Teresa Wright

Rudy Baylor (Matt Damon) is a graduate of the University of Memphis Law School. Unlike most of his fellow grads who get high paying jobs due to their family connections, he has no high-paying employment lined up and is forced to apply for part-time positions while serving drinks at a Memphis bar. There were just too many lawyers in Memphis. Desperate for a job, he reluctantly goes to an interview with J. Lyman "Bruiser" Stone (Mickey Rourke), a ruthless but successful personal injury lawyer, who makes him an associate. To earn his fee, Rudy is turned into a veritable ambulance chaser, required to hunt for potential clients at a local hospital. Bruiser's associates only get paid by finding cases and working them up for trial. Rudy will be paid $1000 per month, and the firm gets to keep 33% of all the awards from the cases, and Rudy gets a percentage of that. Soon he meets Deck Shifflet (Danny DeVito), a less-than-ethical former insurance assessor turned paralegal who has failed the bar exam six times. Deck is resourceful in gathering information and practically an expert on insurance lawsuits. Rudy is taking his bar exam in 3 weeks. Rudy manages to get just one case, concerning insurance bad faith against a company called Great Benefit. It could be worth several million dollars in damages, which appeals to him as he is about to declare himself bankrupt. He rents a room in the home of elderly Miss Birdsong (Teresa Wright), who in return could use some advice on what to do about greedy relatives eager to inherit when she dies. Deck finds out that Birdsong did inherit a couple of million dollars from her 2nd husband, but after lawyers and IRS, she is left with about $40,000. When Birdsong's son comes to visit, Rudy tells him that his mother got a large inheritance, and this gets him to take better care of his mother. Deck asks Rudy to sign the Great Benefit clients and Rudy visits the family of Dot, Buddy and their son Buddy. Dot shares all the correspondence from Great Benefit with Rudy, in which they deny Buddy's claim for Leukemia. Great Benefit claimed that Leukemia was not covered in the policy as it was a Pre-existing condition, even though they had taken all the premiums. In one of the letters, they call Dot stupid. Rudy passes the Tennessee bar exam but is not yet properly licensed to stand as an attorney. When Bruiser fails to show up for court for the Great Benefit case, Rudy attempts to argue the case, but Judge Harvey Hale (Dean Stockwell) scolds Rudy and tells him to first get his license. Defense attorney Leo F. Drummond (Jon Voight) offers to stand for Rudy as Rudy is sworn in before the judge. Drummond is a showman attorney who uses unscrupulous tactics to win his cases and heads a group of experienced and devious lawyers from a large firm. Drummond offers Rudy $75,000 to settle the case out of court. Bruiser's offices are raided by the police and FBI on suspicion of racketeering. Rudy finds that Bruiser has disappeared. Before fleeing, Bruiser gave Rudy and Deck $5000 each. Not knowing what else to do, Rudy and Deck set up a two-man practice themselves, without so much as a secretary for help. They file a bad faith suit on behalf of a middle-aged couple, Dot (Mary Kay Place) and Buddy Black (Red West ), whose 22-year-old son Donny Ray (Johnny Whitworth) is dying of leukemia but could have been saved with a bone marrow transplant, denied by their insurance carrier Great Benefit. The original judge assigned to Rudy's case, Harvey Hale (Dean Stockwell), is set to dismiss it because he sees it as one of many so-called "lottery" cases that slow the judicial process. But a far more sympathetic judge, Tyrone Kipler (Danny Glover), takes over when Hale suffers a fatal heart attack. Kipler, a former civil rights attorney, immediately denies the insurance company's petition for dismissal. While preparing his case, Rudy gets to know a young woman he met at the hospital, Kelly Riker (Claire Danes), a battered wife whose husband, Cliff (Andrew Shue), has beaten her so savagely with a baseball bat that she was hospitalized. Bruiser had sent Rudy to the hospital to sign her up as a client, but he got attracted to her instead. Cliff only spent one night in jail for his violent assault in Kelly. Kelly got pregnant at 18, got married to Cliff, and had a miscarriage probably because Cliff beat her. Rudy knew she was a loser, but wanted to protect her. Kelly still wasn't able to leave Cliff. After a particularly violent attack, Rudy persuades Kelly, to whom he is attracted, to file for divorce. Going to Kelly's home to pack her belongings, Rudy and Kelly are confronted by Cliff. After Cliff is injured in the fight, Kelly insists Rudy leave. From outside, Rudy can hear Cliff being hit with his own baseball