From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ===== Colonel Joseph Ryan, a USAAF P-38 pilot, is shot down over Italy and taken to a POW camp run by Major Basilio Battaglia. Ryan insists that Battaglia salute him as a superior officer, which is reluctantly translated by the sympathetic second-in-command, Captain Vittorio Oriani. Most of the prisoners are British, from the 9th Fusiliers. Their previous commanding officer, Brian Lockhart, has recently died due to being placed in the "sweat box" as punishment for hitting Battaglia. When Ryan arrives in camp, Major Eric Fincham is the senior British officer. Ryan, being senior, assumes command. Since Italy is close to surrender, Ryan is in no mood to support Fincham's escape attempts. Fincham catches American prisoners with medicines secretly being hoarded for escape attempts, but Ryan orders Fincham to distribute the medicines to prisoners who are seriously ill. He then infuriates Fincham by betraying an escape plan to Battaglia in return for better treatment for the prisoners. When Battaglia still refuses to issue new clothes, Ryan forces his hand by ordering the prisoners to strip and burn their filthy uniforms. Battaglia throws Ryan into the sweat box as punishment. Italy surrenders; the guards flee; the British promptly put Battaglia on trial as a war criminal. He portrays himself as a broken man who has repudiated fascism. Ryan orders him to not be executed, but instead, to be put in the sweat box. A German fighter plane overflies the camp, forcing Ryan and the men to head out across the Italian countryside to freedom, with Oriani's help. That night they rest in some ruins while he moves forward in an attempt to contact Allied forces. In the morning, the Germans recapture the prisoners. Fincham assumes Oriani has betrayed them. When the POWs are put on a train, they find a severely battered Oriani in the prisoner carriage, and Battaglia with the Germans. The Germans then shoot all the sick prisoners. Fincham, who blames Ryan for letting Battaglia live, needles him by calling him "von Ryan". The train travels to Rome, where a German officer, Major von Klemment, takes command. Ryan finds a way to pry up the floorboards of the car. That night, when the train stops, Ryan, Fincham, and Lieutenant Orde sneak out underneath it and kill several guards, then free a carload of POWs, who help them kill the remaining guards. Ryan and Fincham capture von Klemment and his mistress, Gabriella. As the train moves out, another train follows. Von Klemment reveals that the second train is carrying German troops and is on the same schedule. Further, von Klemment is to receive orders at each railway station. A German-speaking Allied chaplain, Captain Costanzo, is tasked with impersonating the German commander to ensure their passage through the next station in Florence. Through the documents received in Florence, they learn that both trains are headed towards Innsbruck, Austria. Through trickery, the prisoners switch their train onto a different line at Bologna. The troop train continues on toward Innsbruck. Von Klemment and Gabriella are kept bound and gagged, but manage to escape at a stop, killing Orde. Both are then shot by Ryan. Later, the train is passing a German facility when it is bombed by Allied aircraft. Several cars catch fire, and several men are wounded. Meanwhile, Waffen-SS troops, led by Colonel Gortz, have discovered the ruse. They are slowed when Oriani and the train's Italian engineer disable a signal box at Milan, knocking out the track diagrams. The prisoners reroute the train to neutral Switzerland through manual switching. Gortz and his troops pursue them. As the Alps appear, the prisoner train is attacked by German aircraft. Rocket fire causes boulders to fall and destroy a section of track. The POWs replace the damaged rail as the SS race up from behind. Ryan, Fincham, and others stay behind to hold off the Germans, but many are killed in the battle, including Bostick. The prisoner train moves out as the men run for the moving rear platform with the Germans in pursuit. Most of them make it, but Ryan is gunned down by Gortz just before he can board, as the train crosses into Switzerland. ===== The novel is set on a sugar plantation located halfway between the city of Santa María de Puerto Príncipe (modern-day Camagüey) and the village of Cubitas. While most of the novel takes places of the plantation, some of it takes place in Puerto Príncipe, some in the Cubitas Mountains, and some in the northern port of Guanaja. Enrique Otway, an English tradesman, seeks to marry Carlota because he thinks that this arrangement will bring him money. As the story develops, Sab learns of Enrique's dishonorable conduct and tries to secretly aid Carlota. ===== ===== After graduating from medical school, Dr. James Kildare (Lew Ayres) returns to his small home town, where his proud parents Stephen (Samuel S. Hinds) and Martha Kildare (Emma Dunn) and childhood friend Alice Raymond (Lynne Carver) expect him to join his father in his medical practice. However, he is more ambitious, though he is unsure what he wants to do. He has accepted a job as an intern at Blair General, a large New York City hospital. He and the other new interns are being greeted by the hospital's administrator, Dr. Carew (Walter Kingsford), when the famous wheelchair-bound diagnostician Dr. Leonard Gillespie (Lionel Barrymore) bursts in and sizes up the newcomers. When Gillespie demands that the interns diagnose him on the spot, only Kildare takes up his challenge, prognosticating that he has a melanoma on his hand and a year to live. When Kildare hedges before Gillespie's gruff, Gillespie dismisses interest in him. Later, Kildare is assigned ambulance duty with attendant Joe Wayman (Nat Pendleton). His first call is a man who has passed out in a bar. Discarding the obvious conclusion of drunkenness, Kildare suspects the man has a serious medical problem. When Kildare has to respond to a second, more urgent call, he orders the skeptical Wayman to give the man oxygen all the way to the hospital. Wayman disregards his order and the man dies as a result. Kildare later takes the blame rather than have Wayman lose his job. Kildare then attends to Barbara Chanler (Jo Ann Sayers), a young suicide victim. Despite finding no signs of life, Kildare refuses to give up and finally succeeds in reviving her. Barbara Chanler turns out to be the sole child and heiress of extremely wealthy Robert Chanler (Pierre Watkin). Highly respected psychiatrist Dr. Lane-Porteus (Monty Woolley) diagnoses schizophrenia. Kildare, based on a short conversation he had with Barbara, is sure that she was driven to attempt suicide for more ordinary reasons. However, when Kildare refuses to divulge what she told him in strictest confidence, Carew suspends him. From a chance comment by Barbara's concerned fiance, Jack Hamilton (Truman Bradley), Kildare is able to piece the clues together. After quarreling with Hamilton, Barbara had gone to a nightclub alone, where she had started drinking heavily. A man took her upstairs to a private room, and that's all she remembered of the night. She was found by a policeman wandering the streets and taken home. Fear of what might have happened during her blackout made her try to take her own life. When Kildare goes to Gillespie for advice, the older man broadly hints that he should ignore hospital rules. Kildare sneaks in to see Barbara to reassure her that nothing disgraceful happened. The man at the nightclub had recognized her and, fearful of what her rich father would do if he took advantage of her condition, he had simply dumped her on the street. Kildare then coaches Barbara on how to act so that Lane-Porteus does not have her confined to a mental institution. Unaware of these developments, the hospital board fires Kildare for insubordination. He tells his parents and Alice, who have come to see him, that he is ready to become his father's partner. However, Gillespie has other ideas. All along, he had been testing Kildare. Now that he is sure of Kildare's integrity, competence and most of all courage of convictions, Gillespie hires the young man as his assistant, to pass along as much as possible before he dies of what Kildare had correctly diagnosed. ===== Flame of Recca follows the story of a teenage boy named Recca Hanabishi, who is interested in ninja and claims to be one himself. He often gets into fights because he made it publicly known that the person who manages to defeat him will earn his services as a loyal ninja. Despite this, he eventually pledges his loyalty and services as a ninja to Yanagi Sakoshita, a girl with the innate ability to heal any wound/injury, because of her kindness and compassion. Recca soon discovers that he possesses the innate ability to control/manipulate flames, and eventually learns that he is actually the son of the sixth generation leader of the Hokage, a ninja clan that was wiped out in 1576, roughly 400 years before the series' present day. The Hokage ninjas wielded mystical objects called , which are referred to as "psychic devices" or "mystical weapons" in the English versions of the series. Madōgu grant their users special abilities, such as allowing their users to manipulate certain elements (as in the case of the Fūjin, which allows its wielder to manipulate the element of wind) and enhancing their user's strength/skills (as in the case of the Dosei no Wa, which increases its user's physical strength and the Idaten, which increases its user's running speed). Oda Nobunaga had invaded the Hokage in 1576 for the purpose of acquiring these weapons, and the series' main antagonist, Kōran Mori, is searching for a madōgu that will grant him eternal life. Recca and his friends become entangled in Mori's quest for eternal life as he attempts to kidnap Yanagi, believing that her healing powers will help him achieve immortality. This leads them to join the Ura Butō Satsujin, a tournament wherein the warriors that wield madōgu gather to battle each other. After winning the tournament, Recca and his teammates discover that Mori was on his way to acquire the , a madōgu said to grant its user eternal life, and once again attempt to stop him. Though it begins by following the same basic storyline, the Flame of Recca anime series ends right after the Ura Butō Satsujin ends, while the manga goes on to include the subplot involving the Tendō Jigoku. The anime also omits certain characters from the story,The team called Saakasu, who forfeit against Recca's Team Hokage in volume 10, chapter 78 of the manga, are not included in the anime; the anime shows Raiha of Uruha Ikazuchi forfeiting instead. and several of the characters' physical appearances are slightly different from the manga.A few examples would be Tokiya Mikagami, whose hair appears to be brownish throughout the anime series while being light blue- green on the covers of volumes 31 and 25 of the manga, and Fuuko Kirisawa, whose hair and eyes appear to be red-violet and blue respectively in the anime while shown to be brown and green on the cover of volumes 11 and 30 of the manga. ===== Pilot Frank Towns and navigator Lew Moran are ferrying a mixed bag of passengers from the Jebel oil town in the Libyan desert, among them oil workers, two British soldiers, and a German who was visiting his brother. An unexpected sandstorm forces the aircraft down, damaging it, killing two of the men, and severely injuring the German. In the book, the action takes place in the Libyan part of the Sahara."Flight of the Phoenix by Elleston Trevor (Mass Market Paperback - Reissue) Book review." barnesandnoble.com. Retrieved: May 29, 2009. The survivors wait for rescue but the storm has blown them far off course, far away from a search area. After several days, Captain Harris marches toward a distant oasis together with another passenger. His aide, Sergeant Watson feigned a sprained ankle to stay behind. A third man follows them. Days later, Harris barely manages to return to the crash site. The others are lost. As the water begins to run out, Stringer, a precise, arrogant English aeronautical engineer, proposes a radical solution: rebuild a new aircraft from the wreckage of the old twin- boom aircraft, using the undamaged boom and adding skids to take off. The men set to work. At one point, a nearby party of nomadic tribesmen is spotted. Captain Harris decides to seek their help. This time, Sergeant Watson outright refuses to accompany him. Instead another survivor, a Texan named Loomis, volunteers. The next day, Towns finds their looted bodies, throats cut, and the nomads gone. Later, Towns learns that Stringer designs model aircraft, not full-scale planes. Fearing the effect on