From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ===== The young priest Father Sebastián (played by Cantinflas) is assigned to a parish in San Jerónimo el Alto, where he is not welcomed by the community, particularly the resident priest Father Damián (played by Ángel Garasa). The newcomer gradually earns the trust of the people through humor, but firmly captures their hearts by saving the town fiesta by fighting a bull when the hired torero failed to show. Father Sebastián counsels the townspeople, lecturing them on their duties in a modern society. He used the collection plate to redistribute the town's wealth more evenly. When accused of communism, he quoted the 1891 socially conscious encyclical Rerum novarum. He even ventured into politics, with a veiled attack on the municipal president couched into a sermon. Eventually, he brokers a deal with the local political boss for some concessions for the poor of his parish. ===== In the pilot, Krista Starr returns from military service in Iraq to learn that her twin brother, Zack, has died under mysterious circumstances. Her investigation reveals Zack had been a "familiar" – a kind of indentured servant of vampires, who agrees to do their bidding in the hopes his "master" will eventually reward him with eternal life. Krista's search for her brother's killer leads her to face Blade, as well as Marcus Van Sciver, Zack's killer. Marcus is a powerful vampire and high-ranking member of the House of Chthon. Smitten with Krista, Marcus decides to turn her into a vampire by injecting her with his blood. Krista is then approached by Blade, who injects her with the same serum he uses to control his own vampire instincts, and offers her a chance to help him avenge her brother's death and bring down Marcus and the House of Chthon, and revealed that Zack was trying to do a sting operation with Blade. The two form a reluctant partnership. The remainder of the season follows Krista's attempts to maintain her cover in the House of Chthon, all the while struggling with her growing predatory nature, and Marcus's (supposed) efforts to develop a "vaccine" that will render vampires immune to all their traditional weaknesses (sunlight, silver, garlic, etc.). It is later revealed that Marcus's true purpose is to create a virus called the Aurora Project that will specifically target "purebloods", the ruling vampire class, and leave the turnbloods (normal vampires like Chase and Marcus, who were once human) unscathed. With Blade's help, he eventually unleashes his weapon in the series finale. ===== Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur, full movie Casper (a caveman) and Fido (an apatosaur) go hunting for breakfast and come upon Daffy. Casper uses a slingshot to fire a rock at the duck who, until he realizes the danger, is casually floating along in a lake. He revs up to amazing speed, though barely keeping ahead of the rock. Finally, Daffy slides to a halt and, disguised as a traffic cop, causes the rock to wait while a swan crosses, as though at an intersection. After that, Daffy waves the rock through and takes off in the other direction. The rock realizes it has been tricked and backtracks but Daffy races between Casper's and Fido's legs. Fido, bending down to peer between his legs to see where Daffy has gone, has his head impacted by the rock. The dazed dinosaur performs a silly dance before floating to the ground, asleep. Casper, upon seeing Daffy behaving decidedly not like a regular duck in water, says, "Gosh, that duck acts like he's crazy." Daffy replies, "That is correct; absolutely one-hundred percent correct!" and snaps the rubber of Casper's slingshot into the caveman's face. Casper decides to dive in after the duck and strips down. As he dives in, Daffy holds up a sign which indicates no swimming is allowed; Casper freezes in mid-dive then retreats to shore. After ordering Fido to retrieve Daffy, which results only in Fido tying his own neck in a knot, the two leave. Daffy, however, knows that Casper will not give up, so he paints an image of himself on a rock. Indeed, Casper returns with a club, sees the image and bashes it; the reverberation courses through his body. Daffy gives the caveman a glass of water, which cures the issue and results in Casper thanking the duck and offering to shake hands. Daffy gives him a card advertising "...the biggest, most luscious Duck..." Casper and Fido head off in the direction indicated on the card, following a series of billboards (parodying advertising techniques of the era, including references to "The Breakfast of Champions" and "The Pause that Refreshes") Daffy has erected. They eventually reach an inflatable balloon duck which is being pumped up by Daffy. Casper is terrified by this until Daffy hands him a knife. Casper marches over and stabs the huge, angry- looking balloon duck. The ensuing explosion kills them all. The short ends showing the three in Heaven, lounging on clouds. Fido plays a harp while Daffy and Casper think about their mistakes. Daffy laments, "You know, maybe that wasn't such a hot idea after all!" Invoking Jack Benny's usual farewell, Casper says, "Good night, folks." as the scene irises out. ===== Elmer Fudd is laughing while lounging in his easy chair and reading his comic book (which is later revealed to have Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig on its cover), his dog nearby, sleeping comfortably in front of the fireplace. All is peaceful until a flea comes bouncing by, dressed in a farmer's-type outfit with a big straw hat, and carrying a satchel inscribed "A. Flea". Pulling out his telescope and spotting the dog, he whistles and shouts in excitement before beginning to sing "Food Around the Corner", which becomes a recurring theme throughout the cartoon. Having awakened the dog by bouncing off his nose, the flea, hiding by the animal's ear, begins softly crooning so as to lull him back to sleep. This is successful, so the flea finds a suitable portion to begin eating. He takes a bite, which immediately jolts the dog awake, "Yipe! Agony, agony, agony!" He then begins scratching and biting, causing A. Flea to run, though he manages to make it so the dog bites himself. Elmer reacts, after the dog has leapt, whining, into his lap, by employing the use of flea powder. The flea is not phased, he simply skates on the powder as if it is ice. Elmer threatens to give the dog a bath if he witnesses him scratching again, which the dog - thinking about how much he hates baths - promises not to do. A. Flea continues searching for and measuring out various selections of the dog's person; he makes use of pickaxes, jackhammers and even explosives while the dog tries to withstand the itching and the overall pain. At one point, he deliberately angers the cat in order to enjoy the claws scratching his back. An angry- looking Elmer catches them and they both retreat as if they have been scolded. Finally, after A. Flea sets off an explosion in his fur, the dog cannot stand it any longer. Yelping and dragging his posterior across the floor, at one point he stops briefly and says to viewers, "Hey, I better cut this out. I may get to like it." (reportedly an attempt by Clampett to bait the Hays Office censors, who ultimately left the gag intact). Elmer advances and the dog, realizing a bath is imminent, brakes and slides to a halt. He begs not to be taken for the bath, but Elmer grabs him and begins dragging him toward the inevitable. Suddenly, the flea is on Elmer, who begins to scratch. The dog then proceeds to carry him for a bath. There is a bar of soap on the floor on which the dog slips, landing both of them in the kitchen sink. The flea soon carries the two away on a plate, labelled as a "Blue Plate special", while singing about no more Meatless Tuesdays. Upon witnessing A. Flea carrying the dog and Elmer out of the house, Elmer's cat remarks,"Well, now I've seen everything." He then commits suicide by shooting himself in the head with a pistol (the shooting is cut from all modern airings). ===== Walter Sparrow is an animal control officer married to Agatha; they have a son, Robin. At a bookstore, Agatha begins looking at a book titled The Number 23 written by Topsy Kretts. She later gives Walter the book as a birthday present. Walter starts reading the book, noticing odd similarities between himself and the main character, a detective who refers to himself as "Fingerling." Mirroring the detective, Walter becomes obsessed with the 23 enigma, the idea that all incidents and events are directly connected to the number 23, or to some number connected to 23. When he tries to warn Agatha about the number, she tells him he is crazy. Walter's obsession leads him to believe that the book has secret insights into his own life. When he reads that Fingerling murders his girlfriend, Walter begins having dreams about murdering Agatha. Agatha refers him to her friend, Isaac French, who suggests Walter find the book's author if he wants answers. Walter's search leads him to discover the murder of Laura Tollins. Now believing the book to be a veiled confession, Walter searches for her killer. Evidence found at a psychiatric hospital reveals Walter in fact is Topsy Kretts, having written the book as a way to rid himself of the guilt he felt over murdering Tollins. He was never suspected of the crime, and a man named Kyle Flinch was convicted and imprisoned instead. Walter had dated Tollins 13 years earlier, but she left him for Flinch. Walter stabbed Tollins to death in a jealous rage and left the scene of the crime, moments before Flinch arrived and touched the knife, implicating himself in the murder. Wracked with guilt, Walter decided to kill himself and began writing a suicide note, but found that he could not stop writing; the note ultimately became the book. He survived his suicide attempt, but the resulting head trauma left him with amnesia. Fearing he will hurt his family, he leaves home and moves to the same hotel in which he had attempted suicide. Agatha finds Walter at the hotel and assures him that he is no longer the person he was when he wrote the book. He insists that he is a killer and tells Agatha to leave before he kills her, too. He leaves the hotel and runs into the street, where he nearly allows himself to be run over by a bus. Walter steps out of the way at the last minute when he realizes his son is watching. Walter turns himself in to the police and awaits sentencing, having been told that the judge will likely go easy on him. A funeral procession takes place in front of Tollins' grave, where it is implied her body has finally been laid to rest, as Flinch observes, a free man. ===== Lord Emsworth, enjoying the views around his castle with a telescope on the turret above the west wing, spies his younger son Freddie Threepwood kissing a girl in a spinney by the end of the water-meadow. Enraged, he confronts the young man, who reveals the girl is named Aggie, and is a "sort of cousin" of Head Gardener Angus McAllister. Emsworth demands that McAllister send the girl away, but the angered Scotsman hands in his notice. Realising that McAllister has gone, he realises that deputy head gardener, Robert Barker, is not up to the job of preparing his precious pumpkin, "The Hope of Blandings", for the Shrewsbury Show, Emsworth heads up to London to retrieve the man. Outside the Senior Conservative Club, he runs into Freddie, who, unable to get the subject of pumpkins out of his father's head, awkwardly hands him a note and runs off. Emsworth learns from the note that Freddie has married Aggie that morning. Despairing that his son has landed him with the cost of supporting a wife, Emsworth wanders into Kensington Gardens. Entranced by the flowers, he absent- mindedly picks a handful of tulips, arousing the wrath of a park-keeper. A police officer and crowd gather round, and Emsworth attempts to defend himself, but nobody believes a genuine Earl would dress so scruffily. Just in time, Angus McAllister turns up and confirms Emsworth's identity; he is accompanied by Mr Donaldson, who tells Lord Emsworth that he should be supportive of his son. Learning that Donaldson is a wealthy man and plans not only to take Freddie far away but also to put him to work, Emsworth is delighted, and gives his blessing warmly, sending Freddie a message "not to hurry home". Emsworth approaches McAllister humbly and offers to double his salary if he returns to the castle. He does, and soon afterwards the gargantuan Blandings Hope wins first prize. ===== Beach, long-serving butler at Blandings, is considering handing in his notice after 18 years, unable to bear the shame of his master Lord Emsworth's rather disreputable new beard. His Lordship himself, unaware of these ructions below stairs, is worried by a telegram from his younger son Freddie, who is back in London from America. Visiting Freddie, Emsworth learns that the boy has fallen out with his wife Aggie; having written a scenario for Hollywood to impress her, he tried to persuade a prominent starlet to promote it for him; however, he is seen dining with the girl by Jane Yorke, a friend of his wife. Yorke tells Aggie she has seen Freddie with another girl, and she promptly leaves him. Freddie tries to persuade his father to plead with her on his behalf, convinced by his movie knowledge that an appeal from a white-haired old father never fails, but Emsworth refuses. Later, however, realising the danger of Freddie returning to Blandings if his marriage is not patched up, he relents, and pays a call at the lady's hotel. Finding the door to her room open, he potters vaguely in, and is chased into the bedroom by a small yapping dog, only to find she is in the bath. Her friend Jane Yorke holds him up with a gun, believing him to be a burglar, and while he is trying to explain himself, and Freddie, Freddie himself enters disguised as an old man with a white beard. Seeing a cable from Hollywood accepting his scenario, Aggie believes Freddie's story and forgives him, to Jane's disgust. Jane is ejected, and Emsworth, on hearing that he looks like Freddie in his false beard, decides to shave off his own, much to Beach's relief. ===== Lord Emsworth, keen that his fat pig, the Empress of Blandings, should win the 87th annual Shropshire Agricultural Show, is distraught when his pigman, Wellbeloved, is sent to prison for fourteen days for being drunk and disorderly in a Market Blandings inn. The pig immediately goes off her feed, and with the vet baffled, Emsworth is in no state to listen to his sister Connie's bleatings about his niece Angela breaking off her engagement from Lord Heacham in favour of the quite unsuitable James Belford, who Emsworth himself always liked, being a friend of the lad's father, a local parson. Emsworth, still distracted about his pig, is sent to London to have stern words with Belford; dining with him at the Senior Conservative Club, conversation turns to pigs, and Belford, having spent two years on a Nebraska farm, proceeds to impress Emsworth with his knowledge of pig-calls of all states. He teaches Emsworth the master call, the "pig-hoo-o-o-o-ey" to which all pigs will respond, and Emsworth heads home happily. Falling asleep on the train, Emsworth forgets the call, but while talking to Angela in the castle grounds, is reminded of it by the sound of Mrs Twemlow's gramophone. He, Beach and Angela all try the call on the Empress, but to no avail; just when all looks black, Belford arrives, shows them how the call should really sound, and to everyone's delight the Empress tucks heartily into her food. She goes on, of course, to win the contest. ===== Hum Paanch is the story of a middle-class white-collar worker, Anand Mathur, who always finds himself in trouble because of his five daughters -- Meenakshi, Radhika, Sweety, Kajal, and Chhoti. The three elder daughters are Anand and his first wife's children. The last two are Anand and Bina's daughters. * Anand Mathur attended Kallubhai Lallubhai Koylawala Municipal School in his childhood and later on received his B.A. with excellent scores (first class). He works as a sales representative in a medicine factory. Anand Mathur married his second wife, Bina Mathur, on 17 January. * Bina Mathur is from a village called Baliya. Her complete name is Binadevi Anandkumar Janardhan Prasad Mathur. When Anand Mathur went to Bina's house for her hand in marriage, his three elder daughters were with him. According to Bina, she married Anand because the three daughters hurt her ego and she wanted to exact revenge on them. Upon seeing her for the first time, Meenakshi compared Bina to a loudspeaker who would create sound pollution in their lives. Radhika saw Bina as an actress Mala Sinha portraying an illiterate woman in a movie. Sweety said that Bina would lose the title of Miss Uttar Pradesh, even if Bina was the only contestant. After marrying Anand, Bina fell in love with her stepdaughters and forgot her woes. Later, Bina reveals to her daughters that her first love was Abhi who left her to go work in a diamond mine in Africa which is another reason she married Anand. * Meenakshi, the eldest daughter, is a feminist and often dream big of bringing a change in the society. Her husband Purush is a ghar jamai. * Radhika is intelligent, nerdy and geeky. She uses a hearing aid and has a habit of bumping into doors, walls, statues, people, etc. * Sweety is beauty without brains, whose sole purpose in life is to marry Shahrukh Khan and become an actress or a model. She feels that it is only her duty to open the house door whenever the doorbell rings. Sweety has a disciple, Babli, who adores and worships her. Babli is Anand Mathur's boss, Popatlal's daughter. Sweety authored the novel Goddess of Big Things with the help of Babli. * Kajal is a tomboy who dresses up as a boy and gets into fistfights with thugs and goons. * Chhoti, the youngest, is a gossip-monger. She is hailed as an incarnation of actress Meena Kumari by the people of Baliya and has a temple dedicated to herself. Together, the five girls plan to do something new in every episode. Anand's first wife, who is dead, speaks to him through her portrait on the living room wall; his second wife, Bina, generally supports the daughters' ideas. The show was a runabout success, helping to establish Zee TV. When the show returned for a second season, Anand had returned from a long stay in the United States. Meenakshi and Radhika were married, Meenakshi was married to Purush whom she treats like a servant and shouts at. Radhika is married to Daljeet Singh whom the other sister's call 'Pape'. He is a scientist and invents many things which get the girls into trouble. He has a forgetfulness problem — he forgets people's names and basic things. Meenakshi's daughter is known as Damini, and Radhika's daughter's name is Gudiya. ===== The episode continues the story that began in the finale of the sixth season, "Tears of the Prophets." Benjamin Sisko has taken extended leave on Earth; Kira Nerys, who has been promoted to the rank of Colonel, is in charge of Deep Space Nine; and Worf is still grieving for Jadzia. While Sisko deals with his feelings of failure by visiting his father in New Orleans, Kira and Odo deal with life as normal on the station. The Defiant continues its assignment escorting cargo runs, but Nog, O'Brien, and Bashir all notice that something is bothering Worf, beyond Jadzia's untimely demise at the hand of Gul Dukat. Kira is later called to a meeting with Admiral Ross, who compliments her on the running of the station since Sisko's departure. "I'm just keeping his seat warm," she reminds the Admiral, even though he himself is not sure when the Captain will return. He then informs Kira that the Romulan Empire has been given permission to send a permanent delegation to the station, just as the Klingons have. The leader is one Senator Cretak, who is a staunch supporter of the Alliance between Romulus and the Federation, but Kira is not thrilled at this news. Ross ignores her dubious feelings, reminding her that he came as a courtesy, "this decision has already been made". Back on Earth, a distant Sisko separates himself from his family, doing nothing but playing the piano in the restaurant his father Joseph owns. His son, Jake, is worried about his father's attitude, though Joseph realizes it will take time. As they talk, Sisko continues playing, until his baseball rolls off the top of the piano and hits the floor. Sisko, stopping his playing, reaches for the ball, and is suddenly pulled into one of the visions that he has been sent in the past by the Bajoran Prophets. In it, he sees himself in the desert on an alien world that he knows to be Tyree. He is digging frantically, before coming across a blanket buried in the sand. Slowly he pulls at it, only to reveal the hidden face of a woman whom he does not recognize. Joseph eventually reveals that the face belongs to Sisko's biological mother Sarah, who abandoned the family when Sisko was a year old and who later died. Joseph also gives Sisko a necklace of Sarah's, which has ancient Bajoran writing on it. Later, a Bajoran member of a Pah-Wraith cult led by Gul Dukat (see DS9 episode Covenant) attacks Sisko and attempts to kill him to prevent him from finding the Orb of the Emissary on Tyree but Jake knocks him out. Back on the station, Senator Cretak asks Kira to petition the Bajoran Council of Ministers to allow the Romulans to set up a hospital on the uninhabited moon of Derna. Kira does so and they accept. Later, Odo tells Kira that a Starfleet transport filled with wounded, most of which were Vulcans, was denied permission to dock at the hospital. At first, Kira doesn't think it's suspicious because of the two species' mutual distrust, until Odo shows her sensor readings that indicate the presence of plasma torpedoes. Kira then furiously tells Cretak to have the weapons removed immediately, but the Senator refuses. Meanwhile, Worf confides in O'Brien that he is worried Jadzia won't enter Klingon heaven, Sto'Vo'Kor, because she didn't die in battle and the only way to ensure her place in Sto'Vo'Kor is by winning a glorious battle in her name. General Martok tells Worf he needs a first officer for a very dangerous mission that will ensure Jadzia's place in Sto'Vo'Kor. At the end of the episode, a young female Starfleet ensign, a Trill, enters and greets Sisko, who does not recognize her. She then introduces herself as "Dax". ===== In the near future, Christianity has dominated everything, including politics, television, the Internet, and film. The leaders of the semi-theocracy include Reverend Jimmy, a televangelist who is the spiritual advisor to the President, and Pastor Bob, a laid-back reverend who is obsessed with golf and competes with Jimmy for spiritual dominance. Ironically, though Jimmy says he has spoken to God about almost everything, their teachings are the opposite of Jesus Christ's ideas of peace, love, and forgiveness towards everyone. Jimmy even claims on his program that bombing Europe will bring the Second Coming. However, a jaded ex-reporter, Johnny Greco, bitter towards Jimmy, has already found it, in an Irish-Hispanic Catholic named Jay, who performs incredible miracles of healing sick people, preaches against what Christianity has become, and values peace, tolerance, and love for all humans. Dismissive at first, he soon begins to believe in what Jay is saying, and begins to think that Jay truly is "the real deal". Unfortunately for Jay, things happen as they previously did and Jay, some of his closest apostles and Reverend Jim (who Jay converts) are killed. However, Jay's apostles continue to spread the word of his actions and teachings and form a new religion. The book ends: :THE END :AND THE BEGINNING ===== The Promise starts a few months after The Chosen left off, with Danny having just started his graduate program in psychology and Reuven having started rabbinical school. The novel begins in the summer of 1950 when Reuven is dating a college student named Rachel Gordon. Rachel and Reuven take Rachel's cousin, Michael Gordon, to a carnival, where Michael has a mental breakdown over a carnival game. In the coming days, Michael's father Abraham Gordon, a secular rabbi and teacher, informs Reuven that Michael has a history of mental illness and that he will probably need to live in a treatment home with psychological oversight. Abraham Gordon, a friend of Reuven's father, is a controversial figure; Gordon's books, which question the existence of God but seek to reconcile these questions with Jewish tradition, have caused him to be placed in cherem; Gordon keeps a scrapbook of the many times he has been attacked in the press. At Hirsch University, Reuven's Talmud teacher, Rav Kalman, is a rigidly religious Holocaust survivor who vehemently disapproves of Reuven's father's secular method of Talmudic study, which proposes that passages of Talmud contain scribal errors that can be deduced through critical reading of the relevant medieval commentaries and the study of variant readings. During Talmud class, Reuven and his fellow classmates listen to Rav Kalman's regular tirades about how the modern world is destroying Jewish life. One day, he directs one of his tirades at the Zecharias Frankel Seminary, where Abraham Gordon serves as a professor. He later tells Reuven that he is not allowed to enter the Zechariah Frankel Seminary; Reuven had been seen there checking variant readings for his father's book on the critical method. That fall, Reuven and Rachel agree that they are merely good friends (not romantic partners), and Michael is sent to live in the treatment center that Danny is doing his residency in. Danny meets Rachel when a treatment plan for Michael is being developed and they begin dating. Meanwhile, Reuven's father's book is published, which further infuriates Rav Kalman. He writes an extensive article criticizing the book's method of Talmud study after first enlisting Reuven's help in understanding the method, which infuriates Reuven. The clash between orthodoxy and modernity creates tension at the school where Reuven's father teaches, as the school's new faculty members (many of whom are Holocaust survivors) vehemently disagree with Reuven's father's ideas. As a result of Michael's worsening condition, Danny comes up with an idea for an experiment; to completely isolate Michael in a silent room with no contact with the outside world. Abraham and Ruth (Michael's mother) Gordon agree to Danny's experiment and it begins, much to Michael's chagrin. As Reuven's rabbinic ordination (smicha) examinations approach, Rav Kalman tells Reuven that he must make a choice: to use his father's method and fail, or to use the traditional method of Talmud study and become a rabbi. At the same time, word leaks out that there will be a new department in the university that will teach Talmud in a secular manner, which infuriates Rav Kalman. Reuven's father informs Reuven that he may be offered a position in the planned rabbinics department. As the months pass, Michael descends into silent catatonia, which sends panic through Reuven, the Gordon family, and Danny (whose career hinges on the experiment). Eventually, Reuven takes his smicha examinations. Deciding to be true to himself, Reuven uses his father's method of emending the text of the Talmud in order to clarify more complicated passages. This surprises even the dean and the more progressive Rav Gershenson (who was Reuven's teacher in The Chosen), yet the two men are impressed with Reuven's knowledge and creativity. On the other hand, Rav Kalman appears to be angered and annoyed. In the end, Rav Kalman gives Reuven smicha, stating that although he vehemently disagrees with his methods, he can hear the love of Jewish text in his voice, something he had not heard since his students were killed in the Holocaust. As a compromise between the school and Rav Kalman, Reuven's father's cannot teach in the rabbinics department at Hirsch, yet Reuven is given a post in the department, where he will be allowed to use the critical method, and where Rav Kalman promises to fight with him about it. Reuven's father instead accepts a post at the Zechariah Frankel Seminary. At Reuven's graduation ceremony Rav Kalman and Reuven's father politely shake hands and Rav Kalman tells him that he has never had a student with more audacity as Reuven, yet he has also never had a student with more kindness. After months of confinement, Michael finally talks when Reuven visits and mentions that Rav Kalman is giving him smicha -- the same Rav Kalman who had attacked Reuven's father in the press. Michael reveals that his anger and other problems stem from the fact that his father is an outspoken secular rabbi who is hated and attacked, which made Michael feel alienated and uncomfortable; he hates his father and his mother, and yet, he also loves them, and fears that his hate will hurt them irreparably. Michael secretly wished the elder Malter's work would prevent Reuven from receiving smicha, and therefore, Reuven would hate his father, and have something in common with Michael. Having expressed his true feelings, he embraces his parents and is now ready to begin traditional therapy with Danny. Rachel and Danny marry, and at the wedding, Danny tells Reuven that he will write his doctoral dissertation on his experiment with Michael. The novel ends where it starts, with the Malters and Gordons on vacation in the Catskills. ===== On the day of Prince Dolor's baptism, there was a great procession. His well-to-do nurse was fiddling with her dress while holding the Prince and she dropped him, causing damage to his spine (probably). But she told no one. A fairy godmother appears to the Nurse and reveals she knows what happened. The Prince's Mother (the Queen) dies. The Prince's legs never grow strong. He cannot walk; he can only crawl with his arms. The King dies, too. The Regent family moves into the castle (with many kids) and the Prince's Uncle rules the kingdom. Things are good throughout the land, but Prince Dolor is ignored. The new King sends Dolor away and tells everyone that Dolor died. Dolor is sent away to live in the lonely tower in the middle of a wasteland. There are no doors in the tower. It is 100 ft tall. But he has many books, toys and maps. His only companion is his nurse. And a deaf mute Black Knight brings them food and things. The Nurse is a 'prisoner', too. They use a ladder to get up into the tower. The Black Knight visits once a month. The Prince likes to be quiet and look out the window at the lonely plains. He does his lessons and schoolwork. He loves books. He learns of the kingdom of Nomansland. But he feels that to read of things and never see them is sad. If only he could fly he wished. And he wishes he had someone who would be nice to him. He was lonely. An old grey woman appears. She says I am your fairy godmother. Dolor asks, "Will you bring me a boy to play with?" She says no. But gives him a gift: A travelling cloak. When the nurse comes into the room to see who he was talking to, she disappears. The cloak looks like a poncho. He didn't know the magic powers it holds. One day he gets sick and his fairy godmother comes to visit. He asks her why he can't walk. She tells him he will never walk. He is sad. She asks where is your cloak? He had put it in the closet. She teaches him how to use it with the magic words and reminds him to open the skylight. When he says the magic words it grows bigger. At first he forgets the words that make it fly. And he forgets to open the skylight. When he was finally out flying around the tower, he felt wonderful. But he saw only dreary planes, the stars and moon. He got very cold. But he forgot the magic words that would take him home. The cloak took him faster and faster away from the tower. He became frightened. He calls out for his fairy godmother to please, please remind him of the magic words to bring him home. And he hears a voice tell him the word. When he gets home, he puts the cloak away and it shrinks and bundles itself up. The nurse didn't know he was gone, but is cross with him for leaving the skylight open. Its freezing in here! When Prince Dolor went to bed that night he couldn't wait to go out flying again tomorrow. The next day, he did his lessons and schoolwork quickly and went out on the cloak again. He saw all kinds of flowers and trees and grass, birds and small animals that scurried away from him. He wished he could see better and his godmother sent him some spectacles. He plays with his toys the next day and thinks about his toy horse and wishes he had a real horse. That night when he went out, he brought with him some food and water and a coat and he flew for a long time. He fell asleep while flying. When he awoke he was no longer in the wasteland. He was in the countryside. He saw rivers and hills, animals, trees, and even a waterfall. He wished he could hear everything better and his godmother sent him some silver ears that fit over his own. He wondered if he would see any people. He wished so much to have a little boy to play with. His flying cloak dipped lower and brought him closer to see a boy running in the field with his horse. As he watched, the little prince cried because he knew that he himself would never be able to run that way. Then a lark flew into his lap and he was happy again because this was such a strange and wonderful thing. He wondered about his mother and father. He wondered what happened to them. The lark stayed with him and lived right outside his skylight. He decided after seeing the running boy that he didn't want to fly around any more because it made him sad. A few months later he wondered if he will ever be the king as princes are supposed to. His nurse wrote on a paper "You ARE a king” and she finally wrote out his whole history for him. She was afraid to speak in case a spy heard her break the rule about not telling him. That night he used the cloak and asked it to show him not what he wanted to see but “what I SHOULD see.” The flying cloak took him to see the big city of Nomansland. A magpie came to fly next to him and spoke to him with a strangely familiar voice. The magpie shows him the palace – the biggest building he ever saw and showed him the regent King, his uncle – who had just died and was lying there looking like a wax figure. The bird showed him that the town was beginning to revolt. There was a revolution going on. He saw terrible fighting in the streets. He didn't want to see any more and he went home to his tower to sleep. When he woke up re realised his nurse was gone. He sees hoof prints outside his tower. He realises that the Black Knight came and got the nurse and took her away. He is alone in the tower for many days. He almost runs out of food and is very sad and lonely when one morning he hears a trumpet. A huge parade of people from the city had come to his tower. They were singing and celebrating for they had heard that he was alive. The nurse and the black night rode to the city to tell them about Prince Dolor. He was crowned the new king. He rules the city for many years. When he gets old, he tells the people of the kingdom that he will leave and never come back. He gets on his cloak (which no one ever saw before) and flies away. ===== Hours after the events of the previous film, the ambulance transporting the lifeless Eve has lost its way, but when the co- driver tries to radio their superiors, the driver stops and holds him at gunpoint. They are ambushed by the "half-breed" alien child hiding in the ambulance, who kills the co-driver with his tongue. The driver discovers both the half-breed and Eve in the back of the ambulance; the half-breed strangles Eve to death while she gives birth to a newborn alien, which the driver flees with. Government agent Wasach orders an autopsy, discovering Eve's pregnancy, then has her body burned. The driver, Dr. Bruce Abbot, returns to his usual job teaching biochemistry at a university, where he teaches his belief that it is wrong to decide whether a species should live or die. He raises Eve's child in his home and she grows into a young girl who he names Sara. One night at Abbot's office, he is visited by Patrick Ross' son from the ambulance, who has dramatically aged and is critically ill. While Abbot tries to treat him, Patrick's son demands to see "it" (Eve's child) and reveals to Abbot that there are other half-breeds suffering from similar illnesses. Afterward, he dies horribly while sitting in the chair. Shocked by these events, Abbot approaches Dean, one of his students whose funding for an experimental power plant project is in jeopardy and asks for his aid in perfecting the alien DNA to save the species. In return, Abbot promises Dean a share of any funding or awards their work receives. In Abbot's absence, Sara pupates inside a cocoon and emerges as an adult. Abbot's superior, Dr. Nicholas Turner, arrives at the house seeking Abbot and comes across Sara, who initially tries to seduce him but then rejects him. He attempts to rape her and Sara kills him. Sara leaves to seek a mate and Abbot returns home, and sees evidence of Sara's transformation and disposes of Turner's body. Sara eventually connects with another half-breed, but discovers his illnesses and knocks his tooth out. As Abbot and Dean continue their experiments on Sara, Dean begins to bond with her. Abbot informs Dean of the government's "Project Athena", which created Sil in the first film and Sara's heritage as the child of Patrick Ross infected with alien DNA from Mars and Eve, Sil's clone. The half-breed that Sara rejected breaks into the lab, mortally wounds Abbot and attempts to impregnate Sara, but is killed by hydrochloric gas Abbot sprays over the lab. Left alone, Dean ponders whether to continue Abbot's work, and Sara urges him to save her species. Dean's roommate at the university, Hastings, discovers a website posted by a woman named Amelia who wants to date biochemists. After snooping through Dean's notes, he forwards them to Amelia, who agrees to meet him. En route, Amelia - who is another half-breed - has sex with and murders a gas station attendant who attempts to rape her. At the campus, she senses Sara and kidnaps Hastings, taking him to Abbot's home. Both Amelia and Sara force Hastings to work on perfecting the alien DNA using Sara's purer biology to save the half-breeds and create perfect mating partners for them. Agent Wasach, whose team also monitored Amelia's website and discovered its connection to Project Athena, picks up Dean and helps him save Hastings. Dean, Hastings and Wasach flee to Dean's experimental power plant with Sara and Amelia in pursuit. While attempting to keep Sara's harvested eggs away from them, the three decide to try trapping Amelia and Sara in the plant's core, but this tactic risks causing a catastrophic meltdown. Dean drops the eggs into the core, prompting Amelia to attempt to kill him, but Sara attacks her and throws her into the core as well. Dean, Hastings and Wasach manage to close the core in time to prevent a meltdown. Later, Hastings visits Dean at Abbot's home, and discovers both Sara and a half-breed alien boy. Dean reveals that he actually managed to pull Sara to safety before sealing the plant's core, then completed the refined alien DNA to create a mate for her so she would not be alone. After the boy is grown, Dean tells Sara she's on her own and to be careful, but before Sara and her mate leave, Dean asks Sara why she saved him from Amelia when there was no reason to. She does not answer; however, it is implied she has come to care for him. Dean then reassures the nervous Hastings by revealing he ensured Sara's mate would be sterile, preventing them from reproducing. ===== Adam, a 23-year-old self-employed security technician, is hired by a businesswoman, Alice Comfort, to set up a security system in her flat. After finishing the work, Adam falls asleep on a lawnchair on her roof-garden. When Alice arrives home and finds him there, she impulsively asks him to accompany her to a housewarming party for her boss. He is unsure, but eventually agrees. On the way home from the party, Alice and Adam are caught behind a slow-moving vehicle, which Alice frustratedly overtakes whilst Adam shouts out an obscenity at the driver. Shortly thereafter, Alice is distracted from driving and accidentally hits a stag. She brings the car to a stop, and they drag the stag off the road. While they are moving it, the car that Alice had earlier overtaken pulls up behind Alice's car. Three men get out, badly beat Adam and then rape Alice. A month passes, during which Adam and Alice physically heal but both remain emotionally wounded. Upon returning to work, Alice receives notification that, while she was hospitalized following her rape, her father died. Alice drives out to his country estate to put his affairs in order, where she discovers a locked chest that she recognizes from her childhood. On the way home, she passes by a group of riders on horseback, one of whom she recognizes as having raped her. She gets his name - Heffer - from one of the other riders. Alice then contacts Adam, and he makes his way to Alice's father's house where she tells him that she's found one of the men responsible for attacking them. Alice shows Adam the contents of her father's locked chest: a sniper rifle and silencer that her father apparently smuggled home after being discharged from the army. Alice then tells Adam that she intends to avenge herself against Heffer. Adam and Alice go to Heffer's home with the intent to kill him. As Alice is preparing to shoot him, a young woman (later identified as Heffer's daughter, Sophie) comes out of the house, looking for her dog Crisis, who was killed by the duo. Alice and Adam, disturbed by seeing their attacker as a human being, return home. Over the next several days Alice and Adam try to determine if they should follow through with their plan. Adam, who has been impotent since the attack, steadily becomes more aggressive and committed to the idea of murdering Heffer. Alice, however, has grown reluctant to kill Heffer now that she has seen him in a human context; instead, she sends Adam to set up security equipment in Heffer's house in an attempt to