R.G. Armstrong

An order of Druids train their children to battle an evil Warlock determined to unleash Satan upon the world by bringing a collection of five mystic rune stones together. Every six hundred years, a great evil has the opportunity to escape and unleash Armageddon. A group of five stones has the power to either free the evil, or banish it for another six hundred years. An order of Druids battles with a Warlock determined to unleash his father upon the world. —Murray Chapman <muzzle@cs.uq.oz.au>

A small-town loser determines to have one more shot at the big time by winning a football game. Jack Dundee is a meek banker living in Taft, California. He constantly thinks about the 1972 high school football game between Taft and powerhouse Bakersfield. Dundee drops a perfect pass from quarterback and friend Reno Hightower, and the game ended in a tie. He wants to replay the game, but has trouble convincing Reno and the town to replay the game. So Jack resorts to desperate measures to make the game reality. —Pat McCurry

After helping the local police with some horse thieves, a Texas Ranger aims at a drug lord with arms trade as well. They're interested in the same woman and they're both into martial arts. The archetypical renegade Texas Ranger wages war against a drug kingpin with automatic weapons, his wits and martial arts after a gun battle leaves his partner dead. All of this inevitably culminates a martial arts showdown between the drug lord and the ranger, and involving the woman they both love. —Keith Loh <loh@sfu.ca> J.J. McQuade is a Texas Ranger who doesn't exactly follow the rules, is unruly, and prefers to work alone, which earns the nickname, Lone Wolf McQuade. When he discovers some criminals have automatic weapons, he discovers that they were stolen from the military. He tries to handle on his own, as usual, but in the end, an old friend, and a prisoner, whom he was keeping under wraps, are killed. He is then relieved of duty. But then an FBI agent, who also wants to get these guys, offers to help McQuade, and along with a rookie, they track down the mastermind. —rcs0411@yahoo.com

In the town of Edna, Texas, in 1940, Nita Longley (Sissy Spacek) carries her infant, William Henry Longley, to a local bar and sees her husband, Harry Longley Sr., kissing another woman. Outside, she takes the hand of Harry Junior (Henry Thomas), her other son, and returns home. Four years later, in Gregory, Texas, Nita works as an operator for the Southwest Consolidated Telephone Company in a small house where she lives with her two sons. She types an application for a transfer and presents it to her boss, Mr. Rigby (R.G. Armstrong), when he arrives for the company receipts. Tired of being on-call day and night, Nita wants a secretarial job with regular hours. Her sons, Harry and William Henry (Carey Hollis Jr.), roam to a nearby bar, where brothers Calvin (William Sanderson) and Arnold Triplett (Tracey Walter) play a trick to get William Henry's trousers wet. The "raggedy man," (Sam Shepard) a dark, derelict figure wearing a hat over his scarred face, walks past them, dragging a lawn mower. Inside the bar, Calvin and Arnold discuss their chances of having sex with Nita Longley, figuring that a divorced woman must be as sex-starved as they were when they were cellmates at Huntsville Prison. After several drinks, the brothers drive to Nita's house in Calvin's pickup truck. Calvin goes to the door, but Nita claims the company allows no after hours visitors. Later, on a rainy night, a knock on the door awakens Nita. Outside, a sailor named Teddy Roebuck (Eric Roberts) claims the man at the gas station sent him to use the telephone. Nita lets him into an anteroom, where a telephone sits below a small window with a door. At the switchboard on the other side of the window, Nita rings Teddy through to Ardmore, Oklahoma. He tells his girlfriend's father he is hitchhiking home from boot camp on liberty, but the father informs him she has married another man. Nita offers the drenched sailor a cup of coffee to cheer him up. When the storm knocks out the electricity, they talk in the dark until lights are turned back on. Teddy thanks her and leaves, but as he walks away, he thinks he sees a dark man in a hat standing nearby in the rain. At sunrise, Harry and William Henry find Teddy curled up asleep on the front porch. Nita receives a telephone call from Washington, D.C., for Jean Lester, and sends her sons to bring the young woman to the telephone. A voice informs Jean that her husband was wounded, but he will be coming home from the war. As the tearful woman returns home, the raggedy man passes by, dragging his lawn mower. Teddy pulls Harry and William Henry in a red wagon and shows them how to fly a kite. When he gives Nita the string, she trips over him and they fall down together. Every time she tries to play with them, the telephone rings and she hurries back to the house. With nowhere to go, Teddy decides to spend the rest of his leave with Nita and the kids. Herman Callaway (Ed Geldart), a middle-aged man, comes to pay his telephone bill, but tells Nita that Teddy's presence "doesn't look good" in the eyes of Gregory's citizens. That night, the raggedy man stands outside Nita's house. At the bar, Calvin and Arnold try to telephone Nita, but Teddy, unfamiliar with the switchboard, innocently hangs up the call. Arnold expresses anger that Nita told them they were not allowed in the house at night, yet now she entertains a stranger. The next day, Teddy takes Harry and William Henry on a bus trip to Corpus Christi, Texas, where he treats them to a beach side carnival and a John Wayne war movie. At home, Nita gets her best dress out of the closet, flirts in a mirror, and dances to the radio as she sweeps the floor. That night, Calvin and Arnold peek in Nita's window and watch her bathing, but they run when the horn on Calvin's truck begins to blare. Nita telephones Sheriff Watson (Bill Thurman) to report a "peeping Tom." Looking around and finding nobody, the sheriff mentions that everyone is talking about the stranger staying at her house. He emphasizes that locals depend on her, especially now with a war on. When Nita mentions seeing a strange man in a hat hanging around, Sheriff Watson says he is a harmless drifter named Bailey, who has been around town for a couple of years, mowing lawns. Harry and William Henry, wearing little sailor suits, return later that night with Teddy, who brings Nita a set of rayon stockings. After she puts the boys to bed, Nita and Teddy dance to radio music, then kiss. She turns off the telephone switchboard, and the two make love. The next morning, as prim Miss Pud and Miss Beulah pass by, they are shocked when Teddy steps onto the front porch without a shirt. Nita asks him to be more discreet, because "I have to live here." Meanwhile, Arnold and Calvin lure William Henry into the bar, buy him an orange soda drink, and ask about his mother and Teddy. Harry tries to pull his little brother away, but the Tripletts grab him and ask if his mother gets naked with the stranger. Suddenly, Teddy arrives and fights with them, but when Arnold hits him with a pool stick, the bartender, Crecencio, ends the melee by firing his shotgun in the air. Later, Nita tends to Teddy's cuts and scrapes. She bemoans being trapped in Gregory, but she cannot quit. She asks Teddy to leave, for the sake of everyone. Teddy