From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ===== Twenty-three-year-old Joanna Drayton's unannounced early return from her Hawaiian vacation causes a stir when she brings her new fiancé to her upper-class family home in San Francisco. He is John Prentice: a thirty-seven-year-old black (the dialogue uses the term Negro throughout) physician and medical professor, whom she had met just 10 days prior. A widower, he had lost his first wife and young son eight years earlier when they were killed in a train accident. Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy as Christina and Matt Drayton Joanna's parents – newspaper publisher Matt Drayton and his wife, art gallery owner Christina – are avowed liberals who have always promoted racial equality. Although they try to hide their concern, Joanna's parents and in particular her father are initially upset that she is planning to marry a Negro man. Tillie, the Draytons' black maid for 22 years, also opposes the match, telling Joanna that John is trying to "get above himself" by marrying a white woman. Joanna asks her why it is okay that she loves Tillie but she shouldn’t love John, who is “just as black”. The Draytons are unsettled by Joanna's engagement with John because they had never anticipated this possibility. But they are also concerned that John says that if they do not accept the engagement that day, then he will end it before leaving for Geneva. Initially intending to join John in a few weeks in Geneva for their planned wedding, Joanna decides to join him when he leaves after dinner for a meeting in New York City, then onward to Switzerland. There he will resume his responsibilities as an assistant director for tropical medicine with the World Health Organization. She has also invited John's parents to fly up from Los Angeles for dinner, so they can all become acquainted. Due to this invitation, what was intended to be a sit-down steak dinner for two turns into a meet-the-in-laws dinner party for seven with Monsignor Ryan joining in. John reveals that he has not yet told his parents of his intention to marry a white woman. Matt's golf buddy, Monsignor Mike Ryan, a senior-ranking Catholic cleric from Ireland, stops by after Matt earlier cancelled their golf game. After learning of John, the Monsignor shares Joanna's enthusiasm for the pending nuptials and tells her father as much. However, Matt says he cannot give the couple his blessing: he fears that Joanna will be hurt by the prejudice that John and she will surely encounter. One of Christina's art gallery employees, Hilary, who had briefly met John and Joanna earlier in the day, stops by the Draytons' home to express her disapproval over the relationship. Though Christina is still unsure of her own feelings about the matter, she is so offended at Hilary's response that she fires her on the spot. Later, when dressing for dinner, Christina shares with Matt her support for Joanna, even if it should mean having to fight her husband. Cocktails at the Drayton home resemble a game of musical chairs, as different permutations of parents and clergy and children gather and share their views about the situation, with the mothers generally expressing more faith in their children than the fathers. Universally, the parents express that more than a few hours are necessary for a proper decision. The difference between the couple's ages goes almost unmentioned. Mrs. Prentice tells Matt that her husband and he, in growing old, have forgotten what it is like to feel romantic passion. If they remembered, they would see that as more important for their grown children than any racial problem. When the elder Prentice tells John that he is making a huge mistake, John pushes back, saying that his father thinks of himself “as a colored man, [while] I think of myself as a man.” After thinking about the situation, and his conversation with Mrs. Prentice in particular, Matt calls everyone together (including Tillie) to make an announcement. He says that it does not matter what everyone else may think about John and Joanna getting married; all that matters is that they love each other regardless of who opposes their marriage. His words move Christina to tears, and he breaks the tension by asking Tillie to serve dinner. The film ends with the two families – now united as one – and Monsignor Ryan finally sitting down to dinner. ===== The village of Wootton Major was well known around the countryside for its annual festivals, which were particularly famous for their culinary delights. The biggest festival of all was the Feast of Good Children. This festival was celebrated only once every twenty-four years: twenty-four children of the village were invited to a party, and the highlight of the party was the Great Cake, a career milestone by which Master Cooks were judged. In the year the story begins, the Master Cook was Nokes, who had landed the position more or less by default; he delegated much of the creative work to his apprentice Alf. Nokes crowned his Great Cake with a little doll jokingly representing the Queen of Faery. Various trinkets were hidden in the cake for the children to find; one of these was a star the Cook discovered in the old spice box. The star was not found at the Feast, but was swallowed by a blacksmith's son. The boy did not feel its magical properties at once, but on the morning of his tenth birthday the star fixed itself on his forehead, and became his passport to Faery. The boy grew up to be a blacksmith like his father, but in his free time he roamed the Land of Faery. The star on his forehead protected him from many of the dangers threatening mortals in that land, and the Folk of Faery called him "Starbrow". The book describes his many travels in Faery, until at last he meets the true Queen of Faery. The identity of the King is also revealed. The time came for another Feast of Good Children. Smith had possessed his gift for most of his life, and the time had come to pass it on to some other child. So he regretfully surrendered the star to Alf, and with it his adventures into Faery. Alf, who had become Master Cook long before, baked it into the festive cake once again for another child to find. After the feast, Alf retired and left the village; and Smith returned to his forge to teach his craft to his now-grown son. ===== The story opens with the narrator, Sanders Roscoe, defending his neighbor Edith Goodnough to a reporter trying to dig up dirt on her. She has been accused of murdering her brother Lyman. Sanders seems disappointed in the sheriff for caving in to the reporter, saying that to understand what happened you would have had to know Edith's story, which he begins to tell. In 1896, newlyweds Roy and Ada Goodnough leave Iowa and settle down in northeastern Colorado under the Homestead Act. Roy eventually succeeds in growing wheat. Ada bears him two children: Edith, who is born in 1897, and Lyman, born two years later. As Hannah Roscoe, the narrator's grandmother, helps deliver Edith and Lyman. Very soon Ada regrets leaving Iowa. Her husband turns out to be a bully, an angry and violent man who makes her and their children work very hard on the farm. When she dies in 1914, aged only 42, Edith has to take over all of Ada's chores and duties. Then, in 1915, Roy's hands get entangled in a machine, and nine of his fingers are chopped off. He treats Edith and Lyman as his "self- sired farmhands", bossing them around and making all decisions himself. As the two siblings grow up, they start looking for means of escape but soon realize that they are stuck on their father's farm. For the next 37 years, Edith performs the duties of farmer, housewife and nurse without ever complaining, and refusing to get involved with men except for a brief romance with the narrator's father, who Edith loves but refuses to marry. Despite her rejection, he never gets over her. Lyman finally sees his chance of escape when in 1941 the United States is attacked by Japan. In the middle of the night and with the help of the Roscoes, he leaves the farm and goes to the city to join the armed forces. At 42 he is too old to enlist and instead embarks on a 20-year tour of the United States. During those years, Edith never doubts that brother will return. He does in the early 1960s, almost ten years after their father's death at 82. For six years Edith and Lyman, now both in their sixties, live happily together in their farm house. Then in 1967, the Goodnoughs, Sanders and his wife Mavis, now eight months pregnant, decide to go to the county fair together. They stay late into the night, drinking and having a good time, but on the way home Lyman crashes his car, causing Mavis to miscarry and giving himself a head injury from which he never truly recovers. Edith looks after her brother, who becomes more and more reclusive, eventually refusing to leave the house and his new obsession: planning trips around the country that he'll never take. As they grow older and frailer, Edith decides to move everything downstairs and close off the second story, and enlists Sanders' help. Upstairs, he discovers only one bedroom with only one bed, a fact which Edith does not attempt to disguise, saying only that they moved the extra bed out when Lyman came home to make room for his things. In the following years, Edith draws some pleasure from spending afternoons with Rena, Sanders' daughter, who is born in 1969. But soon it becomes too dangerous for Rena to go to the Goodnoughs on her own, as Lyman, who has regressed to infancy, is prone to unprompted outbursts of violence. Eventually, on New Year's Eve 1976, Edith, is unable to care for Lyman but unwilling to put him in a home. She has Lyman put on his best clothes, cooks a three-course dinner for him, waits for him to fall asleep and then sets fire to their house. The fire is detected too soon and the two siblings are evacuated. However, Lyman never recovers from the injuries inflicted by the fire and dies soon afterwards. In the spring of 1977 Edith is still lying in a hospital bed with a policeman stationed outside her room and facing charges of attempted murder. The Roscoes visit every day. ===== England, England is divided into three parts entitled "England", "England, England" and "Anglia". The first part focuses on the protagonist Martha Cochrane and her childhood memories. Growing up in the surrounding of the English countryside, her peaceful childhood is disrupted when her father leaves the family. Martha's memories of her father are closely related to playing a Counties of England jigsaw puzzle with him. The second part, "England, England", is set in the near future. Martha is now in her forties and is employed by the entrepreneur Sir Jack Pitman for a megalomaniacal project: Sir Jack aims to turn the Isle of Wight into a gigantic theme park which contains everything that people, especially tourists, consider to be quintessentially English, selected according to what Sir Jack himself approves of. The theme park − called 'England, England' − thus becomes a replica of England's best known historical buildings, figures and sites. Popular English tourist attractions and icons of 'Englishness' are crammed together to be easily accessible without having to travel the whole of 'real' England. While working on the set-up of the project, Martha starts an affair with one of her colleagues, Paul Harrison. They discover Sir Jack's adult baby fetish and blackmail him with incriminating evidence when Sir Jack wants to dismiss Martha. She thus becomes CEO of the Island project, which turns out to be a highly popular tourist attraction. As a consequence of the huge success, 'England, England' becomes an independent state and part of the European Union, while the real, 'Old England' suffers a severe decline and increasingly falls into international irrelevance. After a major scandal in the theme park, however, Martha is eventually expelled from the island. The third part of the novel, "Anglia", is set decades later and depicts Martha who has returned to a village in Old England after many years of wandering abroad. The original nation has regressed into a vastly de-populated, agrarian and pre-industrial state without any international political influence, while 'England, England' continues to prosper. The chapter describes the villagers' endeavour to re-establish a traditional village fête with the help of Martha's memories. Martha ultimately spends her final days in this rural setting pondering about her past. ===== In the far future, the known universe is ruled by Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV. The most important substance in the empire is the drug known as melange or "spice", which can extend life and expand consciousness. The most profitable and important of its properties is its ability to assist the Spacing Guild with folding space, allowing safe, instantaneous interstellar travel. The Guild fears a conspiracy that could jeopardize spice production and sends an emissary to demand an explanation from the Emperor, who confidentially shares his plans to destroy House Atreides. The popularity of Duke Leto Atreides has grown through the empire, and he is suspected to be amassing a secret army, which Emperor Shaddam sees as a potential threat to his rule. Shaddam's plan is to give House Atreides control of the planet Arrakis (also known as Dune), the only source of spice. Once they are installed on Arrakis, he intends to have them ambushed by their longtime archenemies, the Harkonnens, with assistance from the Emperor's elite troops, the Sardaukar. The Guild Navigator commands the Emperor to kill Duke Leto's son, Paul Atreides, a young man who dreams prophetic visions of his purpose. The execution order draws the attention of the Bene Gesserit sisterhood, as Paul is tied to their centuries-long breeding program to produce a superbeing, the Kwisatz Haderach. Before Paul leaves for Arrakis, he is tested by the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Mohiam by being forced to place his hand in a box which induces excruciating pain. To Mohiam's surprise and eventual satisfaction, he passes the test. Meanwhile, on the industrial world of Giedi Prime, the sadistic Baron Vladimir Harkonnen tells his nephews Glossu Rabban and Feyd-Rautha about his plan to eliminate the Atreides by manipulating someone in House Atreides into betraying the Duke. The Atreides leave their homeworld Caladan for Arrakis, a barren desert planet populated by gigantic sandworms. The native people of Arrakis are called the Fremen, a mysterious people who have long held a prophecy that a messiah will lead them to freedom. Upon arrival on Arrakis, Duke Leto is informed by one of his right-hand men, Duncan Idaho, that the Fremen have been underestimated. There are in fact large numbers of them and they could prove to be powerful allies. Duke Leto begins to gain the trust of the Fremen, but before an alliance can be established, the Harkonnens launch their attack. The Harkonnens' traitor within House Atreides, Dr. Wellington Yueh, Leto's personal physician, disables critical shields and destroys sonic weapons, leaving House Atreides nearly defenseless. In the attack, Idaho is killed, Leto is captured, and nearly all of House Atreides is wiped out. While captured, Leto dies in a failed attempt to assassinate the Baron Harkonnen using a poison gas capsule planted in his tooth by Dr. Yueh. Leto's concubine Lady Jessica and his son Paul survive the attack and escape into the deep desert, where they are taken in by a sietch of Fremen. Paul takes on the Fremen name Muad'Dib, and emerges as the leader for whom the Fremen have been waiting. He teaches the Fremen to build and use Weirding Modules—sonic weapons developed by House Atreides—and begins to target spice mining production. He also falls in love with Chani, the young Fremen warrier he encountered when he first arrived among the Fremen, while Jessica becomes the Fremen reverend mother. Over the next two years, spice production is effectively halted, and Paul is reunited with Gurney Halleck, one of his father's senior aides, both of whom thought the other dead. The Spacing Guild warns the Emperor of the deteriorating situation on Arrakis, and they fear that Paul will consume the Water of Life, a powerful poison used by the Bene Gesserit to help induce their abilities. The meeting is revealed to Paul in a prophetic dream, but then the dreams suddenly stop. Shaken by the absence of his visions, he goes out into the desert with Chani, drinks the Water of Life and enters into a trance. Upon awakening, he is transformed, obtaining powerful psychic abilities and the ability to control the sandworms. Paul also regains his ability to see into space and the future, and learns the Emperor is amassing a huge invasion fleet above Arrakis to wipe out the Fremen and regain control of the planet. As the Emperor arrives at Arrakis, Paul launches a final attack against the Harkonnens and the Emperor's Sardaukar at the capital city of Arrakeen. Riding in on sandworms and brandishing their sonic weapons, his Fremen warriors easily defeat the Emperor's legions, while Paul's sister Alia kills Baron Harkonnen. Once in Arrakeen, Paul faces the defeated Emperor and engages Feyd-Rautha in a duel to the death. After killing Feyd, Paul demonstrates his newfound powers and fulfills the Fremen prophecy by causing rain to fall on Arrakis, and Alia declares him to be the Kwisatz Haderach. ===== Duke Leto Atreides of the House Atreides, ruler of the ocean planet Caladan, is assigned by the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV to serve as fief ruler of the planet Arrakis. Arrakis is a harsh and inhospitable desert planet, and the only source of melange, or "the spice", an extremely rare and valuable substance that extends human life and enhances mental capabilities. Shaddam sees House Atreides as a rival, and conspires with House Harkonnen, the longstanding enemies of House Atreides among the other Great Houses in the Landsraad, to destroy Leto once he arrives on Arrakis. Leto is aware his assignment is a trap of some kind, but cannot refuse. Leto's concubine Lady Jessica is an acolyte of the Bene Gesserit, an exclusively female group that pursues mysterious political aims and wields superhuman physical powers. Though Jessica was instructed by the Bene Gesserit to bear a daughter as part of their breeding program, out of love for Leto she bore a son, Paul. Paul is trained in warfare by Leto's aides, the Mentat assassin Thufir Hawat and elite soldiers Duncan Idaho and Gurney Halleck, to prepare for Arrakis. Jessica has also trained Paul in what Bene Gesserit disciplines she can. His prophetic dreams interest Jessica's superior, the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam. She subjects Paul to the gom jabbar, a deadly test which causes blinding pain as part of an assessment of the subject's humanity. To her surprise, Paul manages to pass. Leto, Jessica and Paul travel with their household to occupy Arrakeen, the stronghold on Arrakis formerly held by House Harkonnen. Leto learns of the dangers involved in harvesting the spice, which is protected by giant sandworms, and negotiates with the planet's native Fremen people, seeing them as a valuable ally rather than foes. Soon after the Atreides' arrival, Harkonnen forces attack, joined by the Emperor's ferocious Sardaukar troops in disguise. Leto is betrayed by his personal physician, the Suk doctor Wellington Yueh, who delivers a drugged Leto to the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen and his twisted Mentat, Piter De Vries. Yueh, however, arranges for Jessica and Paul to escape into the desert, where they are presumed dead by the Harkonnens. Yueh replaces one of Leto's teeth with a poison capsule, hoping Leto can kill the Baron during their encounter; Yueh is murdered by De Vries upon delivering Leto, while Harkonnen narrowly avoids the gas, which instead kills Leto and De Vries. The Baron forces Hawat to take over De Vries' position. While he follows the Baron's orders, Hawat works to undermine the Harkonnens. After fleeing into the desert, Paul realizes he has significant powers as an accidental result of the Bene Gesserit breeding scheme, inadvertently caused by Jessica bearing a son. He foresees futures in which he lives among the planet's native Fremen, and has a vision where he is informed of the addictive qualities of the spice. Paul and Jessica are accepted into the Fremen community of Sietch Tabr, and teach the Fremen the Bene Gesserit fighting technique known as the "weirding way". Paul proves his manhood and chooses the Fremen name Muad'Dib, while Jessica opts to undergo a ritual to become a Reverend Mother by drinking the poisonous Water of Life. Pregnant with Leto's daughter, she inadvertently causes the unborn child, Alia, to become infused with the same powers in the womb. Paul takes a Fremen lover, Chani, and has a son with her, Leto II. Two years pass, and Paul's powerful prescience abilities manifest, which lead the Fremen to consider him their messiah. Paul recognizes that the Fremen could be a powerful fighting force to take back Arrakis, but also sees that if he does not control them, their jihad could consume the entire universe. Word of the new Fremen leader reaches both Baron Harkonnen and the Emperor as spice production falls due to their increasingly destructive raids. The Baron decides to replace his brutish nephew Glossu Rabban with his shrewder nephew Feyd-Rautha, hoping to gain favor with the Fremen. The Emperor, suspecting the Baron of trying to create troops more powerful than the Sardaukar to seize power, sends spies to monitor activity on Arrakis. Hawat uses the opportunity to sow seeds of doubt in the Baron about the Emperor's true plans, putting further strain on their alliance. Gurney Halleck, having survived the Harkonnen coup, reunites with Paul and Jessica. Believing Jessica to be a traitor, Gurney threatens to kill her, but is stopped by Paul. Paul did not foresee Gurney's attack, and concludes he must increase his prescience by drinking the Water of Life, which is fatal to men. Paul falls into unconsciousness for several weeks after drinking the Water, but when he wakes, he has clairvoyance across time and space: he is the Kwisatz Haderach, ultimate goal of the Bene Gesserit breeding program. It is also revealed Jessica is the daughter of Baron Harkonnen, a secret kept from her by the Bene Gesserit. Paul senses the Emperor and Baron are amassing fleets around Arrakis to quell the Fremen rebellion, and prepares the Fremen for a major offensive against the Harkonnen troops. The Emperor arrives with the Baron on Arrakis; their combined troops seize a Fremen outpost, killing many including Leto II, while Alia is captured and taken to the Baron. She remains defiant, putting her trust in her brother and revealing to the Emperor that Muad'Dib is Paul. Paul and the Fremen, riding giant sandworms, assault the capital while Alia assassinates the Baron and escapes. The Fremen quickly defeat both the Harkonnen and Sardaukar troops. Paul faces the Emperor, threatening to destroy spice production forever unless the Emperor abdicates the throne. Feyd-Rautha attempts to stop Paul by challenging him to a ritualistic knife fight, during which he attempts to cheat and kill Paul with a poison spur in his belt. Paul gains the upper hand and kills him. The Emperor reluctantly cedes the throne to Paul and promises his daughter Princess Irulan's hand in marriage. As Paul takes control of the Empire, he realizes that while he has achieved his goal, he is no longer able to stop the Fremen jihad, as their belief in him is too powerful to restrain. ===== The American Western writer Holly Martins arrives in post–Second World War Vienna (which has been divided between the Allies: the Americans, British, French, and Soviets) seeking his childhood friend, Harry Lime, who has offered him a job. Martins is told that Lime was killed by a car while crossing the street. At Lime's funeral, Martins meets two British Royal Military Police: Sergeant Paine, a fan of Martins's books, and his superior, Major Calloway. Afterwards Martins is asked to give a lecture to a book club a few days later. He then meets a friend of Lime's, "Baron" Kurtz, who tells Martins that he and another friend, a Romanian called Popescu, carried Lime to the side of the street after the accident and, before he died, Lime asked them to take care of Martins and Lime's girlfriend, actress Anna Schmidt. Martins goes to see Anna and becomes suspicious that Lime's death was not an accident. The porter at Lime's apartment building says that Lime was killed immediately and that three men carried the body, not two. Martins and Anna discover that the police are searching her flat; the police confiscate a forged passport and detain her. The next evening Martins visits Lime's "medical adviser", Dr. Winkel, who says that he arrived at the accident after Lime was dead, and only two men were there. The porter offers to give Martins more information, but someone kills him before Martins can see him. When Martins arrives, the crowd believes that he is involved and becomes hostile. Escaping from them, Martins returns to the hotel, and a cab immediately takes him to the book club, where he makes a poor speech. When Popescu enters, he asks about Martins's next book. Martins says that it will be called The Third Man, "a murder story" inspired by facts. Popescu tells Martins that he should stick to fiction. Martins sees two thugs advancing towards him and flees. Calloway again advises Martins to leave Vienna, but Martins refuses and demands that Lime's death be investigated. Calloway reveals that Lime's racket was stealing penicillin from military hospitals, diluting it, and selling it on the black market, injuring or killing many. Martins, convinced, agrees to leave. Martins learns that Anna too has been told about Lime's crimes and is about to be sent to the Soviet sector. Leaving her apartment, Martins notices someone watching from a dark doorway. A shaft of light reveals the person to be Lime, who flees, ignoring Martins's calls, and vanishes. Martins summons Calloway, who deduces that Lime has escaped through the sewers. The British police exhume Lime's coffin and discover that the body is that of the orderly who stole the penicillin for Lime. The next day, Martins meets Lime, and they ride Vienna's Ferris wheel, the Wiener Riesenrad. Lime obliquely threatens Martins, reveals the full extent of his ruthlessness, and then reiterates his job offer before leaving quickly. Calloway then asks Martins to help capture Lime, and Martins agrees, asking for Anna's safe conduct out of Vienna in exchange. However, when Anna learns this, she refuses to leave. Exasperated, Martins decides to leave, but on the way to the airport, Calloway stops at a hospital to show Martins children dying of meningitis that had been treated using Lime's diluted penicillin. Lime arrives to rendezvous with Martins, but Anna warns him. He tries once again to escape using the sewer tunnels, but the police are there in force. Lime shoots and kills Paine, but Calloway shoots and wounds Lime. Badly injured, Lime drags himself up a ladder to a street grating, but he cannot lift it. Martins then kills him using Paine's revolver. Later, Martins attends Lime's second funeral. At the risk of missing his flight out of Vienna, he waits to speak to Anna, but she ignores him and walks past. ===== The narrative switches between four main characters. Count Sessine is a high-ranking member of the court who is assassinated, ending his last life. Reborn inside the crypt he comes under repeated attack and is almost permanently killed. On his last virtual life, he makes contact with a copy of himself who assists him. He spends many subjective years wandering the wider reaches of the crypt before being contacted by its representative who requests his aid in relation to the encroachment. Gadfium, the Chief Scientist of the ruling class, is engaged in a conspiracy with like-minded nobles who believe that the elite are not acting in the best interests of the population, and who question the real motive of the ongoing war with the rival clan of Engineers. She learns of a message apparently sent from the fast tower, the highest and previously inaccessible part of the castle, which stresses the danger of the Encroachment and tells of an attempt by the crypt to activate a long forgotten sub system which may prevent disaster. The message also warns that this will be opposed by those in power as it will threaten their interests. She and her fellow conspirators are considering how to respond when the security forces attempt to arrest them, although Gadfium manages to escape into the depths of the castle. Bascule the Teller is a young man who contacts the dead personalities within the crypt on behalf of their relatives or other interested parties. Whilst searching for a lost friend, he attracts the attention of the Security forces and takes refuge with various chimeric animals whose implants have taken on personalities from within the crypt. He is eventually tasked with ascending the central shaft of the highest tower in a vacuum balloon in order to reach its control room. Asura is a young woman who awakens in a re-incarnation facility with no memory. She is compelled to travel towards the castle, rapidly gathering knowledge about the world before being captured by the security forces. She is interrogated within the crypt, but is able to resist the questioning, becoming stronger at understanding and manipulating her virtual environments. As she escapes her virtual prison, she is physically freed by Gadfium, assisted by the copy of Count Sessine who guided her to Asura's location. Asura broadcasts to the world the truth regarding the encroachment and the attempts of the monarchy to prevent the activation of the crypt sub-systems. She explains her origin, being an emissary of the crypt that was combined with the mind of Count Sessine who sacrificed himself in the process. She was created by the crypt because the relevant systems were kept separate by their designers to prevent infection by chaos. The so-called chaotic elements of the crypt are a burgeoning ecology of Artificial Intelligences. Asura states that both the humans and chaos will have to learn to live with each other. Asura and Gadfium depart, reaching an elevator which is activated for them by Bascule after reaching the control room at the summit of the tower. Asura is able to activate the "Fearsome Engine" of the title, which begins the slow process of relocating the solar system out of reach of the cloud. ===== The main protagonist is Lady Sharrow, a former military pilot and antiquities thief. She lives on Golter, a planet orbiting a star in an isolated planetary system with no nearby galaxies. A cult named the Huhsz is granted permission to assassinate her, believing that their messiah can not be born until the end of her family's female bloodline. She is forced to choose between going into hiding for a year or recovering the last Lazy Gun, an ancient weapon of mass destruction that was stolen from the cult by her ancestor. Sharrow resolves to recover the Lazy Gun, rejecting an offer of help from her cousin Geis, a wealthy industrialist and businessman. In order to do this, she must first find the Universal Principles, a long lost book rumoured to contain a clue to the Gun's hiding place. She visits her half-sister Breyghun who is held prisoner in the Seahouse, a monastery run by the Sad Brothers. Breyghun tells her that their grandfather Gorko, a collector of rare artefacts, encoded information regarding the location of the Universal Principles into the DNA of his servants. Sharrow recruits the surviving members of her combat unit and sets out to make contact with the son of Gorko's butler. During these events, Sharrow is menaced by two unidentified bald-headed clones, who have the ability to inflict pain on her via a military virus embedded in her nervous system. They demand the Gun is turned over to them and not the Huhsz. Sharrow and her team follow the trail left by Gorko and recover the Universal Principles. The book has long since turned to dust, but the case contains a quotation that is also inscribed on Gorko's tomb. Sharrow visits the storage facility where the tomb is kept and finds a device that provides them with co- ordinates deep in an embargoed zone. The team are joined by an android named Feril and set out to retrieve the Lazy Gun. After disembarking from the submarine they hired, they are attacked first by air and ground troops. During these encounters, her team are killed one by one and Sharrow is wounded. Sharrow and Feril reach a small tower which contains both the Gun and numerous other pieces of ancient technology. After leaving the tower, Sharrow is immobilised by a neural weapon and the clones appear, confiscate the Gun and take them both prisoner. They are conveyed to a desert stronghold and are presented to a man named Molgarin, who claims to be immortal. The fortress is attacked, by both the Huhsz and another unidentified set of troops. In the chaos, Sharrow kills the clones and escapes using a monowheeled tank that was found along with the Lazy Gun. She realizes that the first force contained members of the Sad Brothers and she and Feril head for the Seahouse, taking the Lazy Gun with them. They arrive and discover that her cousin Geis has been behind events, acting out of an unrequited love for Sharrow and a desire to engineer political change within the system. Molgarin was an actor employed to try and make Sharrow feel gratitude towards Geis. After they are taken captive Sharrow and Feril cause the Lazy Gun to begin firing uncontrollably and the Seahouse is destroyed, with Feril still inside it. In the confusion, Sharrow kills first her half-sister Breyghun and then Geis, before leaving in the tank, self-identifying with the Lazy Gun and the destruction that it brings to everything it encounters. ===== The novel chronicles the lives of a group of Jews – or rather, a Jewish family – in the U.S.A., in particular New York City, over a period of roughly seven months during 1991 and 1992. There is little action. Rather, the novel describes in greater detail the feelings of the protagonist and what goes on in her immediate surroundings. Most of the characters in the novel are Jewish, and the reader gets a vivid picture of the lives of assimilated Jews in the U.S.A. It is told by a third person narrator who is very close to Esther Zepler's thoughts. There are frequent flashbacks to both the distant and the not-so-distant past and numerous references to the Holocaust. ===== The story is a series of episodes in the youth of George Sherston, ranging from his first attempts to learn to ride to his experiences in winning point-to-point races. The title is somewhat misleading, as the book is mainly concerned with a series of landmark events in Sherston/Sassoon's childhood and youth, and his encounters with various comic characters. "The Flower-Show Match", an account of an annual village cricket match – an important fixture for those involved – in which young Sherston plays a significant part, was later published separately by Faber as a self-contained story.Open Library The book as a whole is a frequently humorous work, in which fox-hunting, one of Sassoon's major interests, comes to represent the young man's innocent frame of mind in the years before war broke out. The book ends with his enlistment in a local regiment, the Sussex Yeomanry, and his subsequent transfer, with a commission, to the Flintshire Fusiliers, a battalion of the Royal Welsh which was sent to France. The story is continued in two sequels: Memoirs of an Infantry Officer and Sherston's Progress. ===== In Morocco, Frank Cotton buys a puzzle box from a dealer. In a bare attic, when Frank solves the puzzle, hooked chains emerge and tear him apart. Later, the room is filled with swinging chains and covered with the remnants of his body. A black-robed figure picks up the box and returns it to its original state, restoring the room to normal. Some time afterward, Frank's brother Larry moves into the house to rebuild his strained relationship with his second wife, Julia, who had an affair with Frank shortly before their wedding. Larry's teenage daughter, Kirsty, has chosen not to live with them and moves into her own place. Larry cuts his hand carrying a mattress up the stairs, and lets his blood drip on the attic floor. The blood resurrects Frank as a skinless corpse, who is soon found by Julia. Still obsessed with Frank, she agrees to bring people back for him to drain so that he can be fully restored, and they can run away together. Julia begins picking up men in bars and bringing them back to the house, where she mortally wounds them. Frank sinks his hand into the dying bodies, draining their life, regenerating his body. Frank explains to Julia that he had exhausted all sensory experiences and sought out the puzzle box, with the promise that it would open a portal to a realm of new carnal pleasures. When solved, the "Cenobites" came to subject him to the extremes of sadomasochism. Kirsty spies Julia bringing a man to the house; she follows her to the attic, where she interrupts Frank's latest feeding. Frank attacks her, but Kirsty throws the puzzle box out the window, creating a distraction and allowing her to escape. Kirsty retrieves the box and flees, but collapses shortly thereafter. Awakening in a hospital, Kirsty solves the box, summoning the Cenobites and a monster called the Engineer, which Kirsty narrowly escapes from. The Cenobites' leader explains that although they have been perceived as both angels and demons, they are simply "explorers" from another dimension seeking carnal experiences, and they can no longer differentiate between pain and pleasure. When they attempt to force Kirsty to return to their realm with them, she informs Pinhead that Frank has escaped. The Cenobites agree to take Frank back and, in exchange, say they will consider giving Kirsty her freedom; however, the catch is that Frank has to confess to escaping them. Kirsty returns home, where Frank has killed Larry and taken his identity by stealing his skin. Julia shows her what is purported to be Frank's flayed corpse in the attic, locking the door behind her. The Cenobites appear and, not fooled by the deception, demand the man who "did this". Kirsty tries to escape but is held by Julia and Frank. Frank reveals his true identity to Kirsty and, when his sexual advances are rejected, he decides to kill her to complete his rejuvenation. He accidentally stabs Julia instead and drains her without remorse. Frank chases Kirsty to the attic and, when he is about to kill her, the Cenobites appear after hearing him confess to killing her father. Now sure he is the one they are looking for, they ensnare him with chains and tear him to pieces. With Frank out of the picture, the Cenobites decide to take Kirsty. Ripping the puzzle box from Julia's dead hands, Kirsty banishes the Cenobites by reversing the motions needed to open the puzzle box. Kirsty's boyfriend shows up and they both escape the collapsing house. Afterward, Kirsty throws the puzzle box onto a burning pyre. A vagrant who has been stalking Kirsty walks into the fire and retrieves the box before transforming into a winged skeletonized creature and flying away. The box ends up in the hands of the merchant who sold it to Frank, offering it to another prospective customer. ===== The series is set in ancient, pre-eruption Pompeii, with the players bearing Latinised names suggestive of their character. Howerd is the slave Lurcio (pronounced Lurk-io); his bumbling old master Ludicrus Sextus (Max Adrian, then Wallas Eaton), the promiscuous wife is Ammonia (Elizabeth Larner), their daughter Erotica (Georgina Moon) and their virginal son Nausius (Kerry Gardner). Other regulars are Senna the Soothsayer (Jeanne Mockford) who constantly warns of impending death and destruction and, in series one, Plautus (Willie Rushton) a semi-godlike figure, making pithy comments from a location somewhere between the clouds and Mount Olympus. Guest stars included several actresses from the Carry On film series, including Barbara Windsor, Wendy Richard and Valerie Leon. The format was an exotic backdrop for an endless series of double entendres and risqué gags from Howerd, constantly breaking the fourth wall with asides to the live studio audience which go unheard by the other characters (a device harking back to classical theatre). He also bemoans the quality of his script, complaining the other players have the best lines. Each episode starts with a prologue from Howerd – which is invariably interrupted by the doom-laden warnings of Senna, or the demands of his master or mistress. Thirteen 30-minute episodes were made, in two series (March – May and September – October 1970). In between there also was a 13 minute Up Pompeii segment in the 1970 Royal Television Gala Performance.https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/1b0478c5a0ed483e9e1b00818432a557 Royal Television Gala Performance on BBC Genome In addition there had been a pilot episode (1969) as part of Comedy Playhouse, and two later special episodes both called Further Up Pompeii, one in 1975 and the other, written by Brian Leveson and Paul Minett, in 1991. The latter sparked speculation that there could be a new series, but Howerd's death in 1992 put an end to any such prospect. Apart from the change to the actor playing Ludicrus Sextus, there are some differences between the two series of Up Pompeii, the second series using noticeably fewer sets than the previous. This may have been due to the second series being commissioned, filmed and broadcast within four months from the end of the first. ===== ===== In a cheap hotel on Khao San Road in Bangkok, Richard, a young British backpacker, meets a mentally disturbed Scots going by the alias of Daffy Duck, who gives him a hand-drawn map with directions to a beautiful island with a hidden lagoon and beach, located in the Gulf of Thailand and inaccessible to tourists. Shortly thereafter, Richard discovers that Daffy has died by suicide. Wanting company in his search, Richard befriends a travelling French couple, Étienne and Françoise, and the trio sets out to find what they hope might be an untouched paradise. On their way to the island, Richard gives a copy of the map to Sammy and Zeph, two Americans he meets on Koh Samui. When the three finally reach the hidden beach — after bribing a local boat pilot, swimming from an adjacent island, discovering a cannabis plantation in the jungle, and avoiding its armed owners, and eventually jumping over a waterfall — they discover a group of approximately 30 backpackers who have largely shut off the outside world to live a slow-paced life of leisure under the de facto leadership of an American woman called Sal and her South African lover Bugs, who, along with Daffy, founded the community there in 1989. They reside in hand-built wooden huts and tents, located near a large, beautiful beach and lagoon that are encircled by cliffs and connected to the sea by underwater caves. When Richard, Étienne, and Françoise arrive, it is already 1995, six years after the founders came to the beach. The founders have chosen only a small number of friends and acquaintances to come to the island, and thus newcomers are not welcome, but they are not sent away because doing so would jeopardize the secrecy of the community. The residents fear that if word gets out, the beach will become overrun with tourists and ruined, like many of Thailand's other beauty spots. They are also mindful of upsetting the Thai cannabis farmers, with whom they originally agreed to keep to separate territories but who have more recently warned them not to bring anyone new to the island, as the farmers fear discovery by the police. After initial suspicion, the group accepts the trio when they explain about Daffy's map and his death back on the mainland. As the community aims to be self-sufficient, work is divided into rosters for gardening, fishing, cooking, and carpentry. Richard, Françoise, and Étienne become part of the fishing detail. For several months, Richard finds life on the island idyllic, fishing in the mornings and relaxing the rest of the time. He befriends a few other members of the community: Keaty, a fellow English hooked on his Game Boy; Gregorio, a Spaniard on his fishing detail; Unhygienix, the Italian head chef obsessed with soap, as he handles fish every day; Jesse and Cassie, two lovers; Ella, who works second-in-command to Unhygienix; and finally, Jed, the loner of the group whose mysterious job involves going alone into the jungle. Richard later discovers that Sal has assigned Jed to be the island's guardian: He watches the sea and shores of the neighboring islands for any signs of people attempting to discover the beach. Jed also has a sideline of stealing some cannabis from the Thai farmers' side of the island. One day, Unhygienix informs everyone that their rice supply has been infected by a fungus, and Sal announces an emergency rice run — an occasional discreet trip to the mainland by boat to bulk-buy rice and other essentials. Due to the laborious nature of the task, no one volunteers for it except Jed, who, to the bewilderment of most others, always takes the job. Richard also volunteers, and so the two travel back to Koh Phangan for their supplies. It is during the rice run that Jed learns that Richard gave a copy of the map to Sammy and Zeph, when Jed coincidentally wanders past and overhears the two Americans relaying the urban legend of the beach to some Germans. The rice run goes without a hitch, but soon, accompanied by three Germans they met on the mainland, Zeph and Sammy make their way to the nearest island to the beach, which worries Richard, as he will be blamed if they successfully reach the community. Soon afterward, Sal reassigns Richard to the perimeter detail to partner with Jed and keep a close eye on the potential invaders. With a free spot in Gregorio's fishing detail, Keaty takes Richard's place. A few days later, he mistakenly catches a dead squid that gives severe food poisoning to most of the group. The few remaining healthy members struggle to nurse the sick residents back to health. Richard returns from his sentry duty to find that Bugs has punched Keaty in the face for his mistake. Richard, having never liked Bugs' arrogant nature, instigates a heated argument with him in front of the whole group, which leads to a division of the community into several cliques. On this day, only two of the fishing details are still in operation, and the best detail, comprising three Swedes — Christo, Sten, and Karl — who fish outside the safe lagoon area, is attacked by a shark. The camp only finds out about the shark attack upon the return of one of the three, Karl, in the early evening. Karl carries Sten on his back to the village, where Sten is discovered to have already bled to death. While Karl was not physically harmed by the shark, he suffers severe emotional trauma from having watched his friend die. He subsequently spends his time sitting in a dug-out hole on the beach and not talking to anyone, barely accepting food and water. Richard realizes that Christo is still missing and, at his own risk, retrieves him from partially submerged caves of the lagoon. Richard is praised for his heroic rescue of Christo, who at first seems fine but later collapses, owing to the internal bleeding from having been rammed by the shark. Due to Christo's grave wounds, he requires Jed's presence in the camp, because only Jed has the medical knowledge to tend to him. This leaves Richard to work the sentry detail alone. A few days later, a funeral is held for Sten near the jungle waterfall, and Sal gives a decisive speech that somewhat restores social harmony. She announces that it is 11 September, so they will thus be celebrating the Tet festival in three days' time. Spending long hours alone in the forest as he hikes between lookout spots, Richard begins to experience hallucinations in which Daffy appears: They converse and patrol together the part of the island that Richard refers to as the DMZ. Richard comes to appreciate that Daffy killed himself because he could neither endure the unravelling of his elitist vision of the beach as the group grew in size, nor bear the thought of a return to either backpacking or settled life, and notes that he is also falling prey to that way of thinking. Richard also realizes that Daffy gave him the map — as well as spread rumors of the island all over Thailand — so that many travelers would come looking for the beach, inevitably leading to its becoming a tourist destination. Daffy describes this act as "euthanizing" the community, and Richard realizes he was merely a pawn in Daffy's revenge plan. This comes to a head following the arrival of the American/German group by raft. Unlike Richard, Étienne, and Françoise, who managed to overcome all obstacles in getting to the beach, the newcomers never make it past the most dangerous hurdle: the cannabis farmers. Richard witnesses them being first beaten violently and then dragged away. The sound of gunshots implies that the farmers have murdered the intruders. Richard returns to the community campsite to immediately inform Sal and Jed of what happened. He then goes to the beach to visit Karl, who attacks Richard, provoking Richard to attack him before he gets free and runs off into the jungle. On the day of the Tet festival, Sal obtusely asks Richard to kill Karl because of the threat he poses to the group's now-fragile social integrity, complaining that she constantly has to lift morale in the wake of the poisoning incident and Sten's death. Richard swims out to the cave where the group's only boat is kept, only to find that Karl has used it to escape to the mainland. Étienne corners Richard, thereafter and Richard soon discovers that Étienne, along with the rest of his clique, has become frightened of Richard's "doing things" for Sal. Disillusioned with the beach, Richard convinces Étienne, Françoise, Jed, and a paranoid Keaty to leave the beach for good, and euthanizes the dying Christo. Now fully aware of what Sal is willing to do to protect the beach, they decide to spike the food for the Tet celebration and escape on the raft that the doomed backpackers used. Night falls, and the party begins. People are in a celebratory mood, drinking fermented coconut milk. Prior to dinner, Keaty and Richard spike the stew that Unhygienix cooked with a huge quantity of cannabis to immobilize the group. Richard and his friends are about to slip away when the cannabis farmers arrive, threatening all of them with guns, as they believe that the beach dwellers invited the recent arrivals. The farmers beat up Richard and leave the bloodied corpses of the American/German backpackers as a warning. At the sight of this, the extremely intoxicated group experiences a collective mental breakdown and starts to rip the corpses apart in a frenzy. Sal discovers that Richard has spread the secret of the beach when she picks up the map he drew for Zeph and Sammy. Upon hearing this, the now unstable community members attack Richard with sharp objects. Richard believes that he is about to die, but he is saved when Françoise, Étienne, Keaty, and Jed return from the beach armed with their fishing spears to drive the others off, seriously wounding Sal and Bugs in the process. Richard and his rescuers make their planned escape on the raft. In the epilogue, it is revealed that the five friends got away and split up when they reached the mainland. It has been a year and one month since their departure from Thailand, and Richard has returned home to England. He hasn't heard from Françoise and Étienne, but states he is likely to bump into them eventually, because "the world is a small place, and Europe is even smaller". He still maintains contact with Keaty and Jed. By chance, Keaty and Jed end up working new jobs in the same building, although for different companies; similar to how they both happened to stay in the same guest house years before they first met at the beach. Richard hears in a news report that Cassie has been arrested in Malaysia for smuggling a large amount of heroin and will be the first Westerner to be executed in the country in six years. He wonders whether anyone else got off the island, particularly Unhygienix, whom he liked. He believes that Bugs died and hopes that Sal died too, because he dislikes the idea of her "turning up on his doorstep". Richard finishes by saying that he is content with his life, although he carries a lot of scars: "I like the way that sounds. I carry a of scars". ===== Death Bredon arrives at Pym's Publicity Ltd, an advertising agency, to take up the post of junior copywriter. He is assigned the room of his predecessor Victor Dean, who has died in a fall down the office's iron spiral staircase. The doctor states that death was caused either by a broken neck, due to his landing on his head at the bottom of the stair, or by a wound of the right temple. The death appears suspicious, as the victim apparently made no attempt to save himself as he fell. In Dean's desk Bredon discovers a part-completed letter to the firm's proprietor, Mr Pym, telling him that something 'undesirable' had been going on in the office. Bredon befriends Pamela Dean, sister of the deceased, and takes her to a cocaine-fuelled fancy-dress party hosted by Dian de Momerie, a socialite with whom Dean had been associating. Disguised as Harlequin, Bredon attracts the attention of de Momerie and later meets her several times, always in disguise. His presence annoys de Momerie's companion Major Tod Milligan who is supplying her with drugs. It is revealed that Death Bredon is in fact Lord Peter Wimsey who has been brought in incognito by Pym to investigate. Various clues turn up: a catapult belonging to 'Ginger' Joe, the office boy; a carved stone scarab belonging to Dean; and £50 in banknotes found in the desk of Mr Tallboy, group manager. After having a drink in a Covent Garden pub, newspaper reporter Hector Puncheon discovers that someone has slipped cocaine into his coat pocket. Chief Inspector Charles Parker, Wimsey's brother-in-law, suspects that Puncheon has stumbled on Milligan's drugs gang, but finds no further suspicious activity there. It appears that the cocaine is being distributed from a different pub each week. Puncheon follows a man from the pub, who soon dies after falling in front of a train. In his flat is found a phone book with the names of many pubs ticked off, including the one in Covent Garden. Wimsey realises what has been happening. One of Pym's major clients runs a newspaper advertisement every Friday, the headline for which is approved a few days earlier. The first letter of the headline is being used to indicate the pub for that week, with Tallboy covertly supplying the letter to the gang in advance. Milligan is killed in an 'accident'. But the gang is still operating, and the police want to catch the ringleaders during their next weekly drug distribution. Using the phone book, all they need to find the next pub is the letter for the week – as provided by Tallboy. Wimsey is sure that Tallboy killed Victor Dean, but he does not want to act until the gang has been rounded up. On the night of the next drug distribution, Tallboy comes to Wimsey's flat to confess. He says that he was lured into the scheme with an innocent-sounding story and the offer of money, when he was in financial difficulty, but soon became trapped. Dean had found out and was blackmailing him, so Tallboy killed Dean, using Ginger Joe's catapult and the scarab, making it look like an accidental fall on the staircase. Wanting to spare his wife and child, Tallboy proposes suicide. Wimsey, seeing a gang member watching in the street below his window, suggests Tallboy leave, on foot, without looking behind him. Both know that the gang's killers are waiting, and Tallboy is knocked down and killed as he walks home. ===== The setting is a feast given by the sea god Ægir. (In continuity, the prose introduction says: "Ægir, also named Gymir, had made ale for the Æsir, when he had received the great kettle of which was told" (see Hymiskviða). Thor did not attend, but his wife Sif came in his stead as did Bragi and his wife Iðunn. Tyr, by this time one-handed as a consequence of his sacrifice of his hand in the shackling of Loki's son, the wolf Fenrisulfr, attended, as did Niord and his wife Skaði, Freyr and Freyja, as well as Vidar, the son of Odin. Many other Vanir, Æsir, and also elves were there. The servants of Ægir, Fimafeng and Eldir, did a thorough job of welcoming the guests; Loki was jealous of the praise being heaped upon them and slew Fimafeng. The gods were angry with Loki and drove him out of the hall, before returning to their carousing. On returning Loki encountered Eldir. He threatened him and bade him reveal what the gods were talking about in their cups. Eldir's response was that they were discussing their might at arms, and that Loki was not welcomed. Loki then enters the hall of Ægir after trading insults and threats with Eldir. A hush falls. Loki calls upon the rules of hospitality, demanding a seat and ale. Bragi then responds that he is unwelcome. Loki demands fulfillment of an ancient oath sworn with Odin that they should drink together. Odin asked his son Vidar to make a space for Loki. Vidar rises and pours a drink for Loki. Before Loki drains his draught, he utters a toast to the gods but pointedly excludes Bragi from it. Bragi offers Loki a horse, a ring and a sword to placate him; Loki, however, is spoiling for a fight, and insults Bragi by questioning his courage. Bragi's response is that it would be contrary to the rules of correct behaviour to fight within his hosts' hall, but were they back in Asgard then things would be different. Iðunn, Bragi's wife, holds him back. Loki then insults Iðunn, calling her sexually loose. Gefjon is the next to speak and then Loki turns his spite on her. Odin then attempts to take a grip, as do (in turn), Freyja, Njord, Tyr, Freyr and Byggvir. The exchanges between Odin and Loki are particularly vitriolic. Eventually Thor turns up at the party, and he is not to be placated, nor withheld. Alternating with Loki's insults to him, he says four times that he will use his hammer to knock Loki's head off if he continues. Loki replies that for Thor alone he will leave the hall, because his threats are the only ones he fears. He then leaves. Finally there is a short piece of prose summarizing the tale of Loki's binding, which is told in fuller form in the Gylfaginning section of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda.Ursula Dronke (ed. and trans.), The Poetic Edda Volume II: Mythological Poems, Oxford: Oxford University/Clarendon, 1997, repr. 2001, , p. 371. Loki is chased by the gods, and caught after an unsuccessful attempt at disguising himself as a salmon. The entrails of his son Nari are used to bind him to three rocks above which Skaði places a serpent to drip venom on him. Loki's wife Sigyn remains by his side with a bowl to catch the venom; however, whenever she leaves to empty the bowl, venom falls on Loki, causing him to writhe in agony; this writhing was said to be the cause of earthquakes. The text says that Loki's other son, Narfi, was turned into a wolf, but does not make clear that he tears his brother apart; also in the Gylfaginning version it is a son of Loki named Váli whom the Æsir transform into a wolf and who kills Narfi.Dronke, pp. 371-72."Nari and/or Narfi", John Lindow, Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs, Oxford/New York: Oxford University, 2001, , pp. 236-37, p. 237. Some editors have therefore chosen to read the names Nari and Narvi as a mistake in the manuscript, and transcribe Nari as Váli. Nari and Narfi are otherwise considered to be variations of the same name. ===== Autographed Julie Adams still, featuring the Creature menacing Kay A geology expedition in the Amazon uncovers fossilized evidence (a skeletal hand with webbed fingers) from the Devonian period that provides a direct link between land and sea animals. Expedition leader Dr. Carl Maia orders his two assistants to stay in camp while he visits the marine biology institute. Carl reunites with his friend and former student, ichthyologist Dr. David Reed. David works at an aquarium in California, but more recently he has been a guest at Carl's institute in Brazil to study lungfish. David persuades his boss, the financially minded Dr. Mark Williams, to fund a return expedition to the Amazon to look for the remainder of the skeleton. Soon after Carl leaves camp, a piscine amphibious humanoid, a living member of the same species from which the fossil originated, becomes curious about the expedition's camp. When its sudden appearance frightens the assistants, they panic and attack, and in response, the enraged Creature kills them both. The group goes aboard the tramp steamer Rita, captained by crusty Lucas. The expedition consists of David, Carl, Mark, David's girlfriend and colleague, Kay Lawrence, and another scientist, Dr. Edwin Thompson. When they arrive at the camp, they discover Carl's assistants have been killed while he was away. Lucas suggests it was likely done by a jaguar, but the others are unsure. A further excavation of the area where Carl found the fossil turns up nothing. Mark is ready to give up the search, but David suggests that perhaps thousands of years ago the part of the embankment containing the rest of the skeleton fell into the water and was washed downriver, broken up by the current. Carl says the tributary empties into a lagoon. Lucas calls it the "Black Lagoon", a paradise from which no one has ever returned. The scientists decide to risk it, unaware that the amphibious "Gill-man" that killed Carl's assistants has been watching them. Taking notice of the beautiful Kay, the creature follows the Rita all the way downriver to the Black Lagoon. Once the expedition arrives, David and Mark go diving to collect rock samples from the lagoon floor. After they return, Kay goes swimming and is stalked underwater by the Gill-man, who then gets briefly caught in one of the ship's drag lines. Although it escapes, the Creature leaves a claw behind in the net, revealing its existence. Subsequent encounters with the Gill-man claim the lives of Lucas's crew members, before the Creature is captured and locked in a cage aboard the Rita. It escapes during the night, attacking Edwin, who was guarding it. Kay smashes the Creature with a lantern, driving it off, but Edwin is severely injured. Following this incident, David decides they should return to civilization. Mark, obsessed with capturing (or killing) the Creature, objects. As the Rita tries to leave, they find the Gill-man has blocked the lagoon's entrance with fallen logs. While the others attempt to remove the logs, Mark is mauled to death while trying to capture the Creature single-handedly under water. The Gill-man then abducts Kay and takes her to its cavern lair. David, Lucas and Carl chase after the Creature and Kay is ultimately rescued. The Creature is riddled with bullets before retreating to the lagoon, where its body sinks into the watery depths. ===== The year is 1898, and Mina Murray is recruited by Campion Bond on behalf of British Intelligence and asked to assemble a league of other extraordinary individuals to protect the interests of the Empire: Captain Nemo, Allan Quatermain, Dr. Jekyll, and Hawley Griffin the Invisible Man. They help stop a gang war between Fu Manchu and Professor Moriarty, nemesis of Sherlock Holmes. Following this they take part in the events of H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds. Two members of the League (Mina Murray and Allan Quatermain) achieve immortality, and