follows a lonely farm kid, who saves up money for a dog, finds a stray, then begins to blossom. After finding his dog dead, the boy presumes a strange newcomer in the neighborhood deliberately poisoned his dog. In retaliation, the boy initiates a smear campaign against the odd neighbor. He even commits an act of vandalism that endangers area crops. Eventually, he learns the truth about his dog’s death.
follows two young children of divorced parents who shuttle between their attentive father in the Canadian north and their indifferent mother in San Francisco. The boy and girl are flying to San Francisco on a plane from their father’s charter service when the aircraft crashes, killing all aboard except the two kids. The parents, both pilots, race against time to find the children, facing hunger, harsh weather, and mountain lions.
is about a workingman who moonlights as a bootlegger. Police raid his property while he’s distilling moonshine, and a federal officer dies in the shootout. The workingman goes to jail for second-degree murder, then spends his time in the prison’s tool shop. He can repair anything with pieces of scrap metal. Eventually, he invents a repeating rifle with a short piston, the foundation of the M1 Carbine used during WWII.
