From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ===== America has won the Cold War, but continues to face new dangers from terrorists. After Admiral Hardcastle warns the world about America's lack of guards against terrorism, the horrors begin. Henri Cazaux, a psychopathic Belgian ex special Forces soldier, is out for revenge against the United States. After a botched exchange of military hardware leads to federal agents swarming the airport where he was conducting the transaction, he escapes on his plane and ends up bombing a military airfield and San Francisco International with explosives, escaping via parachute in the process. Later at a staff meeting, he then is convinced by his financial manager to attack companies who have hubs at airports, using the chaos to make money by driving down the stocks of the companies attacked and conducting options on other transportation industries such as oil and railroads. Memphis International is targeted with explosives dropped from a cargo plane leading to heavy loss of life and a major shipping company's headquarters destroyed. Faced with the growing chaos, the President authorizes Admiral Hardcastle to help lead the operation by authorizing the military to defend airports across the nation through the use of Patriot missile batteries and around the clock air defense through intercepting any aircraft that deviates from their flight plan. After a failed attack by Cavaux's forces on Dallas-Fort Worth International and another botched incident when an F-16 on an intercept course mistakenly shoots down a TV news crew off the coast of New Jersey, the President cautiously begins to relax the strict civil emergency measures. A tip off by Cavaux's attorney leads to a joint agency raid on his hideout in New Jersey, where Cavaux escapes in the confusion. He then heads to New Hampshire where his final plan is unrevealed: attacking Washington DC itself. Under the cover of a disguised Air Force One, the operation begins with Cavaux's forces attacking and disabling all Patriot units and air defense forces in the Washington DC area. The disguised plane then launches a suicidal run on the Capitol. A remorseful F-16 pilot, who was blamed after failing to prevent the first attack on San Francisco which lead to the death of hundreds and his wingman, rams his jet into the plane, causing it to crash and cause heavy damage in the Washington Mall area, but sparing the Capitol. In the chaos, Cavaux attempts to kill Hardcastle himself, but is stopped by the FBI director. Cavaux escapes, and reveals his final plan: using another plane loaded with explosives to fly into the White House. Hardcastle, with the help of the local mission commander, manages to shoot down the plane using the Avenger Air Defense System, just before it strikes the White House. However, the White House is badly damaged in the explosion that follows. Cavaux escapes in the chaos, but is then shot dead by his top lieutenant, who remarks that Cavaux's time is over and now it's his time. Murray, Frank J., "Novelist sees terrorism as scarier than fiction," The Washington Times, September 14, 1994, part A, page A12. LexisNexis Library Express (subscription). Retrieved August 31, 2011 ===== Squire tells the story of Keladry of Mindelan's years as a squire, between the ages of fourteen and eighteen. Having passed the "big examinations", Kel becomes a squire without a knight- master. While she becomes frustrated at waiting for offers from knights, her best friend, Nealan of Queenscove, becomes squire to Alanna the Lioness, the first lady knight in Tortall, and Kel's personal hero. While Kel is disappointed at not becoming the Lioness's squire, she shortly receives an equally prestigious offer from Lord Raoul of Goldenlake, commander of the elite King's Own and a personal friend to the Lioness. As Lord Raoul's squire, she travels with the King's Own and participates in routine duties ranging from chasing rogue centaurs to helping to rebuild villages afflicted by natural disasters such as mudslides. Along the way, Kel acquires a baby griffin from the bandits who kidnapped him from his parents' nest. Due to the high incidence of kidnapping immature griffins for their magical powers, griffin parents attack any human who has ever touched one of their offspring, so this task is not without its dangers. As knight-master, Raoul teaches Kel the fineries of command, and hones her proven skills in jousting, eventually entering her into tournaments where she jousts against other squires and knights. She jousts twice against Wyldon of Cavall, her previous training master, a political conservative who was initially vehemently opposed to Kel's training to be a knight. After the second time, she meets three girls, two of them sisters, who explain that they wish to train for knighthood as well. Kel gives them some advice, noting that the sisters appear serious about it while the third girl seems more like the type that jumps around from idea to idea. When a political marriage is arranged for Prince Roald, the heir apparent, the Yamani Princess he is betrothed to turns out to be Shinkokami (nicknamed Shinko), a friend from Kel's childhood years in the Yamani Islands; one of her ladies-in-waiting is Yukimi noh Daiomoru, another of Kel's old friends. Shinko's anxiety about her upcoming marriage, and the prospect of integrating into Tortallan society, become catalysts for the three to reforge their friendship as Kel introduces Shinko to various aspects of Tortallan culture. She also introduces Yuki to her squire friends, and she and Neal strike up a quick romance. Joren of Stone Mountain is found to be the noble who paid two men to kidnap Lalasa Isran, Kel's maid. He is, however, acquitted with a fine. Kel protests the unfairness of the law to the monarchs and gets them to attempt to change it. Princess Shinkokami's introduction to the subjects of Tortall provides an excuse for the Grand Progress, a progress of the royal family, nobility, and other notables. Against his wishes, Raoul joins the progress, with Kel in tow. This becomes a chance that lets Kel strike up a secret romance with Cleon of Kennan, and Raoul becomes involved with the commander of the Queen's Riders, Queen Thayet's former bodyguard and right- hand lady, Buriram Tourakom. Kel's second Midwinter as a squire sees her facing the ordeals of knighthoods of her older friends Prince Roald and Cleon of Kennan (who is at this point Kel's sweetheart). Their age group includes Joren of Stone Mountain, who dies in the Chamber, and Vinson of Genlith, who is punished by the Chamber for all the evil deeds he has done to women, namely by feeling every injury done to them. On the Midwinter after her eighteenth birthday, Kel is scheduled to undergo the Ordeal of Knighthood, a ritual that determines if a squire is worthy to become a knight. Of all her year-mates, her name is drawn for the last day of midwinter. Kel waits anxiously while all her friends pass their Ordeals, but her anxiety is disproven; she passes the Ordeal and receives her knight's shield after seeing a disturbing vision in the Chamber, as well as a sword from the Lioness, who had been anonymously sending her gifts of weapons and training equipment throughout her page and squire years. ===== Dirty War opens with a quote from Eliza Manningham-Buller, the then-Director General of MI5: "It will only be a matter of time before a crude chemical, biological, or radiological (CBRN) attack is launched on a major Western city". Dirty War follows the journey of radioactive material, hidden in vegetable oil containers, from Habiller, Turkey, approximately west of Istanbul, through Sofia, Bulgaria, onwards to Deptford, then to an East End Indian food takeaway restaurant, and finally to a rented house in Willesden, where the radioactive material and other components are assembled into a dirty bomb. When the bomb goes off in the heart of London, next to the entrance to Liverpool Street Underground station, the city's inadequate emergency services plans are put to an immediate test, with disturbing results for a population ill-prepared to understand or obey anti-contamination and quarantine orders. In addition to touching upon the motivations of the Islamic extremist terrorists to conduct what they saw as a martyrdom operation, the events are shown through the eyes of three principal groups: the government, the emergency medical services, and the police. Nicola Painswick (Helen Schlesinger), Minister for London, and Deputy Assistant Commissioner John Ives (Ewan Stewart) of the Metropolitan Police Anti-Terrorist Branch, present a governmental point of view. Watch Commander Murray Corrigan (Alastair Galbraith) of the London Fire Brigade and his wife Liz Corrigan (Louise Delamere), who works for the National Health Service, present the emergency services' story. Detective Sergeant Mike Drummer (Martin Savage) and Detective Constable Sameena Habibullah (Koel Purie) lead the police investigation to catch the terrorists, under the watchful eye of their boss, Commander Paul Hardwick (Paul Antony-Barber). DC Habibullah, an English Muslim policewoman from Luton, who speaks Urdu, Punjabi, and Arabic, presents a unique point of view throughout the film. ===== Shortly after the end of the Iranian Hostage Crisis, the newspaper Stars and Stripes publishes an article chronicling a series of brutal, ritualistic murders in Far East Asia. All of the victims have had their eyes and ears removed, and each was found with a playing card slipped into his or her mouth with the word "KOKO" written on it. Shortly thereafter, a reunion of Vietnam War veterans is held at the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington DC. Four survivors of a doomed platoon—Michael Poole (a pediatrician plagued by grief over the death of his young son from cancer and ambivalence about his marriage), Tina Pumo (owner of a Vietnamese restaurant), Conor Linklater (a journeyman construction worker) and Harry Beevers (an opportunistic lawyer)—gather to discuss the Koko killings. Because the word "Koko" holds special significance to the members of their platoon, and because the killings recall the events in a series of books he wrote, the men believe that the killer is Tim Underhill, another member of their platoon who disappeared years earlier in southeast Asia. Beevers convinces the men to help him track down Underhill, hoping that later they can sell the story of their adventure to the news media and become millionaires. While Pumo remains in New York to finish work on his soon-to-be-reopened restaurant, Beevers, Poole, and Linklater travel to Asia in search of Underhill, while the killer travels to America to continue his killing spree, which is meant to atone for an atrocity committed by Beevers and other members of the platoon years earlier, during the war. Much of the plot is interspersed with flashbacks to the four friends' time in Vietnam. Harry Beevers, the lieutenant of the group, was forceful and merciless. Tina, Conor, and Michael were soldiers in his platoon, along with several other men, most notably Victor Spitalny, a foul-tempered and arrogant young man, and M.O. Dengler, a philosophical and thoughtful man from a small town. After Vietnam, it was said that, while Dengler and Spitalny were traveling together in Bangkok, Dengler was brutally murdered in an alleyway while Spitalny fled the scene. Spitalny has not been accounted for since then (fifteen years before the platoon's trip to Singapore). Michael, Conor, and Harry fail to find Underhill in Singapore, but are given several leads while milling around sketchy clubs in the heart of the city that lead Michael and Conor to Bangkok and Harry to Taipei. While Conor searches the darker side of Bangkok, Michael wanders the flower market and residential areas of Bangkok. Before he does so, he visits the scene of Dengler's death, among other landmarks, but his search turns up fruitless. However, while wandering aimlessly around the city, thinking of his wife Judy and the strained relationship between the two of them, he sees an elephant, which delights him, and very soon afterwards finds Underhill at a small neighborhood fair. Upon meeting him, Michael realizes that Underhill couldn't possibly be Koko. His personality and state of mind are far too stable for vicious homicides. Michael convinces Underhill to return to America and help them find Koko. It is agreed that Underhill will accompany Michael and Conor on the flight to San Francisco where they meet with Harry and return to New York together. Meanwhile, back in America, Tina Pumo is murdered by Koko in his apartment. Tina's girlfriend, an attractive young Chinese woman named Maggie Lah, comes to visit him shortly thereafter. Maggie realises something is wrong on arriving at Tina's apartment, as the front door has been left open, and enters the apartment trying not to attract notice. Koko realises she has entered but is not sure of her whereabouts. Koko attempts to lure Maggie into exposing herself to him & gives his position away in the process. Maggie smashes an empty plant pot on Koko's head and knocks him briefly to the floor. This gains Maggie the few precious seconds she needs to escape, and she runs off. She is pursued, but the small lead she has is enough, and she makes it to safety. Michael, Conor, Beevers, Underhill, and Maggie mourn Tina's death, though Maggie does not attend the funeral, as she's worried about what Tina's relatives will say about her position in his life. The five get together and deduce that the murderer is, in fact, Victor Spitalny, having seen such horrors in the war that he has snapped and gone on a murderous rampage. Underhill and Beevers stay at Beevers' house and man the phones in case Koko calls. Michael, Maggie, and Underhill travel to Milwaukee, where Spitalny's parents live, and speak with the two of them. They do not trust the father, George Spitalny, and Maggie develops a hatred towards him. Conor returns home and develops a relationship with the niece of a man he works with, a woman named Ellen Woyzak. Beevers posts many fliers around town, each of them displaying a coded message only understandable by Koko, telling him to meet Beevers at a park in the center of town a few days later. In Milwaukee, the trio find out that Dengler and Spitalny went to the same school together, and speak to several of Spitalny's old classmates. None have anything particularly odd to say about Spitalny, though Michael agrees to meet one of them for lunch the next day and another for drinks that evening. Out of curiosity, Michael, Underhill, and Maggie go to see Dengler's mother. She turns out to be a religious maniac who taught M.O. Dengler a twisted version of Christianity, along with her husband, who is now deceased. When Michael meets Dengler's classmate for drinks, the man tells him that Dengler's parents had violently abused him several times to correct any errors he might have made. Furthermore, Dengler's father had been arrested and put in prison (and gruesomely murdered two years later by another prisoner) for sexually assaulting Dengler, beginning when he was five or six. Underhill learns the same information at the library, as well as the fact the Karl Dengler is Manny Dengler's real father (where Mrs. Dengler is not his real mother). Michael is shocked by the news and returns with Maggie and Underhill to New York, Michael and Maggie beginning a relationship before the journey. Conor and Ellen are waiting fervently for them at the airport, where Underhill is arrested because Harry Beevers had made an anonymous call to police so he could get Michael and Underhill out of the way and capture Koko alone. It is revealed that Koko has been telling people that his name is Underhill, thus framing Underhill for any murders he may have committed. Michael explains this to Murphy, the policeman who arrested Underhill, and reveals that Koko is not Spitalny as they had thought, but M.O. Dengler, their beloved comrade. Dengler killed Spitalny, switched dog-tags, and had a mob destroy his face and body. Murphy scolds the group for not telling the police of their findings before letting them go. Meanwhile, Harry Beevers decides to trap Koko in a killing box and hides in an arcade in Chinatown. He moves down a flight of stairs, a knife in one pocket and a pair of handcuffs in the opposite pocket. He hears something in the darkness and reaches for his knife. Beevers then remembers, belatedly, that the knife had fallen through a hole in his coat pocket earlier on that day, and he transferred it to the same pocket as the handcuffs, to make it easier to find. Koko seizes him and draws him into the darkness beneath the stairs. Michael, Maggie, Underhill, Conor, and Ellen travel quickly to where they think Beevers met Koko—a cave-like arcade in Chinatown. Murphy and his squad of police trail them. They are unaware of the policemen's presence until Underhill alerts Michael to the sight of them. Michael and the group flee in different directions down a deserted street by the arcade. Underhill and Maggie alert Michael after finding a bloody knife on a lower level of a tenement building that they were hiding in. Michael, Conor, and Underhill find Beevers tied up, gagged, and injured. Koko/Dengler is nearby, and smashes a lightbulb, throwing the group into darkness. The policemen catch up with them and negotiate with Koko to release the four men. Koko/Dengler stabs Michael in the side and does the same to Underhill, however he gags Underhill and steals his jacket so that he could be easily mistaken for Underhill himself in the dim light. After Michael alerts the police that the small man in the coat is not Underhill, Koko/Dengler murders one of the officers and escapes. In the aftermath, Koko/Dengler travels to Honduras and is never heard from again. Michael, Underhill, Maggie, Conor, and Ellen all survive, however Beevers commits suicide six months after the scene in the basement, having no purpose in his life and no more illusions of grandeur to hold on to. Two years later, Michael and Maggie are together and live in a loft above Tina Pumo's old loft, where Underhill lives with Vinh and his daughter. Underhill narrates the end of the story, and imagines Koko's first few days in Honduras and the constant anxiety that would come with them. ===== In 1951, 19-year old Lata Mehra attends the wedding of her older sister, Savita, to Pran Kapoor, a university lecturer. Lata’s mother, Mrs. Rupa Mehra, informs Lata that it is time she marries, a notion which Lata dismisses as she intends to concentrate on her studies in English literature. Nevertheless Mrs. Rupa Mehra begins to put out feelers for a suitable boy for Lata to her friends and family. In the meantime Lata is approached several times by a boy her own age and after a few meetings feels she has already fallen in love with him. She learns his name is Kabir Durrani and is distressed when she realises he is Muslim as her Hindu family would never allow her to marry a Muslim man. When her early morning meetings with Kabir are discovered she tries to run away with Kabir, who refuses. Ultimately Lata agrees to go with her mother to Calcutta to live with her arrogant older brother Arun, who is already married. As Lata is leaving she is spotted by Haresh Khanna, an ambitious shoe manufacturer who is involved in business with Kedarnath Tandon, the husband of Pran’s older sister, Veena. He is intrigued by her beauty and sadness. In Calcutta, Lata is surprised to find herself enjoying her time with her brother and sister-in-law. She meets her sister-in-law Meenakshi’s eccentric family, the Chatterjis, and bonds with her older brother, Amit, an England-educated poet who is under pressure from his family to grow up and marry. Though Amit initially only intends on being friendly to Lata as a member of his family, he begins to wonder whether she might make a suitable wife. Mrs. Rupa Mehra is horrified when she realises that Amit and Lata might be considering each other as spouses as she dislikes Meenakshi and disapproves of the Chatterjis as a result. She decides to go to Delhi to renew her efforts to find a spouse for Lata. By accident she is introduced to Haresh Khanna and decides he is suitable for Lata. Despite the fact that he is in love with another woman, who he is also unable to marry due to objections from her family, Haresh agrees to meet Lata. Lata finds the idea of marrying Haresh ridiculous but nevertheless has an agreeable time with him and gives him permission to write to her. Returning home she hears that Kabir was involved in reuniting her sister-in- law Veena with her son after a mass stampede separated them. She nevertheless vows to forget about Kabir only to be surprised when they are both cast in the university’s production of Twelfth Night. During rehearsals Pran is hospitalised and Savita gives birth. Lata takes on a more prominent role in taking care of her sister and niece which results in her realising her mother is only trying to ensure her happiness and safety. She begins corresponding more warmly with Haresh and despite still being attracted to Kabir tells him that she is no longer interested in marrying him. Haresh loses his managerial job at a shoe factory but inveigles his way into a lesser position as the foreman at the Praha shoe factory with promise of upward mobility. His new circumstances fail to impress Arun and Meenakshi who are also biased against him as they are aware of Amit's burgeoning attraction to Lata and want to encourage that match. In the new year the Mehra family once again travels to Calcutta to spend time with Arun and Meenakshi and to reconnect with Haresh. At a cricket match Haresh, Kabir and Amit all meet and recognise that they are all loosely acquainted, but fail to realise that they are all, in one way or another, courting Lata. Kabir is in Calcutta trying to work up the courage to speak to Lata, however he fails to do so and Lata receives a letter from her best friend informing her that Kabir was spotted in an intimate conversation with another woman. Haresh is more persistent in his courtship of Lata, but after she off-handedly calls him mean, he takes offence and their relationship comes to a standstill. In the new year, based on Kabir's invitation, Amit comes to speak at Lata's school. She reconnects with Kabir where she learns that the information he was courting another woman was false. However she tells him she is seriously writing to Haresh and is strongly considering marrying him. Amit also takes this opportunity to more seriously propose to Lata. Lata meets Kabir one last time where she realises that the passion she feels for him is not the basis for a good marriage. After receiving an apologetic letter from Haresh renewing his