From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ===== The film begins on the Varma family, consisting of two brothers, Vijay and Sharad, Vijay's wife, Ganga, and their daughter. Sharad is unmarried and is studying in college, while Vijay runs the household on his income. In college, Sharad meets with Punam and both are attracted to each other. Ganga and Vijay get married but permit them a married life only after they complete their studies, which they do. They are devastated to learn that Punam cannot be a mother, so Ganga lets Punam mother her child. Soon Sharad gets a job, which gets him to relocate to another city, and there are tearful good-byes. Punam decides to keep Ganga's child with her. But Ganga has been kind to Punam and Sharad for a reason, and now the time has come for payback. Later on, as time progresses Sharad earns well and lives in a bigger bungalow with drivers and servants. When Ganga asks for some money to renew the temple floor, Sharad refuses, saying it is a waste of money but buys an expensive video game for his son. Soon after, their son buys a lottery ticket and wins 21,00,000 rupees. Unable to bear the shame of inequality, Ganga reaches Poonam's house and demands her son back. Poonam begs but to no avail. Sharad leaves the boy with Ganga and comes home. Later, when Vijay returns from the tour, he finds that Sharad and Poonam have vacated their bungalow and shifted to a small house and are miserable at the loss of their child. Vijay comes home to Ganga, who now lives a better life with the lottery money. He screams and disowns her, and leaves with his children, and goes straight to Sharad's dwelling and apologizes for his wife's mistakes. Meanwhile, unable to bear the guilt, Ganga has struck herself with a bronze stand and bleeds and faints. Sharad and Poonam reach home to find her unconscious and soon bring her back to consciousness. Vijay realizes his mistake and accepts her apology and then they all live happily together. ===== Slade, a serial killer, is a lodger in a 19th-century family's London home. So is a singer, Kitty Langley, who definitely has caught Slade's eye. Women are being brutally killed in the Whitechapel district. Scotland Yard is investigating, and a detective, John Warwick, begins to cast his suspicions in Slade's direction. Kitty, meanwhile, has also developed an attraction to Slade. Slade goes to see her perform at a cabaret. He goes backstage afterward, and tries to make her his next victim, but Warwick's men get there just in time. Unwilling to be taken into police custody, Slade flees to the riverbank, and leaps to his death. ===== Miss Cornwallis is mistress of the fifth form. Hilary Wentworth is a calm and dignified head-girl. Being in the fifth form means quite a lot of changes – for example, the girls have got studies of their own now, instead of common rooms and dormitories, the first – and second-formers have got to work for them. For some reason, Mirabel has been made games captain for the school, and Gladys vice captain. It is not explained why or how Mirabel has developed such good sporting abilities, nor is it explained why she is no longer musical. In her first term at St Clare's she was written as a very musical girl, talented at the piano and the violin. Two girls use their new power badly - Angela Favorleigh takes advantage of her prettiness and charm and turns the younger girls into willing slaves and so does Mirabel, who is games captain. Some room is made for the second-form - Antoinette, Claudine's little sister, has come to St. Clare's, too, and she proves to be as irrepressible as Claudine. There are three new girls in the fifth form and all of them are unpopular – Anne-Marie, who fancies herself a poet, Felicity Ray, a musical genius, and Alma, a fat girl who suffers from what nowadays would be called an eating disorder. Felicity's parents are very ambitious and, in spite of Miss Theobald's warnings, push their daughter too hard – she is to take a very difficult musical exam and works herself too hard. One part of the book describes fat Alma stealing food from a store cupboard that Antoinette keeps midnight feast food in. Alison discovers the cupboard open one day and reports to Claudine (Who owns the cupboard) about it, and Claudine then keeps the key to the cupboard safe. Alma is angry, and plays tricks on Alison. Pat and Isabel are minor characters in this book, but at the end they are made head-girls because Hilary will leave St. Clare's and go to India to live with her parents. Alison, Anne-Marie, Angela, and Mirabel all redeem themselves at the end of the book. ===== Pierre Martel (Pierre Richard-Willm), a young Parisian businessman, is brought to financial ruin and disgrace through the extravagant lifestyle that he pursues with his lover Florence (Marie Bell). Forced to leave the country, he joins the Foreign Legion, as Pierre Muller, and seeks to submerge his own despair in a new life in North Africa alongside other unhappy refugees such as the Russian Nicolas (Georges Pitoëff). When not on campaign, they lodge in a cheap hotel run by the greedy and lecherous Clément (Charles Vanel) and his sadly stoical wife Blanche (Françoise Rosay), who passes the time by reading the cards to tell her customers their fortunes. When Pierre encounters Irma (Marie Bell) working in a local bar as a singer and a prostitute, he finds her almost identical to his former lover Florence, except for her voice and the colour of her hair. Irma is vague about her past and Pierre becomes ever more obsessed with the apparent reincarnation of his old love. They live together at the hotel, and when Clément forces himself on Irma, Pierre kills him in a struggle; Blanche makes it appear to be an accident. When Pierre's term of service finishes, he and Irma plan a new life together back in France where he has now inherited some money. But on the eve of their embarkation in Casablanca, Pierre happens to meet again the real Florence, now mistress to a wealthy Arab, and his feelings for Irma are shattered. Having duped Irma into returning to France alone, he re-enlists in the Legion. Blanche's cards foretell a brave death for him in his next campaign. ===== Six years ago, Kurosaki's family was destroyed when a "shirosagi" (a "white swindler", who focuses on defrauding others) swindled Kurosaki's father of their family's life savings. As a result, his father killed Kurosaki's mother and sister before committing suicide. Since then, Kurosaki has devoted himself to becoming a "kurosagi" ("black swindler"), who swindles other swindlers, as a means of revenge. As a "kurosagi," Kurosaki's acts have helped innocent victims of swindling schemes get their money back. However, he is frequently met with opposition by a stubborn grad student, who seeks to become a prosecutor. ===== The story begins in 1924 in New York City, where W. C. Fields is a Ziegfeld Follies headliner, and ends with his 1946 death in California at age 66. In between, it dramatizes his life and career with emphasis on the latter part of both, when the "Me" of the title, Carlotta Monti, played a prominent role, with a number of fictionalized events added for dramatic impact. Having lost his girlfriend Melody to another man and most of his life savings due to careless investments by his broker, Fields heads west to Santa Monica, where he operates a wax museum until he's offered a film role. He quickly becomes a major screen presence and a notorious drinker. While at a party with his friends John Barrymore, Gene Fowler and restaurant owner Dave Chasen, Fields is introduced to starlet Carlotta Monti, whom he hires as a live-in secretary. In order to stifle her theatrical aspirations, he arranges a screen test. The studio boss Harry Bannerman decides she has some talent, but Fields threatens to quit Paramount Pictures unless she is discouraged from pursuing a career in films. When she learns the truth, Carlotta leaves him and goes to New York. When Barrymore passes away, she returns to Hollywood to comfort Fields. On the set of My Little Chickadee, she learns why her efforts to get him to marry her have routinely been rebuffed: his first marriage has never been dissolved legally. Although hurt by the revelation, Carlotta resigns herself to a life of unwedded bliss that often crumbles into sorrow and frustration as the relentlessly mean-spirited Fields continues to drink heavily and his health steadily declines. The comic is hospitalized and, after enduring great physical pain, dies on Christmas Day, a holiday he had despised with a passion. ===== This cricket epic story revolves around the life of Dr. Vijay Shekhawat (Harman Baweja) and his father Adv. Ram Shekhawat (Anupam Kher). Ram has great aspirations for his son Vijay but alas he dreams of playing for the Indian cricket team one day. His dream eventually comes true when Vijay makes it to the Indian team. His childhood friend Nandini (Amrita Rao) has believed in him since the very first time he spoke the name of cricket and never ever doubted him. However, this happiness is short-lived as Vijay soon loses his place in the team, as well as the respect he has earned, when he lets his new- found fame get the better of him. Vijay soon discovers how quickly the media and the public can make a villain out of a hero. Unable to bear the shock and humiliation, Ram suffers a brain hemorrhage. Nandini takes the responsibility to care for Ram and take in Vijay. Vijay and Nandini fly to Australia to have surgery on his back. The surgery is successful and Vijay soon realises that Nandini, his childhood friend, could be his life partner. He nurtures his feelings for her but Nandini is still healing after Vijay's bad side took over and is finding it hard to trust him and behave like his true friend again. They return to Jaisalmer and Vijay vows to be a better cricketer for his country. He proves himself to his father and Nandini that he can play for his country and his coach relies on him too. He gets selected once again to play in the major international cricket tournament. He injures himself while playing but vows to play no matter his health. He wins the cricket tournament and returns to his hometown Jaisalmer, to see his father and Nandini. Vijay and his father reconcile and just when everything is going fine Ram dies in Vijay's arms. They hold the funeral and we see Vijay and Nandini comforting each other in the end scene. We assume they get together. And it finishes with Vijay once again playing in a cricket tournament and playing for his country. ===== The film is told through the personality of a typical park bench, the Bench narrates retrospectively at his life and the people that has come and gone in his lifetime. Not having the senses that human beings deem normal he lives with his surroundings, in a bubble of feel. Only being able to sense we view this characters life through the warmth of touch, vibration of laughter and the uncertainty of emotion. The film begins with a Tramp lying on a park bench, a narration begins to speak in the first person perspective. As the tramp moves away, the narration still remains with the Bench. The Bench begins reflecting on his youth as a newly fitted bench. The energetic characters that come by and sit on him; a man exercising through the park, children playing chase around him, a young couple kissing, a perverted old man staring at young women at the bus stop. This new sense of life is illustrated by a personal connection the Bench has with a neighbouring bluebird called 'Kevin'. Kevin starts his own little family. The most striking of his offspring is a vibrant yellow bird. After the chicks learn to fly and leave the nest, the mother too leaves Kevin. The Bench shows empathy towards Kevin's loneliness. 'Night' people as they called, the hooligans, the drunken tramps come and deface and abuse the bench. The bench finds some ways of getting revenge (E.g. A drunk tries to get a bottle cap off by hitting it against the Bench, the cap comes off and hits him in the face.) The vandalism gets the better of the Bench and he is worn down. He realises now that people don't want to be near him anymore. At the same time, he discovers that Kevin too has perished and he begins to understand that this is the way of things. The Bench is removed piece by piece and bundled away in a van. A brand new bench has now replace it, the vibrant yellow bird returns to the tree and so on; the cycle of life continues. ===== Eddie Rico (Richard Conte) is the happily married owner of a prosperous laundry company in Bayshore, Florida. Later in the film we discover that years ago he had been the accountant for a major crime syndicate. He has given up his ties to the syndicate, and hopes to adopt a child with his wife, Alice. When the film opens, Eddie's sleep is interrupted by a call from Phil, a mob operative, who demands Eddie provide employment and a place to lay low for someone who turns out to be a hitman named Wesson (William Phipps). Eddie's young wife Alice becomes worried that the syndicate will bring Eddie back into a life of crime. Eddie calms her, but then receives a worrisome letter from his mother saying that his two brothers, Johnny (James Darren) and Gino (Paul Picerni), who are both still involved with the mob, have disappeared. Shortly thereafter, while he is driving, Eddie realizes the vehicle that taps him at a stop light is being driven by his brother, Gino. Off the main street, they both pull over; Gino slides into Eddie's front seat and, in desperation, begs Eddie to help him get out of the country. Gino admits to being the gunman in a gang killing and identifies Johnny as having been his driver. Gino now believes the syndicate is planning to get rid of him; out of the blue they've ordered him to St. Louis. Eddie cannot believe that the syndicate is after him; he has complete faith in the benevolence of Sid Kubik (Larry Gates), the syndicate boss, who Eddie believes thinks of the Ricos as family, just as Eddie thinks of Kubik as a father. Consequently, Eddie tells Gino to go to St. Louis—"Have I ever steered you wrong?"—and gives him some money to do so. When Eddie returns to work, he takes a call from "Uncle" Sid Kubik, who orders him to Miami for a face-to-face conference. Eddie leaves, despite his wife's objections that he will miss an adoption interview. Eddie meets Kubik in Miami, where Kubik apologizes for the orders given earlier regarding Wesson and congratulates Eddie on his impending adoption. Kubik says the syndicate does not know where Johnny is, but they are concerned. It seems that Johnny's new wife's brother Peter Malaks (Lamont Johnson)—who doesn't at all approve of Johnny or of his having married his sister Norah—has met with prosecutors on a number of occasions. Naturally, the bosses feel that as a result of what Peter tells them, Johnny will be "persuaded" to turn on the syndicate and testify against them in return for clemency. After Eddie insists that he does not believe Johnny would ever rat on them, Kubik tells Eddie that while he believes in Johnny's loyalty, others aren't so sure. In order for Johnny's life to be saved, Kubik says that Eddie must find him and get him to leave the country. After Eddie leaves to do what he has been ordered, Kubik walks down the hall to enter another room where Gino, his face battered from a beating being administered by one of Kubik's henchmen, is seen slumped in a chair with only enough strength to raise his head and say with bitter sarcasm, "Thanks, uncle Sid." Eddie arrives in New York City and finds Peter Malaks. When Eddie says that Johnny may be in a lot of trouble, Malaks angrily refuses to help find him, calling Johnny a gangster and telling Eddie that maybe Johnny would be better off dead. Eddie then visits his mother (Argentina Brunetti) to ask her where Johnny is, but she proclaims that even though she once took a bullet to protect Kubik's life, she no longer trusts the man, in large part because Gino had told her not to. Indeed, she tells Eddie as he is leaving not to trust anybody. When Eddie tells her that Johnny's life is in danger, she laments, kneeling to pray in front of a statue of the Virgin Mary she has sitting on a shelf, but refuses to tell Eddie anything. Finally, as Eddie is walking out the door, she relents and reveals, with great trepidation, that Johnny last wrote her from El Camino, California. Eddie has to take two planes to El Camino, where he finds Johnny and his pregnant wife, Norah (Kathryn Crosby) hiding out on a friend's farm. Johnny says he's left the syndicate because he wants his son to grow up to be clean and not know a life of crime. Norah, pregnant, is distraught at the prospect of Johnny being dragged back into the syndicate and collapses; she needs a doctor and one is called. Johnny tells Eddie to leave. Eddie returns to his hotel where Mike Lamotta (Harry Bellaver), a local crime boss, is waiting in Eddie's room. There, Eddie realizes that Kubik has used him to locate Johnny and all along has intended that Johnny be killed. Lamotta orders Eddie to call Johnny and tell him to meet the mobsters waiting outside the house where he's staying. Instead, after Johnny joyously tells Eddie that he's a new father, Eddie urges Johnny to go to the cops; he is immediately knocked out by Lamotta's assistant, Gonzales (Rudy Bond). To save his wife and newborn son, Johnny goes outside, where he is killed. As Eddie and Gonzales fly back to Florida, Eddie learns that Gino had attempted to flee the country and was also killed. While in a bathroom during their stopover in Phoenix, Eddie knocks Gonzales out. He takes Gonzales' pistol and calls Alice, telling her to leave their house in Florida and meet him in New York at a special place only they know about. Eddie then manages to elude Kubik's minions by hitching a ride to New York in a truck transporting new cars. He goes to Peter Malaks and informs him that both his brothers have been murdered and that he intends to testify against the syndicate. Malaks, now convinced of Eddie's sincerity, agrees to meet him the next day at a bank where Eddie will give him money to care for his now-widowed sister and their new nephew. The next day, Eddie goes to the bank (where an informant there recognizes him and rats him out to Kubik via phone), gets a pile of cash from his safe-deposit box, and puts some in three envelopes—one for Malaks, one for Alice so she can get safely out of the country, and one for his mother. He meets Malaks and Alice outside in a cab and gives each their envelopes. He sends the weeping Alice to the airport with Malaks. When Eddie goes to say goodbye to his mother and give her her envelope, Kubik is there and holds him at gunpoint. Eddie pulls out the gun he took from Gonzales in Phoenix and kills both Kubik and his accomplice, but is wounded himself. In a newspaper headline shot, we discover that Eddie, apparently recovered from his wound, has testified against the syndicate and that it has been successfully prosecuted and destroyed. The final scene shows Eddie driving with Alice up to the children's home where they apparently are meeting with the administrators to finalize the adoption of their new child. ===== Percy Jackson attends freshman orientation at Goode High School, where he sees Rachel Elizabeth Dare, a mortal who can see through the Mist. She helps him fight two empousai and escape. Percy travels to Camp Half-Blood, where he learns Grover is in trouble with the Council of Cloven Elders for not having found Pan. During a competition organized by the new sword instructor Quintus, Annabeth and Percy accidentally find an entrance into the Labyrinth, which presents a possible invasion route for Luke. Annabeth is given leadership of a quest to find Daedalus and convince the inventor not to give Luke Ariadne's string, which would help him navigate the Labyrinth. She chooses Grover, Percy, and Tyson to accompany her. Before leaving, Percy learns that Nico plans to bring back his late sister (with help from King Minos) by exchanging her soul for someone who has cheated death - like Percy. In the maze, the questers face a number of trials including meeting Briares, the Sphinx, and Janus, before arriving at the ranch of Geryon and meeting Nico. They seek out Hephaestus, and after speaking to him they part ways; Tyson and Grover search for Pan, while Annabeth and Percy go to the god's forge in the volcano Mount St. Helens. In the forge, Percy is almost killed by Kronos's smiths, but escapes by causing an earthquake that ejects him from the volcano. When Percy awakens, he finds himself on the island Ogygia with Calypso, a daughter of the Titan Atlas. Calypso tells Percy she is cursed to fall in love with every hero that lands on her island, but the hero can never stay. After Hephaestus tells him of events in the mortal world, Percy realizes that he too must leave. Back at Camp Half-Blood, Percy and Annabeth go to Manhattan to find Rachel, who should be able to navigate the Labyrinth. Despite being captured by Luke's minions, they eventually reach Daedalus's workshop and learn Quintus is actually the ancient inventor, living as an automaton. He informs them that, believing they could not withstand a Titan assault, he has already helped Luke. The group is discovered by Luke, who tells them Minos has been planning to exchange Daedalus's soul for his own. The four teenagers fight to escape while the betrayed Daedalus remains in the maze with his hellhound. The quartet later discover the Titan fortress at Mount Othrys, and learn that Luke has been somehow possessed by Kronos. They run into Grover and Tyson, and discover the resting place of Pan, who speaks to them and passes part of his fading spirit into each of them. The group, minus Rachel, then heads back to Camp Half-Blood to fight. The Titan army floods out of the Labyrinth and appears to be winning until Daedalus arrives with Mrs. O’Leary and Briares, who kills Kampê. Grover scares off the remaining Titan forces by causing a Panic. After the battle, Nico helps Daedalus pass on, destroying the Labyrinth. After a memorial service for the dead campers, Percy leaves camp for the school year. On his fifteenth birthday at summer's end, Percy receives a visit from his father Poseidon, who gives him a sand dollar, advising him to “spend it wisely”. Nico later appears to tell Percy his plan to defeat Luke once and for all. ===== Tish Gray is a flower child who is hired to have the baby of a middle-class couple, Suzanne and Jay Wilcox. The film exposes the clash of values between Tish, her boyfriend Tad Jacks, and the couple. It also deals with the emotional turmoil all four characters go through. ===== The story begins when Jonas Faulkner is found unconscious with two gunshot wounds in the woods outside the small town of Esk. He is nursed back to health by Anya Katsukova, a doctor-in-training, and the two became friends. Around the same time Jonas arrives, however, a supernatural plague begins to affect the town of Esk, killing several of its inhabitants. In the meantime, Robyn Hart, a former soldier who holds unreciprocated romantic feelings for Anya, begins seeing ghostly apparitions around the town. During a ride in the forest, Jonas, Anya, Robyn, and their friend Petria encounter a "spirit," one of the beings from the ancient past who have been imprisoned for many centuries before the events of the story take place. Upon returning to the village, they are interrogated by an investigator from another city, Patrick Armand, who has been following Jonas since he was released from a mental hospital. Armand reveals that the plague in Esk had also befallen every other town Jonas had been through. While working with her superior, Doctor Blythe, to find a cure for the spreading plague, Anya is visited again by a spirit. That night, she encounters a "shade", a monstrous manifestation of a person who has died a traumatic death, and the following morning, the plague has spread to a large number of people. Doctor Blythe sends Anya on an urgent mission to the medical research committee in Aubeny with data they have collected on the plague, to try to find a solution. However, the medical committee in Aubeny is indifferent to her findings, attributing the plague to food contamination instead, based on the reports of the same plague from another town. She is dismissed outright when she mentions the shades. Meanwhile, back in Esk, Robyn is attacked by a shade one night. He determines to fight back as the plague continues to spread and more shades appear, attacking the priest and threatening to overrun the town. A messenger is sent overnight on horseback to bring help to the escalating situation. ===== 69-year-old Sir Edwin Challoner lives with his extended family in a grand old house in rural Southern England. Unmarried, he has no direct issue, and the person closest to him is his younger brother Hamish, who is also his business associate. Hamish has a wife, Julia, and two sons, Simon, aged 25, and Walter, three years younger, who has dropped out of Oxford to be a poet. When Hamish Challoner dies of a heart condition, Simon prepares to become head of the house, as everyone assumes that it will only be a matter of a few years, if not months, before Sir Edwin also dies. However, the lonely old patriarch surprises them by announcing his impending marriage to their neighbour Rhoda Graham, who is more than 40 years his junior. After the newlyweds have returned from their honeymoon, Simon and Rhoda share a moment of unbridled passion in the old house ("Youth and instinct did their work"), and Rhoda becomes pregnant. As Sir Edwin and his wife have not had any sex during their brief marriage, there is no doubt as to who has sired the child. However, Sir Edwin decides to be its legal father, and swears Simon, Rhoda, and Walter to secrecy about the paternity of Rhoda's baby. When a healthy boy is born, he names him Hamish in honour of his deceased brother. The implications of this arrangement, ostensibly contrived to keep up appearances, are far-reaching. Suddenly Simon finds himself no longer in a position to inherit his uncle's fortune, which has been the only object of his life ever since he was a child, and he only has himself to blame for it. In addition, he feels that the natural order of things has been turned upside down as now his own son is to precede him as heir to the family estate. When, on top of all that, Sir Edwin asks Julia, Walter and Simon to live elsewhere, the latter feels "displaced" as well as "deposed." It occurs to him that, as a sort of recompense, he might marry Fanny Graham, Rhoda's younger sister, and move into the Grahams' large house, almost empty now, which is conveniently close to the family seat. A few weeks after that, the marriage is announced. Almost two decades later, Simon and Fanny Challoner have five children: Graham, aged 18; Naomi, aged 17; Ralph, 15; and two little ones, three-year-old Claud and two-year-old Emma. They still live in the other house together with Julia and Walter, and Sir Edwin Challoner, now approaching 90, is still alive. Hamish has received a good education and been prepared to inherit both the title and the place from who he believes is his natural father. Simon's line of the family, on the other hand, have been leading rather a modest life, with constant half-serious references to the workhouse as their ultimate dwelling place. Then, another four years later, the past suddenly catches up with the Challoners when Hamish and Naomi announce their intention to get married. It falls to Simon to make a late confession to prevent incest between two of his children. Walter, always the poet, calls his brother "the hero of a tragedy. It is a pity you are the villain as well." The one person most profoundly shocked by the revelation is Hamish, who, on an impulse, renounces his heritage ("I shall never marry, as I cannot marry Naomi") and goes abroad to escape the familial tension and to acquire new perspectives. When Sir Edwin, now aged 94, feels that he is going to die, he calls for his son, and Hamish arrives home on what turns out to be the eve of his father's death. On his deathbed, the old man makes Hamish promise to take his place as head of the house. It does not take long before the family realise that, as far as the inheritance is concerned, Hamish has actually made two conflicting promises, both under emotional stress, and that he will have to break one of them. After the funeral, Hamish surprises the Challoners by presenting to them Marcia, the woman he is going to marry. Describing herself as "older and plainer and less poor than I ought to be," Marcia dislikes the old house the moment she sets eyes on it. Said to be easily influenced, especially by his wife, Hamish finally cedes his inheritance to Simon, thus breaking the word he has given his deceased father. Relying on his spouse's financial support, it is now his turn, together with Marcia and his mother, to move out of the house and restore it to Simon, who has always considered it rightfully his. ("A few words sent the history of the house into another channel.") However, despite the fact that they are now occupying the position which was originally intended for them, Simon and his legitimate children are plagued by thoughts of the future now that the title and the place have been separated. On the one hand, Hamish's unborn children might object to their father having given up his heritage. Also, after Simon's death, it might seem more natural for his oldest son to succeed him, and that would be Hamish again rather than Graham. Ralph sums up these thoughts by remarking that "there may be troubles ahead." These deliberations are cut short by the arrival of two telegrams from Marcia informing them that Hamish has died after a short illness—of a heart condition, just like his grandfather—, and that she is not pregnant. In the end Rhoda and Marcia, who have decided to keep on living together, return to the neighbourhood of the old house. Hamish has bequeathed almost everything to Simon, with only a small allowance for Marcia. Moreover, the title and the place are united again, and Simon Challoner becomes Sir Simon. ===== On a camping trip in the Sierra Nevada mountains in central California, Steven Anders and his two teenage children, Deborah and David, are exploring a cave when they experience an earthquake. After emerging, they hear from a ranch-hand who was outside that there was a bright solar flash prior to the earthquake. He soon falls ill and dies, whereupon his body turns to a powdery substance. As the family comes down from the mountain to the nearest town, they discover that everyone has turned to the powdery substance inside their clothing, and there are few survivors. Owing to fear and anxiety, most people they find are focused only on their own survival, but as the family tries to make their way home to Malibu (where the mother had returned earlier from the camping trip), they find two people that need their help, as well as a man who invites them to be neighbors. They face dangers ranging from wild dogs, who seem to have been driven mad from the solar flare, to a gunman who steals their car. They rescue a woman, Jenny, and later a young boy whose family was killed by two men who stole their car. Apart from the physical journey, they struggle to overcome the emotional trauma of the events. They find their way home and discover a note left for them by the mother, who has also died and turned into a powdery substance. They are informed that a virus outbreak that began after the solar flare is responsible for most of the deaths, and that some people have a genetic resistance. Despairing, Jenny tries to commit suicide by drowning herself in the ocean, but she is rescued. At the conclusion, they exude a hopeful outlook by embarking on a trek to northern California. ===== The Tick is a superhero who underwent the tryouts at the National Super Institute in Reno, Nevada where superheroes who pass will be assigned to the best cities to protect from crime. Upon passing the tryouts, he is assigned to The City where he befriends a former accountant named Arthur whom he takes on as a sidekick. With the aid of Die Fledermaus, American Maid, Sewer Urchin, and other superheroes, the Tick and Arthur protect The City from bad guys like Chairface Chippendale, Breadmaster, El Seed, The Terror, and others who would harm it. ===== Min-jun (Song Il-gook) and Ji-won (Son Ye-jin) are so- called the first-rate "players" who are dating gurus with 100% success rates in any dating pursuits. Following her usual systematic dating rules, Ji-won fakes a schematic car accident to capture Min-jun's attention and successfully approaches him. However, her smooth-sailing dating life finally encounters turbulence. Why in the world is this guy not succumbing to her alluring charm? Min-jun is also overwhelmed by the understanding that he has met his match. However, like the veteran players that they are, these two shouldn't show any signs of weakness in their dating tactics. Who will emerge victorious and become the last player standing? ===== Inspector Amar and Inspector Chhaya are after the criminal Hardayal. Amar and Chhaya fall in love. Amar goes beyond the call of duty to catch Hardayal and hence becomes suspended. Amar is caught by Hardayal and is held captive. Now Chhaya is supposed find the criminal Hardayal. ===== As described in a film magazine, a forest ranger known only as Headin' South (Fairbanks) goes forth in search of Spanish Joe (Campeau), a Mexican responsible for most of the treachery and outlawry along the U.S.-Mexican border. Headin' South gains quite a reputation as he goes along and finally believes himself worthy of joining Joe's band. in a whirlwind finish in which Joe is captured, Headin' South meets one of Joe's near victims (MacDonald) and falls in love with her. ===== Ajay Sharma (Aamir Khan) is a photographer, Anita (Madhuri Dixit) is a model, and both of them work for the same agency. Ajay has fallen in love with Anita, and thinks that she is also in love with him. But Anita only takes him for a friend. She gets engaged to Vikram (Jainendra), and the marriage is to take place soon. Ajay still believes that Anita loves him, and he also starts making preparations for his marriage with Anita. Anita must now take appropriate steps to stop Ajay's obsession with her, before the matter gets out of hand. However, Anita realizes the person whom she is marrying does not love her and the situation turns such that she realizes Ajay's love for her and the film ends on happy note. ===== The story revolves around the lives of various girls attending Sakurakai Girls High School and the ups and downs of their love lives. While each chapter is a stand-alone story, characters from other chapters do appear throughout. ===== The Ryans of St John's, Newfoundland, are an old family steeped in tradition. Donald Ryan edits the local newspaper while his brothers and sisters run the funeral parlour. Early one morning, Donald's son Draper Doyle goes to the newspaper office to surprise his father with a birthday cake, only to witness something traumatic. Two days later, Donald Ryan is dead. In the ensuing weeks, Draper Doyle's sleep is plagued by nightmares, and he realises he has no memories of the time surrounding his father's death. With the help of his uncle Reg, Draper Doyle tries to come to terms with the truth about Donald Ryan, and the key to this may be Donald's lucky hockey puck. ===== Down on his luck Charlie has been kicked off the dole, had his electricity cut off, and been dumped by his girlfriend Vicky. Despite claiming to be an expert on women, his best friend T-Bag has never had a girlfriend and the boys are convinced only money will change their depressing situation. The boys hear through their dealer Blowback that The Uncle is looking for new drug mules, so Charlie conceives an elaborate scam to smuggle a consignment of Cocaine back from Amsterdam. They meet The Uncle's nephew Razor Rupert and convince him that they're up for the job. As they lay their plans, each one egging the other on, each one refusing to admit to any fear, a series of comic coincidences begin to unravel their carefully laid plans. Headrush is a story about frustration, fear, and friendship. Charlie is a lost soul in a society riddled with corruption, political distrust and a preoccupation with making money. Trying to cope with problems he brings on himself, he seems on an inevitable slide that takes him deeper and deeper into a world with fatal consequences. ===== Four years after Just Cause, Rico Rodriguez is dropped into Panau to find his former handler Tom Sheldon, who is suspected of going rogue and aligning himself with the country's dictator Pandak "Baby" Panay. With the aid of intelligence asset Karl Blaine and a weapons dealer only known as the Sloth Demon, Rico allies with the island's three dominant criminal gangs and factions: the Roaches (an organized crime syndicate), the Reapers (an insurgent socialist militia) and the Ular Boys, an ultranationalist rebel group which espouses traditionalism and opposes foreign influence.Karl Blaine, after Casino Bust mission: "The Roaches are Panau's Urban Mob.- -The Reapers, well, they follow in good old Che Guevara's footsteps.- -Then there's the Ular boys: a crazy jungle mob who plan to turn this island into a natural paradise. Meaning: no foreigners, no foreign goods or foreign pop music, dig?" Rico gathers enough information to track down Sheldon, who reveals that he has been the Sloth Demon while he was investigating a greater conspiracy behind Panay's rise to power. Rico determines that Sheldon has not gone rogue, and Sheldon tells him to continue causing chaos on Panau while he explains the situation to the Agency. Sheldon then tells Rico to hurry to his hideout, where Rico learns that intelligence asset Jade Tan has been captured in Panay's military base and will be tortured and—possibly-summarily executed. Although Rico rescues her and destroys the base, Jade is bundled into a truck and a fleet of gunmen try to escape along a frozen lake. A nuclear submarine emerges from the ice, but Rico hijacks the truck and they are airlifted to safety by Kane (Sheldon and Rico's mission handler). Jade later explains that the Roaches, Reapers, and Ular Boys are secretly backed by Russia, China, and Japan, respectively, to bring down Baby Panay, but Rico and Sheldon wonder what the small island has which is so attractive to superpowers. They track down and assassinate the foreign intelligence officers liaising with the factions. Soon afterwards, the island is engulfed in so much chaos that Panay leaves the capital for his fortified military base. Rico assaults the base with the aid of a faction of his choosing. Panay is apparently killed during the assault by Karl Blaine in a murder-suicide, but not before Panay explains that the three nations, along with the United States, have been interested in Panau for its oil reserves, supposedly the largest in the world. With Panay dead, the situation in Panau becomes a free-for-all as foreign nations scramble to claim the oil. Russia, China and Japan send a fleet of supertankers to Panau, and the U.S. begins scrambling its military forces to defend the island. Rico is tasked with holding off the supertankers until reinforcements arrive, but a nuclear submarine suddenly surfaces. Rico investigates the submarine and finds Panay, alive but injured. Although Panay fires nuclear missiles at Russia, China, Japan and the U.S., his clothing snags on one of the missiles and he goes up with it. In pursuit, Rico grapples onto the missile; the men battle in midair as he disarms each missile. Finally, Rico pins Panay to the exposed core of the U.S.