morale, he and Moran keep their discovery secret, believing Stringer's plan is doomed. However, the aircraft is reborn, like the mythical Phoenix rising from its own ashes. It flies the passengers, strapped to the outside of the fuselage, to an oasis and civilization. ===== Austrian research geneticist Dr. Alex Hesse (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and his OB/GYN colleague Dr. Larry Arbogast (Danny DeVito) invent a fertility drug, "Expectane", designed to reduce the chances of a miscarriage. With the drug unapproved by the Food and Drug Administration, Hesse and Arbogast are unable to test the drug and cannot continue their research. Head of the review board Noah Banes (Frank Langella) informs Arbogast that while the FDA denied human experimentation, the team has received a donation from geneticist Dr. Diana Reddin (Emma Thompson) from the ovum cryogenics department. Hesse plans to start over in Europe, but Arbogast suggests they can still perform the experiment, with Canadian firm Lyndon Pharmaceutical offering to fund them provided they find a volunteer. Hesse questions the likelihood of a pregnant woman taking an unapproved drug, but Arbogast suggests omitting the volunteer's gender and convinces Hesse to impregnate himself with an ovum codenamed "Junior". That night, Hesse dreams his potential offspring has his own face. As weeks go by, he complains to Arbogast of sore nipples, and chats incessantly about walks, massages, and naps. Contemplating fatherhood after watching television commercials, Hesse breaks down sobbing. When the time comes for Hesse to end the experiment and release the results to Lyndon Pharmaceutical, Hesse continues taking the drug and decides to carry the pregnancy to term; initially annoyed, Abogast agrees to keep it hidden. Hesse develops a relationship with Reddin, and reveals his pregnancy to Angela, Arbogast's ex-wife. Reddin is stunned and angry when it is revealed that the "Junior" ovum is hers, and Banes attempts to take credit for the experiment. Disguised as a woman, Hesse hides in a retreat for expectant mothers, blaming his masculine appearance on anabolic steroid use. Reddin visits, telling Hesse it does not matter who is pregnant because he is the father and she is the mother. Arbogast reveals the experiment's data to Lyndon Pharmaceutical, who agree to partner with Hesse and Arbogast. Hesse experiences abdominal pain from the start of labor, calling for Arbogast and Reddin. As Reddin rushes to the resort, Arbogast tells a fellow doctor to prep for an emergency caesarean section. A hospital staffer overhears and alerts Banes, who summons the media and the University Dean in hopes of taking credit for the world's first pregnant man. Warned by a colleague, Arbogast creates a decoy for Hesse to allow a private c-section. When Arbogast arrives, the media only see the pregnant Angela, discrediting Banes who is fired by the Dean. Reddin and Hesse enter the hospital by the fire escape, and he has an emergency c-section. Sent to keep Angela company in the waiting room, Reddin finds her in labor and becomes her delivery coach. Hesse gives birth to a healthy baby girl, and Arbogast announces the arrival to Reddin, who is assisting Angela with contractions. Reddin leaves Angela with Arbogast and rushes to see the baby, whom she and Hesse name Junior. Arbogast delivers Angela's child and they reconcile to raise the boy, Jake, as their own. The movie ends with the families on vacation, celebrating the birthdays of Junior and Jake. Reddin is pregnant with their second child, and Angela mentions wanting another baby but not wishing to endure pregnancy again; they all try to convince a reluctant Arbogast to carry the child. ===== In the prologue, set in 1945, a montage displays the honeymoon of Captain Walker and his wife, Nora ("Prologue - 1945"). After his leave ends, Walker goes off to fight in World War II as a bomber pilot, but is shot down during a mission. "Captain Walker" is listed as missing in action and is presumed dead, although—unknown to his family—the badly burnt Walker is in fact alive. Back in England, Nora goes into labour and gives birth to a son, Tommy, on V-E Day. Five years later, Nora has begun a new relationship with Frank, a worker she and Tommy meet on vacation. Tommy looks up to his "Uncle" Frank who expresses his desires to run his own holiday camp someday ("Bernie's Holiday Camp"). In the 1950s, Nora and Frank dream of their future ("1951 / What About the Boy?"), but, late that evening, encounter the returning Captain Walker. He surprises Frank and Nora in bed, leading to a struggle where Frank kills the Captain. The heat of the moment panics Tommy into a psychedelia-like "Amazing Journey", where he outwardly appears "deaf, dumb, and blind". As time passes, Nora and Frank make several fruitless attempts to bring the now older Tommy out of his state ("Eyesight to the Blind" / "The Acid Queen") and keeps him in the company of some questionable babysitters ("Cousin Kevin" / "Fiddle About"). They become more and more lethargic at the lack of effect and leave Tommy standing at the mirror one night, allowing him to wander off. He follows a vision of himself to a junkyard pinball machine. Tommy is recognized by Frank and the media as a pinball prodigy ("Extra, Extra, Extra"), which is made even more impressive with his catatonic state. During a championship game, Tommy faces the "Pinball Wizard" with The Who as the backing band. Nora watches her son's televised victory and celebrates his (and her) success and luxury, but finds she can't fully enjoy it due to the extremity of Tommy's condition ("Champagne"). Frank finds a specialist for Tommy, who comes to the conclusion that Tommy's state is triggered emotionally rather than physically. The only hope, he says, is to continue putting Tommy in front of his reflection ("Go to the Mirror!"). Nora's growing frustration prompts her to throw Tommy through the mirror, causing him to snap to full consciousness and run away momentarily ("I'm Free"). Tommy reveals that his experiences have transformed him and decides that he wants to transform the world ("Mother and Son" / "Miracle Cure"). Tommy goes on lecture tours which resemble glam rock gospel shows and spreads a message of enlightenment by hang glider, gaining friends and followers everywhere he goes ("Sally Simpson" / "Sensation"). Tommy and a more enlightened and elated Nora and Frank welcome converts to their house, which quickly becomes too crowded to accommodate everyone. Tommy opens an extension for his religious campus ("Welcome" / "Tommy's Holiday Camp"). The converts, confused about Tommy's odd practices and his family's commercial exploitation of the compound, wrathfully demand Tommy teach them something useful. Tommy does so, deliberately deafening, muting, and blinding everyone, only to inadvertently invoke a riot. The followers kill Nora and Frank and destroy the camp in a fire ("We're Not Gonna Take It"). Tommy finds his parents in the debris and mourns before escaping into the mountains from the beginning of the film. He ascends the same peak where his parents celebrated their honeymoon, celebrating the rising sun ("Listening to You"). ===== Glendon Wasey is a sleazy, down-on-his-luck con man struggling to sell glow-in-the-dark neckties in Shanghai. When he encounters the lovely Gloria Tatlock, a missionary nurse who wants to obtain a supply of opium to ease the suffering of her patients, he decides to help her get hold of a stolen supply of the valuable drug. The only problem is that a lot of other people want to secure the stolen opium as well—gangsters, smugglers, thugs and a host of upstanding air force recruits. ===== In May 1940, a civilian in England, newspaper reporter Charles Foreman, fails to rouse his complacent readers on the home front, lulled by the lack of significant fighting during the "Phoney War". His acquaintance, John Holden, owns a small factory manufacturing buckles and is quite pleased with his profits from the Phoney War. The Battle of France begins, when the Germans invade and rapidly advance, threatening to trap much of the Allied forces in a pocket in northern France and overwhelm them. British Army Corporal "Tubby" Binns, his platoon leader Lieutenant Lumpkin and a depleted section return to camp after blowing up a bridge, only to discover that their company has pulled out during the night. One man and a lorry have been left for them, but the driver and Lumpkin are killed by a German air attack, leaving Tubby in charge of a five-man squad with no idea what the situation is or where to go. It is up to him to keep his increasingly demoralised men on the move. They reach a Royal Artillery battery camp, where they lose Private Frazer while repelling a German column. They are then ordered to head north with two other stragglers to try to link up with the rest of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). The party spends the night in a farmhouse, but at dawn a German patrol breaks in and Private Dave Bellman is shot badly in the chest, eventually forcing Tubby to leave him behind, as it is Bellman's only chance of receiving medical attention. Plunkett suffers the effects of a concussion from a grenade. Eventually, they encounter a Royal Air Force lorry and get a lift to Dunkirk. They join the rest of the BEF and tens of thousands of French soldiers who are hoping to be evacuated to England. The situation becomes so desperate that General John Vereker, Viscount Gort, the commander of the BEF, pulls out two divisions against orders to reinforce the wavering Belgians. The Admiralty commandeers all available civilian boats to help evacuate the troops from the beaches. Foreman insists on taking his motorboat Vanity himself, despite warnings of the danger. Other boat owners follow his example. Holden takes his boat Heron, with some reluctance at first, but his lack of commitment is soon forgotten. The soldiers on the beaches are subjected to regular aerial bombing and strafing. Tubby and his men get aboard a ship, only to have it blown up and sunk before it can depart. When they get back to the beach, Private Barlow is hit in the face and taken to the aid station. After ferrying soldiers to the larger vessels, Foreman's boat is destroyed by a bomber. He is picked up by Holden in the Heron. When Herons engine breaks down, Private Mike Russell, one of Tubby's men, effects repairs while Foreman and teenage crewman Frankie go ashore to survey the scene. Foreman and Tubby discuss who is responsible for the debacle. During a Sunday morning church parade, Foreman is fatally wounded in an attack by Luftwaffe Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers. After repairs, Holden, Tubby and several other armed personnel set off towards Dover but the engine breaks down again. As the boat drifts towards the German-held port of Boulogne, they are spotted by a British destroyer. Holden, Tubby and the rest of his men arrive safely back in Britain. ===== Gabriela (Angela Jones) is a Colombian immigrant living in Miami who has been fascinated with violent death ever since she saw a falling corpse pass by her mother's bakery window as a child. With many television shows and films feeding her obsession, she believes that after someone is decapitated, they still talk for a short while afterwards. Having quit her job at a bakery, she begins work for a cleaning service, after she sees a television commercial advertising it. The service is headed by a man named Lodger (Barry Corbin), who specializes in mopping up what is left behind at crime scenes. She goes to the office, inquires about a job and later is (to the dismay of Elena (Mel Gorham), her cleaning partner) offered the opportunity to clean up after an execution by her favorite at-large serial killer, The Blue Blood Killer (William Baldwin) (so named because his victims are all wealthy women). The two women go to the scene of the crime and begin cleaning up the mess. Elena diligently works away, trying to get out of there as soon as possible; meanwhile Gabriela discovers what she believes to be the name of the serial killer - "Paul Guell" - beneath a pool of blood, but covers it up so that Elena won't see and think she is weird. Due to the amount of blood, they have to leave and come back the next day. While out on a date with ex-colleague Eduardo (Bruce Ramsay), Gabriela reveals to him what she found out and after failing to clearly explain, convinces him to go to the house that same night, before it all gets cleaned up. Unbeknown to Gabriela and Eduardo, the killer is still in the building after accidentally locking himself in the wine cellar while trying to escape. Gabriela opens the door to the cellar, when