bids goodbye to the boys, and since they have polished his shoes, he tells them he has named one shoe Henry, for William Henry, and the other Harry, so that no matter where he goes, they will be with him. As Teddy hitches a ride out of town, Calvin and Arnold watch him go. Harry blames his mother for sending Teddy away, just like she drove away their father. He wants to live with his daddy, but she reminds Harry that his father has never returned for him. That night, Nita telephones Mr. Rigby. When he comes to the house in the morning, she shows him the application for a transfer she is sending to the company personnel office in San Antonio, Texas. Rigby becomes angry, tells her she is "frozen" in her job, and insists that everyone else is also making sacrifices for the war. Nita knows all about the war, who is wounded, and who is not coming home, because every telephone call goes through her. When she telephones the company personnel office, Mr. Rigby disconnects her. Nita walks out the door and buys three one-way bus tickets to San Antonio from the local agent. Returning to the house, she finds Rigby indignant that she left him alone with the switchboard. That evening, Nita and the boys pack their possessions. Before going to bed, Harry goes to the outhouse in back, but Calvin locks him in. Arnold knocks on Nita's door and claims he needs to use the telephone. She lets him into the hall, but locks her door to the house interior. However, Calvin breaks in through the back, unplugs the telephone system, and grabs her. As the brothers assault Nita, the lights go out. Somebody outside starts Calvin's truck, honks the horn, and aims its lights at the front porch. Arnold steps outside with a knife to investigate, and the raggedy man hits him. Nita shakes loose from Calvin, locking him outside. Calvin runs to the outhouse to grab Harry, but the raggedy man kills him, allowing Harry to rejoin his mother. As Nita steps onto the front porch, Arnold grabs her, but the raggedy man intercedes, letting her slip back inside. Arnold stabs the stranger, then prepares to break down Nita's door, but with his final breath, the raggedy man slashes him with a hand sickle. After moments of silence, Nita goes outside and finds both Arnold and the raggedy man lying dead on the porch. Looking closer at the disfigured face of the raggedy man, she realizes he is her long-lost, unfaithful husband, Harry Longley. The next morning, with the sheriff's blessings, Nita and her sons board a bus to San Antonio. Harry is happy that their father returned to save them. They all agree they want to see Teddy again.

The film opens in the mountain cabin of one Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (Bill Murray), gonzo journalist extraordinaire. He is holed up with his dog Bronco and a plethora of alcohol and drugs, struggling with a looming deadline to produce a magazine article about his eccentric former attorney, Carl Lazlo, Esq. (Peter Boyle). When his fax machine begins beeping with a call from his publisher, he angrily shoots it with one of his many guns (in this case, a .45 revolver); he then "get[s] a grip" and sits down to his typewriter. His voice-over narration reflects what he writes, as it does throughout the film. Fade to 1968, early in Thompson's career. He is holed up on an upper-story hospital room with a loud stereo, a pack of drugs and alcohol, and a nubile student nurse (Sunny Johnson). A nurse explains to a doctor that he arrived there claiming to have been chased by Richard Nixon and attacked by a swarm of bats. At this point, Lazlo, a wild-haired, mustachioed liberal attorney, arrives. Finding Thompson's room barricaded from the inside, he calmly walks through the neighboring (and occupied) room and, after helping himself to some of the patients' pills, climbs out onto the balcony and bursts into Thompson's room from the window. This sends Thompson's drugged-out companion into a nearly-catatonic state (she believes Lazlo to be a giant bat), but Lazlo remains calm as he offers his legal advice to Thompson and eats some food. (Lazlo eating some of Thompson's food is a running theme of the film and suggests that he [Lazlo] is not above sponging off those around him.) As the hospital staff begins to break down the door, Thompson and Lazlo unhurriedly escape and miraculously get down to Lazlo's car and escape just as the doctors and nurses break in. On the road, Thompson simultaneously drives and types Lazlo's running commentary about the sorry state of America's legal system, vis-a-vis their treatment of teenagers on drug charges. They arrive at the courthouse where Lazlo is about to go before a judge to defend a large group of kids who, in various combinations, have all been arrested for possession of marijuana. He insists on taking all the cases to bench trial, which serves only to irritate the judge and district attorney; all the defendants receive very harsh penalties. After one such outrage, when a teenager is given five years for possession of a joint, Lazlo reacts violently and ends up throwing the district attorney over the judge's bench. As the court is hurriedly cleared and Thompson struggles to snap pictures, Lazlo screams at him to "tell the world" what happened. Back at BLAST Magazine headquarters, Thompson's beleagured publisher Marty (Bruno Kirby) paces back and forth waiting for Thompson to deliver his story. Presently Thompson arrives, but teases Marty for a while before finally giving up the story in exchange for the cheque. Thompson's voice-over comes back in as we see Lazlo languishing in a jail cell with one of his defendants. Los Angeles, 1972; in voice-over, Thompson explains that Lazlo quit the legal system and dropped out of sight, and as the 60s ended many counterculturalists, in Thompson's words, "got off the boat," but not everyone did, including Lazlo, Nixon, and himself. Now a successful and popular writer, Thompson is in town covering Super Bowl VI (this is an error, as the 1972 Super Bowl was actually held in New Orleans). He arrives at his hotel in a hallucinogenic state, mildly assaulting his driver before remembering where he is and what he is doing. At the front desk, he terrorizes the clerk by ordering large amounts of electronic equipment and food (including 16 grapefruit), and proceeds to turn his room into a slightly grotesque piece of modern art, complete with toilet paper and variously-placed fruit. When the hotel staff comes to quiet him down (as requested by a professional gambler [Leonard Gaines] who "needs a super rest" for the game), they are sucked into his world and willingly take the marijuana and alcohol he provides. The next morning, Thompson is sitting in the hotel restaurant, eating a huge breakfast and listening to his tape recorder. His recording from when he awoke says that he did so to find that the hotel employees had broken in, drank all his liquor, did all his drugs, and stole his dinner. At the entrance, the aforementioned gambler is speaking on the phone with an associate, bemoaning his sleepless night; just then Lazlo appears wearing a Nixon mask, which prompts the gambler to give up on the game and go home to escape the "nuthouse." Lazlo sits down at Thompson's table, gives him the mask as a present, and then persuades him to give up on the Super Bowl story and go with him to some unknown destination. Outside, Thompson gives his tickets, press pass, and room key to