Ernest Hemingway

The Bahamas, 1940 American artist Tom Hudson (George C. Scott) lives on the remote island of Bimini, in the western region of the Bahamas. At the dock, he finds two friends aboard his fishing boat, the Tortuga. As islander, named Joseph (Julius Harris) washes the deck, Eddy (David Hemmings), a British alcoholic, nurses his wounds from a fight the night before and brandishes a rifle that he won in a poker game. That evening, Tom celebrates the Queen Mother's birthday with a prostitute named Lil (Susan Tyrell), drinking and firing flares into the harbor. The Boys The next day, Tom's three estranged sons, 19-year-old Tom, Jr. (Hart Bochner) from his first marriage, 14-year-old Dave (Michael-James Wixted) and 10-year-old Andy (Brad Savage) from his second marriage, arrive on the island, but he does not meet them at their seaplane; Eddy and Joseph drive the boys to their father's home. Housebound during a rainstorm, Andy admires one of Tom's drawings, a portrait of Tom, Jr.'s mother, Audrey. When Andy asks why his father did not capture the likeness of his own mother, as well, Tom admits that he was not creative during his second marriage. That night, the boys bicker about their father as Tom listens from his studio. While Tom, Jr., has fond memories of his childhood with Tom and Audrey, Dave complains that their father physically abused his mother Joan during drunken altercations. However, Andy insists that their father has become a better man since the divorce. When Tom joins his sons in their room, a pillow fight ensues and Dave pummels his father. With tensions eased in the coming days, the boys enjoy spear fishing in a reef as Tom and Eddy watch from the Tortuga. When a hammerhead shark threatens to attack, Tom shoots and misses, so Eddy kills the shark with his new machine gun. Andy is impressed by Eddy's heroism, although he notices that the man has a drinking problem, and Tom is dismayed that he was unable to defend his boys, himself. In the evening, the men see an explosion offshore and Eddy declares that a German U-boat has been torpedoed. The next day, a dead crewman washes onto the beach. Tom orders his sons to return to the house, then tells Joseph that Tom, Jr., is nearly old enough to fight in the war. Sometime later, Tom admits to Tom, Jr., that he still loves his mother, Audrey. Later still, Tom tells his son that Jewish refugees are arriving on the island to escape the war in Europe. During a deep-sea fishing excursion on the Tortuga, Dave hooks an enormous marlin and struggles with the line for hours. Although the boy is exhausted and bleeding, Tom coaches his son to keep up the fight. When the marlin gets away, Tom declares that he loves Dave unconditionally, and they embrace. Back on the island, Tom, Jr., announces his decision to join the Royal Air Force in Canada. When the summer ends, Tom bids farewell to his sons as they board a seaplane bound for the U.S. At boarding school, Dave and Andy receive a letter from their father, who writes that the island is increasingly affected by the war. Tom professes his love for the sea, but reflects upon his isolation and promises to be more involved with boys' lives. The Woman Sometime later, Tom finds Eddy at a local hotel, beaten in another fight. As Lil tends to Eddy's wounds, she asks Tom for a date, but he is distracted by the unexpected presence of his first wife, Audrey (Claire Bloom). As Tom escorts Audrey along the beach to his house, she announces her engagement to an army general, but admits that she still has feelings for Tom, and they kiss passionately. At Tom's house, Audrey drinks to excess and Tom realizes that she has come to the island because Tom, Jr., was killed in battle. When she returns to the mainland, Tom wallows in anguish and decides to leave the island for good. Eddy offers to accompany him in his voyage back to America, but Tom disparages Eddy's alcoholism and declines. The Journey As Tom and Joseph sail the Tortuga toward Florida, however, Eddy surprises them as a stowaway. The men soon spot the boat of a fellow islander, Captain Ralph (Gilbert Roland), smuggling Jewish refugees into Cuba. The vessel was attacked by a German U-boat the previous evening, so Tom and his friends rescue its passengers and resume their journey toward Cuba. That night, the Tortuga is detained by the Cuban Coast Guard. As the Cubans snatch a female refugee, a gunfight ensues, leaving the Tortuga damaged. The following morning, the Tortuga is pursued again. Although Tom navigates an escape, Eddy dies from gunshot wounds and Tom casts his body overboard, lamenting the loss of his friend. Sometime later, off the coast of Cuba, Tom delivers the refugees ashore, then triggers a gasoline explosion to detain the Coast Guard. Climbing aboard the Tortuga to get away, Tom is shot in the back. As Joseph declares his love for his fallen comrade, he reflects that Tom refuses to accept affection from others. In his final moments of life, Tom envisions himself and Audrey back at his island home, where he promises to love her eternally. He embraces young Dave and Andy, then leaves with the newly-reconfigured family as Joseph waves goodbye.

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.

During the Spanish Civil War, an American allied with the Republicans finds romance during a desperate mission to blow up a strategically important bridge. Spain in the 1930s is the place to be for a man of action like Robert Jordan. There is a civil war going on and Jordan who has joined up on the side that appeals most to idealists of that era -- like Ernest Hemingway and his friends -- has been given a high-risk assignment up in the mountains. He awaits the right time to blow up a bridge in a cave. Pilar, who is in charge there, has an ability to foretell the future. And so that night she encourages Maria, a young girl ravished by enemy soldiers, to join Jordan who has decided to spend the night under the stars. —Dale O'Connor <daleoc@interaccess.com> Spanish Civil War, 1930s. Richard Jordan, an American, has joined up with the Republican side. He is given the tough assignment of blowing up a vitally important bridge. Things get complicated when he falls in love - Based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway. —grantss