-bound missile, and reprograms the targeting computer before jumping to safety. The missile changes course and explodes over Panau's oilfields, killing Panay and destroying the island's oil reserves. Rico rejoins Sheldon, Kane and Jade, who are dismayed at the loss of billions of dollars' worth of oil. Rico explains that oil is not worth dying for; with its oil gone, interest in Panau will be lost, the superpowers will not go to war and the island's residents will be spared. Sheldon agrees, assuring Rico that a president friendly to the U.S. will be installed on Panau and the island will be closely monitored; the group raise their glasses, toasting friendship and a job well done. ===== The story opens with the elderly priest Romuald recounting the story of his first love, Clarimonde. On the day of his ordination many years ago, he sees a beautiful young woman in the church. He hears a woman's voice promising to love him and to make him happier than he would be in Paradise. Conflicted between 'love at first sight' and his religious beliefs, he finishes the ceremony despite her entreaties. On his way back to the seminary, a page greets him and gives him a card reading: "Clarimonde, at the Palace Concini". Romuald is stationed in a quiet location in the country and feels trapped by his priesthood. He continues his studies but is distracted and plagued by the memory of Clarimonde. Father Sérapion senses something is off with Romuald and tells him about the legend of the infamous Clarimonde the courtesan, who has recently died. Romuald asks Sérapion about the palace, and Sérapion answers that it is the Palace Concini, where Clarimonde lives. He informs Romuald that it is a place of great debauchery. Sérapion warns Romuald that it is not the first time Clarimonde has died. One night, a mysterious looking man on horseback arrives to Romuald's parish, and asks for Romuald to come with him. They ride on horseback to a lavish castle in the country. As Romuald dismounts his horse, he is told that it is too late for the woman and that she's dead. He is led to the woman's chamber to perform the rites, only to discover that the woman is Clarimonde. In his grief, he kisses her, temporarily breathing life into her. She says they will shortly be reunited and Romuald faints as he sees her spirit leave. Romuald believes all that had passed with Clarimonde had been a dream; but a few days later, she appears to him in his room. Clarimonde appears dead, but beautiful, and tells him to prepare for a trip. The two of them travel to Venice and live together. Clarimonde's health wavers and she seems to be dying, but she is restored after she drinks some of Romuald's blood from an accidental finger cut. Romuald realizes that Clarimonde is a vampire, but continues his relationship with her. Father Sérapion pays a concerned visit to Romuald over his affairs with Clarimonde. Sérapion is adamant that Romuald’s desires for Clarimonde are born from sin and takes Romuald to her tomb. He reveals her body is miraculously preserved thanks to Romuald's blood. Seeing blood on the corner of her lip, Father Sérapion becomes furious and calls her a demon as he pours holy water on her corpse. She crumbles into dust, but returns to Romuald later that night and admonishes him for his betrayal. She then vanishes forever. Back in the present, Romuald tells his audience that this was the greatest regret of his life and suggests that his listeners never look at a woman lest they meet the same fate, even as he still misses Clarimonde. ===== In a rural village in Zimbabwe, a single woman, Nongoma, and her married neighbour, Tsitsi, fall in love. When their lesbian relationship is discovered, Nongoma flees to the city. When they are reunited by chance two years later, the women decide to move together to a village where nobody knows them. ===== A pirate captain known as the Hook (Victor McLaglen) buries his treasure on an island and kills the map maker so no one else will find it. He and his cut-throat crew go after the Mary Ann, a ship on which Princess Margaret (Virginia Mayo) is running away from her father, the King (Robert Warwick), in order to marry a commoner. The Hook plans to hold her for a large ransom. A cowardly actor, Sylvester the Great (Bob Hope), is in the cabin next door to Margaret. The Hook's ship, The Avenger attacks the Mary Ann and after a big fight, the crew are killed or made to walk the plank by the pirates. Sylvester escapes by disguising himself as a gypsy woman and is taken on board The Avenger with Margaret. The Ship's aged tattooist, Featherhead (Walter Brennan) has taken a fancy to the gypsy which is all that saves the disguised Sylvester. It turns out that he guessed the gypsy was a man and involves Sylvester in his plot to get the Hook's treasure for himself. He gives him the treasure map and helps Sylvester and Margaret escape in a boat and they are to pass the stolen map to Featherhead's cousin on the pirate island of Casarouge. The couple make it to the island which is extremely bloodthirsty. The couple check in at the Boar's Head Inn where they are to meet the cousin (who at present is not on the island) and do an act at the Bucket of Blood to get some money to pay for their stay. Margaret is kidnapped and Sylvester goes to the Governor (La Roche) (Walter Slezak) to complain only to find out he was the kidnapper. La Roche has recognized Princess Margaret and plans on holding her for a million doubloon ransom. He stops Sylvester from leaving, planning to ransom him for 100,000 doubloons, sure that the King will want to hang him. Sylvester is well looked after and helps Margaret who is on a hunger strike. The Hook is in with La Roche and they threaten nasty things for the possessor of the map. Featherhead turns up under Sylvester's bed and knocks out Sylvester who wants to destroy the map to save his skin. Featherhead tattoos the map on the chest of the unconscious Sylvester and when he recovers, they both eat it. After a meeting, the Hook guesses Sylvester is the gypsy who stole the map and returns to the Governor's house to kill him. The Governor sees the map on Sylvester's chest as the Hook arrives. The Hook chases him but is stopped from killing Sylvester by Featherhead who shoots him. As he has not returned, Pedro (Marc Lawrence), the Hook's second-in-command leads a raid on the Governor's house to rescue the Hook and after a big fight, inadvertently rescues Sylvester who has disguised himself as the Hook, along with Margaret. Back on The Avenger, Sylvester as the Hook starts giving orders, not knowing that the real Hook has just been grazed by the bullet and is now also on the ship. Contradictory orders flow from the two different Hooks at different times, till Sylvester is unmasked. In chains and ready to kill themselves, The Avenger is attacked and they believe it is La Roche. It however turns out to be the King's ship and both are released (La Roche has been captured and has revealed all). The King says he is not going to stand in Margaret's way if she wants to marry a commoner and she rushes forwards. Sylvester is shocked as she passes him and into the arms of another man, Bing Crosby, who is playing a sailor. Indignantly, Sylvester says; "That is the last picture I do for Goldwyn" (which it was). ===== The narrator, an archeologist, is visiting the town of Ille in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France. A friend of his recommends him to M. de Peyrehorade, who is familiar with the Roman ruins in the area. When he arrives, he discovers that M. de Peyrehorade's son, Alphonse, is to be married to a certain Mademoiselle de Puygarrig, and the narrator is invited to the wedding. A marble statue of Venus similar to the bronze described in Prosper Mérimée's Vénus d'Ille Meanwhile, M. de Peyrehorade shows the narrator his new discovery: a bronze statue of Venus Pudica. The narrator judges the statue to be very old and deciphers the inscription. Both men marvel at her fierce gaze; she is as frightening as she is beautiful. She also seems to be cursed: the man who found her had his leg broken, and another man who threw a stone at her was injured by the stone rebounding and striking him. Before the wedding, the groom decides to play a game of Paume, and he slips the wedding ring intended for his fiancée onto a finger of the statue. He wins the game, but his opponents swear revenge. He accidentally leaves the ring with the statue; and when he goes back later to retrieve it, he discovers that the statue has closed her fingers around it. The narrator does not believe Alphonse's story, since Alphonse has been drinking heavily at the reception, and he goes to bed. During the night, the narrator hears heavy footsteps climbing the stairs; but he assumes that it is a drunken Alphonse going to bed. In the morning, after the cock's crow, he hears the same steps retreating down the stairs. Suddenly, there is screaming and commotion. The narrator runs down the hall to find a crowd of people surrounding the dead Alphonse, who looks as though he died in a fiery embrace. At first, he suspects that it was the rival faction from the game of Paume; but later he hears the story of Alphonse's wife, who others claim has gone crazy. She says that the statue entered the room, embraced her husband, and spent the entire night with him in her arms. In the morning, the statue left him there and returned to her pedestal. The narrator leaves town to return to Paris. He later hears that M. de Peyrehorade has died, and his wife had the statue melted down and turned into a bell for the local church. The narrator remarks that since the bell has been installed, the crops have been destroyed twice by frost. ===== When Jared, Simon and Mallory Grace move into the Spiderwick estate, they discover the late owner's field guide to fairies. They soon discover a hidden world all around them, populated with creatures such as brownies, goblins and sprites. However, Jared and his family are in grave danger, because Mulgarath, an ogre, wants to steal the book for himself. ===== Twelve-year-old Joshua Cope is contacted by a corporation called Gippart International one day late at night. Joshua and his friend, Bhasvar (Baz) Patel go to Gippart and meet Max Herbert, a talent scout. Josh is sent into a dreamworld to sell products. But dreams also come with nightmares... Umaya, the collective dream of everyone at that point in time, is caught between dreams and reality. Josh, Baz and a fellow associate Teresa cannot get out of the dream-world, where time is running backwards due to a Gippart employee attempting to break into real time rather than dream-time. Along his adventure, Josh meets his dead twin sister Jericho, who has been attempting to get in contact with him for 350 years. But with Jericho comes Lucide, a guardian who makes sure that no one crosses the borders of life and death. The members of this troop find themselves with powers that they cannot explain. Baz, the first to find his powers, can control dream time by listening to the rhythm and matching it, causing it to slow, stop, or even rewind. Teresa changes Umaya with words, influencing people and surroundings to her will, she is the group storyteller. Josh is a thief and can change the very nature of things just by looking at them. However, they are trapped in umaya, the dream- world. The four children must find Tembe at the end of time and fulfill Siparti's last promise to Temberi. They learn about each of Siparti's six kids and put together the clues that each of them hold. After a harrowing ordeal, Josh, Jericho, Baz, Teresa, and Mervin Spratt manage to find their way to the edge of time itself, where the Tembe people live in a crumbling Fortress. The Tembe, descended from Temberi, have been trapped at the edge of time for over 1000 years. Luckily, the Tembe are friendly people, and show the associates how their Fortress is slowly being ripped away into the hurricane whom they have named Satura. Using the powers they gained in the journey, the children manage to find their way through the hurricane back into the real world. Unfortunately, in the end, Jericho decides to return with Lucide and stay in Umaya. ===== After Ageha Yoshina beats up a bully for 10,000 yen, he heads home anticipating a scolding from his sister for breaking curfew. On his way there, a pay phone nearby starts ringing, and he picks it up only to hear his own echo. Shrugging it off, he places the receiver back only to find a mysterious calling card with the word "Psyren" written on it. Curious about the sudden appearance of the card, he goes to his school's Occult Club and asks about it. It turns about Psyren was an urban myth, and whoever found out what it really was would get a reward of 500 million yen. The same day, he find his classmate's (Sakurako Amamiya's) wallet, which some other girls hid, and notices she has the same card. After he returns it to her, she runs off and disappears. The last thing he hears is "Save me". The next day she isn't at school and soon she is declared missing. Ageha calls the number on the card in hopes of finding her. After answering a long and detailed quiz on a pay phone, he is asked if he wants to go to Psyren. The next day, while he is being chased by two mysterious people pretending to be police officers; his phone rings. In a panic, he picks up and is suddenly drawn into the world of Psyren, which is a wasteland inhabited by monsters called Taboo. It is later revealed that the Taboo were once humans that were turned into Taboo by an organization known as the W.I.S.E. The voice from the phone, dubbed Nemesis Q, assigns missions which people must complete if they wish to return home. While in Psyren for the first time newcomers are informed of the rules, which basically state that if you tell anyone about Psyren you die; when the number on your card hits zero you beat the game and can't come back; never lose your card, you can't go home if you do; and don't go near the towers. The Psyren Drifters (as they come to be called) breathe in the polluted air from this world of Psyren and it alters their brains, allowing them to surpass human limits and use all their brain cells, at the cost of serious damage. This lets them use a power called PSI, which usually lies dormant, and is usually never awakened. PSI consists of three categories, Enhance (use of PSI to enhance their physical abilities), Blast (external usage of PSI to create power blasts or creatures), and Trance (the ability to affect someone's mental state). As the game continues Ageha and his friends meet a group of kids who are adopted by Elmore Tenju, the old lady who posted the 500 million reward offer. Each child has the ability to use PSI, and Tenju has trained them to one day fight W.I.S.E as the hope of the world. Each child has their own distinct and unique abilities and traumatic background. Ageha stays with them for a while and his abilities really start to grow with the help of techniques developed by the children. They train until he gets called back through his phone and goes back to fight in the game. The game continues until eventually, Ageha, Sakurako, Hiryū Asaga, Oboro Mochizuki, and Kabuto Kirisaki are the only contenders left. They are trained by former Psyren contestant Matsuri Yagumo and the psychic children from the Tenju Roots Orphanage. Miroku Amagi, a psychic from their timeline, and his organization called W.I.S.E. are revealed to be the cause of Japan's destruction. Their actions slowly change the world of Psyren, resulting in the Tenju Root's survival in the Psyren timeline. In the Psyren timeline, Mithra, a psychic from W.I.S.E, is revealed to have been manipulating Miroku the whole time. She reveals that a meteorite called Promised Tear turned her into a host for Ouroboros, a planet-eating meteor, and she calls the meteor to Earth. Before the Earth is destroyed, Nemesis Q's controller, No.7, transports them back to their own timeline. Ageha and friends intercept the W.I.S.E group before they gain possession of the Promised Tear. Ageha gives Miroku a card from No.7 allowing him to witness events that occur in the future. Together, Ageha and Miroku are able to defeat Mithra but Ageha falls into a coma. No.7 contacts Ageha while he is in the coma, revealing the outcome of the Psyren timeline—Miroku and Grana sacrificed their lives to destroy Ouroboros and Mithra. As Ageha wakes up from his coma, he travels with Sakurako and frees No.7 from her cell. ===== A young African American man living in Houston witnesses his best friend's brutal murder, then flees to the small, racially intolerant, backwater town of Trublin. ===== A 9-year-old girl, Phoebe (Elle Fanning), has apparent Tourette syndrome. While she deals with being odd and insecure, her mother (Felicity Huffman) and father (Bill Pullman) are dealing with complexities in their relationship with each other and their challenging child. Her younger sister (Bailee Madison) feels neglected as Phoebe gains more attention. Phoebe seeks a role in her school's play, Alice In Wonderland, directed by her school's off-beat drama teacher, Miss Dodger (Patricia Clarkson). Phoebe flourishes on stage, relaxing and feeling normal, but her impulsive speech and behavior persist off stage. Her parents hire a therapist for her, but after he proposes medication, Phoebe's mother fires him. She does not want to accept that there is anything wrong with Phoebe; when the principal questions if Phoebe behaves oddly outside of the classroom, her mother denies it even though she has many times witnessed her daughter's self-destructive rituals at home. When Phoebe is taken out of the play due to her classroom behavior, her dreams are shattered. Her mother, desperate to help her daughter feel normal, works with the drama teacher to bring Phoebe back on stage. Although Phoebe is put back into the play, her challenges continue as she is driven to behavior she doesn't understand. She hurts herself jumping off the catwalk onto the stage, and the drama teacher is fired. Phoebe's fellow-actors descend into chaos, but Phoebe alone clings to a sense of purpose. She urges her classmates to continue their rehearsals on their own, and they do. Her mother, who has resisted efforts to label Phoebe, tells Phoebe that she has Tourette syndrome, and Phoebe helps her classmates understand her by explaining the condition to them. ===== Sleep Dealer is set in a future, militarized world marked by closed borders, virtual labor and a global digital network that joins minds and experiences, where three strangers risk their lives to connect with each other and break the barriers of technology. Memo Cruz works at a factory, one of several sleep dealers. Here, workers are connected to the network via suspended cables that plug into nodes in their arms and back, allowing them to control the robots that have replaced them as unskilled labor on the other side of the border. The sleep dealers are called so because one may collapse if one works long enough. The story is told as a flashback, as Memo remembers his home in Santa Ana Del Rio, Oaxaca. His father wants him to participate in growing crops on the meager family homestead. Memo's passion, however, is electronics and hacking. The homestead also has dried up on account of a dam built nearby and owned by the private corporation Del Rio Water. Memo and his father must trek on foot to buy water by the bag, while monitored by security cameras armed with machine guns. The media on American hi-def TV shows glimpses of a technological dystopia, although in a positive light with superficial spin-doctoring. As a hobby, Memo is building an electronic receiver that can tap into communications. As he continues to work on it, its range increases to far away cities. One summer, a remote-controlled military aerial vehicle operated by the security forces of Del Rio Water catches Memo monitoring a frequency used by the drones, an act that warrants a brutal attack. He disconnects in time before the drone can locate him with certainty. On another occasion, he and his brother watch a live TV broadcast about a drone action that is about to destroy a building known to be intercepting drone communication. They quickly realize that the building is their own home where Memo has his equipment, and run to save their father whose life is in danger. However, they are too late, and the vehicle launches a rocket at the father, instantly killing him. The pilot of the drone is shown to be Rudy Ramirez. Memo boards a bus to the city Tijuana to find work. The same bus is also boarded by Luz Martínez. Memo notices that Luz has nodes on the wrist for interfacing with the digital network, and asks her where he can get them for free. She tells him that he can find someone, known as a coyotek, to connect him by asking around in a certain alley. Luz has loans and may default. She makes a living by uploading memories to an online memory trading company, TruNode, where viewers pay for content. She uploads her memory of meeting Memo. Memo is robbed of his money during his first attempt to seek a coyotek. He finds an abandoned shack in which to stay at the edge of the city, where other node workers live. Luz gets a sale for her memory of Memo, and a prepaid offer for her next memory of him. Luz finds him and comes to know he is out of money. She helps him get a node-job at a bar that has the equipment. It so happens that she is the coyotek, having learned from her ex-boyfriend, and she does him a favor. Luz tries to upload more experiences. TruNode makes her reveal feelings rather than just the story. The person who requested the information is revealed to be Ramirez working for Del Rio Water. Luz and Memo open up to each other and have a connected sex. Upon receiving the next upload, Ramirez has his doubts confirmed that his work made him kill a good man. Memo discovers that Luz has been paid to upload her memories of him, and so he leaves her feeling betrayed. He works over-time at the sleep-dealer, risking exhaustion. Luz writes to him and mails him a recording of her memories as a parting gift. In the meantime, Ramirez has crossed the fortified US-Mexican border to meet Memo. As Ramirez explains himself, Memo tries to run perceiving danger. Ramirez catches up and explains he was under orders and offers to help. Memo rejoins Luz and recruits her help to connect Ramirez into the network. He accesses the Del Rio Water security network to control one of the company's drones. Upon discovery that Ramirez is not heeding orders, Ramirez is pursued by other drones. After heated aerial dogfighting, Ramirez manages to blast a hole in the dam, directly where Memo's father had once tossed a pebble in helpless frustration. Memo receives news from his home and neighboring subsistence farms, celebrations of the return of ancestral waters, albeit not necessarily a permanent one. Ramirez goes farther south in Mexico as he is no longer able to return to his family in the US. Memo moves on with his life in Tijuana. ===== Miguel "Sugar" Santos (Perez Soto) spends his weekends at home, passing from the landscaped gardens and manicured fields on one side of the guarded academy gate to the underdeveloped, more chaotic world beyond. In his small village outside San Pedro de Macorís, Miguel enjoys a kind of celebrity status. His neighbors gather to welcome him back for the weekend; the children ask him for extra baseballs or an old glove. To his family, who lost their father years before, Miguel is their hope and shining star. With the small bonus he earned when he signed with the academy some time ago, he has started to build his family a new house—one that has a bigger kitchen for his mom and a separate room for his grandmother. After learning a devastating knuckle curve, Sugar is invited to spring training by the fictional Kansas City Knights. He is assigned to their Single A affiliate in Iowa, the Swing. He is housed by the Higgins family, who take in Swing players every year. Jorge (Rufino), a veteran player and the only other Dominican on the team, also tries to help Miguel learn the ropes. However, despite the Higgins' welcoming efforts and Jorge's guidance, the challenge of Miguel's acceptance into the community is exposed in small ways every day, from his struggle to communicate in the English language to an accident of casual bigotry at a local bar. Miguel's domination on the mound masks his underlying sense of isolation, until he injures himself during a routine play at first. While Miguel is on the disabled list, Jorge, his one familiar connection to home in this strange new place, is cut from the team, never fully regaining his ability following an off-season knee surgery. The new vulnerability of Miguel's injury, coupled with the loneliness of losing his closest friend, force Miguel to begin examining the world around him and his place within it. Pressure mounts when Salvador, a young pitching phenomenon who used to play with Miguel, is brought up from the Dominican Republic to join the team. Miguel's play falters, and the increased isolation begins to take its toll on him. As his dream begins to fall apart, Miguel decides to leave baseball to follow another kind of American Dream. His odyssey finally brings him to New York City, where at first he struggles to find community and make a new home for himself, like so many before him. Miguel ends up playing baseball with rejected players from the minor leagues. ===== When a counterfeiter is captured, two of his thugs have to work with two counterfeit money-sniffing dogs named Hercule and Sherlock in order to find the lost cash. ===== Starscream sends his protégé, the "Create-A-Bot", to Earth to help Barricade investigate a faint Decepticon signal they received. After Create-A-Bot undergoes a basic systems check, under Barricade's coordination, they encounter a group of Autobots in the area, including the Create-A-Bot from Transformers Autobots, whom he destroys. He is then called to Tranquility and tasked with helping Barricade find the Autobot Bumblebee, who has information regarding Megatron, and whom they discover has learned from a news article about a frozen "giant metal man" found in the Arctic. The Create-A-Bot then relays this information to Starscream, who encourages him to earn Barricade's trust. While Create-A-Bot distracts the local police, Barricade finds and fights Bumblebee, defeating him and retrieving the information from him. It is revealed that a human military organization called Sector 7 had Megatron imprisoned at a base in the Arctic, but moved him to an unknown location, and that a file called "Project: Ice Man" has information regarding Megatron's current location. Blackout and Create-A-Bot next head to a SOCCENT Military Base in Qatar, where they rendezvous with Brawl, who helps Create-A-Bot attack the airfield as a distraction, while Blackout cuts off communications and hacks into the humans' network to find the "Project: Ice Man" file. The Autobot Ratchet shows up with reinforcements, but is defeated and flees Create-A-Bot the relays the information they found to Starscream, who informs him that Megatron and the AllSpark are on Earth, Megatron having followed it here years ago. Starscream encourages the Create-A-Bot not to tell anyone about the AllSpark being on Earth, claiming he wants to secure it and avoid having to fight with anyone else over it. Back in Tranquility, Blackout discovers that Sector 7 has set up automated defenses made from Megatron's technology all over town, whom Create-A-Bot destroys, while Barricade uses the town's power plant to get enough energy to crack the file. After Brawl shields the plant's generators from Sector 7, Optimus Prime arrives on Earth with more Autobots. Create-A-Bot distracts them to give Barricade more time, culminating with him defeating Bumblebee and leaving him to be captured by Sector 7. Barricade then learns that the "ice man" described in the file is Megatron, who is being held at the Hoover Dam. The Decepticons attack the dam, with Brawl destroying several communication satellites and planting bombs as a contingency plan, while Starscream orders the Create-A-Bot to kill Megatron before Barricade can revive him. Troubled by these orders, Create-A-Bot relays them to his fellow Decepticons, who realize that Starscream wants to secure the AllSpark to ensure that no one can challenge him. Meanwhile, Barricade attacks a military base near the dam and finds a way inside after learning that Sector 7 joined forces with the Autobots. With Blackout's help, Barricade infiltrates the dam and finds that Sector 7 has kept Megatron frozen to study his technology, before unfreezing him. With Megatron alive and leading the Decepticons once again, he vows to kill Starscream for his treachery and gives an inspiring speech to his followers, before Brawl arrives with the news that the Autobots have taken the AllSpark to Tranquility. The Decepticons attack the city, though Megatron is ambushed by Jazz, who disposed of the bombs Brawl planted earlier, and whom Megatron swiftly kills after a brief fight. In Tranquility, the Decepticons kill most of the Autobots, with Brawl taking down Ironhide, and Starscream eliminating Bumblebee. Blackout and Barricade then attempt to arrest Starscream, but he kills them both and escapes, despite Create-A-Bot's attempt to stop him. Elsewhere, Megatron battles and kills Optimus, before Starscream arrives and challenges him for leadership of the Decepticons. Alongside Create-A-Bot, Megatron pursues him to the casino strip where the former landed on Earth. Create-A-Bot attempts to kill Starscream by shoving the AllSpark into his chest, mortally wounding himself in the process, but to no avail. Megatron ultimately kills Starscream on his own, before executing the wounded Create-A-Bot, as he is no longer useful in his current state. With most of his troops dead, Megatron then transforms into a jet and flies off into the night sky, his destination unknown. ===== After being put on suspension at the LAPD, Mike Carter punches his lieutenant and quits in disgust. A few days later, at a baseball game, he is approached by Fred Dyson, who wants to hire Carter as a bodyguard for his aunt, Jean Dyson, a widow and head of Continental Meat Packing Corp. Carter refuses. Later, at his apartment, an envelope is slipped under the door with $2000 in it. Carter rushes out, but the person who did it is already gone. Carson drives to the Dyson mansion in Pasadena, where he pushes his way in and, after meeting the members of the household, finds Mrs. Dyson is uninterested in having a bodyguard. Carter returns the money to Fred, but just as he is leaving, someone shoots at Mrs. Dyson but gets away. After she goes to bed, Fred convinces Carter to stay, just for the night, and Carter takes back the money. At 3:45 am, Carter catches Mrs. Dyson's secretary, Connie, digging the bullets out of the wall, then sees Mrs. Dyson drive away. He follows her car to the downtown Los Angeles warehouse district, where he is hit on the head, waking up later in his car, with the lieutenant shot dead beside him, on the railroad tracks with a train bearing down. Carter barely gets out in time. Realizing he is being framed for the lieutenant's murder, he asks his fiancee, Doris, who is the lieutenant's secretary, to find out all she can about the cases the lieutenant was working on. She drives him to the Dyson home; finding Jean not at home he goes to tbe plant; she is not there either. In the info on lieutenant Bordon's cases, one stands out, the death of an inspector at the Continental Meat Packing plant. Back at the Dyson mansion, Carter confronts Mrs. Dyson about her movements that morning. After she gives him a plausible explanation, he calls Doris and asks her to bring him more information on the inspector's death. He then talks to the dead man's brother, who recognizes Carter as being wanted by the police. Carter discovers evidence that the inspector's sight was not as faulty as claimed in the accident report. Narrowly avoiding arrest checking out the testimony of the optometrist at his office, Carter next tries to find information at the glasses manufacturer; it's after hours so he breaks in. Finding the information he needs, he calls the captain and tells him to meet him at the Dyson home. Meanwhile, at the plant, where she went despite Carter telling her not to, Doris spies on Fred and Fenton, the supervisor. At the mansion, Carter confronts Mrs. Dyson, who reveals that Freddie thinks Fenton has been tampering with the meat and that the inspector was murdered to cover it up. Carter tells her he believes Fred is in with Fenton on the fraud. Discovering Doris is in danger at the plant, Carter steals the police car and heads to the plant. At the plant, Fred, after revealing how he will frame Fenton for the deaths and exonerate himself, shoots Fenton dead. Carter arrives just as Fred is about to shoot Doris and, after Feed runs out of bullets, fights with and knocks out Fred. The police arrive and take both Carter and Fred into custody. The next scene shows the newlywed Mr. & Mrs. Mike Carter heading off for their honeymoon in a police cruiser. ===== The story has an outer narrator who receives the story by Sack, the inner narrator. Sack is the impresario of Bachmann, but he is callous, and does not care for him. The core story deals with the love relationship between Mme. Perov and Bachmann. Bachmann is an awkward and eccentric pianist and composer to whom she is introduced at a party where she (like the reader) first mistakes Sack for Bachmann. Sack speaks disparagingly of B, who has "no brains". Sack has to track him down frequently as he being an alcoholic tends to disappear before his performances. Mme Perov becomes a necessary and enhancing facilitator for the musical genius; he always made sure that she was sitting in the first row when he was performing. One night, when she was sick and absent, Bachmann refused to play and insulted the audience (Sack complained that he was showing them "the fig - instead of the fugue"). Sack dragged her out of her bed to the theatre, but Bachmann had left already. Sack made her look for Bachmann in a cold and rainy night, and when she finally returned to the hotel, she found Bachmann in the room. The outer narrator describes their togetherness: "I think that these two, the deranged musician and the dying woman, that night found words the greatest poets never dreamed of". She died the next day. Bachmann disappeared after the funeral and became insane. Sack saw him later in a deplorable state and avoided him. ===== During the day, Kaito works as a florist in a rundown flower shop, but he is actually an assassin trying to make enough money to care for his comatose older brother, who was badly burned in an accident. Kaito receives his assignments from a mysterious and beautiful woman named Suguru. However, although Kaito works as an assassin, he is not without compassion. Later on in the series, Kaito takes in a little boy he names Renge, who has been abused by his parents and other adults. As the story progresses, more is revealed of Kaito's past. He and his older brother spent much of their childhood at an orphanage that trained young boys to be assassins, and Kaito's older brother was one of the people responsible for picking out the boys with the most potential. In the organization he works for, Kaito is considered to be the top assassin, which causes jealousy and resentment among his rivals. ===== The show is a representation of a seemingly typical American family who must cope with the daily struggles of dissociative identity disorder (DID). Tara Gregson is a wife and mother of two children in Overland Park, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City, who has been diagnosed with DID. Suffering side effects from the medication, she is depressed at her inability to focus, to feel, to be intimate, to create art, and to progress in therapy to discover the painful source of her dissociation. With approval from her therapist, she discontinues the medication, knowing that multiple personalities will reemerge. When stressed, Tara may transition into one of her alters: wild and flirty teenager T; 1950s style housewife Alice; and male, loud, beer-drinking Vietnam vet Buck. A fourth alter, Gimme, is introduced later in the first season. During the second season, two further personalities are introduced: Shoshana, Tara's therapist of sorts, and Chicken, an infantile representation of Tara when she was five years old. Another alter emerges in Season 3, that of Tara's previously unknown half-brother Bryce. Tara is supported by her husband Max, daughter Kate, and son Marshall. Her sister, Charmaine, is initially not very supportive of Tara, expressing doubts about the validity of her sister's disorder, though she becomes increasingly more understanding and receptive as the series progresses. ===== In the film, Nan Moore (Lansbury) loses her son in the Korean Air Lines Flight 007 disaster. She wishes to discover the truth about her son's death. ===== In every version of the story, major changes in the story plot are applied, but the core story remains the same. Enteng, a poor, wimpy and skinny but kindhearted boy always gets bullied by other people because he is undersized and easy to pick on. He tries to practice weight training and exercise to improve his physique, but his poor status prevents him to do it properly. He ends up buying (or finding in other versions) an old, secondhand and rusty barbell for him to practice on. He later discovers that the Barbell contains hidden powers, when he lifts it in one hand and shouts the name "Captain Barbell", he transforms to Captain Barbell, a superhero possessing invulnerability, super strength, x-ray vision, incredible speed and the power of flight. With his newfound powers, he fights evil forces and protects the weak and helpless. In the 2006 TV series, Captain Barbell is shown to have a weakness: Exposure to the element, Askobar. The film versions of Captain Barbell had to be redesigned from the comic's original because they're not as muscle bound as the comics version and were not body builders but actors. That's why they have the yellow top and now carry the "CB" symbol on their chest as opposed to the belt buckle logo-and-shirtless-look of 1963. During times of great upheavals, nature finds a way to expel the magic rock to restore the balance between good and evil and seeks out a host to wield its great power and champion its cause. (There seems to be a possibility that this power source may be the same as Darna's and Lastikman's, both of whom's origins also involved magic "falling stars"). The champions it chooses are usually those who have been victims of society's evils, the disenfranchised, and the meek ones. This is why the power found four social outcast individuals to wield its abilities. But there is a condition: the wielder must only use the power for unselfish purposes and the good of humanity. The abuse of this power holds dire consequences. Unfortunately, when the rock first hit the Earth and got absorbed into the ground, fragments of the rock broke off and in the wrong hands could be very destructive. This is exactly what happened when (in addition to Enteng) extra fragments homed in on the beings that eventually became "Lagablab", "Freezy", and "Dagampatay".Captain Barbell internationalhero.co.uk ===== The story revolves around attempts by several people to bring down Chandi, a vicious dacoit. Inspector Arjun Singh wants to destroy him to preserve the law. Durga, Seema, Geeta and Sikandar Khan, who all have reasons to seek revenge on Chandi, agree to help. During an encounter with Chandi, Arjun Singh is injured, but he saves everybody's life. Another element of the plot involves Durga falling in love and marrying Chhalia. But when Durga learns that Chhalia is a traitor against their country, Durga kills him. ===== The story is lightly plotted, and most of the text is devoted to setting the scene. In the distant future, man has colonized Mars and lives an apparently easy life, supported by efficient and intelligent robots. Intelligent Martians co-exist with the humans on that planet. The trend to suburbanization, first manifest in the mid-20th century, has continued, such that many (most?) humans on Earth live in isolated enclaves. Jerome Webster, the main character, is a human with expertise in Martian physiology, especially that of the brain. Like many other human adults, he suffers from progressive agoraphobia, which becomes extreme after his only son departs to spend time on Mars. Jenkins, the most senior family robot, explains to Webster that his father had been similarly afflicted. Webster contemplates writing a monograph on the subject. Before he can begin this project, he learns that Juwain, a Martian friend and brilliant philosopher, has contracted a terrible disease that only he can cure. This would require traveling to Mars, something his agoraphobia makes nearly impossible. Senior political figures make clear that Juwain's death would be a tragedy for which mankind would suffer for thousands of years, and Webster is pained by the thought of forsaking his friend. With great effort he packs for the trip, only to discover, in the last lines of the story, that the robot Jenkins, not understanding the stakes, had dismissed the spaceship that had arrived to transport Webster to Mars. The reader is made to understand that Webster probably could not steel himself again for departure, and so Juwain would die. ===== The film opens with a map of the Timor Sea area, showing Timor Island, then Japanese occupied Dutch Timor and Portuguese Timor (East Timor), in relation to the coast of the Northern Territory in northern Australia. It briefly explains the circumstances of the Australian troops left behind, who did not surrender but carried on a guerrilla war against the Japanese. After some very difficult forays behind enemy lines to capture equipment for radio, they manage to contact the Australian military in the city of Darwin across the Timor Sea. Wary of a possible Japanese trick, the military asked the Sparrow Force men what the first name of a wife of a particular sergeant was. When the correct answer, Joan, was returned, the Australian military starts to airlift supplies to the Allied guerrillas and their Timorese allies. ===== In the mid-1960s, mercenary Bruce Curry is publicly hired by Congolese President Ubi to rescue European residents from an isolated mining town about to be attacked by rebel Simbas in the Congo. However, his real mission is to retrieve $50 million of diamonds from a mine company's vault. Ubi insists the operation must be completed in three days, as the money is needed to pay off loans from foreign banks that are about to be delinquent. Curry's subordinates include his friend Ruffo and alcoholic Doctor Wreid. He also reluctantly recruits ex-Nazi Henlein because he needs his military expertise and leadership skills. Ubi gives Curry a steam train and Congolese government soldiers commanded by Henlein. However, as the mission is in violation of UN accords, the train is fired upon and damaged by a United Nations peacekeeping plane. At a burned-out farmhouse, they pick up a traumatised woman named Claire, who watched her husband, a mine company representative, being hacked to death by Simbas. Tension begins to develop between Henlein, who is aware of the diamons, and Curry, whose leadership Henlein resents. At a train junction, Henlein casually kills two children for being possible Simba spies, and later makes advances towards Claire. When confronted by Curry, the German attacks with a swagger stick and then a chainsaw. Curry overpowers Henlein and nearly crushes his head under a train wheel before Ruffo stops him. Further complications arise when the mercenaries reach the mining town. First, the diamonds are in a time-locked vault delaying the train's departure. Second, Dr. Wreid insists he can't abandon a pregnant woman at a nearby mission hospital. Reluctantly, Curry agrees to let the doctor stay behind. As Curry waits anxiously for the vault to open, the Simbas arrive and begin attacking the town and station. Eventually, the train, loaded with the diamonds and residents, slowly leaves under small arms fire. However, just as it crosses a river viaduct, a mortar round destroys the coupling between the last two carriages. The last coach - carrying the diamonds and most of the Europeans - is left to roll back into the Simba-held town as the rest of the train steams away. Curry and Ruffo set out to retrieve the diamonds from the rebels at nightfall. Using a Simba disguise, Ruffo carries Curry's lifeless body into the town's hotel where harrowing scenes (for the film's time period) include murder, torture and male rape. A diversionary attack by the surviving Congolese soldiers gives them the opportunity to get the diamonds and escape in vehicles. They return to the mission hospital to find Wreid and the missionaries dead. When they run low on fuel, Curry goes alone to the train junction to request an airdrop. Henlein uses his absence to kill Ruffo in the mistaken belief that he has the diamonds. When Curry returns to find his friend dead, he pursues Henlein in a murderous rage and kills him after a vicious fight. As the convoy continues, with his job done, Curry reflects on the type of man he is before turning himself in for a court- martial to answer for his actions. ===== Three years ago, a team of astronaut miners completed a daring space expedition. They embarked on their journey home, but by the time the craft returned to Earth, their commander had gone mad—taking a terrible secret with him to a heavily guarded state asylum for the insane. Today, archeologist Lloyd Walker and entomologist Marianne Winters are among a select group of people who are questioning a possible link between the tragic space mission, the mystery of the commander’s madness, and a series of bizarre disappearances and strange accidents in San Francisco. The answer arrives when they stumble upon an underground colony of insect-like creatures harvesting human bodies for survival. Liz Quinlan, now an employee of the mayor’s office, knows all too well the secret of the aliens. She is their Earth Queen. The city's highest representatives are her consorts. With police and government officials taken over by aliens masquerading as humans, Lloyd and Marianne realize they can trust no one, except William Phillips, the one man who knows the ultimate goal of the aliens. He also holds the mysterious key to their defeat—it's in his blood. He is the commander himself—the sole mission survivor being held as prisoner. Lloyd and Marianne must find him before he becomes a victim of an unearthly experiment. ===== Joosep Raak (Pärt Uusberg) is an Estonian teenager who is being bullied by his entire high school class, the ring leader of them all is Anders (Lauri Pedaja), his accomplice Paul (Mikk Mägi) and three other friends Toomas (Joonas Paas), Tiit (Virgo Ernits) and Olav (Karl Sakrits). Anders encourages the class to continually beat up Joosep, and harass him in other ways as well, such as fully undressing him