Barbara Rush

"Big" Jim Stevens (Edward G. Robinson), undisputed boss of the Chicago underworld, gets an unexpected birthday present from his ambitious lieutenant, Guy Gisborne (Peter Falk). Instead of a stripper popping out of the cake, Big Jim gets shot by all the guests. Gisborne takes over. He orders all the other gangsters in town to pay him protection money. Gisborne says that Jim was not even an US citizen and was a no-good boss (as under him everybody was fighting each other rather than taking care of business) and he intends to make a lot of changes around town. Gisborne outlaws all independent operations and wants a cut from every pie. Gisborne demands a 50% cut from every business as the protection money. The news does not sit well with Big Jim's friend and fellow gangster, Robbo (Frank Sinatra), and a gangland war breaks out. Sherrif Glick tries to argue that the people were sick of Jim as there were 34 killings under his reign I 2 months. Gisborne has 85 guns under his command, and he can hit everything at once, if he so desires. Robbo recruits pool hustler Little John (Dean Martin), who demonstrates his pool skills while singing, plus quick-draw artist Will (Sammy Davis Jr.) and a few other hoods, but they are still greatly outnumbered. In addition, the corrupt Sheriff Octavius Glick (Robert Foulk) is on Gisborne's payroll. Gisborne and Robbo come up with the same idea, to destroy the other's gambling joint on the same night. Robbo chooses Gisborne's gambling joint as that is his pride and joy and the flagship of his underworld criminal empire. Gisborne as $250,000 tied up in the gambling joint. The 2 crews pass each other at a traffic intersection and both joints are destroyed at nearly the same time. The loss to Robbo is nearly $400,000. Gisborne calls Robbo and offers to build a new gambling den together, and become partners, but Robbo refuses and prefers to have Gisborne as the enemy. Big Jim's refined, well-educated daughter, Marian (Barbara Rush), shows up. She asks Robbo to avenge her father's death (wrongfully attributed to the sheriff), a request which Robbo flatly refuses. Marian offers to pay $50,000 to Robbo for her demand. Gisborne disposes of the sheriff for his failure to kill Robbo before he could strike his gambling joint. Gisborne wanted Sherrif to reduce his cut from 25% to 10% for the expenses to rebuild the gambling joint, but Sherrif resents that the entire blame for the failure to kill Robbo was being attributed to him. Gisborne kills the Sherrif and buries him in a concrete slab that is laid to set up the new administrative block for the police department. Marian then invites Robbo to dinner and gives him $50,000, thinking that Robbo did as she had asked. Robbo refuses the money, but Marian attempts to seduce him into joining forces to take over the whole town. Marian says that Jim also wanted to retire and the man he wanted to take over was Robbo. Robbo turns her down. When she sends the money to his under-repair gambling club, Robbo donates it to a boys' orphanage. Alan A. Dale (Bing Crosby), the orphanage's director, notifies the newspapers about this good deed. A new Chicago star is born: a gangster who robs from the rich and gives to the poor. Robbo finds it useful to have the public on his side. Robbo and his gang receive a lot of letters from old age homes, women shelters and orphanages asking for donations of cash. Dales comes over to introduce himself to Robbo. Dale is very erudite and most of his words are not understandable by Robbo or any of his gang. Dale offers to help Robbo by writing his speeches and managing his public image. Dale says that he never anticipated the huge positive response to Robin Hood comparison he made in the papers and can build on it. Robbo invites the delighted Dale to join his gang, having him handle all the charities. Dale starts the Robbo Foundation and opens a string of soup kitchens, free clinics and orphan shelters. He even gives green, feathered hats and bows and arrows to the orphans, while thoroughly milking the Robin Hood image. In the meantime, Robbo and Little John teach Dale a little about "Style." Robbo's joint re-opens and it is a hit. Gisborne, whose place is now empty, is infuriated. He and the new sheriff, Alvin Potts (Victor Buono), organize a police raid. Robbo has anticipated this. when a few switches are pulled, the entire club is disguised as a mission. The sheriff and Gisborne burst in to find Robbo's gang singing gospel songs and preaching the sins of alcohol, complete with hymnals and