John McIntire

A boy with a music talent goes on a journey with his uncle for a stage concert. As this movie opens on an Oklahoma farm during the Great Depression, two simultaneous visitors literally hit the Wagoneer home: a ruinous dust storm and a convertible crazily driven by Red Stovall (Clint Eastwood), Emmy's (Verna Bloom's) brother. A roguish country-western musician, he has just been invited to audition for the Grand Ole Opry, his chance of a lifetime to become a success. However, this is way back in Nashville, Red clearly drives terribly, and he's broke and sick with tuberculosis to boot. Whit (Kyle Eastwood), fourteen, seeing his own chance of a lifetime to avoid "growing up to be a cotton picker all my life", begs Ma to let him go with Uncle Red as driver and protégé. Thus begins a picaresque journey both hilarious and poignant. —Paul Emmons <pemmons@wcupa.edu> During the Great Depression, struggling singer-songwriter Red Stovall (Clint Eastwood), who's led a hard life, which includes excessive drinking, is heading east through the American south on his way to Nashville, where he has an audition to appear at the Grand Ole Opry. Making it on the Opry would be his big break and his dream come true. Without telling them beforehand, he stops at his sister Emmy Wagoneer's (Verna Bloom's) farmstead in Oklahoma, the Wagoneers, who live by cotton sharecropping, and who, despite having no money, are planning on moving to California to escape the drought which has ruined their current season crop. Under these circumstances, two of the Wagoneers end up accompanying Red on his way to Nashville. The first is Grandpa (John McIntire), Emmy's father-in-law, who was born and raised in Tennessee, there where he wants to die instead of California. And the second is Red's young teen nephew, Whit (Kyle Eastwood). Although not the oldest of the children, Whit is the one Red requests, Whit, who buys into Red's dreams. Emmy allows her son to go as she knows Red needs someone to take care of him, with Whit and Red to make their way to California after Nashville. As Red needs to make stops along the way to earn some money to get them to their destination, including one stop to collect on a substantial IOU, the trio gets into one misadventure after another, one which includes a young aspiring singer named Marlene Mooney (Alexa Kenin), who plans to use "Marlene Moonglow" as her stage name, and who truly believes that her and Red's lives were destined to be intertwined. In their time together, Whit gets to see the real side of his uncle. What happens with them is affected by the largely unspoken elephant in the room, one with which Whit, in his tender years, may be unable to cope despite the growing up he does on this trip, and which accounts for Red's haste in wanting to make it in the business this time around. —Huggo In the Oklahoma dustbowl of the 1930s country singer Red Stovall drops in on his sister's farm. He has an opportunity to play at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville but doesn't have enough money to get there. He eventually sets off with his teen nephew Whit and Whit's grandfather for company. For Whit this is his first chance to experience the wider world. —grantss

Marshal Rooster Cogburn unwillingly teams up with Eula Goodnight to track down her father's murderers. A band of drunken thugs overruns a small village in the Indian Nation that is run by Minister Goodnight and his daughter Eula and proceed to violate and kill the villagers. Miss Goodnight teams up with ruthless Marshal Rooster J. Cogburn to go after them and bring them to justice. —Christopher D. Ryan <cryan@direct.ca>

A corrupt marshal is pressured by his army friend into negotiating the release of white captives of the Comanches, but finds that their reintegration into society has its consequences. The US Army is under pressure from the desperate relatives of white prisoners of the Comanches to secure their rescue. A cynical and corrupt marshal, Guthrie McCabe, is persuaded by an army lieutenant to assist in the negotiations with the Comanches; however, just two captives are released, and their reintegration into white society proves highly problematic. —David Levene <D.S.Levene@durham.ac.uk> The cynical and corrupt Marshal Guthrie McCabe has a comfortable life in Tascosa, receiving percentages of deals. His lover Belle Aragon owns a saloon with a brothel and has just proposed to marry him; however, Guthrie is summoned by US Army Major Frazer, who sends a troop commanded by his friend First Lt. Jim Gary to bring him to Fort Grant. When Guthrie meets Major Frazer, he explains that the relatives of prisoners of the Comanche tribe are pressing the army to bring them back home, but the soldiers cannot trespass on Indian lands due to a treaty with the Comanche. The mercenary Guthrie demands a large amount to negotiate with Chief Quanah Parker for the freedom of the white captives. Guthrie travels with Lt. Jim Gary and they rescue the two last captives: a teenager who has been raised by the Comanche, and a young woman, Elena de la Madriaga, who has been the wife of Stone Calf, the leader of the Buffalo Shields, for five years. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Pressed into service by his superior, the immoral marshal of the 1880s Tascosa, Guthrie McCabe, resentfully accepts to negotiate and retrieve a small group of white captives taken years earlier by the Comanches' formidable chief, Quanah Parker. Accompanied by the old friend and honourable U.S. Cavalry Lieutenant, Jim Gary, McCabe who is in it for the money rather than justice, will soon find himself deep into one of the most shielded Indian territories, only to face troublesome and unanticipated complications. What happens when the prisoners refuse to be freed? —Nick Riganas