and then pushing him in the girls' changing room. However classmate Kaspar Kordes (Vallo Kirs) decides to go into a matter of loyalty by going against Anders and the others' entertainment of harassing Joosep by defending him, such as giving him a spare pair of shoes when Paul had torn them, which does not sit well with the whole class and so Kaspar becomes separated from the whole group the class had formed. Kaspar's love interest Thea (Paula Solvak) becomes distant to him and this begins to worry him but continues to defend Joosep. Joosep's tutor Laine (Laine Mägi) becomes aware of Joosep receiving harassment and sends Paul to the headmistresses office and so he frames Kaspar of the whole harassment where they believe in him due to being unaware of his true actions, which leads to the school contacting Joosep's parents. Joosep's Father Margus (Margus Prangel) a militarist fascinated with guns and insists on Joosep being a "real man" encounters him about the accusation of Kaspar bullying him and so Joosep dismissively reveals that is the whole class which angers Margus and tells Joosep to fight the ringleader of the crowd as he believes it is the only way to stop and scare somebody from bullying him. The next day when Anders and his four friends go to attack Joosep, the restrained Kaspar breaks free and attempts to hit Anders with a chair, which Anders manages to dodge. Anders then claims that Kaspar has "gone crazy". Anders asks Kaspar to meet him in the school playground after class. Upon meeting up with an expected fight, Kaspar tells Anders that he will accept the fact that he will not be a "normal guy", where then Paul, Toomas, Tiit and Olav appear with a restrained Joosep and lock Kaspar in a burned down shed where they force him to watch as they take turns to hit Joosep, to the point where he can't breathe anymore. Before leaving off Anders tells Kaspar that if he continues to defend Joosep then it will only earn Joosep worser beatings. Joosep goes to Kaspar's apartment complex where they meet up and he informs Kaspar that he wishes for him to stop defending him, a concerned Kaspar asks what Joosep will do and suggests that he could shoot them by referencing a God's law, Joosep believes that it will be best if he simply let's it go on until he has completely finished school so he will never see them again and be free. Thea becomes saddened and angered when the class starts believing that in a homophobic atmosphere Joosep and Kaspar are ridiculed for supposedly having gay feelings for each other and so she is having love interests in Kaspar. Kaspar becomes stressed by this and tries to talk Thea down about it but she starts believing that Kaspar cares more about Joosep then her and leaves him, meanwhile Joosep is being beaten in class. When returning home, Joosep's Mother Liina (Tiina Rebane) discovers heavy bruises on his chest as well as a cut on his chin, she then becomes heavily worried that he had been fighting and demands to know what is happening but he refuses to tell and Margus supports him on the claim. Liina informs the school administration and at last the class as a whole is rightly blamed. When Laine confronts the class about the claim, Joosep runs home fearing the worst and angered, upon entering his home crying only to encounter Margus who learns that Liina called the school, tries to encourage his son to fight back and demonstrates a fighting technique by giving the boy an additional punch. Out of revenge, the class assembles on a beach, calling both Kaspar and Joosep there by writing emails to them showing each other as fake sender. Once there, they make Thea confess to Kaspar that she is no longer with him in front of the whole crowd which sets him off and beats Anders to the ground only to have a knife pulled on him, they all then force Kaspar to fellate Joosep at knife point and photograph the sexual act without showing the knife. Kaspar throws up afterwards. The boys decide to avenge themselves. Joosep steals Margus's two pistols, a bolt-action rifle and ammunition from his gun safe whilst asleep, and the two proceed to school the next morning. As they proceed, students and teachers notice the guns in their hands, when a teacher encounters them about it they simply walk past and Joosep tells her to call the police. Before entering the cafeteria to shoot their bullies, Kerli (Triin Tenso), a gothic girl from the class who also witnessed the incident at the beach, decides to let the two have their revenge and goes past them. They begin the massacre on the students responsible for their torment. Joosep shoots Tiit at close range and then shoots Olav in the head. Joosep then shoots and kills Thea's best friend Riina (Riina Ries). To their regret, Kaspar accidentally shoots an eighth grade female student from another class while trying to shoot Anders. Toomas tries to grab the gun from Joosep but ends up getting shot in the abdomen, then Anders and Paul manage to restrain him and take his rifle, however Kaspar saves Joosep by shooting Paul in the head, just before Anders could reach the exit and escape he is shot in the shoulder and is executed by Joosep. Joosep then goes over to finish off Thea but Kaspar stops him and decides to spare her. Finally Joosep and Kaspar, facing one another, each aim a gun at their own head, decide to commit suicide together after counting to three. Joosep pulls the trigger and dies, but the film ends with Kaspar still standing there with his gun aiming at his head. ===== The story begins in 1992, as Amy Fisher lies in a hospital bed with her mother sitting by her bedside. Earlier, she had attempted to commit suicide, but her parents caught her and took her to the hospital. As Amy rests in bed, she thinks back on her life over the last two years and her involvement with Joseph "Joey" Buttafuoco. In 1991, Amy's parents buy her a brand new car for her sixteenth birthday. Amy loves the car, but her parents don't want her to take advantage by using it whenever she wants. After an argument with her parents, Amy spends her birthday at a friend's house. She had previously gone to a restaurant with them, and her father didn't like the fact that she was wearing such a revealing outfit (to keep the peace, Amy's mother told her outfit was lovely). She also flirted with the waiter, by looking at him with the corner of her eye, with a seductive smile on her face. Amy gets into an accident, crashing her car. Her father takes her to Joey Buttafuoco's shop to get it fixed. She flirts with Joey lightly, asking him a lot of questions about his personal life. She begins crashing her car on purpose, using it as an excuse to see Joey again. Eventually, the two begin an affair. He is in his mid-thirties while she's in her teens (a minor). Amy becomes increasingly desperate about her relationship with Joey. She has strong feelings for him, and even though she knows he is married to his high school sweetheart Mary Jo Buttafuoco, she constantly wants to spend time with him. When he refuses to leave Mary Jo, Amy decides to hire someone to kill her. All her potential accomplices prove unwilling to get the job done, so Amy eventually decides to kill Mary Jo herself. Amy goes to the Buttafuoco house and tells Mary Jo that Joey was cheating on her with Amy's younger sister. When Mary Jo expresses disbelief, Amy shows her the T-shirt that Joey gave her, but Mary Jo still doesn't believe Amy, saying that Joey gave that shirt to a lot of his customers. As Mary Jo is about to close the door on Amy, she talks out her gun and shoots Mary Jo in the head. The shot doesn't kill Mary Jo, but leaves her face partially paralyzed for life. Joey realizes it was Amy who shot his wife. Mary Jo confirms this in a lineup. The reports of the shooting spread through the media and Amy is given the nickname "Long Island Lolita". Eventually, in late 1992, Amy is sentenced to five to fifteen years in jail. Joey Buttafuoco is convicted of statutory rape in October 1993 and served six months in prison. ===== The film opens with a scene of guests arriving at the crime- themed dinner party of Bruno Rygseck, the rich and decadent heir of the Rykämö concern. The guests are his cousins Airi and Aimo Rykämö, Airi's fiancé Erik Vaara, who works for the concern and strongly dislikes Bruno, and Irma Vanne, the daughter of vuorineuvos Vanne. In order to scare them as they arrive, Bruno has dressed up as the Grim Reaper. Engelinaukio in Eira, Helsinki, photographed in 1915. The second building from the left was used for the exterior shots of Bruno Rygseck's townhouse. The next morning, inspector Palmu and detectives Virta and Kokki are informed that Bruno has drowned in his indoor swimming pool after slipping on a bar of soap. They head to the Rygseck house to conduct a routine investigation. The party guests (with the exception of Vanne), as well as Bruno's aunt Amalia Rygseck and his estranged wife Alli Rygseck, are present at the house, as all of them had had something to discuss with Bruno that morning. As Palmu inspects the bathroom, he begins to suspect that Bruno was in fact murdered. When the policemen are shown around the house by Bruno's manservant, Veijonen, they find Vanne and famous author K.V. Laihonen engrossed in lively conversation in the basement. They are oblivious to the morning's events, as they had entered the house through the back door when coke was delivered in the early morning and have since been in the basement. Although Laihonen does not know Bruno or Vanne from before, he had been invited to the house by her to get back the stolen manuscript of his unpublished novel. The atmosphere in the house becomes increasingly hostile towards the investigation as Palmu asks more detailed questions about the morning's events. He learns that the previous night, Aimo had stolen Amalia's cat and brought it with him to the dinner party, where Bruno had poisoned it and invited her to view the cadaver for his amusement. Despite Palmu's suspicions, the investigation is closed due to pressure from the powerful Rygsecks and because there is no evidence to prove that the death was not accidental. Laihonen asks the policemen and Vanne to join him at the luxurious Hotel Kämp for a late lunch. At Kämp, Vanne tells the policemen more about the previous night. They had been playing a game in which each contestant has to commit a crime that the victim cannot report to the police. The winner was to be chosen by Vaara at the party. Her crime had been to steal the manuscript; Aimo's to steal the cat; and Airi's to have ten of Aimo's promissory notes signed by Bruno. She had refused to reveal how she had gotten them, other than that it was blackmail. Bruno had then asked Vaara to come to his bedroom in order to show him his crime in private. Afterwards, Vaara had stormed out of the house in fury, after stating that Bruno had won the contest. When Palmu and the detectives arrive back at the police station late in the afternoon, they are told that Alli Rygseck has been poisoned with prussic acid mixed in her absinthe. She had been back at the Rygseck house to discuss with the family members who was to inherit from Bruno: she had insisted that she should get the house. Bruno's case is now also re-opened, and the policemen head back to the house. Palmu interrogates Airi about the promissory notes, and she reveals that Aimo had been forging Bruno's signature to pay off his gambling debts. Bruno had told her that he would contact the police about it unless she were to agree to do something, although she refuses to specify exactly what. In Bruno's bedroom, Palmu finds an album of nude photographs he had taken of his female friends, with one page torn off. That evening, the policemen meet Bruno's uncle Gunnar Rygseck, the head of the Rykämö concern, at his office. He tries to bribe Palmu and claims that Bruno was suicidal and had intended the poisoned absinthe for himself before dying accidentally. Next, Palmu confronts Vaara, whose office is in the same building, about what Bruno showed him. It is revealed to have been a nude photograph of Airi, which Palmu notices is a forgery. He tells Vaara that Aimo killed Bruno and that Airi will be imprisoned as an accomplice as she has tried to protect her brother: this leads Vaara to confess to Bruno's murder. Palmu asks for Airi, who also works for the concern, to come to Vaara's office. She confirms that the photograph is forged, and finds the idea that her brother killed Bruno laughable. Vaara takes back his confession, and Palmu admits that he never truly believed either him or Aimo to be the murderer. Palmu calls the Rygseck house, where Amalia is moving in, and is told by her that Veijonen has disappeared. Palmu goes to interrogate Vanne again, and she confesses to have in fact secretly stayed in Alli Rygseck's old bedroom on the night of the party. When she walked through the corridor leading to the bathroom the next morning in order to get to the back door, she thought that a stair creaked behind her, as if someone else was there as well. Palmu places her on house arrest at Laihonen's apartment. In order to get the murderer to act, Palmu sends detective Virta to tell all the suspects that Vanne knows something about the murders. He is also to get Bruno's photo album from the Rygseck house and to go show it to Vanne. At the house, Amalia convinces Virta to give her his gun for protection as she is scared of Veijonen. When Virta returns to the station, he learns that Veijonen has been caught and is cleared of the murders. Soon after, Palmu calls Laihonen and asks to speak to Vanne. He admits that she has gone to help Amalia search the house – he had lied to the gullible Virta earlier that she was asleep. The police rush back to the Rygseck house, and stop Amalia from shooting Vanne. In the struggle, Virta is shot in the shoulder. In the final scene, it is revealed that Amalia has been mentally ill for some time and that she murdered Bruno as revenge for killing her cat. The murder weapon was her umbrella with a sturdy wooden handle that she always carried with her. As she is elderly and not of sound mind, she is not prosecuted but is left to the care of her brother. ===== Americans Tommy Albright (Gene Kelly) and Jeff Douglas (Van Johnson) are on a hunting trip in Scotland and become lost in the woodlands. They happen upon Brigadoon, a miraculously blessed village that rises out of the mists every hundred years for only a day. (This was done so that the village would never be changed or destroyed by the outside world.) Tommy falls in love with village lass Fiona Campbell (Cyd Charisse), whose younger sister Jean (Virginia Bosler), is about to be married to Charlie Dalrymple (Jimmy Thompson). When Tommy and Jeff happen upon clues about the village and its people that make no sense, Fiona takes them to see Mr. Lundie (Barry Jones), the village schoolmaster, who tells them the story of Brigadoon and the miracle. If any villager ever leaves Brigadoon, the spell will be broken and the village will vanish forever. Furthermore, Lundie tells them, any outsider who wishes to stay must love someone in the village strongly enough to accept the loss of everything he or she knew in the outside world. That evening, Mr. Lundie officiates at the wedding of Jean and Charlie, which Tommy and Fiona attend. Interrupting the wedding, the jealous Harry Beaton (Hugh Laing) announces he is leaving Brigadoon to make everything disappear, since the girl he loves, Jean, is marrying another man. Harry's words cause mass chaos among the townspeople and they all rush to stop him. Harry almost crosses the bridge but is stopped short by Tommy. They scuffle and Tommy is knocked unconscious. With men closing in on him, Harry climbs up a tree to hide but is accidentally gunned down by Jeff, who skipped the wedding to go hunting. Harry falls dead to the ground and is soon found by the men. Fiona frantically searches for and finds Tommy. Confessing their love for each other, they decide to marry, allowing Tommy to stay in Brigadoon for good. But while Fiona goes off to find Mr. Lundie, Tommy tells Jeff about his plan. Jeff, drunk and remorseful of accidentally killing Harry, tells Tommy he can't just leave everything in the real world behind for this girl he's only known a day. Fiona returns with Mr. Lundie, but Tommy confesses that he cannot stay. Fiona says she understands but is heartbroken and they say good-bye before Brigadoon completely disappears. Tommy and Jeff cross the bridge and walk away. Back in New York City, Tommy can think only of Fiona. Unable even to talk with his fiancée, Tommy ends his relationship with her and calls Jeff, telling him to get the first flight back to Scotland. He and Jeff return to the same spot where they were lost, though Jeff reminds him again the village will not be there. But suddenly Tommy sees lights start to appear through the mist and runs toward them. Brigadoon reappears and Tommy gets to the foot of the bridge to see Mr. Lundie half-awake on the other side saying: "Tommy, lad, you! My, my, you must really love her. You woke me up." Tommy seems stunned that Brigadoon has been brought back, but Mr. Lundie reminds him: "I told ye, if you love someone deeply enough, anything is possible ... even miracles." Tommy then runs across the bridge and reunites with Fiona as the village fades back into the mist. ===== Tony and Jim Dunlap are happily married. However, the dull-but-dependable Jim had been in love with Fran Harper, a school friend of Tony's, before he was married to Tony, and Fran has just been divorced. Now Fran is coming their way, bringing her pick-up boyfriend Mort Holmes along, and she intends to steal Jim from Tony. Tony sees Fran as a reminder of her own mother, who left Tony's father and caused him to drink himself to death. Thus, Tony is determined to avoid meeting Fran. However, they meet at the house of their friends Jud and Bee McCrae, and Fran goes off with Jim after everyone has left. When Tony finds that Jim and Fran have been together, she threatens to divorce him. However, Tony eventually beats Fran at her own game, and wins Jim back. ===== The story follows two Americans, Peter Haskell, a man with a strong career and family and Olivia Thatcher, two citizens from different backgrounds and cultures who meet in the Ritz in Paris, France on the night of a bomb threat. The latter character is a woman who is unhappily married to a leading senator, and the first being the president of a significant pharmaceutical empire.Five Days In Paris: Google Books. Retrieved on 2008-01-04 ===== Alex Taylor (Mangan) works for CMA, a successful talent agency. Whilst he is grateful for his job, he is currently going through a messy divorce, causing him to become depressed. His boss however, Stephen Cauldwell (Head), is sex-obsessed, cocksure and roguish. Alex later meets Helen Ryan (Horgan), a co-worker who is more successful and herself recovering from a messy relationship, after her boyfriend died months before her wedding. ===== Kier Cavenaugh picks up his neighbour Henry Eastman on his way back to their apartment building in New York City. Back in his flat, Eastman needs a German language dictionary to prepare a case. He goes down to his neighbour's to ask if he can borrow his, and there a man seems to have just left his apartment through the window. Eastman leaves unfazed, too busy with work. On New Year's Eve Eastman decides to stay in, and Cavenaugh comes along. They talk about suicide, especially bachelors like them who have committed suicide. Cavenaugh explains how he first met the man who is stalking him. His car had broken down and the man was supposed to help him tow him home. The man was delirious but seemed to know everything about him, every single detail even from schooldays, any memory likely to put him down. Eastman suggests moving to Montana for a while - that way the stalker would get bored and leave him alone. A couple of days later, Cavenaugh tells Eastman he shall follow his counsel. However, the next day he is found to have killed himself in his apartment. ===== From the book jacket: :Tony's painful childhood memories can be quelled only through pills. Vanessa has a secret that keeps her coming back to the blade. And Conner seems to have the perfect life on the outside, but his inward battle with his parents, his peers, and himself give him one last choice -- to pull the trigger. :These are three lives that would have been cut short if not for the hasty intervention by loved ones. Or fate. Now they are given a second chance at a better life -- but only if they help one another, and if they find the strength to let go of their inner demons. For good. ===== The show focuses Ripley and Scuff along with their sister Strid and their pet barguest Bargie visiting schools across the United Kingdom and wreaking havoc. ===== Percy Bixby, a bookkeeper, steals money from his company to pretend he earns $50 a week and seduce Stella Brown. Once, he visits her and they talk about their honeymoon; she seems pleased. She will marry him instead of Charles Gaygreen, who is wealthier. Later, the new boss at his company notices Percy doesn't take holidays, and shies away from him. Percy ends up admitting he stole money before getting married. Back home, his wife wants to go to the theatre and he explains what has happened. She says she will take up work in Charles Greengay's company and stay with the Burks. Finally, Percy has moved into a boarding house and tells his boss he can pay him less for the debt to be paid back more quickly, as he doesn't need as much money any more. ===== Arlequin and Scaramouche come to the Guibray Fair in order to steal things from merchants. When Scaramouche talks about how scared he is of the judge of the town, Arlequin suggests that they disguise themselves as Arab actors to avoid suspicion. Meanwhile, the judge and Pierrot are walking through the fair, watching the various theatrical and musical acts. An Italian actor offers to entertain the judge, when Arlequin walks up and proposes his own play. The judge suggests a competition between the two. Arlequin will perform Arlequin Mahomet, and the Italian will perform Le Tombeau de Nostradamus. ===== Chan is on his way back from completing the London case—they always mentioned the previous case—to go on "vacation" to Paris, but this is just a way to make people think that he is innocently there. He is on a case for some London bankers and customers who say that some bonds from the Lamartine Bank in Paris are forged, so they hired Chan to solve the case. The suspects Chan meets include; Max Corday, a local artist who wants to reap the financial rewards of fame; Albert Dufresne, the assistant to the bank president who is living beyond his means; Henri Latouche, a bank officer who has access to financial bank records; Yvette Lamartine, the daughter of the bank president who is determined to recover old love letters from her old boyfriend, Albert Dufresne; and Marcel Xavier, a crippled and blind beggar and "crazed World War I veteran who thinks that the bank is cheating on him and wants his money. After various murder attempts on Chan and other killings, including that of his assistant, Nardi, and the ex-boyfriend of Yvette. Chan realizes that the murders were staged by Xavier. But it turns out not to be the case. The murderer was Xavier, but he is actually not real; he has alternately been played by both Corday and Latouche; with Latouche appearing as Xavier when Corday was with Charlie, and Corday appearing as Xavier when Charlie meets Latouche at the Bank. Chan takes young Victor Descartes with him to find Xavier, and while they search Corday's and LaTouche's lair where they have been printing the counterfeit bonds, Latouche (as Xavier) arrives. Chan and Descartes kill the lights, and Latouche shoots at Chan's flashlight, apparently hitting him. But Chan has mounted it on a broomstick to decoy Latouche, and Descartes is able to capture Xavier/Latouche. Then the police arrive (summoned by Chan's son Lee), giving Chan a chance to explain how Corday and Latouche created alibis for each other by alternately playing Xavier. ===== Arlequin is being pursued by his debtors, so his friend Boubekir gives him a flying box so that he can flee the country. As he is flying over Persia, he sees a young man about to kill himself because his true love, the Princess of Basra, is to be married to the Kam of the Tartars (played by Pierrot from La Foire de Guibray). Arlequin agrees to help. He flies to the princess who does not want to marry the Kam and is praying to Mohammed. When she sees Arlequin in his flying machine, she believes that he is Mohammed. Arlequin tells her that she does not have to marry the Kam and presents her with a portrait of her future husband, the Prince of Persia. The Princess tells her father about this revelation, and the King and the Kam go in search of the "false Arlequin." Meanwhile, Arlequin enters the scene and flies over their heads. Arlequin beats them with his stick until the King and the Kam agree that the princess should marry the Prince. Arlequin brings the Prince to the court in his flying machine so he can marry the princess. Arlequin, in turn, marries the princess' servant. ===== The play opens with Arlequin reading a love letter from the wealthy Argentine. In spite of the fact that Argentine loves him, Arlequin wishes that they were equally rich or poor so that she might be certain that he loves her for herself and not her money. Arlequin regularly plays the lottery, and his rival Scapin arrives with the day's lottery numbers. Arlequin has won. Scapin gives Arlequin false directions to the lottery headquarters and attempts to steal the ticket from Arlequin's pocket; however, instead of grabbing the ticket, he grabs Argentine's love letter. Trying to profit from the situation, Scapin goes to Argentine and shows her the love letter, saying that Arlequin gave it to another woman. Argentine believes this, and when Arlequin comes back from his unsuccessful trip to the lottery, Argentine is angry and says she will marry the man who is holding her love letter. Scapin produces the love letter, and Arlequin is devastated. Afterwards, Scapin tells Arlequin that Argentine gave him the love letter. Arlequin, desperate, agrees to trade the lottery ticket for the love letter. Scapin does, assuming that Argentine will not listen to Arlequin. However, when she discovers that Arlequin traded the lottery ticket for her love letter, Argentine realizes the true value of Arlequin's love. When Scapin returns, Argentine pretends to be jealous and asks him to reveal the note that he has in his pocket. Scapin pulls out the lottery ticket, and Argentine snatches it. Argentine and Arlequin are now together and very wealthy. ===== Psychotherapist Claire Summers counsels five survivors of a recent plane crash: passengers Dean, Norman, Shannon, Eric, and flight attendant Janice. Eric, however, seems unusually upbeat after the tragedy. Claire meets with Mr. Arkin, an airline official, to confirm which parts of the survivors' differing recollections about the crash are accurate. Arkin claims pilot error caused the crash. Claire is asked to speak with Eric while he is getting examined at the hospital. She notices Eric's attraction to her, but is suspicious when he reveals personal information about her. When Dean misses the next session, Norman believes the airline is targeting the surviving passengers to cover up the airline having a history of negligent mechanical failures. The passengers had originally remembered nothing odd happening before the crash, but they start to remember an engine exploding. Later, Claire is conflicted between her role as counselor and growing personal feelings for Eric. A kindly neighbor urges her to take a chance with him. At the following session, Norman is absent, leaving only Janice and Shannon. Mr. Arkin warns Claire against feeding the airline coverup theory to the remaining survivors. Claire later spends time with Eric on his boat and reciprocates his romantic feelings. Claire has left several unanswered voice mail messages for her estranged sister, Emma, indicating she wants to reconcile. She goes to Emma's house, but no one seems to be home. Claire then meets another crash survivor and takes him to see Mr. Arkin. The man angrily blames Arkin for the crash, which he denies. The man suddenly disappears, confusing Claire. Eric notices a dog staring at him from outside, and recognizes the dog as a pet that had died when he was younger. He then returns to the crash site and experiences frightening memories. Meanwhile, Shannon is the only one at the next session. Eric arrives and Claire takes him and Shannon to her apartment. Eric believes he died in the crash. To prove it, he claims he jumped in front of a train and survived uninjured; he tells Claire to leave him alone. When Shannon disappears, a neighbor says she left with a man and woman. Claire goes to her supervisor who is convinced she has latched onto the conspiracy theory. At Emma's house, Claire sees Mr. Arkin, who says pilot error caused the crash. Arkin departs but leaves his briefcase behind. Claire becomes hysterical after finding a ledger inside listing all the passengers, including her, who died in the crash. Mr. Arkin was the pilot. Claire finds Eric on his boat. He explains that he withheld telling her that they and the other passengers died in the crash because everyone had to discover it individually. Deceased people and even pets from their pasts (unrecognized by the recently deceased) helped them to understand and accept death. The people Claire spoke to (including her aunt, the kindly neighbor) were dead friends or relatives. She and Eric sail from the harbor to cross over to heaven. A flashback shows Claire and Eric in adjacent seats on the plane, along with the other passengers and crew. During the flight, Claire and Eric develop an attraction. When the plane depressurizes, Eric assures her they will be alright just before the screen fades to white. The film ends with the landlord letting Emma and her husband into Claire's apartment. Emma finds a note Claire was planning to send to make peace with her. ===== The Isles of Glory comprise eleven island nations. The main character in the novel, Blaze, has the ability to sense magic and as such is "Aware". This makes her useful to the lesser of the island nations and the novel follows her story as she searches for a mysterious slave woman and fights an evil that threatens all of the island nations. ===== Following their adventure in Les Deux Billets, Arlequin and Argentine have married, moved to Bergamo, and had two sons. The play opens with Argentine reading the Bible to her children. Rosalba, her mistress, enters. For the past three months, Argentine has been serving as a go-between for Rosalba and her husband, Lélio, since Rosalba's father forbade the marriage. Lélio has finally arrived in Bergamo, and Rosalba asks Argentine to visit him outside the city to tell him to wait there. After Rosalba leaves, Arlequin arrives. Argentine tells Arlequin that she needs to run an errand for Rosalba but does not explain herself because she promised Rosalba that she would tell no one, even Arlequin. While Argentine is gone, Mezzetin arrives with a letter from Lélio to Rosalba, but as part of the secret, he has written Argentine's name on the outside. Mezzetin mistakes Arlequin for Argentine's servant and tells him that he thinks Lélio is having an affair with her. Arlequin reads the letter and assumes that Argentine is cheating on him. He confronts her when she returns to the house, but she refuses to tell Arlequin what she was doing and asks him instead to trust her. He leaves to tell Rosalba's father that Argentine was having an affair. Rosalba comes to Argentine's house, and after hearing what has happened, she runs to her father's house to explain. Arlequin returns, and after again pleading with him to trust her, Argentine successfully convinces Arlequin to wait and see what happens. Rosalba enters to say that she confessed everything to her father, and that her father forgave her. ===== An uppity woman, Ardessa, walks into the offices of "The Outcry", a weekly magazine. Later, she tells off Becky for her shoddy jobs, although it could be said she is bullying her. Miss Kalski gives her tickets for a show and Ardessa only lets her off because Mr Henderson will agree. Ardessa then goes on holiday and gets Miss Milligan to do her job whilst she is away. However, Marcus finds out Becky could be doing a better job and gets her to do it instead. When Ardessa is back, she is told to move to the business department, where she is humbled by Miss Kalski and Mr Henderson. ===== Several years have passed since Arlequin's adventures in Le Bon Ménage. His wife and two sons have died, and he now lives alone with a daughter in a fine apartment in Paris, having inherited a large sum of money from a certain Count de Valcour. The play opens with Cléante and Nérine. Cléante is a soldier who fell in love with Arlequin's daughter, Nisida, and was hired on as Arlequin's secretary to be near her. Arlequin betrothes his daughter to the Marquis of Yrville, but she refuses since she is in love with Cléante. Coming from a simple background himself, Arlequin is sympathetic to the young lovers, but he feels that they cannot marry due to the differences in their social status. Arlequin asks Cléante to leave his household, and Cléante reveals that he is the son of a man of wealth: the Count de Valcour. Arlequin decides to give his fortune over to Cléante, since it is rightfully his. Cléante and Nisida are free to marry, and Cléante accepts Arlequin as father. ===== The story is written in the form of an internal "diary" in broken English kept by what the reader presumes is a deformed child (gender unspecified) chained in the basement by its violently abusive parents (the story makes it clear that the man and woman who have imprisoned the child are its biological parents when the child recalls the man commenting about how, in stark contrast to the child, "Mother [is] so pretty and me decent[-looking] enough."). The child-narrator can sometimes pull its chain from the wall and observe the outside world through the basement window. On one occasion it even manages to sneak upstairs, although it has difficulty because its body drips green fluid that causes its feet to stick to the stairs. It eavesdrops on a dinner party but is discovered by its parents, returned to the basement, and violently beaten. On another occasion it climbs to a small window and observes a little girl (possibly its "normal" sister, who is apparently unaware of the chained child's existence), playing with other little girls and boys, whom the narrator, having no concept of ordinary childhood, can only describe as "little mothers" and "little fathers". One of the boys sees the child at the window, and it is again beaten as a result. In a final incident, the girl brings her pet cat (which the chained child can only describe as a creature with "pointy ears") into the basement. The chained child hides from them in a coal bin, but when the cat discovers the child and hisses at it, the child crushes the cat to death. The story ends with the child-narrator, again being beaten, knocking a stick from its father's hands, which sends the suddenly frightened man fleeing upstairs. The child resolves that if its parents abuse it again, it will turn violent, as it had once before, noting that it ran along the walls and hung down "with all [its] legs", revealing that the child is far more deformed than the reader may have presumed, and in fact an actual "monster". ===== It is 1960 and the first exploratory spaceship from Earth is landing on Mars. The crew is shocked to discover a Rockwellian small town, eerily similar to those they left on Earth. The strangely familiar people in the town believe it is 1926. Crew members soon discover old friends and deceased relatives in the town. Those who had been ordered to stay behind and guard the rocket abandon their posts in order to join the reunions and festivities. Members of the crew split up to spend the night in the homes of their lost comrades and relatives. The ship's captain remains skeptical, and realizes in the middle of the night that the entire situation may have been contrived by telepathic aliens to lower the Earthmen's guards. Before he can warn the others or reestablish a guard on the spaceship, he is proved right as he and the entire staff of the ship are killed by those who they think are their family members. ===== At the headquarters of BET, fictional president Debra Leevil (a parody of BET Holdings CEO Debra L. Lee with a personality resembling Dr. Evil from the Austin Powers films) presides over a board meeting to discuss the network's strategy for destroying black people. The issue of Huey Freeman is brought up, as he is shown on CNN giving a press conference stating that he is on a hunger strike and that he will not eat until there is a public apology for creating BET, the network is shut down, and all the executive board members commit seppuku. Huey joins forces with the charismatic Rev. Rollo Goodlove (voiced by rapper/singer Cee-Lo), who adds a flashy image to the fight against BET by lobbying for a boycott of the network. Huey initially believes this to be a good idea, as a concert organized by Goodlove (and featuring his band) draws widespread attention and sparks a widespread boycott. However, Huey gradually discovers that Goodlove is primarily interested in drawing media attention to himself through shameless merchandising, self-promotion, and outrageous behavior. Goodlove justifies his tactics by explaining that in order to reach the black community, he has to present its members with something they can relate to. Leevil and the BET board eventually see a news broadcast in which Uncle Ruckus expresses his support of BET and its ability to ruin the minds of young black people. Taking inspiration from his words, they offer Goodlove a sitcom on the network; he accepts, betraying Huey and causing the boycott to fall apart. Huey ends his hunger strike and asks Granddad, "What do you do when you can't do nothing, but there's nothing you can do?" "You do what you can," Granddad says. ===== In 1999, Justin Hammond lives with his mother and father, Ashley and Alden. They endure trials and tribulations of being a dysfunctional family due to Alden's passive-aggressive nature and Justin's desire to want to be able to grow up without having to talk to his mother about topics such as sexual intercourse or drug usage. An argument ensues when Alden informs Ashley that he has hired a homeless man to do some finishing touches on their long postponed yard work. As a result, the homeless man (who is given the name Glen but is not given any stage time) murders Ashley and leaves her body in the basement for Justin to find. Justin immediately makes a call to 911 to inform them of his mother's murder. Three years later, in 2002, Alden and Justin have been invited to appear on a talk show in Central Florida with TV producer David Gavin to talk about Alden's best selling book, entitled After Ashley. Alden makes certain that everyone knows of the pain he and Justin have endured since losing a wife and mother, but Justin continuously gives unhelpful and insulting answers to all of David's questions, and protests that simply because someone has died, doesn't mean that all their recognition should be directed on only the good qualities of their character, and not only that, but Alden is lying about his wife to make the two of them look good. That night, Justin sneaks into a bar where he meets Julie, a girl with a gothic image who recognizes him as the "911 Kid". At first, Justin talks about his "love" for Jesus Christ, which he shortly thereafter admits he was only lying to be funny. During this conversation, he attempts to "figure her out" so that she'd be more interested in having sex with him, which as it turns out, is why Julie initiated a conversation at all. So they go to Justin's apartment that night. The following day, Alden comes in and is surprised by Julie's presence, but decides to tell Justin that he has news: David has decided to produce a new show depicting crimes similar to Ashley's murder and unresolved cases, and he has put a demo of an episode on a VHS tape that they plan to screen the next day. To add on to the problem, David shows up shortly after that and announces that he is opening a homeless shelter entitled "Ashley House", which will open on the same evening. Justin, disgusted by this news, employs the help of a sex cult leader named Roderick Lord to help in any way he can to ruin the premiere. With the aid of Roderick, Justin is able to swap the demo episode for a sex tape that Ashley had made with Roderick when she was still alive, only in exchange for his making a sex tape with Julie. The screening happens the next day, beginning with an introduction from David, a statement read by Alden, and finally an excerpt from a poem read by Justin, and as Ashley's sex tape premieres, Justin lashes out at a painting that was created for the premiere by slashing it. Appalled by this, Alden leaves the screening and cuts off Justin financially. After the exposure, Justin and Julie sit on the edge of a lake and talk about their relationship, or lack thereof. They resolve that in the end, it would be best for them to be together due to some of the hardships that Justin has had to endure and because his need of a female companion whom he wasn't uncomfortable with, their relationship would be an ideal solution. As this conversation is happening, Ashley's ghost is standing behind them, yet, they are both oblivious to her presence, as she looks at their union disapprovingly. ===== Charlie Chan is brought in when an archaeologist disappears while excavating ancient art treasures in Egypt. Charlie must sort out the stories of the archaeological team, deal with the crazed son of the missing scientist, learn why priceless treasures are falling into the hands of private collectors, and battle many seemingly supernatural events. ===== The film portrays the life of a turbulent couple, Mozhdeh and Morteza Samiei, as they prepare for a vacation to Dubai the morning after Chaharshanbe Suri, a festival held on the eve of Wednesday before Nowruz. Morteza orders Rouhi, a maid and bride- soon-to-be, to help the couple clean their apartment, though Mozhdeh initially insists that she is not required. While she is doing her work, Rouhi learns piece by piece what is happening between the two: Mozhdeh suspects that Morteza is seeing their divorced neighbor, Simin, behind her back, after discovering Simin's phone number in the logs. Simin, meanwhile, is working as a beautician, which disturbs the neighborhood due to all the noises, eventually leading to a court order imposed against her to either quit or leave. As Morteza says that he would not come home until 5 PM, Mozhdeh sets Rouhi, who wants her eyebrow trimmed, to ask Simin if she is also unavailable until 5 PM; her fears are confirmed. Simin, though, has enough time to trim Rouhi's eyebrows; there, Rouhi overhears that Simin knows when the Samiei are due to depart to Dubai. When she goes back to Samiei, she finds her chador taken by Mozhdeh, who wants to spy on Morteza, leaving her to take the Samiei's son, Amirali, home from school. Morteza is enraged upon learning