Sig Ruman

An introductory WWII newsreel sets the stage. D-Day is fast approaching, but the exact date and designated invasion beaches are closely-held secrets. The British Isles are bulging with troops, ships and equipment. The story begins in London on May 31, 1944. An American army major, Jefferson Pike (James Garner), enters Allied Forces HQ to discuss the ongoing invasion preparations. The top brass aren't convinced that Allied deception efforts have fooled the Germans. While poring over a wall map of German troop dispositions in France, Pike inadvertently slides his finger along the edge of the map, incurring a nasty paper cut. To hedge their bets, the High Command sends Pike to Lisbon to meet with a German double agent and see what he knows. Pike expresses concerns that if captured and tortured, he might reveal exact invasion details. His superiors feel that the risk is justified. As Pike flies out of London in civilian garb, a German spy sees him boarding the plane and reports it to her handlers. Another German spy enters his vacant hotel room and gathers personal items, including photos, letters and hair samples from his brush. In Lisbon, Pike goes to a nightclub to meet his contact but quickly realizes that his drink has been drugged shortly before he passes out. He is soon in German hands, placed in a coffin as a deceased German embassy clerk, and flown to Germany. An American-born German army major, Walter Gerber (Rod Taylor), is a military psychiatrist in charge of an elaborate deception scheme designed to coax the invasion secrets from Major Pike. An entire "American" military convalescent center has been set up deep in a German forest to fool Pike. Major Gerber is given 36 hours to extract the invasion plans from Pike. After that, Pike will be handed over to the SS to gain the information through their usual means. Gerber also understands that the consequences of failure will be catastrophic for his own future. When a groggy, disoriented Pike finally awakens, he is relieved to find himself in Allied hands. Looking in a mirror for the first time, he is shocked to find his dark hair streaked with gray, his skin aged, and his vision blurry. His every move is observed through a two-way mirror. Piece by piece, Pike is sold the idea that it is now May 1950, the war is long over, and he is convalescing at an American military hospital in occupied Germany. Both Major Gerber and pretty nurse Anna Hedler (Eva Marie Saint) are leading actors in the ruse. Pike's room contains familiar photos and Anna is able to provide accurate details about his parents. Rigorous measures are taken to ensure that Pike is surrounded by dozens of role players who are fluent in American speech dialects and customs. No one is allowed to speak German, even out of Pike's hearing. Pike is told that he is suffering from severe amnesia, a side effect from the severe "beating" he supposedly absorbed after the Lisbon incident six years earlier. According to the cover story, Pike was found wandering alone in Lisbon and sent back to the US to recuperate, but continual regressions over the years dictated that he be sent to Major Gerber in Germany for experimental psychological therapy. His nurse tells him that she and Pike have been married for two months, but due to another regression he doesn't remember her. In an unguarded moment with Anna, Pike asks about the war's closing months and mentions something about the invasion sites having been in Normandy. She tries to conceal her shock and reports the sensational disclosure to Major Gerber, who then manages to skillfully extract the most important invasion details from the trusting Pike. The race is on. The date is now June 2. After the session with Gerber, Pike is absent-mindedly rubbing his fingers together when he suddenly irritates the painful paper cut incurred in London two days earlier. Gradually recalling the injury, confusion registers on his face. With his suspicions aroused, Pike takes steps to confirm his worst fears and then violently confronts Anna, who admits to the elaborate plot. She explains that she went along with the ruse in order to buy her way out of a concentration camp. Out of hatred for her captors, she agrees to help Pike. He tells her to run out of his room screaming that he has escaped and that he has known about the plot from the outset. Pike slips out the back way, knowing that he will be caught. Now the Germans must determine whether Pike was telling the truth about Normandy or trying to deceive them. A disappointed Major Gerber asks how and when Pike figured out the scheme and Pike tells him about the paper cut. Gerber explains that Pike was carefully examined for injuries when he arrived, but the cut was obviously concealed in a skin crease. Gerber still thinks Normandy was a truthful answer, but he knows no one will believe him. The SS indeed discounts Pike's accurate story and allows the bulk of the German forces to remain idled near Calais. Gerber explains regretfully that Pike will now be handed over to the tender mercies of the SS. Hating the SS and realizing that he will probably be executed for his costly failure, Major Gerber settles on a daring plan to have his pioneering research on psychological combat trauma live on. He gives his research papers to Pike and Anna, advises them how to get across the border, and helps them escape from their locked room. The race for freedom is now on, with a zealous SS officer trying to capture the pair before they can escape over the Swiss border.

