From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ===== The opening scene of the game depicts Sam riding her motorcycle in the rain in the countryside while traveling to London, and accidentally being redirected to Oxford because of a broken street sign. Her bike breaks down, forcing her to take shelter in Dread Hill, a nearby mansion where David resides. She poses as an Oxford student responding to Styles' request for a research assistant. Eventually, Sam is ordered to recruit six students as test subjects for David's research. Through clever manipulation and magic tricks, Sam manages to find four students willing to volunteer for the experiment. The professor recalls her to Dread Hill, letting her know that he found a fifth candidate and making Sam herself the sixth. As the game progresses, Sam learns about the professor's past, his research on the paranormal, the prestigious members-only Daedalus magic club, a series of bizarre events that take place at Oxford University, and how these elements are connected. ===== In the remote countryside of Ilocos, various women are sexually abused by local men. Two sisters, Tonya (Maria Isabel Lopez), a sexually repressed young woman, and Selda (Sarsi Emmanuelle), a promiscuous woman, meet Simon (Mark Joseph), the most attractive man in the village. Tonya teaches catechism to the children of the village. Selda comes home from the city with her American lover, whom she throws out shortly afterward. She's the exact opposite of Tonya, as her views on sex are more liberal and less guilt- filled. Tonya is secretly sexually attracted to Simon, but she refuses his sexual advances. ===== Having recently taken over the role of Entertainments Officer at an army camp, the army chaplain Captain William Paris (Sim) is disheartened that so few of the troops turn out for an evening of classical music. He visits a local pub, "The Rose and Crown", and finds the place packed with soldiers, including his own driver. He resolves to try and secure something more entertaining for the troops and decides to copy the idea of a brains trust, as in a popular BBC radio programme, where panellists answer questions from the audience. With the help of Lady Dodds, Paris manages to gather together a group of local notables. These individuals each prove to be mildly eccentric. The group includes the opinionated Professor Mutch, who is a popular radio personality on BBC radio, and his friend the oil painter George Prout and his wife Angela. Arriving at the Prout's house, Paris interrupts Mutch and Mrs Prout who are about to embrace. Then meeting Mr Prout, he soon finds him a cold man who verbally abuses his wife. The 'brains trust' panel is rounded out by the hard- of-hearing Doctor McAdam and the chippy local Labour MP Joseph Byres. With the help of his secretary, Private Jessie Killigrew, the chaplain manages to organise the event. The hall is relatively well filled. Trying to avoid anything controversial, Paris forbids any discussion of politics or religion and begins with some innocuous questions about cows chasing after trains and if the Moon is inhabited. Things soon become heated when Mr Byres, the local MP, takes offence at comments directed at him and threatens to start a fight. Having only just averted this, a question about marriage from Killigrew reveals the fragility of the Prouts' marriage. Fearing any controversy, Paris quickly announces that it is time for the interval. As word spreads around the camp of the goings-on, the second half begins with the room completely packed. Paris tries to steer the debate back to harmless questions about bluebottles, but Killigrew interrupts and demands an answer to her earlier question about marriage. As the Prouts begin arguing once again, Mrs Prout admits that the Professor is her "lover". At this, the whole event threatens to descend into anarchy despite Paris' attempts to maintain order. Desperate to restore a sense of propriety, he draws the proceedings to a close, and announces that next week they will return to classical music with a string quartet. A soldier stands up and thanks the chaplain for providing such entertainment and asking if the 'brains trust' can be made a regular feature, to rapturous applause. Worried about Mr Prout, who has disappeared and has been drinking heavily, the others follow him back to his house, where they mistakenly come to believe that he is going to throw himself over the cliffs, whereas he is merely planning a bit of quiet painting. Meanwhile, the Professor has revealed himself to be an inherently selfish man, while Mr Prout is suddenly far more reasonable. He and Mrs Prout soon resolve their differences, and he tries to be a little more considerate to her. The film ends with the string quartet playing once more and Paris sitting in an almost empty theatre. ===== In the future, Earth has achieved a state of global peace, but one problem has arisen: a wholesale disappearance of young women. A top-secret planetary protection organization investigates the strange disappearances and discovers that the women are being abducted by aliens. The aliens hail from the planet Zancs, where a rampant disease has sterilized the entire female population. Unable to mate with their own kind, the people of Zancs have found the perfect reproductive substitutes in the women of Earth, abducting them to keep the planetary population steady. Two fighter pilots - Downson and Bogey - are ordered to rescue the women of Earth, including one of the pilot's significant others, by flying to Zancs and eliminating any threats the inhabitants pose. ===== In the crime-infested New York City of the 1970s, two residents and friends, Willie and Cy, decide to join the Auxiliary wing of the New York City Police Department to help take back their neighborhood from criminals. Willie is a taxi driver who aspires to buy a diner, while Cy is the owner of a struggling beauty salon. They are joined on the volunteer police force by their friends Bobby, Elliot, Ken and Pete. The group are eating dinner at Cy's apartment when Willie's wife Sally phones to say that their daughter Karen has been attacked in the elevator. Karen specifies that the attacker was white just as Elliot leads a black man into Willie's apartment, believing him to be the culprit. Willie lets the man go. The auxiliary police force gets its uniforms and gathers for its first patrol. The unit is only authorized to report suspicious activity but cannot enforce the law; Cy suggests that the restriction be ignored. Willie finds his daughter in the street with her boyfriend, Chico, and sends her home for the night. Cy apprehends a young man for smoking marijuana in the street, but when he brings him to the station he is informed by an officer that he has no grounds for arrest. Later, Cy excitedly shows Willie his new car, which is painted to look a police car and has a working siren. Willie expresses concern that Cy is inviting trouble. At a community meeting, a psychologist named Dr. Richter conducts a lecture on rape. Using Cy's wife Irene as a volunteer from the audience, Richter poses as a rapist and recommends she embrace him rather than resist, because a fear response will only provoke the attacker. That night, Irene rouses Cy from sleep for a bedroom role-playing session with Cy pretending to be a rapist. Cy impresses the other members of the auxiliary force by taking them for a joyride in his fake police car. They listen to a call overheard on Cy's police band radio and activate the siren to run a red light, thrilled with their newly found power. Willie comes home to find Karen under the influence of a drug. When confronted, Karen admits to taking a pill she received from Chico. Willie heads to the apartment of Chico's family with other members of the auxiliary force in Cy's fake police car. Willie accepts a gun from Cy but declines any further help, heading up to confront Chico himself. Willie spots Chico in the hall and chases Chico throughout the building. Meanwhile, Cy, Pete and Elliot hear a police call over the radio of an officer in trouble nearby while the car is pelted with bottles thrown from the shadows. Pete and Elliot want to leave, but Cy refuses to abandon Willie. When Cy gets out of the car, he is shot. Eddie and Pete drive off in fear. With Chico having gotten away, Willie stumbles out of the building to find Cy dead. Willie continues to work as a taxi driver. When a posh couple impatiently berates him from the back of the cab on the way to the airport, Willie pulls over, gets out of the cab and walks back toward the city on foot. ===== A rich Brazilian, Mendoza, visited Paris in 1900 and was romantically involved with the star of Offenbach's "La Vie Parisienne" which was playing at the time. Thirty five years later, he returns with his son and granddaughter, who is engaged to a young Frenchman. ===== The main character lives in a converted hotel in Hollywood, where he works as the film critic for a weekly newspaper. The story is told in an oneiric fashion, without a clear explanation of all the strange elements of a partly real, partly imaginary Los Angeles. Amnesiascope focuses mostly on the protagonist's relationship with Viv, a sexually adventurous, committed artist, with whom the narrator works on the making of an avant-garde erotic short film. The narrator also has to deal with different factions at the paper, the various time zones he experiences driving through LA, the complexities of making a pornographic film, and his feelings of guilt after writing for his paper a review of The Death of Marat, a non-existent film by Adolphe Sarre, a non-existent director, which takes on a life of its own. The non-linear story is often interrupted by descriptions of dreams that the protagonist or other characters have had. Moreover, events told have a dream-like quality, inasmuch as what seems to have actually happened is subsequently dealt with as if it were a dream or fantasy (cf. the first meeting with Justine, who subsequently doesn't seem to remember having met the protagonist). At the end of the novel, the narrating I has lost his job at the paper and Viv, yet he has gained back a sense of himself. ===== The book is about a black teenager named Andre Anderson, who loves to play basketball with his white best friend Shawn and his cousin Cedric. Andre has a dream of becoming a journalist, so he tries to secure a summer job working at a magazine. Shawn thinks that Andre spends too much time on work and not enough on his social life, so he introduces Andre to a Latino girl named Gwen. Andre's boss at the magazine asks him to write an article on racism. While working on the article, Andre's life seems to be perfect until he is violently attacked by a gang of racists and is sent to hospital. His friends and family are left wondering whether or not he will ever recover from the attack. ===== Leon Maria Lozano is a humble worker and a Colombian Conservative Party member living in Tulua, Colombia, in a time where liberals rule following the close 1946 presidential election. For his activism he is discriminated against by the majority of people except by Gertrude Potes, a senior military liberal and a few other liberals. In those years political killing were common. News of conservatives crimes against liberals leads to the Liberals being condemned as Masons and atheists. Rosendo Zapata, a senior member of the Liberal party insults the conservative party when talking with Lozano, but Lozano demands respect. Leon Maria's job as a bookseller is poor, but Miss Gertrudis convinces the mayor to give him a job as a cheese salesman in the market square. On the presidential election day, to his surprise, Leon Maria learns that the Conservative Party has won the elections. Miss Gertrudis hopes the victory is temporary. Two years later news spreads of around the country of the assassination of popular Liberal leader Jorge Eliecer Gaitán. The village church and other Conservative-leaning institutions close fearing reprisal. Leon Maria notes the rising revolutionary atmosphere and wishing to protect the interests of conservatives, he and other militants get weapons and keep watch. That night Maria Leon scares the protesters with dynamite before they can burn the church. The next day Gertrudis and the town liberals are surprised to find Leon Maria hailed as a hero of the conservatives. Leon Maria is quick to capitalized on his new fame. No longer an outcast, he begins to build up power and influence in the town and receives support from the Conservative party in the capital. By 1950 the Liberals do not return to power and the liberal mayor of Tulua is replaced by a conservative, Leon Maria soon after becomes an assassin taking advantage of the situation to eliminate his enemies. His conservative supporters become his henchmen called The Birds (in Spanish: Pajaros) and they begin a campaign of murder and intimidation. They strike down Rosendo Zapata and many others, often with little or no cause. Gertrude begin to fear for her life. In one of his first hits, he sends a "Pajaro" attack against the local jail to free imprisoned conservatives to join his private army. The Mayor passes by Leon Maria overseeing the operation from his car and asked what is happening. The mayor is frightened by this man, but Leon Maria Lozano does not hesitate to criticize him, treating him as a weak and insisting that he should be sponsoring this fight. The mayor disagrees, pointing out that many of the prisoners are common criminals, but he can do nothing to stop Leon Maria Lozano. The Conservative Party reward Leon Maria Lozano by inviting him to Bogotá to show their full support and protection for the continuation of their patriotic mission. Leon Maria has his daughter, who is beginning to fall in love with a local liberal boy, accepted into a prestigious boarding school. Meanwhile, the Liberals in Tulua come together to express concern over the Pajaros and the reign of terror: For if the threat is the birds, what we face is a condor, in Spanish: Pues si la amenaza son los pájaros, a lo que nos enfrentamos es a un cóndor. With this phrase, Gertrude Potts gives Leon Maria Lozano his famous alias. During the wave of killings the murdered liberals are left in other municipalities to be buried anonymously as "N.N.". All the people are afraid to confess or speak out, for fear of being killed by "The Condor" Leon Maria Lozano, now "the Condor" is transformed into a sinister and Machiavellian man, not only pursuing the Liberals, but anyone who opposes his regime. After being criticized by a journalist, one of "the birds" travels to the man's office and abruptly shoots him. Later, Leon Maria Lozano is poisoned with a cheese fritter and seems on the verge of death. The whole village comes out to celebrate at night, singing, dancing and shooting off fireworks just outside his house . But the Condor doesn't die. After recovering, Leon Maria Lozano orders to kill the musicians who played that night. No one attends the funeral, afraid they will be the next victims of the condor. Leon Maria Lozano now has absolute power. The Liberals must choose between leaving town or staying and dying. Leon Maria becomes increasingly power mad and paranoid. He imagines that he is pursued by The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, who want his soul. Leon Maria Lozano reign begins to crumble after a massacre in Recreo, close to Tulua, where women are raped and killed. Leon Maria is blamed though he was not involved. He is unable to determine who gave the order and is outraged and frustrated, while popular sentiment turns even further against him, even within the conservatives. Around this time President Gustavo Rojas Pinilla loses power, and the Condor loses his political protection. Committees meet to discuss an end to The Violence. The Conservative Party, no longer willing to tolerate the atrocities of Leon Maria Lozano, sends him to Pereira for protection and promises him a pension. In Pereira he hears the four horsemen of the apocalypse again and soon Leon Maria Lozano dies as he feared he would: In the street, alone, surrounded by strangers; not from an asthma attack (as others suspected), but from an assassin's bullet. ===== A man escapes from Dartmoor Prison and is hunted across the moors by policemen to whom it is an unpleasant reminder of their experiences during the First World War. ===== In 1900, a poor but promising French architect (Gaston de Nerac) living in London woos the daughter (Joanne Rushworth) of a gentleman facing economic ruin through exposure of his financial wrongdoing. A rival for the hand of Joanne (Count de Verneuil) promises to resolve the father’s economic problems in return for the hand of Joanne. Gaston feels obliged to agree and returns to France taking with him Asticot, a young boy also living in the boarding house. (Gaston is very encouraging of Asticot’s drawing and he in return regards Gaston as a patron and friend. In the world of film, a boy running away with a man needs no further explanation… the boy becomes effectively de Nerac’s adopted son.) During their meanderings in rural France, Gaston and Asticot meet a young woman, Blanquette, who is trying to support herself through music. They get together and become a musical partnership, finally moving to Paris where in a bar Gaston bumps into the Count de Verneuil – Gaston’s old rival – who is now married to Joanne. Shortly after the meeting, the Count dies and Joanne is once more a free woman. Joanne meets with Gaston and they re-establish the warm relationship of old, a painful process for Blanquette who, by this time, has fallen in love with Gaston (though he is oblivious to this). Gaston and Joanne return to London to make plans for their wedding. Gaston invites Blanquette and Asticot to the wedding and they bring with them the spirit of life on the road. This is fascinating for the other conservative guests but annoying for Joanne who relegates the two to the kitchen to be fed away from the other guests. This proves too much for Gaston who rows with Joanne. When Joanne reveals to Gaston the obvious – that Blanquette is in love with him—he races off to find his two friends. But they have already departed for the train to Dover and the ferry to France. Gaston requires the help of a horseless carriage to get to Dover to join Blanquette and Asticot. On the boat, he surprises Blanquette and tells her that he wants to be with his wife. She is puzzled and looks around for another woman before realising that she is the wife Gaston is referring to. A happy ending is guaranteed. ===== A country girl goes to Paris to sing professionally, where she falls in love with a member of the British Embassy. They are parted by the outbreak of the Second World War, but subsequently reunited again. ===== The novel was about Ted Jenkins, a farmer's son, is kicked out of boarding school for addiction to dope; when his father finds out, he kicks Ted off their property as well. Ted moves to Sydney and becomes homeless; he thinks about killing himself when he sees a young woman, Carmol, thinking of killing herself, too. They decide not to do it and Carmol nurses Ted back to health. The two form a strong bond (though not a romantic one – Ted's love is for Nibs, the daughter of Ted's father's best friend). Ted changes his name to "Digby Judd" and gets a job playing cello in Kings Cross, then moves to Thursday Island to improve his health, eventually running a pearling business for three years. While on Thursday Island, Ted/Digby runs into Fay le Bretton, a world class pianist on holiday, who discovers his talent for the cello and persuades him to come to London. The night before Ted's London debut he finds out that Carmol has been killed in a hit and run accident, but he still performs and is a big success. Four years later, Ted returns to Australia a rich man; he buys his family property (on the market due to a drought) and is reunited with his dying father and Nibs. ===== Dale Jenkins, heir to a rich property, tries to become a writer. ===== A dead John Doe is found on the beach and Detective Lieutenant Tony Ricco gets the case to solve. However, there are no clues whatsoever to the dead man's identity and Tony is all out of options to bring the investigation any closer to a finish. An old friend of his from Scotland Yard in London, Geoffrey James, comes to visit him, and Tony asks for some input on the case. After examining the body and the man's clothes, Geoffrey concludes he wore a Harris Tweed coat and had Sterling pound notes on him, and therefore has to be of British origin. Geoffrey also discovers a fluorescent paint on the coat, which would suggest it is the same paint as the one used to mark floating objects in water to easier spot and rescue them. The dead man had no water in his lungs, so he hadn't drowned, but maybe got the paint on him picking something up from the water, for example a life jacket. Geoffrey goes to the site on the beach where the body was found and discovers a life jacket as suggested, in a beachcomber shack. He puts it on over his own coat but then he is suddenly attacked by the beachcomber. A strange woman also appears with the beachcomber. Geoffrey easily fends off the attack and left is he and the strange woman, who doesn't want to reveal her name to him. Instead she runs away from him. Geoffrey runs after the woman but is knocked down by her friend. When he wakes up again, the life jacket is gone. Geoffrey changes tactics and looks into all the flights over the Atlantic ocean in the last few days, and eventually finds one where the bathroom window had been broken during the flight. He gets a beautiful flight attendant, Anne Hogan, to identify John Doe at the morgue as a Mr. Rodine, who worked as a diplomat and could pass through customs unchecked. He meets up with Tony again, and the American colleague presents a theory about Geoff being in the U.S. to track down the gang members who were behind a very large hit on a jewelry store. Geoffrey confesses that he indeed suspects Mr. Rodine of involvement in the theft. He guesses that Rodine could have dropped the jewels into the ocean from the plane, using a life jacket to hold them afloat. When Geoffrey speaks to the British consul he finds out that Rodine was killed a few days ago, long before the flight took place. Thus, the police still has no clue as to whom was found dead on the beach. Geoffrey and the flight attendant go on a search for the supposed seaplane that could have been used to pick up the jewels from the surface. They find that a pilot named Joe King has flown a plane with Rodine out to sea to retrieve the jewels. When they later meet the strange woman from the beach, the flight attendant identifies her as one Irene Trilling, who was also a passenger on the same flight as the man pretending to be Mr. Rodine. Irene runs off again, but her friend is another passenger from the flight, whose name is Frank Farrington. When they talk to the pilot, he finally identifies the man posing as Mr. Rodine as Louis Gannet, a known criminal and con artist. King also tells them that he witnessed Farrington kill Gannet after they had retrieved the jewels. Farrington then seemed to believe that King had taken the jewels from Gannet. Since neither Farrington not King has the jewels, someone else must have taken them. Geoffrey guesses that the beachcomber might have found them together with the life jacket, and goes back to the shack to look. He finds the jewels hidden in a lobster tank and takes them with him to Anne, the flight attendant, who has gone to find Irene and Farrington. Farrington suspects that Gannet and Irene were trying to trick him, and he shoots and kills Irene before Geoffrey and Anne arrives. He also tries to kill Geoffrey, but he is saved by Blake, an undercover policeman who has posed as a drunk and kept an eye on the Briton during the investigation. ===== Colonel Carrington (Roy Gordon) and his command are assigned the job of constructing a chain of forts in the Sioux Indian territory of Wyoming during the 1880s. The Colonel recruits former cavalry soldiers turned frontier scouts Jim Bridger (Dennis Morgan) and "Dakota Jack" Gaines (Richard Denning), now running a Wild West show, to head the fort building. Bridger and Gaines are friendly with Sioux chief Red Cloud (Robert Bice) but have reservations about the chief's 2nd in command, Afraid of Horses (Michael Morgan). Both Bridger and Gaines are confident a peace treaty with the Sioux can be made. However, if war breaks out, the cavalry is depending on getting a new type of breech loading Springfield Model 1865 rifle. Gaines, Mrs. Gaines (Paula Raymond), and Bridger arrive at the fort for the conference. Gaines gets drunk and attempts to intimidate the Indians into signing a treaty. Chief Red Fox threatens war if his territory is invaded by any troops building forts. ===== In London in 1906, some colleagues rush round to the Harley Street house of the unmarried Dr. Ridgeon to congratulate him on being awarded a knighthood for his claim that he can cure tuberculosis (though in reality at that time there was no certain cure). Among them is Dr. Blenkinsop, who was at medical school with him, but now looks after poor patients who cannot afford to pay much, and is himself infected with tuberculosis. Waiting in his hall is the young and lovely Jennifer Dubedat who, having heard of his alleged cure, wants him to treat her husband Louis, a penniless artist. Struck by the beauty and charm of Jennifer, and by the quality of her husband's drawings which she shows him, he lets her believe he will try to save Louis, but stresses that his treatment is long and expensive, and that he can only handle ten patients at a time. So that he can meet Louis, and see more of Jennifer, he invites the two to a celebration dinner he is hosting that night. While Louis is like his wife good-looking and charming, it emerges that he scorns all trappings of conventional morality, being a feckless liar, thief and seducer (a waitress recognises him as her vanished husband). Now highly doubtful about Louis, Ridgeon arranges with colleagues to visit the studio where he lives and assess his case. Recognising that his TB is far advanced, Ridgeon passes him on to a colleague and decides to take Blenkinsop instead. To Jennifer this is treachery and she begins to hate Ridgeon, while he hopes that he might marry her as soon as she is a widow. Beyond cure, Louis soon dies and in a moving last speech states his belief that love and beauty surpass all of conventional morality. He also begs Jennifer not to mourn, but to marry again and be happy. In a postscript, Ridgeon attends the one-man exhibition of Louis' works, which are selling well. Jennifer refuses to let him buy a painting and leaves with her new husband. ===== The De La Vega's are a wealthy and prestigious family known throughout the territory. When the youngest son of Don Alejandro de La Vega (Monteczuma), Diego (Rodolfo de Anda), returns from his 4 year stay in Spain, he finds his hometown oppressed by the corrupt military forces. The farmers are being run out of their homes and their land is being used as military camps and/or sold off to pay for military supplies and wages, along with taking the poor villagers and using them as slaves. The Film starts off with the Zorro character in place and does not show a transformation or origin story other than a brief prelude where Don Diego de la Vega tells his handy sidekick, Kino why he dawns the Zorro persona, (who in other versions is referred to as Bruno or Felipe, specifically the A&E; version starring Duncan Reghr) who is also the households butler, and most think is deaf and mute, but shares his secret with Don Diego/Zorro. Zorro has multiple face offs with the local military and swears to restore order and freedom to the oppressed. However to most, Zorro is nothing but a myth. When the eldest son of Don Alejandro plans to wed the daughter (Helena Rojo) of a fellow wealthy caballero, her father plans to sell his mansion and retire. A buyer emerges (played by Pedro Amendariz Jr) and befriends both families. Upon sealing the deal, he kills the caballero and mortally wounds the elder De la Vega, leaving with the money. He then marks the carriage and surrounding area with the infamous "Z" that Zorro has adapted and is known for. A series of crimes using his own version of the Zorro outfit/mask and impersonating him cause the local towns people to turn on the Zorro. The military starts linking clues together and leads their search right back to the De La Vega's Mansion. This begins a massive manhunt for the man named "Zorro" which sets out the "real" Zorro to avenge his brothers potential death, the caballeros death, and clear his name, and find out who is sabotaging him. ===== Annika Bengtzon, an up-and-coming young reporter for Kvällspressens newspaper, is called to the scene of a possible terrorist attack on the new Olympic Arena, Victoria Stadium in Stockholm, where the northern part of the arena has been blown to pieces. The blast kills Christina Furhage, the Swedish Olympic ambassador, and Bengtzon soon finds out that the bombing may have been a personal attack against Furhage and not a terrorist attack. Soon more Olympic Arenas around Stockholm are attacked and there are more victims, just months away from the Summer Olympics. A bomber with a personal agenda is on the loose. ===== Nell, a shy and quiet girl, is told that she will babysit a young rich girl at a hotel while the girl's parents attend a party. Nell feels isolated and has unrealistic expectations of love and relationships, based on what she reads in romance novels. She is taken with the little girl, Melissa (Kimberly Cullum). She has her call her "mommy" and gives Melissa a marble that she says is magic. Next, she lets her go with her to a toy store. While on the street, they play "pick a card" with a vendor. He thinks Melissa is cheating and yells at her. Nell yells at the man, saying her "daughter" isn't a cheater. While at the hotel a dog had tried to bite at Melissa, so Nell buys a toy plane. It flies into a back room where the dog chases after it, and the dog is heard whimpering. While Nell is trying on Melissa's mother's clothes and jewels in the hotel room, Nell sees a handsome man named Jeff (Brett Cullen) across the street. He calls her up for a date. She imagines them married with Melissa as their daughter and two other children. He is interested in Nell but he is taken aback when she starts asking if he loves her. The film ends with Nell on the ledge of the roof with Melissa and Jeff. He tells her not to hurt Melissa and she lets Melissa go, who drops the marble. Nell runs to the ledge to get it and in her dream world, she's talking to Jeff, Melissa and two other children. She hears him call "Nell? Nell?" The camera pans to the street in front of the hotel where Nell has fallen to her death; she has a smile on her face. ===== ===== Ryuzaki Shinji who possesses a "God Hand", the power to heal wounds and illnesses just by touching the patient, is in fact a dark introvert who does not reveal his true self to others. Aoi Ryosuke who possesses the "Demon's Hand", the power to kill a person just by touching him, is as kind and pure as an angel. It is said when the demon meets the God, a fatal battle begins. Detective Hasebe Nagisa gets caught by the criminals during a deep cover operation. Ryosuke, a man she does not even know comes to save her and she witnesses his "Demon's Hand" in action. Thereafter she discovers by coincidence the existence of Shinji's "God Hand" and brings the two together. Little did she know that this would cause great disorder to the world and even to her own life. ===== In a world where deceased people turn into stone-like books and are stored in the Bantorra Library, anyone who reads a book can learn its past. Bantorra Library is maintained by the Armed Librarians, who wield supernatural abilities, and their enemy is a psychotic cult known as Shindeki Church. As the story progresses it presents a world of sorrow and pain, and the unfairness and frugality of life, as well as personal desires. However, in each arc there is also a small underlying hope, and more of the reasons, conspiracies, and secrets are revealed behind everything. ===== Harry Spikes (Lee Marvin) is an aging bank robber of the fading Old West. Injured and near death, he is found and mended back to health by three impressionable youths who are lifelong friends—Wil (Gary Grimes), Tod (Charles Martin Smith), and Les (Ron Howard). They refuse any payment from Spikes for their efforts, and when he's healed he leaves saying he won't forget their kindness. Later, after enduring a beating from his father, and encouraged by Spikes's reminiscences of the good life, Wil decides to run away from home seeking excitement and easy living, and the other 2 boys decide to follow. The three boys eventually make it to a Texas town, hungry and despondent, and in a moment of inspiration attempt to rob a bank. In the process Tod accidentally kills a man, and Les drops all the money, but they manage to escape and cross the Rio Grande into Mexico. Arriving in the Mexican town of Piedras Negras penniless and unable to find any work, Wil pawns his grandfathers antique watch for $10, enough to buy them a meal. That night, they attempt to steal the watch back, but stumble right into the sheriffs office, and land in jail. After suffering in jail for 8 weeks, they happen to glance out the window and see Spikes and call him over. Good to his word, Spikes bribes the jailer, buys them baths, food and drink before saying his goodbye. He also tells them the man they killed was a state senator, and they now each have a bounty of $1500 on them, dead or alive. The boys stay in Mexico and attempt to go 'straight' working a succession of menial jobs, before again coming across Spikes who offers to take them into his "gang." They plan a bank robbery back in the US, with Spikes first testing their mettle on a dry run in the Mexican bank. Crossing the border they camp out outside the town and are come upon by an old man who has deduced their plan and wants into the gang. When Spikes tells him no, he attempts to badger the boys into a gunfight to prove his worth, and Wil accidentally shoots him dead. Everything begins to take a turn for the worse: the bank robbery is a colossal failure, Tod is shot in the back, and they have a shootout with the Posse. Momentarily safe, Spikes knows Tod is dying and encourages the others to abandon him and look out for themselves. Wil and Les refuse and Spikes leaves them, saying "Good luck." Attempting to find a doctor, Wil attracts another Posse, who descend on them as they finish burying Tod. After riding back to Mexico, Wil leaves Les as he wants to deliver a final letter to Tod's family, saying he will meetup with Les in the "Big Church" back in the Mexican town of Piedras Negras in exactly two weeks. Arriving back from the journey, Wil enters the church and encounters a man who says Les sent him, and that he's been sorely wounded, shot four times by 2 men, bounty hunters by the name of Morton and Spikes. Killing Morton outside the infirmary, Wil attempts to leave with Les only to have him die in his arms. He heads to the Hotel to confront Spikes, and appears to surprise him in his hotel room with his gun still hanging on the bed post. Spikes tells him he met with the Governor of Texas himself, who promised him a pardon for all his crimes if he brings in the boys. He then says he respects Wil, and wishes it didn't have to be the way it is, saying he didn't mean to kill Les, but he drew on him and had no choice. Wil demands he stand up so he can kill him "fair," but Spikes throws his hat at him and pulls a hidden gun, shooting him in the chest. However, Wil manages to get off a succession of shots and kill Spikes, before stumbling out of the hotel and to the train station. Wil imagines boarding the train and returning home to embrace his father, before he collapses dead. The film ends with a montage of the boys when they first set out on the adventure, saying "C'mon, Let's go get lucky!" ===== This romance novel is primarily set in 1940 and 1941 during the immediate post-Dunkirk period of World War II at a military hospital in England during nightly bomb raids and blackouts. The story's protagonist, Laurie (Laurence) 'Spud' Odell, is a young soldier wounded at Dunkirk (Renault had trained as a nurse and during the war she was posted to an Emergency Hospital in Winford just outside Bristol), who must decide if his affections lie with a younger conscientious objector working at his hospital or a naval officer whom he had 'worshiped' when they had both been pupils at an all-boys boarding school and with whom he has suddenly been reconnected. The conscientious objector, Andrew Raynes, is a young Quaker, as yet unaware of his own sexuality, who is working as an orderly at the military hospital where Laurie is being treated. Ralph Lanyon, who commanded the Merchant Navy ship which evacuated Laurie from Dunkirk, was Laurie's boyhood hero at school, but he was expelled for a sexual incident with another boy (Hazell). He is sexually experienced and an established member of the homosexual sub-culture of the nearby city. Laurie must come to terms with his own nature as well as the two different aspects of love characterised by Andrew and Ralph: the 'pure', asexual nature of his love for Andrew; and the sexual satisfaction of his love for Ralph. The novel derives its title from the Chariot Allegory employed by Plato in his dialogue Phaedrus, in which the soul (the charioteer) must learn to manage the two aspects of love, the black horse representing the lustful side of love, and the white horse representing the altruistic side of love. Circumstances eventually force Laurie to choose Ralph over Andrew, giving Andrew up rather than force him into conflict with his religious beliefs and his, still unresolved, sexuality. There is altruism on Ralph's side too as he is prepared to sacrifice himself rather than stand in Laurie's way and force him into his own lifestyle of covert sexuality and 'specialisation'.Chapter 6 "The party had warmed up by this time. A momentary detachment came upon Laurie as he looked on. After some years of muddled thinking on the subject, he suddenly saw quite clearly what it was he had been running away from; why he had refused Sandy‘s first invitation, and what the trouble had been with Charles. It was also the trouble, he perceived, with nine-tenths of the people here tonight. They were specialists. They had not merely accepted their limitations, as Laurie was ready to accept his, loyal to his humanity if not to his sex, and bringing an extra humility to the hard study of human experience. They had identified themselves with their limitations; they were making a career of them. They had turned from all other reality, and curled up in them snugly, as in a womb." Renault is concerned that homosexual men be fully integrated members of society and do not try to exist in a ghetto of their own making, as exemplified by the party ("part-brothel, part lonely hearts club")Chapter 14 "I don‘t just mean that queers would be there. A queer party: something between a lonely hearts club and an amateur brothel." at which Ralph and Laurie are reunited. In Ralph, Renault creates a tarnished hero with the potential to be a noble warrior (she alludes to Plato's Symposium, in which a character philosophizes about an army composed of male lovers), whom Laurie, who has not yet lost his youthful idealism, can redeem. The hope is that Laurie and Ralph can build a meaningful long-term relationship rather than a life of only sexual gratification. Renault had been trained as a nurse and worked for several months at the Winford Emergency Hospital outside Bristol (which had a fairly large contingent of conscientious objectors working as orderlies). The story's wartime setting enabled Renault to consider issues such as how gay men could be valued and useful members of society, to 'make out as a human being'Chapter 16 "Good luck to you, Spud. We always agreed that right, left or centre, it is still necessary to make out as a human being. I haven't done it but you will." as she expresses it, whilst still remaining true to their nature. Renault's other earlier novels also had gay themes (primarily lesbian) but in her subsequent novels, Renault turned away from the 20th century and focused on stories about male lovers in the warrior societies of ancient Greece. Thus she no longer had to deal with modern gay issues and prejudices, and was free to examine the nature of male love and heroes as the object of love. ===== From a planet called "Life Core", which exists parallel to the normal human world, females known as "Jūden-chan" (charger girls) are patrolling the human world in search for individuals who feel depressed and unlucky. Their job is to charge these people up with the help of electricity in order to improve their mental states. While normally unseen by human eyes, one of these Jūden-chan, Plug Cryostat, accidentally meets a young man who is able to see her, because she was targeting his father (his sister in the anime). This series revolves around the various antics between the main characters and the quest for this Jūden-chan to improve herself. ===== In 1945, Isabel Green is driven to her wits end by her hectic life while her husband fights in World War II. Between trying to keep the family farm up and running and her job in the village shop, run by the slightly mad Mrs. Docherty, she also has three boisterous children to look after, Norman, Megsie and Vincent. When her children's two wealthy cousins, Cyril and Celia, also then come to live with them and start fighting with them, Isabel requires childcare help. When the magical Nanny McPhee arrives, the children at first do not listen and carry on fighting, which she soon puts a stop to with her magic. Meanwhile, Isabel's brother-in-law, Phil, has gambled away his half of the farm, and is being chased by two hired female assassins working for casino owner Mrs. Biggles. He desperately attempts to make Isabel sell her half of the farm, using mean and spiteful schemes to leave her no choice. The children find out one of his schemes and leads them to work together to fix it. Isabel takes the children on a picnic during which an ARP Warden, Mr. Docherty, warns them about bombs and how he imagines a pilot might accidentally release his bomb. At the end of the picnic, Uncle Phil delivers a telegram saying Isabel's husband was killed in action. Isabel and everyone else believes the telegram, but Norman says that he can "feel it in his bones" that his father is not dead. He tells this to Cyril, who at first says it is just because he is upset, but then agrees that Norman might be