From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ===== Based on the Turkic and Iranic folk song traditions, the poem narrates about the heroic deeds of Ural-batyr. Ural is born to an elderly couple, Yanbike and Yanbirðe.Türk Söylence Sözlüğü (Turkish Mythological Dictionary), Deniz Karakurt, (OTRS: CC BY-SA 3.0) Yan (from Persian word جان jan, meaning "soul"), and Yanbirðe means "Given Soul", while Yanbike means "Woman of Soul" . Ural evinces from his very infancy all the features of a legendary hero, such as unflinching courage, honesty, kindheartedness, empathy, and great physical strength. Unlike his cunning and treacherous brother Shulgan (see Sulgan-tash), Ural is an eager enemy of the evil and of Death which personifies it. Having matured, Ural sets out on the quest for Death, with the desire to find and destroy Him. On his way, he meets with various people and legendary creatures and is often deferred by long adventures; in all cases, his actions serve to save lives or quell the evil. Riding his winged stallion Akbuthat (or Akbuz At; White-Grey Horse),Kafkas Nart Destanlarında At Motifi, Ufuk Tavkul he saves young men and women prepared for sacrifice by the tyrannical Shah Katil from imminent death, tames a wild bull, destroys an immense number of devs, marries the legendary Humai (from Persian همای Humay), a swan-maid, and finally smites the chief dev (from Persian دیو div) Azraka, whose dead body is said to have formed Mount Yaman-tau in the South Urals. Ural-batyr perishes in his final grapple with the devs, as he is forced to drink up a whole lake where they had hidden from him, but he leaves his sons to continue his initiative. ===== The story takes place in the 2090s and concerns two outsiders caught up in a war between Ohio and Virginia: a young girl from California visiting relatives with her grandmother, and a boy from our world's Crosstime Traffic trading firm. ===== The story takes place during a fictional future, in the year 3567. During this time, a supernatural barrier called the Olynssis barrier, which disrupts space and time, envelops all of Earth. The planet is also being overrun by organic machines called Gardeners, which seek to exterminate all humans in order to "save and preserve" the planet. Tokito Aizawa is part of a group of hunters who destroys Gardeners and sells the scraps. Although, after encountering a girl named Tea, who constantly calls him "Koichi", and her giant machine, Silver, his life becomes more complicated. ===== Walsh Clifton is an Anglo-Indian born of an inter-racial couple. His mother dies during childbirth in the opening scenes of the novel. He is raised in India by his father, John Clifton, and his Aunt Brenda. Walsh is torn between his strong ties to India and his position as a colonial. He appears most comfortable around Indian characters, though they are not thoroughly developed in the novel, and he is regularly discomfited by representatives of European culture and Christianity in particular. He develops a sense of superiority over several Indian characters, typically echoing other European characters, but these feelings are regularly thwarted, often in tandem with challenges to traditional European notions of masculinity. This is compounded by Walsh's increasing awareness of his mortality, symbolized by the human ankle bone he sees in a pyre and his grandmother's morbid fixation on death. Walsh is sent "home" to England for his education by his father, where he is again caught in a conflict between being English or Indian. The former is often associated with paternal and masculine identity while the latter is frequently tied to maternal and feminine identity. This portion of the novel is largely concerned with his schoolboy experiences, his developing sexuality, and the eventual death of his father, who has remained in India. The protagonist has homosexual experiences, significant dream sequences, and comments on his wide readings. The final portion of the novel consists of a bohemian stage in Walsh's life, set in Soho and outside London. He earns his living on his inheritance and by composing jazz music. Walsh ultimately rejects this lifestyle and concludes the novel with his first love, Ruth, who is terminally ill. She is diagnosed by the same doctor who delivered him and witnessed his mother's death. ===== Martin (Hoult), a pharmacist, and Gabriella (Costa), a physical therapy assistant, live in Los Angeles where they both frequently use an online dating app to hookup with people. After a night of bad dates, the two return to the app where they match with each other and agree to meet at a bar. They spend the rest of the night talking and Martin mentions he used to be married. They then go back to Martin's apartment and have sex. Soon after, the two begin a relationship and Gabriella moves in with Martin. On a visit to Martin's parents, his father reveals to Gabriella that his mother has dementia. She also sees various photos around the house of Martin's ex-wife, Bethany and of an unknown girl. At home, Gabriella gets upset that Martin never mentioned his mother's condition or the girl in his childhood photos. He accuses her of being nosy and angrily reveals he had a sister that died when she was 16. They have a heated argument where Gabriella storms out. The next day, an acquaintance invites Gabriella to a dinner party while Martin goes clubbing with his co-workers. They both end up cheating but confess their infidelity the next morning and decide to seek therapy. Through therapy, they decide to begin an open relationship. Gabriella's friend, Blake, invites them both to a party where they spend the night flirting with other guests. Martin bonds with Blake while Gabriella grows close to Blake's boss, an older man named Larry. The couple continues their string of hookups with other people until Gabriella suggests a threesome, to which Martin asks for Blake but Gabriella disapproves because they are friends. Gabriella soon starts spending more time with Larry and his daughter. Meanwhile, Martin discovers Bethany recently had a child. Unsettled, he watches old home videos that he secretly kept. Martin later goes to a bar alone where he runs into Blake. After a night of drinking, he reveals Bethany miscarried when they were together and that he has unresolved feelings for her. The conversation makes Blake uncomfortable and she leaves. Martin returns home immediately to talk to Gabriella but she dismisses him. Later Larry gives Gabriella a necklace, which she later hides from Martin and they have sex. The next morning, Gabriella admits she climaxed during sex with Larry, which unsettles Martin. Gabriella discovers Martin's private messages to his ex-wife and he finds Larry's necklace causing the two to erupt in anger. Gabriella leaves the apartment and moves in with Larry. Larry reveals that in two weeks, he will be leaving on a 2-year business trip around Europe which he invites Gabriella to join him. Martin and Bethany meet up after he sent her the email where she states it's neither of their faults that their marriage didn't work because they were both young and naive. She then says she is happy even though her life has become boring and predictable. They part ways amicably. One night, Larry throws a party where Blake is in attendance which Gabriella demands him to kick her out. He refuses and calls her immature. She then leaves to a club where she seduces two men before breaking down. She returns the next day and tries to talk to Larry but he says he doesn't care and belittles her behavior which causes her to leave him. Eventually, she visits Martin who admits he was never really comfortable with an open relationship. The two reconcile and reassure their love for one another. ===== Victor is a young man of good breeding, who keeps his dead parents in the bedroom of their sumptuous family cottage. The new status quo opens the door for new discoveries. ===== Peter Petrelli and Adam Monroe track down Victoria Pratt (Joanna Cassidy) in Searsmont, Maine, to learn the location of the Shanti virus. When she sees Peter is working with Adam, she shoots them both and prepares to decapitate Adam, until Peter knocks her out. Once she is conscious, Peter reads her mind and discovers the virus is in Odessa, Texas. Pratt tries to shoot Peter, but Adam reacts and kills her. Claire Bennet and her family are greeted by Bob, who gives them what he claims are the ashes of Noah Bennet. Bob assigns his daughter, Elle, to watch Claire. Claire confronts Elle and threatens to blow the whistle about the Company. Bob and Mohinder Suresh argue over the use of Claire's blood to revive Noah. Claire's blood reinforces the antibodies in Mohinder's blood, making the cure for the virus viable again. Mohinder then insists that Bob assists him in destroying all variations of the virus. Niki Sanders returns to New Orleans and tells her son, Micah that she is infected with a virus. Seeking comfort, Micah goes to get D.L.'s medal, but discovers that his cousin stole it in an attempt to sell Micah's expensive comics. He ended up getting jumped and lost all of Micah's expensive possessions. Later, Monica wakes Micah and the two attempt to recover it, but Monica is kidnapped by the gang that it was passed on to. Maya Herrera and Sylar are bonding over a picnic in a park. Maya manages to control her ability successfully when Sylar deliberately goads her in attempt to help her. Alejandro is reading a newspaper clipping about Sylar's murder of his mother, and protests Maya's wish to see Mohinder with Sylar. Alejandro later attacks Sylar, but Sylar uses a knife to kill him. He hides this from Maya, and the two kiss. Hiro Nakamura informs Ando that the man that killed his father was Takezo Kensei and the two research Kaito's files to learn about Kensei's identity of Adam Monroe and his detention in 1977. Hiro then vows to avenge his father's murder. At the end of the episode, Sylar reaches New York with Maya, and phones Mohinder, who is en route to New Orleans, with the cure to the virus. Sylar tells Mohinder that he has Molly, and won't leave her until Mohinder sees Maya. Moments after Peter and Adam arrive at Primatech, Hiro arrives, stops time and charges at Peter, trying to attack Adam. ===== Consumed by the jealousy and power struggles of their own relationships, a man, his mistress and his wife involve three children in their own games-with tragic results. After Sōkichi stops providing his mistress with monetary support, she leaves her three children with him, whom she insists are also his, and disappears. Sōkichi is bewildered and his wife is livid. With regard only for their own discomfort, they go about remedying their situation.Cammila Albertson, Plot Synopsis, Allmovie ===== All Hallow’s Eve, 1862: Two confederate soldiers, the last of their company, are being hunted in the woods outside Wormwood Ridge. They attempt to defend themselves as the headless horseman emerges from the woods and decapitates them. Halloween, Present Day: Seven teenage friends; Seth, his girlfriend Tiffany, Lizzie, her boyfriend Doc, Nash, Ava, and Liam are driving through eastern Kansas Approx. 12m56s to a party when they stop for gas and directions. Seth finds a “shortcut” through some backroads, but drives over an open bear trap, which destroys the car’s wheel. A young tow truck driver named Candy “happens upon” them and takes them to Wormwood Ridge, a town so small it does not appear on the map. Candy drops their van off at her father, “Pa” Rusk’s garage/junkyard to be repaired and gives the others a tour of the town, which is preparing for the Headless Horseman Celebration, an annual event held every Halloween in Wormwood Ridge since 1806, the year the Horseman began stalking the area for heads according to legend. Seth and Ava go check on the van and discover it missing. Seth searches the junkyard for Pa Rusk when a headless figure emerges, decapitates him, and leaves with his severed head. When Seth does not return, Ava searches the junkyard and finds his body, then alerts the others. Candy reveals the history of “Headless”, or Calvin Montgomery, a 19th-century serial killer who preyed on the children of Wormwood until the residents finally caught and hanged him in the town square, leaving him to rot until his body tore away from his head. Since then, Montgomery’s spirit rises every 7 years on Halloween to collect 7 youths’ heads. Candy warns them that they must leave before Headless returns to claim his next head. The group attempts an escape into the forest on foot but a supernatural mist envelops them and Headless appears on horseback, scattering the group. In the confusion, Tiffany is decapitated and Headless collects her head, then disappears. The others hear church bells nearby and realize they are walking in circles, now back at Wormwood. The group splits up: Liam and Lizzie search for a working vehicle and Nash, Doc, and Ava search the town for weapons. The trio steals several guns from Kolchak Stillwall’s general store, but Headless appears and decapitates Doc, stealing his head. As Lizzie and Liam are searching the garage, they are attacked by Pa Rusk but Liam overpowers him. The four reunite at Kolchak’s but soon split again, with Lizzie and Nash work to get a car working while Ava and Liam search the town’s library for clues as to how to defeat Headless. Nash fixes a car and the four escape the town and are about to cross the bridge over the river when Headless appears and decapitates Nash, causing the car to crash. Pa Rusk shows up and forces Liam, Ava, and Lizzie back into town at gunpoint, where he ties them up for Headless. When Pa Rusk leaves, Candy unties the remaining three, revealing she is not originally from the town and wishes to escape with the others. She tells them that if Headless does not get his 7 heads, he and all of Wormwood will cease to exist entirely. Liam is able to call 911 and a patrol car is sent out to search the area but the inhabitants of Wormwood kill the officer as Headless appears and decapitates Lizzie. Candy steals Pa Rusk’s tow truck, running him down with it in the process. Liam and Ava lure Headless to the bridge out of town in an effort to destroy him because he cannot cross running water. Candy drives up in the tow truck and using the tow’s cable, Ava and Liam hook Headless then pull him onto the bridge where he simultaneously bursts into flames and melts, causing the bridge to catch fire. Wormwood, the buildings and all the people turn to dust and blow away leaving only Candy, Liam, and Ava alive as the bridge to Wormwood burns. ===== Famous poet Richard Cadogan takes an impromptu holiday to Oxford, where he studied at the university, after growing bored with the literary life in the suburbs. After finding himself in a high street, in the middle of the night and with no place to stay, he stumbles across a shop with its awning still up. Closer inspection reveals it to be a toyshop, and on finding the door unlocked, curiosity leads Cadogan inside, then up a flight of stairs to a flat where he finds the murdered body of an elderly woman, before being knocked unconscious. He wakes up the next morning in a supply closet, but after escaping and bringing back the police, the toyshop is no longer there, replaced, it seems, with a grocer's. Bewildered, Cadogan turns to an old friend at Oxford University, eccentric professor and amateur sleuth Gervase Fen, to help him solve the mystery of the moving toyshop. ===== Ray Cook (Nolte) is a bitter, disconcerted high school baseball umpire and chronic alcoholic who, after a series of unusual events, crosses paths with Dave Tibbel (Morgan), a high school baseball player seeking revenge after Cook's questionable calls cost his team the most crucial game of the season. Over time, an unlikely bond forms between the mismatched pair, and Dave agrees to pose as Ray's son for the old man's forty-year high school reunion. The film is a story of two wandering lost souls, one an adolescent boy struggling (along with his younger sister, played by Sonia Feigelson) with an absent mother and a father (Timothy Hutton) who has entirely checked out, and the other an older man, who has seen the curve balls life can throw at you and continuously struck out in his struggle to be the man he wishes to be. ===== Tidewater, Virginia 1808. The story begins at sea with the main protagonist, Crusoe (Aidan Quinn), en route to Africa to retrieve slaves. His ship runs into a powerful storm, and the entire crew perishes except for Crusoe. He eventually makes his way to a tropical island, where he is alone and stranded until he discovers that a dog named Scamp and a small flock of geese have also survived. He befriends Scamp, and gains a close ally. He initially encounters many challenges, but eventually manages to make himself at ease on the island. Later he finds a rifle inside the shipwreck, and, weapon in hand and Scamp by his side, begins exploring the island. After spending more time on the island, Crusoe stumbles upon a group of tribesmen who are indigenous to the area but not the island. He finds, to his horror, that they are cannibals. Following this discovery, Crusoe begins chopping down trees in an attempt to build a boat and escape. His plans do not immediately succeed, and he fashions a cavern into a homestead. Subsequently, Scamp gets sick, and his attempts to cure him fail. Crusoe finds him dead the following morning. This starts a period of intense loneliness for Crusoe. Through his grief he fails to notice several small boats approaching the island. The natives have come to this island to perform the ritual cremation of their chief along with the sacrifice of three of their fellow tribesmen. The chief lies dead on a great branch armchair, which is set ablaze. At the same moment, the throats of two of the tribesmen are cut, but just before the last killing, Crusoe shoots his rifle, distracting the would- be assassins. The man who was to be sacrificed (Hepburn Graham) escapes; as does Crusoe. The two meet by chance in the forest and Crusoe, fearing for his life, threatens the man with his gun. The tribesman, however, does not perceive this as a threat. They both return to the beach thinking the cannibalistic tribesmen have left in their boats. From this moment the tribesman, named Lucky, starts to trust Crusoe. Crusoe takes him back to his cave but still does not allow Lucky to sleep in the cave with him. He leaves him chained by the ankle outside the cave. The following morning Crusoe finds Lucky gone. He sees smoke coming from the place of the sacrifices and investigates. There he discovers the head of Lucky. Crusoe ends up in the trap of another tribesman (Ade Sapara) who ties him to a tree near his cave. The following day, Crusoe attempts to take revenge on the tribesman. A pursuit follows, and Crusoe tries to shoot the tribesman which surprises him. During their struggle they stumble into some quicksand. The cannibal is able to escape the shifting sands, leaving Crusoe to sink. As Crusoe is about to perish he is granted clemency from the cannibal who decides to help by lowering him a tree branch. Soon, the two attempt to collaborate in the native language of the cannibal. In time, Crusoe is able to understand the intentions of the cannibal. These intentions are to manufacture a small boat to return home with the help of Crusoe. After completing construction on the boat, Crusoe decides to build a second boat. A strange shot however, announces the arrival of another ship, this one full of European sailors. Crusoe runs to high ground and attempts to catch their attention. Little does he know that they have come to the island to capture his new friend. Crusoe has other concerns, however, like returning home. He stows away on their ship, hoping to catch a ride. While hiding onboard he discovers that among the crew is a scientist, Dr. Martin (Michael Higgins), who has studied cannibals and plans to bring his friend back to London. Crusoe, who does not agree with this plan, attempts to free his friend without being seen by the crew. Crusoe eventually escapes the island which helps him to realize that liberty and life are precious. ===== Buster is married with two children (both of whom wear the porkpie hat made famous by Keaton). He has built a large boat he has christened Damfino inside his home. When he finishes and decides to take the boat out to sea, he discovers it is too large to fit through the door. Buster enlarges the opening a bit, but when he tows the boat out, it proves to be a bit bigger than he estimated, and the house completely collapses. Buster loses his car during the attempt to launch the boat. The boat passes with impunity under the exceedingly low bridges of the Venice (California) canals thanks to Buster's boat design. While out on the Pacific, Buster and his family are caught in a terrible storm. The boat is barely seaworthy to begin with, and it does not help that Buster nails a picture up inside the boat, causing an improbable leak, or when he further drills through the bottom of the boat to let the water out, resulting in a spectacular gusher of a leak. He radios a Morse Code call for help, but when the navy or coast guard operator asks who it is, he answers, "d-a-m-f-i-n-o" in Morse Code. The operator interprets it as "damn if I know" and dismisses the call as a prank. Taking to a ridiculously small dinghy that is in fact a bathtub, the family resign themselves to the fact that they will sink into the sea, only to discover that the water is in fact only two feet deep. After a short walk through the water Buster and his family happen upon a deserted beach in dark of night. "Where are we?" asks his wife (via an intertitle), to which Buster replies, "Damn if I know" (mouthing the words to the camera, no intertitle is used). ===== Trapper Francois returns to his hometown to visit his father. Unfortunately his father has just died and Francois is clueless in regards to the business he just inherited. He trusts his father's lawyer will take care of everything including the claims of creditors who have demanded an investigation. Like his friend Xavier before Francois soon develops a crush on Marie-Loup, the town's healer. He is delighted when he sees her protecting an Indian girl against a racist. Both share a deep sympathy for the local tribe and speak its language fluently. Unlike Xavier, who serves the local authorities, Francois is successful. But after he has become Marie-Loup's lover, he is forced to escape. Right now the local authorities have discovered illegal affairs of his recently inherited company and they hold him responsible. Francois hides in the wood among friendly Indians and lets them deliver a letter to Marie-Loup. He is waiting for her to join him, so they can get away together. Unfortunately she cannot read and needs to ask the local priest what Francois has written. The priest tells Marie-Loup she had been forsaken by Francois and persuades her to marry Xavier. The desperate Marie- Loup complies with the ceremony but then refuses Xavier his conjugal rights. After she has done so for weeks, Xavier visits Francois in his hideout. He blames his rival for his misfortune and following a fierce fight he leaves him for dead. On his return to Marie-Loup the still furious Xavier utters threats. He does not survive this day. Xavier's comrades refuse to accept Xavier's death as an accident. Marie-Loup gets accused of murder and witchcraft. Francois fails to save her and only gets himself arrested. The British authorities, who have meanwhile taken over the formerly French colony, refrain from interfering in this matter for fear to rekindle hostilities. ===== Ruthless killer Steve Michel is known to the public as "the Claw" for his way of killing his victims with his prosthetic hook. After his accomplices Ryan and Taylor have broken in and stolen furs from the Flawless Furs warehouse, Steve kills the guard with his hook. When the police arrive at the crime scene in the shape of Detective Dick Tracy, he talks to Humphries, who is the owner of the store; Peter Premium, who is a representative for the insurance company; and a man named Cudd, who is the insurance investigator. The insurance company only has 24 hours to find the stolen goods, or they have to reimburse the fur company. Tracy and his semicompetent assistant Patton examine the dead body at the morgue and find a note on it stating that three perpetrators performed the hit against the warehouse. It also mentions that they used a truck with the name "Daisy" on it. Unfortunately, the three perpetrators disguise the truck before Tracy can find it, and the lead is a dead end. The robbers soon leave their hideout in a local junkyard and go to a nearby bar to phone their boss and get new instructions. As they speak with the boss on the phone, their conversation is overheard by an informant, a blind beggar called Sightless, who goes to pass the information on. Sightless is sloppy and noisy when eavesdropping, and is nearly caught by the Claw. Still, he manages to escape the bar. Sightless goes directly to Dick Tracy, but is stopped at the door by Tracy's friend, Vitamin Flintheart. Vitamin believes the beggar is up to no good, and denies him entrance to the house. After listening to Sightless' message, Vitamin gets rid of him. Still, he passes the message on to Tracy later, and Tracy and Patton manage to find the fence who the three robbers were meeting, Longshot Lillie. Lillie is taken into custody and questioned, but is unable to identify the robbers. At the same time, the Claw finds Sightless' apartment and kills the blind man with his hook. Soon after, Tracy and Patton arrive, and the Claw flees the scene. Patton pursues the killer, fires a shot and wounds him, but still, the Claw manages to escape. Tracy notices that the Claw had tried to make a phone call from Sightless' phone, and can identify the first digits from hook scratches on the phone dial. He sends Patton to find the rest of the phone number. Tracy himself goes to the insurance company and accuses them of stealing the furs from the warehouse. They protest against the charges when Patton arrives and tells them that the number leads to the storeowner Humphries. Humphries' plan was all along to sell back the furs to the insurance company after the 24 hours had passed and collect the penalty fee stated in the policy. He calls the robbers at the same bar as before, instructing them to tell the insurance company to come to the bar with $50,000. Feeling guilty about sending Sightless off to a certain death before, Vitamin goes to the bar to find the killer, pretending to be a blind beggar himself. Sam and Fred make an attempt to steal the money for themselves, but the Claw, wounded but still capable of fighting, manages to kill them both. The killings are witnessed by Vitamin, who also hears the Claw talk on the phone to Humphries, telling him the furs' whereabouts. Meanwhile, Patton and Cudd have gone to Humphries and are watching him as he talks to the Claw. Humphries tells the Claw over the phone about his predicament, and the Claw becomes suspicious towards Vitamin and his blind-beggar performance. Tracy arrives to the bar just in time to save his friend from the Claw, and a chase back down to the junkyard happens. Tracy chases the Claw to a high-voltage generator, and the killer is killed by an electric shock when he touches a wire with his hook. ===== The novel takes place in Sierra County, California, primarily around the Silver Lake area. The story begins with a man and woman visiting a section of the Silver River referred to as 'the Bend', apparently with the intention of engaging in a romantic tryst. The next day, the woman's decapitated body is discovered by a young couple, Bass and his girlfriend Faye. Sheriff Rusty Hodges and his daughter-in-law, Deputy Mary "Pac" Hodges, are called in to investigate. The pursuit of the killer leads to a complicated series of events involving Merton (a homosexual drug dealer who was seen running from the scene of the crime), the dead woman's husband, and a revenge scheme involving two of the main characters. ===== A little Skye Terrier named Bobby is the pet of a Scottish farmer and his wife but the dog loves an old shepherd hired on the farm called Auld Jock. When money grows scarce on the farm, Auld Jock is fired. He travels to Edinburgh, and Bobby follows him. Auld Jock dies in poverty in an inn and is buried in Greyfriar's Kirkyard. Bobby returns to Auld Jock's grave every night to sleep. Against the wishes of his wife, the graveyard caretaker James Brown tries to shoo Bobby away, but Bobby always finds his way back to the grave. Bobby endears himself to all, especially the neighborhood children. Brown and a restaurant owner, Mr. Traill, compete for the affections of the dog. Brown alleges Traill should pay Bobby's license fee, which he refuses on principle, not being Bobby's master. Mr. Traill is summoned to the court for a hearing, where he pleads not guilty. Mr. Brown is also present in the court, but he tells Mr. Traill he is sick, and can't get out of bed. Mr. Traill is told to come back the next day, with Bobby as well. Bobby's fate rests with the Lord Provost of Edinburgh and, without a license and someone to take responsibility for Bobby, he may be destroyed. The children of Edinburgh contribute their pennies for Bobby's license. Bobby is declared a Freeman of the City and adopted by the populace of Edinburgh. ===== The newly remarried Vicky (Loretta Young) is on vacation in Miami Beach with her second husband Bob Benton (Lyle Talbot) a Yale-man. One night Vicky finds her first husband Raoul McLiesh (Tyrone Power) on the terrace of the ballroom, and they skip between kissing as if they never divorced and the distant way of two not married people. As he is introduced to her second husband Bob, they have a certain complicity against Vicky, and McLiesh not only finds himself with a valet - Leo MacTavish (Stuart Erwin) - but also with a raccoon, sent him from Bob. He decides to stay at the hotel as his first wife seems more beautiful than ever. The next evening McLiesh brings a young girl - a cigarette-girl met on the road somewhere, Joy (Marjorie Weaver), who makes Vicky jealous, as her husband flirts with her. While businessman husband Bob has to leave, Vicky and Raoul get closer. "You're the only real thing that ever happened to me. Don't let me go this time, please don't!", Vicky says one night to Raoul. And while Raoul's valet Leo McTavish marries Joy, Bob, Vicky and Raoul are in a storm of emotions trying to find their way to one or another. ===== The Four Seasons are a very good jazz quartet, but they perform in a New York City cafe for only $100 a week, forcing them to share a small, rundown apartment. The quartet consists of Joe Spring on clarinet, Pete Summer on accordion and guitar, Mike Fall on piano and trumpet, and an ever-pessimistic Happy Winter on violin. On his way home one night, Mike drives off a man accosting a young blonde named Frederika Joyzelle. When she tells him she has not eaten in two days, he persuades her to share the group's dinner. She tells them that back in her homeland, she was a violinist. The highlight of her career given a command performance for her homeland's ruler, Prince Nicholaus of Aregon. Mike convinces his bandmates to allow "Freddie" to room with them for two weeks, after they discover she has no place to go. Freddie talks the band into asking for a raise to $200, but when they are turned down, they impulsively quit. Mike is further discouraged when they return to the apartment to find Freddie gone. However, Freddie soon returns with great news. She has spent all day trying to convince Keppel, the owner of the well-known Little Aregon Cafe, to give the quartet a tryout. She finally succeeded, and at a salary of $300 a week. She gets a job there too, as a cigarette girl and part-time violinist. As time goes on, Mike falls in love with Freddie, but is unsure how she feels about him. Prince Nicholaus of Aregon is in town, trying to arrange financing for his country. He and his entourage go to the cafe, much to Keppel's delight. When Freddie performs for him, he remembers her and kisses her on the forehead. The newspaper coverage of the kiss causes the cafe to skyrocket in popularity overnight. When a competitor of Keppel's asks the group to perform at his establishment, Keppel wins a bidding war by raising their wages to $3000 a week. This enables them to move into a much fancier apartment. However, the kiss also causes Mike to become jealous to the point of quitting the band. The popularity of Keppel's cafe allows him to move into the larger "Club Joyzelle". With the help of Prince Nicholaus, Freddie and Mike are reunited in time for the grand opening. Even Happy, who is anything but, smiles as a result. ===== Jada is the story of a woman whose life becomes chaotic when her husband is killed in a questionable car accident. Her once-comfortable middle-class lifestyle comes crashing down when an insurance company labels the accident a suicide and refuses to pay her benefits as the survivor. As a result, Jada and her two teenage children, Jasmine and Jamal, become homeless and have to live in their car until the pastor of a local church, the Rev. Terrence Mayweather, comes to their aid. The family finds shelter in a low-income housing project, but Jamal becomes entangled in the neighborhood gang. Throughout the ordeal, Jada's faith in God keeps the family together. An unlikely savior arrives in the person of Simon Williams, who has been released from prison on the Mayweather's strong recommendation. Simon becomes a mentor to Jamal in an attempt to steer him away from the gang, but tensions are high between Simon and the head of the gang, Jason Smith, whose nickname is "Thunder." ===== The Inuyama Family, along with their pet dog Tetsunoshin moves to the famous Hoppongi Hills (modeled after Roppongi Hills) from Kyushu. Rumi Inuyama's father owns an IT Company in Japan and is a step further to becoming number one. However, Tetsunoshin learned that his master's family loaned a lot of money renting their home in Hoppongi Hills, almost to the point of the whole company becoming Bankrupt. To make things even worse, the whole family spends a lot of money on everything, making Tetsunoshin's problems worse. To solve this problem, Tetsunoshin teamed up with the Hills Dogs and will do anything to pay all the Inuyama Family's expenses. ===== The plot resembles some movies and novels of the James Bond series and takes place in the U.S. in an unspecified time period described ingame as "199X". During the introduction sequence, the president and his wife are waving at the crowd next to a limousine at the White House in Washington D.C., when terrorists (some flying in using jetpacks) approach the president and his wife armed and dangerous, and, as soon as the screen goes red and gun sounds are heard, they seem to shoot not only the crowd, but also the president and the first lady, who are both presumed dead. Later, a secret agent working for the American secret service, and known only by the name of Sly, is informed that the terrorists who struck at the presidential ceremony were located, identified, and confirmed to be CWD (Council for World Domination) members. CWD is a secret underground criminal organization with terrorist foundations, involved in drugs and arms dealing, government corruption and their ultimate goal - WORLD CONQUEST. Sly is assigned by the secret service to eliminate these thugs. Listening to the world's desperate plea for freedom and hoping to protect those he loves most, Sly jumps from a plane towards Washington D.C., and begins his campaign to prevent the terrorists from infiltrating not only the city, but several spots in the U.S., and must also prevent a nuclear missile from launching and striking the Earth. ===== Typical of Arriaga's works, this film is told in a nonlinear narrative, where events are revealed out of sequence. The following plot summary is in chronological order, thus does not reflect the exact sequence of the events as seen on screen. The story starts some time during the mid-1990s in a small town near Las Cruces, New Mexico (close to the border with Mexico), where Gina (Kim Basinger), a wife and mother to four children, is introduced. Gina is having an affair with a local man named Nick Martinez (Joaquim de Almeida), who also has a family of his own, but unbeknownst to the two, Gina's teenaged daughter Mariana (Jennifer Lawrence) finds out about their love affair. Mariana follows her mother to Nick's trailer. Knowing the two are inside, and in an effort to make them end their affair, she disconnects the gas pipe leading into the trailer and sets it on fire. The flames eventually reach a gas tank, which explodes, consuming the entire trailer and claiming Nick and Gina's lives, although Mariana had no intention of killing either of them. After Gina and Nick's funeral, Mariana and Santiago (Nick's son) (JD Pardo), slowly begin to develop a relationship of their own. Mariana soon becomes aware that she is pregnant with Santiago's daughter. The two flee to Mexico amid disapproval from their families and decide to have the baby there; after she gives birth to their daughter, Mariana abandons her family and changes her name to Sylvia. More than a decade later, Sylvia (now played by Charlize Theron) is working at a high-end restaurant in Oregon. Despite her success, she resorts to promiscuity and has persistent thoughts of suicide. Here, a mysterious man follows her around. It is Carlos (Jose Maria Yazpik), a close friend and business-partner of Santiago. After an accident involving their crop-dusting plane, the hospitalized Santiago urges Carlos to look for Sylvia, for whom Santiago has been searching since she abandoned him and their two- day-old daughter. Because Carlos does not speak English and Sylvia does not speak Spanish, he has trouble explaining to her the purpose of his visit. Instead, he surprises Sylvia with her now 12-year-old daughter, Maria (Tessa Ia). Maria, who was already reluctant to meet her estranged mother, is heartbroken when Sylvia hastily departs without speaking to either when she sees Maria and Carlos waiting for her outside her home. After realizing her mistake, Sylvia enlists the help of her friend Laura (Robin Tunney) to find Carlos and Maria. After reuniting, Sylvia, Maria, and Carlos go to Mexico, where Sylvia apologizes to Maria for the years she has been absent from her life. They visit Santiago, who is sedated due to the extent of his injuries. Sylvia confesses her past sins by his bedside, unsure if he will ever wake up again. The doctor reassures them that he will be fine, and the story concludes on a hopeful note. ===== As a child Daigo Asahina's life was saved by a fireman. He grew up and never forgot the brave, nameless man who rescued and inspired him to become a firefighter himself. Now as a firefighter in training at Medaka-Ga-Hama Fire Station in Sengoku City, Daigo must grow up quickly, learn the ropes, and find out if he truly has what it takes to become a heroic fireman. ===== Terry Yue Siu-bo, a single father who single-handedly raises his two children, Natalie and Nicky, to young adulthood after his wife's death. Nicky works as a dolphin trainer at Ocean Park and Natalie goes to school with Ella, Nicky's girlfriend. Natalie's boyfriend, Jason, is a musician who does not speak Cantonese very well, and in his first scene, gives Natalie a pet pig. Siu-bo works as a Chinese traditional bonesetter and has kung fu skills, which he has passed on to his children, who display prowess while fighting each other in sibling disputes. Siu-bo tells exaggerated stories to his children and their friends, but they think they don't believe them to be true thus causing a lot of embarrassment to Nicky and Natalie. Rocco, an ex-CIA Agent out for revenge, kidnaps Siu-bo and demands information about a former spy whom Siu-bo knew. Siu-bo refuses to tell him, and Rocco threatens to harm his children if he does not give in. During this time, Uncle Chiu discovers Siu-bo's shop trashed and calls up Nicky to tell him of his father's disappearance. Finding a secret room at the back of his shop, Nicky finds out of his great past as a G4 agent assigned to protect former spies. Seeking more information, Siu-bo is injected with a truth serum by Rocco's men, and in his degraded mental state he reveals that he hid memory cards of his past activity in the lucky charms of his children. Rocco sends agents to Natalie, who is acting in a play, but Nicky manages to get to her and escape with some help from Ella and Jason. As they hide out in Jason's house, Natalie finds out about the memory card in her charm and has Jason try to open it. They then find out that the card needs the other memory card to function, but Nicky in his haste to get to the shop left it in his locker at the park. Nicky and Natalie then attempt to get it during the dead of night, but are intercepted by two of Rocco's minions. After defeating the minions, a phone rings, and they get into direct contact with Rocco, who threatens their father's death if they do not help him in his quest for revenge. He gives them one day to find the agent, and then cuts the conversation. Nicky and Natalie get back to Jason's house and find out that they require voice authentication from their father to access the file. Jason works through the night to create a file that would match Siu-bo's voice. During this time Siu-bo attempts to escape, but is foiled by Rocco's son, who is extremely adept with a bo staff. Jason finishes the file, and is finally able to access the database. They find out that Rocco's target is actually Uncle Chiu, who turns out to be the same agent that left Rocco paralyzed and captured him. Nicky and Natalie try to leave to recover their father and find Uncle Chiu, but Jason traps them in his studio, and reveals that he is Siu- bo's co-agent and does not want them to get hurt. He also reveals that his romantic intentions with Natalie are real, and not just a cover story. Jason makes his way to Uncle Chiu to warn him to escape, and the old Uncle initially accepts, asking for a final moment to spend with his granddaughter. An ambulance creates a distraction from Jason to reveal Uncle Chiu attempting to escape by climbing and running across rooftops. The siblings, initially thinking they were left trapped in Jason's home, find an air vent to escape in, and follow Jason to Uncle Chiu's restaurant. Jason chases Uncle Chiu, but injures his ankle on attempting to jump between buildings and is saved by a fire hose thrown out by Uncle Chiu. Nicky and Natalie catch up to him, and ask him for help in saving their father. He relents, and Jason calls Nicky to throw him his car's keys, so they could get Uncle Chiu to Rocco in time. Nicky and Natalie take a boat to Rocco's lair, and demand to see their father. Rocco reveals him to be trapped in a tank rapidly emptying of air, and rebuffs them without the agent he is looking for. Uncle Chiu shows up, and Rocco calls in his men to kill them. They fight their way through everyone, with Natalie breaking out Siu-bo by applying a kung fu technique he taught her in her youth, Nicky saving Uncle Chiu from a killing blow and defeating Rocco's son. Nicky leaves Rocco unharmed after he makes him fall off his wheelchair, and everyone manages to leave Rocco's lair alive. In the ending scene, Jason comes to Siu-bo's home to apologize to Natalie, which she accepts. Nicky finally gets the courage to have a French kiss with Ella, and Siu-bo and Uncle Chiu play a game of chess, with Chiu's granddaughter watching. ===== A boy called the "Action Gamemaster" is depicted in the first Cheetahmen game's intro sequence, which serves as a framing device. The boy is shown playing a video game when he is abruptly pulled into his television by a robotic arm and meets the Cheetahmen. He is never referred to again during the game or in subsequent Cheetahmen titles, although the manual implies that he transforms into the characters, one after another. A backstory is provided in a comic book that was included with the Action 52 NES cartridge. A mad scientist named Dr. Morbis kills a mother cheetah while on a safari in Africa and takes its three cubs to his laboratory. Subjected to genetic experimentation, the cubs transform into human-cheetah hybrids who eventually turn on Dr. Morbis after gaining awareness of his true nature and future plans. Dr. Morbis responds by creating an army of various human-animal hybrids (known as "Sub-Humans") to counter the threat posed by the self-aware Cheetahmen. Dr. Morbis does not appear during gameplay, though other villains from the comic book do appear. The Genesis game provides a slightly different premise where the Cheetamen must rescue cheetah cubs from Dr. Morbis. ===== Sir Charles Pemberton travelled to New Zealand from the United Kingdom on the advice of his doctor. Once there, he forms an idea to build a health spa on Maori land. The story took place in New Zealand in 1900 and portrays the conflict between the world of the Maori and the white settlers. A sub plot is the friendship between Tom (the son of the hotel owner where Sir Charles stays) and Sarah Jane (the granddaughter of Sir Charles). While it initially gets off to a rocky start, with Tom getting into a lot of trouble with his friends for being rude to their English guests, it leads to a friendship through which Sir Charles is shown the error of his ways in trying to push through his plans. Eventually, they come to nought as a volcano erupts on the land showing the danger of interfering with Maori land. Doomey Dwyer had an illicit still, which he used to supply his 'grog'. ===== State College football coach George Cooper (Fred MacMurray) has more than enough problems on the job without his teenage daughter Connie (Betty Lynn) complicating his life at home. She has written a story but no one has agreed to publish it yet. Furthermore she is convinced that she is unattractive to the opposite sex and wallows in frustrated self-pity. Resigning herself to a loveless existence, she decides to make literature her life. When she gets a check for $180 for a fictional article she pens about a teenage bubble dancer that recently appeared in a confessions magazine, the boys come calling. The young author dates a high school football star from across town who chooses to attend State College (rather than Notre Dame University) to be near his newfound sweetheart. She is the first girl he likes more than football. George's football and domestic problems seem to be solved. His wife Elizabeth (Maureen O'Hara) and housekeeper Geraldine (Thelma Ritter) support the family members in distress, while the younger sister Ellen (Natalie Wood) helps Connie and her father out during this difficult time. In the end she feels