Stuart Whitman

Adventurer gets caught up in a plot to kill Fidel Castro.

A small aircraft crash lands in the Kalahari Desert. One of the passengers decides to search for help, while the remaining five, including one woman, take shelter in a mountain populated by a troop of baboons. A small airplane crashes in the sweltering deserts of southern Africa hundreds of miles from civilization. As parallels are drawn between the stranded group of seven passengers and a nearby pack of savage baboons, one of the men's survivalist nature gets the better of him, as he decides his chances of survival would be better if the other men were eliminated one-by-one.

In China, in 1943, after the Japanese have cut off supply lines and American pilots are ferrying food, medical supplies and refugees, Capt. Cliff Brandon (Victor Mature) lands at the American air base in Kunming after a flight from India. Cliff, who has been saddled with an inexperienced crew, has become demoralized and morose as a result of his war experiences and spends most of his free time drinking in Sadie's Place, a local bar where he is often propositioned by young women. One night, Cliff leaves the bar in a drunken state and encounters an old man (W.T. Chang) in the street, who offers him the company of a young woman. Unable to communicate with the old man, Cliff wakes up the next morning to find that the girl, Shu-Jen (Li Hua Li), has followed him home and intends to stay. Father Cairns (Ward Bond), a priest who operates St. Joseph's Mission, visits Cliff for coffee, and Cliff quickly explains the misunderstanding about the girl, then orders Ellington (Danny Chang), a young Chinese boy who spends time at the airfield, to get rid of her. Later, after Cairns finds Shu-Jen outside Sadie's expecting to get a job as a "hostess," he takes her with him to the mission. When Cliff visits Cairns for a game of chess, the priest explains that Shu-Jen is one of 11 children, three of whom have died, and that Cliff, in his drunken state, agreed to hire her as a bonded servant for three months. Cairns adds that pride decrees that she act as his housekeeper and that the money will certainly help her family. Initially, Cliff refuses, but relents and takes Shu-Jen to Alice Nichols (Elaine Devry), an American Red Cross canteen worker, to find clean clothes for her. Meanwhile, Dan O'Neill (Stuart Whitman), one of Cliff's crew, is romancing Mona Perkins (Ann McCrea), another Red Cross volunteer. At his home, Cliff instructs Ellington to tell Shu-Jen that she is to be only his housekeeper, then asks the boy to stay with him as house guest and chaperon. After Col. Wiley (Denver Pyle) assigns Cliff to fly refugees to Calcutta, he returns with medical supplies for Cairns and a small brooch for Shu-Jen. However, Cliff has a malaria attack and, delirious, allows Shu-Jen to lie beside him for comfort. Cliff recovers, but goes to tell Cairns that "something happened" and that Shu-Jen should go home. Upon discovering that Shu-Jen is pregnant, Alice, a war widow who has become romantically involved with crew member Phil Gates (Bob Mathias), tells Cliff that he has neither honor, nor decency. When Cliff returns home, he finds that Shu-Jen has just left for her home. Cliff drives after her, finds her and tells her that, although it has taken him a while to realize it, he is in love with her. However, when Cliff enlists Ellington's help in formally proposing marriage, Shu-Jen declines, fearful that their marriage will create problems for him. With Cairns's help, Cliff finally convinces Shu-Jen, and they are married in a traditional Chinese ceremony. At the ceremony, Wiley tells Cliff and his crew that they have to leave the next day to fly out of a different base. Later, Cliff, now a changed man, receives word that Shu-Jen has had a baby girl and a few weeks later, when Alice and Mona are reassigned to the same base, they bring Shu-Jen, who has learned some English, the baby and Ellington with them. After a successful mission to drop supplies to troops on an offensive in Burma, Cliff and his crew learn that their airbase is being bombed by the Japanese. Although fired on by enemy planes, Cliff manages to land and plans to evacuate the base. Tragically, he learns that Shu-Jen has been killed in the attack and that the baby is missing. As Wylie has also been killed, Cliff is now in command and orders the plane to leave without him. Cliff then goes back to where Shu-Jen was killed and hears a baby crying. In a pile of rubble, Cliff finds his daughter alive, under the body of Ellington, who died protecting her. A Japanese plane returns to strafe the base and Cliff is hit. He places his identification tags in the baby's hands, then mans an anti-aircraft gun and shoots down several planes before being killed in a direct hit. In 1957, at Los Angeles International Airport, Alice and Phil, Dan and Mona, and others from Cliff's crew eagerly await the arrival of a flight. After many years of searching, Father Cairns has located Cliff and Shu-Jen's daughter in an orphanage in Hong Kong and has sent her to America to be looked after by her parents' friends. A teenager (Tita Aragon), displaying Cliff's dog tags, descends the steps from the plane, and they all embrace.