right, so the two boys ask Nanny McPhee to take them to the War Office in London, where Cyril and Celia's father works. There, Nanny McPhee and the boys ask Cyril and Celia's father Lord Gray, who is very important in the War Office, what has happened to Mr. Green. At first Lord Gray sneers at Norman's disbelief at his father's death, but after Cyril blurts out that he knows his parents are getting a divorce, Lord Gray checks what has happened. While he is gone, Cyril tells Norman that he and Celia have been sent away because their parents will be splitting up, and Norman asks where Cyril and Celia will live. When Cyril replies that their parents only want to show each other off, Norman tells Cyril that he and Celia are welcome to live on the farm with the Greens. Lord Gray returns and tells Norman that his father is not dead, but is missing in action, and that there is no record of a telegram being sent to his mother. After the boys leave, Norman deduces that Uncle Phil forged the telegram. While the boys are at the War Office, Megsie, Celia and Vincent try to stop Isabel from signing the papers and selling the farm. Just as she is about to do so, a German pilot accidentally drops a huge bomb; it shakes everything but does not explode and is left sticking out of the barley field. When Nanny McPhee returns with Norman and Cyril, Norman accuses Phil of forgery, which he admits to, and Isabel handcuffs him to the stove. The children go out to watch Mr. Docherty dismantle the bomb, but he falls from the ladder. Megsie takes over, and succeeds with the help of the other children and Nanny McPhee's jackdaw, Mr. Edelweiss. After Nanny McPhee helps to harvest the barley with a little magic, saving Phil from Mrs. Biggles' hitwomen in the process, it is revealed that old Mrs. Docherty is in fact baby Agatha from the first film and that she remembers Nanny McPhee. As Nanny McPhee walks away from the now happy family, the children and Isabel chase after her, only to see Mr. Green, in army uniform with an injured arm, making his way to them. He runs to his family and they embrace. In the mid-credits scene, Ellie, Vincent's elephant, is seen enjoying the magically operated Scratch-o-matic. ===== ===== Marie Morgan (Ginger Rogers) has been lured to an old abandoned house by a false note from a friend, and is in jeopardy although she doesn't yet realize it. As she sits at the table inside, she thinks back to the banquet held there 13 years earlier, when she was a little girl. Only 12 of 13 guests had attended, and the manor's owner, the Morgan family patriarch, who was then dying, has since passed on. The chance to claim the bulk of the estate fortune has resulted in an ongoing campaign of murder by someone targeting the original 12 guests, whose dead bodies are being left at the table in the same seats they had occupied originally. ===== In every episode, an eccentric old wizard named Bubonic and his aunt, a witch named Tyrannia, must wreak havoc on the city in which they live or suffer a severe punishment from their supervisor, Maledictus T. Maggot. To be able to do so, they use an ancient magical parchment that, once utilized to activate a spell, said spell must be reversed within the next seven hours; otherwise, its effects will become permanent and irreversible. To make sure the spells are reversed, Bubonic's and Tyrannia's pets, Mauricio di Mauro and Jacob Scribble, must seek out Aunt Noah, an old turtle at the local zoo and head of the Animal Council, for a riddle on how to reverse the spell, which they usually manage to do in the nick of time. One of the episodes, Night of Wishes, is particularly inspired by the book. In that episode, the animals foil the spell by dropping a bell sound into the potion cauldron and Maledictus Maggot punishes Bubonic and Tyrannia for the foiled spell by attaching their homes, forcing them to live together. Unlike the other known punishments that never last enough to be seen in later episodes, this one seems to be permanent and has lasted at least five years (the animals recall that it has been five years since it happened). Bubonic and Tyrannia are so clumsy that some of their spells bring trouble to themselves, and when the spells are undone, they feel a temporary relief that quickly ends when Maggot shows up to punish them for their failure. ===== Gérard and Thierry are business partners who are accused of stealing a safe from a wealthy tycoon in this situation comedy. A practical joke backfires when the two make their colleague Daniel believe he has won the lottery. The owner of the safe calls the police, who chase after the scheming duo. The two steal the safe a second time to cover the loss of the money taken in the first burglary. Monique is the sultry police commissioner and former flame of the robbery victim who investigates the bizarre case. ===== While Anita Blake remains one of the most effective "legal vampire hunters" in the country, her personal life is in turmoil because of her close personal relationship with some vampires. Amid this backdrop, Blake goes to Las Vegas to investigate a vampire's serial murder spree. ===== Aema and her husband Hyeon-woo, from Madame Aema (1982) have now divorced. While on vacation on Jeju Island, Aema contemplates her current love affairs with a young enterpreneur jae-ha and sang-yeon, who is a junior of his former husband and collects butterflies in jeju, and returning to her husband, who is now living with another woman. Being lonely, aema rides a horse in the wilderness and makes out with sang-yeon in a tent. Resolving to become independent, Aema declares that love and marriage are separate things. ===== Aema is married to a Professor Noh in this entry in the Aema Buin series. Professor Noh has become obsessed with sex through his research and wild experiences abroad. Consequently, he is dissatisfied with Aema. Aema has an affair with a professional wrestler who resembles her first boyfriend, then seeks forgiveness from her husband. When their reconciliation proves a failure, Aema wanders the streets in despair. ===== When streetwise Molly Templar witnesses a brutal murder at the brothel she has recently been apprenticed to, her first instinct is to run back to the poorhouse where she grew up. But there she finds her fellow orphans butchered, and it slowly dawns on her that she was the real target of the attack. For Molly is special, and she is carrying a secret that marks her out for destruction by enemies of the state. Oliver Brooks has led a sheltered existence in the backwater home of his merchant uncle. But when he is framed for his only relative's murder, he is forced to flee for his life, accompanied by an agent of the mysterious Court of the Air. Chased across the country, Oliver finds himself in the company of thieves, outlaws, and spies, and gradually learns more about the secret that has blighted his life. Soon Molly and Oliver will find themselves battling a grave threat to civilization, an ancient power thought to have been quelled millennia ago. Their enemies are ruthless and myriad, but the two orphans are also aided by indomitable friends. ===== The episode opens with Lewis (Clark Johnson) and Crosetti (Jon Polito) looking for a projectile a few yards away from the body of a man shot to death. The man's girlfriend (Oni Faida Lampley), who was shot in the head during the incident but survived, tells police during questioning that her aunt Calpurnia Church hired a hitman to kill her for insurance money. The detectives learn Church previously collected life insurance from five deceased husbands. Suspecting Church of murdering her husbands, Lewis and Crosetti have the body of her most recent husband exhumed for an autopsy, but reach a dead- end when it turns out to be the wrong body in his grave. Felton (Daniel Baldwin) hesitates to take a new murder case because he fears it will be too difficult to solve, so it is taken on by his partner Howard (Melissa Leo), who has recently experienced a perfect streak of solving 11 consecutive cases. They investigate the body of a man dead in a basement, and much to Felton's bewilderment, Howard solves the case easily. The owner of the house, Jerry Jempson (Jim Grollman), literally calls her at the house while she is investigating and agrees to a police interview, during which he acts extremely nervous and is eventually charged with the murder. Munch (Richard Belzer) is reluctant to follow up on the case of murdered drug addict Jenny Goode, who was run over by a car. The case has been cold for three months, but he is made to feel guilty by his partner Bolander (Ned Beatty) into reexamining it. Munch makes no progress after speaking with the family and reexamining notes. Based on witness accounts of a man with long blond hair and a black car, Munch spends all night looking through suspect photos until he finds a man with a black car with front end damage and long black hair, but blond eyebrows. Munch and Bolander question him, believing the suspect (Joe Hansard) to have dyed his hair to change his appearance after killing the woman. He quickly confesses to having hit her accidentally while driving drunk. Gee (Yaphet Kotto) tells Pembleton (Andre Braugher), an excellent detective but a lone wolf, that he must work with a partner. Pembleton ends up investigating the death of a 65-year-old man with rookie detective Bayliss (Kyle Secor). Bayliss initially believes the death to be a heart attack, but Pembleton correctly determines it is a murder because the man's car is missing. Police later arrest a man named Johnny (Alexander Chaplin) who is found driving the dead man's car. During an interrogation, Pembleton fools Johnny into waiving his Miranda Rights, then sneakily persuades him into confessing to the murder. Bayliss, although convinced of Johnny's guilt, nevertheless questions the ethics of Pembleton's approach, prompting Pembleton to yell angrily at him in front of the other officers. The episode ends with Bayliss responding to his first homicide as the primary detective: the brutal murder of an 11-year-old girl named Adena Watson. ===== Sachin Tichkule (Akshay Kumar) is a struggling Maharashtrian contractor who dreams big but has no chance of his dreams coming true as he doesn't have any money to bribe the bureaucracy. His family has lost faith in him, telling him to earn money through honest means. To make matters worse, the new Municipal Commissioner turns out to be his ex-girlfriend, Gehna Ganpule (Trisha), who now hates him due to his wayward ways. His brothers-in- law Trigun (Manoj Joshi), Suhas Vichare (Milind Gunaji) and his elder brother Harish (Paritosh Sand) were all responsible for a bridge collapse resulting in many fatalities, and were helped by a politician named Sanjay Rana (Jaideep Ahlawat). After putting the blame of the mishap on their driver Vishwas Rao, (Tinu Anand) they kill him later fearing he would reveal the truth. Meanwhile, Sanjay's lustful eyes fall on Sachin's sister Anjali (Urvashi Sharma). Sachin warns him to keep away from Anjali and slaps him. Meanwhile, a journalist named Azad Bhagat (Makrand Deshpande) wants justice as his family was killed in that accident. Anjali marries Sanjay, unbeknownst to Sachin. When he confronts his father Ramakant Tichkule (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) as to how the marriage is finalized to an evil man without his knowledge, he reprimands Sachin, saying he has no right to say he didn't know anything because he has no money to marry his sister off. After losing contact, Sachin learns that Anjali has been attempting to contact him and when he goes to their house one night, he is informed by the guard that they have gone out. Sachin spots Azad escape from Sanjay's house. He then learns of Anjali's death because of an accident. Sachin and his parents are devastated. Sachin is suspicious and smells foul play in her death. He then meets Azad again at the Municipal office and learns of Azad's intentions and how he had acquired strong evidence which would help in putting the people involved behind bars. They both then agree to help each other to reveal the corruption behind the faulty construction of the bridge. Sanjay comes to know of Azad's intentions and hires masked robbers, who kill Azad while he was on his way to court. Sachin takes the fatally injured Azad to the hospital for treatment. At the hospital, while Azad is dying in Sachin's arms, he reveals that while he was stealing the evidence, he saw Sachin's sister Anjali being raped by Sanjay's friends and it's not clear whether she was murdered by her rapists while she escaped or she committed suicide. In an attempt to make sure the evidence isn't revealed, Sanjay steals it after robbing Azad's house. Sachin spots Sanjay fleeing with the bag full of evidence and a fight ensues between Sanjay and Sachin. Sanjay is then killed after being run over by a bus and Sachin successfully retrieves the evidence. Sachin's brother and brothers-in-law are arrested and the whole family, especially Sachin's sisters-in-law, begins belittling him, claiming he was jealous of them and unlike his successful brother Harish and brothers-in-law Trigun and Suhas, blaming him for tarnishing the family name. Sachin then argues back that their husbands are still alive behind bars where the wives can see them, while the people who have died to the bridge collapse are gone forever, and nothing can be done to bring them back, and he had to deal with the pain of losing Anjali the most, considering that his brothers-in-law had a hand in her death and were not reprimanded. He agrees to leave, until his father stops him and realizes his honesty and trustworthiness, re-kindling their relationship, saying that he is proud of him. As he gets out of the house, Sachin spots Gehna, who tells him that she remained a spinster waiting for him, and confesses her love for Sachin and they decide to marry. ===== In 1911, a willful and determined man from peasant stock named Charles Saganne (Gérard Depardieu) enlists in the military and is assigned to the Sahara Desert under the aristocratic Colonel Dubreuilh (Philippe Noiret). Saganne attracts the attentions of Madeleine (Sophie Marceau), the daughter of the regional administrator. In the Sahara, Saganne earns the respect of the Arabs, including Amajan, an independent warrior. After several campaigns, Saganne travels to Paris on a diplomatic mission. After having an affair with a journalist in Paris, Saganne returns to Africa, where he leads a valliant defense against Sultan Omar. He is awarded the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, and marries Madeleine. The onset of World War I puts his success and happiness at risk. ===== In the year 2020, Earth suffers from a devastating alien invasion. A large mechanical planetoid suddenly emerges from space and attacks the cities of Earth without reason or communication. With all defenses annihilated, the United Nations corresponds with NASA to make a powerful space fighter known as the SWA-402 Ortega, but the fighter fails to end the war. One of the Ortega pilots, known only by his call sign Fox-A, is killed in action. His bereaved girlfriend Hiroko soon discovers his involvement in the Pandora Project which houses the Ortega's successor: the SDE-201 Aldynes. As the invaders attack the air force housing the nearly complete Aldynes, Hiroko hijacks one of the ships and throws herself into battle in hopes of getting revenge. ===== Manhattanite Julie Messinger, a complacent housewife and mother of two raucous young sons, is married to Richard, a chauvinistic and self-centered magazine art director and author of a best-selling children's book. When he falls into a coma during minor surgery to remove a nonmalignant mole on his neck, Julie learns from his doctor, Dr. Timmy Spector, that another surgeon nicked his artery, necessitating a blood transfusion to which he had a rare allergic reaction. The following day, Julie is told Richard has overcome the reaction, but his liver has sustained serious damage requiring immediate treatment. In quick succession, all his organs begin to fail. While trying to comfort Julie, family friend Cal Whiting reveals his girlfriend Miranda has confessed to having had a lengthy affair with Richard. Distressed by the news, Julie seeks advice from her egocentric mother but finds herself unable to discuss her husband's infidelity. She decides to confront Miranda and asks her what future she anticipated having with her husband. Miranda confesses she and Richard are deeply in love and have discussed marriage, although thus far she has been unable to make such a permanent commitment. Julie begins to unravel emotionally. She visits Cal, whose attempted seduction of her fails due to impotence. At the hospital, she tells the unconscious Richard she will never divorce him and vows to ruin his reputation. Timmy invites her to his apartment for drinks and admits he was aware of Richard's affair not only with Miranda, but with other women as well, and kept them secret out of a sense of loyalty to his friend. Stunned and confused, Julie lashes out at Timmy, then seduces him, and he succumbs to her advances. At home later that evening, Julie finds a black book in Richard's desk and realizes it contains coded data about his numerous extramarital affairs, many of them with her friends. She gives it to Cal, who then shows it to Miranda to prove she was just one of Richard's many conquests. The following day, Richard goes into cardiac arrest, and Julie realizes she wants him to survive despite his betrayal of her. When Timmy reports her husband has died, a grieving Julie takes her sons for a walk in Central Park to contemplate their future. ===== During the Edwardian era, a working-class ballet dancer begins a romance with a wealthy artist against a background of sharp disapproval. ===== Fancy Nancy is a young girl with a larger than life personality, who adores all things fancy. She always dresses extravagantly, wearing boas, tutus, ruby slippers, fairy wings, and fuzzy slippers. Nancy loves using big fancy words such as "iridescent", "ecstatic", and "extraordinary" and anything in French. She has redecorated her bedroom with everyday items, such as feather boas, Christmas lights, paper flowers, and hats. Her favorite doll is named Marabelle Lavinia Chandelier. In Nancy's opinion, her family is ordinary and dresses rather plainly, so Nancy decides to hold a class in the art of fanciness for her family. They oblige, and Nancy helps to dress them in bows, ornaments, top hats, and gaudy scarves. "Ooo-la- la!" Nancy cries in delight. "My family is posh! That's a fancy word for fancy." ===== Set in the 1950s it tells the story of the Harlencys who abandon their Streatham pub for the "Copper Kettle Tearoom" in rural Kent. The story centres on their young daughter April and her friendship with the fiery Ruby; and with her attempts to frustrate the unhealthy attentions of Mr Greenidge... ===== ===== The film takes place mainly over two days. Following a recent break-up, Juliet makes a to-do list, which includes seeing her former friend Julie again for the first time in 15 years.Lucille Cairns, "Lesbian Desire in Recent French and Francophone Cinema", in Lesbian Inscriptions in Francophone Society and Culture (Renate Günther, Wendy Michallat, eds.) University of Durham, 2007. . Juliet tracks Julie down in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. Day 1 sees the pair reconnect as they spend the day together. However, near the end of the night, Juliet kisses Julie. Surprised, despite a similar incident in their adolescence, Julie initially rejects Juliet. However, the next day when Juliet prepares to leave, Julie won't let her go. Day 2 sees Julie work through her feelings for Juliet. Facing the prospect of losing Juliet again, Julie finally admits to having feelings for Juliet and eventually returns Juliet's affections.Thomas Waugh, The Romance of Transgression in Canada: Queering Sexualities, Nations, Cinemas. McGill-Queen's University Press, 2006. . p. 396. ===== Pandu (Jagapati Babu) is a jack of all trades with helping nature. He is very much impressed with a TV anchor Anjali (Sneha) who donates her earnings for the cause of children with heart ailments. Anjali is also a good dancer. This way, Pandu becomes her ardent fan. Home Minister Bhagawan (Sayaji Shinde), a womaniser takes a look at Anjali while dancing at a function. But, Anjali rejects his advances. Bhagawan sees that Anjali is put behind bars on a false case of drug trafficking. Nobody comes to her rescue, but only one man – that is Pandu, her ardent fan. How he exposes evil deeds of Bhagawan and proves the innocence of Anjali and also how he wins her heart forms the climax. ===== In this entry in the long- running Madame Aema series, Aema's husband becomes romantically involved with a Japanese woman after taking a job at a Japanese company. Aema must also contend with two men who are making romantic advances towards her. ===== On a primitive planet with no mass communications technology, news and information is disseminated by itinerant members of the Newstellers Guild. One night, a group of travellers sit around a campfire and a Master Newsteller, accompanied by his apprentice, tells a story. The tale he spins tells of Lord Ashley Allenby, an ambassador from a neighbouring quadrant of inhabited planets, whose mission is to warn the planetary government of an impending invasion. Allenby's ship is damaged and he has to put down his lifeboat in a desert, not knowing his location. He learns from a traveller that all information, even directions to the nearest town, has a value and must be bargained for. In the town of Tarsak, he also learns that the planet has no capital and no central government. He falls in with a Master Newsteller and apprentices himself to him, hoping to thus spread the news of his mission. But the keen listeners around the campfire are one step ahead of the Newsteller, and realise the punchline to be that Allenby is the Master's apprentice. As Master and apprentice depart, Allenby tentatively suggests improvements to the story to make it more believable. The Master stalks off in a huff, declaring "Everybody wants to be a critic! Everybody!" ===== Just before dawn, Rick and Will are awake on the terrace and comment that two of the moons have been horizontally aligned all week. Rick confesses that he has been waiting for the third, smaller moon to align between the others and is curious as to what effect they might have on the Land of the Lost. Suddenly, they hear the sounds of chanting and follow the sounds to find the Pakuni dancing around a keyless pylon as the third moon falls into alignment. Just as the sun rises, they cease chanting and a pylon door appears spilling out a shopping cart full of Earth groceries. Suspecting that the pylon contains a time doorway home, Rick and Will step in. Immediately, the door closes as the small moon moves out of alignment, and the Pakuni walk off with the food. Back at their cave, Holly wakes up alone and begins to worry. After leaving a note in case her family returns, she sets out to look for them. Along the way, she runs into Cha-Ka and asks him if he's seen them. The young Paku immediately apologizes and explains that they entered the "Moon-Giver" (pylon) and are now gone. However, he adds that Ta knows how to open the pylon so they go looking for him. They find both Ta and Sa struggling to push the grocery cart and Holly is bewildered by the presence of so much Earth food. After showing Ta how to unwrap a candy bar, Holly tries to persuade Ta to help her but he refuses to do so until after he's decided on his price. Later, at the cave, Ta and Sa arrive to tell Holly that Ta will open the pylon in return for "odumani" - everything, referring to all the Marshalls' belongings. Seeing no other way to help her family, Holly reluctantly agrees. Later, the Pakuni have piled all of the Marshalls' things into the cart and arrive at the pylon where they resume their chant. Again, the moons all align and the pylon opens but no one comes out. Holly decides to go in after her father and brother but once inside, the door closes again and she finds herself alone. Seconds later, the Pakuni watch as the door opens again and Rick and Will step out. Rick checks his watch and finds that time outside the pylon has passed more quickly than inside but that he is confident that they can use this pylon to return home. They are about to return to the cave to tell Holly the good news when they realize that all their belongings are there and that something must have happened to Holly. Rick grows angry at Ta and demands that he open the pylon. Inside the pylon, Holly stands at the matrix table while a column of lights descends and surrounds her. When the lights ascend again, the door opens revealing that Holly is apparently no longer in the Land of the Lost, but rather in a cold, snowy, mountainous environment. She goes back to the matrix table and lights descend again. This time, the door opens to what appears to be a pristine Lost City from a much earlier time as there is no trace of any jungle or Big Alice. She calls out to an Altrusian resembling Enik who hears her and starts to walk towards her but the door closes again and the column returns. Next, it opens on a noisy, alien jungle with a purple tint to the foliage. A small, animate object resembling a box on springs jumps into the pylon before the door closes and rests on the matrix table. The column reappears over both of them and when the door opens once more, Holly believes she is back in the Land of the Lost. The box jumps out the door but, before Holly can leave, it explodes. Holly then notices that the words "HOLLY DON'T" are written in the dirt just outside the pylon. She takes this as a message from her father and brother not to leave the pylon. The next journey takes Holly to a red-tinted desert with a huge vacuum cleaner-like object that is consuming objects. As it turns to the pylon, Holly steps back frightened and anxiously waits for the door to close. When it reopens, Holly finds that she is in a park on modern-day Earth and watches as kids play with a frisbee. One of them throws the frisbee towards the doorway and Holly catches it before the door closes again. Back in the Land of the Lost, several hours have passed with the Pakuni apparently having had no success in opening the door to Rick's great frustration and anger. At last, the pylon opens and Holly emerges relieved. That evening, the Marshalls are back in the cave with all their stuff as they discuss the day's events. Rick reveals that be blackmailed Ta into returning all of their things by threatening to tell the other Pakuni how Ta was able to open the pylon. In actuality, all of the ritualistic chanting and dancing were merely a means of stalling for time. Ta had witnessed a prior conjunction of the moons and thus knew when the pylon would open but kept that knowledge to himself for his own benefit. Unfortunately, that particular alignment will not occur again for another few years. But when it does, they can finally go home. Holly thanks her father for scrawling the message in the sand that warned her to stay in the pylon but Rick and Will absolutely deny that they left such a note, leaving an open question regarding its origins. ===== Jail tells the story of Parag Dixit (Neil Nitin Mukesh) who is having a peaceful life with his girlfriend Mansi, (Mugdha Godse). But his life takes a turn and he ends up in jail due to a false drugs case in which he is implicated although his friend Keshav (Jignesh Joshi) is responsible for the fiasco. Shortly after getting promoted as Regional Manager of Max Finance, Parag Dixit gets arrested in Bandra for Firing at Police, and Possession of Narcotics. His associate, Keshav, is grievously injured, and is hospitalized in a coma-like condition. Parag's widowed mother, Alka, and Air Hostess girlfriend, Manasi Pandit, retain Advocate Harish Bhatiya (Sandeep Mehta) to represent him at a preliminary bail hearing, but the Judge denies bail. Housed in an overcrowded barrack, with barely room to move, Parag meets with a variety of people - both convicted and awaiting trial - including Abdul Ghani (Rahul Singh) (a person waiting for bail after he accidentally killed a man troubling his wife), Kabir Malik (Arya Babbar) (a convict and henchman of Bababhai), Galib Suratwala, Nawab (Manoj Bajpayee) (a prisoner who now works in jail), Joe D'souza (a hit and run accused) (Ali Quli Mirza), Bababhai (a Don who stays in special room and conducts criminal activities by bribing police), etc. The jail mentally tortures Parag but he eventually learns to adjust there. Parag again appears in Court after a charge-sheet is filed, but again, due to the seriousness of the offenses, fear of tampering with evidence and witnesses, he is denied bail. Months later, Keshav died while parag was still under trial.A lot happens during Parag stays in Jail. Parag befriends Nawab who is sympathetic to him. Ghani's wife leaves him and he agrees to become bababhais henchman and is released on bail but once out he finds his wife married another man and he commits suicide. Galib escapes from jail by bribing police. Joe gets bail who celebrates by donating his items which angers Parag and he beats him up for which he is transferred to solitary confinement as Punishment. After 10 days he is released on request of Nawab. He is shattered but he is allowed to go to hospital to meet his mother and Mansi with help of Kabir. Nawab is angry at him and requests him to stay away from gangsters as they demand a lot in return. He narrates his story of how his little brother under influence of a gangster was involved in a murder case and Nawab was forced to kill him and the gangster. 2 years later during Parag's final trial he is convicted under drug act and is sentenced rigorous imprisonment of 10 years out of which 2 years he has served and has to serve 8 years more. Embittered by abuse, loss of faith in an overburdened system Parag once contemplates suicide. Parag asks Kabir to ask Bababhai to help him get out. He agrees to do anything in return. Kabir agrees. A routine transfer of jail is happening Parag is going to be transferred to Nasik jail and Kabir to Kolhapur. During transfer a corrupt cop places Parag in Kabir's transport. Nawab senses it but stays quiet. On the way Kabir and his gang cause an accident and escape but Parag stays back the last moment. Nawab is informed about the events by the Jailor Arvind Joshi (Chetan Pandit) and is happy. In Kolhapur jail Parag tries to regain hope. Six months later Mansi hires a new Lawyer (Atul Kulkarni) and Parag appears for retrial in high court. The new lawyer presents new evidences and points out the flaws committed by the trial court. Parag is acquitted. He and Mansi visit jail to meet Nawab. ===== Thérèse, who works with her mother in a small village, has a crush on Antoine who lives in the mountains where he herds his uncle's livestock. Their love finds a tragical end. ===== Guru (Kay Kay Menon) and Ganpat (Dilip Prabhavalkar) are small-time car thieves. One night, they steal a Mercedes Rs. 10 million inside, unaware that the car belongs to a vicious gangster/loan shark called Faujdaar (Anupam Kher). They try to sell the stolen Mercedes to Suleman Supari (Rahul Dev), a hitman, who recognizes the car and notifies his friend Faujdaar. Faujdaar sends his henchman with Guru to get back the cash. Meanwhile, Ganpat has hidden cash in a safe place. After an accident, he loses his memory. Angered by the chain of events, Faujdaar gives Guru three days to return the money. ===== Shimazu Toyohisa, while involved at the Battle of Sekigahara, manages to mortally wound Ii Naomasa, but is critically injured in the process. As he walks from the field wounded and bleeding, Toyohisa finds himself transported to a corridor of doors, where a bespectacled man at a desk waits for him. This man, Murasaki, sends Toyohisa through the nearest door where he wakes up in another world. There, Toyohisa meets other great warriors like him who have been transported as well, to be part of a group known as "Drifters". This world contains both native humans and a number of fantastical races, including elves, dwarves, and hobbits. However, the world is at war, with the humans waging a losing conflict against another group of great warriors, the "Ends", who wish to take over the world and kill all of the Drifters. Under the Ends' command are many terrible creatures, including giants and dragons, which they use to destroy everything in their path. At the start of the series, the Ends' army has control of the northern part of the continent, and are trying to invade the south through a pivotal fortress at the northernmost tip of a nation called Carneades. Meanwhile, the "Octobrist Organization", a group of human magicians native to this world, attempts to bring together the many individual Drifters to save their world from the brutal Ends. ===== Four middle-class Pasadena ladies in their late sixties (Helen Hayes, Myrna Loy, Mildred Natwick and Sylvia Sidney) habitually meet for lunch and exchange small talk with their waitress (Dodo Denney). They propose to create a fictitious young woman and to submit her profile to a computer dating service. Several days after doing so they begin to receive letters from potential suitors, and derive additional amusement from reading them out loud. Concurrently, a young woman (Diane Shalet) becomes alarmed by her date Mal's (Vince Edwards) attempts to force himself upon her, and manages to escape into her home. His audible thoughts reveal that he has dangerous difficulty in relating to women. Mal turns his obsessive attentions to the fictitious "Rebecca", and not only sends a letter but tracks down the telephone number of "her" address. He calls and speaks to one of the old ladies, who impishly accepts a date with him at a local bar. In a spirit of fun, the four ladies wait at the bar to see what Mal looks like; however, when he arrives he mistakes a hooker, Brenda (Barbara Davis) for "Rebecca", and leaves with her. When they arrive at Brenda's apartment and she asks for money, an outraged Mal attacks and kills her.Maxwell, Brini. "Helen Hayes & Myrna Loy in Do Not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate" (The Obscurity Factor, April 3, 2011) Once the ladies realize their actions have led to murder, they go to the police; however, they also investigate Mal themselves, which places them in grave danger...Photos, screenshots and other images related to Do Not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate ===== Jack Frost awakens from a frozen pond with amnesia. Upon realizing no one can see or hear him, he disappears. Three hundred years later, Jack, as the young Spirit of Winter, enjoys delivering snow days to school kids, but resents that they do not believe in him. At the North Pole, the Man in the Moon warns Nicholas St. North that Pitch Black is threatening the children of the world with his nightmares. He calls E. Aster Bunnymund/Bunny, Sandy, and Tooth to arms. They are told that Jack Frost has been chosen to be a new Guardian, and Bunny brings him to the North Pole. North explains to Jack that every Guardian has a center, something they are the Guardian of, but a call for help from Tooth's fairies ends the conversation. Visiting Tooth's world, which resembles a palace in India, Jack learns that each and every baby tooth contains childhood memories of the children who lost it, Jack's teeth included. However, Pitch raids Tooth's home, kidnapping all of her subordinate tooth fairies except Baby Tooth and stealing all the teeth, thus preventing Tooth from sharing Jack's memories and weakening children's belief in her. In order to thwart Pitch's plan, the group decides to collect children's teeth. During their journey, a quarrel between North and Bunny awakens a boy, Jamie. Since he still believes, he can see everybody except for Jack. Pitch's nightmares then attack, provoking Sandy as the Guardian of Dreams. Jack tries to intervene, but Pitch aims a bow at Sandy, who is overwhelmed and disappears. As Easter approaches, the dejected Guardians gather in Bunny’s home. With the unexpected aid of Jamie's little sister, Sophie, they begin the process of painting eggs for Easter. After Jack takes Sophie home, he is lured to Pitch's lair by a voice. Pitch taunts him with his memories and fear of non-belief, distracting him long enough for Pitch to destroy the eggs, causing children to stop believing in Easter and Bunny. With the Guardians' trust in him lost, a shamed Jack isolates himself in Antarctica, where Pitch tries to convince him to join his side. When Jack refuses, Pitch threatens to kill Baby Tooth unless Jack gives him his staff, the source of his magic. He agrees, but Pitch breaks Jack's staff and throws him down a chasm. Unlocking his memories inside his tooth, he learns that he was a mortal teenager who fell to his death in the frozen pond while saving his younger sister. Inspired, Jack repairs his staff and returns to the lair to rescue the kidnapped baby fairies. Due to Pitch, every child in the world except Jamie disbelieves, drastically weakening the Guardians. Finding Jamie's belief wavering, Jack makes it snow in his room, renewing Jamie's belief and letting him become the first person to ever believe in and see Jack. They gather the boy's friends, whose renewed belief bolsters their fight against Pitch. He threatens them, but their dreams prove stronger than his nightmares, resulting in Sandy's resurrection and the Guardians reuniting. Defeated and no longer believed in, Pitch tries to retreat, but his nightmares, sensing his own fears, turn on him and drag him to the underworld. Afterward, Jamie and his friends bid goodbye to the Guardians as Jack accepts his place as the Guardian of Fun. ===== Billington summarizes Blixen's story in some detail, stating that it ===== Widower farmer, Dayal Singh, based in Palheri in the District of Chandigarh, witnesses the exploitation of farmers at the hands of Zamindars. He decides to send his elder son, Aman, to the city to study and become a lawyer, while his second son, Jiggar, would live with him and assist him in farming. Years later, the district gets a visit from Sohan Seth, who wants to buy the farm and turn the area into a commercial zone. Aman returns home and is able to join hands with his father and brother in advising the locales against Sohan. Things get out of hand when Jiggar is arrested for Assault, and even though Aman defends him, is sentenced to five years in prison. After his discharge, Jiggar returns home to find his father bed- ridden, half of his body paralyzed, a number of farmers have committed suicide, while Aman, who has married his sweetheart-fellow lawyer, Priya, lives in the city, works for Sohan, and has been putting pressure on Dayal as well as other farmers to sell their respective farmlands. Meanwhile, Priya is collecting proofs against Sohan Seth, she is attacked and killed by his men. Aman finds out and he helps his brother in taking down his men. A man reconciles with his father. Jigar marries Titli. They are shown working together on the family fields along with a recovering Dayal. ===== Paul Aufiero (Patton Oswalt) is a parking garage attendant who lives with his mother (Marcia Jean Kurtz) in Staten Island, New York. He relentlessly follows the New York Giants football team. He and his friend Sal (Kevin Corrigan) faithfully attend each Giants game; however, as they can't afford tickets, they content themselves with watching the games on a battery-powered TV in the stadium parking lot. Paul is also a regular caller to the Sports Dogg's (Scott Ferrall) radio talk show, where he refers to himself as "Paul from Staten Island," rants in support of the Giants, and berates his mysterious on-air rival, Philadelphia Eagles fanatic "Philadelphia Phil" (Michael Rapaport). Paul's family criticizes him for doing nothing with his life. He disregards their scorn and happily devotes himself to his beloved team. One day Paul and Sal spot Giants star and Paul's favorite player Quantrell Bishop (Jonathan Hamm) and his entourage in Staten Island. They follow Bishop to a drug deal in Stapleton. Though the pair see Bishop buying something, they naively fail to recognize the transaction. Paul and Sal then follow Bishop into a strip club in Manhattan where they eventually introduce themselves. All goes well until the two fans innocently mention that they saw Bishop in Stapleton. Bishop becomes enraged and brutally beats Paul, who wakes up in a hospital. Following the incident, Bishop is suspended from the team. Paul's personal-injury lawyer brother Jeff (Gino Cafarelli) and NYPD Detective Velardi (Matt Servitto) pressure Paul to bring charges against Bishop, but Paul refuses, worried about the effect on the Giants' performance if they lose their star linebacker. The charges against Bishop are eventually dropped and he returns to the team. Jeff then files a $77 million civil lawsuit against Bishop as Paul's legal guardian, claiming Paul is mentally incompetent and can't bring the lawsuit himself. When a reporter phones Paul to ask him "about the lawsuit," Paul becomes livid and confronts Jeff as he sits on the toilet. Both Jeff and Paul's mother start to pressure Paul to get mental help. Philadelphia Phil researches Paul on the Internet and reveals on Sports Dogg's show that the victim of the Quantrell Bishop beating is in fact "Paul from Staten Island", humiliating him. Paul heads for Philadelphia to confront Phil. Disguised as an Eagles fanatic, Paul identifies Phil in a local bar and gains his trust as they watch the Giants and Eagles play the season's pivotal final game. As the Eagles dominate the Giants, the crowd in the bar begins to deride the Giants in increasingly enthusiastic fashion, much to Paul's consternation. When time runs out and the Eagles fanatics celebrate their victory, Paul follows Phil into the men's room and pulls a gun on him, shooting Phil multiple times. Phil, lying shocked on the men's room floor, stares at his hands, which are now covered in red and blue, the Giants' colors. The gun is then revealed to be a paintball gun. Paul utters "Eagles suck!" and flees from the bar. Paul is arrested and imprisoned for the assault. Sal visits Paul in jail and reveals to him the Giants' schedule for the following season. A key game coincides with the week Paul is scheduled to be released—Paul is overjoyed and says "It's going to be a great year". ===== Agnes Huston, an English widow, is found murdered at her house. Superintendent Lodge, the detective on the case, and Inspector Butler start questioning people closely associated with her. Her neighbour Mrs. Finch, tells Lodge that Agnes is a gentlewoman, and throughout her rendition Agnes