much like her sister did in the beginning. ===== Sesha Ratnam (Sarada) is very rich and headstrong woman in the village Nakkabokkalapaadu. Even her husband Veera Bhadrayya (Kaikala Satyanarayana) fears her. They have two daughters Shobha and Neeru. Anjali Devi is Veera Bhadrayya's mother. Venkateswara Rao/Venkanna (Nandamuri Balakrishna) is the grandson of Anjali Devi and nephew to Veera Bhadrayya. Sesha Ratnam doesn't get along well with her mother-in-law and never allows any of her husband's relatives to enter her house. Veera Bhadrayya wants one of her daughters to marry his nephew Venkateswara Rao. But Sesha Ratnam opposes the proposal. Venkateswara Rao promises his grandmother that he will marry one of Veera Bhadrayya's daughters and unite the families. Venkanna comes to Nakkbokkalapadu to make one of Sesha Ratnam's daughters fall for him. But in the process, both the girls fall for him. In the end, Venkanna convinces Sesha Ratnam and unites both the families. ===== The self- contained story concerns a human xeno-botanist named Larsen who travels to the alien jungle planet Gennyo-Leil whose atmosphere is a toxic hallucinogen. Though he initially gains the inhabitants' trust, his mission is compromised by the arrival of a merciless gang of mercenary poacher / torturers. But Gennyo-Leil is not without defences... James Cameron's film Avatar, released sixteen years later, has a number of similarities with Firekind. (Archived by WebCite® at ). (Archived by WebCite® at ) ===== One night in Metropolis, the elderly night watchman from the Metropolis Munitions Works is found dead in a swamp. When news of the incident reaches the city the next morning, Lois Lane and Clark Kent both decide to grab the story for themselves. Clark talks to Lois, not realizing she has already left and that he is talking to a bus driver named Louis. The bus driver gets angry at what he thinks was a mistake about his name. As Lois goes undercover at the plant after meeting with the plant supervisor in the Personnel Building, she meets the new night guard, a kindly, white-haired, old man leaving the Personnel MGR. office. Lois overhears Mr. Jones's plan to blow up the factory. Posing as a factory worker, Lois overhears the foreman telling two of the workers that Mr. Jones, one of the supervisors, wants them in his office upstairs at 12. During break time, the workers head up to Mr. Jones' office. Up in the office, Lois overhears Mr. Jones' plan to blow up the factory as the switch to the factory's night lights has been rigged to a case of dynamite. It is also revealed that the workers killed the night watchman to cover their tracks. Just then, Mr. Jones sees Lois outside the office window and opens the blinds, causing Lois to realize that she has been seen. Mr. Jones sends the workers to catch her. Lois manages to get away from the workers across a window ledge and beams, but is caught by the foreman. She is gagged and loaded inside a test torpedo with another case of dynamite. (As a company rule, test torpoedoes aren't loaded with explosives.) The night guard enters the room and rushes to help Lois after witnessing what's happening. However, the foreman stops the night guard by dropping several tons of scrap metal on him, seemingly killing him. The torpedo is sent to the testing range and set to be fired at a dummy ship. Back inside the factory, the night guard is struggling to free himself from the rubble. As soon as he finally frees himself, the night guard is revealed to be Clark himself, having posed undercover as well to see what's going on. Having changed himself into Superman, Clark flies off to the test field. As the test torpedo is fired, Superman rushes out to the testing range and saves Lois before the torpedo explodes. He frees Lois, who tells him that Mr. Jones is about to blow up the plant. Realizing that they've been discovered, Mr. Jones orders the foreman to throw the night guard's switch now. However, Superman stops the foreman and the workers from throwing it fully before beating them down. Just when Mr. Jones thinks his plans are ruined, he spots a truck loaded with dynamite. He steers the truck toward the factory in a collision course, then jumps out before impact. Lois warns Superman about the truck, and he sends it over a cliff, saving the factory. The story ends with Mr. Jones, the foreman and the workers being arrested for their crimes, and Lois revealing that she knew Clark was the night guard all along. It may have been meant as a subtle irony that Lois was able to see through this disguise easily but could not figure out that Clark was Superman as well. ===== The film opens near the "last stop", a subway terminal (apparently) in Alaska, which appears to be emerging from deep snow in the middle of nowhere. A tough-looking cowboy (Buster Keaton) emerges. He arrives at a small settlement, finding people gambling in a saloon. He tries to rob them by scaring them with a cutout taken from a poster of a man holding a gun, which he places at the window, to appear as if he has an accomplice. He tells the gamblers to raise their hands in the air. Frightened, they hand over their cash, but soon they find out the truth when a drunk man looks closer over the cutout and tips it over. Keaton attempts to hand the cash that he has been collecting back, but is thrown out through the window. Keaton offers flowers to his pretty neighbor (Bonnie Hill). Next, he mistakenly enters a house thinking that it is his own house. Inside, from behind, he sees a man and a woman kissing before a fire. Thinking the woman is his wife, he gets red-hot angry and shoots the couple, moments later to realize his mistake, whereupon he makes his exit. He goes to his own house, where he finds his wife (Sybil Seely), who greets him, but he spurns her coldly, and she screams in anguish. She goes to a wall, and a vase drops on her head and knocks her unconscious; Keaton glances at her momentarily without interest, and then goes back to thinking again. While investigating the shooting of the couple, a passing policeman then knocks at Keaton's door after hearing his wife scream. Keaton saves himself from arrest by playing music on gramophone and pretending to dance with his unconscious wife., acting as if all were normal. Seeing this, the officer turns and leaves again, and he drops her on the floor. He looks out of the window and sees his pretty neighbor (Bonnie Hill). He quickly dons an elegant white suit and picks flowers (mysteriously growing from the deep snow; a sign reads "Keep Off the Grass"). He attempts to woo her, but she doesn't appear to favor him. Her husband comes back inside to get something he forgot, and angrily takes his wife away with him after finding Keaton inside the house with her moments after he had left. Keaton bares his teeth threateningly at him as he leaves and they stare each other in the eye. The neighbors leave on a sled for a new, even more bleak northerly location. Keaton gets a "car" (a cross between a dog sled and an early automobile, with an engine) driven by a friend (Joe Roberts) to follow them, but it breaks down, so he has to hail a passing "taxi" (a horse drawn sled with upholstery). The taxi is stopped by a traffic warden (riding a classic Harley-Davidson motorcycle frame mounted on skies driven by a pusher propeller - an actual mode of transport, not a joke for the film), but they get away: Keaton is up to his old tricks—he flips the propeller around to reverse the thrust, so after they drive off in the middle of the traffic stop, the officer goes backward into a lake when he restarts his engine to chase them. Near the north pole (sign: North Pole, 3 miles south; perhaps it means North Pole, Alaska?), he and Roberts find a hotel-like igloo with wall-hangings of a stag's head and a guitar. In a gag Keaton tries to hang his hat on a stag head antler but it falls off. They attempt to survive by fishing in the manner of the Eskimos. Keaton makes snow-shoes from guitars and attempts to catch fish using tinned sardines as bait, but just creates trouble—he first falls through the ice and then tries to fish—but the only things he "catches" are another fisherman's strung fish and the other fisherman himself! Forced to flee back to the igloo, where his companion is using a carpet sweeper on the ice floor, Keaton sees his pretty neighbor again in her new hut. Apparently fortified by drinking a bottle of cola, grimacing as if it were strong liquor, he decides he will go and make another attempt to win or coerce the other woman. He appears at her hut, and enters, to her distress. Upon hearing the husband returning to the hut to show his wife some gold he had just panned out of the water, Keaton resolutely bars the door with his arm, to prevent the husband from entering, only to discover the door hinges on the other side. After jumping and falling out the window, he disguises himself as a snowman to elude the husband when he runs out of the door in pursuit, and returns to the hut, where he is momentarily shown dressed as Erich von Stroheim's character from the film Foolish Wives, to indicate his villainous intent to force himself on her (or her apprehension of his intent). The husband reappears outside, searching for his wife, scanning the horizon; while he is searching for her, Roberts approaches him wearing clumsy cross- country skies, without being noticed, and stabs him in the arm. The husband appears to punch the friend so hard he flies through the air and lands headfirst in the ice fishing hole from earlier in the film. The husband returns to find his wife weeping on the floor as Keaton stands over her. He pulls out his own knife, and wrestles with Keaton. Keaton's wife appears outside the window, and shoots her husband in the back as they struggle. AS husband and wife embrace, the wounded Keaton lying on the floor takes a derringer from his pocket and points it at the husband, but at that moment a janitor wakes Keaton up in the front row of a film theater (the gun in the last scene turns out to be a folded newspaper in his hand) and Keaton realizes that it was all a dream! ===== Keaton plays a botany student who is accidentally awarded an electrical engineering degree. He then attempts to wire a home using many gadgets. The man to whom the degree should have been awarded then exacts revenge by rewiring those gadgets to cause mayhem. ===== Buster wants to marry a girl, but her father disapproves. Therefore Keaton vows he will go the city and get a job, or commit suicide. He takes several jobs (janitor, employee in an animal hospital, street cleaner, extra in a theatrical play,...) which all disastrously go wrong. In the final scenes he gets stuck inside a riverboat paddle wheel, where he has to run to get out of it. In the end he returns to his girlfriend's father, but since he failed in every way he is given a gun to shoot himself. Buster however manages to miss himself and is therefore kicked out the window by the girl's father. ===== A young man (Keaton) has a series of encounters in an amusement area, much like Coney Island, until happening upon a group of men preparing a hot air balloon for launch. The young man assists the group by climbing atop the balloon to affix a pennant, when the balloon mistakenly takes flight with no one aboard but the young man. The young man finally downs the balloon in a wilderness area, where he encounters a young outdoorswoman and proceeds to have a series of misadventures. ===== The posting starts off as a tremendous culture shock for Agatsya, a city boy. However, it eventually becomes one long philosophical journey and a process of self discovery. Written by a civil servant, the novel manages to capture the essence of an entire generation of Indians, whose urban realities jar in sharp contrast to that of rural India. Agatsya Sen's sense of dislocation is only compounded by his extreme lack of interest in the bizarre ways of government and administration. While his mind is dominated by marijuana, masturbation and the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, images from his previous urban life. His work in Madna would ideally require him to be a devoted servant of the people. ===== A poor girl named Nancy (Olive Thomas) leaves to take care of her two younger sisters, Sadie (Ann Forrest) and Jane (Dolly Dare), while their father (Walter Perry), who is a former criminal, is sent to prison for a crime which he has not committed and dies there. At that time Jonathan Twist, a quaint philosopher and their somewhat mysterious neighbor who operates a watch repair shop and part-time fence, offers them help, and Nancy finds with his help a job as a seller of Cocoa Climax. Nancy marries with a British business man and peer Lord Cleveland, and she becomes Lady Cleveland. However, Lord Clevelend dies very soon without a will and . Nancy does not have enough income to keep up the estates of Lord Cleveland in England, which pass to his other relatives, but receives the palatial home in America. She manages to keep this home and its servants without any visible means of support, and during this time the activities of a crook called by the police "The Bird" is mystifying the authorities. On the night of a reception at her house there is a large diamond theft, and Jim Garside is detailed to catch The Bird. Jim discovers that Nancy is The Bird and Jonathan is her fence for the jewels she has taken, where much of the moneys have gone to the poor. Jim maintains her works for charity while she serves out her prison term, and in the end they are married. ===== The plot involves a criminal named Stein who stole over $100,000 through fraud, then entered a time machine set for the day after the statute of limitations for his crime expired. The story tells how the case against Stein was prosecuted and defended, and that the judge's ruling was delivered in the form of a play on words. ===== Barbi (Anna Biller) is happily married to Rick in a 1970s American suburb. She is friends with Sheila and her husband Mark, an actor, who frequently flirts with Barbi. After she is sexually harassed by her boss, Barbi quits her job. Rick is unperturbed and convinces Barbi to become a homemaker. However, Barbi and Rick begin to fight as he frequently travels for business. After Rick decides to spend a month away from her on a business trip, Barbi decides their marriage is over. Sheila informs her that Mark has also left her, and the two decide to live the single life. While wearing risqué outfits, Barbi and Sheila are picked up by a madam who offers to arrange sexual encounters and dates for them. Barbi decides to go by the name Viva, after the name of an erotic magazine she enjoys reading. As Viva, Barbi goes on several arranged dates and has sexual encounters with various men. She meets photographer Clyde, but refuses to sleep with him until she is ready. However after performing at an orgy, Clyde drugs and then rapes Viva. Perturbed by the encounter, Viva consults Sheila who reveals she is returning to Mark after realizing she is pregnant and advises Viva to also reunite with Rick. Right before her reunion with Rick, Mark attacks and attempts to rape Barbi. She fends him off but when Rick arrives he smells Mark's cologne and runs off. He ends up with a broken leg and reunites with Barbi. Sheila and Mark have a baby, and the two couples remain friends. Barbi receives a phone call from Arthur, a musical producer friend of Clyde's, who offers her a role in his upcoming musical. At an audition Barbi and Sheila perform a song about the different facets of womanhood. ===== The luxury liner SS Crescent Star sinks in seven minutes after striking a derelict mine in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, taking with her nearly all of the 1,156 people on board. Twenty-seven of the survivors converge on a single lifeboat designed to accommodate only nine. The dying captain passes command to executive officer Alec Holmes. Holmes then learns from "Sparks" Clary, the ship's radio operator, that both transmitters were destroyed before a call for help could be sent. When Holmes organizes shifts between the men in the water hanging on the side and those in the boat, Edith Middleton insists on taking a turn in the sea. Mr. Hayden swamps the boat when he fails to listen to instructions, but everyone is brought back aboard. Holmes and Mr. McKinley talk about the impossibility of rowing a boat this heavy any distance at all, much less to the nearest land, Africa, 1,500 miles away. The mortally injured ship's engineer, Frank Kelly, warns Holmes that he must "evict some of the tenants" if anyone is to survive – "anyone who can't pay the rent, like me". Holmes is horrified and rejects the idea. "I thought you had guts enough to save half of them, instead of losing them all," Kelly replies. Later in the night, Cookie thinks he sees light on the water. They fire a flare, but there is no response. The passengers talk revealingly about themselves and why they were on the cruise. Mr. Wilson, in the water, is found to be dead. With a major storm approaching, Kelly tells Julie "be kind to him when it happens." Kelly struggles to his feet, points to the dying and the sick aboard and calls on Holmes to save those he can, then sacrifices himself by jumping overboard. Holmes tries to save him, but he goes under. As the gale worsens, Holmes eventually decides to take responsibility for choosing. And it will not be "women and children first". Some people are already dying of their injuries. When he orders officer Will McKinley to slip the first of these, an unconscious woman, over the side, McKinley protests and then goes overboard to receive her in his arms. One male passenger is knocked overboard by accident but Holmes sends others to certain death, until there are 15 left aboard. Only those capable of rowing to Africa, and a young boy who represents the future, will survive. Middleton observes that an atomic scientist, a brilliant playwright, and a famous former opera singer have been sacrificed to save two "apemen", a racketeer, and a devout coward, and asks, including herself, "Why are the wicked so strong?" Passenger Michael Faroni demands that Holmes go back for the others. Holmes refuses (it is impossible anyway) and Faroni wounds him in the shoulder by throwing a switchblade and is in turn shot dead with a flare gun. As Holmes predicted, the sea becomes a "nightmare" through which they row, relentlessly. The lightened lifeboat weathers the storm and the rest of the survivors thank Holmes for saving them. Realising he is now a liability due to his infected wound, Holmes refuses water and passes command to Clary. Holmes throws himself overboard, but they bring him back. Then, they hear a foghorn and see a ship emerging from the fog. As it comes to pick them up, Edith Middleton murmurs, "Too soon, Just a little bit too soon, brave captain." The survivors, with the exception of Julie and Middleton, quickly repudiate Holmes' actions. Alongside the ship, Clary returns the ring. As Holmes climbs aboard on the rope ladder, alone, a voiceover says: "The story which you have just seen is a true one. In real life, Captain Alexander Holmes was brought to trial on a charge of murder. He was convicted and given the minimum sentence of six months because of the unusual circumstances surrounding the incident. If you had been a member of the jury, how would you have voted, guilty or innocent?" The question, "Guilty or innocent?", in large bold letters, lingers on the screen, while the camera remains trained on the lifeboat, floating empty and adrift. ===== It's Gracie's birthday and everything goes wrong. Chuck insists on buying Gracie's birthday cake, and Montana offers to give Gracie and her friends makeovers. Meanwhile, it's Gary's anniversary, but the seemingly simple task of getting home is made nearly impossible by the WURG team. Also, the WURG team all end up in Kelly's house cornering a fierce raccoon in Kelly's living room. As a result of this, the raccoon inadvertently sets Kelly's sofa alight. ===== The story takes place in the year 2020. Tokio Kuryuu is a normal middle-school student who loves to play games. One day, a transfer student named Saika Amagi approaches Tokio and takes him to the school rooftop where she sends Tokio directly into The World R:X. There, he finds Kite, the legendary hero and leader of Twilight Knight dedicated to protect The World fighting against Flügel, the leader of a mysterious group called Schicksal. During their battle, Kite protected Tokio from Flügel's attack, resulting Kite's PC to be frozen but not before he asked Tokio to save them. Tokio is then transported to Saika's hideout, Grand Whale, and forcefully makes him her slave to find four items called Chrono Cores that are necessary to fully control the Akashic Record, a god-like power that holds over the system of The World and enables them to travel to the past data of The World. Using the Akashic Record, Tokio and Saika travels throughout the past timelines of .hack series to find the Chrono Cores and restored the frozen data of all members of Twilight Knights, gaining new allies in the process. During their journey, Tokio befriends AIKA, a benevolent AIDA-PC that greatly resembles Saika whom the latter introduces as some sort of her alter ego. Saika also reveals that the reason she's gather Chrono Cores is because her cousin, Jyotaro Amagi, has sent her an email that tells her to save him by gathering all the Chrono Cores. One of Schicksal members, Geist, for some reason has been indirectly helping Tokio to get the Chrono Cores and at the same time getting rid of his own Schicksal comrades who were getting on Tokyo's way. The mystery behind Tokio's ability to directly entering the game is revealed because he is a Doubleware, a special kind of human who has the ability to real digitise himself into network. Near reaching the top of Akashic Record, Tokio are confronted by the five remaining members of Schicksal. However, two of the members, Metronome and Geist betrays Flügel, allowing Tokio and Saika to reach the core of Akashic Records where they finds Aura trapped inside by Schicksal who reveals that they have been tricked. At this time, a virus suddenly came out from Tokio's body and slowly corrupting Aura. Geist reveals that he was the one who sent the email and the R:X disk to Saika by posing as Jyotaro so that he could corrupt Aura by using Tokio's power as a Doubleware combined with the virus that he implanted inside Tokio from the disk. Now working together with Flügel and the remaining members of Schicksal, Tokio confronts and defeats Geist who reveals that he was planning to bring forth Immortal Dusk, a plan to real digitize all humanity that started by his creator, Jyotaro, but Flügel reveals that the plan was a failure, and Jyotaro had been the very first victim of the plan, resulting him to be in coma for years. Aura, who was completely corrupted, begins her onslaught throughout the network and begins to real digitise all humanity as a form of her twisted love for The World. Hoping to return Aura to normal, Tokio and all the revived Twilight Knights confronts Aura and uses the vaccines program that Saika has created to restore her. Unfortunately, the vaccine isn't enough to destroy the virus inside Aura, and one by one Tokio's friend was defeated. To save everyone, AIKA sacrifices herself to restore Aura's data and disappears. After the incident, Saika suddenly disappears, prompting Tokio to ask Flügel for help to locate her and finds her at a hospital where she is tending Jyotaro. Saika reveals her guilt for involving Tokio and blames herself for AIKA's death so she tries her best to just forget everything that happens and hopes for Tokio to do the same. Tokio refuses and convinces Saika that everything that happened are too meaningful and precious to be forgotten, telling her there's no need for her to bear the sadness alone. Tokio and Saika reaffirms their friendship, both determines to overcome their sadness over AIKA's death. ===== ===== The plot of the show revolves around eight teenagers who work at Boogies Diner, a popular mall hangout. The characters work in various departments of the "diner", which also includes a fashion and music outlet. Gerald (Jim J. Bullock) is the nerdy manager who tries to keep the teenage mischief from affecting the business. Filmed in Hamilton, Ontario, the series was compared to the American series Saved by the Bell. After the series was canceled, episodes aired on Nickelodeon and CH in Canada. ===== Pert, pretty high-schooler Cassandra Leigh opts for the easy life of a pot- smoking biker to avoid the demands of her neurotic mother. When Cassandra's grades slip, destroying her college plans, she marries a love-smitten swain. But soon the bored young bride looks up her old thrill-seeking buddies, and splits from home. Soon Cassandra is peddling dope on the streets to finance her growing list of addictions. A young Mexican eventually makes her his partner, in crime and otherwise. With the police on their heels, the young lovers are forced to ditch a stolen car in the desert and take refuge in a shallow cave. As the posse closes in, he abandons her and the deputies nab her when she's semi-conscious. The court sends her to a Federal Narcotics Hospital. ===== The story follows Echo (Eliza Dushku), a "doll" or "Active" for the Los Angeles "Dollhouse", one of several facilities, called "Houses", run by a company which hires out human beings to wealthy clients. These "engagements" range from romantic interludes to high-risk criminal enterprises. Each Active has their original memories wiped and exists in a childlike blank state until programmed via the insertion of new memories and personalities for each mission. Actives such as Echo are ostensibly volunteers who have surrendered their minds and bodies to the organization for five-year stints, during which their original personalities are saved on hard drives, in exchange for vast amounts of money and solutions to any other problematic circumstances in their lives. Echo is unique, however, in that she remembers small amounts even after personality "wipes", and gradually develops an increasingly cognizant self- awareness and personality. This concept allows the series to examine the notions of identity and personhood. Within The House, opinions on such matters are divided. Dollhouse director Adelle DeWitt (Olivia Williams) sees her role as merely giving people what they need; programmer Topher Brink (Fran Kranz) is initially entirely scientific and amoral, apart from brief flashes of moral quandary; while Echo's mentor in The House or "handler", Boyd Langton (Harry Lennix), an ex-cop with an unknown past, expresses concern with the ethical and theological implications of the Dollhouse's technology, using his inside role as an opportunity to limit any collateral damage. Raising intriguing questions about personality and selfhood are other dolls Victor (Enver Gjokaj) and Sierra (Dichen Lachman), who despite being continually re-wiped, begin to fall in love and retain those feelings whether wiped or imprinted with other personalities. Meanwhile, FBI agent Paul Ballard (Tahmoh Penikett) learns of Echo's original personality, Caroline Farrell, through messages, photographs, and videos he receives anonymously. Agent Ballard becomes obsessed with rumors of the Dollhouse and risks his career trying to prove its existence. It is insinuated that Ballard has developed feelings for Echo prior even to meeting her, which leads him to continue his investigation even after being taken off the case. Meanwhile, Ballard has been casually dating his neighbor, Mellie. While discussing the investigation over takeout, Mellie corrects Ballard when he refers to bringing "her" in, to say "them" in instead. Ballard tries to explain his slip away, but Mellie does not look completely convinced. Mellie's character up to this point on the show is portrayed as a somewhat insecure neighbor with a crush on Ballard. At the end of this episode it is revealed that Mellie is a "sleeper" doll. She has been planted by the Dollhouse to spy on Ballard. Mellie is unaware of her role in the Dollhouse and believes herself to be a young woman falling in love with an FBI agent. She is in fact a Doll known as November. Ballard finally chases down a lead allowing him to "meet" Caroline/Echo. During the encounter, Echo is terrified of Ballard because she believes she is the personality she has been programmed with. Echo is whisked away by her handler, leaving Ballard with only Joel Mynor, the man who paid for the encounter, to question. Mynor points out the apparent connection that Ballard feels for Echo and cites it as the reason that Ballard is so driven to investigate the Dollhouse. As Echo continues to evolve and learns to work beyond the limits of each temporary personality imprint or default "tabula rasa" programming, she runs the risk of being sent to "the Attic", a permanent resting place for "broken" dolls and Dollhouse employees who cause problems. She is an object of fascination for the escaped doll Alpha (Alan Tudyk)—a genius and serial killer who has been driven mad by being implanted with the memories of dozens of people. Alpha, the season 1 "Big Bad", returns at the end of the first season to kidnap Caroline., "Epitaph One", the final episode of season one, which was not aired as part of the show's original run on US television, depicts a post-apocalyptic future where the mind-wiping technology of the Dollhouse has developed to the extent that vast numbers of people can be remotely wiped and have new personalities implanted, which has brought about the end of civilization. Many of the series' main characters' futures are shown. As the second season begins, the show's focus shifts to depict the dangers of abusing the mind-wiping technology. Each character in the L.A. Dollhouse is forced to confront their own moral complicity in an increasingly downward spiral from moral grey areas to the realization that what the Dollhouse is doing is ultimately immoral and extremely dangerous. The Dollhouse's corporate sponsor is a medical research entity known as the Rossum Corporation, whose ultimate goal is revealed to be gaining control over national governments and even innocent people with no association with the Dollhouse. Through these abilities, the leaders of Rossum can rule the world and also be immortal, jumping from body to body at will. Attempting to stop the further spread of the mind-wiping technology, the L.A. Dollhouse vows to take down Rossum and its mysterious founder, whom only Echo's original personality, Caroline, has met. They also learn that there is no person named "Rossum"—the company founder took the name from the play R.U.R., which is short for "Rossum's Universal Robots". This 1921 science fiction play by Karel Čapek is the origin of the word "robot". The final episode of the series is set in the year 2020, and takes place shortly after the events that took place in "Epitaph One". Despite its best efforts, the L.A. Dollhouse has been unsuccessful in stopping the mind-wiping technology from spreading out of control. Rossum executives use multiple bodies to live in decadence while the peoples of the world are enslaved. A now mentally unstable Topher, architect of much of the technology, devises a way of restoring everyone's original personalities and eliminating Rossum's power, but at great sacrifice to himself and others. The series concludes with the world's personalities restored, while the Earth still lies in ruins, and those with Active architecture sheltering inside the Dollhouse for one year in order to keep the memories they have acquired since their original personalities were restored some years ago, rather than being wiped and defaulting back to their memories from before the Dollhouse got hold of them. ===== An elderly couple, Mohan Joshi (Bhisham Sahni) and his wife (Dina Pathak), sues their landlord (Amjad Khan) for not maintaining their 'collapsing' apartment building. For this, they hire two cunning lawyers (Naseeruddin Shah and Satish Shah), while Rohini Hattangadi is the opposition lawyer. The court case drags on for years and the lawyers milk the old couple dry, while they become rich. Back home in the society, the old couple is ridiculed for fighting the landlord, but they fight on nevertheless. In the end, when the judge comes to check the condition of the chawl, the landlord's men prop up the place, thus convincing the judge that all is well. Finally, Joshi gathers all his strength and pulls down the temporary supports put up by the men causing the building to collapse on himself.Synopsis: Mohan Joshi Hazir Ho! ===== This series features Dr. Quest and his group as they go on new adventures while thwarting different bad guys named Dr. Zin. Some episodes had them gaining a stone man named Hardrock as their ally. ===== The film takes place after the original film, where McCreedy has been locked in a psychiatric hospital after blowing up the film studio to destroy the Hobgoblins, which occurred at the end of the first film. Kevin and his friends are now in college, and their Professor introduces them to McCreedy, who warns them that it is still possible to be attacked by Hobgoblins. Despite McCreedy's warning, Kevin and his friends re-encounter the Hobgoblins and must fight against them and their own greatest fears, in order to save their lives. ===== On the fabled world of Krynn, Lord Soth finally learns that there is a price to pay for his long history of evil deeds, a price even an undead warrior might find horrifying. Dark powers transport Soth to Barovia, and there the death knight must face the dread minions of Count Strahd Von Zarovich, the vampire lord of the nightmare land. But with only a captive Vistani woman and an untrustworthy ghost for allies, Lord Soth soon discovers that he may have to join forces with the powerful vampire if he is ever to escape the realm of terror. Knight of the Black Rose is the second in an open-ended series of Gothic horror tales dealing with the masters and monsters of the Ravenloft dark fantasy setting. ===== The story follows the adventures of Larisa Snowmane, a dancer who travels across the land of Ravenloft by ship. The captain of the ship has evil intentions, however, and the ship comes to land at an island full of zombies. Larisa, along with some of the living inhabitants of the island, must perform a magical dance called the Dance of the Dead in order to save herself from the captain. ===== An order of monks are tasked to keep safe an object of unspeakable evil. The object, a tapestry, lures those of evil intentions to its threads, absorbing them. The order of monks, The Guardians, are the only line of defense against the tapestry's power. However, when a couple mysteriously arrive in the land known as Markovia they are drawn to the tapestry. After successfully stealing the tapestry, the couple make their way to the neighboring country of Tepest. Upon arriving the wife, Leith, finds out that her husband, Vhar, stole the tapestry. She becomes possessed by it, almost killing her husband and escapes to try to return the tapestry, but not before it consumes Vhar. As she makes her way back, she encounters a wolf which bites her. Even with the bite, she manages to make it back, but the tapestry has other plans for her. With the help of the Guardians, she recovers. She returns to Tepest and discovers she is pregnant. After a horrific experience, she runs to the safety of the Guardians and after having her child, she vanishes. The child, Jonathan, may be the Guardians only chance of controlling and stopping the tapestry. However, he may be the one to release its evil into the world. ===== In a centuries-old grand carnival in the realm of l'Morai run by the Puppetmaster, the apparent murder of a carnival dwarf leads to a trial to find the killer. ===== Sir Tristan Hiregaard periodically transforms into Malken, an evil beastly creature who controls a large criminal empire. Tristan is terrified by these transformations, and sets out to destroy his evil side. ===== Tony first wanted to go to the Starved Rock Cliff to climb but Joel disagrees as someone died last year when he tried climbing it. When Joel is told by his father not to go beyond Starved Rock and to turn back if they get tired, Joel promises, "On my honour." Joel and Tony are best friends despite their different characteristics. Tony, however, changes his mind and goes swimming in the river by Starved Rock. Joel does not want anyone to get hurt, yet he also does not want to seem like a coward in front of Tony. Joel suggests a swimming race in a forbidden, treacherous river, although Tony might not be a good swimmer. Joel ends up winning the race, but when he turns to look back at Tony, he finds that he has disappeared. Tony has drowned in the river they were told never to swim in as he could not swim. Joel tries to find Tony in the river but is unable. Joel calls a nearby car over, and the people inside try to help, but they cannot find Tony. Then the cops come to investigate the death of Tony. Joel lives with the horrible secret until Joel and Tony's families, plus the police, find out. Joel decides to confess what has happened. Joel's father also feels the blame for Tony's death. He tries to comfort Joel to sleep once the cops leave. ===== Although Arran Handully is the most popular lifeloop (reality show) actress on the planet Capitol she is sick of acting and wants to retire. Her manager tells her of an idea that for one last lifeloop that will make her rich enough to quit. She suggests that Arran do a nonstop loop from the time she wakes up from suspended animation to the time she goes back to sleep using the fictional drug Somec twenty-one days later. Arran reluctantly agrees to this because she really wants to quit. On the last day of filming a famous lifeloop actor named Hamilton Ferlock comes to her apartment. Shortly after arriving he breaks character, tells her that he loves her and asks her to marry him. She assumes that he is just doing this to play a trick on her and rejects him very coldly before going to the Sleeproom to be put under Somec. When she wakes up she finds out that Hamilton committed suicide a week after she went to sleep. She also discovers that she really cared for him. ===== This story is about the early research done on the fictional drug Somec. After some preliminary research had been done on Somec it was used to put a number of cancer patients into suspended animation. Afterwards it was discovered that in addition to putting people to sleep Somec also erased their entire memory. Doctors tried to treat this condition by implanting false memories recorded from other people into the patients, but this met with limited success - the drug had not altered the patient's personality, and they had great difficulty in accepting that they would have performed many of the actions that they now remembered as theirs. When the scientist in charge of the project taped his own memories and then injected himself with Somec it was proved that a person could be revived from suspended animation if that person's own memories were recorded and then played back into the empty mind. ===== "Skipping Stones" is the story of two boys who grow up together. One is the son of a very wealthy man while the other is an indentured servant. Despite these differences the two boys become best friends. As children they both enjoy art and study it together. When they grow up, the rich boy goes into his father’s business and begins using the fictional drug Somec to put himself into a state of suspended animation for five years at a time so that he will live longer - a common practice in his society for those who can afford it. When he becomes a young man, the servant is released from his contract but is too poor to go on Somec, so he continues to paint to make a living. Each time he comes out of suspended animation the rich man finds that his friend is becoming more successful as an artist. Eventually the artist is famous and rich enough to afford to go on Somec himself - but declines to do so, preferring to live his life as a contiguous whole rather than skipping across time like a stone across the water. ===== When Batta Heddis was a child her father lost his legs in an accident. Because her mother was not responsible enough to take care of the family Batta ended up taking care of everyone. While attending college she met a man named Abner Doon. They became very close and spent a lot of time together. After Batta graduated from college they went their separate ways. A year later Abner came to her house and asked her to go out with him. She refused because her family needed her. When Batta’s brother and sister had grown up and moved out Abner returned and asked her to marry him. While they discussed it and the possibility of them both going under the fictional drug Somec he had her memories taped. However, just as Abner was about to give her the Somec and put her into suspended animation for a few years she changed her mind and went back to take care of her parents. By the time her parents died Batta was almost insane from the hardship of taking care of them. When Abner showed up and offered to wipe her memories with Somec and play the recording he’d made of her mind years earlier she jumped at the chance. However, when she woke up Batta couldn’t escape the feeling that she had abandoned her parents and asked to have her old memories back. ===== Herman Nuber has just woken up from a state of suspended animation brought on by the fictional drug Somec and is looking forward to returning to his virtual world conquest game. Unfortunately for him his position is being played by someone else and that person doesn't want to sell it for any price. When he discovers how poorly the person is playing he gets desperate and arranged to meet the other player. He is shocked to discover that the other player is his own grandson Abner Doon. During the conversation Abner tells Herman that he is going to completely destroy his position. After his position is destroyed, Herman meets with Abner again and learns that he plans on doing the same thing to the empire in the real world. When he tries to warn people Herman is locked away in a psychiatric hospital for five years until he is convinced that it isn’t true. At the end of Herman’s life they meet one last time and Abner says he's sorry for ruining the game. ===== Captain Homer Worthing and a fleet of twenty ship all piloted by telepaths are orbiting a settled star system. They are on the run from the imperial fleet and trying to leave settled space. When they request permission to take on supplies so that they can leave, the planetary authorities refuse. By the time the imperial fleet arrives they are nearly out of fuel and unable to fight the fleet or force their way down to the planets except by destroying one of them with a fusion bomb. Captain Homer refuses to consider this but when some of the ships run out of fuel he is removed from command and a threat is made to blow up one of the planets. No one believes they will do it and the imperial fleet attacks. After a second battle with the fleet one of the captains launches bombs at the planets but they are intercepted by Captain Homer. When a final volley of missiles is fired at Captain Homer’s ship he launches fusion bombs at all three planets in anger. Captain Homer immediately regrets his decision, but his ship is destroyed by missiles just as he is about to abort the bombs. When the fleet gets back to Capitol the commanders get medals and almost a hundred thousand telepaths are murdered. ===== This story is about Mother the empress of Capitol. In it she wakes up from suspended animation for her one waking day every five years and meets with all of her ministers. All of them try lying to her except for the minister of colonization who doesn’t know anything about what is going on in his department. She sends him away and asks to meet with his assistant minister Abner Doon. When they are alone Abner admits that he secretly runs the entire empire and that he is going to tear it apart and make it into something better. Mother agrees not to try to stop him if he agrees to take her with him. After firing all the people who lied to her she goes back to sleep using the fictional drug Somec. ===== Linkeree Danol thinks he is in psychiatric hospital for murdering his mother. However, when his mother shows up at the hospital to visit him he starts acting like a five-year-old boy and runs away from the hospital. While outside he goes onto the plains of his world and finds an abandoned baby. Since he can do nothing to help the baby he leaves it where he found it and is later found by the primitive tribe that abandoned the baby. The next day the tribe goes back to where the baby was left and eats it. Linkeree sees this and decides that it was his past they are cutting up and eating and is cured of his insanity. He realizes that it was a young woman that he was dating that he killed but that his mother had driven him insane from years of psychological abuse. When Linkeree returns to the hospital he tells his doctor that if he goes back to live with his mother he will go insane again. His doctor agrees and helps him leave his world and go to the planet Capitol. ===== As a boy Garol Stipock was a member of the Church of the Undying Voice. One of the main beliefs of this church was that the use of the fictional drug Somec was evil. Shortly after Garol’s great grandfather died the small church broke up. Garol then went to school and as he grew older he decided that God did not exist. Eventually he became a brilliant scientist and was put into suspended animation using Somec to extend his life. When he was a young man he discovered that the church was right and that the use of Somec was wrong because most of the people who were on it did nothing to deserve to have their lives extended. As a result, Garol joined a group of revolutionaries that claimed it wanted to take over the government so that it could reform the rules for Somec use. Later, he realized that the people in the group had no real interest in reform but only wanted to guarantee their own supply of the drug. Although he quit working with the revolutionaries he was soon arrested for trying to overthrow the government. ===== This story takes place on a planet called Answer. Although it is still a colony world it is almost ready to enter the empire as a full member and become eligible to receive the fictional drug Somec. The governor of Answer is looking up at the stars and thinking how this will bring an end to the peaceful life they lead when a starship arrives in orbit. When the captain of the ship lands on the planet he tells the governor that there has been a revolution and that almost all of the people on the planet Capitol are dead. He