offer of marriage and a second letter from Arun, strongly encouraging her to reject Haresh, Lata decides once and for all to marry Haresh. Concurrent to the main plot is the story of Maan Kapoor, Lata's brother-in-law Pran's brother. Maan is the feckless youngest child of respected politician Mahesh Kapoor, the state Minister of Revenue. At a Holi celebration, Maan watches the courtesan singer, Saeeda Bai, perform. He visits her house and begins to court her. They become lovers. Saeeda Bai later feels that her feelings for him are interfering with her work and reputation. She sends him away with Tasneem's Urdu teacher, Rasheed, to his remote village under the pretence of wanting Maan to learn flawless Urdu. Maan spends the time becoming acquainted with Rasheed's family who are politically influential. When Maan returns to Brahmpur he resumes his love affair with Saeeda Bai and gains favour with his father who decides to run for office again in the seat where Rasheed's family lives. After campaigning with his father, Maan returns to Saeeda Bai's house where he sees his friend Firoz and believes from veiled comments that Saeeda Bai makes that the two have been having a love affair behind his back. In reality, Firoz had come to propose to Tasneem who Saeeda Bai revealed to be her secret daughter and Firoz's half- sister. In the ensuing confusion Maan stabs Firoz in a fit of jealousy. The ensuing scandal causes his father to lose his seat and his mother to die after a series of strokes. However once Firoz recovers he insists that the stabbing was caused by his own clumsiness and Maan is made a free man. The wedding between Lata and Haresh takes place with joy to all except Kabir who is invited but does not come. A few days later Lata and Haresh take a train to his home to begin their new lives together. ===== Recently graduated from high school, 17-year-old Shiro (Yūya Yagira) decides to put off college and work at a gas station instead. Shy and introspective, Shiro understands he is at a turning point of his life, but is unsure of what lies ahead. Though his parents disapprove of his decision, he has the support of his flower child grandmother (Natsuki Mari) who declares that a gas station is a romantic place for life's drifters. Surely enough, soon a new co-worker, college student Noriko (Erika Sawajiri), drifts into Shiro's life. He falls headfirst into a bittersweet first love that ushers him into the world of adulthood. ===== Set in Constantinople at the time of the First Crusade, Count Robert of Paris portrays the impact of Western medieval values and attitudes on the sophisticated Romano-Greek classical society of the Byzantine Empire. The two main characters are Count Robert, a Frankish knight, and Hereward, an Anglo-Saxon refugee from the Norman conquest of England, serving as a mercenary soldier in the Varangian Guard of the Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. Count Robert was an actual but minor historical figure who disrupted negotiations between the Crusader leaders and the Emperor by occupying the latter's throne when it was temporarily vacated. ===== The story is set in Lanarkshire in March 1307.Ibid., 385. Lady Augusta has promised to marry Sir John de Walton provided that he can maintain possession of the castle he has captured for a year and a day. Regretting her promise, she resolves to travel in disguise to the castle to find some method of subversion. The story had already been told in brief in his essay on 'Chivalry' for the Encyclopaedia Britannica in 1818, and in spite his failing health and a recent decline in popularity due to his politics, Scott made an effort to visit the area to collect information and adjust descriptions. Pained by James Ballantyne's criticisms of Count Robert of Paris, and by his unexpected disagreement on the subject of the recent Reform Bill, Scott did not discuss the book with him.Edgar Johnson, Sir Walter Scott: The Great Unknown (London, 1970), 1183–84. Only one ruined tower remains of Douglas Castle, and that dates from the 17th century. Scott called this area "Douglasdale"The term Douglasdale was used in the 'Magnum' preface to Castle Dangerous, transmitted from Naples, Italy early in 1832. See Walter Scott, Introductions and Notes from The Magnum Opus: Ivanhoe to Castle Dangerous, ed. J. H. Alexander with P. D. Garside and Claire Lamont (Edinburgh, 2012), 583, 589. ===== Surcos follows the struggles of a Spanish family as it emigrates from the country to Madrid circa 1950. Facing difficulties in finding housing and employment, several family members turn to illegal or immoral activities in order to make ends meet, and the traditional family structure disintegrates. The movie begins when the Perez family of country bumpkins arrive from the country at the Madrid train station, disoriented, gawking and loaded down with baggage, including a basket of live chickens. The Perez family consists of a mother (who is never named in the movie), the fiftyish aged father, Manuel, his older son Pepe (who had visited Madrid during the Spanish Civil War), his younger son, Manolo and his slightly impish, but completely naïve daughter, Tonia. They move in with a relative of the mother in a run down apartment complex that is overrun with hordes of children who do cruel things every time they get a chance, showing that none of them are attending school at that point in Franco's Spain. In the apartment they meet the relative's daughter, the street smart Pili. Pili makes a living for her mother and herself by selling contraband American cigarettes in the street. Pili has an evil boyfriend, El Mellao. El Mellao works for the even more evil black marketer, but well dressed, very rich and smooth, Don Roque (“El Chamberlain”). Pepe quickly makes an implacable enemy of El Mellao when he defends Pili from his abuses and Don Roque hires Pepe in the place of El Mellao to drive around his contraband, because Pepe will do it for less. Pepe and Pili also become a couple and move in together. The father, Manuel tries selling candy in the street for his sister in law, but fails when the multitude of street children demand that he give it to them for free. Then a police officer takes away his entire supply because he is selling without a license. His sister in law is so enraged that she makes a very proud Manuel do kitchen work. Then, to Manuel's surprise, a note arrives that he has gotten a job in a foundry. However, when he attempts to work in the arduous conditions, he is quickly overcome by the noise and heat of the foundry and faints, losing the job almost immediately. His sister in law then again relegates him to humiliating kitchen work. Pepe's job for Don Roque is to work with a gang that steals sacks of potatoes from trucks that are climbing a hill and then deliver those potatoes to Don Roque to sell on the black market. Tonia also meets Don Roque through Pepe and Pili, who immediately has designs on her. First, he hires Tonia as a maid for his mistress. Tonia is very impressed by all the fine clothing that Don Roque's mistress has. When Don Roque hears Tonia sing while working, he tells her she has talent and offers to pay for singing lessons for her. With her mother's reluctant consent, Tonia accepts enthusiastically. He buys her a lot of attractive clothing, supposedly so she will be well dressed for her performance as a singer. However, when she actually gets the chance to sing on stage, some ruffians, hired by Don Roque, disrupt her performance and make her look foolish. Tonia runs off the stage in tears. Then, Don Roque comforts Tonia and takes her away in his limousine to deflower her and make her his mistress. Manuel is totally shocked by the whole thing and slaps his wife around for letting it happen. Then, Manuel shows up unexpectedly at the door of the love nest, slaps a shocked Tonia hard and cries bitterly while she goes to get her things so he can take her away. Pepe loses his job with Don Roque when he confronts him about deflowering his sister and demands that Don Roque marry her, which Don Roque laughs off with contempt. Pili still demands that he steal from trucks, but the rest of Don Roque's gang refuses to accompany him and El Mellao tips off the authorities that Pepe is about to try it without them. When Pepe hops into the back of the truck, they are waiting for him. They shoot him and he is further injured when he jumps off the truck. When he returns in the truck, badly injured, he finds El Mellao trying to drag away Pili as his prize. El Mellao then hits Pepe on the head with a large wrench and rushes off to chase a fleeing Pili. Don Roque arrives to find Pepe badly injured, but still alive. He takes him to a bridge and throws him onto railroad tracks as a train passes under the bridge. In the last scene of the movie, Manuel, his wife, Manolo and Tonia have returned to their village where Pepe is being buried. Manuel picks up a handful of soil from the grave and tells his family that they have to return to the country. His wife says people will laugh, but Manuel replies that, even with shame, they have to return to the land. ===== Photo of Tolstoy, by Sergei Lvovich Levitsky, 1856The unnamed narrator of the story and his manservant Alyeshka start on an evening trip by sledge from Novocherkassk in the Caucasus to a destination in central Russia. As they ride, a winter storm begins, and soon the road becomes covered with heavy, thick snow. The narrator becomes concerned about getting lost and queries his driver about their chances of making it safely to the next post station. The driver is somewhat vague and fatalistic concerning the rest of the journey, suggesting that they may or may not get through. The narrator has little confidence in the driver, who seems inexperienced and sullen. A few minutes later, the driver stops the sledge, gets down, and starts searching for the road that they have lost. Disturbed by this situation, the narrator orders the phlegmatic driver to turn back, giving the horses their head to seek out the post station from which they started out. To add to the anxiety, the driver tells a story of some recent travelers who got lost and froze to death in a similar storm. Soon they hear the balls of three men sledges coming toward them and going in the opposite direction. The narrator orders his driver to turn around and follow the fresh tracks of the courier sledges. The tracks and road markers quickly disappear in the drifting snow. The narrator himself now gets out of the sledge to look for the road, but soon loses sight of even the sledge. After finding his driver and sledge, a decision is again made to turn back and return to the station from which they started out. Again they hear the bells of the courier troika, which is now returning to their original starting point, having delivered the mail and changed horses. The narrator's driver suggests that they follow them back. As the narrator's driver tries to turn around, his shafts hit the horses tied to the back of the third mail troika, making them break their straps, bolt, and run. The post driver goes off in search of the runaway horses while the narrator follows the first two sledges at full gallop. In better spirits now that he has somebody to follow, the narrator's driver converses with his passenger affably, telling about his life and family circumstances. Soon they run across a caravan of wagons, led by a mare without help from the driver, who is sleeping. They almost lose sight of the courier sledges, and the driver wants to turn around again, but they go on. The old driver who went to get the runaway horses returns with all three and loses little time in reprimanding the narrator's driver, whose inexperience created the problem in the first place. The narrator begins to daydream, losing himself in the monotonous and desolate snowstorm and musing lyrically about the snow and wind: “Memories and fancies followed one another with increased rapidity in my imagination.” The narrator conjures up stream-of-consciousness images of his youth: the old family butler on their baronial estate, summers in the country, fishing, languid July afternoons, and finally a peasant drowning in their pond and nobody being able to help. The narrator's driver announces that his horses are too tired to go on, and he proposes that the narrator and his servant go with the post sledges. The baggage is transferred, and the narrator is glad to get into the warm, snug sledge. Inside, two old men are telling stories to pass the time. They give very short, blunt answers to the narrator's suggestion that they all might freeze to death if the horses give out: “To be sure, we may.” After driving a while longer, the men in the sledge begin arguing about whether what they see on the horizon is an encampment. The narrator becomes sleepy and thinks that he is freezing to death. He has hallucinations about what it must be like to freeze to death, dozing and waking alternately. The narrator wakes in the morning to find that the snow has stopped and he has arrived at a post station. He treats all the men to a glass of vodka and, having received fresh horses, continues on the next leg of his journey. ===== Brenda (Rita Tushingham) and Yvonne (Lynn Redgrave), two girls from the North of England, arrive in London to seek fame and fortune. However, their image of the city is quickly tarnished when they are robbed of their savings by a tramp. Determined not to let her chance slip, Yvonne visits Carnaby Street in the hope of catching the eye of a trendy photographer, whilst Brenda has to stay behind and do the washing up in a greasy spoon cafe after the girls cannot afford to pay. Yvonne does get spotted by a trendy photographer, Tom Wabe (Michael York), but is singled out for being poorly dressed. After several unsuccessful job attempts, she accidentally wins the star prize in a television game show and decides to invest the prize money in becoming a pop star. Her single, "I'm So Young", though patently awful, becomes a big hit and she and Brenda drift apart. As Tom Wabe's muse, Brenda goes on to become a top model, while Yvonne's popularity wanes. However, at a glamorous party at the top of the Post Office Tower, the girls realise the shallowness of the media business and decide to return home. ===== A young Bernice Summerfield lands a job as an archaeologist on a colony world. She discovers evidence that the planet was previously inhabited by a sapient species. ===== Conan, now in his late thirties and privateer captain of the Wastrel, becomes embroiled in the politics of the kingdom of Zingara when he searches for a mythical treasure on the Nameless Isle. Mixed up in his adventure are Princess Chabela, daughter of a dying Zingaran king, the privateer Zarono, and the Stygian sorcerer Thoth-Amon. Chronologically, Conan the Buccaneer falls between "The Pool of the Black One" in Conan the Adventurer and "Red Nails" in Conan the Warrior. However, the present book ends with Conan as a successful captain, high in the favor of the royal family of Zingara, while "Red Nails" starts with him as a fugitive mercenary in the jungles south of Stygia. How Conan lost his ship, left the sea, and took up again the role of a mercenary is untold. ===== Miranda Hollander is a beautiful and smart young woman. She is a college professor and lives with her "uncle", Tom Hollander who works in a museum; he adopted her after a car crash killed her parents. Miranda can read books just by touching them, without even needing to open them. Miranda believes that she has lived with her "uncle" ever since her parents were killed in an accident while she was a baby. After her birthday, Miranda passes out and is sent to a local hospital. Tom is notified by the police. When Miranda arrives at the hospital, she silently transforms into alien form and kills several people. When Tom finally arrives at the hospital the following morning, he finds bodies everywhere. Tom locates Miranda, injects her with human hormones and begins driving her to Mexico. On the way to Mexico, Miranda wakes up, asking for the cause of her 'illness'. Tom tells Miranda that she is the result of an experiment that combined human and alien DNA, an experiment conducted with his friend Forbes McGuire while they were both still in college. Tom has been injecting her with human hormones since her childhood to suppress her alien DNA. (Thus she never entered a cocoon stage and aged like a normal human.) Her parents never existed; they were just a fiction created by Tom to help build up Miranda's "normal life". Tom explains he and Forbes parted ways because of differences of opinion over their vision of their creation. When they arrive in Mexico, Miranda rests in a motel room while Tom spends the day searching for Forbes. After a few incidents, Tom and Miranda locate Forbes' current home. Forbes now lives with his recent experiment named Azura, another human and alien DNA hybrid who also serves as his assistant and lover—she is sterile to prevent offspring. Forbes supports his experiment by creating half-alien facsimiles of dead pets and relatives. Forbes checks Miranda's condition and finds that Miranda has reached the end of her lifespan and will die in days; her changes to alien form are her body's way of fighting back as her human form has a weaker immune system. The only way to deny death is injecting fresh human DNA into Miranda. Miranda won't allow that to happen when she realizes it will result in the sacrifice of another human being. Again, Miranda becomes unconscious. Tom goes searching for a "donor" and is mugged by a woman in the process. Azura then incapacitates the mugger and the two bring her back to Forbes' lab, where they succeed in extending Miranda's life. However, Miranda starts acting odd, joking about having sex with Azura. Tom checks her blood as she invites him to get drunk and have sex in their hotel room; he tells her to rest, believing she is delirious from the procedure. She leaves in a huff. Tom finds Forbes did a sloppy job; Miranda's hormones are unstable, causing her alien side to become increasingly dominant. Driven by her alien sex drive, Miranda manages to seduce the innkeeper, another hybrid; however she kills him mid-process upon finding he is sterile. She goes to a bar for potential mates, seeing that a female singer in a provocative red dress is garnering a lot of attention. She sneaks backstage, intimidating the singer into giving up her dress. Tom wishes to sedate Miranda, so they can fix the imbalance in her DNA; Forbes gives him a near- lethal dose to use, but warns that she's "100% pure creature". Making things worse is that Miranda is no longer sterile, thanks to the new stem cells. Investigating a church, Tom is attacked by Azura; she is angry that his arrival changed things. He manages to knock her out by dropping a large cross on her, leaving Azura to heal and regain consciousness. Forbes tracks Miranda to an abandoned warehouse, where she strips naked; Miranda reveals Forbes has wanted to have sex with her since they met. She squeezes his hand to make him drop the sedative; Forbes gives in to his lust, allowing Miranda to strip him. They copulate, much to his pleasure. Once finished, Miranda changes into alien form and sends her tongue down Forbes' throat, suffocating him. Tom finds them later, barely pitying Forbes. Tom takes Miranda back to Forbes' house, where he discovers via X-ray that a hybrid child is rapidly growing in her womb. Miranda weakly says her humanity is dying, and that she doesn't want to be pure alien. Unfortunately, Azura returns in alien form; Tom is forced to fight her. Just when Azura has Tom cornered, Miranda attacks her and apparently kills Azura. However, Azura rises again and fatally impales Miranda before Tom kills Azura with a shotgun. In human form, Miranda thanks Tom for giving her life before dying. In the final scene a saddened Tom turns on all the gas burners and tanks in Forbes' house and leaves. The house explodes and Tom walks away, as the film ends. ===== Techno Destructo is behind all of the major assaults on Gwar since his enslavement in 1991 - attracting the attention of the Morality Squad, summoning Cardinal Syn, who in turn dispatched Skulhedface, confusing the band into thinking the year was 1999 (rather than 1996), so that they would think the coming of Cardinal Syn was, in fact, the comet RagNaRok, and the slave revolts. Though they all ended in failure, he has yet another plan - genetically modify abused (by Gwar) penguins into his army, hypnotize Slymenstra Hymen with radioactive crack cocaine, and marry her (to spite Oderus Urungus). Techno builds a robot clone of Sleazy P. Martini, and uses him to distribute the crack, while the band beats up penguins (in their time-honored sport of "Penguin-Booting"). With the band incapacitated, he proposes to Slymenstra (the stone on the engagement ring is a piece of radioactive crack, as well), and sends the first wave of mutant penguins after Gwar. They are promptly defeated. The wedding, officiated by the Pope, turns into disaster, when the crack wears off, and Slymenstra uses her nether region to punish Techno. In the backdrop of "Hate Love Songs," he jousts Oderus. After he is defeated again, he commandeers the microphone, regains his robotic arm (having been disarmed upon enslavement) with the slaves' help, and attacks Gwar. Though he initially defeats the band, Oderus and Slymenstra ultimately win out long enough for a newly revived Gor- Gor (revived with the radioactive crack residue) to start eating him. The concert ends with the subdued "Don't Need A Man" video, featuring Balsac the Jaws of Death on piano, Beefcake the Mighty on upright bass, Jizmak Da Gusha on a minimal (for him, at least) drum kit, and Slymenstra's lounge singing. ===== The game takes place one year after America has gone through a massive disaster known simply as "The Event", which included earthquakes that destroyed most cities. Due to the damage of the aftermath, many people are forced to go without resources. The government tries to help citizens, but their attempts are useless. Supplies become low and this causes citizens to become agitated, violent and bitter. An unnamed male survivor travels to his old home of the fictional city of Haventon, to rescue his wife Julie and daughter Mary. When he gets to his apartment, he finds they have left to get to safety and meanwhile video tapes his apology for not being there and says that he will do everything to find them. As he is leaving, the protagonist sees a small girl who he mistakes for his daughter and saves her from three hostile men. The girl, Mei (Angela Galuppo), is missing her mother and gives the protagonist a walkie-talkie with which he talks to Henry (Elias Toufexis), a friend of Mei. Henry