Don Siegel

Based on a true story, the film portrays the fascinating account of the only three men ever to escape from the infamous maximum security prison at Alcatraz.

On an unidentified planet, a strange lifeform in the shape of gel-like spores drifts up into the atmosphere, where it moves slowly through space, drifting until it reaches Earth. The spores enter the atmosphere and are swept downward, emerging in a rainstorm in San Francisco. On the ground, the spores begin to develop, growing on leaves of earthly plants and taking the shape of small pods with a pink flower in the middle. Elizabeth Driscoll (Brooke Adams) notices one of the pods, taking it back to the home she shares with her boyfriend, Geoffrey (Art Hindle). Unable to find the flowering pod in any of her botany books, she hesitantly identifies her new find as a cross-breeding of two different species, a "grex." Matthew Bennell (Donald Sutherland) is an inspector for the health department who uncovers unsanitary conditions at a French restaurant. As he threatens the owner with indictment over finding rat droppings in the food, the other employees quietly slip out to the parking lot and smash Matthew's windshield with a bottle of wine. Matthew is cold and calculating, refusing to let them see his frustration at finding his car vandalized, but when he gets home he calls Elizabeth. They work together at the health department, and Matthew jokes with her about what happened to him at the restaurant. As Elizabeth goes to bed, she forgets about the weird pod, which has suddenly sprouted roots in the glass of water she keeps it in next to their bed. When Elizabeth wakes the next morning, Geoffrey is already awake and dressed, cleaning up the remains of the glass of water next to the bed, as well as some other, unidentifiable mess (resembling some kind of dust). His behavior is strange, and she follows him downstairs as he takes a plastic garbage bag out to a waiting dump truck. At work, she confides to Matthew that Geoffrey is acting strange. Later that night, Elizabeth tries to talk it over with Geoffrey but he ignores her, instead telling her that he's going out and giving her no explanation. Elizabeth touches him intimately and recoils from his emotionless response. Elizabeth rushes over to Matthew's house and insists that Geoffrey is no longer Geoffrey. On the outside he looks the same, but inside he is different. Matthew hears her out but calms her by cooking a good meal and letting her vent. The next day, Matthew hears a strange story from the owner of the Chinese laundry he patronizes: his wife is not his wife. Later he finds Elizabeth at the health department offices, shaken and obviously distraught. She reveals that she has been following Geoffrey during that day and has seen him having brief meetings with strangers, all of them passing unidentifiable parcels among themselves. She is convinced that there is some sort of conspiracy afoot and that Geoffrey is a part of it. Matthew wants to take her to meet his friend, a renowned psychologist named David Kibner (Leonard Nimoy). Kibner has written a number of popular books, the latest of which has just been published, and Matthew takes Elizabeth to a book signing party at a local bookstore so she can meet Kibner personally. While stopped at a traffic light, a strange man (Kevin McCarthy, the star of the original movie) suddenly falls onto Matthew's car, screaming and pounding at the windows, warning "They're coming! Something terrible! You're in danger!" Before they can react, another vehicle comes along and strikes the man dead. Strangely, the crowd of people around him seem to not be affected by what has happened at all, not even the motorcycle policeman who arrives on the scene. (Unnoticed by Matthew and Elizabeth, there are one or two others down the streets and sidewalks running from groups of other people chasing them.) At the book party that evening, Matthew and Elizabeth meet up with Jack Bellicec (Jeff Goldblum), a friend of Matthew's. Matthew tries to phone in a report to the police about the accident, but he meets with strange resistance. Elizabeth becomes entranced by an extremely upset woman who is insisting to Kibner that her husband is an impostor. Kibner calms the woman somewhat before sending her on her way with her husband, but Elizabeth urges the woman to contact her at the health department because she knows what she is trying to say. Finally, Matthew is able to introduce Elizabeth to Kibner, who admits that over the past few days, other people have been coming to him with the same story that Elizabeth is telling. The patients tell him that someone close to them is acting strange and seems like an impostor; the patients seem to get over it quickly and change their story. Kibner suggests that it is a result of the emotional isolation people feel in modern relationships, but even Matthew notices that Kibner doesn't seem to be listening to what Elizabeth is really saying. Matthew takes Elizabeth home and she finds a plant waiting for her; a card indicates it's a gift from Geoffrey. Jack returns to his wife, Nancy (Veronica Cartwright), who runs a mud bath facility. Jack is frustrated over not getting a chance to read his poetry at Kibner's book party, and he goes into the baths to relax. Nancy interacts with a strange patron name Mr. Gianni, who has given her a plant just like the one Geoffrey left for Elizabeth. When Nancy begins closing up for the evening, she notices someone lying under a sheet and thinks it is Jack. Removing the sheet, she is startled to find a strange form underneath. It resembles a man, but lacks distinctive features, and is covered with white tendrils. Jack, who was sleeping nearby, suddenly appears and Nancy strikes him accidentally, giving him a nosebleed, and the shape on the table begins to bleed, too. They call Matthew and urge him to come over to examine the phenomenon, and when he realizes something terribly strange is happening, he remembers Elizabeth. Unable to reach her by phone, Matthew goes over to her house, and while Geoffrey sits listening to headphones, Matthew breaks into the house and retrieves a sleeping Elizabeth from the house. Before taking her from her bed, Matthew is shocked to see a duplicate of her body lying nearby, covered in the same fibers as the body at the baths. Back at the baths, Jack falls asleep again and the body begins