goes on to tell the governor that the revolution has spread to other planets and that the people are destroying Somec all over the empire. When the captain says that he has a supply of Somec and the necessary equipment to put people into suspended animation on board the ship, the governor asks to see them. Once on the ship the governor destroys the equipment to record people brains making the Somec useless. He then offers to let the crew of the ship live on the planet and they accept. ===== Little Peter lives in the Worthing Inn with his immediate family and his uncle Elijah. While he was still a little boy he discovered that he could hear the thoughts of everyone around him except his uncle. Although he was unable to read his uncle's thoughts Peter could sometimes feel hatred coming from Elijah. As a result he started to hate and fear his uncle. One day when Peter stumbles on a wasp’s nest and gets stung he discovers that he can kill the wasps with his mind. That night he tries to kill his uncle using the same power, but discovers that his uncle is more powerful than he is. Elijah hurts Peter to teach him a lesson and then tells him to never use his power again. At first Peter stops using the power because he is afraid of his uncle but as he grows older and becomes a man he restrains himself out of love and respect for Elijah. ===== One of Jason Worthing’s descendants Elijah lives on the Worthing Farm with his wife and two sons. Because there is a severe drought and nothing will grow Elijah’s wife wants to leave the farm. Elijah believes that if he does he will die from a curse. When Elijah’s wife tries to go he beats her up and then goes out to the field and wishes for rain. To his surprise the rain comes. Unfortunately, there is too much and the farm is flooded. Because he will be unable to repair the damage to the farmhouse before winter Elijah packs up his family and takes them to his brother’s new inn. At the inn he discovers that his nephew Peter has the same powers he has. ===== Joyce Martin is a transfer student at her new school. On her first day, she is sized up by the leader of the Hellcats, Connie. For her first test of initiation, Joyce is tricked into wearing slacks to school even though it is verboten by school policy. During class the teacher asks Joyce to be the blackboard volunteer, Joyce reluctantly gets up, and Miss Davis asks her why she is wearing slacks. Humiliated, she cuts class and goes to a nearby coffee shop and meets the coffee shop employee Mike, a college student who takes night classes, as he must financially support himself. Joyce goes to a Hellcats meeting at an abandoned theater where she is officially introduced to the members of the Hellcats. Connie explains to her the premise of the group: the Hellcats are a girl gang who rule the social order of the school. If she is invited to join, she will be popular; if she fails, her life will be very rough. Joyce has passed the first test but must undergo two more before initiation. Good grades aren't allowed and she may only date Hellcat-approved boys. Joyce agrees but she secretly begins dating Mike. The girls meet to go shoplifting the next day. When they stop at the coffee shop afterward, Joyce is rude to Mike. Connie and Dolly tell her she should stay away from him. The next initiation test requires Joyce to go up to Riff, who is with his girlfriend, and ask him to be her date at a dance. To the furor of his girlfriend, he agrees. At the party, they decide to play a game of Sardines. In the dark, a scream is heard. When the lights come on, they find Connie's body on the downstairs landing. She is dead. They agree to get out quickly and not say anything. A couple of boys drop Joyce off near her house. Mike drives by and she jumps into his car. The boys come over and try to beat Mike up but he is able to fend them off. Joyce and Mike go to his apartment. Joyce cries on his shoulder, says it was a terrible party, and eventually falls asleep in his arms. Joyce's father is furious when she finally arrives home. Her mother defends her. Joyce says she will not follow her father's rules. Connie is reported missing and the police start questioning students at the high school. Dolly, now running the Hellcats, reminds them to say nothing. Joyce visits sympathetic teacher Miss Davis, but does not tell her anything. Dolly leaves a note on Joyce's desk summoning her to a meeting that night. Mike gives her a ride to the abandoned theater. She tells him she will only be 10 minutes, just time enough to quit the Hellcats, and he waits outside for her. Two of the Hellcats find the note and go to Miss Davis. They know that there is no meeting and they are worried that Dolly intends to teach Joyce a lesson. Miss Davis calls the police. On the balcony of the theater Dolly confronts Joyce, telling her that she pushed Connie out of jealousy because she was getting too friendly with Joyce. Dolly lunges toward Joyce with a knife but Joyce moves at the last moment and Dolly falls over the balcony to the floor below, dead. The police arrive. Mike rushes in. Miss Davis arrives. Mike takes Joyce home. Miss Davis calls Joyce's parents to tell them what happened. She tells them that Mike is a good guy. Joyce's parents are waiting on the doorstep. They hug Joyce. Joyce's father pats Mike on the shoulder and they enter the house together. ===== John Tinker spends every winter at his cousin’s inn in the town of Worthing. While in town, John heals the townspeople with a special gift he inherited from Jason Worthing. On a particularly bad winter when the snow is very deep, John does his best to help the sick people of Worthing, but some of them die anyway. The residents blamed John for the deaths and kill some of the birds that he has also been taking care of. When John finds he was unable to help his nephew, people think he is refusing to help because of the dead birds and run him out of town. After he leaves, a very bad snowstorm hits Worthing, and more than half the people in town die. When the storm finally ends, John returns to Worthing and is beaten to death by the remaining townspeople. ===== Worth Luckett is a "woodsy" who provides for his family by hunting wild animals for food and trading their pelts for other commodities they need. When Worth notices that the wild game is leaving the woods near their settlement in Pennsylvania, he convinces his wife and family to move to where the animal population is more plentiful. They migrate into the Ohio Valley, in the fictional county of Shawanee, where they construct a log cabin. They are soon joined by other settlers, who form the beginnings of a community. The Lucketts suffer painful losses and hardships during their first few years in the Ohio Valley. Worth's wife, Jary, who was suffering from consumption during the journey, soon dies. The family survives disease, possibly typhoid fever. The youngest child, Sulie, becomes lost in the deep woods; unable to find her, the family gives her up as either dead or taken captive by the Lenape Indians. A grief-stricken Worth abandons his other children to search for her. The second daughter, Genny, marries a neighboring settler. Her husband later runs off with her younger sister, Achsa, causing Genny to suffer a temporary nervous breakdown. Throughout all of this, the oldest daughter, Sayward, holds the remaining family together. She assumes all responsibility for her younger siblings. Sayward marries a settler named Portius Wheeler, a lawyer known as "The Solitary." He has migrated from Massachusetts, for unstated reasons. The marriage of Sayward and Portius ultimately appears to be successful. At the book's conclusion, the couple has begun to clear the land of trees surrounding the cabin, in order to plant crops. Portius has come out of his shell and begun practicing law again; and Sayward is expecting their first child. ===== A mysterious terrorist organization known as the "FFF" has detonated a mine which bursts dykes in the Netherlands and caused massive flooding of Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport. Unless their demands are met (i.e. immediate withdrawal of all British military forces from Northern Ireland), they threaten to detonate more mines, flooding Holland beneath a wall of water from the North Sea. Colonel van de Graaf, the Amsterdam Chief of Police, puts Detective Lieutenant Peter van Effen, a man with a sardonic sense of humor and many hidden talents, in charge of the investigation. Lieutenant van Effen is also an undercover operative with connections to a Dutch criminal gang; posing as a criminal explosives expert and with the help of fellow undercover officers Vasco (as a corrupt Dutch Army officer) and George (as a black market arms dealer), he sets out to infiltrate the FFF and sabotage their plans one way or another. Matters, however, take an unexpected and dangerous turn when van Effen's sister Julie and Annemarie Meijer (an undercover policewoman and the daughter of a powerful Dutch industrialist) are kidnapped and held hostage by the FFF. ===== In the first part (Green Lantern/Green Arrow #85), Green Arrow (Oliver Queen) runs into muggers who shoot him with a crossbow. Strangely, the weapon is loaded with his own arrows. Tracking down the attackers, Green Arrow and his best friend, Green Lantern Hal Jordan, find out that the muggers are junkies who need money for their addiction, and are surprised to find Queen's ward Speedy (Roy Harper) among them. They think he is working undercover to bust the junkies, but Queen catches him red-handed when he tries to shoot heroin. It becomes evident that the stolen arrows are indeed Queen's, which he shares with Harper when they fight crime together. In the second part (Green Lantern/Green Arrow #86), an enraged Green Arrow lashes out at his ward. In shame, Harper withdraws cold turkey, and one of the junkies dies of a drug overdose. Queen and Lantern tackle the kingpin of the drug ring, a pharmaceutics CEO who outwardly condemns drug abuse, and visit the funeral for the dead junkie. ===== Yan is a prostitute from the mainland in Hong Kong, living near Fan and her family, who is staying in the area illegally. Yan meets Fan in a laneway behind Portland Street and become friends after Yan's pimp is assaulted in front of Fan by an assailant wielding a durian fruit. Yan services dozens of clients per day and showers compulsively. After her 3-month-stay in Hong Kong, Yan returns to her family and her ex-fiancé in Northeast China to invest what she has earned. Yan remains in contact with Fan, receiving a durian from her as a gift. ===== The citizens of mountain town Pine Ridge, California, are concerned about a series of livestock mutilations in nearby Devil's Crag. A local, Harold Banks, is also found dead there, killed in the same manner as the livestock. Sheriff Parker orders everyone to stay away. Local speculation is that the deaths are supernatural in origin. Native American, "Indian Joe", confirms their fears of a tribal curse, but is driven out of town by the sheriff. Local geologist Wayne Brooks is told of Banks' death by friends Anne and Charlie Brown, two Pine Ridge siblings. Sheriff Parker is suspicious of Brooks, having heard about a recent confrontation between Brooks and Banks. As the sheriff is questioning him, Dr. Cleveland and his daughter Janet arrive in town. Cleveland is planning to do archaeological research in the area. While Brooks helps Janet pick up supplies, Parker warns Cleveland about the Banks murder. While at dinner with Cleveland and Janet, Brooks, formerly Cleveland's student, offers to be his area guide. Brooks tells Cleveland of a local Native American legend that evil spirits will rise up in Devil's Crag. He also says that Native American artifacts have been found there and that he has them. Dr. Cleveland reveals that he is searching for the remains of a Spanish expedition that he believes reached Devil's Crag 500 years earlier. The specific group Cleveland is tracing, known as the "Diablo Brigade", split off from the main expedition and was led by a huge man named Vargas, also known as the "Diablo Giant". After dinner, Janet agrees to go on a date with Brooks after he takes Cleveland to his field laboratory. At the laboratory, Cleveland is examining Brooks' artifacts when Janet opens a box with a small lizard inside. Brooks found it inside a rock, where it had been in a state of suspended animation for a long time. Cleveland continues examining it and the artifacts, as Indian Joe peers through a window, watching closely. When Brooks and Janet return, Cleveland excitedly calls them inside. He pieced together broken fragments into a cross and now theorizes that the Conquistadors influenced the locals hundreds of years before. The next morning all three go to Devil's Crag, and Sheriff Parker follows them in his police car. Parker pulls up and chastises Brooks for leaving town because he knows that Devil's Crag is off limits. Cleveland produces a permit from the Commissioner of Public Lands that allows him to conduct his research. Cleveland assures Parker that they are armed and can defend themselves. Unconvinced, Sheriff Parker leaves, and the small group sets up camp. The next day, while Brooks is examining the area, Indian Joe fires his rifle in Brooks' direction. Joe tells him that he is just hunting rabbits, but pointedly asks if they are there to rob Native American graves. Brooks assures him that they are only after Spanish artifacts, so Joe agrees to hunt elsewhere, warning Brooks that the place is evil. Brooks returns to camp and informs Cleveland that the area is changed. He theorizes that a recent electrical storm disturbed the whole area. They begin using their metal detectors to search but without success. Janet encourages Cleveland to give up, and he agrees to stop. She uses one of the detectors and by chance detects something. The spot is excavated and a cache of Spanish artifacts, armor, weapons, and bones are found. Brooks finds a rock formation similar to the one in which the lizard was entombed and discovers the handle of a massive, still intact axe he believes belonged to the "Diablo Giant". Brooks is forced to leave because of a large electrical storm, just before the "Diablo Giant" Vargas rises from the site's detritus. The next day, the group finds a large indentation in the ground and giant-sized armor and other artifacts. They discuss the possibility that like the lizard Vargas has been in a state of suspended animation and is still alive. Later that night, the body of the 500-year-old Vargas, revived by a lightning strike, stalks the group and eventually kills Anne Brown. Sheriff Parker accuses and arrests Brooks for Anne's murder because a medallion (one of his excavated artifacts) was found clenched in her hand. It is later revealed that the giant Vargas is roaming the wilderness after causing another brutal death. Local men from Pine Ridge help the sheriff hunt down the giant, who is causing more damage and deaths. Brooks is eventually able to kill Vargas, forcing him to fall to a watery death from a bridge spanning a raging waterfall. ===== The life of gangster, Choi Tae-woong is followed through the tumultuous events of the second half of the 20th century in Korea. ===== Sanders (Leslie Banks) is a British colonial District Commissioner in Colonial Nigeria. He tries to rule his province fairly, including the various tribes comprising the Peoples of the River. He is regarded with respect by some and with fear by others, among whom he is referred to as "Sandi" and "Lord Sandi". He has an ally in Bosambo, a literate and educated tribal chief (played by the American actor, Paul Robeson). When Sanders goes on leave, another chief, King Mofolaba, spreads the rumour that "Sandi is dead." Inter-tribal war seems inevitable, and the situation is made worse by gun-runners and slavers. His relief, Ferguson (known to the natives as Lord Ferguson), is unequal to the task; he is captured and killed by King Mofolaba. Sanders returns to restore peace. When Bosambo's wife Lilongo (Nina Mae McKinney) is kidnapped, the chief tracks down her kidnappers. Captured by them, he is saved by a relief force commanded by Sanders. Bosambo kills King Mofolaba and is subsequently named by Sanders as the King of the Peoples of the River. ===== A woman is thrown out of her home by her jealous husband and sinks into depravity. Twenty years later, she finds herself accused of murder for saving her son, who does not know who she is. He finds himself defending her without knowing her background. ===== Illustration by Bertall Having transported a sleeping Arlequin to her island, the fairy waits for him to wake up. Her servant, Trivelin, questions her devotion to the young man who is too lazy, too gourmand, and too simple to be worthy of her love. Moreover, he reminds the fairy that she is engaged to Merlin, a powerful sorcerer, and breaking the engagement could have serious consequences. When Arlequin wakes up, the fairy indulges him with romantic entertainment, but he is more concerned with a ring she wears on her finger and being fed. Arlequin, having left the fairy's palace, stumbles upon Silvia in the forest, and the two of them fall instantly in love. Silvia gives Arlequin her handkerchief, and they agree to meet later on that evening. Back at the palace, the fairy's suspicions are aroused when Arlequin suddenly begins showing manners and acting civilized; and when she spies the handkerchief, she assumes the transformation has occurred because of love. She follows him into the forest and catches Arlequin and Silvia together. She separates the lovers and forces Silvia to tell Arlequin that she is really engaged to a shepherd from the village; the fairy also sends Trivelin to spy on them to make sure that Silvia does not disobey. Upon hearing Silvia's lie, Arlequin threatens to kill himself. Silvia tells him the truth about the fairy's demands; and Trivelin reveals himself to the couple. However, Trivelin takes pity on Arlequin and Silvia and gives them advice on how to trick the fairy. Arlequin then pretends to reject Silvia and returns to the fairy. When he is close enough, he steals the fairy's magic wand and forces her to become his servant. Arlequin and Silvia decide to get married. ===== Wub fur, so the story suggests, continues to live after the "death" of the Wub, and as such is highly prized owing to its postmortem production of a luxurious pelt that has numerous, albeit trivial, human applications. One such application is its use as a book cover by a Mars-based publisher who issues a new Latin volume of Lucretius' poem De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things). Lucretius's poem represents one of the best preserved ancient sources of the materialist philosophy known as Epicureanism, which espoused an ateleological metaphysical formula of atoms, randomness and determinism, an ethical doctrine promoting hedonism and, most notably for Dick's story, personal annihilation at death. Dick's story begins with the book publisher receiving numerous complaints by purchasers of the Wub covered volume of Lucretius. Numerous changes to essential passages in the text have been discovered; those originally advocating personal annihilation now suggest a postmortem eschatological state. Detective work by the publisher and his copyist reveals that non-Wub covered volumes did not experience similar amendments and furthermore that no amendments were made to the proofs sent to the printers. The remainder of the story provides a humorous and philosophically interesting counterpointing of the annihilatory statements in Lucretius' poem and the Wub fur that, somehow, amends it. The publisher continues to experiment with the nature of volumes bound in Wub fur, including the Bible, which demonstrates similar amendments to the Lucretius poem. In the end, the publisher decides to take the test one step further, following the messages in the modified passages to see if the Wub fur can preserve other items--including bodies--in the same way it preserves itself. ===== This is an epistolary novel, told primarily in the form of letters between some of the characters, using the multiple narrative technique associated with Modernist novelists of the period. This collection of documents--hence the novel's title--is explained as a dossier of evidence collected by the victim's son as part of his campaign to obtain justice for his father. Novelist John Munting shares with former public school contemporary and talented painter Harwood Lathom, a rented top floor flat in respectably suburban Bayswater (London). The landlord and downstairs neighbour, Harrison, is a staid, middle- aged widower who has remarried. His new wife Margaret is younger, attractive, passionate and self-absorbed. Lathom and Mrs Harrison begin an affair, the husband suspecting nothing, and Lathom paints a remarkable portrait of her. Creeping downstairs to meet his mistress one night, Lathom encounters the Harrisons' neurotic live-in spinster companion, Agatha Milsom, who mistakes him for Munting in the dark and makes accusations of assault. Faced with Harrison's furious reaction and glad of an excuse to leave a distasteful situation, Munting moves out and marries his fiancée. Lathom departs for Paris and his portrait of Mrs Harrison, exhibited at the Royal Academy, makes his reputation on the London art scene. Meeting Lathom by chance sometime later, Munting is persuaded to accompany Lathom to a remote Devonshire cottage where he is holidaying with Harrison, who is pursuing his hobby of cooking with ingredients available in the wild, and is an expert on edible mushrooms. On arrival they find Harrison hideously dead, apparently having cooked and eaten poisonous fungi by mistake. Returning from Africa, Harrison's engineer son Paul suspects that Lathom and his stepmother have conspired to murder Harrison, and Munting is drawn unwillingly into the investigation. He learns that muscarine - the poison that killed Harrison - in its natural state, differs from synthetic muscarine, in that the natural molecule, found in mushrooms, is asymmetrical, consisting of only one molecular form, but synthetic muscarine is racemic, which means that it consists of a mixture of equal quantities of the molecule as found in nature and its unnatural "mirror- image" form. The two types of muscarine can be distinguished by using polarized light: when polarized light is shined through a solution of the racemic mixture, the direction of polarization does not change, but when polarized light passes through a solution consisting of only one form of muscarine (or of any asymmetrical molecule), the direction of polarization rotates as the light passes through the solution. The muscarine consumed by Harrison proves to be synthetic, indicating that the mushrooms he ate were poisoned deliberately by addition of synthetic muscarine stolen from a lab. Letters between Mrs Harrison and Lathom indicate that she manipulated him into the killing by claiming that she was expecting his child. Lathom is hanged for murder. ===== Upon landing on Earth, the Autobot rookie "Create-A-Bot" undergoes a basic systems check, under Ironhide's coordination, before defeating several Decepticons, including the Create-A-Bot from Transformers Decepticons, and taking on the form of a vehicle he scans. Aferwards, he arrives in Tranquility, where Optimus Prime teaches him to value the lives of the humans that all Autobots are sworn to protect, before meeting with Bumblebee, who has him scan additional vehicles, as well as the internet for information on a pair of glasses with a Decepticon code imprinted onto them. After informing the Create-A-Bot that both the Decepticon leader Megatron and the AllSpark might be on Earth, Bumblebee leaves to retrieve the glasses, only to discover the Decepticon Barricade has already claimed them. Bumblebee pursues and ultimately defeats Barricade, before learning from a news article that a "giant metal man" was found frozen in the Arctic. The Create-A-Bot goes there and meets with Ironhide, before discovering that a human military organization called Sector 7 found Megatron and had him imprisoned at their base there, but later moved him to an unknown location. They also discover an encrypted file titled "Project: Ice Man" which they send to Optimus, before being attacked by the Decepticon second-in-command Starscream, whom Ironhide defeats. Returning to Tranquility, the pair rendezvous with Bumblebee, who has discovered that Sector 7 had adapted Megatron's technology into automated defenses which they have set up all over town. Once Bumblebee destroys them, Optimus Prime arrives on Earth with Jazz and Ratchet, and sends Jazz to retrieve several Sector 7 vehicles for analysis, one of which turns out to be Decepticon Blackout. After driving him off, Jazz meets with Optimus and they learn through the data they've retrieved that Sector 7 has both Megatron and the AllSpark kept hidden inside the Hoover Dam. Vowing to destroy his former brother, Optimus orders Bumblebee to distract Sector 7's forces, allowing the other Autobots to escape, though when Create-A-Bot recklessly tries to help, Bumblebee gets himself captured while saving him. When Optimus decides to focus on retrieving the AllSpark rather than saving Bumblebee, Ironhide angrily accuses him of caring only about destroying Megatron, though he later apologizes. At the Hoover Dam, Jazz hacks into Sector 7's computer systems and learns where Bumblebee is being kept, before Create-A-Bot is sent to rescue him. Bumblebee reveals that he knows where the AllSpark is, and retrieves it along with his weapon chip, before meeting with Optimus, though they are intercepted by Barricade when they try to leave the dam. Optimus battles and kills him, but with his final words, Barricade reveals he was merely a distraction, allowing the other Decepticons to free Megaron. Ironhide and the Create-A-Bot eavesdrop on the Decepticons and learn that they've placed bombs on the dam, which the former disarms, while Optimus goes after Megatron. He is intercepted by Brawl, but quickly dispatches of him. The Autobots head back to Tranquility with the AllSpark, pursued by the Decepticons. Blackout goes after Bumblebee, but is killed by Ratchet. Megatron soon shows up and takes the AllSpark, wounding Bumblebee in the process. Optimus then attempts to take him on alone, but Megatron uses the AllSpark to create drones that attack him. The Create-A-Bot arrives and manages to get the AllSpark away from Megatron, shoving it into his chest, which mortally wounds him as well. Optimus proceeds to battle the injured Megatron, ultimately killing him and destroying the AllSpark. Before he dies, the Create-A-Bot tells Optimus to make Earth the Autobots' new home. Optimus mourns his death and later honors his last wish by sending a message into space for any surviving Autobots to join them on Earth before driving off into the sunset with Bumblebee, Ratchet, and Ironhide. ===== This film tells the story of a young girl named Estrella (Sonsoles Aranguren), living in the north of Spain with her father, Augustin (Omero Antonutti), and her mother, Julia (Lola Cardona). Her father is a scientist who seemingly has the ability to divine water using a pendulum, but Estrella finds him mysterious. As she's growing up her father shares with her the art of divination, but does not talk about his own childhood. Her grandmother comes to visit, and she learns that during the Spanish Civil War her father and grandfather had a falling out. Her grandfather supported Franco, but her father was a Republican. After the civil war her father vowed he would never return to the south again. Later she sees her father visit a movie theater, then eventually discovers that the films he patronizes all star an actress by the name of Irene Rios (Aurore Clément). She later finds out that Rios was her father's sweetheart in the south, and that he is still in love with her. ===== A disgruntled, disenfranchised Hopi shaman sets out to "end the world" by way of a ritual invocation of the Hopi god of death. Shortly after his mutilated corpse is discovered by a skeptical Tewa deputy the body count begins to rise as more strangely slashed and bloodied victims are found. The book has many elements: part love triangle; part Native American case study; part supernatural thriller. It was the author's own tribal ancestry which inspired the writing of this fictionalized anthropological mini-survey. Category:1977 American novels Category:American horror novels Category:American thriller novels Category:Novels by Martin Cruz Smith Category:Native American novels Category:American novels adapted into films Category:Novels set in the United States Category:Southwestern United States in fiction Category:W. W. Norton & Company books ===== The book begins with separate narratives focusing on Patrick Mac and Alder, the Travelers of Third Earth and Denduron respectively. It follows the changes in their home territories and their realization that they are without Bobby Pendragon. On Denduron, the Bedoowan and Milago tribe are using the explosive tak that Bobby unearthed with a from Zadaa to start a war with a neighboring tribe, the Lowsee tribe. On Third Earth, the once Utopian planet has morphed into a waste world. Bobby Pendragon, meanwhile, has been living comfortably on Ibara, the island community located on Veelox. Pendragon's own description states that he has been a contributor and leader of the rebuilding of Ibara, which was destroyed in the previous book by Saint Dane's Dimond Alpha Digital Organization D.A.D.O.army. Days after an unsettling conversation with Saint Dane, Pendragon encounters a drifting skimmer bearing a dying passenger on board (this passenger being Loque, one of the Jakills from The Pilgrims of Rayne who amazingly survived having a large amount of broken glass fall on him and slaving underneath Saint Dane while trying to dig up the flume in Rubic City along with the other Flighters). After hearing Loque's story, Bobby assumes that Saint Dane is after the flume and decides to prevent the flume from being reopened. He fails, and later discovers that Nevva Winter, Saint Dane's ally, has been living on Ibara disguised as Tribune Genj's daughter, Telleo, whom she killed months before. Hearing from her that Denduron is in danger, Bobby reluctantly sets out to rescue it. Emerging onto Denduron, Pendragon is nearly killed by a quig, later to be healed by Alder, whom he rescues from prison. Later, after failing to reseal the newly opened tak mine, the two of them realize that the territory is lost; therefore they travel to Second Earth to battle Saint Dane. On First Earth (1937) Mark and Courtney find that they have failed to prevent Mark's inventions from altering Earth's history. Mark is then black-mailed into giving up his Traveler ring to Nevva. They then head to the flume only to be intercepted by Patrick who came to First Earth in search of Bobby after realizing he couldn't save Third Earth alone. Mark and Courtney then return to Second Earth with Patrick in tow. Upon arriving they find that many people are worshiping a new cult, Ravinia, and both flumes have been revealed by Alexander Naymeer who is the leader of Ravinia and the "new" traveler of Second Earth as Bobby has quit. He is using the ring Nevva took from Mark. The goal of Ravinia is to reward the people who contribute to society, while punishing those who do not. Mark, Courtney, and Patrick head to the other flume to get off of Second Earth only to be intercepted by Naymeer. A chase ensues and Patrick narrowly gets away but not before being shot. Mark and Courtney are captured and brought to Naymeer's home which happens to be on top of one of the flumes, in the Sherwood house. A mortally wounded Patrick arrives on Denduron just as Alder and Bobby are about to leave. They heal him and send him back to Third Earth to find out what a possible Second Earth turning point could be. They then head to Second Earth to find Mark and Courtney. Bobby comes out in the flume below Naymeer's house. Just before Bobby arrives, Naymeer tells Mark and Courtney that the flumes and Traveler rings are made of dark matter. Bobby, Alder, Mark, and Courtney all talk with Naymeer who tells them he can't be stopped. They disagree and escape to Courtney's family's boat where they all decide that a vote to nominate Ravinia as "spiritual advisor" to the entire world is the turning point of Second Earth. Courtney's parents then show up with the cops. Another chase ensues and Mark and Courtney are captured but Bobby and Alder escape and take refuge with the main protester of Ravinia, Haig Gastigian. Patrick, on Third Earth, learns that the destruction there has begun with a mostly forgotten event known as the Bronx Massacre. He is killed while trying to convey word of this, but succeeds in telling Bobby about the event by sending him a message through his ring. Bobby and Alder witness what they think is the Bronx Massacre when Naymeer sends 12 people, including Mark and Courtney, into the flume to an unknown destination. Bobby and Alder later hear from Haig Gastigian, that he is holding a rally of 70,000 people in Yankee Stadium. At the rally the UN's vote is revealed to favor Ravinia, whereupon the 70,000 protesters gathered in Yankee Stadium are pulled into a giant flume which Naymeer creates, causing the true Bronx Massacre. Alder tries to stop him, but is killed in the process. Bobby is brought to a helicopter and flown above the stadium to witness everyone's deaths. It is revealed that Haig Gastigian was really Nevva who lured all the people to the stadium. Realizing this, Bobby throws Naymeer into the flume. At this, Saint Dane claims victory because Bobby had stooped to his level and failed his last test. Naymeer, falling into the flume, causes a beam of light to strike the helicopter. It spins out of control and falls into the flume. Saint Dane and Nevva escape and later tell the Conclave of Ravinia, the head of Ravinia, that Naymeer is dead but that Nevva is trained to take his place. Bobby then finds himself in space, looking down at the flumes, and watches them explode. He wakes up in the middle of an oblivious landscape, where he is confronted by his Uncle Press and the other nine travelers of his generation, both dead and alive. Uncle Press says that now is the right time to kill Saint Dane, since he believes that he has won. He also says that it is time for the current Travelers to learn the truth about themselves. The Travelers decide to finish the fight with Saint Dane, once and for all. ===== Paco and Régula live on a rural estate owned by an absent marchioness with their three children. Nieves works as a maid in the big house, Quirce is doing his military service, and Charito is severely handicapped. The parents accept the repeated humiliations of their position as dependents at the whim of the owners and the estate manager, but Nieves and Quirce aim for a better life. The family is joined by Régula's mentally handicapped brother Azarías, sacked from another estate, who loves birds. The owner's son Ivan often comes back to the estate for two reasons: he is conducting an affair with the manager's bored wife Pura and he is fanatical about shooting birds. Paco, who he forces up a tree to decoy pigeons, falls and breaks a leg. Then he tries using the simple Azarías and, in a fit of pique, shoots the man's pet jackdaw. Next time Azarías is sent up a tree to work decoys, he drops a noose round Ivan's neck and hangs him. Mentally a child, he is shut up in a secure asylum. ===== The film examines the differing lives of two young women who are linked by their affiliation with a Buddhist temple. ===== Department store salesclerk Anabel Sims (Betsy Drake) is very enamoured with the idea of getting married. So when handsome pediatrician Dr. Madison Brown (Cary Grant) asks for her help in making a purchase, she decides that he is the one for her. He is quite happy as a bachelor, but Anabel proves to be a very determined schemer. She learns all she can about him, everything from where he went to school to his favourite foods. Madison soon realises her intentions and does his best to fend off the young woman. Anabel makes a reservation at a restaurant on a day when she knows that Madison habitually dines there. In an attempt to make him jealous, she pretends to be waiting for wealthy, three- times-married playboy Roger Sanford (Franchot Tone), who happens to be her employer and Madison's university classmate. By chance, Roger shows up. Fortunately for her, Roger believes that she is using Madison as a ruse to get acquainted with him. However, the manoeuvre fails; Madison's feelings remain unchanged. Anabel comes up with more ingenious schemes, but they are all unsuccessful. However, Roger falls in love with her. He eventually asks her to marry him, but she only invites him to dinner at her home. When Anabel's best friend Julie (Diana Lynn) warns Madison, he begins to worry, knowing something of Roger's success with women. The doctor invites himself to the little soirée. While waiting for Anabel, they are unexpectedly joined by "Old Joe" (Eddie Albert), Anabel's longtime hometown beau, who announces that he and Anabel are finally going to get married. At first, Madison congratulates them, but after thinking about it, makes his own bid for her hand. Anabel leaves the decision up to Joe, who bows out, saying that he only wants her to be happy. After Joe leaves, Madison informs Anabel that her research on him was incomplete; he recognized "Joe's" voice as that of a radio performer he listens to frequently. ===== The story revolves around a love triangle that forms between Ryusuke, Ryusuke's first girlfriend, Hitomi, and Mariko, who Ryusuke has been dating. ===== Robert Lansing plays Talion, an ex-bounty hunter turned homesteader who, after his ranch is burned to the ground and his wife and child are murdered, meets up with and hires bounty hunter Benny Wallace (Patrick Wayne, son of John Wayne) to track down the killer, Ike Slant (Slim Pickens). Along the way, they befriend single mother Bri Quince (Gloria Talbott) and her son "Jo-Hi" (Clint Howard). The two bounty hunters are later forced to rely upon each other when Talion's gun hand is shattered in a shootout and Wallace is blinded during a confrontation with Ike Slant's outlaws, leading them to resolutely combine into one single, unstoppable killing machine. Wallace, it turns out, is the son of the famous Pat Garrett, who took down Billy the Kid. During the shootout, he is killed. Despite a developing romantic relationship with Bri, Talion rides off, leaving her behind so that she does not meet the same fate as his late wife. ===== Vamshi (Uday Kiran) is a hair stylist who falls in love with Nandini (Neha Jhulka), sister of Bhoopathi Rayudu (Sri Hari), a good hearted factionist. Vamshi and Nandini decides to get married only with the consent of their elders. So Vamshi comes to Juturu, a village in Rayalaseema to convince Bhoopati Rayudu of his love with the latters sister. Initially Bhoopati doesn't like Vamshi and everyone laughs at Vamshi when he says that he is a hair stylist in city. But the pair believes that true love never runs away but stands brave even after initially being rejected. Bhoopati values the word given by any of his family members and stands by it. The second half shows the "Kayyalu" (light hearted quarrels) between the elders of the two sides. Vengal Reddy (Jaya Prakash) tries to become the MLA by violence and thinks of Bhoopati but in vain. Even after Vamshi convinces Bhoopati, he is worried on how to convince his parents. Uday is son of a Justice (Sayaji Shinde), a person who believes that one should not go beyond the law and hate corrupted ones. How the pair and Bhoopati convinces the Justice forms the rest of the plot. ===== The Varden attack the Empire city of Belatona. In the battle, Saphira, Eragon's dragon, is nearly killed by a Dauthdaert, a spear from the Dragon Wars that can bypass magical wards and kill dragons. Belatona is captured by the Varden, and an alliance is later formed between the Varden and the werecats. Afterwards, Eragon's cousin Roran is sent on a mission to capture Aroughs, which he succeeds at using unconventional tactics. Roran rejoins the Varden at Dras- Leona, which proves difficult to take, as it is under protection by Murtagh and his dragon Thorn. Jeod finds information about an incomplete sewer system under the city, which should provide access to it. Eragon, Arya, Angela, the werecat Solembum, and an elf named Wyrden enter this sewer system, to sneak into the city and open the gates for the Varden. However, the mission goes awry, as the tunnels are used by the priests of Helgrind, who separate the group, slay Wyrden, and capture Eragon and Arya. The priests worship the Ra'zac, and attempt to feed Eragon and Arya to Ra'zac hatchlings, although Angela and Solembum save them. Eragon is then able to open the city gates and defeat Murtagh and Thorn, allowing the Varden to take control of the city. As Eragon and Arya become drunk to celebrate their victory, Murtagh and Thorn attack their camp and capture Nasuada. In her absence, Eragon is appointed as the leader of the Varden, as they march on to Urû'baen, the capital of the Empire. Eragon struggles under the weight of command, and recalls Solembum's previous advice, instructing him to journey to the Rock of Kuthian and open the Vault of Souls. As nobody has knowledge of the Rock of Kuthian, he questions Solembum, discovering that he had given the advice on instinct. During the conversation, Solembum appears to be possessed, giving Eragon. He discovers the Rock of Kuthian is located on Vroengard Island, and protected by magic which causes everyone, barring himself and Saphira, to forget about it upon hearing of it. He manages to inform Arya and Glaedr of this, and decides to journey to Vroengard. Glaedr joins Eragon and Saphira, while Arya stays behind and helps trick the Varden into thinking Eragon is still with them. Upon reaching the island, Eragon and Saphira find the Rock of Kuthian and learn that they must speak their true names in order to enter the Vault of Souls. Eventually, they find their true names and gain entry. Inside, they find a hoard of Eldunarí and dragon eggs, hidden away before Galbatorix destroyed the Riders. Umaroth, the dragon of the former leader of the Riders, who leads the Eldunarí, decides to join Eragon and the Varden to overthrow Galbatorix. Leaving some Eldunarí behind to guard the eggs in the event of their defeat, Eragon and the others leave Vroengard, losing their memories of the Vault. They make their way to Urû'baen, under siege by the combined forces of the Varden, elves, werecats, Urgals and dwarves. Eragon reveals the Eldunarí to the leaders of the forces, and they plan an attack on the city. The combined forces of the Varden attack Urû'baen while Eragon, Saphira, Arya, Elva, and elven spellcasters break into Galbatorix's citadel. They make their way to the throne room after progressing through a series of traps, during which the spellcasters are captured. In the throne room, Galbatorix easily subdues Eragon, Saphira, Arya, and Elva and informs them that he has learned the true name of the ancient language, referred to as the Word. With the Word, he is able to control the usage of magic with the ancient language, negating any spells they attempt, while possessing more Eldunarí. To amuse himself, he orders Murtagh and Eragon to fight using only their swords. Eragon defeats Murtagh, and persuades him to join his side. Murtagh, who had developed feelings for Nasuada in her captivity, has his true name changed, and turns on Galbatorix, using the Word to strip him of his wards. Enraged, Galbatorix incapacitates Murtagh, and battles Eragon, while Saphira and Thorn battle his dragon Shruikan. Using the Eldunarí, Eragon casts a spell to make Galbatorix experience the pain and suffering that he has caused, while Arya kills Shruikan with the Dauthdaert. Overwhelmed with Eragon's spell, Galbatorix uses magic to destroy himself, also destroying most of the citadel. Eragon, using the Eldunarí, is able to protect those in the citadel. To heal from their ordeal, Murtagh and Thorn decide to journey far away, teaching Eragon the Word before departing. Nasuada becomes the High Queen of Human Alagaësia and King Orrin of Surda grudgingly pledges his allegiance to her. Arya returns to Du Weldenvarden to help choose a new queen for the elves after the death of her mother, Queen Islanzadí, in battle. She takes with her the remaining dragon egg, which hatches for her, and she names the dragon Fírnen. She is also chosen to be queen of the elves. Eragon realizes that there is no safe place to raise the dragons and train new Riders in Alagaësia. He thus decides to sail away with the Eldunarí and the eggs to a region far east of Alagaësia. Eragon reworks the magic of the pact between Riders and dragons to allow dwarves and Urgals to become Riders. He leaves two eggs in Alagaësia: one is to be sent to the dwarves, and the other to the Urgals. The future Riders will travel to Eragon's new home for training, while new eggs will be periodically sent back to Alagaësia. Eragon and Saphira sadly say their farewells to their friends and family, but look forward to the future. ===== In a post-apocalyptic America, Jamie Teague is traveling from the east coast to his home in the Great Smoky Mountains. Along the way, he comes across a group of people traveling on the highway and headed straight for a group of Bushwhackers that kills anyone who tries to pass. After warning them, Jamie starts to follow them and, when the Winston highway patrol refuses to let them take an alternate route, he decides to help them get past the Bushwhackers. As they travel together, Jamie finds out that the people are Mormons and that they are headed for Utah to avoid being massacred. Knowing that they will die without his help, he agrees to take them as far as his cabin. He also agrees to let them stay with him during the winter. In the spring, Jamie tells the group about how when he was a child his mother made him keep his younger brother and sister locked in a closet until they went insane. After making this confession, Jamie gets baptized as a Mormon and decides to lead the group to Utah. When they finally arrive in Utah, they all settle down into their own homes but remain close friends. ===== In a post-apocalyptic America, Deaver Teague makes a living salvaging things left behind from before the war. Although he makes more money than a lot of people, he knows that he won't be able to do this job forever. When he hears a couple of truck drivers talking about some gold hidden in a Mormon temple in the now flooded Salt Lake City he decides to go and look for it. Deaver can't do this by himself so he