Harry Morgan

The equally strait-laced and "by-the-book" nephew of Joe Friday must work with his more laid-back partner to solve a mystery.

Con artist Latigo Smith is on board a train travelling across frontier-era Colorado, with his would-be fiancée, a rich and powerful woman named Goldie. Looking for a way to escape this situation, he manages to slip off the train at a jerkwater stop, and finds himself in Purgatory, a small town wherein two rival companies of miners, led by Taylor Barton and Colonel Ames, are in a frantic round-the-clock race to find "the motherlode" of gold buried somewhere under the town. After consulting the town doctor about getting an embarrassing Goldie-related tattoo removed, Latigo succumbs to a gambling compulsion and loses all his money at roulette. After hearing a rumor that an infamous gunslinger named "Swiftie" Morgan is in town, Latigo concocts a scam, using the amiable ne'er-do-well Jug May to impersonate the man. In the process of this, the new arrival attracts the attention of Patience "The Sidewinder" Barton, the hot-tempered daughter of Taylor, who wants nothing more than to escape the town and become a woman of refinement in New York City. When Latigo and the fake Swiftie side with the Bartons, Ames sends a telegram to the real gunslinger, informing him of the impostor. Swiftie soon arrives in town, and confronts Latigo, who has replaced Jug for the climatic gunfight. The show-down ends with Swiftie shooting himself when he is startled by one of the massive mining blasts that regularly rock the town. Latigo accidentally finds the motherlode for the Bartons by setting off a load of dynamite with which he was attempting to bluff the gunfighter. The blast also cures his tattoo problem. Latigo's gambling compulsion finally pays off when, financially backed by the Bartons, he wins big at roulette. Now almost as rich as Patience, he marries her, she gets to send her numerous daughters to school in New York, and Jug goes on to "star in spaghetti westerns."

A frontier town in the Old West springs up almost literally overnight when the rather klutzy and hotheaded Prudy Perkins discovers gold in a grave during a funeral. Her father Olly becomes mayor of the new settlement. He and the other members of the town council bemoan the twin facts that the place has become a drunken round-the-clock free-for-all, and that in order to ship out all the gold they are mining, they must pay a hefty fee to the Danbys, a family of ranchers/bandits who control the only route out of town. Most people are too busy digging to take time out to be sheriff, and those who are willing to put down their shovel quickly die. This all changes with the arrival in town of Jason McCullough, a calm and hyper-competent man from "back East" who is passing through town "on his way to Australia." While in the town saloon, he sees young Joe Danby gun a man down, essentially for fun. Needing money after discovering the town's ruinious rate of inflation, McCullough demonstrates his uncanny firearms ability to the mayor and town council, and becomes the new sheriff. He breaks up a street brawl and while at the Perkins house meets Prudy under (for her) mortifyingly embarrassing circumstances. McCullough then arrests Joe and tosses him in the town jail, which has everything a sheriff needs - except iron bars for the cell doors and windows. McCullough keeps the none-too-bright Joe "imprisoned" through the use of a chalk line, some dribbles of red paint, and applied psychology. In the process of all this, McCullough acquires a semi-willing deputy in the form of the extremely scruffy Jake, who was previously nothing more than the "town character." The arrest ignites the wrath of the patriarch of the Danby family; while the rest of the town immediately quiets down under McCullough's reign, "Pa" mounts various efforts to get Joe out of jail. None of them work and he then brings in a string of hired guns, who are equally unsuccessful. Meanwhile, Prudy spars romantically with McCullough, McCullough and Jake go on an unsuccessful search for gold, and, much to Joe's relief, bars are finally installed in the jail. The climax of the film sees Pa Danby summoning scores of his relatives to launch an all-out assault. The sheriff's first impulse is to just leave town and resume his trip to Australia, but when Prudy expresses her sincere approval of this sensible idea, he announces that it sounds cowardly and decides to stay. The rest of the townfolk announce their disapproval of his new plan, and officially vote to not help in any way. Thus the Danby mob rides in faced only by McCullough, Jake and Prudy. After a lengthy gunfight, McCullough bluffs his way to victory using hostage Joe and the cannon mounted in the center of town. As the Danbys are all marched off to jail, the cannon fires, smashing the town brothel and scattering the resident prostitutes and visting civic leaders. McCullough makes his peace with the townfolk, he and Prudy get engaged, and he carries her home. In a closing monologue, Jake directly informs the audience that they get married and McCullough goes on to become governor of the state, while he, Jake, becomes sheriff and then "one of the most beloved characters in western folklore."