One day in Desert Hole, New Mexico, bumbling train station attendant Homer Flagg impulsively hops a passing train, hoping it will take him to an exciting new life in New York. Instead, Homer is chased off the train by an MP and jumps into an abandoned automobile near the tracks. Oblivious to a sign on the front grille identifying the car as radioactive, Homer drives off toward the Los Alamos nuclear test site and ends up at a gas station. When Homer finally notices the sign, he faints, and the next day, his imminent death from radiation poisoning is announced in newspapers across the country. In New York, Morning Chronicle reporter Wally Cook convinces her wary publisher, Oliver Stone, that Homer's terminal illness would be great fodder for a series of articles and talks him into inviting Homer to spend his last days in New York at the paper's expense. Homer, meanwhile, learns from his incompetent doctor, Steve Harris, that he was misdiagnosed and is not dying after all. Homer is unhappy about the news, as the railroad was about to give him $300 to go to New York, and reluctantly returns to the depot. There, Homer meets Wally as she is disembarking, and when she tells him about The Chronicle's offer, cannot bring himself to admit he is healthy. Homer races to Steve's office and begs him not to send his amended medical report to the railroad, but Steve refuses until Wally shows up and enchants him. Steve then insists on accompanying Homer to New York, and on the plane there, knocks Homer out with some pills and flirts shamelessly with an unreceptive Wally. In New York, Homer receives a hero's welcome and is put up at the Park Ritz Hotel, where he begins ordering room service, a new wardrobe and other expensive amenities. Steve cautions Homer to act sick, but Homer has a difficult time suppressing his excitement during highly publicized appearances at Yankee Stadium and the Wonderland Ballroom. There, while Steve tries to romance Wally, Homer dances a wild jitterbug after a waiter slips him some vodka and champagne, then collapses on the floor. The next day, at the hotel, Steve ministers to a hungover Homer, whose guilt at deceiving Wally and the world is starting to take its toll. To please Steve, Homer agrees to tell Wally that Steve loves her and wants to marry her, even though he is in love with her, too. When Wally shows up and admits to Homer that she is going to talk to the governor about erecting a statue in his honor, Homer protests that he is unworthy. Seeing his opportunity, Homer then tells Wally how much Steve loves her, but Wally insists that she loves Homer and wants to marry him. Swept up in the moment, Homer agrees and later rejects Steve's angry suggestion that he tell Wally the truth to ensure that she is marrying him for love. Just before the ceremony, however, Homer overhears Wally confess to Steve that she actually loves him but wants to make Homer's last days happy. At the altar, Homer refuses to say "I do" and runs back to the hotel to pack. When Wally, Oliver and the mayor demand to see him, Homer hangs from a chandelier and pretends he is a fighter pilot, hoping to convince them that he has gone insane. His act works, but Wally is so filled with pity that she talks Oliver into paying to have the top radiation sickness experts flown to New York. Wally distracts Steve, who has stipulated that only he be allowed to treat Homer, long enough to kidnap Homer and take him to the hospital where the foreign doctors are to examine him. To prevent the examination, Steve tries to knock Homer out, but is himself knocked out. When the unconscious Steve is mistaken for Homer and wheeled in to be X-rayed, Homer dons different disguises and impersonates each of the three doctors separately in an attempt to fool them into diagnosing radiation sickness. The doctors deduce Homer's scheme, however, and inform Oliver that he is as healthy as a horse. Unaware they have been exposed, Steve comes up with the idea to publicly "cure" Homer, and the two begin to celebrate their cleverness. Wally arrives unexpectedly at the hotel, however, and reveals that she is on to them. Though relieved that Homer is well, Wally demands that he fake committing suicide, then slip out of town. As directed by Wally, Homer leaves a suicide note in his hotel room and goes with Steve and a camera-wielding Wally to "drown" himself in the river. The note is soon found by some Boy Rangers, who notify the fire department and Oliver. Determined to see Wally's scheme succeed, the mayor, Oliver and his "sluggers" race to the river to cajole the frightened Homer into jumping before the fire department arrives to save him. Homer instead falls into the river, crashing through his rescue rowboat. The rowboat sinks, and later, after Homer's grand public funeral, Homer and Steve, who has married Wally, undertake the jobs assigned to them by the mayor--street cleaning.

Biography of bandleader Glenn Miller from his beginnings to his death over the English Channel in December 1944. The unemployed trombone player Glenn Miller is always broken, chasing his sound to form his band and hocking his instrument in the pawn house to survive. When his friend Chummy MacGregor is hired to play in the band of Ben Pollack, the band-leader listens to one Glenn's composition and invites him to join his band. While traveling to New York, Glenn visits his former girlfriend Helen Berger, in Boulder, Colorado, and asks her to wait for him. Two years later he quits the band and proposes Helen that moves to New York to marry him. After the success of "Moonlight Serenade", Glenn Miller's band becomes worldwide known and Glenn and Helen and their two children have a very comfortable life. Duting the World War II, Glenn enlists in the army and travels to Europe to increase the moral of the allied troops. In the Christmas of 1944, he travels from London to Paris for a concert to be broadcast; however his plane is never found in the tragic flight. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Captured Americans coping with life in a German POW camp in World War II are puzzled by the simplicity with which the Germans are able to stave off escape attempts, shooting those who try. Sefton () is a POW who has profitably wagered with his fellow American prisoners that these escapes would fail. The POWs fear there may be an informer in their midst, but who is it? As it becomes clearer and clearer to his fellow inmates that Sefton has considerable contact with his German captors, his fellow POWs mistakenly conclude that he is the informer and they turn on him, including physically beating him and helping themselves to some of his belongings. Sefton understands in full that to clear his name, he must determine the identity of the real informer, and he is, eventually, able to work out that Price (), whose English is impeccable, is a German informant masquerading as an American POW. Written messages, Sefton discovers, are being smuggled by Price to the Germans through a hollow chess piece on the chessboard in the barracks, with phony air raid drills staged to enable the Germans to retrieve these messages undetected. Now realizing that Price has figured prominently in the death of the Americans that have attempted escape, Sefton plots revenge, and, after exposing Price's true identity to his fellow POWs, he maneuvers to force Price to make an unauthorized exit from the barracks. To the guards manning the tower, Price's exit looks like an American escape attempt, and they shoot him, much to the dismay of Stalag Commandant Von Scherbach (). The diversion created by the shooting incident gives Sefton a chance to escape, and he takes with him a brave lieutenant () who has recently been captured. Because of the measures of success against the Germans he had gained prior to his capture, the lieutenant is a marked man, but he and Sefton are successful in their escape attempt. The elimination of the German informer and the first successful escape by American POWs lift the spirits of the other POWs. ================================ A few days before Christmas, 1944, at the German prisoner-of-war camp, Stalag 17, two American POWs, Manfredi and Johnson, inmates of Barracks 4, are preparing an escape. The story's narrator, Cookie, one of the prisoners, suggests that there may be a traitor among the men of Barracks 4. The men have secretly been digging a tunnel from their latrine to a point just beyond the barbed-wire fence that marks the perimeter of the camp. After going over their plan to sneak into Switzerland, Manfredi and Johnson get out of the barracks through a trap door hidden under the wood-burning stove and sneak into the latrine. They crawl through the tunnel and begin digging to the surface beyond the barbed wire fence. Inside the barracks, the men speculate as to how long it will take their comrades to emerge beyond the fence. They begin to predict that the escapees will make it all the way when one of them, a shrewd man named Sefton, wagers two packs of cigarettes that the men won't even make it out of the nearby forest. The other men, most of whom dislike Sefton, wager against him. Outside, Manfredi and Johnson dig to the surface and are about leave when they are spotted by a small German squad outside the fence, who open fire, killing them both. Inside the barracks, the remaining prisoners, including Sefton, are disheartened, knowing their buddies could not possibly have escaped. The hot-headed Duke demands an explanation from the barracks' security officer, Price. Price says he doesn't have an answer. Meanwhile, Sefton and Cookie quietly gather up the cigarettes that Sefton has won in the bet and store them in a footlocker Sefton keeps under his bed. The next morning the entire camp is awakened for roll call. Barracks 4 is overseen by Sergeant Schultz, a jolly man whom the men have absolutely no trust for. In the camp's muster grounds, the men are addressed by the camp commandant, Oberst von Scherbach. Scherbach tells the men that his guards successfully prevented the escape from the night before and that no man has ever escaped from his camp alive. He also has the corpses of Manfredi and Johnson lying in the mud and uncovered for all the men to see. The Barracks 4 chief, Hoffy, protests the treatment of the bodies and demands they have a proper burial. Von Scherbach agrees to do so. Von Scherbach goes on, saying that being caught outside the barracks after lights out means summary execution. Also, the stove in Barracks 4 will be removed so it cannot be used to camouflage the trap door the men cut in the floor and the men will also dig up the tunnel they dug and fill it in. Von Scherbach also announces that each barracks will be given a small Christmas tree and that all the prisoners will go through delousing. One of the prisoners, the shellshocked Joey, begins to play his ocarina, which is gently taken away by another prisoner, Stanislaus "Animal" Kazawa (Animal makes Joey another one later as a Christmas present). While the commandant talks and uses a mocking tone, Animal slyly throws the ocarina at the water in front of the commandant, splashing his highly polished boots with mud. The Commandant demands the guilty man step forward. Animal does and is followed moments later by several other men. Eventually, the entire prisoner population steps forward, covering for Animal. The Commandant, temporarily flustered, cancels the Christmas trees and tells the men they'll be deloused with cold water from the camp's fire hoses. The men are dismissed. After the men have the opportunity to clean up in their latrines, and following a small incident where Animal is nearly shot for crossing the barbed-wire of the camp while lusting after Russian female prisoners, the men go back to their barracks for breakfast. Sefton fries himself an egg in front of the other prisoners and when questioned about how he paid for it, he tells them that he bartered for it using the cigarettes he'd won the night before. The other men are quite angry that Sefton would use cigarettes he'd gotten as a result of the deaths of their comrades, however, Sefton counters, saying that many other prisoners trade with the Germans and that life in the camp is such that thievery is common. One of the other prisoners, the short-tempered Duke, tells Sefton that collusion with the Germans could get him hurt or killed and small fight breaks out. Hoffy promptly breaks it up and Sefton, claiming he has indigestion, gives the fried egg to Joey. Price, the barracks security officer, asks Sefton how he could be so sure that Manfredi and Johnson wouldn't make it to freedom. Sefton says he didn't know for sure but he "liked the odds" of the situation. Sefton also angrily tells his comrades that they're wasting their time and risking their lives unnecessarily by trying to escape. Sefton plans to ride out the war as a prisoner and stay alive. The barracks of the camp share a ham radio that they keep hidden and use to listen to the BBC and other communications about the war. The radio is smuggled throughout the compound by Marko and his partner, Steve, who is on crutches having lost a leg in combat. They use his empty pantleg to hide various items, including the radio. When the radio is brought to Hoffy and Barracks 4, Marko tells them they can have it only for two days instead of a week; the traitor in their barracks is known to the rest of the camp and the other barracks chiefs fear the radio will be discovered. The men set up the radio immediately, using a few yards of chicken wire as the antenna, which doubles as their volleyball net. One of the prisoners, Blondie, is a