to take on his features, until Nancy wakes him up again. Matthew and Elizabeth return to the baths and summon Kibner, but the body has apparently vanished. Likewise, Matthew reports Elizabeth's "other body" to the police, but when they return to the house she shares wtih Geoffrey, nobody is able to find a body. Kibner quiets the police and Geoffrey seems unconcerned that his girlfriend refuses to come home and is spending the night with Matthew. Converging at Matthew's house, the small group forms their hypothesis: somehow, people are being duplicated, and these alternate bodies are appearing to take their places. Kibner is skeptical and tries to talk them out of their ideas, but finally leaves; unseen by the others, he gets into a car with two other "conspirators," including Geoffrey. All day, Matthew tries to get others to listen to him about what's going on. He makes phone calls, has meetings, and tries to find anybody who will take him seriously. Similarly, the woman who was so upset at the bookstore turns up at the health department and tells Elizabeth that she's alright now. That night, the Bellicecs stay at Matthew's. Kibner gives Elizabeth a mild sedative to help her sleep, and leaves. The entire group falls asleep except for Nancy. As they sleep, four pods in Matthew's garden release white tendrils that attach to the sleeping people, and they soon burst forth with embryonic life, somehow duplicating their victims. Before the transformation is complete, Nancy revives Matthew. Together they wake the others, and Matthew tries to call for help. The telephone operators already know who he is, addressing him by name. The power goes out, and they see a horde of pod people rushing up the hill to Matthew's house. As the others escape out the back, Matthew leaves the yard, smashing in the head of his own duplicate with a hoe. Near the docks, the group appears to be cornered behind a group of shipping crates, but Jack sacrifices himself, rushing out along the dock and getting the pod people clones to give chase. Nancy runs off after him, and Matthew and Elizabeth are on their own. They attempt to take a taxi out of town, but the sinister looking cab driver (Don Siegel, the director of the original movie) drives them to a police roadblock that is arresting people attempting to leave the city. Matthew and Elizabeth find that they cannot escape San Francisco; the pod people are everywhere, even spreading pods right out in the open as they now apparently outnumber humans. Taking refuge in the dark offices of the health department, they find speed pills in someone's desk and take as much as they can in order to keep themselves awake. However, they are found out by none other than Jack, who has returned with Kibner, both of them pod people. Kibner gives them a sedative. He explains that they will be reborn into a new world without emotions or complications, thanks to the alien life form that has taken root on Earth, but Matthew and Elizabeth manage to overpower both of them, killing Jack and locking Kibner in a freezer. On the way out of the building, they encounter Nancy in a stairwell; she is still human. Nancy reveals that she and Jack were separated, but she has discovered a way to move among the pod people: by refusing to show emotion. The three of them leave the health department right out in the open, but Elizabeth is startled by a bizarre pod hybrid that has mutated into a dog with a human head. An elderly pod lady notices it and makes a high-pitched scream, which seems to be a way by the pod people to call out to others of a human in their mist. Nancy once again gets separated from Elizabeth and Matthew, who are identified as human (Type-H as referred by the pod people) and chased throughout the city. Making their way to the docks, Matthew and Elizabeth discover a a greenhouse where thousands of pods are being cultivated. Elizabeth, hindered by a twisted ankle and lack of sleep, feels as if she can't go on much further without sleep. Matthew goes to investigate the sounds of "Amazing Grace" coming from one of the ships, leaving Elizabeth hidden among some tall grass. Matthew is horrified to see huge palettes of pods being loaded onto the ships; the spiritual is simply a random radio broadcast, as the station is changed, the ship helmed by pod people ready to take the alien presence to other areas of the world. When Matthew returns to Elizabeth, he finds her asleep, and he is unable to wake her. As he holds her in his arms, Elizabeth's body crumbles into a husk, and her nude clone appears in the grass. The pod Elizabeth tells Matthew that everything is alright; the conversion is painless, and good. She encourages him to sleep, but her voice is hard and cold. Matthew runs, slipping into the greenhouse facility. He makes his way to the steep scaffolding and after taking a fire axe, beings wreaking havoc among the pods, dropping electrical lighting rigs onto them until the entire place is in flames and the unborn pods are burned. But the fire alarm is sounded, and the pod people pursue him, including the newly converted Elizabeth. Matthew slips away from them, hiding under a dock. He hears them talking amongst themselves and one of them says: "He can't get far, he has to sleep sometime." Matthew knows that they are right. The next day, Matthew goes through the motions of his job, staring blankly at his co-workers. He sees Elizabeth in the hallways of the building but they do not acknowledge one another. Outside, Matthew sees schoolbuses of children from Santa Barbara, L.A. and other areas of California being taken to a theater for their conversion. A while later, Matthew is walking along a deserted street towards the City Hall building and hears a voice calling to him. Turning around, he sees the still-human Nancy across the street. As she crosses the street to meet him, Matthew's face twists into a grimace and he points at her, screaming an alien scream to alert the other pod clones to her presence. Nancy screams realizing, too late, that Matthew is now a pod person as the camera zooms into his mouth and the screen fades to black... (By the time the end credits finish rolling, it is strongly implied that Nancy will be captured and become a pod clone too. Apparently there are no more humans alive in San Francisco. The inevitable has happened: the pods have won... and the rest of Earth is apparently doomed.)