tambourines ("Mr. Booze"). Robbo is framed for Glick's murder. At the trial, Gisborne and Potts claim that Robbo planned the whole thing. Dale tries to teach the despondent orphans to view this as a lesson ("Don't Be a Do-Badder"). The jury finds Robbo innocent. Wearing a green suit, Robbo publicly thanks everyone in Chicago ("My Kind of Town"). When he returns to his club, Robbo finds every one of his charities is now a front for counterfeiting. The soup kitchen smuggles fake bills in soup cans over state lines. Robbo also finds Little John living it up in Marian's mansion. Marian is willing to keep Robbo as a front, as long as she is in charge. Robbo shows his contempt for her and leaves. Little John decides to go with him. Marian finds another willing partner in Gisborne. However, the gangster is not a match for Robbo and ends up dead. Robbo tells a shocked Marian to clear out of town. She instead turns public opinion against him, starting a Women's League for Better Government and framing Robbo for the counterfeiting ring that she and Little John started. Unable to fight an angry mob of women, Robbo and his gang flee. Robbo and his merry men are reduced to working as Santa Clauses to solicit charitable donations. They watch dumbfounded as Marian steps out of a car with her latest partner, Alan A. Dale. He casually gives them money before going off with Marian.

A rich playboy whose recklessness inadvertently causes the death of a prominent doctor tries to make amends to his widow, and falls for her in the process. When churlish, spoiled rich man Bob Merrick foolishly wrecks his speed boat, the rescue team resuscitates him with equipment that's therefore unavailable to aid a local hero, Dr. Wayne Phillips, who dies as a result. Phillips had helped many people, and when Merrick learns Phillips' secret, to give selflessly and in secret, he tries it in a ham-handed way. The result further alienates Phillips' widow, Helen, with whom Merrick has fallen in love. Merrick's persistence causes another tragedy, and he must remake his life, including going back to medical school, in an attempt to make amends and win her love. —<jhailey@hotmail.com>

Peasant Myles Falworth is trained for knighthood and is groomed by various nobles to defeat the evil Earl of Alban who's plotting to usurp King Henry IV's throne. Technicolor and tights. In the days of King Henry IV, stalwart young Myles of Crisby Dale, and his sister Meg, have been raised as peasants, without any knowledge of their father's true identity. They are sent Mackworth Castle by their foster father with a letter to Lord Mackworth, urging him to take in Myles and Meg as wards. There, Myles is smitten with Mackworth's daughter, Lady Anne, incurs the enmity of the chief knight-in-training, and is assigned by Lord Mackworth to train for knighthood, himself so that he may claim his birthright and assist Mackworth and the stalwart Prince Hal in defeating the evil Duke of Alban, who plots to usurp King Henry's throne. —Kathy Li

A fireball streaks across the desert sky and crashes. We see an aerial view of Sand Rock, Arizona in the late evening in the early spring. Inside an isolated ranch house outside of town we meet John Putnam (Richard Carlson) and his girlfriend Ellen Fields (Barbara Rush). He is an amateur astronomer, she the local school teacher. They sit in front of a fire in his partially completed home enjoying a cup of coffee. They walk outside to take in the night air when they spot the "meteor" from the opening shot. From inside the crater, by the old Excelsior Mine, we see a sphere partially exposed that looks like a soccer ball. A hexagonal shaped "door" opens and we see some weird machinery and in shadow one of the occupants--a single eyed blob of a creature. It exits the ship and explores the desert leaving in its wake a shimmery trail. John and Ellen charter Pete Davis (Dave Willock) to take them to the crater in his helicopter. They circle the crater and land near the rim. The three climb to the top and peer inside. John walks down to the floor of the newly formed crater insisting that Ellen and Pete stay up on the rim. John sees the ship partially buried in the side of the mine, and also notices the shimmery substance near the exit of the ship. He stretches his hand out to touch the glowing material, but hesitates when he notices something inside the ship and stands up to face it. The door closes and slams shut triggering an avalanche of loose debris, burying the ship and almost killing John. John climbs back out of the crater