Andrew V. McLaglen

Intent on winning a competition in place of her distinguished late father, beautiful young heiress Dale takes on the guise of a man and competes in his spot, embarking on a car race that crosses the unforgiving Sahara desert. Young beauty Dale is determined to finish what her late father started; racing his custom built race car across the grueling deserts of Africa. In a quest to honor a love, she will find that the heat of the African desert comes from more than just its scorching sands. Will her passion flame the fatal desires of others! —DanzWMe After her father dies, young Dale takes his place in a trans-African auto race, but ends up being abducted by a desert sheik. —Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net>

A tough Marshal has a difficult task when his two sons join a gang and rob a bank. J.D. Cahill is the toughest U.S. Marshal they've got, just the sound of his name makes bad guys stop in their tracks, so when his two young boys want to get his attention they decide to rob a bank. They end up getting more than they bargained for. —Christopher D. Ryan <cryan@direct.ca>

A man kidnaps the wife of a cavalry commander in order to exchange her for a Gatling gun that's being sold by a gun runner. Joe Baker has a dream. He wants to do 'something big.' When he needs a Gatling gun to accomplish this, he seeks out a black marketeer. The price he wants for the gun? A woman! So Baker kidnaps a woman off of the stagecoach, only to find that she is the wife of the commandant of the local Cavalry detachment. Things get further complicated when a girl named Dover McBride shows up. She has come to force Baker to marry her and return east, as he promised to do four years earlier. —Alfred Jingle Intent on making it big--before his tough fiancée, Dover McBride, arrives from cold Pennsylvania--instead, the grizzled renegade, Joe Baker, finds himself back to square one and penniless. Still unsuccessful after four long years in the dusty New Mexico Territory, Joe knows that time is running up; however, in a desperate attempt to fulfil his aspiration, he summons up the strength for one last heist. As a result, one precarious agreement and yet another bad decision later, Baker has one more problem to deal with: the veteran U.S. Cavalry commander, Colonel Morgan. Under those circumstances, will Joe manage to pull off a surprise victory? Is he destined to do Something Big in his life? —Nick Riganas

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.

In 1843, a former U.S. Senator leads a wagon train of settlers to Oregon, but his megalomania leads to growing dissatisfaction with his leadership. In the mid nineteenth century, Senator William J. Tadlock leads a group of settlers overland in a quest to start a new settlement in the Western U.S. Tadlock is a highly principled and demanding taskmaster who is as hard on himself as he is on those who have joined his wagon train. He clashes with one of the new settlers, Lije Evans, who doesn't quite appreciate Tadlock's ways. Along the way, the families must face death and heartbreak and a sampling of frontier justice when one of them accidentally kills a young Indian boy. —garykmcd Strongly motivated by the beautiful utopia he has been nurturing for so long, the autocratic U.S. Senator, William Tadlock, leaves the Congress to lead a wagon train of audacious pioneers from Missouri to the promised land of Oregon, in 1843. With the help of the experienced scout, Dick Summers, the slow and almost defenceless caravan of impatient settlers ventures into the long and rugged Oregon Trail, as martinet Tadlock's sacred rules and heightening self-involvement threaten to jeopardise the entire expedition. However, as leadership and conflict go hand-in-hand, the stern senator's leadership skills will be put to the test, when the horrid death of the Great Sioux Chief's young son demands justice. Can the visionary William Tadlock carry out the mission successfully? —Nick Riganas Missouri 1843: Former U.S. Senator Tadlock and scout Summers lead a trek of settlers to Oregon, through more than one thousand five hundred fifty miles of mostly Indian territory. Tadlock drives his people mercilessly. When his ambition costs some people's lives, his ability is questioned. —Tom Zoerner <Tom.Zoerner@informatik.uni-erlangen.de>