determine the identities and locations of his friends who participated in the gang-rape. Adam succeeds in breaking into Heffer's house and ends up in Sophie's room; initially, he merely attempts to keep her quiet so that he can get out of the house, but he has a sudden fit of rage and begins raping her. In the middle of the attack, she escapes from his grasp, and Adam returns home, able to maintain an erection for the first time since the attack. The next day, Alice uses a laptop computer that controls the security cameras and watches Heffer in his house. She realizes his intention is to kill himself and after grabbing the rifle she rushes to his house. Alice finds Heffer in his garage, sitting in his running car, attempting to kill himself with carbon monoxide poisoning. Alice gets Heffer out of the car and into fresh air, saving his life. In the midst of a delirium from the carbon monoxide, Heffer—who doesn't recognize Alice—confesses that, a month ago, his friends voiced their intentions to rape his daughter, but that he convinced them to rape and beat a woman and her friend in the middle of the road instead. Just then, Alice and Heffer hear Adam calling from outside, and Heffer suddenly turns violent, grabbing her roughly but Alice hits him and frees herself. Adam then bursts into the house, beats Heffer, duct-tapes him to the kitchen table, and holds him down while Alice sodomizes him with the barrel of the rifle that she has fetched from her car; once she is finished, she prepares to kill him, but now feeling pity for him because of the circumstances surrounding the rape, she decides not to pull the trigger. Adam, infuriated, takes out a hunting knife and carves out Heffer's eye. Horrified, Alice runs away; driving back to her father's home, Alice spots Sophie hitch-hiking, and invites her into her car. When Sophie realizes she isn't being taken home, she asks Alice where they're headed; Alice replies, "Somewhere safe." Back at Heffer's house, Adam taunts Heffer until he hears a car pulling up; as one of the attackers approaches the house, Adam fatally shoots him in the head before pursuing the remaining attacker through the grounds of Heffer's house. Adam shoots him in the leg as he flees, causing him to fall to the ground. Adam then approaches the wounded man and bludgeons him to death with the butt of the rifle. In the final shot of the film, Adam walks away from his final victim and approaches the screen for a close up shot. He effectively breaks the fourth wall by glancing at the audience - leaving the viewer to reflect on the violent act of revenge Adam has committed. ===== The Schwartzes live their ordinary lives in the aptly named (and fictional) small town of Bellwether, Connecticut. When she thinks her two children do not need her any longer, Lila Schwartz, a sexually active woman, leaves behind her family, calls herself Lila Munroe and moves to California, where she trains, and later works, as a lawyer. Faced with the dual challenge of having to raise two teenage kids while remaining successful in his demanding job as a publicist and speech writer, Bernard Schwartz more and more relies on medication to cope with everyday life. The real trouble begins when he accidentally swallows two incompatible antidepressants and falls into a coma shortly thereafter. While he is unconscious Bernard Schwartz has a stroke. When he wakes up again he is seriously handicapped--his speech is slurred, his walk is unsteady and his memory is permanently impaired. Similar to a child, he has to learn the meanings of many words. Instead of going to school, Chris teaches his father as best as he can. In spite of his enforced preoccupation with his "sleeping" father, Chris Schwartz notices that his own life goes on without any major change. Still a virgin, he fantasizes about having sex with Lisa Danmeyer, Bernard's neurologist and actually has his first sexual encounter ever at his father's rehab centre with a sexy speech pathologist who performs fellatio on him. At the same time Cathy, his 16-year- old sister, is on the brink of abandoning her Jewish roots and converting to Roman Catholicism. However, she also develops a crush on Francis Dial, her brother's best friend and classmate. Chris cannot believe that his younger sister might have sex before he does, but in the end this is exactly what happens, an unwanted teenage pregnancy being the result of their union. At first the young lovers are unsure whether Cathy should have an abortion or not, but Cathy soon makes up her mind to keep the baby. ===== After fifteen years, Joshua Judd (Charles Ogle) tells his adopted son, Amos (Valentino), that his real father was an Indian maharajah overthrown by Ali Khan (Bertram Grassby). Amos, then a young boy (played by an uncredited Pat Moore), was rescued by General Devi Das Gadi (George Periolat) and taken to America for his safety. (Joshua's merchant brother had been a trusted friend of the late maharajah.) Amos attends Harvard University. There he incurs the hatred of Austin Slade, Jr. (Jack Giddings), whom he beats out for a spot on the rowing team. At a party celebrating a rowing victory over arch-rival Yale, a jealous Slade calls Amos "yellow" and pours a drink on him, causing Amos to punch him. Slade grabs a chair as a weapon, but Amos ducks, and Slade falls through an open window to his death. Amos is cleared of all wrongdoing, but the newspaper story attracts the notice of Amhad Beg (J. Farrell MacDonald), Ali Khan's Prime Minister. That summer, at a party hosted by close friend Stephen Van Kovert (William Boyd), Amos becomes attracted to one of the other guests, Molly Cabot (Wanda Hawley). By chance, Molly and her family decide to vacation in Amos's hometown. As they become better acquainted, Amos overcomes Molly's initial dislike of him. However, Molly tells her father (Edward Jobson) that she cannot marry someone who is not one of her "own people", however much she loves him. Instead, she agrees to marry longtime suitor Horace Bennett (Robert Ober), who had been a good friend of Slade's. Bennett tells Amos to stay away from his future wife, but when he also calls Amos a murderer, Amos chokes him into apologizing. As he leaves, Amos is struck in the head by a rock thrown by Bennett. Seeing this, Molly rushes to Amos's side and breaks off her engagement to Bennett. The happy couple decide on an early wedding, but Amos has a vision showing him being murdered the day before. He has had visions before; all came true, even if he tried to prevent them. His family is supposedly descended from Prince Arjuna; the god Krishna granted Arjuna and all his descendants the gift of prophesy. When he reveals this to his future father-in-law (who has already witnessed the accuracy of Amos's visions), the latter suggests he lock himself away in the sanatorium of a friend for the day. Amos does so, but Amhad Beg and his men find and kidnap him. Just as they are about to kill him, Amos is rescued by the mystic Narada (Josef Swickard), who also can see into the future, and his followers. Narada convinces him to forgo his own happiness and return to India to overthrow the tyrant. When Amos is welcomed by his people and the army revolts, Ali Khan commits suicide. The new Maharajah of Dharmagar takes comfort in his latest vision, which shows his wedding to Molly. ===== According to the NES version's manual, this game stars Bub and Bob, the original duo.Bubble Bobble Part 2 (NES) instruction manual On the game's back cover, they are also said to be Cubby and Rubby, Bub and Bob's descendants.Bubble Bobble Part 2 (NES) back cover; see Bubble Bobble Part 2 - NES - Retro Game Guide As seen in the game intro, Bub, and a girl named Judy, were sitting in a park. Suddenly, a floating skull character, who is one of the Skull Brothers, captures Judy into a bubble, and sends her and Bub into the air. Two characters named Drunk (from the original Bubble Bobble) follow the skull and take Judy away. Bub turns (or is turned) into a bubble dragon and heads off to rescue his girlfriend. There is also a two-player mode, implying that Bob has suffered the same events as Bub had. However, the manual states that Judy is a friend of both. In the Game Boy version, a character named Robby has to rescue people from a village, who, according to this version's intro, have been captured by a skull character. ===== Two people are attacked in a cemetery by slices of bread, which is hurled at them. The people escape in their car as more bread hurls itself at them from offscreen. They make it to a farmhouse where they and others are besieged by rampant slices of killer bread. One person is smothered to death, leaving behind a corpse strewn with white bread. News reports speculate that an explosion at a bakery is animating all manner of bread. During Catholic Mass in an emergency shelter, the worshippers are attacked by Communion wafers. The group in the farmhouse fortify their defences, using toasters (instead of torches) to frighten off the bread, and barricading the doors and windows with sandwich bags (instead of wooden planks). Two women seek refuge in the basement, unaware that there is a lunch bag next to them. The bread inside kills them and one of the men, leaving only one person alive. Meanwhile, the two hamburger buns float away from the women they kill. At the end of the film, the sole survivor is smothered by the bread. ===== Rather than presenting a straightforward narrative, the film tells of Liszt's life through a series of surrealistic episodes blending fact and fantasy, and full of anachronistic elements. At the start of the film, Liszt is caught in bed with Marie d'Agoult by her husband the Count d'Agoult. The Count challenges Liszt to a fight with sabres but Marie begs the count to let her share Liszt's fate. The Count then orders his staff to trap Liszt and Marie into the body of a piano, nailing it shut, and then leaving it on railroad tracks. This 19th century steam engine on the Bluebell Railway was featured in the film The scene is then shown to be a flashback triggered by the camera flash of photographers backstage before one of Liszt's concerts. Richard Wagner appears and Liszt introduces him to his circle of colleagues including Gioachino Rossini, Hector Berlioz, Frédéric Chopin, and Hans von Bülow. Liszt then pays Wagner to allow him to perform a variation on a theme from Rienzi. At the concert, Wagner is put off by Liszt's crowd-pleasing showmanship at the expense of serious musicianship, which includes adding the melody of Chopsticks to his Rienzi variation. However the crowd, consisting entirely of young screaming girls, go wild at Liszt's performance, storming the stage. Liszt uses von Bülow to proposition potentially wealthy females in the audience during his performance. One of them is Princess Carolyn, who relays to Liszt her address in Russia. The next scene shows Marie's and Liszt's domestic life plagued by jealousy over his constant touring and his infidelities. At this point they have three children, the oldest being Cosima. Domestic life has also strained Liszt's creativity. Liszt prepares to depart to St. Petersburg to play for the Tsar. Marie threatens to abandon him if he decides to go. Liszt then suggests to Cosima that he would sell his soul to the Devil to be able to compose brilliant music again. As Liszt is leaving, Cosima consoles him that she will pray to God every day so that Liszt will meet the Devil and be able to sell his soul to him. In Russia, Liszt meets Princess Carolyn at her court. She begins to seduce him, offering him the ability to compose the brilliant music he wanted in exchange for total control of his life. In one of the most ostentatious scenes of the movie, Liszt then experiences a hallucination where the women of Princess Carolyn's court assail him but then become seduced by his music which strokes his libido and gives him a 10-foot erection. Carolyn sinisterly observes from afar as the women celebrate his giant erection with a chorus line. The women then drag Liszt and his erection to a guillotine in which Carolyn reveals that the bargain for Liszt's newfound musical prolificity is the forfeiture of his libertinism. The next scene shows Liszt in Dresden during the May Uprising, conflicted about not supporting his friends in the revolt and spending all his time isolated to compose music (it is also heavily implied that Marie and his two youngest children have been killed). Wagner, now a political criminal on the lam, reappears and asks Liszt for money so that he can escape the country with his family. As Liszt tends Wagner's wounds, Wagner secretly drugs Liszt, who passes out. Wagner then reveals himself to be a vampire with a mission to write music that will inspire a new German nationalism. He then proceeds to suck Liszt's blood and compose on the piano. Before departing, Wagner leaves him his latest political pamphlet, a Superman comic (a play on Friedrich Nietzsche's Superman). Liszt and Carolyn travel to the Vatican to get married after the Pope agrees to grant her a divorce from her husband. The wedding is ultimately voided by the intervention of her husband and the Tsar. Furious at the Pope's political impotence, Carolyn threatens to write an anthology on her disagreements with the Church (Causes intérieures de la faiblesse extérieure de l'Église en 1870). Liszt then proposes that he will join the Church as an abbot. Liszt's life as an abbot is shown to be disobedient as he is caught in bed with a woman. The Pope then explains that Wagner has seduced Cosima as his wife and has begun to lead a devilish cult organised around his music. He tasks Liszt with travelling to Wagner's castle to exorcise him and return him to the Christian faith or else Liszt will be excommunicated and his music banned. Liszt travels to Wagner's castle, where he observes a secret ritual portraying a devilish Jew raping several blonde-haired Germanic nymphs. Wagner then appears with Cosima, dressed in Superman outfits, and sings how "the flowering youth of Germany was raped by 'the beast'" and that a "new messiah" will soon arrive to drive out the beast. At the conclusion of the song, Cosima marches the audience, composed entirely of children, out with a Nazi salute as they chant that they "will be the master race". Liszt confronts Wagner, who is unaware of what Liszt has seen, and inquires about his ambitions. Wagner confesses that he has been building a mechanical Viking Siegfried to rid the country of Jews. When Wagner awakens Siegfried with his music, the creature turns out to be crass and slow-witted. Liszt sneaks holy water into Wagner's drink but the water has no effect. Wagner then reveals himself to Liszt as a vampire and threatens to steal his music so that Wagner's Viking can live. Liszt rushes to the piano and plays music, exorcising Wagner and bringing him to near death. Cosima, witnessing Wagner's moribund state, imprisons Liszt and then resurrects Wagner in a Nazi ceremony as a Frankenstein-Hitler wielding a machine-gun guitar. Trapped, Liszt observes as Cosima leads the Wagner-Hitler to gun down the town's Jews, after which she kills Liszt by stabbing a needle through the heart of a voodoo doll made in his likeness. In Heaven, Liszt is reunited with the women he has romanced in his life and Cosima, though it is never explained how she got there after killing Liszt, who regret their behaviour towards him and each other and finally live in harmony. In the final episode, Liszt and the women decide to fly down to Earth in a spaceship to destroy Wagner-Hitler who has now ravaged Berlin in a fiery machine-gun frenzy. Once Wagner-Hitler is destroyed, Liszt sings that he has found "peace at last". ===== Hitomi Kisugi, along with her older sister Rui and her younger sister Ai, run a café called "Cat's Eye" in Tokyo. The sisters lead a double life as a trio of highly skilled art thieves, stealing works of art which primarily belonged to their long-missing father, Michael Heinz, who was a famous art collector during the Nazi regime. Hitomi's fiancé is Toshio Utsumi, a clumsy young police officer who is investigating the Cat's Eye case. Despite being a frequent visitor to the café he is unaware of the double life of the girls. Hitomi regularly informs the police in advance about her next job using a signature "Cat's Eye" calling card, and then uses Toshio's research about the security surrounding the target to help plan the job. At the end of the series, Heinz leaves a note for his daughters stating that he cannot reveal himself yet because the mafia may kill him, but he may appear in five years' time. However, the "Heinz" turns out to be the sisters' treacherous uncle Cranaff, who betrayed Michael years earlier. After losing a final bet to the Cat's Eye, Cranaff decides to atone for his sin by setting fire to the museum, killing himself. Hitomi eventually admits to Toshio that she is part of Cat's Eye and flees before he can arrest her. Toshio vows to track her down, attempting to "arrest" Hitomi at the airport with a wedding ring. He resigns from the police force and travels to America to find Hitomi, but finds that she has lost her memory due to viral meningitis. Toshio spends time with her until her memories come back, and the two rekindle their relationship. ===== The story is a love triangle, mixed with politics. Andy and Norman are roommates and radicals who barely make a living working on their magazine, Fallout, which is dedicated to fighting "the system" in America. Sophie, a former Olympic swimmer, is an all- American Southern girl who moves into the apartment next door. What is love at first sight (or, as the play has it, first smell) for Norman is not reciprocated. Norman's obsession with Sophie causes Andy to hire her just to sustain the magazine's operation. Then Sophie falls for Andy, though they are at odds politically, threatening to destroy the magazine and the men's friendship. ===== On a one-week Mediterranean pleasure cruise aboard the yacht of movie producer Clinton Greene (Coburn), the guests include actress Alice Wood (Welch), her talent-manager husband Anthony (McShane), secretary turned talent agent Christine (Cannon), screenwriter Tom Parkman (Benjamin) and his wife, Lee (Hackett), and film director Philip Dexter (Mason). The trip is, in fact, a reunion; with the exception of Lee (who was "sick of Santa Barbara"), all were together at Clinton's home one year before, on the night a hit-and-run accident resulted in the death of Clinton's wife, gossip columnist Sheila Greene. (Yvonne Romain, a former Hammer horror actress, appeared as Sheila Greene in a cameo performance.) Once the cruise is under way, Clinton, a parlor game enthusiast, informs everyone that the week's entertainment will consist of "The Sheila Greene Memorial Gossip Game." The six guests are each assigned an index card containing a secret (in Clinton's words, "a pretend piece of gossip") that must be kept hidden from the others. The object of the game is to discover everyone else's secret while protecting one's own. Each night the yacht anchors at a different Mediterranean port city, where one of the six secrets is disclosed to the entire group. The guests are given a clue, then sent ashore to find the proof of who among them holds the card bearing that night's secret. The game for that night ends when the actual holder of the subject secret discovers the proof. Anyone who has not yet solved the clue receives no points on Clinton's scoreboard for that round. Following the revelation of the first card, "YOU are a SHOPLIFTER", suspicion begins that each guest's card does not contain "pretend" gossip but in fact an actual, embarrassing secret about each guest. On the second day, Christine is nearly killed when someone (not revealed to the camera) turns the boat's propellers on while she is swimming near them. The second game session takes place in an abandoned, derelict abbey during a thunderstorm, where the second card is revealed to be "YOU are a HOMOSEXUAL." When Clinton does not return from the second evening's installment of the game, the guests return ashore the following day and discover his corpse. Although the group initially assumes that Clinton perished when a stone column collapsed during the storm, Tom points out several clues that suggest otherwise. The blood where Clinton was struck came from a stone at the bottom of a pillar, not the top, meaning it could not have fallen on him from a great height. Furthermore, a piece of wood landed in his jacket from where he was sitting earlier in the evening, implying he died there and was moved underneath the column. Finally, there was a burnt cigarette butt at his feet, despite Clinton being a non-smoker. Tom surmises one of the six killed him where he sat, then dragged the body to one of the pillars and dropped a stone (mistakenly from the bottom of the column) on his head to make it seem like an accident. Next, Tom reveals that his card reads, "YOU are a HIT-AND-RUN KILLER". After getting everyone else to reveal their cards (the others are EX-CONVICT, INFORMANT and LITTLE CHILD MOLESTER), he confesses to having had an affair with Clinton, revealing himself to be the homosexual and suggesting that one of the secrets belongs to each of the others. It is implied that the hit-and-run killer murdered Clinton to conceal his or her guilt in Sheila's death. This begins a macabre game of musical chairs of sorts, with guests jousting over who lays claim to which dirty little secret. Eventually, it becomes clear that Christine was the McCarthy- era informant, Alice the shoplifter, Anthony the ex-convict, and Philip the child molester. Lee tearfully confesses to having killed Sheila while driving drunk the previous year, and having accidentally killed Clinton the previous night after he provoked her by blaming her for Sheila's death. She locks herself in her cabin, and Tom is unsuccessful in reaching her. Shortly thereafter, she is found dead with her wrists slit, and the case seems to be closed. On the final night of the cruise, the crew and most of the guests go to a party on the shore, but Philip, who brought no money, remains on the ship. Tom returns to find him thinking over loose ends of the earlier events. Philip experiments with stamping out cigarettes, speculating that it was Clinton who attempted to stamp out the cigarette but was unable to in the dark. This further implies that he only had one try at it; Philip posits that, while he looked down and tried to put it out, the killer murdered him. Lee could not have killed him in this way, and therefore Philip suspects that Lee had "killed" a dead body. He further speculates that someone else – presumably the actual killer – stayed there after Lee fled and rearranged the scene to implicate her instead. Finally, Philip realizes that the six clues (Shoplifter, Homosexual, Ex-convict, etc.) spell out "SHEILA", and that a picture taken the first day has each of them standing under a letter of Sheila's name that corresponds to their clue – except for the final "A", which breaks the pattern. (The use of the acronym also explains the redundant "LITTLE" in Philip's own clue; "CHILD MOLESTER" would have divulged Philip's secret guilt well enough, but the "L" from "LITTLE" was necessary for the photograph.) With this, it becomes clear what had actually happened: after Alice (with whom Tom had been having an affair) confessed to being a shoplifter to Tom on the first night, he realized the pattern and saw an opportunity. He changed out his own card – "YOU are an ALCOHOLIC", the missing A – for a more condemning one, "YOU are a HIT-AND-RUN KILLER", knowing both secrets applied to Lee. He arranged for Lee to see his card and think the game's purpose was to expose her for her role in Sheila's death. Then he murdered Clinton on the second night, planning to frame Lee for the deed – made much easier after (impersonating Clinton) he taunted Lee into attacking the corpse and thinking she had killed Clinton. Thus, all of his detective work that day had been based on a crime he himself had committed. After Lee's guilt was "established", he spiked her bottle of bourbon with sleeping pills and, after she drank it, carried her body into the bathtub and slit her wrists, making it seem like a suicide. Her estate, worth $5 million, therefore went to him and freed him to pursue other romantic interests. Philip is himself guilty of attempted murder, having attempted to kill Clinton with the boat's propellers to prevent his secret from coming out. After Philip deduces Tom's guilt, Tom attempts to strangle him, but their fight is broken up by the arrival of Christine with one of the ship's Italian crewmen. She had listened to Philip and Tom's conversation. Philip then blackmails Tom into financing a film with the money from Lee's estate, employing the various guests in roles related to it but keeping Tom on only in a very minor capacity. The film ends with an encroaching closeup of an ominously silent but enraged Tom. ===== Each episode is named "The Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley" followed by the name of the mystery. ;1. The Case of Thorn Mansion (1994) :A ghost is supposedly haunting a mansion in Transylvania, and the girls must figure out who or what is actually behind it. The "ghost" ends up being the caretaker of the mansion who is also a beekeeper. (The trip to Transylvania was about 9,000 miles from their attic) ;2. The Case of the Logical I Ranch (1994) :Pungent smells and weird noises plague the "Logical I Ranch". Some employees of the ranch think it is being caused by a dragon running loose. (The trip to Dead Gulch USA was about 1,372 miles from their attic) ;3. The Case of the SeaWorld Adventure (1995) :The girls' parents work at SeaWorld as over-worked dolphin trainers. One day, the girls run into a dead body in the woods that eventually leads them and their parents to a cruise ship while trying to solve the rigged mystery. The boss of the girls' parents had planted evidence to get them all on the cruise, so they could take a much-needed family vacation. ;4. The Case of the Mystery Cruise (1995) :The sequel to The Case of the SeaWorld Adventure. Mary-Kate and Ashley's father has a laptop containing vital information. It gets stolen while on a cruise ship and must be retrieved. The twins believe a friend of their father's was responsible, but it later turned out to be a staged occurrence. ;5. The Case of the Fun House Mystery (1995) :Something is making scary noises inside the fun house at an amusement park, and the girls must figure out who or what it is. Using the clue of "Monster Mush" and "bananas", they find out the monster lurking inside the fun house is really an orangutan. (The trip to Tons-Of-Fun was about 1,379 miles from their attic) ;6. The Case of the Christmas Caper (1995) :Hackers break into Santa's computer to steal the "Spirit of Christmas", the plane Santa uses to fly to deliver all the presents to the children of the world on Christmas Eve. It is up to girls to show what the holiday is all about. (The trip to North Pole Drive was about 1,000 miles from their attic) ;7. The Case of the U.S. Space Camp Mission (1996) :A space shuttle has been grounded, due to a mysterious tapping sound coming from its outer surface. Unless the girls can figure out what is going on, the space shuttle will be not be able to lift-off. To figure out the mystery, they get help learning about space travel through the U.S. Space Camp program. (The trip to Huntsville was about 1,643 miles from their attic) ;8. The Case of the Shark Encounter (1996) :Three pirates claim that the sharks at a SeaWorld exhibit are singing, and the girls must figure out where the strange sounds are coming from. (The trip to Orlando was about 2,500 miles from their attic) ;9. The Case of the Hotel Who-Done-It (1996) :The girls travel to Hawaii, where they meet a hotel manager who has been dealing with a string of recent disappearances around the hotel. (The trip to Hawaii was about 2,556 miles from their attic) ;10. The Case of the Volcano Mystery (1997) :The girls receive a call from some miners of marshmallows that a snowball-throwing monster has been "terrorizing" them. The girls eventually find out that the "snow" is really ash, and the "monster" is actually a geologist warning them that an active volcano is not a safe place to work. (The trip to Jelly Island was about 1,759 miles from their attic) ;11. The Case of the United States Navy Adventure (1997) :Unidentified flying objects have been seen flying overhead. In this case, the girls get help from the United States Navy to solve the mystery. The "UFOs" ended up being a satellite that was flying too low in orbit. (The trip to The Edge of the World was about 3,528 miles from their attic) ===== Estelle Rolfe's (Anne Bancroft) social activism and quick temper cause a lot of inconvenience for her grown son Gilbert (Ron Silver), who often must go to a New York City jail precinct to pay her bail. Gilbert is willing to go to great lengths for his mother, though, after a doctor's examination diagnoses a terminal brain tumor. Estelle's last wish is to meet the movie star she has idolized all her life, the reclusive Greta Garbo. Lisa Rolfe (Carrie Fisher) sympathizes, but when husband Gilbert abandons his job to devote his days to the search for Garbo, she can't take it anymore and abandons him. An aspiring actress in Gilbert's office, Jane Mortimer (Catherine Hicks), takes a liking to Gilbert and a romantic interest seems entirely possible, but first comes Gilbert's increasingly futile search for a famous woman who does not care to be found. Leads eventually take Gilbert to an elderly actress, Elizabeth, who once knew Garbo, and to an aging paparazzo, Angelo, who is somewhat acquainted with Garbo's habits and whereabouts, but neither is able to get Gilbert to her. Estelle's estranged husband, Walter, visits the hospital to say an emotional goodbye. With little time to spare, Gilbert is finally able to meet Garbo face-to-face and explain his mother's situation. Without a word, Garbo goes straight to Estelle's hospital room for a bedside chat, where Estelle herself ends up doing all of the talking. Gilbert is at peace with how his mother's life came to an end. As he strolls with Jane in the park, she and others are startled by the sight of Garbo walking by. Even more startling to Jane is when Garbo catches a glimpse of Gilbert and says hello. ===== The film opens at a convention of recliner salesmen, where Jack Corcoran (Bill Murray) gives a motivational speech based on his book Get Over It. Jack shares the example of his father dying before he was born as a difficult circumstance that must be overcome to succeed. At Jack's engagement party, his agent Walter (Jeremy Piven) updates him on all of his upcoming speaking engagements, and the pair hope that one of the engagements is high profile enough to lead to an infomercial. As the party winds down, Jack reads telegrams from well wishers. One of the telegrams is from an attorney in Baltimore about the large estate of his recently deceased father Kirby. Jack's mother shortly admits that she lied about his father passing away when he was born. In truth, she left him because she felt he would be a bad example for Jack. The attorney in Baltimore shows Jack a contract which mentions $35,000. Thinking this is the size of his father's estate, Jack signs the contract. In fact, it is the amount of property damage that the attorney has suffered because of Vera, Kirby's elephant. Vera and Kirby were a traveling circus act, and she is a highly trained elephant. Kirby left a note for Jack that instructed him to call "Blockhead" in Kansas City if there are any problems with Vera. Jack contacts Mo (Janeane Garofalo) at the San Diego Zoo, who happens to be transporting a herd of elephants to Sri Lanka in a few days. She helps Jack ascertain that Vera is a breeding age female, and she agrees to pay $30,000 for the elephant. Jack and Vera board a train bound for San Diego, but the conductor (Keith David) insists on a bribe. Jack's $600 only gets them as far as Kansas City, where he looks up Blockhead, who is an old circus buddy of Kirby's. Blockhead shows Jack the extent of Vera's training, including a photo of Vera standing on her hind legs, which was a trick that she would only do for Kirby. He puts Jack onto an animal trainer in Los Angeles named Terry Bonura (Linda Fiorentino) who works in show business. Terry offers Jack $40,000 for Vera. So, he and Blockhead attempt to drive to L.A., but his truck breaks down. Jack rents a semi-truck and continues on his own. With no experience driving a big rig, Jack blows out the transmission. Stuck at a truck stop, he encounters Tip Tucker (Matthew McConaughey) who is a fast-talking, deeply paranoid trucker bound for L.A. Jack slips outside to call Tip's mobile phone, and he tricks Tip into thinking his load has been canceled. Tip agrees to take Jack and Vera to L.A. instead. Along the way, Tip makes a phone call and realizes he has been tricked by Jack. He attacks Jack with a tire iron, but Vera intervenes and saves Jack from a beating. Tip drives off threatening to come back with the police. Jack and Vera walk into New Mexico to evade Tip. They stumble into a monsoon that is threatening to tear apart a village church. As the villagers struggle to hold the walls up, Vera intervenes, holding the wall up with her head. The wall still threatens to collapse, and Jack gets her to stand on her hind legs to brace the wall for good. The villagers help Jack and Vera board a train that will finally take them to L.A. As he is about to sign the contract to sell Vera to Terry, Jack realizes that she subjects her animals to a grueling workload, and he witnesses one of Terry's trainers abusing another elephant with an electric goad. He steals one of Terry's trucks and drives to San Diego. Tip found Terry's business card in the cab of his truck, and he arrives just as Jack leaves. At the San Diego airport, Mo is loading her elephants onto a C-5 Galaxy cargo plane. The tarmac security guard will not let Jack and Vera in because they are not on the manifest. Jack pulls the truck into the passenger drop-off in front of the airport and races through the terminal with Vera. At gate security, Tip finally catches up to them, waving Terry's electric goad. Jack convinces the security guards that Tip is more of a threat than Vera, and they deal with Tip while Jack and Vera catch up to Mo on the tarmac. Mo explains that she has spent her entire budget and has no money for Vera. Jack confesses to Mo that he will miss Vera, but he knows she would be better off with other elephants. The film ends with a series of captions that indicate Jack left his fiancee for Mo, and the couple witnessed the birth of Vera's first calf in Sri Lanka together. Jack's ex- fiancee married his agent and Jack's mother ran their life. Tip Tucker also managed to get away and is still roaming the roads of America. The captions conclude by saying that Get Over It never made it to a 2nd printing, but Jack's memoir of his cross-country trip with Vera was a runaway besteller. ===== Tesshō is your typical high school delinquent with a special skill. He has a perfect pitch. This skill enables him to hear things most people wouldn't. After helping a local vet, Kashiyuu, save a small dog, whom he later names Inu (Japanese for "dog"), Tesshō realizes his calling in life is to become a veterinarian. After passing veterinary school Tesshō finds himself out of a job and out of luck. But due to some connections with an old high school friend, Tesshō is allowed to take the test to enter the famous R.E.D. Vet hospital. ===== The tale begins with Tommy Brock, a badger, being entertained by old Mr. Bouncer, the father of Benjamin Bunny. Mr. Bouncer has been left to tend his grandchildren while his son and daughter-in-law Flopsy are away, but, after smoking a pipe of rabbit-tobacco, he falls asleep in Tommy's company. Tommy puts the bunnies in his sack and slips out. When the parents return, Benjamin sets off in pursuit of the thief. Benjamin finds and brings his cousin Peter Rabbit into the rescue venture, and the two discover Tommy has invaded one of Mr. Tod's homes. Mr. Tod, a fox, has multiple homes but keeps moving. Often Tommy lodges in his homes. Peeping through the bedroom window, the rabbits see Tommy asleep in Mr. Tod's bed, and, peeping through the kitchen window, they see the table set for a meal. They realise the bunnies are alive, but shut in the oven. They try to dig a tunnel into the house but hide when Mr. Tod suddenly arrives in a very bad temper, which has caused him to move house. The fox discovers the badger asleep in his bed, and originally plans to hit him, but decides against this due to the Badger's teeth. He decides to play a trick upon him involving a pail of water balanced on the overhead tester of the bed. Brock however is awake, escapes the trick, and makes tea for himself in the kitchen. Mr. Tod thinks the bucket has killed Tommy and decides to bury him in the tunnel the rabbits have dug, thinking Tommy dug it. When Mr. Tod discovers Tommy in the Kitchen and has tea thrown over him, a violent fight erupts that continues outdoors. The two roll away down the hill still fighting. Benjamin and Peter quickly gather the bunnies, and return home in triumph.MacDonald 1986, pp. 44-5 ===== Lord Emsworth's world is far from ideal – not only has his neighbour Sir Gregory Parsloe- Parsloe stolen his pigman Wellbeloved, but his niece Gertrude is imprisoned in the house, mooning miserably about the place and, worse still, trying to be "helpful" by tidying his study. Meanwhile, Freddie Threepwood, back in England to promote his father-in-law Mr Donaldson's "Dog-Joy" biscuits, has just been turned down by his dog-loving Aunt Georgiana, Gertrude's mother, when he runs into his old Oxford pal Beefy Bingham. Bingham, Freddie learns, is in love with cousin Gertrude, but as he is not well-off, the family have closed ranks and sent Gertrude away to Blandings. Inspired by a Super-film he has seen, Freddie sends Bingham down to the castle, under the guise of a Mr "Popjoy" (based on Lord Emsworth's mishearing of the dog biscuits Freddie is selling), tasked with ingratiating himself with the Earl. Emsworth is at first pleased to see Gertrude less dour, and charmed by his guest's diffidence and helpful ways, but soon finds himself smothered – Bingham is overdoing the ingratiating. Emsworth even begins to question the man's sanity, when he wakes in the night to find the fellow blowing kisses up at his window. When Bingham tries to help Emsworth off a ladder and knocks him to the ground, he hopes to remedy the others ills (and anger) with a bottle of balm; sadly however, he buys a product designed for horses, which causes his Lordship considerable pain. When he sees Emsworth singing during his morning swim, he mistakes the awful noise for cries for help, and dashes in to save the aging peer, only to be thanked with a stiff punch in the face. Freddie reveals to Emsworth that Popjoy is in fact Bingham, hopeful of one of the many livings in Emsworth's gift. When Emsworth realises that he can inflict the man on his enemy Parsloe- Parsloe, he doesn't hesitate from granting him the job. ===== The story is about the Platonic love relationship between Bernadette and “the lady” of her vision. Bernadette’s love for the lady attains “ecstasy” when in her presence at a grotto near Lourdes. The love she feels sustains her throughout the trials and tribulations which she is made to endure by doubters and by public officials who see her as a threat to the established order, which is based on a secular milieu. The lady guides Bernadette to the discovery of a stream which springs from beneath the ground of the grotto. The curative powers of the water are discovered by various town folk, and the word is spread by them. Bernadette does no proselytizing. The lady informs Bernadette of her wishes to have a chapel build on the site of the grotto, and to have processions to the site. Bernadette informs church and secular officials about this, but takes no action to have it done. Eventually, it gets done. Bernadette does not actively cultivate a following, but people are attracted to her by the love she radiates and by witnessing the ecstatic trance she experiences when she has visions of the lady at the grotto. Bernadette does no preaching or evangelizing, but her behavior of itself converts doubters, and the very church officials who once doubted her become her protectors and advocates. Although she is dying of tuberculosis, she refuses to seek a cure from the lady, or to drink the curative water. She is canonized several years after her death. The story of Bernadette Soubirous and Our Lady of Lourdes is told by Werfel with many embellishments, such as the chapter in which Bernadette is invited to board at the home of a rich woman who thinks Bernadette's visionary "lady" might be her deceased daughter. In side-stories and back story, the history of the town of Lourdes, the contemporary political situation in France, and the responses of believers and detractors are delineated. Werfel describes Bernadette as a religious peasant girl who would have preferred to continue on with an ordinary life, but takes the veil as a nun after she is told that because "Heaven chose her", she must choose Heaven. Bernadette's service as a sacristan, artist-embroiderer, and nurse in the convent are depicted, along with her spiritual growth. After her death, her body as well as her life are scrutinized for indications that she is a saint, and at last she is canonized. The novel is laid out in five sections of ten chapters each, in a deliberate nod to the Catholic Rosary. Unusual for a novel, the entire first part, which describes the events on the day that Bernadette first saw the Virgin Mary, is told in the present tense, as if it were happening at the moment. The rest of the novel is in the past tense. ===== Freddie Threepwood, still trying to persuade his Aunt Georgiana of the benefits of Donaldson's Dog-Joy (even going so far as to act out the phrase "eating one's own dog food") hears that his cousin Gertrude has become infatuated with Orlo