two random guys, and they set off. On the road, Lazlo talks about where he has been the past four years; namely, becoming enlightened. He now is actively trying to promote world revolution, and he does this with a small band of weirdos by smuggling weapons to revolutionaries in impoverished countries. At the ranch, Thompson quickly sees the futility of what Lazlo is doing but comes with him anyway to a rendezvous at a isolated airfield, where Lazlo's group will load up a plane with guns and fly it away. At the airstrip, however, a police helicopter arrives and begins to descend; Lazlo and his group escape in the loaded plane, but Thompson refuses to follow, and the police follow the copter. Later in 1972, Thompson is covering the presidential campaign, but takes some time to appear at a university for a Q&A with the students. The hall is packed and he is very late, and needs to be coaxed quite a bit by the event coordinator to even go on at all, but eventually goes out and wows the crowd with his eccentric views and answers. One student asks about Lazlo and puts forth the idea that he never really existed; Thompson responds that he was real, but he was now believed dead. Back on the campaign trail, he gets on the press plane that follows Richard Nixon (referred to only as "the candidate") around. He stands out starkly from the rest of the buttoned-down reporters, dressed in Bermuda shorts, a loud Hawaiian shirt, and a maroon sports jacket. Onboard, he frightens the young reporter next to him (Michael Cornelison) by producing an enormous hunting knife to slice his grapefruit ("They never search me"), then by speaking into his tape recorder about being divebombed by poisonous ravens on his way to catch the plane. Just then, the candidate's aide Dooley (Mark Metcalf) comes in and throws Thompson off the plane, demanding that he fly on the "zoo" plane with the technicians. The zoo plane is considerably different than the straight-laced reporter plane; the people are all hippies and drugs and alcohol flow freely (even amongst the crew). Also onboard this flight, though, is another reporter, Harris from the Post (Rene Auberjonois), due to overcrowding on the other plane. He sits down next to Thompson and tries to settle down to work, but the loud noise and constant physical distress drive him to distraction. That is, until Thompson produces some "headache pills," his blue ones; Harris takes two, and within an hour he is in the grip of Thompson's powerful hallucinogens. By the time the plane lands, Thompson has switched their clothes and infiltrates the reporter entourage by posing as Harris. As he washes up in the bathroom, Thompson gets a surprise visitor: Nixon himself (Richard M. Dixon, but voiced by Brian Cummings) comes in to relieve himself. Thompson launches into a tirade that the country is divided into the "Screwheads" and the "Doomed," who live in fear of the Screwheads. He asks Nixon what the country is doing for the Doomed, to which Nixon replies, "Fuck the doomed!" Back aboard the reporter plane, on which Thompson has reappeared disguised as Harris, he suddenly spots none other than Lazlo walking across the tarmac, wearing a three-piece white suit. Realizing that the appearance of Lazlo will destroy his chance of continuing on the campaign trail, he hurriedly invites the same young reporter that he terrorized before (who does not recognize him in his disguise) to sit in his row and tell Lazlo that the seat between them is taken. He does so when Lazlo boards, but Lazlo ignores him and sits down next to Thompson. He begins telling him, in an increasingly excited and loud voice, about his new plan: to buy land in the middle of the desert and build a socialist paradise. At this point Dooley arrives and, fed up with Thompson, promptly throws him off the plane for good; when he insults Lazlo, Thompson punches him in the face and the two escape while Thompson holds the reporters and Secret Service at bay with a fire extinguisher (he gets a good shot in on Nixon when the candidate pokes his head out of his door for a moment). On the runway, Thompson watches as the plane takes off and tells Lazlo that he won't help him with his project, because Lazlo is "insane, a raving maniac." Back in the present at his ranch, Thompson finishes the story and sits down next to his dog to read him the end. Reading, he speaks of how Lazlo and Nixon were both gone (the latter being eaten by white cannibals on an island near Tijuana), and that he, Thompson, got out because, through it all, it never got weird enough for him.

On the outskirts of Santa Ynez, two young people named Jimmy (Joshua Davis) and Suzie (Melody Thomas Scott) are riding bicycles along the highway. A vehicle comes from behind and drives right up on them, trapping them on a bridge. The sinister black sedan toys with them before killing them, crashing Suzie against the concrete barrier and then sending Jimmy plummeting to his death off the bridge. The car gives an otherworldly roar from its engine, and an ominous staccato blaring of its horn. Shortly after, near the entrance to Santa Ynez, a young hitchhiker named John Morris (John Rubinstein) observes a local named Amos Clements (R.G. Armstrong) chasing his wife, Bertha (Doris Dowling), out of their house and striking her. The young man attempts to intervene, but Amos demands he leave. As Amos and his wife go back in the house, the young man spies a black car coming up the road, preceded by a high wind. The driver almost hits the young man, and he screams obscenities after it. Suddenly, the car brakes to a halt, and backs up, running over the young man several times before driving off. Amos sees this from a window in his house, and calls the police. Meanwhile, police officer Wade Parent (James Brolin) is waking up with his girlfriend Lauren (Kathleen Lloyd), a local schoolteacher. Wade is a widowed father of two young girls, Lynn Marie (Kim Richards) and Debbie (Kyle Richards). Lauren wants Wade to socialize her with the girls so they can be up front about their relationship, as she is currently sneaking out of the house after she sleeps there, but the girls are already listening to the entire conversation just outside the bedroom door. After Wade drops the girls off at school on his motorcycle, he is summoned to the Clements house in the aftermath of the hitchhiker's death. Several other officers, including Sheriff Everett (John Marley) are interrogating Amos about the incident. Amos provides scant details about the car, and several of the officers note that Amos' wife seems to be rather quiet. Everett (John Marley) is furious that someone in his town has been murdered, despite the fact that Morris was not a local. At first, their vague description of the car turns up a report that someone spotted it driving out of town into a nearby locality, but when Suzie's body turns up, it's clear that something larger is going on. Police officer Luke (Ronny Cox) is terribly upset about it; Jimmy's body has not yet been discovered, and there is suspicion about his involvement in Suzie's death. Luke and Jimmy are close, and Jimmy has lied to Luke about his whereabouts, apparently in an attempt to conceal his relationship with Suzie. Luke is a recovering alcoholic; his wife Margie (Elizabeth Thompson) tells Wade and Lauren that Luke has been sober for two years. Later on that evening, Amos and his family are taken into the office