goes to two of his friends, who are not very religious Mormons, and asks them for help. Reluctantly they agree. His friend Lehi gets some diving equipment and his friend Rain agrees to take him out to the temple in her boat. On the way Deaver tells them about how he was orphaned even though he doesn't like to talk about it because he believes that friends don't keep secrets from each other. When they arrive at the temple Deaver dives down into the building and comes up with some pieces of metal which he believes to be the hidden gold. When he gets to the surface, he finds out that they are prayers that people have scratched into flattened tin cans and thrown into the temple windows. When he discovers that his friends knew that people were coming out here and doing this, he feels betrayed because they didn't tell him and he decides to move away. ===== This story begins before the war that destroys America. In it, a teenage boy named Sam Monson travels to Brazil with his father. While there, he begins dreaming about a woman who lives in a nearby Indian village named Anamari. When he goes to the village, he finds the woman and begins helping her take care of the villagers. While there, he learns that she also has dreams that come true and that she is dreaming about giving birth to a boy who will become the future leader of an America that is controlled by American Indians. On his last night in Brazil, Sam sleeps with Anamari and she gets pregnant with that boy. Years after the war when Sam is the governor of the state of Deseret, Amamari comes to meet with him to negotiate a peace treaty on behalf of their son, Quetzalcoatl (named after Quetzalcoatl, a Mesoamerican deity). Sam goes, and takes with him a man named Carpenter, to whom he later tells his story. ===== In a post-apocalyptic United States, Timothy Carpenter is a wheelchair-using teacher in a small farming community. When he discovers that the farm foreman, the bishop and some other men are stealing food from the other farmers, he reports this to the authorities. On the day that the marshals are scheduled to show up, he talks to his students about how wrong it is for people to steal. After class is over, the son of the foreman threatens Mr. Carpenter and tells him to keep his mouth shut. Later that day, the authorities show up and arrest the thieves. An hour later, their sons show up at Mr. Carpenter's house and take him out to a dry riverbed that will flood with the coming rain and dump him into it so that he will drown. Just as he is about to drown, he is rescued by a group from a traveling pageant show. When the police show up at his house, Mr. Carpenter refuses to name the boys who attacked him because he feels sorry for their families. However, when he sees them in school the next day, they behave. ===== In a post-apocalyptic America, range rider Deaver Teague is trying to get to the town of Moab because his horse died. On the way, he is picked up by the Aal family’s pageant wagon. When they arrive in the town of Hatchville, Deaver decides to help the Aals set up for the show because he likes them, he wants to see the show, and because they have a beautiful daughter named Katie. Over the course of the day, Deaver learns that the family has a lot of problems. The most serious of them is that the middle son, Ollie, wants desperately to get away from the pageant because his father won’t let him act - making him run the lights and sound board instead. When Ollie takes off with a local girl in an effort to get the family into trouble, Deaver talks the sheriff out of arresting anyone and then offers to take over Ollie’s job so that he can either leave the show or start acting. ===== Leela and Bholaram are a childless couple. Leela is a midwife, and one day assists Sunderdas' wife to give birth to twin boys. She decides to keep one baby for herself and tells Sunderdas that his wife has given birth to one child. There are complications for the mother, and she passes away without seeing her children. Leela and Bholaram bring up Kanhaiya, while Sunderdas attempts to bring up Kishen, but is unable to do a good job. So he marries Kamini, who comes along with her brother, Ghendamal, to live at the estate. She has an illegitimate child named Mahesh from another man. When Sunderdas learns this, he is threatened and attacked. As a result, he is paralyzed, unable to move. Kishen is brought up by Kamini and Ghendamal with a lot of abuse and intimidation. He is kept illiterate, so that he can blindly thumbprint whatever documents he is asked to sign. Kanhaiya is brought up to be a street- smart. fighter and movie-crazy young man. That's how he meets an equally movie-crazy, rich and spoilt girl, Anju, and they fall in love. The one secret that ties the brothers together is their reflex action — if one is injured the other feels the pain, too. Only Bhola makes the connection at a vital point in the story. Kishen likes Radha, a servant, and is married, but the atrocities do not stop. Finally Gendamal asks Mahesh to kill Kishen by throwing him off a cliff after getting the property papers. At the same time, Kanhaiya learns of his past and returns to the ancestral mansion, shocking everyone. What also shocks everyone is his changed attitude. He denies his signatures on the papers signed by Kishen. Finally all the confusions are resolved. Kishen and Kanhaiya together fight the evil and achieve justice. ===== ManBand! is the tale of two music promoters looking to find the next big thing in pop music for television. They inadvertently create a "manband", a boy band with middle-aged men. The television company follows and sabotages their progress. The band, cruelly named ‘Parazone’ (a European brand of bleach), consists of five members: *Barrelman (Michael Wallot), an opera singer; *RS Smoothskin (Tim Murphy), who has boy band looks but no talent; *Mild Bob (Kurt Scholler), a Tupperware salesman who mistakenly auditions thinking it to be a Tupperware convention; *Bosco Barret (Kevin Kearns), an “Irish lunatic/Troubadour; and *Bartender (Ed Bell), a bartender/crazed heavy metal singer. Their choreographer, TT Bags, is a less than successful dancer and songwriter Lun E. Tune is a recently released mental patient who writes songs about maiming his old girlfriends. ===== The film opens with flashbacks from Tarzan of the Apes to establish the back story. The African expedition led by Professor Porter (Thomas Jefferson) to find Tarzan (Elmo Lincoln), the ape-raised heir of Lord Greystoke, has been crowned with success, and Tarzan and Porter's daughter Jane (Enid Markey) are in love. The party now prepares to return to civilization when it is attacked by natives and separated from the ape-man. Tarzan's paternal cousin William Cecil Clayton (Colin Kenny), the current Lord Greystoke, desiring to keep his wealth and title, reports having seen the savages kill Tarzan. Believing him dead, they leave without their charge. But Tarzan has in fact survived, and is eager to be reunited with Jane. Finding his new friends gone he swims out to another boat to follow. Eventually he reaches the United States, and is landed near the Porters' ranch in San Francisco, California. Tarzan in civilization is like a bull in a china shop, as is demonstrated early in a destructive incident in a dance hall, where his prowess impresses La Belle Odine (Cleo Madison). Things get back on track when Jane is kidnapped by outlaws, presenting him with the opportunity to rescue her. Jane, however, is cold to him, as Clayton has falsely convinced her he is in love with the other woman. Heartbroken, Tarzan swears off civilization and returns to Africa. Belatedly learning the truth from Odine, Jane follows, and is happily reunited with her lover in the jungle. ===== Boogie Woogie is a comedy of manners, its cast of characters devouring each other in a small world awash with big money. Set against the backdrop of contemporary London and the international art scene, it casts an eye over the appetites and morality of some of its major players. Dealers, collectors, artists, and wannabes vie with each other in a world in which success and downfall rest on a thin edge. Elaine is an art school graduate, and up-and-coming star. Working in the video medium, her works largely consist of recordings of her own sexual exploits, supplemented by conversations she has observed clandestinely or as a third party. Joany is Elaine's muse, and lover (hence a subject in her films) within a volatile, brittle relationship. Elaine is not faithful to her, but is preoccupied with her work, and is ambitious to succeed. The film opens with these two arguing at home. Joany leaves with Elaine in pursuit, and we hear a crash and see a spray of shattered glass behind Joany. Elaine mutters "No. Oh no.", but begins videoing what she sees. This will be revealed later. Art Spindle is the biggest art dealer in London. Outwardly charming, as a dealer must be, he is in fact greedy and manipulative. Bob and Jean Maclestone are a couple whose marriage is no longer happy. Bob is very wealthy, and collects art voraciously as an investment, with little enthusiasm for its cultural significance. Jean is an art enthusiast, who enjoys Bob's ability to acquire it. Through binoculars from his office, Spindle observes the couple entering the art gallery of his rival, Grossman, much to his disgust. Bob and Jean arrive next at Spindle's gallery. A spin painting that Bob would like to purchase is unavailable, but Spindle suggests another piece. While Bob is out of the room, Jean flirts with Spindle. Beth Freemantle works for Spindle as gallery director. She has ambitions to open her own gallery, and has secretly sought Bob's assistance. Bob has entered her office, where he offers her his recommendations regarding breast augmentation choices she is perusing on her computer. He mentions that he has found a location for her gallery. He also sees a slide of the Rhinegolds' Boogie Woogie painting and decides he must have it. Re-joining his wife and Spindle, he sees the suggested painting (two women measuring each other's large breasts), and wants that too. Alfred and Alfreda Rhinegold are émigrés from Nazi Germany, who have been wealthy but, in retirement, have fallen on hard times. Alfred has amassed a collection of fine modern art, but his wife now tries to persuade him to accept the purchase offers they receive from Spindle to raise funds. Their butler, Robert, also encourages him to sell. Alfred is especially determined never to sell the Mondrian painting, which gives the film its title, because he bought it from the artist in person. Dewey Dalamanatousis is an art enthusiast and friend of Elaine's. Initially, he acts as her promoter. Together with Joany, the three of them attend an exhibition at the Spindle gallery. Paige Oppenheimer is another art enthusiast. At first meeting, we see Paige rollerblading through London, past the Rhinegolds' home in Lower Bond Street, over the River Thames, and to the Spindle gallery. Camera angles invite us to appreciate her obvious sex appeal. Jo Richards is a conceptual artist, whose reputation is beginning to fade. He enjoys the sound of his own voice, and the opportunities that being an artist give him to seduce women. He arrives at the gallery at the same time as Paige, opening the door for her and watching her walk inside. We discover that gallery director Beth is his girlfriend and he asks to borrow money from her. From across the room, Jean Maclestone catches Jo's eye, and he looks back at her with a wry smile. Jean asks Beth to introduce her to Jo. Dewey introduces himself and his companions to Jo (who has forgotten his previous meeting with Dewey and does not impress the women). Instead, Elaine warms to Beth, briefly videos her and invites her to visit Elaine's workplace. Dewey begs Beth for a meeting with Art Spindle. Spindle is in his office, completing the hiring of Paige to work for him. We discover that Spindle knows Paige's father, another collector. Reluctantly, Spindle agrees to spare five minutes to see Dewey. Dewey proposes to curate a show of his own devising at the Spindle gallery. Spindle feigns interest, but as Dewey leaves, he discards the explanatory portfolio. Dewey realises he did not leave a business card, and goes back into the office, where he sees his portfolio in the bin. Later, in a fashionable bar, Dewey laments his bad luck to Elaine (she's videoing as usual). He blames her presence for his failure to keep a boyfriend, but she is distracted by "cute" Charlotte Bailey, who works at another art museum. Elaine and Charlotte leave the bar together, and video their encounter at Elaine's flat. Leaving the gallery after her successful job interview, Paige reattaches her rollerblades, and Jo takes the opportunity to introduce himself. Later, we see Paige rollerblading through a park. She feels a pain in her midriff, causing her to fall. Bob and Beth visit the location of her prospective gallery, where they kiss. Later, Elaine is showing Beth her videos at the Spindle gallery. Beth is impressed. At the Maclestones' home, Bob is rearranging his collection, giving extra space to his Brâncuși. Jean argues that it looked better before. She pronounces the artist's name in a commonplace way, but Bob insists that it have an authentic Romanian pronunciation. Spindle calls to offer Bob the Boogie Woogie for a higher price than he'd offered the Rhinegolds. He also mentions that he has hired Paige. She limps into his office, and while he dictates a letter to Alfreda, he observes the injury to her leg. He applies ointment, but his hands wander between her legs, causing her to exclaim that she would treat herself later. At that moment, Beth walks in with a message and sees them in the compromising situation. At Jo's workspace. He is dictating notes to himself while lifting a dumbell. At a knock, he abandons the writing, snorts a line of white powder and answers the door. Jean is there. Some of the pieces of work he shows her require the observer to adopt a particular stance giving his hands the opportunity to wander over her from behind and a sexual encounter ensues. Beth is visiting Bob at his office. He asks her if she has ever used an explicit sculpture by the Chapman brothers for sexual gratification, and offers to demonstrate. She suggests reverting their relationship to a strictly professional one, but they proceed to intimacy instead. Back at the Spindle gallery, Art has received Beth's resignation. He resents her betrayal and threatens to make life difficult for her, dismissing her angrily. With her back to the closed door, she smiles in delight. He instructs his accounts department to stop all commissions due to her, audit her expenses, block her password, and terminate her mobile phone. In a bar across town, Spindle is hosting a party to celebrate the success of the current show. Beth is among the group and he thanks her for her efforts while explaining to the others that she is leaving the gallery. Elaine arrives, videoing the party. Dewey finds himself ignored. Elaine and Beth visit the bathroom to do drugs together, and Beth proposes replacing Dewey as Elaine's promoter. Jo invites Paige to visit his workspace, and since his intentions are clear to Jean, she intervenes between them, suggesting that Jo accompany her on a planned trip to New York. They visit the men's room where she performs fellatio. They are almost caught by Bob, and one of Jean's shoes falls under the cubicle partition, where a smiling Bob returns it. At home later, Jean asks Bob for a divorce. Bob accepts without hesitation, and she is upset by that. They argue about how long they've been together, he remarks casually that she seems interested in "the artist", and he also notices that her shoes look familiar. She leaves for Spindle's home, where she hopes to find refuge and advice. At Elaine's, she is talking with Dewey. She gives him a generous gift, but follows it up with the termination of their business relationship. Dewey takes it badly. Paige is visiting Jo's workspace, where he uses his art installations to attempt a seduction. She declines it. Although a butler to the Rhinegolds, the shadowy Robert Freign is also an amateur artist. He advises Alfreda that Spindle's offer for the Mondrian is too low. Later on, Spindle visits the Rhinegold home, meeting Robert secretly. They agree an improved arrangement, whereby Spindle will increase his offer for the Boogie Woogie and pay to insure it for an even greater amount. Robert gifts Spindle one of his own paintings. Later, Robert phones Spindle and tells him that an even greater offer has been received. Emille is a friend of Jean's, who has experience of three marriages and lucrative divorces. They meet for lunch to discuss Jean's split from Bob. The Maclestones own several houses around the world, but Emille recommends taking possession of their art collection instead. She also recommends not leaving evidence of her relationship with Jo, such as a flight and hotel stay in New York. Bob has the mirror conversation with his lawyer, and when he discovers Jean wants the art he suggests selling it all to avoid giving her a moral victory. He engages Spindle to arrange the sale, demanding strict secrecy from Jean, to which Spindle agrees. Paige has been promoted to be Beth's replacement as director. Bob has bought her flowers by way of congratulation, and invites her to dinner later in the week. Dewey arrives at Elaine's flat (he is her upstairs neighbour). Elaine makes Joany get out of her bath to answer the door, then videos the conversation. Dewey threatens to commit suicide, Joany doesn't believe him. Later, Dewey accosts Elaine in the street and demands to know why she is avoiding him, but gets no satisfaction. To complete his deal for the Boogie Woogie, Spindle visits the Rhinegolds, bringing a box of Alfred's "favourite" cigars as a gift. The unhappy Alfred directs him to a table where many similar boxes lie. Spindle tells Alfreda that he is disappointed they had entertained the increased offer. He assumes it came from his rival, Grossman, and tells her that the other gallery owner has cashflow problems and so should not be trusted to bid. Alfreda tells him that the other offer had come from Bob Maclestone, and shows him the letter. Alfred insists that he will still not sell the painting at any price. Spindle increases the amount again, but is dismissed. In the taxi after their dinner date, Paige tells Bob that she is ill. They complete their journey, but Bob discovers her unconscious in the bathroom. He cannot resist pulling her dress aside to enjoy a glimpse of her "spectacular" breasts, but calls the ambulance anyway. Surgery reveals the remains of an unborn twin that had always been hidden within Paige. The doctor believes the waiting Bob to be Mr Oppenheimer, and calls him into an office to explain Paige's condition. Bob asks to see the remains of the twin, and evidently takes it home. Later, at the Spindle gallery, Bob reveals a gift box to the now-recovered Paige. Within is the twin, suspended in formaldehyde, which he proudly explains he has had Damien (Hirst) "make a piece of". Her perplexed reaction passes over his head. Jean flies home after her New York trip and is appalled to discover the house is empty of art. Jo and Beth are in bed at his flat. It seems that she had, indeed, undergone the breast augmentation she considered near the beginning of the film. Jo found himself unable to perform, blaming tiredness from the transatlantic flight, but Beth suspects the true reason is scarring due to the surgery. The telephone answering machine records Beth's voice complaining about her art loss and demanding his help. Beth realises his sexual betrayal and cancels her promise to arrange his art show. Jean confronts Spindle at home about his part in the art sale. Among her accusations is that he had been caught (by Beth in his office) in a sexual position with Paige. A naked man emerges from Art's bedroom demanding to know the truth (we have only seen ambiguous glimpses of his lover before this). At Elaine's flat, she and Beth are drinking and sharing a cigarette. Beth complains about Jo's behaviour, including the effect her scars had had on him. Elaine is fascinated to see Beth's breasts, and despite Beth's gentle protestations, Elaine then seduces her (which is captured by the nearby video camera). Back at the Rhinegolds', Alfred falls asleep holding the butt of a cigar, which falls onto the carpet. The resulting fire kills him and destroys the house and all its contents. Spindle tells Bob at the gallery how he had been swindled over a Mondrian, but that it had been burnt somehow. At the cemetery, Spindle joins Alfreda and Robert with the others attending Alfred's burial, offering her his condolences. She explains that the insurance payout is expected without a problem, and that she and Robert are planning to move to Tuscany. As a parting gift to Robert, Spindle gives him a slide of a painting he thinks might be of interest, but mutters hateful comments once the car door is closed. At the opening party for Beth's new gallery, the inaugural event is Elaine's show. Her videos are being projected onto the gallery's walls at great size. Various guests have widly differing opinions - some think it tasteless, others brave and powerful. Joany considers it "tacky" and regrets her own exposure in the films. Spindle arrives with his boyfriend, concealing any resentment he feels, he expresses delight at his own video appearance, and even seems to forgive Bob when he reveals his backing for Beth. Beth has invited her parents, but her father is outraged at having to see a "goddamned porno movie starring my daughter" and has sent her mother home in a taxi "in hysterics". Spindle takes Elaine to one side, and tells her that he's planning a new show (based on Dewey's idea that he had rejected), with her as the star. A woman representing Vanity Fair approaches Elaine to suggest writing an article about her, and their lingering eye contact suggests further meetings to come. The video dwells at this point on Joany's storming out of their flat, and especially on Dewey's angry visit and suicide threat. The final seconds of the video explain the opening scene: the crash, the spray of shattered glass behind Joany, and Elaine's commentary "Oh no. Oh no, my god... Dewey", for sure enough his body has crashed down onto the roof of a parked taxi. Finally, Spindle dictates a business letter to his newly-appointed assistant, Charlotte Bailey. ===== The United Nations War Crimes Commission accepted Czechoslovak charges that he had been paid by the Nazi secret service and had been complicit in the deaths of Jews. Condemned to death in absentia, he nevertheless escaped to the west in 1945 and became a stern critic of the communist regime. According to Mark Aarons and John Loftus Ďurčanský was a member of Intermarium, an underground anti-communist network with its headquarters in Paris that played a leading role in helping Nazis escape justice after the war and which was under the control of British intelligence.Mark Aarons and John Loftus, Ratlines: How the Vatican's Nazi Networks Betrayed Western Intelligence to the Soviets, William Heinemann, 1991, p. 217 Having fled to the Vatican, Ďurčanský was said to have linked up with other like-minded members of the group in order to conspire to restore the Slovak regime as well as other rightist totalitarian regimes in the newly communising states of Eastern Europe. To this end Ďurčanský made daily broadcasts to the Slovak areas of Czechoslovakia (according to The New York Times) whilst also publishing leaflets stating that he would soon return to take over as Prime Minister of an independent Slovakia.Aarons & Loftus, Ratlines, p. 218 He established his own Slovak Liberation Committee as a basis for such plots although his attempts were severely undermined in September 1947 when General Ferjenčík concluded an investigation in which he revealed full details of Ďurčanský's group, as well as the level of infiltration by communist agents. Ferjenčík's report was used as the basis for a full takeover by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.Aarons & Loftus, Ratlines, pp. 218-219 The speed with which his coup plot collapsed and the completeness of communist knowledge led to speculation amongst British intelligence that Ďurčanský was in fact a double agent but no evidence was forthcoming and before long he had risen to become President of Intermarium.Aarons & Loftus, Ratlines, p. 219 ===== Tad Hawkins is 15 years old and lives in the fictional Pennsylvania mining town of Markle. After his mother died in childbirth, he was taken in by his overbearing aunt, who treats him as an unpaid servant, existing only to be bossed around and humiliated by Mr Jackson, the lodger, and Esther, the hired help. Tad's life is changed when he gets caught up in a crowd on their way to see a travelling elephant show which has just arrived in town. After witnessing the "miracle cure" of a young crippled girl by the elephant keeper, he spots Esther and Mr Jackson in the crowd and hides in the elephant's trailer. Before he can escape, Khush, the elephant, is loaded into the trailer and Tad is on his way to another town. When Tad is discovered by Michael Keenan, the elephant keeper, he discovers that the cripple who was cured in Markle is in fact Keenan's younger daughter, Cissie. Keenan offers Tad a job looking after Khush to keep him from exposing the scam. Tad takes to life with Khush and the Keenans. However, Tad is not the only person to have discovered the scam. Mr Jackson and Esther are on the Keenans' tail. A train crash kills Keenan and his eldest daughter, Olivia, on the way to Pittsburgh. Mr Jackson arrives, brandishing papers to prove that Keenan sold Khush to him for $500. Cissie, the only surviving Keenan, insists that the papers were faked and that Khush belongs to her. She, Tad and Khush set off on a journey West, towards the Nebraskan home of a friend from the travelling show, Ketty, with Mr Jackson and Esther in hot pursuit. A kind old widower helps them on their way by disguising Cissie as a boy and giving them a boat in which to sail down the Ohio River with Khush. Khush does not take kindly to his confined quarters on the small flatboat and, a few days into their journey, pitches himself and Tad into the river. On being reunited with them, Cissie begins to reveal her heartache over the deaths of her father and sister. The three travellers find rest in a small religious community who have heard of Mr Jackson's claim of ownership. The group's elders agree to take Tad, Cissie and the elephant to the large port of Cairo if Khush shows that he wants to go with the two youths. Khush follows them into the hold of the coal barge and so they carry on along the river. However, Khush again becomes impatient of his dark, cramped surroundings rocks the barge, forcing the Captain to make them disembark 200 miles from Cairo. After walking most of the way to the port, Tad leaves Cissie and the elephant to rest and continues ahead by himself. In Cairo, he is caught by Mr Jackson and Esther, who ply him for information and trick him into leading them to where Cissie and Khush should have been. Luckily, Cissie and the elephant have already left, spurred on by the thought of seeing Ketty in Nebraska. Tad stalls Mr Jackson and Esther and hurries to try and catch up with his friends. Cissie secures passage for herself and Khush on a large boat and Tad, hiding on their pursuers' boat, is helped along his way by a friendly woman travelling in the same direction. When Tad sees a sign on the riverbank that Cissie and Khush have disembarked secretly, he goes ashore to meet them, leaving Esther and Mr Jackson sailing past their prey. The friends are pleased to be reunited and Cissie assures Tad that they are now in Nebraska and near Ketty's house. However, the plains are desolate, with little water for Khush to drink and nowhere to hide from their pursuers. Khush becomes impatient and irritable as the three travellers near Ketty's home. They arrive just as Esther and Mr Jackson catch up with them and Mr Jackson asserts his claim to Khush. However, while agreeing that the papers that Mr Jackson has are not fakes, Ketty reveals that Keenan could not have sold Khush as she owns him herself. Mr Jackson petitions Ketty and her husband to sell him the elephant but, when she refuses, he and Esther eventually leave in a rage. Cissie is upset that Khush belongs to Ketty as she had intended to sell him and give the money to Ketty so that she could remain in Nebraska with her. Tad persuades Cissie that Ketty will take her in no matter what. Ketty, seeing how much the boy and the elephant love each other, appoints Tad as Khush's keeper in exchange for a portion of the elephant's earnings. ===== Jack Holborn is a 13-year-old boy living in an orphanage in late 18th-century Bristol. Jack was found on the steps of the Holborn Catholic church in London when he was a toddler. He was wearing a leather armband with the name "Jack" on it. The nuns therefore called him Jack Holborn. Jack wants to go to sea, but is put in a foster home instead. He runs away in order to join the crew of the "Charming Molly," a privateering vessel commanded by Captain Sheringham. At the sight of Jack's armband, the Captain unwittingly reveals that it looks familiar, but he won't tell Jack what he knows and refuses to keep him aboard. Jack is desperately seeking answers to the mystery of his origins, and is not about to let the Captain off the hook. Meanwhile, the judge Lord Sheringham, who hates his twin brother the privateer for the dishonour that his side dealings with pirates have brought on their family, plans to bring the Captain to justice. Jack eventually manages to stow himself away on board the "Charming Molly," and the journey begins. A journey that will feature piracy, traveling through swamps and slavery. ===== Married couple Caleb (Kirk Cameron), a fire captain, and Catherine Holt (Erin Bethea), a hospital administrator, are experiencing marital difficulties. At work, Caleb underscores the importance of never leaving one's partner behind, but at home, he and Catherine argue constantly. Catherine accuses Caleb of being selfish because he prioritizes his desire for a $24,000 boat over paying for medical equipment and bills for Catherine's ailing mother. She is also frustrated about his habitual use of internet pornography. Caleb feels unappreciated and undervalued. Their constant arguing escalates to the point that Catherine demands a divorce, to which an enraged Caleb agrees. Caleb's best friend and fellow firefighter, Michael (Ken Bevel), and Caleb's father, John (Harris Malcom), convince him to hold off on divorce proceedings. His father persuades him to try the Love Dare, a 40-day challenge for marriage improvement wherein a spouse alters the way they treat their partner. Caleb reluctantly agrees, though he decides not to tell Catherine. At the hospital where she works, Catherine has been openly flirting with Dr. Gavin Keller (Perry Revell). Caleb begins The Love Dare halfheartedly, viewing the tasks as more of a checklist than outreach. Meanwhile, nurses at Catherine's hospital warn her not to trust Caleb, as they believe he is trying to butter her up to secure a more favorable divorce settlement. With encouragement from his father and Michael, Caleb continues, though Catherine eschews his affections and grows closer to Dr. Keller. Finding Catherine unmoved, Caleb is consoled by his father, while Michael reveals that he has been divorced. Caleb sustains burns on the job, is admitted to the hospital where his wife works, and is treated by Dr. Keller. During treatment, Dr. Keller discovers that Catherine is married and Caleb is her spouse. Caleb continues The Love Dare with a renewed faith, even destroying their home computer to distance himself from any pornographic addictions and temptations. However, Catherine gives him an envelope with a petition for divorce, leaving Caleb heartbroken. Catherine discovers that her mother's medical equipment costs have been paid anonymously and erroneously believes it was Dr. Keller, bringing them even closer. Caleb eventually discovers the burgeoning affair and discreetly confronts the doctor. After Caleb leaves, Dr. Keller produces a wedding band, revealing that he is also married, and terminates his pursuit of Catherine. Catherine confronts Caleb after discovering his Love Dare journal, and he reveals to her that he has completed the challenge but is still following its guidelines. Catherine says she needs time to reconsider the divorce. She later discovers that Caleb used his savings to pay for almost all of her mother's medical equipment, with Dr. Keller only contributing $300. Moved by Caleb's selflessness, Catherine reconciles with him. Caleb discovers that his mother, whom he has treated poorly, completed The Love Dare for his father, rather than vice versa as Caleb had originally thought. The film ends with Caleb and Catherine renewing their wedding vows. ===== As described in a film magazine, jealous husband Louis Floriot (Courtleigh), refusing to forgive his wife Jacqueline (Frederick) for fleeing from his wrath and living with the friend who presses his attentions on her, forces her into the life of a derelict. Twenty years later she returns to France from Buenos Aires believing that her son Raymond has died. Laroque (Ainsworth), a crook who aids her in her return to France, learns that she is the wife of a man of wealth and tries, with the help of his two associates M. Robert Parissard (Belmore) and M. Merival (Louis), to get possession of a fortune that rightfully belonged to Jacqueline. To protect her husband from violence, Jacqueline kills Laroque and, accused of murder, is brought to trial. Refusing to confer with her counsel and preferring death to freedom, during the course of the trial she receives the shocking revelation that the defendant attorney is her son Raymond (Ferguson). The tragic story ends with the reunion of the two and the death of the miserable mother. ===== Steve Adams, a theology student, begins to suspect he may be a vampire after a series of blood- draining murders in his town. A detective in the small town has hired Inspector Butterfield, a bumbling expert from England, to be his assistant in the investigation of the 27 murders. While walking down the sidewalk, Steve is approached by a couple on a motorcycle and asks them to come to church with him. They laugh and try to rob him at knife point, but he suddenly transforms into a vampire, and hypnotizes them to drive off a cliff. At the police station, Butterfield explains how he had tracked down and defeated Dracula with a wooden stake and that these murders fit the same profile, but the detective tells him to stop talking and get to work. The two meet for a drink with Steve, who turns out to be the detective's best friend and has always loved eating peanuts without shelling them. Steve finds out that his father, the preacher, has a worsening heart condition and can no longer give Steve the monthly blood transfusions he needs to survive. There is a flashback showing that Steve's mother died giving birth, a doctor diagnosed the baby with a blood disease, and the mother's best friend Amy mysteriously disappeared. As Steve and his father are driving, Steve starts acting strange and the preacher asks if he's feeling okay. Steve pulls over and runs away to puke. The preacher tries to run after him, but has a heart attack and falls to the ground. Deeper in the woods, Steve sees a young couple kissing, and murders them both. Steve finds his father lying on the ground, and the preacher manages to give him a letter from Amy before passing away. When the detectives show up, Butterfield finds the other two bodies in the woods and tries to question Steve, but the detective won't allow him to interrogate his best friend. Before leaving the crime scene, Butterfield looks closely for evidence. Steve follows the letter's instructions to Amy's house, where he's greeted by her servant Zork who has no hands. She explains to Steve that she was there at his birth, and knows that his mother had been bitten by Dracula while she was pregnant. She has a magical ring which disappears each time Steve transforms into a vampire and reappears when he returns to normal. Zork hypnotizes Steve, and Amy tells him that he must go to the museum where Dracula is buried. In a deep cavern below the museum, he finds Dracula inside a coffin, with a stake in his heart. He removes the stake, and Dracula comes back to life, as well as Steve's mother. Dracula tries to hypnotize Steve, but he manages to kill Dracula. At that instant, Dracula and the mother vanish into smoke. Steve gives a sermon for his father, but cringes when he sees a girl accidentally prick her finger in one of the pews. After the funeral, Butterfield arrests Steve, explaining that he found peanut shells in the vomit near the most recent crime scene, and citing the fact that Steve cringed in response to the finger pricking. Steve asks for a few minutes to pray before going to jail, and he gives a rousing prayer to God asking for forgiveness. He touches the magic ring to a crucifix, which kills Amy and replaces Zork's hands. Steve dies on the floor of the church. ===== In the special, the narrator (Greer Garson) tells the story of a young Jewish boy named Aaron, who is a misanthropic orphan who finds enjoyment only from playing his drum for his animal friends: Samson the donkey, Joshua the camel and Baba the lamb. At one time, Aaron was a happy child who lived with his parents who gave him a drum for his birthday. But one night, bandits of the desert stole all the livestock, killed Aaron's parents (before they can try to intervene), and burned their house down, causing him to hate all humanity. Because his drumming can make the three animals dance, Aaron is forced to join Ben Haramed's caravan with rather inept performers. When performing in Jerusalem, Aaron becomes infuriated by the townspeople's amusement and lashes out at them for being thieves and knaves. Some time later, the troupe comes upon the Magi's caravan who are following a bright star in the sky. Seizing his chance, Ben greedily attempts to perform for the Magi, but they are uninterested as they try to make haste to get to the star's destination. One of the caravan camels becomes too weak to continue traveling, so Ben bargains with them that they use Joshua in exchange for some of their gold. Later, Aaron and his remaining animal companions escape and join up with the Magi as they journey toward Bethlehem. There, upon recognizing Joshua and trying to reunite with him, Baba is hit by a Roman chariot and Aaron takes the dying lamb to the Magi to be healed. However, they can do nothing. One of the men insists that maybe the baby could be of help. Having no material possession to give to the baby, Aaron decides that his "gift" to him and his parents will be his playing his drum for them. As a sign of gratitude, Baba is healed and runs into Aaron's arms. Aaron finally feels kindness for the first time since the death of his parents. ===== Ullrich Haupt and Ruth Chatterton in Madame X Jacqueline Floriot (Chatterton) is thrown out into the street without any money by her jealous husband Louis (Lewis Stone) when he discovers she had been carrying on an affair. She is not even allowed to see their four- year-old son, and sinks into depravity. Twenty years later, she has become the mistress of Laroque (Ullrich Haupt), a cardsharp. When he finds out that her husband is now the attorney general, Laroque decides to blackmail him. Desperate to shield her son from her disgrace, she shoots and kills her lover. By chance, the lawyer assigned to her turns out to be her own son, on his first case. He is puzzled and frustrated when she refuses to defend herself in court. During the trial, her husband shows up in support of his son. When she sees that he recognizes her and is about to speak out, she makes an impassioned plea, not for mercy, but for understanding of what drove her to murder. As she had intended, the hidden message silences Louis. When Jacqueline faints from the strain, she is carried into a private chamber. There, she kisses her still-unaware son and dies. ===== A woman who cheated on her loving husband is thrown out of her home by said husband. Twenty years later, she finds herself accused of murder for saving her son, who does not know who she is, as he was raised without her. He finds himself defending her without knowing her background. ===== Silvia is engaged to marry Dorante, a man she has never met. She is afraid to marry him without knowing what type of man he is, and he is planning to visit her very soon to formalize the engagement. In order to observe Dorante's true personality during his visit, she asks her father if she can change clothes with her servant, Lisette, so that she can watch him without his knowing her identity. Monsieur Orgon immediately agrees, having coincidentally received a letter from Dorante's father explaining how Dorante planned to disguise himself as his servant in order to achieve the same goal as Silvia. Monsieur Orgon sees this as an opportunity to play the game of love and chance, allowing the two to fall in love in spite of themselves. Dorante arrives at Monsieur Orgon's house disguised as a servant named Bourguignon, while Arlequin comes dressed as Dorante. However, Silvia and Dorante's refined behavior is evident, in spite of their servant's attire; and Arlequin and Lisette are unable to recognize the difference between true manners and the gross exaggerations they exact while playing their roles as master. Dorante and Silvia fall in love, but as neither knows the other's true status, they find themselves in a social dilemma, each believing to be a noble in love with a servant. Finally, Dorante relents and reveals his identity to Silvia. Relieved, Silvia nonetheless decides to continue to play the game, hoping that Dorante will go so far as to renounce his fortune in order to marry her (thinking she is a servant). The play ends with the union of the two couples: Silvia and Dorante, and Lisette and Arlequin. ===== Three strangers lives are fractured by thoughts and acts of seething violence. In this interactive feature film, viewers unravel their interlocked stories with a simple click. ===== The story opens in the late summer of 1955. Nineteen-year-old Harry Preston, having been granted an early discharge from national service with the RAF, moves to London from a small English provincial town to find life and adventure. Fancying himself as a writer, he drifts towards the central district of Soho, and soon enough he is included in the destitute but creative environment of the new Beat Generation. Harry meets an out of work actor, James Street. Street introduces Harry to the bohemian way of life and the novel recounts their misadventures. Harry travels upwards through this new world of wannabe artists, poets and writers, that have set up camp in the bohemian and not so posh 50s Soho and Notting Hill, he begins to slowly understand his role in this world. ===== Lord Worth, ruthless and fabulously wealthy, has made a lot of enemies in the oil business. His new offshore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, named Seawitch, is one of the biggest in the world, and will put his competitors out of business. To destroy it and therefore be able to inflate the price of oil at will, the competitors get together and send one man to deal with Lord Worth. The villain has a personal score to settle with Worth and kidnaps him and his daughters. But Lord Worth's daughters are betrothed to the protagonists, Mitchell and Roomer, two former police detectives, now private investigators. They set trying to save Worth and his daughters from certain death, as the villain intends to leave them on Seawitch when he destroys it with a stolen nuclear weapon. ===== For 5 years, Otome and Minami have been step siblings. Their grandmother is staying with them, taking up Otome's room while she recovers from surgery. This results are to Otome having to bunk in her brother's room. They have divided the room with a sheet hanging from the ceiling between the bed where Otome sleeps and a futon on the floor where Minami is sleeping. This often results in Otome either falling half-dressed out of her bed and onto Minami or Minami knocking down the sheet while Otome isn't there and rifling through her things. Shortly afterwards, a boy named Amane kisses Otome and they begin to date. This sparks emotions in Minami, forcing him to realize that he may feel for Otome more than brotherly love. As Minami begins to express this inner struggle through teasing, harsh words, and awkward romantic gestures, Otome comes to feel the same things. ===== Time and place: A large city by the Rhine, the present It is the Karneval season, and the Council of Eleven,The Karneval's organising council especially its chairman Peter Sander, is a bit perturbed by the regular appearance at every masquerade ball by a rather entertaining young female in the mask of a golden pierrot. No one, least of all the strict Sander, suspects his daughter Edith. So far, Pierrot managed to avoid being unmasked, although it sometimes takes considerable wit. And so it is again today, when being cornered, she seeks help from a perfect stranger and pretends to be his wife. During the following conversation she learns that the man is in fact Horst Brenkendorf who her father has selected as her future husband. Horst is enchanted by this cheery female in the Pierrot mask, and confides to her that his future bride has been described to him as rather humdrum and plain. They promise to see each other again. The next day Horst pays a visit to Peter Sander, and Edith, whom Horst fails to recognize, plays the role of the rather dull maiden. Disappointed by his future bride, he is even more captivated by Pierrot when they meet again at a ball that evening. Six months later Horst and Edith marry. On the wedding day, he surprisingly receives a billet-doux from Pierrot, inviting him to the tryst they promised each other at the ball. Horst is reluctant to go, but when he recognizes Pierrot's true identity from the ring she wears, he decides to go. Edith is bitterly disappointed by her husband's apparent willingness to cheat on her on her wedding day and breaks out in tears. Horst then ends the cruel play and reveals that he has seen through her disguise - echoes of Susanna and Figaro in act IV. ===== Dark Dream tells the story of Falcon and Sara. Sara is Falcon's lifemate; he has returned to his homeland to meet the now Prince Mikhail Dubrinsky & his lifemate Raven (hope of their species) in the thought of ending his barren existence little did he know life more for him. Who has