asks him to bring Mei to him and he agrees. The protagonist and Mei travel out to Henry's apartment, but soon stop in a dilapidated mall to rest during a dust storm. The protagonist notices that Mei has a fever, so he goes to find a supply drop that the government landed for survivors and is able to recover medicine for Mei. The two leave the next day and arrive at Henry's place, where the protagonist finds out that Henry is disabled and cannot walk. The protagonist is then tasked of finding a radio for Henry and traverses through the deadly dust clouds and makes it to an old boat. After searching the boat and finding the radio, the protagonist makes it off and travels back to Henry. The protagonist makes it back and Henry thanks him and finally trusts him as a friend. Henry also suspects that Mei's mother might be in a local hotel and pressures the protagonist into finding her for Mei. He gets to the hotel and fights through a large number of killers who have kidnapped, intimidated and hurt women to pressure them into performing sexual acts on the men. The protagonist finds Mei's mother, Linda (Jean Nicolai), and rescues her from the men. They both get back to Henry's place and Mei reunites with her mother. Linda is able to use the radio to get messages from a boat coming to Haventon to pick up survivors. This seems as their way out but they soon learn that the boat is not coming to shore because of the dust. Henry makes the plan of creating a beacon to bring in the boat by using fireworks. The protagonist takes some of Henry's fireworks and sets them off on a nearby rooftop, successfully making a beacon for the boat. Just after they set it up though, hunters attack and the protagonist is forced to fight them off but Henry is nowhere to be found after. The protagonist learns from helping an injured man that Henry was taken by the hunters, who they were hunting for, due to his knowledge of where the camps holding survivors are. Finally, the beacon attracts the boat and it arrives at the dock just in time. In the end, Mei and Linda go aboard the boat but the protagonist decides to stay, hoping to find Henry and his family. Mei and Linda bid him farewell and he records his last tape and says that he will find Julie and Mary and try to rescue Henry, before it is shown that a woman, presumably Julie, or his daughter Mary several years later, has been watching all his videos and currently has all his gear. She cries after the video ends and it is left on a cliffhanger whether or not Henry - or the protagonist - survived. ===== Zoë Sutcliff is a young woman who experiences the slow death of her mother, Anne Sutcliff, and the dislocation of her father, Harry Sutcliff. She turns to her sole friend Lorraine, who cannot provide emotional support for Zoë. Lorraine moves to Oregon with her father and stepmother, leaving Zoë completely alone. On the news, there are reports of women being killed in Zoë's area, whose throats are slashed and drained of blood. While walking in a park, Zoë meets Simon, begins a friendship with him; they eventually develop a mutual romantic attraction until one night, she caught him eating a pigeon. He later tells her the truth of his origin, which he is a vampire from 17th-century England, and he is seeking to kill Christopher—his own brother—who looks like a six-year-old albino but is a sadistic version of what Simon could become. He reveals that Christopher is Zoë's neighborhood's throat-slashing killer, and his brother was also responsible for the murder of their mother and his vampirism; hence, he wants retribution against his brother. Prior to Simon's revelations, Lorraine was almost killed by Christopher when he attempted to lure her into an alley until Zoë reached her in time; Zoë now realizes that she has met the childlike vampire before and inadvertently saved her friend's life by interfering. Skeptical, Zoë allows Simon to feed upon her in a controlled manner to prove his claims. Simon is entranced by the grief-stricken Zoë and must accept his feelings of fondness for her while trying to control his own nature. His growing attachment to Zoë puts them both at risk because of his feud with Christopher. Zoë tells Lorraine about her feelings for Simon, but does not tell her about him being a vampire. Zoë considers asking Simon to turn her mother into a vampire, but he tells her there is no cure for vampirism and that existence as one is unappealing. Despite misgivings, Simon approaches Zoë; she lures Christopher into a trap where Simon has the strategic advantage. In a climactic battle, Simon slays Christopher. After the battle, despite Zoë offers herself to Simon for him to turn as a vampire for companionship, he refuses and decides to end his life now that his revenge is completed and seeking the peace he has been unable to get since his transformation. Simon spends his final hours with Zoë; they have sex and he dies after exposing himself to sunlight. ===== Set during the American Civil War, the story focuses on Charlotte Lovell and her cousin Delia, whose wedding day is disrupted when her former fiancé Clem Spender returns following a two-year absence. Delia proceeds to marry Jim Ralston, and Charlotte comforts Clem, who enlists in the Union Army and is later killed in battle. Shortly after his death, Charlotte discovers she is pregnant with Clem's child, and in order to escape the stigma of an illegitimate child, she journeys West to have her baby, a daughter she names Clementina (or "Tina"). Following the end of the war, Charlotte and Tina relocate to Philadelphia, where Charlotte opens an orphanage. Delia is the mother of two children, and Charlotte is engaged to marry Joe Ralston, her cousin's brother-in-law. On her wedding day, Charlotte tells Delia that Tina is her child by Clem, and Delia stops Joe from marrying Charlotte by telling him that she is in poor health. The cousins become estranged, but when Jim is killed in a horse riding accident, Delia invites Charlotte and Tina to move in with her and her children. Tina, unaware Charlotte is her birth mother, assumes the role of Delia's daughter and calls Charlotte her aunt. Fifteen years pass, and Tina is engaged to wealthy Lanning Halsey. Still unaware Charlotte is her mother, she begins to resent what she considers her interference in her life, and when Delia offers to formally adopt Tina in order to provide her with a reputable name and a prominent position in society, she gladly accepts. Charlotte intends to tell Tina the truth before her wedding but finds herself unable to do so. Charlotte confronts Delia and reveals she resents the fact both Clem and Tina loved Delia more than they did her. Delia tells Tina that Charlotte sacrificed her own happiness by refusing to marry a man who did not want to raise Tina as his own. Delia urges Tina to kiss Charlotte last when Tina prepares to depart with her new husband. Tina complies, and her gesture leaves Charlotte happy and willing to share the rest of her life with Delia as a friend rather than an adversary. ===== Every episode starts with the arrival of new guests and the involvement of the guest house's employees in their comic and tragic situations. Almost all the episodes end with the guest's problems solved by the help of all-too-readily helpful employees and reluctant owners of the guest house. ===== In the second half of the 19th century, in 1875, the story begins with the titular character, Romeo, waking up and making his way to the church to ring the bell along with his pet ermine, Piccolo. The village is suffering due to a long draught, and Romeo's family is hit by it the worst, as they are also under debt. Romeo wants to compete in the pole climbing competition, as he wishes to follow his father's footsteps. Meanwhile, a mysterious man, whom the villagers refer to as "the god of death" makes his way into the village. He has his eyes on Romeo and plans to buy him from his parents. He urges Romeo's father Roberto to sell his son and in exchange he would take care of the tab for him. The fellow villagers tell the god of death to back off as Roberto would never sell his son, and besides, he still has one corn field remaining. The god of death smiles when he hears this information. During the pole climbing competition, the god of death starts a fire in the corn field, in order to force Romeo's family to sell him. Romeo's family rush to the field and manage to save two goats, but Roberto injures his head while leaping out from the flames. Roberto's injury worsens and the priest is worried, as without medical attention Roberto could end up blind for the rest of his life. The doctors fee is very expensive, as he has to come from a neighbouring village. Romeo is unable to see his father in this state, so he willingly sells himself into slavery. In exchange, the god of death takes care of the medical fee. Once Roberto has been treated, it is time for Romeo to leave, but just as he leaves he is told that none of the kids ever come back to the village, probably because they succumb to the harsh work conditions. He has no choice however as he had signed the contract and leaves the same day. Along the way he meets a boy who is unwilling to reveal anything apart from his name, which is Alfredo. They both earn each other's mutual respect after they help each other. This is also where they meet a boy named Dante. Soon they are taken into a tavern where they are thrown into the basement where the other kids were kept, Dante included. A few of them try to escape, but in vain. The god of death, or Mr. Luini decides that they must be sold as soon as possible before they try escaping again, so he and his companion decide to travel to Milan by boat, in the storm, however the boat sinks and apart from Alfredo and Romeo everyone else is presumed to be dead. They then see Mr. Luini drowning. Romeo's good values do not allow him to let the man sink and he saves him, as he believes that is what his father would do. The next day, Mr. Luini takes them both to Milan by horse cart, where they both are sold to two different people at high prices, but not before Romeo and Alfredo swear eternal friendship. The man who buys Romeo is called Marchello Rossi who is thoroughly manipulated by his wife, but is actually kind at heart. Through one of their routine cleaning days, Romeo meets professor Casera who teaches him how to read. Although Romeo is denied food by Rossi's wife, their daughter, who Romeo refers to as an angel, helps him by sharing her food with him. Soon, Anzelmo tricks Romeo into being friends so that he could steal the letter that the angel (Angeletta) had written for him, but turns out the letter was actually a page from her diary, where she detailed all the lies said by Anzelmo. When the wolf pack read it, they mercilessly beat Anzelmo up for lying to them. Anzelmo, hurt badly, swears revenge against Romeo. He blames his wounds on Romeo, knowing that his mother would believe him no matter what, and accuses Romeo of a robbery. Romeo manages to escape just in the nick of time from the police but is cornered by the wolf pack. Dante appears from nowhere and saves Romeo, who is thrilled to see that Dante is still alive. Dante however urges Romeo to leave the city as he is a wanted person. However, there is a mixup between the wagons and he ends up in the wagon of a criminal, who plans to blow up the police station to free his brother. Romeo manages to warn the police officers and Rossi just in the nick of time but ends up badly injuring himself. Rossi, moved by the act, decides to stand up to his wife and reveals that Angeletta had seen the real thief. After this, Rossi warms up to Romeo much more and greatly improves his living conditions, and learns to stand up to his wife's manipulations. Romeo finally meets Alfredo again, and they grab all the chimney sweepers to form an alliance called the black brothers to combat the wolf pack. The challenge the wolf pack to a bout and win as they pre planned and set traps. However, the leader Giovanni is no where to be seen, as he is called to fight the strongest member of the scorpion gang, who he defeats effortlessly, after which they disband and join the wolf pack. Giovanni is outraged to hear that the wolf pack lost to the black brothers. In revenge, they kidnap Michaelo and ask for Alfredo in exchange. When Alfredo refuses to kneel down in front of Giovanni, the latter proposes a battle at dawn. Initially they all fight (except Alfredo), but seeing as no one is able to gain the upper hand, Alfredo asks them to stop. Giovanni agrees and decides to make it a 1 on 1 fight. Tachioni volunteers to fight from the Wolf pack gang and Romeo from the black brothers. However, midway Tachioni draws out a blade in spite of Giovanni's instructions to use only fists, luckily the reflection from Romeo's charm blinds Tachioni and he is able to defeat him. Giovanni accepts defeat and praises Alfredo for having good friends, but tells him that they will get even some day. Angeletta's mannerism is totally different from the rest of the family, and this leads to suspicion among some members of the wolf pack, particularly Dante. He extracts part of the truth from his master(who is a close friend of Rossi). Romeo overhears the conversation between Rossi and Angeletta and decides to follow him to the Countess' mansion, where it turns out that Angeletta is in fact the granddaughter of lady Isabella, a countess. Isabella's son, Adolfo, fell in love with a poor woman named Giovanna. However, Isabella did not approve of the difference in social status and thus the young couple left after they bore a child. Sadly, the parents passed away due to an illness and Isabella passed on the child to Rossi who was her childhood friend. Isabella is unwilling to let Angeletta into the mansion as she believes the latter is only after her wealth, and Romeo is willing to wager his life to prove her otherwise. Angeletta's condition worsens and she wishes to see her grandmother once before she dies. They sneak into the mansion and Angeletta gets to see her grandmother, but she coldly tells her to go back home. Angeletta, however thanks Isabella for allowing her to meet her and goes to the church to pray. She collapses in between, and goes into a coma. Dr Casera says the only way to save her would be to go his acquaintance in Paris, who is a heart specialist. Romeo, the rest of the black brothers and Rossi try their best to convince Isabella, and she finally agrees after being moved by Romeo's devotion and friendship. She meets Angeletta and promises to take care of her in whatever way possible, and the next day, after a farewell, they leave for Paris by train. They following days, Romeo notices a huge crowd gathering outside a palace, and it turns out it is the grand wedding of the Duke of Milan. Romeo is called to clean the chimney of the hotel where all the invited nobles and royalties are staying, where he finds Alfredo's younger sister, Bianca, staying along with her uncle and aunt. She escapes and Romeo along with Alfredo begin to search for her, as the same with her uncle and aunt. Alfredo is visibly unwell, this could be attributed to the abuse he regularly went through at the hands of his master Citron, a cruel, vile man who spent all his money on drinking and gambling and thus Alfredo often went hungry. Alfredo tells the story of how he and Bianca were the children of the Martini family, Vittorio and Fatricia Martini, and how their father's younger brother Mauricio was extremely jealous of his success and wealth. Along with his wife, Grazela, they burn the house which kills Alfredo and Bianca`s parents, but not before they hand them the precious treasure of the Martini family, a medal. Alfredo and Bianca flee the burning mansion and their uncle and aunt frame them for the fire in hopes of capturing them and ultimately retrieving the medal. Alfredo and Bianca run for days until they are taken in by a couple, who they beg to let them stay. The God of Death makes his way to the village, and Alfredo willingly sells himself into slavery to provide the family with enough funds to raise Bianca. However, Bianca is captured by their relatives soon after Alfredo sold himself. Bianca meanwhile is unable find Alfredo but Mauricio captures her and takes her back to the hotel and ties her up. Luckily Nikita witnesses Bianca`s capture and alerts Romeo and Alfredo. Then the black brothers come through, free her and tie up Bianca's aunt. Mauricio makes his way to the church as he heard that Alfredo was there, but Alfredo creates a distraction and with the help of Nikita, he escapes. Alfredo is re-united with his sister, but collapses and coughs blood. He is taken to professor Casera, who is worried that Alfredo's illness is terminal. Alfredo, however says that he cannot stay any longer and has to go back to his master as his contact was not over yet. Alfredo assures his friends that it was nothing serious and he just had a cold, and the reason he was coughing blood was because he had bit his tongue. Meanwhile, Mauricio orders for a fake medal to be made in order to be let into the dining room, while Alfredo and Bianca along with the black brothers think of a plan to sneak them inside, in order to tell the king the truth. In the background Giovanni watches them, planning to confront Alfredo once and for all. Alfredo has a talk with Romeo and heads home. He is first stopped by Nikita, who is presumably waiting for him. As they talk, though, Alfredo begins to coughs blood, while Nikita stares in horror. Alfredo begs her to keep it a secret, as he does not want to worry his friends. As he moves on, he is stopped by Giovanni, but before the latter could finish the fight, he notices Alfredo coughing and stops the fight, and Alfredo thanks him and leaves, making Giovanni uncomfortable. The rest of the wolf pack decides to capture Alfredo, unfortunately it turns out to be the day when Alfredo was supposed to meet the king. After trapping Alfredo inside a basement under the bridge, the pack run to Giovanni, who is enraged at their actions. Romeo, meanwhile is able to locate Alfredo as Mr Rossi had seen him go under the bridge. Romeo asks Alfredo to escape while he would stay back to stall the pack. When the pack reaches him, Giovanni is astonished at how dedicated and loyal Romeo is towards Alfredo. Nikita, no longer able to hold back, tells them that Alfredo is dying due to an illness, which happens to be the same illness that killed Giovanni's father, and this is not known to Romeo either. Giovanni decides to help Romeo and his group for the night. With the help of the wolf pack, they make their way through the castle, defeating the bodyguards. Meanwhile, Lady Isabella arrives and sees Michaelo, who explains everything to her. Just as Alfredo and Bianca are about to meet the king, Mauricio takes Bianca as hostage, and before he could finish her Nikita creates a distraction, due to which Alfredo and Romeo fall over, but survive. They are successfully able to make it into the mansion, however the guards capture the children. Luckily for them, Lady Isabella comes through revealing the identities of Alfredo and Bianca and asks the guards to leave the kids. As Mauricio and Grazela are about to present the medal to the king, Alfredo pronounces the medal as fake, and claims he has the real medal. The king allows both parties to narrate their stories, but Mauricio is not aware of the fact that the king's father had marked something on the real medal- the mark of benediction, for showing true bravery and saving his life in war, which was missing from Mauricio's copy, and hence Alfredo and Bianca's names are cleared and their evil relatives are taken away. The black brothers talk for a while and everyone leaves, except Alfredo and Romeo, who go to the church, where they remember the moment they first met. Romeo thanks Alfredo for bringing hope into his life. Alfredo smiles, and says it wasn't him who was the ray of hope, it was Romeo himself, and he thanks Romeo for bringing courage and hope into his life. Alfredo then reminds him of the oath they made- they would always be together, no matter how far away they were from each other, asks Romeo to fulfil the dreams he would not be able to achieve, and asks him to take care of Bianca. And with that, Alfredo peacefully passes away in Romeo's arms, leaving a heartbroken Romeo behind, crying for his dear friend. Romeo can hardly concentrate on any of his day-to-day activities or work, and this angers the rest of the black brothers and Bianca. His refusal to accept Alfredo's death puts a strain on their relations. The wolf pack gang, particularly Nikita, were also saddened by Alfredo's death. To get Romeo back into his spirits, the black brothers organise a fight, where should he lose, he would be cast out. Romeo makes his way to the fight, and after taking a few punches and after listening to Bianca and Dante, he finally snaps out of his trance, after realising what his best friend had told him. He decides to go around town asking for donations for Alfredo's funeral. At his funeral, they sing the black brothers song in honour of Alfredo. As the leader of the group, he is presented with a challenge: to gather 20 lira, as they all want to watch the new circus that is in town. Romeo found an old broken house that needed heavy fixes and repairs. Romeo volunteers to clean and repair the house, and seeing his dedication the others along with Bianca pitch in too. On the day before the circus leaves, Romeo is unable to complete cleaning the second floor, buy the woman is pleased with his efforts and pays him 20 lira anyway. However, Michaelo accidentally breaks a vase, which angers the shopkeeper and he takes Michaelo's pendent which his mother had given him. Romeo finds out, and without a moment's hesitation, trades the money for the pendent, a decision everyone agrees and praised him for. Happily, they all sit and share stories from their hometowns till the evening ends. While working one day, Romeo falls from a chimney. Dr Casera agrees to have him and Bianca at his place until his leg heals. The doctor interests them both in many subjects, and Bianca begins to see Dr Casera as a father. They help children at an orphanage as well. As a thank you present, they hold a puppet show for Dr Casera, where Bianca reveals that she wishes to stay with the doctor and become his nurse, while Romeo wishes to keep studying and become a teacher to educate and help others like Dr Casera. The time has finally come for Romeo to go back home, as his contract is over. Some of the boys have already left and some of them have a while still. Romeo takes his time to wish everyone goodbye, and although Mrs Rossi does not like to admit it, she does miss Romeo. Mr Rossi says that he