are next seen in an adventure in 1958. This follows events that take place after the fall of the Big Brother government from Nineteen Eighty Four. Following this Mina and Allan team up with fellow immortal Orlando and are shown in an adventure which spans a century, from 1910 to 2009, concerning a plot by evil magicians to create a Moonchild that might well turn out to be the Antichrist. During this adventure Captain Nemo's daughter, Janni Dakkar, is introduced, and some of her adventures are chronicled subsequently. ===== Former Episcopal priest Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) lives on a remote farm with his asthmatic preteen son Morgan (Rory Culkin) and younger daughter Bo (Abigail Breslin). Graham's younger brother Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix), a failed minor-league baseball player, has been living on the farm to help out since Graham's wife Colleen died in a traffic accident six months earlier, shown in a series of flashbacks. Graham has since lost his religious faith and abandoned the church. Large crop circles appear in the Hess's cornfield that are initially attributed to vandals. Soon after, other crop circles, eventually determined to be navigational guides, appear globally, and lights from invisible objects hover over Mexico and other cities later on. One night, Graham and Merrill chase a tall dark figure that disappears into the field. Graham later glimpses another one among the corn stalks, and strange clicking noises are heard over Bo's old baby monitor. In Brazil, an alien is filmed during a child's birthday party. Ray Reddy (M. Night Shyamalan), the man responsible for Colleen's fatal accident, calls the Hess house but hangs up. Graham goes to investigate, finding Reddy sitting inside his car. Reddy expresses remorse for Colleen's death and Graham losing his faith. As he is about to drive to a lake, believing the aliens avoid water, Reddy warns Graham that a creature is locked inside his pantry. Graham investigates but leaves quickly when the trapped alien tries to attack him. As a worldwide alien invasion begins, the Hesses barricade themselves inside their house. As several aliens break into the house, the family retreats to the basement. Morgan has an asthma attack but survives the night, despite being without his medication. The family emerge the next morning after radio reports say the aliens have abruptly abandoned Earth, stranding some aliens. The alien which had been trapped inside Ray Reddy's pantry enters the house and takes Morgan hostage. Recalling Colleen's dying words, Graham tells Merrill to, "swing away", using his baseball bat. The alien sprays Morgan with a toxic gas from its wrist. Graham recovers his stricken son as Merrill bashes the creature, hitting it into glasses of water left by Bo, the liquid scalding its skin. Merrill continues hitting the creature, eventually killing it. Outside, Morgan revives after Graham administers his medication. Morgan's constricted lungs prevented him inhaling the alien's poisonous gas, an act Graham attributes to God's intervention. Months later, the Hess family has recovered from the ordeal. In the final scene, Graham is seen as having returned to the church, his faith restored. ===== The novel chronicles the life of Amelia, the only daughter of newspaper tycoon Max de Monde who, after having spoiled Amelia beyond hope while she was still young, abandons her when she becomes pregnant. Amelia decides to marry Mark Crawley, the father of her child, an ambitious young critic intent on shaking off his humble background. Suddenly, the young couple find themselves in desperate need of money and, at first, accommodations. While she stays at home raising their daughter Rose, Amelia metamorphoses from spoiled brat to mature and responsible mother, whereas her husband loses all interest in the housewife he now realizes he has married. Amelia is encouraged to stay on her chosen path by Grace, her cleaning woman—who is also her niece (without either of the women being aware of this), and by Tom Viner, a young doctor who becomes their lodger. A Vicious Circle also follows the life of Mary Quinn. An Irish girl lacking a university education, Mary has a natural writing talent and rises to become a prominent reviewer of new fiction after having been left by her lover of many years, Mark Crawley. Mary makes friends with Adam Sands, a yet unpublished author who keeps his homosexuality a secret from almost everyone including his own mother. When he is dying of an AIDS-related disease, Mary is the only person who remembers and eventually takes care of him. When the recession of the 1990s hits the country everyone seems to be affected by it. Max de Monde, who has even plundered his daughter's trust fund, spectacularly commits suicide by crashing his helicopter against the ground. Amelia leaves Mark and is planning to raise her daughter as a single parent. Category:1996 British novels Category:Novels about HIV/AIDS ===== The Dark Knight Returns is set in a dystopian version of Gotham City in 1986. Bruce Wayne, aged 55, has given up the mantle of Batman after the death of Jason Todd 10 years prior, and now lives as a bored bachelor. As a result, crime is running rampant throughout the city and a gang calling themselves "The Mutants" has begun terrorizing the people of Gotham. Upon being reminded of the deaths of his parents during a TV broadcast of The Mark of Zorro and watching news reports about the Mutants' crimes, Wayne returns to his role as a vigilante. On his first night as Batman he puts a stop to multiple assaults – including one on two young girls, Carrie Kelley and her friend Michelle. While attempting to foil an armed robbery on the same night, Batman learns that the men involved are working for Harvey Dent. Dent, previously known for his criminal acts as Two-Face, underwent extensive therapy and plastic surgery financed by Wayne to reemerge into society. Batman informs Commissioner James Gordon that Dent may be planning a larger scheme. Soon after, Dent hijacks the television sets of the city and announces his intention to hold the city to ransom with a bomb. When Batman defeats Dent and his goons, he realizes that Dent's mind has completely warped into his Two-Face persona. Inspired by Batman's rescue, Kelley buys herself an imitation Robin costume and searches for him, seeking to help him. She learns that Batman will be at the city dump and follows the Mutants there. Although Batman defeats the Mutants with his advanced weaponry in the ensuing battle, the Mutant Leader ends up goading him into a hand-to-hand fight. During their brawl, Batman, despite being able to match the Leader in strength, is rusty and slightly slower due to a decade of inactivity, which results in him getting seriously injured. Kelley creates a diversion, allowing Batman to immobilize the Mutant Leader, and the two of them escape. At the Batcave, Wayne's butler Alfred Pennyworth tends to his wounds while Kelley discovers and admires the Robin costume that belonged to Todd. Wayne decides to keep Kelley as his new sidekick against Alfred's protests. Gordon allows Batman to defeat the Mutant Leader (whom he had arrested) on his own terms. The two engage in a fight at a sewage run-off pipe surrounded by members of the Mutant gang. Batman, leveraging the mud from the sewage to slow him down, deals the Leader a brutal defeat. Seeing Batman defeat their leader, the Mutants disband and some rename themselves the Sons of the Batman, using excessive violence against criminals. At the White House, Superman and current president Ronald Reagan discuss the events in Gotham, with the latter suggesting that Superman may have to arrest Batman. Superman informs the president that he may be able to talk to Wayne. He is then deployed by Washington to the Latin American country of Corto Maltese, where he fights Soviet combat forces in a conflict that may ignite World War III. Gordon hands over the role of commissioner to Captain Ellen Yindel, who issues a statement declaring that Batman is a wanted criminal for his vigilante activities. At the same time, Batman's return stimulates the Joker to awaken from catatonia at Arkham Asylum. With renewed purpose, the Joker manipulates his caretakers to allow him onto a television talk show, where he murders everyone with gas and escapes. With the help of Selina Kyle, Batman and Robin track him to a county fair while evading a police pursuit led by Yindel. There, they realize that he is already making attempts to kill fairgoers. Batman defeats the Joker in a bloody confrontation, which ends when the Joker commits suicide by breaking his own neck to incriminate Batman for murder. After another confrontation with the Gotham police, Batman escapes with the help of Robin and a citywide manhunt begins. Superman diverts a Soviet nuclear warhead which detonates in a desert, nearly killing himself in the process, and surviving only by absorbing the sun's energy stored in Earth's jungles. The United States is hit by an electromagnetic pulse as a result and descends into chaos during the resulting blackout. In Gotham, Batman realizes what has happened, and he and Robin turn the remaining Mutants and Sons of the Batman into a non-lethal vigilante gang. He leads them against looters and ensures the flow of essential supplies. In the midst of the blackout, Gotham becomes the safest city in the country. The U.S. government sees this as an embarrassment, and orders Superman to remove Batman. Oliver Queen predicts to Wayne that the government lackey Superman and the maverick Batman will have a final confrontation. Superman demands to meet Batman. Knowing he may die, Wayne chooses Crime Alley, where he first became Batman. He relies on Superman's weakness caused by near-death in the nuclear blast. Superman tries to reason with Batman, but Batman uses his technological inventions and mastery of hand-to-hand combat to fight him on equal ground. During the battle, Superman compromises Batman's exoframe, but Queen shoots a kryptonite-tipped arrow to greatly weaken Superman. Batman reveals that he intentionally spared Superman's life by not using a more powerful kryptonite mix; the fight and near-death experience was meant as a warning to Superman to stay out of Batman's way. Before he can fully defeat Superman, Batman suddenly has a heart attack, apparently dying. Alfred destroys the Batcave and Wayne Manor before dying of a stroke, exposing Batman as Bruce Wayne, whose fortune has disappeared. After Wayne's funeral, it is revealed that his death was staged using his own chemical concoction that can suspend his vital life signs. Clark Kent attends the funeral and winks at Robin after hearing Wayne's heartbeat resume. Some time afterward, Bruce Wayne leads Robin, Queen, and the rest of his followers into the caverns beyond the Batcave and prepares to continue his war on crime. ===== ===== ===== Tony Hunter, once a famous star of musical comedies on stage and later on screen, largely is forgotten after three years without a movie. He returns from Hollywood to New York. At Grand Central, he is recognized but almost ignored by reporters who are there to see Ava Gardner. However, he is greeted enthusiastically by his good friends Lester and Lily Marton, and they tell him they have written a stage show, a light musical comedy, that will be a perfect comeback for Tony. They will also act in it, and they already have caught the interest of Jeffrey Cordova, who they say can do anything: Currently he is starring in, as well as directing, a new adaptation of Oedipus Rex that he wrote based on the original Greek story. As soon as Jeffrey hears Lily outline the play, he declares it to be a brilliant reinterpretation of the Faust legend, which should star Tony and himself as the characters corresponding to Faust and the Devil. The Martons are delighted that he will be acting as well as directing, but Tony is dubious about the Faust idea. Jeffrey declares that the boundaries between genres in the theater are artificial, and "Bill Shakespeare" and Bill Robinson are all parts of the same whole—to prove his point, he leads the four in singing That's Entertainment! Tony agrees, and Jeffrey has the Martons rewrite the play as a dark, pretentious musical drama (when they also become dubious, Lily insists that one person must be in charge and Jeffrey can succeed at anything). Jeffrey does succeed in arranging for the beautiful and talented ballerina Gabrielle "Gaby" Gerard to join the production, along with Paul Byrd, who is her boyfriend, choreographer, and manager—even though he always insisted that a musical play would be beneath her. When Tony and Gaby meet, they become sarcastic and hostile to each other, but this is actually because they are insecure: Each of them feels much less talented than the other. Eventually, it all proves too much for Tony, and he walks out. Gaby follows to meet him privately. In his hotel room, she comments that the paintings by famous artists on the wall are better reproductions than usual in a hotel; he says they are his own property, and are originals. She recognizes a painting of ballerinas as an early Degas. Tony and Gaby put their troubles aside, go for a horse-drawn carriage ride, dance together, and realize they can work together after all. They also begin to fall in love. When the first out-of-town tryout in New Haven proves disastrous, Tony demands that Jeffrey convert the production back into the light comedy that the Martons had envisioned. Jeffrey says that while they will have to find new backers because the original ones have walked out, he will be happy to appear in that show—if Tony is in charge of it. Tony accepts, financing the production by selling his art collection. Paul says the show is no longer suitable for Gaby and walks out, expecting her to follow, but she is pleased to stay and work with Tony. After some weeks on tour to perfect the new lighthearted musical numbers, the revised show proves to be a hit on its Broadway opening. Afterwards, Gaby and Tony kiss in front of the entire cast and crew, and the finale is a reprise of That's Entertainment! ===== Renée Adorée and John Gilbert in the Big Parade In the United States in 1917, James "Jim" Apperson's (John Gilbert) idleness (in contrast to his hardworking brother) incurs the great displeasure of his wealthy businessman father. Then America enters World War I. Jim informs his worried mother that he has no intention of enlisting, and his father threatens to kick him out of the house if he does not join. However, when he runs into his patriotic friends at a send-off parade, he is persuaded to enlist, making his father very proud. During training, Jim makes friendships with Southern construction worker Slim (Karl Dane) and Bronx bartender Bull (Tom O'Brien). Their unit ships out to France, where they are billeted at a farm in the village of Champillon in the Marne. All three men are attracted to Melisande (Renée Adorée), whose mother owns the farm. She repulses all their advances, but gradually warms to Jim, bonding at first over chewing gum. They eventually fall in love, despite not being able to speak each other's language. One day, however, Jim receives a letter and a photograph from Justyn (Claire Adams), which reveals that they are engaged. When Melisande sees the picture, she realizes the situation and runs off in tears. Before Jim can decide what to do, his unit is ordered to the front. Melisande hears the commotion and races back, just in time for the lovers to embrace and kiss. The Americans march towards the front and are strafed by an enemy fighter before it is shot down. The unit is sent to the attack immediately, advancing against snipers and machine guns in the woods, then more machine guns, artillery, and poison gas in the open. They settle down in a makeshift line. Jim shelters in a shellhole with Slim and Bull. That night, orders come down for one man to go out and eliminate a troublesome mortar crew; Slim wins a spitting contest for the opportunity. He succeeds, but is spotted and wounded on the way back. After listening to Slim's pleas for help, Jim cannot stand it any longer and goes to his rescue against orders. Bull follows, but is shot and killed. By the time Jim reaches Slim, he is already dead. Jim is then shot in the leg. When a German (George Beranger) comes to finish him off, Jim shoots and wounds him. The German starts crawling back to his line. Jim catches up to him in another shellhole, but, face to face, cannot bring himself to finish him off with his bayonet. Instead, he gives his erstwhile enemy a cigarette. Soon after, the German dies. However, Jim is not stuck in no man's land for long; the Americans attack, and he is taken away to a hospital. From another patient, he learns that Champillon has changed hands four times. Worried about Melisande, Jim sneaks out of the hospital and hitches a ride. When he gets to the farmhouse, he finds it damaged and empty. Melisande and her mother have joined a stream of refugees. Jim collapses and is carried off in an ambulance by retreating soldiers. After the war ends, Jim goes home to America. Before he arrives, his mother overhears Justyn and Jim's brother Harry (Robert Ober) discussing what to do; in Jim's absence, they have fallen in love. When Jim appears, it is revealed that he has had his leg amputated. Later, Jim tells his mother about Melisande; she tells him to go back and find her. When he returns to the farm, Melisande rushes into his arms. ===== The film begins with the looting of a ship already captured and badly mauled, by the pirates. After relieving the ship and crew of valuables, the pirates fire the ship, blowing up the gunpowder on board, sinking her. While the pirates celebrate, two survivors wash up on an island, an old man and his son. Before dying, the older man gives his signet ring to his son (Douglas Fairbanks). His son buries him, vowing vengeance. The Pirate Captain and Lieutenant bring some crew to the other side of the same island to bury some of their plunder. They then plan to murder the other pirates: "Dead men tell no tales." But first, Fairbanks appears as the "Black Pirate", who offers to join their company and fight their best man to prove his worth. After much fighting, the Black Pirate kills the Pirate Captain. The Pirate Lieutenant sneers, and says there is more to being a pirate than sword tricks. To further prove his worth, the Black Pirate says he will capture the next ship of prey single-handed, which he does. He then uses his wits to prevent the pirates from blowing up the ship along with the crew and passengers, suggesting that they hold the ship for ransom. When a woman is discovered on board, the Pirate Lieutenant claims her. In love at first sight, the Black Pirate finds a way to temporarily save her from this fate by presenting her as a "princess" and urging the crew to use her as a hostage to ensure their ransom will be paid, as long as she remains "spotless and unharmed". The pirates cheer the Black Pirate, and want to name him captain. The Pirate Lieutenant jeers but consents to wait to see if the ransom is paid by noon the next day. However, he secretly has a confederate destroy the ransom ship later that night to ensure it will not return. Then, when the Black Pirate is caught trying to release the woman, the Pirate Lieutenant exposes him as a traitor and the pirates force him to walk the plank. At noon the next day, with the ransom ship having failed to show, the Pirate Lieutenant goes to the woman to claim his prize. But just then, the Black Pirate, who with the help of the sympathetic one-armed pirate MacTavish had survived being sent overboard, returns leading troops to stop the pirates. After a long fight, the pirates are routed. In the end, the Black Pirate is revealed to be a Duke, and the "Princess" he loves a noble Lady. Even MacTavish is moved to tears of joy by the happy ending. ===== The scene is all filmed from a stationary camera. On screen is a large anvil with a blacksmith behind it and a striker to either side (portrayed by Edison employees). The smith uses a heated metal rod he has removed from a fire and places it on the anvil. All three begin a rhythmic hammering. After several blows, the metal rod is returned to the fire. One striker pulls out a bottle of beer, and they each take a drink. Following this drink, they then resume their work. ===== On a stormy night, Percy Bysshe Shelley (Douglas Walton) and Lord Byron (Gavin Gordon) praise Mary Shelley (Elsa Lanchester) for her story of Frankenstein and his Monster. She reminds them that her intention for writing the novel was to impart a moral lesson, the consequences of a mortal man who tries to play God. Mary says she has more of the story to tell. The scene shifts to the end of the 1931 Frankenstein, in 1899. Villagers gathered around the burning windmill cheer the apparent death of the Monster (Boris Karloff). Their joy is tempered by the realization that Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive) is also apparently dead. Hans (Reginald Barlow), the father of the girl the creature drowned in the previous film, wants to see the Monster's bones. He falls into a flooded pit underneath the mill, where the Monster – having survived the fire – strangles him. Hauling himself from the pit, the Monster casts Hans' wife (Mary Gordon) to her death. He next encounters Minnie (Una O'Connor), who flees in terror. Henry's body is returned to his fiancée Elizabeth (Valerie Hobson), at his ancestral castle home. Minnie arrives to sound the alarm about the Monster, but her warning goes unheeded. Elizabeth, seeing Henry move, realizes he is still alive. Nursed back to health by Elizabeth, Henry has renounced his creation, but still believes he may be destined to unlock the secret of life and immortality. A hysterical Elizabeth cries that she sees death coming, foreshadowing the arrival of Henry's former mentor, Doctor Septimus Pretorius (Ernest Thesiger). Henry goes to Pretorius's lab, where he shows Henry several homunculi he has created, including a miniature queen, king, archbishop, devil, ballerina, and mermaid. Pretorius wishes to work with Henry to create a mate for the Monster and offers a toast to their venture: "To a new world of gods and monsters!" Upon forcing Henry to help him, Pretorius will grow an artificial brain while Henry gathers parts for the mate. The Monster saves a young shepherdess (Anne Darling) from drowning. Her screams upon seeing him alert two hunters, who shoot and injure the creature. The hunters raise a mob that sets out in pursuit. Captured and trussed to a pole, the Monster is hauled to a dungeon and chained. Left alone, he breaks his chains, overpowers the guards, and escapes into the woods. That night, the Monster encounters a gypsy family and burns his hand in their campfire. Following the sound of a violin playing "Ave Maria," the Monster encounters an old blind hermit (O. P. Heggie) who thanks God for sending him a friend. He teaches the monster words like "friend" and "good" and shares a meal with him. Two lost hunters stumble upon the cottage and recognize the Monster. He attacks them and accidentally burns down the cottage as the hunters lead the hermit away. Taking refuge from another angry mob in a crypt, the Monster spies Pretorius and his cronies Karl (Dwight Frye) and Ludwig (Ted Billings) breaking open a grave. The henchmen depart as Pretorius stays to enjoy a light supper. The Monster approaches Pretorius and learns that Pretorius plans to create a mate for him. Henry and Elizabeth, now married, are visited by Pretorius. He is ready for Henry to do his part in their "supreme collaboration." Henry refuses, and Pretorius calls in the Monster, who demands Henry's help. Henry again refuses, and Pretorius orders the Monster out, secretly signaling him to kidnap Elizabeth. Pretorius guarantees her safe return upon Henry's participation. Henry returns to his tower laboratory where, despite himself, he grows excited over his work. After being assured of Elizabeth's safety, Henry completes the Bride's body. A storm rages as final preparations are made to bring the Bride to life. Her bandage- wrapped body is raised through the roof. Lightning strikes a kite, sending electricity through the Bride. Henry and Pretorius lower her and realize their success. Henry cries: "She's alive! Alive!" They remove her bandages and help her to stand. Doctor Pretorius declares: "The bride of Frankenstein!" The Monster comes down the steps after killing Karl on the rooftop and sees his mate (Elsa Lanchester). The excited Monster reaches out to her and asks: "Friend?" The Bride, screaming, rejects him. The dejected Monster observes: "She hate me! Like others." As Elizabeth races to Henry's side, the Monster rampages through the laboratory. When Pretorius warns that the Monster's actions are about to destroy them all, the Monster pauses and tells Henry and Elizabeth: "Go! You live!" To Pretorius and the Bride, he says: "You stay. We belong dead." While Henry and Elizabeth flee, the Monster looks at the Bride, sheds a tear, and pulls a lever to trigger the laboratory and tower's destruction. ===== David Huxley (Cary Grant) is a mild-mannered paleontologist. For the past four years, he has been trying to assemble the skeleton of a Brontosaurus but is missing one bone: the "intercostal clavicle." Adding to his stress is his impending marriage to the dour Alice Swallow (Virginia Walker) and the need to impress Elizabeth Random (May Robson), who is considering a million-dollar donation to his museum. The day before his wedding, David meets Susan Vance (Katharine Hepburn) by chance on a golf course when she plays his ball. She is a free-spirited, somewhat scatterbrained, young lady, unfettered by logic. These qualities soon embroil David in several frustrating incidents. Susan's brother Mark has sent her a tame leopard named Baby (Nissa) from Brazil. Its tameness is helped by hearing the song "I Can't Give You Anything But Love." Susan thinks David is a zoologist, and manipulates him into accompanying her in taking Baby to her farm in Connecticut. Complications arise when Susan falls in love with him, and she tries to keep him at her house as long as possible, even hiding his clothes, to prevent his imminent marriage. David's prized intercostal clavicle is delivered, but Susan's aunt's dog George (Skippy) takes it and buries it somewhere. When Susan's aunt arrives, she discovers David in a negligee. To David's dismay, she turns out to be potential donor Elizabeth Random. A second message from Mark makes clear the leopard is for Elizabeth, as she always wanted one. Baby and George run off. The zoo is called to help capture Baby. Susan and David race to find Baby before the zoo and, mistaking a dangerous leopard (also portrayed by Nissa) from a nearby circus for Baby, they let it out of its cage. David and Susan in jail. David and Susan are jailed by a befuddled town policeman, Constable Slocum (Walter Catlett), for acting strangely at the house of Dr. Fritz Lehman (Fritz Feld), where they had cornered the circus leopard, thinking it was "Baby." When Slocum does not believe their story, Susan tells him they are members of the "Leopard Gang"; she calls herself "Swingin' Door Susie," and David "Jerry the Nipper." Eventually, Alexander Peabody (George Irving) shows up to verify everyone's identity. Susan, who escaped out of a window during a police interview, unwittingly drags the highly irritated circus leopard into the jail. David saves her, using a chair to shoo the big cat into a cell. Some time later, Susan finds David, who has been jilted by Alice because of her, on a high platform working on his brontosaurus reconstruction at the museum. After showing him the missing bone which she found by trailing George for three days, Susan, against his warnings, climbs a tall ladder next to the dinosaur to be closer to him. She tells David that her aunt has given her the million dollars, and she wants to donate it to the museum, but David is more interested in telling her that the day spent with her was the best day of his life. They profess their love for each other as Susan unconsciously swings the ladder from side to side, and as it sways more and more with each swing Susan and David finally notice the ladder moving and that Susan is in danger. Frightened, she climbs onto the skeleton, causing it to collapse, and David grabs her hand just as she falls. After she dangles for a few seconds, David lifts her onto the platform. After she talks him into forgiving her without him saying a word about anything but halfheartedly complaining about the loss of his years of work putting together the Brontosaurus skeleton, David, resigning himself to a future of chaos, embraces Susan. ===== Broken Blossoms Cheng Huan (Richard Barthelmess) leaves his native China because he "dreams to spread the gentle message of Buddha to the Anglo-Saxon lands." His idealism fades as he is faced with the brutal reality of London's gritty inner-city. However, his mission is finally realized in his devotion to the "broken blossom" Lucy Burrows (Lillian Gish), the beautiful but unwanted and abused daughter of boxer Battling Burrows (Donald Crisp). After being beaten and discarded one evening by her raging father, Lucy finds sanctuary in Cheng's home, the beautiful and exotic room above his shop. As Cheng nurses Lucy back to health, the two form a bond as two unwanted outcasts of society. All goes astray for them when Lucy's father gets wind of his daughter's whereabouts and in a drunken rage drags her back to their home to punish her. Fearing for her life, Lucy locks herself inside a closet to escape her contemptuous father. By the time Cheng arrives to rescue Lucy, whom he so innocently adores, it is too late. Lucy's lifeless body lies on her modest bed as Battling has a drink in the other room. As Cheng gazes at Lucy's youthful face which, in spite of the circumstances, beams with innocence and even the slightest hint of a smile, Battling enters the room to make his escape. The two stand for a long while, exchanging spiteful glances, until Battling lunges for Cheng with a hatchet, and Cheng retaliates by shooting Burrows repeatedly with his handgun. After returning to his home with Lucy's body, Cheng builds a shrine to Buddha and takes his own life with a knife to the chest. ===== Parachute maker Carmen Jones makes a play for a "fly boy" Air Force man, Joe, who is in love with sweet Cindy Lou and about to marry her on a day pass when Carmen gets into a fight with another woman. Joe's pass is cancelled in order for him to drive her to the next town to be handed over to the non-military police. Instead, Carmen charms him and escapes, and he is put in the stockade for not delivering her to the authorities. While Carmen waits for Joe to be released from military prison, she hangs around Billy Pastor's jive cafe where she encounters boxer Husky Miller, who is instantly besotted with Carmen, calling her "heatwave". Carmen is initially uninterested. But her friends Frankie and Mert know that their invitation from Husky's manager to see him fight in Chicago depends on Carmen's being there, too. Muriel Rahn (age 32) in the title role in the 1943 original Broadway production of Carmen Jones. Joe, having been released from the stockade, turns up at the cafe the same evening. At first, his prospects seem to be looking up, as his connections have put Joe back on track for aviator school. Carmen lays down a guilt trip, however, protesting that a long-distance relationship, with Joe away at school, just isn't what she had in mind. He immediately gets into a fight with his sergeant, who is making a move on Carmen, as well as laying down some heavy shade on Joe. Starting the fight alone would have been enough to put Joe back in military prison for years, but the fight goes badly, and the sergeant ends up apparently dead. Carmen makes Joe hide the body, since desertion sounds better than a lengthy sentence. The train ticket to Chicago originally given to Carmen offers them a way of avoiding the MPs. After a few days hiding out in a seedy hotel with no money and no future with Joe, Carmen pays a visit to her two friends, now covered in diamonds and furs, at Husky's training camp. She is only looking for a loan, but they try to draw her to give up Joe and "go with the money" by staying with Husky. Later, at Husky's apartment, Frankie reads Carmen's "cards", and reveals the Nine of Spades - the card of Death. In the belief that her days are numbered, Carmen gives in to Husky's advances, abandoning Joe for the luxurious life Husky can offer her. Cindy Lou comes to look for Joe, but he is still in love with Carmen and spurns Cindy Lou. The night of Husky's title fight, Joe turns up to try to convince Carmen to come back to him, but when she rejects him, he kills her, thus making the card's prophecy a reality. ===== Jo is a taxi driver in Chinatown, San Francisco who, with his nephew Steve, is seeking to purchase a cab license. Jo's friend Chan Hung was the go-between for the transaction but has disappeared, taking Jo's money. The two men search for Chan by speaking with various Chinatown locals, each of whom has a different impression of Chan's personality and motivations. The portrait that is created is incomplete and, at times, contradictory. As the mystery behind Chan's disappearance deepens, Jo becomes paranoid that Chan may be involved in the death of a man killed during a "flag-waving incident" between opposing supporters of the People's Republic of China (mainland China) and the Republic of China (Taiwan). In the end, Chan remains missing but, through his daughter, returns Jo and Steve's money. Jo, holding a photo of Chan where his face is completely obscured, eventually accepts that Chan is an enigma, saying in a voiceover, "here's a picture of Chan Hung but I still can't see him." "Chan is Missing" still photos of actors Wood Moy (Jo), Marc Hayashi (Steve) and Peter Wang as Henry, the cook singing "Fry me to the Moon" in Wayne Wang's 1982 film.. ===== Edith Hardy is a spoiled society woman who continues to buy expensive clothes even when her husband, Richard, tells her all his money is sunk into a stock speculation and he can't pay her bills until the stock goes up. She even delays paying her maid her wages, and the embarrassed Richard must do so. Edith is also the treasurer of the local Red Cross fund drive for Belgian refugees, which holds a gala dance at the home of Hishuru Tori, a rich Japanese ivory merchant (or, in the 1918 re-release, Haka Arakau, a rich Burmese ivory merchant). He is an elegant and dangerously sexy man, to whom Edith seems somewhat drawn; he shows her his roomful of treasures, and stamps one of them with a heated brand to show that it belongs to him. A society friend of the Hardys tells Edith that Richard's speculation will not be profitable and he knows a better one; Tori/Arakau then offers to double her money in one day if she gives it to him to invest in the suggested enterprise. Edith, wanting to live lavishly and unwilling to wait for Richard to realize his speculation, takes the $10,000 the Red Cross has raised from her bedroom safe and gives it to Tori/Arakau. The next day, however, her horrified friend tells her his tip was worthless and her money is completely lost. The Red Cross ladies have scheduled the handover of the money to the refugee fund for the day after that. Edith goes to Tori/Arakau to beg for a loan of the money, and he agrees to write her a check in return for her sexual favours the next day. She reluctantly agrees to this, takes his check and is able to give the money to the Red Cross. Then Richard announces elatedly that his investments have paid off and they are very rich. Edith asks him for $10,000, saying it is for a bridge debt, and he writes her a check for the amount with no reproof. She takes it to Tori/Arakau, but he says she cannot buy her way out of their bargain. When she struggles against his advances, he takes his heated brand used to mark his possessions and brands her with it on the shoulder. In their struggle after that, she finds a gun on the floor and shoots him. She runs away just as Richard, hearing the struggle, bursts into the house. He finds the check he wrote to his wife there. Tori/Arakau is only wounded in the shoulder, not killed; when his servants call the police, Richard declares that he shot him, and Tori/Arakau does not dispute this. Edith pleads with Tori/Arakau not to press charges, but he refuses to spare Richard. She visits Richard in his jail cell and confesses everything, and he orders her not to tell anyone else and let him take the blame. At the crowded trial, both he and Tori/Arakau, his arm in a sling, testify that he was the shooter but will not say why. The jury finds Richard guilty. This is too much for Edith, and she rushes to the witness stand and shouts that she shot Tori/Arakau "and this is my defense". She bares her shoulder and shows everyone in the courtroom the brand on her shoulder. The male spectators turn furious, and quite a bit racist, and rush to the front, clearly intending to lynch Tori/Arakau. The judge protects him and manages to hold them off. He then sets aside the verdict, and the prosecutor withdraws the charges. Richard lovingly and protectively leads the chastened Edith from the courtroom. ===== Citizens and dignitaries are assembled for the unveiling of a new monument to "Peace and Prosperity". After droning speeches, the veil is lifted to reveal the Little Tramp asleep in the lap of one of the sculpted figures. After several minutes of slapstick, he manages to escape the assembly's wrath to perambulate the city. He rebukes two newsboys who taunt him for his shabbiness, and while coyly admiring a nude statue has a near-fatal encounter with a sidewalk elevator. The Tramp encounters the beautiful flower girl on a street corner and in the course of buying a flower realizes she is blind; he is instantly smitten. Through an aural coincidence, the girl mistakes her customer for the wealthy owner of a chauffeured automobile. That evening the Tramp saves a drunken millionaire from suicide. The millionaire takes his new best friend back to his mansion for champagne, then (after another abortive suicide attempt) out for a night on the town. After helping the millionaire home the next morning, he sees the flower girl en route to her street-corner. He gets some money from the millionaire and catches up to the girl; he buys all her flowers and drives her home in the millionaire's car. After the Tramp leaves, the flower girl tells her grandmother (Florence Lee) about her kind and wealthy friend. Meanwhile, the Tramp returns to the mansion, where the millionairenow soberdoes not remember him and throws him out. Later that day, the millionaire is once more intoxicated and, seeing the Tramp on the street, invites him home for a lavish party. But the next morning history repeats itself: the millionaire is again sober and the Tramp is again out on his ear. Finding that the girl is not at her usual street-corner, the Tramp goes to her apartment, where he overhears a doctor tell the grandmother that the girl is very ill: "She has a fever and needs careful attention." Determined to help, the Tramp takes a job as a street sweeper. On his lunch break, he brings the girl groceries while her grandmother is out selling flowers. To entertain her he reads a newspaper aloud; in it is a story about a Viennese doctor's blindness cure. "Wonderful, then I'll be able to see you," says the girland the Tramp is struck by what may happen should she gain her sight and discover that he is not the wealthy man she imagines. He also finds an eviction notice the girl's grandmother has hidden. As he leaves, he promises the girl that he will pay the rent. The Tramp returns to work to find himself firedhe has been late once too often. A boxer convinces him to fight in a fake bout; they will "go easy" on each other and split the prize money. But the boxer flees on learning he is about to be arrested and is replaced by a no-nonsense fighter who knocks the Tramp out despite the Tramp's creative and nimble efforts to keep out of reach. The Tramp encounters the drunken millionaire a third time and is again invited to the mansion. The Tramp relates the girl's plight and the millionaire gives him money for her operation. Burglars knock the millionaire out and take the rest of his money. The police find the Tramp with the money given to him by the millionaire, who because of the knock on the head does not remember giving it. The Tramp evades the police long enough to get the money to the girl, telling her he will be going away for a time, but in due course he is apprehended and imprisoned. Months later the Tramp is released. He goes to the girl's customary street corner but she is not there. We learn that the girlher sight restorednow runs a busy flower shop with her grandmother. But she has not forgotten her mysterious benefactor, whom she imagines to be rich and handsome: when an elegant man enters the shop she wonders for a moment if "he" has returned. The Tramp happens by the shop, where the girl is arranging flowers in the window. He stoops to retrieve a flower discarded in the gutter. After a brief skirmish with his old nemeses, the newsboys, he turns to the shop's window through which he suddenly sees the girl, who has been watching him without (of course) knowing who he is. At the sight of her he is frozen for a few seconds, then breaks into a broad smile. The girl is flattered and giggles to her employee, "I've made a conquest!" Via pantomime through the glass she offers him a fresh flower (to replace the crushed one he took from the gutter) and a coin. Suddenly embarrassed, the Tramp starts to shuffle away, but the girl steps to the shop door and again offers the flower, which he shyly accepts. She takes his hand and presses the coin into it, then abruptly stops and her smile turns to a look of puzzlement as she recognizes the touch of his hand. She runs her fingers along his arm, his shoulder, his lapels, then gasps and asks, "You?" The Tramp nods and asks, "You can see now?" The girl replies, "Yes, I can see now" and presses his hand to her heart with a tearful smile. Relieved and elated, the Tramp smiles back. ===== Veronica Lake and Joel McCrea in Sullivan's Travels John L. Sullivan is a popular young Hollywood director of profitable but shallow comedies. Dissatisfied with his own films, he tells his studio boss, Mr. LeBrand, that he wants his next project to be a serious exploration of the plight of the downtrodden, based on the novel O Brother, Where Art Thou? LeBrand wants him to direct another lucrative comedy instead, but Sullivan refuses to give in. He wants to "know trouble" first hand, and plans to travel as a tramp so he can make a film that truly depicts the sorrows of humanity. His British butler and valet openly question the wisdom of his plan. Sullivan dresses as a hobo and takes to the road, followed by his staff in a bus. Neither party is happy with the arrangement, and Sullivan, after trying to lose the bus in a fast-paced car chase, eventually persuades his guardians to leave him alone and arranges to rendezvous with them later in Las Vegas. However, he soon finds himself right back in Los Angeles. There, in a diner, he meets a young struggling actress who has failed to make it in Hollywood and is just about to give up and go home. She believes he is a penniless tramp and buys him a breakfast of ham and eggs. In return for her kindness, Sullivan retrieves his car from his estate and gives her a lift. He neglects to tell his servants that he has returned, however, so they report the car stolen. Sullivan and the girl are apprehended by the police. The butler and valet arrive in the police station, Sullivan straightens things out, and he and the girl return to his mansion. After seeing how wealthy he is, the girl pushes him into his enormous swimming pool in punishment for deceiving her. However, when he insists on trying again, she goes with him, over his objections, disguised as a boy. This time Sullivan succeeds. After riding in a cattle car, eating in soup kitchens and sleeping in homeless shelters with the girl (where another hobo steals his shoes), Sullivan finally decides he has had enough. His experiment is publicized by the studio as a huge success. The girl wants to stay with him, but on the advice of his business manager, Sullivan had married a woman solely to reduce his taxes. But he discovers that his wife cost him double what he saved, and she is in love with his business manager. Sullivan decides to thank the homeless by handing out $5 bills, but one hobo ambushes Sullivan and steals the money. Sullivan is knocked unconscious and put in a boxcar leaving the city. The thief gets run over and killed by another train. When the mangled body is found, it turns out that this was the hobo who stole Sullivan’s shoes; a special identification card his valet had sewn into them identifies him as Sullivan. Meanwhile, Sullivan wakes up in another city, with no memory of who he is or how he got there. A railway worker finds him and berates him for illegally entering the rail yard, shoving him. In his confused state, Sullivan hits the man with a rock, for which he is sentenced to six years in a labor camp. He gradually regains his memory. In the camp, he attends a showing of Walt Disney's 1934 Playful Pluto cartoon and is surprised to find himself laughing along with the other inmates. Unable to convince anybody that he is Sullivan or communicate with the outside world, he comes up with a solution: after seeing his unsolved "killing" on the front page of a newspaper, he confesses to being his own killer. When his picture makes the front page, the girl recognizes him, and he is released. His "widow" has already married his business manager, so he realizes she will have to give him a divorce or be charged with bigamy. Sullivan's boss tells him he can make O Brother, Where Art Thou?, but he says the he has changed his mind. He wants to make comedies, having learned that they can do more good for the poor. ===== C. Gardner Sullivan wrote the initial outline for Civilization on Easter Sunday 1915. The film opens with the outbreak of a war in the previously peaceful kingdom of Wredpryd. Count Ferdinand is the inventor of a new submarine who is assigned to command the new ship in battle. The King of Wredpryd orders the Count to sink the "ProPatria" ("for my country"), a civilian ship that is believed to be carrying munitions as well as civilian passengers. In his mind's eye, the Count sees a vision of what would happen if he sent a torpedo crashing into the liner, and he recoils. He refuses to follow his orders, saying he is "obeying orders -- from a Higher Power." Realizing his crew will carry out the orders, the Count fights with the crew and blows up his submarine, sending it to the bottom of the sea. The Count's soul descends into purgatory, where he encounters Jesus. Jesus announces that the Count can find redemption by returning to the living world as a voice for peace. Jesus tells the Count, "Peace to thee, child, for in thy love for humanity is thy redemption. In thy earthly body will I return, and with thy voice plead for peace. Much evil is being wrought in my name." The Count returns to life and is stoned and reviled by his countrymen. He is put on trial by the king, a modern Pontius Pilate, and is sentenced to death. Five thousand women gather at the palace singing a song of peace and pleading with the king to end the war. The mothers' plea inspires the king to visit the cell of the condemned Count. The Count is found dead in his cell, and Jesus emerges from the Count's body and takes the king on a tour of the battlefields. Jesus asks, "See here thy handiwork? Under thy reign, thy domain hath become a raging hell!" In the film's most famous scene, Jesus walks through the battlefields amid the carnage of war. The signing of a peace treaty follows, and the closing scenes depicts the happiness in store for the returning soldiers. ===== When a flying saucer lands in Washington, D.C., the Army quickly surrounds it. A humanoid emerges and announces that he comes "in peace and with good will". When he unexpectedly opens a small device, he is shot and wounded by a nervous soldier. A tall robot emerges from the saucer and quickly disintegrates the Army's weapons. The alien orders the robot, Gort, to desist. He explains that the now-broken device was a gift for the president of the United States that would have enabled him "to study life on the other planets". The alien, Klaatu, is taken to Walter Reed Hospital. After surgery, he uses a salve to quickly heal his wound. Meanwhile, the Army tries but is unable to enter the saucer; Gort stands outside, silent and unmoving. Klaatu tells the President's secretary, Mr. Harley, he has a message that must be delivered to all the world's leaders simultaneously. Harley tells him that in the current political climate this is impossible. Klaatu suggests that he be allowed to go among humans to better understand their "unreasoning suspicions and attitudes". Harley rejects the proposal, and Klaatu remains under guard. Klaatu escapes to a boarding house as "Mr. Carpenter", the name ("Maj. Carpenter") on the dry cleaner's tag on a suit he acquired. Among the residents are young widow Helen Benson and her son Bobby. When Helen and her boyfriend Tom Stevens go out, Klaatu babysits Bobby. The boy takes Klaatu on a tour of the city, including a visit to his father's grave in Arlington National Cemetery; Klaatu learns that most of the deceased are soldiers killed in wars. They also visit the Lincoln Memorial. Klaatu asks Bobby who the greatest living person is; Bobby suggests Professor Barnhardt. Bobby takes Klaatu to Barnhardt's home, but the professor is out. Klaatu writes an equation on a blackboard to assist Barnhardt with a celestial mechanics problem; he leaves his contact information with the suspicious housekeeper. That evening, a government agent accompanies Klaatu to Barnhardt. Klaatu explains that the people of other planets are concerned now that humanity has developed rockets and a rudimentary form of atomic power. Klaatu declares that if his message is ignored, Earth will be "eliminated". Barnhardt agrees to gather scientists from around the world at the saucer; he then suggests Klaatu give a harmless demonstration of his power. Klaatu returns to his spaceship, unaware Bobby has followed him. Bobby sees Gort render two soldiers unconscious and Klaatu enter the saucer. Bobby tells Helen and Tom what he saw, but they do not believe him until Tom takes a diamond he found in Klaatu's room to a jeweler and learns it is "unlike any other on Earth". Klaatu finds Helen at her workplace, and they take an empty service elevator which stops precisely at noon. (He has temporarily neutralized all electricity everywhere, except for essential services such as hospitals and airplanes in flight.) Klaatu reveals his true identity to Helen and asks for her help. Helen and Klaatu decide to visit Barnhardt. On the way, he tells her that should anything happen to him she must say to Gort, "Klaatu barada nikto." Their taxi is spotted and hemmed in. Klaatu is shot dead, and Helen rushes to the saucer. Hearing Klaatu's words, Gort carries Helen inside, retrieves Klaatu's body, and revives him. Klaatu explains to Helen that his revival is only temporary. Klaatu addresses Barnhardt's assembled scientists: an interplanetary organization has created a police force of invincible robots like Gort. "In matters of aggression, we have given them absolute power over us." Klaatu concludes, "Your choice is simple: join us and live in peace, or pursue your present course and face obliteration. We shall be waiting for your answer." Klaatu and Gort depart in the saucer. ===== Three friends in Pennsylvania – Mike Vronsky, Steven Pushkov and Nick Chevotarevich – work in a steel mill and hunt for deer. They prepare to leave for military service in Vietnam. Steven is engaged to Angela, who is secretly impregnated by another man. Mike and Nick both love Linda, who will be moving into Nick's home to escape from her abusive and alcoholic father. During Steven and Angela's wedding, Nick asks for Linda's hand, and she accepts. As the newly- weds drive away, Nick asks Mike to not abandon him in Vietnam. Mike and Nick make a final deer hunt. As is his custom, Mike fires a single shot, which kills the deer. In Vietnam, the friends, along with other soldiers, are captured by the Viet Cong, and are forced to participate in a torturous game of Russian roulette while the jailers place bets. Steven yields to fear and exhaustion and fires his round at the ceiling. As punishment for breaking the rules, Steven is thrown into a cage that is immersed in a river filled with rats and dead bodies. Mike convinces Nick to attempt an escape by inserting three rounds into the revolver's cylinder; after convincing their tormentors with the increased risk, they kill the captors and escape. After Steven is freed, the three float along the river's current on a tree trunk. When they reach a suspension bridge, they are rescued by an American helicopter, but Steven is weak and falls into the water. Mike immediately jumps in to save Steven, while Nick is held by the aircraft crew. Steven's legs are broken in the fall, and Mike carries him until they meet a caravan of soldiers fleeing to Saigon. Nick is admitted to a military hospital for physical and psychological trauma, and he ventures to Saigon after he is discharged. In his wandering, he hears gunshots emanating from a gambling den and attempts to leave, reminded of his previous torture experience. However, French businessman Julien Grinda persuades him to come inside and play for him. Mike is present in the den and recognizes Nick, but is unsuccessful in getting his attention. Mike is repatriated and he has difficulty reintegrating into civilian life. He fails to appear at a party organized by his friends. He meets Linda the next morning and learns that Nick has deserted. Mike then visits Angela, who is now the mother of a child, but has slipped into catatonia following the return of Steven, who has been rendered an invalid. Those within Mike's circle who stayed at home seem to understand nothing of war, and the following days further prove his disorientation; he is unable to shoot a deer during a hunting trip, and in another trip, he sees one hunting partner, Stan, jokingly threatening another partner with a gun. To make Stan understand the gravity of his gesture, Mike violently slaps the gun out of Stan's hand, leaves only one round in the cylinder, points the gun at Stan's forehead and pulls the trigger on an empty chamber. Mike visits Steven at a veterans' facility; both of Steven's legs have been amputated, and he has lost the use of an arm. Steven has learned of Angela's infidelity and refuses to come home. He tells Mike that he has been regularly receiving large sums of money from Vietnam. Mike senses that Nick is the source of these payments, and after convincing Steven to return to Angela, he returns to Vietnam in search of Nick. Wandering around Saigon, now in a state of chaos, Mike finds Julien and persuades him to take him to the gambling den. Mike finds himself facing Nick, who has become a professional in the macabre game and fails to recognize Mike. Mike attempts to bring Nick back to reason, but Nick, who is now a heroin addict, is indifferent. During a game of Russian roulette, Mike evokes memories of their hunting trips. Nick recalls Mike's "one shot" method and smiles before pulling the trigger and killing himself as Mike tearfully witnesses. Mike and his friends attend Nick's funeral, and the atmosphere at their local bar is dim and silent. Moved by emotion, the patrons sing "God Bless America" in honor of Nick. ===== PLAY full film (running time 1:08) Piano player Al Roberts (Neal) is drinking coffee at a roadside diner in Reno, hitchhiking east from California, when a fellow patron plays a song on the jukebox that reminds him of his former life in New York City. He remembers a time when he was bitter about squandering his musical talent working in a cheap nightclub. After his girlfriend Sue Harvey (Claudia Drake), the nightclub vocalist, leaves to seek fame in Hollywood, he sinks into depression. After some anguish, he decides to go to California and marry her; with little money, though, he is forced to hitchhike his way across the country. In Arizona, bookie Charles Haskell Jr. (Edmund MacDonald) gives the tired and disheveled Al a ride in his convertible and tells him that he is in luck: he is driving all the way from Florida to Los Angeles to place a bet on a horse. During the drive, he has Al pass him pills on several occasions, which he swallows as he drives. That night, Al drives while Haskell sleeps. When a rainstorm forces Al to pull over to put up the convertible's top, he is unable to rouse Haskell. Al opens the passenger-side door and Haskell tumbles out, striking his head on a rock. Al then realizes the bookie is dead. Fearful that the police will believe he killed Haskell, Al drags the body off the road. After considering his options, and with fear of arrest his greatest concern, he takes the dead man's money, clothes, and identification, and drives away, intent on abandoning the car near Los Angeles. He crosses into California after answering questions posed by the police and spends a night in a motel. The next day, as he leaves a gas station near Desert Center Airport, he picks up a hitchhiker, Vera (Ann Savage). At first, she travels silently with Al, who has identified himself as Haskell, then suddenly challenges his identity and ownership of the car. She reveals she had been picked up by Haskell earlier in Louisiana; she got out in Arizona after he tried to force himself on her. Al tells her how Haskell died, but she blackmails him by threatening to turn him over to the police. She takes the money that Al retrieved from Haskell's wallet and wants whatever money they can get by selling the car. In Hollywood, they rent an apartment, posing as Mr. and Mrs. Haskell, to provide an address when they sell the car. They spend a fractious time together in the apartment, Al resentful of the situation, but Vera reveling in having the upper hand. When they are about to sell the car, Vera learns from a newspaper that Haskell's wealthy father is near death and a search is under way for his long-estranged son. Vera demands that Al impersonate Haskell once the father dies, and position himself to inherit the estate. Al refuses, arguing that impersonation requires detailed knowledge he lacks. Back at the apartment, Vera gets drunk and they begin arguing again. In a drunken rage, she threatens to call the police, running into the bedroom with the telephone and locking the door, falling on the bed with the telephone cord tangled around her neck. From the other side of door, Al pulls on the cord in an effort to break it from the phone. As Vera fails to respond as he yells her name, he breaks down the door and discovers Vera strangled by the telephone cord. Al gives up the idea of contacting his girlfriend Sue again and returns to hitchhiking, instead. He later finds out that Haskell is wanted in connection to the murder of his wife, Vera. Back in the framing narrative in the diner in Reno where the film opened, he imagines his inevitable arrest by the police. ===== Mookie is a 25-year-old pizza delivery man living in Bedford–Stuyvesant, with his sister Jade. He and his girlfriend Tina have a toddler son named Hector. Mookie works at a local pizzeria owned by Sal, an Italian-American who has been in the neighborhood for 25 years. Sal's eldest son Pino is racist, and does not get along with Mookie. Because of this, Pino is at odds with both his father, who refuses to leave the majority African-American neighborhood, and his younger brother Vito, who is friendly with Mookie. Many distinctive residents are introduced, including Da Mayor, a friendly drunk; Mother Sister, who watches the neighborhood from her brownstone; Radio Raheem, who blasts Public Enemy on his boombox wherever he goes; and Smiley, a mentally disabled man who meanders around the neighborhood trying to sell hand-colored pictures of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. While at Sal's, Mookie's friend Buggin' Out questions Sal about his "Wall of Fame", a wall decorated with photos of famous Italian-Americans. Buggin' Out demands that Sal put up pictures of black celebrities since Sal's pizzeria is in a black neighborhood. Sal replies that it is his business, and that he can have whoever he wants on the wall. Buggin' Out attempts to start a boycott over the Wall of Fame. During the day, local teenagers open a fire hydrant and douse the other neighbors to beat the heat wave before officers intervene. After a phone call, Mookie and Pino begin arguing over race. Mookie confronts Pino about his negative attitudes towards African Americans, although the latter's favorite celebrities are black. Various characters express racial insults: Mookie against Italians, Pino against African Americans, Latino Stevie against Koreans, white officer Gary Long against Puerto Ricans, and Korean owner Sonny against Jews. Pino expresses his contempt for African Americans to Sal, but Sal insists that he will not leave the neighborhood. That night, Buggin' Out, Radio Raheem, and Smiley march into Sal's and demand that Sal change the Wall of Fame. Raheem's boombox is blaring and Sal demands that he turn it off, but he refuses. Buggin' Out calls Sal and sons "guinea bastards" and threatens to close down the pizzeria until they change the Wall of Fame. Frustrated and angry, Sal calls Buggin' Out a "nigger" and destroys Raheem's boombox with a baseball bat. Raheem attacks Sal, leading to a fight that spills out into the street and attracts a crowd. The police arrive, break up the fight, and apprehend Raheem and Buggin' Out. Despite the pleas of onlookers, one officer refuses to release his chokehold on Raheem, killing him. Realizing that Raheem has been killed in front of witnesses, the officers place his body in the back of a squad car and drive off. The onlookers, enraged about Radio Raheem's death, blame Sal and his sons. Da Mayor tries to convince the crowd that Sal was not responsible for his death but the crowd remain where they are. Mookie grabs a trash can and throws it through the window of Sal's pizzeria, sparking the crowd to rush into the store and destroy it. Smiley sets the building on fire, and Da Mayor pulls Sal, Pino, and Vito out of the mob's way. Firemen and riot patrols arrive to put out the fire and disperse the crowd. After they issue a warning, the firefighters turn their hoses on the rioters, leading to more fighting and arrests. Mookie and Jade sit on the curb, watching in disbelief. Smiley wanders back into the smoldering building and hangs one of his pictures on what is left of Sal's Wall of Fame. The next day, after an argument with Tina, Mookie returns to Sal. He feels that Mookie had betrayed him, but Mookie demands his weekly pay. The two men argue and cautiously reconcile, and Sal finally pays Mookie. Mister Señor Love Daddy, a local DJ, dedicates a song to Radio Raheem. The film ends with two quotations that express different views about violence, one by Martin Luther King and one by Malcolm X. It fades to a photograph of the two leaders shaking hands. Prior to the credits, Lee dedicates the film to the families of six victims of brutality or racial violence: Eleanor Bumpurs, Michael Griffith, Arthur Miller, Jr., Edmund Perry, Yvonne Smallwood, and Michael Stewart. ===== Lobby card for The Docks of New York An American tramp steamer docks in New York harbor sometime in the early years of the 20th century before prohibition. In the bowels of the ship, coal stokers are shutting