Charley Varrick (Walter Matthau), an innocent looking husband, and his wife plan a small bank robbery in a small bank with a younger friend. But it goes wrong, it turns bloody, the wife dies. Then, wrong again, the amount is far far more than expected. Charley realizes it's the mob's money. They have now the police AND the mob looking for them. The difference is that even if you give the money back to the mob, they kill you... Charley Varrick (Walter Matthau), an innocent looking husband, and his wife plan a small bank robbery in a small bank with a younger friend. But it goes wrong, it turns bloody, the wife dies. Then, wrong again, the amount is far far more than expected. Charley realizes it's the mob's money. They have now the police AND the mob looking for them. The difference is that even if you give the money back to the mob, they kill you...

A California DJ`s one-night stand with a mysterious fan turns deadly as he realizes she`s really a jealous lunatic who has no intentions of leaving him.

During the Civil War Union Corporal John McBurney (Clint Eastwood) is wounded and is discovered in the woods by a young girl from a school for women in Louisiana. With a broken leg he is nursed back to health with the help of the school owner Martha Farnsworth (Geraldine Page) as the rest of the women tend to him, fascinated by the close proximity of a full-grown man. McBurney is aware he is behind enemy lines and manages to charm the women into allowing him to stay, even going so far as to pretend he is a visiting southern officer. One of the teachers at the school, Edwina (Elizabeth Hartman) through her tending to McBurney falls in love with the man and the soldier manipulates the woman's emotions convincing her that he loves her. McBurney also seduces Martha understanding that she misses her brother who helped her run the school and also held an unusual place as romantic partner. One of the older students Carol (Jo Ann Harris) approaches McBurney and openly shows her affections for him, and seeking new sensual experiences, convinces him to make love to her. When McBurney is discovered by the other women in Carol's room they make a concerted effort to insure that the wounded soldier will not be allowed to return to Union Troops now occupying the southern territories of Louisiana.

The film opens with a scrolling shot of a marble wall: a tribute to all the officers killed in the line of duty in the city of San Francisco. The shot of the wall fades into the silenced barrel of a rifle, and a long, dark-haired Caucasian man staring down it. Through the scope and the cross-hairs, we see his target: a young, beautiful blond woman, swimming in a rooftop pool. He follows her with his sights for a moment before pulling the trigger, hitting her in the back. She flails in agony in the water, and the pool slowly fills with her blood as she dies. Inspector Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) enters the rooftop pool area as the title cards roll. Harry inspects the dead body and looks up to the probable area of the shooter. He walks down the street to the building and up to the roof. He walks over to where he figures the shooter was stationed, looks down and across the street at the pool. Looking down, Harry finds a shell casing. Using a pen, he carefully picks it up and places it in an evidence bag. As he stands, he sees a piece of paper speared on a television antenna. He reads it and realizes what it is. In the mayor's office, the ransom note is blown up and put on a screen. The mayor reads out the demands of the sniper, dubbed "Scorpio". He demands $100,000 to stop his killing spree, or he "will target either a catholic priest, or a nigger". The mayor discusses his options with the police chief, and Callahan's superior, Lt. Al Bressler. The mayor calls Harry in, and immediately asks what he's been doing. Harry angrily responds that he's been sitting on his ass in the mayor's office, then lays out the plan of investigation so far. Lt. Bressler announces that he's arranged for helicopter surveillance in probable target areas. To Harry's disbelief, the mayor agrees to lead Scorpio on for the time being, to post a message in the newspaper (per Scorpio's instructions) as if they plan to pay him. Before leaving, the Mayor tells Harry that he doesn't want the same kind of trouble that Harry's caused in the past. Harry responds that he was trying to stop a rape, and, again with sarcasm, shoots down the Mayor. Across from a bank, Harry sits down for a hot dog lunch. He asks the cook behind the counter if the car across the street, in front of the bank, is still running. The cook says it is, and Harry tells him to call the police - there is an armed robbery in progress at that bank. No sooner does he say this than the banks alarms go off and gunfire erupts. Harry takes a bite of his hot dog, swears, and then heads out to face the robbers. He orders one man to freeze, and the man shoots at Harry with a shotgun, who returns fire. The men in the car speed toward Harry, but he shoots into the windshield, causing them to crash into a fire hydrant and flip the car over. One man jumps out and shoots at Harry, who shoots back and kills him. He looks down at his leg, shot and bleeding from buckshot, but he seems unaffected... still chewing on his hot dog. Harry strolls through the spraying water of the fire hydrant, to the wounded man by the entrance of the bank. The man's hand moves slowly toward his dropped shotgun, and Harry points his revolver at him