Beating the Odds

Story of the gentleman thief.

Capt. Alaric Lewin and his bride, Chum, are sent to Key Island, off the coast of Africa, where he has been commissioned as assistant to Gregory of the British Service. Chum determines to vamp the commissioner and thereby win a better post for her husband, and her husband finds favor in the eyes of Diana Churton, whose husband is away on an expedition.

Jennie Blake, a schoolteacher from the city, comes between Paul Whalen and Jim Payne, fishing partners in the seaport town of Rocky Point, and is unable to decide which one she loves until Jim loses his temper and is beaten in a fight by Paul.

Catherine Ames impulsively marries district attorney James Darwin after suffering Wilbur Emerson's neglect. Emerson turns to a career of high finance, but borrows unlawfully on notes to avoid disaster. Darwin prosecutes the investigation case. One of Emerson's business associates, George Cowper, gives a signed confession to Darwin. Emerson breaks into Catherine's room to obtain the confession, but is caught by Darwin, who accuses his wife of unfaithfulness.

Robert Taylor has been romancing Blanche Mansfield but also seeing Grace Eldridge at the same time. When he tells Blanche that he is marrying Grace, she attacks him and he is rushed to the hospital with a knife wound.

On the eve of World War II, a British officer revisits Waterloo Bridge and recalls the young man he was at the beginning of World War I and the young ballerina he met just before he left for the front.

Middle-class housewife Kay Miniver deals with petty problems. She and her husband Clem watch her Oxford-educated son Vin court Carol Beldon, the charming granddaughter of the local nobility as represented by Lady Beldon. Then the war comes and Vin joins the RAF.

The Fargo Kid is mistaken for a killer and is hired to kill another man...

Leander Sills, wealthy friend of Willow Winters, a chorus girl who has risen to fame as a result of a star's illness, is so impressed by the girl's resistance to his offers of wealth and luxury that he wills her his fortune. When Sills is killed by a former sweetheart, his lawyer gives the matter publicity, with the result that Peter Galliner, who is in love with Willow, believes that Willow's relations with Sills have been improper, denounces her, and leaves town. Under an assumed name, Willow becomes a friend of Peter's mother and wins her respect.

When the Daltons are killed at Coffeyville, gang member Bill Doolin, arriving late, escapes but kills a man. Now wanted for murder, he becomes the leader of the Doolin gang. He eventually leaves the gang and tries to start a new life under a new name, but the old gang members appear and his true identity becomes known. Once again he becomes an outlaw trying to escape from the law.

Rip Smith's opinion-poll business is a failure...until he discovers that the small town of Grandview is statistically identical to the entire country. He and his assistants go there to run polls cheaply and easily, in total secrecy (it would be fatal to let the townsfolk get self-conscious). And of course, civic crusader Mary Peterman must be kept from changing things too much. But romantic involvement with Mary complicates life for Rip; then suddenly everything changes.

Roy Martin aka Roy Morgan is a burglar and former war-time Radio & Electronics Engineer who listens in to radio police calls, allowing him to stay one step ahead of the cops.

A boy haunted by nightmares about the night his entire family was murdered is brought up by a neighboring family in the 1880s. He falls for his lovely adoptive sister but his nasty adoptive brother and mysterious uncle want him dead.

After a whirlwind romance in Mexico, a beautiful heiress marries a man she barely knows with hardly a second thought. She finds his New York home full of his strange relations, and macabre rooms that are replicas of famous murder sites. One locked room contains the secret to her husband's obsession, and the truth about what happened to his first wife.

After an innocent man is executed in a case he was responsible for, a Scotland Yard superintendent finds himself investigating the murder of his key witness.

This historical drama tells the story of the first class to graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. In the early 19th Century, Congress appropriated the money to build the school, but opponents who believed it to be an illegitimate expansion of the powers of the federal government decided to sabotage the school. They put the hard-as-nails Major Sam Carter in charge of the academy, and he ruthlessly put the recruits through grueling training -- until only ten prospective soldiers remained. They include Dawson, a patriotic farm boy and Howard Shelton, a selfish playboy who has come to West Point only because of its prestige. The two vie for Carolyn Bainbridge, while they, along with the other eight, try convince Carter that the school is worth keeping.