would probably never get a helper like Romeo again, and Romeo thanks him and calls him his second father. As they are making their way, they see The God of Death with a new batch of kids. They visit Alfredo's grave one last time, where they make truce with the wolf pack, and Nikita promises to take care of Alfredo's grave. Dr Casera drives them halfway to their home towns along with Bianca, and they all wish each other good bye and best of luck. Romeo re-unites with his family, and 10 years later, in 1885, thanks to his hard work, he becomes a teacher and marries Bianca, and they name their child Alfredo. With that, the anime concludes. ===== Steph Landry has been the target of jokes since sixth grade when she spilt a red Super Big Gulp on Lauren Moffat's white D&G; skirt. In response, Lauren coined the phrase "Don't be such a Steph Landry" to ensure Steph never lives it down. As time has passed people have forgotten both the incident and the individual, but the phrase is widely used in the small town. This has caused Steph to feel like a social pariah. Steph has since been content to hang out with her best friends Jason and Becca, also social outcasts, but as she enters the eleventh grade, she wants more out of high school. Luckily, she finds a copy of an old book titled none other than How to be Popular while cleaning out Jason's grandmother's attic. The book is full of useful tips. She follows the book's advice and begins the school year with flat-ironed hair and a new attitude. Steph is determined to be confident and enthusiastic about school. She sits with new people at lunch and organizes a talent auction. Steph does not anticipate Lauren's anger at her sudden rise in popularity, or Jason's confusion and shock at her behaviour. As her popularity grows, Steph is forced to make difficult choices about who and what is truly important to her. A minor plot arch of the impending wedding of Jason's grandmother and Steph's grandfather. Steph's mother is against the wedding and causes familial contention. Steph's mother's sixth pregnancy also plays out as a minor plot line. ===== When the Donovan family moves from California to Connecticut, 17-year-old Sydney (Tia Mowry) finds it is not easy being in a new town away from her old friends and adjusting to her father's remarriage after her mother passed away some time ago. However, while working at her new job, she encounters Todd (Merwin Mondesir), a boy in her class, whom she has a crush on. However, Ashley (Maia Campbell), his older sister, dislikes her and criticizes her anyway she can. Her 12-year-old genius brother Willie (Tahj Mowry) is happy as long as he can tinker in his lab with his increasingly complex experiments. When another experiment goes wrong, their father, Barry (Phillip Jarrett), forbids him from making more experiments in his lab until he learns responsibility. Willie is convinced he can defeat the aging process, and while devising an experimental anti-aging formula, he accidentally spills some on a bar of soap. When their grandmother Cat (Hope Clarke) unknowingly uses the tainted soap, she is transformed into a 17-year-old (Tamera Mowry). Her husband Gene (Robert Hooks) follows suit, and is also returned to his teenaged self (Mark Taylor). Cat and Gene are having a fine time reliving their youth and enjoying the thrill of teenage romance, but there's an error in the ointment. Willie learns his formula could have deadly side effects, and now he must discover an antidote to return his grandparents to their older but healthy bodies. Through their experience as teenagers again Gene and Cat realize they are still in love with each other but Cat is reluctant to believe Gene's feelings are genuine as she is still heartbroken that he chose to leave her for a job in Australia 20 years ago, the reason for their divorce. In Sydney's room, she and Cat finally have a long and heartfelt talk. Sydney admits she's homesick for California and her old friends. She hates Connecticut and the bullying she is subjected to by Ashley and her friends because Ashley's brother, Todd, is interested in her. During that time, Cat admits her earlier experience with Ashley. However unlike Sydney, she was able to stand up to Ashley and earn her begrudging respect. Meanwhile, Gene who has had time to reflect on his life choices realizes his mistake of leaving his family and bids farewell to his life as a teenager and the friends he has made, and goes to the dance with Ashley in hopes of reconciling with Cat. Meanwhile, at the dance, Sydney and Cat arrive and find Gene with Ashley. Gene and Cat share a dance where they reconcile, before Cat passes out due to the side effects of the soap. Willie arrives with the antidote as Gene carries Cat to the school's pool. Ashley, furious that Gene ditched her for Cat, cuts them off before they can save her. Sydney, having had enough of Ashley and her bullying, punches her in the face. As she and Willie leave to save their grandparents, everyone applauds Sydney for giving Ashley what she deserved. Willie tosses the antidote in the pool and Gene and Cat jump in. Gene asks Cat to marry him again after their crazy experience. Cat says yes, but then the happiness is interrupted by Sydney and Willie's parents, Barry and Monique (Tonya Lee Williams), coming home from a trip. The parents are surprised to see Cat and Gene reconciled and Monique tells him that they should let them babysit next time. Sydney asks Monique if she could help with the wedding plans and she agrees. A call comes in and Willie calls for Barry who tells him that he's in the shower with the soap (which they forgot to get rid of). Of course, Sydney and Willie now have to stop their father from using the soap. ===== The story concerns an American boy named Cedric Errol (more fondly known as "Cedie"https://www.gutenberg.org/files/479/479.txt Project Gutenberg etext of the novel: "...Cedie!" she cried out"), who at an early age finds that he is the sole heir to a British earldom and leaves New York City to take up residence in his ancestral castle. After some initial resistance, he is joined by his middle-class mother (whom Cedie calls "Dearest"), widow of heir James Errol. His grandfather, the Earl of Dorincourt, intends to teach the boy to become an aristocrat, but Cedie inadvertently teaches his grandfather compassion and social justice, and the artless simplicity and motherly love of Dearest warms the old man's heart. ===== It has been three years since little Katri's mother left for Germany leaving her daughter behind in Finland, where she now lives with her grandparents. With Finland still under Russian domination, the inhabitants of these lands have had little or no news from the outside and no one knows if little Katri will again see her mother. To make matters worse, things in the Katri's grandparents' farm are not going well, the harvest had been a small one, their only cow had been killed by a bear and the family confronts great monetary problems. Katri wants to help and finds work in a neighboring farm; for a girl of hardly nine years of age the work of a farm is hard and tiring even with all of her enthusiasm and good moods, which is what keeps her standing. ===== Perrine Paindavoine is the daughter of an Anglo-Indian mother, Marie, and a French father, Edmond, who dies in Bosnia at the very beginning of the story. Before dying, Edmond asks his wife and Perrine to return to his hometown, Maraucourt, where Perrine's grandfather, Vulfran, owns a factory and a family mansion. Perrine and her mother run a traveling photo studio in their journey to France. Upon reaching Paris, however, Marie falls ill. Although they sell everything they have to spend on medication, Marie eventually dies. At her deathbed, she reveals that Perrine must not expect a welcome from her grandfather. Vulfran strongly opposed Edmond's marriage and as such, he detests Perrine. After the burial, Perrine embarks on arduous journey to Maraucourt, traveling almost on foot and barely surviving starvation. Once there, she assumes the identity of Aurelie to assess the situation in advance: Maraucourt is a town whose primary function is to house the workforce of its cotton mill, which Mr. Paindavoine owns. As such, the blind, stern Mr. Paindavoine is virtually the local ruler of the town and is feared by everyone, even his irresponsible nephew who expects to inherit the factory. Aurelie secures a job of pushing rail-carts in the factory. Soon, however, she is promoted to factory's interpreter, as she speaks both French and English fluently. Ultimately, through her efficiency, loyalty and (unbeknownst to many) her compassion, she becomes Vulfran's personal secretary and is invited to live in his mansion. Vulfran gradually grows fond of Aurelie, who has become his all-time companion without him asking. Coming so to close to her grandfather, Aurelie learns about his personal life: Having virtually no loving relative, Vulfran has started a search for Edmond, intent to bring him home. Aurelie translates his foreign communications but does not dare to mention that his search is in vain, because Vulfran makes no secret of his hatred for Edmond's wife and daughter, blaming them for stealing his son away, which hurts Aurelie. Eventually, Vulfran is informed of the premature death of Edmond in Bosnia. The bad news is proved almost fatal, as Vulfran is struck down by grief and only survives the ordeal through the passionate care of Aurelie, who helps him recover. Vulfran is grateful to Aurelie; during visit from the elderly "grandmother Françoise", once Edmond's nanny, he proclaims that Aurelie is an angel sent by the God to save him, because such unconditional love is unique for a total stranger. Françoise, a mutual friend of Aurelie since her arrival in Maraucourt, replies that the angel curiously resembles Edmond. Vulfran immediately sends his lawyer to investigate Aurelie's background and also acknowledges that if she is truly his granddaughter, he must make up for having said terrible things about Edmond's family in front of her. After receiving confirmation that Aurelie is indeed Perrine, Vulfran undergoes a dangerous eye surgery to see his granddaughter's face. He also orders the construction of a daycare center and healthy dormitories for the workers of the factory. ===== A Land Remembered focuses on the fictional story of the MacIveys, who migrated from Georgia into Florida in the mid-19th century. After settling, this family struggles to survive in the harsh environment. First they scratch a living from the land and then learn to round up wild cattle and drive them to Punta Rassa to ship to Cuba. Over three generations, they amass more holdings and money, and move further from their connection to the native, untamed land. ===== The story revolves around Marcelino, an orphan abandoned as a baby on the steps of a monastery in nineteenth-century Spain. The monks raise the child, and Marcelino grows into a rowdy young boy. He has been warned by the monks not to visit the monastery attic, where a "very big man who will take him away" lives, but he ventures upstairs anyway, sees the man and tears off back down the stairs. At a festival, Marcelino causes havoc when he accidentally lets some animals loose, and the new local mayor, a blacksmith whom the monks would not let adopt Marcelino because of his coarse behavior, uses the incident as an excuse to try to shut down the monastery. Given the silent treatment by the monks, Marcelino gathers up the courage to once again enter the attic, where he sees not a bogeyman, but a beautiful statue of Christ on the Cross. Remarking that the statue looks hungry, Marcelino steals some bread and wine and offers it to the statue, which comes to life, descends from the Cross, and eats and drinks what the boy has brought him. The statue becomes Marcelino's best friend and confidant, and begins to give him religious instruction. For his part, Marcelino realizes that the statue is Christ. The monks know something is strange when they notice bread and wine disappearing, and arrange to spy on Marcelino. One day, the statue notices that Marcelino is pensive and brooding instead of happy, and tells him that he would like to reward his kindness. Marcelino answers: "I want only to see my mother, and to see Yours after that". The statue cradles Marcelino in its arms, tells Marcelino to sleep - and Marcelino dies happy. The monks witness the miracle through a crack in the attic door, and burst in just in time to see the dead Marcelino bathed in a heavenly glow. The statue returns to its place on the Cross, and Marcelino is buried underneath the chapel and venerated by all who visit the now flourishing monastery-turned-shrine. The main story is told in flashback by a monk (played by Fernando Rey), who, visiting a dying girl, tells her the story of Marcelino for inspiration. The film ends with the monk entering the now completely remodeled chapel in the monastery during Mass, and saying to the crucifix once kept in the attic: "We have been speaking about You, O Lord", and then, to Marcelino's grave, which is situated nearby, "And about you, too, Marcelino". ===== Joanna Mills (Sarah Michelle Gellar), a travelling rep for a trucking company, is dedicated to her successful career but something of a loner. Since the age of 11 she has been a troubled person, with episodes of self-mutilation and menacing visions. Normally she avoids returning to her native Texas, but agrees to a trip there to secure an important client. During the trip her visions, which take the form of memories of events not from her life, increase in intensity. She sees a strange face staring back at her in the mirror. Her truck radio plays Patsy Cline's "Sweet Dreams" no matter what station she selects. She stops at the scene of an accident that, on the following day, seems not to have happened. Joanna cuts herself in a bar restroom and is narrowly rescued by a friend. She visits her father, who observes that from age 11 she was "a different girl". The visions continue, becoming both more specific and more threatening, centering upon a menacing man she does not recognize and a bar she has never seen, but a picture of which is in one of her catalogs. Drawn by the image to the Texas town where the bar is located, a place she has not been since childhood, Joanna meets a man named Terry Stahl, whose wife, Annie, was stalked, brutally assaulted, and left to die fifteen years before, a crime of which Terry was suspected but not convicted. Joanna continues to have visions of this crime and the events that led up to it, and to discover other links between Annie's life and hers. She meets the real killer and is led by what she has seen in her visions to recover the knife he used from its hiding place. She is then stalked, herself. She finds herself drawn into a repetition of the crime, but this time she stabs her assailant with the recovered knife, using the original weapon to avenge the original crime. The story ends with the revelation that Annie, clinging to life as Terry drove her to the hospital after the original assault, died when his car crashed into one driven by Joanna's father, in which the eleven-year-old Joanna was a passenger. After momentary unconsciousness, the young Joanna seems to have survived the crash. A silent Joanna is seen reflecting on who she is and what has happened to her. She seems to reach an inner resolution of these questions. An alternative ending included on the DVD release more straightforwardly supports the interpretation that Annie's soul has been placed in Joanna's body. ===== The player is a young man who lives with his friend Takakura on a farm in Forget- Me-Not-Valley, at roughly the same time as Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town. The game begins with the Harvest Goddess, a deity of Harvest Moon, and the Witch Princess fighting. Neither can win, so they part ways. The Witch Princess, on meeting the Harvest Goddess next, attempts to cast a spell to silence her, but instead petrifies her. While trying to undo her spell, the Witch Princess inadvertently sends the Harvest Goddess to another world, so she sends all of the Harvest Sprites (small, elf-like creatures) to the same world to rescue her. The Witch Princess then tells the player to bring all of the Harvest Sprites back in order to rescue the Harvest Goddess. Living in the valley are a number of villagers, nine bachelorettes, and five rival bachelors. The characters and locations in Harvest Moon DS are the same as those in Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life with a few minor exceptions. ===== Riddled with guilt over the loss of his rock star older brother, 16-year-old David Forrester (Ricky Ullman) becomes obsessed with death, leading his misguided parents to send him to Driftwood, an "Attitude Adjustment Camp for Troubled Youths" run by the sadistic Captain Doug Kennedy (Diamond Dallas Page) and his brutal young henchman, Yates (Talan Torriero). Once there, David becomes haunted by the spirit of Jonathan (Connor Ross), a former inmate who met a mysterious end; a mystery whose resolution could very well be David's only way out.Movieweb: DVD announcement and review of "Driftwood" ===== Matt Rutledge goes on vacation to the Louisiana bayou country. He decides to stay at an old plantation house which is now a boarding house owned by two sisters, Charlotte and Lucy. Charlotte is in her 30s, in and out of love with the town sheriff, Cleve Doucet. Lucy is in her 20s and has a long history of mental illness and contact with the ghosts of several people who have died in a bayou near their home. Lucy falls in love with Matt, and the characters find themselves involved in murder, betrayal and dark secrets from the past, which are revealed gradually in flashback. When Charlotte was a teenager and Lucy was a child, Matt's older brother Jud had tried to rape them and they had killed him in self-defense. But in panic they had dragged his body into a bayou and not reported the incident to anyone. Jud's death was a terrible secret only the sisters shared, and it was to some extent responsible for Lucy's mental problems. But unknown to them, Matt – whom they had not known when they were younger – had witnessed the killing and has now returned under a false name to avenge his brother's death. Charlotte finally realizes who he is and what he plans to do. Lucy is still under his influence and almost helps him kill Charlotte, but she manages to escape. Matt takes Lucy to the same spot in the bayou where they had put Jud's body and tries to drown her, but an unidentified hand from beneath drags him down into the bayou and he dies instead. As the film ends, Charlotte finally is about to marry Cleve, but Lucy still suffers terrifying and violent visions of Matt. ===== Detana!! Twinbee arcade PCB Set several years after the events of the original TwinBee, TwinBee and WinBee are relaxing at their island when they receive an SOS signal from the distant planet of Meru. The signal contains a message sent by Princess Melora, who pleads for the salvation of her planet from the invading forces of the evil alien Iva. TwinBee and his friends decide to set off to outer space to defeat the forces of Iva and save Planet Meru. Detana!! marks the first appearance of TwinBee's and WinBee's respective pilots, Light and Pastel, who became prominent characters in many subsequent TwinBee video games and related media, although they were originally unnamed in this game (the characters were given their names in the audio drama TwinBee Paradise). ===== As a child, Zhao Shuyang (Ivy Lee) was adopted by Zheng Zhigang (Chen Shucheng) when her parents got separated and remarried. Raised by Zheng, Shuyang grew up to become a promising lawyer, specializing in divorce cases. Having been loved by her adoptive parents and stepbrother, Zheng Weilun (Terence Cao), Shuyang yearns to marry. Her stepbrother, Weilun, tries to woo her but to no avail, because Shuyang is romantically interested in Gao Ming. However, Shuyang is shocked when she finds out the truth about Gao Ming (Thomas Ong), her adoptive father's illegitimate son. To make matters worse, she finds herself falling for the ever-flamboyant Gao Ming. Towards the end, she contracts stomach cancer with little hope of survival. In the last episode, Shuyang chooses Gao Ming and Wei Lun is sent to prison. Shuyang manages to keep her condition in control by undergoing treatment for a year. Gao Ming And Shuyang then get married. ===== The game's opening sequence shows TwinBee and WinBee patrolling the skies of Donburi Island when they suddenly receive a distress signal from a young girl named Madoka. Madoka reveals that she is the granddaughter of Dr. Mardock, who was once a benevolent scientist until a bump in the head turned him insane. Dr. Mardock now seeks to conquer the world with an army of Acorn Men and only TwinBee and WinBee can stop him. ===== Faraway from Donburi Island (where TwinBee and his friends live) lies a fantastic island known as the Land of Wonders. Its ruler, Queen Melody, has been imprisoned by Archduke Nonsense, who seeks to use the Queen's Harp of Happiness to conquer the world. Flute, a fairy who serves Queen Melody, escapes during the coup d'etat and goes to Donburi island requesting the help of TwinBee and WinBee. TwinBee Yahho! features fully voiced cut-scenes during the game performed by the cast of the TwinBee Paradise radio drama. Story elements from TwinBee Paradise, including names of TwinBee's and WinBee's respective pilots (Light and Pastel), were used for the first time in the games in this installment. ===== Magik tells the story of Illyana Rasputin from a six-year-old child to a thirteen-year-old mutant/sorceress. The narrative is framed by Illyana reflecting on these events on her fourteenth birthday. Belasco, demon lord of Limbo, wants to use Illyana to help the Elder Gods destroy Earth. To do this he has to place five bloodstones in a pentagram locket he has given to Illyana. When he first captures her at age six, he takes part of her soul and remakes it in his image, creating a bloodstone which he places in the locket. An elderly sorceress version of Storm (a former apprentice of Belasco) and an elderly, part beast version of Kitty Pryde (codenamed Cat) rescue Illyana. Storm transports them to her garden sanctuary in Limbo. Unable to remove Belasco's corruption from Illyana, Storm decides to help her combat it by taking her on as an apprentice. She spends a year showing Illyana how to separate her astral body from her physical form, while showing her a massive oak that grew from an acorn she created. Disapproving of Illyana being trained in sorcery, Cat kidnaps her. Cat takes Illyana to a replica of the Savage Land in Limbo, where she trains her