down the furnaces and anticipating a night of shore leave. The bullying third engineer, Andy (Mitchell Lewis) warns the exhausted crew that they will be punished if they return drunk when the vessel sails the following morning. The stokers gather to leer at crude pornographic graffiti scrawled on the engine room wall before debarking to carouse at the local gin-mills. On shore, Andy enters The Sandbar, dance-hall saloon, craving a beer and female companionship. He has unexpected encounter with his estranged wife, Lou (Olga Bachonova). During his absence of three years, she has become a habitué of the saloon, where she freely enjoys male companionship. The “couple” joins one another for a drink; no love is lost between them. The stoker Bill Roberts (George Bancroft) - a swaggering brawler when on leave - rescues a drowning prostitute named Mae (Betty Compson) who has lept off the dock to end her sordid life. Bill, ignoring the admonishment of his sidekick “Sugar” Steve (Clyde Cook), impassively carries the semi-conscious woman to a room above The Sandbar, indifferent to the protests from the proprietor's wife, Mrs. Crimp (May Foster). Lou intercedes to provide first-aid and revives Mae, a fallen angel like herself. Bill's growing awareness of Mae's physical beauty assumes a proprietary quality. He fetches her a beverage from the bar and presents her with a pretty dress he steals from a pawn shop next door. Bill exhorts her to join him for the evening, and Mae, distraught and vulnerable, accepts his invitation. They meet downstairs in the raucous tavern. Andy attempts to pull rank and cut in on the couple, but the powerful stoker drives him off with blows. Lou, observing her husband's boorishness, looks on with contempt. Mae and Bill mutually confess their sexual histories to one another, she with regret, he with masculine pride. So as to win Mae's favors for the night, Bill consents to marry her on the spot, and Mae wistfully obliges. The local missionary “Hymn Book” Harry (Gustav von Seyffertitz) is summoned and sternly delivers the sacrament. Lou provides Mae with a ring: her own, now superfluous wedding ring. The couple takes their vows, each shamefacedly, and the formerly boisterous patrons observe with mock solemnity, then erupt in cheers when the newlyweds kiss. The following morning, Bill slips quietly from the flophouse honeymoon suite, without a word to Mae. Andy, observing that the stoker is abandoning his “wife”, goes to Mae's room, where she has just discovered Bill's desertion. Andy attempts to force himself on her, but Lou arrives and guns him down. The police suspect Mae of the murder, but Lou confesses and is arrested. Under the blandishments of “Sugar” Steve, Bill takes leave of Mae - the influence of the possessive "Sugar" Steve. Driven to distraction by his perfidy, she angrily drives him from her room. Aboard the steamer, Bill has an epiphany. He bolts from the subterranean furnaces to the sunny deck, leaps overboard and swims to shore. There he inquires as to Mae's whereabouts and discovers that she is in custody at Night Court, charged with stealing the clothing he had bestowed on her. Moments after the judge sentences her to jail, Bill presents himself and confesses to the crime, exonerating Mae. He pledges to reunite with Mae after he serves his 60-day sentence, and she agrees to wait for him. ===== Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity In 1938, Walter Neff, an insurance salesman, returns to his office in downtown Los Angeles late one night. In pain from a gunshot wound to his shoulder, he begins dictating a confession into a dictaphone for his friend and colleague, Barton Keyes, a claims adjuster. The story, told primarily in flashback, ensues. Neff meets the alluring Phyllis Dietrichson during a house call to remind her husband to renew his automobile insurance policy. They flirt, until Phyllis asks about taking out a policy on her husband's life without his knowledge. Neff deduces she is contemplating murder, and initially wants no part of it, but eventually devises a plan to murder her husband and trigger the "double indemnity" clause, which would double the payout. Phyllis drives her husband to the train station for a trip to attend a college reunion. Neff, hiding in the back seat, breaks his neck. Neff then boards the train posing as Mr Dietrichson and makes his way to the back of the train, stepping onto the platform outside to smoke a cigarette. He jumps off at a prearranged spot to meet Phyllis and drag Dietrichson's body onto the tracks. Mr. Norton, the company's chief, believes the death was suicide, but Keyes, the claims adjuster, scoffs at the idea. Keyes suspects foul play on Phyllis' part because he thinks she was having an affair. Norton refuses to pay out the accidental death clause, deducing that Dietrichson was unaware of the policy. Keyes tells Neff his theory while Phyllis is hiding behind the door, concluding that Phyllis and an accomplice murdered Dietrichson for the insurance money, but he needs proof. The victim's daughter, Lola, tells Neff she is convinced that her stepmother Phyllis is behind her father's death. Lola's mother also died under suspicious circumstances when Phyllis was her nurse. Neff begins seeing Lola to keep her from going to the police with her suspicions, and later through guilt to protect her from Phyllis. Neff fears Phyllis will murder Lola over her suspicion in her parents' murders and because Dietrichson had changed his will in Lola's favour, leaving Phyllis with nothing. Keyes brings in a witness who says the man on the train was younger than the dead man. Neff warns Phyllis that pursuing the insurance claim in court risks exposing the murder. He points out that Norton and Keyes are suspicious of her. He tries to convince Phyllis to lie low and let him try to convince Norton to pay out the claim. Lola tells Neff she has discovered that her boyfriend, the hotheaded Nino, has been seeing Phyllis behind their backs. Neff sees this as a way to get rid of Phyllis before she attempts to murder Lola. Neff meets Phyllis at her house and informs her that he knows about her and Nino. He guesses she is planning for Nino to kill him, but tells her that he intends to kill her and put the blame on Nino. She shoots him in the shoulder. He dares her to shoot again. She does not, and he takes the gun. She says she never loved him "until a minute ago, when I couldn't fire that second shot." As she hugs him, Neff says "Goodbye, baby," and shoots twice, killing her. Outside, Neff waits for Nino and advises him not to enter the house. He convinces Nino to instead telephone Lola. Neff drives to his office and starts speaking into his dictaphone, returning to the start of the film. Keyes arrives unnoticed and hears the truth. Neff tells him he is fleeing to Mexico, but he is too weak and collapses. Keyes lights Neff's cigarette as they wait for the police and an ambulance. ===== The cartoon's title sequence and opening scene suggest Daffy Duck is to star as a musketeer, and he appears, boldly engaging in an action scene with a fencing foil. As he thrusts the foil and advances, the background abruptly disappears, leaving a plain white screen. Confused by this, Daffy turns to the animator and asks them to complete the scenery. However, instead of a castle from the original scene, the animator paints a farm scene. Daffy returns and starts to repeat his musketeer opening, but quickly notices the different background. He walks off screen and returns dressed as a farmer, while singing a version of "Old MacDonald Had a Farm", but a few seconds later, the scene segues into an Arctic backdrop; Daffy changes into winter clothes and skies through the snow (to "Jingle Bells") and into a Hawaiian setting. Still dutifully, but impatiently, going through the changes, Daffy returns in Hawaiian garb. After a couple of bars of "Aloha ʻOe (Farewell To Thee)" on ukulele, Daffy ends up back in the plain white background. While Daffy tries to reason with the animator that cartoons should have scenery, he becomes completely erased and, upon asking where he is, he gets redrawn as a cowboy with a guitar. Daffy tries to play it but there is nothing but silence. Using a sign, he requests sound and is granted various non-guitar sound effects. Daffy also finds himself generating random sound effects when he tries to speak, and finally regains his voice when he becomes enraged and shouts angrily at the animator ("AND I'VE NEVER BEEN SO HUMILIATED IN ALL MY LIFE!"). Regaining his composure, Daffy demands some new scenery and is given an amateurish line-art cityscape background in pencil. Daffy asks for color, prompting the animator to slap various colors and patterns all over him ("NOT ME, YOU SLOP ARTIST!!"). All but Daffy's face is erased and, upon asking where the rest of him has gone, he is redrawn as a bizarre mismatched animal with a "screwball" flag on its tail. As Daffy walks off (wondering to himself if he were not living up to his contract and if he has not been keeping himself trim), he becomes aware of not feeling quite like himself; the animator creates a mirror and, upon seeing his hideous self, Daffy shrieks in alarm before he harshly scolds the animator by telling him: "You know better than that!" Everything is erased and Daffy is redrawn this time as a sailor. Daffy seems to be pleased with this, saying "I have always wanted to do a sea picture". He begins to sing "The Song of the Marines" as the animator draws an ocean scene with an island in the background, but draws nothing under Daffy, resulting in him falling into the ocean and surfacing on the island. When he requests a close-up, the screen contracts around him, at which he says that is not a close-up and screams a proper close-up, and the camera zooms up uncomfortably close to his angry bloodshot eyes. He walks away muttering a sarcastic thanks to the animator. As Daffy tries once again to negotiate with the animator to have an understanding, the screen frame falls on him. After failing to keep the frame up with a stick, Daffy goes ballistic and rips apart the black background. Now at the end of his rope, Daffy demands "All right. Let's get this picture started!", so the camera does an iris-out to black, followed by a "The End" slide, which a frustrated Daffy pushes off camera, screaming, "NO, NO!" as he does so. Daffy suggests that he and the animator go their separate ways and (hoping, against hope, that nothing further will happen) begins a dance routine which is quickly interrupted when the film runs out of alignment, resulting in two Daffys on the screen. They argue with each other and almost start a fight, but one Daffy is erased just as the other throws a punch. The animator then turns Daffy into a pilot and draws him into an airplane. The duck excitedly flies around until a mountain is drawn in his path. The plane crashes off-screen, leaving Daffy with nothing but the plane's steering wheel and windshield. He "bails" out of the plane's remains and floats downward with his parachute, which is replaced with an anvil. Crashing to the ground, a disoriented Daffy hammers the anvil while dizzily reciting "The Village Blacksmith". The animator changes the anvil into an artillery shell, which explodes after a few more hammer strikes. Daffy finally snaps and angrily demands that the animator reveal themself; they do, but not before drawing a door around Daffy and closing it on him. The camera pulls back and reveals the guilty party to be Bugs Bunny at a drawing table, who turns around and says to the audience: "Ain't I a stinker?" ===== The wealthy Mrs. Teasdale (Margaret Dumont) insists that Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho) be appointed leader of the small, bankrupt country of Freedonia before she will continue to provide much-needed financial aid. Meanwhile, neighboring Sylvania is attempting to annex the country. Sylvanian ambassador Trentino (Louis Calhern) tries to foment a revolution and to woo Mrs. Teasdale, and he tries to dig up dirt on Firefly by sending in spies Chicolini (Chico) and Pinky (Harpo). After failing to collect useful information against Firefly, Chicolini and Pinky are able to infiltrate the government when Chicolini is appointed Secretary of War after Firefly sees him selling peanuts outside his window. Meanwhile, Firefly's secretary, Bob Roland (Zeppo), suspects Trentino's motives, and he advises Firefly to get rid of Trentino by insulting him. Firefly agrees to the plan, but after a series of personal insults exchanged between Firefly and Trentino, the plan backfires when Firefly slaps Trentino instead of being slapped by him. As a result, the two countries come to the brink of war. Adding to the international friction is the fact that Firefly is also courting Mrs. Teasdale, and, like Trentino, hoping to get his hands on her late husband's wealth. Trentino learns from another spy, Vera Marcal (Raquel Torres) that Freedonia's plans of war are in Mrs. Teasdale's safe and tells her to assist Chicolini and Pinky in stealing them. Chicolini is caught by Firefly and put on trial, during which war is officially declared, and everyone is overcome by war frenzy, breaking into song and dance. Chicolini and Pinky join Firefly and Bob Roland in anarchic battle, resulting in general mayhem. After a fierce battle, the end of the film finds Trentino caught in a makeshift pillory, with the Brothers pelting him with fruit. Trentino surrenders, but Firefly tells him to wait until they run out of fruit. Mrs. Teasdale begins singing the Freedonia national anthem in her operatic voice and the Brothers begin hurling fruit at her instead. ===== Wyatt (Peter Fonda) and Billy (Dennis Hopper) are freewheeling motorcyclists. After smuggling cocaine from Mexico to Los Angeles, they sell their haul and receive a large sum of money. With the cash stuffed into a plastic tube hidden inside the Stars & Stripes-painted fuel tank of Wyatt's California-style chopper, they ride eastward aiming to reach New Orleans, Louisiana, in time for the Mardi Gras festival. During their trip, Wyatt and Billy stop to repair a flat tire on Wyatt's bike at a farmstead in Arizona and have a meal with the farmer and his family. Later, Wyatt picks up a hippie hitch-hiker, and he invites them to visit his commune, where they stay for the rest of the day. The notion of "free love" appears to be practiced, with two of the women, Lisa and Sarah, seemingly sharing the affections of the hitch-hiking commune member before turning their attention to Wyatt and Billy. As the bikers leave, the hitch-hiker gives Wyatt some LSD for him to share with "the right people". Later, while riding along with a parade in New Mexico, the pair are arrested for "parading without a permit" and thrown in jail. There, they befriend lawyer George Hanson (Jack Nicholson), who has spent the night in jail after overindulging in alcohol. After the mention of having done work for the ACLU along with other conversation, George helps them get out of jail and decides to travel with Wyatt and Billy to New Orleans. As they camp that night, Wyatt and Billy introduce George to marijuana. As an alcoholic and a "square", George is reluctant to try it due to his fear of becoming "hooked" and it leading to worse drugs but quickly relents. Stopping to eat at a small-town Louisiana diner, the trio attracts the attention of the locals. The girls in the restaurant think they are exciting, but the local men and a police officer make denigrating comments and taunts. Wyatt, Billy, and George decide to leave without any fuss. They make camp outside town. In the middle of the night, a group of locals attack the sleeping trio, beating them with clubs. Billy screams and brandishes a knife, and the attackers leave. Wyatt and Billy suffer minor injuries, but George has been bludgeoned to death. Wyatt and Billy wrap George's body in his sleeping bag, gather his belongings, and vow to return the items to his family. They continue to New Orleans and find a brothel George had told them about. Taking prostitutes Karen (Karen Black) and Mary (Toni Basil) with them, Wyatt and Billy wander the parade-filled streets of the Mardi Gras celebration. They end up in a French Quarter cemetery, where all four ingest the LSD the hitch-hiker had given to Wyatt and experience a bad trip. The next morning, as they are overtaken on a two-lane country road by two local men in an older pickup truck, the passenger in the truck reaches for a shotgun, saying he will scare them. As they pass Billy, the passenger fires, and Billy has a lowside crash. The truck passes Wyatt who has stopped, and Wyatt rides back to Billy, finding him lying flat on the side of the road and covered in blood. Wyatt tells Billy he's going to get help and covers Billy's wound with his own leather jacket. Wyatt then rides down the road toward the pickup as it makes a U-turn. Passing in the opposite direction, the passenger fires the shotgun again, this time through the driver's-side window. Wyatt's riderless motorcycle flies through the air and comes apart before landing and becoming engulfed in flames. ===== The writing team of Nava and Thomas split the story into three parts: Arturo Xuncax: The first part takes place in a small rural Guatemalan village called San Pedro and introduces the Xuncax family, a group of indigenous Mayans. Arturo is a coffee picker and his wife a homemaker. Arturo explains to his son, Enrique, his world view and how the indio fares in Guatemalan life, noting that, "to the rich, the peasant is just a pair of strong arms".Review: El Norte, efilmcritic.com, February 17, 2003. Accessed: July 27, 2013. Arturo and his family then discuss the possibility of going to the United States where "all the people, even the poor, own their own cars". Because of his attempts to form a labor union among the workers, Arturo and the other organizers are attacked and murdered by government troops when a co-worker is bribed to betray them—Arturo's severed head is seen hanging from a tree..Rathke, Renee Scolaro. Pop Matters, film review, "Same Old New World", undated. Accessed: April 21, 2007. When Enrique attempts to climb the tree that displays his father's head, a soldier attacks him. Enrique fights and kills the attacker, then escapes with Rosa and hides in a safe house until morning. Enrique and Rosa thus escape capture, only to learn that many of their fellow villagers have been rounded up by soldiers. The children's mother too "disappears": abducted by soldiers. So, using money given to them by their godmother, Enrique and his sister Rosa decide to flee Guatemala, the land of their birth, and head north. Coyote: During the second part of the film the two teenagers flee Guatemala, travel through Mexico, and meet a Mexican coyote who guides them across the border. This section includes various comic scenes relating to mutual stereotyping among different ethnic groups; the two attempt to pass themselves off as indigenous Mexicans, failing to convince one Mexican truck driver after naming the wrong destination, but later succeeding in convincing a U.S. Border Patrol officer by copiously peppering their responses with the Mexican word for "fuck", which a neighbor had suggested was how all Mexicans speak. Thus Enrique and Rosa are only deported to a border town in Mexico and not to Guatemala, giving them a base for a second attempt to cross the border. After their first failed attempt to cross the "frontera", where a man posing as a coyote deceives and attempts to rob them, they have a horrific experience when they finally cross the U.S.-Mexican border through a sewer pipe laden with rats; critic Roger Ebert noted: El Norte: In the final part of the film Rosa and Enrique discover the difficulties of living in the U.S. without official documentation. The brother and sister team find work and a place to live and initially feel good about their decision. However, Rosa nearly is caught up in an immigration raid and must find a new job. Working as a domestic, she is puzzled when her Anglo employer shows her a washing machine. Enrique becomes a busboy and, as his English classes begin to improve his command of the language, he is promoted to a position as a waiter's assistant. He is later approached by a businesswoman who has a better-paying job for him in Chicago as a foreman, which he initially declines; he too encounters problems when a jealous Chicano co-worker reports him to immigration, causing him to flee the restaurant and seek out the businesswoman. When Enrique finally decides to take the position, Rosa becomes gravely ill with typhus contracted from the rat bites she received during their border crossing. When this happens, Enrique must make the tough decision of missing the flight to Chicago to be by her side, and thus loses the position. As Enrique visits the hospital, Rosa laments that she will not live to enjoy the fruits of their harrowing journey to the U.S. Rosa sums up the film's major theme when she says to Enrique: After Rosa dies peacefully, Enrique is shown once again waiting with the other day-labor hopefuls in a parking lot, offering his services to a man looking for "strong arms"; reviewer Renee Scolaro Rathke observes: "It is a bitter realization that Arturo's words about the poor being nothing but arms for the rich holds true even in El Norte." Although Enrique is temporarily employed once again, he is distracted by haunting daydreams about his sister's lost desires for a better life. The final shot in the film again shows a severed head hanging from a rope, which may be the same image used in Part I of the film; one critic has commented that a hanging, severed head is "a symbolic device used in some Latin films to signify that the character has committed suicide".Brett Willis. Christian Spotlight on the Movies, film review, undated. Accessed: July 27, 2013. ===== Cinderella by Edward Burne-Jones, 1863, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Folklorists have long studied variants on this tale across cultures. In 1893, Marian Roalfe Cox, commissioned by the Folklore Society of Britain, produced Cinderella: Three Hundred and Forty-Five Variants of Cinderella, Catskin and, Cap o'Rushes, Abstracted and Tabulated with a Discussion of Medieval Analogues and Notes. Further morphology studies have continued on this seminal work."If The Shoe Fits: Folklorists' criteria for #510" Joseph Jacobs has attempted to reconstruct the original tale as The Cinder Maid by comparing the common features among hundreds of variants collected across Europe. The Aarne–Thompson–Uther system classifies Cinderella as type 510A, "Persecuted Heroine". Others of this type include The Sharp Grey Sheep; The Golden Slipper; The Story of Tam and Cam; Rushen Coatie; The Wonderful Birch; Fair, Brown and Trembling; and Katie Woodencloak.Heidi Anne Heiner, "Tales Similar to Cinderella" ===== A traveller arrives at the desolate Usher mansion to find that the sibling inhabitants, Roderick and Madeline Usher, are living under a mysterious family curse: Roderick's senses have become painfully acute, while Madeline continues to get weaker with time. When Madeline apparently dies, Roderick has her buried in the family vault, not realizing she is merely in a catatonic state. Madeline awakens in her tomb, and realizing she has been buried alive, descends into madness as she escapes her coffin and seeks revenge. ===== Bobby Dupea works in an oil field in Kern County, California. He spends most of his time with his girlfriend Rayette, a waitress who has dreams of singing country music, or with his friend, fellow oil worker Elton, with whom he bowls, gets drunk, and philanders. While Bobby acts the part of a blue-collar laborer, he is secretly a former classical pianist who comes from an upper-class family of musicians. When Bobby gets Rayette pregnant and Elton is arrested, Bobby quits his job and goes to Los Angeles, where his sister Partita, also a pianist, is making a recording. Partita tells him that their father, from whom Bobby is estranged, has suffered two strokes, and urges him to return to the family home in Washington. Rayette threatens to kill herself if Bobby leaves her, so he reluctantly asks her along. Driving north, they pick up two stranded gay women headed for Alaska, Terry and Palm. The latter launches into a memorable backseat monologue about environmental "filth" and "crap" (consumerism). The four are thrown out of a restaurant after Bobby gets into a sarcastic argument with an obstinate waitress who refuses to accommodate his meal order. Embarrassed by Rayette's lack of polish, Bobby registers her in a motel before driving alone to the family home on an island in Puget Sound. He finds Partita giving their father a haircut, and the old man seems completely oblivious to him. At dinner, Bobby meets Catherine Van Oost, a young pianist engaged to his amiable brother Carl, a violinist. Despite personality differences, Catherine and Bobby are immediately attracted to each other and later have sex in her room. Rayette runs out of money at the motel and comes to the Dupea estate unannounced. Her presence creates an awkward situation, but when a pompous family friend ridicules her, Bobby comes to her defense. Storming from the room in search of Catherine, he discovers his father's male nurse giving Partita a massage. He picks a fight with the very strong nurse, who easily subdues him. Bobby tries to persuade Catherine to go away with him, but she declines, telling him he cannot ask for love when he does not love himself, or anything at all. After trying to talk to his unresponsive father, Bobby leaves with Rayette. Shortly into the trip, they stop for gas, and while Rayette goes into a diner for coffee, Bobby abandons her, hitching a ride on a truck headed north. ===== Chester Kent (James Cagney) replaces his failing career as a director of Broadway musicals with a new one as the creator of musical numbers called "prologues", short live stage productions presented in movie theaters before the main feature is shown. He faces pressure from his business partners to continuously create a large number of marketable prologues to service theaters throughout the country, but his job is made harder by a rival who is stealing his ideas, probably with assistance from someone working inside his own company. Kent is so overwhelmed with work that he doesn't realize that his secretary Nan (Joan Blondell) has fallen in love with him and is doing her best to protect him as well as his interests. Kent's business partners announce that they have a big deal pending with the Apolinaris theater circuit, but getting the contract depends on Kent impressing Mr. Apolinaris (Paul Porcasi) with three spectacular prologues, presented on the same night, one after another at three different theaters. Kent locks himself and his staff in the offices to prevent espionage leaks while they choreograph and rehearse the three production numbers. Kent then stages "Honeymoon Hotel", "By a Waterfall" (featuring the famous "Human Waterfall") and "Shanghai Lil", featuring Cagney and Ruby Keeler dancing together.Green, Stanley (1999) Hollywood Musicals Year by Year (2nd ed.), pub. Hal Leonard Corporation page 25 ===== John Garfield and Beatrice Pearson in Force of Evil The drama tells of a lawyer, Joe Morse (Garfield), working for a powerful gangster, Tucker, who wishes to consolidate and control the numbers racket in New York. This means assuming control of the many smaller numbers rackets, one of which is run by Morse's older brother Leo Morse (Thomas Gomez). The brothers are both tainted by the underworld and neither are free from corruption; the terse, melodramatic thriller incorporates realist location photography, almost poetic dialogue and frequent biblical allusions (Cain and Abel, Judas's betrayal, stigmata). ===== film trailer Frankenstein begins with Edward Van Sloan stepping from behind a curtain to break the fourth wall and deliver a brief caution to the audience: > How do you do? Mr. Carl Laemmle feels it would be a little unkind to present > this picture without just a word of friendly warning: We are about to unfold > the story of Frankenstein, a man of science who sought to create a man after > his own image without reckoning upon God. It is one of the strangest tales > ever told. It deals with the two great mysteries of creation; life and > death. I think it will thrill you. It may shock you. It might even horrify > you. So, if any of you feel that you do not care to subject your nerves to > such a strain, now's your chance to uh, well,––we warned you. In a village of the Bavarian Alps, a young scientist named Henry Frankenstein and his assistant Fritz, a hunchback, piece together a human body. Some of the parts are stolen from freshly buried bodies in a cemetery, and some come from the bodies of recently hanged criminals. In a laboratory he's built inside an abandoned watchtower, Frankenstein desires to create a human, giving this body life through electrical devices he has perfected. But he still needs a brain for his creation. At a nearby school, Henry's former teacher Dr. Waldman still teaches, showing his class the brain of an average human being and the corrupted brain of a criminal so that they can compare the two. Frankenstein sends Fritz to steal the healthy brain from Waldman's class during the night. But Fritz accidentally drops and damages it, and so brings Frankenstein the corrupt brain instead. Henry's fiancée Elizabeth speaks with their friend Victor Moritz about the scientist's increasingly peculiar actions and how he secludes himself. Elizabeth and Victor ask Dr. Waldman for help in understanding Henry's new behavior and Waldman reveals he is aware Dr. Frankenstein wishes to create life. Concerned for Henry, they arrive at the lab just as the scientist makes his final preparations, the still lifeless body now ready on an operating table. As a storm rages outside, Henry Frankenstein claims he has now discovered the energy that brought life into the world and invites Elizabeth and the others to watch his great experiment. With a pulley system, Frankenstein and Fritz raise the operating table high in the room, moving it toward an opening at the top of the tower. The creature and Frankenstein's equipment are exposed to the lightning storm and empowered. The hand of Frankenstein's creature begins to move. The scientist triumphantly shouts, 'It's alive!' Frankenstein's Monster, despite its grotesque form, seems to be an innocent, childlike creation. Dr. Frankenstein welcomes it into his laboratory and asks his creation to sit, which it does. He then opens up the roof, causing the Monster to reach out towards the sunlight. Fritz enters with a flaming torch, which frightens the Monster. Its fright is mistaken by Frankenstein and Waldman as an attempt to attack them, and it is chained in the dungeon. Thinking that it is not fit for society and will wreak havoc at any chance, they leave the Monster locked up, where Fritz antagonizes it with a torch. As Henry and Waldman consider the Monster's fate, they hear a shriek from the dungeon. Frankenstein and Waldman run down and find that the Monster has strangled Fritz. The Monster lunges at the two but they escape, locking the Monster inside. Realizing that the Monster must be destroyed, Henry prepares an injection of a powerful drug and the two conspire to release the Monster and inject it as it attacks. When the door is unlocked the Monster lunges at Frankenstein as Waldman injects the drug into the Monster's back. The Monster falls to the floor unconscious. Henry collapses from exhaustion, and Elizabeth and Henry's father arrive and take him home. Henry is worried about the Monster but Waldman reassures him that he will destroy it. Later, Henry is at home, recovered and preparing for his wedding while Waldman examines the Monster. As he is preparing to vivisect it, the Monster awakens and strangles him. It escapes from the tower and wanders through the landscape. It has a short encounter with a farmer's young daughter, Maria. She is not afraid of him and asks him to play a game with her in which they toss flowers into a lake and watch them float. The Monster enjoys the game, but when they run out of flowers he thinks Maria will float as well, so he throws her into the lake where, to his puzzlement, she disappears beneath the surface. Upset by this outcome, the Monster runs away. With preparations for the wedding completed, Henry is serenely happy with Elizabeth. They are to marry as soon as Waldman arrives. However, Victor rushes in, saying that Doctor Waldman has been found strangled. Henry suspects the Monster. Meanwhile, the Monster enters Elizabeth's room, causing her to scream. When the searchers arrive, they find Elizabeth unconscious on the bed. The Monster has escaped. Maria's father arrives, carrying his drowned daughter's body. He says she was murdered, and the villagers form a search party to capture the Monster and bring it to justice, dead or alive. In order to search the whole country for the Monster, they split into three groups: Ludwig leads the first group into the woods, Henry leads the second group into the mountains, and the Burgomaster leads the third group by the lake. During the search, Henry becomes separated from the group and is discovered by the Monster, who attacks him. The Monster knocks Henry unconscious and carries him off to an old mill. The peasants hear his cries and they regroup to follow. They find the Monster has climbed to the top, dragging Henry with him. The Monster hurls the scientist to the ground. His fall is broken by the vanes of the windmill, saving his life. Some of the villagers hurry him to his home while the rest of the mob set the windmill ablaze, with the Monster trapped inside. At Castle Frankenstein, Frankenstein's father, Baron Frankenstein, celebrates the wedding of his recovered son with a toast to a future grandchild. ===== A conniving trapeze artist named Cleopatra seduces a carnival sideshow dwarf named Hans after learning of his large inheritance, much to the chagrin of Frieda, his dwarf girlfriend. Cleopatra also conspires with circus strongman, Hercules, to kill Hans and inherit his wealth. Meanwhile, other romances flourish among the sideshow performers: the Bearded Lady, who is in love with the Human Skeleton, gives birth to their daughter. The news is spread among the friends by the Stork Woman. Additionally, Violet, a conjoined twin whose sister Daisy is married to Roscoe, the stuttering circus clown, becomes engaged to the circus's owner. Hans, enamored of Cleopatra, ultimately marries her. At their wedding, Cleopatra begins poisoning Hans' wine but drunkenly kisses Hercules in front of Hans, revealing her affair. Oblivious, the other "freaks" announce that they accept Cleopatra in spite of her being a "normal" outsider: they hold an initiation ceremony in which they pass a loving cup around the table while chanting, "We accept her, we accept her. One of us, one of us. Gooble- gobble, gooble-gobble." However, Cleopatra's mean-spirited amusement at this ceremony soon turns into fear and anger after Hercules jokes that the rest of the entertainers plan to turn her into one of them. She mocks them, tosses the wine in their faces and drives them away before berating Hans and drunkenly parading him around on her shoulders like a child. The humiliated Hans realizes that he has been played for a fool and rejects Cleopatra's attempts to apologize, but then he falls ill from the poison. While bedridden, Hans pretends to apologize to Cleopatra and also pretends to take the poisoned medicine that she is giving him, but he secretly plots with the other entertainers to strike back at Cleopatra and Hercules. In the film's climax, Hans confronts Cleopatra with three of the entertainers as backup thugs. However, Hans' circus wagon is overturned in a storm, giving Cleopatra the chance to escape into the forest, closely pursued by them. At the same time Hercules goes to kill seal-trainer Venus for knowing about the plot. Venus's boyfriend, Phroso, attempts to stop Hercules but is nearly killed before the rest of them intervene and injure Hercules, saving Phroso. They all pursue an injured Hercules. The freaks then capture Cleopatra and sometime later, she is shown to be a grotesque, squawking "human duck" on display for carnival patrons; her tongue has been removed, one eye has been gouged out, the flesh of her hands has been melted and deformed to look like duck feet, her legs have been cut off, and what is left of her torso has been permanently tarred and feathered. In the original version of the film, it is revealed that after the freaks caught Hercules, they turn him into a castrato. While some versions end on Cleopatra as the human duck, another ending shows Hans, now living in a mansion off his inheritance and still humiliated, visited by Phroso, Venus and Frieda. Frieda tells Hans not to blame himself for what happened and that she still loves him. The two then share a heartwarming hug and it is presumed that they continue their relationship. ===== Spencer Tracy as Joe Wilson En route to meet his fiancée, Katherine Grant (Sylvia Sidney), gas station owner Joe Wilson (Spencer Tracy) is arrested on flimsy circumstantial evidence for the kidnapping of a child. Gossip soon travels around the small town, growing more distorted through each retelling, until a mob gathers at the jail. When the resolute sheriff (Edward Ellis) refuses to give up his prisoner, the enraged townspeople burn down the building, two of them also throwing dynamite into the flames as they flee the scene. Unknown to anyone else there, the blast frees Joe, but kills his little dog Rainbow, who had run in to comfort him in the cell. The district attorney (Walter Abel) brings the main perpetrators to trial for murder, but nobody is willing to identify the guilty, and several provide false alibis. The case seems hopeless, but then the prosecutor produces hard evidence: newsreel footage of twenty-two people caught in the act. However, Katherine is troubled by one piece of evidence. The defense attorney had tried to get his clients off by claiming that there was no proof Joe was killed, but an anonymous letter writer had returned a partially melted ring belonging to Joe. Katherine notices that a word is misspelled just as Joe used to spell it. She discovers that Joe escaped the fire and that Joe's brothers are helping him get his revenge by concealing his survival and framing the defendants for his murder. She goes to see Joe and pleads with him to stop the charade, but he is determined to make his would-be killers pay. However, his conscience starts preying on him and, in the end, just as the verdicts are being read, he walks into the courtroom and sets things straight. ===== In the book's prologue, Leo Colston chances upon a diary from 1900, the year of his thirteenth birthday, and gradually pieces together a memory that he has suppressed. Under its influence, and from the viewpoint of what he has become by the midpoint of "this hideous century", Leo relives the events of what had once seemed to him its hopeful beginning. The importance of his boarding school's social rules is another theme running through the book and complicates Leo's interaction with the adult world. "Curses" of his devising had routed boys who were bullying Leo at school and had given him the reputation of a magician, something that he came to half-believe himself. As a result, he is invited as a guest to spend the summer at Brandham Hall, the country home of his school friend, Marcus Maudsley. There the socially clumsy Leo, with his regional accent, is a middle-class boy among the wealthy upper class. Though he does not fit in, his hosts do their best to make him feel welcome, treating him with kindness and indulgence, especially their daughter Marian. A footpath through marshy ground on the way to Bradenham, the Norfolk location of the novel When Marcus falls ill, Leo is left largely to his own devices and becomes a secret "postman" for Marian and nearby tenant farmer Ted Burgess, with whom she is having a clandestine relationship. Leo is happy to help Marian because he has a crush on her and likes Ted. Besides, Leo is initially ignorant of the significance or content of the messages that he is asked to carry between them and the well-meaning, innocent boy is easily manipulated by the lovers. Although Marian and Ted are fully aware of the social taboo that must make their relationship a matter of the utmost secrecy, Leo is too naïve to understand why they can never marry. The situation is further complicated by the fact that Marian is about to become engaged to Hugh, Viscount Trimingham, the descendant of the area's nobility who formerly lived in Brandham Hall. As he begins to comprehend that the relationship between Marian and Ted is not to do with "business", as they have claimed, Leo naively believes that Marian's engagement ought to bring the correspondence between her and Ted to an end. Feeling increasingly uncomfortable about the general atmosphere of deception and risk, Leo tries to end his role as go-between but comes under great psychological pressure and is forced to continue. Ultimately, his unwilling involvement has disastrous consequences when Marian's mother makes him accompany her as she tracks the lovers down to their hiding place and discovers them having sex. The trauma that results leads directly to Ted's suicide and Leo's nervous collapse. In the epilogue, the older Leo summarizes how profoundly the experience has affected him. Forbidding himself to think about the scandal, he had shut down his emotions and imaginative nature, leaving room only for facts. As a result, he never has been able to establish intimate relationships. Now, looking back on the events through the eyes of a mature adult, he feels it is important to return to Brandham some 50 years later in order to tie up loose ends. There he meets Marian's grandson and finds Marian herself living in her former nanny's cottage. He also learns that Lord Trimingham had married Marian and acknowledged Ted's son by her as his own. He had died in 1910, and Marcus and his elder brother were killed in World War I and Marian's son in World War II. In the end, the elderly Marian persuades Leo, the only other survivor from her past, to act once more as go- between and assure her estranged grandson that there was nothing to be ashamed of in her affair with Ted Burgess. ===== Set in Glendale, California, in the 1930s, the book is the story of a middle-class housewife, Mildred Pierce, and her attempts to maintain her family's social position during the Great Depression. Mildred separates from Bert, her unemployed husband, and sets out to support herself and her children. After a difficult search she finds a job as a waitress, but she worries that it is beneath her middle-class station. More than that, she worries that her ambitious and increasingly pretentious elder daughter, Veda, will think her new job demeaning. Mildred encounters both success and failure as she opens three successful restaurants, operates a pie-selling business and copes with the death of her younger daughter, Ray. Veda enjoys her mother's newfound financial success but increasingly turns ungrateful, demanding more and more from her hard-working mother while openly condemning her and anyone else who must work for a living. When Mildred discovers her daughter's plot to blackmail a wealthy family with a fake pregnancy, she kicks her out of their house. Veda, who has been training to become an opera singer, goes on to great fame, and Mildred's increasing obsession with her daughter leads her to use her former lover, Monty (a man who, like Mildred, lost his family's wealth at the start of the Great Depression), and his social status and connection to bring Veda back into her life. Unfortunately for Mildred, this means buying Monty's family estate and using her earnings to pay for Veda's extravagances. Mildred and Monty marry, but things go sour as her lavish lifestyle and neglect of her businesses has dramatically affected the company's profits. Creditors line up, led by Wally, a former business associate of Bert's, with whom Mildred had a brief affair upon their separation. With no one to turn to, Mildred confesses to Bert that she has been embezzling money from her company in order to buy Veda's love. Having decided that the only course of action is to ask Veda to contribute some of her now considerable earnings to balance the books and fearing that Wally might target the girl's assets if they are exposed Mildred goes to her room to confront her. She finds Veda in bed with her stepfather. Monty reproaches Mildred for using him to bring Veda back and for her attitude to him as a financial dependent of hers, while Veda affects boredom but joins in to chide Mildred for embarrassing her and taking glory in her success. Mildred snaps, brutally attacking and strangling her daughter, who now appears incapable of singing and loses her singing contract. Weeks pass as Mildred moves to Reno, Nevada, to establish residency in order to get a speedy divorce from Monty. Bert moves out to visit her. Mildred ultimately is forced to resign from her business empire, leaving it to Ida, a former company assistant. Bert and Mildred, upon the finalization of her divorce, remarry. Veda travels to Reno and apparently reconciles with Mildred but, several months later, Veda reveals that her voice has healed and announces that she is moving to New York City with Monty. The "reconciliation" (which had been accompanied by reporters and photographers) was designed to defuse the negative publicity resulting from the affair with her stepfather and it emerges her apparent loss of her voice was a ploy so that she could renege on her existing singing contract and be free to take up a more lucrative one offered by another company. As she leaves the house, a broken Mildred, encouraged by Bert, eventually says "to hell" with the monstrous Veda, and the pair agree to get "stinko" (drunk). ===== Ben (Benoît Poelvoorde) is a witty, charismatic serial killer who holds forth at length about whatever comes to mind, be it the "craft" of murder, the failings of architecture, his own poetry, or classical music, which he plays with his girlfriend Valerie (Valérie Parent). A film crew joins him on his sadistic adventures, recording them for a fly on the wall documentary. Ben takes them to meet his family and friends while boasting of murdering many people at random and dumping their bodies in canals and quarries. The viewer witnesses these grisly killings in graphic detail. Ben ventures into apartment buildings, explaining how it is more cost-effective to attack old people than young couples because the elderly have more cash at home and are easier to kill. In a following scene, he screams wildly at an elderly lady, causing her to have a heart attack. As she lies dying, he casually remarks that this method saved him a bullet. Ben continues his candid explanations and appalling rampage, shooting, strangling, and beating to death anyone who comes his way: women, illegal immigrants and postmen (his favorite targets). The camera crew becomes more and more involved in the murders, first as accomplices but eventually taking an active part in them. When Ben invades a home and kills an entire family, they help him hold down a young boy and smother him. They meet a competing camera crew and take turns shooting the three men. During filming, two of Ben's crew are killed; their deaths are later called "occupational hazards" by a crew member. When Ben takes a couple hostage in their own home, he holds the man at gunpoint while he and the crew gang-rape the woman. The following morning, the camera dispassionately records the aftermath: the woman has been butchered with a knife, her entrails spilling out, and the man has been shot to death. Ben's violence becomes more and more random until he kills an acquaintance in front of his girlfriend and friends during a birthday dinner. Spattered with blood, they act as though nothing horrible has happened, continuing to offer Ben presents. The film crew disposes of the body for Ben. After a victim flees before he can be killed, Ben is arrested, but he escapes. At this point someone starts taking revenge on him and his family. Ben discovers that his parents have been killed, along with his girlfriend Valerie: a flautist, she has been murdered in a particularly humiliating manner, with her flute inserted into her anus. This prompts Ben to decide that he must leave. He meets the camera crew to say farewell, but in the middle of reciting a poem he is abruptly shot dead by an off-camera gunman. The camera crew is then picked off one by one. After the camera falls, it keeps running, and the film ends with the death of the fleeing sound recordist. ===== "Marley's Ghost", original illustration by John Leech from the 1843 edition The book is divided into five chapters, which Dickens titled "staves". ===== A print of the film preserved by the Library of Congress Two bandits break into a railroad telegraph office, where they force the operator at gunpoint to have a train stopped and to transmit orders for the engineer to fill the locomotive's tender at the station's water tank. They then knock the operator out and tie him up. As the train stops it is boarded by the banditsnow four. Two bandits enter an express car, kill a messenger, and open a box of valuables with dynamite. In a fight on the engine car, the others kill the fireman and force the engineer to halt the train and disconnect the locomotive. The bandits then force the passengers off the train and rifle them for their belongings. One passenger tries to escape but is instantly shot down. Carrying their loot, the bandits escape in the locomotive, later stopping in a valley where their horses had been left. Meanwhile, back in the telegraph office, the bound operator awakens but collapses again. His daughter arrives bringing him his meal and cuts him free, and restores him to consciousness by dousing him with water. There is some comic relief at a dance hall, where an Eastern stranger (a "tenderfoot") is forced to dance while the locals fire at his feet. The door suddenly opens and the telegraph operator rushes in to tell them of the robbery. The men quickly form a posse, which chases the bandits through the mountains. The posse finally overtakes the bandits, and in a final shootout kills them all and recovers the stolen mail. A standalone final scene, separate from the narrative, presents a medium close-up of the leader of the outlaws, who empties his pistol point-blank directly into the camera. ===== At the age of fourteen, Bart Tare botches a burglary of a hardware store to steal a gun and gets caught. He is sent to reform school by a sympathetic Judge Willoughby, despite the testimony of his friends Dave and Clyde, his older sister Ruby and others, that he would never kill any living creature, even though he has had a fascination with guns even as a child. Flashbacks provide a portrait of Bart who, after he kills a young chick with a BB gun at age seven, is hesitant to harm anyone with guns even though he is a good shot with a pistol. After reform school and a stint in the Army teaching marksmanship, Bart returns home. He, Dave and Clyde go to a traveling carnival in town. Bart challenges sharpshooter Annie Laurie Starr to a contest and wins. She gets him a job with the carnival, and he becomes smitten with her. Their attraction inflames the jealousy of their boss, Packett, who wants Laurie for himself. As Packett tries to force himself on her, Bart enters and shoots a mirror. Laurie and Bart get fired and leave together. The couple get married and embark on a happy honeymoon. She warns him beforehand that she is "bad, but will try to be good". When their money runs out, though, Laurie gives Bart a stark choice: join her in a career of crime or she will leave him. They hold up stores and gas stations, but the money does not last long. While fleeing a police car, Laurie tells Bart to shoot at the policeman driving so they can escape, but he hesitates and becomes somewhat disoriented. Ultimately, he shoots the tire out and the couple escapes. Later that day, Laurie intends to shoot and kill a grocer they had just robbed, but Bart prevents her from doing so. The couple have now been identified in national newspapers as robbers and murderers. Bart says he is done with a life of crime. Laurie persuades him to take on one last big robbery so they can flee the country and live in peace and comfort. They get jobs at a meat processing plant and make detailed plans. When they hold up the payroll office, a secretary pulls the burglar alarm and Laurie shoots her dead. From the car, Laurie kills a security guard as well. Bart does not realize at the time that she had killed them and only learns about it later after reading a newspaper. The two are supposed to split up for a couple of months and have separate getaway cars to minimize the chances of both being caught, but neither can bear to be away from the other. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is brought in, and the fugitives become the targets of an intense manhunt, yet they evade a statewide dragnet and escape to California. Bart arranges for passage to Mexico, but the FBI tracks them to a dance hall by tracing the serial numbers of bills from the meat plant. They are forced to flee, leaving all their loot behind. With roadblocks everywhere, they jump on a train and get off near his sister Ruby's house. Bart's old friend, now the local sheriff, notices that Ruby's house has the curtains drawn and the children are not in school. He informs Bart's other old friend, now a news reporter, and the two plead with Bart to give himself and Laurie up. Instead, the couple flee into the mountains where Bart used to go camping. Pursued by police dogs, they are surrounded in reed grass the next morning. In dense fog, Dave and Clyde approach to try to save their lives. As soon as Bart sees Laurie preparing to gun them down, he shoots her and is in turn killed by the police. ===== In 1850s New York City, Catherine Sloper (Olivia de Havilland) is a plain, painfully shy woman whose exacting, and emotionally detached father, physician Austin Sloper (Ralph Richardson), makes no secret of his disappointment in her. He is terribly bitter about the loss of his charming and beautiful wife, whom he feels fate replaced with a simple and unalluring daughter. Catherine is devoted to her father, however, and too innocent to fully comprehend his mistreatment or the reasons for it. Catherine enjoys quiet pursuits, such as caring for her father and embroidery, and seldom ventures out socially. Catherine's gregarious Aunt Lavinia Penniman (Miriam Hopkins) moves into the household after becoming widowed, and attempts to prod Catherine into being more social and find a husband. When she meets the handsome Morris Townsend (Montgomery Clift) at a ball, Catherine is taken by the attention he lavishes upon her, attention she's never received before and desperately wanted, and flourishes under his affections. Catherine falls madly in love with Morris and they plan to marry. Catherine is of age, receiving $10,000 a year from her mother's estate, and is expected to receive an additional $20,000 per year on top of this after the passing of her father. Dr. Sloper believes Morris, being far more attractive and charming than Catherine, but poor and with few prospects after he wasted his own inheritance, is an idler courting Catherine only to get her sizable income. Aunt Lavinia is in favor of the match regardless, being both romantic and pragmatic enough to view this as Catherine's chance at a happy married life, since Morris seems somewhat genuinely fond of Catherine's honesty and kindness, despite his largely monetary motivations. A frank discussion with Morris' sister confirms Dr. Sloper's opinion of Morris as a gold digger. The doctor tells the young couple he believes Morris is attempting to dupe plain and gullible Catherine. The doctor takes his daughter to Europe for an extended time to separate them, but she cannot forget her betrothed, especially since he frequents the house to visit Aunt Lavinia in their absence, who enables the two to keep in contact. When they return to New York, Dr. Sloper threatens to disinherit his daughter if she marries Morris, and they have a bitter argument in which the doctor makes his disdain and distaste for her abundantly clear, and she realizes how poorly he views her. Catherine and Morris make plans to elope with the help of Aunt Lavinia, but Catherine tells Morris about her desire to disinherit herself from her father and never see him again. Catherine is impatient to cut off all contact with her father and desperate to prove him and Aunt Lavinia incorrect: someone does love her, and not her money, and she has not been stupid to think so. Catherine eagerly packs her bags and waits for Morris to come and take her away to happiness according to their plan. She waits all night. He never comes. She drags her luggage back upstairs and puts her belongings away. Catherine is heartbroken and grows colder, now painfully aware of her father's opinions of her, but trapped caring for him nonetheless. Soon afterwards, Dr. Sloper reveals he is dying. To cause him distress, she vengefully tells her father she still loves Morris and dares him to change his will if he is afraid they will waste his money after he dies. He does not alter the will and dies, fretful, leaving her his entire estate. Catherine refuses to see him on his death bed. Years later, Morris returns from California, poorer, having made nothing of himself, and with fewer prospects for his efforts. Aunt Lavinia arranges for Morris to visit Catherine. He finds Catherine wealthy and unmarried, and is more attracted to her (and possibly her fortune) than before. He claims that he left her behind because he could not bear to see her destitute, and is quick to re-proclaim his love for her and his desire for her affections. Aunt Lavinia is thrilled for her niece, thinking this is Catherine's great chance. Catherine ignites Morris' hopes when she requests Morris recreate their failed elopement plans. She gives Morris a gift of ruby buttons that she had bought for him in Paris. Morris eagerly promises to come back for her that night, and she tells him she will start packing her bags. When Morris arrives later that night with the promised carriage and rings the bell, Catherine calmly orders the maid to bolt the door, leaving Morris locked outside, shouting her name and banging repeatedly on the locked door. Her aunt asks her if she can be so cruel, and Catherine coldly responds, "Yes, I can be very cruel. I have been taught by masters." The film fades out with Catherine silently ascending the stairs while Morris' despairing cries echo unanswered in the darkness. ===== William S. Hart as Blaze Tracy in Hell's Hinges Hell's Hinges tells the story of a weak-willed minister, Rev. Bob Henley (played by Standing), who comes to a wild and debauched frontier town with his sister, Faith (played by Williams). The owner of the saloon, Silk Miller (played by Hollingsworth), and his accomplices sense trouble and encourage the local rowdies to disrupt the attempts to evangelize the community. Hard-bitten gunman Blaze Tracy (played by Hart), the most dangerous man around, is, however, won over by the sincerity of Faith. He intervenes to expel the rowdies from the newly built church. Silk adopts a new approach. He encourages the dance-hall girl, Dolly (played by Glaum), to seduce Rev. Henley. She gets him drunk, and he spends the night in her room. The following morning the whole town learns of his fall from grace. Blaze rides out to find a doctor for the now near-demented minister. The disgraced minister, having rapidly descended into alcoholism, is goaded into helping the rowdy element to burn down the church. The church-goers try to defend the church, and a gunfight erupts in which the minister is killed and the church set ablaze. Blaze returns too late to stop the destruction. In revenge, Blaze kills Silk and burns down the whole town, beginning with the saloon. He and Faith leave to start a new life. ===== In Hadleyville, a small town in New Mexico Territory, Marshal Will Kane, newly married to Amy Fowler, prepares to retire. The happy couple will soon depart for a new life to raise a family and run a store in another town. However, word arrives that Frank Miller, a vicious outlaw whom Kane sent to jail, has been released and will arrive on the noon train. Miller's gang—his younger brother Ben, Jack Colby, and Jim Pierce—await his arrival at the train station; it is clear that Miller intends to exact revenge. Will Kane and Amy Fowler argue in the Marshal's office For Amy, a devout Quaker and pacifist, the solution is simple—leave town before Miller arrives, but Kane's sense of duty and honor are strong. "They're making me run", he tells her. "I've never run from anybody before." Besides, he says, Miller and his gang will hunt him down anyway. Amy gives Kane an ultimatum: She is leaving on the noon train, with or without him. Kane visits with a series of old friends and allies, but none can (or will) help: Judge Percy Mettrick, who sentenced Miller, flees on horseback, and urges Kane to do the same. Kane's young deputy Harvey Pell, who is bitter that Kane did not recommend him as his successor, says he will stand with Kane only if Kane goes to the city fathers and "puts the word in" for him. Kane rejects the quid pro quo, and Pell turns in his badge. Kane's efforts to round up a posse at Ramírez’ Saloon, and then the church, are met with fear and hostility. Some townspeople, worried that a gunfight would damage the town's reputation, urge Kane to avoid the confrontation entirely. Some are Miller's friends, but some resent that Kane cleaned up the town in the first place. Some are of the opinion that their tax money goes to support local law enforcement and the fight is not a posse's responsibility. Sam Fuller hides in his house, sending his wife Mildred to the door to tell Kane he is not home. Jimmy is a good person and genuinely offers to help Will, but is vision impaired, drunk and likely to get himself killed; Kane sends him home for his own safety. The mayor continues to encourage Kane to just leave town and let the new marshall arriving tomorrow deal with Miller. Kane's predecessor, Martin Howe can't assist Kane as he is too old and arthritic. Herb Baker had agreed to be deputized, but backs out when he realizes he is the only volunteer. A final offer of aid comes from a fourteen-year-old boy; Kane admires his courage but rejects it as well. While waiting at the hotel for the train, Amy meets Helen Ramírez, who was once Miller's lover, then Kane's, finally Pell's, and is leaving as well. Amy understands why Helen is fleeing—out of fear of Miller and having split from Pell—but the reverse is not true: Helen tells Amy that if Kane were her man, she would not abandon him in his hour of need. At the stables, Pell saddles a horse and tries to persuade Kane to take it and leave town. Their conversation becomes an argument, and then a fist fight. Kane finally knocks his former deputy senseless. Forlorn, Kane returns to his office to write out his will as the clock ticks toward high noon. Kane then goes into the street to face Miller and his gang alone. In one of the most iconic shots in film history, the perspective elevates and expands to show Kane standing alone on a deserted street in a deserted town. The gunfight begins. As the train is about to leave the station, Amy hears the gunfire, leaps off, and runs back to town. Kane guns down Ben Miller and Colby, but is wounded as Miller attempts to burn Kane out of a barn. Choosing her husband's life over her religious beliefs, Amy picks up the handgun hanging inside Kane's office and shoots