is shown in a pleasant looking, smart and well-mannered light. She explains that Agnes’ sister Catherine Taylor is a rude, obnoxious woman. According to Mrs. Finch, once before Agnes’ husband Charles died, Catherine made an unpleasant entry. Agnes and Catherine had an argument about Agnes’ husband having an affair with Catherine. Catherine then left after hurting Agnes’ feelings. On another occasion, Bob Baker, Catherine’s boyfriend once tried to make advances to Agnes and got censured for it. A few days later, Baker and Catherine barged into their apartment and forced their way to see Agnes. Finch ran to get the help of Mr. Pollard, a timid pet store owner opposite the building, who came in but withdrew in fear. Catherine and Baker threatened to kill everyone and left. This leads Lodge to question Catherine. Catherine tells that the day she visited her sister, Mrs. Finch gave a bad welcome to her. According to Catherine’s rendition, Agnes is a drunk, not-very-pleasant-looking woman, who is also rude in her manners. Catherine told Agnes, in a nice way, that she went to visit Charles; however, Agnes accuses her and Charles of having an affair. They then end up in an argument and Catherine leaves in contempt. She admits to dating Bob Baker and getting engaged with him. After Charles’ death, Catherine and Baker visit Agnes but are intercepted by Mrs. Finch at the door. The two politely insist their way in. Baker arrives at Catherine’s and Lodge and inspector start questioning him after sending Catherine off. He admits to meeting Agnes at her workplace — she is a fortune teller named Astra. He, being a marketer by profession, gave her an ad script to go through. He tells Lodge that he went to her place another day, to ask about it but Agnes hardly showed any concern to it and meets Catherine there. He visited her two days later, where Agnes attempted to seduce him. When he refused, Agnes got mad and shouted at him to get out. The day when Catherine and he went to visit Agnes because she was interfering with Bob’s divorce with his former wife, she treated them disrespectfully and asked them to get out. Lodge and the inspector go to meet Andrew Pollard, the pets and birds seller opposite Agnes’. He starts to narrate with a very happy and thoughtful face. He portrays Agnes as a nice, sensitive and ever-smiling woman. She once came into his shop to ask for help with her bird. He visited her another day to tell her that her bird is dead but offered a parrot to replace it. On the day Catherine visited, Mr. Pollard comforted Agnes. Another day, he was politely sent away from her place due to the arrival of one Michael Murray, a naval officer and friend of Charles. On the day Catherine and Baker barged in and Pollard was called for help, he bravely repelled both of them and sent them out (completely opposite to what Mrs. Finch said earlier). He admits that he had fallen for Agnes and she accepted to marry him the previous night but was unfortunately found dead in the morning. Superintendent Lodge and the inspector visit Agnes’ residence with few others once again and catch Murray as he enters. Lodge questions him. He also admits to have met her at her fortune-telling place. He gives her a bird he won. They immediately date and go to Astra’s (Agnes's) house to sleep together. He then set sail and returned after about three months. She immediately welcomes him and they kiss. Just then Pollard the bird-seller enters and immediately leaves after seeing them kiss. The parrot he gave is behind them, and Murray asks about him. On another night, when to Murray comes to see Agnes, he sees her with Pollard. He questions her again about him and she answers to him dismissively, angering him. After three more months of sailing, he comes to see her but she is with another man. She presumed he had forgotten about her. He gets furious, manhandles her and leaves in rage. Lodge remarks that they have seen the central character – Agnes/Astra – only through the eyes of others. Each of these people has seen her differently. He further says that Pollard’s version of the story is the most unlikely of all. They question again a newspaper boy they talked to in the beginning. The boy says that the parrot said “Merry Christmas”, and immediately Lodge deduces the killer. Lodge and the inspector go to Pollard's pet store and Lodge asks Pollard to imagine a situation where Murray could have gotten drunk and entered Agnes' house to kill her. Pollard agrees that it must have happened that way. But, when the killing happens Lodge switches the killer with Pollard, provoking a confession. Pollard confesses uncontrollably, and Lodge and Butler arrest Pollard. ===== The introduction to the first story, Byomjaatrir Diary, goes: Professor Shonku is a reputed scientist, who has not been heard of for a while. Some say that he has died while attempting a scientific experiment. Others say that he has gone incognito, and is continuing his scientific researches and experiments at some unknown corner of the earth. He will reappear in due time. The first of Professor Shonku's diaries come to light through a certain Tarak Chatterjee, an amateur (and rather poor) writer, who has a fascination for tiger stories. On hearing that a large meteor had hit the Matharia areas of the Sunderbans, he had visited the location in search of tiger-skin. Failing to find them, he had looked around to find a red notebook (which turned out to be the first of Professor Shonku's diaries). This he hands to the narrator of the story, who then replicates the journal entries in the diary, and that constitute the first story, Byomjaatrir Diary. The diary, even though apparently made of a material which is inextinguishable and cannot be torn or cut, is eventually destroyed by a bunch of red ants, who somehow manage to eat in to entirety. However, the narrator then visits Professor Shonku's laboratory in Giridih, and locates 21 other diaries and replicates them periodically, each as a story. After the first few stories, the narrator does not reappear, with the stories starting with the journal entries ===== The book begins as Lisbeth Salander is flown to Sahlgrenska Hospital. It picks up where The Girl Who Played with Fire left off. ===== > When dark creeps in and eats the light, > Bury your fears on Sorry Night, > For in the winter's blackest hours, > Comes the feasting of the Vours, > No one can see it, the life they stole, > Your body's here but not your soul... The story follows Reggie and her best friend Aaron, two horror buffs who discover an old, anonymous journal written by a woman believed to be crazy. The entries refer to demonic creatures called Vours who steal people's souls on the night of the Winter Solstice, known in the book as Sorry Night. Reggie and Aaron think that Vours are just a silly legend so they try to summon them on the Winter Solstice. To summon them, they decide to face their worst fears not realizing the bravery drives the Vours away. Reggie lets a spider crawl over her body and Aaron stays underwater for a period of time. However, neither one of them becomes a Vour. Discouraged, the teens forget about the Vours until Reggie's little brother Henry starts acting strange. Once a happy- go-lucky kid, Henry becomes violent and rude, destroying his favorite stuffed animal and drowning his pet hamster. He becomes super-sensitive to the cold and spends his time in front of the fireplace, something very out of character for him. When he's hit by a snowball, black marks spread across his skin like a rash. He even attempts to murder Aaron in cold blood. Realizing what's happened to Henry, Reggie tries to learn more about the Vours and somehow rescue Henry. In the process, she must face all of her worst fears, along with all of Henry's."The Devouring Book Review" at Kidzworld.com. Retrieved 2009-06-26. ===== The story is about a man's obsession with silence and unable to tolerate the various noises of Delhi, Sarit, a 30-year-old salesman, escapes to a village as he is about to lose his ability to communicate with others. There, where the villages are welcoming, he meets the woman of his dream. His obsession with silence, however, shatters his existence there and he is forced to return to the noisy Delhi again. It was screened at more than 20 international festivals and received 6 international awards. Critics in general have found the film funny, thought-provoking, and poignant. For the first time an Indian film received accolades for its sound design. ===== In Nantes, Gabriel meets Émilie, a married woman. The two pass an evening together, and as they are about to part ways, Gabriel asks her for a kiss. She refuses, and explains by telling him a story: In Paris, her friend Judith, happily married, has a childhood friend, Nicolas, whom she still sees regularly. One day, as a solution to his lack of physical affection, Nicolas asks Judith for a platonic kiss. She accepts, and subsequently what should have been a simple act between friends without consequences becomes complicated, and the situation quickly becomes out of control. ===== This musical comedy stars William Powell as Emery Slade, an unlikeable actor who was once a major film star, but who has not worked in ten years. Slade tries to convince studio chief Melville Crossman (Adolphe Menjou) to give the female lead in the film version of a Broadway musical to an unknown, rather than the actress he was sent to New York to sign."'Dancing in the Dark' Listing" Allrovi.com, accessed August 21, 2011 ===== Inspector Sunil Rana (Shatrughan Sinha) has been assigned the case of triple-homicide of the Sinha family, namely Mr. Sinha (Ashok Kumar); his son Inspector Rohan (Vinod Mehra), and Rohan's wife (Bindiya Goswami). After an investigation, Sunil concludes that the assailant can only be Dr. Singh (Kader Khan), who escapes from India, and re-locates to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, far from the jurisdiction of Bombay Police. Sunil must overcome borders to apprehend Dr. Singh, and thus bring justice to the Sinha family. It is then Sunil comes to know that Dr. Singh is not the only one involved in this homicide, which is far more complicated that he had thought it to be. ===== The story is told in first person by a nameless Scottish soldier. He is recovering from his wounds in a Spanish hospital, where his doctor suggests he take up temporary residence with a local family, but with their stipulation that he remain a stranger to them. The once-noble family consists of a mother, a son (Felipe) and a daughter (Olalla). The Scotsman is welcomed by the son and begins to develop a casual friendliness with the mother. Both are described as "stupid" and "slothful" but the narrator emphasizes the simple pleasure of their company. Some time passes without sight of Olalla and when she finally appears, our hero falls desperately in love with her, and she with him. He recognizes an extraordinary intellect in the girl and expresses a desire to take her away from the decaying home of her kinsmen. They profess their love for each other, but Olalla urges the Scotsman to leave at once, keeping her always in his memory. He refuses, and during the night he breaks his window trying distractedly to open it. The shattering glass cuts his wrist and he applies to Olalla's mother for help. At the sight of his wound, she leaps upon him and bites into his arm. Felipe arrives in time to wrestle his mother away from our hero and Olalla tends to his injuries. He leaves the residencia very shortly thereafter, but lingers in the nearby town. He is sitting on a hill beside an effigy of the crucified Christ when he meets Olalla for the last time. She tells him, "We are all such as He," and states that there is a "sparkle of the divine" in all human beings. "Like Him," she says, "we must endure for a little while, until morning returns bringing peace." At this, the narrator departs, looking back but once to see Olalla leaning on the crucifix. ===== One day driving out in the Salt Flats, expert driver Vert Wheeler comes across a dimension called a Battle Zone where he meets a life form called a Sentient named Sage. Together, they assemble a racing team equipped with state-of-the-art weaponized vehicles to compete against the robotic Sark and the animal-like Vandals in the Battle Zones for the devices that control the zones called Battle Keys to determine the fate of Earth. Battle Force 5 lives on the planet Earth at Vert's garage/race circuit at a town called Handler's Corners. When Tornado-like portals called Storm Shocks appear, they provide access to dimensions in the Multiverse called Battle Zones. All Battle Zones have a Battle Key that allows access to the home world of the ones who accessed the Zone through Storm Shocks. This obligates Battle Force 5 to secure the Keys before the Vandals or the Sark in prevention of the Vandals looting Earth and the Sark taking over Earth. The Battle Zones were created by the Sentients. There are two types of Sentients: Blue and Red. The two types lived on two separate Homeworlds as rivals, until the blue homeworld was taken over by the Vandals. Throughout the story, Battle Force 5 encounter situations that make them access the Vandal, Sark, and Sentient homeworlds. At the end of the second season, the Sentient war ends, and Krytus and his team are banished. The Blue and Red Sentients are united once again. However, Rawkus informs Battle Force 5 that the Ancient Ones have awakened. Battle Force 5 has to challenge this new threat as well as the Alpha Code, of which Zemerik is under the influence, in the feature film "Total Revolution." The Ancient Ones are revealed to be called Karmordials who created the Sentients and were banished to the Primordiverse. They use a Shadow Matter bomb to get back, but Battle Force 5 eventually stops them. To conclude the series, with the Multiverse in peace, Vert, the rest of the team, and his dad are able to return to Earth without any looming threats. ===== Unni is a share broker in Coimbatore and leads a comfortable life with his wife Latha and daughter Lakshmi / Lechu. Into the cosiness of such a living intrudes a stranger who introduces himself as Jose. Cashing in on Unni's forgetfulness, Jose goads him into believing that he is Unni's 7th grade classmate. However, a sense of insecurity pervades, with the unwelcome guest – alcoholic and somewhat eccentric – pitching for an extended stay. Unni's misgivings about the 'mystery man' and his ulterior motives proves true, when his confidant and classmate, Dr Alex Varghese, on consultation, reaffirms his doubts that they had no schoolmate in the name of Jose. Soon, they discover to their horror that the stranger is that man whose arrival they have been dreading for a long time now, Sivankutty. It is eventually revealed that Unni and Alex ruined Sivankutty's life by framing the latter for a murder which they had committed. The duo realises that it is payback time and that they are at the receiving end. Death is looming over their heads. ===== The novel follows a seemingly relativistic plot, where time and space disappear as absolutes. The first part concerns Marc, the son of a woman named Dania. He becomes a boatman, ferrying tourists from the mainland to Davenhall, the small island in the river where he grew up. Marc leaves town the night he sees a strange man die at his mother's feet, and spends fifteen years on the boat, never setting foot in town, until he meets a girl in a blue dress, who never returns with the other tourists. Marc goes onto the island to look for her, and sees his mother. Their meeting conjures up the ghost of the man who died fifteen years before, and his story takes over the novel. The ghost tells his story in first person. His name was Banning Jainlight, and he begins by recounting his birth. He has the ability to look through the windows of his bedroom and see his time, as if looking at the Zeitgeist. After killing a brother and burning down the ranch house where he grew up, Jainlight moves to New York City, where he becomes a writer of pornographic stories. These stories are eventually purchased by an eccentric German named Client X, Josef Goebbels. Jainlight writes stories about a fantasy version of Dania, whom he is in love with, and the stories attract the attention of Adolf Hitler, known as Client Z. Hitler is obsessed with the new character, imagining her to be his niece and object of lust, Geli Raubal. The stories alter the course of history, as they change Hitler's mind about how to conduct the war. England falls. Russia and Germany have a tense peace. The Germans decide that they are finished with Jainlight, and they kill his wife and daughter to silence him. He lives for a long time in a prison in Italy. Eventually, he hears his stories broadcast over the radio as propaganda. He comes up with an escape plan, after finding Adolf Hitler in the same prison, now a senile old man. Jainlight and Hitler escape to America to chase the ghost of the woman they both love. Hitler dies in New York City. Jainlight finds his way to Davenhall, where he lives for seventeen years in the hotel with Marc and Dania, trying to summon up the courage to ask for forgiveness. On the night Marc leaves town, Jainlight knows his life is slipping away, and he staggers down the hall, hoping to have time to ask Dania's forgiveness, but dies before doing so. The custom in town is to hang the dead in a tree until they say their name. When Dania claims to know the name of the dead man in the tree, she is accused of lying. Somehow, the 20th century heals itself, the two timelines, the one we know, and Banning's timeline of a German victory, come back together. Dania passes away shortly after her son returns to the island. After her death, Marc goes to chase after the girl in the blue dress, and winds up traveling through time, going from the end of the century back to its beginning. ===== The Sixth Doctor encounters Draconia's Deathless Emperors. ===== In the far future, the Earth is dying. And the Viyrans seem to have a vested interest in its plight. ===== Time goes wrong for the Doctor in 1688, when King James II fights the Glorious Revolution. ===== Brothers Mark (Jeff Richards) and Dean Christopher (Richard Chamberlain) and show up in a mid-'50s four door Citroën Traction Avant in early era San Juan, Puerto Rico. They arrive to solve the mystery of the circumstances of their father's drowning death in the Caribbean. They run up against a gang of unruly pirates who seem to know more than they reveal. One of the film's highlights is several scenes of an E.G. Van de Stadt designed 35 foot sailing yacht, the Starwright. The vessel adds to the Caribbean charm and plays an integral part of moving the pirates to other parts of the island. ===== In this entry in the long- running Madame Aema series, three Aemas are represented: a fourth, a fifth, and a sixth generation of women bearing the name Madame Aema. The fourth generation Aema lives on Jeju Island with her daughter and memories of unrequited love. The fifth generation tries to console the fourth generation Aema, while dealing with her own issues of isolation after declaring herself an independent woman. Sixth generation Aema is undergoing marital difficulties with an unfaithful husband whom she eventually divorces. ===== In this episode in the long- running Madame Aema series, Aema leaves her selfish, middle-aged husband to pursue a career as an actress. She meets a performance artist who persuades her to perform perverted sex acts in the name of art. Finally, repenting of her decision, she returns to her husband. ===== The film takes places completely in and around a grand hotel. Prospero used to be the hotel's private detective, but was fired two years previously when he was not able to figure out who killed a guest known only as The Prince. As the film opens, Prospero is staying at the hotel, determined to solve the case. Helping him are his nephew, Inspector Neveau, and Neveau's girlfriend Arielle. Emile is at the hotel to settle a debt with Jim Fox Warner, a fight promoter. Emile's airline shuttle service is failing, as is his marriage to Francoise, who joins him at the hotel and ends up having an affair with Jim. Also on the scene are Tiger Jones, Jim's protege, and an Old Mafioso, who seems to be on an endless journey around the hotel lobby accompanied by a young girl. ===== In a small town in Normandy, Louis Cuno, a young postman, and his disabled and eccentric mother are repeatedly harassed by three local notables: the notary Lavoisier, the doctor Morasseau, and the butcher Filiol. They want the Cunos to sell them their house because it stands in the way of a lucrative real estate deal. When Louis unintentionally causes the death of Filiol in a car accident, Inspector Jean Lavardin arrives to investigate. His unorthodox detective methods enable him to solve a series of mysterious deaths and disappearances that are the result of the real estate scheming. ===== Comedy about a naval officer, Harry Mallory (Conrad Nagel) and his would-be bride Marjorie Newton (Norma Shearer) who spend most of their time running up and down a train looking for a clergyman to marry them. ===== On the Water is an intensely told tale of adolescent passion, narrated by Anton, a shy, uncomfortable outsider who harbours a yearning for a different kind of life that becomes symbolized in the river and in rowing. He joins the club, crossing the metaphorical and actual line which divides the town he lives in and forms an unlikely partnership with the calm, ironical David. Together they become a successful coxless pair, coached by an enigmatic German, Schneiderhahn. The story revels in descriptions of the physical exertion and emotional connection as it recreates pre-war Amsterdam. Telling the story in flashbacks, Anton now stands alone on a wintry evening facing a derelict and abandoned boathouse, recalling the long, hot summer of 1939 and mourning a lost world. ===== A young servant girl is seduced and raped by an older middle class man in Victorian England when employed in his household. After moving on with her path, she gets married. All is well until her husband discovers her past. This fact prompts her on a life of wandering, murder, and execution. ===== At the beginning of World War II a young Italian psychiatrist is sent to troops in Libya. When he learns that his commander is a madman he tries to protect the subordinates from harm. ===== Jamil (Ramon Novarro) is a soldier in the Bedouin defense forces during a war between Syria and Turkey, who has deserted his regiment. In a remote village, he encounters an orphan asylum run by American missionaries Dr. Hilbert (Jerrold Robertshaw) and his daughter Mary (Alice Terry). The village is attacked by the Turks, and its ruler, eager to placate the invaders, intends to hand over the children for slaughter; he disguises his intentions under a move to Damascus for their safety. The Bedouins arrive at the scene and reveal that Jamil is the son of the tribal leader. With his father's death revealed, Jamil becomes the new leader of the tribe, which endows him with a sense of responsibility. Risking his own life, he proceeds to save the children, defeating the Turks and the local leader in the process (and winning the girl). ===== Renée (Mae Murray) is the heiress of a Mexican ranch, granddaughter of a woman known for her recklessness and frivolity at night. This first "Mademoiselle Midnight" is banished in the opening scene by Napoleon III at Empress Eugenie's insistence to Mexico. Renee is kept locked at the hacienda at night by her father to prevent her following in her grandmother's wayward footsteps. She falls in love with a visiting American (Monte Blue) but is also pursued by the craven outlaw Manuel Corrales. Miss Murray gets to do some of her trademark dancing, but this one isn't a comedy, despite comic relief provided by Johnny Arthur. ===== The Blue Light is a frame story with a fairy tale atmosphere and elements. A modern couple arrive in a convertible automobile at an inn in Santa Maria, a mountain village. Upon seeing an intriguing, cameo-style photo of a woman, they ask the innkeeper who she is. The innkeeper tells a young boy to bring in the book that contains "Junta's story," and the movie unfolds as the innkeeper opens a very large book to its title page. Junta (Riefenstahl) is a young woman who lives, at the turn of the century, apart from her fellow villagers. Due to her feral strangeness, she is considered to be a witch. When she comes to town for one reason or another, the townsfolk chase her away. They feel that she must in some way be responsible for the ongoing deaths of the young men of the village. This is because Junta is able to climb the local mountain unscathed, while these young men continue to fall to their deaths attempting to climb it under supernatural circumstances. Junta lives largely in solitude (except for the company of Guzzi, a young shepherd boy) in the tranquility of the mountains surrounding the village. She plays in the hills and woodlands, as a naive, free spirit. She is simple and innocent, but also seems something of a mystic. She loves to clamber over the steep, difficult terrain of the local mountains. On full moon nights, a crack in a prominent local mountain admits the moon's light and illuminates a grotto filled with beautiful crystals. This place of indescribable beauty, radiating the film's titular "blaue Licht" (blue light), is a sacred space for Junta. The crystals' luminous glow casts a spell on the village's young men, who, one by one, in a state of hypnotic attraction, attempt and fail to reach its source, falling to their deaths. Vigo, a painter from the city, travels to Santa Maria in a horse-drawn coach. Upon seeing Junta being harassed in the village square, he falls in love with her. Later, after saving her from the villagers after another young man's death, Vigo follows Junta to the cabin she shares with Guzzi, and decides to stay. Vigo speaks only German, and Junta only Italian, so their communication is limited. All is pleasant, good and very chaste until the next full moon night, when Vigo sees Junta climbing the mountain. He himself, mesmerized by the blue light, follows her, actually reaching the grotto, where he finds her in a state of ecstasy among the crystals. Thinking he will help Junta by providing her with material wealth, and perceiving the lode of crystals to be a potential source of wealth for both her and the villagers, Vigo immediately rushes down to inform the townsfolk, also telling them how to safely reach the grotto. Junta does not realize that he is doing this until the next day, when she finds some of her crystals on the path to the village, along with some dropped tools. Rushing up to the grotto, she finds it completely barren of crystals: all have been taken by the greedy villagers. Meanwhile, the villagers and Vigo are celebrating. Junta is totally devastated at this violation of the sacred grotto and of her trust in the outsider, and falls to her death. Vigo finds her among the montane flowers (the mountain cornflower, or bluets), and grieves. The film then closes, returning to the opening, modern-day scene, with a shot of what is presumably the last page of the book, in which Junta is exonerated and her memory celebrated. ===== Mickey Hogan (Jackie Coogan) is an orphan cabin boy on a ship commanded by a cruel captain (Tom Santschi). His only friend is a black cat, called Man Friday. A storm shipwrecks Mickey on an island, where is made into a captive war god. The next island is run by a white man Adolphe Schmidt (Bert Sprotte), who lives there with his daughter Gretta (Gloria Grey). ===== Tim Kelly (Jackie Coogan) is a kid who runs away from an orphanage on the Lower East Side in New York after a fire breaks out. He ends up taking refuge with Max (Max Davidson), a lonely junk man who is down on his luck after being cheated out of a patent fortune by some unscrupulous lawyers. Little Kelly and Max form a partnership in the bottle and rag business, and eventually become close companions. ===== Joline Hofer (Viola Dana) is a profligate Montmartre dancer who left her illegitimate child in a convent. Paul Granville (Monte Blue) is an American artist who becomes smitten by the dancer, and uses her for his portraits of great women. When one of Paul's paintings, of the Madonna, appears to result in a miracle, Joline's life is changed forever, as she reforms, reclaims her child, and marries the artist. ===== Madame L'Enigme (Laurette Taylor) is a fortune-teller whose client Mario (Warner Oland) recognises her as a woman who disappeared in a cloud of scandal after her husband's suicide. ===== The show follows the adventures of Šurda, a man in his mid 30s from Vlasotince who comes to Belgrade to work and get rich. In Belgrade he lives in a small house with his granny and uncle Firga, a retired mason. Šurda buys a local barbershop, but this job doesn't suit him, so Šurda sells the barbershop and buys a car to become a taxi driver. He is not successful in this job either, so Šurda, after listening to Bob's story about better life abroad, decides to become gastarbeiter, a guest worker in Germany. But none of the jobs he finds are right for him, so he is forced to return to Yugoslavia. Here, he meets Vesna, an attractive stewardess, and the couple eventually get married. Firga succeeds in employing Šurda in his former construction firm. There, Šurda, with a little cheating, wins a flat that the company gives for its own workers, but after some internal problems within the company, Šurda is forced to fight for the flat. Eventually, Firga is awarded a new flat, so the whole family settle to a new home and they find that their new flat is occupied by Pera, a homeless chemist. ===== Bhram - An Illusion is the story of Antara Tyagi and Shantanu Rawal and their love marred by the reality of life. Antara is a successful supermodel- who has it all but is hiding behind the veil of a traumatic past. Shantanu is the most eligible bachelor in town and his love for Antara will put his love, faith, family and friendships on trial. The story seems like horror with suspense too. ===== On board the aircraft carrier in the Sea of Japan during the Korean War, author James A. Michener (Louis Calhern) meets Commander and flight surgeon Kent Dowling (Walter Pidgeon). Dowling relates a "Christmas story" of a near-miracle. Ensign Kenneth Schecter (Dewey Martin) is one of VF 192 squadron pilots flying Grumman F9F Panther fighter-bombers who are forced to go back to destroy an enemy railroad that is rebuilt after each attack. Their leader, Lieutenant Commander Paul Grayson (Frank Lovejoy), is even shot down during one mission and rescued from the sea. Veteran pilot Lieutenant Commander Ted Dodson (Keenan Wynn) criticizes Grayson for flying too low and risking his life. Ironically, it is Dodson who loses his life in another mission when his damaged aircraft explodes on landing. For their 27th mission against the enemy target, the squadron flies out on Christmas Day, and Schecter is hit by enemy fire and blinded. Lieutenant Thayer (Van Johnson) guides Schecter by radio to a safe landing on the deck of the carrier. The squadron celebrates his safe return, but also mourns the loss of good men like Dodson. ===== Nellie Wayne (Pauline Frederick) is a novelist who loses her husband to a vamp, who thereupon rejects him to marry another man, who subsequently is enticed away by the novelist. ===== Matrimony is not only a good thing, but also a good financial deal: Lawyer Dick Tyler (Conrad Nagel) makes his merger bid for artist Doris (Marguerite De La Motte) as his partner Jim Knight (Lewis Stone) squanders the firm's asset on gold-digger Evelyn (Paulette Duval). ===== The film includes a loose plot centered on the ensemble cast of characters in which Foxx mentors "Baby D" (Calloway), "Player" (Carter), and "Tiny" (Harper) in the ways of small- time hustling. An example of a hustle is the boys apparently stealing some televisions from a truck for Foxx in sight of a local shop owner. The boys then steal the televisions from Foxx's truck and stash them in some trash. The shop owner offers the boys $55 cash for the televisions which they accept. However, when the shop owner returns with his dolly, he finds that the boys have run off with the cash as well as the televisions (which were actually empty boxes). The overarching plotline is to prevent the construction of an expressway through the neighborhood in which all the characters reside. Using facilities that are not adequately described in the film, Foxx and local numbers man "Glitterin' Goldie" (Moore) use potentially corrupt connections within the city government to prevent the construction. ===== Luke, a friend of the Five Find-Outers, is working in Lady Candling's garden when her valuable Siamese cat is stolen. The Five Find- Outers and Dog work to solve the case. ===== Fatty is made the leader of the Five Find Outers, as he explains that he has been studying how to get out of a locked room when the key is not on his side, to write letters with invisible ink (or orange/lemon juice) and has been practising disguises. The Five have fun with Fatty's new techniques, particularly disguises. Pip disguises himself with a wig and some sticking out teeth and attracts the attention of Mr Goon, who chases him across the village. In an attempt to escape Mr Goon, Pip runs into the grounds of an empty house and climbs a tree. He is very surprised to see a fully furnished room at the top of an otherwise empty and apparently abandoned house. The Find Outers get to work to discover who owns Milton House, and why there is an apparently secret room. Who uses it and why? The children trace the owner of the house to the blandly named "John Henry Smith", who lives in a distant town. Fatty telephones Mr Smith and alerts him to the fact that someone knows about the secret room. Expecting the mysterious Mr Smith to come to Peterswood and check out what is happening at Milton House, Fatty disguises himself with his wig and teeth and goes to the house at midnight. He manages to get inside and discovers a notebook written in code in the secret room. However, he is captured by the men - who are foreigners - and forced to write a letter to the other children, to trap them inside the house. Fatty writes a note, but he writes another, secret note in invisible ink, warning the children and telling them to call the police. Luckily, Bets notices that Fatty's note smells of oranges - orange juice was used as the secret ink - and the others realise the danger Fatty is in, and telephone their favourite policeman, Inspector Jenks. Meanwhile, Fatty escapes from a locked room and manages to meet Inspector Jenks outside the house and hand him the code book. The police round up the villains - international thieves - and all is well. ===== A theatre safe is rifled - and the main suspect is the Pantomime Cat. Or is it his friend Zoe? The five find-outers and dog are on the track - with the help of PC Pippin, who is standing in for Mr Goon. Despite all the false clues the find-outers have planted to throw the police off the scent, they finally discover the perpetrator. ===== The thirteenth book in the series introduces Mr Tolling, an old school friend of Fatty's father who comes to spend a week with the Trottevilles so he can attend the coleopterists' conference at a fair in Peterswood. Coleopterists are of course beetle-lovers, and not (as the gang joke) owners of collie dogs, growers of cauliflowers, or sufferers from colly-wobbles. Mr Tolling is rather like a beetle himself, a small man with a huge black beard, large glasses and always wearing a dark suit. He's very likeable, even if he is a little boring, always going on about beetles and how fascinating they are. He's extremely eager to get along to the coleopterist meetings, which are being held at Petersood's Town Hall. But Mr Tolling—or Mr Belling as Fatty mistakenly calls him at first—pales into insignificance compared to his daughter Eunice, who has come along to stay with the Trottevilles as well. Fatty is supposed to entertain her during her stay, and she's ready and willing to join in with whatever Fatty and his friends are doing, but she's domineering, and her highly efficient, extremely helpful attitude for some reason rubs Fatty and the others up the wrong way. In short, she's "simply awful." When Fatty mistakenly called her father Mr Belling (because bells toll), she responds by suggesting she call him Frederick Canterville instead. Throughout the book she is smart and witty, but Fatty doesn't want her overbearing company and politely escapes wherever possible. The mystery starts when Fatty dresses up as a tramp in an effort to shake off Eunice. He puts on his disguise and then hides out in his shed—and Eunice peers in through the window and screams at the sight of "an intruder in Fatty's shed!". Mr Goon is nearby and comes to the rescue, demanding that the tramp show himself, so poor Fatty bursts out of the shed and takes off with Buster, who is barking excitedly around his feet. Naturally Mr Goon makes out afterwards that the tramp was strong, very strong, and Buster must have taken large chunks out of the tramp's ankles as he tried to escape. Chief Inspector Jenks visits Goon and tells him to be on the lookout for a dangerous escaped criminal, who has a nasty scar above his lip but is a master of disguise so can hide it pretty well with a beard. An astonished Mr Goon realises the tramp might be the man they're after. The mystery in this book is: Where is the criminal? Is he in disguise, and if so, who is he? ===== In a 19th-century French boarding school for troubled girls, Headmistress Señora Fourneau (Lilli Palmer) forbids her teenage son Luis (John Moulder-Brown) from going near any of the girls, finding none of them good enough for him. Eighteen-year-old Teresa Garan (Cristina Galbó) arrives at the school to be enrolled, and notices odd occurrences at the boarding school from the moment of her arrival, specifically the sense of being watched or followed. Señora Forneau, a strict disciplinarian, abuses the unruly students by means of beatings and flagellation, with the help of Irene Tupan (Mary Maude), a senior student whom she has taken as a protegé. When one of the girls goes missing one night, Irene is blamed by Señora Forneau for not keeping close account of the keys that allow entry in and out of the school. Meanwhile, Teresa begins a romance with Luis, but grows increasingly unnerved by the atmosphere of the school and the multiple disappearances of students. She is also bullied by her peers, who torment her because of her mother's past as a prostitute. In the middle of the night, Teresa plans an escape. Irene awakens to her leaving, and rushes outside to the gate, hoping to stop her. Teresa first goes to say goodbye to Luis, who gives her money from his savings to help her with travel expenses. As Teresa attempts to break out of a window downstairs, she is attacked and has her throat slashed. Irene returns to the school later and finds the windowsill in the parlor soaked with rainwater from the storm. Irene confronts Señora Fourneau, insisting that Teresa could not have escaped; she also tells her she plans to leave the school, and will blackmail Fourneau over her abuses if necessary. Fourneau forces Irene to hand over her keys. Later that evening, Señora Fourneau catches Irene attempting to escape, and follows her as she flees upstairs, eventually hiding in the attic. Señora Fourneau ascends to the attic, where she finds Irene stabbed to death, and her hands severed from her body. In a secret chamber of the attic, Señora Fourneau finds her son with a corpse made up of various female body parts. Señora Fournea realizes Luis' frustrated desires have forced psychotic urges to the surface, compelling him to stalk the hapless girls to acquire body parts in order to create his own "ideal woman". Luis then locks up his mother in the room with his new creation so that she can get acquainted with her future "daughter-in-law". ===== Frankie Davis (Lon McCallister), Allan Ross (Mark Daniels) and "Pinky" Scariano (Don Taylor) join the U.S. Army Air Forces with hopes of becoming pilots. In training, they befriend Irving Miller (Edmond O'Brien) and Bobby Crills (Barry Nelson). The five friends go through the training process to become pilots, facing success, failure, and tragedy. Allan, newly married, finds that wife Dorothy (Jo-Carroll Dennison) plans to go with him to aviation school. Frankie, whose hometown bride Jane (Jane Ball) is living with Dorothy near the camp, watches with concern as some of the other cadets receive "wash-out tickets". For now, he is safe. Pinky washes out when he has fails his eye test, but is classified a gunner and ships out for separate training. Frankie, Allan and their friends, Irving and Bobby are assigned to pilot training. During the cadets' first night flight, Frankie crashes. The group of friends, now one more short, are devastated. Allan volunteers to give tragic news to Jane, who is expecting their first child. When the group wins their wings and are assigned to their units, Pinky is assigned to the same aircraft flown by Allan and Irving, and together with their five crew mates, they name their craft "Winged Victory." The next assignment is to join the fighting in the South Pacific, but before leaving they see their wives in San Francisco. Trying to keep their assignment secret, their wives guess their husbands are going to go into combat. At their South Pacific base in New Guinea, the exhausted crew of the "Winged Victory" join the other crews in a Christmas celebration. In the midst of the festivities, an air raid siren sounds, and they take off for battle. During the fight, a tire on the "Winged Victory" is damaged during combat, and Pinky is wounded. After the aircraft makes a rough but safe landing at the base, Pinky is rushed away in an ambulance. Back at the base, Allan learns that his wife has given birth to a son. Before taking off to rejoin the air battle, he writes a letter to his son, explaining the importance of his mission and his hopes for the future. ===== Middle-aged Lilly Moffatt (Katharine Hepburn) sets up a school in a Welsh coal mining town, despite the determined opposition of the local squire (Bill Fraser). Eventually, she considers giving up. Then she discovers a promising student Morgan Evans (Ian Saynor), a miner seemingly destined for a life of hard work and heavy drink. With renewed hope, she works hard to help him realise his potential. Through diligence and perseverance, Morgan gets the opportunity to take an examination for Oxford University with, hopefully, a prized scholarship. Moffatt, the rest of the teachers, and their students are hopeful Morgan will pass the Oxford