radio expert and begins to report about military actions in Europe; the news he picks up is about the famous Battle of the Bulge. Just then, Schultz arrives to seize the barracks stove and the radio is cleverly hidden in a pail of water. Hoffy and Duke try to grill Schultz about the barracks spy but Schultz refuses to tell them anything. Schultz also notices that a signal from the spy has been left for him; a loop has been tied in the cord for one of the bare light bulbs hanging from the rafters. After he barks orders for the men to report outside to fill in the escape tunnel, he goes to the chess board and takes the black queen. Pulling off the crown, he sees a small note rolled up and hidden inside. He exchanges the queen for an identical piece, pulls the loop out of the cord and walks out. While the men uncover the escape tunnel they dug, they notice a horse-drawn cart going by with the coffins of Manfredi and Johnson. The men all remove their hats in respect. Cookie narrates for a while about Sefton himself who, despite the poor conditions of the camp, has built a substantial entrepreneurship for himself based mostly on the trading of cigarettes. Sefton has several successful businesses at his disposal including distilling schnapps from potato peels, horse races (he uses mice that run around a small track), and a telescope that the men use to peek into the delousing shack in the Russian compound where female prisoners are disinfected. Hoffy, Price and Duke are not pleased with Sefton's ventures, fearing that the Germans will find out and punish them more harshly than ever. During a session where Sefton has the telescope set up, Harry Shapiro and Animal try to sneak into the Russian prisoners camp to look inside the windows of the delousing shack, using a pot of white paint to mark a line down the center of the road. They're caught immediately by a German guard and escape when they slap him in the eyes with the brush, making it back to their camp successfully as their comrades cheer. A new prisoner arrives; Lieutenant James Dunbar, who is being housed at 17 until the Germans ship him to the officers camp. Dunbar is greeted warmheartedly and comically by the rest of the barracks. However, there is instant friction between him and Sefton. Sefton, from the same suburb of Boston, tells everyone that Dunbar is from a wealthy family and should be pampered during his stay. Dunbar lets the first few comments go but tells Sefton that he can resent his family's wealth but he should tread cautiously. Sefton tells Dunbar that his family fortune won't protect him in the camp. Sefton leaves the barracks, to an unknown destination. The rest of the men ask Dunbar about how he was captured & brought to the camp. He was shot down on a bombardment mission and had been on his feet for three days without any sleep. He'd have been brought to Stalag 17 earlier but there was a major delay coming out of Frankfurt: a German munitions train was destroyed just outside the city and snarled much of the Reichsbahn transport for miles around. The sergeant that accompanied Dunbar, Bagradian, tells everyone that it was Dunbar himself that blew up the train. Dunbar is modest about the incident but tells everyone that he'd rigged a simple time bomb and tossed it aboard the train as it was leaving the station. Schultz shows up unexpectedly, telling the men they'll be getting new blankets. A visit from a representative of the Geneva Conventions is due to show up in a few days & the Commandant wants to give the appearance that the camp is complying with regulations. Hoffy scoffs and says that they know the blankets will be confiscated after the Geneva agent leaves. Schultz also confiscates the radio, playing coy for a bit before revealing it's hiding place in the bucket. He also sees that a new message has been left for him by the spy. He orders the men outside to get their blankets and retrieves the hidden message. After the men file back into the barracks they turn on Cookie, demanding to know where Sefton has been for the past few hours. With Hoffy's permission, Animal breaks into Sefton's footlocker & discovers a wealth of contraband that Sefton has been hoarding, including a cuckoo clock and silk stockings. Duke appears and tells them that he knows where Sefton disappeared to: he's been over at the Russian women's barracks partying with them. In a fury, Hoffy smashes Sefton's prized telescope. When Sefton returns, he finds the men staring angrily at him and that his footlockers have been broken into. Hoffy and the rest of the men suggest that he's the German spy they've been unable to identify. Sefton claims he's innocent and that the men should hold a kangaroo court. The Commandant suddenly makes an appearance and arrests Dunbar for suspicion of sabotaging the train that was destroyed near Frankfurt. Dunbar is taken into custody and the men become angrier with Sefton, immediately suspecting him. They turn on him and he is brutally beaten. The next morning, on Christmas Eve, the men are rousted out by Schultz to receive Red Cross parcels, brought by the Geneva agent. A mistaken shipment leaves the men with a large supply of ping-pong balls. Sefton is nearly unable to get out of bed and Schultz notices that he's been severely beaten. Sefton tries to bribe Schultz into revealing the identity of the traitor but is rebuffed. When the other prisoners walk in on them, their belief in Sefton as the traitor is reinforced. Hoffy tells Sefton that he tried to get Sefton transferred to another barracks but couldn't. Sefton tells everyone that he'll find out who the traitor is. Schultz walks in with the Geneva agent, who inspects the barracks and sees through the ruse of beautifying the camp: the blankets smell of moth balls & the meat promised in the men's meal is missing. When he asks Price and Harry about the conditions they live in, they both give non-committal answers but refuse to speak up about problems. When he questions Sefton about his obvious injuries, Sefton refuses to rat out his fellow prisoners. Hoffy takes the opportunity to tell the agent about Dunbar being taken to the Commandant's quarters without formal charges and the agent promises to investigate. At the Commandant's apartment, Dunbar is being forced to stand upright in an attempt to make him confess. Dunbar has held out but is rapidly becoming weaker with the lack of sleep he had while being taken to the camp. After talking a bit about how he became a prison camp warden, he places a call to his superior to let him know he has caught the saboteur responsible for the Frankfort train explosion. When the Geneva agent arrives, he asks about Lt Dunbar. The agent tells Von Scherbach that he cannot torture Dunbar in this manner without proof. The Commandant agrees and says he'll find out about the time