Robert Prentice is drafted after graduating high school and enters World War II during its final days. His hopes of glory are dashed by the fact that the fighting is almost all over. He proves to be an incompetent soldier and soon spends time in an infirmary with pneumonia. When he returns to his unit he continues to struggle but finally achieves a kind of acceptance.

This narrative is interspersed with scenes from his childhood viewed from the perspective of his mother, Alice Prentice. She spends Robert's childhood moving from place to place mainly within New York accruing increasingly larger debts as her sculpting earns less and less money. She increasingly slips into despair as the novel ends and Robert decides not to return home.

Juani comes from a very poor background, having grown up in a slummy neighborhood of Tarragona. She has problems at home and argues incessantly with her boyfriend, with whom she has been since she was 15. Soon his infidelity and overall uselessness, as well as the limitations of her poor and small town, become unbearable for Juani, a girl with big dreams and aspirations. She and her best friend leave for Madrid in search of a better life. At first the big city, a complete opposite of their hometown, couldn't seem to be a better place for their adolescent expectations of life. But their naïve dreams are soon shattered by the ruthlessness of their dream city. In a visit home Juani almost decides she will not return to Madrid, and will instead come back to old relationships and live again in her parents' house. She expresses these sentiments to her mother who tells her that she loves Juani's father, but always asks herself what her life would have been like had she left, like Juani. After speaking to her mother Juani realizes that she can not give up just because she has been having a hard time in Madrid. In a tearful finale, she decides to return to Madrid with less naïve expectations, hoping to escape the abusive relationship she has with her boyfriend and the future she would have were she to stay in her town. The moral of the story becomes clear: never forget what you set out to get, despite the struggles that come your way, and never give up on your dreams.

The Smurf King

King Smurf is a regular Smurf whose actual name and position is never stated in the original adventure in which he is the titular main character.

When Papa Smurf leaves the village for a few weeks in order to get some ''Euphorbia'' leaves, which he needs to complete an herbal potion for undisclosed use, the Smurfs are left with no leader. Arguments ensue when each Smurf claims the post, and are only resolved by the decision to have a vote, though everybody intends to votes for themselves.

One unnamed Smurf uses demagogic tactics, and makes promises to almost all the Smurfs, who agree to vote for him. He puts up posters, holds a parade, makes self-praising election speeches, and offers rounds of raspberry juice. Soon, the only candidate remaining is Brainy Smurf who, as usual, simply claims that he was the only suitable Smurf since, according to himself only, "Papa Smurf always said so".

The Smurf thus wins with 97 votes — two of the other three votes go to Brainy Smurf, supported by himself and Clumsy Smurf: the winning Smurf had told Clumsy Smurf to vote for Brainy Smurf, expecting him to get it wrong when it came to the actual vote. The other is a spoiled ballot.

The winning Smurf then proceeds to put on golden-coloured clothes and asks the others to refer to him as "King Smurf". To his anger, the Smurfs laugh off his pretence. Instead he resolves to teach them their place and becomes increasingly authoritarian. The Smurfs begin to despise him as he becomes corrupted by power: King Smurf imposes a repressive regime and installs an armed troop of guards, led by Hefty Smurf, punishing all opposition. He forces the Smurfs into building him a palace. When a present from Jokey explodes on King Smurf, Jokey is promptly imprisoned as a warning.

The only Smurf to show King Smurf any real support is Brainy Smurf, but, because he has no strong convictions and also upset by the treatment of Jokey he later joins a growing resistance movement. The rebels (joined by an escaped Jokey Smurf) base themselves in the forest, insulting and provoking King Smurf from a distance. By offering the other Smurfs gold medals, King Smurf mounts an expedition into the forest to confront the rebellion, but it ends in failure: the rebels get more recruits in the process.

To prevent any more defections, King Smurf has the village surrounded by a wooden wall. When he refuses to abdicate, the rebels attack the village. King Smurf's troops fight back by pelting the attackers with tomatoes.

The rebels eventually break through the wooden wall, and a full-scale battle ensues, causing widespread destruction. During the fight, a rebel takes explosives from Papa Smurf's laboratory and blows up King Smurf's castle. King Smurf is left helpless, with only his guards to support him. In spite of this, he defiantly refuses to stand down, and a final confrontation seems inevitable, but at that moment, Papa Smurf returns from his journey and demands an explanation for the conflict.

The sudden return of paternal authority brings an immediate end to the battle, and the embarrassed Smurfs explain themselves to Papa Smurf. He is angry with them for "behaving like humans", but mostly puts the blame on King Smurf. Extremely remorseful, ex-King Smurf announces his abdication and returns to his old home. He takes a bucket and a broom, and promises to clean up the damaged village. Smurfs feel sorry for him, and offer their help, saying that the destruction was also their fault and that they still liked him. Ex-King Smurf is touched by this, and seeing this, Papa Smurf forgives them all.

King Smurf's outfit is then used for a scarecrow.

Smurphony in C

An unnamed Smurf is rejected from the village orchestra since he plays badly every instrument (even the triangle!). He meets a strange fairy who gives him a magic instrument, the "turlusiphon", which always plays well. However, when the Smurf plays the turlusiphon to the other smurfs, they fall asleep. The Smurf discovers the fairy was really Gargamel in disguise and goes to Gargamel's laboratory to find the cure for the turlusiphon-induced sleep, and faces both Gargamel and his cat Azrael. Sadly, Gargamel's books say there is no known cure for the turlusiphon. Angry, the Smurf kicks the turlusiphon into the chimney and leaves Gargamel's home. At the village, Harmony (as the Smurf now calls himself) takes his old trumpet and decides to play a requiem for his fellow Smurfs. The miracle happens when his music is so awful that it awakens the Smurfs. The Smurfs decide to accept him at the orchestra due to his heroism, but they still cover their ears when he plays.

The plot involves Dalziel and Pascoe's investigation into the suicide of local businessman Palinurus 'Pal' Maciver, who has killed himself in similar circumstances to those of his father, who shot himself ten years earlier. However, what begins as a routine case of an apparent copycat suicide soon develops into something of a more sinister nature, revealing family secrets, corporate chicanery involving the arms trade, government agents and Iraq.

Category:2004 British novels Category:Novels by Reginald Hill Category:HarperCollins books

The story takes place in the year 2037, after the loss of the ozone layer has left most of the planet a desolate wasteland scattered with highly radioactive "Death Zones", except for several areas that still flourish.

Much of the human population has been reduced to Crawlers, mutated cannibalistic underground dwellers who have lost their intelligence and speak only in grunts and mine garbage dumps. Outworlders are un-mutated humans who live in the Death Zones. A few humans are Dreamers, who live in Inworld, a sealed biosphere maintained by the central Infinisynth computer. They spend all their time plugged in via implants in their necks, living through virtual reality fantasies.

The heroine, Judy, a dreamer, lives with her mother. She has gradually become less satisfied with the life they have. After an unsuccessful attempt to talk directly to her mother, Judy manages to penetrate her virtual reality to wake herself up. Judy interrupts the dream, but she causes her mother to die in the real world.

For interfering with dreams of other users, Judy is exiled from Inworld by the mysterious System Operator who controls Infinisynth. She is saved from the Crawlers by Stover, an Outworlder who believes he is the last "normal" human being still living on the surface, protecting himself from the deadly ultraviolet rays, radioactivity, caustic ground water, and Crawlers, while subsisting on a diet of small animals. The two are captured by the Crawlers, however, and brought to their underground village, where Stover is set to work mining the garbage dump. Judy is saved by the Crawlers' leader, the masked Seer (who is intelligent and can speak), from being butchered. The Seer's consort, Cornelia, also an Outworlder, is jealous of the Seer's intentions towards Judy. Her attempt to infect Judy with a mutant leech-like parasite fails, however, and the Seer has Cornelia's slave/foster daughter Claude crushed by an elaborate meat grinder constructed from salvaged parts. It is a quasi-religious ritual attended by the Crawler population, who all drink Claude's blood. The Seer reveals himself to be an Inworlder.

In the meantime, Stover uses a food processor blade he finds in the dump to escape and free Judy, only to be recaptured. He is thrown into a half-submerged cage where he is attacked by many of the mutant leeches. The Seer, meanwhile, reveals to Judy he is her father, rationalizing his actions by claiming he did what was necessary to survive. He wants Judy to follow in his footsteps. Initially, she is ambivalent, but becomes fully resistant when he reveals the second part of his plan: the two of them will breed a race of healthy children to continue leading the Crawlers. She escapes and liberates Stover, scraping off the parasites with a sharp blade. The two are captured yet again, and the Seer convenes another ceremony to put them into the grinder. Judy overcomes him and feeds her father into the machine, causing the Crawlers to proclaim her as the new Seer. By that time, Stover, who seems to go insane from the leech infection, tries to convince her to stay and accept the leadership as well.

Judy escapes to the surface with Stover chasing after her. When they stop and talk, Stover (infected by the leeches) suddenly vomits leech larvae onto her. Then she wakes up back in Inworld and realizes it was all an Infinisynth simulation. She is then confronted by her father, who is in actuality the Infinisynth System Operator and wants to hand the position down to her. Judy wakes up again back in her old room, living with her mother. The ending leaves the question whether the handing of the System Operator position over to her actually happened or was only a simulation created by her subconscious mind.

In 1968, a dangerous period of the Cold War, U.S. and Soviet forces engage in brinkmanship across the world. At sea, their submarines play a dangerous cat-and-mouse game. ''To Kill the Potemkin'' tells the story of a confrontation between these submarines - one being a new and advanced class of submarine whose existence must remain a secret.

Jack Sorensen, one of the Navy's best sonar operators, is sonar chief of USS ''Barracuda'', a nuclear-powered ''Skipjack''-class submarine. Sorenson is a veteran who jokes about submarine warfare as a game (which he calls "Cowboys and Cossacks"), and he's determined to never lose. Using his sonar gear, Sorensen can find and identify submarines as few others can. Fogerty, a promising but inexperienced sonar analyst newly assigned to ''Barracuda'', is determined to learn from Sorensen. Sorenson is something of an eccentric and also has a drug addiction (with drugs provided by one of the vessel's medical officers) and when in port, as a heavy drinker and partier, but this is tolerated because his determination and expertise make him so valuable.

The novel begins as ''Barracuda'' departs its east coast base for the Mediterranean Sea. Once there, ''Barracuda'' engages in anti-submarine warfare exercises with other Western submarines. Its mission is to "hunt" the U.S. Navy's 6th Fleet and the flagship, the aircraft carrier. The ''Barracuda'' "sinks" several of the American submarines playing the Soviet Navy vessels. The drill is interrupted by the appearance of a vessel that Fogarty correctly determines, that one of the submarines, which has the sonar signature of the American submarine USS ''Swordfish'', is actually a Soviet submarine using special gear to mask its identity.

The story then shifts to the bridge of the other submarine, which in fact is a Soviet vessel, and the first of new class of submarine. The first of its kind, ''Potemkin'' is equipped with an experimental stereo/sonar system designed to reproduce recorded tapes of American, British, and other submarines to fool the sonar nets stationed in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. As the ''Potemkin'' places itself into the Western navies' exercise, the political officer takes command of the vessel and places the captain under arrest for his repeated insults against the political officer and what he deems "un-Soviet remarks". Unfortunately, his incompetence leads to a collision with ''Barracuda''. The American submarine is damaged in the bow area and the compartment is evacuated. Sorenson records the Soviet vessel sinking, and breaking up (being crushed by the water pressure as it sinks) on the sonar equipment. To his amazement, he hears what he thinks is torpedo being fired from the sinking vessel before it plunges to the ocean floor. The tape is sealed under orders from the submarine's captain. Everyone, the officers and crew, are all stunned and amazed to think that they managed to sink a ship of the Soviet Navy and are terrified of what the Soviets may do in retaliation. The injured vessel makes its way back to port and dry-dock for repairs.

While ''Barracuda'' survives and reports the accident to higher authorities, it is revealed that the Soviet ship was damaged by the collision but was not sunk. It was able to duplicate the sound of an actual submarine breaking up and playing it through the sophisticated stereo system. ''Potemkin'' was seriously damaged; the ship briefly capsized, causing the reactor to automatically scram.

Sorenson soon comes to suspect that the mystery sub did not really sink. Unbeknownst to the superior officers of the ship, he made a separate recording of the collision and the sinking and after listening to it, suspects something is wrong. The sound mistaken for the torpedo firing was actually the Soviet's electric motors driving the submarine away. He tells the captain of the sub his theory and he comes to believe him. When titanium fragments are found on a repaired portion of the bow that came contact with the other submarine during the collision, the crew now have reason to believe that there is a revolutionary class of submarine, using titanium instead of high-tensile steel, is in service with the Soviet Navy and it is still on the loose somewhere in the Med and most likely on the way to the Atlantic. The new class is designated an Alfa class submarine. The American vessel is assigned the top-secret mission of tracking down the ''Potemkin.''

With the ship's zampolit under arrest for negligence and the captain back in command, ''Potemkin'' makes a break for the Atlantic Ocean and a rendezvous with Soviet vessels working undercover in Cuba. The environmental system was damaged in the collision so the atmosphere can not be maintained leading to a build-up of carbon dioxide that slowly poisons the crew. ''Potemkin'' is unable to escape the Mediterranean before being located by ''Barracuda''. Nevertheless, once out in the open Atlantic Ocean, the Soviet ship reaches full speed, and outpaces ''Barracuda'' - which, as a ''Skipjack''-class submarine, is one of the fastest submarines in the world.

''Potemkin'' reaches Cuba and makes a rendezvous with the secret submarine stationed off the coast. This was supposed to be a top-secret meeting because of the Cuban Missile Crisis no Soviet vessels were supposed to be operating within Cuba's waters. Just as the two vessels are about to make contact, ''Barracuda'' arrives on the scene. Crew members on all three vessels realize the disastrous consequences of the ''Barracuda''s arrival at that exact time. The Russians realize that the American must be sunk from reporting the presence of Soviet vessels in Cuba's waters. ''Potemkin'' fires first but the torpedo misses. The Soviet vessel is too deep to shoot with the standard American torpedo so Sorenson orders the firing of a nuclear Mk 45 ASTOR torpedo. The explosion from the nuclear torpedo destroys the ''Potemkin'' and all the crew members. Sorenson and Fogarty retire to Sorenson's bunk. All the crewmen of the sub are horrified to realize they have just committed an act of war. The torpedo that was fired earlier by the Russian sub malfunctions and goes to "active seeking" mode and homes in on the noise made by ''Barracuda'''s reactor pumps. The explosion blows the American sub in two; the vessel sinks in eight-tenths of a second and is crushed by the pressure of the deep sea, killing the whole crew.

''Northlanders'' alternates long and short story arcs, each of which deals with a different protagonist in a different time period within the Viking Age.

The first story arc, "Sven the Returned", runs through issues #1–8 and is set in A.D. 980. It follows a self-exiled Viking warrior named Sven who has been serving in the Byzantine Varangian Guard, and is now returning to his birth region in the Orkney Islands in order to reclaim his rightful inheritance.

The second arc, "Lindisfarne", runs through issues #9 and 10, and is about a young boy and the sacking of the Lindisfarne monastery in A.D. 793, the beginning of the Viking Age.

The third arc, "The Cross + The Hammer", runs through issues #11–16 and is set around Dublin, Ireland circa the Battle of Clontarf, which took place in A.D. 1014; it deals with the pursuit of an Irishman and his daughter who attacks the occupying Viking forces using guerrilla tactics.

During a voodoo rite at Kenilworth, a Louisiana plantation, Monica Carlton (Monica Davis), mistress of the plantation, raises her brother Jonas (Clyde Kelly) from the dead. She commands him to kill "a woman who is coming to the plantation." The woman is Linda Carlton (Linda Ormond), who has just married Monica's cousin John Carlton (John McKay) and who will arrive for their honeymoon right after John shows her the swinging nightspots of Bourbon Street in New Orleans. On their way to Kenilworth, they find exotic dancer Bella Bella (Darlene Myrick) stranded, her car broken down. They take her to the plantation for the night as it's too late to have her car repaired.

The next morning, they learn that Bella's car can't be fixed for another day, so she must spend a second night at Kenilworth. John shows Linda around the plantation, including the slave quarters, where Monica's voodoo rites are now held, and the family crypt, which holds eight generations of Carltons, including Jonas. John tells her that Jonas had dumped the Creole girl he was to marry and shortly afterwards became mortally ill. He says that no one knows what Jonas died from, but Monica, who has entered the crypt, says that Jonas's death "came from a power stronger than any of your stupid religions have ever known" - a voodoo curse placed on Jonas by the Creole girl.

John and Monica later discuss John's visit. John says that their grandfather's will passes Kenilworth to him as soon as he marries. Monica issues a veiled threat, asking what would happen if Linda died before John took legal possession. After dinner, Monica goes to another voodoo rite. Bella calls her "kooky" and John tells her that "No intelligent person believes in voodoo."

At the rite, Monica again summons zombie Jonas and commands him to "kill the girl" to prevent John from inheriting the plantation and thereby ending her voodoo practice. But Jonas doesn't know that there are two girls - Linda and Bella - and he kills Bella. He can't find Linda because she and John are spying on the rite.

Back at the house, Linda discovers that Bella has gone missing. When she and John find her body, John phones the police. Monica realizes that the wrong girl is dead and in a new rite tells Jonas once more to kill Linda. John gives Linda his pistol, then leaves to break up the rite. Jonas enters the house, hides when he hears John coming down the stairs, then goes up for Linda. She shoots him without effect. But then he suddenly walks away without her as John has successfully stopped the rite.

John and Linda go to the crypt and find Jonas's empty tomb. Zombie Jonas comes in and is again unfazed when John shoots him. Monica rushes into the crypt, screaming that Jonas must get back into his tomb because the sun is rising. The police arrive and in shooting at Jonas, kill Monica. Jonas starts to attack the officers, but vanishes in a puff of smoke when the sunlight hits him.

John explains to the police what has happened. A hearse arrives, the police leave, and John plants a "For Sale" sign outside Kenilworth as he and Linda drive away.

A small family relocates to the Sonoran Desert to be closer to the grandparents of the family. Though there are news reports of a spectacular triple supernova and the young granddaughter has seen a glowing alien construction behind the barn, the family is at ease until, one night, a UFO soars overhead and appears to land in the nearby hills. Apparently, the triple supernova has opened a rift in space and time. The family finds that their electrical appliances no longer function, and the youngest daughter of the family has a telepathic encounter with an extraterrestrial. The grandmother, too, sees one of these diminutive creatures beckoning to her, but it soon vanishes.

The grandfather, while trying to start the car, sees that a strange animal is approaching from the distance. The grandfather goes back inside and informs the family that something is coming; before long, a variety of horrific, alien monsters (all of these creatures being of a reptilian or amphibious nature) are proceeding to slaughter each other outside the house; some are trying to break in and kill the family. After a few moments, the UFO appears again and teleports the creatures to a different place. The family take this opportunity to escape to the barn. The family become separated from one another and each hides until sunrise, where they find that they have been launched thousands of years into the future. They meet up with the daughter, who had become separated from the family during one of the time-warp events. She tells them that everything is going to be fine now. After walking across the desert, they finally see a domed city in the distance, and decide to seek refuge there. The grandfather proclaims that there must be a purpose to all of this. The family walks towards the city.

A girl named Claire has been working for the playboy Denny for 4 years. She likes him but he doesn't even give her a second glance. Denny's brother Regan comes into town and Denny and Reagan are competitive with each other. So naturally when Regan wants to manipulate Denny so Denny doesn't accept an offer given to him he realises that he can't do it alone, so he seeks the help of Claire. Claire acts as Regans girlfriend and distracts Denny. A few twists and turns later and you'll be felt thinking "That was such a heartwarming film but it was so cheesy".

Concert pianist Paul Orlac (Conrad Veidt) loses his hands in a horrible railway accident. His wife Yvonne (Alexandra Sorina) pleads with a surgeon to try and save Orlac's hands. The surgeon transplants the hands of a recently executed murderer named Vasseur. When Orlac learns this, horror obsesses him. He is tortured by the presence of a knife he finds at his house, just like that used by Vasseur, and the desire to kill. He believes that along with the hands he has acquired the murderer's predisposition to violence. He confronts the surgeon, telling him to remove the hands, but the surgeon tries to convince him that a person's acts are not governed by hands, but by the head and heart.

Orlac's new hands are unable to play the piano, and in time he and his wife run out of money. Creditors give them one more day to pay their bills. Yvonne goes to Paul's father for money, but is refused. Orlac himself then goes to see his father, but finds he has been stabbed to death with the same knife like Vasseur's. He starts to think he himself committed the murder, and goes to a café for a drink. There he meets a man who claims he is Vasseur, who tells Orlac the same surgeon who did the hand transplant also transplanted a new head onto Vasseur's body. He then tells Orlac he wants money to keep quiet about the murder.

In the meantime, police find Vasseur's finger prints at the scene of the crime, causing confusion. Paul and Yvonne Orlac decide to go to the police and try to explain about Vasseur's hands being on Paul's arms, but that he had no recollection of killing his father. He also tells the police about the man claiming to be the executed murderer, and the blackmail money. It turns out that the man is actually a con man named Nera, well known to police. Orlac's maid tells the police that Nera was a friend of Vasseur, and that he had made a set of rubber gloves with Vasseur's fingerprints. The gloves were used during the murder.

In 1975, a young bourgeois woman falls in love with a bank robber. She follows him and his partner on the run after a bank heist resulted in a death and hostage taking. Using fake IDs, they leave Paris and travel to Spain, Morocco, and Greece.

At a Narcotics Anonymous meeting, Bubbles follows a speaker named Dee-Dee who discusses her struggle with her inner addict and personal code. Bubbles is engaging and humorous, but unable to discuss an emotional memory. Walon tries to convince him to share the tragedy of Sherrod's death in order to move on, and persuades him to fill his time by volunteering at a soup kitchen. At ''The Baltimore Sun'', Templeton plans a color piece about the Baltimore Orioles opening game, but fails to find a suitable subject. He returns with an unverifiable story about an orphaned wheelchair user truanting to attend. Gus is concerned about the piece's lack of corroboration, but is forced to print it after executive editor James Whiting gives his approval. Later, desk editor Rebecca Corbett also questions the authenticity of the story, but Gus tells her there's nothing he can do.

Marlo decides to reassert his authority and orders several murders. Partlow, Snoop, and Michael watch the house of a target named June Bug, who has spread rumors that Marlo is homosexual. Michael questions the necessity of the murder of an entire family for a possible insult, but is admonished by Snoop for second-guessing Marlo. Partlow and Snoop disable the street's security cameras, stage a home invasion, and kill the three adults inside. Michael lets a child escape and is disgusted by the entire operation. Later, Detective Kima Greggs finds a second child hiding in the home. She picks up the child and leaves the building. Marlo visits Serge in prison and finds Avon Barksdale waiting in his place. Avon tells Marlo that in order for him to talk to Serge, he has to give Avon's sister Brianna $100,000. Marlo agrees and convinces Serge to give him a line to Spiros Vondas.

Commissioner Ervin Burrell struggles to meet Mayor Carcetti's crime reduction target while implementing budget cuts. He alienates Senator Davis by refusing to interfere in his corruption case. Carcetti intends to run for governor despite the city's fiscal difficulties, which he accepts because he can't fix schooling and crime problems at the same time without asking for money from Annapolis. State Delegate Odell Watkins expresses disappointment in Carcetti's priorities. Freamon still works the Davis case, but also spends his own time watching known Stanfield meeting places. McNulty desperately wants to return to the Stanfield case and is increasingly frustrated in Homicide. Freamon and McNulty try to get federal support, but their proposal is shot down by the U.S. Attorney. The detectives bitterly drown their sorrows with Bunk Moreland afterward.

When McNulty and Bunk are assigned a probable overdose, McNulty begins drinking and deliberately stages the body and the scene to suggest that the victim was murdered. McNulty tells Bunk that he plans to create the illusion of a serial killer with the intent of compelling City Hall to better fund the BPD in response to public pressure. Bunk wants no part of it and leaves in disgust.

A withdrawn Michael is persuaded to take a trip to Six Flags America with Dukie and Bug. The three boys have a fun day at the park, although Michael is later reprimanded by Monk for leaving his corner. Continuing his efforts to create a fake serial killer and draw funding for the police, McNulty falsifies a connection between two old cases involving homeless victims and the corpse which he had earlier staged. The plan fails when both the media and his superiors are uninterested. Bunk remains outraged at McNulty's plan and, after several attempts to talk him out of it, enlists the help of Freamon. However, this tactic backfires when Freamon makes suggestions to improve McNulty's plan by sensationalizing the killer.

Elsewhere, Deputy Commissioner Stan Valchek leaks rising crime statistics to Mayor Carcetti. When Burrell delivers manipulated statistics, the mayor finally has the political ammunition he needs to fire him. Carcetti plans to replace Burrell with Daniels, which his aide Norman Wilson leaks to ''The Baltimore Sun''. Pearlman presents evidence before a grand jury seeking an indictment against Senator Davis on corruption charges. Davis' former driver, Damien Price, testifies under subpoena about the $20,000 in drug money he was arrested with by Daniels' detail. Davis tries desperately to convince Burrell and Carcetti to protect him.

At the ''Sun'', Alma is disappointed when her story on the deadly home invasion doesn't make the front page. The paper copes with budget cuts by offering reporters "buy-outs" to leave their jobs. Templeton, upset that outgoing crime reporter Roger Twigg was given the story on Daniels' promotion, produces a strongly worded "react" quote implicating him in deposing Burrell. When Daniels learns of the quote, he is alarmed that Burrell may use information about his past corruption. Meanwhile, after Vondas rejects Marlo's monetary gift as figuratively and literally "dirty", Marlo seeks help from Proposition Joe in both obtaining fresh bank bills and laundering his money through Caribbean-based charities. Marlo visits the Antilles after Joe helps him with his financial requests, but Joe does not help him find Omar. Marlo then gives a second, clean gift to The Greeks.

In spite of being told by Joe that he fears Omar's return to Baltimore, Cheese gives Partlow information on the location of Omar's mentor Butchie in return for Marlo's $50,000 bounty. Partlow and Snoop torture and execute Butchie after shooting Big Guy in the leg, thus ensuring that their actions will reach Omar.

At Michael's corner, Kenard places a brown paper bag under a step. Officer Anthony Colicchio and his partner observe the scene from their patrol car nearby and decide to move in. Once Colicchio has handcuffed the crew and called in back-up, he puts his hand in the bag expecting to find drugs. When he withdraws it, he is holding dog excrement. As a furious Colicchio puts the crew into a transport van, a queue of traffic develops. One motorist inflames Colicchio's anger by requesting that they move the cars, causing Colicchio to assault him. Sergeant Ellis Carver helps restrain Colicchio. Michael is later signed out of custody by his mother, and he refuses her request for money.

The following day, Carver informs Colicchio that his victim was a school teacher and that the incident is being looked into by Internal Affairs. When Colicchio shows no remorse over his actions, Carver decides that he will charge Colicchio himself. Later, Carver meets with his old partner Herc, who tries to argue Colicchio's case and insists that Carver cannot turn against his own men despite his closeness to making rank. Reminding Herc of their past experience with Randy Wagstaff, Carver explains that everything they do matters. Herc compares Colicchio's situation to his own and wonders if Carver thought that his own dismissal was fair. Carver doesn't answer and Herc admits that it probably was justified. Herc warns Carver that he will face a bad reputation, but encourages him to do the right thing.

Sydnor is frustrated when he discovers that an $80,000 withdrawal from Senator Davis' account was used to pay back his mother-in-law for a loan. Freamon learns that the loan was for a mortgage down payment, which means that Davis has broken federal law by lying on a mortgage application and claiming her money as his own. Freamon and Pearlman meet with Bond, who is hesitant to make the case federal. Speaking alone with Pearlman, Bond believes that with a ten-year penalty for each of the four lesser counts of theft, a conviction on local charges will be sufficient. Davis visits the courthouse for a secret grand jury hearing, where he denounces the enquiry and refuses to answer further questions. As he leaves the courthouse, Davis denies wrongdoing to a throng of reporters. Freamon realizes that Bond leaked the hearing to the press in order to raise his own profile.

Daniels meets with Commissioner Burrell and denies any role in Burrell's firing, offering to decline his planned promotion; Burrell simply gives him the silent treatment. Meanwhile, Mayor Carcetti holds a meeting in his office with his senior staff and is forced to make concessions to the ministers to smooth Daniels' transition to commissioner. During a meeting with Campbell, Burrell reveals that the FBI investigated Daniels for skimming drug money, threatening to expose him if Burrell is forced to resign. Campbell warns Burrell against this and promises a lucrative job if he leaves quietly. Campbell takes and peruses the FBI file. She urges Carcetti to secure her job offer to Burrell, arguing that it is necessary to ensure that Burrell does not damage the reputation of his former subordinates.

Prior to the press conference announcing Burrell's departure, Rawls visits his office. Burrell expresses bitterness towards the city's politicians, acknowledging that he may have been a bad commissioner but that his failings were the fault of schizophrenic policies from City Hall. Burrell warns Rawls to expect more of the same treatment as acting commissioner. At the press conference, Daniels again tries to reassure Burrell that he did not ask for the promotion. Burrell reminds Daniels that he once called his bluff about exposing his past and claims that he no longer remembers the details of the FBI file as it was so long ago.

At ''The Baltimore Sun'', Templeton tells Alma that he is being interviewed for a junior position at ''The Washington Post''. During his interview, Templeton is introduced to a senior ''Post'' editor named Ed, who critiques his "wrought" prose. Remarking that the ''Sun'' often beats the ''Post'' to breaking stories from Annapolis, Ed asks Templeton if he was involved in a story on ground rent; Templeton admits he was not. Templeton leaves the interview with an assurance that his resume will be kept on file. He declines the opportunity to sit in on a ''Post'' budget meeting despite his earlier request.

Alma learns about Burrell's rumored departure from a source, which others on the ''Sun'''s metro team are unable to confirm. Gus is worried that they will not have enough to run their story, but outgoing police reporter Roger Twigg places one last call to a police department source Stan Valchek to confirm the rumor. As the newsroom watches the press conference, Gus expresses disappointment that Twigg's departure, caused by the recent cutbacks, will cut them off from the department sources. Alma replaces Twigg as senior police reporter. Cutbacks are also blamed when the ''Sun'' misses the story of Davis' grand jury hearing, as the paper has recently lost its city court reporter.

McNulty visits the medical examiner's office and researches the locations where unclaimed homeless deaths have occurred, seeing that an overwhelming number of bodies are found in the Southern District at night. McNulty calls Freamon to advise him of the findings and suggests that they need a contact in the Southern night shift. Freamon and McNulty visit Southern District headquarters and learn that Freamon's old patrol partner, Oscar Requer, is listed on the night shift. The detectives approach Requer and ask him to notify them of any male homeless deaths in the district. Requer realizes they are looking to open a homicide file and agrees to help them with no further questions asked. When McNulty expresses surprise that Requer was willing to help them, Freamon explains that Requer was unfairly reassigned from Homicide after correctly asserting his authority over Rawls at a crime scene.

The next day Detective Ed Norris breakfasts with Sergeant Jay Landsman. Landsman recites the story from the paper about Burrell's forced retirement and the plan for Rawls to take over temporarily while Daniels is groomed for the job. Landsman jokes that he feels "dissed" that he was not considered and guesses that Daniels will be commissioner before the year ends. Bunk Moreland arrives with a report about the vacant murders and Landsman places it straight into his desk drawer. Bunk is upset that Landsman is ignoring his reports and Landsman points out that Bunk is just changing the date and submitting essentially the same report. Bunk angrily asserts that he is forced to repeat his requests as he is still waiting for the crime lab to process evidence on 14 of the 22 vacant murder scenes. As Bunk leaves Landsman's office, McNulty facetiously shows him that he is working on finding links between the homeless murders. Bunk is annoyed at McNulty's scheme and curses at him before leaving. Greggs arrives and remarks on Bunk's mood and McNulty tells her that Bunk is surprisingly emotional despite his gruff veneer. Greggs is about to go and interview the survivor of her home invasion case.

Later, through a 2-way mirror, Greggs watches Devonne, the child from the home invasion, with a psychiatrist. Devonne is extremely withdrawn and does not engage with toys or the psychiatrists. Greggs calls her ex-partner Cheryl and asks to see her son Elijah. She apologizes for the time that has passed and they set a meeting for the following day. The psychiatrist tells Greggs that Devonne remains too withdrawn to revisit the event.

Greggs spends the next afternoon with Elijah at Cheryl's apartment. Elijah is content coloring and does not answer Greggs' questions. She manages to get the boy to engage in building a Lego house with her.

McNulty and Freamon canvass an area where the homeless gather at night. McNulty is dubious of the need for actual canvassing on their false case. Freamon believes that it is still worth doing the work even on their false case as it will make their office reports seem true and verifiable and protect them from the potential consequences of their plan. McNulty complains that he was working on the case in the squad room and that Landsman barely noticed but Freamon reminds him that if their plan works the case will attract more interest and sloppiness could be their downfall. McNulty attempts to question a few people. One man is too busy as he is preparing for work, another calls him aside to ask for a card. Among the homeless is ex-checker from the docks Johnny "Fifty" Spamanto.

Requer hears a call about a dead body and responds that he will attend. He contacts McNulty who is already at a bar. McNulty attends the scene and finds the decedent too far gone for their plan. Requer imposes the first officer's report on McNulty in return for finding bodies for him.

McNulty returns home and tries to cover his drinking with mouthwash. Beadie Russell awakes and questions his whereabouts earlier. He tells her that he was called on a suspicious death and she is dubious because he was assigned to the day shift. He claims that he will now be called on any death potentially related to his serial killer. Russell asks where they called him as he did not return home after his shift and he admits to being at a bar. She tells him that she can smell the alcohol. She reminds him of the strength of their relationship and tells him that she used to not believe people when they warned her about his self-destructive behaviour. McNulty's phone rings and he readies himself to leave. He tells Russell he is chasing a serial killer and she tells him he is chasing more than that. She tells him not to return if he doesn't want to be there.

McNulty arrives at the scene and fakes another strangulation to fit with the pattern he has established. Freamon arrives as McNulty repositions the body to encourage the appearance of the bruising that indicates strangulation. McNulty discards drug paraphernalia to conceal overdose as the actual cause of death. McNulty fakes defence wounds by cutting the decedent's hands and Freamon calls him twisted. McNulty reminds Freamon of his idea to use the dentures and Freamon claims that he is basing the plan on actual serial killers and the way they mature from brutal killings to elaborate and ornate ones. McNulty asks Freamon never to tell his mother or his priest what he has done and Freamon promises to take it to his grave.

New Day Co-Op

Joseph "Proposition Joe" Stewart and Slim Charles visit Pearson's florist to arrange for flowers to be sent to the funeral of Butchie. Joe tells the florist that Butchie was a careful and subtle player in the drug dealing game and asks for the card to say "Butchie, woe to them that call evil good, and good evil. From your true and loyal friend Proposition Joe". Outside Slim Charles worries that the flowers and card will not deter Butchie's friend Omar Little from seeking revenge. Slim Charles next asks about Marlo Stanfield, who was responsible for Butchie's murder as a ploy to lure Omar back to Baltimore. Joe tells Slim Charles that he does not blame Stanfield for his situation but instead whoever told Stanfield about Butchie's connection to Omar. Prop Joe correctly suggests that his nephew Melvin "Cheese" Wagstaff is responsible but tells Slim Charles that he will not act without confirmation. Joe plans to go into hiding, leaving Cheese in charge and have Slim Charles watch Cheese to see if he spends the money he would have received for the information.

Stanfield meets with drug trafficker Spiros Vondas at Johnny's Diner having delivered a gift of clean money to try and ingratiate himself with Vondas and his organization "The Greeks" and usurp their business relationship with Prop Joe. Vondas explains that he has to return the clean money just as he did earlier with the dirty money. He tells Stanfield that he can see that he is an honorable man but that he does not want to make new street level contacts in Baltimore or undermine their relationship with Prop Joe. Chris Partlow observes the meeting, and unbeknownst to Stanfield, The Greek himself sits at the counter. Stanfield counters by reminding Vondas that Prop Joe was robbed by Omar. He suggests that having contact with him would act as an insurance policy against future robberies for all parties. The Greek reveals himself by interrupting and telling Vondas that Stanfield has a good point. He tells Stanfield that they will accept his offer of insurance as they live in volatile times and cannot predict the future. Stanfield leaves the case and asks Vondas to put it towards their travel expenses.

After Stanfield leaves The Greek tells Vondas that Stanfield has demonstrated that declining his offer would not prevent him from coming back. Vondas remarks that Stanfield is not Prop Joe and The Greek agrees.

Prop Joe chairs a meeting of the New Day Co-Op. In attendance are Stanfield, Slim Charles, Cheese and drug kingpins Philboy, Ghost, Hungry Man and Ricardo "Fatface Rick" Hendrix. Hendrix tells the other drug dealers about his property deals with the city council and how he expects to clear a million dollars for relocating his club. Hendrix plans to continue to invest in property and sell it for a profit as gentrification progresses. Hungry Man interjects that Milton is pursuing a similar scheme and using a prisoner reentry program to repair houses. Stanfield angrily tells the older men that they are wasting his time and asks Prop Joe if there is any more business. Slim Charles offers the floor to Hungry Man who describes a grievance involving Cheese and the division of new territory in Baltimore County. Cheese is furious and insults Hungry Man. Joe intercedes and warns Cheese that he is out of line as he is not a charter member of the Co-Op. Joe reassures Hungry Man that Cheese will respect the agreed boundaries and calls the meeting to an end. Cheese storms out of the room while Stanfield watches. After the meeting, Stanfield shows Prop Joe that he has received the funds that Joe helped him to launder. Stanfield asks Joe what they can do next and Joe offers to open another door for him. He asks Stanfield to focus on working with others and Stanfield thanks him for his advice.

That night Partlow takes Cheese to an abandoned building. Inside Snoop guards a bound and distressed Hungry Man. Partlow tells Cheese that it is a gift from Stanfield. Partlow pointedly explains the benefits of giving and receiving favours.

The next day Prop Joe takes Stanfield to the offices of defense attorney Maurice Levy. Stanfield recognizes Levy's name as he was Avon Barksdale's attorney. Prop Joe tells Stanfield that Levy is the attorney of many Co-Op members (including himself, Fatface Rick and Philboy). Inside, Levy greets his clients and his investigator Thomas "Herc" Hauk recognizes Stanfield as an old target. Stanfield asks Herc about a camera he once stole from him and Herc bitterly admits that the incident cost him his job. Stanfield is amused and Levy moves the meeting into the conference room. Joe waits in Levy's office and reads part of Herc's paper with his consent. Herc remarks on the Burrell story and Joe tells him that Burrell was in the year before him at Dunbar High School and reveals that Burrell was in the glee club and “stone stupid.”

Cheese helps Prop Joe to prepare to leave town. Cheese wonders why Joe has kept his house for so long considering his fortune and Joe explains that his grandfather bought the house and was the first African American in the neighborhood to do so. Cheese goes to wait outside. Prop Joe warns Cheese about the return of Omar and Cheese tells Joe not to worry about him. After Cheese leaves, Stanfield enters. Joe realizes that Stanfield is not there to see him off and blames Cheese for giving him up, Stanfield confirms his suspicion with a nod. Prop Joe tells Stanfield that Cheese was always a disappointment and reminds Stanfield that he has treated him like a son. Stanfield tells Joe that he "wasn’t made to play the son." Joe suggests that killing him would mean losing the connection to his traffickers but Stanfield tells him the Greeks have accepted the idea. Partlow emerges from behind Joe and Joe finally proposes leaving town and disappearing but Stanfield believes that Joe would soon be plotting against him. Stanfield tells Joe to close his eyes and assures him that it will not hurt. Joe does so and Stanfield nods to Partlow who fires a single shot into the back of Joe's head as Stanfield looks on.

Omar Little

Omar visits the home of one of Butchie's former bodyguards. Inside Big Guy is recovering from his leg wound after being left alive as a witness to Butchie's torture and murder. Big Guy retells the story for Omar's benefit and identifies Chris Partlow and Snoop as responsible. Omar vows "I’m going to work them. Sweet Jesus, I’m going to work them." Butchie's friend, Donnie insists upon accompanying Omar as he is more familiar with the Stanfield Organization. Omar reclaims his shotgun.

Omar waits for Slim Charles to return to his apartment. Omar asks Slim for Prop Joe's location. Slim refuses to answer and Omar strikes him on the back of the head with his gun. Slim falls to the floor and asks Omar to consider why Joe would have given up Butchie when he was aware it would bring Omar's vengeance upon him and that Butchie could implicate Prop Joe in profiting from Omar's robbery. Slim claims that he would help Omar if Joe had given up Butchie but that was not the case. He appeals to Omar to finish it but Omar leaves without further violence. Slim leans against the wall and finds blood on the back of his head.

