Burt Lancaster

Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella is inspired by a voice he can't ignore to pursue a dream he can hardly believe. Supported by his wife, Ray begins the quest by turning his ordinary cornfield into a place where dreams can come true. Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella hears a voice in his cornfield tell him, "If you build it, he will come." He interprets it as an instruction to build a baseball field on his farm, upon which appear the ghosts of Shoeless Joe Jackson and the other seven Chicago White Sox players banned from the game for throwing the 1919 World Series. When the voices continue, Ray seeks out a reclusive author to help him understand the meaning of the messages and the purpose for his field. —Scott Renshaw <as.idc@forsythe.stanford.edu> "If you build it, he will come," is what thirty-six-year-old novice farmer Ray Kinsella hears several times over the course of days from a bodiless voice emanating from somewhere in the cornfield on his Iowa farm. Later, he has a vision that the "it" is a baseball field, the "he" is Shoeless Joe Jackson, who was infamous for his association in the Chicago 8, the eight players of the 1919 White Series who were banned for life from the sport for throwing games in exchange for money from gamblers. Although it was proved that Jackson did take money, it was never proved that he participated in throwing any of the games. Ray grew up with baseball, his long-deceased father, John, who played in the minor leagues, lived in Chicago during that infamous year, and told stories to Ray about it and Jackson when he was growing up. He was estranged from his father at the time of his death, something that he now regrets. With the moral support of his wife, Annie, he tears up part of their cornfield to build that baseball field. He eventually hears the voice telling him other things, always without a clear understanding on his part of what it all means. One he believes it has to do with is famed '60's writer Terence Mann, now a recluse who stopped writing because he, renowned as the voice of his generation, didn't always want to be the answer to his generation's problems. Another he believes has to do with it is Archie "Moonlight" Graham, who played only one half of one inning of one major league game in 1922 and died in 1972. Ray's voice led path may be difficult to achieve since cynical Mann may not have the same direction of the voice as him and Graham is dead. He will have to work through these puzzles to understand the full meaning of what the voice wants for him, which may not happen if he and Annie lose the farm and thus the baseball field, a real possibility due to the latter taking away from earning income from the farm, especially as Annie's cutthroat brother, Mark, who says he is looking out for her best interest, will do whatever needed to get Ray back to what he considers reality of earning a living from the farm. —Huggo

An aging patriarch unites all of his family members for his birthday, but the familial assemblage is teeming with personal and social problems. A man's family reunites for his 77th birthday. He loves all of his children and grandchildren; he doesn't exactly connect with his children, but he connects with his grandchildren much better. When he tells them what he really wants for his birthday, they do what they can to grant his wish. —rcs0411@yahoo.com

John Hay Forrest (George Gaynes), noted scientist and cheese-maker, dies in a single-vehicle car accident. Private investigator Rigby Reardon (Steve Martin) is approached by Forrest's daughter, Juliet (Rachel Ward). She hires Rigby to investigate the death, which she thinks was murder. In Dr. Forrest's lab, Rigby finds two lists, one titled "Friends of Carlotta" and the other "Enemies of Carlotta", as well as an affectionately autographed photo of singer Kitty Collins, whose name appears on one of the lists. His search is interrupted by a man posing as an exterminator (Alan Ladd, in This Gun for Hire), who shoots Rigby in the arm and frisks the lists from the supposedly dead investigator. Rigby manages to find his way to Juliet's house, where she sucks out the bullet, snakebite-style, and points Rigby to the club at which Kitty sings. Juliet also reveals a note to her father from her alcoholic brother-in-law, Sam Hastings, which in turn reveals that Dr. Forrest gave him a dollar bill "for safekeeping". Despite warnings that the mentally disturbed Leona will not be of much use, Rigby calls Leona, who after a rambling discussion, hangs up (Barbara Stanwyck, in Sorry, Wrong Number). On the way out, Juliet asks Rigby to leave further news with her butler or cleaning woman. Mention of the latter causes Rigby to go berserk (a homage to the old Slowly I Turned vaudeville routine), due to his own father running off with the cleaning woman and his mother dying of a broken heart. Rigby tracks down alcoholic Sam (Ray Milland, from Lost Weekend) and gets Dr. Forrest's dollar, which has "FOC" (Friends of Carlotta) names scrawled on it - including Kitty Collins and Swede Anderson (Kitty's boyfriend). Rigby tracks down Kitty Collins (Ava Gardner, from The Killers) at the Brentwood Room. He asks if she's one of Carlotta's friends, which causes her to leave abruptly. He trails her to a restaurant, where she ditches her brooch into her soup. Rigby subsequently retrieves the brooch, which contains an "EOC" list, on which all names are crossed out, except Swede Anderson's. Rigby visits Swede (Burt Lancaster, from The Killers) but while Rigby prepares a "java", Swede is killed. Rigby calls Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart, from The Big Sleep), his mentor, for assistance. Juliet hands over a key from Dr. Forrest's desk, a key to a train station locker. The accompanying note, "most recent rat", tells Rigby to look for locker 1936, the last Chinese Year of the Rat. Upon exiting, she asks Rigby to call with any progress. Marlowe arrives, and picks up the EOC list to check against unsolved murders. Rigby goes to the train station to collect the contents of locker 1936, which contains more lists. A "handsome" guy (Cary Grant, from Suspicion) follows him onto a train but, Rigby puts him to sleep with the help of his harmonica. Rigby finds F.X. Huberman, whose name he found on one of the lists and who turns out to be a "classy dame", throwing a party (Ingrid Bergman, from Notorious). She flirts with Rigby (represented by Cary Grant's silhouette), then drugs his drink and steals the locker key (represented by Claude Rains' wine cellar key). Rigby wakes up back up at his office, where Juliet informs him that Sam Hastings fell out of a window to his death. She also has a New York Times reference for him from her father's office. The reference is to an article about a South American cruise ship called Immer Essen (German: Always eating) on whose last voyage Sam Hastings was a passenger. When Marlowe (Bogart, from The Big Sleep) calls, Rigby questions him about Walter Neff, the ship's owner, and learns that Neff cruises supermarkets looking for blondes. Juliet offers to dye her hair to serve as bait, but Rigby is protective of her as more than a client. He first tries to recruit Monica Stillpond (Veronica Lake, from The Glass Key), but she's not as willing. Next, he tries Doris Devermont (Bette Davis, from Deception), but he ruins his chances with her by strangling her for saying "cleaning woman". Then he successfully recruits Jimmie Sue Altfeld (Lana Turner, from Johnny Eager) and unsuccessfully attempts to make peace with her father (Edward Arnold, from Johnny Eager) by giving him a puppy. He then is beaten up by four thugs (Kirk Douglas and others, from I Walk Alone). After this, Rigby disguises himself as a blonde and meets Neff (Fred MacMurray from Double Indemnity). Rigby drugs him and finds documents about the Immer Essen, including a passenger list identical to an EOC list, and articles about the ship's imprisoned captain, Cody Jarrett, who refuses to talk to anyone about it but his mother. Rigby then dresses up as Jarrett's mother to visit Jarrett in prison without arousing the prison guards' suspicion (James Cagney from White Heat). He tries to win Jarrett's confidence by explaining the Friends of Carlotta are after him. Rigby doesn't learn anything from Jarrett though, so he cashes in a favor with the warden to act as a prisoner for a few days. Jarrett turns out to be a Friend of Carlotta after all, kidnaps Rigby on a jail break, and shoots him while he's still in the trunk of the getaway car. After sucking out a third bullet, Juliet leaves for the drugstore for medicine. On her way out, a call comes in from an old flame (Joan Crawford, in Humoresque). Juliet overhears parts of it, takes it to be a double dating by Rigby and closes the case. While Rigby is drinking, thinking himself betrayed by Juliet, Marlowe calls and tips Rigby off that Carlotta is an island off Peru (the island in The Bribe and also perhaps a nod to The Man Who Knew Too Much). At a cafe, Rigby finds Kitty Collins (Ava Gardner, from The Bribe) there. Carlos Rodriguez, a local policeman from Rigby's gun-running past, warns Rigby of the locals, including Kitty's new boyfriend, Rice. The next day, one of the characters Rodriguez warned Rigby of (Charles Laughton, from The Bribe) approaches him and tries to bribe Rigby into leave the island. Next, Kitty drops by Reardon's room. Carlos calls to tell him Rice is in town with a group of Germans when the telephone line is cut. Kitty then drugs Rigby's drink, causing him to pass out. He wakes up to see Rice (Vincent Price, from The Bribe) trying to suffocate him. After exchanging shots and chasing through the "Fiesta De Carlotta" fireworks celebration (much of it archived footage from The Bribe), Rigby shoots Rice and frisks the corpse for instructions leading him to a hideout where he finds Juliet, her father (actually still alive), and her butler, who introduces himself as Field Marshal Wilfried Von Kluck (Carl Reiner). Rigby and the Field Marshal compete about the right to explain what happened. It turns out that Dr. Forrest had been tricked into divulging a secret cheese mold by Nazis posing as a humanitarian organization. Once he discovered their true intent, to use the mold's corrosive properties to destroy America, he assembled a list of Nazi agents, the "Friends of Carlotta". Before he could divulge the names to the FBI, he was abducted, and his death faked to prevent a police investigation. The Immer Essen, a cruise ship passing by, witnessed the corrosive effects of the mold tests, making all passengers "Enemies of Carlotta" and targets for murder. Rigby is captured but Juliet gets the Field Marshal to say, "cleaning woman", causing Rigby to go berserk, break his chains and overpower the Nazis. While Juliet gets Rodriguez, the Field Marshal manages to pull one of the switches, destroying Terre Haute, Indiana, before being shot dead by Rigby. Rodriguez rounds up the other Nazis while Rigby shares a long kiss with Juliet.

