An ailing famous barrister agrees to defend Leonard Vole in a sensational murder trial where his self-possessed wife's testimony makes the case difficult.
Keiko, whom everyone calls Mama, narrates her story: she's a hostess on the Ginza, 30, a widow. She describes life's vicious cycle: acting cheerful around drunks, dressing and living well to convey confidence, needing money for these expenses and for her demanding mother and brother, and knowing she's growing older.
A tough cop meets his match when he has to guard a gangster's widow on a tense train ride.
With delicate, unobtrusive strokes, Naruse evokes both the humor and bitterness of his characters’ dilemmas, in this bleak, compelling poignant portrait of a quartet of aging geishas contemplating their troubles with men and money.
Nancy Stokes, a retired schoolteacher, is pretty sure she has never had good sex. Now that her husband has died, she is determined to take a tour of sexual vistas that until now she has only imagined. She even has a plan; it involves an anonymous hotel room, and a sex worker who calls himself Leo Grande.
A teenaged girl witnesses her widowed mother's attempt to sustain her family.
A domineering but charismatic rancher wages a war of intimidation on his brother's new wife and her teen son, until long-hidden secrets come to light.
Critics and the public say Karen Stone is too old -- as she approaches 50 -- for her role in a play she is about to take to Broadway. Her businessman husband, 20 years her senior, has been the angel for the play and gives her a way out: They are off to a holiday in Rome for his health. He suffers a fatal heart attack on the plane. Mrs. Stone stays in Rome. She leases a magnificent apartment with a view of the seven hills from the terrace. Then the contessa comes calling to introduce a young man named Paolo to her. The contessa knows many presentable young men and lonely American widows.
A Mississippi district attorney and the widow of Medgar Evers struggle to bring a white supremacist to justice for the 1963 murder of the civil rights leader.
Precocious young Harriet and her older sister Gwen live at their mother's motel in small-town New Hampshire. Harriet dreams of a life beyond her inattentive family and the stultifying town. A mentally disabled man named Ricky comes to stay at the motel, and Harriet finds him kinder and more interesting than anyone she has ever met. After tragedy strikes, Harriet and Ricky cling to each other ever more tightly.
An illiterate cook at a company cafeteria tries for the attention of a newly widowed woman. As they get to know one another, she discovers his inability to read. When he is fired, she takes on trying to teach him to read in her kitchen each night.
An FBI agent posing as a combine driver becomes romantically involved with a Midwest farmer who lives a double life as a white supremacist.
Desirée, a modern librarian with urban friends and interests is visiting her late husband's grave when she meets Benny, a simple farmer. After his mother's death Benny lives alone on the run-down farm, desperately seeking a woman to take care of him. In spite of their differences the two have the dream of finding that special someone in common, and fall passionately in love. Benny wants Desirée to move in with him and start a family as soon as possible. But being a farmer's wife is not something she is very enthusiastic about. Just presenting Benny as her boyfriend proves to be an embarrassing experience. And when she gets a tempting job offer in Stockholm she has to consider her priorities carefully.
“My plan was to die before the money ran out,” says 60-year-old penniless Manhattan socialite Frances Price, but things didn’t go as planned. Her husband Franklin has been dead for 12 years and with his vast inheritance gone, she cashes in the last of her possessions and resolves to live out her twilight days anonymously in a borrowed apartment in Paris, accompanied by her directionless son Malcolm and a cat named Small Frank—who may or may not embody the spirit of Frances’s dead husband.
In London, a secret society led by lawyer Thaddeus Merrydew collects the assets of any of its deceased members and divides them among the remaining members. Society members start dropping like flies. Sherlock Holmes is approached by member James Murphy's widow, who is miffed at being left penniless by her husband. When Captain Pyke is shot, Holmes keys in on his mysterious Chinese widow as well as the shady Merrydew. Other members keep dying: Malcom Dearing first, then Mr. Baker. There is also an attempt on the life of young Eileen Forrester, who became a reluctant society member upon the death of her father. Holmes' uncanny observations and insights are put to the test.
A teenage girl gets a keyhole look into a dangerous and mysterious world when a tattooed stranger checks into her roadside motel.
After serving a jail sentence, Hasan gets a job driving a hearse for the protestant church, and becomes involved with a widow, Ayse, and her son.
An elderly wanderer, a sexy young girl running away from home and a folk singer looking for stardom hitch-hike their way cross-country, trying to get to California.
Bonifacio 1883, extreme south of Corsica. The widow of the late Saverini lives in an isolated house near the cliffs, with her only son Antoine, and her dog. During the day, she assists women giving birth in town. One night her son is killed in a clash. The murderer flees to Sardinia. Her world falls to pieces.
Teenager Betty Elliott has decided to take over the business and social affairs of her father Doc Elliott. She thinks her father should marry the widowed mother, Julie Harper, of her boyfriend Chris Harper. Doc has been a real friend and father to Chris, who, under his guidance, has learned to take care of all the sick animals in town, but lack of money keeps the widow from sending Chris on to finish high school and medical training is out of the question. Wealthy Grandpa Harper sends his attorney Baker to tell Mrs. Harper that all of Jimmy's dreams could be realized if the widow, whom the grandfather dislikes, would give up custody of her son. The lawyer also begins to court Julie and this throws a kink in Betty's plans to see her father and the widow get married. Written by Les Adams