and makes his famous "six-shots-or-only-five" speech with a hit of sarcasm in his voice: "I know what you're thinking. Did he fire six shots, or only five? Now, to tell you the truth, I forgot myself in all this excitement. But this here is a .44 Magnum Revolver, the most powerful handgun in the world and it'll blow your head clean off. You've gotta ask yourself one question: do I feel lucky? Well... do you, punk?" The man cowers and surrenders. Harry picks up the shotgun, and the robber stops him. "Hey I gots to know." he asks. Harry raises his .44 Magnum and pulls the trigger and smiles. Harry fooled the wounded robber into giving up. The gun is empty. In the hospital, Harry has his wounded leg looked at by a doctor. During the process of treatment, the doctor tells Harry to have his wife to help treat his wound, but stops himself mid-sentence and apologizes. In the air, a police helicopter is making the rounds over the city. The next day, Harry walks through the department and meets with the captain, who congratulates Harry on stopping the robbery. The captain announces that he's saddling Harry with a new partner, and introduces Chico Gonzales. Harry gripes about not wanting a partner, and that his partners always wind up in the hospital, or dead. But the captain is unmoved and tells Harry that he doesn't have a choice. Harry and Chico walk and talk for a while, before stopping to talk with another cop, DiGiorgio. Chico warily asks how Harry got his nickname Dirty Harry. DiGiorgio fills him in, explaining that Harry is an equal opportunity bigot, hating every ethnicity equally. Chico asks how he feels about Mexicans, and Harry responds that he hates them especially. Somewhere in the city, Scorpio is on another rooftop, across from a church, reading the personal ad that contains the city's response to his ransom. Unhappy with the "be patient" message, he tears up the paper, and walks to the roof's ledge. He opens his rifle case and begins spying down on the neighborhood through his scope. He sees a black man walking on the street and places the cross hairs on him. Scorpio follows him for a while, and then hastily puts his rifle together. Before he can take his shot, though, the police chopper spots him and he is forced to retreat. That night, Harry and Chico are riding through the city, complaining about how the chopper cops lost Scorpio. Over the radio, they hear a description of the sniper, and Chico immediately spots a man fitting the description and carrying a tan suitcase. They turn around to follow him, but eventually split up, with Harry inconspicuously pursuing him on foot. Harry walks down an alley and spies the man walking into an apartment. He climbs up on a trashcan and looks into the apartment window. The man's suitcase is only holding lingerie for his girlfriend, Hot Mary, who is walking around the apartment topless. Harry realizes this is not Scorpio, but is suddenly attacked from behind by a couple of men who thought he was a peeping tom. They smack Harry around a bit, before Chico stops them. Harry tells him to let the guys go, though, and Chico jokes about why the other officers call him Dirty Harry. Back in the car, Harry and Chico get a call from an officer who spots a man on a roof, and they take off in that direction. It turns out the man is not Scorpio, but instead, he's a suicidal jumper. Without much hesitation, Harry climbs into a crane bucket and rides up to the roof, to confront the man. The jumper immediately tells Harry to stay away, and Harry tells the man he's going to keep his distance: jumpers sometimes decide to take someone with them when they die. A grotesque story follows, about a fellow officer who was killed like that. Harry includes all the gory details causing the man to become sick. Angered, he attempts to grab at Harry, but Harry's quicker and punches him out, cuffs him to the rails on the crane bucket and brings him down. On the street, Harry tells Chico he got his nickname by taking "any dirty job that comes along". The next day, Harry and Chico are called to the site of a dead body: a young black kid is found shot in the head. As Harry and Chico are looking over the crime scene, the boy's mother tells them her son was only ten years old. Another officer finds a shell casing that confirms the boy was killed by Scorpio. Harry has a meeting with the chief, and they discuss the plan to capture Scorpio. They will post highly-visible policemen all over the city at high probability targets, but no policemen near the site where the chopper had spotted him the day before. Harry and Chico will stake out the area, armed and ready to take Scorpio down if he appears. Chico expresses his doubts that Scorpio will target the same area twice, but Harry explains that he believes the sniper will want to take out a priest now. That night, the two detectives are watching over the church. Harry tells Chico that the priest of the church volunteered to be bait for the murderer. With binoculars, Harry spies on the entire neighborhood, including a nude woman and her two male companions. As he's watching the party, he notices that one of the nearby roof doors is now open. Harry and Chico prepare to throw the spotlight on Scorpio, and Harry takes aim with his rifle. He fires, but misses. Scorpio fires on them with a machine gun but misses, destroying the lights. He laughs gleefully as he fires. Harry and Chico rush downstairs, and across the street, where DiGiorgio kneels over the body of an officer that Scorpio apparently