Watkins, a weedy tenor invited to the castle by Lady Constance. While visiting his friend Beefy Bingham to borrow his dog Bottles, Freddie learns that she has indeed all but "handed him the bird". Freddie tells this to Lady Georgiana, while giving a rather poor demonstration of Dog-Joy's powers, during which Bottles is scared off by Susan, one of Lady Georgiana's Pekes. He later tries to reason with his cousin, but to no avail; the glamour of the singer has taken her over. That evening, while the household take after-dinner coffee in the drawing room, Freddie enters with Bottles and a sack of rats, intending to demonstrate the Dog-Joy reared mongrel's ratcatching prowess; Orlo Watkins, observed by Gertrude, cringes somewhat at the sight. The family protest, and Beach is called to take the bag of rats away. Bottles remains, however, and when one of Lady Georgiana's Airedales comes in, a mighty battle commences. Watkins, to Gertrude's disgust, leaps atop a display cabinet, while the others dither about. Just in time, Bingham enters, sees the fight in progress, and breaks it up by the simple expedient of taking one dog in each massive hand and pulling. His manly display shakes the scales from Gertrude's eyes, and she falls into his arms, while Watkins slinks off, defeated. Lady Georgiana, meanwhile, is so impressed by Bottles' performance that she orders two tons of Dog-Joy off Freddie. ===== The River follows the tranquil life of lovable, Cockney, ex-convict Davey Jackson (Essex) who is lock keeper on the canal near the village of Chumley-on-the-Water. His peaceful life is turned upside down by the arrival of the neurotic, sharp-tongued Sarah MacDonald (Murphy). Over the six episodes of the series the love-hate relationship between Davey and Sarah blossoms into a shaky romance, their potential happiness often spoiled by the machinations of Davey's cunning Aunty Betty (Vilma Hollingbery) and the hapless intervention of Davey's deputy Tom Pike (Shaun Scott). The River also shows brief glimpses of the village of Chumley and its extremely weird inhabitants, including the eccentric squire, Colonel Danvers (David Ryall), the constantly silent and drunken Silent Jim, landlord of the village pub "The Ferret", Aunty Betty's futile attempts to lead a socialist revolution from the village and Tom's conversations with his pets Deidre the goat and Cyril the pig. The only two (nearly) sane people in Chumley are Davey and Sarah, the former taking the chaotic and confusing village life in his stride, the latter realising that she isn't the greatest crackpot in the country. The River ends abruptly with Sarah's decision to leave, partly due to her nervousness about her relationship with Davey and the ploys of Aunty Betty to get rid of her. At the very end of Episode Six, Sarah's narrowboat explodes after Tom forgets to replace a faulty gas pipe on it. Sarah, much to Davey's relief, survives (and is found floating on a piece of wreckage in the river). The episode ends with Davey and Sarah floating down the river on the remains of the narrowboat. ===== Infected puts players in the role of a police officer in New York City, 3 weeks before Christmas while the entire city is rapidly being infected with a virus that turns people into ravaging, bloodthirsty zombies. The player's blood contains the cure, which less than 1% of the population possesses. The objective is to destroy the infected while trying to reach someone who can make a cure from the blood. ===== As a relative newcomer to an Oregon town that bears his name, Dr. Mumford (Loren Dean) seems charming and skillful to his neighbors and patients. His unique, frank approach to psychotherapy soon attracts patients away from the two therapists (David Paymer and Jane Adams) already working in the area. Soon he is treating a variety of conditions, ranging from the obsession of one man (Pruitt Taylor Vince) with erotic novels to an unhappily married woman (Mary McDonnell) and her compulsive shopping. Mumford befriends a billionaire computer mogul (Jason Lee) and a cafe waitress (Alfre Woodard) and attempts to play matchmaker. He also begins to fall for a patient (Hope Davis) who suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome. Together with an attorney (Martin Short) who Mumford had rejected as a patient because of his narcissism, the rival therapists conspire to find skeletons in Mumford's closet, hoping to destroy his reputation. Meanwhile, Mumford's inherent likability causes his life to become intertwined with much of the rest of the town. ===== The events in the novel take place in the course of a month in 1898 in Trieste. Ernesto, a 16-year-old apprentice clerk to a flour merchant named Wilder, lives with his mother and aunt. He and his mother rely on the charity of relatives, whose control Ernesto resents. When he was thirteen, he spent a perfect summer reading the Arabian Nights. He adopts leftist political views, partly out of conviction and partly to needle Wilder. He has his first sexual experiences on several occasions with a 28-year-old laborer identified as "the man". Their roles reflect classical models, with the older man insisting that since he has a beard he must be the active partner in intercourse. Ernesto also has one experience with a female prostitute. He imagines a different life for himself, perhaps as an adored concert violinist, though he lacks talent. His tentative approach to manhood is reflected in a visit to the barber where he has his first shave, though he hardly seems to need it. He becomes resentful about being overworked, though he refuses to share tasks with a younger assistant. He resents his employer and resigns his post with an insulting letter. Ending his employment will also end his casual encounters with "the man" at work. His mother succeeds in arranging for his employer to rehire Ernesto, who then reveals his sexual history to his mother to avoid taking up his clerk's post again. That night Ernesto attends a violin recital and at intermission sees a beautiful boy a bit younger than himself but fails to locate him at the end of the concert. They meet by chance the next day, discovering they have the same violin teacher. "They could have been two puppies, who instead of wagging their tails were smiling at each other." Ernesto says he has just turned 17 and the other boy, Emilio called "Ilio", is 15 and a half and a more talented violin student than Ernesto. They decide to be friends. ===== A news report shows a victim being pulled away on a stretcher. It is revealed that a serial killer, having murdered over thirty people, is on the loose in a Los Angeles suburb. A television repairman with a pronounced limp, named Horace Pinker, becomes the prime suspect. When the investigating detective, Lt. Don Parker, gets too close, Pinker murders Parker's wife, foster daughter, and foster son. However, his other foster son, a college football star named Jonathan, develops a strange connection to Pinker through his dreams and leads Parker to Pinker's run-down shop. In a shootout in which several officers are killed, Pinker escapes and targets Jonathan's girlfriend Alison in retribution. Another dream leads Lt. Parker and the police to Pinker, whom they catch in the act of a kidnapping. This time, just as Pinker is about to kill Jonathan, he is arrested. Pinker is quickly convicted and sentenced to die in the electric chair. Prior to his execution, Pinker reveals that Jonathan is, in fact, his son, and that as a boy, Jonathan had shot him in the knee while trying to stop the murder of his mother. But what they do not realize is that Pinker has made a deal with the Devil. When executed, he does not die but instead becomes pure electricity. He is able to possess others to continue his murderous ways. Some of the people who are killed are prison staff and Jonathan's friends. He soon possesses Lt. Parker, who uses his strength to fight off Pinker, and Pinker escapes into a TV dish. Jonathan and his friends try to find a way to fight him. Jonathan's friends, including Rhino, head to the power station to disable the power. Jonathan, with the aid of Alison's "spirit", devises a scheme to bring Pinker back into the real world and accidentally discovers that Pinker, as with all energy sources, is bound by the laws of the real world; Jonathan uses this limitation to defeat Pinker, and traps him inside a television. Pinker threatens Jonathan that he will find a way out of his "prison". Alison's voice tells Jonathan to take care of himself, while Jonathan's neighborhood suffers a blackout, caused by his friends blowing out the power main, trapping Pinker in the television. Jonathan goes outside amid all his neighbors and looks up at the sky, agreeing with Alison that they are beautiful. ===== The Kelly family lives in the fictional town of Oakmoor Crossing, just before and during Halloween. The family, consisting of father David, mother Linda, and son Sean, live a normal suburban life, but are eventually visited by a stranger who identifies herself as Vivian Machen. Both the Machens and the Kellys have a long ancestral history in Oakmoor Crossing, and Vivian reveals that one of the Kelly's ancestors hanged a supposed warlock named Walter Machen, who raised up a pumpkin-headed demon, Jack-O, from hell to take revenge on the Kellys. The Kelly ancestor ended up burying the demon in a shallow grave, but through the antics of several teenagers Jack-O is raised again and seeks revenge on the Kellys. ===== Circus of the Damned continues the adventures of Anita Blake. Anita simultaneously attempts to solve a series of murders by an unknown vampire pack, fend off the advances of her would be vampire master, Jean-Claude and deal with various people and creatures who wish her to reveal Jean-Claude's identity and location. As with its predecessors, Circus of the Damned blends elements of supernatural, hardboiled detective, and police procedural fiction. ===== ===== A young boy named Billy Forrester (Luke Benward) has a weak stomach and vomits easily. He and his parents, Mitch (Tom Cavanagh), Helen (Kimberly Williams-Paisley), and his little brother, Woody (Ty Panitz), have just moved to a new town. Billy tells his mother that he doesn't want to go to school because he will be "the new kid". She assures him that he will make friends and everything will be okay. At school, Billy becomes the target of the school bully, Joe Guire (Adam Hicks), his two "toaders" named Plug (Blake Garrett) and Bradley (Philip Daniel Bolden), and the rest of his gang: Benjy (Ryan Malgarini), Techno-Mouth (Andrew Gillingham), Twitch (Alexander Gould), and Donny (Alexander Agate). They rudely stare at Billy and call him "Billy F." (which is how his name is written on his lunch box). Plug and Bradley steal Billy’s lunch box. Billy sits behind Erika Tansy (Hallie Eisenberg), an unusually tall girl whom people make fun of (calling her "Erk"). At lunch, Billy opens his thermos and pours out a pile of live earthworms. Sickened, he almost vomits before regaining strength. Billy throws a worm at Joe's face. Joe, Plug, and Benjy catch up with Billy as he heads home. Joe proposes a bet: Billy is forced to eat ten worms in one day (the coming Saturday) without throwing up. Billy knows that he cannot back out of the bet, so he accepts. While cooking the second/third worm, "The Greasy Brown Toad Bloater Special," at Adam's uncle Ed's (Clint Howard) restaurant, the Brown Toad, Ed kicks them out for having the worms in his restaurant. After Billy eats the fourth worm, "The Burning Fireball," and burns his mouth, Twitch and Techno-Mouth quit Joe's team and become his new best friends. Billy, Techno-Mouth, Twitch, and Adam then go to a convenience store, and find Adam playing Dance Dance Revolution, but one of the boys spills his drink. This causes the machine to blow up and they get kicked out for making a mess. At the playground, Billy eats the next three worms, "Magni- Fried," "Barfmallo," and "Peanut Butter and Worm Jam Sandwich." After dinner, the boys go to a bait shop, where Billy eats the next two worms, "The Green Slusher" and "Radioactive Slime Delight," while the owner is out, but her unexpected return leads to her briefly chasing them for breaking into her bait shop. After Joe cheats in an attempt to keep Billy from eating the last worm, "Worm A La Mud," all of his gang joins Billy's team. Billy eats the final worm before the deadline. Nigel Guire (Nick Krause), Joe's brother, tries to bully and humiliate Billy. Billy and the rest of the gang stand up for him, telling Nigel to leave him alone, and he leaves. After thinking it over that night, Billy returns to school. He explains to Joe that the second worm was eaten by their principal, Burdock (James Rebhorn) when Adam accidentally put it in his omelet at the Brown Toad. They are then interrupted by Burdock, who nearly catches them when a worm falls out of Billy's pants, which Joe covers up. After Burdock returns to his office, the kids all run outside and celebrate as Billy and Joe both take the worms out of their pants and throw them into the air. ===== The parents are the time and motion study and efficiency experts Frank Bunker Gilbreth Sr. and psychologist Lillian Moller Gilbreth. The film shows typical days in the lives of a family in the 1920s, but here with 12 children and an efficiency engineer as the parent. Frank employs his unorthodox teaching methods on his children, and there are clashes between parents and children. Frank takes every opportunity to study motion and increase efficiency, including filming his children's tonsillectomies to see if there are ways to streamline the operation. After Frank's sudden death, the family agree that Lillian will continue with her husband's work; this enables the family to remain in their house, rather than move to their grandmother's in California, although, with a widowed working mother and one income, the children will have to assume much greater responsibilities. ===== In 1943, two Belarusian boys dig in a sand-filled trench looking for abandoned rifles in order to join the Soviet partisan forces. Their village elder warns them not to dig up the weapons as it will arouse the suspicions of the Germans. One of the boys, Flyora, finds an SVT-40 rifle, though both of them are seen by an Fw 189 flying overhead.A Focke-Wulf Fw 189. A single reconnaissance aircraft of this model repeatedly appears in scenes flying above Flyora's head throughout Come and See. The next day, partisans arrive at Flyora's house to conscript him. Flyora becomes a low-rank militiaman and is ordered to perform menial tasks. When the partisans are ready to move on, an old partisan says that he wants to stay behind because his boots are falling apart. The partisan commander, Kosach, orders the old man to swap boots with Flyora and for Flyora to remain behind at the camp. Bitterly disappointed, Flyora walks into the forest weeping and meets Glasha, a young girl working as a nurse in the camp, and the two bond before the camp is suddenly attacked by German paratroopers and dive bombers. Flyora is partially deafened from the explosions before the two hide in the forest to avoid the German soldiers. Flyora and Glasha travel to his village, only to find his home deserted and covered in flies. Denying that his family is dead, Flyora believes that they are hiding on a nearby island across a bog. As they run from the village in the direction of the bogland, Glasha glances across her shoulder, seeing a pile of executed villagers' bodies stacked behind a house, but does not alert Flyora. The two become hysterical after wading through the bog, where Glasha then screams at Flyora that his family are actually dead in the village. They are soon met by Roubej, a partisan fighter, who takes them to a large group of villagers who have fled the Germans. Flyora sees the village elder, badly burnt by the Germans, who tells him that he witnessed his family's execution and that he should not have dug up the rifles. Flyora accepts that his family is dead and blames himself for the tragedy. Roubej takes Flyora and two other men to find food at a nearby warehouse, only to find it being guarded by German troops. During their retreat, the group unknowingly wanders through a minefield resulting in the deaths of the two companions. That evening Roubej and Flyora sneak up to an occupied village and manage to steal a cow from a collaborating farmer. However, as they escape across an open field, Roubej and the cow are shot and killed by a German machine gun. The next morning, Flyora attempts to steal a horse and cart but the owner catches him and instead of doing him harm, he helps hide Flyora's identity when SS troops approach. Flyora is taken to the village of Perekhody, where they hurriedly discuss a fake identity for him, while the SS unit (based on the Dirlewanger Brigade) accompanied by Ukrainian collaborators surround and occupy the village. Flyora tries to warn the townsfolk they are being herded to their deaths, but is forced to join them inside a barn. Flyora and a young woman bearing a strong resemblance to Glasha manage to escape; the young woman is dragged by her hair across the ground and into a truck to be gang raped, while Flyora is forced to watch as several Molotov cocktails are thrown onto and within the barn before it is further set ablaze with a flamethrower as other soldiers shoot into the building. A German officer points a gun to Flyora's head to pose for a picture before leaving him to slump to the ground as the soldiers leave. Flyora later wanders out of the scorched village in the direction of the Germans, where he discovers they had been ambushed by the partisans. After recovering his jacket and rifle, Flyora comes across the young woman who had also escaped the church in a fugue state and covered in blood after having been gang-raped and brutalized. Flyora returns to the village and finds that his fellow partisans have captured eleven of the Germans and their collaborators, including the commander, an SS- Sturmbannführer. While some of the captured men including the commander plead for their lives and deflect blame, a young fanatical officer is unapologetic and vows they will carry out their mission. Kosach then forces most of the collaborators to douse the Germans with a can of petrol but the disgusted crowd shoots them all before they can be set on fire. As the partisans leave, Flyora notices a framed portrait of Adolf Hitler in a puddle and proceeds to shoot it numerous times. As he does so, a montage of clips from Hitler's life play in reverse, but when Hitler is shown as a baby on his mother's lap, Flyora stops shooting and cries. He then rushes to rejoin his comrades; they march through the woods as snow blankets the ground. As they disappear into the birch forest, a title informs: "628 Belorussian villages were destroyed, along with all their inhabitants" (alternate translation: "628 Belarusian villages were burnt to the ground with all their inhabitants"). ===== This fictionalized version of Chuck Norris is a United States government operative with a team of radically diverse warriors known as the Karate Kommandos. Together, they fight against the organization VULTURE (it was never revealed what VULTURE was short for) led by the Claw and his right-hand man Super Ninja. ===== Pippi Longstocking, who travels on the ship Hoptoad with her sailor father, Efraim, encounters a sudden storm caused by a volcanic eruption. After Efraim disappears into the sea, Pippi travels to the small coastal town of Rocksby, accompanied by her horse, Alfonso, and monkey, Mr. Nilsson. She takes up residence in her father's home, Villa Villekulla, which the neighborhood children believe is haunted. Soon Tommy and Annika Settigren venture into it after seeing lights in the windows. Looking for ghosts, they meet Pippi, Mr. Nilsson, and Alfonso instead. They become friends and get into various adventures together such as making pancakes, cleaning the floor with scrubbing shoes, serving ice cream to residents of the local orphanage, riding a motorcycle, and dodging "splunks". Pippi must also fight off Mr. Blackhart and his henchmen, Rype and Rancid, who want to demolish her house and sell the property, as well as avoid being legally taken to the orphanage by Miss Bannister. She agrees to escape and flee with Tommy and Annika in a homemade autogyro to avoid this fate. However, they are rescued after nearly going over a waterfall while riding barrels down a river. Thinking that Pippi will hurt Tommy and Annika, Mr. and Mrs. Settigren refuse to let them play with her anymore. Pippi believes that they would be better off without her and she goes to the orphanage. As a result, she is forced to leave Mr. Nilsson and Alfonso behind. She is unable to fit in with the other children due to her lack of discipline and education. However, after she rescues the orphanage from a fire inadvertently started by the janitor and is lauded by the townsfolk as a hero, she is allowed to return home and play with Tommy and Annika again. She is reunited with Efraim on Christmas Day, and he offers her the chance to become a cannibal princess of the uncharted island he had washed ashore on and was crowned king. She agrees and everyone comes out to bid her a tearful farewell. Just as they prepare to sail off, she decides to stay after seeing that the townsfolk are sad to see her go. She explains to Efraim that she cannot leave Tommy and Annika. He understands and tells her that he loves her. They say goodbye and she goes home with Tommy, Annika, Mr. Nilsson, and Alfonso. ===== The story's protagonist is Romano Grey, a gypsy antique expert who is pulled into a murder investigation when one of his friends dies in an automobile accident and is posthumously accused of the murder of a girl whose body, neatly sliced into six pieces, is found at the scene of the accident. Grey reappears in Canto for a Gypsy, published in 1972. ===== Michael Scott (Steve Carell) is excited to be celebrating his birthday, and tries to get the employees excited with him. Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) is the only one to join in; the rest of the employees are more concerned about Kevin Malone (Brian Baumgartner), who is awaiting results from his skin cancer screening. Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) and Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) sneak out to buy gifts for Kevin to cheer him up. After goofing around at the store, Jim and Pam return to the office. When Michael finds out about Kevin's predicament, he gives Kevin his condolences, but is bitter that his birthday fun is ruined. Dwight and Angela Martin (Angela Kinsey) are less subtle than they think they are being when discussing their secret relationship within earshot of Ryan Howard (B. J. Novak). In an attempt to make Kevin feel better and celebrate his birthday, Michael takes the employees out ice skating. At the rink, he runs into his real estate agent Carol Stills (Nancy Carell) and her children. He entertains them, which makes Carol smile. Kevin gets the word that his screening results are negative, to the relief of everyone except Michael, who believes that negative means he has cancer, and reacts for the first time with genuine concern and compassion for Kevin. Gifts are passed out to Kevin and Michael. Pam says in an interview that Michael's birthday "was a good day", and appears to struggle to come up with an explanation for why it was good. The documentary crew suggestively intercuts this with footage of her shopping with Jim. ===== The film is set in 1488, six years after the events of the original film and the death of Judge Claude Frollo. Captain Phoebus serves as Paris' Captain of the Guard under the new Minister of Justice. Phoebus and Esmeralda are now married and have become the parents of a five-year-old son named Zephyr. Quasimodo is now an accepted part of Parisian society; though he still lives in Notre Dame de Paris with his gargoyle friends Victor, Hugo, and Laverne as the cathedral's bell-ringer. A circus troupe led by Sarousch enters town as part of "Le Jour d'Amour", a day dedicated to the celebration of strong and pure romantic love. Sarousch is secretly a master criminal who plans to steal Notre Dame's most beloved bell, La Fidèle, the inside of which is decorated with beige-gold and enormous jewels. He sends Madellaine, a peasant girl, to discover the whereabouts of La Fidèle. Madellaine encounters Quasimodo without seeing his face, and the two of them initially get along quite well. Once Madellaine actually sees his face, she is shocked at his deformed appearance and runs away from him. The gargoyles convince Quasimodo to go to the circus to see her again. At the circus, Sarousch captures the audience's attention by making an elephant disappear, while his associates steal from the audience. He pressures Madellaine to follow Quasimodo and obtain the information he needs for his plans. When Madellaine disagrees with this mission, Sarousch reminds her of her past and of the loyalty she owes him: when she was six years old, Madellaine was an orphaned thief who was caught trying to steal coins from Sarousch. He could have turned her over to the authorities or even Frollo; instead, Sarousch took her under his wing and decided to employ her in his circus. Madellaine reluctantly takes the mission to win Quasimodo's trust. After observing Quasimodo fondly playing with Zephyr around town and letting the boy sleep in his arms, Madellaine realises the hunchback's true nature and ceases to be frightened by his appearance. Quasimodo takes her sight-seeing around Paris. A rain forces them to end their date and return to Notre Dame. Quasimodo takes the opportunity to offer Madellaine a gift, a figurine in her own image which he created himself earlier in the film. A sincerely touched Madellaine kisses him on the forehead and leaves. Quasimodo soon realizes that he has fallen in love with her. Meanwhile, Phoebus is investigating reports about robberies in his city. He suspects that the circus is responsible for the crime spree and confides to his family and friends, but Esmeralda expresses her belief that Phoebus is motivated by his own prejudice. Elsewhere, Sarousch instructs Madellaine to keep Quasimodo preoccupied while the circus steals La Fidèle. However, Madellaine has come to genuinely care for Quasimodo and protests, so Sarousch threatens to have Quasimodo killed if she refuses. Phoebus eventually questions Sarousch about the robberies, and finds a stolen jewel in his possession. To avoid being arrested, Sarousch claims that Madellaine is a lifelong thief and that he is covering for her crimes. Phoebus seems to believe him. Later, while Quasimodo is out with Madellaine, Sarousch and two of his subordinates sneak into the cathedral. Sarousch causes La Fidèle to vanish. The gargoyles try to stop the thieves, but end up trapped under another bell; Laverne still sounds the bell and alerts everyone that something is amiss at the Cathedral. Hearing the sound, Quasimodo and Madellaine rush back. When the Archdeacon informs everyone that La Fidèle has been stolen, Clopin claims that if they do not find the bell, the festival will be ruined. Phoebus realises that Sarousch has played him for a fool. He sends the soldiers all over Paris to find Sarousch. Due to some confusion, Quasimodo realizes that his beloved Madellaine has deceived him (despite her pleas that she did not intend to) and angrily breaks off their relationship. He retreats deeper into the Cathedral, feeling heartbroken and betrayed. Phoebus has his guards arrest Madellaine for her involvement in the theft. The gargoyles soon inform Quasimodo that Zephyr has left to pursue Sarousch. He passes the information on to Esmeralda and Phoebus, who now have personal reasons to locate the master criminal. Madellaine, now a prisoner of Phoebus, informs them that Sarousch has taken the missing bell to the Catacombs of Paris and tries to explain the secrets behind her former master's tricks and illusions. Phoebus decides to search around the catacombs, and brings Madellaine with him. In the Catacombs, the search party encounter Esmeralda's pet goat Djali, who leads them to Sarousch and Zephyr. Sarousch has taken the boy hostage and blackmails Phoebus into opening a gate for him. Madellaine uses her high-wire skills to rescue Zephyr and reunite him with his parents. With no leverage against his pursuers, Sarousch and his group of criminals are arrested, and the missing bell is recovered. The festival can finally take place. Hugo finally wins the heart of Djali, his longtime crush. A number of romantic couples, including Phoebus and Esmeralda, proclaim their love for each other while Quasimodo rings the restored La Fidèle. The bell falls silent when a released Madellaine joins Quasimodo in the bell tower. The two of them admit their own love for each other and share their first romantic kiss. As the film ends, Zephyr takes over the ringing of La Fidèle. ===== The action of the play goes back and forth between Washington, D.C. and Grenada. In Grenada, Alex is a medical student who has a girlfriend named Linda, also a medical student, who works in a gift shop. The gift shop is owned by Ruby, a native of the island. From the beginning, Alex is shown to be a dishonest person, as he tells Linda that he is paying professors for answers to exams. A CIA agent repeatedly visits the shop and has many witty arguments with Ruby. In Washington, Andy manipulates Tommy and Patricia into helping him use political spin to make public opinion supportive of the Grenada invasion. It is revealed that Alex is Eddie's son, whom Eddie thought was going to Stanford University. Alex is paid by the CIA agent to pretend that he is in danger, and Eddie is therefore forced to drop his opposition to the invasion and participate in a press conference with Alex when he returns to the United States. Meanwhile, during the invasion of Grenada, Ruby is killed when the hotel she is working in is bombed accidentally. Linda and Eddie are both upset with Alex and feel that he has become a different person. Eddie always expresses his misgivings about the invasion when talking to the other Washington characters, but when he meets Linda at the end of the play, when he sees her protesting the invasion, he admits that he has done nothing to stop the war. ===== Jody, a gay man, owns a small map store on the oldest street in an American city, and is seemingly worldly and knowledgeable. Carl, another gay man is a frequent visitor to the store, is a friend of Jody, and seems to lie a lot about his life and occupation. Despite this, the two seemingly know very little about each other. The play begins with Jody explaining how he found a chair placed in his store one day, without notice, by Carl. Pretty soon, the store is littered with chairs, and after some argument between the two, it is revealed that every chair was owned by someone they knew in their community, who had died from the epidemic. It becomes apparent that Jody hasn't left his store for months on end, rarely going outside and rather having things brought to him. Carl has placed the chairs in his store in hopes that Jody will realize that there are things going on in their community, and as a member Jody must bear witness and help the problem, rather than shun the world. It is also revealed that Carl helps empty the residences of those taken by the epidemic, and can't stand to see the chairs abandoned and alone. Rather, he takes them to Jody's shop which is the biggest room he knows of. Carl succeeds in getting Jody to leave when he goes and gets tested for the first time. This leads to him taking a week off from the shop to see the world he abandoned and by the end finding out that he tested negative. However, a few months later, Carl's own chair appears in the shop and it becomes apparent that he will soon succumb to the disease. Now Carl has become the one who needs security, and Jody must pick up where Carl left off. ===== Mateo Melgarejo "Mateito" (Cantinflas) is a notary public and scribe for the illiterate people of Santo Domingo, a neighborhood north of Mexico City's Zócalo. A squatter friend asks for his help in negotiating with the land census bureau to regularize a land title. After a great deal of frustration with the government bureaucracy, he writes a letter to the cabinet minister, Don Antonio (Miguel Manzano), earning an audience with him. The minister is so pleased with Mateo's honesty that he hires him to reform the bureau. Mateo also ends up making friends with the minister's sister Vicky (Chela Castro) and the minister's daughter Bárbara (Lucía Méndez). Mateo is initially appointed to work in the basement where the oldest archives of the offices are located, nicknamed "la ratonera" ("The Mousetrap"), alongside a kind elderly man, Avelino Romero, "Romeritos" (Ángel Garasa), but after the government official in charge of supervising the bureau (Raúl Padilla) realizes Mateo's connection with the minister, he places Mateo in charge of the bureau. However, after the minister is appointed as an ambassador overseas, Mateo is demoted again to the Mousetrap, this time alongside a younger, petulant employee (since Romeritos by then had retired). Mateo, tired of the multiple problems with his co-workers, resigns, but not before lecturing the officials on their duties in a democratic society. At the end, he returns to Santo Domingo to help its poor residents. ===== Jeff and Marty are friends and in a middle age crisis. Jeff is married with Franny and has two daughters, Marty is married with Beth. In their marriages, something is missing. When they travel to the Philippines, they meet Andy and both fall in love with her. They have a threesome and decide to leave their families and live together. Andy introduced them to Kozen, a Zen Buddhist monk, and they decide to build a refuge in one isolated beach. After a period together, Jeff misses his family and the relationship of the group deteriorates when Andy falls in love with Jeff. ===== Fairbanks with Maureen O'Hara in the trailer for the film. ::"O Masters, O Noble Persons, O Brothers, know you that in the time of the Caliph Harun-Al- Rashid, there lived on the golden shore of Persia a man of adventure called Sinbad the Sailor. Strange and wondrous were the tales told of him and his voyages. But who, shall we surmise, gave him his immortality? Who, more than all other sons of Allah, spread glory to the name of Sinbad? Who else, O Brother, but - Sinbad the Sailor! Know me, O Brothers, for the truth of my words, and by the ears of the Prophet, every word I have spoken is truth!" :::- from the opening title card The story begins with Sinbad (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) regaling a group of travelers around a night-time campfire. When his listeners become bored with his often repeated tales, Sinbad tells them about his "eighth" voyage. With his friend, Abbu (George Tobias), Sinbad salvages a ship whose crew has been poisoned. On board, he finds a map to the lost treasure of Alexander the Great on the fabled island of Deryabar. However, when he sails to Basra, the ship is confiscated by the local Khan, to be sold at auction. Sinbad obtains an agreement that he may keep the ship if there are no bids. He scares away all the bidders with not-so-subtle comments about the ship being cursed. At the last moment, one bidder appears, a veiled woman borne by four servants. She is Shireen (O'Hara), part of the harem of the powerful Emir of Daibul (Anthony Quinn). Sinbad bids against her and ends up owing a huge sum he cannot pay. He steals the auctioneer's own money to pay for the ship. Visiting Shireen that night in her garden, Sinbad learns of a mysterious and deadly person known as Jamal, who will stop at nothing to acquire the treasure. Jamal, only vaguely seen behind a curtain, makes an attempt on Sinbad's life. Sinbad escapes and steals the ship, acquiring a rough crew to man it. Strange stories of the evil Jamel circulate among the crew, but no one alive has ever seen him. After several days, Sinbad sails to another port and goes, risking death, to visit Shireen in the harem. He is captured, but because the Emir believes him to be the Prince of Deryabar, he becomes his "guest". With his smooth words and some trickery, Sinbad once again escapes, taking Shireen with him. They set sail for Daryabar, but are overtaken and captured by the Emir. It is then revealed that Sinbad's ship's barber, Abdul Melik (Walter Slezak) is none other than Jamal, who has memorized (and then destroyed) the map to Deryabar. Forming an uneasy alliance of convenience, they sail to the treasure island. They convince the lone resident of the ruins of Alexander's palace, the aged Aga (Alan Napier), that Sinbad is his lost son, owing to a medallion Sinbad had since childhood. When the Emir threatens to kill Sinbad, Sinbad confesses his true identity. Nevertheless, Aga capitulates and shows them the fabulous treasure's hiding place. He later informs Sinbad that he had given his son to sailors to shield him from treasure hunters; Sinbad is indeed his son and the true Prince of Daryabar. When it is discovered that Jamal had intended to poison the Emir and his crew to have the treasure to himself, the Emir forces him to drink the deadly liquid himself. Sinbad escapes again, boards the Emir's ship and frees his crew. The Emir is killed by Greek fire catapulted at him from his own ship. The disbelieving listeners around the campfire accuse Sinbad of telling yet another tall tale, but soon change their minds when he distributes precious jewels and gold. The beautiful Shireen appears and they board the ship for their return to Deryabar as Sinbad relates the moral of the tale, that true happiness is found in things other than material wealth. ===== The plots revolved around two tailors in business together. Manny Cohen, played by John Bluthal, was Jewish, and Patrick Kelly, played by Joe Lynch, was Irish Catholic. Above their shop worked Lewtas (Bernard Spear) who was also Jewish and imported cloth. Two further prominent characters were Rabbi Levy (Christopher Benjamin in the pilot (he later reappeared as Dr Shapiro in a later episode), Cyril Shaps in series 1 to 4, David Nettheim and Jonathan Burn as Rabbi Stone in series 5) from the local synagogue, and Father Ryan (Denis Carey in the pilot, Eamon Kelly in series 1 to 4) from the local Catholic church. The Romanian-born Meier Tzelniker also made several appearances as Israel Bloom. One episode featured Manny and Patrick trading the rights to display their pictures around the shop. When Patrick had two pictures of the Pope on the wall while Manny had one of Moshe Dayan, Manny's comment was "It's the going rate. Two Popes to one Moshe." Another episode had Patrick, a singer, filling in at the synagogue for a sick cantor, on the occasion of a visit by the Chief Rabbi. Coached to sing phonetically in Hebrew, Patrick performs, every moment milked for comedic value. Finally, the Chief Rabbi congratulates Patrick but reveals he knows something is up. When asked how he knows, he replies, "Simple. At the end of the service you genuflected and crossed yourself!" The episode title was "The Not-So-Kosher Cantor". Notable guest artistes included film actors Dennis Price as a Savile Row tailor and Rupert Davies as a Roman Catholic bishop, Fred Emney, Harold Bennett, David Kossoff (playing himself), Jack Smethurst, Dad's Army stars Frank Williams (playing another clergyman) and Bill Pertwee, comedian Dick Bentley, Roy Marsden, Victor Maddern, future Coronation Street stars Barbara Knox (as Barbara Mullaney) and Roy Barraclough, George A. Cooper, Rita Webb, On the Buses star Michael Robbins, and Ellen Pollock as Manny's mother Ruby. ===== Bobby Sinclaire (Robert Carradine) , a failing Californian musician, meets psychic Iris Longacre (Cherie Currie) in a bar and they begin a relationship. At Sinclaire's apartment, Longacre begins to hear things others cannot. The young couple discover the voices are from a childlike race of aliens being held by the U.S. government after their UFO crashed. The government plans to use the trio of aliens for experimentation and dissection in an supposedly abandoned underground bunker located near Sinclaire's apartment. The couple decides to liberate the aliens and help them return them to their mothership. ===== Following in the same vein as such classics as Rosemary's Baby and The Omen, The Calling is the story of Kristie St. Clair, the involuntary mother of the Antichrist, and possibly the only person who can stop the coming of a modern-day apocalypse. At first Kristie (Harris) believes that she has the perfect life: Marc (Lintern), her charming TV personality husband; Dylan (Alex Roe), her beautiful young son; an enchanting house in the British countryside; a successful new career... But as time goes by she begins to suspect something's not right with her family. First, there's Dylan's increasingly violent behavior, which includes the impaling of his pet guinea pig on a stake and his apathy towards the death of a friend. Kristie cannot understand how her son, who she had focused so much energy and love on since he was born, could have turned out so heartless. Then there's the fact that Elizabeth (Krige), an old family friend, seems to be trying her hardest to replace Kristie and keep her away from Marc and Dylan as often as possible. Marc himself begins acting strangely, overreacting after a dog bite and hanging the dog in the backyard as punishment. It becomes apparent to Kristie that something is very, very wrong, and that she is out of the loop. As her family withdraws further and further from her and she loses her best friend, Kristie turns to a mysterious taxi driver who seems to know a whole lot about everything. All Kristie wants is to save her son, even if it turns out that it is the Devil himself who is standing in her way. With the help of the taxi driver, Kristie makes some shocking discoveries about her loved ones and comes to the conclusion that unless she stops him, Dylan will lead mankind into a horrifically malevolent future. At the end, Kristie, who has now stopped caring for Dylan, escapes