Omar and Donnie observe Stanfield's courtyard from a vacant building. Stanfield is nowhere to be seen. They discuss Stanfield's awareness of their intentions and Omar reveals that he plans to attack Stanfield's people until Stanfield is forced to confront them himself. Donnie points out Monk as Stanfield's lieutenant and Omar agrees to target him and makes a note of his car.

First appearances

*'''Oscar Requer''': Freamon's former partner in the patrol division and an ex-homicide detective. Requer was kicked out of Homicide after pulling rank over an Area Chief at the scene of a murder. It is subsequently revealed that the Area Chief was William Rawls, who retaliated by transferring Oscar to the midnight shift in the Southern District. A retired homicide detective with the same surname provided inspiration for the character of Bunk Moreland on the show.

Volume 1

Matilda Weimar and her servant Albert arrive at a cottage inhabited by two peasants, Pierre and his wife Jaqueline. Matilda is ill for unknown reasons and there is no bed for her to rest in, so they go to the neighbouring haunted Castle of Wolfenbach, whose caretakers take them in. That night, Matilda hears chains and groans and asks Joseph about the noises next morning. He says he and his wife never hear them. Bertha then explains that Count Wolfenbach is the owner and he is a cruel man who locked up his wife and children and they died. They are the ghosts that one hears. Matilda ventures up into the tower where the noises come from and encounters a lady and her servant. Matilda tells them the story of her life: her parents died while she was an infant and she was brought up by her uncle. She had a good upbringing with her servants Agatha and Albert, but her uncle started to "caress" her and she overheard his plan to rape her, so Matilda and Albert fled. The lady then says that she has a sister, the Marquise de Melfort in France and that Joseph knows she resides up there. The lady offers Matilda to live with her sister in France.

The next day, Matilda goes to converse with the lady of the castle again, but she is gone and the room is in disorder. Joseph and she find the lady's servant murdered on the bed. Matilda leaves to go to France and tell the lady's sister about her kidnapping. Count Wolfenbach arrives after Matilda leaves and tells Joseph that he has sold the property and Bertha and he are moving to another property of his. That night, Joseph wakes up to a fire in his room and escapes, but Bertha does not. The castle is burnt to the ground and Bertha is dead.

In France, Matilda is staying with the Marquise de Melfort and we learn that the Lady of the Castle is the Countess of Wolfenbach. Matilda tells Charlotte, The Marquise, of her sister's kidnapping. Matilda receives a letter from Joseph telling her about the castle and Bertha's ill fate. She shows the Marquise, and the Marquise decides to tell her about the Countess of Wolfenbach's past. Victoria was in love with a man, Chevalier, but their father made her marry Count Wolfenbach because he was rich and powerful. The Count later sent the Marquise a letter saying that Victoria had died in childbirth along with their newly born child. A few weeks after that, the Marquise received a letter from Victoria saying she was alive. Matilda sees the Count de Bouville and falls in love with him right away and the love is reciprocated.

Matilda's uncle shows up at the Hotel de Melfort to get Matilda to marry him, but the Marquise sends him away and Matilda falls desperately ill after hearing this news. Matilda agrees to see him under the circumstance that the Marquise is in the other room listening to their conversation. Matilda and her uncle, Mr. Weimar, meet and he explains that she misunderstood his intentions of raping her. He then says that he is not her uncle, but rather Agatha found her at the gate and they decided to keep her and he now wants to marry her. The Marquise receives a letter from Victoria saying she is safe with a lady named Mrs. Courtney in England. Mr. Weimar tells Matilda she has to marry him, but she refuses, saying she is joining a convent.

The Marquise and Matilda go to London, where they meet up with the Countess of Wolfenbach and she tells them the story of her kidnapping. The Count and a servant burst into her apartment at the Castle of Wolfenbach accusing her of breaking her oath by talking to Matilda and Joseph when she is supposed not to communicate with anyone. They kill Margarite, her servant, so she will not tell any more secrets and take Victoria to the woods to kill her. The Count's horse bucks him and the servant goes to aid him while Victoria escapes. Mrs. Courtney finds her and accompanies her to London.

Next, the Countess tells the reader of her fatal marriage to the Count; she was exchanging letters with her true love, Chevalier, but the Count intercepted one of them and killed Chevalier right in front of the Countess and locked her in a closet with his bloody corpse. The Countess went into labour and delivered a son whom the Count took away from her and faked both of their deaths. Her punishment for communicating with the Chevalier was having her son taken away and she was to be locked up in the Castle and he made Joseph take an oath to never tell anyone, even Bertha, of her occupancy there.

Volume 2

The second volume of ''The Castle of Wolfenbach'' begins immediately after The Countess of Wolfenbach reveals the story of her past. Then the reader finds out that Mr. Weimar is in England and has spoken to the French Ambassador in an attempt to regain control of her. The reader also finds out that the Count de Bouville has travelled to England to join his friends after the wedding of his sister and the death of his mother. The Marquis consults first the French Ambassador and then the German Ambassador concerning Matilda's situation. It is agreed that Matilda will remain under the protection for one year, during which time her parentage will be investigated. If no information about her ancestry is discovered, Mr. Weimar will regain custody of Matilda. The Count de Bouville, realising he loves Matilda, proposes to her.

"Your story, which the Marquis related, convinced me you had every virtue which should adorn your sex, joined with a courage and perseverance, through difficulties which might do honor even to our's. Since I have been admitted a visitor in this house, I have been confirmed in the exalted opinion I entertained of your superiority to most women, and under this conviction I may justly fear you will condemn my presumption, in offering myself and fortune to your disposal."

Matilda rejects the Count de Bouville's proposal, not because she doesn't love him, but because she comes from an obscure background.

“Ah! Sir, (said she, involuntarily) hate you! Heaven is my witness, that did my birth and rank equal yours, it would be my glory to accept your hand; but as there exists not a possibility of that, I beseech you to spare me and yourself unnecessary pain; from this instant determine to avoid me, and I will esteem you as the most exalted of men.”

Attending the ball at night in the Lord Chamberlain's box, Matilda meets Mademoiselle De Fontelle again. Unbeknownst to Matilda, Mademoiselle has spent her time in England spreading vicious rumours about Matilda's past and causing harm to her in the eyes of society. Once Matilda learns of these rumours, she decides to retire into an Ursuline convent in Boulogne, France, where she strikes up an intimate friendship with Mother Magdalene, a nun who has lived there for ten years.

Meanwhile Mrs. Courtney has misconstrued the niceties and pleasantries of the Count de Bouville as overtures towards a more intimate relationship: she becomes convinced that the Count wishes to marry her. So she writes a letter to Matilda informing her of the imagined romance and intimates that they will soon be married. Matilda, now under the false impression that the Count's affections for her were only cursory, congratulates Mrs. Courtney on the match. She incorrectly assumes that the marriage has taken place and resigns herself to an austere convent life.

One day the Marquis receives a letter from London from the German Ambassador, stating that the Count of Wolfenbach is dying and wishes to make amends to his wife. The Countess travels to see her dying husband and hears his confession before his death.

After Matilda's friends leave the area on matters of business or pleasure, Mr. Weimar travels to her convent and demands that she accompany him. The Mother Superior tells Matilda that she cannot legally protect Matilda. Mother Magdalene advises Matilda to write a few lines explaining her situation to both the Marquis and the Countess of Wolfenbach before leaving with Mr. Weimar, who, after a long journey, embarks with Matilda on a boat to Germany.

A few days into their voyage, the boat is attacked by Barbary Corsairs. Mr. Weimar, thinking he is undone, stabs Matilda before turning the knife on himself: "I am undone, unfortunate girl; you have been my ruin and your own, but I will prevent both" (p. 162). The pirates spare Matilda's life and at her request nurse Mr. Weimar back to health. While on his sickbed, Mr. Weimar reveals that Matilda is actually the daughter of his older brother, the Count Berniti (whom Mr. Weimar murdered) and Countess Berniti, who is still living with her family in Italy. The pirate captain, unhappy with his, promises to deliver Matilda to her newly discovered mother.

Meanwhile, the Count de Bouville has learnt of Matilda's abduction and follows through Europe, finally finding her in the company of her mother, the Marquis and Marchioness, Lord Delby, and the Countess of Wolfenbach.

The novel ends with Lord Delby's marriage to the Countess of Wolfenbach and Matilda's marriage to the Count de Bouville. Mr. Weimar enters a Carthusian monastery and plans to spend the rest of his life in penitence for his criminal and immoral actions.

A scout for the St. Louis Cardinals comes to a small town in the Ozarks to assess pitcher Jerome Herman Dean (Dailey). Dean, with an over-abundance of self-confidence, is certain that the club wants him to start immediately and is surprised that he is sent to the minor league Houston Buffaloes. Despite his obvious talents, Dean is teased about his rustic clothes and goes to a department store to buy new suits. He meets pretty credit officer Patricia Nash (Dru) and courts her with great vigor. At an exhibition between the Buffaloes and the Chicago White Sox, Dean is dismayed to see Pat with another man but pitches an almost perfect game. The White Sox players razz Dean, calling him "Dizzy," but he adopts the nickname, which is picked up by sports reporters. Dean asks Pat to elope, and although she is stunned by his proposal, agrees to marry him.

Dizzy, now his team’s star pitcher, is told to report to the Cardinals for spring training. Dean is delighted and becomes a colorful story for baseball reporters. The next spring his brother Paul (Crenna) joins Dizzy in St. Louis, and the irrepressible Dean brothers promote the team by acting as ushers, selling tickets in the box office and even cavorting with the marching band. Their antics get them into trouble, however, and when they are fined by the team's manager, Frankie Frisch, Dizzy goes on strike. Pat urges him to stop being stubborn and Dizzy storms out of their apartment. He meets Johnny Kendall, a businessman who relies on crutches and a specially equipped car to get around. Johnny’s quiet acceptance of his handicap humbles Dizzy and he ends his strike. The Dean brothers lead the Cardinals to victory in the World Series.

Dizzy soon suffers an injury when a line drive breaks one of his toes. He egotistically returns to pitching too soon, despite being warned that he is risking serious injury to his pitching arm. Dizzy's ability to pitch declines, and eventually even a minor league team lets him go. Dizzy refuses to accept that his baseball career is over and tries to forget his troubles by drinking and gambling. Unable to endure his self-destructive behavior, Pat leaves him, telling him she will not return until he "grows up." Dizzy is devastated and asks Johnny for a job as a salesman. Dizzy is instead given a job broadcasting baseball games on their radio station. Dizzy's thick Arkansas accent, often twisted English, and colorful stories make him an instant hit.

An irate group of teachers oppose Dizzy, saying that his poor English is a bad influence on children. Dizzy is stung by the charge and decides to quit. During his final broadcast, Dean gives the children of St. Louis heartfelt instructions to pursue their education, then returns home, where Pat is waiting for him. The head of the teacher's group calls Dizzy to say that his last broadcast deeply moved the committee and tells him: "We'll keep teaching the children English and you keep on learning them baseball."

William "Bill" Kluggs (Dan Dailey) is the first in his hometown of Punxsatawney, West Virginia, to enlist in the Army Air Forces after the attack on Pearl Harbor, making his father Herman (William Demarest), mother Gertrude (Evelyn Varden) and girlfriend Marge Fettles (Colleen Townsend) proud. The whole town sees him off. Willie tries to become a pilot but washes out, although he proves to be so proficient at aerial gunnery that, rather than being sent to Europe to fight, he is made an instructor and assigned to a base near his hometown. After two years in the same place, he is branded a coward by the townsfolk, even though he continually requests a transfer into combat.

He finally gets his chance when a gunner on a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber gets sick and Bill is allowed to take his place. The plane takes off for England, but owing to fog, is unable to land and runs low on fuel. The crew is ordered to bail out, but Bill is asleep and does not parachute out of the plane until it is over German-occupied France.

He is captured immediately by the local French Resistance unit, led by the beautiful Yvonne (Corinne Calvet). While there, he sees a secret German rocket launch, which is filmed by the French. He and the film are picked up by a British torpedo boat and taken to England. There, he passes the vital information and his eyewitness confirmation on to a series of important generals, first in London and then in Washington, D.C.

During the time he is in the bomber, France, England, and Washington, he is continuously wakened when he tries to sleep, and plied with liquor as a pick-me-up or to settle motion sickness. Bill finally collapses, exhausted. He is sent to a hospital to recuperate, under strict orders not to reveal what he has done, where a doctor mistakenly puts him into a psychopath ward. When the hospital attendants believe he is crazy and try to put him in a straitjacket, Willie escapes and heads home on a freight train.

Back home, because only four days have elapsed since he left Punxatawney, his parents and girlfriend don't believe his story either. Officers from the Pentagon arrive to return him to Washington to be decorated personally by the President of the United States.

In turn-of-the-century Oakland, California, the teenaged Myrtle McKinley (Betty Grable) is expected to follow high school by attending a San Francisco business college. Instead, she takes a job performing with a traveling vaudeville troupe, where she meets and falls in love with singer-dancer Frank Burt (Dan Dailey).

Frank proposes they marry and also entertain on stage together as an act, which proves very popular. Myrtle retires from show business after giving birth to daughters Iris (Mona Freeman) and Mikie (Connie Marshall), while her husband goes on tour with another partner.

A few years later, less successful now, Frank persuades his wife to return to the stage. The girls are cared for by their grandmother as their parents leave town for months at a time.

Iris and Mikie are school girls when they are given a trip to Boston to see their parents. Iris meets a well-to-do young man, Bob Clarkman (Robert Arthur), and is permitted to attend an exclusive boarding school there. She is embarrassed by her parents' profession, however, and mortified at what the reaction will be from Bob and all of her new school friends when they learn that her parents are performing nearby.

Myrtle and Frank take matters into their own hands, arranging with the school to have all of the students attend a show. To her great relief, Iris is delighted when her classmates adore her parents' sophisticated act. By the time she's out of school and ready to marry, Iris wants to go into show business herself.

Part 1

Herman and Hellfried, two former university classmates and friends, reunite on a stormy night after thirty years of separation due to employment that forced them to travel. While recounting their past travels, the conversation quickly turns to the supernatural, and the two begin to relate a series of wondrous adventures. Hellfried begins the narrative with a story about a mysterious English lord who is lodging in the same inn as he. During his stay there, Hellfried is plagued by nightmares and apparitions, and loses several valuables and all of his money. The lord inexplicably returns several of his belongings and provides a loan. Hellfried, seeking an explanation to the series of events that have befallen him, meets an unknown figure in a late night rendezvous that claims to have the answers he seeks. The meeting ends in disaster, as Hellfried somehow fractures his leg and is bedridden for months. The story concludes with Hellfried returning to the inn and continuing on his travels.

After a night of rest, Herrman continues the exchange of tales with an account of his travels with a ‘Baron de R–,’ for whom he was a governor. While the two traveled through Germany, they came upon a village in the titular Black Forest. Herrman and the Baron soon discover that the vacant castle in the village is haunted by its former lord, “a very wicked and irreligious man who found great delight in tormenting the poor pesants.” After joining forces with a Danish lieutenant, the group encounters a slew of supernatural and horrific events, culminating in a dark ritual in a dungeon involving an old sorcerer who is revealed as the Necromancer. They eventually escape, and arrive to their destination safely, thus concluding the story. Following several more days of conversation, Herrman and Hellfried part ways. Before Herrman leaves Hellfried’s estate, he gives him a manuscript of further adventures that comprise Part II of the novel.

Part 2

Part Two continues the novel in epistolary form, with a series of letters from various sources (50). The first is from the Baron to Herrman, describing the former’s unexpected reunion with the Lieutenant 20 years after their original adventure in the Black Forest. During this time, The Lieutenant gives the Baron a written account of his adventures.

Having lost one of his favorite servants during the adventure in the Black Forest, the Lieutenant begins a search for new comrades and “hasten[s] to return to the skirts of the Black Forest” (54). He becomes acquainted with an old Austrian officer who also shares tales of the supernatural. The Austrian relays the story of Volkert, a sergeant in his former garrison who “was reported to perform many strange and wonderful exploits” (56). Volkert often dabbled in mysticism as a service to his fellow servicemen and the people of the village in which he was stationed. Volkert channels the husband of a recently widowed woman so that she can learn why he forbade their daughter from marrying her fiancée. The ghost of the father reveals that the fiancée is in fact her brother, and the girl dies of grief soon thereafter. As a result, Volkert ceases to experiment with the occult. At the behest of several soldiers, however, Volkert returns to magic by summoning another foreign Baron who is feuding with an officer in his cohort. The Austrian and his comrades are “chilled with horror” following the incident (66). This foreign Baron later writes to the officer, accusing him of “infernal torrents by supernatural means,”(70) and hastens his arrival to the town to proceed with the duel. Volkert leaves the town knowing that he is at risk of being implicated in the conflict, but not before he informs the town authorities of the duel the morning before it happens. The duel occurs, and the officer from the village is injured while the foreign Baron is arrested. Here the Austrian concludes his story. When the soldiers ask what happened to Volkert, the Austrian says, “he is dead” (76). The Austrian and the Lieutenant depart together and return to the Black Forest in an attempt to get to the bottom of the mystery. When they return to the Haunted Castle, they find a secret passage and overhear a conversation between a band of thieves. They learn that the Lieutenant’s servant is still alive. The thieves manage to escape before the heroes can confront them. After another series of minor supernatural events, the heroes decide to confront the Haunted Castle one more time, knowing that the Necromancer is still somehow tied to the myriad supernatural misfortunes that have befallen them. Part II and Volume I ends with the preparations for this endeavor.

Part 3

The third part of The Necromancer continues the story of the Lieutenant, as he prepares for his adventure with the Austrian and a miscellany of other officers. They manage to surround the Necromancer in a village inn near the Haunted Castle. After they witness a séance in which the Necromancer summons a phantom, the heroes assault the room. The Austrian realizes that the Necromancer and Volkert are the same person. After a round of brutal interrogation, the officers decide to leave the now enfeebled Necromancer to his own devices. While traveling, the Lieutenant seeks lodging at a suspicious woodman’s cabin and is ambushed in the night by “three fellows of a gigantic size” (116). These men capture him and bring him before an assembly of criminals. Among them is Volkert. The Lieutenant is freed from capture thanks to his leniency with Volkert back in the village. As the Lieutenant continues his travels, he is reunited with his lost servant. The servant describes how he was captured and forced to join the same band of thieves that now pervaded the narrative of the novel. With this knowledge, the Lieutenant is able to assist in the capturing of the band and their subsequent trial. Among the imprisoned is Volkert, who explains his origins to the Lieutenant. It was during his work as a servant to a German nobleman that he began to experiment with the occult. He admits the dubious nature of his craft, admitting that he “did everything in [his] power to drain the purses of the weak and credulous” (142). The Necromancer starts to recount all of his deceptions and supposed sorceries, including the story of the fiancée and the village and the duel, which was staged. He admits his devious machinations shamefully: “[I] suffice to say, that a complete account of my frauds would swell many volumes…I had, for the space of six years, carried on my juggling tricks with so much secrecy, that few of my criminal deeds were known…I always suffered myself to be blinded by the two powerful charms of gold and false ambition” (151). The narrative then commences with the trial of the bandits, including the testimony of an innkeeper named Wolf who often led the criminals (“the captain of the robbers”) and who made a majority of the deceptions possible (190). After naming his accomplices and their locations, Wolf is eventually sentenced to life imprisonment in the Black Forest “where he will have ample scope to reflect on his life past” (196).

'''Volume I'''

The story begins in Saxony at Cohenburg Castle, with two adult brothers, Alphonsus and Frederic. Alphonsus is the elder brother and inherited the title of Count Cohenburg after the death of their father.

Frederic falls in love with a woman from Luxembourg, named Sophia, and marries her. Alphonsus observes his brothers happiness in marriage and seeks to replicate it. He selects a bride from the German court, Anna, and the two settle into a happy marriage. Anna and Alphonsus have a child, a boy also named Alphonsus. Meanwhile, Frederic and Sophia have three children, all of whom die in infancy, and Sophia dies giving birth to the third child. In his grief Frederic departed Cohenburg Castle, returning only three times in the next eleven years. Frederic finally settles back at the castle when the young Alphonsus is 17 years old.

Some months later, Alphonsus, Count Cohenburg, is called away to the city for business. He dreads leaving his wife with Frederic, as he is concerned they are having an affair. Alphonsus fails to return to Cohenburg Castle and Sophia is told that he is dead. Anna immediately blames Frederic for Alphonsus’ death and makes her son, swear to avenge his father’s death. Days later, just after midnight, the young Alphonsus hears a scream from his mother’s room, which he assumes is an expression of her grief. Early the next morning Anna appears with bloody hands and tells Alphonsus that Frederic is innocent and compels Alphonsus to leave the castle, Frederic, and her, behind and never return.

After his departure from Cohenburg castle, Alphonsus resolves to join the army. As he travels he begins to suspect his mother may have had an affair with Frederic and together they planned the murder of Alphonsus’ father. Whilst in the army, Alphonsus grows close with his commander Arieno. Arieno recounts his life’s story to Alphonsus, describing his love for Camilla, a young woman who died from despair due to the machinations of Arieno’s eldest brother, Simon. A connection is made between Alphonsus and Arieno as Simon’s daughter is revealed to have been in love with Frederic. Arieno dies in battle and Alphonsus is injured, causing him to leave the army.

Alphonsus travels to Bohemia, where he finds employment in a silver mine. There a young man tells a story of his family who rented land from Count Cohenburg, Alphonsus’ father. He reveals that after the death of Count Cohenburg, his wife, Anna, supposedly committed suicide and her ghost now walks the halls of the castle and rings the castle bell at midnight. The young man also reveals that Frederic has left Cohenburg Castle, which is now deserted. Alphonsus determines to leave the mine and offers himself as a servant to Baron Kardsfelt, who was visiting the mine.

Baron Kardsfelt dies and Alphonsus is taken in by a Catholic priest called Father Mathias. The two return to the convent of Saint Helena, where Alphonsus becomes responsible for ringing the bell for prayers. Alphonsus falls in love with Lauretta, a novice at the convent, and Father Mathias recounts her history. It is revealed that 17 years before, a young woman, also named Lauretta, came to the convent. Upon her arrival she revealed the details of her love for Frederic Cohenburg and her arranged marriage to Count Byroff. She described how Frederic and her continued to meet after her marriage, until count Byroff discovered their affection and stabbed Frederic out of jealousy. Believing Frederic dead, she fled to the convent, where she died from her grief, after giving birth to a child, the novice Lauretta.

Alphonsus informs Lauretta of the connection between their families and asks her to leave the convent with him. Lauretta agrees and the two are married by Father Mathias, before they depart the convent. The couple settle in a new home, which they rent from Baron Smaldart. The Baron’s nephew, Theodore, begins to lust after Lauretta, even as she is heavily pregnant. After the birth of the child, who only lives a few hours, Lauretta is increasingly upset by Theodore’s attentions. One night, the house is set on fire and Lauretta is abducted. Lauretta initially Theodore is her abductor she soon learns that her captor is a ruffian named Kroonzer and his companion Ralberg, under orders from Theodore. Lauretta is then taken to a ruined castle where she is confined to a turret room for seven days until lighting strikes the turret and it collapses

'''Volume II'''

Only mildly injured, Lauretta seizes the chance to escape and walks all night until she encounters a benign hermit. The hermit tends to Lauretta and informs her of the mysterious reputation of the castle she was imprisoned in, and how it used to belong to the Byroff family, but has since been abandoned. The hermit proposes to deliver a letter to Alphonsus, via Baron Smaldart, to inform him of Lauretta’s location. To pass the time until Alphonsus arrives, the hermit tells her his life story. The hermit recounts how in his youth he was accused of murder. A man named Dulac had given him shelter after his horse was injured. Dulac’s house was full so he offered to share his bed with the hermit. One morning Dulac fails to return from his morning walk and the hermit is accused of his murder, as blood is found in Dulac’s bed, resulting from the hermit’s nosebleed the night before. The hermit is arrested and made a slave for many years. 22 years after his initial arrest, the hermit encounters Dulac, who is now also a slave. Dulac informs the hermit that on the day of his supposed murder he had been abducted by thieves and sold into slavery. The two men are eventually freed and determine to travel back to France together. However, their ship is caught in a storm and Dulac drowns, ensuring that the hermit cannot clear his name.

The hermit eventually returned home where he discovered his family had died in his absence, at which point he withdrew from society. A few days after hearing the hermit’s story Lauretta wakes one morning to find that the hermit has died.

Meanwhile, Alphonsus, having realised that Lauretta is missing goes to Baron Smaldart and reveals Theodore’s misconduct, accusing him of involvement in the abduction. The Baron, believing Alphonsus’ claims resolves to confront Theodore and provides Alphonsus with a horse to pursue Lauretta’s captors. During the confrontation Theodore denies his involvement in Lauretta’s abduction, but the baron is not convinced and confines Theodore to the house until Lauretta and Alphonsus are reunited. Whilst Alphonsus is pursuing Lauretta, Theodore manages to escape his confinement. The next day, Alphonsus receives Lauretta’s letter and is overcome with joy at hearing of her safety. The baron travels to meet Lauretta but by the time he arrives she has disappeared.

Lauretta, having been recaptured by Theodore and his men, is transported through a forest where she hears some call her name “Lauretta Byroff”. As Theodore pursues the owner of the voice, Lauretta is escorted to cavern by Ralberg who reveals that he is Count Byroff, Lauretta’s father. Count Byroff tells Lauretta about his relationship with her mother, revealing that he had no knowledge of her affections for Frederic prior to the marriage and that, in attempting to kill Frederic, Count Byroff had accidentally killed the son of a Venetian Senator, causing him to flee the city and sign his property and wealth over to Count Arieno to prevent it being confiscated. Count Byroff fled to Paris where he was eventually arrested and sent to the Bastille, where he was imprisoned for many years, and tortured. The arrival of Theodore and Kroonzer interrupts Count Byroff’s story, as they begin attacking him, causing Lauretta to flee and faint.

'''Volume III'''

When Lauretta awakes she is greeted by Alphonsus and informed that her father has killed Theodore and Kroonzer has fled. Alphonsus, Lauretta and Count Byroff decide to travel together, without returning to Baron Smaldart. Alphonsus resolves to return to Cohenburg and addresses the mysteries of the castle. As they travel Count Byroff relates his escape from the Bastille, with the help of a young servant. The two then travelled to Germany and joined a group of bandits, leading to Count Byroff’s involvement in Lauretta’s abduction

On the journey to Cohenburg castle the group stops at an inn and encounters Jacques, the servant who had helped free Count Byroff from the Bastille. Jacques reveals that he left the bandits not long after Count Byroff did and has since been travelling to find the Count. The party continue to travel towards Cohenburg Castle, with Alphonsus parting from the group at an inn near the castle and continuing the journey by himself. However, upon finding the castle boarded up he returns to the inn and reunites with his companions. Alphonsus resolves to listen for the tolling of the bell at midnight to determine if the castle is inhabited. Accompanied by Jacques, Alphonsus hears the bell ring. Jacques returns to Lauretta and Count Byroff alone, and claims that Alphonsus is trapped in the castle by ghostly black figures. However, Alphonsus soon arrives back at the inn, distraught and frantic, and falls ill.

A friar from a nearby monastery treats Alphonsus. As Alphonsus begins to improve, Jacques escorts the friar back to the monastery. Upon his return, Jacques tells Count Byroff about a conversation he overheard at the monastery, causing the two to realise that the monks are responsible for ringing the bell, and they were the black figures witnessed in the castle. With this new information, Jacques and Count Byroff, resolve to question Alphonsus about the reasons for his distress. Alphonsus reveals that he saw his mother in the castle, and fears that her ghost is haunting him for breaking his vow never to return to Cohenburg Castle. Alphonsus begs one of the friars, Father Nicholas, for forgiveness and reveals his identity as the heir to Cohenburg Castle. Father Nicholas reveals that Alphonsus’ mother, Anna, still lives, and recounts the events that took place at Cohenburg Castle prior to Alphonsus’ departure.

It is revealed that Alphonsus’ father, consumed with jealousy, faked his own death in an attempt to catch Frederic and Anna conducting an affair. The elder Alphonsus entered Anna’s bedchamber, pretending to be Frederic, and Anna, believing that the disguised Alphonsus’ intended to force himself on her, stabbed him in the heart. When dawn came, she saw that she had not killed Frederic, but her own husband, making herself the target of the young Alphonsus’ vow for revenge, causing her to send him away from her and the castle. At Anna’s request, Father Nicholas hid the details of the elder Alphonsus’ death, and spread word that Anna herself had died. Frederic secluded himself in a monastery, where he soon died. Father Nicholas explains that the tolling of the bell at midnight was intended keep visitors away from the castle by making it seem haunted, and to call holy men to Anna to assist with her prayers. The story ends with Anna departing the castle for a convent and Alphonsus, Lauretta and Count Byroff taking up residence at Cohenburg Castle. Father Nicholas ensures the church releases Alphonsus from his vow. Lauretta and Alphonsus live in domestic happiness with their children, who Alphonsus instructs to avoid being suspicious of others.

Suzanne Helling has been living a nomadic life since she went through the 1970 Kent State shootings, and she winds up in Los Angeles as a teaching assistant to history professor Solomon Braithwaite. Ten years earlier, his marriage ended, and he tried to kill himself. While comatose from his drug overdose, his unconscious mind took flight and created the land of Gryylth, which he patterned subconsciously on 5th-century Roman Britain, in a corner of the cosmos. Though Gryylth bears a superficial similarity to ancient Britain, there are anachronisms: the inhabitants speak modern English; no one remembers more than ten years back; and Gryylth is an incomplete land—it ends in mist and nothingness in the surrounding ocean.

In this realm, Braithwaite has an alternate persona: Dythragor Dragonmaster, the protector of Gryylth and rider of the dragon Silbakor. There he is tall, strong, and a skilled fighter. In the real world, though, he is an old man with a failing heart. Silbakor has been pressuring him to choose a replacement in anticipation of his eventual death. When Braithwaite proves unwilling to choose, Silbakor chooses Suzanne and transports both of them to Gryylth. There, Suzanne also adopts a new persona: Alouzon Dragonmaster, who, like Dythragor, is tall, strong and skilled with weapons.

A new peril faces Gryylth: the Dremords, invaders from the sea, have taken the Tree of Creation from the Blasted Heath and are planning a new invasion. This tree embodies uncontrolled change and chaos, and in the hands of Tireas, the Dremords' magician, it becomes a potent tool for war. While Dythragor and Alouzon clash on their leadership styles, Alouzon also realizes that Braithwaite's biases have colored Gryylth: the Dremords are unquestioningly feared as enemies; women are little more than chattel unable to bear weapons in their own defense; and magic is feared and distrusted.

As the war with the Dremords grinds on, Alouzon makes friends and allies among the inhabitants of Gryylth and begins to see in it something worth fighting for and defending. At the same time, Dythragor's grip on reality is slipping, as both the war and Alouzon challenge everything he wants to be true. The magic of the Tree proves unstoppable, turning the soldiers of the First Wartroop into women and decimating the Second Wartroop. The Gryylthians decide to make a final stand at the Circle, which is a pristine replica of Stonehenge, where Mernyl, Gryylth's sorcerer, can tap the energies of the Circle to counteract the energies of the Tree.

In this final standoff, Tireas and Mernyl wind up in a stalemate, with neither one able to gain a decisive victory and losses mounting on both sides. Remembering her history, Alouzon realizes that the megalith that the two magicians are standing by is only loosely anchored in the soil. She and her friends work to topple the stone on both sorcerers, hoping to end the struggle decisively. Seeing they are unable to topple the stone, Dythragor has Silbakor dive at high speed toward the stone, and he then launches himself off of the dragon's back at the stone, toppling it onto the sorcerers and the Tree and ending the conflict with his sacrifice. With the creator of Gryylth dead, the land begins to fade into nothingness. Alouzon realizes that she has the choice to become protector of Gryylth and save it from destruction. When she accepts, Gryylth becomes real again. Leaving Gryylth and flying over the ocean, she realizes that a new land was created out of her subconscious when she became protector: Vaylle. She returns to Los Angeles and finds Solomon dead.

Frendon Ibrahim Blythe is a prisoner of the "newly instituted, and almost fully automated" Sac'm Justice System in a futuristic version of Sacramento, California. He is being tried for the murder of Officer Terrance Bernard and the assault of his partner, Omar LaTey. Blythe's brain is connected to the computer "judge" through a plastic tube attached to the base of his skull, which allows the System free access to the contents and physiology of his brain. The tube is part of Restraint Mobile Device 27, or RMD 27, an automated "guard." In eliminating human juries and judges, the Sac'm System has essentially created a stark justice system wherein it is impossible to claim justifiable homicide. Blythe must find a way to outwit his virtual judge in order to prove his innocence and avoid the death penalty, the automatic result of a murder charge in the Sac'm System.

Iskender is a juggler, but to everyone besides himself and his childhood friend, Maradona, he is actually a magician. The two friends undertake a great deal of risk by including Sait in their tour program while being forced to escape Istanbul. Moreover, Father Sait had stopped appreciating Iskender years ago. While the tour brings them much closer, it also results in a magnificent falling-out. Iskender, Maradona, and Sait keep coming back together and falling out with their fellow traveler, Fatma.

The story concerns two knights who have a mission to slay a dragon. They describe the dragon as huge, fire-breathing, and horrific, having only one eye. They charge the dragon but fail, presumably dying in the attempt.

The "dragon" is then revealed to be a steam train, and its single eye is the train's headlight. The operators discuss the encounter but continue on without attempting to find the knights.

As described in a film magazine, disgusted by the unattractive, slovenly appearance of his wife Sophy (Ashton), Charles Murdock (Dexter) goes on a long hunting trip. He meets Juliet Raeburn (Vidor), falls in love with her, and while telling her of his love, he reveals that he is a married man. Upon his return, his wife flies into a frenzy of jealousy. To forget, he goes out with his business partner Tom Berkeley (Roberts), meets Viola Hastings (Manon), who is being provided for by Berkeley, and another woman of the cafes. Viola shoots Berkeley when she finds him in another woman's bedroom and Juliet Raeburn's name is connected to the scandal by a false report. Murdock, to protect Juliet, goes abroad with another woman. After his wife obtains a divorce, Juliet and Murdock meet in Venice, renew their friendship, and marry.

As described in a film magazine, very much in love with her husband, Charity Coe Cheever (Williams) discovers that her husband is in love with Zada L'Etoile (Breamer), a popular dancer, and so she divorces him. Jim Dyckman (Dexter), who has always loved Charity since their childhood days, after finding it impossible to win Charity had married film actress Kedzie Thropp (Hawley). When Jim is free but Charity is not, Jim is very disappointed, but both decide to make the best of it. During one of Jim's absences Kedzie meets the young British airman, the Marquis Of Strathdene (Hatten), and falls very much in love with him. Out for a ride one evening, Jim and Charity are forced during a storm to remain in a roadhouse. Here is Kedzie's chance, she sues for divorce and marries her English aviator. The start of the war puts Jim in the trenches in Europe and Charity in a convalescent hospital, they meet again and love finally wins.

As described in a film magazine, Yvonne (Vidor), the wife of German officer Karl Von Drutz (von Seyffertitz), is left in their Belgian home at the start of World War I. King Albert (Hall) stops at the house during his retreat where he finds little Jacques (Stone) playing soldier. The king tells him to be brave and wait "till I come back to you." America enters the war and Capt. Jefferson Strong (Washburn) is detailed to destroy the German storehouse containing their liquid fire supply. He pretends to be an escaped German soldier and hides in Yvonne's cottage, learns of the supplies, and directs the tunneling under the house. Von Drutz returns, finds Strong telephoning, and a terrific struggle ensues. Little Jacques takes a score of orphans from a nearby asylum and they escape through the tunnel. Strong saves the lives of the children but is arrested for disobedience, tried, and court martialed. Through the influence of King Albert he is saved from being shot. Yvonne, whose husband has been killed, finds consolation in Strong's love.

As described in a film magazine, Jim Wynnegate (Dexter), a young Englishman, assumes the guilt for the embezzlement of trust funds that were lost in speculation by his cousin Henry (Hall). He embarks to the United States and settles in the west, where he buys a ranch. In a quarrel with Cash Hawkins (Holt), Jim is saved from death by Naturich (Little), a young Indian woman, who shoots the outlaw. He marries her out of gratitude and becomes known as the squaw man. Soon a son is born, and five years pass. His cousin Henry dies and Jim is summoned back to England to assume the title Earl of Kerhill, he having been exonerated by the deathbed confession of his cousin. He decides to send his son home to England, and the parting between the mother and son are most pathetic. Naturich, about to be arrested for the killing of Hawkins, commits suicide while huddled among her child's playthings.

Jules and Yvette D'Alembert are a brother and sister team of aerialists in the D'Alembert family ''Circus of the Empire'' and also work as agents in SOTE, "The Service of The Empire", the imperial intelligence agency.

On the way to New York in a ship, a famous psychiatrist, Dr. Karl Decker (Spencer Tracy), sees a young girl, Georgi (Hedy Lamarr) attempting suicide by jumping from the top because of a failed romance with Phil Mayberry (Kent Taylor). The doctor rescues her and makes her understand how to live by doing real work.

After reaching New York, she visits the doctor and joins him in his practice at a clinic for the poor. They fall in love and marry. The doctor leaves his clinic and joins a famous hospital so that he can earn more money to support his wife in style. He becomes highly successful, and the owner takes him as a business partner.

Meanwhile, Phil pesters her to renew their love affair, saying that he still loves her. She finally meets with him at his apartment and asks him to stop disturbing her, realizing that she loves Karl instead. Before Georgi and Karl can depart for a belated honeymoon, Karl learns that Georgi and Phil had met in his apartment. Believing that she still loves Phil, Karl breaks off his relationship with Georgi in spite of her protest.

An important call comes from the hospital regarding a suicidal case of a young girl. Karl rushes to the hospital, but the girl dies in spite of his efforts. On the death certificate, he writes "suicide," but the father of the girl opposes him, wanting to avoid any scandal. Karl will not listen to him, and finally decides to quit working for the hospital and travel to China to do research. Before his departure, he visits his old clinic. His former patients are pleased, having heard from Georgi that he was planning to open the clinic again. But he refuses in spite of their disappointment. When some of the children, whose lives he saved, entreat him to reopen the clinic, he relents at last. Georgi asks, "Can I stay too?" Karl happily agrees, and the film ends as they kiss.

After causing yet another scandal, Kay Dowling (Carole Lombard), the spoiled daughter of wealthy New Yorkers, is given a stark choice by her fed-up father (Charles Trowbridge): go to his ranch in Ursula, Wyoming, (to avoid being named a co-respondent in a divorce case) or be disinherited. Kay's fiance, Herbert Forrest (Lester Vail), proposes getting married immediately, but she chooses the ranch.

Later, while spending her days on the ranch with her good-humored aunt Bessie, Kay falls reluctantly in love with one of her father's cowhands, Tom McNair (Gary Cooper), and impulsively marries him. When her father learns of the union, he disowns her. Kay and Tom are forced to live in a one-room shack while Tom tries to expand his cattle herd.

One year later, Kay is unhappy with life on the ranch, and longs for the comforts of her family's palatial mansion. One day, she receives a telegram from home, and tells Tom that her father is sick and that she must be with him. Back in New York, Kay writes a letter to Tom, asking for a divorce. Soon after, Tom arrives at the estate and explains that he left the ranch to become a professional bronco rider in a rodeo. Kay assumes that he never received the letter, and Tom never mentions it. One night during a party, Tom overhears the guests making fun of him and he tells Kay she can have her divorce. Later, as she realizes that life with Herbert would amount to a life of playing golf, Kay visits Tom at the rodeo. During his performance, he is thrown from a bronco and hurt. Kay rushes to Tom's side, and the two reconcile and decide to return to the ranch.

Parsifal Katzenellenbogen (Tony Curtis) is an eccentric hypochondriac who has invented a laser skywriter. Parsifal invites businessmen to his castle in the hopes of selling his invention. Potential buyers include gangster Henry Board II (Erik Estrada) accompanied by has-been movie star Montague Chippendale (Peter Lawford), Scotsman Mackintosh (Donald Pleasence), and gypsy Klingsor (Orson Welles).

The goddess Lakshmi embarks on a journey outside her shrine of Puri, observing that many were heedless of the fact that it was a holy occasion dedicated to her. Taking the disguise of a Brahmin woman, she offers instructions to a rich trader's wife regarding rituals for her worship. Crossing the bounds of the city, she sees Shriya, a poor, outcaste woman who offers the goddess her worship with rituals, conducted with cleanliness and devotion. Pleased, Lakshmi manifests herself inside Shriya's house and blesses her.

Upon her return to the temple, her husband Jagannath and Balarama refuse her entry on the grounds that she had besmirched herself by entering the house of the outcaste woman. Lakshmi refuses to perform the purification ceremony before entering the temple. She removes her expensive jewellery with the exception of her marital ornaments and leaves in a huff, cursing the brothers by depriving them of her presence that brought well-being and prosperity. Aghast, the brothers take the form of Brahmin mendicants and beg for food from household to household, not receiving any. Finally, they arrive at the newly built house for Lakshmi, where they are informed that it was the house of an outcaste. Relenting, the brothers consent to eat the food prepared by the outcastes and submit to Lakshmi's demands of egalitarianism, recognition of her holy days, and their promotion of communal eating for members of the highest Brahmin to the lowest Chandala. Lakshmi reunites with the gods in the temple at the end.

