From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ===== Two families separated by deep hatred... A feud that rose a century ago. A vendetta that has lasted a century. Now, an unlawful daughter born twenty years ago from a forbidden love, returns in the midst of the incessant quarrel that has spilled much family blood on both sides. The news fall like a bomb in the village. ===== Hannah Montana impatiently waits at the recording studios to start work with her father Robby Stewart. She finally barges in on an occupied studio room and is surprised to find the Jonas Brothers at work. The band and Hannah meet each other, both mutually starstruck. But when Robby introduces himself, the Jonas Brothers instantly recognize him as "Robbie Ray," Hannah's song-writing father. The boys soon appear to be more interested in speaking with Robby than with Hannah. Over the next several days, Robby develops a friendship with the Jonas Brothers and even writes a song for them. ("We Got the Party") Miley becomes jealous and suspects that Robby will enjoy writing for them more than he does writing for Hannah. She and Lilly devise a plan to make the Jonas Brothers lose respect for Robby as a songwriter. Miley and Lilly dress up as male rockers "Milo" and "Otis," go back to the recording studios, and play their own version of "We Got the Party" in front of the Jonas Brothers. When the brothers claim that Robbie Ray wrote the song for them, Milo (Miley) tells them that he and Otis (Lily) in fact wrote the song and that Robbie Ray stole it from them. The Jonas Brothers apologize and let Milo and Otis have the song, but just then Robby arrives. Miley and Lilly quickly hide and Robby straightens things out with the Jonas Brothers. Miley later calls the Jonas Brothers (as Hannah) and tells them that she hired Milo and Otis as a prank. Robby assures Miley that he still loves writing songs for Hannah, and that he had a vision about having her collaborate with the Jonas Brothers on a future recording. Later at an evening beach concert, Hannah and the Jonas Brothers perform "We Got the Party" together. Later Robby and Miley stalk through the recording studios with marshmallow guns looking for the Jonas Brothers. Assuming they are in the studio room, they again barge in, only to find a gospel choir in the middle of recording "When the Saints Go Marching In." As Robby and Miley sheepishly leave the room, they come out and wondered why they weren't there, because they promised they would be. Then, Joe emerges from around the corner and says, "And we always keep our promises!" The other brothers emerge and Miley says, "Duck and cover daddy, it's Return of the Jonai!" before they start their marshmallow war. Meanwhile Jackson attempts to break the world record of hopping on a pogo stick for 20 hours and 42 minutes. A sporting goods company offers a $5,000 reward to anyone to break the record on their new pogo stick, the Nackamora Extreme. Jackson is forced to share half of his potential earnings with Rico after needing help getting into the bathroom while on the pogo stick. Rico also times Jackson on a stop watch, but fails to tell him when he breaks the record because he wants to see how long he can go. When Jackson finally collapses from exhaustion, he thinks he has failed just minutes short of breaking the record. He is furious with Rico after learning that he hopped four hours beyond the record. He tries to catch Rico, but his legs are too tired out. ===== An atheist merchant/trader, John Garth, is the only human on an alien planet where the native Weskers, intelligent but painstakingly literal-minded amphibians, live in what seem to be utopian conditions. These Weskers have no concepts whatsoever of gods, nor religion, nor sin. Garth has been gradually teaching them the scientific method. One day Garth is surprised by the arrival of Father Mark, a missionary who is intent on proselytizing to the natives. Despite Garth's best efforts to dissuade him, even at gunpoint, the missionary is intent on "saving souls". Weeks pass, and Father Mark has been instructing the Weskers in catechism in their newly constructed church, and he has recently finished teaching the Weskers about the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ. Soon afterwards, Itin, the ostensible leader of the Weskers, approaches Garth about the problem of reconciling the empirical truth of the scientific method with the symbolic truth of revealed religion and asks him to come to the church to debate Father Mark. Once at the church, Garth, who had previously made preparations to leave the planet, sees the Bible open to an illustration and orders the missionary to come with him. Not understanding what's wrong, Father Mark refuses; but before Garth can explain, several natives seize the priest and drag him to a hill, upon which is planted a cross. In accordance with what Garth taught them about the scientific method, they are experimentally testing the hypothesis that if they crucify the missionary in accordance with what he taught them about the Gospels, he will miraculously rise from the dead three days later and thereby redeem them. Three days later, after Father Mark has been buried and the hypothesis disproved, Itin asks Garth what went wrong and arrives at a simple truth: that the Weskers are now murderers. ===== Marco is the only heir to the wealthy Polo family of Venice. Unsupervised, he freely roams the streets and canals of the city getting in trouble. When he is falsely accused of murdering the husband of his lover, he is exiled from Venice and travels east with his father and uncle to the court of Kublai Khan, Mongol emperor of the orient. Marco remains in the empire for nearly twenty years and returns home as a wealthy man. His adventures become legendary. ===== Major League Baseball manager Sparky Smith is fired from his job with the Seattle Mariners. His attitude has gotten him into trouble with George, the owner of the Mariners, and no other teams seem to want any part of him. The Olympic Games are coming up, however, and a spirit of glasnost exists in the post-Soviet Russia, which is trying to field its first Olympic baseball team. Sparky reluctantly accepts an offer to move to Moscow to coach the players, many of whom don't even know the game's fundamentals. The players are predictably inept at first, but Sparky begins to learn the real joy in baseball is in the effort and the camaraderie. An exhibition game ultimately is arranged in which Sparky and his young, eager Russians get to play against his old team, the Mariners. Sparky also falls in love with young Russian girl Tanya Belova. ===== Anya arrives at Lucrece High School on her first day and is hoping to play for one of the sports teams. She first tries to play basketball, but is rejected by the coaches and other students because of her height. Anya then decides to join the soccer team. There, she meets Julia, who is already a member of the team but never gets to play any games, because the school team is one of the best and the coach is worried that having girls on the team would weaken it. This discrimination inspires Anya to go to the principal of the school, who agrees to let her form her own team with one condition; Her team must have a test match against the school's official team. Anya, with help from her friends, forms a team consisting of the "misfits" of the school. She starts with Luise (commonly called Loo), whom she has known since elementary school, and Felicitas (commonly called Filiz) who is known for her Gothic Lolita style of dress. Filiz's style gets the team noticed, especially when she designs the team uniforms which have a clear Gothic Lolita style: mostly black with a dark maroon stripe down one side and a smaller stripe crossing it along the top. The boys on the team have similar red stripes on their shorts, while the girls wear skirts with the red stripes along with striped stockings with lace. The girls also wear lace collars. The team eventually attracts 11 members needed to form a team. The side consists of Delia, who acts as the coach of the team and has a close personal relationship with the coach of the official school team (in the third book he is revealed to be her ex-boyfriend); Leon, who Anya has hated since elementary ever since he accidentally killed her hamster; Kevin, a musician known for his temper; Fraternal twins Alexia and Hannes, who joined in support of Anya after she was denied the chance to join the basketball team; Ellis, who is not as strong as the other players; and Olga, who likes Renaissance fashion. Throughout the graphic novels, there are some unidentified characters in the stories. The group is made up of a small number of students (chiefly a group of three). They are presumed to be from another school, who are interested in facing Anya's team in a match. These characters have been seen watching, taking pictures of, and discussing the fledgling team. Their identities have not yet been revealed. The books follow the school team, named "Gothic Sports", as they train and try to compete against other school football teams, including their main rivals, Lucrece High School's official team. ===== After losing her family in a tragic motor accident in California, fifteen-year-old Mary Russell goes to live with her aunt in Sussex, England. Wandering the Sussex Downs in April 1915, she literally runs across fifty- four-year-old Sherlock Holmes, who has retired from his London practice and keeps bees. The two quickly become fast friends, Russell finding in Holmes a kindred spirit and steadfast teacher and Holmes finding in Russell a quick mind and a worthy apprentice in the art of detecting. By the time Russell enters Oxford University in the autumn of 1917, she is well-versed in Holmes's methods of disguise, tracking, and deduction. At Oxford, Russell reads chemistry and theology, immersing herself in the Bodleian Library and participating on the side in the dramatic society and elaborate pranks. Between terms, Russell solves her first cases as Holmes's apprentice, catching a German spy disguised as a neighbor's butler and apprehending a thief who had burgled the local pub. In August 1918, Holmes is consulted on the kidnapping of Jessica Simpson, the American senator's daughter, and brings Russell, elevating her apprenticeship. The pair journey in disguise as gypsies and trace the missing girl into Wales, where Russell takes initiative in rescuing Jessica, who develops a bond with her. However, Jessica's kidnappers are merely hired hands, and they fail to find the mastermind behind the plot. Russell and Holmes emerge from the case with a stronger sense of partnership, having solidified their mutual trust of each other's instincts. One afternoon in December, Russell returns to her lodgings to find Holmes, injured from a bomb and having defused another one set at Russell's door. A third fails to kill Dr. Watson. Their mysterious opponent stalks Russell and Holmes by savaging their cab and leaving a puzzling series of slashes on the cab seat. They deduce she is a formidable woman who knows Holmes's methods thoroughly and has infiltrated some of his secure boltholes in London. Faced with a powerful opponent, Holmes elects to frustrate her by leaving England entirely with Russell. The pair set off for Palestine for six weeks on a mission with two of Mycroft's spies (this interlude becomes the focus of King's later novel O Jerusalem). Upon their return, Russell and Holmes embark on a charade of estrangement from each other, hoping that Holmes's vulnerability will draw their enemy in for the kill. However, playing the part takes a toll on both. They are also under heavy surveillance by the enemy and unable to converse frankly. In May, Russell discovers that the slashes on the cab seat spell MORIARTY in Roman numerals according to Base 8, and connects the case with her missing maths tutor, Patricia Donleavy, who had given her exercises in Base 8. At her lodgings, she finds Holmes, who informs her that their attacker is preparing to strike. The two make for Sussex to set a trap, only to find Donleavy already lying in wait for them. Donleavy reveals herself as the orchestrator of Jessica Simpson's kidnapping and the revenge-seeking daughter of Professor Moriarty, whom Holmes hurled to his death at the Reichenbach Falls. Holmes provokes her to attack him, and Russell intervenes, leading to a struggle in which Donleavy is killed and Russell is heavily injured by the same bullet. During her long recovery, Russell sinks into depression due to the heavy emotional toll of the estrangement from Holmes as well as Donleavy's betrayal, as a figure of authority she had trusted. A letter from Jessica Simpson provides some catharsis, causing Russell to revive her partnership with Holmes. ===== Uncle Scrooge catches sight of his two loafer nephews, Donald Duck and Gladstone Gander, from his Money Bin. Although he feels his fortune is secure in the hands of his chosen heirs, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, he feels he should do something for his other nephews, and decides to put them through a test to see what kind of business they would be good at. He calls Donald and Gladstone to his room, passes five thousand dollars to both, and tells them to return in twenty-four hours to report how they've invested it. Donald tries his wings in the restaurant and industry businesses and with inventions, but his enthusiasm exceeds his common sense, and he quickly squanders his money in failed enterprises. At the same time, Gladstone lies around in a hammock reading comic books while amazing opportunities get dropped into his lap. The next day, Scrooge is initially pleased at how well Gladstone has done (to Donald's chagrin), but then a clerk pulls Scrooge aside and tells him that all of Gladstone's opportunities have resulted in losses to McDuck Enterprises. Scrooge is chilled, thinking that Gladstone's legendary luck is the one thing that could ruin him forever. Both nephews receive their own company, though Scrooge has little hope for their success: Donald gets a soda stand, and Gladstone becomes an owner of a comic book publisher. ===== Susan Holland is a suburbanite woman who plots to kill her wealthy husband Paul in order to collect his life insurance policy. Though Susan's adulterous lover, Sam Meyers, she hires two incompetent criminals, named Bill and Steve, to kill Paul and make it look like a mugging gone wrong. However, when Bill and Steve show up as expected and shoot Paul outside his car in a parking lot, Paul survives and is taken to the hospital. Undaunted, Susan insists on continuing with her plans to kill Paul by having hiring a biker, named Bob, to carry out the deed while Paul is recovering in the hospital. Bob enlists a former prostitute, named Betty Johnson, to seduce Dr. Chris Stillman, the doctor treating Paul, to have the doctor move Paul to a private hospital room for Bob to isolate and kill Paul. However, Susan's plan starts to unravel when a suspicious police detective, Detective Scott, begins suspecting her of having a hand in the attempt on Paul's life, and Sam's ex- wife, Penny, learns about the plot and wants in on part of Paul's life insurance money. Both Bill and Steve continue to insist to Susan to pay them for their work anyway despite they failed to kill Paul as planned. All through the film are fantasy sequences from various characters of their fears over being caught or shot by their own accomplices as details of the plan to kill Paul begins to fall apart. Despite circumstances, Bob does manage to sneak into Paul's hospital room and kills him by smothering him with a pillow and makes a quick getaway. However, the next day, as Susan and Sam are planning to go to the police station to give their statement and pay off Bill and Steve for their work, Detective Scott and several policemen arrive and arrest all of them when security cameras at the hospital captured all of the events leading up to Paul's murder. When Bob arrives at Susan's house and the police move into arrest him, he attempts to run and opens fire at the policemen, but gets shot and killed trying to escape. Steve is shot and killed by a stray bullet in the crossfire. Susan is taken away to jail, while Sam's ex-wife Penny is also arrested due to her knowledge of the plot. Only Betty manages to slip away. In the final scene, with Susan, Sam, Bill, and Penny all in prison serving their time, and the bodies of Bob, Steve, and Paul at the local morgue, Betty is shown to be living in Las Vegas in the free and clear and working as a casino cocktail waitress. When Dr. Stillman happens to visit the casino with his wife while on vacation, he spots and recognizes Betty working there under her new alias and knows that she had a hand in Paul's murder. But Dr. Stillman, fearing a negative reaction from his wife if she learned about his brief sexual tryst with Betty, pretends not to know who Betty is and lets her go while he continues his holiday in Vegas with his wife. ===== Ano Ko ni 1000% is a high school love story. Azusa Kawahara is the soccer team manager, and her love for childhood playmate Ikumi is mutual. Although the whole school knew what was happening between Azusa and Ikumi, there were rivals who came between them. And all went well, until Azusa died.. ===== Lars Lindstrom lives a secluded life in a small Wisconsin town. It is gradually revealed that his mother died when he was born, causing his grief- stricken father to be a distant parent to Lars and his older brother, Gus. Gus left town as soon as he could support himself, returning only to inherit his half of the household when their father died. The inheritance has been divided between the brothers: Lars lives in the converted garage; Gus and his pregnant wife Karin live in the house proper. Karin's attempts to invite Lars into the house for a family meal are usually unsuccessful; when he does come, conversation is difficult and he doesn't stay long. He avoids social contact, finding it difficult to interact with his family, co-workers, or members of his church. A co-worker, Margo, is interested in him, but he avoids anything more than brief encounters. One day a large package arrives; that evening Lars tells Gus and Karin that he has a visitor whom he met via the Internet, a wheelchair-mobile missionary of Brazilian and Danish descent named Bianca. They discover that Bianca is a lifelike doll which Lars apparently ordered from an adult website. Concerned about his mental health, they convince Lars to take Bianca for a checkup to the family doctor, Dagmar, who is also a psychologist. Dagmar diagnoses Bianca with low blood pressure and advises Lars to bring her in for weekly treatments. Her aim is to have regular contact with Lars, hoping to get to the root of his behavior. She explains to Gus and Karin that his delusion is a manifestation of an underlying problem that needs to be addressed. She urges them to assist with his therapy by treating Bianca as a real person. Lars begins to introduce Bianca as his girlfriend to the townspeople. Due to their concern for Lars, everyone treats Bianca as a real person. Lars soon finds himself interacting more with people. During this time, Margo has begun to date another co-worker, which silently bothers Lars. Lars asks his brother when he knew he had become a man and what being a man means. Gus says he knew it when he began doing the right things for the right reasons, even when it hurt. Gus gives several examples, including their father keeping them and taking care of them, even though he didn't know how. Gus says that he never should have left Lars alone with their father, and he apologizes for being selfish. Their conversation seems to reach Lars and his dependence on Bianca immediately seems to shift. When a co-worker with whom Margo has been playing pranks goes a bit too far, Lars comforts her. During the ensuing conversation, Margo reveals she has broken up with her boyfriend. She invites Lars to go bowling, which he initially declines before reconsidering. The two spend a pleasant evening together along with some other townsfolk. Lars is quick to remind Margo he could never cheat on Bianca. Although obviously disappointed, Margo replies that the thought never crossed her mind. As they part, Lars takes his glove off to shake Margo's hand – a significant advance in his ability to interact with others; he earlier explained to the doctor that others' touch felt like "burning". One morning soon after, Lars announces that Bianca is unresponsive, and an ambulance rushes her to the hospital. Once there, he tells his family that her prognosis is not good and that Bianca would like to be brought home. The news spreads through town, and everyone whose life has been touched by Bianca sends flowers or sits with Lars at the Lindstrom home. Gus and Karin ask Dagmar why this is happening, and she reveals that it indicates a significant shift for Lars. They suggest that Lars and Bianca join them for a visit to the lake. While the couple is hiking, Lars gives Bianca a very sad farewell kiss. As Gus and Karin make their way back from the hike, they discover despondent Lars in the lake with a 'dying' Bianca. Bianca is given a full-fledged funeral that is well-attended by the townspeople. After Bianca is buried in the local cemetery, Lars and Margo linger at the grave site. When Margo states that she should catch up with everyone else, Lars asks her to take a walk with him instead, to which she happily agrees. ===== Paul Hogan plays Lightning Jack Kane, a long-sighted Australian outlaw in the American west, with his horse, Mate. After the rest of his gang is killed in a robbery-gone-wrong, Jack survives only to read of the events in the newspaper that he was nothing next to others. Annoyed at not being recognised as an outlaw, Jack attempts a robbery by himself, and ends up taking young mute Ben Doyle (Cuba Gooding Jr.) as a hostage. He later discovers that, tired of never having been treated with respect due to his disability, Ben wishes to join him. Jack attempts to teach Ben how to fire a gun and rob banks, with his first attempt at "on-the-job" training ending with Ben shooting himself in the foot. Across the course of the training, they pay occasional visits to saloons where Jack shows Ben the truth about adult life, including helping him to lose his virginity. However, the true nature of the saloon visits is for Jack to make contact with showgirl Lana Castel (Beverly D'Angelo), who, unbeknownst to Jack, is madly in love with him. When Ben's training is complete, the two learn of a bank which is said to have the entire town armed and ready to protect it. Jack sees this as the test he has been waiting for, and together they hatch a plan to rob it. Everything seems to be going smoothly and they are set to begin, until Jack discovers that a rival gang of outlaws is also planning to rob the bank. He is prepared to give up when Ben has a plan of his own. Ben silently tips off the townspeople, who quickly swarm the bank with the rival outlaws inside. The gang are arrested and the entire town celebrates, allowing Jack and Ben to slip unnoticed into the bank and swiftly strip it clean. Before leaving, Jack jumps into the celebrations, ensuring that his grinning face is seen at the top of the town photo. By the time the true robbery is discovered, the two - and Lana - are gone, with a bounty of thousands on their heads and all of America searching for them - the life that Jack had always wanted. ===== The viewer is not intended to like nor dislike either character. Zano is meant to be brooding and profound to the point of being sulky, and world-hating and Naima wildly passionate to the point of appearing wanton and unstable; and both far too self-absorbed to care about either one or the other. The pair travel from France, down through Spain toward Algeria but get lost many times along the way. They work as fruit pickers for a while, allowing for a naughty sex scene in the orchard. ===== The short story “Paul’s Case,” is about a young boy who struggles to fit in at home and in school. The story began with the reader finding out the main character, Paul, is suspended from high school. He meets with his principal and teachers who complain about Paul's "defiant manner" in class and the "physical aversion" he exhibits toward his teachers. One of Paul's teachers also mentions that Paul's mother died back when he was a child in Colorado; which is later shown to be of importance. Paul works as an usher for Carnegie Hall in Pittsburgh. His job is one of the only parts of his life he enjoys. He stays for the concert and enjoys the social scene while losing himself in the music. After the concert, Paul follows the soloist and imagines life inside her hotel room. Unfortunately, the audience soon learns that Paul and his father have a poor relationship. Upon returning home very late one night, Paul enters through the basement window to avoid a confrontation with his father. Paul's relationship with his father is full of tension. While in the basement, Paul gets nervous that his father will come downstairs with a shotgun and kill him. Paul stays awake for the remainder of the night, imagining what would happen if his father mistook him for a burglar and shot him, or if his dad would recognize him in time. Not only does Paul wonder if his father will recognize him in time, but he also entertains the idea of his father possibly regretting not shooting him when he had the chance to do so. Paul despises the people on Cordelia Street as they serve to remind him of his own lackluster life. Although his father considers him a role model for Paul, Paul is unimpressed by a plodding young man who works for an iron company and is married with four children. While Paul longs to be wealthy, cultivated, and powerful, He lacks the stamina and ambition to attempt to change his condition. Instead, Paul escapes his monotonous life by visiting Charley Edwards; a young actor. Later on, Paul makes it clear to one of his teachers that his job ushering is more important than his schoolwork, causing his father to prevent him from continuing to work as an usher. Paul takes a train to New York City after stealing money from his dad's job. Paul buys an expensive wardrobe, rents a room at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, and walks around the city. He also meets a young boy from San Francisco who takes him on an all-night tour of the city's lively social scene. His few days of impersonating a rich, privileged young man, brought him more contentment than he had ever known because living a prosperous life is Paul's only hope and dream. However, on the eighth day, after spending most of his money, Paul read from a Pittsburgh newspaper that his theft has been made public. His father has returned the money and is on his way to New York City to bring Paul back home to Pittsburgh. Paul then reveals that he had bought a gun on his first day in New York City, and briefly considers shooting himself to avoid returning to his old life in Pittsburgh. Eventually, he decides against it and instead commits suicide by jumping in front of a train. Paul made the ultimate decision of taking his own life because the thought of returning to his old lifestyle was too much for him to handle. ===== Gregorius' parents are aged approximately 11 when he is born and are the orphaned children of a wealthy duke, and his father dies after being sent on a pilgrimage from Europe to Jerusalem to repent of their sins by a wise old man. The same wise old man tells Gregorius' mother to place the child in a box on a small boat and to push the boat out onto the ocean, where God will take care of the child. She dutifully does this, placing 20 pieces of gold in with him, alongside a tablet upon which the details of his sinful birth are recorded. The boat is discovered by two fishermen sent by an abbot to fish on the sea, and upon opening the box when they arrive back on shore, the abbot orders one of the fisherman to raise the child as his son. Aged six, Gregorius begins his education under the abbot's guidance, and as he grows, quickly becomes very clever, strong, and handsome, revealing to all that he cannot merely be the son of a poor fisherman. In late adolescence he discovers his adoptive family are not his own, and after much debate with the abbot leaves the monastery to pursue a life of chivalric duty as a knight in order to repent of his parents' sin which he discovers when the abbot reveals a tablet to him which relates the story of his birth. Through his knightly prowess wins the hand of the mistress of a besieged city. They marry, and one day as he is out hunting, a maid shows his wife to the room where he has kept the tablet, and from which he always emerges terribly sadly with eyes red from crying. With horror, his wife recognizes the tablet and discovers she is not only his wife, but also his mother and his aunt. Upon hearing of this, Gregorius exiles himself to go and live a humble life in poverty repenting for his sin. He tells his mother to distribute her wealth to the poor and to live a life of poverty as penance for her sins too. Gregorius asks to be put on a rock in the middle of a lake by a fisherman, who tosses the key to Gregorius' chains (which bind him to the rock) into the lake and tells Gregorius that, should the key ever be rediscovered, he will know that Gregorius is indeed a holy man and has been forgiven by God. Seventeen years later, God tells two elderly clergymen in Rome that the next pope is to be found repenting a grave sin upon a rock in Aquitania. They ride off to find him, and find the lake and the fisherman, who greedily sells them a meal instead of offering them a gift of sustenance. Upon gutting the fish however, he discovers the key to Gregorius' chains and is horrified to have chained a holy man to a rock, even more so because he presumes that after seventeen years, the man must surely be dead. He takes the two men to the rock, where they discover the emaciated Gregorius, who has survived thanks to the Holy Spirit and a trickle of water emerging from the rock. The fisherman throws himself to his knees and laments of his sin, terrified that he is now too old to still have time to properly repent. However, the narration tells us that his grief is so sincere that his soul is saved. He unlocks Gregorius, who goes off with the two men to become pope. Once in office, he meets his mother, who has done exactly what she was bidden to do by him and led a life of extreme poverty. She does not recognize him, but he tells her who he is, and that they have been forgiven by God, in accordance with the proper repentance they have fulfilled. ===== In a presidential election set in an alternate 2008, Bud Johnson (Kevin Costner) is a man from Texico, New Mexico, who is coasting through life and has not had a single political thought in his head, while being coaxed by his twelve-year-old daughter Molly (Madeline Carroll) to take more of a serious approach to life. Molly runs the household and sees an opportunity on election day to energize her father: frustrated with her father's apathy toward voting, she sneaks into her local polling place and tries to vote on behalf of Bud. However, due to the voting machines being unplugged, the ballot is registered, but no decision is indicated on which candidate gets the vote. The entire election now comes down to this one man's vote. Neither candidate has a majority in the electoral college without New Mexico's electoral votes. The popular vote is tied for the two major candidates in New Mexico, leaving Bud to decide the next President of the United States. Bud gets wooed by candidates from both sides: the incumbent Republican, Andrew Carington Boone (Kelsey Grammer), and his campaign manager, Martin Fox (Stanley Tucci); and the opposing Democrat, Vermont Senator Donald Greenleaf (Dennis Hopper) and his campaign manager Art Crumb (Nathan Lane). Bud's actual opinions (or lack thereof) are misinterpreted by the media, causing the candidates to flip-flop on several positions (the Democrats take a pro-life and anti-illegal immigration stand, while the Republicans take a pro- environmental and pro-gay marriage stand). As the film progresses, however, the two candidates are shown to move away from the cynical tactics forced on them by their advisers, and both gain Bud's respect. In the end, he chooses to hold a final debate the day before he is set to recast his ballot. In a written speech, he confesses that he knows little to nothing about politics, or for that matter, life, and decides to ask questions people have sent to him in the mail. The film ends with Bud casting his vote, though for whom he voted is never revealed. ===== Latiff (Ramli Hassan) is a famous but lonely photographer who was orphaned as a small child. He sets out on an expedition to photograph abandoned houses around Malaysia. On his journey he is haunted by images and sounds that remind him of his traumatic childhood. At one particular house on the island of Penang, Latiff is magically transported back over 50 years to witness the shocking events that occurred there. Through his experience, Latiff comes to understand the significance of the Red Kebaya, a traditional Malay outfit, and the tragic circumstances that led to him being orphaned. ===== This story is about a boy who has a burning desire to go to school. This character (acted by Sai Kumar) is really heart-touching. He did his best when it came to how he felt with his first friendship, how desperate is he to study, how daring he is and last, but not the least, his honesty. ===== The game features a storyline which has US forces fighting PRC forces in the year 2015. ===== Raj Malhotra (Shahid Kapoor) is an architect who hasn't made a great deal to prove his brilliance, which he thinks he has because he had been a great student in college and won many prizes during college time. He seems to be very unlucky for many times and his bad luck is always stopping him from gaining success. His college student Hiten Patel (Vishal Malhotra) is now his colleague. One day he is supposed to have a meeting with a big company boss, whom he expect to sign a big deal with. His bad luck comes to him again: his alarm clock stops ticking one minute before it is supposed to alarm, making him having slept for 30 excessive minutes; the water supply in his house is interrupted when he is taking a morning bath after waking up late; his car can't start after he finally finishes his shower; he decides to take a taxi, but finds no money in his wallet; when he is withdrawing money from an ATM, the machine is not accepting his card; when he is carrying on, his car nearly hits Priya's (Vidya Balan), which however makes him miss a small accident that can have happened to him; and finally, he gets rejected by the boss. In another try, Raj and Hiten meets Gill Patra's CEO Harry Gill (Om Puri) and they expect to sign a big deal with him. To their surprise, Mr. Gill has just had a meeting Dev Kataria (Karanvir Bohra) and his Manager who also look after Mr. Gill business Kabir (Satyanand Gaitonde), their proposal interests him a lot and whom happens to be colleague of Raj and Hiten. Mr. Gill is therefore not in mood of having meeting with Raj and Hiten, and excuses them to come at another day. Again, when Raj is withdrawing money from an ATM, the machine is not accepting his card, where coincidentally Priya is waiting in queue. They meet and have a quarrel again, during which Priya throws Raj's name card away and it accidentally falls to the hand a business man who is eager for an architect. Raj gets the deal. The project is not big, and the contractee invites Raj and Hiten to the celebrating party of the project completion. After learning Mr. Gill will also attend the party, they agree. However, Priya happens to meets Raj again, right in the party, during with Mr. Gill is playing billiards with his friend Sinha. With unintended help of Priya, Raj helps Mrs Gill with a critical shot, which impresses Mr. Gill and the latter agrees to meet him again to discuss with his proposal. Raj lies to Priya that Community Centre and Mall will happen in same place where all poor people are living but Kabir (Satyanand Gaitonde) goes and tell all people to vacate place hence Priya come to know that Raj has lied to her. Must watch after that how Climax unfolds in this blockbuster movie Kismat Konnection. ===== In the year 2082, thousands of large, coordinated objects of an unknown origin, dubbed "Fireflies", burn up in the Earth's atmosphere in a precise grid, while momentarily broadcasting across an immense portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, catching humanity off guard and alerting it to an undeniable extraterrestrial presence. It is suspected that the entire planet has been surveyed in one effective sweep. Despite the magnitude of this 'Firefall', human politics soon return to normal. Years afterwards, a comet-surveying satellite stumbles across a radio transmission originating from a comet, subsequently named 'Burns-Caulfield'. This tight-beam broadcast is directed to an unknown location and in fact does not intersect the Earth at any point. As this is the first opportunity to learn more about the extraterrestrials, three waves of ships are sent out: the first being light probes shot out for an as- soon-as-possible flyby of the comet, then a wave of heavier but better- equipped probes, and finally a crewed ship, the Theseus. Theseus is propelled by an antimatter reactor and captained by an artificial intelligence. It carries a crew of five cutting-edge transhuman hyper-specialists of whom one is a genetically reincarnated vampire and acts as the nominal mission commander. While the crew is in hibernation en route, the just-arrived second wave of probes commence a compounded radar scan of the subsurface of Burns- Caulfield, but this immediately causes the object to self-destruct. Theseus is re-routed mid-flight to the new-found destination of the signal: a previously undetected sub-brown dwarf deep in the Oort Cloud, dubbed 'Big Ben'. The crew wakes from hibernation while the Theseus closes on Big Ben. They discover a giant, concealed object in the vicinity, and assume it to be a vessel of some kind. As soon as the crew uncloaks the vessel, it immediately hails them over radio and, in a range of languages varying from English to Chinese, identifies itself as 'Rorschach'. They determine that Rorschach must have learned human languages by eavesdropping on comm-chatter since its arrival, sometime after the Broadcast Age began. Over the course of a few days many questions and answers are exchanged by both parties. Eventually Susan James, the linguist, determines that 'Rorschach' doesn't really understand what either party is actually saying. Theseus probes Rorschach and finds it to have hollow sections, some with atmosphere, all filled with levels of radiation that render remote operation of machinery virtually impossible and would kill a human in a matter of hours. Despite this and over Rorschach's objections the whole crew except the mission commander enters and explores in a series of short forays, using the ship's advanced medical facilities to recover from the damage the radiation inflicts on their bodies. They discover the presence of highly evasive, fast-moving 9-legged organisms dubbed 'Scramblers', of which they kill one and capture two for study. The 'Scramblers' appear to have orders of magnitude more brainpower than human beings but use most of it simply to operate their fantastically complex musculature and sensory organs; they are more akin to something like white blood cells in a human body. They are dependent on the radiation and EM fields of Rorschach for basic biological functions and seem to completely lack consciousness. The crew explore questions of identity, the nature, utility and interdependence of intelligence and consciousness. They theorize that humanity could be an unusual offshoot of evolution, wasting bodily and economic resources on the self-aware ego which has little value in terms of Darwinian fitness. Open warfare breaks out between the humans and the Scramblers and Theseus eventually decides to sacrifice itself and its crew using its antimatter payload to eliminate Rorschach. One crew member, the protagonist and narrator Siri Keeton, is shot off inside an escape vessel in a decades-long fall back to Earth to relay the crucial information amassed back to humanity. As he travels back towards the inner Solar System, he hears radio broadcasts which suggest that the vampires have revolted and may be exterminating baseline humanity. ===== Marco's mother, the host to Visser One, is revealed to have survived the events of Book #30. Marco's father Peter, still believing her dead from the "boating accident" several years earlier, marries Nora Robbinette, Marco's math teacher. The stress from his father's actions cause Marco's morphs to go haywire, the results from his morphs are (in order of appearance): an osprey crossed with a lobster, a trout with the arms of a gorilla, a wolf spider crossed with a skunk (a "Skider" or "Spunk" as Marco called it), and finally a poodle and a polar bear (a Poo-Bear as Marco called it). The Yeerks try to use a popular TV icon named William Roger Tennant to try and persuade people to join The Sharing, but the Animorphs expose him on national TV when he is terrorizing Marco who is in poodle morph, which ruins Tennant's reputation. The book ends with Marco getting a phone call from Visser One, which is covered in greater detail halfway through Visser. ===== Map of Antarctic region, according to Verne ===== The Arthurian film cycle started with the Adventures of Sir Galahad serial. In this version, the youth Galahad, trying to emulate his father Sir Lancelot, wants fervently to be admitted to the Knights of the Round Table order. When he defeats Sir Bors and Sir Mordred in tournament, King Arthur agrees to knighthood if he can guard Excalibur for one night. Unfortunately, during that night the sword is stolen by a mysterious personage known only as the Black Knight. Possession of Excalibur makes the holder invincible and without it the sovereignty of Arthur is endangered, then Galahad is refused knighthood until the sword is found. Galahad, aided by Sir Bors, is hindered in his quest by Ulric, the Saxon King, who invades England, and by Merlin the magician, who harasses our hero at every turn. Galahad suspects that the Black Knight is a traitor within Camelot who seeks the throne in alliance with the Saxons, while Morgan le Fay, Arthur's half sister and also a magician, helps him fight both Merlin's magic and the Saxons. ===== In 1944 New York City, beat writers and students Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Lucien Carr, William S. Burroughs, and David Kammerer all become acquainted with Joan Vollmer, a student at Barnard College. Joan and William carry on a romance. Lucien murders David after David makes unwanted sexual advances on him. Lucien visits Joan and William at their apartment after and confesses to the murder, claiming David had an obsession with him, and attempted to rape him in a park. Lucien ultimately serves two years in prison for the crime. By 1951, Joan and William are married and living in Mexico City with their young son, William Jr., and Julie, Joan's daughter from her previous marriage. Joan is unhappy with her life in Mexico, as William carries on an affair with a male lover, Lee, to her chagrin. William leaves to Guatemala to meet Lee for a romantic liaison, avoiding an impending visit from Lucien and Allen who are traveling from New York. Upon Lee and Lucien's arrival, Joan and Lucien visit a local bar together, where Joan expresses her unhappiness over her marriage to William. Joan, Lucien, and Allen plan a weekend trip to visit the Parícutin volcano. Meanwhile, William, having met with Lee in Guatemala, finds Lee evasive and unwilling to be physically affectionate with him. When pressed, Lee suggests he feels that William only uses him for sex. Joan, Lucien, and Allen travel through rural Mexico en route to Parícutin, camping along the way. Allen tries to convince Joan to return to the United States with him and Lucien, but, despite her unhappiness with her marriage, she does not want to abandon William, as she sees his potential. Joan also adds that William fears returning to the United States due to a pending heroin possession charge there. Sexual tension quickly develops between Joan and Lucien on the trip, but she rejects his numerous advances. The three return to Mexico City from their weekend trip. Lucien and Allen implore Joan to return to New York with them, bringing her children along with, but she refuses. Willam returns from his trip to Guatemala, and he and Joan discuss the possibility of separating. Lucien and Allen's car breaks down near the Texas border, leaving them stranded. Lucien hitches a ride back to New York City, leaving Allen alone until the car is repaired, as he has to report to his new job at United Press International. Meanwhile, Lee arrives in Mexico City and visits William and Joan at their apartment. After a dinner in which alcohol is consumed, Joan is outwardly passive-aggressive toward Lee. To entertain themselves, William suggests that he and Joan perform their "William