Andrew Prine

In 1863, the Northern and Southern forces fight at Gettysburg in the decisive battle of the American Civil War. The four and 1/4 hour depiction of the historical and personal events surrounding and including the decisive American civil war battle features thousands of civil war re-enactors marching over the exact ground that the federal army and the army of North Virginia fought on. The defense of the Little Round Top and Pickett's Charge are highlighted in the actual three day battle which is surrounded by the speeches of the commanding officers and the personal reflections of the fighting men. Based upon the novel 'The Killer Angels'.

Sunday, March 3, 1946, in the small town of Texarkana, Arkansas, Sammy and Linda Mae are out parking in a car. The car hood pops open and a man wearing a hood over his face takes something from the engine. Sammy realizes that someone is out there and fruitlessly tries starting the car as the hooded man breaks the drivers side car window with a pipe and pulls Sammy out. Linda Mae screams, and the man goes for her as well. Linda Mae is found lying severely wounded on the side of the road the following morning and both she and Sammy are taken to a nearby hospital. A doctor tells Deputy Ramsey and Sheriff Barker that Linda Mae was "bitten" and "literally chewed" on different parts of her body by the assailant. Police Chief Sullivan asks about the Lovers Lane Case and he tells the other officers to warn people about parking on lonely roads. Ramsey states his belief that the mysterious person will strike again. On March 24, Howard and his girlfriend, Emma Lou, go out driving in the rain. After hearing gunshots, Ramey, patrolling in his car, finds Howard's parked car, but no one around. Ramsey hears more gunshots and in the woods he finds Howard and Emma Lou, both dead, having been shot several times. The hooded killer gets in the parked car and drives away. Since the killer, now known as "The Phantom" seems to have no motive and the townspeople begin to dread sundown. A few days later, Ramsey goes to the nearby train station to meet Captain Morales, a famous criminal investigator and Texas Ranger who arrives in Texarkana to find the killer. Morales has the officers set up a curfew for the entire town. Many people are on the case, including a few associates of the FBI whom also arrive in town to assist. But a number of criminals and crazy people come forward admitting to the murders, while a horde of other citizens are demanding protection. Ramsey tells Morales that on April 14, twenty-one more days after the second attack, the killer may strike again. Morales sets up decoys (cops posing as couples in unmarked parked cars). That very night at the local Junior and High Schools Prom, many people are leaving under the watchful eyes of the police officers nearby. Peggy gets her trombone and leaves with her boyfriend Roy. Roy suggests parking at their favorite spot, despite Peggy's wariness over the recent murders. After making out, the two of them nod off and wake up in their car at 2:40 in the morning. As Roy starts the car and begins to drive away, the Phantom suddenly appears and jumps on their car, grabs Roy and causes both of them to fall out. The Phantom whacks Roy on the head with a pistol and chases Peggy down, and ties her to a tree. A dazed Roy gets up and tries to run away, but the killer shoots him dead. The killer gets Peggy's trombone, attaches a knife to the end, and "plays" the instrument, stabbing Peggy in the back a few times, killing her. The next day, Morales is upset that the Phantom was able to kill again with all the law officers out looking for him. In a nearby diner, Morales, Ramsey and the group talk to Dr. Kress, who says that the Phantom is apparently motivated by a strong sex drive and will probably not get caught. He also says that the killings are like a game of the Phantom. Morales asks the doctor if the killer is insane, in which Dr. Kress replies "oh, yes!" At a nearby table, an unseen man, (wearing the killer's boots and slacks) stands up and walks out of the diner