Moe is on trial for assaulting Larry and Curly. Moe appeals to the judge (Vernon Dent), claiming he is a sick man who was instructed by his doctor to maintain peace and quiet. This peace is broken by Larry and Curly who are loudly rehearsing their "The Original Two-Man Quartet" routine performing "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain". Moe cracks, and wraps Curly's trombone slide around the quartet's necks. Realizing Moe is in bad shape, Larry and Curly decide to take their ailing leader on a hunting trip to relieve his stress. Moe agrees, and the Stooges start packing.

No sooner do they arrive in an empty cabin when a hungry bear devours some eggs and potatoes while Moe has his back turned. His nerves double frayed, Moe asks Larry and Curly to pursue the bear. One thing leads to another, and the bear ends up behind the wheel of the Stooges' car, and ultimately wrecks it.

Back in the courtroom, Moe ends his story by concluding that he must go back to bed for six additional months. The judge takes pity on him, and finds him not guilty. The judge then returns Moe's axe, and Moe immediately goes after Larry and Curly with it.

The series follows Scott Bardo, a college freshman who follows his girlfriend Zelda Cruz to Arkford University, a college where there are many zombie students. She breaks up with him and Scott becomes friends with a Zombie named Zeke. Over the course of the series Scott and Zelda both become Zombies and get back together, only to break up again.

A giant erects a wall to keep children out of his garden, reaping the consequences of a continuous winter. After months of winter with no other seasons in sight, spring suddenly returns when the children slip into a hole in the wall and play in the trees, except for one corner of winter where a little boy is too small to climb into the tree. The giant's heart melts at the sight and, realizing how selfish he's been, he helps the child into the tree. He then tears down the wall and tells the children it was their garden to play in. Years pass and the giant enjoys playing with the children, but never sees the one special boy he first helped. One day when he had grown old, he again sees the little boy, who appears with wounds in His hands and feet. He has come to escort the giant to His garden, which is paradise.

Moe is on trial for assaulting Larry and Joe. Moe appeals to the judge (Vernon Dent), claiming he is a sick man who was instructed by his doctor to maintain peace and quiet. This peace is broken by Larry and Joe who are loudly rehearsing their "The Original Two-Man Quartet" routine to serenade Moe. Moe cracks, and wraps Larry's trombone slides around the quartet's neck. Realizing Moe is in bad shape, Larry and Joe decide to take their ailing leader on a hunting trip to relieve his stress. Moe takes to the idea like ducks to bread, and the Stooges start packing.

No sooner do they arrive in an empty cabin when a hungry bear devours some eggs and potatoes while Moe has his back turned. His nerves double frayed, Moe asks Larry and Joe to pursue the bear. One thing leads to another, and the bear ends up behind the wheel of the Stooges' car, driving away with it. Then, when Moe thinks he is at the end of his rope, the Stooges get involved with a sheriff (Frank Sully) in hot pursuit of outlaw Mad Bill Hookup (Joe Palma). The Stooges unwittingly capture Hookup and earn a $10,000.00 reward but then stupidly let Hookup escape and now the sheriff has to go out and capture him all over again; Now mad and furious Moe attacks Larry and Joe with a cutting axe.

Back in the courtroom, Moe ends his story by concluding that he must go back to bed for six additional months. The judge takes pity on the poor Stooge, and finds him not guilty. Joe and Larry are disgusted by the ruling and are about to get theirs. But thanks to Larry's tough skull the axe is now broken and Moe begins to lose his nerves again.

The film follows several intertwining narratives as the security cameras watch over the characters in several different areas over the course of one week.

Tony, a manager at a housewares store, sexually harasses, and occasionally has sex with, his female employees.

Office worker Marty is a socially awkward geek who seems to be born of bad luck. Over the course of the film, Marty becomes upset by the wide range of pranks pulled on him at work and explodes his frustration onto the person who pranks him, but the co-worker remains unfazed.

Ben and his wife Louise install cameras into their house to look after their baby while they are at work. Their eight-year-old daughter Megan ends up being the target of a pedophile over the course of two days, when she and Louise shop for clothes, housewares and toys at the mall. The pedophile is revealed to be Marty.

Two sociopaths are pulled over by a cop on the highway. They overpower the officer, shoot him, and drive his vehicle into the ditch. They rob a woman at gunpoint, lock her in the trunk, and leave it in the mall parking lot. A convenience store clerk recognizes the pair as the "Candid Camera Killers". The pair make a swift getaway as the clerks watch on a news camera, before colliding head-on with another vehicle. One of the robbers is killed and the other one is injured. The clerks are awarded $50,000 at a public ceremony, while the surviving killer is found guilty of murder.

A high school student named Sherri admits to her friend Holly that she has a secret crush on Berry Krebbs, one of her teachers. Sherri attempts to flirt with Berry several times but he refuses, citing his wife and the child that they are expecting. He finally relents when she corners him at his car late one night on school grounds. The next day, police arrest Berry on sexual assault and rape charges. Sherri claims that Berry forced her into the vehicle and had unprotected sex with her, but the police mention that her school is equipped with surveillance cameras and that they have a copy of the tape. Sherri drops the rape charges and is expelled. Berry's wife Joan leaves him and move back to Philadelphia. Berry is charged with statutory rape and forced to register as a sex offender. His lawyer, Ben, advises him to plead no contest at his trial to have his sentence reduced to ten years. Joan gives birth while Berry is incarcerated

A darker-skinned man accidentally leaves his knapsack on a bus. The bus is evacuated and the bomb squad is called in, revealing that the knapsack contains nothing more than college textbooks.

Marty is approached by a police officer at his cubicle. Fearing that he is about to be arrested for the abduction of the little girl, Marty is instead horrified to learn that this is yet another cruel practical joke against him as the officer ends up being a male stripper. The office workers laugh and hurl homophobic insults at the humiliated Marty, unaware of his true nature.

The Stooges meet up with eccentric Professor A.K. Rimple (Benny Rubin) and his daughter (Doreen Woodbury) who ask the trio to help them with a space mission. The mission lands on the planet Sunev (Venus spelled backwards), where the Stooges are taken in by three attractive female aliens. At first, sparks fly (literally) when the girls kiss the boys, but then the ladies turn cannibalistic and are about to suck the Stooges' blood. However, the boys are able to escape as a huge lizard appears on the horizon, causing the women to run away. The three jump back in the rocket ship, knocking the Professor and his daughter out cold, and fly back to Earth. They are then shown relating the story of their adventure to an assembled group. When they finish, the "Liars Club" presents them with the award for being the biggest liars in the world.

Two campers are nearby when a meteor falls to Earth. When they investigate, they are attacked and eaten by a bizarre life form that emerges from the crashed rock.

A house near the crash site is the home of Sam (James Brewster) and Barb (Elissa Neil), who are set to venture out of town, and their two children, college student and budding scientist Pete (Tom DeFranco) and his younger brother Charles (Charles George Hildebrandt), a monster movie fan. Visiting are Aunt Millie (Ethel Michelson) and Uncle Herb (John Schmerling). When a rainstorm sets in, Sam goes downstairs to check the basement for flooding and is eaten by the bizarre monstrosity. Barb suffers the same fate when she goes looking for him.

Pete sets up a study date with classmates Ellen (Jean Tafler), Frankie (Richard Lee Porter), and Kathy (Karen Tighe). Uncle Herb, a psychologist, and also preparing for a conference, wants to investigate Charles's interest in the macabre, and he holds a brief interview with the boy before he falls asleep in the living room. Aunt Millie heads over to her mother Bunny's (Judith Mayes) house for a luncheon with her retired friends. When an electrician arrives to investigate a circuit breaker malfunction in the basement, Charles dons a costume and goes down to scare him. There, he discovers the basement is infested with slug-like creatures feasting on the electrician's and his mother's remains, guarded by their huge mother, the monster from the meteor crash. After realizing that the eyeless creatures react to sound, he stands silently, escaping his parents' fate.

Meanwhile, Ellen and Frankie have discovered one of the tadpole creatures dead on the way over to the house, and deem it unlike any animal on Earth when they dissect it. Science fiction fan Frankie hypothesizes that the creature could be from outer space, but hard-nosed scientist Pete dismisses that theory. At Bunny's house, Millie arrives and they prepare the luncheon, unaware that the spawn have infested the house. When her guests arrive, the spawn creatures emerge and attack them. The women fight back and manage to escape in Millie's car.

Back at the house, Pete, Ellen and Frankie seek out Uncle Herb to get his opinion on the creatures, only to find him being devoured by the spawn. As the adult creature emerges and charges them, they run upstairs to barricade themselves in Charles's bedroom. Charles distracts the adult by turning on a radio, which it eats, causing an electrical fire which burns it. Pete and the others then see Kathy arriving and pull her into the bedroom just in time to save her from the beast. The teens decide to head for Pete's bedroom, where there is a phone to call for help with, but as they emerge, the adult creature pounces on them. Pete flees to another room and from there onto the roof; Frankie and Kathy run up to the attic, while Ellen stays in Charles' room. The creature easily breaks down the door, bites Ellen's head off and defenestrates her body. Peter returns through the attic window; but traumatized after seeing Ellen's body as well as his parents' car, the latter signaling to him they never left for their vacation, he becomes unhinged, fighting with Frankie to open the attic door, which attracts the creature.

Meanwhile, Charles has concocted a plan: he has filled a prop head with explosive flash powder, with a frayed electrical cord trailing behind to act as a fuse. He arrives in the attic before the creature can attack Peter and the others, spurring the creature into devouring the prop head. However, the cord proves too short to plug into an outlet. One of the spawn creatures appears and attacks Charles, but gets in the way of the adult when it lunges at Charles and ends up being eaten. Now that the monster is distracted and its mouth close enough, Charles manages to get to the outlet, igniting the powder and blowing up the adult.

With the threat revealed, a massive hunt is mobilized. Policemen and townspeople go around killing the alien spawn and burning the remains. Millie returns to the house to care for Pete and Charles as best she can, while Frankie and Kathy are taken away in an ambulance. That night, a lone patrolman stands guard outside the house. His contact on the CB radio is confident that the spawn has been wiped out, but then the patrolman hears a low rumbling, and sees the hill by the house lift up, revealing a fully-grown spawn of colossal size.

Police Officer Alex Kearney is a patrolman in Bryn Mawr, a rich plush suburb of Philadelphia until he stops an important businessman and his story of the incident is not believed. He is sent to work Downtown, the most dangerous, crime filled precinct in the city. Everyone there is sure that this 'by the book' suburb pampered cop is going to get himself and whoever is assigned as his partner, killed.

Sergeant Dennis Curren draws the unfortunate 'babysitting' assignment. When Alex's best friend is killed investigating a stolen car, Alex throws the book out the window tracking down the killer.

Daffy Duck, working for a baby-sitting agency, is sent to a farm to sit for a hen who is literally "sitting" on an egg and wants to take a trip. Soon after the hen leaves, the egg hatches, producing a yellow chick whose shape, voice and attitude are similar to that of Henery Hawk.

The chick first calls Daffy "Mother", then "daddy", "cousin", "uncle", etc. When Daffy points out he is not a relative, the chick says he is not supposed to talk to strangers, and runs away with Daffy in hot pursuit of his charge. The chick first simply eludes Daffy, and then begins to torment Daffy with one violent gag after another (anticipating ''Home Alone'' by decades).

At one point, Daffy (whose voice is identical to Sylvester's but electronically sped up)''That's Not All, Folks!'', 1988 by Mel Blanc, Philip Bashe. Warner Books, (Softcover), (Hardcover) invokes a phrase more closely associated with Sylvester's "Sufferin' succotash!"

Another part of the cartoon shows Daffy walking on the wire with an umbrella where the chick is standing. The chick blows very hard at the umbrella, making Daffy fall into the pigpen, which prompts the baby rooster to say, "Aren't you going to chase me anymore? Or would you rather be a pig?", surely referencing Bing Crosby's song, "Swinging on a Star".

In the process, Daffy also incurs the wrath of the barnyard's bulldog, especially as many of the chick's gags lead to Daffy crashing into the dog's house, and demolishing it many times over. The film's final joke has Daffy over the dog's knee as he applies a loud and painful spanking to Daffy. Daffy calls his agency and tells them he will have to do his next "sitting" job ''standing up.''

A young girl called Lila wants to become a firework-maker, like her father Lalchand. Despite her talents, Lalchand believes this is an unsuitable job for girls. Lila disagrees, and journeys to get Royal Sulphur from Razvani the Fire-Fiend at Mount Merapi, as all aspirant firework-makers must do.

The quest is nearly unsuccessful, as she does not have protection from the Fire-Fiend's flames or the Three Gifts to present to Razvani. However, her friends Hamlet, a talking white elephant, and Chulak, Hamlet's caretaker, manage to deliver the water of the Goddess of the Emerald Lake that will protect her. To Lila's surprise, Razvani recognizes her as a firework maker who has brought the Three Gifts, despite Lila being unaware of what the Three Gifts are.

Upon her return home, she learns that Lalchand has been imprisoned because of the disappearance of Hamlet. To save his life, Lila and Lalchand must win the upcoming competition for the Firework Festival against other extremely talented firework makers. Upon their victory, Lalchand explains to his daughter that she does possess the Three Gifts: rather than tangible objects, they are talent, perseverance, and luck, all of which she has. She has talent, having worked with her father at firework-making for many years; courage and perseverance, for having undertaken the journey; and good fortune, which lies in having loyal friends, Chulak and Hamlet.

Donna Noble finds herself regretting her decision to decline the Tenth Doctor's invitation to travel in the TARDIS. She has started investigating conspiracy theories in the hope that she will find him again. The Doctor and Donna, neither one aware of the other's involvement, both investigate Adipose Industries, which is marketing a special diet pill to the people of London. They find that the pills use latent body fat to parthenogenetically create small white aliens called Adipose that spawn at night and leave the host's body. The Doctor and Donna separately infiltrate the offices of Adipose Industries, each unaware that the other is there. As they explore the building, they suddenly encounter each other through opposite windows in an office. They are confronted by Miss Foster, an alien who is using Britain's overweight population to create the Adipose babies for the Adiposian First Family. Miss Foster pursues the Doctor and Donna around the building, finally catching them in an office. She tells the Doctor that the Adipose lost their breeding planet and hired Miss Foster to find a replacement. The Doctor uses Miss Foster's sonic pen and his sonic screwdriver to create a diversion and escape.

Miss Foster accelerates her plans, knowing that the Doctor will attempt to stop her. Throughout London, the Adipose begin to spawn and soon number several thousand. The Doctor and Donna prevent total emergency parthenogenesis from occurring, which would have killed those who had taken the pill, and the remainder of the young Adipose make their way to Adipose Industries. The Adiposian First Family arrive in a spaceship and begin collecting their young. The Doctor tries to warn Miss Foster about her safety, but she disregards him and is killed when the Adipose drops her from their transport beam to her death, to cover their unsanctioned colonisation efforts. The Doctor refrains from killing the young Adipose because they are children, to which Donna remarks that his previous companion Martha made him more human.

Donna accepts the Doctor's original offer to travel in the TARDIS. Donna makes a detour to leave her car keys in a litter bin, telling her mother Sylvia to collect them later. While there, she meets a blonde woman and asks her to help Sylvia find the keys. The woman turns out to be Rose Tyler, who fades from view as she walks away from the area.

Martha Jones, a former companion of the Tenth Doctor, calls him to ask for assistance during an investigation by UNIT. Minutes after the Doctor's craft, the TARDIS, materialises in contemporary Britain, Martha authorises the raid of an factory. The Doctor introduces his companion Donna to Martha and UNIT; Donna instantly befriends Martha, but is concerned about UNIT's ethics.

ATMOS is marketing a satellite navigation system developed by young prodigy Luke Rattigan. The system also reduces carbon dioxide emissions to zero; UNIT requested the Doctor's help because the technology is not contemporary and might be alien. UNIT are also concerned about fifty-two simultaneous deaths occurring spontaneously several days earlier, all inside vehicles equipped with ATMOS. Whilst everyone else is studying the technology at the plant, Donna goes through the personnel offices and discovers there are no recorded absences by anyone in the plant: no-one is getting sick.

The Doctor travels to Rattigan's private school to investigate the system and discovers that the recent events have been plotted by an alien warrior race known as the Sontarans. The Sontarans are part of a battlegroup led by General Staal, "the undefeated", and Luke is his Earth Asset. Instead of an outright invasion, they are taking control with a combination of human clones, mind control, and ATMOS; Martha is captured by two of the controlled humans and cloned to provide a mole within UNIT.

Meanwhile, Donna returns home to explain to her mother Sylvia and her grandfather Wilfred that she has been travelling with the Doctor, after being advised to do so by Martha. Concerned about the implications of telling the truth, Donna decides against telling her mother. The Doctor investigates the ATMOS device attached to Donna's car and discovers a secondary function: the device can emit a poisonous gas. Wilfred attempts to take the car off the road, but is trapped when Staal activates all 400 million ATMOS devices installed in cars worldwide.

Continuity

The Doctor Who spin-off show: ''The Sarah Jane Adventures'' features the two part episodes ''The Last Sontaran'' in which the only survivor of ''The Sontaran Stratagem'' / ''The Poison Sky:'' Commander Kaagh (also called Kaagh the Slayer) attempts to take revenge on Earth and The Doctor by crashing Earth's satellites into the nuclear weapon storage facilities to cause a chain reaction resulting in a cataclysmic nuclear explosion killing the entire world's population.

Ten-year-old Mew and Tong are neighbors. Tong wants to befriend Mew, his outgoing neighbour, but initially Mew acts cold towards him. At school, effeminate Mew is teased by several other students until Tong steps in to defend him. Tong is injured, but Mew is appreciative and they finally become friends. Mew plays on his late grandpa's piano and is joined by his grandma, who begins to play an old Chinese song. She explains that one day, Mew will understand the meaning of the song. Tong's family goes on vacation to Chiang Mai and his older sister, Tang, begs her mother to allow her to remain with friends several days longer. Tong buys Mew a present, deciding to give it to Mew piece by piece in a game similar to a treasure hunt. One by one, Mew finds all of the pieces except for the last one which is hidden in a tree that is cut down just as Mew is about to retrieve it. Tong is disappointed at their misfortune, but Mew remains grateful for Tong's efforts and gift.

Tong's parents are unable to contact Tang in Chiang Mai, and go there to look for her. Tong, devastated that his sister is missing, cries and Mew tries to comfort him. Tong's parents are unable to find Tang, and believing she is dead, the family decides to move to Bangkok. Six years later, Tong's father Korn is a severe alcoholic, due to his guilt for losing his daughter. Tong has a pretty—but uptight—girlfriend, Donut. Tong and Mew are reunited during their senior year of high school at Siam Square. The musically talented Mew is the lead singer of a boy band called August. The meeting stirs up old feelings that Mew has harbored since boyhood. The manager of Mew's band, Aod, says they must write a song about love in order to sell more records. He assigns them a new assistant manager, June, who coincidentally looks identical to Tong's missing sister. When Tong eventually meets her, he and his mother, Sunee, devise to a plan to hire June to pretend she is Tang, in hopes that it will pull Korn out of his alcoholic depression. Mew is also the object of an unrequited crush from a neighbour girl, Ying, but he is more interested in his boyhood friend Tong, who has become his inspiration for writing the new love song.

As part of the deception with "Tang", a backyard party is held in honor of her return, and Mew's band provides the entertainment. Singing the new love song for the first time in public, Mew's eyes lock intensely with Tong's. After the party, the two boys share a prolonged kiss. Unseen, Sunee accidentally witnesses their kiss. The next day, she firmly commands Mew to stay away from her son. Mew is heartbroken and loses his musical inspiration, so he quits the band. Korn's alcoholism leads to a liver condition which sends him to a hospital. June questions the effectiveness of the "Tang" ruse, noting that Korn has not reduced his alcohol consumption and she leaves. After she leaves, Korn starts eating more and begins taking his liver medication.

At Christmas time, as Tong and his mother are decorating their Christmas tree, she accepts his sexuality by allowing him to choose the male ornament over the female one. Tong goes to Siam Square for a date with Donut. Mew has rejoined the band, and they are playing nearby. Tong abandons Donut and rushes to see Mew sing and is guided there by Ying, who has accepted the fact that Mew loves Tong. After the performance, Tong gives Mew his Christmas gift, the missing nose from the wooden doll that Tong gave him when they were children. Tong then tells Mew, "I can't be your boyfriend, but that doesn't mean I don't love you."

The life of Irish politician and Home Rule activist, Charles Stewart Parnell.

"The plot is pretty straightforward. A couple of cops (Scott Shaw and David Heavener) are trying to discover who Mr Big is. They also enjoy the police brutality. It turns out that one of the cops is in tight with Mr Big. Eventually they end up discovering that Mr Big is a guy named Rinaldi (long-time Hollywood actor William Smith), who is a friend of the police Commissioner (Donald G. Jackson)." Julie Strain plays a fortune teller in this film.

In 1980, the United States Air Force's Space Exploration Wing has bases on the Moon, and it is on the eve of a mission to Mars. When another of its two-member crew Pegasus spacecraft mysteriously disappears, rumors begin circulating of space monsters and phantom planets. Captain Frank Chapman and his navigator Lt. Ray Makonnen are ordered to investigate.

During the search, their spaceship suffers damage from a meteor shower, requiring that both men go outside to make repairs. A bullet-sized particle, however, pierces the air hose on Chapman's space suit, rendering him unconscious. Makonnen is able to repair the hose, but as he opens the airlock hatch, he is fatally struck by a similar particle. Makonnen's last act before being propelled into deep space is to push Chapman inside and close the airlock hatch. Chapman comes to and finds Makonnen gone and himself unable to communicate with the lunar base. He records a log entry about the preceding events, noting that he now must make a forced landing on an asteroid, that it is somehow pulling in his Pegasus spaceship.

Exiting his ship while still feeling the effects of the accident, Chapman collapses and sees tiny humanoids about six inches tall approaching. Once his helmet visor is opened, he can breathe but shrinks to their size due to the asteroid's atmosphere. He is taken underground.

Sesom, the aged and wise ruler of Rheton (the native name for the rocky and seemingly lifeless planetoid where Chapman has landed), explains that though his craft was brought down safely by their gravitational tractor beam, they had not been able to do same with the preceding Earth spaceships that came near, which were completely destroyed, along with their crews, when they crashed on Rheton's surface. He informs Chapman that he never can leave but will have all the rights of a citizen of Rheton. As he slept, Chapman's spaceship was sent into space to keep Rheton's existence a secret, and more importantly, their world's gravitational technology, which allows the Rhetonians to navigate their world through space.

Chapman meets two beautiful women: Sesom's smugly spoiled blond daughter Liara and the gentle but mute black-haired Zetha. Liara is more than willing to answer his many questions about Rheton. Sesom informs Chapman that he later may marry one of the women once he has become accustomed to living on Rheton.

Liara, after following and engaging constantly with Chapman, declares her love for him, but Chapman, still eager to return to his own people, quietly rejects her. Herron, a young man who is in love with Liara, attempts to win her for himself by lying to Sesom, telling him Chapman is attempting to win over both women.

Stating that he believes this to be a crime against the people of Rheton, Herron requests a duel to the death. Chapman agrees, and the two engage in a form of combat where opponents must push each other onto gravity plates that cause immediate disintegration when touched. Just as Chapman is about to push Herron onto a plate, he lets Herron go, stating that he cannot kill someone for no reason.

As time goes on, Chapman and the mute Zetha become acquainted and eventually fall in love. Herron comes to Chapman late one night and offers to help him escape.

Any plans for the future, however, are put on hold when Chapman discovers the reason for Rheton's erratic course through space: It is because the planetoid is being attacked by the Solarites, an alien race of "fire people" from an unidentified "sun satellite". They want to destroy Rheton with their flaming fighter craft so they can steal its secret of gravitational control.

With Chapman's help, Sesom and Herron destroy the enemy fleet using a gravity beam. During the battle, a giant 7-inch tall Solarite prisoner, captured during a previous raid, escapes when the gravity barrier holding him fails. Stalking corridors, the creature captures Zetha, who previously had been traumatized into silence by a childhood encounter with the savage species. After Sesom is attacked by this bug-eyed monster, Chapman and Herron attempt to rescue Zetha. Chapman defeats the Solarite by pushing it onto a gravity plate.

While kidnapped, Zetha's muteness vanished when she saw Chapman about to be attacked by the creature, and she was able to scream, warning him. The return of her voice allows her to later confess her love for him. The two kiss, but Zetha knows that he must return to his home world. They are interrupted when a search party from Earth locates Chapman. In order to preserve the secret of his adopted people, Chapman crawls inside his spacesuit, and after once more being exposed to atmospheric gases from Earth, he returns to his normal size. Reluctantly, he goes with the search party, leaving Zetha and the miniature world of Rheton behind.

''The Commander'' focuses on Clare Blake, leader of an elite murder investigative squad based in London, who allows her interpersonal relationships to cloud her judgement, and who, on several occasions, makes bad calls which are detrimental to an investigation. Midway through the series run, Ofcom and ITV received many complaints from viewers over Blake's willingness to sleep with suspects so that evidence can be gained from them - exemplified in her relationship with murderer James Lampton (Hugh Bonneville). Many viewers said that as much as the story was fictional, such action was so far out that it could not possibly be considered believable or true to life.

As described in a film magazine, Dr. Edward Meade (Dexter) and his close friend Richard Burton (Forman) are rivals for the hand of Sylvia Norcross (Swanson), but both men have volunteered to fight in the war. Although Sylvia favors Dr. Meade, she is proud of both of them. As Edward is putting on his uniform, the head of the children's hospital where he works comes to him and convinces him that his true duty lies there, where his surgeon's skill is most needed. Edward resigns his commission, and Sylvia, disgusted as what she perceives as cowardice, marries Richard the day he is leaving with his regiment for Europe. Richard conceals his hurt and devotes himself to the hospital. Betty Hoyt (Hawley), a friend of Sylvia, also hides her disappointment as she had feelings for Richard. Sylvia uses her time to aid poor families on New York's Lower East Side, and coming home one night runs down a little girl (Giraci) with her car, who turns out to be an orphan as her father had died at the front in Europe.

Sylvia takes the child to recuperate in her home, and learns the child may never walk again. Seeking out the best surgeon, Sylvia finds the only one who has not gone to fight is Dr. Meade. Edward consents and does his best for the child. Meanwhile, Richard at the front line calmly faces possible death. He is wounded in battle, and finds that he has lost his right hand and severely injured the left side of his face. He then asks a friend to tell his wife that he had been killed in battle. Back in New York, Sylvia has come to better understand Edward's character as he cares for the orphan. When news of Richard's death comes, she turns to Edward, the man she has always loved. Betty accuses her of loving Edward, and she cannot deny it. After waiting a suitable amount of time, Edward asks Sylvia to marry him, and she consents. On the day the engagement is to be announced, Richard returns home, having received a new prosthetic hand and some work to his face. The guests hail Richard as a hero while Edward, facing the situation, quietly leaves. Sylvia tries to take up her life with Richard again, and when they are alone, Richard is beaming with joy but she cannot hide her aversion to his wounds. Quick to understand, Richard bitterly reproaches her and leaves. Meeting Betty in the hall, he tells her what happened, and she happily says that she can take Sylvia's place. Richard accepts this as he embraces her. Sylvia goes to see Edward at his home and finds him in his chair with the orphan on his lap. She says that she tried to stay with Richard, but her love for Edward was too strong. Richard, who followed Sylvia, arrives, and there ensues a conversation that results in peace and contentment for the four parties instead of ruined lives.

Torchwood is called to investigate fatal injuries sustained by two burglars in the failed attempt to rob a flat owned by Beth Halloran and her husband. They suspect Beth is responsible, though she has no recollection of the events, but willingly goes with the team. When they return to the Hub and place Beth in one of the cells, a nearby Weevil cowers at Beth's presence. Jack suspects there is more to Beth than she lets on, and orders her to undergo a mind probe.

After numerous evaluations under the probe, they suddenly discover alien technology buried under Beth's right forearm, allowing it to transform into a bladed weapon that matches the injuries on the burglars; she herself is shocked by its presence. Jack surmises that she is an alien "sleeper agent", yet to be activated by its controller and given the belief it is human through memory transplants.

At the same time Torchwood discovers this, other sleeper agents are awakened by a signal, dropping whatever they were doing and setting off for assigned targets and killing those that got in their way. Three of them commit suicide bombings using explosives in the implants, destroying a communications centre and a military pipeline, and killing the Cardiff City Council member in charge of emergency responses. Torchwood learns of these events and quickly leave the Hub to investigate, allowing Beth to escape. She goes to the hospital where her husband was taken, but soon she too is sent a signal and though tries to fight to retain her humanity, accidentally stabs her husband. Jack and Gwen apprehend her, and she agrees to try to help locate any other sleeper agents.

Extrapolating from the targets already hit and the signal that Beth has received, Torchwood deduces that the agents are likely targeting a nearby military base that stores nuclear weapons; a bomb detonated in the base would likely wipe out much of the surrounding areas. Jack rushes to stop the sleeper agent, though ends up getting stabbed by the man. The man, unable to reach his target in time, warns that there are numerous other agents around Earth, before his implant explodes harmlessly outside the base.

Back at Torchwood, Beth is conflicted with the thoughts that she could kill again. Though the team tries to encourage her that they could help de-program her, she instead uses her implant, transformed into a blade, to threaten Gwen, forcing the others to shoot and kill her. As they deal with Beth's body, Gwen recognises that they will be able to deal with any other sleeper agents that may arrive.

Tommy Brockless (Anthony Lewis) is a young World War I soldier, shell-shocked from his experiences in the trenches. In 1918, Torchwood agents Gerald Carter and Harriet Derbyshire (Roderic Culver and Siobhan Hewlett) take Tommy from the St Teilo's military hospital in Cardiff to be kept in cryonic storage. They leave instructions for future Torchwood members that Tommy will one day be key to saving the world. In the present day it is revealed that Torchwood have kept Tommy in storage for almost a century, releasing him one day a year for a medical check-up.

Whilst Tommy is under day-release, Toshiko (Naoko Mori) elects to keep him company. Whilst Toshiko spends time with Tommy, Jack (John Barrowman) and Gwen (Eve Myles) discover that the abandoned Cardiff hospital is showing signs of time distortion, with elements of the 1918 hospital appearing in the present. Meanwhile, Toshiko and Tommy grow closer; after an afternoon in the pub, he kisses her romantically. Later, Toshiko's colleague Owen (Burn Gorman) realises that Toshiko has developed feelings for Tommy and warns her to be careful as he does not want her to get hurt. Upon their return, Jack realizes that the present year is when Tommy will be needed: he will have to travel back to 1918 and activate a Rift Key to close the connection between 1918 and the present and prevent disaster. As Tommy is due to be executed for cowardice three weeks after his return to 1918, Tosh initially refuses to let him go back. Jack persuades her of the necessity of Tommy's return.

After spending the night together, Tosh and Tommy return to the hospital as the disruptions intensify, accompanied by Jack. During one disruption, the three witness the 1918 Torchwood team; Jack relays instructions through Tommy for them to take the 1918 version of Tommy into their custody before the older Tommy arrives. Tommy and Tosh share a goodbye, and Jack briefs Tommy on using the Rift Key before he steps back to 1918 during the next disruption. However, when back in the past, Tommy becomes shell-shocked, and is led back to his bed by nurses; he is unable to operate the Rift Key in his state. At Torchwood's headquarters, Jack and Tosh use the Cardiff Rift to project an image of Tosh into Tommy's mind. Tommy senses some familiarity with Tosh but otherwise does not recognise her. Despite this, Tosh is able to instruct Tommy to activate the Rift Key, and the distortions at the hospital soon dissipate. Recovering from events, Tosh brushes off Owen's sympathy and takes a moment to consider her short time with Tommy.

Background

The central premise of the first two series of ''Torchwood'' is focused on a team of alien investigators known as Torchwood tracking down alien life which arrives in Cardiff via a space-time rift located in the city. Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles), a South Wales Police officer, is recruited into the organisation by its leader, Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), in the premiere episode but due to the pressures of her work keeps it a secret from her boyfriend, trucking manager, Rhys (Kai Owen). He believes reports of alien sightings to be a result of hallucinations induced by psychotropic drugs in the water supply and Gwen's job to be working in "special ops". By the second series Gwen is the second in command of Torchwood Three and now engaged to Rhys, who still remains in the dark regarding her vocation.

Events

Rhys is out driving when he is telephoned by his secretary Ruth (Patti Clare), who informs him that one of their firm's lorry drivers has crashed. At the crash Rhys discovers that one of his employees and friends has died whilst transporting meat to an abattoir. As he contemplates moving the lorry, a police officer (Colin Baxter) tells him that there is something suspicious in the back and that Torchwood want to investigate. The secret alien response team appears on the scene and Rhys spots his fiancée Gwen amongst them. The Torchwood team confiscate the meat that the lorry was transporting, due to suspicions that it originates from an alien. Gwen recognises the lorry as one from Harwood's—Rhys' firm. Back at their base of operations, known as the Hub, the team briefly consider that Rhys may be involved with the alien meat. Toshiko Sato (Naoko Mori) rings Rhys' office for information, pretending to be the police. Meanwhile, analysing a sample of the meat, Torchwood's resident medic Owen Harper (Burn Gorman) conjectures that it is being used for human consumption. Rhys texts Gwen asking for her to come home. He attempts to get her to confess to being at the crash site by questioning her on the police response to the lorry crash, but she is evasive.

After following Gwen from home, Rhys sees her meeting up with her boss Jack Harkness near the invisible lift in Roald Dahl Plass and follows them to a warehouse on the outskirts of Cardiff. While there he is captured by a group of men (Garry Lake, Gerard Carey and Matt Ryan) and subsequently taken inside the warehouse. Jack and Gwen see this and mistake his actions for collaboration. When questioned by his captors Rhys informs them of his colleague's death and in an act of self-preservation claims to have destroyed the meat sample and offers to assume his colleague's job in trafficking the alien meat. The men subsequently show Rhys that they have captured a live sea creature (nicknamed the "cash cow" by its captors) which is the source of the meat and which continues to grow despite them cutting chunks of its flesh away while it is still alive. Back at their flat, Rhys and Gwen argue over his presence at the warehouse and her presence at the lorry crash. Rhys suspects Gwen of infidelity with Jack. After their argument escalates, she is forced to confess that she catches aliens for a living. Rhys is initially disbelieving, and demands that she proves it. In response she takes him to the Hub. After recounting his findings and discussing the situation, Rhys agrees to help Torchwood investigate the warehouse.

As Rhys is expected by the alien's captors, the team hides in his van as he drives them to the factory where the team sneaks in. They locate the creature and plan to stun the men and sedate it so they can move it back to the Hub until the Cardiff space-time Rift reopens so they can send it back. They confirm that the creature is sentient, and experience empathy over its plight. The presence of Torchwood is discovered, Rhys is handcuffed by the three men. During the ensuing confrontation Rhys breaks free and takes a bullet for Gwen. Torchwood are able to stun the men and feed them amnesia pills. The creature becomes distressed and Owen can see no other option but to reluctantly euthanise it as it poses a threat to them by struggling. Back at the Hub, Owen patches up Rhys' wound and Jack orders Gwen to give Rhys a pill too. After realising that Rhys is willing to support her life with Torchwood and that she enjoys being honest with him, Gwen cannot bring herself to do so. Jack relents, disappointed about this but unwilling to fire Gwen and face losing her from the team.

Torchwood encounter an alien, Adam, who has the ability of memory manipulation. By implanting false memories into each team member, making them believe they have known him for three years, Adam's manipulation changes the team dramatically: Gwen loses all memory of Rhys, Jack is haunted by memories of his lost brother Gray, from whom he was separated as a child on the Boeshane Peninsula, Toshiko has become more confident and believes that she and Adam are in love, and Owen has been manipulated into thinking he is more or less a geek in comparison to his actual self, and madly in love with Toshiko.

After reading his diary, Ianto becomes disturbed when he notices there is no mention of Adam. Adam confronts him and implants false memories into Ianto's mind, leading Ianto to believe he is a serial killer. Jack returns to find Ianto deeply upset but refuses to believe that Ianto is a killer. The pair search Torchwood's files, discovering the truth after seeing footage of Adam implanting the memories into the team. Jack discovers that the team needs to take amnesia pills, to erase their memories of the past forty-eight hours. He gathers the team and asks each person to try to recall who they really are. Each member takes their pill, Owen looking at Tosh and giving a small smile.

As they fall asleep, Jack returns to the cells to find Adam disappearing as a result of the memory erasure. Adam offers Jack the last happy memory of his childhood, before he lost Gray and before his father died. Adam then appears in the memory, threatening that if he dies, Jack will never regain any other memories of his father. Adam reveals that the mysterious box contains Jack's last memories and that if Adam dies, so will they. Jack considers the option before taking the amnesia pill. Adam screams in pain, before fading away into nothingness.

The next day, the team cannot recall the events of the past two days. With everything back to normal, Jack goes to his office. He finds a strange wooden box and opens it. He pours out a handful of sand, and the episode ends.

Continuity

The opening montage features the Dalek-enhanced Thompson submachine guns created for "Evolution of the Daleks" and was re-edited to include footage of Adam as a member of Torchwood. The Boeshane Peninsula, first mentioned in "Last of the Time Lords", is depicted here. Reference is made to the creatures who attacked Jack's family, first mentioned in "Captain Jack Harkness". Who or what they are is still unknown. * We learn that "Gray", first mentioned in "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang", is Jack's younger brother. In the earlier episode, Captain John Hart claimed to have found him. Adam states he used to reside in The Void, the nothingness between dimensions. *The episode makes use of a newspaper cutting on the front door of the Torchwood foyer, seen previously in the Doctor Who episode Boom Town, however no reference is made to it during the episode.

After two unsuccessful years pursuing an art career in Paris, clubfooted Philip Carey decides to study medicine. He meets and falls in love with Mildred Rogers, a low-class waitress who takes advantage of his feelings for her.

When she leaves him to marry another man, Philip falls in love with Nora Nesbitt, a writer who encourages him to complete his studies. Mildred returns, pregnant and abandoned by her husband, and Philip takes her in and cares for her, ending his relationship with Nora.

While staying with Philip, Mildred has an affair with his best friend Griffiths, and when Philip confronts her, she tells Philip she's repulsed by him and walks out.

After earning his degree, Philip becomes a junior doctor at a London hospital. He learns Mildred is working as a prostitute and seeks her out at the brothel where she's living with her ailing child.

He takes the two under his wing, but once again Mildred leaves him. When he finally finds her in a clinic for the indigent, he discovers her child has died and Mildred, in the advanced stages of syphilis, dies in her spurned lover's arms.

Robert "Bob" Peters Sr. (Paul Michael Glaser) works as a High School football coach, and physical education teacher to support his family financially while his wife Patricia "Pat" Peters (Dee Wallace) fulfills her full-time duties as a stay-at-home mom. Each day, Pat takes care of their three lovely but lively children by the names of Jennifer (Tamar Howard), Robert Jr. (Robert Jayne), and Christopher (Joseph Lawrence), but still manages to tend to husband Bob's actual needs, and wants, as soon as he comes home from work every day. Now without any gain of support, Pat now has constantly growing frustrations, also is now completely stressed out, and without rest, with the status questioning now in her life are not being helped by her husband Bob finally winning the election for the "Man of the Year Award".

On the night that her husband receives his award, high school principal Herman Ohme (David Doyle) inquires if Pat would be available during the summer months to fill in for another secretary during her leave of absences, but Bob decides for Pat that the last thing she needs is to take on a job outside their home. Feeling her personal development, indeed even her own personal identity, has come to a screeching halt through marriage and parenthood, Pat wants more for herself and informs her husband she's seriously considering taking on the summer job. However, "macho man" Bob feels that all Pat needs are a few lessons in making their household management better to rejuvenate her enthusiasm for her daily tasks. If she'd only keep to a very tight schedule, which means her time of chores, she'd even be able to create some time for herself without the stress, perhaps for a game of tennis. Bob's slightly condescending and non-understanding attitude only to fuel the spark inside Pat to take on a new challenge now outside their home. When Bob is informed that his summer job of driving lessons is cancelled, Pat stands up for herself, and takes on the secretarial job at the school. Since child care costs are too high, Bob then decides to prove to her and makes a bet, that it's an easy job with plenty of time for yourself when you stick to a schedule, takes on the challenge to care for the house and his children, while Pat has her summer job.

