George Seaton

Two men who have been friends since childhood find themselves on opposite ends of the law. After a train robbery committed in New Mexico, a small gang sets-out to divide the loot. However, a disagreement over the shares causes one gang member, Billy Massey, to take the whole loot and run toward the Mexican border. The sheriff of Cumbres, Chuck Jarvis, learns of the train holdup and organizes a posse. Unfortunately, gang member Billy Massey is a very close childhood friend of the sheriff. No matter how disappointed the sheriff is, he's determined to do his duty and apprehend Billy. Local district attorney P. J. Wilson is a law-and-order hardliner with higher political aspirations. He demands the sheriff recover the railroad property immediately or else there will be consequences. Sheriff Chuck Jarvis hires a few Indian trackers and sets-out to find Billy. However, Billy's former gang members are also looking for him to recover the loot. Billy doubles-back to Cumbres and goes to the sheriff's house. While the sheriff's wife, Kate, serves Billy supper, the sheriff arrives and, after a short tense moment, persuades Billy to surrender and face a fair trial. With Billy in custody, sheriff Chuck Jarvis sends for the district judge and hires a lawyer for Billy. But strict district attorney P. J. Wilson is determined to hang Billy, no matter what. Now the sheriff has the double problem of protecting Billy's life from the lynching mob instigated by Wilson and from Billy's old gang members who are heading to town to kill Billy. —nufs68

An introductory WWII newsreel sets the stage. D-Day is fast approaching, but the exact date and designated invasion beaches are closely-held secrets. The British Isles are bulging with troops, ships and equipment. The story begins in London on May 31, 1944. An American army major, Jefferson Pike (James Garner), enters Allied Forces HQ to discuss the ongoing invasion preparations. The top brass aren't convinced that Allied deception efforts have fooled the Germans. While poring over a wall map of German troop dispositions in France, Pike inadvertently slides his finger along the edge of the map, incurring a nasty paper cut. To hedge their bets, the High Command sends Pike to Lisbon to meet with a German double agent and see what he knows. Pike expresses concerns that if captured and tortured, he might reveal exact invasion details. His superiors feel that the risk is justified. As Pike flies out of London in civilian garb, a German spy sees him boarding the plane and reports it to her handlers. Another German spy enters his vacant hotel room and gathers personal items, including photos, letters and hair samples from his brush. In Lisbon, Pike goes to a nightclub to meet his contact but quickly realizes that his drink has been drugged shortly before he passes out. He is soon in German hands, placed in a coffin as a deceased German embassy clerk, and flown to Germany. An American-born German army major, Walter Gerber (Rod Taylor), is a military psychiatrist in charge of an elaborate deception scheme designed to coax the invasion secrets from Major Pike. An entire "American" military convalescent center has been set up deep in a German forest to fool Pike. Major Gerber is given 36 hours to extract the invasion plans from Pike. After that, Pike will be handed over to the SS to gain the information through their usual means. Gerber also understands that the consequences of failure will be catastrophic for his own future. When a groggy, disoriented Pike finally awakens, he is relieved to find himself in Allied hands. Looking in a mirror for the first time, he is shocked to find his dark hair streaked with gray, his skin aged, and his vision blurry. His every move is observed through a two-way mirror. Piece by piece, Pike is sold the idea that it is now May 1950, the war is long over, and he is convalescing at an American military hospital in occupied Germany. Both Major Gerber and pretty nurse Anna Hedler (Eva Marie Saint) are leading actors in the ruse. Pike's room contains familiar photos and Anna is able to provide accurate details about his parents. Rigorous measures are taken to ensure that Pike is surrounded by dozens of role players who are fluent in American speech dialects and customs. No one is allowed to speak German, even out of Pike's hearing. Pike is told that he is suffering from severe amnesia, a side effect from the severe "beating" he supposedly absorbed after the Lisbon incident six years earlier. According to the cover story, Pike was found wandering alone in Lisbon and sent back to the US to recuperate, but continual regressions over the years dictated that he be sent to Major Gerber in Germany for experimental psychological therapy. His nurse tells him that she and Pike have been married for two months, but due to another regression he doesn't remember her. In an unguarded moment with Anna, Pike asks about the war's closing months and mentions something about the invasion sites having been in Normandy. She tries to conceal her shock and reports the sensational disclosure to Major Gerber, who then manages to skillfully extract the most important invasion details from the trusting Pike. The race is on. The date is now June 2. After the session with Gerber, Pike is absent-mindedly rubbing his fingers together when he suddenly irritates the painful paper cut incurred in London two days earlier. Gradually recalling the injury, confusion registers on his face. With his suspicions aroused, Pike takes steps to confirm his worst fears and then violently confronts Anna, who admits to the elaborate plot. She explains that she went along with the ruse in order to buy her way out of a concentration camp. Out of hatred for her captors, she agrees to help Pike. He tells her to run out of his room screaming that he has escaped and that he has known about the plot from the outset. Pike slips out the back way, knowing that he will be caught. Now the Germans must determine whether Pike was telling the truth about Normandy or trying to deceive them. A disappointed Major Gerber asks how and when Pike figured out the scheme and Pike tells him about the paper cut. Gerber explains that Pike was carefully examined for injuries when he arrived, but the cut was obviously concealed in a skin crease. Gerber still thinks Normandy was a truthful answer, but he knows no one will believe him. The SS indeed discounts Pike's accurate story and allows the bulk of the German forces to remain idled near Calais. Gerber explains regretfully that Pike will now be handed over to the tender mercies of the SS. Hating the SS and realizing that he will probably be executed for his costly failure, Major Gerber settles on a daring plan to have his pioneering research on psychological combat trauma live on. He gives his research papers to Pike and Anna, advises them how to get across the border, and helps them escape from their locked room. The race for freedom is now on, with a zealous SS officer trying to capture the pair before they can escape over the Swiss border.

