The Stooges are repairmen who are on trial for stealing chickens, but are found not guilty. However, Shemp opens his suit jacket, resulting in a live chicken flying out of his grip and into the face of Judge Henderson (Vernon Dent). The boys then flee the courtroom and pursue some work.

The trio comes upon a lady customer (Kitty McHugh) whose doorbell is in need of repair. The Stooges manage to ruin most of the house while working on the wiring, ultimately clobbering the chef (Emil Sitka) who is preparing dinner at the customer's house. The irate chef abruptly quits, resulting in the Stooges being hired to prepare dinner for her husband's friend's George Morton (John R. Hamilton) birthday party. To their shock and horror, the party in question involves none other than Judge Henderson, and their lady customer is the Judge's wife.

Now frantic, the trio try their best to make the dinner partially edible. All hell nearly breaks loose when the birthday cake they prepare is accidentally pierced, deflating in the process. The cake is then "re-inflated" using town gas through the gas stove's connection.

During the party, Morton blows out the candles, and the gas-filled cake explodes all over him and the judge, also ruining Henderson's chance for re-election. George Morton's wife, Lydia was wearing a large board sign and Henderson angrily realizes who the new "help" are, and the Stooges are chased away by the judge's shotgun.

The Stooges are happily cleaning the house, as they dream about getting married in a few hours. The usual antics occur as the boys make a near shambles of their home.

For starters, Shemp decides to use the wooden handle of a loaded pistol as a hammer, which of course goes off, and parts Moe's sugarbowl haircut right down the middle. Then the trio try to reupholster a davenport, but end up clobbering Moe on several counts. First, they cut the upholstering with a scissor and end 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 Larry and Shemp argue over who gets the next round, leading the rifle firing directly at Moe's ''gluteus maximus''. After Larry and Shemp quickly remove the tacks, Moe manages to swallow one. After all is said and done, the house is neat and clean.

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 Shemp appear at Mabel's home with engagement rings of varying sizes. When the boys discover their error, a nutty fight ensues. The three eventually, knock each other cold, and Mabel quickly scurries by them with three engagement rings.

The Stooges offer to repaint their landlady's apartment in order to avoid being evicted. Landlady Mrs. MacGruder (Kitty McHugh) warns them that the "furnishings cost a pretty penny," so the Stooges destroy her place without fail. Just as they are packing a trunk to leave, Shemp receives a telegram from his Uncle Phineas Bowman (Emil Sitka) who is coming to visit. When Mrs. MacGruder hears the wealthy bachelor Uncle Phineas is worth $6 million, with Shemp his sole heir, she allows the Stooges to stay.

Later, while Shemp is preparing Upside Down Cake, pretty new neighbor Gertie Duggan (Dani Sue Nolan) comes by to borrow a cup of sugar. While making casual conversation, Shemp keeps repeating, "'Duggan', 'Duggan'...I know that name from somewhere." Gertie confirms Shemp's curiosity when she says her husband is tough, professional strongman Rocky Duggan (Mickey Simpson), known for easily tearing thick telephone books for kicks. Within seconds, Gertie takes a fall in the boys' kitchen, leading to Shemp accidentally tearing off her skirt when trying to help her up. Realizing that all three Stooges will be beaten into submission if husband Rocky gets wind of this, they frantically hide Gertie. Just then, Uncle Phineas arrives, and all seems fine until Gertie, now resplendent in Shemp's bathrobe, makes a dash for her apartment. Rocky sees this, and comes barging into the Stooges' apartment, knocking Phineas to the floor.

Just when the towering Rocky is grinding Shemp into powder, Mrs. MacGruder appears and demands Rocky let go of Shemp. He threatens "Beat it, lady. No dame is gonna tell me what to do." Without missing a beat, MacGruder knocks Rocky to the ground with a right hook to the jaw. As Gertie comes running to her husband, she pleads, "Honey, this whole thing was a mistake." "Mistake?" he moans, and then proceeds to spit out his teeth, griping "Look at my choppers!" Mrs. MacGruder then enters the Stooges' apartment to find a weary Uncle Phineas, who turns out to be her childhood sweetheart. While Shemp is promising Rocky new teeth, since he is his uncle's sole heir, Phineas and MacGruder rekindle their romance, and decide to get married, leaving Shemp and the Stooges without an inheritance and Rocky without teeth. Incensed, the strongman chases after the Stooges once more. As they round the corner of the apartment complex, each Stooge plus Rocky races past Uncle Phineas, knocking him down. As the haymaker, Gertie runs right over the fallen uncle, and squarely kicks him in the jaw.

Semi-conscious, Phineas receives a hug from the caring MacGruder, and moans, "All I wanted was a nice, quiet visit."

A group of prisoners are assigned to assist in the re-opening of an old prison's closed wing. They find that the furnace room in the wing is the location of a murder, and the victim's spirit seeks death of those who enter the room.

The Stooges are janitors-turned-delegates after being recruited to support bad news political candidate Hammond Egger. Egger's corrupt campaign manager Bill Wick (Kenneth MacDonald) and his assistant Jim Digger (Ben Welden) are desperate after the original three delegates departed the campaign after realizing Egger was rotten. Upon finding the bumbling Stooges, who nearly destroy Digger's toupee after vacuuming it from his head, Wick is enthralled. He hires the Stooges outright, and lays out their responsibilities as delegates. They gladly accept and start caucusing.

It does not take long for the Stooges to realize that Egger is a crook, and throw their votes to opposing candidate Abel Lamb Stewer. When Wick finds out that his new boys have double-crossed him, he comes looking for revenge, with the trio defeating Wick and Digger in a wild fight with the boys winning by capsizing them in the bathtub.

Larry and Shemp are hiding out in a stolen railroad car called "Schmow." Larry wants to marry his girlfriend Lenore (Patricia Wright), but she refuses to consent until Shemp marries her sister Roberta (Victoria Horne). Lenore wants to honor her family's tradition of the oldest daughter marrying first, and Shemp is very wealthy. The problem is that Shemp is rarely sober, drinking alcohol, and madly in love with an imaginary giant canary named Carrie.

A private investigator from the railroad (Moe) finds the missing train, and is trying to get a sense of how the car was stolen from a moving train. As fate would have it, Moe had a previous relationship with Roberta, and has not seen her for years. He is ecstatic to find her after many years of disconnect, and tries his best to rekindle the long dormant love affair. Larry tries to pit Moe and Shemp against each other over Roberta, but Shemp still prefers Carrie. Moe then decides to abandon his responsibilities and stay with the group, trying to marry Roberta. The film ends with Shemp trying to follow Carrie, but bumps into the door, collapsing and knocks himself out unconscious.

In Ecuador, two reckless money-hungry pilots bribe officials in order to fly a load of coffee beans from South America into the United States. To pay off the officials, they sneak aboard three passengers whom they agree to smuggle into the U.S.

Problems arise when sacks of the beans containing deadly tarantulas are loaded into the cargo bay. During the flight, the venomous arachnids, irritated by the plane's vibration and high altitude, escape from the sacks during a fierce thunderstorm. As the plane wobbles under the torrential rains, the sacks split open, spilling the beans and the noxious spiders. The three illegal immigrants are trapped in the cargo hold with the spiders. They vainly attempt to hold off the spiders with their shoes or whatever swat-material they can find. The lethal spiders eventually overcome all three.

Meanwhile, in the cockpit, the pilots work to overcome a developing mechanical problem that endangers the aircraft. They realize they must make an emergency landing as they pass over the orange-producing town of Finleyville, California. Unbeknownst to the pilots, the arachnids have escaped and begin to swarm the cockpit, attacking the pilots. The plane crash-lands near Finleyville.

The city's emergency response system moves to aid the downed aircraft and pilots. A fire breaks out at the crash site and the deadly tarantulas scurry from the location toward a nearby orange grove. The fire is brought under control and the pilots and passengers are pulled from the airplane. Those not killed begin to exhibit strange symptoms. The town's physician, Dr. Hodgins (Pat Hingle), is baffled until a local citizen who has been bitten, suddenly drops to the ground.

Cindy Beck (Deborah Winters) and her fiancé (Charles Frank) aid with the investigation. Her brother Matthew (Matthew Laborteaux) finds a spider, but no one listens to him.

A family of aviators, the Beck family, attempts to solve the puzzle of why the plane crashed. They are told that the tarantulas are actually banana spiders, described as "the most aggressive and venomous spider in the world". In the meantime, the tarantulas continue their attacks, and more people are brought into Dr. Hodgins’ clinic. The doctor finally figures it out, but by this time, the spiders have spread out. The city's mayor is fearful that any news of the problem infesting the city's oranges will bring the township financial ruin.

Bert Springer (Claude Akins), one of the city's responsible citizens, helps the Beck family investigate. Cindy's brother is bitten and incapacitated by the spider and dies. Bert organizes the town citizens, and they risk their lives trying to save the town as the food-seeking spiders converge on the orange packaging plant.

The plan to get rid of the spiders involves exposing the deadly arachnids to the buzzing sounds of their enemy: wasps. Using an amplified sound of wasps buzzing, the tarantulas are rendered motionless. This allows a crew of townsfolk to collect the spiders in buckets full of alcohol, which kills them. During the process, the electrical system switches off, and the crew are suddenly surrounded by the deadly spiders when the doors, which are electrically controlled, slam shut. A local teacher crawls in through a window near the roof and leads them out to safety. When the power comes back on, the crew returns to take care of the remainder of the spiders.

Due to family troubles, Ren Uesugi and his sister, Mihato, leave their home. They end up moving to the city but find themselves with a lack of money. Somehow they are able to find work in the form of the Kuonji family's mansion, being employed as servants to the three sisters of the Kuonji family: Shinra, Miyu, and Yume. Being a servant also associates Ren with the mansion's additional servants and the Kuonji sisters' friends.

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 result is Chandos as a broken man mourning his lost abilities. Chandos ultimately says he will write no more in any known language.

Saul Schwartz (played by Jack Scalia) is a bored New York businessman who decides to change his life to become a Hollywood movie star but finds it harder than he expected.

Watching a military parade (stock footage from World War I), the gang decides to enlist in order to "kill a million Japs". Rejected by the Army, Marines, and Navy for being too young, the punks help the war effort by throwing fruit at a shop they believe is owned by a Japanese American. Confronted by him wielding a short sword, the gang decides to come back at night but find him dead. Their father figure Police Lieutenant "Pops" Stevens tell them they should be ashamed of themselves as Keno, the owner of the shop, was Chinese, an ally of America and that Danny should be especially ashamed as his brother is in the service.

The boys buy some flowers and go to the shop to apologize to the widow and notice a Japanese man take a pen from a locker the widow opened for him. Glimpy steals the pen and find that it contains a message written in Japanese.

They visit a Japanese shop run by Mr. Matsui to have it translated. He tries to steal the message but the gang threatens him, whereupon Mr. Matsui commits hara-kiri in their presence. The boys run to the police.

Matusui's son successfully disguises himself as his late father to impersonate him and discredit the boys to the police. The boys take the law in their own hands to discover that Matsui is in league with German residents of the neighborhood who are in a sabotage group called the Black Dragon Society. In a subplot, Danny's brother Phil has supposedly been dishonourably discharged from the US Navy but is working undercover to infiltrate the Black Dragons. Danny's brother's girlfriend Nora, (who is in the WAVES) has a Japanese friend she went to high school with whom she seeks help from to translate the message. However he turns out to be Matsui's son, the leader of the spy ring and has her locked up in a cell in the basement of the shop.

The gang breaks into Matsui's shop that is filled with haunted house type secret passageways and trapdoors where they discover the Black Dragon Society dressed in hooded costumes that Glimpy refers to as "Japanese Halloween". The gang frees Nora and revenges the attack on Pearl Harbor by beating up the saboteurs.Hayes, David and Walker, Brent. ''The Films of the Bowery Boys''. Citadel Press, 1984, pp. 66-67. The film ends with Nora and Phil getting married but as they walk down the church steps with a sabre arch of East Side Kids holding their captured Japanese swords (that are quickly confiscated by the police at the end of the ceremony!). Phil is told he has orders to report back to his base as soon as possible. Phil and Nora briefly lament their not going on a honeymoon, but Muggs and the gang pile in the car and gallantly offer to accompany Nora on her honeymoon unaware of what a honeymoon entails.

In 2007, a man named David Moran witnesses a man hit and run by a car in New York City. He responds to the situation and tries to resuscitate the victim. That evening, he reflects on his past in the summer of 1958, when he meets his first teenage crush, Meg Loughlin. Meg and her disabled sister Susan have lost their parents in a car accident and are now living with their aunt, Ruth Chandler, and her sons, Willie, Ralphie, and Donny.

Ruth freely allows her sons' young friends, including David, to her house, where she entertains them and offers them beer and cigarettes. Meanwhile, Ruth starves Meg, subjects her to misogynistic lectures, and accuses her of being a whore while her children listen. After an incident when Meg hits Ralphie when he inappropriately touches her, Ruth strips and spanks Susan for being a "conniver," forcing Meg to watch. Ruth then confiscates Meg's ring necklace that she had received from her mother.

Meg reports the abuse to a local police officer named Officer Jennings, but law enforcement does not criminally charge Ruth. As punishment, Ruth and her sons bind Meg in the basement and torment her, strip her, and then leave her overnight, hanging by the arms from the rafters. She eventually becomes dehydrated and is unable to even eat the dry toast Ruth tries to feed her. Ruth again spanks Susan's bare bottom as punishment for Meg.

With Ruth's approval, the neighborhood children visit the Chandler residence to tie, beat, burn and cut Meg for fun. Ruth cauterizes the wounds Meg receives with cigarettes. David tries to tell his parents but is unable to do so. Officer Jennings checks in once more, answering a call about Meg being used as a "punching bag". Before answering the door, Ruth threatens to kill Meg and David if they make a noise in the basement. While Ruth and her sons are upstairs and convince Officer Jennings that they were simply roughhousing, David loosens Meg's bindings and tells her to escape that night, even offering to leave money for her in the woods. She is unsuccessful.

David returns to the Chandler house and is guided to the basement, where Meg is being raped by Willie. Donny also wishes to rape Meg, but Ruth dismisses his volunteer because she thinks it is incest for him to "skinny dip in his brother's scum". Ralphie then suggests to Ruth that she should "cut" Meg so that she'll be known as a whore. Ruth agrees and carves the words "I FUCK, FUCK ME" on Meg's abdomen with a heated bobby pin. After that, she soon taunts Meg, gloating about how she will never be with a man. Ruth then decides to perform a clitorectomy to remove Meg's sexual desire. David attempts to leave and get help, but is chased by the boys who stop him on the stairs and tie him up. They kick him in his private before turning their attention back to Meg. Bound to the floor, David is forced to watch Ruth burn Meg's clitoris with a blowtorch.

Later in the day, David awakes still on the basement floor. He frees himself from his bindings and finds Susan sitting with an unconscious Meg. Susan tells David that Meg failed to escape because she was caught trying to take Susan with her. She blames herself for telling Meg about Ruth molesting her, which made Meg hesitant to escape alone. David plans their escape, and lights a fire in the basement. As Ruth enters, David beats her to death with Susan's crutch. Ruth's sons also arrive in the basement with Willie trying to cut David's throat with a knife and Donny mourning Ruth's death. Officer Jennings intervenes and arrests the Chandler boys. The police take Susan from the basement so that she can testify in court and leave Meg with David. David takes the ring necklace back from Ruth and returns it to Meg. With the last of her energy, Meg thanks David for what he has done and tells him she loves him before finally dying from her injuries.

Back in 2007, the adult David reflects on how his past still haunts him to the present day. However, as Meg taught him, "It's what you do last that counts."

The Stooges operate a tailor shop that is about to be repossessed by the Skin and Flint Finance Corporation. When the boys hear about a big reward for fugitive bank robber Terry "Slippery Fingered" Hargan (Harold Brauer), they think that catching him might end their financial woes. Hargan conveniently ducks into their shop and leaves a suit jacket with a safe combination in its pocket. After quietly sneaking back into the shop while the Stooges are elsewhere searching for clues, Hargan snatches a handful of suit jackets in hopes of retrieving the combination. He then later returns with his henchmen, and a wild mêlée follows. The Stooges end up getting the reward to pay off their debts and, with a stroke of luck, wind up with the crook's bankroll as well.

The Stooges operate a local drug store 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 (Christine McIntyre) 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 to her stunning beauty. Deeming the idea "tremendous, colossal and putrid," the Stooges flee to their pharmaceutical lab and mix 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. To celebrate her return to youth, Cerina prepares a Marshmallow Jumbo layer cake. Shemp is assigned to get some 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.

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 requests a dose of the youthful serum himself. However, Amos overdoses on the potent stuff, and transforms into a gorilla instead. Realizing this, he attacks the Stooges in anger. Once subdued, the Stooges get the idea to put Amos in a cage and make a mint off a traveling show involving the only talking gorilla in captivity. Moe adds that two talking gorillas would be even better and tries to get Shemp to take some of the concoction. Shemp knocks the spoon into Moe’s mouth, and the film ends with Moe acting like a gorilla.

The Stooges receive news that their roommate and friend Bill (Frank Mitchell) has gotten married. They will soon be moving out of the house so that Bill's new wife can move in. As a favor of gratitude, the Stooges decide to install Bill's brand new television antenna. The project goes into chaos, however, when they eventually destroy the home.

When Bill's new wife (Maxine Gates) comes home to see the mess, all hell breaks loose, and Bill is single as quickly as he had gotten married. In a fit of anger, Bill takes out his aggression on his roommates.

The boys are set to do their income taxes, which are due the next day. As they do, Moe mentions how easy it is for people to cheat on their tax returns and not get caught, so the three get the idea to make fake deductions to ensure a hefty refund. Larry and Shemp come up with the further idea to make fake deductions for other peoples' tax returns and charge them for it. Moe finds this idea grand, and the three of them become "tax experts."

Shortly afterward, the Stooges are enjoying a life of luxury, having made much money from profits and their own tax returns. On one particular day, they host a dinner party for one of their clients, Mr. Cash a German who obsessively strokes his beard, but as the meal commences, strange happenings and the Stooges' own incompetence anger their guest. He then removes his beard (which Larry had accidentally cut off), exposes himself as a sleeper agent for the IRS, and calls in his fellow agents to arrest the Stooges for tax fraud. With nothing left to lose, the boys make a mad dash and attempt to fight off the agents but, after some intervening slapstick, are apprehended and sent to prison forever.

At night, several power company technicians answer a call at Charles Graiman's home. He is suspicious, as he did not expect them until the next morning. They threaten his daughter if he does not co-operate and Graiman suffers a fatal heart attack. Searching his home for hard drives containing the information they are after (for a defense project named Prometheus), they stumble across a parked Ford Mustang Shelby GT500KR in the garage that they unsuccessfully try to stop.

Mike Traceur, a 23-year-old ex-Army Ranger, is awakened by his friend Dylan to deal with "Mike's investors" who are attempting to collect a $90,000 gambling debt. Traceur's Shelby Cobra breaks down when he attempts to flee, and the men threaten Fass's life if Traceur does not pay the debt.

After an early morning surf, FBI special agent Carrie Rivai receives a call that Graiman, her longtime friend, is dead and leaves her date, a woman she met the night before, to investigate.

Sarah Graiman, a 24-year-old Ph.D. candidate at Stanford University, lectures a class on nanotechnology. After the lecture, she receives a phone call from KITT warning her about the men planning to abduct her. Sarah's pursuers catch her, but she is rescued by KITT. Sarah and KITT track down Traceur, who turns out to be her childhood friend, and whom she was involved with has not seen since he left home at 18. They find him at the Montecito Casino, playing poker to repay his debt. He is resistant when Sarah asks for help, but agrees when she offers to pay his debt. The two set out to find out what happened to Graiman and discover who is after them.

Rivai arrives at Graiman's home and is asked by the local corrupt sheriff to identify the body. She discovers it is not Charles Graiman; the real Graiman escaped through the woods and left a body double behind. Graiman makes his way to the home of Traceur's mother, Jennifer. The two leave for a local motel.

The men chasing them are mercenaries for Black River, a security contractor. They are after Prometheus, a system that controls the entire United States defense network. Information needed to control the system is contained on Graiman's hard drives in the mercenaries' possession, but is encrypted; only Graiman and Sarah know the encryption keys. KITT also possesses the data and can access the system.

Graiman contacts Sarah and asks her to meet him at the motel. He advises Sarah to contact Rivai for help. When she does so, Rivai puts her phone in speaker-mode so the sheriff can hear the location, unaware that the sheriff is working with the mercenaries.

KITT, Sarah, and Traceur find that the mercenaries have reached the motel, but have not found Graiman, as he checked into four different rooms. Using KITT's infrared sensors, Traceur finds Graiman with his mother and rescues them. Jennifer and Graiman reveal that Traceur's father was a man named Michael Knight and that he drove the first KITT, forcing him to stay away from his family. Traceur is absorbing this information when they reach KITT and find one of the mercenaries hacking into his system. Graiman asks KITT to shut down to prevent further infiltration and suggests Traceur drive the car manually.

As the group is leaving, the mercenaries find them. They shoot and kill Jennifer. Graiman is taken away and the other two are left to kill Traceur and Rivai as well as watch over Sarah and KITT. Just as they are about to be killed by the mercenaries, Traceur and Rivai overpower their capturers. Traceur and Sarah take KITT to chase after Graiman while Rivai stays with Jennifer's body.

Traceur and Sarah discover KITT's vulnerability to damage, due to the loss of his self-repair capabilities while his system is deactivated. After exchanging fire, Traceur reactivates KITT with just enough time to activate his armor without allowing the mercenaries to hack into him, and turns KITT directly into the mercenaries' path, causing a collision. KITT survives with no damage, while the mercenaries' SUV is heavily damaged. Graiman survives while his captors are mortally wounded or dead.

On the way to Jennifer's funeral, Graiman reveals that he's re-forming the Foundation for Law and Government (FLAG) and offers Traceur the chance to drive KITT. He refuses due to philosophical differences, saying "I just don't believe in the same things you do."

At the funeral, Traceur meets his father, Michael Knight, who tells him what Wilton Knight once told him on his death-bed — that one man can make a difference – and that he (Knight) was that man. They shake hands and as Knight prepares to leave, Traceur asks if they will ever meet again. Knight responds back to his son, "I hope so."

Traceur is behind KITT's wheel in an enclosed area. Rivai, Graiman, Sarah, and Fass bid him farewell and inform him of his mission. Sarah kisses him goodbye and a door opens behind him that shows a moving road. KITT and Mike drive out in reverse. The door is the cargo hatch of a C-130 Hercules cargo plane which then takes off. Mike switches to manual at KITT's indignation, turns KITT around, and drives away.

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 Willes). 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 her two sisters (Norma Randall and Ruth White) hostage in the basement of the saloon.

The boys hatch 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 Mickey Finn, 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 her sisters. Barker ends up dying of heart failure at the Poker table, and his irate gang throw Larry in the cell with plans to kill him at sunrise.

Moe and Shemp attempt to free Larry using every tool they can find, while the girls ride for help. After freeing Larry, the trio stumble upon a suitcase full of old, Southern-style clothing. They then quickly change outfits to disguise themselves from Barker's gang, but a gang member (Stanley Blystone) recognizes them. The boys flee the saloon, and scurry away to hideout outside of town. Just as they are cornered by Barker's gang, Shemp takes off his gun belt, and, now serving as an ad hoc ammunition belt, puts it through a meat grinder. The increased firepower scares the gang away, and the Stooges emerge victorious.

It is only after their nuptials that the Stooges discover that the Noonan brothers took a liking to the wives during the Stooges' recent absence, and vowed to kill our heroes if the weddings occurred. After the Sheriff/Justice of the Peace leaves, the Stooges are stalked by the Noonan brothers, engaging in a slapstick gun battle, and in the end, a fist fight.

The Stooges are trainers for the boxer Chopper Kane (Richard Wessel). Their boss, Big Mike (Frank Sully), a mean-spirited prankster and mobster bets on Chopper's opponent, Gorilla Watson. He then tells the boys (after they bet all their money on the Chopper) to make the Chopper throw the fight or else.

The Stooges try to fatten up their boxer so he will lose against Watson. However, the boys have a stroke of luck when Gorilla Watson breaks his hand (attempting to punch Moe) on fight night. Unfortunately, their boss is not pleased and sends his goons after them. After the Stooges get some Stooge-style revenge on Big Mike, they are chased by his henchmen. Shemp manages to knock them out, but ends up knocking himself out as well. Moe and Larry try to revive Shemp but accidentally revive the goons, thus they take Shemp and flee the scene.

At the Woman Haters Club, Larry and Shemp exchange stories of their disastrous encounters with a gold digger, who turns out to be the same woman (Jean Willes). Jane became engaged to Larry, only to dump him when Moe shows up with a larger diamond ring. Shemp is a good samaritan, who winds up in Jane's apartment after a good deed, and chased by her husband Moe when he returns home early (Jane explains, "He was on a business trip. That's separated, isn't it?!")

After telling their stories, they drown their sorrows in beer, and Shemp and Larry are introduced by fellow club member Charlie (Emil Sitka), to the club's newest recruit: Moe. both Larry and Shemp run out of the club and run into the same woman, taking revenge on her by taking the food out of the woman's bags, and making a mess of herself in protest.

The Stooges are wannabe detectives who inadvertently get their chance to crack a case in Scotland. They manage to stumble on a lead concerning the priceless Punjab diamond being stolen by a crook named Dapper (Kenneth MacDonald). With dreams of becoming genuine detectives, 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 (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 not actually real detectives. 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. 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 happen 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's cage on the other side of the wall. The gorilla knocks Moe, Larry, Dapper and Muscles cold. The beast, however, befriends Shemp, and helps him cough up the diamond. Moments later, Shemp explains how he managed to swallow the diamond by actually doing so again.

After serving in the army, the Stooges decide to go to college and major in criminology. Graduating with the lowest possible honors, the boys join the police force and are assigned to search for a bandit called the Eel (Benny Rubin) who is going to rob the Biltless Hotel. They go to the hotel, but fail to catch the criminal or retrieve the money he stole. As a result, they are booted off the force and end up as ditch diggers.

Moe and Larry marry Shemp's overweight sisters (Lou Leonard and Maxine Gates), and discover to their horror after the vows that the girls are a couple of battle axes.Ordered to prepare a wedding feast,Moe and Larry produce hard-as-a-rock muffins;coffee scented with soap;and roast turkey bathed in flammable turpentine. After being kicked out from their place, the new bridegrooms vow revenge on Shemp for introducing them. Later, Shemp has a voice lesson with student, Fanny Dinkelmeyer since he is a music teacher. He then discovers that he has to marry a woman within seven hours to receive $500,000 from his dead Uncle's will.

After some searching, the Stooges finally find Shemp's student, Ms. Dinkelmeyer. Several of Shemp's old ex-girlfriends all arrive at the Justice of the Peace's office, wreaking havoc in an attempt to marry Shemp for his money. But Shemp weds the harridan, just under the deadline, and then discovers that his Uncle is not dead, there is no $500,000 will, and that everything was Moe and Larry's revenge because Shemp let Moe and Larry marry his two overweight sisters and got divorced. Shemp gets so angry, he takes out a gun and shoots Moe and Larry in the rear end as they try to flee.

The Stooges tell their three sons (also the Stooges) about the time they had jobs as moving men assigned to the haunted Smorgasbord Castle. All goes well until a clanking suit of armor inhabited by the ghost of Sir Tom (voiced by Phil Arnold) instructs the Stooges to leave him be. Shemp, Larry and Moe all take turns trying to move Tom but he spooks the Stooges away.

The Stooges work for Miracle Detective Agency, and are hired by a middle-aged millionaire named John Goodrich (Emil Sitka) to track down some racketeers who have threatened his life. Upon arrival at Old Man Goodrich's mansion, the boys are quickly seduced by a beautiful blonde (Christine McIntyre) who puts a dose of poison in Shemp's drink. Moe and Larry revive Shemp and a spectacular chase ensues, culminating in a lights-out fight, with the Stooges coming out on top.

The Legion is the military and police force of the Solar System. It was created to keep the peace after the overthrow of the "Purples", a dynasty that ruled all humanity for generations. John Ulnar, a young graduate of the Legion academy, shares a surname with the Purples but is an enthusiastic supporter of the Legion.

A weapon called AKKA was used to defeat the Purples. Using a space/time distortion, it erases matter from the Universe—any matter, of any size, even a star or a planet. The secret of AKKA is kept in one family, descended from its creator, and is passed down from mother to daughter. One of the Legion's most important tasks is to guard the current Keeper, a beautiful young woman named Aladoree Anthar.

Through the machinations of his uncle, a powerful politician with a hidden agenda, John Ulnar is assigned to Aladoree's guard force at a secret fort on Mars. When she is kidnapped by a huge alien spaceship, John and the three other survivors of the guard force follow her kidnappers to a planet of Barnard's Star. They crash-land and must battle their way across a savage continent to the sole remaining citadel of the Medusae.

John Ulnar's uncle and his nephew have allied with the Medusae as a means to regain their empire, and have kidnapped Aladoree to ensure that AKKA is not used against them. The Medusae, however, turn on the Purples, seeking to destroy all humans and move to the Solar System, as their own world, far older than Earth, is spiraling into Barnard's Star.

John Ulnar and his companions rescue Aladoree, but the invasion of the Solar System has already begun. The Medusae conquer the Moon, set up bases there, and bombard Earth with gas projectiles. John, Aladoree, and their companions land on a ravaged Earth. Fighting off cannibals maddened by the gas, they build AKKA and destroy the Medusae fleets (and Earth's Moon as well).

Aging prizefighters and longtime pals Cesar Dominguez and Vince Boudreau always regretted not getting one last shot. Out of the blue, such an opportunity comes their way — except it is to fight each other.

Boxing promoter Joe Domino has a problem on his hands. The fighters scheduled to be on his undercard in Las Vegas, a preliminary to a main event featuring heavyweight Mike Tyson, suddenly become unavailable at the last minute. He needs replacements fast, so a call is made to a gym in Los Angeles to see if Dominguez or Boudreau would be available. Both are. Domino hatches the idea to have them both fight.

The boxers negotiate one condition: the winner will be given a chance to fight for the middleweight championship. Domino agrees, although the untrustworthy promoter is not necessarily a man of his word.

Cesar and Vince have only a day to get to the fight. They decide to drive rather than fly, so they call upon friend Grace to drive them in her lime green Oldsmobile 442. She has been a love interest of both. Grace's own plan is to pitch her various money-making ideas to Vegas bigshots like hotel and casino boss Hank Goody and raise venture capital. Along the way, they pick up a hitchhiker whose insults finally result in Grace's flattening her with a solid right cross worthy of her traveling companions.

The fight between the two friends is sparsely attended, ringside fans and celebrities remaining uninterested until the night's main event. Cesar and Vince mix it up so savagely, however, beating each other to a bloody pulp, that fans in the arena begin paying more and more attention, as do commentators on television.

When the action-packed and dramatic bout comes to an end, Cesar and Vince are paid off, but promptly spend most of their money in the casino. Grace, too, comes away bruised and empty-handed, except for her everlasting relationship between a couple of hard-headed but soft-hearted guys.

The setting is a society in which aging has been cured, individuals have indefinite lifespans, and population control is used to limit the population of the United States to forty million, a number which is maintained through a combination of infanticide and government-assisted suicide. In short, for someone to be born, someone else must first volunteer to die. As a result, births are few and far between, and deaths occur primarily by accident.

The scene is a waiting room at the Chicago Lying-In Hospital, where Edward K. Wehling Jr. is faced with the situation that his wife is about to give birth to triplets, but he has found only one person, his maternal grandfather, who will volunteer to die. A painter on a stepladder is redecorating the room with a mural depicting employees who work at the Hospital, including Dr. Benjamin Hitz, the hospital's Chief Obstetrician. Leora Duncan, from the Service Division of the Federal Bureau of Termination, arrives to pose for the mural. It is a picture of a garden that is well taken care of, and a metaphor for the United States at the time. Later, Dr. Hitz enters the scene and converses with everyone but the painter of the mural.

It becomes apparent to all that Wehling is in a state of despair since he does not want to send his grandfather and two of his children to death. Dr. Hitz questions Wehling's belief in the system and tries to make Wehling feel better by explaining how the surviving child will "live on a happy, roomy, clean, rich planet." Suddenly, Wehling draws a revolver and kills Dr. Hitz, Leora Duncan, and himself, "making room for all three children."

The painter, who is about 200 years old, is left to reflect on the scene and thinks about life, war, plague, and starvation. Descending the stepladder, he initially takes the revolver and intends to kill himself with it but is unable to do so. Instead, he calls the Bureau of Termination to make an appointment. The last line is from the receptionist at the Bureau:

In the Jungle of Nool, Horton the Elephant bathes in the watering hole, when he sees a small dust speck floating by. He hears a call for help coming from the dust speck and, thinking someone is living on it, saves it from going over a waterfall. Setting it on top of a clover, he discovers it is home to a tiny town called Whoville, home to the microscopic Whos. One of the Whos, scientist Dr. H. Hoovey (replacing the Mayor), communicates with Horton through a device he built to see other worlds outside of the speck. The other Whos, however, are confused by Dr. Hoovey’s intelligence, and do not believe his views. Horton promises to protect Whoville from harm, feeling that "a person's a person, no matter how small." The other animals in the jungle — particularly the cynical Jane Kangaroo — think he is crazy, and do not believe in the existence of the Whos (mainly due to believing that anything which cannot be seen or heard is nonexistent).

Thinking Horton's behavior is a problem, Jane sends the Wickersham Brothers to take the clover with the speck from him. They give the clover to the black-bottomed eagle Whizzer McWoff, who flies away with it. Horton pursues McWoff across the mountains below, but the eagle drops the clover into a large field of clovers and leaves Horton to find it. Horton searches frantically through the field, eventually finding his clover, and learns from Dr. Hoovey that Whoville was badly damaged when the clover was dropped. The other Whos, seeing the destruction as proof that Dr. Hoovey was right, rally behind him.

Jane finds Horton with the clover and, with help from the Wickersham Brothers (and their relatives), plans to end Horton's "problem" once and for all. They tie Horton up and pull him into a cage, intending to boil the dust speck in beezle-nut oil. Horton urges the Whos to make noise to prove their existence, but even with the Whos' shouting and loud instruments, the other animals still hear nothing. Dr. Hoovey searches through town and finds a small Who named JoJo, who is bouncing a yo-yo instead of making noise. He takes JoJo to the top of his tower, where JoJo utters a "Yopp", which breaks through the dust speck and allows the animals to finally hear the Whos; they release Horton and allow him to keep it. The special ends with Dr. Hoovey relaxing in his chair when he sees a small dust speck and hears a call for help coming from it, much to his dismay.

The story concerns a man with amnesia, named Frank Townsend. He cannot remember anything from the previous three years of his life. As it turns out, he may be a suspected murderer. He struggles to find a loophole in the overwhelming evidence.

Hollis Figg is an earnest if not too bright man whose devoted friend is a local sanitation worker, and whose girlfriend is the equally earnest Ema Letha, a pretty waitress at the diner across the street from City Hall, where Figg works as an accountant. When the Mayor, his staff, and Mr. Spaulding, the richest man in town, decide they need more cover for their shameless skimming from the city's coffers, they fire three of the four accountants in the basement and replace them with a giant computer named LEO (Large-Capacity Enumerating Officiator), keeping Figg whom they deem the dimmest of the three to run the computer that he barely comprehends. When Figg unexpectedly (and quite accidentally) stumbles upon discrepancies in a road works budget, they promote him to the "third floor", distract him with a new Cadillac and a sexy assistant (Yvonne Craig) who is able to manipulate him into signing any form or check that she places on his desk. Of course the curvaceous secretary doesn't sit too well with Ema Letha either.

Sooner rather than later, the Assistant State Attorney General becomes suspicious of the activities of the Dalton City Council, and when he closes in, Figg, having signed everything, is the perfect patsy. Figg manages to avoid arrest by disguising himself as the mourning mother of the suddenly dead Mr. Spaulding, using the disguise to get into city hall to get the evidence he needs out of LEO, the computer, to clear his name. When he finds the memory bank of the computer (the size of a refrigerator) missing and the dead body of Spaulding in a closet, he deduces that the City Council has buried the memory bank in the coffin of the dead man. Figg and his loyal buddy sneak into the cemetery, exhume the coffin, and plug LEO in. But LEO explodes, spraying IBM cards everywhere. Figg discovers the cards are encoded with the evidence he needs to prove his innocence.

On their honeymoon in Rio de Janeiro, paid for by a grateful city, Ema and Figg bemoan the fact that the City Council got away before they could be arrested. Suddenly, the staff at the hotel look to Figg like the Mayor and his men, but Ema says he is only stressed and mistaken. As the two newlyweds moon over the view from their balcony, the Mayor and one of his cronies, disguised as hotel staff, can be seen removing the stiff corpse of Mr. Spaulding out of the closet on a dolly and wheeling him out of the room.

As a series of still photographs pass into view, author Jose Chung describes the life of Juggernaut Onan Goopta, who went to college hoping to become a famous neuroscientist and instead was overcome by dementia and institutionalized. During his hospital stay, Goopta decided to become a writer. His first literary works were so incompetent they were mistaken for "brilliant parodies." Chung met Goopta when his stories were published in a detective magazine.

When that publication folded, a desperate Goopta "changed the course of human history" when he published the first in a series of highly successful self-help books and founded the "Institute of Selfosophy," which taught members how to shed negative thoughts. It was an enormous success. Anyone responsible for internal criticism of the organization was reprogrammed, and if that failed, dubbed a "Ratfinkovitch" and excommunicated from the institute.

thumb thumb While performing research on "the newly arising belief systems at the end of the millennium," Chung encountered Joseph Ratfinkovitch, who was excommunicated for reading Chung's most recent fiction. Ratfinkovitch's body is discovered inside his apartment, the victim of an electrocution. Giebelhouse contacts Frank, hoping he can shed some light on the case. As the group examines the crime scene, Chung steps forward and claims that he is responsible for Ratfinkovitch's death. He explains that when Playpen magazine ran an excerpt from his short story, the Selfosophist Institute grew offended. They instructed members to buy up all existing copies. However, Ratfinkovitch read, and enjoyed, the story.

Ratfinkovitch was then approached by Mr. Smooth, a fellow Selfosophist. Using a device called an Onan-o-Graph, Smooth attempted to recounsel Ratfinkovitch. According to Chung's version of events, the device malfunctioned and Ratfinkovitch was inadvertently electrocuted. When Chung admits he made the whole thing up, Frank and Giebelhouse meet with a Selfosophist spokesman, Robbinski, who insists his fellow members are incapable of murder. Despite this, Mr. Smooth attempts to control his homicidal rage after reading — and being offended by — Chung's story. He sends Chung a clown doll impaled with a variety of knives. Chung contacts Frank with the news. He explains that the antagonist in his story sends similar threats before committing murder. At the conclusion of the story, Chung states, the "Selfosophist Psycho" confronts and kills the author.

Chung accompanies Frank to the scene of a (seemingly unrelated) murder on a college campus. The victim is Professor Amos Randi, a Nostradamus scholar. Frank concludes that the perpetrator is targeting victims he considers to be Nostradamus' Three Anti-Christs — and will attack two more authority figures. But Chung does some profiling of his own. He determines that the killer, who was fulfilling self-interpreted prophecies, targeted his ex-girlfriend's teacher. The trail, Chung believes, leads to a Hollywood movie theater. The next victim, it turns out, is a ticket girl at a Hollywood movie theater. Frank realizes that Chung's profile predicted the murder, and later concludes that Chung is the killer's third Anti-Christ. He, Watts and Geibelhouse race to Chung's hotel. Smooth, however, arrives first. He pulls out a gun and berates Chung for ridiculing the institute's beliefs.