for questioning after someone reports him abusing his wife again. Everett pleads with Bertha to file an official report about her husband's abuse so Everett can arrest him, but Bertha refuses. Everett and Bertha have history together, and Everett tells Wade that Bertha was his first love when they were both young. He watches sadly as she and her son get into their truck and drive off, while Amos goes across the street to a bar. Everett invites Wade to have a drink with him at the tavern, and Wade tells him he'll be along shortly. But as Everett crosses the street, he sees Amos crossing as well, and suddenly the black car roars to life down the street, heading right for Amos. Amos dives for the curb, and the car instead ends up running over Everett. Wade questions the few citizens who witnessed the incident, including an old Navajo woman who doesn't speak English. Chas (Henry O'Brien) is another Native American officer who translates for her as she describes what happened, but he refuses to translate one thing she says, telling Wade it's "Indian talk...she's a crazy old woman." But the dispatcher, Donna (Geraldine Keams), is also Navajo, and she later tells Wade what Chas would not: the woman claims there was no driver in the car. Wade assumes the Sheriff's duties, and requests that roadblocks be put up. He also tells Luke to contact the school and cancel parade rehearsals for the next day. However, a distraction occurs when Jimmy's body is discovered by a fisherman. Luke is despondent over the deaths of both Everett and now Jimmy, and he begins to secretly drink alcohol again. The parade rehearsal happens as scheduled, with Lauren and Margie leading the children. A high wind whips up soon after, and the car appears, shadowing the parade behind a line of tents. Suddenly it bursts through onto the main roadway, spooking the horses and causing them to stampede and throw their riders. The car rushes after the panicked group, striking several adults, including a police officer who was watching over the parade rehearsal. Lauren and the other adults lead them into nearby cliffs to avoid the car, and the large group dashes into a small fenced-in cemetery nearby. Amazingly, the car refuses to enter, despite the fact that it could easily pass through the gate. Lauren distracts the car by taunting it, while Margie sneaks out of the cemetery. The car almost runs her down as she runs across the roadway, but she makes it and summons help using the police officer's radio. The car returns to the cemetery entrance and Lauren continues to curse it, calling the driver a "chicken shit" and hurling a tree branch at it, striking the hood. The car seems furious, whirling in circles and striking one of the entrance pillars to the cemetery, but still it will not enter. Finally, the group hears the approach of police sirens, and the car speeds off. One frightened woman finally finds her voice and screams after the car, "Cat poo!", and the ordeal is finally over. The car speeds off and is spotted by one officer, who follows it up onto a cliff, but it surprises him and turns the tables, slowly pushing him to his death over the cliffside. As Wade rushes to the scene, the car emerges from the hillside and confronts two police cars driving side by side in a blockade. They hope to force the car off the road, but instead it goes into a barrel roll straight for them, rolling over their cars and causing them to crash. The officers inside are all dead, but the car emerges unharmed. Wade then arrives and confronts the car when it ominously rolls to a stop. He fires on it from close range, but the bullets do no harm, not even to the tires. Wade then walks up to the car. As he does so, the door suddenly flies open, knocking him down into a ditch. Wade then wakes up in the hospital, dazed from the experience. He talks with the remaining deputies about keeping the roadblocks up, and Lauren says she will stay at Wade's house with the girls. Wade sends Chas with Lauren to her house to get her things, and then he confronts Luke about why he did not cancel the parade rehearsal as instructed. Luke admits he's been drinking again, unable to cope with the grief of losing both Everett and Jimmy in the same day, not to mention all the other officers who are also now dead after their confrontations with the car. Chas escorts Lauren home, but she notices he is concerned about his family. She tells him to check on his family while she packs an overnight bag, and he leaves. As he drives back up the road, the car rolls silently out of the darkness and waits for him to pass, suddenly roaring to life and taking off in the opposite direction for Lauren's house. A strong wind whips up, and Lauren rushes inside, terrified. She calls Wade in a panic, terrified as she hears the engine of the car approaching. Behind her, the headlights can be seen in her window, and as she talks to Wade on the phone, suddenly the headlights levitate off the ground and the car bursts through her house at high speed, killing her in the process, before driving out the other side and off into the night. Wade and his deputies soon after investigate the remains of the house. Luke understands the significance of what has happened. He comments that the car couldn't enter the cemetery because it was hallowed ground, and it had a vendetta for Lauren because she cursed it. Wade is skeptical, but even he can't explain why the car was able to levitate through Lauren's house. Heartbroken over Lauren's brutal death, Wade is determined to avenge her. He enlists Amos, who works with dynamite, to set up a trap for the car; they will lure it into a quarry and explode the quarry wall, burying it. Wade goes home to check on his children, who are being tended to by Margie. Finding all of them asleep, Wade leaves a note behind telling Margie to take care of the kids. Passing through his garage, he is startled to find the car parked inside there, waiting for him. It traps him in the garage, threatening to run him down each time he makes a move for the door. Margie awakens, unaware of what has transpired and still expecting Lauren to arrive any minute. Wade warns her the car is there and she runs back into the house. The car begins to rev its engine to an ear-shattering decibel, causing the glass in the house to shatter. Margie and the children are terrified, until Wade manages to escape the garage and get to his bike. He takes off with the car chasing him, leading it away from the house and off to the quarry where the trap awaits. The men aren't finished setting up the charges, though, and Wade has to keep the car distracted by circling with it inside the quarry. Finally he overturns his bike and makes a leap for the rope the men have lowered down to him from the cliff; the car realizes what is happening and makes for the road, roaring up the cliffside toward Wade and the others. Wade and Luke stay right at the cliff's edge, luring the car closer, until finally they leap to the side and the car goes flying off the cliff into the quarry below. The men ignite the dynamite and the entire cliffside explodes, burying the car under tons of rubble. In the resulting fireball, a huge demonic apparition forms, vanishing as the fire subsides and the smoke clears. Wade and the others are sure they've buried the car for good. The film concludes with scenes of the car driving around Los Angeles, presumably waiting to claim new victims.

