holmes involved, he persuades a gaucho flute player to murder a girl. —Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>