Jan Sterling

For the first time in history a woman is appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, where she becomes a friendly rival to a liberal associate. Ruth Loomis becomes the first woman appointed to the United States Supreme Court. A staunch conservative, she immediately runs into conflict with Dan Snow, the high court's resident liberal. Although they never agree on the issues before the Court, they develop a respect and affection for each other after several comedic encounters. —Dave Gan <longbow@bigfoot.com>

Humphrey Bogart is Eddie Willis an older washed up unemployed sports writer hired by Nick Benko (Rod Steiger) a gangster fight promoter to publicize an unknown hulking South American heavyweight boxer Toro Moreno (Mike Lane). In the sparring session it is obvious that Moreno has no boxing skills. The scheme is to get out of New York and build up Toro against fighters who are being paid to take a dive so Steiger can cash in down the line in a big fight by betting against Toro. Bogart goes along reluctantly for the money but is constantly at odds with Steiger and his crooked henchmen's tactics. Bogarts wife (Jan Sterling) tries to convince him to go back to writing but he has been seduced by the promise of money and his share of the fighter. When one of Toro's opponents is knocked out in the ring and later dies, the fighter's fatal injuries were sustained in a previous fight, Toro wants to go back home. Bogart convinces him to stay and fight one more bout against the champion by leveling with him about his skills and that he couldn't hurt anyone. To prove this he has Toro's sparing partner (Jersey Joe Walcott) knock Toro down in the hotel room. His final opponent, played by real heavyweight fighter Max Baer, vows to hurt Toro to prove he was the one who injured the deceased fighter and administers a brutal beating in the fight to Toro. When Bogart tries to get Toro's share of the purse he is rebuffed by Steiger and his crooked accountant (Nehemiah Persoff) and told the fighter's net share is basically zero. Steiger sells Toro's contract to another lowlife promoter but Bogart spirits Toro to the airport and ends up giving him his share of the fighter's proceeds so Toro won't go home broke. Despite threats from Steiger, Bogart decides to write an expose on the fight game and the crooked promoters and gangsters involved.

When a commercial airliner develops engine problems on a trans-Pacific flight and the pilot loses his nerve, it is up to the washed-up co-pilot Dan Roman to bring the plane in safely. On a flight from Hawaii to California, the engine dies on the plane Dan is flying. As he prepares for a crash landing, the passengers reassess their lives. The template for disaster movies with an Oscar-winning score and a cast list that reads like a who's who of 1950s film.

Buffalo Bill and Wild Bill Hickock work to establish the Pony Express and fight Indians and California Separatists who seek to destroy it. Buffalo Bill and Wild Bill Hickok join forces to establish a mail route that can get mail from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, in ten days. Along the way they must battle bad weather, hostile Indians and outlaws intent on robbing the mail and shutting down the entire operation.

Rich, eccentric T.J. Banner adopts a feral cat who becomes an affectionate pet. Then T.J. dies, leaving to Rhubarb most of his money and a pro baseball team, the Brooklyn Loons. When the team protests, publicist Eric Yeager convinces them that Rhubarb is good luck. But Eric's fiancée Polly seems to be allergic to cats, and the team's success may mean new hazards for Rhubarb. —Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu> Screwball-noir in which curmudgeonly-but-lovable tycoon (T.J. Banner) dies and leaves his fortune, including a Brooklyn baseball franchise, to his lovable-but-curmudgeonly cat Rhubarb, setting into motion a plot involving thwarted romance, court battles, baseball heroics, and gangsters. —Steve Koppelman <skoppel@dorsai.org>

Chuck Tatum (Kirk Douglas) is a driven and talented news reporter whose short temper and contempt for authority has gotten him fired from many of Americas best newspapers. Tatum finds himself broken down in Albuquerque and appeals to the local news paper editor Jacob Q. Boot (Porter Hall) for a job until he can scrape up enough money to get back to New York, or Chicago or some other big newspaper. Boot hires him but after a year Tatum roams around the newspaper office ranting over the lack of any news in the town. Boot sends him and photographer Herbie Cook (Robert Arthur) to Los Brios to cover the annual rattlesnake roundup, but on the way, Tatum happens upon a real human interest story. Local merchant Leo Minosa (Richard Benedict) is caught in a cave in an old tunnel inside an ancient Indian burial location. The local Indians and Leo himself say Indian spirits may have caused the cave in because Leo has been raiding the mine for old religious relics. Tatum writes up the story with great hooks angling in the superstitious Indian lore, and focusing on Leo's wife Lorraine (Jan Sterling) as a faithful wife even though she wants to leave Leo. Tatum's story gets picked up by the news services, and to insure that he keeps the rights, Tatum makes a deal with the local crooked sheriff Kretzer (Ray Teal) for help in isolating the location where Leo is. When Tatum learns that the rescuers can get Leo out in about 12 hours by shoring up the inside of the mine, he convinces the rescue crew to drill in from above instead, a job that will take 6 days and will give Tatum enough time to whip the story into a real career-changing event. As Lorraine agrees to allow people to come into to see the event for a price, she sees the profits at the diner increase greatly and a big-time newspaper editor from New York agrees to pay Tatum a huge amount for the story and give him his old job back. Leo begins to become ill as time passes and his health decides the futures of those making a profit from his demise.

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

A sharp-eyed woman spots a man with a gun on a train and her alert to the railroad police helps them in their search for a ruthless gang who have kidnapped a blind heiress. Secretary Joyce Willecombe grows suspicious of two men boarding her train and is referred to 'Tough Willy' Calhoun, head of the Union Station police. The all-seeing, no-nonsense Calhoun is initially skeptical, but the men (who escape) prove to be involved in a kidnap case. Calhoun calls in equally tough police Inspector Donnelly, but the ruthless kidnapper's precision planning stays one jump ahead of them. Most of the action centers around bustling Union Station. —Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu> On a train to Union Station, Joyce Willecombe witnesses what she believes is suspicious activity by two men. Indeed, they have kidnapped Lorna Murchison, the blind daughter of Joyce's wealthy employer, and are holding Lorna ransom for $100,000. As the crooks use bustling and aways crowded Union Station as the drop-off point for the ransom, "tough" Lt. Bill Calhoun, Chief of Police at Union Station, leads the investigation along with equally pragmatic Inspector Donnelly of the city police. Joyce and Bill are two of only a few people who can identify the two men. The investigators use this limited knowledge to gather more evidence as to the crooks' hideout and hopefully a still living Lorna. Meanwhile, Joe Beacom, a penny-ante ex-con and mastermind behind the kidnapping, won't let anything or anyone, including his accomplices, stop him from getting the prized $100,000. —Huggo Lt William Calhoun, head of the police squad at Union Station, finds himself trying to solve a kidnapping when the criminals decide to use the train station as the drop-off point for the money. The victim, Lorna Murchison, is blind and her wealthy father is prepared to pay any amount to get her back safe. Working with Inspector Donnelly, they track down the kidnapper but he manages to escape leading to a final showdown in the station. —garykmcd