Bob takes on his completely "Mister Mom" role or household diva, Bob sets out for the task at hand with vigor, and enthusiasm, as well as a substantial dose of male chauvinism, as he sees it all as the perfect opportunity to prove to his wife just how the household should be run. He keeps ahead of everything for a few days but eventually finds himself tiring easily and finding the hours of the day vanishing before he achieves half of his household and family care duties. Bob suddenly finds himself polishing tables doing dishes, wiping counters, doing the grocery shopping, and making beds while discovering that her job is not as easy as he thought, now playing nurse to his children. Bob prepares the daily lunch of hamburgers for the kids, of which they soon tire. He even goes to the trouble of preparing breakfast for the family ahead of time at 5:30 a.m., now doing the grocery shopping. Pat, in the meantime, is loving her job and beginning to socialize with her office friends after work, missing a nicely prepared candlelight dinner that Bob has set up. Tired, he does the dishes, and goes to bed. Bob not having any adult contact, now is going jogging with his friend on the beach. On the way he gets a traffic ticket. He takes the kids and Pat to the beach. He puts on the calendar between the days of July and August. The next morning, youngest son Christopher becomes a total brat at the kitchen table resulting in Bob pouring milk all over his head, and making him cry. The washing machine breaks down, and he hovers over the repairman, offering him lunch and trying to make conversation. Bob then apologizes to Christopher for losing his temper, and finds himself sitting the couch drinking a beer.

Summer has finally passed, and it's now Bob's birthday. Pat comes home from work, ready to take Bob out to celebrate when Christopher, after smudging mud on Bob's freshly cleaned window, falls onto Bob's clean white pants as he opens the glass doors. Having enough of household work, Bob loses his temper, and has a fight with Pat, then storms out of the house and disappears. After Pat makes several calls to his friends, she finally receives a call from their local TV station to turn it on. There on the local television show, Bob makes a public apology live on the air and comments about how hard it is to be a homemaker. After Bob leaves the station, he marches down his street with the high school marching band behind him all in salute of Pat, his wife. Later on that day, Bob returns home, apologizes to Pat and shows her his nice clean shirt.

In a place called Midvale, a sanitarium patient escapes after dispatching security specialists there and heads off to looking for the love of his life. The disturbed individual is obsessively jealous, slaying anyone whom he fears may be endangering his relationship with his current girlfriend.

Gavin Ransom (Noah Wyle) is a successful real estate developer who has made a tidy fortune putting up gated communities filled with expensive suburban homes all over California. Ransom intends to put up another such development in the as-yet-untouched hillsides of Northern California's Marin County, and, just as he's expected, a number of folks living nearby are objecting to the project, including his sister Olive (Illeana Douglas), an environmental activist who has sided with longtime resident Eileen Boatwright (Cloris Leachman) and progressive lawyer Sybil (Jane Lynch) against the development. Olive and her compatriots get some unexpected support when Zoe Tripp (Kate Mara), a modern folk singer and the daughter of old-school Marin County hippies (Keith Carradine and Valerie Perrine), takes an interest in their protests and begins singing out against Gavin's proposal with guitar in hand. Gavin unexpectedly finds himself growing powerfully infatuated with Zoe, and Olive, a long-closeted lesbian, is equally taken with her; consequently, as the siblings battle against building several dozen cookie-cutter mansions, they also wage a private war for the affections of the young songstress.

It has been five years since Terry (now known as Terrence) and his friend, Glen, accidentally opened up the Gate in Glen's back yard, releasing demonic forces that the two of them had to banish. Glen and his family have moved away, and Terrence's broken family has grown worse. Still grieving over his mother's death, and with his dad wallowing in alcoholism, Terrence finds himself increasingly drawn to the evil portal and the power it possesses.

Terrence breaks into Glen's old house and begins the ritual to summon the demons and grant him the power to get his father's life back on track. He is interrupted by three other teens who also broke into the house. While John and Moe are content to ridicule Terrence, John's girlfriend, Liz is extremely interested in demonology and convinces her two friends to join Terrence in completing the ritual. Terrence summons a Minion (one of the small creatures that ran amok previously) through the Gate. In a panic, John pulls out his revolver and shoots it, then storms off with his friends in tow. Alone, Terrence retrieves the Minion's body and takes it home. It survives, so Terrance opts to keep it in a cage as a pet.

The next day, Terrence finds that his wish has seemingly come true. His father, once a proud airline pilot, has given up the bottle and netted a job flying for a major carrier. When Liz comes over later, they discover they can use the Minion to grant any wish they want, but with dire consequences.

Liz burns an effigy of her car pin to make a real one. John and Moe create money and binge at an expensive restaurant after stealing the minion and trashing Terrence's house. The minion gets loose and attacks the boys, infecting them both.

John and Moe transform into demons. They kidnap Liz to sacrifice her. Previously Liz and Terrence imbued an old jewelry box belonging to his mother as a vessel of light to destroy the darkness.

Terrence is brought to the dark world by the demonic John and Moe and transformed into a demon. He is tasked with killing Liz to the Darkness. Terrence fights for himself, to save Liz and hurls the box into the gate. It explodes with light and they are transported back to Earth. Terrence dies.

After the funeral service for Terrence ends, he emerges from the coffin and Liz and Terrence kiss. After they leave, John and Moe also emerge from the coffin. Seeing Liz and Terry together, they state, "Who needs chicks, when you got demons!" It is revealed after the credits that Terrence's hamster, that had been sacrificed by John to open the portal has also been brought back to life and exits the coffin.

Zouina's husband, Ahmed, left Algeria in the 1970s to work in France. As part of the French government's Family Reunification law passed by Prime Minister Jacques Chirac in 1974, Zouina is allowed to move to France from Algeria in order to join her husband, Ahmed. After tearfully leaving her mother behind, Zouina, her mother-in-law, Aicha, and their three children move to France. Zouina struggles to cope with life in a new country and different culture but becomes a prisoner to the tyranny of Aicha and her husband's failures to protect her. Zouina also encounters a host of neighbors, some of which intensify the alienation she feels in her new home but many who extend their hand in friendship. Sunday, when her Ahmed routinely takes his mother out for the day, Zouina and the children are able to explore and search for another Algerian family and genuine human contact. Zouina ultimately finds this family after three weeks but suffers a rejection that mirrors being ripped from her home in Algeria and general rejection from her new home in France. Through her journey Zouina gains her own strength, revels in the community of women she finds home in and is comforted by the emerging feminist dialogue she receives through radio talk shows like Ménie Grégoire.

Setting

Following the events of the original ''Final Fantasy IV'', the second moon leaves the Blue Planet's orbit, and a period of peace begins as Damcyan, Eblan, and the Village of Mist are rebuilt, while the Kingdom of Baron comes under the rule of Cecil and his wife, Rosa. However, seventeen years later, the second moon reappears, much closer to the planet than it was the first time, and the unchanging Crystals begin to emit a soft light. The meaning behind these events, however, remains unknown.

Most of the cast from the original game return, with many of ''Final Fantasy IV'' s NPCs now playable. A number of entirely new characters are also introduced. Among these new additions are Ceodore Harvey, Prince of Baron and son to Cecil and Rosa; the "Hooded Man", a wandering swordsman enshrouded in purple robes who seems strangely familiar with Cecil's previous adventure; the "Mysterious Woman", a female antagonist able to summon Eidolons, who attacks the kingdoms in search of the Crystals, and the "Man in Black", a man with powerful black magic who refuses to reveal his past. The storyline of the game unfolds through episodic chapters, released roughly once a month, each primarily focused on a specific character. These chapters utilize foreshadowing, cliffhangers, flashbacks, and a nonlinear narrative structure to build the world setting and both explore and expand upon the mysterious events befalling the Blue Planet. The final chapter, which is considerably longer than all others, draws all of the chapters together, linking them up into one unifying narrative.

Synopsis

The story begins as characters from the original game begin to notice the reappearance of the second moon. This is of great concern to Cecil and Rosa who remember their previous ordeal. Meanwhile, Ceodore sets out with Biggs and Wedge, members of the Red Wings, as part of his initiation into the famous air force. Ceodore is a nervous young man who is afraid he will never step out of the shadow of his famous parents. As his test begins, he descends into a cave to obtain the Knight's Emblem, which turns out to be a rat's tail. Wedge and Biggs explain that the purpose of the test was to show him that he already had what it takes to be a Red Wing, he just needed to prove it to himself. As the Red Wings set off, the game cuts to Baron, where Cecil, Rosa, and Cid are defending the city from an onslaught of monsters. After surviving several waves of attacks they meet the Mysterious Woman. Cecil asks Cid to take Rosa to safety as he confronts the intruder. The woman summons Bahamut and defeats Cecil.

Meanwhile, the airship carrying Ceodore also encounters monsters. The airship crashes killing everyone but Ceodore. Realizing he is now the last of the Red Wings, he sets out on the long journey home. However, he is attacked by a group of monsters and is about to be killed when he is rescued by a Hooded Man. As the two head toward Mysidia, the game intercuts to Mt. Ordeals, where Kain is heading out toward Baron. Along the way, he gathers the Crystals of Air, Earth, Fire and Water at the request of the Mysterious Woman. Eventually, he kidnaps Rosa as well, stating that he is planning to kill Cecil so he can have Rosa for himself. Meanwhile, Ceodore, the Hooded Man, and Edward intercept Kain in front of Cecil's throneroom. At this point, it is revealed that the Hooded Man is in fact the real Kain, and the Kain that has taken the crystals and Rosa is Kain's "dark half." After their duel, the true Kain wins and becomes a Holy Dragoon. Kain, Ceodore, Rosa, and Edward continue on their way to meet Cecil as the first episode ends.

The second episode begins with Rydia, Luca and Edge on board an airship in the subterranean world. The Man in Black mysteriously appears from nowhere and takes control of the airship, directing it toward Baron. As the party approaches the castle, they witness meteors from the second moon bombarding the world. They return to Baron Castle to find it sealed by a magical force field. The four travel the world searching for their lost friends, encountering the Mysterious Woman again, and helping Rydia search for her missing Eidolons. After breaking the Mysterious Woman's control over Titan, Shiva, Ramuh, and Ifrit, the party is able to enter Baron Castle and find Cecil threatening Ceodore, Rosa, and Kain. After freeing Cecil from the Mysterious Woman's control, the Man in Black reveals himself to be Golbez, Cecil's brother. By this stage, the second moon is getting closer to the Blue Planet and the party realizes they have to find a way to stop it. Boarding the Lunar Whale they land on the second moon and descend into its depths. During the descent, the party encounters several bosses from the other ''Final Fantasy'' games. Eventually, they encounter Cecil's evil side, the Dark Knight. Once the Dark Knight is defeated, Cecil returns to the Light.

Once the party reaches the lowermost depths of the second moon, they discover that the Mysterious Woman is not a single individual, but an entire race of identical women called "Maenads". Each Maenad was part of a group of beings created to retrieve the crystals. Venturing further, they encounter an entity known as The Creator. He reveals that his race died out due to a failure to evolve. The Creator decided that the universe should not be allowed to be overrun with inferior species, so he created the crystals and sent them to various life-sustaining worlds as a way to monitor the progress of life on each planet. He determined if the world did not evolve to its fullest potential it must be destroyed, which is what is currently happening to the Blue Planet. After the party defeats the Creator, the moon starts to break apart. As they escape, the party pauses to rescue a child Maenad, and the other Maenads turn on their "father" and defeat the Creator so the party can escape with her. As the Creator dies, he thanks the party for defeating him, indicating he may have felt some regret for his actions. Once the party returns to the Planet, they return to their various homes to resume their lives. Rydia adopts the child Maenad and names her Cuore, and Cecil informs Ceodore that he shall serve in the Red Wings under the command of Kain. Cecil also orders all of Baron's airships to be disarmed and instead be used to help the other kingdoms rebuild after the devastation caused by the second moon.

''Niagara Motel'' features its namesake and the ongoings amongst the inhabitants of the motel and linked Riverside Grill coffee shop located in Niagara Falls. The characters include the owner and his daughter (Andrei and Fitch), their newly pregnant waitress (Dhavernas) being recruited to star in low budget porn videos, a young couple (Friel and Holden-Reid) with a criminal past struggling to recover their child from social services, and a middle class husband and wife (Keleghan and Crewson) in a marriage that is disintegrating in near-record time - all led by a drunken motel caretaker (Ferguson).

The story is set in 2074 Belgrade. The main character is Edit, an art student. She and her friends discover a legendary tunnel connecting Zemun and Kalemegdan, made during Ottoman–Habsburg wars.

The plot follows the life of Yamada after a chance encounter with Saori, when he rescues her from a drunken man on the train. Saori sends him a set of Hermès tea cups as a thank you gift. Relying on advice from users on a website, he is able to find the courage to change and eventually confess his feelings to Saori.

The drama is filled with various dream sequences in which the characters use to portray their fantasies.

Although Jessica and Ian Clarke have been married for seven years, they insist that the thrill and excitement have not dimmed. At Jessica's urging, Ian has left his advertising job to become a struggling writer, and she supports him with her successful San Francisco boutique.

Ian's financial dependence on Jessica upsets him more than he admits and, in a moment of bored malaise, Ian's first casual indiscretion will create a nightmare that threatens everything Jessica and Ian have carefully built. What he does changes their lives, and them, perhaps forever, as they struggle to pay the price for his mistake.

In early-20th century Paris, a theatre troupe is specializing in gory, naturalistic horror plays in the fashion of the Grand Guignol, under the direction of Cesar Charron.

The director, Cesar Charron (Jason Robards), is presenting Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue". Cesar's wife, the actress Madeline (Christine Kaufmann), whose mother (Lilli Palmer) had been murdered by axe, is haunted by nightmares of an axe-wielding man. Then, suddenly, Rene Marot (Herbert Lom), a former lover of Madeline's mother thought long dead after being horribly disfigured on stage, mysteriously returns and begins murdering members and ex-members of the acting troupe, confounding the Paris police, who initially suspect Cesar.

Frumpy wife Beth devotes herself to bettering her husband's mind and expanding his appreciation for the finer things in life, such as classical music. When he goes shopping at a lingerie store to buy some sexier clothes for her, he meets Sally, the shop girl. Rejected by his wife for a night out on the town, he takes Sally, who douses him with her perfume. When Beth smells another woman's perfume, she kicks him out and files for divorce.

Beth's Aunt Kate takes her shopping to get her mind off of her broken heart. While in the dress shop, Beth overhears women gossiping about how her dull appearance led to her losing her husband. She determines to "play their game" and gets a new "indecent" wardrobe. Meanwhile the manipulative Sally convinces the dejected Robert to marry her. He finds that his second wife annoys him as much as his previous one.

Later the couple and their dog end up at the same luxury hotel where divorcee Beth is strutting her stuff. She tries to seduce Robert, but he resists. Each of them quickly leaves the situation, but they meet again on a train. As they're walking away from the station, Robert slips on a banana peel. When the police arrive on the scene, Beth identifies Robert as her husband and takes him home. Doctors say he is to be kept quiet for 24 hours.

The two women argue over whether Sally will move Robert against doctor's orders. Beth locks the three of them into the bedroom, which leads to a physical struggle over the key during which Sally breaks a mirror, inviting seven years' bad luck. Beth threatens to burn Sally's face with acid, which leads to a stalemate. The three stay in the room until Robert's crisis is over. A doctor pronounces him healthy, but Robert refuses to go home with Sally. Sally throws the vial of acid on Beth's face only to discover that Beth was bluffing; the vial contained only eye wash.

Sally leaves but not before taking the cash from Robert's pants pockets and declaring that the best thing about marriage is alimony.

The final scenes show the remarried Robert and Beth in their home. Beth dresses up in more revealing clothes and replaces the classical recording on her Victrola with a record of the foxtrot. Sally has taken up with a violin player. The intertitle that ends the film reassures ladies that their husbands would prefer them as sweethearts, and reminds them to make sure they remember, from time to time, to "forget" being a wife.

Following directly on from the events of the mini-series ''V (The Final Battle)'', the alien Diana escapes from her captured mothership in a shuttle, but is pursued by resistance member Mike Donovan. After a short fight, Donovan captures her.

One year after the day the Red Dust was deployed, now the international holiday called "Liberation Day", the former members of the Resistance and their Fifth Column allies have gone their separate ways and are each looking forward to prosperous careers and bright futures. As Diana is about to be put on trial for the atrocities she committed during the First Invasion, the company responsible for mass production of the Red Dust, Science Frontiers, has her abducted and taken to a secret cabin in the woods outside Los Angeles, where the company's CEO, Nathan Bates, offers Diana better accommodations in exchange for providing him with access to alien technology.

Donovan and Martin, meanwhile, pursue Nathan's agents in a stolen helicopter. After reaching the cabin, Donovan is knocked unconscious by Martin, who wants Diana dead. Before Martin can kill her, Diana is able to overpower him, stealing his pistol. She forces him to surrender his last antidote pill so she can temporarily survive on Earth and then shoots him, enabling her escape to the Southwest Tracking Station.

Martin tells Donovan about Diana's plan to contact the Visitor Fleet moments before his death, and Donovan sets off after her on foot. Donovan meets Ham Tyler, on Bates' payroll, and the two agree to pursue Diana together. Their attempts to stop her fail, and Diana escapes to a shuttle sent by a Visitor fleet hidden behind the Moon. Diana takes command and launches a full-scale invasion of Earth. She learns that the Red Dust bacterium needs freezing temperatures to regenerate, meaning that Visitor troops can safely attack Los Angeles and other cities in warmer climates.

The Resistance assembles once more, now fighting the Visitors nationwide and also contending with the power-hungry Bates, who has used the power vacuum left behind by the collapse of the government to become governor of Los Angeles, declared an open city to both sides. The Resistance fights however it can, often joined by other rebel groups. Although 50% of the Earth is still protected from The Visitors by the Red Dust, the Resistance cannot use any more of it due to the toxic long-term effects it will have on the environment. Meanwhile, Elizabeth, who has transformed yet again and now looks like a young adult, becomes increasingly important in the cause for Earth's freedom, eventually controlling the destiny of both races and deciding the outcome of the conflict.

As described in a film magazine, David Markely's (Dexter) affection for Ruth Anderson (Swanson) followed her from childhood and deepened with her womanhood. He is a young man of means but a cripple, while she is the daughter of a blacksmith. David persuades her father to allow him to have her educated. When she returns from school, the father realizes David's attitude towards Ruth and plans their marriage. Ruth, against her father's wishes, marries Jim Dirk (Blue), the young lover of her heart. A few years later Jim is killed in a subway accident. Ruth returns to her father for forgiveness but finds him blinded by the sparks from his forge and on the way to the county poorhouse. He is stubborn in his unforgiveness of her. She is about to take her own life when David rescues her, offering the protection of his name for her and the child that is about to be born to her. As his wife she eventually realizes a great love for him which he refuses to admit is anything but gratitude. The preachings of his housekeeper (McDowell) have an effect that brings about the reconciliation of Ruth and her father, and through the little boy Bobby (Moore) he becomes a member of the happy household.

Back in the solar year 2000 there was a nuclear war, and people are finally now emerging from underground to build a new society. But something is still wrong. DALAUS, a leftover computer from the old world is creating its own empire, and it is up to the player to stop it.

In 19th century London, Macheath — known as Mackie Messer ("Mack the Knife") — is a Soho crime lord whose former lover is Jenny, a prostitute in a brothel on Turnbridge Street. On first meeting Polly Peachum, however, he persuades her to marry him. His gang steals the props required for a mock wedding in a dockside warehouse in the dead of night. The celebration is attended by Jackie “Tiger” Brown, Mackie's old comrade-in-arms from their army days in India who is now Chief of Police and about to oversee a procession through the city for the queen’s coronation.

Polly's father, Mr Peachum, who runs a protection racket for the city's beggars, outfitting each with an appropriate costume, is furious at losing his daughter to a rival criminal. Visiting Brown, he denounces Mackie as a murderer and threatens to disrupt the queen's procession with a protest march of beggars if Mackie is not incarcerated. Tipped off by Brown to lie low, Mackie goes to the brothel, where the jealous Jenny betrays his presence to Mrs Peachum and the police. After a dramatic rooftop escape, he is arrested and imprisoned.

Meanwhile, Polly, who has been left in charge of the gang, takes over a bank and runs it with Mackie's henchmen. This impresses her parents and causes them to undergo a change of heart. Peachum tries to stop the protest march at the last minute but fails, and the procession escalates into a battle between beggars and police enraging the new queen. Jenny visits the prison and, by distracting the jailer with her feminine wiles, allows Mackie to escape. He makes his way to the bank, where he discovers his new status as director. Peachum and Brown, whose careers are both ruined by the beggar demonstration, also come to the bank and agree to join forces with Mackie. Banking, after all, is a safer and more lucrative form of stealing. In a final shot we see the protesting beggars fading from sight into darkness.

A race of aliens arrives on Earth in a fleet of 50 huge, saucer-shaped motherships, which hover over major cities across the world. They reveal themselves on the roof of the United Nations building in New York City, appearing human, but requiring special glasses to protect their eyes and having a distinctive resonance to their voices. Referred to as the Visitors, they reach out in friendship, ostensibly seeking the help of humans to obtain chemicals and minerals needed to aid their ailing world, which is revealed to be a planet orbiting the star Sirius. In return, the Visitors promise to share their advanced technology with humanity. The governments of Earth accept the arrangement, and the Visitors, commanded by their leader John and his deputy Diana, begin to gain considerable influence with human authorities.

Strange events begin to occur. Scientists in particular become the objects of increasing media and public hostility. They experience government restrictions on their activities and movements. Others, particularly those keen on examining the Visitors more closely, begin to disappear or are discredited. Noted scientists confess to subversive activities; some of them exhibit other unusual behaviors, such as suddenly demonstrating hand preference opposite to the one they were known to have.

Television journalist cameraman Michael Donovan covertly boards one of the Visitors' motherships. Donovan discovers that beneath their human-like façade—a thin, synthetic skin and human-eye contact lenses—the aliens are carnivorous reptilian humanoids with horned foreheads and green, scaly skin. He also witnesses them eating whole live animals such as rodents and birds. Donovan, who first took footage of one of the alien ships flying overhead while on duty in El Salvador, records some of his findings on videotape and escapes from the mothership with the evidence. However, just as the exposé is about to air on television, the broadcast is interrupted by the Visitors, who have taken control of the media. Their announcement makes Donovan and his close friend and assistant Tony fugitives pursued by both the police and the Visitors.

Scientists around the world continue to be persecuted, both to discredit them (as the part of the human population most likely to discover the Visitors' secrets) and to distract the rest of the population with a scapegoat to whom they can attribute their fears. Key human individuals are subjected to Diana's special mind-control process called "conversion", which turns them into the Visitors' pawns, leaving only subtle behavioral clues to this manipulation. Others become subjects of Diana's horrifying biological experiments.

Some humans (including Mike Donovan's mother, Eleanor Dupres) willingly collaborate with the Visitors, seduced by their power. Daniel Bernstein, a grandson of a Jewish Holocaust survivor, joins the Visitor Youth and reveals the location of a scientist family, his neighbors the Maxwells, to the alien cause. One teenager, Robin Maxwell, the daughter of a well-known scientist who went into hiding, has a sexual relationship with a male Visitor named Brian, who impregnates her as one of Diana's "medical experiments".

A resistance movement is formed, determined to expose and oppose the Visitors. The Los Angeles cell leader is Julie Parrish, a biologist. Donovan later joins the group, and again sneaking aboard a mothership in search of Tony, who was captured, he learns from a Visitor named Martin that the story about the Visitors needing waste chemicals is a cover for a darker mission. The true purpose of the Visitors' arrival on Earth was to conquer and subdue the planet, steal all of the Earth's water, and harvest the human race as food, leaving only a few as slaves and cannon fodder for the Visitors' wars with other alien races. Martin is one of many dissidents among the Visitors (later known as the Fifth Column) who oppose their leader's plans and would rather co-exist peacefully with the humans. Martin then reveals to Donovan that Tony is dead, a victim of Diana's monstrous experiments. Afterwards, he befriends Donovan and promises to aid the Resistance. He gives Donovan access to one of their sky-fighter ships, which he quickly learns how to pilot. He escapes from the mothership along with Robin and another prisoner named Sancho, who had aided Robin's family in their flight out of occupied Los Angeles.

The Resistance strikes its first blows against the Visitors, procuring laboratory equipment and modern military weapons from National Guard armories to carry on the fight. The symbol of the resistance is a blood-red letter V (for victory), spray-painted over posters promoting Visitor friendship among humans. The symbol was inspired by Daniel Bernstein's grandfather Abraham, a Holocaust survivor.

The miniseries ends with the Visitors now virtually controlling the Earth, and Julie and Elias sending a transmission into space to ask other alien races for help in defeating the occupiers.

Mrs. Mallory (Williams) persuades Mary Maddock (Ayres), her unhappily married seamstress, to take the place of an absent guest at her dinner party. Gorgeously gowned and very beautiful, Mary wins the heart of Nelson Rogers (Stanley), who asks her to marry him. Mary realizes what she is missing and remains faithful to her abusive and idle husband Steve Maddock (Burton), whom she supports. After a final insult from him, she remains with the Mallorys. During that night she is awakened to find a burglar, her husband, stealing Mrs. Mallory's jewels. Steve escapes but Mary tells the Mallorys that the thief was her husband. She refuses the Mallorys' suggestion to divorce Steve who then attempts to blackmail Nelson for $10,000, which he plans to divide with a crooked partner. In a fight over the money the partner kills Steve, leaving Mary free to marry Nelson.

Socialite Anatol Spencer (Reid), finding his relationship with his wife Vivian (Swanson) lackluster, goes in search of excitement.

After bumping into old flame Emilie Dixon (Hawley) at a nightclub, Anatol promises to "rescue" her from her soulless city lifestyle, which lecherous theatrical backer Gordon Bronson (Roberts) has enabled. Anatol convinces Emilie to discard the jewelry that Bronson has given her, but refuses to give up his wife in turn (for Emilie has fallen in love with him). Emilie invites Bronson and others to a party at the apartment. When Anatol finds out, he trashes the room and leaves Emilie to her fate: marriage to Bronson. With the affair over, Anatol tells Vivian to promise to stop him the next time he attempts to "rescue" a woman.

Some time later, Anatol and Vivian throw a party, with Hindu hypnotist Nazzer Singh (Kosloff) acting as entertainment. Singh hypnotizes Vivian into believing that she is wading through a stream, and she begins undressing. Disgusted with the hypocrisies of high society (which has shown itself to not be much better than Emilie and Bronson's world), Anatol decides to move with his wife to the countryside.

Meanwhile, farmer Abner Elliott (Monte Blue) discovers that his wife Annie (Ayres) has purchased a dress using money stolen from his lockbox of church funds. He rebuffs her and sends her away, resolving to take the blame for the theft. Repenting, Annie throws herself off of a bridge into a river just as Anatol and Vivian are rowing past in a boat. The two quickly bring her to shore and, after realizing that they cannot wake her up, Vivian takes their car to find a local doctor. Anatol finds that Annie is awake and she manipulates him into letting her take his wallet. When Vivian returns with the doctor (Ogle), Annie is kissing Anatol, not knowing that he is married. As Annie leaves to make amends with her husband (lying about how she obtained the money), Anatol, now disillusioned with the country life as well, asks the doctor where he can find "honesty and loyalty". The doctor responds that those qualities, like charity, "start at home".

Anatol and Vivian return to the city, where Vivian plans to leave her husband for his perceived infidelity. The two separately go out to enjoy the nightlife and forgot their troubles. Anatol meets Satan Synne (Daniels), an infamously devilish performer. He offers to go home with her, but she only accepts after receiving a telephone call from a Dr. Johnston (Hall). At Synne's apartment, she offers Anatol a drink that impairs judgment and asks him for three thousand dollars. After she faints upon receiving another call from Dr. Johnston, it is revealed that Synne's immoral lifestyle is only a means to gather money to pay for expensive surgeries for her husband, a dying World War I veteran. Anatol gives her the three thousand dollars and leaves as she falls to her knees in prayer.

Anatol returns home, finding that Vivian is still out on the town. She eventually returns with his best friend Max Runyon (Dexter), whom she has been spending more time with while her husband is busy. When Max is evasive about whether she has been unfaithful, Anatol convinces Singh (who is leaving the United States) to hypnotize Vivian into truthfully answering the question of whether she has been. Ultimately, Anatol decides that he trusts his wife too much to accuse her of cheating and breaks the trance. The two happily embrace and kiss.

As described in a film magazine, Arthur Phelps (Nagel) has been injured during World War I and while in a French had become dazzled by the beauty of French dancer Rosa Duchene (Harris). Back in the United States in an oil town along the Mexican boarder, Arthur meets American dancer Poll Patchouli (Dalton) in a Mexican cantina, and she falls in love with him. Rosa and her troupe are billed for a show in the local theater and while Arthur is waiting at the stage door to see his charmer, he lights a cigar that had been given to him by Poll. The cigar is of the trick kind, and the explosion that follows so injures Arthur's eyes that later while sitting in the theater watching the young French woman dance he becomes blind. Later Arthur wanders into the cantina while Poll is doing an impression of the French woman. Realizing that she has caused the blindness of the man she loves, Poll passes herself off as the French woman, imitating her voice and accent so perfectly that Arthur is deceived, and they are later married. They both live happily until Poll learns of the coming of a great eye specialist who could restore Arthur's sight. She takes him to the physician who restores his sight, and then Arthur leaves Poll and starts a search for Rosa. He finally tracks her down in Siam. After an incident there, Arthur realizes that it is Poll that he loves, and he returns to the Mexican boarder town in time to rescue Poll from the proprietor of the cantina, John Roderiguez (Kosloff). Arthur and Poll are remarried for the resulting happy ending.

Brad and Kate are an upscale San Francisco couple. Both come from dysfunctional families: divorced parents and obnoxious siblings with out-of-control kids so they disdain the idea of getting married or having kids. They try to avoid their families at Christmas by traveling abroad, pretending to be doing charity work.

On the third Christmas of their relationship, they plan to go to Fiji but get trapped at San Francisco International Airport by a fog bank that cancels every outbound flight. The couple are also interviewed by a news crew, alerting their families they're stuck at home for the holidays.

Kate and Brad realize they can't get out of visiting: Brad's father first, then Kate's mother, then Brad's mother, and finally Kate's father: four Christmases in one day. Bracing themselves for a marathon of homecomings, Brad and Kate expect the worst but are still not quite prepared enough.

They keep discovering new secrets about each other they had previously been too embarrassed to share, such as Brad's real name being "Orlando" and Kate's fear of inflatable castles (from a childhood trauma) and these strain their relationship. As Brad counts down the minutes to freedom, Kate studies their families' lives and realizes she does want marriage and children with Brad, the prospect of which frightens him when she mentions it.

When they finally reach Kate's father's house, she asks Brad to let her go in alone then gets out of the car and tells her family they have split up. Meanwhile, Brad returns to his father's and they have a quiet talk alone. Brad realizes he wants marriage and children and with Kate—he loves her too much to leave her. Returning to her, they discuss marriage and children then finally head to Fiji.

On New Year's Day a year later, Brad and Kate welcome their first child, a daughter, after spending nine months hiding the news from their families. As theirs is the New Year's baby, a news crew comes to congratulate them—once again revealing them, and their new baby, to the whole city and their families.

Set 20 years after the original miniseries, ''The Second Generation'' depicts an Earth still under Visitor domination with the Resistance fighting a losing battle. They desperately try to persuade the masses that the Visitors are evil aliens bent on mankind's destruction. However, they are largely ignored as the many technological and social advancements brought by the Visitors to the planet have convinced the majority that the aliens have their best interests in mind. They are halfway to taking all of the planet's water under the guise of cleansing it of all polluting substances. Many people were also convinced to join the Visitors' civilian militia, the ''Teammates'' (an evolution of the miniseries' ''Visitor Youth''), to hunt resistance members.

When all seems hopeless, the message that Resistance leader Juliet Parrish sent into space at the end of the original miniseries is finally heard. An alien race called the ''Zedti'', who are long-standing enemies of the Visitors reinforces the Resistance in their time of need and soon the war is turned in their favor. However, all is not as it seems, as the Zedti's actions make the Resistance wonder about their newfound allies' actual motives.

Saori is returning home late in the evening. She witnesses intercourse in a park, which inspires her to masturbate at home. Later, she dreams she is abducted by two men and sees illusions while being confined in a mansion by a female owner. By visiting the rooms within, Saori unlocks erotic memories of its inhabitants, ultimately exposing them to the owner's cruel pleasures.

The mansion's owner is revealed to be Saori herself. Saori then wakes up from the dream.

The novel centers on a man who accidentally burns down the home of Emily Dickinson, and in the process, kills a couple who were making love in her bed:"I, Sam Pulsifer, am the man who accidentally burned down the Emily Dickinson House in Amherst, Massachusetts, and in the process killed two people, for which I spent ten years in prison ... It's probably enough to say that in the Massachusetts Mt. Rushmore of big, gruesome tragedy, there are the Kennedys, and Lizzie Borden and her ax, and the burning witches of Salem, and then there's me."

During his years in prison, he and his family receive large amounts of fan mail asking that he also burn down other famous literary homes, such as those of Mark Twain and Nathaniel Hawthorne. After his release, someone unknown begins to do just that, with the hero being forced to find out who is trying to frame him by destroying the homes of celebrated writers.

Chev Chelios lands in the middle of an intersection after falling out of a helicopter. He is scooped off the street by gangsters and removed from the scene. Chev wakes up in a makeshift hospital and sees doctors removing his heart while Johnny Vang watches. The doctors place an artificial heart in his chest. He wakes up later and escapes, noticing an external battery pack is attached to him. By interrogating a thug, he learns the location of Johnny Vang: the Cypress Social Club.

Chev calls Doc Miles, who says that Chev has been fitted with an AbioCor artificial heart. Miles informs Chev that once the external battery pack runs out, the internal battery will kick in and he will have 60 minutes before it stops working. Chev crashes his car, destroying the external battery pack. After getting directions from a driver, Chev has the driver use jumper cables on him to charge the internal battery. At the club, Chev loses Vang but picks up a prostitute named Ria, who sends him to a strip club where Vang is hiding out. In the club, Chev finds Eve, who is now working as a stripper. A group of Mexican mobsters, led by Chico, show up looking for Chev. After a gunfight, Chev learns that a mobster named "El Hurón" ("The Ferret") wants to kill him, but he doesn't find out why.

Chev commandeers a police cruiser with Eve and another stripper. The stripper tells Chev that he should look at the Hollywood Racetrack for Johnny Vang. Along the way, Chev meets Venus, the brother of Chev's deceased associate Kaylo. Wanting his help, Chev tells Venus that El Huron was involved in his brother's death. At the horse track Chev begins losing energy again. Another call to Doc Miles informs him that friction will cause static electricity to power the internal battery. Eve arrives and has sex with Chev on the racetrack, which generates enough friction to charge the heart. Chev spots Vang and leaves Eve behind. Vang escapes, and Chev is about to be subdued by security when Don Kim picks Chev up in a limo. He informs Chev that there is a prominent leader in the Triads named Poon Dong, who was in need of a heart transplant and chose Chev's to replace his. Chev kills Don Kim and his henchmen upon learning that Don Kim wishes to return him to Poon Dong for a reward. Meanwhile, Venus calls in Orlando to assist in tracking down El Huron.

While searching for Vang, Chev boards an ambulance and steals a battery pack for his artificial heart. Chev exits the ambulance upon seeing Johnny Vang on the street outside and a shootout ensues before Chev subdues Vang. Chev learns that his heart has already been transplanted into Poon Dong. Johnny Vang is shot and killed by Chico as Chev questions him, and Chev is knocked unconscious. Doc Miles uses his secretary, Dark Chocolate, to lure Poon Dong into his apartment to kill him and retrieve Chev's heart.

Chev is taken to Catalina Island where El Huron awaits. It is revealed that El Huron is the brother of Ricky and Alex Verona, both of whom Chelios killed. El Huron also reveals that Ricky Verona's disembodied head is being artificially kept alive long enough to watch El Huron kill Chelios. Orlando, Venus and Ria suddenly arrive with backup, and a shootout ensues, killing most of El Huron's men. Ricky Verona's head is killed during the melee. As he starts to slow down, Chev climbs a nearby electric pole and grabs a pair of live wires to recharge, being set on fire by the massive current. He returns fully powered and beats El Huron to death. Due to a hallucination caused by the electric currents, he sees Ria as Eve and kisses her, inadvertently setting her ablaze. Chev walks towards the camera and gives the audience the middle finger.

During the end credits, Doc Miles replaces Chev's heart. Chelios's eyes open and his heart monitor indicates normal activity.

A cocky unseen filmmaker (Coy DeLuca) documents three young women about a murder they committed. Raven, (Kimberly Amato) the ringleader, believes in serene dimensions beyond this world and has the power to send you there. After all, she doesn't call it murder. She and her two minions, Angel (Kamilla Sofie Sadekova) and Jessie (Jessica Palette) call it Transcendence and it's the greatest gift to give. These girls want to spread their philosophy and this Director is just the man to do it. His desire to make a movie keeps him involved as he documents and recreates the girls glorious murder night.

The complicated lives of these three women unfold freely before the camera. However, without their knowledge, the Director has his own agenda and the documentary project starts to become about seduction and voyeurism. The girls' stories appall yet captivate the Director as he finds himself becoming entangled in their grand plan. But Raven tries to control the production by keeping everyone in her psychological grip. Ultimately, the production goes terribly wrong and a power struggle ensues with the Director fearing for his life.

The story switches between three main characters, Jiaan, Soraya and Kavi, and Farsala's history. There is war happening in Farsala, against the mighty Hrum empire.

Jiaan: Jiaan is half blood, as his father is the commander of Farsala's army, and his mother a peasant woman. He is half brother to Soraya, although she does not acknowledge him as a brother. Jiann serves as his father's aide, taking notes during meetings and being kind of an apprentice. Jiann is traveling with his father and a band of deghans to find a secure flat terrain to fight the Hrum. Most of the book, he suffers rude comments and disrespect from the deghans about his half-blood. When the first battle occurs, Jiann is chosen to carry the banner behind the commander, a very honorable position. However, during the battle, he tries to help his father, the commander, fight, but ends up being knocked to the ground and nearly trampled. He watches as the commander, to end the battle, decides to fight against one other warrior in a duel to see who will win the battle. If the commander won the duel, his own army would win the battle. If his opponent won, then their side would win. Instead, the Hrum send a barrage of arrows towards the commander, and kill him that way instead. Jiann is overcome with grief at his father's death, and takes command of the army.

Soraya: Soraya is very stuck-up, and selfish. She does, however, have a nicer side. She is her father, the commander, favorite child. She is half sister to Jiann, although she does not acknowledge that. Her father's priests are bribed by someone who wants to be commander, to say that the commander must sacrifice her to win the war. The commander fakes the sacrifice and sends her into hiding with a family on the country side. She is disdainful at first, but soon begins to lend a hand to putting food on the table. She hunts for the family, when one night she gets chased by jackals, and is saved by a tribe called the Suud. The lady who saved her, Maok, teaches her "magic" or how to speak to spirits of things like fire and water, trees and animals. She leaves the tribe after a month or two and returns to the countryside family to the news of her father's death. She vows to find the rest of her family and avenge her father.

Kavi: Kavi's story is short. He used to be an apprentice smith, but due to an "accident" with a deghan, he loses the use of his hand and becomes a peddler selling minor smith goods. On his journey he is caught by the commander when he tries to sell a fake gold bracelet (bronze bracelet coated in gold), and is made to promise to check on Soraya on the countryside and report back to him. He is then caught by the Hrum, he learns about then and eventually acts as a spy for them. Kavi is indirectly the cause of the commanders death because he betrays the Farsalan army's plan to the Hrum. He is bitter towards the deghans and wishes them overthrown. When Kavi realizes that the deghans do not deserve to become slaves, and that not all Hrum are as good as they claim to be, he has a change of heart and becomes one of the main leaders of the resistance.

The setting is The Ponderosa in the year 1905. Augustus Brandenburg (Dean Stockwell), a land baron, attempts to take the Ponderosa first by legal, and then by illegal means, in order to strip the land of its natural resources. The story includes several flashbacks to the original series.

Lola (Laura Ramsey) is a female postal worker that dreams of becoming an oriental dancer. After a friend encourages her to perform at a local restaurant, Lola captures the attentions of the handsome Zack (Assaad Bouab). Lola follows after him, but is crushed to find that Zack is to marry someone of his family's choosing. Lola decides to turn all of her energy into making her dreams a reality and tracks down Ismahan (Carmen Lebbos), a reclusive dancing star that retired due to a scandal involving a mysterious lover. Although reluctant, Ismahan is persuaded into giving Lola lessons and a friendship blossoms as a result. In no time Lola becomes a professional level dancer and attracts the interest of Nasser Radi (Hichem Rostom), a famous impresario. He takes her under his wing and under his tutelage Lola gets to dance at the prestigious Nile Tower. During this time Lola discovers that Nasser was Ismahan's lover and that the two were kept apart because of social conventions but also because of their own pride. As Lola's career takes off, she manages to help reunite the two former lovers before returning to New York in order to take the art she loves to her fellow Americans.

