Gary Merrill

In 1840s Missouri, young Huckleberry Finn, wanting to escape his violent drunkard father, joins Black runaway slave Jim on a quest for freedom down the Mississippi River on a raft. Huckleberry Finn, a rambuctious boy adventurer chafing under the bonds of civilization, escapes his humdrum world and his selfish, plotting father by sailing a raft down the Mississippi River. Accompanying him is Jim, a slave running away from being sold. Together the two strike a bond of friendship that takes them through harrowing events and thrilling adventures. —Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net> In Hannibal, Missouri in the mid nineteenth century, young Huckleberry Finn and his guardians' slave, Jim, run away independently of each other but for the same reason. Huck's no good father is holding Huck for ransom, the only way Huck's guardians can come up with the money is to sell Jim to the slave traders. After leaving, Jim runs into Huck and they decide to travel together down the Mississippi River on a raft to the free state of Illinois where Jim can live free. They learn that the news around Hannibal is that Jim murdered Huck, so the two have no choice but to escape. On their travels, they run into one adventure after another, including run-ins with wealthy Colonel Grangeford and his unusual family, slave traders, and con men known as the King and Duke. But before they get to their final destination, Huck changes their collective plans for what he feels is the best for both. —Huggo

After an 11-year absence, a buffalo hunter returns home with lots of money in his saddlebags only to be robbed at gunpoint by a trio of no-good town citizens, prompting an eventual revenge quest. Jonas Trapp falls in love with the beautiful Jessie, a wealthy girl out of his humble class. Against the wishes of her snobbish aunt, she marries him, later faking a pregnancy to win her aunt's consent. But Jonas tires of living off of his wife's family, and eventually deserts her to become a buffalo hunter. 11 years later, with his self-made fortune ($17,000), he sets out to return home, only to be set upon by two marauders (a drunk and a sadistic hustler), for some reason in the company of a banker who manages to save Jonas's life but steals his money. Severely beaten and branded, Jonas is left for dead. Rescued by a farmer who nurses him back to health, Jonas becomes consumed by the desire for revenge. As fate would have it, all three men live close to Jonas' former home. Matters quickly get worse when Jonas reunites with his wife, only to discover that she is now engaged to the banker, one of the men upon whom Jonas now seeks vengeance. —phillindholm (updated by R.M. Sieger)

A Eurasian photographer uses his women in an attempt to get American nationality. Laurence Harvey plays an Eurasian photographer who is trapped in Japan but wants to emigrate to the United States. His visa is continually delayed, which causes him to use his charm with women to pull some strings and apply some pressure on the embassy. His romantic magnetism works on a thrill-seeking American and an aristocratic Japanese woman. —Anonymous

During the Civil War a group of Union soldiers, a Confederate and a civilian escape the stockade using a hot-air balloon and end up on a strange Pacific island. During the US Civil War, Union POWs escape in a balloon and end up stranded on a South Pacific island, inhabited by giant plants and animals. They must use their ingenuity to survive the dangers, and to devise a way to return home. Sequel to '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea'. —Stewart M. Clamen <clamen@cs.cmu.edu> In 1865, during the siege of Richmond, Virginia, Union soldier POWs Captain Harding, Neb and Herbert escape in a balloon during a hurricane with a confederate prisoner, Sergeant Pencroft and civilian journalist, Spilett. The storm takes the balloon to a mysterious island near New Zealand in the South Pacific. Captain Harding proclaims himself leader of the group and they look for food. They discover that they are stranded on an island and soon are attacked by a giant crab that becomes their first meal. In the following days they build themselves shelter and find the island inhabited by other giant animals. One day they find two castaways on the beach: the aristocratic Lady Mary Fairchild and her sexy niece Elena. Later they find a trunk with weapons and a sextant and then they find the hut and journal of a man once marooned on the island by pirates. When pirates later return to the island, the castaways are surprised to be helped by Captain Nemo of the legendary submarine Nautilus. (Nemo -- notorious for his war against slavery -- was supposedly sunk and gone missing eight years earlier.) Finally, when a volcano threatens to obliterate their island, all must plan an escape. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil As the war between the States is coming to an end, an imprisoned Union captain, two other prisoners, a confederate soldier and a civilian newspaperman escape in a hot air balloon. Strong winds carry the across the country and out over the Pacific where they eventually land on what at first appears to be an uninhabited island. They are soon joined by two women, survivors of a pirate attack. While they manage to make a home for themselves, they have to deal with extraordinarily large animals including a giant crab and giant bees. The giant fauna is the result of experiments by Captain Nemo who has lived on the island aboard his crippled submarine, the Nautilus, for eight years. They also have to deal with an active volcano and time is short if they are to leave the island before it explodes. —garykmcd 1865. With the aid of Gideon Spilitt, a war correspondent for the New York Herald, three Union soldiers - Cyrus Harding, Herbert Brown, and Neb Nugent - are able to break out of a Libby, a military Confederate prison in Richmond, Virginia, the four men who are able to escape using one of the Confederate's surveillance hot air balloons, they in the process necessarily taking along a Confederate soldier, Pencroft, as he knows how to operate the balloon. Despite Pencroft's knowledge, the balloon nonetheless crash lands in where they believe is somewhere in the South Pacific on a seemingly deserted volcanic island. Still considering themselves at war, Captain Harding, as the senior officer, feels he should take charge. While Brown, a self-admitted coward, and Nugent, a black man, willingly go along with his orders as their superior, Spilitt and Pencroft are more reluctant in their agreement, working cooperatively for their own survival outweighing whatever hesitation they have working under Harding. The five are soon joined on the island by two Brits, Lady Mary Fairchild and her pretty young adult niece Elena, the only two survivors of a shipwreck. While there is a bounty of food and water on the island to survive, they still work toward the goal of trying to get off the island back to civilization. While they learn quickly in their stay that they share the island with a number of supersized menacing animals which provide much wanted animal protein, that is if the animals don't kill them first, they face a looming more dangerous menace preventing them from staying on the island much longer, something well known to the hidden eighth on the island. —Huggo

A honorable drifter constantly on the run finds his enemies closing in around him. Having fled to Mexico from the U.S. many years ago for killing his father's murderer, Martin Brady travels to Texas to broker an arms deal for his Mexican boss, strongman Governor Cipriano Castro. Brady breaks a leg and while recuperating in Texas the gun shipment is stolen. Complicating matters further the wife of local army major Colton has designs on him, and the local Texas Ranger captain makes him a generous offer to come back to the states and join his outfit. After killing a man in self defense, Brady slips back over the border and confronts Castro who is not only unhappy that Brady has lost his gun shipment but is about to join forces with Colton to battle the local raiding Apache Indians. —Doug Sederberg <vornoff@sonic.net>

During the American Civil War, Confederate spies aim to steal Union gold intended for the peace treaty with the Sioux and thus pit the Indians against the Union Forces. During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln sends an emissary with a peace treaty to the Sioux Indians. He also sends a gift of $130,000 in gold. This attracts the attention of Brock Marsh, the secret leader of a Confederate spy ring, who wants to keep the treaty from being signed and to also get his hands on the gold. Ruth Lawrence and Mike Daugherty work together against the machinations of Marsh. —Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>