Frank suddenly bursts through the door. Smooth takes a shot at Chung, misses, then sprints from the room. Frank follows Smooth onto the rooftop. Smooth convinces himself he can leap onto a neighboring building and escape. But all the positive thoughts in the world cannot save him, and he plummets downward to his death. Meanwhile, the "Nostradamus Nutball" surprises Chung and murders him with a pick axe. Later, Frank begins reading one of Chung's books, entitled ''Doomsday Defense''. In it, Chung predicts the millennium will bring forth "one thousand years of the same old crap."

Randy Miller is a rich and famous inventor and scientist who owns his own company: Miller Inc. But due to a bad college experiment, Miller can turn himself into Lightning, himself with Lightning powers. Miller uses these powers to combat forces of evil. Everything is buisness as usual, his rival The Bull shows up.

The movie is about a mysterious man named Joshua (Tony Goldwyn) who appears in a small town named Auburn and begins changing the lives of everyone he meets, simply by being around them.

Joshua takes up residence in a barn that he rents from Joan Casey to use as his home and woodcarving shop. To the surprise of a local priest, the roof does not leak after Joshua moves in, despite the many holes in it.

The more time Joshua spends in town, the more attention he draws to himself simply by doing what he does. He begins by rebuilding the Baptist Church which was destroyed during a storm the year before. He gets the attention of many locals by carrying a huge log of ash through town and out to his barn, some estimates range that it weighs at least 300 pounds.

Later, Father Tordone (F. Murray Abraham) of the local Catholic church hires him to carve a statue of the Apostle Peter, to which Joshua responds that it should be made of ash and that he "knows Peter".

Joshua spends his next few weeks helping out anyone he meets, who in return help him rebuild the Baptist Church. He intervenes in a Tent Revival, where a con artist is tricking people into believing that he is healing people through the power of God. Joshua tells him, "You don't have to do it this way", and proceeds to restore sight to a blind woman sitting in the audience.

Father Tordone becomes very suspicious of Joshua's behavior and motives, and tries to convince the Vatican to step in and stop him before he gains more followers and creates his own cult. It isn't until Joshua resurrects a man (Theo) from the dead that the Catholic Church takes interest in him and invites him to Rome.

Madeleine Damien is the fashion editor of a slick Manhattan magazine called ''Boulevard''. Men are attracted to her, including boss Victor Kranish, wealthy advertiser Felix Courtland and former assistant, Jack Garet, who now works for Courtland and is blackmailing her about events from her past.

Madeleine attempts suicide and is headed toward a breakdown. She crashes her car near the home of psychiatrist Dr. Richard Caleb, who discovers her unconscious and cares for her. With Dr. Caleb's help, she realizes that she has been running away from herself just as her father may have done before he committed suicide. Under stress by her job's demands, she suddenly quits her job and disappears from the fashion scene. Under another name, she moves into a smaller apartment where she returns to painting, her earlier love. She meets her neighbor, handsome medical researcher David Cousins, who needs someone to draw the cells that he studies under the microscope. They work together closely, resulting in an excellent paper that David is invited to present at a conference. He proposes marriage, but Madeleine is hesitant because she has never told David about her troubled love life.

Madeleine's previous colleagues and Courtland learn what has become of her. Courtland surprises her at her apartment, but she rejects him. When David is away, a colleague from ''Boulevard'' contacts her for technical advice, but Madeleine wants nothing to do with the magazine. However, she consents to meet her colleague at a nightclub, and her former boss and assistant appear to meet her as well. She drinks too much and soon finds herself at Courtland's mansion by default. Courtland kisses her, but is interrupted when Garet appears. Garet had stolen a precious stone from Courtland, and he wants to try to dissuade Courtland from informing the police. Courtland refuses and noisily ejects Garet out. When Madeleine awakens, she realizes that she can leave Courtland and slips away through the rain. Garet returns and kills Courtland by bludgeoning him with a table cigarette lighter just as Courtland is calling the police.

The next day, David returns early from his conference. Madeleine learns of the murder from the newspaper and realizes that she is in trouble, but the police soon arrive to arrest her. Madeleine's false identity becomes known, and David is aghast to hear of Madeleine's past, refusing to marry her.

Madeleine is charged with the murder. During her trial, she seems catatonic, completely uninterested in the proceedings and refusing counsel. David takes the witness stand and is asked if he still loves her, and he replies affirmatively. Following this, Madeleine becomes a cooperating witness. Courtland's home safe and the theft are discovered, and David suspects that Garet may be hiding something. David confronts Garet and subdues him in a fight. Garet is arrested and confesses to the murder, and Madeleine is declared innocent.

Madeleine leaves David a letter explaining that she can not marry him until she is sure that she can really be the person whom he had believed her to be. While Madeleine is at the airport waiting for a plane, Dr. Caleb advises her that she is making a mistake by fleeing. David arrives just in time to grab Madeleine on the tarmac, and the plane departs without her as the two embrace.

The series follows Taisuke Kanou, a teenage student in Japan who lives a normal life with his sister Yoko Kanou and his friend Hirose. The story begins when an alien being flies towards Earth after sensing life emanating from there. It is learned that the being, Akuro, is composed of souls who were granted immortality but preferred to die but could not do so without a body. These beings separate from each other and enter the bodies of humans in order to pursue death. As a result, a large number of people begin to commit suicide worldwide and the incident became known as Nightmare Week. The humans who resist Akuro's influence gain powers from their possession and become known as "Comrades."

When Taisuke's friend, Yuichi Hirose, discovers his powers he kidnaps his friend Megumi Ochiai and heads north to the heart of Akuro. Taisuke, obtaining his own powers, follows in an attempt to bring Hirose and Megumi back home. On his adventures, he is accompanied by comrades Yuta Takizawa and Nami Kusunoki. He tracks down Hirose to a lake where the latter absorbs Akuro's heart. Taisuke defeats Hirose by triggering a volcanic eruption, which apparently kills them both and destroys the heart.

Two years later Yuta and Nami learn from Aoi Tezuka and Jun Tezuka that Taisuke is alive. They meet Taisuke, who has been living with amnesia since his battle with Hirose. After regaining his memories, they learn from Yukie Tezuka that the army is holding the dormant Hirose. Together they set out to destroy him along with the heart. After several attempts at infiltrating the military compound, Hirose awakens and flees from the military base. Deducing Hirose's return to Japan, Taisuke and his friends prepare for the upcoming battle.

Eventually Hirose is defeated by Taisuke who is empowered by the piece of Akuro's heart. Akuro's consciences, Mitama, uses the Akuro heart pieces to gather and recompile Akuro. Hirose, acknowledging his crimes, has his soul accompany Akuro into space. As all the pieces of Akuro leave their hosts, comrades are rendered powerless once again and the world returns to peace.

Protagonists

Taisuke Kano

is the main character of the series. He is haunted by guilt for his role in the accident that killed his parents. After his parents died, he was raised by his older sister, . Taisuke's ability is destruction and reconstruction. Though unable to fully use his reconstruction abilities, Taisuke is able to manifest his destruction abilities by emitting fire which permanently damages cells.

Yuta Takizawa

is a young boy who gains his powers after his mother commits suicide in front of him. His power is isolation, cutting off objects from the outside world by creating psychic barriers of various sizes, for defensive purposes or trapping his opponents. After his mother's death, Yuta's father disowned him in fear of his powers and mistaking that Yuta killed his own mother. He journeys with Taisuke after witnessing his kindness and teaches him the basics on using his powers. After Taisuke's apparent death, Yuta resumes his daily life in the care of his grandparents.

Nami Kusunoki

has the power to freeze water to form any shape she chooses, usually forming it into claws to augment her martial arts, and projecting them like knives to pierce and freeze her targets. Her younger brother, Satoru, was burned alive by Kanon's abilities leading to her hate of Comrades. She journeys with Taisuke and Yuta in search of Katsumata after learning Kanon had joined him. She gradually begins to develop a romantic interest towards Taisuke and begins to envy his and Megumi's relationship.

The Tezuka Family

is the mother of the seven Tezuka children who each have separate fathers of different nationalities. Before "Nightmare Week" occurred, Yukie was a nomadic woman who traveled constantly leaving her children to live on their own. Upon acquiring a piece of Akuro's heart, Yukie is able to feel her families sadness due to her abandonment causing her to return to her family and taking a more maternal role. Using the powers of Akuro's heart, she is able to manipulate other people into her bidding. After Taisuke's battle with Hirose, she nurses him back to life. She is killed by Hirose when he awakens and had her piece of the heart stolen.

Her eldest son, , is 28 years old, who took care of his younger siblings in Yukie's absence. Her second eldest son, , is a 27 years old martial artist and a Comrade with the ability to manipulate electricity. is the 16 years old daughter and a computer wiz. She controls the technical aspects of their operations. is the second oldest daughter in the family and is 10 years old. She is Yuta's classmate and a Comrade with the ability to run at high speeds. The last 3 kids are Osomatsu, Karamatsu and Choromatsu (nicknames), and 5, 4 and 3 years old, respectively.

Antagonists

Yuichi Hirose

was Taisuke's best friend. He is a timid and shy boy who is often bullied, but saved by Taisuke. After Nightmare Week, Hirose becomes a comrade allowing him to fire spheres which can annihilate anything. After he accidentally murders his bullies, Hirose is put into police custody where Katsumata brainwashes him into joining him to search for a piece of Akuro's Heart. He complies after kidnapping his childhood friend, Megumi. Upon absorbing the piece of Akuro's Heart, his body becomes intangible and he gains the desire to destroy all life on Earth.

Shigeki Katsumata

is the lead investigator of Hirose's incident. He has a piece of Akuro's Heart allowing him to brainwash his minions which he uses to gather Comrades for Mitama's purposes. He is eventually revealed to be plotting Mitama's demise but his plan fails. He is then killed by Mitama who takes his Akuro Heart piece.

Katsumata's Comrades

Katsumata had recruited six other Comrades to journey with him on the expedition to Akuro's Heart. * is an artist who loves drawing people he knows with the aim of knowing them better. His ability is to create pressurized bubbles which he can detonate at any time. After Taisuke and Hirose's apparent deaths, he defects from Katsumata's rankings. He later joins the Tezuka family in order to search for the heart. Yura is later killed by Hirose. * is a Comrade with the ability to create wind blades to cut objects. He was tasked with murdering Taisuke by Katsumata, but ultimately fails. He commits suicide after giving in to Akuro's influences when Hirose absorbs a piece of Akuro's Heart. * is an obese otaku with an inferiority complex. Okada's power is Shinigami's Contract, allowing him to create promises with others and when the promise is broken, results in their deaths. He also committed suicide after Hirose absorbs the Heart. * is a selfish girl who goes through all lengths to have what she wants. She killed Nami's brother out of annoyance with her ability which allows her to detonate metallic objects. She dies after failing to absorb Akuro's Heart. * is a Catholic priest whose ability allows him to petrify anything he touches. After petrifying a child he attempted to save during Nightmare Week, Asou begins to suffer from his mistake and is brainwashed by Katsumata to do his bidding. He commits suicide after Hirose's fusion with the Heart. * was a young boy at Asou's church who became a Comrade with the ability to liquify himself. After Asou's death, he joins Kyouko Amamiya and Masashi Oda on their journey as reporters.

After Taisuke and Hirose's apparent deaths, Katsumata had brainwashed three other comrades to assist him and Mitama to find the other two pieces of Akuro's Heart. * is a Comrade with the ability to enter and take over another person's body, killing them in the process. Under Katsumata's orders she infiltrates the American military to get closer to the heart, but is eventually killed by D2 and McPhearson after entering the body of his subordinate, D3. * is a muscular man who does menial tasks for Katsumata. He is able to control gravity. He is killed by Hirose after being ordered to take his piece of Akuro's Heart. * is a mysterious man who is searching for the meaning of life. He has the ability to copy and retain another Comrade's power. After confronting Katsumata on his goals, his fate is left unknown.

Akuro

is an alien being containing the souls of an advanced civilization that obtained immortality. Without a body, the souls were unable to die and searched for hosts in order to commit suicide. Upon finding Earth, Akuro split into the souls of the civilization, three hearts, and a single consciousness referred to as . Mitama originally inhabits the body of an owl, and later is able to enter and animate a girl's corpse.

Military

is the sergeant in charge of Akuro's heart. He is highly skilled and is able to kill Comrades though he possess none of their abilities. He is ruthless, viewing his subordinates as expendable once he no longer needs them. However, he risks his life to save D4. He eventually sides with Taisuke's group and helps leak military information to the public about "Power Users" under the pseudonym Clay. He has three subordinates , known as Carl Adler, , and . As the series progresses D2 and D3 are killed off. D4, known as , is the only female member of the team who stays by McPherson for romantic reasons.

The military use the comrade, , referred to as the in order to predict future events. He possesses a piece of Akuro's Heart. He was killed by Mitama and had his piece of the heart taken.

Other characters

;Megumi Ochiai is Taisuke's childhood friend. After Hirose joins Katsumata, he kidnaps Megumi to be with her. She is eventually put under Katsumata's mind control making her subconsciously stay with the group. During the two year time skip, she lives with Katsumata and attends to Mitama's care in America.

;Ryou Fukiishi is a truck driver that Taisuke encounters after just leaving his home in search of his friends. She leaves Yuta with her phone number so he can call her if he gets lonely as she bears a striking resemblance to Yuta's late mother. She has a husband and a daughter that she adores. She visits Taisuke's sister every year on his birthday.

;Kyouko Amamiya and Masashi Oda and are reporters, chasing after Taisuke in order to investigate the strange happenings surrounding him. Upon learning the truth, they side with Taisuke and attempt to assist him anyway possible.

Polish woman Viktoria Kowalska (Valentina Cortese) has lost her home and her husband in the German occupation of Poland, and is imprisoned in the concentration camp at Belsen. She befriends another prisoner, Karin Dernakova (Natasha Lytess), who dreams of reuniting with her young son Christopher (Gordon Gebert), who was sent to live in San Francisco with a wealthy aunt.

Karin dies shortly before the camp can be liberated, and Viktoria, seeing a way to a better life, uses Karin's papers to assume her identity. The camp is liberated by Americans (in reality the camp was liberated by the British), and Viktoria is interviewed by Major Marc Bennett (William Lundigan), who gets her a place in a camp for people displaced by the war. She writes to Karin's Aunt Sophia in San Francisco, but receives a cable from lawyers that Sophia has died.

Four years later, Viktoria (still going by the name of Karin) is able to travel to New York City, where she meets with Christopher's guardian Alan Spender (Richard Basehart), a distant relative of Sophia. "Karin" intends to gain custody of "her" son, but it becomes clear that Sophia has left her fortune to Christopher when he comes of age. When she realizes that Alan is attracted to her, she decides that it will be easier to stay in America if she has an American husband. She allows him to romance her, and they soon marry. Alan takes Karin to San Francisco where Christopher meets his "mother" for the first time, and she settles into Sophia's Italianate mansion on Telegraph Hill, where Christopher lives with Alan and his governess, Margaret (Fay Baker).

Things seem idyllic at first, but tensions begin to mount between Karin and Margaret, who has not only raised Christopher but also is in love with Alan. Margaret resents Karin for intruding on her life. Karin also is alarmed at the presence of a burnt-out, dangerously damaged playhouse overlooking the hill, which Christopher claims to have damaged with an explosion from his toy chemistry set. He and Margaret beg her not to tell Alan because Margaret never has, but Karin is perplexed to discover that he already knows about it. Karin is pleased, however, to meet Marc Bennett again, learning he is an old schoolmate of her husband and a partner for the law firm that handles Sophia's affairs. He clearly is attracted to Karin, but keeps a respectful distance.

Karin investigates the playhouse, but she is surprised by Alan while she is in there and nearly falls to her death through a hole in the floor. Alan pulls her up, but appears to be alarmed by her behavior. Soon after, the brakes on Karin's car fail. She escapes unharmed but suspects Margaret of tampering with the car. When she realizes Christopher was supposed to have been in the car with her, Karin comes to believe that Alan is behind the accident because Alan will inherit Sophia's money if Christopher were to die. With Marc's help, she begins to investigate, learning that Marc's law firm, which supposedly sent her the cable regarding Sophia's death, has no record of the cable's being sent. She also grows significantly more nervous around Alan.

Karin discovers a newspaper clipping in Margaret's scrapbook confirming that the cable was sent three days before Sophia's death: It is a fake, and Alan killed Sophia. She attempts to call Marc, but she is prevented from doing so when Alan arrives home. He does not let her out of his sight for the rest of the evening. When he brings in the orange juice that the pair drink every night before bed, she is sure her glass has been poisoned. When he briefly leaves the room, she attempts to call the police, but Alan left the phone off the hook in another room, and calls cannot be made. He returns to the bedroom and coerces her into drinking the orange juice, and after her, he drinks his own. Thinking himself safe, he confesses that he has murdered Sophia and that he has given her an overdose of sedatives in her orange juice. Karin tells him that she has switched the glasses and that he has poisoned himself. She tries to telephone a doctor but cannot get through. Margaret is awakened by the commotion, and Alan begs her to call a doctor. Realizing that he has killed Sophia and tried to kill Christopher and Karin, Margaret refuses and Alan dies.

Margaret is arrested for refusing to aid Alan, and Karin, who has confessed her true identity to Marc, leaves the house with he and Christopher to begin a new life.

The Verger

The new vicar at St Peter's Church is astonished to learn that the long-serving verger, Albert Foreman, is illiterate. Foreman is too set in his ways to want to learn to read and write, and the vicar feels he has no choice but to sack him. Foreman's savings, while substantial, are not enough to sustain him for the rest of his life. On the way back to his lodgings, Foreman notices that there is no tobacconist's shop in the area and decides to open one. He also proposes to his landlady Emma. Their shop is so successful that when his stepdaughter's husband loses his job Foreman sets up another shop for them to run. Over the next ten years, Foreman starts up ten shops and becomes wealthy. The bank manager recommends that Foreman invest his savings, causing him to reveal that he cannot read the necessary papers. The manager exclaims, "What would you be today if you had been able to?" Foreman replies that he would be the verger at St Peter's.

Mr Know-All

Reserved Mr Gray finds himself forced to share a cabin on an ocean liner with the loud, opinionated, supremely self-confident gem dealer Max Kelada. Kelada soon dominates all the onboard social gatherings, much to the annoyance of his fellow passengers, who take to calling him "Mr Know-All" behind his back because of his insistence that he is an expert on all subjects. One night, Kelada remarks on the fine quality of the pearl necklace worn by Mrs Ramsay, who has rejoined her husband after a two-year separation caused by his work. Mr Ramsay bets Kelada ten pounds that the pearls are fake. Kelada accepts the wager, despite Mrs Ramsay's attempt to call it off. While he is examining the pearls Kelada observes that the woman is very uneasy. He then says that he was wrong and pays Mr Ramsay. Afterwards, back in their cabin, Gray and Kelada are surprised when two five-pound notes are slipped under their door in an envelope. Gray gets Kelada to tell the truth: the pearls are real and very costly. Kelada adds that he would not have left such an attractive wife alone for that long. Gray begins to warm to his cabin mate.

Sanatorium

This segment is based on "Sanatorium", which was first published in ''Ashenden: Or the British Agent''.

Mr Ashenden is sent to a sanatorium and becomes acquainted with the other residents. Another newcomer is Major George Templeton, who admires the lovely Evie Bishop. Evie has spent years in one sanatorium after another. Ashenden also observes the feud between two long-term patients, Mr Campbell and Mr McLeod, who delight in making each other's lives miserable. One more patient, Mr Chester, resents the visits of his wife because he envies her robust good health. McLeod dies, depriving Campbell of his enjoyment of life. After George and Evie fall in love the doctors warn them that George will hasten his death if they marry, but they decide that happiness, no matter how brief, is worth the price. Their example eases Mr Chester's bitterness about his own fate.

After his recovery, Dunkirk veteran Harry Brett is recruited by the British Secret Service to make contact with Sandy Forsyth, a shady Madrid-based British businessman and a former school friend. Harry's cover is as an interpreter in the British embassy. He arrives in Spain in October 1940 and finds that the Spanish suffer terribly from political repression, food shortages, poverty and the destruction brought by the Spanish Civil War. Brett works at the embassy for Ambassador Sir Samuel Hoare, an arrogant bully and Alan Hillgarth, the clever cunning chief of intelligence. He meets General Maestre, a contact of the embassy and prominent member of the monarchist faction.

In a twist of fate, Sandy Forsyth's girlfriend, Barbara Clare, is a former lover of another school friend, Bernie Piper, a communist member of the International Brigades missing since the Battle of Jarama in 1937. Harry Brett meets Forsyth, who claims to have found large gold deposits in central Spain. Due to Spain's policy of national self-sufficiency and lack of gold, the mine could be of significant importance to the Franco regime. Meanwhile, Barbara meets Luis, an unemployed Nationalist Spain veteran, who tells her that Bernie is still alive and is being held in a brutal military prison near Cuenca. He tells her that he could organise Bernie's escape through his brother, a guard at the camp, in return for money.

Harry starts a relationship with Sofia Roque Casas, a Spanish working-class woman. He successfully convinces Forsyth to show him the location of the gold mine, but almost blows his cover by acknowledging Gomez, a henchman of General Maestre who is working undercover at the mine. Gomez is subsequently captured and killed, damaging the embassy's relations with Maestre. In the fallout of Harry's mistake, Hillgarth decides to attempt to recruit Forsyth. Forsyth, betrayed to learn Harry had been spying on him, reveals that his claims of discovering gold are false, and the mine was a sham built to scam investors.

After meeting with the embassy, Sandy appears to have fled Madrid. Barbara reveals to Brett and Sofia her plan to rescue Bernie, and Brett reveals that he has been working as a spy. Bernie escapes the labour camp, and Barbara, Harry and Sofia travel to Cuenca to aid his escape, but it proves to be an elaborate trap set by General Maestre as a means of embarrassing Sandy Forsyth. Sandy appears in Cuenca, revealing that he became aware of Barbara's plan and plans to sabotage them as vengeance. When Barbara produces a gun, Forsyth once again flees. Although they manage to escape, Sofia is killed by a member of the Guardia Civil and Bernie is shot in the leg by Maestre. They manage to get back to Britain, but Harry is blacklisted by Hoare as punishment for causing a major diplomatic incident.

The epilogue plays in May 1947. Harry Brett is working as a French teacher in a grammar school. Barbara Clare is a translator on her way to meet some Argentine businessmen. Both are nursing private heartache over losing their one true loves, Harry over Sofia and Barbara over Bernie, who died during the 1944 D-Day landings. As a businessman going by the name Barrancas steps off the plane, Barbara immediately recognised him as Sandy Forsyth.

The film is centered on O'Brien (played by Chuck Campbell) and his friends, Wiley and Harper. These three twenty-something young men still live at home, and are looking to expand their horizons in life and love. This coming-of-age story is weaved with their hobbies and interests, both existing and new, one of which is an obsession with Vincent Price. O’Brien is aided in expanding his horizons by his girlfriend Sue.

On a school field trip to St Meredith's Church, Scarlett Adams finds herself magically transported to a monastery in Ukraine, where she is captured by monks who worship the Old Ones. Scarlett escapes and returns to St Meredith's.

The media storm resulting from Scarlett's disappearance alerts Matthew Freeman in Peru that Scarlett is the new Gatekeeper. Matt, Jamie Tyler and Richard Cole travel to London, but narrowly miss meeting Scarlett. The Nexus informs them that Scarlett's father works for the Nightrise Corporation and has taken her to Hong Kong, a city that is suspected of housing the Old Ones. Matt, along with Jamie and Richard, travel to Macau in search of Scarlett, on the advice of the Nexus.

Scarlett arrives in Hong Kong and is looked after by a Mrs. Cheng, who turns out to be a shape shifter from the Old Ones. Scarlett is rescued by a member of the Chinese Triads, Lohan Shan Tung. Lohan attempts to help Scarlett escape Hong Kong, but her father betrays her to Nightrise. Scarlett discovers her power is weather control when the shock of her father’s betrayal causes her to create a powerful typhoon, which approaches Hong Kong.

Matt, Jamie and Richard meet with Lohan's father Han Shan-tung, who agrees to help them infiltrate Hong Kong. Matt allows himself to be captured by the Old Ones and is taken to Scarlett.

Jamie, Richard, and Lohan rescue them and take them to the Tai Shan Temple, where they manage to get through the typhoon with Scarlett's help.

The Chairman of the Old Ones reveals the Old Ones' plan to turn Hong Kong into a necropolis, or city of the dead. The Chairman is killed by a stray wooden sampan caught in the typhoon. Pedro and Scott arrive in Hong Kong through a magical door.

When Scarlett is shot in the head, she loses control over the typhoon, which explodes with all its might. The Five Gatekeepers, Lohan and Richard manage to get through the door before it is destroyed. The novel ends on a cliffhanger as Chaos, the King of the Old Ones, prepares to commence the war to conquer the planet and wipe out humanity.

The story picks up a few weeks after Suzanne has returned to Los Angeles from Gryylth. Silbakor has returned with her and poses as statuette in a glass paperweight. Though she carries Silbakor around with her and can return to Gryylth at will, she finds she cannot bring herself to do it.

One night, she has a dream that Solomon Braithwaite has risen from the grave and is trying to tell her something. The following day, she gets a phone call from Helen Addams, Solomon's ex-wife. She too had the dream and wanted to know what its meaning was. Suzanne visits her that night, and while there, they are attacked by the White Worm, Silbakor's antithesis.

They flee on Silbakor and arrive in Gryylth to find that eighteen months have passed. Suzanne takes on her familiar persona of Alouzon. Helen takes on the persona of Kyria, a sorceress, but she finds herself battling between her own vitriolic personality and Kyria's more peaceable personality.

The Gryylthians and the Dremords have made peace and are working together to make it through a difficult winter. Word comes that the town of Bandon has been destroyed by unknown means. When Alouzon and Kyria examine the wreckage, they see that modern weapons had been used: fighter jets, helicopters, napalm, rockets, machine guns, and bombs. The leaders conclude that the new land of Vaylle is responsible and decide to send a team to explore the new land and learn if they are responsible.

Alouzon leads the team, consisting of soldiers from Gryylth and Corrin, Kyria, and Helwych, a Corrinian sorcerer, across the ocean. Landing, they find that Vaylle is an idyllic pacifist nation that worships a God and a Goddess: Solomon and Suzanne. Its king is a lame man known as King Pellam. There, they decide to split up: Helwych will stay behind in the capital city, and the rest of the party will continue across the mountains.

When the party gets close to the mountains, Marrget, one of their party, is kidnapped by the Greyfaces, who are nameless and faceless soldiers in uniforms and gas masks. Following, the party finds themselves in a larger version of the Blasted Heath. When they split up, the Heath tests them with the embodiment of their worst fears. Alouzon and Kyria finally track down the source of the attacks: the Spectre, who embodies Suzanne's worst subconscious feelings about both war and Solomon Braithwaite.

Alouzon and Kyria battle the Spectre, with Kyria striking a decisive blow using her memories of being Solomon's wife. In the aftermath, Helen's persona dies and Kyria's takes over for good. Alouzon flees on Silbakor and is attacked by the White Worm. Falling off Silbakor, she wakes up in Los Angeles, but in Alouzon's body, not Suzanne's.

The story picks up just after the end of ''Duel of Dragons''. Alouzon is still in Los Angeles, and her party back in Vaylle is returning from the mountains with news of what has happened. Alouzon returns to Helen Addams' house and sees Helen's and Suzanne's bodies being carried from the wreckage.

While Alouzon works on understanding the nature of her predicament, Helwych has returned to Gryylth with stories of Vaylle's treachery and sorcery. Using lies and manipulation, he maneuvers Gryylth's and Corrian's kings into sending a massive war fleet across the sea to Vaylle while he remains behind, ostensibly to guard Gryylth.

When the kings arrive in Vaylle with their warfleet, Helwych erects a barrier across the sea to keep them out of Gryylth and conjures up 20th century troops and arms to consolidate his power and frighten the population. The Spectre also begins sending Grayfaces and modern weaponry into Gryylth to battle Helwych for power.

When Alouzon is attacked in a park by supernatural beasts, members of her team discover a gateway from Vaylle to Los Angeles and come to her aid. Realizing this is the way to circumvent Helwych's barrier, Alouzon brings an army from Vaylle to Los Angeles and through another gateway, located in Solomon's old office at UCLA, into Gryylth.

As Kyria battles Helwych, and the Gryylthian and Corrinian armies battle the Greyfaces in Gryylth, Alouzon engages the Spectre and the White Worm in a running battle through downtown Los Angeles that winds up at Solomon's grave. When they arrive there, Solomon's corpse rises from the ground and battles the Spectre to a standstill.

While they battle, Alouzon sees a white tower that mirrors one in her dreams. Entering it, she finds the Grail and realizes that whatever higher power allowed the creation of Gryylth has put a choice before her. She can let Gryylth continue the way it has, or she can become more than its protector: she can become its goddess. Alouzon chooses to become goddess of Gryylth. With that choice made war in Gryylth comes to an end and the land is healed.

''Murderer, the Hope of Women'' is set in the past, at night in front of a large tower. Action is focused on the characters of "The Man," with his band of Warriors, and "The Woman," with her group of Maidens.

The play begins with the Man riding to the Woman’s tower. The Maidens and Woman see him approaching. The Woman and Man both question each other as to who looked at the other, while the Maidens and Warriors compare the Man to a conqueror and the Woman to a dangerous beast. The Woman feels consumed by the Man’s gaze and says she is devoured by his light. The Man then orders that the Woman be branded with his mark. In response, the Woman stabs the Man. The Warriors deny any knowledge of the Man and run off with the Maidens, locking the Man in the tower. While the Man makes faint movements, the Woman demands to see him again. As the Man slowly recovers, the Woman reciprocally loses her strength. The Woman desperately demands to be set free from the Man’s chains. The Man rises, tears open the door, and kills the Woman with a touch. He kills the Warriors and Maidens in a similar way and then exits through a passage of fire.

The story is told through the eyes of its protagonist, Lou Ford, a 29-year-old deputy sheriff in a small Texas town. Ford appears to be a regular, small-town cop leading an unremarkable existence; beneath this facade, however, he is a cunning, depraved sociopath with sadistic sexual tastes. Ford's main outlet for his dark urges is the relatively benign habit of deliberately needling people with clichés and platitudes despite their obvious boredom: "If there's anything worse than a bore," says Lou, "it's a corny bore."

Despite having a steady girlfriend, childhood friend and schoolteacher Amy Stanton, Ford falls into a passionate, sadomasochistic relationship with a prostitute named Joyce Lakeland. Ford describes their affair as unlocking "the sickness" that has plagued him since adolescence, when he sexually abused a little girl, a crime for which his elder foster brother Mike took the blame to spare Lou from prison. After serving a jail term, Mike died at a construction site. Lou blamed a local construction magnate, Chester Conway, for Mike's death, suspecting he was murdered for refusing to help further Conway's schemes.

To exact revenge, Lou and Joyce blackmail the construction magnate to avoid exposing his son's affair with Joyce. However, Lou double-crosses Joyce: He ferociously batters her, and shoots the construction magnate's son, hoping to make the crimes appear to be a lovers' spat gone wrong. Elmer is killed instantly and Sheriff Bob Maples, Lou's mentor, reports that Joyce died after a short stay in a coma. Though Lou believes this means he has gotten away with the crime, county attorney Howard Hendricks becomes suspicious of Lou's version of events, as well as his alibi, and a third person is suspected to be involved. This suspicion falls on Johnnie Pappas, a young small-time criminal who Lou has befriended, and to whom Lou gave some of Conway's money, which is revealed to have been marked. Lou is allowed to enter the distressed Johnnie's cell alone in order to reason with him, only to murder him and stage the scene as a suicide. Though many accept that the case is closed, more people begin to suspect Lou of being involved, including the deputy, Jeff Plummer. This also includes Amy, who presses marriage even after a sadomasochistic encounter with Lou begins to convince her that he is hiding a dark side.

A drifter whom Lou injured earlier attempts to blackmail him, revealing that he eavesdropped on a suspicious conversation Lou was involved in. Lou, seeing a way to tie up multiple loose ends, agrees to pay his blackmailer; he also agrees to elope with Amy, who he is planning to murder. On the night the drifter returns, Lou beats Amy to death, intending to frame the blackmailer for her murder. Plummer kills the drifter after Lou chases him through town, and Lou is sedated and put in a hospital. Lou is visited by Plummer and Hendricks in the hospital, and senses that they both suspect him of killing Amy, Joyce, and Johnnie. Plummer also reveals that Maples killed himself, convinced of Lou's guilt. They show him a letter that Amy had written and intended to give him during their elopement, one which subtly urges him to confess. Lou denies that the letter is incriminating, but Plummer and Hendricks force him into a jail cell, where they try unsuccessfully to provoke a confession with audio of Johnnie's voice and pictures of Amy.

Eventually, Lou's attorney arrives and releases him, though he admits that he cannot get Lou out of town. Lou ruminates on his past, concluding that his hatred and violence, especially towards women, stemmed from a childhood incident involving his old housekeeper molesting him in order to get back at his father, with whom she was unhappily involved in a sadomasochistic relationship; Lou realizes that his female victims were substitutes for her. Accepting his fate, Lou covers the house in alcohol and candles, intending to kill himself by setting the building on fire. Eventually, Plummer and Hendricks arrive with a team of police, as well as Joyce, who is revealed to be alive, albeit badly injured. Joyce assures Lou that she did not sell him out, and he affirms his affection for her before stabbing her to death. The police fire on Lou, killing him, but destroying the house in the process.

The story begins with Flavia Gemina, the protagonist of the book, arguing with her tutor, Aristo. Flavia insists that she is a detective, though Aristo doubts there is such a word. Aristo says that if Flavia can solve the mystery of who has been stealing rolls from Pistor the Baker, then they will not do maths for a month, just read stories. However, if Flavia fails, she can never mention the word "detective" again.

Flavia and her friends realise that the theft must be an inside job, and decide to find out more about the baker's household. They make friends with the baker's younger son, Porcius, who shows them around the bakery and introduces them to his family and the slaves who work there. He also shows them his "Circus Minimus", where he races mice. Nubia is especially interested in the donkeys who turn the millstone.

The next day they split up to follow the different suspects. Lupus follows Porcius and his brother to school, Nubia follows his sister to the temple, and Jonathan follows the slave Teneme to the granary, while Flavia talks to the slave Tertius, the bakery accountant. He shows her the magic square puzzle, the Sator square, which eventually leads her to the solution of the mystery.

Flavia and Nubia attend a secret pre-dawn gathering of Christians and unmask the well-meaning thief, but promise not to tell on condition the stealing stops.

When she was a few minutes old, April was abandoned by her mother in a dustbin behind a local pizza restaurant. She was discovered by a young waiter there and named "April" by the hospital as she was found on April Fool's Day. She was fostered by Patricia Williams, but only lived with her a short time before being adopted. April's first stop on her fourteenth birthday is Pat's house. She finds that she remembers little of it and Pat remembers little of her. However she does befriend one of Patricia's new foster children - Tanya - a character seen before along with Pat in another of Jacqueline Wilson's books: ''Bad Girls''.

April then visits the graveside of her adoptive mother: Janet Johnson. Janet committed suicide a few years after adopting April, while battling depression stemming from her husband's affairs and the break-up of her marriage.

April subsequently tells readers of the time she was bullied mercilessly in a foster home run by "Big Mo" and "Little Pete" by another resident, Pearl, until April took drastic action against the bullying by pushing Pearl down the stairs, causing Pearl grievous bodily injury and, consequently, April's removal from the home.

She was then sent to a residential care home called "Sunnybank Children's Home". Here, April is befriended by a much older girl called Gina. But, sooner or later, Gina calls upon April to "help" her friends in a series of burglaries after dark. When April later comes across Sunnybank, it redirects her to Gina, who is mother to a young son called Benjamin and does conferences there to steer the children to behave themselves.

After leaving Sunnybank April was taken to Fairleigh, a residential school for problem girls. Here April stayed for five years and formed a close bond with her history teacher Miss Marion Bean. After discovering April's sad life in her file Marion begins to bond with April and refers her to be moved to a mainstream school. Here April makes new friends - Hannah and Cathy - and Marion, with the help of social worker Elaine (which could be a reference to Tracy Beaker's social worker), decides to foster her.

The story ends with April finding and meeting the pizza boy, Frankie, who discovered her in the dustbin the day she was born and resolving the fight she had with Marion at the start of the story...

In order to save his grandmother, his town, and his own skin, Vince, a poor miner's son, takes part in a skateboarding competition without a skateboard. He invents the extreme sport of footskating.

In 1913, Amy Medford (Jenny Agutter) leaves her possessive, wealthy husband (Chris Robinson) to begin a new life teaching speech to deaf students in the rural Appalachian Mountains at a school for blind and deaf children. Though encountering resistance from those who question whether it’s even possible to teach speech to children with hearing-impairments, Amy becomes close to the staff and children, building a new life for herself and gaining the personal strength she will need to stand up to the domineering husband who is not content to let her live her own life.

The body of a young woman, who has been stabbed in the back, is found floating in the Seine River. The body of another young woman, with a knife in her back, is found in the arms of a wax figure, the "Satyr of the Seine", in a local wax museum. All available clues lead directly to the infamous "Club of the Silver Key", where aristocratic masked club members mix and mingle in the darkened rooms in search of adulterous entertainment. Henri Bencolin and his friend Jeff Marle must penetrate the club and make sense of the few clues before Bencolin arrives at the solution and makes a very surprising wager with the murderer.

LA siblings Ted and Susan Johnson join their parents in Kenya where their father, Earl, works at a NASA tracking station, and their mother, Jean, works at a clinic. Ted’s dreams of roughing it on the Savannah are squashed when their mother leads him into a house that looks like it belongs in Pasadena, California. Although she forbids her children to explore, Ted and Susan sneak out to a nearby watering hole, where they meed a friendly Masai boy named Morogo. Morogo shows the siblings the wildlife of Kenya and they teach him how to play video games. One day, their mother comes home to discover Morogo in her home and they convince their parents that Morogo will keep them safe, which their parents reluctantly agree.

One day, Ted kicks a soccer ball over a barrier and it lands against a sleeping rhino. Morogo sneaks up on the animal, retrieves the ball, and places a small stone on the rhino’s side. He then gives Ted another stone, daring him to do the same. The rhino awakens as Ted nears, causing him to flee. Kipoin, Morogo’s father, scolds him for neglecting his goat herding duties and Morogo says that he will take care of his duties, but he has been learning new stuff from his friends, to which he detests about his new friends, because they are different.

One day, the trio comes across a cheetah cub whose mother has been killed by a poacher. Susan insists they take the cub home as it's the only way for her to survive and their parents reluctantly decide to keep her, where she becomes the household pet. Six months later, however, the Johnson family convince the children to free Duma and train her to hunt according to the advice of an Australian game warden named Larry before their vacation is over.