and explains what he saw, but Ellen and Pete do not believe him. Two cars approach the crater. Pete and Ellen beg John not to discuss what he saw--they think he was imagining it. Sheriff Matt Warren (Charles Drake) and Dave Loring (Alan Dexter), who runs the local newspaper, arrive on the scene. John starts to relay his story and the disbelief and ridicule starts. Three more cars arrive at the crater. John, Ellen, and Pete fly back to the airport. John and Ellen drive back to his house. Along the way they are being observed. They encounter the creature on the highway as it appears to block their path on the road. John pulls to the side of the road thinking they hit it. Finding nothing they continue down the road. The next morning the crater is a buzz of activity. A KLTV television news van pulls up. The Sheriff's office has set up a cordon around the crater admitting only authorized personnel. The military has sent a small group out to explore. John and Ellen arrive only to be hounded by the press. John is there to meet with Dr. Snell. Dugan (Robert Carson) from American Press, and Lober (Dick Pinner) from Press Dispatch want to question John about the Sand Rock Star newspaper headline, "Star Gazer Sees Martians". They get no answers and turn their attention to Ellen, who is equally reluctant to talk to the press. John walks down into the crater to talk to Dr. Snell (George Eldredge). His assistant, Bob (Bradford Jackson) is taking radioactivity measurements, but finds none. Snell is convinced it was just a meteor, and refuses Johns request to dig it out. As John heads back to his car, where Ellen was patiently waiting, he is confronted by Matt. He has known Ellen a long time and is concerned about her involvement with John. He is jealous. John and Ellen drive off. As they are driving the see the county telephone linemen, George (Russell Johnson), and his boss, Frank (Joe Sawyer). John asks them if they've seen anything. Frank tells them he's hearing something very strange on the wires. Frank and George head down the road and encounter the creature. As he exits the truck, George is attacked and "globbed" or absorbed. John and Ellen suspect something is wrong and turn around and head back in the same direction that George and Frank took. They find the empty telephone truck on the side of the road. John retrieves his gun from the car and they begin their search, starting with the truck. John notices blood on the truck door and the shimmery trail, a telltale sign of the xenomorph. George appears to them, but is behaving very strangely. John notices Frank's arm on the ground, unmoving, the rest of his body is hidden behind a boulder. John and Ellen head back to town to get the Sheriff. John states his conclusion that Frank is dead, and it appears that George was the perpetrator. The xenomorph, now masquerading as George explains things to the human George and Frank. The Sheriff reluctantly agrees to accompany John and Ellen back out to where they encountered George and Frank, but when they arrive the truck and any evidence is gone. The three drive back to town. The Sheriff returns to his office, but John notices George and Frank walking through town. John follows and confronts them. They warn John not to interfere. Back at the Excelsior Mine, miners Sam (Edgar Dearing) and Toby (Warren MacGregor) are building a fire just outside the mine opening. They are waiting for Tom (George Selk) to return with food. Tom and his mule are just about back to the mine when the mule is spooked, and runs off. Tom turns around and is confronted by the xenomorph and is "globbed" or absorbed. Sam and Toby think they hear something in the mine and enter it. As they exit the mine they are met by the creature and are also a globbed. John and Ellen are summoned to see the Sheriff that evening. Frank's wife (Virginia Mullen) and George's girlfriend Jane Dean (Kathleen Hughes) have reported them acting strangely and now missing. Their clothes are also missing. The sheriff questions John because he appears to be the last one to have spoken to either of them. Ellen takes Mrs. Daylon and Jane home in John's car. John stays with Matt to discuss the situation; he tells Matt that Frank and George are in fact the creatures from the space craft stuck in the crater. The sheriff tells John that electrical equipment has been stolen from the hardware store and that Dr. Snell and his assistant, Bob, have been reported missing. John and Matt go out to the crater and find Dr. Snell's car, but no trace of Snell or Bob. Ellen is