Bobbi Anderson (Helgenberger), a Western fiction writer, and her boyfriend, Jim "Gard" Gardner (Smits), a poet, live with their dog, Peter, on the outskirts of Haven, Maine. Bobbi suffers from writer's block and Gard is a recovering alcoholic who currently is not writing. One day, Bobbi stumbles over a manmade stone object protruding from the ground. She shows Gard and they begin excavating the object and discover a series of connected cubes made of an unknown alloy. As Bobbi and Gard unearth more of the object, the residents of Haven begin to undergo subtle changes. Insomnia becomes common, along with rudimentary telepathy. Some individuals begin inventing wild gadgets using kitchen tools, batteries, small appliances, and other odds and ends. These inventions have a green glow when active. Gard is astonished when Bobbi's "telepathic typewriter" is able to create a well-written novel about buffalo soldiers. Bobbi also begins to dig compulsively around the artifact, revealing more and more of it. Gard has a metal plate in his head from a skiing accident, and Anderson believes that might be inhibiting whatever is "improving" the others. Even the children start showing changes. A child named Hilly Brown uses his "magic machine" on his brother Davey, which makes Davey disappear.

Sheriff Merrill (Cassidy) leads the town in an unsuccessful search for the child. The search for Davey Brown slackens as the people of Haven, including Davey's parents Bryant (Carradine) and Marie (Corley), become more obsessed with their inventions and become drained of energy and life. Both Hilly, who receives a brain tumor from trying to bring Davey back with his magic machine; and Deputy Becka Paulson (Beasley), who becomes insane after seeing her cheating husband Joe Paulson (De Young) being electrocuted; are hospitalized and recite sayings about the "tommyknockers."

Merrill is still persistent in the search, and discovers Bobbi unearthing the huge object. Hilly's grandfather Ev researches the town's history, uncovering newspaper articles going back more than two centuries documenting inexplicable mass murders, deadly hunting accidents, and even a Native American tribal chief claiming that the area is cursed. Sheriff Merrill now believes that Bobbi had something to do with Davey Brown's disappearance, and almost arrests her. However, when trying to contact Trooper Duggan (Ashton) about the situation, Merrill is assaulted by her dolls and is knocked unconscious. The phone lines die as well, persuading Duggan and two other troopers to investigate. Duggan is shocked by the townspeople's apathy and apparent illness — hair falling out, baggy eyes, pale skin, exhaustion, etc. When he begins to feel nauseated — a sign that he is beginning to be affected — he leaves and the illness vanishes. The two other troopers get sucked in with Nancy Voss (Lord)'s disintegrator ray (contained in a lipstick) which emits a green light and destroys anything.

Gard, noticing the bizarre circumstances Haven is facing, finds Bobbi standing alongside other townspeople in front of a local town hall, suggesting everyone is possessed by some evil force and is planning to complete their "becoming". He is discovered and attempts to flee, but his vehicle is disabled and a green energy barrier that harms the metal plate in his head prevents him from getting out. Trooper Dugan is killed by the explosion of a vending machine, while Ev is lured by Bryant and Marie into Bobbi's padlocked garage. Gard steals Bobbi's key to get into the locked garage. He discovers a large amount of alien technology. Peter the dog, Sheriff Merrill, and Ev Hillman have been encased in glowing green crystal and are being used or consumed in some way by the alien equipment. Ev is still alive, however, and informs Gard that Davey is "with the tommyknockers", which leads Gard to believe the child is inside the buried alien object.

Gard fakes being a part of the group (including removing his own tooth) and convinces Bobbi that they must descend into the alien object to fully "become". Gard and Bobbi uncover a portal that takes them hundreds of feet into what is obviously an alien starship. They find several mummified aliens as well as an alien strapped to a gigantic wheel-like device. They conclude the alien controlled the ship telepathically, and once linked could not be removed. They also find that the ship is using the mental energy of Davey, who is trapped in a crystal, as power, and Gard realizes that it is also draining the life-force from Bobbi and the others. This realization forces Bobbi to reveal that she experimented on her dog and is killing the boy. The flood of emotion breaks the control over Bobbi's mind, and she and Gard free Davey, with Bobbi taking the boy to the surface. Gard pulls the dead pilot from the control panel, and connects himself to the ship.

On the surface, the other townspeople realize the ship is active and begin to run to the excavation site. Bobbi and Davey exit the ship and run into the woods. Aboard the buried craft, Gard destroys the external portal controls, preventing anyone from entering the ship. Bryant Brown is killed as a result of an unsuccessful attempt to use a disintegrator rifle on the ship's hull, which enrages Nancy, and she tries to kill Bobbi and Davey before being choked to death by Ev Hillman. Ev dies, but Bobbi is able to save Petey. Below the ground, the alien vessel begins lifting off. Much of the alien technology on the surface explodes, forcing Bobbi and Davey to flee the garage before they can save Sheriff Merrill. Gard takes the ship high into the sky, where he causes it to explode (just as the aliens start coming back to life). Everyone in the town is freed from the alien influence and suffered no ill effects.

Tanya is a female model in Toronto who lives with her boyfriend Lobo a surrealist painter who is extremely violent. Subjected to Lobo's constant abuse, Tanya dreams of escaping to a desert island, and her dream comes true. The only other person on her island is an enormous blue-eyed man-ape who emerged from one of Lobo's paintings. Tanya befriends the beast and nicknames him "Blue." Soon she begins to feels a strange attraction to the creature, which makes Lobo increasingly jealous in the real world. He becomes determined to capture the man-ape and put it in a cage.

The characters from the first film now have children who have managed to get into the same situation as their parents many years ago. However, the story is not simply a remake of the original movie. All of the adventures in the previous film were accidental, but here everything is done according to a plan thought up by Pavlik, a friend of Evgeniy Lukashin.

Pavlik's idea is to help his friend Evgeniy with his loneliness so he dispatches Lukashin's son to St. Petersburg, where he acts in the same manner as his father 30 years ago. In flat 12, he meets Nadezhda, who is actually the daughter of Nadezhda from the first film. She has a fiancé called Irakliy, a businessman. Kostantin's task is to lure Irakliy away from the flat and then wait for Nadezhda's mother to come; he then makes her call Evgeniy Lukashin. Pavlik persuades Evgeniy to go to St Petersburg.

The plot becomes a story of two fights over a woman: Konstantin vs. Irakliy and Evgeniy vs. Ippolit. In the end Lukashin overcomes the competition because Irakliy turns out to be too tedious for Nadya, and Nadezhda understands that she was never truly in love with Ippolit.

Old pals Jake Lee (Pat O'Brien), Tex Clarke (Stuart Erwin) and Dizzy Davis (James Cagney) flew together in the Army during World War I. Almost 20 years later, Jake is the manager of the Newark, New Jersey branch of Federal Airlines, a New York-based airline company. Tex works as an airmail pilot and Dizzy, also still flying aircraft, is seeking employment with his friends. Prior to his hot-shot arrival (Dizzy does a few tricks in the air before landing), a New York associate warns Jake about Dizzy, calling him unreliable and troublesome. Insulted, Jake replies that Dizzy is one of the best pilots in the country, telling a few stories about his fearlessness and bravery.

Jake hires Dizzy as an airmail pilot. Dizzy is immediately attracted to "Tommy" Thomas (June Travis), a 19-year-old girl also working there, who has just learned to fly solo. In order to go on a date with her, Dizzy, scheduled for a flight to Cleveland in the evening, pretends he is suddenly sick and gets Tex to replace him. Tex makes it to Cleveland, but on the way back to New Jersey, finds himself in a cold and heavy fog. Though there is zero visibility and he is having radio problems, he attempts to land in Newark. He crashes into one of the airport hangars and the aircraft catches on fire. Tex is taken to the hospital where he later dies.

Tex's wife Lou (Isabel Jewell), who was never very fond of Dizzy, blames him for her husband's death. She calls him selfish and irresponsible and says that he hurts everything he touches. Dizzy, overwhelmed with guilt, returns to the airport. Meanwhile, the weather has gotten even worse and Jake has canceled all other flights. In addition, the aviation authorities have revoked Dizzy's pilot license, for extraneous reasons. Jake consoles Dizzy on account of both losses and then goes home for the night, leaving him temporarily in charge. Another pilot, unaware of the cancellation, comes into the operations building, ready for his scheduled flight to Cleveland.

Chagrined and burdened with his culpability, Dizzy demands the man explain how the newly acquired and, as yet, untested aircraft de-icers function, then knocks the man unconscious and irrationally takes his aircraft. Jake and the others are devastated when they find out. Dizzy radios information over to them about the de-icers. They work to a degree, but the system is flawed. He reports by radio on the problems of the system and his recommendations for modifications, knowing that he will watch progressive icing until he dies. He does not make it through the snow storm.

The book concerns the continuing adventures of a pair of Greek traders from Rhodes. Sostratos, the more scholarly of the pair, visits Jerusalem, where he tries to learn more about the odd monotheists who live there. His cousin Menedemos, meanwhile, fulfills his usual role of paying more attention to profits than prophets and pays a great deal of attention to women (occasionally those married to other men).

The homeworld Acorna has never known was horribly scarred in the brutal attack by the cold-blooded Khleevi, but the Linyaari-the unicorn girl's gentle, spiritual race-live on. Now is the time for healing and rebuilding, for restoring the natural beauty corrupted by the savage insectile oppressors. But Acorna's Linyaari friends and colleagues begin mysteriously disappearing soon after work gets under way, among them her beloved Aari. And her desperate search for answers will lead courageous Acorna to a shocking discovery beneath the surface of her people's world-and deep into the realms of limitless space, where the truth of the origin of everything awaits.

Tim has been collecting various animals to take part in showbiz. However, his agency is not a commercial success due to his pathetic ways of training animals and Bill is crazed by hunger for meat which he has not eaten while feeding the animals. Graeme arrives to collect lions for the circus but Tim has no big cats or bears for cruel taming. So, Bill and Graeme came up other ideas and put the animals to work in energy-saving domestic duties. Tim is horrified at what they have done, so he decides to support an "Animal Discrimination Act": Animals are granted equal rights with humans and it is now illegal for humans to exploit animals.

This includes a ban on eating animals, which enrages carnivorous Bill, who decides to "speak out" for vegetables in the "Rabid Frost Programme", where he ends up eating the leader of the Animal Revolutionary Party and making animals angry for seeing the true meaning of human nature. In the end, the humans have to disguise themselves as rabbits to escape from the fury of the animals.

Tim has bought a dog from Graeme, but the dog does not obey Tim's orders. In the end, Tim returns the dog to Graeme, who then sells him a 'new model dog' (Bill).

Dodie lives with her parents and dreams of marrying a millionaire. At home in California, near the ocean, her boyfriend Buzz is a real-estate agent of modest means. He proposes marriage and she accepts, but tells her pal Marge that she has doubts.

A yacht arrives, owned by wealthy Neil Patterson, which gets Dodie's fantasies going. She leaps into the water and swims to meet him. Asked on a date, Dodie is thrilled until she learns that the man isn't Neil at all but Pete, his poor mechanic.

It isn't long before Pete is smitten and proposes. He also infuriates Buzz by pretending to buy a house and bringing Dodie along as his fiancee.

A drunk Neil has an accidental meeting with Dodie and invites her onto the yacht. At first, she's annoyed by his advances, but in Tijuana, she gets tipsy and has a great time. Neil is the rich suitor of her dreams, one who even buys a taxi rather than just hailing a ride from one.

After being out till 4 a.m., Dodie is brought home by Neil, only to find Buzz and Pete impatiently waiting on her doorstep. Asking time to sleep on a decision, Dodie tells them the next morning that she has made her choice: Neil.

The guys reluctantly accept, and Dodie goes off with her new betrothed. But the minute Pete kisses her goodbye, she promptly changes her mind.

An atheist physicist, Murray Templeton, dies of a heart attack and is greeted by a being of supposedly infinite knowledge. This being, referred to as the Voice, tells the physicist the nature of his life after death, as a nexus of electromagnetic forces. The Voice concludes that, while by all human ideas he most resembles God, he is contrary to any human conception of the being. The Voice informs him that all of the Universe is a creation of the Voice, the purpose of which was to result in intelligent life which, after death, the Voice could cull for his own purposes—to wit, Templeton, like all the others, is to think, for all eternity, so as to amuse him. Conversing with the Voice, Templeton learns that the Voice desires original thoughts by which to please His curiosity, but surrenders that yes, in fact, if He so desired, the Voice could happen upon those thoughts himself, of his own effort.

The physicist is appalled by the idea of thinking and discovering for no reason but to amuse a being capable of easily out-thinking him with a bit of effort. Templeton decides, therefore, to direct his thoughts towards spiting the Voice, whom he regards as a capricious entity, by destroying himself. The Voice dissuades him by pointing out it is easily within His power to reconstitute Templeton's disembodied form with that method of suicide, whatever it may be, disabled. Through further inquiry, Templeton discovers that the Voice (in a classic counterargument to the logical regression of the First Cause argument for the existence of God) has no knowledge of his own creation. Templeton realizes that this, in turn, suggests he has no knowledge of his own destruction, and concludes that the only vengeance for this tyranny is also the ultimate vengeance, and resolves to destroy the Voice.

At this epiphany and decision, the Voice reflects satisfaction, thinking that Templeton reached this conclusion rather faster than most of the countless beings currently trapped in the same condition, implying that the one thing the Voice truly wishes to learn from his thralls is the method by which he can be destroyed.

A nobleman rescues Captain Kidd from the gallows in order to find his treasure.

The year is 1941, and in Luichow (Leizhou), China, a news cameraman named Johnny Williams (George Montgomery) is taken into custody by the Japanese military, because they want him to take pictures for them of the Burma Road construction. Johnny will get $20,000 for his work, but he isn't interested.

Johnny is put back into his cell, together with a Canadian, Major Bull Weed (Victor McLaglen), who served as a soldier on the Chinese side in the war. Bull manages to get a gun into the cell from a visiting woman, Captain Fifi (Lynn Bari), and using the gun, the two men can escape from their captors.

They rendezvous with Fifi and get on a plane. Johnny, who is an amateur pilot, flies them all to safety in Mandalay. Upon their arrival, Johnny bumps into his old friend, Captain Shorty Maguire (Myron McCormick), who is also a pilot, serving with "The Flying Tigers", doing missions against the Japanese.

Johnny is asked to join the Tigers but declines. He discovers that the document he grabbed during his talk with the Japanese officers, which he thought was his press credentials, is in fact the Japanese tactical orders. Bull deciphers some of the text in the order as "pearl" and "seven", but Johnny quickly loses focus since he has discovered a beautiful woman nearby.

Johnny follows the woman, whose name is Haoli Young (Gene Tierney), and walks her home. She tells him that she is Chinese, and educated in the U.S. When they part from each other, they do so reluctantly, after Johnny has kissed her. He goes back to his hotel and hits on Fifi to get over Haoli.

When he brings Fifi back to his room, Haoli is there waiting for him, to tell him that she found out about Fifi and Bull being Japanese agents. By association, Johnny is also suspected of working for the Chinese. Johnny realizes that he has been played by Bull and Fifi. He takes his revenge by tricking them into funding his new camera, before he tells them to get out of Mandalay or he will disclose them both as Japanese agents.

Johnny stays in Mandalay, waiting to be taken back to the Burma Road by an American news company. He meets with Haoli again and falls in love with her. However, one day Haoli is gone and he is told that she and her father Dr. Young (Philip Ahn) has left for Kunming. This makes Johnny go on a drinking spree.

Bull reports back to his Japanese commander about Johnny, and is ordered back to Mandalay to take back the orders that were stolen. When Johnny wakes up in his hotel after his night out drinking, Fifi is there to warn him about Bull coming for him. She has fallen in love with him and wants him to run away with her. She tells him that Kunming will be bombed by the Japanese shortly, and Johnny decides to go after Haoli.

On the way to the airfield, Johnny has to fight Bull. He manages to knock the man out and fly with Shorty to Kunming, where he finds Haoli right after the bombing has been carried out. Dr. Young was killed in the raid, but Johnny helps save some children that were trapped in a toppled building. During the rescue, Haoli dies, and Johnny becomes mad with grief. He rushes up to the top of a building, aims a machine gun to the sky and manages to avenge his China Girl by shooting down a Japanese fighter.

Governor Grisby is politically ambitious, as is ruthless right-hand man Blake and a man on their payroll, Chercourt, an influential lobbyist. There is a problem, though: Grisby is actually a wanted murderer named John Williams.

Fearing that the fingerprints for Williams on file with the FBI will someday be traced back to the governor, Blake coaxes petty crook Paul Craig into having his sister, Natalie, a clerk for the FBI, steal the Williams file. She now knows too much, so Blake arranges for Natalie to be killed in a car crash.

FBI agents Stedman and Donley begin to investigate. Natalie's roommate is Shirley Wayne, another clerk for the FBI. Shirley tells them that when Natalie was visited by brother Paul at lunch, both looked extremely nervous.

Shirley's fiancée happens to be Chercourt. She is asked to go undercover, carrying a walkie-talkie, as Blake and Chercourt are still trying to get their hands on the right file so that the fingerprints can be destroyed. Grisby surrenders when the feds arrive. Blake tries to flee on a speedboat, but is shot down.

Ted announces to the group that he is planning on taking out his tattoo removal doctor Stella to a movie and is immediately met with disapproval. Barney mentions the ''Golden Rule'': Although it is known commonly from the Bible as the ethic of reciprocity (''"Do unto to others as you would have them do unto you."''), Barney's take on it is "Love thy neighbor", which would lead into his ''Platinum Rule'' as "Never ever, ever, ever ''love'' thy neighbor." His point is that one should never date someone seen on a regular basis, e.g. someone at the same workplace, a next-door neighbor, etc. because such relationships never work out in the end and lead to never-ending suffering, as those involved would see each other constantly. Barney begins to outline the Platinum Rule in eight steps as the group begins to recount on their past experiences against the Platinum Rule in attempt to persuade Ted not to go on his date. He uses examples of Marshall and Lily getting too close to a neighboring couple, Robin dating a fellow news anchor and himself having casual sex with Wendy the Waitress at MacLaren's Pub.

The Platinum Rule

The eight steps of the process and the group’s examples:

• '''Attraction''' (Marshall and Lily meet their neighboring couple, Michael and Laura, who, like them, loves eating brunch; Curt, an ex hockey player, introduces himself to Robin; Barney realizes how easy it would be to sleep with Wendy)
• '''Bargaining''' (Marshall and Lily plan on inviting Michael and Laura for dinner; Robin realizes she has a crush on Curt; Barney decides to seduce Wendy and announces it to the group, who think he will ruin the bar if he decides to sleep with her)
• '''Submission''' (Marshall and Lily invite Michael and Laura to dinner; Curt invites Robin to a hockey game; Barney finally sleeps with Wendy)
• '''Perks''' (Marshall and Lily explain that it is convenient to have friends who live across the hall (they can go on double dates and have game nights together); Robin tells the group she and Curt could split a cab, they have the same lunch and how Curt got Robin to meet Vancouver Canucks player Mason Raymond; Barney realizes he could get free food)
• '''The Tipping Point''' (Marshall and Lily notice that Michael and Laura always show up when they plan to do things on their own; Robin realizes how clingy Curt actually is; Barney gets upset that he cannot hit on women at MacLaren's anymore)
• '''Purgatory''' (Marshall and Lily finally vent about Michael and Laura and how they always appear when not wanted; Robin complains about how Curt is always leaving love notes everywhere; Barney blames the group for him dating Wendy and tells them about his dismay over sleeping with same women)
• '''Confrontation''' (Marshall and Lily tell Michael and Laura that they are tired of playing charades with them; Robin finally breaks up with Curt; Barney bluntly tells Wendy that he wants to sleep with other women)
• '''Fallout''' (Marshall and Lily run into Michael and Laura while trying to sneak out; Robin is doing a news segment with Curt, who makes a euphemism about how Robin did not deserve his love; Barney believes that Wendy is trying to poison him)

Even after all three experiences are fully recounted, Ted still decides to go on his date. When he gets back, he tells the group that Stella did not consider it a date and that it is actually against AMA rules for her to date patients. Future Ted reflects on the "Platinum Rule" and suggests there is a ninth step: Co-Existence, as we see the other members of the gang begin to do so with those they dated (except for Barney who still believes that Wendy is trying to kill him). However, he hints that he and Stella would eventually date in the future.

Kung Fu Kids is about friendship, love for family, and courage. The destined kids are led by Lembot, the weakest and least confident of the bunch. Taught about friendship, love for family and happiness, the Kung Fu Kids trained under the village idiot who turns out to be a Kung Fu master from China, and they've developed the abilities that enable them to fight the forces of evil. They fight many battles and defend their loved ones from evil. To be able to do best, they rely on discipline and focus. Under the rules of the Kung Fu Master, Lembot trains with other Kung Fu Kids to fight the forces of evil. See how challenging it would be as these exceptional kids deal with serious family issues and enjoy their lives as children while saving the world in secret. The kid's desire to learn martial arts led him to be in the middle of an ancient battle until everyone close to him, his family and friends were placed in danger. What is the connection of Fei and Master Kung to Lembot and the crazy man? Wu Lee also tasks Kung to hide the ruby heart of Shen Li Liang, a shining sacred jewel and a student named Fei sacrifices his life in protecting the Shen Li Liang. The Kung Fu Kids summon the red dragon to combine their powers together by the red heart.

November 9, 1965: Margaret Garrison (Doris Day) is a stage actress who has spent her career starring in virginal roles, although she would relish the opportunity to play someone less savory, such as an Italian prostitute, at least once before she retires. When a blackout shutters her current Broadway play for the night, she returns home unexpectedly and discovers her architect husband Peter (Patrick O'Neal) being overly attentive to attractive reporter Roberta Lane (Lola Albright). Infuriated, she heads to the couple's weekend house in Connecticut and takes a concoction to fall asleep.

When corporate embezzler Waldo Zane (Robert Morse), fleeing New York with an attache case full of money, develops car trouble near Margaret's weekend house, he lets himself in and unwittingly takes some of the elixir himself, falling into a deep sleep beside her.

Peter shows up, sees the two together and assumes his wife has been unfaithful. Despite their claims of innocence and ignorance, Peter believes neither of them and heads back to Manhattan.

Margaret's agent Ladislaus Walichek (Terry-Thomas), anxious because she has announced her plan to retire, keeps her husband's jealousy burning in the hope their marriage will crumble and she'll be forced to continue working to support herself.

Margaret and Peter eventually reconcile, but new questions about what really happened when the lights went out arise when she gives birth exactly nine months after that fateful night.

An assassin working for the CIA decides to take one final job before quitting only to find out that he is the target of his CIA boss.

The player controls Curtis Craig, an introverted 26-year-old man who works at a pharmaceutical company. Curtis regularly has disturbing hallucinations at his office, seeing flashes of gore or getting odd e-mails (for example, one claims to be from Hell offering him a job as a murderer).

Curtis was released from a mental institution one year before, and following the onset of his visions, he has regular visits with a therapist. His mental health problems largely stem from childhood trauma: an abusive mother who committed suicide and a father who, before he died in an auto accident, was working on a top secret project at Wyntech, the same company where Curtis is currently employed. Curtis has repressed most of his childhood memories, and over the course of the game he remembers details that suggest his father was murdered by Wyntech for reasons related to the aforementioned project.

One day, Curtis' workplace rival, Bob, is found brutally murdered in Curtis' cubicle. Though Bob was generally disliked by the whole office, Curtis had expressed the joking desire to kill him and feels apathy towards his death, which leads Curtis to fear he may have murdered Bob in a psychotic break. This incident impacts the myriad of other relationships in the office. While Curtis has been dating his commitment-seeking coworker Jocilyn, he also becomes involved with a more adventurous coworker, Therese, who on a first date introduces him to the local S&M scene. Another coworker and best friend, Trevor, is an openly homosexual man, and Curtis admits to his therapist that he is attracted to Trevor.

After Curtis' superior Tom is murdered as well, Curtis suspects his boss, Paul Allen Warner, who had threatened Tom during an argument the previous day. The next day, Therese is found murdered after her date with Curtis, placing more suspicion upon him by the police. Curtis eventually discovers this is all connected to "Threshold," the project his father worked on with Warner. Decades prior, Wyntech discovered a rift leading to "Dimension X" in the basement of their building and sought to use it for monetary gain by selling teleportation technology to the United States government, performing experiments first with animal subjects and later mental patients supplied by the corrupt Dr. Marek, who was employed at the asylum where Curtis was later committed. Desperate for better results, Warner took advantage of Curtis' father, bringing the child to work and using Curtis as a subject—without his father's permission—although Curtis was quickly returned from the rift. The project was shut down when the military showed no interest, but reactivated when Warner discovered the inhabitants of Dimension X could synthesize any chemical desired at the cost of some components and a couple of "human specimens." Warner planned on sacrificing as many people as necessary in exchange for a highly addictive antidepressant/weight loss drug which would then be released on the market, causing the Earth's population to become reliant on the product and making Wyntech the most powerful corporation on Earth.

As Curtis comes closer to the truth, his therapist and Trevor are murdered, causing Curtis to finally confront Warner. Warner, however, is knocked out by a humanoid creature (identified in FMV scene selection as "the Hecatomb") that introduces itself as a manifestation of the "real" Curtis Craig. The child Curtis that returned from the rift is in fact an alien duplicate while the real Curtis was trapped in Dimension X, experimented upon, hideously mutated, and developed vast psychic powers—and madness—as a result. The real Curtis, acting through the Hecatomb, was responsible for the murders and hallucinations, with the purpose of driving the duplicate Curtis insane. This would allow the real Curtis to psychically take over the duplicate's body, regaining the life the duplicate unintentionally stole. The duplicate Curtis escapes the Hecatomb through the Dimension X portal, kills the real Curtis, and returns to Earth.

Jocilyn suddenly appears, revealing that she knows the truth. A message from the inhabitants of Dimension X is heard, asking Curtis to return since he doesn't belong on Earth. The player then has the choice of two endings: either Curtis chooses to leave, in which case he spends one last day with Jocilyn before departing, or he chooses to remain on Earth. If the player chooses the latter, the ending sequence shows Jocilyn happily talking about everyday life arrangements to Curtis, who curls up an anxious fist beneath the table. The fist briefly morphs into a grotesque alien shape.

Prior to either ending, the scene implies Curtis puts the still-unconscious Warner through the rift. A post-credits scene in Dimension X shows the still-living severed head of Warner suspended in bio-organic matter.

The game takes place between the events of ''Samurai Shodown 64: Warriors Rage'' and ''Samurai Shodown: Warriors Rage''.

To the horror of her husband, Kate Barker, known as "Ma," teaches her four young sons to steal money from the collection plate in church. Her husband tries to convince her to stop using her sons to commit crimes, but is ignored. Ma expresses her contempt for "sissies" and says that "guts" is the only virtue. Her husband leaves her when their sensitive son Herman is arrested after Ma forces him to rob a fun fair. After this, the local sheriff runs Ma Barker and her boys out of town.

Years later, she has become a hardened criminal along with her sons. She is known in the underworld for her ruthlessness and efficiency in planning "jobs." At a party she hosts for leading criminals Machine Gun Kelly, encouraged by his brash girlfriend Lou, claims he can work without her. Ma is dismissive. After Kelly's independent attempt at a kidnapping fails, Ma belittles Lou. Lou plans revenge. Meanwhile psychopathic killer Alvin Karpis is introduced to the gang. Ma uses him to get rid of weaklings and threats. Ma's drunken new husband Arthur Dunlop is murdered when he blabs about their activities, as is corrupt mob-doctor, Dr. Guelffe.

After a failed robbery Herman shoots himself to avoid capture by the police. Ma is embittered, but plans a major kidnapping that will make the gang rich. She kidnaps wealthy banker, Mr. Khortney. Lou and Kelly discover Ma's hideout and plan to take the kidnap victim from her by force, to collect the ransom themselves, but they are outmaneuvered when Ma reveals she has Baby Face Nelson and John Dillinger with her. The kidnap money is collected, but now the FBI are after the gang. Knowing that Ma's son Doc Barker is attracted to her, Lou seduces him in order to bring him over to her side, but her plan is foiled when the FBI arrest him. They discover a letter that reveals Ma's whereabouts. At a house with her son Fred, she is surrounded by four agents. Fred wants to surrender, but she refuses, and guns down two agents with a Tommy gun. The other agents open fire, killing Fred. Ma strides out with a blazing gun, and is cut down.

Keaton and Monte Collins appear as Waters and Piper, plumbers. During a busy day in their shop, an heiress (Elsie Ames) flees from a persistent suitor (Eddie Laughton). The jealous suitor challenges Keaton to a duel.

The story is narrated first-person, in the style of Burroughs' writing, by an unnamed man who has just returned to his Virginia cabin after fishing, when he is confronted by Woola, the Barsoomian calot (a bulldog-like predator) of John Carter, Warlord of Mars, who has appeared to relate his latest adventure to his nephew. The narration then assumes Carter's voice as he tells his story (from references he makes, it is set after ''The Warlord of Mars'' and before ''The Chessmen of Mars'': he is already Warlord of Barsoom, but his only child is Carthoris). Carter is at a party in Lesser Helium, speaking with Kantos Kan and Mors Kajak when he realizes that Dejah Thoris has gone missing. With Kantos Kan, he finds evidence that she has been kidnapped in a scuffle. Assuming that the kidnappers arrived in two fliers but only escaped in one, Kantos Kan and John Carter enter the other and, finding the coordinates already set, give pursuit.

For half a (Martian) day they fly over an unrecognized portion of Barsoom, finally coming to rest above a complex built around a massive pit. There, they are captured by a band of Red Martians and placed in a cell where a Gathol army officer named Bas-ok, is already held. Bas-ok explains that they are held captive by the sarmaks (a leathery-skinned, tentacled race) who have taken them captive in order to drink their blood. The cell is shaken by a massive explosion, which Bas-ok describes as that of the giant cannon in the center of the complex, launching cylindrical spacecraft against Jasoom. Overpowering the guards, Carter and his companions escape, with him sending Kantos Kan to rally the forces of Helium and with himself and Bas-ok searching for Dejah Thoris.

The narration again assumes Carter's nephew, who explains that he must wait to tell the rest of the story, but gives a brief overview in which Bas-ok betrayed Carter to the sarmaks and was killed for it; and John Carter, after a battle in the sarmaks' feeding chamber, rescued Dejah Thoris and destroyed the cylinder-launching cannon after the tenth blast (explaining why only ten cylinders landed on Earth in ''The War of the Worlds''), and finally led "the navy of Helium...the combined forces of the green men of Thark and Warhoon, the black First Born, and red men from many cities and nations" against the sarmaks. The narration concludes with assurance of Carter's victory.

A young boy named Kochan visits a temple in Thailand to carry out a rain dance, believing it could cure the world of an ongoing drought caused by the Sun becoming closer to Earth. Three robbers arrive, stealing priceless artefacts from the temple. When the boy tries to intervene, the robbers beat him, but he gets up and gives chase, only to be shot in the face when he climbs aboard their jeep, killing him. Fortunately, Mother of Ultra, witnessing the incident from Nebula M78, revives the child, granting him the ability to transform into the legendary deity Hanuman. As Hanuman, Kochan tries to persuade the Sun to move back to its normal location, but he turns back to normal briefly when the robbers reappear and try to shoot him. However, the bullets harmlessly bounce off his skin, and he transforms into Hanuman again to take revenge, crushing the thieves with his fist.

Meanwhile, a Weather modification experiment is being conducted using sounding rockets. While the first rocket test goes ahead as planned, causing rainfall, the second explodes on its launchpad, causing a chain reaction that destroys the others at the test site in a massive detonation. The explosion creates an earthquake which in turn causes a fissure to form in the ground, from which emerge five evil monsters. They are Gomora (from ''Ultraman''), Dustpan (originally from ''Mirrorman'', being the only monster out of the set to not originate in a main ''Ultra Series'' entry), Astromons, Tyrant and Dorobon (all from ''Ultraman Taro''), which were accidentally awakened by a rocket test gone terribly wrong. Koh transforms into Hanuman, but is rapidly overpowered by the monsters.

Hanuman calls on the Six Ultra Brothers for help; Ultraman, Zoffy, Ultraseven, Ultraman Jack, Ultraman Ace, and Ultraman Taro, who travel from the Land of Light to aid him. Eventually, the seven heroes triumph over the monsters, and all return home.

The hand-lettered text, done by the author's brother,Silvey, Anita (editor) (2002). ''The Essential Guide to Children's Books and Their Creators''. Houghton Mifflin. pp. 169–171. tells the story of an elderly couple who realize that they are very lonely. The wife wants a cat to love, so her husband sets off in search of a beautiful one to bring home to her. After travelling far away from home, he finds a hillside covered in "Cats here, cats there, Cats and kittens everywhere. Hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, Millions and billions and trillions of cats..." This rhythmic phrase is repeated several other times throughout the story.

The man wants to bring home the most beautiful of all the cats, but he is unable to decide. Each seems lovely, so he walks back home with all of the cats following him. His wife is dismayed when he arrives, realizing immediately what her husband overlooked: they won't be able to feed and care for billions and trillions of cats. The wife suggests letting the cats decide which one should stay with them, asking "Which one of you is the prettiest?" This question incites an enormous catfight, frightening the old man and woman, who runs back into the house.

Soon, all is quiet outside. When they venture out, there is no sign of the cats: they'd apparently eaten each other up in their jealous fury. Then, the old man notices one skinny cat hiding in a patch of tall grass. It had survived because it didn't consider itself pretty, so the other cats hadn't attacked it. The couple takes the cat into their home, feed it and bathe it, watching it grow sleek and beautiful as the days pass: exactly the kind of cat they wanted.

Paul Winchell plays a father to Jerry Mahoney, who is avoiding going to school at all costs where he is failing his subjects. Mahoney's tricks range from painting the window black to sleep in, continually falling asleep, and pretending to be sick by painting spots on his face and heating a thermometer with a match to give him a temperature reading of 264F to stay home. Winchell relates stories that segue into scenes from Three Stooges short subjects with the film concluding with a loud party that is footage from ''Half-Wits Holiday''. As Winchell enters the home to complain of the noise, he is hit with one of the pies in that sequence's pie fight.

The partially fictionalized film is set in 1977, the year in which Callas died, and centers on the making of a movie of Georges Bizet's ''Carmen''. The diva, whose now-ragged voice is well past its prime, is persuaded to star in it by longtime friend and former manager Larry Kelly, who abandoned classical music to become a rock impresario. He insists by lip-synching to her old recording she will recapture her lost youth and leave behind a priceless legacy for her admirers, and his theory is supported by Callas confidante and journalist Sarah Keller.

Other characters include Michael, a handsome young painter of limited talent and ardent Callas fan with whom Larry is infatuated; Marco, the tenor who plays Don José in ''Carmen'' and flirts with his aging co-star, who responds to his advances; and Bruna, the housekeeper in Callas' Paris apartment.

Callas' passion for music and faith in herself are restored by the finished film. She refuses to lip-synch more filmed operas but agrees to star in a screen adaptation of ''Tosca'' if it is filmed live, using her own voice. When the financial backers walk out and the contract is canceled, she demands that Larry destroy ''Carmen'', arguing its release would be contrary to her legacy of honest performances, even those she delivered on really awful nights when her fans wanted to close their ears and hide their eyes with embarrassment and disappointment.

A mother is contacted by an unnamed "you"—a guidance counselor at her daughter's school or a teacher—informing her that her daughter is in trouble. While she irons, the mother works through her response to the summons, and has flashbacks to her daughter's childhood. Some of the things that the mother remembers in Emily's past include: Emily's mother nursed her, but followed the dictates of the "books then" in breastfeeding at an appointed hour, not when the infant cried to be fed. Her father left her when she was only eight months old; Her mother worked for the first six years of Emily's life; Emily was sent away to live with relatives because her mother could not work and take care of her at the same time; Emily was sent away to a convalescent home where she was deeply unhappy. Emily was overshadowed by her sister, Susan.

Though Emily's upbringing leaves her guarded and independent, in high school she discovers her talent as a comedian, and her happiness and success warms her relationship with her mother. In the story's end, the mother declines to visit the counselor, refusing to "total it all," or to submit data about Emily's childhood into a formula. Instead she wishes that the counselor will "let her be," but also to help Emily understand her own agency in determining her future, metaphorically speaking, "that she is more than this dress on the ironing board, helpless before the iron."

Before shipping home at the end of World War II, six American Army Air Force officers explore an Asian bazaar. Daru, a snake charmer, lets them photograph him holding a cobra. Paul Able mentions the cult of the Lamians, who worship snakes, and Daru says that Paul can see it for himself. He brings them to the Lamian temple, warning them that they will die if caught. They see a dance about the rescue of the Lamian people by their cobra goddess. As the dancer slides back into a woven basket, a drunk Nick Hommel photographs her. The Lamians are outraged, and their priest curses the intruders.

Nick frees himself from two Lamians and grabs the basket. The Lamians kill Daru, and the servicemen set the temple afire to cover their escape. They speed away in their jeep and stop when they see Nick on the road with a woman standing over him. Tom Markel sees that a snake has bitten Nick, and Paul sees the empty basket on the road.

In the hospital, Nick assures his friends that he can ship out the following day. As he sleeps, something slips into his room through an open window. It rears up over him, and Nick screams. Devastated by Nick's death, his friends plan to ship out; Paul says that the priest's curse may have been more than words. The others scoff, and their conversation turns toward civilian life.

In his New York City apartment, Tom is startled by a scream from the apartment across the hall. He forces his way in and finds Lisa Moya, who talks about an intruder. Tom calms her down and persuades her to spend the day with him. Arriving home that evening, he invites Lisa into his apartment. She is very interested in a photograph of the six friends.

Later that night, Rico Nardi (one of the six) closes his bowling alley and drives home. He sees something in the back seat in his rear-view mirror that strikes at him. The car swerves, crashes, and flips over, killing him. A crowd gathers, and Lisa slips away into the shadows (one of which moves like a cobra).

Carl Turner and roommate Pete Norton (two of the six) host a party. Carl flirts with Lisa, and a jealous Tom punches him. Tom and Lisa leave; he returns to retrieve her gloves, but she is gone. She returns to the party, which is over; Carl is cleaning up. As he fixes Lisa a drink, a cobra is in the room. He hits the snake; it lunges at him, driving him backward out an open window. Bystanders gather as Pete returns and notices Lisa in the crowd, favoring her arm. The police question him; Lisa returns to her apartment.

The next morning, Julia Thompson (Paul's fiancé and Tom's old girlfriend) joins them at breakfast. They receive a phone call about Carl's death and go to the police station while Julia cleans up. Lisa comes over and sees Julia looking through her book on cults and humans transforming into snakes.

She feels threatened, but a dry cleaner arrives, and Julia quickly leaves for work. Paul tells the police about the curse placed on the six and his theory that Lisa might become a cobra to kill them out of revenge. After Tom leaves, the inspector dismisses the theory, but Paul requests toxicology tests be run on Carl and Rico.

Pete surprises Lisa at Tom's apartment. He sees the scratch on her arm and realizes that she killed his friends. Lisa transforms into a cobra in response and attacks him. Toxicology tests indicate that Carl and Rico were killed by cobra venom. Paul and the police arrive at Tom's apartment, where they find Pete's body. Paul calls Tom at the theater about Pete's death, asking him to keep Lisa busy until the police arrive. Lisa goes into Julia's dressing room and waits; when Julia returns, a cobra attacks her. Tom rushes in, covers up the snake, and uses a coat rack to push it out of their high window. The cobra transforms back into Lisa, as she lies dying on the sidewalk below. Now standing over her lifeless body, Tom covers her face and walks away through the gathered crowd of gawkers.

Best friends Matt Rossi and Nicky Parzeno run a management company for Manhattan’s best exotic dancers, managing and booking their clients into clubs across the borough. Rossi was once in a relationship with their top client Loretta, but they broke up because Rossi's memories of accidentally killing an opponent in the ring during his days as a professional boxer left him emotionally barren. Loretta still cares for Matt but has moved onto a lesbian relationship with a pretty young dancer named Leila.

One night, one of their dancers is targeted by a brutal assailant who beats and mutilates her. Rossi and Parzeno immediately suspect rival promoter Lou Goldstein, but he vehemently denies any involvement. Vice Detective Al Wheeler is put on the case, displaying nothing but contempt towards Rossi and his colleagues and their occupation, and convinced that they know more than they’re letting on. Soon, Leila is also attacked by the unknown stalker and is hospitalized with severe injuries, leaving Rossi and Parzeno’s clients unwilling to work for fear of being targeted. The movie spends time showing the killer, a young man with a cold expression on his face, writing about his attacks and going through martial-arts routines in his barren loft that has human anatomy posters on the walls (the doctors from his earlier assaults note that the slashes to the women avoided any potentially lethal arteries or organ areas).

Rossi and Loretta slowly begin to rekindle their relationship, while Wheeler begins to suspect that the attacks may not be gang-related, but instead the work of a single person. When another dancer is killed in her own apartment, and one of Goldstein's dancers is murdered in a park, Parzeno and Goldstein reach an agreement to provide security and transportation for their dancers. But after another dancer is decapitated by a sword, Rossi and Parzeno’s business is left effectively destitute. Loretta begins a downward spiral into drug addiction after Leila dies of her injuries in the hospital. Rossi and Parzeno stalk and attack a man in one of their clubs, mistakenly believing he’s the killer, and drawing the ire of Wheeler in the process.