the hospital with Father Mullin and tells him it was a new time. Father Mullin rips off his white collar tab and throws it out the window as they drive away. ===== Trapped in the stifling, small Irish town Baile na gCroíth, Elizabeth Egan had always been known as a serious woman, never laughing at jokes or taking joys from the simplest pleasure of life. This is due to having been abandoned by her free-spirited mother when she was young and was forced to grow up quickly to take care of her sister, Saoirse. Taking advantage of Elizabeth's sense of responsibility, Saoirse has led life with abandonment, and when she gives birth to a son, Luke, she leaves Elizabeth to take care of him. At the age of six, Luke claims to have a friend named Ivan whom Elizabeth cannot see. Though at first she is exasperated with this imaginary friend, she starts playing along with Luke when she learns that imaginary friends will only last about 3 months. Though invisible to most, Ivan is real. Only Luke can see him, though he comes to realise that Elizabeth can feel his presence. Knowing that only people who are in real need of a friend are able to see him, he follows Elizabeth around. When, suddenly, she is able to see him, Ivan is delighted, but disappointed just as quickly when she thinks him to be the father of one of Luke's friends. A friendship which soon turns into romance blossoms between them. Elizabeth meets Benjamin at work, and he asks her to dinner, but Ivan prevents her from going by inviting her out instead. Ivan's boss, Opal, sees his love for Elizabeth and tells him her own sad tale. She tells him that however much he wishes to be with Elizabeth a time will come when she will no longer be able to see him and will eventually age while he would remain young. However, Ivan is too much in love with Elizabeth and refuses to listen. To convince him, Opal takes him to see her own love, who has become an 80-year-old man while Opal has remained young. One day, when Elizabeth is hosting a party, she is no longer able to see Ivan for a while and he realises it is time to move on to a new friend. Ivan visits Elizabeth one last time while she sleeps, explaining why he has to go. Elisabeth thinks it was a dream. A few days later, Elizabeth realizes that it wasn't and that Ivan was Luke's 'imaginary' friend. They go their separate ways, and not only Elizabeth but Ivan as well are changed by the experience. Elizabeth is more relaxed and Ivan admits that Elizabeth has been by far his favorite friend... ===== The single-player game takes place on Carver V, a planet previously held by House Liao, but recently mostly captured by the Federated Commonwealth, who killed the local Liao ruler Mandarin Cho in combat. At the beginning of the story, the Federated Commonwealth, an alliance of House Steiner and House Davion, is breaking apart due to Archon Katrina Steiner's controversial seizure of power. All the Houses on Carver V are avoiding any military action that could endanger the peace, so when a suspiciously well- equipped bandit force threatens Steiner territory, House Steiner employs a mercenary team led by the player, who takes the role of their commander. In Campaign 1, the player is under the command of Colonel David Renard of House Steiner, and starts with relatively simple missions to destroy minor bandit forces. However, a chase of a bandit convoy results in a firefight with Liao units. It is then revealed that the bandit leader is an ex-Liao officer. Renard authorizes full-scale attacks on Liao forces despite protests from Steiner Ambassador Yee. The final mission of the campaign ends with the destruction of the bandit HQ and the death of their leader. Over the course of the campaign, Colonel Renard becomes increasingly unstable, ending the campaign with the words "Do this and get out. I've got plans for Carver V and you don't want to be part of them." In Campaign 2, the player's mercenary team enters into a new contract with House Liao. The player is under the command of Mandrissa Anita Cho (widow of Mandarin Cho), who wants the planet for her son, Captain Jason Cho. The player is tasked with various covert operations, including the destruction of the interstellar communications relay on Carver V's moon and strikes against House Davion and House Steiner designed to implicate each other. Between Mandrissa Cho's machinations, Renard's instability, and the lack of off-world communications, Steiner and Davion forces on Carver V go to war. House Liao then makes a grab for power, but due to Jason Cho's incompetence as a commander, Liao forces are badly beaten and are forced to negotiate a truce with House Steiner. Colonel Renard agrees to share Carver V with House Liao in return for their help eliminating the Davions and the player's mercenaries. The player is forced to flee before the advancing Steiner and Liao forces, and are saved by resistance forces led by Baxter, a local partisan leader who wants his planet to become independent. In Campaign 3, it is revealed that Baxter and Davion commander Major Kelly (Patricia Kara) have allied, as Davion supports an independent Carver V. In exchange for the opportunity for revenge and Clan technology, the player fights for the rebels, destroying the Liao palace, killing the crazed Colonel Renard, and destroying Steiner High Command on Carver V. The Campaign ends with Archon Katrina Steiner mourning Colonel Renard's death, Baxter becoming President of Carver V, which is renamed Liberty, and the mercenary team returning to the Periphery - raising their price on MercNet. "Peace has been restored on Carver V by an unlikely source - a mercenary commander." ===== Sarah and Edward are on a vacation in Mexico, and are visiting uninteresting tourist locations. They are married, but do not get along well. Sarah describes Edward's passions (such as birdwatching) as "compulsions" which are "awkward and boyish". They merely make her tired. She is "bland and pale and plump and smug". Things were once different between them, but Sarah's child is stillborn, and they have become increasingly uninterested in each other since. Their discrepancies multiply. While visiting a restaurant, Sarah steals a toy figure of baby Jesus, and later throws it into a sacrificial well that they visit on a tour. Edward sees this, thinking Sarah is about to jump in the well but is hesitant to approach her. Both Sarah and Edward had previously dreamed of life without each other, making the decision to stop Sarah from "jumping in the well" even more difficult. Edward sees that it was just the toy being thrown in, and attempts to comfort Sarah as she breaks down in tears. The two cannot truly connect or comfort each other, as they no longer understand each other; or maybe never did. Their marriage is still broken, and neither Sarah nor Edward are happy yet. ===== ===== The game begins with the player in control of an unnamed wizard. In the first room, the player is given the option of viewing the image of the character's mentor, another wizard named Mordamir. He is calling for help from deep below in the Labyrinth of Eternity, though he is attempting to communicate to another man named Dunric. The two main types of creatures present in the labyrinth are the goblins and the trolls, who are at war with one another. This is a minor plot element in the game. Depending on the player's actions in the earlier stages of the game, it is also possible for the main character to form an alliance with the goblins. The majority of the story is revealed through dream sequences triggered when the main character rests on straw beds placed throughout the labyrinth. It is eventually revealed that Mordamir is battling against a dragon at the Fountain of Youth. The plot of the game undergoes a twist when the main character finds Dunric having been trapped by Mordamir. In the end, the main character is inevitably confronted by both the dragon and Mordamir. ===== The novel is narrated from the point of view of Magda, the white daughter of a widowed farmer in the Karoo semi-desert of the Western Cape. Much of the novel is narrated from within the claustrophobic confines of Magda's bedroom and throughout the narrative the unreliability of Magda's narration means the reader cannot be certain what is actually taking place and what is occurring within Magda's imagination. At the beginning of the novel Magda fantasizes about her father unexpectedly bringing home a young bride and the violent way that she would kill them both. A short while later the black farm worker Hendrik really does bring a young bride named Anna to the farm. Magda's father seduces Anna and when Magda hears her father and Anna fornicating in the farmhouse bedroom, she takes her father's rifle and shoots him in the stomach. He slowly dies of his injuries and Magda buries him in a makeshift crypt on the farmland. Gradually, without her father to manage the land, the food begins to run out and Hendrik, who is owed wages, demands to be paid. Magda pays him in kind by offering him certain items from her father's former possessions. Hendrik and Anna move into the farmhouse and the power balance begins to tip in their favour. After a series of altercations, Hendrik rapes Magda and begins to visit her room every night for sexual intercourse. When white men from nearby farms turn up looking for Magda's father, Hendrik and Anna flee fearing that they will blamed for his death. The novel ends with Magda isolated on the farm, slowly starving and seemingly going mad, as she tries to communicate with the planes that are beginning to fly over the desert every day. ===== In an abandoned prison, a doctor revived executed convicts as the living dead. Jonathan (Scott Schwartz), a teenager, creates a weapon from a LaserDisc player's laser and pursues the walking dead, aided by his girlfriend and grandfather. A reporter on the trail of the story is helped by the town librarian. On the prison island, the zombies attack a security guard and tear him apart as the reporter and teenager venture into the prison caverns for a final showdown. ===== Despite glorious weather, Lord Emsworth is miserable; it is August Bank Holiday, which at Blandings means the annual Blandings Parva School Treat. The precious grounds are to be overrun with fairground rides, tea-tents and other amusements for the throngs (their numbers padded this year by a number of children visiting from London for the fresh air), and Emsworth is forced by his sister Connie to wear a stiff collar and a top hat, despite the warm weather and his strong protests. On top of that, Glaswegian Head Gardener Angus McAllister is making noises on his pet hobby, the project to gravel the famous Yew Alley. Emsworth, fond of its mossy carpet, loathes the idea, but his sister is in favour, and stronger personalities overpower the elderly Earl all too easily. Visiting Blandings Parva, to judge the flower displays in the gardens, Emsworth is frightened by a large dog, but he is rescued by a small girl named Gladys, one of the Fresh Air London children. They chat and become friends, especially when she reveals that, having been spotted picking flowers in the Castle grounds, she hit McAllister in the shin with a stone to stop him chasing her. At the fête, Emsworth is uncomfortable as ever in his dress clothes, and dreading the speech he will have to make. In the tea-tent, his top hat is knocked off by a cleverly aimed rock cake, and Emsworth flees, taking refuge in an old shed. In there he finds Gladys, miserable; she has been put there by Connie, for stealing from the tea tent, but it emerges she was only stealing her own tea, going without to provide for her brother Ern, barred from the fête for biting Connie on the leg. Delighted by this family, Emsworth takes Gladys into the house, and has Beach provide a hearty tea. Beach provides a feast to take back to Ern, and Gladys requests some flowers too. Emsworth hesitates, but cannot refuse her; as she is picking her flowers, McAllister rushes up in a fury, but his master, encouraged by Gladys' hand in his, stands up to the man, putting him in his place. Connie approaches, demanding Emsworth return to make his speech; he refuses, saying he's going to put on some comfortable clothes and go and visit Ern. ===== Three astronauts return to Earth after a nuclear holocaust, although one dies in a crash landing. The two survivors, Newman (Steve Barkett) and Matthews, encounter some mutants before discovering that Los Angeles has been completely destroyed. Seeking shelter, the men take refuge in an abandoned mansion. Newman later encounters a young boy, Chris, hiding in a museum with the curator (Forrest J Ackerman). Before the curator passes away, Newman takes Chris under his care. While out seeking supplies one day, Newman and Chris encounter Sarah, who is running from a gang of bandits led by Cutter (Sid Haig). After Sarah's murder, Newman decides to confront the gang at their desert wasteland hideout. After killing Cutter's gang, Newman is fatally wounded by the gang leader, who in turn is shot dead by Chris with a revolver. The boy then walks off alone before the credits roll. ===== An unsolicited television is delivered to a writer's house. The writer discovers that the only program the television is capable of picking up is a seemingly endless, plotless, black and white zombie film titled Zombie Blood Nightmare.A short review at the House of Horrors.Com Despite unplugging the television, it reactivates and spawns the film's zombies, who attack and kill the writer. The next day, the delivery men arrive to claim the set, realizing it was meant to go to the Institute for Paranormal Research; they find only the body of the writer, bound in his front hallway and dressed in party clothes. Three months later, teenagers Zoe and Jeff arrive at the house ahead of their parents, who are moving back to the United States after years abroad. Jeff befriends dog walker April and she accompanies him home, where the dog she is watching escapes into the woods. The dog comes upon the zombies that escaped the television set and have since been living in the woods. The zombies kill the dog, meanwhile Jeff and April are searching for it and later find the remains. The zombies follow the pair back to the neighborhood. That afternoon, a man named Joshua Daniels comes looking for the television set, claiming he bought it at a yard sale and mailed it to the Paranormal Institute after it killed his wife. Jeff turns him away but later that night discovers the television set, which has mysteriously migrated to the attic. A bizarre woman briefly appears on the set, beckoning to Jeff, before a man appears and kills her, revealing her to be a zombie. The man, who calls himself "The Garbage Man", says the only way to prevent more zombies from appearing is to tape a mirror to it. The next day, the zombies kill April's father, his maid, and their next-door neighbors before laying siege to Zoe and Jeff's house. Jeff, Zoe, and April barricade themselves along with Joshua, who has returned to reclaim the television set. Joshua explains the psychology of the zombies: realizing that they are in a liminal state between life and death, the zombies kill humans out of envy. They are repulsed by mirrors because it reminds them of their own hideousness, and attack when they sense fear. The zombies can be tricked into believing they are dead by wounding and then dismembering them, but they must be left unburied. They can also be destroyed by trapping them in an enclosed space, which causes them to enter a psychotic state and cannibalize one another. Despite the fortifications, a zombie breaks in and incapacitates April. Zoe and Jeff lock the zombie out of the house after it leaves with April's body. The next morning, Joshua and Jeff head into the woods to hunt down the zombies. Joshua sets traps and takes up a sniper position while using Jeff as bait. Using a bow and arrows, they shoot and incapacitate all the zombies but one, whom they pursue. Joshua is killed, and Jeff gets trapped in a shed, where he discovers April's dead body. The lone remaining zombie wakes the others from their delusions of death and kills Jeff as he decapitates it. The remaining zombies return to the house, where Zoe is alone. Remembering the zombies only attack when they sense fear, Zoe invites the zombies in, and they become docile. Zoe discovers a mirror on the basement door, tricks the zombies into entering the basement, and they go berserk. After they consume each other, their remains are sucked back into the television, and Zombie Blood Nightmare finally ends. Sometime later, Zoe's parents come to visit her in the hospital, where she is being treated for post traumatic stress disorder. They unwittingly bring her the possessed television set from the house, hoping a familiar item will aid her recovery. After everyone leaves, the television plays Zombie Blood Nightmare again. Zoe looks at the screen in horror as one of the zombies within the TV looks directly at her and starts growling. The screen then goes black before we hear Zoe scream. ===== A boy named Taichi is involved in a V-Pet tournament where he is told he cannot play because the Digimon in his V-Pet isn't recognized as being a real Digimon. After the tournament is over, Taichi plays the winner of the tournament, a boy named Neo Saiba, and their battle ends in a tie - something that is supposed to be impossible. Later, Taichi is summoned to the Digital World by a Digimon called Lord MagnaAngemon, and there he meets the mysterious Digimon in his V-Pet, Zeromaru the Veedramon. Taichi and Zeromaru travel to Lord MagnaAngemon's castle with the aid of Gabo the Gabumon, and there Lord MagnaAngemon begs Taichi to find the five Tamer Tags and defeat the evil Daemon, who has disrupted the peace of the Digital World. Along the way, more humans are brought to the Digital World by Daemon, including Neo Saiba, Rei Saiba, Sigma, Mari Goutokuji, and Hideto Fujimoto. Neo is chosen to raise the Digimon that will hatch from the Ultra egg Daemon is raising. Rei Saiba, Neo's sister, has a Digimental that will allow the Daemon's experimental Digimon to digivolve to a level beyond Mega. The others, called the Alias III, are to help Neo and Daemon with their Digimon. Hideto's Partner is an Omnimon named Omega, formed by the DNA Digivolution of Warg and Melga, a WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon respectively. Mari's Partner is a Rosemon named Rose and Sigma's is a Piedmon named Pie respectively. They are all villains that eventually reform except Rei, who has no Digimon Partner or evil intentions. ===== Tsurugi Tatsuno is a boy who competes in Virtual Digimon Battle tournaments. When a Kuwagamon appeared in the Real World, his Greymon came to life and protected him. Tsurugi is summoned to the Digital World by Piximon to save the Digital World from the evil Barbamon. Since his Digimon has a hexagon shape on him, it's an Illegal Digimon, meaning that Digimon bearing such symbols can help save the Digital World. Tsurugi's Greymon later De-Digivolves to Agumon and they meet other characters destined to save the Digital World from the forces of Barbamon. Now they must stop Barbamon and his minions before they get all the DigiMemories and take over both worlds. ===== George is taking a trip from his antique shop in Manchester to the Lake District to work on a new house with some of his friends. On the way, his Norton motorcycle is accidentally damaged by Edna while reversing her Mini Cooper at a petrol station. He demands she give him a lift to his destination, while Edna, on her way to visit her troubled sister, asks to go to the town of Southgate first, and to let George take her car to Windermere where she will later retrieve it. George agrees, but the two come to a dead end road alongside a river while searching for Edna's sister's house. George crosses the river on foot to a farm where several men from the Ministry of Agriculture are using an experimental machine in a field. While asking for directions, he inquires about their machinery, which they explain is designed to kill insects through ultra-sonic radiation. Meanwhile, while Edna waits at the car, she is attacked by a man who emerges from the river, but he disappears after she reaches George. Night falls, and Edna's drug addict sister, Katie, is getting into argument with her photographer husband, Martin, about her sister's impending arrival. Martin goes down to a waterfall near their remote cottage to take photographs, and Katie is attacked by the same man who Edna had encountered earlier. The man kills Martin, and Katie flees just as George and Edna arrive. When the three report the death, the aggressive police sergeant thinks that Katie did it. George, forced to stay in South Gate, secretly takes the roll of film from Martin's camera to a local chemist to have it developed. Katie has a breakdown and is hospitalised. At the hospital, it turns out that babies are affected too, biting people with homicidal intensity. Back at the chemist's, they collect the photos, but the dead man does not appear in any of the pictures; the man, it turns out, is a local vagrant who drowned in the river. The sergeant arrives and takes photos and, when the couple leaves, sends one of his officers, PC Craig, to trail them. They go to the graveyard and in a room in the chapel find a half-eaten meal. Following noises to a crypt, they come across a murdered man and are locked in by the vagrant zombie, who brings the other bodies to life by touching their eyes with his blood-stained fingers. The pair manages to make a hole they can escape from and Edna does, only to find herself in a pit while the zombies have hold of George's feet. Meanwhile, PC Craig turns up and helps Edna out of the pit. George manages to get free and follows them, with the zombies chasing all three of them. They lock themselves in a room but are trapped there, and Craig soon finds that his gun is of no use. He makes a dash for the police radio he has dropped outside but is caught by the zombies who eviscerate him and begin eating his organs. The dead break into their room and in desperation George throws a lit oil lamp at them. It smashes and the zombies burst into flame. The two escape to their car and Edna is sent off to tell the police. George plans to use the unmarked police car to go and smash the machine but it has no key so he runs off. At the machine, the farmer and two machine men do not believe George and reveal that the machine is now working up to a five miles radius. They try to stop him, but he smashes the machine and they drive off to get away from "the mad man". The sergeant has found Craig and the caretaker's bodies, and thinking they may be devil worshippers, issues orders "to shoot to kill" George and Edna. He is then told that George has deliberately wrecked the machine. Edna has arrived at her brother-in-law's farm only to be met by Martin, who is now a zombie, but she manages to run over him as she escapes. George finds her, drops her off at a petrol station and drives off with a large can of petrol. George is caught in a police trap and Martin's body is taken back to the hospital. In a field, the machine is repaired and switched on again, which brings to life a number of bodies in the nearby morgue. George escapes in a police car and finds Edna has been taken to the hospital, where the local morgue is. She is being sedated while George is now being chased by the police as he drives to the hospital where the zombies are now killing people, including Katie who as a zombie tries to kill her sister. George arrives and starts setting fire to zombies but it turns out that he was too late to save Edna and as she suddenly attacks him, he pushes her into a room, which is now burning. George is then shot four times by the over-zealous police sergeant. Everything is over as far as he is concerned now and the sergeant heads to a room at the hotel in South Gate for the night. After shooting him down in cold blood, the sergeant wishes he would come alive again so he could shoot him again. He gets his wish as zombie George is waiting for him in his room, but now bullets won't stop him. In a field nearby, the machine continues working. ===== Wealthy Rollo Treadway (Buster Keaton) suddenly decides to propose to his neighbor across the street, Betsy O'Brien (Kathryn McGuire), and sends his servant to book passage for a honeymoon sea cruise to Honolulu. When Betsy rejects his sudden offer, however, he decides to go on the trip anyway, boarding without delay that night. Because the pier number is partially covered, he ends up on the wrong ship, the Navigator, which Betsy's rich father (Frederick Vroom) has just sold to a small country at war. Agents for the other small nation in the conflict decide to set the ship adrift that same night. When Betsy's father checks up on the ship, he is captured and tied up ashore by the saboteurs. Betsy hears his cry for help and boards the ship to look for him, just before it is cut loose. The Navigator drifts out into the Pacific Ocean. The two unwitting passengers eventually find each other. At first, they have great difficulty looking after themselves (as they had servants to do that for them), but adapt after a few weeks. At one point, they sight a navy ship and hoist a brightly colored flag, not realizing it signals that the ship is under quarantine. As a result, the other vessel turns away. Finally, the ship grounds itself near an inhabited tropical island and springs a leak. While Rollo dons a deep sea diving suit and submerges to patch the hole, the natives canoe out and take Betsy captive. When Rollo emerges from the ocean, the natives are scared off, enabling him to rescue Betsy and take her back to the ship. The natives return and try to board the ship. After a fierce struggle, Rollo and Betsy try to escape in a small dinghy. It starts to sink, and the natives swiftly overtake them in their canoes. Just when all seems lost, a navy submarine surfaces right underneath them and they are saved. ===== Anna (Lillian Gish) is a poor country girl whom handsome man- about-town Lennox (Lowell Sherman) tricks into a fake wedding. When she becomes pregnant, he leaves her. She has the baby, named Trust Lennox, on her own. When the baby dies she wanders until she gets a job with Squire Bartlett (Burr McIntosh). David (Richard Barthelmess), Squire Bartlett's son, falls for her, but she rejects him due to her past. Lennox then shows up lusting for another local girl, Kate. Seeing Anna, he tries to get her to leave, but she refuses to go, although she promises to say nothing about his past. Finally, Squire Bartlett learns of Anna's past from Martha, the town gossip. In his anger, he tosses Anna out into a snow storm. Before she goes, she names the respected Lennox as her despoiler and the father of her dead baby. She becomes lost in the raging storm while David leads a search party. In the climax, the unconscious Anna floats on an ice floe down a river towards a waterfall, until rescued at the last moment by David, who marries her in the final scene. Subplots relate the romances and eventual marriages of some of the picaresque characters inhabiting the village. ===== A gang of pirates, the Tinkerbats, led by Risky Boots, attacks Scuttle Town and steals a prototype steam engine from Mimic, the town's resident treasure hunter. Mimic tells Shantae, the guardian of Scuttle Town, that if Risky retrieves four magical "elemental stones", she could power up the steam engine and create an unstoppable weapon out of it. Shantae travels across Sequin Land, determined to retrieve the steam engine and the elemental stones and stop Risky. With help from her friends Bolo and Sky and her acquaintance Rottytops, she gains access to three dungeons where she retrieves three of the stones. At the fourth dungeon, Shantae finds the fourth stone, but is ambushed at the exit by Risky, who leaves with the stones. Shantae subsequently discovers the location of Risky's hideout with a magical flying telescope called the Spy Scope, and teleports there. Shantae reaches and destroys Risky's weapon, the Tinker Tank. Risky tries to kill Shantae but is defeated; and as Risky's hideout collapses, Shantae escapes. After, she is magically abducted to a place called the Genie Realm where the genies offer her a chance to remain with them as a reward for her courage, but at the price of never seeing her friends again. She refuses and is sent back to Scuttle Town where she announces to Mimic that she had to destroy the steam engine, but is relieved to hear from him that it was probably for the better. ===== This novel is set in a then-future 2004. There is still a (theoretical) Cold War between the United States and its allies and the Soviet Union and its allies. At the elite governmental level, however, both "sides" have secretly come to an agreement. They have decided that, instead of continuing the ecologically and economically crippling nuclear and conventional arms race, they will pretend to be constantly developing new weapons, which are then "plowshared". This means that these items are transformed into novel but baroque consumer products. Most of these weapon designers are mediums, who create their new designs in trance states. Design of weapons are extracted telepathically from a motion comic book, The Blue Cephalopod Man from Titan, created by mad Italian artist Oral Giacomini. One Wes-Bloc weapons designer, Lars Powderdry (Mr. Lars of Mr. Lars Incorporated) is the central character. He is depressed that his industry is little more than a fraud, as none of his "weapons" are functional, having become fashion items instead. The plowshared guidance system of Item 202, a telepathic featureless brazen head named Ol' Orville, explains that this depression is merely a projection of his own fears of professional and physical impotence. His female Peep-East counterpart is Lilo Topchev, whom he knows nothing about, but whom Ol' Orville advises him to seduce. He also has a mistress, Maren Faine, head of his company's Parisian branch. Apart from the comic overtones of this deception, there is a subplot related to alien invasion. Sirian aliens invade Earth, and are determined to enslave its populace. The aliens' first target is New Orleans, which is enshrouded in a "gray curtain of death". Earth has a problem, given the deceptive nature of its arms race and the absence of functional weapons technology. Lilo immediately tries to kill Lars, despite the intentions of their blocs otherwise, but eventually they collaborate. Neither can design functional weapons, however. There is a further subplot about a conspiracy theorist, who is elected as an "average man" to the governing body of Wes-Bloc. The conclusion involves an eclectic mixture of time travel, androids, drugs, toys, and comic books. ===== The story of the rise of politician Willie Stark from a rural county seat to the governor's mansion is depicted in the film. He goes into politics, railing against the corruptly run county government, but loses his race for county treasurer, in the face of unfair obstacles placed by the local machine. Stark teaches himself law, and as a lawyer, continues to fight the local establishment, championing the local people and gaining popularity. He eventually rises to become a candidate for governor, narrowly losing his first race, then winning on his second attempt. Along the way he loses his innocence and becomes as corrupt as the politicians he once fought against. As he rises, Stark philanders and gets involved with many women, taking his PR man/journalist Jack Burden's own girlfriend, Anne Stanton, as his mistress. Stark's son Tommy drinks to deal with his feelings about his father, eventually crashes his car, injuring himself and killing his female passenger. When Stark bullies Tommy into playing a football game, Tommy becomes paralyzed after a brutal hit. Stark, who had always dealt with those who got in his way by any means, begins to see his world start to unravel and he discovers that not everyone can be bought off. The story has a complex series of relationships. All is seen through the eyes of the journalist, Jack Burden, who admires Stark and even when disillusioned still sticks by him. Stark's campaign assistant, Sadie is clearly in love with Stark and wants him to leave his wife, Lucy. When Stark's reputation is brought into disrepute by Judge Stanton (Anne's uncle), he seeks to blacken the judge's name. When Jack finds evidence of the judge's possible wrongdoing, a quarter century earlier, he hides it from Stark. Anne gives the evidence to Stark, who uses it against her uncle, who immediately commits suicide. Anne seems to forgive Stark, but her brother, Adam, the surgeon who helped save Tommy's life after the car crash, cannot. After Stark wins an impeachment investigation, Adam assassinates Stark. The doctor in turn is shot down by Sugar Boy, Stark's fawning assistant. Having lost their respect for him, Jack and Anne agree to find a way to destroy Stark's reputation just as he dies. ===== The protagonist, space archaeologist Simon Watterman, discovers a fossilized "Munchie" in a cave in Peru and accidentally reanimates it. Bringing the specimen back to the United States, Watterman's son and girlfriend name it Arnold. Cecil Watterman, Simon's evil twin brother and snack food entrepreneur, kidnaps Arnold while Cindy and Paul are making out. When Arnold is hurt by his kidnappers, it becomes aggressive and attacks Cecil's adopted son. Attempting to kill Arnold, they chop him into quarters, but instead of dying, Arnold multiplies into four new Munchies. The quartet of creatures develop a love of women, beer, attacking people, and junk food in the process. ===== The story revolves around Jan Zaru and her quest to restore peace in the world. Jan Zaru with Captain Fatz and the Seahorse's crew travel around the world to collect the peace stones and restore the balance of the elements. ===== ===== ===== During a space flight to Saturn, three astronauts are exposed to a blast of radiation which kills two of them and seriously injures the third, Colonel Steve West (Alex Rebar). He is next shown unconscious in a hospital back on Earth, with bandages covering his face; his physician, Dr. Loring (Lisle Wilson), cannot explain what is happening to West or how he survived the blast. After the doctor leaves, West awakens and is horrified to find the flesh on his face and hands melting away. Hysterical, he attacks and kills a nurse (Bonnie Inch), then escapes the hospital in a panic. Loring and Dr. Theodore "Ted" Nelson (Burr DeBenning), a scientist and friend of West, discover that the nurse's corpse is emitting feeble radiation, and realize West's body has become radioactive. Nelson believes West has gone insane, and concludes he must consume human flesh in order to slow the melting. Nelson calls General Michael Perry (Myron Healey), a United States Air Force officer familiar with West's accident, and the general agrees to help Nelson find him. West attacks and kills a fisherman (Samuel W. Gelfman) in a wood, then encounters and frightens a little girl Carol (Julie Drazen) there, but she escapes unharmed. Nelson tracks West by following his radiation trail with a geiger counter, but only finds his detached ear stuck to a tree branch. Perry arrives by plane, and is picked up by Nelson; shortly thereafter, they visit the crime scene where the fisherman's body was found. Sheriff Neil Blake (Michael Alldredge) suspects that Nelson knows something, but Nelson tells the sheriff nothing because Perry had earlier informed him that any information about West was classified. Later that night, Nelson returns home to his pregnant wife Judy (Ann Sweeny), who tells him that her elderly mother Helen (Dorothy Love) and Helen's boyfriend Harold (Edwin Max) are coming over for dinner. On their way, however, Helen and Harold are attacked in their car by West, and he kills them both. When Blake finds the bodies, he calls Nelson, who comes out to identify them. After Blake angrily demands an explanation, Nelson reluctantly reveals West's condition. Nelson believes West is somehow getting stronger the more his body decomposes. Back at Nelson's house, West attacks and kills Perry, although Judy is not harmed. Nelson and Blake arrive just as West escapes. West then stumbles upon the home of a married couple (played by Jonathan Demme and Janus Blythe). West kills the man and attacks his wife, but she drives him away after chopping his arm off with a cleaver. Blake receives a call about the attack and takes Nelson with him to investigate. They follow West to a giant power plant, and then up several flights of outside stairways. Blake tries to shoot West with a shotgun, but the blasts do not stop West, who throws the sheriff over the railing into power lines, killing him. West hits Nelson and knocks him over the railing, leaving the doctor hanging on the side. Nelson appeals to West, reminding him that they were friends, and West decides to pull Nelson to safety. Two armed security guards (Mickey Lolich and Westbrook Claridge) then arrive and, in a panic, fatally shoot Nelson in the face as he tries to protect West. An infuriated West kills the security guards and stumbles away. After collapsing against the side of a building, he slowly, and completely, melts away. The next morning, a janitor (DeForest Covan) finds his gory remains and casually mops them into a garbage can. The film ends with a radio news report about another astronaut team being sent to Saturn. ===== After his girlfriend elopes with her aerobics instructor, Bradley Brinkman (Steve Levitt) spends so much time daydreaming of being a confident, sexy, and powerful man that he is about to lose his job. While desperately trying to meet a deadline he types, "I'd sell my soul for a money making program," into the computer. The computer prints "The Yuppie Program", which becomes hugely popular and gains him a large bonus and a paid summer off to write anything he wants. Bradley spends his entire bonus renting a run-down beach house in a very high-end part of California coastline. He first sees O'Brien (Deborah Shelton), the devil's agent, while taking a walk on the beach with his new neighbor Chachka (Cynthia Szigeti), who introduces him to his highly stuck-up yuppie neighbors who verbally and physically abuse him. His further attempts to socialize with his neighbors and live a rich yuppie lifestyle are mocked and when he throws a house party that no one else comes to, O'Brien appears again and explains that she occupied his computer and wrote the Yuppie Program for him. She offers to make him a "hunk", the kind of man women want and men want to be, in exchange for his soul. This includes a "sell your soul for the summer" trial, where he can get his previous body and his soul refunded if he is not satisfied with the deal. Without really taking it seriously, he signs the contract. He wakes up the next day as Hunk Golden (John Allen Nelson), in a transformed body. After a day, O'Brien steps in and actively helps him become his new persona. As Hunk Golden he is a natural martial arts master, can eat anything and not gain weight, drink without getting drunk, has self-cleaning teeth and unbreakable bones. Women flock to have sex with him. He sets fashion trends. As the deadline to finalize the deal (Labor Day) approaches, Hunk seeks help from a psychiatrist, Dr. Sunny Graves, (Rebeccah Bush), to try and save his old soul and body. She tells him to embrace being the hunk that he is, while she helps him with his apparent delusion of being Bradley Brinkman. After another night of sex with a random woman, O'Brien introduces Hunk to the chairman of the board of the Devil Himself Incorporated, Dr. D (James Coco), currently in the form of Atilla the Hun. Hunk notices that he also looks like Captain Kravitz, the former owner of the beach house. He tells Hunk there is a vast demon shortage and Dr. D plans to have him working with some of the worst killers in history, like Ivan the Terrible, Jack the Ripper and Benito Mussolini. After Dr. D leaves, O'Brien romanticizes the two of them bombing Pearl Harbor together as a pair of time- traveling Satanic salespeople. While at the beachfront with Sunny, a drunk television host Garrison Gaylord (Robert Morse) is about to hit them and drive his Jeep off the pier when Hunk turns and stops it with his bare hands. Gaylord's television director (J. Jay Saunders) catches the entire incident on film and Hunk becomes an instant celebrity. Sunny and Hunk kiss, but after he leaves Dr. D appears in Sunny's office, dressed as Adolf Hitler. Sunny is revealed to be O'Brien. Dr. D chastizes her for falling in love with another client. He warns her that her own deal is coming due, and if she does not deliver Bradley's soul, she will be reverted to who she formerly was. Hunk struggles with changes in his personality, leading him to turn a garden hose on his fans in rage. Hunk dreams about Bradley escaping from hell and warning him not to take the deal, and later of helping Dr. D start World War III. Finally, Bradley and Sunny meeting with Dr. D, and Bradley chooses to give up being Hunk and not take the deal. Dr. D reveals the truth about Sunny, and offers them both a 6-months extension on their contracts. Bradley refuses and finally convinces O'Brien to do the same. She is reverted into her original self, a 10th Century princess who sold her soul to avoid a Viking marriage her father sold her into, which inspires Bradley to create the Princess Program. ===== The film is a romance about a young woman named Suwanna who is the object of affection for many men. In her search for true love, she has many adventures and mishaps, including overcoming her father's disapproval, before finally finding her soulmate. ===== Joanna (Lee Taylor-Allan) and Lawrence (Kenneth Boys) in the 1986 New York revival of Home Free! Lawrence opens the play by delivering a lesson on astronomy, focusing on the Pleiades. While describing the effects of universal expansion, he becomes excited and jumps around the room, imitating the stars being flung in every direction. He eventually gets tired and starts muttering to himself about