interview, and so he does. However, Bessie Watty (Toyah Willcox), a young woman who has recently given birth to Morgan's child, blackmails the faculty into giving her part of Morgan's scholarship money in order to help raise the baby. The conniving young woman has designs on another male suitor. Instead, Moffatt volunteers to adopt the child so that Morgan's academic future will not be ruined and Watty will be free to marry another man, unfettered by her responsibility to the child (since she and her affianced never really cared for it in the first place). Morgan quickly hears about Watty's scandalous, self-serving motives, and insists upon raising the child himself. Through a heartfelt and persuasive conversation, Moffatt convinces the young man to continue his higher education and contribute something to the world. ===== Due to limited wartime housing, Army lieutenant Danny Ferguson (Frank Latimore) and fiancée Maggie Preston (Jeanne Crain) must postpone their wedding until a room in the Craig Hotel, where married officers stationed at nearby Camp Fielding live with their wives, becomes available. When their accommodations are ready, Maggie arrives with her wealthy parents Henry and Vera (Eugene Pallette and Mary Nash), who are unhappy about the living conditions their daughter will be forced to endure. Initially Maggie is too happy to care, but once the newlywed is left alone during the day while her husband is on the base, she begins to become disenchanted with her surroundings and the lack of service her privileged background has groomed her to expect. Unaware of what is expected of her in her new capacity of army wife, Maggie quickly becomes an outcast among the other women. Not helping her situation is an obvious lack of any domestic skills that would allow her to assist in the daily routine at the hotel. Increasingly upset with her situation, she lashes out at hotel manager Mrs. Jerry Armstrong (Jane Randolph). Her mood softens when she learns Jerry's husband was killed in battle overseas and she has remained at the hotel to honor his memory. Maggie's attitude changes and she befriends some of the other wives, particularly Shirley (Gale Robbins), who is married to Danny's best friend Lt. Red Pianatowski (Stanley Prager). When Danny finds himself the target of snide remarks made by his fellow officers, he discovers Maggie asked her father to use his influence to keep his son-in-law based in the States instead of being shipped overseas. Infuriated by her interference, he angrily storms out of their room, and Maggie prepares to return to her parents in Philadelphia. When Danny returns with Philip, they discover a book about infant care Maggie had purchased to help her assist the expectant mothers, and he assumes she is pregnant. Rushing to the train station, he begs her to return. That night, at a dance honoring a visiting general, Red tells Shirley that Maggie is expecting a baby. As Maggie tries to tell her husband the truth, he receives word his company is being sent overseas. Danny is disappointed to learn he is not going to be a father after all, but Maggie reassures him she will be anxious to start a family as soon as he returns. After Danny and Red ship out, Maggie and Shirley decide to find jobs in the defense industry and do what they can to support their husbands and the rest of the troops. ===== A scene from the film Jiang Lingyu (Bai Yang), a female student who is studying in Shanghai, decides to join the Resistance Acting Troupe after Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937. Although dissuaded by her uncle, aunt and cousin, she adamantly leaves her uncle's home, where she has been staying, without telling them. The company arrives at Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou and Xuzhou and many other cities to perform for soldiers and ordinary folks alike. For years the company perseveres with their arduous journey, with many of them falling sick. Finally they reach Chongqing, where musical instructor Gao Libin (Tao Jin) falls ill. Jiang remains behind to take care of him, where they receive news that Jiang's father has agreed to their marriage. They decide to get married once the war is over. Jiang's cousin, an entrepreneur, comes to see her. Soon, the troupe read from the papers that the Japanese has surrendered. Ecstatic, the couple gets married immediately. The couple leaves the troupe to take a barge home. Postwar situation is bad, and they discover Jiang's father has died in the Jiangxi countryside before the war ended. They take up lodging at Jiang's uncle's mansion in Shanghai. They are disappointed at the self-centered, bourgeois attitude held by her uncle's family. During Chinese New Year, a widow comes to visit Jiang's cousin. It turns out the widow has had her house forcibly occupied by her cousin. Indignant at this, Jiang and Gao decide to move out to a smaller, shabbier attic apartment scouted out by their friends. Gao becomes a schoolteacher and Jiang a journalist. Jiang becomes pregnant. She writes in her column about the incident of the widow and of her cousin's oppression. Jiang and her cousin later has a falling-out, and Jiang asserts that she will continue writing about such injustices in the papers. Weak from overwork, Jiang faints in the streets one day and is brought to the hospital. Her fellow friends from the Troupe put together money for her hospital fees. Jiang has a premature delivery, but is nonetheless very weak. The doctor warns that she may not pull through; even if she does, she must be given good nutrition and a healthful living environment. Jiang, on her bed, asks her friends to help take care of her new-born child and is wheeled away. An intertitle then appears asking audiences to imagine what the ending is like: if Jiang's future is a dead end, it says, are the audiences themselves not all responsible since they are part of the society? The film ends with a giant question mark. ===== The book starts off when Larry, Daisy, Fatty, Pip and Bets are having fun with new disguises that Fatty brought back from Morocco. While all the Find-Outers, except for Fatty are dressed up, Ern and his two brothers, Sid and Perce, come to visit the Find-Outers. He is shocked when he sees four foreign-looking people with Fatty. Fatty tells the three brothers that they are visiting and are related to/friends of Prince Bongahwah, a Prince who is staying at the same camp as Sid, Perce and Ern for the summer, and that Bets is Princess Bongawee. The "foreigners" speak broken English and their own whimsical made-up "language" (especially Bets). Mr Goon, the village bobby (otherwise known as 'Clear Orf') happens to see all of them when they go for a walk (Larry, Daisy, Pip and Bets still in disguise) and believes the same story Fatty has told to Sid, Pece and Ern about the four 'foreigners'. Later in the Story, Prince Bongahwah is kidnapped and Goon tells Inspector Jenks that he has met relatives of Prince Bongahwah to help with the case, in Particular the prince's sister, 'Princess Bongawee' (Bets in disguise) but finds out he has been fooled by Fatty. Fatty gets into trouble; however, he is still allowed to look into the case. Soon Sid has an unusual discovery - as he is mad (or 'dippy' according to Ern) about babies, he pushes a pram with twins in it and finds the bottom of it false, below it a person with a dark face which Sid is very sure is the Prince. After finding a button in the Prince's sleeping bag, a few interviews and some false trails, the gang find themselves at another dead end. After a few bits of luck, they find a baby show for twins at a fair, hoping to track down the twins in question. They also bump into Mr Goon who is also at the fair for the same reason. Him and the gang look at the all the twins in the show (Mr Goon however making all the babies cry) but couldn't find the right twins. After their disappointment, Fatty manages to bribe one of the fair people to wind up Mr Goon and manage to get him on an animal roundabout where he gets spun round and round, dizzy in front of the watching (and laughing) crowd. On the bicycle ride home Pip sees a shirt hanging to dry on a washing line of one of the parked caravans with buttons identical to the one they found in the Prince's sleeping bag. They piece up that the people living in that caravan would know the whereabouts of the Prince and Fatty (disguised as a peddler called Jack Smith) goes there later to find out that one of the people living in the caravan pretended to be the Prince; in the first place and they switched him and the real prince before camp started so he was impersonating the prince the whole time through summer and sneaked out the night before it was reported that the Prince had been 'kidnapped' while the Prince had been gone the whole time taken hostage by the boys uncle. He also finds out where the real prince is and decides to go off to the place the next day. Fatty soon goes home, bumping into Mr Goon who suspects that Fatty (still in disguise) is a tramp with a stolen bike. He runs off, leaving his bike with Mr Goon who reports it. Fatty gets it back after calling Mr Goon who exaggerates the truth and leaves Goon giving the Princes whereabouts which Goon doesn't believe until he hears a report from the nearby police station confirming that Fatty's information wasn't made up. Hearing this, Mr Goon decides to go rescue the Prince before Fatty and the others do and is reported the next day that he disappeared. Fatty hears the news from Inspector Jenks and decides to go find him along with the gang and Ern (as Perce has to go get rope for the tent and Sid switches from buying toffee to buying nougat). They soon get locked up in a room beyond the marshes and is therefore trapped but sees a room with barred windows at the other side of the building. Fatty uses his 'how to get out of a locked room' trick and slips out to the other room and finds the real Prince inside and drags him back to the room with the other five. The men soon find out that the Prince has supposedly escaped and think that the find-outers helped him so they do a search of the room, finding the prince in a cupboard. Straight after the Prince is found, a squad of police officers surround the building, including Inspector Jenks who arrests the men and rescues the Find-outers, Ern and the Prince who tries and tells his story. When they think that the whole mystery is closed they realise that Goon is still missing and didn't see him in the building. An officer comes up to them and says there has been weird noises coming from a shed not far off the building. Goon comes out of the building mad at the fact that he was locked up and beaten again by the gang. Fatty however sticks up for him and it's a rare moment when Goon thinks that Fatty isn't so bad after all. ===== The film opens with a man setting up a deadly trap, and luring a creature from the darkness by puncturing a drum of water. He kills the creature and is briefly attacked by another who comes out of the bog. These appear to be normal people, capable of survival under the bog's depths. The man shrugs off the attacks and continues on into the night. Meanwhile, an archaeology Professor (David Wallace) is teaching a class of students about ancient sacrifices that had taken place in Ireland centuries ago. One student with a great deal of questions confronts the mummified remains of a sacrifice, and abruptly leaves the room. Upon investigation he finds that she is a hired assistant (Saiorse Reilly) and she leaves with him on an archaeological evaluation of some of the local hillsides. During this time a pair of travelers (Hannah Ross and her cousin Mallory) break down in an automobile they had stolen and head off on foot. Along the way, Mallory sprains her ankle, and she and Hannah take refuge in a remote cabin at the central area of the bog. A woman named Val Leary and her cab driver (Deano Doyle) get stuck in the bog and inadvertently find their way to the cabin, shortly afterward David and Saiorse arrive, having run into a cow on a nearby road. As the six strangers learn to live together, they are greeted by the outraged owner of the house known simply as "Hunter" or "The Hunter" who invites them in for the night, promising to show them the road out the following morning. As they dine over supper, they regale stories of personal heroisms between one another; Deano states he had once rushed a woman giving birth to children to a hospital, Mallory and Hannah had saved the life of a child's father who had fallen into the bog off chance. While Val admits she had dug up one of the "Bog Men" sacrifices, though she lies and says she did it some time prior and had called the police (which she had not done when she uncovered it earlier the same day). David sparks suspicion and Val and Deano leave. Hunter shortly after decides to go hunting, and provides bedding for the rest to lay on. During the night, Saiorse has a bad dream and David comforts her. The following morning, they find Deano but a large man who had earlier been resurrected from the Bog itself appears, causing Mallory to fall into a bog pool, nearly drowning, Hunter is able to free her, revealing Val's body who had apparently attempted to grab Mallory from under the bog. Now extremely ill, Mallory is taken back to the cabin, and Hunter is put under Saiorce's scrutiny saying he could have killed them. Deano is led back to the road his Taxi had gotten stuck on, but admits to Hunter he had lied about his story, accidentally killing a fare by catching her coat into the back door of his cab and dragging her to death afterward stashing her body into the swamp. After Hunter parts, Deano attempts to free his taxi and is accidentally dragged to his death as well. Back at the cabin, Hannah departs to find another way out of the bog and ends up getting captured by the giant man. David attempts to intervene and calm the bog man down, but Hunter shoots him, and in his rage the man decapitates Hannah. Upon his return, Mallory tells David that they had lied about their stories as well, that they had accidentally hit an old trench digger walking along the road and buried him near the bog. Dying shortly after, David realizes that their stories seem to have prompted this, Saiorse tells David that she too killed a man, her uncle who constantly beat and raped her, even giving her a still born child. And Hunter claims that a man he had saved in the forest "could have" been saved, instead he killed the man to stop his agony after he accidentally shot him in the first place. The bog man returns, kills Hunter who manages to give David a clue to killing him, when the man is distracted by the water pouring from the cabin's shower, David throws fire into it as it had been laced with gasoline and causes the man as well as the cabin to go up in a ball of fire, allowing David and Saiorse to escape. As they watch, the bog man runs in flames from the house and returns to the bog. ===== Lon Chaney as Chinese immigrant, Yen Sin. A boastful and proud yet abusive fisherman by the name of Daniel Gibbs (Walter Long) leaves his wife Sympathy (De La Motte) to go on a fishing expedition with other villagers from their village of Urkey and is lost at sea. Two men survive, one villager and a mysterious Chinese stranger named Yen Sin (Chaney). Being Chinese and refusing to take part in Christian service for those lost, he is made an outcast and forced to live on a small boat in the harbor. He makes his living doing laundry from his boat, and is soon greeted by the new minister, John Malden (Ford), who tries unsuccessfully to convert him. Love blossoms between Reverend Malden and Sympathy, and they are soon married, to the chagrin of the wealthiest member of the village, Nate Snow (St. Polis). Sympathy soon befriends Yen Sin after she observes several kids taunting him in the street. Snow concocts a blackmail scheme by resurrecting Sympathy's lost husband Daniel in a letter demanding payment to keep quiet. Malden receives the letter just before going on a trip with Snow, and leaves the now pregnant Sympathy with this serious development on his mind. Yen Sin tells Malden to be sure and get his laundry done by using his friend Sam Low, who turns out to be a very good informant for Yen Sin. While he is away, their baby is born, and he now decides to pay the blackmail money in order to preserve his new family. Malden, upon his return, is so distraught that he resigns from the ministry, and asks Snow if he can borrow money from him to pay off Gibbs. Snow does not get to enjoy the benefits of his deception as Yen Sin exposes the blackmail plot in order to save the young couple, revealing everything while on his deathbed. ===== The current story arc revolves around the lives of Aaron and Farris who discover that they are Berserkers; humans who have a powerfully violent and uncontrollable rage living inside them which gives them superhuman strength and power, but also clouds their judgement and renders them unable to tell friend from foe. Meanwhile, two mysterious organizations, Midgard International and Asgaard, seek them out for their powerful abilities for their own purposes while Farris and Aaron struggle to come to grips with their newfound power and dangerous heritage. Berserker combines elements of superheroes with Norse mythology and human themes of courage and determination. ===== Blair Vickers (O'Keefe) is head of the UAW union whose brother is killed during the bombing of the union headquarters. Gus Linden (O'Brien), a gangster determined to gain control of the UAW, is the man behind the bombing. ===== Gotta Dance documents the creation of the New Jersey Nets basketball team's senior citizen dance troupe, The NJ NETSationals. The Nets franchise already employed a professional dance team, a cheerleading squad, and a kids dance team, but in 2007 they added the NJ NETSationals to their entertainment family. "Essentially, the New Jersey Nets basketball team came up with a PR stunt that includes forming a hip-hop dance crew made up entirely of senior citizens (or folks over the age of 60)." Filmmaker Dori Berinstein followed and filmed as they recruited, auditioned, and trained the NETSationals. The team members range in age from 59 to 80 years old and come from varied backgrounds. The film documents not only the NETSationals rehearsals, but also includes personal information about each of the team members, as well as lively team dinners. During the film the NETSationals, debut at a halftime show to an ecstatic and astonished Meadowlands crowd. "Two of the oldest recruits have granddaughters on the Nets' professional dance team, and the interaction between the highly athletic younger women and their less flexible elders offers some particularly poignant moments, as does the final half-time show incorporating a cute faceoff with a kids' dancing troupe." ===== The plot of Catfight revolves around a dark goddess Shinma and 10 female warriors competing to challenge her and obtain the ultimate power. The game's advertisement on Atlantean Interactive's website states: > "Join eleven of the fiercest female warriors from across the Ethers as they > battle it out for the ultimate power of the Universe! Watch the head-to-head > fighting assault blaze its way to your screen -- with the hottest women in > games engaging in the most violent fighting techniques imaginable! Some of > the things you must endure are disembowelment, decapitation, and worse! It's > the ultimate life versus death struggle, where you must pulverize your > opponent in eight awesome arenas to survive! Here is your chance to claim > your place next to the most awesome women in the galaxy!" ===== Kit Innes is a high school student living with her mother and stepfather. As she retrieves a sweatshirt from her father's house, she is approached by her disheveled ex-stepmother, Dusty. Kit is stunned when Dusty hands her a newborn baby and a diaper bag before driving away, not even bothering to tell Kit his name. To the best of her ability, Kit tries to care for the baby, who she names Sam. The doorbell rings, so she opens the door. She finds a shabby looking man standing before her, looking for Dusty. Kit denies any knowledge of Dusty's baby and claims that she hasn't seen Dusty in a while. Kit shuts the door, but she suspects that the man is trying to look into the windows. Feeling threatened, she grabs a disposable camera and takes a picture of his license plate. Finding nothing, the man leaves. Kit decides to bring Sam back to her mother's house when Rowen Mason, Kit's potential boyfriend, arrives in tow with his nine years old sister, Muffin. Kit then receives a call from a lady named Cinda, who explains the whole situation. Apparently, Cinda and her husband, Burt, were supposed to adopt Dusty's baby, and the man who came to Kit's house earlier was Dusty's cousin. Kit is reassured by Cinda and promises to deliver Sam to her. Cinda and Burt's house is located in a wooded area with no neighbors. Burt tries to grab the camera out of Kit's hand when she starts taking pictures. Meanwhile, Muffin has to go to the bathroom. With all the adults preoccupied with Sam, she ventures into the house and is shocked to find the house in a mess with pizza boxes on the floor and no soap in the bathroom. Muffin accuses Cinda of not knowing how to properly care for a baby. Kit also senses that something is not right. Taking Sam from Cinda, she tells them that they should all wait for Dusty to come back before doing anything. At her father's house, Kit leaves a voice message for her father about Dusty. Dusty and her cousin, Ed, enter the house and agree to spend a night before sorting things out in the morning. As Kit runs upstairs to grab a flannel blanket, Dusty and Ed run out with Sam. Rowen and Muffin follow their car. Dusty and her cousin both stop at a house, and Muffin tries to rescue Sam. Ed catches Muffin and instructs Rowen to throw his car keys into the woods. After Rowen does, Ed takes off with Muffin and Sam. In the meantime, Kit unknowingly opens the door to Burt and Cinda, who imitated Muffin's voice. At home, the answering machine goes off with Kit's father telling her that he called the police. Burt and Cinda freak out at the mention of the police, and Cinda grabs a kitchen knife. They put Kit in a car, where Cinda tells Kit of her mastermind plan. She, Burt, Dusty, and Ed were part of an ATM scam. They would use fake ATM's to collect the bank card numbers, and then Dusty would redraw money from the bank accounts. Kit is rescued by a policeman, but Cinda refuses to tell them where Sam is. Rowen, without his car, runs to the nearest truck and tells them everything. Muffin, stuck in the car with Ed, carefully uses Morse code to signal SOS to another car. In the end, Dusty, Burt, Ed, and Cinda are all under arrest, and Sam is put under foster care. ===== A college student Seema sees in her nightmare that a horrible looking man wearing steel claw gloves attacks her. She wakes up to find that she has real wounds on her arm. Later her friend Anita too sees the same nightmare and finds real wounds on her arm. Anita tells her parents about her nightmare. Her father, who is a policeman, refuses to believe it. Later, Seema is attacked again in her dream and she dies because of the wounds. Her boyfriend is put in police lockup where he sees the horrible man who makes snakes appear by magic. The boyfriend dies of snake-bite. Later, Anita and her mother catch Anita's father taking out a metal clawed glove from his drawer, so he is forced to reveal the secret that an evil magician Shakal had been kidnapping children and sacrificing them to increase his evil powers. Seven years back, Shakal had killed Anita's sister too. Finally, Shakal kidnaps Anita. As her father knows Shakal's place, he arrives with Anita's boyfriend and they manage to kill him and save Anita. ===== In Panchavan forest a group of merchants find a young man, Ananthapadmanabhan, unconscious and covered in blood. They take him with them. Two years later, Parukutty still refuses to believe that her missing lover, Ananthapadmanabhan, is dead. Her mother arranges for her to marry Padmanabhan Thambi, elder son of aging King Rama Varma, through Thambi's right hand, Sundarayyan. The king has fallen ill and is confined to his bed. Desiring the throne, Thambi, with Sundarayyan, spreads the lie that the rightful heir, Prince Marthanda Varma, planned the attack on Ananthapadmanabhan because of an argument over a prostitute. Thambi allies himself with the Ettuveettil Pillas to oust the prince, stirring up the people against him and the royal officials. Some citizens stop paying taxes and the forces and finances of the royals are diminished. Prince Marthanda Varma and his aide, Parameswaran Pilla, stays at Charottu palace while on way to Bhoothapandi, to have discussions with Madurai forces, who detained the prime minister, Arumukham Pilla after payment for the forces become arrears. Velu Kuruppu, a loyalist fighter who serves Padmanabhan Thambi, with his lancers chase out the prince and his aide, however the chased-duo evade chasers after being aided by a mad Channan who misdirect the pursuers, who in-turn fight with mad Channan, Ananthapadmanabhan in disguise. Velu Kuruppu and his team run away after Channan was helped by the archer Chulliyil Chadachi Marthandan Pilla, who also kills a few of the lancers as a payback to Channan for saving his life earlier. The prince and his aide take refuge at Mangoikkal Kuruppu's house. Following Thambi's order to capture the Channan-people, the mad Channan is captured and locked in the dungeon. Upon discovering that Marthanda Varma is at Mangoikkal's house, Velu Kuruppu sends his men to the house and rushes back to Thambi to arrange for more lancers and Nair soldiers to finish off the prince. The mad Channan finds an underground passage from the dungeon to Charottu palace rushes to the Channan-people. As the prince and Mangoikkal arrange for additional forces, Velu Kuruppu and his men launch an attack on Mangoikkal and set the house on fire. The mad Channan and the Channan-people reach Mangoikkal's house to fight the attackers, and Channan rescues prince and his aide trapped in house on fire. Fighters from Mangoikkal's martial arts school join the fight and defeat Velu Kuruppu's men. That night, Thirumukhathu Pilla visits Thambi to ask about the murder of his son, Ananthapadmanabhan; during when one of Velu Kuruppu's lancers arrives and recounts the defeat at Mangoikkal's. Marthanda Varma returns to his Thiruvananthapuram home. Thambi and Sundarayyan arrive to stay at Chembakassery. At night, Ananthapadmanabhan, disguised as a citizen of Kasi (Kasivasi) enters Chembakassery by drugging the caretaker of the armory, Shanku Assan. Thambi, overwhelmed by Parukutty's beauty, goes to her room to attain her but is dragged out by Kasivasi. Half asleep, Parukutty is disturbed by glimpses of the scuffle and falls ill. Later, Sundarayyan steals ornaments from the house. Thambi and his team leave the next morning. Kazhakkoottathu Pilla comes to inquire into Parukutty's illness. He is then followed by Ananthapadmanabhan, disguised as a beggar, to Kudamon Pilla's house. At Kudamon's house a council is formed by the Ettuveettil Pillas and Sundarayyan in support of Padmanabhan Thambi as the next king. Kazhakkoottathu Pilla voices his dissatisfaction with the situation but assures his support. He leaves the council, followed by the beggar. Kazhakkoottathu meets Mangoikkal on the way. The beggar returns to the council to hear the final decision. The council decides to assassinate Prince Marthanda Varma. Afterwards, Ramanamadathil Pilla meets Subhadra, the granddaughter of Kudamon Pilla's maternal aunt. Kazhakkoottathu tricks Mangoikkal and abducts him. As Sundarayyan is returning from the council, he is confronted by the beggar who tries to snatch the council note from him. Struggling, they both fall into the Killiyar. The beggar rescues Sundarayyan, who cannot swim. Sundarayyan awakes on the shore and delivers the council decision to Thambi. Learning of Parukutty's illness, Subhadra goes to console her mother and learns about Thambi's stay and the theft at the house. At the royal palace a message arrives from Pathan camp warning of the council at Kudamon Pilla's house, as the resolution is unknown, the prince should stay alert at all times. The message also announces the arrival of Mangoikkal. Ramayyan recommends strict action against the conspirators but the prince disagrees. During the discussion the prince realizes that Kalakkutty, whom he had sent to deliver a request for help to Thirumakhathu Pilla, is the maternal uncle-in-law of Sundarayyan; also concludes that Ettuveettil Pillas may have harmed Mangoikkal. Subhadra arrives at Thambi's house by night and asks him about his actions at Chembakassery. During the conversation Thambi realizes that Subhadra knows that the murder that he and Sundarayyan are trying to blame on the prince, was committed by Velu Kuruppu. Thambi goes to stab her with his dagger but, seeing her unmoved, he shrinks back. When Subhadra leaves, Thambi and Sundarayyan decide to kill her, as she knows their secret. Sundarayyan buys poison at Pathan camp but Ananthapadmanabhan, disguised as Shamsudeen, sells him a harmless colored powder. Subhadra persuades Shanku Assan to tell her if the Kasivasi who entered Chambakassery the other night is still at Pathan camp. On his return from Pathan camp, Assan tells her that Sundarayyan was there buying poison. At Pathan camp, Hakkim warns Shamsudeen to be careful of danger when searching for Mangoikkal. Subhadra realizes that Sundarayyan plans to poison her and returns home. The prince and his aide, disguised as civilians, go with Ramayyan to look for Mangoikkal. At night, Ramayyan goes to Sree Pandarathu house, home of Kazhakkoottathu, searching for Mangoikkal. The prince and his aide, sheltered behind a tree, notice an unidentifiable figure (Velu Kuruppu) pass by in a westerly direction. Later, the prince witnesses Sundarayyan heading to his wife, Anantham's, house. Subhadra is with Ramanamadathil Pilla, who leaves after assuring her that he will return. As Ramanamadathil passes by, the prince overhears him talking to himself about the greatness of Kazhakkoottathu Pilla, who captured Mangoikkal. Ramayyan returns to the prince and tells him that he could not check at Sree Panadarathu house due to additional security forces stationed there. Velu Kuruppu arrives at Thambi's house. The prince and his aides leave to check on the ailing king. The archer, Chulliyil Chadachi Marthandan Pilla, chases after them, shooting arrows. The arrows are struck down by the mad Channan who then beats down the archer. Anantham brings food, that her husband secretly poisoned, to Subhadra. Subhadra realizes that the stolen ornaments are at Anantham's house and that she is unaware of her husband's plans. The mad Channan, hiding nearby, overhears their conversation. Ramanamadathil, Sundarayyan and Chulliyil Chadachi Marthandan Pilla visit Thambi's house to talk about assassinating the prince. When Ramanamadathil returns, Subhadra realizes the plan to assassinate the prince by Velu Kuruppu. She sends Shankarachar to deliver a note to the prince. At the king's palace, the prince is relieved to find that the king is a bit better after receiving medicine. Velu Kuruppu attempts to stab the prince while he is returning to his palace with his aide. Shankarachar stops him, they fight and Velu Kuruppu stabs Shankarachar then runs away. The prince and his aide reach Shankarachar, who manages to deliver the note before his final breath. Velu Kuruppu reaches Thambi, who summons Ramanamadathil, Chulliyil Chadachi Marthandan Pilla, Sundarayyan and Kodanki. They decide to move Mangoikkal from Sree Pandarathu house to Chembakassery. Meanwhile, the mad Channan goes to Sree Pandarathu house, drugs the guards and gets the keys. He finds Mangoikkal in the dungeon but Ramanamadathil and company arrive and cut off their escape. In turn, Velu Kuruppu then Kondanki approach the Channan and are shot dead by his pistol. Channan agrees to be in detention with Mangoikkal Kuruppu on the condition that he be allowed to keep his weapons, after Ramanamadathil informs that detainees will be prosecuted by Thirumikhathu Pilla. Mangoikkal and the Channan are moved to Chembakassery and are watched over by palace guards who are loyal to Thambi. Sundarayyan and others spread the lie that prince Marthanda Varma tried to assassinate Ramanamadathil and is responsible for the night's murders. Subhadra gets some relief when her servant returns from Pathan camp with medicine for Parukutty. He also tells her that one of the men at the camp resembles her ex-spouse. An angry mob of citizens rush the palace, but are turned back by the ailing king who signals for them to leave. Ramanamadathil arrives at Thambi's house to tell about the revolt at the palace and praises the actions of Sundarayyan. Chulliyil Chadachi Marthandan Pilla and a servant arrive and announce the death of King Rama Varma. After Rama Varma's funeral, Marthanda Varma manages to send the required payment to the forces from Madurai. Subhadra reaches Chembakassery with medicine for Parukutty, who immediately begins to recover from her illness. Subhadra stays at Chembakassery for the next five days. The prince discovers that the men sent from Kilimanoor, led by Narayanayyan, have been defeated by Kazhakkoottathu Pilla and his men. He fires the palace guards who are working for Thambi. Subhadra returns home after learning of the council being held at her house by Thambi and team. Parukutty and her mother get the keys from caretaker to release the two men from detention. Upon release, the mad Channan runs ahead to conceal his identity and is followed by Mangoikkal. Parukutty sees his resembles to her missing lover and realizes that he is the one who fought off Thambi the night he tried to attain her. Ettuveettil Pillas, the Thambi brothers and Sundarayyan decide to assassinate the prince at the palace that night. Mangoikkal's nephews arrive at the palace to support the prince. He tells them to come in the morning and coordinate with Ramayyan. Later, the prince is awakened from his sleep by Subhadra's arrival in his room, informing him his life is in danger. The prince follows her after remembering that she was the one who helped him another night. Kudamon Pilla, Padmanabhan Thambi and company enter the palace to assassinate the prince but find no one. Subhadra heads to her house with Marthanada Varma, Parameswaran and Ramayyan who are disguised as menials. They are spotted by Raman Thambi and his team on the way, but she and the trio evade him due to her quick thinking. The trio hide near a banyan tree while Subhadra fetches five men, dressed as porters, from her home and rejoins them. She instructs them to cross Venganoor. They are about to leave when Thirumukhathu Pilla arrives and recognizes the prince. He asks Subhadra why she is helping the one who killed her brother, Ananthapadmanabhan. She assures him that her brother is not dead. Thirumukhathu reveals that he is her father. Subhadra says that her brother will be at Pathan camp. Subhadra goes home and the others head east as Thirumukhathu knows that Aruveettukar are waiting near the west banks of the river, Karamana. Unable to find the prince, Thambi and the Ettuveettil Pillas lead their forces to Manakkadu, to attack Magaoikkal's fighters. Tipped off by Subhadra, Mangoikkal's fighters are able to put up a stiff resistance despite being outnumbered. Pathan fighters led by Shamsudeen and Beeram Khan arrive and assist against Thambi's forces. Beeram Khan fights Sundarayyan who he has a personal grudge against for causing his separation from, his then-spouse, Subhadra. Sundarayyan brings down Beeram Khan's horse, trapping the latter under the horse. Sundarayyan advances towards him but Beeram Khan springs out from under the body, kills his opponent and leaves the battlefield at once. Shamsudeen shoots Thambi in the hand as he is about to kill Nuradeen. Before Ramanamadathil Pilla and Raman Thambi can advance towards Shamsudden the battlefield is surrounded by Thirumukhathu Pilla and Prince Marthanda Varma's forces. The Thambi brothers and the Ettuveettil Pillas are arrested. The next day, the prince conducts post funerary rituals for the king. He brings back his nephew, the little prince, and aunt, who were safeguarded by Keralavarma Koithampuran at Chembakassery. There, a joyful Parakutty awaits her lover Ananthapadmanabhan's return from the Pathan camp. A few days later, Marthanda Varma ascends the throne. The king orders Ananthapadmanabhan to move Subhadra from her house to safeguard her from Kudamon Pilla, who the king has just released. Subhadra is at her house and sad due to the revelation about her ex- spouse. Kudamon Pilla arrives, catches her by the hair and is about to plunge his sword but Beeram Khan rushes in crying not to kill her. On hearing the voice of her ex-spouse and seeing him longing for her, she thanks god that she can even die. The sword falls on her neck. Before Kudamon Pilla can slay Beeram Khan, he is cut into two by Ananthapadmanabhan who has just arrived. On hearing the news, Marthanda Varma swears under his breath that he will seek vengeance on those responsible for the un-warranted shedding of blood. Three years later, Mangoikkal's house has been rebuilt. Ananthapadmanabhan heads Marthanda Varma's forces in battles with Desinganadu and other kingdoms. He stays at Chembakassery with his family. Marthanda Varma earns fame as a protector of the people as well as a servant to Sreepadmanabha deity. The people celebrate. ===== Following the multiple-Aema theme started in Madame Aema 6, this entry in the series has two women named Madame Aema. Both women are dancers, and are friends who differ in their thoughts on marriage. One believes in remaining single, and the other believes in marriage, and does so. After being disappointed with her husband's cheating and gambling, she leaves him. They are later reconciled after the husband repents of his behavior. ===== Aema is a bored housewife married to a successful, workaholic businessman. She begins an affair with Jean, a business associate of her husband's. Her husband suspects and begins tormenting Aema, while not letting on that he knows, to protect a business deal. Aema leaves her husband, but is persuaded to return after heeding advice from a friend. ===== This time in the Madame Aema series, Aema leaves her husband, tired of his demanding ways. She moves to Jeju Island and lives with her friend, Young-ju. She begins having an affair with a member of a Samul nori group. Shocked by Young-ju's lesbian advances, and persuaded by her boyfriend, Aema returns to her husband. ===== In this episode in the Madame Aema series, Aema is married to a respected scholar who is preoccupied with his research and unable to satisfy her sex drive. Aema's husband becomes the target of a Japanese businessman with ties to the yakuza. Seeking to take his research, the Japanese businessman blackmail Aema's husband by taping him in a compromising position with a young woman he has sent to seduce him. Meanwhile, Aema is indulging in an affairs of her own. ===== > There's something really primal about the idea of being a rookie—it hits > that horrible, eternal sense of feeling like a fraud, like a kid dressed in > grown-up clothes, trying to pretend you know what you're doing. And I > thought, what if you were feeling just like that—but with a gun? :—Tassie > Cameron, Executive Producer Set in Toronto, the series follows the lives of five rookie cops from fictional 15 Division who have just graduated from the academy. Training's over, life begins. They must learn to deal with not only their duties as police officers, but also the problems and expectations of family, friends, and romantic attachments at the office. They are first responders who are about to learn that no amount of training prepares you for life. "To serve, protect, and..." is usually used in the parade room before shift starts by the cop leading the reunion. It always has a significant meaning in the context of the episode plot. More often than not, however, they use "to serve, protect, and don't screw up". Rookie Blue has been described as the Grey's Anatomy of the world of rookie cops. ===== This is a story about two people who, over the course of a winter, help each other grow and finally give up the imaginary friends that they each created for themselves from very young ages. Although initially they seem like very different people, they discover that in fact they do have this one thing in common and develop an almost father-daughter relationship. Richard is a failed novelist who still talks to his imaginary superhero friend, Captain Excellent. At the urging of his wife Claire, Richard has moved to a Long Island beach community for the winter season in order to overcome his writer's block. There, Richard meets 17-year-old Abby, who he sees while riding his rustic bike around town. He sees her light a fire in the trash can for no apparent reason. He decides to follow her. She confronts him, and Richard, trying not to appear as a pervert, hires her as a weekly babysitter, even though he has no children. Friday night she comes over to watch his "children" but he reveals to her that he has no children. Abby seems completely fine with it and Richard decides to spend his time at the pier, talking to Captain Excellent, who insists that Richard can never make a correct decision without his help. After returning from the pier, Richard comes home to find that Abby has made soup while he was away. He is awed by the fact that she has made this with her hands, as he has been having trouble in using his hands to make anything. He hires her again for the same time next week, though Captain Excellent states that it will only lead to bad things but Richard decides to ignore him. Their tenuous friendship is sparked by Richard's awe over Abby's youth and innocence and Abby's enjoyment of Richard's writing. They eventually grow so close that their relationships seems to be similar to that of a father and daughter. Abby tells Richard about the death of her twin sister, Amy, while Richard confides in her about his failing marriage. Meanwhile, Christopher, Abby's imaginary friend since Amy's death, watches her relationship with Richard grow, and though he feels neglected by Abby, all he wants is for her to be happy, no matter what that means for him. In the end Richard and Abby must face the reality of their lives, with Abby standing up to her loutish boyfriend and Richard bidding goodbye to Captain Excellent once and for all. ===== The story is narrated by Olive Penderghast, a 17-year-old girl living in Ojai, California, speaking into her webcam. Olive lies to her best friend Rhiannon Abernathy about going on a date in order to get out of camping with Rhiannon's hippie parents. Instead, she hangs around the house all weekend listening to Natasha Bedingfield's "Pocketful of Sunshine", which is played by a musical greeting card from her grandmother. The following Monday, pressed by Rhiannon, Olive lies about losing her virginity to a college boy. Marianne Bryant, a girl with a devout Christian faith whom Olive considers to be prudish, overhears her telling the lie and soon spreads it throughout the school. The school's church group run by Marianne decides Olive will be their next project. Olive confides the truth to her friend Brandon, and he understands because others bully him because of his homosexuality. He later asks Olive to pretend to sleep with him so that he will be accepted by everyone as a "straight stud". Olive agrees to help him and they pretend to have sex at a party. After a fight with Rhiannon over her new identity as a "dirty skank", Olive decides to counteract the harassment by embracing her new image as the school tramp. She begins to wear more provocative clothing and, inspired by The Scarlet Letter, stitches a red "A" onto her clothing. Boys who usually have had no luck with girls in the past now beg Olive to increase their popularity by saying they have had sex with her, in exchange for gift cards to various stores. This in turn increases her reputation. Things get worse when Micah, Marianne's boyfriend who has had to repeat several grades, contracts chlamydia from sleeping with Mrs. Griffith, the school guidance counselor, and blames Olive. As Mr. Griffith (Mrs. Griffith's husband) is her favorite teacher, Olive agrees to the lie to spare their marriage. Marianne's friends from the church youth group, which now includes Rhiannon, begin harassing Olive in order to get her to leave school. After an ill-fated date with Anson, a boy who wants to pay her to actually sleep with him and not just pretend she did, Olive reconnects with Todd, her old love interest, who is also the school's mascot, a woodchuck. Todd tells her that he does not believe the rumors because he remembers when she lied for him when he was not ready for his first kiss years ago. Olive now has a change of heart and begins to ask everyone she lied for to help her out by telling the truth, but Brandon and Micah have abruptly left town, and with their newfound popularity, no one else wants to tell. When Mrs. Griffith also refuses to tell the truth, Olive threatens to expose her affair, but Mrs. Griffith snidely says no one would believe her. Out of spite, Olive then immediately tells Mr. Griffith, who believes her and separates from his wife. After a friendly talk with her open-minded mother Rosemary, Olive comes up with a plan to finally get everything out in the open. She does a song-and- dance number at a school pep rally to get people's attention to watch her via webcast. Olive texts Rhiannon, apologizing for lying to her. As she is finishing up her webcast, Todd comes by on a riding mower, serenades her by playing a recording of "Don't You (Forget About Me)", and asks her to come outside. She signs off by saying that she may lose her virginity to Todd sooner or later, but proudly declaring that "it is nobody's goddamn business". She goes outside to meet him, they begin to make out, and the two are shown riding off on the lawn mower. ===== In Apartheid South Africa, white boy Rhino Labuschagne and Zulu Mashebela were best friends until Rhino, pressured by his American girlfriend, Rowena, shoots a can off Zulu's head, abruptly ending their friendship. 