Tell" parlor trick, in which he attempts to shoot a shot glass off the top of her head with a pistol. Joan perches a glass atop her head and goads William, who misfires the gun, shooting her in the head and killing her. Shortly after, while Lucien is working at the United Press International office, he receives a telegram notifying him of Joan's death. ===== The plot centers around an eleven-year-old girl named Mildred whose mother, a former "pumpkin queen", died in Mildred's sixth year of life. Inspired by an image of her mother "wearing her Pumpkin Queen crown,"Review of Me and the Pumpkin Queen Mildred tries to grow giant pumpkins in order to win a contest at the Circleville Pumpkin Show.Christine M. Heppermann, "Review of Me and the Pumpkin Queen," Horn Book Magazine 83.4 (Jul/Aug2007): 397. ===== Dr. R.J. “Roscoe” Stevens (Martin Lawrence) is a successful talk-show host, having discarded his awkward Southern roots, and is engaged to Survivor winner Bianca Kittles (Joy Bryant). Bringing Bianca and his 10-year-old son Jamaal (Damani Roberts) to his sleepy Southern hometown for his parents 50th wedding anniversary, R.J. is determined to prove he is no longer the walking disaster his family used to pick on. In Georgia, he is met by his pick- pocketing cousin Reggie (Mike Epps), and arrives at the family home to greet his parents, Roscoe Sr. (James Earl Jones) and Mama Jenkins (Margaret Avery); his brother Otis (Michael Clarke Duncan), the town sheriff; Otis' wife Ruthie (Liz Mikel) and their overgrown kids, Junior (Brandin Jenkins) and Callie (Krystal Marea Braud); and Roscoe's rowdy sister Betty (Mo'Nique). Roscoe's cousin Clyde (Cedric the Entertainer) drops in, reigniting their past competitiveness, and escorting Lucinda (Nicole Ari Parker), Roscoe’s past love interest. Roscoe endures much self-humiliation: he accidentally hits his mother in the head with a softball, is beaten up by Otis and Betty after insulting them, faces constant blackmail by Reggie, and is sprayed by a skunk while sleeping. It becomes obvious that he still holds a grudge against his father for showing Clyde preferential treatment when they were younger, while Roscoe Sr. resents his son for changing his name and distancing himself from his family. Bianca does not fit in well with the Jenkins, and Roscoe and Lucinda get reacquainted. On the Jenkins' anniversary, the whole family gathers for their traditional obstacle course. Roscoe and Clyde aggressively make their way through, hurting themselves and others. When Roscoe begins to help his son over an obstacle, Bianca tells him to leave Jamaal and he does, to his parents' shock. Roscoe and Clyde race to the finish line, and Roscoe wins. As Bianca cheers, Roscoe berates his family, reminding them that it is all about "the team of me". The family is angry, Jamaal refuses to go near his father, and Roscoe Sr. reprimands his son for his behavior. Unable to contain his resentment, Roscoe lashes out at his father, saying that although Clyde's father died, Roscoe felt he lost his own father because he always favored Clyde, and chastises him for crediting Clyde’s accomplishments while never acknowledging any of Roscoe’s success. Stunned, Roscoe Sr. realizes he is the reason his son left home and walks off feeling guilty. Now seeing why Roscoe resented him, Clyde tells Roscoe he never tried to take his place, but only wanted to be accepted by the family and sees Roscoe as his brother. He tries to shake Roscoe's hand, but Bianca rebuffs him, and Roscoe leaves with Bianca and Jamaal, but not before his mother reminds him that his family still loves him. Driving to the airport, Bianca proposes not inviting the family to their wedding. Roscoe seems to agree, upsetting Jamaal, who proudly declares himself a Jenkins. Bianca continues to insult the Jenkins clan and Roscoe pretends to agree with her, but dumps her and her bags at the airport. Roscoe and Jamaal return to the family home with Bianca's Pomeranian Fifi, who had pursued a relationship with the Jenkins’ over-aged dog Bucky. During the anniversary celebration, Clyde cries during his speech for Mama and Papa Jenkins, admitting how much he cares about Roscoe, who appears, apologizing to his family and congratulating his parents. He and his father make amends, and Roscoe asks Lucinda to dance. After the celebration, the family watches video of the celebration on a big-screen TV while Roscoe and Lucinda depart to make love, discovering when they enter the bedroom that the dogs Bucky and Fifi had intercourse, too. During the credits, Roscoe interviews his family on his show, renamed The Roscoe Jenkins Show. ===== Etienne Steward is a clone, also known as a beta. When he awakes, his memories are fifteen years old, because the original Steward—the alpha—never bothered to have his memories updated. In those fifteen years, the entire world has changed. An alien race known as The Powers has established relations with humanity. The Orbital Policorp, which held his allegiance, has collapsed. He fought and survived the off-world Artifacts War, but dozens of his friends did not. Both his first and second wives have divorced him. Further, someone has murdered him, causing the activation of the beta back-up. Now Steward has to figure out who wanted him dead, if he does not want to die again. ===== Cab Calloway, an up and coming jazz musician is putting together a band, he was looking forward to make it big as the bandleader. His girlfriend Minnie, was upset that Cab has retained the services of a female band manager to help him promote his band and get his first big break. His band manager gets him a chance to audition his jazz octet before the local owner of the new club, which he then signs the big band for its opening. Minnie becomes suspicious and jealous that Nettie, as Cab's new female band manager, is doing good things for Cab and is winning points with him. When Cab auditions with his octet, the new club owner is impressed, but he said that he needs his band for his club opening to become more successful. He gets the job when he says that he can easily recruit more band members, and he opens for the new club for its opening at the end of the week. When he and his band make their success, Minnie gets intensely jealous and goes to a local "fix-it" man Boss Mason, who uses gun man Mo the Mouse as his 'assistant'. Minnie starts to play both sides of the fence in wanting to be his girlfriend, while also trying to keep Cab in place so that his relations with Nettie have "no chance to blossom". When Boss Mason gets too close to Cab, Cab must defend himself against Mo the Mouse before the bullets fly. ===== The Orbital Corporations won the war, and now they control America. Cowboy, one of the protagonists, is a smuggler who can control an armored hovertank using a neural interface. The other protagonist, Sarah, is a mercenary assassin; she and Cowboy end up teaming up to fight the Orbitals. ===== Produced in the same year as Bagets, Bagets 2 is set in the immediate summer after the events of the first movie, and deals with more of the guys' misadventures as they prepare for college. The film mostly deals with their participation in an arts workshop and inter-personal relationships with three new characters - Wally, Gilbert's cousin and a young man forced by his mother to become a priest; Mikee, a TV director's son looking for his big break, and Ponce, an auto expert-cum-dancer. Also included in the mix is Ruth, Tonton & Toffee's balikbayan cousin. ===== Clan Apis is the life story of a honey bee named Nyuki. The story begins with introducing a fictional myth about the ”World Flower”. Nyuki’s life begins a bee larvae, being tsken care of by another bee named Dvorah.She goes through metamorphosis and serves various tasks throughout the beehive. When the hive swarms Nyuki gets separated from the other bees and ends up almost getting eaten, the final time saved unintentionally by a dung beete named Sisyphus. Soon the hive runs into trouble, a rogue honeybee from another hive wants to steal their honey. Then a woodpecker attacks the hive, Dvorah getting killed fending it off. Nyuki meets many new bees working in the hive, Mellissa, Zambur and many others. She also befriends a flower named Bloomington. Throughout the book Nyuki acts very naively and is often described by other bees as a “goofball”. At the end of the book, Nyuki dies peacefully at the stem of a Bloomington. ===== Kate Holbrook (Tina Fey) is a successful single businesswoman who has always put her career before her personal life. Now in her late thirties, she finally decides to have her own child, but her plans are dampened when she discovers she has a minuscule chance of becoming pregnant because her uterus is T-shaped. Also denied the chance to adopt, Kate hires an immature, obnoxious, South Philadelphia woman named Angie Ostrowski (Amy Poehler) to become her surrogate mother. When Angie becomes pregnant, Kate prepares for motherhood in her own typically driven fashion—until her surrogate shows up at her door with no place to live. Their conflicting personalities put them at odds as Kate learns first-hand about balancing motherhood and career and also dates the owner of a local blended- juice cafe, Rob Ackerman (Greg Kinnear). Unknown to Kate, the in-vitro fertilization procedure Angie had did not succeed and she is feigning the pregnancy, hoping to ultimately run off with her payment. Eventually she starts to regret lying about not being pregnant, but she continually puts off confessing. When she gets an ultrasound, she discovers she is pregnant for real. Realizing the baby is her own—with her common-law husband Carl (Dax Shepard), from whom she is separated—Angie is forced to confess at Kate's baby shower. When Kate explains to Angie that the pregnancy test was supposed to be taken two weeks after the procedure, and that the baby could still belong to her, a wedge is driven between the two women. A court hearing determines that the baby is Angie's, and Angie makes an impassioned apology to Kate. As the women meet face-to-face after the proceedings, Angie's water breaks and Kate rushes her to the hospital, then passes out during the birth. As she wakes up, the doctor supervising Angie's pregnancy tells Kate that she's two months pregnant (the result of her relationship with her new boyfriend). After receiving the news, she visits Angie, who is holding her new baby daughter Stef, named for Gwen Stefani. Kate forgives Angie and the two become best friends, ultimately changing each other for the better. Angie and Kate raise their children and are in a sister-like relationship one year later at Stef's first-birthday party. It is revealed that Kate and Rob are parents of a baby daughter and are engaged. Although he does not reunite with Angie, Carl stays close to his daughter and takes parenting classes. The final scene shows Angie and Kate sitting in front of a television set with their children, watching Tom and Jerry cartoons. ===== The frame story is narrated by a white father (Claude King), who has recently returned from India, to his son (Douglas Scott). He explains that man's closest relative in nature is the orangutan, which translates literally as "man of the forest." He then tells the story of Ali and his son Bin, natives of Sumatra, who hunt in a jungle village. Ali wants to shoot a marauding tiger, but the orangutans Tua and his baby Rango get in the way, and Rango is almost grabbed by the tiger. While Ali prepares a tiger trap, the orangutans enter Ali's hut and feast on the stored goods. Dozens of orangutans join them, ransacking the hut. When Ali and Bin return to discover the havoc, Ali captures Rango and puts him on a chain. Later, Ali saves Tua from a black panther. In the night, a tiger enters the camp, and Rango warns Bin in time for him to shoot and scare the tiger away. At dawn, Tua comes for Rango and eats in the hut, while Bin tends the water buffaloes. After the tiger kills a deer, the orangutans scream warnings to each other and flee. Two male tigers approach and chase Bin, Rango and Tua. When Bin is cornered by a tiger, Rango comes to the rescue. The tiger kills Rango, who thus sacrifices his own life for the sake of his human friend, but the water buffalo fights the tiger and kills him. Ali and Bin embrace as Tua waits for Rango, unaware he will never return. ===== In the year 2001, while an international five man team is on their way to Uranus, an alien presence briefly assumes control of the crew's minds. They awaken safely but notice that a long – and unexplained – period of time has passed. Upon landing, the crew finds a forested land oddly like Earth's, rather than the cold, bleak world they were expecting. This forest is surrounded by a mysterious barrier. One of the crew pushes his arm through the barrier, only to have it frozen. New features and forms begin to appear each time they are imagined by the crew. A familiar-looking village appears, complete with attractive women the various male crew members have known in the past. Soon, they must face a series of strange beasts including a giant bipedal cyclopean rodent and a lobster-like insect. The crew realizes that they have been the victims of mind control by a gigantic one-eyed brain living in a cave. There, they are confronted by the "Being", whose mysterious brain cuts to the inner thoughts of the explorers and causes their thoughts to appear as seemingly real. The brain-Being plans to possess the astronauts' bodies and have them take it with them back to Earth where it will implement a plan for global domination. The crew gradually come to realize their peril and start to fight back against the presence, even eliciting aid from the sympathetic women. They must then confront the Being in its lair while it assaults each with monsters spawned from their fears. ===== As related by the Phantom Reporter: During the World War II Battle of Berlin in 1945, a dozen of the many superheroes and masked crimefighters of that era are ambushed by Nazis in the basement of an SS building, where the heroes are gassed and placed into cryogenic suspension for later experimentation, but the building is air bombed soon after and anyone aware of their situation is killed. In the present day, construction workers find this bunker, and the Twelve, as they become known, are revived. Put into the care of the U.S. military, they are housed together in a mansion where they receive counseling and support, are gradually made to understand that decades have passed, and are offered a role as heroes in the 21st century. The Twelve adjust in various ways: The Blue Blade becomes a celebrity; the Phantom Reporter starts a column for the Daily Bugle, Dynamic Man allies himself with the FBI and other law-enforcement agencies and throws himself into heroics; the Black Widow reconnects as the "instrument of vengeance" of an unknown party and begins going on missions; and Rockman bemoans being cut off from an underground kingdom that may or may not exist. On ballistics evidence, police arrest the Laughing Mask for a 1940s murder. In addition, the daughter of the creator of the robot Electro reclaims possession of the robot. In the framing story (set "much later"), the Phantom Reporter, gun in hand, stands over the body of the Blue Blade, regretting the man's death and vowing to find the killer. The Phantom Reporter is ultimately able to reveal the killer, in a classic mystery setup that involves rounding up the rest of the cast from their various pursuits and explaining the events step by step. The recent spate of unexplained crimes, including an attack on a gay bar Dynamic Man had visited, was carried out by Electro under the control of Dynamic Man, who is forced to admit he also is an artificial being. Blue Blade, after hooking himself up to Electro's control apparatus, discovered this, and so DM had Electro attack and kill him. Phantom Reporter has the Fiery Mask burn off DM's costume, revealing him to be a "man" who will never be anatomically correct. It is inferred that his creator's phobias about sexual purity were transferred to DM, thus explaining his discomfort with interracial marriages and the homophobia he has displayed throughout the series. He attacks the mansion, trying to trap and kill the others, but all manage to escape due to a sacrifice by Rockman. After fleeing to his creator's home and laboratory, he is confronted by Phantom Reporter along with Captain Wonder, Mastermind Excello, and Fiery Mask. DM kills Fiery Mask by crushing his larynx, but FM manages to pass his powers along to the Phantom Reporter. DM is destroyed by the Reporter, while Captain Wonder holds him in place, suffering horrible burns. Later, at a funeral for Fiery Mask, the others discuss their future plans. Mister E plans on retiring to spend time with his family, to make up for his previous rejection of his Jewish identity. Rockman is not found, though it's believed he escaped and may have finally found his lost underground world and family. The Witness leaves, to work with SHIELD to find those who deserve justice, with Nick Fury's blessing. He is seen confronting a "wanted" man in South America, at some later date. Phantom Reporter states he never saw The Witness again. Captain Wonder goes back into action, but with a gold half-mask covering his facial scars. Mastermind Excello has used his wealth to buy a private security company, renamed EXC Enterprises, and sets up Phantom Reporter and the Black Widow as operatives. Laughing Mask is given a deal (which views his cryogenic sleep as time served) for his previous crimes and now controls Electro, going after terrorists in sanctioned military strikes. Despite the history of loss, betrayal and punishment, the series ends on a note of hope for the survivors. In the closing scene, Phantom Reporter, in a new "combat suit" with a flame emblem, and Black Widow, back in her old "spider web" costume, are seen heading towards a new mission at an unknown location, having been sent there by Mastermind Excello's "EXC Corporation". Richard and Claire now seem, according to the phrase repeated over and over by Richard, to now be called "Fire" and "Shadow". ===== Ahmed Aghdamski played the female role of Guelchoehra, Asgar's beloved Set in Baku at the turn of the 20th century, a young successful businessman Asgar (Huseynqulu Sarabski) wishes to marry. He wants his bride to be the choice of his heart, however, Azerbaijani tradition restricted him from communicating with the lady as a lover before marriage. So Asgar decides to disguise himself as a mere cloth peddler and the young woman Guelchoehra (Ahmed Aghdamski) falls in love with him. However, she is concerned that her father, Soltan bey (Alakbar Huseynzade) will not allow her to marry a cloth peddler. Young Asgar then reveals himself to her father and asks for her hand in marriage. Seeing that he is indeed a wealthy young man, the father agrees and the two are permitted to marry. ===== Winged Victory tells the story of a group of recruits struggling to make it through pilot training. The trainees are a cross-section of American young men. Their personal lives, their families and sweethearts make up a small part of the story, but most of the drama focuses on training and camaraderie. Music plays a large part in the play, and most of the huge cast were primarily members of a chorus under the direction of famed choral leader Leonard de Paur. Among the musical numbers are "My Little Dream Book of Memories," and the stirring title anthem, "Winged Victory". ===== Black Easter and The Day After Judgment were written with the assumption that the ritual magic for commanding demons, as described in grimoires, actually works. In the first book, a wealthy arms manufacturer comes to a black magician, Theron Ware, with a strange request: he wishes to release all the demons from Hell on Earth for one night to see what might happen. The book includes a lengthy description of the summoning ritual and a detailed description of the grotesque demons as they appear. Tension between Ware and Catholic white magicians arises over the terms and conditions of a covenant that provides for observers and limitations on interference with demonic workings. Black Easter ends with Baphomet announcing to the participants that the demons cannot be compelled to return to Hell: the war is over and God is dead. The Day After Judgment develops and extends the characters from the first book. It suggests that God may not be dead, or that demons may not be inherently self-destructive, as something appears to be restraining the actions of the demons upon Earth. In a lengthy Miltonian speech at the end of the novel, Satan Mekratrig explains that, compared to humans, demons are good, and that if perhaps God has withdrawn Himself, then Satan beyond all others was qualified to take His place and, if anything, would be a more just god. It has been suggested that Blish got the name for his black magician from the titular character in Harold Frederic's 1896 novel The Damnation of Theron Ware.Ketterer, p. 298 The events end in a battle of men against demons in Death Valley, which ends in the supernatural place disappearing and leaving the characters in "the modern town of Badwater". ===== One night in Lankhmar, the Gray Mouser and Fafhrd are summoned by their patron wizards, Ningauble of the Seven Eyes and Sheelba of the Eyeless Face, who have joined forces, to carry out a mission. They are required to enter the Plaza of Dark Delights and obliterate a bazaar that has been established there by the Devourers, alien merchants who magically mesmerize customers into buying high priced merchandise which is actually worthless junk. However, Mouser arrives before him and is enticed into the bazaar. Fafhrd, aided only by the Blindfold of True Seeing and the Cloak of Invisibility, given to him by the wizards, must perform the mission alone. This he does, battling not only an entranced Mouser, but reanimated skeletons and living statues, against which his weapons are all but useless. But he manages to escape and rescue Mouser, still mesmerized into thinking that the junk he sees is really valuable, including books of ancient spells. ===== Namirrha was once known as Narthos, a beggar boy of Ummaos, the chief city of Xylac. Trampled almost to death by the horse of Prince Zotulla, he leave the city and becomes a willing pupil of a wizard, driving his own bond with Thasaidon, Lord of the Seven Hells and God of Earthly Evil. He becomes fabled as a mighty and dreaded necromancer/sorcerer, but is still driven to avenge himself on Zotulla. He returns to Xylac and builds in one night a palace in view of that of Zotulla, now King of Xylac. Every night phantom horses haunt Zotulla's palace, depriving all of sleep. Then Namirrha seeks the aid of Thasaidon to destroy the king, but the arch-fiend refuses his request, stating that his intended revenge would deprive Thasaidon of a great number of loyal subjects. Angrier than ever, he makes a pact with an even greater and more dangerous entity, Thamagorgos, Lord of the Abyss. He invites the king and his court to a great feast. While Zotulla is contemplating whether to go or not, a group of rotting mummies with rats and demons in their chests, with gigantic skeletons following them, enter the hall. Ordering Zotulla and his mistress, Obexah, to follow them to Namirrah's palace, the giant skeletons hypnotize the rest of the palace inhabitants with demonic silver flutes. They enter an impossibly huge chamber filled with demons and corpses. There, Obexah and Zotulla are seated next to Namirrha, and are served by victims of their own cruelty (Zotulla by his murdered father, and Obexah by her murdered lover). Then demon musicians and singers play, followed by gigantic horrifying dancers, who crush all of the guests (who have been magically tied to the floor in a crimson fog). Then Namirrha takes Zotulla and his mistress to a balcony that is stunningly high above the earth. The mighty cosmic horses of Thamagorgos, at Namirrha's command, appear and literally trample the city like ants, sparing only Namirrha's own palace. Namirrha reveals the reason for all this destruction to the king. Zotulla's mistress is tied to an altar. Namirrha commands the king to drink a poisoned draught and does so himself; the spirit of the wizard enters Zotulla's body, and the helpless spirit of Zotulla is imprisoned in a statue of Thaisadon. Zotulla is then forced to watch as Namirrha tortures Zotulla's mistress. Zotulla wishes for the power to stop this, and Thasaidon, furious at Namirrha, grants Zotulla the power to smite Namirrha down. He strikes the wizard down with the mace in the statue's hand. By Thasaidon's command, the spirit of Zotulla goes free into oblivion, whilst that of Namirrha, who has offended him, returns to his body, bereft of memory and sense, and attacks his own reflection in a mirror (thinking it variantly Zotulla and himself, switching between identities and sanity). Obexah, screaming on the altar, laughs insanely, while the macrocosmic stallions of Thamagorgos return through the skies to crush the palace of Namirrha. ===== Cassie comes home in owl morph to find a Hork-Bajir leaving the barn. Cassie realizes that if the Hork-Bajir is a Controller, the Yeerks might suspect that she is one of the "Andalite bandits". She attacks it, and nearly blinds him with her talons when she realizes it is in fact Jara Hamee. When she asks why he is there, he tells her that an Arn has come to the Hork-Bajir valley, and Toby wishes for their advice on what to do. Cassie tells the other Animorphs about the Arn the next day and they all agree to go. The Arn's name is Quafijinivon, the last of the Arn. He tells them that he wishes to create a force of Hork-Bajir to fight the Yeerks on their home world, by taking a sample of each Hork-Bajir's DNA. The Hork-Bajirs accept, but Quafijinivon also wishes to find a stash of weapons hidden by Aldrea - Seerow's Daughter. They ask him how will he do this if she is dead, and he tells them about the ixcila of Aldrea he preserved, an electronic copy of her personality, thoughts, and brainwaves. The Arn says Aldrea must choose a host to enter, and they decide it will be either Rachel, because of her dangerous attitude, or Toby because she is her granddaughter. During the Atafalxical ceremony Cassie is chosen as the host instead, she is asked if she accepts and Jake shouts "No". Cassie feels she has no choice, and says yes. The Chee take their place as humans while they're gone. When they make to the Hork-Bajir solar system, the ship is attacked by another Andalite ship. They cannot contact the ship because the Yeerks will pick up their signal. Ax refuses to fire back at the ship because he says he cannot attack a fellow Andalite for doing his job. Jake asks if Aldrea can do it and she says yes. She fires at the ship and destroys the engines, saving them. More Bug Fighters show up and Marco suggest that they move on, but Ax begs Jake to save the Andalite. Jake says they cannot leave, and they assist in destroying the Bug Fighters. Jake cuts the ensuing celebration short so they can focus on the task at hand. When they make it to the Hork-Bajir home world, Quafijinivon goes to his lab to work on the DNA samples. Aldrea has an idea where the weapons might be stashed and they travel deep into the woods. To their horror, they find that the place has been turned into a giant Yeerk pool. That is when they come up with a bold plan to get into the pool, which Aldrea is totally against. Cassie morphs into an osprey and the others morph insects, and go into Cassie's mouth. She gets as much altitude as she possibly can, and starts to demorph but keeps her wings and starts to morph into a humpback whale as well. She has to let her wings go and go full humpback whale at just the right moment or the plan will fail, but the Hork-Bajir Controllers already spot her in the sky, although they cannot make her out as a human because she is partly in whale morph, and start firing at her. This causes Aldrea to panic and try to convince Cassie to go full whale now. When she cannot she tries to take over, but Cassie overpowers her and waits until the time is right to morph fully. When she is in the pool, Jake and Rachel demorph and remorph into hammerhead sharks and attack the Taxxon Controllers, while Tobias and Ax go as Andalites and attack Hork-Bajir Controllers. Marco goes as a Hork-Bajir shouting, "Andalites everywhere, thousands of them, run!" causing them to flee. They break into the weapons stash, take them, and escape in a Yeerk ship, delivering them to the Arn. At the end, Toby Hamee says that she wishes to stay on her homeworld and fight the Yeerks there. Aldrea does not want her great-granddaughter to suffer this fate, and thus comes up with a plan with Cassie and Ax to force her to stay in the Hork-Bajir Earth colony. Cassie successfully convinces Jake that Aldrea is trying to take control of her, leaving Ax to tell Aldrea that she will never take over the Animorphs because her great-granddaughter is with them. Satisfied, Aldrea leaves Cassie's body. ===== While using their aquatic morphs to chase the Yeerks' new Sea Blade, which was after the Pemalite ship, the Animorphs and Ax find themselves beached inside an underwater cavern. The cavern seems to be littered, however, with several different types of air and sea craft, with what appears to be human statues inside. Further inspection by Cassie and Ax reveals that these people were real, and were killed and stuffed for preservation. While attempting to escape and locate Visser Three, whose ship was taken by a strange, humanoid aquatic species, Jake, Cassie, Ax, Rachel, and Marco, all in their natural forms, are captured by these life-forms, who reveal themselves as Nartec. Tobias was on lookout above, and therefore was not captured. The Nartec queen explains that they once were humans who lived above water, and when their city sunk, they began to adapt to underwater life. Ax realizes that radioactivity is what aided their ability to evolve so quickly. He also surmises that the Nartec have inbred for years, except for possible breeding with their captives prior to killing them, so their genetic code is breaking down. After the Nartec queen, Queen Soco, makes it clear that she intends to "preserve" the Animorphs, she permits them to do some sightseeing, but warns them not to try and escape. Of course, the Animorphs have no interest in being killed, stuffed, and added to a collection, so they plan to locate Tobias, figure out where Visser Three is hiding, and capture the Sea Blade to escape. However, their plans are foiled by a Nartec ambush from the water, and the Animorphs are taken to an operating room of sorts to be "preserved." Given a mind-numbing agent, Jake begins to slip away, when he notices a Nartec suddenly attacking the other Nartecs in the room and wiping them out. The rogue Nartec demorphs into a red-tailed hawk, Tobias, and aids the others in escaping. The Animorphs climb on board the Sea Blade, only to be challenged by hordes of Nartec, wielding weapons ranging from spears and clubs to automatic rifles and machine guns. While the Animorphs, in their standard combat morphs, had no difficulty attacking the Nartec and holding them at bay for a while, they began to be worn down by sheer force of number. Finally, they struck a reluctant alliance with Visser Three, who had been hiding on the ship the whole time while his crew were killed and stuffed. The visser guides them in starting the Sea Blade and escaping. Under Jake's orders, Marco, whose gorilla morph was gutted by a sword, opened the hatch to the Sea Blade, and the Animorphs swam to the surface. Visser Three survived as well, though separated from the Animorphs. ===== Maya is an upcoming artist and college student. In the winter of her senior year, Maya attends a fraternity party and talks to a man named Jared. She accepts his invitation to dinner at a restaurant, then goes to his apartment, just to talk. They start to make out, but when Maya tells him to stop, Jared soon reveals his true self and brutally rapes her while uttering dehumanizing slurs in her ear. Over the next year, Maya's personality changes. She becomes quiet and withdrawn, graduating from college and taking a job at a clothing store. She disconnects herself from society and other familiar surroundings while struggling to break free of the resulting depression and addiction. At night, she's someone else: a beauty at the nightclub scene, dancing, seductive, sniffing cocaine. Maya later meets and seeks out the help of a DJ she meets at a club, named Adrian, whom she confides in. Maya becomes TA to a class Jared is in. One day she catches him cheating on an exam and threatens to report it, but instead uses it as an opportunity to lure Jared to her apartment. Jared willingly complies. She turns the tables on him by tying him to her bed and blindfolding him. She allows Adrian to rape Jared several times. Echoing what Jared said to Maya. In the final shot, as Maya watches Adrian brutally sodomize Jared, she seems slightly regretful and sheds a tear, seeming to indicate she is still not over her psychological issues. ===== Raised separately in three villages in La Huasteca (a region in the northeastern Mexico), Lorenzo, from Tamaulipas, is an atheistic bronco; Juan de Dios, from San Luis Potosí, is a parish priest; while Víctor, from Veracruz, is a captain in the army. Their great physical resemblance is a source of conflict. Juan de Dios tries to solve the problems with his two brothers. Mexican superstar Pedro Infante played in three separate roles as each of these three individual triplets.Chavez, Denise, "Loving Pedro Infante", Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, (2001), p. 5. This author states: "Some people call [Pedro Infante] the Bing Crosby of Mexico, but he's more, much more than that. He was bigger than Bing Crosby or even Elvis Presley." In the movie, the villain "El Coyote", whose identity was unknown, was killing and robbing the people in the village Lorenzo lives in. His brother Víctor was transferred to the village in order to catch "El Coyote." Víctor also had a romantic interest in a village girl, Maritoña (Blanca Estela Pavon), who flirts with him at a party while Veracruz song , "La Tuza" plays. But firmly rejects all his advances after the party. María Eugenia Llamas, who was only four at the time, made her screen debut in this movie as "La Tucita", a stage name she has used ever since.La Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León She played the daughter of the saloon owning and atheist triplet, Lorenzo. In Tucita's first appearance in the movie, she has a snake and a tarantula as pets, both of which she handles with love. She also pushes around her otherwise hardened father shamelessly. For instance, she shoots at him with a pistol and misses. Then, she starts crying. Her father asks her if she is crying because she got scared. She responds tearfully that no, she is crying because she didn't kill him – which doesn't make him mad. In another scene, when she is in bed, she keeps pestering her father for one thing after another, to which he always complies, if visibly annoyed. Finally, she calls to him in the next room that she is thirsty and demands a glass of water. When he grudgingly brings it, she waters her plant with it instead of drinking it – which also makes him more frustrated, but not angry with her. It is her father's stoic acceptance (while sometimes visibly annoyed) of everything Tucita does to him that shows the movie audience that he has a soft spot and is not as thoroughly corrupt as he is otherwise portrayed in the first part of the movie. Nevertheless, Juan de Dios takes an interest in the physical and spiritual welfare of his niece, Tucita. He sometimes puts on a false mustache to disguise himself in the movie as his otherwise identical brother to look in on her, which works in fooling her. She just can't figure out why her "father" is acting so differently. Lorenzo is finally formally accused of being El Coyote. However, Víctor is the one who gets arrested and held in the village jail, because, disguised as his brother, he is mistaken for Lorenzo. A mob tries to get to him in his cell to hang him. Lorenzo and Juan de Dios overcome the real Coyote (Alejandro Ciangherotti), while he is trying to kill them, and get him to confess in writing that he is El Coyote. They place Tucita's pet tarantula on his chest, which scares the confession out of him. Tucita wags her finger at him and righteously tells him off. "Tan grandote y tan lloron (So big and such a baby.) That confession, when presented to the authorities absolves Tucita's father and saves Víctor from the clutches of both the mob and the law. After all that, her father turns over a new leaf and takes Tucita to church for the first time. They kneel before the altar and he lovingly shows her how to make the sign of the cross. As the movie ends, Víctor wins over the Maritoña while Juan de Dios and Lorenzo look on with great joy that all has turned out so well as their brother rides off with his lady love. ===== Returning to her native Turin for the opening of a branch of a Rome fashion salon, the elegant Clelia (Eleonora Rossi Drago) discovers a young woman named Rosetta Savoni (Madeleine Fischer) near death in the next room of her hotel. Rosetta took an overdose of sleeping pills trying to commit suicide. Clelia, who is alone in her hometown, befriends Rosetta and her three wealthy friends. Momina De Stefani (Yvonne Furneaux) is separated from her husband and easily replaces lovers. Nene (Valentina Cortese) is a talented artist becoming successful in her career; she lives with a frustrated painter named Lorenzo (Gabriele Ferzetti) who envies his wife's success. Mariella (Anna Maria Pancani) is futile. Clelia is attracted by Carlo (Ettore Manni), the assistant of the salon's architect, Cesare Pedoni (Franco Fabrizi), but he belongs to the working class living in a different social reality. When Momina and Clelia discover that Rosetta tried to commit suicide because she fell in love with Lorenzo, the cynical Momina encourages Rosetta to stay with him, although he and Nene were supposed to marry soon. This advice leads to tragedy. ===== Pepe el Toro (the bull), a carpenter, lives with his adopted daughter Chachita in a poor neighbourhood in Mexico City. Chachita asks Pepe to promise that he won't date or marry, to honor her beloved mother. Pepe, tries to woo Celia, who lives nearby, without Chachita finding out, but Celia's abusive stepfather Don Pilar disapproves of the impending romance and tries to prevent it. On Day of the Dead, Chachita and Celia go to visit Chachita's mother's tomb at the cemetery, but a woman reveals to them that the tomb really belongs to her daughter. Chachita, heartbroken, goes home to confront Pepe, but he refuses to reveal where her mother's tomb is located. Chachita storms out of the room and Celia tries to get the truth from him. Pepe tells Celia that he can't say. Celia tells him that she thinks what the town has been saying about him must be true: that Pepe killed Chachita's mother. Chachita sees them kissing, which then worsens the situation. On Chachita's birthday, the townspeople encourage Pepe to serenade to Chachita for her birthday, Pepe and the others sing Las Mañanitas and Chachita finally comes to the window, and everyone goes in Pepe's home to celebrate. Celia attempts to give Chachita a gift, but Chachita refuses it and goes outside. Celia tries to reconcile with Chachita, but it doesn't go well. Pepe goes outside to talk to the both of them but sees Yolanda, Chachita's mother, waiting to talk to him. He quickly ushers Yolanda out of sight where she tells him she is going away, but both Celia and Chachita see Pepe with Yolanda. Celia gets extremely jealous and confronts him, Chachita is upset. Pepe sends Chachita home and tries to talk to Celia, then he finally agrees to tell her the truth, that Yolanda is in fact his sister, but says if he tells her that it is over between them, breaking her heart. At the party, Pepe's friends are arrested for accidentally stealing the food. Montes comes back and gives Pepe $400 so he can buy the wood for the table, and Pepe gives the money to Chachita so she can hide it until he comes back with the wood. Unfortunately as Chachita is hiding the cash, Don Pilar sees her. A few minutes later, Don Pilar enters and steals the money, but Pepe's paraplegic mom sees him, he notices this but ignores her. Montes sees Celia, he becomes infatuated and offers her a secretarial job, and tries to give her his business card but she refuses to take it, he tosses his business card on the ground. Yolanda sees Celia picking the card up, tears up the card and warns Celia that Montes is not worth the trouble. Pepe begins to work for Doña Merneciana, a rich woman, to earn the money he needs to repay Montes for the table. Meanwhile a gang led by Ledo, offers him a job helping on a robbery at Merenciana's house but he refuses the offer. That night, Pepe finds Merenciana's dead body and he is blamed for the murder. Montes manages to send him to jail since he is unable to recover his money. For a few days, Chachita and Celia unsuccessfully try to visit Pepe in jail, because he constantly gets in trouble fighting the other inmates. Celia decides to break with Pepe and stay with Montes so she can earn some money in order to get Pepe out of jail. After Montes and Celia have sex, she feels guilty and runs away to never see Montes again. Chachita and Pepe's mom are kicked out of their house and the carpentry is closed. Don Pilar and Celia let them stay at their home. However Don Pilar turns mad since he begins to feel guilty of his actions, and brutally beats Pepe's mother. At jail Pepe hears that his mom is sent to the hospital and breaks out, while at the hospital Chachita begs to the doctor to attend her grandma, but finds out that he is attending a dying Yolanda, she pleads to the Doctor to kill Yolanda and save her grandma instead. Pepe arrives and tells Chachita that Yolanda is her biological mother, both Chachita and Yolanda break down in tears and bid their farewells. Pepe does the same with his mom before turning himself into the authorities. Back in jail, Pepe encounters Ledo and his gang, he manages to take them to a closed cell, where Pepe kills the gang and cuts Ledo's eye out, instead of killing him, he makes Ledo confess that he killed Doña Merenciana. A few months later, Pepe reunites with Chachita and Celia, with whom he has married and had a baby boy, Emilio Giron, called "El Torito". They go to the cemetery to visit the graves of Pepe's mom and sister, there Chachita encounters the woman again who and asks her "did you mistake the tomb again?" to which Chachita replies: "No, now I have a tomb to cry for". ===== The plot is typically topsy-turvy. Whereas in the authors' earlier novel The Space Merchants the world was ruled by advertising agencies, in this novel corporate lawyers, especially the secretive firm of "Green, Charlesworth", have gained a stranglehold on the world. Business Law is an extremely lucrative career, while Criminal Law pays enough to afford some of the luxuries of life but not enough to save for the future. Success means living in a luxurious automated "bubble home" constructed by "GML", a corporation which is nominally public but whose shares are never traded openly. All work contracts include GML housing as part of the pay scale. Not having a contract job means having to live in a community such as "Belly Rave", originally a post-war suburban development for returning soldiers, now a slum ruled by gangs of teenagers and children. Its original name was "Belle Rêve", which is French for "Beautiful Dream", in ironic contrast to the present ugly reality. For the common people, there are bread-and-circuses entertainments in the form of gladiatorial games of various kinds, with monetary rewards for the winners. Some games pit elderly people against each other armed with padded clubs, but others are more deadly. There are two main protagonists. One is Norvell Bligh, a nebbish designer of game spectacles for a second-rank corporation who is thrown out of his job and his GML home, a victim of office politics. His gold-digger wife, instead of leaving him, returns with him to her roots in the slum, kicking her daughter out to join a gang and bring in some money. The other is Charles Mundin, an attorney scratching out a living in criminal practice, barred from more lucrative commercial work by the licensing monopolies of the large law firms. By chance they encounter siblings Norma and Donald Lavin, who inherited 25% of GML stock from their father, the inventor of the Bubble House. Donald placed the share certificates in a safe deposit box, and then was kidnapped and "conditioned", as are many common criminals. He can no longer tell anyone where the stock certificates are, and any attempt to obtain duplicate certificates from GML will surely result in more foul play. Helping the Lavins, they discover the truth behind GML and confront "Green, Charlesworth", whose true nature is more bizarre than anyone could imagine. ===== Clemente Soriano prides himself on his wealth, power and family. He has three beautiful daughters, a young, beautiful