Earl Barton
A high-school field trip takes a nightmarish turn when the students' bus breaks down and thugs come to their aid.
The musical biopic of jazz great Red Nichols features a healthy dose of melodrama along with the melodies. As the famed Dixieland cornetist, he runs into opposition to his sound, but breaks through to success. He marries a warm, patient woman (Bel Geddes) and even finds time to raise a family. Then tragedy strikes when their daughter contracts polio. The jazzman puts down his horn to stand by her.
Alan Mitchell (Kerwin Mathews) returns to New York to work for his father Walter (Lee J. Cobb), the owner of a fashion house that designs and manufactures dresses. To stay non-union, Walter has hired Artie Ravidge (Richard Boone), a hood who uses strong-arm tactics to keep the employees in line.
A frustrated big-band promoter runs in to rock-and-rollers Bill Haley and the Comets at a small-town dance. He quickly becomes their manager and, with the help of Alan Freed, hopes to bring the new sound to the entire country. But will a conniving booking agent, with a personal ax to grind with the manager, conspire to keep the band from making the big time?
In 1850 Oregon, when a backwoodsman brings a wife home to his farm, his six brothers decide that they want to get married too.