In 1864, widower Charlie Anderson is a prosperous Virginia farmer. Together with his six sons (Jacob, James, Nathan, John, Henry and Boy), Charlie runs his farm without the help of slaves. Because of this, he ignores the Civil War raging around them and discourages his sons from enlisting. Other family members are his only daughter, Jennie, and James's pregnant wife Ann. Charlie's wife Martha died sixteen years earlier at the birth of their youngest son, known as Boy. Charlie regularly visits Martha's grave and talks to her. It was her last request that the family attend church each Sunday. They are usually late and create a disturbance while looking for seats. The family is visited by a group of men who have come to requisition supplies and horses for the Confederate Army. Charlie refuses to let them have anything and explains his stance on the war: why should he fight or allow his sons to fight for a cause that does not concern them. He is reminded that by law the men can take whatever they want. A fist fight ensues, which Jennie eventually stops by shooting the derringer out of one of the men's hand with a rifle. She orders them off the property and they leave. A regiment of soldiers stop at the farm and the captain attempts to conscript the Anderson sons. Charlie refuses to let them go, as usual. A skirmish occurs shortly afterward and the Confederate soldiers are killed. Charlie sends two of his sons to the Confederate camp to report the skirmish so the bodies can be collected. Jennie is being courted by Sam, a young Confederate officer. He asks for and receives permission to marry her. Charlie gives him some sage advice about marriage. Jennie wears her mother's wedding gown. Just as the ceremony ends, a soldier who had ridden up earlier and entered the church tells Sam he is wanted back at camp. Jennie is left alone at the altar, wondering if she will ever see her bridegroom again. Ann goes into labor after the wedding and gives birth to a daughter. Charlie is delighted to have a granddaughter. She is eventually named Martha, after her grandmother. While exploring with his African American friend, Gabriel, Boy is taken prisoner by Yankee soldiers because he is wearing a Confederate cap he had found floating in the river while fishing earlier. They don't believe he is not a soldier because he's carrying a rifle and has the Confederate cap. Gabriel runs back to tell Charlie, who says that now the war concerns them. Gabriel was told by a black Yankee soldier that he is free and can go wherever he wants. That night Charlie and his sons, all but James who will stay with Ann, pack up and ride out to visit prison camps in search of Boy. Jennie insists on going with them. They search a local Yankee camp and get directed to a train depot where they are refused permission to search for Boy. They later hijack the prison train but there is no sign of Boy. However, Jennie is reunited with Sam, who was on board the train. Charlie tells the prisoners they are free. They ask Sam, as the only officer, what they should do. He tells them to go home as the war is lost. That night the family makes camp in a deserted house. Charlie fixes up the bedroom so Jennie and Sam can have their wedding night. The next day they discuss what to do now. Their food supplies are almost gone and the horses need rest. Charlie admits that they are unlikely to find Boy. They start for home and Jacob is shot and killed by a young soldier who is startled awake while on guard duty. Charlie beats the boy and nearly kills him before he realizes that he is the same age as his missing son. Boy has been in a prison camp but escapes while being loaded on a paddle wheeler with other prisoner. They travel south but are caught up in a battle. Boy's leg is injured and he can't move. To his surprise, Gabriel, now wearing a Yankee uniform, picks him up and carries him to safety. Meanwhile, the Anderson farm was invaded by three Confederate army drifters. They kill James and Ann but do not harm the baby. Dr. Witherspoon, the family physician and a personal friend, discovers the bodies two days later. Having no idea where the rest of the family is, he arranges a nurse for the baby and has James and Ann buried near Martha. The Andersons arrive home and are devastated at the news. Jacob is buried with his brother and sister-in-law and mother in the family graveyard. It is hard for Charlie to sit down to a table with so many empty chairs. He chokes up and goes to the graveyard, where he once again talks to Martha. He tells her she will like Ann. When the church bells start to ring, Charlie realizes it is Sunday. He orders his surprised family to get ready for church. As usual they are late and the baby is fussy. Then the door opens again and Boy limps in, leaning on a crutch. The congregation begins singing the Doxology as Charlie embraces his son.

Wealthy rancher G. W. McLintock uses his power and influence in the territory to keep the peace between farmers, ranchers, land-grabbers, Indians and corrupt government officials. George Washington McLintock, "GW" to friends and foes alike, is a cattle baron and the richest man in the territory. He anxiously awaits the return of his daughter Becky who has been away at school for the last two years. He's also surprised to see that his wife Katherine has also returned. She had left him some years before without really explaining what he had done, but she does make the point of saying that she's returned to take their daughter back to the State Capitol with her. GW is highly respected by everyone around him, including the farmers who are pouring into the territories with free grants of land and the Indians who are under threat of being relocated to another reservation. Between his wife, his headstrong daughter, the crooked land agent and the thieving government Indian agent, GW tries to keep the peace and do what is best for everyone. —garykmcd On pins and needles all day, waiting for the return of his daughter from college, the influential and self-made cattle king, mining, and timber baron, George Washington McLintock, has one more visitor: his estranged and obstinate wife, Katherine. With his empire carved out of a wilderness, the sudden arrival of settlers creates extra tension among the ranchers, and to further complicate matters, the territorial governor, Cuthbert H. Humphrey, bullies the local Comanche Indians, forcing them to abandon their land. For a small and dusty town near Mesa Verde, this is a bit more excitement than one could handle. Now, the Fourth of July celebration is just around the corner. Will G.W. reconcile with Katherine? —Nick Riganas