Craig Blake (Jeff Bridges) is a young Southern man born of a wealthy family in Birmingham, Alabama, but left lonely and idle after his parents died in a plane crash. He is content to spend his time fishing, hunting and puttering around his large family mansion, inhabited only by himself and an elderly butler named William (Scatman Crothers). Craig's "job" is a sinecure working at a shady investment firm run by a slick con artist named Jabo (Joe Spinell) and he does very little actual work. But since Craig has to have his name "on paper" somehow as an employee, he is asked by Jabo to personally transact the purchasing of a small gym that the real estate firm is buying in order to clear space for an office high-rise. Craig initially approaches the gym, called Olympic Spa, representing himself as a businessman looking to buy it, and acts relatively impersonal with its staff, one of whom includes trainer Franklin (Robert Englund), although he is strangely fascinated with the world he discovers there (reflecting the expansion of physical exercise to the mainstream which occurred in the 1970s). But Craig's primary social life is centered around the upscale country club he attends. Later, the audience is introduced to the ritzy country club crowd, including the WASP-y Lester (Ed Begley, Jr.) and the roguish rake Halsey (John David Carson). Craig Blake spends his time at this club with his friends playing tennis and shooting poker dice, and flirting with the upper-class women of all ages - one of whom asks Craig to find an "authentic" musical guest for an upcoming party at the club. As Craig moves forward with his business deal, he falls in love with the gym after visiting it several times - he is immediately taken by the pretty receptionist Mary Tate Farnsworth (Sally Field) and the free-spirited, friendly Austrian bodybuilder Joe Santo (Arnold Schwarzenegger), who aspires to win the Mr. Universe title. He cannot bring himself to sell out his newfound friends at the gym for the sake of his job, and so he evades the inquiries of his friend and co-worker Hal Foss as to his progress in the purchasing deal. All the while, he grows closer to Mary Tate and Joe Santo - who initially appear to be a couple. However, Mary Tate latches onto Craig romantically - and Santo gives Craig his blessing for this unorthodox relationship, claiming that he needs to keep himself challenged both in the gym and in his romantic life in order to succeed. Mary Tate and Craig begin a passionate and exciting relationship. But trouble erupts when he tries to integrate Mary Tate into his country-club scene. This tension comes to a head at a party at the country club, which features Joe Santo as a musical guest, performing bluegrass songs on the violin with a small country group. Craig, with Mary Tate as his guest (dressed inappropriately in a garish and revealing pink dress), is enthusiastic about Joe Santo's upcoming musical performance for the night. But Craig's friends, particularly Halsey, mock Santo as a "freak" and an outcast. When Halsey suggest that Santo disrobe and show the crowd his "tits," Craig throws a glass of Scotch in his face and tells Halsey that Santo could "crush him like an eggshell." A fight nearly breaks out between the two, but is broken up. Meanwhile a bitter Halsey and his friend Packman formulate a plan to embarrass Santo. When Santo's musical act is finally put on stage, the crowd seems enthusiastic about the music, though the hostess of the party dismisses it as a "racket." However, Halsey and Packman drunkenly bellow at Santo and heckle the band. Santo notices it, but stoically continues playing. However, when Halsey screams "let's hear it for Muscle Beach symphony orchestra!" Santo is unable to continue playing, puts down his violin and leaves the party. Meanwhile a frustrated Craig tries to convince Mary Tate to see him for who he really is, and not for his snobbish friends and ritzy surroundings. The Mr. Universe contest is approaching fast and Santo is training hard. But Jabo attempts to bribe the owner of the gym, Thor Eriksen (R.G. Armstrong), when he realizes that Craig will not purchase the building as he was supposed to. He plies Eriksen and his assistant Newton with drugs, booze and hookers, and on the day of the contest, they are busy with acts of debauchery as Santo is readying to take the stage - hoping to beat his rival Dougie Stewart (played by fellow bodybuilder Ken Waller in a memorable cameo). While Thor is drunk and distracted with the prostitutes, Newton secretly stashes the prize money inside his handbag, and then leaves the gym with the prostitutes when they are finished - stealing the money and fleeing. Meanwhile, Joe Santo and Dougie Stewart pose together on stage, to the theme song from the film 'Exodus' and the enthusiastic applause of the crowd. Meanwhile, Craig visits at the gym and engages in an intense physical fight, dodging weights and gym equipment thrown by the drunken and drug-crazed Eriksen. He finds Mary Tate at the gym, who had just moments earlier been assaulted by Eriksen in an amyl nitrite fueled rage. When the contestants at the Mr. Universe show discover that the prize money has been stolen, they run after Joe Santo, who himself is actually running to try to meet Mary Tate. The chase results in the wave of bodybuilders pouring out into the streets of Birmingham, to the amazed crowd of onlookers which sees them. The bodybuilders take advantage of this unexpected attention to put on an impromptu posing routine for the crowd, and the members of the crowd join in, imitating the athletes' poses and enjoying themselves - an embracing of the bodybuilding lifestyle by 'normal' people which arguably represents the real-life 1970s boom of personal fitness. The film ends with Craig sarcastically deriding Jabo and his former bosses at the real-estate firm, and deciding to go into the gym business with Joe Santo. A voice-over by his uncle Albert says, "you may not have been the Blake that we anticipated, but you are definitely Craig Blake - an identity that no one will dare challenge." Craig has finally "found himself" and discovered a true place in the sun, and true friendships, and he mocks his former boss Jabo with an exaggerated bodybuilding pose - acting as a final burning of the bridge between his old life and his new one. The final shot of the film shows Craig moving out of his family's mansion, passing on all of his old family memorabilia to his loyal butler William, and leaving behind his old self once and for all... on the way to a new and exciting future.