A riverboat singer with a weakness for gambling wants to find his lucky redhead, but his girlfriend Frankie is not amused.

The Oklahoma Land Run of April 1889 sets the stage for an epic saga of a frontier adventurer, his wife and family and their friends. The epic saga of a frontier family, Cimarron starts with the Oklahoma Land Rush on 22 April 1889. The Cravet family builds their newspaper Oklahoma Wigwam into a business empire and Yancey Cravet is the adventurer-idealist who, to his wife's anger, spurns the opportunity to become governor since this means helping to defraud the native Americans of their land and resources. —Mattias Thuresson

Based on the famous Scopes Monkey trial of 1925 a Tennessee schoolteacher Bertram Cates (Dick York) is arrested for teaching his students Darwin's theory of evolution. The case receives national attention and one of the newspaper reporters, E.K. Hornbeck (played by Gene Kelly), arranges to bring in renowned defense attorney and atheist Henry Drummond (Spencer Tracy) to defend Cates. The prosecutor, Matthew Brady (played by Fredric March ) is a former presidential candidate and famous evangelist. The two are old adversaries and clash throughout the film. The situation is further complicated by the fact that Cates's girlfriend is the daughter of the town's bombastic preacher (Claude Akins). Throughout the movie, the sarcastic reporter mocks the bible toting hostile townsfolk. Drummond eventually calls the prosecutor to the stand and prods him to explain various biblical stories such as Jonah and the whale. Eventually, the great Biblical Literalist is forced to concede that certain Biblical accounts cannot be taken literally, but must be interpreted intellectually. With that concession, Drummond is able to assert Cates has every right to hold a differing opinion, including about the Book of Genesis and to deny him that right is unjust. Matthew Brady is so rattled by Drummond's questioning that he collapses under the strain. In the end, despite his badgering of Brady, Drummond is sympathetic to his beliefs. The judge (Henry Morgan) issues a $100.00 fine much to the dismay of many in the courtroom.

Intolerant of the weaknesses of others, especially those closest to him, an ego-driven aspiring physician comes to grips with his own imperfections. Intern Lucas Marsh is intent upon becoming not just a successful doctor but a first-class one. He courts and marries the warm-hearted Kristina, not out of love but because she is highly knowledgeable in the skills of the operating room, and because she has frugally put aside her savings through the years. He shrewdly knows that she will be a supportive wife in every way. She helps make him the success he wants to be and cheerfully moves with him to the small town in which he starts his practice. But as much as he tries to be a good husband to undemanding Kristina, Marsh easily falls into the arms of a local siren, and the patience of long-sorrowing Kristina wears thin. Reasoning that he no longer needs her, she asks for a divorce. A calamity now brings Marsh to his senses: Dr. Runkleman, Marsh's gruff and wise employer, is stricken with a heart attack and requires emergency surgery, and Marsh is forced to operate. —alfiehitchie

Biography of bandleader Glenn Miller from his beginnings to his death over the English Channel in December 1944. The unemployed trombone player Glenn Miller is always broken, chasing his sound to form his band and hocking his instrument in the pawn house to survive. When his friend Chummy MacGregor is hired to play in the band of Ben Pollack, the band-leader listens to one Glenn's composition and invites him to join his band. While traveling to New York, Glenn visits his former girlfriend Helen Berger, in Boulder, Colorado, and asks her to wait for him. Two years later he quits the band and proposes Helen that moves to New York to marry him. After the success of "Moonlight Serenade", Glenn Miller's band becomes worldwide known and Glenn and Helen and their two children have a very comfortable life. Duting the World War II, Glenn enlists in the army and travels to Europe to increase the moral of the allied troops. In the Christmas of 1944, he travels from London to Paris for a concert to be broadcast; however his plane is never found in the tragic flight. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