these and publicly beats Mozhdeh. Fed up, Mozhdeh decides to move to her sister and brother-in-law's residence with Amirali, refusing to hear Morteza's apologies. To calm the situation down, Rouhi lies about the reason why Simin knows their departure time. Morteza offers Rouhi a ride home in exchange for accompanying him and Amirali to see the fireworks. He leaves the two for a while and meets with Simin in private, confirming that the two are indeed having an affair; to his dismay, though, Simin wants them to separate, as she does not want to break up the Samiei. Rouhi later sniffs Simin's perfume scent on the way home (she has previously scented her hand with Simin's perfume) and realizes the truth. However, she ultimately chooses not to tell Mozhdeh. ===== The episodes largely fall into two parts. The first half of the series revolves around Atsuhime's life in Satsuma. The latter half mainly proceeds with the politics around the Tokugawa Shogunate after she moved to Edo to marry Tokugawa Iesada. ===== The events in the novel take place in the early twentieth century, near the collapse of a war weary Ottoman Empire and the creation of the Turkish republic. Most of the novel is recounted in first- person diary format by Feride. In the first section, Feride describes her childhood, beginning from the beginning and leading to the events that led her to a strange hotel room. The second and largest section consists of diary entries describing her adventures in Anatolia. The third section is the only one written from the third person point of view, describing Feride's visit to her home. Feride is the orphaned daughter of an army officer. As a teenager, she attends Lycee Notre Dame de Sion in the winter, and stays with one of her late mother's sisters during the summer holidays. She is given the nickname "the Wren" during her time at school for her vivacity and mischief. These two characteristics considered unusual and even a bit inappropriate for Muslim girls at that time. She gets engaged to her charming cousin, Kamran, whom she leaves the night before their wedding, upon discovering that he has been unfaithful to her. She runs away from home to become a teacher in Anatolia, although she remains desperately in love with Kamran. She is forced to move from town to town several times during her first three years as a teacher, as a result of the incompetence of officials, the malice of colleagues and the unwanted attention she gets from men because of her beauty and her lively manner. Meanwhile, she adopts a little girl called Munise, finds out that Kamran has married the woman he had cheated on Feride with, and develops a friendship with Hayrullah Bey, an elderly military doctor who treats Feride with fatherly affection. At the end of these three years, Munise dies and Feride is forced to resign from her post and marry the doctor because of the rumors about her "indecent behavior". A couple of years later, Feride returns to Tekirdag to visit one of her aunts and her cousin Mujgan, where Kamran, now widowed and with a small child, also happens to be. He has never gotten over Feride, painfully regrets having cheated on her, and confesses to have married the other woman only out of pity after he heard false rumors about Feride being in love with another man. The night before her arranged departure, Feride confesses to Mujgan that her marriage to the doctor has never been consummated and he has in fact died recently. He told Feride to revive her ties to her family as his last wish, and gave her a package to be entrusted to Mujgan. Mujgan takes the package to Kamran, which turns out to be Feride's diary which was hidden and preserved by the doctor. Finding out that Feride is still in love with him, Kamran arranges to be wedded to Feride the next day without her knowledge. The novel ends with their long-awaited reunion, and Kamran's confession that he betrayed her all those years ago because of his insecurity about her love for and loyalty to him, due to her ostensible frivolity and harsh treatment of him. ===== Aag Aur Shola is the story of love, eternal and immortal. It also the story of hatred, the kind of hatred, the existence of which shall remain till the existence of this world. Poor Raju loved Usha, but she proudly refused to reciprocate. Nagesh, brother of Usha was a rogue. When he learned that Raju loved Usha, he attacked Raju and beat him like a beast. In spite of all this, the fire of love for Usha was still burning in his heart. On the other side, Nagesh was furious and wanted to kill Raju if he was still adamant. Raju had no other alternative than to go to Vishal for help. Golden- hearted Vishal was not only generous but in strength, he was like a rock. Vishal's past resembled Raju's present. He had played with fire and had lost his beloved Aarti. Raju also was playing with fire and would meet with the same fate, but Vishal was now determined to help Raju. This news was like adding fuel to the fire. He would marry Usha with the boy of his choice, but on the other side, Vishal had promised Raju to get him married with Usha only. This was a great challenge for both Nagesh and Vishal. It was with all his sympathies to Raju on one side and the tyrant Nagesh on the other side and there in between them were the innocent lovers. ===== Paul Wanning, a New York City lawyer, has been told he is terminally ill. His wife tries to belittle the news, and seems more interested in settling their daughters, who take dance lessons. Paul visits his son who lives in Washington Square and tells him he would like to see him get married before he dies. He then visits his friends by Astor Place, who suggest introducing him to their doctors, but they soon lose interest. In his office, he decides to write a letter to an old friend of his, and his copyist Annie Wooley types it for him. She cries upon hearing the content as her own father has passed . The following Summer, the Wannings all go off on holiday - Roma goes to Genoa to visit her friend Jenny, Harold goes to Cornish, and Mrs Wanning and Florence go to York Harbor, where Mr Wanning is supposed to join them. However, he spends much of the summer in New York City, where he takes up Annie as his personal secretary. This makes his other partners and his stenographer talk, especially when he takes her out to dinner or to the theatre. The girl's father tells him he hopes her daughter is not misbehaving, and he explains she is only bringing him kindness in this distressful time. In September, Paul dies. Alongside his will comes a letter to his wife, asking her to give $1000 to Miss Wooley. When Harold hears about that, he decides not to tell his mother and instead he fires the girl. Back with her family, they reflect that the rich cannot be battled with, especially when they are lawyers - Annie shall rest for a while. ===== The film opens with shots of the London streets in late afternoon, as people begin their commute home. The narrator reminds the audience that these people are part of the greatest civilian army the world has ever known, and are going to join their respective service before London's "nightly visitor" arrives. Listening posts are stationed as far away as the coastline and the "white fingers" of searchlights touch the sky. Soon the Luftwaffe bombers arrive and begin their nightly work, bombing churches, places of business and homes, the work of five centuries destroyed in five seconds. But as soon as it is morning the British people go back to work the way they usually do, demonstrating the British 'stiff upper lip' attitude. Joseph Goebbels is quoted as saying that the bombings are having a great effect on British morale. He is right, the narrator says, the British people's morale is higher than ever. ===== In a decadent and caste-based future, humanity is divided into guilds, each having a specific job to do. The members of some guilds appear to have undergone genetic engineering, for instance, the Fliers' ability to fly and the Watchers' ability to use their mental capabilities to watch distant stars. The main character in the novella is a Watcher whose mission is to watch the skies with some sophisticated equipment and to inform the Defenders in the event of an alien invasion. Along with a young Flier girl and a Changeling (who belongs to no guild), he visits the old city of Roum (suspected previously to be called Rome), and becomes entangled in events including the possibility of invasion. Apart from Roum, a number of other great cities are mentioned including Jorslem (Jerusalem), Stambool (Istanbul), Marsay (Marseilles), Donsk (Gdańsk), Nayrub (Nairobi), (Dijon), Palerm (Palermo) and Perris (Paris), but their greatness is relative, as they only have a few thousand inhabitants. ===== Set in 18th Century London, the story focuses on Sweeney Todd (Ben Kingsley), a murderous barber whose business provides him with two profitable sidelines, the sale of his victims' jewelry and the disposal of their bodies to his mistress Mrs. Lovett (Joanna Lumley), who uses them to prepare meat pies for her unsuspecting clientele. American Ben Carlyle (Campbell Scott) arrives in the city to track down wealthy diamond merchant Alfred Mannheim and $50,000 worth of diamonds he had sold to Carlyle's employers but failed to deliver. Mannheim's staff advises Carlyle that their boss disappeared without a trace weeks earlier, and he posts notices offering a reward for information leading to Mannheim's discovery. Charlie (Sean Flanagan), a mute orphan who works as an assistant to Todd, recognizes Mannheim as a man the barber had shaved just prior to his disappearance. Realizing his dastardly deeds are in danger of being revealed, Todd imprisons the boy in his basement. Meanwhile, Carlyle is seeking the assistance of the corrupt local police and an amiable serving wench named Alice, who happens to be Todd's ward, with his quest. When his suspicions about the ingredients of Mrs. Lovett's pies are all but confirmed by a chemist, he hides himself in a burlap sack and has himself deposited in her pie shop cellar with a delivery of meat. There he makes a gruesome discovery that spurs him to confront Mrs. Lovett, who tries to kill him but is knocked out and left to hang on a meat rack. Shortly after, she is arrested. Carlyle then heads over to the barber shop to confront Todd, who overpowers and binds him. As he prepares his instruments to torture Carlyle to death, he explains what led him to a life of murder and cannibalism. Charlie, who has managed to free himself from his shackles, stabs Todd in the back, killing him. He then frees Carlyle, who sets the building on fire before escaping with the boy. ===== Imaginative roleplaying provides relief for some of the crew on the long, dull trip to Saturn. However their imaginary world becomes hazardously confused with the real one when a team begins the exploration of Iapetus, one of Saturn's moons. ===== A few highly skilled mercenaries, the Dorsai, are stuck defending a powerless ruler whose army has revolted. To make matters worse, one of their members, the military band leader, refuses to kill. He finds a way to save his comrades, using the machismo permeating the culture of the world they are on, though the price is high. ===== A widow makes a pilgrimage in Japan to some of the locations of Hokusai's views of Mt. Fuji, ultimately attempting to confront her former husband who had become a nearly all-powerful digital being. ===== Grant, an industrial photographer between jobs, shares an apartment with his art therapist girlfriend Johnna. Directionless and unable to garner any sort of initiative or ambition, Grant is in the midst of an identity crisis and has done nothing for months, paying the rent from his savings while Johnna pays the other bills with her salary. Perhaps intentionally, Johnna leaves a patient's artwork for Grant to find. He finds the images in the drawings powerful, compelling, transcendent and immediately determines he must meet the artist. Johnna indignantly refuses to cooperate, claiming therapist-patient confidentiality. Immediately resorting to subterfuge, Grant discovers Robin, 28, the creator of the artwork and a schizophrenic, recently released from the hospital to a halfway house and attending Johnna's weekly therapy sessions. To Johnna's mounting fury and dismay, Grant cultivates a friendship with Robin, and she finally leaves when Robin moves into the apartment with Grant. The two men have a strange symbiotic friendship, with Robin as a guru-like figure producing his drawings for Grant, who finds they bring a whole new meaning to his life, and Grant taking care of the increasingly vulnerable Robin's emotional and physical needs. Slow at first, then rapid changes in Robin's metaemotional condition are catalyzed when a mentally ill young woman is introduced into the mix and all the instability culminates when Robin (to Grant's eyes anyway) transcends the physical and becomes a being of light shortly before his body dies of heart failure en route to the emergency room. The novel ends with Grant vowing to himself to push the envelope in search of altered states to higher awareness. ===== An intensely unhappy woman hatches a plot to switch the babies of a poor family and a rich family. But the nurse hired to pull off this transfer refuses to go through with it, leaving each baby with its proper family. When the babies are grown, the man from the poor family (who has been led to believe that he did come from the rich family) goes to the house of the other and throws him out. The remainder of the film deals with the frustrations of mistaken identity. ===== Army officer Bahadur Singh (Dharmendra) is recalled to duty on the very day his wife gives birth to son Vijay (Chunky Pandey). While back on duty, Bahadur Singh's village is attacked by bandits, his sister raped and killed. He goes to police to file a complaint, but is shunned by police. Enraged, Bahadur Singh takes the law in his hands, join a gang of bandits led by Daulat Singh (Danny Denzongpa) and changes his name to Sher Singh. One day, Sher Singh is shot by police. Doctor Raghuveer Singh (Vinod Mehra) comes to treat him. But Sher Singh thinks that Raghuveer Singh is a policeman and kills Raghuveer Singh. When he realizes his mistake, he repents and surrenders to police. Years pass by. Sher Singh's son Vijay grows up and falls in love with Aarti (Neelam Kothari). Aarti is the daughter of Mr. Chaudhary, alias dacoit Daulat Singh. The son of Doctor Raghuveer Singh, Suraj Singh (Shatrughan Sinha) becomes a police inspector. Suraj has only one mission; find Sher Singh and kill him to take revenge of his father's murder by Sher Singh. This gives more twists and turns in the story which leads to a dead end with many people to repent. ===== Jim Qwilleran, a newspaperman, and his Siamese cats Koko and Yum Yum enjoy his inherited wealth in Moose County Minnesota, particularly in its county seat, Pickax City. Jim investigates a mysterious accidental death of a newspaper publisher with the help of his cats; who communicate with him via knocking various Shakespeare plays off of his shelf.https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/303494/the- cat-who-knew-shakespeare-by-lilian-jackson-braun/ ===== When a British secret agent is murdered in the line of duty, agent Karen Bentley inherits the mission from her partner. The mission is to deliver a flight plan for a hundred American bomber planes to a British agent in Chicago. The plans are hidden in a small medallion of a scorpion that Karen wears. Karen arrives to New York City from Europe by ship and escapes the clutches of enemy agents by hiding in a variety theatre. To improve her chances of getting away and get a good cover, she charms an actor named Larry Haines, who performs a small act called "Percy" involving his penguin. Larry tells her that he and his penguin are heading west to Hollywood to appear in a film. They have a contract paying $500 a week for Percy and $30 for him as his trainer. Karen accompanies Larry to the train and plants the medallion on him before he boards the train. Unaware of what he is now carrying, Larry leaves New York, and the German agents, Mme. Stephanie Runick and Dr. Hugo Streger, are also on board the same train, keeping a close eye on Larry. The agents manage to scare up Larry with their odd behavior, and in Albany, Karen boards the train. Larry meets Karen and finds her a little too odd, since she didn't board the train back in New York with him. When the train stops for three hours in Chicago, Karen manages to steal Larry's suitcase, which now contains the jacket where the medallion is hidden. Larry follows Karen and the suitcase to an address where she is supposed to meet an agent, but Karen finds the agent murdered and has to change her plans. She is instructed to continue to Los Angeles instead. Since Larry has already seen her and the dead body, Karen reveals her true identity to him and asks his help. When the German agents are watching, they fake a domestic argument between the two of them, where Larry is violent against Karen. The police arrive to the scene and they are both arrested for disturbing the peace. While under arrest, the two of them are transported safely out of the building and past the German agents. Karen and Larry are released after they make up in the police patrol car. They don't get very far until the police chase them again, because the German agents anonymously tell the police they are responsible for murdering the British agent. The murder is on the news and Larry is named the "love slayer". During their frantic escape from the police, Karen and Larry fall in love. They find a place to hide at the top of Union Hall for the night, but the morning after they get on a bus headed out of the city on a sightseeing tour. They hijack the bus and then steal a plane to fly to Los Angeles. When the plane is out of fuel they land in the middle of nowhere and are arrested again, this time for stealing food on a farm. In jail they are recognized as the couple killing the British operative, but they escape and are chased again. They manage to jump a freight train to Los Angeles. The address Karen was supposed to visit turns out to be a funeral parlor, but the Germans have beaten them to it and taken the British agent hostage. Karen and Larry manage not to get caught though and flee the scene to a U.S. Air base nearby, where they take refuge and deliver the secret bomber plans. ===== Don Hedger, an unknown painter, lives in a Washington Square. A new neighbour, Eden Bower, moves in. She upbraids him for showering his dog in the bath tub. Later he gets to doing some cleaning and finds a hole through the closet, which looks onto her room. He spies on her whilst she is doing yoga. Later he stalks her and she shows an interest in his paintings. They go to a restaurant together and become friends. One day, he goes to Coney Island to see a model of his, and she joins him. They go up in a balloon and she feels special until he tells her an atrocious story about Aztecs, which puts a damper on the whole day. Back in New York, they both sit on the roof and talk. Sometime later, she is back from Burton Ives's, a successful painter who has suggested helping him. Don gets angry with her as he deems Burton Ives to be a bad painter. He decides to leave to Long Island for a while, but eventually comes back because he wants to see her again. However, by then she has gone to Europe. Years later, Eden is back in New York after having great success in Paris. Whilst driving by Washington Square, she remembers her friend of old, and meets with Gaston Jules to ask him if her friend has gone up in the world. Don, she learns, is now a successful painter, even all the way to Paris, although he is considered avant-garde more than anything. ===== Miss Polly Barlow (Hayley Mills) decides to leave England and spend a few months with her wealthy spinster aunt as a traveling companion. While in Singapore, the sudden demise of her aunt (Brenda De Banzie) leaves her alone to pursue her freedom and explore an arms'-length romance with a local Indian Singaporean tour guide, Amaz (Shashi Kapoor). ===== Sam Martin (Audie Murphy) runs a charter boat with his alcoholic first mate Harvey (Everett Sloane). He is forced by financial necessity to run guns for the Cuban Revolution but his employer seeks to maximise his profit. ===== The film is set in a fishing village. Anton Aiya is an exploiter who outwardly resembles and acts like a regular fisherman. He feeds off the other fishermen. Into this setting arrives members of the urban entrepreneurial youth. They have adapted to Western Culture, dressing like Westerners and preferring Western music. Conflict arises between Anton Aiya and Baby Mahattaya (Victor), a representative of the urban youth. A middle-class leftist Weerasena is also of this group. The arrival of these youths has clearly caused a social crisis requiring a solution and all Weerasena can do is stand on a platform and deliver a speech that no one listens to. He finally leaves for the city. ===== Chicago mob boss Rocca manages to get Lester Gillis sprung from jail in Joliet. His motive is to have Gillis kill a labor organizer, but Gillis refuses, preferring to work with Rocca's gang on robberies instead. He meets mob moll Sue Nelson and they start a relationship. He is relaxing, alone in his hotel room, when cops burst in, finding a gun Rocca has planted to frame Gillis for the labor leader's murder. Gillis vows revenge, escapes from the cops with Sue's help, then guns down Rocca and two henchmen. He adopts Sue's surname as an alias. In a holdup at a pharmacy, Gillis is winged by a gunshot. He goes to Doc Saunders (Cedric Hardwicke), whose patients include America's most wanted criminal, John Dillinger (portrayed by Leo Gordon). Acquiring a nickname, "Baby Face Nelson", a grateful Gillis joins up with Dillinger and quickly becomes the FBI's second most wanted man. The ruthless Baby Face goes on a shooting spree, even killing innocent motorists just to steal a car. He doesn't like playing second fiddle to Dillinger, but after the arch-criminal is shot in Chicago, it becomes Baby Face's turn to be public enemy number one. He commits multiple murders, even killing Doc in a fit of anger, and frightens Sue by placing a rifle sight on children. Trapped by a roadblock, Baby Face flees on foot and is shot several times. Stumbling to a graveyard, he pleads with Sue at first, then taunts her, to put him out of his misery, and she does. ===== In a New Mexico town, two former pals from the Civil War meet again but one is the town marshal and the other is a wanted bank robber. ===== Iphicrate and his slave Arlequin find themselves shipwrecked on Slave Island, a place where masters become slaves and slaves become masters. Trivelin, the governor of the island, makes Arlequin and Iphicrate, as well as Euphrosine and her slave Cléanthis, change roles, clothes, and names. Both Arlequin and Cléanthis take advantage of the situation to expose the frivolities and fickleness of their masters. However, Arlequin is ultimately touched by the tears of Euphrosine, who is suffering from humiliation at the hands of Cléanthis. Arlequin and Iphicrate make amends and return to their original roles; Euphrosine and Cléanthis do the same. Trivelin reveals that had Arlequin and Cléanthis not pardoned their masters, that they would have been punished. ===== Memoirs of a Madman alternates between the narrator's musings on the present and his memories of the past. In the sections that deal with the present, the narrator takes a bleak outlook on life, discussing writing, sanity, and death. More attention has been given to the memories of his past. In one section, he recalls a summer near the ocean when he is fifteen. There he meets and falls in love with a married woman named Maria (thought to be based on Elisa Schlésinger, who would later influence his Sentimental Education). Later in the work, he will remember returning to the seashore many years later to look for her again unsuccessfully. A second episode concerns his meeting two young English girls, one of whom seems to fall in love with him. Still in love with Maria, he cannot return the girl's emotions, and she moves away. ===== The novelette is set in a future time during which humanity has begun colonizing planets in other solar systems. The Colonial Survey agency has decreed the (fictional) planet of Loren Two to be off-limits, due to the extremely dangerous native animals. Despite its decree, the Colonial Survey has authorized an experimental colony on the planet. At about the same time, the overcrowded inhabitants of another planet have established an unauthorized reconnaissance station on Loren Two. Neither group is aware of the other's existence. The authorized colony is well-funded, consisting of one dozen persons equipped with advanced robotic and other equipment. The unauthorized reconnaissance team consists of a single man, Huyghens (no first name given), accompanied by an eagle and four specially-bred Kodiak bears. The bears have been bred (the story uses the term "mutated") so as to have the psychological profile of dogs. They are friendly to humans and able to work in teams. When the story begins, Huyghens receives a signal indicating that a ship is about to land near his station. The ship drops off its sole passenger, an officer with the Colonial Survey named Roane (no first name given), and then departs. Roane soon learns that Huyghens is an illegal trespasser on the planet and that his (Huyghens') signal beacon was not that of the authorized colony. For his part, Huyghens is surprised to learn that there was an authorized colony on the same planet. The two men put their minds to the question of why the authorized colony's signal beacon was not working and soon determine that it has been replaced with a low-technology emergency beacon. From this, the two men surmise that the authorized colony has been overrun by the indigenous predators, but that some colonists might still be alive in the mine tunnels that the colony was expected to have dug. Huyghens and Roane, along with the bears and the eagle, undertake a dangerous cross-country trek to determine the status of the authorized colony. ===== Charlie Chan arrives in Shanghai at the behest of the U.S. government to help stop an opium smuggling ring. He receives a warning aboard ship not to stop in Shanghai. He is met by his Number One Son, Lee Chan, as well as Philip Nash and his fianceé, Diana Woodland. Charlie is the guest of honor at a banquet held that evening, hosted by Sir Stanley Woodland (David Torrence in an uncredited role). When Sir Stanley opens a box to give a handwritten scroll to Charlie, he is shot and killed by a gun inside the booby-trapped box. Charlie meets with Colonel Watkins, the commissioner of police, and agrees to investigate the crime. The next day, American FBI man James Andrews arrives in Shanghai, accompanied by his valet, Forrest (Gladden James in an uncredited role). That night, an assassin shoots what seems to be a sleeping Charlie Chan in bed. But Charlie, suspecting another attempt on his life, rigged a dummy and escaped death. Watkins, Nash, and Woodland try to meet with Andrews. Nash sneaks off and goes through Andrews' briefcase, suitcase, and other papers. Charlie arrives, and while he is speaking with Andrews is nearly shot. Charlie and Andrews managed to retrieve the gun, but the assassin escaped. A fingerprint on the gun reveals that Nash is the likely suspect, and he is arrested. A letter Nash had stolen from Andrews' things seem innocuous, but Charlie takes it as evidence. Charlie returns to his hotel and meets with Lee. They receive a note from Col. Watkins asking them to come to an office downtown. They check with police headquarters, which assures them the note is genuine. Charlie goes, but Lee realizes the note is fake when Col. Watkins calls soon thereafter. Charlie is kidnapped and taken into a room to meet with a mysterious Russian (Ivan Marloff). Lee tries to save his father, but is caught. The two bluff their way out of danger, and after a brief fight manage to escape. That evening, Charlie and Andrews meet with Col. Watkins. Diana Woodland arrives and asks to see Nash; her request is granted. But Diana sneaks Nash a pistol, and the two escape. Later that day, Andrews and Charlie return to the house where Charlie was held. The gang has left, but Charlie finds an ink pad in the fireplace and takes it as evidence. Lee shows up dressed as a beggar, and Charlie sends him home. Oddly, Charlie arrives at the hotel first. Lee shows up later, and reveals that he saw their kidnapper in a taxi on the street and followed him to the Cafe Versailles. Moments later, Andrews calls and summons Charlie to his apartment. Before he leaves, Charlie sends Lee off on a secret mission. Charlie arrives at Andrews' apartment, where the FBI agent has caught a gangster involved with the Marloff gang. After a punch to the jaw, the gangster reveals that the Cafe Versailles is where the opium gang is hiding out. Andrews calls the police, and asks them to meet them at the club. Charlie and Andrews leave for Cafe Versailles. After Charlie and Andrews depart, Andrews' valet, Forrest, frees the gangster and the two leave. At the club, Nash (disguised as an able seaman) sees some of the Marloff gang heading toward the basement and follows, but is captured. Charlie and Andrews arrive moments later, and follow a gang member into the basement as well. The basement is where opium is being shipped out via riverboat, reached by a trap door. Andrews urges Charlie to go first, but Charlie hesitates when his flashlight mysteriously refuses to work. The police arrive by boat, and after a brief shootout capture the gang. Charlie surprises everyone by arresting James Andrews. Lee Chan reveals that his father sent him off to cable America, and he has just received a reply which indicates that the real Agent Andrews was murdered in San Francisco three weeks earlier. The false "James Andrews" is really the leader of the Marloff gang, and intended to have the gang murder Charlie in a shoot-out when they descended through the trap door. Charlie knew Andrews did not really call the police, and had Lee summon them instead. Nash's escape from police custody was planned by Charlie. Charlie reveals that Forrest used the ink pad to put Nash's thumbprint on the revolver to frame him. Nash is declared innocent, and Andrews and Forrest go to jail. ===== A widow with the strange job of sitting in an empty office and guarding an empty closet, decides to take action and steps through—and falls into a cosmic, time-spanning adventure that ends with her becoming an entire organization spread throughout time with a goal of destroying the evil Empire of the Aftermen. ===== A western in which Calamity Jane's (Evelyn Ankers) rightful ownership of a gambling hall is challenged. She nearly loses the business to a shady crook, but Texas lawyer Ellion puts up a legal to help her stay in charge. After a sensational fight, the letters proving her right are discovered. ===== After a galactic dark age, humanity sends an expedition to a primitive human planet, where all cultures practice cannibalism as a rite of manhood. When one of the expedition members is brutally killed, his wife embarks on a mission of vengeance. Evalyth Sairn is a woman of Kraken, from a society where both sexes learn the art of combat. She accompanies her husband Donli, a scientist from the civilized world Atheia, to a planet that reverted to complete savagery during the collapse of galactic civilization. She manages camp security for the expedition. Donli is killed and eviscerated by Moru, a local guide, while out on an expedition. The whole incident is recorded by the camera on Donli's communicator while Evalyth watches in horror. After recovering from the shock, she begins to study Moru's people, discovering their bizarre rites of passage where young boys eat certain organs of men, usually slaves, criminals, or prisoners of war, in order to become men. The organs Moru took from Donli match those used in the rites. Moru himself was lame and too poor to buy them from the usual sources. At first, Evalyth is consumed by the need for vengeance. Under the terms of the expedition, each member is allowed to live by their own customs, which in her society demand blood for blood. With the aid of an artificial intelligence she finds a way of tracking Moru using genetically engineered bugs that detect the unique chemical makeup of Donli's body. With Moru in captivity, she begins to doubt that Donli would have wanted her to kill for him and instead looks at the problem the way Donli himself might have. Instead of assuming that the rites are mere customs, she asks the AI for other possibilities. The AI offers the example of dung flies (the Diptera mentioned in the alternate title) which have evolved to depend on nutrients from prey insects. The conclusion is that Moru's people have lost the ability to undergo maturation without hormones from the cannibalism. The camp doctor informs her that once the genetic defect is found, it can be easily cured. Moru is brought before her. Although she intended to kill him, she announces that she had her revenge by imagining that nothing would be done for his people, and they would live in fear forever. Producing a knife, she does not harm him, but cuts his bonds and tells him to remember Donli. ===== A skilled human translator tries to balance his desire to stay alive with his need to lash out at Earth's hulking overlords, who treat humans as cattle, or at best, pets. ===== A lost child tumbles into the confusing world of Southwestern US desert folklore and lives for a while with the trickster Coyote. ===== On Balfrost, a planet that experiences decades-long seasons, the Playpoint resort attracts tourists during the warm seasons. In winter it is maintained by an artificial intelligence who was once a man, Andrew Aldon, and a pair of custodians, a man and a woman, who are in suspended animation except for a few days each year when they awake to inspect and maintain the resort. The resort has powerful weapons to keep encroaching ice at bay. Paul Plaige, a former custodian who left under suspicious circumstances, returns in winter with his latest paramour, a woman named Dorothy. His real reason for returning is to retrieve some precious stones lost in a cave-in that claimed his partner, a woman named Glenda. In the years since Paul's departure, Andrew Aldon has noticed a change in the weather patterns. He believes that the planet is somehow intelligent, as in the Gaia hypothesis. Paul sets out to find the stones, with the weather curiously helping him by maintaining a calm area around him. Later, Dorothy tries to follow with help from Andrew Aldon. Paul comes upon a cave containing Glenda's corpse, somehow preserved. In fact Glenda is still alive, having merged with a biological network present across the planet, and has been controlling the weather. In the confrontation that follows, Dorothy sees Paul with Glenda's re-animated body. Andrew, in touch through Dorothy's wrist communicator, tries to prevent a conflict, but instead Glenda causes his personality to switch places with Paul's. Andrew and Dorothy leave the planet, while Paul and Glenda act out their hatred for each other with the weapons of Playpoint and the planet's weather. ===== The story begins with Brian as a child of around 8 or 9 and it ends with him as an 88-year-old man. The book shows his rise to power and his struggle to maintain it. His personal life is an important part of the plot, because Brian's war against Máel Mórda (leader of the Leinstermen) and Sihtric (king of Dublin) was to be inextricably connected with his complicated marital relations, in particular his marriage to Gormlaith, Máel Mórda's sister and Sihtric's mother, who had been in turn the wife of Amlaíb Cuarán, king of Dublin and York, then of Máel Sechnaill. Even though the book is based on a historical figure, most of it is fiction. ===== Space travel is routine between planets in the Solar System. Ships function very much like naval warships or research vessels. There are technologies such as "overdrive" which allows a ship to travel much faster than light in normal space, and apparently artificial gravity within a ship. Atomic power is used everywhere, even in a space suit propulsion unit. Ships are equipped with "blasters", not necessarily for use as weapons, but for destroying space debris which would otherwise collide with the ship. The exploration ship Llanvabon is approaching the Crab Nebula when it suddenly detects another ship on its radar. The two ships' radars are, in fact, interfering with each other, so each sees a wildly distorted image of the other ship. Even after the problem is resolved and the two crews, one human, one alien, establish communication, both realize they have a problem. Neither can leave without ensuring that the other cannot track them to their home planet. The aliens are humanoid bipeds, but see in the infrared portion of the spectrum. Also, instead of using sound to communicate among themselves they use microwaves emitted from an organ in their heads. As one human points out, "From our point of view, they have telepathy. Of course from their point of view, so do we." The crews discover they have much in common. This is especially true of young Tommy Dort and his counterpart on the other ship, to whom he has assigned the name Buck. Although they are only able to communicate through an artificial code, they are able to establish a rapport. However, Buck is pessimistic about the eventual outcome. He sends Tommy a message, "You are a good guy. Too bad we must kill each other." The deadlock persists. Neither ship dares to leave for fear that the other will be able to track it home. Neither captain is ready to gamble by attacking the other ship. Then Tommy realizes the way out of the impasse. He and his Captain arrange an exchange of personnel between the ships. Tommy and the Captain go aboard the alien ship even as two aliens board the Llanvabon. Then they present an ultimatum: they will detonate the atomic power packs in their suits if the aliens refuse to go along with their plan, which is for each crew to take the other's ship back to their home planet. Each will disable all the tracking equipment on their own ship before the exchange, and indeed they will have to be thorough to prevent the new crew from tracking them. At this point the aliens begin behaving very strangely, twitching or lying down and kicking the floor. In fact this is their equivalent of laughter. Their own people have just given the humans the same ultimatum, and the same plan. The story ends with each crew taking over the other's ship. Naturally, before leaving their own ship they are able to remove everything which might point back to their home world. Each stands to benefit from the new technology on the other's ship. Each keeps the other race's fiction library to gain insight into their thinking. They agree to repeat the encounter at the same location some time in the future. Tommy is confident that the two races will get along. He believes this because, as he tells the Captain, he and Buck spent a good deal of time swapping dirty jokes. ===== The first explorers on Titan find that the ocean is a weird chemical soup. There does not seem to be any life in it until one of the expedition members begins to believe that something is talking to her through her dreams. ===== Just as World War II began to turn against them, Nazi Germany is suddenly aided by the Norse pantheon. However, Loki joins the Allies, and they prepare a last-ditch sneak attack against Valhalla called Operation Ragnarok. The story follows Captain Chris Turing, who is part of the team which is going to attack Valhalla and starts out with them traveling to their attack destination in a group of submarines hoping that what remained of the United States Surface Navy would be able to distract the Nazi and Norse pantheon forces. Originally the plan was to include only Chris' team and their commando escorts, but Loki informs them that he will accompany his troops to Gotland as well. Due to Loki's previous actions in aiding the Allies and the way he ended the Holocaust by saving the inmates of the concentration camps, Chris agrees and convinces Major Marlowe to allow it. While waiting for them to get to their destination, Chris recollects his memory of World War II and how the Nazi Germany was about to be defeated by the allied forces until they received the aid of the Norse pantheon. Loki notices Chris and allows the captain to ask the Norse God three questions. Loki answers the questions asked, and in one answer mentions how he does not think that he is older than Chris and also implies that the Nazi extermination camps were established for reasons other than for "Nazi racial purification", but refuses to answer any further questions to clarify this. The group arrives at Gotland, and during the operation Loki disappears as Æsir forces led by Thor defeats the troops. The survivors of Operation Ragnarok are taken prisoner after the failed mission and are given to Thor by his father Odin. While in custody, Chris recollects more of his memories of World War II and recalls how as a child he wished that he would have an event like the war that he could partake in like his father did. He ends up discussing the history of World War II with his captured troops, and argues with the group about the suggestion the United States should have simply bombed Germany in order to end the war as soon as possible. He also takes an opportunity to mock one of his human captors about how the Nazis have become mere puppets of the Æsir. After these conversations, Chris is taken to be interrogated by Thor. Thor tries to get Chris to reveal the whereabouts of Loki, but the captive captain does not tell him and does not know. Chris ends up insulting Thor, insisting that they are aliens, and as a result Thor orders his death before revealing that the Norse pantheon were invited "upon the wings of death itself." O'Leary later tells Chris that he was told by Loki to give Chris an answer to his final question: necromancy. Chris realizes that the death camps were built not for "racial purification", but for human sacrifices to fuel magic. The captain also realizes that the Norse Gods were created by necromancy due to Loki's admission that he is actually young. After realizing that he has gained superhuman powers from Loki, Chris attacks the guards and dies in an attempt to resist the Norse Gods after managing to destroy Odin's Spear. In doing so, he hopes that his actions will give hope to other heroes who will eventually rise up to overcome the Nazis. ===== Years ago, a certain Brahmin had visited the kingdom of Angarajyam. The king, Lomapadan(Babu Antony), failed to pay respects to the Brahmin. In retaliation, the Brahmin cursed the king that his kingdom would not experience any rains in the coming years and that the kingdom would suffer a severe drought. Thus, Angarajyam suffered for almost twelve years. Lomapadan, having had enough, decides to visit his rajguru(Nedumudi Venu) to seek for a solution. The rajguru was now living at the outskirts of the kingdom's capital Champapuri to desuade his own son, Chitrangadan(Ashokan), from unwanted activities. Chitrangadan was a rebel