A prisoner is released from custody on the condition that he becomes a stool pigeon for the FBI to help them incriminate a corrupt sheriff. Good ol' Southern boy Gator McKlusky has served four years of his five-year prison sentence for moonshining, up to this point a model prisoner. When he learns that his younger brother, college student and activist Donny McKlusky, was murdered, his bound dead body found in a Bogan County Lake, he is able to convince the authorities to release him early in return for him finding evidence against the suspected culprit, Bogan County Sheriff J.C. Connors, not for the murder of which they have no idea of the McKluskys' suspicions against Connors, but concerning an active but somewhat cold IRS file, namely yet unproven but well-known unreported lucrative profits in bilking moonshiners. They also know that the sheriff is crooked in other ways, but the IRS only has the jurisdiction on the tax evasion issue. They provide Gator with a souped-up car fit for moonshine runs that would be able to outrun almost any on road vehicle, and a contact in Bogan County: Dude Watson, a mechanic who has no option but to cooperate despite his own fears about Connors, in he being a con on probation, the conditions which they know he has broken. In turn, Dude is able to set Gator up with moonshiner Roy Boone to infiltrate the business in the county as one of his runners. The IRS's goal, which has its inherent risks for Gator in him needing to provide names of moonshiners, is secondary for Gator, who just wants to avenge Donny's murder. But Gator could have bigger problems if the Sheriff gets wind that the Feds are after him via Gator and/or Dude, they or anyone connected to them possibly ending up like Donny if he has his way. —Huggo

In the Broken Saloon at El Dorado, two old friends meet up again. Sheriff J.P. Harrah (Robert Mitchum) greets Cole Thornton (John Wayne) with a pointed rifle.They've both been friends since before and during the American Civil War. But J.P has heard his friend now works for Bart Jason (Edward Asner). Thornton admits that Jason has offered him good money, but he doesn't know what he has to do to earn it. J.P explains "Jason showed up here around the end of the Civil War with a pocketful of money and nobody could find out where he got it, but everybody else around here was broke. Having money, he started to grow, but now he needs more water. There's only one place to get it; trouble is, somebody was there ahead of him, about 20 years ahead--his name is Kevin MacDonald (R. G. Armstrong). MacDonald has four boys and a girl. The whole family have worked real hard. Hung together through the rough times; now things were looking up, MacDonald was not ready to sell, so he's holding out and Jason was pushing, and now I'm standing right in the middle." Saloon owner Maudie (Charlene Holt) walks in and throws her arms around Cole. She bursts out laughing when she realizes that her old flame and her current one are friends. Cole gave her a stake some time earlier to help her sort out her money problems when her gambling husband was killed. Thornton goes off to Jason's ranch to tell him that he's not going to work for him. Warned that Thornton has gone to Jason's, MacDonald has left his youngest boy Luke (Johnny Crawford) out on the hills to do a man's job and look out. But whilst keeping watch, he falls asleep and when he wakes up he jumps and shoots down at Thornton. Instinctively, Thornton shoots him down. Thornton rides to him and is upset to see the boy's age. He tries to make him feel comfortable but Luke is in agony. While Cole has his back turned to him, Luke pulls out his gun and kills himself. Thornton takes the body to Luke's father's place and explains what happened. Luke's sister, Joey (Michele Carey), a tomboyish, wildcat in buckskin pants doesn't believe him and tries to kill him. Her brother stops her and her father asks her to get in the house. But, she angrily rides off. Macdonald thanks Cole for returning his boy but Cole feels guilty and rides off. On his way back, Joey ambushes Cole at a creek, dropping him with a rifle bullet. He manages to get back on his horse and escapes to Maudie's place, where Doc Miller (Paul Fix) treats him. The bullet is lodged dangerously close to his spine, but the elderly doctor says he's not equipped to deal with it and to find a better surgeon for the bullet's removal. After a short time,Thornton leaves El Dorado, much to Maudie's disappointment. Several months later, Cole arrives in a town near the Mexican border and has dinner a the local cantina. A young man nicknamed Mississippi (James Caan) enters and confronts one of four men sitting at a dinner table, reminding him if he remembers him or if he remembers the black hat he is wearing? Mississippi's closest friend, mentor and father figure was accused of cheating at cards two year earlier and was killed. He says he caught up with the man's other three companions and he killed them all. He asks the last of the murderers to stand up. Mississippi isn't wearing a gun; instead, he kills the man with a knife. As one of the men tries to shoot him,Cole shoots his hand and steps in. One of the men sitting at the table is Nelse Macleod (Christopher George), a dark thin-faced man with a scar down the left side of his eye and cheek. Along with Cole and J.P., he's one of the most dangerous gunslingers in the territory. Cole discovers that he's the latest gunslinger that Bart Jason has offered good money to work for him. Not only that, but he also tells him that J.P. won't be a threat because he's been an alcoholic for months. Cole and Mississippi get ready to walk out of the cantina, but Cole stops him. He knows Macleod will have some men waiting for them to shoot and he tells him to call the men off. Mississippi, feeling grateful that he's saved his life twice, joins him for a meal. Cole soon finds out that Mississippi cannot shoot at all. He stops off at an old gunsmith friend's and gets him a shotgun to use. Cole and Mississippi arrive in El Dorado and stop off at Maudie's to find out if any strangers have been hanging around. She says no and she tells him the full extent of J.P's alcoholism. Cole goes over to the sheriff's office with Mississippi and finds Bull (Arthur Hunnicutt) on guard outside--who has been trying to keep law and order all on his own for the last few months. Cole goes inside to wake up J.P., who's asleep in the cell. He throws some water over him to wake him up. J.P punches him and and Cole knocks him out with a pan to his head. Mississippi makes some special drink in order to keep him off the booze. With the black-looking mixture in his system, any alcohol J.P drinks afterwards will just make him feel sick. The next afternoon, Bart Jason arrives in town and waits in the saloon for Nelse Macleod to turn up. At the same time, the Macdonald family arrive for their weekly town shopping. Bull goes off to keep an eye on the Macdonald's and tells Colt he'll blow on his trumpet if there's any trouble. Later at night, J.P. gets up, looking for some alcohol. Cole tells him they've got rid of it all. J.P. goes over to the saloon to get a bottle of whiskey and Bart and Macleod start laughing at him. He walks back in shame. Gunshots are heard and Bull blows the trumpet. Cole and Mississippi run out and find one of Macdonald's boys wounded. Cole, J.P., Mississippi and Bull search the town for the gunmen responsible. A woman comes to the window and tells Mississippi that she saw a few men take off down the street towards he church. A gunfight breaks out and two of the men are killed but the man with the limp gets away. They follow him into Jason's saloon. J.P. is angry from the humiliation he had earlier and he wants to prove what he's made of. Everyone denies seeing a man enter but the pianist looks nervous. J.P. tells him to get out of the way and begins firing his rifle at the piano. The gunman comes out from hiding and starts shooting but J.P kills him. The barman goes for a gun but J.P. shoots the top of the bar and a load of wooden splinters go through his hand. J.P. approaches the men who were laughing at him earlier. He hits one man in the stomach with the rifle and whacks Jason over the face. He's ready to shoot him but Cole intervenes. J.P. calms down and arrests him. As they are taking him to jail, Mississippi