unnoticed after he has apparently heard everything the officers were talking about. Back at the station, Morales talks to a man named Johnson, who says that he was held at gunpoint by a man claiming to have killed five people. Morales and Ramsey get a call about an armed man. They spot him speeding away from a store and chase him down. The man, Eddie, is arrested after they find that he is driving a stolen car. Johnson identifies him as the man with the gun. Under interrogation, Eddie says that he is the Phantom, but Morales does not believe him and correctly suspects that Eddie is just another nutcase who wants to confess to being the killer in order to gain publicity and fame for it. On Friday, May 3, Helen drives away after grocery shopping and is unknowingly followed by the unseen killer who is identified by his familiar boots. While she is at home in a remote farmhouse, her husband, Floyd, in the living room, is sitting in a armchair reading a newspaper when the Phantom walks up to the window and shoots him twice with a silenced pistol. Helen only hears the breaking glass and enters the living room to see Floyd fall out of his chair to the floor dead with two bullet wounds in the back of his head and neck. Helen runs to a phone to call the police when the killer bursts into the house through the front door and shoots Helen twice in the face. While the Phantom enters the living room to look at Floyd's dead body, Helen, despite being shot in her right cheek and shot through her open mouth, manages to crawl out of the house through the back door and stumbles into a cornfield. The Phantom follows her out with a pick ax. After a cat-and-mouse game of hiding in the cornfield, Helen gets to a nearby house and bangs on the door and windows yelling for help. A concerned farmer, armed with a shotgun, comes out to help her in. The killer, seeing the man with a gun, angrily flees. Another few weeks later, Ramsey and Morales get a call about an abandoned car that fits the description of the car Ramsey saw that rainy night. They find the car and they get some shotguns from their police car and run off into the woods to look for the Phantom. They find the Phantom walking around an old quarry, walking around with the hood still on him. Morales and Ramsey chase the Phantom through the woods and to railroad tracks where the Phantom jumps over the tracks and a moving train gets between them. Morales fires under the moving train and hits the killer in his left leg. The Phantom manages to stumble away into the woods on the other side of the tracks. Over the next few days, police officers and Bloodhound dogs search the woods and the nearby swamps, but the wounded killer is not found. Afterwards, the killings stop, but the fear continues on to this day. The voice-over narrator explains that no one ever found out what happened to the Phantom. In the final scene, during the Christmas season of 1976, the film 'The Town That Dreaded Sundown' premieres in Texarkana and the shoes of the Phantom are seen on someone standing in line. The voice-over narrator details the fates of each of the main characters: Captain J.D. Morales never stopped looking for the Phantom Killer. He returned to his home in Laredo, Texas later that same year and kept digging and searching for evidence for the next decade in one of America's most baffling and unsolved cases. As of present day 1976, he lives in Dallas, Texas and is retired from the Texas Rangers. The Texarkana Police Chief R.J. Sullivan was re-elected for three more terms before he retired and died in 1970. Texarkana Sheriff Otis Barker was also re-elected for several more terms and never stopped working on the Phantom Killer case until he died in 1966. Helen Reed recovered from her injuries after several weeks in a hospital and is currently living in Texarkana, Arkansas. Sammy Fuller and Linda Mae Jenkins both moved away from Texarkana after recovering from their injuries and their whereabouts are unknown. Deputy Sheriff Norman Ramsey served the rest of his life as a police officer in Miller County, Arkansas. He died in 1973.

