Dub Taylor

Set in the American Old West, the story is a first-person account by a wisecracking gambler Bret Maverick (Mel Gibson), of his misadventures on the way to a major five-card draw poker tournament being held on the paddle steamer Lauren Belle. Besides wanting to win the poker championship for the money, he also wants to prove, once and for all, that he is "the best". Maverick rides into the fictional town of Crystal River intending to collect money owed to him, as he is $3,000 short of the poker tournament entry fee of $25,000. His efforts to make up this $3,000 provide some plot motivation, as well as diversions caused by, and in the company of, three people he encounters at a poker game at Crystal River: an antagonist named Angel (Alfred Molina), a young con-artist calling herself Mrs Annabelle Bransford (Jodie Foster), and legendary lawman Marshal Zane Cooper (James Garner). The first two are also rival poker players. Maverick, Bransford and Cooper share a stagecoach. They narrowly escape a fatal plunge into a ravine after their elderly driver suddenly dies. During their journey they agree to help a wagon train of migrant evangelist settlers who have been waylaid by ruffians. The settlers offer Maverick a percentage of the recovered money they desperately need to start their mission, while one spinster missionary suggests marriage to Cooper, but both men turn down the offers. They are also headed-off by a troop of Indians led by Joseph (Graham Greene). Unknown to his companions, Joseph and Maverick are good friends, and Maverick allows himself to be "captured." Joseph is another one of his unreliable debtors, and Maverick tries to collect the $1,000 that Joseph owes him. In and around his tribal grounds they collaborate on a scheme to swindle a Russian Grand Duke. Still seething over his loss in the Crystal River game, Angel receives a telegram instructing him to stop Maverick from reaching the Poker game at Lauren Belle, and has also learned that Maverick had conned him in Crystal River. Angel catches up with Maverick after he has left Joseph's tribe, beats him up and attempts to hang him. Despite being tied to both a tree and to his horse, Maverick escapes and reaches the poker game, which is taking place on a paddle steamer. Bransford and Angel have also reached the game, and Cooper has been engaged to oversee its security. Still $2,000 short, he makes his way to the Lauren Belle and finds Bransford, who is still $4,000 short herself. Spotting the Archduke aboard, Maverick poses as a Bureau of Indian Affairs agent investigating the shooting of Indians for game, conning the Archduke out of $6,000 to cover his and Bransford's entry. Commodore Duvall welcomes the competitors to the tournament, with Cooper overseeing the security of the game and the $500,000 prize money and watching for any cheaters, who will be summarily thrown overboard if discovered. After the others are eliminated, the four finalists are Maverick, Bransford, Angel, and Commodore Duvall (James Coburn), the boat's owner and the tournament organizer. Prior to this game, Maverick and Bransford have a tryst in his quarters. Maverick almost fails to reach the final table by the 5:00 AM deadline, having had his stateroom door chained shut (by an unknown person) after a short tryst with Bransford. He manages to climb outside the steamer to reach the table on time. The game proceeds, with Bransford the first eliminated, and shortly thereafter a "fixed" hand is dealt to the three remaining players. The Commodore is given four 8s and Angel is given a low straight flush, whilst Maverick has the 10, jack, queen and king of spades. The Commodore and Angel each bet "all in". Maverick observes the dealer bottom-dealing to the others, protests the conduct of the hand, and eventually accepts one card dealt by Angel and calls without checking the card. It turns out to be the ace of spades, giving Maverick an unbeatable royal flush and the championship. An enraged Angel draws his gun, but he and his stooges in the audience are gunned down by Cooper and Maverick. Three plot twists follow Maverick's win. First, Cooper steals the $500,000 prize money instead of presenting it to Maverick. Second, it is revealed that the Commodore and Cooper were secretly in cahoots on the theft and that Angel had actually been working for the Commodore. Third, the Commodore betrays Cooper, but before he can shoot him, Maverick ambushes the two around a campfire and steals back the money, leaving them a single gun to settle their affairs. The gun turns out to be unloaded, and Cooper beats up the Commodore, then sets out to take revenge on Maverick. Later, Maverick is relaxing in a bath-house when Cooper finds him, and drops the facade to reveal that he is in fact Maverick's father. The real conspiracy was in fact between the two of them. However, Bransford enters the bath-house and robs Cooper and Maverick (whose relationship she had surmised from their similar mannerisms). After she escapes, Maverick reveals she only got away with half of the money, as Maverick had hidden the rest in his boots. Maverick and his father smile as he comments that it will be a lot of fun getting the rest of the money back from her.