wife, and loyal servants. He believes that his daughters, Isabella, Diana, and Carolina, only deserve the best. However, past the mask of a loving father lays the man who will do anything to gain what he wants. Even murder. Octavio Uriarte and his mother Socorro have been the enemies of Clemente, since the birth of his first daughter. Both Uriartes are convinced that Clemente killed Octavio's brother, Servando, to gain possession of his ranch "La Noria" and his wife Isabella. But only Paz, the faithful maid and nanny of Clemente's daughters, and Pascual, the foreman of "La Noria", know the truth of what really happened between Clemente and Servando 28 years ago. Isabella, the eldest of Clemente's daughters, is her father's pride and joy. She is prideful, and is ruthless in business, just like her father. She loves her father, and believes that her father's new wife, Karina, is only interested in the wealth and power she gains from her marriage. Isabella becomes engaged to Cesar the horse trainer in the Olympio, however she finds herself attracted to the new veterinarian Victor Izzaguirre. Victor Izaguirre, a well-known veterinarian who is not legally divorced from his estranged wife Consuelo, the mother of his two daughters: Ximena and Pili. Because Isabella loves Victor, Karina decides to seduce him. Even though Victor loves Isabella very much, he falls in Karina's traps and Isabella, prideful like her father, refuses to hear him out and becomes engaged to Cesar once more. Isabella also has a parallel situation that has to do with her origins. For her, it is painful to know the truth about her birth and her origin and she feels anger against Paz, her nanny, for having lied to her. In the end, Clemente accepts the truth in front of Isabella. Diana, the shyest of the sisters, returns home with a degree in architecture. Without knowing her father's rivalry with Octavio Uriarte, she begins to work for his firm. Even after she finds out about the rivalry, she falls in love with Octavio, who used to be her professor when she studied architecture. At first, what separates the couple is the fact that they are from two rival families, and their age difference. The fact that Mauricio, protégé of Octavio, is also in love with Diana, adds up to the other two obstacles. Even with all of these impediments, Diana gives herself to Octavio's love, but then realizes that the hate between the two families seems unsurmountable. Octavio, disillusioned with Diana, marries Mariana, his old girlfriend. But after so much impediments Diana and Octavio have a baby and end up together and engaged. Carolina, the youngest of the Soriano sisters, returns from her studies in the United States to rekindle her relationship with Rafael, a man who seems only interested in her fortune. However, she ends up falling in love with Pablo, Paz's son, even though she had rejected and humiliated him because of his status and in the end they also end up engaged. Because he believes his daughters deserve better, Clemente destroys their love lives, and inadvertently distances them from himself. Without intention, Clemente becomes the villain of the story. He receives what he deserves when his marriage is destroyed. He becomes isolated and rejected by his daughters, who are his most prized treasure. However, he recognizes all the errors he has made, accepts his daughters' lifestyle and romantic decisions and obtains forgiveness from them. ===== Marquis de Marignan is a brazen womanizer who spends most of his life escaping the wrath of husbands he has angered. Joseph, his faithful valet frequently rescues Marignan from disaster. But when Joseph finds out that his boss has been sleeping with his wife, he plots a scheme to publicly humiliate Marquis by exposing him as a card cheat. The ruse works, but Marignan manages to have the last laugh by faking his own suicide and returning to haunt Joseph into confessing his scheme. ===== Charlie drifts through life as he and his friends enjoy a lifestyle of house parties, casual sex and drugs. However, after breaking into a house to rob it, Charlie finds a gun (they found the keys and address in a handbag they had recently stolen). During the robbery, three of the friends (Charlie, Justin and Damien) accidentally awaken the owner, a hefty Jamaican man who promptly chases them into the street with a golf club. The trio escape, much to the amusement of Justin and Damien. However, despite Charlie promising to tell Justin everything, he decides to keep the gun a secret. Sometime later the story picks up Charlie and Justin as they walk through a disused car park. After looking in the window of a BMW it becomes clear that Julie, the girlfriend of Francis (Dyer), another member of 'The Firm', is having sex with 'local nutter' Eddie (Phil Daniels), who is some 20 years older. By this time in the story it has become clear that Charlie is dissatisfied with his lifestyle and would prefer to try to make something of his life, unlike Justin, who would clearly prefer things to remain the same. This point is highlighted when the two attend a party being thrown by Charlie's cousin Hector Moriati (Richard Driscoll), with Charlie being offered a job as an estate agent. Hector eventually throws Justin out, and Hector in turn asks Charlie to stay (which he does not). On the way back home from the party, the pair begin to fight, Charlie clearly furious that Justin has ruined an opportunity for him to turn his life around. Charlie, as the narrator, informs the audience that from that point on 'Things could never be the same'. The following day Charlie approaches Francis in the street and the pair head off to a boxing gym where Francis announces his intention to propose to Julie. Charlie tells Francis about Julie's affair with Eddie. Francis, in a tearful rage, walks out of the room and goes on the hunt for Eddie, baseball bat in hand. When Francis eventually finds Eddie he smashes the window of his BMW, provoking Eddie to run him down. Charlie then arrives as Francis lies unconscious in the road. As Charlie waits in hospital he is visibly moved by an upset woman, presumably Francis's mother, and decides to take revenge on Eddie with the stolen pistol. After finding Eddie he loses his nerve, prompting Eddie to tell him to 'Fuck off out my house before you and I fall out'. After leaving, Charlie eventually shows the gun to Justin, who becomes very attached to it and suggests that they should kill Eddie. Justin is later insulted by a child in the park and threatens him with the gun, going as far as pushing the barrel into the frightened boy's mouth. Horrified, Charlie snatches the gun from Justin and tells him he no longer wishes to be associated with him. A distressed Justin tries to make amends but Charlie refuses, instead giving him the gun as a farewell gift. Instantly Justin runs off, pursued by Charlie who has realised that Justin intends to use the weapon. Charlie catches up to Justin but only watches as Justin shoots Eddie in the leg (he survives the shot and is heard shouting afterwards) and the pair make their way to the top of a high rise building. The police arrive and Justin tells Charlie to leave or risk being arrested. Charlie seemingly forgives Justin and the two hug. The final scene shows the pair going down different paths: Justin turning himself in to the police with a smile on his face and with a crowd cheering for him, and Charlie as he packs his bags and leaves. A child (who makes several appearances throughout the film) asks Charlie where he's going as he leaves; he simply replies "Somewhere". ===== To make robbing the Money Bin easier, the Beagle Boys acquire anti-inertia and neutra-friction beam pistols from the foolish cabbage professor (The one who invented the petrifying beam in The Mysterious Stone Ray). Next, they march to the Money Bin while evading all obstacles using the beam pistols, including a barbed-wire fence, dogs, portcullis, automatically triggered machine gun nests, and cannonballs. They advance in that way as far as towards the strongroom. There, Scrooge snatches the neutra-friction pistol and fires it at his money, making it behave essentially as a liquid. The Beagle Boys are disappointed when they discover that the money masses are too slippery to carry. They tie up the ducks, leave the beam pistols, and go out to create an opening in the vault's wall to allow the money to flow out from the Money Bin. At that time, the ducks exploit the situation, they free themselves from the ropes with the help of the beam pistols. Scrooge hurries to the roof terrace and shoots an anti-inertia beam at the tools the Beagle Boys are using to bust a hole in the wall, which makes their tools useless. At last the Beagle Boys catch on, and attack simultaneously with many bulldozers. At the same time, the beam gun runs out of power, and the excessive use of the ray guns has weakened the concrete in the walls. The bin cracks like an egg, and the money masses wave over Duckburg and wash down the drain network owned by Scrooge. The ducks leave to rescue the money with Donald Duck's car, which now also is free from inertia and therefore amazingly fast. The money is caught on barges and carried back to the Money bin. Later, Scrooge shoots the Beagle Boys with both beam pistols and then shoves them into prison with a flick of his finger. Back in the second Money Bin, Scrooge is getting all of his money flowing back inside. Donald reminds him about the deal, where Scrooge promised to give him as many thousand-dollar bills that he can hold if he can protect his money. Scrooge gives them to him, but because the money is still friction-less, the money simply flows out of Donald's arms and back into the vault. ===== Lucky Kapoor (Fardeen Khan) lives in Australia and has no interest in taking over his father Virendra Kapoor's (Harsh Chhaya) business in India. Meanwhile, Saba Karim Shah (Feroz Khan) has a great interest in a plot of land owned by Mr. Kapoor, but Mr. Kapoor has no interest in selling. Shah thus has Mr. Kapoor killed, making it look like an accident. Jessica Periera (Celina Jaitly), a childhood sweetheart of Lucky, has proof that Mr. Kapoor's death was not an accident—but she keeps it to herself. When Karim Shah meets with Lucky to renegotiate, he finds that Lucky is willing to sell—but he also discovers that Lucky bears a striking resemblance to his own dead son. Although Karim Shah will do anything to make Lucky heir to his own wealth and properties, Lucky remains unwilling. ===== In Batman's first episode of the second season, The Archer, a villain modeled after Robin Hood, escapes from Police Headquarters in a moving van from the Trojan Hearse Company, driven by Maid Marilyn. Together, with his band of "merry malefactors" - Crier Tuck and Big John (a play on Friar Tuck and Little John, respectively) - he pays a surprise visit to Wayne Manor. The inhabitants are gassed and cash is stolen. Later, the crew attacks Police Headquarters. When they are giving out other stolen cash they are apprehended by Batman and Robin. The Gotham citizens enriched by the muggers save them from arrest. Batman and Robin trace the Archer to his hideout at the Earl of Huntington Archery Range (Robin Hood was the alias of the Earl of Huntingdon) in Gotham's Green Forest section, where Alfred Pennyworth attempts to divert the antagonists long enough for Batman and Robin to inspect his lair. The two are trapped in a giant net. The Archer threatens to behead Alfred if he does not get the location of the Batcave, so the crime computers can be destroyed. Knowing the guillotine is fake, Batman refuses and challenges Quigley to a fair duel. The Archer then sets up Batman and Robin to be skewered by lances. ===== In 1973, 26-year-old Cheung Hueyin is abroad in London studying media. Upon her graduation, she learns that she, unlike her white roommates, has been rejected the chance for a job interview by the BBC. Receiving a letter from her mother, she returns to Hong Kong to attend her younger sister's wedding. The relationship between Hueyin and mother Aiko, who is Japanese, has been strained since childhood, partly a result of Aiko's nationality and the cultural problems she encountered living in Hong Kong. From many flashbacks, we see it was Hueyin's paternal grandparents who did much of the early child- rearing, however, they would often overstep boundaries, resulting in family dysfunction. Before the end of World War II and before eventually becoming Mrs. Cheung and Hueyin's mother, Aiko spent time living in Manchukuo. There, she and other Japanese faced serious dilemmas after Japan's defeat and the subsequent uncertainties of imprisonment and punishment. The most intense of these dilemmas came with the serious illness of Aiko's infant nephew. His illness was eventually cured by Mr. Cheung after a chance encounter and desperate roadside plea for help by Aiko. Mr. Cheung was an army translator from Guangdong, China with a background in traditional Chinese medicine. Aiko developed a sense of fondness for him upon seeing his actions and character. Aiko's brother concurred, mentioning that kindness toward children usually indicates a man of integrity. After Mr. Cheung escorted Aiko's family to the Japanese repatriation site, he revealed to Aiko a strong desire to be a romantic couple. In 1973, Hueyin reluctantly agrees to accompany Aiko on a visit to her birthplace in Beppu, Japan. Hueyin initially feels very out of place, not being able to speak the language and having no understanding of Japanese culture. Eventually, though, she bonds with an uncle, learns to accept her Japanese heritage, and finally reaches an understanding with her mother. The experience encourages Hueyin to move beyond the BBC's rejection and become a successful television journalist in Hong Kong. Some time later, Aiko encourages Hueyin to visit her paternal grandparents in Guangdong, where Hueyin finds out one of her very youngest relatives has a mental disability. The film ends with Hueyin praying before a dimly lit, incense-choked ancestral altar, contrasting the open-air shrine she visited in Japan and the outdoor political rallies she now reports on. ===== New in town, homeschooled, and feeling rejected by Leo, the 16-year-old narrator of the first book who had fallen under her spell, she is lonely and sad—her "happy wagon," where she keeps stones representing her level of happiness, is almost empty. She befriends Dootsie, a noisy but lovable 6-year-old who takes a shine to Stargirl and wants to switch. Dootsie introduces her to Betty Lou, an agoraphobic elderly woman. She is quite nice and Stargirl soon becomes friends with her as well. They also share a very nice time watching flowers together. With the arrival of autumn, Stargirl's life is affected as she meets several new characters: Alvina, a grumpy young girl who delivers donuts to Betty Lou; Perry, a teen boy who Alvina is falling in love with; and Perry's "harem," The Honeybees. As winter sets in, Stargirl plans a Winter Solstice party, inviting all of the people she has encountered in her new town to celebrate the beginning of winter by joining her at sunrise on her Enchanted Hill, which she now calls Calendar Hill. Stargirl also discovers the truth about Perry, who has been very mysterious about his family and personal life. She learns his mother has a new baby, whom Perry has been trying to support by working several jobs and by resorting to "stealing" to avoid burdening her with feeding him. In the end, Stargirl becomes worried that no one will show up for her solstice party, but is reassured by Archie, her former teacher, and friend from Arizona, who arrives to attend her celebration and comforts her with his wisdom. On the morning of the day, Stargirl is overwhelmed and surprised when a huge crowd of her friends and acquaintances, and several other people she's unfamiliar with, flock to Calendar Hill, including her friend Betty Lou who hasn't left her house in nine years. The magic moment of sunrise is magnified by a special tent her parents have built, allowing the sunlight to stream in through a hole in the tent, forming a single beam that cuts through the crowd of people and pierces the back wall. Everyone is profoundly affected by the start of this new day and returns home to the start of a cold winter. In the end, Stargirl asks Archie what she should do about missing Leo, and about Perry. He tells her to remember who she is and do what her heart tells her. ===== From the last episode, just as the Dynamic Duo are about to be impaled, they activate Batsprings hidden in their boots, which catapult them out of harm's way. Rather than go back after the unshiskebabed superheroes, the Archer (Art Carney) and his "merry malefactors" opt to beat a hasty retreat to their new hideout in the basement of police headquarters. Next, the Archer and his men hijack an armored car carrying $10 million, which the Wayne Foundation plans to donate to the destitute Gothamites. The truck is later found abandoned not too short a distance away with the cash left untouched, so the ceremony commences as planned. Whilst Alfred Pennyworth (Alan Napier), in disguise as Batman, and Robin bear witness from across the street, Bruce Wayne attends the ceremony, where it's learned that the Archer has substituted the money in the truck for counterfeit currency bearing the Archer's picture. Batman deduces that Alan A. Dale, one of the Wayne Foundation's directors who was responsible for the money's well-being, is one of the Archer's malefactors, and they are planning to escape by boat to Switzerland in the international waters of the Atlantic Ocean, where they feel they'll be forever protected from the law...or so they assume. The Dynamic Duo chase the villains by Batboat and rout the Archer, Crier Tuck (Doodles Weaver), Big John (Loren Ewing), Maid Marilyn (Barbara Nichols), and Alan A. Dale (Robert Cornthwaite) before they get the chance. Maid Marilyn gives Batman & Robin swords with which to defend themselves. Later, Bruce, Dick and Alfred perform archery on their front lawn. Alfred offers to shoot an apple off Dick Grayson's head. Instead they place the apple on a target, which Alfred misses. ===== A man takes a trip to the beach and every object he brings with him, no matter how unlikely, is inflatable. 1962 Ersatz( Surogat) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming: Internet Archive"SUROGAT"/ERSATZ" on Vimeo ===== Simple, abstract, geometric shapes move and morph on the screen to harpsichord music, from a French Suite (BWV 816) by J. S. Bach. The voice of an audience member, who claims to be 71, complains throughout the film despite being told repeatedly by other audience members to keep quiet.Internet Archive The onscreen images feature geometric patterns. The "cranky and clueless" old man is trying to make sense of them, and describes what he sees at various points, including a squiggle, a fence, a cockroach. The old man finds that certain images remind him of the biology classes of his Russian boyhood. When two abstract shapes approach each other and unite, the old man sees it as a mating sequence. "...They like each other. Sure. Lookit da sparks. Two things in love!... Could dis be the sex life of two things?" When the scene shifts from the "mating" to other abstract images, the old man gets bored. He proclaims the images must be symbolism, then adds that they are symbolism of junk.Monaco (2009), pp. 434-435 He eventually concludes that some of the images, depicting lips, are "dirty", obscene.Weber (2003), p. 139 He admits at some point that he was looking for "a hot French picture", which he hoped would involve nudity. The implication is that the old man is in the wrong movie theater, probably one screening art films. He also wonders why the creator of the film wasted his time with this. He points that this creator could instead do something meaningful, like driving a truck, or do something constructive, like working in shoemaking. ===== Erik Toresen, a widower and peaceful man, is stirred to violence after the Nazis occupy his quiet Norwegian fishing village. German abuses lead Erik to form a Resistance group. He kills the head of the Nazis occupying his village, and then escapes to Britain, and guides some British Commandos to a raid on a secret airstrip the Germans are building on the Norwegian coast. ===== Rajkumar plays an upright Panju, who stays in Bankapura with his mother. Due to evil policies of crown prince Vajramuni and princess Jayanti, Panju and villagers are at the risk of losing their lands. When much pleading does not work, Panju leads farmers agitation to the palace, where he is captured, put to jail and tortured. Panju escapes from the prison, kidnaps Jayanti to his village to teach her civic norms and show her the harsh realities normal people face each day. He gets the entire village relocated across adjoining river, so that royal soldiers cannot trace them. He is able to turn the princess to appreciate the normal way-of-life, but faces the wrath of Palace and administration. Can he turn the tides and win his biggest battle? The film also stars Arathi as a village girl who is in love with Panju, who gets killed by Vajramuni for thwarting his advances. ===== Frank (Brent Florence) is a Northern California 20-year-old who has just been dumped by his girlfriend. He and his slacker buddies Joey (Kenny Luper) and Neil (Christian Leffler) want to escape their small town but lack the funds. To finance their escape, they rob the local bingo tournament, and although their haul was small, the three decide to go to the big city anyway. On the road, their car breaks down. They then take Hope (Tracy Zahoryin) and her boyfriend Dave (Josh Holland) as hostages. The group is being pursued by two bumbling cops. ===== Set in 19th century Tiflis, the film details the day-to-day life of a poor but honest Armenian fisherman Pepo (Hrachia Nersisyan) who opposes a cunning trader Arutin Kirakozovich Zimzimov (Avet Avetisyan), who has robbed the former by trickery. The story comes to a conclusion of sorts when Pepo falls in love. ===== The book, set in Amsterdam, relates the tale of a nine-year-old boy named Thomas who see things no one else can, such as invisible hail that "ripped all the leaves from the trees", and tropical fish in the canal. Thomas lives in a family of four: his parents and his sister, Margot. They are not, however, a harmonious family, as their father repeatedly hits their mother, and punishes Thomas by beating him with a wooden spoon. He is a very religious man, but he fears embarrassment and is said to "not belong with people". Thomas writes down everything in his "Book of Everything", a diary which holds his thoughts. ===== Jai Puri, a forest ranger in Alberta, Canada, has the ability to enter a photograph and re-experience the events from a person's point of view. While partying on a boat, his father Jatin meets with an accident. Following his death, a former detective Habeebullah Pasha "Happi" meets Jai and tells him that Jatin had done him a lot of favors, due to which he wants to catch his murderer. Jai initially believes Jatin died naturally due to a heart attack, but decides to use his skills and enter an 8x10 photograph of Jatin, his brother Sunder, his longtime friend and lawyer Anil, and his surrogate son Adit, clicked by Jai's mother Savitri while on the boat. He enters the photo from Jatin's point of view and sees him falling to his death. However, due to staying within the photograph for more than a minute, Jai gets admitted to hospital. He suspects Sunder who watched Jatin fall to death, and chases him but the latter escapes. Happi believes someone gave Jatin extra beta blockers since he had suffered from two heart attacks earlier, and falling into the cold water led to a heart attack. Jai re-enters the photo from Sunder's point of view and sees him mixing the pills into Jatin's drink. Jai is readmitted to the hospital and tells Sheila about everything including his abilities, before they break into Sunder's house and find his strangled corpse. Soon, Jai and Sheila are pursued by a black SUV that tries to kill them. Jai chases the vehicle but the driver manages to flee. Happi enlists the help of Sally, a nurse who helps with medical aide to Jai as he enters the photo from Anil's point of view and sees him talk to Savitri about something she doesn't want a part in. Jai re-enters enters the photo from Adit's point of view and realizes it was him who gave Sunder the pills to mix in Jatin's drink. Adit, realizing Jai knows the truth, tries to kill him but flees when Happi returns after receiving a message from Jai about Adit being the killer. Later, Anil reveals that Jatin wanted to give his wealth to Jai's environment company, due to which the three men planned to kill Jai so that they don't lose their share. Jai realizes Savitri is in danger as she's about to transfer the money, and gets stabbed before Jai arrives and a chase ensues. The attacker manages to escape, but Savitri tells Jai to look for a box inside a room, which he does. He gets an adrenaline injection from Sally, and informs Happi that Jatin saw someone before falling, and that was what he wanted to tell Jai about earlier. He re-enters from Jatin's point of view, and is left in a stupor when the attacker enters and burns the photograph. The attacker and the last person Jatin saw turns out to be Jai's small twin brother Jeet, whose falling from a cliff led to Jai gaining his ability. Jeet, who was assumed dead, believed Jai pushed him on purpose, and a doctor advised Savitri and Jatin to erase Jeet's memories so as to cure Jai. Sheila had been working with Jeet and helped him copy Jai's lifestyle and habits so that he can replace him after killing him. Jeet had also disclosed his identity to Savitri after stabbing her, due to which she told Jai to look for the box containing their photos. However, Jai gains consciousness due to having injected the adrenaline and a brawl ensues, leading to Happi getting killed by Sheila and Jai getting thrown into the water, where he also discovers the corpse of Adit but manages to free himself. Jai holds Sheila on gunpoint and convinces Jeet that his falling from the cliff was merely an accident. He assures him that they can reunite, before Sheila shoots Jeet and herself gets shot by him. ===== The central character, Kemlo, was born and raised in space, on a satellite named Satellite Belt K (one of a number of similar space stations named after a letter of the alphabet). All children born on a space station were given names with the same initial, hence the names Kemlo, Kartin, Kerowski, Krillie, and so on. Kemlo was a Captain of the Space Scouts, who had their own "scooters" - small two-seat personal spacecraft for travel around and between the Satellite Belts. Kemlo, like all children born in space, breathed "plasmorgia" instead of air. This allowed him to breathe in space, although it meant he was unable to travel to Earth without the aid of compressed plasmorgia and "gravity rays". ===== When the Animorphs see a front-page newspaper article about the Sharing in San Francisco they attempt to break into the office of the major local newspaper to determine how deeply infiltrated it is by the Yeerks. Mr. King, a Chee android, is captured and is about to be destroyed, and the group bursts out of hiding to rescue him. It is soon evident that the situation is a trap set up by Visser Three, and he joins the battle, engaging directly with Ax and the others in Andalite form. As the Animorphs try to run, a small group of new Andalites appear out of the elevator, and turn the tides of the battle. Tobias informs them that the police are coming, and the groups call an uneasy truce and depart to maintain secrecy. Ax, excited to see his own people after so long, is afraid to leave them without knowing how to contact them, but a female who fought next to him, Estrid-Corill-Darrath, reveals that they know his identity and will find him. Back at Cassie's barn, Ax is excited that the Andalite fleet has finally arrived, but the others aren't so sure. After a few assertions that Ax is not seeing the situation clearly, in part because of a crush on Estrid, and a jab from Rachel about where his loyalties lay, Ax leaves the barn in anger after assuring them that he will follow Jake's command. He runs until his anger cools, at which point he realizes that he is deeply infatuated with Estrid. Tobias and Ax go to the food court where they discover Estrid in human morph making a scene that attracts mall security. They escape with her because Tobias pretended that Estrid was his sister. They set up a meeting with her superiors. The newcomers are offended that Ax disobeyed their orders by bringing Jake (and the others, they soon find out) to the meeting, and that he is following a human's command. After much in-fighting amongst themselves, the small group of Andalites with an out-of-date ship accidentally reveal that they are the only Andalites in the area, and not fore-runners of the fleet as Ax had assumed. The group has been sent to Earth on a mission to assassinate Visser Three. Ax finds himself fighting competitively with the Aristh Estrid, whom he beats, but just barely. He admires her skill in tailfighting, but is confused by her lack of military decorum. The letdown of the further delay of the fleet causes the Animorphs to split up in a dramatic scene at Cassie's barn. Each member leaves for reasons typical of their character, with Jake finally releasing Ax to try to go home, if he can. Ax, once the humans are gone, calls out Estrid, who has been hiding in the barn in rabbit morph, but poorly concealed due to a lack of understanding of the animal's typical behavior. He tells her he will teach her about Earth, and she takes him back to the Andalite ship. The other members of the ship are Commander Gonrod-Isfall-Sonilli, Intelligence Advisor Arbat-Elivat-Estoni, and the assassin Aloth-Attamil-Gahar. Ax is shown around the ship by Aloth, who reveals that he was in prison for selling organs off a battlefield prior to the current assignment. Aloth, who is deeply cynical about the whole group, reveals that Gonrod, while an excellent pilot, was also in prison for cowardice during battle, and that Arbat has the Andalite War Council wrapped around his finger. There is some ambiguity as to who the real "leader" of the expedition is. It is revealed to Ax that Arbat is the brother of Alloran-Semitur-Corrass, Visser Three's host. The ship, the Ralek River, is an old laboratory ship, whose lab-level has been sealed off to conserve energy. Ax notes the strangeness of the situation and is certain that Estrid is not really an Aristh after she audaciously announces that she is going to the Gardens and wants Ax to show her around. The two fly to the Gardens and explore in Andalite form. Estrid asks Ax about jelly beans, and he kicks some M&Ms; out of a vending machine for her to try in human morph in response. The two assume human forms, and they kiss after eating. They agree that it is pleasant, though not as much as chocolate. Ax is clearly smitten. On the flight back, he silently contemplates for a moment the idea of running away with Estrid and leaving behind the difficult shades of gray of his life. He shakes off the reverie, and they return to the ship to plan for the morning's attack on the Visser. Ax later suddenly realizes that Estrid had made a joking reference to plintconarhythmic equations, which are employed in an incredibly complex bio-engineering field involving clear thought in n-dimensions, but uneasily writes it off as a figure of speech. The Andalites (minus Estrid, whom Arbat forces to stay behind) infiltrate the Community Center and make it all the way to the inner sanctum without raising the alarm. Arbat, who has demanded he have the first shot out of pride after Aloth implies that he might not give the order to kill his brother's body, misses an easy shot, even though he has proved himself a competent fighter prior to this mission. A battle ensues, and Ax fails to kill the visser out of a morality-induced hesitation. Aloth is injured when he breaks concentration for a moment to look for Gonrod, who has fled back to the ship. Arbat kills Aloth under the pretense that he "was too injured to save", which is a lie. Furious and confused, Ax is certain that something very strange is going on. Ax gets Mr. King to help him hack into the ship's computers and gain access to the high- security files concealed by Arbat. All of the members of the Andalite team are officially listed as dead in combat, and Estrid is not on record at all in the military. The ship was listed as destroyed in the same battle. Ax realizes that the ship is on a suicide mission, and that Arbat has something planned that the Andalite War Council does not "officially" know about. Hearing motion on the supposedly empty laboratory level of the ship, Ax confronts Estrid and forces her to talk by threatening to open a vial of some unknown substance of which she is terrified. Estrid reveals that she was never in the military, but she learned to tail-fight from her famously-skilled brother. She was a young genius and was discovered by Arbat at the university after initially being ignored as a result of her gender. She took up plintconarhythmic physics under his guidance, and she has created a programmable prion virus (the vial that Ax puts down) that will destroy the Yeerks - and very possibly wipe out humans as well. Arbat finds them and traps them, and Ax explains to Estrid that their mission does not officially exist and is not sanctioned by general Andalite society like she was led to believe. Arbat takes the vial of the disease and leaves them. As Estrid apologizes, the Animorphs are revealed to be on board, as their "split-up" was simply a ploy to get Ax in with the Andalites. The Animorphs free them, and the group of seven finds evidence of Arbat and follows him to the Yeerk Pool in human form, except for Tobias, who stays as a hawk. Ax spots Arbat's human morph by his Andalite instinct to keep looking around now that he has only two eyes, and he stops him on the pier over the Yeerk Pool, prolonging the chaos by yelling that the Hork-Bajir are Andalite Bandits in disguise. In the ensuing confusion, the Animorphs begin to attack, and Ax and Estrid move to a hidden spot to demorph. Estrid, terrified and disgusted by the Yeerk Pool, refuses to demorph and fight to protect the humans, who are not part of their species. Ax leaves to protect his friends, telling her that she is beautiful and brilliant, but he "[doesn't] think [he likes her] very much." The battle is bloody and the group is outnumbered, though their backs are covered by human hosts who have linked together into a living shield. Arbat makes it back to the pier, and Ax cannot reach him in time. He is about to drop the vial into the pool when Estrid vaporizes it along with Arbat's hand using a Dracon beam. At that moment, Gonrod (at Tobias' urging) burns a hole through the roof of the cavernous complex, and rescues the Animorphs with the Andalite ship. Ax leaves Arbat to die at the hands of the Taxxons. Ax gives Estrid a cinnamon bun as a parting gift, but he refuses to return home with her. She does not understand his loyalty and dedication to his non-Andalite friends. The fate of Estrid and Gonrod is unknown. The Animorphs and Ax all assume human forms and enjoy their victory. They walk to get food, although not at the McDonald's as Tobias and Gonrod had destroyed the place to burn into the Yeerk Pool. Despite the unawareness of most of the others, Cassie picks up on Ax's pain and holds his hand as the group walks and he cries, invisibly, in the dark. ===== Lesley Hahn lives in California, and is plagued by nightmares about faceless telephone repairmen entering her house and taking her. She contacts psychiatrist Dr. Neil Chase in hope of receiving treatment for her nightmares. Mary Wilkes, is a housewife from Nebraska who has a history of unexplained blackouts and one night ends up on a motorway miles from her home. She is also plagued by nightmares similar to those experienced by Lesley. Mary decides to take a holiday in California with her sister, who knows Dr. Chase, and is persuaded to see the psychiatrist to find out if he can help with her nightmares. Initially, Dr. Chase does not believe Lesley, thinking her nightmares to be related to childhood abuse, but becomes convinced something else is happening when Mary tells him of similar experiences. Neil is struck by the similarities between the two cases, and realises that symbols seen on board an alien ship and drawn by Mary are similar to that of another patient of his, a former soldier who encountered a crashed UFO which was recovered by the government. Making contact with a university professor who does research into alien abductions, he begins to investigate the wider world of alien encounters, and runs into a general who is investigating UFOs in secret. Finally, Mary is abducted again, and learns the true purpose of the aliens. ===== The Yeerks repair a downed Helmacron ship and use its sensors to track the Escafil Device and the Animorphs morphing abilities. Cassie is forced to relocate the Escafil Device. During the process, a Cape buffalo and an ant inadvertently gain the morphing ability. The buffalo morphs Chapman and begins to learn speech, and the ant morphs Cassie. Cassie kills the ant when it demorphs, and near the end of the book the buffalo is killed by a Dracon beam. However, the Animorphs come up with a plan similar to Megamorphs #1, in which Cassie morphs a humpback whale in midair to destroy the helicopter carrying the Helmacron ship. ===== Sixteen- year-old Griet has to leave her family home in Delft in 1664 after her father is blinded in an accident. As a tile-painter, her father is a member of the artists’ guild, so employment is found for her as a maid in painter Johannes Vermeer's household. In the strictly stratified society of the time, this is a fall in status because of the bad reputation that maids have for stealing, spying and sleeping with their employers. A further complication is that the Vermeers belong to the grudgingly tolerated Catholic minority while Griet is a Protestant. At their home, she befriends the family's oldest daughter, Maertge, but is never on good terms with the spiteful Cornelia, a younger daughter who takes after her class-conscious mother, Catharina. Griet also finds it difficult to keep on the right side of Tanneke, the other house servant, who is moody and jealous. Griet lives for two years at her employers’ and is only allowed to visit her home on Sundays, where the family circle is breaking up. Her younger brother Frans is apprenticed outside and eventually her younger sister Agnes dies of the plague. But during the early months of her work at the Vermeers', Pieter, the son of the family butcher at the meat market, starts courting Griet. She has been strictly brought up and does not welcome this at first, but tolerates his interest because it is of advantage to her impoverished parents. Griet is increasingly fascinated by Vermeer's paintings. Vermeer discovers that Griet has an eye for art and secretly asks her to run errands and perform tasks for him, such as mixing and grinding colors for his paints and acting as a substitute model. This takes up much of her time, and Griet arouses the suspicions of Catharina, but Vermeer's mother- in-law, Maria Thins, recognizes Griet's presence as a steadying and catalyzing force in Vermeer's career and connives at the domestic arrangements that allow her to devote more time to his service. However, Griet is warned by Vermeer's friend, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, not to get too close to the artist because he is more interested in painting than he is in people. Realizing that this is true, Griet remains cautious. Vermeer's wealthy but licentious patron, Pieter van Ruijven, notices “the wide-eyed maid”, molests her when he can and pressures Vermeer to paint them together, as he had with an earlier maid that Van Ruijven had then made pregnant. Griet and Vermeer are therefore reluctant to fulfil this request and eventually Vermeer comes up with a compromise. Van Ruijven will be painted with members of his own family and Vermeer will paint a portrait of Griet by herself which is to be sold to Van Ruijven. For the painting, he forces her to pierce her ears and wear his wife's pearl earrings without her permission. Cornelia seizes the chance to let Catharina discover this and in the resulting scandal Vermeer remains silent and Griet is forced to leave. Ten years later, long after Griet has married Pieter and settled into life as a mother and butcher's wife, she is called back to the house following Vermeer's death. Griet assumes that Vermeer's widow wishes to settle the household's unpaid butcher’s bill. There Griet learns that Vermeer had asked for her painting to be hung in the room as he was dying. In addition, though the family is now poorer, Vermeer's will has included a request that Griet receive the pearl earrings that she wore when he painted her, which Van Leeuwenhoek forces Catharina to hand over. Griet realizes, however, that she could no more wear them as a butcher's wife than she could have as a maid. She therefore decides to pawn the earrings and pay the fifteen guilders owed to her husband from the price. ===== In Connecticut, Max and Jessica are a high school couple and very much in love after meeting as freshmen. Max has an interest in construction, while Jessica's ambition is to be an orthopedic surgeon. Jessica lives with her mother and younger sister. She must contend with the aftermath of her parents' acrimonious divorce. She still believes in the meaning of true love when she allows Max to sneak into her bedroom so that the couple can spend more time together. Their plan is to attend Harvard University. When Jessica's father, Roger, reveals that his girlfriend, Kelly, is pregnant and they are going to get married, Jessica and her sister are shocked and disgusted. Jessica's father expects his older daughter to tell his ex-wife of the impending marriage. When Jessica sees her mother arrive home after a bad date with a philatelist, she does not reveal to her what her father has told her. Jessica discovers that Harvard has accepted her. She and Max are ecstatic. The couple are then less than enthusiastic when Jessica and Max learn that Harvard has deferred Max's acceptance. Matters improve for the couple when Max proposes to Jessica on Valentine's Day. He feels that he has never been more sure of anything and that they are ready to spend the rest of their lives together. He loves his fiancé because of her optimistic attitude, the fact that she is headstrong and her ability to make things work. Jessica immediately accepts and feels that in spite of the proposal, she will still attend Harvard. Jessica and Max announce their engagement plans to both sets of parents. As a consequence of Jessica's young age (i.e. seventeen), she requires consent from her parents. Roger feels as if his daughter will be compromising her university education and does not wish to play a part in Jessica and Max's marriage. Max's father supports his son's decision because he feels that Jessica is a terrific person and that he and his wife also married at a young age. Jessica's mother makes her daughter promise that she will finish college and earn her degree, as well as use birth control. On Jessica's wedding day, Roger begs his daughter not to go through with the marriage. Max and Jessica get married and live at Jessica's home, as her mother gives them permission. Tensions arise when Max moves his trophies into the room and Jessica becomes slightly uncomfortable. In spite of this, Max and Jessica seem happy to spend the rest of their lives together. Unfortunately, Harvard rejects Max. Jessica shows her ability to rectify situations when the couple rents off-campus accommodation because they want to be together. Jessica meets Sophie and Carter, two freshmen. They are curious and surprised about Jessica's marriage. Jessica and Carter share a romantic kiss after she hears him play his guitar at a local bar, but Jessica tells him that it must never happen again. Tensions arise between Jessica and Max when Max forgets to pay the electricity bill, although he does make an effort to make good his wrong by preparing a candlelight supper. Jessica also becomes even more annoyed with her husband when he reveals that he does not want to attend college. When Max sees Carter and Jessica having a drink together, Jessica stays at Sophie's for a trial separation from Max. Later, when Max tries to apologize to Jessica, she realizes that he has been kissing another young woman. Carter and Jessica spend more time together. This culminates in the two kissing passionately, which Jessica stops. Outside Carter's place, they run into Max and another young woman. Max and Jessica both move back to their respective homes temporarily. Max's parents encourage him to get an annulment or divorce. Jessica's mother advises her that a test of a strong marriage is the ability to get through challenging times. When the couple has dinner together, Max reveals that he has started to fill in college applications and that he has been offered an internship