Paul Picerni

An outlaw committing a string of robberies and murders manages to blame the crimes on Apaches, bringing about an Indian war. Ruthless Vince Carden dominates the Arizona-territory town of Forge River and buys the scalps of murdered Indians. He has driven his brother Paul from his home, and this leads to the total disillusionment of his wife Martha. Haunted by the mysterious death of a girl he had loved, Paul ends his wandering and joins a wagon train heading for Forge River; with the train is Kate Mayfield, who is returning home after years of school in the East. Paul and Kate are the sole survivors when Apaches attack the train, in reprisal for a slaughter staged by Vince's men. Vince uses the Indian attack on the train as an excuse to lead the raid on a defenseless Apache village, which sparks a massive assault on Forge River. —Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>

Forced to trade his valuable furs for a well-educated escaped slave, a rugged trapper vows to recover the pelts from the Indians and later the renegades that killed them. Trapper Joe is on his way to the town with all of his gain of hides of the last winter. However a group of Indians stops him and takes all of his hides, leaving him the escaped slave Joseph instead. But Joe has no use for Joseph and is determined to get his property back and follows them. Before he can do anything, the Indians are raided themselves by a group of scalphunters under the greedy Howie. Not only the hides, but also Joseph falls into their hands. Now Joe follows them alone and tries to trick the numerical superior group out of his hides. —Tom Zoerner <Tom.Zoerner@informatik.uni-erlangen.de> Robbed of his precious, hard-earned cargo of hides, the rugged fur trapper, Joe Bass, finds himself with his back to the wall, and an unwanted companion, the well-educated runaway slave, Joseph Lee, after a fateful encounter with a marauding group of Kiowa Indians. Then, something equally unexpected happens, as Jim Howie's crew of scalp-hunters ambush the very same team of pelt-stealing Indians, and snatch the furs. Now, the reluctant duo is hot on their trail, with Bass hell-bent on retrieving his property; however, this is easier said than done. Will Joe ever take back what's his? —Nick Riganas

Post-civil-war Texas sells lands to wealthy Northerners but some of them are crooks bent on cheating the locals, prompting an investigation headed by the governor's envoy. Following the Civil War, the state of Texas, needing money, sells land to a syndicate of northerners headed by Judd Hastings (Ray Teal). When Hastings demands the land, and the squatters refuses to vacate, the governor sends Mike McGann (Dennis Morgan) to settle the issues. Eventually, McGann gets the ranchers to move on to other areas with their cattle, which Hastings also covets. McGann also falls in love with Hastings' daughter, Marian (Amanda Blake). —Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>

In Pittsburgh, PA, an F.B.I. agent works to undermine the Communist party, but his brothers and his teenage son think he's a real Red. The FBI infiltrates one of their agents, Matt Cvetic, into the US Communist Party. This causes big problems in the normal life of the agent. Nobody knows, including his family, that he is in fact working to expose a large-scale plan to have Communists in key positions in industry and unions. —Luis Carvacho <lcarvach@lascar.puc.cl> Beyond his mother who provides her unconditional love, Pittsburgh steel factory manager Matt Cvetic is hated by his family, including his son Dick Cvetic, and his old friends because of rumors that he is a member of the Communist Party, which he does admit to most who directly ask. They are unaware, however, of how deep he is ensconced within the party, he who, in his position as manager, is to place card carrying members into the company, so that it eventually can be taken over by the party. What only a handful of people know is that he is undercover, planted by the FBI nine years ago to learn as much as he can about the workings of the party within the US. The Communist Party is ramping up their activities in Pittsburgh and place Matt in a position of authority locally, which may provide him greater access to the party goings-on, but also places him under a microscope by the party, anyone who could secretly be spying on him. This job places him under greater strain, especially in wanting to tell those important in his life of his true work, that work which may never come to light as the FBI cannot expose his true workings if he does unilaterally decide to quit. Things get even more complicated with the arrival on the scene of Eve Merrick, Dick's teacher who comes out to him as a card carrying member of the party, an idealist who has a different perspective on his life than the party brass. —Huggo