25 years later, Zulu has become a car thief in New York, picking up an American accent but not forgetting his roots as "the champion mud slinger of the world". The prison's warden gets Zulu deported back to Africa by the Threatened Immigrants Right-wing Defence, or TIRD. TIRD is a fascist organization run by a German named Gen. "Diehard" who is now dating the glamorous Rowena. Rhino has become a game farmer with a black daughter named Tinkie. Rhino is losing money due to his ex-wife Rowena's divorce settlement. Diehard personally transports Zulu, who easily escapes with Diehard's winning lottery ticket. Zulu by chance reunites with Rhino and they head to Sun City and split the jackpot fifty-fifty. In Sun City, Tinkie befriends Prince William, son of Prince Charles of the United Kingdom. Rhino manages to win R500 000. They are then relentlessly pursued by Diehard and Rowena, but get a make-up artist, Antonio to make Zulu into a white, neo-Nazi TIRD, Baron von Mauchausen-Klarks, and Rhino into a black manservant named Moses. Zulu cannot resist going to Rowena's TIRD party in order to pickpocket. At the party, Diehard and Rowena recognize them after some slapstick antics, but Zulu sets off Diehard's intricate security system. They try to flee but are captured by Rowena. Zulu gives Rowena one half of the jackpot cheque, but Rhino has given the other to Tinkie, who has fled. The duo are imprisoned and they settle their differences by re-enacting the tincan incident, only vice versa. Diehard and Rowena take the two to a cliff called "Crocodile Gorge" and put them on a plank supported by an elephant. Tinkie and Prince William use booby traps to defeat Rowena and severely injure Diehard. Rhino reveals to Zulu that he is Tinkie's biological father from Thandi, Zulu's late childhood friend. Rhino then tells Zulu that he legally adopted Tinkie after Thandi died. The two talk the elephant into setting them free. The psychotic Diehard tries to execute Tinkie on a cliff, but Zulu uses his mud throwing skill to knock-out Diehard, sending him plunging off the cliff to his apparent death. Zulu, Rhino and Tinkie then reunite while William heads off back to his father. In an epilogue, Diehard is seen climbing out of a river muttering "they do not call me 'Diehard' for nothing!". His elephant then sits on him apparently squashing him to death. ===== Dinkar Maruti Bhosale represents thousands of 'Marathis' who feel they have lost their identity in the cosmopolitan Mumbai. Dinkar feels Mumbai is in Maharashtra but there is no Maharashtra left in Mumbai. He always complains about the lack of respect a Marathi receives in Mumbai and feels he is victimized everywhere because he is a Marathi; little realizing that he himself has brought this situation upon himself. In a state of sheer frustration Dinkar gets up one day cursing himself for being born a Marathi. He feels his ancestors must have committed a heinous crime for him to be born a Marathi. These outbursts of Dinkar reach Pratapgad and the spirit of Chhatrapati Shivaji is aroused. Dinkar has to now face a seething Shivaji, who is furious at him. Shivaji fires Dinkar for his shallow thinking and tells him he has to command respect, not demand it. He blames Dinkar's thinking for the sorry state of Marathis. "Before blaming other communities for your short comings, look within and see if you have done anything to keep the Marathi pride intact," he roars. Dinkar realizes his mistake but does Shivaji's thought arouse him to rectify his mistakes? The film ends with Bhonsle gladly returning the sword at the shrine of Shivaji. ===== Children in action A Gram Panchayat (village governing body) in rural India facilitates the functioning of the Makkala Samiti (Children’s Committee) – a children’s body elected by the children themselves. The committee acts as a pressure group in trying to get the local governance react to various social issues that it raises. Guided by a sympathetic school teacher, the children’s honesty and persistency ruffles many feathers among the adults, some of whom have been using the ‘Makkala Samiti’ for their own needs. What follows is a subtle cat and mouse game, by the end of which the children hope to get their voice heard. The film subtly speaks about the Children's rights to self governance and the pathetic attitude we adults have towards this issue. ===== The action takes place during the summer holiday at the Black Sea. The plot confronts an influential surgeon and a carpenter accused to have stolen the doctor's personal belongings from the beach. The neurotic doctor involves himself in the inquiry, ultimately directing the interrogation. The burglary victim, Theodor Hristea, a surgeon at the peak of his career and social life, self-confident and well connected (played by Victor Rebengiuc, a major Romanian actor), his girlfriend, Cristina (played by Carmen Galin) and their common friend, Stefan (played by Marin Moraru) - find themselves on holiday near the summer resort of Mamaia. The doctor has a detective passion and accuses – just on account of a physical resemblance with the real thief - a young carpenter ("The Kid", played by Gheorghe Visu) who happens to come at the same beach the day following the burglary. The police are summoned, a long inquiry follows, declarations are taken, and The Kid is sent to trial. The doctor plays an active part in the investigation. Although the doctor's girlfriend and his friend doubt the identity of the accused, the surgeon insists in being right and succeeds in sending the innocent young man to prison. The accused, totally irrelevant on the social scale, is fired due to his unexplained absences from work during the long dragging period of the investigation that failed to produce any proof, as well as his several months in prison. And still, up to a certain point, the young carpenter proves to be, psychologically, the strongest. He gets back to life, gets married, continues to work, although more introverted than before, circumscribed to his sad destiny. Obsessed by his need to be always right, the doctor goes to meet the young man again and make him confess the theft that he in fact has never committed. Infuriated, the young man starts shouting to be left alone, and more as a self-defence stabs the neurotic doctor in the stomach with the tool he happened to be working with at that moment. The film ends with a scene showing both men running on the beach: The Kid to escape from being caught, and the doctor, badly wounded, to persuade the young man to accept a theft he has never committed. ===== Author John Dykstra, who writes under the pen name Rick Hardin, has had too much beer to drink at his mystery writer's group meeting and desperately needs to find a rest stop on his return from Jacksonville to Sarasota. There is only one other car at the rest stop, and he overhears its occupants in the ladies' bathroom. He hears a woman's and a man's voice coming from the bathroom, and the sounds of domestic abuse. Dykstra is too timid and frightened to act, but he assumes the mentality of his alter-ego, Hardin, and attacks the man with a tire iron. Hardin calls the police and orders the woman to leave the scene in the car, and much to her protest, Hardin smashes the man's glasses to ensure the man doesn't follow him on the road in retaliation. After some time, Hardin mentally reverts to Dykstra, who begins to vomit out the side of his vehicle when the adrenaline rush of the incident wears off. He stops at a gas station and thoroughly searches to make sure the man has not followed him. Upon returning home, Dykstra locks his doors and activates his burglar alarm system. ===== A widow answers a phone call from her husband who died two days earlier in an airplane crash. He is presumably in an afterlife. The husband predicts two tragedies which later come true and helps his wife avoid death herself. ===== Curtis Johnson, a middle-aged gay gentleman, is lured to a deserted construction site by his neighbor, Tim Grunwald, with whom he's been having legal disputes involving property rights and Curtis's beloved dog, Betsy, who was killed by Tim's electric fence. He is confronted by Tim who forces him into a portable toilet, locks him in, and tips it over, leaving him trapped there in the heat of a Florida summer day to die. With no way to get help, Curtis must figure out how to escape or die. Eventually, after a long night asleep in the Port-O-San, Curtis discovers he can crawl through the toilet and into the tank where he can unscrew the bolts using Betsy's old dog tag. After a brief struggle, he gets out and makes his way to the house of Tim, who is lounging in his hot tub. Curtis surprises Tim by throwing an old, unplugged hair dryer into the tub. He then jumps into the hot tub with him and gives him a “baptismal dunk,” almost drowning him. Then, he lets him know that not only is he alive, but if Tim ever tells anyone, Curtis will simply tell them Tim tried to kill him first. Two days later Curtis hears a gunshot from Tim's house and figures Tim killed himself, but he continues to work. He then tells his maid he's thinking of getting a new dog. ===== ===== Terrans Cato Chapman and Celia Zorn, respectively a salesman and model affiliated with the fashionable summer wear firm Greenfarb's of Hollywood, embark on the Viagens starship Camões, bound for the planet Osiris. They hope to create a market for Greenfarb's styles among the reptilian Osirians, who natively wear nothing but body paint. Chapman and Celia quickly discover they have rivals on board; Jean-Jaques Bergerat and Anya Savinkov, representing Tomaselli's of Paris. Amid interesting interplay with the other passengers, including both Terrans and alien Osirians and Thothians, the voyage becomes a double exercise in industrial espionage as Chapman and Bergerat each attempt to sabotage the other. Bergerat succeeds in spoiling Chapman's samples, but is caught and incarcerated due to Chapman's machinations; the latter thereupon appropriates Bergerat's own samples as replacements. On Osiris, Chapman, Celia and Anya hold a fashion show, their products become wildly popular with the Osirians, and they secure a contract for Greenfarb's. Chapman and Bergerat end their dispute on the return voyage and each becomes involved with (and marries) his former rival's business partner. As the interstellar voyage between the Solar System and the Procyon system harboring Osiris takes five months subjective time (and over ten years objective time) each way, there is ample opportunity for such bonds to form. Back on Earth, a surprise awaits them; Osirian body paint has become the rage there during their nearly two dozen years' absence, and both Greenfarb's and Tomaselli's have gone out of business! The action of "Summer Wear" takes place in the years 2104-2128 AD. ===== Autumn 1944. Yellow star, ghettos, Arrow Cross terror. The inhabitants of Hungary's capital, Budapest, await the tragic fulfilment of their fate with helpless resignation. However, above one of the city's villas, once a week in the evening the stars of hope sparkle, if only for a few minutes. This short time gives fresh heart to those hiding here and kindles hope in their tortured souls to live for another day. This mysterious power is none other than a beautiful song that can be heard at such times from the villa's tower room. Géza Halász, the villa's always jovial caretaker, believes no Jew has reason to fear while the owner of the voice, Imre Rose, the world- famous opera singer and a Jew himself, remains in Budapest and does not flee from the country in spite of his American, British, Swiss, Swedish and Vatican connections. Halász visits the singer every Friday to dine with him. After a while the marvellous, hope-inspiring concert starts, which is listened to by the hiding inhabitants of the house with enraptured faces through the villa's open dumb waiter. Already in the "palmy years of peacetime" Rose had competed with Csortos, the famous actor, for the title of "Budapest's Greatest Misanthrope". Thus it does not surprise anybody that the eccentric singer never, not even once, tries to make contact with his fellow Jews who took refuge in his house. And when Halász recounts that the singer swore within an hour of the Arrow Cross's seizing power that he would not utter a single word nor cross the threshold of his tower room until "Andrássy Avenue has been purged of this Arrow Cross scum", even the slightest suspicion about Rose's "invisibility" vanishes. Only a fourteen-year-old boy, Tommy, the caretaker's son, listens to the weekly song with curiosity combined with suspicion, and tries to find out about the secret of the tower room. As a result of the adolescent's persistent and undaunted inquiries, the opera singer's mystery is unveiled. Meanwhile, however, almost unnoticed, the events of the calamitous days, filled with excitement and cheerfulness, turn the boy into a truly adult man. The story of THE SONGS OF RÓZSA is based on true events. ===== Set in the context of the Sandinista government in Nicaragua and their battle with the U.S. backed Contra rebels. Eddie Guerrero (Robert Beltran) is a Mexican-American Vietnam vet sent to help U.S. Special Forces train Contra rebels. Eddie falls for a local girl, Marlena (Annette Charles). However, when her father is killed by the Contras things change. ===== Con man Darius Koshay, stranded in the Uranus spaceport fleeing an arrest warrant from Earth, falls in with promoter Moritz Gloppenheimer, who hopes to open a dude ranch on the planet Osiris. Plying him with drink until the promoter loses consciousness, Koshay steals his identity, papers and scheme, leaving his victim to be arrested as "Koshay". After the voyage to Osiris he puts Gloppenheimer's plan into action, forming a syndicate with Shishirhe, Yathasia and Fessahen, the three Osirian mayors of Cefef Aqh, for the purpose. Within a Terran year, the ranch is operational and all is going well for Koshay, aside from some unwelcome attention from Afasiè, a female Osirian besotted with both the ranch and its operator. Then he discovers that the vengeful Gloppenheimer has followed him to Osiris and is starting a rival operation, the "Cefef Aqh Hunt Club". Soon one of the ranch's round-ups gets mixed up with one of Gloppenheimer's hunts, and the Terran enemies come to blows, with Koshay's gun accidentally discharging. Two of the Cefef Aqh mayors, disaffected from Koshay and present with the hunting party, promptly try and convict him on the spot for the attempted murder of Gloppenheimer; Koshay's patron Shishirhe protests but is outvoted. Afasiè, whose uncle is a Provincial Inspector, summons aid in time to save Koshay from being hanged. The case is transferred to the Provincial Court of Appeals, where the whole truth comes out. The two Terrans are both ordered deported, and as the native spacecraft that will transport them has but one compartment for non-Osirians, they will have to share a cell all the way back to the Solar System! The action of "Git Along!" takes place in the years 2135-2148 AD. One of Koshay's earlier operations is the subject of the story "The Animal-Cracker Plot" set on the planet Vishnu. ===== Karan Kaul (Dev Anand) is the Editor of a daily newspaper called "The Truth". He is respected by his fans and critics alike. He loves Greeta Saunders (Hema Malini), a Swiss national of Indian origin. Then Karan himself becomes a suspect, and faces loss of credibility, when he is accused of killing Greta, after the police find evidence linking his footprints at the scene of crime. ===== In the year 2088 CE. a negotiating team for the World Federation, World-Manager Chagas, First Assistant Wu and Minister of External Affairs Evans await the arrival of the Osirian ambassador to learn if he will accept their terms for a proposed interstellar treaty. Privately, they feel he is entitled to better terms, but if they offer them, the Althing or world parliament will not ratify the treaty. His decision will decide if there will be an Interplanetary Council to keep peace between star systems. Wu and Evans have an argument; Wu, of Marxist persuasions, feels the ambassador will choose on wholly rational grounds, while Evans, who regards the Osirians as sentimentalists, demurs. The ambassador duly arrives, and notes that his people will find some provisions of the proposed treaty objectionable, but rather than going over them, chooses to tell a story, which comprises the body of the narrative: In 2054, in the early days of interstellar travel, Hithafea, a young Osirian, enrolls in Earth's Atlantic University and pledges the Iota Gamma Omicron fraternity. His Terran friend Herbert Lengyel successfully sponsors him over the protests of the snobbish John Fitzgerald. Hithafea accept the bid, on the grounds that Lengyel was the first person on campus to treat him well, and that the early interstellar explorer de Câmara, founder of the Viagens Interplanetarias and the first Earthman to visit Osiris, had been an Iota. In Hithafea's initiation Fitzgerald hazes him savagely, but is thwarted by the alien's strength, stamina and equanimity. Finally he suggests Hithafea be assigned the task of retrieving from the campus museum the false teeth of the Osirian Chief Inspector Ficèsaqha, brought back to Earth by de Câmara and donated to the college. Soon after, Hithafea's roommate Frank Hodiak is surprised to find the alien hurriedly packing to leave early for Christmas vacation, and is given the distinct impression he will not be coming back. Subsequently, Fitzgerald is arrested for stealing the inspector's teeth from the museum, and Lengyel receives an explanatory note from the Iotas' missing pledge. Tempted by the notion of recovering the artifact de Camera had stolen from Osiris, Hithafea had hypnotized Fitzgerald to do the dirty work, and is now on his way home. While regretting not being able to finish his studies or to become an Iota, he takes satisfaction in the honor his deed will receive on his home planet – not to mention getting even with Fitzgerald and helping out Lengyel by giving him "a clear field" with the bully's girl Alice Holm, whom he knows his friend admires. The ambassador's story within a story ends here. Concluding, the ambassador, now revealed to the reader to be Hithafea himself, explains he is signing the treaty as it stands out of sentiment for the welcome extended him by Atlantic, the Iotas and Lengyel during his youth. ===== The movie is based on story "Nanu Konda Hudugi" ("The Girl I Killed") by famous Kannada writer Ajjampur Sitaram ('Ananda'). The story starts with Ananda, the protagonist specializes in photographing ancient monuments and writing about various rituals and customs that have gone unquestioned. During one of his sojourns in some remote area in Karnataka he comes across the strange case of a village girl ‘Chenni’ by name, daughter of the village Patel and gets obsessed by her very unusual life. In trying to explore more information about her he discovers that she is a victim of a blind faith. Being a ‘Basavi’ she has to treat any guest to her house as the arrival of God himself. Thus she offers him all the comforts of life and serves him in every possible way. This comes as a big shock to Ananda who belongs to an urban milieu. In spite of her seductive ways he resists from exploiting her. He is warned by a mad soldier, a victim of the most unpredictable happenings during a war not to have anything to do with this unfortunate girl and not to stay in that cursed house. The soldier was taken for dead in a bitter battle. His young and lonely wife remarries. But after many months on an obscure day the soldier returns to find his wife pregnant and married to another man. He losses his mental equilibrium and roams about the village in his desert camouflage. He keeps warning people who come to stay in the Patel’s house. He is critical of the foolish Patel who sacrificed his only daughter at the altar of the village Deity. Epidemics and wars are similar in nature. In an epidemic a few die and many survive. The epidemic passes. In a war two neighbors fight some die serving the country, some enemies also die for the sake of their home land. War comes to an end and people live in peace. Ananda does not take he mad soldier’s warning seriously. He wants him not to have anything to do with this unfortunate girl. Ananda in his quest wants to stay on and know more about this mysterious girl. When Chenni comes to him in the night and reveals what she is, he is very shocked. He tries to enlighten her saying that her faith is all rubbish. It is just a myth. He says that God cannot be offered what is not pure and touched. He made her to understand that, whatever she has been doing all these years is no different from what a sex worker does. True she may not be doing it for a living but what she has been doing in her blind faith is no different. Then what is the answer. He says that she should lead a normal life. Get married and face life like any other person. But who will come forward in all the villages around to marry her knowing her past. Chenni is prepared to go with Ananda if he can accept her. But Ananda is not bold enough to take the plunge. He succeeded in getting her out of her blind faith but is unable to give her an alternative. Next morning Chenni is missing. A search is on for her. Ultimately she is found dead on the steps of a temple pond. The entire village community looks at Ananda as the guilty one, forgetting their own guilt of keeping Chenni an out cast. The mad soldier seems to be the only person who has been sympathetic to Chenni. Unfortunately it is too late. The police arrive and declare that the whole episode as a case of suicide and there is no foul play. But to Ananda it is he who is the cause for Chenni’s death. He accepts his guilt. He was not daring enough to give her a new life. ===== Salem is an insane asylum inmate after being forced to take an insanity plea when wrongly convicted of murdering his farmhand. Salem escapes confinement from the fortress-like asylum in the dead of winter. Driven insane from being institutionalized for the last two years, he reaches his family farm, now run by his younger sisters Emma and Ester and the latter's husband Dr. Anton Jenks, who accused Salem of the murder. As revenge, Salem kills the people he believes responsible for his unfair conviction and subsequent confinement. He starts with Emma, arranging the murder to appear that Anton is the killer. A local police inspector begins to see foul play and resolves to uncover the truth of the murders and Salem's conviction. Salem has barrister Mr. Clemens as his next target. Following a visit from the inspector, the bedridden Clemens calls Anton to his home and confronts him about certain inaccuracies during the trial. Anton leaves after giving Clemens a sedative, and Salem enters his lawyer's room and kills him in his sleep with a lethal injection. Salem proceeds to the farmhouse where he acquires a fur coat, biding his time as Ester called the inspector. Salem reveals that Anton murdered the farmhand when he caught him and Emma attempting to burn down the farmhouse which they could not sell because of Salem. After the police leave, Ester is cornered and hacked to pieces by Salem when she attempts to flee. Anton arrives as Salem proceeds to wipe the blood on the doctor's clothes before running back to the asylum. Broken, Anton confesses his crime to the inspector as he hurries to the asylum. Salem manages to return to his cell before being discovered. But his alibi is ruined in a completely unexpected, spectacular way. This bang also forms the final punch line of the film. ===== The book opens with Henry's desiring to do "something important." His older friend Scooter McCarthy rides by on his paper route, and he asks Henry if he knows of any boys who might be interested in delivering papers. Henry eagerly volunteers, but Scooter points out that all paper boys must be 11 years old. Henry is ten and a half, but Scooter still refuses. Henry decides to visit Mr. Capper, the manager of the local paper routes, and ask him for a job. On the way, he stops at a rummage sale and ends up buying some kittens. These cause him some embarrassment when he visits Mr. Capper, who tells him he's not old enough for a route. In an attempt to impress Mr. Capper and get the job, Henry decides to sell subscriptions to the newspaper. He offers the kittens as free gifts to new subscribers. This idea doesn't work out, and he gives the kittens to the local pet store. Henry ends up buying back one of the kittens - with his father's permission - and names it Nosy. Henry is worried how his dog Ribsy will react, but Ribsy actually takes to Nosy quite well. During the school's paper drive, Scooter asks Henry to take over his route for an afternoon. Henry uses Scooter's newspapers to advertise for the paper drive. Scooter, enraged at Henry's stewardship of his route, makes it into a competition. However, Henry, with his friends' help, wins the Paper Drive for the school. Unfortunately, it's a bit too successful for Henry's taste, and he vows not to advertise the following year. Henry soon turns eleven years old, and later discovers that Scooter has caught chicken pox. Scooter once again asks him to take over his route; as a result, he and Henry become good friends again. Henry then learns that one of the older boys will be giving up his route soon, and Henry hopes to take it over. In the meantime, he meets a new neighbor named Murph, whom he suspects is a genius. Henry is later dismayed to learn that he doesn't get to take over the older boy's route; it's been given to Murph instead. Eventually, though, Murph gives up the route because he doesn't know to handle Ramona Quimby, who is taking the papers off of each customer's lawn and throwing them onto random lawns because she too wants to be a "paper boy". Murphy lets Henry have the route, and at first Henry is worried that he might lose it because of Ramona's antics. He eventually outsmarts Ramona, though, and continues with his new route. ===== Drafted from the solar system's best and brightest young people, Titan Force Five once defended the capital of Saturn's moon Titan using the heavily armed Mecha Titan Maximum. However, the team was disbanded due to budget cuts after a series of escalating incidents caused by Titan Force Five. Two years later, after the team members have long separated and gone to ground in civilian jobs (one of them, Spud, has even died in an accident), their former teammate Gibbs returns as a villain who wants to conquer the Solar System with an army of monsters. Now the three remaining Titan Force Five members have to reform the team to stop him. Along for the ride are Palmer's younger brother Willie (a nerdy mechanical genius) and Leon (their silent monkey janitor), who take on the former roles of Gibbs and Spud, respectively. ===== Swami Dada is the story of Hari Mohan (Dev Anand), a saintly person who organizes Hindu prayers and discourses in a warm and welcoming atmosphere. He is called "Swami Dada" by everyone. He has many followers and devotees who throng in large numbers to hear his sermons. What they do not know that Hari Mohan is a professional thief, and is now conspiring with a young woman, and a group of orphaned children to steal the temple's jewellery. ===== Shubh, the only son of Kamla and Satyanarayan Tripathi, is a bright and affectionate boy. He is handicapped and needs an operation on one of his legs. However, Kamla dies in a stampede while trying to raise enough money to pay for Shubh's operation. Satyanarayan gets remarried to Yashoda, who is very fond of Shubh. Even though the Tripathi family is able to raise enough money, doctors reveal that it is too late for Shubh's operation. Shubh grows up into a mature and responsible young man. He dotes on his younger half brothers - Arjun and Ansh. Being handicapped, Shubh has to face many insults and disappointments but remains unwavering in his devotion to God and to his parents. Satyanarayan especially trusts Shubh. Arjun marries Lolita and Shubh marries Suhani. Arjun and Lolita start poisoning Yashoda's mind against Shubh and Suhani. As a result, Yashoda's love for Shubh begins to waver. This leads to a series of complications with Shubh and Suhani leaving the Tripathi house, Suhani vanishing, and being found but with a changed appearance, and Arjun taking over the control of the household with Lolita's help. In the end, all gets well, though the Tripathi family suffers some irreversible losses in the process. ===== Several washed- out celebrities check themselves into a drug rehabilitation clinic that is being filmed for reality television. The patients are under the care of the perverted "Dr. Screw Pussky" (parody of Dr. Drew Pinsky) and a scantily clad RN (Mary Carey). Although supposed to be a safe haven from relapse temptations and sexual activity, the whole cast, with the good doctor himself, delve into hedonism. ===== In the year 1984, civilisation has been damaged by war, civil conflict, and revolution. Airstrip One (formerly known as Great Britain) is a province of Oceania, one of the three totalitarian super-states that rule the world. It is ruled by the "Party" under the ideology of "Ingsoc" (a Newspeak shortening of "English Socialism") and the mysterious leader Big Brother, who has an intense cult of personality. The Party brutally purges out anyone who does not fully conform to their regime using the Thought Police and constant surveillance through Telescreens (two-way televisions), cameras, and hidden microphones. Those who fall out of favour with the Party become "unpersons", disappearing with all evidence of their existence destroyed. In London, Winston Smith is a member of the Outer Party, working at the Ministry of Truth, where he rewrites historical records to conform to the state's ever-changing version of history. Winston revises past editions of The Times, while the original documents are destroyed after being dropped into ducts leading to the memory hole. He secretly opposes the Party's rule and dreams of rebellion, despite knowing that he is already a "thoughtcriminal" and likely to be caught one day. While in a proletariat (prole) neighbourhood, he meets Mr. Charrington, the owner of an antiques shop, and buys a diary where he writes thoughts criticising the Party and Big Brother, and also writes that "if there is hope, it lies in the proles". To his dismay, when he visits a prole quarter he discovers they have no political consciousness. An old man he talks to there has no significant memory of life before the Revolution. As he works in the Ministry of Truth, he observes Julia, a young woman maintaining the novel-writing machines at the ministry, whom Winston suspects of being a spy against him, and develops an intense hatred of her. He vaguely suspects that his superior, an Inner Party official O'Brien, is part of an enigmatic underground resistance movement known as the Brotherhood, formed by Big Brother's reviled political rival Emmanuel Goldstein. In a lunch conversation with his co-worker Syme, who is assisting in developing a revised version of Newspeak (a controlled language of limited vocabulary), Syme bluntly reveals the true purpose of Newspeak: to reduce the capacity of human thought. Winston reflects that Syme will disappear as he is "too intelligent" and therefore dangerous to the Party. Winston also discusses preparations for Hate Week with his neighbour and colleague Parsons. One day, Julia secretly hands Winston a note saying she loves him, and the two begin a torrid affair; an act of rebellion as the Party insists that sex is only for reproduction. Julia shares Winston's loathing of the Party, but he realizes that she is politically apathetic and uninterested in overthrowing the regime, thinking it impossible. Initially meeting in the country, they later meet in a rented room above Mr. Charrington's shop. During his affair with Julia, Winston remembers the disappearance of his family during the civil war of the 1950s and his tense relationship with his wife Katharine, from whom he is separated (divorce is not permitted by the Party). He also notices the disappearance of Syme during one of his working days. Weeks later, Winston is approached by O'Brien, who invites Winston over to his flat, which is noted as being of far higher quality than Winston's. O'Brien introduces himself as a member of the Brotherhood and sends Winston a copy of The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism by Goldstein. Meanwhile, during the nation's Hate Week, Oceania's enemy suddenly changes from Eurasia to Eastasia, with no-one seemingly noticing the shift. Winston is recalled to the Ministry to help make the major necessary revisions of the records. Afterwards Winston and Julia read parts of the book, which explains more about how the Party maintains power, the true meanings of its slogans, and the concept of perpetual war. It argues that the Party can be overthrown if proles rise up against it. However, to Winston, it does not answer 'why' the Party maintains power. Winston and Julia are captured and imprisoned when Mr. Charrington is revealed to be a Thought Police agent. At the Ministry of Love, Winston briefly interacts with colleagues who have been arrested for other offences. O'Brien arrives, revealing himself as a Thought Police agent, who tells Winston that the Brotherhood does not exist and Emmanuel Goldstein's book was written by O'Brien himself as part of a special sting operation to catch thought- criminals. Over several months, Winston is starved and tortured to "cure" himself of his "insanity" by changing his own perception to fit in line with the Party. O'Brien reveals to Winston that the Party "seeks power for its own sake." When he taunts Winston by asking him if there is any humiliation which he has not yet been made to suffer, Winston points out that the Party has not managed to make him betray Julia, even after he accepted the party's invincibility and its principles. He fantasizes that moments before his execution his heretic side will emerge, which, as long as he is killed while unrepentant, will be his great victory over the party. O'Brien takes Winston to Room 101 for the final stage of re-education, which contains each prisoner's worst fear, indicating that the level of surveillance on the public is far more thorough than initially believed by Winston. Confronted with a wire cage holding frenzied rats, his biggest fear, in his face, Winston willingly betrays Julia. Winston is released back into public life and continues to frequent the Chestnut Tree Café. One day, Winston encounters Julia, who was also tortured. Both reveal betraying the other and no longer possess feelings for one other. Back in the café, a news alert sounds and celebrates Oceania's supposed massive victory over Eurasian armies in Africa. Winston finally accepts that he loves Big Brother. ===== Stork is a 6-foot 7 hypochondriac who dreams of revolution and works at General Motors Holden. He is sacked from his job after doing a strip tease at work and goes to live in a share house in Carlton with his friend Westy and two trendy young men, Tony and Clyde, who share the same girlfriend, Anna. Stork loses his virginity to Anna and falls in love with her. Anna falls pregnant and Clyde decides to marry her. Stork interrupts the wedding. ===== The novel is about The Hon. Bertie Cecil (nicknamed Beauty of the Brigades).http://fp.arizona.edu/mesassoc/Bulletin/35-2/35-2Driss.htmThe Forgotten Female Aesthetes: Literary Culture in Late-Victorian England, by Talia. Schaffer; pp. x + 298. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press In financial distress because of his own profligacy and the loss of an important horse-race on which he has bet extensively, and falsely accused of forgery, but unable to defend himself against the charge without injuring the "honour" of a lady and also exposing his younger brother (the real culprit), Cecil fakes his own death and exiles himself to Algeria where he joins the Chasseurs d'Afrique, a regiment comprising soldiers from various countries, rather like the French Foreign Legion. After Cecil's great childhood friend and the friend's beautiful sister show up in Africa, and after a series of melodramatic self-sacrifices by Cecil and by the young girl Cigarette, a "child of the Army" who sacrifices her life saving Cecil from a firing squad, the main conflicts are resolved and the surviving characters return to England to fortune, title, and love. ===== Andy Davidson comes across a girl in a river as he patrols. As he helps her, the girl screams at him before running off, leaving Andy confused. He comes across the girl again as he attends to a dispute between her and a shopkeeper who claims she shoplifted. The shopkeeper accuses the girl of holding a gun, but when it's revealed to Andy, he notes that it looks more like a radar gun. When the girl is unresponsive, Andy takes her to the police station. At the Hub, Jack Harkness practices knife throwing while Gwen Cooper has troubles operating the Rift database. While Jack teases Gwen's annoyance at both the database and himself to Ianto Jones, Gwen receives a phone call from Andy regarding the girl. Jack, Andy and Gwen watch the girl and a police woman talk. The girl is still unresponsive, but via interior monologue, the girl recalls memories of being bullied at school and being called a 'Ghostie'. Jack states that she will go with Torchwood as she and the gun are connected, though Andy protests that she is his case. As Gwen talks to her, the girl remembers her mother crying. She becomes disorientated as she tells Gwen her name is Freda, and speaks with a Welsh accent. Gwen proceeds to take blood tests while Jack and Ianto return to the Hub with the gun. In the SUV, Jack toys with it and they realise the gun has the power to immobilise security systems and in particular, the traffic. Using a motorbike, Jack and Ianto speed away to the Hub while the city remains gridlocked. Gwen and Andy take Freda to a safe house while Jack and Ianto run the appropriate tests. Gwen tells Andy that Freda is now Torchwood's responsibility and they're keeping Freda safe. While Gwen attends to a burn on her arm, Freda recalls a house fire as well as a Cardiff address and the name of a woman. She asks to go to the address as it may help jog her memory, and Gwen and Andy argue about the decision. While Freda bathes, Gwen receives a phone call from the Hub stating that Freda came through the Rift and has the potential to control what comes through. Gwen tells Jack about the address and contact, and Jack warns her to stay focused. At the safe house, Andy pesters Gwen about mentions of the Rift until Freda interrupts them. Gwen decides to give Freda a haircut and clothes to help her blend in while Andy remains in a state of disbelief as he comes to the realisation that Freda is in fact, from the future; as her gun is actually a future form of personal debit machine. In the Hub, Jack's investigation into Freda's contact, Moira Evans draws up the conclusion that she is a resident of the address Freda provided, but doesn't exist. Ianto remarks that Freda's immune system prove that she is not human. At the safe house, Freda exhibits more signs that her memory is returning as Gwen cuts her hair. Freda tells Gwen that she fell out of the sky after being trapped in a fire. Gwen then tells Freda about the Rift and how she wound up in the river in 2009, instead of her own time, 2069. Jack rings Gwen's phone and upon receiving orders to take Freda back to the Hub, Andy confronts Gwen about Freda's results. Andy chastises Gwen for not letting him know about Torchwood and refuses to let her take Freda into isolation. Gwen blurts out that Freda is an alien, which is followed by Freda jumping out of the window and running away. As they drive after Freda, Andy relays his disbelief and surprise about Torchwood and what Gwen is involved in. Gwen manages to calm him down enough to make Andy drive sanely. They reach Freda at the address she provided earlier and try to calm her down and bring her in. Freda becomes hysterical toward Andy and Gwen, stating they wanted to imprison her; while Andy misjudges her completely. Freda reveals she is half human, that Moira Evans was her grandmother, and begins to remember the house fire once before exclaiming that people like Gwen and Andy killed her mother. Jack arrives, ordering Freda to surrender; to which Freda challenges him before using the motorbike to escape once again. Andy suggests he drive and the three of them chase after Freda. In the car, Gwen and Jack discuss ways of subduing Freda, with use of grenades and stun guns. Horrified, Andy abruptly stops the car and chastises the both of them for treating Freda like a monster. Jack remarks that she is an alien on the run, but Andy points out that Freda is also half human and the only reason she's running is because she is scared and people like Jack and Gwen are planning on shooting her. He asks to speak with her first before they use the stun gun, and Jack reluctantly agrees. They reach the river where Freda came from, and Andy finds Freda about to jump off a bridge. Andy tells her he's sorry about her mother and that he feels alienated like she does some of the time and that makes them both equal, no matter their species. Andy helps Freda back over the edge and they return to the Hub. Freda explains to Gwen that her grandmother's species sought refuge on Earth and that the memories of the fire are too much for her to remember. She tells Gwen she was saved by a man who opened a space for her in the roof. Gwen offers to retcon her so she can start anew, but Freda denies it; stating she doesn't want to forget her mother entirely. Gwen asks Freda the name of the man who saved her from the fire, to which Freda drowsily replies 'Torchwood', before falling asleep. Gwen returns to the group and Andy offers to sit in with Freda. Gwen explains Freda's story to the others and Jack is still adamant in isolating her as her future knowledge is too dangerous. Ianto remarks that Jack is being hypocritical and that perhaps the future Torchwood has sent Freda to them for their benefit. Gwen and Ianto come to the realisation that they need to take responsibility for the good things that come through the Rift, like Freda and prompt Jack to introduce an asylum policy. As Andy sits in with Freda, she awakens suddenly, asking for her mother. Andy calms her down and gets her back to sleep after explaining she's had a bad dream. He promises her that she will be fine, and Freda's closing monologue describes her fall into sleep as calm, and not being alone. ===== ===== Mason is summoned to the Laxter mansion in the dead of night to write granddaughter Wilma out of invalid Peter Laxter's will, to keep her from marrying suspected fortune hunter Doug. Peter dies in a mysterious fire and Laxter's two grandsons, Sam Laxter and Frank Oafley, inherit his estate on the condition old caretaker Schuster and his cat Clinker are kept on. When cat-hating Sam threatens Clinker, Perry steps in and learns Laxter's death was suspicious and the family fortune and diamonds are missing. ===== Set in 1751, Measure for Pleasure uses classic farce, including mistaken identities, mismatched lovers, deception and wordplay. Theater critic Anthony Del Valle summed the plot as follows: ===== The series focuses on inner city crime life in both the United Kingdom and Ireland. Ex-criminal Michael O'Connor (Dougray Scott) comes back to Ireland to live with his new pregnant partner Anna, free from his past life of crime. Michael was arrested and spent years in prison, leaving his wife Lynne and son Séan (Reece Noi) on their own. Three days later his wife Lynne was murdered, leaving Michael devastated, and he quickly turns his back on crime. He returns to Ireland, leaving his son Séan behind in the care of Lynne's sister Connie. Connie and Séan live in a gang-ridden Manchester suburb. Séan distances himself from the gangs, and their culture of violence. But it's not long until gang leader Jacob King (Dwayne Scantlebury) disturbs the peace. However, with the unfolding of unexpected events, Séan is arrested for a murder which he did not commit, and is imprisoned. These events lead his father Michael back to Manchester to help free his son from prison. Manchester, however brings back painful memories for Michael, as it was here his wife was murdered, and comes to terms that his past involvement in crime resulted in Lynne's death.https://www.amazon.co.uk/Father-Son-DVD-Dougray-Scott/dp/B002YZ7GLU/ ===== Perry is asked by an Australian Bishop to take the case of a woman who was falsely accused of manslaughter 22 years ago. During his investigations Perry gets involved in another murder for which Ida, the woman he is supposed to free, gets arrested. ===== United States Air Force flyers Rick Williams (Ron Hagerthy) and Mike Nolan (Dick Wesson) attempt to meet Nell Wayne (Janice Rule), a (fictitious) film star performing in a star-studded musical in San Francisco. Rick and Nell were both from the same small town, but had never met. Mike attempts to convince both the staff and cast members at the theater that Rick and Nell are best friends and are extremely close. Ruth Roman takes pity on them and takes them to meet Nell. However, the men first meet with Doris Day and Gordon MacRae, who are rehearsing the song "You're Gonna Lose Your Gal." When they find that Nell is not there, and that if she were, she would reveal that she did not know the boys, Mike claims that they are both shipping out to the Korean front that night. This makes Ruth and Doris feel guilty, and they invite the boys to lunch. When Nell does arrive, not knowing him, she attempts to make their visit brief. Doris and Ruth had already guessed that the two didn't know each other, but still let him meet Nell. Waiting for Nell had made the boys late for their bus to return to base so Doris, Ruth and Nell offer to drive them back to Travis Air Force base, all the while wearing fur coats and ball gowns for that night's movie premiere. Instead of being shipped to the front lines in Korea however, the boys operate routine transport flights to Honolulu, Hawaii. While at the base they go to the transport terminal, where many of the soldiers are waiting for their flights to be called. Doris gets on stage to dance and sing "'S Wonderful", while Nell and Ruth go out to the runway to kiss Rick goodbye. Nell gives Rick a good-luck charm from her charm bracelet. As they watch the aircraft take off, their driver, the colonel, suggests that they greet some wounded soldiers at the hospital, where Doris sings a medley of "You Oughta Be in Pictures" and "You Do Something To Me." After making their appearance at the Air Force Base, the three ladies return to San Francisco to perform in the show ("What Is This Thing Called Love?"). When an aircraft with wounded soldiers arrives with Rick and Mike in it, unwounded, and fresh from Honolulu, Nell is furious for Rick lying to her about going to the Korean front lines. However, she keeps up the love act for gossip columnist Louella Parsons which allows the "Operation Starlift" celebrities to perform at Travis Air Force base. The next morning they sing and dance while the aircraft leave ("Liza (All the Clouds'll Roll Away)"). Doris Day and Gordon MacRaeThat night the cast performs for the base ("God's Green Acres of Home," "It's Magic"). The next day the Warner Bros. president arranges for several other Warner Bros. actors to perform at the base that night. While visiting her parents Nell finds that Rick's parents are at her home...and so is Rick. After dinner the Waynes take the Williams out for a movie leaving Nell and Rick in the house alone together. They quarrel and Rick gives Nell back the charm from her bracelet. The next morning when the Williams arrive, Nell finds that Rick was sent overseas ahead of schedule. She rushes to the base but his flight had already left. Meanwhile, the Starlift, the aircraft containing the film stars, had arrived, containing Virginia Mayo and Phil Harris ("I May Be Wrong (but I Think You're Wonderful)", "Noche Caribe (Caribbean Night)"). Phil Harris purposely loses $750 to a soldier while playing Gin Rummy before performing "Look Out, Stranger, I'm a Texas Ranger." Rick's aircraft arrives but he runs away from the hangar where Nell is waiting. While writing a letter to be given to him, Nell sees Rick enter the cafeteria and runs in after him. Without him realizing it she takes over for the waitress and makes him the chocolate malt he orders, just the way she did back in Youngstown, where her family had a malt shop. They drink the malt together, and they forgive each other. The next day, when Rick is finally shipped out, Nell is there to kiss him goodbye. ===== We are introduced to the six-pack of Metropolis as they leave Leeds University. Cut to five years later. The three women, Charlotte (Louise Lombard), Sophie (Flora Montgomery) and Tanya (Emily Bruni) are, respectively, a junior financial hackette on a magazine, a researcher for the Conservative Party and an agony aunt. Only one of the men, Frank (Kris Marshall), works and he feels compelled to turn the tables on his insurance company employers. As an implausibly idealistic loss adjustor, he is disgusted by the company's scams to avoid pay-outs. He fiddles the claims in favour of the claimants. Matthew (Matthew Rhys) and Alastair (Jason Barry) have remained dope-smoking slackers. Ambitious Charlotte lives with indolent Matthew. Charlotte acts like a junior Sue Ellen Ewing – many lip gymnastics and soulful stares. Mind you, unlike the richter-scale efforts of Texan Sue Ellen, Charlotte's lip tremors are tiny English quivers. Anyway, she cheats on Matthew and takes up with sixty-two-year-old billionaire lecher Milton Friedkin (James Fox). He feeds her career-enhancing stories and she feeds him her twenty-seven-year-old nubility. Primed by her sugar daddy, she gets her "first official byline". Meanwhile, Tanya is in a car crash. When she wakes up in hospital, a stalker, Nathan (James Purefoy) is managing, quite successfully and utterly unbelievably, to convince her that he is her boyfriend. The crash must have caused selective amnesia, he tells her. Fancying the nutter, she goes along with it in spite of the warnings of Sophie. As an agony aunt, she'd better write a letter to herself pretty quickly, because this one looks like it's going to end in tears if not worse. ===== After arguing with his sweetheart, Becky Thatcher, Tom Sawyer seeks solace from his friend Huck Finn, who tells him about a mysterious cure for warts that requires them to visit the local cemetery at midnight. While there they witness a murder committed by Injun Joe, who convinces Muff Potter, who also was there but in an inebriated state, that he is guilty of the crime. Tom and Huck promise each other they will not divulge what they have seen. When Tom is caught lying about stealing his half-brother Sid's crabapples, his Aunt Polly punishes him by making him whitewash the fence on a Saturday morning. The boy leads his friends to believe he is enjoying the task, and before long they are giving him their treasures in exchange for the privilege of joining in the fun. Together with Huck and Joe Harper, Tom runs away from home to become a pirate. The three set off on a raft to Jacksons Island in the Mississippi River, where they remain for three days. Upon returning home, Tom discovers it was thought the three had drowned, and the boys attend their own funeral service at the church. At Muff Potter's trial, Tom admits the truth about the murder, but Injun Joe manages to escape. While attending the school picnic near a cavern, Tom and Becky decide to explore it and get lost. As they try to find their way out, they stumble upon Injun Joe and a chest of gold. While angrily pursuing the two children, he falls into a crevasse and is killed. Huck finds Tom and Becky and leads them to safety, together with the treasure. ===== The hidden secrets of an attempted murder are revealed through portrayal of circumstances that three different girls pass through in their life. Aswathy, a textiles shop employee, is staying with her bedridden and sick mother. She looks after the family with her meager salary. Kartika is a girl who is much loved by her parents. Her life zooms into a crisis when she comes to know of the secrets of her father’s profession. The third girl, Rohini, lives in luxury and has tremendously rich parents. But the uneasiness and unhappiness in the family atmosphere saddens her. She elopes with her poor lover. Her father engages hired hoodlums to retrieve her after beating up the lover. She decides to commit suicide. Aswathy ‘s mother comes in search of Indusekharan, Rohini’s father. Aswathy is actually an illegitimate daughter of Indusekharan. But Indusekharan decides to have Aswathy murdered. He engages Kartika’s father to commit the murder. He approaches Aswathy as the messenger of death. This is an essay on how three different girls from three different social and economic backdrops try to cope with their life against all odds. Their crisis deepens and becomes more dangerous because of their parents' attitude. The experiences prove that lack of love and affection is the prime reason that made hell out of their lives. Lack of love and affection leads one to violence and to destruction as well. Dalamarmarangal establishes that love is the only antidote to violence. ===== Sorrowful Jones (Matthau) is a gloomy, cantankerous bookie circa 1934, who is confronted by Carter, a gambler who cannot pay a $10 debt. He ultimately gives his 6-year-old daughter (Stimson) to Sorrowful's gangster-run gambling operation as a "marker" (collateral) for a bet. When he loses his bet and commits suicide, the gangsters are left with the "Kid" on their hands. Sorrowful's nervous assistant, Regret (Newhart), is concerned about the legalities of this, particularly the kidnapping statutes. In the interim, a crime boss named Blackie (Curtis) coerces his longtime rival Sorrowful into financing a new gambling joint. It is opened in the stately home of Blackie's girlfriend, widowed English rose Amanda Worthington (Andrews), who needs money to buy back her family property. Amanda is also counting on a racehorse of hers called Sir Galahad to ride to her rescue. While the Kid's personal needs inconvenience Sorrowful, a father-daughter relationship develops between them and they become inseparable. Amanda also takes a liking to the Kid, and reluctantly, the icy Sorrowful, who eventually comes to love her as well—much to Blackie's chagrin. ===== The story begins with the team in Delhi, India, with Ianto watching packages being delivered to find anything suspicious. He finds out that the packages are addressed to Captain Jack Harkness. An energy field is being spread across Delhi, and while Gwen and Ianto try to remove the crowds from the city, the energy spike hits and everybody disappears except the Torchwood team. Jack seems to think that the people were marked before the spike hit, and suddenly Jack remembers a building that he had shut down 80 years ago that shouldn't exist. The building is Torchwood India. There, Jack, Gwen and Ianto meet a secretary, Mr. Daz, who remembers Jack and find that the members of the Royal Connaught Club are still alive and have not aged a day. The Duchess, Eleanor, Duchess of Melrose, arrives with a shotgun and starts to shoot Jack, although Jack manages to convince her to stop shooting by explaining the situation. Torchwood India was founded by Queen Victoria to gather all alien artefacts in India, but on 28 February 1924 Captain Jack Harkness had everything shipped to Britain from Delhi. The team split up to search the club, and while George Gissing takes Gwen and Ianto through the basement, he mentions that he knows that there used to be heaps of artefacts in Torchwood India. When Gwen claims that thousands of people just vanished before her eyes, Gissing does not believe her. Jack continues to talk to The Duchess, and she claims that the radiation from the residual energy of the alien artefacts has kept the three of them young and alive. The Duchess, having had a fling in the past with Captain Jack, continues to toy with Jack and wishes to know why Torchwood India was shut. Jack replies that the Empire was coming to an end and would have to have been shut down in India, but if he could do it again he would have chosen differently and kept the branch open. Mr Gissing and Mr Daz take Gwen and Ianto hostage when they become too close to the artefacts, while The Duchess explains that she still had one artefact left – a time store which has kept 24 February 1924 every day until present day as they refused to embrace the changes happening in India and the closing of Torchwood. The power needed to sustain an entire club for 80 years is enormous, but the Duchess claims that it is now powered by people of India to keep the time store going, as India has a surplus of commoners according to Gissing. The Duchess has plans to consume the entire earth to take them back to 24 February 1924 by buying wireless under Jack's name and using it to boost the energy field to change the world again, firstly by starting with Winston Churchill to stop the idea of independence. Eleanor has become insane during the time that she has spent in the club and sends Jack into the room which will feed them into the time store, but due to the fact that he cannot die the time store is feeding off him continuously and he tries desperately to save Gwen and Ianto from the same fate as the many innocent people of India. Jack manages to turn off the time store and the mast and has to get as many people out of the club before the club explodes from the time store. The time store ruptures, and everybody inside since 1924 refused to leave the club and are now frozen in time, marking the end of Torchwood India. ===== The book opens as a group of sea serpents have nearly finished their long journey upriver to encase themselves so they might hatch into dragons. It is late in the year and the serpents are older than is normal to make the journey. The last known dragon, Tintaglia, is overseeing this journey in the hopes that dragons will be reintroduced to the world. The Rain Wilds Council has agreed to help in exchange for her helping the Rain Wilds people in their war against Chalced. Sisarqua, a queen serpent, struggles to finish her casing and is assisted by Tintaglia. The captain of the Tarman, Leftrin, comes across a piece of wizardwood, an encased dragon that has been washed away by the river. At first he thinks to sell it for an immense profit, but then decides to use it for his ship to protect it against the acidic river. Thymara, an 11-year-old girl with claws and scaling, consistent with Rain Wilds defects from birth, goes with her father to watch the hatching of the dragons. She is shocked to find that the new hatchlings are weak and malformed. She communicates with one when her father is almost killed and eaten. Sisarqua has turned into a dragon, naming herself Sintara, and is distraught to realize that her proportions are all wrong and she is not what she should be, and will likely never fly. Alise Kincarron is a plain, freckled young woman, past the prime age for marriage and suspecting spinsterhood. Most of her time is consumed by her passion for dragons and her studies thereof. She is unsure of the attention she is getting from a handsome local Trader, Hest Finbok. When finally confronting him, he admits that he is not in love with her, but is wishing for a marriage of convenience for both of them. If she can provide him with an heir, he will fund her fancies, including her research of dragons, including a trip to study the hatchling dragons since he had caused her to miss a trip she had already planned to watch them hatch. Agreeing, Alise begins to hope for a real marriage to her handsome suitor, but is desperately disappointed on her wedding night. She learns that the marriage was suggested by her childhood friend, Sedric. She ultimately decides that if she sold herself, she would demand a high price, and begins to use Hest's money freely to pursue her studies of dragons and Elderlings. With some time having passed on the Tarman, the work with the wizardwood is finished. Captain Leftrin wants to give a lifetime contract to all of the workers to protect the secret of their illegal use of the forbidden substance. The only remaining man to sign is Swarge, who admits that he is betrothed and does not want to be separated from his new wife-to-be. Leftrin agrees to give a contract to Swarge's wife so that they may be together and Swarge signs the contract. Some time later, Captain Leftrin is blackmailed by a Chalcedean man, Sinad Arich, for passage to Trehaug. Leftrin hopes that he will never hear from the man again. Meanwhile, Alise has given up on all efforts to make Hest attracted, or even interested in her, as they have all been met with failure or worse. Hest is displeased with Alise's inability to produce an heir and comes for another one of his unpleasant attempts to impregnate her. When she is unwilling, he rapes her. After the shame of this event, she accuses him of being unfaithful to her, in the hopes of ending their marriage contract, and provides proof in certain things she has noted, such as his luxurious perfumes and a second house that he rents. Hest is furious and demands that Sedric, his secretary and constant companion, confirm his fidelity. Sedric confirms, though it is later revealed to be a lie, as Sedric is, in fact, Hest's lover. Four years have passed since the hatching and Sintara is sad and tormented by the dragon memories that she is filled with. The dragons are weak and unable to feed themselves, relying on hunters to provide them with a limited amount of food. As the more feeble dragons die off, the stronger ones consume them to claim their ancestral memories. Tintaglia has gone missing, not having been seen for some time. It is rumored that she has found a mate and no one, including the young dragons, believes that she will return. The dragons begin to yearn to find their way to the lost Elderling city of Kelsingra, or die trying. Mercor, who lacks in size what he makes up in wisdom, makes a plan to convince the Rain Wilds Council that it is their idea to transport the dragons toward the lost city using their ancestral memories as a guide. Alise confronts Hest about the promise he made on their marriage contract that she would be allowed to go on a trip to study the newly hatched dragons. Hest is furious but when she threatens to spread the fact that he has put very little effort into conceiving a child on her, thus damaging his reputation, he agrees. in his anger, he sends Sedric with her, furious that Sedric took her side in the argument. Alise and Sedric travel to Trehaug on the liveship Paragon, a ship made of wizardwood that has gained sentience due to the wizardwood from which it was made. She learns about the truth of the malformed young dragons and how they are not like the dragons of old, and she begs Paragon to tell her of his dragon memories to make up for the disappointment. The liveship refuses, claiming that he has accepted his fate and that he does not want to recall those memories of what he could have been. Though she has questioning resolve, Alise decides to visit the dragons regardless, and arranges to go from Trehaug to Cassarick to arrange to speak with the dragons. She and Sedric, much to his chagrin, are taken aboard the Tarman and Captain Leftrin is immediately infatuated with Alise. She is surprised by his attention but finds him charming and enjoys his company. He is summoned to the Rain Wilds Council to be a part of the voyage, carrying supplies and providing a safe place for the keepers. Alise agrees to join the expedition as a dragon expert in the place of the Eldering, Malta, who is with child and unable to go herself. Alise is simultaneously thrilled and terrified by the idea. Captain Leftrin soon finds a message from Sinad Arich, terrified to realized that his blackmailer is not completely out of his life. The Trader tells him to keep an eye out for someone that he should recognize, and Leftrin hopes that it is not a hunter hired to help feed the dragons that he is acquainted with. As the dragons' plan succeeds, Thymara is offered a job as a dragon keeper, to select a dragon and tend to it and hunt for it on the journey towards Kelsingra. Her father, who loved her enough to save her from being abandoned as a child (as per the norm for disfigured infants), refuses to let her go. Thymara, with high hopes for adventure and a life of her own, convinces him to let her go. Her friend, Tats, a Tattooed slave who had moved to the Rain Wilds when they were freed, also joins the expedition. Thymara notes that he is the only one not bearing Rain Wilds taint, and that he was discouraged from going, leading her to believe that the trip will be dangerous and that the council is intending to risk the lives of only those who are unworthy of life in the Rain Wilds, others bearing extensive taint like herself. She signs the contract and says farewell to her father, giving him the first part of her payment in the hopes that he will use it if her family has any financial troubles. When they go to meet the dragons, she selects Sintara as the dragon she wants to look after, though their introduction does not seem to go as smoothly as everyone elses'. It is hinted that Thymara is possibly immune to the dragon's glamour. Though Thymara is initially thrilled by the new companionship in the group of keepers, Greft tries to assert himself as leader, leading her to distrust him and his strange advances. Tensions continue to build as Thymara kills an elk and Greft claims part of it for himself and two others. As the first few days pass, Sedric's attempts to convince Alise to give up her journey and go back fall on deaf ears. She continues to find herself more and more infatuated with Leftrin, despite his differences from the posh traders she has grown up around. She tries to speak to Sintara, who basks in her compliments and enjoys making Thymara fight to get her attention away from Alise. Alise finds it hard to get any real information from her. Two of the weaker dragons don't have keepers. Thymara, Tats, and a young girl named Sylve, try tending to the wounds on the weak silver dragon's tail. Sedric comes to help with the hopes of getting some valuable dragon items, keeping some pieces of festering flesh. He thinks back on how Hest slowly took over his life. He befriends Thymara so that she will translate for him when Alise speaks to the dragons, as he cannot understand them when they speak. Later on he sneaks out at night to take some scales from a copper dragon, near death, and gets some blood from it as well, which he tastes. When the keepers realize that the dragon will not last much longer, there is an argument as to what should be done with it, where Greft thinks that they can use the dragon. Mercor arrives to tell them that dragons belong only to dragons and he will watch over the copper with Sylve until it dies. It is uncertain at this point if they realize that Sedric had stolen body parts from it. Sedric goes on to tell Alise that they must leave because he fears that the obvious attraction between her and Captain Leftrin will make her unfaithful. The book closes with the last letter between the pigeon keepers, revealing Alise's father's concern about her agreement to travel up the Rain Wilds River with the expedition. ===== In the early hours of the morning, Professor Stella Courtney receives a phone call from Ianto Jones. Confused as to why she is being called, Ianto reveals that Captain Jack Harkness needs Professor Courtney's help as he is dying. At St. Helen's hospital, Gwen Cooper leads Stella to where Jack's body lay. She remarks that Jack cannot die, to which Gwen remarks that what Jack is suffering through is worse than death itself. Upon seeing the body and meeting Ianto, Stella comes to the conclusion that Jack is more entranced than comatose; as his monitor is still relaying faint signs of activity. Stella is told that there are twenty other people in the hospital in the same condition as Jack, and it all started two nights ago when a man named Bob Roberts received a phone call in the middle of the night. Two nights prior, Bob Roberts and his wife Jan are awoken by a phone call. Bob answers the phone at the urging of his wife, only to find a strange ticking sound on the other end. Assuming it is a prank call, Bob chastises the caller; only to collapse on the floor. By the time the Torchwood team are alerted, seven more cases across Cardiff have been recorded. Gwen and Jack go to the Roberts' household to investigate and are met by a distraught Jan. While she attends to a phone call, Gwen and Jack examine the telephone used by Bob the previous night. Jack notes the vintage appearance of the phone while Gwen's scans reveal that there are faint signs of residual Rift energy. She concludes that if something alien is in the phone network, the whole of the city could be endangered. After promising Jan they'd do their best to return Bob to health, Gwen and Jack take the phone back to the Hub. Gwen phones Rhys at work, warning him against using phones and rejoins Ianto and Jack inside the Hub, where Jack has accumulated all the phones involved in the cases across Cardiff. Gwen notices that all the phones are the same and Jack remarks that they're from the seventies, recalling his life back then. He mentions a junior doctor he dated back in 1975, Stella Courtney, and that he still checks in to see if she's okay. Jack remarks that the phone number which called all the victims was the same and that the number is '2059'. Intrigued as to why a phone number from thirty years previous is ringing people in 2009, Jack phones the number but gets no reply. Suddenly, the retro phones all ring simultaneously; and ignoring the pleas of Ianto and Gwen, Jack answers. He collapses upon hearing the strange ticking noise on the other end. At the hospital, Jack's monitor signifies change in his brain activity. While Ianto stays with Jack, Stella and Gwen observe the other victims; Stella suggesting that their brains are all connected somehow, as the patients' monitors are reacting in unison. Gwen begs Stella to do her best in healing them as she leaves to investigate the cause behind the phone calls. Upon meeting Rhys, who had been waiting at Roald Dahl Plass for her, Gwen relays the events to him and becomes emotional. Whilst eating breakfast, Gwen notes that everybody with a mobile phone is in danger and is effectively carrying a bomb. Rhys volunteers his help to Gwen though she initially opposes to it, only relenting after Rhys reminds her that he's helped Torchwood and Jack before. Stella and Ianto muse over what could be connecting the victims together. Stella suggests that there is nothing physically wrong with Jack to cause his condition, that an electrochemical reaction to what came down the phone line is what has entranced him and the others. She also points out that whatever has done this to Jack and the others needs them alive for another purpose. Gwen and Rhys, meanwhile, drive to the last residence holding the phone number ringing all the victims; an abandoned building society house, Maddock House. After breaking in, Gwen and Rhys discover masses of copper wiring and a dead body holding a phone. They confiscate the phone and contain it in a special crate kept in the SUV. They head to Swansea, where the Cardiff and West Building Society now stands in order to find out more about Maddock House. As Ianto sits by Jack's bedside, he begins to talk to him like people would to loved ones in a coma. He tells Jack that when he wakes up, never to repeat what he is saying. Ianto proceeds to tell Jack about the times where he's watched him sleep and dream, and that he wonders what a man like himself could dream about. He goes onto admitting that he knows there will be a day when Jack won't come back to him but they won't have to worry about that problem as long as they work for Torchwood as no member lives to old age. Ianto tearfully refers to himself as a 'blip in time' to Jack, and because he hasn't left yet, he knows Jack will return to him. In Swansea, Gwen and Rhys meet with Mr Tyler, who runs the Cardiff and West Building Society. He feigns ignorance about the telephone and after being pressured, asks Gwen and Rhys to follow him to a nursing home the company owns. There, Tyler introduces Gwen and Rhys to Jillian, who lies in the same state as the other victims. Tyler reveals that Jillian had been in that condition for 33 years, and that there have been others. Maddock House had been hit by a thunderstorm in the seventies which caused the phones to ring; and upon answering, people collapsed. The Cardiff and West Building Society took care of these people because they did not know how to explain the condition. Tyler reveals that the monitors at the nursing home reacted in the same way as the ones of the victims in Cardiff. When Gwen and Rhys return to the hospital, more cases of people collapsing are occurring, and after regrouping with Ianto and Stella; they devise a way to combat the problem. Ianto links Gwen's PDA up with the Hub's computer system and rigs it up to an MRI scanner in the hospital. Using the phone retrieved from Maddock House, Ianto breaks the connection and brings the victims out of their trances. When Jack and the others awaken, they have no real effects except for no memory of what happened. After a brief reunion with Jack, Stella says her goodbyes and leaves with Gwen. Alone, Ianto asks Jack if he remembers anything about his trance. Jack replies that he didn't and asks Ianto if he spoke to him while he was unconscious. Ianto says he did but not much as he isn't a big talker. Jack accepts this, seemingly to Ianto's relief, before stating that Ianto will never be just 'a blip' in time for him. ===== Mr. Bhalla (Anupam Kher) is a Punjabi living in United States with his wife, daughter and nephew Aman (Anubhav Anand). Aman is in love with Neha (Nandana Sen), daughter of Mr. Patel (Boman Irani), a conventional Gujarati. Although the two are in love, their families have huge differences due to drastically different lifestyles. In the end, it's up to Aman and Neha to not only bring their families together but to live up to their expectations. ===== There is a proverb which says that whatever is written in one's destiny in some way or the other actually happens. But if we fight against it, and make the incident happen in a different way- then what? This film follows Rashi (Manisha Koirala) A woman who doesn't know what her destiny has written for her. One day she gets fired from her job and now is ready to leave on the next train, but in that one second that she has to decide whether to take the train or not to, she chooses not to. From then the film follows. The film is Saroj Entertainment Pvt Ltd first home production. ===== In an interview with Rennie in 2008, the show's plot was described as a police procedural drama, following the adventures of an ex-cop, Kyle Loggins, traumatized by the murder of his family. According to this interview and press releases, the trauma triggered a dissociative identity disorder, wherein the victim manifests multiple personalities. In the pilot, Kyle's personalities include Jack, his brash alpha-male alter ego; Hal, the teenage nerd who personifies Kyle’s analytical and introverted side; and Tyler, the quiet little boy who surfaces when he is at his most vulnerable. Kyle teams up with rookie policewoman Madeline Maguire who exploits Kyle’s unique investigative abilities. ===== ===== After the events in Marshad (at the end of the previous book) Roger and his marines manage to cross the Hadur region with little incident and begin ascending the mountains dividing the continent seeking a way through them. They awaken one morning to discover that the temperature has dropped to a pleasant 23 degrees and that the air is no longer humid. While the humans revel in the pleasant weather (for them) and brake out the coffee, the Mardukans are found to be nearly comatose. After they warm up, Pahner convenes a council of war to determine how to proceed. Cord, being honor-bound to Roger, must continue and can survive with the use of dinshon exercises (which he can teach to his partially trained nephews). D'Len Pah and his tribe of mahouts, however, are not so trained and cannot continue. This poses a problem for the marines since the flar-ta pack beasts are owned by the mahouts. After some negotiations the marines decide to buy all but one of the beasts from D'Len Pah and his clansmen, who part ways with the marines and return to the lowlands with one Cord's nephews. Shortly afterward, the marines spot a large city in a mountain valley, but are attacked by a herd of wild flar-ka before getting there. While they manage to kill the herd, casualties are high and Pahner decides, upon reaching the city (called Ran Tai) that it's time for a respite. Having bought the pack-beasts from the D'Len Pah, the marines are seriously strapped for cash and Roger offers to take a squad of marines and look for some relatively low-risk but high-paying job. While Pahner is appalled at the idea of turning his troops into mercenaries, he reluctantly agrees that they have little choice if they hope to reach the coastline with enough money to charter or build a ship. Roger soon finds a high-paying job: a local mine-owner has had his mining operation taken over by "barbarian" squatters from the lowlands and offers a month of output in gold to whoever manages to evict them. At night, Julian leads a team up the mountain behind the mine (an area too cold for the Mardukans to survive in) and scales down the mountain face, straight into the camp around the mine and manages to subdue the few guards with zero casualties for either side. Roger then awakens the leader of the squatters, Rastar Comas T'Norton, at gun point, telling him to pack up and leave, a "request" Rastar reluctantly agrees to. However, when asked where the gold from the mine is (being the payoff the marines were supposed to receive), Rastar laughs and tells them they found no gold either. After a search of the mines yields nothing, Roger and his squad return disheartened to Pahner, who orders them to get a drink at the local taverns. Kosutic realizes the Captain is up to something and follows him to the mine, where they find the previous foreman of the mine pumping out a flooded shaft where he had hidden the gold, prior to the squatters' arrival. Though he tries to buy off Pahner and Kosutic, Pahner refuses to let leave with the gold and Kosutic is forced to shoot him dead when he pulls out a pistol. As they pack up their gold, Pahner wonders how to tell Roger that his mission wasn't a failure after all and Kosutic advises him not to tell Roger just yet (as part of his learning experience). The time Ran Tai, turns out to be profitable in other ways as well. Doc Dobrescu discovers that a local fruit called targhas (dubbed an Apsimon) contains a Vitamin C analogue that could be converted by the marines' and Roger's nanites. Pahner, realizing that the original survey of the planet was woefully incomplete, orders to Dobrescu to test every food they encounter for their other trace dietary needs. Pahner also discovers the Bisti root, a spicey plant that is chewed by the locals, which replaces the chewing gum he's run out of. The down time also allows several romances to flourish (strictly against regulations), most significantly between Julian and Kosutic and between Roger and Nimashet. Unfortunately, Roger, being very drunk after the raid on the mine, mangles an attempt to tell Nimashet that he doesn't "fool around", insulting her in the process and souring the atmosphere between them. The humans eventually depart Ran Tai at the head of a large caravan headed to Diaspra and are soon attacked by the Boman tribesmen. While the Mardukan guards caravan fall apart in the attack, the marines manage to hold their own with a wall of shields and swords, but not manage to break the attack. Help however, comes from an unexpected source, when the troops they kicked out of Ran Tai charge to their rescue. After the attackers are routed and killed, Rastar approaches Captain Pahner with an offer: his troops will join the caravan as guards in exchange for payment in gold and food for the troops and civilians. After some haggling an agreement is reached and the Vasin join the humans in defending the caravan against additional attacks by the outriders of the Boman invasion. The Vasin turn out to be well-organized troops who are used to fighting in groups on civan backs and they integrate well with the humans. They eventually manage to arrive at Diaspra, fighting their way to the city gates and being greeted quite well by the locals, who are entirely too happy to see them. At Diaspra, Rastar finds several thousand Vasin cavalrymen who are pitifully happy to see him and their families and who immediately transfer their loyalty to him, giving him a seat on the ruling council. However, that is all the good news to be had as Gratar, the Priest-King of Diaspra, tells them that the Wespar tribe of the Boman has encircled the city, preventing any to approach to the barley- rice fields. Even worse (from the marines' perspective), the main Boman horde is between them and the sea, making the journey there all but impossible. At the council meeting, emotions run high between the Vasin commanders and the Diaspran members of the council, over past grievances and the current situation, forcing Pahner to intervene and tells them that they must decide whether or not they wish to survive. When Gratar expresses their desire to survive, Pahner says that to achieve this, they will have to make many uncomfortable