Blacklisted in modern day WW2, a Swedish oil trader opts to assist British Allies, by means of infiltrating and surveying Nazi Germany. Stockholm, 1942: Eric Erickson is a native American who has been granted Swedish citizenship. Because of his oil trade - Sweden is officially neutral, so trade with both warring parties is possible - he is blacklisted by people who collaborate with the enemy. The British put pressure on him to become an agent of the Allies. His business and frequent trips to Germany serve as a cover. It is not long before his new, feigned pro-Nazi attitude alienates him from his Swedish surroundings and his wife. In order to gain an insight into the Nazis' oil supply, Erickson pushes ahead with his plans for a new refinery. At a business meeting, he meets Marianne Möllendorf, an officer's wife who also works as an agent. The two fall in love. When one of his German friends dies, Erickson rushes to Germany to destroy a dangerous document. The Gestapo arrest him and question him about his relationship with Marianne. The noose tightens. —Arte An American oil company executive of Swedish descent, now living in Sweden, is blackmailed into spying for the Allies during World War II. At first resentful, his relationship with a beautiful German Allied agent causes him to realize how vital his work is. When he learns that his anti-Nazi German associates are under suspicion from the Gestapo, he risks his own life to go back inside Nazi Germany to finish his work and try to save his friends. It's an exciting story with great characters, filmed partly in the locations where the story took place. —Carol

An aspiring musician arrives in New York in search of fame and fortune. He soon meets a taxi dancer / call girl and moves in with her. Before long, a romance develops. Tender romantic comedy about an aspiring musician who arrives in New York in search of fame & fortune. He soon meets a taxi dancer, moves in with her, and before too long a romance develops. —alfiehitchie A romantic comedy about a dancer who lives in New York and a would-be musician who arrives in town to make his fame & fortune, and platonically share an apartment. It's not too long before sparks fly as they struggle to make it in the city's 'rat race'. —Huggo

A hard-nosed newspaper editor poses as a night school student in order to woo a journalism teacher who cannot stand him. James Gannon, the hardboiled city editor of a newspaper, believes that the only way to learn the business is by way of the School of Hard Knocks, and has a very low regard for college-taught journalism, so he's not pleased when his managing editor orders him to help Erica Stone, a college professor, with her journalism class. Finding himself attracted to her, he pretends to be a student in her class, not revealing he's Gannon, whom she despises. As they bob and weave around their mutual growing attraction, they gain respect for each other's approaches to reporting news, but how will Erica react when she finds out who he really is? —Ed Sutton <esutton@mindspring.com> The New York Evening Chronicle's City Editor James Gannon is a stubborn self-made journalist that has not even concluded high school and believes that the business is to be learned working in a newspaper office and not in college. He also believes that the fact is more important than the why behind the story. When he is invited to be the guest lecturer in the night-school journalism course of E. Stone, he wrongly believes that she is a man and sends a non-polite letter to her explaining the reasons why he does not want to waste his time. However his boss, Lloyd Crowley, gives direct orders to him to attend the class. Instructor Erica Stone reads Gannon's letter for the class and he pretends to be a student to humiliate her to her class. However, they feel both attracted by each other and Erica believes that Gannon has a great potential to be a journalist. When Erica dates the talented Dr. Hugo Pine, Gannon goes to the same restaurant and disputes Erica's attention with Dr. Pine. Gannon and Erica fall in love with each other, but how will Erica react when she learns that her student is the notorious Gannon? —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil James Gannon, the hard-nosed city desk editor of the New York Daily Chronicle, and E.R. (Erica) Stone, a night-school journalism instructor at a local college, get into a philosophical war of words without having met. He believes that newspaper journalism is a trade that can only be learned through on the job training. Additionally, he believes that people who teach journalism probably have not spent a day in their lives working at a newspaper--E.R. Stone included. He, who never graduated from high school, also has disdain for any of his staff who studied journalism at school. As such, he tersely declines her invitation to provide a guest lecture to her class. Their war ratchets up a level when she reads his letter to her class, unaware that he is sitting there at the time, and has come to abide her request as directed by his managing editor. Because of her diatribe against him, he decides to enroll in her class incognito as James Gallagher to show her up. Their war softens, at least from Jim's side, as he can't help but be attracted to her as a person. And Erica, not knowing his true identity, is enthralled with her new pupil, who is the most naturally gifted writer she has ever had in any of her classes. As Jim and Erica get closer personally and professionally, not only is his true identity a major obstacle in their relationship if she ever discovers it, but seemingly so is Dr. Hugo Pine, a Renaissance-man psychology professor at the college whom Jim assumes is her suitor. Jim might ultimately be able to use Hugo's profession and knowledge of Erica for his own benefit in getting closer to her. But learning directly from her of her motivations in life, based on idolizing a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorialist, could give him a clearer picture of who Erica is as a person. —Huggo

