Arthur Franz

During the Civil War, Mexican cattleman Alvarez Kelly supplies the Union with cattle until Confederate Colonel Tom Rossiter's hungry men force Kelly to change his customers. Suave former Texan cattleman Alvarez Kelly now living in Mexico has little interest in the Civil War except to make some money. But after a long drive to deliver cattle to the Union he finds himself kidnapped by Confederate Colonel Tom Rossiter. With the hungry troops and civilians surrounded in Richmond by the Union army the Colonel intends, one way or the other, to persuade Kelly to help steal the herd and move it into town. Confederate money has no appeal so the Colonel resorts to other means with unexpected results. —Jeremy Perkins {J-26}

The daring exploits of a submarine commander whose mission is to chart the minefields in the waters of Japan during World War II.

Callow, rich Ensign Willis Seward "Willie" Keith (Robert Francis) reports for duty aboard the Caine, his first assignment. Homeported in Pearl Harbor, he is disappointed to find the Caine to be a small, battle-scarred destroyer-minesweeper. Its gruff captain, Lieutenant Commander William H. DeVriess (Tom Tully), has almost completely discarded discipline, and the crew has become slovenly and superficially undisciplined - although their performance is excellent. Keith has already met the executive officer, Lieutenant Stephen Maryk (Van Johnson), and is introduced to the communications officer, Lieutenant Thomas Keefer (Fred MacMurray), a novelist in civilian life. Keith has an opportunity to transfer off the ship for a more glamorous command, but decides to stay aboard. However, Keith remains frustrated with the ship's lack of discipline, despite his own shortcomings. The captain is soon replaced by Lieutenant Commander Phillip Queeg (Humphrey Bogart), a no-nonsense career veteran and graduate of the United States Naval Academy. He quickly attempts to re-instill discipline into the crew but soon displays erratic behavior. He regularly clicks a pair of steel ball bearings in his hands. At first, Keith is elated to have a strict commander. The next day, the Caine is assigned to tow a target for gunnery practice. Queeg is distracted berating Keith and Keefer over a crewman's appearance after giving an order to turn, and he cuts off the helmsman's attempt to warn him that they are turning back on their own towline. After the Caine continues in a circle and cuts the towline, Queeg tries to cover up his responsibility for the incident. Other incidents serve to undermine Queeg's authority. When strawberries go missing from the officers' mess, the captain-once again clicking the bearings-goes to absurd lengths to hunt down the culprit. Despite being told by one of his officers that the mess staff had eaten the fruit, Queeg insists on believing otherwise. He relates a story to Maryk and Keefer of when he, as an ensign, was commended for unmasking a cheese thief. Under enemy fire, Queeg abandons escorting a group of landing craft during an amphibious assault long before they reach the fiercely defended shore, instead dropping a yellow dye marker in the water and leaving the landing craft to fend for themselves, much to the crew's disgust. Afterward, Queeg speaks to his officers, not explicitly apologizing, but bending enough to ask for their support. His disgruntled subordinates do not respond. Keefer begins trying to convince Maryk that he should relieve Queeg on the basis of mental illness under Article 184 of Navy Regulations. At first Maryk displays loyalty to Queeg, even threatening Keefer with a charge of insubordination. Maryk begins keeping a journal, documenting Queeg's behavior. Keefer convinces Maryk and Keith to join him in presenting the case to Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr.. While aboard Halsey's flagship, Keefer realizes that Queeg's documented actions could be interpreted as reasonable attempts to instill discipline, leaving the officers open to a charge of conspiring to mutiny. When Halsey's aide tells the Caine officers that Halsey will see them, Keefer talks Maryk and Keith out of making the complaint. Matters come to a head during a violent typhoon. Maryk urgently recommends that they steer into the waves and take on ballast, but Queeg refuses to deviate from the fleet-ordered heading and declines Maryk's request for ballast. He fears that it would foul the fuel lines with salt water. When Queeg appears to become paralyzed in action, Maryk relieves him, with Keith's support. Upon returning to port, Maryk and Keith face a court-martial for mutiny. After questioning them and Keefer, Lieutenant Barney Greenwald (José Ferrer) reluctantly accepts the job of Maryk's defense counsel, which a number of other lawyers have already turned down. The proceedings do not go well, as Keefer has carefully covered himself and denies any complicity. Navy psychiatrist Dr. Dixon (Whit Bissell) testifies that Queeg is not mentally ill, but when Queeg is called to testify, he exhibits paranoid behavior and begins to click the ball bearings together in his hand under Greenwald's tough cross-examination. Maryk is acquitted, and Keith is spared any charges. The Caine officers celebrate the trial's results at a hotel. Keefer shows up, telling Maryk privately he did not have the guts not to. Greenwald appears and clears his "guilty conscience". Apparently drunk, he berates the officers for not appreciating the years of danger and hardship endured by Queeg, a career navy man. He lambastes Maryk, Keith, and finally Keefer, for not supporting their captain when he most needed it. Under his attack, Maryk and Keith admit that if they had given Queeg the support he had asked for, he might not have "frozen" during the typhoon. Greenwald turns to Keefer, denouncing him as the real "author" of the mutiny, who "hated the Navy" and manipulated the others while keeping his own hands officially clean. The lawyer exposes Keefer's double-dealing to the other officers, throws a glassful of champagne in his face and tells Keefer that if he wishes to do anything about the drink in the face, the two could fight outside. Keefer does not respond to the challenge and the other officers depart, leaving him alone in the room. A few days later, Keith has received his promotion to Lieutenant, junior grade and reports to his new ship. He is surprised to find he is serving again under DeVriess, who has been promoted to Commander. DeVriess lets Keith know that he will start with a clean slate.

