Shirley Jones

Three hikers hike the Appalachian Trail as they encounter something strange. One of them unknowingly gets infected with an unknown virus that begins to change him. They encounter an eccentric police officer who apparently has something to hide. Along the trail, they find an abandoned campsite that has been completely torn to shreds. Even in the nearby towns, the people seem isolated and terrified. With the illness taking its toll, the towns people start to hunt them down in this chase for survival.

Ping is a chihuahua rescued from the pound by nearsighted Ethel, who thinks he's a cat. When a pair of bumbling thieves try to break into Ethel's house to steal the money they think she has stashed away, only Ping can foil their plans.

Sergeant Major Zack Carey (James Garner) arrives at his last duty post, an Army base in Georgia called Fort Clemons, with his wife Ladonna (Shirley Jones) and his son Billy (C. Thomas Howell). The guard at the main gate welcomes him as he enters with his family in a station wagon. Behind him is a moving van with their belongings and a World War II Sherman tank on a trailer (he tells the guard he never said he travelled light). Personnel help him remove the tarps from his prized possession as Ladonna supervises the moving of furnishings into their on-base housing. As Zack rolls the tank onto solid ground, a staff sergeant reporter from Soldier Magazine named Jerry Elliott (Mark Herrier) interviews him, as he is the only Army man who owns a tank. He has restored it over fifteen years, adding a radio and PA system so he can drive it in parades and other events. Of his two sons, his eldest son Jonathan has died and Billy, born six years later, is just 16. When asked why anybody would want to own a tank, he replies that it is very hard to shoot yourself while cleaning it. Zack visits the base commander, Major General V.E. Hubik (Sandy Ward), who is familiar with him, welcomes him wholeheartedly and takes him on a tour of the base. Zack has made an offer on a fishing boat on which he and his wife can enjoy retirement. The General says Zack could be the next senior Sergeant Major of the Army and work out of the Pentagon, but Zack says he has only one son left who will go on his own soon, and he doesn't want to miss any quality time with him. Back at the house Elliott the reporter asks Billy what his father is like, and Billy says he is a cross between George Patton and Danny Thomas. Ladonna recommends that Zack goes to the local NCO club and he finds its more like a disco, geared to a younger crowd and much too noisy for his tastes. He does run into an old friend, Ed Tippett (Dorian Harewood) who works at the base Provost Marshall's office. When Ed says to come meet the wife, Zack says he knows Linda and Ed corrects him: Gwen is the new wife. At home Zack is slightly disheartened and talks to Ladonna about the club and his friend's divorce, saying all he wants to do is finish his duty and get on the boat, then the couple share a cuddle. At his first assembly with his command personnel the next morning, Zack stresses taking care of their own without problems reaching their superiors, and keeping to Army regulations in all matters. He also says he wants to see a proper bar on the base so Army personnel of a certain age don't have to dance, as he calls it, the funky monkey. Early the next morning Zack hits the battalion field to do his morning jog and shouts for all to hear that he finds himself alone; in moments the entire battalion has filed out of their barracks and they form ranks on the field to engage in early morning physical training with their sergeant major. The General is awakened by the sound of the troops passing. He watches Zack out his bedroom window and smiles. Sometime later, when Ladonna gets home, Zack happily announces that the sellers accepted their offer on the boat. He forgot she is entertaining the NCO wives in the house that night, so they can't eat dinner at home or celebrate yet. She suggests Zack go into town for dinner. He stops at the local bar, the Outpost Café, and talks with a woman named Sarah (Jenilee Harrison), who has aspirations to go to California and become a beautician. Zack becomes loose with the beer, says he has been in the Army for 30 years and jokes that he should go into the Navy now that he is a boat owner. He starts singing a loud shanty which interrupts a pool game being played by Deputy Euclid Baker (James Cromwell) and some of his friends. Euclid quickly makes it obvious to Zack that the Army isn't particularly welcome. He then tells Sarah she has wasted too much time on Zack and should be turning tricks with paying customers, then he slaps her. Zack says that the display was not necessary, but Euclid takes another swing at Sarah. Zack punches and roughs up Euclid, then gets hold of the deputy's service pistol; the bar patrons step back in alarm, but he simply drops it in the fish tank on the bar and leaves. Sarah yells at him that she could have lost her job, but he says a simple thank you would have sufficed. He immediately goes to Ed's house to tell him what happened, knowing he has made a mistake which will bring the local constabulary looking for him. Ed says the sheriff is a particularly mean variety of Georgian cracker, and it might take considerable money to get out of the situation. The next morning Euclid greets the sheriff, Cyrus Buelton (G. D. Spradlin) and brings his morning cup of coffee. Buelton upbraids Euclid for getting beaten up by somebody and not putting that person in jail. A mark on the deputy is a mark on him, and something he won't tolerate. Zack is spotted eating at the enlisted mess hall instead of the NCO mess, ruffling the feathers of Mess Master Sergeant Johnson (John Hancock), to whom it appears to be an unannounced inspection and a