At their villa in the south of France, beautiful, spoiled young American heiress Louise Durant informs her wealthy father Nicholas that she is going to the music conservatory in Zurich to study piano and be near her beau, Paul Bronte, a violinist in his final year of study. The headstrong Louise adds that she plans to marry Paul, although he does not know this yet. In Zurich, Louise rents an apartment from Frau Sigerist, and meets fellow tenant James Guest, an American studying piano on the G.I. Bill. The following morning, Louise auditions for Prof. Schuman and, acknowledging her unexceptional talent, tells him she wants to study at the conservatory to be near the man she loves. When the kindly professor cautions her that great musicians do not always make good husbands, Louise confesses that she does not share Paul's passion for music. Schuman then tells Paul that he has chosen him to perform the violin solo in Tchaikovsky's Concerto in D Major with the Zurich Philharmonic. Paul leaves Louise alone in Schuman's waiting room for hours while he practices the piece, and she finally gets angry and walks out. Paul finds Louise in her room packing, and although she is disheartened by the thought of always coming second to Paul's music, he persuades her to stay. Louise strikes up a friendship with James, and allows him to use her piano to practice. One day, Louise gets a telegram from her father asking her to join him in St. Moritz, and brings Paul with her. Nicholas concedes that the young man has a certain "arrogant charm," but warns Louise that Paul will never need her as much as she desires. As the date of his concert debut grows nearer, Paul gets into an argument with the conductor at a rehearsal, and when Schuman reproaches him, he walks out in anger. When Louise tries to console him, Paul bitterly blames himself for being unprepared. Schuman gives Paul another chance, and Paul tells Louise they must not see each other until after the concert. Louise reluctantly consents, and the lovers speak only on the phone during Paul's intensive rehearsal period. On the night of the concert, Paul performs with great passion, and is so much in demand after the show that Louise is again left waiting alone. Paul's career is immediately launched, but Louise feels excluded and takes no pleasure in his success. When Paul tells her he must continue to focus on his work, they quarrel and Louise walks out. From her apartment that night, Louise sees Paul kiss a pretty conservatory student and drive away with her. Later that night, Frau Sigerist hears a noise coming from Louise's room and goes to James for help. James breaks down the door, and they find Louise on the floor, unconscious from taking an overdose of pills. Nicholas is summoned, and is impressed by James's devotion to Louise during her recovery. When she is well again, Louise prepares to join her father in Paris. James asks her to stay, and although the now-hardened Louise lightly dismisses his protestations of love, his desperation moves her. Time passes, and Paul tours the world as a concert violinist. One day, after encountering Nicholas on the street in Paris, Paul calls Louise at the Ritz, and she happily agrees to meet him. While waiting for her in the bar, Paul sees James at a booth, drunk and miserable. Paul is surprised to learn that James married Louise several weeks earlier, and leaves the bar in disgust. Louise seeks Paul out at the concert hall and offers to divorce James, but while he admits he still loves her, he rejects her offer. A conversation with Nicholas convinces Louise that she needs to redeem herself in Paul's eyes by helping James, and she tells her husband they must go back to Zurich. James returns to the conservatory, and Louise patiently supports him through his long hours of practice. In time, James's first concert appearance is announced, and Louise sends her father a flyer with a note saying she wishes Paul knew she did it all for him. Nicholas passes the flyer to Paul after a concert, and Paul is pleased by the change in Louise. Soon afterward, Louise comes home and finds a letter slipped under her door. On the evening of James's concert debut, Louise tells him she is going away with Paul after the concert, and implores James to see that he can succeed without her. Despite his obvious suffering, James plays brilliantly, unaware that Louise is watching him from the back of the auditorium. Paul comes for Louise and finds her watching her husband with great emotion. After the concert, James is standing on the empty stage when Louise appears and rushes into his arms.