Eduardo freaks out and decides he wants to go, leaving the door ajar and the killer an escape route. Eduardo leaves when Gabriela refuses to go with him, and she picks up a knife, dancing around the house where the blood is, acting out what she thinks happened - all while the killer watches. When Eduardo returns after a second thought, the killer hits him over the head and hides him in the wine cellar. He soon stops Gabriela and forces her to walk him through what happened, checking that she knows the full story, and when they come to the end, they briefly argue about Gabriela's theory of heads talking after decapitation. The killer then decides it's time for Gabriela to die, but in a struggle, he slips and is knocked out on the tiled floor. When he begins to come to, Gabriela, out of sheer curiosity, picks up the knife and cuts his head off. She slowly lifts up his head and he mumbles her name, to which Gabriela smiles with satisfaction. In a post-credits scene, Gabriela and Eduardo are driving in a car and Gabriela plays the tape which recorded the killers last word after beheading. ===== Judy (Theresa Randle) is a young and timid African American woman living in New York, who has dreams of becoming a successful actress. With the help of her agent Murray (John Turturro), she is given a chance to audition with Quentin Tarantino (himself). Tarantino reveals that this is a big blockbuster groundbreaking film, and it is "the greatest romantic, African-American film ever made." Judy, who at first seems to be doing quite well with her audition, becomes uncomfortable when Quentin Tarantino asks her to undress herself. Under the impression that the film wasn't of that nature, she becomes very apprehensive and defiant, and contemplates leaving. After Quentin Tarantino's assistant tells her that she is wasting their time and they have other people to consider and that she needs to make a choice, she reluctantly does decide to partially undress herself revealing her breasts. However, becoming quickly overwhelmed with guilt, Judy storms out of the audition. After finding out she walked out of the audition, Murray becomes furious. Having worked hard to get Judy her audition with such a prestigious director, he quickly and angrily drops her from his roster of clients. Her melodramatic acting coach (Susan Batson), is also extremely displeased at her lack of compassion to her acting art, and attitude towards the entertainment industry. When Judy tells her she felt uncomfortable by being asked to undress herself, the acting coach still does not see any reason why Judy should have walked out, and that she should have just complied with what they told her to do. This, topped with the fact that her acting coach is concerned as to why Judy is not paying her for her services due to Judy's current financial issues, results in Judy being dropped from her roster of clients as well. Now unable to secure acting work and pursue her dream, Judy must find a way to make ends meet. She tries a number of jobs, which include passing out fliers on the street for technology classes and seminars, becoming a cocktail waitress at a nightclub, and working as a background extra actor being treated unfairly in harsh conditions for local productions. One night whilst Judy is reading the newspaper returning home from her part-time job at the nightclub on a crowded subway, she skims through the circulars and classifieds, and sees a want-ad that says, "friendly phone line", as well as, "mo money, mo money, mo money". In a sly way, she decides to fake cough and rip that advertisement out of the paper to cover her mouth, making it seem like she was using the newspaper as a tissue, and puts it in her purse so as not to draw embarrassment for herself. The advertisement is for a call center specializing in customer service and phone sex, to which Judy is inquiring to be a phone sex operator. Judy meets her new boss, Lil, (Jenifer Lewis) who seems to be an assertive but friendly woman. Lil interviews Judy for the position, and the both of them click. However, Lil frankly tells her she has other prospects, and that she cannot make her any promises, but she really made a good impression with her. Judy then attends interviews with other phone sex companies, including one run by a stripper (Madonna), who explains to her that unlike other phone sex companies that would have her working in a building, she would be able to work in the privacy of her own home, and have fewer to no restrictions on her. She would however have to have her own private telephone line, which Judy currently does not have. She still decides to keep this opportunity in mind for future reference. Ultimately, Judy is hired by Lil to work as a phone sex operator at the call center. During orientation and training with other newly hired phone sex operators, she is now dubbed "Girl 6", and told by Lil that despite the fact most of the girls on the team are African-American, unless requested otherwise by the caller himself, they should always give the impression they are Caucasian. Judy very quickly learns the ropes, becomes comfortable with her new job, and fits right in. Judy's cousin and best friend Jimmy (Spike Lee), who lives in the same complex as her and is obsessed with sports memorabilia and collecting, is very adverse to Judy working as a phone sex operator. Finding it very perverse and strange, he warns her about the dangers of the job. Also, while out running errands, Judy occasionally sees her kleptomaniac ex-boyfriend (Isaiah Washington), to which she explains to him she is putting her aspiring acting career on hold to be a phone sex operator. He seems to be supportive of her with that. Thanks to working at the phone sex company, Judy, who was once an innocent girl, is now becoming more sexually bold in her attitude and personality. This shows as Judy starts to develop a crush on a man named "Bob Regular" (Peter Berg), who on a daily basis calls the phone sex company and strictly asks for her. To which Judy adapts the nickname "Lovely", especially for him. Unlike the other callers who want a sexual fantasy or thrill, "Bob" simply associates in friendly conversation with her. Judy begins to experience positive imagery and empathy of him, although what could be false and incorrect assumptions and lies to which "Bob" explains to her. Judy becomes very close with "Bob", and after "Bob" who explains that he's originally from Arizona, says he's currently in town and not far from her, and they agree to meet up at Coney Island amusement park, during her lunch break. Judy waits for Bob, but when he arrives he sees she has lied about her appearance and skin color and keeps on going, pretending not to be that person when she calls out to him, and a depressed Judy returns to work. Upon returning to work at the phone sex company, Judy immediately and strangely receives a call request, and it's a very frightening and obscene man disrespecting her (Michael Imperioli). Lil who was monitoring her call disconnects him, and bans him from calling. She reminds her that she is being far too nice to the men that call in, and that she needs to be more stern and careful. The man however oddly connects back to Judy's phone, and disrespects her more. As time goes on, Judy suddenly is now becoming very angry and bitter, and it is visible to everybody, especially Lil, that Judy is having a breakdown. Lil temporarily fires Judy from the company, and tells her to take care of herself, and that's she is free to return after that. Judy however quickly goes back to the original offer the woman who worked at the strip club gave her, and is able to now get a private line, and decides to become a private phone sex operator in her home. Judy also becomes to be more sexually aroused and comfortable from the callers in her private line. One night while taking calls from her private line, she goes into a very explicit and perverse S&M; and snuff related conversation. Judy soon realizes that she is talking to the same exact man that called her incidentally and immediately after "Bob Regular" stood her up at Coney Island. The man is even more disrespectful than he was before, and saying very rude things to her. Due to the graphic nature of the conversation, it later turns out the man is possibly a serial killer, and gives very graphic sexual and homicidal details as to what turns him on. Judy disconnects the call, but despite that, the man continually calls back, even though she is ignoring him and disconnecting the numbers he is calling from. Judy eventually gives in, to which she tells him to leave her alone. The man then shockingly reveals that he knows exactly where she lives, and says her exact location. Judy scared and irate, finally snaps at him, to which the caller is satisfied at her anger and is pleased by it. Immediately after that, Judy out of fear runs to Jimmy's house and asks if she could stay with him, which he allows her to do. She decides that it is time to leave the phone sex career behind and move to Los Angeles, for her acting career. Before leaving, she makes amends with her ex-boyfriend. Now living in Los Angeles and continuing her dream to become an actress, Judy attends another audition with a director (Ron Silver) which parallels and is almost identical to her experience with Tarantino. She decides to leave the audition; however this time, having a different approach, she happily walks down the Hollywood Walk of Fame, having reclaimed her dignity. ===== A young man continually tries to do something nice for his friend's birthday, only to have his efforts backfire. ===== The game is very loosely based on the real-world Wars of the Roses, a series of wars fought between the House of Lancaster and the House of York over control of England in the 15th century. Yami Yugi (Yugi Mutou in the English anime and the original Japanese adaptations) assumes the identity of the head of the Tudor dynasty, Henry Tudor, while Seto Kaiba represents the head of the Yorkist clan force as Christian Rosenkreuz. Other characters from the anime similarly assume the roles and names of others who featured in the conflict. The player assumes control of the "Rose Duelist", who is summoned from an unknown time period to the year 1485 by a druid of the Lancastrian forces to assist them in defeating the Yorkists and regaining control of the throne. Both sides possess eight "rose cards" which have sorcerous powers. The Lancastrians wish to obtain the Yorkists' white rose cards because Seto's forces are using their power to create a barrier that protects their territory, while the Yorkists wish to obtain the Lancastrians' red rose cards because Seto needs all 16 rose cards together to attempt a forbidden "rose summoning" that would give the Yorkists great power. The Rose Duelist also needs all 16 cards together to conjure enough power to go back to their proper time period, and so the player is forced to pick a side. If the Lancastrians are sided with, the Rose Duelist obtains the white rose cards by battling the Yorkist forces who are represented by antagonists from the Yu-Gi-Oh! series such as Maximillion Pegasus, Weevil Underwood, and Rex Raptor. The Rose Duelist finally defeats Seto for the last rose card at Stonehenge, but the victory is short-lived as Seto reveals that the power released from their duel (along with all of the rose cards brought to the site by the Rose Duelist) has fulfilled the requirements for the great summoning, and that he feigned allegiance to the Yorkists to force the Lancastrians to summon the Rose Duelist in the first place. Seto then summons Manawyddan fab Llyr, a powerful mythological figure known as the card guardian, who Seto plans to use to ensure his rule over England. The Rose Duelist defeats Manawyddan fab Llyr and banishes him from the time period, securing victory for the Lancastrians. The epilogue states that Yugi was crowned as the king of England and that it is unknown whether or not the Rose Duelist was ever returned to the time period whence they were summoned. If the Yorkists are sided with, the Rose Duelist battles protagonists from the Yu-Gi-Oh! series such as Joey Wheeler, Téa Gardner, and Yugi himself. After all of the rose cards are obtained, Seto performs the rose summoning at Stonehenge, again summoning Manawyddan fab Llyr. This time, however, Manawyddan reveals himself to be the brother of Nitemare from Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories and is furious that they summoned his brother in Egypt then locked him away again. The Rose Duelist is forced to defeat Manawyddan fab Llyr to undo the summoning. After the duel, Seto informs the Rose Duelist that he has been long searching for a true Card Guardian because an