physically and teaches her to sword fight. They then storm Belasco's tower. It is protected by a corrupted version of Nightcrawler, whom Cat kills. Cat then attempts to use her phasing power to take her and Illyana to Earth, but Belasco intercepts them. Belasco turns Cat into a feline demon and gives Illyana a knife. Illyana cuts herself, and the blood forms the second bloodstone in the locket. Illyana spends three years learning magic from Belasco, while secretly reading every book in his library, plotting his downfall. Alone in her room, she attempts to imitate the creation powers Storm showed her by forming an acorn from a part of herself, only to find the acorn is black and rotten. Hearing Belasco's voice outside her room, she panics, and her mutant power to create teleportational light discs manifests itself. Illyana uses a disc to enter Belasco's library, hoping to steal his grimoire, but Storm intervenes, accidentally sending her into another disc. She finds herself in the past, witnessing Storm "killing" Belasco, who claims to be immune to death while in Limbo; it is this act which binds Storm to Belasco. She teleports back to the present to find Storm battling Belasco. Cat fatally wounds Storm, then attacks Illyana. She kills Cat in self-defense. Belasco orders her to sacrifice Storm's soul to the Elder Gods. Instead, she kills Storm to save her soul and teleports to Storm's garden, where she buries her. Enraged by her defiance, Belasco captures Illyana, extracts another bloodstone from her essence, and casts her out into a wintery wilderness as punishment. Illyana finds Storm's massive oak and spends years trying to use it to help create a living acorn from her essence, only to produce still more rotten acorns. When the oak finally crumbles to dust from her efforts, Illyana realizes that she was only trying to create life as a means to an end: destroying Belasco. She tries instead to manifest her desire directly, using the last of her power to create a "Soulsword". The enchantment that held her in Storm's garden is banished in the process and she takes a stepping disc to confront Belasco. While fighting Belasco she realizes she is replaying the same scene by which Storm was corrupted, so she spares his life and he escapes. She then uses a light circle to return to Earth, rejoining the X-Men seconds after she had left them. ===== The unnamed protagonist is the player's alter-ego whose name can be decided at the start of the game. He is summoned by Queen Melora from the real world in order to save the TwinBee world. His distinguishing characters includes an outfit consists of a cap, knee-long trousers, and a vest, and an androgynous face with shoulder-long hair. His personality can be changed by the player from serious to rebellious or even perverted depending on the player's actions. Although the protagonist was designed so that his age and gender would be ambiguous according to interviews with the developers, the game's supporting cast such as Madoka and Vieren refer to the protagonist by male pronouns. ===== The seven short stories collected as Conan the Swordsman are set at various points of Conan's career, from his youth as a raider in the north to his maturity as a general in the kingdom of Aquilonia. The two associated non-fiction pieces by de Camp are on the Conan saga in general and the derivation of the names used by Howard for constructing the fictional "Hyborian Age" setting of the Conan stories. Chronologically, the seven stories supplement the tales in the twelve volume Lancer/Ace Conan series, falling into the period covered by Conan through Conan the Warrior. ===== At the end of the 16th century, Wallachian ruler Prince Michael the Brave overcame the adversity of the Ottoman and Austrian Empires to unite Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania into one country. ===== Sixteen-year-old Cole McKay’s struggle for independence is put to the test as his South Boston Irish-Catholic family implodes around him. Older brother Terry is descending into a life of drugs and crime, pregnant sister Kathleen is being sent away to cover up the shame of unwed motherhood and Cole’s father, Desmond, spends his days in a fog of alcohol and self-pity, silently torturing himself over what might have been. The one thing keeping young Cole’s head above water is his love of baseball. The movie starts with Cole practicing his pitching, when he is picked up by his family to attend the funeral of Desmond's sister. A talented baseball pitcher, Cole overcomes self- doubt and family indifference to fight his way into the state championships. To get there he must make a life or death decision, one that will change the McKay family forever. ===== The plot of the movie is about newsreel cameramen and production staff who will do anything to get footage. Set between the years 1948 and 1956, when television was introduced to Australia, the film tracks the destinies of two brothers, their adventures and misadventures placed in the context of sweeping social and political changes in their native Australia as well as natural disasters. Len Maguire is constitutionally resistant to change, while his younger brother Frank Maguire welcomes any alterations in his own life and in the world around him. Events covered in the film include Robert Menzies' return as Prime Minister of Australia, the 1951 referendum to ban the Communist Party, Post-war immigration to Australia, the combatting of the rabbit plague, the Redex Reliability Trial, the 1955 Hunter Valley floods and the 1956 introduction of television in Australia. ===== Chapter 1: The story begins with the narration of Helios at the age of 70. He reflects back to when he was 8 years old and lived in Troy. En route to deliver a pot of cooked meat to his foster father Polydextus, he is confronted by Milentius. Milentius demands the food from Helios and when he refuses, Milentius trips him. The pot of meat shatters and the food is soiled. Helios threatens that his alleged father, King Priam will find out. Milentius threatens to hurt him unless he denies King Priam as his father. Helios retracts his statement just as Prince Paris approaches. Paris mentions how he heard the rumors of Priam having too much wine and meeting a pretty slave girl in a dark corridor and thus leading to the birth of Helios. Paris tells Milentius he did no wrong, and says the story sounds absurd due to the age of Priam at the time of conception. Helios returns home and shares the salvaged food with Polydextus. Polydextus then tells Helios how important his heritage is, and he has done great wrong by denying it when pushed by a bully. He then whips Helios to both punish him and teach him to deal with pain. Chapter 2: One day Helios climbed a secret stair to the roof of the palace. He decided to offer a sacrifice to the sun, whom his birth mother worshipped. While lying naked on the roof he is surprised by Cassandra, who was the youngest daughter of Priam and several years older than Helios. She says she overheard Paris telling the story of what happened between Helios and Milentius to Priam, and she did not think that Priam cared to hear it too much. After examining Helios she asks him to look into her eyes where he sees a blinding glow. She then insists that the power of the sun will enter him in time. After leaving the roof Helios is attacked by Milentius and another boy. Helios successfully fends them off, swinging a dead branch that fell off the sacred bay tree. He yells that he is in fact a son of Priam. Prince Hector stops Helios from fighting them off, and then shows him to Priam. Priam asked Helios to return home while he considered the matter. Cassandra followed after Helios, giving him the dead branch he swung earlier telling him it is an honor of Apollo to receive a sacred weapon. At home he sacrificed the branch with Polydextus as an offering of thanks to the Gods. Shortly after, Hector arrived to inform Helios and his foster parents that Priam is not displeased. He has not officially acknowledged Helios as his son, but would like him to work at the palace as stable boy. Chapter 3: After becoming stable boy, Polydextus and Troilus train Helios in chariot fighting and javeling. Polydextus, Troilus, and Sardon would also discuss battle strategies. Helios would ride a horse on an occasion which were not meant to be ridden due to their small stature, and would be whipped by Polydextus as punishment. Nine summers of training later Helios "gained three fingers in height", and his weight "balanced that of a sack of wheat". This was an improvement, but not by much. One morning Hector allowed Helios to accompany him to meet Paris, who was returning from his mission across the sea. Hector & Helios are introduced to Helen of Sparta, who accompanied Paris back to Troy along with her dowry meant for Menelaus. Paris insults Helios, causing him to leap at him in anger. Paris begins to whip Helios, but Polydextus draws a blade and prepares to fight. A woman screams for Hector, who stops the fight and explains to Paris that Priam has not acknowledged or denied Helios' bloodline. Paris accepts the explanation, but Helios says he knows they will never be friends. They all travel to Troy together. Chapter 4: Soon after the group returned form the beach, Priam called an immediate meeting of the council. Hector & Andromache's bedroom balcony overlooks the throne room. With Hector's permission and guidance, Helios crawled onto the balcony to watch the council meeting from above. Priam enters the throne room and he informs the room that he called the meeting to hear Paris' report from his trip across the Aegean. Paris first lectures the room on his travel, then displays found treasures from his exploits, and then introduces Helen. Antimachus approves of Paris' doings, and cries of approval were heard from the council. Later on Helios learned there was rumors of Antimachus being paid to back this argument. Prince Aeneas is granted permission to speak by Priam, who proposed that allowing Helen to stay may ignite war with Agamemnon, the High King of the Achaeans. Paris insists that it is impossible to have the Achaeans band together, and if that does happen Troy will protect him. Antenor then pushed his way into the open and says allowing Helen to stay would be a violation of customs, disrespectful, and would bring the anger of the Gods. With great respect Helen asks for permission to speak, and tells the story of Gaia, and how she is a woman and has the power to "put away a male". She says she "does things and does not know why", and then asks Priam for "help" understanding the decision she has made to accompany Paris. Priam then announces that it is his will that Helen be welcomed to Troy as the lawful mate of Paris. Suddenly Cassandra cries out from the women's balcony a prediction of Paris bringing death to Troy. Priam ordered her gagged and sent to her room immediately. Helios began to think of her as "his Cassandra" even though they only met once over a year ago. He crawled back into the bedroom and waited for Hector to return. Hector informed Helios that she was whipped by Priam for interrupting council, and after fled to the roof alone. After hearing this, Helios sneaks to the storeroom and fills a jar with salve. He takes off his tunic in order to tie the jar around his neck so that he would be free to climb up a palace wall with both hands. At the top he was greeted by Cassandra, who questions his nudity. She undresses so that Helios could put the salve on her back, bruised from the whipping. She cried and hugged Helios because of his thoughtfulness, but then suddenly recoils. Even though Helios is only 9, she says she wanted to be sure that he does not mate with her. Apollo does not want anyone else to have her. If a man does mate with her he will be punished and Cassandra will lose her gift of prophecy. She then tells Helios that she does not know what she will say whenever she makes a prediction. She mentions one prediction told to Laomedon long ago; "Stone on stone will ever fall, at the dread Earth-Shaker's call." She tells Helios she feels that a spell is coming on and she will perform an oracle for Helios. She smells the salve to become in a "dreamy" state, and she speaks in a trance to Helios. A couple of lines of the oracle caused many thoughts to race in Helios' mind: "First, you ancient in the Earth, Judge for Troy what he is worth." Unaware of what she had just said, she asked Helios if he would remember the words exactly, but not to tell her what it was. She suggests to Helios that it would be a good idea for him to leave the roof, and he climbs down carefully. Chapter 5: The next day Sisycles summons Helios to be taught writing by order of Priam. The next morning he is formally introduced to Cassandra, as it is supposed to be their first meeting. After the first lesson, Cassandra offers to teach Helios additional writing on her own time. She tells Helios that it was her that requested Helios be taught how to write. From that point on every second morning Helios had writing lessons from Sisycles, then Cassandra would give him additional writing lessons or other studies. Late that winter, Troy received news that the Achaen rulers are preparing to make war on Troy. Another serious announcement is made, a change to The Festival of the Scapegoat. This was a carnival marking the end of winter where a goat is sacrificed to eliminate all the sins of the city. This year, a man would be chosen. Names of men suspected of evil would be given to Priam. Sisycles would write the approved names on clay tablets. All the tablets would be left on until it rained, then 2 priests and Priam would choose the name that stands out most clearly. The person named would be sacrificed as the Scapegoat. The first day of sunshine came, and is Helios' 10th birthday. Helios and Cassandra celebrate by having snacks and wine, which in turn made them sleepy. They both undress and lay down on the roof naked to enjoy a sun bath. They are discovered on the roof by Queen Hecuba with a few guards. He is taken to Priam and questioned. We learn that Cassandra is only 15 years old. Hecuba demands that Helios be punished, but Priam is not sure if any wrong was done. They agree to enter Helios' name in the Festival of the Scapegoat. Helios' writing lessons stop, and Troy waits for rain. The day of the ceremony, Helios' name was the most legible and his tablet is chosen. Hector interrupts the ceremony and demands that his life be taken, but Priam denies him. Helios takes a close look at the tablet and points out that someone has switched the tablet, as this one was fired in a kiln, not dried out in the sun. Sisycles confirms that he did not create this tablet, and it must have been switched. Priam cannot decide the next course of action. Cassandra orders Helios to say the oracle of his fate. Helios says "First, you ancient in the Earth, Judge for Troy what he is worth." Priam says that the ancient in the Earth is a calling from Gaia, and Helios unwillingly appeals to her. Priam declares that they must seek an answer from her in order to find out Helios' fate. Chapter 6: Formal arrangements were made to receive an oracle from the Gaia priestess. After nearly 2 weeks pass, the priestess approves. A party is formed to set out for the oracle. They stopped overnight at Lyrnessus and are welcomed by its ruler and his son Aeneas. They continue to the When they arrive Laocoön introduced the party to a handmaiden of the priestess, who inspected the gifts of Priam. The handmaiden only allowed Priam, Hector, Helios, Cassandra, and Helen to see the priestess. The priestess gave readings and chanted "Those who wish to chase a boy, will not succeed in saving Troy." The party was dismissed, and returned to Troy. Another Scapegoat was chosen. Chapter 7: Soon after the return from the shrine Helios and Cassandra were allowed to resume their writing lessons with Sisycles as well as their private talks. One day in early summer the Achaean fleet arrives on the shores of Troy. Battle erupts by sea and on land. Helios follows Troilus and Polydextus, only to witness them killed by Achilles. Helios attempts to defeat Achilles by throwing rocks at him, but he is stopped by Odysseus. Diomedes steps forward leading a captive, Milentius. Milentius is then killed by Diomedes. The three Achaeans discuss what to do with Helios, and Achilles dons him a kitchen pot as a helmet and a ladle as a sword. He then orders his son Neoptolemus to fight Helios to the death. Chapter 8: Neoptolemus wounds Helios in the fight with a slash to his ribs. Helios uses the ladle to scoop up embers from a nearby fire and throw them into Neoptolemus' helmet. Helios grabbed a bucket of water and threw in the boy's face. Achilles hates himself for "blinding his son", but Odysseus calls for Machaon to look at Neoptolemus' eyes. He says that the cold water may have saved Neoptolemus from blindness. Machaon leads Helios and the Achaeans to Achilles' tent set up on the beach. There he chants over Neoptolemus, and says it will be days before they know if Neoptolemus' sight would return. In that time, someone must drip medicine over Neoptolemus' eyes. Helios volunteers to stay and apply the medicine. Achilles reluctantly accepts, and leaves the tent under guard and arranges for another tent to be raised. Machaon stitches Helios' wound and leaves. When they are alone, Neoptolemus compliments Helios' fighting and then goes to sleep. ===== After the destruction of the Yeerk pool, Jake, Tobias, and Marco hide while witnessing the Yeerks destroying the last remnants of their hometown and watch as the Pool Ship lands amidst the destruction. After briefly considering destroying the Pool Ship, the Animorphs hide, deciding that capturing the vessel would be a better strategy. Hoping to gain military assistance for the attack, Jake visits Major General Sam Doubleday. Although Doubleday is initially distrustful of Jake, he eventually listens and agrees to Jake's plan after a Controller-major on the general's staff tries to kill Jake. After a Yeerk attack on the general's base, Doubleday evacuates his troops and confines them and himself for three days to eliminate any remaining Controllers amongst his soldiers. Unfortunately, the confinement of Doubleday and his troops means a three-day delay before the Animorphs can launch their attack on the Pool Ship. Sensing that the Yeerks could get the new Yeerk pool that is under construction operational within that time period, the Animorphs decide to take out the Taxxons digging the pool. In the ensuing battle, Jake finds himself underground and in the company of several Taxxons, led by none other than Arbron, a former companion of Elfangor's who became a Taxxon-nothlit several years earlier. Arbron makes Jake an offer: in exchange for allowing his followers to become nothlits and make a home for themselves on Earth, the 1709 non-Controller Taxxons on the surface and on board the Pool Ship will defect and join the Animorphs in their fight against the Yeerks. Jake returns to the Hork-Bajir valley and tells the others of Arbron's offer. The brief period of excitement that reigns through the camp is spoiled, however, when Ax, prompted by Cassie (who, as it turns out, has been privy to his prior communication with his people in the previous book by morphing into a flea and riding on his back whenever he snuck off to contact them), tells the others that the Andalites have decided that the war for Earth is lost and are planning on destroying humanity in order to stop the Yeerk menace once and for all. Jake, Rachel, Tobias, and Marco are all furious and feel betrayed by Ax for not telling them about this, and they realize that the Andalites have gone from their allies to their enemies. Ax insists that the only way to stop this is to capture the Pool Ship and use its communications technology to contact the Andalite people directly, whom he does not expect to support his government's sterilization plan. The Animorphs return to Arbron and his Taxxon followers and secure their support. Jake promises the Taxxons a safe haven on Earth and the opportunity to morph anacondas. Immediately afterwards, Tom arrives and offers to assist the Animorphs in capturing the Pool ship, in exchange for the Blade Ship, a hundred of his own morph-capable followers, and safe passage out of the Solar System. Sensing a trap, Jake accepts Tom's offer while simultaneously setting his own plan into motion. Jake dispatches Marco to locate Erek King and bring him to the Hork-Bajir valley, while Cassie and Ax are sent to capture Chapman. Jake manipulates Erek's pacifist programming by threatening to kill Chapman if Erek does not actively participate in the assault on the Pool Ship. Erek grudgingly agrees to help. With the attack set to begin, Jake meets up with Tom and the original Animorphs, including a severely beaten Cassie, and proceeds to board the Pool Ship. Once on board, Tom, as expected, betrays Jake by having a Taxxon eat Cassie and the other Animorphs, whom he believes to be hiding on Cassie in morph. Unknown to Tom, "Cassie" is actually a holographic projection by Erek, and the Taxxon is Tobias in morph, escorted by free Hork- Bajir led by Toby Hamee. After devouring the hologram, Tobias and Erek, with the other Animorphs in tow, are led off the bridge by Toby so they can begin trying to gain control of the Pool Ship's computer systems. Visser One gives Tom command of the Blade Ship so he can wipe out the Taxxon resistance. Unbeknownst to the Yeerks and the Animorphs (save for Jake), Rachel is hiding as a flea on Tom's head, with orders to kill him and prevent the Blade Ship from escaping with the morphing cube, an assignment that Rachel is not expected to survive. The Auxiliary Animorphs and General Doubleday's forces begin their attack on the Pool Ship. Visser One lifts the ship off the ground and uses its massive weapons array to kill the Auxiliary Animorphs and several of Doubleday's troops. Jake, who is still on the bridge, is forced to watch the massacre until Ax and Erek are able to gain control of the helm and force the Pool Ship out of firing range. This act makes Visser One realize that the Animorphs have infiltrated the Pool Ship's engineering section and orders his troops to kill everyone in the room. Jake meets up with the others, who escaped the engine room before Visser One's forces could carry out their orders, and tells them of Rachel's part in his plan. The Animorphs continue with their assault and make their way to the Pool Ship's on-board Yeerk pool. Hoping to distract Visser One and Tom long enough to save Rachel's life, Jake orders Ax to flush the pool, killing 17,372 unhosted Yeerks. The Animorphs continue to the bridge, where they find a