In the summer of 1942, American Lieutenant Colonel Robert T. Frederick (William Holden), a War Department staff officer with no prior combat or command experience, is summoned to Britain where he is selected by Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten (Patric Knowles) to raise a commando force composed of both American and Canadian personnel for operations in German-occupied Norway. Robert had written a report criticizing this plan of Mountbatten and was summoned to explain his position. Mountbatten refuses to back down, even after Robert says that there is no extraction plan for the troops from Norway. Mountbatten assigns Robert to raise this brigade. Back in the U.S., Frederick arrives at the derelict Fort William Henry Harrison in Montana where he receives his American troops - all of whom are jailbirds, never-do-wells, and misfits. When the hand-picked elite Canadian contingent arrives, there is immediate friction with the Americans and chaos ensues. Robert's team includes Maj. Cliff Bricker (Vince Edwards) (who joined the paratroopers as he hated to fly). The camp is in a dilapidated state and Robert says Cliff is the biggest hustler in the army and asks him to arrange all the supplies the camp needs. Capt. Cardwell (Tom Stern), is the Garrison CO of Fort William Henry Harrison US troops include Pvt./Cpl. Omar Greco (Richard Jaeckel) (who thinks about escaping the camp), Pvt. Billy 'Bronc' Guthrie (Bill Fletcher), Pvt./Cpl. Rockwell W. "Rocky" Rockman (Claude Akins), Pvt. Theodore Ransom (Andrew Prine) (who went AWOL from his previous unit after he struck the CO after he serenaded his girlfriend. He walked into Fort Harrison voluntarily). Canadians are led by Maj. Alan Crown (Cliff Robertson), Cpl./Sgt. Peacock (Jack Watson), Pvt. Henri Laurent (Jean-Paul Vignon), Sgt. Patrick O'Neill (Jeremy Slate) (close combat specialist). The rabble-rousing Americans needle the docile Canadians and try to provoke them. There is healthy competition between the Americans and the Canadians. Crown insists that Robert should take advantage of the Canadian combat experience, but Robert points out that Canadians lost at Dunkirk, and he is training the unit to win. Robert asks Crown to get O'Neill to beat the crap out of Rockwell in the mess hall in order to demonstrate the superior training and fighting abilities of the Canadians. O'Neill takes command of the hand-to-hand combat training for the brigade. The brigade is trained to ski on the icy slopes near the camp. The Canadians are under strict order not to fight the Americans. The 2 units go to a bar, where the local lumberjacks' barge in and insult the Canadians. The Canadians give as much room to the locals as possible and are looking to avoid a fight. But when the lumberjacks hit Sgt Peacock, the Americans come to their aid and beat the locals in the bar brawl. This brings the 2 units closer together as one team. Robert is delighted to see the brigade coming together, but orders $1/month to deducted from each man's pay till the $3000 damage bill is repaid. By the time Frederick manages to overcome the national differences and mold the First Special Service Force into a highly trained commando unit, he is informed that the Allied High Command have had a change of heart and offered the Norwegian missions to British troops. Left without a role, the brigade is ordered to be disbanded, and its soldiers reassigned. Frederick remains undeterred and manages to persuade Lieutenant General Mark Clark (Michael Rennie) (Commander of the U.S. Fifth Army) to give his men a chance to prove themselves with a new mission in Italy. Clark's skeptical deputy commander, Major General Maxwell Hunter (Carroll O'Connor), orders the 1st Special Service Force to reconnoiter a German garrison in a well defended (and surrounded by mountains) Italian town, but Frederick goes one better and captures the entire town. He devises a plan to enter the town by trekking over a mountain and then entering the town by hiking 2 miles in ice cold water of the mountain river. Robert and his men enter the town by stealth and kill the German's one by one, even taking over their tanks, defending the city. Gradually, they take a large number of German soldiers as their prisoners. In the process, they earn the nickname "Die Teufelsbrigade" - The Devil's Brigade (given to them by the enemy CO). Robert earns the respect of his men, who celebrate his birthday in a grand style. Convinced now of the ability of Frederick's men, Lieutenant General Clark promotes Frederick to full Colonel and gives them a task no other Allied troops have managed to accomplish - to capture Monte la Difensa. The town is a key point on the way to Rome. Allied armies have tried to take the town for 3 weeks, with heavy casualties, and failed each time. Facing severe obstacles, the Devil's Brigade attacks the undefended eastern side of the mountain by scaling a cliff the Germans believed could not be climbed. The Allied forces pound an artillery barrage from the front, diverting the German attention, allowing Robert's men to climb the cliff in 3 hrs. The cliff side of the plateau was poorly protected, and Robert's brigade was able to climb on top. Reaching the top as a unit (Germans were occupied with the artillery barrage from the front side), they take the stronghold despite considerable losses, allowing the Allies to continue their advance north into Italy. The Brigade continued to fight many more battles throughout Italy till Rome. They built a myth about themselves and too many good soldiers died to keep it true.