bat. To protect Rudy from being implicated in Cliff's death, Kelly tells the police she killed her husband in self-defense. Rudy promises to defend Kelly if the case goes to trial, but the district attorney declines to prosecute, knowing Kelly would never be convicted. Donny Ray dies, but not before giving a video deposition. The case goes to trial, where Drummond preys on Rudy's inexperience. He gets Rudy's key witness, Jackie Lemanczyk's (Virginia Madsen), vital testimony stricken from the record, and attempts to discredit Donny Ray's mother (Mary Kay Place). With help from now Caribbean-based fugitive Bruiser (with whom Deck is connected by intermediaries), Jackie's testimony and the Great Benefit Employee Manual are finally admitted into evidence, to Drummond's dismay. Due to Rudy's single-minded determination and skillful cross-examination of Great Benefit's unctuous president, Wilfred Keeley (Roy Scheider), the jury finds for the plaintiff with a monetary award far exceeding all expectations. It is a great triumph for Rudy and Deck, at least until Keeley attempts to flee the country and Great Benefit declares itself bankrupt, thus allowing it to avoid paying punitive damages to the Blacks, as well as any future judgments in class-action lawsuits. There is no payout for the grieving parents and no fee for Rudy or Deck. Dot Black expresses satisfaction that at least they put Great Benefit out of business and is now unable to hurt other families like hers. Convinced his success will create unrealistic expectations for future clients, Rudy abandons his practice to instead teach law with a focus on ethical behavior instead. He leaves town with Kelly, wanting to retain a low profile and protect Kelly from any possible retribution by Cliff's vengeful relatives. He leaves the legal profession after just one successful case.

In 1972, college theater student Richard Collier (Christopher Reeve) celebrates the success of his first play. During the celebration, he is approached by an elderly woman who places an antique pocket watch into his hand and pleads "Come back to me." Richard does not recognize the woman, who returns to her own residence afterward. Eight years later, Richard is a successful playwright living in Chicago, but has recently broken up with his girlfriend and is struggling with writer's block. Feeling stressed from writing his play, he decides to take a break and travels out of town to the Grand Hotel. While looking at a display in the hotel's museum, Richard becomes entranced by a strangely captivating photograph of a mysterious, beautiful young woman. With the help of Arthur Biehl (Bill Irwin), an old man who has been at the hotel since 1910, Richard discovers that she is Elise McKenna (Jane Seymour), a famous early 20th-century stage actress. Upon digging deeper, he learns that she was the aged woman who gave him the pocket watch eight years earlier, but died afterward later that same evening. Richard visits Laura Roberts (Teresa Wright), Elise's former housekeeper and companion. While there, he discovers a music box that plays the 18th variation on Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini by Rachmaninoff, his favorite musical piece. Among Elise's personal effects is a book on time travel written by an old college professor, Dr. Gerard Finney (George Voskovec). Richard becomes obsessed with traveling back to 1912 and meeting Elise, who he has fallen in love. He seeks out Professor Finney, who believes that he briefly traveled through time through the power of self-hypnosis. To accomplish this process, one must remove all things from sight that are related to the current time. Finney warns Richard that such a process would leave one very weak physically, possibly dangerously so. Back in his hotel room, Richard dresses himself in an early 20th-century suit, and attempts to will himself into 1912 using tape-recorded suggestions. The attempt fails because he lacks real conviction, but after finding an old guest book from 1912 containing his signature, Richard realizes that he will eventually succeed. Richard again hypnotizes himself (without the benefit of a modern tape recorder) and allows his absolute faith in his eventual success to become the tipping point or trigger for the journey back through time. He slowly falls asleep and awakens to the sound of whinnying horses in the year 1912. Richard looks all over the hotel for Elise, even meeting Arthur Biehl as a little boy, but has no luck finding Elise. Finally, he stumbles upon Elise walking by a tree near the lake. She seems to swoon slightly when seeing him, but then suddenly asks upon meeting him "Is it you?" McKenna's overbearing manager, William Fawcett Robinson (Christopher Plummer), abruptly intervenes and sends Richard away. Richard