A director hires an alcoholic has-been and strikes up a stormy relationship with the actor's wife, who he believes is the cause of all the man's problems. Washed up singer/actor Frank Elgin has a chance to make a come-back when director Bernie Dodd offers him the leading role in his new musical. Frank however is very insecure, turns to alcohol and shuns even the smallest of responsibilities, leaving everything up to his wife Georgie who finds it harder and harder to cope with her husband's lack of spirit. Bernie tries to help Frank regain his self-confidence, believing that it is Georgie who's the cause of his insecurity. —Leon Wolters <wolters@strw.LeidenUniv.nl> Broadway director Bernie Dodd is in desperate need of a male lead for his new play and pushes to hire Frank Elgin, an aging one time star with just the experience and skills required. The downside is that he has a reputation for being an unreliable drunk. Elgin has the talent for the job, but seems to be entirely dependent on his wife Georgie to make all of his decisions for him. He tells Dodd that she has to come with them when they go to Boston to fine tune the show. He describes his wife as the drinker and suicidal at times and simply can't be left alone. Dodd takes up his cause, blaming Georgie for Frank's lack of self-confidence and a clash of wills ensues. He soon realizes he may have incorrectly assumed who was supporting who in their relationship. —garykmcd The hard-drinking Frank Elgin, a once-popular Broadway star whose glory days have passed. When director Bernie Dodd gives Elgin a role in his new musical, he must also deal with the actor's sour and ever-present wife, Georgie, who Dodd believes is the cause of her husband's failure. However, as Dodd spends more time around Georgie, the truth about her husband becomes clear. —Jwelch5742 Famed Broadway director Bernie Dodd is known for making risky casting choices which may not make the process of the show smooth, but generally has electrifying results on stage. With only a couple of weeks until out of town Boston previews, he has to recast the lead in his new musical, he lobbying for Frank Elgin, formerly a Broadway heavyweight whose career years ago sank under the weight of the onset of his alcoholism. Bernie is the only one on Frank's side, producer Philip Cook in particular who does not want to risk what is largely his money on Frank. Winning out in casting Frank albeit on only a two week run contract, Bernie, who nonetheless wants to provide as much support to Frank knowing the potential problems, is up front that one bender is enough to fire him. In hiring Frank, Bernie learns that he is a package deal with his wife, frumpish Georgie Elgin. In explaining the situation to Bernie, Frank tells a story of his and Georgie's life going off the rails following the death of their infant son, he, in trying to help Georgie deal with her grief in her turning to the bottle and attempting suicide, turned to the bottle himself while Georgie emerged out of her alcohol dependence. With Frank having problems in rehearsals up to and during the Boston run, he maintains a happy and cordial demeanor to all including Bernie, while behind the scenes is demanding that Georgie lobby for more and more on his behalf. Georgie supports Frank in being that liaison to Bernie solely in wanting Frank to be the man he once was. And Bernie, who handles Frank with kid gloves, blames all their problems on Georgie, not only in she being the crutch on which Frank always leans, but in his belief that she is the reason for Frank's alcoholism. This leads to a complex situation between the three, which the truth may be the only catalyst for them dealing meaningfully with what is going on. —Huggo

