Glenn Corbett

In 1864, widower Charlie Anderson is a prosperous Virginia farmer. Together with his six sons (Jacob, James, Nathan, John, Henry and Boy), Charlie runs his farm without the help of slaves. Because of this, he ignores the Civil War raging around them and discourages his sons from enlisting. Other family members are his only daughter, Jennie, and James's pregnant wife Ann. Charlie's wife Martha died sixteen years earlier at the birth of their youngest son, known as Boy. Charlie regularly visits Martha's grave and talks to her. It was her last request that the family attend church each Sunday. They are usually late and create a disturbance while looking for seats. The family is visited by a group of men who have come to requisition supplies and horses for the Confederate Army. Charlie refuses to let them have anything and explains his stance on the war: why should he fight or allow his sons to fight for a cause that does not concern them. He is reminded that by law the men can take whatever they want. A fist fight ensues, which Jennie eventually stops by shooting the derringer out of one of the men's hand with a rifle. She orders them off the property and they leave. A regiment of soldiers stop at the farm and the captain attempts to conscript the Anderson sons. Charlie refuses to let them go, as usual. A skirmish occurs shortly afterward and the Confederate soldiers are killed. Charlie sends two of his sons to the Confederate camp to report the skirmish so the bodies can be collected. Jennie is being courted by Sam, a young Confederate officer. He asks for and receives permission to marry her. Charlie gives him some sage advice about marriage. Jennie wears her mother's wedding gown. Just as the ceremony ends, a soldier who had ridden up earlier and entered the church tells Sam he is wanted back at camp. Jennie is left alone at the altar, wondering if she will ever see her bridegroom again. Ann goes into labor after the wedding and gives birth to a daughter. Charlie is delighted to have a granddaughter. She is eventually named Martha, after her grandmother. While exploring with his African American friend, Gabriel, Boy is taken prisoner by Yankee soldiers because he is wearing a Confederate cap he had found floating in the river while fishing earlier. They don't believe he is not a soldier because he's carrying a rifle and has the Confederate cap. Gabriel runs back to tell Charlie, who says that now the war concerns them. Gabriel was told by a black Yankee soldier that he is free and can go wherever he wants. That night Charlie and his sons, all but James who will stay with Ann, pack up and ride out to visit prison camps in search of Boy. Jennie insists on going with them. They search a local Yankee camp and get directed to a train depot where they are refused permission to search for Boy. They later hijack the prison train but there is no sign of Boy. However, Jennie is reunited with Sam, who was on board the train. Charlie tells the prisoners they are free. They ask Sam, as the only officer, what they should do. He tells them to go home as the war is lost. That night the family makes camp in a deserted house. Charlie fixes up the bedroom so Jennie and Sam can have their wedding night. The next day they discuss what to do now. Their food supplies are almost gone and the horses need rest. Charlie admits that they are unlikely to find Boy. They start for home and Jacob is shot and killed by a young soldier who is startled awake while on guard duty. Charlie beats the boy and nearly kills him before he realizes that he is the same age as his missing son. Boy has been in a prison camp but escapes while being loaded on a paddle wheeler with other prisoner. They travel south but are caught up in a battle. Boy's leg is injured and he can't move. To his surprise, Gabriel, now wearing a Yankee uniform, picks him up and carries him to safety. Meanwhile, the Anderson farm was invaded by three Confederate army drifters. They kill James and Ann but do not harm the baby. Dr. Witherspoon, the family physician and a personal friend, discovers the bodies two days later. Having no idea where the rest of the family is, he arranges a nurse for the baby and has James and Ann buried near Martha. The Andersons arrive home and are devastated at the news. Jacob is buried with his brother and sister-in-law and mother in the family graveyard. It is hard for Charlie to sit down to a table with so many empty chairs. He chokes up and goes to the graveyard, where he once again talks to Martha. He tells her she will like Ann. When the church bells start to ring, Charlie realizes it is Sunday. He orders his surprised family to get ready for church. As usual they are late and the baby is fussy. Then the door opens again and Boy limps in, leaning on a crutch. The congregation begins singing the Doxology as Charlie embraces his son.