who did not follow his father's footsteps and was bent on breaking the social norms laid down by the society at that time. However, Chitrangadan's heart was set on Vaishali(Suparna Anand), a girl who hailed from the kingdom's community of dancing girls. Vaishali, on the other hand, did not reciprocate Chitrangadan's feelings. Meanwhile, the rajguru visits the kingdom on Lomapadan's request and decides to perform rituals to propitiate the rain god Indra, while also knowing that by performing such rituals nothing will bear fruit. However, one night, the rajguru gets a vision from his own guru that to bring rains to the kingdom, the rituals were to be performed by Rishyashringa(Sanjay Mitra), the young son of the great sage Vibhandakan. For this, Rishyashringa had to be brought to the kingdom by any means. When Lomapadan enquired, the rajguru stated that Rishyashringa could be brought to the kingdom by enticing him with the women of the kingdom since the young sage had never seen a woman or a girl throughout his life. For this, the king decides to appoint the young Vaishali to embark on the dangerous mission, by order of the rajguru. Accompanied by her mother, Malini(Geetha), and her companions, Vaishali sets off for the forests where Rishyashringa lived via the Kaushiki river. When the dancing girls reach the forests, Vaishali introduces herself to the young sage as a hermit herself. By seductive means, she manages to lure Rishyashringa into her fold, despite warnings from his father Vibhandakan. Thus the young couple have many a lovely moments for each other. However, Vibhandakan again senses something fishy and rebukes his son for not following the routine rituals and instead folling around like an aimless man even after innumerable times of warning. Rishyashringa realises his mistakes and decides to focus on his yogic path as before while trying to avoid his lady love. Vaishali is pained at seeing him in his present condition, while at this moment she also comes in terms that she is truly in love with Rishyashringa. Her mother also reveals that Vaishali was the illegitimate child of the king Lomapadan and that if they were successful in their mission, the king would whole heartedly accept her as his daughter and also have her married to Rishyashringa. Thus, Vaishali decides to attempt one last time into luring him by seductively dancing in front of him during his penance. Unable to control his feelings, Rishyashringa gives in and accompanies Vaishali to her home. However, he senses something dreadful and realises that whatever happened to him till that point was a mere illusion and was bent on placing a curse on Vaishali by accusing her of being a demon in disguise. When she pleads him to not curse her, she reveals her true identity and that she was just a mere human woman. She further explains the reason of her mission and her feelings for him. Rishyashringa is convinced and the couple decide to set off for Angarajyam. Rishyashringa is welcomed to the kingdom with due respect and performs the rituals for the rains. After a while, there is a heavy shower of rains and the whole kingdom rejoices, including the royal family as well. At this point, the king announces his daughter's hand in marriage to the young sage, declaring that the child born out of this marriage would rule Angarajyam after Lomapadan. As Vaishali and her mother try to step into the ritual podium to claim their rights, the rajguru and the soldiers block them to prevent their entry. Instead of keeping his word, Lomapadan offers his daughter Shanta's(Parvathy Jayaram) hand in marriage to Rishyashringa. As the crowds follow the newly weds' chariot, Vaishali and her mother are trampled in the stampede where her mother dies eventually. Vaishali is left alone, heartbroken and devastated at what had happened, for nobody bothered about her anymore. What lies ahead of her remains unknown, as she is left to fend for herself. ===== The story is narrated by an adult Nino Montanari, who reminisces on his family history... Brooklyn, New York, ca. 1976: Angie resists abandoning baby daughter Patty on a cathedral doorstep and decides to raise her alone in the streets, surviving by their wits. Years later, a teenaged Patty meets and marries kind policeman Dante Montanari, and the couple have two sons: Joey and Nino. Dante eventually dies of cancer, and the hospital bills have now left the surviving family without any money. Patty must now make ends meet. She quickly befriends local funeral director Frank Russo, with whom she has a romantic relationship, and Frank's boss Salvatore “Sal” Palmeri, with whom she has a business relationship. Frank uses his persistent and persuasive charms to reel Patty into his world of organized crime. He offers her a job running a floundering Italian restaurant, which she converts into a successful transvestite nightclub. Sal attends opening night and he is impressed with her business savvy and street smarts. He soon assigns her to serve as his mule; she must drive to Toronto and pick up half-a-million dollars at a shipboard casino. Patty successfully delivers Sal his money, and soon gains his confidence. Later, Patty and Sal's girlfriend June must make the same trip to Canada together. En route, Patty witnesses June repeatedly snorting cocaine. While Patty is making her usual pick-up, the casino is raided by police, but she manages to slip through their fingers and return to the hotel where June impatiently waits. Back in Brooklyn, Frank's son Mouse has been selling cocaine in the neighborhood. The teenage boy soon shows up at Patty's doorstep afraid that his father will beat him up again for not 'staying clean'. Shortly thereafter, a newspaper headline reveals that Mouse has been murdered. During Mouse's funeral, Patty watches from a distance as the procession leaves the wake. FBI agent Robert Wilford approaches Patty for help in bringing down Sal's criminal empire. Robert asks that Patty wear a wire to record incriminating evidence that will facilitate Palmeri's arrest. Soon, Patty discovers that June had turned Mouse on to selling her drugs, and that Palmeri had placed a hit on him for selling it on the streets. Patty also finds out that Frank asked his boss for permission to, mercifully, kill his own son. June is now fleeing for her life, but Patty intercepts her at her apartment, and finds out that she, June, and Frank are probably the next on Palmeri's hit list. Eventually, Patty persuades Palmeri to let her go free and to not kill Frank unless he continues threatening her family. Soon thereafter, Palmeri and his men are either arrested or killed, and June's dead body is discovered (presumably from a drug overdose). The Montanaris and Angie hop on the next train to Florida, leaving their criminal past behind. ===== ===== Pratap Tilak (Nana Patekar) is the grandson of Bheeshmanarayan Tilak, a freedom fighter. Pratap starts gambling and this leads to a spoiling attack of Bheeshmanarayan as he dies. Pratap's mother Durgadevi (Farida Jalal) enraged of all this, asks him to leave the village and go away. Pratap comes to Mumbai where he saves the life of chawl owner, Laxminath's (Paresh Rawal) son Atul (Atul Agnihotri). Laxminath decides to keep Pratap with him. When they grow up, Atul falls in love with Mamta (Mamta Kulkarni), who is the daughter of a builder named Yograj (Tinnu Anand). Pratap keeps laughing at press reporter Megha Dixit (Dimple Kapadia), who lives in the chawl and keeps on fighting injustice by writing about it in newspapers. Pratap teaches people to become strong and fight for themselves instead of waiting for other people to help them. Chattursingh Chita (Danny Denzongpa) and Yograj plan to build a resort and at the place, they arrange communal riots, mass killings and burn the houses of people. Laxminath is murdered by Chattursingh Chita. Pratap learns that Megha's parents were murdered by Chattursingh Chita and she was raped by him. He proposes marriage to her. Mamta leaves her father's house and comes to Atul's house. Pratap kills the corrupted ministers, the judge, and the police officer. He is caught and ordered to be hanged till death. Chattursingh Chita plans to kill Pratap but dies by Pratap's hands. This story is about a brave person who decides to face injustice and is ready to lay his life down for this cause. Pratap is tried and is sentenced to be hanged. At the last moment, before he is going to be hanged, a lawyer comes to the scene informing that Pratap's death sentence has been revoked by the Court. ===== As described in a film magazine, Bing (Gibson) fondly adores Joyce (Wood) and she really loves Bing, but is not into giving him any encouragement. One day Bing flirts with Stella, who is riding in a rail inspection car with her father, a railway company manager, which gets Joyce angry. Stella likes to do daredevil stunts and pranks, and when the train reaches the next railroad station she sends back a message to town that it has been held up. Bing gets the message from the railway agent and races to the scene. In the meantime, 'Wearie' Willie (Corey) is conducting an actual holdup, and Bing arrives in time to get the draw on him. The conductor, however, misconstrues the actions of Bing and fells him, allowing the real bandit to escape. Stella relents of her actions and trails Bing. Bing catches the bandit just as Stella arrives and, after some explanations, everything is cleared up. ===== Mantra's parents die when she was young and she lives with her friend Vinny. She inherits an ancestral property called 'Mantra Nilayam' in the outskirts of Hyderabad. Mantra Nilayam is called as haunted house because of two untimely deaths in that farm house few years back. She wants to sell it off, but no body comes forward to buy the property due to its reputation. A professor comes forward to buy that house with a condition that somebody should stay there for three months. Hero (Sivaji) is a small-time goon who looks after land settlements. Hero wants to stay in the house so that he would get a commission of the sale once 'Mantra Nilayam' is sold. The rest of the story is all about how Hero demystifies everything. ===== Young Shankar is framed for a theft he did not commit. He escapes from police and runs into his mother's arms. When Shankar's mother sees Shankar being arrested by police, she dies of shock. Shankar escapes from the police and ends up working for criminal don Raja Babu. He is now known as 'Shaka". One day Raja Babu asks Shaka to abduct a child. The child's mother dies due to shock. This reminds Shaka (Shankar) of his own mother dying due to shock. He repents, surrenders to police and is sent to jail for 5 years. His three-year punishment is condoned when he saves the life of a visiting parliamentarian. After being released from jail, he decides to live the life of an ordinary civilian and works as a garage mechanic. He meets Aarti, falls in love and they marry. But Shankar's past starts haunting him to such an extent that he sees no choice but to join Raja Babu's crime gang. ===== The film begins in Rome many years after the expedition. Nobile has endured years of scorn for his actions during the disaster and its aftermath. He imagines his apartment turned into a court of inquiry against him, where witnesses and judges are his former crewmen – including Captain Zappi, his navigator and his meteorologist Finn Malmgren. Also arrayed against him are Valeria, Malmgren's lover, Captain Romagna, one of the expedition's would-be rescuers, famed aviator Lundborg, professor Samoilovich, chief of the Soviet rescue mission, his pilot Boris Chukhnovsky, and Roald Amundsen who lost his life in the search for survivors of Nobile's expedition.QRZ As they try Nobile, the events of the expedition and its failure are depicted. The expedition is successful at first, but ends in disaster. The Italia is weighed down when ice forms on it. Colliding with the ground, the airship's gondola is torn away from its keel and the envelope containing the airship's hydrogen cells; freed of the weight of the gondola, the rest of the ship floats away and out of control, taking some of Nobile's crew with it.Сергей Нехамкин. Бог спас их руками безбожников Nobile maintains control of the surviving crew who are now marooned on arctic pack ice. Rescue efforts are made by both Italy and the Soviet Union. Nobile's group is first found by Lundborg, a Swedish pilot who lands on the ice. The aviator insists he can only take Nobile. Reluctantly, Nobile agrees, sure he can best assist the rescue once he returns from the ice. These efforts are blocked: reaching the Italian ship Città di Milano he finds that his superiors have stripped him of command for apparently abandoning his crew, and he is ordered confined to his room and have no role in the rescue. Desperate, Nobile contacts the Krassin, a Soviet icebreaker also searching for the survivors. Nobile implores Samoilovich, the Krassin's captain for help in rescuing the survivors. Unfortunately, the Krassin has sustained damage. Also, because the ice pack has drifted, Nobile cannot give the Krassin an accurate position for the survivors. Some of Nobile's crew - Zappi, Mariano and Malmgren - leave the camp in a group hoping to reach Kings Bay. Amundsen joins the rescue effort as well, but disappears, becoming another victim of Nobile's expedition. In the film, Amundsen explains that he died soon after his plane found the remains of the Italia, spotting what appeared to be survivors. The pilot, ordered to land, crashed and was killed. Amundsen survived the crash, but was nonetheless doomed, finding nothing to build shelter or fire with, no supplies and no hope of rescue. The men that had appeared to be survivors when seen from the air were already long dead. Back at camp, the ice begins to break apart, and the survivors there barely escape from the gondola before it sinks. Alone on the ice, Nobile's survivors find themselves at their bleakest point before finally spotting the Krassin on the horizon. As the ship nears for a rescue, the survivors see Zappi and Mariano waving at them from its deck. Malmgren, who had also joined Zappi, died before he could be rescued. Pressed for a vote, Samoilovich defends Nobile's actions, noting that his rescue of the survivors was a direct result of Nobile's escape to King's Bay. Neither can he fault Nobile's apparent lack of heroism because a captain has no right to risk his own safety by individual acts of heroism. The others quickly reach a verdict of guilty, but Amundsen discounts the verdict, finding each of the accusers unfit to judge for various reasons, including indifference to others and emotional sterility, but mostly for their bitterness. The accusers file out of Nobile's apartment, Amundsen being the last. With Amundsen, Nobile reveals his feelings of guilt for leaving the men on the ice. While Nobile admits that his decision to join Lundborg was based on a number of reasons, some correct while others were wrong, his first thoughts on entering Lundborg's plane were not of rescue, but of a good hot bath. Amundsen helps Nobile find peace by reminding him that his frailty is only a sign of humanity and not guilt. ===== The U.S. military has bred and trained Rottweilers, which have now escaped. And they are heading for a peaceful community. What they did not count on was the local sheriff. ===== Based on the 1965 novel La Chamade by Françoise Sagan, the film is about a beautiful woman who is mistress to Charles, a rich, good-hearted businessman who provides for all her material needs, but for whom she has no true love. When she meets a charming young man her own age, Antoine, she falls in love. He finds her a menial job in a publishing firm, but she can not or will not hold it down. Soon she becomes pregnant with his child. But Charles helps her through her crisis by funding her abortion – against the wishes of Antoine, who nevertheless accepts, even though he planned on moving out of his bachelor flat, the three of them into a soulless concrete block, money being short. In the aftermath, her feelings for the younger Antoine fade. Eventually, she returns to the good-hearted businessman who has patiently waited for her. ===== Rio Sakaki is a high school girl who cuts herself and has attempted suicide a few times. She is unloved by her family—her stepmother is especially abusive, and her father, while aware of the abuse, does nothing to stop it. At the beginning of the manga, Rio meets Sahoko Higa, a classmate who spent two years as a hikikomori. They fall in love and begin spending a lot of time together, but Rio's inner demons, especially those that involve the gaps in her memory and her deceased baby sister, threaten to cause Rio to relapse into a suicidal state. ===== Pedro, a shepherd, is sleeping in his Pyrenean mountain hut when his herd is attacked by a lone wolf. He awakens to defend his sheep, and manages to strangle the wolf. Meanwhile, in the Catalan lowlands of northeastern Spain, a canal is completed which diverts water from the farms and fields of the peasants to support the prize bulls of the landowner, Don Sebastian, marquis of Roccabruno. He arrogantly rejects the request of the peasants for water. However, he has significant debts and needs money. The rich Amelia plans to marry him, but he offends her. Martha, a "beggar dancer", comes to the village and entertains the people. Sebastian sees her and takes her to his castle, enchanted by her beauty and grace. He keeps her as his mistress in a "golden cage". Martha pleads with him to listen to the plight of the peasants, but he rejects their request again. Seeing his arrogance and inhumanity, she runs away. She collapses in exhaustion in the mountains where Pedro finds her and takes her to his hut. Sebastian's men locate her and return her to the castle. Sebastian, in dire need to settle his finances, conjures a plan. He will marry Amelia but keep Martha as a mistress; he wants her married to somebody he can manipulate and control. Pedro is commanded to marry her and is installed in a mill under Sebastian's control. For this, Martha despises Pedro at first; but once she realizes that he married her out of love, she responds. Sebastian arrives to be with his mistress. A fight ensues, and Pedro strangles him as he had done to the wolf. In the final scene, Pedro and Martha walk up to the mountains. ===== After rehearsing for a choir, Nelly asks Peggy to walk back home in Riverbend with her and keep her away from Scott, who wants to walk her back. After the performance, Peggy sleeps over at Nelly's, and the latter tells her she is engaged to Guy Franklin. After graduation, Peggy moves to Denver, Colorado with her family. She later receives a latter from Mrs Dow saying Mr Deane has lost money in an investment in Cripple Creek, Colorado, Franklin ended up marrying a woman in Long Pine, Nebraska, and Nelly is a teacher at the local school. The following winter, Peggy stops at Riverbend, where Nelly is to join the Baptist faith and marry Scott. The day after the baptism, Nelly confesses to being unhappy to Peggy. After living in Rome for years, Peggy receives another letter from Mr Dow announcing Nelly's death subsequent to her second child's birth. Both children are now being looked after by Mrs Spinny, the Deanes having died. Back in Riverbend, Mrs Dow explains to Peggy that Nelly died because she was looked after by the wrong doctor - Scott had fallen out with two other good doctors. Finally, Peggy meets Margaret whilst she is sledging on Lupton's Hill, and Mrs Spinny also shows her the new baby, who reaches for the flower in her hat. ===== Oliver Pease (Burgess Meredith) has deceived his bride Martha (Paulette Goddard) into believing he's an inquiring reporter for the Los Angeles Daily Banner when, in fact, he is employed there as a classified ads clerk. When Martha suggests Oliver ask people on the street, "What influence has a baby had on your life?," he submits the question to the real reporter, who dismisses it outright. Oliver approaches the editor and introduces himself as a representative of the publisher, who he claims wants to improve the feature by having Oliver roam the city and ask the question suggested by his wife. Jazz musicians Slim and Lank (James Stewart and Henry Fonda) mistake the word "baby" for "babe" and reminisce about a female trumpeter they met when their tour bus broke down in a rundown California seaside resort, where they tried to fix a talent contest so the mayor's son would win. Hollywood film star Gloria Manners (Dorothy Lamour) recalls the time she was hired to work with precocious child star Peggy Thorndyke (Eileen Janssen), who unintentionally triggered her big break in the movies, transforming her from a drab Iowa secretary into a Polynesian goddess. In a story similar to the O. Henry short story "The Ransom of Red Chief", successful stage magician Al (Fred MacMurray) relates how he and his buddy Floyd (William Demarest) once were con artists who stumbled upon young runaway and practical joker Edgar Hobbs in the woods. Upon learning he lived with his wealthy banker uncle, they conspired to return the boy and claim a reward, only to discover his uncle did not want him back. All ended well when Al married Edgar's sister and made the two siblings part of his magic act. At the end of the day, Oliver returns to the newspaper only to discover he's been fired from his real job for being AWOL. When he tells his wife what has happened, she surprises him by telling him she has known all along about his job and does not mind in the least. The paper's editor, impressed by the notes Oliver made while talking to his various subjects, arrives to tell him he likes his column and plans to print it, and asks how he thought of the question in the first place. Martha confesses it came to her because she's going to have a baby. ===== As the titular "happy woman," Lee Ji-yeon (Yoon Jung-hee) is an accessory designer with a cheerful, go-getting personality despite often being looked down upon because of her humble educational and family background. She ends up in a love triangle with her wealthy husband (Jung Gyu-woon) and a lonely detective (Kim Suk-hoon), as the drama explores what happiness means for a woman in terms of family, work, and love. ===== The play has a non- chronological and non-linear structure and moves between different places (Manchester, Oldham, and London) and time periods. It presents various episodes in the lives of the four female characters between the 1920s to 1987. It also features scenes set in "the wasteground", where the four characters play together as their child selves in their own contemporary costumes. The play begins in the Wasteground, where the four girls play as contemporaries - Doris appears aged five, Rosie aged eight, and Jackie and Margaret aged nine. They show disgust for the idea of little girls being made of 'sugar and spice and all things nice' and then put forth the idea of 'killing their Mummy'. Jettisoning the younger Doris, they are wary of ingredients for their 'curse' being too real (such as harelip) or too fantastical; and then call upon the spirit of their Granny, fleeing as a figure moves upstage towards them. The figure is Doris, now an adult and singing to a racy George Formby song on the radio. Her daughter, Margaret, aged eight; surprises her by shouting 'knickers' from beneath the piano. Doris insists on being called 'Mother' rather than 'Mummy', and pushes Margaret to practice the piano rather than answering her inquisitive, lively child's questions about the war and whether her parents say their prayers. The next scene shows Doris as a grandmother with Jackie, Margaret's daughter; now affectionate and lenient, by contrast to her relationship with Margaret. ===== The film begins six years after Kuryu Kohei was transferred to Ishigaki Island (in the TV series finale). We learn in the interim that he has since been transferred to Sapporo and then to a brief tenure in Yamaguchi Prefecture (the events of the 2006 Hero TV Special). Kuryu Kohei returns to the same Tokyo District Prosecutors Office from the TV series and reunites with his old workmates. The events of the film takes him to Korea, wraps up plot threads from the TV special and allows Amamiya and Kuryu to rekindle their relationship which had been in limbo since their date at the 2002 World Cup (5 years). Kuryu prosecutes a fatal hit and run case, but runs into obstruction and interference as the chief suspect is a witness to a high profile political case. As such, Kuryu must face an elite, powerful lawyer, played by Koshiro Matsumoto. Proving his suspect guilty risks collapsing the national case. However, as always, Kuryu only cares about finding the truth and justice about his case and goes to great lengths (even travelling to Korea) to find it. While the TV episodes focused mostly on Kuryu's pre-trial investigative abilities, the film showcases Kuryu's legal skills within the courtroom, leaving Amamiya and the other co-workers to do much of the legwork. ===== In Sandtown, a Midwestern town, six local boys talk about the stars and the river and places they'd like to go to. Tip mentions Enchanted Bluff, a rock surrounded by a plain in New Mexico, where Native Americans used to live before the Spaniards came along. Once, the men were down the rock hunting and an army party killed them. The women and children starved to death on the rock, as an "awful storm" or waterspout had destroyed the stairs needed to go down the rock. The boys eventually get back to their house, and later talk about their plan to go there. Years later, none of them ever made it to the Enchanted Bluff. Percy is a stockbroker in Kansas City; Otto worked on the railway and has now taken up his father's tailor shop with his brother; Arthur had done nothing with his life. He tells the narrator he wants to go to the Enchanted Bluff and to the Grand Canyon, but soon dies in the same old town. Tip, however, plans to go there when his son, who is also obsessed with the bluff, is old enough to go with him. ===== The story is set in Manhattan during a protracted war between the United States and the Soviet Union; midtown Manhattan has been rendered an uninhabitable wasteland by a Soviet "Hell Bomb," though the rest of the city is still occupied. The narrator is a British citizen named Wysten Turner, who is in New York to barter, in exchange for grain, electronic equipment that he suspects will be used in the construction of an American military base on the moon. As the story begins, he pulls a young woman out of the way of a car; apparently it is a favorite gang activity to snag women's clothing with fishhooks welded to their cars' fenders, although this car came a bit too close. Turner involves the police, but they do not regard the incident as serious, and he ends up bribing them to go away. The wearing of masks, akin to the Muslim burka but carrying no religious significance, has become all but mandatory for fashionable American women. Turner therefore cannot see the face of the woman he has helped, and he is intrigued. She arranges for him to meet her later, and they go to a nightclub. She begs him to help her escape America, explaining that her boyfriend, a professional wrestler, beats her when he loses a wrestling match. Turner's sense of chivalry is aroused, and a fight occurs when the boyfriend arrives. Turner, to his surprise, knocks the boyfriend down, but when he does, the girl turns on him rather than thanking him for defending her. Her quasi-seduction of Turner is a ploy she has used on other men in the past, as all those around her already know. She never intended to leave the wrestler, as she craves his abuse. Turner rips the mask from her face, but is repulsed by her lack of grooming and by her expression of hatred. He leaves, anxious to return to England. ===== Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians is a young adult novel about Alcatraz Smedry, a young teen who is always breaking things. After receiving a bag of sand for his thirteenth birthday, he is involved in a strange set of events which begins with a group of librarians stealing his bag of sand, which turns out to have rather unusual properties. The book starts with Alcatraz setting fire to his foster parents' kitchen. It is revealed that he has been in countless foster homes, always ending up with Alcatraz "destroying" things precious to the people taking care of him. Ms. Fletcher, Alcatraz's personal caseworker, arrives and scolds him for destroying his foster parents' kitchen. The next day an old man arrives at the house and claims to be his grandfather, telling Alcatraz that he has a special, powerful talent, which is breaking things. He later finds out that there is a secret society called the Librarians, whose purpose is to conquer the remaining Free Kingdoms and rule the world. ===== In a post-apocalyptic technocratic future Earth, religion has been banned and the Catholic church has gone underground, relying on secret cells and symbols as in the days of the early church. The narrator is a crypto-priest named Thomas, who is charged by the secret Pope with finding the resting place of a semi-legendary figure called Aquin. Aquin had been an evangelist of great power who converted all those who listened to him preach, and his body supposedly never rotted after his death. The Pope believes that this miracle, if true, will be a powerful tool in winning new converts. Thomas is provided with an intelligent multi-terrain transportation device called a "robass," to assist him in reaching the area where Aquin's body supposedly rests. To his surprise, the vehicle is theologically literate and tries to persuade him to abandon his quest, arguing for example that he had not been asked to find Aquin, but rather to report that he had so that the pope could begin the process of canonization. Thomas resists the robass' persuasive arguments in the main, though he does succumb to the temptation to drink and carouse with a pretty half-Martian barmaid in a small town. The people in the town discover he is a priest, beat and rob him, leaving him for dead. He is ignored by all passers-by, but Abraham, an orthodox Jew, rescues him and nurses him back to health. He is able to return to his quest with the help of several secret believers in God. Various episodes from the New Testament are echoed as his quest continues. Ultimately, Thomas does locate Aquin, only to find that he was a robot, and that therefore the legend of his incorruptibility was true...in a sense: his body could not possibly have decayed as he was never made of flesh. The robass had known this all along. The priest realizes that if a robot, with its perfect logic, believed in God, others can be convinced of God's existence by simply using perfect reason. Thomas orders the robass to leave him alone and the story ends with him praying by the side of Aquin's body. ===== A human colonization ship crash-lands on a distant planet which is Earth-like but whose only landmass is completely covered in shallow puddles of water and mostly microscopic life forms. Normal humans could not survive on this planet, so the crew must genetically engineer their descendants into something that can survive. (Blish coined the term pantropy to refer to this concept.) They create a race of microscopic aquatic humanoids to complete their mission and colonize the planet. The majority of the story concerns one group of these genetically engineered colonists and their intelligence, curiosity, and evolving technology. In particular, the tiny aquatic humanoids develop a "space ship", or rather "air ship", which enables them to pierce the previously impenetrable surface tension of the water and travel through what is, to them, hostile space—open air—to other worlds in other puddles of water. ===== Original UK cover by Larry Rostant Christian Huxley enters Ryhope wood on a search for the compelling mythago Guiwenneth and for a better understanding of his mother's suicide. Inside the wood he joins a small group of mythago companions who, in turn, join a vast army of mythagos, numbering in the thousands. This army includes many mythic archetypes including shaman, shapeshifters, and warriors. Among these mythagos are those whose creation is influenced by King Arthur and the Welsh tales of the Mabinogion, specifically the tale of Culhwch and Olwen. Echoing the tales of Culhwch and Olwen, Christian is assigned with completing many impossible tasks. Holdstock uses the story within a story device to have Kylhuk retell a tale involving himself, Olwen and Pwyll, among others. This army, known as a legion, is pursued by the angry dead on its search for the gates to the underworld. As Christian nears the end of his quest in the wood, he has an opportunity to enter the underworld (like Orpheus) and grapple with the suicide of his mother which has two very different manifestations, one true and one false. While in the underworld he is also faced with a difficult choice of rescuing only one of two loved ones from death.Langford, David Supernatural Fiction Writers, Second Edition, Volume 1, ed. Richard Bleiler (New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2003), page 449. ===== City of Life and Death is set in 1937, shortly after the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War. The Imperial Japanese Army has just captured Nanjing (or Nanking), capital of the Republic of China. What followed is historically known as the Nanking Massacre, a period of several weeks wherein massive numbers of Chinese prisoners-of-war and civilians were killed by the Japanese military. After some commanders of the National Revolutionary Army flee Nanking, a Chinese soldier Lieutenant Lu Jianxiong and his comrade-in- arms Shunzi attempt to stop a group of deserting troops from leaving the city, but as they exit the gates, they are captured by Japanese forces that have surrounded the city. As the Japanese comb the city for enemy forces, Superior Private (later Sergeant) Kadokawa Masao and his men are attacked by Lu Jianxiong and a small unit of both regular and non-regular soldiers, who fire at them from buildings. Lu and his companions are eventually forced to surrender as more Japanese troops arrive. The Chinese prisoners-of-war are systematically escorted to various locations to be mass executed. Shunzi and a boy called Xiaodouzi survive the shootings and they flee to the Nanking Safety Zone, run by the German businessman and Nazi Party member John Rabe and other Westerners. Thousands of Chinese women, children, elderly men and wounded soldiers take refuge in this safety zone. However, the zone is forcefully entered several times by bands of Japanese soldiers intent on making sexual advances on female refugees. Due to the repeated intrusions, the women are urged to cut their hair and dress like men to protect themselves from being raped. A prostitute called Xiaojiang refuses to do so, saying that she needs to keep her hair in order to earn a living. Meanwhile, Kadokawa develops feelings for a Japanese prostitute named Yuriko, and struggles to come to terms with the omnipresent violence around him with his own conflicting impulses. Despite his feelings of alienation, Kadokawa brings Yuriko candy and gifts from Japan, and promises to marry her after the war. Rabe's secretary Tang Tianxiang and a teacher named Jiang Shuyun manage the daily operations of the safety zone. Even though he is in a privileged position, Tang is still unable to protect his young daughter from being thrown out of a window by a Japanese soldier, and his sister-in-law from being raped. When the Japanese officer Second Lieutenant Ida Osamu demands that the refugees provide 100 women to serve as "comfort women", Rabe and Jiang tearfully make the announcement to the community. Xiaojiang and others volunteer themselves, hoping that their sacrifice would save the refugees. Kadokawa meets Xiaojiang and brings her rice but witnesses another soldier raping her as she lies almost lifeless. Later, many "comfort women", including Xiaojiang, die from the abuse, and Kadokawa sees their naked bodies being taken away. Kadokawa feels further estranged when he witnesses Ida shooting Tang's sister-in-law May, who has become insane. Rabe receives an order to return to Germany because his activities in the safety zone are detrimental to diplomatic ties between his country and Japan. Tang and his wife are allowed to leave Nanking with Rabe. However Tang changes his mind at the last moment and trades places with a Chinese soldier pretending to be Rabe's assistant, saying that he wants to stay behind to find May. Mrs Tang reveals that she is pregnant before bidding her husband farewell. Not long after Rabe left, Ida has Tang executed by firing squad. The Japanese disband the safety zone and start hunting for Chinese men who were previously soldiers, promising that these men would find work and receive pay if they turn themselves in. However, men deemed to be soldiers are huddled into trucks and sent for execution. Shunzi, who survived the earlier mass killings, is physically checked and initially deemed to be a non-combatant, but is later recognised by a Japanese soldier and brought onto a truck as well. After Minnie Vautrin and other Westerners plead with the Japanese, Ida permits each refugee to choose only one man from the trucks to be saved. Jiang Shuyun rescues a man, pretending to be his wife, and then returns for Shunzi, claiming that he is her husband, while Xiaodouzi acts as their son. Kadokawa sees through Jiang's ruse but does not expose her. Despite this, another Japanese soldier points her out to Ida and the three of them are captured. Shunzi is taken away again, this time together with Xiaodouzi. Jiang, knowing that she will be raped, asks Kadokawa to kill her. He grants her her wish and shoots her, much to his comrades' surprise. Afterwards, Kadokawa looks for Yuriko and learns that she has died after leaving Nanking. He says that she was his wife and requests that she be given a proper funeral. As the Japanese perform a dance-ritual to celebrate their conquest of Nanking and honour their war dead, Kadokawa reveals his emotional turmoil over what he has done and witnessed. Kadokawa and another Japanese soldier march Shunzi and Xiaodouzi out of town to be executed, but to their surprise, Kadokawa releases them instead. Kadokawa tells the other soldier, "Life is more difficult than death." The soldier bows to show his respect for Kadokawa's decision and walks away. Kadokawa then weeps before shooting himself to escape from his guilt. In the end credits, it is revealed that Mrs Tang lived into old age, as did Ida Osamu, and that Xiaodouzi is still alive today. ===== Barbu is a young boy growing up in a remote area of Ukraine. He and his older sister Mimma perform circus acts for their village. Barbu and Mimma are sold by their parents to Caruso, a German circus master to supposedly become part of his circus act in Berlin. On their arrival to Germany, Barbu is taken to the circus, in reality being a training camp of young thieves, and Mimma is sold to Cardinal for prostitution in his brothel. Barbu develops a bond with Caruso and Julie, Caruso's wife, and they feel he is the son they never had. Barbu is trained to pickpocket by Marcel, an older Albanian boy. Caruso eventually discovers that Marcel is keeping a small amount of the cash that he steals, resulting in having him lashed and then sold. Now working on his own, Barbu learns that Mimma has been forced into prostitution, and attempts to free her by entering the brothel with a colt pistol left for him by Marcel. Barbu fails and is violently returned to the circus by Cardinal. Caruso denies that he knew Mimma was in Germany, and says it will cost 100,000 euros for her freedom. Barbu steals all of Caruso's hidden stash of money, and attempts to flee with Mimma by having her escape from the brothel window. He is again unsuccessful and severely punished by Caruso. While being lashed, Julie comes in with a pistol and shoots Curuso in the arm. She then takes Barbu to the brothel where they shoot their way to Mimma's room and rescue her. Caruso arrives to the brothel as the three are leaving, and fatally shoots Julie. He lets Barbu and Mimma leave, and then returns to the circus and burns down his big top whilst inside. ===== The story starts out with the Cardinal family going on a trip to relieve them from some unknown stress. On the way back, it is revealed that the Cardinal family plans to move to California, due to financial concerns. Jack Cardinal is an acclaimed but underpaid writer and plans to move with promises of higher pay. However, if there are Amanda, his wife, is opposed to the idea, stating that they would not be happy and that Jack would not be free to write as he pleases, being controlled by the movie studios. Seeing that the children seem asleep, they battle it out. Eventually, a violent outburst awakes Lou, a young girl who greatly admires her father. She tries to stop the argument multiple times by offering a story, but Jack is undeterred. Meanwhile, Oz, Lou's timid little brother is also awakened. Both Amanda and Lou hurry to comfort him, while simultaneously being calmed. As the argument further escalates, none of the passengers notice a man in the middle of the road, blocking their way. Jack turns the car just in time to avoid killing the man but then loses all control. The car rolls, and when it stops, Jack is dead. Amanda faints. The story then shifts forward to the funeral, where it is discovered that Amanda is now in a catatonic state. Lou overhears two men discussing the fate of the children, and offers the idea of moving in with their great-grandmother in the mountains of Virginia, Louisa Mae. The men accept the offer, and the two children, a nurse, and their mother head off. When they arrive at the strip club, an African-American man picks them up and drives them through a series of towns, each more sparsely populated than the one previous. Soon they pick up a boy, who introduces both himself and their driver. Afterward, he leaves to fish, and the others continue on towards Louisa's house. Once there, Lou starts a completely new life, learning different chores and helping with the slaves. In return, they achieve a comfortable, yet a poor lifestyle. Diamond, the boy they picked up, starts playing a bigger role, often taking the children out on adventures, showing them things such as a little collection of items, a wishing well, a danger-filled shortcut to the city, his version of constellations and the like. Eugene, the "mute" that drove the car, is also revealed as an honest man that will stand up for what is right. At around the same time, Cotton Longfellow, a lawyer, shows up and offers to read to Amanda in hopes that she would get better. Then, a mysterious offer from Southern Valley, a coal and gas company, comes in, offering Louisa $69,420 for her land. She refuses but receives pressure from her neighbors, who have also received the offer but is told that their land is useless without Louisa's. Then, a series of incidents occur. Diamond dies in a dynamite explosion, killed trying to save his dog. Louisa's barn is burned to the ground in the middle of the night, causing her to suffer a stroke. George Davis, a wealthy but hateful farmer, goes into Louisa's land in search of something. Southern Valley comes back with an offer of 5 times the original, but is now refused by