Philip Carey

A somewhat different take on Custer's motivation that changed him from a defender of Native-American rights into a politically-driven, headline-seeker chastiser of the Sioux during the 1870s. A look at what happened to Custer and his troops at the Battle of Little Big Horn. Custer, an outspoken believer in fair treatment for the Indians, is ousted from his post and forced into retirement. Fueled by ambition when a senator convinces him to run for president, Custer decides to upstage General Terry at Little Big Horn. —Anonymous

Brady Sutton, ex-convict and former Butch Cassidy gang member, gets wrongly accused of bank robbery. Escaping mob, he rejoins Cassidy's gang to prove innocence and bring them to justice. Brady Sutton returns from three years in prison and tries to go straight. Once a member of the Butch Cassidy gang, he is still suspected of being cahoots with them. After Cassidy and his men rob the bank, he is blamed. Escaping from the townspeople, he once again joins up with Cassidy to wait for a chance to help bring him in.

The Long Gray Line is based on the life of Martin "Marty" Maher, Jr. (25 June 1876 17 January 1961). Maher was an Irish immigrant from Ballycrine, County Tipperary, Ireland, who joined the United States Army in 1898 and rose to the rank of Master Sergeant. He served as a revered and beloved swimming instructor at the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York, from 1899 to 1928. Maher retired from the Army in 1928 and stayed at West Point as a civil service (civilian) employee in the athletic department and retired from that in 1946, completing 50 years of service at "The Point" (including two years as a waiter prior to his enlistment). Maher was named an honorary member of the classes of 1912, 1926 and 1928. His autobiography, Bringing Up The Brass: My 55 Years at West Point, cowritten by Nardi Reeder Campion, was published in 1951 by David McKay Company Inc. and was the source of the film. Maher died on 17 January 1961, at the age of 84 and is buried in the West Point Cemetery.

At a stagecoach stop, Ben Warren (Rock Hudson) is reunited with his beautiful Southern belle fiancée Jennifer (Donna Reed). They dine with several fellow passengers, Frank Slayton (Philip Carey) and his friend Tom "Jess" Burgess (Leo Gordon). After a stagecoach holdup, Slayton's notorious outlaw gang shoot Warren and leave him for dead and head off with his fiancée. Warren follows, and although none of the townspeople he comes across are prepared to help, he manages to recruit two men who have sworn revenge on the ruthless Slayton. One is Jess Burgess (Leo Gordon), gang member who had objected to this planned kidnapping and was bound, and abandoned to die in the desert. The other is Johash (Pat Hogan), an Indian with an equally personal grudge---his sister was abducted and murdered by Slayton under identical circumstances. Johash follows Warren and Jess secretly. He catches up with the two and joins their small posse. One of the gang, Curly (Bob Herron), tells Jennifer that her Ben is alive and following them. He tries to help her escape but this fails, and they kill him for it. Warren and Jess come across Slayton's jealous Mexican girlfriend who wants to get even. Overnight, Slayton sends a note he wants to trade Jess for Jennifer. Jess thinks it's worth a try, but it turns out to be a ruse. Just as Jennifer is free and reunited with Warren, Slayton kills former partner Jess. She begs her fiancé not to pursue the gang further, but he wants revenge. Just a few miles short of the Mexican border, his gang is forced to take shelter at an old pueblo where Johash's deadly skill with a sniper rifle cuts off the gang's escape route, as three more gang members fatally discover. Warren places the only available water in an open space and challenges Slayton to come and get it. But he uses his girlfriend as a hostage, threatening to shoot her. Slayton reaches his horse and rides away alone as Johash picks off the other gang members with a rifle. Slayton runs out of ammunition, and Warren eventually wins a lengthy fistfight that begins at the top of a steep hill and slowly and dangerously progresses to ground level. After the fight, Slayton finds Ben's pistol and is about to kill him when Slayton falls over with Johash's knife in his back. Warren's experiences during the American Civil War had made him basically a pacifist. But thanks to Johash, he is able to keep his own hands basically clean; and he and fiancé Jennifer Ballard are re-united.

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