Meanwhile, an Indian storekeeper named B. Patel (who had unsuccessfully tried to buy Duma) hires an opportunistic Englishman named Nigel and a ruthless poacher named Abdullah, who are planning to make a fortune out of Duma by exploiting her speed in a prolific sport of racing against greyhounds. The night before Ted and Susan are to leave Africa, Patel breaks into the house to steal Ted's whistle and the three gamblers manage to capture Duma. The next morning, the family say goodbye to Morogo and stop at Patel's store. Patel accidentally reveals his whereabouts to Ted and he notices similar markings on Abdullah's shoes, indicating that he was the poacher who killed Duma's mother. Ted tries to convince his parents about Patel's conspiracy, to no avail, so the kids miss their flight after sending a telegram to their grandmother and learn Patel's whereabouts from his cousin that he is working in a camp in Jamhuri. The children convince Morogo to save Duma, but he fears that he can't go and gives them directions to Jamhuri. The next morning, Morogo sneaks away as well and decides to help them rescue Duma.

However, Morogo's parents have learned about their disappearances and inform Ted and Susan's parents. Earl calls his mother and she informs him about the telegram the siblings sent to her. The parents call the police and their wives insist on heading out to find the children themselves. Meanwhile, the children arrive at the camp and sneak in at nightfall. They manage to find Duma, but are captured by the poachers and locked in a cage. While they leave for the race, Morogo unlocks the cage and they head after the poachers to Nairobi.

They head off after the poachers to Nairobi, only to be caught by the policemen roaming the roads for them. They escape, due to the inattentiveness of the policeman and finally make it to Nairobi with the help of a sheep farmer. The children reach the racetrack in time to hear the cheetah-greyhound race being announced. In the race, Duma has now been overtaken by greyhounds, with greater resistance (as predicted by Patel, who had given up losing in bets) but is revived in reviewing his masters and resumed to race winning. Ted grabs his whistle from a security guard and blows it, allowing Duma to regain her burst of speed and win. While the other gamblers must compensate all bets, Duma rebels against Abdullah and attacks him until she is rescued by Earl. While both sets of parents berate their children for leaving them, the poacher is arrested.

The families arrive at Cheetah Valley to release Duma and notice another cheetah. They refuse to extend their parents' proposal for the holiday and they try to release Duma, but the stubborn cheetah refuses to leave until Susan manages to convince her to leave. The children quote a Kenyan adage by Morogo "Though we are far apart, our spirits share the same earth and the same sky" as they happily watch Duma play with her newfound friend.

Arrogant and obnoxious Frank Dorrance is engaged to pretty young Brenda White and frankly admits he plans to marry her for her money, or rather her guardian's money. An impoverished local solicitor is simply in love with Brenda and believes that to approach Brenda would be foolish—until the body of Frank Dorrance, found strangled near the centre of a clay tennis court, leaves the field clear. However, there was only one set of footsteps on the soft clay surface, those of the victim. The victim's arrogance gained him many enemies during his lifetime, and a number of them are on hand in the vicinity with both motive and opportunity, but the authorities are finding it difficult to prove that anyone at all could have killed Frank Dorrance. Gideon Fell must take a hand and explain a number of unusual clues, including a picnic basket heavily laden with dirty dishes that mysteriously vanish. It is not until the murder of a second victim, a trapeze artist, that the crimes are brought home to their perpetrator.

Category:1939 American novels Category:Novels by John Dickson Carr Category:Locked-room mysteries Category:Hamish Hamilton books Category:Harper & Brothers books

In London in the late 1970s, Guyanese immigrant Ben Jones arrives at Heathrow Airport with a suitcase and a wallet full of money. Immigration officials refuse to believe his naïve explanation that the cash was given by his grandmother, and strip-search him. Humiliated and confused, Ben travels to Brixton in search of an obscure address. A ten-year-old boy, Devon, spots him and offers to help find the address if Ben pays him. When Ben foolishly reveals his fat wallet, Devon runs off with it, and Ben is forced to sleep at the local hostel. Dave King, a charismatic petty crook and lover of Devon's mother Miriam, pretends to be a responsible adult and intercepts Ben's wallet, but he keeps the money knowing that Devon has stolen it. That evening, Dave tries to seduce Miriam but she resists him, explaining that she has recently become pregnant. An argument ensues and Miriam forces Dave to leave.

Ben almost loses his suitcase at the hostel, but defends himself against the thief. In an attempt to find his missing wallet he follows Devon around Brixton, but is sidetracked by Devon's beautiful aunt Saffra. At Miriam's café, Ben confronts Devon about the stolen wallet but Dave intercedes and calms the situation, hiding Devon's guilt and befriending Ben by loaning him some money. Unaware that Dave's cash comes from his own stolen wallet, Ben accompanies Dave to a betting shop and defends him in a brawl. They place a bet on a horse that wins and Ben puts his winnings towards new accommodation. He finds a job as a dustman but loses it all again when he gives his earnings to a fraudulent landlord. Desperate for somewhere to stay, Ben appeals to Dave to share a flat. Once he realises that Ben now has a steady income Dave agrees to the flat-share and imposes a set of slanted rules that Ben is too naïve to reject.

Ben uses his new income to decorate the flat and tries to impress Saffra. He gives her a family heirloom – a ring – but Saffra returns it because it is financially worthless. Dave realises that Ben is still a virgin and arranges a trip to Soho where they visit sex shops, strip clubs and a prostitute. At a nightclub Ben meets Sally, a white woman who seduces him, and that night he loses his virginity.

Dave loses all his money in a poker game and goes to Miriam. She is furious and upset, having just returned from an abortion clinic. Dave is hurt that the unborn child has been aborted without his knowledge but this serves to anger Miriam more. With encouragement from Sally, Ben confronts Dave about the degree to which he has abused their friendship. Dave implies that Ben's naivety was as much to blame for his being duped as Dave's own immoral behaviour. Ben, now wiser, agrees to remain friends.

In a bid to cement his relationship with Miriam and Ben, Dave takes advantage of a car deal arranged by Jomo, a loan shark and sometime boyfriend of Saffra. Taking Jomo's new Buick and money, he drives Miriam, Ben and Saffra to Margate for an overnight trip. The four spend a lot of money and Dave loses the rest at a casino. Ben and Saffra sleep together but Saffra remains non-committal. In the morning Dave approaches Ben for some cash to pay the bills he cannot afford. Ben refuses, but suggests that he buys Jomo's car and insists on a receipt. Dave reluctantly agrees and the group return to London.

Once in Brixton, Ben refuses to resell the Buick, putting Dave in a dangerous position with Jomo. Jomo tries to force the sale but is overpowered by Ben who makes it clear he will not be bullied. Jomo backs down and Dave is thankful. Devon and Saffra join Ben in the Buick and they drive away.

Christopher Kent is a wealthy young man who has made a thousand-pound bet with his friend Dan Reaper that he cannot start at Johannesburg without a penny in his pocket and meet his friend at the Royal Scarlet Hotel in Piccadilly in London, England, some weeks later. Twenty-four hours before the deadline, Kent is in front of the hotel, penniless and not having eaten for a day, and decides to order breakfast and charge it to a room in the hotel. After he's finished breakfast, the hotel staff ask him to go and wake up his "wife" because a previous guest has left a valuable bracelet hidden in the room. Upon arrival at room 707, the group is met by a "Do not disturb" sign upon which has been scrawled "Dead woman"; Kent lets himself in and finds the strangled body of his cousin Josephine. When Kent asks master detective Gideon Fell to extricate him from his predicament, Fell must also solve the murder of Josephine's late husband Rodney, which had happened two weeks earlier.

The first murder had taken place at the country home of Sir Gyles Gay; Sir Gyles had acquired it from the estate of its architect, Ritchie Bellowes, and maintains Bellowes' drunkard son as a hanger-on in the household. Sir Gyles had invited a number of Kent's friends and relatives for a house party where young Bellowes entertained the party with a demonstration of his photographic memory. Late one night, while extremely drunk, Bellowes sneaks into his former home and claims to have seen a man dressed as a hotel attendant, "wearing a uniform such as you see in the big hotels like the Royal Scarlet". Bellowes passes out and is found in the morning about the same time as the strangled body of Rodney Kent is discovered.

There are a number of mysterious clues and indications, including a defaced photograph of the house party enjoying itself at a "fun fair", the fact that all the coins (but not the bills) are missing from the dead woman's purse, and two valuable bracelets, one with a mysterious Latin expression carved into its face. But it is a surprising and violent confrontation in a darkened cemetery that allows Gideon Fell to conclusively identify the murderer.

Bill Dawson is a broke young Brit sitting in the waiting room of a lawyer's office in New York City. He overhears Larry Hurst and his girlfriend Joy Tennant discussing with the lawyer the prospect of Larry becoming sole heir to the large estate of his uncle Gaylord Hurst, providing that Larry returns to England immediately and visits his uncle at least once a week. Larry, however, is convinced that his uncle wants to murder him. Larry and Joy ask Bill to witness Larry's signature, invite him for a drink, and propose that Bill impersonates Larry for six months for the sum of ten thousand dollars. Bill agrees; Larry is almost immediately poisoned. Bill escapes and takes the next flight to England to complete his end of the agreement.

Upon arrival at Gaylord's flat, Bill soon learns that Hurst and his manservant Hatto are both practised sadists whose plans certainly included the psychological torture of Larry; however, Bill is soon found out. Hurst, not to be cheated of prey, offers Bill a bargain; continue to meet once weekly for three months and keep the ten thousand dollars he has already received. Bill agrees, and almost immediately there is an attempt on his life with a clever trap—then another, that lands him in the hospital. Finally, after another death, Bill confronts the villain in a dramatic conclusion that takes place in a reconstruction of the sitting room of Sherlock Holmes and that reveals a very surprising tenth answer to the book's events.

Miss Caroline Ross, in order to inherit a fortune, must be married but, in the London of 1815, such a marriage would turn control of the funds over to her husband. She therefore marries Dick Darwent, a convicted murderer who is to be hanged in Newgate Prison the next day, who agrees to the marriage so that Caroline will settle money upon his mistress, the actress Dolly Spencer. However, when it is learned that Dick has succeeded to the title of the Marquis of Darwent, his trial is invalidated; a peer must be tried by the House of Lords. The commutation of his sentence means that he has made a deadly enemy in the form of Sir John Buckstone, a brutal dandy who is one of Caroline's suitors. Darwent has been framed for murder by a mysterious figure known only as "the coachman". He must sort out his domestic arrangements, which include his wife and mistress under one roof, prove himself innocent of the murder of which he was convicted, and reveal the identity of the evil figure behind his problems.

The film follows a family, newly reunited with their estranged son, faces the remnants of the bad marriage, and evil intentions, of their home's previous owners. An old accountant, trying to set his "books" straight after a life of working for a criminal gang, takes his revenge on the man who wouldn't let him. A businessman, hungering for success and material opulence, finds that time is the only truly scarce resource—and the only one genuinely valuable. Lastly, a surprise ending for Shoko, a lady of leisure, who has a deadly definition of divorce, and meets young Tamika on the wrong dark and foggy road.

Spies from Japan conspire to steal the Channing "preparedness" fortune and invade the United States, beginning in New York, then allying themselves with Mexicans across the border. They are stopped by the efforts of munitions factory heiress Patria Channing and U.S. Secret Service agent Donald Parr.

In 2087, free thought is illegal and the population is controlled by governments. A small band of free thinkers sends Garth A7, a cyborg, back in time to 1966 to prevent Professor Sigmund Marx from revealing his new discovery. The discovery will eventually make mind control possible and create a tyranny in Garth's time. He is pursued by two "Tracers" (also cyborgs) sent by the government out to stop him.

Garth enlists the help of Dr. Sharon Mason, Marx's assistant. He gets her to summon her friend, medical doctor Zeller to operate on him to remove a homing device used by the Tracers to track him. The local sheriff also becomes involved.

Garth defeats the Tracers and convinces Professor Marx to keep his discovery secret. Then, with his future wiped out as a result, Garth ceases to exist; the people who helped him do not even remember him.

Ex-Army officer Steve Jameson (Pat O' Brien), the chief guard at San Quentin State Prison, meets May Kennedy (Ann Sheridan), who works as a singer in a San Francisco night club. Joe "Red" Kennedy (Humphrey Bogart), her brother, who is on the run from the police, is arrested at the nightclub when he comes to see his sister.

Red arrives in San Quentin a few days later with another new inmate, hardened criminal "Sailor Boy" Hansen (Joe Sawyer). After a fight with Sailor in the courtyard on his first day, Jameson punishes him. May begins a romantic relationship with Jameson, and soon finds out what he couldn't tell her before: He is the yard captain of the prison, who is in charge of the prisoners.

Jameson institutes a merit system intended to separate the hapless lawbreakers from the hardened criminals. Joe is then selected by Jameson to work outside of the prison in a road camp, constructing a new road, as a step in his rehabilitation. Lieutenant Druggin (Barton MacLane), the former chief guard, resents Jameson's methods, and surreptitiously assigns Hansen also to the road camp. Hansen then makes a plan to break out of prison. At first Red refuses to join him, but changes his mind when he learns that Jameson is dating his sister.

Hansen's girlfriend (Veda Ann Borg) arrives in a car at the site where the inmates are working and asks for help with a flat tire. Hansen volunteers to change the tire, and retrieves two guns that were hidden in the tool box. He and Red take a guard hostage and flee. After a wild car pursuit, Hansen's car crashes and he dies. Red survives the crash and escapes. He makes it to May's flat, but Jameson is already there. After a short argument, Red shoots at Jameson who is slightly injured. Red flees and is shot by a police patrol, but he has enough strength to get back to the prison, where he dies in front of the gates.

Enteng Kabisote (Vic Sotto) is a man married to Faye (Kristine Hermosa), a lovely fairy and the only daughter of Ina Magenta (Giselle Toengi), queen of Engkantasya, an enchanted kingdom. The couple has two children, Aiza (Aiza Seguerra) and Benok (Oyo Boy Sotto). The family is living peacefully and happily until the day Satana (Bing Loyzaga), the evil queen of Kadiliman brings chaos to Earth by sending Romero (Jeffrey Quizon), Lucy (Nikki Arriola) and Fer (Levi Inacio) to poison the water of the dams. But Venuz (Leila Kuzma) and Aries (Patrick Alvarez), armored fairies sent by Ina Magenta stopped them.

Satana turns her ire to Enteng’s family, and she sends Itim (Michael V.), to spy on Enteng and Faye. But because of the family’s goodness to him, Itim deceived and betrayed Satana. In turn, Satana transforms herself into a young girl named Tanny (Nadine Samonte), who seduces and possesses Benok, but Enteng manages to stop her evil deed in time. Burning with anger, Satana kidnaps Faye. She demands that Ina Magenta surrenders her good powers so she can rule the Earth. Instead, Ina sends Enteng and Benok together with Itim (transformed into a talking flying horse) to fight Satana. After a numerous adventures and comic fights, they manage to rescue Faye.

Errol Flynn stars as Dr. Newell Paige, a surgeon whose refusal to name the real culprit in an operation gone fatally awry results in the ruin of his career. Dismissed from the hospital staff, Paige leaves Massachusetts and travels to Montana to assist a researcher in Rocky Mountain spotted fever, almost dying when he subjects himself to an experimental serum. Anita Louise stars as Phyllis Dexter, his eventual love interest, and Cedric Hardwicke as Dean Harcourt, an Anglican clergyman and radio preacher whose advice Dr. Paige at first dismisses, then later realizes is the truth. The film ends with Paige, returned to his former post and cleared of all charges, and Phyllis seated in the cathedral, listening to Dean Harcourt quoting a Psalm, followed by the St. Luke choristers' amen.

After being cursed by their mother, Petranella, Tra and Gar, a caveman brother and sister, are forced to live their lives preying on young people by devouring their entrails to retain youth. The nature of the curse allows it to be lifted after 12,000 years— a full cycle of the zodiac— after which one of the siblings must conceive a child to use as a virgin sacrifice in order to achieve immortality.

Millennia later, in 1965, the siblings subsist by stalking young people in a Los Angeles park, consuming their entrails to imbibe their lifeforce. As the 12,000 years reach their end, Gar plans to conceive a child. Using the name Mark, he rents a room in the home of a beautiful young woman, soon marrying her before conceiving a daughter, Bondi. Mark becomes obsessed with Bondi's welfare, and his attention to her causes his marriage to disintegrate in the intervening years. On Bondi's sixteenth birthday, Mark gives her an ancient amulet that belonged to his mother. Bondi's mother storms out of the house during the birthday party, abandoning them.

Bondi subsequently runs away, hitching a ride with three adult male hippies. When they attempt to gang-rape her in the back of the van, Bondi invokes her father, clutching to the amulet, which begins glowing. The van begins to drive out of control, crashing off a rural bridge before bursting into flames; Bondi survives, however, having managed to escape before the crash. Bondi wanders into an abandoned house near the park, where Tra, withering from her lack of sustenance, resides in seclusion. Bondi is unaware that Tra, who calls herself Patty, is in fact her aunt. Tra immediately realizes who Bondi is upon seeing the amulet.

Bondi is met by Nick, an 8-year-old boy who has been taken in by Patty, and who sees her as a grandmother figure. She also meets Cowboy, another runaway who lives there. Bondi is initially terrified by Patty's grotesque appearance, but Nick and Cowboy assure her she is harmless. Cowboy explains that Patty dons a cloak so as to appear as a witch, and has concocted a tall tale about the land suffering "Petranella's Curse" in order to keep people away. Meanwhile, while selling flowers on the street, Nick meets Taft, a local writer and historian who befriends him. In conversations, Taft explains the dark history of the local park and the deaths that have occurred there for centuries, warning Nick not to go near it.

Late at night, Nick witnesses Patty entering the park in a mask and follows her. He watches from a distance as she strangles, disembowels, and cannibalizes a female victim. When she removes the mask, her youthful appearance is restored. Horrified, Nick flees back to the house to notify Bondi and Cowboy but finds the house empty. Meanwhile, Bondi, having been drugged by Patty, awakens in a cave alongside Cowboy. She is confronted by her father, who attempts to force her to strip nude to begin the ritual, but Patty intervenes and stops him. After a fire breaks out in the cave, Patty urges Bondi to swallow the amulet, which she does. Upon doing so, Bondi becomes possessed by Petranella, taking on her withered appearance. Petranella reanimates the corpses of Patty and Mark's victims, which they have stored in the cave, and forces them to kill and consume Mark and Patty.

After Petranella's spirit leaves Bondi's body, Bondi and Cowboy flee and find Nick in one of the tunnels. They escape through a crumbling cave wall with the help of Taft, who has been searching for Nick in the park. The three spend the night at Taft's home and return to visit Patty's home the next day. Upon arriving, they are notified by a city official that the home is being demolished. Pondering where to go, the three venture into the park and begin playing at a playground. Nick climbs a slide and asks Bondi to push him down. Instead, Bondi begins to dig her fingernails into his abdomen to disembowel him. While doing so, she knowingly smiles.

In 1891, Léonie Vernier is a young girl living in Paris until an invitation from her uncle's widow Isolde prompts a journey to the Carcassonne region with her brother, Anatole. Unknown to Léonie, her brother had been having an affair with Isolde and is being pursued by her jealous former lover, Victor Constant. For a while, they live an idyllic lifestyle in the country. However, Constant discovers where they are staying and sets out to exact his revenge.

In the present day, an American, Meredith Martin, is in France to research the life of Claude Debussy for a biography she is writing. She is also trying to find out more about her biological mother. During the visit, she uncovers information that links her lineage to that of Léonie Vernier and discovers the truth about the events in Carcassonne during that period in history.

Most of the action takes place in the Domaine de la Cade, a stately home in Rennes-les-Bains, which in 1891 is owned by Léonie's deceased uncle Jules and his wife Isolde, whom Anatole later marries. The house in Meredith's timeline has been repurposed as an upmarket hotel.

There are also parts of the book that are situated in Paris at the same time, as well as parts in towns and villages neighbouring Carcassonne.

The story features heavy reference to the occult and tarot readings, and the stories of Léonie and Meredith are brought together by a series of visions that are related to the tarot and a small church, known as a Sepulchre, in the grounds of the Domaine de la Cade.

Several of the major characters in Mosse's novel ''Labyrinth'' make cameo appearances in Sepulchre. Film rights are under negotiation.

On June 1, 1942, after fourteen years working in a bank, mild-mannered 44-year-old Wilbert G. Winkle suddenly quits his boring bank job to follow his dream, to open a repair shop. Everyone is shocked, particularly his status-conscious wife Amy, who demands he choose between her and his new career. The only exception is Barry, a young orphan Mr. Winkle has befriended.

However, before the situation with Amy can be resolved, Winkle is drafted into the army. His fellow soldiers inevitably nickname him "Rip".

He becomes friends with another older recruit, Joe Tinker, who is looking to avenge his younger brother. Winkle is reassigned to help the supply sergeant keep the books, as he did in civilian life, but he rebels and, with persistence and quiet determination, becomes a mechanic, something that gives him great satisfaction. To the surprise of his sergeant, he makes it through basic training. A new regulation allows men over 38 to get an honorable discharge, but Winkle refuses to quit.

When Winkle's furlough at the end of training is cancelled, Barry runs away to try to see him. Amy and the head of the orphanage, Mr. McDavid, find him hitchhiking and bring him back. On the way, Amy learns from Barry that there is more to her husband than she thought, causing her to reconsider.

Winkle and his unit are shipped out to fight the Japanese Army in the Pacific. When he and Tinker are sent to repair a bulldozer, the Japanese attack his unit. While Winkle fixes the bulldozer, Tinker looks for revenge. After shooting an enemy soldier, Tinker starts celebrating, only to be killed himself. Winkle then uses the bulldozer to knock out a machine-gun nest.

He is discharged and sent home to recuperate from his wounds. The war hero returns to an enthusiastic welcome from his entire hometown and in particular from Amy and Barry, who show him a new shortcut they have made together to his repair shop.

Tom and Jerry are flying a small airplane and find themselves off the coast of Africa. In an ill-advised effort to fit in among the natives, the two decide to don blackface and talk in a stereotypical African-American dialect. While doing this, the plane goes off balance and crashes into the ocean. After encounters with sharks, an overly-friendly octopus, and a whale, Tom and Jerry make it to the mainland. They are confronted by beasts of the African jungle, from which they take refuge in a cave, where they meet some skeletal Africans that were retooled from the first Tom and Jerry short, "Wot a Night." Once Tom and Jerry come out of the cave, African tribesmen (also stereotypically portrayed as spear-chuckers with bones in their hair) appear from behind almost every rock and crevice, outraged at the sight of the two in blackface, and begin an angry pursuit. The cartoon ends with Tom and Jerry wiping the blackface off their face, still running away from the Africans.

The film focuses on a novelty inventor named "Johnson", a 20-something from Texas who has designed what he believes will be the next great novelty item - " a humorous domestic hygiene product". He makes contact with a Chinese manufacturer in Shanghai via Craigslist and decides to fly to China with his life savings to create his dream product. Upon arrival, his contact - the elusive James Choi, fails to show up or answer his phone. A fish out of water but optimistic and determined, Johnson decides to negotiate the manufacturing contract himself, without knowledge of Chinese. The film follows Johnson as he makes his journey through Shanghai to achieve his dreams, from nightclubs to market streets, after becoming involved with scam artists Magnus (Dan Sumpter) and Olive (Syna Zhang). Johnson explains, "every object has a story, and in that story is an inventor" and through his adventure, the history of iconic novelty inventors is revealed, including joy buzzer's Soren Sorensen Adams, pet rock's Gary Dahl, slinky's Richard T. James, and the ant farms' Milton Levine. The film's ending features a cameo of Matthew McConaughey, a fellow Texan and celebrity, using Johnson's new novelty product.

The Sector Controller, who is responsible for overseeing Earth, among other worlds, receives a message that tells him that a mysterious machine called the Bannus has been activated (against orders) at Hexwood Farm Estate near London by the man who was responsible for maintaining the facility. Somehow, the Bannus has trapped both that man and an entire maintenance team inside the Estate. Following instructions in case of such an accident, the Sector Controller sends a message to the Reigners, the five people who rule the galaxy.

In a wood, an amnesiac boy meets an android. The android, who is called Yam, tells him that his name is Hume, because he is a human.

In a small village near London, a teenage girl, Ann Stavely, recovers from a serious fever. While ill, she talks with the four voices in her head: The King, The Prisoner, The Boy, and The Slave. Through her window, she witnesses some mysterious comings and goings at nearby Hexwood Farm Estate; a van, with a symbol like a pair of unbalanced scales on the side, pulls up and people go in, but they do not come out again. After many different people go in, but none come out, Ann becomes curious, and is determined to find out more.

The next day, greatly recovered, she explores the tiny woods beside Hexwood Farm. When she enters it, she finds that the woods have expanded, and she encounters a futuristic chamber with a famished, exceptionally tall and skeletal man - Mordion Agenos - inside. He claims he has been asleep for centuries, but Ann knows she saw him enter Hexwood Farm just a few days ago.

Mordion creates a boy from a pool of his and Ann's mingled blood, and sends him off on his own into the woods. The boy appears to be Hume, who we have already met in Chapter 1. Ann is horrified by Mordion's callous attitude and tells him that he must look after Hume - after all, he created him.

Ann visits Mordion and Hume several times in the woods over the next few days. While she is in her own town, she and her brother see more and more people appearing to enter Hexwood Farm Estate and still none ever emerge. During one of her visits to Mordion and Hume, she helps Hume recover Yam from what looks like a future, ruined Hexwood Farm, where they encounter and escape from armored men armed with crossbows. Yam then tells Mordion, Ann, and Hume that they are all in the field of the Bannus, which warps time and space in order to run scenarios for some mysterious purpose. This is why things seem to be happening out of order.

Later, we meet the five Reigners, tyrants who have ruled the galaxy for over a thousand years. They are very concerned about the Bannus, which, before they seized power, was used to pick new Reigners. Reigner Two and the Reigner's Servant (Mordion) have disappeared while trying to deactivate the Bannus. The remaining Reigners go to Earth (Reigners Four and Five alone, but then Three and One go together) to turn off the Bannus, but they too get caught in the Bannus' field of influence, forget who they are, and find themselves in the huge forest, which is somehow the little wood beside Hexwood Farm.

When Reigner One and Reigner Three come to Earth, they take a girl from one of the major guild houses (who works in their basement, managing costuming for when the Reigners or their servants need to travel to a distant world) as a luggage-carrying assistant. This assistant, Vierran of House Guaranty, is a young woman in her twenties who considers herself a friend of the Reigner's Servant, Mordion Agenos.

The Bannus, a cyborg designed to pick new Reigners, who the current Reigners cheated and locked away, is playing with the minds of all the characters and running scenarios in order to determine who the next five Reigners should be, while getting his revenge on the current Reigners. The Bannus has confused several of the characters as to who they are in order to run these scenarios. Vierran and Ann turn out to be different representations of the same person, Vierran of the House of Guaranty. Mordion Agenos is the Reigners Servant, and by looking after Hume, is making up for when he was a child and failed to protect other children in the Reigners care. Hume turns out to be Merlin, and "Ann's" brother is discovered to be Fitela, a dragon-slayer mentioned in "Beowulf". Yam, in a cunning twist, turns out to be the Bannus itself; by getting Mordion to repair him, he was returning himself to full power. Several other characters in the book turn out to be other legendary figures of note, the Reigners all get their comeuppance, and Mordion and Vierran are selected by the Bannus to be two of the five new Reigners.

The plot follows Audrey Driscoll, a fictional character, travelling from America to China, Germany, England and North Africa. She is repeatedly made to choose between her desire for her adventure, or to abide by her conscience.

Reviews published in 1917 provide general descriptions of this lost film's main characters as well as its storyline. Lieutenant Jack Brewer (John Ford) is described as a member of a company from the Sixty-Seventh Regiment of the United States Army and stationed at a fort in the American West during the first decade of the 20th century. Brewer's troopers like him personally and admire him as well for earning his rank in action, by serving in the field and not simply by attending classes at a military academy. Some of Brewer's fellow officers, however, do not share such admiration for him, especially Captain Dana Holden (Duke Worne), a graduate of West Point. Soon the arrival of a beautiful young woman named Madge (Louise Granville) intensifies the animosity and tension between Brewer and his superior officer.

Madge and her father, traveling to the West by stagecoach, are stopped not far from the army fort and are robbed and detained by bandits. A detachment of troopers led by Brewer quickly pursues the robbers, but unfortunately Madge's father is killed in the ensuing skirmish, although she is rescued by the lieutenant and taken to the fort for her safety. After his mission, Brewer receives a month-long furlough, and upon his return he finds Madge still at the outpost working as a servant and looking unkempt and neglected. He helps her get better clothes and generally improves her living conditions. Brewer's attention toward Madge prompts a resentful Captain Holden to stir up gossip about his subordinate's intentions and the woman's behavior. To shield Madge from any further hint of scandal, Brewer asks her to marry him. She accepts his proposal even though she does not love him. After their wedding, Madge begins to flirt with Holden, and later Brewer catches them together when he returns early from evening duty. Not long after that incident, the captain is reassigned and leaves the fort. Madge accompanies him, abandoning her husband.

"Years later", now a captain, Brewer is redeployed for overseas duty in the Philippines, where American troops are battling the native Moro people, who are rebelling against the rule of their country by the United States. He leads his troops into the fight and learns that Captain Holden and Madge, who are now married, are also in the Philippines and are stationed at Fort Craig in the interior. Meanwhile, Holden has left his wife at the fort to go on a scouting expedition. He soon gets cut off from his men by rebel forces. Instead of trying to make his way back to the fort to warn the garrison and protect Madge, he chooses to save himself by heading to the city of Manila. The Moro now attack the fort; however, Brewer arrives in time with his company to rescue Madge once again and to repel the assault. Her former husband now escorts her to safety to the headquarters of the Philippine Constabulary. Appalled by Holden's cowardice and his self-serving decision to abandon her, she now begs Brewer to forgive her, pleading with him "to continue to protect her". He is disgusted by Madge's pleas, rejects them, and leaves her to rejoin his company.

Carroll Wayles (Ford) is a chemist who has discovered the formula for a high explosive. This is a secret All Kasarib (Gerald) wishes to learn.

He uses his ward, Beulah Grey (Gaston), who is under his hypnotic power, to tempt Wayles with liquor, knowing that he has formerly been addicted to drink, but had overcome it. Wayles returns to his former mode of living. Kasarib gains the ascendency over him and learns the secret. Wayles’ spirit is taken on an imaginary trip over battlegrounds and through scenes of lust to show him the pitfalls that await slaves of the flesh.

Wayles awakens a changed man. He goes to the laboratory of Kasarib, where there is a struggle, during which an explosion kills Kasarib. Wayles and the ward are then free to marry each other.

A European traveler from the North, accompanied by Arab guides, is camped in the desert. When night falls, and the Arabs are at a distance, the traveler is accosted by talking jackals. The jackals speak of an age-old hatred for Arabs, whom they associate with uncleanliness. They relate a belief passed down from their ancestors, that a man such as the protagonist would be the one to "end the quarrel which divides the world in two". The jackals attempt to enlist the traveler's assistance in destroying them, offering him old rusted scissors with which to slit the throats of the Arabs.

At this moment an Arab happens upon the discussion, and cracks his whip, "laughing cheerfully". He declares the fondness of Arabs for jackals, and the Arabs bring out the carcass of a camel that had died in the night. The jackals begin to feast on it uncontrollably, and the Arab whips several of them as they tear at the flesh of the carcass, until the European interferes. The Arab agrees to stop, and the story ends: "We’ll leave them to their calling. Besides, it’s time to break camp. You’ve seen them. Wonderful creatures, aren’t they? And how they hate us.”

Vagabond singer Aladdin (Cornel Wilde) has his hands full keeping his pickpocket friend, Abdullah (Phil Silvers), out of trouble. Abdullah is thought mad as he claims to have been born 1200 years too early, speaks in 1940s slang and knows about television.

When the beautiful Princess Armina (Adele Jergens), the daughter of the Sultan (Dennis Hoey), is borne through the streets in a covered litter, however, it is Aladdin who gets into difficulty. Despite knowing the punishment is death for a commoner to see the princess's face, Aladdin cannot resist. He distracts the guards and slips into the litter. He persuades Armina to let her veil be lifted and is delighted to discover the stories of her beauty are true. He falls in love instantly. She is not so enamored of him, but does not raise an outcry when he slips away.

Later, Aladdin returns to the palace to woo Armina. He is caught and thrown in a cell (where he finds Abdullah) to await execution the next day. A distraught Armina has her trusted servant Novira (Dusty Anderson) steal the key to the cell from the jailer and slip it to Aladdin. Aladdin and Abdullah flee the city, pursued by the Sultan's guards. They hide out in a cave, where Kofir the sorcerer (Richard Hale) is waiting for them. Kofir persuades Aladdin to enter the bowels of the cave to fetch a magic lamp. Aladdin and the uneasy Abdullah dodge a laughing giant (Rex Ingram, dressed and coiffed the same as the genie he portrayed in the 1940 film ''The Thief of Bagdad'') and return with the lamp, only to find that Kofir has blocked the entrance with a giant boulder. Kofir demands the lamp before he will let them out, but Aladdin does not trust him. The sorcerer leaves them to die of thirst and starvation.

When a frustrated Aladdin throws the lamp away, a redheaded female genie (Evelyn Keyes) appears and instructs him to rub the lamp, which makes him her master. She explains that only her master can see or hear her. She insists he call her Babs, and like Abdullah, behaves and talks like she is from the twentieth century. He orders her to get them out of the cave. He then decides to go back for the princess, much to the genie's disappointment (as she has fallen in love with him), and has her conjure up a retinue of servants, clothes and rich gifts.

Meanwhile, the Sultan's twin brother, Prince Hadji (also played by Dennis Hoey, with a British accent in both roles), who has already tried to overthrow his brother once before, makes the Sultan his captive and takes his place undetected. Hadji is aided by the treacherous Grand Wazir Abu-Hassan (Philip Van Zandt), who is promised Armina's hand in marriage as a reward.

When Aladdin shows up pretending to be a prince of Hindustan, however, the Sultan changes his mind, preferring a rich son-in-law. The genie, however, does her best to derail the romance. Spotting Kofir, who has watched the proceedings through his magic crystal and is pretending to be a merchant offering new lamps for old, the genie arranges for the unsuspecting Novira to exchange the magic lamp. Once Kofir becomes the genie's master, everything that Aladdin wished for disappears, including the gift robe the false Sultan is wearing for the wedding. Armina realizes the man is not her father, but Prince Hadji, as he does not have a scar on his arm. Aladdin and Abdullah are taken away to be hanged, but Abu-Hassan offers to spare their lives if Armina agrees to marry him.

Aladdin is set free, believing Armina was only toying with him. Later, however, Novira tells him the truth. He and Abdullah track Kofir down and discover that he was overcome with excitement and died of a stroke. They steal the lamp from its next owner, a tailor, and return to the palace. At the end of a sword fight (in which Wilde gets to display his fencing skills), Hadji dies, and the grateful Sultan agrees to Aladdin and Armina's marriage.

Aladdin frees the heartbroken genie. She has an idea. She conjures up Aladdin's twin, who is in love with her. To reward Abdullah, she gives him Frank Sinatra's voice to entrance the harem girls.

Part I (Issue #12)

At night, Xander and Renee observe a pack of wolves lingering by the moor. Willow arrives at the castle with Andrew, who sends himself off to bed right away, just as Willow is attacked by a mysterious woman shrouded in fog. Meanwhile, Buffy and Satsu talk together in bed, following a surprising one-night stand. They agree to keep it a secret but this does not last as almost instantly, most of their friends barge in with various yet valid excuses.

Various threats keep the Slayers busy as a lycanthrope infiltrates the armory. An assistant helps him steal the Scythe, a powerful Slayer weapon. Xander and Renee act on a hunch and travel to visit Dracula, who Xander sheepishly calls Master.

Part II (Issue #13)

Fifteen minutes prior to Xander and Renee's visit, Dracula reflects on his solitude. Unlike his previous appearances as young and handsome, he now appears to be a bearded old man in a soiled bathrobe and his reputation amongst the local people has greatly diminished. However, upon hearing that Xander is visiting, Dracula cleans himself up and greets Xander as his "manservant," to which Xander reciprocates by calling him "master." Dracula offends Renee and appalls Xander by referring to Renee as a Moor. Nevertheless, he welcomes the pair inside, despite initially seeming to try to convince them to leave. Dracula reveals that while drunk, he had accidentally gambled away the secret to his powers to the Japanese vampires in exchange for a motorcycle. He agrees to help them defeat the Japanese vampires, despite his hatred of Buffy, claiming: "Nobody steals from Dracula."

In Scotland, Andrew informs young Slayers of Dracula's known various powers and how Dracula and Xander's friendship developed following Dracula's appearance in Sunnydale and after Anya Jenkins' death. Meanwhile, Buffy learns from Aiko, the leader of the Japanese slayer squad, that the leader of the Japanese vampires is named Toru. Buffy prepares to take all the slayers from headquarters to Japan; when Satsu suggests leaving a few as rearguard Buffy snaps at her and demands to have her orders followed. On their flight to Tokyo, Willow approaches Satsu and comforts her about the tension between her and Buffy following their one-night stand. She discusses Buffy's difficult position as general, and reminds Satsu that Buffy is not a lesbian and that she shouldn't get her hopes up. Satsu says she knows, and the serious part of the conversation is over. Willow then jokingly interrogates Satsu as to how Buffy was in bed.

In downtown Tokyo, Aiko keeps a close eye on Toru and Raidon in the streets. However, unbeknownst to her they have spotted her tailing them. Tracking them, she finds herself alone in an alley where Toru has strategically left a mysterious, glowing red ring on the ground for her to pick up. Aiko reaches for it, when suddenly the vampire gang's witch Kumiko flies overhead behind her with the Scythe. For a few seconds, the Scythe, the device, and Aiko conduct a red energy, before Toru appears in front of Aiko and breaks her jaw with a single punch, asking her how it feels to be a regular girl again. Before she can answer, Toru takes a horrific bite in her neck and kills her. Toru looks over at Raidon and claims the beta-test was successful. It is now time to take this technology global. The last panel is of Kumiko flying triumphantly into the sky, revealing a far larger ring device on the roof of a building.

Part III (Issue #14)

Buffy and the Slayers finally arrive in Tokyo to find Aiko's body strung up against a skyscraper with a message printed beneath her body in blood: "Tokyo He Youkoso" ("Welcome to Tokyo"). As night falls in the Tokyo Slayer headquarters, Dracula arrives and criticizes that neither Buffy nor Willow considered using a containment spell called "Carolina's Grasp" to defeat Toru, despite the fact neither of them are familiar with the spell. Meanwhile, Toru discusses Buffy's arrival in Tokyo and prepares his forces.

Elsewhere, a man smokes a cigarette outside when Renee suddenly approaches him in tears, claiming that she has gotten lost. the man suggests walking her to the hotel by going through a park and then reveals his vampire face when they are alone. Before he can attack, Buffy, Willow, and Xander appear and Willow performs Carolina's Grasp. The vampire finds himself boxed in a magical prison where he can not turn into fog and Willow pours gasoline on the vampire. As Buffy interrogates him, he confesses all of Toru's plan to use the lens to magnify Kumiko's spell and take away the Slayers' powers. Satisfied with the information, Buffy lights him on fire, pointing out that she made no promise to spare him if he talked.

At the Japanese Slayer headquarters, Buffy orders Satsu to stay there with other Slayers while she and others attack Toru and his vampires. Satsu defies her orders, saying that Buffy is either trying to avoid her or protect her and she won't put up with it, which Buffy finds sexually attractive. Xander and Renee discuss awkward situations before first dates and wind up kissing, much to Dracula's discomfort.

Outside of Toru's flat, Buffy, Renee, Xander, Dracula, Satsu, Andrew and Leah are ready to attack the army of about a thousand vampires. Willow summons Dawn, whose giant stature frightens the vampires as she begins to attack them. As Buffy's group storm Toru's flat, she attacks Toru, who turns out to be a decoy. The real Toru appears from behind her with the Scythe and comments they have effectively fallen into his trap.