defeated and battle-weary Visser One. Jake asks the visser to fire on the Blade Ship with the hope that the shots will disable it, but the Dracon beams miss and Erek drains the remaining power from the weapons. Tom hails the Pool Ship to gloat about his victory, and sees Jake in tiger morph. Enraged at the realization that the Animorphs survived his trap, Tom orders the Blade Ship's weapons to be targeted at the Pool Ship's bridge. Jake orders Rachel to attack. ===== The film takes place in the fictional New York town of Everyville, which is home to a vast total of 112 banks. The title card and technical credits are followed by introductions of the two lead characters: "F.H.A. (Sherlock) Homes" as police chief "Flat-Foot Flanigan with a Floy Floy," and "Edward G. Robemsome" (a caricature of Edward G. Robinson) as notorious gang leader "Killer Diller." After these introductions, Killer and his gang are seen robbing every bank in the town in numerical order (except that they skip the 13th bank out of superstition) — with the newspaper Telegraph Post reporting the criminals' every move, and even declaring that they have robbed 87 banks in a single day. Despite the criminals' predictability and their endless sight gags (in which Killer does everything from causing one bank to behave like a casino machine to picking up a pay phone and inserting his gun into the speaker, resulting in the operator shrieking in terror and giving him many coins), the police are unable to arrest them. However, after so much bafflement, Flanigan himself gets help from an unlikely source: a man in the front of the theatre who had been sitting through the whole picture; he tells him that Killer is making plans to go to the estate of Mrs. Lotta Jewels at 10:00 in the evening. While Killer and his gang are spending time in said estate, listening to "The Lone Stranger" on radio, Flanigan and his men find the criminals and fire at them. Thus, Killer is captured, convicted, and given a long sentence — which is revealed to be a prison term in which he must write standards ("I've been a naughty boy") on a blackboard one thousand times, much like schoolkids of that era. The imprisoned Killer blows a raspberry as the cartoon irises out. ===== The novel is set in the 1960s in Batavia, New York. It follows Batavia police chief Fred Clumly in his pursuit of a magician known as the Sunlight Man, a champion of existential freedom and pre-biblical Babylonian philosophy. As Clumly believes in absolute law, order, justice and a Judeo-Christian world view, the two butt their ideological heads in a number of dialogues, all recorded on audiocassette by Clumly. Each of these two characters attempts to exert power over the other—Clumly with the law behind him and the Sunlight Man with his magic and violence—until they wear down not only each other, but many of the other characters with whom they come into contact. A myriad of side-stories provides background for the plot. ===== The film features the antics of a society of cockroaches in a Mexican café in the absence of its owner. The owner Manuel is reportedly "off to the bullfights". The film opens with an instrumental of the title song, but interrupts the song with a solo performed by the gondolier cockroach hero. He sings the 1926 John Stepan Zamecnik-Harry D. Kerr composition, "Neapolitan Nights". The title song begins again and is interrupted with a solo by a cockroach parody of Rudy Vallee. He sings the Al Dubin-Harry Warren song, "Sweet Music" from the 1935 Warner Bros. film of the same name, The scene shifts to a rendition of the title song by a cockroach chorus. They are performing as the background singers to a lady cockroach, who performs as dancer. Her "red velvet gown" consists of a scarlet meat frill. The rest of the film is devoted to the attempts of a parrot to make off with the cockroach heroine. His plans are foiled by the hero. ===== Newly widowed mother Sally Harrison is trying to hold down a job as an assistant to Mr Campbell, a veterinarian. Her children are Simon and Peter, and her aunt Flo lives with them and tries to help. In Series 3 Mr Campbell moves to Scotland and the vet premises is taken over by divorcee David Redway, an antique bookseller who has a daughter, Jane. David and Sally fall in love. ===== BoyTown, the greatest boyband of the eighties and the group that started the boyband phenomenon, leave their terrible lives and low-paying jobs for one last attempt at the big time. They return to the stage with slightly older fans and slightly larger pants to complete some unfinished business. These days they spend less time singing about tears, eternity, angels and their 'baby' and more time singing about divorce, shopping, and picking up the kids from school. As their triumphant tour draws to a conclusion all the personal issues that have been safely buried away for twenty years come bubbling to the surface with explosive consequences. Suddenly the band has to deal with allegations of infidelity, paternity tests, a miming fiasco, a band member "outing" himself live on stage, an awards night disaster, solo albums, a mysterious disappearance, and a plane journey that will cement the BoyTown legend forever. ===== After Amar Shah's accidental death in India, Canada-based Shah Industries is on the verge of collapse. Pia, Amar's fiancée, is devastated, Girdhari, his dad, is in shock and unresponsive towards others while Amar's sister and grandmother are in mourning. Inspector D'Mello who is investigating the case is determined to find the person responsible for the accident despite his superiors' indifference towards the case. Months after Amar's death, a highly respected and talented business worker named Shekhar Malhotra offers to re-build and restore Shah Industries without any compensation, stating Amar met him in India and offered him a job before his death. He is given the chance and goes about the uphill task of making the company viable again. Gradually, Shekhar heals the gaping wound left in the Shah family by Amar's death and they come to accept him as one of the family while he falls in love with Pia. What they don't know — except for Bosco, Shekhar's friend in Canada — is that it was Shekhar's jeep that accidentally had hit Amar after he swerved to avoid hitting an innocent girl who had walked into the road, causing his death. Ridden by guilt Shekhar came to Canada to confess, ask for forgiveness, and do whatever he can for the family. Abhigyan is a wealthy Canadian industrialist who meets Pia and realizes that she is the right woman for him. He is considering proposing to Pia and helping to rebuild Shah Industries. But Pia has fallen in love with Shekhar. Eventually, a conflict arises between Pia and Shekhar regarding a proposition made by Abhi to take over Shah Industries. Shekhar realizes that Pia does not need his help anymore and decides to return to India. Pia stops Shekhar while he boards his flight and confesses her feelings for him. Shekhar denies his feelings and boards the plane. Devastated, Pia goes home and gets engaged to Abhi. At the airport arrives Inspector D'Mello (Manoj Pahwa), from India in search of the person who killed Amar, and arrests Shekhar. They wait, with Bosco, to board the next flight to India. Shekhar calls Pia and tells her how much he loves her and confesses that it was he who hit her fiancé. Being drunk, Shekhar meets with an accident. Pia feels guilty about falling for the man who caused Amar's death and confesses it to Girdhari, who surprises her by speaking for the first time after his son's death. He tells her that Shekhar had told him the truth when he first visited them and he believes Shekhar. Amar's family then makes Pia realize how much Shekhar has done for the family and that he is like Amar to them. Bosco informs them about Shekhar's accident. Abhi tells a skeptical Pia to go back to Shekhar as he is her true love. Meanwhile, D'Mello who is in the hospital with everyone, understands that the family needs Shekhar more than the law does and simply closes the case and leave. The movie ends with Shekhar recovering and uniting with Pia while Abhi is left devastated and is comforted by his uncle. ===== Four ten–year-olds are kicked out of their favorite playground by two aggressive drunkards. When they realize their parents are not going to help them, there's only one solution. They have to find a way to get the toughest boy in the neighborhood to help them. From that moment on the four friends are in for an exciting adventure. ===== ...And Mother Makes Five is basically the same as ...And Mother Makes Three with domestic problems being the centre of the programme. The children are now older, but as troublesome as before. There are new characters in the form of Joss and Monica Spicer, and Mrs Fletcher. ===== The plot revolves around billionaire Jean-Marc Clément (Montand) who learns that he is to be satirized in an off-Broadway revue. After going to the theatre, he sees Amanda Dell (Monroe) rehearsing the Cole Porter song "My Heart Belongs to Daddy", and, by accident, the director thinks him an actor suitable to play himself in the revue. Clément takes the part in order to see more of Amanda and plays along with the mistaken identity, going by the name Alexander Dumas. While rehearsing, Clément finds himself growing jealous of Amanda's attentions to actor Tony Danton, unaware that she only wants to help Tony achieve stardom. In order to impress Amanda, Clément hires Milton Berle, Gene Kelly, and Bing Crosby (all playing themselves) to teach him how to deliver jokes, dance, and sing, respectively. Clément even goes as far as to indirectly fully fund the revue after one of his employees, who had raised him all his life, tries to put an end to the revue by demanding a full year's rent for the theater. Throughout this Clément and Amanda fall in love with one another. Eventually Clément decides to confess the truth to Amanda, who reacts by assuming that he has gotten overwhelmed by method acting and needs to see a therapist. He eventually manages to convince her of his true identity after tricking her and the revue director into coming to his offices. Amanda is initially indignant over the deception but swiftly forgives him after the two make up in the building's elevator. ===== Jenny Greenley is a high school junior who lives in the small town of Clayton, Indiana. She is secretly the school newspaper's advice columnist Ask Annie, a job she got a new life due to her ability to keep others' secrets and help people with their problems- something she been doing her entire life. Teen film star and heartthrob Luke Striker is making a movie about high school, but having grown up on television, he knows nothing about real teens and their lifestyles. When he decides to go undercover at Clayton High School to research his role, the principal assigns Luke as Jen's responsibility; she is expected to show him around the school, help him integrate, and most importantly, keep his true identity secret from her fellow students. During his time at Clayton, Luke is appalled by the vicious hierarchy of high school and tells Jen that she should start taking a stand for the people who can't speak for themselves, rather than just consoling them and letting it happen again and again. After Luke's true identity is revealed at a school car wash, Jen realizes that she has the power to do so, and starts making serious changes in the lives of others and herself as well, morphing from "nice little Jenny Greenley, everybody's best friend" to Jen, effector of social change. She quits show choir, foils the "cruel" senior prank, and befriends unpopular outcast Cara. When she confronts her best friend Trina about her poor treatment of her boyfriend, Trina begins to get angry. Compounded by the discovery that Jen is going to the school's annual Spring Fling with Luke (who asked her as an apology for the trouble he caused), she is furious, and refuses to talk to her for several days. However, despite the newfound media exposure surrounding Clayton, Jen's feelings for Luke remain platonic. Meanwhile, she grows closer to Scott, a fellow junior and editor of the school newspaper. Trina eventually realizes that she has overreacted, and makes up with Jen. At the Spring Fling, after Luke and Jen are crowned king and queen, Luke reveals that he is going out with Geri Lynn- a senior and friend of Jen's- and also tells Jen that he knows she is Annie, much to her surprise. He encourages Jen to follow her own advice and confess her true feelings for Scott, who is Geri's ex. Jen, Trina, and several classmates leave the dance and head over to a friend's anti-Spring Fling party where Scott is. Nervously, Jen agrees to take a walk with him, during which, after a heated discussion, he reveals that the only reason he has not told Jen about his true feelings sooner is because he thought she was in love with Luke. Scott and Jen finally admit their feelings for one another and share a kiss. The novel ends with Luke and Geri together in LA, and Scott and Jen in a relationship as well. Jen, aided by Trina and Cara, is running for student body president next year, but half-jokingly notes that she "might be aiming a little too low. I'm thinking, a girl with my people skills? Well... why not the White House?" ===== In the opening scenes we meet San Francisco socialite Joyce Ramsey, her daughter Dee; Dee’s fiancée, a banker; Joyce’s husband, David; their daughter, Martha, a college student; Martha’s outspoken boyfriend, Phil Polanski, who is working his way through college to become an agricultural chemist. Joyce is concerned about Phil’s working-class background: His family is Czech and his father works as a taxi starter at the Union Terminal. Joyce is clearly accustomed to managing everything around her in order to maintain the position, family and success that she and David set out to achieve. David is preoccupied and unhappy, and while he is dressing for dinner, he suddenly asks for a divorce, which stuns her. He tells her he is leaving that night, prompting her to look back on their marriage. Via a flashback, we learn about the couple's humble beginnings in farming country and discover how they worked their way into the world of the nouveau riche. David is a Santa Rosa attorney with no clients, working on construction jobs with his law partner, Bob Townsend. Joyce serves as the struggling firm's secretary. Finding herself pregnant, she schemes to land a new client, Swanson, a former factory worker with a valuable steel-making patent. She succeeds at getting him to hire David alone. After the baby is born, Bob is planning to quit and work in a law office. Swanson comes by the apartment with instructions for David and the truth comes out. Bob is very angry and quits. David is furious with his wife, but she placates him by convincing him her sole intent was to help him and their child, to give them hope. He promises he’ll find a way to make it up to Bob. Back in the present, Joyce is forced to admit to her daughters their father has left her when a society columnist calls to question his move. She goes out to a luncheon engagement, leaving the stunned girls to wonder why their parents’ marriage is in trouble. At lunch, she learns from her friends that David has been seen with another woman and goes to a lawyer, Mr. Prescott. Through him, she hires a private detective to investigate. The attorney warns her not to talk about her suspicions to anyone. Another flashback, and David is taking her to the hospital for the birth of their second child. David, now an executive in Swanson's company, announces he has been transferred to San Francisco but wants to buy a little farm within driving distance. Joyce, longing for the excitement of city living and eager for her children to have the benefits of living among people who are doing big things, changes his mind. Eventually she meets Emily Hedges, and the two, bonded by their social-climbing aspirations, become close friends. An additional flashback which occurs in the more recent past reveals Robert Townsend, in desperate need of $15,000, arriving at the Ramsey home to request a loan. He had refused David’s offers of help for 20 years, but needs him now. Joyce tells him David is away on business and won’t be back for 10 days; she is unable to help him. Her husband learns of her lie and comes to his former partner's aid; she is furious. He accuses Joyce of being callous and breaks off the conversation “before I tell you the truth about yourself.” A return to the present, where David and girl friend Eileen Benson, alone in her apartment, are photographed through a window by the detective Joyce hired. He asks Eileen to marry him, to save her reputation, but she says no. During a divorce settlement a few days later, Joyce insists that David fund a joint trust or separate trusts for both their daughters, rejecting the idea that Dee’s marriage will provide security for her. She refuses David’s bonded guarantee of what we would call child-support payments; they must become part of the trust(s). She also rejects David’s offer of half of everything he owns, in addition to their home, all her personal possessions and jewelry, which are not included in the settlement. Both lawyers are shocked—David is offering more than any court would award to her. She asks the lawyers to leave them alone. She proceeds to demand all of David's assets, threatening to sue him, naming Eileen as correspondent and revealing their infidelity before the world if he does not comply with her demands. Appalled, David complies with Joyce's demands and instructs his lawyer to give her anything she wants. There is only one more thing to be decided: custody of Martha, who is old enough to choose with which parent she will live. Looking up into her father’s eyes, Martha says quietly that she will choose the parent who needs her most—her mother. While on a Caribbean cruise, Joyce meets Englishman Anthony Tunliffe. During a stop in Port-au-Prince, the two visit the now-divorced, disillusioned and alcoholic Emily living with a gigolo, and she expresses concern for Joyce's future. When Joyce learns Anthony is married and looking for nothing more than an extramarital affair, she leaves the ship and returns home. At Martha and Phil's wedding, Joyce and David meet, but they sit at opposite ends of the table. All the friends and family go to the airport to see them off. Joyce leans against a railing, out of sight, weeping uncontrollably. David offers to put her in a taxi, and when he asks if she wants him to ride with her, she nods, speechless. In the cab, she recovers enough to tell him that she is crying not for Martha but for herself. She knows about loneliness now. She had not known how much a part of him she was. He walks her to the front door, where he suggests they start anew. He wants her back. She tells him that she has never wanted anything so much as to have him with her tonight, but she owes him something. Be sure he’s not saying this because he pities her. He moves to kiss her, but Joyce pulls back. She asks him not to decide tonight. But if he wants her back tomorrow, or the day after, or anytime, she’ll be waiting. She goes in and David walks away, smiling. ===== Middle schooler Wilma Sturtz is alone. Her childhood friends have moved away, and her efforts to make new ones have failed. Wilma's fortunes change when she offers an old lady her seat on the subway. The woman offers to grant Wilma one wish, exactly as Wilma wishes it. Flustered, Wilma wishes to be the most popular person at Claverford, her middle school. The wish is granted to Wilma's surprise. She befriends a group of popular girls, along with a budding friendship with a boy named Jared. However, a loophole is revealed; Wilma's wish was granted exactly as she wished for it, so she is not popular to students outside of Claverford, or to students from other schools. Even worse, her wish will expire the day they graduate from the school. Wilma attempts to embrace her wish and find the old lady. The wish wears off as soon as Wilma goes back to her house with her friends--by this time, they have all graduated. She reveals what she wished to her "friends," but realizes that if she wishes to remain friends with them or even to have her wish renewed, she'd be forcing them to do something against their will; without the wish, they wouldn't have befriended Wilma willingly. After telling Jared this, he says that she wasted a wish and could have wished for something better--such as a pet porpoise. Wilma finds the old lady again, but is not given another wish again because her previous one was fulfilled. Wilma tells a kid boarding the bus to help the old lady on the bus, because "it will be worth it." ===== Seven men from the western United States band together and form the law in a town that, for better or for worse, needs their protection from the lawlessness of the west. They consist of an infamous gunslinger, an ex-bounty hunter, a smooth-talking con artist, a young eastern amateur, a womanizing gunman, a freed slave turned healer, and a former preacher seeking penance. While they originally band together to protect a dusty Seminole village from renegade former Confederate soldiers (whereas the movie was about protecting a Mexican village from bandits), they later come together to protect a budding town from the constant riffraff that threatens to destroy it. Each character gets shot at least once, with varying degrees of severity, and five — Chris, Ezra, Buck, Josiah, and Vin — are jailed during the course of the series. ===== The film is set in France during the Seven Years' War. As the film begins, Fanfan (Gérard Philipe) is a charming, attractive young man who is trying to escape a shotgun marriage. At this vulnerable point in his life, he is approached by the daughter of a recruiting officer, Adeline (played by Gina Lollobrigida), who tells him that if he joins the army, he will find fame, fortune, and will marry the king's daughter. Accordingly, he joins the army, only to discover that she made the whole thing up in order for her father to get a recruiting bonus. Nevertheless, encouraged by a series of improbable circumstances, he accepts her prediction as his destiny. A series of events ensues which shows off to great advantage his athleticism and leadership ability. As the film progresses, we become aware of a developing attraction between himself and Adeline which however conflicts with his perceived "destiny" of marrying a king's daughter. ===== Jennifer Peters (Justine Waddell) attempts to save her brother Roy, who has been abducted by a serial killer known as the Riddle Killer--or R.K.