breach of etiquette. He storms over to Zack in a huff, but Zack explains he chose to come in because the food smelled good. He praises the clean facility, the quality of the food and that nobody slopped food onto the plates, all of which Johnson says is no less than he expects of his staff. When Zack gives high praise to the mess sergeant's own apple cobbler, the man softens and Zack earns his respect. Buelton and Euclid visit Sarah in her trailer. The sheriff awakens her and asks if she believes in Wonder Woman or the Lone Ranger. When she seems confused, he talks to her about thinking that Zack and Army men like him are her heroes. He demands that she roll over and drop her pants so he can enforce the lesson with his belt that there is no Lone Ranger. She complies. When he sees Euclid looking down at her and smirking, he whacks him upside the head before proceeding with Sarah's whipping, which she silently and tearlessly endures. The sheriff then visits the Provost Marshall's office. Ed has expected his arrival and excuses the white clerk at the counter to take on the visitor himself. Buelton says he wants Zack in his own jail and demands he be handed over. Ed casually says he will have him delivered at once, but doesn't move. Buelton challenges Ed and calls him Sambo. Ed says he will also order that by five o'clock the town be off limits to all military personnel to prevent more problems, knowing it would affect the town's livelihood. Ed then warns the sheriff, calling him Jim (as in Crow), not to exceed the speed limit leaving the base or risk spending time in his jail. Insulted, Buelton returns to his office and demands Euclid get every piece of information available on Zack. At a visit to the post hospital Zack sees a crying five-year-old boy being held down by his mother while a doctor stitches cuts to his bloodied face. The mother says his daddy isn't mad at him anymore, and Zack realizes what has happened. He calls the kid's Army father, Corporal Harris (Larry Jordan), into his office and asks if he hit his son. The man becomes defensive and says it is none of his business, but Zack makes it his business, offering to spar with him at the base gym if he feels the need to vent anger, and demands he get counseling. Harris continues to be stubborn, so Zack puts him against the wall and warns that he will visit the hospital daily to make sure the man doesn't lay another hand on the boy, threatening to risk his rank, retirement and the stockade if necessary to stop him, and the chastened man is dismissed. Zack and Billy talk about the boat at home, and Billy mentions naming it the Johnny Boy, saying it would be fitting since Johnny was his favorite son. Zack sets him straight, saying he and his mother had a different and unique relationship with Johnny, who always tried to prove himself (which might have been what had gotten him killed). Billy should never feel that Ladonna or he loved either of them more or less than the other. At school Billy is summoned to his locker. Euclid and Sherriff Buelton ask him to open his locker, but he finds a different lock on it and his combination doesn't work. On orders, the maintenance man breaks off the lock, and a bag of marijuana has been planted inside. Zack contritely visits the jail to see Buelton, and he and Euclid take great joy in humiliating him as he admits his fault and asks what he needs to do to get Billy back. Buelton says that the judge, who happens to be his brother-in-law, will surely send Billy to the county farm for two or three years of hard labor. The sheriff takes Zack on a tour of one of the work farms and has a supervisor pull a black worker off a truck, where he was on break from the work detail, to exercise negative feedback, which consists of beating the man for malingering. Buelton demands $10,000, which he feels Zack can afford after getting word of the article in the magazine. He also warns not to bring in any lawyers. Zack says he will play it his way as long as Billy is safe. He visits his son in jail and tells Billy that Buelton is getting revenge, he will be set free soon and to stay strong. Billy calls his dad sir, and Zack stresses to Billy that he should be as polite to his captors. Back at home Ladonna slaps Zack, furious at him for "whoring" and putting their son in danger. She refuses to listen and says she wants to get a lawyer and bypass any of his ideas. The next day, while Zack is conducting a firearms inspection, Ladonna pulls up in the car and confesses that she had no idea what kind of man Buelton was. At the sheriff's office, Zack quietly hands Buelton the money in a bag, which the sheriff says will keep Billy alive for a while, and Zack argues additional shakedowns had not been part of their deal. The sheriff says hiring the lawyer was dumb. Billy has been tried and sentenced to three years of hard labor at the work farm where, without protection, he might be victimized by degenerates or shot while trying to escape. In the jail cell, Billy has suffered a beating and yells at his father, as he has been told a version of what happened with Sarah at the bar, asking if she was worth it. Zack goes home and thinks things over, weighing his options. At dawn he goes to his tank, prepares the vehicle and then drives it toward the main gate. Major General Hubik is apprised of the situation, and he tells the guards to bar the gate. Zack simply swerves past them, taking down part of the fence as he heads into town. Zack awakens Euclid at the jail with his tank and trains the muzzle on him, asking him to let his son out of jail. Euclid says Billy was taken to the county farm overnight as a precaution, and only a couple of drunks are inside. Sarah has come out of her trailer and says the lawyer they hired is also in the jail. Zack has her retrieve Euclids keys to release the