driving alone on the highway when she encounters Frank standing in the middle of the highway. She stops and he gets into the car. Frank instructs Ellen to take him to the mine. Back at the Sheriff's office, the phone rings. It is for John, and he is informed that the xenomorphs have Ellen. The Sheriff and John drive out into the desert. John exits the car and searches for Ellen. He sees what appears to be Ellen on a ridgeline in a cocktail dress. He follows her. She leads him to the opening to the mine shaft. A voice from inside the mine tells John that they are repairing their ship and will be leaving that night. The missing townsfolk are being held hostage. John begs to see the creature as it really is. It shows itself and John is horrified and repelled. He returns to see Matt who has been waiting by the car. Matt drops John off at his house. John notices the door unlocked and a shimmering trail leading back to an empty closed. All of his clothes are missing. The Sheriff gives orders to clear everyone away from the crater. John tells Matt that he got a visit and his clothes are missing. Frank appears in town just outside the Sheriff's office. Matt is spoiling for a confrontation with the creature impersonating the lineman, but John restrains him. They fight. Frank drives off in his telephone truck. The Sheriff forms an impromptu posse as John steals his police car and heads off to the crater. The Sheriff intends to confront Frank on the highway. Taking a shortcut through the desert, he forms a vehicle barricade across the highway. As Frank approaches, the posse opens fire. The truck careens off the highway and hits a boulder and bursts into flame. Meanwhile John arrives at the mine entrance and enters. He finds alien Ellen. She tells John they only need a few more hours. She then attacks him with a wand that emits a beam that cuts through rock, but misses. He shoots her with his gun and she falls into a lake below and dissolves. The posse arrives outside as John continues his exploration of the old mine. He hears machinery and finds the aliens in their human form making repairs to their ship. The head xenomorph has assumed John's identity. He explains their mission and the equipment's power. John demands Ellen's release as a sign of good faith. Alien John reciprocates by ordering all the hostages released. As they depart the mine, alien John resumes his alien form. John seals the mine entrance with dynamite to keep the posse away from the aliens. The ground begins to rumble and the ship departs, streaking across the sky.

Story of a revolt against England in 1830s Canada. Mark Douglas is the illegitimate son of Charles Douglas and Stephanie Durossac, who are the leaders of the rebellion against British rule in Quebec in 1837. Stephanie is now married to a loyalist Colonel in the service of the British, whom she married to give Mark a name, thinking that Charles was dead. —Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>

David Randall (Richard Derr), free-lance pilot and incurable womanizer, lands near the Mount Kennah Observatory in South Africa, to take a secret package, contents unknown (and chained to his wrist), to the Cosmos Observatory of Dr. Cole Hendron (Larry Keating). Dr. Emery Bronson (Hayden Rorke) orders his staff not to tell Randall what he's carrying. But when Randall demands advance payment, Bronson, in telling him that Herndon will pay him on delivery, advises him that a day might come, and that sooner than he thinks, when money is the least of his concerns. (He also gives Randall several pictures of Hendron for identification.) Randall is cheerfully confident that when that day comes, he will be dead. But he does not sell out the package to the newspapers that offer him several times his fee; at least he has *some* ethics. He tears up the radiograms that reach his flight, and lands at Idlewild Airport in New York on schedule. There Joyce Hendron (Barbara Rush) meets him and takes him to the observatory. Again the reporter from the New York Sentinel tries to buy the package, but Randall, smitten with Joyce, refuses. On the way to the observatory, Joyce babbles about the package, assuming, incorrectly, that Randall knows everything. Randall plays along, and is shocked to hear this lovely woman say how frightened she is of the end of the world! His curiosity having hooked him thoroughly, he keeps his appointment at the observatory, where he meets Dr. Anthony Drake (Peter Hanson), a physician, and Dr. Hendron. Randall confirms Hendron's identity and allows Hendron