ancestor of his entered into a pact with one long ago (again referencing Forbidden Memories.) Seto leaves the Rose Duelist with his white rose pendant and his forces leave England, allowing the Lancastrians to gain control of the throne. ===== Dark Smith (James Duval) is an alienated, 18-year- old man struggling with daily life, fluctuating romantic status with his bisexual, polyamorous girlfriend Mel (Rachel True) and conflicting feelings for a shy gay classmate, Montgomery (Nathan Bexton). The day starts off normally enough with Dark meeting up with his friends which include the intelligent Dingbat (Christina Applegate), Montgomery, Mel and her purple- haired, acid-tongued lesbian lover Lucifer (Kathleen Robertson) for breakfast at their local coffeehouse hangout, The Hole. Various mentions of a party at Jujyfruit's (Gibby Haynes of Butthole Surfers) along with plans for a drug- fueled game of kick-the-can are made and the story segues into portions of the goings-on of the lives of other characters. The story progresses towards the oft-mentioned party at Jujyfruit's house, a bacchanalian orgy of excess, drinking and drugs. Here the tone changes from the innocuous and normal beginning to seemingly hallucinatory visions and surrealistic visuals and events, before reaching a chaotic finale where some of the issues come to a head. Dark and Mel argue about her desire to have an open relationship and Dark's desire for commitment. Mel's younger brother Zero (Joshua Gibran Mayweather) and his girlfriend Zoe (Mena Suvari) are ambushed by the Atari Gang on their way to Jujyfruit's house and their car, belonging to Zero's mother, is stolen while they are left helpless on the side of the road. Egg (Sarah Lassez) and Bart (Jeremy Jordan), separately watching the same televangelist, Moses Helper (John Ritter), both decide the world is too messed up to live in and they commit suicide to reach heaven. Ducky (Scott Caan) receives word of his sister's death and attempts to drown himself in a swimming pool, but is saved by Dingbat diving in and pulling him out. Bart's drug dealer Handjob (Alan Boyce) is beaten to death by Elvis (Thyme Lewis) for selling them cut drugs, and Dark, covered in blood as a bystander, returns home. Montgomery – who claims that he escaped from aliens that had abducted him during the game of kick the can – comes to Dark's home. He appears at the window and asks if he can come in. Dark and Montgomery discuss their mutual attraction for one another and Montgomery asks Dark if he can spend the night. Dark agrees but makes Montgomery promise he will never leave him. After a momentary loving embrace, Montgomery begins coughing uncontrollably. As Dark shakes him to try to get him to stop, Montgomery explodes in a shower of flesh and blood. A cockroach-like alien who had apparently been using him as a host, turns to Dark and says, "I'm outta here," before crawling out the window, leaving Dark covered in blood and staring at the audience. ===== Dr. Jenny Isaksson (Liv Ullmann) is a psychiatrist who is married to another psychiatrist. Jenny has taken a temporary job as the medical supervisor at a mental hospital while her husband and daughter are in America. When her husband is away, she lives with her grandparents (Gunnar Björnstrand, Aino Taube) who looked after her when her parents died. She sleeps in her teenage bedroom which brings nostalgia and childhood traumas back into her life. Throughout the film, she keeps seeing visions of a one- eyed old woman who visits her at night. She appears to be suffering from some kind of anxiety and she takes a bunch of pills, and from this point on in the film, the story moves back and forth between Jenny’s hospital room and a series of dream sequences. In a party in Elizabeth Wankel’s house, ex-wife of Helmouth Wankel (who works in the mental hospital), Elizabeth introduces Jenny to her young boyfriend, Strömberg an actor who is 26 years old younger than Elizabeth, and her other guests. Here, Jenny meets the divorced Tomas (Erland Josephson), he begins to flirt with her, but in the end, they become friends. Jenny, as a medical supervisor, is obliged to take care of Mari who is suffering from a disorder. One day, Mari is attacked by rapists. When Jenny comes into the house, she attempts to call an ambulance, however two intruders stop her and she is near-raped. She goes with Tomas the rest of the day and at night, she tells Tomas her entire story, telling him that she wanted to have been raped. She cries horrifyingly and has an episode; she demands a taxi ride home. Tomas insists that he drives her home. She sleeps through the whole night, woke up late and missed work. She has nothing to do as her grandparents are invited to the Egerton’s. She calls Tomas; she wants to go to the movies. She is dizzy and she sees the old woman from before. She hears a strange ringing of a telephone, she takes more than a handful of pills, hums a lullaby-ish tune while drawing something on the wall with her fingers and sleeps. She goes into a dream where she wears a red dress. In the first and longest dream, she speaks a monologue where she believes that it is hard to breathe when old people like her grandparents smell bad. She encounters an imagined Tomas, who warns her not to open the door to her deep and forgotten memories but she opens it in spite of what he said. She also sees the old woman, who attempted to stifle her by putting her hand on her mouth. In the end of the dream, a woman caresses her head, and Jenny wakes up to see Tomas’s face and she is suctioned and hospitalized. They talked for a while but she sleeps again. In the second dream, she is at work and there is a long line of patients. All the patients have their own diagnosis and most are surreal. All the patients begin crowding Jenny and attacks her. In the third dream, she meets with her husband who comes home to her. Her husband asks whether she wants to tell her daughter about what happened or if she wants him to inform grandmother, and they chatted about what has happened in their lives when he was away in America. In the fourth dream, she sees herself in a coffin that is getting nailed. She remembers her parents. She bangs a door, screaming out her guilt to her parents, she begins crying and she went out of the way. Her parents eventually come out but Jenny attacks them. Jenny wakes up and tells Tomas about her childhood. They share deep secrets to each other. Tomas said that he was never divorced, instead he had lost a friend, Strömberg whom he lived with for many years, revealing that he is a homosexual to Jenny. Apparently, he and Strömberg had ended their relationship due to jealousy. The conversation turns into a monologue as Jenny talks to herself playing the roles of her grandmother and herself and turns into screaming and crying. A nurse in the hospital interrupts them and tells Jenny that her daughter wants to meet her. She meets with her daughter and wants to comfort her. Jenny asks whether she wants to have lunch sometime, but her daughter tells Jenny that she knew that she never liked her. In the end, Jenny looks at her grandmother and her grandfather’s relationship to find the optimism that she never felt. ===== Estação Central do Brasil, the most famous and important railway station in Brazil. Also served as the setting and title of the famous film. Dora is a retired schoolteacher who has become embittered. She works at Rio de Janeiro's Central Station, writing letters for illiterate customers, in order to make ends meet. She can be impatient with her customers and sometimes does not mail the letters that she writes, putting them in a drawer or even tearing them up. Josué is a poor 9-year-old boy who has never met his father, but hopes to do so. His mother sends letters to his father through Dora, saying that she hopes to reunite with him soon, but when she is killed in a bus accident just outside the train station, the boy is left homeless. Dora takes him in and traffics him to a corrupt couple, but she is made to feel guilty by her neighbor and friend Irene and later steals him back. Dora is initially reluctant to be responsible for the boy, but ends up deciding to take a trip with him to Northeast Brazil in order to find his father's house and leave him there. Dora tries to leave Josué on the bus, but he follows her, forgetting his backpack containing Dora's money. Penniless, they are picked up by a kind, Evangelical truck driver who abandons them when Dora encourages him to drink beer and then grows too friendly. Dora trades her watch for a ride to Bom Jesus do Norte. They find his father's address in Bom Jesus, but the current residents say that Jesus won a house in the lottery, and now lives in the new settlements, adding that he lost the house and money through drinking. With no money, Josué saves them from destitution by suggesting Dora write letters for the pilgrims who have arrived in Bom Jesus for a massive pilgrimage. This time she posts the letters. They take the bus to the settlements, but when they locate the address they have for Josué's father, they are told by the new residents that he no longer lives there and has disappeared. Josué tells Dora that he will wait for him, but Dora invites him to live with her. She calls Irene in Rio and asks her to sell her refrigerator, sofa and television. She says that she will call when she gets settled somewhere. After she hangs up, she learns that there are no buses leaving until the next morning. Isaías, one of Josué's half-brothers, is working on a roof next to the bus stop, and learns that they are looking for his father. After introducing himself, Dora says that she is a friend of his father and was in the area. Isaías insists that she and Josué, who, suspicious of the stranger, has introduced himself as Geraldo, come to dinner. They return to his house, where they meet Moisés, the other half-brother. Later, Isaías explains to Dora that their father married Ana, who he doesn't know is Josué's mother, after their mother died, and that nine years ago, while pregnant, Ana left her drunken lover for Rio and never returned. Isaías asks Dora to read a letter that his father wrote to Ana when he disappeared, six months ago, in case she returned. In the letter, the boys' father explains that he has gone to Rio to find Ana and the son he has never met. He promises to return, asks her to wait for him, and says they can all be together—himself, Ana, Isaías and Moisés. At this point Dora pauses, looks at Josué and says, "and Josué, whom I can't wait to meet." Isaías and Josué both say that he will return, but Moisés doesn't think so. The next morning, while the sons sleep, Dora sneaks out to catch the bus for Rio. She first leaves beside the letter from Jesus the one from Ana to Jesus, the one Dora carried with her from the Central Station but never mailed, expressing Ana's wish for the family to be reunited. Josué wakes up too late to prevent her departure. Dora writes a letter to Josué on the bus. Both are left with the photos they had taken by which to remember one another. ===== Ellen Gulden has a high-pressure job writing for New York magazine. As the movie begins, she is visiting her family home for her father's surprise birthday party. It becomes obvious that she deeply admires her father, George, a once-celebrated novelist and literature professor at Princeton University, but has barely restrained disdain for her mother, Kate, and the domestic life she lives and has always viewed her as a ditzy Stepford Wife. When it is discovered that Kate has cancer, George pressures Ellen to come home and take care of her mother. Ellen is taken aback by this request, knowing it could jeopardize her career and love interest, but finally agrees, caving in to her father's appeals and inducements. As Ellen helps her mother with domestic chores while her father goes about his usual business without helping much, Ellen begins to reassess her views of her parents. She realizes she always brushed her mother aside and idealized her father, despite his self-centered focus on his career and - she discovers - a longtime habit of having flings with his female students. Ellen attempts to find a place for herself in her parents' life, while struggling to continue writing on a freelance basis and maintain her relationship with her boyfriend in New York. Over time, Ellen grows closer to her mother and learns more about her parents' marriage—including realizing that Kate has known about George's affairs all along. Ellen also learns that her father's philandering days have become lonely nights of drinking at a local bar to numb the pain of never again achieving success with, nor even being able to complete, further novels. George