bomb Dunbar allegedly used. Later in the day, the men celebrate with a small tree they decorate with their dog tags, smuggled to them by Marko and Steve. The men have traded Sefton's distillery equipment for the camp's phonograph and begin to sing "When Johnny Comes Marching Home". Price steals away from the group and sees that the cord for the light used to flag a message has been looped. Revealing himself as the traitor, he's able to switch the black queen for a new one. When the marching line of his barracksmates catches up to him, he enthusiastically joins them. Sefton, still recovering in his bed, notices that the loop in the cord is gone. Later, while playing horseshoes with Bagradian, Price asks him how the Lieutenant could have carried any explosive device with him through the German prisoner searches in the train station. Bagradian tells him Dunbar simply folded a lit cigarette into a book of matches. When the cigarette burned down it lit the matches, causing a fire that detonated the ammunition. That night the men gather around the tree and sing "O, Come All Ye Faithful". Sefton notices that the loop in the cord has reappeared. The solemnity of the evening is ruined when the camp lights go out & Schultz tells them all to evacuate and take refuge in the trenches used in case of bombings. Schultz waits until everyone leaves and begins talking in German to Price, who'd lingered behind to make sure the barrack was empty. He shows Schultz how Dunbar sabotaged the train using the method Bagradian told him about. After they leave, Sefton steps out from a hiding spot, having heard the whole conversation. On Christmas Day the men throw a party in their barracks with music and much of the liquor and wine that Sefton had been hoarding. Sefton talks to a suspicious Cookie about the traitor in their midst. Sefton talks about the potential consequences of revealing the traitor to the others & what punishment they'd face if they killed the man outright. Sefton suggests that a well-constructed plan to rid themselves of the traitor and appear blameless is needed. Cookie suggests that Sefton tell Hoffy or Price. Sefton takes the suggestion to heart. Hoffy shows up and announces that the SS has arrived to take Dunbar into custody -- his method for destroying the ammo train has been uncovered. Hoffy tells the men that they've come up with a plan to rescue Dunbar from the SS. All the men from the other barracks will disperse outside and help with a diversion. Sefton seizes the opportunity to demand that he stay in the barracks & be guarded by someone they trust -- Sefton suggests Price. Outside, the men have Steve drop a smudge pot crafted from ground ping-pong balls from his empty pantleg onto the mud near the SS agents car. When the cover from it is thick enough, also making it impossible for the tower guards to open fire, a small group of the men rush the SS guards and grab Dunbar, hiding him. The commandant is furious and runs checks of every man against their records. The barracks are thoroughly searched and the prisoners are forced to stand in the appelplatz for six straight hours, however Dunbar is never found. It is later revealed that Dunbar is hiding out in one of the water towers above one of the latrines. That night Hoffy calls a meeting where they'll collect everyone's dog tags, with the notable exception of Joey and Sefton, and draw the name of the man who will get Dunbar out of the water tower and out of the camp through the barbed wire. When the name is drawn, Price takes the tag and says he'll go. He figures that his work as barracks security chief has been less than adequate and he'd like to make it up to the men. Another trap door is cut in the floor and as he prepares to leave, Sefton steps forward and announces another wager that Dunbar will never make it out of the camp. The men are instantly furious with him but he slowly begins to reveal Price as the traitor: he approaches Price and asks him where he was when Pearl Harbor was bombed. Price slips up, saying he was having dinner at six in the evening, but in Germany, when America was getting the news earlier in the day. Sefton tells everyone that Price had sworn loyalty to his family's homeland and had gone back to Germany when the war broke out, he'd been trained as spy and was planted in the camp. Price tries to escape through the trap door but is easily caught and subdued. Sefton then tells everyone that he'll be the man to get Dunbar out -- he likes the odds because now they can use Price as a decoy. Considering that he'd sent Johnson and Manfredi out to their deaths when they tried to escape, Hoffy and the other prisoners are eager for payback. They'll throw him out the door with cans tied to his leg and he'll draw the searchlights and gunfire from the Germans in the guard towers. Sefton slips down through the trapdoor, bidding everyone a sardonic farewell and sneaks over to the latrine. He gets a freezing Dunbar down from the water tank and waits for the signal from his comrades. When Price is thrown out into the appelplatz he draws fire from all the towers, despite his cries for help in German. As he desperately tries to approach the commandant's offices, he's gunned down. At the edge of the camp, Sefton cuts through the wire fence and he and Dunbar escape into the woods. In the appelplatz, the commandant and Schultz first smile at the corpse lying the mud but are quickly chagrined to find that it's not Dunbar, but Price. In the barracks, the men reflect on how well Sefton's plan worked. The Animal suggests that Sefton merely wanted to steal their wirecutters. Cookie happily begins whistling the theme of the Army Air Force.

In the 1890s, young Harry Houdini is performing with a Coney Island carnival as Bruto, the Wild Man, when Bess, a naive onlooker, tries to protect him from the blows of Schultz, his "trainer." Harry then appears as magician The Great Houdini and, spotting Bess in the audience, invites her on stage. Harry flirts with the unsuspecting Bess during his act, but she flees from him in a panic. When Bess shows up to watch Harry perform two more times, however, he corners her. Bess admits her attraction, and soon after, the two appear at Harry's mother's house, newly married. Bess becomes Harry's onstage partner, touring the country with him, but soon grows tired of the low pay and grueling schedule. After Bess convinces Harry to take a job in a locksmith factory, Harry works as a lock tester while fantasizing about escaping from one of the factory's large safes. On Halloween, Harry and Bess attend a special magicians' dinner at the Astor Hotel, during which magician Fante offers a prize to anyone who can free himself from a straight-jacket. Harry accepts the challenge and, through intense concentration, extricates himself from the jacket, greatly