Part IV (Issue #15)

Renee becomes a casualty of Toru's trap, much to Xander's grief, while Dracula sends Buffy to retrieve Willow as Dracula prepares to defend Xander. Willow is locked in an aerial battle with the vampire witch Kumiko, who reveals that they are both students of the unknown power Saga Vasuki and thus knows the counters to her spells. However, Willow turns this advantage against Kumiko by tapping into Kumiko's mind. Whether the spell had its intended effect is not clear, but Willow is plunged into a vision of a burning city, the Scythe, and the snake woman Willow was shown intimately involved with in Sephrilian's vision in 'Anywhere But Here'. The snake woman calls her 'Darling Willow' and asks if Willow thought she couldn't find her. She also asks if she thought she could hide from who she is and what is to come. Willow emerges from the vision and passes out, but the spell leaves Kumiko seemingly unaffected. As Willow begins to lose consciousness, Buffy steels herself, then jumps from the penthouse to stab Kumiko midair. She and an unconscious Willow continue falling.

Dawn, leading the fight out on the streets, is confronted by a mecha version of herself, albeit with a tail, who taunts Dawn. With Andrew's coaching, she defeats her mecha double. Toru notices Kumiko's absence, and begins the incantation to de-Slayer Buffy and her army. Dracula, Satsu, and the Slayers burst onto the roof and enter melee with the vampires; when Dracula tackles Toru, the Scythe is sent flying. Satsu jumps off the building to catch it and is flown back to the top of the roof by Willow, who emerged with Buffy from the pool of water Willow had created at the last minute to cushion their fall. Dracula, unable to perform the spell himself because he will be affected as well, directs Willow on the incantation to remove the vampires' special powers. Toru insults Dracula, who proves to be a powerful adversary and cuts off Toru's hands and feet. However, he leaves Xander to execute Toru, as revenge for Renee's death. Buffy comforts Xander as she orders the rest of the slayers to hunt down the fleeing vampires.

The following night, Dracula, who has lost his powers of domination, comes to Xander as he its vigil with Renee's ashes. Xander refuses his company and threatens Dracula when he addresses Xander as "manservant" and similar subordinate titles. Satsu and Buffy have a heart-to-heart, where Satsu confesses both her love for Buffy, and her acknowledgment that she needs to not be in love with her. Satsu asks to be left in Japan as the field office leader, to give them some distance. Buffy agrees, and then they share an intimate night as goodbye. At the same time, Willow is magically communicating with the snake woman (presumably Saga Vasuki), Xander is scattering Renee's ashes, and Dracula is leaving by ship.

The film begins in 1971 with Craig Gilbert (James Gandolfini) discussing with Pat Loud (Diane Lane) the idea of a documentary series that would concern her family's day-to-day lives in Santa Barbara, CA. Pat considers the proposal and accepts, amidst her son Lance (Thomas Dekker) moving to New York City. Pat's husband Bill (Tim Robbins) travels often away on business, leaving his wife alone to care for their five children.

The crew (Patrick Fugit, Shanna Collins) moves in with the Louds and begins to document them. Relations between Pat and Bill grow frayed due to his time away and the stress of the TV show's production. Gilbert tells Pat of his suspicions surrounding Bill's trips away, giving fairly strong evidence that he is cheating on her. The crew fights with Gilbert about his documentary technique, as he makes them film many personal moments.

After surreptitiously duplicating the keys to Bill's office, Pat makes a late night trip to the office and discovers documents that confirm he is cheating on Pat with two other women, resulting in Pat's preparations to file for a divorce. Angry, she tells Gilbert to have cameras there when she tells Bill, wanting "his bimbos to see it, the whole world to see it." Against her wishes, he films Pat's conversation with her brother and his wife.

Pat begins to regret her decision to let Gilbert film the break up, and tries to get one of her sons to tell him while driving Bill home instead. He, however, does not work up the courage to do this, and Pat kicks Bill out of her home on camera.

The film cuts to one year later, when ''An American Family'' is experiencing its premiere. The show airs to strong television ratings but much criticism of members of the family, in particular Pat for how she came off on camera and Lance for his homosexuality. The family then gets together to "fight back", addressing their critics by appearing on many talk shows.

Title cards at film's end offer updates for each Loud family member. Lance died of AIDS-related hepatitis in 2001; his last wish for his parents was to cohabitate. They currently live together in Los Angeles.

Sherman 'Tank' Turner is a help line operator and a ladies man with a unique side hustle: He helps guys who want a lady back by taking her on a bad date. Throughout the evening Tank inevitably behaves moronically, causing the woman to realize her ex was not really so bad after all and go back to him.

Tank shares an apartment with his step cousin Dustin who has fallen for his colleague Alexis. Dustin takes her on a date, professing his love, but she insists they remain friends. After the date he explains his situation to Tank who volunteers his services as a good friend (instead of having to pay for it). Initially turning him down, the next day he sees Alexis flirting with another co-worker and begs Tank to take Alexis out. He accepts.

Tank bumps into Alexis and they arrange to go out. He behaves badly all night, but she is too drunk to care. When he drops her off she expects him to come in but he resists out of loyalty to Dustin. Alexis calls Dustin, but when they meet she explains that the date with Tank has motivated her to see other men. Dustin sends Alexis roses and an apology poem in Tank's name, and she calls him, berating him for leaving early the previous night. Tank goes to see her and they end up having casual sex on a regular basis while Dustin begins a series of desperate attempts to stay friends with her.

Dustin prepares to go on a date with a single mother, but when he arrives to pick her up, she is breast-feeding her child. In an effort to be funny, he awkwardly remarks that he would like to have what the baby is having. Now creeped out and furious, she yells at Dustin, throws him out and cancels their date. Distraught, he goes to Alexis's, but is told by her roommate that she is busy upstairs with the guy she has been having sex with regularly. Dustin, even more upset and refusing to leave, starts to walk up the stairs only to discover that the man Alexis has been sleeping with is actually Tank.

Tank and Dustin get into a fight and go their separate ways. Tank's feelings for Alexis have grown and he decides to consult with his father. After talking with him, he has doubts that he deserves a serious relationship with her. While attending the wedding of Alexis' sister Rachel, he recognizes her as one of his previous bad dates. The groom, Josh asks him to keep quiet about his use of his services. After overhearing Alexis telling Rachel she has fallen for him, Tank's guilt causes him to sabotage their relationship and apologize to Dustin.

Dustin arrives to the wedding reception, revealing Tank's schemes to Alexis. Tank points out his clients, including the groom, and is punched and thrown out. Alexis, distraught as Tank used her, and that Dustin asked for his help to cheaply win her, never wants to see either of them again. Later, while talking with Dustin and his father, Tank realizes that he loves Alexis, so they encourage him to reconcile with her. Finding her, he jogs with her for a few miles, in an attempt to make amends, but Alexis is unmoved.

Three months later, Tank is on a date when Alexis sees him and spontaneously decides to sabotage it by embarrassing him. Throwing wine in his face, she then announces to the whole restaurant that he left her pregnant. He soon catches on to her "joke", and they continue to loudly exchange insults (some of which shadow ones used previously), each trying to best the other in a "play argument" of insults and bantering, after which they reconcile with a kiss.

The film ends, suggesting their relationship is back on. As the titles roll, Dustin and Alexis' roommate Ami sleep together after realizing their common sexual interests.

The movie is set in 1994. Johnny McFarley, the mentally ill local 12-year-old paperboy, arrives at elderly Mrs. Thorpe's home and asphyxiates the woman with a plastic bag.

The movie then cuts to her daughter, Melissa, a teacher making concluding remarks to her seventh grade English class. When Melissa returns home, she receives a phone call from her friend, Diana, who tells her that her mother has died. Melissa and her daughter, Cammie, travel back to Melissa's hometown for her mother's funeral. Once Melissa and Cammie arrive at the late Mrs. Thorpe's home, they are greeted by an enthusiastic Johnny, who kindly offers to take their luggage inside. Johnny asks permission to join them at the funeral. During the limousine ride to the funeral, Johnny reveals that his mother is dead and that his father, a sales representative, is rarely around because of the nature of his job.

During the funeral, he and Cammie sneak inside the room at the funeral home where the caskets are kept. Johnny gets in one, which makes Cammie uncomfortable. He intimidates Cammie into keeping the secret by having her say with him: "Flesh to flesh, skin to skin. Tell the secret and die for your sin!"

After the funeral, Johnny sneaks into the Thorpe house and places a baby monitor in the vent so he can eavesdrop. Later, Melissa invites Johnny to a barbecue that she and Cammie are having, in which Johnny accepts under the condition that he is allowed to cook. Johnny takes a video of the BBQ while he waits for Melissa, only to discover that she is going on a date with her boyfriend, Brian. When Brenda arrives to babysit Cammie, Johnny reacts violently by smashing a barbecue plate and then runs home.

Later that night, Johnny walks back to Melissa's house with a letter of apology, only to stumble upon Brenda making out with her boyfriend. Brenda catches him and, the next morning, tells Melissa that Johnny has been spying on her. Brenda catches Johnny on his bicycle and sprays him with a water hose. That night, Johnny seeks revenge by snapping wires to the antenna that Brenda uses to sneak into her bedroom window without her parents knowing. Johnny is successful in his scheme, which causes Brenda to fall and injure herself. The next morning, Johnny later explains casually to Melissa and Diana that Brenda broke her neck and is now paraplegic.

When Johnny takes Cammie along to collect money from his paper route, he tells her that one of his customers, Mrs. Rosemont, is a witch. When Johnny walks away from Cammie to retrieve his money from the mailbox, Mrs. Rosemont warns Cammie that Johnny is "not right in the head". He has the mark, the Mark of Cain and that she should stay away from him. Later, Cammie tells her mother what was revealed to her when she was with Johnny collecting money. Concerned, Melissa confronts Mrs. Rosemont. Rosemont said she was only telling Cammie to be on her guard and also "That McFarley boy, he's bad!"

Johnny sneaks into Melissa's house in order to make an apple pie. He tells Melissa that his mom always made him an apple pie when he behaved. Melissa is not pleased about this. She tells Johnny she is not his mother and tells him to leave. Johnny gets mad and breaks the plate the apples laid on. He then pulls back the knife as if he was going to stab Melissa and Cammie, but instead stabs the table and gives them an evil look. Later that night, Johnny, along with his father, apologizes for his actions. Melissa tells Johnny that he cannot come to the house unless he is invited. She then tells his father that he should spend more time with him. Johnny's father gives his son a set of golf clubs as an apology for not being there for him, and tells Johnny that they will be spending much more time together in California because of a recent promotion. Fearing that he will not see what he considers to be "his family" again, Johnny kills his father with a fold-out putter, declaring he already has a new life.

Soon, Melissa goes to Mrs. Rosemont, where it is explained that Johnny was emotionally and physically abused by his mother, who went by the Word of God her entire life and tried to raise her son with discipline in spite of his incorrigible attitude and constant resistance, and that he murdered her by pushing her down the stairs in the cellar of their house. Melissa calls Brian and tells him that they can remove Johnny from his house and have him placed in foster care if they can prove that he's either neglected or abused. When Johnny finds out about their conversation (owing to his eavesdropping device), he grows angry and rides his bike to Mrs. Rosemont's house. He snatches her inhaler and leads her to believe that he killed her dog - he actually smashed ketchup bottles while the dog was in a different room completely fine. Unable to breathe without her inhaler, Mrs. Rosemont has a fatal asthma attack.

Johnny then goes to Brian's workplace, knocks him out with a baseball bat, and sets him on fire with gasoline, having despised Brian because earlier in the movie, Johnny asked if he could tag along when Brian asked to take Melissa and Cammie out for pizza. Brian told him "Not tonight, slugger. Shouldn’t you be out with some friends of your own age playing ball or something?" However, unknown to Johnny, Brian manages to regain consciousness fast enough to escape. Johnny then calls Melissa and tells her to come to his house. Melissa denies Johnny's request until she hears Cammie calling her name. Johnny's true intentions are finally unveiled when he reveals that he killed Melissa's mother to lure them to the house in hopes of starting a new family. Melissa frantically searches Johnny's house wherever she hears Cammie's voice only to find that the sound has been coming from Johnny's home movie and the baby monitor in the basement. Ultimately, Melissa incessantly refuses to be Johnny's mother and declares that she and the rest of the family hate him. Enraged, Johnny then tries to bury Melissa in a hole created for his father, only to have her escape through the window.

Armed with a pickaxe, Johnny pursues Melissa and Cammie, intent on killing Melissa as revenge for being rejected. Johnny and Melissa struggle with the pickaxe until the police arrive. Johnny tries to use this to his advantage, frantically lying, saying Melissa is crazy and tried to kill him, even saying she murdered his father. However, to his horror, Johnny sees Brian step out of the squad car, having already told the police the whole truth and saying that it's over. The cops arrest a hysterical Johnny as he breaks down into a violent, uncontrollable rage, while the cops have a talk with Melissa, Brian, and Cammie about the whole situation with Johnny as the film ends.

The film tells the story of a poor farm-worker who, according to local tradition, must take his 70-year-old mother into the mountains to die. Deciding to break the custom, he instead returns home with his mother. The film has the similar subject as the Japanese films, ''The Ballad of Narayama'' (1958) (Keisuke Kinoshita) and ''The Ballad of Narayama'' (1983) (Shohei Imamura).

Told from Clough's point of view, the novel is written as his stream of consciousness as he tries and fails to impose his will on a team he inherited from his bitter rival, Don Revie, and whose players are still loyal to their old manager. Interspersed are flashbacks to his more successful days as manager of Derby County. Described by its author as "a fiction based on a fact", the novel mixes fiction, rumour and speculation with documented facts to depict Clough as a deeply flawed hero; foul mouthed, vengeful and beset with inner demons and alcoholism.

The film follows the basic sequence of the drama, with the lead protagonist saving a young woman from a drunk on the train. The young woman sends him a set of Hermès tea cups as a thank you.

Eddie Devane (William McNamara) is a young sailor who has carried out a number of inventory-related scams along with his partner-in-crime Howard (Crispin Glover) and made a lot of money during his service. A day before his discharge, Eddie is assigned to escort a prisoner from the Marine Corps Base at Camp Lejeune along with the authoritarian, no-nonsense Chief Petty Officer Rock Reilly (Tom Berenger). Eddie is of course not pleased with this development. When Howard sees a grumpy-looking Eddie being escorted from his superior's office by a couple of other seaman, he thinks Eddie has been found out and arrested for his scams. In order to destroy evidence, he goes to Eddie's desk and finds the money, the existence of which Eddie had concealed from him.

Eddie and Rock's personalities clash many times during the trip to Camp Lejeune. When they reach their destination, they discover that the prisoner they are transporting is a beautiful young girl, Toni Johnson (Erika Eleniak). However, they soon discover that taking her back is no easy job when she attempts to escape disguised as a waitress at a diner but is caught. Later, she feigns the onset of her period and puts tampons inside the van's gas tank which leads to the van being stalled in the road. While walking, the trio come across an abandoned mine and accidentally fall down the shaft. They try to get out standing on each other's shoulders. Toni gets out first, ditches them and runs away but has a change of heart later and comes back for them.

They stay for the night in a motel while their van is being repaired. They converse and bond in a diner where it is revealed that Rock is divorced from his wife and estranged from his son, and Toni had first gone AWOL to visit her delinquent, drug-addicted brother in a hospital. When the authorities attempted to arrest her, she resisted and made more attempts to escape, leading to her current sentence. Her brother died while she was in prison. This makes them see her in a new light and understand the motivations behind her actions. Later in the night, Eddie finds out that Howard has taken all the money as well as the new car Eddie was planning to buy. He calls Howard, who says he was tired of being used, but says if Eddie answers a riddle he will turn around: "How do you talk to the fish?", which Eddie cannot answer. Unbeknownst to them, Toni listens to their conversation on another receiver, and realizes he embezzled $150,000 from the Navy. Distressed, he gets drunk. When he returns to the motel, Toni seduces him, and the two have sex.

Next morning, Eddie wakes up and sees Toni run away. She steals the car of the man who picked her up (director Dennis Hopper in a cameo). While giving her chase, Eddie and Rock's van accidentally climbs up an artificial volcano in an amusement park and falls down but they both escape unhurt. They catch up with Toni only to discover that her brother's funeral is soon and she is running away with the intention of being present there. Frustrated with the situation, Rock and Eddie have a fistfight. The three then go to a bar, where Toni apologizes to Eddie for fleeing that morning and mentions "Drop them a line", answering Howard's riddle, revealing she had accidentally listened in on the conversation; she then brokers a reconciliation between Eddie and Rock. They journey to their base and hand Toni over.

Eddie realizes that he is in love with Toni and wants to rescue her. Rock is of agreement. When Toni is being transported to the prison to begin her sentence, Eddie and Rock sabotage the van in the same way as she had sabotaged their van earlier. Eddie impersonates a tow truck driver and takes the van away with Toni inside, while the navy guards were outside the truck.

In the epilogue set one year later, Eddie and Toni are living it up "somewhere south of the border," and Rock, now retired from the Navy, has begun a relationship with a waitress he met at the diner before.

During World War I, two American Doughboys, Tommy Turner and Gilbert Simpson, are more interested in picking up girls than in military duty. In Paris, they go AWOL in order to follow their libertine pursuits. They alternate between impersonating officers in order to impress the ladies, and avoiding being found out by the military police. During their hijinks, the pair accidentally steal the car of Colonel Marshall (their commanding officer), which is how Tommy meets and falls in love with Annette, who unbeknownst to him is Colonel Marshall's younger daughter.

The Colonel has been tasked with organizing a major offensive at the front. His older daughter, Eileen, is in love with a young Lieutenant, Jim Reed. The Colonel intends to send Reed to the front with the orders. However, to get Tommy and Gilbert back in the Colonel's good graces, Annette and the Colonel's paramour, Olga, who has taken an interest in Gilbert, scheme by stealing the orders from Reed and giving them to the boys, so that they can be the ones to carry them to the front.

After a dramatic scene at the front, the two are apprehended by the MPs, and brought to Colonel Marshall, for justice. He readies the firing squad, but after the two point out that the "secret papers" they were carrying to the commanding General, was actually a love letter from Olga to the very married Colonel. The Colonel then agrees to allow Tommy to marry his youngest daughter Annette and Gilbert will marry Olga. The Colonel also gives his consent to the marriage between his oldest daughter, Eileen, and Jim Reed.

Donald Holden, upon his release from the British Armed Forces, discovers that he had been pronounced as dead more than a year ago, which may complicate his love for the beautiful Celia Devereaux. When he announces the mistake to her, they are reconciled, but strange things have been happening to the Devereaux family. Celia's sister Margot died in mysterious circumstances more than a year ago, after an evening of spooky games during which each guest wore the death mask of a famous murderer. The London offices of a fortune teller have been abandoned, but someone still uses them. And someone or something has been moving the coffins around inside a sealed mausoleum. Some people think that Celia has inherited the family taint of hysteria, but it takes the combined efforts of Donald Holden and Gideon Fell to explain Margot's death and the moving coffins.

Category:1947 American novels Category:Novels by John Dickson Carr Category:Hamish Hamilton books Category:Harper & Brothers books

James Vaughan and Hugh Prentice are the two junior partners of the law practice of Prentice, Prentice & Vaughan and its senior partner, Hugh's uncle Charles Prentice. Hugh and his fiancé Helen are in Hugh's office, which is littered with detective stories; a French-speaking Arab who calls himself Abu of Ispahan arrives and asks for an appointment to discuss a private matter. Helen leaves, and Hugh must deliver a brief to famed defense lawyer Patrick Butler. Since Abu wishes to deal with no one except "Meester Pren-tees", Hugh asks him to wait for forty-five minutes; before Hugh leaves, Abu announces "All my troubles have been caused by your gloves." Hugh goes down the hall to speak with James Vaughan. When they hear a scream, both rush back to Hugh's office to find Abu stabbed; he has just enough time and breath to gasp "Your gloves" in French before he expires. Hugh immediately enlists the help of Patrick Butler, who is accompanied by the upper-crust Lady Pamela de Saxe. The three, with occasional assistance from Helen, embark upon a series of breakneck escapes from the police and Hugh's strait-laced uncle while they gather evidence (including the beautiful stage magician Cécile Feyoum, Abu's widow). In the course of the evening, Hugh falls out of love with Helen and into love with Pam, and at the night's climax Patrick Butler calls everyone together and reveals the name of the murderer, and the meaning of the gloves.

Category:1956 American novels Category:Novels by John Dickson Carr

In a little university town in the U.S. state of Virginia, surrounding Queen's College, Professor Mark Ruthven and his wife Brenda are arguing furiously because she is about to leave to meet her lover. Before the night is over, young and voluptuous Rose Lestrange will apparently walk into her bedroom and stab herself with a razor-sharp dagger—at least, that's what the police say, because the windows and door are securely locked and bolted from the inside. But Rose was being blackmailed. Is the blackmailer the same person who's been playing vicious pranks around the College's grounds, and also the murderer? Is the key to how the murder room was locked and bolted from the inside to be found in a locked-room mystery novel plotted by Wilkie Collins? It takes Dr. Fell to sort out the lies and reveal the surprising truth.

Around the start of the 20th century, a shadowy stage magician named Maleger tours the world, performing feats so mysterious and hideous that his act frightens children and even adults. In 1912, he purchases the famous ''Schloss Schadel'', or "Castle Skull", on the banks of the Rhine River in Germany, and he transforms the ruin into a nightmarish place consistent with its terrifying history (including scenes of torture, insanity and suicide). Maleger later disappears on a train trip, and partial remains found in the Rhine are officially identified as his. Suspicions swirl around the case, with conflicting theories that the magician died in an accident, committed suicide, was murdered, or even faked his own death.

In the years afterward, the magician becomes an almost legendary figure, and the castle endures as a grim landmark. Meanwhile, two of Maleger's very few friends become famous in their own right. One of these is American actor Myron Alison, who owns a large home just across the river from Castle Skull. The other is Belgian financier Jérôme D'Aunay, one of the world's richest men. One night in the late 1920s, Alison pays a mysterious visit to the castle, where he is spotted running in distress. Help arrives too late, but it's clear that he was murdered -- first shot, then doused in kerosene and set afire. D'Aunay, expressing fears that others will die, hires legendary Paris detective Henri Bencolin and his associate Jeff Marle to investigate the bizarre slaying.

Bencolin, who sets up his headquarters in Alison's former home, finds himself dealing with a weird cast of suspects and an array of seemingly incomprehensible clues. He also has to re-examine old rumors about what really happened to Maleger years before. Because the case has attracted so much publicity, Bencolin has to compete in his investigation with Germany's greatest detective, who was once his rival in wartime espionage.

Category:1931 American novels Category:Novels by John Dickson Carr

The year is 1492 and Spain is in the grip of the Inquisition. The Church has sponsored anti-Jewish sentiment in the populace, culminating in the expulsion by royal edict of the entire Jewish community from their homes of many generations. Those that have not converted are forced to leave.

However, 15-year-old Yonah Toledano has been left behind. He has lost family members to the troubles, both his father, a celebrated Spanish silversmith, and his brother. On a donkey named Moise, he journeys, remaining a Jew, growing to manhood across Spain to escape his fate.

Harriet Morton lives in Cambridge with her widowed father, the overprotective Professor Morton who teaches Classics at the University, and her controlling Aunt Louisa, who wishes her to marry an uninteresting entomology professor named Edward Finch-Dutton. When Harriet is two years old her mother dies from pneumonia. After her father and aunt ban her from attending school, believing women should not be highly educated, the only freedom allowed to her are ballet lessons at Madame Lavarre's school. One day, a lesson is visited by Sasha Dubrov, a famous ballet master who asks Harriet to join his company for a tour of South America, which will begin in Manaus. When Harriet brings up the idea at a family party her father refuses to let her join the tour out of fear that she'll get hurt. Professor Morton and Aunt Louisa eventually pull Harriet out of ballet believing that she'll be safer at home. Professor Morton tells Harriet that going to South America is too dangerous.

Shortly after this incident, Harriet joins Edward, Aunt Louisa and the rest of the Trumpington Tea Circle on a tour of Stavely, an old stately home which is beginning to fall into disrepair. While there, she leaves the group to explore the maze in the grounds, within which she meets Henry St. John Verney Brandon, the son of the estate's owner, reading a book entitled "Amazon Adventure". Henry tells Harriet about his own desire to travel to the Amazon, and about the book's owner - 'The Boy', who lived in the estate many years ago, and whom Henry, hearing the tales of the nurse the two shared, idolizes. Harriet, who has decided to run away to join the ballet company, promises Henry that she will search for 'The Boy' in Manaus, where he is thought to live.

Harriet then runs away by pretending to visit her friend Miss Betsy Fairfield, cancelling the visit at the last minute without her aunt's knowledge. She joins the Company and they practice for a week in Century Theatre before leaving for Manaus, where they will perform ''Giselle'', ''Swan Lake'', ''La Fille Mal Gardee'', and ''Casse Noisette'' (The Nutcracker). On the first night in Manaus, Harriet's performance attracts the attention of Rom Verney, a wealthy Englishman who Harriet soon correctly suspects is 'The Boy' that Henry mentioned. The pair meet at a party Rom throws in his capacity as chairman of the Opera House trustees, and are instantly attracted to each other.

The next day, Harriet confirms that Rom used to live at Stavely, and asks him to help out there "For Henry's sake" which angers Rom - who recalls his past as the youngest son of Stavely's former owner, who, upon his father's death, was ousted by his older half brother Henry, and left by his fiancée Isobel who then married Henry. Meanwhile, in England, the elder Henry Brandon is dead, having committed suicide after bankrupting the estate, leaving Isobel widowed and penniless. She then recalls Rom, and decides to travel to Manaus to enlist his help. She is joined on the steamer by Edward, sent by Harriet's concerned father, who has discovered her deception, to bring her home in an effort to keep Harriet safe.

Isobel is delayed when Henry develops measles and the pair are forced to stop while he recovers. Edward travels on to Manaus to find Harriet; however, the ballet company form a plan to stop him. With Rom's help, they convince Edward that ballet is a perfectly respectable career, and he should convince Harriet's father to let her continue on the tour. However, Edward is then outraged when he sees Harriet burst out of a cake and dance in her underclothes at a gentleman's club - which she does only to save her friend Marie-Claude from being seen at the club by her fiancé's cousin. Edward decides to kidnap Harriet and take her back home, but she escapes with the help of Rom who has since realized the misunderstanding. 'Harriet's' Henry is, in fact, Rom's nephew whereas Rom has presumed that Harriet is talking about Rom's elder half brother, Henry, who is also 'Harriet's' Henry's father.

Forced to abandon the ballet to avoid Edward, Harriet takes refuge in Rom's house, where, at her request, they become lovers. While Harriet believes that Rom will shortly leave her, Rom intends to propose to Harriet, but is disturbed by her occasionally distant attitude, which he believes is distress at being forced to abandon her promising ballet career. Harriet returns to Manaus to say goodbye to the ballet company as they leave for the next stop on the tour, and returns to Rom's house to find Henry waiting for her there, who informs her that his mother plans to marry Rom. She leaves without saying goodbye to Rom, and returns with the ballet company to England, intending to travel on to Russia and perform. However, she is captured by her father. Professor Morton and Aunt Louisa lock Harriet in the house as punishment for many months. Professor Morton and Aunt Louisa explain that they're punishing Harriet for her own good and they're trying to protect her.

After Harriet has given up all hope, Rom finally tracks her down, having been searching since the day she disappeared. He pretends to be a doctor in order to smuggle her from her aunt's custody, and then tells her that he intends to marry her and make her the mistress of Stavely, which he has now purchased. He forces her father to give his permission, intimidating him in front of his students, who then rebel against their most boring teacher.

In the epilogue, the pair are happily married with two children, Natasha and Paul Alexander, and Harriet being pregnant with their third. Henry, who has inherited part of the estate from Rom, intends to return to Follina, Rom's home in the Amazon, and fulfill his dream of becoming an explorer. In marrying Rom, Harriet finds her freedom. Isobel has also remarried and lives in India. Edward has married a slightly violent Russian girl named Olga, a previous member of Harriet's ballet company.

The book was inspired by Juliette Rocher.

The point of divergence occurs in June, 1942, where ''Reichsprotektor'' Reinhard Heydrich barely survives an assassination attempt in Prague. Historically, Heydrich was killed; this is the breakpoint which provides the basis for the rest of the novel.

In February, 1943, shortly after the German defeat at Stalingrad, Heydrich meets with Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS. Foreseeing Germany's probable defeat, Heydrich convinces his superior to begin preparations for a possible partisan campaign should German forces lose the war.

Two years later, Allied forces have conquered Germany, and Hitler and Himmler are both dead by their own hands. With the Nazi government having surrendered, insurgents under Heydrich's command immediately begin a series of guerrilla attacks against the occupying forces, using car bombs, improvised explosive devices, anti-tank rockets, and suicide bombers. The insurgents assassinate Soviet Marshal Ivan Konev and American General George S. Patton. Though occupation officials quickly become aware of the campaign, they are unable to find any quick solutions to it. The American and British military attempt to tighten security in their sectors, while the Soviet NKVD spearheads a ruthless suppression of German civilians, including deportations and reprisal killings. The French also conduct similar repressive measures in their occupation zone.

As the casualties mount, Americans at home begin to question the effort. An Indiana housewife, who is informed that her son died on occupation duty, turns against American policy and forms an organization agitating to bring American soldiers home. Her Congressman, a Republican, uses the issue to launch attacks against the Truman administration and is soon joined by other members of his party. In Germany, a truck bomb destroys the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg, killing several officials and forcing a postponement of the trials of Nazi war criminals. In Berlin, dozens of Soviet officers are killed at a New Year's Eve party when the insurgency succeeds in poisoning their drinks using wood alcohol. Though the demonstrations in America grow, the Soviets respond by tightening their crackdown further.

Undeterred, Heydrich, concealed in an underground command post in the Bavarian Alps, continues to lead the guerrilla campaign. The American attempt to establish democratic institutions is thwarted when a mortar attack at a rally kills Konrad Adenauer, while the recapture of German nuclear physicists (during which Werner Karl Heisenberg is killed) leads Heydrich to a supply of radium that he uses in a dirty bomb which contaminates the American residential compound in Frankfurt. The Americans and the Soviets enjoy small successes against the insurgency, but the spectacular destruction of the Eiffel Tower in Paris and Westminster Cathedral and St. Paul's Cathedral in London by truck bombs further erodes the Western Allies' resolve to remain in Germany.

In the United States, the Republicans win the midterm Congressional elections of 1946. Now in control of Congress, they increase pressure on President Truman to withdraw American forces, refusing to fund their further presence. Though American officers appreciate the need to remain, discontent grows with the enlisted ranks, as many draftees begin staging protests demanding to be returned home. Another attempt to convene war-crimes trials against the Nazi leadership in the Soviet sector is frustrated when a Douglas C-47 Skytrain loaded with explosives crashes into the courthouse, killing the judges and staff inside.

American troops are now being withdrawn in increasing numbers. The Americans organize German civilian police in their zone, but this force's loyalty to democracy and ability to combat the re-emerging Nazis is doubtful. The C-47 attack finally brings about a degree of cooperation between the Soviet and American counterintelligence services. At a meeting, the Soviets turn over a Holocaust survivor who worked as a slave laborer constructing the bunker system Heydrich is using. He leads American forces to the bunker where the insurgent leader is hiding. When the U.S. Army begins to dig into the bunker, Heydrich and a group of his men attempt to escape, but come under fire by U.S. soldiers which results in Heydrich being killed. This success does not end the insurgency, however; Heydrich's deputy Joachim Peiper takes over as ''Reichsprotektor'' and orders the hijacking of three civilian airliners. While the Soviets remain committed to the occupation and to crushing the resistance, the Americans and British complete their withdrawal, leaving the Nazis ready to reemerge in western Germany. However, the French and Soviets tighten their grip on their occupation zones, leaving the ultimate fate of Germany in question as tensions continue to rise among the three remaining factions.

A Sailor Steve Costigan story. Steve Costigan is not too popular with the Old Man of the Sea Boy, so he goes ashore and takes his also in trouble bulldog Mike with him. When a Frenchman sinks a boot into Mike, well, a man who doesn’t stick up for his dog is the lowest of the low. Steve and Francois have to settle this in the ring.

The story is now in the public domain.

Kipling "Kip" Morgan takes his on-off girlfriend Anjelica McTavish back to his apartment after despondently sitting through the funeral of his friend and mentor, the biochemist George Liebert. However they find that the place, which is attached to the pro shop at the golf course where Kip works, has been worked over by George's daughter Nancy. She has always been "difficult", but after Kip consoled her at the funeral she decided they were in love. She has redecorated the apartment and the pro shop storeroom on the theme of love, with whatever materials were handy, including paint.

They evict Nancy, but Anjelica leaves too, with her usual remark that Kip should be doing more with his talents. He started studying law, then switched to science, where he did well until a mysterious psychosomatic affliction stopped him cold. He dropped out and held a series of outdoor jobs, ending up as a golf pro at a local course.

Next morning Kip gets a shock when he drinks his breakfast prune juice. He is violently sick, and realizes that Nancy has spiked the juice with a vitamin that her father isolated from pigs. The compound seems harmless to most animals, although it causes monkeys to go insane and literally bite themselves to death.

Kip is even more shocked when he begins hearing voices from within his body. He discovers that he can see four small ghostly, malevolent-looking humanoid creatures sitting on his shoulders. He is able to talk to them, and discovers that they are the spirits of dead people inhabiting his body. Once they realize that he is aware of them, he is put into "quarantine". Nobody he meets will look at him or acknowledge his existence. The same thing happens to Anjelica and Nancy.

The three of them take over an empty suite at a hotel and steal to supply their needs. Anjelica, who works for a politician, relishes the opportunity to spy on rivals. Nancy is as unbalanced as ever except for her new-found attachment to Kip. Kip, for his part, cannot stand the voices of his spirits. Realizing that they were responsible for driving him away from science and towards an outdoor life, he tries to drive them out by doing things they find repugnant, such as studying science. Fighting the torture they inflict on him, he succeeds. For a while he is free. He begins to believe that all the different phases of his life had something to do with the spirits that inhabited him, starting with a set he must have inherited when his uncle, a lawyer, died suddenly at his home. However his relief is short-lived. His four outdoor-loving spirits are replaced with seven who are a lot nastier.

The three outcasts go on a rampage through their world. Anjelica steals and spies to her heart's content. Kip drives out his new tenants, only to get even worse ones. He becomes a barfly under their influence. He wanders through the seedy parts of town, until he overhears a message passed through one of the local storefront mediums. It tells him that "One drink is half a drink, two drinks is a drink too much, and three drinks is no drink at all." This inspires him to attempt suicide by drinking more of Nancy's sample of the mystery vitamin. Unfortunately, once the vomiting stops he finds he is in worse shape. Not only can he see and hear his own spirits, he can see and hear everyone else's. Nancy has a set consisting of two rabid prudes and two sluts, explaining her erratic behavior.

Finally Kip works out that the system must be run by old spirits who, naturally, would have the best and most desirable hosts, the kind of people who seem to lead charmed lives and enjoy infinite privilege. Breaking into the home of one of these, he finds the occupying spirits, and threatens to dose the host with the vitamin unless he gets a better deal, not just for him but for everyone who is inhabited by spirits that are bad for them.

He eventually gets his way. The spirits have a measure of revenge because after the quarantine is lifted the three of them are arrested. Most of the charges are dropped, although Kip and Anjelica both lose their jobs. Anjelica, who had always seemed ambitious, is even more so without the restraint of the spirits. She packs and leaves for pastures new, much to Kip's dismay. However Nancy, with more compatible tenants, suddenly seems much more interesting to him.

Kip also realizes that the message he overheard from the medium was meant for him, and it came from George Liebert. The final part "Three drinks is no drink at all" gives him an idea. He drinks the vitamin for the third time, and the voices stop.

Ben Clayburn (Pete Morrison) uses the guise of a sheep rancher when sent to the town of Point Rock to track down the leader of a band of rustlers. He is accused himself of being one if the rustlers and Postmistress Nell Wyndham (Helen Gibson) saves him from an angry lynch mob. The two team up, and using her knowledge of the locals track down and capture the real outlaws.

A reformed outlaw enlists the aid of his former gunslinging companions to defend a small shepherd community from domineering cattle barons.

Sven Persson (Samuel Fröler), who owns a textile company in Estonia, hires Nikolaus Lehman (Christoph M. Ohrt) to take care of local gangsters who are attempting to pressure Persson into paying 'protection' money. To Persson's surprise and shock, Lehman takes care of the problem by killing the gangsters and demands a share of the company's profit. A threatened Persson seeks out his old friend and police officer Johan Falk (Jakob Eklund), who has been assigned a desk job as a disciplinary action by his superiors.

Falk realizes that the police can't do anything to protect Persson and his family, and seeks out a security company run by Mårtenson (Krister Henriksson) and Pernilla (Alexandra Rapaport). They agree to help Persson and Falk is offered a job at the company, which he quickly accepts.

His first feature film, Chusy had originally envisioned his movie as twenty different stories. Of those twenty, four stories were shot in their entirety, and two stories were started but never finished. The fourth story, tentatively titled "Holes," was excluded from the final cut to avoid an extended runtime and to ensure by implication its chance to compete in the Sundance Film Festival.

Part 1:Penance

''Penance'', the opening story of the film, follows a woman who just discovered the Internet, her philandering boyfriend, and his jingoistic sidekick who happens to be a dwarf.

Part 2: Loss

''Loss'', originally titled ''Wanderlings'', is the second story in the film. Perla Haney-Jardine stars as Pearl, an 8-year-old girl who faces an existential crisis during her pursuit of the tooth fairy.

Part 3: Ignorance

''Ignorance'', tentatively titled ''Black and White'', is the third and final act of the film.

The film opens with a local man driving to the home of Lawrence and Darius, twin brothers who operate a local store. Upon entering the home, the man discovers Darius dead in his bedroom with Lawrence sitting on the couch unable to speak. Lawrence then walks to a neighboring property and shoots himself in the chest, which he survives. In the hospital, it is revealed that Darius committed suicide. Depressed and unable to return to the store he owns, Lawrence spends his days at the property he shared with his brother. Meanwhile, James, Darius' estranged pubescent son, steals Lawrence's gun and holds him at gunpoint for money to buy crack. After a failing to repay debts to his drug dealer, James and his mother, Marlee, are targeted in a drive-by assault. Unable to return home, Marlee confronts Lawrence about Darius leaving her and James many years prior and moves into Darius' vacant apartment. After she is fired from her job as a cleaner, James convinces Lawrence to buy them food, which he does. Bound by these numerous tragedies, the trio form a de facto family, determined to move forward, starting with Marlee convincing Lawrence to let her run the store. The pair loosely decides to raise James together, beginning with a shared homeschooling schedule to keep James away from the negative influences that led him to drugs in the first place. The film ends when Lawrence discovers that ammunition is missing. He confronts James, fearing he has found himself another gun, only to find that James had thrown the bullets into a stream, to prevent Lawrence from attempting to harm himself again.