Pierce from behind, leaving only Frank Miller, who grabs Amy as a shield to force Kane into the open. Amy claws Miller's face and he pushes her to the ground, giving Kane a clear shot, and Kane shoots Miller dead. Kane helps his bride to her feet and they embrace. As the townspeople emerge and cluster around him, Kane throws his marshal's star in the dirt, glares at the crowd, and departs with Amy on their wagon. ===== Walter Burns (Cary Grant) is a hard-boiled editor for The Morning Post who learns his ex-wife and former star reporter, Hildegard "Hildy" Johnson (Rosalind Russell), is about to marry bland insurance man Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy) and settle down to a quiet life as a wife and mother in Albany, New York. Walter determines to sabotage these plans, enticing the reluctant Hildy to cover one last story, the upcoming execution of Earl Williams (John Qualen) a shy bookkeeper convicted of murdering an African-American policeman. Walter insists Hildy and her fiancé Bruce join him for lunch. At the restaurant, Hildy insists that she and Bruce will be leaving in two hours to take a night train to Albany to be married the following day. Walter attempts to convince Bruce that Hildy is the only one who can write a story to save wrongly convicted Earl Williams. After several attempts through deceit and lies to convince Hildy to stay, Hildy eventually agrees on the condition that Walter buys a $100,000 life insurance policy from Bruce in order to receive the $1,000 commission. In the meantime, Hildy bribes the jail warden to let her interview Earl Williams in jail. Williams explains that he shot the police officer by accident. Hildy uses economic theory to explain the murder of the cop to Williams, insisting that he shot the gun because of production for use. Walter does everything he can to keep Hildy from leaving, first setting up and accusing Bruce of stealing a watch, forcing Hildy to bail him out of jail. Exasperated, Hildy announces her retirement from her profession; however, when Williams escapes from the bumbling sheriff (Gene Lockhart) and practically falls into Hildy's lap, the lure of a big scoop proves too much for her. Walter frames Bruce again, and he is immediately sent back to jail. At this point, she realizes that Walter is behind the shenanigans, yet is powerless to bail him out again. Williams comes to the press room holding a gun to Hildy and accidentally shoots a pigeon in fear. Hildy takes the gun from him. Bruce calls, and she tells him to wait because she has Earl Williams in the press room. Williams's friend Mollie comes looking for him, assuring him that she knows he is innocent. When reporters knock at the door, she hides Williams in a roll-top desk. At this time, the building is surrounded by other reporters and cops looking for Williams. Hildy's stern mother-in-law-to-be (Alma Kruger) enters berating Hildy for the way she is treating Bruce. Upon being harassed for Williams's whereabouts by the reporters, Mollie jumps out of the window but isn't killed. Annoyed, Walter has his colleague "Diamond Louie" (Abner Biberman) remove Mrs. Baldwin from the room "temporarily". Hildy wants to try to get Bruce out of jail, but Walter convinces her that she should focus on her breakthrough story. Bruce comes into the press room having wired Albany for his bail asking about the whereabouts of his mother, as Hildy is frantically typing out her story. She is so consumed with writing the story that she hardly notices as Bruce realizes his cause is hopeless and leaves to return to Albany on the 9 o'clock train. "Diamond Louie" enters the room with torn clothes, revealing that he had hit a police car while driving away with Mrs. Baldwin. Louie reveals that he wasn't sure whether or not she was killed in the accident. The crooked mayor (Clarence Kolb) and sheriff need the publicity from the execution to keep their jobs in an upcoming election, so when a messenger (Billy Gilbert) brings them a reprieve from the governor, they try to bribe the man to go away and return later, when it will be too late. Walter and Hildy find out in time to save Williams from the gallows and they use the information to blackmail the mayor and sheriff into dropping Walter's arrest for kidnapping Mrs. Baldwin. Hildy receives one last call from Bruce, again in jail because of having counterfeit money that was unknowingly transferred to him by Hildy from Walter. Hildy breaks down and admits to Walter that she was afraid that Walter was going to let her marry Bruce without a fight. Walter and Hildy send money to bail Bruce out of jail. Afterward, Walter tells Hildy they're going to remarry, and promises to take her on the honeymoon they never had in Niagara Falls. But then Walter learns that there is a newsworthy strike in Albany, which is on the way to Niagara Falls by train. Hildy agrees to honeymoon in Albany, accepting that Walter will never change. Walter leads Hildy out of the press room, asking her to carry her own suitcase. John Qualen in a scene from the film ===== Two men (Edmond O'Brien and Frank Lovejoy) from El Centro, California, are driving toward a planned fishing trip at the Mexican town of San Felipe on the Gulf of California. Just south of Mexicali, they pick up a hitchhiker named Emmett Myers (William Talman), whose stolen car has apparently run out of gas. Myers turns out to be a psychopath who has committed multiple murders while hitch-hiking between Illinois and Southern California, and has managed to slip into Mexico at Mexicali. To evade the pursuing authorities, Myers forces the two men at gunpoint to journey deep into the heart of the Baja California Peninsula, toward the town of Santa Rosalía, where he plans to take a ferry across the Gulf of California. Meanwhile, the men try to plot their escape from the violent, paranoid Myers. They try tactics such as sabotaging their car and leaving clues (like an engraved wedding ring) at various points on their journey. One man badly twists his ankle during an escape attempt. The sadistic Myers physically and mentally torments the men, forcing them to continue on foot and mocking their loyalty to each other by claiming that they could have escaped separately if they embraced Myers' each-man-for-himself ethos. Law enforcement's tracking of Myers is covered extensively on the radio and the criminal is intent on listening. In an attempt to protect the two innocent men, the police purposely alter information to suggest Myers is still in the United States. Arriving at Santa Rosalía, Myers tries to conceal his identity by forcing one of the men to wear his clothes. Myers, upon discovering that the regular ferry to Guaymas has burned, hires a fishing boat. However, while he is awaiting the fisherman, locals discover his status as a wanted murderer and contact authorities. Police surround the pier and take him into custody after some initial confusion over Myers' identity, and a brief scuffle during which he is revealed to be a coward. The film ends with the weary friends agreeing to give statements to police. ===== Set in 1993 London, About a Boy features two main protagonists: Will Freeman, a 36-year-old bachelor, and Marcus Brewer, an incongruous schoolboy described as 'introverted' by his suicidal mother, Fiona, despite his tendencies to bond and interact with people. Will's father wrote a successful Christmas song, the royalties of which have afforded Will the ability to remain voluntarily redundant throughout his life – he spends his huge amounts of free time immersing himself in 1990s culture, drinking, and pursuing sexual relations with women. After a pleasant relationship with a single mother, Angie, Will comes up with the idea of attending a single parents group as a new way to pick up women. For this purpose, he invents a two-year-old son called Ned. Will then makes a number of acquaintances through his membership of the single parents group, two of which are Fiona and her son Marcus. Although their relationship is initially somewhat strained, they finally succeed in striking up a true friendship despite Will being largely uninterested during the early- middle stages of the novel. Will, a socially aware and "trendy" person, aids Marcus to fit into 1990s youth culture by encouraging him not to get his hair cut by his mother, buying him Adidas trainers, and introducing him to contemporary music such as Nirvana. Marcus and Will's friendship strengthens as the story progresses, even after Marcus and Fiona discover Will's lie about having a child. Marcus is befriended by Ellie McCrae, a tough, moody 15-year- old girl, who is constantly in trouble at school because she insists on wearing a Kurt Cobain jumper. He also spends some time with his dad Clive, who visits Marcus and Fiona for Christmas together with his new girlfriend Lindsey and her mother. Clive has a minor accident during some D.I.Y work, and breaks his collar bone. This prompts Clive into having 'a big think' about the meaning of his life, and he summons Marcus to Cambridge to see him. Marcus decides to bring Ellie along with him for support, however they are arrested on the way as Ellie smashes a shop window displaying a cardboard cut-out of Kurt Cobain – accusing the shopkeeper of 'trying to make money out of him' after his suicide. Meanwhile, to Will's despair, he falls in love with a woman called Rachel. Rachel is a single mother with a son named Ali (Alistair) who is the same age as Marcus. The two originally fight, but quickly become friends. Will's emotional faculties are liberated and he begins to 'shed [his] old skin' of emotional indifference – simultaneously Marcus is becoming more typical of his age, and he begins to enjoy his life more. The penultimate scene takes place in a police station in a small suburban town, where nearly every significant character in the novel is present; their common link being Marcus. The novel ends during a three-way dialogue between Marcus, Will and Fiona where Will, to see if Marcus has truly changed, proposes the idea that he play a Joni Mitchell song on Fiona's piano, which she is enthusiastic about. However, Marcus responds saying he 'hates' Joni Mitchell whereby Hornby concludes the novel with the narration saying "Will knew Marcus would be OK." ===== Five years earlier, Jerry crashes into the car of local mobster Arnold Margolese, who was arrested when the police searched his car following the crash, finding someone tied up in his trunk. In compensation for the jail time, Jerry has been sent on various errands by Margolese's prickly second-in-command, Bernie Nayman. Retrieving the gun will be his final errand. Jerry has a girlfriend, Samantha, with whom he argues constantly and who leaves Jerry prior to the trip over his lack of commitment to their relationship. Jerry arrives in Mexico and makes his way to pick up Beck, the Margolese employee now in possession of the gun. There, a drunken Beck tells Jerry about the gun's history as a suicide weapon used as part of a jilted love-triangle between a woman, a nobleman, and the son of the gunsmith who forged the weapon, as well as its curse to misfire. While Beck is urinating, a bullet from celebratory gunfire strikes him in the head. Jerry thinks Beck is passed out and carries his body to the car, only to finally notice he is dead. While on the phone reporting what happened, his car is stolen with the gun and Beck's body. Meanwhile, a hitman tries to abduct Samantha, but another hitman, Leroy, shoots him and abducts her. Leroy tells her he was hired to keep her hostage to make sure that Jerry finishes his job. They pick up a postal worker named Frank, who then has a relationship with Leroy. Jerry tracks down his car. He forces the thief to take him to Beck's body. After burying Beck, Jerry shoots the thief in the foot as punishment. On his way to the airport, Jerry is stopped by a police officer who arrests him for the blood that is all over the seat of his car. The officer releases Jerry but keeps the gun. He gives it to a pawn shop owner, Joe, to sell. The original hitman follows Leroy and Sam to Las Vegas and kills Frank to make it look like a suicide. Leroy kills him for throwing Frank out of the hotel window in an act of vengeance, and flees with Samantha. Jerry's friend and colleague, Ted, arrives to help him. But Jerry soon learns that Ted was supposed to kill him. The two go to the pawnshop and get the gun. Jerry then handcuffs Ted to Joe and leaves. Jerry then finds out he accidentally grabbed Ted's passport and tries to retrieve his own, but Ted has already fled. When Jerry doesn't arrive in Las Vegas as planned, Leroy and Sam fly to Mexico to find him. Jerry drives to pick them up at the airport. Jerry intentionally crashes the car over an argument with Sam. Leroy finds the gun in the glove box and intends to shoot Jerry, but Jerry kills him first. He then tells Sam that Leroy was a black man (as was the original hitman) and finds out that "Leroy" was one of Nayman's men named Winston Baldry. Nayman's plan was to make it look like Jerry double-crossed Margolese. While waiting at the hotel for Jerry's passport, the thieves who stole his car kidnap Jerry. They take him to Margolese who was just released from prison. He tells Jerry that he didn't double-cross him. It was Nayman who wanted to sell the pistol to the highest bidder. Margolese wanted to return the gun to the father of a man he shared a prison cell with—a gunsmith, who is the great-grandson of the gunsmith who made the gun. Jerry agrees to give him the gun. Meanwhile, Samantha gets kidnapped by Nayman in order to get the pistol. When Jerry and the thieves return to the hotel, Nayman is there with Sam in the trunk of his car. Jerry tells him that only Sam knows where the gun is. He opens the trunk, and Samantha kills him with the pistol. Jerry asks Samantha to marry him. As they drive away, she asks him to tell her the story of the gun one more time. While he does, she interrupts him to correct how he pronounces "nobleman." They continue to argue as they drive toward the horizon. ===== "Second Variety" occurs in the aftermath of an extensive nuclear war between the Soviet Union (sometimes referred to as Russia) and the United Nations. Early Soviet victories forced the North American government and production to flee to a Moon Base, leaving the majority of their troops behind. To counter the almost complete Soviet victory, U.N. technicians develop robots, nicknamed "claws" —the basic models are "a churning sphere of blades and metal" that ambush their unsuspecting victims "spinning, creeping, shaking themselves up suddenly from the gray ash and darting toward… [any warm body]." U.N. forces are protected from the claws by a special radiation-emitting wrist tab. Within six years, the sophisticated and independent claws have destroyed the Soviet forces, repairing and redesigning themselves in automated underground factories run without any human oversight. The U.N. forces receive a message from the Soviets asking for a policy-level officer to go to them for a gravely urgent conference. The U.N. victory was costlier than they had expected. Major Joseph Hendricks is sent to negotiate with the Soviets. En route to the rendezvous, he meets a small boy named David who asks to accompany Hendricks. When they near the Soviet bunker, soldiers immediately kill the boy, revealing him to be an android. The claws' development program has evolved to develop sophisticated robots, indistinguishable from humans, designed to infiltrate and kill. The three Soviets met by Major Hendricks—soldiers Klaus, Rudi, and a young woman named Tasso—reveal that the entire Soviet army and command structure collapsed under the onslaught of the new robots - they are all that are left in the command center. From salvaged internal metal identification plates, two varieties are identified: I-V, a wounded soldier, and III-V, David. II-V—the "second variety"—remains unknown. The different models are produced independently of each other in different factories. The Soviets also reveal that the U.N. protective tabs are ineffective against the new robots. Hendricks attempts to transmit a warning to his H.Q. bunker, but is unable to do so. During the night, Klaus claims Rudi is the II-V and kills him, only for human organs to be revealed. The next morning, Hendricks and the two remaining Soviets return to the U.N. lines. When they reach the bunker, they discover it overrun: a crowd of David and Wounded Soldier robots attack, but Tasso destroys them with a very powerful hand grenade, stating that it was designed to destroy the robots. Hendricks and Tasso flee, leaving Klaus to the old- style claws. However, Klaus survives both the claws and the bomb blast only to be shot by Tasso, sending "gears and wheels" flying. Tasso tells Hendricks that Klaus must have been the II-V robot. Hendricks, now suffering from a wounded arm and internal injuries, hopes to escape to the Moon Base. He and Tasso search for a hidden escape rocket, which is found to be a single-seat spacecraft. Hendricks attempts to leave, but Tasso convinces him to let her leave and send back help. In his injured state, he has no choice but to agree. Hendricks provides Tasso with the signal code needed to find the Moon Base. Alone and armed with Tasso's pistol, Hendricks returns to Klaus' remains and discovers from the parts that the robot was not a II-V, but a IV-V.http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32032/32032-h/32032-h.htm A group of robots then attack Hendricks, including Davids, Wounded Soldiers, and several Tasso—the true II-V—models. Hendricks recognizes that he has doomed the Moon Base by sending a robot to them, and that he cannot withstand the onslaught of robots attacking him. Noticing the bombs carried by all the Tasso models, Hendricks' final thought is that the robots are already producing weapons designed for killing each other. ===== In 1951, Norman Dale arrives in rural Hickory, Indiana. His old friend, high school principal Cletus Summers, has hired him as the civics and history teacher and as head basketball coach. Dale thanks Summers for the opportunity and cryptically mentions he hopes things will work out for him this time. The townspeople, passionate about basketball, are dejected that Hickory High School's best player, Jimmy Chitwood, has left the team to focus on schoolwork and is also mourning the previous coach's death. At a meet-and- greet, Dale tells the townspeople he once coached college basketball and has been in the United States Navy for the past ten years. Fellow teacher Myra Fleener has warned Dale not to recruit Jimmy so he will stay focused on his education to have a future away from Hickory. The small school only has seven players. At the first practice, Dale dismisses player Buddy Walker for rudeness, causing another player, Whit Butcher, to walk out in protest. Dale begins drilling the other players (Rade Butcher, Merle Webb, Everett Flatch, Strap Purl, and manager Ollie McLellan) with fundamentals and conditioning but no scrimmages or shooting, much to the players' dismay. Whit later apologizes to Coach Dale and rejoins the team. Dale retains the team's four-pass offense for the opening game. When Rade disobeys and repeatedly shoots successfully without passing, Dale benches him for the rest of the game, even when Merle fouls out, leaving only four Huskers on the floor. In a subsequent game, when a rival player jabs Dale in the chest during an on-court argument, Rade jumps to his defense and hits the player. During the altercation, Principal Summers, acting as assistant coach, suffers a mild heart attack. Coach Dale further erodes community support by employing a slow, defensive style that does not immediately produce results. Dale also loses his temper on court, causing him to be ejected from multiple games. With Summers laid up, Dale asks former Husker, Wilbur "Shooter" Flatch, Everett's alcoholic father, to be his assistant, but demands Shooter be sober during all games and practices. This confounds the town and embarrasses Everett. Mid-season, disgruntled townspeople vote on dismissing Dale. Before the meeting, Fleener, sensing something amiss regarding Dale's past, uncovered years-old information about his hitting a player and being banned from coaching. Fleener reveals this to the townspeople, then says Dale deserves another chance. The town votes to dismiss Dale until Jimmy Chitwood enters and announces he will rejoin the team, but only if Dale remains as coach. A new vote is immediately taken and the town overwhelmingly choose to keep Dale. With Jimmy back on the team, the reenergized Huskers rack up a series of wins. To prove to everyone (and to Shooter himself) Shooter's value to the team, Dale intentionally gets himself ejected from a game, forcing Shooter to devise a play that helps Hickory win the game on a last-second shot. Despite a setback when Shooter relapses and is hospitalized, the team advances through the tournament play with Jimmy's strong playing and contributions from the minor players, such as short- statured Ollie and devoutly religious Strap. Hickory reaches the state championship game in Indianapolis. At Butler Fieldhouse, and before the largest crowd they have ever seen, the Hickory players face long odds to defeat the South Bend Central Bears, whose taller, more athletic players are favored to win. Jimmy scores at the last second, and Hickory wins the 1952 state championship. ===== At a Manhattan teaching hospital, the life of Dr. Bock (George C. Scott), the Chief of Medicine, is in disarray: he has left his wife, his children don't talk to him, and his once-beloved teaching hospital is falling apart. The hospital is dealing with the sudden deaths of two doctors and a nurse. These are attributed to coincidental or unavoidable failures to provide accurate treatment. At the same time, administrators must deal with a protest against the hospital's annexation of an adjacent and decrepit apartment building. The annexation is to be used for a drug rehabilitation center; the building's current occupants demand that the hospital find them replacement housing before the building is demolished despite the building being condemned sometime before. Dr. Bock admits to impotence and has thoughts of suicide, but falls in love with Barbara Drummond (Diana Rigg), a patient's daughter who came with her father from Mexico for his treatment. This temporarily gives Dr. Bock something to live for, after Barbara challenges and engages with him. The deaths are discovered to have been caused by Barbara's father (Barnard Hughes) as retribution for the "inhumanity" of modern medical treatment. Drummond takes no personal responsibility, claiming his victims would have been saved if they had received prompt, appropriate treatment, but they did not. Dr. Bock and Barbara use a final, accidental death of a doctor at the hospital to cover Drummond's misdeeds. Barbara makes plans to fly with her father back to Mexico. Dr. Bock at first intends to go with them, but at the last minute, driven by his sense of obligation, he insists on staying behind at the hospital so that it will not descend into total chaos. ===== After losing to Fats, Eddie could spiral down to the scrapheap, but he meets Bert Gordon, a . Bert teaches him about winning, or more particularly about losing. Tautly written, it is a treatise on how someone, with all of the skills, can lose if he "wants" to lose; how a loser is beaten by himself, not by his opponent; and how he can learn to win, if he can look deeply enough into himself. The book was followed by the sequel The Color of Money. ===== The film begins aboard a steamship crossing the Atlantic Ocean, and initially showcases the misadventures of an unnamed immigrant, the Little Tramp (Chaplin) who finds himself in assorted mischief. The scene opens with Charlie bent double over the side of the ship, appearing to be seasick. Then it is revealed he is only fishing. Much humour is derived from the heavy sway of the boat, with much sliding around the deck. Charlie, among other things, plays cards, eats in the mess hall, and avoids seasick passengers. Along the way, he befriends another unnamed immigrant (Purviance) who is traveling to America with her ailing mother. The two have been robbed by a pickpocket who then loses the money to the Tramp in a card game. The Tramp, feeling sorry for the two penniless women, attempts to secretly place his winnings from his card game in the woman's pocket, but ends up being mistakenly accused of being a pickpocket. The woman manages to clear the Tramp's name. Upon arrival in America, the passengers all stare at the Statue of Liberty but once landed the Tramp and the woman part company. Later, hungry and broke, the tramp finds a coin on the street outside a restaurant and pockets it. He doesn't realize there is a hole in his pocket and the coin has fallen straight through and is back on the ground. He enters the restaurant, where he orders a plate of beans, at first eating one bean at a time. There, he is reunited with the woman and discovers her mother is dead. The Tramp orders a second bowl of beans, for her. As they eat, they watch the restaurant's burly head waiter (Campbell) and other waiters attack and forcibly eject a patron who is short 10 cents in paying his bill. The Tramp, intimidated by the waiter, checks and now realizes he has lost his coin. Terrified of facing the same treatment as the man he saw thrown out, the Tramp begins planning how he will fight the huge man. However, a stranger enters, flaunting the coin he found outside. When the head waiter takes the coin it also falls from his pocket onto the floor. The Tramp then makes many failed attempts to retrieve it without notice. He finally retrieves the coin and nonchalantly pays the waiter only to be thunderstruck when the waiter reveals the coin to be fake. Once again, the Tramp prepares for the fight of his life. Just then, a visiting artist spots the Tramp and the woman and offers them a job to pose for a painting. The two agree. The artist offers to pay for the Tramp and the woman's meal, but the Tramp declines the offer several times for reasons of etiquette, intending to eventually accept the artist's offer; however, he's dismayed when the artist does not renew his offer to pay at the last moment. The artist pays for his own meal and leaves a tip for the waiter. The Tramp notices that the tip is enough to cover the couple's meal and, without the artist noticing, palms the tip and presents it to the waiter as his own payment for his and the woman's meal. As a final riposte, he lets the waiter keep the remaining change - one small coin - after paying his bill. The waiter thinks the artist himself has given no tip whatsoever, and is clearly upset at this supposed action. Afterwards, outside a marriage license office in the rain, the Tramp proposes marriage to the woman, who is coy and reluctant until the Tramp physically carries her into the office while she waves her arms and kicks her feet in protest. Chaplin and Purviance in the memorable restaurant scene ===== The following plot synopsis was published in conjunction with a 1915 showing of the film at Carnegie Hall: ===== A psychiatrist, Dr. Hill, is called to the emergency room of a California hospital, where a screaming man is being held in custody. Dr. Hill agrees to listen to his story. The man identifies himself as a doctor, and recounts, in flashback, the events leading up to his arrest and arrival at the hospital. In the nearby town of Santa Mira, Dr. Miles Bennell sees a number of patients apparently suffering from Capgras delusion – the belief that their relatives have somehow been replaced with identical-looking impostors. Returning from a trip, Miles meets his former girlfriend, Becky Driscoll, who has recently come back to town after a divorce. Becky's cousin Wilma expresses the same fear about her Uncle Ira, with whom she lives. Psychiatrist Dr. Dan Kauffman assures Bennell that these cases are merely an "epidemic of mass hysteria". That evening, Bennell's friend, Jack Belicec, finds a body with his exact physical features, though it appears not fully developed; later, another body is found in Becky's basement that is her exact duplicate. When Bennell calls Kauffman to the scene, the bodies have mysteriously disappeared, and Kauffman tells Bennell that he is falling for the same hysteria. The following night, Bennell, Becky, Jack, and Jack's wife Teddy again find duplicates of themselves, emerging from giant seed pods in Bennell's greenhouse. They conclude that the townspeople are being replaced while asleep with exact physical copies. Miles tries to make a long-distance call to federal authorities for help, but the phone operator claims that the long-distance lines are dead or busy. Jack and Teddy drive off to seek help in the next town. Bennell and Becky soon realize that all of the town's inhabitants have been replaced and are devoid of humanity. They hide at Bennell's office for the night, vowing to stay awake. The next morning, Bennell and Becky watch from the office window as truckloads of the giant pods arrive in the town center. They listen as Nick Grivett (the chief of police) directs the others to take them to neighboring towns to be planted and used to replace their populations. Kauffman and Jack, both of whom are now also "pod people", arrive at Bennell's office with new pods for Becky and Bennell. They reveal that an extraterrestrial life form is responsible for the invasion; the pods, capable of replicating any life form, traveled through space and landed in a field. After their takeover, Kauffman explains, humanity will lose all emotions and sense of individuality, creating a simplistic, stressless world. After scuffling with and knocking out Kauffman, Jack and Grivett, Bennell and Becky escape the office. Outside, they pretend to be pod people, but Becky screams at a dog that is about to be hit by a car, exposing their humanity. A town alarm is sounded and they flee on foot, pursued by a mob of "pod people". Exhausted, they manage to escape and hide in an abandoned mine outside town. Later, they hear music and Bennell leaves Becky briefly to investigate. Over a hill, he sees a large greenhouse farm with hundreds of giant seed pods being loaded onto trucks. Bennell returns to tell Becky, and upon kissing her he realizes, to his horror, that she fell asleep and is now one of them. Becky sounds the alarm as he runs away. He is again chased by the mob, and eventually finds himself on a crowded highway. After seeing a transport truck bound for San Francisco and Los Angeles filled with the pods, he frantically screams at the passing motorists, "They're here already! You're next! You're next!" The flashback ends with Bennell finishing his story back at the hospital. Dr. Hill and the on-duty doctor step outside the room, the latter expressing his certainty that Bennell is psychotic. A truck driver is wheeled into the hall after being badly injured in an accident. The orderly tells the doctors that the man had to be dug out from under a load of giant seed pods. Finally believing Bennell's story, Dr. Hill calls for all roads in and out of Santa Mira to be barricaded and alerts the FBI. ===== In a dystopian, polluted, over consumerist, hyper-bureaucratic alternative present day, Sam Lowry is a low- level government employee who frequently daydreams of himself as a winged warrior saving a damsel in distress. One day shortly before Christmas a fly becomes jammed in a teleprinter, misprinting a copy of an arrest warrant it was receiving resulting in the arrest and accidental death during interrogation of cobbler Archibald Buttle instead of renegade heating engineer and suspected terrorist Archibald Tuttle because Buttle's heart condition didn't appear on Tuttle's medical files that were provided to Information Retrieval. Sam discovers the mistake when he discovers the wrong bank account had been debited for the arrest and visits Buttle's widow to give her the refund where he encounters the upstairs neighbour Jill Layton, and is astonished to discover that she resembles the woman from his dreams. Jill has been trying to help Mrs Buttle establish what happened to her husband, but her efforts have been obstructed by bureaucracy. Unbeknownst to her, she is now considered a terrorist accomplice of Tuttle for attempting to report the wrongful arrest of Buttle. Sam approaches Jill, but she avoids giving him full details, worried the government will track her down. Sam reports a fault in his apartment's air conditioning. Central Services are uncooperative, but then Tuttle, who used to work for Central Services but left because of his dislike of the tedious and repetitive paperwork, unexpectedly comes to his assistance. Tuttle repairs Sam's air conditioning, but when two Central Services workers, Spoor and Dowser, arrive, Sam has to fob them off to let Tuttle escape. The workers later return to demolish Sam's ducts and seize his apartment under pretence of fixing the system. Sam discovers Jill's records have been classified and the only way to access them is to be promoted to Information Retrieval. He has previously turned down a promotion arranged by his mother, Ida, who is obsessed with the rejuvenating plastic surgery of cosmetic surgeon Dr Jaffe. Sam retracts his refusal by speaking with Deputy Minister Mr Helpmann at a party hosted by Ida. Having obtained Jill's records, Sam tracks her down before she can be arrested, then falsifies the records to indicate her death, allowing her to escape pursuit. The two share a romantic night together, but are apprehended by the government at gunpoint. Charged with treason for abusing his new position, Sam is restrained in a chair in a large, empty cylindrical room, to be tortured by his old friend, Jack Lint. Sam is told that Jill was killed while resisting arrest. As Jack is about to start the torture, Tuttle and other members of the resistance break into the Ministry, shooting Jack, rescuing Sam, and blowing up the Ministry building. Sam and Tuttle flee together, but Tuttle disappears amid a mass of scraps of paperwork from the destroyed building. Sam stumbles into the funeral of Ida's friend, who has died following excessive cosmetic surgery. Sam discovers that his mother now resembles Jill, and is too busy being fawned over by young men to care about her son's plight. Guards disrupt the funeral, and Sam falls into the open casket and through a black void. He lands in a street from his daydreams, and tries to escape police and monsters by climbing a pile of flex- ducts. Opening a door, he passes through it and is surprised to find himself in a truck driven by Jill. The two leave the city together. However, this "happy ending" is a delusion: in reality, he is still strapped to the chair. It is implied that he has been lobotomised by Jack. Realising that Sam has descended into blissful insanity, Jack and Mr Helpmann declare him a lost cause and leave the room. Sam remains in the chair, smiling and humming "Aquarela do Brasil" to himself. ===== The film tells the story of Pietro "Beppo" Donnetti. Donnetti is a poor, but happy, gondolier in Venice, Italy. Beppo falls in love with Annette Ancello, but her father, Trudo, wants her to marry another suitor, one who is a successful businessman. If Beppo can prove himself within a year, Trudo agrees to allow him to marry Annette. Beppo sails for America to make his fortune, making a living working as a shoeshiner on a street corner in New York City. He borrows money from an Irish ward boss, Bill Corrigan, and sends for Annette to join him. In exchange, Beppo agrees to help Corrigan's candidate win the Italian vote in the ward. When Annette arrives in New York, she and Beppo are married, and the following year they have a son, Tony. Beppo, Annette and Tony live a happy life in their Lower East Side tenement. The happiness is interrupted when the baby contracts a fever during a heatwave. The doctor instructs them to feed pasteurized milk to the baby. Beppo works hard to earn the money to purchase the expensive milk. While walking to the store to buy the milk, Beppo is robbed. He attacks the men who robbed him and is arrested. Beppo asks Corrigan to help his baby while he is in jail: "I must get-a-de- milk or my babee is die." Corrigan rebuffs Beppo, and Beppo's baby dies during Beppo's five days in jail. When Beppo is released from jail, he learns that Corrigan's young daughter is ill and vows to avenge his son's death by killing Corrigan's daughter. Beppo sneaks into Corrigan's house, but when he sees Corrigan's daughter lying in her crib, he cannot act on his plan, and he leaves the child unharmed. In the final scene of the narrative, Beppo is shown placing flowers and sobbing over his son's grave. ===== During a beach party at dusk on Amity Island, a young woman, Chrissie Watkins, goes skinny dipping in the ocean. While treading water, she is violently pulled under. The next day, her partial remains are found on shore. The medical examiner's ruling that the death was due to a shark attack leads police chief Martin Brody to close the beaches. Mayor Larry Vaughn overrules him, fearing that the town's summer economy will be ruined and points out that the town has never had trouble with sharks. The coroner now concurs with the mayor's theory that Chrissie was killed in a boating accident. Brody reluctantly accepts their conclusion until the shark kills both a pet dog and a young boy, Alex Kintner, in full daylight on a crowded beach. A bounty is placed on the shark, prompting an amateur shark-hunting frenzy. Local professional shark hunter Quint offers his services for $10,000. Meanwhile, consulting oceanographer Matt Hooper examines Chrissie's remains, and confirms her death was caused by a shark—an unusually large one. When local fishermen catch a tiger shark, the mayor proclaims that the beach is safe. Mrs. Kintner, Alex’s mother, openly blames Brody for her son’s death; leaving him guilt- ridden. Hooper disputes that it is the same predator, confirming this after no human remains are found inside it. Hooper and Brody find a half-sunken vessel while searching the night waters in Hooper's boat. Underwater, Hooper retrieves a sizable great white shark's tooth embedded in the submerged hull. He drops it in fright after encountering the partial corpse of local fisherman Ben Gardner. Vaughn discounts Brody and Hooper's statements that a huge great white shark is responsible for the deaths, and refuses to close the beaches, allowing only added safety precautions. On the Fourth of July weekend, tourists pack the beaches. Following a juvenile prank in which the presence of a shark is simulated, the real shark enters a nearby estuary, killing a boater and causing Brody's oldest son, Michael, to go into shock. Brody then convinces a guilt-ridden Vaughn to hire Quint. Quint, Brody, and Hooper set out on Quint's boat, the Orca, to hunt the shark. While Brody lays down a chum line, Quint waits for an opportunity to hook the shark. Without warning, it appears behind the boat. Quint, estimating its length at and weight at , harpoons it with a line attached to a flotation barrel, but the shark pulls the barrel underwater and disappears. At nightfall, Quint and Hooper drunkenly exchange stories about their assorted scars, and Quint reveals that he survived the USS Indianapolis. The shark returns unexpectedly, ramming the boat's hull, and disabling the power. The men work through the night, repairing the engine. In the morning, Brody attempts to call the Coast Guard, but Quint, who has become obsessed with killing the shark without outside assistance, smashes the radio. After a long chase, Quint harpoons another barrel into the shark. The line is tied to the stern cleats, but the shark drags the boat backward, swamping the deck and flooding the engine compartment. Quint prepares to sever the line to prevent the transom from being pulled out but the cleats break off, keeping the barrels attached to the shark. Quint heads toward shore to draw the shark into shallower waters, but he pushes the damaged engine past the safety limits and the overtaxed engine fails. With the Orca slowly sinking, the trio attempt a riskier approach. Hooper puts on scuba gear and enters the water in a shark-proof cage, intending to lethally inject the shark with strychnine, using a hypodermic spear. The shark attacks the cage, causing Hooper to drop the spear, which sinks and is lost. While the shark thrashes in the tangled remains of the cage, Hooper manages to escape to the seabed. The shark escapes and leaps onto the deck of the sinking boat. Quint then slips down the deck and is devoured by the shark. Trapped on the sinking vessel, Brody jams a pressurized scuba tank into the shark's mouth, and, climbing the crow's nest, shoots the tank with Quint's rifle. The resulting explosion obliterates the shark. Hooper surfaces, and he and Brody paddle back to Amity Island clinging to the remaining barrels. ===== Stan works long hours at a slaughterhouse in Watts, Los Angeles. The monotonous slaughter affects his home life with his unnamed wife and his two children, Stan Jr. and Angela. Through a series of confusing episodic events—some friends try to involve Stan in a criminal plot, a white woman propositions Stan to work in her store, Stan and his friend Bracy attempt to buy a car engine—a mosaic of an austere working-class life emerges in which Stan feels unable to affect the course of his life. ===== Lars Knutson Rockne, a carriage builder, moves his family from Norway in 1892, settling in Chicago. His son, Knute, saves up his money and enrolls in college at the Notre Dame campus in South Bend, Indiana, where he plays football. Rockne and teammate Gus Dorais star in Notre Dame's historic 35-13 upset over Army at West Point in 1913. The game was historically significant as Notre Dame employed the seldom-used forward pass to great effect. The publicity from the Fighting Irish's surprise win created Notre Dame football fans around the country. After graduation, Rockne marries sweetheart Bonnie Skiles and stays on at Notre Dame to teach chemistry, work on synthetic rubber in the chemistry lab (under Father Julius Nieuwland) and in his spare time, serve as an assistant coach of the Fighting Irish football team under Coach Jesse Harper. An outstanding freshman halfback, George Gipp, leads the Irish to greater gridiron glory. Gipp is stricken with a fatal illness after the final game of the 1920 season, however, and, on his death bed, encourages Rockne at some future date to tell the team to go out and "win one for the Gipper." Notre Dame continues its football success with a backfield of stars dubbed "the Four Horsemen." Rockne, tragically, is killed in a 1931 plane crash on a trip to California, but his legend makes him a campus immortal. ===== Charles Coburn, Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda in The Lady Eve Jean Harrington is a beautiful con artist. Along with her equally larcenous father, "Colonel" Harrington, and his partner Gerald, she is out to fleece rich, naive Charles Pike, the heir to the Pike Ale fortune, "The Ale That Won for Yale". Charles is a woman-shy snake expert Ophiologist, just returning from a year-long expedition up the Amazon. Though surrounded by ladies desperate for his attention, Charles is putty in Jean's hands. But even the best laid plans can go astray. First, Jean falls hard for Charles and shields him from her card sharp father. Then, when Charles' suspicious minder/valet Muggsy discovers the truth about her and her father, he dumps her. Furious at being scorned, she re-enters his life masquerading as the posh "Lady Eve Sidwich", niece of Sir Alfred McGlennan Keith, another con man who's been swindling the rich folk of Connecticut. Jean is determined to torment Charles mercilessly, as she explains, "I've got some unfinished business with him—I need him like the axe needs the turkey." When Charles meets "Eve", he is so bewildered he constantly trips and falls over himself. Although Muggsy tries to convince him "she's the same dame", Charles reasons that Jean would never come close to his home without at least disguising herself, so he concludes the resemblance is only a coincidence. After a brief courtship, they marry, and on the train to their honeymoon, "Eve" begins to confess her past, dropping name after name after name of old boyfriends and lovers. Charles finally gets fed up and jumps off the train. Now separated, Jean's con team urges her to close the deal, saying she's got him over a barrel and can make a killing in a settlement. While Charles' father and lawyers are on the phone with her pleading to settle quickly, Jean says she doesn't want any money at all, just for Charles to tell her it's over to her face. Charles refuses, and through his father Jean learns that he's departing on another ocean voyage. She arranges her own passage, and "bumps into" Charles, just as they met before. "Hopsie" is overjoyed to see Jean again, and they instantly dash to her cabin where they mutually affirm their love for each other. Charles confesses that he is married, and Jean replies tenderly, "So am I, darling." ===== Joe is an impoverished New York newsboy who lives with his abusive grandmother. While selling papers, he is given a ticket for a children's excursion sponsored by the Fresh Air Fund. The next morning, Joe sneaks out of his tenement home to join the excursion, where he sees the countryside and the ocean for the first time. After a picnic, an adult volunteer reads the children a story about a young prince who is beaten by an old witch. A group of fairies rescue the boy, take him to a boat, and sail off for "the Land Beyond the Sunset, where he lived happily ever after." Joe imagines himself as the boy in the story. thumb When the group returns to the city, Joe stays behind because he is afraid of his grandmother. He wanders to the beach, where he finds a rowboat and decides to go to the Land Beyond the Sunset himself. He pushes the boat into the water and climbs in. The film ends with a long shot of Joe drifting out to sea. ===== Set in Depression-era Yorkshire, England, Mr and Mrs Carraclough are hit by hard times and forced to sell their collie, Lassie, to the rich Duke of Rudling, who has always admired her. Young Joe Carraclough grows despondent at the loss of his companion. Lassie will have nothing to do with the Duke, however, and finds ways to escape her kennels and return to Joe. The Duke finally carries Lassie to his home hundreds of miles distant in Scotland. There, his granddaughter Priscilla senses the dog's unhappiness and arranges her escape. Lassie then sets off for a long trek to her Yorkshire home. She faces many perils along the way, dog catchers and a violent storm, but also meets kind people who offer her aid and comfort. At the end, when Joe has given up hope of ever seeing his dog again, the weary Lassie returns to her favorite resting place in the schoolyard at home. There, Lassie is joyfully reunited with the boy she loves. ===== The Last of the Mohicans complete film In 1757, in the midst of the French and Indian War, three French divisions and their Huron Indian allies are advancing on Fort William Henry, a British stronghold south of Lake George in the colony of New York. Chingachgook (Theodore Lorch) sends his son Uncas (Roscoe), the last living warrior of the Mohican tribe, to warn the fort's commander, Colonel Munro (James Gordon), of the imminent danger. Uncas is admired by Munro's daughter Cora (Barbara Bedford), much to the displeasure of her suitor, Captain Randolph (George Hackathorne). Upon receiving Munro's plea for assistance, General Webb (Sydney Deane) dispatches a relief force of 3000 men to Fort William Henry with the Munro sisters, but with the aid of an Indian runner named Magua (Beery), the sisters and Major Heyward (Henry Woodward) take a shortcut through the wilderness. Magua, who is a Huron sympathizer, then pretends to lose his way. In the forest they encounter Uncas, Chingachgook and the hunter and scout Hawkeye (Harry Lorraine), accompanied by an eccentric preacher named David Gamut (Nelson McDowell). When Heyward asks for directions to Fort Edward, the men become suspicious of Magua who, like all Indians in the area, should have an intimate knowledge of the terrain. Their fears of treachery are confirmed when they discover that Magua has disappeared. Uncas and Hawkeye conceal Heyward and the women in a cave, but Magua and his men find the hiding place, and after a fierce firefight the women are captured. Magua offers to spare "Golden Hair" (Alice) if Cora will become his squaw; but Uncas, Chingachgook and Hawkeye counterattack and rescue the hostages. Although they leave Magua for dead, he is actually uninjured. The hostages and their rescuers arrive at Fort William Henry at the same time as the column of troops, but the situation is still dire. The only thing keeping the besiegers at bay is a formidable gun emplacement on the left rampart. The cowardly Captain Randolph informs Montcalm, the French commander, that the rampart guns are nonfunctional, leaving Munro no choice but to surrender the fort. Though promised safe passage for the women and children, the Hurons, under the influence of French-supplied whiskey, slaughter the civilians and torch the fort. Magua kidnaps the Munro sisters for a second time and flees. Uncas and Hawkeye pursue him, but Magua reaches a neutral Delaware village. The dispute is taken before a Delaware council of three; their judgment is that Cora be released to Uncas, and that Alice remain with Magua. To save her sister, Cora offers to take her place. Uncas vows that Magua will not leave with his true love; but by Delaware law, Magua is protected until sundown. That night, Cora escapes and is pursued by Magua to the edge of a precipice. She threatens to jump if he approaches, so Magua waits patiently for her to fall asleep. When she does, he grabs her arm. She flings herself off the cliff, but Magua still has hold of her arms. When Uncas appears, the situation is reversed: Cora tries to save herself, but Magua uses his knife to pry her fingers loose, and she falls to her death. In the ensuing fight, Magua stabs Uncas, whose body rolls down the embankment to rest near Cora's. With his final, dying strength, Uncas reaches forth and takes Cora's hand in his. Magua flees when Chingachgook and Hawkeye arrive, but Hawkeye shoots him dead. At Cora and Uncas's burial ceremony, Munro laments the passing of his daughter and Chingachgook mourns for his son, the last of the Mohicans. ===== In 1951 Sonny Crawford and Duane Jackson are high-school seniors and friends in Anarene, Texas, a small declining northern Texas town. Duane is dating Jacy Farrow, who Sonny considers the prettiest girl in town. Sonny breaks up with his girlfriend Charlene Duggs. At Christmas time Sonny begins an affair with Ruth Popper, the depressed middle-aged wife of his high-school coach, "Coach" Popper. She is lonely because her husband is a closeted homosexual. At the Christmas dance Jacy is invited by Lester Marlow to a naked indoor pool party at the home of Bobby Sheen, a wealthy young man who seems to be a better prospect than Duane. Bobby tells Jacy that he isn't interested in virgins and to come back after she's had sex. The group of boys take their young, mentally disabled friend, Billy, to a prostitute to lose his virginity, but she hits Billy in the face when he ejaculates prematurely. When Duane and Sonny take Billy back home, Sam "the Lion" tells them that since they cannot even take care of a friend, he is barring them from the pool hall, the movie theater, and the cafe. Duane isn't seen by Sam because he hides in the backseat. At the cafe, Genevieve, the waitress, tells Sonny she knows that Duane was with the group but agrees not to tell Sam. During the weekend of New Year's Eve, Duane and Sonny go on a weekend road trip to Mexico. Before they drive off, Sam, who has forgiven Sonny, chats with them about their trip, wistfully wishing he still had the stamina to join them, and gives them some extra money. When they return from the trip, hung over and tired, they learn that during their absence Sam died of a stroke on New Year's Eve. In his will, Sam left the movie theater to the woman who ran the concession stand; the café to Genevieve; $1,000 to the preacher's son, Joe Bob Blanton; and the pool hall to Sonny. Jacy invites Duane to a motel for sex so that she can date Bobby, but Duane is unable to get an erection. She loses her virginity to Duane on their second attempt and then breaks up with him by telephone. When Bobby marries another girl, Jacy is disappointed. Out of boredom, she has sex with Abilene, her mother's lover, though he is cold to her afterward. Jacy then sets her sights on Sonny, who drops Ruth without notice. Duane quarrels with Sonny over Jacy, "his" girl, and hits him in the side of the head with a bottle, blinding him in the left eye. Duane then decides to join the army to fight in Korea. Jacy suggests to Sonny that they elope in Oklahoma. On their way to their honeymoon on Lake Texoma, they are stopped by an Oklahoma state trooper; Jacy left a note telling her parents all about their plan. The couple are brought back to Anarene. On the trip back, Jacy's mother, Lois, admits to Sonny that she was Sam the Lion's paramour and tells him that he was much better off with Ruth Popper than with Jacy. The marriage of Sonny and Jacy is annulled. Duane returns to town on leave from the Army before shipping out for Korea. He and Sonny are among the meager group attending the final screening at the movie house, which is closing that day (the "last picture show" is Red River, a western set in Texas starring John Wayne). The next morning, Sonny sees Duane off on the bus. Billy is sweeping the street and is hit and killed by a truck. An upset Sonny seeks comfort from Ruth. Her first reaction is to vent her hurt and anger but then she takes his outstretched hand, saying, "Never you mind, honey. Never you mind." ===== Trailer for Laura New York City Police Department detective Mark McPherson is investigating the murder of a highly successful advertising executive, Laura Hunt, killed by a shotgun blast to the face just inside the doorway of her apartment. He first interviews charismatic newspaper columnist Waldo Lydecker, an imperious, effete dandy, who relates how he met Laura and became her mentor. She had become his platonic friend and steady companion, and he used his considerable fame, influence, and connections to advance her career. McPherson also questions Laura's parasitic playboy fiancé, Shelby Carpenter, a "kept man" and companion to her wealthy socialite aunt, Ann Treadwell. Treadwell is tolerant of her niece's infatuation with Carpenter, apparently out of her practical acceptance of Carpenter's need for the affection of a woman closer to his own age. All the while, Treadwell is carrying on with Carpenter and giving him money. Detective McPherson finally questions Laura's loyal housekeeper, Bessie Clary. Through the testimony of Laura's friends and reading through her letters and diary, McPherson becomes obsessed with her – so much so that Lydecker finally accuses him of falling in love with the dead woman. He also learns that Lydecker was jealous of Laura's suitors, using his newspaper column and influence to keep them at bay. One night, the detective falls asleep in Laura's apartment in front of her portrait. He is awakened by a woman entering the apartment, and is shocked that it is Laura. She finds a dress in her closet that had belonged to one of her models, Diane Redfern. McPherson concludes that the body assumed to have been Laura was in fact Redfern, brought there by Carpenter while Laura was away in the country. Now, unmasking the killer becomes even more urgent. At a party celebrating Laura's return, McPherson arrests Laura for the murder of Diane Redfern. Upon questioning her, he is convinced that she is innocent and that she does not love Shelby. He goes to search Lydecker's apartment, where he becomes suspicious of a clock that is identical to the one in Laura's apartment. On closer examination, he finds it has a secret compartment. McPherson returns to Laura's apartment. Lydecker is there and notices a growing bond between Laura and the detective. Lydecker insults McPherson and is sent away by Laura, but pauses on the stairwell outside. McPherson examines Laura's clock and finds the shotgun that killed Diane. Laura is confronted with the truth: Lydecker is the murderer. McPherson locks Laura into her apartment, warning her to admit no one. After he leaves, Lydecker emerges from another room and attempts to kill Laura, saying that if he cannot have her, no one can. He is shot down by McPherson's sergeant, who had told McPherson that Lydecker had never left the building, causing McPherson and two other policeman to return to the apartment. Lydecker's last words are: "Goodbye, Laura. Goodbye, my love." ===== Newt Winger, Marcus Savage, and several of their friends steal apples from Jake Kiner's orchard, and when Kiner confronts the boys, he is beaten and left for dead by Marcus, who is later sent to jail for his actions. While Marcus is in jail, Newt begins to work for Kiner to make up for his actions and those of his friends, and also begins a relationship with the new girl in town Arcella Jefferson, but his relationship with her is ultimately destroyed when Chauncey Cavanaugh, a white man and son of the local judge, rapes and impregnates Arcella, who ultimately moves away out of shame. Another scene also shows Newt forced into a brutal boxing match at the County fair. One day when Newt is eating his lunch in the loft of Kiner's barn, he witnesses the brutal attack and murder of Kiner by Booker Savage, Marcus' father. Newt initially keeps quiet about what he has seen, but appears to be bothered that Silas Newhall, who was at the scene of the crime for another reason, is being accused for a murder he did not commit. Encouraged by his mother Sarah, Newt reveals to Judge Cavanaugh that Booker committed the murder, and also testifies in court, but rather than doing the good he intended it to do, Newt's testimony leads to the suicide of Booker and almost being killed by Marcus. Through all this, the film is able to capture "an adolescent boy's initiation in sex, love, death, justice and injustice, and, because he is black, a fair measure of racial hatred" in "a profoundly nostalgic way", according to New York Times movie reviewer Roger Greenspun. ===== A rich and well-known writer (R.), returning home to Vienna from one of many holidays, finds a long letter from an unknown woman (Fräulein). As a teenager the woman had lived with her poor widowed mother in the same building and had fallen totally in love with both the opulent cultured lifestyle of her neighbour and the handsome charming man himself. Her passion for the writer was not lessened by the flow of attractive women spending the night with him nor when she had to leave Vienna and moved to Innsbruck when her mother remarried. At age 18 she returned to Vienna, took a job and tried to meet the writer again. He did not recognise her and, without revealing her name, she succeeded in spending three nights with him before he disappeared on a long holiday. Pregnant, she lost her job and had to give birth in a refuge for the indigent. Resolved that their child should have a good life, she spent nights with or became mistress of various rich men but would never marry because her heart belonged always to the writer. Out one night with a current lover, she saw the writer in a night club and went home with him instead. To him, she was just an agreeable companion for that night, as he again did not recognise her. In the 1918 flu pandemic, the child died and she, ill herself, wrote the letter to be posted after her death. ===== Joey Norton, seven years old, lives with his older brother Lennie in a lower- middle-class neighborhood of Brooklyn. Joey is too small to be taken seriously by Lennie and Lennie's friends. Richie Andrusco in Little Fugitive One day, while their mother is away visiting her sick mother, Lennie and his friends play a joke on Joey. They stage an incident using catsup and a toy gun, so that Joey thinks he has shot and killed his brother. Joey, who is told the police will catch and imprison him, runs to the nearest elevated train station and flees to Coney Island. He seems to forget his predicament and spends the day wandering around the arcades, pony rides, beach—a little boy's paradise. He gets money for snacks by cashing in deposit bottles and spends the night sleeping under the boardwalk. Meanwhile, Lennie is frantically trying to find him as their mother is due home soon. Joey loves horses, and he begins hanging around a pony ride. The proprietor of the ride becomes suspicious that Joey is a runaway. He tricks Joey into giving him his address. He calls home and alerts Lennie. Lennie comes to Coney Island, and after a frantic search, finds little Joey. Their mother returns just after the two brothers arrive home. She is unaware of what happened, and pleased that her two sons behaved so well during her absence, says they will have a treat that weekend: a trip to Coney Island! ===== The film tells the story of "Marky" (Shirley Temple), whose father gives her to a gangster-run gambling operation as a "marker" (collateral) for a bet. When he loses his bet and commits suicide, the gangsters are left with her on their hands. They decide to keep her temporarily and use her to help pull off one of their fixed races, naming her the owner of the horse to be used in the race. Marky is sent to live with bookie Sorrowful Jones (Adolphe Menjou). Initially upset about being forced to look after her, he eventually begins to develop a father–daughter relationship with her. His fellow gangsters become fond of her and begin to fill the roles of her extended family. Bangles (Dorothy Dell) – girlfriend of gang kingpin Big Steve (Charles Bickford), who has gone to Chicago to place bets on the horse – also begins to care for Marky, and to fall in love with Sorrowful, whose own concern for Marky shows he has a warm heart beneath his hard-man persona. Encouraged by Bangles and Marky, Sorrowful gets a bigger apartment, buys Marky new clothes and himself a better cut of suit, reads her bedtime stories, and shows her how to pray. However, being around the gang has a somewhat bad influence on Marky, and she begins to develop a cynical nature and a wide vocabulary of gambling terminology and slang. Worried that her acquired bad-girl attitude means she will not get adopted by a "good family", Bangles and Sorrowful put on a party with gangsters dressed up as knights-of- the-round-table, to rekindle her former sweetness. She is unimpressed until they bring in the horse and parade her around on its back. Returning to New York, Big Steve frightens the horse, which throws her, and she is taken to the hospital. Big Steve goes there to pay back Sorrowful for trying to steal Bangles but is roped into giving Marky the direct blood transfusion she needs for her life-saving operation. Praying for her survival, Sorrowful destroys the drug which, administered to the horse, would have helped it win the race but killed it soon after. Informed that he has "good blood" and pleased to have given life for a change, Big Steve forgives Bangles and Sorrowful. They plan to marry and adopt Marky. ===== The film deals with the adventures of a young Cajun boy and his pet raccoon, who live a somewhat idyllic existence playing in the bayous of Louisiana. A sub-plot involves his elderly father's allowing an oil company to drill for oil in the inlet that runs behind their house. A completely assembled miniature oil rig on a slender barge is towed into the inlet from connecting narrow waterways. Although there is a moment of crisis when the rig strikes a gas pocket, most of this is