Ric Roman

The Big Heat -- A melodrama of dice, vice and corruption. Glenn Ford stars as a rogue homicide cop who takes the law into his own hands when he sets out to smash a vicious crime syndicate and in the process finds who planted the car bomb that killed his wife.

The Big Heat -- A melodrama of dice, vice and corruption. Glenn Ford stars as a rogue homicide cop who takes the law into his own hands when he sets out to smash a vicious crime syndicate and in the process finds who planted the car bomb that killed his wife.

Nevada Smith is a rugged innocent boy born in the 1890s during California's gold rush days to a Native American mother and white father. When he finds his parents have been murdered by vicious killers, he sets out to track them down. While the film is a western, and has plenty of action, it is also a powerful and revealing study of the regeneration of a man, in this case a lone gunslinger who is so blinded by his compulsion that it obscures any other motive for living. Steve McQueen's dynamic presence as Nevada Smith is memorable.

Henry Hathaway's film is based on a character from Harold Robbins' The Carpetbaggers, who, in turn, based it on cowboy actor Ken Maynard. Set in the West of the 1890s, the film opens with the torture and murder of the parents of Max Sand (Steve McQueen) by a trio of gunslingers seemingly motivated by their hostility toward the mixed nature of the marriage, since the wife is a Native American. Swearing revenge, the young cowhand enlists the help of itinerant gunsmith Jonas Cord Brian Keith, who teaches him how to shoot while counseling against revenge. Nonetheless, Sand doggedly scours one town after the other before finally running up against one of the murderers, Jesse Coe (Martin Landau). He finally kills Coe in a vicious knife fight, but is severely wounded himself and has to be nursed back to health by Neesa (Janet Margolin), a young Kiowa woman. He next heads for Louisiana where another of the murderous trio, Bill Bowdre (Arthur Kennedy), is serving a prison sentence in a remote swamp. In order to get close to the man, Sand stages a robbery, and is soon among the prison inmates. This was the only film on which McQueen worked with Landau, the only other person admitted to the Actor's Studio out of thousands of applicants in 1957

Henry Hathaway's film is based on a character from Harold Robbins' The Carpetbaggers, who, in turn, based it on cowboy actor Ken Maynard. Set in the West of the 1890s, the film opens with the torture and murder of the parents of Max Sand (Steve McQueen) by a trio of gunslingers seemingly motivated by their hostility toward the mixed nature of the marriage, since the wife is a Native American. Swearing revenge, the young cowhand enlists the help of itinerant gunsmith Jonas Cord Brian Keith, who teaches him how to shoot while counseling against revenge. Nonetheless, Sand doggedly scours one town after the other before finally running up against one of the murderers, Jesse Coe (Martin Landau). He finally kills Coe in a vicious knife fight, but is severely wounded himself and has to be nursed back to health by Neesa (Janet Margolin), a young Kiowa woman. He next heads for Louisiana where another of the murderous trio, Bill Bowdre (Arthur Kennedy), is serving a prison sentence in a remote swamp. In order to get close to the man, Sand stages a robbery, and is soon among the prison inmates. This was the only film on which McQueen worked with Landau, the only other person admitted to the Actor's Studio out of thousands of applicants in 1957

NEVADA SMITH is a rugged innocent boy born in the 1890s during California's gold rush days to a Native American mother and white father. When he finds his parents have been murdered by vicious killers, he sets out to track them down.

Academy Award and Golden Globe-winner and Emmy-nominee Frank Sinatra ("Ocean's Eleven," "Pal Joey"), Academy Award, Emmy and Golden Globe-winner Shirley MacLaine ("Rumor Has It," "In Her Shoes") and Emmy-nominee and Golden Globe-winner Dean Martin ("Ocean's Eleven," "Rio Bravo"), star in this powerful drama about the difficult challenges facing a veteran when he returns home to deal with family secrets and small-town scandals. Nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Actress (MacLaine), Supporting Actress (Academy Award-nominee Martha Hyer -- "Sabrina," "The Sons of Katie Elder") and Supporting Actor (Academy Award-nominee and Golden Globe-winner Arthur Kennedy -- "Lawrence of Arabia," "Peyton Place"). Directed by Academy Award and Golden Globe-winner Vincente Minnelli ("An American in Paris," "Gigi").

Frank Sinatra, Shirley MacLaine and Dean Martin star in this powerful drama about the difficult challenges facing a veteran when he returns home to deal with family secrets and small-town scandals.

Frank Sinatra, Shirley MacLaine and Dean Martin star in this powerful drama about the difficult challenges facing a veteran when he returns home to deal with family secrets and small-town scandals.

Frank Sinatra, Shirley MacLaine and Dean Martin star in this powerful drama about the difficult challenges facing a veteran when he returns home to deal with family secrets and small-town scandals.

Rebellious prodigal son Johnny Shattuck (Ben Cooper) returns to the family ranch, where he's immediately met with a crisis: Rival rancher Dean Cannary (Jim Davis) has designs on the farm, and he's cut off its water supply to force the family to leave. When peaceful attempts at resolution get them nowhere, Johnny is forced to take up arms and confront Cannary in a showdown. Cannary stages an ambush, but Johnny's got an ace up his sleeve.

Escaped convicts Humphrey Bogart, Robert Middleton and Dewey Martin, seeking an appropriate hideout until they can make contact with their money supply, deliberately choose the suburban home of Fredric March and his family. The cold-blooded Bogart wants no trouble with the police, and he knows he can cower a family with children into cooperating with him.