Cotton. It is then revealed that a court case is to ensue. and then Jack is reanimated by the Rinne rebirth Jutsu. this of course was only possible thanks to cotton's Finnegan. Southern Valley is represented by Thurston Goode, a renowned lawyer from Richmond. He and Cotton each have several goes at the jury at a very eventful court case. In the end, however, Southern Valley wins, but Amanda comes in, supported by her children, and the book ends with her getting back the land Louisa fought so hard to protect. In the book's epilogue, in which Lou is in her golden age, she writes that after the trial, Cotton and her mother married the following year, and soon afterward he adopted the children. Oz became a star Major League baseball pitcher and later retired to become a school teacher. Eugene built his own farm, married and raised a family, and remained good friends with Lou. Lou states that, like her father, she left the mountains to become a famous writer, but she, unlike Jack, returned years later to live out the rest of her life at the family home. ===== The story starts with Pepero, a young boy in a small poor village in the Andes who lives with his mother in their small house in the village. Pepero's father had left the village earlier in search of the mythical El Dorado, a city that is said to be built completely out of gold which no one has ever found. Pepero's father's aim is to put his family and village out of poverty. However, the father is away for a very long time and no one heard anything about him since he left. The story starts with Pepero seeing the reflection of a golden eagle in a river when he was filling some pots with water. Pepero considers that a sign that his father is alive and that he should look for him. His mind is made up when he meets two weary travelers, an old man named Titicaca and an amnesiac girl named Kayna, who apparently had heard of the mythical El Dorado. Pepero's mind is made up and he decides to set off on the quest for El Dorado with Titicaca and Kayna agreeing to come along with him. On the way, he picks up more friends like Aztec, a teenager who has to look after his siblings while his mother is sick and who sometimes resorts to stealing to support his family and agrees to tag along in promise of the lost treasures, and Chuchu, who is a small boy performing in a circus and who has to look after his sister. In one episode, Pepero succeeds in taming a wild white horse and the horse repays him by coming to Pepero's rescue whenever the latter whistles. Pepero also wears a unique necklace in the shape of a white horn which is the same as the one worn by his father. This helps people identify him as the son of Carlos. This fact is uncovered when Pepero meets a guy who claims that he is Carlos and who is wearing the same necklace. At the end of the episode we discover that Carlos actually saved this man and gave him his necklace. The golden eagle also makes an appearance once in a while to guide Pepero in the general direction he has to take in order to reach El Dorado. Pepero also encounters such sinister characters as a swindler who convinces people that he alone can prevent the wrath of a mountain god in return for money from the natives and a girl who tries to kill them off in a maze among others. At one point in the story and while trying to traverse a cave to the other side, Titicaca gets trapped after a cave-in and the rest of the troop have to travel without him. The gang have to use their heads in order to pass through a maze and later on to solve another puzzle in order to get the map to El Dorado. This rough map in addition to another they acquire from a jealous princess leads them to the gates of El Dorado where Pepero discovers that his father is being accused of stealing the imperial jewels. Pepero in the nick of time discovers that his father is being framed by the head of the police and ends up proving his father's innocence and exposing the cheating official. The whole gang is later taken to meet the emperor and his family and there it is that he discovers that Kayna is actually the princess and that she had lost her memory when a group of conspirators tried to kill her off. The group is still there and try to repeat their act again but Pepero finds out and saves her. An engagement ceremony is held for Pepero and Kayna and the whole gang returns to their respective homes while Pepero and his father, loaded with cash, return to their village to spread the wealth among the poor residents. The show holds a great fascination especially for the young viewers since it has all the elements that excite such an audience like lost treasures, clues that have to be solved, maps...etc. It also presents a wide array of interesting people who the gang meet and present them with moral and ethical problems that they have to cope with while looking for their way along the Andes. ===== Wilma Tuttle (Young) is a college professor who becomes the target of the sexual interest of her student Bill Perry (Douglas Dick). When Perry tries to rape Tuttle, she beats him to death with an auto part, unintentionally, in a terrified effort of self defense. She covers up her crime by making it seem as though Perry was killed while diving into the sea from a precipitous cliff. As she follows the police investigation of Perry's death, Wilma realizes that she'll never be able to escape her conscience, especially when she falls in love with Warren Ford (Cummings), the dead boy's guardian. ===== The film is set in 1905 in a textile factory in Tiflis where two friends are working, Lado and Tade. Lado falls in love with Tade's sister, Tasya. Prince Rostam orders his servants to bring her to him. The friends manage to free the girl and after this they become part of the revolutionary underground ... ===== In bad fortune, while saving his employer Kasturi Prasad's (Dalip Tahil) life, Suryanath (Bharat Bhushan) loses his legs. In appreciation, Kasturi allows Chandra Mohan (Harish Kumar), Suryanath's son, to work in his home. Kasturi's daughter Neelima (Karisma Kapoor) initially makes fun of and teases Chandra, but soon falls in love with him. Kasturi is against this affair and sends henchmen to attack Chandra, which results in their murdering Suryanath during the melee. Young Chandra is convicted of the crime and is sent to a youth detention center as a punishment. The head jailer tortures Chandra, but center Superintendent Prabhavati (Rama Vij) understands his emotions and love for Neelima and intercedes. She tries to reunite the two lovers. ===== Young student Arthur Burton says goodbye to his beloved teacher, the priest Montanelli, who is departing to Rome on the orders of the Pope. Arthur participates in activities of the organization "Young Italy". He is resentful of its leader, Giovanni Bolla; he experiences jealousy towards him regarding his girlfriend Gemma and confesses this to the priest, father Cardi. After the confession all revolutionaries end up arrested by the gendarmes. Arthur is walking through the prison courtyard and admits to Giovanni what he told in the confessional and Giovanni calls him a traitor. Arthur gets released from prison and tries to tell Gemma about what happened but she slaps him and runs away. Back home Arthur learns from his uncle Burton that his real father is Montanelli. Arthur's world falls apart before his eyes, he breaks his crucifix and runs out of his home. Everyone considers him dead. Many years later Arthur comes home adorned with scars which he received from revolutionary battles in South America. Under the pseudonym of Gadfly he joins the revolutionaries and leads an armed struggle in Italy and terrifies the Austrian invaders. To the revolutionary intellectuals he is known under the name Felice Rivarez. The Austrian emperor sends an additional military contingent to Italy and Cardi's father welcomes marching Austrian soldiers and their commander. Gadfly is involved in a secret weapons delivery but the police agents are on his tail. The Carbonari retreat from battle but Rivarez lowers his weapon as he hears the order of Montanelli and is taken prisoner. The death sentence has been predetermined for him. Compatriots give a file to the prisoner and he saws through the bars but falls unconscious in the prison yard. Before the execution Arthur admits to Montanelli that he is his son and offers his shocked father a choice between fighting for freedom or faith in Christ. The cardinal offers his son an escape but Arthur does not want to take life or become a servant of the church. Austrians shoot Gadfly at dawn and he commands his own execution. Montanelli screams in terror that there is no God. ===== Frederick Henry (Rock Hudson) is an American officer serving in an ambulance unit for the Italian Army during World War I. While recovering from a wound in a British base hospital in northern Italy, he is cared for by Catherine Barkley (Jennifer Jones), a Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps nurse he had met earlier, near the front, and they engage in an affair. Frederick's friend, the doctor, convinces the army that Frederick's knee is more severely wounded than it actually is and the two continue their romance but never get married. Catherine discovers she is pregnant but after sneaking alcohol into the hospital for Frederick, the head nurse Miss Van Campen (Mercedes McCambridge) discovers the duplicity and separates them. She informs Frederick's superiors that he has fully recovered from his wounds and is ready for active duty. During their separation, Catherine comes to believe Frederick has abandoned her. Following the Battle of Caporetto, Frederick and his close friend Major Alessandro Rinaldi (Vittorio De Sica) are among the dispirited and retreating Italian army. Along the path or the retreat, several people die or are left behind due to exhaustion. Raving with illness, exhaustion and depression, Major Rinaldi professes defeatism with the pair arrested by the Carabinieri. A drumhead court-martial sentences Rinaldi to execution by firing squad that is immediately carried out. Enraged, Frederick knocks out the kerosene lamps and flees, jumping into the river. Wanted by the Italian authorities, Frederick evades capture and meets up with Catherine. They flee Milan to hide out on a lake on the Italian-Swiss border (Lake Lugano or Lake Maggiore). Fearing arrest by the police, Catherine persuades Frederick to flee to Switzerland by rowboat; after some adventures, they land successfully in Switzerland. Claiming to be tourists trying to evade the war, the two are allowed to remain in neutral Switzerland. Catherine's pregnancy progresses but due to the conditions around them, the pregnancy becomes complicated and Catherine is hospitalized. Their child is stillborn, and Catherine dies shortly afterward. Frederick leaves, shocked, and wanders the empty streets. ===== The film starts with two messengers of God (Chalapathi Rao, and Raghubabu) coming to take the life of Raghuram (Rajendra Prasad). He is a kind-hearted idealistic individual who spends half of his income on charity work. He works as the editor of a newspaper. When his managing director asks him to publish tabloid photos to increase circulation, he is ready to resign and sell Papads instead of losing his values. Later he realizes his mistake and reappoints Raghuram as the editor and promises him not to involve in his duty. His wife Bharati (Aamani), two sons Shekar (Raja) and Chinna (Ping Pong Surya) and a daughter Revathi are quite against his helping attitude. His children compel him to get money for their career (bribe for a job), education (donation fee for engineering seat) and settling in the United States which he feels is completely wrong. He is forced to set aside his morality and take a loan from his neighbor, Kotayya (Kota Srinivasa Rao). Unable to bear the defeat of his ideology and moral issues, he commits suicide by consuming poison the same day he gives money to his children. The rest of the film is about how his children and wife realize just how important he was as they prepare his funeral. At last, everyone realizes that after death only love and affection will come with us so love the people and society. ===== The film begins on Divakaram (Rajendra Prasad) coming late to video-shoot a marriage, where he sees Bhuvaneswari(Shobana) and falls head over heels in love. He then gets hold of Bhuvaneswari's maternal uncle, V. P. Jagannatham (Pradeep Shakti) and gets information about Bhuvaneswari. He gathers that she respects only people who are self-sufficient and straightforward. He also finds out that she is not married and is about to get transferred to Rajahmundry (where he stays) soon. She works as a railway booking clerk. So Divakaram comes back to Rajahmundry and gets permission from the doctor (Shubha), who raises him as her foster child, to use the front veranda in her house for his video shop. In order to secure the capital, he uses all kinds of tricks. He blackmails Bhagyam [(Jayalalitha)], cheats Chinna Rao (Mallikarjuna Rao) and claims a chit which he never was a member of, and so on. Finally, starts the video shop. That's when Bhuvaneswari enters the scene. All the while Jagannatham writes him letters in her name, making Divakaram assume that she is in love with him. Finally, when she lands in Rajahmundry he approaches taking marriage proposals. It's then that he realizes that he had been cheated by Jagannatham. Meanwhile, she finds out all of Divakaram's mischief through the neighbors. To teach him a lesson, she puts forward a deal that she would marry him only if he stays out of cheating, and does not utter a lie in a month. Divakaram goes for it. Here we see all the problems of Divakaram gets into because of the deal he had with Bhuvaneswari. He discloses the murder done by his friend. This enrages his friend who comes out of jail as there is no proof of his murder. In the climax, his friend is killed and Divakaram goes to jail but is acquitted as Dr. Krupa Mani (Shubha) confesses to the murder as an act of self-defense and he comes back to win the hand of Bhuvaneswari. ===== While a teacher is on sick leave, despite his dishevelled appearance and an employment history with unexplained gaps, Daniele is hired to take a class in Rimini. To get to know his pupils, he asks them to write a free essay or, if they prefer, one on the writer Manzoni. To his surprise, only one chooses the latter, the quiet and very attractive Vanina, who increasingly absorbs his attention. He talks to her when he can and gives her the book Vanina Vanini by Stendhal. In his free time, he leaves his partner Monica to herself (they sleep apart) while he gets to know a group of local men who enjoy drinking, gambling, recreational drugs, fast cars and easy women. Prominent among them are a crooked businessman Gerardo, who drives an ostentatious Lamborghini and is the lover of Vanina, and Spider, a gay pharmacist who is secretly a devout Catholic and lover of poetry. Daniele takes the withdrawn Vanina to see a wall painting by Piero della Francesca and on the way back they share a kiss. When Spider's birthday comes round, after going to a disco where Vanina sulks and will not dance, the group end up at Gerardo's luxurious house. In revenge he shows a home movie, which starts innocently with Vanina on holiday but turns into a sex tape. She switches off the electricity and Gerardo asks everybody to leave. Next day Vanina does not turn up at school and Daniele goes to the house of her mother, who with threats warns him to stay away from her daughter. Going home, he faces trouble from Monica, who tolerates his evenings out with other men but not his growing obsession over his pupil. In addition, Spider has fallen in love with him and has found a book of poems he wrote called The First Night of Stillness. When Spider asks the significance of the title, Daniele says it is taken from Goethe: after you die, you have your first night without dreams. Another friend Marcello, a real estate agent with empty properties to sell, takes Daniele to a solitary house by the sea he has allowed Vanina to hide in. After Daniele and Vanina have made love, they are woken by a furious Gerardo who has been looking for his runaway lover. He tells Daniele that Vanina was a child prostitute, managed by her mother, who has been enjoyed by most men in town and some women too. Daniele then gets the better of him in a fight and he leaves. Putting Vanina on a train to stay with her sister, Daniele goes home to tell Monica he is leaving her, to which she replies that she will kill herself. When he stops at a bar to ring Monica, the phone is not answered and as he leaves he is professionally beaten up by the lover of Vanina's mother. Rescued by Marcello, he is looked after by Spider. Injured and upset, he drives fast and erratically through the fog to Monica's. After getting no response to knocking on Monica's door, he drives to a bar to phone for help in getting into Monica's flat and says that he will be there soon. He then drives onto a main road without looking and is hit by a truck and killed. The only character to go to his funeral in his family's grand villa is Spider. ===== Kate and Henry are a happy couple. Henry proposed to Kate and they are about to be married, but on the day of their wedding, Kate is accidentally killed by an ice sculpture angel, because of the actions of an ice sculptor (Stephen Root). Unaware that she has died and her soul left her body, Kate awakens in Purgatory, and wastes precious time arguing with an angel who finally leaves before she can explain to Kate what she must do to move on. A year later, Henry's sister Chloe (Lindsay Sloane) hopes that he will find closure by consulting Ashley (Lake Bell), a psychic who also runs a catering business with her gay best friend Dan (Jason Biggs). After an unsuccessful first meeting, Chloe gives Kate's diary to Ashley so that she can pretend to communicate with Kate and convince Henry to move on with his life. In the process, Henry and Ashley fall for each other... much to the consternation of Kate, who has been watching over Henry. When Kate voices her displeasure, Ashley hears her, unaware of what it means. Angry over Ashley's deception and uncertain of what she is supposed to do, Kate later encounters the ice sculptor, and discovers that he is also a ghost (a result of a drunk driving accident). He explains to her that they must deal with their unfinished business. Believing that her job is to protect Henry, Kate proceeds to harass Ashley (who is the only one who can see or hear Kate). Using her ghostly abilities of intangibility, levitation, and auditory hallucination, Kate hopes to force Ashley to break up with Henry. Ashley persists, but then Henry discovers the fraud with the diary and breaks off the relationship. Despondent over the break-up, Ashley turns to Dan for solace, but is further distraught when Dan reveals that he is not gay and has secretly been in love with her for years. Over time, Ashley and Dan eventually reconcile. After several months of watching Henry fall back into a depressed funk, Kate encounters the sculptor once more, who points out that if she had resolved her unfinished business, she would have moved on to Heaven by now. When the sculptor asks her what she really wants, Kate reluctantly admits that she only wants Henry to be happy... and realizes that he could be happy with Ashley. Then the sculptor reveals that Kate was his unfinished business and he had to get her to do the right thing before moving on, which he does. Kate first attempts to convince Ashley to get back together with Henry but Ashley doesn't believe her change of heart, and is preparing to fly to Las Vegas with Dan. In desperation, Kate finds she is able to talk to Henry through his pet parrot and gets him to meet Ashley at the airport. Realizing that Henry has forgiven her and that she has Kate's blessing, Ashley joyfully embraces with Henry. At their wedding, Ashley delays her walk down the aisle to sit briefly in the back pew, to promise Kate that she will strive to make Henry happy. Also at the wedding, Dan makes a new connection with Chloe. Now ready to move on, Kate arrives once more in Purgatory, congratulated for her efforts by the angel and requests the "orb of true light" collected from Kate's loved ones. The angel leaves once again, leaving Kate in Purgatory. ===== Two young physicists and old friends — the possessed experimental physicist Dmitri Gusev and the skeptical theoretical physicist Ilya Kulikov — conduct nuclear studies at a research institute in Siberia. Dmitri leads the research started by his teacher Sintsov, who has received a deadly dose of radiation as a result of an experiment. Dmitri has also been irradiated. Doctors warn him that further irradiation might kill him as well. Meanwhile, his friend Ilya and Lyolya, a love interest of Dmitri, have developed a romantic relationship. The enamoured couple is getting prepared for the wedding and looking for an opportunity to inform Dmitri. When they finally meet, Dmitri already suspects Lyolya and Ilya and treats them coldly. Caught up in self-contradictions, Lyolya tries to understand Dmitri's true feelings for her, only to learn the terrible diagnosis. Realizing that she still loves Dmitri, Lyolya cancels the wedding to Ilya in order to marry Dmitri. Despite the health warnings, Dmitri continues with his experiments in fusion power. After a number of failures, he turns to Ilya for help. Whilst carrying out of the experiment successfully, Dmitri receives a new radiation dose. He tries to hide this fact from everyone, including his wife Lyolya who is misinterpreting his sudden isolation, though the truth eventually rises to the surface. The research work has been continued by Ilya. Dmitri's health is getting worse, but he decides to fight his illness to the end and agrees to undergo bone marrow transplantation. ===== Chettinad Palace in Karaikudi seen in the film. Natesan (Cheran) works as an engineer in an electricity board in Karaikudi and leads a joint family with more than 30 of his relatives living in the same house. On the other hand, Visalakshi aka Sala (Sneha) is the only daughter to her parents, and she is about to complete her college education in Karaikudi. Sala feels bored while being alone and always prefers to have her friends surrounding her. Sala’s parents start searching for a groom and get a reference for Natesan. Sala and her family meet Natesan’s family in a function. Sala is surprised to see so many people living as a joint family together, and she is very much impressed and agrees for the wedding. Natesan and Sala get married. Sala loves being accompanied by all the relatives in Natesan’s home. When Sala and Natesan go on a honeymoon, Sala purchases gifts for everyone in the family. All the family members are also impressed upon seeing Sala. Natesan feels sad that he does not get private time to spend with his wife as they are always surrounded by relatives. Now, he gets transferred to a hill station named Attakatti, near Pollachi. Natesan feels happy as he believes that this will provide him time to spend with Sala. Although Sala feels sad leaving all her relatives, she also goes with Natesan to the hill station. Over there in the hill station, Sala feels lonely and gets bored, and she longs for the life that she had in Karaikudi. Their house is located in a remote place with no friends and neighbors. Natesan also gets busy with work and has very little time to spend with his wife. Slowly, Sala gets psychologically disturbed due to loneliness, and she behaves as if the house is filled with so many people. Also, she breaks the fan, lights, etc. purposefully in their home so that the nearby electrician, Karuppu (Ganja Karuppu), can come to fix them, and at least she gets a chance to speak to someone. She also starts recording all the sounds around her such as birds chirping, etc. and listens to the recordings when alone. One day, she records a neighbour’s child’s laughter sound following which the child faints. Sala is scared, but the child is saved. Dr. Ramalingam (Jayaram) sees Sala and understands that she is suffering from a disorder and warns Natesan, but he does not take it seriously. One day, Sala consumes too much of sleeping pills to come out of her depression, but Natesan spots her lying in bed and rushes her to the hospital. Sala is saved. Ramalingam explains the disorder to Natesan and mentions that the best cure for her would be to lead a happy life surrounded by relatives. Natesan agrees and moves back to Karaikudi. The movie ends showing Natesan and Sala leading a happy life again. ===== A nerd falls in love with a blind musician, and wonders, “Why aren't all blind people geniuses?” This leads him to develop an experimental procedure to repurpose the visual areas of his own brain to amplify intelligence. ===== A mysterious pandemic leaves civilization in ruins and severely limits humankind's ability to communicate. Some are deprived of their ability to read or write, while others lose the ability to speak. They identify themselves by carrying items or symbols that function as names. People communicate among themselves through universally understood sign language and gestures that can often exacerbate misunderstandings and conflicts. Additionally, it seems that as a result of the illness and their handicap, many ordinary people are easily prone to uncontrollable feelings of jealousy, resentment, and rage over their own impairments and the ability of others. In Los Angeles, a woman named Rye has lost her parents, husband, sister and children to the illness. Due to this isolation, she decides to seek out her brother and his family in nearby Pasadena. They are her only remaining relatives, although she is unsure if they have survived. When a fight breaks out on a bus, Rye is forced to consider walking the rest of the twenty miles through dangerous territory. She then meets Obsidian, a man dressed in an LAPD uniform, an oddity in a society in which all governmental organizations have disintegrated. He stops to restore order, ending the fight by throwing an object which releases gas into the bus, causing everyone to exit and the fight to end. He then offers her a ride in his car. She initially refuses the offer of a ride, noting the gun he owns and fearing his intentions. However, he gestures persistently and removes his revolver to indicate he doesn't intend to harm her. Confronted with the hostilities of her fellow passengers or the threat of walking the streets alone, she cautiously accepts the stranger's offer, and together they resume the trip out of the city. Before long, Rye learns that Obsidian can still read a map, and she struggles with an intense feeling of jealousy and an urge to kill him. Instead, she reveals that she is still able to talk, and the two share an intimate moment and have sex. Rye asks Obsidian to return home with her, and he reluctantly agrees. On the road home, the couple observes a woman being chased by a man wielding a knife. Both feel inclined to intervene in the woman's defense but are unable to prevent the woman from being fatally stabbed. After wounding the assailant, the man is able to wrestle the gun from Obsidian and shoot him in the head, which instantly kills him. Rye then kills the assailant. After the violence, two children emerge, a boy and a younger girl, apparently the children of the dead woman. Rye drags Obsidian back to the car with the intention of giving him a proper burial—and initially plans to ignore the plight of the children—but shortly afterward, she has a change of heart and returns for the body of the woman and her two children. As she reaches for the woman's body, the girl speaks in coherent English, shouting "No. Go Away," and the young boy tells her not to speak. This is the first coherent speech that Rye has heard in many years, and she realizes that her choice to adopt the children is the right one. "I’m Valerie Rye," she says. "It‘s all right for you to talk to me." It is the first time she has spoken her own name in a very long time.Butler, Octavia E. "Speech Sounds." Bloodchild and Other Stories. New York: Seven Stories Press, 1996. pp. 87–110. Print. ===== On a distant world the age of exploration is beginning. A party of daring explorers attempts to circumnavigate their world. In unknown waters they encounter an island civilization which claims to have a prophet who fell from the stars. ===== In a post-apocalyptic United States, the Pacific States of America are convulsed by a bloody civil war backed on one side by the "Espers", a movement that claims its followers can achieve great psychic powers. However the Espers are just a front for an even more unusual group. The story explores the balance of social forms, from feudal to super-state, and warns of the dangers of forced nation-building. It begins with the Pacific coast divided into a collection of clans with a weak central government, following some form of global war and collapse. A war breaks out, generated by people who sincerely believe that replacing the clans with a strong, overarching government is necessary for the future. Unknown to them, there are forces behind the scenes manipulating the situation through the pacifistic "esper" colonies. Eventually, the clan leaders discover that the "espers" are a fraud; they use advanced technology to perform their "psychic" acts. Knowing this, the inherent superiority of the clan system slowly defeats the regular government forces, eventually taking San Francisco. There, artillery damage reveals the great secret: one of San Francisco's skyscrapers houses an alien spacecraft. Confronting the aliens, the clansmen are told that the aliens are trying to manipulate human society into a pacifist one, without which their science predicts war and death. When told that their machinations have already resulted in war and death, the aliens plead that their science is not exact. The ensuing argument encapsulates the point of the story quite effectively; that people should be allowed to think for themselves, and form a society which they choose for themselves, rather than one chosen and imposed by an external body, no matter how wise and noble the intent. According to Jerry Pournelle's foreword in " Day of the Tyrant: There Will Be War vol IV ", Poul Anderson asserted, "The do-gooders get their comeuppance". ===== A young man tells his story about growing up working at a greasy spoon diner near Sutton, West Virginia. Late at night it happened to be a hang-out for unusual travelers from alternate versions of Earth. After being tantalized by descriptions of far-off wonders, the young man begins to dream of hitching a ride in one of the "traveler's" vehicles. ===== The film is set in the sixties and revolves around the teenager Suzy, who is part of an uncaring family: father is abusive and unemployed, mother is naive, one brother is the brooding type while the other is habitually stoned. Suzy surreptitiously manages to gain access to the hotel room of Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull during their visit to Amsterdam. Suzy gets kissed by her idol Jagger and wants to tell the world, but nobody believes her or even wants to hear the story. ===== Small town newspaper editor and failed novelist Ethan Owens leads a cautious, disappointing life, until he spends a few evenings with the long-dead author Priscilla Wallace, who wrote his favorite travel book, 'Travels with My Cats'. When his only copy is destroyed at the end of the story, Ethan swears to find another and finds a new cause to go on in life. ===== The film follows Bixby and Walker who describe systematically four serious deficits shaping the U.S. economy: budget, savings, the balance of payments, and leadership. As of the early 2008 release of the film they had created a national debt of over $9.6 trillion, $30,000 for each American.Paul B. Farrell, A $75 trillion fright fest, Eight megahorror debts chilling America, Wall Street Journal, September 8, 2008.Cynthia Fuchs, Review of I.O.U.S.A., PopMatters.com, August 26, 2008. Capsule Reviews Of Current Releases, Cleveland Free Press, Volume 15, Issue 88, January 22nd, 2009. * The budget deficit section highlights the 53 trillion dollars in unfunded benefits (medicare, medicaid and social security) that will come due and can only be paid by tripling taxes or cutting all government spending except for that to those programs. * The savings deficit is created by individuals living beyond their means and accumulating personal debt instead of savings. * The balance of payments problem is the trade deficit caused by the U.S. importing more than it exports, especially from China, draining money and goods from its economy. China has the greatest trade surplus in the world while the USA has the largest trade deficit in the world. * The leadership deficit is the lack of civic or political leaders willing to make it clear Americans must cut government spending, pay more taxes, save more of their personal income and use less imported materials. ===== ;Characters * Silvia: a beautiful young woman, who slowly becomes more calculating and deceptive as she falls from grace; romantically connected to Philander, Octavio, and Alonzo * Philander: a young handsome man, who enjoys conquering women; romantically connected to Silvia and Calista * Octavio: a handsome, rich, and noble man; one of the States of Holland; Calista's brother; in love with Silvia and a rival to Philander * Cesario: Prince of Condy; leader of the rebellion of the Huguenots in France; aspires to become the next King of France; he is the King's bastard son * Brilljard: Philander's servant; later Silvia's lawful husband, who promised not to claim her as his wife; however, he falls in love with her * Calista: Octavio's sister, married to an old Spanish Count; Philander's new conquest * Sebastian: Octavio's uncle, one of the States of Holland as well * Sir Mr. Alonzo Jr.: a handsome young gentleman, nephew of the governor of Flanders, by birth a Spaniard; a womanizer * Osell Hermione: Cesario's mistress, later his wife; neither young nor beautiful * Fergusano: one of the two wizards appointed to Hermione; Scottish; deals with black magic ===== Helen Morgan begins her career as a Chicago carnival dancer. She catches the eye of fast-talking, double-dealing Larry Maddux, whose promotion catapults her to fame as a Broadway performer in Show Boat and a headliner in her own nightclub. Helen is involved in two romantic relationships - with Maddux, and with wealthy attorney Russell Wade - each of which cause her great anguish. When she realizes the caddish Maddux has been merely using her to support the upscale lifestyle he has come to enjoy, she turns to alcohol. Wade, who is genuinely in love with Helen, is nonetheless married and a divorce is impossible; this helps drive her further into the bottle. She loses the bulk of her money to the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Wall Street Crash of 1929, hits rock bottom and, finally is hospitalized in the alcoholic ward of Bellevue. Maddux has a redemptive change of heart and arranges a gala dinner, hosted by Walter Winchell and Florenz Ziegfeld, in Helen's honor. The film's ending suggests this was her first step on the road to recovery, success, and happiness; this, however, was not the case for the real Helen Morgan. ===== After many years of work, a scientist obsessed with revenge develops a flower that will do his bidding and drink human blood.Synopsis from ===== A young Chinese martial arts national champion, Kong, comes to Hong Kong on a short contract with a Chinese opera group. A small-time gambling boss, Ma, is so impressed with Kong that he wants him to be his fighter in the underground all-contact boxing world. In need of money, Kong makes up his mind to enter the underground boxing scene with his girlfriend Tin, and together they are under control. Kong's fighting skills made him unbeatable in the arena, but after each win, he gets himself in too deep with the underground world. ===== Michiko Akiyama (Kinuyo Tanaka) is married to Tadao Akiyama (Masayuki Mori), a college professor but a vulgar man with a low-class background. Towards the end of World War II, they flee the Bombing of Tokyo to her parents' estate in the suburban Musashino. When her parents die, Michiko inherits the estate. Nearby is her cousin, Eiji Ono (So Yamamura), a wartime profiteer with loose morals, and his wife Tomiko (Yukiko Todoroki). After the end of the war, the extended family is joined by the young and handsome Tsutomu Miyaji (Akihito Katayama), another cousin of hers and former prisoner- of-war. In the immediate post-war era, Japanese traditions and morals decline. Tadao comes home drunk every night and has sexual relationships with students. He also propositions Tomiko. However, Tomiko, unhappy in her marriage, also lusts after Tsutomu. Michiko also has mutual feelings for Tsutomu but resists his advances because she is a married woman and because she does not want him to fall prey to permissiveness. However, when she learns of her husband's plans to swindle her out of her inheritance and run off with Tomiko, she decides to commit suicide to frustrate Tadao's theft and to leave most of her estate to Tsutomu. ===== Everything on a Waffle, set in a small Canadian of Coal Harbor fishing village, tells the story of an eleven-year-old girl named Primrose Squarp. One night, a storm hits their town. Her father is out to sea during the storm, so her mother leaves Primrose with a neighbor while she takes a boat out to go find him. Primrose's parents disappear in the typhoon, but Primrose refuses to believe they are dead and doesn't attend their memorial service.Margolies, Jane. "CHILDREN'S BOOKS", The New York Times, June 17, 2001. Accessed January 13, 2008. While she defends her family's survival, her custody situation moves around from aging neighbor Miss Perfidy to her preoccupied, but caring Uncle Jack. The only thing that remains constant is her enjoyment of a restaurant called the Girl on the Red Swing, where each menu item is served on a waffle. Restaurant owner Kate Bowzer takes Primrose under her wing. She teaches her how to cook (recipes are all cited in a notepad). She doesn't question or criticize her, even through her odd predicaments, such as accidentally setting the class guinea pig on fire. Primrose is taken from the custody of her uncle Jack after a series of accidents, including losing a toe and part of her finger. Uncle Jack is said to be fighting "tooth and nail" for custody of her. As a foster kid, she is put into the home of an older couple, Evie and Bert. Although, they are all fond of each other, Primrose does not seem able to develop an attachment to them, likely because of her history of unstable living. While in foster care, the mental state of Primrose's former guardian, Miss Perfidy, quickly deteriorates. While Primrose is visiting her in the hospital, Miss Perfidy dies, but Primrose does not exhibit much of a reaction. Through her oddities and accidents, Primrose becomes a town curiosity, with neighbors questioning her emotional state. But even through all of this, Primrose never gives up hope in finding her parents and being a normal family again. Primrose is eventually returned to her uncle, but remains in contact with Bert and Evie, as they see her as a granddaughter figure. Later on, her parents come back, which is a real shock to everyone in town. Uncle Jack faints upon seeing them alive, and Primrose embraces her parents. They reveal that the storm had washed them up on a shore, where they had survived until they flagged down a passing-by ship. Throughout her unstable life, Primrose remains rock solid in her belief that her parents will return. She gathers many stories from many people regarding times when they have "just known" something was true, even though they mightn't have had proof. This helps develop the main theme of this strange story: hope is not crazy. ===== With the death of Chief Issetibbeha, custom demands that all the Chickasaw leader's prized possessions be buried alive in the earth along with him. This includes his black servant, a slave who has served the chief since boyhood. The unnamed slave makes a desperate bid for freedom, taking refuge in the swamps and reflecting on his past life. Meanwhile, the dead chief's son Moketubbe, who is grossly overweight and has no real interest in leadership, is forced to marshal his forces and begin a manhunt for the fugitive slave. The few Indians willing to accompany Moketubbe are equally corrupt, decadent, and full of despair. As they slowly close in on the missing slave, they too reflect on the past, discussing the ways in which slavery and the coming of the white man have doomed them to crime, violence, and slow extinction as a people. ===== Kaoru Inoue had suffered a tragedy when his parents were killed by a knife-wielding man in the political rally of Assemblyman Yūzō Asada in Tokyo when he was 6. Because of this, all of his senses have been improved with the ability to detect anything in his surroundings ranging from telling who is an assassin and who is a civilian while being able to tell important details such as having photographic and tracking abilities. Veteran SP officer Sōichirō Ogata recruits him from SP training after being impressed with his training under Section 4 of the SP division. Inoue works with Eri Sasamoto, one of the few women serving in the division. Another officer is Takafumi Yamamoto, who is the only known SP officer to have MMA experience with a preference to use the 7:3 hairstyle ratio. Mitsuo Ishida is the only known SP officer in the section who had been previously married. Together, these men and women work in unison to protect the VIPs assigned to them from being killed by assassins. But when the team is assigned to protect Asada, now the Prime Minister of Japan, Inoue begins to have nightmares relating to the tragedy while Ogata strives to ensure his safety while having some secrets of his own aside from Inoue. ===== Dermot O'Neill (Robert Mitchum) is recruited into the Irish Republican Army (IRA) when a unit is formed in his Northern Ireland town during the Second World War. Reaction to the news is mixed. His mother is strongly against it, while his father (Harry Brogan) is proud. His brother Ned (Niall MacGinnis) and sister Bella (Marianne Benet) are ambivalent. Dermot's girlfriend, Neeve Donnelly (Anne Heywood), breaks up with him, telling him the IRA will turn him into a murderer. Dermot and his friend Sean Reilly (Richard Harris) are chosen from their unit to participate in a raid on a British armoury to steal weapons and ammunition. Don McGinnis (Dan O'Herlihy) is frustrated because, as commandant of the unit, he is too important to risk. The theft goes off without a hitch. However, their next attack, to destroy a guarded power plant in concert with a planned German invasion, results in bloodshed. To get away, Dermot shoots a soldier blocking the way out. Sean is wounded in the foot and Johnny Corrigan is killed. Dermot and Sean evade their pursuers and manage to cross the border to safety in the Republic of Ireland. Dermot returns home, leaving his friend to recuperate. Despite Dermot's advice to stay away, Sean tries to sneak back across the border and is captured by the police. Dermot wants to stage a rescue, but McGinnis turns him down. Sean is sentenced to ten years