1918

Adapted by Horton Foote from his own play, 1918 focuses on a small Texas town beset by a major flue epidemic during World War I. In this slow-paced, melancholy story of internecine family strife, Horace Robedaux (William Converse-Roberts) comes from the poor side of the town's citizenry, but he married into the landed gentry when he wed Elizabeth (Hallie Foote), a change that bothers him constantly. His father-in-law is a rigid though well-intentioned patriarch, and his mother-in-law is often at odds with Elizabeth -- the seeds of that friction undoubtedly lie in the family's opposition to Elizabeth marrying Horace. Besides, these wealthy parents treat Elizabeth and Horace as though they were still children -- and they are now the proud parents of a baby boy. Changes occur when Horace makes a sudden decision to go off to war, after assurances from his father-in-law that he will care for Elizabeth in the meantime -- and the flu epidemic strikes much closer to the family than anyone would have imagined. The film was later telecast as part of a Horton Foote trilogy on PBS' American Playhouse.