admits to Ellen that the reason he loved Kate was that she was full of light shining through everything, and he couldn't bear the thought of her light slipping away. As her mother is dying, Ellen tells her she loves her, and Kate says she knew it and always had. After Kate's death, the autopsy reveals that Kate actually died of a morphine overdose, and a District Attorney questions Ellen about her mother's death. Scenes from this interview are interspersed throughout the movie and point to Ellen being suspected of having assisted her mother's suicide. In the closing scene, by Kate's grave, Ellen has returned from a new job she found in New York with the Village Voice. She is planting daffodils when she sees her father approaching, their first encounter since the funeral. George tells Ellen she was very brave to do what she did, and she looks puzzled until she realizes George thinks she had given her mother the fatal overdose. Ellen replies that she had thought the accomplice was the father. They both realize Kate must have killed herself. George speaks to Ellen of how much he loved Kate, considering her his muse, his "one true thing." As the movie ends, Ellen is explaining to her father how to plant the daffodil bulbs and he is helping, foreshadowing, it seems, their reconciliation based on mutual long overdue appreciation of Kate. ===== In 2004, the Government of Pakistan decides to review unsolved cases pertaining to Indian prisoners as a goodwill gesture. Saamiya Siddiqui (Rani Mukerji), a budding Pakistani lawyer, is given prisoner 786's defense as her first case. The prisoner has not spoken to anyone for 22 years. After addressing him by his name, Veer Pratap Singh (Shah Rukh Khan), Veer opens up to Saamiya and narrates his story. Zaara Haayat Khan (Preity Zinta) is a lively Pakistani woman whose family is of the political background and high standing in Lahore. Zaara's Sikh governess (whom she addresses as her grandmother) Bebe (Zohra Sehgal) asks Zaara to scatter her ashes in the Sutlej river among her ancestors as her last wish. While traveling to India, Zaara's bus meets with an accident. Veer, an Indian Air Force pilot, rescues her, and she completes Bebe's final rites. Veer convinces Zaara to return with him to his village to spend a day together on account of Lohri. Zaara meets Veer's uncle Choudhary Sumer (Amitabh Bachchan) and his aunt Saraswati (Hema Malini). Veer realises that he is falling in love with Zaara. The next day, Veer takes Zaara to the train station for her train back to Lahore, planning to confess. However, he ends up meeting Zaara's fiancé Raza Sharazi (Manoj Bajpayee). Before she leaves, he confesses his love to her, accepting that they cannot be together. Zaara boards in silence and bids him goodbye; both believe they will never meet again. Back home in Pakistan, Zaara realises she too is in love with Veer but that she must keep her family's honour and marry Raza, a wedding that will further the political career of her father Jehangir (Boman Irani). Seeing Zaara breaking down, her maid and friend Shabbo (Divya Dutta), calls Veer, asking him to take Zaara away before her wedding. Veer quits the Indian Air Force and travels to Pakistan. When he arrives, Zaara runs into his arms in tears, causing her father to fall sick in shock. Mariyam begs Veer to leave Zaara because Jehangir's high-profile reputation and health will be ruined if news gets out that Zaara is in love with an Indian. Veer respects this request and decides to leave but Raza, outraged by the shame Zaara has brought upon him, has him wrongly imprisoned on charges of being an Indian spy. Meanwhile, the bus Veer was supposed to be on going back to India falls off a cliff, killing all the passengers. When Veer hears this in jail, he believes the amulet Zaara's mother gave him is what protected his life. Veer requests Saamiya not to mention either Zaara or her family whilst fighting the case, believing Zaara is happily married by now and he will only ruin her life. Due to this, Saamiya decides to cross the border and find someone in Veer's village who can prove his true identity. In Veer's village, she is shocked to meet Zaara and Shabbo instead. Zaara had thought that Veer died in the bus accident 22 years ago. After news of his death, she broke off the marriage with Raza, and her father agreed, getting them divorced himself. Afterward, Zaara and Shabbo left Pakistan and settled in India, in Veer's village, so that Zaara could keep Veer's dream of running a girl's school alive. Saamiya takes Zaara back to Pakistan, and she shares an emotional reunion with Veer. Her statement and evidence prove Veer's innocence and the judge frees him, apologising on behalf of Pakistan. Veer and Zaara, finally reunited, get married, say goodbye to Saamiya at the Wagah border crossing, and return to their village, living happily ever after. ===== In 1957 suburban Connecticut, Cathy Whitaker appears to be the perfect wife, mother, and homemaker. Cathy is married to Frank, a successful executive at Magnatech, a company selling television advertising. One evening, Cathy receives a phone call from the local police who are holding her husband. He says it's all a mix up, but they won't let him leave alone. Frank has in fact been exploring the underground world of gay bars in Hartford, Connecticut. One day, Cathy spies an unknown black man walking through her yard. He turns out to be Raymond Deagan, the son of Cathy's late gardener. Frank often finds himself forced to stay late at the office, swamped with work. One night when Frank is working late, Cathy decides to bring his dinner to him at the office. She walks in on him passionately kissing another man. Frank confesses to having had "problems" as a young man and agrees to sign up for conversion therapy. However, his relationship with Cathy is irreparably strained, and he turns to alcohol. Cathy runs into Raymond at a local art show and initiates a discussion with him about modern painting, to the consternation of a few onlookers. One night, after a party, Frank attempts to make love to Cathy. He is unable to become aroused and strikes Cathy when she tries to console him. Cathy decides to spend a day with Raymond. They go to a bar in the black neighborhood in which she is the only white person present. Raymond toasts her with a drink, saying, "Here's to being the only one." They are seen together by one of Cathy's neighbors, who immediately tells everyone. The town is soon ablaze with gossip about the two of them. This becomes evident when Cathy attends a ballet performance by her young daughter, and the mothers of the other girls prevent them from socializing with Cathy's daughter. Cathy's husband is also furious. Cathy goes to find Raymond to tell them that their friendship isn't "plausible". Over the Christmas and New Year's holidays, Cathy goes on a vacation with her husband to Miami to take their minds off of things. At the hotel, Frank has another sexual encounter with a young man. Back in Hartford, three white boys taunt and assault Raymond's daughter, Sarah. Frank tells Cathy that he has found a man who loves him and wants to be with him and seeks a divorce from Cathy. When Cathy eventually finds out that the victim of the attack was Raymond's daughter, Sarah, she goes to the Deagan home to find them packing up in preparation to move to Baltimore. Ever since the incident, he has been getting rocks thrown in his windows, as the African American community is not taking the mixing well. At one point when he addresses her as "Mrs. Whitaker", she begs him to call her Cathy. She suggests they can be together now that she is to be single. Raymond declines, saying, "I've learned my lesson about mixing the two worlds." Ultimately, Cathy goes to the train station to see Raymond off and say her silent goodbye to him, waving to him as the train moves out of the station. ===== George and Marion Kerby are as rich as they are irresponsible. When George wrecks their classy sports car, they wake up from the accident as ghosts. Realizing they aren’t in heaven or hell because they’ve never been responsible enough to do good deeds or bad ones, they decide that freeing their old friend Cosmo Topper from his regimented lifestyle will be their ticket into heaven. Topper, a wealthy bank president, is trapped in a boring job. Worse still, Clara, his social-climbing wife, seems to care only about nagging him and presenting a respectable façade. On a whim, after George and Marion die, Topper buys George’s flashy sports car. Soon he meets the ghosts of his dead friends, and immediately they begin to liven up his dull life with drinking and dancing, flirting and fun. The escapades lead quickly to Cosmo’s arrest, and the ensuing scandal alienates his wife Clara. However, because of Topper's scandal, some of the people Clara would like to socialize with now become interested in her and Topper. Cosmo moves out into a hotel with Marion who claims she is no longer married since she is dead. Clara fears she has lost Cosmo forever. The Toppers' loyal butler suggests that she lighten up a bit; she decides he’s right and dons the lingerie and other attire of “a forward woman.” After Cosmo has a near-death experience and nearly joins George and Marion in the afterlife, Cosmo and Clara are happily reunited, and George and Marion, their good deed done, gladly depart for heaven. ===== Momiji Fujimiya thought she was just an ordinary middle school student. One day, she is confronted on her way to school by a cat-eyed man with blue magatama beads embedded in his hands, who then attempts to kill her. Momiji is confused and terrified this strange man's sudden desire to kill her; he also refers to her as Kushinada, confusing her even further. Momiji is saved by the sudden appearance of two government officials, one of whom shoots the man in the arm and sends him fleeing. Momiji is intrigued as to why she was referred to as "Kushinada". She discovers that "Kushinada" refers to an ancient princess whose blood holds the power to stop the ancient monsters known as Aragami by sending them to an eternal sleep. Momiji dismisses the idea that she could be such a person, despite the fact she lives with her mother and grandmother in a shrine in Izumo. However, she soon changes her mind after vines begin to appear from every crack and opening attempting to capture her as they whisper "Kushinada". Momiji tries to escape, not knowing that the vines are being employed by a powerful Aragami known as Orochi. She is saved by the man with the magatamas embedded into his hands, who introduces himself as Mamoru Kusanagi. He confronts Orochi using Momiji as bait. The plan fails and the government officials appear again. They reveal themselves to be members of the Terrestrial Administration Center (TAC for short), and manage to subdue Orochi. However, with the last of its strength, it makes a final attempt on Kusanagi. Momiji saves Kusanagi by taking Orochi's blow. Impaled by the Aragami, instead of dying, she is instead fused with the magatama, more specifically identified as a mitama, which gives Momiji the ability to sense the presence of other Aragami. The TAC agents explain that they are an organization dedicated to defeating the Aragami, who seek to destroy humanity. The current Kushinada, Momiji, must aid them because the other Kushinada, Momiji's twin sister, is now dead. Momiji, wishing to discover more about the twin sister she never knew and also to fulfill her destiny, agrees to join the TAC under the protection of Kusanagi, who wishes to destroy his former masters, the Aragami. The story becomes increasingly complex with the appearance of Murakumo, a man with eight mitamas who kills any Aragami he comes across for his own personal reasons. Kusanagi repeatedly attempts to kill Murakumo. Kaede Kunikida reappears along with a strange energy field in Tokyo, and Murakumo and Kaede's plans soon become clear – they intend to resurrect the god Susanoo and purify the world of humanity's influences, with Kaede acting as the leader of the movement. There is also a three episode OVA, Blue Seed Beyond, which takes place two years after the end of the TV series. It concerns what seems to be a resurgence of aragami (actually created via biotechnology), and introduces a new character, Valencia Tachibana. Like Kusanagi, she was implanted with a mitama without turning into a full aragami. ===== The story as told in the ballad has multiple versions, but they all follow the same basic plot. The King of Scotland has called for the greatest sailor in the land to command a ship for a royal errand. The name "Sir Patrick Spens" is mentioned by a courtier, and the king despatches a letter. Sir Patrick is dismayed at being