prisoners, then tells him to take the radio out of the squad car. Euclid refuses, saying it's a new radio and the sheriff would kill him if it got ruined, so Zack uses the main gun on the tank to take out the squad car. Then he shoots the main phone line out of town with a machine gun. He drives through the jail using his tank as a juggernaut to level the building. Finally he has Euclid strip naked and Sarah handcuffs him to a telephone pole. She asks Zack to take her with him, as she can't stay there anymore, and he agrees. Outside the work farm, they observe Billy through binoculars, helping a work crew. Zack blasts a truck as a diversion and uses the sound system in the tank to tell Billy to lie down flat; he aligns the tracks vertically on either side of Billy and drives the tank over his son to retrieve him using the hatch in the floor, and the trio take off. The police are called in to block the road, but Zack drives the tank over the squad cars. Buelton talks to the governor of Georgia (Wallace Wilkinson) saying he has a 52-year-old sergeant major who is crazy, along with a sixteen-year-old "dope fiend" and a 20-year-old hooker in a Sherman tank, and asks for help, but he refers the sheriff to the Army. Billy helps Zack with tank maintenance while Sarah washes in the river. He has a disagreement with his father because of Sarah's presence, but Zack says she is willing to testify how she was arrested for vagrancy and forced into prostitution by Buelton on a trumped-up charge, lending weight to their cause, and Zack can then add his testimony as well. He tells Billy they're not running from, but to, the law, hoping to go over the state line, where true authority in neighboring Tennessee can put a stop to Buelton's abuse of power. Buelton visits Hubik to demand aid from the military. Hubik replies the only indiscretion the Army has against Zack is his destruction of a 20-foot section of fence, and Zack had resigned earlier in the day. Then he mentions the Posse Comitatus Act, a law prohibiting the Army rendering aid in a civilian matter without the permission of their Commander in Chief: the President of the United States. The sheriff, unfamiliar with the term, misinterprets it and takes umbrage, thinking he has been called a "pussy communist," and storms off to deal with Zack in his own way. The news media has received word of the fugitives in the tank. Buelton puts his men at every gas station to the state line to stop Zach from refueling. When the tank begins to run out of gas, they pull up to some gas pumps at an off-road home. When Zack restrains the owner, he is surprised when Mr. Gant (Danny Nelson) doesn't protest. He says Zack can have anything he wants, as his sister's son was sent to the work farm and never got out. After a quick rest and a meal, they continue on their way. Buelton speaks to his supporters about Gant abetting a felon. Folks appear at the property with torches to burn the home down and have him serve as a lesson to others. He stands up to them, and suddenly the tank appears. Zack has doubled back to help Gant and drives the mob off. As they take on supplies from Mr. Gant, Billy works with Sarah. He has been cool toward her until finally she sets him straight. Zack only wanted to talk, she says, and if he had taken her back to the trailer to cheat on Ladonna, as most men shes known has, the events would have played out differently. Billy realizes Zack did nothing wrong and gains a new understanding of his father. Meanwhile Gant helps Zack plan his trip to the Tennessee border, suggesting a rougher route which will take them away from a bog where Buelton suspects he may be headed. The tank slips a track as they detour through some rough country, and Zack and Billy work on it together. Billy mans the tank to move it forward when his dad gives the word to Sarah, but Zack mumbles to himself while readying the tank to reset the track, Sarah mishears him as giving the okay and signals Billy to move the tank. The tank jerks and Zack takes a blow from a crowbar to the torso, causing immediate pain. He says his ribs are broken, and later he starts coughing up blood. It becomes apparent that he has internal bleeding, and they need to reach the state line and help soon. Billy says he can handle the tank, as he helped build it. When Zack protests that Billy doesnt have to prove anything like Johnny used to, Billy says he is not like his brother, but more practical like his mother. He realizes his dad took the blame for something that was not his fault. Billy decides to go flat out toward the border rather than moving only by night, to get them out of danger faster. Ladonna talks to Billy and Zack via the military radio and apologizes to her husband for what she said to him. Then she goes to the governor of Tennessee for help, but at first he refuses to see her. She talks to the television news reporter, asking the wives watching to call the governor if they support her cause and ask that he give her five minutes of his time. A helicopter carrying a newsman hovers over the tank while broadcasting on live television, and he interviews Billy through the tanks radio. Billy tells the people that he loves and respects his dad and has no intention of giving Zack over to Buelton. Watching the show is a gang of bikers at a bar who admire Billy and his old man. With the public's outcry, the governor finally gives in and talks to Ladonna in his office. If Zack can cross the state line, she wants the governors promise that a fair trial can be held there instead of in Buelton's jurisdiction. The governor has issues because one of the fugitives is an alleged prostitute, and Ladonna says that it is her own husband and son with the alleged 20-year-old prostitute, and he should have no problem with the matter if she doesn't. She then mentions that she has