Joanna's return from the grocery store and what she has in the "Surprise Box", a brightly colored box that they use to give surprise gifts to each other. Joanna enters in a panic, having been seen by some frightening entity called either Pruneface or Wienerface, or both. She is pregnant. They engage in a number of strange, playful, seemingly random conversations. Joanna tells Lawrence about an encounter she had on the subway with a college-aged boy, and Lawrence accuses her of having sex with him. They play games, including one where Joanna is a queen and Lawrence commands Edna and Claypone to fetch her various things. All of a sudden, however, he halts the game with the line: "You're not a queen, you're a whore." Eventually Joanna collapses, seemingly unable to walk. She screams at Lawrence to get a doctor, but he is afraid of the outside world and refuses to go outside, preferring to send Edna instead. Joanna's pains, possibly the result of pre-eclampsia, persis. She eventually falls, unmoving, onto the bed. Lawrence leans over her and begs her to return, falling into a stutter as the play ends. ===== This book is about a puppy named Ginger. Jerry Pye, a resident in Cranbury, Connecticut in 1919, bought a puppy he wanted from Ms. Speedy for a hard-earned dollar he made while dusting the pews in the church for Sam Doody. Jerry was pleased with the puppy and headed home. On the way home, Jerry and his sister Rachel heard footsteps behind them. When they turned back, they did not see anything. Jerry decided that if anyone was following them, then that follower was after his dog. After a few days, Jerry remembered that he hadn't given his puppy a name! He asked his mother and his mother said Ginger because he is the color of ginger and has a gingery temperament. So they called him Ginger or Ginger Pye. Ginger was a smart dog. He even located the school that Jerry goes to. Almost all his neighbors and friends knew Ginger. Ginger Pye went missing on Thanksgiving Day. Jerry and his sister Rachel searched for the puppy all around Cranbury but could not find him. They discover Ginger tied up in a shed, and uncover the identity of the thief: Wally Bullwinkle. The book closes with Ginger home safe to a happy family. ===== ===== ===== In 2017, during the Second American Civil War, Barb Wire owns the Hammerhead, a nightclub in Steel Harbor, "the last free city" in a United States ravaged by the war. She brings in extra cash working as a mercenary and bounty hunter. Chief of Police Willis raids her club. Willis's target is fugitive Dr. Corrina "Cora D" Devonshire, a former government scientist with information about a bioweapon being developed by her former superior, Colonel Pryzer of the Congressional Directorate. Dr. Devonshire hopes to escape to Canada in order to make this information public. Devonshire turns up at the Hammerhead. She is accompanied by Axel Hood, a "freedom fighter" whom Barb had known and loved at the outbreak of the war, but the two were separated during the conflict. Axel is trying to help Cora get to Canada. They are trying to find a contraband pair of contact lenses that would allow Cora to evade the retinal scan identification at the Steel Harbor airport. The lenses pass through the hands of several lowlifes before also ending up at Barb's nightclub. Rather than give the lenses to Cora and Axel, Barb makes a deal with "Big Fatso", the leader of a junkyard gang: Fatso wants the lenses, which are worth a fortune on the black market, and Barb wants a million dollars and an armed escort to the airport, where she plans to get on the plane to Canada. But Fatso double-crosses Barb; when Barb, Axel and Cora show up at the junkyard to make the swap, Colonel Pryzer and his storm troopers are also there, along with Chief of Police Willis. Willis makes a show of arresting Barb and Cora, but instead of putting handcuffs on Barb, he slips her a hand grenade. Barb uses the grenade to kill Fatso and cause enough confusion to allow Barb, Axel, Cora and Willis to pile into Barb's armored van and lead the Congressionals on a car chase, culminating in a hand-to-hand fight between Barb and Colonel Pryzer on a forklift suspended by crane above the harbor. Pryzer falls to his death while Barb escapes. The party makes it to the airport, where Barb reveals that she still has the contact lenses. She gives them to Cora, and Cora and Axel get on the plane to Canada while Willis and Barb remain on the rainswept tarmac. ===== Tony is fascinated with art, and goes to the club that his mom works at to draw pictures of some of the ladies. When his art teacher looks at the drawings, she wants to put them up in a museum for a contest. When people look at the pictures of the ladies Tony's mom gets in trouble and is sent to court for letting her son draw pornographic pictures. Tony's mom explains that it was just art, and tells them the story of the Glass Cafe. ===== 1633 continues where 1632 left off. Most of the novel details various political machinations of the new "United States" and the attempts of Cardinal Richelieu to nullify the threat posed by the technological advantage the up-timers have given to Gustavus Adolphus and his "Confederated Principalities of Europe". Richelieu completely changes France's foreign policy and forms an alliance aimed squarely at the NUS and Gustavus called the League of Ostend. Mike Stearns sends emissaries looking for allies, some of whom end up behind enemy lines as they already belong to the secret League of Ostend, which announces its presence in the Battle of Four Fleets. The Dutch Republic nearly falls and Stearns' emissary voluntarily stays behind, becoming trapped in the Siege of Amsterdam. At this point, the newly created timeline start to diverge greatly from the actual history of the 17th Century, in no small part because the news of a town from the future brought spies and emissaries, and a fair number of encyclopedias and history textbooks found their way into European courts. One theme of the series is of down-timer leaders trying to change, hasten or head off their histories while the acts of ordinary citizens going about their day-to-day affairs and of the leaders of Grantville effect more fundamental societal and political changes. ===== The greatest discovery of the nineteenth century is found by accident. A team of archaeologists uncover one of the most ancient burial tombs of all time. Inside the tomb they find something far greater than gold or gems, they find a diary of a person who lived more than four thousand years ago. The team pool all their knowledge together in order to translate the scroll diary before it disintegrates in the foreign air. The diary of Seola is about a girl's struggle to resist a wicked world. Her resolve to remain loyal to God is so strong she influences a fallen angel to repentance. The diary is unique because it gives a detailed account on how the Great Deluge started. One of the planets in the solar system becomes unstable and its destruction causes the waters above the expanse to fall. The beginning entry of the journal gave no doubt as to the era the individual claims to come from. The entry reads, “West Bank of the Euphrates, first moon-evening, after Adam, four cycles”. The author of the journal identifies herself as Seola, daughter of Aleemon and Lebuda. Her father was the son of Lamech and his father was Methuselah. Aleemon had a passion for study and the preservation of historical records. This desire kept him near a grand city which contained a wealth of knowledge on the history of the world written down on scrolls. The city’s name was Sippara and it was also known as the city of the Sun. This desire also endangered the lives of his family. It so happened that the city was the royal seat of the one who ruled the planet. This ruler was known as Lucifer the Light Bearer, King of the Sun. He and his kind were ruling the earth for over 1100 years, since the days of Jared. These beings were known as the Devas. The Devas were angelic spirit beings that materialized into human form. Their superior powers enabled them to dominate and instill fear into the human race. They sought after the most beautiful women of mankind and took them as wives. Through the union of the mortal female and the angelic being came male children of large stature. These offspring were known as the Darvands. The Darvands were ruthless bullies with strength that none could match. Seola begins her journal at the request of her father. Her first entries are common and uneventful because the family has been relocated to an isolated section of the forest away from Sippara and their life is peaceful with the isolation. The tranquility eventually comes to an end because the Devas discover their private sanctuary. The threat to the family is neither by wealth or possession but by way of beauty. ===== ===== Inspector Gadget (French Stewart) and his Gadgetmobile (voiced by D.L. Hughley) are having problems in their line of work, mostly because of Gadget's overzealous nature and his paranoia about minor crimes committed by citizens. Gadget is put on probation by an angry Chief Quimby (Mark Mitchell) after criminally charging Quimby's mother for going slightly above the speed limit on a mostly-deserted highway. At this time, Dr. Claw (Tony Martin) escapes from prison, seeking to get revenge against Gadget for putting him in prison and to restart his multi-million-dollar empire. Mayor Wilson (Sigrid Thornton) takes this opportunity to create G2 (Elaine Hendrix), a female Gadget-type robot that can function normally compared to the original Gadget, who not only was born a human but has been malfunctioning as of late. Gadget begins to fall in love with G2, though G2 does not reciprocate as she prefers to work alone, viewing him as a nuisance. Dr. Claw begins a new plan to steal gold from the United States Treasury. Gadget makes repeated attempts to stop Claw, but is continually foiled by his own bumbling and gadgetry glitches. Gadget's bumbling allows Dr. Claw's men to steal components for Claw's latest scheme and get away with it. Chief Quimby becomes increasingly frustrated and eventually fires Gadget, despite Gadget having enough evidence from scientists to prove that it wasn't his fault. When Penny (Caitlin Wachs) realizes that her uncle was fired and asks if there is anything she can do to help, Gadget tells her that she is still too young and to not get involved. Meanwhile, Dr. Claw's henchmen are now free to steal the rest of the components for Claw's scheme. Penny decides to examine the evidence on her own and eventually finds Claw's hideout at an abandoned bowling factory in the outskirts of the city. She infiltrates the hideout, but Claw and his men capture her. At the gala, Gadget gets a job as a limo driver. Inside the gala, Claw activates a bowling pin containing laughing gas to keep the people busy as he steals a 50,000-karat ruby, however G2 is immune to the gas. In order to stop the robot, Claw uses a magnet to trap G2. Afterwards, Claw and his minions escape, but Gadget fails to recognize them. After G2's failure, Quimby is ordered by Mayor Wilson to deactivate the robot and end the Gadget program. Feeling that G2 was scapegoated, and still in love with her, Inspector Gadget goes to the police department to reactivate G2. Brain (voiced by Jeff Glenn Bennett), having escaped Claw's men, tells them through a dog translation device that Claw has kidnapped Penny and has used the three stolen supplies (ionic fuel cells, a protoid laser, and a ruby) to build a super-weapon. Upon realizing that Claw is based in the bowling factory, Gadget finally connects the evidence Penny previously presented to him (the bowling shoe) and regrets not listening to her. Gadget asks G2 to help him save Penny and foil Claw's scheme, and G2 agrees. The next day, Claw activates his machine, which was hidden in a truck. The weapon is a laser that freezes time in Riverton, allowing Claw and his minions to easily rob the Federal Reserve. Claw has plans to not only use the laser against Riverton, but also the entire world, so he can rob Fort Knox and a variety of other places. Both Gadgets manage to avoid the weapon's blast, and find Claw and his minions at the Federal Reserve. At the treasury, Claw orders his minions to attack Gadget and G2 so he can get away. Gadget and G2 decide to switch chips in order to make Gadget work perfectly, leaving G2 to deal with the glitches but to still successfully capture Claw's hired goons. Gadget chases after Claw, who is escaping in an ice cream truck, but Claw drops Penny off the truck with explosives attached to her. After saving Penny's life from an explosion, Gadget and Penny reunite with G2 and the Gadgetmobile. At a bridge, Gadget stops Claw's truck with a puddle of bubble gum. Claw's minions try to escape, but get stuck in the smear of bubble gum and are arrested. When Gadget orders Claw to put his hand (and claw) up, Claw gets away in a rocket-like escape pod, proclaiming: "You may have won this round, but I'll get you next time, Gadget!" After Claw escapes, Gadget, Penny and G2 go to Claw's laser to unfreeze the world. Both Gadget and G2 are congratulated by Mayor Wilson and Chief Quimby (who happily rehires Gadget) Afterwards, Gadget and G2 share a kiss outside the city hall. In the process, fireworks emerge from Gadget's hat. A firecracker lands right near Quimby and Wilson and the fuse burns out. After a few seconds, it explodes, causing both Wilson and Quimby to angrily yell out Gadget's name. ===== ===== Harichandra Prasad (Nazar) and Vishnu Murthy (Saratbabu) are two rich and powerful rivals in a village. Harichandra Prasad's daughter Supriya (Supriya, 20) and Vishnu Murthy's son Kalyan (Pawan Kalyan, 23) study in the same college, where they both engage in few fights and bets. Kalyan and his gang attempt to enter a girls hostel and succeeds at last, and he wins a bet with Supriya. Slowly their love blossoms under these petty things and they reach their village, where they are separated at the railway station by their parents. The vacation ends and Kalyan reaches the station to get back to his college, but Supriya does not turn up. Kalyan learns that her marriage is fixed, and gets off the train to reach Supriya's house. But he is thrashed by Harichandra Prasad and his men. Meanwhile, her marriage is postponed due to her grandmother's (76) death. Using this to their advantage, Kalyan and Supriya elope. Her brother (23) and his men become involved in a fight with Kalyan. In the end, Vishnu Murthy saves Harichandra Prasad from being drowned in an abyss, and suddenly everyone realizes their mistake and reunite the lovers and get them married. ===== The novel begins with the story of Antar, a resident of the future New York doing data processing for the International Water Council. A chance bit of data causes Antar to recall a bizarre encounter he had with L. Murugan, an employee of the LifeWatch organization (Antar's former employer), who disappeared in Calcutta in 1995. Murugan had asked to be transferred to Calcutta because of his fascination with the life of Sir Ronald Ross. While Antar tries to track Murugan’s movements in Calcutta through the digitized archives, another narrative thread follows Murugan directly as his path brings him into contact with a variety of other characters, some more savory than others. The plot is quite complex and its timelines are deliberately mixed up, switching from Antar's time to Murugan's to Ross' and back over the course of as many chapters. Through his research into old and lost documents and phone messages, Antar determines that Murugan had systematically unearthed a deep secret lurking behind Ross' malaria research — an underground scientific and mystical movement that could grant eternal life. Loosely described, the process of securing this form of immortality is as follows: the disciples of this movement can transfer their chromosomes into another's body, and gradually become that person or take over that person. In the novel, Ronald Ross did not discover the mysteries of the malaria parasite; it was a group of underground practitioners of a different, mystical "science," natives of India, who helped to guide Ross to the conclusions for which he is famous. These native Indians provided Ross with clues in the belief that in the moment Ross made his discovery, the parasite would change its nature. At this point, a new variant of malaria would emerge and the group's research using the chromosome-transfer technique would advance even further. ===== Pawan Kalyan (Pawan Kalyan) is a careless and spoiled brat of a rich man Muddu Krishnayya (Kota Srinivasa Rao). Kalyan has every weakness that a rich and careless youth can have, and Baburao (Sudhakar) helps him in all his activities. Once, Kalyan and his friend/employee Bhaskar (Harish) attend a function, where Kalyan spots Sirisha (Raasi) singing on stage, and is impressed by her beauty and tries to woo her, but doesn't succeed. At the same time, Bhaskar too is impressed by her and expresses his love to her, but is rejected by Sirisha. A disheartened Bhaskar tries to commit suicide but is saved. Sirisha accepts his love and leaves to see her mother to seek her blessings for marriage. But her mother plans something else for her. She tries to marry her off with her cousin Sriram (Achyuth). Sirisha writes a letter to Bhaksar to take her away and save her from this marriage. Kalyan is shocked, when he knows that Bhaskar is trying to marry the same Sirisha, who rejected his offer, but agrees to bring her. Kalyan manages to bring Sirisha to Bhaskar's house, but Bhaskar's parents oppose this marriage by insulting Sirisha. Kalyan loses his temper and hits Bhaskar's father, adding fuel to fire. A disheartened Sirisha leaves their house, but is saved by Kalyan and taken to his house. His father Muddu Krishnayya and servant, Malli (Mallikarjuna Rao) suspect their relationship, and this suspicion spreads in Kalyan's friends circle. Sirisha accuses Kalyan of all these rumors and this brings about a change in Kalyan's attitude towards women and his life. He decides to marry Sirisha and asks his father to help him in this regard. But his father insults her and she leaves their house and returns to her mother. Kalyan, after learning his father's mistake, reaches Sirisha's house, but is discouraged by her cousin and mother. He goes on a hunger strike till she accepts his love. In the end, Muddu Krishnayya apologises for his mistake and unites the lovers. ===== Erik Ponti is a fourteen-year-old boy living in the 1950s Stockholm lower middle class. His sadistic father beats him often, his mother rarely intervenes the abuse and his six-year-old brother takes advantage of the situation. He excels in school subjects that interest him; "He ran the fastest and scored the most goals, could take a gargantuan beating, hit with full strength at the first punch and on top of all that he was the superior student in several subjects", which lends him a position as gang leader and favored student of half his teachers. (He compulsively leads the class to rebel against the other half, who beat the students.) He lives with violence both at home and at school and begins feeling sympathy and pity towards those he beats, when his life comes tumbling down because of the school gang's criminal activities. Betrayed by those he thought of as his friends, the gang, he is expelled from school and "pre-emptively" expelled from every school in Stockholm by his zealous and influential principal. He comes home prepared to face his father "for the last time" but is surprisingly sent to a boarding school outside of the city, the expensive and exclusive Stjärnsberg school. Away from his father and everyone who knew him, Erik is determined to make a new life without violence for himself, but the traditions of the school stop him. Unable to abide the abuse of the senior students, who make it their habit to boss around and beat those below them, "especially new and mouthy kids", he begins a spiral of escalating violence and psychological abuse under the nose of unwitting teachers and adults. Noses are broken, threats are uttered, buckets of feces thrown around and Erik spends a cold winter night soaking wet and tied to the ground. Erik and his friend and roommate Pierre hold in-depth discussions about the nature of evil, the importance of resistance and methods of fighting, while spending summer and winter breaks abroad. Erik develops a forbidden relationship with Marja, a school cook from Savonia, Finland, and wins a swimming trophy in a school championship. He is thrown out of the swimming team as an attempt to make him follow orders, and begins working out obsessively by weightlifting to vent his frustrations, panicked over the prospect of being expelled if he lays a hand on a senior student. When Pierre surrenders to the abuse directed at him to punish Erik and leaves the school, Erik takes to stalking the woods in disguise at night and systematically breaking the nose and teeth of those responsible, when he finds them alone. Marja, fired because of the suspicions of her relationship with Erik, sends him a love letter which the principal uses as grounds to have him expelled, but with the aid of Mr. Ekengren, the family lawyer, Erik threatens legal action over the confiscation of his mail and is allowed to finish his last semester in relative peace. Although not before tracking down his chief tormentor, the chairman of the students' council Otto Silverhjelm, alone in the woods and scaring him into hysteric crying and vomiting. Finishing his basic education with the highest possible grades - barring the lowest possible grade in conduct and behavior - Erik returns home and deals with his father. ===== In San Francisco, 1959, four despondent strangers embark on the same night trolleybus: Penny, a single mother, regrets working the night shift and leaving her three children at home; Harrison, a would-be singer, has backed out of an important audition due to stage fright; Julia leaves her waitressing job to seek out her boyfriend John, whose marriage proposal she rejected; and small-time thief Milo has just failed to retrieve a book of valuable stamps that he had conned out of a young boy. Their driver is Hal, who becomes distracted by an attractive passenger in another car and accidentally swerves the trolleybus off of an overpass, killing everyone aboard. At the same time, Frank Reilly is driving his pregnant wife Eva to the hospital. Frank avoids the trolleybus just before it crashes. The Reillys are safe, but Eva delivers their baby in the car. Hal ascends into the next life, but the souls of the four passengers are "attached" to the newborn baby, Thomas, for reasons they do not understand. Only Thomas can see and hear them, and they are forced to follow him wherever he goes. As the years pass, the four grow to love Thomas, and he loves them. As Thomas grows older, however, his parents worry about his obsession with these "invisible people" and consider having him committed. Realizing their presence is hurting Thomas, the quartet decides to become invisible to him as well. The perceived abandonment causes young Thomas to avoid close relationships for the rest of his life, fearful that they, too, will leave him. Thirty-four years later, Hal returns with his trolleybus. Because his irresponsibility ended four innocent lives, Hal has been condemned to convey spirits to the next life, and he has now come for his former passengers. The quartet learns that they've been with Thomas all these years because each of them died with unfinished business: Penny never found out what happened to her children, Harrison never conquered his fears and fulfilled his dream of public singing, Julia never told John her true feelings, and Milo never returned the stamp album, which would have freed him of the guilt from his life of crime. Thomas was meant to serve as their corporeal form, helping them to resolve their final business; if he refused to help, they were to inhabit his body and use it to solve their problems. After convincing Hal to buy some more time for them to rectify their unfinished lives, they reappear to Thomas, now a ruthless foreclosure banker who refuses to open up to his devoted girlfriend Anne. Thomas, who has since undergone psychotherapy to convince himself that his "imaginary friends" were only a childhood delusion, initially believes their reappearance means he has had a psychotic break. Ignoring their pleas, he attempts to check himself into a psychiatric hospital, where a schizophrenic patient is able to describe the spirits that accompany him. This convinces Thomas that the spirits are real, but he is still angry with them for their abandonment and refuses to help them. The quartet convince him by leaping in and out of his body during an important meeting and threatening further public humiliation until Thomas reluctantly agrees to help in order to finally be rid of them. Thomas is able to locate Penny's two daughters, but not her youngest child Billy, who was adopted after Penny's death. Milo uses Thomas's body to break into a house, steal back the stamp album, and return it to its now-adult owner. However, after the burglary, a nervous Thomas encounters a police sergeant (who is ticketing his illegally parked car) and accidentally gets himself arrested, forcing Anne to bail him out. Harrison uses Thomas's body to sing the national anthem at a B.B. King concert, after which Thomas is arrested again by the same police sergeant, who Penny suddenly recognizes as her son. Thomas tells Billy the location of his long-lost sisters, and Billy is so overcome that he lets Thomas go with a warning. Meanwhile, Anne, concerned with Thomas's recent bizarre behavior, demands to know what's going on. When he is unable to tell her, she breaks up with him. Finally, Thomas and Julia write a letter to Julia's boyfriend John in which she confesses her love for him, only to learn from a man now living in what was John's house, that John died several years before. At the same moment, the trolleybus returns to take Julia. Thomas protests that Julia's business is still unresolved, but Julia realizes that her true business is Thomas, who is making the same mistake with Anne that she made with John. Thomas promises her that he will tell Anne his true feelings before it is too late, allowing Julia to depart. Thomas invites Anne back to the arboretum, where he admits his fear of abandonment and his love for her. As a symbol of his trust, he gives her a heart-shaped keyring containing all his personal keys. Anne forgives him. The two dance under the night sky where four new stars twinkle to show that Penny, Julia, Harrison, and Milo are finally at peace. ===== Dennis, living in a Red Hook housing project in Brooklyn, New York has had enough of poverty, and witnessing his alcoholic father beat his mother. His father is depressed and troubled from working hard for "the white man" for so many years, yet having nothing to show for it. Dennis and two friends come up with a plan to rob a local drug dealer and split the money. One of the friends asks his uncle to borrow his car, and then a connection he has gives him a shotgun for the operation. Dennis keeps telling his girlfriend that they will soon have money and be able to move out of Brooklyn, but he does not actually tell her of the plan. When he does eventually explain what he is about to do, she leaves him and tells him the relationship is over. Meanwhile, his mother loses her job due to the bruises on her face from the ongoing domestic violence. On the day of the robbery, Dennis and his friends wait in the car for the dealer to come out with a briefcase full of cash. As they drive up to him, Dennis points the gun in his face and tells him to hand over the bag, yet he doesn't actually shoot him as his friends were discussing in the car. The dealer complies, and they speed off. The dealer has now seen their faces, and after being ordered by the gangster he works for to get the money back, he goes out looking for the three. When Dennis and his friends take the briefcase back home and realise that it contains much more than they expected, the other two get scared and realize they will be targeted for stealing the bag in the first place. After an argument with Dennis, they leave all the money with him and say they want nothing to do with it. The same night, Dennis brings the money home to show his family and tells them they can move out of the projects, but his father is less than happy about what his son has done. This causes an argument in the house which leads to more violence and Dennis' mother having to go to the hospital. The next day at the hospital, Dennis' father goes out for some air when the drug dealer who was robbed sees him and recognizes who he is. The dealer and his accomplices chase him and he is blocked on both sides and shot dead. At the same time, in the hospital, Dennis' mother dies with her son and daughter by her side. The movie ends with the bloodied father lying still in death, against a fence. ===== In Oregon, Benji has gone missing while filming a movie on location. Benji’s trainer, Frank Inn, tells a television reporter named Mary Beth McLaulin that he and Benji had been on an open fishing boat in the Pacific Ocean when a storm came in, capsizing the vessel. Inn fears Benji is dead, but the movie producers plan to search the wilderness coastline with a helicopter. The next day, Benji lies in the brush near the shoreline when the helicopter flies overhead, but he goes unnoticed. Benji wanders through the woods and comes across a female cougar perched atop a boulder. Just then, a hunter shoots the cougar. Benji tries to comfort the dying animal, but the hunter chases him away and carries the dead cougar away. When the helicopter flies overhead again, Benji runs after it, barking to no avail. Benji subsequently encounters four orphaned cougar cubs, belonging to the killed cougar, and he attempts to shield them from predation. While hunting, Benji comes face to face with a rabbit, but licks it twice, and leaves. Benji finds a cabin where a quail is being cooked over an open fire. When the hunter takes the cooked bird inside, Benji spies two additional dead quails hanging on a line nearby. He grabs one of the birds and drags its body back to the den for the cubs. The next day, a fawn runs by and two ferrets play in a nearby creek while Benji collects rocks to make the den higher so the cubs cannot get out. Benji returns to the cabin to get the other dead quail, but the hunter catches him and ties him up. Reading Benji's collar, the hunter remembers there is a reward for the dog's rescue. When the hunter goes inside, Benji tugs at the rope, trying to break free. Just then, a wolf growls at Benji. When the hunter comes outside, the wolf runs away. As Benji paces the area as far as the rope will allow, the wolf comes back and Benji makes a commotion. The hunter comes outside to see about the noise, scaring the wolf away. The hunter briefly unties Benji while trying to unravel his rope. Benji grabs the other dead quail in his mouth and runs back to the cubs. Benji sees an adult female cougar with a single cub and barks, but she attacks him. Benji then moves the cubs to a new location, carrying each of them individually in his mouth. While doing this, the helicopter flies overhead and Benji sees his trainer in the window. By the time Benji has finished moving the cubs to the new den, another animal has eaten the quail. Benji searches for more food, barking at the cubs when they try to follow him. Meanwhile, the wolf begins to move in on the cubs, but the helicopter flies overhead, scaring him away. The next day, Benji sees the cougar and the wolf nearby. The wolf begins to chase Benji, but the dog manages to elude him. Later, the four cubs follow Benji along the path. A large bear comes into the clearing. Benji and the cubs hide, but one of the cubs runs toward the bear, hissing at him. The bear growls, scaring the cub back to the hiding place. When the bear moves toward them, Benji barks and runs the opposite direction. The bear gives chase, but soon loses interest. However, the wolf appears again and chases Benji. They run a long distance over the mountain until Benji leads the wolf to the bear in order to get rid of him. Later, the cougar drinks from the stream when one of the cubs approaches. Just then, the helicopter flies overhead, scaring the cougar and her cub away. When Benji spots the cougar again, he barks at the cubs to follow him across the stream. The helicopter lands nearby and Frank Inn gets out, calling for Benji. The dog looks between his master and the cubs playing and decides that he should help the cubs before he could reunite with his owner. Unaware Benji is nearby, Inn gets back into the helicopter and flies away. Later, an eagle swoops down, grabs one of the cubs in its talons and flies off. When the eagle later flies near the three remaining cubs, Benji barks to scare it away in time. Benji spots the cougar and her cub following closely behind her. Benji barks at her repeatedly until she gives chase, but Benji loses her along the way. Although Benji almost falls into the deep ravine, he climbs to safety. From the top of the cliff, Benji sees the cubs below. Benji finds the cougar near the waterfall. Benji runs to get the cubs, but finds the wolf watching the cubs. Benji barks at the wolf, then bites at him. The cubs hide under a rock where the wolf cannot reach them. Benji jumps on the wolf’s back, then runs away. As the wolf gives chase, Benji tricks the wolf by hiding in the bushes that shields the cliff behind it and sends the wolf falling off the cliff to his death. Benji lures the cubs to come out from under the rock and carries one of the cubs up the side of the steep mountain in his mouth. At the top, Benji leaves the first cub, then goes back down the cliff to get the others. With all three cubs on the mountaintop, the mother appears. She sniffs the cubs and nuzzles them. The mother's cub sees its adopted siblings and runs to join them. The cougar lies down and the four cubs nurse from their adoptive mother. Benji goes to rest in plain sight in the meadow just as the helicopter approaches. ===== In Athens, Greece, a secret agent named Stelios goes to an outdoor café where the waiter gives him newspapers and a package. The newspapers reveal that a German scientist is missing in Greece and the package contains a photo of the dog Benji with his family. Meanwhile, in the U.S., Benji’s family arrives at an airport, on their way to the island of Crete in Greece. The children, Paul and Cindy, worry about their dogs, Benji and Tiffany, as they are placed in travel carriers. Cindy tells the airline representative that Tiffany has a “condition.” While waiting to check- in, Mary learns that the man behind her in line, Chandler Dietrich, is also headed to Crete. Dietrich then sneaks into the employee-only luggage area, snatches Benji’s carrier off a conveyor belt, drugs the dog, and imprints a code on his paw. Upon arrival in Crete, Dietrich befriends Mary, while the family learns that Benji and Tiffany missed the connecting flight from Athens. Stelios lurks in the background, watching. At the Athens airport, Benji and Tiffany are in their carriers, stored in a luggage room. When a worker inadvertently lets Benji escape, he and a British couple, Ronald and Elizabeth, chase the dog through the airport and across a runway, but Benji flees into the city. As he wanders the streets of Athens, Benji mistakes another family for his own. After several near collisions with cars, Benji retreats into ancient ruins. There, he sees a stray dog gnawing a bone. The other dog will not share his food, so Benji returns to the city streets. In a marketplace, Benji steals a string of sausages, and returns to the ruins to share them with the stray dog, thus making a new friend. The next day, Benji returns to the marketplace, but the police capture him. Ronald and Elizabeth, claim the dog and take him to their home. Hearing a knock at the door and Ronald takes Benji upstairs as Elizabeth stalls their visitor, Stelios, who poses as a representative of Olympic Airways, and sends Stelios away. Soon, Mary comes to the house in search of Benji and the dog hears her voice from upstairs. As she leaves, Benji barks at Mary from the window, but a passing truck drowns out the sound. So Benji climbs outside, slides down an awning and chases her taxi. Meanwhile, Dietrich pursues Benji in a sports car, but loses him. Alone again, Benji wanders to a hotel, where he spots Mary, Paul, and Cindy, but runs away when he sees Dietrich. Procuring a Doberman, Dietrich tracks Benji to the ruins. Sometime later, in the city, a butcher feeds Benji in his shop. Benji takes a nap, but is awakened by the Doberman barking. When Dietrich enters the shop, Benji springs from a cupboard and escapes. After spending the night in the ruins, Benji stakes out his family’s hotel, but he is chased away by the doorman. Returning to the butcher’s shop, Benji sees his friend talking to Stelios, but before Benji can get their attention, Dietrich grabs the dog at gunpoint. However, Stelios and the butcher release the Doberman, whom Dietrich tied up outside the shop, and Stelios follows the Doberman to find Dietrich and Benji. As the Doberman leaps at Dietrich, Benji escapes once more. The Doberman chases Benji to the ruins, but the stray dog chases him away. Benji then returns to the hotel, sneaks inside on a luggage cart, and reunites with his family. However, Stelios arrives to announce that he has to take Benji away for a few days. Before Stelios can explain, Dietrich hits the man over the head with a gun, knocking him out. Dietrich then tells the family that he is a U.S. agent who must take Benji because the dog holds the key to important information. Instructing Mary to call the police and hold Stelios at gunpoint, Dietrich leaves with Benji. Stelios awakens and tells Mary that Dietrich is an impostor. The real Dietrich was found murdered in New Jersey and that this man is impersonating him for his own gain. Stelios explains he is a real secret agent, not Dietrich, and he has orders to save the life of a top scientist and to preserve a project of worldwide significance. Mary is reluctant to believe him, though. Meanwhile, the man pretending to be Dietrich takes Benji to a yacht, where Ronald and Elizabeth are waiting. When the couple accuses the impostor of trying to double-cross them, he knocks them unconscious. As Benji escapes, the impostor Dietrich pursues the dog back to the hotel, which is now surrounded by police. Seeing that the impostor is holding Cindy at gunpoint in the car, Benji rushes at the man, knocks the gun to the ground, and rescues Cindy, as the police arrest the impostor. Sometime later, Paul and Cindy play with Benji on a beach. Stelios explains to Mary that the impostor Dietrich used Benji to smuggle the coordinates for a meeting with a German scientist, who had created a formula for turning one barrel of oil into ten or twelve. The charlatan aimed to steal the formula and sell it to highest bidder. Benji proudly looks upon a basket of puppies, the result of Tiffany’s “condition.” ===== The global war on terror rages on. The United States will not give an inch against terrorists, especially Mohamed Jamar (Geoffrey Burton), who is considered to be the worst of them all. Jamar has been missing for months, but his network continues its functions. The President (Jerry Springer) stands firm before the world, but behind the scenes, his teams are working to find the final solution. Jamar represents a paradox: he can never be killed, because if he was found dead, he would become an instant martyr. If caught he must be tried. If he is found guilty he would become a martyr and further inspiration to acts of terror. If acquitted, the policies of the entire western world would be destroyed. So he must remain invisible. Roberta Jones (Caroline Lee Johnson), the head of the National Security Agency, is working to ensure he remains invisible, forever. Under the guise of attending an Eastern European conference on Terror in Romania, she attends a secret meeting with Jamar at a secluded hotel outside Bucharest. No one knows about this meeting, and her goal is to buy his invisibility. Her only companions are her security team of six, headed by her personal bodyguard, Lance Rockford (Dolph Lundgren). They are the best of the best, former military special forces personnel capable of anything. When they arrive at the hotel for the secret meeting, they are ambushed. No one is supposed to know about the meeting, but someone wants it stopped. They have to fight for their lives against an unknown attacker. Lance, a man of highest integrity with an impressive record of service for his country, is forced into a situation which challenges his very beliefs. Throughout the crisis, it is revealed that Jamar and his loyal bodyguard were actually undercover agents from the Central Intelligence Agency and MI5 who have uncovered evidence against high-ranking military officials involved in a conspiracy to topple the President to continue war profiteering, and Rockford's trusted agent, Kaye (Shakara Ledard) was the mole involved in the conspiracy. With all of the members of the team, as well as the undercover agents dead, a wounded Lance kills Kaye with a thrown combat knife. The conspiracy is toppled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as well as military police, while Lance voluntarily leaves his bodyguard duties. ===== When Obi-Wan, Anakin, Siri, and Ferus get a tip that Jenna Zan Arbor is hiding on the planet of Romin under the protection of a tyrannical dictator, they pose as a gang of thieves called the Slams in order to infiltrate the planet. Thanks to the laws of Romin, the Jedi cannot arrest Arbor and take her away; Arbor must leave the planet of her own free will. The Jedi hope to trick her into leaving by offering her a part in a heist, but it soon becomes apparent that she has other plans. Matters are complicated further when a civil war erupts on the planet and the Jedi are thrown into the middle