sees someone pointing a gun at them from the stable and goes to check it out. He grabs the person and sees it's a woman, in fact Joey, who was trying to get a shot at Bart for revenge. He takes her over to the jail to confirm her identity. She asks J.P. if Jason will get what he deserves. He says it's up to the judge. She thanks them for what they've done and leaves. Cole and Mississippi walk around the town on night-watch and some of Jason's men come riding along. Mississippi dives into the street right in front of the horses' hooves. The horses jump over him and he shoots one of the men. J.P. comes running out of the office and takes a bullet in the leg. As Cole tends to his wound inside, he asks Mississippi why he dove under the horses and he tells him that you can't shoot properly while your horse is jumping in the air and an horse won't step on a person. The doctors are in the office removing the bullet from J.P's leg. They tell Cole that it would be a good idea for him to have the bullet removed from his back. Cole tells them if he survives all the trouble with Jason's men, he'll have it taken care of. J.P. is feeling restless and frustrated and trying to control his need to drink. He comes up with the idea to lock themselves away in the office with some food and water until the U.S. marshal arrives to pick Jason up. Bull recommends that he cleans himself up if they're going to be confined together. While J.P. takes a bath, Joey and Maudie bring some things around for them to last them until the marshal's arrival. Cole gets angry with her and tells her that it's best for her to stay away because Jason's men might use her to get Jason back from them. Later at night, a friend of Maudie's arrives with a note from Maudie saying that Macleod's men have been hanging around her place and that she's heard that they've got something planned. Cole and Mississippi go over to to the saloon but a gunman starts shooting at them. They chase him through the saloon, out to the back door. Two men tell them the person went out the back door. Mississippi luckily recognizes the men as Milt and Pedro and remembers the incident from their previous encounter. Cole asks if him anyone's waiting outside for them. Milt says no but Cole tells him to walk out. Milt doesn't want to but Cole shoots him in the arm and tells him to go. Milt says he lied, there's somebody out there. Cole shoots him in the leg. With no choice, Milt runs out of the doors shouting not to shoot but he is gunned down. Cole tells Pedro to go next but as he is trying to force him out the doors, he starts suffering with the numbness down his arm again. He falls to the floor in pain. Pedro goes for his gun but Mississippi kills him but he is knocked out from behind. Mississippi and Maudie go to the office through the back door to tell them what's happened. Macleod has Cole and wants to trade him for Jason. J.P. reluctantly agrees. He frees Jason and he, Cole, Bull and Mississippi flee town and hide out at his place. Bull is suspicious that Macleod let them get out of town too easily. Joey turns up to tell them that her brother Saul has been kidnapped by Jason and he will only be returned if the Macdonald ranch is handed over to him. With Bull's age, Mississippi's poor shooting skills, and Cole and J.P's crippled condition, the odds are stacked against them. Cole realizes he can still use a rifle with one hand, so they hatch a plan. They ride back into town. Cole drives a wagon to the front of the saloon to confront Macleod, who has Jason and a few men at his side; while a few of the other men keep watch over Saul in the saloon. J.P., Mississippi and Bull go through the back door to get behind them. Bull fires an arrow into the back of one of Macleod's men and blows his bugle, which distracts Macleod long enough for Cole to jump from the wagon and gun him down. J.P. and Mississippi handle the rest of the men inside. Jason goes to grab one of Macleod's guns to kill Cole but Joey is hiding in the distance and shoots him first.. Cole thanks her for saving his life. He walks over to Macleod as he lays dying. He says to him "You never gave me a chance at all did you?" Cole replies "No, I didn't. You're too good to give a chance to," leaving Macleod to die with his pride intact. The story ends as Cole has his leg wrapped up from scattershot from Mississippi who accidentally caught him with his shotgun during the gunfight. Mississippi goes off to talk to Joey, Cole goes off to see Maudie, and J.P. and Bull have a drink while J.P. tells him he needs him as his deputy. The story ends with Cole and J.P. both now limping down the street as Cole prepares to leave town and J.P. has gained his self respect back.

Twenty years ago, Steve Judd (Joel McCrea) and Gil Westrum (Randolph Scott) tamed many towns in the wild west. But it's the early 20th century of the early 1900s and they have been forgotten. These two ex-lawmen have nothing; no jobs, no money, no family and no prospects to show for their contributions. Judd rides his horse into a thriving business community. He runs into Westrum whom he hasn't seen for several years. Westrum is running a crooked carnival shooting game and claiming to the the "Oregon Kid". He has taken a wild young man named Heck Longtree (Ron Starr) under his wing and is trying to make him as corrupt as himself. Hoping to get back his self-respect, Judd takes his first meaningful job in years. He is hired by town bankers to ride to Coarse Gold, and transport the miners' gold back to the bank. Because of frequent robberies on the mountain trail, he hires Westrum and Heck to accompany him. Westrum and Heck, who wants to kill Judd, secretly plot to steal the gold for themselves. On their journey, the cynical Westrum reminds Judd of how they were shattered by society, after sacrificing women and wealth to make the West safe for civilization. He hopes Judd will suggest taking the gold, but Judd remains honest. The three men spend the night and the ranch of Joshua Knudsen (R.G. Armstrong), a Bible-quoting religious zealot who has kept his pretty, grown daughter Elsa (Mariette Hartley) a virtual prison so she will have no contact with men. Heck and Elsa are immediately attracted to each other, but she doesn't like how forward he is with her. Angered, Elsa says that she is engaged to miner Billy Hammond, who is living in Coarse Gold. After her father slaps her for talking with Heck, Elsa runs away, joining the three men. When they arrive in the decadent Coarse Gold, Elsa and Billy decide to marry immediately... which makes Heck jealous and Billy's four lecherous brothers happy. After a hellish wedding, the drunk Billy slaps Elsa and tries to force himself on her. Then his brothers join in and attempt to rape her. Judd and Heck arrive in time to rescue her. Westrum forces the drunk Judge Tolliver (Edgar Buchanan) to lie that he has no legal right to perform marriages in California. So, Elsa rides away with Judd, Westrum and Heck. Heck has come to respect Judd, whom he once thought was just an old man, and doesn't want to rob him anymore. But he feels obligated to Westrum. Judd catches Heck and Westrum attempting to steal the gold and ties them both up. He is infuriated with his friend for double-crossing him. In the mountains, the Hammonds catch up with the group after they beat up Judge Tolliver and found that the ceremony was legal. They demand Elsa's return. Prior to a gun battle with the Hammonds, Judd frees Heck because he promises to remain his prisoner after protecting Elsa. Westrum is hurt and disappointed when Judd will not free him. During the gun battle, Sylvus and Jimmy Hammond are killed. Billy, Elder and Henry flee. Westrum manages to untie himself and escape. Judd, Heck and Elsa arrive at the Knudsen ranch, but the Hammonds are waiting for them after they arrived first and killed Knudsen. After springing an ambush, Judd and Heck are both shot. Just then, Westrum rides to the rescue. He and Judd stand together like old times. In the gunfight, the surviving Hammonds are killed and Judd is fatally injured. Westrum promises Judd he will deliver the gold. Westrum is touched when his friend expresses faith in him. Westrum, Heck and Elsa, who are now in love, allow the proud Judd to die alone as they mount their horses and ride off. In the final shot, Judd gazes at the mounts for the last time.