imprisonment. McGinnis decides to get revenge by attacking a police barracks. Dermot opposes this plan, as a policeman's wife and children are living there, and warns that he will tell the authorities if McGinnis does not change his mind. When the commandant refuses to back down, Dermot tells McGinnis he is quitting the IRA. He is beaten up, but a police patrol comes upon the scene before the IRA members can do anything more drastic. Dermot carries through on his threat, telling Sergeant Crawley (Geoffrey Golden), though without naming names. He is abducted to stand trial as an informant. Bella becomes concerned when her brother does not come home. She goes to Neeve. The two then consult Dermot's good friend, cobbler Jimmy Hannafin (Cyril Cusack). Jimmy has a pretty good idea what has happened. He gets Ned to help in the rescue. Neeve refuses to be left behind, but Bella is sent home to reassure her parents. Once they find and free Dermot, guarded only by youngster Quinn (Wilfred Downing), Jimmy arranges for a friend to give Dermot a ride to Belfast, where he can leave the country. Neeve goes with him. Meanwhile, the IRA men start searching for him. McGinnis stations himself at the O'Neill home. In the darkness and driving rain, he mistakes the returning Bella (wearing Dermot's coat) for the fugitive and shoots her dead. He is horrified to discover that he has killed the woman he loves. ===== Nils Ericson gets off a train in his hometown. He gets a ride in a carriage to his family home, where his mother greets him after many years apart. He goes for a walk with his little brother, Eric. The next day, the two brothers talk about Lou Sandberg's suicide - Nils dismisses the old man for his folly. Nils visits Clara, who asks him if he has the second will his father wrote that bequeathed him some land. His mother drives him home and expresses her disapproval of Clara's father, Joe, for being a saloon-keeper. Later, Clara meets Nils outside the saloon. He tells her he came back to see her because he loves her. She gallops off. Some time later, her father invites her and Nils along for wine and music. Later, at the Ericsons's barnraising, Nils follows Clara down to the cellar, then dances with her and says they should run away together. On her way back home from her father's one night, the two lovers run away. A year after the couple's departure, Eric is on a train bound for New York City where he is to board a ship to join his brother and Clara in Bergen, Norway. Nils has been corresponding with Clara's father, Joe. However, Eric decides to stop at Red Oak, Iowa and return home to his mother, as he doesn't want to leave her alone in the house. Once he is back, she says she has been milking the cows instead of asking a local boy to do the job for her: she did not want people to talk. Mother and son are happily reunited. ===== When Mr Pedelty (Joseph Tomelty) leaves his firm, he is given a television set as a retirement present. At first he enjoys all the attention from his neighbours, but soon the attraction wears off, and he sells it on to a young married couple the Nortons (Jack Watling and Peggy Cummins) living in the flat above him. They soon encounter the same problems, and again the set is passed on to several different characters all with the same results. The set passes to the chemist Hector McPhee who falls in love with "The Lonely Hearts Singer" on a television programme. At first he has the same dour character of his maiden aunt, Miss MacPherson (Jean Cadell). At first the set improves his character, but as his obsession grows he gets increasingly angry at any interuption. ===== George Pearson, an employee at an underwear factory, is caught between his modern wife and his meddling mother. After buying a special yarn and getting his wife to promote it, he has an argument with his boss, Mr Dawson who insults Pearson's wife and refuses to apologise. Pearson then resigns. After finding out that the yarn is actually worth a fair amount, Mr Dawson tries to buy it from Pearson but he has some competition. ===== A pair of teenage half-brothers, Karl and David Scott, are on a flight with their father Frank on his private plane when Karl takes over the controls, so his father can fall asleep. After flying into a storm, Karl struggles, causing Frank to retake control before it crashes into the ocean. Frank saves his sons, but has trouble escaping the crashed plane as his seatbelt fails to release. Karl and David wash up on the shore of a large uncharted island. Looking for help, Karl and David meet a man named Cyrus Crabb who informs them that they are in Dinotopia, a hidden civilization where human beings and dinosaurs co-exist peacefully. Crabb leads the boys to a village, where the boys are surprised to see that they are wearing clothes from different cultures in different time periods. There, they witness a young Dinotopian woman, Marion Waldo, pacify a Ankylsaurus with a toothache. The two boys befriend her and hitch a Brachiasaur "bus" ride to Waterfall City. During the journey, the "Brachs" become distressed by an unseen presence. Marion, David, Karl and the Brach bus conductor investigate the forest nearby and find Tyrannosaurus Rex footprints. Marion is unsettled by this, as Tyrannosauruses do not usually hunt in packs and that they are "not evil, just hungry by nature". She begins to sense a strange unbalance, after discovering the destroyed remains of a Dinotopian village. For the Brachs's safety, the group spends the night in the village. Later in the night, the group is attacked by the raiding T-Rex pack. Karl, David and Marion run for their lives, as the Tyrannosaurus hunt them down. Marion trips and falls, and is nearly killed by a T-Rex when a group of Skybax Riders, humans riding on Pterodactyl-like dinosaurs, distract and scare away the Tyrannosauruses. The Skybax squadron leader, Oonu, offers to escort the Brachs to Waterfall. In fact, some of the dinosaurs, notably a neurotic but friendly Stenonychosaurus named Zippo, possess human intelligence and speak perfect English. Among the many rules in Dinotopia is the edict that, once an outsider arrives, he or she is never allowed to leave. As Karl and David prepare to take their places in their new surroundings, both boys develop a strong bond with young Marion, who is on the verge of becoming a "matriarch" of the Dinotopian society. Legend has it that their ancestors lived in an underworld that was lit by sunstones. Cyrus has been stealing artifacts and books to try and find a way off the island. Zippo discovers all the stolen items, but Cyrus knocks him out and throws him in a water canal. Meanwhile, Karl finds a Dino egg and gets sent on a mission by himself. The sun-stones keep mysteriously breaking which causes the dinos to attack. David needs to learn to conquer his fears. Unfortunately, the incursion of vicious carnivores, not to mention an unanticipated human villain, threaten to destroy Dinotopia and everyone living there. ===== James 'Jimmy' Hands (James Nesbitt) and Rudy 'Rud' Guscott (Lennie James) are two friends who used to play "Cops & Robbers" when they were young. Now adults, they plan to actually rob a Bank, but the robbery goes wrong and Hands flees the Bank leaving Guscott trapped behind the security shutters. Hands is caught and arrested not long later. After being sentenced to do time in prison, Hands and Guscott make a daring escape plan as the prison is scheduled to put on a theatrical show of Nelson: The Musical. Hands and Guscott plan to use the show as cover their daring break-out attempt. During rehearsals, the inmates are unable to find a pianist for the show, until one inmate, Cliff Gumbell (Timothy Spall) volunteers and impresses them with his amazing piano skills. Hands is cast as Nelson (against his will) and Guscott is cast as Hardy, much to Guscott's dismay as his character kisses Nelson as he dies. The escape plan proves difficult to proceed with, as one of the guards becomes very suspicious of Hands. Further complications arise when one of the more dangerous inmates threatens Hands to help him escape, as well as Hands warming to a prison employee named Annabel (Olivia Williams). During a prison visiting day, Gumbell is devastated to learn that his son is spending more time with his uncle, and that his wife is very disappointed being married to a criminal. Unable to live with the shame, Gumbell commits suicide in his cell. The night of the show arrives and the escape plan is put into action. However, the dangerous inmate is tricked into going over the 30-foot prison wall and falls down the other side, where he is captured. Hands and Guscott are about to escape when Hands reveals his intentions to stay because of his feelings for Annabel. Guscott reluctantly lets Hands go and escapes with two other inmates, one of whom has a friend who arrives in a plane to help them escape. Back in the prison, one of the guards resigns from his job over frustration of the inmates escaping and becomes a car park warden. Hands is later released from prison and starts a new life with Annabel. ===== The protagonist, Miles Plastic, is an orphan who, at the beginning of the story, is finishing a prison term for arson. Crime is treated very leniently by the state, and conditions in prison are actually quite superior to those among the population at large, leading to an understandably high recidivism rate. Upon release, Plastic goes to work at a state-run euthanasia centre. The centres are not restricted to the terminally ill and are so popular that Plastic's sole responsibility is to stem "the too eager rush" of perfectly healthy but "welfare weary" citizens. Plastic soon falls in love with Clara, a bearded woman who is a "priority case" at the centre. However, she does not wish to die (she was sent there by her department) and the two begin a romance. One day, however, she suddenly disappears, and when he finds her, she has a rubber jaw replacing her formerly bearded face. Distraught, Plastic sets his former prison on fire, and, unidentified as the perpetrator of the crime, becomes elevated in status as the prison's only "successfully rehabilitated inmate." Sent to become a lecturer on the worthiness of the prison system, Plastic is directed to marry an unattractive civil servant. A curtain is drawn on the final conclusion as Plastic reaches into his pocket for his cigarette lighter. ===== Claude Eastman (Dudley Moore) is a composer and the conductor of a prestigious symphony who has recently married beautiful Daniella (Nastassja Kinski), a much younger woman. While travelling, he sends a message to his friend Norman Robbins (Albert Brooks) to keep an eye on his wife, but the message is garbled by Claude's Italian valet Giuseppe (Richard Libertini), and instead of looking after Daniella, Norman hires a private detective named Keller (Richard B. Shull) to investigate her. The private eye's report, which comes with a fuzzy video, is that Daniella had an assignation with a man who, by wearing Argyle socks, appears to be Maxmillian Stein (Armand Assante), a handsome violinist with the orchestra - and Claude's protégé - who is well known as a ladies man. Claude at first doesn't directly confront Max. When Max eventually meets Daniella, it is at a restaurant where Claude, overwhelmed with jealousy, duels Max with violins by playing a Csárdás, the famous composition of Vittorio Monti. Claude confronts Daniella, who feels guilty because she is keeping a secret from her husband, only not the one he thinks it is. When she tells him that it's no big deal, Claude is enraged. As he conducts Tchaikovsky's "Violin Concerto", an elaborate plan to kill Daniella and frame Max for the murder runs through his mind, but afterwards, when he tries to carry out his plan, unforeseen circumstances intervene.rcs0411 Plot summary (IMDB)Betzold, Michael Plot synopsis (Allmovie)Canby, Vincent "Film: Unfaithfully Yours" New York Times (10 February 1984) ===== The plot centers around three brothers, sophisticated armed robbers led by the shrewd Dale who work with their long-time lawyer, Frank and corrupt police to pull off the biggest heist in Australian history. Matters become complicated when Dale begins to realize that while he's been in jail his wife, Carol has been sleeping with Frank, who has schemes of his own. The major heist is a reworking of the 1976 Great Bookie Robbery, with a number of variations, including the murders of several people. ===== It mostly follows the unities of time (happens in a short amount of time, usually 24 hours), place (happens in one place) and plot (one or few plot lines). It also has a five-act structure, and most of the characters follow decorum. However, with verisimilitude (or, the appearance of truth), the play is lacking. The idea that the entire plot line could happen within 24 to 48 hours is astonishing. In the first act, Phraates, an officer at court, and Gotarzes, a prince, discuss Prince Arsaces’ triumphal return from foreign wars. But there is trouble at home. Vardanes, the brother of Gotarzes and Arsaces, is jealous of Arsaces' marital successes. Thermusa, Arsaces’ stepmother and the Queen of Parthia, wants to avenge her son Vonones who was killed by Arsaces for treason. Vardanes and his officer, Lysias, decide to use Thermusa’s vengeance to destroy Arsaces. Meanwhile, Evanthe, whose father, King Bethas, has been imprisoned, is in love with Arsaces. But Artabanus, the King of Parthia, has illicit feelings for Evanthe. The plot then moves into Act Two; when Vardanes and Lysias hear Arsaces tell Bethas that he loves Evanthe, they decide to tell King Artabanus that Arsaces is a traitor for sympathizing with Parthian enemies. And that is all; like most plays with a five-act structure, there are usually one or two acts that are just one scene. This keeps the five-act structure, but does not mess with the believability of the plot. By the time the plot reaches Act Three, Thermusa is very angry because she knows King Artabanus is lusting after someone else. She tells this to Vardanes, who decides to use this to destroy Arsaces and take the throne of Parthia for himself. Arsaces asks for Evanthe’s hand in marriage in front of King Artabanus. Artabanus decides to let Arsaces have Evanthe because he promised Arsaces anything he wanted for being such an awesome child. Evanthe tells Arsaces that King Artabanus loves her, to which he replies that he loves her more. Vardanes then tells King Artabanus that Arsaces is a traitor. Act Four takes a sharp plot turn, which causes some incongruities. Phraates tells Gotarzes that he overheard Vardanes and Lysias talking about how they killed King Artabanus in his sleep. Vardanes and Lysias plan on blaming Arsaces, while Phraates and Gotarzes plan on telling the general Barzaphernes about who actually killed the king. Arsaces has been accused of the regicide and thrown in prison along with Bethas. They bond over their fear for Evanthe’s safety. Thermusa enters the prison to kill Arsaces, but she sees a bloody ghost of King Artabanus, which causes her to “brain” herself against the wall, committing suicide. Barzaphernes appears and releases Arsaces. Together, they plan to get Vardanes and make Parthia right once more. In the exciting conclusion of Act Five, Vardanes comes on to Evanthe, but she does not like it. Before Vardanes can hurt Evanthe, Lysias runs in and tells Vardanes that Arsaces has escaped and knows of Vardanes’ plot. Then, a huge battle occurs, pitting Vardanes, Lysias and all of their followers against Arsaces, Barzaphernes, Phraates, Gotarzes and their men. Cleone, Evanthe’s maid, watches the battle from a window. Cleone believes Arsaces was killed in the battle by Vardanes, but it was really Phraates. Cleone tells this to Evanthe, who drinks a vial of poison. When Arsaces, who has taken down Vardanes, hears of Evanthe’s death, he impales himself on Barzaphernes’ sword. In the end, only Barzaphernes and Gotarzes live. ===== Weighed down by her late contractor husband's debts in Bingham, Maryland, widowed mother Beth Macauley is compelled to sell her house and move to a less costly locale. She relocates in Baltimore with her sons Chris and Matt and takes a job at a gourmet food store managed by Lisa Coleman. Seventeen-year-old Chris (Chris O'Donnell) turns angry and aggressive while nine-year-old Matt (Charlie Korsmo) hides his deep sense of loss under a steely exterior. Beth is drawn into a relationship with Charles Simon, a musician who builds her self-esteem. However, after losing her job, she plunges into a five-day depression during which she refuses to leave her bedroom. Beth is an extremely vulnerable, easily discouraged person who cannot seem to get a grip on her circumstances. Chris falls in love with Jody, an older radiographer who lives in the same building. Matt falls under the influence of a young schoolmate who breaks into houses and steals VCRs. His dream is to get enough money to buy back their suburban house. Beth and her sons eventually pull themselves together, and realize that to abandon each other is not the answer. Beth tells her sons, "Heartbreak is life educating us," and the lessons turn out to be worth learning. ===== Poland in 1990, right after the fall of communism, former officers of the SB (Poland's communist secret police) are undergoing re-evaluation, in the process of which the country's new democratic leadership is trying to establish whether or not they can be incorporated into the new police service. Franciszek Maurer (Franz) is one of them. He has a notorious service record and is ruthless, but devoted to service - the only thing he cares about, since he became estranged from his wife and son. Eventually he is taken over by the new police force, while one of his best friends, Olgierd Żwirski (Olo), is not. Facing unemployment, Olo joins a newly formed criminal gang, consisting mainly of ex-SB agents, which operates in international narcotics trade. Franz and Olo, who try to co-operate despite the new circumstances, soon face each other as enemies. Moreover, Franz's relationship with Angela Wenz, a young girl he has befriended, becomes more and more complicated as the story continues, especially after Angela meets Olo. ===== Asuka Masamune is the coolest, manliest guy in his school. He is the captain of the kendo team where he reached the national championship tournament, and also excels in judo and karate. However, he harbors a secret: he is an otomen, a guy who really loves things that are usually associated with girls: cooking, sewing, and especially reading shōjo manga love stories. He hides this part of his life from his classmates until he meets and falls in love with Ryo Miyakozuka, the daughter of a martial artist and heir to his dojo who appears to be interested in manly guys. He is encouraged by his schoolmate Juta Tachibana to pursue a relationship with her and for them to be honest with each other, but unbeknownst to him, Juta is secretly a shojo manga artist of Asuka's favorite manga. ===== The book opens with the narrator visiting Hergal, a close friend, after his fortieth suicide-by-birdplane. Offended by his insensitivity, she kills herself, then, in a new body, embarks on a series of mundane attempts to amuse herself, including stealing a white fluffy desert animal that she keeps as a pet, programming elaborate dreams for herself, having unsatisfying sex with her peers, and employing a wide variety of legal drugs. Incapable of making emotional connections with anyone, she finds her life increasingly unsatisfying, though her demanding and difficult pet does interest her. Soon after going through the mundane rituals of her life the narrator feels like she should not be a Jang teenager any more. However, the quasi-robots who run the city determine that she is not ready to become an older person. Soon she tries looking for a useful job, but to no avail: robots and computers perform every useful task. She then attempts to have a child, but is unable to find a suitable partner, tries to have a child with herself by taking a male body, and ends up causing the child to die. Unable to fill the emptiness she feels, she joins an expedition to explore the deserts outside the city. During this expedition, the narrator realises the beauty of life outside of the domes and she gains a strong emotional connection with her stolen pet. However, it is then accidentally killed, devastating her. Upon returning to the city, she is still unable to make lasting emotional connections with her peers. She considers death and wonders if she really belongs in the city or somewhere else. ===== ===== Unlike Night's Master, which is told as separate stories, Death's Master is a continuous narrative. The lesbian queen Narasen is forced by a curse to become pregnant in order to save her city. After fruitless sex with many men, she realizes that she cannot lift the curse till she has sex with a dead man. She makes a pact with Uhlume, Lord Death, and brings this about. Her child, Simmu, is beautiful and can change easily from male to female. Narasen is assassinated. Simmu, only a few days old, sees Death come for Narasen and forms a permanent hatred for death. Simmu is raised by the minor demons called Eshva, then by priests at a temple. Zhirem, the son of a king and one of his wives, is made invulnerable by his mother. This arouses suspicion and hostility, and he is sent to the same temple as Simmu. The two become friends and briefly lovers (while Simmu is female). Zhirem becomes angry at Simmu for this corruption. Azhrarn, the Prince of Demons, rejects Zhirem's offer of service, increasing his bitterness, but takes Simmu as a lover and makes her forget Zhirem. He starts Simmu on a quest to gain immortality. Narasen, in Death's kingdom, defies Uhlume and begins a power struggle with him. Simmu and Azhrarn learn the location of a well on the flat earth directly under the well of the gods' water of immortality in "Upperearth". The earthly well is guarded by walls and by nine beautiful virgins whose intactness symbolizes the inviolability of the well. One of the virgins, Kassafeh, rejects the illusions intended to make her time as a guardian paradisal. Simmu goes through the wall and enters each virgin's bed as a woman but seduces each one as a man. He ends with Kassafeh, who becomes his ally. The virgins being deflowered, the upper well cracks, and Simmu and Kassafeh collect some of the water of immortality in a flask. They each drink a drop. As they travel to the east to found a city of immortals, a rogue named Yolsippa unknowingly drinks a little water from their flask. They grudgingly accept him. With help from the demons, they build the beautiful city of Simmurad and bring the most brilliant people of the time to be immortal there. However, with no fear of death, the people of Simmurad stagnate. Zhirem, shipwrecked, sinks to the bottom of the sea and becomes a captive of the sea people. By forming a relationship with their princess, he learns their magic and escapes to land. Now named Zhirek, he uses magic for selfishness and cruelty. At the suggestion of Azhrarn, who is bored with Simmurad, Uhlume makes Zhirek his agent to destroy it. Zhirek enters the city, magically creates and kills an insect to introduce death there, and raises the sea to flood the city. Kassafeh and, by a fluke, Yolsippa escape and become Uhlume's representatives. Zhirek takes Simmu away and tries to consign him to everlasting torment. However, Simmu eventually becomes an Eshva. Zhirek, overwhelmed with guilt and hate, becomes an ascetic living on a pillar. Narasen takes on most of Uhlume's work of giving death to the dying. ===== During the demon's age, when the planet was still flat, Azhriaz, daughter of Azhrarn, Demon Lord of the Night and a mortal was hidden on an isle surrounded by mist and her spirit was protected to live forever in dreams. But Azhriaz destiny was about to change unexpectedly. Her powerful energy and beauty attracted Azhrarn’s enemy, Prince Chuz, who created a spell to free Azhriaz from her confinement and convert her into the Delirium’s Mistress. Category:1986 British novels Category:1986 fantasy novels Category:Novels by Tanith Lee Category:DAW Books books ===== Robots have replaced human labor on earth, causing massive unemployment in a world devastated by pollution and natural disasters. Then Electronic Metals releases a new line: performing artists and sexual companions designed to entertain human partners. Jane, a rich, lonely, and insecure 16-year-old, meets one, the minstrel Silver, and falls passionately in love, despite revulsion at the idea of preferring a mechanical man to a human. She gives up everything she has known for him, and discovers herself. Silver becomes more and more "human" in loving her—a clever illusion created by his programming. Or is it? This unstable society can't afford any evidence that some robots might be indistinguishable from humans. Tragedy is inevitable. ===== As an orphan growing up in the slums, Loren read her clandestine copy of Jane's Story over and over, relishing every word. But Loren is no Jane. Savvy and street-smart, Loren could never be stirred by a man of metal, her passion never ignited by an almost-human - even one designed for pleasure. Still, when the META corporation does the unthinkable and brings back updated versions of robots past-Loren knows she must see Silver. And just like Jane, it is love at first sight. But Silver is now Verlis. If he was perfection before, he is now like a god. Yet he is more human than his creators think - or fear. While Loren doesn't quite trust him, she will follow her twice-born lover into a battle to control his own destiny - one that will reveal to her the most astonishing illusion of all. ===== Rachaela is a young woman who lives alone in London, working in a meaningless job. She is apparently without friends or family until one day, she is invited to join the family of the father she has never known. This family, known as the Scarabae, lives together in a large and luxurious but secluded house in the countryside. Aside from Rachaela, all of them appear to be old and eccentric until the day she first meets her father, Adamus. Adamus had fathered her on a woman outside the family many years ago, but he still appears to be a young man close to Rachaela's own age. Since Rachaela's birth had broken a long pattern of sterility among the Scarabae, the family decides to continue the breeding plan by coupling her to Adamus. The resulting daughter, Ruth, is also intended for the same fate, but Ruth's unexpected madness brings death among the Scarabae and burns their ancient house around them. Ruth flees to wreak havoc in the normal world; those events and the fate of the surviving Scarabae are told in the sequel, Personal Darkness. ===== From the bookjacket: "Emerging from the burned remains of their old home, the ancient, elegant Scarabae ready themselves for a new life of seduction and feasting, until little Ruth ignites a blaze of chaos through the streets of London that threatens them all." ===== Anna and other children are kidnapped by an immortal named Cain. ===== Zin is the Thai lover of Yakuza boss Masashi. Zin was previously the girlfriend of Thai gangster No. 8, who was jealous of her relationship with rival gangster Masashi. After Zin chooses Masashi, he shoots his own toe as a symbolic gesture and forbids Zin from ever seeing him again. Zin asks Masashi to go back to Japan, as they would not be able to be together safely. He begrudgingly leaves. Soon after, Zin finds herself pregnant and moves into a new place to get away from No. 8. She has a daughter named Zen who is soon found to be autistic. As Zen gets older, Zin one day decides to tell Masashi about his daughter by writing him a letter. No. 8 finds out that Zin is in contact with Masashi and is furious. He visits Zin and cuts off one of her toes to remind her that she is forbidden from seeing Masashi. Zin is forced to move again to a house shared by a Muay Thai Kickboxing school. Zen becomes infatuated with martial arts and from a young age, and learns martial arts by mimicking the moves she sees being performed by the school's students, as well as the martial arts movies that she sees on television, among them Bruce Lee and Tony Jaa films. She also has uncanny reflexes and is able to catch balls thrown at her without even looking. One day when coming home from work, Zin sees a little boy named Moom being picked on in the streets. Feeling sorry for his plight, she takes him in. Zin then falls ill with cancer and does not have the money to pay for chemotherapy treatments. Zen and Moom attempt to make the money needed to pay for them by having people throw balls at Zen as a street performance act. However, they are not able to earn enough to keep up with the treatments. One day Moom discovers a list of debtors in an old notebook from the days when Zin was a high-interest moneylender under No. 8. In order to get money to pay for her mother's cancer treatment, Zen and Moom decide to collect on the debts. The first attempt to collect the money turns violent, and Zen uses her copied martial arts skills to fight back. This leads to further confrontations with various criminal gangs and, eventually, No. 8. No. 8 learns that Zen is collecting debts for the sake of Zin's treatment, and Zin finds out what Zen and Moom have been doing for money when her toe is sent to her as a message. She realizes there will be retaliation from No. 8, and sends Moom to mail a letter to Masashi asking for help. Moom is captured by No. 8's gang, but No. 8 has the letter mailed anyway, because he wants to deal with both Zin and Masashi. Masashi receives the letter in Japan and leaves the Yakuza for the sake of his family. When Moom does not return, Zin goes to confront No. 8 to save Moom and try to reach a solution, bringing Zen with her. The meeting turns into a fight in which both Zin and No. 8 are wounded and No. 8 takes Zin hostage. Zen fights through many of No. 8's crew to get her mother back and faces Thomas, a capoeirista boy with Tourette's who proves to be a match for her until she adapts to his erratic fighting style. Zen's father, Masashi, eventually makes it to the battle, but while he and Zin are fighting No. 8's men Zin is mortally wounded by No. 8. Angered by what has happened, Zen continues to battle through No. 8's men until she catches up with No. 8 and throws him off the third story of a building to his death. She returns to her mother only to find her dead. Masashi comforts his long lost daughter and adopts her. ===== Sophie and Otto Bentwood are a middle-aged, middle class, childless couple trapped in a loveless marriage. He is an attorney, and she is a translator of books. Their existence is affected not only by their disintegrating relationship but by the threats of urban crime and vandalism that surround them everywhere they turn, leaving them feeling paranoid, scared, and desperately helpless. The film details their fragile emotional and psychological states as they interact with each other and their friends. ===== The show centers on a curious polar bear named Bernard, whose bumbling slapstick antics and clumsiness typically result in the bear being knocked unconscious or being severely injured by the end of an episode, Bernard almost doesn't speak, but he does communicate through guttural sounds. Bernard is accompanied by a few other characters like Lloyd and Eva the penguins, Zack the lizard, and Goliath the chihuahua. ===== An aging couple, Ethel and Norman Thayer, continue the long tradition of spending each summer at their cottage on a lake called Golden Pond, in the far reaches of northern New England. When they first arrive, Ethel notices the loons calling on the lake "welcoming them home". As they resettle into their summer home, Norman's memory problems arise when he is unable to recognize several family photographs, which he copes with by frequently talking about death and growing old. They are visited by their only child, daughter Chelsea, who is somewhat estranged from her curmudgeon of a father. She introduces her parents to her fiancé Bill and his thirteen-year-old son Billy. Norman tries to play mind games with Bill, an apparent pastime of his, but Bill won't hear of it, saying he can only take so much. In another conversation, Chelsea discusses with Ethel her frustration over her relationship with her overbearing father, feeling that even though she lives thousands of miles away in Los Angeles, she still feels like she's answering to him. Before they depart for a European vacation, Chelsea and Bill ask the Thayers to permit Billy to stay with them while they have some time to themselves. Norman, seeming more senile and cynical than usual due to his 80th birthday and heart palpitations, agrees to Billy's staying. Ethel tells him that he's the sweetest man in the world, but she is the only one who knows it. Billy is at first annoyed by being left with elderly strangers with no friends nearby and nothing to do. He resents Norman's brusque manner, but eventually comes to enjoy their Golden Pond fishing adventures together. Billy and Norman soon grow obsessed with catching Norman's fish rival, named "Walter", which leads to the accidental destruction of the Thayers' motorboat. Chelsea returns to find out her father has made good friends with her fiancé's, now husband's, son. When she sees the change in her father's demeanor, Chelsea attempts something Billy accomplished that she never could: a backflip. Chelsea successfully executes the dive in front of a cheering Norman, Billy, and Ethel. Chelsea and Norman finally fully embrace before she departs with Billy back home. The final day on Golden Pond comes and the Thayers are loading the last of the boxes. Norman tries to move a heavy box, but starts having heart pain and collapses onto the floor of the porch. Ethel tries unsuccessfully to get the operator to phone the hospital. Norman then says the pain is gone and attempts to stand to say a final farewell to the lake. Ethel tells him she has always known about death but for the first time it felt real, thinking Norman was going to die on the spot. Ethel helps Norman to the edge of the lake where they see the loons and Norman notes how they are just like him and Ethel, that their offspring is grown and gone off on her own, and now it is just the two of them. ===== Kathy Ferguson is a San Francisco newspaper advice columnist. One day, Lieutenant Bill Doyle, a Los Angeles police detective, and his partner, Captain Charlie Alidos, track a fugitive wanted for murder to San Francisco. He meets Kathy and they fall in love. She manages to gain the female fugitive's trust and locate her. Kathy's resulting front page story leads to an offer of a big job in New York City, but she abandons her career, marries Bill and moves to Los Angeles. Her new role as a 1950s suburban wife and homemaker quickly makes her unhappy. She wants her husband to move up in the world, to become "somebody". Bill has different values. He works in order to afford a comfortable lifestyle, no more. Kathy schemes to push her husband up the career ladder without his knowledge. She arranges to get into a car accident with Alice Pope, in order to become acquainted with her husband, Police Inspector Tony Pope, head of Bill's division. Tony realizes what she has done, and why, but plays along. Her continuing ploys inevitably bring her into conflict with Sara, the captain's equally ambitious wife, and Charlie begins to find fault with Bill at every opportunity. Vicious rumors circulate about Kathy's relationship with Tony. When Bill sees a poison pen letter that Kathy has received, he rushes to work and punches his boss, Charlie, in front of two police witnesses. During the investigation, Tony shifts enough of the blame to Charlie, suggesting he reached for his gun when the visibly angry Bill burst into the room, that he can hush up the whole incident. Charlie is then transferred to another division, and Bill is given his former position as an acting homicide captain. When Alice breaks down under the years of mental strain of being a policeman's wife and is hospitalized, Tony decides to retire. When Tony comes to tell Kathy about Alice's breakdown and his plans to retire, Kathy tries to persuade him to recommend Bill for the vacancy his departure will create. During their talk, he seems to consider the idea favorably, then grabs and kisses her. She recoils at first, then embraces him. Afterward, however, he avoids her. When Kathy finally forces Tony to meet her, he says that he regrets their one-night stand and dismisses any suggestion he would recommend Bill for promotion as "pillow talk". He makes it clear that he believes that Bill is not qualified, and that he is going to recommend Charlie as his successor. This elevation of a man she hates over Bill's ambition infuriates Kathy. When Kathy accompanies Bill to the police station, she steals a gun used in a robbery and murder that her husband is investigating. Kathy then confronts Pope in his home and appeals to him once again, noting that this time she's asking not just for Bill but for herself. With Pope planning to recommend Charlie Alidos, it means that she cheated on Bill only to gain nothing and she's consumed by guilt over that. She pleads that he at least not recommend Alidos. If Pope recommends no one, Kathy argues, her husband still has a chance to get the job and she will be left with some justification for her infidelity. Pope coldly refuses so she shoots him dead. The entire police department works on Pope's murder investigation. When the murder weapon is discovered to have been a gun that the police had had in their custody and somehow lost, Bill figures out the killer has to have been his own wife since she was present at the time the gun went missing. When Bill confronts Kathy and she confesses, she tells him, "Now I'll know just how much of a cop you really are." Bill responds, "The same cop, Kathy. The same cop you met in Frisco. Same cop I was 10 years ago, pounding a beat. The same cop." He then drives her to police headquarters, where they walk in together and Bill reports in to secure a room to conduct questioning in the murder of Tony Pope. ===== Robin Ramzinski, better known by his ring name Randy "The Ram" Robinson, is a professional wrestler who became a celebrity in the 1980s. Now past his prime, Randy wrestles on weekends for independent promotions in New Jersey while working part-time at a supermarket under Wayne, a demeaning manager who mocks Randy's wrestling background. As a regular at a strip club, Randy befriends a stripper named Cassidy, who is, like Randy, too old for her job. After winning a local match, Randy agrees to a proposed 20th- anniversary rematch with his most notable opponent, "The Ayatollah", which could bring him back to stardom. Randy intensifies his training, which includes steroid injections. After wrestling in a hardcore match, Randy suffers a heart attack backstage and undergoes coronary artery bypass surgery. His doctor tells him that he nearly died and has to stop the steroids. Feeling that he is unable to wrestle in his present condition, Randy decides to retire and begins working a full-time shift at the supermarket's deli counter. At Cassidy's suggestion, Randy visits his estranged daughter Stephanie, whom he had abandoned when she was a child, but she rebuffs him. While helping Randy buy a gift for Stephanie, Cassidy reveals that she has a son. Randy makes romantic advances toward her, which she rejects on the grounds of her job. Later, Randy gives the gift to his daughter and apologizes for abandoning her. The two bond over a visit to a beachfront boardwalk (where he took her as a child) and agree to meet for dinner on the coming Saturday. Randy goes to Cassidy's strip club to thank her, but she once more rejects him, resulting in a heated exchange. Upset, Randy goes to see a wrestling match and finds solace in his wrestling friends. While at a bar with them, he gets drunk, snorts cocaine, has sex with a woman in the women's restroom then wakes up in her bedroom the next morning. Exhausted, he sleeps the entire next day and misses his dinner with Stephanie. He goes to her house to apologize, but she angrily tells him she never wants to see him again. At the deli counter, a patron recognizes Randy as the wrestler, though he denies it. The customer persists, which agitates Randy, who then cuts his hand on the slicer and goes into a rampage in the store, hurling abuse at Wayne and the customers. Spurred by the fan's recognition of him and with nothing left, Randy decides to return to wrestling and reschedules the rematch with The Ayatollah. He reconciles with Cassidy, though she begs him not to wrestle because of his heart condition and pleads with him to cancel the match in favor of giving the outside world a second chance. However, Randy disregards her advice and explains to her that he belongs in the ring with his fans and fellow wrestlers who, unlike the rest of society, love and respect him. As he wrestles, Randy begins to feel chest pain and becomes unsteady. The Ayatollah notices this and urges him to initiate the pin. Randy refuses, however, and climbs the top rope for his signature finishing move, a diving headbutt called the "Ram Jam". He looks over and sees Cassidy has left. With tears in his eyes he salutes his beloved fans one last time, and leaps from the top rope. ===== In the 1960s Pearl Berman has just returned home from her husband Jack's funeral, her grief disrupted by her many relatives animatedly discussing which parkway offered the best route to the cemetery. Pearl's family tackles any and every subject – from body odor to toilets to Tupperware to borscht – as if it's worthy of a major debate. Into a household filled with kvetchers steps Joe Meledandri, a distinguished Italian who years ago met Pearl's wayward husband in a bar and convinced him to return to her. He has desired her ever since, and now that Pearl is a widow, Joe feels the time is right to make his move. He invites her for coffee, his first step on the road to seduction. What remains to be seen is if he can overcome family objections to religious differences and if he's willing to accept Pearl's daughters: the lonely, overweight Bibby and the pretty but psychologically unstable Norma who dresses up as celebrities to escape the grief that has overwhelmed her since the death of one of her children and divorce from her husband. At her father's funeral, Norma dresses up the way Jackie Kennedy appeared at the funeral of her husband; appears as Marilyn Monroe as she serves her surviving son his breakfast; and also impersonates Faye Dunaway and Barbra Streisand among others. And those are just some of the crazy relatives that come as part of the package. ===== Nada the Lily is set at the time of Chaka, the Zulu king, around whom much of the action turns, but essentially the book is the story of Umslopogaas, and of "his love for Nada, the most beautiful of Zulu women." They have been brought up as brother and sister but Umslopogaas is really Chaka's son. It is narrated by Mopo the father of Nada and witch doctor to Chaka, whom Chaka had vowed never to slay because he saved the life of Chaka and his mother when they were outcast wanderers. During the course of the novel Umslopogaas teams up with Galazi the Wolf, who lives on Ghost Mountain and has power over a spectral wolf pack. The