A plain, repressed spinster falls for a dashing young medical student who prefers the wilder life, until it's too late. Since childhood, spinster Alma Winemiller has loved handsome young Dr. John Buchanan, Jr.. But John has fallen hard for Rosa Zacharias, the town's sultry vamp, and descends into a seamy nightlife while ignoring Alma's dreams of romance and possible marriage. —alfiehitchie It's the early 1910s in the small town of Glorious Hill, Mississippi. Alma Winemiller, of an age when most women would be married, has an affected manner, which she attributes to assuming the role usually undertaken by a minister's wife after her mother long ago suffered a mental breakdown. Also being a minister's daughter has led to Alma having a repressed view of sex and sexuality. She has long harbored a secret love toward the Winemullers' next door neighbor, Dr. John Buchanan, Jr., he following in his father's footsteps. That occupation is the only thing connecting the two generations of Buchanan men, the younger known as the town's bad boy in his wild behavior, largely taking place when he is away, he usually only coming home in the summer. This summer, he pursues equally wild Rosa Zacharias, new to town as the daughter of the new owner of the Moon Lake Casino located on the outskirts of town. Regardless, John is aware of Alma's attraction to him, he, in return, intrigued in noticing in her something seething somewhere below the surface. The question then becomes if Alma and John will ever be able to come together both emotionally and sexually. —Huggo

A secretary on the run spends a night at a motel, whose proprietor is a nervous man with a domineering mother and a growing obsession with his beautiful guest.

A cynical former sheriff turned bounty hunter helps a young, recently appointed acting sheriff with his advice, his experience and his gun. Veteran bounty-hunter Morg Hickman rides into a town in danger. The sheriff has been killed, and young inexperienced Ben Owens named a temporary replacement until a permanent can be found. Ben wants to be that permanent replacement, so needs to impress the townspeople with his skill. When he finds that Morg was a sheriff for a long time before he became a bounty-hunter, he asks the older man to teach him. Morg thinks that being a sheriff is a foolish goal, but agrees to instruct Ben in handling people, more important to a sheriff than handling a gun. —Ken Yousten <kyousten@bev.net> Despite the townsfolk's disdain towards him, veteran bounty hunter and ex-lawman Morgan Hickman rides into a small town to collect the $500 reward claim after delivering the dead body of a wanted outlaw. Instead, money-oriented Hickman spends the night in the unwelcoming town and finds himself stuck with Ben Owens, the community's temporary novice sheriff. In the meantime, trigger-happy local bully Bart Bogardus terrorises the town, and no one can stop him. Now, Owens' life is hanging by a thread. As Hickman picks sides, determined to prevent the inevitable, the inexperienced law officer finds a mentor. However, how can Owens learn the tricks of the trade in just a few days and summon the courage to survive the murderous mob? —Nick Riganas When the experienced bounty-hunter and former sheriff Morg Hickman arrives in a town to claim his bounty for killing a wanted outlaw, he meets the rookie temporary sheriff Ben Owens. Hickman befriends the boy Kip (Michel Ray) and is lodged by his widow mother Nona Mayfield at home. Meanwhile Ben asks Hickman to teach him to be a sheriff since he wants to be assigned by the residents to the position. Ben faces problem with the scum troublemaker Bart Bogardus and when a prominent dweller is murdered by two criminals, Bogardus organizes a posse to hunt them down. But Ben has decided to capture the killers alive and give a fair trial to them. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Morgan Hickman is a bounty hunter bringing a dead man into a town of people who, as usual, hold him in contempt. He's steeled to the cold reception though, saying in that inimitable Fonda manner, "I don't mind the chill: I'm after money." Ben Owen - the town's young, temporary sheriff - desperately needs the confidence that can only come from knowledge and experience, and though he tries to treat Morgan Hickman with the same disdain as the townspeople, he sees that Hickman - bounty hunter or not - KNOWS how to act, how to handle dangerous situations, how to be the kind of man that Ben wishes to be. When Ben chides Hickman with, "I wouldn't expect no bounty hunter to appreciate this badge," Hickman answers sharply, "I wore one a lot longer than you ever will." At this, Ben's face shows shock, then hope. He suddenly sees Hickman as the man who can teach him to be a sheriff. The rest of the movie offers us a veritable graduate course in Western frontier law enforcement. In teaching the younger man, Hickman is inevitably reminded of why he once wore that Tin Star, and - in so doing - he rediscovers himself. [Cf: "The Outlaw Josey Wales"] —John Withrow <withrow@withrow-software.com>

