Ann Doran

Shortly after moving to Los Angeles with his parents, 17-year-old Jim Stark (James Dean) enrolls at Dawson High School. In the opening scene, Jim is brought into the police station for public drunkenness. When his mother, father and grandmother arrive at the police station to retrieve him, conflicts in Jim's family situation are introduced as he explains to the arresting officer. His parents are often fighting. His weak-willed father (Jim Backus) often tries to defend Jim, but Jim's picky and domineering mother always wins the arguments for his father cannot find the courage to stand up to his wife. Jim feels betrayed both by this fighting and his father's lack of moral strength, causing feelings of unrest and displacement. This shows up later in the film when he repeatedly asks his father, "What do you do when you have to be a man?" The next day, while trying to conform with fellow students at the school, he becomes involved in a dispute with a local bully named Buzz Gunderson (Corey Allen). While Jim tries to deal with Buzz, he becomes friends with a shy 15-year-old boy, John, who is nicknamed Plato (Sal Mineo), who was also at the police station the night of the opening scene for shooting and killing puppies. Plato idolizes Jim as a father-figure much to Jim's concern. Plato tells Jim that his parents divorced several years ago and are never in Los Angeles. His mother lives away in her hometown and never visits, calls or writes, while his father (a wealthy business executive) is always traveling and avoids comming home, leaving only his housekeeper to look after Plato. Plato experiences many of the same problems as Jim, such as searching for meaning in life and dealing with his absent and selfish parents who "don't understand." In the school hallway, Jim meets Judy (Natalie Wood), whom he also recognizes from the police station the previous night, where she was brought in for being out alone after dark, who originally acts unimpressed by Jim, saying in a sarcastic tone, "I bet you're a real yo-yo." She is apparently the property of Buzz. Judy too has an unhappy homelife when it shows her before going to school when she deals with her unattenative and sexist father who gives all his attention to Judy's younger brother as well as ignors both Judy and his wife for he feels that women are ment only to serve him, and nothing more. That afternoon, Jim goes on a field trip with his science class to the Griffith Observatory. At the Planetarium, he watches a dramatic presentation of the violent death of the universe. After the show, he watches Buzz and his thugs slash a tire of his car for no reason, and then Buzz challenges him to a knife fight, while the gang taunts Jim as a "chicken." Jim reluctantly takes part in the fight and wins, subduing Buzz by holding his switchblade up to his neck before discarding both knifes off a railing. Both Jim and Buzz get slight injuries during the knife fight. Not to be outdone, Buzz and his thugs challenge Jim to a "Chickie Run" with Buzz and Jim racing stolen cars towards an abyss. The one who first jumps out of the car loses and is deemed a "chicken" (coward). That evening, the "game" is held with Judy and several students in attendance to watch. But the race ends in tragedy for Buzz when a strap on the sleeve of his leather jacket becomes looped over a handle on the car door, preventing him from jumping out before the car goes over the cliff. Jim runs home and tries to tell his parents what happened, but quickly becomes frustrated by their failure to understand him and storms out of the house. Jim goes to the police to find the sergeant who took his statement the previous night to tell him about the accident involving Buzz's death, but learns that the police officer is not there. Jim refuses to speak to any policeman and will speak only to the sergeant and he leaves. But Jim is spotted leaving the station by three of Buzz's friends, Crunch (Frank Mazzola), Goon (Dennis Hopper), and another one of Buzz's gang members whom is not named. Mistakenly thinking that Jim told the police about the "Chickie Run", they decide to hunt Jim down to "silence him"... permenently. Jim meets up with Judy and they go to an abandoned mansion to hide out. Plato finds them there (he was the one who told Jim about the house). There they act out a "fantasy family," with Jim as father, Judy as mother and Plato as child. However, Crunch, Goon, and the other boy soon discover them, and terrorize Plato who finally brandishes his mother's handgun that he took from the house, shooting Crunch, and at Jim, and a police officer who investigates, in a clearly unstable state. Plato runs and hides in the Observatory, which is soon besieged by the police. Jim and Judy follow him inside, and Jim convinces Plato to lend him the gun, from which he silently removes the ammunition magazine. When Plato steps out of the observatory, he becomes agitated again at the sight of the police and charges forward, brandishing his weapon. He is fatally shot by a police officer as Jim yells to the police, too late, that he had already removed the bullets. Plato was wearing Jim's jacket at the time, and as a result, Jim's parents (brought to the scene by police) think at first that Jim was shot. Mr. Stark then runs to comfort Jim, who is distraught by Plato's death. Mr. Stark promises to be a stronger father, one that his son can depend on. Thus reconciled, Jim introduces Judy to his parents and they drive off together as dawn starts to break.