During the Cold War, the CIA orders free-lance operative Scorpio to assassinate his former CIA mentor Cross and a deadly cat-and-mouse game ensues. Cross is a CIA field agent, most of his tasks as an assassin. He has just returned to Washington DC from working on a case in Paris, he accompanied by Jean Laurier, code name Scorpio, a Frenchman who has long been mentored by Cross and who works as a freelance assassin. Scorpio pulled the actual trigger on the target in the just completed Paris case, and because of the nature of their work, Cross and Scorpio part company at Dulles Airport, neither having ever seen the other if questioned. Scorpio currently also lives part-time in DC with his girlfriend Susan and his flight attendant sister Anne. Cross' superior McLeod is surprised to see both Cross and Scorpio return to DC as the agency, through McLeod, had unofficially contracted Scorpio to eliminate Cross in Paris as it is well known within the agency that Cross plans on quitting, the threat that he could sell out to the Communists with the amount of knowledge he has too great a risk for the agency to take. Scorpio was seemingly the best man for the job in knowing Cross better than anyone else professionally. Scorpio is able to absolve himself in not carrying out that Paris mission on Cross on a loophole, he further able to renegotiate the contract to meet his goals more fully, namely to take over Cross' position within the agency. Cross discovers not only about there being a contract hit on him, but also that Scorpio is the hired gun. With a wide, loyal and diverse network both domestically and internationally, Cross is at least able to make it out of the country, he using that network to set up somewhere undetected and hopefully to bring his wife Sarah by his side once his new life is established. In the process, Cross will discover just how loyal his network is to him, with some former adversaries in his work, such as now Vienna-based Sergei Zharkov a former Soviet Communist agent, or if some are not who they purport to be in having a separate agenda. If it gets to that point, another question is whether Cross or Scorpio can pull the trigger on the other, each who may see the other as a mirror image of himself. —Huggo Cross is an old hand at the CIA, in charge of assassinating high-ranking foreign personalities who are an obstacle to the policies of the USA. He often teams up with Frenchman Jean Laurier, alias "Scorpio", a gifted free-lance operative. One day, the CIA orders Scorpio to eliminate Cross -- and leaves him no choice but to obey. Scorpio is cold-blooded and very systematic; however, as a veteran agent, Cross knows many tricks. He can also rely upon a network of unusual personal contacts, some dating back to the troubled years preceding WWII. A lethal game of hide-and-seek is programmed, but what are the true motives of every single player? —Eduardo Casais <casaise@acm.org>

A Mexican-American sheriff (Burt Lancaster) must resort to violence against a powerful rancher (Frank Tanner, played by Jon Cypher) in order to get just compensation for the pregnant Indian widow of a wrongly killed black man. The town constable, Bob Valdez (Burt Lancaster), is forced to kill someone accused by Frank Tanner of being a murderer. Valdez asks Tanner for monetary help for the man's wife, but he is ridiculed and almost killed by Tanner's henchmen. Valdez recovers and summons up his days in the U.S. Cavalry in order to fight them. Valdez wounds one of the henchmen and sends him back to Tanner with the message, "Valdez is coming."

During the Battle of the Bulge, an anachronistic count shelters a ragtag squad of Americans in his remote 10th Century castle hoping a battle against the advancing Germans will not lead to the destruction of the castle and all within. Toward the end of World War II, a small company of American GI's occupy an ancient castle. Their commander has an affair with the countess in resident. One guy falls in love with a Volkswagon. A baker among them moves in with another baker's wife. A group of shell shocked holy rollers wander the bombed out streets. A GI art historian tries vainly to protect the castle and its masterpieces. —Jim Sadur <jsadur@keyflux.com>

Forced to trade his valuable furs for a well-educated escaped slave, a rugged trapper vows to recover the pelts from the Indians and later the renegades that killed them. Trapper Joe is on his way to the town with all of his gain of hides of the last winter. However a group of Indians stops him and takes all of his hides, leaving him the escaped slave Joseph instead. But Joe has no use for Joseph and is determined to get his property back and follows them. Before he can do anything, the Indians are raided themselves by a group of scalphunters under the greedy Howie. Not only the hides, but also Joseph falls into their hands. Now Joe follows them alone and tries to trick the numerical superior group out of his hides. —Tom Zoerner <Tom.Zoerner@informatik.uni-erlangen.de> Robbed of his precious, hard-earned cargo of hides, the rugged fur trapper, Joe Bass, finds himself with his back to the wall, and an unwanted companion, the well-educated runaway slave, Joseph Lee, after a fateful encounter with a marauding group of Kiowa Indians. Then, something equally unexpected happens, as Jim Howie's crew of scalp-hunters ambush the very same team of pelt-stealing Indians, and snatch the furs. Now, the reluctant duo is hot on their trail, with Bass hell-bent on retrieving his property; however, this is easier said than done. Will Joe ever take back what's his? —Nick Riganas