While Matt is harshly interrogated by the Detective, Parzeno and his girlfriend Ruby are ambushed by the killer. They manage to fend him off long enough for help to arrive, but Parzeno is severely injured and hospitalized in the process. Hungry for vengeance and seeking guidance, Rossi visits a local mafioso named Carmine, with whom he built ''omerta'' many years ago when he witnessed him kill someone in a drive-by shooting and didn't report it to the police. Carmine tells Rossi in no uncertain terms to find the assailant and kill him, and Rossi begins preparing himself for the inevitable encounter.

When Loretta asks Ruby for money, Ruby gives her cab fare, and directs her to go straight home. However, Loretta takes the money to her dealer, where she discovers his body hanging in an alley. The attacker, laying in wait, stabs Loretta in the leg before Rossi arrives, and a fight ensues. Loretta goes for help as Matt takes several hits. Matt then taps into his boxing memories and begins landing bunches of punches against the killer, leaving the man's face bloody and swollen before winding up for a final belt that sends the guy crashing unconscious to the pavement. Wheeler and his partner show up, confirming that the killer has now been killed. Loretta is brought back to the scene by patrolmen whom she told of the attack and embraces Rossi. Wheeler softens towards Rossi, saying he just might be a hero, and letting him leave the area with Loretta.

In the spring of 1865 in Nevada, a small band of Confederate soldiers disguised as civilians intercept a shipment of gold escorted by Union cavalry troops. Following a heated battle, Confederate Major Matt Stewart learns from a dying Union officer that the war ended a month earlier. Matt and his men transport the gold as planned to the scheduled rendezvous with Captain Petersen, who has been scouting the area disguised as a traveling peddler. When Petersen confirms that he knew the war was over but made no attempt to tell the men, hot-headed Rolph Bainter shoots him dead. The men briefly debate what to do with the gold. As ranking officer, Matt decides they will take the gold back to the South to help finance their country's reconstruction.

The following day, Matt disguises himself and uses Petersen's covered wagon to transport the gold and his men out of the area. Soon they are stopped by a group of drifters posing as a posse looking for the gold thieves. Matt persuades the posse's leader Quincey that they've been caught elsewhere. Matt and his men continue on, but the mules bolt from the wagon and the rebels are forced to commandeer a stagecoach carrying a former Union war nurse, Molly Hull, and her companion Lee Kemper. Quincey's posse chases the stage to a station house, capturing one of Matt's men, Cass Browne, who they take with them. Matt and his men take the stage passengers, the aging station agent Plunkett, and his daughter Margaret Harris hostage.

Quincey's posse surrounds the station house, and Matt tells them the gold was left out on the trail, but they are reluctant to go back unless they are sure of it. As night descends, the posse tries to lure the Confederates out by threatening to hang Cass, but Matt is able to rescue him using the remaining sticks of dynamite from their ambush.

The following day, Kemper offers Matt a plan of escape in exchange for two gold bars. Giving Matt an Indian token, Kemper explains that his good trading relationship with the local Paiute Indians and this token will guarantee fresh horses and safe passage out of the territory. He also knows by the approaching clouds that a brief torrential rainstorm will soon arrive and supply Matt and his men cover for their escape. Matt agrees to the plan. Later, while Molly is caring for the wounded man in another room, Rolph tries to rape her. An enraged Matt stops him and beats him in a fistfight. When an angry Rolph tries to shoot Matt, young Jamie Groves shoots him dead, and Molly shows her feelings for Matt.

During the night, Quincey and his men have been digging a short tunnel under the station house. Just when they break through and reach a trap door in the floor, Cass stops them from entering. Frustrated, Quincey decides to burn the station house down and orders his men to torch the roof. As the fire burns through the roof, Kemper's predicted thunderstorm arrives. In the confusion, Kemper tries to escape with his two gold bars and is shot dead by the posse. When Cass sneaks outside to scatter the posse's horses, he is also killed. As Matt and Jamie prepare to escape, Molly begs Matt not to take the gold. Outside in the chaos of the storm, Quincey and his men begin shooting at one another. Believing Matt told the truth about the whereabouts of the gold, the surviving members of the posse race each other into the night.

With the posse gone, and respecting Molly's wishes, Matt and Jamie surrender the gold to Plunkett. Margaret and Plunkett offer a home to young Jamie, who promises he will return. Matt also promises Molly that he will return to her after he is repatriated in Virginia, and the two embrace.

Thirty years after the Galactic Civil War, the First Order has risen from the fallen Galactic Empire and seeks to end the New Republic. The Resistance, backed by the Republic and led by General Leia Organa, opposes the First Order. Leia searches for her brother, Luke Skywalker, who has gone missing.

On the desert planet Jakku, Resistance pilot Poe Dameron receives a map to Luke's location from Lor San Tekka. Stormtroopers commanded by Kylo Ren raid the village and capture Poe, ultimately killing San Tekka and slaughtering the villagers. Poe's droid, , escapes with the map and encounters a scavenger named Rey. Kylo tortures Poe using the Force and learns of . Stormtrooper , disillusioned by the First Order, frees Poe, and they escape in a stolen TIE fighter. Upon learning that has no other name, Poe gives him the name "Finn". As they head to Jakku to retrieve , a First Order Star Destroyer shoots them, and they crash-land. Finn survives and finds only Poe's jacket in the wreck, leading to the assumption of his death. Finn encounters Rey and , but the First Order tracks them and launches an airstrike. Rey, Finn, and steal the ''Millennium Falcon'' and escape the planet.

The ''Falcon'' is discovered and boarded by Han Solo and Chewbacca. Gangs seeking to settle debts with Han attack, but the group escape in the ''Falcon''. At the First Order's Starkiller Base, a planet converted into a superweapon, Supreme Leader Snoke allows General Hux to use the weapon for the first time on the New Republic. Snoke questions Kylo's ability to deal with emotions surrounding his father, Han Solo, who Kylo states means nothing to him.

Aboard the ''Falcon'', Han determines that BB-8's map is incomplete. He then explains that Luke attempted to rebuild the Jedi Order, but exiled himself when an apprentice turned to the dark side, destroyed the temple, and slaughtered the other apprentices. The crew travels to the planet Takodana and meets with cantina owner Maz Kanata, who offers help getting to the Resistance. The Force draws Rey to a secluded vault, where she finds the lightsaber once belonging to Luke and his father, Anakin Skywalker. She experiences disturbing visions, denies the lightsaber at Maz's offering, and flees into the woods, confused and terrified. Maz gives Finn the lightsaber for safekeeping.

Starkiller Base, much like the original Death Star, destroys the New Republic capital of Hosnian Prime, leaving the Resistance on their own. The First Order attacks Takodana in search of . Han, Chewbacca, and Finn are saved by Resistance X-wing fighters led by Poe, who survived the crash. Leia arrives at Takodana with and reunites with Han. Meanwhile, Kylo captures Rey and takes her to Starkiller Base, but she resists his mind-reading attempts. Snoke orders Kylo to bring Rey to him. Discovering she can use the Force, Rey escapes using a Jedi mind trick on a Stormtrooper guard.

At the Resistance base on D'Qar, BB-8 finds R2-D2, who had been inactive since Luke's disappearance. As Starkiller Base prepares to fire once more, the Resistance devises a plan to destroy it by attacking its thermal oscillator. Using the ''Falcon'', Han, Chewbacca, and Finn infiltrate the facility, find Rey, and plant explosives. Han confronts Kylo, calling him by his birth name Ben, and implores him to abandon the dark side. Kylo seems to consider this, but ultimately kills Han instead. Devastated, Chewbacca shoots Kylo and sets off the explosives, allowing Poe to attack and destroy the base's thermal oscillator.

The injured Kylo pursues Finn and Rey into the woods. Finn fights Kylo with the lightsaber to protect Rey before Kylo knocks him unconscious. Rey takes the lightsaber and channels the Force to defeat Kylo in a duel; they are then separated by a fissure as the planet's surface begins to splinter. Snoke orders Hux to evacuate and bring Kylo to him to complete his training. Chewbacca rescues Rey and the unconscious Finn, and they escape aboard the ''Falcon''. As the Resistance forces flee, Starkiller Base implodes. awakens and reveals the rest of the map, which points to the oceanic planet Ahch-To.

Rey, Chewbacca, and R2-D2 travel to Ahch-To on the ''Falcon''. Rey finds Luke atop a cliff on a remote island. Without a word, she presents him with his father's lightsaber.

In 1943, a bombing mission by a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress that had successfully dropped its bombs on target, has degenerated into an emergency situation over the Pacific. The navigator on board has not been able to plot a course back to the bomber's home base. The lives of the crew and the loss of the bomber depends on the skill and training provided for the navigator who represents a "weak link" in the crew.

The one solution to a lack of readiness to go to war in the air is the selection, testing, training and preparation offered by the Army Air Forces Officer Candidate School found in Miami, Florida. The motto of the school is ''Sustineo Alas'' (translated as "I sustain the wings"). The selection and testing to qualify is rigorous; after a physical examination, test scores based on general knowledge, and a stint as a corporal in command of soldiers, only 23 out of 1,000 candidates are chosen to proceed to the Officer's Candidate School.

All of the candidates have a diverse background and experiences, some as entertainers such as Robert Preston, while others have been successful in sports, business, science and academia. Many have also had combat experience as well as leadership positions. The twelve-week course stresses discipline, efficiency and restrictions that combine to instil all the attitudes and ethos of the officer cadre.

The letter begins with a summary of the great literary feats that Chandos once achieved. Then Chandos writes of his current mental state. He has reached a crisis point in his career concerning language and its ability to adequately express the human experience. Chandos has abandoned all future written projects, which he once proposed with exuberance, because of his inability to express himself in a meaningful fashion. Chandos describes the development of his crisis in stages. First came the loss of the ability to conduct academic discourse on matters of morality or philosophy. Next, he lost the function to make everyday conversation regarding opinions or judgments. Lastly he turned to the classics, works by Cicero and Seneca, in an attempt to cure his literary ailment but could make no sense of them and his condition continued to decline. Chandos describes his state at present as, “…[having] lost completely the ability to think or speak of anything coherently.” Chandos experiences extreme moments of transcendence, where epiphanies on life and the spirit overwhelm him. However, these moments are brief in nature and once they have passed Chandos is incapable of expressing the insight he uncovered moments before. These epiphanies are the highlight of Chandos’ existence, and outside of them his life is stagnant and barren. Chandos often feels he is on the brink of recovery as thoughts begin to form in his mind. But like the epiphanies they are soon lost in his inability to write. This failure of language has robbed him of self-confidence and creativity. The end result is Chandos as a broken man mourning his lost abilities. Chandos ultimately says he will write no more in any known language.

Most of the film is taken up with a short play in which a young pilot, portrayed by Ronald Reagan, is ordered on reconnaissance missions of the Pacific. He encounters another plane and cannot tell if it is friendly or not. This plot is interspersed with animated segments illustrating the physical characteristics of the Japanese Zero and how it can be distinguished from an American plane.

The novel follows Ben Conrad, a fifteen-year-old boy struggling with family affairs, school, and bullying.

Ben is surrounded by females at home: three older sisters and his mother. His father died when he was only five years old. Now that he has grown older, he knows he has to step up and be the man of his family. When a distant relative, Aunt Frieda, comes to visit, he finds out how strong an old woman can truly be. As Ben learns about Aunt Frieda's past life in Russia and her love and determination for her family, the two rapidly develop an unexpected relationship that strengthens both, especially Ben who learns to stand up for himself and believe in what he does.

Ben initially strives to keep out of trouble - he is a good son at home and a good student at school, showing kindness to everyone, including Claude, who regularly bullies Ben and humiliates him at the school dance. Frieda reveals that she has experienced similar troubles to Ben in her life. Her husband Henry had been taken away to prison by corrupt officials, which she called "men of stone". When she went to visit Henry, her son went missing and never returned. While Frieda had thought of nothing but revenge, she learned that being controlled by hatred did nothing to solve the problems before her.

The pressure of keeping his anger and hatred inside himself gradually consumes Ben, along with the desire to exact revenge on everyone who has teased him about his dancing and hurt his friends, and for not understanding him. However, Ben recalls Aunt Frieda's stories during his fight with Claude and realizes that he is turning into a "man of stone" from being consumed by his desire for revenge. Ben learns to let go of his anger and move forward.

A narrator recalls the character Paul Bunyan and his exploits, and states that many people still question the giant's existence. The narrator then advises the viewer to ask "a certain rabbit" whether the giant is real.

Just then Bugs Bunny comes walking by, toting a bindle and singing "Jimmy Crack Corn". Bugs comments on the "funny-looking trees" he passes, oblivious to the fact that they are abnormally large asparagus, and to the fact that he has entered a rather large vegetable garden. He then finds an oversized carrot and lies next to it for a nap, seemingly taking the carrot to be a boulder.

Bugs quickly sits up and states that he smells carrots. Turning his attention to the supposed boulder against which he's propped, he scratches some of it onto his finger and tastes it. He ecstatically comes to the conclusion that he has discovered a "carrot mine"; and he starts to dig frantically through the carrot.

On the other end of the garden, Paul Bunyan leaves his log cabin, accompanied by his dog, Smidgen (a gag in itself, as the word is a measurement for a small amount). Paul checks the time by pulling a grandfather clock from his shirt picket. He then instructs the dog to watch over the vegetables until he returns that night, and leaves by stepping over the mountains.

Back in the garden, Bugs has managed to tunnel through several carrots and to lay down tracks for the mining cart he is using to dump the excess carrot chunks over a cliff. Smidgen, drawn to the sound of Bugs' singing, pulls up the carrot that Bugs is in with his teeth. Bugs comes out, stops at the sight of what he assumes is a large billboard (Smidgen's dog license), and wonders where it came from. Suddenly, he realizes that he is suspended high in the air, and frantically climbs up the carrot onto the edge of Smidgen's nose. Bugs then sees the large bloodshot eyes staring at him, and realizes what he's up against. However, he becomes enraged, stating to the audience: "I'll be scared later. Right now, I'm too mad."

Bugs climbs up, approaches Smidgen's eye, and balls his fists to fight. Smidgen takes his fingers to flick Bugs off his bridge, but Bugs jumps up, causing Smidgen to flick his own eye. Bugs then walks through the dog's head, out the left ear to the ground below, and runs down the garden with Smidgen not far behind. 's dog Smidgen.Bugs then happens upon a wormhole; he dives in, forcing its previous occupant, a worm, out. Smidgen sticks his nose over the hole and starts to sniff. Bugs has a feather, which he uses to tickle Smidgen's nose, causing Smidgen to give a hearty sneeze that rockets Bugs into Paul's cabin and inside a moose call horn.

Smidgen runs into the cabin, grabs the horn and gives several blows that alert a nearby moose. The normal-sized moose happily runs after what it believes is another moose, only to find in waiting an enormous dog. The moose instantly flees, yelping like a dog. Smidgen gives the horn another blow, sending Bugs flying into the barrel of a revolver. Smidgen fires it, sending the bullet Bugs is riding on into a nearby apple in a fruit basket. Smidgen grabs the apple and takes a large bite, leaving Bugs' lower half exposed. Smidgen then eats the entire apple, grabs a toothpick to pick his teeth, and walks away, seemingly feeling assured that Bugs has been eaten and taken care of. As Smidgen picks his teeth, Bugs comes out unharmed on the top of the toothpick. Bugs then hops up, grabs Smidgen's ear, and wraps the ear around Smidgen's head covering his eyes.

Bugs dives into the hair on the back of Smidgen's neck. From there, Bugs proceeds to scratch the surface of Smidgen's skin, causing the dog to writhe in ecstasy. This gives Bugs the opportunity to run down Smidgen's leg and leave the cabin. Smidgen runs out after him.

Bugs, feeling as though he's safe, stops to catch his breath, not knowing Smidgen is right behind him. Before he knows it, Bugs is licked by the dog's enormous tongue, which lifts him off the ground each time. Bugs tries to run away, but stops at the sight of something. He calls Smidgen's attention to a giant redwood tree; and the dog runs off towards it.

Paul "Shotgun" Watkins (Michael Paré) is an American pilot stationed in Sicily who patrols the Middle East. He is taken off his normal duties to orient Tom Slade (Anthony Michael Hall), a conceited actor about being a pilot in United States Air Force for an upcoming film role. Slade wants to "get the feeling" before he plays the part in a movie about fighter pilots. When shown fighter aircraft, Tom says dismissively: "F-14, F-16, whatever. I'm not good with numbers. I've got accountants for numbers." Paul is determined to show the cocky Hollywood actor that being a fighter pilot isn't as easy as Slade thinks it is. But after Slade, with no flying experience whatsoever excels during a flight simulator session, Paul begins to question the value of his own flying ability. In a subsequent scene where Paul accompanies Slade to an oxygen-deprivation chamber so that the actor can better understand the importance of maintaining composure at high altitudes, Slade appears unaffected while Paul, far more experienced in such an environment, eventually winds up becoming disoriented as has to have his oxygen mask placed on him by the simulation's proctor. Ultimately, Watkins takes Slade for a ride in an F-16 fighter and subjects him to extreme aerial maneuvers. Paul is gratified when the actor becomes disoriented and nearly vomits. Soon thereafter, having inadvertently crossed into the airspace of a hostile country, they are shot down and find themselves stranded behind enemy lines. Paul and Slade must then find a way to mend their differences and find a way back to safety.

The movie's title is used during one exchange where Slade is discussing the script with Paul. In the script, the pilot, facing a dire situation from which he will likely not make it back from, riffs in a John Wayne-ish accent that, upon being shot down and facing the prospect of a crash landing, says he has no problem with death and it's akin to "flying right into the sun." Paul thinks this bit of dialogue is not very realistic. When Slade asks Paul what he would say in such a dire situation, Paul responds, "Oh, I don't know. Maybe something like OH SH*T!"

In 2005, Japanese archaeologists explore tunnels on Iwo Jima, where they find something in the dirt.

The scene changes to Iwo Jima in 1944. Private First Class Saigo, a conscripted baker who misses his wife and daughter, is digging beach trenches with his platoon when Lieutenant General Tadamichi Kuribayashi arrives to take command of the garrison. He saves Saigo from a beating by Captain Tanida for being "unpatriotic", and orders the garrison to tunnel underground defenses throughout the island.

Kuribayashi and Lieutenant Colonel Baron Takeichi Nishi, a famous Olympic gold medalist show jumper, clash with some of the other officers, who do not agree with Kuribayashi's defense in depth strategy. Kuribayashi learns that Japan can not send reinforcements, therefore he believes that the tunnels and mountain defenses stand a better chance for holding out. Poor nutrition and unsanitary conditions take their toll, and many die of dysentery. Superior Private Shimizu arrives as a replacement, who Saigo suspects is a spy from the Kempeitai sent to report on disloyal soldiers.

Soon, American aircraft and warships bombard the island. A few days later, the U.S. Marines land and suffer heavy casualties, but they overcome the beach defenses and attack Mount Suribachi. While delivering a request from Captain Tanida for more machine guns, Saigo overhears Kuribayashi radioing orders to retreat. However, Tanida ignores the order and instead has his unit commit mass suicide. Saigo flees with Shimizu, convincing him to stay alive and fight on.

The Mount Suribachi survivors make a run for friendly lines, but Marines ambush and wipe them out, except Saigo and Shimizu. The two reach safety, but are accused by Lieutenant Ito of cowardice. They are about to be executed when Kuribayashi arrives and confirms his order to retreat. Against Kuribayahi's orders, Ito leads an attack on US positions and many soldiers are killed. Colonel Nishi reprimands Ito for his insubordination; in response, Ito leaves carrying several land mines and intends to throw himself under a US tank. Shimizu reveals to Saigo that he was dishonorably discharged from the Kempeitai because he disobeyed an order to kill a family's dog. Nishi is eventually blinded by shrapnel, and orders his men to withdraw before committing suicide.

Saigo and Shimizu attempt to surrender, but they are spotted by their superior and only Shimizu escapes, who is then found by a Marine patrol. Shimizu and another Japanese prisoner are then shot dead by their guard. Saigo and the remaining soldiers flee to Kuribayashi's position. Saigo befriends Kuribayashi, and a counter-attack is planned due to depleted supplies. Kuribayashi orders Saigo to stay behind and destroy any vital documents, saving Saigo for a third time.

That night, Kuribayashi leads a final banzai charge. Most of his men are killed, and Kuribayashi is critically wounded, but his loyal aide Fujita drags him away. Meanwhile, Ito has long abandoned his suicidal mission and is captured by Marines. The next morning, Kuribayashi orders Fujita to behead him with his Guntō, but Fujita is shot dead by a Marine sniper. Saigo arrives, having buried a bag of letters before leaving headquarters. Kuribayashi asks Saigo to bury him where he will not be found, then draws his pistol—an M1911 gifted to him in the US before the war—and commits suicide. Saigo dutifully buries him.

Later, a Marine platoon finds Fujita's body. Saigo reappears and attacks them, infuriated to see a lieutenant has taken Kuribayashi's pistol. Saigo is subdued and taken to the beach to recover alongside wounded Marines. Awakening on a stretcher, he glimpses the setting sun and smiles.

Returning to 2005, the archeologists complete their digging and reveal the bag of letters that Saigo had buried. As the letters spill out from the opened bag, the voices of the Japanese soldiers who wrote them are heard.

Tom Brown (Alex Pettyfer) is energetic, stubborn, kind-hearted, and athletic more than intellectual. He acts according to his feelings and the unwritten rules of the boys around him more than adults' rules.

The film deals with his years at the elite public school for boys Rugby School. His year starts when he goes to Rugby School, where he becomes acquainted with the adults and boys who live at the school and in its environs.

On his arrival, the 13-year-old Tom Brown is looked after by a more experienced classmate, Harry "Scud" East (Harry Michell). Soon after, Tom and East become the targets of a bully named Flashman (Joseph Beattie). The intensity of the bullying increases, and, after refusing to hand over a sweepstake ticket for the favourite in a horse race, Tom is deliberately burned in front of a fire. Tom and Scud stop Flashman's bullying when Flashman is expelled after a fight with Tom in which he used brass knuckles.

In November 2005, Harvardville Airport falls victim to a T-virus attack both from inside the terminal and a crashlanded airline plane. TerraSave worker Claire Redfield coincidentally runs into Senator Ron Davis, a vocal opponent of TerraSave, and they are forced to hide in the VIP lounge with Rani, niece of a TerraSave employee. By nightfall, the airport has been locked down by the local Special Response Team and the United States Army, aiding evacuated survivors. Officers Angela Miller and Greg Glenn are joined by federal agent Leon S. Kennedy. Claire's group is rescued; however, they are forced to leave the infected Greg. Trucks from pharmaceutical corporation WilPharma arrive to administer a T-virus vaccine they created, but are destroyed by explosives. Leon reveals that a terrorist has threatened to unleash the T-virus throughout the U.S. should government officials involved in its creation not be revealed by midnight.

Claire accompanies WilPharma Head Researcher Frederic Downing to their Harvardville research facility. Downing reveals plans to make a G-virus vaccine next, angering Claire because of its extreme danger. Excusing himself, Downing leaves Claire in his office. Claire informs Leon about what Downing told her and learns that he and Angela have found the house of her brother Curtis on fire. Downing phones Claire, warning her about a man who has activated a time bomb. Claire briefly spots Curtis in the building's central garden, only for the bomb to detonate.

Leon and Angela arrive at the facility and split up. Leon reunites with Claire, while Angela reunites with Curtis. Curtis reveals the American government's involvement in covering up Raccoon City's destruction. Having injected himself with the G-virus, he mutates and kills a squad of marines. Leon saves Angela as the atrium garden begins to fall apart, with the wreckage temporarily crushing Curtis. The computer system then incinerates the building in order to prevent the viruses from spreading. Angela and Leon jump into a pool of water to avoid being burned alive. After shooting a glass partition to avoid drowning, the two find themselves in an underground area. Meanwhile, Claire makes it to the command center, attempting to halt a biohazard alarm and open the building. However, the detection of Curtis triggers an outbreak containment failsafe in which the laboratory falls into the abyss to trap any infection.

Curtis attacks them, seeing Leon as a threat and Angela as a mate. Curtis briefly regains control, telling Angela to run before losing himself again. As the sections are ejected, Leon and Angela evade Curtis, only to hang from a broken catwalk. About to fall, Curtis grabs hold of Angela's leg but is shot in the head by Leon, and falls to his death. In the aftermath, Claire accuses Senator Davis of orchestrating everything in order to improve WilPharma stock. Leon reveals Davis is innocent; making Claire realize that Downing is the actual mastermind of the T-vaccine's destruction, the bombing of the research building, and the recent bioterrorism incidents. Meanwhile, Downing talks to General Grandé, a client of his eager to buy the T-virus now that news reports have revealed its potential, though he warns against using the G-virus. Waiting for a contact to sell WilPharma information to, Downing mistakes a car containing Leon and Claire for his contact; soon after, he is arrested by the police for his crimes.

The next day, Leon and Claire meet with a despondent Angela. Leon reveals Downing confessed to being a former Umbrella researcher who stole both viruses and escaped prior to the Raccoon City incident and created his current identity. Downing used his alias to sell the viruses to a list of potential customers while researching the vaccine. Angela realizes Downing manipulated Curtis, but Claire notes that even though this does not clear his name, he wanted to prevent another Raccoon City just like she, Leon, and Angela do.

Meanwhile, news reports reveal Davis has resigned from office over allegations of insider stock trading with WilPharma stocks. A newspaper draped over Davis' face reveals that another company, Tricell Incorporated, has offered to purchase the now-bankrupt WilPharma. At this point, Davis is revealed to have been assassinated by Tricell, with the company deleting all of Davis's computer files on WilPharma and recovering G-virus samples from Curtis's corpse.

Television director Jake Tanner travels to a small town to film a reality television show about the town's hockey team. However, town local Jaynie is soon murdered, being decapitated by a piece of wire hung up between two trees, but the murder is passed off as an accident. Jake meets with the show's producers, Lee and Phoebe, who now want to investigate the murder.

At the local high school, Jake meets show crew member Keir, who believes Jaynie was murdered and suspects the hockey team's coach, Coach Carhartt. Jake meets the rest of the crew, including Mike, Daphne, Luke and Greg; he also meets the team captain, Vance and head cheerleader Erin. Meanwhile, cheerleading coach Mrs Falls is murdered by a masked killer, who drags her into a circular saw. The crew interview Vance, who swears he will get vengeance on whoever murdered Jaynie.

Controversial celebrity Blanca Champion (Kaley Cuoco) soon arrives with her assistant Nik (Robert Buckley) to work on the show. The crew travel to meet Jaynie's father, Coach Hansen (Bruce Bohne), who recently was released from prison for the murder of his wife. Hansen becomes angered however, and forces the crew to leave. While back at the school, Connor (Jackson Bond) tells Jake that Jaynie's death was not an accident. That night, the crew go to a bar, and discover of Mrs Falls death, but again the locals pass the death off as an accident, before Coach Hansen turns up and warns the crew away from the town. The next day, Lee and Phoebe fall out as Lee is changing the show to center around the deaths of the locals. Nik is sent to Coach Hansen's house to retrieve equipment that was left there previously. On arrival, Nik finds a dead Coach Hansen in a plastic wrap with his throat slashed, before the killer butchers Nik with a pickaxe.

After Erin and Blanca have an argument, Blanca attempts to leave the town but realizes there is no signal for mobile phones in the town. The crew go to the bar after filming a hockey match, but Luke remains behind to work out. He is attacked by the killer, who chops off his hand with a meat cleaver before finally hacking him to death. Daphne decides to leave the bar, but while on her way home she discovers Greg's car. She stops and investigates, only to find Greg being horribly decapitated. The killer then turns up and kidnaps her.

The next day, the remaining crew discover of their missing co-workers, causing arguments between the survivors. Lee goes down to the boiler room where she finds the killer is filming the murders using the aid of a lipstick camera. Before she can warn the others though, the killer hangs her with a chain. After more filming, Jake, Blanca and Keir go back to a cabin to find the others. However, they find footage of Daphne being captured. They go back to the school and drop Blanca off so she can contact help on a CB radio, while Jake and Keir go to where Daphne was captured. Meanwhile, Phoebe is in a local shop when she is attacked by the killer. She hides until Coach Carhart arrives and the pair flee to the coaches car. As they are about to leave, the killer slices open the coaches throat while hiding in the back seat, while Phoebe flees to the school. The killer catches up with her though and strangles her to death.

Jake and Keir discover the killers lair in the forest, but as they are about to leave Jake steps on a bear trap, so Keir leaves for help. Back at the school, Blanca fails to get help from the radio but finds Connor down in the boiler room, who shows Blanca a video the killer has made devoted to her. As the pair are leaving the school, they discover Daphne's dead body. Blanca soon becomes locked in a room, but Connor escapes. Keir arrives, but the killer quickly knocks her out, before finding Blanca. She escapes the room through the vents, but is confronted by the killer who is revealed to be an obsessed Mike, who murdered everyone to be close to her. Keir attempts to save Blanca, but Mike stabs her; Mike then attempts to kill Blanca but Jake shows up and ends up shooting Mike three times in his chest with his shotgun, presumably killing him.

The next morning, the police arrive and put Mike's body in a body bag. Jake finds out Keir survived being stabbed; He tells her that Mike was an escaped mental patient who was obsessed with Blanca from the start, Jake walks up to Mike's body bag and soon finds out that Mike was wearing a bulletproof vest, the film then ends.

Collier (Brown) enters prison, having been found guilty of killing her husband. She is introduced to the beautiful occupants of her cell, doing time for crimes ranging from political insurgency to heroin addiction. The women often clash, which leads to their torture by sadistic guard Lucian (Kathryn Loder). The torture ceremonies are viewed by an impassive cloaked figure.

Collier's cellmates Alcott and Bodine (Collins and Woodell) plan to escape. Collier and another cellmate Ferina (Gina Stuart) agree to go along. Assisting is their other lesbian cellmate Grear (Pam Grier), though doubts exist Grear's heroin-addict girlfriend Harrad (Brooke Mills) will be equipped to escape.

Ferina, Alcott, and Bodine break from the solitary-confinement sauna and take their revenge on Lucian. The escapees wield guns, attitude, and sexuality to free themselves.

During their escape, they round up various personnel from the prison as hostages, taking elegant prison warden Miss Dietrich (Christiane Schmidtmer), sympathetic prison medic Dr Phillips (Jack Davis), and two local men regularly allowed access to the prison to sell market produce, Harry (Sid Haig) and Fred (Jerry Franks).

Small-timer Fei (Louis Koo), his married buddy Sam (Simon Yam), and antique store owner Mok (Sun Hong Lei) are all in desperate need of money. Fei wants his friend to drive a robbery getaway car, but Sam backs out, throwing Fei in trouble with the triads. As the three are arguing, a mysterious man leaves them a map, leading them to an unlikely treasure under the Legislative Council building. All their financial woes seem to be solved after a late-night heist, but they are being tracked by shady cop Wen (Gordon Lam), who is carrying on an affair with Sam's emotionally unstable wife, Ling (Kelly Lin), and has connections with Fei. When the twisted relationship tangles come to light, the brotherhood dangerously breaks down and the treasure ends up in the wrong hands.

In a time when and place where women were not usually permitted careers, especially in the medical field, Belinda Tyler (Scout Taylor-Compton) deeply wants to be a doctor and feels that God has called her to be one. She displays her abilities while helping out a local doctor and caring for Mrs. Stafford-Smith (Nancy Linehan Charles), an elderly woman who recently had a stroke.

While Belinda nurses Mrs. Stafford-Smith back to health and helps her regain the use of her right arm, she meets Drew Simpson (Patrick Levis), the nephew of a deceased neighbor. He has come to town to prepare his uncle's farm for sale. Once that's done, he will return to New York City to join his father's law practice; he has no wish to stay in this small, unsophisticated town.

But after meeting Belinda, he has second thoughts. She also feels something for him, but her life plan is to become a doctor, then move back home to provide medical care to her family and neighbors; She says to Drew in regret that his life in New York seems now a "dream" to Her and that after a while he won't even "remember" Her. Although most women of the time only married and had children, Belinda wants more and is not marriage oriented. She has a great mind for medicine and also feels called to it by God. She doesn't see how a relationship with Drew would work, especially when Mrs. Stafford-Smith offers to put her through medical school in Boston. She informs Drew of her plan and prepares to leave. But after Belinda's grandfather shares how he recognized his feelings for wife Marty, Drew realizes that he cannot live without Belinda. Meanwhile, Belinda's mother and grandmother counsel her about her future and advise her to pray.

Just as Belinda boards the stagecoach, Drew arrives and tells her he loves her and is willing to practice law in Boston while she's in medical school. Once she becomes a doctor, they will move back to this small town together if that is what she wants. He asks her to marry him.

Knowing she feels the same way about Drew, Belinda finally admits her feelings and accepts his marriage proposal. She and Drew are married with her family and friends present before they move to Boston together.

The story begins with Beowulf racing on a beach with a fellow Thane. On the beach they slay crabs and then Beowulf races with the Thane in the sea, where he is attacked by a sea serpent. He fights the serpent on a small rock structure but is defeated and thrown into the water; there, Grendel's mother appears and says he is her new hero, and grants him power. Beowulf defeats the sea serpent with his newfound power and returns to the beach where he was racing with the Thane.

Afterward, having heard the problem the Danes are facing, he goes to help King Hrothgar to stop Grendel, gaining Heroic powers on the journey. Afterwards, the player plays through the thirty years of Beowulf's life as king of the Danes, which was not seen in the movie. Beowulf gets to journey from Herot to Iceland, defeating demons and large creatures, from a giant hellhound to trolls.

Shamrock O'Day, a poor laundress dreams of a marrying a rich man. Her neighbour Tom McGuire, the chauffeur of socialite Iris van Suydam, is secretly in love with his mistress. On the other side of the city, Iris is not happy with her pampered life and she dreams of living in a vine-covered cottage. Her rich young fiancé Richard Prentiss is just as tired of women of her class as she is bored with men of his.

When Shamrock comes to deliver laundry at Richard's house, she meets him by chance and he falls in love with her. He proposes to drive her home and tells Iris to wait for him. She decides to go for a picnic with her chauffeur Tom and, after letting her car being crushed by a train, falls into Tom's arms. In the evening, Richard provocatively dances at a formal party with Shamrock, which causes his sister Elsie to announce her brother's engagement to Iris. Tom, having read the announcement in the press wants to leave Iris's service but she tells him she wants to marry him. The fact that her rich uncle clear all her allowances and she is left without a penny does not deter her. As soon as he hears the news, Richard decides to marry Shamrock.

Soon, Shamrock, who feels she is despised by Richard's family and friends is almost as desperate as Iris who must live in a tiny apartment next to a railway and spend her time cooking and cleaning. She decides to hire Tom as her chauffeur despite Richard and Iris's opposition. One evening, they go together to Coney Island. When they come back, they find Richard and Iris waiting for them. Iris tells Richard they are too different to live together. While Richard and Iris try to persuade their spouses that they love them, a fire breaks out. Richard saves Iris's life.

Seven years later, Shamrock and Tom are happily married and have several children, while Richard and Iris are still pondering whether it is time to mend their broken engagement.

A wild, wealthy woman (Joy) is brought to heel by a sermonizing district attorney after she accidentally hits and kills a motorcycle cop.

This story begins as Ender is made the commander of Dragon Army at Battle School, an institution designed to make young children into military commanders against an unspecified enemy. Armies are groups of students that fight mock battles in the Battle Room, a null gravity environment, and are subdivided into "toons". Due to Ender's genius in leadership, Dragon Army dominates the competition. After his nineteenth consecutive victory, Ender is told that his Army is being broken up and his toon leaders made commanders in their turn, while he is transferred to Command School for the next stage of his education. Here, veteran <!--

NOTE TO EDITORS: MAEZR IS THE CORRECT SPELLING FOR THE SHORT STORY. -->Maezr Rackham<!-- SEE "RELATIONSHIP TO THE NOVEL" SECTION BELOW, AND THE TALK PAGE BEFORE CHANGING THIS TO THE LATER NOVEL SPELLING.

--> tutors him in the use of a space battle simulator. Eventually, many of his former toon leaders serve under him once more. Once familiar with the simulator, they fight a series of what Maezr tells them are mock battles against a computer-controlled enemy. Ender's team wins again and again, finally destroying a planet that the enemy fleet seems to be protecting. Once the battle is over, Maezr tells Ender that all battles were real, the children's commands having been relayed to the extant fleet, and that he has destroyed the enemy's home world and ended the war.

Lastikman: Unang Banat (a pun that can mean First Strike or First Stretch) tells the story of Adrian (Mark Bautista), an ordinary boy who lacks skills and talents. He likes his friend Lara (Sarah Geronimo), but is often bullied by his classmates and kids in the neighborhood. Despite being a weakling, Adrian possesses a pure and brave heart when he tries to fight illegal loggers who cut trees on their barrio. Unfortunately, he is beaten by the loggers and left almost half dead. But Because of his pure personality, the enchanted rubber tree that he saves heals him and grants him powers that transform him into a super hero named Lastikman.

The central character in the play is Jane Shore, the king's mistress. The historical events of the reign of Edward IV form a background, involving "the bastard Faulconbridge," the "Tanner of Tamworth," and other figures of the era. The play draws material from the 1587 edition of Holinshed's ''Chronicles''.

The play shows Edward wooing Jane, Jane struggling with the morality of accepting the king's offers, but using her influence to grant pardons to those wrongfully punished. In the end she expresses regret for her relationship with Edward. After Edward's death she is cast out by the new king Richard III. In this version of events, Jane is reconciled with her husband right before dying. They are buried together in a ditch which is named "Shores Ditch, as in the memory of them". This is supposed to be the origin of the name Shoreditch.

John Denver takes the Muppets camping.

The story begins ''in medias res''; Lara Croft navigates her home Croft Manor after an explosion, then is shot at by her tech assistant Zip. One week earlier, Lara is investigating a sunken island in the Mediterranean Sea as part of her search for Avalon, hoping it will lead her to an explanation for the disappearance of her mother Amelia and salvage her father Richard's academic reputation despite the scepticism of Zip and her research assistant Alistair. The island houses ruins dubbed "Niflheim", one of the many Norse underworlds, and Lara discovers one of the gauntlets attributed to the god Thor to wield Mjolnir. While ambushed by mercenaries sent by rival Amanda Everet, Lara recovers the gauntlet, which has shaped itself to her hand. On Amanda's ship she also meets an imprisoned Jacqueline Natla, former ruler of Atlantis presumed dead after their last encounter. Natla reveals that Amelia was sent to "Helhiem"−another name for Avalon−and directs Lara to ruins in Thailand, hinting that her father also searched for Mjolnir before she is taken by Amanda as the ship sinks due to an explosion caused by the mercenary leader who ambushed Lara.

In Thailand, Lara navigates the ruins of "Bhogavati" and finds more ancient ruins that housed a gauntlet; Richard was sent there by Natla, but removed the gauntlet and destroyed a map showing the location of Thor's relics. From the use of his initials referencing her grandfather, Lara deduces that Richard hid the gauntlet in Croft Manor. Finding Richard's study in Croft Manor's catacombs, Lara finds the gauntlet and a tape-recorded message from Richard, revealing Helheim contained a powerful weapon and that he destroyed the map after recording it to prevent its use. She also encounters a pair of Thralls, undead guardians of Thor's relics created from eitr. Croft Manor is bombed, and Lara learns from Zip that the bomber, who looked identical to her, stole the magical stone Amanda used during ''Legend''. Lara then encounters a Doppelgänger-a being modelled to look like Lara-who shoots Alistair and flees; despite Zip's protests, Lara continues her quest so she can use Mjolnir to kill Natla. In the ruins of "Xibalba" in Mexico, Lara finds both Thor's belt−which powers the gauntlets and is protected by more Thralls−and ancient carvings detailing the myth of Jörmungandr, who will flood the world before fighting Thor, with both dying. In the ruin of "Valhalla" on Jan Mayen, Lara recovers Mjolnir, then confronts Natla.

Natla provides Lara with the coordinates of Helheim, but points out that only she knows the ritual to prepare its gates, so Lara reluctantly strikes a bargain and frees her from her cell. Amanda attempts to stop her, but the Doppelgänger attacks and apparently kills Amanda. Lara dives to the ruins of Helheim under the Arctic Sea, and with Natla's preparation opens its entrance with Mjolnir. Lara then discovers Amelia is turned into a Thrall and is forced to shoot her. Natla appears and reveals that she killed Richard after his betrayal in Thailand, then sets the Doppelgänger on Lara before leaving to awaken Jörmungandr, revealed as a metaphor for the Earth's faultlines; Natla intends to activate an ancient device above the faultlines' weakpoint and trigger apocalyptic volcanic activity. Amanda appears and apparently throws the Doppelgänger to its death, allying with Lara to stop Natla's plan. Lara finds the device and destabilises it, then throws Mjolnir at Natla, knocking her into a lake of eitr. Lara and Amanda then use the chamber's dais travel device that to escape, ending up at the Nepalese monastery where Amelia first disappeared. Amanda tries to restart their fight, but backs down and leaves when Lara refuses; before she leaves, Lara bids goodbye to her mother.