reporters and his own voters outside waiting for her to deliver his answer, suggesting that he should consider if he will be perceived as a man who wants to see justice done, or as an asshole. He asks if she is threatening him with blackmail, and she brazenly says she is. He agrees to help Zack if the tank arrives, promising in a television interview that there will be a hearing in his state before any extradition is considered. Buelton gets his own supporters together to force the tank, with the aid of roadblocks, to detour into a recessed open field by the side of the only road leading to the state line. The plan is to stall the tank there with mud, and water tanker trucks begin hosing down the dirt in the field as the semis to block the highway are put in place. He has a man named Avery (Don Young) set up a bazooka to fire rounds at the tank when it arrives to ensure it is disabled. At the crossroad on the other side of the border, hundreds of Zack's supporters, who have watched the story play out on television, come to help in any way they can, along with television crews and helicopters. The bikers have also set up to await their arrival. Ladonna gets on the radio to the tank and tells her family and Sarah that they have won. Buelton and his crew hide at the edge of the road with their guns. As the tank approaches the border and he sees the way blocked, Billy steers the tank off the road as expected and starts across the muddy field. Avery fires the bazooka but misses, since he hasn't used the weapon since his own military days, but his second shot hits the tank, and it shuts down. Buelton announces that they can all wait while the climbing temperatures take their toll on the tank's occupants. The general arrives by military helicopter to join Ladonna. When he says the tank has slipped a track and will only move if it is pulled out, the bikers confer on what to do, then they start to unload supplies off a parked truck. When the driver asks what they're doing, they openly reply, "Stealing," to no objection; everybody pitches in to build what turns out to be a ramp. Billy finally goes over the PA to ask about how his father will be treated if they surrender, as Zack is feeling worse due to his injuries. Buelton gives his word that Zack will go to the hospital immediately. Then a biker rides out on the completed ramp, sailing through the air on his motorcycle carrying a rope to be attached to a tow cable that can help pull the tank out of the mud. Billy exits the tank from the bottom hatch and helps attach the cable while Sarah holds Buelton's gunmen at bay with the machine gun. Everybody, with Hubik and the Tennessee Governor on hand, begins to pull on the cable. Buelton tries to instruct his aides to shoot into the crowd, but the armed troopers on the Tennessee side take aim and warn that there will be another Little Big Horn if they do that, so they run into the field and pull from the rear of the tank, which isn't budging. Buelton jumps onto the tank to demand Zack come out, but Sarah turns the turret to knock the sheriff to the ground. The crowd spots a bulldozer that can handle the cable. It is put into use, and along with pulling supporters against the meager crew on Buelton's side, the tank is slowly pulled up the incline, over the Georgia state line and into Tennessee. The sheriff and Euclid are left in the mud. Ladonna embraces Zack and Billy as they exit the tank, and Billy kisses Sarah as the crowd cheers.

The film continues the story from the original movie's conclusion. The Poseidon is still afloat, and the six survivors of Reverend Scott's team have been rescued. After sailing through rough seas, a tugboat captain, Mike Turner (Michael Caine), discovers the capsized wreck of the ship. Accompanied by second mate Wilbur (Karl Malden) and passenger Celeste Whitman (Sally Field), he heads out to claim salvage rights on it, as the tugboat 'S.S. Jenny' lost her cargo in the same storm that capsized it. They are soon followed by Dr. Stefan Svevo (Telly Savalas) and his crew; Kurt (Paul Picerni), Doyle (Patrick Culliton), and Castrop (Dean Raphael Ferrandini) who claim to be Greek Orthodox medics who received the ship's SOS. The seven of them board the doomed vessel and soon become trapped after the corridor entrance to the cut-out hole collapses. The group with Turner also encounters more survivors; the ship's nurse, Gina Rowe (Shirley Jones), a wealthy passenger named Suzanne Constantine (Veronica Hamel), and war veteran Frank Mezzetti (Peter Boyle) who is searching for his missing teenage daughter Theresa (Angela Cartwright), which they soon find along with the elevator operator Larry Simpson (Mark Harmon) and as well as a brash "billionaire" named "Tex" (Slim Pickens). Later they find two more surviving passengers; the blind retiree Harold Meredith (Jack Warden) and his wife Hannah (Shirley Knight), who were waiting for rescue. Water continues to submerge more decks and more explosions occur. Turner and his group find the purser's office, where Svevo decides that he and his men will continue their search for other survivors. Turner agrees and Svevo and his men leave in another direction. Another explosion causes the safe in the purser's office to fall through the floor and open, revealing gold coins (each one worth 100 times its weight in gold) as well as cash and diamonds. Turner and Wilbur excitedly gather it and start looking for another way out of the ship. Unknown to Turner and the survivors, Suzanne was actually working with Svevo and sneaked a list containing information about a cargo of crates from the purser's office. She gives it to Svevo, but decides that she doesn't want to go through with his plan anymore. Svevo apologizes and orders Doyle to kill Suzanne. He shoots her, but she strikes him with an axe before she dies. After