The movie begins, as the credits roll, with an unseen person moving among the summertime woods, in what we are soon to learn is a well-to-do suburban upper New York state neighbourhood. Soon the person, clad only in swimming shorts, is revealed to be a lean, lithe and tanned, middle aged Ned Merril, a one time stockbroker, socialite and ladies man. He approaches a domestic pool, dives in and swims three lengths, at the end of which he is met with an iced drink offered by Donald Westerhazy, who obviously knows him and invites him to come and say hello to his wife Helen. In the course of the conversation with them, it emerges they haven't seen Ned for quite some time. They, and their out of town guests; the Forsburgh's (also old acquaintances of Ned) , are all recovering from the excesses of a party thrown by The Westerhazy's the night before. The first hint that all may not be what it seems, is when Ned refers to his wife Lucinda and the two couples exchange puzzled glances, but continue to talk as normal, discussing other neighbours; The Grahams who have installed a new swimming pool. This plants an idea in Ned mind; to swim home using a string of pools across the county to his house. He explain the route will take him via pools of the The Grahams, The Lears, The Bunkers, a portage through the Patisons riding ring, to the Hallorans and the Gilmartins. Then down to the Biswangers, Shirley Abbots, across route 424 to the public pool and then up the hill and home. He exclaims he will call it the Lucinda river, after his wife. As he departs, Helen Westerhazy poses the question; "Swim to his house, now why would he want to do that?" Next Ned arrives at the pool of Howard (Howie) and Betty Graham. In the initial conversation with Betty, she explains how expensive the new pool was to get installed, but hints that money was no object since Howie is doing so well in his work. In the course of conversation with Betty it transpires that, when younger, Ned didn't think much of Howie and didn't believe he would succeed. Ned brushes this off as jealousy, saying it was because he was crazy about Betty, even though it emerges he was dating his future wife Lucinda at the time of Betty and Howard's wedding. Howie arrives on a new fangled, ride on lawnmower, which Ned feels compelled to fix the engine idle on. The talk turns to Ned's home, as Howie asks why he never put in a pool? Howie speculates that the house is probably still worth much more than Ned paid for it, with the tennis courts and all the planting done. Ned doubts whether he'll ever sell it and says he wants to see his girls married in the house, which causes puzzled glances between Howie and Betty. The arrival of the The Grahams offers a welcome distraction for an embarrassed Howie and Betty, who go to meet their guests as Ned resumes his swim. In the next scene, Ned emerges from the pool of the Lears to be greeted by a very hostile woman called Mrs Hammar. When she enquires what he is doing there, he tells her he is Ned Merril, a friend of her son Eric. When Ned inquires about her son it transpires that Eric is now dead and Ned didn't even visit him in hospital when he was in his final illness. Shocked at this revelation, Ned makes to leave, but is stopped by Mrs Hammar, who tells him that this is now her property and he is never to visit again. At this stage, it is becoming obvious that Ned is in severe denial, or is obviously running from a lot of things in his past. However, on spying a stallion in the distance, he soon recovers his old virile demeanour while racing against the horse. He next arrives at the pool of the Bunkers, where he meets 20 year old Julie Anne Hooper who, it transpires, used baby-sit his girls. He is amazed to see her all grown up and wonders why he doesn't see her anymore. To which she replies that they obviously don't need her (as the girls are now grown up). Nonetheless, Ned tries to book her for babysitting for the following Sunday night, which Julie thinks is a joke. The arrival of Julie's brother and his girlfriend adds a bit more to Ned's back story, where we learn he used drive a red Jaguar sports car and his daughter's names were Ellen and Aggie. Ned's enthusiasm about his swim entices Julie to join him and so they set off for the next pool. Along the way Ned remarks on the apparent changing of the season by referencing the flowers in bloom. Julie then confesses that she had a crush on Ned as a young babysitter to the extent that she once stole one of his shirts to wear. They arrive at the pool of the Bunkers where a party is ongoing. Ned is again greeted enthusiastically by many of the guests, even thought one of the ladies inquires if it is undiplomatic to ask about Lucinda, a question which Ned ignores. More hints of Ned former life of yachting and drinking Dom Perignon champagne are revealed. Julie becomes somewhat more flirtatious in a bid to show how grown up she's become. Another somewhat drunken male guest corners Ned to apologise for not calling him and says that he thinks it was a rotten thing for Ned to be ousted from his job like that by some new firecracker. Ned deflects the conversation and moves on with Julie to encounter yet another of his past conquests, a divorcee, Cynthia, who witheringly tries to dismisses Julie as competition. When Cynthia seductively invites Ned over to visit, he says he will need to discuss it with Lucinda which disgusts Cynthia. Another guest, Danny offers Ned the prospect of a new position, which Ned rejects dismissively when told he may have to take a cut in pay. As Danny tells Ned he doesn't have to pretend with him, Ned and Julie resume their swim and then move on to the Patisons riding ring. There Ned again impresses Julie with his athletic virility by jumping over the horse jumps, before over reaching himself and hurting his ankle in the process. Julie tells Ned some more about herself, which leads Ned to come on to her. Ned reveals that he married into money, that he was from humble origins and it was Lucinda who was rich. He then revisits the subject of his stolen shirt and possessively offers to be Julie's guardian angel, which spooks Julie and she runs off. Ned limps along a road alone and finds himself at the entrance to the Hallorans estate, just as a chauffeur driven Rolls Royce is driving in. Thinking he knows the chauffeur, he bums a ride, only to discover that the former chauffeur Steve has left. However, the new chauffeur also calls him by name. On the drive up to the house he discover the new chauffeur has been in his position for almost two years. He is the epitome of discretion (unlike, it would appear, Steve) and refuses to engage in discussion about Steve or much else either. Ned leaves the car at the front of the house and brings the newspaper for the Hallorans out to their pool at the rear. Sitting by their pool, it is soon obvious that the Hallorans are nudists. Mr Halloran is engaged in a conversation with their daughter on the phone, who obviously disapproves of their nudism and refuses to bring their grandchildren to visit unless the older couple put on clothes. As Ned approaches he removes his swimming trunks out of respect, while the Hallorans argue about refusing him if he asks for money. The three exchange petty conversation, which mainly reflects the Hallorans snobbery and the value they place on maintaining their privacy. Ned notices Mrs Halloran is organizing a safari benefit ball and tells her to put him down for a table. She balks and tells him a table costs $1,000. Mr Halloran interjects to tell Ned he was awfully sorry they couldn't be of help. When Ned replies he didn't recall asking for help Mr Halloran diverts by inquiring how Lucinda and the girls are. Chillingly, Ned retorts that Lucinda is fine and the girls are at home playing tennis and then takes his leave to go swim in the pool. As he leaves, Mrs Halloran removes his name from the list for the ball. Next Ned approaches the Gilmartins where he encounters a young boy (Kevin Gilmartin, Jr. "after my father") selling lemonade and practicing playing a recorder. Ned asks for a cup of lemonade and Kevin tells him it costs 10 cents. Ned tells him he'll owe it to him, but Kevin is skeptical, even when Ned says he'll drop it round to him tomorrow. Kevin relents however and gives Ned a cup, commenting that he is shivering. Ned inquires about Kevin's parents. He says his mother is in Europe on her honeymoon, so she couldn't take him and his father is in love with the manicurist (that's what his mother says). Ned notices the boy is lonely and says he'll invite him over to his house and he can play with Ned's girls who he says are not much older than Kevin. Kevin is excited at the prospect of this and of cycling his English racing bike. He offers Ned another drink but Ned says he hasn't time as he is swimming home. He asks Kevin if it is ok to use his pool and Kevin says yes but hesitates. Ned walks him up to the house, where he discovers the pool is empty. Kevin says they took the water out of the pool because he's not a good swimmer. Ned say he will pretend to swim the pool using all the strokes and invites Kevin to join him. While going up and down the length of the pool, Ned paints a glorious picture of himself, to Kevin, as a wonderful dad who floods the tennis courts in winter to turn them into a skating rink and says Kevin will have to join them next winter. Kevin is delighted at his achievement of having "swum" a full length of the pool. Then he begins to have doubts, but Ned tells him, if you believe in something enough, then it can be true. Kevin asks to do it again but Ned says he has to leave, at which point Kevin gets angry as everyone appears leaves him. As he walks into the forest Ned hears Kevin jumping on the diving board above the empty pool and returns, worried that Kevin will hurt himself. Kevin is puzzled when Ned says he was worried he might dive in, to which Kevin replies "but there's no water in the pool". Next, Ned arrives at the Biswangers, where yet another party is in full swing pool side, with people dancing, drinking and gorging themselves on caviar. Henry Biswanger is explaining to an audience of other men about the all-weather sliding cover over his pool, which will allow its use all through the year. Grace Biswanger greets Ned coldly, accusing him of gate crashing their party. Ned goes to get a drink and strikes up conversation with the bartender, saying he must be new, explaining he hasn't seen him at parties. The bartender replies that he hasn't seen Ned either. Another female guest, Joan, arrives to jump the bar queue before Ned. He talks with her about swimming. Joan asks is he a neighbour and Ned replies "No". She asks if he is a friend of the Biswangers, Ned replies that they are not even on his Christmas card list. He tries to entice Joan to come along with him, telling her he is noble and a very special human being. Another male guest arrives and takes Joan aside, obviously to explain to her who Ned really is. Ned jumps in the pool to swim a length and emerges at the other end as one of the catering staff wheels a hot dog wagon past. Ned recognises it as one he built for his kids. He gets quite emotional, loudly explaining its providence. Mrs Biswanger approaches angrily and explains that they bought it at a white elephant sale. Ned offers to buy it back, offering to send a check for whatever price they want, at which Mr Biswanger scoffs. When Ned threatens to make a bigger scene, Mr Biswanger tells him to leave. Ned does so, humiliated, but says Mr Biswanger will be hearing from his lawyer. As he limps away, all the party guests watch on. Ned next arrives at the pool of Shirley Abbot, an actress. When he tells her he is swimming home she tell him to grow up. It soon become obvious that Ned and Shirley have been lovers and that she has been hurt by Ned's behaviour in the past. When he tries to come on to her like old times she rejects him brutally. He tells her about the hot-dog wagon at the Biswangers and she asks how would she know it, that she's never been to his house. As he makes a drink, Ned exclaims to her that "we are running out of Tabasco". Shirley, irritated at his use of "we" says he is a little confused this afternoon, living in Never Never Land and inquires about his house (she's heard he's had a change of residence, which Ned denies) and Lucinda, whom she obviously dislikes. When Ned says Lucinda has always done a lot of good in the town, Shirley acidly replies that she just didn't do very good at home. Ned begins to reminisce on their affair, recalling the previous winter in Toronto. Shirley replies that she hasn't been in Toronto for 3 years. She tells Ned that she wants him to get out of her garden, he asks is it because she is expecting someone, another male? When she confirms this Ned is taken aback and Shirley asks him if he thinks she's been in a deep freeze while he's been playing happy families. For the first time, we begin to see a real chink in Ned's facade, as he asks her what's happened and says that nothing's worked out the way he thought it would. She replies that he got turned out of his golden playpen. Shirley tells a story of once going to spy on Ned and his family on their way to the ballet and watching him schmoozing, smilingly with the hoi polloi, when hypocritically, one hour previously, he had been in bed with her. When he asks if her new man is better in bed than him she throws a drink in his face. Then she relates how he broke up with her by bringing her to a posh New York restaurant hoping she wouldn't make a scene. She says he sold her the yarn about having to go back to his wife and kids, even though he didn't love his wife (but the real estate was in her name!). She then mocks him about her affair with a bell hop to spite him further. He tries to entice her to come away with him to a castle in Ireland, but she again replies that she wants him to leave. He attempts to placate her and says he never meant to hurt her. His increasing shivers cause Shirley some genuine concern and she offers to drive him home. But he refuses and repeats the mantra that Lucinda is waiting for him, and the girls are at home playing tennis, as Shirley stares on in disbelief. Ned draws her into the pool and tries to remove her swimming costume, but finally Shirley breaks and tells Ned what she really though about him; that he was a bore with his stories about his old deals and his old girls and his golf scores and his war stories. To Ned's dismay she says she was acting with him all the time, but he still tries to convince himself that she is lying and she loved it all. Struggling out of the pool, Ned is next confronted by route 424 and struggles to cross the six lanes of traffic, like a wounded animal. When he eventually succeeds he slinks away into the woods on the other side. Ned's next stop is the public pool where he pleads to be allowed enter, even though he doesn't have the 50 cents entry fee. He's resorting to begging when another couple approach and the man, Howie recognises Ned. Ned asks him if he will lend him the 50 cents and even though Howie's wife advises against it, Howie gives it to him. Ned is further humiliated by the pool staff, by being sent to take a shower and even being sent back again to wash his still dirty feet. Even then, he is subject to a careful inspection of his toes, akin to a criminal, before he is finally allowed to swim. He struggles to swim a single length of a pool crammed with other users and emerges seemingly exhausted by the effort. He is again confronted by Howie and his wife, along with another couple who are also less than impressed to see him. Howie's wife, frustrated at Howie's attempt at friendliness towards Ned, instead asks him when he is going to pay his bills? She is joined by the other couple, who echo the same sentiments. Ned promises to send them both a check the next day, which invites further scorn. The second male starts talking about the ostentatious orders he used deliver to Ned's house. Ned asks Howie how is his family and Howie begins to tell him about how well his oldest boy is doing, but is interrupted by his wife who says that they know how to bring their kids up right, Not like Ned, where it appears one of his daughters has been caught drink driving and Ned paid to keep her name out of the papers. Howie's wife continues to plunge the knife in further when Ned claims that his daughters worship him, by saying they laughed about him behind his back and when Ned accuses her of being a liar, Howie finally cracks and tells Ned the obvious truth, that his girls thought he was one big joke. Stunned at this revelation, Ned pushes Howie aside and climbs up a rocky slope to escape the pool compound and their mocking of him. Ned finally arrives at the entrance to his own house and pushes his way in through the rusted gates as thunder crashes above. He limps into an unkempt and overgrown garden. As he walks through the dilapidated tennis courts, rain starts to fall and autumn leaves are piled in heaps. He approaches a once obviously grand, but now deserted house. He tries the front door but it is locked. He begins to bang on the door as rain falls in sheets and is blown by the wind. Through a crack in one of the windows we get a view inside one of the rooms of the house, empty save for some discarded boxes and an old tennis racket. This is revealed as Ned's true reality, that of the broken man slumped outside as the rain pours down on him.