The greatest player in Ridgefield College history uses his influence and reputation to get his only son, a sickly, uncoordinated nerd, on the college football team with comic results. Jarring Jack Jackson, the greatest football player in Ridgefield College history, is disappointed that his only son Junior is an uncoordinated, allergy-ridden bookworm. He uses his athletic reputation and standing as #1 alumni contributor to pressure the coach to take Junior on the team. In addition, he pays the tuition of Junior's financially needy classmate Bill Baker, a potential all-American, with the understanding that he will room with Junior and mentor him athletically and socially. Junior's initial efforts as quarterback prove disastrous, and further complications arise when the roommates both fall in love with the same co-ed. Plot complications become critical as the climactic homecoming game approaches. —duke1029

During World War II, a junior American Army officer, Lt. Peter Stirling, gets sent to the psychiatric ward whenever he insists that an Army mule named Francis speaks to him. The truthful soldier Stirling didn't know how to lie about his source of information, the talking army Mule, Francis, so he was treated as a lunatic and led to one after another hilarious situations, where the mule was the only one that appeared in his right mind. In the process of all this, the mule assisted in uncovering a spy, Maureen, who pretended to be lost among the jungles. —Winston Song

In 1876, cowboy Lin McAdam and his good friend, Frankie "High Spade" Wilson, travel to Dodge City, Kansas to participate in the Centennial Rifle Shoot, which is being held on the Fourth of July. Lin knows that his sharpshooting brother, Dutch Henry Brown, whom he suspects murdered their father, will also be in the contest, as first prize is a rare Winchester '73 rifle. Soon after their mutual arrivals in Dodge City, Lin and Dutch Henry are stopped from killing each other by the town's famous marshal, Wyatt Earp. Later, Lin narrowly defeats his brother in the rifle contest, but Dutch Henry and his friends ambush Lin and steal the Winchester. Two days later, a penniless Dutch Henry loses the rifle in a poker game to Joe Lamont, an Indian trader. Lamont is later killed by Young Bull, an Indian chief whom Lamont had hoped to cheat with defective guns and rifles. Meanwhile, Lin learns from Jack Riker, a saloon keeper, that Dutch Henry is headed for Tascosa to meet up with Waco Johnny Dean, an outlaw. That night on the trail, Lin and High Spade run into a U.S. Cavalry unit, led by Sgt. Wilkes, which has been surrounded by Young Bull's warriors. The Indians attack the next morning, but they are repelled when Lin shoots and kills Young Bull. After Lin and High Spade leave, Wilkes discovers the rare Winchester by the dead Indian chief and gives it to Steve Miller, the cowardly fiance of Lola Manners, a dance hall girl. Steve and Lola then travel to Tascosa, where they accept the hospitality of the Jameson family. Waco Johnny and his men soon arrive at the Jameson home, with a posse in hot pursuit, and the outlaw uses Lola as a hostage when Steve refuses to give him the Winchester. Waco Johnny kills Steve in a gunfight, then escapes from the farmhouse with Lola and the rifle and heads for Dutch Henry's hideout in the nearby mountains. Dutch Henry quickly recognizes the Winchester and demands it back. The outlaws then plan a bank robbery, only to have Lin and High Spade arrive in Tascosa that same day. Lin kills Waco Johnny just as Dutch Henry and his men are leaving the bank, and Lola is shot and wounded in the ensuing gunfight. Lin takes off alone after his brother, who heads back toward his mountain hideout. Though he is trapped below Dutch Henry, Lin torments his brother by calling him by his given name, Matthew McAdam, then manages to sneak behind him as he reloads the Winchester. Lin then shoots and kills Dutch Henry, finally avenging their father's death. Later, Lin returns to Tascosa with the Winchester, where his return is welcomed with open arms by both Lola and High Spade.