decisions and forget the niceties of normal business. To that end, he instructs the council to set guards on the city's privately owned granaries, dole out food at fixed quantities and prices, begin training local forces and conscripts in the new techniques of the humans and force an engagement with the Wespar at a time and place of their choosing. The council members are skeptical of the humans' promises that their techniques can win this war but eventually agree and General Bogess, Diaspra's military commander, requests that the Laborers of God be drafted as soldiers. Many on the council, including Gratar, are not happy with this request since it would mean no one will be available to maintain Diaspra's flood defenses just as the seasonal Hompag Rains are about to begin. Roger, in turn, points out that in such evil times, Diaspra will have to choose between greater and lesser evils and that although maintaining the "Works of God" is important, the damage to them can be repaired, but only if the city survives. Gratar relents and releases the Laborers of God to Bogess. The marines immediately begin training the new recruits, first in how to be soldiers and finally in pike and shield combat techniques. At the same time, the Vasin cavalry train with the Diaspran regulars while the Marines ride roughshod on the Diaspran artisans and businesses to produce the materials and weapons they need for the battle to come. However, the marines find their efforts to fight the Boman threatened by certain political factions who are trying to get back to "business as usual" by placating the Boman. Grath Chain, representing these groups, petitions the priest-king to offer the Boman some of the wealth of Diaspra so that they might leave to city alone. Roger, who is caught unprepared by this challenge at the petition ceremony, manages to answer nonetheless by stating that "once you pay the Danegeld, you will never be rid of the Dane". If Diaspra chooses to buy off the Boman, they might just decide to stay, demanding more and more gold until none is left, at which point they'll finish the city off anyway. Fearing that internal political problems could endanger the whole war effort, the marines decide to bug the city's council members. What they discover points to a long existing conspiracy, whose members all answer to "the creator" and who are very security conscious and secretive, all of which hampers the marines ability to discover their agenda. As the day of battle draws nearer, Roger is summoned to Gratar, who is seriously conflicted over which course of action to take regarding the Boman. Looking over that torrential Hompag Rains and the immense power of nature, Gratar is unsure which enemy to placate: the God of the Torrent or the Boman. Roger repeats what he stated at the audience about buying off the Boman and further points out that even if they were left alone by the Boman, they would lack the funds to pay for the repairs to the Works of God. He then tells Gratar of the ancient city of Angkor Wat, who was also ruled by priests, who had failed to lead the city against barbarian invaders. Roger tells him that those priests had failed to accept the reality that their world had change and that they needed to change with it and in doing so, failed in their responsibility as rulers of their people. A heavy-hearted Gratar tells Roger that he will announce his decision at the traditional "Drying Ceremony" at the end of the Hompag Rains. The marines, who continue their surveillance efforts, discover a message at a dead drop which states that the cabal will attempt to approach the marines and gain their support. Shortly before the ceremony however, Roger is approached by Rus From who offers to arrange a meeting with "the creator". Roger agrees, after notifying the two marines with him who in turn, notify Pahner, who orders the meeting be monitored. As the marines set up the equipment Roger and his guards are led underground where they are told to remove their helmets and pass through a waterfall so as to defeat any listening devices (though From is unaware of the Toots and their transmission capability). Roger and his guards comply and pass under the waterfall, finding themselves in a cavern on the other side. There they find several hooded Mardukans who From identifies as the "dark mirror" of the council. The hooded figures and From explain that they desire a change in the direction Diaspra's going because they fear Gratar is leading them into ruin. With his single- minded focus of the Works of God, less and less young Diasprans are inclined to become artisans. In addition, the group already feared that other city- state were eying them greedily and would have attacked had the Boman not moved in first. From also feels frustrated as a "creator" of things, since all he can build are pumps, pumps and more pumps. As such, the group wants the humans to turn the "New Model Army" into the city after the battle and take the temple. The marines, who have monitored the conversation, manage to identify every hooded figure who speaks and find that most of the council and several prominent merchant are members of the cabal (O'Casey commenting that it is "Quorum of the Senate of Rome"). Roger tips his hand and tells the cabal that he knows who they are, that it's not their objective to fix every problem in their society and that they need to win the battle at hand and not start off a civil war. He further points out that they need to get to the drying ceremony quickly or else their absence will not go unnoticed. As the rains subside and the Drying Ceremony begins, the marines suit up and prepare to use all their operational suits (despite the fact that it would mean using up their last spare parts for them) and listen to Gratar's speech in rapt anticipation. However, their worries are for naught: Gratar opts to fight the Boman. It is then that the recon teams report that the Boman are on the move. The New Model Army and the Wespar tribe meet each other outside the city and the Boman begin posturing to dishearten the city defenders. Though the Diasprans manage to hold their calm, Roger loses his composure and, ignoring Pahner's furious calls to him, marches Patty across the No Mans Land between the two forces and meets the Wespar chieftain, Spear Mot, one-on-one. Despite the risk, Roger quickly manages to defeat and kill the chieftain, which disheartens the Boman, but raises the moral of the Diasprans who begin chanting Roger's name. Some minutes later, the Boman manage to regain their balance and march towards the Diaspran line. Despite their numerical disadvantage, the Diasprans hold the line for hours while many of the Boman die upon their pikes. The stalemate continues until the marines' recon team uses their advanced weaponry to hit the Boman from the rear. As the Boman in the rear turn to face this new threat, the pressure upon the Diaspran line eases, and Pahner orders a general advance. Yet the Boman front ranks still manages to hold, and Pahner orders Julian's armored squad to hit the Boman flank. The Boman line finally breaks and Vasin cavalry - along with Roger riding on Patty - pursue the Boman mercilessly, leaving very few survivors. After the battle, Pahner is summoned before Gratar, who tells him that Grath Chain (who is present as well) has informed him of the plot against him and that the humans knew about it. Pahner admits this and that the marines would have supported the coup had he Gratar opted to appease the Boman. Gratar is both saddened and angered by this and says he will have the heads of the conspirators, yet Pahner points out that most of the council, including the now-victorious war leaders, were in on it. He further points out that most of the conspirators (not including Grath) were motivated, not by hatred of Gratar or the God, but by their opposition to the redundant Works of God and the stagnation of the city. He then advises Gratar on how to deal with all the changes and challenges he now faces in the wake of this battle and the conspiracy. The Laborers of God who desire to return to their old jobs should be allowed to return while those who have developed a taste for warfare should be allowed to remain in the army. The New Model Army should be sent off to K'Vaern's Cove as a relief force, to convince Diaspra's neighbor that they intend to be helpful neighbors in these troubled times and to remove it from the equation as Gratar grapples with the internal problems he faces. Pahner also suggests that he send Bogess and From along with them, not as a reward, but as exile from Diaspra, thus removing the two most prominent wartime leaders without whom the rest of the conspirators on the council will lose all legitimacy and attack each other as they are given the task of dealing with the displaced Laborers of God. But it is Pahner's advice about reducing the Works of God entailed in losing so many of the Laborers of God that most disturbs Gratar as he fears the Wrath. Yet Pahner points out that much of the canals and dikes are redundant. Finally, Pahner advises him to use Grath as agent to destabilize any city-state that might threaten Diaspra and that for his service in exposing the conspiracy he should be given "30 pieces of silver". The Marines depart Diaspra with the relief force and the Vasin cavalry and head to the Nashtor Hills, where they quietly seize control of the mines (as a precaution), purchase all the wrought iron the miners have there with From guaranteeing payment by Gratar (a parting shot on From's part), and notify the foreman that some of the troops wil stay behind to protect them. From there they travel to the K'Vaern's Cove, where they are greeted at the outer gates by the enormous Bistem Kar and his deputy Tor Flain, who are astounded to see Rastar and the Vasin alive, happy for all the iron brought by the column and very curious about the humans. On their way into the city proper, Kar reveals that the situation in the city is not as sanguine as Rastar had initially believed: the war with the Boman caught them by surprise like everybody (so they hadn't stocked up), that they too had been sabotaged by the Tyrant of Sindi and that they have been burdened with caring for all the refugees from the fallen city-states in the region. Kar also inquires into the humans' involvement in this war and Roger tells him their intention to cross the ocean to get a continent on the other side to get back home. When he hears this Kar tells that none who attempted to cross the ocean have returned while a single shipwreck with a lone, crazed survivor arrived from the other side, claiming that his ship was ripped apart by some sea monster. The humans and the Diasprans are brought before the K'Vaernian Ruling Council to give an account of the Battle of Diaspra and to present their intentions. General Bogess' account of the battle is met initially with stunned silence and then derision and disbelief. From then addresses the council and the citizens in the gallery, chastising them for being so close- minded, when their city was known for its acceptance of new ideas and concepts and offering the council assistance of their troops as training cadre and the iron for weapon-manufacturing. Finally, Roger speaks for the humans, stating that they need to get back home within a limited time frame, by crossing the ocean. He offers the K'Vaernians advancements in seafaring technology (piquing the interest of local shipping mogul Wes Til), their institutional knowledge in tactics and designs for new weapons for the war against the Boman. The council is still somewhat skeptical of all this, telling Roger that such a voyage would be both risky and costly. In a meeting afterwards, Portena returns with the bad news: the K'Vaernians' ships are unsuitable for deep- water travel which means they'd have to design new ships from scratch which will take time. Kostas then delivers his bad news: they only have enough dietary supplements for another four and a half months at most, even with the Apsimon fruits, leaving them with no margin for error. The meeting is interrupted by the arrival of many messengers from various powerful or influential Mardukans in the city with various dinner invitations for the Prince. Rastar informs them that securing the necessary political support will depend more on the success of these dinner parties than on anything else. While O'Casey tries to decide which dinner invitation are the most important and whom to send to them, Roger dumps the job of getting the necessary clothes for all the marines attending on Costas with barely a day's notice. In retaliation, Kostas asks to join O'Casey to dinner she plans to attend, which leaves Roger with Nimashet as his escort. Roger, despite the discomfort of being around a very well-dressed Nimashet and the Mardukans' questions about human sexuality and his relationship with her, manages to conduct himself well at the dinner with Wes Til and Tor Flain. O'Casey and Kostas also have a successful dinner engagement with Fullea Li'it and Sam Tre, who press for the humans' support for the retaking of D'Sley and are eager to here O'Casey's opinions on how to secure the necessary capital to rebuild and reorganize a new government. After all the dinners are concluded, the marines and their Mardukan allies meet to decide on how to proceed. Everyone agrees that they need to help K'Vaern's Cove fight the Boman to secure the necessary political capital and physical materials to build the ships they need. It also becomes clear that being on condition red for several months now is wearing down the troops. Despite this, everyone is in favor for fighting the Boman for different reasons and Pahner decides to lend their assistance to the K'Varenians in exchange for building the ships they need as quickly as possible. After the meeting is concluded, Pahner asks to speak to Roger in private for a 'professional development' counseling session. He points out to Roger that while he has all the traits of a good leader (caring for the troops, not undercutting his NCOs and leading from the front), both to the marines and the Mardukans, he personally cannot put himself out on a limb since everybody will be trying to protect him as he does so. He also points out that his pursuit of barbarians gains little and risks too much and that he needs to let others do it. Roger understands this and reluctantly agrees. Wes Til and Turl Kam meet to discuss the humans' terms and agree to them, bringing the rest of the council around and the city is thrown into frantic preparations for war. O'Casey begins her propaganda campaign by sending Mardukans into the local taverns to spread around silver and tales of loot from the Battle of Diaspra (to encourage the K'Vaernians to sign on) and generally causing fights (mostly by accident). Rus From teams up with Dell Mir to design and produce the necessary weapons and equipment the marines have sketched out while Julian, Krindi, Erkum and their squads keep an eye on the manufacturers to ensure decent quality (and threatening some of them when necessary). Kar teams up with Bogess to introduce the New Model Army's combat techniques (fighting with some conservative officers along the way) while some of the marines are sent off on reconnaissance missions against the Boman and others are sent to start training the K'Vaernians on the new weapons as they come out and oversee their production. Portena completes his "technology demonstrator" ship and awes the local shipwrights with its performance and begins construction of the actual ships needed for their voyage and recruits locals for the voyages. As the troops prepare to ship out, Turl Kam voices his innermost concerns to Pahner about the upcoming campaign and Pahner does his best to allay those concerns. Finally, when all is ready, the troops, with the assistance of Fullea Li'it and her organized sealift, embark on boats towards D'Sley and set up camp there and begin transferring the timber and ore still left in the city back to K'Vaern's Cove. The command staff assembles for the last time before moving out to discuss the latest intel regarding the Boman, the next stages of the operation and the role Roger's reserve force will play. Finally, Pahner orders them all to get as much sleep as possible since "there won't be much from here on out". The operation begins with a group of several hundred Vasin arriving at the gates of Sindi, who begin to taunt the Boman to come out after them. While the Boman Supreme Leader, Kny Camsan, smells a trap and wishes to ignore them, his most trusted ally, Mnb Trag, points out that if he fails to deal with them himself, the other Boman warriors will believe him to be weak and likely kill him before replacing him. Nor can Trag go out himself since without him, Camsan is unlikely to survive. Camsan relents and takes out a force of over 32,000 warriors to chase the Vasin. As he predicted, the several hundred Vasin they chase join up with 4,000 other Vasin who are all equipped with the new pistols and some of the new rifles, all of which fire far better and reliably in a Mardukan downpour. The front rank of the Boman quickly disintegrates under the Vasin's fire, with the survivors either fleeing or getting cut down by lances. The Vasin then turn tail and retreat through a narrow jungle track and are pursued by the Boman. The track, however, has been lined with crude claymores and directional mines that are detonated once the Boman are inside. Over six hundred die in a single instant and the Boman charge falters. The shock of the explosions causes the warriors to question Camsan's decision to pursue the Vasin, but Camsan kills the one chieftain who truly challenges his authority then chastises the other Boman for their timidity in the face of mere cleverness and after they had "whined" for months that they should go after the K'Vaernians. Camsan then orders messengers to summon all the other Boman clans and orders a general chase after the Vasin. The allied forces then move in on Sindi, assembling outside the city's walls and setting up wagons loaded with 12,000 crude rockets, which are then fired into the city. The confused defenders, who've never seen such weapons and therefore continued to stand in the open, are decimated by exploding fragmentation warheads and blast weapons, including Mnb Trag. Then Julian's armored squad moves in and starts blasting their way into the city with plasma fire, opening it to the rest of the army. Kar, who is stunned by the power of the marine's weapons, asks Pahner why hasn't ordered their use to clear out the city, since they're likely take losses clearing out the city. Pahner comes clean about their ultimate objective and their need to preserve as much of their limited supply of ammunition for a battle against their enemies, who are equipped with similar weapons (a concept that terrifies Bogess). From's engineering teams then start repairing the D'Sley-Sindi road in order to better transport the truly enormous amounts of loot that the Boman had hoarded in Sindi (including desperately needed food). The Vasin continue to evade the Boman chasing them by continually splitting off into smaller groups in the jungle, which makes Camsan even more suspicious. Roger briefs his forces near a stream, who are awaiting orders to move out. However, tragedy strikes when Matsugae, who is filling up Roger's camel bag in the stream, fails to pay attention to the water and is subsequently attacked by a damncroc. Roger's troops manage to kill the creature but not in time to save Matsugae's life. As Roger prepares to conduct a short ceremony over Costas' body, Pahner comms in and orders his troops to move further down South. Roger scraps the ceremony reluctantly and orders Costas' body cremated. Roger's forces return to the Sindi-D'Sley road to assist in securing the laborers working there, but Roger himself isn't paying attention to anything because of Matsugae's death and simply turns over command to one of his subordinates. Upon hearing about this, Pahner decides to violate every regulation in the book to get Roger to function properly and sends Nimashet to speak to him. While Roger initially doesn't want to speak to anyone, he eventually opens up to Nimashet. He admits that his initial rejection of her was due to his awareness of his position in the succession and his determination not to bring into the world a bastard just like him, so he never "fooled around" (and hasn't had sex in over 10 years) and that only Costas had guessed why he acted this way and that he feels responsible for his death and the death of all the other marines he fell along the way. He also confesses his love for Nimashet. Nimashet, who knows she loves Roger as well, tells him that they are willing to die for him, now more than ever because they all knew the risks when they signed on. She also makes him promise to have sex with her when they aren't in the middle of a battle for their lives, but Roger instead promises to marry her when they get home. With Roger tracking again, Pahner orders him and his units to stay put and secure the rear while the Vasin continue to draw out the Boman in pursuit as they head back for Sindi. The city and its surrounding areas are made ready for the final stage of the operation. The Boman eventually manage to cut off the Vasin's escape route and Pahner sends out skirmishers to retrieve them. Down to the South, Roger's battalion finds itself under attack by waves of Boman. Krindi Fain finds himself promoted to an officer when his company commander displays a serious lack of leadership. He then goes on to lead one of the teams of skirmishers sent into the jungles. The Vasin manage to retreat towards Sindi, with Kar's troops forming square around them and holding off the Boman's advances. Roger and his troops, despite being outnumbered, manage to defeat wave after wave of Boman. They too eventually retreat to Sindi, and the stage is finally set for the last phase of the operation. As the Boman assemble in sight of Sindi, they are astounded to find the Sindi under the control of their enemies. Kny Camsan opts to decides to assemble all of the Boman's troops and besiege the city, but his decision is challenged by Tar Tin, who believe that the only way to defeat the enemy (and retrieve their women and children) is to storm the city through the gaps left in the walls. Camsan fears this approach after witnessing the effectiveness of the weapons that were used by the Vasin, the losses they've already suffered and the thought of what could've made those holes in the walls to begin with. Tin, however, is not willing to try any more of Camsan's "better ways", challenges him for the leadership position and kills him. He then orders an immediate charge to overwhelm the city and its defenders. The Boman enter the city amid heavy rifle fire that slows their approach. The defenders then begin a well-prepared retreat south towards the Great Bridge of the city until finally most of the Allied forces are on the southern bank in the houses surrounding a large plaza specifically broadened so as to lure as many Boman into it. As Tin orders his troops across the bridge, another series of claymore mines is detonated while 400 riflemen and 300 cavalrymen open fire leaving no boman alive or unwounded on the bridge. Then another explosion rocks the bridge and for a moment Tin believes that they have managed to destroy the bridge, but as the smoke clears he sees that the bridge stands firm and orders his troops across again. The explosion however, allows the Allies rearguard to disengage from the enemy for enough time to retreat behind the gates of the bastion set up when the plaza was enlarged. Once the Boman fill the plaza, Eva orders the artillery to open fire and the riflemen and cavalrymen all open fire as well. Within minutes thousands of his warriors die under the onslaught and the Boman attempt to retreat across the bridge. Unfortunately for them, Julian's armored squad, which managed to evade them while staying on the other side of the bridge, opens fire into the retreating forces. The tidal wave of flechettes, cannon beads and plasma bolts finally breaks the back of the Boman's morale. Tar Tin, realizing the gross mistake he committed and the massive defeat suffered because it, commits suicide by throwing himself and his ax of office into the Tam River. The Allies return victoriously to K'Vaern's Cove and the humans prepare for their transoceanic journey. However, the marines pick up on some radio chatter that might indicate that someone has gone in to investigate their abandoned shuttles. O'Casey and Cord manage to translate the log found aboard the shipwreck, which only confirms what Kar had told them about the ship being torn asunder by some sea monster. As the K'Vaernians celebrate the victory and the human's impending departure, Roger sits on the docks watching the sunset and scatters some of Costas' ash into the sea, before being called back by Nimashet. ===== The story opens in the restored city of Voitan, where a human search and rescue team (really an assassination squad) is examining the remains of the marines who were interred there after the battle against the Kranolta. Temu Jin, a Commo-Tech serving as translator for the team, repeatedly questions the local leaders as to the marines' purpose and fate, who in turn repeatedly state that all the marines died during the battle or shortly afterward. While Dara, the team's leader is content with their story, Jin remains privately suspicious because of several glaring clues that Dara, in his stupidity, has failed to notice. Between the physical evidence (pointing to people with marine nano-packs), the reticence of the king of Q'Nkok (who allowed only limited questioning and always while under supervision), the inconsistencies in T'Leen Targ's story (that the Kranolta took all the marines' weapons and gear), the Mardukans' atypical body-language of nods, open-mouthed smiles and handshakes (all indicating acculturation to humans) and the fact that the bodies were all stripped of clothing, jewelry and even tattoos (making their identification impossible without a DNA database), Jin becomes convinced that the locals are covering for the marines who are headed almost certainly, to the spaceport. As he's about to finish his scans, Jin notices a bronze earring with the word "BARBARIANS" on it. Deftly snatching it without Dara noticing, he then passes it on to T'Leen in a handshake, and tells him that he might want to melt it down "so nobody else finds it". Upon the Western Ocean from K'Vaern's Cove, a flotilla of seven ships carries Prince Roger, his marine bodyguards and around 300 Diaspran riflemen and Vashin cavalrymen who have sworn their allegiance to him and the Empire of Man. The long voyage across the ocean towards the far sub-continent has given the troops time to wind down after the intense battle against the Boman, train upon their new gunpowder rifles and for Roger to mourn the loss of his valet and friend, Costas. However, the idyllic journey is violently disrupted by the sudden arrival of a giant sea creature which proceeds to bite off half a ship before being gunned down by a well-placed shot of Roger's, an extremely lucky shot from Sgt. Erkum Pol, several harpoon shots and many depth charges. The fish turns out to be a giant coll fish and its attack ends up costing them a whole ship, half its passengers and three marines and the troops gleefully feed most of it to the civan and Dogzard. To avoid similar attacks, Krindi Fain recommends mounting a cannon at the rear to fire at any other sea creatures that might show up and Pahner orders that all their radios be shut off to avoid detection as they are nearing the spaceport. He also orders the troops to begin practicing on entry tactics in preparation for their assault on the port, which they and Roger do together. Shortly afterward, the flotilla spots a series of volcanic islands, and then, the sails of one ship being pursued by 6 other pirate ships. Roger and Pahner decide to risk contacting the ship under pursuit, despite their ignorance of what is going on, and Roger is sent across (against Pahner's better judgment) with Cord, Despreaux, Kosutic and Poertena. They make contact with the captain of Rain Daughter, Tob Kerr, who is initially taken aback by Roger's use of the "High Krath" language, used by the Fire Priests whom all fear but who permits them to come aboard. After managing to get a hold on the language, they are told that Rain Daughter was part of a Guard convoy from the mainland (called Krath) headed to the Island of Strem, but was jumped by Lemmaran raiders. Roger also tells Kerr their cover story of travelling across the ocean to the Krath to establish trade relations. Kerr advises them to head for Strem but Roger states they are headed for the mainland of Krath and contemptuously snorts at the possible risk the Lemmaran ships might pose to their flotilla. Returning to their ship, Roger and the command staff discuss the problem and, despite all the unknown variables, decide to engage the 6 pirate ships. Pahner admits that he does not have any experience in a sea battle and turns effective command of the engagement over to Roger (though still keeping an eye on him), who orders five of their remaining six ships (the heaviest and least maneuverable is left behind to guard Rain Daughter) to engage the pirates by crossing between the pirates' six ships. The pirate commander, Cred Cies, while confident of his numerical advantage, is still suspicious about the ships that are so conveniently coming right at him. A sudden deluge conceals all of the ships from each other and when it clears the K'Vaernian ships, though scattered, are upwind of the pirates' formation and closing fast. Despite this, Cies is still confident that they can close in on them and rake their decks with swivel guns. This turns out to be a mistake as the K'Vaernian artillery mounted on the sides of the ships and are capable of far heavier broadsides then Cies guesses. The pirates manage to score a few shots on a single K'Vaernian ship, causing it to lose its foremast and then the K'Vaernians open fire. The massive roll of gunfire decimates the pirates while sharpshooters take out many of the Lemmaran gun grews on deck and the marines off-world weapons add to the carnage. The end result of the engagement is that one Lemmaran ship is sunk (thanks to a plasma cannon shot), three others get boarded and most of another single ship's crew dead and completely dismasted. Only Cred Cies' vessel manages to retain enough rigging to escape the initial engagement and Roger's ship closes with it so as to board it. Despite his immense losses, Cies still refuses to surrender and the Ima Hooker eventually closes upon it and launches a boarding action. Krindi Fain's company leads the assault on the Lemmaran vessel and quickly manages to overwhelm them. However, Cord notices that the Lemmar are attempting to kill their helpless prisoners who are chained to the deck and leaps across to save them. Roger, astounded that his asi would abandon him at a time like this leaps onto the Lemmaran ship after him followed by Dogzard. Between the three of them, the surviving prisoners are protected from the Lemmar trying to kill them. Pahner, however, is furious that Roger broke his promise not to put himself out on a limb and boards the Lemmaran ship to castigate him while Denat does the same for Cord. Roger, after shouting down everybody yelling at him first demands that Cord explain why he jumped over in the first place. Cord explains that just as his life was saved by Roger, he is obligated to help others in need and that Roger should not have followed him at all to the pirate ship. Roger suddenly finds himself put upon by the irony of the situation while Pahner and the other commanders are hard pressed to laugh. Roger then proceeds to the cut the chains binding the prisoners when the first prisoner, a female who had killed two guards during the battle while being chained to the deck, tries to kick him when he pulls out his monomachete. She is stopped by Pahner and once Roger conveys his intentions to her in a hash of the local languages, she relents and allows him to free her and the other two surviving captives. It soon becomes apparent to Roger, that the female prisoner, who has been trained as a warrior, is also in charge of the other captives, two things that come as a surprise to him since they had rarely encountered any Mardukan societies where women enjoyed any status or had been warriors. She soon approaches Roger and Cord, to speak of "the Way of Honor, of the Way of the Warrior" and declares that she is now bonded to Cord as a benan for saving her life (much like Cord is bonded to Roger). Her statement leaves Cord seriously discomfited and perplexed (since only his people recognize such bonds). Back aboard the Ima Hooker, O'Casey explains that there is a great deal in common between Pedi's people, the "Shin", and Cord's people, the X'Intai, as can be seen in many linguistic similarities between their two languages. She surmises that both peoples originated from the Krath sub-continent but that the X'Intai had somehow managed to travel eastward towards the large continent. O'Casey then states that it would be highly beneficial to recapture the other ships of the convoy and return them to the Krath, so as to get started on the right foot with the locals. Julian then proceeds to brief the command staff about Pedi's people and the local political conditions that might affect the marine's journey to the spaceport. O'Casey then elaborates upon the political conditions among the main polity, the Krath, and points out that is a highly regimented theocracy that is slavery based. Julian then points out that the reason the Shin and the Krath do not get along is that the Krath see the Shin a source for more slaves. Roger points out that since Cord is obligated to follow and protect Roger and Pedi is now obligated to follow and protect Cord, they need to find some way to conceal her Shin identity. They decide, that Pedi will be dressed as a Shadem female, who are always heavily clothed (with their faces covered as well)—a decision Pedi finds repulsive. The rest of the Mardukan troops will also have to be found clothes, since the cultures of the sub-continent have strong body modesty taboos, a concept Cord finds equally repulsive. They then decide on a battle plan to take the other prize ships. They flotilla then goes after each of the captured ships in turn, sending over a boat with Rastar, Roger (despite Pahner's extreme displeasure) and two others who under the pretense of wishing to trade goods, manage to surprise each crew and retake the ship. They then proceed to Kirsti, the main port of the sub-continent. As they approach the enormous city of Kirsti, Roger and Pahner are both uneasy since they both realize they and their troops are seriously outnumbered by the locals who might be in contact with the spaceport. The latter concern is confirmed when they are met by a delegation from the local government, led unofficially by Sor Teb, who has encountered humans before, and who is greatly interested in the purpose of these new and unusual humans. The marines and their Mardukan troops are granted permission to enter Kirsti, though the locals impose many restrictions upon them and isolating them to a limited area of the docks. While the ships' captains begin seeking out local trade partners and resupplying their ships, the humans await the local leadership's decision on whether or not they can leave the city and continue their trek to the spaceport. Julian, Portena and Denat go around about town, teaching the locals Canasta (it being a card game Portena inflicts on those he does not like), looking for supplies to purchase and gathering intelligence on local conditions. They report their findings along with O'Casey at a staff meeting held later and the situation is not good. Sor Teb, who was previously believed to be a minor functionary, turns out to be one of three members of the satrapy's military high council and the one most likely to succeed the dying high priest, and it becomes clear that they will not be permitted to leave Kirsti without his say-so. Pahner decides to try to recruit Teb and his slave raiding forces for the humans' objectives but should that not work out within a week, to prepare for a forceful exit. He orders Julian to prepare a battle plan on the local forces in and outside of the city and, upon hearing Portena's report on the high price of food in the markets, to find local storage facilities that could be raided for supplies. Roger is surprised by this and Pahner admits that the locals' passive hostility is making him nervous. Kosutic mentions her own concerns about something else: the Krath religion. The locals have been remarkably secretive about it and she wonders what exactly they are trying to hide. While Pahner feels they still have a week or two to sort things out, O'Casey mentions the possibility that the Krath might get word to the port sooner than that with teams of runners. Her concern turn out to be well founded (though she is not aware of it yet) since the Krath have sent word to the spaceport about the humans' presence. However, Temu Jin, after returning from the aborted "rescue mission", arranges things at the port so that he will receive any communiques from the Krath satraps to the Imperial Governor first and switches out the message about Roger's presence with a bogus message. As the days go by for Roger and his company in Kirsti, Cord and Pedi finally manage to go shopping for weapons and other items Pedi requires. Cord discovers that those other are clothes and cosmetics which make Pedi look entirely too attractive. After a training session with Pedi, Cord senses certain "parts" of him surging and he fears the coming of his biannual "season". Denat also grows increasingly ill-tempered (for the same reason), causing Portena and Julian to be concerned about his strange behavior. Things begin to change when the local volcano erupts and the entire city suddenly shuts down as the priesthood sees the eruption as a bad omen. The humans suddenly receive a message from the High Priest indicating that he's willing to meet with Roger. Along with O'Casey, Pahner orders that Roger be accompanied by Kostutic, Despreaux, a fire team from her squad (who are all to be armed with bead rifles) plus a squad of Mardukan infantry and cavalry. He decides that they be ready to leave at a moment's notice and schedules an inspection to coincide with the time of the audience. Roger meets the High Priest, who is accompanied by Sor Teb and many guards at the High Temple of Kirsti, located near the city walls. He presents himself as Seran Chang, Baron of Washinghome (one of his minor titles) to the aged High Priest and asks about their petition to travel to the spaceport. The High Priest, however, wishes to speak about a far more important "needs of the God" and states that the humans have "avoided Service to the Fire Lord" for too long. Roger infers that the Krath are requiring a "Servant of God" from among the humans and begins to consult with the others. While Roger and the other humans are willing to leave a volunteer behind (provided that they be treated properly) Pedi is emphatically against it but her explanation as to why is lost upon them. They conclude that there must be a problem with their translation of Krath language and request a recess to discuss the matter with their colleagues but Sor Teb politely refuses, stating that the Servant must be gathered now. His response causes the entire human company to tense and Roger decides to dump the translation of Krath from his "toot", loads Cord's language as a baseline and orders Pedi to speak in Shin. It soon becomes clear that a "Servant of God" is really a sacrifice to the God, who will then be eaten by the body of the Fire God's worshippers. Sor Teb confirms this, and when Roger asks to decline this invitation, Teb points out that he has more guards than he does and that they can either choose to hand over a single human sacrifice or that all of them will be sacrificed as he intends to make sure all Krath know that it was he who finally brought the humans to the God. It is then that Roger and company open fire on the guards and Pedi immediately tosses off her robes and goes for the High Priest whom she decapitates. Unfortunately, Sor Teb manages to escape the carnage. Roger and Kosutic risk a com signal to Pahner and notify him quickly about what transpired with Roger ordering him to make for the gates (which is where they are headed to as well). After killing the few Krath guards who attempt to storm the camp at the docks and ordering the ships to head back to K'Vaern's Cove, Pahner orders the troops to head for the gates. Outside of the spaceport, Temu Jin meets with a Shin chieftain with whom he's been in contact and tells him about the humans who arrived at Kirsti. While the chieftain is somewhat reluctant to assist him any further because of mounting pressure from his tribe's warriors, he is intrigued when Jin mentions that some of the humans are marines and agrees to help. Back in Kirsti, Roger and his guards manage to shake off any pursuit by the Krath guards and end up in the nave of the temple where they witness the horrific site of "Servants" being dragged to an altar and then killed and butchered by richly-clad priests while the upper-class of Kirsti chant in the background. The guard in the nave notice and begin to advance and Roger orders a single volley and then cold steel. After dispatching the guards, the priests and a handful of brave worshippers, Roger allows for 3 minutes of looting and then orders the troops to move out. In the streets, Pahner and the troops manage to reach the city gates but find that they were closed ahead of time. Roger and his guards continue to fight their way towards the gates, incurring serious casualties in the process, including Cord who is seriously wounded when he interposes himself between Roger and a spear that had been thrown at him. They eventually manage to make it to the gatehouse and take out its armaments, allowing the Vasin and Portena to storm the gatehouse. Portena places a satchel charge blowing the doors for the gatehouse allowing the Vasin in, find the gate room, raise the gate and jam the controls. Roger and company then exit the city and manage to disengage from the Krath guards pressing upon them by dumping the oil in the gatehouse into the passage and then throwing a couple of white phosphorus grenades that sets the Krath guards aflame and much of the temple district on fire. The humans and their allies then head for the hills. In Kirsti, Sor Teb finds himself in the proverbial doghouse when his colleagues on the