In the final years of the Mexican Revolution, American rancher J.W. Grant (Ralph Bellamy) hires four men, who are all experts in their respective fields, to rescue his kidnapped wife, Maria (Claudia Cardinale), from Jesus Raza (Jack Palance), a former revolutionary leader-turned-bandit. Grant has withdrawn $100,000 in gold coins from his local bank. Henry "Rico" Fardan (Lee Marvin) is a weapons specialist, Bill Dolworth (Burt Lancaster) is an explosives expert, Hans Ehrengard (Robert Ryan) is the horse wrangler, and Jake Sharp (Woody Strode) is a traditional Apache scout, skilled with a bow and arrow. Grant gathers the Rico, Hans and Sharp on his private train and explains that a week ago Raza kidnapped his wife. Grant says that Raza is the bloodiest cut-throat in Mexico. Raza has kept Maria in the middle of the desert in his fortress. The fortress (situated in the Painted Mountains in Mexico) is covered by the desert for 100 miles in every direction, and it would take a battalion a month just to find him. Raza's men know every geological detail of the terrain. Raza has 150 soldiers. Grant offers $1000 per person in advance and $9000 per person if they bring Maria back. Grant says that he has arranged the ransom money of $100,000, but still is not sure if he will get Maria back alive. Rico says that he needs a weapons specialist for the mission and suggests Bill. Bill is in jail for being an adulterer with married women and Rico bails him out for $700. Fardan and Dolworth, having both fought under the command of Pancho Villa, have a high regard for Raza as a soldier. But as cynical professionals, they have no qualms about killing him. They cannot believe that Raza would kidnap a woman, but Grant has the ransom note to prove it. Grant married Maria 4 years ago. A few days ago, she went riding across the border, as she was from Mexico and perhaps missed it. By the time she was found missing, the ransom note arrived. After entering Mexico, the professional track a group of Mexican bandits who confront them in a narrow mountain canyon the next day. The bandits open fire, but Rico was well prepared and had already asked Sharp and Hans to take positions in the surrounding cliffs. They easily dispatch the bandits and take their supplies. Bill wants to shoot the horses as they don't have food and water to feed them, but Hans argues to set them free instead. Bill tells Rico that they are 3 days ride away from Coyote pass, where the Mexican rebels buried 2 million dollars in Spanish Gold. Bill wants Rico to abandon their quest and to go for the gold, but Rico refuses. Rico sends Bill ahead to scout for dangers and he follows with Hans and Sharp. Bill is captured by 3 bandits who rob him and hang him upside down. Rico reaches the location and through signals (an upside down cross) he determines that Bill is in danger. These bandits were colleagues of the ones killed earlier and had found the riderless horses. The bandits prepare to kill Bill, but Rico intervenes. The bandits are killed, and Bill rescued. They realize that this narrow canyon between the mountain, where Bill was captured, is a perfect escape route for them on their way to the US. They know that Raza will take the same route and decide to rig it with explosives. Close to Raza's fortress, the professionals witness soldiers on a government train being massacred by Raza's small army. Raza's men sabotage the rails to stop the train. After a brutal fight, they kill all the surviving Government soldiers and reinstall the rails. The officers of the government are hanged and lynched. Bill explains that the soldiers on the train were Colorados, expert marksmen and expert at torture. A few years ago, they burned and looted a town with 3000 people. When they were done, only 40 were left. Rico's wife was one of the lucky 40. She was stripped naked and made to run through the cactus till her skin peeled off and she died. They follow the captured train to the end of the line. After the bandits leave, they take the train before moving on to the camp, where they observe Raza and his followers - including a female soldier, Chiquita (Maria Gomez) (who had once been in a relationship with Dolworth). They find that the camp has milk, supplied by the goat-keeper. Grant's 2nd in command Ortega (Joe De Santis) had told them that the goat-keeper Eduardo Padillia is a friend and will do anything to help. Eduardo recognizes Oretga's medallion presented by Rico and agrees to help. Eduardo confirms the location of Maria inside the camp. Rico plans an elaborate attack on the camp to provide an escape route with Maria. He hopes to convince Raza and his troops that they are being attacked by the Mexican government, and as they take defensive positions, Rico will escape with Maria. At nightfall, Fardan infiltrates the camp, but he is stopped from killing Raza in his quarters; after witnessing the beautiful Maria, Grant's kidnapped wife, about to willingly make love with Raza, Dolworth is forced to conclude that they have been duped. After bringing Maria back to the train, a shootout starts because it has been retaken by the bandits. These bandits are colleagues of the ones killed earlier by the Professionals. They had taken Hans hostage. The bandits surrender when Rico realizes that they are afraid to hit Maria. Rico drives the train away. Pursued by Raza and his men, the professionals are forced to take refuge in nearby canyon lands. That night, Maria reveals that they haven't rescued Grant's "kidnapped wife" but rather, Raza's lover - that Grant had bought her in an arranged marriage (when Grant bought her father's ranch in Mexico), from which she escaped at the earliest opportunity to return to her true love in Mexico. The following day, Maria hops on a horse and rides off through the narrow canyons to rejoin Raza, but Dolworth sets off explosives he had planted in the canyon walls, which collapse and close off the canyon, preventing her escape. That night Maria tries to seduce Bill to allow her to escape, but he refuses. She appeals to Rico and Bill saying that they served the revolution for 6 years loyally and that Raza speaks very highly of them. Yet, Rico says that he is bound by his promise to Grant. As Raza and his remaining men close in, Dolworth volunteers to stay behind to allow the other professionals to escape with Maria. In the ensuing fight, Raza is wounded and captured, and Dolworth is almost killed by a dying Chiquita, whose pistol has run out of bullets. Bill and Raza catch up with Rico just before the US border. Grant and his men meet the professionals (with Raza and Maria) at the US border. The wealthy rancher tells Fardan that their contract has been satisfactorily concluded. He then orders one of his men to kill the wounded Raza. But before he can fire, Dolworth shoots the guns from his hand. The other professionals step in to protect Maria and Raza. They collect the wounded Raza, laying him on the back of a horse-drawn wagon with Maria at the reins, and send both back to Mexico. Grant angrily turns to Fardan and declares him to be a dishonorable man. Rico retorts that while Rico was born that way, but Grant became that way all by himself. The professionals then ride off, following the wagon across the border to Mexico.

In August 1944 (1511th day of the German occupation), masterpieces of modern art stolen by the Wehrmacht are being shipped to Germany; the officer in charge of the operation, Colonel Franz Von Waldheim (Paul Scofield), is determined to take the paintings to Germany, no matter what the cost. After the works he selects are removed from the Jeu De Paume Museum, curator Mademoiselle Villard (Suzanne Flon) seeks help from the French Resistance. Villard knows that Waldheim loves his art and has saved the pieces from Nazi ideology by hiding them in Villard's Museum for 4 years. Given the imminent liberation of Paris by the Allies, SNCF (French National Railways) workers associated with the Resistance need only delay the train for a few days, but it is a dangerous operation and must be done without risking the priceless cargo. As luck would have it, Waldheim's train is canceled due to orders to prepare an armament train at the highest priority. Waldheim arranges for new orders and asks the Railways area inspector to have his train ready at 3 PM the same day. Waldheim takes permission from General Von Lubitz (Richard Munch) himself to get his train sanctioned. He convinces Lubitz that money is itself a weapon and that the retreating Germans should not leave 1 Billion in Deutschmarks in the form of art, in the hands of the French. Due to the delays in meeting Lubitz, Waldheim delays the departure to the following morning at 9:50 am. Resistance cell leader and SNCF area inspector Paul Labiche (Burt Lancaster) initially denies the plan, telling Villard and senior Resistance leader Spinet (Paul Bonifas), "I won't waste lives on paintings." Villard insists that the train must be stopped, but the paintings must not be harmed as they are a National heritage and irreplaceable. Spinet argues that British planes are going to hit the rail yard at 10 the next morning and wants Labiche to delay the train by 10 minutes. Boule is an engineer assigned to Waldheim's train and had learned from the conductor Octave (Jean-Pierre Zola) that the train was carrying stolen art to Nazi Germany and was motivated by his sense of nationalism. Didont and Pesquet are fellow engineers who were engineering a military train (with anti-aircraft guns and tanks) that was held at the station of Vaires to prioritize the passage of Waldheim's art train. Labiche is also at Vaires. Boule's train passes Vaires at precisely 10 am when the bombing starts. The bombing destroys the military train but misses Boule's train. But Buole had thrown coins into the engine to clog up the oil filters, which brings the train to a halt at the station of Rive-Reine. The engine is towed back to Vaires for repairs. Major Herren (Wolfgang Preiss) is an experienced engineer and understands immediately that Boule threw coins into the oil line to clog the filters. Labiche has a change of heart after his cantankerous former mentor, Papa Boule (Michel Simon), is summarily executed for sabotaging the train on his own. After that sacrifice, Labiche joins his Resistance teammates Didont (Albert Remy) and Pesquet (Charles Millot), who have been organizing their own plan with the help of other SNCF Resistance members. Labiche, Didont and Pesquet fix the engine and take it to Rive-Reine to attach to the train. Waldheim wont release Labiche and asks him to rest for a few hours before taking over the train. Labiche is put up in a hotel owned by Christine by Captain Schmidt (Jean Bouchaud). Labiche escapes the hotel room, creates a distraction by exploding a truck and enters the stationmaster's office to issue a set of instructions to the other station masters. The station master at Rive-Reine Jacques (Jacques Marin) coordinates the actions when Labiche boards the train. In an elaborate ruse, they reroute the train, temporarily changing railway station signage to make the German escort believe they are heading to Germany when they have actually looped back round towards Paris. Two deliberate collisions then block the train in at the small town of Rive-Reine without damaging the cargo. Jacques derails an engine across the tracks at Rive-Reine. As Labiche approaches Rive-Reine, he separates the engine from the wagons, abandons the engine, which goes on to collide with the engine on the tracks. Then Jacques sends another engine from behind the wagons, which crashes into them and blocks the reverse escape. Labiche, although shot in the leg, escapes on foot with the help of Christine (Jeanne Moreau), the widowed owner of a Rive-Reine hotel, while other Resistance members involved in the plot are murdered, including Pesquet and Jacques, the Rive-Reine stationmaster. That night, Labiche and Didont meet Spinet again, along with Jacques's young nephew Robert (Christian Fuin). Spinet says that the Allied army is delayed as they went to Paris first as a good-will gesture. He also says that London has decided not to bomb the train and has asked for the first 3 wagons to be painted white on top. Labiche says that too many men have lost their lives already, but Didont convinces him to complete the mission else all sacrifices would have been in vain. Labiche, Didont and Robert plan to paint the tops of three wagons white to warn off Allied aircraft from bombing the art train. Robert recruits railroad workers and friends of his uncle. He and Didont are killed when the painting is detected during a false air raid alarm staged by Robert (the air raid siren prompts the Germans to switch off all lights at night, which allows Labiche and Pesquet to approach the train and paint it), but because of the paint, the train is spared from bombing the next day when Allied medium bombers roar over Rive-Reine. But now Walheim figures out that the train is protected and the Allied air force will not bomb it, prompting him to take the train out of Rive-Reine in daylight. Now working alone, Labiche continues to delay the train after the tracks are cleared, to the mounting rage of Von Waldheim. Labiche attempts to use plastic explosives to destroy the locomotive, only to find it carrying French hostages placed by the Germans. To spare the hostages, he blows the explosives early, damaging the tracks in front of the train. While the Germans fix the tracks, Labiche runs ahead, struggling to keep away from the soldiers searching for him. Finally, he manages to derail the train by unscrewing and loosening one of the rails, causing the rails to spread and the engine to fall gently into the ballast without harming the hostages. No crane is available to re-rail the train, so Von Waldheim flags down an army convoy retreating on a nearby road, learning that a French armored division is not far behind. The colonel orders the train to be unloaded and attempts to commandeer the trucks for the art, but the convoy's commander refuses the order. The train's German contingent then kill the hostages and join the retreating convoy. Von Waldheim remains behind with the abandoned train. Strewn between the track and the road are crates labeled with the names of famous artists. Labiche appears and the colonel castigates him for having no real interest in the art he has saved. In response, Labiche turns and looks at the murdered hostages and then, without a word, turns back to Von Waldheim and shoots him dead. Afterwards Labiche limps away, leaving the bodies and the art treasures where they lie.