impressing Fante. Afterward, however, Fante advises Harry to "drop it," noting that Johann Von Schweger, a German magician, retired at the height of his career after performing a similar feat, fearful of his own talents. Bess then persuades Harry to give her his prize, a single, round-trip boat ticket to Europe, so that she can cash it in for a down payment on a house. Later, at the factory, Harry locks himself inside one of the big safes, determined to make an escape. Before he can get out, however, the foreman orders the safe blown open, then fires Harry. That night, in front of his mother, Harry and Bess argue about their future, and frustrated by Bess's insistence that he quit magic, Harry walks out. Soon, a contrite Bess finds Harry performing with a carnival and presents him with two one-way tickets to Europe. Sometime later, at a London theater, Harry and Bess are concluding their magic act when a reporter named Dooley challenges Harry to break out of one of Scotland Yard's notoriously secure jail cells. Harry, who hired Dooley to issue the challenge, accepts the challenge, unaware that the jail's cells do not have locks in the door, but on the outside wall. Despite the added difficulty, the dexterous, determined Houdini picks the cell lock and appears on time for his next performance. Now billed as the "man who escaped from Scotland Yard," Harry begins a successful tour of Europe with Bess. In Berlin, Harry is joined by his mother and begins searching for the reclusive Von Schweger. While performing an impromptu levitation trick with Bess at a restaurant, Harry is arrested for fraud. During his trial, Harry denies that he ever made claims to supernatural powers, insisting that all his tricks are accomplished through physical means. To prove his point, Harry locks himself in a safe in the courtroom and breaks out a few minutes later, noting that safe locks are designed to keep thieves out, not in. Vindicated, Harry then goes to see Von Schweger, who finally has responded to his queries, but learns from Von Schweger's assistant, Otto, that the magician died two days earlier. Otto reveals that Von Schweger summoned Harry to ask him the secret of "dematerialization," a feat he accomplished once but could not repeat. Although Harry demurs, Otto insists on becoming Harry's new assistant and travels with him to New York. There, Harry finds he is virtually unknown, so for publicity, hangs upside down on a skyscraper flagpole, constrained by a straight-jacket. Harry executes the escape and soon makes a name for himself in America. To prepare to be submerged in a box in the chilly Detroit River, Harry bathes in an ice-filled bathtub. During the trick, which takes place on Halloween, the rope holding the box breaks, and the box drops upside down into an opening in the ice-covered river. Although Harry manages to escape from the box, the current drags him downstream, and he struggles to find air pockets under the ice and swim back to the opening. Above, Bess and the horrified audience assume Harry has drowned and proclaim his demise. To Bess's relief, Harry shows up later at their hotel, admitting that he heard his mother's voice, directing him toward the opening. Just then, Harry receives word that his mother died at the exact time that he heard her voice. Two years later in New York, Harry, who has not performed since his mother's death, reveals to Simms, a reporter, that he has been trying to contact his mother's spirit, without success. Harry invites Simms to attend a seance with him, and after the medium appears to have communicated with his mother, Harry and Otto expose her as a fake. After a public crusade against phony mediums, Harry decides to return to the stage and builds a watery "torture cell" for the occasion. Terrified, Bess threatens to leave Harry unless he drops the dangerous trick, and he agrees not to perform it. Before the show, Harry admits to Otto that his appendix is tender, but goes on, despite the pain. When the audience noisily demands that he perform the advertised "water torture" trick, Harry succumbs and is immersed, straight-jacketed and upside down, in a tank of water. Weak, Harry cannot execute the escape and loses consciousness. Otto breaks the tank's glass, and after reviving, Harry vows to a weeping Bess that he will "come back."

It's some 20 years after the Frankenstein monster and the wolfman met their demise in "Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman" (1943), but Dr Neimann [Boris Karloff] and his hunchback assistant Daniel [J Carroll Naish], currently locked in jail, still plan for a way to cure Daniel's deformity by Dr Frankenstein's operation. When lightning destroys the jail wall, they escape. They link up with Dr Lampini's traveling horror show, and Daniel kills Lampini [George Zucco] so that Neimann can take his place. They plan to head "towards those for whom I have UNloving memories." First stop is Regalberg where they revive Dracula [John Carradine], in the guise of Baron Latoes from Transylvania, who kills the Burgermeister who originally put Neimann in jail. Dracula is re-skeletonized by the morning sun as he attempts to crawl back into his coffin. Next, they head for the village of Frankenstein to search for Dr Frankenstein's records. Here, Daniel rescues and falls in love with gypsy girl Ilonka (Elena Verdugo]. They find the ice cave where the Frankenstein monster [Glenn Strange] and the wolfman [Lon Chaney, Jr] lie frozen, revive the wolfman, and enlist his help in return for a cure if he will help in transporting the monster to Neimann's old laboratory in Visaria. On the way to Visaria, Daniel and Neimann care for the monster while Larry Talbot [the wolfman] and Ilonka drive the wagon and fall in love, much to Daniel's dismay. They also kidnap two of Neimann's nemeses--Herr Ullman [Frank Reicher] and Herr Strauss [Michael Mark] -- because Neimann plans to give Ullman's brain to the monster, the monster's brain to Talbot, and the wolfman's brain to Strauss. Daniel begs for Talbot's body so he can have Ilonka, but Neimann says no. Daniel attempts to warn Ilonka about Talbot's wolfman side, but she refuses to believe him. To release his anger, Daniel whips the supposedly unconscious monster. The full moon rises that night, and Talbot changes to the wolfman. The next day he confesses to Ilonka. She vows to release him. That evening, Neimann finally gets down to business. He revives the monster but not soon enough. Talbot changes into the wolfman and attacks Ilonka who shoots him; they both die. Distraught, Daniel attacks Neimann, the monster kills Daniel, the villagers see the lights flickering in Neimann's laboratory windows and attack the monster, who carries Neimann's body into the swamp where they both get sucked into quicksand. [Original synopsis by bj_kuehl.]