military high council, Werd Ras and Lorak Tral, chastise him for his idiocy in endangering the High Priest, doing so with too few guards and then abandoning him to be killed by a Shin. Teb is informed that a quorum of the full council has granted plenipotentiary authority to Lorak to bring the humans to ground and, if necessary, the Shin as well, should they decide to aid them. Sor is skeptical about Lorak's forces being able to contend with the Shin (as they haven't had much luck in the past) but Lorak is confident because he intends to guard his line of supply, something that wasn't done in previous punitive expeditions. Werd supports Lorak's plan, particularly in light of the evidence that nothing short of a prepared assault will be enough to contend with the humans. Sor is then told that with the exception of a few Scourge personnel who will serve as guides for the army, he and his forces are confined to their barracks. Meanwhile, Roger and Pahner, after discussing the matter with Pedi, decide to take the Shesul Pass towards Pedi's hometown of Mudh Hemh, rather than the easier path through the Valley of the Krath, which would entail dealing with two fortifications. They also receive Dobrescu's report of the casualties: most of the injured have either expired or else will survive, with Cord by far, the most heavily wounded and who is still not out of the woods. The convoy first arrives at the town of Srem, where Rastar subtly threatens the mayor into resupplying them and providing them with some intel on the Shesul Pass. They then head into the pass, where the climb becomes impossible with all the carts they're carrying, and they are forced to double up the turom on every cart and abandon half their supplies midway. Scouting parties of Vasin manage to reach the curtain wall that Pedi told them about and discover a very large fortress. They set up a hidden camp in front of the fortress and await the rest of convoy and report the difficulty of taking such a fortress, but Roger has a plan. He sends Julian, Gronningen and Macek to approach the fortress from the adjacent mountain ledge. They are surprised when they encounter no resistance upon the walls and proceed cautiously into the fortress. They are even more surprised when they find all the Krath guardsmen huddled around a fire in the semi-hibernation torpidity that extreme cold induces in their species. After tying up the sleeping guards, they open the gates for the rest of their party and Pahner decrees two days to recuperate, as the company is on its last legs. However, Julian finds an imperial Zuiko tri-cam in the Krath commander's office, indicating that the fortress has had contact with the port and then Gronningen finds a human locked up in one of the cells in the fortress. The human, Harvard Mansul, turns out to be a member of the Imperial Astrographic Society and he astonished to see Roger and his marines alive at all and tells Roger and the marines about his circumstances. He had come to Marduk to write a story about the locals but his arrival at the spaceport was not viewed kindly by the governor who took him for an imperial spy and started to worry about getting killed in some "accident". It was then that he was contacted by someone in the port who offered to smuggle him out and into a small enclave of humans under the protection of a Shin warlord called Pedi Gastan, which the marines immediately identify as Pedi's father (making them wonder why Pedi had never seen humans before). Mansul also tells them that he was smuggled out through gaps in the security perimeter, a point that the marines find very interesting. It is then that Portena arrives and tells them that he needs Doc Dobrescu because something is very wrong Denat who seems to be going crazy. When Dobrescu arrives, Denat eventually gets him to open up and he explains that he is "in season", a point that is then relayed to a bemused Pahner and Roger. When Pahner wonders about the rest of the Mardukan troops Dobrescu explains that being from different regions, those Mardukans will have different "seasons". But Roger then realizes that Cord is also from Denat's region, which Dobrescu believes is the reason for the strange readings he's been getting from him. Unbeknownst to them, Pedi recognizes the signs of the Season in Cord while tending to his wounds and decides to alleviate the strain on his body by mating with him. The marines depart the fort and head for Pedi's home at Mudh Hemm, where they see the Krath present in strength and the Shin gathering for battle. They are brought before the Gastan, Pedi's crafty father, who is none too pleased to hear his daughter as a benan or see the humans after the events in Kirsti. Though initially hostile towards them because of the loss of his only son Thertik along with 400 of his warriors and telling his daughter that she has fallen into the company of ragged mercenaries and thieves, he quickly changes his tone when Roger abandons his pretense and tells him who he truly is and relies to him what the Krath had demanded of him in Kirsti. He takes the head of the dead High Priest of Kirsti from his daughter, climbs to the walls of the citadel and mounts it on a pike, telling the Krath arrayed outside the fort his "answer" to their demand of the humans by spitting on the High Priest's head. He then tells Roger and Pahner that his daughter's allies are now his but that he expects them to help him out of "this mess". The Gastan reveals to Roger and Company that he has been in contact with an undercover IBI agent at the port and tells them what they already guessed, that the governor has "sold his soul" to the Saints who are frequently in the system. The governor has allied himself with the Krath and has already assisted the Son of the Fire near the spaceport. Since it is only a matter of time before he will assist the Krath in destroying the Shin, the Gaston has chosen to assist Temu Jin by helping Roger, in the slim hope of defeating the governor. Roger states that once the governors are brought to the Empire's attention, they would have to intervene to stop him. He also pledges upon the honor of his house to end the Krath depredations. But the Gastan then drops a "bombshell" on Roger and his Marines: there was a coup attempt against his mother. While his mother survived the attempt, his brother John and John's children did not and his sister Alexandra was killed when her ship was destroyed in an ambush. The Gastan also reveals that the Empress has laid the blame for the attempt against the throne on none other than her youngest son, Roger. Roger and the marine command group meet privately to discuss these dire developments. With so many of the Empress' loyalists in the fleet and IBI dead (along with the entire Empress' Own, save the few who are with Roger) and replaced with individuals whose loyalty is far more questionable coupled with the fact that the Empress has been seen in public accompanied by Prince Jackson Adoula and Roger's father the Earl of New Madrid, it seems obvious that all is not well in the empire. Julian concludes that the "coup attempt" actually succeeded and that the Empress is now under the control of Prince Jackson, and that Roger's father and General Gianetto, the new High Commander for Fleet Forces (and a long acquaintance of Pahner's) are in on it. But it is also clear that the conspirators' control over the empire is not complete, as at least one sensitive position in Home Fleet has been filled by a person whose loyalty to the Empress is unquestionable. What's more, there's no way the conspirators can continue to control the Empress indefinitely without being discovered and Roger and Pahner conclude that the conspirators have a legitimate heir gestating in a uterine replicator. Once the child is born and confirmed to be of the Empress' own genetics, she'll be killed and Jackson will we named regent for the child, placing him in de facto control of the empire. As the coup occurred two months before, they only have seven more months to attempt a rescue of the Empress and only after dealing with their own immediate problems. As Roger and his troops contemplate various ways to defeat the Krath (with Mansul avidly recording every meeting) and Cord recovers from his wounds, Julian and O'Casey go over the intelligence provided by Temu Jin. It soon becomes clear that the defenses of the spaceport have been severely compromised and Julian is unsure whether the governor is a "complete and total idiot—or else subtly brilliant". But when he mentions that his name is Ymyr Brown, the Earl of Mountmarch, O'Casey can barely contain her laughter as she explains the depth of his incompetence and how he probably ended up on Marduk. Taking the port is deemed to be a "cakewalk" but what the marines can do afterward is far more problematic, as it seems obvious that the conspirators have managed to convince the public that what they're saying is true while anyone claiming that the Empress is being controlled is obviously a crank who believes in conspiracy theories. Roger's troops launch a number of spoiler raids in an attempt to break the Krath's will to fight but are unsuccessful due to the Krath army's sheer size. Roger's commanders and the Gastan lean towards a prolonged battle of attrition to break the Krath's will to fight but Roger says they need a decisive battle. As he contemplates the Shin Valley's geology, he's struck with a moment of inspiration on how to defeat the Krath outright and humiliate them in the process. In a command conference held that night in the Gastan's primary bathhouse, Roger explains that the Valley of the Shin had once been blocked at one end, creating a lake at the valley's end. Roger proposes to use heavy explosives from the spaceport (to be acquired by Temu Jin) to blow off a large chunk of the adjacent mountain and dam up the valley, recreating the lake that used to be right where the Krath army is camped out. The rising waters will force them out into the open and surrender or remain up to their groins in cold water. The Shin chieftains agree to the plan. After the conference ends, Roger and his people, along with the Gastan, remain in the bathhouse to discuss their concerns over the war. The Gastan fears that with so many warriors killed, the Shin population will decline severely (for the same reasons the Kranolta were on the decline). Krindi suggests co-opting the Krath to move to the Shin Valley to solve this problem and to require them to renounce Mardukan sacrifice. Kosutic is perplexed over this since Mansul noted that the sacrifices had to be a recent change in the theology and the humans reason out that it is the result of deliberate cultural contamination by the Saint presence. Roger and Despreaux are eventually left alone in the hot tub and have a discussion about their relationship. Despreaux, having seen too much intense combat on Marduk, feels that she can't continue with Roger. There's a big fight looming on the horizon to save the Empress and Despreaux has seen too much death already. Even if their successful, Roger will become emperor now that he is his mother's only remaining child, and Despreaux doesn't want to be Empress, or worse, relegated to a royal concubine because of dynastic calculations. Roger tries to plead with her stay with him but she only agrees to stay on until they reach Earth and rescue his mother and that they'll discuss the matter then. Temu Jin comes through on the high yield explosives the marines ask for, along with some additional ammunition and spare parts for their off-world weaponry. Despreaux, along with Julian and his team, set up the charges and return to Mudh Hemh. The Krath however, do not remain idle at seeing the humans up to something on the mountainside and launch another large scale attack on Nopet Nujam. They begin a full-court press just as the charges are detonated and, as predicted, the river begins to rise rapidly, flooding the Krath encampment. However, just as the Krath begin to get off the walls of Nopet Nujam, a second attack by Krath and Shadem raiders, led by Sor Teb, attacks Mudh Hemh. Roger, in full battle armor and armed with a bead cannon, goes out to "remonstrate" with Teb and point out the foolishness of the attack. Teb, aware of Roger's true identity, is unfazed by Roger's threats, as his position in Kirsti has become untenable. He simply intended to kill as many Shin in Mudh Hemh as he can and escape to the Shadem. He then surprises Roger with a "one-shot" (an off-world, anti-armor weapon, designed to kill the person inside it by a ricocheting scab) which he throws at Roger. The Scourge raiding party then storms the battlements and Teb himself fights against an enraged Pedi. Teb succeeds in injuring Pedi's shoulder who then drops to one knee and impales Teb on two of her swords while Dogzard finishes him off by ripping his throat out. Fearing for Pedi's life, Cord professes his feelings for Pedi and begs her to hold on for him until Dobrescu can arrive while Pedi admits that she is pregnant with his children and feels the same way about him. Roger is found to be alive, having managed to turn just enough so that the one-shot failed to lock onto his armor properly, with only a few broken ribs and bruises to show for it. Pahner personally brings him up to speed both about the Krath surrender and the situation between Cord and Pedi (much to Roger's gleeful delight). With Temu Jin's information and assistance on the inside, Roger, his marines, his Mardukan retainers and 2000 Shin warriors manage to storm and take control of the spaceport with few casualties and Pahner personally (and with immense satisfaction) locates Governor Mountmarch (who's found with a naked 10-year-old boy in his quarters) and places him under arrest for treason and pedophilia. Roger and his marines then begin preparations for seizing a ship. All the marines trade in all their chameleon suits for newer (and less torn up) suits and replace all of their weapon from the port armory (Portena forcing them all to first clean out all their old weapons). Julian and Kosutic begin fitting out the Basik's Own with their own chameleon suits and weapons (even though it is agreed that they and Roger will only be used to back up the marines and only if there's no other choice) while O'Casey takes, Mansul, Denat, Cord, Pedi and a squad of marines and Mardukans on a shuttle trip to backtrace their trek across the planet, visiting every place they had been to assess the impact the marines visit had on the population and to cover up any evidence they may have left behind. Denat is left in Marshad while Cord is taken back to his village where he introduces his soon-to-be wife to his family. They then reach their long abandoned shuttles and, having refueled them, fly back to the port, picking up Denat along the way with T'Leen Sena who has accepted his marriage proposal. In the meantime, Temu Jin assists the marines in gaining access to Mountmarch's private files where they discover a wealth of evidence against him, indicating his treason began long before his exile to Marduk. The Mardukans practice with their new weapons and are given a brief course in shipboard combat as they await the arrival of a ship they can safely commandeer. Once such a ship arrives, Pahner orders all weapons-training to cease to avoid detection and to get their "war faces" on. As they await the ship's entry into orbit Roger arranges a huge banquet for the troops, complete with various "awards" being handed to every member of his party (such as a silver pitchfork for Kosutic, a set of four bronzed bead-pistols for Raster and "little pocking wrench" for Portena) and gives Pahner the Order of the Bronze Shield while Pahner, in turn, gives Roger the Combat Infantryman's Badge for having "walked into the fire again and again, and come out not unscathed, but at least, thank God, alive". As the dinner winds down, Despreaux propositions Roger again but he turns her down because she still won't marry him. As the Emerald Dawn enters into orbit, Temu Jin asks to conduct a customs inspection as a cover for the shuttle carrying the marines but the ship captain is suspicious since this is the first time such an inspection is conducted (despite Temu Jin's assurances that it is because of an upcoming inspection on them). He sends Commander Amanda Beach and two highly dangerous crewmen to greet Temu Jin at the airlock. As Temu Jin meets with Beach and her goons he drops to the ground as the Marines blast through the airlock behind him, but it becomes clear that the battle plan is a bust almost immediately as Beach and one of her guards manage to escape the marines initial attack with the ship's crew resisting far more forcefully than the crew of any tramp freighter. The marines begin to sustain fatalities as the crew counterattacks with plasma rifles while Jin's hacking of the ship's computers reveals, to everyone's horror, that they are aboard a Saint special ops insertion ship and are up against a full company of highly dangerous commandos, commanded by the infamous Colonel Fiorello Giovannuci, a real Saint fanatic. Pahner is forced to call in Roger and the Mardukans to get his marines out, while the Saint-John twins disable the ship's anti-ship defenses (at the cost of John's life). Roger (having identified himself to the ship in his demand that they surrender), Mansul, the navy pilots and the Mardukans arrive and begin spreading throughout the ship, causing serious damage to it in the process (the Mardukans, not being accustomed to shipboard combat, use far more firepower than necessary). The reinforcements turn the tide in the marines' favor and Giovannuci decides to activate the ship's self-destruct rather than surrender and demands over the internal comm that they withdraw immediately. Realizing that he's serious and that they have no way to deactivate the self-destruct without the cooperation of at least one of the ship's command staff, Pahner immediately orders a withdrawal. Portena then reports that he has Amanda Beach, the ship's executive officer, who does have the override codes for the self-destruct but who demands asylum from Roger who can grant it upon the Imperial family's honor. With his identity revealed and too few marines remaining, Roger agrees and manages to reach the bridge and breach its defenses. There he and Pahner find Giovannuci, the senior NCO, and several other bridge personnel who refuse to surrender and deactivate the self-destruct. Roger orders Beach be brought there and tells Giovannuci that they have his exec who is willing to cooperate. Giovannuci and the senior NCO then pull out from the back of their uniforms one-shots and hurl them at Roger who manages to kill the senior NCO and stop the one-shot he throws from activating but fails to stop the one Giovannuci uses. Pahner however, manages to shove him aside and place himself between Roger and the second one-shot, which manages to lock on and activate properly on Pahner's armor, critically wounding him. Roger furiously orders Giovanucci and everybody else removed from the bridge then goes to one knee next to the dying Pahner, swearing that he'll get the mission done and save his mother and bidding his chief bodyguard and father figure farewell as Pahner finally dies. The story concludes with Roger explaining to the Beach their predicament as he is now a wanted traitor, a situation she has no choice but to accept. He also asks Nimashet to stay with them at least until they rescue his mother. She agrees, but she still refuses to marry him. ===== A feared gunfighter named Nevada (Gary Cooper) breaks his friend Cash Burridge (Ernie Adams) from the Lineville jail. When they reach the town of Winthrop, the two men decide to take respectable jobs on a ranch owned by Ben Ide (Philip Strange), an Englishman they rescued from Cawthorne's gang of cattle rustlers. Fearing the rustlers, Ide hires Nevada to protect his sister, Hettie (Thelma Todd), angering the ranch foreman, Clan Dillon (William Powell), who is in love with Hettie. The villainous foreman spreads a rumor of his rival's dark past to the sheriff, and soon Nevada and Cash join up with Cawthorne's gang in order to escape the sheriff. Unknown to Nevada, Cawthorne's gang takes its orders from Dillon, who is the leader of the rustlers. During a raid, Dillon shoots both Cash and Cawthorne, but Nevada learns of his treachery from his dying pal. Later in a confrontation, Nevada is wounded by Dillon but is saved by the arrival of the posse and the evidence given by the wounded Cawthorne against the leader. With his reputation restored, Nevada is free to marry Hettie. ===== After a rough divorce, farmer Stephen Landis (Tom Selleck) lives a normal life living on his ranch in Idaho with his girlfriend Leah (Anna Gunn) and her daughter, Roxanne (Tegan Moss). But life once again gets complicated for Stephen when his daughter Dulcie (Maggie Grace) comes for a summer visit after having a fight with her mother (Wendy Crewson). Stephen's absence as a father and failed marriage with Angela left Dulcie in a rebellious state as a troubled teenager. Stephen's ex-wife attempts to warn him of their daughter's disruptive behaviors, but combined with his feelings of guilt, the relationship threatens to ruin his present relationship and life with Leah. Dulcie and her father try to begin to heal their problems, but the damage may be too great to resolve and jeopardizes the chance of a bright future for either of them. ===== When Finnula Crais, a beautiful yet feisty huntress who wears braies and is one of the late miller's daughters in Leesbury, discovers one of her sisters, Mellana, has become pregnant by a troubadour and spent all the money for her dowry on ribbons and trinkets for her other sisters' weddings (Including Finn's), she agrees to Mellana's insane idea that they could hold a rich man for ransom to pay for her dowry. Hugo Fitzstephen is twenty-five, and is Lord of Stephensgate (From which Finn is poaching the land and giving it to the servants, who are starving to death by Hugo's cousin, Reginald Laroche and his daughter, Isabella), and has a mighty way with women and wears a beard, but after his mother, elder brother and father dies, returns from the Holy Land to hold his rightful place after ten years he has been a soldier, stays at an inn. The innkeeper, the brother of one of Finn's sisters' husbands, tells a short summary of "Fair Finn" after she walks into the inn to talk to the innkeeper, since Hugo seems to have a strong attraction for her, yet he's seen woman more beautiful than her and she is wearing braies. Finn, hearing of Hugo's wealth from the innkeeper, but not knowing he was from those lands, decides that he would be a good man to hold for ransom, and lays out her trap. Hugo's squire, Peter, has his life threatened when two men at the inn want money from Hugo, not knowing that who he was, either, but Finn saves them both by pinning both of the men to the walls and threatening to do worse. She later walks off, leaving Hugo and Peter at the inn. They both try to look for her to say their gratitude, but they just stop and continue their journey, not knowing that she is following them, planning the next step. Lord Hugo then goes to the springs for a swim, when he sees Finn, naked, going in, too. He stares at her, not knowing that this was her plan, and when she goes to the woods to dry up, he decides he will wait until she reappears to tell her that it is not a good idea to go around undressed when taking a dip. Then all of a sudden, Finnula comes out, as stealthy as a cat, and puts a knife to his throat and ties him up. He learns that she knew he was there and was waiting for a good time to kidnap him. She says that she got Peter too, by tying him up on a tree branch, not checking if he had a weapon. Peter then comes out of nowhere, crashes into Finn on her rib, causing her to become unconscious. Hugo then yells at Peter for crashing into Finn. Hugo makes Peter fetch water to wake Finn up. Finn, fully awake now, holds her knife to Hugo's throat again, and tells Peter to run now, go to where he's headed and to tell Hugo's friends and family that unless they pay ransom, he will never be seen again, and if he tells anyone he has seen the culprit, Hugo will die. She later reveals that it was a lie, since she can't truly kill a person without guilt following her, and Hugo, realizing she isn't dangerous at all, begins to tease her. Hugo decides to lie to Finn about his wealth and says his name is Hugh Fitzwilliam, and he is a wealthy knight just returning to Leesbury. After having issues with keeping his hands off Finn, whom he has become attracted to, she unbinds him and instead carries his most valuable prize, an emerald, around her neck. On their first night during their two-day trip to Leesbury, they rest inside a barn and Finn hunts for food, since she has become infuriated with Hugo's teasing of her. Later that night, after another round of arguing, Hugo kisses her, and, knowing that if she lets him go to far, she will lose her maidenhood and end up like Mellana, rips away from him and argues with him again. After insulting Mellana after finding out both that she is poaching his property and the reason she kidnapped him, she declares him released and gives back the emerald. He refuses, though, and gives her the emerald again, since he sees Finn as someone who needs protecting from crueler human beings who would've definitely taken advantage of her and her innocence. Finn eventually forgives him and has him be her prisoner again. After some chain of events, Finn gets a kirtle and with a cloak, disguises herself as Hugo's wife and, on the second night of the journey, they pay for a room at an inn and Finn is surprised that all her friends that work there do not recognize her a bit, partially because she is wearing a dress. They both get cleaned up, as Hugo shaves and bathes and Finn bathes and looks at herself in the only "looking glass" (mirror) in the inn, and realizes she looks rather pretty in the kirtle. When she goes to her room, she does not believe that it is Hugo since he looks decades younger than what she thought, and is very attracted to him. She reveals that she was once married, though it only last one night, for he died on their wedding night, though she didn't love him. She then says she does not wish to marry again, saying it wasn't for her. This upsets Hugo and he goes to do the dishes right after she says this. In the end, they sleep with each other, and they both enjoy it. They sleep with each other again the next morning, and after traveling, they finally make it to the village, where they meet Robert, Finn's brother, the sheriff, and other people from the town, where Hugo states he wishes to marry Finn, and Hugo's and Finn's full secrets are revealed: Hugo is not Hugh Fitzwilliam, but Hugo Fitzstephen, Lord of Stephensgate, and the person Finn had married but had died on their wedding night was Lord Geoffrey, Hugo's father. The sheriff then explains to Lord Hugo how Lord Geoffrey and Finn met, what had exactly happened between them, what to deal with Hugo wishing to marry Finn, while one of Finn's sisters, Camilla, had been eavesdropping on the conversation and was explaining it to the sisters, while Finn was angry at Hugo for lying to her. After finding out all this, Hugo still wishes to marry Finn. When he and Robert argue and he eventually tricks him into giving his blessing, and Sheriff called a toast to celebrate the wedding. When Hugo came upstairs, he told Mellana that he'll give her a proper dowry and reveals, since the other sisters did not know, that he knows she is pregnant with the troubadour's child. Finn told him about how Geoffrey was crazy, since he thought she was his dead wife, Marie, and always called her Marie. She was very happy when he died, but that did not mean she was the one who killed him. Since the marriage was not valid, and Hugo was most likely going to die in war, the estate went to Reginald Laroche to take care of, at least until Lord Hugo arrives and claims the land. The strange part of Geoffrey's death was that Reginald had been at first keen on accusing Finnula of murdering the old lord, but when the marriage was declared void, he stop with the accusations. Hugo arrives at the Fitzstephen Manor and the first thing he does is to order Reginald Laroche and his daughter, Isabella Laroche, out of the manor by the next day. Isabella, in desperation, tries to seduce Hugo but Hugo says tomorrow he is to be wed with Finnula. Isabella, in outrage, storms out of Hugo's room. That morning Robert saw Finn trying to make run for it, for Hugo had warned that Finn might flinch and ditch it. Finn asks him for some advice on how to be more ladylike. He said no more braies, stand still, and look pretty, and not to say anything witty. Then, at the wedding, Lord Hugo stood at the aisle, waiting, and then came Finn, looking like a lovely young maiden. Everyone in Shropshire came, to see the new Lady, and after came the wedding party. The next day Hugo awakens to find that his new wife is already taking control of the estate. Finnula is outside in the meadow where all of Lord Geoffrey's belongings are being piled to be burned with the entire village in attendance as a show of how things will be changing with the new earl. Soon Hugo meets with the sheriff, John de Brissac, to discuss the Laroaches. In this meeting a part of the tower they had been standing under falls off and nearly kills Hugo. The men go to investigate and find evidence that it was purposefully made to fall on Hugo. Of course, the earl ignores this and instead goes with Finnula to the mill house to have lunch. Here Finnula sees her newest brother-in-law, Jack Mallory, and is quite dissatisfied with how he has changed her old room. At one point she goes outside to get away from everyone and talks with Peter who has come to discuss a domestic issue with her. They part ways and eventually Hugo and Finnula prepare to leave. However, Skinner, Hugo's trusted horse, tries to buck him off when he sits down on him. It is discovered that a burr had made its way underneath the saddle. Peter now makes his reappearance with the news that someone is trying to kill Lord Hugo. Finn asks what Peter is talking about, as Hugo tried to hide the earlier assassination attempt from her. After they go, Peter talks with Robert's fiance Rosamund and suggests that Finn is the one trying to kill Hugo and that she also killed Geoffrey. He laments that he will not be able to prove it, but Rosamund says she will take care of it. At the manor Hugo is furious to find everything missing from his room, but Finn has had everything moved to Geoffrey's room. They go to the bonfire and Hugo forgives all the vassals their past-due taxes and Finn lights the fire. Hugo shocks and angers Finn by throwing her braies on the fire and she shouts at him before storming off. Hugo is suddenly shot in the shoulder with one of Finn's arrows and Finn returns, shocked, and cries out Hugo's name before he loses consciousness. Peter accuses Finn of trying to kill Hugo, which infuriates Robert, but Rosamund's father, the mayor, backs Peter up, which upsets Robert. Finn's sister Patricia accuses Mayor Hillyard of framing Finn so that Robert and Rosamund will not be married, but Hillyard reveals that Rosamund was the one who told him of her suspicions of Finn and Robert chooses to end their engagement. Sheriff de Brissac refuses to send Finn to jail, as she is still the lady of the manor, and instead takes her to his home and Finn's hunting dog, Gros Louis, follows. Hugo is rushed back to the manor to be treated and Jamie stands guard at the door to protect his father, as he saw who pushed the stone and knows who is trying to kill him. Peter tries to enter Hugo's room, but Jamie stops him. Peter realizes that Hugo acknowledged that Jamie is his son and says they can't take any chances, chasing after Jamie as he runs away. Hugo wakes up and the sheriff tells him what happened that he and Finn suspect Laroche, though Finn is in custody at his home. He tells Hugo that Peter accused her but has since disappeared, as have the Laroches, as they never arrived at Reginald's sister home where they were headed. The sheriff believes that they are all working together to try to kill Hugo. Hugo asks about Jamie and the sheriff realizes that no one has seen him in some time and Hugo orders him to find him. Sheriff de Brissac's mother bosses Finn around to make her into a better wife but Finn cries in secret over her concern for Hugo. Finn's sisters visit her and reveal that Jack Mallory disappeared in the middle of the night, presumably never to return to Mellana. The sheriff tells Finn that they have not yet found Jamie, as the dogs keep losing the scent of his tunic, but he will not allow Finn to track Jamie with Gros Louis. Finn hatches a plan with the sheriff to announce that Hugo has died and Finn is to hang for it to draw the Laroches out, but the sheriff does not believe that Hugo will go along with it but leaves to inform Hugo of the plan while Finn sneakily steals Jamie's tunic. She sneaks out of the house with Gros Louis and goes to the forest where the other dogs lost Jamie's scent. She gives Gros Louis the tunic and begins to follow him. The sheriff arrives back at the manor and Hugo refuses to go along with the plan. The sheriff realizes that Finn used her plan to steal the tunic and go after Jamie. Hugo insists on going after her, even though he is still gravely injured. Finn realizes the trail is leading toward Wolf Cave where she sees the Laroches, Peter, and Jamie, who is still alive. She plans to turn back and get the sheriff, but Gros Louis goes after a rabbit and the Laroches hear him and recognize him as Finn's dog. Reginald Laroche threatens to kill Jamie if Finn does not reveal herself so she reluctantly steps out. Isabella says they should kill Jamie anyway, but Reginald soliloquizes, admitting his guilt in Geoffrey's death and in attempting to kill Hugo. Finn asks them to spare Jamie, as he is only a child, but Reginald insists that both of them will hang. Finn insists that the sheriff is close behind her, but Isabella taunts her. Finn punches her in the face, breaking her nose, as Gros Louis barks and Hugo suddenly rides into the clearing. On his way into the forest, Hugo ran into Gros Louis and realized they must be at Wolf Cave before rushing there. As he arrives, Laroche grabs Finn and holds a knife to her neck. Hugo asks Laroche to duel, but he refuses, so Hugo puts up the manor as the reward for the winner. Peter insists that everything has gone to far, as he could never follow someone who would kill a woman and child in cold blood. Hugo and Laroche begin to duel and the sheriff and his men arrive in the clearing. Hugo is becoming weary from his injury as they duel, but he suddenly taps into his reserves of strength and overtakes Reginald, though Finn cries out and begs him not to kill him. Hugo releases Laroche into the sheriff's custody and Hugo asks Finn if she forgives him for burning her braies. She says she does and asks his forgiveness for kidnapping him, which he says she doesn't need to apologize for. Six months later, Mellana has given birth to a boy and Finn believes that the sheriff will propose to her when his mother finally passes away. Laroche has been tried and hanged, while Isabella and Peter disappeared into Scotland after Finn had Hugo bribe the men holding them to let them escape. Hugo has become a well-liked earl, and Finn is visibly pregnant. While at the manor, Mistress Laver lets in some men that are friends of Hugo's from the crusades. One of the men hits on Finn and wraps his arm around her before she draws a secret knife and holds it to his throat. Hugo comes in with Jamie behind him and tells Finn that he has been to visit Robert, who says hello, and that he saw Rosamund there and the two of them will probably be engaged again soon. Hugo sees that Finn has a knife to one of the man’s throats and tells the men that he sees they have met his wife. ===== The film follows a group of young adults who come together to play a fantasy role playing game, while working at a costume rental store. One of the players is a young man named Adam (Thom Haverstock) who is the descendant of a long line of men who are all cursed by the devil. While working at the community college theater performance a strange magician appears and puts a curse on Adam, forcing him to remember the fate of his ancestors and to make him believe that he really is a warlock. Increasingly Adam is unable to determine the difference between fantasy and reality and believes that, as a warlock, he is on a quest to kill various people. As the bodies pile up, the local police are baffled and no one suspects that Adam is a deranged serial killer being commanded to kill by the devil. After playing the role playing game with instructions to kill all the members of the Apostles of Hell before they kill him, Adam attends a costume party hosted by a man named Dr. Evil, who wants Adam to join his cult and also kill most of the party guests. When the police figure out that Adam is the killer, they corner and shoot him in a factory, but his body disappears and leaves a puppet in its place. At the end of the film, the surviving players are playing a game with a suit of knight's armor seated in Adam's place. The armor comes to life and kills their dungeon master. Upon looking at the body, they learn that their dungeon master was Dr. Evil, and by extension, the devil. ===== The series centered on four guys who meet every day with their dogs in a Los Angeles dog park. Among those shown were Jeremiah, a chef, Clay, Jermiah's best friend, Eric, a surfer, and Royce, who didn't have a dog but thought the dog park was a good place to meet girls. ===== Mikado Ryūgamine, a young boy who longs for the exciting life of the big city, moves to Ikebukuro to attend Raira Academy with his childhood friend Masaomi Kida, whom he has not seen since he was young. After the two meet at the train station, they set out to explore the streets of Ikebukuro. Masaomi warns Mikado about people he does not want to cross in the city such as the violent and superhumanly strong man Shizuo Heiwajima, the information broker Izaya Orihara, and the mysterious gang known as "The Dollars." After running into some of the side characters, Mikado sees a local legend called the "Black Rider" who rides around Ikebukuro on a black motorcycle that occasionally neighs like a horse and who is rumored to have no head under her helmet. The "Black Rider's" real name is Celty Sturluson; she is an Irish dullahan who is in Ikebukuro looking for her stolen head while working as an underworld courier. The narrative follows all of the characters equally, showing how their lives intersect and create a greater plot line from each character's knowledge about a common incident. The story is told from the perspective of approximately eleven of the main characters and changes every episode in the anime, sometimes even more often. One of the few constants given in every episode is that the narrator gives his own opinion on the current situation that he is in as well as what things that make him tick and keep him going in Ikebukuro: a city with a large underbelly that is the medium for the majority of both the plot's development and random violence throughout the series. ===== The series follows four stories. Rhys, Hannah and Josh Ashworth head off to a music festival. Whilst there, Rhys and Hannah are tempted by love interests Imogen and Jamie, however the pair are not as nice as they seem. Jacqui McQueen and Darren Osborne try their best to convince Tony Hutchinson and Cindy Cunningham not to get married, and Cindy is less than pleased at the appearance of former best friend Savannah. Theresa and Michaela McQueen set off to London where Theresa has an interview with a modelling agency. As they face living on the streets of London, Theresa decides to visit her mother. Jealous Lydia Hart follows girlfriend Sarah Barnes on a camping trip where she finds her getting closer to Zoe Carpenter. Her jealousy leads to a chain of events and the death of one of the group. ===== Razorjack tells the story of three college students who inadvertently create an opening into an alternate universe - known by its inhabitants as The Twist Dimension - and consequently become a target for the evil Razorjack. Police officers Ross and Frame investigate the results of Razorjack's killing spree and are drawn into what is potentially the ultimate battle between good and evil. ===== Henry MacMorrow, a junior partner in the law firm of Parsons, Hilton, Trent and MacMorrow, is assigned the task of obtaining the signatures of various members of the Pemberton family so that a piece of property they own can be sold. While en route by train to the Pemberton home in Aiken, South Carolina, he meets Junior Pemberton, an obnoxious ten-year-old prodigy whose behavior prompts Henry to kick him in the pants when they arrive at the station, much to the dismay of the boy's sister Toni. Henry arrives at the Permberton home before Toni and Junior, and the rest of the family mistakes him for her fiancé Howard Rogers. She quickly corrects the misunderstanding and soon finds herself liking the amiable lawyer, despite their unpleasant first meeting. Mistakenly believing the millionaire Henry is impoverished and the sole support of his widowed mother, Toni promises to help him financially, but Howard convinces the family Henry is a fraud. The attorney returns to New York City, where he promptly is fired. Anxious to find Henry, Toni convinces the Pembertons their town is being quarantined, and the entire family travels to New York. When Toni learns Henry has lost his job, she vows to help him get it back. She urges her family to sign the documents allowing their land to be sold, and then she and Henry go to the country to obtain the signatures of her Aunts Pitty and Patty and Uncle Goliath. Howard, still certain Henry is a con artist, decides to assess the Pemberton's property and discovers oil, unaware it's leaking from his own car. Believing the land is worth a fortune, he persuades the family to sell it to him for $125,000 and convinces them Henry was trying to scam them. Thinking Henry was deceiving her, Toni ends their relationship. Howard discovers the oil was from his car and tries to get his money back, only to discover the Pembertons already have spent it. When he decides to sell the land to Henry, Toni tries to warn him, but he refuses to speak to her, until Pitty and Patty reveal Toni and Henry spent the night in their barn, and Toni pretends he took advantage of her. Her family storms Henry's apartment and demands he make an honest woman of her, and he willingly agrees to marry Toni. =====