at an architect's office. The film ends with Max and Jessica making a concerted effort to rebuild their marriage. ===== In 1780 General Benedict Arnold commands the Continental Army defenses at West Point, New York. Major John Bolton (Cornel Wilde), a dragoon officer assigned to counterintelligence, intercepts and kills a British spy leaving the Storm King Tavern, and captures a letter found on his body. He reports to Gen. Robert Howe (John McIntire), that the coded message was from the British spy calling himself "Gustavus" to "James Osborn", in care of Dr. Jonathan Odell of New York, stating that Arnold has taken command at West Point. The secret knowledge indicates that the spy is a "highly placed person". Bolton returns to the tavern, where one of his contacts, stable boy Ben Potter (Bobby Driscoll), tells him that the Tory wife of a redcoat, Mrs. Sally Cameron (Anne Francis), is traveling under a flag of truce possibly carrying information to the enemy. She catches them searching her room, where Bolton takes her safe conduct pass after verbally sparring with her. Mrs. Cameron tries to seduce Bolton to obtain its return, but he rebuffs her. A messenger arrives with a package for "Mr. Moody", but when no one by that name can be found, another traveler, Col. Winfield, offers to deliver the package. Bolton recognizes that Winfield is an imposter, and in a struggle over the package, kills him. Other American officers arrest Bolton for murder and deliver him to Howe. A pass through the lines found hidden in Winfield's boot reveals that the impostor was actually Moody, a spy, who had another coded letter from "Gustavus" to "Osborn" in his possession. The package, a ream of blank paper, concealed a message from "Osborn" written in invisible ink requesting an urgent meeting to finalize an unknown arrangement. Howe proposes that Bolton feign desertion to the British. Bolton agrees, aware that he could be hanged if the British discover his mission. With Moody's pass, Bolton passes through the British lines, but the British lieutenant on duty recognizes that he is not the same man who previously used the pass and follows him. In New York, Bolton calls upon Dr. Odell (George Sanders), trying to deliver the letter. The lieutenant bursts in to arrest Bolton, but when he addresses him as "Mr. Moody", Odell takes Bolton and the letter to British Army Major John André (Michael Wilding) for deciphering, using a pair of spectacles to isolate key words. Bolton claims that he was Moody's source of information. He offers to continue working for the British. Odell bluntly tells Bolton that he thinks his story is too neat and believes him to be a Rebel spy. But André takes an immediate liking to Bolton. He invites him to a dinner party that evening, where Bolton suffers an anxious moment when Sally Cameron (unmarried and André's mistress) is present. Bolton's explanation corroborates information about the murder that André had checked, and Sally provides the perfect eyewitness. Bolton is sent with two Tory agents to sabotage the chain barrier across the Hudson River before a British attack on the American position at Verplanck, so that British warships can pass. André gives one a letter to deliver afterwards at the Storm King Tavern. Bolton drowns one agent, but when he tries to arrest the other, is confronted by an armed Ben Potter, who still thinks that Bolton is a murderer and deserter. The agent disarms Ben and nearly kills Bolton. Ben finds his gun and shoots the agent. At a secret meeting with Howe, Bolton uses spectacles to decipher the letter, which points to Gustavus as someone at West Point with authority. Bolton volunteers to return to New York to identify the mysterious "James Osborn". Odell more than ever believes Bolton is a spy, but Bolton convinces André that the British agents completed their mission. To trap him, Odell writes a false dispatch from "Mr. Osborn" for Bolton to steal. At another dinner, Bolton notices that Sally Cameron only pretends to toast the King. She has also fallen in love with him and warns Bolton about Odell's trap. The British attack on Verplanck is crushed and results in Bolton's arrest as a Rebel spy. He is saved from hanging by André, who intervenes for him after Sally confesses her feelings for Bolton and begs him to vouch on Bolton's behalf. He does so, despite her refusal of his marriage proposal. Putting duty before personal considerations, André asks Bolton to accompany him to a meeting between "Gustavus" and "Osborn" aboard the sloop Vulture. André assures Bolton that "Gustavus" and "Osborn" have conjured a quick end to the war. The wily "Gustavus" changes the meeting at the last moment to the house of a Tory sympathizer and orders André to come alone. Bolton persuades André to go in uniform, and not in civilian clothing, lest he be captured as a spy. Soon after, Odell detects Bolton warning American shore batteries of the British presence, but Bolton escapes by swimming ashore to the American garrison. The American commander, Col. Jameson (James Westerfield), is skeptical of Bolton's loyalties and stubbornly holds him until Howe can vouch for him. "Gustavus" escapes. "Osborn" is captured and Bolton realizes that Benedict Arnold is "Gustavus". To his horror, Bolton learns that "Osborn" is André, and worse, that he changed into civilian clothes trying to escape. At André's court-martial, Bolton testifies that André entered the lines in uniform and changed into civilian clothing only at Arnold's treacherous orders. The court reluctantly sentences André to be executed as a spy. André pledges his continuing friendship with Bolton and asks him to protect Sally from any retribution. Bolton brokers a last-minute deal to exchange André for Arnold, but André considers the suggestion a taint on his honor and declines. ===== Obukhov Hospital in St. Petersburg, Russia, where Hermann is committed at the story's conclusion Hermann, an ethnic German, is an officer of the engineers in the Imperial Russian Army. He constantly watches the other officers gamble, but never plays himself. One night, Tomsky tells a story about his grandmother, an elderly countess. Many years ago, in France, she lost a fortune at faro, and then won it back with the secret of the three winning cards, which she learned from the notorious Count of St. Germain. Hermann becomes obsessed with obtaining the secret. The countess (who is now 87 years old) has a young ward, Lizavyeta Ivanovna. Hermann sends love letters to Lizavyeta, and persuades her to let him into the house. There Hermann accosts the countess, demanding the secret. She first tells him that story was a joke, but Hermann refuses to believe her. He repeats his demands, but she does not speak. He draws a pistol and threatens her, and the old lady dies of fright. Hermann then flees to the apartment of Lizavyeta in the same building. There he confesses to frightening the countess to death with his pistol. He defends himself by saying that the pistol was not loaded. He escapes from the house with the aid of Lizavyeta, who is disgusted to learn that his professions of love were a mask for greed. Hermann attends the funeral of the countess, and is terrified to see the countess open her eyes in the coffin and look at him. Later that night, the ghost of the countess appears. The ghost names the secret three cards (three, seven, ace), tells him he must play just once each night and then orders him to marry Lizavyeta. Hermann takes his entire savings to Chekalinsky's salon, where wealthy men gamble at faro for high stakes. On the first night, he bets it all on the three and wins. On the second night, he wins on the seven. On the third night, he bets on the ace—but when cards are shown, he finds he has bet on the Queen of Spades, rather than the ace, and loses everything. When the Queen appears to wink at him, he is astonished by her remarkable resemblance to the old countess, and flees in terror. In a short conclusion, Pushkin writes that Lizavyeta marries the son of the Countess' former steward, a state official who makes a good salary. Hermann, however, goes mad and is committed to an asylum. He is installed in Room 17 at the Obukhov hospital; he answers no questions, but merely mutters with unusual rapidity: "Three, seven, ace! Three, seven, queen!" ===== The story starts with her birth in 1537. The daughter of Lady Frances Brandon and Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, Jane is seen as a burden by her parents, both of whom resent her for being a girl instead of a boy, and is regularly beaten by her mother. Jane grows up close to her nurse, Mrs. Ellen and is highly educated, to the standards of a princess. After Henry VIII's death and Catherine Parr's marriage to Thomas Seymour, Jane goes to live with the former queen and her husband to further her education while her elders plot her marriage to Edward VI of England. When it becomes clear that the young king will not live long, other plans are made for Jane. John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, gets the young Edward to proclaim Jane as his successor. He does this by proclaiming his half sisters, Mary and Elizabeth I of England, both bastards and not fit to take the throne. According to Edward's father's will, if all his children were to die without heirs, then the succession to the crown would follow the lineage of his late younger sister, Mary Tudor. Frances, the daughter of Mary, relinquishes her right to the crown in order for it to go to her eldest daughter, Jane, since she had no sons. To secure his position Northumberland marries Jane off to Guilford Dudley, his youngest son. Jane is openly displeased with the man chosen to be her husband. On Edward's death, Northumberland and Henry Grey go forward with their plan and put Jane on the throne, proclaiming her to be the rightful heir to the throne. At first, a reluctant Jane instead proclaims Mary the rightful queen, but is forced by her elders to take the throne as her own. There is little support for her claim, though. Even many Protestant nobles, whose support had been counted on, rally to Mary. When Mary rides into town proclaiming herself the rightful queen, Jane puts up no fight and is happy to relinquish the title to her cousin. Thinking Mary will be kind to her, Jane is not worried, even though she is confined to the Tower of London; she had spent her brief "reign" there, and the main change is that she is no longer living in the royal apartments. Mary's fiance, Philip II of Spain, pressures Mary to rid England of the usurper Jane after yet another attempt by Jane's father to overthrow Mary and put Jane back on the throne. Mary reluctantly acquiesces for fear of displeasing her husband-to-be. Mary signs a warrant for execution of both Lady Jane Grey and her husband, Guilford Dudley. She is sympathetic towards Jane, offering her a few more days before the execution, while promising to spare her life, if she converts from the Protestant faith to the Catholic faith. Stubborn in her religious ways, Jane refuses and pays the price. On 12 February 1554 Jane is taken to the Tower Green, where she faces the scaffold and dies a traitor's death. Even the executioner feels sorry for her. ===== The film follows the fortunes of a 17-year-old, Del, and his group of friends. As the film opens, four youths (Del, Roy, Chris and Geoff) are seen breaking into a cafe in Stratford, East London, but they only get away with about ninepence and some cake, and it is clear that they are hardly master criminals. Back at their hut on waste ground they mention Jo, known as 'Bronco Bullfrog' (for reasons which are never explained), who has just got out of Borstal. Once Del and Roy (Chris and Geoff are hardly seen again in the film) meet Jo in a cafe, they link up with him to carry out a bigger robbery. Meanwhile, Del meets Irene, a friend of a cousin of Chris's and they start a relationship despite the disapproval of Irene's mother and Del's father. The remainder of the film follows Del and Irene as they attempt to escape their dead-end lives. ===== Jim (Alun Armstrong) is a Latin teacher who is retiring after a long career at the same public school he attended as a boy. He has led a sheltered and lonely life and is determined to see the world and fall in love. His plans are delayed when his father (David Morris) has a stroke. The cab that picks Jim up from school is driven by Ray (Paul Freeman), a widower whose grown children, Caz (Tamzin Outhwaite) and Little Ray (Jason Flemyng), use him as an unpaid babysitter for their kids. Ray also feels lonely and unfulfilled, and the terminal illness of his friend Billy (Karl Johnson) has made him face his own mortality. He is inspired to take charge of his own life after learning of Jim's plans. Despite their different backgrounds, shy academic Jim and former football hooligan Ray become friends. Although Jim is sexually inexperienced and Ray has lived a lifetime as a heterosexual, their friendship eventually develops into a romantic relationship. The situation is further complicated by the reactions of Ray's children. ===== One night, a thief fleeing through Georgetown in Washington, D.C., is shot by a man carrying a briefcase. A deliveryman who witnesses the incident is also shot by the killer and is left in a coma. The following morning, a young woman is killed by a Washington Metro train in what seems to be suicide. Congressman Stephen Collins is distraught to hear that the woman was Sonia Baker, a researcher on his staff. Collins, who has military experience, is leading an investigation into PointCorp, a private defense contractor with controversial operations involving mercenaries. Collins tells his college roommate and old friend Cal McAffrey, an investigative reporter, that he had been having an affair with Sonia and that she had sent him a cheerful video message on the morning of her death, which he says is inconsistent and unusual behavior for someone about to commit suicide. Della Frye, a reporter and blogger with the online division of Cal's newspaper and its editor, Cameron Lynne, discover that Sonia's death occurred in one of only three CCTV blind spots in the Metro camera system. Cal believes the shootings are related to Sonia's death and finds a link between the thief and a homeless girl who sought out Cal. The girl gives him photographs that the thief, a friend of hers, had stolen from the killer's briefcase. The photos show surveillance images of Sonia talking to a well- dressed man. Della visits the hospital where the deliveryman is regaining consciousness and witnesses his murder by an unseen sniper. Later, she reviews CCTV footage and recognizes a man she saw at the hospital. It is later revealed that PointCorp stands to gain billions of dollars annually from its mercenary activities in the Middle East and domestically. Cal speaks with Collins, who shares his research findings: PointCorp is cooperating with other defense contractors to create a monopoly and purchase government surveillance and defense contracts, essentially privatizing United States security. Cal's PointCorp insider returns with the address of someone linked to the suspected assassin. Cal finds the assassin living there and calls the police, who force the man to disappear after he shoots at Cal. Della, following a lead, finds the identity of the well-dressed man who was speaking to Sonia in the listed photographs. He is Dominic Foy, a PR executive working for a subsidiary of PointCorp. Cal blackmails Foy into talking about his activities with Sonia and secretly tapes their conversation. He reveals that Sonia was being paid to spy on Collins and to seduce him to get information for PointCorp, but she fell in love with Collins and was pregnant with his child when she was killed. Before Cal's newspaper goes to press, Collins goes on record to present his research into PointCorp, talks about his affair with Sonia, and states his belief that PointCorp is behind Sonia's death. Collins's estranged wife Anne, whose conversation with Cal seems to imply a past love triangle dating back to their college years, casually reveals to Cal that she knows the amount of money Sonia received from PointCorp, after hearing Collins's statement to the newspaper. After the couple leaves, Cal remembers that he and Della never told Collins the specific amount of money Sonia was being paid by PointCorp. Cal realizes that Collins knows much more about Sonia's involvement with PointCorp and wonders if Collins himself is connected with Sonia's assassin. A picture of Collins from his military days, with the assassin in the frame, confirms Cal's hunch. Collins reveals that he had been suspicious of Sonia, and that he hired the assassin to watch her. The assassin is U.S. Army corporal Robert Bingham, whose life Collins had once saved. Collins says that Bingham hated PointCorp more than he did, and that he killed Sonia with no authorization. Cal tells Collins that he has three minutes to leave his office before the police arrive, as he has already contacted them. As he leaves the building, Cal is confronted by Bingham. Officers arrive and shoot Bingham before he opens fire. Back at the offices later that night, Cal types up the story, noting that Collins was secured and arrested. He puts Della first on the byline and lets her submit the story for publication. ===== Mike Lee raises his daughter Lady Lee to be as honest a gambler as he is. When he gets too much in debt to the underworld syndicate headed by Jim Fallin, he commits suicide rather than be pressured into running a crooked game. Lady initially goes to work for Fallin, then quits and sets out on her own when he tries to "help" her by providing a crooked dealer. Longtime admirer and bookie Charlie Lang proposes to her, but it is persistent young Garry Madison, who wins her heart despite unknowingly bringing two policemen in disguise to the illegal gambling den where she is playing. She resists marrying him, fearing the reaction of his high society father, but is pleased to learn that she already knows and likes Peter Madison, a fellow gambler. However, Peter does disapprove of the union, offering to buy her off. When she rejects his money, but meekly gives up Garry, he realizes he has mistaken her motives. Being a sporting man, he offers to cut cards for his son. He draws a jack, but Lady picks a queen, and the young couple get married. Barbara Stanwyck in Gambling Lady They are happy at first, but then both feel the pangs of jealousy. When Garry's old girlfriend, Sheila Aiken, returns from Europe, he makes the mistake of greeting her too warmly. Lady challenges her to a game of cards, and wins her jewelry. When Charlie Lang is arrested, Garry refuses his wife's request for $10,000 to bail him out, so she pawns Sheila's jewels to raise the money. Charlie offers to reimburse her, telling her that he intends to pressure the syndicate into paying for his silence about what he knows. Garry becomes incensed when Lady's involvement with Charlie is reported in the newspapers. He goes out to recover the pawn ticket, now in Charlie's hands. Garry does not return that night. The next day, two policemen inform Lady that Garry has been arrested for Charlie's murder, having been seen arguing with him and later being found in possession of the pawn ticket. Lady figures out that Garry spent the night with Sheila, but is unwilling to use that as an alibi. Lady sees Sheila, who is willing to testify, but only if Lady divorces her husband and insists on $250,000 alimony. Lady agrees to her terms. Garry is released and the divorce is granted. Both Garry and Peter believe at first that Lady was in it for the money all along, but when Peter sees her tear up the check, he realizes they were wrong. Garry tricks Sheila into admitting the truth, then reconciles with Lady. ===== Gold-digging chorus girl Mary (Carole Lombard) marries the head of a bootlegging syndicate, gangster "Shoots" Magiz (Nat Pendleton), but his illegal liquor business goes down the drain when Prohibition is repealed, and Shoots is knocked off by rival Daniel Dingle (Sam Hardy). Mary, looking for a new sugar daddy, hooks up with Dingle, and when Dingle is removed from the scene by Mickey "The Greek" Mikapopoulis (Leo Carrillo), transfers her attention to him in return for a "trust fund." All the time, fast-talking straight-shooter Jimmy "Office Boy" Burnham (Chester Morris), Shoots' former bodyguard and errand boy, has looked after Mary, passing her advice and snappy remarks whenever needed. In the end, Mary and Office Boy end up together but only after "Merry Widow Mary" gives away all the dirty money she was given.Erickson, Hal Plot synopsis (All Movie)TCM Full synopsis ===== Zeno, an illegitimate son, is born in the Ligre household, a rich banking family of Bruges. Zeno renounces a comfortable career in the priesthood and leaves home to find truth at the age of 20. In his youth, after leaving Bruges, he greedily seeks knowledge by roaming the roads of Europe and beyond, leaving in his wake a nearly legendary -- but also dangerous -- reputation of genius due to the works he accomplishes. ===== The story is about Tag and Cowboy who spend their free time searching for treasure from sunken ships off the coast of Bermuda. They find themselves involved in drug dealings when asked to locate a bag that fell to the ocean floor. Category:1996 American novels Category:Novels by Gary Paulsen Category:American young adult novels Category:American adventure novels Category:Bermuda in fiction Category:Novels set on islands ===== The story is about 13-year-old Jesse Rodriguez who has an exciting job working for his friend Buck at a small flight and skydiving school near Seattle. But he can't wait to turn 16 and finally be able to make his first free-fall jump from a plane. Category:1996 American novels Category:Novels by Gary Paulsen Category:American young adult novels Category:Random House books Category:Aviation novels ===== The story is about Chris Masters who is having problems with bullies at his school, stealing his lunch money and threatening him. His next biggest problem is a video game called The Seventh Crystal which came in the mail with almost no instructions. Category:1996 American novels Category:Novels by Gary Paulsen Category:American young adult novels Category:Random House books ===== The story is about Ryan Swanner and his mom who have just moved to the mountain resort of Black Water Lake. The locals tell of a giant, ancient creature which lives beneath the lake's seemingly calm surface. Category:Novels by Gary Paulsen Category:1997 American novels Category:American young adult novels Category:American adventure novels Category:Random House books ===== The story is about Zack Griffin and Jeff Brown who both win trips to a famous science laboratory. There they discover that one of the machines in the lab can "bend" time, and they end up in ancient Egypt. Category:Novels by Gary Paulsen Category:1997 American novels Category:American young adult novels Category:Children's science fiction novels Category:Novels about time travel Category:Random House books Category:1997 children's books ===== The play concerns eight individuals from disparate backgrounds and with differing motivations who attend the same weekly tap dancing class in a dingy North London church hall. Despite the students at first treating the classes as social occasions, and showing little co-ordination, they later develop a level of skill and cohesiveness. The dance routines are the background for the focus of the play, the relationship and interaction of different people. ===== Still from the movie Romantic drama of manners. Lina, graceful schoolgirl, argues against the will of his father, Don Bernardo, a romance with Alvaro, a young bohemian who squanders his fortune. They decide to escape from parental supervision, but in the train station a beggar hurt Lina warns about the serious error being committed. He bandages the wound with a tissue in which are inscribed his initials and she gratefully gives him her jewels and in turn tells her boyfriend's decision not to pursue this adventure. The beggar is assaulted and murdered. His body appears with the handkerchief Alvaro, who is accused of the crime. Although he is innocent silent to protect Lina and this, above his honor, confesses the truth. Alvaro, and innocent, is gold and ends happily married to Lina. ===== The family of Justice Saxena is extremely happy until his younger brother Inspector Rajesh Saxena (Suresh Oberoi) arrests a notorious gangster, Bhawani Singh (Anant Jog). Justice Saxena sentences Bhawani Singh to death. Bhawani Singh's brother, Dilawar Singh (Danny Denzongpa), avenges his brother's death, and he kills the judge as well as his driver Shanker. Dilawar Singh also tries to kill their sons. Driver Shanker's son, Karan (Ajay Devgn) loses his eyesight while saving Justice Saxena's son Babloo. Justice Saxena's wife, the two children, and Rajesh Saxena leave the city. Dilawar Singh finds them and kills the Judge's wife and throws Babloo out of the running train. Before dying, Babloo donates his eyes to Karan. Karan vows that he will not remove his goggles till he confronts Dilawar Singh. ===== Whodunnit? is a comedy / mystery play. The first act follows the traditional conventions of a country house mystery with an assortment of suspects, but in the second act it becomes apparent that nobody is truly what they seem. ===== Jack Faro (Woody Harrelson) is a recovering drug addict who, after many relapses, decides to move into a rehabilitation facility full-time. Having been married 75 times, he is a serial husband and is always on the lookout for number 76. He enters The Grand, a Texas Hold 'Em poker tournament in Las Vegas created by his grandfather Lucky Faro (Barry Corbin). His main motivation is to win the $10 million prize to cover a loan he got to keep open his family's casino, The Rabbit's Foot, which his grandfather left him when he died and that he has mismanaged since. The rest of the players "won" their seats in an online poker tournament. They include the Schwartzman twins, Larry (David Cross) and Lainie (Cheryl Hines), who have been forced into a sibling rivalry throughout their lives by their father, Seth (Gabe Kaplan). Another player, Harold Melvin (Chris Parnell), is a genius who still lives with his mother (Estelle Harris). Other contestants include Andy Andrews (Richard Kind), a math teacher, Deuce Fairbanks (Dennis Farina), a wily old veteran of Vegas, and "The German" (Werner Herzog), a cheater who ritualistically sacrifices small animals to gain luck at cards. ===== ===== Esther Waters is born to hard-working parents who are Plymouth Brethren in Barnstaple. Her father's premature death prompts her mother to move to London and marry again, but Esther's stepfather turns out to be a hard-drinking bully and wife-beater who forces Esther, a natural beauty, to leave school and go out to work instead, thus greatly reducing her chances of ever learning how to read and write, and Esther remains illiterate all her life. Her first job ("situation") outside London is that of a kitchen maid with the Barfields, a nouveau riche family of horse breeders, horse racers and horse betters who live at Woodview near Shoreham. There she meets William Latch, a footman, and is seduced by him. Dreaming of a future with Latch, she is dismayed to find that he is having an affair with the Barfields' niece, who is staying at Woodview. After Latch and his lover have eloped together, Esther stays on at Woodview until she cannot hide her pregnancy any longer. Although she has found a kindred soul in Mrs Barfield, who is also a Plymouth Sister and abhors the betting on horses going on all around her, Esther is dismissed ("I couldn't have kept you on, on account of the bad example to the younger servants") and reluctantly goes back to London. With the little money she has saved, she can stay in a rented room out of her stepfather's sight. Her mother is pregnant with her eighth child and dies giving birth to it at the same time Esther is at Queen Charlotte's Hospital giving birth to a healthy boy she calls Jackie. Still in confinement, she is visited by her younger sister who asks her for money for her passage to Australia, where her whole family have decided to emigrate. Esther never hears of them again. Learning that a young mother in her situation can make good money by becoming a wet nurse, Esther leaves her newborn son in the care of a baby farmer and nurses the weakly child of a wealthy woman ("Rich folk don't suckle their own") who, out of fear of infection, forbids Esther any contact with Jack. When, after two long weeks, she finally sees her son again, realises that he is anything but prospering and even believes that his life might be in danger, she immediately takes him with her, terminates her employment without notice and then sees no other way than to "accept the shelter of the workhouse" for herself and Jack. But Esther is lucky, and after only a few months can leave the workhouse again. She chances upon Mrs Lewis, a lonely widow living in East Dulwich who is both willing and able to raise her boy in her stead, while she herself goes into service again. However, she is not able to really settle down anywhere: either the work is so hard and the hours so long that, fearing for her health, she quits again; or she is dismissed when her employers find out about the existence of her illegitimate son, concluding that she is a "loose" woman who must not work in a respectable household. Later on, while hiding her son's existence, she is fired when the son of the house, in his youthful fervour, makes passes at her and eventually writes her a love letter she cannot read. Another stroke of luck in her otherwise dreary life is her employment as general servant in West Kensington with Miss Rice, a novelist who is very sympathetic to her problems ("Esther could not but perceive the contrast between her own troublous life and the contented privacy of this slender little spinster's"). While working there, she makes the acquaintance of Fred Parsons, a Plymouth Brother and political agitator, who proposes to Esther at about the same time she bumps into William Latch again while on an errand for her mistress. Latch, who has amassed a small fortune betting on horses and as a bookmaker ("I am worth to-day close on three thousand pounds"), is the proprietor of a licensed public house in Soho and has separated from his adulterous wife, waiting for his marriage to be divorced. He immediately declares his unceasing love for Esther and urges her to live with him and work behind the bar of his pub. Esther realises that she has arrived at a crossroads and that she must make up her mind between the sheltered, serene and religious life Parsons is offering her—which she is really longing for—and sharing the financially secure but turbulent existence of a successful small- time entrepreneur who, as she soon finds out, operates on both sides of the law. Eventually, for the sake of her son's future, she decides to go to Soho with Latch, and after his divorce has come through the couple get married. A number of years of relative happiness follow. Jack, now in his teens, can be sent off to school, and Esther even has her own servant. But Latch is a gambler, and nothing can stop him from risking most of the money he has in the vague hope of gaining even more. Illegal betting is conducted in an upstairs private bar, but more and more also across the counter, until the police clamp down on his activities, his licence is revoked, and he has to pay a heavy fine. This coincides with Latch developing a chronic, sometimes bloody, cough, contracting pneumonia, and finally, in his mid-thirties, being diagnosed with tuberculosis ("consumption"). However, rather than not touching what little money he still has for his wife and son's sake, the dying man puts everything on one horse, loses, and dies a few days later. With Miss Rice also dead, Esther has no place to turn to and again takes on any menial work she can get hold of. Then she remembers Mrs Barfield, contacts her and, when asked to come to Woodview as her servant, gladly accepts while Jack, now old enough to earn his own living, stays behind in London. When she arrives there, Esther finds the once proud estate in a state of absolute disrepair, with Mrs Barfield the only inhabitant. Mistress and maid develop an increasingly intimate relationship with each other and, for the first time in their lives, can practise their religion unhindered. Looking back on her "life of trouble and strife," Esther, now about 40, says she has been able to fulfil her task—to see her boy "settled in life," and thus does not see any reason whatsoever to want to get married again. In the final scene of the novel, Jack, who has become a soldier, visits the two women at Woodview. ===== Dr. Frank Linden has a life-size, anatomically correct medical dummy in his office which he calls "Pin". Via ventriloquism, Dr. Linden uses Pin to teach his children, Leon and Ursula about bodily functions and how the body works in a way the children can relate to without it being awkward. Dr. Linden's interactions with the children are otherwise cold and emotionally distant, and his ventriloquism act is the only sign of a more warm and playful side to his nature. Unknown to Dr. Linden, Leon is mentally ill and has come to believe that Pin is alive. Due in part to his mother, who discourages Leon from playing outdoors or bringing anyone home, Leon has no real friends and sees Pin as the closest analogue. Leon is further traumatized when he secretly witnesses his father's nurse use Pin as a sex toy. When Leon turns eighteen, Dr. Linden, having come back to retrieve case studies for a speech, catches him having a conversation with Pin (via ventriloquism, which Leon had learned). Realizing the extent of Leon's psychosis and that his son is mentally ill, Dr. Linden takes Pin away to use as a visual aid for a speech with the intention of leaving Pin at the medical school. As Dr. and Mrs. Linden speed to the hall, they get into a car crash caused by either Dr. Linden's recklessness or Pin; the Lindens are both killed instantly. Later, as Ursula sits in the back of a police car, crying, Leon secretly retrieves Pin from the scene. Leon and Ursula, though grieving and orphaned, enjoy their newfound freedom until Mrs. Linden's sister, Aunt Dorothy, moves in. She encourages Ursula to take a job at the library, which Leon is against. Believing that she is influencing Ursula and after talking it over with Pin, Leon causes Aunt Dorothy to die from a heart attack by using Pin to frighten her. However, Ursula continues to work at the library, where she meets handsome athlete Stan Fraker and falls in love. Meanwhile, Leon takes his fixation with Pin to pathological extremes, first by dressing him in Dr. Linden's clothes and finally fitting him with latex skin and a wig. Leon believes that Stan is only interested in Ursula's inheritance and that he wants to put Leon in a sanitarium. He invites Stan over under the guise of discussing a surprise birthday party for Ursula. Leon drugs Stan's drink, and when Stan fights back, Leon bludgeons Stan with a wooden sculpture. Following Pin's instructions, he puts Stan in a bag and plans to dump him in the river. Leon is interrupted by a call from Ursula, who says she intends to come home early. Leon quickly hides Stan's body in a woodpile outside the house and cleans up the blood. To calm her, Leon tells Ursula that Stan is visiting a sick friend out of town; she believes him until she discovers a gift she gave Stan and a wet spot on the carpet. When she confronts Leon, he blames it on Pin, which causes her to run out of the house in hysterics. Leon asks Pin why he would not help him. Pin states that he has never lied to or for him and that Leon's motives were selfish. Ursula returns with double-bit axe, which she raises ready to strike; the screen goes white as Leon screams and cowers. The police find Stan's body; to their amazement, he is still alive. Some time later, Ursula and Stan return to the house to visit Pin. Ursula tells him that she's going on a trip with Stan. Pin inquires as to whether she's heard from Leon. Ursula replies "No." Pin says that he misses him a great deal. Ursula agrees, it is revealed that she is talking to Leon, who has taken Pin's persona. When the dummy was destroyed, Leon had a psychotic break, which left only the Pin side of his personality to completely take over which also means that Leon has also become a real, life-size version of Pin. ===== Attorney Jack Durant (Warner Baxter) successfully defends racketeer Tony Gaziotti (Nat Pendleton) against a high-profile murder charge and waives his fee. His staid law firm feels his taking the racketeer on as a client reflects badly on them; when he refuses to give up his exciting new line of work, they go their separate ways. His upper class girlfriend Sue Leonard (Martha Sleeper) turns down his proposal and breaks up with him for the same reason. Shortly afterward, Sue agrees to marry Tom Siddall (Phillips Holmes), but only if he gives up his mistress, Mimi Montagne (Mae Clarke). Although Tom offers Mimi a generous settlement, she becomes furious. Mimi quickly returns to her former lover, gangster Jim Crelliman (C. Henry Gordon). He has her get Tom to meet her at a raucous party. After they go out on the balcony to talk, a shot is heard; the revelers find Mimi dead, and Tom with a revolver in his hand. A pawnbroker named Levitoff tells the police that he sold Tom the gun the same day. Sue begs Jack to defend Tom. He agrees, even though he gets an anonymous phone call telling him to stay out of it. Jack asks Tony to find out what he can. Tony introduces him to Gertie Waxted (Myrna Loy), who was Mimi's friend and at the party. She tells him that she arrived after the murder, but he thinks she still may know something useful, so he invites her to spend the night in his suite. To her great surprise, however, he sleeps on the couch. The next morning, Sue asks Jack to drop the case because she has received a call threatening his life. When Gertie appears in Jack's robe, Sue hastily departs, even though Gertie tells her that Jack is still in love with her. Jack questions the pawnbroker without success. After he leaves, Levitoff is murdered. Jack goes to Gertie's apartment (directly across from the murder scene) to get some clothes for her. Crelliman shows up and offers him $200,000 to take a long vacation. When Jack turns him down, Crelliman threatens him. Jack leaves and breaks into the apartment directly above Gertie's, which he has learned belongs to Murtoch (George E. Stone), one of Crelliman's gunmen. From the entry and exit wounds on Mimi's body, he is sure the murderer was situated higher up; the angle from Murtoch's window is about right. A helpful elevator operator warns Jim that Crelliman's men are waiting for him in the lobby and leads him to the service elevator. Jack sees Gertie in a club with Murtoch and jumps to conclusions. When she returns to Jack's apartment, he is mad until she tells him that she had to get Murtoch out of his apartment so Jack would not run into him when he broke in. He apologizes and admits he has fallen in love with her. He asks Gertie to marry him, but they are interrupted by a phone call from Tony, who has found out that Crelliman has decided to have Murtoch killed. Jack takes along Police Lieutenant "Steve" Stevens (Robert Emmett O'Connor) and several of his men to trick Murtoch into confessing. Gertie volunteers to lure Crelliman out onto the roof of the other building. After capturing Murtoch, Jack tells him that they will frame him for Crelliman's impending murder. Murtoch eventually cracks and confesses. Meanwhile, Gertie tells Crelliman that she frightened Jack into accepting his offer, but he does not believe her and tells his men to take her "for a ride". Jack and the police hear gunfire. When they rush over, they find Crelliman and his henchmen all dead. Gertie and Tony are in the next room. Tony saved Gertie, but he himself collapses and dies from a gunshot wound. Later, Gertie is packing to leave, thinking that Jack is getting back together with Sue. He tells Gertie that he wants to marry her and take her to Europe. When she reminds him she is no lady, he tells her she will do until one comes along. ===== During a marathon race that takes place on the Moon in the future, a corpse is discovered lying in the path the runners take. Noelle DeRicci, a detective, is sent to investigate. The corpse is initially identified as Jane Zweig, a famous business person who operates an extraterrestrial "extreme sports" corporation. Miles Flint, the Retrieval Artist who used to work for DeRicci, is almost simultaneously hired to also look for Frieda Tey, who they think has been living under the name Jane Zweig. Frieda Tey had been hiding from the results of her biological experiments. The most infamous being a virus that killed more than 200 subjects in an experiment reminiscent of the work of Josef Mengele. By the time that the police determine that the murder scene was staged, the fast-acting virus that Tey had used on Io was starting to affect the runners in the marathon. Category:2003 American novels Category:2003 science fiction novels Category:American science fiction novels Category:Novels set on the Moon ===== Miami police detectives Ernie, Louise, Ramon, and Doug (played by DeLuise, Pleshette, Avalos, and Reed), frustrated at their inability to convict the criminals they arrest, decide to set up a sting as a fencing operation to trap criminals in a pawn shop, recording the illegal transactions on the (then) new technology of videotape. With less than helpful support from their captain (Davis), the trio decides to re-sell some of their stolen items to stay in business. Trouble follows as they run afoul of the local mob boss. Doug sees his car destroyed by a bomb (and laments "I just had it washed"), he and the others have a shootout with gun runners at a waterfront condominium construction site, and they ultimately arrest the criminals en masse at a party. ===== The book is set in London and the protagonist is a rebellious teenager named Linda, who lives with her mum Ava, her dad having left her mother some time ago. The story begins with Queen Mab escaping from the place where she had been confined by Queen Titania in the land of Faerie and overthrowing Titania. The Puck sides with Mab who has since imprisoned Auberon in chains. Linda has a friend named Jeffrey. One night while dragging Jeffrey clubbing, Linda meets up with a stranger named Verian who takes Linda and Jeffrey home where he asks Linda if she wants to be introduced to something new, a drug named Red Horse. Verian prepares this drug by mixing some of Linda's blood with heroin. Linda's relationship with her mother is strained and Linda blames her for her father leaving them. Linda continues her drug abuse, and eventually Verian takes her to border of the Faerie where things have now changed due to Mab's rule. While running back Linda is hit in the arm with an arrow and gets separated from the rest. There she meets Cluracan who heals her wound. He managers to get a promise out of Linda in return for showing her the way back. Cluracan asks her to serve his queen at her need. If the queen should meet Linda and call on her, Linda won't deny her. Cluracan also calls Linda a changeling, a gale sidhe, a turn-dolly which is a fairy child left in exchange for a human one. Linda is brought back into the world, and she snubs Jeffrey who she feels wasn't there when she needed him. While going home Linda meets a hideously ugly woman Titania who is turned away by Ava. Linda leaves Ava who she feels seduced her dad from the Faerie and had kept this fact from her. Linda goes back to Verian who reveals that he is also from the Faerie and explains how cold iron kills fairy. He also tells her that the hot iron in human blood is poison too, but a changelings blood takes the edge of it and mixing it with charmed heroin is what gives it the kick. Linda makes love to Verian, who later on tries to make a hit using her father's christening spoon which he drops, as it is made of iron. The Puck then comes to Verian's room with a bag of heroin and tells Linda that he saw Death go in the corridor and she was with Linda's friend. Linda rushes to the next room to see that Jeffrey has overdosed. Linda makes a brief visit to the dreaming where she meets Lucius, Nuala and The Sandman. She also sees Jeff in a grotesque collection of dead souls which is later revealed as Mabs' heart. when she wakes up she sees Queen Titania who carries her home, where she meets Ava, and reveals that Ava was exiled from faerie, which surprises Linda who had believed it was her dad. Titania also reveals how Mab escaped. Mab who was imprisoned in her cell gave each one who visited her a piece of her heart without their knowing. Then when the fairy were killed it released the fragment of Mab which came together, and Linda realises it is the Red Horse drug that kills the fairy. Titania calls on Linda to fulfill the oath she had made to Cluracan. Ava also comes along to protect her daughter, and it revealed that Ava is the architect of the palace. Ava releases all the faerie who have been trapped by