Two bumbling private eyes help a man, wrongly accused of murder who has become invisible, to clear his name. Boxer Tommy Nelson is accused of killing his manager. While detectives Bud and Lou investigate, they come across an invisibility formula with which Tommy injects himself rather than face the police. This sparks an idea for trapping gangster Morgan by having Lou fight champ Rocky Hanlon, with Tommy's invisible help. —Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>

1943. After his wife takes their son and leaves him, Sgt. John M. Stryker is an embittered man who takes his misery out on the men under his command. They're a bunch of green recruits who have a hard time dealing with Stryker's tough drills and thicker skin. Even his old friends start to wonder if he's gone from being the epitome of the tough Marine drill instructor to a man over the edge. One recruit in particular is a source of friction - Peter Conway. Conway's father was Stryker's CO at Guadalcanal and resented his son's seeming cowardice as a Marine, while Conway resents both Stryker's brutal leadership and seeming lack of sympathy for his men as well as the resentment he Conway feels is vented against him over his more relaxed conduct as a soldier. Another foe is Al Thomas, who was demoted by Stryker in previous action. The squad is assigned to take part in the November 1943 assault on the Japanese base at Tarawa. Stryker's brutal training regimen is now put to the test as the Marines must overcome a powerful underground bunker at the beach's edge; the bunker's machine gunners slaughter multiple Marines before Stryker succeeds in blowing up the position with satchel charges, and his bravery does not go unnoticed by his men. When Al Thomas and two other Marines, Charlie Bass and Hellenopolis, become separated from the main unit, Thomas runs to get fresh ammo for them - but rests for a moment when a Marine give him fresh hot coffee, a lapse that allows his two buddies to be jumped and bayoneted by Japanese Naval Landing troops. That night the beaten-up squad must guard the main approach to the beachhead, and they hear in the distance a man desperately calling for help. Stryker believes it to be a deception by the Japanese and he can't let anyone tip their position - which leads to an even grimmer dilemma when the voice calls out, "Stryker!" Peter Conway violently vows to find the man - but Stryker nearly shoots him dead to keep him from moving, and must sweat out the possibility of letting a fellow Marine die. The island is finally secured and wounded found and returned. Months later Charlie Bass returns to duty and queries about what happened to Al Thomas. Stryker then confronts Thomas and a fight erupts - broken up by a Marine Colonel. Thomas for his part profusely confesses he did wrong - and that he'd prefer to be dead himself than to have let his buddies die. Seeing Thomas' sincerity, Stryker is able to forge forgiveness. Turning to the bottle for comfort Stryker confronts his demons head on but then shows his soft side and helps out a widowed military wife and her child. Then the word comes down that they are being sent to Iwo Jima to do battle with 20,000 Japanese who've been dug into the most powerful island fortress of the war - a fortress so powerful that the largest continuing naval bombardment in history cannot dislodge the Japanese after three vicious days of combat, during which Conway saves Stryker's life when he is jumped by a Japanese soldier with sword. Finally Marines begin to advance up the island's largest rampart, Mount Suribachi, amid continuing fire from the US Fleet. The Marines reach the summit and Stryker sends four Marines to set up the US flag. But as Stryker now seems at peace, he is shot by a sniper, and Conway, Thomas, Bass, and the other Marines can only find and read an unfinished letter by Stryker to his son - just as the Marines raise the US flag atop the mountain.