When a town boss confiscates homesteaders' supplies after gold is discovered nearby, a tough cowboy risks his life to try and get it to them. Two men with questionable pasts, Glyn McLyntock and his friend Cole, lead a wagon-train load of homesteaders from Missouri to the Oregon territory. They establish a settlement outside of Portland and as winter nears, it is necessary for McLyntock and Cole to rescue and deliver food and supplies being held in Portland by corrupt officials. On the trip back to the settlement, up river and over a mountain, Cole engineers a mutiny to divert the supplies to a gold mining camp for a handsome profit. —Herman Seifer <alagain@aol.com> Glyn McLyntock has taken a job leading settlers west. He is helped by Emerson Cole, a man with a shady past whom McLyntock saves from a lynching. The homesteaders set up home a few days from Portland, but when McLyntock goes to collect their winter supplies he finds a town gone gold crazy. Can he get the food back to the settlers, and can he still count on Cole? —Jeremy Perkins {J-26}

The movie opens with outlaws Jack Colby (Lee Van Cleef), Ben Miller (Sheb Wooley), and Jim Pierce (Robert Wilke) meeting up on horseback and riding into the small town of Hadleyville on a Sunday morning. As church bells ring out, the townspeople eye the notorious gang warily. Meanwhile, Marshal Will Kane (Gary Cooper) and pacifist Quaker Amy Fowler (Grace Kelly) are getting married at the Justice of the Peace office. The three outlaws ride through town and settle in outside the train depot to await the noon arrival of gang leader Frank Miller. Marshal Kane and his radiant bride are congratulated by the town mayor (Thomas Mitchell) and the retired Marshal (Lon Chaney, Jr.), and Kane reluctantly hangs up his star per his wife's wishes. Just then a telegram arrives announcing the pardon of Frank Miller, who Kane had arrested and sent to prison for murder years earlier. The station master declares that Miller is coming on the noon train. Along with the arrival of the other three outlaws, it is obvious that the Miller gang is reuniting to come after Kane and the judge who sentenced Miller. Kane and Amy are quickly hustled out of town in hopes of avoiding bloodshed. Once out on the open road, Kane suddenly turns his buckboard around and tells a bewildered Amy that he can't run from his past. Besides, the new Marshal won't arrive until the following day and the town will be defenseless. Back in town, the world-weary judge who sentenced Miller to prison is packing up his office and getting out of town. He advises Kane to do the same. Kane's hot-headed young deputy, Harvey Pell (Lloyd Bridges), who was passed over for the Marshal's job, presses Kane to turn over the reins to him and get out of town. Kane declines. Complicating things is the fact that Deputy Pell has taken up with saloon owner Helen Ramirez (Katy Jurado), a former lover of both Kane and Frank Miller. With Miller coming back, Helen Ramirez decides to sell the saloon and leave town. Determined not to be a widow, Amy Fowler also buys a ticket on the departing noon train. At the train depot, Ben Miller grows impatient and rides in to pay a visit to the town saloon, where he is welcomed like a returning hero. As Miller leaves, he runs straight into Kane and they exchange glares. Kane enters the unfriendly confines of the saloon to ask for volunteers and overhears the surly bartender speculating he will soon be shot dead. An angry Kane knocks him to the floor. The jeering saloon patrons rebuff Kane and he leaves empty handed. Kane then pays a visit to the packed church and interrupts the sermon to ask for help. A heated debate erupts among the parishioners, and a lesson in civics follows as a few brave citizens stand up for Kane and the rest find excuses to avoid conflict. The realization that he may be fighting alone begins to dawn on Kane. A visit to the retired and cynical former Marshal only produces another rejection. Meanwhile, Amy drops in on a surprised Helen Ramirez, searching for an answer to Kane's stubborn refusal to leave. Amy thinks her husband is staying because of Ramirez. Ramirez sets her straight. Tired and stressed, Kane goes to the livery stable and thinks about saddling his horse and leaving. Deputy Pell sees him and follows him in, pressuring him to leave. When Kane resists, Harvey slugs him. A desperate fistfight ensues, which Kane wins. Kane goes to the barber's office to clean up and hears the undertaker building a coffin. Back at the Marshal's office, the one man who has volunteered to stand with Kane backs out when he discovers they will be alone. After the man leaves, Kane makes out his will and leaves it in a desk drawer. The clock ticks down the last seconds before noon. Suddenly, the shrill whistle of the approaching train sounds. The three outlaws lace up their gunbelts as the train nears. In a heartwrenching scene, Kane steps out onto the street just as Amy and Helen Ramirez drive by on their way to the station. Amy looks away, but Helen doesn't. Just as the two women arrive at the station, Frank Miller steps off the train, makes eye contact with Helen, and turns away to strap on a gun belt. In an iconic scene, the camera goes wide to reveal Marshal Kane all alone on the deserted streets. The Miller gang walks into town, where Kane is waiting. Kane catches a break when foolish Ben Miller smashes a shop window to steal a hat. Kane circles behind the gang on their blind side and calls out. When they whirl around, Kane drops Ben Miller. Amy hears the gunshot as the train pulls out and jumps off. She runs into town to find Ben Miller dead in the street. Kane is soon caught in a crossfire and takes refuge in the hayloft of the livery stable. Colby rushes the stable, only to be gunned down by Kane. The remaining two outlaws set fire to the stables and prepare to shoot Kane as he is smoked out. Kane drives the frantic horses out, concealing himself Indian-style in the midst of the fleeing horses. He escapes, but not without getting shot off his horse. The wounded Kane holes up in a small store as Miller and Pierce pour shots Into the building. Pierce stops to reload in front of the Marshal's office across the street and is suddenly shot in the back at close range. As he collapses, Amy is revealed behind the shattered window, gun in hand. Frank Miller realizes what has happened and takes Amy hostage, using her as a shield to approach Kane's position. Miller calls Kane out, threatening to kill Amy unless he shows himself. Kane lowers his gun and steps out. Knowing that Miller is about to kill her husband, Amy spins around and claws Miller's face as he throws her down. Marshal Kane quickly takes aim and kills Miller. As the townspeople flood into the street, Kane's wagon is driven up so the couple can resume their wedding journey. Will Kane surveys the ungrateful townspeople scornfully and drops his tin star into the dust.