On a rainy night in 1928 in a Pennsylvania factory town called Iverstown, 13-year-old Martha Ivers (Janis Wilson) tries to run away from the guardianship of her wealthy aunt, Mrs. Ivers (Judith Anderson), with her friend, the street-smart, poor Sam Masterson (Darryl Hickman). She is caught and taken home, where Martha's tutor, Walter O'Neil Sr., presents his timid son, Walter Jr. (Mickey Kuhn), as the one responsible for Martha's capture. Walter privately tells Martha that despite what his father said, he was not the one who sent authorities on her track, and would never betray her. His father claimed this in order to ingratiate himself with the aunt. Scolded by her aunt, Martha defiantly states her name is not Ivers, but Smith, her father's name. During a power failure, Sam comes for her, but Martha's aunt hears her calling to him from downstairs. While Sam slips out unnoticed, Mrs. Ivers starts beating Martha's kitten with her cane. Martha wrestles the cane away from her aunt and strikes her across the head, causing her to fall down the stairs, accidentally killing her. When the power comes back on, Martha lies about the incident to Walter Sr. Even though Walter Jr. saw everything, he backs her up. The greedy Walter Sr. makes it clear to both Walter Jr. and Martha that he knows what happened but that as long as he and his son stand to benefit, he will play along. Sam leaves town. Seventeen years later, in 1946, Walter Sr. is now dead, and Walter Jr. (Kirk Douglas) is now Iverstown's district attorney and is married to Martha, who has used her inheritance to expand the Ivers milling empire. Their marriage is one-sided; he loves her, but an embittered Walter knows she does not love him, and knows that all she wants is control. Sam (Van Heflin), having been a Sergeant in WWII and an itinerant gambler while he was away, drives into the small town by chance and, after an accident, leaves his car to be repaired. While waiting, he goes to his old home, now a boarding house. He meets attractive Antonia "Toni" Marachek (Lizabeth Scott), who has just been released from jail. She misses her bus. They have a drink together in a hotel bar and spend the night in adjoining rooms in the hotel, sharing an adjoining bath. They had plans to share his car to travel further on. When he is woken in his room by police detectives, notifying him she was picked up for violating her probation, Sam visits Walter to ask him to use his influence to get Toni released for "old time's sake." A suspicious Walter is convinced Sam has blackmail in mind. But when Martha reacts joyfully to seeing Sam, a now jealous Walter forces Toni to set him up. Walter later grills Toni and he threatens her in order to have her set Sam up. At dinner, she was tells Sam she was convicted of a fur coat theft but given probation since it was a first offense. Just then, they are confronted by a man claiming to be her "husband," insisting on fighting Sam. He is ambushed outside by a group who force him into a car, beat him and dump him outside the city. He wakes up at night alongside a county road with a private detective's badge in his fist. But he is too tough to be intimidated. He hitches a ride into town and catches up with Toni before she takes a bus at the depot. She admits setting him up, having been threatened with serving her five years, but that they promised not to hurt him. When the beating fails, Walter makes a half-hearted attempt to kill Sam by grabbing a gun in his desk drawer, but Sam easily disarms him, knocking him out. Walter inadvertently blurts out his fears of blackmail, only to learn that Sam had not witnessed the death. Intrigued, Sam agrees to meet later to discuss things. Through a newspaper archive search, Sam learns that Walter Sr. had presented Martha's version of the 1928 accidental murder to the police: that an intruder murdered Martha's aunt. With that leverage, Walter Sr. had made Martha marry his son. When the police identified a former employee of the aunt as the murderer, the two Walters and Martha frame the innocent man, and he was hanged. Only Walter junior has any qualms about this, which he still has, but the other two, particularly Martha, were too strong for him to go against them. Sam is torn between his old love and his new one with Toni. Although he eventually forgives Toni for betraying him, he and Martha spend an idyllic day together, rekindling his feelings for her. Martha breaks down and laments that he left without her all those years ago, taking her only chance for love and freedom with him. Just after Martha drops off Sam, she finds Walter drunk, and arranging to meet him to settle matters. As he leaves the hotel, Sam tries to keep Toni from leaving him but she refuses to see him hurt again. When Walter drunkenly falls down the stairs, Martha urges Sam to kill her unconscious husband, as Walter had just predicted. Sam instead brings Walter around. Martha realizes Sam won't murder for her, she pulls out a gun and threatens to shoot Sam in "self-defense" as an intruder. Sam tells her it would work if she could get Walter to corroborate her story. Saying he does not believe she will shoot him, Sam turns his back on her and leaves. Martha drops the gun and Walter picks it up. Walter thinks she still loves Sam. Martha says she was afraid Walter would leave her. He embraces and kisses her as she tells him it can be just like nothing ever happened. Walter pulls out the gun and points at her midriff. She pushes the gun closer to her, puts her thumb over his finger on the trigger and presses. As she is dying, she defiantly states her name is not Martha Ivers, but Martha Smith. Outside, Sam hears the shot. He runs toward the mansion and sees Walter holding Martha's body. Walter then shoots himself. In the final scene, Sam is packing his suitcase in his hotel room when Toni emerges from her room next door, having waited. They drive away from Iverstown. Sam says to Toni, "Don't look back, you know what happened to Lot's wife." Toni says, "Whose wife?" And Sam says, "Sam's wife." Toni smiles and says, "Sam's wife."

A couple's big dreams give way to a life full of unforeseen sadness and unexpected joy. As tears well up in her eyes, once-happy Julie listens to her favourite songs, reminiscing about the ups and downs of her life. Indeed, Julie and her husband, Roger, have always been there for each other through thick and thin. However, it seems that the love is gone. But, before leaving the house, Julie decides to listen to their old, memory-laden records for one last time, eager to relive all the fundamental stages of her love story with Roger. Now, a flurry of mixed emotions overcomes Julie. Is all hope lost? —Nick Riganas As Julie prepares to leave her husband Roger, she begins to play through a stack of recordings, each of which reminds her of events in their lives together. One of them is the song that was playing when she and Roger first met in a music store. Other songs remind her of their courtship, their marriage, their desire for a child, and the joys and sorrows that they have shared. A flood of memories comes back to her as she ponders their present problems and how they arose. —Snow Leopard

When Dr. Savaard's experiment in cryonics is interrupted by the short-sighted authorities, his volunteer dies, and he is condemned to death. He vows vengeance if he can survive his own hanging. Mad scientist Dr. Henryk Savaard is obsessed with bringing the dead back to life. The police are alerted to Savaard's activities, however, and Savaard is arrested, convicted, and sentenced to hang. He vows revenge on the judge, jury, and district attorney. After the hanging, his assistant claims the corpse and uses Savaard's technique to bring the doctor back to life. Now the mad scientist can seek sweet revenge on his perceived enemies. —Kelly/RMS