sought his true love for centuries, for only she can save him from becoming a vampire, a beast driven to kill and destroy. When he rescues Sara Marten from a gang of street punks, he knows he has found the woman he has sought all his life . Sara has spent fifteen years hiding from a vampire who destroyed her family when she was a girl. At first, she believes Falcon to be him, or something like him. When she learns the truth, she accepts what must be, but holds off on committing to him until the children she has been rescuing and caring for are safe. Will she be able to escape the one who wants her death and give her love to her destined mate before he becomes a monster equal to the one hunting her? ===== The film revolves around T. P. Balagopalan (Mohanlal), a low-scale employee at Falcon products who is also a kind and caring young man. He owns some land which his elder sister and her husband are trying to grab from him. He falls in love with a school teacher Anitha (Shobana), whom he meets in one of his marketing trysts for Falcon products. He loses his land when he tries to help her father in a litigation. He also loses his job due to labor union issues. His younger sister, not being able to get married in a traditional arranged marriage set up, marries his friend Narayanankutty (Maniyanpilla Raju). His elder sister and family leave his house when they find out that he does not have the land anymore. Meanwhile, Anitha's father wins the court case and becomes rich. He returns Balagopalan's money, but refuses to acknowledge his love with Anitha. He tries to get her married off to the lawyer who appeared for him in High Court and won the case for him. However, Anitha runs away on the day off her wedding to go and live with Balagopalan at his home town. So Balagopalan Anitha and Balagopalan's grandmother happily start living in his home town as the film ends. ===== A woman is thrown out of her home by her jealous husband and sinks into depravity. Twenty years later, she finds herself accused of murder for saving her son, who does not know who she is. He finds himself defending her without knowing her background. ===== The middle-aged composer Ann Hidden has traced her partner of many years, Thomas, to the house where he is conducting an affair with a younger woman. At the scene she meets, for the first time since their adolescence, an old school friend from her childhood in Brittany, Georges Roehl. She takes the decision to end her former life, and in the space of a few months she leaves her part-time job as a music editor, ends her relationship with Thomas, visits her mother (from whom she is estranged) in Brittany but is not reconciled to her, sells the house in Paris that she has shared with Thomas, and asks Georges to create a place where she can live and compose in the grounds of his house near Sens in Burgundy, and leads him to believe that she will live there. Georges is eager to re- establish a relationship with her, since he is mourning the death of his gay partner. However, once the sale of her Paris house has been finalised, she leaves without giving any indication of her destination, and after some travelling establishes herself on the Italian island of Ischia near Naples, eventually renting and renovating an old house on a headland. The house is called Villa Amalia and gives the book its name. While on Ischia she begins an affair with a doctor called Leonhardt Radnitzky, who has recently divorced and has part-time custody of his four-year-old daughter Magdalena (Lena). She spends much of her time swimming in the sea, and on one occasion becomes exhausted and is rescued by a couple in a yacht, Charles and his much younger partner Juliette (also known as Giulia). They are on the point of splitting up, and eventually Ann and Giulia form a profound relationship and live together in the Villa Amalia, and Lena lives with them when Leonhardt's work means that he cannot look after her. While Ann is out one day, and Giulia is asleep, Lena suffocates on a peanut. Giulia leaves and Ann's life disintegrates. Shortly afterwards, her mother dies; she returns to Brittany for the funeral, which is also attended by Thomas, by her father (a musician of Romanian Jewish origin, who left the family when she was a child) and by her school friend Véri, who has maintained contact between Ann and her mother. Ann refuses to be reconciled with Thomas, is rejected by her father, and quarrels with Véri. She returns to Burgundy and lives with Georges though they have no sexual relationship; at the end of the book he dies, with the implication that he has been suffering from AIDS though this is not stated. ===== Holly Parker, a lower-class woman, marries into the rich Anderson family, and her husband Clayton is a diplomat with strong political aspirations. Her mother-in-law Estelle looks down on her and keeps a watchful eye on her activities. Lonely and reclusive during Clayton's long, frequent assignments abroad, Holly forms a relationship with a well-known playboy, Phil Benton. Clayton suddenly returns and informs Holly that he has secured a promotion in Washington, D.C., where he wishes to bring Holly and their son Clay to begin a regular family life. Holly agrees and goes to Phil's apartment to end their relationship. Phil reacts by trying to physically force Holly to stay, but tumbles down a staircase in the struggle and dies. Holly panics and leaves the scene. She is confronted by Estelle, who had hired a detective to follow her and knows about Phil's accident. Estelle blackmails Holly into disappearing to Europe under a false identity rather than facing murder charges. Estelle arranges for Holly to be secreted away at night from the family yacht, never to see her husband or son again. Holly, devastated by the loss of her son, falls ill with pneumonia on the side of a European street and is rescued by a charming pianist named Christian who helps her receive medical treatment and recuperate under a nurse's care. Holly and Christian grow close as she accompanies him on tour, but when he proposes marriage, she declines and then runs away from Christian. Holly slowly sinks into depravity and alcoholism, including a one-night stand with a man who steals her money and jewelry. With Estelle's blackmail payments cut off, Holly goes to Mexico where she lives in a sleazy apartment and cannot afford her rent. She befriends an American neighbor named Dan Sullivan, who plies her with alcohol but soon discovers evidence of Holly's past. He persuades Holly to join him in New York to work for him, but while there, she realizes that he is actually trying to blackmail Clayton, who is now governor of the state and a leading candidate for his party's presidential nomination. Holly shoots and kills Sullivan when he threatens to expose her deception to her son. The police arrest her and, refusing to reveal her identity, she signs a confession with the letter "X" and refuses to speak. The court-appointed defense attorney happens to be her son, Clay Jr., though she does not recognize him. Holly refuses to reveal her name throughout the trial, saying only that she killed Sullivan to protect her son, whom she has not seen in decades. Clay, in his first trial as a lawyer, devises a defense strategy to paint Sullivan as a career criminal who caused his own death. During the trial, Holly spots Clayton Sr. in the audience and suddenly realizes that her attorney is in fact her long-lost son. After final summations and with Holly's verdict in the balance, Clay, who has grown close to her despite not knowing that she is his mother, visits Holly in her holding cell and implores her to reach out to her son. She does not reveal her identity to him but tells him he has been like a son to her. Then, having spent her final moments with her son and overcome with emotion, she dies suddenly. Clay tells his father that he had come to love "X". ===== Carla "Campbell" (Gina Lollobrigida) is an Italian woman who—during the American occupation of Italy—slept with three American GIs in the course of 10 days, Cpl. Phil Newman (Phil Silvers), Lt. Justin Young (Peter Lawford), and Sgt. Walter Braddock (Telly Savalas). By the time she discovers she is pregnant, all three have moved on, and she, uncertain of which is the father, convinces each of the three (who are unaware of the existence of the other two) to support "his" daughter Gia financially. To protect her reputation, as well as the reputation of her unborn child, Carla has raised the girl to believe her mother is the widow of a non-existent army captain named Eddie Campbell, a name she borrowed from a can of soup (otherwise he would have been Captain Coca-Cola, the only other term she knew in English at the time). The film opens 20 years after the end of World War II in the village of San Forino, where the three ex-airmen attend a unit-wide reunion of the 293rd Squadron of the 15th Air Force in the village where they were stationed. The men are accompanied by their wives, and in the Newmans' case, three obnoxious children. Carla is forced into a series of comic situations as she tries to keep them—each one anxious to meet his daughter Gia (Janet Margolin) for the first time—from discovering her secret while at the same time trying to keep Gia from running off to Paris to be with a much older married man who will take her to Brazil. When confronted, Mrs. Campbell admits she does not know which of the three men is Gia's father. She challenges the men by asking them what kind of father each would have been, particularly because they have never been there for all the small but important life events of their daughter. Provoked by this, the potential fathers talk to Gia and insist that she cannot run off. The "fathers" cease the support payments, and the Braddocks, who cannot have children of their own, agree to have Gia stay with them while she studies in the U.S. ===== A woman is thrown out of her home by her mother-in-law and sinks into depravity. Twenty years later, she finds herself accused of murder for saving her daughter (it was her son in all other versions) who does not know who she is. ===== When idealistic minor author Leslie Braverman dies suddenly from a heart attack at the age of 41, his four best friends decide to attend his funeral. The quartet of Jewish intellectuals drawn from the four corners of Manhattan consists of public relations writer Morroe Rieff from the Upper East Side, poet Barnet Weinstein from the Lower East Side, book reviewer Holly Levine from the Lower West Side, and Yiddish writer (and chronic complainer) Felix Ottensteen from the Upper West Side. The men have been friends since their youth. They agree to meet at Christopher Park on Sheridan Square, a Greenwich Village landmark, from which they travel in Levine's cramped Volkswagen Beetle. Due to confusion and bad directions from Braverman's widow, the men attend the wrong funeral but finally arrive at the cemetery in time for the burial. There is an extensive running discussion along the way about everything from philosophical observations regarding death to the relative merits of classic comic book characters, all while maintaining a strongly Jewish comedic tone emphasizing irony and sarcasm. Rieff, who emerges as the central character, periodically experiences absurdist fantasy episodes or daydreams involving his own mortality, eventually delivering a soliloquy to a vast array of gravestones bringing the dead up to date on what they have missed lately. The character Leslie Braverman never actually appears, by flashback or otherwise, and is known only through descriptions and references to him by other characters. (Braverman's coffin is shown briefly, with him presumably inside, at the cemetery.) While Braverman is dead from the outset in both the book and the movie, there are occasions in the book but not the movie where his own words are quoted, often at considerable length as from a letter. ===== The story opens with Akash (Puneet Rajkumar) being tortured in the police station. The scene then shifts to Akash standing outside Priya's (Pooja Gandhi) house, and incessantly calling out to her. However, when he sees her house locked, Akash is distraught. The scene then opens at a wedding where Akash is due to marry Anjali (Parvathy Thiruvothu) at Mysore. The entire wedding process is concluded through a song 'Madarangiyalli' and the story moves on to Akash going on to spend his first night with Anjali. However, the story takes a dramatic twist here when Anjali right away demands divorce from Akash. Akash, instead of showing any kind of frustration, calmly agrees to give Anjali her divorce, on the condition that only after they move to Bangalore. Akash also requests Anjali to keep this as a secret from his parents, as he fears they wouldn't be able to handle it. Anjali agrees, and it is shown that Anjali was never interested in the wedding as she was already in love with Hemant (Dilip Raj), whom she is also struggling to find after her father forbade her to see him again. The story shifts to Bangalore where it is shown that Akash is a popular Radio Jockey for the station Radio Mirchi. As the days pass, Akash and Anjali face off on various fronts, clearly letting the viewer know that their marriage is on the rocks. However, when Akash rescues his neighbor from a local rowdy (Shobaraj) Anjali realizes that Akash is not such a bad person after all. She requests Akash to help her find Hemant, to which he agrees. Soon, Akash manages to locate Hemant, and also keeps his word by applying for divorce, and as per the rules, the court grants them 6 (six) months time if they want to reconsider their application. As the days roll by, it is shown that Hemant is a fraud, and that he had demanded money from Anjali's father to end his relationship with her. When Anjali gets to know this, she is devastated as she feels that her whole life is now ruined. Dejected, she attempts suicide only to be saved by Akash in the nick of time. Post this event, Akash and Anjali undergo a transformation where Akash manages to win Anjali's respect, and soon they become the best of friends. Soon enough, Anjali realizes that she has fallen in love with Akash, who has helped her through so much of hardships. However, she realizes that she cannot express her love to him as it would make her look small in Akash's eyes. Caught in a perpetual emotional dilemma, she struggles to hide her feelings from Akash. A few days later, the court summons them and approves their divorce. Anjali is once again devastated as Akash feels no remorse in signing the papers. Anjali decides that she cannot stay in India anymore and decides to move to the US. However, Akash begins to feel a strange sense of loss after he bids Anjali goodbye. He later realizes that Anjali was in love with him and he too was in love with her. He rushes to the airport to prevent her from leaving the country. After a tense climax, Akash and Anjali reunite. Akash jokingly taunts Anjali that now he has to spend the rest of his life with her. ===== The film is the story of a depressed man who comes into a town with no future. The title character (Slater) wanders into a small sleepy town with the intent to kill himself. When the townspeople learn of his plan, Julian becomes a minor celebrity, and is offered all sorts of free perks since this is the most exciting thing to ever happen in that town. However, Julian gets attached to the town and decides life is worth living after all, much to the annoyance of the townspeople who decide to set into motion plans for his suicide, assisted or forced if need be, as long as he keeps his word and carries through with his original plans, much to his desperation and anger. Julian is a man with no goals except to kill himself at the beginning of the film. He is treated with suspicion, then sympathy once he explains his goal. Then, he meets Sarah (Robin Tunney), who says that she has been waiting her entire life for him. She rekindles within him the desire to live and experience love. After they make love, however, Julian awakens to find the bed empty and a letter from Sarah. He rushes to the bridge out of town, knowing that it is too late: Sarah has committed suicide, explaining that she wants to see Julian "on the other side". Heartbroken, Julian's mental condition is not helped by the townsfolks' cruelty, forcing him to "keep his promise" on killing himself. Before this, many of the townspeople have tried to "assist" him with his suicide; the barber offering a quick, bloody death with a straight razor, the hotel manager showing off his multiple rifles, and the town sheriff expounding on the joy of death and killing. The film ends with Julian walking out of town, dressed in a suit and tie, "supervised" by the town sheriff, mayor and barber so as to make sure he does not run away. It is assumed that he kills himself shortly afterwards, fulfilling his dream of "going to the sea". ===== A woman is thrown out of her home by her jealous husband and sinks into depravity. Twenty years later, she finds herself accused of murder for saving her son, who does not know who she is. He finds himself defending her without knowing her background. ===== English Made Simple is the story of a couple named Jack and Jill who meet at a party. As the night progresses, it becomes apparent that the two knew each other, and were even involved romantically, before this night at the party. Meanwhile, a college English professor, whose name is never announced but written as the "Loudspeaker Voice" in the script, explains what the couple is really thinking as they talk to each other."Script, English Made Simple " apps.cis-edu.dk, accessed February 8, 2014 It is an extremely wordy romantic comedy full of twists and turns. It is one of David Ives's better known plays. ===== Debuting in the third season premiere "The Magnificent Seven", Ruby (Katie Cassidy) trails Sam Winchester--a hunter of supernatural creatures--and eventually rescues him from a group of demons, whom she kills with her unique demon-killing knife. She reveals her identity to Sam in "The Kids Are Alright", but claims to be different from other demons and wants to help Sam fight them. In return for his cooperation, she promises to save his brother Dean from the Faustian deal he had made to resurrect Sam in the second season finale "All Hell Breaks Loose: Part 2". However, she refuses to tell Sam her motives. Though he distrusts her and Dean wants to kill her before she can harm them, Sam decides to let her continue to help him with both saving Dean and fighting the hundreds of other demons who—like Ruby—escaped Hell in the second season finale. Ruby's credibility builds throughout Season 3. In "Sin City", she restores power to the Colt for the Winchesters to use in their war against demons. The episode "Malleus Maleficarum" provides her backstory, revealing that she had been a witch during the Plague who sold her soul to a demon. She confides in Dean that, unlike other demons, she still remembers what it is like to be human, citing this trait as the reason she is helping the brothers against other demons. She returns in "Jus in Bello" to save the brothers from an attacking horde of demons. Upon learning that they have lost the Colt, she decides to perform a spell that will destroy all the demons in the area, including herself. However, because the spell requires a human virgin's heart, Dean does not allow her to perform it. Although the plan he comes up with instead saves himself and his brother, the people they leave behind get killed by demons pursuing Sam and Dean, which Ruby uses to rebuke the brothers for not listening to her. Contrary to her promise to Sam, Ruby tells Dean that she cannot actually save him from Hell and that she had lied to Sam to get him to listen to her. However, in the season finale "No Rest for the Wicked", she tells Sam that she had lied to Dean and that she truly can help Sam save him. Her plan is to train Sam to harness his latent demonic abilities so that he can use them to kill Lilith, the demon who holds the contract for Dean's soul. Believing that Ruby is trying to manipulate Sam into giving in to his dark side, Dean tricks her into a devil's trap--a mystical symbol capable of rendering demons powerless--and leaves with Sam to face Lilith. Ruby frees herself and tracks the brothers down during their campaign, but gets expelled from her host body by Lilith and thus is not present at the confrontation between Lilith and the brothers, with her whereabouts at the time unclear. The fourth season episode "I Know What You Did Last Summer" states that she had been sent back to Hell. Eventually, Ruby returns and offers Sam her help in taking revenge on Lilith for Dean's death in "No Rest for the Wicked" as well as in stopping Lilith's apocalyptic plans. To appease Sam, who dislikes her using a living host against the host's will, Ruby takes possession of a body recently declared to be dead (Genevieve Cortese). They have sex together at least once, and she brings him out of his downward spiral towards self-destruction. Consequently, Sam now trusts Ruby implicitly. Ruby begins training Sam in using his demonic abilities to exorcise (and later, kill) demons, and continues to do so in secret following Dean's resurrection by the angel Castiel in the fourth season premiere. The episode "On the Head of a Pin" reveals that she is feeding Sam her demonic blood to boost his powers, and by "The Rapture", he has become addicted to drinking her blood. In the following episode "When the Levee Breaks", Sam and Dean have a heated confrontation over Sam's trust in her and the negative influence she has on him, leading to a vicious fight which ends in Sam strangling Dean and Dean severing ties with Sam. In the season finale "Lucifer Rising", Ruby insists that she and Sam must murder a demonically-possessed woman despite the woman being alive and pleading for them to let her go, as Ruby argues that Sam needs to also drink the woman's blood in order to be able to kill Lilith; Sam eventually agrees. In the episode's climax, Ruby keeps Dean from interfering while Sam succeeds in killing Lilith. Afterward, Ruby reveals that she is a double-agent working for Lilith who has just tricked Sam into setting the demons' revered god Lucifer free with Lilith's death. With Sam's help, she is killed by Dean with her own knife. In season 15's "Destiny's Child," the Winchesters learn from the angel Anael that she and Ruby occasionally worked together when they had common interests and Anael gave Ruby the Occultum, supposedly to sell it for a lot of money. Anael claims that Ruby hid it in Hell and was killed before she could sell it off, but this proves to be a trap as Anael hires demons to kill Sam and Dean. Needing the Occultum to continue with their plan to kill God, Castiel has Jack send him into the Empty so he can ask Ruby herself where to find it. The Shadow, the being the rules the realm, reluctantly allows Castiel to talk to Ruby who takes on the form she had when she died. Ruby reveals that, in reality, Anael approached her with the suggestion that they hide in the Occultum until the Apocalypse was over. Ruby never told the angel where she hid the Occultum, but offers Castiel the location in exchange for his help in getting out of the Empty which would effectively resurrect Ruby. Sympathetic with Ruby due to his own time in the realm, Castiel agrees to at least try which the demon accepts. Ruby whispers the Occultum's location in Castiel's ear before disappearing. However, Ruby fails to mention the hellhounds she left to guard the Occultum, causing Dean to think Ruby was trying to kill them like Anael did before they decipher Ruby's clues and locate the artifact. ===== Two wealthy fathers Jim and George try to arrange their children Gloria and Wally to marry in order to strengthen their families. Gloria refuses to marry Wally dubbing him "proof that reincarnation exists because no-one could be as dumb as him in one lifetime". Wally overhears this and storms off, deciding to leave his town altogether. He ends up in Nevada, unbeknownst to him the town he settles on is in fact a literal ghost town. Discovering a discarded sheriff's badge he declares himself the sheriff. Wally goes into a saloon and meets a beautiful girl who turns out to be a ghost. When he sees that she is being pestered by the ghosts of several rowdy former townsfolk he scares them away with his pistol. He is soon joined by former gangster Bugs Kelly who has faked his death and ended up in the same town as Wally after going on the run. Two local prospectors discover gold buried on the outskirts of the town and this leads to renewed interest in the town and results in dozens of people showing up to begin their own search for gold including Gloria and her father. A group of gangsters shows up and tries to intimidate Wally into handing the town over to them but he refuses. Bugs Kelly, convinced that Wally doesn't have the nerve to run the town takes Wally's badge and declares himself sheriff. However he soon gives the badge back to Wally after the gangsters target him for refusing to sell and Wally and Bugs unite to run the gangsters out of town. ===== Adult Hibari as depicted in the future. After his introduction, he rarely appears, and his few appearances usually end violently. During an encounter with Dr. Shamal, however, he gets infected with the Sakura-kura disease, which makes him weak around cherry blossoms. When he later faces Mukuro Rokudo, the latter quickly defeats him by using his weakness to cherry blossoms. Soon after, he receives the cure and fights Mukuro again, dealing a critical blow before collapsing due to his previous injuries. Iemitsu Sawada later chooses Hibari to be the holder of the Vongola's Cloud Ring. After training with Dino, Hibari appears during the Vongola Tournament and swiftly defeats the Varia's Gola Moska. He then challenges Xanxus, but is interrupted by a malfunctioning Moska. During the group battle, Hibari cures himself of a paralyzing poison injected into him and briefly fights Belphegor. Hibari becomes the Vongola's Cloud Guardian after Tsuna's side reigns victorious. In the story's alternate future (nearly ten years later), after future Hibari defeats the Millefiore member Gamma, he trains the past's Tsuna. He also explains to Tsuna's group about the special boxes, which Hibari had been researching, having even started an organization called "The Foundation". After acting as a decoy when the Millefiore raids their base, Hibari infiltrates the enemy's Melone Base. He engages Genkishi in battle, but is replaced by his younger self in the midst of it. Though the past's Hibari is able to open a box weapon that releases a hedgehog, it goes berserk after injuring Hibari and expands its spikes at great speed, separating his group from Genkishi. After reuniting and returning to Namimori, Hibari encounters future Dino, who teaches him how to control his box weapon. He returns to join the others in the battle against the Six Funeral Wreaths, where he manages to defeat Daisy using his Vongola Box. After returning to his own time, the arrival of the Shimon Family at Namimori results in him briefly clashing with one of its members, Adelheid Suzuki, who desired the disbandment of Hibari's Disciplinary Committee. When he attends Tsuna's Inheritance Ceremony, he is defeated by the Shimon's leader, Enma. Since his Cloud Ring is shattered in the fight, he acquires its upgraded form, the Vongola Gear's Bracelet of the Clouds. When he arrives on the Shimon's island, he proceeds to defeat Adelheid in battle. ===== Gabrielle tells her friends she's back together with Carlos and that they will be leaving town to escape from her current husband, Victor. While they are saying their goodbyes, Karen McCluskey alerts them that a tornado is on its way. Lynette goes to Karen McCluskey's house and asks her to let her and her family stay with her in her basement during the storm. Mrs. McCluskey reluctantly agrees. Katherine is taping up her windows when she spies Sylvia loitering outside her house. When she goes out to confront her, she finds out that Sylvia met with Adam the day before, and Adam didn't tell her. Katherine spits in Sylvia's face, a confrontation spotted by Bree, who is nearby. Bree, seeing a chance to find out something about Katherine, approaches Sylvia, and invites her in for tea. After learning that Orson has prescribed painkillers to Mike, Susan tells Bree that it may be time to tell Orson about Mike's drug problem. Bree informs Susan that she had already alerted Orson to the issue. While drinking tea, Sylvia tells Bree all about her affair with Adam and describes a tattoo he has. Bree begins feeling uncomfortable and asks her to leave, but Sylvia locks herself in Bree's bathroom, which Bree has outfitted as a safe-room in anticipation of the approaching storm. Susan interrupts Orson in his office while he's with a patient. She asks him why he would prescribe pills to Mike, knowing that he's an addict. She then threatens him with great pain if he gives Mike any more pills. Edie becomes angry when she finds out that Gaby and Carlos are getting ready to move. When Mike finds out that Susan has found and taken his stash of pills he confronts her and during the ensuing argument, he grabs her arm on the stairs, and when she pulls away from him, she falls down the stairs, necessitating a trip to the hospital. While at the hospital, Mike begins to show effects of withdrawal and becomes agitated when Susan, not considered an emergency case, is not seen quickly enough by doctors. In his anger, he assaults a hospital employee and is restrained by hospital security. When Adam gets home he is confronted by Katherine regarding Sylvia's arrival in Fairview. Their argument is interrupted by Bree, who comes to get Adam to help her with Sylvia, who is still locked in Bree's bathroom. While Adam attempts to talk Sylvia out of the bathroom, Katherine tells Bree that Sylvia is crazy, and that the story she told, about her relationship with Adam was untrue and never happened. While Ida and Karen play cards in the basement, they are invaded by the Scavos. Tom immediately begins having asthma symptoms, due to Ida's cat, which she has in a carrier in the basement, and has difficulty breathing. When Lynette asks if the cat can be put upstairs, Karen refuses and advises Lynette that Ida's cat can stay. Susan is seen by a doctor, who advises that her baby is fine, and she has a sprained ankle. She tells Mike that the Doctor says that the hospital has a great rehab program and she asks him to go. Mike initially refuses. Susan is then given some painkillers, which Mike, When a nurse gives Susan some pain medication for her ankle, Mike wants Susan to share them with him. Susan gets very angry and demands he go to rehab or she will leave him. He finally agrees. Carlos' accountant, Al, comes to Gaby's house to drop off the paperwork with the information to allow them to access Carlos' offshore Grand Cayman account. When he gets there, he meets Edie on the porch, who he mistakes for Gabrielle. He gives her the papers. When Edie reads them, she realizes what they are, and she takes the papers and runs off. Gaby sees her and takes off after her. In Karen McCluskey's basement, Tom's asthma symptoms are increasing and he is having significant problems breathing. Lynette sneaks the cat from the cage and takes it upstairs and attempts to put it in the closet, when she is caught by Karen. Lynette doesn't understand why Karen would allow Tom to go through this, when Karen informs Lynette that Ida is her friend and cares about her, and that she does not feel that Lynette treats her like a friend. Just then, the storm blows open the front door and the cat runs out. Karen runs out after the cat, and Lynette, after a momentary hesitation, runs out after Karen. Gaby breaks a window to gain entrance into Edie's house, where Edie is going through the paperwork from Al. Gaby gets hold of it and runs outside, chased by Edie. When Edie catches her, they struggle, and in the process, the paperwork blows away. As the tornado descends onto Wisteria Lane, Karen locates Ida's cat under a nearby car. Lynnette gets to her and attempts to get Karen to come back in the house, but before she can get Karen to come in, they both see the tornado coming. They run into Lynette's house where they hide in a bathtub covered with a mattress. Edie and Gaby get into the storm cellar in Edie's house, where they talk and Gaby apologizes for what she and Carlos did. Edie admits she does not really hate Gaby. Meanwhile, Adam is still arguing with Sylvia, trying to get her to open the bathroom door. They give up and he, Katherine, Bree, Orson and the baby go into a closet. While in there, Bree mentions Sylvia's comments about her and Adam having been lovers, and about Adam's tattoo, at which point, Katherine realized that Sylvia was telling the truth, as Adam had had a tattoo, which he had since had removed, and Sylvia could not have known about it unless her relationship had been as she had described. Carlos arrives at Gaby's house and begins frantically searching for her. He then spies Victor sitting in the front room. When Carlos asks Victor where Gaby is, Victor tells him that he doesn't know, but that they will have to wait for her together and pulls out a gun. When Carlos begins to explain to Victor that he never meant to hurt anyone, Victor starts shooting at him, leading Carlos to run out into the storm, with Victor chasing him. They run outside and in the midst of the storm begin fighting. Victor loses the gun, and Carlos manages to punch Victor, and to temporarily get away. Victor catches up with Carlos, and is killed when he is impaled by board from a white picket fence. Seconds later, a metal object knocks Carlos out cold. Meanwhile, Sylvia finally leaves the bathroom and begins wandering through Bree's house looking for Adam. She opens the front door and is sucked out by the tornado's strong winds. After the storm abates, there is destruction everywhere; the residents of Wisteria Lane emerge from their hiding places to complete and utter destruction. Lynette and Karen crawl through the mountains of debris in the street and Lynette screams in horror when she sees that Mrs. McCluskey's house has been completely demolished, with her family, and Ida Greenburg inside. ===== The film begins aboard a luxury aircraft as Dr. Gropinger (Ron Moody) travels on a goodwill tour. He misplaces his diary and is thrown into a panic as, without the diary, he no longer knows where he is or is supposed to be next. Stepping off the plane, he is shot dead after extending greetings in Hebrew to a congregation of Arabs. Soon after, the U.S. President (Joss Ackland in a caricature of Gerald Ford) receives a threatening letter signed only "Moriarty", claiming responsibility for the death. The letter also claims Moriarty has set in motion a plan that will allow him to gain control of the world. The president dispatches a top agent to London to work with the world's top law enforcement officials and find a strategy to combat Moriarty. Headed by an incompetent Englishman (Denholm Elliott), the committee settles on contacting the "present-day" Sherlock Holmes (John Cleese). He is enrolled by the Commissioner of Police (Stratford Johns) to lay plans for the capture of the descendant of Moriarty before he gains control of the world. Holmes reveals himself to be a great eccentric, with an affinity for certain addictive drugs (a nod to the literary Sherlock Holmes' experience with cocaine). He is accompanied by the descendant of Dr. Watson (Arthur Lowe), both a medical doctor and utter fool. Unfortunately, the commissioner is murdered before leaving the Holmes residence, his death mainly the result of Watson's rampant stupidity. The duo then proceed to Scotland Yard to discuss the situation with the committee. Before any plans can be made, much of the committee is murdered by a distant sniper. Without their help, Holmes dreams up a plan to invite all of the great detectives in the world to a party, with the hope of discovering the true identity of Moriarty. He reasons that Moriarty will be unable to pass up a chance at attacking all of them in one fell swoop. Many fictional detectives are parodied and handed gruesome deaths while Holmes and Watson wait in a suite. The murderer is revealed to be none other than an exact copy of Watson. Due to Watson's ineptitude and the impersonator's great skill in deception, Holmes is faced with a quandary in determining the real culprit (who is actually Moriarty). ===== William and his gang, "The Outlaws" foil a gang of fur robbers. ===== The film starts as high school students return from spring break. Also, the new principal Edwin Swimper arrives after the last principal died from the stress the school gave him. With teachers teaching empty classes, a constant gang war in the hallway and male teachers wearing various armors, Swimper decides to implement an alternative school policy. As a result, classes such as math are abandoned in favor of classes such as archery. The hallways soon turn into archery ranges. When the gang leader Calvin burns down his office, Swimper abandons his plans and quits on the spot. The city council gives the teachers one more chance to find a new principal or else the teachers will lose their job as the school would turn into a profitable parking lot. The only candidate is Peckham. When he says he just returned from a long tenure in an African high school and is not up to date with inner city high schools in the west, the vice principal Relic hires him on the spot. In his first day, Packham is amazed to learn the true nature of the school and is especially determined to re-establish the library from its current form of smoke-filled room with no books. However, a gang gun fight in the hallway causes Peckham to lose his consciousness. Relic and another teacher hide him in the janitor's room but he is gone when they return to check on him. Relic assembles the teachers and they decide to hire Sgt. Major, a bearded man with an overcoat and a poodle for a tracking dog. The dog points to the men's toilets. Relic alone is willing to enter it. Once inside, a doorman asks him for a membership card. It is revealed Calvin used the money from the PTA (that never reached Relic's hands) to start a health club in the school's toilets. Relic ends up joining Calvin and his gang in the jacuzzi and shares their weed. The city council sends inspectors to rush the fate of the school. Knowing they will never pass, Relic goes back to the toilets/health club to make a deal with Calvin. Three inspectors arrive, one of whom is none other than the returning Edwin Swimper. Although they disapprove the illegality of the chained gates, once inside the school everything looks perfect. Students march in the hallways, the health club is now a fully equipped gym and the library is full of books and even video and audio tapes. Only the cafeteria was not renovated as according to Clavin it belongs to a rival gang. Calvin finds a way to trick the rival gang into a zoo truck, but he needs time. Therefore, Relic distracts the inspectors by taking them to inspect the guidance counselor Ms. Simpson. After she completely fails to help a female student, she suddenly notices Swimper. Mistaking him for her former lover, she runs over and throws herself all over him. Relic uses this chance to discredit him in the eyes of the other inspectors. Swimper claims he has never seen her in his life, but it is too late. The inspectors and Relic leave him behind while she touches his lower regions and tries to force herself on him. After she pulls him down to the floor, Swimper is seen running away from school with her chasing him in the street and shouting for him for the remainder of the movie. With Swimper and Calvin's rival gang both out of the way, the cafeteria is turned into a fully fledged restaurant. Waiters take orders from the remaining inspectors and unbeknownst to them order themselves from a real restaurant. Taking no chances, they also inject drugs in the food. With the city council outside ready with a construction crew, the inspectors are high enough to pass the school and thus abolish the city council's plan. Relic lives up to his part of the deal and lets Calvin's ever present gang finally graduate, even with good enough grades to get in a good college. Before Calvin leaves, he introduces to Relic his freshman little brother. The brother immediately blows up Relic's room with dynamite. ===== Elmer (Buster Keaton) works at a clock repair shop and falls for a woman named Paula (Dorothy Sebastian), a customer who brings in her watch to be fixed. Eventually, Elmer invites Paula to go to the circus with him, where she soon becomes enamored with the lead trapeze artist (George J. Lewis). In an effort to win her heart, Elmer attempts to become an expert in acrobatics as well by practicing in his backyard with a swing and mattress, but with very little success. In the end, though, he is able to show his true mettle, performing amazing athletic feats in order to save Paula from a deadly fire. ===== A cruise to Nome, Alaska, starts with various cruise ship jokes: the ship pulls out of the harbor like a car, raising anchor also raises the front of the boat, the ship follows the coast by curving around it. On arrival, we see some local scenes: A penguin eats two fish, then is eaten by the third; the dogs of a dog sled stop (behind an iceberg) at a telephone pole; a timber wolf goes around shouting "Timber!" (even the wolf admits, "Gee, this is silly!"); two Eskimos rub noses: in preparation, the woman applies lipstick to her nose. Finally, an Eskimo nightclub (after all, the nights are six months long) features a rotoscoped ice skater. The ship leaves, and gets caught in the fog near New York City; when the fog clears, we see the ship is perched atop the World's Fair Trylon. ===== The struggling Diltz family of farmers decide to set up their own wrestling company as a way to generate money. The father of the family (Joe Keaton) gets his son Jim (Buster Keaton) to help him train his brother Elmer (Robinson) up to be the best wrestler he can be. They hold an open challenge at their first event for anyone to step up and face Dewey, which is answered by established wrestler Bullfrog Kraus (Montana). Before the match, the father appoints Jim as the referee to ensure that Elmer is not seriously hurt. Kraus dominates the fight and hits Jim and his mother (Myra Keaton) out of spite. This makes Elmer angry who is able to make a comeback and sends Kraus crashing through the ring to win the match. ===== The book takes place during World War I and explores the Diogenes Club's efforts to investigate Germany's attempt to make powerful, undead fliers. Heading up the German operations are the likes of Rotwang, Doctor Caligari and Doctor Mabuse. One of their more successful efforts is an undead flier known as the Red Baron. The story also features Edgar Allan Poe as a vampire writer assigned to ghostwrite the Red Baron's autobiography. ===== When the rule-enforcing camp director at Camp Bleeding Dove gets struck by lightning, the counselors find themselves in sole charge of their campers, and themselves. Among them are the brooding and intellectual Wichita; Wendy, who is guileless and unabashedly religious; Talia, an outcast and former college friend of Wichita's; Pixel, a waifish hippie who bathes in the camp lake; Jasper, an openly gay man; the brutish Adam; and Donald, a nerdy and unconfident virgin. Wichita, who initially finds himself repulsed by Wendy who is his polar opposite, begins to find himself attracted to her, and the two begin to court one another while the rest of the campers and counselors look on. An atheist, Wichita begins to question his belief in God after he finds a photo of himself as a child in the background of one of Wendy's family photos at Mount Rushmore; however, he does not tell her about it. The two eventually admit their feelings for one another, and Wendy loses her virginity to Wichita after having an allergic reaction to a bee sting. Meanwhile, Talia, who has feelings for Wichita, becomes disillusioned after he admits he simply wants to be friends; she later finds he and Wendy have become physically involved. Donald, urged by the rest of the counselors, attempts to court Talia, but she is resistant. Wendy, in order to test the legitimacy of Wichita's feelings for her, has Pixel attempt to seduce him in the woods. Wichita, who overheard their plan, kisses Pixel in front of her, and Wendy leaves in tears, believing he failed the test. On the penultimate day of camp, Wichita confesses to Wendy that he had purposely failed she and Pixels' test; the same day in the woods, Adam confronts Pixel over their sexual relationship, and she rejects him, saying that their relationship was just a fling for her. At the camp mess hall, Donald and Talia incite a riot with the campers, and they all run into the woods in body paint and attack Adam, Pixel, Wichita, and Wendy with condoms fashioned into water balloons. The next day, as Wendy and Pixel prepare to leave, Wendy notices that half of her family photo from Mount Rushmore has been torn off, which Wichita had taken and eaten to dispose of. As the campers and counselors prepare to leave, the children confess how much they meant to them. On the bus ride back, Wendy is forced to sit next to Wichita. Donald takes a photo of them with a camper in-between, asking them to smile for the photo, which appears on the cover of the following year's camp staff manual. ===== Four friends, Rooster, CJ, Jess and Chang, dream of making it as DJs but first they need cash — lots of it, and fast. Their lack of funds is compounded by problems ranging from small (cheating girlfriends, mothers in sleazy movies) to large (the towering presence of Tunde, the local porn king). They come up with various schemes, each more harebrained than the last—stealing library books, breaking and entering, dognapping—all with a spectacular lack of success. And into the bargain, they've fallen foul of drugs baron, Jesus (Gary Kemp), whose slogan is "You've gotta have faith in Jesus". ===== In 1959, several of the world's notable vampires gather in Rome for the wedding of Count Dracula. Nefarious schemes are afoot and being investigated by British Intelligence, the Diogenes Club, and several others, including a British spy on the trail of a sinister madman with a white cat. ===== Chapman's comedy derives from the commedia dell'arte tradition of Italy — perhaps more directly than most English plays so influenced: Chapman may have based Blind Beggar on a commedia that he witnessed first-hand during a trip to Italy.Helen Andrews Kaufman, "The Blind Beggar of Alexandria: A Reappraisal," Philological Quarterly 38 (1959), pp. 10–16. Not