-- due to his use of riddles in the murders he commits. Jennifer has recently written a book about the nature of serial killers, to which R.K. has taken offense. Jennifer follows R.K.'s clues and finds Roy, but fails to save him as the car in which he is trapped explodes. Kevin Parson (Marc Blucas) is a seminary theology student who has recently completed the third draft of his thesis about the nature of good and evil. One day he receives a phone call from R.K. (Bill Moseley), ordering him to confess some unspecified sin or his car will explode. He also asks Kevin a riddle: "What falls but never breaks? What breaks but never falls?" Puzzled about the sin and the riddle, Kevin quickly escapes from the car before it explodes. He informs the police, among them Jennifer, but leaves out the part about the sin, believing it's something he did some time ago. He receives a threat against his childhood dog and goes to the house of his Aunt Balinda (Priscilla Barnes), but fails to save his dog from a bomb. Back home again, he meets his friend since childhood, Samantha Sheer (Laura Jordan) and they decide to try to figure out the mystery of the Riddle Killer who continues to target him and seems to be able to monitor Kevin in his own home. Sam solves the first riddle; the answer is night and day. She is working as an insurance detective and takes to her laboratory the book in which the killer had hidden a mobile phone. Another threat comes from the Riddle Killer: A bomb is attached to Kevin's fellow student Henry and a message on Henry's forehead points to , a Bible text about death as the wages of sin. The police manage to get the bomb off Henry's body. Kevin now remembers a boy who had always watched him and Sam during their childhood. In self-defense, Kevin had locked him in a warehouse and left him to die. He thinks that the boy escaped, and is now R.K. Later, Kevin finds the papers of his thesis scattered around his room. He finds a TV in his refrigerator which shows R.K. with another riddle: what takes you away but doesn't go anywhere? Kevin confesses leaving the boy in the warehouse and apologizes, hoping to satisfy him so he'll leave him alone. But R.K. does not relent. Kevin and Sam, whose father was a police officer, find out that a bus on 3rd Avenue is in danger and manage to get all the passengers off safely before a bomb explodes. Jennifer visits Kevin's Aunt Balinda and finds that she has been keeping her husband and son Bobby in the dark about the entire world outside their home, and had done the same to Kevin. She also finds a bloody jacket in the warehouse. Meanwhile, Sam talks with Kevin in a hotel. R.K. sends a recorded message to the hotel room which points to an empty building and the number 33369--the warehouse. Before Jennifer gets to the hotel, Kevin and Sam are at the warehouse, where Sam sees a wall full of enigmatic words and is trapped by the killer. When Kevin enters the building, he finds a bomb. He is unable to stop it but can escape with Sam. Jennifer and the police arrive and investigate. Sam leaves and Kevin insists on not cooperating with Jennifer, as the killer insisted on no police involvement or he'd kill more people. Jennifer declares her resignation, saying that as she is no longer officially involved, she no longer counts. However, Kevin ignores her. Kevin finds another threat about a house on fire at midnight and realizes that Aunt Balinda is in danger. As he rushes to try to save her, he remembers that she abused him when he was a child. Sam finds a note from R.K. and is startled to realize that he has the same handwriting as Kevin. She calls Jennifer, who tells her that there was only one pair of footprints in the warehouse. Sam is now sure that she never actually saw R.K. The women also realize that all the riddles were about opposites, like nightfall and daybreak, and conclude that R.K. might actually be Kevin's "evil half." Kevin finds Balinda tied up, and the Riddle Killer introduces himself as Slater (Bill Moseley).In the book, Slater's identity is given at the beginning. Sam rushes to Balinda's house and finds that the Riddle Killer, Slater, is real after all when she looks under the door and sees two pairs of shoes. Slater explains that he will have Kevin kill Balinda, then leave him to take the blame, as everyone will believe Kevin is the Riddle Killer. Jennifer arrives to find Kevin pointing a gun at himself. It turns out that both Slater and Sam are figments of Kevin's imagination; traumatized by Aunt Balinda's abuse, Kevin had imagined his friend Samantha and the boy with whom he had fought, and had subconsciously imitated the real Riddle Killer. Jennifer convinces Kevin of this, and his visions of Slater and Sam vanish.In the book, Sam herself convinces Kevin to open his eyes and see the creator. Kevin is devastated that his best friend is gone, but the professor assures him that Samantha will always be with him; she is him. Kevin had said that the real Riddle Killer was right in front of their eyes, and Jennifer discovers while examining his wall of clippings that the hot dog vendor who had supposedly been given a book by the killer to give to her is at the front of the crowd in a photo, holding a camera. When captured, he confesses that he hates copycats and had meant to kill Kevin for copying him. Kevin is sent to an institution and Jennifer visits him there. ===== The story revolves around seven-year-old Barbro, who has a secret twin sister called Ylva-li, the only person in Barbro's life who likes her more than anything else, and who calls her Most Beloved Sister. Ylva-li is the queen of the golden hall which can be reached by crawling down a hole under the rose bush, Salikon. Barbro and Ylva-Li ride their horses and have adventures together. When Barbro has to return to her parents, Ylva-Li tells her that she will die when the roses on Salikon wither. Barbro refuses to believe her and returns to her parents, who pretend that they have missed her. The next day, the roses on the rose bush are all dead, and there is no longer a hole in the ground. ===== The narration is about events happening to Koichi Todome while exiled from Japan after the Kerberos Riot, before Inui came to Taiwan seeking for him. The portrayed events can be localized in the saga's timeline between the prologue of The Red Spectacles and StrayDog. In 1999, 3rd night: Story of the incident of Fast Food Grifter Cold Badger Masa's clubbing to death was adapted in comic to become Kerberos Panzer Cop Act 6. ===== Rob Horton is 12 years old and lives with his father in a Florida motel called the Kentucky Star. His father (named Robert), and Rob have recently moved to Lister, Florida, after the death of Rob's mother, Caroline. Rob is quiet and often is bullied at school. Things begin to change when Rob discovers a tiger in the forest (locked up in a cage) while wandering the woods. He then meets a girl named Sistine Bailey who has recently moved nearby. Rob shows Sistine the tiger. Rob, who usually keeps his feelings locked away begins to involuntarily open up emotionally to Sistine. Though Sistine insists on letting the tiger go, Rob is wary of what will happen to it if he does. Rob finally relents and releases the tiger, letting it run into the woods. However, just moments later, Rob's father shoots the tiger dead. At the tiger's funeral, Sistine recites a part of William Blake's The Tyger. Rob and his father confront their unresolved feelings about Rob's mother and Rob begins looking forward to going to school with Sistine. Sistine Bailey - Sistine (or Sissy) and her mother move to Lister. Sistine is Rob's classmate. Sistine's parents are divorced after her father had an affair with his secretary. As compared to Rob, she is very open emotionally and gets into fights at school. Willie May - Housekeeper of the Kentucky Star. Though uneducated, she gives sage advice to Rob and Sistine, leading Sistine to claim she is a prophetess. She and Rob both have a connection to losing a loved one. Robert Horton - Rob's dad. He works at the Kentucky Star Motel and is underpaid by Beauchamp. Caroline Horton - Rob's mom. She died of cancer before Rob and his dad moved to Lister, Florida. Beauchamp - Owner of the Kentucky Star motel, the woods behind the motel, and the tiger. The Tiger - The tiger is described as a beautiful and poor animal trapped cruelly in a cage where he cannot escape. He paces around in the cage and is fed by Beauchamp and then Rob. After Rob and Sistine let the tiger out of its cage, it was shot by Rob’s dad and died. Norton and Billy Threemonger - Two "redneck" brothers who bully Rob in school and on the bus. Mrs. Bailey - Sistine's mom. She babies Sistine and forces her to wear dresses. Mr. Phelmer - Principal of Rob's school who views Rob as a nuisance, neglects him, and feels uncomfortable talking to him. He later tells Rob that he cannot come to school in case a disease in his legs is contagious. ===== A sailing ship happens to fall upon a floating water-cask, well-sealed with pitch and containing a manuscript. The cask is opened and the manuscript is read aloud. It is the story of the ship Homebird. A terrible storm at sea heavily damages the ship, breaking away all three masts and severely injuring the captain, and leaving it at the mercy of the winds and tides until it is caught in the "cemetery of the oceans," the Sargasso Sea. A group of crew members attempts to free the Homebird but are taken by a giant octopus. The remaining crewmen are also killed, leaving only the narrator, the injured captain, and the captain's daughter. As the captain's health fails, the narrator constructs a superstructure out of wood and pitch-hardened canvas to protect the vessel from the predator. The captain realizes that he will soon die, leaving the narrator alone with his daughter. To protect her honor, the narrator agrees to marry the young woman. :"'Do you -- do you love her?' :"His tone was keenly wistful, and a sense of trouble lurked in his eyes. :"'She will be my wife,' I said, simply; and he nodded. :"'God has dealt strangely with us,' he murmured, presently, as though to himself. :"Abruptly, he bade me tell her to come in. :"And then he married us. :"Three days later, he was dead, and we were alone. The narrator continues to fortify the ship's defenses, and soon finds that his new wife is pregnant. He takes stock of the ship's stores of food and finds that sufficient provisions exist to keep them alive for fifteen to seventeen years. The narrator of the story within a story concludes by describing his plans to enclose the manuscript in the water-cask and attach it to a balloon, so that the wind will carry it to open water. The narrative returns from the story-within-a-story to describe the present captain's reaction to the story: > "Seventeen years pervisions," he muttered thoughtfully. "An' this 'ere were > written sumthin' like twenty-nine years ago!" He nodded his head several > times. "Poor creetures!" he exclaimed. "It'd be er long while, Jock -- a > long while!" ===== Woody is an average man who has a happy life, until his neighbor Mr. Rottweiler makes his life miserable. Woody decides to take full revenge on Mr. Rottweiler and calls up a TV crew, which produces the self-titled reality show that shows the neighbor's relations from worst sight. ===== Barney Gorman (Tony Danza) works hard as a garbageman in Philadelphia, but his career indirectly embarrasses his family. Barney's frustration is made worse by being a fan of the Philadelphia Eagles, who are mired in a slump. Due to a sticky lever on his garbage truck, Barney has (without realizing it) developed a very strong kick. One day at the city dump, Barney kicks a water jug extremely far and catches the attention of a group of Eagles executives, who are scouting the location for land to build a new stadium. The Eagles coach offers Barney a job as the team's new kicker, which the owner feels is an excellent publicity stunt in "giving an average Joe a shot at the NFL". Barney joins the Eagles, but at first isn't really accepted by his teammates, especially his roommate, Bubba. But once Barney starts playing and makes a lot of important field goals, his teammates and football fans all over town begin to love him, giving him the nickname "G-Man". Unfortunately, the fame and popularity begin to go to Barney's head, and he becomes conceited and talks down to his teammates. In the next game, Barney misses a potential game-winning field goal, knocking the Eagles out of contention for the playoffs. Barney goes to a bar, depressed and lonely, when an attractive blonde woman approaches him. She asks him if he is Barney Gorman and if she could take a picture with him. Barney is caught off guard when the woman kisses him as the photo is being taken. She says thanks while giving him an alluring smile as she walks away. Barney's mood goes from bad to worse and he is suspended from the team. He misses a date with his wife (Jessica Tuck), who then sees the picture of him kissing the blonde woman in the newspaper. When Barney arrives at home, he finds that his wife has kicked him out as well, leaving his suitcase outside the door with the photo from the newspaper. After some soul-searching, Barney comes to his senses and apologizes to his wife, son, father, and his teammates. The Eagles let him back on the team, just in time for the final game of the season. Barney is given a chance to redeem himself as the game again comes down to a last-second field goal. The holder fumbles the snap, and Barney grabs it and scores the game-winning touchdown. At the end-of-season press conference, Barney remembers his roots as a garbageman and points out that garbagemen are deserving of respect, too, as they work hard to keep the city clean.Variety ===== The plot is based on the fairy tale of the same name which was written by the Brothers Grimm. ===== In January 1942, the month after the United States entered World War II, reporter John Royer returns to the United States. He goes to see his friend, newspaper publisher John Manchester, about a scheme to smuggle desperately needed rubber out of Japanese-occupied Malaya. Manchester, though he has been selected by the government to deal with the rubber shortage, does not seem interested, but later, government agent Kellar takes him to a meeting with Manchester and others. They give their approval. Royer needs the help of his old friend, Carnaghan; he gets Carnaghan released from Alcatraz (where Royer's newspaper exposé had landed him) to help. They slip into Malaya and contact Carnaghan's associate, the Dutchman, who recruits a gang for them from customers in his saloon, including Romano. Carnaghan also renews his acquaintance with the saloon's singer, Luana from Italy. Using money and intimidation, they succeed in purchasing all the available rubber, but eventually the Japanese commander, Colonel Tomura, gets wind of the scheme. On the last trip to transport the remaining rubber, belonging to part-German plantation owner Bruno Gerber, to a waiting freighter, Carnaghan smells an ambush. He forces Gerber to confess that he tipped off Tomura. Royer decides to try going around the ambush, but Carnaghan refuses to go with him. Royer is killed by the waiting soldiers. Tomura hints to the Dutchman that he would be willing to look the other way and let the rubber go in return for gold. Despite the Dutchman's certainty that Tomura is lying, the cynical Carnaghan takes him up on his offer. The Dutchman is right; Carnaghan is captured by Tomura. He takes Tomura to where the freighter lies hidden, but when a Japanese warship arrives, it is met by two PT boats, which proceed to sink it with torpedoes. Carnaghan shoots first the soldiers guarding him, then Tomura, but is himself wounded. When Malaya is liberated by the Allies, Kellar tracks Carnaghan down to an island, where he has settled down with Luana, to give him a medal. Carnaghan refuses the medal, and tells Kellar to give the medal to the Dutchman. ===== Mendanbar, the young King of the Enchanted Forest, is puzzled about several burned spots where he found dragon scales, but, more significantly, he finds that the magical network that keeps the forest alive is mysteriously missing in every one of the burned spots. Acting on the advice of a talking squirrel, Mendanbar goes to visit the witch Morwen, who says that the dragon scales are from one dragon but have been enchanted to look like they came from different dragons. Mendanbar leaves to visit Kazul, the King of the Dragons, to get an ID on the dragon from which the scales came. When Mendanbar arrives, he finds Kazul's princess/assistant Cimorene at the cave but Kazul away. After Mendanbar gets over his preconceived notions about "empty-headed princesses" (having run into one himself earlier that day), Cimorene is able to identify the scales as coming from Woraug, a dragon who had conspired with wizards to make himself King and had been turned into a toad for his un-dragonlike behavior. Mendanbar and Cimorene then find Antorell, the son of Head Wizard of the Society of Wizards Zemenar, trying to sneak into Kazul's cave. Antorell, not knowing that Mendanbar is present, says that the King of the Enchanted Forest is preparing for war with the dragons. Mendanbar then fights Antorell, Cimorene eventually melting him by pouring a bucket of soapy water with lemon juice all over him. Cimorene then tells Mendanbar that Kazul has been in the north negotiating with Frost Giants, but is overdue coming home, and that Mendanbar had interrupted Cimorene right when she had been about to leave to begin searching for Kazul. Mendanbar refuses to allow Cimorene to travel alone, on the grounds that she will be traveling through part of the Enchanted Forest, and Mendanbar, as the king of the Enchanted Forest, knows how dangerous that is. Mendanbar and Cimorene travel to Flat Top Mountain to borrow a magic carpet from the giantess Ballimore, an acquaintance of Kazul. This succeeds, but troubles with the magic carpet force them down near the house of the dwarf Herman. Using one of the enchanted windows that Herman has in his house, Cimorene and Mendanbar discover that Kazul is being held captive by wizards in the Enchanted Forest. They immediately use Mendanbar's sword, a powerful magical implement that is intimately linked to the Enchanted Forest, to try to teleport back, but a problem with the spell dumps them in an unconnected ravine—also creating a small replica of the Enchanted Forest with the sword's magic. Mendanbar pulls the magic out of the replica and into the sword, thus unmaking the replica, and they meet Telemain, a magician who tells them that the charm on their magic carpet is wearing thin and recommends Gypsy Jack's for repair. Mendenbar is the only person who can understand Telemain. At Gypsy Jack's, they leave the carpet after meeting a wizard whose staff they capture but who gets away himself. They transport back to the Enchanted Forest—this time successfully—and go to the palace. On the way, they find that a wizard's staff will absorb all the magic from an area of the Enchanted Forest, thus leaving the area looking burned—just like Mendanbar had seen at the beginning of the book. At the palace, they find out where the wizards are and plan an expedition to the cave in which Kazul is being held. They fight briefly with the wizards and win, but they find that Kazul is still encased in the glowing bubble that imprisons her. Mendanbar ruptures the bubble with his sword, which absorbs wizards' magic, and frees Kazul. After going back to the castle, Mendanbar proposes to Cimorene, and they marry at the end of the story. Telemain also moves into the Enchanted Forest and sets up a magical spell that causes the magic of the forest to automatically get sucked out of the wizard's staffs if they attempt to steal the magic. ===== This novel is the third in the Enchanted Forest series, told from the witch Morwen's perspective. Morwen, a witch who lives in the Enchanted Forest, is having trouble with people who believe that magic should follow traditional forms, specifically one Arona Michealear Grinogion Vamist. Morwen's cats find a large rabbit named Killer as well as the burned-looking splotches that a wizard's staff leaves in the forest, despite the spell on the forest (established in the last book) that should prevent it. Morwen calls the magician Telemain to help, who mentions a wizard-melting spell he came up with. They then find the wizard Antorell (son of the Head wizard Zemanar), who is two inches tall, shrunken by his own spell, who tries to escape but is subdued by the cats and then melted by Telemain. Morwen then finds that Killer has eaten one of the magical cabbages in her garden, and has turned into a donkey. (Throughout the story, Killer acquires additional spells and changes form.) Morwen and Telemain immediately go to the castle of King Mendanbar and Queen Cimorene, who is pregnant. At the castle, Mendanbar and Telemain discover that the sword at the heart of the forest's magic is stolen, allowing the wizards free rein in the forest. Morwen, Kazul (the King of Dragons), Telemain, Cimorene, Killer and two of Morwen's cats must undertake the journey to the headquarters of the Society of Wizards, who stole the sword. Mendanbar stays in the Enchanted Forest to guard against wizards. Telemain teleports the group twice towards their destination. The next teleport fails and Telemain is unconscious. Killer carries Telemain as they make their way through a swamp. They find a tower occupied by a fire-witch, Brandel, who is there because Vamist chased his family out of their home. After Brandel lets them in, they use his magic mirror to try to contact Mendanbar but find that they cannot because of a problem at his end. Kazul decides to go home and find out what's happening. The next morning, again with Brandel's mirror, they find that the sword is not at the headquarters of the Society of Wizards as they assumed, but at the house of Vamist. With the help of the cats, Morwen and Cimorene manage to recover the sword (they melt Antorell again). Telemain teleports them back to the forest and the group realize that they accidentally brought Vamist along. While they were gone, a battle has occurred between the dragons and wizards. The wizards encased the castle in a magical bubble and Mendanbar is missing, presumed inside the castle. As with the bubble shield spell in Searching for Dragons, the only way to break it is with the sword of the King of the Enchanted Forest, and the only one who can wield the sword is the King or his heir. Morwen and Telemain move the spells on Killer onto Vamist, returning the rabbit to his natural form. Cimorene hides the sword in the forest so the wizards cannot find it. The dragons put up a second bubble around the castle, which only they can take down so that the wizards can't enter the castle either. Cimorene takes her