On a night in 1882, at the Alabama home of Captain and Mrs. Keller, a doctor examines a baby in a crib while her parents stand anxiously by. At last he smiles, and tells them the crisis has passed, she will recover from the illness. Her parents respond with joy and relief. Captain Keller (Victor Jory) goes with the doctor to see him out. Mrs. Keller (Inga Swenson) stays with the baby, smiling, talking, gently tucking the covers around her. Something about the baby's face catches her attention. She is at first puzzled, then frightened. She calls out for Captain Keller, who returns at a run. She blurts out her fears to him, he grabs up the lantern, and waves it before the baby's eyes, and screams her name in an attempt to get a reaction...all without effect. As a result of her illness, Baby Helen is now irrevocably blind and deaf. By 1887, Helen (Patty Duke) has grown into a healthy, but extremely difficult, child. The adults in the household--Captain and Mrs. Keller, Great Aunt Ev (Kathleen Comegys), Helen's older half-brother James (Andrew Prine) and the domestic help--have all given up trying to communicate with her or control her. She is allowed to wander wherever she wants, and do as she pleases. But after an incident in which she flings her new baby sister violently out of her cradle so she can use it for her doll, it is clear something must be done about her, and soon. Mrs. Keller can't bear the thought of having her shut up in an asylum, so Captain Keller reluctantly agrees to find a teacher/companion for her. Annie Sullivan (Anne Bancroft), a 20-year-old Irish-American girl, newly graduated from the Perkins Institute for the Blind in South Boston, is recommended for the position. She is still recovering from a series of operations that have only partially restored her own vision, she has a reputation for being stubborn and is haunted by a tragic childhood. But she has a plan, and is greatly determined to make a place for herself in the world, and a better world for her new student. At the Keller's home, her first meeting with Helen is promising. She quickly recognizes Helen's intelligence and curiosity. She has brought a doll for the little girl and Helen is delighted with it. Annie seizes the opportunity to introduce Helen to the finger alphabet for the deaf by spelling the word "doll" against Helen's palm. Intrigued, Helen spells it back to her, imitating the letters perfectly. Pleased, Annie tries another word...but Helen is more interested in the doll than the new finger game. Annie makes the mistake of trying to take the doll away from her, and Helen uses the doll to lambaste her in the mouth. While Annie is surveying the damage, Helen quickly locks her in the bedroom, takes the key and runs away. Annie is able to get her employers' attention and alert them to her dilemma. In the uproar that follows, Mrs. Keller searches Helen for the key, but doesn't find it, so Captain Keller decides the best way to effect a rescue is to put a ladder up to the bedroom window, climb it, and carry Annie back down. Despite Annie's protests that she can climb down herself, she makes the descent seated precariously on Captain Keller's shoulder. Crisis averted, Captain Keller orders everyone back inside to sit down to lunch. Annie stays behind for a moment or two to watch Helen, who is sitting quietly by the water pump on the well cover, holding her doll. After a moment, she gets up and furtively feels around for anyone else who might still be present. At last, satisfied that she's alone, she takes the key to Annie's bedroom door out of her mouth, and drops it into the well through a crack in the well cover. Annie observes this with mingled amusement and irritation...and she promises Helen (and herself) that she won't be gotten rid of so easily. Next day at breakfast, Annie watches in disgust as Helen wanders about the table, taking food from each person's plate with her hands, and cramming it into her mouth. The adults pay no attention to her, obviously accustomed to this behavior. When Helen reaches for Annie's plate, Annie quietly fends off her hand. Helen is shocked at first, considers what has happened--and reaches again, all the more determined to take something from this stranger's plate. A scuffle ensues...Captain Keller intercedes, explaining to Annie that they've found this to be the easiest course, and the only way they can have a relatively civilized meal. But Annie decides it's high time to begin her student's education...starting with ordinary table manners. She chases the family out of the house, and the battle is on. It's a long and violent process...Helen is as determined as Annie, and both girls know this is more than just a fight about plates and napkins. After a struggle which lasts into the afternoon and leaves both girls battered and bruised, Annie emerges as the victor...barely. Afterward, Helen runs outside to her mother for