climbing up a few decks, Turner and his group find Svevo and his men gathering a cargo of plutonium. Svevo reveals that his real intention of boarding the Poseidon was to retrieve his lost shipment of plutonium to sell on the black market, adding that he can't let Turner and his group go now. However, before they can kill Turner and his group, another explosion occurs, allowing them to escape through another cargo room full of cars, where Frank and another one of Svevo's men is killed during the shootout. Water floods the deck as Turner's group proceed to up to the next deck through a flooding elevator shaft, but Hannah falls into the rising water and drowns, while Turner loses his salvaged diamonds. Svevo and his one remaining henchman head back up to the ship's stern and make it out, where the rest of Svevo's team aboard his salvage boat cut another hole in the Poseidon's hull and attempt raise the plutonium crates from the cargo hold using a crane up to the hull of the ship, which is still above water but is slowly sinking. In another section of the ship, Turner and the survivors exit the ship through an underwater side door, but due to shortage of scuba tanks, Wilbur (unknown to Turner and his group) sacrifices himself by swimming underwater and disappearing. Turner and Celeste swim to the tugboat Jenny and move it closer to the Poseidon as the remaining survivors swim towards it. Svevo's men see them and open fire and kill Tex, who willingly holds onto a bottle of champagne as he goes down. Turner's group makes it to his boat and they sail away. Water continues to flood the Poseidon and cause the on-board boilers to explode, which causes the cargo of plutonium to also do so. The Poseidon completely explodes, killing Svevo and his men. On board Turner's boat, Turner accepts that his tugboat S.S. Jenny will be taken from him when they get to port, but Celeste reveals a diamond that she salvaged from the Poseidon. Celeste asks Turner, "Are you going to kiss me now?" and Turner replies, "I was going to kiss you anyway." They kiss and the tugboat Jenny sails away into the sunset with the survivors Gina, Theresa, Larry, and Harold.

The movie opens with a number of traveling salesmen in a railroad car in 1912, lamenting the things that are making their livelihood difficult--changes in society and the economy, and dishonest salesmen who give them a bad name. They are particularly scornful of a certain "Professor" Harold Hill (Robert Preston), who goes into a town, sells the kids musical instruments, instruction books, and band uniforms, under the promise that he will form a band for them, and then disappears. Someone mentions that "He don't know one note from another!". (This opening song has interesting musical accompaniment: the sound of the train's steam locomotive.) At the end of the song, just when the train is about to start up from a station stop in River City, Iowa, one of the people reveals that he is Harold Hill, and quickly escapes from the train before the others can catch him. Hill finds himself in a small turn-of-the-century Iowa town, full of taciturn people with small-town values. They sing him a song of welcome, explaining that Iowans are stubborn but good natured and generous. He is delighted to find an old friend and colleague from his earlier days as a crooked salesman, Marcellus Washburn (Buddy Hackett). Marcellus says that he is now making an honest living, has settled in River City, and that he likes the town and the people. The two friends reminisce about their shady dealings in the past, and that "Professor Hill"'s current racket is boys' bands. Marcellus says that it will be difficult to make headway on that front, because the town librarian and piano teacher, Marian Paroo (Shirley Jones), is quite smart and will expose him instantly. Harold takes that as a challenge, both professionally and romantically. Harold also mentions that he'll be in town longer than his usual stretch, a week, because not only will he con the town into buying the instruments, but also uniforms, which will take several weeks to arrive. Marcellus still sees the scheme as a very risky one. The mayor's wife, Eulalie Mackechnie Shinn (Hermione Gingold), shows up at the Madison library; she is extremely prudish, ignorant, and outspoken. She complains that the book that Marian recommended for her daughter Zaneeta, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, is smutty: "People lying out in the woods, eating sandwiches, and drinking out of jugs." (This is a reference to the famous line "A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and thou.") Harold needs some interesting current event or fad to hang his pitch on, and Marcellus says that a new pool table is being installed in the local billiard parlor. Harold goes into action. He starts buttonholing local merchants, telling them that this pool table will have a corrupting influence on the youth of the town, and that they need to keep the kids moral. Many townspeople gather around, and he sings the song "Ya got trouble / right here in River City / with a capital T and that rhymes with P / and that stands for pool." Marian stops by to look at the crowd, and Marcellus points her out to Harold with a prearranged signal. Then, as she goes home, he attempts to flirt with her with some trite pickup lines. She is very cold to him. When she arrives home, a little girl from the town, Amaryllis (Monique Vermont), is there for her piano lesson. Marian tells her mother that a man had attempted to follow her. Mrs. Paroo (Pert Kelton) is excited, as she wants Marian to get married and settle down, but Marian is not impressed with the intellectual caliber of the men she meets. The two of them sing an argument, accompanied by Amaryllis playing a piano exercise, about whether Marian's expectations are