dealt with swiftly and off-camera, and the barge, rig, and friendly drillers depart expeditiously, leaving behind a phenomenally clean environment and a wealthy Cajun family. Conflict and action for the plot is provided by the presence of a giant alligator in the area, which is believed to have eaten the pet raccoon and which is hunted in revenge. There is no individual or organized resistance to the incursion of the oil seekers, even after the (brief, offscreen) disaster, who are unequivocally portrayed as friendly, progressive humanitarians. The boy, named in the film as Alexander Napoleon Ulysses Le Tour, but in the credits just identified as "the boy", was played by Joseph Boudreaux. The film was photographed by Richard Leacock and edited by Helen van Dongen, who were also the associate producers. Its original release was through independent film distributor Lopert Films. ===== Judy Garland in the trailer for the film. It is December 1938 in the town of Carvel. Andy Hardy (Mickey Rooney) is putting a down payment on a used car, desperate to take his girlfriend Polly Benedict (Ann Rutherford) to the Christmas Eve dance in his own car. When Polly tells Andy she will be visiting her grandmother for the next three weeks and will not be able to attend the Christmas Eve dance with him, Andy vows to attend the dance alone. Judge Hardy (Lewis Stone), Andy’s father, later encounters his son, who broaches the subject of car ownership, but Judge Hardy tells Andy that he cannot have his own car. Returning home for the evening, Judge Hardy runs into 12-year-old Betsy Booth (Judy Garland), who is staying with her grandparents for the Christmas holiday. Betsy’s grandmother has been effusive about Andy Hardy and Betsy is thrilled to learn he will be her next door neighbor during her stay. Judge Hardy’s wife, Emily (Fay Holden), receives a telegram that evening informing her that her mother has had a stroke. Emily and her sister leave immediately for rural Canada to care for their mother. Andy meets Betsy while delivering some of his mother’s freshly canned preserves. Betsy is obviously taken with Andy but he does not reciprocate her admiration; he leaves as quickly as possible. Beezy (George P. Breakston), Andy’s friend, asks Andy to date Cynthia (Lana Turner), Beezy’s girlfriend, while Beezy is out of town over the Christmas holiday period, so that she will avoid other men. Beezy promises to pay Andy $8 plus 50 cents a week for expenses for his efforts. Andy needs the money to purchase his car, so he agrees. Andy starts going out with Cynthia, but she is bored by sports activities, and they find they only get along when they are busy kissing; after walking Cynthia home Andy stops in to visit Betsy Booth—only he’s covered in Cynthia’s lipstick. Betsy gives Andy a handsome new radiator cap for his anticipated car, and, after he leaves, she sadly sings “In-Between.” One morning, Andy receives a telegram from Polly saying she will be home for the Christmas Eve dance after all. Andy telephones her saying he can’t take her to the dance because of a previous engagement. He thereafter opens a letter from Beezy. Beezy wrote saying he found a new girlfriend so he will not pay Andy for dating Cynthia. Betsy, from a moneyed family, offers to help Andy pay for his car, but he refuses her aid. That evening, he tells his father about the mess he made. Judge Hardy explains his point of view about spending money on a car versus putting it aside as savings—and then discloses his deep concern for Andy’s mother. Judge Hardy would like to convey a message to his wife, but there is no telephone at her mother’s home and Emily finds telegrams unnerving. Lewis Stone, Mickey Rooney, and Fay Holden Andy suggests a message be sent to their mother via ham radio in lieu of sending her a telegram. Andy brings Judge Hardy to the home of twelve-year-old ham radio operator James McMann Jr. (Gene Reynolds) and he sends a message to Mrs. Hardy. Judge Hardy is so impressed with James’s help and his son’s ingenuity that he pays the last $8 for Andy’s car. Betsy deceives Cynthia into thinking that Andy’s car is an absolute wreck; Cynthia haughtily refuses to go to the Christmas Eve dance with Andy. Andy feels relieved to be able to date Polly again. Andy tries to clear things up with Polly but, having learned of his fling with Cynthia, she angrily tells Andy that she won’t go to the dance with him because she has a date with a college boy. Christmas Eve finds Andy wholly dejected at the prospect of not having a date for the dance—but when Betsy comes over in her evening gown he decides to take her to the dance. At the dance, Polly’s date recognizes Betsy as an accomplished singer and asks her to perform; Andy is scared that she will embarrass him, but she proves to be a fantastic singer and quickly wins over the crowd with “It Never Rains But it Pours” and encores with “Meet the Beat of My Heart.” Betsy and Andy lead the dance in a grand march after Polly leaves in tears. Late that evening at home after the dance, Betsy Booth and the Hardy family are gathered together around the Christmas tree when Mrs. Hardy unexpectedly returns home—her mother is getting better. On Christmas Day, Betsy explains everything to Polly. Polly and her date from the dance come over to the Hardy home, and Polly’s date turns out to be her cousin. Betsy expresses her gratitude to Andy for a wonderful evening and leaves. Polly and Andy make up. ===== The story describes an encounter between a Parisian tailor named Maurice Courtelin (Chevalier) and a family of local aristocrats. These include Vicomte Gilbert de Varèze (Ruggles), who owes Maurice a large amount of money for tailoring work; Gilbert's uncle the Duc d'Artelines (C. Aubrey Smith), the family patriarch; d'Artelines' man-hungry niece Valentine (Loy); and his other 22-year-old niece, Princesse Jeanette (MacDonald), who has been a widow for three years. D'Artelines has been unable to find Jeanette a new husband of suitable age and rank. The household also includes three aunts and an ineffectual suitor the Comte de Savignac (Butterworth). Maurice custom-tailors clothing for de Varèze on credit, but the Vicomte's unpaid tailoring bills become intolerable, so Maurice travels to de Savignac's castle to collect the money owed to him. On the way, he has a confrontation with Princesse Jeanette. He immediately professes his love for her, but she haughtily rejects him. Jeanette MacDonald and Maurice Chevalier When Maurice arrives at the castle, Gilbert introduces him as "Baron Courtelin" in order to hide the truth from the Comte. Maurice is fearful of this scheme at first, but changes his mind when he sees Jeanette. While staying at the castle, he arouses Valentine's desire, charms the rest of the family except for Jeanette, saves a deer's life during a hunt, and continues to woo Jeanette. The Comte de Savignac discovers that Maurice is a fake, but the Vicomte then claims that Maurice is a royal who is traveling incognito for security reasons. Finally, Jeanette succumbs to Maurice's charms, telling him "Whoever you are, whatever you are, wherever you are, I love you." When Maurice criticizes Jeanette's tailor, the family confronts him for his rudeness, only to catch him and Jeanette alone with Jeanette partially undressed. Maurice explains that he is redesigning Jeanette's riding outfit, and he proves this by successfully altering it, but in the process he is forced to reveal his true identity. Despite her earlier promise, Jeanette recoils from him and runs to her room on hearing that he is a commoner. The entire household is outraged, and Maurice leaves. However, as a train carries him back to Paris, Jeanette struggles with her fears, finally realizes her mistake, and catches up to the train on horseback. When the engineer refuses to stop the train, she rides ahead and stands on the track. The train stops, Maurice jumps out, and the two lovers embrace as steam from the train envelops them.Green, Stanley (1999) Hollywood Musicals Year by Year (2nd ed.), pub. Hal Leonard Corporation page 17 ===== Mysto the Magician appeals to a snobbish opera singer, the Great Poochini (a pun on opera composer Giacomo Puccini), to let him perform an opening act at the show that night. Mysto's tricks primarily come from his magic wand, which can summon flowers and rabbits. After Mysto dances and asks him if he gets the job, Poochini emphatically says "NO!" as he kicks Mysto out the door into the alley. While on the ground, upsetter Mysto plays with his magic wand, but soon realizes he can pass it off as a conductor's baton, being further inspired by seeing himself in place of the conductor in a promotional poster outside the door and plans to get revenge on Poochini. Later, as the performance is starting he freezes the conductor, steals his tuxedo, nose and hair, then takes his place in front of the orchestra to conduct the Great Poochini, who is unaware of the imposter in front of him. During the performance, in which Poochini (performed by the Colombian baritone Carlos Julio Ramírez) sings Largo al factotum from Gioacchino Rossini's 1816 opera The Barber of Seville, Mysto unleashes a variety of tricks with his wand. He begins tamely by summoning rabbits and flowers, then turning Poochini into a ballet dancer, Indian, tennis player, prisoner rock-breaker and football player. Mysto's revenge gets more brutal as he throws a cymbal on Poochini's head, turning him Chinese (see below), then transforming him into a country singer and sings, Oh My Darling, Clementine. After levitating Poochini to the ceiling and slamming him down to the stage, Mysto turns him into a square dance caller. Poochini actually continues his performance for a good 20 seconds after this without interruption, except for the "hair gag". Poochini is then transformed into a Shirley Temple-esque child (who sings "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" before the balloon blows up and pops), then a Carmen Miranda-type singer, singing "Mamãe Eu Quero" (with two rabbits accompanying him on guitar) after an irritated audience member hurls an armload of fruit onto Poochini's head where it piles up like Miranda's headdress. The same man later sprays black ink on Poochini from a fountain pen, turning him into Bill Kenny from the Ink Spots, then drops an anvil on top of him, crushing him into a shorter height and deepening his voice to that of the Ink Spots' bass, "Hoppy" Jones (parodying the Ink Spots' famous "Top & Bottom" format). After a rabbit hoses off Poochini's face and another rabbit works his arm like an automobile jack to get him back up to full height, the fun continues as he is transformed into a Hawaiian singer with two rabbits for harmony. Reaching the end of the number, Mysto's plan is finally revealed to Poochini as his wig falls off. Mysto quickly puts the wig back on, but it's too late. Now set for revenge of his own, Poochini furiously grabs the hairpiece and puts it on while Mysto tries to flee, but Poochini, having also grabbed the magic wand, stops the magician by using the wand on him as placing Mysto to the stage and unleashes the same gimmicks on the hapless magician at high speed. A red curtain with the words "The End" then falls on the magician and the rabbits (at the end of the Hawaiian singer shtick) thus ending the cartoon. ===== The film opens with a montage of images of Manhattan and other parts of New York City accompanied by George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, with Isaac Davis (Woody Allen) narrating drafts of an introduction to a book about a man who loves the city. Isaac is a twice-divorced, 42-year-old television comedy writer who quits his unfulfilling job. He is dating Tracy (Mariel Hemingway), a 17-year-old girl attending the Dalton School. His best friend, college professor Yale Pollack (Michael Murphy), married to Emily (Anne Byrne), is having an affair with Mary Wilkie (Diane Keaton). Mary's ex-husband and former teacher, Jeremiah (Wallace Shawn), also appears, and Isaac's ex-wife Jill Davis (Meryl Streep) is writing a confessional book about their marriage. Jill has also since come out as a lesbian and lives with her partner, Connie (Karen Ludwig). When Isaac meets Mary, her cultural snobbery rubs him the wrong way. Isaac runs into her again at an Equal Rights Amendment fund-raising event at the Museum of Modern Art hosted by Bella Abzug (playing herself) and accompanies her on a cab ride home. They chat until sunrise in a sequence that culminates in the iconic shot of the Queensboro Bridge. In spite of a growing attraction to Mary, Isaac continues his relationship with Tracy but emphasizes that theirs cannot be a serious relationship and encourages her to go to London to study acting. In another iconic scene, at Tracy's request, they go on a carriage ride through Central Park. After Yale breaks up with Mary, he suggests that Isaac ask her out. Isaac does, always having felt that Tracy was too young for him. Isaac breaks up with Tracy, much to her dismay, and before long, Mary has virtually moved into his apartment. Emily is curious about Isaac's new girlfriend. The two couples enjoy a day out and upon walking down a street Isaac spots Jill's new book Marriage, Divorce, and Selfhood. Emily proceeds to read parts of the book aloud, including passages about a ménage à trois Isaac had with Jill and another woman, and an incident where Isaac attempted to run Connie over, much to Mary and Yale's amusement. Thoroughly humiliated, Isaac confronts Jill, who responds stoically and mentions a film rights deal she has acquired. Upon returning home, Isaac learns from Mary that she is returning to Yale and wants to break up. A betrayed Isaac confronts Yale at the college where he teaches, and Yale argues that he found Mary first. Isaac discusses Yale's extramarital affairs with Emily and learns that Yale told her Isaac introduced Mary to him. In the dénouement, Isaac lies on his sofa, musing into a tape recorder about the things that make "life worth living". When he finds himself saying "Tracy's face", he sets down the microphone. Unable to reach her by phone, he sets out for Tracy's on foot. He arrives at her family's apartment building just as she is leaving for London. He asks her not to go and says he does not want "that thing about [her] that [he] like[s]" to change. She replies that the plans have already been made and reassures him that "not everybody gets corrupted" before saying "you have to have a little faith in people". He gives her a slight smile, with a final coy look to the camera then segueing into final shots of the skyline with some bars of Rhapsody in Blue playing again. An instrumental version of "Embraceable You" plays over the credits. ===== Margaret O'Brien and Judy Garland perform the song "Under the Bamboo Tree" in Meet Me in St. Louis Margaret O'Brien and Judy Garland in Meet Me in St. Louis The backdrop for the film is St. Louis, Missouri in the year leading up to the 1904 World's Fair. It is summer 1903. The Smith family leads a comfortable upper-middle class life. Alonzo Smith (Leon Ames) and his wife Anna (Mary Astor) have four daughters: Rose (Lucille Bremer), Esther (Judy Garland), Agnes (Joan Carroll), and Tootie (Margaret O'Brien); and a son, Lon Jr. (Henry H. Daniels, Jr.). Esther, the second eldest daughter, is in love with the boy next door, John Truitt (Tom Drake), although he does not notice her at first. Tootie was with Mr Neely and disputing that St Louis was the best city. Rose is expecting a phone call during which she hopes to be proposed to by Warren Sheffield (Robert Sully), and is embarrassed when not only does Warren fail to propose, but the entire family is present as she takes the call during dinner. Esther finally gets to meet John properly when he is a guest at the Smiths' house party, although her chances of romancing him don't go as planned when, after all the guests are gone and he is helping her turn off the gas lamps throughout the house, he tells her she uses the same perfume as his grandmother and that she has "a mighty strong grip for a girl." Esther hopes to meet John again the following Friday on a trolley ride from the city to the construction site of the World's Fair. Esther is sad when the trolley sets off without any sign of him, but cheers up when she sees him running to catch the trolley mid-journey. On Halloween, Tootie and Agnes were getting ready to go out for the night, Tootie was suggesting that she will help and was forced to make Mr Braukoff uncomfortable and she runs away declaring that she was the bravest of them all. When Rose sees Esther and discusses what happened and both of them were heading back inside, all of a sudden Tootie returns home injured, claiming that John Truitt attacked her. Without bothering to investigate, Esther confronts John, physically attacking him and scolding him for being a "bully." When Esther returns home, Tootie confesses that what really happened was that John was trying to protect Tootie and Agnes from the police after a dangerous prank they pulled went wrong. Upon learning the truth, Esther immediately dashes to John's house next door to apologize, and they share their first kiss. Mr. Smith announces to the family that he is to be sent to New York City on business and they will all move after Christmas. The family is devastated and upset at the news of the move, especially Rose and Esther whose romances, friendships, and educational plans are threatened. Esther is also aghast because they will miss the World's Fair. An elegant ball takes place on Christmas Eve. Esther is devastated when John cannot take her as his date, due to his leaving his tuxedo at the tailor's and being unable to get it back. She is relieved, however, when her grandfather (Harry Davenport) offers to take her to the ball instead. At the ball, Esther and Rose plot to ruin the evening of Warren's date and Rose's rival Lucille Ballard (June Lockhart) by filling up her dance card with losers. But when Lucille turns out to be interested in Lon, leaving Rose and Warren together, Esther switches her dance card with Lucille's and instead dances in Lucille's place with the clumsy and awkward partners. After being rescued by Grandpa, Esther is overjoyed when John unexpectedly turns up after somehow managing to obtain a tuxedo, and the pair dance together for the rest of the evening. Later on, John proposes to Esther and she accepts, but their future is uncertain because she must still move to New York. Esther returns home to an upset Tootie. She is soothed by the poignant "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." Tootie, however, becomes more upset at the prospect of the family's move and runs downstairs, out into the cold to destroy the snowmen they have made as she was not looking forward to living in New York. Mr. Smith sees his daughter's upsetting outburst from an upstairs window. Mr. Smith later announces that the family will not leave St. Louis after all when he realizes how much the move will affect his family. Warren boldly declares his love for Rose, stating that they will marry at the first possible opportunity. On or after April 30, 1904, the family take two horse-drawn buggies to the World's Fair. The film ends that night with the entire family (including John, Lucille, and Warren) overlooking the Grand Lagoon at the center of the World's Fair just as thousands of lights illuminate the grand pavilions. ===== Meshes of the Afternoon A woman (Maya Deren) sees someone on the street as she is walking back to her home. She goes to her room and sleeps on a chair. As soon as she is asleep, she experiences a dream in which she repeatedly tries to chase a mysterious hooded figure with a mirror for a face but is unable to catch it. With each failure, she re-enters her house and sees numerous household objects including a key, a bread knife, a flower, a telephone and a phonograph. The woman follows the hooded figure to her bedroom where she sees the figure hide the knife under a pillow. Throughout the story, she sees multiple instances of herself, all bits of her dream that she has already experienced. The woman tries to kill her sleeping body with a knife but is awakened by a man (Alexander Hammid). The man leads her to the bedroom and she realizes that everything she saw in the dream was actually happening. She notices that the man's posture is similar to that of the hooded figure when it hid the knife under the pillow. She attempts to injure him and fails. Towards the end of the film the man walks into the house and sees a broken mirror being dropped onto wet ground. He then sees the woman in the chair, who was previously sleeping, but is now dead. ===== Trudy Kockenlocker (Betty Hutton) is the daughter of the police chief (William Demarest) of the small fictional Midwestern town of Morgan's Creek. Against her father's orders, she attends a wild farewell party for a group of soldiers at which she hits her head on a chandelier while dancing. The next morning, Trudy is in a daze and slowly begins to recall the previous night's events. She had married a soldier but cannot t remember his name, except that "it had a z in it. Like Ratzkywatzky [...] or was it Zitzkywitzky?" She believes that she and the groom had used fake names, so she doesn't know how to get in touch with him and cannot remember what he looks like. She also does not have the marriage license. The matter is complicated when Trudy learns that she became pregnant that night as well. Norval Jones (Eddie Bracken), a local 4-F boy who has been in love with Trudy for years, steps in to help out, but Trudy's overprotective father becomes involved and complicates matters. Norval and Trudy devise a plan: he will wear a uniform and they will get married secretly under false names, which will provide her a marriage certificate with the fake name of Ratzkywatzky and help her avoid the scandal that would be involved with having a child out of wedlock. Later, Trudy will get a divorce, and she and Norval will get married legitimately. At the rushed wedding ceremony, a frazzled Norval mistakenly signs his real name, and the minister calls the police. Norval is brought to the Kockenlocker house where military, state and federal officers fight with Constable Kockenlocker over jurisdiction. Norval is accused of abducting Trudy, impersonating a soldier, impairing the morals of a minor, resisting arrest and perjury. Trudy's father arrests Norval and locks him in the town jail. Trudy then tells her father the truth about the marriage, her pregnancy and Norval's attempt to pose as her groom, and he agrees to let Norval escape so that Norval can find Trudy's real husband. Needing money to begin his quest but with the bank where he works closed for the night, Norval sneaks into the bank with the constable's assistance to take $900 while leaving his bonds there that are worth the same amount. While trying to open a safe, Norval trips the burglar alarm, so Trudy and her sister Emmy tie up their father at the police station to make it look as if he had been incapacitated by a burglar. After months in hiding, Norval appears at his attorney's office, where he learns that the constable was fired after his ruse was not believed and that the Kockenlockers have moved out of town. Norval's attorney urges him to disappear, but Norval is determined to find Trudy. However, he is spotted in town by the bank manager, who alerts the police. Near the end of her pregnancy at Christmas time, the constable approaches the city council to tell them that Trudy wants to tell the real story and exonerate Norval. But before she can do so, Trudy goes into labor and is rushed to the hospital, where she gives birth to sextuplets, all boys. After receiving the news, Governor McGinty (Brian Donlevy) and The Boss (Akim Tamiroff) demand that Norval be set free, with the charges dropped.Meek, James Plot summary (IMDb)Erickson, Hal Plot synopsis (Allmovie)TCM Full synopsis News of Trudy's multiple birth flashes around the world, enraging both Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. A newspaper states that Canada is "highly dubious" (a clear reference to the Dionne quintuplets). When Norval discovers that Trudy has given birth to six boys, he faints, and the film ends with this epilogue on a title card: ===== The Tramp working on the giant machine in the film's most famous scene Charlie Chaplin as The Tramp Modern Times portrays Chaplin in his Tramp persona as a factory worker employed on an assembly line. There, he is subjected to such indignities as being force-fed by a malfunctioning "feeding machine" and an accelerating assembly line where he screws nuts at an ever- increasing rate onto pieces of machinery. He finally suffers a nervous breakdown and runs amok; getting stuck within a machine and throwing the factory into chaos. He is sent to a hospital. Following his recovery, the now unemployed factory worker is mistakenly arrested as an instigator in a Communist demonstration. In jail, he accidentally ingests smuggled cocaine, mistaking it for salt. In his subsequent delirium, he avoids being put back in his cell. When he returns, he stumbles upon a jailbreak and knocks the convicts unconscious. He is hailed as a hero and given special treatment. When he is informed that he will soon be released due to his heroic actions, he argues unsuccessfully that he prefers life in jail. Outside of jail, he applies for a new job but leaves after causing an accident. He runs into a recently orphaned barefoot girl, Ellen, also called "The Gamin" (Paulette Goddard), who is fleeing the police after stealing a loaf of bread. Determined to go back to jail and to save the girl, he tells police that he is the thief and ought to be arrested. A witness reveals his deception and he is freed. To get arrested again, he eats an enormous amount of food at a cafeteria without paying. He meets up with Ellen in a paddy wagon, which crashes, and she convinces him to escape with her. Dreaming of a better life, he gets a job as a night watchman at a department store, sneaks Ellen into the store, and encounters three burglars: one of whom is "Big Bill", a fellow worker from the factory at the beginning of the film, who explains that they are hungry and desperate. After sharing drinks with them, he wakes up the next morning during opening hours and is arrested one more time for failing to call the police on the burglars and for sleeping in store's clothes on a desk, thus shocking a customer and the storekeeper. Ten days later, Ellen takes him to a new home – a run-down shack that she admits is "no Buckingham Palace" but will do. The next morning, the factory worker reads about an old factory re-opening and lands a job there as a mechanic's assistant. His boss accidentally falls into the machinery, but the worker manages to extricate him. The other workers suddenly decide to go on strike. Outside, the worker accidentally launches a brick at a policeman and is arrested again. Two weeks later, he is released and learns that Ellen is a café dancer. She gets him a job as a singer and waiter, where he goes about his duties rather clumsily. During his floor show, he loses his cuffs, which bear the lyrics to his song, but he rescues the act by improvising the lyrics using gibberish from multiple languages, plus some pantomiming. His act proves a hit. When police arrive to arrest Ellen for her earlier escape, the two flee again. Ellen despairs that there's no point to their struggling, but the factory worker assures her that they'll make it somehow. At a bright dawn, they walk down the road towards an uncertain but hopeful future. ===== ===== In a music store, a woman (Hazel Howell) orders a player piano as a surprise birthday gift for her husband. She tells the manager her address — 1127 Walnut Avenue — and he hires the Laurel and Hardy Transfer Company to deliver the piano in their freight wagon. The duo soon learn from a postman (Charlie Hall) that the home is at the top of a very long stairway. Their attempts to carry the piano up the stairs result in it rolling and crashing into the street below several times, twice with Ollie in tow. During their first attempt, they encounter a lady (Lilyan Irene) with a baby carriage trying to go down the steps; in trying to let her pass, they knock the piano back down the stairs. After the lady laughs at them, Stan kicks her in her backside, causing her to punch him back and hit Ollie over the head with a milk bottle. Stan and Ollie then heft the piano back up the stairs. The angry lady tells a policeman (Sam Lufkin) on the corner, who kicks Ollie twice and hits Stan with his truncheon after the latter suggests the officer is "bounding over his steps" (i.e. "overstepping his bounds"). Meanwhile, the piano has rolled down the steps again. The two doggedly persist in carrying the piano up the stairs for a third time. Halfway up, they encounter the short-tempered and pompous Professor Theodore von Schwartzenhoffen (Billy Gilbert), M.D., A.D., D.D.S., F.L.D., F-F-F-and-F. He impatiently tells them to take the piano out of his way; he should like to pass. Ollie very reasonably and sensibly suggests he walk around, which sets off the Professor in a fit of Teutonic rage. He screams at Stan and Ollie to get the piano out of his way, and Stan knocks the Professor's top hat down the stairs and into the street, where it is crushed by a passing vehicle. The outraged professor leaves, loudly threatening to have the two arrested. Finally, Stan and Ollie get the piano to the top, where Ollie falls into a fountain. As they ring the bell of 1127 Walnut Avenue, the piano rolls back down to the street again. They wearily drag it back up the stairs, and meet the postman by the house, who informs them they did not have to lift the piano up the stairs; they could have driven up the hill and stopped in front of the house. Stan and Ollie promptly carry the piano back down the stairs, put it back in their wagon and drive it up the hill to the house. Finding no one home, they finally succeed in getting the piano in the house, after dropping it into the fountain and falling in themselves. They make a shambles of the living room while unpacking it. Meanwhile, the owner of 1127 Walnut Avenue is revealed to be Professor von Schwartzenhoffen, who returns and is outraged at what he finds, as he hates pianos. He attacks the piano with an axe, destroying it, but regrets his actions when his wife returns home and tearfully tells her husband it had been a surprise birthday present. To apologize for his actions, the Professor signs the delivery receipt, but the pen Stan and Ollie give him squirts ink over his face. Furious, Schwartzenhoffen blows his temper again and makes the duo run away. ===== During the Great Depression, Godfrey "Smith" Parke is living with other men down on their luck at a New York City dump in a Hooverville on the East River near the 59th Street Bridge. One night, a spoiled socialite named Cornelia Bullock offers him $5 to be her "forgotten man" for a scavenger hunt. Annoyed, he advances on her, causing her to retreat and fall on a pile of ashes. She leaves in a fury, much to the glee of her younger sister and rival, Irene. After talking with Irene, Godfrey finds her to be kind, though a bit scatter- brained. He offers to go with her to help her beat Cornelia. In the ballroom of the Waldorf-Ritz Hotel, Irene's long-suffering businessman father Alexander Bullock waits resignedly as his ditsy wife Angelica and her mooching protégé Carlo play the game. Godfrey arrives and is authenticated as a "forgotten man". He then addresses the crowd, expressing his contempt for their antics. Irene is apologetic and offers him a job as the family butler, which he gratefully accepts. Godfrey is shown what to do by the Bullocks' wise-cracking maid Molly. She warns him that he is merely the latest in a long line of butlers. Godfrey proves to be surprisingly competent and resourceful. Irene considers him her protégé, but Cornelia holds a grudge against him. Tommy Gray, a lifelong friend of Godfrey, recognizes him working at a tea party thrown by Irene. Godfrey makes up a story that he was Tommy's valet at Harvard. Tommy plays along, embellishing Godfrey's story with a nonexistent wife and five children. Dismayed, Irene impulsively announces her engagement to the surprised Charlie Van Rumple, but breaks down in tears and flees after being congratulated by Godfrey. Over lunch the next day, Tommy is curious to know what one of the elite "Parkes of Boston" is doing as a servant. Godfrey explains that a broken love affair left him considering suicide, but the undaunted attitude of the men living at the dump rekindled his spirits. Irene breaks her engagement to Charlie. Cornelia plants her pearl necklace under his mattress, then calls the police. The police search Godfrey's suite, but find nothing, distressing Cornelia. Mr. Bullock realizes his daughter has orchestrated the whole thing. He informs Cornelia she had better find her uninsured pearls. The Bullocks send their daughters to Europe to get Irene away from her now-broken engagement. When they return, however, Cornelia implies that she intends to seduce Godfrey. Worried, Irene stages a fainting spell and swoons into Godfrey's arms. He carries her to her room, but realizes she is faking. He puts her in a cold shower, which confirms her hopes: "Oh Godfrey, now I know you love me ... You do or you wouldn't have lost your temper." Godfrey resigns as the Bullocks' butler. Mr. Bullock has more pressing concerns, however. He throws Carlo out, then announces to his family and Godfrey that his business is failing and he might face criminal charges for embezzlement. Godfrey interrupts with good news: he had sold short, using some of the money raised by pawning Cornelia's pearl necklace to buy up the stocks that Bullock sold. He gives the stock back to the stunned Mr. Bullock, saving the family from ruin, then returns the necklace to a humbled Cornelia. He then leaves. With his remaining profits and Tommy as a business partner, Godfrey builds The Dump, a fashionable nightclub, creating fifty new jobs for the other forgotten men. A determined Irene finds him and bulldozes him into marrying her, saying, "Stand still, Godfrey. It'll all be over in a minute." ===== In 1938, handsome, irresponsible playboy Johnnie Aysgarth (Cary Grant) meets dowdy Lina McLaidlaw (Joan Fontaine) on a train in England and charms her into eloping despite the strong disapproval of her wealthy father, General McLaidlaw (Sir Cedric Hardwicke). After a lavish honeymoon and returning to an extravagant house, Lina discovers that Johnnie has no job and no income, habitually lives on borrowed money, and was intending to try to sponge off her father. She talks him into getting a job, and he goes to work for his cousin, estate agent Captain Melbeck (Leo G. Carroll). Gradually, Lina learns that Johnnie has continued to gamble wildly, despite promising to quit, and that to pay a gambling debt, he sold two antique chairs (family heirlooms) that her father had given her as a wedding present. Beaky (Nigel Bruce), Johnnie's good- natured but naive friend, tries to reassure Lina that her husband is a lot of fun and a highly entertaining liar. She repeatedly catches Johnnie in ever more significant lies, discovering that he was fired weeks before for embezzling from Melbeck, who says he will not prosecute if the money is repaid. Lina writes a letter to Johnnie that she is leaving him, but then tears it up. After this, Johnnie enters the room and shows her a telegram announcing her father's death. Johnnie is severely disappointed to discover that Lina has inherited no money, only her father's portrait. He convinces Beaky to finance a hugely speculative land development scheme. Lina is afraid this is a confidence trick or worse, and futilely tries to talk Beaky out of it. Johnnie overhears and angrily warns his wife to stay out of his affairs, but later he calls the whole thing off. When Beaky leaves for Paris, Johnnie accompanies him partway. Later, news reaches Lina that Beaky died in Paris. Johnnie lies to her and an investigating police inspector, saying that he (Johnnie) stayed in London. This and other details lead Lina to suspect he was responsible for Beaky's death. Lina then begins to fear that her husband is plotting to kill her for her life insurance. He has been questioning her friend Isobel Sedbusk (Auriol Lee), a writer of mystery novels, about untraceable poisons. Johnnie brings Lina a glass of milk before bed, but she is too afraid to drink it. Needing to get away for a while, she says she will stay with her mother for a few days. Johnnie insists on driving her there. He speeds recklessly in a powerful convertible on a dangerous road beside a cliff. Lina's door unexpectedly swings open. Johnnie reaches over, his intent unclear to the terrified woman. When she shrinks from him, he stops the car. In the subsequent confrontation, Johnnie asserts that he was actually intending to commit suicide after taking Lina to her mother's. At this time he stated that he has decided that suicide is the coward's way out, and is resolved to face his responsibilities, even to the point of going to prison for the embezzlement. He stated he was in Liverpool at the time of Beaky's death, trying to borrow on Lina's life insurance policy to repay Melbeck. Her suspicions allayed, Lina tells him that they will face the future together. ===== Racial wars have torn the U.S. apart, resulting in a post-apocalyptic world. Many small pockets of civilization still exist; from isolated super high-tech fortresses, hidden research labs, or racial groups in walled-in cities — all fighting each other among the more regular population which in many ways resembles the "old west". Jeremiah and his friend Kurdy travel the country, taking odd jobs and getting mixed up in various affairs. Jeremiah, being the more noble of the two, often sticks his neck out to help others, while Kurdy is a more wily, opportunistic scoundrel. Despite its setting, Jeremiah's underlying motif is of hope and the survival of mankind. The storylines carry little from album to album, meaning they can be read individually. ===== The year is 2021, 15 years after a plague has killed nearly everyone over the age of thirteen (both the event and the virus itself are referred to as "The Big Death" and "The Big D"). Two young men, Jeremiah and Kurdy, meet up and join forces with those inside "Thunder Mountain" and help rebuild civilization. Jeremiah is searching for the "Valhalla Sector" where his father may still be alive.Frank Garcia, Mark Phillips, Science Fiction Television Series, 1990-2004: Histories, Casts and Credits, December 10, 2008. The eponymous Jeremiah is a semi-loner who has spent the last 15 years travelling back and forth across the United States, seeking out a living and looking for a place called "Valhalla Sector" (the remains of Raven Rock), which his father—a viral researcher—had mentioned to Jeremiah as a possible refuge shortly before disappearing into the chaos of "the Big Death." A stop in the Colorado trading town of Clarefield results in Jeremiah teaming up with another lone traveller named Kurdy, before being imprisoned by the town's warlord in a cell with a man named Simon, who wants to recruit Jeremiah for a vague and mysterious organization. With Kurdy's help, Jeremiah and Simon escape, but Simon is fatally wounded in the process. Following the instructions given to them by the dying Simon, Jeremiah and Kurdy take Simon's truck back to "Thunder Mountain," the remains of the NORAD complex, where they discover a well- organized and -equipped group operating out of the base, led by the former child prodigy Markus Alexander. Markus chooses to employ Jeremiah and Kurdy as a recon team to replace the now dead Simon and his partner, sending the two men back outside to gather information in preparation for the time when the mountain will need to start rebuilding the world.ThoughtHammer.com: Jeremiah- Thunder Mountain Over the course of the first season, the group increasingly encounters threats originating from Valhalla Sector, which they discover to be a sealed and heavily armed bunker complex in West Virginia, used to house the remains of the US government and military leadership during the Big Death. The survivors there plan to rebuild the world in an authoritarian mold, combining their military power with attempts to control the "Big Death" virus itself in order to wipe out resistance by slaughtering non-compliant populations. The second half of Season 1 primarily deals with the efforts of Jeremiah and Thunder Mountain to stop Valhalla Sector. After the final defeat of Valhalla Sector in the opening episodes of Season 2, a new threat emerges in the form of a crusading army from the East, led by a mysterious prophetic figure known as Daniel. Season 2 deals with the impending conflict between the unifying survivor communities under Thunder Mountain, and the advancing Army of Daniel. Although a third season was considered, series creator J. Michael Straczynski made it clear that if the show ran a further season he would have nothing to do with it. The show concluded with the end of the second season resolving most plot threads. ===== Planet Spaceball, led by the incompetent President Skroob, has squandered all of its fresh air. Skroob schemes to force King Roland of the neighboring planet Druidia to give them the code to the shield that protects Druidia, allowing them to steal all their air, by kidnapping his daughter Princess Vespa on the day of her arranged marriage to the narcoleptic Prince Valium. Skroob sends the villainous Dark Helmet to complete this task with Spaceball One, an impossibly huge ship helmed by Colonel Sandurz. Before they can arrive, Vespa abandons her wedding and flees the planet in her Mercedes spaceship with her droid of honor, Dot Matrix. Roland contacts mercenary Lone Starr and his mawg (half-man, half-dog) sidekick Barf, offering a lucrative reward to retrieve Vespa before she is captured. Lone Starr readily accepts, as he is in major debt with the gangster Pizza the Hutt. In their Winnebago spaceship, Eagle 5, Lone Starr and Barf are able to reach Vespa before Spaceball One, rescue both her and Dot, then escape. Spaceball One tries to follow at light-speed, but Helmet orders the ship to "ludicrous speed", causing it to overshoot the escapees by a large distance. Out of fuel, Lone Starr is forced to crash-land on the nearby "desert moon of Vega". The escapees travel on foot in blazing sun and pass out. They are found by the Dinks, a group of diminutive sparkly brown-clad aliens, and are taken to a cave occupied by a sage named Yogurt. Yogurt introduces Lone Starr to "the Schwartz", a metaphysical power parodying the Force. Yogurt also introduces the audience to the film's merchandising campaign. Starr and Vespa begin to flirt, but Vespa insists she can only be married to a prince. Helmet and Sandurz break the fourth wall by using a VHS copy of Spaceballs to discover Vespa's location, and Helmet orders Spaceball One to the moon. The Spaceballs capture Vespa and Dot, and return with them to planet Spaceball. Their captors threaten to reverse Vespa's nose job, forcing Roland to give the code to the shield that protects Druidia. Helmet and Sandurz take Spaceball One to Druidia, while Lone Starr and Barf rescue Vespa and Dot from the Spaceballs prison complex. When they arrive at Druidia, Spaceball One transforms into Mega Maid, a Statue of Liberty-like colossal robotic maid with a vacuum cleaner. The vacuum is then turned on, sucking the air off the planet. When the vacuum bag is almost full, Lone Starr uses the Schwartz to reverse the vacuum, blowing the air back onto the planet. Once the air is returned to the planet, Lone Starr and his allies enter Mega Maid and attempt to destroy it. Lone Starr is forced to fight Helmet with lightsaber- like "Schwartz rings" near the ship's self-destruct button. Lone Starr defeats Helmet, causing him to involuntarily strike the button. Lone Starr and his friends escape the ship, while Skroob, Helmet, and Sandurz fail to reach any escape pods in time, trapping them in the robot's head as the ship explodes. They subsequently crash-land on a nearby planet, much to the chagrin of its Planet of the Apes-like population, and possibly giving a second meaning to that film's ending. With Lone Starr's debt to Pizza nullified by the gangster's untimely death, he returns Vespa to Roland and leaves, taking only enough money to cover his expenses. After a lunch break at a diner, and a strange incident involving an alien and an astronaut similar to the events in Alien, Lone Starr finds a final message from Yogurt, informing him that he is a prince, and thus eligible to marry Vespa. He reaches Druidia in time to stop her wedding to Valium, announces his royal lineage, then marries Vespa. ===== In 1868, in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, Howard Kemp offers a grizzled old prospector, Jesse Tate $20$ today for help tracking Ben Vandergroat, wanted for killing a marshal in Abilene, Kansas. Kemp shows him a torn WANTED poster. Tate assumes that Kemp is a sheriff. An avalanche of rocks blocks their path. Kemp fires, provoking another rock slide. Roy Anderson, recently discharged from the 6th Cavalry, is attracted by the shots. Kemp asks to see his discharge: Anderson is "morally unstable". Anderson scales a cliff face and catches Vandergroat. The outlaw's companion, Lina Patch, jumps in. Kemp and Tate stop the fight. Lina's father, killed robbing a bank in Abilene, was Vandergroat's friend. James Stewart and Millard Mitchell Vandergroat reveals that Kemp is no lawman and that the bottom of the WANTED poster offers $5,000($ today) to whoever brings him in. Tate and Anderson want their shares. Lina believes that Vandergroat is innocent. On the trail, Vandergroat wages a constant psychological campaign to turn his captors against each other by various means, starting with the observation that the reward will be larger divided by two. Scouting a mountain pass, Kemp and Tate spot a dozen Blackfoot far from their normal territory. Anderson confesses that they are after him for raping the chief's daughter. Kemp tells Anderson to ride away, fast, so the rest of them will be safe. The Blackfoot catch up to Kemp's group, and when they all stop, Anderson shoots the chief from hiding. Millard Mitchell and James Stewart During the ensuing battle, Kemp saves Vandergroat and is shot in the leg. Lina helps him to cover. They all ride on. When Kemp passes out, they make camp. Delirious, he thinks that he is leaving to fight in the Civil War and Lina is Mary, his fiancée. Strains of Beautiful Dreamer play. Vandergroat explains that Mary sold Kemp's ranch and ran away. He adds that Kemp's one-third share of the reward is not enough to buy his ranch: They should worry. Lina tells Kemp that she is not “with” Vandergroat romantically. She has only seen him fighting fair and believes his promise of a ranch in California. Later, Vandergroat loosens Kemp's saddle cinch and pushes him over the edge of a steep mountain trail. A tree breaks his fall, and he crawls back up. That night, Vandergroat grins to see Kemp gently pull Lina's blanket over her. They take refuge from a storm in a cave. Vandergroat tells Lina to distract Kemp so that he can escape through the back of the cave. The alternative: He will kill Kemp. The Beautiful Dreamer theme plays as Lina describes her dream of California and Kemp reminisces about his ranch. They kiss. Vandergroat takes his chance. Kemp hauls him back. Anderson wants to kill Vandergroat: The reward is "dead or alive". Tate stops Anderson but, infuriated, Kemp challenges Vandergroat to a quick draw, which he refuses. Janet Leigh and James Stewart At the river, now running so high they must detour downstream, Anderson lassoes Vandergroat's neck, intending to drag the “sack of money” across. Kemp and Anderson fight. While Kemp and Anderson recover and Lina searches for firewood, Vandergroat offers Tate an irresistible temptation: a gold mine. Vandergroat and Lina ride double; Tate follows, holding a rifle. Vandergroat yells "Snake!" and in the confusion, grabs the rifle. Vandergroat kills Tate where the body will be seen by the others, Lina finally accepts the truth about him. Vandergroat fires on Kemp and Anderson from the cliff above, but Lina grabs the rifle barrel. While Anderson exchanges gunfire with Vandergroat, Kemp uses one of his spurs as a piton to climb the cliff and outflank Vandergroat. Suspicious, Vandergroat rises to fire at Kemp. Kemp throws the spur into his cheek, and Anderson shoots Vandergroat. The body falls into the river and is entangled in the roots of dead trees lodged on the opposite bank. Anderson lassos a snag and crosses. He wraps the rope around Vandergroat's body but is carried off by a huge floating tree trunk. Kemp drags Vandergroat's body across the river and hoists it onto his horse, in a rage, vowing that he will take him back. Lina says she will go with him, no matter his choice, marry him, and live with him. Weeping, he declares one last time that he is taking him back. The Beautiful Dreamer theme soars. Calming, Kemp asks her if she still wants to try California. He begins to dig the grave, and she makes coffee. ===== Hal Philip Walker, Replacement Party candidate in the 1976 United States presidential election, arrives in Nashville for a fundraising gala. Meanwhile, country superstar Haven Hamilton records a patriotic song commemorating the Bicentennial. Opal, an Englishwoman who claims to be working on a documentary for the BBC, attempts to listen in on the sessions. Later that day, country singer Barbara Jean returns to Nashville following a burn accident, and is greeted at Berry Field by local industry elites, including Haven and his companion, Lady Pearl, a nightclub owner. Also present are Pfc. Glenn Kelly, who is obsessed with Barbara Jean, and a popular folk trio consisting of married couple Bill and Mary, and guitarist Tom, who are in town to record an album. Meanwhile, Martha, a teen groupie going by the name "L.A. Joan," is picked up by her uncle, Mr. Green, at the airport; she has arrived to visit her dying aunt Esther, but covertly plans to pursue musicians. In the airport cafe, African-American cook Wade Cooley and his co- worker, a waitress named Sueleen, discuss her aspirations to become a singer. On the tarmac, Barbara Jean collapses from heat exhaustion, and those in attendance depart the airport only to become stranded after a vehicle pile-up occurs. During the commotion, Winifred, an aspiring country singer, runs away from her husband Star; Star then gives a ride to Kenny Frasier, who has just arrived in town carrying a violin case. Opal takes advantage of the traffic jam to interview Linnea Reese, a white gospel singer, and Tommy Brown, an African-American country singer. That night, Sueleen performs at an open mic at Lady Pearl's club, demonstrating no singing ability. Meanwhile, Linnea's husband Del has John Triplette, Walker's political organizer, over for dinner. Throughout the meal, Linnea mainly focuses on communicating with her two deaf children. Tom, who crossed paths with Linnea earlier that day, phones the house to ask Linnea on a date, but she dissuades him. Glamorous singer Connie White also performs that night, in lieu of Barbara Jean at the Grand Ole Opry. Mary misses Connie's performance to Bill's dismay, instead having sex with Tom at the hotel. At the hospital, Barbara Jean argues with her manager husband Barnett over Connie replacing her, and he accuses her of having another nervous breakdown. On Sunday morning, Lady Pearl, Wade, and Sueleen attend a Catholic mass, while Linnea sings in the choir of a black Baptist church. In the hospital chapel, Barbara Jean sings "In the Garden" from her wheelchair while Mr. Green, Pfc. Kelly, and others watch. Opal wanders through a massive auto scrapyard, recording observations on a tape recorder. Haven, Tommy, and their families attend the stock car races, where Winifred unsuccessfully attempts to sing on a small stage. Bill and Mary argue in their hotel room and are interrupted by Triplette, who recruits them to perform at the gala, while Tom tries to get chauffeur Norman to score him drugs. After Barbara Jean is discharged, she gives a performance at Opryland USA that ends in her being pulled off stage as she rambles between songs. To remediate her poor performance, Barnett pledges her to perform at Walker's gala. Martha meanwhile agitates Kenny, who is renting a room in her uncle's house, when she attempts to investigate his violin case. At Lady Pearl's club that night, Linnea, Martha, Bill, Mary, Opal, Norman and Wade are among those attending an open mic. Tom sings "I'm Easy" and Linnea, moved, goes back to his room, where they have sex. Meanwhile, at an all-male Walker fundraiser, Sueleen is booed off stage for singing poorly; Del and Triplette convince her to perform a striptease in exchange for a slot at the gala. A drunken Del later comes onto Sueleen, but she is saved by Wade. The next morning, the performers and audience converge at the Parthenon for Walker's gala concert. The lineup consists of Haven, Barbara Jean, Linnea and her choir, Mary and Tom, and Sueleen; Winifred also arrives, hoping to sing. Meanwhile, Mr. Green and Kenny arrive at the gala searching for Martha, who has failed to attend her aunt Esther's funeral, and find her accompanying Bill. During Barbara Jean's set, Kenny produces a gun from his violin case, and begins shooting at the stage. A bullet grazes Haven's arm, but Barbara Jean is seriously injured. Pfc. Kelly disarms Kenny as chaos breaks out. Barbara Jean is carried from the stage, bleeding and unconscious, while Haven tries to calm the crowd by exhorting them to sing, asserting that "This isn't Dallas". Winifred is handed the microphone in the melee, and begins singing "It Don't Worry Me", joined by Linnea's gospel choir. ===== In 1962, Faber College freshmen Lawrence "Larry" Kroger and Kent Dorfman seek to join a fraternity. Finding themselves out of place at the prestigious Omega Theta Pi house's party, they visit the slovenly Delta Tau Chi house next door, where Kent is a "legacy": he cannot be rejected, because his older brother Fred was a member. John "Bluto" Blutarsky welcomes them, and they meet other Deltas, including motorcyclist Daniel Simpson "D-Day" Day, chapter president Robert Hoover, ladies' man Eric "Otter" Stratton, and Otter's best friend Donald "Boon" Schoenstein, whose girlfriend Katy is constantly pressuring him to stop drinking with the Deltas and do something with his life. Larry and Kent are invited to pledge and given the fraternity names "Pinto" and "Flounder" respectively, by Bluto, Delta's sergeant-at-arms. College Dean Vernon Wormer wants to remove the Deltas, who are already on probation, due to various campus conduct violations and an abysmal academic standing, so he invokes his emergency authority and places the fraternity on "double-secret probation." He directs the clean-cut, smug Omega president Greg Marmalard to find a way for him to remove the Deltas from campus. Various incidents further increase the dean's and the Omegas' animosity toward the Deltas, including the prank-related accidental death of a horse belonging to Omega member and Reserve Officers' Training Corps cadet commander Douglas C. Neidermeyer and Otter flirting with Marmalard's girlfriend Mandy. Bluto and D-Day steal the answers to an upcoming test from the trash, not realizing that the Omegas have switched papers for the exam. The Deltas fail the exam, and their grade-point averages fall so low that Wormer tells them he needs only one more incident to revoke their charter. To cheer themselves up, the Deltas organize a toga party and bring in Otis Day and the Knights to provide live music. Wormer's wife Marion attends at Otter's invitation and has sex with him. Pinto hooks up with Clorette, a cashier he meets at the supermarket. They make out, but they do not have sex because she passes out drunk. Pinto takes her home in a shopping cart and learns that she is the mayor's daughter. Outraged by his wife's escapades and the mayor's threat of personal violence, Wormer organizes a hearing and revokes Delta's charter. To take their minds off their troubles, Otter, Boon, Flounder, and Pinto go on a road trip. Otter picks up four young women from Emily Dickinson College as dates for himself and his Delta brothers by posing as Frank Lymon, the fiancé of a college student who died in a recent kiln explosion. They stop at a roadhouse bar where Otis Day's band is performing, not realizing it has an exclusively African-American clientele. A couple of hulking patrons intimidate the Deltas and they quickly leave, smashing up Flounder's brother's car in their haste and leaving their dates behind. Marmalard and other Omegas lure Otter to a motel and beat him up after Mandy's best friend Babs tells him that Mandy and Otter are having an affair. The Deltas' midterm grades are so poor that an ecstatic Wormer expels them all, having already notified their local draft boards that they are now eligible for military service. The news shocks Flounder so badly that he vomits on Wormer. The Deltas are despondent, but Bluto rallies them with an impassioned speech. They decide to get revenge on Wormer, the Omegas, and the college. D-Day converts Flounder's brother Fred's damaged car into an armored vehicle. They hide it inside a cake-shaped breakaway float and sneak into the annual homecoming parade. As they wreak havoc on the event, the futures of several of the student main characters are revealed using freeze-frame labels. Most of the Deltas become respectable professionals (with Bluto marrying Mandy and becoming a senator), while the Omegas and the other adversaries suffer less fortunate outcomes (Neidermeyer, for example, is reported killed by his own troops in Vietnam). ===== In Milan, Otis B. Driftwood (Groucho), business manager for wealthy dowager Mrs. Claypool (Margaret Dumont) has stood her up and is having dinner with another woman in the very same restaurant. When she discovers him seated directly behind her, Driftwood joins Mrs. Claypool, and introduces her to Herman Gottlieb (Sig Ruman), director of the New York Opera Company, also dining at the restaurant. Driftwood has arranged for Mrs. Claypool to invest $200,000 in the opera company, allowing Gottlieb to engage Rodolfo Lassparri (Walter Woolf King), the "greatest tenor since Caruso". Backstage at the opera house, chorister Ricardo Baroni (Allan Jones) hires his best friend Fiorello (Chico) to be his manager. Ricardo is in love with the soprano, Rosa Castaldi (Kitty Carlisle), who is also being courted by Lassparri. Driftwood arrives and finds Lassparri attacking Tomasso, his dresser (Harpo), who knocks Lassparri unconscious by hitting him over the head with a mallet. Fiorello appears and identifies himself as the manager of the "greatest tenor in the world". Driftwood, mistakenly thinking Fiorello is referring to Lassparri, signs Ricardo to a contract. Driftwood, Mrs. Claypool, Rosa, Lassparri and Gottlieb all set sail from Italy to New York aboard an ocean liner. After bidding farewell to Rosa at the pier, Ricardo, Fiorello, and Tomasso stow away inside Driftwood's steamer trunk. After being discovered, Driftwood tries to get the three of them to leave, as he is expecting a rendezvous with Mrs. Claypool. Fiorello refuses to go until they've eaten, and eventually Driftwood's very small stateroom is crowded with an assortment of people. (See Stateroom scene below.) Later, Lassparri spots the three stowaways among the immigrants on the ship, and they are caught and thrown into the brig. They escape with help from Driftwood and are able to sneak into the country by assuming the identities of three famous bearded aviators,The nationality of the aviators is never identified. In The Annotated Marx Brothers: A Filmgoer's Guide to In-Jokes, Obscure References and Sly Details (2015, McFarland, ), Matthew Coniam points out that the omission seems to have been intentional, in order to avoid an obvious lampoon of the Italian fascist aviator Italo Balbo, and that in the newspaper caption that follows they are identified as the "Santopoulos Brothers", suggesting that they may be Greek. (pp. 124-125) who are traveling aboard the ship. During a hero's welcome in New York, the stowaways' true identities are discovered and they hide out in Driftwood's hotel room, pursued by police sergeant Henderson (Robert Emmett O'Connor). Meanwhile, Ricardo is reunited with Rosa after climbing in the window of her hotel room. Ricardo has an altercation with Lassparri, which results in both Rosa and Driftwood being fired from the opera company by Gottlieb. The boys decide to seek revenge by sabotaging the opening night performance of Il trovatore climaxing with the abduction of Lassparri, which forces Gottlieb into substituting Ricardo and Rosa in his place. The audience clearly prefers Ricardo over Lassparri, and the latter is booed and hit with an apple after he is untied and attempts to return to the stage. The film ends with Driftwood and Fiorello attempting to negotiate another contract, as Rosa and Ricardo sing an encore. ===== In West Virginia in the 1930s, Reverend Harry Powell is a self-appointed preacher and misogynistic serial killer who travels along the Ohio River, justifying the women he murdered with his switchblade knife after marrying them for their money as doing God's work. After reaching a town sometime after his latest murder, Powell ends up being arrested for driving a stolen car and serves his sentence at Moundsville Penitentiary. By chance, Powell ends up sharing the same cell as Ben Harper, a local man who murdered two men in a bank robbery for ten thousand dollars. But with the police about to catch him, Harper makes his children John and Pearl promise to never reveal where the money is hidden after hiding it in Pearl's doll. Despite Powell's attempts to learn the money's location, Harper takes it to his grave. Following Harper's execution, the released Powell makes his way to Harper's hometown where he charms the townsfolk while wooing Harper's widow Willa, who has been working for Walter Spoon and his wife Icey.https://cinephiliabeyond.org/the-night-of-the-hunter-the-extraordinary- single-directorial-entry-in-charles-laughtons-career/ Powell eventually marries Willa. Powell manages to win the town's trust, and only John is distrustful of him. John accidentally reveals that he knows the money's location when Powell overhears him reminding Pearl of their promise. Willa overhears Powell threatening Pearl to reveal the money, but Willa is deluded that Powell married her to redeem her soul. Powell murders Willa soon after, dumping her body in the river while making it appear that she left him and the children for a life of sin. Powell then proceeds to threaten John and Pearl before learning the money is hidden inside Pearl's doll. The children escape him and attempt to seek refuge with Birdie Steptoe, an elderly man who spends his days drinking on his riverboat and is friendly with John. When they arrive, they find that Birdie has drunk himself into a stupor after discovering Willa's corpse, fearing that the town would blame him for her death. The children use their father's boat to flee down the river and eventually take sanctuary with Rachel Cooper, a tough old woman who looks after stray children. Powell tracks them down, but Rachel sees through his deceptions and runs him off her property with Powell threatening to come back after dark. During the all-night standoff, Rachel shoots and wounds Powell as she traps him in her barn house before calling the police. The police, by now having discovered Willa's body, arrive to arrest Powell. John breaks down as he witnesses the arrest of Powell as a parallel to his father's arrest, beating the doll against the handcuffed Powell as the money spills out. Following Powell's sentencing at Moundsville, with John as a witness, Rachel takes him and the other children away as a bereaved Icey leads a lynch mob to take Powell from the police station. The police take Powell to safety, but the professional executioner promises to see Powell again soon. Finally, John and Pearl have their first Christmas together with Rachel and their new family. ===== Duff Anderson works on a railroad section gang near Birmingham, Alabama, earning a good wage and living an itinerant life with his black co- workers. On their night off, while the other men drink and visit a pool hall, Duff decides to walk into the nearby small town, and ends up at a church meeting featuring good food and lively gospel music. There, Duff meets the pretty and genteel schoolteacher Josie, the daughter of Preacher Dawson. They begin to date against the wishes of Josie's father and stepmother, who think the relatively uneducated, non-religious, and (to them) arrogant Duff is not good enough for Josie. Despite her parents' objections, Josie continues to see Duff, partly because Duff shows himself willing to resist and challenge the social conventions that oppress black people, rather than just accepting the status quo in order to get along with white people, as Josie's father has done. Initially, Duff is just looking for a sexual relationship and tells Josie he doesn't want to get married. But after Duff visits his four-year-old illegitimate son in the care of an unloving, indifferent stepmother, and his emotionally abusive, hardly functioning drunken father (Harris) living off his girlfriend (Lee), Duff realizes that he prefers the stability of a family to the life of a drifter. Duff and Josie marry with bright hopes for the future but then begin to face a series of challenges as a married couple. Duff quits the section gang and takes a lower paying job at the local sawmill in order to have a stable home life. Being on the move had given Duff the illusion of freedom, but living in the town makes Duff subject to the town's social rules, and he immediately starts to have problems. Unlike his peers, Duff refuses to pretend to be friendly to white people who treat him obnoxiously or patronize him. Duff tries to encourage his black co-workers at the mill to stick together and stand up for their rights, but one of them informs on him to the white mill bosses, who suspect him of being a union organizer and troublemaker. After Duff refuses to follow his white boss's order to retract his statements to the other men, Duff is fired, and subsequently finds himself blacklisted at other area mills. Despite diligently searching for work, he is unable to find another job that is not humiliating and that also pays enough to support his family, now including a baby on the way. Duff hates his preacher father-in-law, whom he sees as having sold out to the white people in return for social status and economic gain, and he hurtfully says to his wife, "You've never really been a nigger, living with them, in that house." Nevertheless, out of concern for Josie, Preacher Dawson uses his connections in the town to get Duff a job at a white-owned gas station. Soon, white customers who find Duff too proud for a black "boy" threaten to cause trouble if the boss keeps him on, and he loses that job as well. Although Josie is understanding, Duff, under emotional pressure and in a rage, shoves his pregnant wife to the floor when she tries to comfort him. Duff packs his bag and leaves their house, telling Josie that he will write her when he is on his feet again. Duff storms off to his father, and finds him so inebriated that he dies as Duff and Lee are driving him to the hospital. Neither Duff nor Lee know where Duff's father was born or how old he was, and the only possessions he has handed down to Duff are the contents of his pockets. Duff decides to return home with his young son, whom Josie had been wanting to adopt. Duff and Josie tearfully embrace as he reassures her that it "ain't gonna be easy, baby, but it's going to be alright. Baby, I feel so free inside”.Roemer, M., & Young, R. M. (1964). INT. MOVING CAR (DAWN). In Nothing But A Man (1964): Shooting script. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press. "Retrieved from Film Scripts Online", Volume I database. ===== Joe Stefanos is hired muscle for “big operator” Whit Sterling, a former New York City gambling kingpin relocated to Lake Tahoe. He arrives in a rural mountain town in the California Sierra Nevada looking to hook up with someone from their past. Jeff Bailey, owner of Bridgeport's gas station, is fishing at a nearby lake with wholesome local girl Ann Miller. Stefanos sends Jeff's deaf mute employee, The Kid, to retrieve Jeff, then informs Jeff that Whit wants to see him. Though Ann trusts Jeff implicitly, her parents are wary of him, as is Jim, a local conservation official who has been sweet on Ann since childhood. Jeff reluctantly agrees to meet with Whit, and invites Ann to join him for the 75 mile drive to Whit's home. On the way, Jeff tells Ann of a dark episode in his past (in flashback) involving both men and a beautiful but dangerous woman. Bailey's real name is Markham. He and former partner Jack Fisher were private investigators in New York. The pair had been hired at an extremely lucrative rate by the shady but superficially amiable Sterling to find his girlfriend, Kathie Moffat, who had shot him and stolen $40,000 before fleeing. Jeff is hesitant, sensing Sterling, who claims he is disinterested in the money and wealthy enough that may be true, instead is seeking revenge rather than a reconciliation. Whit assures Jeff he just wants her back, and will not harm her, but, having an impulsive disregard for Fisher, tells Markham he wants him to handle the case alone. On their way out in the elevator Fisher insists the payday still be split 50-50 according to their standing agreement, and Markham agrees. Kathie's maid tells Jeff she helped Kathie pack for a “tropical“ climate, and mentions something about inoculations, but seeks to throw him off by dissembling that she has gone to Florida. Jeff guesses Mexico instead, since shots were not needed for Florida but still were to visit that country in those days. He follows her trail to Mexico City and Taxco, before staking her out in Acapulco and eventually striking up an acquaintance. She slowly but successfully seduces a willing Jeff, admitting she shot Sterling but denying she took his money. Befuddled with desire, Markham proposes the two of them go on the run together. Kathie warns him Sterling won't forget, which Jeff tries to dismiss with the wisecrack that the two of them will send him a postcard greeting every Christmas. Jeff proposes they leave the next morning for somewhere south by sea, and Kathie agrees to meet him at his hotel. While packing, he is surprised by the arrival of Sterling and Stefanos, checking up on his lack of progress. Jeff lies that Kathie slipped past him and is on a steamer going south. Whit instructs Jeff to keep looking for her. Jeff overreacts and tells Sterling he's finished both with the case and their relationship, to which Sterling responds threateningly, “I fire people. Nobody quits me.“ After a close call in the hotel cocktail lounge, Sterling departs. The fugitive couple instead flees north by freighter to San Francisco. They live there as inconspicuously as possible initially, but are spotted at a horse race by Fisher, now working for Sterling. Jeff and Kathie split up to shake him, with Jeff conspicuously heading to Los Angeles. When he is confident he has given Fisher the slip, Jeff arranges to meet Kathie at a cabin in the Sierra Nevada, only to find that Fisher had been following her instead. When Fisher demands the full $10,000 originally promised the pair by Sterling to keep quiet, the two men brawl. Kathie suddenly shoots Fisher dead. Jeff is not merely startled but appalled, and lets her know that. He turns back towards Fisher and she flees, leaving him to bury the body. In her haste to flee, some of her purse contents had spilled out on a table, including her bank book. Jeff opens it to reveal a single deposit, $40,000. Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer in Out of the Past Jeff finishes his confession to Ann just as they reach Sterling's palatial Lake Tahoe estate, ending the flashback. Ann drops him off and Jeff is greeted with great bonhomie and apparent forgiveness by a cheerful Whit, who tells him he has a job only Jeff can handle. Markham instinctively declines. Over breakfast, Markham is startled when Kathie appears. Whit dismissively yet with seeming graciousness tells them that they are both “back in the fold“, indicating to Jeff the job is not one that he can turn down. Trying to sugar-coat things, he indicates it is the only way to square things between them. A crooked San Francisco lawyer, Leonard Eels, has helped Whit dodge $1,000,000 ($ million today) in taxes, but now is blackmailing him for $200,000 or he will turn the incriminating records over to the United States Treasury. Whit wants Jeff to recover them and sends him on the afternoon train to San Francisco. Mitchum and Greer There, Jeff meets Eels' secretary, Meta Carson, who explains the plan. Markham begins to suspect he is being framed. That night, at Eels' apartment, she introduces him to Eels, which is to cause him, Jeff deduces, to leave his fingerprints on a glass. The couple leave, Jeff trails Carson, then returns and finds Eels dead. Knowing he will be blamed, he hides the body to throw off those plotting against him. Returning to Carson's apartment, he entraps Kathie (who has impersonated Carson in seeking to ensure that Eels' apartment manager finds the dead man's body) and wrings out of her that she gave Whit a signed affidavit swearing that Jeff killed Fisher. Jeff manages to retrieve the tax papers from some of Sterling's thugs and mails them to a safe location, substituting a local phonebook in the briefcase to throw off Sterling's henchmen when he is captured. He tells them he will only deal with Sterling and flees, only to find him himself the focus of a police dragnet for an accused double murderer. Jeff returns to the Bridgeport area. Unbeknownst to Whit, Kathie has ordered Stefanos to trail The Kid so he can find and kill Jeff. The Kid drives to a steep, narrow canyon where Jeff is hiding. The Kid spots Stefanos aiming a pistol at Jeff and quickly hooks him with a fishing line, causing Stefanos to lose his balance and fall to his death. Jeff goes back to Whit's mansion and tells him of Kathie's double-cross and Stefanos's death. He offers that the death of Stefanos, Eels' actual murderer, can be made to look like a guilt-ridden suicide, removing Jeff from that frame-up. Furthermore, he will return the business records to Whit if Whit destroys Kathie's affidavit and hands her over to the police for Fisher's death. Whit takes the offer and Jeff believes he has worked his way out of Kathie's web. Jeff makes a quick visit to Ann, then returns to Tahoe to discover that Kathie has killed Whit. She gives Jeff the choice of running away with her and a satchel of Whit's money or taking the blame for all three murders. He agrees to go with her, but phones the state police while she is upstairs packing. Driving up to a police roadblock, Kathie realizes that Jeff has betrayed her and shoots him dead. She then fires at the police, who fatally shoot her. When the news reaches Bridgeport, Jim offers to take Ann away. Ann asks The Kid if Jeff had been planning to run away with Kathie. Wanting to free Ann, The Kid lies and nods his head. Ann returns to Jim and she drives off with him as The Kid smiles and salutes Jeff's name on the station's sign. ===== In Bridger's Wells, Nevada in 1885, Art Croft and Gil Carter ride into town and enter Darby's Saloon. The atmosphere is subdued due to recent incidents of cattle-rustling. Art and Gil are suspected to be rustlers because they have rarely been seen in town. A man enters the saloon and announces that a rancher named Larry Kinkaid has been murdered. The townspeople immediately form a posse to pursue the murderers, who they believe are cattle rustlers. A judge tells the posse that it must bring the suspects back for trial, and that its formation by a deputy (the sheriff being out of town) is illegal. Art and Gil join the posse to avoid raising even more suspicion. Davies, who was initially opposed to forming the posse, also joins, along with "Major" Tetley and his son Gerald. Poncho informs the posse that three men and cattle bearing Kinkaid's brand have just entered Bridger's Pass. The posse encounters a stagecoach. When they try to stop it, the stagecoach guard assumes that it is a stickup, and shoots, wounding Art. In the coach are Rose Mapen, Gil's ex- girlfriend, and her new husband, Swanson. Later that night in Ox-Bow Canyon, the posse finds three men sleeping, with what are presumed to be stolen cattle nearby. The posse interrogates them: a young, well-spoken man, Donald Martin; a Mexican, Juan Martínez; and an old man, Alva Hardwicke. Martin claims that he purchased the cattle from Kinkaid but received no bill of sale. No one believes Martin, and the posse decides to hang the three men at sunrise. Martin writes a letter to his wife and asks Davies, the only member of the posse that he trusts, to deliver it. Davies reads the letter, and, hoping to save Martin's life, shows it to the others. Davies believes that Martin is innocent and does not deserve to die. The Mexican "Juan" is recognized as a gambler named Francisco Morez. He tries to escape and is shot and wounded. The posse discovers that Morez has Kinkaid's gun. Major Tetley wants the men to be lynched immediately. A vote is taken as to whether the men should be hanged or taken back to stand trial. Only seven, among them Davies, Gerald Tetley, Gil and Art, vote to take the men back to town alive; the rest support immediate hanging. Gil tries to stop it, but is overpowered. After the lynching, the posse heads back towards Bridger's Wells and immediately encounters Sheriff Risley, who tells them that Lawrence Kinkaid is not dead and that the men who shot him have been arrested. Risley strips the deputy of his badge and asks Davies who is responsible. “All but seven,” Davies replies, and the sheriff declares “God have mercy on you...you'll get none from me.” The men of the posse gather in Darby's Saloon and drink in silence. Major Tetley returns to his house, shuts out his son (who condemns his sadistic behavior), goes to his study and closes the door, before a gunshot is heard from within. In the saloon, Gil reads Martin's letter to Art while members of the posse listen. In the letter, Martin confessed feeling sorry for the posse members, who will have to live with what they have done for the rest of their lives. In the final scene Gil and Art head out of town by the same route they rode in to deliver the letter and $500 ($ today) raised by those in the posse for Martin's wife. ===== Josey Wales, a Missouri farmer, is driven to revenge by the murder of his wife and young son by a band of pro-Union Jayhawker militants from Senator James H. Lane's Kansas Brigade, led by the brutal Captain Terrill. After grieving and burying his wife and son, Wales practices shooting a gun before joining a group of pro-Confederate Missouri bushwhackers led by William T. Anderson, taking part in attacks on Union sympathizers and army units. At the conclusion of the war, Josey's friend and superior, Captain Fletcher, persuades the guerrillas to surrender, having been promised by Senator Lane that they will be granted amnesty if they hand over their weapons. Wales refuses to surrender, and as a result, he and a young guerrilla named Jamie are the only survivors when Terrill's Redlegs massacre the surrendering men. Wales intervenes and wipes out most of the Redlegs with a Gatling gun before fleeing with Jamie, who dies from a bullet wound after helping Josey kill two pursuing militiamen. Lane forces a reluctant Fletcher to assist Terrill in finding his friend and puts a $5,000 bounty on his head, attracting the attention of Union soldiers and bounty hunters who seek to hunt him down. Along the way, and despite his aversion to traveling with company, he accumulates a diverse group of companions. They include an old Cherokee man named Lone Watie; Little Moonlight, a young Navajo woman; Sarah Turner, an elderly woman from Kansas; and her granddaughter Laura Lee, whom Wales and Little Moonlight rescue from a group of marauding Comancheros. Josey and Laura later sleep together as does Lone Watie and Little Moonlight. At the town of Santo Rio, two men, Travis and Chato, who had worked for Grandma Sarah's deceased son Tom, join the group. Wales and his companions find an abandoned ranch once owned by Tom and settle in after Wales parleys and makes peace with the neighboring Comanche tribe leader, Ten Bears. Meanwhile, a bounty hunter whose partner was gunned down by Wales at Santo Rio guides Captain Terrill and his men to the town. The following morning, the Redlegs launch a surprise attack on the ranch. Wales' companions take cover in the fortified ranch house and open fire, gunning down all of Terrill's men. A wounded Wales, despite being out of ammunition, pursues the fleeing Terrill back to Santa Rio. When he corners him, Wales dry fires his four pistols through all the empty chambers before holstering them. Terrill attempts to draw his cavalry sabre, but Wales grabs the blade and stabs him through the chest, finally avenging his family. Returning to the Santa Rio saloon, Wales finds Fletcher accompanied by two Texas Rangers. The locals at the saloon, who refer to Wales as "Mr. Wilson", tell the Rangers that Wales was killed in a shoot-out in Monterrey. The Rangers accept this story and move on, but Fletcher sees through the lie, and pretends to not recognize Wales. He says that he will go to Mexico to look for Wales himself and try to tell him that the war is over. Wales says, "I reckon so. I guess we all died a little in that damned war", before riding off. ===== Schultz is proud of his prize-winning rooster, Brigham. Davidson, who lives next door, raises flowers and has a son named Ignatz. Schultz's son has just become engaged to Davidson's daughter. Although the two fathers don't get along, their children's engagement seems like a good time to bury the hatchet. A celebration dinner is planned and Ignatz is given two dollars to go purchase a chicken. But Ignatz, wanting to keep the money for himself, takes Brigham instead. When the families gather together to eat the chicken, Ignatz realizes that he left Brigham's 1st Prize tag on the now cooked leg. Gradually, they all realize the chicken is Brigham, everyone, except the two fathers, Schultz and Davidson. Ignatz runs away. The engaged couple pantomime the truth to Davidson who after a scuffle runs away too. ===== Robert Clapley, a former drug smuggler-turned-real estate developer, plans to build high-rise condominiums and golf courses on Toad Island, the home to a large population of oak toads. The project requires the construction of a massive new bridge to the mainland to accommodate Clapley's cement trucks. On the recommendation of Richard "Dick" Artemus, a corrupt governor of Florida to whom Clapley has given major campaign contributions, Clapley hires lobbyist Palmer Stoat to expedite the government funding for the bridge construction. By random happenstance, Stoat becomes subject to the obsessive wrath of ecoterrorist Twilly Spree after he witnesses him litter the highway from his luxury Range Rover. He tracks him back to the Fort Lauderdale residence he shares with his wife, Desirata. Twilly arranges ironic pranks - hijacking a garbage truck and dumping its load into Desi's convertible, and filling Stoat's Range Rover with dung beetles - but is aggravated when Stoat continues to litter. When he breaks into Stoat's home, he is confronted by his massive Labrador Retriever and by Desi herself. Desi, who is increasingly unhappy with her marriage, tells Twilly that he is "aiming low" if he is trying to correct Stoat's misbehavior. She guides him to Toad Island, where Clapley's construction crew has deliberately buried thousands of oak toads to avoid later protest by environmentalists. Twilly orders Desi to tell Stoat that he will kill the dog if he doesn't stop the bridge project. Stoat dismisses the threat until Twilly sends him a roadkill Labrador's severed ear via FedEx. The actual dog becomes Twilly's companion after he changes his name to "McGuinn." Stoat convinces Artemus to veto funding for the bridge but has no intention of letting the project fail. He tells Clapley and Artemus that the funding can be put back into the budget later, through a special session of the Florida legislature. Clapley sends a hit man, Mr. Gash, to kill Twilly, while Artemus, in an effort to avoid the bridge project being tainted by a violent death, locates ex- governor Clinton Tyree, a.k.a. "Skink", who vanished in the mid-1970s after a short term of office and is said to be hiding in the remaining wilderness of Florida. Artemus knows that Skink's mentally disturbed elder brother, Doyle, is still on the state's payroll as the keeper of an abandoned lighthouse, and threatens to put him on the street if Skink doesn't apprehend Twilly. Artemus fails to realize the dire consequences of threatening a man with Skink's volcanic temper, or of putting him and Twilly in contact with each other. Desi becomes attracted to Twilly, and the two eventually develop a relationship. The Stoat is disgusted and washes his hands of her and McGuinn, telling Twilly that the bridge is going up no matter what he does. A violent confrontation with Twilly, Desi, and Skink on Toad Island leaves Mr. Gash mortally wounded. Twilly is left in Skink's care while Desi returns to her parents' home in Atlanta. Despite her pleadings, Twilly is still committed to stopping the Toad Island project. Accompanied by Skink, Twilly trails Stoat, Clapley, and Artemus to a private canned hunting reserve in northern Florida, where Stoat has arranged for Clapley to shoot a black rhinoceros and win over Willie Vasquez-Washington, a crucial member of the Florida House who is opposed to the special session. Twilly is on the verge of shooting Clapley with a rifle, but McGuinn runs into the preserve and nips playfully at the rhino's tail. The rhino - so ancient that it has hardly moved since it arrived at the ranch - goes berserk and charges at the hunting party. Clapley is gored to death on the rhino's horn, and Stoat is trampled flat. Artemus escapes the chaos but is mortified to learn that Willie snapped plenty of pictures of the fiasco. Clapley's death dooms the Toad Island project. Apart from his many lobbying clients and crony politicians, only a few friends and family members show up at Stoat's funeral. Desi is among the mourners, during which she is approached by McGuinn, holding a note with Twilly's new address on it. Meanwhile, Twilly and Skink are driving along the highway when they see another group of litterbugs. They immediately agree they have to teach them a lesson. ===== The story begins with the closing moments of a rather dull government lecture and slide show on agricultural policy, after which the leader of the security police of a right-wing military-dominated government takes over the podium for an impassioned speech describing the government's program to combat leftism, using the metaphors of "a mildew of the mind", an infiltration of "isms", or "sunspots". The scene shifts to preparations for a rally of the opposition faction where the pacifist Deputy is to give a speech advocating nuclear disarmament. There have been attempts by the government to prevent the speech's delivery. The venue has been changed to a much smaller hall, logistical problems have appeared out of nowhere, and the people handing out leaflets about the change of venue are attacked by thugs under the command of the police. On his way to the venue, the Deputy is hit on the head by one of the right-wing anticommunist protestors, some of whom are sponsored by the government, but carries on with his sharp speech. As the Deputy crosses the street from the hall after giving his speech, a delivery truck speeds past him and a man on the open truck bed strikes him down with a club. The injury eventually proves fatal, and the police manipulate witnesses to force the conclusion that the Deputy was simply run over by a drunk driver. However, the police do not control the hospital, where the autopsy disproves their interpretation. The examining magistrate, with the assistance of a photojournalist (Perrin), now uncovers sufficient evidence to indict not only the two right-wing militants who committed the murder, but also four high- ranking military police officers. The action of the film concludes with one of the Deputy's associates rushing to see his widow to give her the surprising news of the officers' indictments. The widow looks distressed, appearing not to believe things will change for the better. An epilogue provides a synopsis of the subsequent turns of events. Instead of justice's being served, the prosecutor is mysteriously removed from the case, several key witnesses die under suspicious circumstances, the assassins receive relatively short sentences, the officers receive only administrative reprimands, the Deputy's close associates die or are deported, and the photojournalist is sent to prison for disclosing official documents. The heads of the government do resign after public disapproval, but, before elections are carried out, a coup d'etat occurs and the military seize power. They ban modern art, popular music and avant-garde novelists, as well as modern mathematics, classic and modern philosophers, and the use of the term "Ζ" (, or , used by protesters against the former government), which referred to The Deputy and means: "He lives." ===== In pre-Revolution Paris, the Marquise de Merteuil plots revenge against her ex-lover, the Comte de Bastide, who recently ended their relationship. To soothe her wounded pride and embarrass Bastide, she seeks to arrange the seduction and disgrace of his young virgin fiancée, Cécile de Volanges, who has only recently been presented to society after spending her formative years in the shelter of a convent. Merteuil calls on the similarly unprincipled Vicomte de Valmont to do the deed. Valmont declines, as he is plotting a seduction of his own: Madame de Tourvel, the wife of a member of Parliament away in Corsica, who is currently a houseguest of Valmont's aunt, Madame de Rosemonde. Amused and incredulous at Valmont's hubris in pursuing the chaste, devoutly religious Tourvel, Merteuil ups the ante: if Valmont somehow succeeds in seducing Tourvel and can furnish written proof, Merteuil will sleep with him as well. Never one to refuse a challenge, Valmont accepts. Tourvel rebuffs all of Valmont's advances. Searching for leverage, he instructs his page Azolan to seduce Tourvel's maid Julie to gain access to Tourvel's private correspondence. One of the letters he intercepts is from Cécile's mother and Merteuil's cousin, Madame de Volanges, warning Tourvel that Valmont is a nefarious and untrustworthy individual. Valmont resolves to seduce Cécile after all, as revenge for her mother's accurate denunciation of him. Meanwhile, in Paris, Cécile meets the charming and handsome Chevalier Raphael Danceny, who becomes her music teacher. They fall in love with coaxing from Merteuil, who knows that Danceny, a poor commoner, can never qualify as a bona fide suitor. Valmont gains access to Cécile's bedchamber on a false pretense, sexually assaults her, and blackmails her into sex as she pleads with him to leave. On the pretext of illness, Cécile remains locked in her chambers, refusing all visitors. A concerned Madame de Volanges calls upon Merteuil to speak to Cécile, who confides in her, naively assuming that Merteuil has her best interests at heart. Merteuil advises Cécile to welcome Valmont's advances; she says young women should take advantage of all the lovers they can acquire, in a society so repressive and contemptuous of women. The result is a "student-teacher" relationship; by day, Cécile is courted by Danceny, and each night she receives a sexual "lesson" from Valmont. In the meantime, Merteuil begins an affair with Danceny. Meanwhile, Valmont somehow manages to win Tourvel's heart, but at a cost: the lifelong bachelor playboy falls in love. In a fit of jealousy, Merteuil mocks Valmont and threatens to trash his reputation as a carefree gigolo. She also refuses to honor her end of their agreement, since Valmont has no written proof that the relationship has been consummated. Valmont abruptly dismisses Tourvel with a terse excuse: "It is beyond my control." Meanwhile, after a night in Valmont's bed, Cécile miscarries his child. Overwhelmed with grief and shame, Tourvel retreats to a monastery where her health deteriorates rapidly. Valmont warns Danceny of Merteuil's ulterior motives in seducing him; she retaliates by informing Danceny that Valmont has been sleeping with Cécile. Danceny challenges Valmont to a duel and mortally wounds him. With his dying breath, Valmont asks Danceny to communicate to Tourvel—by now near death—his true feelings for her. He also gives Danceny his collection of intimate letters from Merteuil, and Danceny publishes them, while Cécile informs her mother of her intention to return permanently to the convent. All of Paris learns the full range of Merteuil's schemes and depredations. Booed and humiliated at the opéra by her former friends and sycophants, Merteuil flees in disgrace. ===== Son Goku, a monkey-tailed boy, and Bulma, a teenage girl, travel to find the seven Dragon Balls, which summon the dragon Shenlong to grant the user one wish. Their journey leads to the desert bandit Yamcha, who later becomes an ally; Chi-Chi, whom Goku unknowingly agrees to marry; and Pilaf, an impish man who seeks the Dragon Balls to fulfill his desire to rule the world. Goku undergoes rigorous training regimes under the martial arts master Kame-Sen'nin to fight in the . He becomes friends with a monk named Kuririn, his training partner and initial rival. After the tournament, Goku searches for the Dragon Ball his grandfather left him and almost single-handedly defeats the Red Ribbon Army and their hired assassin, Taopaipai. Goku then reunites with his friends to defeat the fortune teller Baba Uranai's fighters and use her to find the last Dragon Ball in order to revive a friend killed by Taopaipai. Three years later at the Tenkaichi Budōkai, Goku and his allies oppose Kame-Sen'nin's rival and Taopaipai's brother, Tsuru-Sen'nin, and his students Tenshinhan and Chaozu. Kuririn is killed after the tournament; Goku tracks down the murderer's leader, Piccolo Daimao, but is defeated. The samurai Yajirobe takes Goku to the hermit Karin, who heals him and gives him a power boost. Meanwhile, Piccolo defeats and kills Kame-Sen'nin and Chaozu before using the Dragon Balls to regain his youth and destroy Shenlong. Goku then kills Piccolo Daimao, who, before dying, spawns his son/reincarnation Piccolo. Karin then directs Goku to Kami, the original creator of the Dragon Balls and Piccolo Daimao's other half, to restore Shenlong and revive his slain friends. Goku trains under Kami for the next three years, once again reuniting with his friends at the Tenkaichi Budōkai. There, he defeats Piccolo, whose life he spares as it would also kill Kami. Goku leaves with Chi-Chi to keep his promise to marry her. Five years later, Goku is a young adult and father to a son, Gohan. A man named Raditz arrives on Earth, identifies Goku as his younger brother Kakarrot, and reveals to him that they are members of a nearly extinct extraterrestrial race called the , who sent Goku to conquer Earth for them; however, Goku had suffered a severe head injury as an infant and lost all memories of his mission. Goku refuses to continue the mission, and sides with Piccolo to kill Raditz at the cost of his own life. In the afterlife, Goku trains under the North Kaiō until he is revived by the Dragon Balls to save the Earth from the invading Nappa and Vegeta. In the battle, Yamcha, Chaozu, Tenshinhan, and Piccolo are killed, and the Dragon Balls cease to exist. Kuririn and the galactic tyrant Freeza learn of another set of Dragon Balls on the planet , Piccolo's homeworld. Bulma, Gohan, and Kuririn search for them to revive their friends and restore Earth's Dragon Balls. Their goal leads to several battles with Freeza's minions and Vegeta, the latter standing alongside the heroes to fight the Ginyu Force, a team of mercenaries. The long battle with Freeza ends when Goku transforms into a legendary and defeats him. Barely surviving, Freeza recovers and goes to Earth to take his revenge on Goku; however, he is killed by a Super Saiyan from the future named Trunks. Three years later, a group of created by a member of the former Red Ribbon Army, Doctor Gero, appears, seeking revenge against Goku. During this time, an evil life form called Cell also emerges and, after absorbing two of the Androids to achieve his "perfect form", holds his own fighting tournament to challenge the protagonists. After Goku sacrifices his own life to no avail, Gohan avenges his father by killing Cell. Seven years later Goku, briefly revived for one day, and his allies are drawn into a fight against Majin Boo. After many battles, including the destruction and re-creation of the Earth, a resurrected Goku destroys Boo with a Genki-Dama (a sphere of pure energy drawn from all intelligent beings on Earth) and wishes for him to be reincarnated as a "good person". Ten years later, at the Tenkaichi Budōkai, Goku meets Boo's human reincarnation, Oob. After testing his powers, Goku departs with Oob to train him to be the Earth's new guardian. ===== Hidetora Ichimonji, a powerful though now elderly warlord, decides to divide his kingdom among his three sons: Taro, Jiro, and Saburo. Taro, the eldest, will receive the prestigious First Castle and become leader of the Ichimonji clan, while Jiro and Saburo will be given the Second and Third Castles. Hidetora is to retain the title of Great Lord and Jiro and Saburo are to support Taro. Hidetora begins to lecture his sons about the importance of unity using three arrows. He selects one arrow out of a quiver and shows how easy it is to snap in half but three arrows bundled together are much more durable. Saburo, however, breaks all three arrows with his knee and calls the lecture foolish. He points out that Hidetora is foolish if he expects his sons to be loyal to him, reminding him that even Hidetora had previously used the most ruthless methods to attain power. Hidetora hears the comments as being subversive, and when his servant Tango comes to Saburo's defense, he exiles both men. Fujimaki, a visiting warlord who had witnessed these events agrees with Saburo's frankness, and invites him to take his daughter's hand in marriage. Following the division of Hidetora's lands between his remaining two sons, Taro's wife Lady Kaede begins to urge her husband to usurp control of the entire Ichimonji clan. She is still bitter about the loss of her family; Hidetora's army had previously killed her family after a land dispute and then assimilated the family's lands. When Taro demands Hidetora renounce his title of Great Lord, Hidetora then storms out of the castle and travels to Jiro's castle, only to discover that Jiro is only interested in using Hidetora as a titular pawn. Hidetora and his retinue then leave Jiro's castle as well without any clear destination. Eventually Tango appears with provisions but to no avail. Tango then tells Hidetora of Taro's new decree: death to whoever aids his father. At last Hidetora takes refuge in the Third Castle, abandoned after Saburo's forces followed their lord into exile. Tango does not follow him. Kyoami, the court fool, then jokes about Hidetora's predicament, only to be thrown out of the Third Castle. Shortly thereafter, Hidetora and his samurai retinue are besieged militarily by Taro and Jiro's combined forces. As Taro and Jiro's forces storm the castle, Taro is killed by a bullet fired by Jiro's general, Kurogane. In a short but violent siege, Hidetora's defenders are slaughtered and the Third Castle is destroyed by fire. Hidetora is allowed to survive though without any supplies or bodyguards and he succumbs to madness after wandering away from the decimated castle. Hidetora is discovered wandering in the wilderness by Kyoami and Tango, who are still loyal to him, and stay to assist Hidetora. In his madness, Hidetora is haunted by horrific visions of the people he destroyed in his quest for power. They take refuge in a peasant's home only to discover that the occupant is Tsurumaru, the brother of Lady Sué, Jiro's wife. Tsurumaru had been blinded and left impoverished after Hidetora took over his land and killed his father, a rival lord. With Taro dead, Jiro becomes the Great Lord of the Ichimonji clan, enabling him to move into the First Castle. Upon Jiro's return from battle, Lady Kaede, seemingly unfazed by Taro's death, manipulates Jiro into having an affair with her, and undermines Jiro's power from behind his throne. Kaede demands that Jiro kill Lady Sué and marry her instead. Jiro orders Kurogane to do the deed, but he refuses, seeing through Kaede's perfidy. Kurogane then warns Sué and Tsurumaru to flee. Tango, still watching over Hidetora with Kyoami, encounters Ikoma and Ogura, who had once served as spies for Jiro, betraying Hidetora and Taro only to be exiled. Before he kills them both for their treason, Ikoma tells him that Jiro is considering sending assassins after Hidetora. Alarmed, Tango rides off to alert Saburo. Hidetora becomes even more insane and runs off into a volcanic plain with a frantic Kyoami in pursuit. Saburo's army crosses back into Jiro's territory to find him. News also reaches Jiro that two rival lords allied to Saburo (Ayabe and Fujimaki) have also entered the territory and Jiro hastily mobilizes his army. At the field of battle, the two brothers accept a truce, but Saburo becomes alarmed when Kyoami arrives to tell of his father's descent into madness. Saburo goes with Kyoami to rescue his father and takes ten warriors with him; Jiro sends several gunners to follow Saburo, offering a bounty for whoever kills him and Hidetora. Lady Kaede has already convinced Jiro to send another group of assassins to hunt down Sué and Tsurumaru. Jiro then further orders an attack on Saburo's much smaller force and Saburo's army retreats into the woods. Jiro attempts to pursue Saburo's army in the forest but is stopped short with significant losses due to the deadly muskets wielded by Saburo's infantry. In the middle of the battle a messenger arrives with news that the rival warlord, Ayabe, is marching on the First Castle, forcing Jiro's army to hastily retreat. Saburo finds Hidetora in the volcanic plain; Hidetora partially recovers his sanity, and begins repairing his relationship with Saburo. However, one of the snipers Jiro had sent after Saburo's small group shoots and kills Saburo. Overcome with grief, Hidetora dies. Fujimaki and his army arrive from their victory only to witness Tango and Kyoami lamenting the death of father and son. Meanwhile, Tsurumaru and Sué arrive at the ruins of a destroyed castle but inadvertently leave behind the flute that Sué previously gave Tsurumaru when he was banished. She gives a picture of Amida Buddha to him for company while she attempts to retrieve the missing flute. It is when she returns to Tsurumaru's hovel to retrieve it that she is ambushed and killed by Jiro's assassins. At the same time, Ayabe's army pursues Jiro's army to the First Castle and commences a siege. When Kurogane hears that Lady Sué has been murdered by one of Jiro's men, he confronts Kaede. She admits her perfidy and her plots to exact revenge against Hidetora and the Ichimonji clan for having destroyed her family years before. Enraged, Kurogane kills Kaede. Jiro, Kurogane, and all Jiro's men subsequently die in the battle with Ayabe's army that follows. A solemn funeral procession is held for Saburo and Hidetora. Meanwhile, left alone in the castle ruins, Tsurumaru trips, dropping the Amida Buddha image Sué had given to him. The film ends with a distance shot of Tsurumaru, blind and alone, silhouetted against the castle's landscape atop the ruins. ===== The Poor Little Rich Girl Gwendolyn is an 11-year-old girl who is left by her rich and busy parents to the care of unsympathetic domestic workers at the family's mansion. Her mother is only interested in her social life and her father has serious financial problems and is even contemplating suicide. When she manages to have some good time with an organ-grinder or a plumber, or have a mud-fight with street boys, she is rapidly brought back on the right track. One day, she becomes sick because the maid has given her an extra dose of sleeping medicine to be able to go out. She then becomes delirious and starts seeing an imaginary world inspired by people and things around her; the Garden of Lonely Children in the Tell-Tale forest. Her conditions worsen and Death tries to lure her to eternal rest. But Life also appears to her and finally wins.Review, synopsis and link to watch the film ===== In 1947 Los Angeles, "toons" act in theatrical cartoon shorts as with live-action films; they regularly interact with real people and animals and reside in Toontown. Private detective Eddie Valiant and his brother, Teddy, once worked closely with the toons on several famous cases, but after Teddy was killed by a toon, Eddie lapsed into alcoholism, lost his sense of humor, and vowed never to work for toons again. R.K. Maroon, head of Maroon Cartoon Studios, is concerned about the recent poor performances of one of his biggest stars, Roger Rabbit. Maroon hires Eddie to investigate rumors about Roger's voluptuous toon wife Jessica being romantically involved with businessman Marvin Acme, owner of both Acme Corporation and Toontown. After watching Jessica perform at an underground nightclub, Eddie secretly photographs her and Acme playing patty-cake in her dressing room, which he shows to Roger. Roger angrily declares that he and his wife will be happy, and he flees. The next morning, Acme is discovered dead at his factory, and evidence points to Roger being responsible. While investigating, Eddie meets Judge Doom, Toontown's intimidating superior court judge. He has created a substance dubbed "dip" that is capable of killing the otherwise invulnerable toons. Eddie later runs into Roger's toon co-star, Baby Herman, who believes Roger is innocent and that Acme's missing will, which will give the toons ownership of Toontown, may be the key to his murder. In his office, Eddie finds Roger, who begs him to help exonerate him. Eddie reluctantly hides Roger in a local bar, where his ex-girlfriend Dolores works. Jessica approaches Eddie and says that Maroon forced her to pose for the photographs so he could blackmail Acme. Doom and his toon weasel henchmen discover Roger, but he and Eddie escape with Benny, an anthropomorphic taxicab. They flee to a theater, where Eddie tells Roger that a toon killed Teddy when they were investigating a bank robbery. As they leave with Dolores, Eddie sees a newsreel detailing the sale of Maroon Cartoons to Cloverleaf, a mysterious corporation that bought the city's trolley network shortly before Acme's murder. Eddie goes to the studio to confront Maroon, leaving Roger to guard outside, but Jessica knocks Roger out and puts him in the trunk. Maroon tells Eddie that he blackmailed Acme into selling his company so he could sell the studio, then tearfully admits he only did so out of fear for the safety of the toons. Maroon is killed by an unseen assailant before he can explain the consequences of the missing will. Eddie spots Jessica fleeing the scene, and assuming she is the culprit, follows her into Toontown. Once he apprehends her, Jessica reveals that Doom killed Acme and Maroon and that Acme gave her his will for safekeeping, but she discovered that the will was blank. She and Eddie are then captured by Doom and the weasels. At the Acme factory, Doom reveals his plot to destroy Toontown with a machine loaded with dip to build a freeway, the only way past Toontown since Cloverleaf (which Doom owns) has bought out Los Angeles' Pacific Electric Railway. Roger unsuccessfully attempts to save Jessica, and the couple is tied onto a hook in front of the machine's hose. Eddie performs a comedic vaudeville act, causing the weasels to die of laughter; Eddie kicks their leader into the machine's dip vat, killing him. Eddie fights Doom, who is flattened by a steamroller, but survives, exposing him as the very toon who killed Teddy. Eddie uses a toon boxing glove mallet that causes the machine to empty its dip onto Doom, dissolving him. The empty machine crashes through the wall into Toontown, where it is destroyed by a train. Toons run in to regard Doom's remains, and Eddie discovers that Roger inadvertently wrote his love letter for Jessica on Acme's will, which was written in disappearing/reappearing ink. Roger shocks Eddie with a joy buzzer, and Eddie gives him a kiss, having regained his sense of humor. Eddie happily enters Toontown with Dolores alongside Roger, Jessica and the other toons. ===== Porky in Wackyland was inducted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 2000, deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." A newspaper shows Porky Pig traveling to Africa to hunt the rare dodo bird, worth $4,000,000,000,000 p.s. 000,000,000 dollars. Porky uses his airplane to go to Dark Africa, then Darker Africa, and finally lands in Darkest Africa. When Porky lands, a sign tells him that he's in Wackyland ("Population: 100 nuts and a squirrel"), while a voice booms out "It can happen here!" Porky tiptoes along the ground in his airplane and he is greeted by a roaring beast, who suddenly becomes effeminate and dances away into the forest. He watches as the sun is lifted above the horizon by a tower of stacked creatures. Nearby, another creature rises out of a tall flower, playing "The William Tell Overture", using his nose as a flute. The creature launches into a wild drum solo, plays a tiny piano, and plays its nose like a horn, which brings out a group of odd creatures, including a rabbit dangling in midair from a swing that seems to be threaded through its own ears, a small creature wearing large female mannequin legs who encourages the rabbit to swing faster, a peacock with a fantail of cards, an upside-down creature walking with giant bare feet in his arms (replacing his hands) while wearing a hat on his legless rear end, a goofy-looking creature wearing large glasses in a small pot, a scooter-like creature, a creature with two steamboat pipes on his back, a four-legged creature with a waffle iron-like mouth, three fish swimming in midair (the first holding an umbrella, the second wearing an anchor, and the third with a periscope on its back), a round creature with long legs on its sides, and an angry criminal imprisoned behind a free- floating barred window that he holds in his hands while a small policeman on a wheel appears and hits him on the head with a large stick. As Porky tries to find the do-do, he comes across a duck singing "Mammy!", a horn-headed creature, a conjoined cat and dog hybrid creature spinning around like a tornado while they fight, and a 3 headed stooge whose heads argue and fight amongst themselves, but temporally stop their fight to tell the viewers that their mother was scared by a pawnbreaker's sign, while a small creature with a light bulb on its head translates their gibberish speech. Finally, the Dodo appears. Porky tries to catch it, but it plays tricks on him. The dodo pulls out a pencil and draws a door in mid-air, and instead of opening it and running through, reaches down and lifts up the bottom edge of the door like a curtain, darts underneath and lets it snap back into place for Porky to bump into. At another point, the do-do appears on the Warner Bros. shield logo and slingshots Porky into the ground. Afterwards, the dodo pulls a wall of bricks in the picture and lets him crash into it. Eventually, Porky triumphs when he disguises himself as a bearded paperboy, shouting "Extra! Extra! Porky captures Dodo!", before hitting the bird with a mallet. Porky loudly proclaims to the audience that he has captured the last dodo. The dodo mockingly replies, "Yes, I'm really the last of the dodos. Ain't I, fellas?". A multitude of dodos appear, all yelling out, "Yeah, man!". They and the Dodo all howl, which allows him to escape and stand on Porky's head. ===== On the eve of the coronation of King Rudolf V of Ruritania, his younger half-brother Michael, Duke of Strelsau, has him drugged. The unconscious king is abducted and imprisoned in a castle in the small town of Zenda. There are complications, plots, and counterplots, among them the schemes of Michael's mistress, Antoinette de Mauban, and those of his dashing but villainous henchman, Count Rupert of Hentzau. In a desperate attempt to deny Michael the excuse to claim the throne, Colonel Sapt and Fritz von Tarlenheim, attendants of the king, persuade his distant cousin Rudolf Rassendyll, an English visitor, to impersonate the king for the coronation. Rassendyll falls in love with Princess Flavia, the king's betrothed, but cannot tell her the truth. He determines to rescue the king and leads an attempt to enter the castle of Zenda. The king is rescued and is restored to his throne, but the lovers, trapped by duty, must part. ===== Max Bialystock (Zero Mostel) was once the toast of Broadway, but is now an aging, fraudulent, corruptible, and greedy Broadway producer who ekes out a hand-to- mouth existence romancing lascivious, wealthy elderly women in exchange for money for a "next play" that may never be produced. Accountant Leopold "Leo" Bloom (Gene Wilder), a nervous young man prone to hysterics, arrives at Max's office to audit his accounts and discovers a $2,000 discrepancy in the accounts of Max's last play. Max persuades Leo to hide the relatively minor fraud, and while shuffling numbers, Leo has a revelation—a producer can make a lot more money with a flop than a hit by overselling shares in the production, because no one will audit the books of a play presumed to have lost money. Max immediately puts this scheme into action. They will oversell shares on a massive scale and produce a play that will close on opening night, thus avoiding payouts and leaving the duo free to flee to Rio de Janeiro with the profits. Leo is afraid such a criminal venture will fail and they will go to prison, but Max eventually convinces him that his drab existence is no better than prison. The partners find the ideal play for their scheme: Springtime for Hitler: A Gay Romp with Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden. It is "a love letter to Hitler" written in total sincerity by deranged ex-Nazi Franz Liebkind (Kenneth Mars). Max and Leo persuade Liebkind to sign over the stage rights, telling him they want to show the world "the Hitler you loved, the Hitler you knew, the Hitler with a song in his heart." To guarantee the show is a flop, they hire Roger De Bris (Christopher Hewett), a director whose plays "close on the first day of rehearsal." The part of Hitler goes to a charismatic but barely coherent flower power hippie named Lorenzo Saint DuBois, also known as L.S.D. (Dick Shawn), who had mistakenly wandered into the theater during the casting call. Max sells 25,000% of the play to his regular investors. At the theatre on opening night, Max tries to ensure a truly terrible review by attempting to bribe the critic who came to see the show. As expected, the man is outraged and hurls the money Max wrapped around the tickets he gave him at Max's feet. Max and Leo sneak off to a bar across the street to wait for the audience to storm out once they actually see the show. The play opens with a lavish production of the title song, "Springtime for Hitler", which celebrates Nazi Germany crushing Europe ("Springtime for Hitler and Germany/Winter for Poland and France"). The audience is horrified and rises en masse after the number, but at this point L.S.D. comes on stage as Hitler and they find his beatnik-like portrayal and constant misinterpretations of the story hilarious, misinterpreting the production as a satire. Meanwhile, L.S.D.'s portrayal of Hitler enrages and humiliates Franz, who—after dropping the curtain and rushing out on stage—confronts the audience and rants about the treatment of his beloved play. He is knocked out and removed from the stage, and the audience assumes that his rant was part of the act. To Max and Leo's shock and horror, Springtime For Hitler is declared a smash hit, which means that the investors will be expecting a larger financial return than can be paid out. Max laments, "I was so careful... I picked the wrong play, the wrong director, the wrong cast... where did I go right?" A gun-wielding Franz confronts Max and Leo, accusing them of breaking the "Siegfried Oath". He tries to shoot himself, but runs out of bullets. The three then decide to blow up the theater to end the production, but they are injured, arrested, tried, and found "incredibly guilty" by the jury. Before sentencing, Leo makes an impassioned statement praising Max for changing his life and being his friend while also referring to him as "the most selfish man I have ever met in my life". Max tells the judge that they have learned their lesson. Max, Leo, and Franz are sent to the state penitentiary. There they produce a new play called Prisoners of Love, a show which proves to be even worse than Springtime For Hitler, mostly because Leo and Max are striving to make a good play instead of a bad one. While Max and Franz earnestly supervise rehearsals, Leo continues their old scam—overselling shares of the play to their fellow prisoners, and even to the warden. The song "Prisoners of Love" plays while the credits roll. ===== James Cagney and Edward Woods in The Public Enemy As youngsters in 1900s Chicago, Irish-Americans Tom Powers (James Cagney) and his lifelong friend Matt Doyle (Edward Woods) engage in petty theft, selling their loot to "Putty Nose" (Murray Kinnell). Putty Nose persuades them to join his gang on a fur warehouse robbery, assuring them he will take care of them if anything goes wrong. When Tom is startled by a stuffed bear, he shoots it, alerting the police, who kill gang member Larry Dalton. Chased by a cop, Tom and Matt gun him down. However, when they go to Putty Nose for help, they find he has left town. Tom's straightlaced older brother Mike Powers (Donald Cook) tries, but fails, to talk Tom into giving up crime. Tom keeps his activities secret from his doting mother (Beryl Mercer). When America enters World War I in 1917, Mike enlists in the Marines. In 1920, with Prohibition about to go into effect, Paddy Ryan (Robert Emmett O'Connor) recruits Tom and Matt as beer "salesmen" (enforcers) in his bootlegging business. He allies himself with noted gangster Samuel "Nails" Nathan (Leslie Fenton). As the bootlegging business becomes ever more lucrative, Tom and Matt flaunt their wealth. James Cagney in The Public Enemy Mike finds out that his brother's money comes not from politics, as Tom claims, but from bootlegging, and declares that Tom's success is based on nothing more than "beer and blood" (the title of the book upon which the film is based). Tom retorts in disgust: "Your hands ain't so clean. You killed and liked it. You didn't get them medals for holding hands with them Germans." Tom and Matt acquire girlfriends, Kitty (an uncredited Mae Clarke) and Mamie (Joan Blondell) respectively. Tom eventually tires of Kitty; in a famous scene, when she complains once too often, he angrily pushes half a grapefruit into her face. He then drops her for Gwen Allen (Jean Harlow), a woman with a confessed weakness for bad men. At a restaurant on the night of Matt's wedding reception to Mamie, Tom and Matt recognize Putty Nose and follow him home. Begging for his life, Putty plays a song on the piano that he had entertained Tom and Matt with when they were children. Tom shoots him in the back. Tom gives his mother a large wad of money, but Mike rejects the gift. Tom tears up the banknotes and throws them in his brother's face. "Nails" Nathan dies in a horse riding accident, prompting Tom to find the horse and shoot it. A rival gang headed by "Schemer" Burns takes advantage of the disarray resulting from Nathan's death, precipitating a gang war. Later, Matt is gunned down in public, with Tom narrowly escaping the same fate. Furious, Tom takes it upon himself to single-handedly settle scores with Burns and some of his men. Tom is seriously wounded in the shootout, and ends up in the hospital. When his mother, brother, and Matt's sister Molly come to see him, he reconciles with Mike and agrees to reform. However, Paddy warns Mike that Tom has been kidnapped by the Burns mob from the hospital. Later, his dead body is returned to the Powers home. ===== Jim Stark is in police custody. In Los Angeles, teenager Jim Stark (James Dean) is arrested and taken to the juvenile division of a police station for "plain drunkenness". At the station he meets John "Plato" Crawford (Sal Mineo), who was brought in for killing a litter of puppies, and Judy (Natalie Wood), who was brought in for curfew violation. The three each separately reveal their innermost frustrations to the officers; all three of them suffer from problems at home: *Jim feels betrayed and anguished by his constantly bickering parents, Frank and Carol, but even more so by his father's timid attitude and failure to stand up to Carol; the issues are further complicated by Frank's interfering mother. His frustrations are made manifest to officer Ray Fremick when Jim is released to their custody. *Judy is convinced that her father ignores her because she is no longer a little girl, so she dresses up in racy clothes to get attention, which only causes her father to call her a "dirty tramp". *Plato's father abandoned his family when he was a toddler, and his mother is often away from home, leaving Plato in the care of his housekeeper. On the way to his first day at Dawson High, Jim again meets Judy and offers her a ride. Seemingly unimpressed by Jim at first, she declines and is instead picked up by her "friends", a gang of delinquents led by Buzz Gunderson. Jim is shunned by the rest of the student body but is befriended by Plato, who comes to idolize Jim as a father figure. After a field trip to Griffith Observatory, Buzz provokes and challenges Jim to a knife fight. Jim beats Buzz in the knife fight, so to preserve his status as gang leader, Buzz suggests stealing some cars to have a "Chickie Run" at a seaside cliff. At home, Jim ambiguously asks his father for advice about defending one's honor in a dangerous situation, but Frank advises him against confrontation of any kind. That night, during the chickie run, Buzz plunges to his death when the strap on his jacket sleeve becomes entangled with his door- latch lever, preventing him from exiting the car in time. As police approach, the gang flees, leaving Judy behind, but Jim patiently persuades her to leave with him and Plato. Jim confronts his father while his mother watches. Jim later confides to his parents his involvement in the crash and considers turning himself in. When Carol declares they are moving again, Jim protests and pleads with Frank to stand up for him, but when Frank refuses Jim attacks him in frustration, then storms off to the police station to confess, but he is turned away by the desk sergeant. Jim drives back home, and finds Judy waiting for him. She apologizes for her prior treatment of him due to peer pressure, and the two begin to fall in love. Agreeing that they will never return to their respective homes, Jim suggests they visit an old deserted mansion Plato told him about. Meanwhile, Plato is intercepted by three members of Buzz's gang, who are convinced that Jim betrayed them to the police. They steal Plato's address book and go off after Jim; Plato retrieves his mother's gun and leaves to warn Jim and Judy, finding them at the mansion. The three new friends act out a fantasy as a family. Plato then falls asleep, and Jim and Judy leave to explore the mansion, where they share their first kiss. Buzz's gang find and wake up Plato, who, frightened and distraught, shoots and wounds one of the gang. When Jim returns, he attempts to restrain Plato, but he flees, accusing Jim of leaving him behind. Plato runs to the observatory and barricades himself inside as more police converge including Fremick who, with Frank and Carol, have been searching for Jim. Jim and Judy follow Plato into the observatory, where Jim persuades Plato to trade the gun for his red jacket; Jim quietly removes the ammunition before returning it, and then convinces Plato to come outside. But when the police notice that Plato still has the gun they shoot Plato down as he charges them, unaware that Jim had removed the bullets. Frank comforts his grieving son, vowing to be a stronger father. Now reconciled to his parents, Jim introduces them to Judy. ===== Thomas Dunson (John Wayne) wants to start a cattle ranch in Texas. Shortly after he begins his journey to Texas with his trail hand Nadine Groot (Walter Brennan), Dunson learns that his love interest Fen (Coleen Gray), whom he had told to stay behind with the California-bound wagon train with the understanding that he would send for her later, was killed in an Indian attack. That night, Dunson and Groot fend off an attack by Indians, and on the wrist of one, Dunson finds a bracelet he had been left by his late mother, which he had given to Fen as she left. The next day, an orphaned boy named Matthew Garth (played as a boy by Mickey Kuhn and as an adult by Montgomery Clift) wanders into Dunson and Groot's camp. He is the sole survivor of the wagon train, and Dunson adopts him. Dunson, Groot, and Matt enter Texas by crossing the Red River. They settle in deep South Texas near the Rio Grande. Dunson names his new spread the Red River D, after his chosen cattle brand for his herd. He promises to add M (for Matt) to the brand, once Matt has earned it. Fourteen years pass, and Dunson has a fully operational cattle ranch, but he is broke as a result of widespread poverty in the southern United States. He decides to drive his massive herd hundreds of miles north to the railhead at Sedalia, Missouri, where he believes they will fetch a good price. After Dunson hires men to help, including professional gunman Cherry Valance (John Ireland), the northward drive starts. Along the way, they encounter many troubles including a stampede caused by one of the men, Bunk Kenneally (Ivan Parry). This leads to the death of Dan Latimer (Harry Carey Jr.). Continuing with the drive, Valance relates that the railroad has reached Abilene, Kansas, which is much closer than Sedalia. When Dunson confirms that Valance had not actually seen the railroad, he ignores the rumor in favor of continuing to Missouri. Dunson's tyrannical leadership style begins to affect the men. After he announces he intends to lynch two men who stole supplies and tried to desert, Matt rebels and takes control of the herd in order to drive it along the Chisholm Trail to the hoped-for railhead in Abilene, Kansas. Valance and Buster (Noah Beery Jr.) become his right-hand men. Dunson curses Matt and promises to kill him when next they meet. The drive turns toward Abilene, leaving Dunson behind. On the way to Abilene, Matt and his men repel an Indian attack on a wagon train made up of gamblers and dance hall girls. One of the people they save