U.S. Navy Lieutenant Harry Brubaker (William Holden) is a pilot who previously fought during World War II, went back to his civilian job as an attorney, and is now a recalled naval reservist further engaged in the Korean War flying F9F Panthers in the Korean War from carriers. He is returning from a mission where his jet sustained battle damage and he has to ditch it into the bone chilling cold of the Sea of Japan. Brubaker is about to freeze to death when a Navy rescue helicopter a Sikorsky HO3S-1 appears. The rescue helicopter that saves Brubaker is flown by an enlisted Naval Aviation Pilot (NAP), the eccentric green top hat-and-scarf wearing Chief Petty Officer Mike Forney (Mickey Rooney), with Forney's crewman AD2 Nestor Gamidge (Earl Holliman) jumping into the freezing water to hook Brubaker to the rescue harness. Forney had often been in trouble for brawling and sporting a non-regulation green top hat and scarf while flying his helicopter as encouragement to downed pilots in the water. Back aboard his ship, the aircraft carrier USS Savo Island Brubaker is called to the quarters of Rear Admiral Tarrant, the Carrier Task Force 77 commander, who has taken an interest in Brubaker. Rear Admiral Tarrant (Fredric March) lost his own son at the Battle of Midway during World War II and Brubaker's manner and bearing brings back memories of his lost son. Brubaker complains about the unfairness of his recall when most actively flying/actively drilling Naval Reserve pilots weren't recalled (Brubaker hadn't been flying in the Reserve), America is not actually "at war", and most Americans have no involvement. Tarrant advises that, "All through history, men have had to fight the wrong war in the wrong place, but that's the one they're stuck with." The admiral finds the pilot is tired of war and just wants to return to civilian life to be with his family and the legal career he left behind. Nevertheless, they both agree to the necessity of seeing this conflict through to its conclusion. A new mission is set. The target is a group of bridges used by Communist forces. Commander Wayne Lee (Charles McGraw), the Commander of the Carrier Air Group ("CAG"), is dedicated to his men, but Tarrant would rather see him dedicated to his mission. Lee had come to Tarrant with a complaint over the carrier captain's overuse of engines on tied-down aircraft during docking. However, when reminded that the captain would be writing his performance review, Lee backs down -- a weakness which prompts Tarrant to decide not to recommend Lee for promotion. The Savo Island returns to port in Japan. Brubaker is told that his wife Nancy (Grace Kelly) and children have arrived in Tokyo on an unexpected visit, and he is given a three-day pass during a port visit. Their reunion is interrupted when Nestor shows up at their hotel asking Brubaker's help in bailing Forney out of the guardhouse after a brawl with another sailor. Nancy, anxious to have her husband back home, is terrified to discover the signs of a man ready to crack from combat fatigue. Nancy is deep into thoughts of being left as a widow. Tarrant tries to support her, although he, too, remembers how his own daughter-in-law had almost turned insane after losing her husband, Tarrant's son. Back on a carrier off Korea, Brubaker flies as wing-man for Commander Lee, the carrier air group commander known as "CAG" (from his position as Commander, Air Group in the carrier), on a dangerous reconnaissance to photograph the bridges. Back to the carrier, Lee presents to his pilots the air photos taken from a low pass over Toko-Ri. The flak is extremely dense, and the pilots have to fly very low into the banks of the river while receiving fire from all sides. Brubaker gets sick after this briefing and believes his days are numbered. He is ready to write a letter to Nancy predicting his own death. Forney crosses the captain of Savo Island once too often, and then he is exiled to a helicopter scow. As he is leaving the ship, he notices Brubaker's distress and relates a "cure" for bad nerves that have worked for him, standing on the bow of the ship and facing the waves. Brubaker follows his advice and finds renewed strength within himself. Lee tries to boost the pilot's morale by asking him to stay behind if he feels he cannot accomplish his mission. Brubaker vows to do his duty. The initial attack is on a series of bridges. Lee organizes two formations, the second one to be led by Brubaker. The results from the first attack are incomplete, so he orders the second group led by Brubaker to attack. Brubaker's team dashes in low and completes the destruction of the last bridge. In the attack on the bridges, the antiaircraft fire is intense, but the jets destroy the bridges without a loss. Lee then directs the air group to attack a secondary target, an ammunition dump. As Brubaker completes the run, his fighter aircraft receives a hit that creates a fuel leak. Lee escorts Brubaker, guiding him back to the carrier, but the fuel loss will not allow Brubaker to overcome the last hill before the sea. He belly-lands onto a relatively flat area. The rescue helicopter and his faithful friends Mike and Nestor land close by to pick him up, but North Korean ground troops arrive and machine gun the helicopter, killing Nestor and eliminating any chance of flying out of danger. They try to hold off the enemy with pistols and Forney's and Gamidge's M1 carbines until they can be rescued, but both are killed by the North Korean and Red Chinese soldiers. After getting confirmation from the U.S. Army that the three Americans are killed, Admiral Tarrant is shattered by the news and demands an explanation from Commander Lee of why he attacked the second target. Lee retorts that despite the losses, the mission was a success. Tarrant sorrowfully must accept that Lee has "matured", recommending him for promotion. The film ends with Tarrant alone, wondering where Brubaker and all the others under his command could have found the bravery to do what is asked from them.