killed in his escape. The next day, their captain tells Harry and Chico that Scorpio has kidnapped a 14-year-old girl, Ann Mary Deacon. His ransom note says that he's buried her alive, and has raised his ransom to $200,000, demanding it by 9pm. He threatens to let the girl suffocate to death if he's not paid. Harry insists that the girl is probably already dead, but Lt. Bressler tells him that the mayor has agreed to pay. He asks Harry to drop the money off, and tells Chico he's not allowed to help. Chico responds, 'No wonder they call him Dirty Harry. Always gets the shit-end of the stick.' Harry prepares for the drop by getting a microphone to put under his shirt, so that Chico can furtively follow him. Harry gets the money from the mayor's office. While the captain tells Harry that Scorpio will probably run Harry all over town before he drops the money, Harry tapes a switchblade to his ankle. The captain tells Harry to play it straight and not to try anything funny. Harry arrives at the marina, the designated drop point, and answers a nearby payphone. Scorpio tells him he's going to give Harry a little exercise and intends to have him travel all over the city on foot to make sure he's not being followed. Hidden nearby in his car, Chico listens in. Scorpio instructs Harry to run to a nearby railroad station. He makes it and answers the Scorpio's call. Harry next has to make a train that is leaving the station immediately. Barely making it, he jumps on and rides to the next checkpoint. Chico continues to follow. Harry answers the next call, and Scorpio laughs as he tells Harry that he's going to have a long run now. While running, Harry is accosted by three thugs who try to take the money bag. It's a short delay, but Harry can't afford it, and he quickly beats the three goons down. He sprints to the phone, but a man answers it before Harry can. Scorpio hangs up, but calls back immediately, giving Harry instructions to run to Mission Davis Park and meet him there at the foot of the cross. Chico follows but keeps a safe distance. Harry walks through the park, taking a look at everyone he passes. A young man that Harry thinks may be Scorpio turns out to be a male hustler, so Harry runs him off. He makes it to the top of the hill in Mission Davis Park, at the foot of the large stone cross. Scorpio shows up wearing a ski mask. Scorpio disarms Harry and starts to beat him. He tells Harry that he changed his mind and has decided to let the girl die, and now he's going to kill Harry, too. Before he can, though, Chico shoots at him, but misses. Scorpio and Chico exchange fire, and Chico is hit in the chest. Harry pulls the switchblade from his leg and plunges it deep into Scorpio's leg. Scorpio screams and limps off. Harry tries to shoot at Scorpio, but misses and then passes out from the beating. Scorpio makes it to a hospital. In his office, the hot-headed Bressler is talking to the chief on the phone; the chief is not happy that Harry and Chico disobeyed orders. Harry tells Bressler he'll quit when this is over, if that's what the chief wants. They get a call from a doctor at an emergency room: the doctor reports treating a man with a stab wound in the leg. Harry and DiGiorgio talk to the doctor who isn't very helpful at first. But he does remember that he had seen the man before. After a few moments he remembers that the man works as a groundskeeper at a nearby stadium. Harry and DiGiorgio climb the fence outside the stadium, and inspect the grounds in the dark. Scorpio spies on them and eventually takes off running. Harry chases him while DiGiorgio looks for a way to turn on the lights. Scorpio is running/limping across the football field, when Harry finally catches up to him, and DiGiorgio hits the floodlights. Harry has his gun on Scorpio and fires, hitting him in the leg. Scorpio sobs for help and Harry demands to know where the girl is. Scorpio yells that Harry tried to kill him, but Harry replies: "If I was trying to kill you, your head would be splattered all over this field!". Harry again demands to know where the girl is. The psychopathic Scorpio yells that he has rights and he wants a lawyer, but Harry angrily grinds his foot into the wound, as the scene pulls up and away from the two men in Kezar Stadium. At dawn, Harry stands on a hilltop overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. Behind him, officers are pulling the dead body of Ann Mary Deacon out of the ground. Harry is called to a meeting with William Rothko, the Assistant District Attorney. He is shocked and disgusted that the DA is going to release Scorpio, because Harry's search of the killer's home was illegal (the issue of probable cause is never brought up) and the rifle that is the murder weapon is inadmissible as evidence. Bannerman, a local by-the-book judge, backs up Rothko's claim, and the D.A. condescendingly chastises Harry about the suspect's rights. Harry fumes and wants to know about the rights of the victims, but the arrogant and unfeeling D.A. does not care. "That's the law", he says, and Harry retorts: "Then the law is crazy!" As he's leaving, Harry says that as soon as Scorpio slips up, Harry will be there to arrest him. The D.A. warns that he won't stand for harassment. Harry says that Scorpio is a sociopath con artist and he will not stop his killing spree, as "he likes it too much". Scorpio walks into a park in the middle of the day, and immediately notices Callahan following him. Sitting in a stag bar, he sees Harry watching him. The next