Three Steps North

After serving jail time for selling black-market goods during World War II, dishonorably discharged G.I. Frank Keeler returns to Italy for the small fortune he concealed just before being arrested. Digging up the buried money won't be easy, however: it's stashed near a heavily guarded military cemetery. The odds are definitely against Frank-especially after he's implicated in the murder of a fellow American trying to muscle in on the big score.

Billy Wilder's older brother Lee was not as gifted a filmmaker as his more famous sibling, but his directorial output includes some genuinely fascinating low-budget films. Three Steps North is a low-key, offbeat melodrama, distinguished by being shot on location in Italy. Lloyd Bridges delivers one of his best performances as the disgraced ex-solider whose strange odyssey ends with a bizarre twist. --Ed Hulse

• drama