A true-life drama about Robert Stroud who educated himself in the science of birds while spending 53 years in prison. He became a world authority on birds. Convicted of murder twice, the second time for killing a prison guard, Robert Stroud is sentenced to life in solitary confinement. One day, after curing a sickly sparrow that lands in his cell, Stroud finds new purpose in his lonely life. He begins studying and eventually becomes an expert on birds. Through the strength of his will and the power of his intellect, Stroud is able to create a new life, and a fascinating world, in his tiny prison cell.

The stories of several people are told as they stay at a seaside hotel in Bournemouth. Life at the Beauregard Hotel in Bournemouth during the off-season livens up when beautiful Ann Shankland arrives to see her alcoholic ex-husband John Malcolm, who is secretly engaged to Pat Cooper, who runs the hotel. Meanwhile, snobbish Mrs. Railton-Bell discovers that the kind if doddering Major Pollock isn't what he appears to be--particularly shocking news for her frail daughter Sibyl, who is secretly in love with him. —Shannon Patrick Sullivan <shannon@mun.ca> In Bournemouth, England, the Beauregard Hotel is located three minutes from the sea and managed by Pat Cooper. It is off-season and only the resident guests are lodged in the hotel. Timid Sibyl is a hysterical spinster totally controlled by her arrogant, snobbish mother, Mrs. Maud Railton-Bell, who doesn't want her to work. Sibyl is secretly in love with the reformed Major David Angus Pollock and enjoys listening to his stories. Lady Gladys Matheson is the only friend of Mrs. Railton-Bell. Medical student Charles wants to marry his fiancée Jean but she refuses. Miss Meacham and Mr. Fowler like to play billiards and she always wins the game. American John Malcolm is an alcoholic writer who is secretly engaged to Pat. When elegant, gorgeous Ann Shankland checks into the hotel, John is affected by her presence and Pat learns that Ann is his ex-wife and he'd tried to kill her five years ago. Meanwhile, Major Pollock unsuccessfully tries to steal the West Hampshire Weekly News from reception, but Mrs. Railton-Bell finds an inflammatory article about him and tries to expel him from the hotel. These events will affect the residents' lives. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Managed by the efficient Pat Cooper, the Beauregard Hotel on the English coast in Bournemouth is a stuffy, second-rate establishment. Only a handful of mostly resident guests are currently staying at the hotel. They include: retired and decorated Major Angus Pollock; elderly Maud Railton-Bell, who needs to control everything, especially her mousy spinster daughter Sibyl Railton-Bell, who has a quiet bond with and crush on the Major; Lady Gladys Matheson, who follows whatever Mrs. Railton-Bell wants purely out of camaraderie; straightforward, slightly gruff Miss Meacham; staid schoolteacher Mr. Fowler; students Charles and Jean, a young unmarried couple who are the primary focus of Mrs. Railton-Bell's ire for probably doing it out of wedlock; and writer John Malcolm, a brash American who hides his issues behind his excessive drinking and who is in a secret liaison with Pat and wants to marry her. Their relationship is threatened by the unexpected arrival of Ann Shankland, who has a turbulent, passionate history with John. Ann's arrival is not by accident; she says she wants to help John before she remarries, but she might have other, more self-motivated reasons. The focus of the entire group changes when Mrs. Railton-Bell learns of a secret the Major is hiding. As Mrs. Railton-Bell tries to control the situation with the Major to her satisfaction, which includes bending the truth to suit her own needs, the others out of their own situations, especially Sibyl, might eventually come to their own conclusions on how best to deal with the Major's issue with respect to his stay at the hotel. —Huggo During the off-season at the Beauregard Hotel, the secrets of some guests are exposed. Lovely but vulnerable Ann Shankland travels to the hotel in hopes of starting over with her ex-husband, John, but she does not know that he is already engaged to Pat Cooper, the manager of the hotel. Meanwhile, Mrs. Railton-Bell and her daughter Sibyl discover the hidden truth about war veteran Major Pollack. —Jwelch5742

A powerful Broadway columnist coerces an unscrupulous press agent into breaking up his sister's romance with a jazz musician. J.J. Hunsecker, the most powerful newspaper columnist in New York, is determined to prevent his sister from marrying Steve Dallas, a jazz musician. He therefore covertly employs Sidney Falco, a sleazy and unscrupulous press agent, to break up the affair by any means possible. —David Levene <D.S.Levene@durham.ac.uk> J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster), is a tyrannical Broadway columnist for the New York Globe who rules his demimonde with the press's power to create or destroy. Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis), is the hustling publicist who is consumed by desperate ambition and hates himself because of it; he will do anything to gain the admiration of Hunsecker ("My experience, in brief, is dog eat dog.") The film was shot in black and white by James Wong Howe, giving it a grittiness that underscores the class ranking among the characters. In the script by Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman, Falco's early prediction - "Every dog has its day" - comes crashingly true. —alfiehitchie New York press agent Sidney Falco's livelihood, and by association those of his clients, are largely dependent upon getting those clients' names in the New York newspaper columns, most notably that of the most influential of all the New York columnists, J.J. Hunsecker. Sidney's livelihood is in jeopardy because J.J., a so-called "friend," asked Sidney to do him a favor which he couldn't accomplish, namely breaking up the relationship of his 19-year-old sister, Susan Hunsecker, toward whom J.J. is overprotective, and Steve Dallas, a jazz guitarist who leads his own combo. J.J. won't give Sidney or his clients the time of day until Sidney accomplishes this task. Sidney decides to use the only tool he truly has available to him in his professional life, regardless of the effect on Steve or Susie. Sidney worries about J.J.'s reaction, which he needn't have worried about as J.J. wants not only to break them up but to ruin Steve in the process for being this thorn in his side. Both Steve and Susie are aware of both Sidney and J.J.'s roles in what is happening around them, but they may feel helpless in getting themselves out from their predicament. The question becomes whether J.J., Sidney and Susie's individual relationships with the other two, and J.J. and Sidney's professional lives can survive what was meant as a means to bolster their own individual power. —Huggo Sidney Falco is a press agent. His livelihood depends on him getting coverage for his clients with influential newspaper columnists. The most influential is JJ Hunsecker and Falco would do anything to get in his good books. Currently he is trying to break up the relationship of Hunsecker's sister with a jazz guitarist that Hunsecker doesn't like. This leads to a Machiavellian plot and profound repercussions. —grantss

Lawman Wyatt Earp and outlaw Doc Holliday form an unlikely alliance which culminates in their participation in the legendary Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. After a long career as a lawman that made him a legend, Wyatt Earp (Burt Lancaster) decides to quit and join his brothers in Tombstone, Arizona. There, he would see them in a feud with the Clantons, a local clan of thugs and cattle thieves. When the showdown becomes inevitable, the help will come from Doc Holliday (Kirk Douglas), a terminally-ill gambler who happens to be another Wild West legend. —Dragan Antulov <dragan.antulov@altbbs.fido.hr>