comfort, and Mrs. Keller angrily asks Annie what happened. "She ate from her own plate," replies Annie, softly. "She ate with a spoon. Herself. And she folded her napkin." Mrs. Keller receives this news in complete wonder, her anger gone in a moment. "Folded her napkin?" she repeats. "The room's a wreck," Annie says, wryly, "but her napkin is folded." Annie turns wearily back into the house. "Folded her napkin," Mrs. Keller murmurs, "My Helen folded her napkin," as she holds Helen close in her arms Captain Keller is in a thundering rage. He wants that "half-blind Yankee schoolgirl" gone immediately, but Mrs. Keller persuades him to let her stay. Nevertheless, he tells Annie, there are a number of conditions that must be met. He begins to lay down the law, but Annie interrupts him. She tells them that she has no hope of being able to make any progress with Helen under the current circumstances. Mrs. Keller pleads with her not to give up on Helen. She tells her how bright Helen was when she was a baby...able to ask for water (to say wah-wah) at a remarkably early age...and how heartbreaking it has been to feel her slipping farther away with each passing year...and how like the lost lamb in the parable, she loves her all the more. Annie listens, not unsympathetically; nevertheless, she tells her bluntly that she thinks Helen's greatest handicap is not deafness and blindness, but her family's love and pity. "Why, even a dog you housebreak," she scolds. But Annie has no intention of giving up on Helen..."Why, only today I saw how much needs to be done," she declares. She has been exploring the grounds, and has found a little cottage that isn't used, except during the hunting season. She asks that they furnish this cottage with a couple of beds, a table and a couple of chairs, and let the cook's young son, Percy (Robert Darden), sleep there to be available for errands. She instructs them to bring Helen there after a long buggy ride, so she won't know where she is, and leave her there, completely in her care. "She must be dependent on me for everything...for food, for water...even for the very air she breathes," she says, because any of these might be an avenue through which she can reach her. Mrs. Keller eagerly agrees, and after a while so does Captain Keller...reluctantly...for two weeks only. After that, whether she has been able to reach her or not, they must both return to the main house. Preparations are made, and Helen arrives at the cottage. She is pleased to find some of her favorite toys and clothes waiting for her, in a basket in the middle of the floor. Then she has a sudden premonition of something amiss, and begins to make the sign that means she wants her mother. Her parents quickly withdraw, and as Helen gropes around the room, she encounters Annie. In rage and horror at being left alone with this hated person, Helen goes wild, trashing the house and its contents. Physically and emotionally exhausted, she finally falls asleep, clutching her doll. Annie hits on a plan to get Helen to tolerate her: She wakes Percy, and brings him in from the other room, and has him stand near Helen. Helen recoils at first, then recognizes him, and is overjoyed to have him there. Annie sits on the other side of Percy, takes his hand, and begins to show him how to spell using the finger signs. When Helen discovers what's going on, she tries at first to keep Percy away from Annie, then curiosity overcomes her and she tries to "eavesdrop" on the new signs Annie is teaching...but Annie lightly flicks her hand away. At last, consumed with jealousy, she pushes Percy out of the way, and holds up her own hand defiantly, to be taught the new signs herself. Annie signs the word "milk" against her palm, and Helen repeats it back to her. Annie gives her a glass of milk, and helps her into bed. Detente has been reached, and the work can begin. In the days that follow, Helen learns many new things...how to wash and dress herself, how to feed and clean up after herself...how to climb a tree, how to wade in a creek...how to play hide the thimble. She also learns many new words. But she still doesn't understand what she's doing, and in quiet moments it's clear she misses her mother and her old way of life. Mrs. Keller has been missing Helen, too. As previously agreed, she comes to the cottage each day to watch her without her knowledge, and to learn from Annie the alphabet Helen is also learning. She is pleased with Helen's progress and shares Annie's hope that some spark of understanding will eventually ignite in Helen's brain. But the two weeks Annie was given to teach Helen without family interference is drawing to a close, and Mrs. Keller is not willing to persuade Captain Keller to give her an extension. On the last day, when Mrs. Keller comes for her, Annie must hand her over. Annie feels that she has failed. She watches sadly as Helen goes through the house gathering all