day, Scorpio meets with a tough looking black guy in a run-down factory. The other man makes sure Scorpio wasn't followed and then leads him to a back room, where he takes payment from Scorpio: $200 for the man to beat Scorpio to a pulp. He sits him in a chair and then begins punching him in the face. He lands several heavy blows, but eventually grows dubious and stops. Scorpio taunts him with racist remarks and the black man kicks him in the face. Realizing that his victim is insane, he kicks Scorpio out. The next scene shows him being wheeled down the hall of a hospital, enthusiastically talking to reporters and blaming the San Francisco police for his beating. He falsely singles out Harry as the main culprit. The chief meets with Harry, but Harry says he looks "too damn good" to have caught a beating from Harry himself. The chief orders Harry to stop tailing Scorpio. Harry leaves with a scoff. Harry visits Chico at the hospital, where he is sitting outside with his wife. Chico tells Harry that he's not coming back to the department. He is going to be a teacher instead. Chico is wheeled off to physical therapy, leaving Harry and Mrs. Gonzalez to chat for a while. They walk out of the hospital, and Chico's wife tells Harry that she feels responsible for his leaving. She tells him that she got nervous every time Chico left, and asks Harry if his wife felt the same. Harry says no. He tells her that his wife died in a drunk-driving accident some years ago. Harry tells Chico's wife that he understands why Chico is leaving the police force. When she asks him why he stays in the job, Harry says, "I don't know. I really don't". Later that night, the killer Scorpio enters a liquor store and chats with the shopkeeper. To explain his beaten face, he makes up a lie about hitting his wife and being beaten by her brother. He asks the owner about his being robbed before, and the owner admits to shooting and killing the last two robbers. He brags and shows off his pistol to show Scorpio. Scorpio instantly smashes a bottle over the shopkeeper's head and takes the gun. The next scene shows a school bus dropping children off at the end of the school day. Scorpio climbs into the bus pretending to be a school bus inspector. When the driver tries to stop him, Scorpio pulls the gun on her. He tells her to start driving, he'll direct her. He then turns his attention to the kids, making them sing. At city hall, Harry's captain watches as Harry arrives. As he and the captain walk up to the mayor's office, they discuss a new note from Scorpio. They enter the mayor's office, while the mayor is preparing a jet for the killer. The mayor then takes a call from Scorpio, who informs them of the bus hostage situation. He forces the bus driver to confirm. He demands his jet and $200,000, and tells mayor he intends to take the bus to the airport. The mayor foolishly tells Scorpio that he won't be harmed. The chief asks Harry to take the money, but when they order him to just make the drop without trying to stop Scorpio, he refuses, telling the arrogant mayor, "Go find yourselves another delivery boy". Back on the bus, Scorpio has the children maniacally singing "Row, row, row your boat", but eventually the children become whiny, wanting to get home. Scorpio quickly loses patience, slapping one boy, and scaring the children even more. He gives the bus driver more directions, and has her exit the highway. They are headed for an underpass, and Scorpio panics when he sees Harry standing on top of the bridge, waiting for him. Harry jumps on the roof of the moving bus, and Scorpio starts shooting up at him, causing the bus driver to faint. Scorpio takes the wheel, and swerves the bus all over the road, trying to throw Harry off. He crashes the bus through a fence, sending Harry flying into a mound of sand. Scorpio jumps out of the back emergency exit and flees to a nearby mill. Harry chases him. While running, they exchange gunfire, and once again, we lose track of how many shots Harry has fired. Harry is gaining on Scorpio, so he tries to ambush him, but Harry ducks and Scorpio misses. Scorpio runs out the back of the mill, and to a small dock, where a young boy is fishing. With Harry not far behind him, Scorpio (ruthless to the last) grabs the boy and puts the gun to his head, yelling at Harry to drop his gun. Harry drops his arm to his side, but quickly brings it back up and shoots Scorpio in the shoulder, knocking him backwards. The boy escapes and quickly runs away. Scorpio tries to reach for his gun, but Harry stops him and points his revolver at the killer. He repeats his speech from earlier, but his wry grin is gone this time, replaced with dead-serious fury. "I know what you're thinking, punk! You're thinking, did he fire six shots, or only five?! Now, to tell you the truth, I forgot myself in all this excitement. But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world and it'll blow your head clean off! You've gotta ask yourself a question! Do I feel lucky? Well, do you, punk?!" Scorpio thinks for a moment, then giggles madly and reaches for his pistol. Harry fires, shooting Scorpio in the chest. The psychopathic killer falls into the water and floats there, dead. Scorpio had unwisely called Harry's bluff - and paid for it with his life. Sirens wail in the distance. Harry takes out his badge. He pulls his gold star out of the leather fold and looks at it for a moment before throwing it into the water. The camera pans away from Harry as he walks away and the credits roll.