A small-town loser determines to have one more shot at the big time by winning a football game. Jack Dundee is a meek banker living in Taft, California. He constantly thinks about the 1972 high school football game between Taft and powerhouse Bakersfield. Dundee drops a perfect pass from quarterback and friend Reno Hightower, and the game ended in a tie. He wants to replay the game, but has trouble convincing Reno and the town to replay the game. So Jack resorts to desperate measures to make the game reality. —Pat McCurry

Tom Sawyer (Johnny Whitaker) and Huckleberry Finn (Jeff East) play hooky from school and have a plan to revive a dead cat with the spirit of a man who is on his death bed. Sawyer and Finn talk with Muff Potter (Warren Oates), the town drunk, but are interrupted when Injun Joe (Henry O'Brien) says that Doc Robinson (Richard Eastham) wants to see them. Potter and Joe meet Robinson and he informs them that they have a job to dig the grave of Williams. Joe is angry that Robinson didn't fix his leg correctly. Meanwhile, Sawyer continues to skip school and comes up with fantastic stories about why he's not home for dinner, where he tricks the children of the town to do his punishment chores for him. After Williams dies, the two go to the graveyard and find out that Potter and Joe are digging up a grave on the advice of Doc Robinson. Joe continues to be angry at Robinson and demands more money for the job. When Robinson refuses, Joe picks up a shovel, accidentally knocking Potter out, hits Robinson into the grave with the shovel, then grabs Potter's knife and jumps in after Robinson. Sawyer and Finn witness all this and then run off, making a pact not to tell anyone what they saw. Joe frames Potter for the murder and Potter goes to jail. Meanwhile, the beautiful Becky Thatcher (Jodie Foster) moves to town which sends Sawyer into a romantic daze. At the trial for Potter, Sawyer is unable to contain himself as Joe is called to the stand and lies about the incident, continuing to frame Potter for the murder. As Sawyer is called to the stand, he relates what happened, not mentioning that Finn was with him. Suddenly, Joe throws a knife at Sawyer, narrowly missing Sawyer's head and jumps out the window of the courthouse, fleeing. After the trial, Sawyer and Thatcher get "engaged" but that quickly ends when Sawyer mentions he's also engaged to Amy Lawrence. After sulking, Sawyer is attacked by Finn for "breaking the pact" and they both decide to run away. While paddling down the Mississippi, their raft is capsized by a passing riverboat and they end up on an island where they enjoy freedom and muse over what happened to Joe. While on the island, they witness some people "dragging the river", a process where a cannon is fired to bring up any bodies from the bottom of the river. Sawyer and Finn decide to "go home" and find out that there's a funeral being held for them. The funeral service breaks up when Judge Thatcher (Noah Keen) sees them in the back of the church. The Widow Douglas (Lucille Benson) takes Finn under her wing after that. Later, at a 4th of July celebration, Sawyer and Becky Thatcher go into McDougal's Cave for a drink of water from the underground spring and run into Joe. Joe chases them through the cave, intent to kill Sawyer. However, Judge Thatcher, Muff Potter and Huckleberry Finn catch up to Joe and Potter throws a torch at Joe and he falls to his death. Later, Finn disappears, worrying the Widow Douglas and Sawyer finds him at the old fishing place they hang out at. Sawyer berates Finn for worrying Douglas, and Potter decides to leave the town.

Carter "Doc" McCoy, a convict, makes a deal with a corrupt politician in exchange for early release from prison but once free, he quickly learns that there is no one he can trust.

Con artist Latigo Smith is on board a train travelling across frontier-era Colorado, with his would-be fiancée, a rich and powerful woman named Goldie. Looking for a way to escape this situation, he manages to slip off the train at a jerkwater stop, and finds himself in Purgatory, a small town wherein two rival companies of miners, led by Taylor Barton and Colonel Ames, are in a frantic round-the-clock race to find "the motherlode" of gold buried somewhere under the town. After consulting the town doctor about getting an embarrassing Goldie-related tattoo removed, Latigo succumbs to a gambling compulsion and loses all his money at roulette. After hearing a rumor that an infamous gunslinger named "Swiftie" Morgan is in town, Latigo concocts a scam, using the amiable ne'er-do-well Jug May to impersonate the man. In the process of this, the new arrival attracts the attention of Patience "The Sidewinder" Barton, the hot-tempered daughter of Taylor, who wants nothing more than to escape the town and become a woman of refinement in New York City. When Latigo and the fake Swiftie side with the Bartons, Ames sends a telegram to the real gunslinger, informing him of the impostor. Swiftie soon arrives in town, and confronts Latigo, who has replaced Jug for the climatic gunfight. The show-down ends with Swiftie shooting himself when he is startled by one of the massive mining blasts that regularly rock the town. Latigo accidentally finds the motherlode for the Bartons by setting off a load of dynamite with which he was attempting to bluff the gunfighter. The blast also cures his tattoo problem. Latigo's gambling compulsion finally pays off when, financially backed by the Bartons, he wins big at roulette. Now almost as rich as Patience, he marries her, she gets to send her numerous daughters to school in New York, and Jug goes on to "star in spaghetti westerns."