Mab, There is a fight between these faerie and the faerie who are allied with Mab. Linda injects herself with Red Horse, which she mixes with her fathers christening spoon and she is bound to Mab's heart which Titania wants to pull down and destroy. But Mab arrives on the scene and interrupts them. Ava uses her mastery of the palace to trap Mab under a pillar and both she and Titania aim their bows to Mab's heart but their arrows are prevented from meeting their target by the Puck. Mab who says she spared Titania because she feared her death curse chokes Ava and Titania with the strings of their bows thereby preventing them from speaking. The souls of Jeffrey and Linda's dad speak the words "Cold Iron" and Linda reaches out to her dad's christening spoon and hurls it at Mab who is destroyed by it. Titania asks Ava and Linda for any reward. Linda asks for Jeffrey and her dad to be bought back but Titania says she cannot, and asks if there is anything else, to which Linda replies nothing that matters. Verian meets with Linda and informs her that Titania has closed the border, but shows Linda that he still has some stock of heroin and asks Linda to drip for him. Linda remembers the people trapped in Mab's heart killed by the Red horse and walks away. Titania has said that Ava and Linda can come back to Faerie anytime, but Linda and her mum refuse as there are fairer realms than Faerie and taller towers. ===== In 2001 in New York City three friends, who all showed signs of brilliance in their youth, reach their 30s without having achieved the promise they showed a decade earlier. Danielle Minkoff is the only one of her friends to hold a steady job, working as a producer for a TV program that makes documentaries. Marina Thwaite is the daughter of a revered literary critic and author, Murray Thwaite, who was offered a book contract to write about children's fashion years earlier and, having used up all her advance money and facing a hard deadline, moves back into her childhood home with her parents. Meanwhile, Julius Clarke, a brilliant and witty critic for The Village Voice, cannot sustain himself with his literary work and is forced to take temp jobs to supplement his income which, he finds demeaning. At one of his temp jobs he meets a successful, slightly younger, man called David Cohen and seduces him, eventually moving in with him and allowing himself to be kept like a housewife. He keeps Marina and Danielle away from David. Meanwhile, Danielle begins two flirtations, one with Ludovic Seeley, an Australian editor who has moved to New York City to start a literary journal called The Monitor, after Le Moniteur Universel, and another with Marina's father, Murray, who begins an email correspondence at first using her job and later concern over Marina's unemployment as reasons to keep contacting her. Marina, still hanging on to the last traces of her It-girl status, is unsettled by the arrival of her 19-year-old cousin Bootie, who has dropped out of university to pursue a program of educating himself by his own design. Bootie reveres the Thwaites and looks up to his uncle Murray, in whose footsteps he wants to follow; but Marina is dismissive, calling him "Fat Fredrick," and finds that he has installed himself in the Thwaite home creepy. Despite this, things quickly fall in line for Bootie: Murray is impressed by both his desire to leave his small town and his desire to self-educate and offers him a salary and work as his private secretary. Through Marina, Bootie also is able to rent Julius's old apartment. Though Danielle is more attracted to Seeley, she makes the mistake of introducing him to Marina as a possible editor for his magazine and watches from the sidelines as the two begin to work together and start a relationship. Seeley also inspires Marina to begin to work on her book anew, which she decides to name The Emperor's Children Have No Clothes, inspired by something that Seeley tells her. As the possibility of being with Seeley dissolves, Danielle begins sleeping with Murray. Working as Murray's secretary, Bootie discovers that his uncle is not the high-principled man he once thought he was and discovers that he self- plagiarizes articles, blows off low-paying events for star-studded ones and is writing a secret indulgent book called How to Live. Additionally, after discovering Murray's affair with Danielle, Bootie decides to write an exposé on Murray for The Monitor. Over the 4th of July holiday weekend, Seeley and Marina become engaged, to the annoyance of Danielle and Murray, both of whom suspect that Seeley has some ulterior motive to take down Murray. Around the same time, Marina finishes her book and gives it to Murray to read. Finding it vapid and soulless, he urges her not to publish the book, causing a rift between father and daughter. Around the same time, Bootie finishes his exposé on Murray and gives copies to his mother, Marina and Murray. Expecting them to applaud him for his honesty, he is shocked when all three are horrified by what he has written. Making matters worse, Seeley likes the piece and wants to publish it, causing a fight between him and Marina. Bootie becomes estranged from the Thwaites. Furthermore, after David loses his job, Julius takes back his apartment, causing Bootie to move to rent a room in an apartment and begin temping downtown. Marina goes forward with publishing her book and marrying Seeley. At their wedding, Danielle asks Murray to spend an entire night with her, something he has never done, always returning home after their trysts to his wife, Annabel. Murray has a cancellation on September 10 and thus decides to spend that night with Danielle. They spend the evening together and the following morning are able to see the September 11 attacks from Danielle's apartment window. Terrified about what has happened, Murray abandons Danielle to go to Annabel. Danielle is heartbroken, realizing that though she thought of Murray as her soulmate, he has chosen Annabel over her. At the headquarters of The Monitor, Seeley realizes that his project is completely doomed as the launch was to take place that day but the attacks mean that the magazine cannot go to print, and that all the articles will seem obsolete anyway. Bootie's mother Judy waits to hear from her son and becomes disconcerted as days pass and she hears nothing. She enlists the Thwaites to help find her son and though they manage to track down the temp agency where he worked, they are unable to locate him and assume he has died. In a state of shock over her breakup, Danielle contacts her mother, who takes her on a vacation to Miami. While there Danielle sees Bootie working as a waiter. She tries to talk to him but he tells her his name is Ulrich New. After she leaves him he goes back to his hotel to flee once more. ===== Jeffrey Haywood (Reginald Denny) wants to marry Virginia, "Ginny," Embrey (Sally Eilers). However, Ginny refuses to marry unless her older sister, the hard-to-please Angelica (Dorothy Christy) marries first as she's afraid that Angelica will become an old maid. Angelica, in turn, finds every man she knows too dull and predictable, not wild and exciting, so prefers to stay single. One day, Jeff hits mild-mannered and timid Reggie Irving (played by Keaton) with his car and brings him to the Embrey mansion to recuperate. Angelica thinks that Reggie's handsome, so Jeff lies, telling her that he's a notorious, wealthy playboy chased away from Europe's playgrounds. Angelica's intrigued, particularly when different women, hired by Jeff, visit Reggie and fight over him. Reggie's alarmed by this turn of events, as he thinks that Angelica's beautiful, but is inexperienced with wooing women. He tries to flee, but is captured and re-concussed by the Embrey groundskeepers at Jeff's direction. Angelica continues nursing him, falling in love. Worried that Angelica will find Reggie dull, Jeff asks Polly (Charlotte Greenwood), a society journalist, to write rumors about him. Also, he reserves a room for Polly and Reggie at the Seaside Hotel, intending that she'll will teach him how to woo and Angelica will catch them together, proving that Reggie's not dull. Nita Leslie (Joan Peers), a family friend, believes the rumors Polly's been writing and, furious that her husband Fred prioritizes work over their marriage, declares to the Embreys that she'll go to an hotel "with the worst man I know." She sees Reggie packing his car and drives away with him. After a disastrous trip to the Seaside Hotel, Nita and Reggie check in to their suite as Mr and Mrs John Smith. Nita becomes frightened that she is at an hotel with a terrible man and hides in the bedroom, despite his pleading from the parlor that Angelica needs to catch them together. Then, Polly bursts into the suite and comically attempts to teach him to woo. Sadly, Reggie's a limp fish, lacking passion. The Embreys and Fred arrive, Fred shooting at Reggie for running away with Nita. Polly collapses, and everyone flees, shouting, "Murder!" with Fred pulling Nita out of the room before locking Reggie in the parlor with the "body." He hides her in a closet before the police arrive. When the they find her, Polly wakes from her faint, and Reggie escapes. Everyone runs around the hotel, becoming mixed up, and Reggie and Angelica end back in his hotel suite together. He kisses her passionately, and she melts into her arms. ===== At a band meeting, Murray has some really good news: a gig in Central Park. Since they will, in Murray's opinion, need to be at the top of their game, he has organised a warm-up tour for them. When Bret asks how they can afford to go on tour, Murray says he has dipped into the band's "emergency fund". He flashes an envelope of cash but won't tell them where he got the money. In the car on the way to their first gig, Murray gets a call from his wife Shelley. They had been separated but are back together now. Bret learns from his phone conversation that the 'emergency fund' came from their joint cheque account, and that Murray hadn't told his wife that he had taken it to use for the tour. They also find out that Mel and Doug have been following their car. The first gig of the tour turns out to be in dark lounge of a hotel next to LaGuardia Airport. After the gig, Murray gives the boys a per diem but is annoyed when he discovers they have spent all the money on leather suits. He intended the "per diem" to last all week. They try to give Murray a gift they had bought for him, but an annoyed Murray refuses without looking at it. Up in the hotel room, Jemaine is trying to watch TV; however, Bret has to hold it in the air in order to get a decent reception. When his arms tire, he puts the TV down on the window sill, but it falls out the window. This results in Murray having to pay for a new TV out of the tour funds. Later at the next gig in Passaic, Jemaine clumsily damages a club amplifier, leaving Murray further out of pocket. When they turn up at their next gig, they find their reputation for damaging equipment has preceded them and the club owner turns them away. That night at the bar, Bret and Jemaine are invited to sit with the members of the North Jersey University Women's Water Polo team. After finding out they are in a band, the women ask for their autographs and suggest partying in the boys' room. Bret and Jemaine head upstairs first and, on the way up to their room, sing "Mermaid". The guys wait all night, with Murray banished to sleep in the bathroom, but the women do not show up. The next morning, they discover that the team has used their autographs and room number to charge a large bar bill to the band's room. To make things worse, Brett fails to put the parking brake on in Murray's car after parking it, causing it to slide into a swimming pool. A furious Murray quits as manager and storms off to walk home. Left without a way home, Bret and Jemaine are forced to ask Mel and Doug for a lift. When they catch up with Murray on the highway, they successfully manage to make up with him by giving him the gift they had bought for him earlier. It turns out to be a leather suit just like theirs. The happy threesome head for their final gig in 'Central Park'. The band discovers, however, that Murray has misled them. The gig turns out to be in "a central park" in Newark. The concert is titled Newark Summer Jam '07. Over the end credits, we see Murray on his mobile phone trying to explain to his boss why he has been absent from work all week. ===== At the West Hills Golf Club in Westchester, E.J. Kimball (Walter Kingsford) and his son Manuel (Russell Hardie) are welcomed into the party of elderly Professor Barstow (Boyd Irwin Sr.) and his prospective son-in-law Claude Roberts (Victor Jory). Barstow sends his caddy back to the clubhouse to fetch his visor, and finds himself without his clubs when it is his turn to tee off. The elder Kimball loans his driver to Barstow. Immediately after hitting his drive, Barstow flinches. "A mosquito bit me just as I hit the ball," he complains with good humor. "Too bad," Kimball replies sympathetically, taking the club from Barstow and making his own drive. As the foursome sets out on the course, Barstow is stricken and succumbs quickly to an apparent heart attack. At the New York brownstone of Nero Wolfe (Edward Arnold), Marie Maringola (Rita Hayworth) offers the sedentary detective genius $50 to find her brother. Although he is an expert metal worker, Carlo Maringola had such trouble finding work in America that he planned to return to the old country. On the eve of his departure Carlo told his sister that he could stay in America after all — he got a job. They had arranged a celebration but Carlo never came. He disappeared. Wolfe takes Maria's case and sends his confidential assistant Archie Goodwin (Lionel Stander) to investigate at Carlo's apartment house. Archie returns to the brownstone with evidence that suggests that Carlo will never be found alive — and that his death is linked to the death of Professor Barstow. Wolfe theorizes that Barstow was killed by a specially constructed golf club, one that was converted by Carlo into an air rifle that propelled a poisoned needle into his midsection when he struck the ball. His theory is borne out by an autopsy of Barstow, and the discovery of Carlo's body. Solving the murder of Professor Barstow will be a far more lucrative endeavor, Wolfe is pleased to learn: a $50,000 reward has been offered. But interviews with Barstow's daughter (Joan Perry), his widow (Nana Bryant) and his doctor (Frank Conroy), do little to advance the investigation. Far more helpful is a luncheon for the four boys who caddied for Professor Barstow's foursome. Hearing their accounts, Wolfe concludes that the intended murder victim had been E.J. Kimball, not Barstow. Kimball dismisses the notion that his life is in danger until he is informed that his car has been wrecked and his chauffeur is dead — killed by a fer-de- lance, a South American snake that is probably the most poisonous in the world. The autopsies of Professor Barstow and Carlo Maringola reveal that they too were poisoned, by the venom of the fer-de-lance. Convinced that his life is in deadly peril, Kimball pleads for Wolfe's help. After E.J. Kimball tells him about his sensational past in South America, Wolfe concludes that at least six people had reason to wish him dead — and that the Barstow family is not above suspicion. Wolfe assigns Archie to move in with Kimball and his son, to watch over the old man. After a long game of Monopoly on the Kimballs' terrace that evening, the three men rise to go in to dinner — and shots are fired. The attack causes Wolfe to summon all of the principals to the brownstone. They are to spend the night, and they will stay as long as necessary. The next evening a deadly parcel arrives, addressed to Wolfe. The killer has Wolfe in his sights — and Wolfe knows he has the killer under his roof. ===== Cindy Cathcart (Lar Park-Lincoln) is a student out of place at an exclusive Swiss finishing school, Von Pupsin Academy. A poor orphan, Cindy is attending on a scholarship, and is resented by her snobby peers as well as Fraulein Stinkenschmidt (Lu Leonard). She soon finds allies: her British roommate, an outgoing Texan, Lulu Belle (Britt Helfer), an Italian Mafiosi's daughter, Isabella (Barbara Rousek), and most crucial, the school's headmistress, Countess Von Pupsin (Eva Gabor). ===== Set in 1990 amid the Kuwait War of 1990–1991, Towelhead tells the coming-of-age story of a 13-year-old Lebanese American girl named Jasira (Summer Bishil). She first lives with her mother in Syracuse, New York, but when her mother's live-in boyfriend helps Jasira shave her pubic hair, her mother sends Jasira to live with her old-fashioned and domineering Lebanese father Rifat (Peter Macdissi) in suburban Houston, Texas. Jasira is treated as a second class citizen by her overprotective father. He is strict, does not allow her to use tampons, and prefers spending time with his new girlfriend, Thena. Even her mother refuses to support her when she calls and begs for help, forcing Jasira to comply with his rules. Her father acts very disrespectfully towards her and berates her for the slightest thing. Jasira experiences a sexual awakening at her neighbor's home, which is sparked in part by adult magazines she finds when baby-sitting the next-door neighbor boy Zack Vuoso (Chase Ellison), son of Travis Vuoso (Aaron Eckhart). While Jasira is home alone one night, Mr. Vuoso comes over to retrieve one of his magazines and sexually assaults her. Jasira befriends a classmate, Thomas Bradley (Eugene Jones), eventually becoming sexually active with him. When Rifat finds out about her relationship with Thomas, he forbids her from ever seeing him, only because he is black. Mr. Vuoso becomes jealous of Jasira's relationship with Thomas, and, pretending he has to go to Iraq the next morning, tricks Jasira into sleeping with him. When Rifat finds one of Mr. Vuoso's adult magazines at his house, he beats Jasira, and she seeks refuge at the home of Melina (Toni Collette) (who is pregnant) and her husband, Gil, neighbors who were aware of and concerned about Mr. Vuoso's inappropriate behavior towards Jasira from the beginning. While staying at their house, Gil notices bruises on Jasira's legs and Rifat angrily knocks on the door wanting to retrieve his daughter. When both Melina and Gil refuse to let Rifat in, he threatens to call the police and claim that they kidnapped his daughter, but Gil responds to Rifat that he will tell them about the bruises he left on Jasira. She goes to school the next day and Melina picks her up, along with Thomas. When they make it back home, they decide to have sex, but are almost caught by Melina. Later, Rifat visits the couple along with Thena. He notices Thomas is in the house and angrily confronts him. He also reveals why he despises him. He then decides to check the house and discovers a condom in the trash. He assumes Thomas is responsible for taking his daughter's virginity and attempts to assault him. This forces Jasira to confess that she had sex with Mr. Vuoso, who is then arrested and bailed out the next day. Thomas talks with Jasira about her abuse from Mr. Vuoso, and explains that he doesn't want to have sex with her anymore. She says she does not want to stop. One day after school, Jasira retrieves the corpse of Travis' cat, which ran off after she came by his house and was accidentally run over by Rifat on his way home. When Melina sees Jasira talking to Mr. Vuoso, she runs outside to stop the conversation, but trips and falls down on the ground, which causes her to bleed and go into labor. While at the hospital, Rifat is asked by Jasira to accompany Melina in the delivery room, since her husband won't make it in time. When Rifat refuses to stay, he finally decides to trust Jasira and let her stay and live with Melina, which makes her very happy. He leaves the delivery room and Jasira witnesses Melina giving birth to a baby girl. ===== The Unquiet Earth is a novel written from the perspective of multiple narrators. The three main narrators are Dillon, Rachel, and Jackie who are all family. Dillon is Rachel's younger cousin, and Jackie is most likely their child. The story begins prior to the birth of Jackie and is narrated by Dillon and Rachel, children living on their family land, the Homeplace. From the beginning, Dillon makes claims that he loves Rachel partially because she is the only one who has memories of his father. They both narrate parts of their childhood and the beginning of the novel mainly depicts how their relationship grows and how their love for one another begins. They are first cousins - therefore, their mothers are sisters. The first instance in which their love is really shown is when Rachel falls into a river and Dillon is forcibly restrained by his mother from diving in to save her because of her fear of losing him as well. He is forced to watch Rachel suffer and nearly be swept away by the current, but luckily she was dragged out by the mule she was riding. They rush her home, and Dillon watches through a window as his mother helps a cold and naked Rachel recover. The story continues as they grow older and continue to fight for love. Rachel ends up leaving the Homeplace to attend a nursing school, where she spends several subsequent years. Dillon then, in what everyone believes is out of anger of Rachel leaving him, enlists in the British army to fight against Hitler. Upon Rachel's graduation from nursing school, she and her friend Tommie Justice enlist as nurses in the war as well. Rachel returns to find out that the Homeplace is no longer their land as Dillon had forewarned her many times. They are reunited at the number thirteen mine in Justice County where the remainder of the story takes place. Rachel continues working there as a county nurse, and Dillon works for the mine while avidly fighting for the union against the American Coal Company and Arthur Lee, who owns it. Arthur Lee is already an acquaintance of Rachel's because he dated her friend Tommie previously and introduced her to his friend Tony. Rachel and Dillon continue to fight and disagree about their love for one another. Rachel is scared that they would be deemed illegitimate by society and tries to deny her love for her cousin. This offends and angers Dillon, who is against the social norms and wishes to love Rachel even if society believes it is the wrong thing to do. He wants to marry Rachel, but it is illegal to marry a first cousin. When the trouble with the coal company gets worse, Dillon asks that Rachel leave her job for the county, and help him in the fight against the coal companies as the other wives were doing. However, Dillon and Rachel were raised differently, and the words of her dying mother echoed in her head. She was raised by her mother to believe that men want a prim and proper lady, certainly not one who has sex before marriage. It would be wrong for kin to sleep with kin, and even more wrong for two first cousins to marry one another. Standing strong in these beliefs, Rachel ends up marrying Tony, an Italian man that Tommie and Arthur Lee set her up with. She has trouble having kids with Tony and continues to stay close to Dillon. Eventually, she gives into the fact that she loves Dillon and they make love in the secluded area of Trace Mountain where they conceive their daughter, Jackie. However, throughout the rest of the novel this escape to the mountain is kept quiet and Jackie believes until the very end that Tony is her father. After Rachel and Tony finally divorce due to an unhappy marriage and his escapes to the bar, Tony gets remarried and has trouble again having babies. Rachel fears that this will cause him suspicion of Jackie being his and that he will try to take her away. Dillon's prior paranoia is justified at the end of the novel. The book closes with the breaking of the dawn above the towns, and eventually shows once again that the mining company's guarantee of safety was untrue. Jackie is left alone after the deaths of Tom and Dillon in the flood and moves away. The story closes with Jackie wanting to forget the place she called home. The book does a good job of creating a scene of mountain utopia that was slowly eroded away by the mining to an area that was undesirable and almost uninhabitable. ===== Molly Stewart (Betsy Russell) is off the streets and studying to become a lawyer. Molly learns that Lt. Andrews (Robert F. Lyons), the detective who helped her leave prostitution, was murdered. She returns to the streets as Angel to track down his killer and avenge his death. She enlists help from her old friends, Yoyo Charlie, Solly Mosler and Kit Carson and hunts for the sole witness, Johnny Glitter, to the crime. They break Kit out of the sanitarium and find Johnny at his home just as the thugs who killed Andrews find him. Kit and Angel save Johnny in a shootout. Angel discovers a scheme to buy up Hollywood Boulevard by intimidation and violence that Gerrard perpetuates. Gerrard's men corner Kit, Solly, Angel and Johnny in an alley. Kit shoots the car and causes it to crash, and they capture Gerrard's son. The son gets loose and threatens them with a gun, but the phone rings and Kit shoots him to death. The caller is Gerrard, who has kidnapped Solly's baby, Little Buck. Gerrard offers to trade Buck for his son. They attempt to make the trade despite the son's death, but Gerrard discovers the ruse. When he discovers his son has died, a shootout ensues and Gerrard takes the baby. Kit takes out one thug and Johnny Glitter, who shoots blind, shoots the other and also himself. Angel confronts Gerrard on the top floor and Gerrard threatens to throw the baby down. Angel surrenders and Gerrard puts the baby down, but the baby crawls toward the edge. Gerrard will not allow Angel to move. Solly sees what is happening and goes up to shoot Gerrard. Angel tries to get to the baby, but the baby falls. Kit sees the baby fall and catches him. Angel and Solly come down with the baby safely wrapped in Kit's jacket. ===== Meltdown tells the story of Caliente, aka The Flare, a superhero with flame based powers that are killing him. He's only got 7 days left to put his life in order, and to make amends for all of his regrets. The story largely consists of flashbacks that show Caliente's trials and tribulations leading to his final days. The series was collected into a trade paperback entitled "MELTDOWN: The Definitive Collection", which also featured 52 pages of new material. ===== Brian Donlevy, Esther Fernández and Alan Ladd in a promotional picture of the film. In 1834, Charles Stewart (Alan Ladd), the spoiled, dissolute son of a shipping magnate, is shanghaied aboard the Pilgrim, one of his father's own ships. He embarks upon a long, hellish sea voyage under the tyrannical rule of Captain Francis Thompson (Howard Da Silva), assisted by his first mate, Amazeen (William Bendix). One of his crewmates is Richard Henry Dana Jr. (Brian Donlevy), who will ultimately recount the entire voyage on paper as a book. ===== John Martin (Ladd) attempts to steal plans for an electric circuit from a plant in Baltimore, Maryland. Caught and arrested for espionage, he is turned over to the Office of Strategic Services, which is training a group of new recruits by sending them on test missions. Along with three other men, Gates, Parker and Bernay, and one woman, Elaine Dupree (Fitzgerald), Martin (an assumed name like the others) is sent to France to blow up a railroad tunnel in order to paralyze Axis troops during the Allied invasion. Martin doubts Elaine can work under pressure because she is a woman, but she insists he treat her as any male agent. During the group's first assignment, at a rural French inn, German agents kill Gates. A meeting of the French maquis is interrupted by German Colonel Paul Meister, who becomes immediately infatuated with Elaine. Elaine sculpts a bust of Meister's head, and when he announces his departure for Normandy on a troop train, she begs him to take her with him. With Martin's help, Elaine makes a duplicate bust and fills it with plastic explosives. She and Martin then blow up the tunnel. After Martin comes back for her under fire, Elaine makes him promise never to jeopardize a mission in order to rescue her. On foot, they meet Bernay, who is their radio contact with the O.S.S. As the Allies break through at Normandy, Elaine and Martin make a deal with Amadeus Brink, an officer of the Gestapo, who hopes to secure his safety and a small fortune. Brink removes Martin and Elaine's "wanted" file from the Gestapo sector headquarters and arranges for his cousin, a courier, to hand over a diplomatic pouch to Bernay for photocopying. Bernay places the negative in the lining of Martin's hat. Against Brink's advice, Bernay radios a final message that the Nazis have broken one of the O.S.S. secret codes. Bernay is gunned down, and Martin and Elaine are questioned by the Gestapo, but are released before Meister catches Brink with their file papers. Martin and Elaine are about to board a plane to safety when they are asked to complete one last mission. They must contact Parker, who is on assignment near the Rhine. At a farmhouse, Elaine is accosted by a group of drunken German soldiers. Parker, hiding among them, gives Elaine the Germans' troop dispositions. Martin leaves the farmhouse to radio in the positions. While he is gone, Meister arrests Elaine. As the American troops advance through France, Parker tells Martin that Elaine's real name was Ellen Rogers, and he imagines that she might have been the girl next door in his hometown. ===== The bad Barton boys—Blake, Leroy, and Gabby—rob a train and shoot a guard. Luke Smith, known as "Whispering" to some for his quiet ways, is a detective for the railroad sent to investigate. Murray Sinclair, an old friend of Smith's, is in charge of the railroad's wrecking crew. He's glad to see Smith, who shoots Leroy and Gabby and is saved when a bullet is deflected by a harmonica in his pocket, given him long ago by his sweetheart Marian, who is now Sinclair's wife. It saddens Smith to find out that Sinclair might be in cahoots with Barney Rebstock, a rancher with a bad reputation. Rebstock has been hiding the remaining Barton brother, Blake, who is tracked down by Smith. Whitey DuSang is a hired gun for Rebstock, who wants to see Smith dead. When the railroad's boss gives Sinclair an order, Sinclair rebels and is fired. Rebstock hires him to pull off a string of daring train holdups. Smith forms a posse. Whitey kills a guard and betrays Rebstock, shooting him. Sinclair is wounded. Smith does away with Whitey but gives his old friend Sinclair a last chance. When Sinclair rides home, he finds Marian packing and strikes her, accusing her of leaving him for Smith. Smith shows up and Sinclair apologises for his actions. He seems sincere, but when Smith's back is turned, Sinclair pulls a hidden gun. Before he can fire, Sinclair falls over and dies. Smith leaves town, his work there done. ===== Brian Donlevy, Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake in The Glass Key After falling for Janet Henry, the daughter of reform candidate for governor Ralph Henry, shady political boss Paul Madvig is determined to help Henry achieve his goal. Paul's right-hand man, Ed Beaumont, believes the move is a big mistake and correctly distrusts both Janet's and her father's motives; he feels they are stringing Paul along and will dump him after the election. Janet becomes engaged to Paul, but is put off by his crudity and becomes very attracted to the more eclectic Ed. He fends off her advances out of strong loyalty to Paul. The deluded Paul boasts that Henry has practically given him the key to his house; Ed warns him that it is liable to be a glass key, one that can break at any moment. When Paul tells one of his supporters, the gangster Nick Varna, that he is cleaning up the city and that Varna will no longer receive protection from the police, Ed grows even more concerned. Complicating matters further, Ralph's ne'er-do-well son, Taylor, owes Varna for gambling debts, while Paul's young sister, Opal, is in love with Taylor. Paul has told her to stay away from the young man, but she defies him; when he discovers this, Opal becomes fearful about what he might do to Taylor. Ed later finds Taylor's lifeless body in the street. Paul is the prime suspect, much to Nick's delight. When Nick hears that Ed and Paul have split due to Taylor's death, he tries to recruit Ed. Ed turns him down, so Nick has him brutally beaten repeatedly by his sadistic henchman Jeff, to force him into revealing details of corruption to the editor of the newspaper Nick controls. Ed contrives an escape and is hospitalized. When he recovers, he learns that Nick has found a "witness" to Taylor Henry's killing, Henry Sloss. Paul has Sloss brought to his office, but he is gunned down before he can talk. As a result, Paul is indicted for the murder and held in jail. Ed finds a somewhat drunk Jeff in a bar and, in a back room, tries to pump the thug for information. As they drink, Ed toasts, "Here's looking at you." Just as Jeff starts to talk, Nick shows up and brusquely orders him to shut up. When Ed disarms Nick, a fed-up Jeff strangles his boss. Afterwards, Ed has the waiter call the police to arrest Jeff. Having finally guessed who killed Taylor, Ed persuades District Attorney Farr to arrest Janet. As Ed had hoped, Ralph confesses he struggled with Taylor, causing him to fall and strike his head. After everything is cleared up, Paul overhears Janet tell Ed that she loves him and that she knows he loves her. Seeing that it is true, Paul gives the couple his blessing, but takes back his expensive engagement ring. ===== Liffey and Richard, a young London couple who move to the country with the expectation of having children. Their neighbors are Mab and Tucker, a farming family with five children of their own. Mabs, jealous of the newcomers' easy life, sends Tucker to sleep with Liffey while Richard is away, priming her with an herbal aphrodisiac first. She becomes angry, however, when Liffey becomes pregnant and she finds that she herself is suddenly unable to conceive. Incorrectly believing the father of the child might be Tucker, Mabs attempts to abort the child by sneaking herbs into Liffey's tea and food. The unborn child, however, mystically takes charge and gives Liffey directions, saving her life and its own. Once the baby is born, Mabs sees the resemblance to Richard and, now pregnant herself, abandons her anger towards the couple. ===== Arthur (Greene) rises up into the world from beneath the water, in a rural, forested area in Canada. A seaplane arrives, carrying a passenger to a First Nations reserve, where activists are engaged in a loud, chaotic conflict, attempting to block clearcutting on Indian land. The white man from the seaplane is a lawyer, Peter Maguire (Lea), who is representing the band whose land is designated for deforestation. Peter attempts to appeal the court decision which ruled in favor of the logging company, but to no avail. An elder member of the Nation, Wilf (Westerman) introduces the attorney to Arthur, who the attorney believes is a militant Indigenous activist. Arthur proceeds to kidnap the logging company's general manager, Bud (Hogan) and the four take off through the woods where Arthur claims he will "instruct" Peter and Bud in "listening to Mother Earth". As they travel deeper into the wilderness, Arthur says he will show them the damage caused to the land. Arthur's behaviour grows increasingly erratic and violent. Wilf's warnings and insinuations that Arthur may actually be Wisakedjak, an Indigenous trickster spirit (whom Wilf also refers to as "the Deceiver") begin to make more sense. Peter is faced with difficult decisions that test his loyalties and sense of reality. At the end Arthur, or whatever he is, returns to the water. ===== It tells the story of Tashi, an African woman and a minor character in Walker's earlier novel The Color Purple. Now in the US she comes from Olinka, Alice Walker's fictional African nation where female genital mutilation is practiced. Tashi marries an American man named Adam then leaves Olinka because of the war. Tashi chooses to go back to Olinka to undergo circumcison because she is a woman torn between two cultures, Olinkan and Western. Instead of feeling free from not having the procedure done as a child, she feels bothered by it. She wants to honor her Olinkan roots and has the operation in her teen years, although it is usually performed on female children. Tashi later sees several psychiatrists because she goes crazy due to the trauma she has suffered before finding the strength to act. The novel is told in many different voices, which are the characters in the novel. The novel explores what it means to have one's gender culturally defined and emphasizes that, according to Walker, "Torture is not culture." ===== The story is about Justin McCallister who loves life on his aunt and uncle's sheep ranch in Montana. Until a grizzly bear begins terrorizing the livestock, injuring Justin's collie, Radar, and killing his pet lamb, Blue. ===== The story is about Jeremy and Jason Parsons who are left to take care of their grandparents Thunder Valley Ski Lodge while their grandma goes to visit their grandfather in hospital with a broken hip. Strange things begin happening once Grandma leaves, though. Category:Novels by Gary Paulsen Category:1997 American novels Category:American young adult novels ===== The story is about Sam, his thirteen-year-old twin sister, Katie and their cousin Shala who are trying to find their dad who is lost on a New Mexico ruin while escaping danger from bad guys who want to find a secret map, which their dad left them. Category:Novels by Gary Paulsen Category:1998 American novels Category:American young adult novels Category:Novels set in New Mexico Category:Random House books ===== The story is about Andy who is sent to live with his mysterious grandfather Hawkes after his parents' deaths. Andy soon finds out his grandfather isn't what he seems, but instead is an inventor, and discovers that his parents' deaths may not have been an accident. When Grandfather Hawkes's life is threatened, Andy decides he's not going to lose another person he loves. So using his grandfather's inventions, Andy becomes The Hawk. Category:Novels by Gary Paulsen Category:1998 American novels Category:American young adult novels Category:Novels about orphans Category:Random House books ===== Struggling Hollywood film producer Charlie Berns is on the verge of suicide when his aspiring screenwriter nephew Lionel arrives from New Jersey with a script about 19th century British statesman Benjamin Disraeli. Charlie agrees to make the film, but only when he converts the literate PBS-style script (that he didn't read) into an action adventure Middle Eastern espionage film, Ben Disraeli: Freedom Fighter. He casts power- star African American Bobby Mason, a recent convert to Judaism, in the title role and, after some creative wrangling with studio big-wigs and feisty project developer Deidre Hearn, whom he is instantly attracted to, he proceeds to set up production in South Africa. Charlie then lies to the studio, saying Bobby insists Deidre, who has purposely avoided Charlie, be sent to South Africa to assist on the production. She arrives, and she and Charlie eventually 'hook-up'. After Bobby is kidnapped by terrorists during the shoot, and the film is shut down, Deidre hatches a scheme to produce Lionel's original script 'on the Q.T.'