Irving Ravetch
Writing
Known For

John Russell, disdained by his "respectable" fellow stagecoach passengers because he was raised by Indians, becomes their only hope for survival when they are set upon by outlaws.
Hombre

When his cattlemen abandon him for the gold fields, rancher Wil Andersen is forced to take on a collection of young boys as his cowboys in order to get his herd to market in time to avoid financial disaster. The boys learn to do a man's job under Andersen's tutelage, however, neither he nor the boys know that a gang of cattle thieves is stalking them.
The Cowboys

Hud Bannon is a ruthless young man who tarnishes everything and everyone he touches. Hud represents the perfect embodiment of alienated youth, out for kicks with no regard for the consequences. There is bitter conflict between the callous Hud and his stern and highly principled father, Homer. Hud's nephew Lon admires Hud's cheating ways, though he soon becomes too aware of Hud's reckless amorality to bear him anymore. In the world of the takers and the taken, Hud is a winner. He's a cheat, but, he explains, "I always say the law was meant to be interpreted in a lenient manner."
Hud

Accused barn burner and conman Ben Quick arrives in a small Mississippi town and quickly ingratiates himself with its richest family, the Varners.
The Long, Hot Summer

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.
Stanley & Iris

Norma Rae is a southern textile worker employed in a factory with intolerable working conditions. This concern about the situation gives her the gumption to be the key associate to a visiting labor union organizer. Together, they undertake the difficult, and possibly dangerous, struggle to unionize her factory.
Norma Rae

In turn-of-the-century Mississippi, an 11-year-old boy comes of age as two mischievous adult friends talk him into sneaking the family car out for a trip to Memphis and a series of adventures.
The Reivers

Late in the Civil War, three Confederate soldiers escape from a Union prison camp in Missouri. They soon fall into the hands of pro-Confederate raiders, who force them to act as "outriders" (escorts) for a civilian wagon train that will be secretly transporting Union gold from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to St. Louis, Missouri. The three men are to lead the wagons into a raider trap in Missouri, but one of them starts to have misgivings....
The Outriders

Emma, a divorced single mother seeking to start her life over, moves to a small town in Arizona. She befriends Murphy, the older local pharmacist, but things turn complicated when her ex-husband shows up.
Murphy's Romance

The wealthiest man in a Texas town decides to teach his teenage son how to hunt to make a man out of him.
Home from the Hill

The once-prominent Compson family of Jefferson, Miss., has been reduced to near-penury by generations of alcoholism and sin. Levelheaded Jason struggles to keep the family together, but his teenage stepsister, Quentin, chafes against his strictures. When Quentin's estranged mother reappears in town, and carnival worker Charles attempts to seduce the virginal teen, the family may finally be headed for complete collapse.
The Sound and the Fury

A cattle baron takes in an orphaned boy and raises him, causing his own son to resent the boy. As they get older the resentment festers into hatred, and eventually the real son frames his stepbrother for fathering an illegitimate child that is actually his, seeing it as an opportunity to get his half-brother out of the way so he can have his father's empire all to himself.
Vengeance Valley

A doctor uncovers a hotbed of corruption when he tries to clear a colleague of a murder charge.
The Carey Treatment

Zachary Hallock and his son Joshua are farmers who live in a frontier town that suffers the assaults of a band of outlaws. After the murder of a Pinkerton's detective, the farmers decide to unite against the bandits, but Hallock rejects the proposal. To the astonishment of his son and his fiancée, Hallock decides to join the outlaws.
The Lone Hand

Three teenage farm boys stumble upon Harry Spikes, a local bandit wounded in a gun battle. While Harry is recuperating, he regales the young men with stories of his exciting past. The adventurous tales inspire them to start a gang of their own. Failing at their first attempt to rob a bank, the boys convince the gruff Spikes to teach them the ways of the desperado.
The Spikes Gang

A young, white school teacher is assigned to Yamacraw Island, an isolated fishing community off the coast of South Carolina, populated mostly by poor black families. He finds that the basically illiterate, neglected children there know so little of the world outside their island.
Conrack

When his ward seeks protection with rival cattleman John Stewart, embittered, jealous rancher Wick Campbell hires ten outlaws to help him seize power in the territory.
Ten Wanted Men

In 1960s Paris, an American boxer stumbles upon an international fascist conspiracy that aims to create a new world order.
House of Cards

An ex-convict drifter and his flawed young partner are made sheriff and deputy of a Western town.
Run for Cover

A World War II pilot (Gene Kelly) comes home to a bride (Marie McDonald) who, spoiled by her father (Charles Winninger), now wants a divorce.