stubbornly continues to pursue Elise until she agrees to accompany him on a stroll through the surrounding idyllic landscape. Richard ultimately asks why Elise wondered aloud "Is it you?" and she replies that Robinson somehow knows that she will meet a man who will change her life forever, and that she should be afraid. Richard then shows Elise the same pocket watch which she will eventually give him 60 years in the future. Upon returning to the hotel, Elisa invites Richard to her play. He attends the comical-farce and she, in an almost trance-like state, recites an impromptu monologue dedicated to him. During intermission, he finds her posing formally for a photograph. Upon spotting Richard, Elise breaks into a radiant smile and veritably glows with soft affection. Just then, the camera's flash goes off and forever captures that wonderous moment in time. We now know that this picture is the same one that Richard will see 68 years later on a wall near the lobby at the Grand Hotel. He later receives a letter from Robinson asking to meet him immediately and saying that it is a matter of life and death. Robinson wants Richard to leave Elise, saying it is for her own good. Richard thinks Robinson is in love with Elise, but Robinson states that he is obsessed with her being a star and has no romantic interest in her. When Richard professes his love for her, Robinson has him bound and locked inside the stables. Robinson then informs Elise that Richard has left her and isn't the one, though she doesn't believe him and professes her love for Richard. Richard wakes up the next morning and escapes his constraints. He discovers that the acting troupe has already left for Denver, though Elise has returned to the hotel to find him. Richard then goes out to the hotel's capricious deck and begins giving into despair, but presently perceives Elise calling his name and running towards him. They return to his room together and it is there that Elise becomes truly intimate with a man for the very first time in her life. Later that evening, she asks Richard to marry him and he readily accepts. She then informs him that the first thing she will do for him is to buy him a new suit (the suit Richard has been wearing the entire time in 1912 is about 10 to 15 years out of style). Richard begins to show his true love how wonderful the suit is on account of its many pockets. He is alarmed when he reaches into one and finds a shiny modern Lincoln penny with the mint date of 1979. This modern item breaks his hypnotic suggestion, and Richard feels himself rushing backwards from 1912 as though through a tunnel, and Elise screams his name in horror as he is pulled inexorably back to the present. Richard wakes up in the same room he just left, although now it is 68 years later. He is very weak and physically and emotionally exhausted from his trip through time and from the devastating unexpected return. He scrambles desperately back to his own suite and attempts to hypnotize himself again, without success. After wandering around the hotel property and sitting interminably at the places where he spent time with Elise, Richard eventually retires to his room and remains there unmoving for days until discovered by Arthur and the hotel manager; they send for a doctor and paramedics. Richard suddenly smiles and sees himself drifting above his body and is drawn to a light shining through the nearby window, where he is reunited forever with Elise.

Around the turn of the 20th century, during a harsh northern California winter, members of a ranching family are squabbling among themselves while the two oldest sons go hunting for a panther that is killing their livestock. A family saga: In a stunning mountain valley ranch setting near Aspen, complex and dangerous family dynamics play out against the backdrop of the first big snowstorm of winter and an enormous panther with seemingly mythical qualities which is killing cattle. An arrogant, pitiless son (Robert Mitchum) and a rigid pharisaic mother side against a moral eldest son and and a defeated alcoholic father while the youngest son tries to lay low, hoping against hope to persuade his family to allow him to marry a girl he has brought to visit. The girl however draws venomous condemnation and the two elder brothers set out in the midst of a violent snowstorm on a dangerous mission to kill the deadly panther. —Jasha While Curt Bridges tracks down the panther that killed his brother Arthur, his family argues and bickers over whether younger brother Harold should marry a much-despised neighbor girl. —Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net>

An actress becomes an alcoholic after being jilted. She is aided by an Alcoholics Anonymous member with whom she has an affair; however, he is married.