The downloadable content episodes "Beneath the Ashes" and "Lara's Shadow" are set after these events. The Doppelgänger, revealed to have survived, finds a disfigured Natla and is compelled through the magical command "Okh Eshivar" to take her to the Doppelgänger's birthplace in an ancient ruin. After the Doppelgänger restores the ruin's healing technology, Natla orders the Doppelgänger to kill Lara then itself. At Croft Manor, Lara finds notes on a Thrall-creating stone carved with the "Okh Eshivar" command. After a Thrall attacks from a cavern, she descends deeper into the catacombs and finds the stone. The Doppelgänger and attacks, and Lara says "Okh Eshivar" bringing the Doppelgänger under her control. After Lara questions the Doppelgänger's nature and the Doppelgänger states that they are both driven by something beyond their control−compulsion for the Doppelgänger and obsession for Lara−Lara frees the Doppelgänger from all commands and sends it back to Natla as an means of avenging Alistair. Back at the ruin, the Doppelgänger destroys the device, then watches as a trapped Natla is drowned in a rising pool of eitr.

New York City streetwalker Mae (Carole Lombard) is told by police to leave New York. However, she gets off the train at a suburban station, taking the cab of Jimmy Doyle (Pat O'Brien). He says he knows women well and does not think much of them. She slips away without paying the fare, as she is penniless. Fellow prostitute Lil (Mayo Methot) advises her to find honest work.

Receiving a loan, Mae goes to pay Jimmy the fare. They argue, but are mutually attracted and he finds her a job. By coincidence, Gert (Shirley Grey), another ex prostitute, also works there. Jimmy and Mae marry, but Mae has not told him about her past. When a policeman appears to arrest Mae for breaking bail conditions, Jimmy leaves to think things over. He then says he will try to make the marriage work, on condition that Mae has given up prostitution and avoids her old friends.

Jimmy has saved money to become a partner in a gas station. When Gert asks for money for a doctor, Mae takes it from Jimmy's savings. She learns Gert has lied and, when Jimmy tells her he will need the money, Mae finds Gert who promises to get her it. However, Gert has given the money to her boyfriend Toots (Jack La Rue), who is also Lil's pimp. When Gert tries to steal it back from him, Toots catches her and accidentally kills her. He hides the body, then watches from hiding as Mae shows up; she finds the money and leaves.

The police arrest Mae because she left her bag in Gert's apartment. However, a mistrustful Jimmy had been following Mae and knows a man was with Gert. He learns that it was Toots, but Lil gives Toots an alibi. Lil convinces Toots to go to the DA’s office and lodge a complaint against Jimmy, but when they’re there she rats Toots out for the murder of Gert. Toots is taken into custody and Mae is exonerated.

Kerry Harlan (La Rocque) is unable to work because he was injured in a battle with a shark, so his youthful wife Amy (Reynolds) becomes a fashion model. While she is away from home, Bertha, the wife of his surgeon, is trying to force her attentions on Kerry and is accidentally killed in an attempt to evade her husband. After the scandal Amy is courted by Tony Channing, but she returns to her husband and finds him near death from gas fumes. Because they both attempted to make suicide, their spirits are rejected by "the other side" and, learning the truth from Bertha's spirit, they fight their way back to life.

As described in a review in a film magazine, even as a child golden-haired Flora Lee Peake (Rich) attracted the opposite sex. Little Admah Holtz (La Rocque), peddling candy, would give her some of his wares. She sleeps on a golden bed adorned with swans that her parents pampered her with. When she grew up, her father (Walthall) used his last dollar to bring about her marriage to the Marquis de San Pilar (Kosloff), while her younger sister Margaret (Reynolds) went to work assisting Admah, who now owns a candy store. Soon after, the Marquis found Flora submitting to the embrace of the Duc (Cain). On a mountain climb the Marquis and Duc fight on a snow covered ledge atop a glacier, and the Marquis cuts the rope so that they both fall to their death in a crevasse. Flora returns home and soon has ensnared Abmah, now a wealthy man. Her extravagance brings him near to ruin. To satisfy her, he throws a ball where all the decorations are made from candy, but he has used some of the firm's funds. Admah is arrested for this and is sent to prison for five years. Margaret, who loves Admah, remains true and buys and operates the store, while Flora runs off with Bunny O'Neill (Baxter). Bunny throws her down and, now a wreck, returns to her old home, now a boarding house, and goes to her room with its famous golden bed. Admah, released from prison, also returns to the home and Flora dies in his arms. Going to his old store he finds Margaret waiting, and they start life anew.

"Mazer in Prison" is the story of Mazer Rackham, the hero who saved the planet Earth in the second Formics invasion. As soon as the battle was over, Earth put together a fleet to send to the Formics home worlds to end the conflict once and for all. Since they needed a leader for this war, the Earth government decided to send Mazer out into space in a craft that was capable of near-lightspeed travel so that due to the relativistic effect he would return still young enough to lead the fleet into battle. Since he knew that he was not the best person to lead the fleet, Mazer reprogrammed the computer on board his ship so that the Earth government would no longer be able to control it. He then forced them to find a new fleet commander and arranged to have a young Hyrum Graff set up the Battle School to train possible candidates.

"The Gold Bug" is the story of Sel Menach, a fighter pilot in the Formic war, xenobiologist, and eventually the governor of one of the former Formics worlds. When a colony ship from Earth arrives, carrying Ender Wiggin, the new soon-to-be governor, Sel decides to go on an expedition into unexplored lands so that it will be easier for Ender to take over as governor. On the expedition, Sel discovers some caves with large golden bugs, which he believes to be a cross between the Formics and a parasite native to the planet. He establishes some limited contact with the hybrid creatures and discovers they are hungry and want to be fed and while he brings that food, Ender shows up, arranges for the bugs to be fed, and takes Sel back to the colony and his work as a xenobiologist.

Jack Lerolland (Christopher Lambert), his brother Glen (Christopher McDonald) and family and friends go for a short country trip. When young Rich Lerolland (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is nearly run down, his father takes off after the car that was involved. The driver, a psychopath named Cliff (Craig Sheffer) leads a gang of thugs. When Cliff kills Jack's brother in a car crash, this is the start of the chain of events which will terrorize the Lerolland family. With the female members of the group being molested and Jack thought to be killed, the other members of Cliff's gang go to their hideout.

Meanwhile, Jack is revived and is able to travel to a police station but is thrown into a cell and told to wait there, while the on-duty officer goes to check out the gang's hideout. The police officer arrives later at the hideout but is shot dead by a surprised Cliff. After this incident, Cliff becomes suspicious of some of his gang members and kills one of them. At the station, Jack and Hauser (John Pyper-Ferguson), Cliff's older brother break out and are free. Jack is tricked by Hauser into waiting at the station, while Hauser takes the police car. Jack subsequently takes another car and reaches the hideout to free his friends and family.

Cliff has already escaped the hideout with Hauser and Jack's daughter. Cliff says he can't remember killing their mother, and Hauser confesses being the murderer. Cliff murders Hauser for having Cliff take the blame for years. They continue to evade police capture, until they reach a major railway crossing. Jack who has been following Cliff, chases him onto the other side of the crossing and a fight ensues, with Jack gaining the upper hand and handcuffing Cliff to his car. Jack then moves the car onto one of the tracks and leaves it to be smashed by an approaching train, perishing Cliff.

Benoit (Xavier Beauvois) has planned out his life. Unfortunately he has forgotten about National Service. After he is called up, he tries everything to get around. He goes to a psychiatrist who gives him medicine against depression. As this doesn't work out he tries suicide. The story gets even worse as he is told by a military doctor that he is HIV positive. Benoit tumbles down into the drug scene. Then he goes to Italy and meets Claudia (Chiara Mastroianni). Things seem to improve, but only for a short time...

In 1928, a solitary mountaineer exploring the Karakoram mountains in India encounters a glowing sphere. He loses consciousness and when he wakes, the sphere has gone and there is a scar on his hand where a sample of his DNA has been taken.

In the present day, a rapidly moving object is detected beyond Jupiter's orbit and forecast to impact Manhattan. It is moving at 30,000 kilometers per second, fast enough that its impact would destroy all life on Earth. The United States government hastily assembles a group of scientists, including Helen Benson and her friend Michael Granier, to develop a survival plan.

The scientists travel to New York City to await for the object's collision with Earth. As it nears the planet, the object slows down just before impact. Revealed to be a large spherical spaceship, it lands gently in Central Park and is quickly surrounded by NYPD and heavily armed US military forces. An alien emerges and Helen moves forward to greet it; but amidst the confusion, the alien is shot. A gigantic humanoid robot appears and temporarily disables everything in the vicinity by emitting a high-pitched noise before the wounded alien voices the command "Klaatu barada nikto" to shut down the robot's defensive response.

The alien's exterior is found to be a bioengineered space suit, composed of placenta-like material covering a human-like being. After the bullet is extracted during surgery, the being quickly ages into Klaatu, who looks like the mountaineer from 1928. Klaatu informs Secretary of Defense Regina Jackson that he is a representative of a group of civilizations, sent to talk to the leaders of Earth about saving the planet. When Jackson instead sends him to be interrogated, Klaatu escapes and reconnects with Helen and her stepson, Jacob, telling them that he must finish his mission to "save the Earth".

The presence of the sphere and other smaller spheres that begin to appear all over the world cause widespread panic. The military launches a drone attack on the Central Park sphere, but is thwarted by the robot. The military takes a weapons-free approach, cautiously enclosing the robot, soon nicknamed "GORT" (for Genetically Organized Robotic Technology), and transporting it to the Mount Weather underground facility in Virginia.

Klaatu meets with another alien, Mr. Wu, who has lived on Earth for 70 years. Wu tells Klaatu that he has found the human race to be destructive, stubborn, and unwilling to change, which matches Klaatu's experiences. Klaatu orders the smaller spheres to collect specimens of animal species, to preserve them for later reintroduction to the Earth. He clarifies for Helen that he means to save the Earth from destruction by humankind. When a New Jersey State Trooper attempts to take them into custody, Klaatu kills him and then promptly revives the officer, telling Helen and Jacob that he did this to simply disarm an obstacle to his mission.

Hoping to persuade Klaatu to change his mind about humanity, Helen takes him to the home of Professor Barnhardt, a Nobel Prize winner. They discuss how Klaatu's race went through drastic, collaborative evolution to prevent the demise of their planet. Barnhardt pleads that Earth is at the same precipice, and humanity should be given a chance to understand that it too must change. While the adults are talking, Jacob calls the authorities to come and arrest Klaatu.

While the military is examining GORT, the robot transforms into a swarm of winged insect-like nano-machines that self-replicate as they consume every man-made object in their path. The swarm soon devours the entire facility, emerging above ground to continue feeding.

The military captures Helen while Klaatu and Jacob escape on foot. As they travel, Klaatu learns more about humanity through Jacob. When Jacob contacts Helen and arranges to meet at his father's grave, the Secretary sends her to try to change Klaatu's mind. At the grave, Jacob is heartbroken that Klaatu cannot resurrect his long-dead father. As Helen and Jacob have a tear-filled reunion, Klaatu's cumulative observations of humans convince him to stop the swarm.

Granier drives them to the Central Park sphere, but the swarm has reached massive proportions. Klaatu trudges through the swarm to the sphere, touching it moments before his own body is consumed. The sphere deactivates the swarm, saving humanity, but at the expense of electrical activity on Earth, per Klaatu's warning that there will be "a price to the [human] way of life."

Touted to be the world's safest and fastest state-of-the-art commercial airliner, Genesys 1, a fully automated Corbett Aviation test aircraft is prepared to make its maiden voyage. Nominally, Captain Reece Robbins (Rachel Hayward) sits in the cockpit but the aircraft relies on satellite linking for its course. Six months earlier, a similar test flight had turned into tragedy when the aircraft controls became locked. Corbett Airline engineer Gabriel Wingfield (John Pyper-Ferguson) is blamed for the disaster and company president Ty Corbett (Winston Rekert) fires him. Wingfield vows revenge.

When he finds that besides pilot Reece Robbins, Corbett is the VIP aboard the first flight, from somewhere in the United States, Wingfield hacks into the flight's computer system from his apartment. The test flight suddenly deviates from its determined route and the airliner begins flying a circular pattern over Seattle. It becomes evident to the airline executives that the aircraft has been hijacked. Wingfield demands a ransom or the aircraft will crash. Reece knows that if she stays in the circular pattern, Genesys 1 will run out of fuel.

Former discredited Navy pilot Peter "Bird Dog" Dewmont (Craig Sheffer), Reece's ex-husband and an oddball technician must race against the clock to find where the disgruntled former employee is, and regain control of the aircraft before it crashes into Seattle.

The Stooges are novice plumbers, whose first job is finding a valuable ring that went down a drainpipe at the home of the wealthy Norfleets (Emil Sitka and Symona Boniface). The Stooges happily retrieve the ring, but Larry knocks it out of Moe's hand, and back it goes down the drain. The Stooges then work their way to basement to shut the water off. Larry is assigned to finding the water cutoff and proceeds to dig up most of the lawn. Shemp later surmises that the pipes fail to work properly because they are "clogged up with wires." Shemp and Moe proceed to remove the electrical system from the pipes and connect a water pipe to the newly available pipe. The cook (Dudley Dickerson), who is in the kitchen trying to prepare an extravagant meal for the Norfleets, watches in bewilderment as the stove and chandelier gush water.

As the Norfleet house transforms into Niagara Falls, two party guests named Mr. and Mrs. Allen (Kenneth MacDonald and Christine McIntyre) manage to swipe the prized Van Brocklin painting. Shemp heads for the upstairs bath to continue fixing the pipes, and Moe and Larry discover that the ring was stuck in Larry's hair the whole time. Mr. Norfleet is happy about his ring, but frantic that his painting was stolen. Moe and Larry see Allen hiding the painting in a pipe, and a pie fight ensues, extending to the other party guests. The Stooges manage to recover the painting, and Mr. Norfleet decides to reward them. Moe and Larry wonder where Shemp has been all this time. It turns out that he got himself stuck fixing the bathroom's pipes.

The Stooges are secret agents working undercover at the home of Professor Sneed (Emil Sitka) and his daughter (Christine McIntyre). Sneed is developing a rocket fuel in secret for the government. Captain Rork (Philip Van Zandt) of the "State of Anemia" watches the professor through his front window, with hopes of kidnapping him. Of course, Rork and his henchmen capture the Stooges instead, mistaking Larry for the professor. Trouble brews when the Stooges are required to whip up some of the fuel, and then write down the formula. It does not take long for the kidnappers to capture the real Professor Sneed, along with his daughter, and throw them all in jail until the formula is disclosed. As Rork serves the Stooges their last meal, they knock him out and steal the jail keys from him and use their fake fuel to break themselves, Professor Sneed, and his daughter out of the jail and make a quick exit. The exhaust blast is so strong that it tears the uniforms off the Anemia soldiers leaving them in their underwear!

In the Pepperhill Estate of Manchester, an ongoing battle rages between Triad gangs and street gangs. Gang leaders Ray (Andrew Goth) and Terry (Goldie), who are cousins and lifelong friends, always trusting and relying on each other, have been in prison. Ray doesn't want to be a gangster anymore, having also fallen for Clare (Rachel Shelley). But Terry, driven by an obsession beyond friendship, is determined to make sure that Ray never leaves the gang. During their time in prison, the Triads have grown stronger and more daring, eventually killing a member of Terry and Ray's gang. Revenge is called for and the gang turns to them for direction. Bernie (David Bowie) is the aging gangster who struggles to keep the peace.

The Stooges play the proprietors of the Cafe Casbah Bah, a Middle Eastern restaurant. One morning, Moe and Larry are awakened by their crying sweethearts, who are in need of money to pay off a bad debt. While attempting to prepare a meal for customers Hassan Ben Sober (Vernon Dent) and the Gin of Rummy (George J. Lewis), the Stooges try to think of a way to raise the needed cash. In the interim, they discover a plan that their hungry customers are hatching. These two thieves are attempting to rob the tomb of Rootentooten, which contains a priceless diamond, but they discover that the Emir of Schmow (Johnny Kascier) has already gotten his hands on the diamond. The two plotters start wailing and are thrown out of the restaurant. The Stooges then attempt to retrieve the diamond themselves, as there is a $50,000 reward at stake.

The Stooges arrive at the Emir of Shmow's palace, all three dressed as Santa Claus. They then manage to acquire the diamond and make a quick exit, but not before dealing with a burly guard.

Small town boy made good, producer Larry returns to his home farm town. There he hears and watches as his friends Joe and sister Tiny (Muriel Landers) work on their farm. Talented Tiny is singing. As she sings, the animals in the barn move to the beat. After hearing Tiny finish her song, Larry asks them to join his New York nightclub act. But Tiny has a fear of performing in front of a live audience, so Larry and Joe take Tiny to a German psychiatrist (Moe), who uses hypnosis to take Tiny back to the childhood origin of her problem.

At the psychiatrist's office, Tiny, under hypnosis, reveals that she has been scared since an incident in her family's barn. She was singing and pretending to play on a piano in front of her father (Moe) when her uncles (Larry and Joe) come inside to listen to her singing and applaud when she finishes. Moe demands she sings more for them. Tiny refuses and hides in fear. After being scared again, the psychiatrist convinces a hypnotized Tiny that she should sing because people love hearing her sing. Tiny agrees and is cured of her fear. She becomes a professional singer, making her debut onstage with Joe and Larry. Tiny sings while Larry plays a violin and Joe dances. The audience gives their applause and Tiny is happy.

In the third Stooge adaptation of the 1913 play ''Pygmalion'' by George Bernard Shaw, the trio are repairmen who make a scene in the presence of two psychologists, Professors Quackenbush (Milton Frome) and Sedletz (Gene Roth). Quackenbush makes a bet with Sedletz that he can turn the boys into gentlemen through environment. Training is slow and painful for the professor, who pulls his hair out in disgust. However, the Stooges do have the opportunity to flirt with the professor's assistant (Greta Thyssen), while learning proper table etiquette. Finally, the Stooges will decide the wager by their behavior at a fancy society party.

Naturally, the party goes awry. Joe greets the Countess Spritzwasser (Harriette Tarler) by kissing her hand, and biting off the diamond in her ring. Realizing this, Moe and Larry take Joe to a secluded area to lecture him, only to find he has swiped a load of silverware.

Joe then grabs a pie from a pastry table, and tries to eat it whole. Moe sees this, swipes the pie, and pushes Joe out of the way. Seeing another guest, Mrs. Smythe-Smythe (Symona Boniface), approaching, Moe tosses the pie straight up—to which it attaches itself to the ceiling. Seeing that he can barely get a sentence out, she sympathetically comments, "young man, you act as if you have the Sword of Damocles hanging over your head." Moe replies that Mrs. Smythe-Smythe is a psychic and flees, to which the pie comes crashing down on the society matron. This sparks off a massive pie melee that takes no prisoners.

An elderly Homer (Perry Long) sits down in his home and begins writing a lost installment of the Odyssey, the tale of the Isle of the Mists, a story he felt was too terrible to tell before.

Years prior, Homer (Randal Edwards) is a member of Odysseus's (Arnold Vosloo) crew as they sail back to Ithaca following the Trojan War. The crew also includes Perimedes (JR Bourne), Eurylochus (Steve Bacic), Christos (Michael Antonakos) and others. During their travels, they become lost in a deep fog and encounter strange flying creatures who kill several men and drink their blood. The only thing that can kill the creatures is a wooden stake through the heart. In disarray, the crew lands at an island, the fabled Isle of the Mists, to effect repairs and recovery from the attack.

After more encounters with the winged creatures, the crew meets a mysterious woman (Stefanie von Pfetten) who takes them to her refuge in the woods. Much to their surprise, she appears to be immune to the attacks of the creatures. Some of the crew remains suspicious even as they accept food and shelter from the woman. They learn of the Hellfire Cross, a mystical sword sealed by the gods on the island, that they come to believe can help them survive. The remaining crew decide to recover the Hellfire Cross as part of their plan to relaunch their ship.

After receiving visions from Athena (Sonya Salomaa), Odysseus realizes the mysterious woman is not what she seems. She uses her powers to transform into Odysseus's wife Penelope (Leah Gibson) and seduces him. Her failure to account for Penelope aging since the last time Odysseus saw her makes him realize the illusion, but not before he has sex with her. Odysseus and his remaining men realize her true identity: Persephone, the wife of Hades who has been banished to the Isle of the Mists and sealed there by the Hellfire Cross. Persephone reveals that the winged creatures are her children by Hades, and that she plans to escape the island with them to rule the world. Furthermore, she is now pregnant with a son by Odysseus.

Odysseus and his men escape to the cave where the Hellfire Cross is sealed and obtain it, however, all but Odysseus and Homer die. They are confronted by Persephone, who thanks them for her freedom and attempts to convince Odysseus to serve her, as the Hellfire Cross cannot be wielded by a god. When he refuses, she tells them she will merely wait until her mortal son is born and ages instead. She starts to set the winged creatures free on the world and attempts to force Odysseus to cut his own throat, but he overcomes her power and impales her through the stomach, killing Persephone, their son and all the creatures. Some time after Persephone's death, Odysseus and Homer return to the sea and continue back to Ithaca.

Completing his story, the aged Homer muses about the origins of the winged creatures, how they could only be killed by a stake through the heart, and how they fear the sign of the cross. On the Isle of the Mists, Eurylochus - who was attacked by the creatures in the cave - has transformed into one of the creatures and flies off freely into the world.

The Stooges reminisce about their wartime romances in Europe. After they finish their tales, they discover that Joe's girl Fifi (Vanda Dupre), whom he left behind in Paris, has moved in next door. The only problem is that she is now married to a very evil jealous and unappreciative husband (Philip Van Zandt).

Typical Stooge antics result in ruining Fifi's dress, and dressing her in a pair of pajamas is an invitation for her husband to enter the scene. The husband turns out to be a real cad, and when Fifi overhears him tell about his plans to find a new wife, she clobbers him and goes back to Joe.

Quiz show winner Joe is taken to the cleaners by con men G. Y. Prince (Milton Frome) and R. O. Broad (Bill Brauer) by investing his winnings in Consolidated Fujiyama California Smog Bags. The Stooges head to their offices to get Joe's money back. Instead, they find two sympathetic businessmen (the two crooks, in disguise) who offer to pay back the losses if Moe, Larry and Joe will pose as juvenile wards for a rich and eccentric millionaire, Montgomery M. Montgomery (Gene Roth) and his scheming wife, Lisa (Greta Thyssen). But Montgomery is actually Prince's and Broad's gang leader, and plotting to kill the Stooges. The Stooges go along with the game, with Larry and Moe playing blind man's bluff, while Joe is forced to eat his big cigar, until they discover the scheme and knock out the crooks. However, when the Stooges split the check into thirds, they have to paste it back together.

The Stooges tell their infant sons (also the Stooges) a story about the time they blasted to outer space. In this story, the Stooges are assistants to Professor Jones (Emil Sitka) who travel to the planet Sunev (Venus spelled backwards). The planet's leader, the Grand Slitz of Sunev (Gene Roth) greets them cordially enough, but it soon becomes apparent that he has plans to bring prehistoric men to life and take over the planet Earth. No sooner does Professor Jones catch onto the Grand Slitz's plan does he end up being tied up.

In the interim, the Stooges engage in some flirtatious activity with several Sunevian girls (Harriette Tarler, Diana Darrin, and Arline Hunter). At dinner, an alien leader, known officially as The High Mucky Muck (Philip Van Zandt) tells the Stooges to eat heartily and enjoy their meal, for it will be their last. The trio make a quick dash for the spaceship, but not before encountering a prehistoric goon (Dan Blocker, mistakenly billed as "Don Blocker"). The boys manage to free Professor Jones and destroy the equipment that would have conquered the Earth. The stooges return to earth, finishing their story, until the baby sitter, a female goon arrives, causing the stooges to jump out the window.

The Stooges wake up one bright morning and happily realize that they are about to get married. After breakfast, they start cleaning the house. The usual antics occur as the boys make a near shambles of their home.

The trio try to reupholster a davenport, but end up clobbering Moe on several counts. First, Larry attempts to cut the upholstering with a scissor and ends up trimming Moe's sport coat. Then, to speed things up, they pour the upholstering tacks into a machine gun and aim at the davenport. The rapid fire release works well at first, but when Moe bends over the davenport to straighten the material, Larry and Joe argue over who gets to fire the next round while each holding onto the rifle It inadvertently fires sending about a dozen of the sharp wayward tacks into Moe's backside which causes him to exclaim, "I'm losing my mind!". After Larry and Joe quickly remove the tacks, Moe manages to swallow one.

The Stooges then head their separate ways to marry their sweetheart — unaware they are all engaged to the same girl Mabel (Connie Cezon). In rapid succession, Larry, Moe, and then Joe appear at their fiancee's home with engagement rings of varying sizes. When the boys discover their error, a nutty fight ensues. Moe and Larry eventually knock each other cold. However, Joe who had left earlier during the fracas, returns just as the frightened gold digger is about to make a quick exit and tricks her into bending over for some purposely dropped money then quickly moves behind her and fires the tack-filled rifle into Mabel's posterior with stinging accuracy, then begins spanking her with the butt end of the rifle while calling her a "jezebel" as the two timer wails in agony.

The story follows the lives of childhood friends who've been negatively affected in different ways from their years growing up in Las Vegas off the strip. When we meet the main characters – Chase, Michele and Bailey – they are now in their twenties and the story focuses on their lifestyle, illegal professions and their caustic influence on the generation right behind.

The story is told from the perspective of Chase, an aspiring painter just out of college, who had left Las Vegas to study art in New York where he met Julia, an MBA student who represents the promise of a life outside of Las Vegas. After returning to Las Vegas to finish school and finding work as a high school art teacher, Chase struggles to break free of his old life and his old friends, who are entrenched in the Las Vegas life of excess.

Plot summary from the Willamette Week in Portland, OR, "A sympathetic look at the life of drug-using, self-destructing hookers and hustlers sounds like an uphill battle, but the simple truth about these characters is that they aren’t hookers or hustlers. They are aspiring painters, film directors and grad students. Although they inevitably prostitute themselves, they seldom talk about it, because they are ashamed or because they don’t understand what’s happening in their lives. All they want is comfort, to live in the Sun King suite on the 22nd floor of the Palace and order room service. But before they know it, prostitution isn’t even paying the bills; one by one, they go into debt with their own bodies."

A young jazz hound, "Smoke" Thatcher (Richard Walling), is failing his academic studies due to his fondness for partying and liquor. His foremost concern is to convince his pragmatic father (Robert Edeson) to allow him to use the family car so he can accompany bob-haired flapper Patsy Schuyler (Sue Carol) to a ritzy party.

His father refuses to loan Smoke the car and chides him for lacking proper respect for authority, but his speech is interrupted by the maid announcing the arrival of the dad's private bootlegger. Undaunted, an enterprising Smoke steals the neighbor's car and drives to Patsy's house. He arrives too late. Patsy has already gone to the party with Smoke's arch-nemesis Pet Masters (Arthur Rankin). Smoke nonetheless proceeds alone to the party and intrudes upon inebriated couples dancing the Charleston. Jealous and possessive, Smoke causes an ugly scene. Smoke convinces Patsy to leave with him, and they walk to the parking lot. While attempting to leave with Patsy in the stolen car, Smoke becomes engaged in an automobile battle against Masters which ends with the near ruin of both vehicles.

Smoke and Patsy drive the neighbor's wrecked car to a nearby garage. To pay for the considerable repairs, Smoke naively agrees to act as a chauffeur for several men on a routine trip. However, their trip is revealed to be a bank holdup, and Smoke's father is shot by the robbers. A remorseful Smoke foils the bank robbers by crashing their vehicle through a police station window and then confesses to his misdeeds.

In the year 199X, the world was lost in a vortex of terror. Malicious terrorism gripped the land, the sky, and the sea. There were two brave men who fought against this reign of violence. They were the anti-terrorism team, "THUNDER FOX."

The British Garrison at the Burami Oasis is under constant siege from Arab bandits led by the notorious Sheikh Rattelland Roll. A British gunboat under the command of Admiral Ned Seagoon is dispatched to the oasis to restore peace to the area. One problem exists, however: how to get a gunboat into an oasis only ten feet long.

The film revolves around Bartek Wilkosz, a student keen to exploit the academic system through plagiarism and anxious to grab a buck (or zloty) however he can. After seeing a suspicious man on a train, Bartek follows him across Poland. Once the man's identity is discovered, the lives of several people are altered.

Joe reads in the local newspaper that injured circus horse Schnapps who might be destroyed. Moe and Larry tell him to forget about that horse and instead focus on their sister Bertie. The Stooges' sister Bertie is a reincarnated horse who is trying to track down her mate. It's during breakfast that Bertie reveals that her mate is Schnapps. The Stooges spit out their food, realizing that the horse that's about to be destroyed is Bertie's mate.

When Bertie hears a broadcast over the radio stating that a local famous circus horse (Schnapps) is about to be destroyed, due to an injury, she pleads with them to help her save him. They agree but first they rent a wagon and hire a babysitter to take care of Bertie's baby. Just before they leave their home Joe tosses all the dishes out the window. Bertie and the Stooges race to the circus in an effort to save the horse from a certain fate. Because the circus is a long way off, the stooges and Bertie stop off at a cabin to rest, when the news about Schnapps is heard on the radio.

At the circus, the Stooges split up. Moe and Larry distract the man (Emil Sitka) sent to destroy Schnapps by using a horse costume. Joe finds Schnapps and the two horses are reunited.

Cordelia Naismith, the captain of a Betan Astronomical Survey ship, is exploring a newly discovered planet when her base camp is attacked. While investigating, she is surprised by a soldier, hits her head on a rock, and awakens to find that, while most of her crew has escaped, she is marooned with an injured Betan ensign and Captain Lord Aral Vorkosigan of Barrayar, notorious as the "Butcher of Komarr", who has been left for dead by a treacherous rival. During their five-day hike to a secret Barrayaran cache, she finds Vorkosigan not at all the monster his reputation suggests, and she is strongly attracted to him.

When the trio reaches the base camp, Vorkosigan regains command of his crew. He returns to his ship with Cordelia and her crewman as his nominal prisoners. She meets Sergeant Bothari, a career soldier with mental problems who controls them through adherence to rules and an attachment to a strong commander, in this case, Vorkosigan.

Vorkosigan informs Cordelia that upon their arrival on Barrayar, she will be free to return to Beta Colony; however, he asks her to marry him and remain on Barrayar as Lady Vorkosigan. Before she can consider his request, the crew of her ship, who have returned against her orders, join forces with Vorkosigan's rivals to "rescue" her. Cordelia helps defeat the resulting mutiny before returning with her crew to Beta Colony. During her captivity, she realizes that the Barrayarans seized the planet because the system it is in provides a way to reach Escobar. Escobar is a rich system with many "wormhole" access points and thus control over a lot of interstellar trade.

The invasion of Escobar is led by Crown Prince Serg Vorbarra, the vicious son and heir of Emperor Ezar. Now a captain in the Betan Expeditionary Force, Cordelia goes to Escobar in command of a decoy ship that distracts the Barrayaran ships on picket duty at the wormhole exit so that transport ships can deliver a devastating new Betan weapon to the defenders. She is captured by the sadistic Admiral Vorrutyer, who orders Sergeant Bothari to rape her. Bothari refuses, calling her "Admiral Vorkosigan's prisoner". Vorrutyer, Vorkosigan's embittered ex-lover, decides to do the job himself. As she fills a profound psychological need of his, Bothari kills Vorrutyer before he can do anything. Vorkosigan, having heard who Vorrutyer is holding captive, comes to kill him himself only to find the deed already done. He hides Cordelia and Bothari in his cabin. In disgrace, he has been assigned a minor role in the invasion under the watchful eye of Imperial Security Lieutenant Simon Illyan, who has a brain implant that gives him total recall of all he sees and hears. However, he is required to report only to the Emperor, so he does nothing when Vorkosigan concocts a story that Cordelia killed Vorrutyer and escaped.

The new weapons enable the Escobarans to drive the Barrayarans back with heavy losses. Crown Prince Serg and his flagship are lost, as are all officers senior to Vorkosigan, leaving him in charge. He commands his fleet's retreat under fire. Cordelia overhears one critical fact and deduces that the entire invasion was orchestrated by the dying Emperor to remove his unstable son (via an honorable death in battle) and discredit the war party in order to avert a civil war after his death. When Vorkosigan no longer needs to hide her in his cabin, she is placed in the brig. When the ship is attacked, Cordelia is injured when the violent maneuvers toss her around her cell.

Cordelia recovers in a prison camp on the same planet where she first met Vorkosigan. The camp inmates, mostly women, have been mistreated and in some cases raped by their captors. When Vorkosigan finds out, he summarily executes the commanding officer. Cordelia assumes command of the POWs by virtue of her rank and spends much of her time dealing directly with Vorkosigan. She informs him she knows the real reason for the Escobar campaign. She again rejects his marriage proposal because she sees what Barrayaran society does to people.

When the war ends, prisoners are exchanged. Vorkosigan has to deal with some uterine replicators – artificial wombs, each containing a fetus from a prisoner raped by a Barrayaran soldier; one of the fetuses is Bothari's. The Escobarans refuse to take them, so Vorkosigan arranges for their care and later adoption on Barrayar.

On her way back to Beta Colony, Cordelia is unable to convince a psychiatrist that her injuries are not the result of being tortured by Vorkosigan, and her fervent denials only make it seem she has been psychologically tampered with; she is suspected of being an unwitting Barrayaran mole. She fears that she will be interrogated using drugs and reveal damaging information about Vorkosigan.

She escapes to Barrayar and marries Vorkosigan. She also encounters Bothari, now one of Vorkosigan's father's personal guards and somewhat saner, thanks to better medical care. Bothari's daughter Elena is cared for by a local woman.

The dying Emperor Ezar Vorbarra wants Aral to become the regent to his grandson and heir, the four-year-old Prince Gregor Vorbarra. Aral at first refuses, but Cordelia convinces him to take the job.

The Stooges are unemployed, and looking through the want-ads for work. As the trio sets the table, Curly brings a pail of soup from a meat bone; Larry remarks that Curly's soup smells like a dead horse, and Moe finds a large horseshoe in the pail. The duo becomes angry with Curly about the fact that they "sent him to the butcher shop for meat, not to the glue factory", so they kick him out. As Curly was about to leave, Moe stumbles upon a newspaper article stating that Curly's uncle, Bob O. Link (Al Thompson), has died and left his nephew, Curly Q. Link, a large inheritance. Upon arriving at the uncle's mansion for the reading of the will, the lawyer in charge of the will disappears, along with the will itself; he is later found murdered. All potential heirs, including the Stooges, are held as suspects and forced to spend the night.

While getting a tour of their sleeping quarters, Curly gets spooked when it is revealed that he was standing on the exact spot his uncle was murdered. The rest of the night consists of various occurrences which frighten the Stooges, among them a parrot walking around inside a human skull, howling wind, and Link's corpse leaning on Moe.

In fright, the Stooges flee down a stairwell and knock over the maid (Joe Palma), who turns out to be the killer in disguise; he is discovered when his wig flies off during the collision, revealing the will, which was hidden underneath it. After excitedly reading the will, Curly learns that he has been bequeathed a grand total of $0.67 net while leaving Liza Link $1,250,000, much to their dismay.

Early in the morning, Owen Harper is summoned to work by Jack. On his way to work, he is greeted by both the milkman and the postman - each introduce themselves by saying "hello" and by telling Owen all about their life: their name, their relations, likes/dislikes etc. He brushes them off, despite them still trying to talk to him, calling "hello" as he leaves. As Gwen Cooper arrives in Mermaid Quay, she is greeted by a tourist in much the same way.

When they all arrive, Jack Harkness tells them of a problem; a powerful energy field that came through the Rift. When questioned by Owen and Gwen as to whether it is related to the peculiar behaviour they had seen that morning, Jack is doubtful and claims that what they witnessed was just common courtesy. The energy source is transmitting on the PK scale allowing Gwen to correctly guess the next card in a pile, 5 times out of 5, when tested by Owen.

The entire city is grinding to a halt as people are more interested in saying "hello" than doing their jobs, resulting in absolute mayhem. Vic Royce, a large, short-tempered ex-convict, has an out-of character, polite conversation with a middle-aged woman before driving off with a smile on his face.

Vic Royce and a trucker named Alan Kennedy enter a garage in a disused lot. Inside is a pulsing light and two other people. They all introduce themselves to the light, and the light greets them in return.

Phone usage in Cardiff is up by nearly 100% with people calling each other simply to say "hello" leading Jack to retract his previous diagnosis about the overly friendly people encountered by Owen and Gwen. Jack theorizes that the PK field may be being created by a reconnaissance probe, sent to gather information for an inquisitive species. Jack's plan involves Owen, Gwen and himself using scanners to track down the energy source on foot and shut it down whilst Ianto Jones and Toshiko Sato stay at the Hub. The entire team are provided with metal cuffs that block the PK energy from infiltrating their minds.

There are now six people in the abandoned garage surrounding the light. The light explains that their minds are particularly receptive to the energy field and that they are designated as "Heralds." It will be they who will act as conduits of knowledge between mankind and the light - providing information and giving messages to mankind when the time was right. The light reveals to the Heralds that the rest of its plan cannot unfold until the intruders it detects have been dealt with.

Tosh and Ianto are probing the area they suspect the source to be, but when they get close, their computer systems go into meltdown and all crash. The Heralds, relieved that the initial breach has been halted, take up mêlée weapons and prepare for further attacks.

Areas of the city are burning, unchecked, due to irons and hobs left unattended and people who are yet to be indoctrinated are attacking the people who surround them out of fear. A nearby gas leak ignites, causing an explosion which knocks out Jack's wrist device, leaving him susceptible to indoctrination. Despite the system crash, Tosh has managed to narrow down the location of the energy source. She relays this information to the rest of the team.

It is the American Civil War, and the Stooges enlist in the service. Moe and Larry accidentally join the Union Army, while Curly manages to correctly sign up with the Confederacy. Before the error can be corrected, several Union soldiers order Moe and Larry to lock up their "prisoner." A few moments later, a Confederate general sees Curly being released and, upon seeing Moe and Larry, thinks he has captured two Union soldiers. This mix up goes back and forth several times, until Moe and Larry finally find Confederate uniforms, only to be caught in Union army headquarters. They eventually escape by performing minstrel song-and-dance routine in blackface, with Curly playing a Mammy-type character and Larry strumming a banjo. At the end the Stooges marry their brides who after the first kiss start beating the Stooges Up!

The Stooges are cowboys who come upon the town of Dead Man's Gulch, which is being terrorized by Badlands Blackie (Dick Curtis) and his gang. Blackie threatens to kill the town blacksmith unless his daughter Nell (Christine McIntyre) agrees to marry him. After an impromptu battle with Blackie the locals crown Curly their new sheriff, and Moe and Larry deputies. Nell then agrees to marry Curly if he rids the town of Blackie.

On his way to make the marriage legit, the Justice of the Peace (Victor Travers) is accosted by the Stooges and Curly heads to his office in his place. He attempts to stall the wedding, but is eventually found out and is locked up like a dog, complete with collar strapped tightly around his neck. As a result, Blackie again demands Nell marry him immediately and away from Dead Man's Gulch. Nell promises to arrive by sundown.

After breaking Curly free, the trio crash the wedding and defeat Blackie and his gang. Nell's father is freed, and upon learning that Nell plans to marry Curly due to his efforts, claims that he'd "rather die" first. Curly, obliging, hands him a lit stick of dynamite, but Nell knocks it out of his hands and throws it at the boys, who turn high tail and run off.

The Stooges are inept electricians who manage to electrocute themselves as well as their boss, "Smilin'" Sam McGann (Fred Kelsey). After predictably getting fired from their job by their other boss Mr. Jordan, Curly suggests that the boys take "a nice, long rest." They spot an ad for Mallard's Rest Home, and embark on their R&R trip.

Upon arrival, the boys are introduced to Dr. Mallard (Kenneth MacDonald, in his debut appearance with the Stooges) who prescribes a detailed, regimented schedule of exercise, only to be fed a "nice bowl of milk" for breakfast and lunch. Mallard then assigns two nurses to train the Stooges, which sends the boys head over heels into fits of love — until the "nurses" turn out to be men (Cy Schindell and Rocky Woods).