During the Depression, a con-man promises rain to a desperate drought-ridden Kansas town and marriage to a local desperate spinster. Lizzie Curry is on the verge of becoming a hopeless old maid. Her wit and intelligence and skills as a homemaker can't make up for the fact that she's just plain plain. Even the town sheriff, File, for whom she harbors a secret yen, won't take a chance --- until the town suffers a drought and into the lives of Lizzie and her brothers and father comes one Bill Starbuck - profession: Rainmaker. —A.L.Beneteau <albl@inforamp.net> This is the story of a family...and the daughter specifically who both feel hopeless about two things. The family is concerned about the drought that is effecting the family farm, and about the future of their sister Lizzie. Since she hasn't met a man at her stage of life...the family and she thinks it's because she's too "plain" looking. Until a stranger comes along an convinces both that there is hope. —Ray Betterbid During the Great Depression, Lizzie Curry is the sole female in a household of males on the Curry ranch in rural Three Point, the males being her widowed father H.C. and brothers Noah and Jim. Considered plain, Lizzie is close to being classified a spinster, something she doesn't like, she wanting to be loved for herself and not wanting to act flirty i.e. helpless or silly, to attract a man, or to be paraded as desperate for a husband. H.C. and Jim in particular will push her into situations to be with eligible men, inexperienced Jim who himself is susceptible to ploys of such flirty girls as Snookie Maguire. Of the men in town, they all believe that recently arrived Deputy Sheriff File has the most potential as a mate for Lizzie, he who tells people he that he is widowed, while in reality his wife left him for another man, arguably the reason for he being relationship-shy. The lives of the entire family are turned upside down with the arrival into town of Bill Starbuck, a proverbial snake oil salesman who they are unaware is on File's radar as the con man heading their way. What Starbuck is selling to the Currys is rain in the current drought decimating their cattle stock. For $100 up front, he guarantees rain within twenty-four hours. While H.C., with naive Jim by his side, is willing to pay the money seeing the amount as what he may routinely lose on a gambling night anyway, Noah but Lizzie in particular can see Starbuck as the charlatan that he is. But Lizzie may have a different view of this stranger when he convinces her that she is indeed beautiful. —Huggo

A Sicilian seamstress who idolizes her husband must deal with several family crises upon his sudden death. An Italian-American neighborhood in Louisiana is disturbed when truck driver Rosario Delle Rose is killed by police while smuggling. His buxom widow Serafina miscarries, then over a period of years draws more and more into herself, trying to force her lovely teenaged daughter Rosa to do likewise. On one eventful day, Rose finally breaks away; Serafina learns of Rosario's affair with another woman; and a new carefree, handsome Italian truck driver enters her life... —Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>

During the Mexican Rebellion of 1866, an unsavory group of American adventurers are hired by the forces of Emporer Maximilian to escort a countess to Vera Cruz. After the American Civil War, mercenaries travel to Mexico to fight in their revolution for money. The former soldier and gentleman Benjamin Trane meets the gunman and killer Joe Erin and his men, and together they are hired by the Emperor Maximillian and the Marquis Henri de Labordere to escort the Countess Marie Duvarre to the harbor of Vera Cruz. Ben and Erin find that the stagecoach is transporting three million U.S. dollars in gold hidden below the seat, and they scheme to steal it. Along their journey, betrayals and incidents happen changing their initial intentions. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Mexico, 1866: After the American Civil War, Benjamin Trane, a former soldier of the US Southern States, and Joe Erin, a bandit, try their luck in Mexico, where the partisans of Benito Juárez and the supporters of Emperor Maximilian I are waging war. Both sides try to recruit the two adventurers. The Marquis Henri de Labordère, who represents the emperor, wins the men over and gives them a mission: they are to escort Countess Duvarre and her carriage to Vera Cruz. But they soon realize that there is a specific reason for this mission: while spending the night in a monastery, Ben and Joe discover that Countess Duvarre's carriage is transporting gold worth three million dollars. This gold is to be used to hire troops in Europe to keep Emperor Maximilian on the throne. However, the countess has other plans for the gold. She offers Ben and Joe a share in her plan and a share of the gold afterwards. Shortly before Vera Cruz, in Las Palmas, the countess meets with a captain who is to take her out of the country with the gold, but without Ben and Joe. But the Marquis beats her to it: he captures her and leaves the city with his soldiers and the gold. Ben, Joe, and the rest of the gang immediately give chase. At a bridge, the Juaristas attack the carriage. However, since the gold is no longer in the carriage, the gang now joins the partisans. —Arte Ben Trane and Joe Erin, two rival soldiers of fortune who team to fight for the highest bidder. The two men come to loggerheads when Trane's sweetheart Nina begs them to fight on the side of the rebels, while the wealthy Marquis de Labodere implores them to offer their services to Emperor Maximillian. Though they still haven't taken sides, Trane and Erin agree to escort the aristocratic Countess Marie Duvarre through hostile territory to Vera Cruz. It soon develops that the Countess is transporting a gold shipment to the Emperor's armies. Hardly the most patriotic of souls, she offers to split the gold with Trane and Erin, but they steal it for themselves instead. It takes a while (and several bloody armed confrontations) before the two protagonists do the right thing. Two nineteenth century soldiers of fortune, one survivor of the Civil War with a soft spot for sick horses and social justice, the other a charming and greedy trigger-happy killer, search for their next dollar down in Mexico at a time when the country is torn between Emperor Maxmillian and the nationalist peasant Army trying to overthrow him. Since the Emperor has the most cash, our hired guns agree to serve the Emperor by escorting a Countess to the city of Vera Cruz by passing through territory under rebel control. On the way to Vera Cruz, both fighters discover three million U.S. dollars in gold coins (intended to buy guns for the Emperor from France) hidden at the bottom of the stagecoach carrying the Countess, and she is not totally unaware of the fact either. She has her own plans too. All three plot against the other two to scoop the treasure away. Betrayal is not an issue. It's not even personal. It's just business. After a few gunfights and ambush scenes between Maxmillian's escorting Army and the peasant rebels, justice reigns, and Ben Trane emerges as the noble soul who triumphs over crass materialism despite the soft spot in his heart that Joe Erin took for weakness. —Gary Kencey

In 1941 Hawaii, Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt (Montgomery Clift) is transferred from the Bugle Corps at Fort Shafter (giving up his corporal stripes) to a rifle outfit, Company "G," at Schofield Barracks on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. When Captain Dana "Dynamite" Holmes (Philip Ober) learns of his reputation as a talented boxer, he recommends that Prewitt join the regimental boxing club that he heads, and promises that Prewitt will be promoted to corporal or even sergeant, if he helps win the boxing trophy on December 15. For reasons unknown to the regiment Prewitt adamantly refuses. Holmes retaliates by making army life as miserable as possible for Prewitt hoping he will agree to box. Unable to break Prewitt, Holmes orders First Sergeant Milton Warden (Burt Lancaster) to prepare court martial papers. Warden, however, knowing of Holmes' unfair treatment and realizing Prewitt is a thirty-year soldier (career soldier), suggests that he try to entice Prewitt to change his mind by doubling up on company punishment. The other non-commissioned officers assist in the conspiracy with brutal hazing rituals. Prewitt is supported only by his friend, Private Angelo Maggio (Frank Sinatra). Meanwhile, behind his commander's back, Warden begins an affair with Holmes' neglected wife Karen (Deborah Kerr). Sergeant Maylon Stark (George Reeves) has told Warden of Karen's many affairs with other soldiers at Fort Bliss, including his own. As their relationship develops, Warden asks Karen about her numerous affairs to test her sincerity with him. Karen relates that Holmes had been unfaithful to her most of their marriage. She lost a baby when Holmes came back from one affair drunk, and unable to assist her to the hospital. She then affirms her genuine love for Warden. Prewitt and Maggio spend their liberty time at the New Congress Club, a gentleman's club in downtown Honululu where Prewitt meets, and falls for, Lorene (Donna Reed), a local dancer and call girl. Prewitt confides to Lorene the reason he refuses to box for the company is that he blinded a close friend while sparring. Maggio encounters Sergeant 'Fatso' Judson (Ernest Borgnine), a crass and racist sergeant at the club. When Maggio complains that Judson's piano playing is interfering with his dancing, the two nearly come to blows. Maggio is told that Judson is the Sergeant of the Guard at the stockade. Later, at a tavern called "Choy's," located near the base, Judson sees Maggio holding a photograph of his family. Judson makes an inappropriate comment to Prewitt about Maggio's sister causing Maggio to smash a bar stool on Judson's head. Judson pulls a switchblade on Maggio, but Warden, sitting in a corner, intervenes to save Maggio by telling Judson that killing Maggio would "create two weeks of paperwork" for him. When the brutal Judson advances on Warden with the knife, Warden breaks a beer bottle in two and uses the jagged edge as a weapon. Judson retreats, throws down his knife and goes to the bar for a drink. However, he warns Maggio that sooner or later Maggio would end up in the stockade and he would be there waiting for him. A few days later, Karen tells Warden that if he became an officer, she could divorce Holmes and they could return to the States and marry. Warden is not keen on the idea because of his dislike of officers, but agrees to consider the matter. Prewitt manages a weekend pass, courtesy of Warden, and goes to meet Lorene who is too busy at the club to talk. However, she meets him later at a bar for a drink. He tells Lorene he loves the Army, and shows Lorene his prized possession, a bugle mouthpiece. He tells her, "I played taps last Armistice Day at Arlington National Cemetery. The President was there." Maggio then walks in drunk and in uniform, explaining that he was assigned to for guard duty that night, but deserted his post. Lorene encourages Prewitt to take Maggio back to the base. While Prewitt is calling for a taxi, Military Police arrive and arrest Maggio, and he is sentenced to six months in the stockade for desertion. Matters come to a head for Prewitt when Sergeant Galovitch picks a fight with Prewitt while on yard detail, and the two come to blows. At first, Galovitch repeatedly pummels Prewitt, who initially refuses to fight back, and then resorts to using only body blows. But as Galovitch and others watching continue taunting him, he begins boxing, hitting Galovitch in the face and nearly managing to knock him out before Holmes finally steps in and stops the fight. When Galovitch falsely accuses Prewitt of insubordination, Holmes is about to punish Prewitt again until the man in charge of the detail says that it was Galovitch, not Prewitt, who was spoiling for the fight. Instead of punishing Galovitch, Holmes abruptly lets him off the hook and disperses the crowd. The entire incident is witnessed by the base commander, who orders an investigation by the Inspector General. When Holmes' true intentions are revealed, the general orders a court-martial. When Holmes begs for an alternative, the commanding officer's aide suggests that Holmes resign his commission "for the good of the service" and leaves the Army, which the general accepts with dispatch. Holmes' replacement, Captain Ross, orders that Sergeant Galovitch be demoted to private and put in charge of the latrine. One evening, a few weeks later, Maggio manages to escape from the stockade and find Prewitt. He tells of the abuse he endured by Judson, then dies in Prewitt's arms. The next morning, Prewitt plays taps as tears stream down his cheeks. Seeking revenge, Prewitt tracks down Judson in town and invites him into a back alley to talk, then attacks him. The two fight with switchblades, Prewitt using the very same switchblade Judson had pulled on Maggio earlier. Prewitt kills Judson, but not before sustaining a serious stomach wound. Prewitt goes into hiding at Lorene's apartment. Despite Prewitt's AWOL status, his platoon sergeant carries him "present" for three days at Warden's direction. Lorene, whose real name is Alma, tends to Prewitt's wounds. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. Enemy planes also attack nearby Wheeler Air Base as well as the barracks. Warden leads several of his men in battle by climbing to the roofs of the barracks and returns fire against strafing Japanese fighter planes, shooting down at least one of them. That evening, Prewitt, still weak from his unhealed wound, finds out about the attack over the radio, and attempts to return to camp under cover of darkness, despite protests from Lorene to wait until daylight. During the walk back to the barracks, Prewitt is spotted by several jittery sentries on the lookout for saboteurs. Instead of stopping and identifying himself to the sentries, Prewitt attempts to run and gets shot dead while running across a golf course, his body landing in a nearby sand trap. Warden arrives on the scene a few minutes later with military investigators and identifies the body. Warden laments Prewitt's stubbornness and states the irony that because of the attack, the December 15, 1941 boxing tournament has been canceled. Holmes' resignation results in Karen having to return to the States with him. When she finds out that Warden failed to apply for officer status, she realizes they will never be together. In the final scene, Lorene and Karen meet for the first (and only) time on a ship leaving for the mainland. Karen then tosses two leis into the water. She tells Lorene, "If the leis go to shore, a person will return to Hawaii. If the leis float out to sea, a person will never return." Lorene says she will never return to Hawaii, telling Karen that her fiance was an Army Air Corps pilot who was killed in a B-17 plane during the December 7th attack. Lorene quotes: "he was awarded the Silver Star, they sent it to his mother. She wrote me. She wanted me to have it. They are very fine people, Southern people. He was named after a general. Robert E. Lee Prewitt." Karen recognizes Prewitt's name from conversations with Warden and is aware that Lorene is lying about Prewitt's death, but she says nothing. The final shot shows Lorene holding Prewitt's treasured bugle mouth piece.