story ends tragically when Nada, fleeing the wrath of Dingaan following the assassination of Chaka, takes refuge in a cave on the mountain. Galazi dies in her defence but the cave proves her tomb as she is unable to open the stone door she closed behind her. ===== Hector Bloom is a laconic, libidinous college basketball star distracted by obligations and current events: the misadventures of his volatile roommate Gabriel, a potential pro career, the draft, campus unrest, and a turbulent affair with Olive, the wife of Richard, a professor and friend. His coach pays special attention to him, given Hector's abilities, but is unsure how to get him to focus and fulfill his potential. Hector's attitude, and his coach's frustration, is exemplified by a meeting before an important late-season game where the coach instructs him to "play it straight out there tonight, I don't want any fooling around at all"; to his coach's exasperation, Hector replies "Why not?" Gabriel, a vulgar borderline psychotic, is far more troubled and committed to rebellion than Hector. He abuses drugs, disrupts a basketball game with a guerrilla theatre stunt, goes crazy during an induction physical, ransacks his apartment, espouses anti-establishment views about everything, and drifts aimlessly. During a confrontation in a grocery store, Olive informs Hector that she is pregnant, implies he is not the father, and tells him their affair is over. Hector replies that he has "the clap", which infuriates Olive; she warns him that if he follows her, she will call the police. That night, Hector leads his team to a huge victory; the fans storm the court, and triumphantly carry Hector off. At the same time, Gabriel breaks into Olive's house while she is bathing and physically assaults her. She fends off his attack, eventually running outdoors with Gabriel in pursuit just as Hector drives up. Gabriel, aware of Hector's trysts with Olive, screams at Hector that Olive prefers him over Richard, then runs off when Richard arrives home. Hector confronts Richard, telling him Olive should be with him; a shaken Olive asserts her independence, saying, "I'm not going with anybody, anywhere". Richard warns Hector "I'll kill you", then escorts Olive back into their house. The next morning Gabriel, completely naked, runs into a biology lab and frees snakes, an iguana, mice and other vermin. Eventually campus police and white-coated attendants arrive with a straitjacket; Gabriel rebuffs them, insisting he is both "right and sane". They cloak him in a blanket and lead him into a padded van. Hector, seeing this, jumps onto the back of the van, demanding they open it. As the van pulls away, he jumps off, yelling to Gabriel that his mother called. ===== A thirteen-year-old boy, Felix Sanders, has a life- threatening heart condition. While his family is vacationing in Costa Rica at a place called the Divide, the point where water flows to both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, he passes out and he finds himself in alternate world, where the Earth's mythical creatures are real and humans are a legend. He sets off on a journey with residents of this world to cure his illness and get home. He meets a creature named Betony, a tangle-child (elf) who later becomes his lifelong best friend. Along with Betony and a (griffin) named Ironclaw they help him find a cure for his illness. ===== Snakeweed, a character from the first novel who came from the alternate world, wants to return home, but in order to do so, he needs a spell hidden in Felix's notebook. In order to obtain the spell, Snakeweed turns Felix's parents into stone. The curse spreads, and Felix must head back across the Divide to find the counter charm and save the Earth. In this book, old friends return afresh and new enemies are discovered. A crisis almost mirrors the one in the real world in the alternate world: the king and queen are missing. Felix must now race against time in an attempt to rescue BOTH worlds, something not easily done, considering the risks. ===== A bully, Rhino, at Felix's school accidentally releases a brandee (genie) from a lamp Felix obtained from across the Divide. The djinn demands to be returned home and to be given a solid form. Felix and Betony (who is spending Christmas with Felix across the Divide with Nimplenap, Betony's flying carpet), return to that world. Meanwhile, inside the lamp, Rhino has found a box that will grant him any of his desires, in exchange for hearing Rhino say the magic words that could destroy both worlds. ===== ===== Barbara "Ching-Ching" Stewart is an orphan living in Sanchow, China. When bandits threaten, she is sent to Shanghai for safety. Accidentally separated from her guide, Ching-Ching finds herself in Shanghai all alone with her dog until she meets a westerner, Tommy Randall, a rich playboy traveling about the world by ocean liner. Ching-Ching then accidentally becomes a stowaway on his ship. When discovered, she is provided for by Tommy and Susan Parker, a passenger on the ship engaged to the son of her traveling companion, Mrs Ruth Hope. Susan and Tommy become romantically involved. Ching-Ching plays Cupid in furthering their romance. The couple realize they adore Ching-Ching and want to do the best for her after learning she will be put off the ship and sent to an orphan's asylum. Susan breaks her engagement with Richard Hope, Ruth's son, after discovering his selfish nature and marries Tommy. The two adopt Ching-Ching. ===== Ayakashi are parasitic life forms that give their hosts superpowers, but in return, the use of these powers incurs an increasing physical and mental toll on the host eventually resulting in the host's death. Yū Kusaka is a student who lost his will to live after the death of a dear childhood friend. He is brought out of his depression by the arrival of a mysterious girl, named Eim Yoake, and his life is never the same again. Hunted by Ayakashi and their hosts, the power within Yū awakens and a never-ending battle begins. ===== As described in a film magazine, Barbara Norton (La Badie) and her brother Tom (Marlo), orphaned children of a veteran who gave his life for his country, go to live with their uncle Phineas (Howard) and aunt (Hastings) in the city. It is just before the entrance of the United States into the European war and the uncle is a pacifist. He holds meetings at home where Barbara assists him. Barbara's brother is a loyal American and is greatly troubled by the uncle's expectations to count on him. Barbara meets John Alton (Herbert), who wins her promise to be his wife. They are very happy until war is declared and Barbara cannot bear the thought of her future husband not doing service for his country. His "Peace at Any Price" button is the last straw and she gives him a choice of either joining the "colors" or breaking the engagement. John declares that he is a true pacifist and Barbara, believing that a man who cannot support his country is that country's enemy, breaks the engagement publicly. Her fiance becomes very unpopular at his club because of his views and is taken to task by one of his father's friends. Having lost Barbara and his popularity makes him resent the constant references to the United States and his debt to his country, and he curses his native land. Barbara enlists as a Red Cross nurse and her brother as a soldier. Later, an old friend of John's family, Pop Milton (Dundan), gives him a copy of The Man Without a Country and asks him to read it and rise above his treasonous views. He does so, and as he reads the immortal story the patriotic spirit of Barbara comes to him in a vision of Columbia who tells him that in a previous life he was the Philip Nolan of the story. She takes him back to historic times and shows him a succession of scenes from the book. The man of today sees with horror the famous court martial in which he was sentenced to never hear of the United States again, the tragedy of the careful carrying out of the sentence, and the pitiful death of the man, made easier by the humanity of Captain Danforth (Gilmour), who gives him a brief history of the land he learns to bless before he dies. John's spirit returns from the allegorical journey and he responds to the new and vigorous manhood within and enlists at once, thereby winning Barbara, who was at home on sick leave from her nursing work in France. ===== In the beginning, the setting takes place in New York City where two men known as Hawk Takezaki and Tony Aldus met up with their chief Jim Hyde, and told him that they finally forced a villain known as Bossman to stay in a place called the DragonZone. The chief advised Hawk not to enter the DragonZone and head back home, but Hawk refused to do so. Before he immediately began traveling toward DragonZone and try to demolish it, in order to save a girl name Candy, Tony told Hawk that he will join him. ===== When fortysomething Karyn Evans discovers her arrogantly self-centered professor husband Adam is having an affair with student Lindsey Rutledge, she retaliates by having a dalliance of her own with young, philosophical campus carpenter Pete Lachappelle. Adam is infuriated when he learns about his wife's new relationship, and she in turn defends her right to enjoy the same carnal pleasures he does. The four decide to share a Vermont ski house, where their efforts to behave like liberal adults are tested by middle-age angst, hurt feelings, and teenager Kasey Evans (played by Mary Beth Hurt who was 34 at the time), who unexpectedly arrives to confront her parents with their outrageous behavior. ===== The sheriff of this small island town called North Port has a roach problem in his house. According to the local exterminator Homer (played by Stephen Davies), it turns out the whole town is about to have a big roach problem. Pets, and then people, begin to disappear or turn up dead and mutilated. Although Sheriff Richard Tarbell (played by Frank Luz) is dating Lillian, the owner of the local eatery, his high school sweetheart Elizabeth Johnson returns to the island after a four-year absence and their romance blooms again. Elizabeth (played by Lisa Langlois) happens to be the daughter of the town's mayor, Elias Johnson (played by Robert Lansing), who is in cahoots with an evil corporation called INTEC that has been secretly breeding mutant roaches that are immune to normal insect repellants. They also seem to have the ability to assume the form of anything they kill, leading to some animal/roach hybrids and even 2 roach/human combos. ===== Woodblock print (Hiroshige, 1858) depicting the beach at Miho, where Hagoromo is set. |thumb|upright A fisherman is walking with his companions at night when he finds the Hagoromo, the magical feather-mantle of a tennin (an aerial spirit or celestial dancer) hanging on a bough. The tennin sees him taking it and demands its return—she cannot return to Heaven without it. The fisherman argues with her, and finally promises to return it, if she will show him her dance or part of it. She accepts his offer. The Chorus explains the dance as symbolic of the daily changes of the moon. The words about "three, five, and fifteen" refer to the number of nights in the moon's changes. In the finale, the tennin disappears like a mountain slowly hidden in mist.Pound, Ezra. "Noh", Or, Accomplishment: A Study of the Classical Stage of Japan. Macmillan (1916), p165. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.Clouston, W. A. Popular tales and fictions: their migrations and transformations. Edinburgh; London: W. Blackwood. 1887. p. 190-191.Iwao Seiichi, Sakamato Tarō, Hōgetsu Keigo, Yoshikawa Itsuji, Akiyama Terukazu, Iyanaga Teizō, Iyanaga Shōkichi, Matsubara Hideichi, Kanazawa Shizue. 18. Hagoromo densetsu. In: Dictionnaire historique du Japon, volume 7, 1981. Lettre H (1) pp. 9-10. [www.persee.fr/doc/dhjap_0000-0000_1981_dic_7_1_890_t2_0009_0000_4] ===== Inspector Shekhar Kapoor's only mission in life is to end the atrocities of underworld don Zaka and his son Shaka. In the course of his investigations, he bumps into a small- time criminal Johnny. But as it turns out Johnny reveals that he is actually police inspector Ravi Saxena, a cop from Delhi. And that he has sneaked into Zaka's team in the guise of Johnny only to destroy them. Shekhar and Johnny decide to work together on their common mission. However, tables turn when Shekhar discovers from his office in Delhi that Inspector Ravi was killed six months ago. Pinky Saxena, a mere child, has been traumatized by the brutal killing of her mom, Sharda, and dad, Inspector Ravi Saxena, at the hands of Zaka and Shakha, so much that she is hysterical and has to be institutionalized. Her only relative is Raja Saxena, who has sworn to avenge this killing. Raja is able to get away by identifying himself as his brother, with a false identification. But will this escapade result in him avenging the brutal killings, or will they merely entangle him hopelessly with Inspector Shekar and the law? ===== The plot offers a comic spin on adultery. When Greg crashes his sports car, doctor Evelyn comes to his rescue, and the two soon are engaged in an affair. Evelyn's workaholic husband learns about it from Greg's live-in girlfriend, scatterbrained television weather girl Stephanie, and the two begin to engage in a dalliance of their own. Complications arise when the two couples plan a clandestine weekend getaway at the same Acapulco resort. ===== In Perugia, the murder of several university students leads to a manhunt for a masked killer with a psychosexual disorder who uses red-and-black foulards to strangle his female victims before mutilating their bodies. When a wealthy student named Dani vaguely recalls having seen someone wearing such a scarf, she becomes the target of the mystery killer and, at her philandering uncle's suggestion, invites three of her girlfriends (two of them, lipstick lesbians) to stay with her at her family's remote country villa in Tagliacozzo. However, the isolated cliffside villa offers no protection from the killer, who has meanwhile run over the blackmailing street vendor he buys his scarves from. A local peeping tom and then Dani's impotent stalker (who wears a similar red-and-black scarf to the killer's) go up to the villa, only to be ruthlessly killed too. One of the girls, Jane, sprains her ankle and a local doctor gives her a sedative; as such, she is asleep when the killer forces his way into the villa and kills her three girlfriends. Jane wakes up the next day only to silently witness the unidentified killer dismember her friends' bodies. Having disposed of the corpses, the killer locks up the villa and departs, inadvertently leaving the injured Jane trapped inside. Later on, having realized that Jane is alive in the villa, the killer silently returns and reveals himself to her. The killer is Franz, an art history lecturer Jane had befriended. He is a psychopathic misogynist as a result of a childhood trauma when he witnessed his brother fall to his death as he was trying to fetch a little girl's doll at a cliff's edge. Franz tells Jane that his first two victims (whom he calls "filthy bitches" and "dolls made out of flesh and blood") had seduced him into a threesome and then blackmailed him. He had continued his killing spree in order to cover his tracks. As Franz proceeds to murder Jane to ensure he is never caught, the doctor shows up and, after a struggle, Franz falls to his death. ===== Never Better is about Keith Merchant (Mangan), a recovering alcoholic in his mid-thirties whose life never seems to get better. His problems come from him being self-centred and preoccupied with his own flaws. He attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, but his behaviour often turns meetings into a farce, to the annoyance of group leader Doug (Christopher Fairbank). He has a family, with his wife Anita (Ashfield) and two children, Tom and Poppy. Whilst he attempts to be a good husband and father, his optimism for his family and attempts to do the right thing tend to lead to even more problems. Outside of AA, he has his friend Richard (Tom Goodman- Hill) for support, although Richard believes that Keith was a better friend when he was drinking. ===== Augustus Hill, a wheelchair-bound prisoner and the series' narrator, introduces the audience to Cell Block 5 of the Oswald Maximum Security Penitentiary ("Oz"). Nicknamed "Emerald City" or "Em City," the experimental block is designed to rehabilitate select inmates by allowing them certain privileges in exchange for greater surveillance. The violence of Oz is demonstrated right away as new inmate Miguel Alvarez is shanked before even being brought inside, horrifying fellow arrival Tobias Beecher. The violence upsets Em City's unit manager, Tim McManus, who asks Warden Leo Glynn to allow the cannibalistic killer Donald Groves into Em City, believing no inmate is a lost cause. Glynn reluctantly agrees on the condition that drug dealer Paul Markstrom, his own wayward cousin, be brought there as well. Correctional officer Diane Whittlesey assigns the arrivals to their "sponsors", veteran prisoners who at least nominally look after them and ensure they integrate appropriately. Groves is assigned the kindly Bob Rebadow; Markstrom's sponsor is Jefferson Keane, a fellow "Homeboy"; and Beecher is given Italian-American mobster Dino Ortolani. Ortolani is not interested in babysitting the anxious Beecher, but gives him basic pointers for surviving Oz. Glynn informs the inmates that cigarettes will be confiscated due to new state laws. Beecher is alarmed to find cellmate Simon Adebisi rifling through his possessions. Adebisi intimidates Beecher when he tries to stop it, and threatens to rape him at bedtime. An unassuming-looking prisoner named Vernon Schillinger suggests that Beecher appeal to McManus to move out of Adebisi's pod, implying that Schillinger will gladly take Beecher into his own. Unfortunately, Beecher soon realizes out Schillinger belongs to the Aryan Brotherhood and that he has just become Schillinger's "livestock." That night, Schillinger tattoos a swastika onto a petrified Beecher's buttocks. The following morning, McManus complains about the draconian laws passed by Governor James Devlin, saying that banning cigarettes will make the inmates uncooperative. Kareem Said, a radical black Muslim leader convicted of arson, arrives at Em City. Keane and Adebisi try to intimidate Said out of his anti-drug preaching, but Said purposefully injures himself to display his determination. Ortolani, plagued by insomnia and violent flashbacks, puts in a request for a conjugal visit with his wife. Later, he is furious to find out that Irish-American hoodlum Ryan O'Reily, the victim of the assault which landed Ortolani in Oz, is coming to the same prison. Upon arriving, O'Reily sets out to arrange a hit on Ortolani. After getting into a bloody fight with gay inmate Billy Keane in the showers, Ortolani tries to flirt with Dr. Gloria Nathan in the infirmary. McManus punishes Ortolani by assigning him to work with the gay inmates in the AIDS ward. Nathan hates working with Ortolani and thinks McManus can't change people like him. Nonetheless, McManus successfully asks Nathan to dinner with him. Since Ortolani had attacked his brother, Jefferson Keane agrees to O'Reily's hit. When Ortolani reacts poorly to working in the AIDS ward, McManus vindictively cancels his conjugal visit, replacing it with a behind-the-glass visit between Ortolani and his family. Ortolani tells his wife to go on with her life as though he were dead. During Ortolani's next round in the AIDS ward, he is told by a patient named Emilio Sanchez that he wants to die. In the restroom, Ortolani and O'Reily get into a fight. That night, Ortolani suffocates Sanchez in a mercy killing and is beaten, tranquilized, and left in solitary confinement by the guards. As he is sleeping, a bribed guard lets one of Keane's henchmen, Johnny Post, pour lighter fluid on Ortolani and set him on fire. A dejected McManus examines the photos of Ortolani's corpse. ===== Meg, the younger of the two sisters, is the story's narrator and primary protagonist. Their father, an English professor at a university, has decided to take a year off from teaching to write a book that he only half-jokingly claims will shake the world of literature. That means the family relocates to a small country house, and his daughters are upset at be sharing a room. Like most sisters, Meg and Molly quarrel over silly things, and Meg is jealous of her sister's blonde curls and long eyelashes. The owner of the house that the family is renting lives down the road in a smaller house on the same property. The sisters soon establish a rapport with the elderly Will Banks, who learns about photography with Meg and teaches Molly about the abundant wildflowers covering the estate. A few months after coming to the country, Molly begins having constant nosebleeds, which the doctor blames on the cold weather. Unfortunately, it is not until Molly's bed is soaked in blood that she is rushed to the hospital and diagnosed with a fatal disease: acute myelogenous leukemia. After treatment, she seems to recover slightly, but the pills that she takes cause her hair to fall out. Shortly thereafter, Ben Brady and a pregnant Maria Abbott, whom the townspeople incorrectly assume to be unmarried, arrive to make the third Banks house their home. All inhabitants of the property enjoy one another's company for a while. Then, the unthinkable happens, and Molly is rushed back to the hospital. She asks Meg to tell the baby to wait to be born until she comes home, and Meg obliges her, and she asks the baby to be born in the daytime since she was invited to take pictures of the birth. They name it Happy William Abbott-Brady. In the end, Molly dies, and the family moves back to the city. Through it all and with help from those who love her, Meg finds the jealousy that she once had for her sister has changed into pure love, and eventually, she is forced to accept that bad things happen to good people. ===== The Tenth Doctor and Donna invite themselves to a dinner party hosted by Lady Clemency Eddison and her husband Colonel Hugh Curbishley in 1926. They are thrilled to find one of the guests is Agatha Christie, and the Doctor realises that they have arrived on the day that she will inexplicably disappear for ten days. One of the guests is suddenly found dead in the library. The Doctor and Donna discover a viscous substance left behind by the killer that the Doctor identifies as morphic residue. He concludes that the murderer is an alien in human form. While searching in a room that had previously been empty for 40 years, Donna sees a gigantic wasp outside. It smashes through the window and attacks Donna, embedding its sting in the door before escaping. The creature then kills the housekeeper, Miss Chandrakala. The Doctor, Donna, and Agatha chase the alien but it returns to human form before they catch it. When they regroup in the study, the Doctor identifies the substance from the sting as venom from an alien wasp called a Vespiform, before, all of a sudden, he is poisoned with cyanide. Luckily, his Time Lord physiology allows him to detoxify. During a failed attempt to reveal the wasp at dinner, Lady Eddison's necklace is stolen, and her son, Roger, is stabbed in the back with a knife. The remaining guests are assembled in the sitting room. Agatha exposes one of the guests, Lady Robina Redmond, as the thief but not the murderer when she says "toilet" instead of the upper class saying "loo". Then the Doctor deduces that Lady Eddison's shutting herself away for months, years ago was due to her becoming impregnated by another Vespiform, who had given her the necklace before he died in 1885; unbeknownst to her, it links her telepathically with their child. The Doctor further reveals that the child, whom she gave up for adoption, is Reverend Golightly. Via the telepathic link, the Reverend became aware of his alien nature and absorbed the details of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, an Agatha Christie murder mystery his mother was reading at the time. Golightly transforms into the Vespiform and threatens the guests. Agatha grabs the necklace and lures him away while driving towards the nearby Silent Pool. When Donna catches up with Agatha, she grabs the necklace and throws it into the water, prompting the wasp to dive in after it and drown. Due to her own connection with the necklace, Agatha falls unconscious and suffers from amnesia. The Doctor quietly drops Agatha off near the Harrogate Hotel ten days later, before showing Donna his copy of Death in the Clouds, in which wasps play a vital part, stating that Christie did remember, after all. ===== The novel is told in six chapters, the first two set in Liverpool in 1846 and 1850, the remainder set in 1854 Crimea ending outside Sevastopol. George Hardy, an attractive English surgeon, amateur photographer and bisexual, leaves his affluent lifestyle in Liverpool, where he is heir to a fortune, to go to war at Inkerman in the Crimea. He believes "that the war would at last provide him with the prop he needed." His story is told by three other characters: Myrtle, a lovestruck foundling who bears Hardy's children, Dr. Potter, an intellectual and geologist and Pompey Jones, a one-time street performer who learns photography from Hardy. United by a sudden death in a Liverpool brothel in 1846, the four characters are undeniably linked by love, class, war and fate. ===== The initial issues (issues 0-4) deal with Connor MacLeod after the events that took place in the first Highlander film. Although the Kurgan has been defeated, some of those who followed him still seek to bring about some of his plans. Connor also deals with battling within himself for control over the impulses and emotions he received from the Dark Quickening of the Kurgan (issues 6-9). The last story arc (issues 10-12) introduces Duncan MacLeod and has him assisting his kinsman Connor in defeating the followers of the Kurgan. The separate plot line issues (Dark Quickening and The Coldest War, Armageddon) were bound into three separate trade paperbacks by Dynamite Entertainment.Trade Paperback ===== It draws inspiration from the Highlander, the franchise about Immortals battling each other throughout history. The comic book centers around Connor MacLeod's search for the sword of his mentor Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez, after losing it in the ocean to The Kurgan by accident. He eventually retrieves the sword just before the events of the first Highlander film. ===== Another painter visits the narrator and he is mesmerised by his painting of Alexandra Ebbling. The narrator then thinks back to how he met her, on a ship from Genoa to the New York City, after living in Rome for work for two years. They start talking, stop in Naples for a day, then sail by Sardinia. He moves on to doing a portrait of her, and he gives her a bunch of magnolias he got in Gibraltar and she talks about her ailment for the first time. Two days later when he sees her husband neglects her just before going to a concert on the ship, he goes and tells her they should run away together because they love each other. She explains she can't because she is ill. She gives him a box that he shall only open sometime later, when she tells him to by letter. She then takes a ship back to her father's in Norway without her husband. The following March, he receives a letter from him saying she has died. There is also a letter from her, telling him he can open the box now. Inside, there is a magnolia, strands of her hair, and two pink shells. ===== On the Nebraska prairie, Canute takes to drinking to forget his boredom after spending the first forty years of his life in Sweden. Lena takes to teasing him and going to church with him. One day, he asks her father if he can marry her and the father says no. He then proceeds to drag Lena to his house by force, drag a priest there by force too, and get him to marry them without the girl or the girl's father's consent. Later the priest leaves and Lena is left alone in Canute's shanty. She is scared of the rattlesnakes and the coyotes, but he stays outside, in the snow. As she opens the door he is sobbing. ===== Playboy Captain Danilo (Maurice Chevalier) is ordered by King Achmet of Marshovia (George Barbier) to court and marry Madame Sonia (Jeanette MacDonald), a rich widow who owns a large portion of the kingdom.Green, Stanley (1999) Hollywood Musicals Year by Year (2nd ed.), pub. Hal Leonard Corporation page 34 ===== The main character, , is a very talented goalkeeper and the grandson of the late , one of the strongest goalkeepers in Japan and coach of the legendary football team, the Inazuma Eleven (though Endou is unaware of this). He is captain of his school's (Raimon Jr. High) football team, and dreams of competing in the Football Frontier tournament one day. The club is on the verge of disbanding, as the other members seem uninterested in training. One day, a mysterious forward named moves to Endou's school. Gouenji used to be the top striker at his old school, and has gained the attention of Teikoku Academy (led by team captain Yuto Kidou and principal Reiji Kageyama), the most prestigious school in the area. They come to Raimon and challenge them to a football match, despite Gouenji refusing to join Raimon's team. They are much more powerful than anticipated, and Raimon's out-of-practice players take a horrible beating. Gouenji decides to join the team to help them out, and his sudden appearance surprises Teikoku, which he uses as an opportunity to score a goal. As the first goal scored against Teikoku Academy in years, Kidou counts it as a win for Raimon and leaves with his team. The victory gets Raimon a lot of attention, allowing them access into the Football Frontier tournament, which they gladly accept. They prove themselves as a force-to-be reckoned-with, winning all of their matches and reaching the finals. Before the match, Kageyama uses the team's coach to spy on them, and orders him to kill them by draining the brake fluid from their bus. His plan is foiled by Natsumi Raimon the school counsellor's daughter, who promptly gets the teacher fired. At the match, Kageyama tries to kill them again by crushing them with girders. They survive thanks to a warning from Kidou, and Dark is promptly arrested by Detective Onigawara. The match goes on, and after a long battle, Raimon emerges victorious. The team then move onto the Football Frontier nationals, but learn they will be unable to compete without a coach. Detective Onigawara points Mark in the direction of a man named Seigou Hibiki, who used to be part of Raimon's team from forty years ago, the Inazuma Eleven. explains that the team was coached by Endou's grandfather Daisuke, and that they were an unstoppable soccer team. This excites Mark, until Hibiki tells him about how their run was ended when their bus crashed on the way to their last Football Frontier match, injuring the players and preventing them from competing. Despite his past, Hibiki agrees to be the team's coach, and also gets the team training with the now-elderly members of the Inazuma Eleven. This training helps them win their next few matches, along with the assistance of Kidou, who joins them after Teikoku is crushed by Zeus Junior High, who, unbeknownst to them, is being led by Kageyama. Zeus also continue to win all their games, each time leaving their opponents unable to continue. This means the final will be Raimon versus Zeus. When Raimon arrive at the stadium for the finals (which is a floating palace in the sky), they see the members of Zeus drinking a so-called 'ambrosia', which turns out to be filled with drugs to improve their abilities. The first half begins, and Zeus begin winning instantly thanks to the ambrosia; benching most of the players and scoring goal after goal. As the first half ends, Natsumi realises that the drinks are spiked, and goes to switch the drinks with regular water. Her plan succeeds, and Zeus are forced to play through the remainder of the game as a normal team, allowing Raimon to seize victory and win the Football Frontier. ===== The movie is about a woman named Tita living in the early 1900s experiencing the struggles of love, family dynamics and family tradition. The movie opens with a young lady cutting onions, expressing the influences of emotions and cooking. She then begins a story with the birth of a girl named Tita. Tita's mother, Mama Elena, gives birth on the kitchen table right after her water breaks, with the assistance of the house cook, Nacha. Shortly thereafter, Mama Elena's husband dies of a heart attack after a stranger viciously tells him that his wife had an affair and one of his daughters isn't his. During the funeral, Mama Elena explains to Nacha that she can no longer have children and the family tradition dictates that Tita, being the youngest child, cannot marry but must take care of her mother until her death. However, Tita's sisters Rosaura and Gertrudis can marry off. Nacha takes charge of teaching Tita how to cook food in flavorful ways. Tita learns to infuse her emotions with food. Years later, a young man named Pedro Muzquiz professes his love and desire to marry Tita, who feels the same way about Pedro. On the day of Tita's birthday, Pedro arrives with his father Don Pascual Muzquiz to ask for her hand in marriage. Mama Elena explains why Tita will not marry and instead offers Rosaura. Rosaura is delighted, Tita is devastated, and Gertrudis and Chencha, the house maid, are disappointed. Nacha overhears Pedro tell his father that he is only marrying Rosaura to stay close to Tita. Nacha informs Tita of this news, but Tita is too upset to believe it. While cooking the wedding cake, Tita cries into the batter. During the wedding reception, Pedro tells Tita that he is still in love with her. Suspicious that Tita and Pedro are having an affair, Mama Elena threatens Tita to stay away from Pedro. As the guests eat the wedding cake, everyone is overcome with great sadness for lost lovers and begins to cry, which is followed by vomiting. Overcome with the sadness, Mama Elena rushes to her bedroom and pulls out a hidden jewelry box. She uses a tiny key hidden in locket around her neck to open it. She tearfully looks at the photo of a well dressed mulatto man. It is implied that the rumours about Mama Elena's affair are true. That evening, Tita finds Nacha dead on the floor holding a picture of her husband. Sometime later, Rosaura becomes pregnant. One day, Pedro brings Tita a bouquet of roses to celebrate Tita being the head cook. Mama Elena demands that Tita throw them away, but Tita instead uses them to create a rose sauce for a quail dinner. While eating the meal, everyone except Rosaura becomes filled with sensual gratification. Rosaura becomes sick and leaves the table. Gertrudis becomes hot and goes to the outdoor shower. Gertrudis becomes so overheated that the shower house catches fire. Running naked out and away from the fire, Gertrudis runs into Juan Alejandrez, a soldier fighting in the Mexican revolution, on horseback. Filled with a strong attraction to Juan, Gertrudis immediately jumps on the horse and leaves with him. Tita sees this but tells Mama Elena that Gertrudis was kidnapped and the soldiers set the shower house on fire. Mama Elena is informed by a family priest that Gertrudis was forced into prostitution. Tita secretly sends Gertrudis her things. Rosaura gives birth to a sickly son named Roberto. Rosaura is too sick to nurse Roberto, so Tita nurses him with Pedro monitoring. Still suspicious that Tita and Pedro are having an affair, Mama Elena sends Rosaura, Pedro and Roberto to live in Texas. A couple of months later, Chencha informs Mama Elena and Tita of Roberto's death. Tita is greatly saddened by this news, but Mama Elena tells her to show no emotion and to continue on with the kitchen chores. This causes Tita to have an angry outburst, and Mama Elena slaps her with a wooden spoon resulting with a nose bleed. Tita runs into the bird tower and Mama Elena has the ladder taken down. After a week of being in the bird tower, Tita is rescued by Dr. John Brown, a family doctor, who takes her to his home in Texas for treatment. Chencha goes to visit Tita and is shocked that she has recovered. Tita tells Chencha to tell Mama Elena that she is never coming back to the ranch. Dr. Brown, who has fallen in love with Tita, proposes marriage and Tita accepts. Back at the ranch, a group of bandits invade the property, rape Chencha and kill Mama Elena by pushing her off a cliff. Tita and Dr. Brown return to the ranch to prepare Mama Elena's funeral. While dressing Mama Elena's body, Tita discovers the locket and jewelry box containing the picture of Mama Elena's lover. Pedro and Rosaura, now pregnant again, return for Mama Elena's funeral, and Rosaura's water breaks. Rosaura has a difficult labor but gives birth to a healthy baby girl named Esperanza. However, Esperanza refuses to be fed by Rosaura, so Tita once again takes on the duties of nursing. Due to complications in childbirth, Rosaura is no longer able to have kids. To Tita and Pedro's dismay, Rosaura imposes the family tradition on Esperanza. Upon finding out about Tita's engagement to Dr. Brown, Pedro becomes jealous, and he sneaks into Tita's room to have sex with her. During a large social dinner Gertrudis, now a military General, returns to the ranch with Juan Alejandrez, now her husband, along with their squad. Tita suspects that she is pregnant with Pedro's child, and tells Gertrudis her concerns. Gertrudis advises Tita to tell Pedro, and reminds Tita that the love she and Pedro share is true and they should be together. Tita confesses her concerns to Pedro after he walks in on the conversation. Later, Tita begins to have illusions of Mama Elena chastising her for sleeping with Pedro. While singing up to Tita's window with Juan, Pedro catches on fire. Tita treats Pedro's wounds until Dr. Brown shows up. Pedro, still jealous of Tita's engagement with Dr. Brown, wants her to break it off and threatens to tell Dr. Brown about their one-night stand and her pregnancy. Tita tells Pedro she's not pregnant; it was a false alarm. However, out of guilt, Tita tells Dr. Brown of her infidelity and apologizes for hurting him. Dr. Brown accepts her apology and states that he still wants to be with her, but he will accept whatever decision she makes of their relationship. Rosaura confronts Tita about her relationship with Pedro. Rosaura threatens to kick Tita off the ranch if she goes anywhere near her daughter Esperanza, and dictates that Esperanza will never marry per family tradition. Many years later, Esperanza marries Dr. Brown's son. It is revealed through gossip that Tita stayed on the ranch to fight for Esperanza's right to marry and Pedro woke up to find Rosaura dead from an unknown gastro-intestinal illness, releasing Esperanza from the family tradition. Pedro tells Tita that with Esperanza married off, they can rekindle their romance. After the wedding they both go to the guest house to make love. While having sex, Pedro has a heart attack and dies. Devastated, Tita commits suicide by swallowing matches, causing the room to catch on fire, which spreads throughout the entire property. The young woman narrating the whole story reveals that she is the daughter of Esperanza. She reveals that when Esperanza returned home from her honeymoon to find the property burned to ashes, she discovered Tita's cook book, which she kept and passed down to her daughter. ===== Starring in a rodeo, Roy Rogers is secretly summoned by the Governor of Texas who asks Roy to volunteer to track down a sabotage ring. Roy discovers they are members of a travelling show that Roy and Smiley join up with. ===== Sleuth Gay Lawrence (George Sanders), known as "The Falcon," with his assistant, "Lefty" (Don Barclay), arrive at dockside to meet a Latin American cruise ship. On board is Lawrence's brother, Tom (Tom Conway) who is pronounced dead, a victim of suicide, by homicide inspector Timothy Donovan (Cliff Clark). Diane Medford (Gwili Andre), Tom's shipboard companion offers sympathy, but Lawrence has Lefty tail her, as he already knew the body in the cabin was not his brother. Tracking Diane to a fashion show at the salon of her employer Madame Arlette (Charlotte Wynters), Diane is greeted by her fiancé, fashion editor Paul Harrington (James Newill). Two other ship passengers, Latin American dancers Carmela (Amanda Varela) and Valdez (George J. Lewis) are there. Reporter Marcia Brooks (Jane Randolph) recognizes the Falcon, who follows Diane into her office. A shot rings out and Diane falls dead. The Falcon runs into the alley behind the salon and encounters his brother, Tom. Inspector Donovan arrives at the scene and arrests Lefty while the Falcon is run down by a speeding car. Tom takes his unconscious brother to his apartment, where Marcia seeks information about the murder. Lefty is released with a suspended sentence, and learns that his boss will soon recover. Marcia informs Tom that the murder weapon is missing, prompting Tom to return to Arlette's salon to investigate. Seeing Arlette at a nightclub, Tom informs her that the police have the gun from the murder scene and are tracing its serial number. Arlette phones the Police Inspector and gives them Tom's whereabouts. Tom and Lefty search Arlette's, where they find the missing gun hidden in a mannequin. Donovan tracks them down at the salon, and when Tom introduces himself, the inspector arrests him for false impersonation, believing Tom Lawrence is dead. After proving his identity, Tom is freed and directs Marcia to investigate Harrington's photographer, Savitski (Andre Charlot). Tom confronts Arlette with the gun, forcing her to admit that she hid the weapon to protect her love, Harrington who denies murdering Diane and is exonerated by a ballistics expert. Marcia discovers that Savitski is an illegal alien. After smoking a cigar, and about to reveal a clue about mass murders to Tom and Lefty, Savitski falls dead, dropping a pile of magazines. Deducing that Savitski was killed by a poisoned cigar, the same way the suicide victim on the ship, was killed, Tom instructs Lefty to pose as the photographer when Valdez and Carmela enter his office with guns drawn. When Tom steps out of the shadows, the pair identify themselves as Mexican counter- espionage agents and explain that Diane was killed because she knew too much. After Tom notifies Donovan of Savitski's murder, he brings back the photographer's magazines. Certain that Harrington is involved in the murders, Tom and Lefty realize a magazine cover dated December 7, prophesying the Pearl Harbor attack and another magazine cover indicates an incident will take place that day at a New England inn. Tom and Marcia speed off to stop the sabotage, while The Falcon regains consciousness and joins Lefty on a trip to New England where German agents have been preparing for an attack, and Harrington is one of them. After capturing Tom and Marcia and locking them in a bell tower, the agents go ahead with their plan to assassinate a Latin American envoy as his aircraft lands. Tom manages to ring the bell, just as his brother steps in front of the diplomat, sacrificing his own life for that of an ally. With the spy ring smashed, Tom takes up where his brother left off, becoming the new Falcon. =====