to unlock the package from him and open it. The package contains a number of photographic plates, plus the coordinates and vectors of two new astronomical bodies, a rogue star and its single satellite, that are on a collision course with the earth. Sadly, the coordinates and vectors check out, and reveal the horrible truth: the rogue star (Bellus) and its planet (Zyra), approaching from the direction of Scorpio, will enter the solar system within six months. Zyra will pass close to earth, close enough to affect tides and earthquake belts. Nineteen days later, Bellus will crash into the earth and destroy both bodies. Numbed with this realization, Randall collects his fee in cash, and then spends most of his time at an expensive restaurant, burning it, bill by bill, in the fire of the fondue set at the next table. Most of the guests think he's crazy--but not Joyce Hendron, who breaks off from dancing with her fiancé, Dr. Drake, to sit with Randall and keep him company. In fact, Joyce Hendron fell in love with Randall, probably when they met at Idlewild, and certainly now, when they share a terrible secret. Unaware of this complication, Dr. Hendron and his colleague, Dr. George Frye (Stephen Chase), present their findings to the United Nations Security Council. With the result that the assembled Ambassadors laugh them out of Turtle Bay. (The problem: other astronomers simply dispute the Herndon-Bronson findings.) They then go to the United States Congress, which likewise refuses to fund what they want to build: giant space lifeboats to lift a limited number of human beings, livestock and equipment to Zyra before Bellus crashes into the earth. But though Congress won't appropriate any funds, two industrialists donate funds and land for the establishment of a construction camp to build at least one of the space arks. The money is not even close to sufficient, of course, but an embittered millionaire, Sydney Stanton (John Hoyt), agrees to finance the project. He at first demands the right to select the ark's passengers and crew; Herndon refuses, and eventually wins his financing by offering Stanton one thing only: his own passage on the ark. (Before his meeting with Stanton, Joyce goes to Herndon and confesses that she does not love Drake anymore, and has feelings for Randall instead. Herndon firmly tells her *not* to marry *any* man whom she does not love, and offers to find any excuse to keep David Randall on his staff.) Construction, and the selection of large construction and preparation crews, begin. (Prominent everywhere are signs reading, "Waste anything except TIME. Time is our shortest material.") Preparation includes converting a large selection of books to microfilm to establish a library, and the gathering of crop seeds and livestock. From the 600 members of the project, Herndon will later select forty at random. Everyone understands this, but no one says anything--yet--about the implications. With two possible exceptions: Julie Cummings (Rachel Ames) and Eddie Garson (James Congdon), who have fallen in love on the bus taking them to the camp. Tony Drake has not realized Joyce' feelings for Randall, and Joyce' aloof attitude puzzles him. He has little time to think about that, however. After all, Zyra will pass close to earth in 88 days, with Bellus striking earth 19 days later. (In fact, the project junks the old Gregorian calendar in favor of a very simple double calendar, counting the days to the Zyra and Bellus encounters.) Stanton orders a box of guns brought to camp, predicting that at the last minute, the non-selected personnel will likely attack the ship to fight for seats off-planet. With the continued approach of Zyra-Bellus, the authorities now realize that Herndon was right, and now preparation is too late. As the Secretary of Defense prepares to implement martial law in America, Joyce continues to woo Randall. But she does not realize that Randall has already decided to stay behind. The reason: as an airplane pilot, he would have a skill set that would be utterly useless in the founding of a new civilization that would begin as a farming village only. Why take him, when they could take more livestock instead? Joyce is heartbroken, but determined to win him over, somehow, someway. Martial law begins, along with evacuation of all coastal areas. St. Peter's Square in Vatican City fills to standing-room only with the faithful. Finally, at about 1:00 p.m. on Z-Day, Zyra makes its close pass. The resulting earthquakes cause fires and other damage that threaten the