unrealistic. While Amaryllis is getting a drink from the outdoor water pump, Marian's much younger brother Winthrop (Ron Howard) comes by. Amaryllis invites him to a party she will be giving. Winthrop says no. His mother insists that he say it politely, with her name. He says "No thank you, Amaryllis." But he has a serious lisp, and botches the "s" in her name. Amaryllis giggles at first, but when Winthrop runs inside crying, she is mortified. She tells Marian that she likes Winthrop very much, and says goodnight to him every night on the evening star, but he hardly ever says a word to her. Marian tells her that the lisp is just part of Winthrop's problem, that he hardly ever says anything even to his own family, and that everyone needs to be very patient and understanding with him. She explains that, if Winthrop isn't the right person to say goodnight to on the evening star, she can say goodnight to an unnamed "someone". They sing the song "Goodnight My Someone". The town's annual Fourth of July celebration is held in the high school, presided over by Mayor Shinn (Paul Ford) and his wife. Mayor Shinn is pompous, foolish, and verbally inept. A silly patriotic tableau is presented. Tommy Djilas (Timmy Everett), a teenage boy, sets off a firecracker, right behind the Mayor's wife, causing a ruckus. Amidst all the silly goings on, Harold Hill gets up and complains about the pool table. He is joined by others, and egged on by Marcellus. He gets into his band director's uniform, takes the stage, and makes an impassioned plea for the creation of a boys' band, to keep the youth of the town wholesomely occupied. This turns into the musical song and dance number "Seventy six trombones led the big parade / with a hundred and ten cornets close at hand / they were followed by rows and rows of the finest virtuosos / the cream of every famous band." Marian is completely unimpressed by the spectacle. She tells Mayor Shinn that he and the four members of the school board are being hoodwinked. In response, Mayor Shinn directs the school board to get Harold's credentials. Tommy Djilas gets apprehended by the constable. Mayor Shinn berates Tommy for endangering his wife with the firecracker, and for hanging around with his oldest daughter Zaneeta. Harold says that he will take responsibility for Tommy, and takes him under his wing. Since Tommy is older than the intended age range for the band, Harold suggests a leadership role instead, and charges him with fashioning a device that will hold music for a marching piccolo player. Tommy runs off to find a piece of wire. At the Fourth of July celebration that evening, Harold is met by the School board, who ask him for references. Showing his con artist skill to the utmost, he points out the amazing discovery that they have extraordinary singing talent. Before long, Harold has them (the school board are played by the famed barbershop quartet The Buffalo Bills) singing barbershop songs in perfect harmony. Harold then tries to strike up a friendship with Marian, who is again extremely cold to him. He tells her that he is a graduate of "Gary Indiana Conservatory, gold medal class of '05." Marian remains utterly unimpressed. Harold begins the process of persuading the River City parents to part with their money, for musical instruments and band uniforms, by telling outlandishly exaggerated stories of their children's natural talent. He is quite a con artist. Harold runs into the fashionable ladies of River City in the livery stable, and, in contrast to Marian, they are "all agog" over his talent. He tells them he wants to form a lady's classic dance auxiliary. He flatters Mrs. Shin, in the most preposterous way, over her alleged physical grace. The ladies are enthused over the formation of this group. Then he mentions Marian, hoping that they can help win her over by putting her in the dance group. They are instantly hostile about her. They say that, as librarian, she advocates dirty books--titles by authors such as Chaucer, Rabelais, and Balzac. Furthermore, she made "brazen overtures" to "Old Miser Madison", the man who had donated huge amounts of money to the town, building many of the town's facilities. He left the Madison Library to the town, but left the books to Marian personally. They also paint her as a spinster of sorts, having seen her frequenting his house many times. They sing the song "Pick a Little, Talk a Little" about this. Then the school board people show up, demanding Harold's credentials. He distracts them by singing the line "Good Night, Ladies" at the ladies, and the school board breaks into a barbershop rendition of that song, while Harold slips away. The two songs, by the ladies and by the school board, are then sung as an "ensemble song", simultaneously and in harmony with each other. That evening, Harold tells Marcellus that his interests in women are not toward the pure and wholesome type, but the worldly and more experienced type, which he now perceives Marian to be. He sings the the song "The Sadder but Wiser Girl." The next day he goes to the library and attempts once again to strike up a relationship with Marian. He tells her that he knows about Mr. Madison, and that he forgives her indiscretion in the matter. Marian is incredulous, and once again totally rejects his advances. He sings the song "Marian the Librarian" causing organized chaos in the otherwise silent and peaceful library. Harold continues to work the townspeople, at one point almost persuading Mayor Shinn himself to sign up his son for the band, before he realizes that he has no son. He gets to the Paroo home, and persuades Mrs. Paroo that her son Winthrop will be a natural cornet player. Winthrop shows up, and Harold tells him about the band, and the cornet, and the uniform. Winthrop asks "Will it have a ...." and draws a line down his