From the press release:

Dead to everything except painful pleasure, an unhappily married woman, Nancy, leaves her silent husband behind to meet a fellow broken soul in search of a final release. Louis is a quiet dispenser of pleasure, Nancy is the mechanism set to self-destruct. Beyond therapy, beyond medication, beyond feeling, Nancy is left with the only coping mechanism she ever knew, violence. Together, they journey through the darkest recesses of the human mind before finding solace in each other's arms. For Nancy, solace can only come from death, for Louis, it can only come from Nancy. Nancy's husband Albert is left with an empty house, filled with only the memory of his wife's unbearable loneliness and a final, endless understanding of how bleak life could be. The relationship between Louis and Nancy straddles the thin line between pleasure and pain, crossing over into a film that is as emotional as it is unnerving.

The film focuses on three African-American youths living in an urban neighborhood. Nathaniel Hamilton (Jamaal Wilkes, credited as Keith Wilkes) is a star basketball player from the neighborhood, who also goes by the nickname of "Cornbread." In the movie, he epitomizes the dream of the neighborhood to be successful, as he is about to become the first from his district to enter college on an athletic scholarship.

He is also a local hero to the much younger friends Earl Carter (Tierre Turner) and Wilford Robinson (Laurence Fishburne). The plot thickens after a pick-up basketball game ends because of a heavy rain, and all the kids run to the local store and hang out, waiting for the rain to end. All the kids leave, except for Cornbread, Earl and Wilford. Earl and Wilford get into a playful argument about how fast Cornbread can run home. It is decided that Cornbread should make it home in 25 seconds, so he runs off, after buying another soda for himself.

Unknown to all of them, an assault suspect is in the neighborhood, and he is dressed like Cornbread. The two police officers are hot on the suspect's trail, but lose him in the rain. As the police officers are coming out of an alleyway, they see Cornbread running and mistake him for the suspect they are seeking. Subsequently, Cornbread is shot in the back, and he dies in the street.

Wilford screams hysterically, and a riot ensues. The coroner's inquest is hampered by severe police intimidation, and no one knows anything about the shooting, except for Wilford, who becomes a man on the witness stand by telling exactly what he saw, in graphic detail.

The story follows two young school children named ''Yamato'' and ''Tsubasa'' who find two small insects, a butterfly named ''Y-Ite'' and a rhino beetle named ''K-Buto''. The insects came from a world called ''Cimexus'' and were looking for human allies to save their home world from an impending threat called the Black Swarm. The two children agree to help and head to Cimexus to fight the Black Swarm.

A video store clerk stalks, spies on and manipulates a reclusive woman, who often comes to the video store where he works to rent soft-core porn. Eventually, despite his strong optimism, her dislike of sex and resulting defensiveness drives them apart. It is revealed toward the end of the film that her dislike of both sex and relationships was fueled by sexual abuse at the hands of her father. The film ends with a confrontation with her father, and ultimately Ritter's character reuniting with her.

In ''A Man's Gotta Do'', Eddy (John Howard), lives with his wife, Yvonne (Rebecca Frith), and their daughter, Chantelle (Alyssa McClelland), in a new suburb in the Illawarra part, south of Sydney.

Eddy is a fisherman by day, but by night he works as a standover man, literally a toe-cutter. Dominic, (Gyton Grantley), is his new offsider.

Chantelle is upset because her fiancé, Rudi, a Russian air conditioning specialist, has disappeared. Did her Dad have something to do with it?

The frustrated Yvonne begins flirting with Paul, the plumber, (Rohan Nicol). Eddy encourages Dominic to read his daughter's diary thinking that's the way to get a better understanding of her needs.

After failing to qualify for the 1974 FIFA World Cup, England manager Alf Ramsey is replaced by Don Revie (Colm Meaney), the highly successful manager of Leeds United. Revie's replacement at Leeds is Brian Clough (Michael Sheen), the former manager of Derby County and a fierce critic of Leeds because of their violent and physical style of play under Revie's management. Furthermore, Clough's long-time assistant, Peter Taylor (Timothy Spall), has not joined him.

The roots of Clough's conflict with Leeds are depicted as happening in a 1968 FA Cup match between Leeds, the leaders of the First Division and Derby, who were struggling near the bottom of the Second Division. Clough assumed Revie to be a similar man to himself, as they grew up in the same part of Middlesbrough and both played for Sunderland, and made many preparations for the match. However, on the day of the match, Revie failed to even acknowledge Clough upon entering the Baseball Ground. Derby eventually lost 2–0. Although Clough initially blames the brutality of the Leeds players, he and Taylor recognise that their side are not good on a technical level. So they sign veteran Dave Mackay (Brian McCardie), along with several other young players. Chairman Sam Longson (Jim Broadbent) is extremely anxious about the investment, as well as the fact that Clough did not consult him before signing Mackay. However, in 1969 Derby are promoted, but in their first league game against Leeds they lose 5–0. The club win their first ever League championship in 1972, meaning a European Cup campaign the following year. They go through to the semi-finals against Juventus. Unfortunately, against Longson's advice, Clough uses his best squad in the last match before the semi-final, against Leeds, purely out of pride and determination to beat Revie. They suffer injuries and Billy Bremner (Stephen Graham) sarcastically wishes Clough well for the semi-final. Juventus defeat them 3-1, and Clough publicly lambasts Longson.

Taylor then suffers a heart attack, and Clough tries to secure his position by offering his and Taylor's resignations in a protest against the chairman's unwillingness to fund further signings. He is outraged when the directors accept their resignations and ban them from entering the Baseball Ground again (although Clough later sneaks in as a supporter). Derby fans' protests raise Clough's hopes of being reinstated, and he is backed by the majority of his players as well, but former player Dave Mackay is appointed manager instead. Derby fans quickly lose interest and Clough loses all hope of getting his job back. He and Taylor are then offered jobs at Brighton & Hove Albion. They agree to take the jobs after taking an all-expenses-paid holiday in Majorca. During the holiday that summer, Clough agrees to take control of Leeds after being approached by their representative. Taylor, however, argues the case for staying at Brighton, and after a bitter quarrel, the two go their separate ways.

Back in the storyline's "present”: Clough alienates his players in their first training session, first by accusing them of winning all of their awards by cheating, and then making them start with a 7-a-side game as it they were schoolchildren. When Bremner protests that Revie never made them do this, Clough reminds them that he is not Revie and threatens a severe punishment for any player who mentions the former manager's name or methods again.

The season starts with a Charity Shield match against FA Cup winners Liverpool at Wembley, which is widely anticipated as both the final match of Liverpool manager Bill Shankly and Clough's debut as Leeds manager. Unfortunately, the event is marred when the Leeds captain Billy Bremner gets into a fight with Kevin Keegan. Both are sent off, and in turn throw their shirts off and walk off the pitch bare-chested in defiance. Leeds lose the match, and Bremner is given a two-month suspension from football, forcing Leeds to start the season without their influential captain. As a result, Leeds suffer a horrendous start to the season and are in danger of relegation only one season after winning the title. After Bremner and the players air their grievances to the board, the club terminates Clough's contract after just 44 days - though he forces them to pay an enormous severance package. Afterwards, Clough agrees to do a final interview with Yorkshire Television, but finds Revie there to confront him, bringing the two face-to-face at last. Clough accuses Revie of being 'cold-hearted' and 'fundamentally dishonest', both as a person and a football manager, and Revie in turn brands Clough as 'inflexible and egocentric'. Clough brings up the incident in the 1968 FA Cup, and Revie claims to have not known who the rookie manager was at the time (a doubtful claim considering that Revie was known for meticulously researching every opponent his team faced). After the interview, Clough drives down to Brighton to patch things up with Taylor. It involves Clough literally getting on his knees, grovelling at Taylor's dictation, and they are reconciled.

In the film's epilogue, the audience is told that Don Revie "failed as England manager", and afterwards never worked in football in his home country again, spending the rest of his career working in the Middle East, where he was accused of financial mismanagement. Brian Clough and Peter Taylor, meanwhile, reunited at the "small, provincial club" Nottingham Forest, where they repeated their prior achievements with Derby by helping them win promotion to the First Division and then winning the title. They went on to better both Revie and their own spell at Derby by winning two European Cups in succession, in 1979 and 1980. The film ends with the caption: "Brian Clough remains the greatest manager the England team never had."

Martin Clarke is celebrating his acquisition and refurbishment of an old stately home by inviting a number of guests to stay for the weekend. The house has an unsettling history; two decades ago, the butler, a frail man of over 80 years, was killed when he uncharacteristically decided to swing back and forth from the chandelier, which then fell and killed him. Another report features a chair which leaps off the wall at the viewer. Clarke's guests have been selected as a cross-section of "ordinary, skeptical human beings" and have been invited to investigate the rumours of ghostly hauntings. The weekend begins when, as the guests are entering the home, one woman screams and claims that something has clutched at her ankle—something "with fingers". The host immediately tells the story of a former owner of the home whose death was met with such suspicion of witchcraft from the servants that the body lay as it fell for days, and the servants reported that something seemed to clutch at their ankles. The weekend is off to a spooky start but proceeds spectacularly when three witnesses agree that a gun jumped off the wall and killed a seated guest, with no hand holding it. Famous crime-solver and debunker of impossible crimes Gideon Fell is called in to explain matters and does so in a way that leads to a spectacular and fiery finish.

Category:1940 American novels Category:Novels by John Dickson Carr Category:Locked-room mysteries Category:Hamish Hamilton books Category:Harper & Brothers books

In the small English village of Sodbury Cross, pretty Marjorie Wills is suspected of having poisoned some chocolates in the local tobacco-and-sweet shop, using a method pioneered by historical poisoner Christiana Edmunds. Her uncle, wealthy Marcus Chesney, believes that eyewitnesses are unreliable. He avers that to observe something, then to relate accurately what was just seen, is impossible. In order to prove his statements, he sets up a test; three witnesses are invited to witness some staged events not only in their view but in that of a movie camera. After the events, it is planned that they will answer a list of ten questions. Marcus Chesney takes a principal role in the staged events and, during them, is fed a large green capsule containing poison by a masked and disguised figure wearing black spectacles. Amazingly, the three witnesses cannot agree upon the answers to any of the questions and no one can identify the murderer. It seems as though Chesney very carefully set up the ideal conditions for someone to murder him and escape, but Gideon Fell, upon viewing the movie footage, can answer all ten questions plus the eleventh—who is the murderer?

Category:1939 American novels Category:Novels by John Dickson Carr Category:Locked-room mysteries Category:Hamish Hamilton books Category:Harper & Brothers books

The story begins in a tiny village, where in a small undecorated cottage, a latke is born. The latke, suffering from its immersion in heated olive oil, begins to scream and jumps out the window. It encounters a string of flashing colored lights, which do not appreciate the latke's shrieks and wonder why it was thrown into a pan of boiling oil. The latke explains that the oil is a reminder of "the oil used to rededicate the temple following the defeat of Antiochus at the hands of the Maccabees". The lights compare the latke to hash browns, and suggest it be served with a Christmas ham. The latke exclaims that it is something completely different, and runs away screaming.

The latke then comes across a candy cane, which expresses distaste at the latke's mouthwatering smell. The latke points out that its smell is a reminder of greater modern religious freedom. In 175 BCE, the latke explains, in order to study the Torah, Hebrews needed to hide in caves, and pretended to play with dreidels when Greek soldiers approached. The candy cane equates this with Joseph and Mary hiding in the manger, but the latke insists that this is a totally different thing, and runs off screaming into the forest.

The latke stops to rest under a pine tree, which asks if the latke is a present. The latke tiredly explains that it is more important to light the candles eight nights in a row, "to commemorate the miracle in the temple and the miracle of victory even when you are thoroughly outnumbered". The tree mentions Santa Claus, and although the latke insists that Christmas and Hannukah are completely different, the tree explains that different things often blend together. The tree begins to tell a funny story about pagan rituals when it is interrupted by a family searching the forest for a holiday necessity. They scoop up the latke and take it home, where it is finally "welcomed into a home full of people who understood what a latke is, and how it fits into this particular holiday". Then they eat it.

Dick Markham is engaged to a beautiful but somewhat mysterious young woman named Lesley Grant. When they attend a cricket match in the English village of Six Ashes, they stop at the nearby fair and Lesley insists on seeing the fortune teller. She is apparently unaware that the fortune teller is being played by Sir Harvey Gilman, the Home Office pathologist and expert on crime.

After her session, Dick visits Sir Harvey. The crime expert is about to tell his visitor something unpleasant about Lesley when he is shot and wounded — accidentally, it seems — by Lesley herself. Later that night, Sir Harvey tells Dick that he recognized Lesley as a murderer who killed three husbands but was never convicted . . . because she somehow got the men to inject themselves with poison. Later that night, Sir Harvey dies in a locked and sealed room, in exactly the same fashion as the three husbands.

The famed Dr. Gideon Fell is called in to assist the investigation, and what he says after simply seeing the corpse turns the whole case upside down. The brilliant sleuth knows he is on the trail of a cunning killer with a hidden motive, but his cryptic comments leave everyone else baffled. As Fell unravels the clues, including a set of drawing pins found scattered beside the body, the murderer strikes again. Meanwhile, a desperate Dick Markham can't help wondering whether Lesley is a woman in grave danger or a threat to his life.

Category:1944 American novels Category:Novels by John Dickson Carr Category:Locked-room mysteries Category:Hamish Hamilton books

Garret Anderson, a historian, has enjoyed an unexpected financial windfall when one of his historical biographies is turned into a smash-hit musical. At loose ends, he agrees to visit an old friend's family home in Hampshire, England to bear witness to some unusual happenings. A missing family will is at the heart of matters, but things are also complicated by someone who is playing the role of the ghost of Mr. Justice Wildfare, 18th century hanging judge and family ancestor. When the head of the family is shot with a blank cartridge by a shadowy figure who vanishes through a locked window, and is later shot again, this time more seriously, Gideon Fell is called in to explain the bizarre events and bring them home to the criminal.

Category:1965 American novels Category:Novels by John Dickson Carr Category:Locked-room mysteries Category:Novels set in Hampshire Category:Hamish Hamilton books Category:Harper & Row books

Enemy ninjas from the Land of the Sky arrive in Konoha and quickly set about attacking the village by committing an act of vengeance for the Leaf Village's devastating attack on the Sky Country during the 2nd Great Ninja World War.

While Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno & Hinata Hyuga accompany Amaru & Doctor Shinnō back to their village, Sai & Shino Aburame destroy the sky ninja's ship base. Orochimaru, now suffering from his expired body, orders Sasuke Uchiha to get a man who can help him perfect his reincarnation. At the now burning village, Amaru searches for the villagers, with a trap seemingly killing Doctor Shinnō. After Amaru recovers herself and senses, the remaining allies continue trying to find the missing villagers.

After Hinata is separated from the team, Amaru is possessed by the Zero-Tailed monster, Reibi. Naruto nearly transforms into a tailed beast state, but the seal suppresses the Nine-Tailed Fox’s chakra within him & Amaru resists the power of Reibi. At the floating fortress Ancor Vantian, Naruto learns that the recovered Doctor Shinnō had betrayed them, using Amaru to research the power of darkness 15 years ago, as well as the village's secret scroll. After Doctor Shinnō temporarily activates Body Revival Technique, Naruto stops Amaru from committing suicide and despite their memories.

Sasuke then appears and intervenes, telling the weakened Doctor Shinnō to help Orochimaru, but Doctor Shinnō refuses, giving the reincarnation Jutsu scroll to Sasuke before falling into a trap door. Naruto & Sasuke confront Shinnō, revealing the giant cocoon to be the Zero-Tails and transforming into a chakra-absorbing monster. After Sasuke releases the curse mark and Naruto the fox's chakra, they overload Shinnō with charka, destroying him with the Lightning Blade and Tornado Rasengan. With the fortress no longer having power, Ancor Vantian falls. While several leaf ninjas attempt to infiltrate and destroy the fortress, Amaru, Hinata & the freed villagers prepare to leave.

After Naruto destroys the remaining fortress with the and falls through the sky, Amaru rides on the glider to save him. They then land safely on Gamabunta.

Returning to the hideout & giving the scroll to Orochimaru, Sasuke continues training, reflecting on Naruto's last words to him.

Sandy Shortt has been obsessed with finding things which have been lost, since her childhood rival Jenny-May Butler went missing. Having worked for the Garda, the police force of Ireland, she left her job to start an agency which looks for missing people.

A man named Jack Ruttle asks Sandy for help looking for his younger brother Donal, who went missing the year before. She agrees, never expecting to become missing herself as she discovers the world where everything which has ever been lost goes to, a place called Here.

Jack goes on a search for Sandy believing that she is the key to finding his brother but learning more about her personal life than he should. Meanwhile, Sandy's possessions keeps getting lost from Here but found in this world. Something is bound to happen but the both of them have yet to know what it is.

In 1956, Gabriella (Veronica Moriconi)—a girl with apparent psychic powers—is brought to the enormous house of Dr. Meyer (Cesare Barbetti) in Chartres, France. Meyer intends to conduct an experiment testing her abilities. He takes her into his basement, where the youngster abruptly falls to her knees and begins digging into the dirt. "This is where you're hiding, isn't it?" Meyer yells. He rushes upstairs for help from his assistants and leaves Gabriella by herself. She is attacked by something unseen and is taken to the hospital. In the basement, further digging reveals a rotted corpse, with a nearby wallet identifying the dead man as Paolo Zeder. Dr. Meyer realizes that the earth in which Zeder was buried was a 'K-Zone'.

In present-day Bologna, Stefano (Gabriele Lavia), a novelist, is given an old typewriter as a birthday present by his wife Alessandra (Anne Canovas). One night, after Alessandra has gone to bed, he discovers a series of typed letters on the typewriter's ribbon. As he reads the ribbon, he finds it is an essay written by scientist Paolo Zeder discussing the existence of K-Zones—areas where death ceases to exist. According to Zeder's essay, bodies buried in these zones can return from the dead.

Stefano investigates the message left on the typewriter ribbon. He encounters people who make it clear that they do not appreciate any questions relating to Paolo Zeder or K-Zones. However, the resistance he experiences intrigues him even more. He becomes obsessed with getting answers to the mystery and temporarily abandons his wife. His investigation leads him to a huge old property, ostensibly abandoned but protected by electrified fences. A nearby service station attendant tells Stefano that French investors are building a gigantic hotel on the property, but no work is ever seen being done.

Stefano sneaks onto the property and discovers surveillance equipment with numerous monitors showing the dead face of a man buried in a coffin. Stefano watches the monitors. The dead man is Don Luigi Costa, an ex-priest who abandoned his vows after contracting an incurable disease. Continuing Zeder's work, Costa had himself buried on the property, a suspected K-Zone, and his rebirth from the dead is caught on camera. Stefano manages to elude the conspirators involved in the experimental work, but finds his wife has been murdered by them. At night, Stefano buries her in a K-Zone located on the abandoned property. She revives and approaches her husband. In the darkness, Stefano begins screaming horribly.

Pattyn is seventeen years old and is the oldest of seven girls in a Mormon household. Her father is an alcoholic who beats her mother, believing a wife must succumb to her husband's actions. Her mother believes her duty is to have as many children as possible, especially a boy to carry on the family name, just as her husband wishes. Pattyn's mother, however, only conceived seven girls, named after famous generals: (youngest to oldest) Georgia (George Patton), Roberta (Robert E. Lee), Davie (Jefferson Davis), Teddie (Theodore Roosevelt), Ulyssa (Ulysses S. Grant), Jackie (Jack Pershing), and Pattyn (George Patton). It is alluded to that Pattyn deeply disagrees with the strict Mormon lifestyle she's lived throughout her childhood, as well as the expectations that will be imposed on her as a woman by her Mormon community, and wishes to break free and gain the freedom to become her own person with her own take on life. She appears to also resent her alcoholic father, Stephan Von Stratten, and her oppressed and submissive mother, and also having to care for her six younger sisters during their father's moments of alcohol-induced rage.

Pattyn is unable to take the stress going on in her home, and begins to question her role in life, especially through her father's eyes. Eventually, she starts to experiment with dating Derek without her parents' knowledge. This leads to her getting caught drinking with her boyfriend in the desert, ironically, by her drunken father. Derek, her boyfriend, leaves her for another girl who is more experienced, whom Pattyn punches in the face in rage later on in the story. Pattyn becomes openly defiant and talks back to both her parents and pastor, lashing out and releasing all of the built up emotions and objections she has held for her Mormon lifestyle for a number of years. As a punishment, she is sent away to live with her Aunt Jeanette in eastern Nevada, because her mother is finally expecting a son and does not need to deal with the stress that Pattyn creates.

While Pattyn stays with her Aunt Jeanette, who tells Pattyn to call her "Aunt J", she finds love from her aunt and a boy named Ethan, who studies at UC Davis and is described by Pattyn as "beautiful." Ethan's father, Kevin, was once Aunt J's high school sweetheart; but one day, a deputy pulls them over and when he gets out, Pattyn's father gets out along with the deputy. Pattyn's father savagely beats Kevin and threatens to kill him if their relationship should continue; the reason is that Kevin is not a Mormon.

During the time Pattyn lives with her aunt, she learns how to love and how to be self-confident, and finds out that there is more to life than just religion, which is a belief she had before but was now confirmed. Pattyn is led to believe in God the way her aunt believes in him. Aunt J explains that one does not need "a Mormon husband to meet you at heaven's gates and pull you in", and believes that with love—true and forever love—heaven's gates will open wide. Ethan becomes a dream come true to Pattyn. With each moment they grow closer; it comes to a climax when Pattyn has sex for the first time with him.

Towards the end of the summer, Pattyn doesn't know what to do after she receives letters regarding Jackie receiving beatings as a stand-in for her pregnant mother. They do not confide in Aunt J in fear that she will contact the authorities. Unfortunately for Pattyn and Ethan, her father wants her back home for the school year. And with each day nearing Pattyn's departure, their lovemaking becomes riskier and more rushed.

Pattyn goes back to school as the more confident "new" Pattyn, as she calls herself, but quickly morphs back into "old" Pattyn after her father turns his rage on her. After some time, Pattyn finds out she is pregnant. Ethan and Pattyn plan to leave Nevada, keep the baby, and raise it together. After leaving town, they practice handling a 10 mm handgun for self-defense. In town, word quickly gets out to Pattyn's father and in an attempt to prevent her from leaving, calls his friend to stop them. In the ensuing car chase, Ethan goes on an icy road heading to California to escape the deputy's jurisdiction. But a turn has Ethan lose control and crash the car. In the hospital, Pattyn learns that both Ethan and her baby have died. Shortly after leaving the hospital, Pattyn's father exiles her from home. With nowhere to go, Pattyn vows vengeance on her father and others that have wronged her.

On a snowy Christmas Eve, Marie (Debi Derryberry) and her brother Fritz (Derryberry) are home alone with their Uncle Drosselmeyer (Jim Cummings). Marie and Fritz's parents are away for the night and Marie is dismayed at having to spend Christmas Eve without them. She then wishes for Christmas to go away forever.

A group of anthropomorphic nuts, Colonel (Jeff Bennett), Mac (Cheech Marin), Sparkle (Desirée Goyette), Stash (Kevin Schon), and Gramps (Cummings), overhear her plight, but become relieved at the scene of Uncle Drosselmeyer giving his niece and nephew Christmas gifts: a cannon for Fritz and a nutcracker doll for Marie. The nuts believe that the doll may be their prince (Cam Clarke) and proceed to tell Little Pea (Tress MacNeille), the youngest of the nuts, the story of how the nutcracker prince's relationship with a princess cursed by a mouse queen had turned him into a wooden figure, revealing that only true love will break the spell. Fritz takes the nutcracker from Marie. A chase up the ladder of the Christmas tree ensues, resulting in the doll falling hard to the floor. Upset by how "hurt" her nutcracker is, Marie turns Fritz away. She forgives her brother later in private, telling her nutcracker that out of all her gifts, she loves him the most. After kissing the doll on the lips, Marie becomes tired and falls asleep.

The nuts fall asleep as well, unaware of being targeted by the mouse queen's son, Reginald (Jim Belushi). He plans to steal the Christmas star on the top of the tree and take over the Christmas Kingdom. With his army of mice, he attempts to capture the nuts. The nuts fight toy soldiers, who prove no match against the mice. Mac stages a coup d'état with his own army of fruits and vegetables. The foods are eventually exhausted by fighting; Gramps is captured by three mice. Marie, awakened by the battle, sees her doll alive and fighting Reginald. Marie intervenes; Reginald is infatuated with her, but she brushes the mouse off her foot using the Christmas star. However, as the foods celebrate their victory, Marie is magically reduced to the nutcracker prince's height by Uncle Drosselmeyer.

The foods inform Marie that without the Christmas star, Christmas will be "gone forever". Fortunately, Marie still has the star. They head into the Sugar Plum Fairy's kingdom to seek help in getting the star back on the tree. Just as the entourage reaches the fairy's castle, Reginald shows up and captures Marie. Imprisoned in the cheese foundry of Reginald's palace, Marie laments her failure to save Christmas and imagines herself slow dancing with the prince in a chapel to emotional music. She is then summoned by Reginald, who offers to marry her. She refuses, but eventually sympathizes with the mouse king after learning that no one has given him a single Christmas gift.

The prince and the foods arrive at Reginald's palace, adamant on rescuing Marie and the others captured by Reginald's army. The foods are reluctant at first, but agree to sneak into the palace after noticing the prince's courage. Reginald and his sergeant perform a dance number. The prince is reunited with Marie. Chaos ensues when Reginald overhears a black-eyed pea laughing at him for not winning Marie's heart; a chase on flying motorcycles made of crackers and olives follows suit. In the middle of the chase, Reginald's palace starts to collapse. After the foods are rescued, Reginald falls into the cheese river due to his vehicle running out of fuel. Marie, having grown soft for the king, saves him and loses the star in the process. Reginald admits that it was "the first nice thing that anyone had ever done to [him]" before producing the star to Marie.

The group arrives at the Sugar Plum Fairy's castle, where she reveals that the Christmas star is able to grant any wish including the power to bring Marie's parents home. After making her wish, Marie gently tosses the star to the ceiling and the screen fades to white. Marie wakes up to find her parents greeting her along with Uncle Drosselmeyer and a guest resembling the prince. The film ends with Marie and the prince sharing a kiss while Mac and the nuts provide the mistletoe.

The story takes place in the 1950s. Konstantin “Kostik” Romin (Oleg Menshikov) has come to Moscow to study history and is staying with kindly aunt Alisa ( ), who lives in a "communal apartment" building there. His life soon becomes intertwined with those of the other residents. Among them are Margarita Pavlovna (Inna Ulyanova) and both her former husband Lev Khobotov (Anatoly Ravikovich), a publisher of foreign poetry, and her new beau, World War II veteran and engraver-turned-teacher Savva Ignatevich (Viktor Bortsov).

The main plot revolves around the congenial Khobotov’s attempts to find happiness with newfound love Lyudochka (Yelena Koreneva), while constantly being thwarted by the controlling Margarita. Another tenant is musical comedian Arkady Velyurov (Leonid Bronevoy), who is trying to revive his faltering career and escape from his own loneliness. He has become enamored of a young competitive swimmer, Svetlana (Tatyana Dogileva), who rebuffs his advances but takes a fancy to the opportunistic Kostik.

Kostik finds his own love interest, Rita ( ), for whom he decides to forsake his playboy lifestyle. In the end he becomes the catalyst for both Khobotov and Velyurov to find some measure of happiness: the former elopes with Lyudochka with the help of Kostik's pal Savransky, and the latter is elated that Svetlana attends one of his concerts in response to a telegram Kostik had urged him to send.

Eun-soo, a salesman, is driving his car along Highway 69 while arguing with his pregnant girlfriend, Hae-young, on the phone. The argument leads him into a car-crash. He wakes up in a dark forest and meets a young girl, Young-hee, who takes him to her house, called the 'House of Happy Children'. There, he meets her parents, older brother Man-bok and younger sister Jung-soon. He tries to leave but the children follow his every move. The parents go out leaving him to take care of the kids.

To his surprise, he finds the real mother hiding in the attic. She tells him that the couple are not the children's real parents. Their car broke down on Highway 69 and they met Jung-soon the same way. She tells him not to believe the children. Man-bok brings a couple to the house: the man, Byun is a friendly deacon. Eun-soo discovers that the meat they've eaten is actually from the flesh of the missing father, whose wife has been turned into a china doll. He also notices that Byun's wife has disappeared after accusing Jung-soon of stealing her ring. He secretly follows Man-bok into the woods while keeping a trail of breadcrumbs so as not to get lost. He discovers Byun's wife has been turned into an oak tree.

Man-bok stops in front of a mysterious door and his face changes to an old man's. When he leaves, Eun-soo enters the room and looks over the notebook that the siblings have been working on for a long time. He realizes that the children are over thirty years old. He learns that Man-bok has the power of telekinesis and can make people do things by imagining the actions: he is the one who turned the women into a china doll and oak tree earlier. When Eun-soo sees his own drawing in the notebook, he becomes determined to stop the children before they murder him. Back at the house, he discovers that Byun is actually a religious cult leader trying to kill the children. He knocks Byun out and listens to the children's side of the story from Young-hee.

The kids used to live in an orphanage called the 'House of Happy Children', where the abusive caretaker raped the girls and beat the boys. Man-bok discovered his powers during Christmas, when he made Santa Claus appear. Santa told the siblings of their powers and gave them a Hansel and Gretel storybook. After they witnessed their friend Seung-ho being beaten to death, they wished to stop the caretaker, only to find everyone dead and the caretaker about to burn them in the fireplace. Man-bok used his power to kill the caretaker. Now, the children use their powers to make Byun kill himself when he rises to kill Eun-soo.

The children ask Eun-soo to stay with them. Eun-soo however wishes to reunite with his loved ones and offers instead to take them with him. They refuse, believing adults will always be bad. Eun-soo argues that if they continue their doings, they will end up the same. Young-hee tells him to burn the notebook so he can leave and he does so before Man-bok can stop him. Eun-soo then wakes up where he first met Young-hee. He walks to the road and meets the police. They tell him the tragic stories of Highway 69 as they are amazed how he has survived.

A year later on Christmas, Eun-soo has married Hae-young and they have a baby boy. As he goes out to buy milk, he wonders if that encounter was only a dream. His collection of news clippings of the missing Byun (revealed to be a serial killer) suggests it is real. He comes across the children's notebook. The pages are all blank except the last one, which shows the three children holding hands and smiling. They have given up now and realized that they don't need parents to be a family. Eun-soo looks out the window to the snow outside. Man-bok, Young-hee, and Jung-soon go back into the woods.

Angie (Judy Ann Santos) and Jed (Ryan Agoncillo) are first-time parents who experience the joys and pains of raising a child. They realize that parenthood is extremely demanding and learn to sacrifice their own interests for their baby. Four years later Jed realises that he and Angie still have not been on a honeymoon he decides to take Angie to Barcelona, At first Angie protests against the honeymoon but decides to go and leaves their child with their friends Kaye and Dodie. When their mothers (Gloria Diaz and Gina Pareño) hear of the couple's departure, the grandmothers each take turns caring of the child.

After Jed and Angie return from their trip, the duo must deal with their mothers' personal issues. They realize that only after they've fulfilled their roles as children can they understand the true meaning of what it is to be a parent.

In a world of fantasy far away, a shower of meteorites called Starfall dominates a time in history. The meteorites lie about everywhere pulsing with radioactive power which the people of the land scramble to exploit. Of the people only three professions had the power to exploit the radioactive stones; Mages, Mageslayers, and Lorethanes. The Mages, in their hungry studies of the meteorites, gained knowledge of the use of the stones and gained terrible power. Consumed by their lust for the power of the stones, they dominated over all.

The five Mageslayer clans were formed to free the people of the lands from the power hungry Mages that had enslaved them. The Mageslayers learned to harvest the power of two very powerful meteorites that fell from the sky. The first, the Sun Orb, was studied and they learned to control powerful magic, without the megalomaniac side effects that the Mages experienced.

The second, the Starstone, was crafted into five powerful Relics. Using these two forces the MageSlayers drove the Mages into retreat. When the Mages fought back, the Clan of Knowledge was sacrificed in order to save the other clans. The Mageslayers were victorious, but it cost them the five Relics crafted from the Starstone and the Clan of Knowledge was destroyed. Each of the clans passed the knowledge of the SunOrb down through the generations. A single leader of each of the clans was selected to guard the most revered of the Clan secrets.

A millennium has passed since the Clan of Knowledge was destroyed in the Mage War. The Lore Thane, Leader of the Clan of Knowledge and descendant of one of the five powerful Mageslayers, seeks revenge for what he sees was a betrayal. Now the Lore Thane is ready to take revenge on the other four Guilds that refused to help him against the Mages which led to his clan's destruction. He's unearthed the five Starstone relics that won the Mage Wars and placed them under the protection of his minions. The four remaining Mageslayer clans have joined forces and sent their leaders to fight their way through the dominions of the Lore Thane's allies in order to recover the relics. Scribes, named Archivists, have foretold a coming conflict with a powerful and evil undead Lore Thane named Wyark, who has been growing in terrible strength with the aim of complete conquest of the world. The archivists have determined that the retrieval of the five special relics will enable the Mageslayer forces of good to defeat the evil Wyark. The players takes on the role of the Mageslayer tasked with retrieving the artifacts and ultimately defeat Wyark.

As described in a film magazine, Barry O'Connor (Corbett), son of Patrick O'Connor (Cummings), plumber and political power, is called to the residence of William Tompkins (Vroom), Tammany man, whom he is to "put over" in the coming election. Here Barry meets Mary Tompkins (Warren), and mutual admiration results in an invitation to a social affair at the Tompkins home. At the affair Barry's crude ways bring forth criticism and he leaves, offended. His father threatens to withdraw his support of the candidate but later changes his mind. The rupture is later healed when Mary and her father attend a ward ball and Mary leads the grand march with Barry. This begins the romance that culminates in the marriage of Barry and Mary.

As summarized in a film publication, Laurie Devon (Mayo) is a New York playwright who, having had one success, refuses to work on another play. One night he sees a woman (Anderson) in an apartment across the street take out a gun and place it to her forehead. He reaches her in time to save her, and she tells him that she is under some terrible evil influence, which she will not disclose. Devon attempts to untangle the mystery and is led on an adventure. The woman is taken to a house on Long Island, where Devon after a fight rescues her. He takes out the revolver and shoots one of the pursuers, who falls to the ground. On returning home, he is heartbroken and tells his sister Barbara (Fair) and his friends that he is a murderer. His sister and two of his friends then confess that the whole thing was a frame-up, that they had hired some actors to stage everything, and that it was an attempt to get the ambitionless author to write again. The revolver used in the suicide attempt by the woman and in the later shooting had blanks. Devon and the woman from the apartment melt into each other's arms at the final fade-out.

As described in a film magazine, Jefferson Todd (Mayo) and Louis Castiga (Harris), brothers-in-law, come to blows on a Mississippi River steamer when Todd discovers Castiga's presence there with a woman usurping the place of his wife, Todd's sister. Todd, a Southern gentleman whose fortune was depleted during the Civil War, is attempting to rebuild it by gambling on the river boats that frequent the great river. He wins four race horses at poker with Colonel Brereton (Fenton), but refuses to collect the stakes. Brereton insists, and then takes his own life. Brereton's suicide causes Todd to question his new profession. Todd and Castiga again meet at the plantation home of the Colonel's daughter Barbara (Burnham), both having gone there to break the news of her father's death. Castiga's wiliness makes Barbara believe that Todd is an intruder and the cause of her father's ruin. The trouble between the men results in a duel in which Castiga cheats and is driven out of town. Barbara's faith in Todd is established and together they join the great army of homesteaders and go West for the great land lottery that followed the Civil War. They win a race for a homestead involving prairie schooners, buckboards, horse teams, and race horses, but fall victims to a plot hatched by Castiga. In a struggle between the two, Todd is victorious while his enemy meets his death. Love beckens for Todd and Barbara.

The town bum, Bim (Buck Jones), rescues Bill, (Georgie Stone) thrown off a train by brakeman (Bert Appling). Bim gives Bill a bath and promises Mary (Helen Ferguston) to take Bim to school. Bill steals a uniform so Bim can get a job but gets hurt jumping off the train. Bim takes him to the town Doctor (Edwin Tilton) where his wife (Eunice Murdock) discovers Bill may be a runaway with a reward. They plot to keep Bill away from Bim. Mary is wooed by Harvey Cahill (William Buckley). Next, the townspeople come to her for the memorial fund and she gives Bim a note to get the fund from Harvey. Mary supposedly sees a boy drowning some kittens and faints. Bim sees Mary being carried to the doctor, reads the note and confronts Harvey who gives him the money he has stolen. The town sheriff (Duke R Lee) opens the safe to find the money missing. Bim is arrested for returning the money but escapes with Bill. Bim and Bill meet up with outlaws planning to rob the town bank. Bim tries to stop them but the outlaws tie them up. Nearby a car roars down a hill, the driver is thrown out. A boy comes out, frees them and they pursue the outlaws into town. Bim catches them robbing the bank, the towns people catch them. Outlaw (Slim Padgell) claims Bim is one of them and Bim is tied up. Harvey attempts to escape with Mary while Bill tells the sheriff he is the real villain. A rich man appears claiming to be Bill’s father but upon seeing him says he isn’t. The boy from the car turns out to be the man’s son and Bim gets a reward for rescuing him. Harvey is unmasked as the chauffeur who kidnapped the boy and is arrested. Bim and Bill, dressed in suits show up at Mary’s house. Bim stumbles through a proposal and they walk off.

Scrooge, the head of an unnamed advertising agency, has gathered a group of clients to discuss tying their products into Christmas. One attendee questions this: Bob Cratchit, owner of a spice company. He was planning to send Christmas cards with a simple message of "Peace on Earth, Good Will Toward Men." Scrooge extols the practice of exploiting Christmas for profit, including an over-the-top medley of parodies of popular Christmas songs entitled "Deck the Halls with Advertising" that includes an advertisement for "Tyn-E-Tim Chestnuts" that borrows heavily from cigarette advertisements (including "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should") and a toothpaste commercial. Scrooge says, "Christmas has two s's in it, and they're both dollar signs." A disheartened Cratchit counters by reminding Scrooge "Whose birthday we're celebrating," but Scrooge never budges from his position that the true meaning of Christmas "went out with button shoes" and that it is now nothing more than "a sales curve. Wake up, Cratchit. It's later than you think."

The upper middle-class Grahame family are beset by money troubles, because of the lavish tastes of Hester who spends far more than their income. Her elder brother Oscar bails her out several times but warns that he will not do so in future. Meanwhile her son Paul strikes up a friendship with Bassett, the new handyman and a former jockey. Paul is delighted when he receives a rocking horse for Christmas and shortly afterwards a whip. Concerns about the family's finances and his mother's unhappiness and lack of luck begin to affect Paul who is convinced that the house is whispering about them. He is seen riding his rocking horse in a total frenzy, terrifying his younger sisters.

Convinced that he is lucky, Paul asks Bassett to place a small wager on a horse. Proving to be exceptionally skilled at picking winners, which he claims to discover while riding his rocking horse, he soon forms a secret syndicate with Bassett and his uncle which is soon thousands of pounds in profit. Meanwhile Hester is struggling with bailiffs and forced to pawn clothes for a fraction of their real value. Desperate to help his mother, Paul agrees that thousands of pounds shall be given to his mother without her knowing its true source. They pretend this is an inheritance from a distant relative.

Rather than making her happier, Hester becomes even more driven in her reckless spending. Paul's apparent gift at picking winners has vanished, and the syndicate loses most of its winnings. Convinced that everything rides on choosing the victor for the Derby, Paul frantically rides on his horse. Eventually he cries out "Malabar" before suffering a seizure. Bassett places the money on the horse, in line with Paul's instructions, and wins £70,000. Shortly after the stricken boy is told of this, he reconnects with his mother telling her that he was 'lucky' and then dies. A distraught Hester instructs Bassett to burn the rocking horse, which he does, and the money, which he refuses stating he will give it to the family solicitor to find some good to do with it, being what Paul would have wanted.