An emotionally remote recovering alcoholic and his dowdy, unambitious wife face a personal crisis when they take in an attractive lodger. For two decades Doc and Lola Delaney avoided coming to terms with what Doc considered a "shot gun" marriage. Lola lost the baby and gives a lot of her affection to Sheba, a dog that disappeared a few months before the film opens. Doc blames Lola for having to drop out of medical school and not becoming a "real" doctor. Until joining AA a year ago, his escape was alcohol. Then college student Marie rents a room in their home. Doc feels passion for the first time in 20 years. But Marie has two suitors her age. Lola -- unaware of Doc's emotions --becomes as interested in Marie's future as if Marie were her daughter. —Dale O'Connor <daleoc@interaccess.com> Middle aged Doc and Lola Delaney have been married for twenty years. Their life together started out with so much promise, but their marriage has not become what that promise held. Doc, a chiropractor, was to become a full fledged medical doctor, but had to drop out of medical school when they got married. And Lola, once beautiful, has let her looks go. Now, she lies around the house not doing much of anything except listen to music on the radio. Because of the many stresses in their life, Doc became an alcoholic. Now attending AA meetings, he has just celebrated his one year AA birthday. Into their life comes university student Marie Buckholder to who they have rented out their sitting room. In so many different ways, Marie ends up being a reminder for Doc of what potential was lost in his and Lola's life, especially in that Marie is cavorting with a local jock named Turk Fisher who only has sex on his mind (which Marie deep down is aware), all the while while having a steady boyfriend named Bruce Cunningham back home who she plans to marry. These reminders of Doc's failed dreams, especially with Lola being the way she is, may be too much for him to handle. —Huggo A movie version of the play by William Inge, COME BACK, LITTLE SHEBA is the story of "Doc" and "Lola" Delaney -- a sadly aging couple whose attention seems drawn undistractably to lost dreams and failed ambitions. A grim and cold recovering alcoholic, Doc seems only able to numb the pain of his black-and-white existence with drink. Lola, on the other hand, desperate for warmth and affection, still longs for the little lost dog named "Sheba" missing for nearly a year which had provided her so much companionship and joy. Into this mix comes Marie, a carefree young co-ed happily dabbling at love and romance. When she rents a room from the Delaneys, their home is suddenly inhabited with the ghosts of their own failings -- Doc's professional failings, Lola's failings as a wife and mother, and the shared failings of their marriage. —Mark Fleetwood <mfleetwo@mail.coin.missouri.edu>

Wealthy invalid Leona Stevenson finds herself completely alone in her New York City townhouse. Thinking that her husband Henry would be home, she gave her nurse and the servants the night off. But Henry never came home from work and Leona is frantically trying to locate him. His office number is busy. In desperation, Leona telephones her husband's secretary, Miss Jennings, at home. She learns that Henry left the office with a Mrs. Lord and did not return. In flashbacks, it is revealed that Leona is the spoiled only child of J.B. Cotterell, the owner of a pharmaceutical company based in Chicago. Her mother died in childbirth and Leona grew up believing that she had a heart ailment. In college she met Henry Stevenson, who came from a dirt-poor background. Although he is dating her best friend Sally, Leona makes a play for him and succeeds in taking him away from Sally. Against the wishes of her father, Leona marries Henry and he goes to work for her father. But he is unsuccessful in persuading Leona that they need a home of their own instead of living with Mr. Cotterell. Leona has a fainting spell and requires a nurse to take care of her. This has happened many times over the years and Mr. Cotterell blames Henry for this latest episode. Henry tries to find other employment but Mr. Cotterell has put the word out not to hire him. Returning to the present time, Leona takes a call from a Mr. Waldo Evans. He has called several times wanting to speak to Henry but won't say what he wants. In telephoning Henry's office again, Leona is accidentally connected to a conversation in which two men are talking. They cannot hear her but she hears them plotting a murder. A woman is to be killed in her home at 11:15 that night. An overheard train will cross the tracks and the cop on patrol always takes a break at that time. No one else will be in the house and their client has arranged to leave a downstairs window unlocked. Their client wants them to make it look like a robbery and he doesn't want the woman to suffer. Leona is horrified and calls the operator, demanding that the call be traced. But the operator doesn't understand what she means about being cut in on a conversation and refers her to the police. The officer who takes Leona's call doesn't believe her. In frustration, Leona hangs up but continues to worry about the unfortunate woman who is set to die. In looking through the telephone messages that came in earlier that day, Leona finds one from the mysterious Mrs. Lord. She telephones the woman and demands to know what is going on with her and Henry. To her surprise, Mrs. Lord turns out to be her old friend Sally. By now Leona is thoroughly bewildered. Sally explains in a low voice that her husband works for the District Attorney and that Henry is in trouble. She came to his office to warn him. Then she hangs up abruptly after telling Leona that she will call back when she can speak privately, as her husband is home. Leona cannot imagine what sort of trouble Henry could be in. She telephones her father in Chicago but he is having a party and doesn't give her a chance to explain why she is calling. He is surprised and angry that she is in the house alone and promises to have a talk with Henry. The phone rings again and it is Western Union with a telegram from Henry. He is en route to a pharmaceutical convention and will telephone her later. Then Sally calls from a pay phone, having told her husband that she was going out for beer. She doesn't know exactly what trouble Henry is in, only that it is very serious. Earlier that week she followed her husband and one of his colleagues to a deserted house on Staten Island. It appeared to be a drop-off point and Sally heard Henry's name mentioned. Sally is forced to hang up because the drugstore is closing, leaving Leona frustrated and upset. Mr. Evans calls again and this time Leona demands to know why he keeps bothering her. She is a bedridden invalid and cannot take this kind of stress. Mr. Evans reveals that he knows all about her, having been a Cotterell employee for many years. He is in charge of a laboratory; first in Chicago and now in New Jersey. One night when he was working late, Henry stopped by. He looked around the laboratory and asked where the narcotics were kept. Mr. Evans showed him but felt uneasy about it, even though Henry was the boss's son-in-law. Later Henry offered Mr. Evans a ride home as it was raining and his bus was late. During the ride, Mr. Evans shared his desire to retire and return to England. He would like to purchase a horse farm but doubts he will be able to afford it. Henry agrees and offers to cut Mr. Evans in on a deal. If he will hold back some of the narcotics, Henry has a purchaser. They will each receive a large cut, which will go a long way toward purchasing the horse farm. Mr. Evans is horrified and refuses, but greed overtakes him and eventually he agrees. All goes well until Mr. Evans receives a sudden transfer to the New Jersey plant. Henry assures him that it is routine, as he would have been arrested if they were found out. Mr. Evans declares that he wants out but Henry won't allow it. He has already decided to act on his own instead of going through their purchaser, a Mr. Morano. Their share of the money will be a lot more. Henry and Leona move to New York, where Mr. Evans purchased the deserted house on Staten Island. He takes the drugs there and someone in a boat picks them up. Unfortuately, Mr. Morano traces them there and is waiting in the house when Mr. Evans arrives. He wants $200,000 as compensation for the business they took away from him. If they don't pay, they will be killed. When Henry protests that he doesn't have that kind of money, Mr. Morano reminds him that he has a rich wife. An accident can be arranged and he would inherit her money. Henry is sickened but realizes he has no choice. Mr. Evans closes the conversation by giving Leona a message for Henry. The game is up as the police have arrested Mr. Morano. Mr. Evans has burned down the Staten Island house. After midnight he can be reached at a certain number, which Leona writes down. It turns out to be the number of the city morgue. Mr. Evans obviously intends to commit suicide rather than be arrested. Leona telephones her father again but there is no answer. She begins to realize that the phone conversation she overheard was about her. She is the woman who is to be killed that night. Believing that her heart is about to give out, she telephones her doctor and begs him to come over. He can't, although he tells her that the results of a recent examination were very good. She does not have heart trouble at all. The doctor sent her a letter with this information but Leona never got it. She calls a nurse's registry but they don't have anyone they can send over at a moment's notice. Hysterically, Leona tries to get out of bed but she can't make her legs move. Then Henry telephones from the train station in Connecticut and Leona tells him she knows everything. She asks why he didn't come to her for the money, that she would gladly have given it to him because she loves him so much. Then she hears a noise downstairs and screams at Henry that someone is in the house. He orders her to get out of bed and yell out the window for help. But Leona is paralyzed by terror. He admits to having arranged her murder and tells her unless she does as he says, he will burn. The two plainclothes detectives who have been following Henry close in on the phone booth. Then Henry hears Leona's dying scream as she is stabbed. Henry calls back, the killer picks up the phone, says "Sorry wrong number" and hangs up.