baby and hides in an outer region of the forest to wait until the baby is old enough to use the sword and rescue Mendanbar. ===== Cimorene raises Daystar and tells him legends about the Enchanted Forest, swordsmanship, spells, and magical protocols. One day, Antorell, a member of the Society of Wizards who has a grudge against Cimorene, tries to attack them. Cimorene melts Antorell with a spell, which raises many questions in Daystar's mind; he didn't know that his mother could do any magic. However, Cimorene refuses to answer Daystar's questions, and goes into the Enchanted Forest to retrieve a sword, which she gives to Daystar. She then sends him into the forest telling him not to come back until he can tell her why he had to leave. When Daystar enters the forest, he meets a talking golden lizard named Suz, who tells Daystar that the sword Cimorene gave him is the 'Sword of the Sleeping King.' Daystar, confused about what all this can mean, is instructed by Suz to "follow the sword." Trying to find a place to spend the night, he enters the middle of a ring of hedges and finds a young fire witch named Shiara, who can do fire magic but only sporadically, as it does not always work for her. She explains that the wizards heard about her lack of control and kidnapped her. However, she burned the Head Wizard's staff, ran away to the Enchanted Forest, and got caught in the middle of the hedges. Daystar tells Shiara about his quest, and she decides to accompany him. Afterwards, when Daystar shows Shiara his sword and they both touch it together, they feel a surprising jolt. The next morning, the bushes let Daystar out but refuse to allow Shiara to leave until she asks nicely, which takes a lot of time as she is not in the habit of politeness. Afterwards, Daystar warns Shiara that she will need to be more polite to people and things in the future. Soon, Shiara apologizes for her rudeness. As they venture through the forest, a wizard who is after Shiara attacks them by making a river turn into a water monster, and although Shiara attempts to burn it, nothing happens. But suddenly, the wizard and monster disappear, leaving only the wizard's broken staff behind. A nearby elf tells Daystar to help himself to the staff, but Shiara soon realizes that the staff pieces turn the moss brown and dead, and when Daystar picks up the middle piece, it explodes, burning his arm in the process. Shiara tries to help him until a cat leads them both to the house of Morwen, a witch who lives inside of the Enchanted Forest. Morwen quickly heals Daystar, gives both Daystar and Shiara a bundle of food, and gives Shiara a kitten which Shiara names Nightwitch. Morwen tells them to travel up the river to find the castle that they are looking for. As they travel up the river, they meet a princess who asks for Daystar's sword. The princess tells them that a wizard told her to take the sword to save a knight she loves. The wizard, who is Antorell, shows up and tries to attack Daystar. But he is interrupted when a dragon who is looking for a princess comes. Shiara offers the princess they just met to the Dragon. The princess fainted when she saw the dragon, but before the dragon can take her away, the princess's love shows up, and the knight, who does not want to fight the dragon, decide to have a tourney for fun, but in the middle of it a small tree pops up and surprises the dragon. In his surprise, the dragon accidentally hits the knight with his tail, which makes the princess hysterical. Daystar tells the princess to see Morwen for help. The dragon decides to travel with Shiara and Daystar and insists on leading them on a "shortcut" to the castle. As they pass through a clearing, an invisible wall stops them. Somehow, Shiara learns how to make things invisible from this, which causes her to panic. As the three pass the castle, an evil sorceress turns Shiara into stone. Daystar fights the sorceress, and she dies, but Shiara is still a stone. Suz shows up and suggests that Daystar kiss her, and although this works, it annoys Shiara. The castle in the meanwhile has somehow disappeared, and when they come to the next clearing, they find a strange tower-house that belongs to a magician named Telemain. After some misunderstandings, Telemain allows them to stay the night and advises them to travel through the Caves of Chance. When the group travels through the Caves, Daystar finds a small key, which a strange, jelly- like creature called a quozzel insists is its responsibility and confronts Daystar. At the end of the caves, the quozzel causes a cave-in that doesn't kill anyone, although Shiara's arm is broken. Daystar causes the quozzel to leave by hitting it with his sword and they escape with the help of several dwarves who keep calling Daystar 'Lord', much to his annoyance. The adventurers arrive near the center of the forest, meeting the King of Dragons, Kazul, who explains that Daystar must find and save Mendanbar, the King of the Enchanted Forest, who has been trapped in his castle for about 16 years by the wizards; he has not been able to be rescued because of a shield the wizards made around the castle, and the dragons put up a shield around it as well to keep the wizards from doing more harm. When the dragons take down their shield protecting the castle, Daystar uses the sword to break the wizard's shield. The wizards show up and freeze Daystar with a spell, but Shiara hides and is spared, and when the wizards attempt to kill the king, they find out that the figure on the bed is a decoy, and several leave to find the king. The freezing spell soon wears off, and Daystar fights the wizards. Shiara sets Antorell on fire and Daystar sticks the sword into a brazier in the room, shouting a spell his mother taught him, which allows him to see the magical network of the forest and to use it to disable the wizards' ability to use the forest's magic, leaving the wizards with only stored spells and swords and enabling Daystar to throw the key into the fire. The king comes out, and when Daystar hands him his sword, he realizes that the king is his father, which makes Daystar the heir to the Enchanted Forest. Daystar and the others leave and find Morwen tending to a wounded Telemain. They later explained to Daystar what had happened during the first three books. The books end with Telemain and Morwen announcing their engagement. ===== Sarek discovers that leaders of the Federation and its enemies have been subjected to outside mental influence. He suspects that the interference is linked to the Freelans, a race which has been part of the Federation for decades, but which no offworlder has ever seen due to a cultural taboo. Sarek once inadvertently discovered that the Freelans look like Vulcans, but later dismissed the incident as a hallucination induced by the Pon farr. After secretly accessing the Freelan computer system, Sarek discovers that the Freelans are in fact Romulans, and that their Vulcan aides are the children of Vulcan spacefarers kidnapped by the Romulans and forced to reproduce. The Freelan ambassador Taryn is actually the Romulan wing commander in charge of the plot to spy on the Federation from within. The mental influencing of various leaders is carried out by the Vulcan aides, who were raised as Romulans without the telepathic ethics taught on Vulcan. Sarek's work is interrupted by the news that his wife, Amanda, is terminally ill. Although he returns to Vulcan to be with her, he is soon called upon to negotiate for the release of a colony world held hostage by a Klingon renegade. He agrees, even though he will not be able to return before his wife's death. His son Spock, who believes his father's first duty is to the family, becomes angry when he learns of this decision, and the feud between them that ended in the episode "Journey to Babel" threatens to reassert itself. Sarek succeeds in the negotiations and discovers that the Klingon commander Keraz who led the raid is also a victim of the Romulans' mental influence. When Sarek returns to Vulcan for Amanda's funeral, he shares his findings with Kirk, Spock, and Dr. Leonard McCoy, and Kirk agrees to take him to Freelan aboard the Enterprise. The Captain's own plans are to leave the ship to rescue his nephew Peter, a senior cadet at Starfleet Academy who has been kidnapped by the renegade Klingon Kamarag in order to lure Kirk into a trap. Kamarag, acting under the mental influence of the Freelans, is the leader of the renegade Klingons who defy the orders of the female Klingon Chancellor Azetbur. Peter is brought to the Klingon homeworld Qo'noS and placed in the care of Kamarag's niece Valdyr, who believes her uncle's actions are dishonorable but who is bound by her secondary status as a woman to follow his orders. She is impressed by Peter's bravery and strength when he overpowers several Klingon warriors in an attempt to break out, even after five days of starvation. Over the course of Peter's imprisonment, the two fall in love and eventually escape together. As they approach a Klingon spaceport intending to hijack a ship, they meet up with Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, who had intended to rescue the cadet. The five of them manage to steal a miniature Klingon Bird-of-Prey and escape back to the Enterprise. A Romulan ship is discovered just inside the neutral zone, and Sarek realizes that ship must be under the command of Taryn. Sarek and Spock beam over to the Romulan ship in an attempt to acquire incontrovertible proof that the Romulans are involved. While attempting to forestall an attack against the Enterprise, Sarek accepts Taryn's challenge to an ancient form of duel that predates the division of the Vulcan and Romulan cultures. The duel is fought with the senapa, a curved sword with a poisoned blade. Sarek is cut and exposed to the poison but manages to win the duel despite Taryn's advantages of size and youth. Both men are beamed to the Enterprise where they are treated by Dr. McCoy. With the help of the Romulan ship and a single Klingon ship that deserts the renegades, the Enterprise emerges victorious from a conflict with Kamarag's fleet. War between the Federation and the Klingon Empire is averted and the Romulan plot is foiled. Peter is required to complete the Kobayashi Maru simulation test upon his return to the Academy, since his missed taking it with the rest of his class. Despite engineering a better-than-usual solution to the scenario, Peter decides to leave Starfleet for the diplomatic corps instead. ===== Padmanabhan master (Nedumudi Venu) and his wife (K. P. A. C. Lalitha) is waiting for Unni, their only son who is missing for many years. 10 year old Unni got lost in the crowd during a temple festival where he was along with his neighbour Panikkar (Oduvil Unnikrishnan), popularly known as Poorappanikkar. Panikkar too did not return since he decided to return only after finding Unni. Ammu (Kavya Madhavan) is Panikkar's daughter who also believes, like master and his wife, that her father will return one day with Unni. The master finds Unni (Dileep) after years and brings him back to the Village. The villagers realize that Unni is abnormal and is mentally challenged. He behaves like a small boy and creates all sorts of trouble for the villagers and his parents. His main hobby is to snatch dhothi from people. He snatches the dhothi after aiming at it with a hand gesture resembling Okay gesture. This leads to a series of comical incidents in the village. He is given Ayurveda treatment under the guidance of the church priest (Jagathy Sreekumar). Ammu looks after Unni, which her cousin Gopikkuttan (Nishanth Sagar) objects to, as he loves her. Meanwhile, Panicker returns to the village. Gopikuttan tries to turn Panicker against Unni. Eventually, Ammu starts to love Unni and waits for his recovery to marry him. But finally Unni gets back his memory only to let out the truth that he is not Unni but Vishnu, the son of a Bangalore don Maheshwar Thampi(Thiagarajan). Vishnu disapproves Thampi's lifestyle so he lives away from his father. He falls in love with Gauri and decides to marry her against his father's wish. Vishnu and Gauri's friends arrange a secret party for them. Thampi comes to know about the party and the place. He and his men attack the place. During the attack Gauri falls down even though Vishnu tries to save her. In the present, Thampi visits Vishnu and asks him to come home. Vishnu refuses initially but agrees to go along after Padmanabhan Master asks him to do so. At his home, Thampi introduces a bed-ridden Gauri to Vishnu. Gauri asks Vishnu to marry Ammu. The film ends with Vishnu marrying Ammu, and Krishnankutty (Harisree Ashokan), Unni's friend and village tailor, snatching his dhothi ===== Joey Davis is an unemployed former child star who supports himself as a hustler in Los Angeles. Joey uses sex to get his landlady to reduce his rent, then seduces Sally Todd, a former Hollywood starlet. Sally tries to help Joey revive his career but her status as a mediocre ex-actress proves to be quite useless. Sally's psychotic daughter, Jessica, further complicates the relationship between Sally and the cynical, emotionally numb Joey. ===== The citizens of "Cheesecago" are defenceless against "Al Catone's" mobsters until a few brave federal agents from the "Federal Mousehole of Investigation" headed by "Elliot Mouse" dare to take on the gangsters. In spite of their rivalry and continuous fights, they control gambling, shows, races and every business in town. They charge poor people and terrified traders with high taxes; they rob, and kidnap, but their biggest racket is in confiscating cheese and then deal with it illegally so that it fetches very high prices, often causing Cheesecago citizens to get ripped off. ===== The Hood (voiced by Ray Barrett), a criminal mastermind based in an ancient temple in Malaysia, is telepathically linked to his half-brother Kyrano (voiced by David Graham), manservant on Tracy Island. Abusing this connection, the Hood learns that International Rescue – an organisation formed by Jeff Tracy (voiced by Peter Dyneley) and his five adult sons – is now operational. The psychological trauma of the Hood's mind control causes Kyrano to faint in front of Jeff. Determined to acquire the secrets of International Rescue's Thunderbird machines, the Hood plots to manipulate the organisation into a rescue situation of his own design. Travelling to London International Airport, he plants a bomb on board the new Fireflash, an atomic-powered airliner departing for its maiden flight. The plane is piloted by Captain Hanson and its passengers include Kyrano's daughter Tin-Tin (voiced by Christine Finn). After Fireflash takes off, the Hood anonymously calls the air traffic control tower to reveal his sabotage, warning Commander Norman that the bomb will detonate from the impact of landing. When alerted to the situation, Hanson informs Norman that the shield around Fireflashs nuclear reactor needs regular servicing and that if the plane does not land within two hours all on board will die of radiation exposure. The control tower commandeers a military jet that docks with Fireflash in the air, enabling Lieutenant Bob Meddings to board the plane through its service hatch and attempt to remove the bomb from its hydraulics. The operation almost ends in disaster when Meddings loses his grip and falls out of the plane, deploying his parachute just seconds before hitting the ground. John Tracy (voiced by Ray Barrett), who has been monitoring radio transmissions from International Rescue's space station Thunderbird 5, relays news of the unfolding events to Tracy Island. Jeff immediately dispatches two of his other sons, Scott and Virgil (voiced by Shane Rimmer and David Holliday), to London in Thunderbirds 1 and 2. Landing at the airport, Scott assures Norman of International Rescue's good faith and orders that no photographs be taken of either Thunderbird. Airport police move in to guard Thunderbird 1, but the Hood, disguised and driving a police car, breaks into the cockpit and photographs the controls. Scott is alerted by the on-board camera detector and the Hood flees the airport, chased along the M1 motorway in the direction of Birmingham by police. Arriving in Thunderbird 2, Virgil deploys two remote-controlled Elevator Cars and a manned master car. The plan is for Virgil to guide Fireflash into a soft landing on top of the cars to avoid setting off the bomb. Virgil speeds down the runway to intercept Fireflash as it descends; however, the rescue attempt is aborted after one of the remote-controlled cars malfunctions and crashes into a parked aircraft. Virgil activates a reserve car and Fireflash starts another descent, this time making contact with all three cars. Virgil applies brakes but then loses control; he crashes but is uninjured. Fireflash eventually comes to a stop and the bomb, though dislodged by the inertia, fails to explode. When the police inform the tower that the Hood has escaped with his photographs, Scott alerts International Rescue's London agents, Lady Penelope and her chauffeur Parker (voiced by Sylvia Anderson and David Graham). Giving chase in FAB 1, Penelope's specially-modified Rolls-Royce, Penelope and Parker blast the Hood off the motorway with the car's front-mounted machine gun. The Hood survives but his photographs are ruined and he threatens to get even with International Rescue. Back on Tracy Island, Jeff has Kyrano examined by a doctor from the mainland. After giving Kyrano a clean bill of health, the doctor mentions the Fireflash incident and says that he would be honoured to shake International Rescue's hand. With a parting handshake, Jeff grants the oblivious doctor his wish, then tells his sons, "Boys, I think we're in business." ===== Moscow, 1891. Disguised as Fandorin, the leader of a revolutionary organization murders a general. Fandorin has to catch him. He is assisted (or is it hindered?) in his investigations by Prince Pozharsky, a fictional descendant of Dmitry Pozharsky, who helped bring the Time of Troubles to an end. ===== The sitcom Andy Capp was based on the cartoon strip of the same name that had run since 1957 in The Daily Mirror. Andy Capp is a slothful man from Hartlepool, whose life consists of drinking, sleeping, watching TV, betting, going to the pub and occasionally playing football (as opposed to rugby, which was Andy's sport in the comic strip). His wife, Flo, is constantly annoyed by her lazy husband and frequently uses a rolling pin as a weapon. ===== Nina Ivanova (Toumanova), a Russian dancer, becomes separated from a group sent to entertain the troops. She is found and taken to the hideout of a partisan group led by Vladimir (Peck) operating behind the German lines near the city of Tula. At first, the veteran guerrillas do not know what to make of her. Youngster Olga is astonished that she does not know how to fight, cook, mend or clean. The men, however, are entranced by her beauty. When a German soldier stumbles upon their lair, he is captured. Vladimir is ready to execute him out of hand for answering his questions with transparent lies. Nina is aghast at the thought. The highly educated Semyon persuades Vladimir to give the prisoner a fair trial the next day. That night, the German tries to escape, forcing Nina to shoot him. This act gains her the group's acceptance. The next time the guerrillas carry out an attack, Vladimir takes her along. They lay explosives under a railroad track and blow up a German ammunition train. While hiding from a German patrol, Vladimir and Nina embrace and kiss. Although she has fallen in love with him, she does not understand his ruthlessness. He explains that before the war he was an engineer, proud to have helped build a dam to provide electricity. He had to destroy it to keep it out the hands of the Germans. When Vladimir has to send a message to headquarters, he decides a woman would be less likely to be suspected. He chooses the veteran Yelena, the only other woman in the group and a skilled sniper. Yelena loves Vladimir herself. She is killed by the Germans, forcing Vladimir to try again, this time by sending Nina. However, he softens enough to send along the teenage Mitya with her. They get through, then rendezvous with Vladimir at a village with the message that the long hoped for first Russian counterattack will begin the next day ("The snow will fall tomorrow"). When a German officer unexpectedly confiscates the house in which Vladimir is hiding, Mitya spits in the German's face before he can discover the guerrilla leader. He is taken away and questioned. Nina begs Vladimir to do something, but he cannot risk endangering his part in the next day's operations. When Mitya refuses to betray his comrades, he is publicly hanged. Nina watches helplessly from the crowd. Vladimir is put in charge of all the local partisans. They are ordered to attack and then retreat to draw away a German reserve force. Thus, when the Russian spearhead breaks through, there will be nothing in its path. One by one, Vladimir's men die bravely. In the last scene, Vladimir and Nina resist as an enemy tank approaches and fills the screen, then blows up in front of them. ===== Andy Farmer (Chase) is a New York City sports writer who moves with his wife, Elizabeth (Smith) to the seemingly charming town of Redbud, Vermont, so he can write a novel. They do not get along well with the residents, and other quirks arise such as being given exorbitant funeral bills for a long-dead man buried on their land years before they acquired the house. Marital troubles soon arise from the quirkiness of Redbud as well as the fact that Elizabeth was critical of Andy's manuscript, while having her own manuscripts for children's books published. They soon decide to divorce and sell their home. To expedite the sale, the Farmers offer the town's residents a $15,000 donation to Redbud, and $50 cash each if they help make a good impression on their prospective home buyers. To that end, the citizens remake Redbud into a perfect Norman Rockwell-style town. Their charade dazzles a pair of prospective buyers, who make the Farmers an offer on the house; however, Andy declines to sell, realizing that he genuinely enjoys small-town living. He and Elizabeth decide to stay together in Redbud, much to the chagrin of the locals, who are now angry that they lost their promised money. Though the mayor does not hold the Farmers liable for the $15,000, as the sale of their house did not occur, Andy decides to pay everyone in Redbud their $50, which helps improve his standing among the townspeople. The film ends with Andy taking a job as a sports writer for the Redbud newspaper, and Elizabeth, now pregnant with their first child, having written multiple children's stories. =====