Running from the Law, and with a badly injured arm, Lin Vanner (Lew Ayres) takes refuge in a priests' (Victor Jory) home and tells him how and why he has ended up in this condition. It turns out that Vanner was working as an oil man when the company payroll was stolen. After a posse heads out the wrong way in pursuit of a suspect Vanner reasons that the criminal may be heading in a different direction. He heads out after him, but not knowing his identity shoots who he believes is the crook, Sam Tevlin (Edwin Rand) who claims he did not steal the money. When Tevlin is severely questioned by the company owner Mahoney (Barry Kelley), and dies Vanner is stricken with guilt, resigns and goes to a nearby town to take a job as a cattle rancher. When Vanner discovers that the ranch owner he is working for is Ellen Tevlin (Teresa Wright), the widow of the man he shot and killed, his first impulse is to run, but Vanner is compelled by his curiosity as to why Sam may have committed the crime. Ellen's good nature changes to cruelty when she discovers that Vanner was the man who killed her husband. When Vanner confesses his uncertainty about Sam's guilt, Ellen confesses that they were an estranged couple and this allows the two to fall in love. Vanner is compelled to discover the truth about Sam's involvement in the company robbery and after investigation discovers the real criminal and accidentally kills him attempting to bring him to justice and causing the police to pursue him to the priest's home.

A paralyzed war vet tries to adjust to the world without the use of his limbs. A war wound has left ex-GI Ken paralyzed below the waist. In the hospital back home, he passes through an initial period of depression with the help of sympathetic Dr. Brock and his faithful fiancée Ellen. Ken's bitter isolation is also overcome with the help of his fellow patients, especially intelligent young cynic Norm, witty Leo, and serious young Angel. Soon Ken throws himself into the work of rehabilitation and after a long period of physical therapy even suspects that he could regain the use of his limbs. With his doctor's approval and help, he and Ellen marry, but on their wedding night both have misgivings about the marriage: the full realization of Ellen's new responsibilities frightens her and makes her more uncertain than ever, and Ken reverts to self-pity. They have a violent argument and he returns to the hospital. But his blazing anger finds no sympathy from his buddies, and after a surprising conversation with Dr. Brock, Ken realizes that he must return to his wife, with whom he must try to build his new life in spite of all the difficulties. —alfiehitchie During World War II, U.S. Army Lieutenant Ken Wilocek (Marlon Brando) is shot in the back by a sniper, injuring his spinal cord. In the years that follow, he faces a series of ongoing struggles in accepting his condition, in rehabilitation and in re-entering society. The film also focuses on the challenges facing Ken and Ellen (Teresa Wright), his fiancée, as individuals and as a couple, before and after they marry. It also highlights events in the lives of the other men in the Veterans Administration hospital, from a wedding celebration to a sudden death from meningitis. Dr. Brock (Everett Sloane) heads the team of doctors, nurses and physical therapists. Near the end of the film, when Ken accuses him of not understanding the difficulties threatening his marriage, Brock tells Ken about his own frustration: "I can never see a patient walk out of here, never. I can keep a man alive, but in his heart he feels I failed him. You feel that way, don't you? Took me a long time to get used to that." He reveals that he began specializing in paraplegia 18 years ago, after his wife was injured in a car accident. "Paraplegia was a new field, then. At least she didn't have to suffer too long . . . I'd give anything I've got to know that when I go home I'd find her there, waiting for me, in a wheelchair." He can't promise that everything will work out with Ellen, but if she loves Ken, and he behaves, chances are good. Anyway, he says, Ken has a lot of living to do, and he has to do it for himself. Ken drives to Ellen's parents' home, some distance from the hospital, takes out his wheelchair and goes up the steep brick front walk until a step blocks him. Ellen comes out. "You've come a long way," she says. "Do you want me to help you up the steps?" He replies, "Please." The film ends in a long shot of Ellen helping him to push his wheelchair into the house.

Charlotte Newton is bored of her quiet and uneventful life. All she wants is for her sophisticated and well-traveled uncle, Charlie Oakley, to come visit them. To her surprise and happiness, a telegram announcing her uncle`s visit arrives. However, something seems to be off when he visits. When two strangers show up with questions about him, Charlotte realizes her beloved uncle Charlie may not be who she thinks he is.