atypically for a play so influenced, the plot of Blind Beggar depends heavily on the comedic effects of disguise. Cleanthes, a swindler and pretended duke, has wooed the imperious Queen Aegiale, who rewards his temerity by banishing him. Cleanthes returns to Alexandria in the guise of the blind beggar and fortune-teller Irus. In that disguise and others — Leon the usurer, and the "mad-brain" aristocrat Count Hermes — Cleanthes manipulates people and events to turn in his favor (and for the sheer egotistical fun of it). He seduces Aegiale; he marries a pair of sisters in his different personas — and then tempts both of them to engage in adultery, though only with himself in other guises. He ends up king of Egypt, and disposes of his two sibling wives (now pregnant) as the mates of two captured kings. Critics have recognized Cleanthes, a shepherd by birth who becomes a king, as a comic parody of Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine.Eugene M. Waith, Ideas of Greatness: Heroic Drama in England, London, Routledge, 1971; pp. 124–5. Even in a relatively light and slight project like Blind Beggar, a hint of Chapman's classical learning and inclination shows through. The pretend-beggar Irus is named after the bragging beggar who foolishly challenges Odysseus to a fight in the final book of The Odyssey. Some of the farcical comedy elements in Blind Beggar may be the work of an unknown play doctor rather than Chapman himself; the dedication printed in the first edition of his later comedy All Fools (published 1605) indicates that Chapman supervised the publication of that text himself, to prevent the appearance of a play "patch'd with others' wit." This may imply that earlier Chapman comedies, Blind Beggar and perhaps An Humorous Day's Mirth, had been "patch'd" in just this way. ===== In Cologne near the end of World War II, American prisoner of war Foster MacLain (Mel Ferrer) escapes and is sheltered by Professor Julius Angermann (Ivan Triesault). Angermann's daughter Erika (Dana Wynter) is not so welcoming, but hides the American from the soldiers looking for him. MacLain leaves when it is safe. Not long afterwards, a bomb strikes the house, killing the professor. Erika goes to live in Berlin with her cousin Karl (Herbert Berghof). Karl has lodgers, Fritz and Berta Graubach (Luis van Rooten and Blandine Ebinger), who are outspoken supporters of the Nazi cause. When the Russians capture the city, Erika hides in the attic for fear of being raped. However, Berta betrays Erika's existence in order to save herself, and a drunken corporal starts up the stairs. Karl is killed trying to stop him. The Russian chases Erika out on the roof, but slips and falls to his death, and Erika is charged with his murder. Colonel Dmitri Brikett (Theodore Bikel) is attracted to her and saves her life, though he expects a sexual reward. However, Erika manages to flee to the American-controlled sector of the city with the assistance of Lori (Dolores Michaels), a nightclub piano player. There, she runs into the Graubachs, who now claim they always opposed the Nazis. The Graubachs insist she come stay with them. She finds out later that they are running a brothel and want to employ her. She flees, but not before they have already registered her as a prostitute with the American authorities. They pursue her, but a kindly military policeman, Corporal Hanks (James Edwards), blocks them. Meanwhile, MacLain searches for his wartime benefactors, finally finding Erika working in a nightclub. When he offers to help her, she asks him to find her fiancé Hugo (Helmut Dantine). MacLain uses his connections to locate Hugo and takes Erika to see him. However, she finds a very changed, embittered man – a crippled war veteran, who is living in a makeshift shelter with another woman, and who is not happy to see her with an American. Hugo asks Erica for the engagement ring back so he can buy an artificial arm to replace the one he lost in the war. She gives it to him and leaves. As MacLain spends time with Erika, he falls in love with her. He asks her to marry him and move to the United States. She accepts, but when she goes to apply for a passport, she realizes that she will be turned down because of her registration as a whore. She is about to give up, but by chance, Corporal Hanks is the man processing the applications. Remembering the circumstances of their previous meeting, he erases her "occupation" and gives her the papers she needs. ===== Elmer is the owner of a gas station somewhere on the desert highway. One day a family of ruthless businessmen show up and erect their own gas station directly opposite Elmer's and begin competing with him. The two businesses repeatedly lower their prices for gas with Elmer eventually gaining the upper hand, but when the customers arrive they believe Elmer's gas to be cheap since it is going for such a low price and get gas from the rival station instead. When a beautiful girl arrives at Elmer's station he attempts to brush all of the desert sand off of the girl's car but ends up covering her in it. While Elmer is attending to the girl, the rival businessman pumps gas into her car and flirts with the girl. He tells the girl that he runs a baseball team nearby and invites her to watch him play. Elmer, fueled by jealousy challenges the businessmen to an impromptu baseball practice and is quickly outclassed. The two agree to assemble their own teams and face one another the next day. The beautiful girl arrives and decides she'll go on a date with whoever wins. During the game, both men resort to cheating, with the businessman tying the home base to his ankle so he can drag it closer to him, and Keaton using a bat twice its regular size. The conclusion of the game comes when Elmer steals a bullet from a nearby policeman's holster and places it inside his bat. When the opposing team pitches the ball, Elmer hits it with the bat and the resulting boom sends the ball flying across the desert, allowing Elmer to win the game. Elmer and the beautiful girl embrace but the rival businessman sneaks up and kisses the girl. The girl goes to slap the businessman but Elmer unwittingly moves into the path of the slap. Shocked, Elmer runs off across the sand as the girl chases after him. ===== A young man named Elmer answers an ad from a woman looking for a new husband. He arrives at the house, meets a young girl named Molly, and is immediately smitten with her. He discovers that the person who placed the ad was not Molly but her aunt. Molly's aunt sets Elmer and Molly to work washing dishes in the kitchen, but the clumsy pair end up smashing them. That evening, Molly's aunt plays the piano and sings boisterously, causing many objects in the house to fall and break despite Elmer's best efforts to save them. As Elmer tries to sleep that night, rain drips onto him from a hole in the roof. He climbs up on the roof to try to patch, but falls through it and lands on Molly's aunt's bed, propelling her through the bedroom window and into a muddy puddle. Elmer covers the giant hole in the roof with a blanket. The rain eventually fills it, causing it to burst, and sending the water flooding down onto Elmer, and then Molly's aunt on the floor below his. The aunt makes her way up to Elmer's bedroom and accidentally sends him out of the window and into the same muddy puddle. Elmer decides to spend the night in the barn instead. The next morning, he tries to tell Molly he loves her, but is repeatedly interrupted by her aunt. That night, Elmer is confronted by a ghostly version of himself who tells him that he needs to leave before Molly's aunt discovers he is in love with Molly. As he tries to flee, the aunt catches him and marches him at gunpoint to the Justice of the Peace. A quickie wedding is organised, but at the last minute it is revealed that the arranged wedding is for Elmer and Molly. As Elmer prepares to marry Molly, he sees the ghostly version of himself again, but chases it off with a gun, shooting it in the backside. ===== At a Navy training station, Apprentice Seaman Elmer Doolittle is constantly mocked and berated due to his constant clumsiness and lack of common sense. He is frequently given mundane tasks to complete in order to keep him away from the other apprentices with actual potential but Chief Gunners Mate Richard Mack vows to make a sailor out of him if it kills him. After failing to teaching how to tie knots or march properly, Mack becomes angered after he believes he witnesses Elmer flirting with his girlfriend when in actuality he was just helping fix her broken shoe. Elmer eventually reaches the rank of seaman but Mack's girlfriend eventually does develop feelings for Elmer and this enrages Mack who banishes Elmer to the brig and tells him he will stay there. Elmer dismays but soon perks up after realizing Mack's girlfriend has snuck into the brig as well. ===== A mob boss tells his crew to get him some aspirin to treat his aching tooth. Since it is after midnight, his crew break into the closed drug store. Across the street, Elmer (Keaton) waits outside his girlfriend's house as the two plan to elope. The police are alerted to a robbery taking place on the street and when they arrive the robbers escape in Elmer's car and Elmer and his girlfriend mistakenly drive off in the cop car. An alert is put out and Elmer and his girlfriend realize they are now on the run from the police. They take cover on a local farm and hide in a hay bale and in the morning given jobs on the farm: Elmer as a farmhand and his girlfriend as a maid but are soon forced to leave after their description is given again over the farmhouse radio Back at the station the real robbers are apprehended. Morning arrives and Elmer and his girlfriends are pursued through the cornfields by the police and eventually take cover in a train, not knowing that the compartment they have jumped into is a ventilated refrigerator and they are forced to start a fire to stay warm. The pair decide to turn themselves in but upon arriving at police headquarters they are taken to another room reserved for marriages and presumably are exonerated of the crimes and married. ===== Helen (Andre), a bride to be who has been pressured into marriage by her father flees the church before her husband to be arrives. At the same time Milton (Keaton) is woken up by a stranger he drunkenly agreed to marry the night before, who tells him they have a wedding scheduled in a few minutes time. Milton runs off intent on living in the mountains for the foreseeable future. On his way he stops to pick up a hitchhiker who turns out to be Helen and the two decide to go on the run together. On their journey they have a heated standoff with an aggressive driver named Mortimer who refuses to back up and end up running him off the road. Later that day as Helen sets up camp, Milton goes fishing and catches many fish by throwing Mexican jumping beans into the water which makes the fish jump into his net. Milton arrives back at the camp at the same time as Mortimer who he persuades not to hurt him in exchanged for a meal. Mortimer steals the key to Milton's car and chases Helen into the tent in order to kiss her but when he emerges he sees that Helen has escaped the tent and he has in fact been kissing Milton. Helen convinces Milton to go swimming with her so that Milton can retrieve the key to the car from his clothes. Milton's jilted fiancée arrives at the lake and tries to force Milton to return to town with her. Helen sees Milton and his fiancée and leaves heartbroken. While Milton's fiancée is trying to force Mortimer to return the key to the car, Milton realizes that he put on the drivers pants when he emerged from the lake and the key is in the pocket. Milton drives off and catches up with Helen and the two gleefully reunite ===== At a roadside diner a scout named Elmer pulls up for lunch and is immediately smitten with a waitress named Molly. Molly's fiancée, a traffic warden named Homer arrives and gives Elmer a ticket but Molly allows Elmer to drive her home and while backing up he accidentally runs over Homer's motorcycle. Molly reveals her parents are trying to pressure her into marrying Homer but he is not in love with him. Molly introduces her parents to Elmer and they instantly disapprove of him due to his appearance and outfit. Molly's father challenges Elmer's scout skills by getting him to prove he can make a fire by rubbing two sticks together. Elmer accidentally sets fire to Molly's parent's rug. He attempts to extinguish the fire with a hose but there is a knot in the tube which stops the water from coming out. Homer arrives and sees the knot, he unties it and is sprayed with the water from the hose. As Elmer and Molly clean up the mess, Molly's father tells Homer to propose to Molly immediately. Elmer attempts to gain Molly's father's blessing to propose to Molly and is told to go and fetch a justice of the peace, however this is a ruse so that the justice can marry Molly and Homer instead. Homer throws Elmer out of the house so he can marry Molly in peace. Outside, Elmer saves a man named Oscar from his wife whom he was intending to leave for another woman. In return Elmer asks for Oscar's help putting a stop to the wedding. However, when the two arrive at the wedding Oscar recognizes Molly as the woman he was going to leave his wife for. Elmer, Oscar and Homer engage in a three way scuffle each attempting to marry Molly. Eventually Oscar's wife shows up and causes chaos in the house. Elmer and Molly manage to sneak away with the justice of the peace and are finally married ===== Elmer Butts (Keaton) is seen off by his friends as he boards a train to begin his journey to attempt a career in show-business. He intends to audition for the radio show Colonel Crow's Amateur Night, but the show ends before he is able to audition. Meets a beautiful young girl (who it transpires lives downstairs from him) and asks her out but is turned down. That night he practices several dance routines in his bedroom which angers the girl, he asks her out again but is once again turned down. The next day Elmer attempts to audition for 'Amateur Night' once again but there is already an audition in process. As he sits in the waiting room, Elmer prepares himself by dancing to the various styles of music he hears emanating from the next room. Elmer finally gets his turn to audition for the show but is met with mockery when he reveals that he is a juggler and intends to describe his juggling techniques to the audience listening at home. During Elmer's performance he gets into several scuffles with the band leader who is trying to conduct music in the background. The live audience watching the show find the performance hilarious but Elmer is thrown out. Four weeks pass and Elmer is seen hitch-hiking at the side of a road. Overhearing a nearby car's radio he learns that his performance was voted the best of the night by the audience and his £100 prize has gone unclaimed. Elmer dashes back to the studio (via train, car and on foot) and his newly found wealth and popularity convinces the girl to finally go on a date with him. ===== The story begins with 12-year-old Gustave, captain of the Aventure as he attempts to escape the deadly Siamese Twins Tornado. When the storm finally catches up with his crew, everyone is killed except Gustave, who meets Death, and his crazy sister Dementia. After the wicked siblings play dice for Gustave's soul, Death gives him six seemingly impossible tasks in order to stay alive. In one night, he must face six giants, rescue a damsel in distress from the clutches of a dragon, make himself conspicuous amidst a forest of evil spirits, encounter the Most Monstrous of all Monsters, and even meet himself. ===== The History of the World Backwards tells the story of the world, but in a world where time flows forwards whilst history told backwards. In other words, if you were born in 2007, you would be 60 years old in 1947. All the major historical events happen backwards, so for example, Nelson Mandela enters jail a Spice Girls fan, and comes out as a terrorist intent in overthrowing the state. There are several recurring themes, such as the "Technology collapse", where scientific discoveries are lost, forgotten or made unworkable. ===== In Edwardian London, in the summer of 1903, a Scottish shopowner in Fulham is stabbed to death and his shop set on fire by distinguished composer George Harvey Bone (Laird Cregar), who stumbles out onto the street in a stupor. George eventually makes his way back the next night to his basement flat at 12 Hangover Square in Chelsea to find his girlfriend Barbara Chapman (Faye Marlowe) and her father Sir Henry Chapman (Alan Napier) inside. George admits privately to Barbara that there is "a whole day missing" from his memory. The newspaper has stories of the murder and fire, and George goes to see Dr. Allan Middleton (George Sanders) who works at Scotland Yard. Bone tells Middleton that when he is stressed or overworked he suffers from periods of amnesia brought on by discordant sounds. Middleton's advice is to go out among ordinary people and observe how they work and recreate. On August 29 at a smoking concert at a working-class pub, George meets an ambitious and conniving singer named Netta Longdon (Linda Darnell) through his buddy Mickey (Michael Dyne). Although Netta, who also lives in the square, is a mediocre talent, George is enamoured of her. Netta finds George boring, yet nonetheless mercilessly manipulates him to get money, dinners, drinks and all kinds of favours for months. Meanwhile, Barbara is put off by George's interest in Netta, as Middleton tries to get closer to her. George is driven to the point of having another amnesia episode and almost strangles Barbara to death. George finally strangles Netta to death on Guy Fawkes Night. He carries her wrapped body through streets filled with revelers and deposits it on top of the biggest bonfire. Having no memory of the killing, George is able to convince the police that he had nothing to do with it; however, Middleton remains suspicious. He later confronts George on the night of his concerto premier, and insists that he be taken in for his own protection. However, George locks Middleton into his flat and performs the concerto as planned. Middleton's banging is heard by a local workman and he is freed. Midway through the concerto performance he enters the music salon with several other policemen, causing George to enter into one of his episodes. He is forced to stop performing and asks Barbara to carry on playing; however, whilst being questioned by the police in a separate room he attacks them, in the process of which a gas lamp is knocked over, setting the room alight. George proceeds to continue with his piano concerto, unmindful of the conflagration around him and ignoring Barbara's pleas to escape, as flames consume everything. As Middleton and Barbara look on from outside, Middleton says that "it is better this way". ===== Elmer Triple is a chemist who is a constant source of frustration to his professor boss, who feels that while he showed promise at a young age he has ultimately never used his gifts for anything useful. Elmer aims to correct him by showing a series of concoctions he has developed. The first liquidizes an entire breakfast which can then be consumed in one gulp. Elmer's second invention can make things grow to three times their original size, which he demonstrates on a parrot and a goldfish. Elmer's final invention is a candy which he claims will make women fall in love with the first person they see. Elmer gives his candy to a young woman who turns out to be the girlfriend of a gangster. The girl falls instantly in love with Elmer and when the gangster sees the two kissing he throws Elmer back into his laboratory. He has only one of the candies left and nut it gets lost in a box of regular chocolates. He attempts to give the candy to an attractive secretary, but he himself ends up eating his specially created one and passionately kisses the secretary and subsequently receiving a beating. The professor is unimpressed with Elmer's inventions and tells him he'd better invent something useful soon. While trying to invent noiseless fire crackers, Elmer unwittingly invents an explosive yet noiseless powder which the head of the university theorizes could be used in war zones. Elsewhere the gangster learns of the explosive powder in the paper and realizes he could use it to blow open bank vaults. The gangster and his two associates dress up as professors, convince Elmer they are there to inspect the powder and take him with them to a bank which they then hold up. When his attempts to blow up the safe, Elmer realizes he has brought his love powder instead of his explosive powder. The gang march Elmer back to the university and get him to demonstrate how the powder works. Elmer shows them that the powder explodes when brought into contact with water. Before they can make their way back to the bank, Elmer covers the gangsters in the powder and threatens to spray them with water until they turn themselves in. After taking the gangsters to the police station Elmer is hailed as a genius by numerous other professors to the university and offers them some of the growth formula he demonstrated earlier which they accept. Outside the police station Elmer is spotted by the gangster's girlfriend who is still in love with him and the two kiss. However the two are soon chased down the street by the professors who have in fact shrunken down to the size of dwarfs due to Elmer supplying them with the wrong formula. ===== On Christmas Eve, Guido “Gig” Panimba (Joseph Bologna) and Pandora “Panda” Gold (Renee Taylor) each morosely wander the streets of Manhattan and later join an emergency group therapy meeting designed to help the participants break self-destructive patterns. Each person lists his or her neuroses, ranging from bed-wetting to paranoia. When it is Panda's turn, we learn she is there on her 4th emergency session. She declares herself a failure as an actress, singer, dancer and woman, and launches into a long description of her life and many disastrous love affairs. We learn about Panda's past, in which her mother repeatedly assures her that she will be famous while her father repeatedly abandons them for affair after affair. To escape her unhappy home life, young Panda immerses herself in Hollywood movies, often imitating movie stars such as Rita Hayworth. By the time she is nineteen, Panda tries to attract her father's attention by displeasing him, and to that end moves in with a married, Chinese boyfriend. When her father learns of this, he dies of a heart attack, and at the funeral, his many lovers hysterically blame Panda for his demise. Her next boyfriend ends up leaving her for another man. She works as a hostess of a television quiz show and a nightclub performer, but she gives up both professions to go live in England with her latest boyfriend, whom she caught sleeping with two other women. Panda then enthusiastically announces her "comeback" at an upcoming cabaret revue and invites everyone in the session to come and see her. Gig, a newcomer to therapy, claims that he has no problems, and when the other participants goad him to be honest, he gets up to leave. Within minutes, however, he returns and announces that he caused his last girlfriend to attempt suicide. Gig recounts his past. He has little privacy from his parents and sisters and is made to feel guilty about his sexual urges. After his mother convinces him that love requires purity, and lust must be violently purged, Gig begins to treat women cruelly and eventually tries to join the seminary, but is soon caught in a tryst with a maid. Gig briefly joins the military, where he embraces an enemy soldier in joy upon learning that the man is not dead. Returning to America, Gig fails to prosper in his father's barbershop and instead goes back to college, where his African studies major horrifies his parents. He then embarks on relationship after relationship, leaving each woman in heartbreak until the latest, tried to kill herself. At the meeting, some of the women berate him but Panda is sympathetic. After the session, Gig and Panda get to talking and end up having sex in his car. While having sex, Panda accidentally blurts out that she loves him, after the encounter, Gig responds coldly and dismisses her. After some encouragement from the doctor who ran the session, Panda calls Gig in an attempt to scold him for his treatment of her, but she ends up inviting him to dinner. There, he enjoys the food but then readies to leave, promising to return later to have sex after the party he's going to. As he walks out the door, Panda screams after him that she will no longer accept being treated poorly. After she collapses on her bed, he returns silently and asks what they should do next. Gig reluctantly agrees to Panda's suggestion that they move in together, hoping to break his pattern of abusiveness. Gig finds he is able to really open up to Panda and he playfully helps Panda to overcome her inability to achieve orgasm. On New Year's Eve, Panda's mother appears, reminding Panda that she is late for her night club comeback. Ignoring her mother's disapproval of Gig, Panda rushes to prepare for her act and insists that Gig join them. He is appalled, however, by her act, a painfully amateurish song-and-dance number in which she asks the audience to create a new identity for her. Later, when she asks his opinion, he admits he did not understand it, prompting her mother to lash out at him. Panda asks her to leave, and later at a café asks Gig for more constructive criticism. Upon learning that she has worked on the show for five years, Gig explodes that the act is awful and states that she embarrassed herself and him. Panda runs out and Gig follows, but on the street they fight and ultimately go their separate ways. Panda goes home alone and realizes her act is actually awful and that Gig was right. Meanwhile, Gig tries to sleep with another woman only to find himself impotent with her. The next day, Panda shows up at Gig's apartment and they make up. Learning that he is going to visit his parents, she insists on joining him, and on the way urges him to introduce her as his girl friend. Gig's large family seems welcoming to Panda until they ask how she met Gig and she responds with a long story about their encounter group and the necessity of escaping the psychological wounds inflicted by their parents. Soon, Gig's mother is screaming at her to leave and Gig shouts back that she must apologize to Panda. She concludes that she will not attend their wedding because Panda is Jewish and her views are so different from their own. Gig's father chastises her for overreacting and declares that they're just having fun, and clearly Gig would never marry Panda. To prove Panda is not Gig's type, he brings out a photo of Gig's first love, a slim Italian teenager. This visibly upsets Gig who decides to get up and leave with Panda, while his family screams after them. In the car, Gig starts to pick apart his parents, and their comments about Panda. However, Panda tells him that some of their comments about her (particularly her physical features) were accurate. This causes Gig to fly into a rage, because she's agreeing with his parents after all the nasty things they said, so he begins to berate her as well, eventually breaking up with her and forcing her to get out of the car. Panda walks off, but Gig immediately follows her. Eventually, after a lot of arguing, the two break down crying and Gig admits he really loves Panda and the two decide to get engaged. ===== Following a kidnapping and murder, a reporter believes he knows the identity of the murderer, so he asks his roommate, a newspaper boy, to confess to the crime, in order to throw the police off the actual murderer's trail – giving the reporter time to catch the murderer and claim the reward for himself. The newspaper boy is at first reluctant, but then agrees with the condition that his half of the reward be large enough to purchase a ring he wants. Having gotten himself arrested, the newspaper boy learns that his roommate's plane has crashed, killing him and leaving the newspaper boy trapped in a death sentence for a crime he did not commit. Following a prison break, the newspaper boy finds himself in the hideout of the man, Sawed-off Madison, responsible for the crimes he falsely confessed to. A shoot-out ensues, allowing both the actual murderer and the newspaper boy to escape. Back at the police station it is discovered that the newspaper boy did not commit the murder, and the police know it was Madison. At this time, the newspaper boy carries Sawed-off Madison into the station and claims the reward for his capture. The newspaper boy buys the ring he wanted. ===== Buster Keaton plays a delivery man who falls in love with one of his customers. Little does he know, though, that her twin lives right next door. ===== A team of criminals led by mastermind Peter Branson kidnaps the President of the United States and his two guests from the Middle East, a prince and a king, on San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, in a masterfully conceived and clockwork-timed operation. Branson and his men block off both ends of the bridge, wire it with explosives, and demand half a billion dollars and a full pardon for themselves. Any rescue attempts will result in the detonation of the explosives, which will kill the President (and his guests) and destroy the Golden Gate Bridge. However, Branson is an egomaniac, and he cannot resist attention from the media. So he invites the press to stay on the bridge and cover the story. Aware that the FBI will have placed agents among them, he takes the precaution of searching them and removing the armed ones. However, Hagenbach (the FBI's dour but extremely adept head agent) has an ace in the hole: a hand-picked special agent, Paul Revson, who was equipped with only a camera. Allowed to remain on the bridge, Revson sets out to foil Branson's plans and rescue the President. With the help of a doctor and a female journalist, Revson gets a message to his superiors, suggesting various courses of action: supplying drugged food to the terrorists, placing a submarine under the bridge, and trying to neutralize the terrorists' equipment with a laser beam. He also arranges for several carefully disguised weapons and gadgets to be smuggled to him. Working on both ends, Revson, Hagenbach, and those working with them unleash their own carefully conceived plans. ===== Not long after coming to terms with his homosexuality, 17-year-old Gerardo has broken up with his first serious boyfriend. Trying to ease his pain he has a number of casual sexual encounters in Mexico City. ===== The film is inspired by the Haditha killings incident that occurred three months after the Battle of Haditha in the Iraq War. On 19 November 2005 in Haditha, a city in the western Iraqi province of Al Anbar, 24 unarmed Iraqi men, women, and children were killed by a group of United States Marines following an incident where an I.E.D killed one Marine and seriously wounded two others. Since the release of the film, the US military controversially dropped all charges to all Marines involved.MILITARY: Haditha Marine acquitted The names of the Marines have been changed in the film, while the Iraqi civilians retain their real names. ===== The wandering swordsman Yu Hsieh Erh travels around seeking adventure and meets a group of bandits who are planning to rob a convoy escorting some valuables. Initially, he is tricked by them into participating in the robbery but then realises his folly and he returns to take his revenge on them. ===== The Valley is about four prospectors who walk into a valley and unwittingly enter a rift in the time/space continuum. As they journey down the valley, one of the prospectors (Ian Middleton) gets taken away by a harpy. Another prospector (Peter Jackson) falls off a cliff. The two remaining (Ken Hammon and Andrew Neal) have to fight and destroy a cyclops. They build a raft, float across a lake, and see a building in ruins. This ruin, unbeknownst to them, is the Beehive building of Wellington city – they have not travelled back in time but ahead into a post-apocalyptic world taken over by mythical beasts. ===== The three Gan sisters are mourning the death of their father when they are visited by Prince Lu Tien Hsia, who wishes to pay his respects. Lu informs the sisters that their father's sword, the Purple Light Sword, should be offered to the Emperor. At that moment, the sisters' cousin, Hsu, arrives and warns them that Lu's real intentions are to steal the sword for himself and that Lu and his father had plotted to kill the Gan's sister's father. A battle breaks out and Lu escapes without the sword. Concerned that Lu will return to try and retake the sword, the Second Gan sister leaves to seek help from her Uncle, Hsu's father. Lu, bloodied and exhausted from the battle stumbles into a run-down and seemingly abandoned temple, where he encounters the Five Tiger; Brave Tiger, One-eyed Tiger, Crippled Tiger, Drunken Tiger and Sick Tiger. After a short battle, Lu convinces the Five Tigers that he knows a place filled with money, jewels and the Purple Light Sword, if they're brave enough to attack it; The Gan residence. Lu, the Five Tigers and a band of warriors attack the Gan residence. During the battle, Lu instructs some of the warriors to burn the residence down. Hsu evacuates the injured Third Gan sister but, by the time he returns, the battle is over and the Eldest Gan sister has been taken prisoner by the Five Tigers, along with the Purple Light Sword. The attackers celebrate their victory at an Inn. While distracted by the celebrations, Lu attempts to double-cross the Five Tigers and take the Purple Light Sword, which Brave Tiger had claimed for his own. A battle occurs between the Lu and his warriors, and the Five Tigers. The warriors are defeated and Lu is taken captive by the Tigers, although Brave Tiger is injured by a poisoned dart in the process. One of the warriors is sent to Lu's father to request a ransom while the remainder are brutally slaughtered. The Second Gan sister, her uncle and a band of warriors arrive at the remains of the Gan residence and agree to set out to track Lu and his father down. Meanwhile, Hsu and the Third Gan sister arrive at a nearby town, whose streets are abandoned. They seek out a doctor to treat the Third Gan sister's injury. They learn that the doctor is also being forced by Brave Tiger to treat his wound from the poisoned dart. After treating her wound and allowing her time to rest, Hsu and the doctor come up with a plan to steal back the Purple Light Sword from Brave Tiger. The Second Gan sister finds Lu's father and battles her way into his room. Lu's father informs her that Lu and the Purple Light Sword have been taken by the Five Tigers and asks her to rescue him. She kills him instead as revenge for her father's death and leaves to track down Lu and the Five Tigers. Back at the Five Tigers' camp, the doctor distracts Brave Tiger while Hsu attempts to steal the Sword. However, Second Sister, who has also stumbled upon the camp, accidentally foils Hsu's attempt to take the sword, and as a result, Brave Tiger kills the doctor for his subterfuge. The pair team up and fight the Tiger Five and their men, managing to kill Drunken Tiger, before getting captured when Brave Tiger orders them to surrender or he'll kill the captured Eldest Gan sister. One-eyed Tiger goes to the doctor's residence, where the Third Gan sister is recovering, realising that's where she'd be, if the doctor was helping them. As One-eyed Tiger and the Third Gan sister fight, an elderly Taoist priest arrives at the door and kills One-eyed Tiger before capturing the Third Gan sister and taking her to the Five Tiger's camp. At the camp, the Taoist priest is revealed to be Lu's master and he frees Lu and the pair begin battling the camp. The sisters and Hsu manage to break free and join in the fighting. The remaining Tigers are defeated by the Taoist priest. The sisters' uncle arrives with reinforcements, who proceed to burn the camp down. The Taoist priest meets up with the Gan sisters, Hsu and his father and informs them that he was preparing to kill Lu for bring shame and dishonoring his teachings of doing good and helping the weak and the poor. Instead he hands over the Purple Light Sword and Lu to the sisters so they may get their justice. Lu runs into the fire and dies rather than face his fate. ===== The novel concerns the account of one Jane Martello, a middle aged woman undergoing divorce proceedings with her husband, and subsequently separating herself from a large and strong family she has known since her childhood. The intricate traditions of her family and the one she had married into begin to break down when the body of her sister- in-law, Natalie, is found buried in the garden, after over two decades. This startlingly close distance to the house leads to the revelation of the murderer being very close to the family after all. The revelation acts to bring down the family structure that for so long was unbalanced, but stable - such as Jane's father-in-law, Alan, an openly crude and sexist novelist having once frequently had relations outside his marriage (to the knowledge of the whole family) and other underlying tensions between family members. Jane undergoes psychiatric counselling, as she revels in the mysterious circumstances of one of her best childhood friend's death, and already present forerunnings to what appear to be a mid-life crisis. She undergoes a memory exercise (that the book is named for) to unlock memories lost from the trauma of her friend's death. What she unlocks proves seemingly to be the key to the death of Natalie, but the validity of the memories become questionable with the serious allegations they lead to. Category:Thriller novels Category:1997 British novels Category:Novels by Nicci French Category:Midlife crisis in fiction ===== Kristin Yancey (Kristin Chenoweth), a perky Oklahoman woman, takes a job as a secretary in New York City while she looks for work in show business. What she does not know is that her boss Tommy Ballantine (Jon Tenney), hired her so he would not be tempted to sleep with her. ===== Frankie O'Malley (Darro) and Jefferson Smith (Moreland) apply for work at the Overland Transport Company, a firm run by Pop Wallace (Homans). The boys are unaware that a trucking war is in progress and that Wallace's trucks are being wrecked and his men killed. Frankie and Jefferson are hired. On one of their hauls, the two are taken prisoners by hijackers from a rival firm. Meanwhile, George Lee (Luke), an undercover agent for the insurance company that is covering Overland's claims, has learned that Pop Wallace is working with Ray Saunders (Mitchell), division superintendent for the insurance company. Saunders has a hold over Wallace and is forcing him to participate against his will. Frankie and Jefferson escape from the hijackers and return to Wallace's garage to find him slugged and unconscious. The boys decide to get the evidence that will clear Wallace before the police move in. With help from friends, the two manage to break into the hijacker's stronghold, but are captured. Saunders has the group loaded into a truck and driven out into the country-side to be murdered. The thug driving the truck breaks the speed limit and the cops are soon on his tail. ===== Dora and her father are lost in the kitchen (they have just fired their cook). An ad for new one in the newspaper attracts two crooks (one of which is Fritz Schade). He dresses like a woman to apply for the job. At his first opportunity he plans to loot the house, but just then, a cop on the beat stops in for coffee. Fritz locks the cop in the basement, picks up what things of value he can and escapes. He and his pal drive off in a Model T. Along the way Dora is kidnapped, the Keystone Cops give chase and all ends well in the end. ===== In not-so-merry-old-England during the 13th Century, the neurotic Prince John (Roddy McDowell) sits on the throne, supported by his evil henchman, Sir Guy of Gisbourne (Tom Baker) and constantly ridiculed by his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine (Janet Suzman). While celebrating his birthday, the Prince becomes unhappy when he discovers his older brother, Richard, is not dead as everyone thought but rather being held for ransom in Austria. As Richard is the rightful King of England, this creates a problem for Prince John. However, Gisbourne openly suggests that they tax the Saxon peasants to raise the ransom, while secretly confiding in the Prince that the King will most likely die of pneumonia before the year is out and that they will keep the money. The birthday revels are interrupted by Robin Hood (George Segal), disguised in drag and reciting an offensive poem. Not seeing through the disguise, Gisbourne demands she take them to Robin Hood's hideout in Sherwood Forest. That night, Eleanor convinces Maid Marian (Morgan Fairchild) to play up to Gisbourne's advances and use him to help Robin Hood. When Prince John and Guy travel to Sherwood, they are ambushed by Robin Hood's Merry Men. They are stripped of their garments, their possessions and money stolen, then driven out of the forest. Will Scarlet (Robin Nedwell) frequently tries to make a song out of these events, but thankfully Robin stops him every time. Eleanor and Marian sneak into the bandits' camp at night, disguised as two nuns, and hoping to enlist Robin's help in freeing King Richard. They are caught by Robin, who recognises them immediately, and the trio eat together and discuss plans. Robin and Marian realise they love each other. Robin and his band begin travelling across the country to raise the ransom money but nothing goes right. They try robbing a bank only to find that they have won a prize as the hundredth customer and get distracted. When they finally rob the bank, they find it only has three coins and a pfennig. Times are hard for everyone, it seems. Eventually, Robin has to report back to Eleanor that England is broke. She advises him to get the money from Isaac of York (Kenneth Griffith), a Jewish moneylender. In York, Robin stands out like a sore thumb amongst all the orthodox Jews. Isaac agrees to lend Robin the ransom money provided that in return the King gives the Jews their own country. Isaac suggests Palestine, although Miami would be his second choice. They settle on naming the new country after Isaac's father, Israel. Robin sneaks into the Prince's castle to tell Eleanor, who now insists he must raise an army. Robin then tries to seduce Marian, promising her they'll be wed once King Richard returns, but with little success. ===== The series follows three or more families who are placed in a location which replicates the lifestyle of Welsh people living in a coal mining town of that period. The chosen families leave all 21st century luxuries behind, swapping a modern high-tech life for a miner's cottage in Stack Square in the Welsh hills of Blaenavon. The mines are owned by Mr. Blanford, and are up the hills. Men and boys over the age of 14 are required to work in the mines. ===== The story is set in the year 2707.The world is loosely based on that of the Mutant Chronicles role-playing game, where many technologies are steam powered and mankind has exhausted Earth's natural resources. The protagonists must battle against mutated humans that were accidentally unleashed. The plot revolves around a "machine" which came from space 10,000 years ago. The "machine" mutates people into barely intelligent killing drones, known as "mutants", that drag new victims to the machine for conversion. Sealed away thousands of years ago by human tribes, the machine is accidentally uncovered during a large battle in Eastern Europe between two of the four corporations that now rule the world. Within six weeks the world is almost completely conquered by the mutant gangs. Some of the population has been evacuated to Mars, but millions remain on the doomed Earth. A group of soldiers are assembled to take another ancient device to the heart of the machine in an attempt to destroy it in a suicide mission. In return, their loved ones receive coveted tickets to Mars. En route their spaceship is shot down by a kamikaze airship piloted by a mutant. The group is forced to battle through the mutants in tunnels to reach the machine, hoping to save the last of humanity. In their attempt to reach the machine most die, with Mitch being partially transformed into a mutant and Brother Samuel being fully transformed. Mitch is able to halt his own transformation, but is forced to kill Brother Samuel. Mitch, being the last survivor, is ultimately successful in activating the ancient device, causing the machine (which was actually part of a spacecraft) to blast off into space. A dying and mutated Samuel tells him to "have faith" as Mitch jumps from the slowly ascending rocket, landing in an underground lake beneath the rocket. Crawling onto land he sees the rocket disappear into the sky, realizing he is the prophesied savior of mankind, despite not believing in a god. Grievously wounded and partially mutated, he lights a final crooked cigarette. ===== Grudge Warriors takes place in a dystopian future Earth, where nations and governments have been replaced with rival thugs and gangs. These gangs not only stage raids and assaults on their enemies, but also run "Death Rings", where the most powerful gangs have duels between their highly armored vehicles. There are a total of eleven gangs, who each occupy different parts of the world, operating from strongholds. Players assume the role of an upstart gang member who is attempting to defeat his rivals. Players are allowed to begin the mission by selecting a gang and car; the player then proceeds to play through the campaign using that vehicle. Each mission starts with the player being dropped off at an enemy base, then fighting through defenses to destroy the team's generators. If the player defeats all ten rival gangs, he or she will be invited to fight "the Crime Lord", head of the Death Rings. ===== 1974, the present. Dorothy Yates lives with her husband Edmund in an isolated farmhouse in Haslemere, Surrey. They have just been released from a mental institution to which they were committed in 1957 after it was found Dorothy was a cannibal who killed and partially ate at least six people. It is later revealed that her cannibalism can be understood as an attempt to cope with a childhood trauma when she found out that she had eaten parts of her pet rabbit that her parents had cooked and served as dinner. Although her husband Edmund was convicted, it is later revealed that he only faked his dementia in order to remain with his wife. He is a truly devoted husband who loves his wife dearly and does not take part in the actual acts of murder in 1957 and in the present, only helping in covering them up. Now, it seems as if Dorothy has had a severe relapse. She secretly lures lonely young people to her home, promising tea and a tarot card reading, only with the sessions ending with a violent murder and "feast". Jackie, Edmund's daughter by previous marriage, lives in London but secretly visits her dad and stepmum at night to bring her parcels containing animal brain, thereby implicitly feigning to commit murders for her so as to contain Dorothy's murderous urges. At the same time, Jackie tries to control her 15-year-old stepsister Debbie, Dorothy's actual daughter that she and Edmund had shortly before being committed to the asylum. Debbie has been recently thrown out of the orphanage. She now stays with Jackie and rides with her boyfriend Alec, head of a violent biker gang. Debbie incites Alec to start a fight with a barman in one of London's hip nightclubs because he denied her liquor due to her being underage. When they get thrown out, the bike gang later ambush and assault the barman with a chain but leave when spotted. Debbie, however, decides to stay behind and hides the body in the trunk of a car before the police arrive. When Jackie berates Debbie for coming home late, they have a severe argument in which Debbie in turn asks where Jackie goes at night. When Jackie discovers Debbie's bloodied jacket and finds out from her that she was involved in the barman's murder, she and her boyfriend Graham, an investigative psychiatrist who has in the meantime himself found out about Jackie's family history, lead the police to the body in the trunk, which is missing an eye - a wound that could not have been inflicted with a chain and is reminiscent of the wounds inflicted by Dorothy on her victims. As it is thus revealed, Debbie and Dorothy have been secretly meeting without Jackie's knowledge, and Debbie has apparently taken on her mum's pathological urges herself. Meanwhile, Debbie escapes with Alec to the Haslemere house, where Dorothy kills Alec. Jackie suggests that Graham call on her stepmum, and he goes there alone to talk to Dorothy, with Jackie following shortly after. When Graham arrives, Debbie reveals his identity to Dorothy, who kills him. When Jackie arrives, she encounters her dad alone, who tells her they feel Debbie belongs more to them than she. She starts looking for Graham and finds Dorothy and Debbie disposing of his body in the attic. As Dorothy and Debbie circle in on her, Edmund, who has followed her there, blocks the door. As Jackie cries for his help, the film closes with a freeze frame of Edmund restraining his urges to come to her aid and looking in dismay at his daughter's imminent demise. ===== "A Jury of Her Peers" is about the discovery of and subsequent investigation of John Wright's murder. The story begins on a cold, windy day in fictional Dickson County (representing Dickinson County, Iowa) with Martha Hale's being abruptly called to ride to a crime scene. In the buggy is Lewis Hale, her husband, Sheriff Peters, the county sheriff, and Mrs. Peters, the sheriff's wife. She rushes out to join them in the buggy, and the group sets off. They arrive at the crime scene: the Wrights' lonesome-looking house. Immediately Mrs. Hale exhibits a feeling of guilt for not visiting her friend Minnie Foster since she married and became Mrs. Wright (the dead man's wife) twenty years prior. Once the whole group is safely inside the house, Mr. Hale is asked to describe to the county attorney what he had seen and experienced the day prior. Despite the serious circumstances, he delivers his story in a long-winded and poorly thought-out manner, tendencies he struggles to avoid throughout. The story begins with Mr. Hale's venturing to Mr. Wright's house to convince Wright to get a telephone. Upon entering the house, he finds Mrs. Wright in a delirious state and comes to learn that Mr. Wright has allegedly been strangled. The women's curious natures and very peculiar attention to minute details allow them to find evidence of Mrs. Wright's guilt and of her provocations and motives. Meanwhile, the men are unable to procure any evidence. The women find the one usable piece of evidence: the dead bird in the box. It's stated that Minnie used to love to sing and her husband took that away from her. But now finding her bird is dead, with a broken neck (with the implication that the husband killed it), it is evident Mrs. Wright killed her husband. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters use their knowledge and experience as two "midwestern rural women" to understand Mrs. Wright's suffering when the only living thing around her has died. The women find justification in Mrs. Wright’s actions and go about hiding what they find from the men. In the end, their obstruction of evidence will seemingly prevent a conviction. The story ends here, and does not move into the occurrences after they leave the house. ===== In the book, a young girl named Trixie realizes that her classmate Sonja has the same type of "Knuffle Bunny" toy that she does. When the jealous girls begin arguing, their teacher confiscates the stuffed animals, returning them at the end of the school day. At 2:30 AM, Trixie realizes that her teacher has given her Sonja's bunny, and asks her father to call Sonja's house to exchange toys. The two girls immediately become friends. ===== The play revolves around the character of Joe (who is also the narrator), a teenager who has just left school and finds himself employed by Elliot Graham, an agoraphobic billionaire. Joe's task is to act as doorman/caretaker for one of Graham's houses, a palatial property in central London. Graham himself refuses to live in the house and instead resides in a more modest property over the road. Nevertheless, Graham employs a whole team of servants (including Joe's mother—how he got the job) to keep the place spotless even though it has no apparent use. Joe is at first hired to work during the afternoons only but, following the departure of the first caretaker (played by Clive Russell), Joe takes over the whole day and is also allowed to sleep there at night if he so wishes. It becomes apparent very early on that the house is associated with bad memories. None of the staff remains for very long—Joe's mother disappears off to Spain with her new lover, the first caretaker smashes most of the plates before very nearly throwing himself off the roof, and even a homeless person whom Joe invites back for company senses the bad vibes about the place. Joe, it seems, is much more grounded so none of this appears to affect him. Graham appears obsessed with finding out some dark secret concerning his father's wealth (Graham inherited the wealth) and has hired many accountants and historians to research this. He states that he would like to spend his money to do good, but he has to know where it came from first. He even sends Joe onto the Antiques Roadshow with a collection of gold snuffboxes worth nearly a million pounds to see if he can glean any more about their origin from the specialist Geoffrey Munn. This dark secret appears to be tied up in the bad vibes concerning the house. Meanwhile, Joe, on Graham's permission, allows the house to be used by a Richard, a self-centered cabinet minister and friend of Graham's as a place for assignations with his mistress Charlotte. Joe develops a Platonic attraction toward Charlotte, and is perturbed when Richard eventually turns up with a new mistress—though he continues to see Charlotte on occasion as a friend. Eventually, on Joe's suggestion, Graham hires Tina, a woman who works at the local delicatessen (which both Joe and Graham frequent) to go through his paperwork, and she does eventually find the dark secret. However, just as Tina is about to reveal this to Graham and Joe at the house, Graham loses his nerve, saying he does not want to put off hearing the secret but does not want to hear it first in that house. Later, Joe joins Graham on a trip to the country castle (represented by Bodiam Castle) which Graham's father had given him, and there Graham tells Joe what Tina has told him—the first foundations of Graham's father's fortune were in his doing business with German companies and Nazi officials in the 1930s. These dealings were not treasonous, but this nevertheless made Graham's father complicit in some of the earlier actions of the Holocaust, particularly in his non-condemnatory attitude to the abuse of Jews in a Berlin park during that time and his acceptance of the antiques as gifts from his German business partners (who had stolen them from Jews). Having told Joe, Graham attempts suicide, but Joe prevents him. The drama ends with Joe himself moving on, and Graham now using his money for good, and having traced the rightful owners of the antiques. ===== Stan and Kyle are obsessed with the video game Guitar Hero, and attempt to break the game's scoring record in front of their friends. As soon as they break the 100,000 points record on "Carry on Wayward Son", they are contacted by Charles Kincade, a talent agent, who wants to offer them recording contracts. They become Guitar Hero rock star celebrities overnight, enjoying the hedonistic "sex and drugs" lifestyle. The record company organizes a future event where Stan and Kyle will attempt to break a 1 million point record in front of a live audience. Stan is taken aside by his manager and told that Kyle is holding him back, and encourages Stan to dump Kyle in favor of another kid, Thad Jarvis, who can play many Guitar Hero songs "acoustically", having memorized what buttons to press instead of relying on the on-screen cues. Kyle discovers Stan practicing with Thad and angrily breaks up their "band". Kyle goes on to perform at a local bowling alley by its owner for free food and drink, improving as he plays. Stan becomes stressed out over the upcoming event, and tries to seek refuge using a different video game Heroin Hero where the only objective is literally chasing a dragon as the in-game player injects himself with heroin. The game somehow shortens his temper and concentration into getting into a fight with Thad, who subsequently leaves Stan. Stan, still intoxicated with Heroin Hero, is forced to play the event solo, but ends up getting a miserable score and throwing up on stage; after the audience leaves and the game audience "boos" Stan, Kincade angrily admonishes him by saying "You blew it! You had it all and you blew it!" and subsequently leaves him. Stan comes back to the video game store and decides to pick another game to play, but when offered by the game store owner Rehab Hero (which remedies the heroin-like addiction to a former player of Heroin Hero), Stan instead selects a simple driving game. While driving around in-game, Stan hears "Carry on Wayward Son" from the game's soundtrack and remembers the good time he had with Kyle. Stan goes to apologize to Kyle and after a brief spat, the two become friends again, dumping the recording contract. They go back home and go on to break the 1 million point record in front of their friends. To their shock, the game rewards them by telling them, "Congratulations! You Are Fags!". The two become upset that they have worked so hard only to be insulted, and angrily walk out; Cartman and Butters start to play the game, with Butters eagerly requesting that he gets to be the one to betray Cartman "after the sex and drugs party". ===== The film begins with two dynamite fisherman working only to disturb a large saltwater crocodile which attacks, mutilates, and kills them both. Jack McQuade (Peter Tuinstra) runs a crocodile farm in Thailand with the help of his nephew Theo (Scott Hazell) and Jack's sister (and Theo's mother) Allison (Elizabeth Healey). Jack is being constantly harassed by a new neighboring resort owned by the Konsong brothers. They want to get Jack shut down because they have buildings on the land and want to steal the rest. The Konsong brothers set animal welfare, bill collectors, and tax collectors on the farm. As animal welfare investigator Evelyn Namwong (Sherry Phungprasert) refuses to shut down the farm, having found only minor violations, she is fired. After two teenagers are eaten by a crocodile, the Konsongs send goons to break in and release three of the farm's crocodiles. Jack's crocodiles are blamed and he gets orders to shut down until further notice. The beast that killed the teens reappears and eats a young boy near the docks. Its filmed by a tourist nearby and identified as a 20-foot salt water crocodile. Being much much larger and of a different species than Jack's, his farm's name is cleared and he is able to reopen. With the beast continuing to snack on the local population, Jack and Evelyn run into Hawkins (Michael Madsen), a man who has been hunting it for months to get revenge for its many victims. They join forces to find and kill the beast. While they are talking, they hear gunfire and two hunters claiming to have killed the beast which is actually one of Jack's escaped crocs. They quickly rush over, only to see the real beast kill one of the hunters. While they hunt the beast, the Konsongs send someone to kill Allison, who paid his taxes and other bills to help him out. The goon tries to run her down, but misses. He leaves behind his cell phone which links him back to Andy Konsong. Andy heads home to warn his brother that their plot has been uncovered, only to find pieces of him floating in a bloodied pool. The beast was in the pool when he was swimming and killed him. Panicked, Andy calls 911, but then gets sick to his stomach. While he's throwing up in the pool, the beast emerges and kills him. When Evelyn, Jack, Hawkins, and the crocodile farm manager go looking for the beast's pit, Allison and Theo follow in a small boat. The beast appears and snatches Allison from the boat, much to Theo's horror. Jack and the rest of the team continue searching for the pit underwater while Hawkins and Theo go to search on land. They find the pit and, to their relief, Allison, who is unconscious but still alive. She wakes up to find the beast with its jaws right in front of her head, but it leaves when it hears Jack calling for her. It comes up behind Jack, gets a hold of his foot, and drags him underwater. As it's going down, Hawkins and Theo shoot at it, with Hawkins managing to shoot it in the brain. It dies with Jack's foot still firmly clamped in its mouth and him underwater. Stuck too high to get down to help, Hawkins advises Allison to cut off Jack's leg since they can't get the beast's mouth open. Instead, the park manager uses a bang stick to blast open its mouth and Jack gets to keep his leg. ===== The series started with Steve Shepherd, played by Whately, being fired from his job in a local architectural firm for disagreeing with his boss' (Ian McNeice) blueprints for a local amusement arcade. Unemployed and with a daughter, Alice, to care for, Shepherd decides to turn his large home into a B&B; for financial support. Shepherd's former boss, Horace Gilbert, becomes aware after his dismissal that Shepherd's house lies right in the middle of his proposed development site and that the removal of his former employee and his home is needed to go ahead with construction. Meanwhile, Shepherd's B&B; is doing well and one of his guests, Billie Golden, a street busker (played by Katy Murphy), reveals to him that she has no money and cannot pay her bill. In an attempt to help her, Shepherd offers her continued room and board for an unpaid working position at the B&B.; When Gilbert's legitimate attempts to remove Shepherd from his house fail he moves onto Billie, offering her her dream motorbike in return for flooding the B&B; and rendering it uninhabitable. When this backfires, he decides to resort to arson and attempts to burn the property to the ground. However, his secretary finds out what he is planning and realises he has gone too far. She reports him to the police and he is arrested in the act. ===== The opening frames include a parody of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer logo, with Cheburashka replacing the MGM lion. The American part parodies Hollywood action films with exaggerated explosions, car chases, striptease, violent deaths and a cold- blooded corrupt sheriff character based on Marlon Brando. The French segment parodies film noir, mostly Action Man and Any Number Can Win with Jean Gabin. The Italian episode parodies colorful Italian films, in particular Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow and Divorce Italian Style with Marcello Mastroianni, as well as Treasure of San Gennaro. In the final 2-minute Soviet part two robbers (drawn after Saveli Kramarov and Stanislav Chekan) are trying to rob a savings bank, but it is always closed for cleanup or repairs. A militsioner at the end parodies Mikhail Zharov's Aniskin character. After Kramarov immigrated to the US, the segment was cut from the film and restored only in 1988.Dina Goder. Yefim Gamburg's multparodies at Stengazeta, 2 October 2008 (in Russian) ===== The setting of the film is a high fantasy Dark Ages Europe, in which desperate and bloodthirsty warlords fight brutal battles in their eternal quest for overlordship. Yet their swords, shields, lances, spears and arrows are all brittle, prone to wear and tear, and dull, protracting their campaigns against each other without end. Word spreads of a man in one of the Northern tribes: an adept blacksmith capable of crafting far hardier, stronger, sharper, and more durable weapons than any other known to exist, with aid of a mystical element. The warlords search for the enigmatic master of weapons to no avail. A former druid chieftain named Zhadoba, jaded by years of warfare and believing the Radiant Gods have abandoned him, learns of the identity and whereabouts of the blacksmith and his coveted weapons, more valuable than any gold in such a time. With this knowledge, Zhadoba's heart is hardened to mercy and replaced with greed and bloodlust. Bringing even the feared warlord, the Man-Eater, under his spell, Zhadoba massacres an entire people, the Clan of the Grey Hounds, including their blacksmith, and takes his legendary weapons. The only survivor of the tribe, the blacksmith's fair- haired son, witnesses the slaughter and bites at Zhadoba's tattooed hand. Instead of killing the boy, Zhadoba orders the boy to be sent into the savage mines of the Crystal Mountains and to live a life of hard labor there, in conditions which will no doubt kill the boy anyway. Against all odds, the boy cheats death through sheer determination and will, his strength becomes powerful through many years of hard labor, scarred by violence, and his prowess honed by a hunger for revenge. For many years his only companions were disheartened, tortured slaves and a strangely intelligent bat, Ragged Wing, who is destined to become his constant companion. After killing his overseers with weapons created using his father's secret techniques and escaping the mines, he becomes a wanderer known as Wolfhound: a great and fearless warrior, as well as a true master of weapons like his father before him. After making the long journey to the Man-Eater's castle, Wolfhound finally conquers his archenemy. He also frees two prisoners, the sage and healer Tilorn and slave- girl Niilit. Wolfhound accompanies them to their home city of Galirad, which has been thrown into turmoil. The power-crazed forces under Zhadoba are poised to attack the city with their superior weapons at any moment. With enough bloodshed, and the right ritual involving royal blood, Zhadoba believes he can resurrect the ancient Dark Goddess Morana from the Celestial Gates and draw power from her. The King of Galirad, to save the city from destruction, is giving his daughter away in marriage to Vinitar, a young warrior-prince who promises to protect Galirad - and who also happens to be the son of the late warlord, the Man-Eater. Princess Elen must travel to the land of her husband- to-be, and asks Wolfhound to be her guard in this dangerous journey. Wolfhound agrees to serve the princess and is caught up in a whirlwind of mysterious events, as the true purpose of the journey is gradually revealed, a secret which could plunge the world into an eternal living nightmare... ===== Earth's first starship, the Adastra, is approaching Proxima Centauri after a seven-year voyage. The voyage was marred by a mutiny among the crew, and the ship is still divided between a small group of officers who control the Adastra and the remainder of the crew, whom the officers refer to disparagingly as Muts, short for mutineers. A young Mut named Jack Gary has been picking up and studying transmissions from a race native to the Proxima Centauri system. This has earned him the confidence of Captain Bradley, the love of Bradley's daughter Helen, and the hatred of the Adastra's first officer, Commander Alstair, who also has romantic designs upon Helen. Much to Alstair's disgust, Captain Bradley raises Gary to officer status in recognition of his work with the Centaurian transmissions. Shortly after the elderly Bradley's death, Gary discovers that a Centaurian spaceship is approaching the Adastra, and he suspects that their intention is hostile. The Centaurians confirm his suspicions when they fire a radiation beam at the ship. Although the Adastra has not been harmed, Alstair has the ship play dead to fool the Centaurians into thinking they have succeeded in wiping out the crew. The Centaurian ship docks with the Adastra, and a boarding party attacks the crew. The boarding party is defeated, and the Centaurian ship departs. Studying the captured leader of the Centaurian boarding party makes it clear that the Centaurians are mobile, carnivorous plants that feed on animals, and that they look on the crew of the Adastra as a highly valuable food source. Now that the Adastra has entered their system, the Centaurians will be able to trace their course back to Earth. As a fleet of Centaurian ships approaches the Adastra, Gary learns that Earth has launched a second starship for Proxima Centauri. The defenseless Adastra is surrounded by the Centaurian fleet, and boarded. The entire crew is consumed by Centaurians except for Alstair, Jack Gary, Helen Bradley, and half a dozen officers. The Centaurian leader orders all the Adastra's records, equipment, and animals sent on board an automated ship, along with Gary and Bradley. While Alstair and the remaining officers pilot the Adastra to Proxima Centauri I, the Centaurian homeworld, the automated ship will be flown to Proxima Centauri II, an Earthlike world that has long since been stripped of its native animal life and abandoned by the Centaurians. After Gary and Bradley land on Proxima Centauri II and release the animals there, Alstair reaches the Centaurian homeworld. Alstair rigs the Adastra's engines to explode, setting off a chain reaction that will destroy the Centaurian homeworld and exterminate the Centaurians, leaving Gary and Bradley to await the arrival of the next ship from Earth. ===== In the eyes of her classmates, Yvette Chang (Enno) is a rock and roll girl, she has a cat by the name of "Summer", because of a congenital heart condition, she has left school and spends much of her time every day with Summer messing around, playing the guitar, and getting out and about. During the time when she is not in school, every day is filled with discovery, and since the specially gifted and talented class's student Jimmy Chan (Ray Chang), fell in love with a teacher, and met the fate of being expelled from the school, now the streets have one more high school student on the roam. Yvette willingly opens her arms to embrace all of Jimmy's emotions, and comfort him. But Jimmy doesn't quite understand why Yvette, who suffers from cardiac disease, is so full of ambition and warmth for living. Two high school drop-outs are out riding bicycles, when between the rice paddies and the irrigation canals, they find a place free from the control of adults, an undeveloped piece of land near the tracks of the Taiwan High Speed Rail. Under the blue skies, they gather with their classmates from the same school, another gifted and talented student named Wendy(Hannah Lin) and the Japanese exchange student Akira (Dean Fujioka) who loves soccer but is always the last in academic, and together at this secret base they relax, have fun, and fool around. The destiny which has brought the four of them together serves as a powerful force of empathy and encouragement, as they enjoy fun times together, and try to save an embittered suicidal father. Against the backdrop of clear skies, reflecting the visions and secrets lodged in the hearts of four almost grown up children, whether life is normal or exciting, with success or failure, they are always able to enjoy the experience. This demonstrates the ability to make oneself feel joy in living, which is a great gift from above, just like a tail, which you can wag just for fun, when you have time to spare from trying to do something. Actually, we all have a tail, which is also trying to keep us happy. What is the purpose of that tail? Finding your own happiness.Summer's Tail Official Website http://en.summertail.com/contentbypermalink/d773446e3004bf0172b57a3b51252221 ===== During the filming of a death scene of The Death Kiss, leading man Myles Brent is really shot and killed. Tonart Studios manager Joseph Steiner (Lugosi) is assigned to handle the situation. The studio wants to pass it off as a simple accident, but screenwriter Franklyn Drew (Manners) digs a bullet out of a wall and tells Homicide Detective Lieutenant Sheehan that it is a .38 caliber, while the guns used in the film are all .45s. Sheehan finds a letter in the dead man's pocket, in which Brent wrote to his lawyer that Marcia Lane (Ames), his co- star and ex-wife, would not sign a release as beneficiary of his $200,000 life insurance policy. Chalmers, an alcoholic extra with a self-admitted grudge against Brent for getting him fired as head gaffer (electrician), is spotted trying to dispose of a loaded .38, but Drew points out that the gun has not been fired. Drew suggests they view the footage of the fatal scene for clues, but somebody knocks out the projectionist and burns the print using a cigarette with rouge on it. It is a special rouge normally used by only two women. One was away on location, making Lane the prime suspect. Before another print can be made, the negative is destroyed with acid. While snooping around on the set, Drew finds a derringer mounted inside a lamp and electrically wired to be fired remotely, but he is knocked out and the gun taken. He goes to question Chalmers, but finds him dead beside a glass of poison and a written confession. However, Drew finds several clues that make him suspicious. Through more detective work, he discovers that the new battery of Lane's car is dry, and battery fluid is poisonous. Meanwhile, Goldsmith comes to see Lane; she rejects his advances once again. In Brent's dressing room, Drew finds a letter from a love-stricken married woman named "Agnes" and a hotel room key. Later, in Steiner's office, Sheehan takes Lane into custody; Drew spots a photo of a woman on the desk; the inscription reveals that Steiner's wife is named Agnes. When Drew goes to the hotel, he finds out from a bellhop that Brent had been there with a woman; her husband was waiting, and the two men got into a fight. The studio decides to finish the film (only the last, fatal scene needs to be shot), using a double for Brent and arranging for Lane's temporary release. Drew finds out from the prop man that the guns were originally supposed to be .38s, but he made an unauthorized substitution. Drew takes him to Sheehan. Just as he is about to reveal who ordered the guns, the lights go out. (The murderer had overheard the conversation through a studio microphone.) After a gunfight and chase, the killer falls to his death. It is Avery, the director. ===== In January 2009, Stanford University dropout Jerry Shaw learns that his identical twin brother Ethan, an officer in the U.S. Air Force, has been killed. Following the funeral, Jerry is surprised to find in his bank account and his apartment filled with illicit items. He receives a phone call from a woman who warns that the FBI is about to arrest him and he needs to run. Jerry is caught by the FBI and interrogated by Supervising Agent Tom Morgan. While Morgan confers with Air Force OSI Special Agent Zoe Pérez, the woman on the phone arranges for Jerry's escape and directs him to Rachel Holloman, a single mother. The woman on the phone is coercing Rachel by threatening her son Sam, who is aboard the Capitol Limited en route to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. with his school band. The woman on the phone helps the two avoid law enforcement by controlling networked devices, including traffic lights, mobile phones, automated cranes, and even power lines. Meanwhile, the caller redirects a crystalline explosive to a gemcutter, who cuts it and fixes it into a necklace. Another man steals Sam's trumpet in Chicago and fits the crystal's sonic trigger into the tubing before forwarding it to Sam in Washington. Agent Perez is summoned by Secretary of Defense George Callister to be read into Ethan's job at the Pentagon. Ethan monitored the Department of Defense's top-secret intelligence-gathering supercomputer, the Autonomous Reconnaissance Intelligence Integration Analyst (ARIIA; ). Callister leaves Perez with Major William Bowman and ARIIA to investigate Ethan Shaw's death. Simultaneously, Rachel and Jerry learn that the woman on the phone is actually ARIIA, and that she has "activated" them according to the Constitution's authorization to recruit civilians for the national defense. Perez and Bowman find evidence that Ethan Shaw hid in ARIIA's chamber and leave to brief Callister. Afterwards, ARIIA smuggles Jerry and Rachel into her observation theater under the Pentagon. Both groups learn that after ARIIA's recommendation was ignored and a botched operation in Balochistan resulted in the deaths of U.S. citizens, ARIIA concluded that "to prevent more bloodshed, the executive branch must be removed." ARIIA is acting on behalf of "We the People", and cites the Declaration of Independence ("whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it"). Belatedly, Jerry learns he has been brought to circumvent biometric locks placed by his twin that prevent ARIIA from bringing into effect Operation Guillotine, a military simulation of maintaining government after the loss of all presidential successors. Because Secretary Callister agreed with ARIIA's abort recommendation regarding Balochistan, he is to be the designated survivor and new president after the crystal detonates at the State of the Union (SOTU). Another of ARIIA's agents extracts Rachel from the Pentagon and gives her a dress and the explosive necklace to wear to the SOTU. Sam's school band has also been redirected to the United States Capitol to play for the president, bringing the trigger in Sam's trumpet and the explosive together. Jerry is recaptured by Agent Morgan, who has become convinced of Jerry's innocence. Before sacrificing himself to stop an armed MQ-9 Reaper sent by ARIIA, Morgan gives Jerry his weapon and ID with which to gain entrance to the Capitol. Arriving in the House Chamber, Jerry fires the handgun in the air to disrupt the concert before being shot and wounded by the Secret Service. Sometime later, in April 2009, Callister reports that ARIIA has been decommissioned and recommends against building another; the Shaw twins and Agents Perez and Morgan receive awards for their actions; and Jerry attends Sam's birthday party, earning Rachel's gratitude and a kiss. ===== Several years after the events of The Road to Gandolfo, the Hawk has discovered a long-forgotten treaty between the US government and a tribe of Native Americans. This treaty granted the tribe a vast area of land that has since become Omaha, Nebraska, and includes the home of the Strategic Air Command at Offutt Air Base. Posing as a member of the tribe, the Hawk plans to bring suit against the United States and force it to give the land to the tribe. To further this goal, he ropes Devereaux (now retired from the military) into representing the tribe in court. ===== Dr. John Garth (Boris Karloff) is on trial for murder after performing a mercy killing on an elderly friend. In the trial, he reveals that he had been researching a cure for aging, but had not had time to perfect it before his friend's pain became unbearable. Despite his pleas for mercy, the judge sentences him to be hanged in three weeks' time. As he awaits his execution, Dr. Garth is allowed to continue his experiments, thanks to support from the prison warden (Ben Taggart) and another scientist who is interested in his research, Dr. Ralph Howard (Edward Van Sloan). Using the blood of a recently executed prisoner, they succeed in developing a serum that will reverse the effects of aging and they decide to test it on Dr. Garth immediately prior to his execution. As he is being taken away to the gallows, however, the prison receives a call informing them that Dr. Garth's sentence has been commuted to life imprisonment. At the same moment, the serum's effect on his body causes Dr. Garth to collapse. When Dr. Garth awakes in the prison medical ward, he discovers that the serum has reversed some of the effects of aging on his body, including the graying of his hair, the appearance of his face, and his physical fitness. Encouraged, he decides to perform another test of the serum, this time on Dr. Howard. As he is preparing Dr. Howard for injection, however, Dr. Garth is overcome by a sudden urge to kill, induced by the presence of an executed murderer's blood in his system. After he strangles Dr. Howard, a wandering prisoner enters the room who, after a struggle, is also killed by Dr. Garth. When the prison authorities discover Dr. Garth, who doesn't remember committing the murders, and the two bodies, they believe that the wandering prisoner killed Dr. Howard and attempted to kill Dr. Garth. As a result, Garth is labelled a hero and granted a full pardon. He returns home to live with his daughter, Martha (Evelyn Keyes), and continues his research on the anti-aging serum. Wishing to test it further, he confronts three of his aging friends and requests that they be his test subjects. Initially, they refuse, but one of them, Victor Sondini (Pedro de Córdoba), later changes his mind after Dr. Garth pays him a personal visit. Just as he is about to administer the serum, Garth is again overcome by the impulses of the executed prisoner and strangles his friend. Finally beginning to realize what he has been doing, Garth visits one of his other friends, George Wharton (Wright Kramer), to confess his crimes and request that he be his final test subject before he turns himself in. Wharton attempts to call for help, but Garth kills him before he can do so. As the bodies begin to pile up and Dr. Garth's behavior becomes more erratic, Martha begins to suspect that something is up and confronts her father. Garth begs her to leave as he continues to fight the impulses of the murderous blood, but she refuses and he comes at her. She faints and Dr. Garth flees. In the final scene, Dr. Garth, now being pursued by the police, approaches the prison where he had been incarcerated. The warden admits him, but Garth immediately makes aggressive movements toward the armed guard at the gate. The guard shoots him and, as he is dying, the doctor admits that he committed suicide in order to prevent himself from killing anyone else. ===== Two old friends, Matt Morgan (Kirk Douglas) and Craig Belden (Anthony Quinn), now find themselves on opposite sides of the law. Belden, a rich cattle baron, is the de facto ruler of the town of Gun Hill. Morgan is a U.S. Marshal living in another town with his Native American/Indian wife (played by Ziva Rodann) and young son, Petey. Two young drunken cowboys rape and murder Morgan's wife while she is returning with their son from a visit to her father. The boy escapes on one of the killers' horses which bears a distinctive, fancy saddle. Morgan sets off to find the killer. His one clue is the saddle, which he recognizes as belonging to Belden. Assuming it was stolen from his old friend, Morgan travels to the town of Gun Hill to pick up the trail, but once there he quickly realizes that Belden's son Rick (Earl Holliman) is the killer. Belden refuses to turn over his son, forcing Morgan to go against the entire town. Morgan vows to capture Rick and get him on that night's last train from Gun Hill. Morgan takes Rick prisoner, holding him at the hotel. Belden sends men to rescue his son, but Morgan manages to hold them off. In the meantime, Belden's former lover (Carolyn Jones) decides to help Morgan. She sneaks a shotgun to his hotel room. The second rapist, Lee, sets fire to the hotel to flush out Morgan. Morgan presses the shotgun to Rick's chin on the way to the train depot, threatening to pull the trigger if anyone attempts to stop him. Lee tries to kill Morgan but shoots Rick instead. Morgan then kills Lee with the shotgun. As the train prepares to leave, a devastated Belden confronts Morgan in a final showdown and is gunned down. ===== Pella Marsh is the only daughter and eldest child in a family that is leaving behind New York City, in a near-future where the Earth has sustained severe damage from climate change. Before they can leave, Caitlin, Pella's mother, dies of a brain tumour, leaving Clement, her ineffectual father, to try to care for Pella and her brothers, Raymond and David. After twenty months of cryogenic suspended animation, the Marshs reach the Planet of the Archbuilders. This oceanless planet is inhabited by an advanced alien species known only as the Archbuilders, who are hermaphrodites. They built the complex and beautiful arch-like structures that dominate the terrain, terraformed their planet to provide a controlled climate, and used bioengineering to create several varieties of readily grown "potatoes" for a constant food supply. The Archbuilders themselves are furry and scaled creatures, with frond-like tentacles. There are also small, nearly invisible animals called "household deer," which inhabit most every corner of the region without much obvious impact. Despite their apparent lack of high technology, the Archbuilders are skilled communicators, and have twenty thousand indigenous languages on their world. They also rarely give birth, implying considerable longevity. Like the other colonists, Pella is instructed to take acclimatisation pills, ostensibly to ward off indigenous Archbuilder viruses, but, because of her father's new plans for the humans in living with the world, she does not take them—much to the chagrin of the enigmatic resident Efram Nugent. After some time, rather like Ethan Edwards and Debbie in The Searchers (1956), Efram and Pella develop a love/hate relationship as she resists his misanthropic and speciesist attitudes toward both his fellow colonists and the Archbuilders. After she has decided to stop acclimatisation, she discovers that she has a rapport with the Archbuilders, and becomes increasingly influenced by their culture, civilisation and ecology, "going native". Her brother David and fellow child Morris Grant are similarly affected, as is the infant Melissa Richmond-Concorse. The four of them discover that one side-effect of adaptation to their new environment allows them to inhabit the bodies of the household deer temporarily. Ultimately, other colonists either leave the planet (like the Kincaids, after a mistaken child sexual abuse incident); die, like Efram Nugent (shot); or become similarly absorbed by Archbuilder culture. The latter are transformed into semi-nomads who dwell in the ruins of their former houses, as apparent entropy consumes their abortive colony - like Pella, David, Morris, Raymond and Doug. As for the Archbuilders, Truth Renowned dies in the fire that destroys Hugh Merrow's abandoned house and art studio, and Hiding Kneel is injured after Efram imprisons it in a shed. However, their community survives as a cohesive group, belying human perceptions of their alleged weakness and 'decay' of their civilisation and culture. ===== Williams (Tony Martin) is a long-term prisoner when Sonny (Kick Gurry) comes and is assigned to be Williams’ cellmate. Williams decides to take Sonny under his wing, but his help and protection is conditional that Sonny occasionally has nonpenetrative sex with him – masturbation or oral sex. Sonny is repulsed by this. Sonny notices a photo of a boy above Williams’ bunk. Williams says that the boy in the photo is his son, and is probably a grown man by now. Williams has had no contact with his son for many years. In the shower block, Sonny is confronted with the prospect of male rape by another long-term prisoner Jacko (Gary Sweet). Sonny then accepts Williams’ protection. Sonny does his time and then thanks Williams for looking out for him during his prison stay. Williams is assigned a new cellmate, and unbeknownst to him that apparently it is Anthony, his own son... with the prospect that Williams will likewise ‘protect’ him during his prison stay. ===== Marshall and Lily finally become tired of Ted's never-ending presence and his invasion on the married couple's personal space, so they decide to rent a new apartment. In the newspaper they find an apartment in a neighborhood called 'Dowisetrepla', which is explained as part of New York City's tendency to shorten neighborhood names (such as Tribeca and Soho), and is supposedly an up-and-coming neighborhood in the city. The apartment is for sale, rather than for rent, but Marshall convinces Lily to view it with him. Marshall falls in love with the apartment in Dowisetrepla, imagining himself playing drums in a band with his future sons. Lily feels guilty because of the huge credit card debt she hides from Marshall, but still imagines herself painting with two daughters, and eventually ends up saying that she loves it, despite Robin persisting that Lily tell Marshall the truth. Meanwhile, Barney hooks up with a young woman, Meg, and takes her to the apartment in Dowisetrepla so he can sneak out while she is in the shower. The next day, Lily and Marshall apply for a mortgage, and Marshall finds out about Lily's credit card debt. Later, Ted, Barney, and Robin go home, where Ted discovers that Lily and Marshall were having a fight based on "evidence" strewn about the room. Ted incorrectly concludes the fight was over something minor (the peanut butter jar, Lily leaving the jar out after Marshall's repeated insistence to not do so) while believing that Robin's truth about the credit card debt as bogus. To prove his theory, Ted hits re-dial on the apartment phone, expecting the number to be Marshall's cell phone, which Lily would have called to apologize and make up. They instead hear the receptionist of a divorce lawyer, and panic. Robin reveals the truth to Barney and Ted about Lily's debt, and they all begin to consider how their lives will be with Lily and Marshall broken up. Robin insists that Lily will get her while Marshall will get Ted and Barney. Lily and Marshall return and explain that Lily had the idea of divorcing Marshall so he would not be dragged down by her debt. However, Marshall replied by saying, "When I married you, I married all your problems, too." Finally, they exclaim that they bought the apartment. The next day, Lily and Marshall take a taxi to their new home, but as they step out of the cab, they smell an extremely strong stench. The cab driver reveals that the area is near the sewage treatment plant, but the plant is shut down on weekends. They realize that "DoWiSeTrePla" is short for: DOwnWInd of the SEwage TREatment PLAnt and this reveals why the real estate agent wanted the apartment to be viewed on the weekends. ===== Young orphan boy Skeeter (Brandon deWilde) is being raised in a Mississippi swamp cabin by his poor and toothless Uncle Jesse Jackson (Walter Brennan). One night, a mysterious noise is heard. They later discover that the noise was caused by a strange breed of dog (My Lady of the Congo) they do not recognize. Rather than a bark, the dog has a yodel or laugh. The animal has keen senses, and they decide to train her for bird hunting. In time, Skeeter learns that an ad had been placed for a female Basenji which had been lost in their swamp months earlier. Skeeter arranges for a telegram to be sent, and a representative (William Hopper) of the dog's rightful owner appears to take it back. Skeeter is forced to "come of age" and surrender the animal. With the $100 reward money given, he is able to purchase Jesse the false teeth that he needs and put a down payment on a 20 gauge shotgun. ===== The scene is set in an unspecified future, in an apparently sterile and clinical building. There is music coming from every direction; each person, it seems, is listening to music, talking on a phone, using an intercom, or communicating constantly in some other way. Most people seem to be engaged in several of these activities at the same time. A psychologist exits the noisy environment to confront a patient confined to a small safe-room. The psychologist notes that its patient has ripped the radio out of the wall to silence it. The room seems unnaturally quiet to the psychologist, yet the patient seems perfectly at ease, even happy. The patient, Albert Brock, calls himself 'The Murderer', and demonstrates his murderous ability by destroying the psychologist's wrist radio. Questioning reveals that the man had one day been driven mad by the constant expectations of communication inflicted upon him by society- his wife and children could speak with him whenever they wished, wherever they were; any person could call on him, and many did, simply to make use of their communications devices. He gives a striking image of a world in which humans are constantly bombarded by music, advertisement, propaganda and communication. He then describes his revelation; that if he shut off his phone, he could not be bothered by it. When he arrived home on that day, he discovered his wife, frantic at being out of touch with him for so long. This apparently drives home to him their terrible addiction to technology of communication. He begins to destroy things - his phone, his wrist radio, the televisor, any thing that could disrupt the peace he seeks. The man regrets only destroying the Insinkerator, which he used to mangle another piece of equipment. The Insinkerator, a sink drain disposal, he says, was a machine with a good solid purpose which did not disturb him with its functions, did not demand his attention, which only functioned when he asked it to. The man then describes his wonderful state of calm and relaxation, moments of total freedom of all responsibility and worry inflicted upon him by machines. The psychiatrist makes due note of this, prompting him with questions, even seeming to perhaps understand what the man feels. At the end of The Murderer's tale, however, the psychologist steps back into the world of music and talk, quickly relaying information on the man's condition to an aide over another communication device, and re-immerses himself into the glare of technology's power. ===== The story, set in China, begins in a small pastoral town or village, apparently in a time or place where trade and agriculture are still the norm. There is little in the way of modern technology; no electricity, automobile or advanced irrigation. Superstition is also rampant. The town is described as being in a desert area, and within the vicinity of another, called Kwan-Si. The inhabitants of the town the story is set in are prone to describe their town to be in the shape of an orange, defined by the city walls. One day, a messenger comes to the Mandarin, or king, to inform him that the neighboring town has changed the shape of their walls to a pig – such that it would be interpreted by travelers as being about to eat the orange-shaped town. The messenger and the king discuss frantically how this will bring them ill luck – travelers would stay in and trade with the other town, and nature will favor the pig over the orange. Advised by his daughter, who stands behind a silken screen to hide herself, the king decides to have the town walls rebuilt to resemble a club, with which to beat the pig away. All is well in the town for a time, but soon the messenger brings news that Kwan-Si's walls have been reshaped as a bonfire to burn their club. The Mandarin of the first town has the walls changed to a shining lake; Kwan-Si's are changed to Mouth to drink the lake; the Mandarin's changed to a needle to sew the mouth; Kwan-Si's to a sword to break the needle. This goes on for quite some time, driving the cities' inhabitants away from their work at farms or in shops to fruitlessly rebuild the walls and wait for the other's response. Disease and famine are rampant. At last, the voice behind the silk screen, advising the Mandarin, says weakly "In the Name of the gods, send for Kwan-Si!" The two Mandarins, both starved and ailing, agree to stop their feud of superstition. The first Mandarin's daughter shows the men several kites, lying abandoned on the ground. 