Gig Young

May, 1937. Kathie Rauch from Milwaukee, Wisconsin sends a letter to the German Embassy in Washington, D.C. claiming the Hindenburg zeppelin will explode after flying over New York. In the meantime, Luftwaffe Colonel Franz Ritter (George C. Scott) boards with the intention of protecting the Hindenburg as various threats have been made to down the airship, which some see as a symbol of Nazi Germany. Ritter is assisted by a Nazi government official, SS/Gestapo Hauptsturmführer Martin Vogel (Roy Thinnes), who poses as official photographer. However, both operate independently in investigating the background of all passengers and crew on the voyage. Ritter has reason to suspect everyone, even his old friend and former mistress, Countess Ursula von Reugen (Anne Bancroft), who vehemently opposes the Nazi regime. Other prime suspects include card sharks Emilio Pajetta (Burgess Meredith) and Major Napier (Rene Auberjonois), Edward Douglas (Gig Young), a suspicious German-American ad executive, as well as several crew members and even the Hindenburg captains Pruss (Charles Durning) and Lehmann (Richard A. Dysart). As the Hindenburg makes its way to Lakehurst Air Field, events conspire against Ritter and Vogel. They soon suspect the rigger Karl Boerth (William Atherton), a former Hitler Youth leader who has become disillusioned with the Nazis. Ritter attempts to arrest him. Boerth resists. He requests help from Ritter, whose son was killed a year before. Boerth's girlfriend, Freda Halle, was killed while trying to escape arrest as the Hindenburg crossed the Atlantic. Boerth, upon hearing the news of Halle's death, plans to commit suicide by staying aboard the airship as the bomb goes off. Ritter eventually agrees with Boerth to set the bomb to detonate at 7:30 p.m., when the airship should have landed and passengers disembarked. While setting up the bomb (a small C-4 plastic explosive), Boerth drops a knife, which was later revealed to have been stolen from Rigger Ludwig Knorr. Vogel starts to work behind Ritter's back, arresting Boerth and confiscating the Countess's passport. As the airship approaches Lakehurst Naval Air Station at 7:00, Ritter now realizes the landing has been delayed and searches for Boerth to ask where the bomb is. Vogel is caught by Ritter torturing Boerth and gets into a fight with Ritter and is knocked unconscious. An injured Boerth tells Ritter the bomb is in the repair patch of gas cell 4. Ritter attempts to defuse the bomb, but is unable to do so in time and is spotted at the last few seconds by a now awakened Vogel. The bomb explodes, killing Ritter instantly and sending Vogel flying down the walkway. Vogel survives, being carried by ground crewmen, while Boerth dies of his burns. At this point the film changes to monochrome in order to match up with the actual newsreel footage of the disaster. Passengers and crew struggle to survive the fire. The disaster scene ends when the camera pans over wreckage, towards a strip of burning fabric that says "Hindenburg" on it. The following day, with the fire cleared, a list of passengers who died or survived is described briefly, while the wreckage is examined for the inquiry before being cleaned up. The film ends with a tribute to Herbert Morrison's radio commentary, with the memorable quotation, "Oh the humanity," as the Hindenburg flies once again, only to disappear again in the clouds.

Mike Locken, who works for a private security firm affiliated with the C.I.A., is betrayed by his partner and left apparently crippled for life. Mike Locken is one of the principal members of a group of freelance spies. A significant portion of their work is for the C.I.A., and while he's on a case for them, one of his friends turns on him and shoots him in the elbow and knee. His assignment, to protect someone, goes down in flames. He is nearly crippled, but with braces is able to become mobile again. For revenge as much as anything else, Mike goes after his ex-friend.