Larry Coe is a Los Angeles architect who is married with two kids. He has a very bright wife, Eve. She is ambitious for him, but he wants to do work more imaginative than the commercial buildings he's been designing. He meets with Roger Altar, an author, to discuss building a house that will be an "experiment" and something Coe wants to do more of, something original.

Maggie Gault is one of his neighbors whose son is friends with his. She tells Larry she has seen some of his previous houses and thinks that the more unconventional houses are the best. This encouragement is what he needs from his wife but hasn't been able to get.

Both Larry and Maggie grow dissatisfied in their marriages. Larry's wife is too hard-headed and practical and Maggie's husband isn't interested in having sex with her. So they have an affair that involves meeting in secret. They both know what they're doing is wrong, and they are devoted to their children.

Felix Anders is a neighbor who snoops around and finds out about their affair. His leering and insinuations make Larry realize the risks he's taking. He tells Maggie that they shouldn't see each other for a while. Felix, in the meantime, makes a play for Larry's wife. In a way, Felix is a personification of the tawdriness of Larry and Maggie's affair.

Eve has no interest in Felix's advances and rejects him in dramatic fashion. In the aftermath she wises up to the fact that Larry has been unfaithful. After confronting him, they agree to stay together and move to Hawaii, where Larry has been offered a job to design a city.

Altar's house is finished but still empty. After Larry phones her, Maggie makes one last appointment to meet him at the newly completed home. Maggie drives up to take a look at it. Larry shows up and they talk about how they can never be together. Larry wishes he and Maggie could live in the house and if they did, he would dig a moat around it and never leave it. Maggie says she loves him.

The contractor for the house shows up and thinks Maggie is Larry's wife. They both take a moment to savor the irony of his remark and Maggie drives away.

"The Ant and the Grasshopper"

Idle Tom Ramsay (Nigel Patrick) continually borrows from his hard-working brother George (Roland Culver). George later puts up the Ramsay estate for sale so he can buy out his business partner, despite Tom's protests. Shortly afterwards, George is approached by car dealer Philip Cronshaw (Peter Graves), who notifies him that Tom has stolen one of his automobiles. To avoid a scandal, George pays for it. However, it was a fraud; Cronshaw and Tom split George's money.

While squandering his ill-gotten funds, Tom discovers that Gertrude Wilmot (Margaret Vyner), the third richest woman in the world, is staying at the same seaside resort. He becomes acquainted with her, then (aware that she is fed up with lying admirers) frankly admits that he is a scoundrel attracted to her great wealth. Surprisingly, this approach works and they become engaged.

Tom pays George back for all the money he took over the years. When George complains about the injustice of Tom not having to work for his good fortune, Tom mentions that Gertrude is buying the family estate.

"Winter Cruise"

English spinster Molly Reid (Kay Walsh) takes a sea cruise to Jamaica. To the annoyance of the other passengers and the crew, she talks non-stop on the outbound voyage. When the captain (Noel Purcell) learns that she will be returning on the same ship, he decides that something must be done to save the sanity of the crew. The ship's doctor (Ronald Squire) suggests setting her up with a suitor. Pierre (Jacques François), the steward, is ordered to keep Molly occupied. The plan works; the crew's ears are spared, though Molly tells Pierre that she knows he is not in love with her. When disembarking from the ship, Molly tells the captain and crew that she knew all along that the romance had been arranged.

"Gigolo and Gigolette"

In Monte Carlo, Stella (Glynis Johns) and Syd Cotman (Terence Morgan) have a very successful nightclub act. She dives from a great height into a small, shallow tank of flaming water. However, a visit by Flora (Mary Merrall) and Carlo Penezzi (Martin Miller) unnerves her. The older Penezzis used to have a similarly dangerous act: Flora was shot out of a cannon. Stella and Syd argue when she refuses to dive a second time each night, forcing Syd to change their contract with the nightclub manager.

In desperation, Stella takes their life savings, and attempts to win enough at the gambling tables so she can quit, but loses everything. Syd is infuriated when he finds out.

With no choice, she goes on with the act, even though she is terrified that she will eventually be killed. When Flora tells Syd how frightened his wife is, he rushes up the tower to stop her. But she, seeing his concern, dives safely into the tank.

The film follows J.T. Striker, a Soldier of Fortune (Tony Anthony), who has been hired to assemble a group of professional thieves to retrieve the gems which are hidden inside two of the remaining four Mystical Crowns. Striker braves a mysterious magical cave in which skeletons and spears appear and jump out at him. He discovers a scroll in one of the crowns in the cave, which tells him that the fourth crown had disappeared long ago. He denies that the gems are magical or even valuable. He succumbs to the belief eventually and sets off to find the last two crowns, which are being held inside a heavily guarded compound, that is the home of a cult led by the evil Brother Jonas.

Striker's team suffers casualties from booby traps as it performs a dangerous acrobatic commando raid on the room where the crowns are kept. Striker retrieves the gems from the two magical crowns, and the magic makes his head literally spin. His face becomes half deformed, like that of Two-Face. Striker shoots fire from his fingers, melting the henchmen, their weapons, and Jonas. After, the film cuts to a shot of a boggy swamp, where a large pile of slimy brown sludge rises from the swampy water. A head like that of a moray eel with crystal blue eyes shoots towards the screen for a 3-D effect, setting up for a sequel that never happened.

In the introduction a woman is shown descending into insanity after having lost her baby. As she mourns, she takes a blanket from the baby's cradle and starts rocking it as if it were her deceased child. This serves as an introduction to what kind of individuals that reside at the mental institution. The doctor at the hospital is also introduced as he proposes to a nurse.

The remainder of the film takes place at the aforementioned setting which hosts several unstable individuals. When violence erupts between two patients; one of them (played by Charles Hill Mailes) escapes the scene in an attempt to avoid capture. At the climax of the chase; the patient is ultimately soothed by the music emitting from a piano in the main hospital building (Lillian Gish in a minor role) and lets himself be taken away by the guards. As he is removed from the vicinity of the music; he once again becomes violent and escapes the grasp of his attendants. After having come upon a gun he makes his way towards the house of the doctor's wife (during this sequence, the perhaps most interesting part of the film seen out of a technical perspective takes place as the lunatic sticks his head out in front of the camera from behind a tree). When the woman discovers him; she becomes terrified. During the farce; the wife puts her hands on the piano by accident, creating a sound which appears pleasing to the lunatic. He urges her to continue, using the gun as a tool of persuasion. She proceeds with the playing which ultimately results in him leaving the house and once again welcomes capture.

The film ends informing the viewer on how music becomes an integral part in aiding mentally unstable individuals.

Jason Herkimer, the main character of ''Space Station Seventh Grade'', is now in ninth grade. His relationship with his friend Marceline McAllister has developed into a real romance. The only trouble is that Jason isn't quite sure what to do with a girlfriend. His friends insist that the main function of a girlfriend is to make out, but Marceline says there's more to life than that.

Magician's Academy revolves around Takuto Hasegawa, who attends a magic academy that is not marked on any map. During a summoning spell exam, he accidentally creates a girl named Tanarotte, who happens to hold enough magical power to destroy his country, but fortunately Tanarotte professes undying loyalty to her "creator."

The universe separated in three worlds: Heaven, Human World (Earth), and the Demon realm. The Gods and Demons are not seen fighting among themselves in the human world and try to keep their existence a secret from them. The human world is only source of entertainment and enlightenment to both the demons and the gods to the point of smuggling human goods to both realms.

In 1874 Australia, newly installed Police Inspector Radford boasts to wealthy Hugh Clarkson that he will capture the famous outlaw Stingaree, who has returned to the area. Hilda Bouverie is an impoverished servant working for the Clarksons. Mr. Clarkson is kind, but his wife treats Hilda and Annie, another servant, as menials. Mrs. Clarkson is excited by the news that Sir Julian Kent, a renowned British composer, is going to be her guest. She dreams of performing before him and becoming an opera star, but her singing is not good. Hilda begs to be allowed to sing as well, but Mrs. Clarkson turns her down. Meanwhile, Sir Julian stops over at a tavern, where Radford and his colleagues are drinking. When Stingaree enters, the policemen are suspicious of the stranger; he is searched, but no weapon is found. His sidekick Howie follows, only he is armed. They abduct Sir Julian. Unaware of this, Mrs. Clarkson goes off to meet Sir Julian.

While she is away, Hilda, who dreams of being an opera singer herself, plays Sir Julian's new song. When Stingaree enters the Clarkson residence to reconnoitre for a future robbery, she mistakes him for Sir Julian and sings for him. He is entranced, and praises her talent. When the Clarksons return, they are accompanied by Radford, who eventually recalls Stingaree. Unmasked, he flees, taking Hilda with him. When they reach his hideout, Stingaree is annoyed to find that Howie has let Sir Julian escape, foiling his attempt to get her an audition. Hilda tells him that her parents had the dream of singing, and that when they died she inherited the dream. Then Stingaree kisses her.

Sir Julian attends a recital at the Clarksons house, with Mrs. Clarkson singing his song disastrously. Howie holds the guests at gunpoint while Stingaree accompanies Hilda on the piano. Sir Julian is greatly impressed by her singing. As the guests congratulate her, Stingaree and Howie slip away. However, Radford manages to shoot and arrest Stingaree. When a furious Mrs. Clarkson fires Hilda, Sir Julian invites her to Europe. Hilda refuses, unwilling to abandon Stingaree, but then she receives a letter from him telling her to pursue her dream, and that he gave up his freedom for her. She leaves, taking Annie with her. Under Sir Julian's tutelage, she becomes a famous opera singer.

Though she cannot forget Stingaree, she agrees to marry Sir Julian. The night before the wedding, however, she tells him that she cannot go through with it. She is going to give up her career and return to Australia. He persuades her to perform at a concert in Melbourne, hoping that the contrast with the fabulous opera houses of Europe will change her mind. Meanwhile, Stingaree escapes, and holds up the new Governor-General's stagecoach. He borrows the man's uniform and attends the concert disguised as him. When he is recognized, the police pursue him. He sneaks into Hilda's dressing room. Hilda offers to give up her singing career for him. As the police try to break down the door, he picks her up in his arms and escapes through the window. They ride off together on his horse.

The Midsomer Worthy Writer's Circle, a group of amateur novelists, invite celebrated author Max Jennings along as a special guest. However, host Gerald Hadleigh is vehemently opposed to the idea but refuses to explain why, so he is promptly overruled by his peers. After the somewhat uncomfortable event, Hadleigh's companion Rex St. John is tricked into departing, leaving Hadleigh alone with Jennings. The next morning Gerald is found savagely murdered with a candlestick, his corpse stripped and all his clothes stolen, with no sign of Max.

The first female president of the United States, Sally Sheridan, (Mimi Kuzyk) is killed by a sniper during her speech at Veterans Day. Her assassin narrowly escapes after a shoot out involving a shadowy figure named La Mangouste (Val Kilmer) or "The Mongoose". Three months later in West Virginia, an elderly couple discover a young man (Stephen Dorff) who lies wounded above on a tree in a parachute. He cannot remember his past and the only clue to his identity is a numerical tattoo on his chest, "XIII", the Roman numeral for 13.

Meanwhile, in the White House, a joint intelligence task force led by Colonel Amos (Greg Bryk) is frantically conducting the search for the President's killer. With the presidential elections just weeks away, a confirmed suspect could swing the vote for the incumbent administration. Regaining his health, XIII searches for more information about the imprint on his body using the couple's home computer. This leads to his location being picked up by the NSA and in no time at all a squad of elite special forces swarm the couple's house in Cape Fear, killing them both. XIII takes out the soldiers one by one. While on the run in New York, he befriends Sam (Caterina Murino), a photo shop owner who helps identify for him a woman in a photo he carries.

Here he attempts to access a memory card found on his person in the hopes of discovering his identity and unknowingly initiates its tracking program. As a result, rogue Secret Service agents track him down at the woman's abandoned apartment, but he fights them off and escapes back to his place where La Mangouste captures him. XIII later awakens to find himself restrained inside a truck where La Mangouste demands to know who he has spoken to. He also reveals to XIII that he is also a part of the conspiracy having been branded "XII". Escaping out of his hands XIII returns to Sam where she informs him that the design on his chest refers back to the ancient Roman Empire wherein secret societies would brand members loyal to their cause. She then gives him some photos that Kim (Jessalyn Gilsig), the woman in the photo, had developed there, which convinces him to head upstate to Kellownee Valley.

Meanwhile, government intelligence has identified XIII from video surveillance as Steven Rowland and plasters his face all over the media to weed him out. He turns up at Kim's house in Kellownee Valley where she, along with her father, General Carrington (Stephen McHattie) and Jones, a CIA operative, have been waiting for him. He learns that he was a former special ops agent who underwent facial reconstruction surgery and placed undercover assuming Rowland's identity. The goal of his assignment was to flush out a group of fascists plotting a coup to overthrow the American government whom Rowland had unwittingly been recruited for. Ensconced within the highest echelons of power, the conspirators run their own security agency alongside the government's.

During this time, Amos and his agents have the house surrounded and move in along with La Mangouste who fires at XIII, but misses and kills Kim instead. The only way now for XIII to get his own life back is to play bait, which is a dangerous game now since he still doesn't know who he really is. A televised presidential debate is interrupted to broadcast that XIII has been captured.

Amos has XIII wired up and tortured in order to extract a confession out of him, but his pleas that he is not really Rowland are met with incredulity. He is taken back to his holding cell and while there it is discovered from his X-rays that he has had reconstructive surgery and that his military file is classified. Inside his cell he meets another member of the conspiracy, "XIV", who attempts to silence him once and for all, but he escapes with the help of Jones. Due to Amos's incompetence, he is suspended from the investigation and President Galbrain (John Bourgeois) authorizes Calvin Wax (Jonathan Higgins), the White House Chief of Staff, to take over.

Meanwhile, XIII and Jones are transported to an NSA safehouse where Carrington reveals XIII's true identity as Ross Tanner. He shows him photos of his wife and daughter whom he lost in the sarin gas attacks in Chicago, which was one reason he originally accepted the mission. Carrington also reveals to him that Col. Jack McCall (Scott Wickware) had previously supervised the paramilitary unit Rowland was involved with that orchestrated the foreign attacks at home and abroad in Haditha, Iraq and that he had believed that the next major target of attack would coincide with the upcoming elections.

XIII and Jones then travel to a decommissioned facility in northern Montana and here XIII witnesses McCall in a teleconference exchange with Wax and accosts him. He attempts to determine the location of the attack, but McCall commits suicide. XIII then seizes everything McCall had on hand. Back at the safehouse, he and Jones evaluate the evidence, which points to a nuclear strike on election day at a Maryland polling station and inform Carrington, who gets into a heated exchange with Amos, after he accuses him of involvement in the cover up. Simultaneously, Wax observes Amos and Carrington together, and orchestrates Carrington's arrest on suspicion of high treason.

Later, XIII and Jones research online about Jasper Winthrow, CEO of Standard Electronics, of which a subsidiary company is Stratus Dynamics, the second largest military contractor in the world. Jones mentions that Sheridan's plan to scale down America's presence in Iraq and cut billions from the defense budget would be bad for Winthrow's business. XIII then notices a logo of one of Winthrow's subsidiary companies, Ardent Glass (AG), which he recalls seeing previously. Thus, XIII and Jones travel to AG's former factory in Petersburg, Virginia, where the conspirators have scheduled a meeting. He gets into a fight with La Mangouste and kills him.

Back at the safehouse, XIII identifies the people who he saw at the meeting and tells Jones he overheard them make an enigmatic reference to the location that pinpoints the target as Bethesda, Maryland. Amos then shows up at the safehouse after Carrington had sent him to find out the truth from Jones and XIII. Together they organize to thwart the plot.

XIII and Jones head to Maryland where he confronts the woman delivering the bomb and stops her.

Wally Sheridan, the assassinated President's brother, wins the national elections. XIII then confronts Wax in his office who claims that it is only the beginning before he kills himself. Carrington is released from prison and Sheridan reveals in a press conference the details of the plot and those behind it. He later meets with XIII and thanks him for his service.

However while in Japan, XIII and Jones figure out two things. One, Ross Tanner's family didn't exist; the photos were faked. Second, XIII has a final flashback; Number I wasn't Wax but Wally Sheridan. Sheridan had his own sister killed to get the Vice President into the office. He then with the rest of the conspirators, coordinated attacks that made the President look bad in order to win a landslide victory, so they can turn the United States down the path to an authoritarian dictatorship. XIII, realizing they have been duped and it is not over, looks at Jones and says, "We're going back."

The XX

''Chosen'' (Book 1)

Thirteen years have passed since the lush, coloured forests were turned to desert by Teeleh, the enemy of Elyon and the vilest of all creatures. Evil now rules the land and shows itself as a painful, and scaly disease that covers the flesh of the Horde, a people who live in the desert. The powerful green waters, once precious to Elyon, have all vanished from the Earth except for seven small forests surrounding seven small lakes. Those few who have chosen to follow the ways of Elyon now live in those forests, bathing once daily in the powerful waters to rid themselves of the disease. The number of their sworn enemy, the Horde, has grown in thirteen years and, fearing the green waters above all else, these desert dwellers, have sworn to wipe all traces of the forests from the Earth. Only the forest guard stand in their way. Ten thousand elite fighters against an army of nearly four hundred thousand Horde. But the forest guard is starting to crumble. In an attempt to raise the number of the Forest Guard, the leader (Thomas Hunter) lowers the recruitment age to 16. Four teens are chosen to be the leaders of the forest. To be inducted they must each find and bring back a catalina cacti, a cactus plant. While out, they are attacked by Horde scouts. The main character of the four, Johnis, managed to lure the scouts away, and ends up at a dead end. He finally gets away and they return safely.

''Infidel'' (Book 2)

Once home, Michal comes and gives Johnis a ring that belonged to the latter's mother, Rosa, before she was taken and supposedly killed by the Horde. Johnis quickly sets out to rescue his mother, whom he believes is in the Horde city across the desert. He, at first, illegally takes command of a Forest Guard division and leads them across the desert where they are slaughtered and he is only saved by the armies of Thomas Hunter who came to the rescue. Back home, Johnis is left to the council to decide his fate, but they let him go. He heads across the desert again with Silvie, the second chosen. At the outskirts of the Horde city they find Karas, daughter of the local priest—who owns the next book, as well as Johnis' mother—and helps them infiltrate the area. Inside they are captured, but saved by the other chosen Darsal and Billos. They escape with the third book, Rosa and Karas, who accepts Elyon and is accepted by Thomas.

''Renegade'' (Book 3)

Billos takes the books, overwhelmed by the power inside, and touches blood to one of them. Immediately both he and the books disappear into another world. Here, Billos climbs in a machine from our time, which is a virtual reality machine, though he doesn't know it (and it doesn't specifically say in the book, although it does say Dell, which can lead you to this conclusion). When he wakes up he is confronted by Marsuveus Black, a mysterious man who gives Billos 'suhupow,' short for 'superhuman power,' as in the ability to create objects at will and affect the world around. Billos goes on a killing spree in the nearby town, known as Paradise. He is killed, but wakes up again and re-tries to get the books, which are along the shelf of a saloon. In the Other Earth, the chosen Darsal, Billos' romance, tries to help him, but cannot without a book. She goes alone to Alucard's lair and trades him his book for all of theirs when they retrieve them, or—in the event she goes against her word—either her or Billos' life. He accepts and lets her travel to the world Billos is in, accompanied by Karas who snuck along. Inside they do not accept Black's powers and manage to bring Billos back with the books. With those four they are able to travel to Thomas' earth. In Alucard' lair they find that Johnis and Silvie have come to try and stop her and started a battle with thousands of Shaitiki. With no hope to escape they start to use the books—Alucard and Silvie by one, Karas by one, Johnis by one, and leaving only one for the last two—Darsal and Billos. By not giving the books to Alucard, one must give up their life. Billos sacrifices himself, and Darsal uses the last book to leave while the Shataiki break down the door.

''Chaos'' (Book 4)

In Earth, Silvie and Johnis hijack a car and, after quickly learning how to use it, speed on to nearby Las Vegas, being chased by cops along the away. Johnis is arrested and Silvie escapes, but they end up together when Johnis won't go quietly and Silvie begs over TV. After seeing the broadcast, Johnis and Silvie are bailed by a much older Karas, who has been in the world for about 10 years and become a famous millionaire. They put their books together and think of what to do, but the books are stolen by a mysterious figure and Alucard, who has been there thousands of years. They go to Alucard's hiding place in Romania and find out the last three book of history's locations. They get the books and break into Alucard's lair while no one is home. The mysterious woman arrives and reveals herself to be Darsal, about ten years older, and shrouded in darkness about Billos' death. She captures the heroes and gives all the books to Alucard, who starts to use them. After a pleading speech from Johnis, Darsal, at the last minute, attack and kills Alucard, as well as the Shaitiki that are bridging the worlds. The four leave and are met by Michal and Gabil. The Roush tell them that if they return home via Roush, about five years will have passed because of all they know (this means that they will arrive about 2 years after White's story). Karas elects to remain on Earth because she's all set there, but the others return. Thus is the end of the fourth book.

''Lunatic'' (Book 5)

Johnis, Silvie, and Darsal have returned from the other earth, having claimed all of the lost books of history only to lose them again. More importantly, the world that they have returned to has changed completely. Their home is overrun by their enemies and the healing water of Elyon no longer heals. The Horde has overrun Middle Forest and the lakes have turned from green to red. No longer can albinos bathe once a day and keep the scab disease from taking their bodies and minds. Now they must drown once to forever to prevent themselves from becoming Horde. Johnis and his friends uncover a Horde plot by Marak to slaughter every albino alive. Their only hope is to find a way to control the Shataiki and have them destroy the Horde, since albino numbers are too small. This requires an alliance with the enemy and with a being who seeks to help them.

''Elyon'' (Book 6)

Elyon's lakes have turned blood red. Shaeda has one blue eye and one purple eye. No one fully knows her story, but her mere gaze eats away at the core of one's being. In his quest for power, Johnis now finds himself in her intoxicating grip. Assumed identities, a magic amulet, the fearsome Shataiki bats, and a troubling alliance with the Dark Priest all converge against the three remaining chosen. Only Elyon knows what will happen when the forces of ultimate good and evil clash in their final battle.

The story, located in Brazil's northeast, is about a rich and powerful colonel and his two employees. Day after day, the colonel shows his avarice to the citizens of his small village, negating alms and food to the poor people who visits his house in desperation. Then, the niggard rich receives an unexpected visit: the Chief of Hell and his dogs appear to arrest him because of his sins.

The story focuses in '''Eurico Árabe''', who is called '''Euricão Engole-Cobra''' (something like ''Euricão Swallows-Snake'') by his employees. Eurico is a "rich" and niggard man who has a beautiful and courteous daughter called '''Margarida''' and two employees: a smart housemaid called '''Caroba''' and his "Official Servant" '''Dódó''', who is Margarida's secret boyfriend.

One day, a man called '''Pinhão''' (who is Caroba's secret boyfriend) arrives in Eurico's house with a letter from the rich and powerful '''Colonel Eudoro'''. It was written in the letter:

"''My dear and honored Eurico: I expect you have being enjoying your peace and prosperity! Above all, I desire that your charming daughter Margarida be fine and healthy like she was in the days that she spent in my house, if you remember. I sent this letter with my loyal employee Pinhão to advise you of the visit I will make to your home soon and I fear that I will steal your most precious treasure.''"

Then, Eurico becomes mad thinking that Eudoro will steal his coffer (that is in the form of a pig - in this case, a sow) and tries to "stop" Eudoro's robbery. But Caroba, in a secret meeting with Margarida, Pinhão and Dodó, tells them that the "most precious treasure" in the letter referred to Margarida and that Eudoro was going to marry her. Then they make a plan to try to reconcile Eudoro with his old love, '''Benona'''. But they will have to take care about Eurico, who is trying to protect his "sow coffer".

Veteran cop Mike Turner (Robert Davi) is brought in to help solve a string of baffling satanic homicides. He soon finds himself along with Captain Hodges (John Amos) seeking to catch a murderous psycho called Bishop (Michael Ironside) who's gone on a killing spree during New Orleans' Mardi Gras. Only problem is that this killer has lost his soul to the devil and is no longer human... but a seemingly indestructible demonic being, intent on destroying the lives of everyone around Mike; and shall not stop until he has cost Mike not just his life... but his soul.

"Christmas Tree"

Stephen (Nash Aguas), his mother Myrna (Gina Alajar), and his two sisters Hazel (Lovi Poe) and Eunice (Sophia Baars) planned to visit their Lola Susana (Boots Anson-Roa) during the Christmas Break. During the long journey, Stephen has a dream concerning his deceased father Chuck (Tonton Gutierrez): He was running along a forest where he encounters his father's ghost, who encouraged him to be brave for he is the only male member of his family. Chuck's ghost suddenly became a zombie, waking Stephen up, and receiving teases from his little sister.

Upon their arrival in Lola Susana's house, Jong (John Prats) had already erected their new 8 foot tall Christmas Tree. A day before the Christmas Eve, the family eagerly decorated it, making it look elegant. However, something eerie grips into the atmosphere. During a night stroll, Stephen noticed Elton John, Jong's parrot, disappeared without a trace. Worse, even Eunice's giraffe doll, Gordon, was found torn to pieces, thus, blaming and resenting the latter's brother. Even their Yaya Sonny (John Lapus) wonders why the Tree is always getting taller and taller

After a sumptuous Christmas feast, the family was ready to sleep. However, Yaya Sonny, wanted to add a couple of Christmas balls. In a worse turn of fate, Sonny was tragically eaten by the Tree itself.

Things began to become tense. Stephen, having heard of the commotions downstairs, wakes his Ate Hazel to investigate. Jong then arrived to the scene next. The three witnessed the horrendous transformation of the Christmas Tree: All those times, there was a monstrous tree dwelling within the leaves of the Tree itself. Before they could run, Jong was knocked out by the monster. Thinking he was dead, Hazel and Stephen raced to their mother's room, narrating them that the Christmas Tree was truly alive. Myrna dismisses Stephen's story, telling him there were no such things as monsters.

Myrna was wrong: Judging by the stomps heard in the stairs, the Christmas Tree was now upstairs. She peered on the door, only to find out that the monster tree was outside. Danger and tension prevailed over the next events. Myrna warned Lola Susana to stay in the room, while Hazel and Stephen make a diversion, tripping the Christmas Tree.

Hazel and Stephen rushed to the kitchen, while Lola Susana, Myrna and Eunice escaped to the car. Hazel found something: acid. Stephen also found his Uncle Jong unconscious on the floor. Stephen knew that acid will kill the Tree. He, having experienced being a baseball player, threw the bottles of acid, missing the first two. At his third turn, the acid went straight into the Tree's mouth, killing it.

"Bangungot"

Marionne (Roxanne Guinoo) is a young and beautiful woman, who falls in love with Jerome (Dennis Trillo). They went on a date at an amusement park. However, a mysterious woman (Eugene Domingo) warns Marionne not to sleep otherwise she will die. Before the woman can exit the park, she encounters a red cloaked figure that strangles her, killing her in the process.

In her dorm, Marionne wakes startlingly, remembering it was a dream. Her office mate Tatin (Jaymee Joaquin) then saw her drawing a picture of the red-cloaked figure: the red-cloaked figure that strangled the woman in her dream. She remembered that her grandfather died of a ''bangungot'' (nightmare). Tatin said it was nonsense. Marionne, concerned for her grandfather's past, unlocked the latter's room. Shortly after she set foot, eerie things flew in the air.

The young woman was revealed to be a candle sales lady. She and Tatin have been friends. One day, her brother Tonton (Jayson Gainza) and a handsome man arrived at the shop. This man was Jerome: the same Jerome in Marionne's dream. The latter informed them that he will be leaving for one week; shockingly, he was engaged to a woman named Florence (Pauleen Luna), a fact that Marionne became jealous of.

Later on, a young girl (Andrea Torres) wants to order a large candle. Marionne notices the strange-looking parchment with strange words written in ink. She demands what is the girl's purpose for the candle. The latter said that: "if you want to dream of your love ones, and him to you", she must light a candle before sleeping, and chant the words in the parchment. But she must wake up before the candle is consumed otherwise she cannot leave the dream.

Eager to try this, Marionne kept the parchment and did as the girl said. After the ritual was performed, eerie events began to manifest to Jerome and Marionne. The red-cloaked figure reappeared and attempted to strangle the two. Thinking it was a hallucination, they both dismissed it.

Late at night, Marionne visited Jerome in the office, stating that she cannot sleep. She and Jerome began to hallucinate again: the phantom reappeared once more and tries to strangle them again. As they share a kiss of comfort, Florence appeared. Shocked by what she saw, she too was nearly strangled by the phantom, but was comforted by Jerome. Seeing this, Marionne cannot stand this, making her chase the two.

Jerome and Florence walked out of the shop, finally ending up in the peak of an overpass. Florence stumbled and she cannot walk. Meanwhile, the phantom once again reappeared, this time, Jerome confronts it and they both jumped off the overpass. Florence discovered that she too was dreaming.

Marionne, having witnessed of the events before, rushed into the hospital, where she reveals the shocking truth: she and Jerome entered a near-death state already after the spell was performed; this explains why Tonton, Florence and Tatin could not feel Marionne's presence. Florence told them everything, and so as Tatin: in a flashback, Marionne's astral projection saw herself performing the spell, afterwards, she collapsed in her bed, apparently dying. Tatin shook and jerked her up but she would not wake up. Florence's story matched Tatin's: the former found her fiancé hunched in the table but he was in the brink of death in his sleep. Another thing is: Marionne's grandfather did not die of a nightmare, but of a heart attack and the events happening now is only a ''bangungot'' for Marionne. Jerome, who was on a critical state, dreams of Marionne hugging him very tightly; it was revealed that Marionne was the ''bangungot'' all along. As Marionne and Jerome realize this, Florence cries and asks Jerome to wake up. Jerome tries his best, but Marionne holds him down, determined to spend the eternity with the man she loves, but does not love her back. Jerome eventually dies, followed by a struggling Marionne.

"Engkanto"

A teenage gothic band heads out for a gig in a remote province. During the long journey, not many of the young band members strike up a conversation, while, their manager Hans (Jojo Alejar) keeps complaining why he's the one who should drive. Meanwhile, Tonee (Jewel Mische) and Ian (Felix Roco), who were a long-estranged couple, ignored each other. Vince (Mart Escudero), the band's leader and Richard (Matt Evans) have a small commotion, only to be stopped by Vince's ex-girlfriend Dang (Melissa Ricks).

The group stops by a small store beside the road. The others decide to relax while Vince and Dang disappear from view. The two latter confront each other; Vince reveals he will be leaving them soon, a fact that Dang objects strongly.

Back at the store, Lucio (Nanding Josef), a local townsfolk, warns them to stay in sight, for they might be kidnapped by an engkanto (forest guardian in Filipino mythology). He then tells of the story of his son Paeng (Sam Concepcion): the latter was gathering firewood when he was suddenly grabbed by someone or something. He then also explains that the engkanto was the reason why they are lost in the middle of nowhere.

Worse of all, the bus ran out of gas, forcing the band to take refuge in an abandoned resort. Dang, Ian and Tonee then encounter a young and beautiful woman clad in white. Tonee and Ian ask her where is the beach. They follow the woman's directions but were lost. Tonee loses her temper but Ian wants to court the young woman. Accidentally, he is bitten by the woman, who revealed to be the engkanto (Katrina Halili).

Vince then encounters Paeng, the aforementioned boy who was kidnapped by the engkanto. He, Dang and Richard demand that who did this to him and who is this. As they speak, the engkanto summons her slaves to hunt the band down. Hans, who was looking for gas, gets bitten. Meanwhile, Dang met a retreating Tonee informing the former that Ian was killed by the engkanto and was made into her slave. Suddenly, Tonee too was choked to death.

Paeng and Vince then lured the slaves to the beach, discovering they fear water. They formulated a plan: he and Dang will ward off the slaves while Paeng, Richard and Tikoy (Hector Macaso) refueled the bus. Paeng then noticed the tree beside them; this was supposed to be the engkanto's lair. They must burn it to kill the engkanto.

The engkanto, who stopped in her tracks for she fears water, rushes to Richard and choked him hardly. The young man can hear what the latter was saying: he (Richard) was the one she needed. Paeng, meanwhile tossed the matches in the air, burning the tree and killing the engkanto.

With all things seem to be alright, the remaining band members visit Paeng's home where his father warmly welcomed him. But, something in their plans went horribly wrong: Mang Lucio informs them that destroying an engkanto's home will not kill her, but only leave her temporarily homeless. She will only move into a new dwelling, for she is a spirit of nature. Mang Lucio was right: Richard was kidnapped by the reanimated engkanto and was never seen again. The next day in the resort, the surviving slave of the engkanto, that was hidden in a box, was revealed to have survived.

The story revolves around Daibutsu, a middle aged former rally driver who used to participate in the All Japan Rally Championship and now lives with his wife Kumiko and their son. Daibutsu goes to his garage to rebuild his Mitsubishi Starion 4WD, named ''Jackie,'' a Group B rally car which was banned at the end of the 1986 season. He returns to racing by challenging people on the street with his car.

David Greene is a basketball fanatic living in Brooklyn, New York who alternates his time between playing in neighborhood pickup basketball games and managing a delicatessen. Formerly a junior high-school coach, he dreams of making his living coaching basketball and has sent numerous letters to colleges in the hope of fulfilling that dream—much to the chagrin of his long-suffering wife Jan, who wants only to buy a home and start a family.

Just when David thinks his dream will forever elude him, he is offered a dubious job coaching the men's basketball team at Cadwallader University, a fictional Nevada college. The job only pays $60 for each win, but David is promised a lucrative contract if he can lead Cadwallader to victory over Nevada State (one of the top 10 teams in the country). David accepts the job but is unable to convince his wife to join him in his cross-country quest, and David's marriage is therefore threatened as he pursues his dream.

David begins building his team with his friend Hustler, a talented baller and pool ace whose own fortunes turn sour when his "pigeons" realize they've been sharked. David and Hustler recruit Preacher, who also has good reason to escape his situation, as there is a contract out on him for having impregnated a powerful cult leader's 15-year-old daughter. Next, David and Hustler ferret out Hustler's acquaintance D.C., whom David recognizes as a former high-school star who has traded his chance at basketball glory to run numbers. Finally, David and Hustler visit Swish, a female finesse player with a great jump shot. David convinces the androgynous Swish to pose as a male in order to play on the team.

David and his newly formed quartet head west and immediately set about finding a suitable fifth man among the shallow talent pool of Cadwallader athletes. He settles on Sam Newton, nicknamed "Bull", who makes up in lane-clearing muscle what he lacks in basketball skills. Despite the team's cultural differences, David develops Cadwallader into a contender. The team ultimately catches the eye of Bo Winnegar, head coach of the elite team David must beat in order to make his coaching job a viable proposition. David must find a way to get Winnegar to agree to a game, which, as team manager Howard puts it, will be "like getting the Ohio State Buckeyes to play football with Radcliffe." Nevertheless, after the resourceful coach learns that Bo enjoys billiards, he enlists Hustler in setting up a sting operation that forces Bo to agree to the game.

As the impossible matchup becomes a reality, David's team faces even bigger challenges. A hitman has tailed Preacher to Nevada, leaving Preacher to fear for his life as he takes the court. And just prior to tipoff, David makes a deal with a police officer to allow D.C. to play in the big game before answering to the law for his illegal activities. During the game, David's wife and mother show up to share in the realization of his lifelong dream.

Taking place mainly in eastern Oregon in 1902, the story concerns a pair of morally ambivalent gunmen, Cameron and Greer. On a job in Hawaii, they are stopped by the fact their target is with his son. After returning to California they spend some time in a brothel, where a young Native American-looking woman, Magic Child, comes to hire them for a job at her house. Along the way they stop at a place to eat and during the meal hear loud gunshot-like noises. That night Magic Child sleeps with both men and Greer takes quite a liking to her.

When they reach the house, in the middle of the western plains on a ninety-degree day, it is surrounded by snow. Miss Hawkline comes to greet them and they realize that Magic Child is her twin sister. As soon as they enter the house the women's personalities change and they explain that they brought the men here to hunt down and destroy the "monster" living in the "ice caves" beneath the house. Miss Hawkline and her sister (also called "Miss Hawkline") believe that the monster has killed their father, a Harvard scientist who disappeared while hard at work in his basement laboratory on a project referred to only as "The Chemicals," which would, he claimed, if perfected, be a great boon to the human race. During the conversation the four characters realize that The Chemicals are somehow altering their minds to make them lose track of what they are discussing. Then, the large family butler suddenly dies, and shrinks into a little person.

As the story unfolds, it becomes apparent that the monster is not a physical being; rather it is a prank created by The Chemicals, which manifest themselves as a "light" that flies mischievously around the house. After all the strange happenings, evidently designed to distract them, Cameron pours a glass of whiskey into the beaker containing The Chemicals. This kills the monster, destroys the house and turns the father back into a human being (he had been an umbrella basket the whole time). The butler returns to normal size and comes back to life. Cameron and Greer marry the two sisters, and the story ends, but an epilogue states that the sisters eventually divorced the two men.

During a power outage in the skyscraper where he works, cost accountant David Stillwell (Gregory Peck) decides to exit using the darkened stairs. While descending, he encounters a young woman, Shela (Diane Baker), who seems to know him, but he has no recollection of her. Alarmed, she flees to the sub-basement.

Outside is the body of the noted philanthropist and peace activist Charles Calvin (Walter Abel), who apparently jumped from his office window in the same building. Having a drink in a nearby bar, Stillwell feels ill-at-ease and flashes back to his encounter with Shela. He returns to his office building, but now the sub-basement does not exist. A man, Willard (George Kennedy), is working in the basement and tells Stillwell to leave.

At Stillwell's apartment building, a stranger, Lester (Jack Weston), pulls out a gun and forces him into the apartment. He orders Stillwell to get his briefcase and go meet "the Major". Stillwell, not knowing what he is referring to, knocks out Lester and hides him in a hallway service closet.

While attempting to report this to the police, Stillwell becomes distressed by basic questions about his background and storms out. He suddenly realizes he has no memory of anything before the two years of his present job. Stillwell consults a psychiatrist, Dr. Broden (Robert H. Harris), who throws him out, declaring it impossible to have amnesia for two years without being aware.

Stillwell hires novice private detective Ted Caselle (Walter Matthau). Skeptical at first, Caselle believes his client after spotting Willard following them. He inspects Stillwell's apartment. The refrigerator, which was previously empty, is inexplicably fully stocked. Stillwell takes Caselle to his office, located near Calvin's, but there is now only a blank wall. They go to the basement; Willard arrives and shoots at them, but they escape.

Stillwell encounters Shela again. She says "the Major" urgently wants something from him, and reveals that she and Stillwell previously had a relationship. She reluctantly accompanies him to see Joe Turtle, a concierge at Stillwell's workplace who knows him, but Turtle has been murdered by Lester. Stillwell forces Shela to see what her associates are capable of.

The two spend the night together, but Stillwell wakes to find Shela gone. Lester and Willard are waiting downstairs. He disarms Lester and uses him as a shield, but Willard callously kills Lester. Stillwell escapes and goes to Caselle's office, but finds him dead.