Frankie Madison leaves prison expecting a share from his ex-partner. But Prohibition bootlegging didn't prepare Frankie for Big Business. Frankie Madison returns to New York after 14 years in prison. Noll Turner, Frankie's former partner in bootlegging, is now a wealthy nightclub manager, and Frankie is expecting him to honor a verbal '50:50' agreement they made when he was caught and Noll got away. Fat chance! Can Frankie, who knows only the strong-arm methods of Prohibition, win out against Big Business? It'll be tough...even with the unlikely alliance of torch singer Kay (Noll's ex-girlfriend). —Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu> After fourteen years in prison for bootlegging, Frankie Madison is released and returns To New York to meet his friend and partner Noll "Dink" Turner. Madison has an agreement with Dink, who is the manager of a successful nightclub, to share half of his business since he did not rat him when he was caught by the police. Dink uses his mistress Kay Lawrence to learn what Madison's real intention are and his friend Dave to explain that he has the right of less than US$ 3,000,00. Madison is not convinced and when Dink decides to get married to Mrs. Alexis Richardson - Kristine Miller, Kay teams up with Madison to retrieve his share. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Frankie Madison has just been released from prison after serving fourteen years for bootlegging, his conviction at the time of prohibition. When he was caught, he and his partner, Noll Turner - nicknamed Dink - knew that in the police pursuit one or both of them may be caught, they having made a deal right then and there to split whatever proceeds 50/50 made by a free one if and when the other was in prison. As Noll never once visited Frankie in prison, he only sending a carton of cigarettes a month, Frankie believes Noll will try to renege on their verbal deal, especially as Noll now operates a thriving nightclub. Frankie is correct especially as Noll has maneuvered behind the scenes to structure the business so that much is not in his own name, and as he has amassed a phalanx of thugs to carry out his more violent urges, some of those heavies who know and like Frankie from the old days, but who have their allegiance to Noll. What ensues is a battle between the "new ways" and the "old ways", Frankie who has no idea of the former, while Noll may have lost sight of the latter. Caught in the middle are: Dave, Noll's business manager who Frankie considers the only person from the old days in Noll's pocket that he can trust; and Kay Lawrence, the singer/pianist at the club who also happens to be Noll's girl. While Noll asked Kay to be friendly to Frankie to obtain information, she not sure about what and unaware of Frankie's recent incarceration, she ends up falling for Frankie, easier on her mind as she is aware that Noll has another woman on the side who can help him further the business, wealthy Alexis Richardson, already a "Mrs." to someone else. —Huggo

Two hit men, Al (Charles McGraw) and Max (William Conrad), drive into Brentwood, New Jersey, in search of Pete "Swede" Lund (Burt Lancaster), and stake out a diner he frequents, questioning, among others, customer Nick Adams about Swede's whereabouts. After the men leave, Nick races to Swede's boardinghouse room to warn him and is stunned when Swede seems resigned to his fate. Shortly after Nick's departure, Al and Max find Swede waiting in his room and shoot him to death. When it is discovered Swede had a small life insurance policy with Atlantic Casualty, insurance investigator James Riordan (Edmond O'Brien) begins investigating his murder. Jim first questions Nick, who worked with Swede at a filling station, and Nick recalls that Swede stopped coming to work the week before his murder after waiting on a wealthy, middle-aged stranger at the station. Jim then calls on Swede's beneficiary, Mary Ellen "Queenie" Doherty, a cleaning woman at an Atlantic City hotel. Queenie recalls Swede staying at the hotel some six years earlier, when she stopped him from throwing himself out of the window. Upon returning to his office, Jim learns that Swede was a former boxer, whose real name was Ole Anderson, and that after his fight career ended, he served three years in prison for robbery. Jim visits Swede's arresting officer, police lieutenant Sam Lubinsky (Sam Levine), who tells him that he and Swede had grown up together in Philadelphia and that his wife Lilly dated Swede before her marriage. In another narrated flashback, Lilly then recalls her final date with Swede at a party given by Jake "the Rake" in a lavish apartment owned by "Big Jim" Colfax (Albert Dekker), where they met Blinky Franklin and singer Kitty Collins (Ava Gardner), to whom Swede is immediately attracted. Then Sam adds that some time later, while working on a jewelry heist, a tip led him to Jake and Kitty, whom he suspected of wearing a piece of the stolen jewelry. When Sam tried to arrest her, Swede intervened and claimed responsibility for stealing the jewelry, which landed him in prison. Sam asks Jim if he can help with the investigation and later that afternoon, at Swede's burial service, Sam points out Charleston (Vince Barnette), a small-time hood and acquaintance of Swede's, to Jim, who later questions him. Charleston reveals that he and Swede shared a prison cell together and that Swede referred to Kitty as "his girl," and asked Charleston to visit her upon his release: After Swede is released, Charleston is sent by Colfax to summon him to a meeting with Blinky, another thug, Dum Dum, and a mysterious woman. Colfax has planned a payroll heist at a hat company which promises a $250,000 payoff, but the older Charleston finds the risk too great and withdraws, and never sees Swede again. After leaving Charleston, Jim digs up information that Atlantic Casualty insured the hat company and discovers details of the heist. Sam then contacts Jim to inform him that Blinky has been discovered shot and near death. Both men hurry to the hospital, where Blinky, semi-conscious, rambles about the robbery: After the heist, the group was forced to change their meeting place as the scheduled halfway house had burned down unexpectedly. Swede arrives last and after accusing Colfax of trying to cheat him, takes all the money and flees. Back at the hospital after Blinky dies, Jim feels sure the robbery is connected to Swede's murder and stakes out his old room at the boardinghouse. Soon after, Dum Dum Clark (Jack Lambert) rents Swede's old room and begins an elaborate search. Jim breaks in on him and demands to know more details of the robbery, specifically why the meeting place was changed. Dum Dum admits Kitty was the woman involved and that just after midnight the night before the robbery she had told each of them separately about the change, which Swede later claimed he was not told. Jim tells Dum Dum that Swede had run off with Kitty and that later in Atlantic City, Kitty had disappeared with the money. Dum Dum escapes from Jim and despite a police cordon, gets away. Later when Jim receives notification that the halfway house burned down after 2:00 a.m., not midnight, he is certain Colfax and Kitty are behind Swede's murder, but Sam insists Colfax has gone straight. Jim goes to the factory Colfax is now managing, but Colfax claims no knowledge of the robbery or Kitty's whereabouts. Later, however, Jim receives a telephone call from Kitty, suggesting they meet. Driving away from their agreed-upon rendezvous spot, Kitty and Jim are unknowingly trailed by Al and Max to a night club. There, Kitty tells Jim that the night before the robbery, she convinced Swede that the others were double-crossing him, so he would agree to take her away from Colfax. She insists that she left Swede in Atlantic City with the money and pleads with Jim not to involve her further as she is now married and has a good home. Jim demands that she give him proof of Colfax's participation and she agrees, but as they prepare to leave the club, she disappears into the ladies room. Meanwhile at the bar, Al and Max begin to move in on Jim, but are cut off and shot by Sam who is also at the bar. Jim realizes Kitty has escaped and, with Sam and a police backup, heads to Colfax's house. They arrive to a series of gunshots and find Dum Dum dead at the bottom of the stairs and Colfax fatally wounded on the landing with Kitty hovering over him. Jim tells Colfax he had discovered Kitty was his wife and could not testify against him. Colfax admits to having Swede killed, in fear that the other gang members would find him and realize that Colfax and Kitty had double-crossed them and kept all the money. Colfax dies as Kitty pleads for him to declare her innocent.