There's a disruption in the life of Deputy sheriff Walt Coogan (Clint Eastwood) as a crack tracker and ladies' man when he is ordered as punishment for his inability to follow orders to travel from his home state Arizona to bring back bail jumper Ringerman (Don Stroud) from jail in New York City. When Coogan arrives in New York he is met by bureaucratic red tape because Ringerman is in the hospital recovering from a dose of LSD and not cleared to travel. Furthermore Coogan can get no cooperation from overworked Police Detective and department supervisor Lt. McElroy (Lee J. Cobb) who tells Coogan to wait for the autocratic machinery to function. Coogan takes matters into his own hands and breaks Ringerman out of the Bellevue prison hospital. Ringerman's girlfriend is at the hospital and takes a message to Ringerman's friend Pushie. Coogan is waylaid at the heliport when he answers a page. He is struck in the head from behind by Pushie who is accompanied by the lovely and elusive Linny Raven (Tisha Sterling). Pushie, in bright green corduroys and a red sweater, is seen by Coogan before the second blow knocks him out. Linty then steals his gun and gives it to Ringerman and they escape after Linny urges Ringerman to shoot Coogan but Pushie advises they beat it. Lt. McElroy orders Coogan to leave town and his boss sends him a telegram taking him off the case. Coogan refuses to give up and is confident he can track Ringerman down. He earlier met lovely parole officer Julie (Susan Clark), a naive case worker who is taken by Coogan's persuasive charms. Coogan asks and finds that Linny is one of Julie's patients and manages to access her file and track down the young girl. Coogan convinces the exotic Linny to take him to Ringerman. She instead leads him to Pushie at his pool hall and the group of toughs in the pool hall engage in a brawl with Coogan. Several get badly injured and the rest escape when they hear the police sirens. Coogan Is confronted by Pushie and although Coogan has been badly beaten he gets up and thrashes Pushie before leaving the pool hall. McElroy arrives, notices Pushie's clothing and finds Coogan's hat laying in the midst of the chaos. Coogan goes back to Linny's and kicks the door down and knocks her around until she leads him to Ringerman. Ringerman empties Coogan's pistol in hysterical shooting and then jumps on his motorcycle to escape. He runs into another motorcycle and the two riders are knocked to the ground while he restarts his bike and leaves. Coogan appropriates the second motor cycle and gives chase throughout the park, up and sown trails and staircases. Eventually Coogan rides into Ringerman and they crash on the lawn. Ringerman runs away but at the edge of the park he encounters a patrol car and turns and runs back into the park where he is tackled and arrested by Coogan. Lt. McElroy arrives and Coogan agrees to go through the required administrative process to get Ringerman's release into his custody. Coogan bids farewell to McElroy and then Julie on the heliport and flies off with Ringerman. Coogan then shares a cigarette with his prisoner showing some compassion that he did not display for a captured prisoner at the start of the movie.

Small squad must hold off German attack. World War II drama where the action centers around a single maneuver by a squad of GIs in retaliation against the force of the German Siegfried line. Reese joins a group of weary GIs unexpectedly ordered back into the line when on their way to a rest area. While most of the men withdraw from their positions facing a German pillbox at the far side of a mine-field, half a dozen men are left to protect a wide front. By various ruses, they manage to convince the Germans that a large force is still holding the position. Then Reese leads two of the men in an unauthorized and unsuccessful attack on the pillbox, in which the other two are killed; and when the main platoon returns, he is threatened with court-martial. Rather than face the disgrace, and in an attempt to show he was right, he makes a one-man attack on the pillbox. —alfiehitchie

An apparently delusional and paranoid Dr. Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) has been arrested on a California highway and taken to a local hospital's psychiatric ward. There he tells a psychiatrist, Dr. Hill (Whit Bissell), and the attending physician, Dr. Bassett (Richard Deacon) his fantastic story. Several days earlier, Miles had been called home to Santa Mira from a medical convention. His nurse, Sally Withers (Jean Willes) told him that several patients had come in frantically insisting that their relatives and friends were not who they seemed to be. On the way to the office, Miles and Sally nearly ran over young Jimmy Grimaldi (Bobby Clark) who was fleeing from his mother (Eileen Stevens). Mrs. Grimaldi says Jimmy simply didn't want to go to school. Miles was sad to see that the Grimaldis had shut down their vegetable stand because it was too much work. Later, at his office, Miles learned that many of the patients begging for his return claimed they no longer needed his services. A former girlfriend, Becky Driscoll (Dana Wynter) stopped by. She told him that her cousin, Wilma (Virginia Christine), insisted that her father, Ira (Tom Fadden), wasn't who he seemed to be. Miles agreed to visit Wilma later. Miles and Becky chatted, revealing that they both had recently divorced. After lunch, Jimmy Grimaldi was brought to Miles's office by his grandmother. He insisted that his mother was not really his mother. Suspicious, Miles gave the boy a sedative and told his grandmother to keep the boy at her house that night. Miles and Becky visited Ira and Wilma. Miles admitted his examination of Ira led him to conclude that it was indeed Ira. Wilma insisted that although nothing physically