Stillwell's intermittent flashbacks are becoming more regular and detailed. He revisits Dr. Broden. They work out that Stillwell's amnesia is only two days old. Broden helps Stillwell understand that he has been recalling false memories; his mind was replacing traumatic memories. Stillwell realizes he is not a cost accountant, but rather a "physio-chemist" and Calvin's protégé. He normally resides in New York, but the last two years worked in California at a private research facility (which has multiple sub-basement levels) under a man named Sylvester Josephson (Kevin McCarthy).

Stillwell visits Calvin's widow who believes he killed Calvin. Stillwell suddenly remembers Calvin falling through a window. He notices a photograph of Calvin with an Army officer that Mrs. Calvin says is Major Crawford Gilcuddy. Stillwell goes to see the Major, where he also finds Willard, Josephson, and Shela, who is the Major's girlfriend.

Stillwell's memory returns completely. He had discovered a method to neutralize nuclear radiation; though ostensibly for peaceful purposes, this discovery would make using nuclear weapons more desirable. When Stillwell went to New York to consult Calvin, he discovered that Calvin, as head of a non-profit agency, was illegally conducting business with the Major. The Major turned off the building's power to prevent Stillwell from leaving. During their argument, Stillwell metaphorically claimed he would become a "cost accountant" for nuclear war. To prevent his discovery being weaponized, Stillwell burned the document containing the formula; as Calvin grabbed for it, he fell out the window to his death. The shocking event caused Stillwell's amnesia.

To force Stillwell to recreate his formula, the Major has Willard play Russian roulette with his gun pointed at Stillwell's head. Shela shoots Willard. Josephson grabs her gun, but Stillwell convinces him the Major will not let Josephson live (as he knows too much about the secret project); Josephson calls the police. Stillwell and Shela embrace.

In 1839, thirteen-year-old Emmeline Mosher lives on a farm with her family in Fayette, Maine. Times are hard, so when Emmeline's paternal aunt suggests that she go to Lowell, Massachusetts to support her family by working in a textile mill, Emmeline dutifully leaves home.

When she arrives in Lowell, she is sent to live in a boarding house for young female mill-workers. Emmeline is a good worker. However, she is unable to befriend any of the other girls (because of being a favorite of Mrs. Bass) who look down on her due to her country ways and her relative youth. The lonely young girl is easily seduced by the factory owner's daughter's Irish-born husband and becomes pregnant. She is not immediately aware of her condition, but others are: the mill expels her and the embarrassed boarding-house landlady contacts Emmeline's aunt, who lives in the neighboring town of Lynn, Massachusetts, and evicts the girl.

Fearful of Emmeline's parents' reaction, Emmeline's aunt and uncle help her conceal her pregnancy. They send letters and Emmeline's savings, which they pass off as her regular salary, to her parents. They also arrange to have Emmeline's baby adopted. Emmeline imagines she will have a girl, and gives birth to what she believes is a girl; her aunt refuses to let her see the child or even know its gender, believing that Emmeline can more easily give up the child and recuperate from her ordeal. Soon after giving birth, Emmeline returns to Maine.

Part two of the book picks up more than 20 years later. Despite numerous proposals, a middle-aged Emmeline has never married and cares for her parents, but her father still encourages her to marry. She has a circle of friends, socializing primarily with two sisters of a widower who proposes marriage to her. One day, itinerant worker Matthew Gurney rolls into town. He and Emmeline share a strong immediate attraction. Matthew proposes to her and Emmeline eagerly accepts. They marry, with Emmeline wearing her sister-in-law's wedding dress, and move into a house that they build themselves.

When Emmeline's aunt visits after the wedding, she instantly recognizes Matthew and forces him to admit that he is 21 years old, not 26 as he originally claimed. At that moment, Emmeline realizes that she gave birth to a boy, not a girl, and that she has married her son. Her aunt tells her father, who immediately disowns her. Word quickly spreads throughout town. Matthew deserts Emmeline, who is soon excommunicated by the preacher at her church and encouraged to leave town.

Emmeline spends the rest of her long life on the fringes of the town, ignored by all. She tries to subsist on what she can grow herself. Neglected as an old woman, she dies during a particularly harsh winter.

A young newspaperman, Philip Driscoll, is gaining notoriety by writing up a series of bizarrely inconsequential crimes in which various hats are being stolen and returned in unlikely locations; he ascribes the crimes to "the Mad Hatter". Driscoll's uncle, Sir William Bitton, is infuriated to have lost two hats in three days. He meets with Gideon Fell to discuss his possession of the manuscript of an unpublished story by Edgar Allan Poe. During the meeting, it is learned that Philip Driscoll has been found murdered at the Tower of London, with Sir William's oversized hat pushed down over his ears. After sorting out the comings and goings of Sir William's household and other visitors to the Tower, Gideon Fell must determine the fate of the manuscript and of the murderer.

Category:1933 American novels Category:Novels by John Dickson Carr Category:Hamish Hamilton books Category:Harper & Brothers books

Cambridge Professor of history Nicholas Fenton, in the England of 1925, makes a bargain with the devil and is sent back in time to Restoration London in 1675 to solve a murder that is about to take place, in the body of Sir Nick Fenton. Fenton soon finds himself in love with the intended victim, Sir Nick's wife Lydia, and resolves to alter the course of history by preventing her murder. Fenton's mastery of 20th century swordsmanship makes him a fearsome antagonist in 1675, so much so that he becomes known as "the devil in velvet". Also involved in the action is a woman who has also sold her soul to the devil and travelled back in time, and Fenton finds himself torn between the two women. He must not only solve the approaching murder before it happens, but come to terms with Sir Nick's romantic and political entanglements—and even void his deal with the devil.

Mr. Justice Ireton believes that, when presented with circumstantial evidence about a crime, he can unerringly penetrate to the truth. He also believes that he can pay off handsome Anthony Morrell to break off his engagement with the judge's daughter Constance, in the hopes that Constance will marry the judge's assistant Fred Barlow (which would very much displease wealthy society girl Jane Tennant, who loves Barlow). However, there are a few problems that will stand in the way of that arrangement; notably, that the judge is broke and Tony Morrell cannot be bought off, although he is known to enjoy exacting revenge for slights both real and imagined. When Morrell is found dead in the Iretons' seaside cottage, a great deal of circumstantial evidence points to the judge, who cannot think of how to divert suspicion. It takes Gideon Fell to make sense of some very unusual pieces of evidence, which include a piece of chewing gum and an overstuffed pillow marked "Souvenir of Canada", and determine how Tony Morrell met his death.

Category:1941 American novels Category:Novels by John Dickson Carr Category:Hamish Hamilton books Category:Harper & Brothers books

''Taking the Flak'' is set in the fictional Central African Republic of Karibu, which is in the middle of a war. The local BBC news reporter, or 'stringer', Harry Chambers, sees the war as chance to make a name for himself as he is the only journalist in the country. However, as the war becomes more important, the BBC sends in more journalists to cover it, knocking Harry out of the spotlight. These include David Bradburn (Martin Jarvis), the BBC's Chief Foreign Editor, who knows very little about the area, but he still appears on screen as authoritative.

Also part of the BBC team is Jane Thomason (Doon Mackichan), the news producer has to control the reporting on the ground. She has to deal with the staff back in London, originally led by Nigel Bagwell (Mackenzie Crook) in the first episode, but in the rest of the series is led by the young Alexander Taylor-Pierce (Harry Lloyd). She also has problems with her main cameraman Jack (Lloyd Owen), whom she is having an affair with. After the first episode, Jack leaves Jane to go back home to his wife to help with her IVF treatment. In the third episode, she gets a new cameraman, Rory Wallace (Damian O'Hare), who can film almost anything under any circumstances. Another member of the BBC team is Margaret Hollis, who is seen by the rest of the TV crew as a rival because she works for radio, as a reporter for the BBC World Service. Unlike the others, she has not had any affairs. Part of the problem is due to medical issues, including stomach and bowel problems.

There are also civilians who are also involved with the reporting. These include Joyful Sifuri (Kobna Holdbrook-Smith), the local fixer who worked with Harry before the war and now helps the entire BBC crew with his local knowledge; Grace Matiko (Lydiah Gitachu) the receptionist at the hotel where the crew are staying and Harry's on-off girlfriend; and Samantha Cunningham Fleming (Lucy Chalkley) a posh charity worker who sometimes helps in finding stories but whom everyone else finds annoying.

The film opens by showing a young woman (Lillian Gish) in a garden. She is tender hearted, demonstrated by her appreciation of the flowers and the rescuing of a puppy. A melancholic young man (Walter Miller) woos her and she is foolishly swayed more by his pain of rejection than her love for him and eventually agrees to marry.

Later in their new home together she takes in washing to help support them when her new husband has little income. Things change when he finds some success in a well paid job. He insists they celebrate at a restaurant where there is an Apache dance cabaret. He wears a new suit but she her plain street clothes. Her husband's eye is caught by a sophisticated single woman (Viola Barry) at the next table. Later, encouraged by the woman, the husband begins to deceive his wife and have clandestine meetings with her. She is rich and has a chauffeur-driven car at her disposal.

The wife, now pregnant, as evidenced by her interest in baby clothes, discovers a glove in her husband's coat pocket. She follows him and uncovers his deceit. After confronting her husband she leaves him and returns to the home of her mother (played by Kate Bruce) where the baby is born.

We now see the husband being dropped by the sophisticated woman for a new richer male companion (Charles West). The dejected husband sitting alone at home receives a letter from the wife telling him of the birth. He resolves to make it up with her.

We learn next that the baby has become ill and is attended by a doctor (Adolph Lestina). The husband arrives at the wife's mother's house and she allows him to see the wife and child. However the wife wants none of him and angrily rejects him. While the husband sits dejected in the garden the baby dies. The wife vents her anger on the bushes in the part of the garden in which the film opened.

She returns to find her husband bent in grief over the crib. He is tenderly holding the baby's dummy. Their hands touch and the husband sees she is still wearing her wedding ring. They are reunited in an embrace and the film ends.

A school organization heads off to a Holy Week retreat, led by their religion professor. But before long, they realize they've lost their way due to misdirection and have no choice but to stay the night in a desolate house, with only a mother Mildred (Lotlot de Leon) and her son Biboy (Nash Aguas) living in the house.

The boy has three playmates who become jealous when the boy declines to join them in play, which angers them, and they seek vengeance on the newcomers. Many nights later, the kids transform themselves into their real form tiyanaks with elemental powers of water, air, and land attack the group, killing and disabling them one by one, until only the professor, the mother and her son, and some students remain. The mother dies when a tiyanak bites her while defending her son. The students kill two of the tiyanaks with holy relics but fall short when dispatching the last of them. The professor has the idea of baptizing the tiyanaks by submersing them on the pool, killing the last one with this method.

Many days later, the survivors have a party when Sheila checks on Biboy who contracted a fever. When they try to find out what happened, the boy's eyes become fiery and enraged, and his head becomes engulfed in flames, revealing himself as a tiyanak.

Frank Andrews (Donald Crisp) is a well-to-do, middle-class apartment dweller who is devoted to his wife (Mary Alden) and two children, John (Robert Harron) and Jane (Lillian Gish). Andrews enters into a mid-life crisis when a fetching young lady, Cleo (Fay Tincher), moves into the apartment next door to the Andrewses. Cleo takes note of Andrews' interest in her and begins to flirt with him, going so far as to set a fire in her apartment in order to attract his aid. Before long, Andrews and Cleo are involved in an affair, and Andrews begins to neglect both his family and responsibilities at work. Humiliated and aghast at her mother's silent suffering over the situation, Jane goes next door with the idea of killing Cleo, but instead they strike up a conversation, and a mutual understanding. They hatch a plan whereby one of Cleo's former beaus (Owen Moore) appears to be courting Jane in front of Andrews, who swiftly condemns his daughter's interest in the man. Jane counters by pointing out Andrews' own poor moral choices, and he sees the error of his ways. Andrews is happily reconciled to his family, and Cleo sets out in search of new digs.

''The King and I'' revolves around the life of Kim Cheo-sun, considered the best eunuch attendant who lived during the Joseon Dynasty.

Cheo-sun secretly loves his childhood friend So-hwa, but he cannot confess his love because of their difference in social class. Eventually, when So-hwa becomes betrothed to King Seongjong, he castrates himself and enters the palace as an eunuch, determined to watch over and protect her.

Initially the King's concubine, So-hwa is later elevated to the rank of Queen. But she becomes a pawn of the intense strife among warring political factions, and is stripped of her title and cast out of the palace in disgrace. Despite Cheo-sun's attempts to help her, she is sentenced to death. Cheo-sun carries out his orders by handing her the bowl of poison and he watches as the woman he loved all his life dies before his eyes. After her death, he looks after her son, Prince Yeonsan.

Born as the third son, Chungnyeong was far from ascending the throne. His early years were turbulent as Joseon faced political tensions from both within and abroad. Eventually, the young prince finds himself living in a private residence outside of the palace and experiences the everyday life of commoners until he is a young man. After his ascension to the throne, Chungyeong (now called King Sejong) stabilizes the newly born country and gives rise to a blooming culture. In the process he invents Hangul, the Korean writing system.

Wouldn't it be cool to have a killer as penfriend? 15-year-old Chas is fascinated of this idea. He impersonates his mother and writes to a man, called Lenny, who is in a death row in the USA, because he allegedly had killed a teenager. The Man is from Chas' home town in England. And he actually writes back. A risking game! But that's not all. Chas steals a truck with his friend - only for fun. But the prison, in which the crazy teenagers land, isn't any fun. But he still gets letters by Lenny from America. Just before Chas was released from prison, he is told that Lenny was acquitted because of the absence of proof and that he is on the way to England. What started as game evolved into a nightmare: Lenny wants to pay an old bill. When Chas and his friends realize that THEY are the goal of vengeance, it is nearly too late...

Felix is a hit-man who wants out of the business. He takes up a job to look after a reclusive man named Bubba who is like a giant kid, he does not understand people and does not know much, never having seen the outside world before. But Felix has bigger problems. He wants to patch up his relationship with his ex-girlfriend, and he's being targeted by his old colleagues who are not letting him get away from his past so easily.

The people of Terca Lumireis rely on an energy source called "blastia", devices created by the Krytia from using the crystallized remains of a powerful race known as the Entelexeia. Blastia are powered using a mystical substance known as "aer" and were used to provide resources and protection to major cities. In ancient times, misuse of blastia by the Krytia prompted the Entelexeia to absorb the excess aer generated by blastia abuses: consuming too much aer to handle, a group of Entelexeia transformed into a monster known as the Adephagos, which would consume every living thing on the planet by converting it into aer and absorbing it."'''Judith''': The Krytia. Stewards of wisdom, founders of the mighty Geraios, and ancient sages. Our misbegotten wisdom has sown only the seeds of ruin. The blastia we created granted us blessings, but also corrupted the aer, lifeblood of this world. / '''Estelle''':Then Rita was right. There were disturbances in the aer in the past. / '''Yuri''': You think this is showing a disturbance in the aer? / '''Karol''': It looks more like the aer is trying to... eat the planet. / '''Elder''': Hmm. It is said that a great mass of aer threatened to swallow the very planet whole. [...] / '''Judith''': The blight grew ever stronger and brought forth a cataclysm... In our terror, we gave a name to the cataclysm: the Adephagos. [...] The world united the challenge the Adephagos, and banish the loathsome power which created it.""'''Undine''': ...Gusios, you... / '''Yuri''': Undine. What happened to him? [...] / '''Undine''': Even Entelexeia cannot they can endure... change. And... / '''Rita''': No! / '''Undine''': Become Adephagos themselves. " Sacrificing humans with the innate ability to convert aer into magical energy, known as "Children of the Full Moon", they created a barrier to seal away the Adephagos. The remaining Children of the Full Moon and the Entelexeia decided on the new arrangement of the world: in future times, an unnamed Empire rules over large portions of Terca Lumireis, with the Children's descendants being its ruling family."'''Yuri''': The leaders of the ancients possessed an innate power, and were called Children of the Full Moon. The Shrine of Zaude received their lives and power. It sealed the Adephagos away, saving the world. [...] So the Shrine of Zaude was powered by the lives of the Children of the Full Moon? / '''Duke''': Humans brought for the Adephagos, and lead it. Consider it...atonement. The few remaining Children of the Full Moon, together with the Entelexeia, decided how the world would be. The Imperial family are their descendants. / '''Yuri''': So that's how the Empire started." Ten years prior to the events of ''Vesperia'', a new form of blastia was developed that could seriously damage Terca Lumireis' ecosystem and potentially release the Adephagos. The Entelexeia attempted to warn humanity in vain, and when they attempted to destroy the new blastia, they were defeated in a war. One of the veterans of the Great War, Duke, is utterly disillusioned with humanity after his Entelexeia companion Elucifer is seen as a potential threat and killed."'''Sylph''': The Great War was between humans who broke an ancient prohibition and the Entelexeia who opposed them. / '''Raven''': And the war ended when the hero Duke won victory for the humans. [...] / '''Sylph''': Humans alone could not have won that war. Elucifer-the leader of the Entelexeia advocating living with humans-fought alongside them, and granted them victory. / '''Raven''': Are you serious? ...Even I never heard that... But...what does this have to do with Duke not trusting humans? / '''Sylph''': Elucifer was Duke's friend. Duke fought with Elucifer against the leader of the ones who opposed humans, and defeated him. However, once the war ended, the empire feared Elucifer's power. They assaulted the injured Elucifer and took his life. He had promised Duke that he would merely watch. But I didn't matter."

In the present, former Imperial knight Yuri Lowell goes on a mission to retrieve his neighborhood's blastia core from a nobleman when their reservoir fails. While on his mission, he encounters a noble woman called Estelle, and flees with her from the capital in pursuit of the blastia thief. On their journey, they also meet Karol, a trainee hunter separated from his guild; a blastia researcher named Rita; Raven, a Great War veteran; Judith, a Krytia who seeks to destroy the blastia harming the aer balance; and exclusive to the PS3 version only, seemingly the descendant of a legendary pirate Aifread named Patty Fleur. Together, the group recover the stolen core from a corrupt guild leader and return it to Yuri's friend and former fellow knight Flynn. Yuri and Karol then decide to form an independent guild called Brave Vesperia. Shortly after this, Estelle is attacked by an Entelexeia called Phaeroh, who accuses her of poisoning the planet. After investigating and meeting a second time with Phaeroh, Brave Vesperia learn that Estelle is a Child of the Full Moon, capable of converting aer into magic without the aid of a blastia core, and that her actions are causing the aer krene, the sources of aer, to overproduce aer with deadly results."'''Phaeroh''': The power of the Child of the Full Moon stimulates the aer krene more than any blastia. / '''Yuri''': Huh? / '''Rita''': Blastia convert aer into energy by way of a formula. So if Estelle can use her healing artes without the aid of any blastia... She must possess a formula in her very being that lets her convert aer into energy. Judith was looking for blastia that used a particular kind of formula. So...this special formula Estelle has must also consume massive amounts of aer... Which causes the aer krene to become more active and pump out more aer than they should. [...] / '''Phaeroh''': It is as she has said... With each use of her power, the Child of the Full Moon uses far more aer than the blastia... In so doing, the imbalance of aer in this world is furthered. For the planet, such an existence can only be called a poison." Alongside these events, Yuri sees that the Imperial authorities are powerless to act against powerful figures involved in blastia abuse: he takes matters into his own hands and murders two officials connected to the abuses. These acts put a strain on his friendship with Flynn."'''Yuri''': The laws have always been the tools of whoever happens to hold all the chips. / '''Flynn''': Just saying that doesn't make it right for individuals to judge right from wrong, or for you to operate your own private court of law! If the laws are at fault, then fixing those laws comes first. It's for that very reason that I'm still with the Imperial Knights! / '''Yuri''': But you can't deny that lives were saved because those bastards were put down. You'd rather tell those people, 'Sorry you have to die today. I promise we'll change things soon'? / '''Flynn''': That's not what I'm saying at all! / '''Yuri''': They're out there, you know. People so bad they'll just go on hurting others. What can the average person do but be victimized by people like that? You know it was the same way with our people in the lower quarter. / '''Flynn''': Even so, Yuri, what you're doing isn't right. Do you intend to rain your justice down on all the villains of the world? That's the behavior of a common criminal. / '''Yuri''': I recognize it for what it is, and I've made my choices. Murder is a crime. / '''Flynn''': And even knowing that, you intend to dirty your hands."

After this, Estelle is kidnapped by Raven, revealed to be an agent of Commandant Alexei, leader of the Knights and the mastermind behind the blastia thefts: Alexei intends to use Estelle's power and the replica of a magical sword to activate an ancient weapon called the Enduring Shrine of Zaude and remake the world, erasing the harmful blastia. After Raven decides to remain with Brave Vesperia after helping Estelle to escape with them, the group travel to Zaude to stop Alexei. They fail, and as Zaude is activated, it is revealed to be a barrier generator which kept the Adephagos sealed off from the world."'''Raven''': The Adephagos?! Did you use that much aer? / '''Alexei''': No. This catastrophe has always waited there. / '''Karol''': Wh-what do you mean? / '''Judith''': The Adephagos was never eliminated. It was just sealed off far from sight. [...] / '''Rita''': You mean Zaude has been holding it back this entire time?!" As the Adephagos is released, Alexei is killed as Zaude collapses and Yuri is separated from the group after one of Flynn's subordinates attempts to kill him without Flynn's knowledge. Rescued by Duke, Yuri decides to stop the Adephagos. During his absence, Rita discovers a means of converting blastia cores into spirits, which can process aer into a less-dangerous alternate energy called mana, stabilizing the aer krene and keeping Estelle's powers in check. In turn, the mana could power a weapon capable of destroying the Adephagos. After receiving permission from the world's leaders to carry out their plan, Brave Vesperia must confront Duke aboard the city-sized weapon Tarqaron. Duke intends to convert all of human life, including himself, into energy to power the weapon and destroy the Adephagos, returning the world to a more primal state of being."'''Yuri''': Duke, we have the four elemental spirits. Their power can counter the Adephagos. / '''Estelle''': There's no need to use people to destroy the Adephagos. [...] / '''Duke''': ...And will the world return to its former state? [...] Will the aer be controlled by the Entelexeia? Will all life be returned to a time when nature ruled? / '''Rita''': No. / '''Duke''': You are changing this world-our Terca Lumireis-for what? For the convenience of humans. Nothing more." While they share some goals, they are forced to fight due to their conflicting methods."'''Duke''': We are in contradiction... ...However our feelings for the world are no different. How odd. / '''Yuri''': No, it's not. The future we chose...what we saw for the future...is different." After defeating Duke, Yuri attempts to use the converted blastia energy against Adephagos, but it proves insufficient. Moved by Brave Vesperia's efforts, Duke provides the extra power and Adephagos is destroyed. The Entelexeia that formed the Adephagos are then converted into spirits to revitalize the planet."'''Estelle''': Spirits. / '''Karol''': You mean all of them? Awesome... / '''Rita''': All the Entelexeia who became Adephagos... They all transformed into these spirits. / '''Raven''': So the Adephagos was also a part of this world. Unbelievable." A post-credits scene shows Brave Vesperia continuing their adventures and helping the world adjust to life without blastia.

Charters (Basil Radford) and Caldicott (Naunton Wayne) are touring the Middle East (Saudi Arabia) with fellow Britons. After their vehicle breaks down they meet a caravan and a local sheikh invites them to dinner. After a glass of wine the sheikh offers to lend them two camels and tells of his fears that someone is spying on his oilfield.

They return to Baghdad where they go to a night club. Here two spies are expected and a Mata Hari type figure (the glamorous La Palermo) delivers a note (hidden on a record) to them in error, because they order exactly what the true spies are meant to order (as a code). When the real spies arrive (two Americans) and make the same order the mistake is realised.

Meanwhile our two heroes are flying to Istanbul. Here they are directed to a false hotel. La Palermo is to sing there to let them know something is up. They plan to kill the pair. They put them in a room with a booby trap bathroom... just a large hole dropping into the Bosporus. Charters slaps someone on the back, believing it to be Caldicott, and he falls in. Fearing reprisal for this accidental death they catch a plane to Budapest. Charters' sister Edith arrives in Budapest and struggles to track their hotel. La Palermo breaks into Caldicott's room to try to find the record. The next evening they track down La Palermo singing in a local night club, singing "Gypsy Lover".

The pair give the record to an English contact but are astounded when he says he does not play cricket.

They take a train eastwards to the edge of Hungary. They climb to a hilltop castle where La Palermo is. They are caught and are shot by firing squad, but La Palermo has organised blanks in the guns and they all escape together. A driver rushes all three to an airport then they take a boat across the Adriatic before going back to London. La Palermo kisses Caldicott as their train approaches London.

The old Santa Claus (Bridges) has seven days to find the new Santa Claus (Tucker) and pass the torch to him. The only problem is the new Santa Claus is a curmudgeon who lost his wife and his will to live. He works as a reporter for ''The Chicago Sun Times'', which is a throwback to ''Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus'', and has to rediscover the joy of Christmas. At the last minute, he realizes what is important and becomes the new Santa Claus.

The drama club of Oka Academy an all-girls high school put on the play ''The Cherry Orchard'' by Anton Chekhov for the anniversary of the school's founding. Each chapter follows the life of one of the club members while the preparations for the play go on.

An artist from Seoul visits the widow of a deceased friend in the countryside. The relationship between the friend's wife, her mother and the artist is depicted with reference to their concerns about social disapproval.

In the beginning of the film, Nat and Alex are talking about how school ended three months ago. They don't want to explain it, so they ask the audience if they want to go three months in the past in their "Time Machine". They try to go back in time making strange noises, but they're still in the present because the audience didn't believe, so they try again, and are taken three months into the past.

It is the final few days of school at Amigos Elementary, and the Naked Brothers Band start their tour at the year-end Masquerade Party. The theme of the party is "Superheroes", and Nat and Alex don't know who to be. Alex finds the Batman costume, which means that Nat is a sidekick.

Nat and Alex change their minds many times, and don't care what hero they are, as long as they're more powerful than one another, but Nat just wants to be more powerful than Rosalina. Then, Jesse remembers that Rosalina's prom is the same night as the Masquerade, so she won't be going to the Masquerade.

At Amigos Middle (Nat's school) and Amigos High School (Rosalina's school), Nat and Rosalina begin conversing about the Masquerade Party, which coincidentally is on the same night as Rosalina's prom. Rosalina says that she doesn't want to go to the prom because it isn't her dream.

The head of the prom committee, Patrice Johnston (Sarah Livingston), bumps into Nat and Rosalina's conversation and tells them to act cool, because the most popular boy in high school, senior Wade Kilgannon (Mark Richard Keith), is walking over to the high school doors.

Wade asks Rosalina out to the prom and Nat tells her to go (even though he didn't really want his crush to go out with another guy) and Wade makes plans without letting Rosalina have a final say in the matter, saying that: "It is every girl's dream". Patrice gets very upset, because she thought that Wade was coming over to ask her to the prom.

Meanwhile, Thomas and David are thinking of pranks to pull on Principal Schmoke (Tim Draper), and Qaasim is running away from four girls that he asked to the Masquerade Party, who all said yes, and have no idea about the others.

While practicing for the tour, Alex makes up his own superhero "BASSFF Man" (Bat And Super Spider Fantastic Four Man), and he makes Nat his sidekick, "Birdie". Jesse comes in for practice with her sisters, Bessy and Tessy, as well as three other sisters (who are really The Adorable Timmerman Brothers), for the new director, Wing's, vision about the tour having dancing girls.

Rosalina comes in late for practice (visibly upset) because she went shopping for her dress. Nat is also upset that she is missing practice constantly, whether it is for setting up for the prom or getting things for her big night.

The next day, when Rosalina was nowhere to be found, Nat thought that this was enough. He goes to Rosalina's school, and she is decorating for the prom, because she has to put in hours or she can't go. Patrice storms in and tells Nat and Rosalina that she is going to kill them, because they cut her scene out of the "Long Distance" music video. In order to get revenge, and to make Rosalina mad, she forces Nat to go to the prom with her.

On the night of the Masquerade party and prom, Alex is trying to get Nat ready. Nat is wearing a baby blue tuxedo, and Alex is splashing him with cologne. Nat goes to pick up Patrice, and she ignores Nat and is all dolled up for the cameras so she can get her camera time.

When Wade picks up Rosalina, she asks him to come inside to take pictures, but instead, Wade pulls out his cell phone and takes a picture there. At the prom, Nat and Rosalina bump into each other and are very lonely because their dates abandoned them near the punch bowl. A slow song comes on, and Nat and Rosalina dance together.

Meanwhile, Qaasim is running away from the four girls he asked out to the party, and (strangely) they are all dressed the same, so he can't tell them apart. David and Thomas are in the boys bathroom at the elementary school. They erased the legendary graffiti in the bathroom that said: "Put in Joe Schmoke and watch the other team croak!"

When Principal Schmoke find out, he stops the party and searches everyone's bags for cleaning liquids. Cooper kept it in his briefcase, because he tries to take the blame for it. Qaasim tells David and Thomas to confess, because he wants to continue the party as soon as possible. Qaasim starts shouting "confess!" and the students join in.

Then, Principal Schmoke finds Cooper's briefcase filled with cleaning supplies and Principal Schmoke tells Cooper how disappointed he is in him. Then, Alex (Alex Wolff) shouts out that he did it, since he doesn't have a reputation to break.

David and Thomas feel guilty and wonder why everybody is taking the blame for them. Then, David and Thomas finally confess. Then, Principal Schmoke grabs them by the top of their costumes and takes them to the bathroom. They kept spelling Schmoke — Shmoke. So Principal Schmoke takes over spelling his name the correct way. The two later sneak out of the bathroom.

At the prom, Nat and Rosalina watch Patrice's world premiere edit rendition of The Naked Brothers Band's "Long Distance" music video starring herself. It is basically frames of her sighing and looking out of a window in black and white.

Nat and Rosalina leave the prom and change into their sidekick costumes while no one is looking to perform their song, "I Don't Want To Go to School". A high schooler finds out the NBB is performing at the middle school party and tells everyone, so they all leave to watch the performance. Everyone—except Patrice—is happy.

Allan Colleigh has psychosomatic blindness following a fire that killed his father, a renowned academic who punished Allan as a child. The fire also facially scarred Allan's sister Katherine. Allan had accidentally left some cans of paint thinner near a heater which caught fire.

Returning home partially cured after months in a mental hospital, Allan tries to adjust to his life back at home. Katherine has an ex-boyfriend who has gone away, but who phones the house after Allan's return. She also takes in an odd boarder who she says has a throat injury and hence can only speak in a whisper. Allan is suspicious and afraid of the new boarder and when he begins to hear his name being whispered and partially sees a dark figure coming to get him, wonders whether he is crazy or whether someone is ''really'' out to get him. He records his suspicions on a reel-to-reel tape recorder in his bedroom.

Olive, Allan's fiancée before his father died in the fire, tries to renew contact with Allan. He is, at first, reluctant but gradually is persuaded to see her again. He asks her to keep an eye out for the mysterious lodger so she can describe the lodger to him. Olive persuades him to take a trip into town in her car. While she drops books back at the university library, she leaves Allan alone in the car and he thinks he hears the whispering again. He tries to drive the car away, only to crash it.

After further incidents with the blurry, whispering figure– and Allan cutting himself with a knife upon being startled by a delivery boy at the kitchen window– Katherine tries to persuade him to see the psychiatrist again. Meanwhile, Olive claims to have seen Katherine's boyfriend in the town. Katherine denies that he has returned, but Allan feels she is hiding something and suspects she wants to have him sent back to the hospital. Allan experiences various nightmares. In one he relives his punishment by his father, during which he hid in a dark cupboard. In another episode, the whispering voice lures him to a room which seems burnt and where the ceiling timbers fall in. The next morning, he is convinced that the room was real. This belief is reinforced by his finding a piece of burnt wood in the house.

Allan calls the hospital, hoping to see the psychiatrist. Unfortunately, the doctor is away. Allan will have to take a cab to meet the doctor on his return. The cab duly arrives, but in going to meet it, Allan slips on the path. The cab driver turns out to be Eric, Katherine's boyfriend, who has a croaky whispering voice which he attributes to a cold. Olive, who has come looking for him, helps Allan back into the house. Later, after ensuring Alan is still alive although his door is locked, Olive and Katherine speak together and Katherine says she will send Allan back to the hospital the next morning, as she cannot stand it any more. Allan had tried to convince Olive there was a plot against him, remembering that the whispering voice was on his tape recorder from the night before, but she is no longer in the room when the voice plays back. Allan smashes the tape recorder on the floor.

Soon after, the whispering voice lures Allan into the kitchen pantry and the door is locked behind him. He finds that a fire has been set within, but douses it with some flour and manages to break the door down and wrestle with the shadowy attacker. As he pulls the figure's black mask off, his vision returns and he recognizes his sister, Katherine. He also removes the plastic "appliance" which she had adhered to her face to represent her scar. She confesses that she had the scar from the fire removed, but says that it should have remained there as a brand to show all the world Allan's crime: the "murder" of their father, "the greatest man who ever lived."

After some time has passed, Allan comes home and talks to Olive, who is preparing dinner for them. He has been taking a music appreciation course and seems much more normal. However, he has received a letter from Katherine– who was evidently sent to a psychiatric facility– pleading with him to have her released. As he contemplates this, his vision goes dark– he is blind again.

In the year 2011, the United States is a police state. A substantial percentage of the population was wiped out by a devastating viral pandemic 20 years earlier. Amidst the resulting chaos and general panic, democracy collapsed and a totalitarian cabal seized power. After moving the seat of government to Boston, the new dictatorship outlawed ownership and use of all automobiles, boats and aircraft, on the pretext that an even bigger crisis, the exhaustion of fossil fuel supplies, was imminent. The loss of other personal freedoms followed, and surveillance cameras now monitor private citizens' every move.

In Boston, Franklyn Hart, a former race car driver who lost his family to the plague, is a spokesman for the mass transit system. Publicly, he deplores the selfishness of private vehicle ownership and exalts the virtues of public transportation; privately, he is barely able to contain his contempt for the oppressive, autocratic bureaucracy and the dismal party line that he is compelled to promote.

Years before, as private vehicles were being confiscated, Hart sequestered his race car an orange Porsche 917 CAN-AM roadster in a secret compartment beneath his basement. Over the ensuing years he has gradually restored it to drivable condition, raiding long-abandoned junkyards in the dead of night for parts. His goal is to drive across the country to "Free California", an independent territory that has broken away from the rest of totalitarian America. Young electronics whiz Ring McCarthy deduces Hart's plan, and Hart reluctantly agrees to bring him along on his perilous journey.

The ubiquitous surveillance system catches Hart vaulting a junkyard fence; Hart and McCarthy flee Boston in the roadster as police close in. Although gasoline has not been sold for 20 years, Hart has access to a virtually inexhaustible supply, the residual fuel remaining at the bottom of subterranean storage tanks in every abandoned gas station in the country. He uses a portable hand pump to refuel from these tanks as necessary.

News of the duo's daring adventure spreads across the country. The government, represented by a Gestapo-like figure named Hawkins watches with growing concern as the public takes notice and cheers Hart's defiance of authority. Calls for a return to personal autonomy and democracy are heard, for the first time in two decades. Hart must be stopped; but ground pursuit is impossible, as the electric golf carts used by the police are incapable of chasing down a race car.

Hawkins orders J. G. Williams, a retired Air Force pilot, to track down and destroy Hart and his car in a Korean War-vintage F-86 Sabre. He locates and strafes the car, wounding Hart. A community of armed (mostly Native American) rebels takes Hart and McCarthy in, hides the car, and treats Hart's wounds. A team of mercenaries soon locates and attacks the enclave, although Hart and McCarthy escape during the firefight.

Back on the open road, Williams once again has the roadster in his crosshairs; but now he is having second thoughts. As an old rebel himself, he is starting to identify with Hart's situation. Prodded by Hawkins, Williams initiates several more confrontations, but each time he backs off, to Hart's and McCarthy's bewilderment. McCarthy rigs a radio receiver and listens in on Williams's cockpit radio communications, then establishes a dialog with him using Morse code via a hand-held spotlight. Eventually Williams confides that he is sympathetic to their cause.

But Hawkins is also monitoring Williams's radio communications, and after learning of his change of heart, orders the activation of a Cold War-era laser cannon at a position ahead of Hart's route. Williams attempts to warn Hart, but his radio communications have been jammed. Williams releases his external fuel tanks ahead of the car, hoping the inferno will stop the car short of the cannon's range; but Hart, assuming Williams has changed allegiances yet again, drives on.

Williams strafes the laser, but cannot pierce its heavy armor; so he sacrifices himself in a kamikaze-style attack, destroying his jet and the laser installation. His sacrifice allows Hart and McCarthy to drive on toward California where they are welcomed as heroes.

Eric Poole is a convicted teenage serial killer. Lorelei "Lori" Cranston is a troubled 15-year-old girl.

As a little boy in New England, Eric Poole already exhibited symptoms of a sociopath. He was suspected of murdering several young girls, but also murdered his mother and stepfather, and was convicted for those deaths. He convinced investigators that he killed his guardians out of self-defense with a false story of abuse.

Lori is described as a beautiful girl with a very mature body at a young age. Consequently, she must constantly deal with the wanted and unwanted sexual attention she receives from men. She has a tendency to fixate on men, and will pursue them until she has put her mouth on theirs.

Detective Jake Proctor always suspected that Eric was guilty of killing the other girls and that he had fabricated his abuse story. He is determined to prove that Eric is a serial killer.

At 18, Eric is released from the juvenile detention center and immediately starts looking for a new victim. Lori sees him on TV, fixates on him, and runs away from home to find him. During this time, Detective Proctor begins setting a trap to catch Eric before he can kill again.

Based on a summary in a film magazine, Enoch, Annie, and Walter grow up as friends. Later, Annie decides to marry Enoch, but Walter, though bitter about the decision, remains their friend. Enoch and Annie have two children. Then business takes Enoch on a sailing voyage, which he states will take less than one year, and he asks Walter to look over his family while he is gone. Enoch does not return, and Walter dutifully cares after Enoch's wife and children. After ten years word comes of a wreck seen in the Pacific, and everyone believes Enoch has died. Walter and Annie then marry. One night a stranger comes to the house and through a window sees Walter, Annie, and the children happy. The stranger, who is Enoch, finds an old woman who tells him what happened. Enoch tells her to keep his secret, and then leaves. He later dies with a smile on his face.

Each of the game's level stages feature different situations with Shinnosuke involving one of the supporting characters from the series. These situations must be resolved by playing a card game.

Book I: ''Lucy Gayheart''

On Christmas holiday away from her piano studies in Chicago, Lucy Gayheart is ice skating in her hometown of Haverford, Nebraska. Harry Gordon, the most eligible bachelor in town, joins her. Later she takes the train back to Chicago - he is with her until the Omaha stop. In a prolepsis, she recalls going to a performance by Clement Sebastian and later to an audition with him - she has one scheduled for her return. Back in Chicago then, she goes to a concert by the same artist. The next day she goes to his place for a singing practice, and meets his valet Giuseppe. She will replace Sebastian's accompanist, James Mockford, whilst the latter is convalescent. During these practice sessions, Clement Sebastian seems distant. Once he gets a call asking for money, which must be from his wife. On another occasion, he goes to Madame Renee de Vignon's funeral; later he goes into that same Catholic church again. Sebastian goes off to Minnesota and Wisconsin on a tour with Mockford. Lucy feels dejected. However, she gets a telegram from Sebastian telling her to come to his studio the following day - this cheers her up. However, when she returns to his studio, she asks him if he ever got pleasure out of being in love. He says, "N-n-no, not much," then asks her "Why? -- Do you?" She replies, "Yes, I do. And nobody can spoil it." This embarrasses her—she worried that it exposed her love for him and she leaves abruptly. He manages to meet her again at Auerbach's (the studio where she studies and also gives lessons) and calms her fears. Later, both Lucy and Sebastian are depressed; the latter takes her to dinner and tells her about Larry MacGowan, a friend from his school days who died recently. The next day he tells her he loves her but is old enough to be her father so will not act on his love. He says that she is not really in love with him, only growing up and "finding things." Later, when Sebastian is off on an Eastern U.S. tour, Harry visits her and they go to operas and museums together. Although she seems appreciative and making an effort to be nice, she finds his visit stressful. She rejects his proposal for marriage, saying that she loves someone else.