ship. Randall leads a massive effort to shore up the ship's launch track--but then a crane falls, killing some of the senior scientists. The other damage is minor, and the space ark and its launch track remain intact, but now no doubt remains. Elsewhere on earth, tsunamis wash over the cities, and massive flooding occurs everywhere. Drake and Randall take off together to drop some medical supplies for some nearby evacuees. In the process, they take off a small boy who has climbed to the rooftop of his house and finds himself stranded. At first Drake tries to leave Randall behind--but then his conscience gets hold of him and he returns to take Randall off. They return, and now Drake has reconciled himself to losing Joyce to Randall and decided to accept Randall as a friend. Randall, however, is still not convinced that he has any business taking passage aboard the ark. So with Bellus 11 days away, when Herndon holds a lottery draw for the selection process, Randall pretends to take a number, and then puts it back. In short, Randall is refusing passage, though Herndon strenuously tries to persuade him to accept. With Bellus five days away, Drake notices how distracted Joyce really is. So the next day Drake goes looking for Randall, and finds him checking out the cockpit cameras aboard the ark. Drake then tells Randall that Frye, the designated pilot, has a heart condition that could kill him during the blackout phase of the launch, and therefore the ark *must* have a copilot, and Randall is the only man who can so serve on such short notice. Elated to find himself with such a vital role after all, Randall rushes to tell Joyce that he will accept passage (and, presumably, training as Frye's copilot). With Bellus two days away, the rescued boy, whom Herndon has already granted passage, now asks for passage for a stray dog he has adopted. Drake and Joyce weigh the dog (finding out that the dog is female) and agree to take the dog and off-load two chickens. On the final day, Herndon publishes the winning numbers. Eddie Gaston makes the cut, but Julie Cummings does not. A heartbroken Eddie turns his number in. Unknown to him, he has broken into an argument among Herndon, Frye, and Stanton, who wants another person to sacrifice his seat to give the ark a greater chance. In the middle of the heated argument, Stanton's personal assistant, Harold Ferris (Frank Cady), tries to shoot Stanton, but Stanton kills him instead. Randall walks in and orders Stanton to surrender his weapon to him. He then suggests that the women board the ark first, then the livestock, with the men to board last. Frye, on his own authority as captain of the ark, gives orders to grant Julie Cummings passage anyway and gamble that the ark's fuel will still suffice. Now with Bellus less than an hour away, the selected passengers don the cold-weather gear they will wear on Zyra and board the ark. Herndon asures Frye that he will bring Stanton on board last. But in the main bunker, the remaining personnel steal Stanton's guns and try to storm the ark. But a high fence keeps them at bay, so they cannot get close, though they start shooting at the ark. Herndon now reveals that he never intended to take passage, nor allow it to Stanton either. He pushes Stanton's wheelchair away from the boarding ramp, and then uncovers and throws a secret lever that closes the ark's hatch and releases the ark. Stanton desperately lurches to his feet, but to no avail. The ark goes down the slide, then turns up, under full drive, its passengers watching Bellus crash into the earth as they pass before they all black out. Minutes later they all come out of their stupor--including Frye, leading Randall to realize that Drake deliberately exaggerated the health hazard to Frye just to persuade Randall to come aboard. Randall has no more time to think about that, because he and Frye have their hands full with piloting the ark to an intercept with Zyra, and then to a safe re-entry. They run out of fuel after they complete re-entry, so that Randall must glide the ark in--but happily the ark comes down in a deep snow field. Drake wants Randall to wait to let him sample the air, but Randall insists on opening the hatch anyway, as if the air is not breathable, they would die of suffocation anyway. Happily, not only is the air breathable, but at lower altitudes Zyra is green and lush. The passengers disembark (together with the dog and her litter of pups) and take the livestock with them. Last to disembark are Randall and Joyce, who walk down the ramp, hand in hand.