Vidor""s natural and uncompromising film tells the episodic, poignant story of the working and domestic life of an average, commonplace man in ""the crowd"" - John - with his wife Mary (played exquisitely by the director""s real-life wife Eleanor Boardman), chronicling their ups and downs, including their meeting, courtship, marriage, and family life.US science researchers and military officers symbolically awakened an inactive foreign ""sleeper cell or agent"" that then infiltrated into their midst and terrorized hem.Threatened with losing his funding from the US military, Norman experimented on himself, but the unstable test went awry and he killed his assistant Dr.The astrological name Scorpio, and the killer""s taunting with coded, written notes were just a few of the similarities between the film""s account and the real case.