Opening title-card: Men have been rightly called the masters of the world. Men have subdued the wild animals. Men have penetrated deep into the jungle, and have been able to look at the moon and the planets. But there is still one place on Earth where no man has ever set foot nor has been even permitted to glimpse. We open inside a ladies lounge where Jill Baker (Merle Oberon) drinks a full glass of water. Her friends ask her about her problem, which is not clear yet. Jill powders her nose. Margie Stallings (Olive Blakeney) finally convinces her to go see Dr. Vengard (Alan Mowbray). Jill enters Dr. Vengards office, where he takes down her information. She tries to lie about her age, which he sees right and asks again. This age he writes down with a question mark next to it. Jill then claims to not have a problem, to which the Doctor replies that she is just not in-tune with herself. She tells him that her problem comes and goes. He asks What comes and goes? To which she says Hiccups. Dr. Vengard believes the hiccups are caused by a nervous condition, so he wants to run some tests. They step into another room. Time has passed, and Dr. Vengard has questioned Jill about her past, and now begins asking about her marriage and husband. After asking about her sleeping habits and making a comparison to being on a vegetable diet while the person next to you eats a steak, Jill relates this to her husband and starts hiccupping. Margie comes over to Visit Jill. They talk about Dr. Vengard, quickly moving to problems in her marriage. Jill tells Margie of the other morning when she had finally fallen asleep, only to be woken up by a gargle. Larry Baker (Melvyn Douglas) then comes home, exchanges a quick conversation of how are you, and then leaves again. Larry pops his head back in to ask if the Coopers are coming to dinner, so he knows whether to shave or not. This prompts the girls to discuss martial issues again, causing Jill to start hiccupping again. Larry reads the paper in his office. Jill comes in and tells him her hiccups are back. Thinking shes kidding, he pocks her in the stomach teasingly and goes back to the paper. Jill tries to talk to him again, this time Larry tells her about Mr. Kafka (Sig Ruman) coming to dinner next week. He tells her to make it have Hungarian influence for Kafka, and then practices a Hungarian toast. He pokes her in the stomach again. She questions him about it, and asks him not to keek her anymore as she leaves the room. Inter-card: And so the keeks was gone out of another marriage. Jill paces in the bedroom, while Larry sleeps. She climbs into bed and makes a bark like noise. Larry, in a half sleep, gets out of bed and lets the dog outside. She tells him it was her who made the noise. Just then the dog barks outside to which Larry shhs her. Jill enters Dr. Vengards office, who is out, so she waits with another man. He goes back and forth about wanting a cigarette. They begin talking, to which he speaks his mind and is touchy by what she says. He seems to hate everything. He thumbs through a magazine till he comes across an article entitled: The Happy Bakers. He asks her how she is so happy. After seeing she is uncomfortable, he goes to leave. She stops him asking him why he hates a certain painting. He compares it to the her article saying its misrepresentation. Jill and the man enter an art gallery. He finally introduces himself as Alexander Sebastian (Burgess Meredith). They both criticize the pieces of art, until they come across one that is suppose to be a portrait of Sebastian, but is just a bunch of different things. He describes what the different items mean. A line in the paining stands for his inhibition, for which he has gone to see Dr. Vengard about, as a musician he cant play in front of a crowd of people. Inter-card: There was a smell of Goulash at 685 park avenue when Universal Mattress and United Furniture were about to invade the Baker home. The Butler (Richard Carle) and Maid (Mary Currier) place the name cards on the dining table. Larry arrives at home and rushes into the living room, passing by Sebastian on the couch. He enters the bedroom where Jill is putting on makeup. The maid delivers a package to Larry, it is a record: Night in Budapest. Larry walks out into the living and plays the record. After a few seconds he is startled by Sebastian. Larry asks him what he thinks of Universal Mattress and United Furnitures merger, as well as Mr. Kafka. Sebastian, blowing past the questions, puts away a vase he finds ugly and orders scrambled eggs instead of Goulash. Larry returns to the bedroom, where his wife tells him about Sebastian and his piano playing. They begin arguing over the importance of tonights dinner. Larry notices a copy of the portrait of Sebastian on the bed. He asks what it is. After feeling his intelligence has been assaulted, he grabs a framed photo of himself and asks Jill what this is. He storms out. The guests have arrived and take their seats at the dining table. Larry gets Jill to say the Hungarian toast. The whole table is a buzz with laughter and smiles. Sebastian shows off his skills with the Hungarian language. This ignites the whole table into side conversations in Hungarian. The guests, finished with dinner, move into the living room. Larry locks the piano and turns on the record player and his new record. After a few seconds the record starts skipping, Sebastian grins at Larry, who turns off the player. Larry, urged by his attorney, Jones (Harry Davenport), of time running out, walks over to Kafka to make a proposition with him, but is cut off by Sebastian about to play the piano. Everyone sits down. A woman sits close to the piano, which makes Sebastian nervous. Jill asks the woman to move. Finding the piano locked, Jill searches for the key as Larry makes another move on Kafka, but is again cut off by Sebastian breaking the lid off the keys. Sebastian notices Jill has taken the ugly vase out while searching for the key, he asks her to put it away again. Sebastian mentions what he will play. Hearing how long it will be, Larry pulls Jones out of the room. The party is over, Sebastian plays the piano for Jill alone. He gets up and holds her in an embrace about to kiss her, Jill pulls away. Camera stays on the piano, silence as they are off screen. Suddenly, Sebastian comes back and plays the piano loudly and happily. She asks him to stop playing, he doesnt. Finally she leaves. He sits on the couch alone. Larry and Jones walk down the street talking about how things turned out fine with Kafka. Larry spots the portrait of Sebastian in a store window. He enters the store, and finds out what the painting is of: Sebastian. Larry leaves. Larry comes home to Jill practicing the piano. She tells him that she is sleeping better and the hiccups have disappeared. Larry sees Sebastians portrait on the wall. He comments how he thinks it looks like a man, to which Jill denies and makes up different meanings for it. Larry Paces in Jones office complaining about Sebastian. Jones brings in his secretary (Eve Arden) to get a womans point of view about the situation. Jones asks her about the problem, all the while not doing a very good job of disguising Larry as Mr. Brown. She tells him to kick Mrs. Brown out. The secretary leaves. Jones tells Larry to sell his wife on their marriage again, by using a new slant. Larry sneaks up behind Jill and puts her hands over her eyes. She thinks it is Sebastian playing around. She faints finding out it is Larry. He carries her over to the couch, as Sebastian bursts in singing. Larry leaves to get smelling salts, Sebastian puts the ugly vase away again. Larry hands Sebastian the smelling salts to wake up Jill. She wakes up laughing