is Tess Millay (Joanne Dru), who falls in love with Matt. They spend a night together, and he gives her Dunson's mother's bracelet. Eager to beat Dunson to Abilene, he leaves early in the morning, the same way Dunson had left his lady love with the wagon train 14 years before. Later, Tess encounters Dunson, who has followed Matt's trail and now sees her wearing his mother's bracelet. Weary and emotional, he tells Tess what he wants most of all is a son. She offers to bear him one if he will abandon his pursuit of Matt. Dunson sees in her the anguish that Fen had expressed when he left her, but he resumes the hunt with Tess accompanying him. When Matt reaches Abilene, he finds the town has been awaiting the arrival of such a herd to buy. He accepts an offer for the cattle and meets Tess again. Shortly thereafter, Dunson arrives in Abilene with his posse. Dunson and Matt begin a fistfight, which Tess interrupts, demanding that they realize the love that they share. Dunson and Matt make peace. The film ends with Dunson advising Matt to marry Tess and telling Matt that he will incorporate an M into the Red River D brand, because he has earned it. ===== The story follows the life of Owen (Rockliffe Fellowes), a young Irish American boy who is forced into a life of poverty after his mother dies. As a result, Owen is forced to live on the street eventually turning to a life of crime. Owen is eventually reformed, however, by the benevolent social worker Marie Deering (Anna Q. Nilsson). Also featured is a fire aboard an excursion ferry, much like the General Slocum disaster of 1904. Regeneration 1915 poster ===== In the early years of the 20th century, an aging ex-lawman, Steve Judd (Joel McCrea), is hired to transport gold from a high country mining camp to the town of Hornitos, California. Six miners were recently murdered trying to transport their gold on the one trail leading down from the crest of the Sierra Nevada. In his prime, Judd was a tough and respected lawman, but now his threadbare clothes and spectacles serve as reminders that he is long past his prime. Judd enlists the help of his old friend and partner Gil Westrum (Randolph Scott) to guard the gold transfer. Gil, who had been making his living passing himself off as a legendary sharpshooter named The Oregon Kid, enlists the help of his young sidekick, Heck Longtree (Ron Starr). Judd, Gil, and Heck ride up into the mountains toward Coarsegold (A Sierra foothills town north of Fresno ) mining camp. Judd doesn't know that Gil and Heck are planning to steal the gold for themselves—preferably with Judd's help, but without it if necessary. Along the way they stop for the night at the farm of Joshua Knudsen (R. G. Armstrong) and his daughter Elsa (Mariette Hartley). Knudsen is a domineering religious man who warns against those who "traffic in gold" and trades Bible verses with Judd at the dinner table. That night, Elsa and Heck meet in the moonlight, but Knudsen interrupts their conversation. Back at the house, he admonishes and slaps her for her behavior. Unable to tolerate her domineering father any longer, Elsa leaves her home the next morning. She later joins Judd, Gil, and Heck on their ride to Coarse Gold where she intends to marry her fiancé. Along the way she and Heck flirt and he tries to force himself on her but is stopped by Judd. When they reach the Coarse Gold mining camp, they soon discover that the girl's fiancé, Billy Hammond (James Drury), is a drunken lout who intends to prostitute her to his four thuggish brothers, Elder (John Anderson), Sylvus (L. Q. Jones), Jimmy (John Davis Chandler) and Henry (Warren Oates). Judd and Heck rescue the girl from the marriage, and the next morning, Judd, Gil, Heck and Elsa start back towards town with the gold. Along the way, Judd talks to Gil about right and wrong and how that's "something you just know." After all the lost years working in disreputable places, he tells Gil that he's now grateful to have gained back some of his self-respect and intends on keeping it "with the help of you and that boy back there." When Gil asks if that's all he wants, Judd replies, "All I want is to enter my House justified." Realizing Judd will never go along with his plan to steal the gold, Gil plans to steal the gold without his help. During the night as Gil and Heck prepare to leave with the gold, Judd confronts them at gunpoint. Angered by his old friend's betrayal, he slaps him and challenges him to a draw, but Gil throws down his guns. Planning to put them on trial when they return to town, Judd is forced to change his plans when the Hammond brothers appear in hot pursuit of the girl. In the ensuing gunfight, two of the brothers, Jimmy and Sylvus, are killed, and Billy, Elder and Henry escape. During the night, Gil leaves camp and heads back to the site of the gunfight, where he takes a horse and gun from one of the dead brothers. Then he follows Judd, Heck, and Elsa down the only trail. Meanwhile, Heck has shown himself to be trustworthy, and even though he will most likely go to prison, Elsa tells him she'll be there when he gets out. When they reach Elsa's farm, the Hammond brothers are waiting, having already killed her father. A gunfight breaks out and soon both Judd and Heck are wounded. Just then Gil comes riding in to help his old friend, and together the pair insult and challenge the brothers to a face-to-face shootout in the open. When the dust settles, the three brothers are dead, but Judd is mortally wounded. He tells his old friend, "I don't want them to see this. I'll go it alone." When Gil pledges to take care of everything just like he would have, Judd says, "Hell, I know that. I always did. You just forgot it for a while, that's all." Judd casts a look back towards the high country and then dies. The film's final shot is of a mountain in the background. ===== The film opens with a freighter at sea exploding and news announcements. The cause of the explosion is a mystery, with all crew accounted for with the exception of two unidentified stowaways. Jeff Peters (Bing Crosby) and Orville 'Turkey' Jackson (Bob Hope) are seen floating at sea aboard a pile of wreckage. It was Jeff's idea to stow away, but it was Orville 'smoking in the powder room' that caused the explosion. As the two joke about eating one another to survive, they spot land in the distance. As they sit on the beach, Orville reminds Jeff of his promise to Aunt Lucy, to take care of him. Jeff reminds him that Aunt Lucy died before he could agree. They are interrupted by a convenient camel, and they hitch a ride. Once in the city, they are nearly run over by Arabs shooting guns, led by the sheik Mullay Kasim (Anthony Quinn). Jeff and Orville learn the sheik is pursuing a princess for marriage. Orville is approached by a group of bearers carrying someone in a veiled box. A beautiful hand takes his and then leaves, with Orville in pure bliss. In a restaurant, Jeff and Orville eat heartily, while trying to figure out how to get past the knife- wielding owner without paying. A man (Dan Seymour) takes Jeff aside and hands over a great deal of money. Orville is happy to be able to pay for the meal, until he learns that Jeff 'sold' him. Orville is furious, especially since neither of them know why the man bought him. Jeff calms him down and tells Orville he'll buy him back, eventually; and two men throw a hood over Orville and carry him off. A week later, Jeff is woken by a vision of Aunt Lucy (played by a harp-wielding Bob Hope) who shames him for his act. Jeff says he tried to buy Orville back, but learned he was re-sold to someone else. Aunt Lucy tells him he has to find Orville, and recommends singing Orville's favorite song. Jeff walks through the street singing, (accompanied by Aunt Lucy's ghost) until a note, with Orville's locket is tossed at him from the palace window. The note, written by Orville, says he's being tortured and warns Jeff of danger. Jeff, thinking Orville is in trouble, scales the palace wall. Hearing a woman singing, Jeff sneaks into the palace and see a lot of beautiful girls dancing for the beautiful Princess Shalmar (Dorothy Lamour) and singing to a very relaxed Orville. Jeff storms in and is grabbed by guards. Orville feigns ignorance and tries to send him away. The princess dismisses everyone, except for Jeff. Orville admits the truth, but it's clear he's still mad at Jeff. He says he and the princess are to be married. Jeff is surprised, but the princess says her wise man read the stars and told her to marry Orville. She was the one that passed Orville in the veiled box, and also the one that purchased him. As she plants a passionate kiss on Orville, Jeff decides to stick around; a decision that almost brings him and Orville to blows, but the princess invites Jeff to stay. As Orville is waited on by beautiful girls, he learns from one of them, Mihirmah (Dona Drake), the princess was supposed to marry Kasim (Anthony Quinn), but also tells Orville she loves him too. Jeff breaks up the party and confronts Orville, who has Jeff thrown out. Jeff wanders the palace singing, an act that attracts the princess and they go on a moonlit walk. Mihirmah tries to get Orville to run away with her. Jeff tries to tell the princess that HE was the one sold and should be marrying her, but he is interrupted by a sword-wielding Orville. The next morning, an angry Kasim confronts Princess Shalmar for marrying someone else. He is prepared to kill Orville, but the princess takes him to the wise man Hyder Kahn (Vladimir Sokoloff). Hyder Khan said he had read the stars and found that Princess Shalmar's first husband is destined to die a violent death within a week of the marriage, and the second husband would be blessed with long life and happiness. The princess tells Kasim that Orville is the first husband, and when he dies, she'll happily marry Kasim and they will live in happiness. Kasim finally understands and embraces the princess. Orville finds out about the prophecy and runs to Jeff and convinces him that the princess actually loves him and he's going to run off with Mihirmah. Later that night, Orville is visited and shamed by Aunt Lucy's spirit, but Orville refuses to tell Jeff the truth. Meanwhile, the wise man realizes that he had been misreading the stars due to fireflies in his telescope; his prophecies are incorrect. Princess Shalmar refuses to marry Jeff, even though Orville is eager to get out of the marriage. The princess sends Orville away to get ready for the wedding. The wise man runs in and tells the princess and Jeff of the incorrect prophecy. The princess is happy and tells Jeff now she can marry him and not Kasim. Jeff realizes why Orville was so eager to get out of the marriage, but decides not to tell him. Instead, he says the princess changed her mind, and Orville is only too eager to accept. Meanwhile, the wise man's assistant tells Kasim, who rallies his men. The Princess and Jeff decide to get married in the U. S., accompanied by Orville and Mihirmah but they are confronted by Kasim, who takes the princess and gives Mihirmah to one of his men. Jeff and Orville try to use their 'patty-cake' routine on Kasim, but it backfires. They escape into the palace with the girls but are found and captured. Kasim takes the women and strands Jeff and Orville in the desert. They wander aimlessly, seeing a drive-in restaurant, but it's a mirage. They see a vision of Princess Shalmar singing Moonlight Becomes You, which they join but with voices swapped. They find an oasis which is near Kasim's camp. They try to sneak in, but are captured. They see another set of horsemen and learn it is an enemy sheik who was invited as a token of peace. They manage to escape and set the two sheiks against each other. In the chaos, Jeff and Orville grab the girls and escape. Later, on a boat home, Orville sneaks into the powder room for a cigarette. There is an explosion and then we see all four afloat a pile of wreckage. Fortunately, they are near New York harbor. ===== Ann, a crown princess from an unnamed European nation, is on a state visit to Rome, becomes frustrated with her tightly scheduled life, and secretly leaves her country's embassy. The delayed effect of a sedative makes her fall asleep on a bench, where Joe Bradley, an expatriate reporter for the "American News Service", finds her, without recognizing who she is. Thinking that she is intoxicated, Joe lets her spend the night in his apartment. The next morning, Joe hurries off late to work and gives his editor, Mr. Hennessy, false details of his attendance at the princess' press conference. When Hennessy informs him that the event had been cancelled, and shows him a news item about the princess' "sudden illness", he realizes who is asleep in his apartment. Seeing an opportunity, Joe privately calls his photographer friend, Irving Radovich, to ask him to secretly take pictures. Joe then tells Hennessy that he'll get an exclusive wide-ranging interview with the princess and asks how much that would be worth. Hennessy offers to pay $5000 for the article, but bets Joe $500 that he won't be able to get it. al fresco, just before Joe knocks over Irving's chair to silence him. Joe hurries home, and, hiding the fact that he is a reporter, offers to show his guest, "Anya", around Rome. However, Ann declines Joe's offer and leaves. Enjoying her freedom, she explores an outdoor market, buys a pair of shoes, observes the people and daily-life of Rome, and gets her long hair cut into a short style. Joe follows, and "accidentally" meets Ann on the Spanish Steps. This time, he convinces her to spend the day with him, and takes her to a street café, where he meets up with Irving. They visit the Mouth of Truth, where Joe tricks Ann into thinking that his hand has been bitten off, and later tour the Colosseum. When Anya tries to drive Joe on a Vespa through heavy Roman traffic they are all arrested, but Joe and Irving show their "fake" press passes and the group is set free. That night, at a dance on a boat that her barber had invited her to, government agents called in by the embassy spot Ann and try to forcibly take her away. Joe, Irving, and the barber rush in to save her from the abductors, and Ann joins in the fight that breaks out. As police arrive and subdue the agents, Joe and Ann run away, but Joe is ambushed, falls into the river, and Ann jumps in to save him. They swim across and kiss as they sit shivering on the riverbank. Later at Joe's apartment, while drying their wet clothes, they share tender bittersweet moments. Knowing that her royal responsibilities must resume, Ann asks Joe to drive her to a corner near the embassy, where they kiss again. She bids a tearful farewell, and returns to assume her duties as a princess. Hennessy comes to Joe's apartment, suspecting that the princess was not ill as claimed and that Joe was telling the truth about the interview. Joe, however, has decided not to write the story, although Irving arrives and is confused by the change of plans. Joe tells Irving that he is still free to sell his photographs. Joe and Irving then leave to attend the postponed press conference at the embassy and surprise Princess Ann. Through vague public words, Joe assures Ann that no press exposure will come from their day together. At the end of the interview, the princess unexpectedly asks to meet the journalists, speaking briefly with each. As she reaches Joe and Irving, Irving presents her with his photographs as a memento of Rome. Joe and Ann then speak, with her final words to him being "so happy". After Ann reluctantly departs, and the press leaves, Joe stays for awhile, and then walks away alone. ===== The film opens in 1922 with Harold Lloyd (the character has the same name as the actor) behind bars. His mother and his girlfriend, Mildred, are consoling him as a somber official and priest show up. The three of them walk toward what looks like a noose. It then becomes obvious they are at a train station and the "noose" is actually a trackside pickup hoop used by train crews to receive orders without stopping, and the bars are merely the ticket barrier. He promises to send for his girlfriend so they can get married once he has "made good" in the big city. Then he is off. He gets a job as a salesclerk at the De Vore Department Store, where he has to pull various stunts to get out of trouble with the picky and arrogantly self-important head floorwalker, Mr. Stubbs. He shares a rented room with his pal "Limpy" Bill, a construction worker. When Harold finishes his shift, he sees an old friend from his hometown who is now a policeman walking the beat. After he leaves, Bill shows up. Bragging to Bill about his supposed influence with the police department, he persuades Bill to knock the policeman backwards over him while the man is using a callbox. When Bill does so, he knocks over the wrong policeman. To escape, he climbs up the façade of a building. The policeman tries to follow, but cannot get past the first floor; in frustration, he shouts at Bill, "You'll do time for this! The first time I lay eyes on you again, I'll pinch you!" Meanwhile, Harold has been hiding his lack of success by sending his girlfriend expensive presents he cannot really afford. She mistakenly thinks he is successful enough to support a family and, with his mother's encouragement, takes a train to join him. In his embarrassment, he has to pretend to be the general manager, even succeeding in impersonating him to get back at Stubbs. While going to retrieve her purse (which Mildred left in the manager's office), he overhears the real general manager say he would give $1,000 to anyone who could attract people to the store. He remembers Bill's talent and pitches the idea of having a man climb the "12-story Bolton building", which De Vore's occupies. He gets Bill to agree to do it by offering him $500. The stunt is highly publicized and a large crowd gathers the next day. When a drunkard shows "The Law" (the policeman who was pushed over) a newspaper story about the event, the lawman suspects Bill is going to be the climber. He waits at the starting point despite Harold's frantic efforts to get him to leave. Finally, unable to wait any longer, Bill suggests Harold climb the first story himself and then switch his hat and coat with Bill, who will continue on from there. After Harold starts up, the policeman spots Bill and chases him into the building. Every time Harold tries to switch places with Bill, the policeman appears and chases Bill away. Each time, Bill tells his friend he will meet him on the next floor up. Eventually, Harold reaches the top, despite his troubles with a clock and some hungry pigeons, and kisses his girl. ===== The documentary follows four salesmen as they travel across New England and southeast Florida trying to sell expensive Bibles door-to-door in low-income neighborhoods, and attend a sales meeting in Chicago. The film focuses in particular on salesman Paul Brennan, a middle-aged Irish-American Catholic from Jamaica Plain, Boston, who struggles to maintain his sales."Salesman|The New Yorker" ===== As described in a film magazine, during a banquet at Herod's palace, the Tetrarch (Lewis) pays too much attention to his stepdaughter Salomé (Nazimova), angering his wife Herodias (Dione). Salomé goes out into the courtyard adjoining the banquet hall and induces the soldier on guard to let her see Jokaanan (De Brulier), who is then brought up from the prison below. Salomé shows her love for the Prophet and, when he ignores her attentions, declares that she will kiss him. The price is a dance before Herod, who promises her that he will accede to any demand for the dance. Salomé asks for and gets the Prophet's head and kisses it. Herod then turns upon her and orders her killed. ===== Esperanza and Ramon Esperanza Quintero (Rosaura Revueltas) is a miner's wife in Zinc Town, New Mexico, a community which is essentially run and owned by Delaware Zinc Inc. Esperanza is thirty-five years old, pregnant with her third child and emotionally dominated by her husband, Ramon Quintero (Juan Chacón).Full Synopsis - TCM.com The majority of the miners are Mexican-Americans and want decent working conditions equal to those of white, or "Anglo" miners. The unionized workers go on strike, but the company refuses to negotiate and the impasse continues for months. Esperanza gives birth and, simultaneously, Ramon is beaten by police and jailed on bogus assault charges following an altercation with a union worker who betrayed his fellows. When Ramon is released, Esperanza tells him that he's no good to her in jail. He counters that if the strike succeeds they will not only get better conditions right now but also win hope for their children's futures.Full Synopsis - TCM.com The company presents a Taft-Hartley Act injunction to the union, meaning any miners who picket will be arrested. Taking advantage of a loophole, the wives picket in their husbands' places. Some men dislike this, seeing it as improper and dangerous. Esperanza is forbidden to picket by Ramon at first, but she eventually joins the line while carrying her baby.Full Synopsis - TCM.com The sheriff, by company orders, arrests the leading women of the strike. Esperanza is among those taken to jail. When she returns home, Ramon tells her the strike is hopeless, as the company will easily outlast the miners. She insists that the union is stronger than ever and asks Ramon why he can't accept her as an equal in their marriage. Both angry, they sleep separately that night.Full Synopsis - TCM.com The next day the company evicts the Quintero family from their house. The union men and women arrive to protest the eviction. Ramon tells Esperanza that they can all fight together. The mass of workers and their families proves successful in saving the Quinteros' home. The company admits defeat and plans to negotiate. Esperanza believes that the community has won something no company can ever take away and it will be inherited by her children.Full Synopsis - TCM.com ===== Osgood Perkins as John "Johnny" Lovo and Paul Muni as Antonio "Tony" Camonte in a scene from the film's trailer. In 1920s Chicago, Italian immigrant Antonio "Tony" Camonte (Paul Muni) acts on the orders of Italian mafioso John "Johnny" Lovo (Osgood Perkins) and kills "Big" Louis Costillo, the leading crime boss of the city's South Side. Johnny takes control of the South Side with Tony as his key lieutenant, selling large amounts of illegal beer to speakeasies and muscling in on bars run by rival outfits. However, Johnny repeatedly warns Tony not to mess with the Irish gangs led by O'Hara, who runs the North Side. Tony soon ignores these orders, barraging bars belonging to O'Hara, and attracting the attention of the police and rival gangsters. Johnny realizes Tony is out of control and aspires to take his position. Meanwhile, Tony pursues Johnny's girlfriend Poppy (Karen Morley) with increasing confidence. At first, she is dismissive of him but pays him more attention as his reputation rises. She visits his "gaudy" apartment where he shows her his view of an electric billboard advertising Cook's Tours, which features the slogan which inspires him: "The World Is Yours". Tony eventually decides to declare war and take over the North Side. He sends the coin-flipping Guino Rinaldo, one of his best men and close friend, to kill O'Hara in a florist's shop that he uses as his base. This brings heavy retaliation from the North Side gangs, now led by Gaffney and armed with Thompson submachine guns—which instantly capture Tony's dark imagination. Tony leads his own forces to destroy the North Side gangs and take over their market, even to the point of impersonating police officers to murder several rivals in a garage. Tony kills Gaffney as he makes a strike at a bowling alley. The South Side gang and Poppy go to a club and Tony and Poppy dance together in front of Johnny. After Tony conspicuously shows his intention to steal Poppy, Johnny believes his protégé is trying to take over, and he arranges for Tony to be assassinated while driving. Tony manages to escape this attack, and he and Guino kill Johnny, leaving Tony as the undisputed boss of the city. In order to elude the increasingly aggravated police force, Tony and Poppy leave Chicago for a month. Paul Muni in the trailer for ScarfaceTony's actions have provoked a public outcry, and the police are slowly closing in. After he sees his beloved sister Francesca "Cesca" (Ann Dvorak) with Guino, he kills his friend in a jealous rage before the couple can inform him of their secret marriage. His sister runs out distraught, presumably to notify the police. The police move to arrest Tony for Guino's murder, and Tony takes cover in his house and prepares to fire at the police. Cesca comes back, planning to kill him, but decides to help him to fight the police. Tony and Cesca arm themselves and Tony shoots at the police from the window, laughing maniacally. Moments later, however, Cesca is killed by a stray bullet. Calling Cesca's name as the apartment fills with tear gas, Tony leaves on the stairs, and the police confront him. Tony pleads for his life but makes a break for it, only to be shot by an unknown officer with a Tommy gun. He stumbles for a moment and falls in the gutter and dies. Among the sounds of cheering, the electric billboard blazes "The World Is Yours". ===== Charles Oakley lives alone in a rooming house. One day, his landlady tells him that two men came looking for him; he sees the two men waiting on the street in front of his room, and he decides to leave town. Charlotte (Charlie) Newton is a bored teenage girl living in the idyllic town of Santa Rosa, California. She receives wonderful news: Her mother's younger brother (her eponym), Charles Oakley, is arriving for a visit. Her uncle arrives, and at first, everyone is delighted with his visit, especially young Charlie. Uncle Charlie brings everyone presents. He gives his niece an emerald ring that has someone else's initials engraved inside. Charlie's father, Joseph Newton, works at a bank, and Uncle Charlie tells him he wants to open an account and deposit $40,000 ($ million today) at his bank. Two men appear at the Newton home, posing as interviewers working on a national survey. Uncle Charlie is upset and berates his sister for opening up her home to strangers. One of the men takes a photo of Uncle Charlie, who demands the film roll because "no one takes my photograph." The younger interviewer, Jack Graham, asks young Charlie out, and she guesses that he is really a detective. He explains that her uncle is one of two suspects who may be the "Merry Widow Murderer." Charlie refuses to believe it at first but then observes Uncle Charlie acting strangely, primarily with a news clipping from her father's newspaper that describes a murder. The initials engraved inside the ring he gave her match those of one of the murdered women, and during a family dinner, he reveals his hatred of rich widows. One night, when Charlie's father and his friend Herbie discuss how to commit the perfect murder, Uncle Charlie lets his guard down and describes elderly widows as "fat, wheezing animals"; he then says, "What happens to animals when they get too fat and too old?" Horrified, Charlie runs out. Uncle Charlie follows and takes her into a seedy bar. He admits he is one of the two suspects. He begs her for help; she reluctantly agrees not to say anything, as long as he leaves soon to avoid a horrible confrontation that would destroy her mother, who idolizes her younger brother. Detective Fred Saunders, Jack Graham's older colleague, tells Charlie that the photo they took of Uncle Charlie was sent for identification by witnesses. News breaks that an alternative suspect was chased by police and killed by an airplane propeller; it is assumed that he was the murderer. Jack tells young Charlie that he loves her and would like to marry her, and leaves. Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotten) confronts his niece (Teresa Wright) in a seedy bar about what she knows. Uncle Charlie is delighted to be exonerated, but young Charlie knows all his secrets. Soon, she falls down dangerously steep stairs, which she later notices were cut through. Uncle Charlie says he wants to settle down, and young Charlie says she will kill him if he stays. Later that night, she is prodded by Uncle Charlie to get the car from the garage. The engine was left running, and the garage is full of exhaust fumes. She tries to turn the engine off, but the key is not in the ignition, and when she tries to leave, she finds the garage door jammed, and she is trapped in the garage. Mr. Newton's friend Herbie happens to come by and hears Charlie banging on the garage door and gets her out in time. Uncle Charlie announces he is leaving for San Francisco, along with a rich widow, Mrs. Potter. At the train station, young Charlie boards the train with her younger sister Ann and their brother to see Uncle Charlie's compartment. Uncle Charlie restrains his niece Charlie on the train as the children disembark, hoping to kill her by shoving her out after it picks up speed. However, in the ensuing struggle, he falls in front of an oncoming train. At his funeral, Uncle Charlie is honored by the townspeople. Jack has returned, and Charlie confesses that she withheld crucial information. They resolve to keep Uncle Charlie's crimes a secret. ===== Ben, diffident and awkward, is meant to be a jazz trumpeter but wastes his time drinking in Manhattan bars and trying to pick up girls with two fellow-idlers, Dennis and Tom. He is supported by his brother Hugh, who is supposed to be a jazz singer but is unable to find much work because of his old-fashioned style. Hugh's career is managed by Rupert. Ben and Hugh live with their fair-skinned, younger sister Lelia, who intends to be a writer. Initially, she is under the wing of older, intellectual David, but at a party, she abandons him for the younger Tony, who takes her virginity. Seeing her home, he is shocked to find that her family are black and is kicked out by Hugh, who does not want his sister going with a bigoted white man. Lelia is paired with a pleasant black man, who is shocked at the independent ways she has acquired. Ben, after getting beaten up for trying to muscle in on some girls in a bar, may have learned a lesson. Hugh, who may at last have made some compromises over his act, gets a booking in Chicago. ===== In January 1971,Calendar in Shaft's office shows January 1971. See Production. John Shaft, a private detective, is informed that some gangsters are looking for him. Police Lt. Vic Androzzi meets Shaft and unsuccessfully tries to get information from him on the two gangsters. After Androzzi leaves, Shaft spots one of the men waiting for him in his office building. He forces the first gangster into his office where the second gangster is waiting. During a short fight, Shaft dodges one of them who goes out the window, while the other surrenders and reveals to him that Bumpy Jonas, the leader of a Harlem-based organized crime family, wants Shaft brought uptown to Harlem for a meeting. At the police station, Shaft lies to Lt. Androzzi and the detective assigned to the second gangster's death, by saying that the man was in an "accident". He is allowed to return to the streets for 48 hours. Shaft arranges a meeting with Bumpy in his office. It turns out Bumpy's daughter has been kidnapped, and Shaft is asked to ensure her safe return. After tracking down Ben Buford as Bumpy suggested, a shootout ensues; Shaft is told by Androzzi after the shooting that Shaft himself, and not Ben, was the target, and that tensions brewing between the uptown hoods belonging to Bumpy Jonas and the downtown Mafiosi have culminated in a couple of murders. But the perception is black against white to the general public, with the possibility of an escalation into full-blown race war. He also shows Shaft some pictures of two of the Mafia men who just arrived in New York. Vic begs Shaft to explain what's going on, although Vic already knows Bumpy is looking for Shaft. Shaft surmises that mobsters are watching his apartment from a local bar. Shaft pretends to be a bartender and calls the police to have the mobsters arrested. Shaft later goes to the police station to set a meeting to find where Bumpy's daughter is being held captive. Vic tells Shaft that the room that he was in at the station house was bugged and he is supposed to bring him in for questioning, but instead leaves. Ben and Shaft go to the apartment where Marcy Jonas is being held to make sure she is alive. Once there, a gunfight ensues during which two Mafia hoods are killed and Shaft takes a bullet in the shoulder. Shaft goes home and receives medical attention from a doctor working underground with him. Shaft tells Ben to round up his men and meet him at the hotel where Marcy has been taken, to prepare to get her back. He also calls Bumpy to tell him his daughter is fine and he is going to need some taxicabs to meet him at the hotel for the getaway. Shaft's plan resembles a military commando-style operation. Ben's men dress as hotel workers to avoid arousing suspicion. Shaft and one of Ben's men go to the roof and prepare to enter the room where Marcy is being held captive. Shaft's plan is to cause a distraction with an explosive thrown through the window of Marcy's room while Ben and his men come down the hall and deal with the Mafia men as they leave their rooms. The rescue plan is successful. Marcy is spirited out of the hotel into one of the waiting taxicabs. As the others get away in the remaining cabs, Shaft walks to a phone booth to call Vic. Shaft informs Vic as a result of the rescue there will be a huge mess to fix between the uptown crew and the mob in the near future. Vic says to close it for him, meaning he wants Shaft to fix the trouble. Shaft replies, "You're gonna have to close it yourself" then hangs up the phone and walks away laughing. ===== Sherlock, Jr. A movie theater projectionist and janitor (Buster Keaton) is in love with a beautiful loveable girl (Kathryn McGuire). However, he has a rival, the "local sheik" (Ward Crane). Neither has much money. The projectionist buys a $1 box of chocolates, all he can afford, and changes the price to $4 before giving it and a ring to her. The sheik steals and pawns the girl's father's pocket watch for $4. With the money, he buys a $3 box of chocolates for the girl. When the father notices his watch is missing, the sheik slips the pawn ticket into the projectionist's pocket unnoticed. The projectionist, studying to be a detective, offers to solve the crime, but when the pawn ticket is found in his pocket, he is banished from the girl's home. While showing a film about the theft of a pearl necklace, the projectionist falls asleep and dreams that he enters the movie as a detective, Sherlock Jr. The other actors are replaced by the projectionist's "real" acquaintances. The dream begins with the theft being committed by the villain (played by the sheik) with the aid of the butler (played by "the hired man"). The girl's father calls for the world's greatest detective, and Sherlock Jr. arrives. Fearing that they will be caught, the villain and the butler attempt to kill Sherlock through several traps, poison, and an elaborate pool game with an exploding 13 ball. When these fail, the villain and butler try to escape. Sherlock Jr. tracks them down to a warehouse but is outnumbered by the gang to which the villain was selling the necklace. During the confrontation, Sherlock discovers that they have kidnapped the girl. With the help of his assistant, Gillette, Sherlock Jr. manages to save the girl, and defeat the gang. When he awakens, the girl shows up to tell him that she and her father learned the identity of the real thief after she went to the pawn shop to see who actually pawned the pocket watch. As a reconciliation scene happens to be playing on the screen, the projectionist mimics the actor's romantic behavior. ===== Journalist Johnny Barrett (Peter Breck) thinks that the quickest way to a Pulitzer Prize is to uncover the facts behind an unsolved murder at a mental hospital and convinces an expert psychiatrist to coach him to appear insane when it involves relating imaginary accounts of incest with his "sister", who is impersonated by his exotic-dancer girlfriend (Constance Towers); though against her wishes, she is talked into assisting him by filing a police complaint, and his performance during the investigation convinces the authorities to lock him up in the institution where the murder took place. While pursuing his investigation, he is disturbed by the behavior of his fellow inmates.MUBI The three witnesses to the murder were driven insane by the stresses of war, bigotry, or fear of nuclear annihilation.Criterion Collection essay by Tim Hunter * Stuart, the son of a Southern sharecropper who was taught bigotry and hatred as a child, became cynical and angry with the country of his birth. He was captured in the Korean War and was brainwashed into becoming a Communist. Stuart was ordered to indoctrinate a fellow prisoner, but instead the prisoner's unwavering patriotism reformed him. Stuart's captors pronounced him insane and he was returned to the US in a prisoner exchange, after which he received a dishonorable discharge and was publicly reviled as a traitor. Stuart now imagines himself to be Confederate States of America General J.E.B. Stuart. * Trent was one of the first black students to integrate a segregated Southern university. He now imagines himself a member of the Ku Klux Klan, and stirs up the patients with white nationalist dogma. * Boden was an atomic scientist scarred by the knowledge of the devastating power of intercontinental ballistic missiles. He has regressed to the mentality of a six-year-old child. After a hospital riot, Barrett is straitjacketed and subjected to shock treatment, and he now believes his girlfriend really is his sister, rejecting her when she comes to visit. He experiences many other symptoms of mental breakdown while he learns the identity of the killer, violently extracting a confession from him in front of witnesses, and writes his story. But his mind is critically damaged, however, and he has to stay in the hospital for an undefined period of time, and Cathy breaks down crying as a doctor tells her that Barrett is now a "catatonic schizophrenic." ===== Shane (Alan Ladd) and Marian Starrett (Jean Arthur) Shane, a laconic but skilled gunfighter with a mysterious past, is a drifter who rides into an isolated valley in the sparsely settled Wyoming Territory, sometime after the Civil War. He is hired as a farmhand by local rancher Joe Starrett who lives as a homesteader with his wife, Marian, and their young son, Joey. Starrett tells Shane that a war of intimidation is being waged on the valley's settlers. Though they have claimed their land legally under the Homestead Acts, a ruthless cattle baron, Rufus Ryker, has hired various rogues and henchmen to harass them and force them out of the valley. Shane goes to town alone to buy supplies at Grafton's, a general store with an adjacent saloon. Shane enters the saloon where Ryker's men are drinking and orders a soda pop for Joey. Chris Calloway, one of Ryker's men, ridicules and taunts Shane by dumping his drink on Shane, but Shane ignores him and leaves. On Shane's next trip to town with the Starrett's and other homesteaders, he defeats Calloway, and then he and Starrett win a bar room brawl against most of Ryker's other men. Ryker promises the next fight will be with guns. Ryker hires Jack Wilson, an unscrupulous and notoriously skilled gunfighter. Joey admires Shane, much to his mother's chagrin, after Shane demonstrates his shooting skills. Frank "Stonewall" Torrey, a hot-tempered ex-Confederate homesteader, is taunted by Wilson, who then shoots Torrey dead outside the saloon. At Torrey's funeral, the settlers discuss abandoning their struggle and leaving the valley; but after witnessing a fire set by Ryker's men, they find new resolve to continue the fight. Ryker invites Starrett to a meeting at the saloon to negotiate a settlement with the purpose of killing him. Calloway, no longer loyal to Ryker, warns Shane of the double-cross. Shane and Starrett argue over who will go into town to face Wilson. The two fight, with Shane knocking Starrett unconscious. Shane rides to town with Joey following on foot to watch the fight. Shane kills Wilson, Ryker, and Ryker's, brother. Outside, Shane sees Joey, who notices Shane is bleeding. In an iconic closing scene, Shane bids farewell and rides off into the valley, ignoring Joey's desperate cries of "Shane, come back!" ===== Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart and Frank Morgan in The Shop Around the Corner The Shop Around the Corner trailer Alfred Kralik (James Stewart) is the top salesman at a leathergoods shop in Budapest owned by the high-strung Mr. Hugo Matuschek (Frank Morgan). Kralik's coworkers at Matuschek and Company include his friend, Pirovitch (Felix Bressart), a kindly family man; Ferencz Vadas (Joseph Schildkraut), a two-faced womanizer; saleswoman Ilona Novotny (Inez Courtney); clerk Flora Kaczek (Sara Haden); and Pepi Katona (William Tracy), an ambitious, precocious delivery boy. One morning, Kralik reveals to Pirovitch that he's been corresponding anonymously with an intelligent and cultured woman whose ad he came across in the newspaper. Kralik is Mr. Matuschek's oldest and most trusted employee, but lately there has been tension between the two. They get into an argument over Mr. Matuschek's idea to sell a cigarette box that plays "Ochi Chërnye" when opened. After their exchange, Klara Novak (Margaret Sullavan) enters the gift shop looking for a job. Kralik tells her there are no openings, but when she is able to sell one of the cigarette boxes (as a candy box), Mr. Matuschek hires her. However, she and Kralik do not get along. As Christmas approaches, Kralik is preparing to meet his mystery correspondent for a dinner date. The meeting is frustrated when Mr. Matuschek demands that everyone stay after work. Later Kralik is called into Mr. Matuschek's office and is fired. No one in the shop understands Mr. Matuschek's actions; they do not know that Mr. Matuschek suspects Kralik of having an affair with his wife. Later, Mr. Matuschek meets with a private investigator who informs him that his wife is having an affair with one of his employees—Ferencz Vadas. Pepi returns to the shop just in time to prevent Mr. Matuschek from committing suicide. Meanwhile, Kralik arrives at the Cafe Nizza, where he discovers that his mystery woman is Klara Novak. Despite his disappointment, Kralik goes in and talks with her, pretending he is there to meet Pirovitch. In his mind, Kralik tries to reconcile the cultured woman of his letters with his annoying coworker—secretly hoping that things might work out with her. But concerned that Kralik's presence will spoil her first meeting with her "far superior" mystery correspondent, she calls Kralik a "little insignificant clerk" and asks him to leave. Later that night, Kralik goes to the hospital to visit Mr. Matuschek, who offers him a job as manager of Matuschek and Company. Grateful to Pepi for saving his life, Mr. Matuschek promotes him to clerk. The next day, Miss Novak calls in sick after her mystery man failed to show. That night, Kralik visits her at her apartment. During his visit, she receives a letter from her correspondent and reads it in front of Kralik (who wrote the letter). Two weeks later, on Christmas Eve, Matuschek and Company achieves record sales. Kralik and Miss Novak, alone in the shop, talk about their planned dates for the evening and Miss Novak reveals that she had a crush on Kralik when they first met. After pretending to have met Miss Novak's mystery man, Kralik puts a red carnation in his lapel and reveals to Miss Novak that he is her mystery correspondent, and they kiss. ===== Movie Newspaper advertisement Grant Newbury (Tom Mix), Deputy Inspector of Immigration at the US/Mexico border is asked by his boss to infiltrate a gang smuggling Chinese workers through the border at Calexico, in order to identify and arrest their ringleader. Meanwhile, in Chicago, Estelle Halloway (Eva Novak) is disappointed because her guardian wrote that she would not be able to spend her holidays with him in Calexico as planned. When she wires him that she will come nevertheless with her roommate Marguerite (Adele Warner) and her brother (William Buckley), he tells her that they will meet instead near the Grand Canyon as it is too warm in Calexico. In Calexico Grant finds out that the ringleader is none other than Jim Frazer (J. Farrell MacDonald), Estelle's guardian. He becomes part of the gang and is requested to go and help taking of the Chinese now hidden in a camp in Grand Canyon. After having left discreetly the camp to fetch the police, he sees Estelle on the point of drowning in a river and saves her. He is caught by the bandit who have learned that he is a government agent but manages to escape first on horseback then in a motor car and reaches the little town of Williams where he gets the help of the police. While the police drives to the hidden camp in motor cars, Grant borrows an aircraft and flies into the Grand Canyon where he jumps in a river and manages to free Estelle. Jim Frazer is identified as the ringleader and arrested, but to protect Estelle, Grant accepts that he lets her believe that he is leaving for a long trip. Frazer asks Grant whether he would help take care of Estelle while he is in jail and Grant answers: "I'll look after her the rest of her life if she'll let me." ===== In February 1929 in Prohibition-era Chicago, Joe is a jazz saxophone player and an idealistic gambler and ladies' man; his level-headed friend Jerry is a jazz double bass player. They work in a speakeasy (disguised as a funeral home) owned by gangster "Spats" Colombo. Tipped off by informant "Toothpick" Charlie, the police, led by treasury agent Mulligan, raid the joint. Joe and Jerry flee, only to accidentally witness Spats and his henchmen exacting revenge on "Toothpick" and his own gang (inspired by the real-life Saint Valentine's Day Massacre). Poor and eager to get out of town, Joe and Jerry disguise themselves as women named Josephine and Daphne so they can join Sweet Sue and her Society Syncopators, an all-female band headed to Miami. They board a train with the band and its male manager, Bienstock. Joe and Jerry notice Sugar Kane, the band's vocalist and ukulele player. Joe and Jerry become obsessed with Sugar and compete for her affection while maintaining their disguises. Sugar confides to Joe that she has sworn off male saxophone players, who have stolen her heart in the past and left her with "the fuzzy end of the lollipop". She has set her sights on finding a gentle, bespectacled millionaire in Florida. During the forbidden drinking and partying on the train, Josephine and Daphne become close friends with Sugar, and must struggle to remember that they are supposed to be girls and cannot make passes at her. Once in Miami, Joe woos Sugar by assuming a second disguise as millionaire Junior, the heir to Shell Oil, while feigning indifference to her. An actual millionaire, the much-married aging mama's-boy Osgood Fielding III, tries repeatedly to pick up Daphne, who rejects him. Osgood invites Daphne for a champagne supper on his yacht, New Caledonia. Joe convinces Daphne to keep Osgood occupied onshore so that Junior can take Sugar to Osgood's yacht, passing it off as his own. Once on the yacht, Junior explains to Sugar that psychological trauma has left him impotent and frigid, but that he would marry anyone who could change that. Sugar tries to arouse sexual response in Junior, and begins to succeed. Meanwhile, Daphne and Osgood dance the tango ("La Cumparsita") till dawn. When Joe and Jerry get back to the hotel, Jerry announces that Osgood has proposed marriage to Daphne and that he, as Daphne, has accepted, anticipating an instant divorce and huge cash settlement when his ruse is revealed. Joe convinces Jerry that he cannot actually marry Osgood. The hotel hosts a conference for "Friends of Italian Opera", which is in fact a major meeting of the national crime syndicate, presided over by "Little Bonaparte". Spats and his gang from Chicago recognize Joe and Jerry as the witnesses to the Valentine's Day murders. Joe and Jerry, fearing for their lives, realize they must quit the band and leave the hotel. Joe breaks Sugar's heart by telling her that he, Junior, must marry a woman of his father's choosing and move to Venezuela. Joe and Jerry evade Spats' men by hiding under a table at the syndicate banquet. "Little Bonaparte" has Spats and his men killed at the banquet; again, Joe and Jerry are witnesses and they flee through the hotel. Joe, dressed as Josephine, sees Sugar onstage singing that she will never love again. He kisses her before he leaves, and Sugar realizes that Joe is both Josephine and Junior. Jerry persuades Osgood to take "Daphne" and "Josephine" away on his yacht. Sugar runs from the stage at the end of her performance and jumps aboard Osgood's launch just as it is leaving the dock with Joe, Jerry, and Osgood. Joe tells Sugar that he is not good enough for her, that she would be getting the "fuzzy end of the lollipop" yet again, but Sugar wants him anyway. Meanwhile, Jerry lists reasons why "Daphne" and Osgood cannot marry, ranging from a smoking habit to infertility. Osgood dismisses them all; he loves Daphne and is determined to go through with the marriage. Exasperated, Jerry removes his wig and shouts, "I'm a man!" Osgood, unfazed, simply responds: "Well, nobody's perfect", to Jerry's consternation. ===== Morally bankrupt Manhattan press agent Sidney Falco is a frustrated minor player who, of late, has been unable to gain mentions for his clients in J.J. Hunsecker's influential, nationally syndicated newspaper column because of his failure to make good on a promise. Hunsecker is somewhat too fond and protective of his younger sister Susan, and has demanded that Falco break up the romance between Susan and musician Steve Dallas, an up-and-coming jazz guitarist. Falco is losing money and clients. Given one last chance by the bullying, intimidating Hunsecker, he schemes to plant a false rumor in a rival column that Dallas is a marijuana-smoking Communist. The idea is that this will get Dallas fired from the jazz club his combo plays at; Hunsecker will then gain points with Susan by defending him and getting him his job back, but Falco counts on Dallas's pride to make him reject Hunsecker's favor and end up looking bad to Susan. Falco tries to blackmail another columnist into printing his blind item about Dallas by threatening in front of his wife to expose his infidelity, but the other columnist chooses exposure over outraging his remaining journalistic principles. He is rewarded and Falco thwarted when his wife praises him for his first clean action in years. Falco then gets a third columnist to print the item by arranging a rendezvous for him in the bedroom off Falco's office with Rita, a cigarette girl he wants; this is a moral step down for Falco because Rita likes him and was waiting in his bedroom for a date with him. She is outraged when he brings in the other man, but Falco talks her into accommodating him by claiming he is doing it to help her career as well as his. The third columnist prints the item, and Dallas's whole group is fired from the club. The plan works just as Falco anticipated: in Dallas and Susan's presence, Hunsecker ostentatiously uses his power to get Dallas rehired with a phone call, and Dallas can't resist insulting and denouncing him for his unwholesome influence on society. Forced to choose between them, the timid Susan breaks up with Dallas in order to protect him from her brother. Unfortunately, Hunsecker is so enraged by Dallas's insults to him that he decides to take it further (he claims that Dallas insulted every one of his millions of readers). He decides to ruin and crush the boy, and orders Falco to plant marijuana on him, then have him arrested and roughed up by corrupt police lieutenant Harry Kello. It is such a dirty trick that even Falco wants no part of it, at least until Hunsecker, planning to take a long sea voyage with Susan to make her forget Dallas, promises to turn his column over to Falco in his absence. At the jazz club, Falco slips the marijuana cigarettes into a pocket of a coat belonging to Dallas, who is accosted by Kello outside the club and beaten so badly he ends up in the hospital. Falco retires to a bar where, surrounded by his industry pals, he toasts to his new perfume, the sweet smell of success. But the festivities are interrupted when Falco is summoned—he assumes by Hunsecker—to the columnist's penthouse apartment, where he finds Susan attempting to commit suicide by jumping off the balcony. Falco stops her from jumping and pulls her back into the apartment; he follows her into her bedroom to lecture her for being childish. Hunsecker arrives, and it becomes clear that he did not summon Falco and doesn't understand why he is there. Falco realizes that Susan called him there, not her brother; he tries to explain that Susan tried to kill herself and he saved her. Susan refuses to verify this, and Hunsecker starts slapping him around for putting his hands on her. Outraged, Falco reminds him in front of Susan that it was he who ordered him to plant the marijuana on Dallas. Hunsecker's reaction is to call Kello and declare Dallas innocent and Falco guilty of planting the drug on him. Falco tells Hunsecker that Kello's beating will not stop him from making the whole story public, and leaves. As he exits the building, he is caught in Times Square by the brutal cop. Back in the penthouse, Susan, her bags packed, acknowledges to her brother that she did attempt suicide, considering death preferable to living with him. She walks out on him, saying that she will go to Steve Dallas. From his apartment balcony, J.J. watches his sister leaving him, as she walks out past Falco's beaten form into the coming daylight. ===== Passing a stagecoach way station on his journey into town, Pat Brennan agrees to return with some store bought candy for the friendly station manager's young son. At a ranch where he once worked, Brennan tries to buy a bull, but is talked into riding one. If he wins, he gets the bull. If he loses he has to give up his horse. Brennan loses, and is forced to walk home, carrying his saddle. He gets a welcome rescue by stagecoach driver Rintoon, a friend of Brennan's from town who has been hired to transport the newlyweds Willard and Doretta Mims. Doretta is a plain woman, but the daughter of the richest man in the state. It tickles Brennan, who tells Rintoon this is the first time he's ever been on a honeymoon. When they stop at the way station, they are mistaken for the regular stage by three outlaws, Chink, Billy Jack, and their leader, Frank Usher, who have already killed the station manager and his son. Rintoon goes for a shotgun, only to be killed by Chink. Terrified of sharing the same fate, Willard suggests to the outlaws that ransoming his wife would be far more profitable than robbing the stage. Frank likes the idea. He also immediately recognizes, and is disgusted by, the groom's clear lack of devotion to his bride. The outlaw leader takes a liking to Brennan, later telling him that under different circumstances the two of them might have been friends. After ordering Billy Jack to ride along with Willard and deliver a ransom note demanding $50,000 to Doretta's father, Frank takes the woman and Brennan to a remote hideout. Willard returns, saying his father-in-law has agreed and is rounding up the money. Willard is told he is no longer needed and can leave. A coward, he does not even bother to say goodbye to his new wife, which deepens Frank's disgust for him. As Willard begins to ride off, Chink shoots him down. Brennan knows full well that he and Doretta will end up dead once the ransom is paid. He tells the distraught widow to collect herself and be ready to take any opportunity for life that presents itself. He then takes her in his arms. She hesitates, then kisses him. She confesses she married Willard because she was getting older and did not want to be alone. Billy Jack and Chink are left behind to guard the hostages while Frank goes off to collect the money. Brennan plants the thought that their ringleader might just ride off with all the money, so Chink leaves the camp to keep an eye on Frank. Brennan suggests to Billy Jack that he take advantage of Doretta, a lonely woman denied even her wedding night. Billy Jack does indeed try to force himself on Doretta, whereupon Brennan overpowers him and shoots him dead. Chink hears the shots and turns back. Brennan kills him. Frank then returns with the money. Brennan sneaks up behind him, so Frank surrenders his revolver and the money, gambling that Brennan will not shoot him in the back. He slowly mounts his horse and rides off. However, he has a rifle stowed in his saddle, so he pulls it and turns around; he tries to confront and kill Brennan, who is forced to kill the outlaw. Walking away, side by side, Doretta reaches for Brennan's arm, which he places around her. ===== Soviet Russian film poster of The Thief of Bagdad Ahmed robs as he pleases in the city of Baghdad. Wandering into a mosque, he tells the holy man he disdains his religion; his philosophy is, "What I want, I take." That night, he sneaks into the palace of the caliph using a magic rope he stole during ritual prayers. All thoughts of plunder are forgotten when he sees the sleeping princess, the caliph's daughter. The princess's Mongol slave discovers him and alerts the guards, but he gets away. When his associate Abu reminds the disconsolate Ahmed that a bygone thief once stole another princess during the reign of Haroun al-Rashid, Ahmed sets out to do the same. The next day is the princess's birthday. Three princes arrive, seeking her hand in marriage (and the future inheritance of the city). Another of the princess's slaves foretells that she will marry the man who first touches a rose-tree in her garden. The princess watches anxiously as first the glowering Prince of the Indies, then the obese Prince of Persia and finally the Prince of the Mongols pass by the rose-tree. The mere sight of the Mongol fills the princess with fear, but when Ahmed appears (disguised in stolen garments as a suitor), she is delighted. The Mongol slave tells her countryman of the prophecy, but before he can touch the rose-tree, Ahmed's startled horse tosses its rider into it. That night, following ancient custom, the princess chooses Ahmed for her husband. Out of love, Ahmed gives up his plan to abduct her and confesses all to her in private. The Mongol prince learns from his spy, the princess's Mongol slave, that Ahmed is a common thief and informs the caliph. Ahmed is lashed mercilessly, and the caliph orders he be torn apart by a giant ape, but the princess has the guards bribed to let him go. When the caliph insists she select another husband, her loyal slave advises her to delay. She asks that the princes each bring her a gift after "seven moons"; she will marry the one who brings her the rarest. In despair, Ahmed turns to the holy man. He tells the thief to become a prince, revealing to him the peril-fraught path to a great treasure. The Prince of the Indies obtains a magic crystal ball from the eye of a giant idol, which shows whatever he wants to see, while the Persian prince buys a flying carpet. The Mongol prince leaves behind his henchman, telling him to organize the soldiers he will send to Bagdad disguised as porters. (The potentate has sought all along to take the city; the beautiful princess is only an added incentive.) After he lays his hands on a magic apple which has the power to cure anything, even death, he sends word to the Mongol slave to poison the princess. After many adventures, Ahmed gains a cloak of invisibility and a small chest of magic powder which turns into whatever he wishes when he sprinkles it. He races back to the city. The three princes meet as agreed at a caravansary before returning to Bagdad. The Mongol asks the Indian to check whether the princess has waited for them. They discover that she is near death, and ride the flying carpet to reach her. Then the Mongol uses the apple to cure her. The suitors argue over which gift is rarest, but the princess points out that without any one gift, the remaining two would have been useless in saving her life. Her loyal slave shows her Ahmed in the crystal ball, so the princess convinces her father to deliberate carefully on his future son-in-law. The Mongol prince chooses not to wait, unleashing his secret army that night and capturing Bagdad. Ahmed arrives at the city gate, shut and manned by Mongols. When he conjures up a large army with his powder, the Mongol soldiers flee. The Mongol prince is about to have one of his men kill him when the Mongol slave suggests he escape with the princess on the flying carpet. Ahmed liberates the city and rescues the princess, using his cloak of invisibility to get through the Mongols guarding their prince. In gratitude, the caliph gives his daughter to him in marriage. ===== In Anchorage, journalist Ned Scott (Douglas Spencer), looking for a story, visits the Air Force officer's club, where he meets Captain Pat Hendry (Kenneth Tobey), his co-pilot Lieutenant Eddie Dykes, (a friend of Scott's), and flight navigator Ken "Mac" MacPherson. General Fogarty orders Hendry to fly to Polar Expedition Six at the North Pole, per a request from its lead scientist, Nobel laureate Dr. Arthur Carrington (Robert Cornthwaite); Carrington has radioed that an unusual aircraft has crashed nearby. With Scott, Corporal Barnes, crew chief Bob, and a pack of sled dogs, Hendry pilots a Douglas C-47 transport aircraft to the remote outpost. Upon arrival, Scott and the airmen meet radio operator Tex, a woman named Mrs. Chapman, a man named Lee, who is one of two cooks, and the Inuit dog handlers. Also present are scientists Vorhees, Stern, Redding, Stone, Laurence, Wilson, Ambrose, Auerbach, Olson, Mrs. Chapman's husband Dr. Chapman, and Carrington. Hendry later rekindles his romance with Nikki Nicholson (Margaret Sheridan), Carrington's secretary. Several scientists fly with the airmen to the crash site, finding a large object buried beneath ice. As they spread out to determine its shape, they realize they are standing in a circle; they have discovered a flying saucer. The team attempts to melt the ice covering the saucer with thermite, but a violent reaction with the craft's metal alloy completely destroys it. Their Geiger counter, however, detects a frozen body buried nearby; it is excavated in a large block of ice and loaded aboard the transport. They fly out as an Arctic storm closes in on the site. Hendry assumes command of the outpost and, pending instruction from General Fogarty, denies Scott permission to send out his story; he also denies the scientists' demands to examine the body. Tex sends an update to Fogarty, and the airmen settle in as the storm arrives. A watch is posted; Barnes relieves McPherson and, disturbed by the creature's appearance in the clearing ice, covers it with an electric blanket, which he does not realize is plugged in. The block slowly thaws and the creature, still alive, escapes into the storm and is attacked by the sled dogs. The airmen recover the creature's severed arm after the attack. The scientists examine the arm, concluding that the alien is an advanced form of plant life. Carrington is convinced of its superiority to humans and becomes intent on communicating with it. The airmen begin a search, which leads to the outpost's greenhouse. Carrington stays behind with Vorhees, Stern, and Laurence, having noticed evidence of alien activity. They discover a third