commanded to put to sea in the dead of winter, clearly realising this voyage could well be his last. Versions differ somewhat at this point. Some indicate that a storm sank the ship in the initial crossing, thus ending the ballad at this point, while many have Sir Patrick safely reaching Norway. In Norway tension arises between the Norwegian lords and the Scots, who are accused of being a financial burden on the king. Sir Patrick, taking offence, leaves the following day. Nearly all versions, whether they have the wreck on the outward voyage or the return, relate the bad omen of seeing "the new mune late yestreen, with the auld mune in her airms", and modern science agrees the tides would be at maximum force at that time. The winter storms have the best of the great sailor, sending him and the Scottish lords to the bottom of the sea. ===== ===== Lannie (Jack Oakie) has Annabel (Lucille Ball) taken into prison in order to generate publicity before the release of her new movie. However, when Annabel is released a month later, she finds that nobody has noticed, and she has Lannie fired. But when he pays a struggling actress to pretend to be his sick mother, Annabel has Lannie rehired, and he immediately begins plotting his next stunt. The head of Wonder Pictures informs Annabel that her film has been canceled, and that she is to star in a new film, The Maid and the Man. Lannie arranges to have her work as "Mary", a maid for the Fletchers, their teenage son Robert (Lee Van Atta), and inventor "Major" (Thurston Hall). While Robert becomes infatuated with Annabel, she is expected to cook and clean for the family, so she calls on Lannie to help. Meanwhile, the investors interested in one of Major's inventions, a rubber ring placed around a plate so that it will bounce rather than break when dropped, appear in the morning newspaper as robbers. They are in fact waiting for their own publicity to die down so that they can make a getaway. Back at Wonder Pictures, The Maid and the Man has been scrapped, but when Lannie calls Annabel to tell her, she answers that she can't leave. Though first confused, he finds Annabel's police mug shot in the paper along with the robbers, and forms a plan to outfit fifty extras as policemen (plus a police sergeant and captain). As they march towards the house firing blanks, the robbers return fire with real bullets, and the extras scatter. Lannie sneaks into the house alone, but is captured. When the real policemen arrive, the robbers try to make a break for it, using Lannie and Allison as shields. Instead, Annabel uses her martial arts training to throw one of the robbers to the ground, while Lannie bites the other. Annabel returns to Wonder Pictures and is disappointed to find that The Maid and the Man has been replaced by The Diamond Smuggler, in which she is to play the lead. On her way out, Annabel picks up a gift which Lannie had arranged for her to receive, and is apprehended when the police open it to discover the precious jewels inside. Lannie watches on from the front of the new billboard for The Diamond Smuggler as Annabel is driven away screaming. ===== At the start of the series, , a high school student on the verge of making his professional debut as a boxer, is killed in a suspicious motorcycle accident on his way to his first date with , the girl of his dreams. An angel (who is depicted as a Buddhist monk with cherub wings and halo) tells Ginji that because of a celestial mistake, he can be reunited with Minako, but only if he lives out the natural lifespan of another animal, after which he will return to his human body. Remembering Minako's love for penguins, Ginji decides to be reincarnated as an Adelie penguin, and he hatches from an egg in a Tokyo aquarium. When Ginji reaches adolescence, he escapes from the aquarium with his penguin friends, only to discover he cannot swim. He washes up in the harbor, where he is discovered by Minako. She takes him home and names him Gin-chan (at first thinking this to be an affectionate contraction of his own name, Ginji is crestfallen when Minako reveals that she has selected this name because, in her words, "You're such a cute little ". The series depicts Ginji's life with Minako, where he does his best to protect Minako from any man who tries to go out with her or simply "harm" her. Along the way, Mike and the other penguins from the aquarium help him once in a while and he meets fellow reincarnated humans. ===== Brian Robeson is a thirteen-year-old son of divorced parents. As he travels from Hampton, New York on a single engine Cessna bush plane to visit his father in the oil fields in Northern Canada for the summer, the pilot suffers a massive heart attack and dies. Brian tries to land the plane but ends up crash-landing into a lake in the forest. He must learn to survive on his own with nothing but his hatchet—a gift his mother gave him shortly before his plane departed. Throughout the summer, Brian learns how to survive in the vast wilderness with only his hatchet. He discovers how to make fire with the hatchet and eats whatever food he can find, such as rabbits, birds, turtle eggs, fish, berries, and fruit. He deals with various threats of nature, including mosquitoes, a porcupine, bear, wolf, skunk, moose, and even a tornado. Over time, Brian develops his survival skills and becomes a fine woodsman. He crafts a bow, arrows, and a fishing spear to aid in his hunting. He also fashions a shelter out of the underside of a rock overhang. During his time alone, Brian struggles with memories of home and the bittersweet memory of his mother, whom Brian had caught cheating on his father prior to their divorce. When a sudden tornado hits the area, it draws the tail of the plane toward the shore of the lake. This triggers his thoughts that there may be a survival pack of some sorts on the plane. Brian makes a raft from a few broken off treetops to get to the plane. When Brian is cutting his way into the tail of the plane, he drops his hatchet in the lake and dives in to get it. Once inside the plane, Brian finds a survival pack that includes additional food, an emergency transmitter, and a .22 AR-7 rifle. Back on shore, Brian activates the transmitter, but not knowing how to use it, he thinks it is broken and throws it aside. However, his distress call is heard by a passing airplane, and he is rescued. Brian spends the remainder of the summer with his father but does not disclose his mother's affair. ===== Maggie O'Connor, a psychiatric nurse in New York City, adopts her newborn niece, Cody, from her sister Jenna, a homeless heroin addict who abandoned her at Maggie's house just before Christmas. Maggie raises Cody herself, and during her formative years, Cody exhibits symptoms of autism, though Maggie is suspicious of the diagnosis. Maggie enrolls Cody in a special-needs Catholic school in Brooklyn, where the nuns notice Cody displaying possibly telekinetic abilities. Meanwhile, a series of child kidnappings and murders are plaguing the city, investigated by FBI Special Agent John Travis, a former seminary student. The bodies bear occult brandings, and the victims all share Cody's birthdate and age. At her hospital, Maggie meets Cheri, a young heroin addict bearing a mysterious Luciferian tattoo, who knows Jenna. In conversation, Cheri implies that Cody is special, and urges Maggie to protect her. When Maggie and Cody stop in a church, Maggie is startled when all of the votive candles light themselves in Cody's presence. When Maggie returns home, she is surprised to find Jenna, now clean and sober, there with her new husband, Eric Stark, a famous self-help guru, attempting to take Cody. Maggie refuses, but they manage to covertly kidnap Cody. Maggie reports it to police, and Agent Travis takes an interest in the case. Maggie attempts to learn more about Eric's organization, the New Dawn Foundation, by visiting one of their centers. Cheri subsequently contacts Maggie, and explains she was previously a member of New Dawn, which is actually a front for a Luciferian cult, spearheaded by Eric. She says that the cult recently began kidnapping six-year-old children and subjecting them to tests; those who failed were murdered in what Cheri describes as the "slaughter of the innocents." Cheri claims that Cody is destined to become a saint who will lead people to God, which Eric is attempting to thwart. A group of cult members pursue Cheri after she provides Maggie Eric's address, and decapitate her in the subway. Maggie visits the address, located in a rundown building in Queens, and finds Eric, Jenna, and Cody there. Maggie holds Eric at gunpoint, but is chloroformed by his henchman, Stuart. She regains consciousness in the driver's seat of car, crashing into the side of a bridge. She is helped by a mysterious stranger moments before the car falls into the river. Meanwhile, Eric attempts to force Cody to watch as he convinces a vagrant to commit suicide by lighting himself on fire. However, Cody thwarts this by blowing out the match, assuring the man he has not been forsaken. After, Eric angrily burns the man alive. Jenna, meanwhile is kept sedated with heroin. Maggie tracks Cody, who is being cared for by a nanny and member of the cult, Dahnya, and kidnaps Cody while she is visiting an orthodontist. Another mysterious stranger, this time female, helps them catch a subway train by holding the door open. At the urging of a Jesuit priest, Maggie leaves with Cody en route to Sister Rosa's convent in Vermont, but the cultists stalk them and manage to kidnap Cody. Maggie phones Agent Travis, who agrees to help her, tracking the cultists to a palatial estate owned by Eric. Maggie and Travis break into the home, but are assailed by cultists, who beat Travis. Maggie flees into the woods and reaches an abandoned church where the cult is preparing for a Black Mass. Meanwhile, the nuns at Sister Rosa's convent, worried over Maggie's failure to arrive with Cody, pray en masse for their wellbeing. Maggie stabs Eric, who then shoots her as she attempts to save Cody. Three orbs of light suddenly appear in the church as the cultists watch in terror, and Maggie's bullet wounds mysteriously heal. Travis and other officers enter the church and shoot Eric to death, and watch as the orbs of light disperse. Some time later, Jenna is in rehab and has asked Maggie to legally adopt Cody. While Maggie, Travis, and Cody walk to mass, another cultist stalks Cody, planning to stab her. Framed by statues of sword-bearing angels, she turns to stare at him. He stops, awestruck, drops the knife and flees. ===== While scrubbing the floor at home, Belle (Josette Day) is interrupted by her brother's friend Avenant (Jean Marais) who tells her she deserves better and suggests they get married. Belle rejects Avenant, as she wishes to stay home and take care of her father, who has suffered much since his ships were lost at sea and the family fortune along with them. Belle's father (Marcel André) arrives home announcing he has come into a great fortune that he will pick up the next day, along with gifts for his daughters, Belle and her shrewish sisters Adelaide and Felicie. Belle's roguish brother Ludovic (Michel Auclair), believing they will soon be wealthy, signs a contract from a moneylender (Raoul Marco) allowing him the ability to sue Ludovic's father if he can't pay. Belle's sisters ask for a monkey and a parrot as gifts, but Belle asks only for a rose. However, the next day, Belle's father finds on his arrival that his fortune has been seized to clear his debts and he is as penniless as before. He has no money for lodging and is forced to return home through a forest at night. He gets lost in the forest and finds himself at a large castle whose gates and doors magically open themselves. On entering the castle, he is guided by an enchanted candelabra that leads him to a laden dinner table where he falls asleep. Awakened by a loud roar, he wanders the castle's grounds. Remembering that Belle asked for a rose, he plucks a rose from a tree which makes the Beast (Jean Marais) appear. The Beast threatens to kill him for theft but suggests that one of his daughters can take his place. The Beast offers his horse Magnificent to guide him through the forest and to his home. Page of the original scenario on display in the Jean Cocteau House in Milly-la-Foret, France Belle's father explains the situation to his family and Avenant. Belle agrees to take her father's place and rides Magnificent to the castle. Upon meeting the Beast, Belle faints at his monstrous appearance and is carried to her room in the castle. Belle awakens to find a magic mirror which allows her to see anything. The Beast invites Belle to dinner, where he tells her that