Richard Widmark

A shotgun kills a white man in a black man's yard. A suspect, a plantation owner, and a gathering of desperate men each "confess" to the killing. Even as a truckload of vengeful kinfolk arrive, they stand resolute against decades of injustice.

Roadhouse owner Jefty Morgan hires a singer from Chicago to sing in his club. He falls for her but she has eyes for Pete, who works for Morgan. Morgan frames Pete for stealing money from him and must face his murderous jealousy.

A band of robbers are running from the law, and they find an almost abandoned town. An old prosecutor and his granddaughter have been living there. Realizing that they have gold, the robbers have a plan of taking it, but one robber turns against them.

Two-bit hustler Harry Fabian aches for a life of ease and plenty. Trailed by an inglorious history of go-nowhere schemes, he stumbles upon a chance of a lifetime in the form of legendary wrestler Gregorius the Great. But there is no easy money in this underworld of shifting alliances, bottomless graft, and pummeled flesh, and soon Fabian learns the horrible price of his ambition.

Petty crook Skip McCoy has his eye set on the big score. When the three-time convict picks the pocketbook of unsuspecting Candy, he finds a haul bigger than he ever could have imagined: a strip of microfilm bearing confidential U.S. secrets. Tailed by the Feds and the unwitting courier's Communist puppeteers, Skip and Candy find themselves in a precarious gambit that pits greed against redemption.

Robbing banks, holding up stagecoaches: That₂s the life Jake Wade thought he left behind when he put on a badge, found himself a pretty fiancě, and set his path on the straight and narrow. But not yet. Wade's outlaw partner resurfaces to take the lawman and his girl captive, forcing them on a trek to recover the loot Wade buried long ago and plunging captor and captives into the violent heart of Comanche territory.

John Steinbeck introduces dramatizations of five of O. Henry's short stories.