SPOILERS HEREIN!!! Calling herself Miriam Webster, a lovely blonde checks in at a seedy Ventura hotel. Asking the younger BELLBOY to see her to her room, Miriam acts flirtatiously, then asks the young Bellboy if he will marry her for a thousand dollars. She further tells the astonished Bellboy that the marriage will be annulled immediately after the ceremony. The Bellboy agrees and Miriam asks him to drive them to a specific Justice of the Peace, ALFRED ADRIMS, who agrees to marry them so late at night, against the protests of his annoyed wife, MRS. ADRIMS. He performs the ceremony but as he's about to kiss the bride, Miriam pulls a surgical knife from her purse and stabs him repeatedly, fleeing as the Bellboy and the hysterical wife call the police. Miriam changes cars and makes her way back to a secluded home in Solvang. She goes inside and deals with a wheelchair-bound elderly woman, HELGA, who's also been rendered mute by a stroke. The clearly disturbed Miriam takes delight in telling Helga that Adrims died screaming. The next morning, the real MIRIAM WEBSTER arrives, an attractive young woman who runs a nearby flower shop. Miriam checks in on Helga frequently, as Miriam is the sister of WARREN, who is close to Helga and who lives in San Diego. Miriam doesn't care much for the blonde, whose name it turns out is EMILY and who is apparently a friend of Warren and is acting as caretaker for Helga. Miriam's flower shop is next door to the pharmacy operated by handsome KARL, who is dating Miriam. Emily is obviously jealous, as she trashes Miriam's flower shop after Karl turns down her offer of a date. At the same time, she smashes the photograph of Miriam's brother, Warren. When Karl checks in on the plundered flower shop, Emily knocks him out. Warren wakes up Karl, concerned about what has happened. Warren is in town to check on Helga. It's also close to Warren's twenty-first birthday, at which point he will inherit a fortune from his late parents, both of whom were killed in a car accident. At the house, Miriam and Warren recall their wealthy father's cruelty. He often beat Warren, determined to make a "man" out of him. Emily continues acting oddly, is openly hostile to Miriam. When Miriam threatens to talk with Warren about her, Emily tells Miriam that she, Emily, and Warren are married. Emily even threatens Miriam's life. Miriam leaves the house, rattled by Emily's behavior. Emily has her knife sharpened, and it's clear that she intends murdering Helga. Just as she's about to do so, the local DOCTOR JONAS drops by, but before the mute Helga can convince him she's in danger, he leaves. Emily cuts off Helga's head as the old lady comes down the stairs on her wheelchair lift. A POLICEMAN drops by Miriam's shop with the Bellboy who witnessed the murder. They are checking with Miriam since the killer used her name. The Bellboy obviously doesn't recognize the real Miriam. By now, both Miriam and Karl are suspicious of the peculiar, hostile Emily. Karl goes to Ventura to see if the Bellboy recognizes a photo of Emily as the killer. Miriam stays behind. Warren drops by, now concerned about Emily himself. When Karl confirms that the Bellboy has identified Emily as the killer, Warren is shocked and saddened. He also worries about Helga. Warren and Miriam drive out to the house. Warren asks Miriam to stay in the car while he goes into the house to check. Miriam grows restless and frightened as she waits. After Warren has seemingly been in the house too long, Miriam goes into the house to see if he's all right. Miriam is horrified to find Helga's headless corpse on the lift, her head rolling down the steps as Miriam backs up in horror. Emily suddenly leaps from the shadows with a knife poised to kill Miriam. The horrified Miriam screams for Warren, and it's then that Emily reveals that she is Warren, pulling off the blonde wig and removing a dental retainer. Warren/Emily raises the knife to kill Miriam but the Doctor, who remained concerned about Helga, enters the house, struggling with the knife-wielding Warren/Emily. Miriam shoots Warren. Later, in a wrap-up at the police department, the Policeman reveals what happened. It seems that Warren's mother actually delivered a girl, but the mother, knowing that her cruel husband was insisting upon a son, paid Helga and Alfred Adrims to convince the father that a boy - his preference - was born. Warren was actually a girl but was raised as a boy. Helga later took "him" to Denmark, where, perhaps, there might have been a sex change operation. With Warren's birthday approaching and the estate about to become his, it was imperative that he continue hiding his secret as the estate was left to a boy only. He had to kill Sam Adrims and Helga, who knew the secret and he had to kill Miriam, the real heiress to the estate. Now a wealthy woman, Miriam is ready to start a new life with Karl.

Two detectives seek a stripper's killer in the Japanese quarter of Los Angeles, but a love triangle threatens their friendship. Classic, hard-to-find Sam Fuller pic is intriguing noir about two detective partners, one caucasian and one Japanese, who try to solve a complicated murder case. Unfortunately, trouble arises when along the way, both of them fall in love with the key witness! —Mark Toscano <fiddybop@uclink4.berkeley.edu> Friends and roommates Charlie Bancroft and Joe Kojaku, who fought side by side during the Korean War, are now partnered homicide detectives with the LAPD, Charlie a sergeant, with Joe studying for the sergeant's exam. Their next case is of murdered burlesque queen Sugar Torch. She was shot in the middle of the street trying to evade the unknown gunman, who was lying in wait for her in her dressing room. Charlie and Joe have little to go on, believing the case surrounds the new unknown man in her life and/or the new act on which she was working. Joe will delve into the Japanese community - he US born of Japanese ancestry - as that new act had a geisha/samurai warrior theme. In Charlie following another lead, student artist Christine Downs is brought into the case as someone who may be able to identify that mystery man in Sugar's life, he the leading suspect. This position places Christine's life in jeopardy if the suspect, if he is indeed the murderer, knows that she can identify him. In the process of protecting her, Charlie falls in love with her, and making the proclamation that he can see himself marrying her, Joe too falls in love with her, he not wanting to act on his feelings in his and Charlie's friendship. Regardless, these feelings by both men for Christine complicate the investigation and threaten their friendship as race enters the discussion for the first time in it previously having been colorblind. —Huggo When a masked killer shoots Sugar Torch, a Los Angeles stripper, in the neck, homicide detectives Charlie Bancroft and Joe Kojaku, who happen to be roommates, investigate. A variety of clues, including a painting with a bullet hole in it, lead them to some interesting characters in L.A.'s Little Tokyo and to attractive artist Chris Downs. As the case builds to a climax, Charlie and Joe's partnership is threatened by an interracial love triangle... —Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>