she's in equal command to him and that she will be asked every day to marry him. Days pass as Belle grows more accustomed to and fond of the Beast, but she continues to refuse marriage. Using the magic mirror, Belle sees that her father has become deathly ill. Belle begs for permission to visit her family, and the Beast reluctantly grants her permission to leave for a week. He gives Belle two magical items: a glove that can transport her wherever she wishes and a golden key that unlocks Diana's Pavilion, the source of the Beast's true riches. He tells Belle that he gives her these precious items to show his trust in her, and says that if she does not return at the end of the week, he will die of grief. Belle uses the glove to appear in her bedridden father's room, where her visit restores him to health. Belle finds her family living in poverty, having never recovered from Ludovic's deal with the moneylender. Jealous of Belle's rich life at the castle, Adelaide and Felicie steal her golden key and devise a plan to turn Ludovic and Avenant against the Beast. Avenant and Ludovic devise a plan of their own to kill the Beast, and agree to aid Belle's sisters. To stall Belle, her sisters trick her into staying past her seven-day limit by pretending to love her. Belle reluctantly agrees to stay. The Beast sends Magnificent with the magic mirror to retrieve Belle but Ludovic and Avenant find Magnificent first, and ride him to the castle. Belle later finds the mirror which reveals the Beast's sorrowful face in its reflection. Belle realizes she is missing the golden key as the mirror breaks. Distraught, Belle returns to the castle using the magic glove and finds the Beast in the courtyard, near death from a broken heart. Meanwhile, Avenant and Ludovic stumble upon Diana's Pavilion. Thinking that their stolen key may trigger a trap, they scale the wall of the Pavilion. As the Beast dies in Belle's arms, Avenant breaks into the Pavilion through its glass roof, whereupon he is shot with an arrow by an animated statue of the Roman goddess Diana and is himself turned into a Beast. As this happens, arising from where the Beast lay dead is Prince Ardent (Jean Marais) who is cured of being the Beast. He explains that because his parents did not believe in spirits, in revenge the spirits turned him into the Beast. Prince Ardent and Belle embrace, then fly away to his kingdom where she will be his Queen. He promises that her father will stay with them and Belle's sisters will carry the train of her gown. ===== In the events of the previous novel, Crisóstomo Ibarra, a reform-minded mestizo who tried to establish a modern school in his hometown of San Diego and marry his childhood sweetheart, was falsely accused of rebellion and presumed dead after a shootout following his escape from prison. Elías, his friend who was also a reformer, sacrificed his life to give Crisóstomo a chance to regain his treasure and flee the country, and hopefully continue their crusade for reforms from abroad. After a thirteen-year absence from the country, a more revolutionary Crisóstomo has returned, having taken the identity of Simoun, a corrupt jeweler whose objective is to drive the government to commit as much abuse as possible in order to drive people into revolution. Simoun goes from town to town presumably to sell his jewels. In San Diego, he goes to the Ibarra mausoleum to retrieve more of his treasure but accidentally runs into Basilio, who was then also in the mausoleum visiting his mother's grave. In the years since the death of his mother, Basilio had been serving as Kapitán Tiago's servant in exchange for being allowed to study. He is now an aspiring doctor on his last year at university as well as heir to Kapitán Tiago's wealth. When Basilio recognizes Simoun as Crisóstomo Ibarra, Simoun reveals his motives to Basilio and offers him a place in his plans. Too secure of his place in the world, Basilio declines. At Barrio Sagpang in the town of Tiani, Simoun stays at the house of the village's cabeza de barangay, Tales. Having suffered misfortune after misfortune in recent years, Kabesang Tales is unable to resist the temptation to steal Simoun's revolver and join the bandits. In Los Baños, Simoun joins his friend, the Captain-General, who is then taking a break from a hunting excursion. In a friendly game of cards with him and his cronies, Simoun raises the stakes higher and higher and half-jokingly secures blank orders for deportation, imprisonment, and summary execution from the Captain-General. In Manila, Simoun meets with Quiroga,https://www.persee.fr/docAsPDF/arch_0044-8613_1986_num_32_1_2316.pdf a wealthy Chinese businessman and aspiring consul-general for the Chinese empire. Quiroga is heavily in Simoun's debt, but Simoun offers him a steep discount if Quiroga does him a favor—to store Simoun's massive arsenal of rifles in Quiroga's warehouses, to be used presumably for extortion activities with Manila's elite. Quiroga, who hated guns, reluctantly agrees. During the Quiapo Fair, a talking heads exhibithttps://www.classicmagic.net/tricks/the_talking_head.php ostensibly organized by a certain Mr. Leeds but secretly commissioned by Simoun is drawing popular acclaim. Padre Bernardo Salví, now chaplain of the Convent of the Poor Clares, attends one of the performances. The exhibit is set in Ptolemaic Egypt but features a tale that closely resembled that of Crisóstomo Ibarra and María Clara, and their fate under Salví. The show ends with an ominous vow of revenge. Deeply overcome with guilt and fear, Salví recommends the show be banned, but not before Mr. Leeds sailed for Hong Kong. Months pass and the night of Simoun's revolution comes. Simoun visits Basilio in Tiago's house and tries to convince him again to join his revolution. Simoun's plan is for a cannon volley to be fired, at which point Kabesang Tales, now a bandit who calls himself Matanglawin, and Simoun who managed to deceive and recruit a sizable rogue force among the government troops, will lead their forces into the city. The leaders of the Church, the University, scores of bureaucrats, the Captain-General himself, as well as the bulk of officers guarding them are all conveniently located in one location, the theater where a controversial and much-hyped performance of Les Cloches de Corneville is taking place. While Simoun and Matanglawin direct their forces, Basilio and several others are to force open the door of the Convent of the Poor Clares and rescue María Clara. However, Basilio reports to Simoun that María Clara died just that afternoon, killed by the travails of monastic life under Salví, who always lusted after her. Simoun, driven by grief, aborts the attack and becomes crestfallen throughout the night. It will be reported later on that he suffered an "accident" that night, leaving him confined to his bed. The following day posters threatening violence to the leaders of the university and the government are found at the university doors. A reform-oriented student group to which Basilio belonged is named the primary suspects; the members are arrested. They are eventually freed through the intercession of relatives, except for Basilio who is an orphan and has no means to pay for his freedom. During his imprisonment, he learns that Capitan Tiago has died, leaving him with nothing (but Tiago's will was actually forged by Padre Írene, Tiago's spiritual advisor who also supplies him with opium); his childhood sweetheart has committed suicide to avoid getting raped by the parish priest when she tried asking for help on Basilio's behalf; and that he has missed his graduation and will be required to study for another year, but now with no funds to go by. Released through the intercession of Simoun, a darkened, disillusioned Basilio joins Simoun's cause wholeheartedly. Simoun, meanwhile, has been organizing a new revolution, and he reveals his plans to a now committed Basilio. The wedding of Juanito Peláez and Paulita Gomez will be used to coordinate the attack upon the city. As the Peláez and Gomez families are prominent members of the Manila elite, leaders of the church and civil government are invited to the reception. The Captain-General, who declined to extend his tenure despite Simoun's urging, is leaving in two days and is the guest of honor. Simoun will personally deliver a pomegranate-shaped crystal lamp as a wedding gift. The lamp is to be placed on a plinth at the reception venue and will be bright enough to illuminate the entire hall, which was also walled with mirrors. After some time the light will flicker as if to go out. When someone attempts to raise the wick, a mechanism hidden within the lamp containing fulminated mercury will detonate, igniting the lamp which is actually filled with nitroglycerin, killing everyone in an enormous blast. At the sound of the explosion, Simoun's mercenaries will attack, reinforced by Matanglawin and his bandits who will descend upon the city from the surrounding hills. Simoun postulates that at the chaos, the masses, already worked to a panic by the government's heavy-handed response to the poster incident, as well as rumors of German ships at the bay to lend their firepower to any uprising against the Spanish government, will step out in desperation to kill or be killed. Basilio and a few others are to put themselves at their head and lead them to Quiroga's warehouses, where Simoun's guns are still being kept. The plan thus finalized, Simoun gives Basilio a loaded revolver and sends him away to await further instructions. Basilio walks the streets for hours and passes by his old home, Kapitán Tiago's riverside house on Anloague Street. He discovers that this was to be the reception venue – Juanito Peláez's father bought Tiago's house as a gift for the newlywed couple. Sometime later, he sees Simoun enter the house with the lamp, then hastily exit the house and board his carriage. Basilio begins to move away but sees Isagani, his friend and Paulita Gomez's former lover, sadly looking at Paulita through the window. Noting how close they were to the condemned house, Basilio tries to head Isagani off, but Isagani was too dazed with grief to listen to him. In desperation, Basilio reveals to Isagani how the house is set to explode at any time then. But when Isagani still refuses to heed him, Basilio flees, leaving Isagani to his fate. Seeing Basilio's demeanor, Isagani is temporarily, rather belatedly unnerved by the revelation. Isagani rushes into the house, seizes the lamp leaving the hall in darkness, and throws it into the river. With this, Simoun's second revolution fails as well. In the following days, as the trappings at the reception venue are torn down, sacks containing gunpowder are discovered hidden under the boards all over the house. Simoun, who had directed the renovations, is exposed. With his friend, the Captain-General, having left for Spain, Simoun is left without his protector and is forced to flee. A manhunt ensues and Simoun is chased as far away as the shores of the Pacific. He then spends the rest of his days hiding in the ancestral mansion of Padre Florentino, Isagani's uncle. One day, the lieutenant of the local Guardia Civil informs Florentino that he received an order to arrest Simoun that night. In response, Simoun drinks the slow-acting poison which he always kept in a compartment on his treasure chest. Simoun then makes his final confession to Florentino, first revealing his true name, to Florentino's shock. He goes on to narrate how thirteen years before, as Crisóstomo Ibarra, he lost everything in the Philippines despite his good intentions. Crisóstomo swore vengeance. Retrieving some of his family's treasure Elias buried in the Ibarra mausoleum in the forest, Crisóstomo fled to foreign lands and engaged in trade. He took part in the war in Cuba, aiding first one side and then another, but always profiting. There Crisóstomo met the Captain-General who was then a major, whose goodwill he won first by loans of money, and afterwards by covering for his criminal activity. Crisóstomo bribed his way to secure the major's promotion to Captain-General and his assignment to the Philippines. Once in the country, Crisóstomo then used him as a blind tool and incited him to all kinds of injustice, availing himself of the Captain-General's insatiable lust for gold. The confession is long and arduous, and night has fallen when Crisóstomo finished. In the end, Florentino assures the dying man of God's mercy, but explains that his revolution failed because he has chosen means that God cannot sanction. Crisóstomo bitterly accepts the explanation and dies. Realizing that the arresting officers will confiscate Crisóstomo's possessions, Florentino divests him of his jewels