An underground gambling joint managed by Danny Haley (Charlton Heston) is closed down by a police raid led by wise cop Capt. Garvey (Dean Jagger) and Danny finds solace with girlfriend Fran Garland (Lizabeth Scott) who works as a night-club torch song singer. Danny is comfortable with Fran but still carries wounds from a former marriage and feels pressured to commit when he doesnt have a stable income. Danny meets former American soldier Arthur Winant (Don DeFore) while visiting Fran at her nightly club performance and Winant tags along with Danny to a late-night poker game. Playing cards with Dannys cohorts ulcerous Barney (Ed Begley, Sr.) and nasty-mouthed Augie (Jack Webb) isnt something Danny enjoys and when the crooked card players rook sucker Winant of five-thousand dollars that he was holding for his company theres a certain satisfaction that theyve made some money. When Winant is discovered the next morning hanged from the chandelier in his hotel room, the news lists it as suicide but Capt. Garvey believes something else is at play and questions Danny about it. When Barney is killed and hanged a general search goes out for the dead Arthur Winants reportedly crazy brother Sidney whom it is believed is tracking down all those responsible and exacting revenge for his brothers losing his money.

When ruthlessly dedicated postal inspector investigates the murder of a co-worker, he finds that the sole witness, a nun, has been targeted by the killers. Relentless postal inspector Al Goddard is set to Gary, Indiana, when another officer is murdered. He must find the nun who witnessed the murder, then infiltrate the gang by convincing them he is a postal inspector gone bad. —Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu> The dead body of postal inspector Harry Gruber is discovered in La Porte, Indiana, the murderers Joe Regas and George Soderquist who killed him in his hotel room in Gary and subsequently dumped his body in La Porte. Detective Al Goddard with the US Postal Service is brought in from Chicago to lead the investigation. Goddard is seen as an efficient but cold and emotionless man who trusts no one in believing everyone having an angle, and thus in return has no friends. Goddard not only has to find the killers but gather enough evidence to hold up in court. In discovering a possible witness who saw the two men that night with who was told was their drunk friend (the dead Gruber), Goddard not only is able to identify and locate Soderquist but ultimately learns the case centers on an upcoming planned theft of a postal truck carrying $1 million. The theft would be carried out with the assistance of an inside man, Paul Ferrar, and the plan mastermined by Earl Boettiger. Goddard decides the best way to hold everyone to justice is to infiltrate the gang to complete the theft only to capture them with money in hand. Complicating matters for all concerned are two women: Dodie, Boettiger's loyal moll, who, in her position, can keep a close eye on Goddard; and arguably more important the witness, a nun, forthright Sister Augustine. While Regas knows she could identify Soderquist, he is uncertain if she could identify him - in reality, she not - and thus starts to obsess about eliminating her in protecting himself. Further complicating matters is what Sister Augustine believes is her saving grace, namely her guardian angel who will protect her. —Huggo