outer pant leg; he doesn't want to say the word "stripe" because of the "s". Harold assures him that it will have a stripe; Winthrop then runs off. Mrs. Paroo explains that Winthrop hardly ever talks. Harold tells Mrs. Paroo about his alma mater--"Gary Conservatory, gold medal class of '05." He sings the song "Gary, Indiana." Marian shows up; Harold hadn't realized until then that she was part of that family. Marian tells Harold that they are not interested in the band. Harold suggests that the boy's father should be asked. Marian tells Harold that he should not meddle in the family's affairs, and that their father died two years previous. She says that this event was so devastating to Winthrop that he has become the withdrawn and unhappy child that he is. After Harold leaves, Mrs. Paroo urges Marian, once again, to settle down and get married, and says that Harold might be her last chance. Marian sings "Being in Love", about what she's looking for in a man. At the library, Marian comes upon the Indiana State Educational Journal, and looks in it, finding information that contradicts Harold's claims about the Gary Conservatory. The Wells Fargo wagon comes to town, an event that is always met with great anticipation because of the interesting things that it brings from far-off places. Just before it arrives, Marian tells Mayor Shinn that she has found incriminating information in a book. But Mayor Shinn puts her off for a moment, since this delivery will be very special: the band instruments. The townspeople sing "The Wells Fargo Wagon." When the wagon stops, Harold distributes the instruments, including Winthrop's cornet. Winthrop is utterly beside himself with enthusiasm. He goes to Marian and speaks very excitedly and exuberantly: "SisterSisterIsn'tThisTheMostScrumptiousSolidGoldThingYouEverSaw? INeverThoughtIdEverSeeAnythingSoScrumptiousAsThisSolidGoldThing. OhSister!" Marian realizes that, con man though he is, Harold is also a miracle worker in the change she has seen in Winthrop. She has a change of heart about Harold, and secretly tears the incriminating page out of the Journal before handing it over to Mayor Shinn. Harold distributes the other instruments, and tells the kids to stay off the streets and to think about Beethoven's Minuet in G. (He has what he calls the "think system" of music. Instead of dealing with reading music and memorizing notes, one just needs to think about a melody, and it will come out.) At the high school, the women's dance committee meets, under the leadership of Mrs. Shinn, and engages in some ridiculously foolish dance practice. Elsewhere in the school, Harold is exhorting the students: "If you want to play the Minuet in G, think the Minuet in G." The boys ask reasonable questions about such elementary things as how to hold their instruments, and Harold deflects the questions with his usual subterfuges. He then has them just sing the Minuet in G. He tells Tommy Djilas to take over the rehearsal, having them sing for another hour or so. At the ice cream parlor, Harold treats Tommy and Zaneeta Shinn (Susan Luckey) to sundaes--he has been encouraging their romance, even though Mayor Shinn doesn't want his daughter hanging around with Tommy. The Mayor bursts in, and upbraids Tommy. Tommy stands up to him, as does Zaneeta. He throws Tommy out of the place, and takes Zaneeta home. Marian is there too, and protests the Mayor's actions, to no avail. Mayor Shinn also complains to Marian that he was unable to find any incriminating evidence in the book. Marian and Harold discuss his educational methods, and says that Winthrop never actually plays his cornet. Harold tells her about his "think system". They are very friendly and cordial. On his way home, Harold is met by the school board. They demand his credentials immediately. He distracts them once again by discussing famed female bassoonist Lida Rose Quackenbush. They sing the barbershop song "Lida Rose" while Harold escapes yet again. Meanwhile, Marian, on her front porch, sings the song "Sweet and Low". Then the two groups, even though they are separated, turn these into another ensemble song, singing them together. Winthrop comes by while Marian and Mrs. Paroo are on the front porch, and shows them a pocket knife that Harold gave him, describing in detail and with great enthusiasm all its many blades and features. He says that he and Harold spend a lot of time together. Marian asks what they talk about. "Sometimes we talk business, and sometimes we just talk." Harold taught Winthrop a song "with hardly any "s"'s in it", which he sings--the "Gary, Indiana" song. There will be a big public "sociable" at Madison Park that evening. But first, Charlie Cowell (Harry Hickox), an anvil salesman, shows up at the Paroo residence. (He had been one of the salesmen speaking about Hill's nefarious dealings in the train scene at the very start of the movie.) He has extensive written documentation of Harold Hill's fraudulent methods, and he wants to give it to Mayor Shinn. When he sees the sign in Marian's window about giving piano instruction, he discusses it with her; he assumes that she saw right though Harold from day one. Instead, she defends Hill, and says that Charlie is making a big mistake. Charlie is under a tight time constraint because his train is just making a short stop. Marian uses her feminine wiles to delay him so he won't have time to get to Mayor Shinn. She succeeds at making him miss the train. He angrily walks off, after telling her that Harold Hill has a girl in every county of Illinois, and cozies up to all the piano teachers also. Harold comes by, and he and Marian talk. She is upset by what Charlie Cowell said, and confronts him about his many alleged romantic relationships. "One hears rumors about traveling salesmen." He says "One hears rumors about librarians." She