September 1939. Mrs. Kay Miniver (Greer Garson) and her family live a comfortable life at a house called 'Starlings' in Belham, a fictional village outside London, England. The house has a large garden, with a private landing stage on the River Thames at which is moored a motorboat belonging to her devoted husband Clem (Walter Pidgeon), a successful architect. They have three children: the youngsters Toby and Judy (Christopher Severn and Clare Sandars) and an older son Vin (Richard Ney) at university. They have live-in staff: Gladys the housemaid (Brenda Forbes) and Ada the cook (Marie De Becker). As World War II looms, Vin comes down from university and meets Carol Beldon (Teresa Wright), granddaughter of Lady Beldon (Dame May Whitty) from nearby Beldon Hall. Despite initial disagreements (mainly contrasting Vin's idealistic attitude to class differences with Carol's practical altruism) they fall in love. Vin proposes to Carol in front of his family at home after his younger brother prods him to give a less romantic but more honest proposal. Several months later, as the war comes closer to home with the bombing of Great Brittan, Vin feels he must "do his bit" and enlists in the Royal Air Force, qualifying as a fighter pilot. He is posted to a base near to his parents' home and is able to signal his safe return from operations to his parents by cutting his engines briefly as he flies over the house. Together with other boat owners, Clem volunteers to take his motorboat to assist in the May-June 1940 Dunkirk evacuation. Early one morning, Kay unable to sleep as Clem is still away, wanders down to the landing stage. She is startled to discover a wounded German pilot (Helmut Dantine) hiding in her garden and he holds her at gunpoint. Demanding food and a coat, the pilot maniacally asserts that the Third Reich will mercilessly overcome its enemies. She feeds him, calmly disarms him and then calls the police. Soon after, Clem returns home, exhausted, from Dunkirk. Lady Beldon visits Kay to try and convince her to talk Vin out of marrying Carol on account of her granddaughter's comparative youth. Lady Beldon is unsuccessful and admits defeat when Kay reminds her that she, too, was young when she married her late husband. Lady Beldon concedes defeat and realises that she would be foolish to try and stop the marriage. Vin and Carol are married; Carol has now also become Mrs Miniver, and they return from their honeymoon in Scotland. A key theme is that she knows he is likely to be killed in action, but the short love will fill her life. Later, Kay and her family take refuge in their Anderson shelter in the garden during an air raid, and attempt to keep their minds off the frightening bombing by reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which Clem refers to as a "lovely story" as they barely survive a bomb destroys parts of the house. They take the damage with nonchalance. At the annual village flower show, Lady Beldon silently disregards the judges' decision that her rose is the winner, instead announcing the entry of the local stationmaster, Mr. Ballard (Henry Travers), named the "Mrs. Miniver" rose, as the winner, with her own rose taking second prize. As air raid sirens sound and the villagers take refuge in the cellars of Beldon Hall, Kay and Carol drive Vin to join his squadron. On their journey home they witness fighter planes in a 'dogfight'. For safety, Kay stops the car and they see the German plane crash. Kay realises Carol has been wounded by shots from the plane and takes her back to 'Starlings'. She dies a few minutes after they reach home. Kay is devastated. When Vin returns from battle, he already knows the terrible news. Unexpectedly he is the survivor, and she the one who gives her life for England. The villagers assemble at the badly damaged church where their vicar (Henry Wilcoxon) affirms their determination in a powerful sermon: "We in this quiet corner of England have suffered the loss of friends very dear to us, some close to this church. George West, choirboy. James Ballard, stationmaster and bellringer, and the proud winner only an hour before his death of the Beldon Cup for his beautiful Miniver Rose. And our hearts go out in sympathy to the two families who share the cruel loss of a young girl who was married at this altar only two weeks ago. The homes of many of us have been destroyed, and the lives of young and old have been taken. There's scarcely a household that hasn't been struck to the heart. And why? Surely you must have asked yourselves this question? Why in all conscience should these be the ones to suffer? Children, old people, a young girl at the height of her loveliness? Why these? Are these our soldiers? Are these our fighters? Why should they be sacrificed? I shall tell you why. Because this is not only a war of soldiers in uniform. It is the war of the people, of all the people. And it must be fought not only on the battlefield but in the cities and in the villages, in the factories and on the farms, in the home and in the heart of every man, woman and child who loves freedom. Well, we have buried our dead, but we shall not forget them. Instead they will inspire us with an unbreakable determination to free ourselves, and those who come after us, from the tyranny and terror that threaten to strike us down. This is the People's War. It is our war. We are the fighters. Fight it then. Fight it with all that is in us. And may God defend the right." A solitary Lady Beldon stands in her family's church pew. Vin moves to stand alongside her, united in shared grief, as the members of congregation rise and stoically sing "Onward, Christian Soldiers", while through a gaping hole in the bombed church roof can be seen flight after flight of RAF fighters in the V-for-Victory formation heading out to face the enemy.