. Using financing that must stay in Prague, Charlie and Deidre manage to film Lionel's original movie there, which goes on to receive seven Golden Globe nominations, making Charlie and Deidre the newest power couple producers in Hollywood. ===== The movie continues the story of the Elusive Avengers, a posse of young Red Partisans, including Valerka, a former schoolboy, Yashka, a devil-may-care gypsy, and two orphan siblings, Danka and his sister Ksanka. They join the Red Army and fight Baron Wrangel's White Guards. They intercept an airplane that was carrying a letter to the Baron. The letter reveals that the map of fortifications in Crimea is in possession of the White counter- intelligence officer, Colonel Kudasov. This map is vital for the Red Army assault, and the Avengers are sent on a secret mission to steal the map. They enter Sevastopol on a fishing boat and disguise themselves. Danka assumes the guise of a shoe cleaner, and Valerka fashions himself as a young monarchist nobleman. Meanwhile, the Red agent they were sent to is arrested by Kudasov and killed when he tries to escape, leaving the Avengers on their own. Ksanka meets Bubba Castorsky, a popular singer and dancer who helped the Avengers in the first movie, and Bubba tells them about a White officer who probably knows the combination for Kudasov's safe. Valerka visits the cabaret often visited by this officer, stabs Captain Ovechkin, and befriends him. But Danka is arrested, because Ataman Burnash comes to the city and recognizes him. Yashka meets the local Gypsies and persuades them to help freeing Danka. Then Captain Ovechkin recognizes Valerka for what he is, gloats at him and tells him the combination, intending to arrest him immediately, but Valerka detonates a pool ball filled with explosives and escapes. He dashes to the Counterintelligence Service headquarters, infiltrates it and steals the map. The headquarters is surrounded by soldiers, but Danka, Yashka and Ksanka distract the soldiers and let him escape with the map. The Avengers, along with Bubba, flee the city, but a White officer shoots Bubba when they are already escaping on a boat. ===== After traveling to a small village in Ecuador, Miami tabloid news reporter Manolo Bonilla (Leguizamo) witnesses the death of a local boy after Vinicio Cepeda, a traveling salesman, hits the boy with his pickup truck. When Cepeda attempts to back his truck away from the boy, a mob, led by the boy's father, Don Lucho, pulls him from his car, severely beats him, and sets him on fire before the local authorities intervene. After both men are arrested, Cepeda is examined at the jail infirmary and taken to his cell where, later that night, he is attacked by Don Lucho and severely injured. The next morning Manolo Bonilla comes to the prison to interview the men involved. After agreeing to an interview alongside Cepeda, Lucho attacks Cepeda a second time and is taken away. The interview with Cepeda is cancelled due to concerns about Manolo's safety; however, before the reporter leaves, Cepeda notifies him that he has information on the Monster of Babahoyo, a notorious murderer and rapist in the area, and tells him the location where one of the murderer's victims, a nine-year-old girl, is buried. Manolo agrees to interview Cepeda and attempts to free him from prison in exchange for information about the murders. Later that evening Manolo and his cameraman Ivan drive to the location Cepeda mentioned and dig up a shallow grave, indeed containing the body of a small girl. Over the following days Manolo begins interviewing Cepeda, as well as Cepeda’s wife, son, and babysitter. While interviewing Cepeda, Manolo begins to suspect that Cepeda is, in fact, the Monster of Babahoyo and using him to exonerate himself. After Manolo attempts to get Cepeda to incriminate himself, Cepeda tells him to leave and never come back. Manolo then informs Cepeda that the interview which would free him will not be aired. Manolo calls the authorities and tells them that he had been receiving anonymous calls about the location of the girl's grave. He discovers circumstantial evidence placing Cepeda at the locations of the murders on the dates they occurred; however, despite Manolo's request, the news agency airs Cepeda's interviews which help set Cepeda free. After being interviewed by authorities, Manolo and his crew return to Cepeda's home in search of him only to find that he left his pregnant wife alone at their house and took their son to school before leaving the area. Manolo is offered his own show on the news network and, after deciding against turning over the evidence to the police, the team arrives at the airport and parts ways. ===== Gai Choi-Chi is no different from an ordinary girl, except that Lady Luck seems to smile upon her and keep her out of trouble all the time. She is thus nicknamed "Ho-Choi Mui" ("Lucky Girl"). However, she does not know that her stepmother, called Ho-Choi Ma, is actually a plant spirit. Choi-Chi helps some deities defeat an evil spirit once and her stepmother turns her into a demigod to save her life. As a child, Shek Kam-Dong was constantly bullied and looked down upon, but he still remains filial to his mother and shows great respect for the gods. Wong Tai Sin, a wish-granting god, takes pity on Shek and grants him superhuman strength. However, Shek starts to abuse his new power and uses it to bully others, becoming a local tyrant in town. An Hei has narcolepsy, as he is always tired and falls asleep at random timings. Wong Tai-Sin tries to help An Hei by presenting him a magical sword that is possessed by the spirit of a warrior. Whenever An Hei runs into trouble, the powerful spirit will possess him and help him defeat his enemies. One day, an evil wizard disturbs the quiet town and captures Ho-Choi Ma. Gai Choi-Chi, Shek Kam-Dong and An Hei joins hands to confront the wizard and defeat her to save Ho-Choi Ma. They travel across the continent on their heroic quest, encountering strange and mystical events along the journey. ===== In New York City, Charles Gigot (William H. Macy) is an alcoholic, disgruntled hearing-mute and superintendent of an apartment building with eccentric tenants. One day, he meets Lou (Keke Palmer), a young girl who lives with her mother Arlene (Cherise Booth) and her boyfriend, Bernard (Edward Yankie). When Gigot suspects that their apartment may have been broken into, he investigates, only to encounter two thugs looking for the couple. His presence creates a diversion that allows Lou, who had been in hiding, to escape to the basement with her mother. Despite Gigot's protestations, Arlene leaves Lou in Gigot's care for an indefinite time while she sorts things out with Bernard. Annoyed at having his solitude compromised, Gigot attempts to ignore Lou completely, but her brash and back-talking attitude makes her unbearable. Lou is equally uncomfortable with Gigot's spartan style of living – he has no food in the apartment, drinks frequently, and is emotionally distant. In fact, his only friends seem to be his pet monkey, Grace, and Gloria (Catherine O'Hara), a middle-aged prostitute. Wanting to find a relative with whom Lou can live, he learns from the apartment's lease that Lou has an aunt named Cheryl who lives in Philadelphia. They travel via bus to Cheryl's house, but Gigot is unsuccessful in convincing her to take Lou, learning that Arlene and Cheryl hate one another and that Cheryl does not consider Lou a relative. Realizing that finding Arlene is the only solution to the dilemma, Gigot and Lou research one of her contacts, who sends them to an apartment building in the city. Gigot goes in alone and discovers that the place is a crack house and that Arlene has become a drug addict. Seeing a dead-end, Gigot's only option is to return home with Lou. Things become even more complicated, however, when he is robbed at a diner and is forced to perform a sideshow featuring Grace and Lou to raise enough money for the bus tickets. During this course of events, Gigot and Lou bond and she comes to live with him permanently. Lou's influence causes Gigot to stop drinking and to help her with her education (he realizes that she is almost illiterate and two years older than the rest of her class). They develop a father-daughter relationship with Lou helping Gigot grieve when local thugs poison Grace in an act of revenge for Gigot disposing of drugs belonging to one of their members. Eventually, policemen visit the apartment building and inform Gigot that Arlene died from an overdose. He attempts to shield Lou from the truth, but is forced to tell her while on a trip to a theme park. Her grief prompts Gigot to seek out a friend named Clarence (Tyrone Benskin) who served with him in Vietnam and has since become a foster parent for multiple children without homes. Clarence and his wife, Bess, however, announce that they are retired, leaving Gigot with no other choice but to become a foster parent himself after Child Protective Services arrives to claim Lou. The process comes to a halt, however, when Gigot's jail-time prevents him from being a candidate and a proposal of marriage to Gloria is refused. At this point, Gigot's only chance is his parents, whom he hasn't seen in twenty-eight years. Hoping that they will officially adopt Lou so that he may take care of her, Gigot pays them a visit and is shocked to learn that his mother died years ago and his father (Ned Beatty) has since remarried. During an argument, it is revealed that Gigot's downward spiral into alcoholism and virtual isolation were a result of post-traumatic stress from his time in Vietnam. The titular wool cap, which he wears throughout the film, belonged to his younger sister who died in a car accident while Gigot was at the wheel, drunk and high. Hurt by Gigot's indifference throughout the years, his father rejects him and his request to adopt Lou. Meanwhile, being a foster child is hard on Lou, who falls into a life of waywardness. She is eventually arrested for shop-lifting and put into juvenile hall where she refuses to see Gigot, having given up hope on ever finding a home. Depressed and utterly forlorn, Gigot attempts to start afresh on Christmas Day by letting go of the past (symbolized by throwing his sister's wool cap into a river) and visiting a church, where he breaks down crying. On coming home, he finds his stepmother and father waiting for him at the apartment building. After a brief hesitation, Gigot and his father embrace, a sign that they will begin to repair their relationship. Later that evening, Gigot visits Lou at juvenile hall and introduces her to his father. Using sign language, he tells her that he would like to adopt her. In a subtle imitation of Gigot, she becomes speechless and wordlessly accepts. The film jumps forward a year. It is winter again and Gigot has since become the manager of his father's business. He goes to pick up Lou from school where she has become an excellent student. The two are seen driving off together and laughing, happy to have found one another. ===== The sailor Pietro and his rat companion Roscuro dock in the kingdom of Dor, famous around the world for its delicious soups, during the "Royal Soup Day." The chief cook, Chef Andre, makes good soup due to Boldo, a magical genie that emerges from his pot and is made entirely out of food. On a banquet, when Roscuro slips away and ends up in the royal banquet hall, he slips and falls into the Queen's soup, giving her such a fright that she has a heart attack and dies. The entire hall goes into a panic, as the guards pursue Roscuro. He attempts to flee the castle but sees Pietro's ship has already sailed away. He narrowly escapes capture by falling down a sewer drain, which leads to the castle dungeons, where he's found and taken in by Botticelli, the leader of the dungeon's large rat population. Distraught over his wife's death, the King forbids any and all things related to soup and makes rats illegal. Without its soup, Dor becomes impoverished and dreary. Andre is banned from making any more soup and Boldo stops appearing. The King's daughter, Princess Pea, despairs over the sad state of the kingdom and how her father has shut out both her and the world in his grief. In a mouse village in the castle's abandoned kitchen storage room, a baby is born to the Tilling family. They name him Despereaux. As he grows up, it becomes clear Despereaux's not like other mice: he isn't meek and timid, but brave and curious, unnerving other mice around him. In an effort to teach him to behave like a proper mouse, his brother Furlough takes him to the castle library to show him how to chew books, but Despereaux is more interested in reading than eating them. He starts to become fascinated by fairytale books about daring knights and trapped princesses. One day while reading, he encounters and converses with Pea. She makes him promise to finish reading the story about a trapped princess and tell her how it ends. Upon discovering Despereaux has violated mouse law by talking to a human, his parents turn him in to the mouse council. The council banishes Despereaux to the dungeons, where he meets and tells the princess' story to the castle jailor, Gregory, but he doesn't listen and leaves Despereaux alone. There, he is captured by the rats and thrown into their arena with a cat. As Despereaux is about to be eaten, Roscuro saves his life by asking Botticelli to give Despereaux to him to eat. Having been unable to adjust to being a sewer rat, Roscuro is desperate to hear about the outside world. The two become friends, as every day Despereaux tells him the stories and of the princess and her sadness. Hoping to make amends for all the trouble he's caused, Roscuro sneaks up to Princess Pea's room and tries to apologize, only to be lashed out. Hurt by this, Roscuro vows revenge. He enlists the help of Miggery "Mig" Sow, Princess Pea's slightly deaf young maid who longs to be a princess herself, by convincing her she can take Pea's place if she kidnaps her. After Mig drags Pea down to the dungeons, Roscuro double-crosses her and locks her in a cell. Meanwhile, Despereaux (who had been punished again by the council by learning to be afraid and was lost somewhere in the process, believing we was dead by his people) discovers that the princess is in danger; he tries to tell the King but he is too despondent to listen. Despereaux tries to get help elsewhere; he tries to enlist his family, but they are afraid by his presence (thinking that he is a ghost); Despereaux rings the town's bell to prove his survival. Andre, hearing this and having had enough of the law and gets back to make some soup, which brings the enchanted smell back to the kingdom and brings back Boldo. Despereaux tries to get help from Andre and Boldo, but only convinces Boldo to accompany him into the dungeons. En route, they are discovered and attacked by rats; Boldo sacrifices himself to allow Desperaux to reach the arena. Back in the rat colony, Roscuro sees the apologetic sincerity in Pea's eyes and regrets his actions, but an enraged Botticelli signals the rats to eat or trample over Pea. Despereaux lets loose a cat into the arena to scare some of the rats away, and fights the others off as sunlight flows into the rat world (caused by a chain reaction by the combined efforts by both Despereaux, Roscuro, Pea, and Mig; Boticelli, with another combined effort from Desperaux, Roscuro and Pea, is trapped in a cage with the cat. In the aftermath, Roscuro apologies to Pea for causing her mother's death; Mig is reunited with her long-lost father Gregory, who recognizes the heart-shaped birthmark on the back of her neck, the King is able to overcome his grief and soup and rats are allowed back in the kingdom. The mice all then try to be braver like Despereaux, while Roscuro returns to a life at sea, where there is always light and a gentle breeze, and Despereaux himself takes off on a journey to see the world, ending the film. ===== Tony Wolf was a San Francisco policeman who now works as a fisherman and sometime private eye. Originally a narcotics officer for the SFPD, Tony was framed and took the fall as a crooked cop. Drummed off the force, he wandered the world for a couple of years, before finally returning home to The City to make amends with his aging father and to take over the family fishing boat. He's also tried to re-kindle a relationship with Connie, an old flame. ===== Senrid is King of Marloven Hess, but in name only because his uncle Tdanerand holds the power. When the Marlovens try to attack the nearby kingdom of Vasande Leror they are defeated by the combined efforts of Vasande Leror's King Leander, his small army, a little bit of magic and a shapeshifting girl named Faline. Senrid's first mission is to get revenge on Leander (and his whining sister Kitty) and Faline. This gets more complicated as many allies of Leander and Faline get involved to try to rescue them. Eventually as magic combines and nearly destroys them in a battle they are thrown off world. When they get back, Senrid must travel and discover whether he wants to join the evil black mages for power or join the white forces of good to help his country. ===== The Mystic Masseur follows the life of Ganesh Ramsumair, a Trinidadian of Indian heritage. As a young man, Ganesh attends a training college for teachers, and after graduation, he begins working as a primary school teacher in the Port of Spain, Trinidad’s capital. However, he quickly loses interest in this profession and returns to his hometown of Fourways, where he learns that his father has just died. Ganesh plans to be either a writer or a professional masseur, and he befriends a local shop owner named Ramlogan. Ramlogan has a 16-year-old daughter named Leela, and Leela and Ganesh soon marry. After the wedding, Ganesh demands a large dowry payment from Ramlogan, which angers the latter. Ganesh and Leela go to live in the small rural village of Fuente Grove, and he befriends a shop owner there named Beharry. Beharry encourages Ganesh to read and become a writer, and Ganesh orders several hundred books by mail to comprise his personal library. He reads the books and makes notes, but Leela becomes frustrated by the lack of progress Ganesh makes with actually writing. She leaves Ganesh and returns to Fourways to live with her father again. Ganesh spends the next five weeks writing an educational text about Hinduism, and when he finishes it, he has hires a print shop to make copies of his book. He brings the book to Leela and Ramlogan, and they are ecstatic that he has written a book. However, Ramlogan becomes furious when he sees that the book is dedicated to Beharry rather than Leela or himself. Leela returns to Ganesh, but Ganesh’s book does not sell well. Ganesh decides to become a mystic and a religious healer. His first client is a mother who says that a malevolent black cloud has been following her son. Ganesh performs a ritual over the boy, who then says that the black cloud is gone. Ganesh becomes a very successful mystic, but he soon discovers that the five local taxis are overcharging passengers to come to his home. He also discovers that the taxis are all owned by Ramlogan. He goes to Ramlogan and says that he wishes to buy the taxis from him and that if Ramlogan refuses, Ganesh will simply buy his own taxis and have them charge reasonable rates. Ramlogan, furious but defeated, agrees to sell the taxis to Ganesh. Ganesh, having gained considerable personal wealth, invests his money in Fuente Grove’s businesses and infrastructure, and the village begins to prosper. One day, Hindu organizers approach Ganesh and inform him that C.S. Narayan, the president of the Trinidad Hindu Association, has been embezzling funds from the organization. Ganesh and the organizers publicize Narayan’s malfeasance by publishing their own newspaper. Soon, Narayan is voted out of his position in the organization, and Ganesh is voted in as the new president. Ganesh then decides to campaign for a position in the Legislative Council of Trinidad, and he wins easily, having gained widespread fame and popularity by this point. However, while he intends to fight for the wellbeing of Trinidad’s downtrodden, he is soon stymied by the politics of the Legislative Council and must instead follow the lead of the other Council members. ===== On the edges of Las Vegas, 17-year-old Andrew's life is spiraling out of control. Unable to cope with the loss of his father, Andrew's descent into drugs and violence is gaining momentum, and the once promising young man is now headed for self- destruction (in what Variety calls “an especially blistering performance by Monty Lapica”). Andrew's mother (Golden Globe nominee Diane Venora), helpless to control her son and fighting an addiction of her own, refuses to watch idly as her only child destroys himself. As a last resort, she hires a private company to forcibly kidnap and confine him in a locked-down and corrupt psychiatric hospital. As Andrew is subjected to the secret physical and emotional abuses of the program something inside him is re-awakened. He must somehow get free to save what's left of his life, but to do that, he knows he must first face his own demons head-on. ===== The story begins in November 1770 in Auvergne, France, near Chavaniac. Philippe Charboneau, a seventeen-year-old boy, is living with his mother, Marie, in an inn inherited from her deceased father. The young Philippe never knew his father. Having kept it a secret from him for years, she finally tells him his father was James Amberly, the 6th Duke of Kent. The Duke began an affair with Marie when she was performing on stage in Paris, but he never married her, making Philippe illegitimate. Their affair was brief and when he returned to England, Amberly married and had a legitimate son, Roger; however, he continued to support Marie and intended for Philippe to inherit half of his fortune. When Philippe and Marie received word that the Duke had taken ill they immediately made plans to travel to Kent, England and stake their claim to his inheritance Once at Kent, the Duke's wife, Lady Jane Amberly, and Roger, her son, refused to recognize Philippe as the son of the Duke. Marie insists otherwise and is determined not to leave Kent until her son inherits what she feels is rightfully his half of the Amberly's' wealth. Philippe and his mother stay months at an inn in hopes that Lady Jane would reconsider, but she never does. The situation becomes even more tense when Philippe began a sexual relationship with Roger's fiancée, Alicia Parkhurst. When Philippe and Marie are informed that the Duke had died they return to his home, but they are not allowed to see the body. Instead Philippe and Roger brawl, and Roger's hand is badly wounded. Philippe escapes with his life, though he remains in danger. Alicia warned him to leave Kent because Roger is bent on killing him for injuring his hand. Lacking the funds to return to France, Marie and Philippe flee to London and hope to remain hidden there until the situation cooled. Not knowing their way around the city of London, they made for St. Paul's Church, hoping to find sanctuary there. Instead, they are attacked by violent beggars who try to rob Philippe and Marie. They are saved by Esau and Hosea Sholto, the sons of Solomon Sholto, a deeply religious man who believes in charity and compassion. Philippe and Marie are allowed to stay with the Sholtos and Solomon offered to train Philippe as his apprentice, as the Sholto family owns and operates a printing company and a lending library. Convinced that his claim to Kentland will never be validated, Philippe decides to take Solomon's advice and learn the trade. When Philippe confides to Solomon his desire to emigrate to America, Solomon introduces him to Benjamin Franklin, who is currently an American trade representative to England. To convince Philippe that America was the place he should be, Franklin praised his native country for its boundless opportunities, but also warns that trouble between the British and the colonies are brewing. Marie is adamantly opposed to leaving England without settling the claim for her son, but Philippe is attacked by an agent hired by Roger, who has never given up on trying to eliminate his rival claimant. London is no longer safe for Marie and Philippe and they fled again, this time to the port city of Bristol, to find passage to America. During their transatlantic journey, Marie, heartbroken, dies of dysentery and is buried at sea, and Philippe decides to adopt an Anglicized version of his name, renaming himself Philip Kent. Philip arrives in Boston, Massachusetts penniless, becoming homeless and starving. He quickly angers a British soldier by accidentally splashing mud on him. He is saved from a beating by local merchant William Molineux. Through his connection with Molineux, Philip was introduced to Samuel Adams and Paul Revere. He is also introduced to Benjamin Edes, the editor of the Boston Gazette, who gives Philip a job at his publishing firm. It was through this job that Philip meets Abraham Ware, who often contributes to articles to the paper, and his daughter Anne, whom Philip begins courting. Philip participates in the Boston Tea Party, and then joins the Boston Grenadier Company under Henry Knox. A number of measures are enacted after the Tea Party to punish the colonists in Boston. One of these acts, the Quartering Act, particularly angers Abraham Ware, because he is required to house a British soldier in his home. George Lumden, the sergeant who is quartered in the Wares' house, falls in love with Daisy O'Brian, the Wares' cook, and decides to desert the British army. Philip, who wants Lumden's musket, encourages the sergeant to do so and even employs a local boy to assist him in taking the musket. However, the boy finds it more profitable to betray Philip and inform on Lumden to the commander of his unit, who is none other than Roger Amberly. Roger goes to the Wares' house in search of Lumden, but finds only Anne. When Philip arrives, Roger recognizes and attacks him, but Philip stabs his half-brother in the stomach with a bayonet. Thinking him dead, Philip flees the city with Lumden and goes to stay on Daisy's father's farm, near Concord, Massachusetts. Anne and Daisy join them at the farm some time later and they inform him that Roger had not died. He was taken to Philadelphia to be treated privately, and Alicia Parkhurst was with him. Anne gives Philip a letter that Alicia had written to him and he leaves Concord to see her in Philadelphia. Roger dies before Philip reached the city. Philip meets with Alicia, who tells him she wants to marry him. Philip is torn between Alicia and Anne. In a chance reunion with Benjamin Franklin, Franklin tells Philip that James Amberly is actually still alive and Philip realizes that Alicia only wants to marry him now because he is now the Duke's only heir. Philip confronts Alicia and informs her that he no longer loves her and has decided to give up any claim to his inheritance, believing that the immense wealth would corrupt him as it had corrupted the Kent family. On his return from Philadelphia to Concord to be reunited with Anne, he ran into Paul Revere again, this time with William Dawes and Samuel Prescott, on their famous "midnight ride" to warn the patriots that the British army is coming. Philip tries to see Anne, but her father will not allow him to, telling him Anne was too distraught when he left her. Then, Philip returns to O'Brian's farm to get Lumden's musket. Once there, he tells Daisy to tell Anne that he loves her. Philip participates in the Battle of Concord and afterwards, he is finally reunited with Anne. He tells her that he plans to marry her, and then he leaves to continue the fighting in the war against the British. ===== The mother intercepts and destroys letters from Julien's girlfriend and does not allow him to see her. He is not allowed to wear clothing he gets from his grandmother or buys with his own money. She rejects angrily a gift from the boy. She enters the bathroom while he is naked, when he covers his genitals she demands that he exposes them. She asks him to lie to his soccer trainer about why he can't come to a training session, in order that she and the boy can be together. Also she does not tell him about the death of his beloved grandmother until after the funeral. Julien's father is always busy with his work and supports his wife's behavior. Only Julien's elder sister is concerned about the negative effect of the mother's behavior on Julien's well-being, but the parents refuse to listen to her. Nevertheless the mother also sometimes shows some kind of love for Julien: she likes dancing with him in the living room, playing soccer with him, and going together to the swimming pool. She often comes to his school to discuss Julien's progress. However, Julien's school achievements deteriorate. At school the mother tells the teacher that she does not know what the problem is. Julien secretly goes to his girlfriend's party. His parents go the girl's house to take him home. Julien's sister phones him to warn him that they are on their way. Julien hurries back home on his bike. The parents meet him, grab him and put him in the car, leaving his bike on the road. At home Julien is beaten by his mother. He alarms the police and tells that he may commit suicide. Four police officers arrive at the house. Reluctantly the mother lets them talk with him in a separate room. Julien does not fully speak out. The police check his arms and trunk for physical harm but do not see anything. They leave. Julien is punished by the removal of most of his possessions from his room, and by giving him limited access to his room. Julien gets an alarm gun from his schoolmates and threatens his mother with it. However, she is not impressed. Then he threatens her with a small knife, and she dares him to kill her. At last he stabs his mother. A scene already shown in flash-forward at the start of the film is repeated, in which somebody is taken on a stretcher from the house to an ambulance; now it turns out that it is the mother. A voice-over tells that she survives and does not blame her son. ===== In the far north of France, filmed in Bailleul, a girl of 11 has been raped and murdered as she walked to her parents' remote farm from the school bus. Called onto the case, the mentally disabled Inspector Pharaon de Winter feels extreme revulsion. After having lost his wife and child in an accident, he now lives quietly with his widowed mother. At the weekend his neighbour Domino, who is sympathetic to his deeply affected state, asks him to join her and her lover Joseph, a bus driver. They go to the seaside and to a restaurant, but the reserved Pharaon finds Joseph ignorant and coarse. The police investigation moves slowly, with Pharaon looking into possibilities such as whether the murderer was a bus driver or a psychiatric patient. Noting that the murder site could be seen from Eurostar trains, he goes to London to interview passengers. But with no firm lead, the case is taken over by the Lille police. The factory where Domino works goes on strike and the police, led by Pharaon, have to quell a demonstration. Though outwardly angry, in fact Domino admires his quiet determination and offers herself to him. However, he rejects her advances, finding them too vulgar, and his mother warns her off. Then the Lille police arrest Joseph. When Pharaon gets to the police station, he finds him beaten up and weeping. At first baffled, Pharaon is soon surprised to find Joseph confessing in tears. Being a man of deep feeling, Pharaon comforts him, caressing him with his nose and kissing him on the mouth. When he goes home, his mother is out and Domino is at the kitchen table weeping. He comforts her. The final shot shows Pharaon sitting in a chair in his office at the police station, staring out the window, with handcuffs visibly shackling his wrists. ===== Joan Burrows (Bettis) returns to her hometown of Ovid, Colorado to attend her niece Olympia's (Blanton) high school graduation, but finds herself confronted by her past in the town. Before the graduation is to occur, a young couple goes missing and within a few days a mutilated body is found in the water during a town fish festival. This initiates flashbacks in which Joan's dark past is learned. When Joan was 17, she and her best friend were kidnapped and tortured by a serial killer named Bishop (Cotton). Bishop bound Joan and her friend to an autopsy table where one girl was tortured while the other had the power to make it stop simply by demanding the death of the friend. Joan was able to escape and kill her captor, but was left as the sole survivor of the spree with a scar on her cheek. With the present day's body count rising, questions arise whether Bishop has evaded death or if a copycat killer has arisen. ===== The year is 1879, and beyond the fringes of civilization a handful of pioneers maintain settlements while exploring the unknown territories. One night, a family from one of these settlements is brutally dragged into darkness by a group of unknown invaders. At first the kidnappers are thought to be hostile Native Americans, and a posse forms to bring the family back home safely. Venturing out into the unmapped territories is an Irish immigrant desperate to find his lost love, a naïve teen eager to prove his worth, a former slave seeking his fortune, and a hardened pair of battle-weary Indian fighters. But nature's wrath and the tomahawks of hostile tribes are not the only threats that this group will be forced to confront, because as the bodies begin to multiply and the truth about the abductors gradually emerges, these rescuers will find out that there are forces in this world that cannot be described in human terms—and that seem to have motivations beyond our comprehension. A species, called "Burrowers" by the Natives, used to subsist on buffalo. When white settlers depleted the buffalo, the species began to survive on human meat - first hunting nearby Indians and later the settlers. One tribe in particular, the Ute, have experience in combating the hunter-species. The "Burrowers" first lace their victims by cutting them and drugging them with a toxin. The victim is then buried alive and eaten only after decomposition has begun. By the time the film's protagonists meet up with the Ute their numbers are severely depleted, but the Ute method of drugging someone already infected with "Burrower" toxin proves effective. When the "Burrowers" go to eat the twice drugged victim they themselves fall asleep and are vulnerable, especially to the rays of the sun, which are the only apparent thing that can kill them. However, the surviving member of the posse, the Irishman Coffey, is unable to discover exactly what the Ute used to drug the "Burrowers", as most of the remaining Ute are executed by the overzealous cavalry. The film ends with the suggestion that the "Burrower" attacks will continue. ===== Set during the Japanese military occupation of Korea, descendants of both nations were embroiled in a power struggle to control the streets of Jongro, the center of Korean trade. Gangsters harassed the local merchants, who joined forces with the Japanese to upset the balance and disturb the peace of the community. Spurred into action, Doo Han Kim, leader of the Umi Gang and son of the famous General Jwah Jin Kim, and Sirasoni, a warrior of Manjoo descent and hailed as 'the greatest fighter of all time', rise up to challenge the oppressive tyranny. The resistance of the Japanese police, military police, and opposing gangs grew stronger, but Doo Han Kim and Sirasoni takes it to the streets to fight for the common people and restore peace to Jongro. The mission of this fast-paced game is to defeat the Honmachi Clan, local thugs and gangsters. ===== The movie revolved around a Chinese flatbread restaurant in Hong Kong, where the Mo family worked and make a living. Luk Siu-fung (Lydia Shum) is the matriarch of the family, protecting them against all external threats from local gangsters, while also serving the family's every need. However, Siu-fung suffers from heart problems, and on the eve of her wedding anniversary with her longtime husband, Mo Chak-shu, Siu-fung died. Before Siu-fung died, she expressed a desire to ride a Chinese Wedding Sedan in the afterlife, which Chak-shu and his son, Sonny, promises. When Siu-fung reaches the underworld, the wedding sedan arrived just in time to carry Siu-fung over the Neihe Bridge, where she will officially reach the underworld and be prepared for reincarnation. After proper registrations, Siu-fung (who is grossly overweight) attempted to cross the Neihe Bridge with the sedan, and the excessive weight caused the bridge to collapse. The sedan carriers, along with the sedan, fell to their death into the Neihe River, while Siu-fung was saved by the Spiritworld Keeper at the last moment. Since the Neihe Bridge was destroyed, Siu-fung cannot cross the bridge, thus creating an anomaly where Siu-fung is not officially dead, in spiritworld terms. The spiritworld keeper attempted to guide Siu-fung back to human life, where she can reenter her body, and be returned to life. However, Siu-fung was a little late, and her husband and son pressed a button to cremate Siu-fung's body. ===== Late on a moonlit evening, a young boy is sent up to bed by his mother. He walks through the darkened hallway of his house and ascends the long, narrow flights of stairs alone, becoming increasingly paranoid that something is following him, until he reaches the safety of his bedroom. As he's drifting off to sleep, he sees a face appear in the crescent Moon outside his window. At the bottom of the stairs, a monstrous, bird-like man appears. It begins to clamber upstairs, slamming doors and creaking floorboards all the way to let the boy know of its impending presence. Frightened, the boy accidentally knocks over his oil lamp—alerting the monster to exactly what room he's in. The boy hides under the covers, as a figure opens the door and approaches his bed. It's revealed to be his mother, who retrieves the broken lamp and tucks him in for the night. As he falls asleep, feeling safe once more, the monster appears in his room and begins to make noise, trying to rouse him. When the boy finally opens his eyes, the monster blows sand in them and snatches something from him before departing through the bedroom window. The monster returns to its nest on the Moon, where its hungry children are waiting. it reveals the boy's eyes, which it plucked out, and feeds to them to its young. The boy, now blind, walks helplessly among a crowd of children who've been victimized. ===== The drama opens with the disclaimer "Some of the following is based on fact. And some isn't". When Archbishop Fisher of the Church of England refuses her request to allow her and divorced war hero Peter Townsend, an equerry to her sister, to wed in a religious ceremony, and her brother-in- law and confidant Prince Philip advises her she will lose all her material possessions if they engage in a civil union, Margaret ends the relationship and plunges into a hedonistic lifestyle that frequently draws headlines in the press. She finds herself partnered with Tony Armstrong-Jones at a party that dissolves into an evening of sexual shenanigans, and she and the impoverished photographer begin to meet frequently for clandestine encounters in his dingy flat. When their relationship is made public, the two wed in an elaborate ceremony that is admired by those who embrace the monarchy and criticized by politicians who are shocked at the amount of money spent on the occasion while their constituents are struggling to get by on meagre wages. The turbulent marriage falls victim to Margaret's increased drinking and Tony's indiscreet womanizing. She treats him more like a subject than a spouse, and he eventually moves out. When she is caught in flagrante delicto with the pianist from a restaurant she frequents, she and Tony escape to their hideaway in Mustique and try to present a united front for the press, but their scheme backfires when they are criticized for their lavish lifestyle in the tropics. To escape the limelight, Margaret invites herself to the country home of her friends Rachel and Curly Burke. There she meets Roddy Llewellyn, a considerably younger aspiring pop singer. Shortly after she learns Robin Douglas-Home, with whom she once had a highly publicized affair, has committed suicide. Roddy suggests she stay with him at his cottage, which he shares with a commune of friends, to avoid the press, but a diligent photographer manages to catch them in an embrace. Tony Armstrong-Jones then announces the couple will divorce. Margaret's continued drinking, drug-abuse and deepening depression lead to her being hospitalized for several weeks for what is described as "exhaustion". After her release, she returns to Roddy, who announces he is marrying one of his housemates. Margaret departs for Mustique, and in the film's final moments she is seen standing in the surf and pondering her future. ===== Vetrivel alias Velu (Vijay) is a car racer who lives with his large family in Chennai. His father, Singamuthu (Manivannan), had gone to Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh to work at a colliery and never returned, prompting Velu and his family to think that he is dead. Velu comes to know that a Malaysia-based don named Koccha (Suman) owed his father a huge sum of money. Velu and his friend Ops (Vivek) travel to Malaysia as Kuruvi, the trade jargon for low-level contraband carriers. They come to Malaysia at a time when internal rivalry and problems are surfacing in Koccha's family. Koccha's younger sister Radhadevi alias Devi (Trisha) has refused to marry Soori (Pawan), the brother of Konda Reddy (Ashish Vidyarthi), Koccha's Kadapa-based business associate. Irritated and preoccupied, neither Koccha nor his henchmen want to devote any time or attention to resolve Velu's problem. Velu is ill-treated and thrown out of Koccha's place without any help rendered. Determined to return to India only after his father's issue is solved to his satisfaction, Velu conceals himself in Koccha's palace-like residence. He soon finds out about a large diamond owned by Koccha and steals it, feeling that it would pay off his father's debt, and returns to India with Ops. Devi also follows Velu to India, having fallen in love with him, when he saves her from falling from a tall building during New Year's Eve. Knowing that Velu has stolen his diamond, Koccha and his gang visit Velu's house and threaten his family with dire consequences unless Velu returns the diamond. After confronting Koccha, Velu comes to know that his father isn't dead, but is being held as bonded labour along with many innocent people at Kadapa. Singamuthu had discovered diamonds at the colliery, but refused to allow Koccha and Konda Reddy to illegally mine the diamonds for their own benefit. He had been held prisoner in Kadapa since. Velu immediately leaves for Kadapa, where he encounters Koccha again. He throws him onto a moving train, paralysing him. He soon discovers a slave camp run by Koccha and Konda Reddy (Ashish Vidyarthi) at the colliery, where a womanising rowdy named Kadapa Raja (G. V. Sudhakar Naidu) is torturing the inmates, including Singamuthu. He single-handedly takes on Konda Reddy, Kadapa Raja and their henchmen, killing them all. He drags Konda Reddy's dead body to Koccha's mansion. Koccha, who now uses a wheelchair, recovers on seeing the dead body of his associate and attempts to shoot Velu. He is arrested at that moment by a special task force led by Raj (Nassar). Singamuthu and the others who were imprisoned in the slave camp are finally freed and reunited with their families. Finally, Velu unites with Devi. ===== In the fourth novel in the Factory series opens, young prostitute Dora Suarez is axed into pieces. The killer then smashes the head of her neighbour, an 86-year-old widow. On the same night, a mile away in the West End, a shotgun blows the top off the head of Felix Roatta, part owner of the seedy Parallel Club. As the detective obsesses over the young woman whose murder he investigates, he discovers that her death is even more bizarre than he had suspected: the murderer ate bits of flesh from Suarez’s corpse and ejaculated on her thigh. Autopsy results compound the puzzle: Suarez was dying of AIDS, but the pathologist is unable to determine how she had contracted HIV. Then a photo, supplied by a former Parallel hostess, links Suarez to Roatta, and the detective's inquiries at the nightclub reveal her vile and inhuman exploitation. ===== On 16 January 1944, a reconnaissance pilot survives a plane crash in Delahaut in the Nazi occupied Belgium. The boy Jean Benoit finds the wounded pilot and takes him to the house of Claire and Henri Daussois who belong to the Maquis Resistance. As soon as Major Theodore 'Ted' Brice has recovered, he tells them that he needs to retrieve a book of codes, but the airplane is guarded by the Nazis. Meanwhile, Ted and Claire fall in love with each other. When three German guards that are protecting the debris of the airplane are executed, the Nazis select a group of villagers and hang them in a barn. When Henri finds that Ted and Claire are having a love affair, he betrays the pilot with tragic consequences. ===== Set in late nineteenth century Japan, The Teahouse Fire is the story of Aurelia, a young French-American girl who, after the death of her mother and her missionary uncle, finds herself lost and alone and in need of a new family. Knowing only a few words of Japanese she hides in a Japanese tea house and is adopted by the family who own it: gradually falling in love with both the Japanese tea ceremony and with her young mistress, Yukako. As Aurelia grows up she devotes herself to the family and its failing fortunes in the face of civil war and western intervention, and to Yukako's love affairs and subsequent marriage. But her feelings for her mistress seem doomed never to be reciprocated and, as tensions mount in the household, Aurelia begins to realise that to the world around her she will never be anything but an outsider. ===== Nina and Robert Tracey (Judy Holliday and Jack Lemmon), married for eight years, suffer marital problems and divorce. Robert shares the home of his womanizing Navy buddy Charlie Nelson (Jack Carson) while Nina looks to her interfering mother for guidance. Robert spends an evening with Janis (Kim Novak), who finds the dashing Robert "real cute" but he feels uncomfortable with Janis and other girls he dates. Nina also tries to date other men. Although they try to ignore each other when they accidentally meet, it is obvious that the past is not dead. Then one night, they find themselves in a nightclub, dancing the mambo together; they had both learned to dance since their divorce. Later, after a disastrous meeting at her home with Charlie, Nina tells her mother on the phone that she is still in love with Robert. He accidentally overhears the conversation, having dashed to her home because of his friend's reputation. Nina and Robert reconcile and remarry. ===== Singing-and-dancing stage star Julie (Betty Grable) is told that husband Marty (Jack Lemmon) is reported missing in action during the Korean War. After a long waiting period, she makes plans to marry Vernon (Gower Champion), who is Marty's best friend. After the marriage, Marty (who crashed but survived on an island) turns up at one of Julie's shows. Upon discovering Julie's new marriage, Marty demands his rights as her first husband. Julie finds that she is legally married to both Marty and Vernon. She soon realises that she must choose who she wants to be with, if only to avoid being branded a bigamist. But Julie loves the idea of having two husbands and so she decides to try to live with them both, to the annoyance and disapproval of Marty and Vernon who both know that her idea will not work out. Meanwhile, Julie's close friend Gwen (Marge Champion) has a secret crush on Marty and hopes to be with him, if only Julie could make her up mind as to who she wants. After a long serious decision and a talk with them both, Julie decides that she is more in love with Marty and she leaves Vernon, who has now fallen for Gwen. ===== In a hospital unit in the U.S. Army in Europe after World War II, Private Hogan does not believe that a blue-stocking can be good- looking, but the first sight of dietetic nurse Lieutenant Betty Bixby sets him straight. When he picks up her cigarette lighter and puts his weapon aside, he is surprised by security officer Paul Locke who admonishes him for putting down his weapon while on guard duty and confines him to quarters preliminary to a court martial. The colonel in charge of the unit, however, would prefer to keep everything "in the family" and avoid a court martial. Soon, Hogan plans to organise a ball at an off-limits hotel with all the prettiest nurses and his fellow soldiers. Hogan and Cpl. Bohun go through all sorts of mishaps to make sure that the secret Mad Ball goes ahead. Hogan uses a General's X-ray and pretends it belongs to him to win the sympathy of Lt. Bixby, whom he wants to take to the ball. Hogan claims to be suffering from heartburn and an ulcer, and Bixby recommends dietetic changes. When Betty finds out that the X-ray doesn't belong to Hogan, she falls out with him, leaving both Betty and Hogan secretly sad to have lost each other. On the night of the ball, each soldier has been paired with a pretty nurse, except Hogan. He waits for Bixby, hoping that she has forgiven him, but he ends up going to the ball on his own. When he arrives, he sees Betty with the Colonel. She takes off her long coat to reveal a pretty dress. At the end, she shares the last dance with Hogan. ===== Flying back to the Philippines to bury his father, an American man is informed by a mysterious phone caller that his mother and sister have been kidnapped and will be killed if he doesn't comply with certain demands. As he follows the phone caller's every wish, he slowly realizes that he is involved in a large conspiracy hatched by the Abu Sayyaf. ===== In 1931 Paris, 12-year-old Hugo Cabret lives with his widowed, clockmaker father, who works at a museum. Hugo's father finds a broken automaton – a mechanical man created to write with a pen. He and Hugo try to repair it, documenting their work in a notebook. When his father dies in a fire, Hugo goes to live with his father's alcoholic brother, uncle Claude, who maintains the clocks at Gare Montparnasse railway station. When Claude goes missing, Hugo continues maintaining the clock, fearing that Station Inspector Gustave Dasté will send him away if Claude's absence is discovered. Hugo attempts to repair the automaton with stolen parts, believing it contains a message from his father, but the machine requires a heart-shaped key. Hugo is caught stealing parts from a toy store, and the owner, Georges, takes his notebook, threatening to destroy it. Georges' goddaughter Isabelle suggests to Hugo to confront Georges