or mentally seemed different about him, his emotional connection to her was wrong. Wilma agreed to see a psychiatrist to discuss her concerns. That night, Becky and Miles went to dinner and encountered the town psychiatrist, Dan Kauffman (Larry Gates), in the parking lot. He mentioned that he too had seen many perplexing cases of people claiming that loved ones had somehow changed. Before they could eat, Miles and Becky were called to the house of Jack and Teddy Belicec (King Donovan and Carolyn Jones). They had found an inert, featureless humanoid creature in their poolroom. Teddy was disturbed by it, and the creature seemed to be taking on Jack's features. It even bled from a hand as Jack did when he cut it on a piece of glass. Miles took Becky home to her father's house. Her father (Kenneth Patterson) seemed normal but Miles was disturbed by something. Returning to the Driscoll house later that night, he broke into the basement and found another humanoid transforming itself into Becky. He snuck upstairs and rescued Becky. Miles and Jack called Dan Kauffman to see the bodies at the Belicecs' and Driscolls'. Both were missing. Dan suggested that they found a real dead human in Jack's poolroom and that its cause of death had been too small for Miles to notice in his examination. He also suggested that Miles saw Becky's double because he had been so unsettled by the mysterious body at the Belicecs'. Becky's father had called the police when he heard Dan, Jack and Miles in his basement. When Police Chief Grivett (Ralph Dumke) arrived, he informed them that a burning body matching the description of what the Belicecs found had been discovered burning outside of town. In town the next day, Miles encountered Wilma who told him she felt better about Ira and didn't need to see Dan. Based on Miles's demeanor she realized he knew something, and told Becky's father, who was hiding in her antique store. At his office, Miles saw Jimmy smiling next to his mother in the waiting room, apparently unconcerned about her anymore. That night, Miles, Becky and the Belicecs planned to barbeque. But Miles found enormous seed pods in his greenhouse. The pods opened up and inert bodies fell out. They quickly began to take the form of Miles and his guests. Miles tried to call the FBI in Los Angeles, Sacramento and Washington D.C. but was told by the operator that the lines are dead. Miles destroyed the creatures, then he and Becky and the Belicecs split up, hoping to get out of town. Miles and Becky stopped for gas. When Miles went to a phone booth to try to reach the FBI again, the gas station attendant placed two pods in the trunk of his car. Miles realized this and destroyed the pods later. He drove to Sally's house. Sneaking up to a window, he saw that she too had been transformed into a pod person and coolly planned to place a seed pod in the crib of her newborn. Miles was discovered by another police officer. Miles and Becky escaped, pursued by the police and other pod people. Miles and Becky hid out in Miles's office. Realizing that the pods were most effective at replacing people when they were asleep, they took amphetamines to stay awake. The next morning, they saw police officers detain people just arriving to town, and watched as transformed citizens accepted pods to take to their relatives in nearby cities. Jack, Dan and Chief Grivett arrived. Miles and Becky were horrified to learn they'd all been transformed. Jack and Dan explained that the pods had arrived from outer space and that the transformation was painless. Soon everyone would be reborn into a better way of life, evolved beyond human emotions like hate and love. Jack and Dan brought pods into Miles's waiting room and locked Miles and Becky in the office. Miles filled three syringes with a sedative, then created a diversion that brought Dan and Jack back into the office. Miles struggled with them but drugged them, with Becky taking care of Grivett. Hoping to pretend to have been transformed by appearing emotionless, Becky and Miles made their way out of the office and into the street. But Becky saw a truck nearly hit a dog and called out in fear. Alerted, the pod people chased Becky and Miles into the hills around Santa Mira. They hid in an abandoned mine. Miles left Becky to try to find help. When he returned, he found Becky asleep. He tried to carry her to safety but learned when he kissed her that she had been transformed too. With other pod people in pursuit, Miles ran to the highway. He pleaded with motorists to stop but they considered him crazy. He saw a truck full of pods headed to Los Angeles. Miles wandered the highway, telling people that "They're already here! You're next!" Drs. Hill and Basset consider Miles insane and plan his treatment. Then an ambulance brings in a truck driver who had been in an accident. His truck was full of unusual pods, and had been on the road from Santa Mira. Realizing Miles is telling the truth, Dr. Hill immediately calls the police and the FBI.

Fed up with the inhumane prison living conditions, a general prison riot breaks out, leading to hostage-taking, a stand-off with the guards and eventual negotiations with the prison administration officials. Producer, Walter Wanger, who'd just done time (4 mos after shooting a man he believed was having an affair with his wife), wanted to make a film which showed the appalling conditions he saw while incarcerated. Working with Don Siegel, they wrote this film. In protest to the brutal guards, substandard food, overcrowding and poor living conditions, inmates stage an uprising, and take several guards hostage. Negotiations between the inmates and prison officials are stymied by politicians interfering with the prison administration, and by dissension and infighting amongst the inmates. —frankfob2@yahoo.com