of it. ===== Camp ornithologist Professor Inigo Tinkle (Frankie Howerd) tells a less-than-enraptured audience about his most recent ornithological expedition to the darkest, most barren regions of the African wilds in search for the legendary Oozlum bird, which is said to fly in ever decreasing circles until it disappears up its own rear end. Financing the expedition is Lady Evelyn Bagley (Joan Sims) and the team are led by the fearless (and lecherous) Bill Boosey (Sid James) and his slow-witted African guide Upsidasi (Bernard Bresslaw in blackface). Also on the expedition is Tinkle's idiotic assistant, Claude Chumley (Kenneth Connor) and June (Jacki Piper), Lady Bagley's beautiful but unappreciated maidservant. The journey does not get off to a good start, with a mad gorilla terrorising the campsite and the travellers' realising they have ventured into the territory of the bloodthirsty "Noshas", a tribe of feared cannibals. On the first night of the expedition, at dinner Lady Bagley reveals that she has embarked on the journey to find her long-lost husband and baby son who vanished twenty years ago on their delayed honeymoon, whilst out on a walk. Her husband is believed to have been eaten by a crocodile, but she hopes to find her baby son, Cecil's, nappy pin as something to remember him by. What the group do not know is that watching them from the bushes is Ug (Terry Scott), a bungling yet compassionate Tarzan-like jungle dweller that wears a loincloth and sandals. Ug has never before seen any other white people, especially a woman. The next day, June stumbles across a beautiful oasis where she saves Ug from drowning and the two begin to fall in love. That night, Ug wanders into camp and encounters Lady Bagley in her tent (mistaking it for June's tent) and she is astonished to see that Ug is wearing Cecil's nappy pin, and that Ug is in fact her lost son Cecil. But before they can be reunited, Ug flees in fear and Lady Bagley faints with shock. The next day, the travellers are kidnapped by the Noshas, but manage to bribe their way out of being cannibalised by giving the tribal witch doctor Tinkle's pocket watch. Tinkle however delays and promises the witch doctor that their gods will bestow a sign of thanks upon them. Intending rescue, Ug accidentally catapults himself into the Nosha camp and starts a fire. In the chaos, Ug, June and Upsidasi manage to escape but the enraged Noshas apprehend the other travellers and prepare to kill them. As they wait to be put to death, they are suddenly rescued by the all-female Lubby-Dubby tribe led by the stunning Leda (Valerie Leon) from the Lost World of Aphrodisia. They are taken to Aphrodisia and meet the king of the tribe Tonka who turns out to be Lady Bagley's missing husband Walter Bagley (Charles Hawtrey) who was taken by the Noshas years ago, but saved and brought to Aphrodisia by the tribal women. Evelyn Bagley is infuriated that he never bothered to search for their missing son and laments she has seen him but has once again lost him. June and Ug are revealed to be living happily together and June is teaching Ug to speak English. Bill Boosey, Prof. Tinkle and Chumley enjoy the attention given to them by the tribal women, and Tinkle and Chumley are stunned to find that their elusive Oozlum Bird is in fact a sacred animal to the Lubby-Dubby females. It transpires that the Lubby-Dubbies need the menfolk to save themselves from extinction, as no males have been born in Aphrodisia for over a century. The men think their dreams have come true....until Leda makes it clear that the Lubby-Dubby women have no intention of letting them go. Tonka implies that the last man who tried to escape Aphrodisia was murdered by the tribe. Lady Bagley is resentful of this work the men have been given and taking over control from her husband (Tonka) ensure the mates assigned to the men are masculine looking and unattractive! Three months pass and the men now are fed up and Leda is outraged that none of their "mates" have gotten pregnant so she overthrows Tonka and assumes his place, threatening harm to the men. However Upsidasi arrives disguised as a woman and says he has brought soldiers to save them. Ug and June also search for their friends and Ug summons a stampede of animals to create chaos and enable the men to get away. During the confusion, Tinkle snatches the Oozlum Bird and the team escape along with Tonka. After the chaos, Leda and her army chase after the men, but are more interested in the trampled soldiers. She says to let the others go not needing them now that they have "some real men." Lady Bagley is reunited with her beloved son and the group return to England. Tinkle unveils his Oozlum Bird to his audience....only to find it vanished up inside itself. June and Ug are happily married with a baby, and live in a treehouse in the suburbs whilst Ug goes to work in a bowler hat, suit, and no shoes. ===== The book begins with Alex Rider learning that his uncle and guardian, Ian Rider, has been killed in a car crash. Unbeknownst to Alex and his housekeeper Jack Starbright, Ian's job as a banker was actually a cover for his role as an MI6 agent. Alex becomes suspicious upon being told that Ian had not been wearing his seat belt and discovering that Ian's office has been emptied out. He finds his uncle's car at a wrecking yard and discovers that his uncle had been murdered, being shot several times. After a near escape from a car crusher, Alex is asked to visit Ian's former employers, ostensibly the Royal & General bank. He breaks into Ian's office at the bank, discovering evidence of his uncle's double life before he is knocked out by a drugged dart. After waking up, Alex meets MI6 head Alan Blunt and his deputy, Mrs Tulip Jones. They reveal the truth about his uncle's job and explain that they had sent Ian to investigate Herod Sayle, a wealthy Lebanese (Egyptian in American adaptations) businessman who has developed a revolutionary new computer, the Stormbreaker. Sayle plans to give a free Stormbreaker to every secondary school in the United Kingdom, accompanied by a grand activation ceremony in the Science Museum, supposedly as a gesture of thanks for the country taking him in when he was a child after a wealthy American couple sent him to England after he saved their lives in Olive Street. In his last communication with them, Ian had warned MI6 that Stormbreaker could not be allowed to leave Sayle's manufacturing plant. However, before he could explain, he was assassinated by Yassen Gregorovich, a professional killer supposedly working for Sayle, on the return to London. Intending to use him to covertly investigate Sayle, MI6 recruits Alex by essentially blackmailing him; if he does not co-operate, Jack will be deported back to America, his house will be sold and he will leave his school and friends for an institute until he is of age. They put him through a gruelling eleven-day long stint at a SAS training camp (which MI6 also uses), before deploying him to Herod Sayle's base in Cornwall, using the alias of another boy, Felix Lester, who won a competition to visit the plant and be the first child to use a Stormbreaker. To aid him in his mission, Alex is given a grappling hook disguised as a yo-yo, acne cream capable of dissolving metal, and a Nintendo Gameboy which functions as a transmitter, smoke screen, bug detector, and a surveillance camera and microphone, provided by MI6 agent Smithers. Sayle shows Alex around his mock-Victorian mansion, which houses a large jellyfish aquarium containing a giant Portuguese Man o' War, located in his office. Alex also meets Mr Grin, a butler and henchman whose name derives from his time as a circus performer, catching knives with his teeth. An accident that happened when he was performing in his hometown left him without a tongue and two large scars on either side of his mouth, which gave him the appearance of constant smiling. Initially, the trip goes well, with Alex finding a cryptic diagram made by Ian in the canopy of his four-poster bed. However, Sayle grows to dislike Alex, firstly after Alex is discovered in a restricted area of the Stormbreaker factory, and later when Alex defeats Sayle in a game of snooker, where Sayle places bets on the balls. While investigating the base at night, Alex sees several of Sayle's agents unloading metal cases with great care from a Chinese nuclear submarine at the local port, with Yassen supervising. When one of the agents drops a metal case, he is promptly shot dead by Yassen. The next afternoon, Alex decides to visit Port Tallon, the nearby village but finds himself attacked by a pair of armed guards on quad bikes. He survives by tricking the guards into crashing: one collides with an electric fence while the other falls from a cliff face. While searching the library, Alex finds a map in a book about tin mining which matches the diagram left by Ian, discovering that Sayle's land once belonged to Sir Rupert Dozmary, a tin-mining magnate. He also learns that Ian had borrowed several books about viruses, and assumes that Sayle plans to use the Stormbreaker network to release a computer virus into Britain's computer infrastructure. Alex investigates the Dozmary mine and, following the path left by his uncle, discovers a large computer manufacturing facility, where the Stormbreaker computers are being filled with a strange fluid. Alex realises that the 'viruses' being investigated by Ian are not computer viruses, but biological weapons. Alex is detected, and nearly escapes but is eventually caught and tranquillised. When he comes to, Sayle explains to Alex his plan. When Sayle attended school, he was bullied because of his accent and skin colour. The worst bully was none other than the future Prime Minister, leading him to despise English children and all of Britain in general. As a result, Sayle plans to take revenge on the Prime Minister and Britain with his "April Fools Joke"; when the computers are activated by the Prime Minister, the virus, a potent, nearly unstoppable genetically modified strain of smallpox, will be released into every school in the country, killing every schoolchild and teacher in England as well as those in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Alex is then left handcuffed to a chair, until Nadia Vole, an assistant of Sayle's, frees him, claiming that she is a fellow spy who worked with Ian Rider. However, as they head to find a mobile phone to call MI6 and inform them of Sayle's plan, she triggers a trapdoor which drops Alex into the jellyfish tank and stays behind to watch him die. Alex eventually gets free by using the acne cream gadget to damage the tank's supporting iron girders, causing it to rupture and sending thousands of gallons of water crashing into the room. Unfortunately for Vole, she dies painfully and instantly, as she stood directly in front of the tank when it burst, and the immense jellyfish landed right on her. Snatching up a harpoon gun, Alex rushes outside, only to find that Sayle's private helicopter has already left, leaving only a cargo plane on the tarmac. Using the handle of the harpoon gun, Alex knocks out a guard, taking his jeep and pistol. As he starts the jeep, several other jeeps start to pursue him as the cargo plane starts to take off. Through some fancy driving and good fortune, Alex manages to cause the destruction of the hostile jeeps. Tying the nylon cord of the yo-yo gadget to the harpoon with the yo-yo clipped to his belt, Alex shoots the harpoon which catches on the underbelly of the airborne plane. Using the gadget, he gets himself on to the plane where he confronts the pilot, who is none other than Mr Grin. Alex instructs Mr Grin to fly to London by threatening him with the pistol. When they are finally over London, Alex realises that there is not much time left before noon. He spots several parachutes and uses one to jump off the plane. Mr Grin turns the plane around hoping to ram into Alex. Alex pulls out the Game Boy Color and activates a cartridge disguised as a game called "Bomber Boy", which activates a smoke bomb that he left on the plane. Unable to see, Mr Grin loses control of the plane and fatally crashes into a dock near the River Thames. Alex crashes through the roof of the Science Museum and dangles from his parachute, caught on a beam. Alex draws the gun he took from a guard back at Sayle's mansion and fires blindly at the Stormbreaker computer, one accidentally hitting the Prime Minister in the wrist and Sayle himself being struck by two more, and another bullet hits the mouse for the computer and it explodes. Afterwards, however, he inexplicably vanishes. Mrs Jones saves Alex's life by ordering security not to open fire on him. MI6 immediately recalls all the computers, citing "safety issues". Later, after a debriefing by Alan Blunt and Mrs Jones, Alex enters a taxi. The driver is in fact Sayle who holds Alex at gunpoint. He leads Alex to the top of a building where he is about to shoot Alex but is himself shot by Yassen Gregorovich, who lands in a helicopter. When Alex questions Yassen about why he shot Sayle, Yassen explains that Sayle had become an embarrassment to "(his) employers", so he had to be eliminated. Knowing that he is facing his uncle's killer, Alex tells Yassen he will one day kill him, but Yassen brushes aside the comment and tells Alex to drop the spy business and become a normal schoolboy again, before leaving in the helicopter. ===== Alex Rider is a 14-year-old schoolboy who lives with his uncle Ian and their housekeeper Jack Starbright. Ian is supposedly a bank manager and is, much to Alex's regret, often away from home. One day, Alex is told that his uncle has died in a car crash, but quickly discovers that his uncle was actually a spy working for MI6 and was murdered. He is then recruited by his uncle's former employers, Alan Blunt and Mrs. Jones of the Special Operations Division of MI6, who explain to Alex that his uncle has been training him as a spy. Alex initially refuses to cooperate but agrees when they threaten to not renew the visa and deport Jack as a result of her visa running out seven years before. Alex is then sent to a military training camp in the Brecon Beacons, the home of the Special Air Service. At first, his fellow trainees look down on him because of his age, but he soon gains their respect for his capabilities. He sets off on his first mission, aided by gadgets from Smithers. Billionaire Darrius Sayle is donating free high-powered computer systems code named Stormbreaker to every school in the United Kingdom. MI6 are suspicious of his seemingly generous plans and send Alex undercover as a competition winner to investigate. There, he meets Sayle himself and his two accomplices, Mr. Grin and Nadia Vole, and is shown the Stormbreaker computer in action. Later, while Alex is having dinner with Sayle, the suspicious Vole steals Alex's phone and tracks the SIM card to his house in Chelsea. She goes there and finds Alex's true identity; while there, she is disturbed by and consequently fights Jack. Despite being outclassed, Jack wins with the help of a blowfish, leaving Nadia to flee the scene. That night, Alex sneaks out of his bedroom window to observe a midnight delivery of mysterious containers to Sayle's lair. The next day, Alex finds himself in trouble when his cover is blown. After attempting to escape from the facility, he is captured, and Sayle explains his true reasons behind Stormbreaker – each system contains a modified strain of the smallpox virus which, upon activation in the Stormbreaker release, will kill all of the country's schoolchildren. Sayle leaves Alex tied up and departs for the London Science Museum. Nadia drops Alex into a water-tank to be killed by a giant Portuguese Man o' War, but he escapes using the metal-disintegrating spot cream supplied by Smithers, Nadia is subdued when she is hit by the jellyfish, rupturing the tank in the process. Alex then hitches a ride on a Mil Mi-8 helicopter piloted by Mr. Grin, using a sodium pentothal arrow to gain Mr. Grin's obedience. Alex parachutes out of the helicopter and lands just as the Prime Minister is about to press the button which will activate the computers. Alex uses a rifle to shoot the podium, which destroys the button, and ruins Sayle's plan. Furious, Sayle leaves to carry out his back-up plan, and Alex, with the help of school friend Sabina Pleasure pursues Sayle through the streets of London. Fifty floors up on one of Sayle's skyscrapers, Alex reaches him and unplugs his backup transmitter. Sayle chases him out onto the roof and pushes both Alex & Sabina off the roof, leaving them hanging by a dislodged cable. Unexpectedly, Yassen arrives in a helicopter and shoots Sayle (in the same manner he did Ian) before rescuing Alex. Yassen then tells Alex that Sayle had become an embarrassment to his employers, and that Alex should forget about him, but Alex refuses saying that the killing of his uncle Ian means they are still enemies. Alex returns to school; he and Sabina are talking about what happened and he says that it will never happen again. The film ends with someone observing Alex from a distance. He notices it and realizes that it's not the end. ===== Phantom Lake, a serene lake in Mukwonago, Wisconsin, has long been a dumping ground of various and sundry companies, looking to eliminate their waste products, including atomic waste. It is patrolled by the Canoe Cops, a duo of police officers, who have not yet noticed anything strange in the water. The lake also sports a lush forest surrounding it, a forest which is home to a World War II vet, Michael Kaiser. Driven to insanity by the events of the war, he murdered his wife and fled to the woods, always on the watch for his enemies, the Germans. Kaiser, while trailing two of the dumpers, falls into the lake, directly in the area they've been dumping atomic waste. His body is transformed into that of a monster .. The Monster of Phantom Lake. He soon begins hunting two groups of campers. One of those groups include five teenagers who have just graduated from high school. The other includes a scientist, Professor Jackson, and his graduate student, Stephanie Yates. One person after another falls victim to his deathly hugs, until only three survive. With the help of his great scientific mind - and his trusty pipe - Professor Jackson concludes they can destroy the monster in only one way. It must be prevented from reaching the water from which it was created. And only one person can do it, a girl who just happens to be the spitting image of Kaiser's late wife. ===== Years ago, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, a little boy named Tony Washington (Jesse D'Angelo) cheers on his father William Washington (John Fasano)'s performance in a baseball game. On their way home, Tony, William, and William's wife Louise (Francesca Bonacorsa) see two teenagers preparing to rape a young girl (Tracy Biddle). William intervenes, rescuing the girl, but one of the would-be rapists fatally stabs him, leaving him to die as the two teens flee. In the film's present-day, Tony (Jon Mikl Thor), now a musclebound teenage baseball player, disrupts an attempted robbery at a neighborhood grocery store. As he steps into the street, he is struck dead by a car carrying a gang of reckless teenagers: Bob (Allan Fisler), Amy (Tia Carrere), Jim (Shawn Levy), Peter (Hamish McEwan), and Susie (Manon E. Turbide). The carful of teens flees the scene, and neighbors carry Tony's corpse to his home, where his mother Louise mourns for him. She contacts Molly Mekembe, the girl whom William rescued years ago, now a local voodoo priestess (Manuska Rigaud), in hope that voodoo can save her son. While Molly is unable to restore Tony to life, she can revive him long enough to allow him to avenge his own death. After Louise agrees, Molly resurrects Tony as a zombie, then uses her powers to aid him in his revenge by guiding him to the guilty teenagers. The next night, Tony, as a zombie, tracks Peter and Susie to an academy gymnasium and fatally breaks Peter's neck, then kills Susie by crushing her skull with a baseball bat. The night afterwards, he is able to find and kill Jim by impaling him with the same bat before the latter could rape a waitress. Police detective Frank Sorrell (Frank Dietz) is soon investigating both incidents and initially agrees with the coroner that a large built, drug-fueled man is responsible. Sorrell brings his suspicions to his boss, police captain Tom Churchman (Adam West) and is told that they have already managed to find a suspect responsible that matches Sorrell's description, closing the case. Believing that the case has not been truly solved, Sorrell investigates photos that place Molly at both incidents and suggests to Churchman that they bring her in for questioning. However the captain dismisses her as a "batty, voodoo palm reader that follows ambulances around" and sends him home to rest. Shortly afterwards, Churchman contacts Jim's father Fred, and informs him of Molly's involvement in his son's death, then tells him to come to the police station. As Fred tries to leave his home, he sees Tony approaching him and shoots him with a rifle. Tony quickly recovers and breaks Fred's neck, killing him. Knowing that they will be next, Bob and Amy decide to leave town. While at a garage getting money, Tony finds them and kills Bob by bashing his head against a car, then does the same to Amy against a door. While monitoring Tony's actions, Churchman abducts Molly at gunpoint and forces her to show him where Tony is going. Sorrell follows the zombie to a cemetery. Molly and Churchman soon arrive, with both telling Sorrell that the priestess resurrected Tony to not only avenge himself, but also to avenge Molly, as Churchman and Fred were the two that tried to rape her years ago, and Churchman was the one who had killed Tony's father. Molly begins a spell, but having learned that a revived zombie's power fades once it has achieved its goal, Churchman shoots Tony, ending his zombie existence, then shoots and kills Molly as well. Before he is able to shoot Sorrell, silencing him as a witness, a second zombie rises out of a nearby grave and drags the still-living Churchman into the ground with him, presumably to Hell. A shocked Sorrell inspects the grave and learns that the second zombie was Tony's father William Washington, avenging his own death years before at Churchman's hands, then departs. ===== A teletype message flashes across the screen ... : Master Sergeant Larry McRose (Clancy Brown), U.S. Army, Frankfurt, West Germany : Report to Zombie Unit, El Paso, Texas At the airport in El Paso, Texas, five U.S. Army sergeants meet up with Major Paul Hackett (Michael Ironside), the leader of the clandestine Zombie Unit, composed of soldiers reported to be killed-in-action and on temporary assignment under Hackett for the duration of a secret mission. Jack Benteen (Nick Nolte) is a tough Texas Ranger. His best friend from high school is Cash Bailey (Powers Boothe), a former police informer who has crossed into Mexico and became a major drug trafficker. Bailey tries to bribe Benteen to look the other way while sending major drug shipments to the U.S. When Benteen refuses, he is left with a warning by Bailey: Look the other way, or die trying. Benteen and his friend, Sheriff Hank Pearson (Rip Torn), end up getting in a shootout with Bailey's men at a gas station outside of town, resulting in Pearson's death. Benteen infers that Bailey set them up. Two of Bailey's men try to escape, but Hackett has them killed by not leaving any witnesses, and after they tried to steal his vehicle. Accompanied by a DEA agent, the Zombie Unit arrives in town tracking Bailey. When they attempt to rob a local bank, one soldier is killed and two others are caught and detained by Benteen. After realizing the men are listed as dead in all official records, Benteen is confronted by the D.E.A. agent spearheading the operation, who tells them him they were robbing the bank in order to get Bailey's money and a safety deposit box containing accounts on all the drug money he's deposited there. Now knowing the full story, Benteen joins with the soldiers and crosses the border into Mexico to track down Bailey and end his drug running. At Bailey's hacienda, they are joined by Benteen's girlfriend Sarita (María Conchita Alonso), who was once Bailey's woman and has followed Benteen into Mexico. At an Independence Day festival, Benteen confronts Bailey while the soldiers attack Bailey's private army. Hackett is witnessed shooting Bailey's accountant and, at the same time, reveals himself to be Bailey's partner, telling one of his men there was no mission, and that they were assigned to die. The town erupts into a gunfight, which few but Benteen and Sarita survive. Hackett and his men get killed in the process. Benteen and Bailey end up in an old west-style showdown, which results in Bailey getting shot to death, rather than surrender. Bailey's right-hand man, Lupo, takes over the drug business and tells Benteen he'll do him a favor some day, while Benteen and Sarita walk away towards an uncertain future. ===== Maria Teresa "Maité" is a beautiful young woman who is engaged to Luis Antonio. Maité was raised by her aunt, Griselda. Maité's mother died giving birth to her and she has never met her father. According to people in her town, her father was a foreigner named Jose, who lied to Maité's mother, Eloisa, and had left her pregnant. Jose promised Eloisa to come back but never did, but he left Eloisa a pendant that belonged to Jose's mother. That pendant is all Maria Teresa has from her father. Maité works at her Aunt Griselda's restaurant as a waitress. Maité goes to the fair where she is accompanied by Adolfo Valladolid, Adolfo pours sleep powder in Maité's drink leaving her dizzy and uncomfortable. Adolfo takes advantage of her condition and tries to take her to a motel and rape her when he was stopped by Magdalena (who later in the series becomes one of Maité's best friend and also is one of Adolfo's former lovers) Eventually, Adolfo rapes Maria Teresa later in the series and Maité becomes pregnant. After Luis Antonio is told by Griselda that Adolfo had sexually harassed Maité, Luis Antonio goes off and looks for Adolfo. Luis Antonio beats up Adolfo, but Doña Jacinta Valladolid, Adolfo’s mother, sues Luis Antonio. Jacinta pays a few of her workers to attack Luis Antonio in prison. Adolfo was supposed to marry Manola Linares, but Maité interrupts the wedding and says that Adolfo and Manola cannot be married because Adolfo is the father of her baby. Maité is forced to marry Adolfo after they threaten to kill Luis Antonio in prison. Because Maité loves and cares for Luis Antonio's children, Daniel and Andres, she agrees to marry the rapist. Her life is a living hell when she has to live with Adolfo and Jacinta. Then, after a few months later, Maité gives birth to a beautiful child, Valeria. Jacinta finds a way to make Maité lose custody of her daughter and Jacinta ends up keeping Valeria. After Maité was forced by Jacinta to leave, Maité goes to Mexico City, and schemes to recover her daughter and get revenge on Jacinta. There in Mexico City she runs into Magdalena who is pregnant. Maité and Magdalena grow very fond of each other and become best friends. Maité works in a restaurant in Mexico City and becomes a friend of Victor, the restaurant owner. Magdalena gives birth to a baby girl, Verónica. Years later; Maité returns to recover her daughter but her plan is a failure. Magdalena is killed but Verónica watches the murder of her mother. Veronica after that day has more than one personality in her. Veronica always had loved to play dolls with Vera and Violeta (Vera, the greedy and self-centered one and Violeta caring, weak, and respectful, so Veronica said about her dolls). After that Vera and Violeta became Verónica's personality. Veronica is also Valeria's half sister. Maité decides to take care of Verónica since Magdalena was a very good friend to her. Maité and Victor adopt Verónica. After 17 years Maité finally returns to her home town and gets revenge on Jacinta. Valeria and Andrés fall in love without knowing their parents had a relationship. Later, Valeria and Andrés secretly marry. Valeria finds out that she is pregnant and tries to tell Andres and they get in a fight. She doesn't tell Andrés that she is pregnant. ===== Dusk, a young Chiropter, is being taught by his father to glide. Dusk is different from the other Chiropters, however; whereas his brethren have simple sails, Dusk has wings, and an urge to fly that he has difficulty suppressing. He is regarded as a freak by the other Chiropters, though he finds acceptance with his parents and his sister, Sylph. Dusk learns to fly, but keeps his secret to himself out of fear of being shunned. Carnassial, the Felid (a type of proto-cat) also has a hidden desire. Born with shearing teeth and an insatiable appetite for flesh, he seemingly fulfils the pact when he destroys the last known batch of Saurian eggs. He leads a pack consisting of other flesh-craving Felids to form a new world order. The rogue pack of Felids find their way to Dusk's island and devour many of his colony, among them Dusk's mother. With their island invaded by the deadly new predators, it is up to Dusk and his unique powers of flight and echolocation to find the Chiropters a new home. Carnassial strikes an alliance with the powerful (but unintelligent) Hyaenodons, who claim that the Saurians do still exist, and enlist the Felids to find and destroy their eggs. Carnassial comes to realise that in order for the Felids to rule, it will have to be through cunning rather than through power. Along the way, Dusk and his colony seek refuge with a seemingly peaceful colony of "Tree Runners", only to find out that they plan on sacrificing them to a giant, meat-eating bird; the Diatryma. After escaping, Dusk finds a new home for his fellow Chiropters, but it is on the other side of a savannah, which is home to many predators. While Dusk is scouting for a good place, he meets another creature that looks similar to himself; it calls itself a bat and tells Dusk that there are many others like them. The Soricids overwhelm and devour a Hyaenodon, and nearly kill Dusk, but he is rescued by Sylph. He and Sylph are attacked by Carnassial and his Hyaenodons once again, and take refuge in the skeleton of a large dinosaur. Through it, they find their way into an eerie cave, where Dusk and Sylph discover a nest of an unidentified meat-eating Saurian, along with a clutch of mostly unhatched eggs and the rotting carcasses of the parents. The Felids return and Carnassial's mate is attacked by a young dinosaur, the sibling of the eggs who'd hatched early. Carnassial fights to save his mate, but both are killed in the confrontation. The saurian chases Dusk out of the cave and attacks the Hyaenodon as the heroes flee. Eventually, Dusk leads the Chiropters to their new home, and the book ends with him leaving the colony and promising his sister to return if he dislikes life with bats. ===== The story occurs on a Martian Union Aerospace Corporation installation similar to Doom 3. The player is addressed to by NPCs in the game as Marine. The game is divided into section based on Sectors in the base. The sectors are Entrance, Junction, Sector 1 through Sector 7, and Reactor. The Junction is the staging area or main town for the game. Guerard was not on good terms with Jensen. Three weeks prior to the start of the game, Guerard asked Graff to perform a security audit on Jensen. Jensen failed the security audit and was dismissed for this security breach. Jensen suspected that Guerard was involved in his dismissal. During the same time, demons started to invade the installation, appearing out of nowhere. It is around this time that the game begins. Early on in the game, the Marine meets Dr. Jensen when he was accessing a computer terminal investigating his dismissal. During the exploration of first few sectors of the installation, the Marine receives help from Dr. Guerard in gaining access to various locked down areas. In Biological Research Facility, the Marine meets Dr. Nadira who quarantines his weapons claiming security measures. Dr. Nadira then commands his mind-controlled hellhounds to attack the Marine and disappears in the process. Eventually, Marine meets Jensen again. This time he is incarcerated in a prison cell. After freeing Jensen, he informs the Marine that Guerard and Nadira are into an evil scheme and directs the Marine to the next section of the installation. The next time the Marine meets Guerard and Nadira, it is known that Guerard was behind the invasion and has been attempting to open a portal to Hell in the Reactor Sector. Guerard promptly orders demons to attack the Marine and Nadira. Nadira dies and Guerard escapes. The Marine proceeds through the remaining two sectors, acquiring the BFG 9000 and the key to the Reactor sector. By then, a major invasion devastates the Junction. With the help of Kelvin and Jensen, the Marine gains access to the Reactor sector. Kelvin and Jensen both die in the process. In the Reactor sector, Guerard reveals himself as Kronos and transforms into demonic form. By this time, he has succeeded in opening the portal to Hell. After defeating Kronos, the Marine closes the portal by destroying the reactors powering it. The Cyberdemon slips through before the portal closes. The game ends with the defeat of the Cyberdemon. The Cyberdemon is likely to be Kronos' creation referred to by other NPCs. ===== ===== Fujimi Orchestra is primarily about Tonoin and Morimura's romance, but also follows their musical careers. After being berated by Tonoin time and again, Morimura says he wants to quit the orchestra. To prevent this, Tonoin steals his violin and leads him to his house, where he forces himself on the violinist. Upon realizing that the encounter is Morimura's first time with a male lover, he is remorseful and confesses his love, telling him that Kawashima does not love him. With emotions overwhelming him, Morimura flees, but slips down a flight of wet stairs. Tonoin nurses the injured violist back to health, proving his devotion is genuine. In the end, Morimura stays with Fujimi Orchestra despite Tonoin's continued pressure to improve his playing while surreptitiously pursuing the man behind closed doors. ===== Ayagane City has a phantom cat (also called "bake neko" and "were-cat") problem. A young and overzealous group of entrepreneurs called Kagura Total Security can be hired to combat this problem for the right price when Hound, the official government arm, isn't enough. However, there are plots and subplots floating beneath the surface, both involving Kagura, and the were-cats, led by Kuro-Neko, themselves. Both the manga and the OVAs are heavily action-driven, with gunfights appearing every few chapters. ===== Latigo Smith (Garner), a gambler and confidence man, is traveling by train in frontier-era Colorado with the rich and powerful Goldie (Marie Windsor). Goldie wants desperately to marry him, a fate of which he wants no part. He sneaks off the train at Purgatory, a small mining town. He discovers that two mining companies, run by bitter rivals Taylor Barton (Harry Morgan) and Colonel Ames (John Dehner), are vying to find a "mother lode" of gold buried somewhere nearby. Dynamite blasts periodically rock the town to its foundations. Latigo consults the town doctor (Dub Taylor) about an embarrassing problem that is not immediately revealed, but turns out to be a Goldie-related tattoo. Latigo's great weakness is a periodically uncontrollable urge to bet on roulette; he soon loses all of his money playing his "lucky" number, 23. Penniless, he starts romancing local saloonkeeper Miss Jenny (Joan Blondell). Being mistaken for infamous gunslinger "Swifty" Morgan gives Latigo an idea. He talks amiable ne'er-do-well Jug May (Jack Elam) into impersonating Swifty. Latigo attracts the attention of Patience Barton (Suzanne Pleshette), the hot-tempered daughter of Taylor, who desperately wants to escape her frontier existence, attend "Miss Hunter's College on the Hudson River, New York, for Young Ladies of Good Families", and live a life of refinement in New York City. When Latigo and Jug side with the Bartons in a dispute, Ames sends a telegram to the real Swifty Morgan (Chuck Connors), informing him of their deception. Swifty arrives in town and immediately challenges the hapless Jug to a gunfight, but at the appointed time and place, Latigo is there in his place, sitting atop a donkey loaded with crates of dynamite. Swifty calls Latigo's bluff, but he is startled by a warning about the next explosion and accidentally shoots himself. The blast also panics the donkey, which charges into a saloon/whorehouse, blowing up the building. The second blast uncovers the mother lode and removes Latigo's troublesome tattoo, leaving him uninjured. Latigo finally wins big at roulette after betting $10,000 on 23. Jug, talking to the camera from the back of a moving train taking Latigo and Patience to Denver to get married, reveals that Patience never did go to Miss Hunter's College, but seven of her daughters did. As for himself, Jug says he went on to become a big star in Italian Westerns. ===== The film tells the story of two young men, Biggs (Errol) (Ky-Mani Marley) and Wayne (Spragga Benz), who grow up together in the tough and dangerous streets of (Waterhouse) Kingston. They rob a soda truck and shoot the truck driver while they are still children. The robbery money is used to purchase visas to go the United States, where they continue their criminal activities, hustling on the streets of Miami. Twenty years later, Biggs is then deported to Jamaica where Wayne and Mad Max (Paul Campbell), also deported, have continued their surge in crime, they begin to extort money from business people. After facing problems with the police and politicians, the two head back to Miami alongside Mad Max. Upon returning, they are informed that Miami has a new king, Teddy Bruck Shut (Louie Rankin). The three pay Teddy a visit to extort him. They extort, beat, and murder their way to the top of the Miami underworld. Their dream ends in a brazen shoot out, during which Teddy's thugs kill Wayne and shoot Max who also eventually dies. Biggs almost gets shot as he comforts Wayne at his deathbed, but Max shoots the assailant before it happens. After taking Max to the hospital, Biggs goes to Teddy's house and murders him, his bodyguard and his girlfriend. Biggs then takes all the money and gets on a boat where only the audience can presume he leaves to Los Angeles as he mentioned purchasing a house there earlier before the massive firefight broke out. ===== To qualify for Homewrecker, a participant had to submit to the show a story of how he or she was victimized by one of their friends. Each segment opened with the "victim" explaining to Ryan Dunn what happened to them. Dunn then observed the offender to get additional ideas on what to do. Finally, Dunn and a team of helpers helped the participant redo their friend's room to fit what the evildoer had done. The show had two segments, where two separate people get revenge on friends who had recently offended them by trashing their bedrooms. There were short clips in between scenes where the late host Dunn taught the viewer how to perform similar pranks at home. The clips were shot in the style of 1950s training videos. ===== The Knight of the Sacred Lake is a variant of an Arthurian legend. It follows the lives of Queen Guinevere, or Guenevere, and her strife with Agravain and Gawain, as well as that of her lover's, Lancelot, as they both enter different paths in their lives, away from each other. ===== The Princess of Dhagabad follows the princess as she grows up, in fictional Dhagabad, into a young woman of seventeen, when she proves that she more than capable of taking her destiny—and the desting of Dhagabad—into her hands. ===== A simple, love story between a Sikh girl (Saima) and a Muslim boy Shamyl Khan. In August 1947 in what was the final cynical act of a collapsing empire, the British left old India divided. Arbitrary lines were drawn on the map of India, dividing not only the country but also provinces, in particular the old Punjab Province (British India). The results of partition were catastrophic. All in the name of religion and nationalism, people who had lived together in harmony for centuries committed mindless acts of violence against each other resulting in over one million deaths that included Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus. An estimated 75,000 women were raped and over twelve million people were uprooted. Hindus and Sikhs migrated to India and Muslims to Pakistan. During these troubled times, there were a select few who did not give in to the acts of barbarism. One such person was a young Muslim man who refused to participate in the fires of hate and destruction burning around him. During the hostilities, he found a young Sikh girl who had been separated from her family. Risking the anger of the mobs, he brought her home and offered her sanctuary. As the fires of hate began to burn out, families began to come to terms with their loss of the loved ones on both sides. Those who could not be found were presumed dead. The young girl was touched by the way the boy had protected her against the ruthless mobs, risking his own life. Eventually they fell in love. She converted to Islam and they married. Years later, this girl becomes a dying grandmother herself and her last wish is to meet her family, back in India. Having made some enquires, she discovered that her family had migrated to Chandigarh, India. Knowing her family would disown her, if they discovered that she had converted to Islam, she contacts her sister, pretending to be a long lost Muslim friend and invited her and her family to come to Lahore for a religious pilgrimage to 'Nankana Sahib' a highly revered Sikh Temple, where thousands of Sikhs travel to visit it every year. The Sikh family comes to Lahore where the two sisters live together as friends, not knowing about their real relationship as sisters. During their stay with the