seeing Sebastian, but faints again seeing Larry. Larry this time carries her into the bedroom and closes the door. Larry steps out of the bedroom and talks to Sebastian about insuring his hands. Sebastian doesnt want to fight, claiming his hands are his life. Larry leads him into his office to talk more. Larry pulls out a gun, pointing it at Sebastian who pleads he doesnt love Jill. Larry punches Sebastian out, Larry wakes him up. Larry calls a hotel to reserve a room, then leaves his office, Sebastian follows. Larry pretends to forfeit, and tells Sebastian if Jill ever gets in a bad mood to just keeks her. Larry, Jill and Sebastian sit in Jones office discussing the grounds for the Bakers divorce. Larry wants to leave everything to Jill. Sebastian and Jones leave the office, allowing the Bakers to have a sentimental exchange about how their relationship has changed. Sebastian comes in, and upon seeing Jill in a mood, keeks her. Jones comes in saying the divorce is settled. Jill storms out with Sebastian after her. Larry and Jones have a drink over how well Larrys plan is going. Jill and Sebastian return, ready to go thru with the divorce once more. Sebastian keeks Larry in the stomach, Larry punches him to the floor. Now both Bakers upset again, Jones describes the plan to stage the grounds for divorce. After rehearsing, Jones calls his secretary in to be the witness, unbeknownst to her. They start their plan. The Bakers get into an argument, but come across like nervous actors. The secretary leaves the office, Jones calls her back in. They start the argument again, but when it comes time for Larry to slap Jill, he cant do it. Larry takes a drink, Sebastian gives him a pep talk. The argument begins again. Time for the slap, another drink and pep talk instead. Larry comes back, and in one motion slaps Jill then leaves. Jill and Sebastian soon follow. The Carlton Plaza: the butler visits Larry in his hotel room. He tells Larry that the entire staff, besides one, has left on the account of Sebastian. Jill paces in her bedroom, annoyed by Sebastian piano playing. Margie enters the house and makes her way into the bedroom. Her and Jill exchange pleasantries. Jill leaves and returns a few seconds later, the piano playing has stopped. Sebastian enters, accuses Margie of not liking his music, and then leaves. Sebastian calls Jill out to the living room to say he is leaving. Jill returns to the bedroom. Margie tells Jill of Larry spending time with another woman, which makes her hiccups return. Jill comes to visit Larry at his hotel room. She gives him some photos of when they were together. He looks thru them quickly, pretending not to care about them. He tries to get her to leave, she walks around the hotel room and then dashes towards the bedroom. Larry stops her from opening the door. She apologizes for everything, but he doesnt except it easily. Larry pulls out the photos again, they start laughing and remembering the photos events. Jill insists that she talks with the other woman in the bedroom. Larry agrees, but goes in first to set it up. Inside the bedroom, Larry lays on the bed smiling. This is no other girl. Larry wails in the bedroom, Jill listens nervously. Jones secretary then enters the hotel room. Jill hands her the handbag and quickly gets rid of her. Jill laughs knowing what Larry is up to. Larry runs out and grabs a glass of water, then runs back into the bedroom trying to keep up the scheme. Larry comes out again claiming it is hopeless. They say goodbye. Larry gives Jill a kiss and embrace, then says hell try and talk to the other woman again. Late at night, Sebastian enters the house and calls out to Jill. No answer. He begins to play the piano, when Larry exits the bedroom and tells him to play quieter. Sebastian now upset, grabs all the photos of himself and storms out of the house. Larry locks the door behind him and turns off all the lights going back into the bedroom. Inter-card: And the hiccups never came back. The End.

A stern Soviet woman sent to Paris to supervise the sale of jewels seized from Russian nobles finds herself attracted to a man who represents everything she is supposed to detest. Only the royal suite at the grandest hotel in Paris has a safe large enough for the jewels of the Grand Duchess Swana. So the three Russians who have come to sell the jewels settle into the suite until a higher ranking official is dispatched to find out what is delaying the sale. She is Ninotchka, a no-nonsense woman who fascinates Count Leon who had been the faithful retainer of the Grand Duchess. The Grand Duchess will give up all claim to the jewels if Ninotchka will fly away from the count. —Dale O'Connor <daleoc@interaccess.com> Three Russian officials arrive in 1930s Paris to sell the jewels that were once the property of the Grand Duchess Swana. The Duchess wants to reclaim her property and her friend, Leon, manages to stop the sale at least temporarily. With the time dragging on, a new no-nonsense Russian envoy, Ninotchka, arrives to take over the negotiations. She chastises her three colleagues for their obvious enjoyment of capitalistic society but soon finds herself charmed by Leon, at first not realizing he is involved with the jewels. They fall in love but it's unclear if there is any chance of their relationship ever becoming permanent. Leon sets out to ensure they do. —garykmcd Soviet emissaries Buljanoff, Iranoff, and Kopalski no sooner arrive in Paris to sell some jewelry for the government than soft capitalist ways begin to corrupt them. Grand Duchess Swana, former owner of the jewels but now exiled in Paris, sends her very good friend, playboy Leon d'Algout, to interfere with the sale. When sly Leon meets stern Comrade Nina Ivanovna, sent to take over from the hapless emissaries, east-west romance results; but major complications intervene. —Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>

An eccentric woman learns she is not dying of radium poisoning as earlier assumed, but when she meets a reporter looking for a story, she feigns sickness again for her own profit. Hazel Flagg of Warsaw, Vermont receives the news that her terminal case of radium poisoning from a workplace incident was a complete misdiagnosis with mixed emotions. She is happy not to be dying, but she, who has never traveled the world, was going to use the money paid to her by her factory to go to New York in style. She believes her dreams can still be realized when Wally Cook arrives in town. He is a New York reporter with the Morning Star newspaper. He believes that Hazel's valiant struggle concerning her impending death is just the type of story he needs to resurrect his name within reporting circles after a recent story he wrote led to scandal and a major demotion at the newspaper. He proposes to take Hazel to New York both to report on her story but also to provide her with a grand farewell to life. She accepts. Wally's story results in Hazel becoming the toast of New York. In spending time together, Wally and Hazel fall in love. Hazel not only has to figure out what to do about her relationship with Wally, but also how to conclude her now very public story, which all of New York expects will be a public and imminent death. Others, however, may conclude the story for her. —Huggo To redeem himself after a hoax, reporter Wallace Cook proposes a series of stories on doomed Hazel Flagg. Hazel discovers she really doesn't have radium poisoning, but still accepts the big fling in New York that Cook offers her. At first, she has a great time, but complications arise when she and Wally fall in love, and an Austrian specialist discovers that Hazel is faking. —Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>