A locksmith gets caught up in a bank robbery. There's $200,000 in a Los Angeles safety-deposit box that mobster Willis Trent would like to have, so he gets two-timing, double-dealing Flo Randall to get the box number for him. He offers locksmith Tommy Dancer $5,000 to make the key but Tommy refuses. Trent threatens to harm Tommy's girl friend, Betty Turner, and Tommy gives in and goes to the bank. In a few nerve-racking minutes, Tommy makes the key and pockets the $200,000 for himself. Trent sends word that he has kidnapped Betty and the ransom is $200,000. —Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net> The mobster Willis Trent is informed by one of his gangsters that the locksmith Tommy Dancer is efficient and fast in his work. Willis befriends Tommy in a bowling alley and invites him to open a trunk at his home. Tommy accepts the job and is then also invited to Willis' party, where he meets the wealthy Betty Turner. Later Tommy and Betty go back to his place and Betty forgets her fur stole when she goes home. The next morning, Tommy returns the fur to Betty and they go on another date that night. Willis offers five thousand dollars to Tommy to make the keys of the safe deposit box no. 315 in the Hollywood Bank that belongs to the rival criminal and head of gambling Paul De Camp and has two hundred thousand dollars of illegal money. Tommy turns down the offer, but Willis threatens to harm Betty's face to achieve his goal. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

A lone cowboy, Ben Stride (Randolph Scott) in the driving rain walks into a camp where two men sit around a fire. He complains that his horse was eaten by Chirakawa Indians as he recounts the story of a robbery of a Wells Fargo station and a killing by seven gunmen back in Silver Springs where he was sheriff. When one of the two men asks if he has found any of the culprits Stride looks at them and says that he has found two as he immediately dispatches the cowboys. As Stride continues to track down the other men responsible for the robbery and killing, he encounters John Greer (Walter Reed) and his wife in a wagon heading for Flora Vista where the criminals are believed to have fled. Stride helps the couple out and accompanies them for a while when they encounter Bill Masters (Lee Marvin) and his partner who are aware of the robbery and killing, and it comes out that it was Stride's wife who was killed by the criminals. Masters is not one of the criminals Strides seeks but someone who has been jailed by Stride in the past and the former sheriff views him suspiciously. It becomes clear that as they group approaches their destination Stride will have to have to shoot it out with the bad men who have killed his wife, and Masters, although not responsible for any crime thus far states clearly to Stride that he intends to obtain the Wells Fargo money for himself but as they near Flora Vista where the crooks are holed up an interesting detail comes out that links John Greer and his wife to Stride's fate.

Two bank robbers abandon their wounded partner to the posse and run with the loot but their partner, after serving time in prison, seeks revenge. Three outlaw buddies rob a bank, but one of them is wounded. His two partners and his girlfriend take his share of the loot and run off, leaving him to be captured by the sheriff. Years later, after he gets out of prison, he goes in search of his double-crossing partners and his faithless girlfriend. He finds them in a semi-deserted, run-down town, but instead of killing them right away, he decides to play cat-and-mouse with them first. —frankfob2@yahoo.com In 1885, Rem Anderson teams up with the outlaws Matt Rankin and Ralph Farley expecting to heist the Palace City bank and buy a ranch to live with his girlfriend Janice "Jan". However Rem is wounded and left behind by his comrades and girlfriend. He is arrested by a posse but he does not rat them. One year later, Rem is released from prison and seeks out his former partners. He meets the gunslinger Billy Deal that gives the name of the town where Farley and Rankin are. On the arrival, Rem meets Sheriff Morton and Deputy Lee; then he finds his horse that had been stolen by Farley. What will Rem do with Farley, Rankin and Jan? —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil In the Arizona Territory of 1880, Rem Anderson (James Arrness) is wounded during a bank holdup. With him are Matt Rankin (Robert Wilkie) and Ralph Farley (Don Megowan). They ride to a rendezvous at the house of Jan (Angie Dickinson), Rem's girlfriend. Here, Matt and Ralph decide to desert him and force Jan to accompany them. Rem is captured by a sheriff's posse and sentenced to a year in jail. Rem vows to find them, and finally locates them in Gunther Wells. Jan is killed by Rankin when she tries to warn Rem, and Farley is killed by a wild shot in the ensuing gunfight. Rem then follows Rankin, where he reduces him unconscious after a vicious fist-fight, and turns him over to Sheriff Morton (Emile Meyer.) —Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>