A rich businessman and a young woman are attracted to each other, but he only wants an affair while she wants to save herself for marriage. Cathy Timberlake is an old-fashioned country girl who meets the man of her dreams, Philip Shayne, after his Rolls Royce splashes her with mud on her way to a job interview. Philip is a romantic businessman who is taken by Cathy's honest heart. There's one problem: he's not interested in marriage, and she has never thought of anything else. —Kelly On a rainy day, currently-unemployed Cathy Timberlake is furious when a passing limousine, driving through a puddle, splashes her, muddying her coat and dress. She is even more furious when the limousine fails to stop, although she knows the limo's passenger saw her get splashed. She changes her tune when she meets that passenger: dashing, wealthy businessman Philip Shayne. Cathy is immediately attracted to him and he to her. However, ladies' man Philip is much more experienced than she, and she is unprepared for his lavish and elaborate proposal--that she accompany him immediately to Bermuda, Paris, and Monte Carlo--and its connotation that it hold no strings. Cathy turns to her streetwise roommate, Connie Emerson, for advice. As Philip and Cathy's whirlwind relationship progresses, Cathy's hesitance to "go all the way" with Philip always leads to frustration for him. Despite Philip and Cathy being unable to make a full connection, Philip's business associate Roger believes that Cathy is just what Philip needs in his life, as he has never needed to work at making a conquest. Although Cathy really does want to be with Philip and he wants to be with her, can they get over these initial obstacles? —Huggo While heading out to collect her unemployment paycheck and then to attend a job interview, naive Cathy Timberlake gets her coat mud-splashed by the Rolls Royce of millionaire businessman Philip Shayne. He sees her going to have lunch from his office and sends his financial advisor Roger to give her some money to compensate for her loss. The offer offends Cathy and she goes to Philip's office with the intention of throwing the money on his face. However, when she sees the handsome Philip, she immediately falls in love with him. They date and Cathy expects that Philip will propose--but he has no such intention. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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

The life of the youngest of three sisters in a musical family is complicated by the separate arrivals of a charming composer and a cynical music arranger. When Alex enters the lives of the musical Tuttle family, all three daughters fall for him. He is charming, good-looking, and personable. Laurie and Alex seem to be made for each other, and they become engaged. When Barney comes into the picture to help Alex with some musical arrangements, matters become complicated. Laurie sees him as a challenge; she can't believe anyone could be as cynical as he is, and she is more than a match for his gloomy outlook on life. —Ron Kerrigan <mvg@whidbey.com> Gregory Tuttle is the Dean of a music foundation in a coastal town in Connecticut. He has passed on his love of music to his three young-adult daughters Amy, Fran, and Laurie, who live with him and his spinster sister, the girls' Aunt Jessie. Gregory and his daughters often rehearse together as a musical quartet. The girls support one another however they can, but each is an individual with her own distinct personality and wants, including ideal-husband wishlists. After only seven dates, Fran becomes engaged to developer Bob Neary, a man with prospects and wealth aspirations which match Fran's own. After Fran and Bob's announcement, Laurie and Amy vow to be spinster sisters together, despite practical but deep-in-her-heart romantic Amy's long courtship by unassuming plumber Ernie Nichols, who dotes on her. Only fun-loving Laurie truly believes that she will never marry. Their collective lives change with the entry into their lives of two men. The first is Gregory's old friend's son, composer Alex Burke, who is in the process of writing the songs and incidental music for a Broadway musical. He easily gets a job at the foundation using his natural and sincere charm which he applies to all equally, those charms which he also uses to get temporary lodging at the Tuttle home while he spends most of his time writing. Many women misconstrue that charm for romantic interest. The second is Alex's orchestrator and arranger, Barney Sloan. Barney has a chip on his shoulders about what life has dealt him, which he uses in turn as a reason for living a reckless life. The two men make each of the three daughters re-examine what she thinks she wants in life, or more precisely who she wants, which for all may be the same person, and affects what all three end up doing in their romantic lives. —Huggo

A despised cavalry commander is unfairly blamed by his troop for the death of a popular officer and must redeem himself in front of his men during an Indian attack on the fort. Capt. Richard Lance is unjustly held responsible, by his men and girlfriend, for an Indian massacre death of beloved Lt. Holloway. Holloway is killed while escorting a dangerous Indian chief to another fort's prison. The chief escapes. Knowing their fort is in danger of Indian attack, Lance takes a small group of army misfits to an abandoned nearby army fort to defend a mountain pass against the oncoming Indian assault. Their mission is to stall for time until reinforcements from another fort arrive. The men in this small group of malcontents, deserters, psychopaths and cowards all hate Capt. Lance and wish him dead. Much to their chagrin, the men recognize that Lance's survival instincts, military knowledge and leadership are the only chance the group has of staying alive. —E.W. DesMarais <jlongst@aol.com>

To win back her husband, a divorcee pretends to be married to a loser.

During the 1860s in the South Pacific, Capt. Ralls, skipper of the Red Witch, has a series of adventures involving sunken gold bullion, pearls, natives, an unscrupulous ship owner and a giant octopus. Captain Ralls fights Dutch shipping magnate Mayrant Sidneye for the woman he loves, Angelique Desaix, and for a fortune in gold aboard the Red Witch. —Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net>