In the middle of the Great Depression, Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker meet when Clyde tries to steal Bonnie's mother's car. Bonnie, who is bored by her job as a waitress, is intrigued with Clyde, and decides to take up with him and become his partner in crime. They do some holdups, but their amateur efforts, while exciting, are not very lucrative. The duo's crime spree shifts into high gear once they hook up with a dim-witted gas station attendant, C.W. Moss. The three are joined by Clyde's brother, Buck and his wife, Blanche, a preacher's daughter. Soon a long-simmering feud between Bonnie and Blanche begins; the once-prim Blanche views Bonnie as a harpy corrupting her husband and brother-in-law, while Bonnie sees Blanche as an incompetent, shrill shrew. Bonnie and Clyde turn from pulling small-time heists to robbing banks. Their exploits also become more violent. When C.W., the get-away driver, botches a bank robbery by parallel parking the car, Clyde shoots the bank manager in the face after he jumps onto the slow-moving car's running board. The gang is pursued by law enforcement, including Texas Ranger Frank Hamer, who is captured and humiliated by the outlaws, then set free. After a raid kills Buck, injures Bonnie and Clyde, and leaves Blanche sightless and in police custody, Hamer tricks Blanche, whose eyes are bandaged, into revealing the name of C.W. Moss, known in the press only as an unnamed accomplice. The Ranger locates Bonnie, Clyde and C.W. hiding at the house of C.W.'s father, who thinks Bonnie and Clyde -- and an elaborate tattoo -- have corrupted his son. He strikes a bargain with Hamer: in exchange for a lenient jail sentence for C.W., he helps set a trap for the outlaws. When Bonnie and Clyde are ambushed while stopped by the side of the road, the police riddle their bodies with bullets in a blood bath.

Wild Bill Hickock (Bill Elliott) and Cannonball (Dub Taylor) help two young people in love (Mary Daily and Stanley Brown) and bring the murderer (Kenneth MacDonald) of Cannonball's father to justice. Wild Bill and Cannonball arrive looking for the killer of Cannonball's father only to become involved in a family feud. A man has been charged with kidnaping the girl he plans to marry. So this time Bill turns into a defense lawyer and among the opposition is the killer he is looking for. Only when the killer is revealed does Bill put his guns to work. —Maurice VanAuken <mvanauken@a1access.net>

After serving a six-year prison term, Mitch Carew, a cold-blooded murderer, returns to the town of Arroyo, thirsting for revenge on storekeeper Dan Woodworth and ex-marshal Wild Bill Hickok, the two men who put him in prison. At the Woodworth General Store, Mitch accuses Dan of framing him and then goads him into drawing his gun. No match for Mitch's skill with a pistol, the kindly old storekeeper is gunned down. Meanwhile, on the road to Arroyo, Bill sees a mob about to lynch a man for stealing cattle and goes to investigate. Discovering that the man about to be hung is his old friend cowboy Larry Armstrong, Bill insists that Larry be given a fair trial and takes him into custody. After riding a safe distance from the lynch mob, Bill tells Larry that he has come to Arroyo to stake out a homestead and invites his friend to join him. When Larry, embittered by the low wages being paid by the ranchers, refuses Bill's offer and advocates living outside the law instead, Bill becomes alarmed and insists that Larry accompany him to town. In Arroyo, meanwhile, Mitch has begun to organize a gang and instructs Stringer, one of his thugs, to acquire the Woodworth General Store as a front. Stringer is in the process of coercing Dan's widow into selling the store when his transaction is interrupted by Bill, who takes Stringer's money and sells him merchandise instead. After Bill shoves Stringer out the door, Mrs. Woodworth offers Bill and Larry a room and introduces them to Ann, her Eastern-bred niece. Charmed, Bill begins to court Ann, but she scoffs at his adherence to what she sees as the outmoded code of the West. When Bill discovers that Larry is planning to join Mitch's gang, Bill warns Mitch to leave Larry alone. Despite Bill's efforts, Larry joins the gang, and when Bill learns that his friend was involved in the robbery of the stage, he rides out after him. Mitch and the others hear that Bill is riding toward their camp, and hide in the rocks, while Larry waits for his friend at the campfire. Bill questions Larry about the robbery, but when Larry refuses to respond, Bill turns to leave. As he walks away, Stringer shoots at him, and Bill swings around and fires, hitting Larry. Realizing that he has shot his friend, Bill puts the wounded Larry on his horse and takes him to town. Although Larry forgives Bill with his dying breath, Bill blames himself for his friend's death and vows revenge on Mitch. Later, when Ann denounces Bill's sentiments, he offers to give up his guns if she will marry him. Meanwhile, at the gang's hideout, Mitch decides the time has come to kill Bill and rides into town. When Bill learns that Mitch is waiting for him, he straps on his guns and informs Ann that he must face down the outlaw to preserve his honor. In the saloon, an edgy Mitch waits for Bill, and accidentally wounds Cannonball, Bill's friend. Mitch then takes to the street in search of Bill, and when the two men come face to face, Bill shoots and kills the outlaw. Realizing that he will never be able to forsake the code of the West, Bill bids farewell to Ann and rides out of town.

Bill Saunders arriving in a lawless town is quickly made Marshal. But when he arrests the gang members, the victims refuse to testify. However one rancher is willing to testify and when the gang kills him, Bill jails the killers. This causes the gang leader Rawhide to reveal the identity of the big boss and Bill goes after him. —Maurice VanAuken <mvanauken@a1access.net>