and demand the notebook back. Georges proposes that Hugo work at his toy store as recompence, and after sometime he might return the notebook. He accepts the offer and commences work, in addition to his job maintaining the clocks. Isabelle and Hugo become fast friends, and Hugo is astonished to see Isabelle wears a heart-shaped key, given to her by Georges. Hugo shows her the automaton, which they activate with the key, and the machine draws a scene from the film A Trip to the Moon, once described to Hugo by his father. Isabelle identifies the drawing's signature as that of "Georges Méliès", her godfather. She sneaks Hugo into her home, where they find a hidden cache of drawings, but they are discovered by Georges. Several days later, at the Film Academy Library, Hugo and Isabelle find a book about the history of cinema that praises Méliès' contributions. They meet the book's author, René Tabard, a film expert who is surprised to hear Méliès is alive, as he disappeared after World War I along with the copies of his films. Excited at the chance to meet Méliès, René agrees to meet Isabelle and Hugo at Georges' home to show his copy of A Trip to the Moon. Finding the key on the station railway tracks, Hugo drops down to the track to retrieve it, and is run over by an uncontrollable train that smashes through the station. He wakes up, having only had a nightmare, but hears an ominous ticking emanating from himself, and discovers he has been turned into the automaton. Hugo wakes up again to discover this was only another nightmare. At Georges’ home, his wife Jeanne allows them in after René compliments her as Jeanne d'Alcy, an actress in many of Méliès' films. They play the film, waking Georges, who is finally convinced to cherish his accomplishments rather than regret his lost dream. Georges recounts that as a stage magician, he was fascinated by motion pictures, and used film to create imaginative works through his Star Film Company. Forced into bankruptcy after the war, he closed his studio and sold his films. He laments that even an automaton he built and donated to a museum was lost, which Hugo realizes is the one he has repaired. Hugo races to the station to retrieve the automaton, but is caught by Gustave, who has learned that Claude's body was found. Gustave threatens to take Hugo to the orphanage, and Hugo runs away but drops the automaton on the tracks. He jumps down to retrieve it and is almost run over by a train, but Gustave saves him and the automaton. Georges arrives, and tells Gustave, "This boy belongs to me". Some time later, Georges is named a professor at the Film Academy, and is paid tribute through a showcase of his films recovered by René. Hugo and his new family celebrate at the apartment, and Isabelle begins to write down Hugo's own story. ===== Sylvia has come from the city to live in the Maine woods with her grandmother, Mrs. Tilley. As the story begins, Sylvia has been living with her grandmother for nearly a year, learning to adapt to country ways. She helps the old woman by taking over some of the more manual jobs, such as finding Mistress Moolly, the cow, each evening in the fields where she grazes and brings her home. By means of this and other tasks, along with her explorations in the forest, Sylvia has become a country girl who dearly loves her new home. She has taken to it easily and immerses herself in her new life completely, as evidenced by the description of her journey home each evening with the cow: “Their feet were familiar with the path, and it was no matter whether their eyes could see it or not.” One evening she is approached by a hunter, who is in the area looking for birds to shoot and preserve for his collection. This young man is searching in particular for the rare white heron, and he is sure that it makes its nest in the vicinity. He accompanies Sylvia on her way with hopes of spending the night at her grandmother’s house. Once he has received this invitation, he makes himself at home. After they eat, he says that he will give a sum of money to anyone who can lead him to the white heron. The next day Sylvia accompanies the hunter into the forest as he searches for the bird’s nest, but he does not find it. Early the following morning, the girl decides to go out and look for the bird by herself so that she can be sure of showing the hunter its exact location when he awakes. She decides to climb the tallest tree in the forest so that she can see the entire countryside, and she finds the heron, just as she had thought she would. This is the critical passage of the story. When Sylvia climbs the tree as a bird might, she arrives at an epiphany at the tree's top. High as a bird, she has broken free of the world beneath and "becomes" the heron. But Sylvia is so affected by her leaf- top observation of the heron and other wildlife that she cannot bring herself to disclose the heron's location to the hunter after all, despite his entreaties. Sylvia knows that she would be awarded much-needed money for directing him to the heron, but she decides that she can play no part in bringing about the bird's death. The hunter eventually departs without his prize. Sylvia grows up to ponder if her choice to conceal the heron's secret was a better choice than to receive the young man's money and friendship. The author states that the treasures Sylvia might have lost are easily forgotten among the splendors of the woodland. ===== Hélène, a widow who runs an antique business from her own apartment in Boulogne-sur-Mer, is visited by a past lover, Alphonse. Her stepson, Bernard, is tormented by the memory of a girl named Muriel whom he has participated in torturing while doing military service in Algeria. The story takes place over 15 days in September–October 1962. (The screenplay provides specific dates and times for each scene, but these are not apparent in the film.) An extended sequence takes place on the first day (a section lasting about 45 minutes: the introductions of Alphonse and his 'niece' Françoise to Hélène and Bernard, and their first meal together). Another long sequence takes place on the last day (the Sunday lunch and its revelations, and the scattering of the principal characters in their different directions). The intervening days are represented in a series of fragmented scenes, which are chronological but seldom consecutive, and the passage of time is blurred. ===== The play explores the complicated life of British painter Stanley Spencer, who was played by Antony Sher in the play's London and Broadway debuts. Spencer was a twentieth century painter, whose work attempted to combine the sexual with the divine in contemporary English settings. His paintings frequently showed biblical scenes taking place in ordinary English villages, particularly Cookham, and often depicted, or used figures inspired by, his friends, relatives and lovers. Spencer married two different women; he left his first wife, Hilda Carline, an artist who put her ambition aside to make a home for him, to marry Patricia Preece, a defiantly unconventional lesbian who made her reputation as an artist by passing off the works of her lover, Dorothy Hepworth, as her ownhttps://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Lives- Laid-Bare-The-second-wife-of-the-British-3000618.php, and who was incapable of loving him. Much of the play revolves around his passionate attachment to both women. ===== The story takes place in East Berlin soon after the Berlin Wall is built, and is based on an actual escape on January 28, 1962. Kurt Schröder is a chauffeur to East German Major Eckhardt and his seductive wife Heidi, and lives within sight of the Wall. Kurt is having an affair with Heidi. One night he sees a friend, Günther Jurgens, who works at the garage where Kurt has the Major's car maintained, drive his truck into the wall, and get killed trying to escape to the west. Günther's sister, Erika, comes looking for Günther when he doesn't return, and is told that Kurt saw him last night. She then goes to Kurt's house, where he lives with his mother, Uncle Albrecht (a musician), sister Ingeborg and kid brother Helmut. Erika is intent on escaping to West Berlin, thinking that her brother made it. Kurt, reasonably satisfied with his life, has no intention of risking his life to attempt an escape. Erika then looks out beyond the barbed wire, but Kurt catches her as she tries to crawl under, and they pretend to be lovers to hide her intentions from suspicious guards. Kurt then hides her in his house. A piece of Erika's clothing is caught in the barbed wire, and the guards track her to the Schröder's house. She hides in a room without a floor, and narrowly escapes the guards after they conclude that she could not be in the room. The Schröders and their neighbors, including a woman named Marga whose husband has already escaped to the west, want to escape East Germany. Kurt comes up with the idea of building a tunnel under the wall, through which they can escape to West Berlin. Although he will mastermind the plan, Kurt has no intention of going with them as he feels he can better serve them by staying behind and being their cover. They drill through the basement wall using Uncle Albrecht's band as a noise cover when the actual drilling takes place. One member of the family keeps watch while the others work on the tunnel itself. After they start digging the tunnel, they are joined by Walter Brunner, to whom Kurt's mother has promised to rent a room. All the while, Kurt is falling in love with Erika, and he eventually summons the courage to tell her that her brother is dead. Because of this burgeoning love, Kurt has changed his mind and will escape with the rest of his family and Erika. On January 27, 1962, the tunnel is completed when just before dawn Kurt reaches the other side, and the breakout is planned for the following night. However, Marga tells Erika's parents the news of their daughter, and Erika's father, a professor who favors the Communist regime, betrays the escape plan to Major Eckhardt. Kurt learns from Heidi that the authorities are after him (she not knowing why), and he hurries home. When he arrives home, Kurt learns that his family have invited Uncle Albrecht's band members to join the escape, bringing the number of escapees to 28. Kurt tells them of the betrayal, and that they must make their escape immediately. As the police besiege their house, the Schröders, their friends and Erika make their escape, with Kurt bringing up the rear. He is wounded when a soldier fires, and struggles to make his way through the tunnel as he collapses it behind him, but Erika comes back to find and help him. Together they make their way to the exit, where the others have already emerged to live in freedom. ===== Larry is a typical mischievous Irish boy who likes to skip school and runs with a rough crowd. Larry fears that, because of his misbehavior, Santa Claus won't be leaving him any presents for Christmas. His fears are stoked by his mother, who scolds him constantly and compares him unfavorably to his smarter, better-behaved younger brother Sonny. Larry resents his mother, who constantly pushes him to excel at school and frets aloud that he will amount to nothing, like his drunken father. On Christmas morning, Larry wakes up early and finds that Santa Claus has left only a book in his stocking, while there's nothing but a toy gun in Sonny's. Since Larry has no interest in books, he switches the presents, taking the gun for himself and leaving the book to the more studious Sonny. He imagines that no one but Santa Claus will ever know the difference. To his horror, his mother sees the difference instantly, and weeps that her son is a thief. In that instant, Larry realizes for the first time that there is no Santa Claus, only an impoverished mother who's been striving vainly to raise a decent son under miserable circumstances. By giving Larry a book, his Mother had been trying to steer him to success and a better life. By shunning the book and stealing the toy gun, Larry has broken his mother's heart, and convinced her that he will become a rotter like his father. Category:Irish short stories Category:Christmas short stories ===== For the centenary of the death of Fergus Kilpatrick, an Irish nationalist hero who led a group of Irish conspirators, and was assassinated in 1824, a descendant called Ryan is preparing a biography. Kilpatrick was killed in a theatre by unknown assailants, with a letter on his body warning him he faced death and after a soothsayer had predicted his end. Spotting these parallels with Shakespeare's plays, Ryan discovers that the oldest of the conspirators, Nolan, was the translator of Shakespeare into Gaelic. Eventually, Ryan works out that the nationalists knew they had been betrayed to the British authorities and Kilpatrick admitted he was the informer. After sentencing him to death, Nolan agreed to make his passing a memorable event in Irish history. So Nolan hastily faked the Shakespearean echoes and out of a sordid plot a hero was born. Ryan decides to leave the myth intact. ===== The cartoon starts with Tom fishing on a pier. Tom baits the line with "cheese" and casts it all the way out to a far-off ship and into Jerry's mouse hole. The cat gets a bite and gets pulled off the pier and onto a pillar, while the sleeping mouse nibbles at the "cheese", not knowing it is actually rubber. Tom catches the mouse in a fish net and plops him onto the pier, waking Jerry up with a start. Jerry then gets a sense of his surroundings, and realizes that Tom is holding his tail and he is about to squash him with a hammer. The mouse substitutes the cat's hand for himself, and Jerry whistles at Tom from the closest pillar to alert him of his throbbing hand. Tom reacts by yelping and jumping into the stratosphere, kissing his hand all the while. Pleased with himself, Jerry starts to run back to another mouse hole while Tom nosedives after him like a plane landing. Jerry makes it to safety while the cat hits his head on the fence, just above the hole. Tom rounds a turn, and just as fast, stops and retreats behind the corner. The camera pans to Jerry, who is perched on top of a dog. He hides in the dog's mouth as Tom tries to catch him without waking up the dog. Instead of grabbing the mouse, however, Tom grabs the dog's tongue. Jerry has been pulled out as well and escapes, leaving the cat facing an angry and awake dog. Tom grins and rolls up the dog's tongue back into his mouth, then moves the dog's lips to change his expression to a smile. Tom then waves the dog goodbye and attempts to run away in fear. Not one to let Tom off so easily, the dog undoes his smile, grabs Tom's tail, rolls him up like a bowing ball, and bowls him through some garbage cans and into the water, where a crab pinches Tom's tail hard. Tom leaps out in pain and knocks the crab back into the water. Soon, Tom spots a smaller dog being chased by a dog catcher. Tom forcibly grabs the dogcatcher's net and drags him to the dog, who is captured instead, knowing that he is Jerry's protector. Jerry, who wants to be protected by the dog, angrily gets a saw in a tool shed, hides behind the fence, and cuts the shaft of the net as the dogcatcher passes by. In gratitude, the dog gives Jerry a whistle to use whenever he's in trouble. Jerry, with relish, thinks of the fun times he could have with provoking Tom. Jerry walks past a wooden box while Tom pokes his hand out of it and captures the mouse, who promptly whistles for his guardian. Tom is forcibly pulled through the knot hole and is being confronted by the mad dog. Tom grins, but soon his lips make a whistling gesture and he is exposed. The dog chokes Tom and the cat's mouth opens to reveal Jerry whistling on top of Tom's tongue. The mouse walks off and onto the dog's shoulder while the entire bowling sequence, complete with crab, is repeated. Finally, Tom sneaks behind the fence and leans over it to place earmuffs over the sleeping dog. However, his feet cause a board to creak out of place, leaving him dangling over the dog as it continues to fall. Tom saves himself by curling his tail around the foundation of the fence such that he and the board are pulled back up to the fence. Tom makes noises to test the earmuffs, and when the dog stays asleep, he happily goes off to corner Jerry. Jerry blows his whistle while Tom only looks more menacing than before, but then Jerry pulls out a pair of earmuffs for himself and continues whistling. Thinking that Jerry stole the dog's earmuffs, Tom gets so scared that he rolls himself into a ball and bowls off the pier, and even grabs the crab and attaches it to his tail. However, in the final scene, Jerry then puts that pair on as he lies down next to the dog (who still had his earmuffs on) to take a nap. ===== Jimmy Spud is a young loner living in the Byker Wall. Ever since his father threw him high in the air from South Shields pier, he dreamt of being able to fly, and specifically of being an angel. He lives with his brutish but terminally ill father, played by Iain Glen, his mother (Rosie Rowell) and philosophical grandfather (David Bradley). He is bullied at school. Whilst "praying" in a derelict and abandoned church one day, Jimmy is visited by Gabriel (Billy Connolly), who advises him on how to become an angel. He goes home and sews a multitude of feathers onto an old dress and goes wandering around the docks. We next see him on the absolute top of a tower crane, watching a boy cycling below. The boy skids and lands in the water. Jimmy sees his chance to prove himself and dives in to rescue him. The boy, a Pakistani Boy Scout, thanks him and they become friends. Jimmy practices "flying" by jumping off a plank, and is seen to hover unnaturally long, as if achieving his aim. His dad discovers the new pair of friends in the bedroom one day, with Jimmy in his "dress", he is furious and smashes a trumpet Jimmy had borrowed from school for angel practice. Jimmy's grandfather sells his homing pigeons to buy Jimmy a new trumpet. Dad's illness (seemingly lung cancer) worsens and he goes into hospital. Jimmy is told that he will not return. He visits dad in hospital wearing his angel dress and plays Swing Low, Sweet Chariot on the trumpet. Disillusioned by his father's death he burns the angel dress. However Gabriel returns and explains that he has met his goal. The film ends with the famous throw on the jetty which inspired Jimmy so much. ===== Tom wakes up in his basket and gets Jerry, tied to the basket with string, to fetch him a glass of milk, which Tom drinks through a straw pacifier like if he was a baby, and massage him. Tom then picks Jerry up, pats him on the head for his work, and flips him back to his hole until the next time he was needed. A small package is then delivered to the house, with Tom lazily believing it to be food for him from his owner, only to get standup shocked when he heard the meow of another cat in the house. Turned out the package had a cute red and white kitten which instantly wins Jerry's heart, but Tom takes an instant disliking to her. As Jerry stares at the kitten as he is thinking "I love kittens!", Tom flips him back to his hole again. Tom deliberates on how to get rid of the kitten, because to him one cat in the house is heaven, but two cats will just be a living hell for him. When the owner leaves to get food for the kitten, Tom grabs the kitten. Jerry hears the loud cry of the kitten and becomes angry. Jerry manages to remove himself from the string and uses it as a lasso to save the kitten. Jerry traps Tom's foot before he can kick the kitten out of the window, making him release the kitten. The kitten flies through the air, but Jerry catches her in a pillow to make her land safely. Jerry pats the kitten, as she thanks the mouse by licking him. Tom, angry, chases Jerry, who carries the kitten. Tom grabs the kitten, unbeknownst to Jerry, who bumps into a table leg. Jerry catches a plate and throws it at Tom's foot, making Tom spin, and again catches the kitten. Tom spins out of the window, and Jerry locks him out of the house to prevent him from bothering the kitten again. As Jerry and the kitten nap, an extremely mad Tom bangs on the window and threatens Jerry to get rid of the kitten and him if he didn't cooperate, but Jerry ignores him and taunts him further by feeding the kitten milk from the straw pacifier. Irritated by Jerry's defiance, Tom attempts to barge through the door, but Jerry opens the door and puts a banana peel on the floor. Tom avoids it and sticks out his tongue at Jerry, but lands onto a roller skate while pushing his tongue back in his mouth, which sends him rolling into the basement. Tom then climbs back up, slides on the banana peel towards the outside, and gets stuck in a wooden garden gate. Tom tries to jump through the upper-level window since the board gives him some air, but due to the board being stuck around his waist, he gets stuck in the window and falls shut on him. Jerry quickly locks the window and rubs his hands and chuckles gleefully. Jerry has decided that for both his cruelty to the kitten and forcing him into slavery that Tom needs a good spanking. And he takes advantage of Tom's compromising situation to do just that. Next, we see the scene from outside. Jerry has tied Tom's tail up high with a string so that he has unobstructed access to Tom's behind, effectively baring his bottom. Then he picks up a paddle (twice his own size) and carefully and deliberately takes aim. Taking his time and letting Tom think about what is about to happen. We see Tom on the inside sweating as he can see out the window. Jerry then begins spanking Tom's bare bottom hard and merciless with the paddle. This happens off-screen, only Tom's expressions of pain are shown from inside. The first three swats are slow to let it sink in as Tom tries to endure the sting, followed by a flurry of swats to drive Tom to tears. Then, from outside again, we see Tom's big red mark being left on his bare behind, blinking like a red warning light, throbbing in pain from the bare butt blistering, and Tom waves a white banner to signal his surrender knowing there is nothing he can do to prevent another spanking. After his surrender, he is then forced to act as a slave for Jerry and the kitten. She happily sips milk from the pacifier straw, as if she were a baby, and Jerry receives a shoulder massage from a disgruntled Tom. Jerry then waves goodbye at the audience while the cartoon irises out. ===== The episode begins with Tom in pursuit of Jerry similar to that of race-car shifting gears. They circle the room and back to Jerry's mouse hole. Tom is moving so fast, he runs into the wall and turns into a four-legged stool. Tom attempts to cut off a 4×4 area of the wall with Jerry's mouse hole in it to reach the mouse, but instead, the rest of the wall falls—on him. Then 1 Jerry is being chased by Tom in another direction, and suddenly a 2nd Jerry zooms past. Tom gets confused as a 3rd, 4th, and 5th Jerry run by and then Tom stops. He is puzzled as a 6th, 7th, and 8th Jerry zoom past. Even the 9th Jerry passed onto him as he faces it. Angrily, Tom looks in the direction the other nine Jerries were running. A 10th Jerry comes from the other direction and pulls back Tom's eyelids. Tom then chases Jerry outside into the air. Jerry breaks off before falling into space, but Tom fails. He sees the streets (approximately) 50 stories below and grabs onto the drapes again, which brings him back inside but wraps him up with the drapes. Tom and Jerry then both run into free-fall. Jerry grabs a question mark and catches a pipe. Tom grabs onto an exclamation point and then twists it into a hook shape when he sees Jerry safe, but too late—he slams into the ground shortly thereafter. As he fixes himself like a jack using his tail, Tom climbs a rain gutter, but falls and lands in a manhole and screams. Jerry discovers an air horn, which Jerry sounds behind Tom on a ledge. Tom is left chattering on a nearby pole. Next, Jerry retreats into a second rain gutter, but Tom lassos him using a fish hook and with a chuckle, gives Jerry a taste of his own medicine. To get revenge, as Tom is laughing, Jerry dreams up some knives and throws them at Tom. Tom runs to the end of the sidewalk and narrowly avoids all knives, giving Jerry a good laugh. Tom then becomes stuck in the downpipe of the second rain gutter, with his head and front legs at the bottom and his tail and hind legs at the top, while trying to chase Jerry through it. Jerry suggests using the air horn to "scare" Tom's hind legs and tail down the pipe so Tom can be free. After this, the two shake hands, and Tom kisses Jerry. After kissing him a few times, he becomes enticed by the taste of mouse, and the chase then recommences. As Tom chases Jerry around a corner, Tom's midsection is now several meters long and he makes train noises when the cartoon closes. ===== The main character Qinghong is a 19-year-old student living with her overly repressive father, mother and younger brother in a typical small apartment. Her 'boyfriend' Honggen, a working local boy who plays only a minor role in the film and develops an obsession with Qihong to her father's contempt. Confiding in her best friend Xiao Zhen, Qinghong strives for love and independence. Qinghong's father Wu Zemin is a stubborn and aggressive man, who has never forgiven his wife for persuading him to move to rural Guiyang. He regularly meets with other 'Third Line' volunteers to discuss strategies for returning to Shanghai. He becomes increasingly strict with Qinghong, often following her home from school to ensure a restricted social life. He forbids her from seeing her 'boyfriend' Honggen, discourages her from spending time with Xiao Zhen and after discovering that she has sneaked out to an underground dance party confines her to the house. Xiao Zhen has meanwhile fallen for the local boy Lu Jun, the son of another 'Third Line' volunteer couple. Lu gets a local girl pregnant and is forced by his angry father to marry her. Soon after the wedding, though, he runs away with Xiao Zhen, causing panic in the local community. Honggen stalks Qinghong and she promises to meet him secretly one evening. She slips out of the house while her father hosts a meeting with other “Third Line” friends to discuss a plan to flee to Shanghai without official permission. When Qinghong tells Honggen that they cannot be together because her family will soon leave, the nervous Honggen loses control of himself and rapes her. Qinghong totters home, muddied and bleeding. Her father initially tries to retaliate by beating up Honggen at work, but subsequently alerts the police and has Honggen arrested. Traumatised, Qinghong attempts suicide. She is recovering when a sad and chastened Xiao Zhen returns to Guiyang. Very early one morning, as dawn is breaking, the Wu family boards a van for the drive to Shanghai. They are delayed in the streets of Guiyang by the crowds gathering to watch a round of public executions. Called out on loudspeaker are the names of those to be executed, with the last name called Honggen. ===== Collegian Pratapchand alias Pratap lives with his father, Badriprasad, a building contractor, his housewife mom, and a younger brother named Ramu. Badriprasad is always critical of Pratap, and never a day passes without Pratap being reminded of his shortcomings. When Pratap's friend, Sunil marries Sudha, Badriprasad arranges Pratap's marriage with a village belle named Alka, much to Pratap's chagrin. After the marriage takes place, Pratap finds Alka attractive, and both fall in love with each other, and would like some time together. But that is not to be so, as Pratap has exams coming up, and Badriprasad will not permit them to be close to each other. So both of them scheme up a plot to leave on the pretext of visiting Alka's parents in another distant town. Instead, both of them go to Bombay, rent a room, and decide to be intimate. But fate has other plans, rather comical, for them, and will make them rue their decision of coming to Bombay. ===== On her way to New York to find financial backing for her impoverished country, the Ruritanian Kingdom of Taronia, Princess "Zizzi" Catterina (Sylvia Sidney) falls ill with the mumps and has to be quarantined for a month. In desperation, financier Richard Gresham (Edward Arnold), who is planning to issue $50 million in Taronian bonds, hires unemployed lookalike actress Nancy Lane (Sidney again) to impersonate the princess, and offers her a large bonus if she changes the mind of the chief opponent of the financial transaction, newspaper publisher Porter Madison III (Cary Grant). ===== Kessler used to be an egg candler, and is living alone in a cheap apartment located on the top floor of a decrepit tenement building on the East Side of New York City. He’d had a family but he outgrew them. Thirty years have passed and Kessler had made no attempt to see them. In turn, his family hadn’t seen him, yet it didn’t bother him much. Kessler lived in the apartment for ten years, but he remained relatively unknown to the building's occupants. It was the tenement janitor, Ignace, who knew Kessler best. He had been up to the apartment on occasion to play two-handed pinochle with Kessler, but grew tired of losing and stopped going up to see him. Ignace uses his free time to complain to his wife about the condition of Kessler's apartment and spreads rumors about Kessler to the other tenants. One day Ignace and Kessler have a mundane quarrel and after a horrid exchange of words, Ignace runs and complains to his wife. He takes his complaints further by telling the story to Gruber, the tenement landlord. Gruber knew his janitor was exaggerating, but tells Ignace to give Kessler notice. That same night, he visits Kessler to give him notice to leave. Ignace is forced to speak through the door, noting that no one wants Kessler around. Nonetheless, on December 1, Ignace finds Kessler's rent in his mailbox. After Gruber sees it, he becomes furious and forces way into Kessler's apartment. Gruber, agitated with Kessler, threatens to call in the city marshal to remove him. When Kessler tries to reason and plead with the landlord, Gruber vehemently belittles Kessler, comparing his flat to a toilet. Kessler pleads his innocence, citing he “didn’t do nothing” and he “will stay here.” However, his words fall on deaf ears and Gruber insists that he will toss Kessler out on the street after the fifteenth of December. On December 15, Ignace finds the twelve-fifty Gruber had given Kessler in his mailbox. After Ignace phones Gruber, Gruber exclaims that he will get a dispossess. He instructs Ignace write a note stating that Kessler's money was refused and asks him to slide it under the door. The following day Kessler received a copy of his eviction notice asking that he appear in court in order to plead his case against the requested eviction. The notice scares him because he had never been to court in his life, and the fear keeps him from showing up on the ordered day. On the same afternoon he is physically removed from the premises. Kessler sat outside, and people stared at him as he stared at nothing. The Italian woman, upon seeing him, shrieks uncontrollably. This action startles the neighbors and when they discover Kessler sitting outside, they gather and take Kessler and his belongings back to his apartment while Ignace stands aside screaming various obscenities. The Italian woman later sends food to Kessler. Ignace tells Gruber of the incident and Gruber later enters Kessler's apartment finding him sitting on the bed. Gruber asks why Kessler is still there in the apartment. Kessler stays quiet, and Gruber explains to Kessler that if he stays his situation will worsen. Kessler questions Gruber's motivation to evict him from the premises… :"What did I do to you?" He bitterly wept. "Who throws out of his house a man that he lived there ten years and pays every month on time his rent? What did I do, tell me? Who hurts a man without a reason? Are you a Hitler or a Jew?" He was hitting his chest with his fist." Gruber listens but explains his position, revealing that his building is falling apart and his bills are high. If tenants don’t take care of their place then they must go. Acting on the information he has received from Ignace, Gruber tells Kessler he doesn’t take care of his place and he fights with the janitor. It is for these reasons that Kessler must go. Gruber decides to speak with Kessler once more to offer a more civilized solution. He would offer to put Kessler into a public home. When he enters the apartment he discovers Kessler sitting on the bedroom floor. For the first time, Gruber manages to speak to Kessler in calm, pleasant tone and explains his proposal but Kessler wasn’t listening. Kessler sat quietly examining his past life, and is filled with miserable regret. Gruber, frightened at Kessler's state of emotions, starts to reconsider his position and thinks he ought to allow the old man to stay. But then he sees Kessler engaged in the act of mourning and senses something is wrong. His first impulse is to run out of the apartment, however, he envisions himself tumbling five flights to his death and groans at the vision of himself lying lifeless at the bottom. Gruber realizes he is still in the room with Kessler, listening to him pray. He assumes maybe Kessler has received bad news or someone has died, but suddenly senses that perhaps the “someone” in question might actually be him. ===== Doc Clayburn returns with his medicine show and young daughter Carolina to the country where 20 years before he had been a rider with an outlaw gang and assisted in a gold robbery; the gold, which was hidden when all but Doc were killed in a fight with a posse, has never been recovered. When Doc is on his way to retrieve it and wipe out the memory of those early days, his caravan, which was trailed by a rival gang, is attacked and he is mortally wounded. Just before he dies, he gives a map of the gold cache to Jeff Kincaid, a younger rider he entrusts with the plan of finding the gold and restoring it to its rightful owners. In doing this, Jeff encounters the heavies, and Mistletoe and Crawfish supply the comedy relief. ===== The story picks up the saga of Elric as he and Moonglum of Elwher barely escape with their lives from Nadsokor, the city of Beggars and find themselves in the cursed forest of Troos. Elric is able to collect various sorcerous herbs that grow only there, and they meet the young and beautiful Lady Zarozinia of Kaarlak, sole survivor of a massacre by the physically and mentally twisted Orgians. They agree to escort her to safety, but are further attacked by Orgians and escape. Leaving their treasure behind. The trio, now protected by Elric's magic, bluff their way into the citadel of the Orgians, in the guise of messengers of the Gods, but King Gutheran and his son Prince Hurd see through their lie and imprison the travellers. Elric is chained at the entrance to the barrow, beneath which live the Hill-Folk, the undead ancestors of the Orgians. About to be eaten alive by the gibbering ghouls, he prays to Arioch the Demon God who sends a lightning-bolt to shatter his chains, allowing his escape. Moonglum thus far has escaped capture, but Zarozinia has been imprisoned. She is released by Gutheran's brother, the blind minstrel Veerkad, who plans to sacrifice her and use her blood to complete a spell to raise the Hill-Folk. He is interrupted in this devilish work by Prince Hurd and it's Veerkad's blood that completes the magic. The Hill-Folk, led by their Hill-King, arise and invade the Great Hall to massacre the Orgians. Gutheran, who fears the arrival of the Hill-King more than anything, dies of a seizure. Elric can do nothing against the Hill-King, who is proof against even his sword Stormbringer, but with Moonglum's aid, he lures the undead King into a blazing fire. As the Hill-King finally perishes and the massacre continues, the castle falls into blazing ruin and the trio make their escape from Org. ===== Set in a far-future fictional universe, Deathstalker Rebellion develops the plot and themes introduced in Deathstalker. ===== A disguised bandit steals valuable jewellery from Commendatore Anzaloni's apartment and flees, leaving Anzaloni unharmed. Inspector Ingravallo investigates and finds that the robbery is suspicious in that the robber was able to find valuables too quickly. A neighbour, Liliana Banducci, employs a servant girl, Assuntina. Her fiancé, Diomede, tries to escape when he sees police tailing Assuntina. But Diomede has an alibi. Liliana's cousin, Dr. Valdarena, pays her a visit, only to find her corpse on the floor. But before calling police, Valdarena removes an envelope addressed to him from the sideboard. Liliana's husband Remo was away from Rome at the time of the murder, but he is very surprised to hear that Liliana had changed her will only one week earlier. ===== A Milanese gangster contacts Peppe (Gassman); he has identified him and his accomplices as the perpetrators of the bungled attempt at the Madonna Street pawn shop. His offer is to reunite the same men for a daring robbery in Milan, where the local offices of football betting pool Totocalcio shift the weekly revenue on Sunday afternoon via a common car with just an accountant and a driver in it. The gang would have to travel north from Rome disguised among the supporters of A. S. Roma going to Milan for a football match, commit the robbery and then flee to Bologna via a souped-up car there to rejoin the returning sport fans. The Milanese seems tough and smart and his proposal sounds very inviting for the small-time crooks who all have their problems trying to lead an "honest" life, but things will go differently. ===== Stella (Bette Midler) is a feisty woman working in a bar when she meets and falls for the suave charms of the young Dr. Steve Dallas (Stephen Collins). Although from opposite ends of the social spectrum, they start an affair resulting in Stella becoming pregnant. After he proposes half-heartedly, she rejects him and embarks upon raising their child Jenny as a single mother but is always helped and encouraged by her stalwart friend, a local good natured barfly, Ed Munn (John Goodman). Stella is fiercely independent and proud and is determined to do well by this child and take on whatever jobs she must to raise her daughter properly. When Jenny is 4 years old, her father suddenly reappears on the scene and is determined to get to know his daughter. At first reluctant to allow this, Stella is persuaded to allow contact, and a happy bond develops between the father and daughter. As Jenny (Trini Alvarado) grows up, she becomes torn between her father's rich and well-connected background, and her loyalty and love for her mother who is poor and vulgar but devoted to her daughter. She also despises the perceived relationship she sees developing between Stella and Ed Munn who is now a broken alcoholic. Jenny eventually meets and falls for a boy from her fathers 'world' and Stella realizes that now, the disparities in her own and Jennys father's backgrounds might jeopardize her daughter's future happiness. ===== Frank Harris is a Chicago hotel clerk who dreams of making his fortune in the cattle business and has fallen in love with Maria, the daughter of hotel guest and Mexican cattle baron Señor Vidal. When Señor Vidal finds out about the relationship, he orders Harris to stay away and arranges to return immediately to Mexico with his daughter. Tom Reece finishes his cattle drive and takes over an entire wing of the hotel, as usual. He makes a deal to buy cattle from Vidal in Mexico. However, when Reece loses his money in a poker game, Harris sees his opportunity to better himself (and see Maria again) - he offers his entire life savings for a partnership in Reece's next drive, including his joining the drive. Reece in desperation accepts. The next morning, when Harris shows up, Reece tries to renege, not wanting to burden himself with an inexperienced greenhorn as a partner, but Harris holds him to their deal. As they travel to Vidal's ranch, the cowboy life on the trail is not what Harris had envisioned. Harris is upset when one of the hands is killed by a rattlesnake bite during some fooling around by two other hands. Reece, still upset about having Harris along, continues to treat him harshly, but Harris toughens up and Reece starts taking a liking to him. When they reach their destination, Harris is devastated to learn that Maria has been married off by her father to Don Manuel Arriega. When Arriega sees them together, he warns Harris to keep away. During a fiesta, Arriega performs a dangerous stunt, placing a ring on a bull's horn from his horse, and challenges the Americans to do the same. Harris takes up his challenge, but Reece intercedes to protect Harris from himself. Reece confronts the bull on foot so as not to endanger his horse. On the cattle drive back to Chicago, Maria's marriage eats away at Harris. He becomes as callous and hostile to others as Reece had previously been to him. At one point, Reece stampedes the herd in order to save Harris from a Comanche ambush while he is out alone rounding up strays. Reece is shot in the leg, and Harris takes over as trail boss while he recovers. Harris tells Reece that the 200 head of cattle that were lost are all coming out of Reece's share. Harris drives the men hard. Reece offers advice, but Harris refuses to listen. When one of the hands, a former US marshal, kills one of his friends while drinking together and then takes his own life, Harris callously orders the men back to work. Later Reece saves Harris's life after he foolishly enters a crowded cattle car on the train. Harris snaps out of it and suggests that the lost cattle be shared 50/50. At the end of the drive, they boisterously take over part of the hotel where Harris used to work, much to the surprise of his former boss. ===== In 1942, Friedrich Weimer's (Max Riemelt) boxing skills earn him an appointment to a National Political Academy (NaPolA), a high school that serves as an entry to the Nazi elite. His father, a skilled factory worker who despises the Nazis, flatly refuses to allow Friedrich to enroll. Friedrich, who sees the school as his ticket to university and a better life, forges his father's signature on the permission form and leaves during the night. He makes his way to the town of Allenstein, where the school is located, getting a ride from passing cars or trucks when possible and walking the rest of the way. Friedrich's forged papers are overlooked when he arrives. He is taken by fellow student, Christoph Schneider to be kitted out in the school Nazi style uniform. Friedrich is unaware of the true purpose of the school and is greatly impressed in his first day at Allenstein. However, Friedrich's idealistic view of Allenstein is soon tarnished by the harsh, rigid discipline that governs the school. Older students are able to bully younger students almost at will, since there is little interference from school officials, who not only encourage such behavior but actually participate in it themselves. One boy, Siegfried Gladen, endures repeated public humiliation for his tendency to wet the bed as he sleeps. The school teaches the Nazi Party creed to its students, with sections of Hitler's speeches and writings being analyzed in classes. "Survival of the fittest" is advocated as the natural way of life, and Jews and all other enemies of the state are presented as treacherous and by nature inferior. The boxing trainer who got Friedrich appointed works with him one- on-one, teaching Friedrich to be hard and ruthless in fights, dismissing any kind of compassion for the other boxer as "bullshit". Back at his room, Friedrich receives a letter from his mother, informing him that his father has been paid a visit by the Gestapo. Friedrich visits Albrecht one evening, finding him in a writing and mail office that the students use. Albrecht confides that his talents lie in writing and the arts, areas his father sees as unfit for men. His mother is more supportive but is ultimately just as uninterested. Albrecht begins writing for the school newspaper, taking advice and criticism from Friedrich. When Friedrich has his first competitive boxing match against another NaPolA school, he gradually overpowers the other boy, knocking him down into a corner. Urged on by the shouts of his trainer and other students and officials, he delivers a brutal knockout punch, winning the match. Friedrich is congratulated by staff and students alike, but Albrecht is far less enthusiastic. One day, the seventh-year boys are taken to the trenches on school grounds, where the sports instructor demonstrates use of live stick grenades. Each of the boys in Friedrich's year make the throw successfully, until one boy, Martin, panics and drops it. The sports instructor screams at him and flees the trench, leaving the boys to their fate. At that moment, Siegfried Gladen pushes through the ranks and dives on the grenade barely a second before it explodes. Gauleiter Heinrich Steiner arrives to make a speech at the funeral, praising Siegfried Gladen as a martyr of the Fatherland and posthumously awarding him the Lifesaving Medallion. Albrecht invites Friedrich to come with him to the Steiner family's home, a vast mansion in the