A guitar-playing drifter wanders into a small Mississippi town and inflames two troubled women. Having fled New Orleans to avoid arrest, Valentine "Snakeskin" Xavier (Val), a trouble-prone, guitar-playing drifter, wanders into a small Mississippi town aiming to go straight and lead a quiet, simple life. He gets a job in the dry goods store owned by a sexually frustrated middle-aged woman named Lady Torrance, whose sadistic elderly husband, Jabe, is dying. With an obscure past and passions of her own, Lady finds herself attracted to Val, pulsating with passion anew, as he presents an arousing antidote to her bitter marriage and small-town humdrum life. Also vying for Val's attention are the alcoholic, sex-crazed Carol Cutrere and the unhappily married Vee Talbot. Each brings her share of problems into Val's plans, himself equally tempted by these women, though he succumbs to the charms of Lady. But the jealous Jabe is friends with Sheriff Talbot, Vee's husband, and things can't possibly end well for Val and Lady. The screenplay by Meade Roberts and Tennessee Williams is based on Williams' own 1957 play, "Orpheus Descending". —pdlussier1 Having been in and out of trouble with the law from his fast living, Valentine Xavier, a drifter and musician who played primarily in New Orleans, decides to turn over a new leaf when he reaches Two Rivers County in the American deep south. With the help of the sheriff's wife Vee Talbot, Xavier is able to get a job as a clerk at Torrance Mercantile in Vee knowing that Jabe Torrance will soon be coming home from the Memphis hospital, and will likely never be able to get out of bed in the apartment above the store on his own, leaving his wife, Lady Torrance, to run the store by herself. Xavier, in his trademark snakeskin jacket, exudes a masculine sexuality, which increases business at the store by all the admiring young women of the county now frequenting it. Who lets him know in no uncertain terms that she is interested is party girl Carol Cutrere, whose fast ways has had her banned from Two Rivers, period, plus a number of other businesses outside of the county line. The one female in the county openly stating that she is not interested is Lady, despite not loving or ever having loved hard and violent Jabe, she putting any past infidelity in search of happiness behind her. The interactions between Xavier and Lady lead to them once again striving for happiness in their lives, which is interrupted by many of the men, including Sheriff Jordan Talbot, looking out for Jabe's interests, they who, as a collective, have an equally violent outlook as the answer to life's problems. —Huggo Valentine Xavier is a traveling musician who has decided to change his lifestyle and do away with haunts and nightclubs. By the will of fate, he ends up in a provincial town, where he gets a job as a salesman in Jabe Torrance's store. Between him and Lady Torrance, the wife of the owner of the store, there is sympathy. But the young and eccentric Carol Cutrere also claims the guy's heart. Under the circumstances, he will have to make a difficult choice. —Tango Papa

Archie Lee Meighan (Karl Malden), a middle aged cotton gin owner, lives with his teen bride, Baby Doll (Carroll Baker) and her eccentric Aunt Rose Comfort (Mildred Dunnock) in a dilapidated plantation house in Tiger's Tail County, Mississippi. Archie Lee and Baby Doll have yet to consummate their marriage; they have separate bed rooms, with Baby Doll sleeping in an oversized crib in hers. Archie Lee desperately wants to but Baby Doll keeps him at arm's length. But on her 20th birthday -- one day away -- Baby Doll has promised to give her virginity to Archie Lee. She and Archie Lee fight a lot, and she threatens to leave him and live in a hotel in town if he doesn't provide for her. The situation boils over when the furniture company repossesses their furniture. Archie Lee's business is in terrible straits. All of the cotton fields are now working with the Syndicate Gin run by a Sicilian, Silva Vaccaro (Eli Wallach). Vaccaro has put many local business owners out of work with his large operation. One night, during a party in honor of the Syndicate Gin, Archie Lee burns the gin house to the ground. When the local authorities refuse to pursue an investigation because Vaccaro is an outsider, Vaccaro vows to take matters into his own hands. He realizes that Archie Lee was the only person not at the party and determines to prove his guilt. The next day Vaccaro takes his cotton to Archie Lee to have it ginned. While Archie Lee tries to get his antiquated machinery working, Vaccaro flirts with Baby Doll. She lets slip that, contrary to what he had told Vaccaro a few minutes earlier, Archie Lee was not at home at the time of the fire. Becoming suspicious of Vaccaro's intentions, Baby Doll goes to Archie Lee for protection. But he is upset because his gin has broken down. Vaccaro demands that Archie Lee go wherever he has to to find a replacement part. Archie Lee agrees and immediately leaves. Vaccaro sends an associate to get the replacement out of Vaccaro's own storehouse then continues to pursue Baby Doll. Baby Doll believes the plantation house is haunted. Vaccaro playfully uses this to "scare" Baby Doll and eventually get her to lower her guard. They play hide and seek, and Baby Doll hides in the attic. The floorboards are dangerously loose. Vaccaro, now forceful and angry, tells Baby Doll that she can't come out of the attic until she agrees to sign his handwritten "affidavit" that Archie Lee burned down the gin house. Baby Doll signs it. Vaccaro lets her out and prepares to leave. But Baby Doll persuades him to stay and take a nap with her in the crib, one of the few pieces of furniture left in the house. Archie Lee returns with the part and is angered and embarrassed to discover that Vaccaro has begun to take over his business. These emotions are only amplified when he discovers Baby Doll lounging around the house with Vaccaro, he still curled up in that oversized crib, she clad only in her slip. Baby Doll suggests that Vaccaro is interested in becoming partners with Archie Lee and suggests they discuss it over dinner. When Archie Lee sneaks away to make a phone call to friends in hopes they will come over to he house and help him deal with Vaccaro, Baby Doll kisses Vaccaro. Over dinner, she and Vaccaro taunt Archie Lee about his poor luck and flirt openly. When Archie Lee tries to take his anger out on Aunt Rose by threatening to evict her from the house, Vaccaro offers to hire her as his cook. Humiliated, Archie Lee loads his shotgun to kill Vaccaro. While Baby Doll calls the police, Vaccaro hides in a tree. Drunk, Archie Lee wanders the house and front yard looking for Vaccaro but can't find him. When the police arrive, they disarm Archie Lee; when Vaccaro shows them the affidavit signed by Baby Doll, they arrest Archie Lee as well. Baby Doll hopes Vaccaro will stay with her but he is more interested in ensuring his cotton is processed and goes home. Resigned, Baby Doll leads Aunt Rose back into the plantation house, telling her they will have to see what tomorrow brings.