sled dog hidden away, which has had all of its blood drained; the carnivorous plant creature feeds on blood. Carrington and the scientists post a secret watch of their own, hoping to encounter the alien before the airmen find it. The next morning, the airmen continue their search. Tex informs them that Fogarty is aware of their discovery and demands further information, now prevented by the fierce storm. Stern appears, badly injured, and tells the group that the creature has killed Auerbach and Olson. When the airmen investigate, the alien attacks them; they manage to barricade it inside the greenhouse. Hendry confronts Carrington and orders him to remain in his lab and quarters. Carrington, obsessed with the alien, shows Nicholson and the other scientists his experiment: using seeds taken from the severed arm, he has been growing small alien plants by feeding them from the blood plasma supply at the base. Hendry finds the plasma missing when it is needed to treat Stern, which leads him to Carrington. Fogarty transmits orders to keep the creature alive, but it escapes from the greenhouse and attacks the airmen in their quarters. They douse it with buckets of kerosene and set it afire, forcing it to retreat into the storm. After regrouping, they realize that their building's temperature is falling rapidly; the furnaces have stopped working, sabotaged by the alien. They retreat to the station's generator room to keep warm, and rig an electrical "fly trap". The alien continues to stalk them, but at the last moment, Carrington attempts to communicate, pleading with the creature. It knocks him aside, walks into the trap, and is electrocuted and reduced to a pile of ash. When the weather clears, Scotty is finally able to file his "story of a lifetime" by radio to a roomful of reporters in Anchorage. He begins his broadcast with a warning: "Tell the world. Tell this to everybody, wherever they are. Watch the skies everywhere. Keep looking. Keep watching the skies". ===== The setting is Warsaw, Poland, just before the 1939 Nazi Germany invasion. The well-known stars of a Warsaw theater company, "ham" actor Josef Tura (Jack Benny) and his beautiful wife, Maria (Carole Lombard), along with the rest of the company, are rehearsing "Gestapo", a play satirizing the Nazis. One of the actors, Bronski (Tom Dugan), even proves that he can pass for Hitler in the street. That night, when the company is performing Shakespeare's Hamlet, with Tura in the title role, Bronski commiserates with friend and colleague, Greenberg (Felix Bressart), about being limited to being spear carriers. Greenberg, who is implicitly Jewish (although the words "Jew" or "Judaism" are never used), reveals he has always dreamed of playing Shylock in Merchant of Venice, especially the famous "Hath not a Jew eyes?" speech, which he proceeds to recite. Meanwhile, the lovely Maria has received flowers from handsome young pilot Lt. Stanislav Sobinski (Robert Stack). She tells Sobinski to come to see her in her dressing room when Tura begins his "To be or not to be..." speech, to ensure privacy. As her husband, Tura begins his monologue, Sobinski very obviously walks out, causing the highly-strung actor great distress at the apparent insult. Shortly thereafter, the company is ordered by the government to cancel "Gestapo", to avoid possibly worsening relations with Germany. The following night, after a brief (and chaste) assignation, Sobinski again walks out during "To be or not to be", freshly infuriating Tura. Sobinski confesses his love to Maria, assuming that she will leave her husband, as well as the stage, to be with him. Before Maria can correct Sobinski's assumption, news breaks out that Germany has invaded Poland. Sobinski, a pilot, leaves to join the fight, and the actors huddle in the basement of the theater as Warsaw is bombed. Hitler conquers Poland, but the Polish division of the British Royal Air Force is fighting to free its mother country. Lt. Sobinski and other young pilots of the division sing together, with the Polish resistance leader Professor Siletsky (Stanley Ridges) as their guest. Siletsky will return to Warsaw shortly, and the men give him messages for their loved ones. However, Sobinski becomes suspicious when Siletsky doesn't know of the famous actress Maria Tura. Sobinski reports the incident, the Allies now realize that Siletsky has a list of the names and addresses of relatives of Polish airmen in the RAF, against whom reprisals can be taken. Sobinski flies back to warn Maria, and she goes to pass on the message to the underground. However, Siletsky has returned as well, and has Maria brought to him by German soldiers. He invites Maria to dinner, hoping to recruit her as a spy, as well as to sample her charms. She plays along and returns home to dress for dinner, but just before she arrives home, Tura returns and finds Sobinski in his bed wearing his bathrobe. Maria and Sobinski try to figure out what to do about Siletsky, while Tura tries to figure out what is going on with his wife and the pilot. In the end, Tura proclaims that he will kill Siletsky. Later that evening, Maria returns to Siletsky's room and pretends to be attracted to him, but just as they kiss, there is a knock at the door. A member of the acting company disguised as a Gestapo officer summons Siletsky to "Gestapo headquarters", which is the theatre, hastily disguised with props and costumes from their play. Tura pretends to be Col. Ehrhardt of the Gestapo and Siletsky gives him the information he has gathered. He also reveals that Sobinski's message for Maria, and that "To be or not to be" was the signal for their rendezvous. Tura jealously over-reacts, and blows his cover. Siletsky pulls a gun on Tura and tries to escape but is shot and killed by Sobinski. Tura quickly disguises himself as Siletsky in a fake beard and glasses, goes to the hotel to destroy Siletsky's extra copy of the information, and to confront Maria about her affair. He is met at the hotel by the real Col. Ehrhardt's (Sig Ruman) adjutant, Capt. Schultz (Henry Victor), and taken to meet him. Tura passes himself off, and names recently executed prisoners as the leaders of the resistance. He also learns that Hitler will visit Warsaw the next day. The following day, Siletsky's body is discovered in the theater. Ehrhardt sends for Maria and tells her but she is unable to warn Tura. In the meantime, still posing as Siletsky, Tura has arranged another meeting with Ehrhardt. With a lot of assumptions, swaps, feints and beard pulling, Tura "proves" he is the real Siletsky. Just as Tura is about to leave Gestapo headquarters, some of the actors, in dressed as Germans costume having been sent by Maria, storm in to yank off Tura's false beard, and pretend to drag him out. Everyone is safe for the moment, but they cannot leave the country as previously planned on the plane Ehrhardt had arranged for Siletsky. The Germans stage a show at the theater to honor Hitler during his visit. Sobinski, Tura, Bronski and the other actors slip into the theater dressed as Germans and hide until Hitler and his entourage arrive and take their seats. As the Germans are singing the Deutschlandlied (the German national anthem) Greenberg suddenly appears and rushes Hitler's box, causing enough distraction to exchange the real Germans for the actors. Acting as the head of Hitler's guard, Tura demands to know what Greenberg wants, giving the actor his chance to deliver Shylock's famous speech from The Merchant of Venice, ending with "if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?!" Tura orders Greenberg to be "taken away"; all the actors march out, get in Hitler's cars and drive away. Back at her apartment, Maria waits for the company, from where they all intend to leave on Hitler's plane. Col. Ehrhardt unwittingly shows up and tries to seduce Maria. Then the door opens, and "Hitler"/Bronski enters, sees them, and then turns and walks out without a word. Ehrhardt is first completely amazed, but quickly alarmed that he has just been caught trying to seduce the Führer's mistress! Maria dashes after Bronski calling, "Mein Führer, Mein Führer!" The actors take off in the plane, disposing easily of the Nazi pilots. Sobinski flies to Scotland, where the actors are interviewed by the press. Asked what reward he would like for his service to the Allies, Maria quickly responds for him, "He wants to play Hamlet", and so, Tura goes back, once again, on stage as Hamlet. On reaching the critical moment of his soliloquy, he is relieved to see Sobinski sitting quietly in the audience. As he proceeds, a handsome new officer gets up and heads noisily backstage. ===== Michael Dorsey is a respected actor, but nobody in New York wants to hire him because he is a perfectionist and difficult to work with. After many months without a job, Michael hears of an opening on the popular daytime soap opera Southwest General from his friend and acting student Sandy Lester, who tries out for the role of hospital administrator Emily Kimberly. In desperation, he impersonates a woman, auditioning as "Dorothy Michaels", and gets the part. Michael takes the job as a way to raise $8,000 to produce a play by his roommate Jeff Slater, which will star himself and Sandy. Michael plays Emily as a feisty feminist, which surprises the other actors and the crew, who expected her to be (as written) another swooning female. His character quickly becomes a national sensation. When Sandy catches Michael in her bedroom half undressed because he wants to try on her clothes for ideas for Dorothy's wardrobe, he covers up by claiming he wants to have sex with her. Exacerbating matters further, he is attracted to one of his co-stars, Julie Nichols, a single mother in an unhealthy relationship with the show's amoral, sexist director, Ron Carlisle. At a party, when Michael (as himself) approaches Julie with a pick-up line to which she had previously told Dorothy she would be receptive, she throws a drink in his face. Later, as Dorothy, when he makes tentative advances, Julie—having just ended her relationship with Ron per Dorothy's advice—makes it known that she is not a lesbian. Meanwhile, Dorothy has her own admirers to contend with: older cast member John Van Horn and Julie's widowed father, Les. Les proposes marriage, insisting that Dorothy think about it before answering. When Michael returns home, he finds John, who almost forces himself on Dorothy until Jeff walks in on them. A few minutes later, Sandy arrives, asking why he hasn't answered her calls. Michael admits he's in love with another woman, and Sandy screams and breaks up with him. The tipping point comes when, due to Dorothy's popularity, the show's producers want to extend her contract for another year. Michael extricates himself when a technical problem forces the cast to perform live by improvising a revelation about Emily: that she is actually Edward, Emily's twin brother who took her place to avenge her. This allows everybody a way out, but Julie is so outraged at Michael's deception that she punches him in the groin once the cameras have stopped rolling and storms off. Some weeks later, Michael is moving forward with producing Jeff's play. He returns Les's engagement ring, and Les says, "The only reason you're still living is because I never kissed you." Despite his anger, Les admits that Michael was good company as Dorothy, and Michael buys him a beer. Michael later waits for Julie outside the studio. She is reluctant to talk to him, but he tells her that he and her father played pool and had a good time. She finally admits she misses Dorothy. Michael tells her, "I was a better man with you as a woman than I ever was with a woman as a man." Julie forgives him and they walk down the street together, engaged in conversation. ===== In Venice, Gaston Monescu (Herbert Marshall), a master thief masquerading as a baron, meets Lily (Miriam Hopkins), a beautiful pickpocket posing as a countess. The two fall in love and decide to team up. They leave Venice for Paris. There, Gaston steals a diamond-encrusted purse worth 125,000 francs from Madame Mariette Colet (Kay Francis), owner of the famous perfume manufacturer Colet and Co. When Mariette offers a large reward for its return, Gaston claims it, giving the name of Lavalle. While claiming the reward, Gaston charms Mariette, and admits to being broke. Mariette hires him as her private secretary. He arranges for Lily to be employed in Mariette's office, and stands up to Mariette's board of directors, led by Monsieur Adolph J. Giron (C. Aubrey Smith), the manager, who is openly suspicious of him. Having observed Mariette open her private safe (and memorized the combination), Gaston persuades her that she should keep a large sum there, including half of her next dividend installment. Mariette begins to flirt with Gaston, and he begins to have feelings for her. Unfortunately for the thieves, Mariette has two suitors: the major (Charles Ruggles), and François Filiba (Edward Everett Horton), who was robbed in Venice by Gaston (posing as a doctor). François sees Gaston at a garden party, and is sure they have met, but can't immediately recall where. Fearing imminent discovery, Gaston and Lily decide to flee that night with what is in the safe, and not wait for the dividend installment. Mariette is invited to a dinner party given by the Major. She cannot decide whether to go or to spend the night in bed with Gaston. Eventually she goes, but not before Lily catches on that Gaston has fallen for her rival, and wants to back out of the plan. At the party, the major tells François that he once mistook Gaston for a doctor, and François then recalls the Venice incident. François tells Mariette about Gaston, but she refuses to believe it's true. Lily robs the safe after confronting her partner. Mariette returns home and suggestively probes Gaston, who admits that the safe has been cleaned out, but claims that he took the cash. He also tells her that Monsieur Giron has stolen millions from the firm over the years. Lily then confronts Mariette and Gaston, admitting that it was she who stole the money from the safe. An argument ensues, and eventually, Mariette allows the two thieves to leave together. As a parting shot, Gaston steals a necklace from Mariette that Lily had her eye on, and in turn, Lily steals it from him, displaying it to him as the taxi takes them away, hugging each other. ===== A Dutch boy and girl's idyllic existence is destroyed when they are overrun by a group of Nazi-like mechanical men called "The Screwballs", who lay waste to everything they touch. The Screwballs are later destroyed by a thunderstorm (the rain of which causes them to rust) and the boy and girl's idyllic life resumes.Dig a hole and Tulips Shall Grow: Ray Harryhausen|San Diego Reader ===== In 1949, former U.S. Army Air Forces officer Harvey Stovall spots a familiar Toby Jug in the window of a London antique shop and learns that it came from Archbury, an airfield where Stovall served during World War II. Convinced that it is the same jug which used to stand on the mantle of the airfield's officers' club, he buys it and journeys to the derelict airfield. Stovall remembers the events of 1942, when the 918th Bomb Group at Archbury had gained a reputation as the 'hard luck group'. After a particularly disastrous mission, group commander Colonel Keith Davenport appears exhausted and demoralized. His defeatist attitude spreads to other senior leaders of the group, including his Air Exec, Lieutenant Colonel Ben Gately. Ordered to fly another mission the next day, at a dangerously low altitude, Davenport protests to his friend, Brigadier General Frank Savage, the Assistant Chief of Staff for Operations at VIII Bomber Command. Later, Savage reluctantly shares with Major General Pritchard, the commanding general of VIII Bomber Command, his belief that Davenport has become too emotionally close to his men and may no longer be fit to command. That night, Pritchard and Savage visit the group headquarters to investigate the cause of the mission's heavy losses. Pritchard realizes that Savage is right: Davenport has become over-protective and is unwilling to discipline his men even for costly mistakes. Davenport is relieved of command and Savage is asked to take over. Publicity shot of Gregory Peck in Twelve O'Clock High (1949) Savage takes a harsh approach to restoring the group's discipline and morale. He begins by reprimanding Lt. Col. Gately, demoting him to aircraft commander and insisting that he henceforth fly every mission. Savage assigns Gately only the most incompetent crewmen, ordering him to paint the name 'Leper Colony' on his airplane. Rough-and-ready Major Cobb impresses Savage with his independent spirit and replaces Gately as Air Exec. Savage conducts a series of training missions and waits for an opportunity to restore the group's pride in its abilities. Upset by the contrast of Savage's stern leadership with Davenport's easygoing ways, all of the Squadron’s pilots apply for transfers. Savage asks the Group Adjutant, Major Stovall, to delay processing their applications to buy him some time. An attorney in civilian life, Stovall knows how to use organizational 'red tape' to his advantage. When the Group returns to combat, all the groups are ordered to abort their mission due to heavy weather. Savage, leading the group, ignores the recall order. The 918th successfully bombs the target and is the only group to do so. All of its crews return safely. Though Pritchard is furious, Savage claims that he did not hear the recall due to radio malfunction and instead persuades Pritchard to recommend the group for a Distinguished Unit Citation. Savage also acquires a surrogate son in Lieutenant Jesse Bishop, a Medal of Honor recipient who is Savage's eyes and ears among the combat aircrews. When the Inspector General arrives to investigate the pilots' transfer requests, Savage packs his belongings, expecting to be relieved of command and possibly court-martialed. But, led by Bishop, the pilots withdraw their requests. Savage also softens his attitude towards the men as he becomes more closely involved with them. Gately goes on to win Savage's respect and admiration by demonstrating extraordinary leadership and courage in combat. With enemy resistance intensifying as the air war advances deeper into Germany, missions become longer and riskier and many of Savage's best men are shot down or killed. Pritchard tries to get Savage to return to a staff job at VIII Bomber Command but Savage feels that the 918th is not yet ready to stand up without him. Reluctantly, Pritchard leaves him in command. Ordered to return to the same target after a particularly brutal raid on a ball bearing factory, Savage finds himself physically unable to haul himself up into his B-17. The redeemed Ben Gately takes his place as lead pilot and strike commander for the mission. While waiting for the group’s return, Savage becomes catatonic. Only as they return to Archbury does he regain his composure and fall asleep. The story then returns to 1949, as Stovall pedals away from Archbury. ===== On the eve of Columbus Day festivities in New York, the boxer Mateo Vargas is released early from a jail term he served after he struck a police officer. He returns home for a surprise reunion with his family, but his wife Blanca faints. Mateo learns from her doctor that she is pregnant. Mateo is shocked, and knows that he cannot be the father. His trainer wants him to return to the boxing ring, but Mateo is too preoccupied with Blanca's infidelity. While he was in jail, Blanca had been seeing Claudio, the fiancé of Mateo's sister Lola. When Lola tells her suspicions to her mother, she slaps Lola. Vargas confronts Blanca about her pregnancy, but she refuses to name the father. Mateo becomes obsessed with finding his wife's lover. ===== "Madeleine" at Golden Gate Bridge, Fort Point, shortly before she jumps into the bay. After a rooftop chase, where a fellow policeman falls to his death, San Francisco detective John "Scottie" Ferguson retires due to fear of heights and vertigo. Scottie tries to conquer his fear, but his ex-fiancée and underwear designer Marjorie 'Midge' Wood says that another severe emotional shock may be the only cure. An acquaintance from college, Gavin Elster, asks Scottie to follow his wife, Madeleine, claiming that her mental state was abnormal and could put her in danger. Scottie reluctantly agrees and follows Madeleine to a florist where she buys a bouquet of flowers, to the Mission San Francisco de Asís and the grave of one Carlotta Valdes (1831–1857), and to the Legion of Honor art museum where she gazes at the Portrait of Carlotta. He watches her enter the McKittrick Hotel, but upon investigation, she does not seem to be there. A local historian explains that Carlotta Valdes committed suicide: she had been the mistress of a wealthy married man and bore his child; the otherwise childless man kept the child and cast Carlotta aside. Gavin reveals that Carlotta (who he fears is possessing Madeleine) is Madeleine's great-grandmother, although Madeleine has no knowledge of this, and does not remember the places she has visited. Scottie tails Madeleine to Fort Point and, when she leaps into the bay, he rescues her. The next day Scottie follows Madeleine; they meet and spend the day together. They travel to Muir Woods and Cypress Point on 17-Mile Drive, where Madeleine runs down towards the ocean. Scottie grabs her and they embrace. The following day, Madeleine visits Scottie and recounts a nightmare, and Scottie identifies its setting as Mission San Juan Bautista, childhood home of Carlotta. He drives her there and they express their love for each other. Madeleine suddenly runs into the church and up the bell tower. Scottie, halted on the steps by his acrophobia, sees Madeleine plunge to her death. The death is declared a suicide. Gavin does not fault Scottie, but Scottie breaks down, becomes clinically depressed and is in a sanatorium, almost catatonic. After release, Scottie frequents the places that Madeleine visited, often imagining that he sees her. One day, he notices a woman who reminds him of Madeleine, despite her different appearance. Scottie follows her and she identifies herself as Judy Barton, from Salina, Kansas. A flashback reveals that Judy was the person Scottie knew as "Madeleine Elster"; she was impersonating Gavin's wife as part of a murder plot. Judy drafts a letter to Scottie explaining her involvement: Gavin had deliberately taken advantage of Scottie's acrophobia to substitute his wife's freshly killed body in the apparent "suicide jump". But Judy rips up the letter and continues the charade because she loves Scottie. They begin seeing each other, but Scottie remains obsessed with "Madeleine", and asks Judy to change her clothes and hair so that she resembles Madeleine. After Judy complies, hoping that they may finally find happiness together, he notices her wearing the necklace portrayed in the painting of Carlotta, and realizes the truth, and that Judy had been Elster's mistress, before being cast aside just as Carlotta was. Scottie insists on driving Judy to the Mission. There, he tells her he must re-enact the event that led to his madness, admitting he now understands that "Madeleine" and Judy are the same person. Scottie forces her up the bell tower and makes her admit her deceit. Scottie reaches the top, finally conquering his acrophobia. Judy confesses that Gavin paid her to impersonate a "possessed" Madeleine; Gavin faked the suicide by throwing the body of his wife from the bell tower. Judy begs Scottie to forgive her because she loves him. He embraces her, but a shadowed figure rises from the trapdoor of the tower, startling Judy, who steps backward and falls to her death. Scottie, bereaved again, stands on the ledge, while the figure, a nun investigating the noise, rings the mission bell. ===== The screen pans on the silhouette of a mighty Viking arousing ferocious lightning storms, but then zooms in to reveal Elmer Fudd in armor (as the demigod Siegfried). Elmer sings his signature line "Be vewy qwiet, I'm hunting wabbits" in "wecitative" (recitative), before he finds "wabbit twacks" (rabbit tracks) and arrives at Bugs Bunny's hole. Elmer then jams his spear into Bugs' hole to "Kill the wabbit! Kill the wabbit! Kill the wabbit!" Bugs sticks his head out of another rabbit hole and, appalled, sings his signature line "What's up, doc?" to the theme of Siegfried's horn call from the Ring Cycle. He asks Elmer how he will kill the rabbit, then taunts Elmer about his "spear and magic helmet". This prompts a display of Elmer-as-Siegfried's "mighty powers", set to the overture of The Flying Dutchman, which makes clouds rain and causes lightning to strike the tree next to Bugs. At that, Bugs flees, Elmer realizes "That was the wabbit!", and the chase begins. Suddenly, Elmer stops in his tracks at the sight of the beautiful Valkyrie Brünnhilde (who is really Bugs in disguise), riding in grandly on her enormously fat horse, Grane. "Siegfried" and "Brünnhilde" exchange endearments, set to the "Pilgrims' Chorus" theme from Tannhäuser as orchestrated in the opera's overture. After the usual "hard to get" pursuit, they perform a short ballet (based on the Venusberg ballet in Tannhäuser), capping it off with the duet "Return My Love" set to another section of the Tannhäuser overture as the pair meet at a gazebo. Bugs' true identity is inadvertently exposed when his headdress falls off, enraging Elmer. Bugs yanks Elmer's helmet down over his head and uses it as a chance to escape, discarding his disguise. A crescendo drum roll is playing while Elmer struggles to fix his helmet. Once Elmer puts his helmet back into the right position, the "Ride" overture plays once again and the white gazebo turns red (reflecting Elmer's anger), resolving to himself "I'll kill the wabbit!" prompting him to command fierce lightning, "typhoons, huwwicanes, earthquakes" and, finally, "SMOG!!!" to "stwike de wabbit!" while music from The Flying Dutchman plays in the background. Eventually, the ensuing storm tears apart the mountains where Bugs has fled. Elmer triumphantly rushes to see his victory, but upon seeing Bugs' intact yet seemingly lifeless body as a drop of rain lands on the rabbit, Elmer immediately regrets his wrath and tearfully carries the rabbit off, presumably to Valhalla in keeping with the Wagnerian theme, per Act III of The Valkyries (although the music again comes from the overture to Tannhäuser). Bugs then breaks the fourth wall and briefly raises his head to face the audience while remarking, "Well, what did you expect in an opera? A happy ending?" before going back to playing dead. The pre-written "That's all, Folks!" card appears while the music finishes. ===== Richard Walton, a district attorney, is presented with an obscenity case: A medical practitioner, Dr. Homer, has been arrested for distributing 'indecent' birth control literature. On the stand, Dr. Homer makes a strong case for legalizing contraception. He recounts three incidents from his medical practice, each shown in a brief flashback: children are exposed to violent abuse in a family riddled with alcoholism; an impoverished family is unable to provide adequate medical care for their sick children; and a single mother, abandoned by her male lover, commits suicide with her young infant. Meanwhile, Richard's wife, Edith, has been keeping a secret from him for many years: she has been seeing a doctor, one Herman Malfit, who performs abortions so that her busy social life will not be interrupted by the inconvenience of pregnancy. She suggests it as an option for her friend Mrs. William Carlo, who is with child. Mrs. Carlo has the abortion. The Waltons receive two new guests in their house almost simultaneously: Edith Walton's ne'er-do-well younger brother, and their maid's young daughter, Lillian. Smitten by the brother's advances, the maid's daughter is seduced and soon finds herself pregnant. She is taken to Dr. Malfit and then abandoned by the boy after the operation goes wrong. Making her way back to the Walton mansion, she collapses and dies from the botched abortion. Following Malfit's arrest and trial, Richard Walton examines the doctor's ledgers and realized that his wife and many of her friends are listed as having received 'personal services.' He returns home, furious, to find them lunching at his home. He banishes his wife's friends, saying 'I should bring you to trial for manslaughter!' and confronts Edith with the cry, 'where are my children?' She is overcome with remorse. As the years pass, the couple must contend with a lonely, childless life, full of longing for the family they might have had. ===== In 1913 Texas, Pike Bishop, the leader of a gang of aging outlaws, is seeking retirement after one final score: the robbery of a railroad office containing a cache of silver. The gang is ambushed by Pike's former partner, Deke Thornton, who is leading a posse of bounty hunters hired and deputized by the railroad. A bloody shootout kills several members of the gang. Pike uses a serendipitous temperance union parade to shield their getaway, and many citizens are killed in the crossfire. Pike rides off with Dutch Engstrom, brothers Lyle and Tector Gorch, and Angel, the only survivors. They are dismayed when the loot from the robbery turns out to be a decoy: steel washers instead of silver coin. The men reunite with old-timer Freddie Sykes and head for Mexico. Pike's men cross the Rio Grande and take refuge that night in the village where Angel was born. The townsfolk are ruled by General Mapache, a corrupt, brutal officer in the Mexican Federal Army, who has been ravaging the area's villages to feed his troops, who have been losing to the forces of the revolutionary Pancho Villa. Pike's gang makes contact with the general. A jealous Angel spots Teresa, his former lover, in Mapache's arms and shoots her dead, angering Mapache. Pike defuses the situation and offers to work for Mapache. Mapache tasks the gang to steal a weapons shipment from a U.S. Army train so that Mapache can resupply his troops and appease Commander Mohr, his German military adviser, who wishes to obtain samples of America's armaments. The reward will be a cache of gold coins. Angel gives up his share of the gold to Pike in return for sending one crate of rifles and ammunition to a band of rebels opposed to Mapache. The holdup goes largely as planned until Thornton's posse turns up on the train the gang has robbed. The posse chases them to the Mexican border, only to be foiled again as the robbers blow up a trestle spanning the Rio Grande, dumping the entire posse into the river. The pursuers temporarily regroup at a riverside camp and then quickly take off again after the Bunch. The director sets up the climactic gun battle sequences at "Agua Verde" (the Hacienda Ciénaga del Carmen). Pike and his men, knowing they risk being double-crossed by Mapache, devise a way of bringing him the stolen weapons without his double-crossing them. However, Mapache learns from Teresa's mother that Angel stole a crate of guns and ammo, and reveals this as Angel and Engstrom deliver the last of the weapons. Surrounded by Mapache's army, Angel desperately tries to escape, only to be captured and tortured. Mapache lets Engstrom go, and Engstrom rejoins Pike's gang and tells them what happened. Sykes is wounded by Thornton's posse while securing spare horses. The rest of Pike's gang returns to Agua Verde for shelter, where a bacchanal celebrating the weapons transfer has commenced. They see Angel being dragged on the ground by a rope tied behind the general's car, and after a brief frolic with prostitutes and a period of reflection, Pike and the gang try to forcibly persuade Mapache to release Angel, who by then is barely alive after the torture. The general appears to comply; however, as the gang watches, he instead cuts Angel's throat. Pike and Engstrom angrily gun Mapache down in front of his men. For a moment, the federales are so shocked that they fail to return fire, causing Engstrom to laugh in surprise. Pike calmly takes aim at Mohr and kills him, too. This results in a violent, bloody shootout—dominated by the machine gun—in which Pike and his men are killed, along with most of Mapache's present troops and the remaining German adviser. Thornton finally catches up. He allows the remaining members of the posse to take the gang members' bullet-riddled bodies back to collect the reward, while electing to stay behind, knowing what awaits the posse. After a period, Sykes arrives with a band of the previously seen Mexican rebels, who have killed off what's left of the posse along the way. Sykes asks Thornton to come along and join the revolution. Thornton smiles and rides off with them. ===== In lieu of a theme song and opening of the movie, Tashlin instead laid traditional opening credits over faux television commercials for products that failed to deliver what they promised. From this comedic segue, the film opens on a writer for television advertising, Rockwell P. Hunter (Tony Randall), who is low on the ladder at the La Salle agency, the company where he works. With the agency set to lose its biggest account - Stay-Put Lipstick - he hatches an idea to get the perfect model and spokeswoman for Stay-Put's new line of lipstick, the famous actress with the "oh-so-kissable lips", Rita Marlowe (Jayne Mansfield). For Rita to endorse the lipstick, however, Rock has to pretend to be her boyfriend to make her real boyfriend, Bobo Branigansky (Hargitay), the star of a TV Tarzan show, jealous. Bobo leaks the news of Rita's new romance to the tabloids and Rock Hunter is suddenly famous as Marlowe's "Lover Doll". Hunter's boss decides to leverage his employee's newfound fame, but when Hunter also gets Marlowe to agree on a television spectacular sponsored by Stay-Put, Hunter becomes the advertising firm's highest-regarded employee. Marlowe, meanwhile, is miserable; she thinks she is falling in love with Hunter, but her one real true love is the man who discovered her, George Schmidlap (Groucho Marx). Not being able to find Schmidlap, she pursues Hunter, though her Secretary "Vi" (Joan Blondell) warns her that she is playing a dangerous game. (Ironically, Blondell, who plays Mansfield's frumpy, middle-aged, all-business secretary, was herself a major movie sex symbol some 30 years before, and whose sexuality was one of the first victims of the Hays Code). Hunter soon finds fame to be a double-edged sword, getting him what he wants, but with a price to be paid for that success. Women are crazy about him, and he has no peace of mind. Ultimately, he moves up the ladder at work, becoming company president, only to find it is not what he really wanted. Hunter confesses to his angry fiancée Jenny that he finds himself at the top of the heap without any meaning and she takes him back. As Rita Marlowe opens her television spectacular for Stay-Put Lipstick, she is surprised by the appearance of the show's "surprise" guest star of (and the one true love of her life), George Schmidlap. Freed from strain of advertising, Rock and Jenny retire to the country to tend a chicken farm, announcing that he has found the real living end. ===== An impoverished young woman named Letty Mason (Lillian Gish) travels west by train from Virginia to live at her cousin Beverly's isolated ranch in Sweetwater, Texas. On the way, she is bothered by the constantly blowing wind. Fellow passenger and cattle buyer Wirt Roddy (Montagu Love) makes her acquaintance and tells her the wind usually drives women crazy. Upon arrival, she is picked up by Beverly's closest neighbors, Lige Hightower (Lars Hanson) and the older, balding Sourdough (William Orlamond), who live 15 miles from her cousin. Wirt assures her he will drop by occasionally to see how she is doing. After endless miles in sand and wind, they arrive at the ranch. Beverly (Edward Earle) is delighted to see her, but his jealous wife Cora (Dorothy Cumming) gives her a cold reception, despite Letty saying she and Beverly (who was raised by Letty's mother) are like brother and sister. Cora is further angered when her children seem to like Letty better. At a party, Sourdough tells Lige that he intends proposing to Letty. Lige explains he was planning to do the same. After Wirt drops by, a cyclone interrupts the festivities. Most of the guests seek shelter in the basement, where Wirt declares his love for Letty and offers to take her away from the dismal place. After the cyclone passes, Lige and Sourdough talk to Letty in private. When they flip a coin to see who will ask for her hand in marriage (Lige wins), Letty thinks it is just a joke. Afterward, Cora demands that Letty leave the ranch. Because she has neither money nor a place to go, she decides to go away with Wirt, but then Wirt reveals that he wants her for a mistress, informing her that he already has a wife. She goes back to Cora, who tells her to choose from her two other suitors. She marries Lige. When Lige takes her home, he kisses Letty for the first time, but her lack of enthusiasm is unmistakable. Worse for the drink, he becomes more forceful, and she tells him she hates him. He promises he will never touch her, and will try to make enough money to send her back to Virginia. In the meantime, Letty works around the house, but is bothered by the ever-present wind. One day, Lige is invited to a meeting of the cattlemen, who must do something to avoid starvation. Letty, terrified of being left alone with the wind, begs to go with him, and he agrees. After she cannot control her horse in the fierce wind, he has her get on behind him on his horse. When she falls off, Lige tells Sourdough to take her home. When the cattlemen return, they bring an unwanted guest, an injured Wirt. After he recovers, Lige insists he participate in a roundup of wild horses to raise money for the cattlemen. Wirt goes along, but later sneaks away and returns to Letty. Out of her mind with fear as she endures the house shaking from the worst wind storm yet, Letty faints soon after Wirt's arrival. He picks her up and carries her to the bed.Although the film does not visually depict it, the original novel is explicit that Wirt rapes Letty at this point. The next morning, Wirt tries to persuade Letty to go away with him, but she rejects him. He insists, noting Lige will kill them both if they remain. As Wirt becomes more aggressive, Letty picks up a revolver to defend herself. Confident that Letty will not fire, Wirt grabs the gun and it goes off, killing him. Letty decides to bury him outside. After she is done, the wind uncovers the body, terrifying her. When Lige returns, Letty is so glad to see him, she kisses her husband. She then confesses she killed and buried Wirt. When Lige looks outside, however, the corpse is nowhere to be seen. He tells Letty that the wind can remove traces when a killing is justified. He has enough money to send her away, but Letty declares that she loves him, that she no longer wants to leave, and that she is no longer afraid of the wind or anything else. ===== The film opens with Sylvia Landry (Evelyn Preer), a young African-American woman, visiting her cousin Alma in the North. Landry is waiting for the return of Conrad as they plan to marry. Alma also loves Conrad. Larry, Alma's step brother, attempts to woo Sylvia but is rebuffed. Larry kills a professional gambler during a game of poker. Alma arranges for Sylvia to be caught in a compromising situation by Conrad when he returns. Conrad begins to strangle Sylvia but is stopped by Alma. Conrad leaves for Brazil. Sylvia returns to the South. Sylvia meets Rev. Jacobs, a minister who runs a rural school for black children called Piney Woods School. The school is overcrowded, and Rev. Jacobs cannot continue on the small amount offered to blacks for education by the state. With the school facing closure, Sylvia volunteers to return to the North to raise $5,000. Sylvia's purse is stolen in Boston. Dr. Vivian chases after the thief and recovers the purse. After being hit by a car that stemmed from saving a young child playing in the street, Sylvia meets the owner of the car as she recovers in the hospital. The owner is Elena Warwick, a wealthy philanthropist. Learning of Sylvia's mission, she decides to give her the needed money. When her Southern friend Mrs. Stratton tries to discourage her, Warwick increases her donation to $50,000. This amount will save the school and Sylvia returns to the South. Rev. Jacobs asks for Sylvia's hand in marriage but Sylvia, now in love with Dr. Vivian, refuses. Larry, on the run from the police, runs into Sylvia and attempts blackmail with secrets of Sylvia's past. Instead of stealing from the school on Larry's behalf, Sylvia steals away in the night and heads north. Later, Dr. Vivian searches for Sylvia. Larry, who has run out of money and returned to Alma, is fatally shot during an attempted bank robbery. Dr. Vivian by chance ends up treating Larry and meets Alma. Alma tells Dr. Vivian about Sylvia's past: these flashback scenes are portrayed in the film. Sylvia was adopted and raised by a poor black family, the Landrys, who managed to provide her with an education. During her youth, the senior Landry was wrongfully accused of the murder of an unpopular but wealthy white landlord, Gridlestone. A white mob attacked the Landry family, lynching the parents and hunting down their son, who escaped after nearly being shot. The mob also lynched Efrem, a servant of Gridlestone. Sylvia escaped after being chased by Gridlestone's brother, who was close to raping her. Noticing a scar on her breast, Gridlestone's brother realized that Sylvia was his mixed-race daughter, born of his marriage to a local black woman. He had paid for her education. After hearing about her life, Dr. Vivian meets with Sylvia; he encourages her to love her country and take pride in the contributions of African Americans. He professes his love for her, and the film ends with their marriage. ===== Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy in Woman of the Year Tess Harding (Katharine Hepburn) and Sam Craig (Spencer Tracy) are journalists for the fictional New York Chronicle. Tess, the daughter of a former ambassador, is a highly educated, well-travelled political affairs columnist who speaks several languages fluently. Sam is a knowledgeable and well-informed sports writer. Their difficulties are presented as stemming from differences of class, experience and temperament, as well as from gender. After Tess suggests on the radio that baseball be abolished for the duration of the war, Sam leaps to the sport's defense. Their editor summons them to his office: He will not stand for an intramural feud at his paper. Their attraction is mutual and instantaneous. Sam invites Tess to a baseball game. She is unfamiliar with the rules of the sport—and Sam has some difficulty explaining them. Tess invites Sam to her apartment later that night. What he thought would be a date is actually a cocktail party where all the guests are discussing the world situation in foreign languages. He leaves. She sends him champagne to apologize and asks him to take her to the airport so he can kiss her goodbye. On the drive back to town, Sam hits it off with Ellen Whitcomb (Fay Bainter) the world-famous feminist aunt who raised Tess. She tells him to “marry the girl.” Sam always wanted to do it up right, but their wedding at a justice of the peace in South Carolina—arranged by Gerald, Tess's ultra- competent secretary (Dan Tobin) to fit her schedule and that of her illustrious Senator father (Minor Watson)—is a whirlwind. Their wedding night is disrupted by the arrival of a Yugoslavian statesmen, escaped from the Nazis, and the crowd that follows. Conflicts large and small arise over Tess's priorities and Sam's place in her life, beginning with where they should live (her apartment). She solves problems by flirting instead of listening. The crisis comes when Tess adopts a Greek refugee child, Chris (George Kezas), without consulting Sam. When she mentions a child, he believes she is pregnant, and he is very angry when he learns the truth, for Chris's sake as well as their own. Their argument is interrupted by the news that Tess has been named "America's Outstanding Woman of the Year". Tess plans to leave Chris by himself while they go to the award gala; Sam refuses to leave the boy alone. He says she can tell everyone he had more important plans. Tess asks scornfully if anyone would believe that. While Tess is at her gala, Sam returns the overjoyed child to the orphanage and walks out. Tess returns home with half-a-dozen photographers and discovers that Sam and Chris and their belongings are all gone. She attempts to reclaim Chris, but he refuses, preferring to stay with his friends. The next day, Tess receives a telegram from her father, telling them to come to his home in Connecticut. Sam declines. Tess protests that their marriage was perfect. He replies, “It was neither—perfect or a marriage.” Tess arrives to learn that her aunt and her father are to be married that night, after 15 years of unspoken love. The ceremony has all the grace that was lacking when the Craigs married. Listening to the minister's words, Tess is moved to tears. She drives through the night and arrives at Sam's new Riverside apartment with the milkman. She starts to prepare breakfast. Eventually awakened by her noisy incompetence in the kitchen, Sam watches her surreptitiously. She tells him that this time she listened to the words, and proclaims her intention of being nothing more than his wife. She continues her efforts, bursting into tears amid exploding waffles, flying toast and an erupting percolator. Sam tells her that he is disappointed in her for the first time, faulting her for going to extremes. He does not want “Tess Harding” or "just Mrs. Sam Craig," How about "Tess Harding Craig"? Tess happily agrees. Gerald appears: Tess has a ship to launch. Sam takes Gerald outside, we hear the champagne bottle smashing and something tumbles down the backstairs. Sam returns smiling, saying, “I've just launched Gerald.” They embrace. ===== In the early days of World War II, Cohan comes out of retirement to star as President Roosevelt in the Rodgers and Hart musical I'd Rather Be Right. On the first night, he is summoned to meet the president at the White House, who presents him with a Congressional Gold Medal (though the Cohan character on screen incorrectly identifies the award as the Congressional Medal of Honor). Cohan is overcome and chats with Roosevelt, recalling his early days on the stage. The film flashes back to his supposed birth on July 4, whilst his father is performing on the vaudeville stage. Cohan and his sister join the family act as soon as they can learn to dance, and soon The Four Cohans are performing successfully. But George gets too cocky as he grows up and is blacklisted by theatrical producers for being troublesome. He leaves the act and hawks his songs unsuccessfully around to producers. In partnership with Sam Harris, another struggling writer, he finally interests a producer and they are on the road to success. He also marries Mary, a young singer/dancer. As his star ascends, he persuades his now struggling parents to join his act, eventually vesting some of his valuable theatrical properties in their name. Cohan retires, but returns to the stage several times, culminating in the role of the U.S. president. As he leaves the White House, after receiving the Congressional Gold Medal from the president, he descends a set of stairs while performing a tap dance (which Cagney thought up before the scene was filmed and undertook without rehearsal). Outside, he joins a military parade, where the soldiers are singing "Over There", and, at first, he isn't singing. Not knowing that Cohan is the song's composer, one of them asks if he knows the words. Cohan's response is a smile before joining in to sing too. ===== The story is a shōnen comedy that takes place in the Kanagawa Prefecture, and centers on Keitarō Urashima and his attempts to fulfill a childhood promise that he made with a girl to enter the University of Tokyo together. However, he has forgotten the name of the girl he made the promise to and hopes to be accepted into the university in order to find her. Having failed the entrance exam twice and with his parents no longer willing to support him, he goes to stay at his grandmother's hotel, only to find out that it has been converted into a female-only apartment. The tenants are about to kick him out when his aunt appears and announces that his grandmother has given him the title to the apartments. Much to their dismay Keitarō becomes the new manager of the family-owned girls' dorm Hinata House and must now balance his new responsibilities in addition to studying for the university entrance exam. At Hinata House, Keitarō meets Naru Narusegawa, who is also studying to enter the university. Naru ranks first in the whole of Japan on the practice exams, and Keitarō convinces her to help him study. As the two of them grow closer through their studies, and after Keitarō accidentally reads a small section of Naru's diary, he becomes increasingly convinced that Naru may be the girl with whom he made the promise. On the second day of the university exam, Keitarō asks Naru about the promise and is stunned when she tells him he is mistaken. Despite their studying, and Naru's mock exam results, they both fail the exams. The pair then have an argument and independently run off to Kyoto to clear their heads. While on their trip they settle their differences and meet Mutsumi Otohime, who lives in Okinawa and is also studying for the university exams. After returning from Kyoto, Keitarō and Naru decide to retake the exams. After a while, Mutsumi moves to Tokyo, and the three begin to study together. During this period, Naru becomes convinced that Mutsumi is Keitarō's promised girl, but Mutsumi states that she made a childhood promise with Naru, not Keitarō. During the next round of university exams, Keitarō believes he has failed them once again and runs away before finding out his results. After learning of this, Naru chases after him without checking her exam results either, and they are followed by the rest of the residents of Hinata House who announce that Keitarō and Naru both passed the exams along with Mutsumi. Unfortunately for him, Keitarō has an accident at the University of Tokyo opening ceremony and is unable to attend classes for three months. After recovering from his injuries, Keitarō decides to study overseas with Noriyasu Seta. As Keitarō is about to leave, Naru finally confesses her feelings to him at the airport and decides to wait for him to return. When Keitarō returns, he and Naru finally begin to express their feelings for each other. After they deal with new obstacles, Grandma Hina returns to Hinata House and reveals Naru is the girl of Keitarō's promise. Three years later, a wedding ceremony (with a new girl, Ema Maeda, presented) is held at Hinata House for Naru and Keitarō as they finally fulfill their childhood promise to each other. ===== Tony Wendice (Ray Milland), an English professional tennis player, is married to wealthy socialite Margot (Grace Kelly), who has had an affair with American crime-fiction writer Mark Halliday (Robert Cummings). When Tony retires from tennis, he secretly discovers the affair and decides to murder his unfaithful wife, both for revenge and to ensure that her money will continue to fund his comfortable lifestyle. Tony invites an old acquaintance from the University of Cambridge, Charles Alexander Swann (Anthony Dawson), to his London flat. Tony is aware that Swann has become a small-time criminal with several aliases, and has been secretly following Swann so he can blackmail him into murdering Margot. Tony tells Swann about Margot's affair. Six months ago, Tony had stolen her handbag, which contained a love letter from Mark, and anonymously blackmailed her. After tricking Swann into leaving his fingerprints on the letter, Tony offers to pay him £1,000 to kill Margot; if Swann refuses, Tony will turn him in to the police as Margot's blackmailer. Swann's credibility, in denying Tony's accusation, would be hurt by his criminal record. After Swann agrees, Tony explains his plan: the following evening he will go with Mark to a party, leaving Margot at home while hiding her latchkey under the carpet of the staircase facing the front door of their flat. Swann is to sneak in when Margot is fast asleep and hide behind the curtains in front of the French doors to the garden. At eleven o'clock, Tony will telephone the flat from the party. Swann must strangle Margot when she answers the phone, open the French doors, leave signs that would trick the police into believing that a burglary had gone wrong, and then exit through the front door before hiding the key under the stair carpet again. The following night, Swann enters the flat while Margot is in bed, and waits. At the party, Tony discovers that his watch has stopped, so he phones the flat three minutes later than intended. When Margot comes to the phone, Swann tries to strangle her with his scarf, but she manages to grab a pair of scissors and stab him fatally in the back. She picks up the telephone receiver and pleads for help. Tony tells her not to touch anything until he arrives home. When he returns to the flat, he calls the police and sends Margot to bed. Before the police arrive, Tony moves what he thinks is Margot's latchkey from Swann's pocket into her handbag, plants Mark's letter on Swann, and destroys Swann's scarf, replacing it with Margot's own stocking in an attempt to incriminate her. The following day, Tony persuades Margot to hide the fact that he told her not to call the police immediately. Chief Inspector Hubbard (John Williams) arrives and questions the Wendices, and Margot makes several conflicting statements. When Hubbard says Swann must have entered through the front door, Tony falsely claims to have seen Swann at the time Margot's handbag was stolen, and suggests that Swann made a copy of her key. Hubbard does not believe this because no key was found on Swann's body upon inspection. Hubbard arrests Margot after concluding that she killed Swann for blackmailing her. Margot is found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. Some months later, on the day before Margot's scheduled execution, Mark visits Tony, saying he has devised a story for Tony to tell the police in order to save Margot from execution. To Tony's consternation, Mark's "story" is very close to what did actually happen: that Tony bribed Swann to murder Margot. Tony says the story is too unrealistic. Hubbard arrives unexpectedly, and Mark hides in the bedroom. Hubbard questions Tony about large sums of cash he has been spending, tricks him into revealing that his latchkey is in his raincoat, and inquires about Tony's attaché case. Tony claims to have lost the case, but Mark, overhearing the conversation, finds it on the bed, full of banknotes. Deducing that the money was Tony's intended payoff to Swann, Mark stops Hubbard from leaving and explains his theory. Tony tells another lie, "confessing" that the cash was Margot's blackmail payment to Swann, which he had concealed to cover up her guilt. Hubbard appears to accept Tony's explanation over Mark's theory, and Mark leaves angrily. Hubbard discreetly swaps his own raincoat with Tony's. As soon as Tony leaves, Hubbard uses Tony's key to re-enter the flat, followed by Mark. Hubbard had already discovered that the key in Margot's handbag was Swann's own latchkey, and deduced that Swann had put the Wendices' key back in its hiding-place after unlocking the door. Now, correctly suspecting Tony of having conspired with Swann, Hubbard had developed an elaborate ruse to confirm this. Plainclothes policemen bring Margot from prison to the flat. She tries unsuccessfully to unlock the door with the key in her handbag, then enters through the garden, thus proving to Hubbard that she is unaware of the hidden key and is therefore innocent. Hubbard has Margot's handbag returned to the police station, where Tony retrieves it after discovering that he has no key. The key from Margot's bag does not work, so he uses the hidden key to open the door, demonstrating his guilt. With his escape routes blocked by Hubbard and another policeman, Tony calmly makes himself a drink, congratulates Hubbard and admits defeat. ===== The play begins before the palace at Thebes, with Dionysus telling the story of his birth and his reasons for visiting the city. Dionysus explains he is the son of a mortal woman, Semele, and a god, Zeus. Some in Thebes, he notes, don't believe this story. In fact, Semele's sisters—Autonoe, Agave, and Ino—claim it is a lie intended to cover up the fact that Semele became pregnant by some mortal. Dionysus reveals that he has driven the women of the city mad, including his three aunts, and has led them into the mountains to observe his ritual festivities. He has disguised himself as a mortal for the time being, but he plans to vindicate his mother by appearing before all of Thebes as a god, the son of Zeus, and establishing his permanent cult of followers. Dionysus exits to the mountains, and the chorus (composed of the titular Bacchae) enters. They perform a choral ode in praise of Dionysus. Then Tiresias, the blind and elderly seer, appears. He calls for Cadmus, the founder and former king of Thebes. The two old men start out to join the revelry in the mountains when Cadmus’ petulant young grandson Pentheus, the current king, enters. Disgusted to find the two old men in festival dress, he scolds them and orders his soldiers to arrest anyone engaging in Dionysian worship, including the mysterious "foreigner" who has introduced this worship. Pentheus intends to have him stoned to death.Euripides. Vellacott, Philip, translator. The Bacchae and Other Plays. Penguin Books. 1954. . p. 198. The guards soon return with Dionysus himself in tow. Pentheus questions him, both skeptical of and fascinated by the Dionysian rites. Dionysus's answers are cryptic. Infuriated, Pentheus has Dionysus taken away and chained to an angry bull in the palace stable. But the god now shows his power. He breaks free and razes the palace with an earthquake and fire. Dionysus and Pentheus are once again at odds when a herdsman arrives from the top of Mount Cithaeron, where he had been herding his grazing cattle. He reports that he found women on the mountain behaving strangely: wandering the forest, suckling animals, twining snakes in their hair, and performing miraculous feats. The herdsmen and the shepherds made a plan to capture one particular celebrant, Pentheus' mother. But when they jumped out of hiding to grab her, the Bacchae became frenzied and pursued the men. The men escaped, but their cattle were not so fortunate, as the women fell upon the animals, ripping them to shreds with their bare hands. The women carried on, plundering two villages that were further down the mountain, stealing bronze, iron and even babies. When villagers attempted to fight back, the women drove them off using only their ceremonial staffs of fennel. They then returned to the mountain top and washed up, as snakes licked them clean.Euripides. Vellacott, Philip, translator. The Bacchae and Other Plays. Penguin Books. 1954. . p. 218. Pencil illustration from 2020 depicting Dionysus leading Pentheus into the forest disguised as a maenad Dionysus, still in disguise, persuades Pentheus to forgo his plan to defeat and massacre the women with an armed force. He says it would be better first to spy on them, while disguised as a female Maenad to avoid detection.Euripides. Ten Plays by Euripides. Trans. Moses Hadas and John Mclean. New York: Bantam Books, 1981, p. 299 Dressing Pentheus in this fashion, giving him a thyrsus and fawn skins, Dionysus leads him out of the house. At this point, Pentheus seems already crazed by the god's power, as he thinks he sees two suns in the sky, and believes he now has the strength to rip up mountains with his bare hands. He has also begun to see through Dionysus' mortal disguise, perceiving horns coming out of the god's head. They exit to Cithaeron. A messenger arrives to report that once the party reached Mount Cithaeron, Pentheus wanted to climb an evergreen tree to get a better view and the stranger used divine power to bend down the tall tree and place the king in its highest branches. Then Dionysus, revealing himself, called out to his followers and pointed out the man in the tree. This drove the Maenads wild. Led by Agave, his mother, they forced the trapped Pentheus down from the tree top, ripped off his limbs and his head, and tore his body into pieces. After the messenger has relayed this news, Agave arrives, carrying her son's bloodied head. In her god- maddened state, she believes it is the head of a mountain lion. She proudly displays it to her father, Cadmus, and is confused when he does not delight in her trophy, but is horrified by it. Agave then calls out for Pentheus to come marvel at her feat, and nail the head above her door so she can show it to all of Thebes. But now the madness begins to wane, and Cadmus forces her to recognize that she has destroyed her own son. As the play ends, the corpse of Pentheus is reassembled as well as is possible, the royal family devastated and destroyed. Agave and her sisters are sent into exile, and Dionysus decrees that Cadmus and his wife Harmonia will be turned into snakes and leads a barbarian horde to plunder the cities of Hellas.Euripides. Vellacott, Philip, translator. The Bacchae and Other Plays. Penguin Books. 1954. . p. 242. ===== Athamas the Minyan, a founder of Halos in ThessalyStrabo, ix.5.8. but also king of the city of Orchomenus in Boeotia (a region of southeastern Greece), took the goddess Nephele as his first wife. They had two children, the boy Phrixus (whose name means "curly," as in the texture of the ram's fleece) and the girl Helle. Later Athamas became enamored of and married Ino, the daughter of Cadmus. When Nephele left in anger, drought came upon the land. Ino was jealous of her stepchildren and plotted their deaths; in some versions, she persuaded Athamas that sacrificing Phrixus was the only way to end the drought. Nephele, or her spirit, appeared to the children with a winged ram whose fleece was of gold. The ram had been sired by Poseidon in his primitive ram-form upon Theophane, a nymph and the granddaughter of Helios, the sun-god. According to Hyginus,Hyginus, Fabulae, 163 Poseidon carried Theophane to an island where he made her into a ewe, so that he could have his way with her among the flocks. There Theophane's other suitors could not distinguish the ram-god and his consort.Karl Kerenyi The Gods of the Greeks, (1951) 1980:182f Nepheles' children escaped on the yellow ram over the sea, but Helle fell off and drowned in the strait now named after her, the Hellespont. The ram spoke to Phrixus, encouraging him, and took the boy safely to Colchis (modern-day Georgia), on the easternmost shore of the Euxine (Black) Sea. There Phrixus sacrificed the winged ram to Poseidon, essentially returning him to the god. The ram became the constellation Aries. Phrixus settled in the house of Aeetes, son of Helios the sun god. He hung the Golden Fleece preserved from the sacrifice of the ram on an oak in a grove sacred to Ares, the god of war and one of the Twelve Olympians. The golden fleece was defended by bulls with hoofs of brass and breath of fire. It was also guarded by a never sleeping dragon with teeth which could become soldiers when planted in the ground. The dragon was at the foot of the tree on which the fleece was placed. In some versions of the story, Jason attempts to put the guard serpent to sleep. The snake is coiled around a column at the base of which is a ram and on top of which is a bird. =====