assumes that's a reference to the rumors, by the fashionable ladies of the town, about Mr. Madison. She tells him indignantly that he was "Uncle Maddy", her late father's best friend, and that he gave the library's books, and the librarian job, to her personally so that the family would be provided for after her father's death. Harold suggests that she meet him at the footbridge at Madison Park. She is reluctant at first, because meeting at the footbridge has serious romantic connotations in River City folklore, and she's never been to the footbridge with a man before. But he persuades her. The festivities at the party begin with a huge dance number, with Marcellus singing "Shipoopi". Harold and Marian are then going to go to the footbridge. While Harold is going to the footbridge, the next organized entertainment occurs: an extremely silly interpretation of Grecian Urns by the ladies dance auxiliary, under the leadership of Mrs. Shin. While this is happening, the constable summons Mayor Shin to go off and speak to Charlie Cowell, who has finally managed to contact someone in authority. Harold and Marian meet at the footbridge. They are finally in love. She says that she knows he will have to move on to other towns, but that she is grateful for what he has brought to the town. They sing "Till There Was You". She tells Harold that she knew he was a fraud practically from the start; the Educational Journal said that there couldn't have been a Gary Conservatory gold medal class of '05, because the town hadn't been founded until '06. She gives him the incriminating page that she had torn out of the book. Though he is in love with Marian, Harold knows that he will either have to skip town or be arrested. Back at the party, Mayor Shinn interrupts a barbershop song by introducing Charlie Cowell, who tells the crowd that Hill is a swindler, and that he has a large amount of written proof of it. The townspeople are aghast. Winthrop runs off, crying. The townspeople run in all directions searching all over town for Harold. Not knowing anything about this, Harold and Marian arrive at her house. She goes inside to put on a shawl. Harold stays outside, singing "Seventy Six Trombones". Inside, Marian sings "Goodnight my Someone". They turn it into another ensemble song. While the massive search goes on, with Marcellus attempting to mislead them, Mrs. Paroo arrives home, and warns Harold and Marian that people are talking about tar and feathers. Harold doesn't know what to say. Marian tells him that he doesn't owe her anything, and he needs to leave. Winthrop arrives home, very upset, and Harold stops him. Harold realizes that he has been harming people whom he cares about, and he needs to drop his con-man persona and be honest with people. He tells Winthrop that he will level with him. Winthrop asks "Can you lead a band?" "No." "Are you a big liar?" "Yes." "Are you a dirty rotten crook?" "Yes." Harold then tells him "There are two things you're entitled to know. One, you're a wonderful kid. I thought so from the first. That's why I wanted you in the band, so you'd stop moping around and feeling sorry for yourself." "What band?" Harold sadly admits "I always think there's a band." "And what's the other thing I'm entitled to know?" "The other thing's none of your business, come to think of it." He glances up at Marian as he says that; clearly the other thing is that he wants to become Winthrop's brother-in-law. Winthrop says that he wishes Harold had never come to River City. Marian steps in at this point, saying that everything Harold promised actually came true, in the good way everyone in the town behaved all summer, especially Winthrop. Winthrop tells Harold he needs to leave, but he can't tear himself away from Marian. The constable catches up with him and leads him away in handcuffs. The Paroo family are all devastated. People have gathered at the high school. Mayor Shin addresses the angry crowd. When he hears that Harold Hill has been caught, he announces, in his usual artless way, "The sword of restibution [sic] has cut down Professor Harold Hill." Hill is brought in. Mayor Shinn suggests that he will be tarred and feathered. Marian gets up and makes an impassioned plea: "I should think some of you could forget your everlasting Iowa stubbornness long enough to remember what this town was like before Harold Hill came. Do you? Well, do you? And after he came. Suddenly there were things to do, and things to be proud of, and people to go out of your way for. Surely some of you can be grateful for what this man has brought to us. And I should think you'd want to admit it." Mayor Shinn stops her. He says that anyone who doesn't want Harold Hill tarred and feathered should stand up. After a long pause, people slowly start standing up. Mrs. Paroo, Zaneeta, the school board, the dance committee, even Mrs Shinn, who stands up defiantly again when her husband orders her to sit down. Mayor Shinn reminds them that they were promised a band. "Where's the band? Where's the band?" Then Tommy Djilas, out in the corridor, blows a director's whistle, the doors open, and the children file into the room, in uniform, with their instruments. They line up in concert formation at the front of the room. Marian gives Harold a podium and a makeshift baton. Harold gets up in front of the kids, but is frightened. Marian gives him a reassuring look. He mutters desperately "Think, men, think!" and starts to conduct. The kids play the Minuet in G, very badly, but recognizably. That's good enough for the parents. They are delighted. "That's my Barney." "That's Eddie." The final scene is a fantasy in which the children's band is replaced by a large number of real musicians who parade down the street playing "Seventy Six Trombones".

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