While the Stooges are vigorously training in the gym the following day, Moe and Larry attempt to help Curly flex his muscles by removing the individual weights, pound by pound. The weights land on the nurses' heads, knocking them cold. In their daze, the two spill the beans that Mallard is a quack, and the Stooges realize that the phony doctor is out to swindle the trio from their hard-earned money. While attempting to escape however, a vase falls on Curly's head causing him to wail in pain and wake up a sleeping guard. Moe and Larry claim to be doctors and say that Curly is their patient. This fools the guard, however, Dr. Mallard becomes suspicious when hearing about the "new doctors" and investigates and discovers the ruse. The Stooges manage to defeat him and two of his henchmen. However, while fleeing Moe and Larry are captured by the doctor and guard and locked inside the steam room. Curly cannot figure out how to properly operate the temperature, forcing Moe and Larry to break out themselves. In their efforts to escape, Curly bumps into a wealthy man with a bad foot (Snub Pollard), and is handsomely rewarded with $1,000 when he accidentally fixes it by colliding with the man and kicking his bad foot. When Curly suggests using the money to take "a nice, long rest," Moe and Larry promptly clobber him.

Told in flashback, the Stooges tell their son (Jackie Jackson) how he came to have three fathers. The Stooges, owners of a pawn shop, owe money to the Gashouse Protection Society, a bunch of loan sharks. When one of the mobsters comes to their shop to demand money, the Stooges deal with him in their typical Stooge fashion. To complicate matters, a lady (Beverly Warren) leaves a baby in the shop as part of a plan to sell a phony diamond and the Stooges wind up caring for the kid. The lady left the kid there at the suggestion of the mobster the Stooges had just thrown out of their shop.

The Stooges have no idea how to take care of the kid. Soon his crying gets on Moe nerves, and their attempts to stop the kid only end up with Curly giving the baby a gun as a pacifier. Curly assures Moe the gun isn't loaded only to have it fire when he tries to show it is not loaded. The bullet causes a hanging lamp to fall and hit Moe in the head. The baby only stops crying when Curly makes an improvised bottle with milk.

Later, the same mobster shows up with some of his goons to get the money. The trio manage to defeat the crooks and when they finish telling the story, the kid goes off to find his real mother. Moe and Curly blame Larry for the entire mess and decide to punish him.

At the end of World War II, the Stooges are discharged from the service and return home. They are prepared to marry their fiancées (Judy Malcolm, Ethelreda Leopold, and Doris Houck), but are dispossessed. The boys search around for a room to rent, and hit blind alley after blind alley until finally settling for an open-lot-turned living quarters. Complications take place, involving a lawn mower, which Curly uses as a vacuum cleaner, gets neglected, causing the bag to fill up, and explode. Also an attempt to retrieve eggs from a birds nest, go wrong, when they drop into Moe's hands, cracking them. A struggle with a rifle does succeed in killing a bird for food, However, a parrot gets into the cooked bird, haunting the stooges. A farmer on a tractor plows down the boys' domicile, causing the stooges to flee.

Afterwards, the Stooges build a pathetically small apartment from "their own little hands", with the living room, dining room, and kitchen cramped into the space of a den, plus a small area used as a bedroom with 2 sets of bunk beds, and a small bathroom.

The year is 1642, and the Stooges are garbage scow sailors stranded on Dead Man's Island. At first, the governor (Vernon Dent) finds it hard to believe the three are sailors until they wolf whistle at the first beauty they see, prompting Dent's character to quip "they're sailors, all right...". The governor had planned to make the stooges his galleon slaves but Curly changes his mind once starts flirting with his fiancée, Rita (Christine McIntyre). The governor throws the Stooges in jail, and sentences them to execution, either by beheading or burning at the stake. The sentence is chosen quickly when Curley declares in favor of burning, reasoning that "a hot stake ["steak"] is better than a cold chop."

Lucky for the Stooges, Rita has no interest in marrying the ruthless colonial governor and helps the boys escape by exposing some hidden tools. She then directs them to drill their way through the west wall specifically in order to escape safely. Unfortunately, the Stooges argue incessantly, have Curly choose the wrong wall, and land back in their cell.

Rita suggests the boys disguise themselves as "wayfarers from a strange land" bringing priceless gifts. Curly is the great, nearsighted Maharaja of Canarsie who has domains on the isles of Coney and Long. Moe is the Gin of Rummy, and Larry is an accomplice. Moe and Curly exchange in conversations consisting of doublespeak and gibberish and offer the governor a raspberry lollipop, which he mistakes as a ruby as large as a turkey's egg. Moe dubs it the "Ruby de Lollipopskia." Next is a fountain pen that the governor mistakes as a tusk from a black walrus. The governor is delighted with these gifts, and requests that the Maharaja bring him some fair damsels. The Stooges escape quickly, not wasting a moment. However, the governor's secretary (Dorothy DeHaven) reveals the Stooges' true identities, and the governor is livid. Once he learns they are headed to the cutthroat pirate Black Louie, he enlists his dear pal's help to kill the escaped sailor Stooges.

The Stooges meet Black Louie (Robert Stevens) at a saloon, and engage in a game of target practice. They enlist a reluctant Larry as the live target, and begin the knife-throwing. In the interim, Rita quietly makes her presence known to the boys, and alerts them of the governor's plan. They realize they must flee, but Curly's awkward knife throwing (thanks to his glasses containing lenses as thick as soda bottles) puts Black Louie on the defense. The fight breaks out in the saloon, with the Stooges winning out. As the pirates are defeated, Moe attempts to declare himself Emperor Moe, the new ruler of the island. However, his reign is cut short as he is rendered insensate by a mallet attached to a pinball game, allowing the others to haul him away without protest.

The Stooges are managers of a beefy boxer named Chopper Kane (Dick Wessel), and they bet their bank roll on his next fight. When a gangster (Tiny Brauer) tells them to have Chopper lose (as he has a lot of money bet on his opponent Gorilla Watson) or they will lose their lives, the boys decide to play along. They try to soften Chopper up by feeding him rich food and having him spend time with their friend Kitty (Claire Carleton). The fight gets canceled when Kitty dumps Chopper for Gorilla and, in a fluke accident, Gorilla gets entangled with Moe and breaks his hand against a wall. The Stooges think they have put one over on the gangsters, only to have the bad guys corner them in a deserted warehouse. Instead of being rubbed out, the boys capture the crooks and get a reward.

Shemp is suffering from an enlarged vein in his leg, and fears that it will lead to amputation. His doctor (Vernon Dent), however, advises that a few weeks in the old west will cure him. Upon arrival in a somewhat lawless town, the boys befriend the ruthless Doc Barker (Norman Willis). Barker listens to Shemp's story about his bad leg, mistaking "the biggest vein you ever saw" for a gold-bearing vein worth millions. The Stooges take a liking to Barker, but are later informed by the beautiful Nell (Christine McIntyre) that he is an outlaw who is holding the Arizona Kid (Jock Mahoney) hostage in the basement of the saloon.

The boys devise a plan to obtain the prison cell keys from Barker's coat. Shemp joins the outlaw in a game of Poker, while Moe and Larry prepare beverages for the card players. The two find every possible deadly chemical they can to add to their volatile drink, from Old Homicide to paint (plus paint remover). They also prepare a Sarsaparilla for Shemp to make sure their pal does not indulge in the suicidal drink. Barker downs the concoction, and screams for water. Shemp grabs a nearby fire hose and sprays the entire gang, soaking them. Moe and Larry quickly grab Barker's coat (claiming he will catch pneumonia) and get the cell keys to Nell, who frees the Arizona Kid. When Barker sees what has happened, he throws Larry in the cell with plans to kill him at sundown.

Seeing how desperate the situation has become, the Arizona Kid goes to retrieve the United States Cavalry while Moe and Shemp attempt to free Larry using every tool they can find. Eventually, they spring Larry and defeat Barker and his gang.

The Stooges operate a local drugstore whose landlord, the cantankerous Amos Flint (Emil Sitka), informs them their lease is about to expire. Larry protests that the trio have had their establishment for a decade, and do not want to leave. As the four bicker, Flint's elderly wife Cerina (Florence Lake) enters the store, only to be berated by Flint for being an old hag. "25 years is enough," he coldly confirms. After he storms off, the boys take to the frail Cerina, who begins to weep that ever since she lost her beauty, Amos had threatened to leave. Both saddened and incensed, the Stooges offer Cerina their spare room in the back. Shemp, seeing this, hatches a plan to invent a "Fountain of Youth" to restore Cerina (now played by Christine McIntyre) to her stunning beauty. Deeming the idea "tremendous, colossal and putrid," the Stooges flee to their pharmaceutical lab and mix together a powerful serum.

After several false tries, the trio give Cerina a taste of their Fountain of Youth, and she transforms into a fetching beauty right before their eyes. Several days later, Amos comes storming into the Stooges' drug store only to see the youthful Cerina flaunting her newfound beauty. Amos quickly reneges on his threat to evict the Stooges and even gives them the deed to their store in exchange for a dose of the serum himself. The Stooges proceed to mix a new batch on the spot, resulting in Amos becoming a baby.

The following day, Cerina celebrates her return to youth by preparing a Marshmallow Jumbo layer cake. Shemp is assigned to hunt down marshmallows but inadvertently retrieves bubble gum. The resulting celebration then finds the Stooges and Cerina blowing bubbles after every bite, with Shemp getting two bubbles out of his ears.

The film begins when a private jet descends on a runway of a small airport in Collingswood, New Jersey. Famous movie director Gene Orman (Landon) has visited the town to attend the premiere of his latest film ''Sam's Son''. On the way to the theater, he orders his driver to have the limo stop across the street from his childhood home where he grew up. He gets out and looks at the house, while tearfully saying "We did it, Sam."

The story then takes us back to the year 1953 when Sam (Wallach) is a movie theater manager, Gene is in high school and is an ordinary, shy teenager struggling with his identity. His parents, Sam (Wallach) and Harriet (Jackson) were an unhappy couple, who constantly bickered. Eugene is constantly bullied by his sharp-tongued mother Harriet (Jackson) who had no patience for his privacy in the bathroom, disliked his long hair and his love for movies. Gene also has a girlfriend Bonnie (Lee), who grows increasingly disdained with him, especially when the new transfer student and resident bully Bob Woods (Hayes) begins to take a liking to Bonnie. One night, when Eugene and Bonnie are at the movies, they are harassed by Woods in the theater until Sam firmly escorts him out. To get revenge, he challenges Eugene to a fight when he takes Bonnie home, but Eugene backs down and Woods calls him a wimp for chickening out. While running home, Eugene meets with classmates who drag a reluctant Eugene to a rowdy neighborhood bar where they eventually get into a fight with a loutish patron, but they escape before the cops are called.

At the same time, the high school track coach Sutter William Boyett is impressed with Eugene's work on throwing the javelin and he offers to help him compete in future track meets, providing his grades don't suffer because of it. That night, at the theater, Eugene watches ''Samson and Delilah'' and he wonders if he grew his hair, would he be strong enough to win the track meets. The next day, fellow schoolmate Cathy Stanton (Todd), who had been witnessing Eugene's work for several weeks, offers to help him with tutoring to make sure his grades don't fail if he wins a scholarship to the University of Southern California. However, soon after, the unsympathetic principal Mr. Collins (Karen) discovers Eugene hasn't cut his hair for quite some time and he orders him to or he will be barred from future track meets, even after Eugene tries to convince Collins he has to let his hair grow so he doesn't lose his strength.

Although Harriet disapproves of Eugene's actions, Sam secretly takes him to his brother, a famous doctor, to wrap his head in bandages so no one will get suspicious and Sam demands Eugene to keep it a secret from everybody. As weeks go by, Eugene wins meet after meet and one night, he and Cathy go on a date to the local drive-in, until it gets ruined by Woods, who slams his car into Eugene's. Again, he challenges him to a fight, but because Eugene has the upper hand in strength, he knocks Woods out cold. The next day, a determined Bonnie decides to reconcile her relationship with Eugene, but to no avail as he's already seeing Cathy.

As a subplot, Sam understands about Eugene getting bullied all the time as he has a jerk of a boss, Mr. Bellow (Harvey Gold), who constantly berates Sam. One day, he finally stands up to him saying he will quit his job unless he's allowed to go to Eugene's track meet. Bellow reluctantly agrees to let him have a couple of hours off, and Sam is delighted. However, on the day of the event, Sam is forced to help deliver a slate of film prints after the delivery truck breaks down. The heavy lifting and carrying sadly takes a toll on Sam, who collapses on the stairs from a heart attack. At the track meet, Eugene and Cathy patiently wait for Sam when a policeman comes over and tells them the bad news. Angry and distraught, he unwraps the bandages from his head, revealing a full head of long hair. He takes his javelin and throws it over 200 feet in the air, landing next to a distance cone.

Eugene and Cathy immediately rush to the hospital to an emotional Harriet. She tells Eugene to tell Sam they will be all right on their own without him. When he goes into his room, the doctor informs him Sam will need a new heart but are unable to give it to him due to money and technology. At Sam's bedside, he apologizes to Eugene for not showing up and tells him to look at a script at their house he has been working on for weeks. The life support system flatlines, and Eugene rushes to get help. However, it's too late.

We then travel back to the present day, where we see Gene's friend Cy Martin (Howard Bassett) is seen explaining to someone on the limo's phone asking why they're not at the theater yet. After hanging up, Cy informs Gene they have to get there before the movie starts. When they arrive, he is greeted by a swarm of excited fans, his wife Cathy, and even Mr. Bellow, who obviously changed his ways, attitude-wise, tells Gene that it is an honor to have him at his theater. To put him in his place, Gene orders Bellow to fix five letters out on the marquee. As Gene and Cathy enter the theater, Bellow informs him it will be done. Before the fade to black, Bellow looks up at the marquee and nods his head sarcastically at the title.

Mechanic and race car driver Eddie Shannon is chosen by two bank robbers to help them with a heist. The heist requires someone with his ability to "soup up" engines and drive at high speeds over treacherous roads, to avoid capture after they pull the job. To bait the driver into the dangerous scheme, one of the robbers uses his girlfriend, Barbara Mathews, to help persuade Eddie to assist with the crime—though his share of the heist would also make it possible for him to achieve his dream of racing competitively in Europe, the money alone wouldn't be sufficient inducement. Barbara increasingly feels ashamed of leading Eddie on, and develops some feelings for him. This leads to his discovery of the way he's been used, triggering a deadly confrontation at the end.

A man (Michael Landon) recalls his childhood, and how he and his grandfather (Art Carney) trained and raced homing pigeons. One special pigeon taught him to appreciate the value of home.

The Stooges are janitors at a newspaper who stumble on a hot story about the priceless Punjab diamond being stolen from the museum by an evil crook named Dapper Malone (Kenneth MacDonald). With dreams of becoming genuine reporters, the trio head for Squid McGuffy's cafe asking for the whereabouts of Dapper. They manage to convince everyone at the restaurant that they are actually police.

While searching several rooms above the cafe, the Stooges stumble on Dapper's moll, Bee (Christine McIntyre), who hastily hides the Punjab diamond in a candy dish. The boys refuse to leave, suspecting Dapper will eventually show his face. While killing time, Shemp starts to flirt with the moll, and manages to swallow the ice along with some mints from the candy dish. The gal nearly has a nervous breakdown but quickly discovers the Stooges are nothing more than reporters. She calls in Dapper and his henchman Muscles (Cy Schindell) and frantically try to pry the diamond out of frazzled Shemp.

After all else fails, Dapper decides to cut him open by performing some surgery on Shemp in the office. Moe and Larry are locked in a closet by Muscles while Shemp is tied down on a close by desk-turned-operating table. As luck would have it, there happens to be a bag of tools in the closet, which Moe and Larry use to saw their way out of the closet, and right into a gorilla named Harold's cage on the other side of the wall. The gorilla knocks Dapper and Muscles cold. The beast, however, befriends and saves Shemp, and helps him cough up the diamond.

The Stooges are moving men assigned to move furniture out of the haunted Smorgasbord Castle. All goes well at first, outside of a few scares, until a clanking suit of armor inhabited by the ghost of Peeping Tom (voiced by Phil Arnold) scares the hapless Stooges. Tom manages to convince them that he is, in fact, a friendly spirit. After finally gaining their trust, Tom tells the trio his origin story of watching Lady Godiva (Nancy Saunders), only to get a pie in the face. In turn, his ghost is cursed and trapped inside the suit of armor. He has been trapped for a thousand years.

The Stooges, however, still have a job to do, and tell Tom that they have to move everything in the castle, including him. He instructs the boys to leave him be, as "bad luck" will be upon them if they ever try to take him away. Shemp, Larry and Moe all take turns trying to move Tom, but a series of various shenanigans spooks the Stooges. The Incidents they encounter include a frog jumping down Shemp's shirt, and an owl entering a skull and assuming the role of a death's head spirit.

As they run into another room to escape, Lady Godiva rides up on a horse and takes Tom away. The Stooges rush over to the window to watch them depart, only to be pelted with three successive pies amidst a cheering crowd.

Nadine Story (Traci Lords) is a nurse working in the office of Dr. Rochelle (Ace Mask). She encounters an unusual patient Mr. Johnson (Arthur Roberts), who is always dressed in black, wears dark sunglasses and demands a blood transfusion. After Dr. Rochelle tests Johnson's blood, he's surprised to discover the man's body isn't producing blood in the usual manner, and Johnson hires Nadine to work in his home and give him regular transfusions. With the help of her boyfriend Harry (Roger Lodge), she soon discovers that Johnson is an emissary from the planet Davanna, who is looking for a ready supply of human blood his people need to survive.

The Stooges are inept plumbers at Day and Nite Plumbers. Moe is busy reading "How to Be a Plumber" when the phone rings with a request to fix a leaky faucet at the home of the wealthy Norfleets (Emil Sitka and Symona Boniface). The leak happens to spring up while the Norfleets are throwing a dinner party to celebrate the acquisition of a $50,000 Van Brocklin painting.

Moe struggles with the pipes in the basement while Shemp manages to trap himself inside a maze of pipes in the bathroom. Larry is assigned to finding the water cutoff and proceeds to dig up most of the lawn in an attempt to turn off the water. Shemp later surmises that the pipes fail to work properly because they are "clogged up with wires". Shemp and Moe proceed to remove the electrical system from the pipes and connect a water pipe to the freshly available pipe. The cook (Dudley Dickerson), who is in the kitchen trying to prepare an extravagant meal for the Norfleets, watches in bewilderment as the stove and chandelier gush water.

As the Norfleet's house transforms into Niagara Falls, two party guests named Mr. and Mrs. Allen (Kenneth MacDonald and Christine McIntyre) manage to swipe the prized Van Brocklin painting. However, the Stooges manage to catch onto the Allens' scheme and retrieve the painting.

It is the Old West and the Dillon clan are making life miserable for a small Western town. Sweetheart Nell (Christine McIntyre) sends her dashing but dimwitted boyfriend Elmer (Jock O'Mahoney) to find help. Meanwhile, in the United States Cavalry, cavalrymen the Stooges are making life miserable for their superior, Sergeant Mullins (Dick Wessel). Mullins tries to whip the boys into shape, but his plan backfires and he has a run-in with his superior, Captain Daley (Emil Sitka). Before that goes far, the Colonel informs Mullins about the Dillon clan's evildoings, and needs some men to run them out of town. Mullins does not miss a beat, and volunteers the unsuspecting Stooges.

The trio are made up to look like tough desperadoes, and happen upon the town saloon. They take jobs as waiters and do their best to spy on Dillon (Kenneth MacDonald) and his hombres without being discovered (complete with fake mustaches) However, Moe's mustache flies off his face, right onto Dillon's nose. The gang tie up Moe and Larry, and manage to corner Shemp into a safe.

As this is going on, Elmer is stumbling his way to the door of United States Cavalry, who are temporarily unavailable, it being pay day and all ("Boys will be boys," shrugs Cavalry colonel Vernon Dent). Disillusioned, Elmer returns to rescue his Nell, who is busy knocking every cowboy who enters her room out cold. Eventually, the Stooges emerge victorious.

After a prison stretch for jewel robbery, three beautiful women search for a pearl necklace the police never found. Unfortunately for them, the warehouse where they hid it was sold for back storage fees to Shangri-La Upholstering Company operated by the Stooges.

As the boys set about the task of fixing and pricing various pieces of furniture, Shemp stumbles upon the necklace and keeps it for himself, despite Larry and Moe dismissing them as a "string of beads." The girls follow the Stooges to their shop, and pretend to flirt with them as a distraction, so they can search the shop for the necklace, resulting in the desecration of a chair. Shemp, convinced that the pearls are fake, tries to give the necklace to the girls, but the molls' gangster ex-boyfriends are hot on their trail and track them down to the shop, demanding the necklace. Slapstick mayhem ensues when the Stooges come to the girls' defense, resulting in a six-man hand-to-hand brawl that ends in a large box full of stuffing.

In the end, Shemp successfully lands blows on the head with an iron to the three gangsters, knocking them out cold. The girls run to their sides and decide there and then to give the pearls back to the rightful owners and disavow their criminal ways.

The Stooges are janitors who have just finished moving furniture and assorted items into the office of a detective. Shemp fantasizes about the exciting life of a private eye, when a beautiful blonde in distress (Christine McIntyre) rushes in begging for help, claiming she is being followed. While the Stooges search the hallways, she quickly scribbles a note and is captured by a mysterious figure.

The Stooges follow her note to a dark house on Mortuary Road, where an evil scientist (Philip Van Zandt) is building an army of robot men. Fanning out to search, Shemp finds the girl tied up and gagged in a curtained alcove at the end of the main hallway. The scientist and his assistant (Stanley Price) then try to dispose of the Stooges, but the Stooges overcome the odds and escape with the girl in a car driven by one of the scientist's headless robots.

Set in post-war London and at Elstree Studios, Hertfordshire, the "mysterious affair" of the title is the murder of ageing actress Cora Rutherford on the set of the film which she hopes will mark her comeback to the silver screen. As it happens, mystery writer Evadne Mount, an old friend of Cora's, and Chief-Inspector Trubshawe, retired, formerly of Scotland Yard, are watching the shooting of the scene in which the actress drinks from a champagne glass whose content, unbeknownst to everyone except the murderer, has been laced with a strong poison. Right from the start of the investigation, a neat group of suspects presents itself to the police. However, although each of them would have had means and opportunity to kill Cora Rutherford, none of them has the slightest motive to have done so. It takes amateur sleuth Evadne Mount several days to figure out the solution to the crime, and only by linking up the murder with an accident which happened some time previously, and eventually by using a decoy, is she able to solve the case.

The Stooges happily reminisce about the meeting of their respective fiancees whilst in armed forces in Europe. They are an Italian girl, an Austrian girl, and a French girl. To celebrate, the trio drink a toast, consisting of three large mugs containing Old Panther whisky and immediately get pathetically drunk. Moe and Shemp start arguing over their sweetheart, and suggest they end it by fighting "a drool." As ammunition, they spray each other with seltzer bottles. Shemp finally passes out cold, leading Moe and Larry to the conclusion he died. They decided to dispose of Shemp's body by encasing his feet in a round-bottomed tub with cement in order to drop him into the ocean.

While the cement dries, the three doze off. When they come to, all are suffering from hangovers and short memories. Naturally, they cannot figure out how Shemp got into his situation. Realizing they must meet their sweethearts quickly, Moe and Larry load up the tub with sticks of dynamite, which explodes and send the boys flying through the air and onto the docks where their ladies are waiting. However, Shemp is still stuck in the cement, when the French girl comes to embrace him, falling into the water together, getting the other two couples wet from the splash.

The Stooges are artists who fall in love with three models, Larraine, Moella and Shempetta. The short begins with the three models getting ready for their portrait sitting. After they are finished, they do not want to be late, and begin to skip out of the door. Larraine and Shempetta crash into the wall while Moella falls into the next room. At the studio, the Stooges accidentally ruin each other's work, but calm down when the models arrive. The models agree to the Stooges' proposals, and they go to ask their father for their hands in marriage. The Stooges bump into the models' father, but do not know his identity. He gets mad at them, but the Stooges get even with their usual style. The models' father later denies their proposal request when he recognizes them as the "hoodlums" who accosted him earlier. After a wild chase around the house, the Stooges catch him, and tickle his feet until he changes his mind. Eventually, he agrees, and the boys marry their girls. Later, all three couples finally have a baby of their own.

Shimmer, Monkey, Indigo, Thorn and Civet are forced to flee the Green Darkness after encountering the Butcher's soldiers and set off in search of the Smith and the Snail Woman, the only beings capable of repairing Baldy's cauldron, which was cracked when it was stolen from Sambar's treasure vault. They camp for the night by a lake in a wasteland that was the site of a former a kingdom destroyed by the Nameless One, a once powerful king and wizard who battled the Five Masters but could not be killed, and was punished by unknown, "terrible" means. While getting water, Civet notices a mysterious door at the bottom of the lake bed, from which she can sense a magical presence. Later that night the sound of weeping is heard coming from the lake. Monkey, Thorn and Civet get pulled onto the lake surface by the needleweed plants growing along the shore, and a whirlpool is created within the lake allowing them to access the door. Thorn and Monkey follow Civet inside, who is desperate for a means to supply her magic which has all been used up.

The door leads to an ancient tomb, within which they encounter a mysterious, ghostly woman wearing a golden tiara with a pearl set in it. Drawn to the tiara, Civet takes it and puts it on, becoming possessed by the owner's spirit. Imbued with power, she begins to make strange prophecies. Despite the best efforts of Monkey and Shimmer, who soon joins them, Civet cannot be touched. Thorn succeeds in tricking her, allowing him to get the tiara immersed in a bowl of wine and destroying the pearl. The spell broken, the tomb begins to collapse and the whirlpool dissipate, from which the four manage to escape. Shimmer is disappointed in Thorn, further worsening their relationship which has been strained as Shimmer appears to have switched her favor to Indigo in an attempt to help her out, at Thorn's expense. Indigo is filled in on what happened, and after discovering the buoyancy properties of the needleweed, decides to take some of its juice. Civet later reveals that she believes she saw visions while possessed. Monkey discovers from spying on her that Civet believes her purpose in traveling with the group is not to help Shimmer, but rather Thorn.

The next day the group enters the Desolate Mountains, which were once part of the Nameless One's kingdom. They get attacked by mysterious soldiers, who succeed in getting Shimmer entangled in a net. While seeking refuge on a ledge, the disguised cauldron is nearly lost. A sudden avalanche that is triggered sweeps them from the ledge and onto trees that had been broken loose and are being carried on a river that runs through the mountains. Monkey ends up on a tree with Thorn, finding that despite what he has had to put up with Shimmer, he sticks by her, because she was the first person in his life who showed him kindness. Thorn vows to prove that he is as worthy of her esteem as Indigo. Finding Shimmer, Indigo and Civet close by, they pass by a small, strange island with an odd, egg-shaped building on it. They are forced to seek refuge on the island in order to escape a waterfall the river empties into, and are helped by a mysterious, giant white dog. Trying to leave, they find that they cannot fly or swim away from the island due to a magical barrier in place around it, which also nullifies magic. Left with a boat building kit by the mysterious dog, they try various means of constructing a boat, which fail. The dog is not the only other being on the island, but they are unable to determine who it could be.

Thorn figures out that the barrier spell is selective, filtering in certain things while blocking out others. The group searches the egg-shaped house on the island for suitable flotation devices, but when tested none proves able to float past the barrier. After being goaded by Indigo, Thorn throws a pebble in his hand into the river in frustration, which skips several times. He realizes that clay is an exception to the barrier spell, or otherwise the island would have silted up. Monkey recalls a large lamp at the egg house that might work, which Shimmer manages to save after the mysterious dog hears of their plans. Although Monkey ties it up with rope, it manages to escape and succeeds in destroying the lamp when they try to bring it to the beach. However Thorn proposes using multiple smaller clay jars, which they are able to secure. Monkey finds a patch of human skin inside one of the jars, which is buried. Finding that the jars work, a raft is built out of them, but the reeds used to bind it prevent it from working. The glue left in the boat building kit proves to be quite strong and waterproof, so a smaller raft is made which proves successful, although it can only transport one person at a time. The surplus jars are destroyed, and Shimmer in her dragon form manages to float off the island, helping the humans cross the river.

On a ledge opposite the island, while seeking a way out of the cavern, a mysterious white object is fished out of the river, which turns out to be the patch of skin encountered earlier. It manages to escape their attempts to capture it, at which point Civet realizes that her prophecy has come true, as the skin is the Nameless One who had been trapped on the island. The Nameless One adopts the name of the Boneless King after hearing them discuss him, and vows to turn the whole world into a wasteland. Thorn blames himself for letting the Nameless One lose, and refuses to go with Shimmer and Indigo when they leave to summon the Smith and Snail Woman. Shimmer misinterprets his intentions, leaving him with Monkey and Civet, who try to find the Boneless King, but are unsuccessful. Leaving the mountain on foot and in disguise, they encounter a group of soldiers, who arrest them and take them to where an excavation of the Nameless One's tomb is being undertaken by the Butcher. There their warnings fall on deaf ears, and they are reunited with Shimmer and Indigo, who were also captured in disguise. The Butcher himself arrives, accompanied by a strange dragon. Suspicious of them after hearing their warnings about the Nameless One, he takes a personal hand in their interrogation, which is interrupted by the discovery of the Boneless King himself in his current form, who proves impervious to all manner of attack, except for living fire, an ancient chemical substance which can burn in water that was buried in his tomb. However he manages to release his soul as his body is burned and possess the Butcher.

The group takes advantage of the distraction to overpower their guards, while Monkey and Shimmer assume their true forms. However the Boneless King, whose men do not realize has possessed the Butcher, casts a spell that renders them unable to fly. Civet breaks away, declaring that she has paid her debt to Shimmer and the Inland Sea dragons. She creates a diversion by destroying the jars containing the living fire, causing a mass of confusion with the resulting fires, but dying amidst the flames as she had envisioned. Shimmer and her companions are able to escape, as the Boneless King's spell requires him to keep them in sight. They are pursued by the Boneless King and Pomfret, and are again struck by the flightless spell. Just as a fight is about to ensue on the ground, the Smith and Snail Woman's mountain arrives, forcing the Boneless King to retreat.

The Smith and the Snail Woman are informed that the Nameless One has escaped and brought up to speed. The Smith recognizes Baldy's cauldron as the greatest masterpiece of his grandmother, the Serpent Woman and one of the Five Masters. He agrees to try to fix it, informing them that a soul trapped within the cauldron gives it its power. In the forge, the group assists the Smith and the Snail Woman by working the bellows. They get the cauldron hot enough to the point where when it is struck on an anvil, the trapped soul within is released and escapes. Determined to mend the cauldron, they try their best to get the fire as hot as possible, but to no avail. Thorn realizes what needs to be done, and climbing onto the hearth, jumps into the cauldron, fusing his soul into it and becoming the cauldron himself. Shimmer is distraught, but the Snail Woman realizes what Thorn has done, and encouraged, they put in a final effort that manages to fix the crack in the cauldron/Thorn.

Shimmer then tries to take Thorn back to restore the Inland Sea, but is refused by the Smith, who reveals that he and his wife plan to use Thorn in their fight against the Boneless King with the aid of the two remaining masters, the Unicorn and the Lord of the Flowers. Shimmer, Indigo and Monkey manage to steal Thorn back by disguising him as a hammer. The three return to River Glen to boil away the Inland Sea using Thorn, but are ambushed by the Boneless King who has rescued his giant white dog and is assisted by Pomfret, still unaware that he is no longer the Butcher. In recognition of their repairing the cauldron, the Boneless King imprisons them instead of killing them. As he flies off on Pomfret, Monkey and Shimmer see Thorn give a flash of light, seeming to communicate to them that things will work out and giving them hope.

The Stooges are stage hands who also have small parts in the production of "The Bride Wore Spurs." They quickly get on the bad side of their producer, B. K. Doaks (Emil Sitka), who has had his last several plays panned by famous critic Nick Barker (Ned Glass) and wants to put on a good show with what he has. In order to prevent Barker from getting in to see the play, he commissions the boys to stop him from sneaking in, which they fail to do as a result of their confusing disguises (they end up attacking each other and B.K.).

B.K. reprimands the Stooges and demands they get the props ready for the final act (a cake and a salad), but Moe is reminded that he forgot to go shopping for them. It is also late at night and the stores are closed, so the Stooges have to whip up a cake and salad for the act to appease B.K. and save the show. However, as the cake is being prepared, Shemp accidentally tosses a pot holder onto a cake pan, resulting in Moe unintentionally adding it into the cake.

As the final scene commences, the Stooges and a number of other bit actors, as Southern Gentlemen, all propose to "Janie Belle" (Christine McIntyre) at once, and she proposes a contest; whoever eats the most of her cake gets her hand in marriage. However, the cake is difficult to eat as a result of the pot holder, and after ingesting their pieces, all the actors begin coughing up feathers, causing all in attendance to start laughing uproariously.

B.K. is mortified and cues the curtain down, and as the Stooges drink copious amounts of punch to quell the feathers in their mouths, a furious B.K. tears into them and fires them on the spot. However, in a reversal of fortunes, Barker thinks the play is a hilarious satire and commends the Stooges' performance before asking to see B.K.'s next work. B.K. then claims that the next work will star the Stooges as the main roles, and the boys finally get a break.

The Stooges are exterminators mistaken for B.O. Pictures' publicity department. They are then instructed to drum up publicity for the studio's lovely new actress Dolly Devore (Christine McIntyre), and arrange a fake kidnapping.

However, two gangsters hear the Stooges' plan and kidnap Devore for real. The gangsters break into her hotel room, then tie her hands behind her back and zip her up in a large garment bag, forcing the Stooges to come to her rescue.

However, complications arise when Shemp walks out on the outdoor ledge (after switching places with Dolly inside the bag) having to hold on to the accordion arm of a telephone to keep from falling to his death. Dolly and the Stooges manage to create a rope long enough for Shemp to grab onto. The crooks return and force Dolly and Moe to surrender, but one of the crooks gets his leg hooked in the rope, allowing Dolly and Moe to knock the crooks out.

Meanwhile, Larry makes several attempts to get the cops involved, but they refuse to help, believing it to be a publicity stunt. As a last resort, Larry throws food at the cops, getting them to chase him back to the scene of the crime, just in time to arrest the criminals. Larry attempts to unhook the rope from the crook and almost falls out the window, but is saved by Moe. Shemp lands on a lady's balcony, and Moe and Larry fall into a bathtub filled with water. While it may not be Saturday night, the boys decide that they've got nothing to lose and take a bath.

The Stooges are investigators for the Onion Oil company, whose service stations are being robbed by a gang of crooks. On the job, the Stooges provide nothing less than first-class service. However, most of the services are not typical of your standard gas station (shaves, manicures and cologne), and they still manage to be robbed when their backs are turned.

Tracing a trail of motor oil to the crooks' hideout, the Stooges demonstrate boxing skills far more effective than their earlier detective skills.

The Stooges are warehouse workers at the Superior Warehouse and Storage Company assigned to delivering some Arabian antique for client Mr. Bradley (Vernon Dent). While unpacking the goods at Mr. Bradley's house, Shemp stumbles upon a magic lamp that he, at first, dubs a "syrup pitcher." After giving the lamp a cleaning, a djinni appears (Wesley Bly), startling Shemp. Calling the djinni "genius," the Stooges are pursued by two Arabian thugs (Philip Van Zandt, Dick Curtis) who are after the magic lamp. Mr. Bradley is unaware of the magic lamp, which he gives to Shemp. Only Shemp and Larry know about the magic of the lamp, in which Moe doubts. The thugs are apprehended, thanks to the genius, and at the end, the stooges are seen with their girls plus the million dollars that are now shared by the stooges. They all depart for a traveling vacation, leaving Mr. Bradley, who uses a mallet to repeatedly hit himself in the head, for giving the lamp to the stooges.

The Stooges are census takers strolling through an apartment complex when they come upon a woman called Mrs. Lucy Wyckoff (Jean Willes). The Stooges learn that Wyckoff is one-half of a husband-and-wife Magician Troupe who perform regularly. Unfortunately, Mr. Wyckoff (Dick Curtis) is also an evil man-hating jealous husband and a precise knife thrower who kills any perverted men who talks to his wife. When Mr. Wyckoff comes home, the Stooges make a failed effort to take cover. After several frightening threats, the trio depart as fast as their feet will carry them as they scoot out and get the cops on their little scooters.

Moe and Larry are at a sanatorium where Shemp is being treated for suffering from hallucinations. Before being prematurely released, Shemp insists on saying farewell to his new fiancée, beautiful nurse Nora (Babe London). When Nora calls out to Shemp, she appears, much to the scare of Moe and Larry: poor Nora is a homely, toothless thing who seems to have won Shemp's heart. It then becomes clear that Shemp is far from cured, and needs additional therapy.

While Shemp is home, the boys receive a visit from Dr. Gesundheit (Emil Sitka). The blind-as-a-bat doctor tries his best to cure Shemp, but runs into difficulty when the stubborn stooge refuses to swallow a sleeping pill. Later, Shemp hallucinates an extra set of hands while enduring his piano lesson. On the verge of a nervous breakdown, Shemp insists on seeing Nora, with hopes of finally getting married.

On their way to the doctor, the Stooges become wedged in a phone booth with a stranger (Vernon Dent), leading to a fist and physical fight, making a mess from the foods the stranger had in his bag, until the phone booth toppled over on its side, where the stooges escape. Back in their apartment, they find she is waiting for her father who happens to be the man the Stooges brawled with in the phone booth. Trying to escape the Stooges knock themselves out, thinking that the silhouette on the wall, is a window. Nora claims Shemp as her own, carrying Shemp away, and leaves the other Stooges to her father.

Set in the Old West, Peaceful Gulch is not so peaceful as Red Morgan (Don C. Harvey) and his roughnecks have run the sheriff out of town. In attempt to bring normalcy back to their little town, some of the sheriff's posse concoct a scheme to trick Morgan and his hombres into thinking that there are three famous marshalls headed into town to bring back law and order.

The Stooges, mistaken for the three famous marshalls, are asked to stop Morgan and his men from stealing money in an old house haunted by the ghost of a headless Native American chief (John Merton). The trio soon find that the ghost is none other than one of Morgan's men. Shemp knocks out the henchman and dons the costume for himself. He soon runs into Moe and Larry who have been captured by Morgan. Still disguised, Shemp knocks out everyone in the room with his hatchet and the boys are heroes once again.

After being fired from two jobs for breaking dishes, the Stooges end up being chased into a dental office by the angry Vesuvius restaurant chef with a cleaver. Eventually, the boys study, and graduate from dental school. The dean of the school (Vernon Dent) gives them their first recommendation to go out west (read: far away), and open a practice.

The boys open up shop in quiet western town, when their first customer (Slim Gaut) comes in with a mild toothache. Wearing glasses with lenses as thick as soda bottles, Dr. Shemp proceeds to drill the patient's teeth until smoke rises from his mouth.

The appointment is abruptly cut short when an irate customer who claims to be the Sheriff (Dick Curtis) enters the office with a serious toothache. Feeling nervous, Shemp accidentally picks up the wrong book, entitled ''The Amateur Carpenter''. They first rub sandpaper to his chest, and paste the inside of his hat which they thought it was to "varnish the lid". After discovering it is the wrong book, the boys go back to business seriously. They finally extract the Sheriff's tooth, only to discover it is the wrong one that Shemp pulled out and runs out of the Dentist's office.

The Stooges are choreographers at B. O. Pictures who are assigned to teach island natives how to dance. The studio's president, Mr. Baines (Emil Sitka) has purchased the fictional Pacific island of Rarabonga (parody of Rarotonga, one of the Cook Islands) for his next musical extravaganza, but learns that the local natives have never heard of dancing.

When the Stooges arrive at Rarabonga, they soon learn that the natives are cannibalistic head hunters under the control of a powerful evil Witch Doctor named Varanu (Kenneth MacDonald). Shemp makes it clear he does not want the "hair cuts down to my neck!" and the Stooges try to flee with the help of the Tribe King's daughter Luana (Jean Willes). She wants them to rescue her boyfriend from the witch doctor, who plans to behead him in the morning—along with the Stooges. In one of the huts, the Three Stooges try to get their hands on a box of surplus World War II hand grenades guarded by a living Kali type four-armed totem idol (Lei Aloha). After getting the daylights beat out of them by the fierce idol, the boys grab the box of grenades, and fool the Witch Doctor into proving his expertise with his sword by slicing the box of grenades with his huge sword, and the grenades promptly explode, blowing him out of the atmosphere.

With Witch Doctor Varanu gone, the Stooges commence with their choreography lessons and teach the natives to dance.

The Stooges are pest exterminators who decide to drum up business by planting mice, moths, and ants in an unsuspecting house. They select a fancy mansion where a high society dinner party is being held. After successfully infesting the house with pests, the trio are predictably hired to clean up their own mess without interrupting the party. One highlight is the piano recital, whereby Johann Strauss II's "Blue Danube Waltz" is being played by party guest/pianist Mr. Philander (Vernon Dent). A chorus of cats replies, bewildering the audience and Mr. Philander. Chaos ensues inside suddenly when a mouse enters the piano, agitating the cats. The Stooges are forced to get the offending pest off the piano, destroying it in the process. After the piano incident passes, the Stooges start loitering around the pastry table. One things leads to another, and a massive pie fight ensues.