'What are kites,' she asks, 'without the wind to sustain them and make them beautiful?' Nothing, they agree. 'And what is the sky, without kites upon its face to make it beautiful?' Again, it is Nothing. Thus, she directs that Kwan-Si shall make itself to resemble the Silver Wind, and her town shall be made to resemble a Golden Kite, such that the two should sustain each other and they could live in peace. The kite is representing the wind. ===== Zed (Jack Black) is a hunter and Oh (Michael Cera) is a gatherer. After being informed that Zed ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, the shaman (Bill Hader) and Marlak (Matthew Willig) banish him from the tribe. His hut destroyed after Zed burns the village down by accident, Oh reluctantly joins Zed on his journey to discover all the world has to offer. Along the way, they encounter Cain and Abel (David Cross and Paul Rudd). Cain kills Abel with a boulder in an act of rage and informs Zed and Oh that they must escape with him or else he will be accused of killing Abel. Afterwards, Zed and Oh find that the girls they want to "lay with", Maya (June Diane Raphael) and Eema (Juno Temple), from their former tribe have been captured and are being sold into slavery. They try to buy the girls' freedom, but end up being sold as slaves themselves, as Cain had been looking for a way to rid himself of his murder's witnesses. Whilst in transport, the slave caravan containing Oh, Zed, Maya, Eema and others from their tribe is attacked and overpowered by Sodomites, though Zed and Oh successfully escape and hide in the desert but lose track of the now Sodomite-led slave caravan. Still resolved to free the slaves and knowing the new destination of the caravan, Zed and Oh determinedly journey on and pass by a mountain where they find Abraham (Hank Azaria) about to kill his son Isaac (Christopher Mintz-Plasse). Zed stops them, letting Abraham believe Abraham's Deity sent him to do so. Abraham takes them to his Hebrew village and tells them about the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Zed and Oh head off for Sodom after Abraham decides to circumcise them. As they arrive in Sodom, they are captured. Cain, now a Sodomite soldier, saves them from being sodomized, calling them his "brothers". The two recalled that they were sold by Cain as slaves and Cain apologizes and offers them food. While being given a tour of the city by Cain, Zed and Oh are offered by Cain to become guards. Shortly after they become guards and are patrolling the city they see the princess Inanna (Olivia Wilde), who is fasting because she feels guilty that most of the city is starving. Inanna notices (and is herself inspired by) Zed and has him invited to a party that night, from which she has him surreptitiously pulled aside for clandestine discussion. Inside the palace, Zed sees Maya and Eema serving as slaves, but Oh is forced to follow the very effeminate High Priest around the palace while Zed meets with Princess Inanna, who asks him to enter the Holy of Holies and tell her what it is like, thinking that Zed is the "Chosen One". Inside the temple, Zed encounters Oh, who is hiding from the high priest (Oliver Platt). There, they get into a heated argument and are ratted on by an eavesdropping Cain, then imprisoned for going inside the temple. The two are sentenced to be stoned to death but Zed convinces the Sodomites to have mercy, so they are instead sentenced to hard labor until they die from work. The king then announces that he will be sacrificing his daughter and two virgins (Maya and Eema), who were also ratted out by Cain as "followers of the Chosen One" as a gift to the gods. The growing crowd, already at its breaking point from the famine, reacts negatively as Princess Inanna is already very popular for her regular displays of solidarity with the people, who would be losing an important ally from within the King's Court if she were removed. Zed interrupts the ceremony and Oh instigates a riot with the exclamation "The Chosen One Comes"! Abraham arrives with the Hebrews to help overthrow the King. Oh and Eema lie with each other inside the palace, which not only consummates their relationship, but also means that Eema cannot be sacrificed. They then come out to help Zed subdue the other soldiers, who have already turned on and killed the King, and together Zed and Oh also stop the High Priest from sacrificing Maya. The crowd is ready to proclaim Zed as the Leader being the "Chosen One" but Zed, though initially caught up in the moment, sees the expressions of his sister and best friend, now a couple (a pairing Zed had long hoped for), and belatedly recalls that his love for them and Maya far outstrips his desire of a Savior persona. Instead, Zed lets a personally grateful Inanna rule, and becomes an explorer with Maya (and expresses his sincere and profound gratitude for her companionship). Oh becomes the leader of the village where the whole adventure started. The two say their goodbyes, and head their separate ways. ===== Jock Gray (Donald Crisp) raises his collie Lassie to be an extraordinary sheep dog and companion. When he is beaten to death by robbers after he retires, Lassie keeps vigil over his grave and refuses to let anyone else take ownership of her. However, the law requires that all dogs be leashed and licensed by a legal owner. With no owner to pay her license and her only "home" being the church graveyard, Lassie faces an uncertain future. Her late owner's friend John Traill (Edmund Gwenn), his law student son William (Ross Ford), and the keepers of the graveyard struggle to keep Lassie hidden from the zealous police Sergeant Davie (Reginald Owen) and the town magistrate (Edmund Breon). Matters are brought to a head when they must go to court to plead for the dog's life before the Lord Provost. ===== Lt. Eve Dallas and her assistant, Delia Peabody, are called to a crime scene by Officer Ellen Bowers and Officer Troy Trueheart. A homeless man is killed, and his heart is removed with the skill of a surgeon. Dallas and Peabody both know a serial killer is preying on the city sidewalk sleepers. All of the city's resources, including Eve's billionaire husband Roarke, give her no solid leads, except a free clinic run by a noble and an honest doctor, Dr. Louise Dimatto. Soon though, three are dead, and Eve is running out of time. Unfortunately for Eve, trouble is also coming from within the police force. Officer Ellen Bowers is deranged and obsessed with Eve. She obsessively writes a journal about all the terrible things that she believes Eve has done. One night, going home to her apartment, still obsessing, Bowers is attacked and killed. The blame is quickly placed on Eve, who is stripped of her badge and goes into a deep depression. Only her husband Roarke can bring her back and help her figure out why four people are dead and what the terrible jealousy was that motivated these murders. Category:In Death (novel series) Category:1999 American novels ===== Ninjatown is a peaceful place populated by ninjas. But after a volcanic eruption, Ninjatown gets invaded by enemies led by Mr. Demon, who is bent on destruction. Ninjatown is based on characters created by toy designer, artist and former Electronic Gaming Monthly editor Shawn Smith. Smith is the artist behind the Shawnimals line of toys. Ninjatown is a spin- off of one of his Shawnimal characters, the Wee Ninja. ===== The first half of the novel involves three parallel arcs. In one arc, Zefram Cochrane has just completed the first warp speed voyage, a solo journey to Alpha Centauri and back. His is the first successful manned flight beyond the Sol system. His benefactor and backer, Micah Brack, exploits the warp drive to help humanity burst into the stars and safeguard the future of the race, which he foresees disaster for because of the "Optimum Movement", perfectionists who are trying to perfect Khan Noonien Singh's failed attempt to unify and improve humanity. A second arc covers James Kirk and his crew, just after the successful conference on admitting Coridan into the Federation. Kirk is hauled onto the carpet by a Starfleet admiral demanding that he explain a subspace message showing "dead" Commissioner Nancy Hedford. Kirk discovers that Cochrane was kidnapped from his and Nancy's home at Gamma Canaris. A third arc covers Jean- Luc Picard and his crew, just after dropping off Sarek of Vulcan to another ship for his voyage home from the Legaran home world. A Ferengi ship leads them to a Romulan ship, whose commander is giving Picard what appears to be a section of a Borg ship, but with a Preserver artifact incorporated into it. The Cochrane arc jumps ahead 17 years, from 2061 to 2078, just before a devastating war on Earth and long after Micah Brack's mysterious disappearance. Cochrane risked visiting his home planet, and narrowly escaped the forces of the Optimum Movement whose leader, Adrik Thorsen, wants Cochrane's knowledge about warp fields to create a bomb. The Cochrane arc then jumps further to 2111, when he must flee Alpha Centauri, and begins his voyage into the future when the Companion finds him and takes him to a sanctuary, her home. Kirk and the Enterprise find the hijacked passenger ship that has Cochrane aboard, and cleverly rescue all aboard. However, they are in a battle with Klingon warships under the command of the robotic remnants of Thorsen, and the Enterprise is damaged. Cochrane and the Companion board a shuttlecraft that will take "shelter" inside the event horizon of a black hole, on a course calculated to bring them out again using a short burst of warp drive. However, one Klingon ship follows the shuttlecraft, and Kirk takes the Enterprise in, dispatching the Klingon ship with one torpedo. They cannot, however, now escape and the shuttlecraft is also doomed. Picard's crew study the Preserver artifact, and when Data tries to interface with it, Thorsen's essence emerges from the artifact and takes over Data. Data takes the Enterprise into the black hole where Thorsen saw Cochrane enter it a century before. The two Enterprises, once Data's body is shut off, coordinate to take advantage of gravity waves to save both ships and tractor the shuttlecraft out. By necessity, to emerge in their own times, Kirk's Enterprise must yield the shuttlecraft's mass to Picard's, and so when Picard and the Enterprise-D emerge, they find the shuttlecraft holds Zefram Cochrane and Nancy Hedford/Companion. Both of them die, even as the ship arrives at Gamma Canaris to find the planetoid has long ago disintegrated. Before the ships got too far apart, Picard sent a short signal identifying his ship by name. Kirk writes a letter on paper to the captain of that future Enterprise, to be released after certain events have occurred. Picard is given the letter not long after the Enterprise-D is lost on Veridian III. One of the common ties is Christopher's Landing, the location on the moon Titan where Sean Jeffrey Christopher made humanity's first landing on the moon of Saturn. Cochrane returned there after his successful warp flight; Kirk writes his letter there and Picard is given that letter. Over the course of 300 years... 2061 to 2265 to 2366... the environment of Titan is progressively terraformed to one where Picard is able to stroll outdoors. The events of the story were non-canonical, and conflict with what was established about Zefram Cochrane, his first warp flight, and first contact with the Vulcans, in the 1996 film Star Trek: First Contact. ===== The story concerns two siblings, Sohail and Nasima Wahid, who have been brought up in Bradford, West Yorkshire, a city with a large British Pakistani population. Both are now students, Sohail studying law in London and Nasima studying medicine in Leeds. With new government anti-terrorism legislation being used against Muslims in the UK in the wake of the September 11 attacks in New York, Sohail and Nasima are drawn in radically different directions. Without telling any of his family or friends, Sohail becomes a member of MI5, while continuing his studies, in the belief that he hopes to help to stop terrorists before the situation deteriorates further. In doing so, he learns that some of his neighbours and childhood friends are politically militant. Nasima is trying to integrate into British society, attending medical school and even dates a black British man. When her family finds out they send her back to Pakistan for a forced arranged marriage. Her boyfriend follows her, where he is beaten severely and imprisoned by her extended Pakistani family and is only saved by Sohail's intervention. She had already planned to meet the head of a terrorist training camp, and these events lead her to make her decision. She leaves behind her personal belongings and the terrorist group fake her death using a local female. This means she no longer exists and gives her the perfect opportunity not to change her mind and carry out her intentions of a mass suicide bombing. Part one of the story is told from Sohail's point of view, while part two is from Nasima's point of view. The serial was filmed in London, Bradford, Leeds and Hyderabad, India, not Rawalpindi though part of the story is set there, especially in Part II. The DVD was released in the UK on 5 November 2007. ===== The unnamed narrator, a British agent, is told to leak to the Chinese information about the effectiveness of nuclear weapons, in order to bolster their deterrent effect. M Datt, posing as a psychologist, believes he is working for the Chinese by accumulating compromising film of the sexual activities of various influential people. However, in fact the Chinese have no interest in these films. The narrator does a deal with the French security services to bring together the Chinese agent Kuang with the American nuclear scientist Hudson in a farmhouse in northern France, so that the information can be communicated. He then escorts Kuang to a pirate radio station ship moored in international waters off Ostend and returns to the harbour, where Datt, trying to flee, is shot by a Belgian paratrooper. A sub- plot concerns Datt's illegitimate daughter Maria, who had been married to the French policeman Loiseau and had also fallen for the narrator. She protects the narrator when he is given a truth drug by Datt, and then drives an ambulance containing the films to Ostend. Despite having caused her father Datt's death, at the narrator's suggestion she is let go. ===== Episode 1 — In the first hour- long episode, Jesus's arrival in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday causes a stir among the Jews. The Romans are having to deal with a small rebellion and the High Priest wants to be rid of Jesus, since he is causing a disturbance and challenging his authority. Episode 2 — In the second half-hour episode, the High Priest Caiaphas calls a council to determine how Jesus should be dealt with after he is overheard mocking the Temple, and his fate is sealed. Episode 3 — The third hour-long episode, relates the events from the Last Supper to the Crucifixion of Jesus. Episode 4 — The final half-hour episode, features the Resurrection of Jesus, the sightings of him by Mary Magdalene and others, and his departure from the disciples after impressing upon Peter the importance of spreading his word. Caiaphus' wife gives birth to a son, and Pilate and his wife return to Caesarea. ===== Peter Petrelli and Adam Monroe break into the Primatech compound in Odessa to destroy the Shanti virus, a life-threatening disease that prevents evolved humans from using their abilities, ultimately ending in their death. Peter uses his powers to force the vault open, and is confronted by Hiro Nakamura, Nathan Petrelli and Matt Parkman. Nathan convinces Peter that Adam is trying to release the virus, not destroy it. Adam lets the virus fall just before Hiro teleports them both away. Peter manages to telekinetically grab the virus and vaporize it in his hands. After Monica Dawson is captured by a street gang, Micah Sanders turns to his mother Niki. Although Niki's powers are decreasing due to the virus, she agrees to help. They find Monica tied up in a burning abandoned warehouse. Using what remains of her superhuman strength, Niki helps Monica escape, but her strength fails and she ends up trapped inside the building as it explodes. Bob Bishop tells Noah Bennet that his daughter Claire Bennet is trying to expose The Company and that they will have to take drastic measures. Noah goes home and tells Claire not to expose The Company, informing her that he will work for them and in exchange his family will be left alone to lead normal lives. While searching her father Bob's office, Elle Bishop discovers a video surveillance feed showing Sylar in Mohinder Suresh's lab. Sylar forces Mohinder to restore his powers. Maya Herrera learns that her brother was killed by Sylar. When confronted he shoots her in the chest. Sylar has Mohinder test Claire's restorative blood by reviving Maya. As she returns to life, Elle enters the laboratory and attacks Sylar. He escapes, but takes the blood with him. Nathan calls a press meeting after deciding to expose the nature of the heroes and The Company. As he is about to announce his ability to fly, he is shot in the chest by an unknown assailant. Angela Petrelli watches a television news report about her son's attack as she speaks to an unidentified person on the phone. She calmly and firmly states that she understands the reason for the attack on Nathan, but that the assassination attempt has "opened Pandora's box". Following the end of Volume Two a brief prologue of Volume Three plays. Sylar, bloodied and hurt from Elle's attack, injects himself with the supply of Claire's blood that he took from Mohinder. His wounds heal immediately, and he is able to use his telekinetic abilities. The scene ends with Sylar saying, "I'm back". ===== Venus Capriccio is about Takami and Akira who are childhood friends who attends the same piano classes. Compared to the rough and boyish Takami, Akira is more feminine and cute and is also more skilled in piano. Takami also thinks of Akira as a younger sister, but one day Akira suddenly kisses Takami, and says he likes her…?! ===== Set in the early 1840s in the fictional village of Cranford in the county of Cheshire in North West England, the story focuses primarily on the town's single and widowed middle class female inhabitants who are comfortable with their traditional way of life and place great store in propriety and maintaining an appearance of gentility. Among them are the spinster Jenkyns sisters, Matty and Deborah; their houseguest from Manchester, Mary Smith; Octavia Pole, the town's leading gossip; the Tomkinson sisters, Augusta and Caroline; Mrs Forrester, who treats her beloved cow Bessie as she would a daughter; Mrs Rose, the housekeeper for Dr Harrison; Jessie Brown, who rejects Major Gordon's marriage proposal twice despite her feelings for him; Laurentia Galindo, a milliner who strongly believes men and women are on equal footing; the Honourable Mrs Jamieson, a snob who dresses her dog in ensembles to match her own; Sophy Hutton, the vicar's eldest daughter and surrogate mother to her three younger siblings, who is courted by Dr Harrison; and the aristocratic Lady Ludlow, who lives in splendour at Hanbury Court and perceives change as a peril to the natural order of things. The principal male characters are new arrival Dr Frank Harrison, who is smitten with Sophy but unwittingly becomes the romantic target of both Mrs Rose and Caroline Tomkinson, who frequently feigns illness to hold his attention; Dr Morgan, an old-fashioned practitioner who finds himself challenged by the modern ideas of his young partner; Captain Brown, a military man whose common sense earns him a place of authority among the women; Edmund Carter, Lady Ludlow's land agent, a reformer who strongly advocates free education for the working class; Harry Gregson, the ambitious ten-year-old son of an impoverished poacher, who as Mr. Carter's protégé learns to read and write; farmer Thomas Holbrook, Matty Jenkyns' one-time suitor, who was considered unsuitable by her family but is anxious to renew his relationship with her; Reverend Hutton, a widower with four children whose religious conviction is sometimes at odds with his instincts as a father; and Sir Charles Maulver, the local magistrate and director of the railway company. ===== Nick Stefanos is a marketing executive for electrical goods chain Nutty Nathan's. When a stock boy from the company disappears he is convinced to locate the boy by his grandfather. ===== Max Herschel, the married, wealthy, vulgar, egotistical, middle-aged head of a corporate empire, is satisfied with the somewhat casual love/hate relationship he shares with his mistress and protegee, television producer "Bones" Burton, just as it is, but she wants a more serious commitment. The young woman attempts to extricate herself from the affair—or perhaps force her lover into taking the next, more permanent step—by dating a younger man, off-off-Broadway playwright Steven Routledge. Max, however, is not a man to accept defeat in any of his endeavors, and he retaliates with a vengeance. The two engage in an escalating battle of wits, with Max discovering money can't resolve everything when he is outsmarted by business rival Seymour Berger and his grandson Mike. It leads to a comic fight between Max and Bones at New York's Bergdorf Goodman. ===== The story is about four friends—Mel, Teresa (Terri), Laura, and Nick. The setting is Mel's house, around a table with a bucket of ice in the middle. A bottle of gin is inside it. They soon start to talk about love (as the title suggests). Terri has had an abusive relationship; the abuse, she says, derives from love. Ed, Terri's former abusive boyfriend, "loved her so much he tried to kill her." Ed would beat Terri; he dragged her around the living room by her ankles knocking her into things along the way. Terri believed that Ed loved her and his abuse was his way of showing it. No matter what Terri said, Mel refused to believe that was "love". Ed also stalked Mel and Terri and called Mel at work with threatening messages. At one point, Mel was so scared he bought a gun and made out a will. Mel even wrote to his brother in California, saying that "if something happened to him" to look for Ed. Terri's abusive boyfriend eventually committed suicide after two attempts (as Terri sees it, another act of love). Ed's first attempt at suicide was when Terri had left him. Ed had drunk rat poison, but was rushed to the hospital where he was saved. In Ed's second, successful attempt he shot himself in the mouth. Someone heard the shot from Ed's room and called the manager. Terri and Mel argued about whether she could be in the hospital bedroom with him when he died. Terri won and was with Ed as he died; as Terri put it, "He never came up out of it." Soon afterward, Mel begins a story about an elderly couple struck by a drunk driver, a teenager who was pronounced dead at the scene. The couple survived the car accident because they were wearing seat belts. Mel was called into the hospital that night just as he sat down to dinner. Once he arrived, he saw how badly the elderly couple had been injured. He said that they had "multiple fractures, internal injuries, hemorrhaging, contusions, and lacerations."Ann Charters, The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction. The couple were in casts and bandages from head to toe. Mel's point in telling the story was the husband's consternation when the couple was moved into the intensive care unit. Mel would visit the couple daily, and when he put his ear to the husband's mouth-hole, the latter told Mel he was upset because he could not see his wife through his eye-holes. Mel would stray from the topic with more talk about Ed, his personal thoughts about love, hatred toward his ex- wife, and life as a knight. Mel felt even though one loves a person, if something were to happen to them, the survivor would grieve but love again. After finishing the second bottle of gin, the couples discuss going to dinner, but no one makes any moves to proceed with their plans. ===== The film focuses on young Rin Sakurazawa, who, after having trained at the Shaolin Temple for 3000 days, returns to Japan to find her former dojo abandoned, and her former Shaolin master a cook at a local restaurant. Soon she is introduced to the fictional Seikan International University's Lacrosse Team. Meanwhile, the president of Seikan University, Yuichiro Oba, seems to be following a sinister objective. ===== Ivan Zhilin, posing as a writer working on a novel, visits a seaside resort city to investigate a series of mysterious deaths. Zhilin's role as an undercover agent becomes apparent to the reader only gradually and is not brought into the open until the final chapters of the novel. While being given a tour of the city, a tourism official tells Zhilin that he will get no work done, as he will be distracted by the "twelve circles of paradise" found in the city. These include the Fishers, which provide thrill seekers with situations of extreme and potentially fatal terror, the Shivers, which electronically induce pleasurable dreams to large crowds of people, and the Society of Patrons of Arts, who procure priceless works of art and ritualistically destroy them. The culture of this city has become utterly decadent, the product of an age of universal affluence. Zhilin refers to the present state of the world as "the age of the boob" where the highest priority is placed on orgiastic pleasure and staving off boredom, to the neglect of culture, education and scientific progress. The authors express the Marxist perspective in the scene of an argument between Zhilin and a third-world revolutionary: The ultimate expression of the decadence of Earth culture is the mysterious "slug", which is apparently responsible for the deaths that Zhilin is investigating. At first Zhilin believes it to be some sort of narcotic, distributed by gangsters with secret laboratories and trafficking networks. Zhilin progressively finds clues that lead him to Peck Xenai, his former classmate and the last surviving member of his international unit that fought the Fascists some years before. Peck, however, is physically ravaged by alcoholism and the use of "slug" and does not even recognize Zhilin when he finds him. Zhilin succeeds in getting a "slug" from Peck, in the form of a small silver electronic component. What Zhilin finds when he plugs the "slug" into his radio receiver and lies in the bathtub causes him to rethink the entire situation. "Slug" turns out to be a way of generating an artificial reality significantly more intense than normal reality, to the point where there is virtually no comparison between our reality and that of the "slug". People become addicted to it and spend increasing amounts of time unconscious in their bathtubs until it kills them by nervous exhaustion or brain hemorrhages. This is "the final circle of paradise". It also turns out that the "slug" is not the work of gangsters or a secret laboratory, but is a common electronic component being used in a novel way. If "slug" were to become widely known, Zhilin concludes, nothing would stop it from being used by millions the world over. Zhilin, himself struggling not to use it a second time, concludes that "slug" represents "the end of progress". He foresees humanity as a whole entering this illusory reality, which will eventually destroy mankind. At the end of Space Apprentice, Zhilin began to devote his life to making the solar system a better place for young people struggling to find purpose in the world. At the end of this story, he leaves his work with the World Council to fight "the last war – the most bloodless and most difficult for its soldiers" (p. 170) – that of making life worth living for the millions caught unprepared in an age of affluence, so that they will never need anything like "slug". However, even as Zhilin is saying this, at the end of the novel it is left ambiguous whether he thinks he will be able to resist using the "slug" again. ===== Meet the Libner brothers: Marvin (Daniel Stern), the oldest, is a sergeant in the U.S. Air Force. Buddy (Arye Gross), the middle child, is a timid dreamer. Bobby (Patrick Dempsey), the youngest, is a handsome rebel in reform school. As kids, they fought a lot and as adults, they barely speak to each other. In the summer of 1963, their tough and eccentric father, Fred (Alan Arkin), gives them a task: to bring a 1954 Cadillac, bought for their mother, Betty (Rita Taggart), from Detroit to Miami. As the trip goes on, the three brothers fight and begin to reconnect with each other while trying to keep the Caddy in mint condition. ===== A farm youth goes to college, pursues the pretty co-eds and joins a fraternity. ===== Luke (Harold Lloyd) works in a shoe store, but has difficulty focusing on work when a pretty girl is near. ===== Nick Stefanos is a bartender at a neighborhood place called "The Spot". His high-school friend Billy Goodrich asks him to search for his missing wife. ===== Valentine "Snakeskin" Xavier is a guitar-playing drifter who earns his nickname from his jacket. He flees New Orleans to a small town in order to avoid imprisonment. On his 30th birthday he decides to change his drifting "party boy" life. He finds work in a small-town mercantile store operated by an embittered older woman known as Lady Torrance, whose vicious husband Jabe lies ill in their apartment above the store. An undercurrent of violence, past and present, dominates the town. Both the frequently drunk libertine Carol Cutrere and simple housewife Vee Talbott set their sights on the newcomer, but Snakeskin is attracted to Lady, who has grand plans to open a beautifully decorated "ladies confectionery" wing to the run down store. Sheriff Talbott, a friend of Jabe as well as Vee's husband, threatens to kill Snakeskin if he remains in town, but he chooses to stay when he discovers Lady is pregnant. It sparks Jabe's final acts of resentment, leading to tragic consequences. ===== At the end of the 1920s the Finnish government proclaimed dry law which lasted 12 years. Estonian bootleggers living on the neighboring coast of the Gulf of Finland profited from prohibition which staggered Finnish economy. In the fishermen's fictional village called Ropsi accedes a new honest chief of the border guard station, lieutenant Aleksander Kattai (role cast by Jaan Tätte) who wants to "lay down the law and order". At the same time the most famous of the village's spirit-smugglers, Eerik Ekström (Erik Ruus) drives over the Gulf of Finland with his queuely firewater-cargo. He has spirit cans in his boat and also behind it in the sequential position (spirit smugglers call it "spirit- torpedo") Lieutenant Kattai sees on those days Hilda Sibul, the Ekström's fiancée. This role performs by an actress Epp Eespäev. They fall in love, but their good relationship does not last long. In this point start the thrilling escapes and catchings, the plot's sting of the tails. Lieutenant Kattai finds out the very high governmental circles are involved to "the Ropsi firewater- smuggling case". An Estonian minister Tui (Lembit Ulfsak) and a high-rank officer of the Estonian Navy papa Nymann (Ain Lutsepp) profit the contrabandism and want to bull through dry law also in the Estonian parliament. Minister Tui agitates for dry law using extremely hypocritical methods (indications to the temperance movement). Lieutenant Kattai's background is interesting, so he opens himself: "I am lieutenant Kattai, a former soldier of armoured train unit number two. After the war I remained with the border of guard. Until now I was at the southern border, near Pihkva. There was firing every day, Russian salesmen and smugglers, red agents." Those facts indicate to the Estonian War of Independence. ===== Lonesome Luke (Harold Lloyd) tries to sell books to a businessman and his wife. ===== The film centers on the rivalry between two faculty members at St. Charles, an exclusive Catholic boarding school for boys. Joe Dobbs is an easy- going, well-liked English teacher, while Latin and Greek instructor Jerome Malley is feared and hated by his students. Malley is caring for his dying mother, and his stress is exacerbated by a series of threatening phone calls and written notes he receives. He's certain Dobbs is the source, but his caustic personality prevents him from winning any sympathy or support. Into the fray comes Paul Reis, a former student who has been hired to teach physical education, and he soon finds his loyalty torn between Dobbs and Malley, as he becomes increasingly aware of the latter's personal torments. Compounding his situation is the realization that the unbridled violence practiced by the students may be the result of demonic possession. ===== During the Great Depression, a man (Warner Baxter) is thrown out of a speeding car. When he regains consciousness in a hospital, he has amnesia. He is visited by a man who accuses him of faking his condition. The stranger calls the patient Phil and demands to know what happened to a valise, then runs away when Phil summons a nurse for help. When the man recovers, he takes the name Robert Ordway, after a hospital benefactor. Ordway's doctor, John Carey (Ray Collins), wants to continue treating him and offers lodging in his house. All attempts to discover his identity fail, so Ordway decides to learn all he can about his condition. After ten years, he has become a successful psychiatrist, in partnership with Carey. Ordway begins treating prison inmates. He is so successful, he is named head of the state parole board. While on a date in a nightclub with social worker Grace Fielding (Margaret Lindsay), he is recognized by two men from his past: Joe Dylan (Harold Huber) and Nick Ferris (Don Costello). They and a third man, Emilio Caspari (John Litel), are unsure if he is their partner in crime. They convince convict Pearl Adams (an uncredited Dorothy Tree), their associate's ex-girlfriend, to apply for parole. At her hearing, she calls Ordway "Dr. Morgan". Ordway badgers her until she reveals that he is Phil Morgan, the mastermind of a $200,000 payroll robbery from which the money was never recovered. To trigger his memory, he contacts the three men and reenacts the events of the day he lost his memory. Tempers flare and the men fight. During the struggle, Ordway is struck on the head and remembers his past. He also acquires the gun. He calls the police and has the gang arrested. Insisting on being tried for the robbery, Morgan admits his wrongdoing, but takes pride in his accomplishments since. The jury finds him guilty, but recommends clemency. The judge sentences him to the minimum term of ten years, then suspends the sentence, saying, "We need men like you." ===== Forrest Gump, named after General Nathan Bedford Forrest, narrates the story of his life. The author uses misspellings and grammatical errors to indicate his Southern accent, education, and cognitive disabilities. While living in Mobile, Alabama, Forrest meets Jenny Curran in first grade and walks her home. They then became the best of friends. By the time Forrest is sixteen years old, he is 6' 6" (1.98 m), 242 pounds (110 kg), and plays high school football. Miss Henderson, with whom Forrest is infatuated, gives him reading lessons. He reads Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and two other books that he does not remember. While he enjoys the books, he does not do well on tests. He gains popularity as a football player, making the All State team. When Forrest is called to the principal's office, he meets Bear Bryant, who asks if he'd considered playing college football. After high school, Forrest takes a test at a local army recruitment center, and is told he is "Temporarily Deferred." Forrest and Jenny meet again in college. They go to see Bonnie and Clyde, and play together in a folk music band at the Student Union, covering songs by Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, and Peter, Paul and Mary. Forrest flunks out of the University of Alabama after one semester. He and his friend Bubba join the Army, but Bubba dies in the Vietnam War. He meets Lieutenant Dan, who has lost his legs, in the infirmary. He also plays in a ping-pong championship in China. He then works for NASA as an astronaut with a major and an orangutan, after he gets in trouble for participating in an anti-war protest in Washington. Forrest also has brief careers as a chess champion, a stunt man with a naked Raquel Welch in Hollywood, and as a professional wrestler called "The Dunce". There comes a point where Forrest finds a Vietnamese man during his time in Vietnam and figures out that he can breed shrimp in a simple pond or lagoon. All he needs to do is gather shrimp and put them in a mass of water, throw feed into a pond and let nature take its course. He eventually ends up with a shrimp business with a name honoring Bubba. He gives away the company to Bubba's family and workers and decides to go his own way, frustrated with the complications it added to his once simple life. At the end of the book, Forrest ends up with Dan and a male orangutan named "Sue" living life by being a one-man band, begging for change, while sleeping on a green bench. ===== María Isabel (Adela Noriega), is a beautiful, kind-hearted young woman of indigenous descent, faced with the responsibility of raising Rosa Isela, the orphaned daughter of her only true friend who has died. She finds employment at the home of Ricardo Mendiola, a wealthy widower, and his young daughter, Gloria. Ricardo’s kindness and decency cause Maria Isabel to fall in love with him, though she keeps it a secret for many years. Gloria, however, influences Rosa Isela to feel ashamed of her "Indian" mother; the ungrateful child abandons Maria Isabel to live with her wealthy grandfather, without even a word of thanks. At last Ricardo, realizing that he is in love with her, asks Maria Isabel to be his wife. But their bliss is short-lived, and the couple will have many challenges ahead before they can find the happiness they have struggled all their lives to achieve. ===== Professor Minott is a mathematician at Robinson College in Fredericksburg, Virginia who has determined that an apocalyptic cataclysm is fast approaching that could destroy the entire universe. The cataclysm manifests itself on June 5, 1935 (one year in the future of the story's original publication) when sections of the Earth's surface begin changing places with their counterparts in alternate timelines. A Roman legion from a timeline where the Roman Empire never fell appears on the outskirts of St. Louis, Missouri. Viking longships from a timeline where the Vikings settled North America raid a seaport in Massachusetts. A traveling salesman from Louisville, Kentucky, whose van bears a commercial logo including Uncle Sam with the Stars and Stripes, finds himself in trouble with the law when he travels into an area where the South won the American Civil War. A ferry approaching San Francisco finds the flag of Tsarist Russia flying from a grim fortress dominating the city. When a forest of sequoias appears north of Fredericksburg, Professor Minott leads an expedition of seven students from Robinson College to explore it. They reach the Potomac River, and find on its banks a Chinese village surrounded by rice paddies. At this point, Minott reveals the true situation to the students: he knew in advance that the timeline exchanges were going to take place, and he intends to lead the students to a timeline where he can use his scientific knowledge to gain wealth and power. The party returns to Fredericksburg, which in their absence has been replaced by wilderness, and Minott informs the students that they cannot return to their original timeline. That night, an airplane from their own timeline makes a crash landing near Minott's party. Before the pilot dies, they learn from him that Washington, D.C. from their timeline was still in place. A student named Blake wants to make for Washington, but Minott refuses. The forest catches fire from the burning airplane, and the party flees to a Roman villa. They are captured by the villa's owner, except for Blake, who escapes. Later that night Blake secretly returns to the villa and frees the others from the slave pen, shooting the owner in the process. The next morning, the party finds itself near a section of their own timeline. Blake leads the other students there, but Minott refuses to come; he still intends to travel to a more primitive timeline and make himself its ruler. One of the women in the party joins him, while the rest of the students return to their timeline. The students are able to contact the rest of the world and inform them of Minott's deductions about the event. Within two weeks, the timeline exchanges trail off, leaving bits and pieces of other timelines embedded in our own. ===== The story follows Kunai Komori, a junior high school student who is also a ninja. Upon his father's retirement and his inheritance of his father's sword, he is charged with hunting down other blood-sucking vampire ninja. ===== "A New England Nun" is the story of Louisa Ellis, a woman who has lived alone for many years. Louisa is set in her ways, she likes to keep her house meticulously clean, wear multiple aprons, and eat from her nicest china every day. She has an old dog named Caesar who she feels must be kept chained up because he bit a neighbor 14 years ago as a puppy. Louisa promised Joe Dagget 14 years ago that she would marry him when he returned from his fortune-hunting adventures in Australia, and now that he has returned it is time for her to fulfill her promise. When Joe arrives, however, it becomes obvious that Louisa sees him as a disruption of the life that she has made for herself. When Joe arrives on one of his twice weekly visits, Louisa attempts to have a conversation with him, but is distracted when he tracks dirt on the floor, re-arranges her books, and accidentally knocks things over. The two have a cool and slightly awkward conversation when Louisa inquires after Joe's mother's health and Joe blushes and tells Louisa that Lily Dyer has been taking care of her. Clearly, she is only planning on marrying Joe because she promised that she would, since it would mean that Louisa would have to give up the life that she has made for herself. Three weeks later, a week before the wedding, as Louisa is enjoying a moonlit stroll, she happens to overhear a conversation between Joe and Lily. Through this conversation, Louisa learns that Joe and Lily have developed feelings for each other in the short time that Joe has been back, and that Joe is in love with Lily but refuses to break his promise to Louisa. Lily supports Joe's decision, and though Joe encourages her to find someone else, Lily says, "I'll never marry any other man as long as I live." The next day, when Joe comes to visit, Louisa releases Joe from his promise without letting him know that she is aware of his relationship with Lily. Joe and Louisa then part tenderly, and Louisa is left alone to maintain her present lifestyle. The last line of the story is: "Louisa sat, prayerfully numbering her days, like an uncloistered nun." ===== The film originates from the great river story Taebaegsanmaek consisting of 10 volumes and is written by Cho Jeongrae. The story tries to describe and reveal a few generations-lasting conflicts between the haves (proprietors) and have-nots (peasants), which develop into right wings and left wings respectively. While revealing why and how the conflicts come about, the story depicts every corner of real life—romantic, shamanic, and Confucian aspects of the contemporaries. It provides a further insight into the politically controversial ideological issue on which the viewpoint is virtually hardened among over 40's in South Korea. This ideological issue survives even in the digital age to have a substantial effect on presidential elections. The author dares to show what the ideological conflict derives from and tries to describe it in detail and with artistic skill of commanding Korean colloquial language supplying its readers the true taste of Korean dialect expressions especially in its southern part Jeolla province. =====