Muslim family, history began to repeat itself. Preetam, daughter of the Sikh family started to get friendly with Shamil Khan, the son of the Muslim family. When the Sikh family discovers that a relationship was blossoming, they quickly return to Chandigarh, however, the young couple keep in touch on the telephone and the Internet and their love grows stronger. Preetam's family, realizing the potential problems, send her off to Malaysia to marry her fiancé. Shamil is heart broken at suddenly losing contact with Preetam. Shamil's family, watching his despair, persuade him to travel to Malaysia to complete his education. As fate would have it, Shamil sees Preetam in Kuala Lumpur, only a few days before she is due to marry. What can they do? Run away together and face the wrath of their families ? Or accept the decision of their elders and sacrifice their love for each other? Can their love, cultural barriers survive the pressures of culture, tradition, inbred hatred and religion of their elders? As in fables, will love conquer all or will the harsh realities of life suffocate the young lovers into submission? ===== Nearly all the principals in the book have something to hide, and therefore something for Archie and Wolfe to inquire about, but not every secret is criminal, and the balance between private lives (including a passionate but commercially meaningless liaison between two hostile principals) and responsible disclosure is handled adroitly, and far better than in most Rex Stout novels. Just as in Before Midnight the agency partners have strong personality clashes, but this is seen in this book as a price that is paid for complementary talents in a boutique firm. ===== Fletcher Moon (often called "Half-Moon" due to his short stature) is a natural born investigator. Knowing this, April, a girl from his school comes to him for help in finding a lock of hair that she believes to have been stolen. Fletcher agrees to help her and starts off by investigating all suspects which eventually gets him threatened by a thirteen-year-old named Red Sharkey. Fletcher is a graduate from the Bernsteins Academy, so he is a "certified" detective. While Fletcher is investigating the stolen lock of hair he has a hurling stick thrown at him and is seriously injured. Fletcher holds Red as a prime suspect as the hurling stick had 'Red' embossed on it and comes to the conclusion that it was Red who attacked him. Fletcher then goes to visit April’s cousin May to photograph this newfound evidence but ends up at the wrong house where he catches sight of somebody setting fire to May’s lucky dancing costume. He passes out in the yard due to the anesthetic from the hospital and later awakens to find a torch in his hand and all evidence for the arson pointing to him. Following an interrogation by the police, Fletcher is rescued by Red Sharkey. Red claims he was framed for the hurl assault. Half-Moon and Red team up to solve the chain of mysteries within 24 hours. Following a suspicious story to April's house, the boy detectives discover the truth behind Les Jeunes Etudiantes, the girls club, their true goal being to get rid of all the boys ruining their education. Three recent expulsions can be attributed to these girls, and the boys feel they need to be stopped. Unfortunately, they are found out, and the girls manage to imprison the boys in the cellar. They are, however, saved by May, April's cousin. Fletcher and Red previously heard the girls practicing the lines that they planned to use to accuse Red's brother, Herod of assault. Red is able to send a text message to the present police officer informing him of the lines they would use. The police officer puts two and two together and exposes the girls as liars, and Herod Sharkey is found innocent, saving him from expulsion. April, being caught, attempts to escape in her father's car but promptly crashes into the police cruiser. However, Fletcher is informed (by text from the officer) that this still does not solve the mysteries that included his assault so he meets a secret informant, and in exchange for the password of the police account he hacked earlier in the story, receives the information that he desires. He finds that the link between the crimes ended up being the upcoming talent show at his school and it turns out that the victims each had a part in the show in some way. After trying to protect May from becoming involved with the criminal Fletcher at last finds the answer he had been looking for all along. All the victims of these crimes had been ranked higher than May in the talent show. So, Red suggests that May was behind all this. However, on stage, Fletcher proves that it was May's father, Gregor Devereux who was the culprit. In the epilogue, Red and Fletcher decide to form a detective group. Red suggests "Moon Investigations" while Fletcher replies by saying "You're half right", referencing his nickname and the title of the book. ===== ===== Valentino plays Count Rodrigo Torriani, an Italian noble. A charming libertine, his weakness is women, who mesmerise and fascinate him – hence the "cobras" referred to in the title of the film, based on the myth that cobras mesmerise their prey. Roridgo accepts an invitation from friend Jack Dorning (Ferguson) to come to New York City to work as an antiques expert. While the job is rewarding, Rodrigo finds the temptation from the women surrounding him, including Dorning's secretary Mary Drake (Olmstead) and wife Elise (Naldi), challenging. When Jack is away, Elise says to Rodrigo that she is in love with him. The two embrace and arrange to meet at a hotel. However, after meeting in a room, Rodrigo decides that he cannot betray his friend and leaves the hotel. It turns out to be a fortunate decision; the hotel burns to the ground in the middle of the night, killing Elise. Rodrigo desperately wants a relationship with Mary. However, after Elise's death, he turns Mary's attentions toward Jack and decides to leave New York. The film ends with Rodrigo gazing out at the sea and the Statue of Liberty as he sets sail back to Europe. ===== A man is standing in a subway car, his face dirty with soot. In his right hand he carries a plastic bag with documents, or rather, the charred leftovers of them. In a corridor a man is clinging desperately to the legs of the boss who just fired him. He is screaming: "I've been here for thirty years!" In a coffee shop someone is waiting for his father, who just burned his furniture company for insurance money. Traffic jams and self-flagellating stock brokers are filling up the streets while an economist, desperate for a solution to the problem of work becoming too expensive, gazes into the crystal ball of a scryer. The main men all have goals but their destinations change during the story. ===== The documentary follows four professional ten-pin bowlers at various stages of their careers after the Professional Bowlers Association is purchased by a trio of Microsoft programmers, who then hire Steve Miller, a Nike marketing guru, to revitalize the sport. ===== The episodes were written and filmed to reflect the reality of life in the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines in the 1970s. The primary focus for most stories was on the Captain and his fellow officers, but the series also featured life on the lower decks to portray episodes heavily featuring ratings. Episodes featured a variety of events at sea (the Cold War, smuggling, the evacuation of civilians from crisis-hit places, etc.), as well as the personal lives of officers and ratings and the impact their personal lives had on their professional lives and duties. HMS Phoebe, one of the frigates which was the fictional HMS Hero ===== The series dealt with the life of Reg Toomer (Tim Healy), an ex-pat Briton living in Australia and running Melbourne Confidential, a failing private detective agency with his shifty business partner Dennis Tontine (Chris Haywood). His estranged young cousin Leslie (Mark Haddigan) arrives in Melbourne from the United Kingdom after a painful divorce looking for fun and excitement in the new world, instead he finds himself used as a drone for Melbourne Confidential. Each episode focused on a particular job undertaken by Melbourne Confidential, each one more elaborate and of more dubious legality than the last. The course of the main plot would often converge with subplots involving Reg's lovelorn wife Doris (Pat Thomson), assertive daughter Arlene (Nadine Garner), Dennis' ex-wife Corrie (Kirsty Child) and kindly madam Delilah (Kris McQuade). ===== George and Kate Starling are a newly married couple, and the comedy came from many ordinary domestic situations. George was a junior clerk in an office and wanted the public house camaraderie of the single men in his office, while Kate gets increasingly frustrated by her domestic duties. In the third series, Kate gives birth to a daughter Helen. The last episode of the fourth series, Goodbye George – Goodbye Kate, showed the couple going to live in Lagos, Nigeria because of George's jobs. This was meant to be the last episode, however a fifth series was commissioned. The Starlings' returned to England as Kate was pregnant again, and gave birth in the final episode. ===== Earth is a uniform, weakly structured, utopian society based on the mutual trust and conformity of its citizens. It is sleepy and stagnant, developing neither socially nor technologically. Its striking social stability is maintained by robots brainwashing children in "closed classes." The ideologies of both Earth and Omega resemble one another, differing only in words. On Omega, the citizens worship Evil (always capitalized) in a cult dedicated to an entity called The Black One. On Earth, the world religion is an amalgam of all the "good" aspects of previous Earth religions. Its institution is the Church of the Spirit of Mankind Incarnate. As Barrent comes closer to the truth about the reasons for his incarceration, his Omegan consciousness conflicts with his subconsciousness which was programmed in the closed classes by the robots when he was a child. The subsequent psychological struggle is played out by repeating all of the previous fights and battles which Barrent experienced throughout the book, eventually making clear the vision (or "skrenning") which the mutant girl on Omega foresaw of Barrent's death. ===== In the prologue, Don José, warned of his wife's infidelity, seals his wife's lover alive in his hiding place and drives her from the castle; abandoned to his lust, he is stabbed by his last mistress, and with his dying words he implores his son, Don Juan, to take all from women but yield nothing. Ten years later, young Don Juan, a graduate of the University of Pisa, is famous as a lover and pursued by many women, including the powerful Lucrezia Borgia, who invites him to her ball. His contempt for her incites her hatred of Adriana, the daughter of the Duke Della Varnese, with whom he is enraptured; and Lucrezia plots to marry her to Count Giano Donati, one of the Borgia henchmen, and poison the duke. Don Juan intervenes and thwarts the scheme, winning the love of Adriana, but the Borgia declare war on the duke's kinsmen, offering them safety if Adriana marries Donati; Don Juan is summoned to the wedding, but he prefers death to marriage with Lucrezia. He escapes and kills Donati in a duel. The lovers are led to the death-tower, but while Adriana pretends suicide, he escapes; and following a series of battles, he defeats his pursuers and is united with Adriana. ===== Kika (Verónica Forqué), a naïve make-up artist, recalls how she met her lover Ramón (Álex Casanovas). She had given her phone number to his step-father, American writer Nicholas Pierce (Peter Coyote), and he had called her not for sex as she had hoped but to make up the younger man's corpse. He was however merely catatonic and suddenly awoke. Ramón is a fashion photographer with voyeuristic tendencies who was traumatised by his mother's suicide after several attempts. He lets Nicholas, who has returned to Madrid, live above their flat and the two discuss whether to sell the family home outside of town, Casa Youkali, which they jointly own. Ramón proposes to Kika, who accepts but feels conflicted as she has been cheating on him with Nicholas. Nicholas is working on a novel about a lesbian serial killer, but he makes ends meet by freelancing discreetly for an outrageously exploitative television show which focuses on bizarre and macabre events. The show is devised and presented by Andrea Caracortada ("Andrea Scarface", played by Victoria Abril), who wears over-the-top outfits and a persona to match. Andrea used to be a psychologist, and Ramón was once her patient, then her lover. He tells Nicholas that she scarred her own face when he left her and she is now stalking him. On her show, Andrea reports that Paul Bazzo, a dim-witted sex maniac and former pornographic actor jailed for rapes has escaped while attending a religious procession. He turns up at Ramón and Kika's flat because their maid Juana (Rossy de Palma) is his long-suffering sister. Juana instructs him to tie her up, knock her unconscious and steal valuables, then hide at a cousin's place. Paul however finds Kika napping and rapes her at knife point. An unseen voyeur peeping at Kika's room notifies the police and two incompetent inspectors eventually turn up, shoot up the door and with great difficulty interrupt the rape. Paul escapes and bumps into Andrea, kitted out in a futuristic reporter's outfit complete with helmet-mounted video camera. She wants an interview but he pushes her off and steals her motorcycle. She then enters the flat and harasses Kika. The police are puzzled at her presence, because although they often tip her off, they did not in this case. Andrea credits an unknown peeping tom for alerting her and broadcasts video footage of the rape on her show, causing Kika to break down. In the aftermath, Kika finds Ramón to be no help and she overhears him confess to Nicholas that it was he who called the police: he liked to peep on her from his photographic studio's window. She leaves him in silence, as does a guilt-wracked Juana who confesses her part in the rape. Ramón meanwhile also tells Nicholas that he has held on to his mother's diaries but never found the strength to read them. He does so however, after Nicholas has moved back to Casa Youkali, and discovers that the farewell letter to him that Nicholas had passed on was actually ripped from an old entry. Ramón confronts Nicholas and accuses him of murdering his mother. Meanwhile, it turns out that Andrea and Ramón both spied on the flat from separate addresses. While reviewing footage of the upper floor, Andrea realises that Nicholas appears to have murdered one of his several girlfriends, Susana (Bibí Andersen) when she visited him. Connecting this to his latest book, she also goes to Casa Youkali armed with a pistol and finds a freshly dug grave in the garden. Nicholas barricades himself but she breaks in aggressively and offers to interview him and let him run away before the broadcast. They fight and shoot each other. Kika also turns up and Nicholas confesses with his dying breath that his novel about a lesbian serial killer is really a disguised autobiography, as Andrea had worked out. Kika also finds the bodies of Andrea, Susana and Ramón, but she is able to resurrect the latter a second time with electric shocks. Ramón had gone into shock after finding Susana's body in the bathroom. While Ramón is taken to hospital, Kika picks up a stranded motorist and takes an instant interest in him, stating that she might need a new direction. ===== At the former home of John Lafcadio, the great painter dead some 18 years, the annual ceremony to unveil a painting he left behind to keep his memory alive is interrupted by a murder. Suspicion falls on a family member, but with no proof the police are baffled. When murder once again visits "Little Venice", Albert Campion must exercise all his powers to bring the killer to justice... ===== Auguste Rodin, litho for Le Jardin des supplices, Ambroise Vollard, 1902 Published at the height of the Dreyfus affair, Mirbeau's novel is a loosely assembled reworking of texts composed at different eras, featuring different styles, and showcasing different characters. Beginning with material stemming from articles on the 'Law of Murder' discussed in the "Frontispiece" ("The Manuscript"), the novel continues with a farcical critique of French politics with "En Mission" ("The Mission"): a French politician's aide is sent on a pseudo-scientific expedition to China when his presence at home would be compromising. It then moves on to an account of a visit to a Cantonese prison by a narrator accompanied by the sadist and hysteric Clara, who delights in witnessing flayings, crucifixions and numerous tortures, all done in beautifully laid out and groomed gardens, and explaining the beauty of torture to her companion. Finally she attains hysterical orgasm and passes out in exhaustion, only to begin again a few days later ("Le Jardin des supplices", "The Garden"). ===== Young Crown Prince Karl Heinrich (Philippe De Lacy), heir to the kingdom of Karlsburg, is brought to live with his stern uncle, King Karl VII (Gustav von Seyffertitz). The king immediately dismisses the boy's nanny (Edythe Chapman) without telling the youngster to avoid an emotional farewell. Dr. Friedrich Jüttner (Jean Hersholt), his new tutor, proves to be sympathetic, and they become lifelong friends. Nonetheless, despite the commoners' belief that it must be wonderful to be him, the boy grows up lonely, without playmates his own age. Upon passing his high school examination in 1901 with the help of Dr.Jüttner, the young prince (Ramón Novarro) is delighted to learn that both he and Jüttner are being sent to Heidelberg, where he will continue his education. When they arrive, Karl's servant is appalled at the rooms provided for the prince and Jüttner at the inn of Ruder (Otis Harlan). When Ruder's niece Kathi (Norma Shearer) stoutly defends the centuries-old family business, Karl is entranced by her, and decides to stay. He is quickly made a member of Corps Saxonia, a student society. Later that day, Karl tries to kiss Kathi, only to learn that she is engaged. Her family approves of her fiance, but she is not so sure about him. She eventually confesses to Karl that, despite the vast social gulf between them, she has fallen in love with him. Karl feels the same about her and swears that he will let nothing separate them. When he takes her boating, their rower, Johann Kellermann, turns his back to them to give them some privacy. Karl jokingly tells him that, when he is king, he will make Kellermann his majordomo. Then Jüttner receives a letter from the king ordering him to inform Karl that he has selected a princess for him to marry. Jüttner cannot bring himself to destroy his friend's happiness. That same day, however, Prime Minister von Haugk (Edward Connelly) arrives with the news that the king is seriously ill, and that Karl must go home and take up the reins of government. When Karl sees his uncle, he is told of the matrimonial plans. While Karl is still reeling from the shock, the old king dies, followed by Jüttner. Later, von Haugk presses the new monarch about the marriage. The anguished Karl signs the document for the wedding. Then Kellermann shows up to take the job Karl had offered him. When Karl asks him about Kathi, he learns that she is still waiting for him. He goes to see her one last time. In the last scene, Karl is shown riding through the streets in a carriage with his bride. One onlooker remarks that it must be wonderful to be king, unaware of Karl's misery. ===== Roger Two Hawks, an Iroquois serving as a combat pilot in World War II, is shot down during a raid on Ploieşti, Romania. While parachuting he feels a strange dizziness. Being hidden by locals, he realises that they neither look nor speak like Romanians, but rather resemble Native Americans and speak a language distantly resembling that of his own tribe. The mystery is resolved when he sees a globe and finds that he is in a world where the continent of America does not exist, having been drowned for the whole of humanity's tenure on Earth. As a result, the ancestors of the various Native American tribes did not cross the non-existent Bering Strait but wandered westward into Europe, taking the general place of the Slavs in our history. "Hatti" (Greece) was colonised by the Hittites of our timeline, while Akhaivia (Italy) was colonised by the Greeks instead of the Sabines, Latins, Voluscans and Samnites. The Iroquois live in Romania and the Ukraine, which is known as Hotinohsonih in this timeline, while the Algonquin occupy Kinukkinuk, roughly co-terminous with our Czech Republic and the Aztecs dominate an equivalent of Russia. "Blodland" is analogous to England, while "Norland" is roughly parallel to Scotland. "Rasna" is cognate with France and Belgium (apart from Normandy, which is "Grettirsland"). "New Crete" is comparable to the Iberian peninsula, "Doria" matches the Balkan region on our world, and "Saariset" (Japan) is dominated by Finnish speakers. "Dravidia" is India's equivalent in this universe and is a major military power. While a charismatic Irish religious figure, Hemilka, arose in the fourteenth century in this world, which therefore has a surprising analogue to Christianity as a result, Hemilkism is not an imperialist faith and does not similarly dominate its world. Though very different from our world, in this reality, too, a war is going on resembling the one which Two Hawks left behind, with Perkunisha, an alternate aggressive Germany-analogue trying to conquer Europe, the Middle East and Northern Africa (though its dominant people are not Germanic but rather Lithuanian). It has already occupied geographical areas analogous to our timeline's Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and Poland as a consequence, although not Tyrsland (Sweden). Without North America, the Gulf Stream flows differently and Europe is perceptibly colder in winter. In addition, horses, tobacco, turkeys, camels, rubber and chocolate originated in the Americas, and thus none exist in this timeline. Two Hawks very quickly gets involved. His knowledge and abilities are very much in demand, since this world does not yet have heavier-than-air flight, and its possession could decide the war. However, without military assistance from any United States equivalent, the war is going badly for the anti-Perkunishan allies. He goes through a very fast-paced series of adventures, involving such elements as Hittites who survived into the 20th century, a Luftwaffe pilot who also ended up in this world, an England which had never known a Roman Empire nor a Norman Conquest but has many Cretan and Semitic elements in its makeup, an unknown chapter in the life of Elizabethan adventurer Humphrey Gilbert, an Arab-colonised South Africa (known as Ikhwan) and Hivika, a mysterious island on the site of our world's Colorado, where an underground Polynesian temple is to be found, suggesting that Polynesians colonised the North American archipelago in the thirteenth century. Two Hawks also experiences a most tempestuous love affair. At the book's end, it is disclosed that Two Hawks is actually not from our alternate world, but from one where Kaiser Wilhelm IV (rather than Adolf Hitler) controls an expansionist, imperialist Germany in its Second World War. ===== This movie was a tribute to R. D. Burman. Jhankaar Beats is a story about love, friendship, and music. Deep (Sanjay Suri) is happily married to Shanti (Juhi Chawla), with a little daughter Muskaan and another baby on the way. Rishi (Rahul Bose) is his best friend and colleague at an advertising agency. Rishi is a little immature and stubborn and this keeps on causing fights at home with his equally headstrong wife Nicky (Rinke Khanna). Rishi and Deep are dedicated musicians, obsessive about the music of R.D. Burman. They play at a club sometimes and compete in an annual pop music contest called "Jhankaar Beats" which they have lost for the past two years. When the movie starts, Rishi has been kicked out of his house by Nicky and the two are considering getting a divorce. Deep's nagging mother-in-law has come for a two-month visit. The men are under pressure to get an advertising campaign ready for a new client, an oddball condom manufacturer. Around this time they meet Neel (Shayan Munshi), who is the son of their boss Mr. Kapoor and is joining the company. Neel is an ace guitarist who has his own problems -- he is attracted to a pretty girl, Preeti (Riya Sen) but cannot muster the courage to talk to her. To make things worse, his father has decided that he is wasting his life and has given him an ultimatum -- find a girl in two months or settle down with a wife his parents choose. Rishi and Deep, though they tease him mercilessly, grow very fond of Neel, and he has a sure ally in Shanti. Shanti, meanwhile, is trying to get Rishi to see sense and make up with Nicky. There are a host of colourful supporting characters, among them a newlywed couple living above Deep's flat, Nicky's handsome lawyer, and the very sexy owner of a rival advertising agency. How they resolve all their issues forms the rest of the story. ===== This story is notable for its inaccurate depiction of right/left mirror image twins, and more generally for its use of popular science to explore the subject of inversion. A man, who states that his body is a mirror image of the normal body plan, confesses to Lord Peter Wimsey that he is worried he is going mad, due to blackouts in which he (or somebody identical to him) has committed crimes. Wimsey states that as soon as he heard that the man was a mirror image he knew there must be an identical twin who was the other, 'right' half, briefly mentioning experiments with salamander eggs to back up this claim. This reference is to genuine experiments, pioneering knowledge about the chemical gradient that exists in all mammalian embryos, defining the development of front versus back, top versus bottom and left versus right. Though it is possible to have mirror image twins, in fact this is a very rare occurrence, and not a near certainty as described in the story. Having deduced the existence of the evil twin it was an easy matter to find and arrest him, freeing the good twin from the shadow of his evil twin's misdeeds. The story's solution involves a revelation about an unmarried woman who secretly gave birth and let her child be raised by a relative – which Sayers herself did in real life, though this was unknown to the public at the time when the story was published. ===== Dr. Bernard Abrams (Jerry Lewis), an Ohio optometrist, and his wife Shirley Abrams (Patty Duke) have a six-year-old daughter that suffers from a rare form of epilepsy. The child's paraplegic doctor (Morgan Freeman) cares for her. As for the little girl's parents, they need to have a drug approved from the Food and Drug Administration. However, the process is slow and they are forced to fly to England to obtain the medication. They take their cause to the media in order to highlight their case and force the FDA to expedite its decision on use in America. ===== According to Bex concerns the life of Bex Atwell, a twenty-something single woman who works as a secretary and who lives in London. She is looking for the perfect man and the perfect job, but in both she ends with second best. ===== The early portions of the film deal with the history of the Corps, from Colonial times to the 1942. The film's midsection details the arduous training procedure of the Few and the Proud at Parris Island and elsewhere. Finally, wartime newsreel footage is adroitly blended with dramatized re-enactments to illustrate the contributions, and the necessity, of the Marines in World War II. ===== In the book a sentient and powerful asteroid arrives in the solar system's asteroid belt after countless aeons of wandering interstellar space. Passing by another asteroid, the living asteroid makes its first ever encounter with other living beings - a likeable criminal involved in a life-and-death struggle with a corrupt and power-mad judge. The judge is eventually killed, but so too is his beautiful wife who had allied herself with the criminal, the couple falling in love. Whilst the god-like living asteroid builds a new world around itself, and blocks all mankind's efforts to investigate it, eventually the criminal returns to the planet with a small group. The sentient asteroid allows them to make planetfall, but only the criminal can accept living in the new Eden created for him, and they eventually depart. The alien then resurrects the late judge's wife. ===== Ah Kai is a wanted convict from Hong Kong who escapes to South Africa after killing his former boss and his boss's wife. In South Africa, he works at a Chinese restaurant and one day travels with his boss to a South African tribe that is infected with the Ebola virus. Kai sees a dying infected tribe member and rapes and kills her, contracting the virus. Kai, however, is immune to the infection. He becomes a living carrier, spreading the disease to others through body fluids. He ends up killing his new boss and his boss's wife, but not before spreading the virus to them. He then cuts up their corpses and serves them as hamburgers in the restaurant, effectively spreading the virus all over South Africa. He then further spreads the virus when he flees back to Hong Kong, to all the people he has contact with. ===== Di Gi Charat, or Dejiko for short, is the princess of planet Di Gi Charat. Her lazy behaviour is troublesome for her servants and tutors as she "eye-beams" them as they lecture her. In order to get Dejiko to become a good princess, her mother sends her on a trip to earth for princess training. To prevent Dejiko from coming back too early, her mother only fills their spaceship with enough fuel for a one way trip. On earth, Dejiko stays with Kiyoshi and Yasushi Omocha in their toy shop, while Puchiko stays at the Ankorodo Cake Shop. ===== Cantinflas and three friends return a stolen necklace to an actress who invites them to be extras at the CLASA film studios. While on the set, he falls asleep and dreams that he is d'Artagnan, fighting on behalf of Queen Anne. ===== Falling from the Incomparable Gardens in Superior Saturday, Arthur, having won the Sixth Key, escapes impalement on Saturday's Tower by entering the Improbable Stair. His uncontrollable falling leads the Stair to spit him out somewhere completely unexpected - he is under attack from sentient insects somewhere in the Secondary Realms, and is unable to concentrate to use the Fifth Key to escape. Meanwhile, Arthur's friend Suzy Turquoise Blue plots to escape from her prison in Saturday's Tower while battle rages above and below her. Saturday's forces are pressing into the Incomparable Gardens, but are also engaged in a fierce struggle to keep the Piper and his army of Newniths at the bottom of the Upper House. Suzy is being held captive by the intelligent but forgetful Giac, a Sorcerous Supernumerary (meaning he failed his final sorcery exams). She, with some help from the sixth part of the Will, persuades Giac to free her and accompany her to the Citadel in the Incomparable Gardens. On Earth, Leaf, responsible for the Sleepers from Lady Friday, struggles to cope with the aftermath of a nuclear strike and desperately needs help, especially since she herself has become a target for intruders from the House, namely Lord Sunday's Dusk and his 'pet'. Within the House, Nothing continues to rise and must be stopped before it can destroy the entire House and Universe.HarperCollins.co.uk Sunday intends to hold Arthur to ransom by controlling Leaf and his mother; to this end, he dispatches the "Reaper" (Sunday's Dusk) to take Leaf through the Front Door. It is then revealed that the Door is filled with Nithlings and is collapsing through contamination by Nothing. The Lieutenant-Keeper of the Door is vanquished in battle with the Nithlings; the Reaper comes to his aid a few minutes too late, and the Keeper dies, handing over the post to an unwilling Leaf. As the new Lieutenant- Keeper, Leaf cannot be compelled to leave the Front Door, so the Reaper goes back to Lord Sunday to report his failure. Arthur returns from the unknown planet in the Secondary Realms by a supreme effort of will and control over the Improbable Stair, because his ear was shot off before he fully entered the Stair; once healed, he believes he has returned to his bedroom on Earth, but as he searches his house he finds his mother (who went missing during the events of "Lady Friday") in the living room. As he approaches her he realizes that she can't see him. It is later revealed that Arthur's mother is trapped in a time loop and is being displayed as an exhibit in the Incomparable Gardens. He cannot interact with her; when he looks out of the windows he can see nothing but green leaves draped against them. Soon after, a Piper's child (employed as a gardener) enters the house with a flaming pitchfork; Arthur grabs and deactivates it, then forces the boy to lead him out of the house. The boy professes not to have heard of the upheavals among the Trustees; he thinks Arthur is the Reaper (leading Arthur to suspect that the Reaper is Sunday's Dawn, Noon or Dusk). As they leave Arthur's house, they are ambushed by Sunday's Dawn and Noon, and the Piper's child reveals himself to be Lord Sunday in disguise. After chaining Arthur up by his arms to a colossal dragonfly, (the form of transport commonly used in the Gardens) they fly him over the Gardens to a smaller replica of the clock face to which the Old One is bound. Arthur, his Keys overcome by the superior power of the Seventh Key, tries to escape by using his own innate powers to form something out of Nothing. He fails to create anything, but he brings his childhood toy, Elephant, to life. He sets it to search for his confiscated Keys; meanwhile, he calls the Mariner to come and rescue him. Hours later, the Keys are sent to him and Arthur is able to free himself. Leaf has ventured to the Middle House via portal and has joined forces with Suzy's band of motley Raiders. They attempt to infiltrate the Upper House in order to prepare elevators for the Army of the Architect to get through to the Gardens. Fred Initial Numbers Gold accidentally picks up Leaf's sword during an attack by the Piper's army and receives the post of Lieutenant-Keeper of the Front Door. Arthur battles with Lord Sunday, who also has to contend with an invasion by the combined forces of the Piper and the now-subservient Saturday. The battle is taken to the Elysium, the epicenter of creation; it is here that the seventh part of the Will (a withered apple tree) is kept in a gilt cage. The Mariner opens it at Arthur's behest, but is killed in the process. The freed Will traps Sunday while Arthur claims the Seventh Key (in the form of a small key). When Dame Primus bites into an apple from the manifestation of Part Seven of the Will, the Will is made whole; Arthur unknowingly becomes its channel for its intended purpose - the destruction of the House. The Old One is freed, and He steps into the Will; it is explained that the Architect split Herself in two at the beginning of Creation to speed the evolutionary process The Old One is in fact a part of Her, but he had to be chained up when his views grew distinct from Hers, and the manifestation of the Will is the Architect in Her entirety. She reveals that, bored with life, She wished to return to Nothing to see what it was like to die. She could not do so, however, without destroying the House, because in her anger She had chained the Old One to the fate of the House, and the Old One was anchoring her to existence. The Architect destroys the remnants of Creation with the powers of the Keys. The now omnipotent Arthur survives and is anointed "New Architect" by the fading thoughts of the Architect, who needed a mortal Heir to provide a creative spirit to renew the Universe. Arthur decides to remake the Universe exactly as it was, using the Compleat Atlas of the House to provide the template. Although the Atlas holds a record of the House and Realms a few seconds before the destruction, Arthur is unable to save his mother, but he does split himself into the New Architect and the human Arthur before his transformation into a denizen of the house. The new human Arthur is not quite the same, being immune to all disease and retaining all the knowledge he acquired on his journey. The New Architect sends Arthur and Leaf back to Earth by recreating the Seven Dials. In the new Creation of the Universe, Suzy reveals her desire to be the new Lady Sunday, and pressures the New Architect to remake the House. The New Architect reveals he will soon bring back Doctor Scamandros, Fred, and Giac, the sorcerer, who could all help with the creation of new Denizens.Allenandundwin.com ===== Nero Wolfe is approached by corporate attorney Rudolf Hansen and his clients Oliver Buff, Vernon Assa and Patrick O'Garro, the chief executives of Manhattan advertising agency Lippert Buff Assa (LBA). The group want Wolfe to save them from embarrassment and ruin following the murder of Louis Dahlmann, an up-and-coming advertising executive with the firm. Dahlmann's wallet was also stolen, and inside were the final answers for a series of cryptic poetic riddles run as part of a promotional competition for Pour Amour, a brand of perfume designed by one of LBA's clients. The first prize of the competition is $500,000, and in a meeting with the final five contestants the night before his death Dahlmann had revealed that he kept the answers in his wallet, both of which lead the police to suspect one of the contestants. The executives, however, do not want Wolfe to investigate the murder but to find out who stole the wallet before the contest deadline—midnight of the nineteenth of April, exactly one week later—in order to ensure the integrity of proceedings and restore their reputation. Despite tension between the advertising agency and Talbott Heery, owner of the company that produces Pour Amour, Wolfe agrees to their terms. Wolfe dispatches Archie Goodwin to secure a copy of the final riddles and their answers for Wolfe's reference, and proceeds to interview each of the contestants: Gertrude Frazee, the leader of an anti-cosmetics women's group who has been using her members to find the answers for the riddles to try and embarrass the cosmetics industry; Carol Wheelock, a housewife who wants the prize money to secure a better life for her family; Harold Rollins, a condescending academic who entered the competition as part of an intellectual exercise; Susan Tescher, a magazine editor who wants to do a profile on Wolfe himself; and Philip Younger, a retiree seeking to recover a fortune he lost during the Great Depression. Although skeptical that Wolfe is only investigating the theft and not the murder, Inspector Cramer shares what the police have learned about the case so far. Other than the financial motive, none of the contestants appears to have had any serious reason or opportunity to either murder Dahlmann or steal the answers, and much to Archie's concern Wolfe's investigation appears to lose energy and focus. As the deadline nears, the LBA executives begin to panic and lash out, resulting in a contradictory sequence where Wolfe is fired and then rehired within a span of minutes. When all seems lost, however, an anonymous source sends copies of the answers to each of the contestants, thus voiding the contest and saving LBA. Although Archie, the LBA executives and the police suspect Wolfe of doing so, he insists that he was not responsible, and begins to suspect one of the advertising executives of at least stealing the wallet, if not murdering Dahlmann. After the letters are sent, Vernon Assa approaches Wolfe and attempts to unilaterally dismiss him from the case, but Wolfe refuses. His suspicions aroused, Wolfe summons the major players to his office and claims he will reveal the identity of the thief, and in doing so provide the police with vital information to help them identify the murderer. Before he can do so, however, Vernon Assa is poisoned with cyanide surreptitiously slipped into his drink and dies on the floor of Wolfe's office. Dahlmann's wallet is found in his pocket, suggesting that he was the thief and murderer. Infuriated at the murder of someone who was enjoying his hospitality and skeptical of Assa's guilt, Wolfe determines to identify the true culprit. He, along with Archie and Saul Panzer, travels to the offices of LBA and inspects a display of products from their clients, discovering a bottle of cyanide that he suspects was used to murder Assa; this confirms in Wolfe's mind the guilt of one of the executives. Confronting Buff, O'Garro and Hansen, Wolfe lays out the facts of the case and accuses Buff of murdering both Dahlmann and Assa. Buff is the only man who had clear means and opportunity, and Wolfe speculates that he was driven to murder Dahlmann out of jealousy and fear over Dahlmann's skills eclipsing and threatening his position. Assa discovered the wallet that Buff stole from Dahlmann to cover his tracks, and Buff murdered him to silence him. When Buff tries to throw suspicion on O'Garro, O'Garro reveals that Wolfe is correct. Buff is convicted of murder, but the remaining LBA executives challenge Wolfe's fee, arguing that as the thief and murderer Buff presumably exposed himself when he sent out the letters containing the final answers. In response, Wolfe reveals in confidence that he will be adding onto his bill the price of a used typewriter that has been disposed of in the East River, implying that he was in fact responsible for sending out the letters and saving them from humiliation after all. ===== While working in the church, Grace finds a hidden crypt. While exploring she discovers a voodoo book, however she is soon sent away by Father Cornelius. Grace's son, Nathan attends the local high school, with his friends Henry and Diggs. Nathan likes his long-time friend Jessica however is too scared to ask her out, in case