the keys from all the doors. She takes them to her mother and puts them in her pocket...a gesture that clearly indicates she wants everything to go back to the way it was. Just before dinner, Captain Keller calls Annie into his study, and hands her a check for her first month's wages, with a little speech of congratulations and gratitude. Annie confides her fear to him, that Helen will slip back into her old habits, and asks his help to keep Helen to what she's learned. He readily agrees...and then invites her to a special homecoming dinner for Helen, featuring all her favorite foods. They sit down, and grace is said, and Annie hands Helen her napkin...and watches as she drops it on the floor. It was very subtly done...could have been an accident. Annie picks it up, and puts it back on her lap...Helen removes it, and drops it on the floor again. Annie rises to take Helen from the table, but she flees to her mother for comfort. Mrs. Keller tries to smooth things over, saying that it's only a napkin, nothing breakable. "And everything I've taught her is?" retorts Annie. Mrs. Keller hesitates, then relents, handing Helen over to Annie. But Captain Keller intervenes this time, saying there is no need to discipline the child on her first night back. He sits Helen down, and fills a plate for her, hands her a spoon, and goes back to his own place. Helen throws the spoon across the room, grabs a handful of food and tries to stuff it into her mouth. Annie grabs her and drags her away from the table. In the struggle that follows, Helen douses Annie with the contents of the water pitcher, and Annie grabs the pitcher and Helen, and storms majestically out of the room. Captain Keller begins to follow, intent on intervening again, but his way is blocked by his son, James...who finally finds the courage to tell his father he is wrong...that he must back down and allow this Yankee girl to teach Helen the discipline she needs...so that she can go on learning. Outside, Annie drags Helen to the pump, to make her refill the pitcher. Helen is desperately making her sign for her mother, and Annie says coldly, "She's not here." She makes Helen hold the pitcher under the pump, while she works the pump handle. As the cold water pours over the pitcher and Helen's hand, Annie automatically spells the word "water" against her free hand. "W-A-T-E-R, water," she says aloud, a lesson she has repeated many times. "It has a name, and the name stands for the thing..." She stops, noticing that Helen is standing transfixed, a look of profound realization dawning on her face. The pitcher drops from her hands and shatters. Something is coming to her out of the past. The water from the pump is dripping on her hands. "Wah.....Wah...." she says, with great difficulty...."Wah....Wah." The water has stopped flowing. Helen hits the faucett frantically, to indicate she wants it to flow again. Annie pumps, and the water flows over Helen's hands again. "Wah....Wah..." she says...and reaches for Annie's hand to spell the word against her palm. Annie puts Helen's hands on her face and nods to confirm that she is correct. Helen grabs the pump handle and pumps wildly herself, then holding Annie's hand under the stream of water, she spells the word against her palm again. With Helen's hands on her face, Annie nods again: this is, indeed, water. She knows! The connection has been made, the spark has ignited, and now Helen knows! And suddenly she realizes that this is only the start...that there is much, much more for her to learn, and she wants to know it all, everything, all at once! In a frenzy, she runs around, dragging Annie after her, touching things and then holding out her hand for Annie to spell their names. Annie follows, spelling to her as fast as she can, and she calls out for Mrs. Keller to come out. The whole family spills out of the house, and when Helen bumps against her mother and father, Annie spells each of their names to her in turn, and cries out to them jubilantly that Helen finally knows! As they embrace her, Annie goes back to sit by the pump on the well cover, overcome with emotion. After a few moments, Helen pulls free from her sobbing parents, and finds her way over to Annie. Shyly, she points toward her...she wants to know her name...this wonderful stranger who has turned the light back on in her mind, and put the world into her hand. Annie spells the word "Teacher" against her palm. Helen goes back to her mother, reaches into her pocket for the door keys she cached there earlier. She spells "Teacher" against her mother's palm, and brings the keys back to Annie. Later that night, Annie sits alone in a rocker on the upper porch of the house. A door behind her opens, and Helen comes out to her. She kisses Annie and cuddles into her lap. Lost and found...rescuer and rescued...combatants and companions...two turbulent souls, at peace with each other, and themselves, at last.