countryside. Heinrich Steiner returns home for his birthday, treated to a special dinner by his wife and a group of friends from the Nazi Party, German Army, and Waffen-SS. He wastes no time criticizing Albrecht for his polite, artistic manner and lack of athletic talent. A boxer himself, Heinrich Steiner is far more interested in Friedrich than in his own son, and delights in Albrecht's inability to even compete with Friedrich when the two are taken downstairs and forced to fight a boxing match. During the winter, a group of military vehicles arrives at the school at night. The entire seventh-year class is called outside, where Gauleiter Heinrich Steiner informs them that a group of Soviet POW's have overpowered their guards, stolen weapons, and escaped from the nearby village. The boys are armed with Karabiner 98k rifles and sent into the woods to search for them. Friedrich and Albrecht, assigned to the same group, end up deep in the frozen woods. Abruptly, a group of figures come out of hiding and try to run back over the crest of a nearby hill, ignoring the boys' shouts to halt. The boys open fire, shooting each of the Russians. Moving closer, they are shocked to find that not only were none of the prisoners armed, but they were all young boys, no older than the German students. A horrified Albrecht vainly tries to bandage the wounds of one prisoner still left alive, but his father arrives with a search party and shoots the Russian. As the boys are taken back to Allenstein, they see the rest of the POW's being rounded up and hear a long, rattling fusillade of gunfire in the woods. In class the next day, Albrecht reads aloud an essay in which he condemns the execution of the Soviet POW's as a criminal act and his own participation in it as "evil". Outraged, school authorities summon his father, who coldly informs Albrecht that he will write a new essay, starting with an apology for his previous statements. Albrecht instead writes a second essay in which he condemns his father for ordering the POW's executed. Learning that Albrecht is to be expelled from school and drafted into the Waffen-SS to fight on the Eastern Front, Friedrich asks what he will do next. Albrecht answers, "I don't know." The next morning, the sports instructor wakes the boys up early and orders them out onto the frozen lake near the school. Two holes have been made in the ice, and each boy must dive in one and swim to the other, using a rope that the first pulls through as a guide. Friedrich makes the swim through the freezing water, but Albrecht dives in and doesn't come out. Friedrich finds him halfway between the holes, having deliberately halted under the ice. Hearing Friedrich's shouts, Albrecht looks up and gives a slight shake of his head. Touching a hand to the underside of the ice, Albrecht lets go of the rope, sinking deep into the freezing water and vanishing from sight. Deeply grieved, Friedrich writes an obituary for his friend and asks the headmaster to publish it in the school newspaper, but the headmaster refuses, stating that "Amidst people who have died for Fuehrer, Fatherland, and Nation, there is no place for suicides." The upcoming boxing match against the NaPolA school in Potsdam is a great source of interest for both schools. Friedrich, who has been accused of complicity in Albrecht's death by his indifferent father, is told that his future at Allenstein is very much tied to the outcome of this match. Scouts from prominent German universities are watching, as well as Allenstein's headmaster and Gauleiter Heinrich Stein. Despite managing to overpower his opponent, Friedrich now hesitates to strike a fallen opponent. The other boy gets back up and begins punching Friedrich, who does not retaliate. Friedrich stands impassively until he is knocked out, turning what nearly was a victory for Allenstein into a humiliating defeat. As the camera gradually blurs the scene out of focus, Friedrich, knocked out and lying on the floor, closes his eyes and smiles with relief. Friedrich is expelled the next day. He is not allowed to speak to any of his roommates as he leaves, and is taken to the gates by the sports instructor with the same suitcase and summertime clothes that he arrived in. The instructor shoves Friedrich out the front gates and closes them in his face. A defeated Friedrich looks back at Allenstein briefly, then begins walking, soon disappearing into the falling snow. A closing narration states: > Until 1945 there were in the German Reich around 40 National Political > Educational Institutes with more than 15,000 students. When the war was > finally acknowledged as being lost, they were sent out into the "Final > Struggle". Blinded by instructed fanaticism and insufficiently armed, they > still offered bitter resistance in many battles. Half of them died. ===== A brash American film producer, Steve Canfield (Fred Astaire), wants Russian composer Peter Illyich Boroff (Wim Sonneveld) to write music for his next picture, which is being made in Paris. But when the composer expresses his wish to stay in Paris, three comically bumbling operatives, Brankov (Peter Lorre), Bibinski (Jules Munshin) and Ivanov (Joseph Buloff), are sent from Moscow to take Boroff back. Canfield manages to corrupt them with decadent western luxuries (champagne, women, nightclubs, etc.) and talks them into allowing Boroff to stay. He also arranges for his leading lady, Peggy Dayton (Janis Paige), to "convince" Boroff to cooperate. Fearful of his own precarious position, a commissar at the Ministry in Moscow summons a dedicated and humorless workaholic operative, Nina "Ninotchka" Yoschenko (Cyd Charisse), to bring all four men back home. Canfield succeeds in romancing her, despite her determination not to fall prey to the decadent attractions of Paris. He even proposes marriage. She and Boroff are horrified when they realize what changes have been made to Boroff's music. They decide to return to Moscow. Canfield does not give up, arranging for the pliable Brankov, Bibinski, and Ivanov to be sent back to Paris, knowing that they will be seduced again by the city's charms. Ninotchka is sent after them, giving Canfield time to convince her to give in to her love for him. ===== Writers Lillian Hellman and Mary McCarthy reunite in hell and reflect on their decades-long antagonistic relationship. Dating back to their first meeting at a conference at Sarah Lawrence College in 1948, it came to a head in 1980 when McCarthy, in a television interview with Dick Cavett, asserted, "every word she writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the'". Hellman subsequently sued McCarthy for slander. As the play progresses, the two women recall, among other things, Hellman's 1952 testimony before the House Un- American Activities Committee; McCarthy's childhood abuse by an uncle; and their romantic involvements: McCarthy with Philip Rahv and Hellman with Dashiell Hammett. Throughout it all, McCarthy accuses Hellman of repeatedly presenting fiction as fact, while Hellman insists McCarthy always portrays fact as fiction. ===== The Chipmunks play various venues. Each venue is unlocked once a trio-set of songs have been completed. The back cover states that the Chipmunks are doing this to save their favorite music club. ===== In the days before the Civil War, the Kansas Territory is torn by fighting over whether Kansas should enter the Union as a free state or a slave state. Cam Bleeker, a farmer who went to prison for leading a gang of raiders himself, breaks out of prison and rides to his home. A stranger, Jeanne Dubois, is living there with her two young children. She now owns the place. Bleeker's wife's grave is outside the house, along with the grave of Dubois' late husband. Mrs. Bleeker died under mysterious circumstances. Bleeker says he broke out of prison when he heard she was involved with another man. Dubois says Mrs. Bleeker's grave was there when the Dubois family bought the place six months ago. Dubois' husband was shot dead by Missouri Redlegs raiders right after the family arrived. Dubois, telling Bleeker there's a reward out for him and she could turn him in, convinces him to stay at the farm because she can't run it by herself. But the sheriff finds out Bleeker is there, and government soldiers come and take Bleeker away. He is brought to Gov. William Clayton, who makes a deal with Bleeker: Bleeker won't hang if he can go and capture Luke Darcy and bring him to justice, any way he can. Darcy is a dangerous, frontier dictator whose raiders threaten to take over the whole territory. Clayton twists Bleeker's arm into tracking down Darcy by revealing that it was Darcy – a serial seducer of women – who destroyed Bleeker's wife. But Clayton warns Bleeker not to cross him—he wants Darcy taken alive. Bleeker comes upon a hanging party in progress, involving Darcy gang members, and manages to snatch one of the condemned away and forces him to take him to Darcy, who has just taken over a town. Inside the saloon headquarters, Bleeker introduces himself to Darcy, and demonstrates his talents as a fighter, convincingly enough to be allowed to join Darcy's gang. Darcy warily accepts him, and as they become acquainted, reveals to Bleeker how he goes about his "war" to take over Kansas, by raiding town after town. He also brazenly reveals what happened to Bleeker's wife. "To me a woman is like a wine", he says, "something to be enjoyed. When it's over and there's nothing left in the bottle, you must throw it away and find another." Darcy's wife was such a victim of his, but Darcy uses some fast-talking psychology and a claim that it was a consensual affair to blunt Bleeker's thoughts of revenge, and he stays with the gang. During a raid at Knight's Crossing, a town near the Dubois farm, horsemen unintentionally run down and injure Dubois' daughter. Bleeker, still wearing his gang garb, takes her home. Dubois sees that her daughter is still alive, but is enraged about Bleeker's complicity in Darcy's methods, which put the lives of innocents at risk. Bleeker promises it won't happen again. After they take the girl to the doctor, Bleeker goes to have another talk with the governor. Bleeker has devised a plan to set a trap to catch Darcy. Bleeker found out that there's a train due in to Abilene with a load of gold. Bleeker's plan is to have the gang raid Abilene so it can be there when the gold train arrives. What Darcy won't know is that the governor will have filled the train with federal troops, turning it into a Trojan Horse to catch the gang. Clayton agrees to the plan, but reminds Bleeker not to cross him. Bleeker sells Darcy on going after the gold, because it will be enough to buy half a million dollars' worth of arms and clear the way to victory in Darcy's war. So the gang goes ahead and infiltrates Abilene, takes over the town, and waits for the train to arrive. While they're waiting, Darcy tells Bleeker and Dubois (now on the scene as a willing accomplice) that it's time for them to leave, to go build a life for themselves somewhere else. He says in parting, "Don't worry about me. I got what I want. I got Kansas." But Bleeker still has to finish his job for the governor. He knows Darcy has a dread of hanging, though, so before the trap swings shut he decides to confront Darcy and settle things between themselves, no matter what the governor said about taking him alive. Just before he meets Darcy at his saloon headquarters, however, Lordan, a gang member who has found out about the trap, reaches Darcy to warn him about it. Bleeker enters the saloon, now full of gang members, including Darcy, who, informed that the troops are here, orders his men to get out of town. Then he faces Bleeker alone. The two of them get into a fistfight, which Bleeker wins. But as he begins to take Darcy at gunpoint outside to face the gallows, Darcy talks bitterly about the imminent "carnival" of a hanging, and Bleeker -- "Darcy, you talk too much", he says—decides on a gun duel. Bleeker kills Darcy in the duel, though it appears that Darcy might have mis-aimed his shot intentionally. Bleeker, having broken his agreement by shooting Darcy, goes outside to surrender. But the governor, hearing Bleeker's reason, tells him, "Bleeker, you don't know why you couldn't let him hang, and I don't know why I'm letting you go free. But I've got a feeling we're both right." ===== The World Is Not Enough was adapted by then-current Bond novelist Raymond Benson from the screenplay by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Bruce Feirstein. It was Benson's fourth James Bond novel and followed the story closely, except in some details. For example, Elektra does not die immediately after Bond shoots her; instead, she begins quietly to sing. The novel also gave the Cigar Girl a name: Giulietta da Vinci, and retained a scene between her and Renard that was cut from theatrical release. Also, Bond is still carrying his Walther PPK instead of the newer P99. ===== The story starts shortly after Kull, a barbarian from Atlantis, has conquered Valusia and become its King. Kull is invited to a feast by the Pictish ambassador for Valusia, Ka-nu the Ancient. Despite the fact that the Picts are ancient enemies of the Atlanteans, Ka-nu confides in Kull and tells him to expect the arrival of Brule the Spear-Slayer around sunset. In the early night, Brule climbs into Kull's bedroom, identifying himself with a "bracelet of gold representing a winged dragon coiled thrice, with three horns of ruby on the head" which had been shown to Kull at the feast. Brule explains that Kull's life is in danger and shows him a series of secret passages which riddle the palace. Soon, Kull sees that the guards outside his room are all unconscious and their bodies hidden, although they still seem to be on guard at the same time. A visit by Chief Councillor Tu, with exposition from Brule, reveals the truth as Tu attempts to assassinate the sleeping King but meets him awake and armed; it was, however, not the real Tu but a serpent man who had taken on his appearance. Brule reveals that the Serpent Men, an ancient pre-human race who had founded Valusia but were almost extinct, rule from the shadows, using their Snake Cult religion and ability to disguise themselves with magic. They intended on replacing Kull with a disguised Serpent Man, just as they had done with his predecessors. The next day, the Serpent Men again attempt to replace Kull. He and Brule are, through an illusion, tricked into a separate room instead of the real council, surrounded by Serpent Men disguised as the councillors. Kull realizes the trap in time, however, and the two barely defeat their opponents. Heading into the real Council Room, they see another Kull. The imposter Kull is killed by the real one, revealing the fake as a Serpent Man and also revealing the truth of the existence of Serpent Men in general. The story ends with Kull's oath to hunt and destroy the Serpent Men for good. However, in "Delcardes Cat" Kull encounters what seems to be, though not explicitly, a community of serpent men living under a lake (like the nagas of Indian mythology, arguably the source of inspiration for the serpent men) close to his capital. There, he discovers their version of the conflict between serpent men and "true" men, learning that the same thing may look quite different from the other side of the square. Probably Kull did abandon his vow to destroy the serpent men after that. Quite clearly, the land that is Stygia in the days of Conan was the last stronghold of the serpent men, long after Kull. It was the conquerors coming from the east, perhaps ultimately ancient Mu, who destroyed the Serpent Men. ===== In 1880, a group of strangers in Wyoming Territory boards the east-bound stagecoach from Dry Fork to Cheyenne. The travellers seem ordinary, but many have secrets that they are running from. Among them are Dallas, a prostitute who is being driven out of town; an alcoholic doctor, Doc Boone; pregnant Lucy Mallory who is meeting her cavalry officer husband; and whiskey salesman Samuel Peacock. As the stage sets out, U.S. Cavalry Lieutenant Blanchard announces that Crazy Horse and his Sioux are on the warpath; his small troop will provide an escort part of the way. ===== Riding the notoriety of winning the weekly Freestyle Friday rap battle on BET's 106 and Park for seven consecutive weeks, Jin shattered seemingly insurmountable boundaries and stereotypes by becoming the first Asian American rapper to sign a recording deal with a major label when he signed with Virgin Records (Ruff Ryders). The film follows Jin and his crew as they tour Asia to promote Jin's debut album, The Rest is History. The film offers a glimpse into the life of a rapper, as well as the rapidly growing hip hop communities in Asian cities such as Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taipei, and Tokyo. The film gained wide acclaim and some shock from screening audiences at the Atlanta Film Festival as they reacted to the startling visage of Jamaican-American promoter Andrew Ballen speaking fluent Chinese on the Shanghai leg of the tour. ===== Henrietta and Pete Robbins are a young couple struggling to get by on the income he earns as a cab driver. His pompous sister-in-law Helen delights in reminding them that an early marriage robbed him of a college education and how much better off she and her husband Fred are. When Pete gets an inside tip on pork belly futures, Henrietta borrows $3,000 from a Mafia loan shark to purchase the commodity. Unfortunately, its value doesn't increase as rapidly as she anticipated. When she's unable to pay her debt, her contract is sold to Mrs. Cherry, a grandmotherly-type who operates a prostitution ring. When Henrietta's initial attempts at entertaining clients prove to be less than successful, her contract is sold yet again...and again, as Henrietta fails to fulfill the requirements of each new individual to whom she becomes indebted -- each time for more money -- and tries to keep her new enterprises (bomber, then cattle rustler) secret from her unsuspecting husband. ===== ===== Young television producer, Michael Donovan, tries to abandon his womanizing ways when he meets and marries elementary school teacher Katherine. Among his endearments to her is filming himself in his studio, costumed as "The Sandman," sitting on a makeshift moon with a starry background, and telling stories to entertain Katherine's class. When Michael's struggles to resist the near-irresistible temptations on his job lead to Katherine catching him in the act on the set, they separate. After his wise, and composed older brother Tommy helps him see how empty womanizing really is, Michael puts "The Sandman" to work in a bid to win Katherine back. ===== Scott (Robert Ryan), a mounted Coast Guard officer, suffers from recurring nightmares involving a maritime tragedy. He sees himself immersed in an eerie landscape surrounded by a shipwreck and walking over skeletons at the bottom of the sea while a ghostly blond woman beckons him from afar. He thinks he is going mad. But at the same time, he decides to propose to Eve (Nan Leslie), a young woman working at Geddes, a local shipyard catering to the Coast Guard. She accepts. Eve has a strong resemblance to the ghostly blond of his nightmares. While riding by the seaside on his horse, Scott meets Peggy (Joan Bennett), a brunette, the mysterious wife of Tod (Charles Bickford), a blind painter. At first, though, he rides by her as she stands near a shipwreck protruding from the sand; she seems like an eerie echo from his nightmares. After a conversation, they discover that they share similar metaphysical anxieties. A bond develops between the two but the situation gets more tangled when Tod tries to befriend Scott. Tod's attitude toward Scott, apart from his friendship, is also ambivalent. The retired painter tries to test Peggy and Scott to gauge how far they could go in their relationship. Outwardly Tod seems confident; he even tells Peggy that he knows she could never leave him and that he finds Scott, a much younger man, virile but banal. However behind this facade lies a deeply wounded man who cannot come to terms with the fact that because of his blindness, he cannot paint any longer. In one exchange with Scott he tells him that dead painters' works always appreciate in value. Indeed, he expects the value of his paintings to increase, considering he is now 'dead' as a painter. Initially Scott is suspicious of Tod's motives; he also suspects that Tod is not blind. Scott is also increasingly interested in Peggy, who returns his attentions. During an outing that Scott sets up to test the painter, he moves Tod near the edge of a cliff, but then inadvertently lets him fall, thinking that he will be forced to see and therefore avoid the fall at the last minute. After this mishap, Tod eventually recovers. He at first thinks that Scott would now become his friend since the fall would remove any doubts about his true blindness. But soon after Tod exhibits abusive behavior toward Peggy when he realizes that she has hidden his masterpiece, his portrait of her. Seeing this, Scott tries to protect her. As Scott grows more attracted to Peggy, he becomes ambivalent toward his earlier relationship with Eve Geddes. Eve in turn, sensing Scott's infatuation with Peggy, becomes distant and asks Scott to delay their marriage plans. The narrative reaches one climax when Scott attempts to drown both Tod and himself during a boat outing with him that started as a fishing trip. By trying to pierce the bottom of the boat, it's apparent that Scott has put himself in danger as well, since he would be swimming helpless in the stormy seas had he been successful at this attempt. This scene illustrates the degree of his desperation, if not madness. This attempt by Scott to drown Tod reveals the depth of his emotional attachment to Peggy. Scott's plan fails, however, because Peggy, who seemingly went along with his plan, has a change of heart and alerts the authorities. Both Tod and Scott are eventually rescued by the Coast Guard. Eve, part of the rescue team, echoes the metaphysical connection to the blonde of his undersea nightmare who beckoned Scott in his dreams. In the film's finale, Tod burns all his paintings along with the house he and Peggy lived in. Peggy frantically tries to stop Tod and save the paintings: they are worth a fortune. She fails, as Scott forces her out of the collapsing house. After they have moved safely away, Scott asks Tod why he did it. Tod says the paintings were a symbol of the obsession he had with his previous, sighted life. Now that Tod's obsession with his past has been purged, he is free to go on with his life. He asks Peggy to take him to New York, where they have happy memories of their earlier life together. Afterwards she may "do as she pleases". Peggy embraces Tod. Observing this, Scott leaves them. ===== A German-made prison bus used by the NKVD for transport of prisoners; the bus was reconstructed for the purpose of the film. The events of Katyn are relayed through the eyes of the women, the mothers, wives, and daughters of the victims executed on Stalin's orders by the NKVD in 1940. Andrzej (Artur Zmijewski) is a young Polish captain in the 8th Uhlan Regiment of Duke Jozef Poniatowski, who keeps a detailed diary. In September 1939, he is taken prisoner by the Soviet Army, which separates the officers from the enlisted men, who are allowed to return home, while the officers are held. His wife Anna (Maja Ostaszewska) and daughter Weronika, nicknamed "Nika" (Wiktoria Gąsiewska), find him shortly before he is deported to the USSR. Presented with an opportunity to escape, he refuses on the basis of his oath of loyalty to the Polish military. Helped by a sympathetic Soviet officer, Anna manages to return to the family's home in Cracow with her daughter. There, the Germans carry out Sonderaktion Krakau, shutting down Jagiellonian University and deporting professors to concentration camps. Andrzej's father is one of the professors deported; later, his wife gets a message that he died in a camp in 1941. In a prisoner of war camp, Andrzej is detained for a while and continues to keep a diary. He carefully records the names of all his fellow officers who are removed from the camp, and the dates on which they are taken. During the winter, Andrzej is clearly suffering in the low temperature, and his colleague Jerzy (Andrzej Chyra) lends him an extra sweater. As it happens, the sweater has Jerzy's name written on it. Finally, Andrzej's is taken from the camp, while Jerzy is left behind. In 1943, the population of Cracow is informed by the occupying power about the Katyn massacre. Capitalizing on the Soviet crime, the Nazi propaganda publishes lists with the names of the victims exhumed in mass graves behind the advancing German troops. Andrzej's name is not on the list, giving his wife and daughter hope. After the war, Jerzy, who has survived, has enlisted in the People's Army of Poland (LWP), which is under the complete control of the pro-Soviet Polish United Worker's Party. He feels personal loyalty to his friends, loves his country, and has sympathy for those who have suffered. He visits Anna and her daughter to tell them that Andrzej is dead. Apparently, when the list of the names of the victims was compiled, Andrzej was misidentified as Jerzy on the basis of the name in the sweater that Jerzy had lent to Andrzej; it was Andrzej who was killed, not Jerzy. Despondent that he is now forced to acknowledge a lie and to serve those who killed his comrades in Katyn, Jerzy commits suicide. Evidence of Soviet responsibility for the Katyn massacre is carefully concealed by the authorities. However, a few daring people working with the effects of the victims eventually deliver Andrzej's diary to his widow Anna. The diary clearly shows the date in 1940 when he must have been killed from the absence of entries on subsequent days. The date of the massacre is crucial for assigning responsibility: if it happened in 1940, the USSR controlled the territory, while by mid-1941 the Germans took control over it. The film ends with a re-enactment of parts of the massacre, as several of the principal characters are executed along with other soldiers. The film includes excerpts from German newsreels presenting the Katyn massacre as a Soviet crime, and excerpts from Soviet newsreels presenting the massacre as a German crime. ===== Sanjay (Nikhil Yadav) and his cousin Maya (Nitya Shetty) are carefree 12-year-old village kids. They spend their days creating trouble, as kids will, throwing rocks and stealing sweets. They are gently scolded, but clearly loved, by Sanjay's mother (Mita Vasisht) and father (Anant Nag). Their life is idyllic and warm. But when Maya reaches puberty and has her first period, everything changes in the space of just a few days. The family heads to the neighboring village of Maya's parents to prepare for a mysterious ritual rape ceremony marking Maya's transition to womanhood. Maya, who only dimly understands what happening to her, is told that she is no longer a child, and discouraged from her familiar play with Sanjay. Sanjay, with even less understanding, chafes against the separation from his playmate and acts out, angering his father. Then, when the day of the ritual arrives, over the terrified protests of Sanjay, Maya is subjected to a trauma of ritual rape in the temple that is truly shocking and horrible. ===== After three murders of elderly women, the victims being strangled and penetrated with foreign objects, the Boston police conclude that they have a serial killer to catch. As the murders stretch over several police jurisdictions, Massachusetts Attorney General Edward W. Brooke (William Marshall) appoints John S. Bottomly (Henry Fonda) as head of a "Strangler Bureau" to coordinate the investigation. Several suspects are interrogated and released. As the body count grows, Bottomly, in desperation, calls in a psychic, Peter Hurkos (George Voskovec), who pinpoints Eugene T. O'Rourke (William Hickey), a man who seems to fit the profile. The (severely masochistic) man is taken in for psychiatric observation for ten days but nothing implicated him to the murders. Another murder is committed while O'Rourke is under observation, clearing him of suspicion. While the 1963 funeral of John F. Kennedy is on television, Albert DeSalvo (Tony Curtis) leaves his wife and children, under the pretext of work. He gains entry into the apartment of a woman, Dianne Cluny (Sally Kellerman), by posing as a plumber sent by the building supervisor. He attacks her, tying her to her bed with rags ripped from her dress. DeSalvo is taken aback by the sight of himself in a mirror as he tries to subdue Dianne and she struggles free and bites his hand; DeSalvo flees. He tries to enter the apartment of another woman, only to find that her husband is home. DeSalvo is apprehended by a passing police patrol. Found incompetent to stand trial for attempted breaking and entering, he is committed to a hospital for psychiatric observation. By chance, Bottomly and Detective Phil DiNatale (George Kennedy) pass by DeSalvo in an elevator, where they had been visiting Dianne, who survived the earlier attack. Observing the wound on DeSalvo's hand (Dianne, who survived his attack, could remember biting him but not his appearance), the pair make him a suspect for the Boston Strangler murders. Conventional interrogation is ineffective because the treating physician thinks that DeSalvo suffers from a split personality: he has two identities that are unaware of each other. His "normal" personality fabricates memories in place of the memories of murder committed by the "strangler" personality. The treating physician thinks that DeSalvo could be made to confront the facts but that the shock risks putting him in a catatonic state. Bottomly expresses the opinion that catatonia would be the second-best thing to a conviction. Under the condition, imposed by DeSalvo's defense counsel, that none of what comes to light is admissible evidence in court, Bottomly is allowed a final round of interviews with DeSalvo. After several sessions, Bottomly manages to reveal DeSalvo's hidden personality to himself. Reeling from the shock, DeSalvo slips into a catatonic state. ===== A depiction of Mazirian. Mazirian the Magician paces his enchanted garden, wrestling with the problem of how to invest the humanoid creatures he has created in vats with intelligence. The secret is held by the sorcerer Turjan, who has kept the secret to himself despite imprisonment, reduction in size, and torment by a small, vicious dragon. Mazirian is interrupted by a distantly spied beautiful woman who tempts him to follow her out of the garden and into the wild country. He resists but when she comes repeatedly, he eventually follows her, armed with only five spells. In this age, such spells that remain to the knowledge of sorcerers are very complex and difficult to memorise, and disappear from memory once used. The eager magician follows the girl through hills and valleys, chanting his spells to avoid or destroy the strange creatures he encounters; these include the Deodand (a flesh-eating mutated man-creature) and Thrang the ghoul-bear. In due course, he closes upon the girl and is about to capture her - but they are both attacked by deadly vampire-grass. As Mazirian, out of spells, struggles drawing the attention of the deadly grass, the girl slowly crawls away with her life not disturbing the grass. Mazirian makes it past the grass with a paralysis spell, and is then beaten to death by trees. Battered and barely alive, she returns to Mazirian's garden, enters his house and releases Turjan. It is now revealed that the girl, known as T'sain, is a creation of Turjan and sacrificed herself to free him out of love. He bears her lifeless body away to his vats to recreate her. ===== Bubba Mabry (Mohr), a notoriously gullible private detective, is hired to snoop on a tabloid reporter by a mysterious celebrity known only as Mr. Aaron (Patrick). When the tabloid reporter is murdered, Mabry becomes the prime suspect in his death. ===== Tom is chasing Jerry on top of a building and then through the building while during the chase two women first an older woman then a younger woman screaming until the duo reach a balcony. Tom pokes his head through the other window and yells at Jerry, scaring the spirit out of Jerry's body. Jerry's spirit then squeals at Tom, causing him to pale and age rapidly. Tom chases Jerry up work steps in a zigzag pattern and into the air until Jerry stops him and points to the ground, after which Tom falls through the piped balcony, splitting himself into pieces in mid-air. Jerry jumps down a water duct, and as Tom, seeing him, sticks his mouth out to swallow him, but misses, Jerry bursts through Tom. The duo are then forced to stop for a traffic light before the light turns yellow and both prepare to run, but that's when Tom dashes off too early and gets run over by a large red truck. Tom pursues Jerry around a corner, but is forced by Jerry to stop and fall into a manhole. Jerry flees, but as Tom pops out of another manhole under Jerry, Jerry spins on the manhole cover, twisting Tom's head before Tom stops it with his finger. Jerry, still going around in circles on the manhole, goes on the edge and hits Tom's nose repeatedly, before accidentally dropping it after clutching his nose, flattening Tom's toes and making him feel the pain and screaming. Jerry offers to inflate Tom's toes with a bike pump, but instead ends up poor inflating Tom into a ball before letting go, then sends him rocketing into the air. Tom falls into a pair of Long Johns and is thrown back up to the top of the building, catching a feather boa and a lady's hat on the way back up. A love crazed male cat pursues Tom and kisses him while reciting French poetry as Jerry taunts him by playing a romantic piece on a pretend violin. Tom eventually becomes so irritated that he attacks the love crazed cat and flees. Jerry briefly changes the tune to the William Tell Overture before heading down to the street with Tom giving chase. As Jerry is able to run under a bulldog walking down the street, Tom runs into the bulldog. Tom kisses the bulldog to flee and kicks him in the face. The furious bulldog chases after the cat, missing him several times for trying to bite Tom. Annoyed, Jerry places a manhole cover between Tom and the bulldog, causing the bulldog to run into it and be shaped into a concertina before fleeing. The chase between Tom and Jerry then continues although Tom shakes Jerry's hand to thank him for taking care of the bulldog. ===== Four agitators from Moscow return from a successful mission in China and are congratulated for their efforts by a central committee (called The Control Chorus.) The four agitators, however, inform the committee that during their mission they were forced to kill a young comrade for their mission to succeed. They ask for judgment from the committee on their actions. The committee withholds its verdict until after the four agitators re-enact the events that led to the young comrade's death. The four agitators tell of how they were sent on a mission to educate and help organize the workers in China. At a party house (the last before they reach the frontiers of China) they meet an enthusiastic young comrade, who offers to join them as their guide. The agitators must hide their identities because educating and organizing the workers in China is illegal. The director of the party house (the last before the frontier) helps the four agitators and the young comrade in the obliteration of their true identities. They all put on masks in order to appear as Chinese. They are told to keep concealed that they are communist. Their mission must remain a secret. Should they be discovered, the authorities will attack the organization and the entire movement; not merely the lives of the four agitators and the young comrade will be put in danger. The agitators and the young comrade all agree to these conditions. However, once in China, the sights of injustice and oppression enrages the young comrade and he is not able to contain his passion, immediately acting to correct the wrongs he sees around him. He shows no discretion in teaching the oppressed how to help themselves and has no tact when dealing with small-time oppressors to help the greater good of the revolution. As a result, he eventually exposes himself and the four agitators by ripping off his mask and proclaiming the teachings of the party. When he does this, he puts the entire mission and movement in danger. He is identified, unmasked, just as riots break out and a revolutionary uprising among the workers is beginning. The authorities are now in pursuit of the young comrade and his friends. Still shouting out against the party, the young comrade is struck in the head by one of the agitators and they carry him as far away as they could, to the nearby lime pits. There, the agitators debate on what to do with him. If they help him to escape they will be unable to help the uprising, and escape is near impossible from their current position anyway. If he is left behind and caught, his mere identity will unwittingly betray the movement. The four agitators realize that "he must vanish, and vanish completely/ For we can neither take him with us nor leave him."Brecht, Bertolt. 1998. Collected Plays: Three, (The Decision) Ed. and trans. John Willett. London: Methuen Drama. pp. 86–87 To save the movement, they conclude that their only solution is for the young comrade to die and be thrown in the lime pits where he will be burned and become unrecognizable. They ask him for his consent to this. The young comrade agrees to his fate in the interest of revolutionizing the world and in the interest of communism. He asks the four agitators to help him with his death. They shoot him and throw his body into the lime pit. The central committee (The Control Chorus), to whom the four agitators have been telling their story, agree with their actions and reassures them that they have made the correct decision. "You've helped to disseminate / Marxism's teachings and the / ABC of Communism," they assure the four agitators. They also mark the sacrifice and cost that the wider success entailed: "At the same time your report shows how much / Is needed if our world is to be altered." Note: The "ABC of Communism" is a reference to the popular book by Nikolai Bukharin. ===== The Sankara Stones in Wave 9. The plot of the NES version follows the storyline of the original movie. At the onset of the game, Jones has just reached the Pankot Palace featured in the movie and is preparing to free the slave children, recover the missing Sankara Stones and defeat Mola Ram and his Thuggee entourage. The game differs from the original arcade version in many respects, including the layout and the manner in which one progresses through the game, but the plot remains unchanged in both versions. The player advances through 12 levels (called "waves"), the first nine of which require Jones to travel through the palace and recover the Sankara Stones. In these stages, the player may restart the game with all items intact in the last area reached. Afterwards, if the player dies, they must return to the Chamber of Kali (Wave 9) and finish the game from that point. Each level also has a timer that goes from 99 to zero. If time runs out, the player is confronted by Mola Ram and loses one life and all of their items. All levels also contain mine cart rooms, where Jones can ride the rails through the levels across hazards and past enemies. Wave 9 requires the player to cross a river of lava by stunning the monsters that live there. Once across, Jones must grab the Sankara Stones to progress to the Map Room where he can use the map pieces he has collected to figure out where the secret door exit is in Wave 10. Alternatively, there is a secret idol in Wave 8 that will reveal the hidden exit. To pass requires the use of both TNT and the Sankara Stones. Wave 11 leads to the exit and Wave 12 recreates the scene with the rope bridge and the final battle with Mola Ram. The game contains a variety of elements that both aid and hinder the player's progress through the waves. At his disposal, Jones has TNT, guns, swords, hats for extra lives, jewels for extra time and his classic whip. Opposing him are bats, rats, snakes, spiders and an endless supply of Thugee servants. In addition, if Jones lands in any of the lava pits, crashes a mine cart or hits a boulder or spike trap, he loses one life. ===== Lauffer is a tutor who earns a meagre living teaching a retired major's two children. When he tries to negotiate his salary it is cut by his masters. The major's daughter and Lauffer's student, Gussie, seduces Lauffer and becomes pregnant by him. Pursued by the major and his friends, Lauffer runs away and takes refuge with a village schoolmaster, Wenceslas. There he becomes attracted to the schoolmaster's ward and, to prevent repetition of the previous disaster, castrates himself. He then finds that he is acceptable to all, and eventually marries the girl. Lauffer is then acclaimed as the perfect teacher and entrusted with the education of Germany's youth.French, S. (2012). The Tutor. Retrieved June 21, 2014, Retrieved from http://www.samuelfrench.com/p/4328/tutor-the ===== By the 2060s, robotics technology has become extremely advanced, including cybernetics. World opinion begins to turn against robotics, leading to the U.N. declaring a unilateral ban on further research in 2067. Japan, being home to robotics pioneer Daiwa Heavy Industries, strongly protests this ban, but is unable to prevent its passage. In protest, Japan withdraws from international politics. All foreigners are deported, and further immigration is prohibited. In addition, the R.A.C.E. network is constructed — 270 off- shore installations that cover Japan with an energy field, nullifying all communication with the outside world and making satellite surveillance impossible. Trade and diplomacy continues, but Japan vanishes from the world scene. Ten years later, the United States Navy special warfare unit "SWORD" is trying to trap a Japanese informant for Daiwa in Colorado. The instigator, Saito, escapes by cutting off his own leg. Analysis shows the leg is made of bio-metal. SWORD suspects that Japan has concealed extensive development of banned technologies. They embark on an unapproved scheme to infiltrate Japan and to find out the frequency of the R.A.C.E. network, enabling SWORD to gather intelligence on the country. Although the agents successfully enter Japan, they are detected by security forces before they can transmit their data. Vexille is the sole SWORD agent to evade capture, and only her lover Leon survives to be taken to Daiwa's headquarters. Vexille awakens to find Tokyo is now a shanty town ruled by Daiwa. A small resistance movement opposes the company, and uses Vexille's transmitter to successfully transmit the distortion frequency. Maria, the head of the resistance, details the 10 years of secrecy while SWORD studies Japan in shocked horror — the islands are a lifeless wasteland. In 2067, an unknown disease struck Japan and was countered by an experimental vaccine. In actuality, the disease was created by Daiwa and the "vaccine" was used as an excuse for Daiwa to begin testing experimental nanotechnology. Every Japanese citizen was converted into a form of synthetic life. But there were unforeseen side effects; the conversion was imperfect, resulting in the infected humans losing their free will and becoming just lifelike machines. Some of the nanotech went amok, creating the "Jags", giant whirling constructs of semisentient metal that prowl the wilderness. The Jags destroyed all of Japan, save Tokyo which is protected by an inedible wall of ceramic. The Resistance plans to draw the Jags along a service bridge to Daiwa's corporate headquarters, which now stands in the middle of Tokyo Bay. Vexille volunteers her assistance (and that of her flight-capable armor). However, though Vexille and Maria succeed in drawing the Jags to the end of the service bridge, the bridge has been detached from the headquarters, the Jags fall into the sea, and Vexille and Maria are captured. They are taken to Kisaragi, the master of Daiwa, who boasts that his research is nearly complete. And as he needs more test subjects, he is going to invade America. Vexille attacks him with a hidden knife, revealing that his blood is still human — he has not used the process himself. Saito, then strangles him. The town council forces the ceramic gates open, destroying Tokyo and enabling the Jags to enter Daiwa's headquarters. Kisaragi, having somehow survived, shoots Saito and escapes with his research. The underling then releases Vexille and Maria before succumbing to his wounds. Vexille pursues Kisaragi while Maria frees Leon, who shows concern for Vexille, angering Maria. Thus when Vexille prevents Kisaragi's escape in a helicopter, Maria grabs him and holds them together as a Jag devours them. Vexille and Leon are rescued by a SWORD helicopter just as Daiwa headquarters collapses into the bay, along with every Jag in Japan. As Vexille and Leon are flown from a now completely lifeless Japan, Vexille comments that humanity's spirit can never be taken away. =====