he is rejected. Also in the school are popular girls Charlotte, Glenda and Cheryl. Cheryl pursues Nathan, despite already having a boyfriend, Samson, who confronts Nathan along with his womanising friend Kenneth after seeing Cheryl talking to Nathan. Meanwhile, Henry and Diggs, fed up with Nathan not asking out Jessica, force the pair to meet after school. While Nathan waits for Jessica, he writes a note about what he will say to her to ask her out. Meanwhile, Jessica's over-protective father forbids her to leave, but she sneaks out. Nathan becomes impatient due to Jessica's lateness and leaves before Jessica arrives; she reads the note; however, through a misunderstanding, Nathan believes Jessica is with Kenneth. Nathan goes home and contemplates hanging himself in his room. Just as he dismisses the idea, Grace enters and knocks the chair over Nathan is standing on, causing him to be hanged. Grace returns to the church and performs a ritual from the book, which brings Nathan back to life. The ritual seems to have gone well, despite Nathan not remembering what happened, however Father Cornelius soon warns Grace that the book was damaged and those who are resurrected by it have the urge to eat human flesh. At school, Nathan hears Kenneth lying about what happened with Jessica the previous night to Samson and another friend, Shane. As Jessica attempts to ask Nathan out, he turns her down, thinking what Kenneth said was true. As the day progresses, Nathan slowly succumbs to the symptoms of the book. At night, everyone heads to a school disco, where Nathan soon becomes more zombie-like and bites Samson before returning home. As Samson becomes a zombie, he attacks Shane and infects him. Jessica goes to Nathan's house to sort things out, but Nathan warns Jessica away from him, realising something is wrong with him. The next morning, Grace tells Nathan what happened. Nathan realises that Samson is infected and tries to get the police to help capture him, but he is ignored. Returning home, Grace locks Nathan in the garage and starts to search for something to help him recover. Meanwhile, Charlotte has also become a zombie and infects Kenneth. Cheryl and Glenda go to a local bar, where they witness a zombie attack. Henry and Diggs also witness a zombie attack in the video shop. Henry and Diggs hide, and see that most of the town have been infected. They phone Jessica and tell her to lock herself inside her house. Henry and Diggs travel to Nathan's house and free him, before setting off to Jessica's. However, on their way they crash their car and have to continue on foot. Jessica is attacked by zombies in her house, including Samson, but she overpowers them and manages to escape. Grace goes to the church, but is attacked by Father Cornelius. He is soon bitten by a snake in the crypt, revealing the snake's venom is the cure to the infection. She takes the snake and leaves. Outside, Cheryl and Glenda are hiding in the graveyard. They encounter the infected Charlotte who bites Glenda, allowing Cheryl to get away. Nathan finds Jessica in a barn beside her house, where Jessica tells Nathan that she never did anything with Kenneth. Meanwhile, Henry and Diggs arrive at Jessica's house, followed by Cheryl who is being chased by a group of zombies. They hide in a cupboard in the house until night time when they try to escape. As they go outside they are saved by Nathan, however a group of zombies close in on them, but Jessica manages to kill them with the aid of a tractor. The survivors hide in the barn, but Samson and Shane get in and infect Cheryl. The others manage to escape to a platform, but are now trapped. They pour gasoline onto the barn floor, before Grace arrives with the snake. However, the snake escapes and the zombies begin to attack Grace. Nathan saves Grace, allowing her to escape, and also kills Samson. Nathan soon completely succumbs to the ritual, and becomes a zombie. As he is about to attack his friends, the snake bites him. The zombies quickly attack Nathan and he is caught in the fire that Jessica has ignited. Jessica, Diggs and Henry leave, and soon discover Nathan survived the fire, who finally asks Jessica to go out with him, to which she answers yes. ===== The plot revolves around the behaviour of a 12-year-old boy called Marius Stern, who is suspended from his boarding school for hitting another boy. Scientist Ptolemaeos Tunne, with the assistance of Jeremy Morrison, attempt to get to the bottom of Marius' behaviour. Marius has a crush on Jeremy and persuades him to share his bed, though nothing sexual happens. Category:1984 British novels Category:Novels by Simon Raven Category:Fiction set in 1977 ===== Montenegro is a name that means "black mountain" in many Romance languages. The native name for the place is Crna Gora. The origin of the name 'Black Mountain' is still a matter of debate among historians. In The Black Mountain, Nero Wolfe's oldest friend and fellow Montenegrin Marko Vukcic is murdered by a Yugoslavian agent who has already made his escape from New York. Without hesitation, Wolfe is compelled to go back to his homeland to avenge Marko's death and bring the killer back to American justice; this desire is intensified by the news that Carla Britten, Wolfe's adopted daughter, has also been killed. As they covertly negotiate through one of the most dangerous places on earth, Archie sees Wolfe as the man of action he used to be, and gets a little culture-shock: In these strange lands, Nero replaces Archie as the expert operator. In Over My Dead Body (1940), Wolfe plays a part in impeding the control of Bosnia and Croatia by Nazi Germany. In The Black Mountain, Marko's nephew is part of a subversive group to gain Montenegro's independence from Yugoslavia. In 1953, such a concept was unrealistic, but supported by the guerrilla formations of komite and Zelenaši. Montenegro became an independent republic in 2006. ===== Amelia (Catherine Keener) and Laura (Anne Heche) are childhood best friends. Amelia is left feeling vulnerable when Laura and her boyfriend Frank (Todd Field) get engaged. She begins to date Bill (Kevin Corrigan), the local clerk at the video rental store she frequents. Though she initially is off put by his looks and his obsession with scifi and horror films she begins to grow attracted to him when she learns he is working on a screenplay about the life of Colette. The two have sex, however while Amelia is in the bathroom she receives a call from Laura asking how her date was with "the ugly guy". Hurt after hearing this Bill abruptly leaves. Meanwhile, since becoming engaged Laura, a therapist, has begun to fantasize about one of her patients. She also allows the waiter at her local coffee shop to flirt with her and begins to pick fights with her fiancé. Amelia becomes obsessed with Bill after sleeping with him but quickly becomes hurt and angry as he never calls her. She asks her friend and former boyfriend Andrew (Liev Schreiber) why they broke up and he confesses that she places too much importance on her boyfriends. After two weeks Amelia finally goes to the video rental store and snaps when Bill is polite but distant towards her. He chases her down and tells her he heard from Laura's message that she called him ugly. Amelia, Laura and Frank go to Amelia's parents' country cottage where Laura and Frank plan to get married. While there Laura and Frank fight causing Frank to leave in the middle of the night. Amelia receives obscene phone calls and calls Andrew, making him take the train to come and protect her. After Andrew answers the phone causing the caller to stop calling. Amelia and Andrew talk get drunk, talk about their past relationship and then go swimming together. Laura and Frank go to a dinner where they hope to reconcile. Frank gives Laura his biopsied mole in a box as a present as their last fight involved her anger at him for not getting it checked by a doctor. Laura finds the present disgusting and leaves without making up with him. Meanwhile, Amelia goes to see Bill at the video store where she learns that he is dating his ex. She goes home where she and Andrew have dinner together and he explains how he broke up with a girl he was having phone sex with. He then kisses Amelia and the two sleep together and she gives him the black leather pants that she bought him as a Christmas present that she never gave him since they broke up before Christmas. Despite the fact that she has not reconciled with Frank, Laura continues to plan her wedding. After going to see Amelia after a disastrous meeting with a wedding makeup artist the two end up fighting as Amelia accuses Laura of abandoning their friendship. The two finally sit down to reconnect and Amelia tells Laura about reconnecting with Andrew before urging her to go make up with Frank. Laura takes her advice to heart. Laura reconnects with Frank. On her wedding day she allows Amelia to do her makeup and hair like they had originally planned. Laura tells Amelia that she believes that she and Andrew are going to make it. The two leave to go to the ceremony hand in hand. ===== The prologue is the last two pages of Soul Harvest. ===== Thomas Smithers (Postlethwaite), who has made his fortune as an ironmonger and cannon-maker, hires the famous Meneer Chrome (McGregor) to create the most extravagant garden imaginable on his overgrown property. Smithers doesn't know that his wife's cousin Fitzmaurice (Grant) has already hired Chrome, with the goal of bankrupting Smithers and essentially acquiring Juliana, whom he loves. Juliana, however, is attracted to Chrome and he in turn to the Smithers' daughter, Anna, who filters all experiences through a volume of Andrew Marvell's poems that she is never without. Her parents, thinking her mentally unstable, subject her to numerous "treatments" that prompt Chrome's compassion. As the garden grows increasingly complex and Smithers approaches bankruptcy, Fitzmaurice realizes that Chrome's affection for Anna makes him a liability; he threatens to reveal some damaging information about Chrome and then decides to kill him, but his plan backfires and Fitzmaurice dies. Juliana decides to remain loyal to her husband, now bankrupt from his obsession with the garden project. Chrome, revealed as an imposter (the assistant to the actual Chrome), goes to the sea with Anna, where she throws away her book of poetry. ===== The TARDIS arrives aboard a sanctuary base used for deep-space expeditions. The Tenth Doctor and Rose explore the area, discovering strange alien writing that the TARDIS is unable to translate, meaning that it is "impossibly old". They are confronted by the Ood, a docile race of empathic slaves who work on the station. After a misunderstanding with the Ood, the Doctor and Rose meet the crew of the base, Zach, Ida, Jefferson, Danny, Scooti and Toby. The crew are on an expedition on the mysterious planet Krop Tor, impossibly in orbit around a black hole. Captain Zach explains that a gravity funnel exists around the planet, allowing them to safely enter or leave the vicinity of the black hole. The source of the funnel is an immense energy force ten miles within the planet, which they are drilling towards to understand its power. As the Doctor and Rose are acquainting themselves with the crew, the base is struck by a quake that causes the section of the base containing the TARDIS to fall into the planet. Rose and the Doctor resign themselves to being trapped and begin helping out the crew. As the drill nears its target, a malevolent presence begins to make itself known. The Ood's translation spheres reveal messages about the Beast awakening, while Toby is unknowingly possessed by the Beast. The possessed Toby kills Scooti when she discovers him surviving outside the base without any protective gear. When the drilling is complete, the Doctor offers to go with Ida into the bowels of the planet. After travelling down the drill shaft, the Doctor and Ida find a large circular disk inscribed with more undecipherable markings. The Doctor believes it to be a door, and they watch as it opens. Suddenly, the Beast repossesses Toby before transferring into all the Ood as they refer to themselves as the Legion of the Beast. With Rose and the remaining crew alerted that the planet is now falling towards the black hole, the Ood begin to close in on them whilst the voice of the Beast declares that it is free. ===== The novel opens as Dr. Kay Scarpetta, Chief Medical Examiner for the Commonwealth of Virginia, receives an early-morning call from Sergeant Pete Marino, a homicide detective at the Richmond Police Department with whom Scarpetta has a tense working relationship. She meets him at the scene of a woman's gruesome strangling, the latest in a string of unsolved murders in Richmond. The killer leaves behind a few clues; among them are a mysterious substance which fluoresces under laser light, which was later on proved to be from a liquid soap which the killer used to wash his hands, traces of semen, and in the vicinity of the last murder, an unusual smell. Scarpetta and Marino work with FBI profiler Benton Wesley to attempt to piece together a profile of the killer. Initial evidence appears to point to the fourth victim's husband, but Scarpetta suspects otherwise despite Marino's insistence. The book references DNA profiling as a relatively new technique, and characters briefly bemoan the lack of a criminal DNA database which could provide better leads to suspects, given available evidence. Meanwhile in her personal life, Scarpetta must deal with the presence of her extremely precocious ten-year-old niece, Lucy, as well as an uncertain romantic relationship with the local Commonwealth's attorney. During the investigation, a series of news leaks about the murders appear to be coming from a source within the medical examiner's office. The leaks threaten Scarpetta's position, especially after she is forced to admit that her office database has been compromised. Believing that the killer thrives on media attention and hoping to flush him out by provoking his ego, Scarpetta, Wesley, and local investigative reporter Abby Turnbull (whose sister was the fifth victim), conspire to release a news story which suggests that the killer has a distinctive body odour due to a rare metabolic disease and implies that the killer may be mentally disordered. While attempting to find another link between the five murders, Scarpetta discovers that all five intended victims had recently called 911; she suspects that the killer is a 911 operator and chose his victims based on their voices. Scarpetta is awakened in the middle of the night by the killer, who has broken into her home. As she attempts to reach for a gun she has nearby for protection, Marino bursts into her bedroom and shoots the intruder, having realized that the news article would make Scarpetta a likely target. Scarpetta's suspicion proves to be correct; the killer was a 911 dispatcher. ===== ===== The story is set in Vancouver, 2036. San Francisco was struck by an earthquake and a company called Self, which is somehow related to Microsoft, set up an AI system to replace the city, with a virtual environment called Frisco. The story follows several people, both in Vancouver as well as in Frisco. ===== Mooch (Higgins the Dog), a young canine starlet sets off for Hollywood. After befriending Zsa Zsa Gabor, her new friend provides the pooch with the "skinny" on the ins and outs of achieving Hollywood fame. Wandering through the famous haunts of tinseltown, Mooch comes across Vincent Price at the Brown Derby and ends up in his Jeep. Price wants to give the dog to a young admirer and takes Mooch to a veterinarian (James Harding) for a check-up. When his new owner leaves, Mooch is frightened by Dr. Hackett and bolts for the door, but is not able to catch up with Price driving away. After checking out the psychedelic scene where she meets Phyllis Diller, her wandering takes Mooch first to Dino's Lounge on Sunset Strip in West Hollywood and then to the Playboy Club in downtown Los Angeles. Rejected as a Playboy bunny, but still on the lookout for famous haunts, Mooch discovers Michaelangelo's Wigs where she has visions of a glamorous new look. Continuing on past the Classic Cat Club, Mooch encounters James Darren at an outdoor garage, and feigns an injury to get his attention. On a trip to the seashore, new adventures await with new friends. Hoping to land a contract, Mooch tags along with two girls being discovered by a producer Jerry Hausner. Ending up back at the veterinarian, Mooch joins a wild menagerie of animals waiting for Dr. Hackett. Placed in the veterinarian's kennel, Mooch makes his escape and heads for Paragon Studios. On his tour of the back lots, famous catch phrases waft through the air. After interrupting a wild west shooting scene, Mooch sneaks into the dressing room of Jill St. John. Taking her turn in the hairdresser's chair, the young starlet finds her way to a recording session with Jim Backus, playing Mr. Magoo and who needs a dog for an upcoming production. He becomes her next master, taking Mooch home to meet his wife Henny, and the many friends arriving for a garden party, including all of Mooch's former owners. Finally making one last attempt at achieving stardom, Mooch checks out a Hollywood estate and jumps aboard the owner's car. It turns out to be Dr. Hackett who ultimately adopts the stray. ===== The Bantons (father, Abel (John Carradine) and four sons, Coy (Jock Mahoney), Ethan (Ron McDonnell), Johnny (Gary Cockrell) and Martin (Al Mulock)) rob a pay office in a settlement, killing some people. Coy Banton is tracked down to their camp and taken away by a policeman, Wyntors (John Sullivan). Taking him back to town, Wyntors is killed as two of the brothers seek to rescue Coy. Tarzan appears and kills Ethan Banton. The other brother escapes. Tarzan decides to take Coy to Kairobi for the $5000 reward so he can give it to Wyntors' widow. However, no one in the town of Mantu (same town as the one at the beginning of Tarzan's Greatest Adventure) wants to help him. The boat he is waiting for to take him and his prisoner to Kairobi is ambushed by the Bantons, who send the passengers off and destroy the boat. Later that night Tarzan meets with the people from the boat and decides on an overland trek to take Coy Banton to Kairobi and agrees to take along, at first, the boat's mate, Tate (Earl Cameron), then reluctantly agrees to take the passengers of the boat: A business man named Ames (Lionel Jeffries) and his wife, Fay (Betta St. John); another man named Conway (Charles Tingwell) and a young woman named Lori (Alexandra Stewart), who all share with Tarzan their own reasons for wanting to go to Kairobi. But Tarzan warns them the trek through the jungles would be hard and dangerous. The presence of so many people to watch out for hinders Tarzan. The Bantons threaten to kill anyone who helps Tarzan. Pausing only to shoot the doctor who has told them what they want to know, the Bantons set out after the party and Coy. Ames is a boastful and racist windbag whose wife begins to detest him. Seeing this, Coy plays up to her, hoping he might be able to use her later. The party are captured by natives and the leader wants to kill Coy, who killed his brother when the Bantons raided their village. However, the chief's wife is having a difficult childbirth labour, and since Conway (who was a doctor) is able to help her have her baby (a breach birth), the chief agrees to let the party go. Coy sees his chance and escapes. Thanks to Ames, Tate is shot and later dies. Tarzan again captures Coy and he hides them both in a quicksand pit as the other Bantons search for them. Later, Lori wanders off and is caught by Johnny Banton who attempts to have his way with her. As she screams, Tarzan comes to rescue her and, after a fight, Johnny dies from a shot in the face with his rifle while struggling with Tarzan and falls into a stream. Later, seeing his grave (along with Tate's), Martin Banton has had enough of a father who taught them to steal and murder by age sixteen, and leaves him. Coy's wiles have paid off and Fay Ames releases him while the others sleep, and they leave camp together. Tarzan goes after them and finds Fay's scarf. Coy left her behind when she was out of breath and a lioness found her. Tarzan eventually comes on Coy and Abel Banton, and in a roving battle, a ricochet from Coy's rifle kills Abel. A prolonged battle on rocks, on sand and underwater follows before Tarzan finally knocks Coy out. The film ends with Tarzan and the remaining three people (Ames, Lori, and Conway) handing Coy over to the Kairobi police on the border and instructs Conway to make sure Wyntor's widow gets the reward money. ===== Firethorn, narrated by the protagonist of the same name, starts out as Luck, a 'mudfolk' orphan with unusually red hair serving an ageing noblewoman, the Dame, in a land where the division between high and lowborn is literally attributed to the gods. Too restless to live her fate as a drudge and too proud to accept the inevitable abuse that accompanies it after the Dame's death, Luck runs. A year in the mountains spent starving to death makes her desperate enough to eat the poisonous berries of the firethorn tree but instead of dying, she has a revelation that may well include a god-granted gift. Emerging from the forest, calling herself Firethorn, she tries to return to civilisation, knowing she can never quite fit. In the Upside-Down Days (ten days when the high and lowborn trade places) she meets Sire Galan, a visiting lord who takes her as his lover. When he marches off to war and suggests she tag along as his 'sheath' (a woman that follows a soldier to war and shares his bed), she jumps at the chance just to get away. But life as a camp follower waiting for war may well be something that not even Firethorn can survive... ===== The Ghost Sonata relates the adventures of a young student, who idealizes the lives of the inhabitants of a stylish apartment building in Stockholm. He makes the acquaintance of the mysterious Jacob Hummel, who helps him to find his way into the apartment, only to find that it is a nest of betrayal and sickness. The world, the student learns, is hell and human beings must suffer to achieve salvation. The play centers on a family of strangers who meet for the sake of meeting. They exchange no dialogue, nor gestures, they simply sit and bask in their own misfortune. To Strindberg, family was something that he could never understand or even be a functioning part of: "Family... the home of all social evil, a charitable institution for comfortable women, an anchorage for house-fathers, and a hell for children" (Strindberg's Inferno). As a child, Strindberg went through the very hell he alludes to about the family. As an adult he realized that he would rather have died than lived a childhood hell and an adult hell, thus spawning a mania fixating on death. ===== The novel, set in 1961, follows an eccentric community of houseboat owners whose permanently moored craft cluster together along the unsalubrious bank of the River Thames at Battersea Reach, London. Nenna, living aboard Grace with her two children Martha and Tilda, is obsessed with thoughts of her estranged husband Edward returning to her, while her children run wild on the muddy foreshore. Maurice, who lives next to her on a barge he has named Maurice, provides a sympathetic ear for her worries. He ekes out a precarious living as a male prostitute, bringing back men most evenings from the nearby pub, and allowing his boat to be used for the storage of stolen goods by his shadowy acquaintance, Harry. Willis, an elderly marine painter, lives aboard Dreadnought which he hopes to sell in spite of its serious leak. Woodie is a retired businessman living aboard Rochester during the summer and with his wife Janet in Purley during the winter. Richard, aboard his converted minesweeper Lord Jim, is looked up to as the unofficial leader of the community, both by temperament and by virtue of his past role with the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. His wife Laura hankers to move to a permanent house ashore. When Dreadnought unexpectedly sinks, Willis is taken in by Woodie on Rochester. Nenna resists the entreaties of her prosperous and energetic sister, who tries to persuade her to move to Canada for the sake of her daughters, and she resolves to confront Edward in his rented room in Stoke Newington, north London. Failing to persuade him to return, she gets back to Grace late at night feeling desolate, and bumps into Richard who tells her that his wife has just left him. They spend the night together. Richard discovers Harry acting suspiciously on Maurice. Harry attacks him, and Richard ends up in hospital. Laura takes her husband's incapacity as the excuse she needs to sell Lord Jim and to move herself and Richard into a proper house. Maurice sits out an overnight storm in his cabin, drinking whisky in the dark. He hears blundering footsteps overhead and discovers that Edward (whom he does not know) has returned, incapably drunk, trying to find Nenna. The storm has blown away the gangplank between Maurice and Grace and, almost delirious with drink, the two men climb down Maurices fixed ladder, intending somehow to cross the wild water between the two boats. As they cling to the ladder, Maurices anchor is wrenched from the mud, its mooring ropes part, and the boat puts out on the tide. ===== The story follows the lives of twelve people who lived in the same area of England over a period of 6000 years, and how their lives link to one another’s. Each chapter carries the reader forward in time, but circles around the centre of Northampton, drawing in historical events and touchstones, before finally segueing into metafictional narrative in the closing chapter, as the author himself comments directly upon the previous chapter’s ambiguous closing line, before relating a personal (possibly fictional) anecdote about Northampton which relates a personal experience of local myth, and features an appearance by his daughter and son- in-law, the writers Leah Moore and John Reppion. Throughout, the image of the fire sparks resonates between the tales, while Moore finds a different voice for each character – though most are inherently duplicitous in some manner, leading to a further commentary on the disparity between myth and reality, and which is more likely to endure over time. ===== ===== A friendship develops between Bill Denny (George Segal) and Charlie Waters (Elliott Gould) over their mutual love of gambling. Charlie is a wisecracking joker and experienced gambler constantly looking for the next score. Initially, Bill is not as committed a gambler (he works at a magazine during the day), but he is well on his way. The two bond when they are wrongfully accused of colluding at a casino's poker table by an irate fellow player. As the two men hang out more, Bill becomes more addicted to the gambling lifestyle. He goes into debt to Sparkie (Joseph Walsh), his bookie. Bill hocks possessions to fund a trip to Reno, where he and Charlie pool their money to stake Bill in a poker game (where one of the players is former world champion Amarillo Slim, portraying himself). Bill wins $18,000 and becomes convinced he is on a hot streak. He plays blackjack, then roulette and finally craps, winning more and more money. But something happens at the craps table. When he finally stops, Bill is drained, almost apathetic. After they split their winnings ($82,000), he tells Charlie he is quitting and going home. Charlie does not understand it, but sees that his friend means what he says, so they go their separate ways. ===== Master Liu and Master Law are rival masters of Shaolin style kung fu and Wu- Tang style sword fighting, running schools in the same city. Their top students, Chao Fung-wu (Adam Cheng) and Hung Jun-kit (Gordon Liu), are actually close friends, with Jun-kit's sister, Yan-ling, having a crush on Fung-wu. After observing the two students fighting at a brothel, two of the local Qing Lord's (Wang Lung Wei) soldiers report the power of the styles to him. The Lord determines that the two styles are dangerous and that he must learn both. After being poisoned by the Lord, Master Law lets Fung-wu stab him. For this Fung-wu is being sent to prison. Trying to rescue Fung-wu, Jun- kit teaches a prisoner the Shaolin Chin kang fist, not knowing the prisoner is the Lords spy. After their escape from prison, the four of them (the spy, Yan- ling, Fung-wu and Jun-kit) are ambushed. To overcome the Lords men Fung-wu teaches the spy some Wu-tang sword techniques. As they are still being overpowered Fung-wu and Yan-ling have to flee the scene just to be captured by the Wu-Tang who came to prosecute Fung-wu for killing Master Law. As they leave for Wu-Tang temple Yan-ling gets shot and dies in Fung-wu arms. The Wu- Tang leave the dead body behind. Jun-kit finds it, believing the Wu-Tang killed his sister. Hoping to avenge Yan-lings death Jun-kit returns to the Shaolin temple for training as a monk. Meanwhile Fung-wu is being held at the Wu-tang temple. The Qing Lord has since learned both the styles from the spy; but, because he did not learn either from a master, his grasp on both styles is imperfect. To overcome this deficiency, he decides to have the Wu-Tang and the Shaolin destroy each other, so he may be the only master of both styles. To do this, he stages a martial arts contest between the two temples, hoping to appeal to the traditional rivalry between the Shaolin and the Wu-Tang. Jun- kit (now called Tat-chi), and Fung-wu (now called Ming-kai), are selected by their respective temples as the representatives. During the contest the Qing Lord, in his impatience to see both Wu-Tang and Shaolin destroyed, admits his true motives, and his role in Yan-ling and Master Law's deaths. Tat-chi and Ming-kai must then combine Shaolin Chin kang fist and Wu-Tang Sword style to defeat him. ===== The story begins with the narrator describing the night sky as observed over long sleepless nights from his window, in particular that of the Pole Star, Polaris, which he describes as "winking hideously like an insane watching eye which strives to convey some strange message, yet recalls nothing save that it once had a message to convey". He then describes the night of the aurora over his house in the swamp, and how on this night he first dreamed of a city of marble lying on a plateau between two peaks, with Polaris above in the night sky. The narrator describes after a while observing motion within the houses and seeing men beginning to populate the streets, conversing to each other in language that he had never heard before but still, strangely, understood. However, before he could learn any more of this city, he awoke. Many times, he would again dream of the city and the men who dwelt within. After a while, the narrator tired of merely existing as an incorporeal observer and began to desire to establish his place within the city, simultaneously beginning to question his conceptualization of what constituted reality and thus whether this was just a dream or whether it was real. Then, one night, while listening to discourses of those who populate the city, the narrator obtains a physical form: not as a stranger, but as an inhabitant of the city, which he now knew as Olathoë, lying on the plateau of Sarkis in the land of Lomar, which was besieged by an enemy known as the Inutos. While the other men within the city engage in combat with Inutos, the narrator is sent to a watchtower to signal if the Inutos gain access to the city itself. Within the tower, he notices Polaris in the sky and senses it as a malign presence, hearing a rhyme which appears to be spoken by the star: Uncertain as to its meaning, he drifts off to sleep, thus failing in his duty to guard Olathoë. Upon awakening, the narrator finds himself back in the house by the swamp, but the narrator now is convinced that this life is not real but a dream from which he cannot awaken. ===== 14-year-old Hayley Stark and 32-year-old photographer Jeff Kohlver engage in a sexually charged, flirtatious online chat. Jeff and Hayley meet at a coffeehouse, and he takes her back to his house. Hayley makes them both screwdrivers and asks him to take photographs. Before he can, Jeff loses consciousness. When Jeff wakes, he is bound to a chair. Hayley explains she has been tracking him and drugged him because she knows he is a pedophile, rapist, and murderer. Jeff denies these allegations, claiming he had innocent intentions. Hayley searches Jeff's house and finds his gun and safe. In the safe, Hayley finds pictures, including a photo of Donna Mauer, a local girl who has been kidnapped and remains missing. Jeff denies involvement in Mauer's disappearance and reaches for his gun. When he attacks Hayley, she asphyxiates him with plastic wrap. When Jeff wakes, he finds himself bound to a steel table with a bag of ice on his genitals. Hayley explains she will castrate Jeff. Jeff threatens, bribes and sweet-talks Hayley to dissuade her; when that doesn't work, he tries to get her sympathy by telling her he was abused as a child. Following the supposed operation, which Jeff does not feel due to the ice numbing his genitals, Hayley leaves the kitchen, saying she will take a shower. Jeff frees himself and realizes he is unharmed. He storms off in a rage to get Hayley in the bathroom, where the shower is running. Scalpel in hand, he attacks, but finds the shower empty. Hayley attacks him from behind, and as they struggle, Hayley incapacitates him with a stun gun. Hayley poses as a police officer and asks Jeff's ex-girlfriend, Janelle, to come immediately to Jeff's house. Jeff regains consciousness to find that Hayley has bound his wrists and hoisted him to stand on a chair in his kitchen with a noose around his neck. Hayley makes Jeff an offer: if he commits suicide, she promises to erase the evidence of his crimes, but if he refuses, she promises to expose his secrets. The conversation is interrupted when a neighbor knocks on the front door, selling girl scout cookies. When Hayley returns, Jeff breaks from his bindings and pursues her to the roof of his house, where she has lured him. Hayley has brought her rope from the kitchen and fashioned it into a noose secured to the chimney. Hayley keeps Jeff at bay with his gun. Jeff confesses that he watched while another man raped and murdered Mauer. Jeff promises Hayley that, if she spares his life, he will tell her the other man's name so she can exact her revenge. Hayley reveals that she already knows his name, Aaron, and that Aaron said Jeff did it before he killed himself. Janelle arrives, and Hayley once again urges Jeff to hang himself, promising that she will destroy the evidence. Defeated, Jeff lets Hayley slide the noose around his neck, and takes the last fatal step off the roof; after he falls Hayley says "or not". Hayley gathers her belongings and escapes through the woods. ===== Six years have passed since the events at Hull House on Halloween, and many of the bodies left at Hull House were recovered except for Angela's; rumor persists she descended bodily into Hell. As it turns out, her parents committed suicide five years later after receiving a Halloween card with Angela's signature. A year later her sister Melissa, nicknamed 'Mouse' (Merle Kennedy), is now staying at St. Rita's Academy, a Catholic boarding school for troubled teenagers. She frequently has nightmares about her sister. Rumors spread around the school regarding Mouse, started by the school bully, Shirley (Zoe Trilling). However, the head nun at the school, Sister Gloria (Jennifer Rhodes), tries to put an end to it. However, Shirley, after getting banned from the school Halloween dance for wrestling on the tennis courts with Kurt (Ladd York) decides to have her own Halloween party at Hull House complete with Mouse and (as a prank) fake carrying out ritual sacrifice she learns from stealing a demonic ritual book from the school brain, Perry (Robert Jayne). Along with her boyfriend Rick (Rick Peters) and Z-Boy (Darin Heames), she tricks Johnny (Johnny Moran), Johnny's girlfriend, Bibi (Cristi Harris), Bibi's friend Terri (Christine Taylor) and Kurt (Ladd York) to get Mouse to go with them to Hull House, awakening a now demonized Angela. After some bizarre incidents, the group flees the house, minus Z-Boy, who is possessed and raped by Angela in the attic. Bibi brings a tube of lipstick out of the house which takes on a hellish life of its own. It quickly possesses Shirley and, one by one, Rick, Z-Boy, Terri and Kurt are possessed and/or murdered by demonic Angela (although Terri is saved when Sister Gloria exorcises the demon inside her with Holy Water). Angela's plan is to sacrifice Mouse to the Devil to prove her devotion to him. Sister Gloria, Johnny, Bibi, Father Bob (Rod McCary) and Perry return to Hull House in an attempt to rescue Melissa. Once arriving at the house, the five become separated and Father Bob is quickly killed by the demonic Rick. Johnny is saved by Perry from the demonic Kurt. Unfortunately, Perry is killed by Z-Boy. With the holy water the group brought, Bibi, Johnny and Sister Gloria kill the remaining demons, except for Angela. After finishing off the demons, the three survivors find Melissa sleeping on an altar. Angela and Sister Gloria debate on what true faith is with Angela stating "Real faith can move mountains, your faith can't even move a mouse." Angela then decapitates Sister Gloria but the sister actually pulls her head down into her habit and survives. With one last ruse to save Melissa and the others, Sister Gloria agrees to take her place on the altar. Angela then hands the sword to Melissa, promising her a great source of power if she kills Sister Gloria. However, Melissa turns the tables and stabs Angela instead. Sister Gloria finishes Angela off with a super soaker filled with holy water. As the four try to leave, they are confronted again by Angela, who has taken the form of a Lamia. Angela attacks them but Johnny manages to kick a hole in the wall in the shape of a cross. The cross-shaped-sunlight falls upon Angela and she explodes. With Angela and her minions dead, Sister Gloria, Melissa, Bibi and Johnny leave the house and return to the school where they are greeted by everyone there. But before the film ends, one student is then seen finding the demonic lipstick which turns into a snake and attacks her. ===== Bowie, a young man convicted of murder when a teenager, and Chicamaw, an old lag, escape from a Mississippi prison in 1936 and join up with another old lag, T-Dub, who has hired a cab to meet them. They hide out with an acquaintance, who owns a garage, and immediately set to work robbing banks. Here Bowie gets to talk to Keechie, the garageman's daughter. They next hole up with T-Dub's sister-in-law Mattie and her children, including her older daughter Lula, the object of T-Dub's lascivious attention. Bowie is injured in a car crash, after which Chicamaw guns down an inquisitive officer. He leaves Bowie at the garage, where Keechie takes care of him. They become lovers but Bowie has no intention of turning his back on crime. Bowie leaves to meet up with the others and they rob a bank, but the trigger-happy Chicamaw shoots and kills a bank clerk. The robbers split up and Bowie returns to a distraught Keechie. We learn that T-Dub has been killed and Chicamaw recaptured and returned to prison. After persuading an unwilling Mattie to let the pregnant Keechie stay in a cabin at her motel, Bowie, posing as a sheriff, springs Chickamaw from prison but the latter, while claiming to have merely tied the warden to a tree, has instead shot him dead. Bowie forces Chicamaw out of the car and leaves him at the side of the road to fend for himself. Returning to the motel cabin he is ambushed by Rangers, who blast the cabin with gunfire, watched by an anguished Keechie, forcibly restrained by Mattie, who has betrayed Bowie. Bowie's bloody body is carried out and laid on the mud. In the final scene we see Keechie at the station, ready to take the first train out to find a place where she can have her baby. (In Anderson's novel, she too is killed by the Rangers.) ===== Two families live next to one another in a French village on the eve of World War I. The Boy in one of the families falls for the only daughter in the other family. As they make preparations for marriage, World War I breaks out, and, although the Boy is American, he feels he should fight for the country in which he lives. When the French retreat, the village is shelled. The Boy's father and the Girl's mother and grandfather are killed. The Girl, deranged, wanders aimlessly through the battlefield and comes upon the Boy badly wounded and unconscious. She finds her way back to the village where she is nursed back to health by The Little Disturber who had previously been a rival for the Boy's affections. The Boy is carried off by the Red Cross. Von Strohm, a German officer, lusts after the Girl and attempts to rape her, but she narrowly escapes when he is called away by his commanding officer. Upon his recovery, the Boy, disguised as a German officer, infiltrates the enemy-occupied village, finds the Girl. The two of them are forced to kill a German sergeant who discovers them. Von Strohm finds the dead sergeant and locates the Boy and Girl who are locked in an upper room at the inn. It is a race against time with the Germans trying to break the door down as the French return to retake the village. ===== The story begins in 1885 with the arrival of an important new guest star in Buffalo Bill Cody's grand illusion, Chief Sitting Bull of Little Big Horn fame. Much to Cody's annoyance, Sitting Bull proves not to be a murdering savage but a genuine embodiment of what the whites believe about their own history out west. He is quietly heroic and morally pure. Sitting Bull also refuses to portray Custer's Last Stand as a cowardly sneak attack. Instead, he asks Cody to act out the massacre of a peaceful Sioux village by marauding bluecoats. An enraged Cody fires him but is forced to relent when star attraction Annie Oakley takes Sitting Bull's side. =====