Sebastian finally comes back briefly; Lucy is to go to New York City to be his accompanist in the winter, after he tours Europe. Meanwhile, she has to rehearse, and she will take up Sebastian's apartment as her studio. On his departure she cries. Later she receives a letter from her sister Pauline saying Harry has married Miss Arkwright. Professor Auerbach asks Lucy what she wants to do in her future—accompany other singers or marry Harry (whom he briefly met). He implies that it is difficult for a female accompanist -- "For the platform they always have a man."—thus, a female accompanist would only be for rehearsals. This discourages Lucy. In September, Professor Auerback reads in the newspaper that Sebastian and Mockford drowned in Lake Como, near Cadenabbia.

Book II

Lucy returns to Haverford. No one knows why she has returned and there is some gossip about it with some saying that Professor Auerbach had fired her. Harry is very glib with Lucy whenever he meets her. She feels depressed, and her only solace is sit in the orchard. When her sister Pauline wants to remove it to make more money growing onions and potatoes, she throws a tantrum, Pauline gives in, and it is not cut down. Later she visits Mrs. Alec Ramsay, an elderly lady and old friend, who has been asking after her and plays the piano there. At night she sometimes has nightmares. She then goes into the bank in another attempt to talk to Harry, but again he sends her away glibly. Mr. Gayheart has bought tickets for the opera. The performance seems humdrum to Lucy, but she is very impressed with the soprano's performance. The soprano had obviously seen better days and a better opera company than her present traveling opera company, but yet she gave a wonderful performance. "The wandering singer had struck something in her that went on vibrating; something that was like a purpose forming, and she could not stop it." The day before Christmas, the thought comes to her -- "What if -- what if Life itself were the sweetheart? It was like a lover waiting for her in distant cities -- across the sea; drawing her, enticing her, weaving a spell over her." This cheers her up and the next day, she writes to Professor Auerbach and inquires about returning to her job with him in Chicago again. He replies that she can come in March, when her replacement, the current teacher, leaves. Meanwhile, Pauline has heard that Lucy may have had a love affair with a singer who died. In late January, Pauline announces that she has two piano students for Lucy. Lucy refuses to teach them. In the ensuing argument, Pauline indicates that their father has made financial sacrifices and gone into debt to finance Lucy's musical education in Chicago. She also indicates that she has heard talk about Lucy and Sebastian and that the gossip is that Harry threw Lucy over when he found out about the two. After this, Lucy leaves the house carrying her skates. She finds it hard going due to a recent snowfall and decides to catch a ride with whoever passes so that she can return. However, Harry is the person who appears. When she asks for a ride, he pretends he is too busy to take her back to her house and drives past her. She reaches the area that she and her friends had always used for skating. However, the river has changed its course since she last skated there and the shallow part that froze solid is no longer there. Lucy is so angry at Harry for driving past her that she does not notice any change in the river. When she skates toward the center, the ice cracks and she falls through. One of her skates catches on a submerged branch of a tree that had fallen in during the spring flood last year. Her body is found by her father and other locals.

Book III

This book is written from Harry Gordon's point of view and includes his reflections. Twenty-five years later, in 1927, Mr. Gayheart is brought back from Chicago, where he died in a hospital. Pauline had died five years earlier, so he was the sole remaining member of the family. Many people turn up at the funeral. Harry had become chummy with Mr Gayheart after Pauline's death and they would often play chess together. It is revealed in Harry's thoughts that he had regretted his hasty marriage and that it had been in retaliation for Lucy's rejection. When she returned to Haverford, he realized that he still loved her, but still wanted to punish her for rejecting him so he avoided her and tried to distance himself from her, even though he knew she wanted contact. "He knew that if he were alone with her for a moment and she held out her hands to him with that look [of pleading], he couldn't punish her any more -- and she deserved to be punished." He blamed himself for her death. Harry had given Mr. Gayheart a mortgage with the Gayheart farm as surety in the last years of Mr. Gayheart's life. Mr. Gayheart had been unable to repay the mortgage, so Harry now owned the farm. He ponders on the footprints made by Lucy at 13 in a concrete sidewalk when it was newly laid. He tells his bank assistant Milton Chase that he can have the farmhouse to live in, provided that Chase makes sure that nothing happens to the footprints. He says that Chase will inherit the farm when he dies.

This took place where the people start singing and a woman Philippa Ray sings a song on the microphone. There were people dancing in playing instruments. In the on the stage four men are singing. One sings soprano and one sings bass. Suddenly one person plays the trumpet and other people start singing. They start dancing at the end.

Peter Sadelack played second chair violin in Prague, and, despite losing his ability to play, continues to treasure his violin. His eldest son, Antone, tries to convince Peter to sell the violin. The story then describes his glamorous life back in Bohemia as he reminisces. After comparing his past and current lives, he attempts to play "Ave Maria", or Ellens dritter Gesang, on his violin. He cannot finish the song because of his shaking arm. Peter takes his violin to the stable and takes down Antone's gun. He breaks the violin and then shoots himself.

Antone finds his father frozen in the stable the next morning. He notices that his father forgot to break the bow, and he plans to sell it in town. Because Peter committed suicide outside in the cold, his body was unable to be straightened for a coffin; he is buried in a pine box instead.

At twenty-two, Lou manages his own homestead. Despite working very hard, he comes upon a series of mishaps - he loses his cattle, his beloved marries a richer man, his mother dies, and his corn does not grow. He grows depressed but starts reading the ''Book of Revelation'' and takes up praying. He comes upon several Danish boys and tells them they need to pray too. They show him their secret hiding place. He then goes into town and prays in public; passers-by ask after the sheriff to stop him and he runs away into the children's hiding place. Finally he goes off down South and is never found again. It is "thought" he drowned in a river and was eaten up by quicksand, though the children believe his spirit lingers.

The plot follows Bernard Fine, a fictional character in his 30s who has recently been promoted to senior vice-president of Wolff's Department Store in his home town of New York City. Although enjoying his life, Bernie is sent to San Francisco to open a new Wolff's store. Bernie gets a new outlook on life when he meets little Jane O'Reilly, and soon after falls in love with her mother, Liz O'Reilly, a resident in California. After forming a relationship and marrying, Liz becomes pregnant with their first child, only to develop cancer shortly after the birth, given only a short amount of time to live. When Liz dies, Bernie is left with the responsibility of two children, and must take a new lease and have new experiences throughout his life.

Josef Tkaloun is an elderly teacher at a high school in Prague who cannot control his anger when his pupils misbehave in his poetry class. He quits his job and despite his wife urging him to retire, becomes a cycle courier. After an inevitable accident, he still refuses to stay at home and takes a job in the local Žižkov supermarket. He works behind a counter, recycling glass beer bottles. There he begins to flirt with the customers and matchmake both for an old friend and for the man he works with. His own flirtations (and sexually charged dreams) almost get him into trouble with his wife, so he resolves to reignite the passion in his marriage by celebrating his wedding anniversary with a hot air balloon ride. The scary balloon ride, ending in crash, revitalizes the relationship.

After the wedding of Diana Goode and Andrew Douglas, Diana comments that they will make a baby on their honeymoon. However, after the honeymoon period is over, she is still not pregnant. After repeated attempts, the couple both have to question their willingness to have a baby. The second couple consists of Charlie Winwood and Barbie Mason. The latter does not share Charlie's dreams of having a large family to raise in their house. After Charlie discovers he is sterile, he is forced to question his marriage, and his wife, who shares none of his dreams. The final couple is Pilar Graham, a successful lawyer from Santa Barbara, California and Brad Coleman, nineteen years older than she and father of two grown children. They are happy together until Pilar begins to alter her views on whether she should have a baby with Brad.

The novel follows Paxton Andrews, who is stationed in Vietnam as a journalist during the Vietnam War, focusing on the men she encounters and how her life and the lives of the people she encounters are changed forever.

Andrews has been heartbroken many times, having lost her father, two lovers, and a nanny to whom she was close. These tragedies have left her hopeless and despairing, but by going to Saigon for a third time she finds a love that will not fade away.

When the Brewster family vacations to an old midwestern town known as Pincrest, Eric Brewster and his teenage friends discover various items such as bladeless hacksaws, shadeless lamps, tables with missing legs, and a headless axe handle, which they perceive as old junk.

They soon realize that there is a troubling great mystery behind these items; a mystery simply dying to be solved. But the fascination with the mysterious items grows into an obsession. Not only that, while their days consist of tending to the mystery, their nights become nothing but filled with ghastly nightmares that threaten to become reality. And soon they discover yet more information that soon blossoms into the shocking truth. They also learn about the terrifying events that occurred Pincrest seven years before, the horrifying disappearance of Pinecrest's last resident, and a strange legacy with an eerie life of its own, which may also be thirsty and awaiting for new victims.

As described in a film magazine, Jim Young (Harron) of Youngstown, Pennsylvania, reads of the German war atrocities and decides to enlist in the British army, thus becoming a forerunner of the American forces that are subsequently to leave for the battlefields of Europe. He begins active training at a camp outside London. While enjoying a few hours of leave, he meets Susie Broadplains (Gish), a young woman from Australia. She is flattered by his attentions and their friendship soon blossoms into love. Susie's one dissipation consists of walking in Pump Lane with her soldier boy. She falls heir to 20,000 pounds and at once becomes the object of much solicitude from Sir Roger Brighton (Walthall), a fortune hunter. When Jim is ordered with his regiment to go to the Front, he has no time to bid her adieu. Sir Rogers seeks to force his marriage before he leaves for Paris on a business trip, and she accepts him. German plotters plan to destroy an arsenal at night and Sir Roger is inveigled into driving an automobile along a London road with its lights turned skyward to guide the Zeppelins. Jim, wounded and home on furlough, detects Sir Roger on the lonely road, follows and traps him in his cottage. Sir Roger turns his pistol on himself rather than be taken alive. Susie finds the "great love" in service for the cause of democracy and her country, with a greater love in sight.

Arriving home after her father-in-law's funeral, Sophie Lee (Vera Farmiga), a Caucasian woman, and her husband Andrew (David Lee McInnis), a Korean-American, have sex on their kitchen table; Andrew breaks down in her arms shortly after. At the doctor's office, Sophie is told that her husband's sperm isn't healthy enough to get her pregnant, and she pleads with Dr. Hanson (Marceline Hugot) to secretly give her someone else's sperm, though the doctor refuses.

Sophie is encouraged by Andrew's family to pray for a baby, but when she asks Andrew how to pray, he says God can't make her become pregnant. While waiting for an appointment at the clinic, Sophie witnesses an Asian man, Jihah Kim (Ha Jung-woo), arrive to make a donation. She listens outside the door during his doctor's interview, and hears that Jihah is an illegal alien and they cannot accept his sperm. When he storms out of the room, Sophie follows him to a dry cleaners in Chinatown, but doesn't have the courage to talk to him.

Following a party one night, Sophie awakens to find Andrew has attempted suicide. While he recovers in hospital, Sophie goes back to the laundromat. She follows Jihah to his building and waits outside his apartment. When he returns home, Sophie propositions him for sex; she offers Jihah $300 per session, and if they are successful in getting pregnant, an additional $30,000 in cash. He agrees, and the two have sex. After Sophie accidentally falls asleep after one of their sessions, they begin to bond.

While working at the dry cleaners one day, Jihah notices Sophie outside and encounters Andrew who comes in to pick up his jacket. Before their next meeting, a dismissive Jihah takes Sophie out to eat, and says that he saw her husband. They argue after he notes his physical similarities to Andrew; Sophie retorts that all he's good for is his penis. He follows her out into the street, where she breaks down and tells Jihah of Andrew's suicidal tendencies because he is sterile. Jihah takes Sophie to a spot in the park where he prays.

For the first time, Sophie and Jihah become intimate during one of their sessions. When she arrives home, she tells Andrew that Dr. Hanson has new procedures they could attempt, but he says they should give up trying. Sophie then tells him that, before they were married, he got her pregnant but she had an abortion. Andrew walks away. The next morning, the two go to church, and Sophie faints. Meanwhile, Jihah is seen buying flowers and browsing for jewelry. Back at his apartment, Sophie arrives and tells him she's pregnant, paying him the $30,000. Jihah offers his congratulations and the two part bittersweetly.

As Sophie and Andrew celebrate her pregnancy, Jihah goes through the laundromat's receipts to find their address. The next day, Andrew and Sophie host a party, and Jihah shows up. Andrew goes to greet him, and Jihah says he must have the wrong address; he sneaks away to watch from a distance. As the group begin a prayer, Sophie fantasizes about Jihah.

Days later, Sophie visits Jihah at his apartment and the two become intimate once again. She and Andrew then find out that the baby is a boy. Later that day, Sophie's cab is late when she attempts to go to Jihah's, so she catches the train instead. Meanwhile, Andrew arrives home early and answers the door to the delayed taxi driver. Andrew drives to Jihah's address and overhears Sophie with him from outside the door. Jihah gives Sophie a key to his apartment. While Sophie is there one day, police show up and detain Jihah for his illegal residence in the United States.

When Sophie returns home, Andrew informs her that he knows about her affair. He asks that she abort the child so that he can forgive her, to which she adamantly refuses. Andrew restrains Sophie and attempts to drag her upstairs; she screams and begs for him to let her go until he releases her. Jihah is told by authorities that he will be deported the next morning; while being held, he requests to make a phone call. Sophie goes to Jihah's spot in the park to pray. She then goes to Jihah's apartment, where she answers a ringing cellphone. A few years later, a visibly pregnant Sophie is seen on the beach with her son. While he plays in the water, Sophie watches and knits for the new baby.

In the 1880s, a rich nobleman from London, Charles de Beaumont (Christopher Pearson), meets "Frank", an adolescent, and offers hospitality to the young orphan. According to the usages of his caste, he decides to educate him by himself. But Frank is not an obedient pupil and Charles is surprised when he discovers that Frank is not a boy as he believed, but a beautiful young girl named Frances with a dark secret.

In New York, veteran thief Keith Ripley recruits younger crook Gabriel Martin to help him pull off one final job in order to repay his debt to the Russian mafia, who had killed his previous partner, Victor Korolenko, before they could complete the plan. Martin is unsure of Ripley, but Ripley's goddaughter, Alexandra Korolenko, who is Victor's daughter, convinces him otherwise, although Ripley does not like that the two are getting close. Ripley tells Martin the plan, that they are going to steal from a Russian museum that has been smuggling Russian treasures into the country and bribing the NYPD with large donations and expensive equipment. The two infiltrate a party at the museum posing as cops, with Ripley as Lt. Weber, who has a vendetta against Ripley, to gather information about their vault.

The Russian mob, led by Nicky Petrovitch, grow impatient and kidnap Alexandra, telling Ripley he must steal two Fabergé eggs from the Russian Museum in order to get her back. When the duo get into the vaults of the museum with the eggs, Martin reveals he is an undercover cop from Miami planted by Weber to catch Ripley, leaves Ripley locked in the vault and informs Weber, while taking the eggs to the Russian mobster to free Alexandra. After Alexandra is released, Martin is forced to meet with Petrovitch, who reveals that the eggs they have stolen are made of wood. Meanwhile, Weber and his squad enter the museum, but are detained by the security guards due to Martin telling the guards he was a cop as he escaped.

Martin reports in to the police the next morning, after the police have picked up Petrovitch, only to learn that the man they have in custody is not the man Martin met, and that the man he met was actually Victor Korolenko, who had faked his death with Ripley's help. It is then revealed that Ripley had escaped, letting the museum know cops were on the way and that they had cleaned out the vault of all the smuggled items (which had included the eggs) before the police could inspect it, meaning there was no evidence that anything had been stolen and that Martin's testimony would be worthless as his actions have been kept off the book to prevent Ripley from finding out. Martin's involvement with Alex compromises him, and Ripley had to be let go.

Ripley later calls Martin from an airport tarmac, ready to leave with Victor to meet with a buyer for the eggs; to tell him that they knew Martin was a cop from the beginning. Martin later meets up with Alex, who remained in New York, and who confesses that her feelings for him are real. Martin decides to become a thief.

Flashpoint follows the lives of several officers working for an elite police tactical unit known as the Strategic Response Unit (SRU), which is called in by regular police to resolve situations beyond their control.

Christine is a housewife, who does not speak. Her husband works while she stays home with their three children. Andrea is an executive secretary in an office predominantly run by men. Annie is a jolly waitress at a local café. These three women have never met before until one day in a dress boutique Christine attempts to shoplift a dress by slipping it into her bag. She is approached by the male owner of the store. After refusing to return the garment, Andrea and Annie join Christine in a circle around the man. Together, the three women brutally murder him as a group of women stand and silently but attentively watch.

Female criminal psychiatrist, Janine, is appointed to the case of these three women by the court to determine if they are sane or crazy. Janine takes the time to get to know each woman and their story. None of the three will say why they committed the crime, Janine comes to realize they were fed up with the strain of living in a patriarchy. After much deliberation, she concludes that they are all sane and finds herself identifying with them. Eventually tensions rise between Janine and her husband because he worries her statement in court will ruin his reputation.

The court date arrives and Janine gives her professional opinion that the three women are in fact sane and that the court should take into consideration that the owner of the boutique was a male. Despite the prosecutor's attempts to get her to change her opinion, she stands her ground. When the prosecutor suggests that the crime would have still happened if the owner were a woman, Christine, Andrea, Annie, Janine and the other women who witnessed the crime all laugh and exit the courtroom.

The film follows a Japanese businessman named Yutaka Sato (Hiromi Go), a workaholic who lives in Tokyo, Japan. After the death of his best friend from a heart attack due to permanent stress at work, Sato becomes disillusioned with the busy Tokyo lifestyle that he leads. Sato then decides to fulfill his lifelong dream of living in the Wild West in America, and moves to Montana to follow a childhood dream of becoming a cattle rancher.

In Montana, Sato meets a group of five cowboys that end up becoming his friend group. One is an old cowboy named Gabe McBride (Robert Conrad); one is a cowgirl/veterinarian named Jessie Collins (Catherine Mary Stewart); one is an Aboriginal (Native Canadian) cowboy who faces discrimination (Byron Chief-Moon); and a country singer cowboy (Bradley M. Rapier). Along the way these cowboys become his friends and help him fight against the evil Colt Wingate. Meanwhile, Jessie Collins becomes Sato's love interest in the film.

However, once he arrives at the ranch he finds out it is due for demolition and the welcome he receives from the town is less than friendly. Cattle rancher Colt Wingate, played by Matt McCoy, is pitted against newcomer Sato as Wingate wants to buy Sato's land in order to flood the valley and build a dam. In the end, Sato wins against Colt Wingate and is able to fulfill his lifetime-long dream of living on a ranch in the Wild Wild West.

Cape Cod's resident detective Asey Mayo has a long history with millionaire Bill Porter, owner of Potter Motors. Bill's men's club, the Hybrid, has a long history of funny bets on the night of the big football game, but when Bill Porter's enemy Harper Dixon bets Bill $50,000 that Asey Mayo couldn't "solve his Aunt Eugenia's grocery order", Asey must take a hand on behalf of his old friend, and returns from Jamaica to a New England blizzard. While approaching the Dixon home, he collects an assorted gang of characters and takes them to the Dixons' for safety. After they arrive, the group is locked in a powder room by a mysterious figure with a bright-red manicure. Upon their release, they discover Aunt Charlotte Dixon, drowned in her washbasin while in the process of shampooing her hair. When Asey Mayo learns that Aunt Eugenia's grocery order is the last thing she wrote before her death, he realizes that there is more at stake here than a bet.

Category:1936 American novels Category:Novels by Phoebe Atwood Taylor Category:Novels set on Cape Cod and the Islands Category:W. W. Norton & Company books

Mr. Myles Witherall, retired New Englander, decides on a whim to take an inexpensive tourist bus to the little town of Skaket, and thereby gets involved in the movements of an escaped killer. Meanwhile, a young married couple of artistic antecedents find that Skaket's inhabitants have turned violently against them, just before they find the body of Rosalie Ray, radio personality, dead in her bed, murdered with a whale lance. It takes Asey Mayo's knowledge of Skaket mores, a session of bric-a-brac destruction with wilful ingenue Laurie Lee, and the breaking of a clever alibi before Asey can pinpoint the killer and administer justice personally.

Category:1936 American novels Category:Novels by Phoebe Atwood Taylor Category:W. W. Norton & Company books

The little Cape Cod town of West Weesit has been rocked by four suicides from the same location, now known as "Suicide Cliff". Last month, Kay Truman was the latest body to be found at the foot of the cliff. Her father, Dave, had already been depressed because his business had failed and his wife had left him. A number of witnesses in a neighboring house see him come out on the porch with a gun and aim it at himself, and they assume the resulting shot is another suicide. But when it is learned that Dave had in fact been stabbed in the back, Asey Mayo takes a hand and soon becomes a target for a determined shooter. In between, he sorts out some local Cape Cod entanglements and learns the meaning of a dying clue left by Dave Truman -- "ink"—and what the tinkling bell around the neck of Sully the cat has to do with anything.

Category:1935 American novels Category:Novels by Phoebe Atwood Taylor Category:Novels set on Cape Cod and the Islands Category:W. W. Norton & Company books

Between two neighboring Cape Cod houses there is a chain link fence topped with barbed wire to signify the feud between the two halves of the Howes family. The disappearance of the fortune left by ancestor Bellamy Howes has divided Suzanne from her eccentric relative Simon. The fence has kept them apart, but now there are mysterious things happening at both homes—unexplained ransackings, unexplained prowlers wearing yellow handkerchiefs, and two near stranglings. When wealthy Benjamin Carson is strangled and left on the doorstep of one of the two houses on Deathblow Hill, Asey Mayo is called in to set to right both little mysteries (such as Bellamy's ships-in-bottles collection) and large mysteries like a tidy murderer.

Category:1935 American novels Category:Novels by Phoebe Atwood Taylor Category:Novels set on Cape Cod and the Islands

When he accidentally takes possession of a top-secret invisibility potion while en route to his wedding, government bureaucrat Sam Cooper finds himself engulfed in a madcap free-for-all as Russians and other bad guys try to get the substance. To elude the Reds, his own State Department bosses and his livid fiancée, Cooper takes the vanishing juice himself—which only makes matters worse.

Idealistic public defender Jerry Kellerman does whatever it takes to assist the helpless and disenfranchised, which often leads to clashes in the courtroom presided over by Judge Trudy Kessler, a hard-liner hoping to become the city's next district attorney. Jerry has many clashes with both law enforcement and the assistant district attorneys (ADAs) such as Michelle Ernhardt, the beautiful and occasionally devious attorney with whom he has had a turbulent secret fling.

The picturesque village of East Pochet in Cape Cod is not its usual self when Elizabeth Colton drives into it; the previous evening, a bootlegger dumped two hundred cases of liquor offshore, and the whole town reaped the windfall. At some point during the boozy celebrations, however, a bearded mystery writer ended up dead in the boat house at the Sandbar estate. Asey Mayo must figure out the comings and goings of a number of interested parties before he puts together the meaning of a mysterious fire in the living room and a tube of salve and solves the crime.

Category:1934 American novels Category:Novels by Phoebe Atwood Taylor Category:Novels set on Cape Cod and the Islands Category:W. W. Norton & Company books

Eve Prence is the glamorous and publicity-seeking owner of the famous Cape Cod Tavern, and uses her publicity to keep the Tavern filled with famous and/or wealthy guests. She has a house-full the night she's found at the bottom of the grand staircase, claiming somebody had tried to kill her. The following day, she is found with a knife in her ribs. Asey Mayo must work out the meaning of clues like a pair of antique pistols that contain a pair of antique daggers, and what exactly the blind boy on the scene of the crime heard, and a pair of dirty indentations on a windowsill before bringing home the crime to a surprising figure.

Category:1934 American novels Category:Novels by Phoebe Atwood Taylor Category:Novels set on Cape Cod and the Islands Category:W. W. Norton & Company books

In ''Elmo's Christmas Countdown'', Stiller the Elf (Ben Stiller) is telling Stan the snowball how Christmas was almost ruined. He recounts how he visited Sesame Street because he believed Oscar the Grouch would start the official countdown to Christmas. However, due to his hatred of the Christmas season, Oscar tosses the magical counting blocks into the air and they disappear. Stiller is worried that he destroyed Christmas, and it is up to Elmo, Alan and Abby Cadabby to help him find the blocks and the true meaning of Christmas miracles. They find the blocks one by one:

• Block No. 10 features Jennifer Hudson singing "Carol of the Bells" with the Forest Animals (including Hoots the Owl). It is found by Abby Cadabby.
• Block No. 9 has the reindeer News presenter Charles Blitzen (a spoof of Charles Gibson) of CDN (short for Counter Downer Network) reporting on the incident caused by Stiller the Elf. It was found in Bert's Christmas oatmeal.
• Block No. 8 has Anne Hathaway singing "I Want a Snuffleupagus for Christmas" (a parody of "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas") with Big Bird and Mr. Snuffleupagus. It was found in Super Grover's cape.
• Block No. 7 has Tony Sirico and Steven Schirripa failing to star in a Christmas Special as Bert and Ernie, Christmas is finally saved. It was found by Big Bird.

While Abby and Stiller hunt for Block No. 6, Block No. 5 is found by Ernie. Elmo sings "Do You Hear What I Hear" with Alicia Keys. * Block No. 6 has Charles Blitzen reporting that mass-hysteria is happening after news of the incident caused by Stiller the Elf was happening. It was found by Alicia Keys. * Block No. 5 has Jamie Foxx singing the "Nutcracker Suite" with a Nutcracker version of Elmo. It was found by Ernie. * Block No. 4 has Charles Blitzen sticking out his tongue to Stiller the Elf. It was found by Papa Bear. * Block No. 3 has Count von Count singing "I Saw Three Ships" with Ty Pennington during an "Extreme Makeover: Christmas Edition" where more ships are being made for the song. It was found by Mama Bear. * Block No. 2 has Brad Paisley singing "Jingle Bells" with Grover and the Penguins. It was found by Baby Bear. * Block No. 1 was found by Stiller the Elf. Unfortunately, it had a cookie in it and the Christmas Counter Downer is devoured by Cookie Monster.

Stiller the Elf states that Christmas will never come as Oscar celebrates. Elmo states that he and Abby can believe in Christmas miracles as Stiller joins them. Their believing attracts the appearance of Santa Claus (Kevin James). Handel's Messiah appears as they find every box of the Christmas Counterdowner. Santa Claus then sings "You Gotta Believe" with Elmo, Abby, Stiller, Big Bird, Snuffleupagus, Ernie and Bert, Count von Count, Grover, Prairie Dawn, Baby Bear, Telly Monster, Rosita, Zoe, and Cookie Monster. Santa Claus then takes his leave as he quotes "Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Night." After the story is over, Stiller the Elf and Stan the Snowball wish everybody a Merry Christmas.

The novel is set in the small town of Brocton, Pennsylvania, in roughly the mid-1950s. The story follows Arthur Winner Jr., an attorney, through 49 hours of his life. During this time, he frequently reminisces about earlier times, remembering town residents who have been dead for years, such as Arthur Winner Sr.

Arthur Jr. is a partner in the law firm his father founded in partnership with Noah Tuttle. As a young man, Arthur married Noah's daughter, Hope; they had three children, two sons and a daughter. The elder son, Warren, died during World War II. Hope died a few years later after giving birth to Arthur's daughter. Arthur is now married to a somewhat younger woman named Clarissa, who had been his daughter's tennis coach. The law practice currently consists of Arthur, Noah, and another man named Julius Penrose. It gradually emerges in the course of the story that Arthur had a brief but intense affair with Marjorie Penrose, Julius' wife, after Hope's death.

Two cases preoccupy Arthur during the course of the novel. The first concerns the probate of the estate of Michael McCarthy; the second is the arrest of Ralph Detweiler (brother of the firm's dedicated secretary Helen Detweiler) for rape. Arthur is also called on to deal with a new pastor in the Episcopal Church, who is asking him to take a role in the leadership of the parish.

Arthur also meets with one of Marjorie's friends, a woman named Pratt who wants to discuss Marjorie's interest in converting to Catholicism. (Julius, though not an especially religious Protestant, is fiercely opposed to Catholicism.)

Many years earlier, a trolley line had been built in the town, and Noah Tuttle had encouraged such clients as Michael McCarthy to invest in it. The trolley company went bankrupt, however, due to the rise of the automobile. Noah handled the bankruptcy case and, to the amazement of all, managed to return some money to the investors. The novel, however, begins to hint at a darker side to Noah's brilliance. He ridicules an elderly woman for wanting to move some of her funds from bonds into stocks. He bristles at the suggestion that the endowment of the parish could be transferred to management by the dioceses. During a hearing which Arthur supervises, Noah has an outburst when questioned about the assets of the McCarthy estate.

Arthur concludes that Ralph Detweiler, though selfish and cowardly, is probably innocent of the rape charge, and he expects to have the case dismissed. But Ralph jumps bail and flees to New York. Ralph's sister Helen, obsessed with respectability, commits suicide in shame.

As Arthur examines the records that Helen had been maintaining, he discovers that Noah has been embezzling from the trusts that he managed—this was the source of the money from the bankruptcy settlement. Noah embezzled $200,000 from the "Orcutt bequest" and has since been manipulating the money in his trusts, robbing Peter to pay Paul while attempting to replenish the funds. Arthur also learns that Julius Penrose has been aware of the embezzlement for some time. But Julius urges Arthur to keep quiet, hinting that he is aware of Arthur's affair with his wife, and that he is grateful that he has been silent about that. Arthur contemplates his position, where there are no good choices. He says, "Life, that has unfairly served so many others, at last unfairly serves me."

Out in Chicago on Christmas Eve, two shabby-looking men are considering getting food after they have not been eating for days. Crawford is too tired to walk however, so the other homeless goes off by himself. Crawford considers stealing the food as he cannot pay for it, but when a woman drops a parcel he gives it to her instead of running off with it. He feels as if he is a failed thief, in the same manner as he has failed at everything - college, journalism, real estate, performing. He then walks into a house in an attempt to steal the jewellery, and his mother finds him there. She says she forgives him for everything; his father remains distant. They have dinner and he feels warm again.

The adventure begins when the player characters hear reports of bandits waylaying and attacking caravans in a jungle region. Most of the ambushed merchants and guards have been killed, but the few who have returned alive tell fantastic stories about deformed plants and deadly beasts in the jungle. The stolen goods taken from the caravans provide an impetus for the characters to enter the jungles in search of this lost treasure.

After a long and perilous journey, the player characters encounter some friendly native people and are invited to stay in their village. The characters learn from the village's chief about the dangers of creatures called the yuan-ti and their servants, the tasloi, and that these creatures recently kidnapped the chief's son, taking him into the jungle. The chief and village shaman tell the player characters about a "forbidden city" in the jungle which they believe houses the ghosts of their dead enemies, and they supply the characters with guides to show the party the way to this forbidden city.

The adventuring environment in this module allows for both action and intrigue. The player characters can recruit allies from the various power groups and factions within the city, namely the bugbears, mongrelmen, and bullywugs, or else help pit these factions against each other for their own benefit.

The Princess Baladina has been punished for scratching and biting the nurse, and throwing a precious present from her father into the moat. She is not attending a court ball because of that. The next day she has breakfast and decides to run off and ask a wizard to put a spell upon her so that a prince will come and set her free, take her away from her family. She chances upon shepherds, and a miller's son takes her to a local wizard. He says he cannot do it but they should go and visit another wizard. The latter says he cannot do what she wants because the prince would then kill him, and also it is likely no prince will come at all; she needs to find a prince first. The Princess and the miller's son then go and look for a prince; they ask a couple of unassuming figures and finally chance upon a prince, who curtly makes fun of them. The Princess comes to the conclusion that for being so kind, the miller's son deserves to be a prince. However, the King and his retinue walk into them and gives him a gold coin to shoo him away. The Princess weeps and the miller's son wishes there were a prince for her.

In Oklahoma, Dennis and Signor have driven the cattle back into the corral. There is a dance at Mr Chevalier's this evening. The latter, along with the two aforementioned men and Harry Burns, are playing cards. Denis catches the Signor cheating. Burns warns him against the Signor, saying that Mexicans are treacherous. Signor then finds out Severine likes Denis. He blackmails her into kissing him this evening, or else he will tell her father. The dance begins and Severine dances with several men, one of them being Denis. Signor then asks Severine to get Denis to come up to him for a talk. The Mexican gives him some cocktails he has made himself, and tells him Severine has been playing with them both. He shall see for himself as Signor goes down and kisses her. A little later, Denis dances with her again but he is sad because of what he has seen. He dies on the dancefloor, accusing Signor of giving him poison earlier on. The murderer, however, had left half an hour earlier.

The narrative is grounded in the double life of a humble clerk who poses as the reclusive, but widely respected "Sir John." He thus moves in wealthy upper class circles and participates in grand investment schemes while living in a London slum.

The opening credits end with: “This film is dedicated to the anonymous men and women interviewed by Henry Mayhew in London between 1848 and 1861.”

The movie's detailed evocation of life in Victorian London drew on Henry Mayhew's vast personal archive of detailed interviews and vivid descriptions, which first appeared in a series of articles in the ''Morning Chronicle'' newspaper and were later compiled into the book London Labour and London Poor (1851).

Lillian wants to buy clothes but her mother suggests it would be more patriotic to invest in Liberty bonds. While asleep Lillian dreams of German war atrocities and awakens determined to buy bonds instead of clothes.

As described in a film magazine, Leo Peret (Lestina) has a small quiet tobacco shop in Greenwich Village. Edward Livingston (Harron), a wealthy young clubman and man-about-town, comes in frequently ostensibly to buy cigarettes but in reality to talk to the daughter Jeannette (Gish), and he is soon in love with the little shop girl. Leo is homesick for his native France, but lacks the funds to make the passage. Edward, learning of their plight, sends $1,000 with a note saying that the money is payment for a good deed. Leo accepts the money and he and Jeannette embark at once. In France Leo regains his health but suffers a broken leg. When Edward learns of this he goes to France and seeks out Jeannette to resume his lovemaking. He finds that he has a rival, however, in Mons Le Bebe, a grocer, and after forcefully embracing Jeannette one evening, she bids him to be gone forever. She is discouraged over Le Bebe's fondness for garlic and his refusal to accept the beauties of ''Chantecler''. But a chicken is just a chicken to Le Bebe.

War with Germany is declared and Le Bebe marches off to battle with Jeannette's blessing. The French soldiers are driven from the town by the Germans and Jeannette, her father and aunt, and little Peaches (Jackson) seek safety in the cellar. Leo is trusted with the hiding place of a telephone and he volunteers to keep the French posted. In defense of the town Le Bebe is shot in the leg, and he drags himself to the cellar. Jeannette hides him under some sand and he escapes capture. Meanwhile, Edward has enlisted in the American army that comes to the aid of France, and although he despises his fellow soldiers, he is a brave man. In a charge two companies become mixed and he finds himself in a shell hole with a black soldier who is dying. Edward's manliness asserts itself and he accomplishes the soldier's final request.

Leo is discovered listening to a German officer (Peil) discussing plans and is shot. He creeps back to the cellar and Jeannette relays the information by telephone to the French. Just as the Germans reach the cellar and force their way in, American troops enter the town. Le Bebe dies defending Jeannette, and she is saved from death by an American scouting party led by Edward. Later at the town's bakery shop, Jeannette hands out cakes and pies to the soldiers. Edward renews his lovemaking, and she is pleased with her American sweetheart.

As described in a film magazine, the senior John L. Logan (Fawcett) and his wife (Bruce) are very religious, and are taken aback when John Jr. (Harron) announces that he plans to leave their Southern farm and go to New York City to get rich. They take him to church and pray until he accepts religion. His sweetheart Jennie Timberlake (Gish) is afraid that he will backslide, which he does when the lure of the city becomes too strong for him. He is gone seven years and returns a rich man, but is not recognized when he returns home, which is now taking in boarders. Meanwhile, his father has fallen on hard times and is trying to get money to pay the farm's mortgage, and plans to murder the stranger staying at his home, not realizing it is his son. In town, there is a bank robbery and the robber is chased to the Logan farm. The mother sees that her son has returned home, and the father's remorse ends only as the family is once more together. It is then revealed that it was the bank robber that had been shot by the father. The faithful Jennie and John Jr. end up together at the end.

I

Colonel Josiah Bywaters is the sole remaining inhabitant of El Dorado, a Kansas town by the Solomon River (a fictional town, unrelated to the real El Dorado located in Butler County). He keeps a store there, and likes to dress up and go fishing on Sundays.

II

In Winchester, Virginia four years back, Major Penelton introduced Apollo Gump to Josiah. Although at first he didn't want to invest in Western land, he ended up relenting and moving to El Dorado, a town owned by the Gump family. He invested all his savings there. In Apollo's house he was impressed a picture of Therese Barittini, although Apollo was curt about it. Later the Gumps had to leave because their father had just died. As it was, they took the savings of all the town's inhabitants away in a major swindle. Inhabitants from neighbouring towns learn about it from a columns in a New York City newspaper and come and take back whatever they can for the money they'd been lending them. Consequently, El Dorado inhabitants turn on Josiah, until they leave and he is all alone.

III

A woman from Missouri stops at El Dorado with her children for water. Upon her departure, he ponders on his life back in Winchester.

IV

At night, a man is digging into the ground. He is killed by a rattlesnake.

V

The next day Josiah finds the man's horse and then the dead body; it is Apollo. He ends the digging and finds a box which contains the picture of Therese Barittini. Because Apollo was in love, Josiah decides that he will takes his horse and the $10,000 he finds in his pockets, and give him a proper funeral. He forgives him for his deeds. He sets fire to his store and moves out of El Dorado.

As described in a film magazine, "True Heart Susie" (Gish) lives with her aunt (O'Connor) and loves stupid William Jenkins (Harron). Her love is so great that she sacrifices the family cow, a pet of hers, and other farm produce so that he can go to college, but the benefaction is a secret one, and he finishes his theological studies without suspecting that she aided him. He has impressed her that she must dress as plainly as possible, and she is so attired when she goes with him for a "sody" on his triumphant return from college, but his eyes wander to girls giving a more attractive expression of themselves. After he becomes a minister, he cruelly consults Susie about the policy of taking a wife, and almost breaks her heart when he weds gay Bettina "Betty" Hopkins (Seymour), expecting his bride to adopt herself to his colorless life. The young wife fails to satisfy her husband with her cooking, with William finding the dishes Susie makes more to his taste. He begins to regret his marriage, and so does his wife, who escapes the monotony of her marriage by attending a dance at a neighboring house. After she loses her key and gets caught in the rain on the way home, Betty appeals to Susie, who shields her from the consequences as far as the minister is concerned. However, Betty's fright and her soaking bring on a fatal sickness, and it is after her death that her husband learns of her escapade. Although he swears never to marry again, he finds that True Heart Susie has given the one opportunity of his life, and he returns to her with the offering of his hand in marriage.