and casts them into the Pacific, proclaiming that God will provide means to draw them out if they should be needed for righteous causes, God will provide the means to draw them out and that they will not be used to either distort justice or incite greed. ===== Armor is the story of humanity's war against an alien race whose foot soldiers are three-meter-tall insects, referred to in the book as "ants". It is also the story of a research colony on the fringes of human territory which is threatened by pirates. The two sub-plots intersect at the end, with each providing answers and insight into events of the other. The title refers to the nuclear-powered exoskeletons worn by the soldiers, but also references the emotional armor the protagonists maintain to survive. ===== : Note: This synopsis is consistent with the novel in its later forms (1946 and subsequent editions) but differs in detail from the original 1928 text as transcribed at Project Gutenberg. There were significant changes between the 1928 magazine publication and the 1946 hardcover, and between the early hardcovers and the late 1950s and later paperback editions. The Skylark of Space, Amazing Stories, August 1928 The Skylark of Space is the first book of the Skylark series and pits the idealistic protagonist, Dick Seaton, against the mercantile antagonist Marc "Blackie" DuQuesne. At the beginning of the story, Seaton accidentally discovers a workable space drive in combining pure copper with a newly discovered [fictional] element "X" (suggested to be a stable transactinide element in the platinum group) in solution. Having failed to re-create the effect, Seaton realizes that the missing component is a field generated by DuQuesne's particle accelerator, and thereafter sets up a business with his millionaire friend, Martin Crane, to build a spaceship. DuQuesne conspires to sabotage Seaton's spaceship and build his own from Seaton's plans, which he uses to kidnap Seaton's fiancée, Dorothy Vaneman, to exchange for the "X". In the resulting fight, DuQuesne's ship is accidentally set to full acceleration on an uncontrolled trajectory, until the copper 'power bar' is exhausted at a vast distance from Earth's solar system. Using an "Object Compass" that once locked on an object, always points toward that object, Seaton and Crane follow DuQuesne in their own spaceship (the eponymous Skylark) to rescue Dorothy and her fellow-hostage, Margaret "Peg" Spencer, until the Skylark discovers DuQuesne's ship derelict in orbit around a massive dead star (resembling a cold neutron star). Having obtained the hostages, Seaton extracts a promise from DuQuesne to "act as one of the party until they get back to Earth", in which relationship they leave orbit and travel further in search of additional fuel. On an Earthlike exoplanet, they obtain "X" from an outcrop almost purely of that mineral; then leave that planet in search of copper. Following an encounter with a "Disembodied Intelligence" (Star Treks "Q" would later show similar attributes), they enter a cluster of stars nicknamed “The Green System” and locate a planet having copper sulfate oceans. On the Earth-like "Osnome", they befriend the rulers of Mardonale, one of the two factions of the Osnomian natives. When the Mardonalian ruler attempts to betray Seaton and his friends, they find allies in Prince Dunark (a crown- prince of Mardonale's rival "Kondal") and his consort Princess Sitar, whom they later assist in destroying Mardonale. In gratitude, the Kondalians make new copper "power bars" and rebuild the Skylark as Skylark Two, with new weapons known to Kondalian science. Thereafter Seaton's marriage to Dorothy, and Crane's to Margaret, are solemnized by the Kondalian monarchy, and Seaton himself declared nominal "Overlord" of Kondal. The Skylark then returns to Earth, laden with jewels, platinum, radium, and a plenitude of "X"; but near Earth, DuQuesne leaves the Skylark by parachute, and the story ends with the Skylarks landing on Crane's Field. ===== Jason Stillwell is a young karate student and Bruce Lee fanatic who trains in his father Tom's dojo in Sherman Oaks, California. One night after a training session, the dojo is visited by members of an organized crime syndicate looking to take over all the dojos in the country. After refusing to join the organization, Tom's leg is broken by a Soviet martial artist named Ivan Kraschinsky, one of the boss' hired thugs. A furious Jason tries to take revenge but is easily subdued by the Soviet. Tom discourages any further effort, telling his son that fighting is not the answer. The Stillwell family relocates to Seattle, where Jason meets R.J. Madison and they become good friends. Jason reunites with his old girlfriend Kelly Reilly, who lives in the neighborhood with her brother, local black belt Ian. Despite this, Jason has a hard time adjusting, as he and R.J. are constantly beaten and harassed by the local bullies led by an obese boy named Scott and arrogant martial artist Dean Ramsay. After getting beaten up and humiliated by Scott and Dean at Kelly's birthday party, Jason visits the grave of Bruce Lee and beseeches him for aid. Later that night, Jason and Tom have a heated argument over Jason's involving himself in fights. When Jason calls his father a coward for running away from the syndicate, Tom destroys some of Jason's Bruce Lee memorabilia in the garage. Distraught, Jason consults with R.J., who helps him move all of his training gear into an abandoned house nearby. Exhausted from the move, Jason falls asleep at the house, but is suddenly awakened by the soul of Bruce Lee, who appears to Jason and begins to train him. Under Lee's tutelage, Jason goes from a below average fighter to a superior martial artist, at one point able to fend off several thugs who ambush his father in a parking lot. In doing so, Jason convinces him that there are times when fighting is necessary. Later on, Jason, Tom, and R.J. attend an annual full-contact kickboxing tournament featuring teams from Seattle and New York. Before the contest can get under way, however, the crime syndicate interrupts and makes a wager that none of the Seattle fighters can defeat Ivan. While Dean and Frank are easily bested by the Soviet, Ivan's last opponent, Ian, makes an impressive showing, forcing Ivan to resort to dirty tactics to defeat him. With Ian helplessly entangled in the ring ropes, Scott attempts to bite Ivan in the leg, but the Soviet dispatches him with a headbutt. Kelly tries to stop Ivan by hitting him with a stool, but the Soviet easily disarms her and grabs her by the hair. Angered by this, Jason charges to the ring and attacks Ivan to the delight of the crowd. Utilizing his advanced training, Jason is finally able to conquer his nemesis and earns the respect of his peers and family, who celebrate with him as the frustrated crime syndicate leaves Seattle. ===== The film is set in Moscow in 1958, after Burgess had defected to the Soviet Union in 1951 with Donald Maclean when it became apparent that Maclean was about to be investigated by British intelligence. Burgess barges into Browne's dressing room in the interval of a touring Shakespeare Memorial Theatre (which became one of the bases of the Royal Shakespeare Company) production of Hamlet, in which she portrayed Gertrude, and charms her. Later on she is invited to his Moscow flat, finding it with some difficulty, to measure him for a suit that he would like ordered from his London tailor. ===== Richard "Dicky" Pilager, the dim-witted scion of a powerful political dynasty, is running for Governor of Colorado. One day, while filming a campaign ad that shows him fishing at Arapahoe Lake, Pilager hooks a corpse on location. Chuck Raven, Pilager's campaign manager, hires Danny O'Brien, a former journalist who works as a private investigator, to examine the case. Raven urges O'Brien to find potential links between the body and Pilager's political enemies. O'Brien's job is essentially to intimidate Pilager's opponents, and he has numerous revealing conversations with various people. He learns that business mogul Wes Benteen is using Pilager to promote his own agenda. The interviews also reveal further corruption: politicians, land developers, and mining companies are conspiring to ignore certain environmental issues. O'Brien also learns about illegal migrant workers, as well as a potentially damaging love affair. ===== The novel begins when "Edward Henry Machin first saw the smoke on May 27, 1867"—the very day of Bennett's own birth. At age 12, Denry begins his career by altering his marks in a test sufficiently to earn him a scholarship to grammar school. At 16, he leaves school to work for Mr Duncalf, the town clerk and a solicitor. Duncalf is responsible for organising an exclusive ball; Denry "invites" himself, then also a few others in exchange for things he will need, such as lessons from dance instructor Ruth Earp. On a bet, he audaciously asks the energetic, beautiful Countess of Chell to dance. Everyone, including Machin, is in awe of the Countess (apparently based on the real-life Duchess of Sutherland) and he thus earns himself the reputation of a "card" (a "character", someone able to set tongues wagging) – a reputation he is determined to cement. Later, when Duncalf treats a disgruntled client brusquely, Denry leaves his employ after persuading the client to hire him as a rent collector. When some of the tenants fall behind, he begins loaning them money (at a highly profitable interest rate). Ruth herself is several months in arrears and tries to sneak away in the middle of the night. Denry catches her by accident, but rather than being angry, he admires her audacity and starts courting her. While on holiday at the seaside resort town of Llandudno with Ruth and her friend Nellie Cotterill, he witnesses a shipwreck and the rescue of the sailors. Noting the interest generated, he buys a lifeboat, hires some of the stranded mariners as rowers, and conducts tours of the picturesque wreck. However, Ruth's spendthrift nature becomes alarmingly apparent during the trip and they break up. By the end of the summer, Denry has made a substantial profit from the sightseers, which he uses to finance his boldest venture. He starts up the Five Towns Universal Thrift Club. Members deposit money little by little; once they have accumulated half the sum they need to purchase whatever it is they want, the club allows them to buy on credit, but only from stores associated with the club. Denry makes money by getting a discount from the vendors in return for access to his large customer base. When his capital starts to run out, he arranges an "accident" for the Countess's coach. He drives conveniently by and gives her a lift to an urgent appointment. On the way there, he talks her into becoming the club's sponsor, ensuring easy financing. This proves to be the making of Denry's fortune. With his great success, he is appointed a town councillor. He also backs a new daily newspaper (to be bought out at a profit by its established rival anxious to keep its monopoly) and tricks his obstinate mother into moving into a luxurious new house. At this point, Ruth reappears in Denry's life, now the widow of a rich older man. He considers renewing their relationship, but at the last moment, realises that Nellie is the one for him and marries her. The crowning achievement comes when Denry decides to become the youngest mayor in the history of Bursley. To sway the voters, he purchases the rights to footballer and native son Callear, the "greatest centre forward in England", for the failing Bursley football club. His antics are regarded with affection and admiration by most others, as shown by the book's final exchange: > "What a card!" said one, laughing joyously. "He's a rare 'un, no mistake." > "Of course, this'll make him more popular than ever," said another. "We've > never had a man to touch him for that." "And yet," demanded Councillor > Barlow, "what's he done? Has he ever done a day's work in his life? What > great cause is he identified with?" "He's identified," said the speaker, > "with the great cause of cheering us all up." ===== Sam the Snowman welcomes the viewers to Christmastown at the North Pole and introduces Santa and Mrs. Claus who live in a castle located left of the Christmas Tree Forest. Later on, Sam recalls the year Christmas was almost cancelled due to a big snowstorm and how a very special reindeer saved the day. Donner, Santa's lead reindeer, and his wife have given birth to a new fawn named Rudolph. Upon admiring him, they are surprised to see that he has been born with a glowing red nose. When Santa arrives, he warns Donner that Rudolph will not make the sleigh team because of his nose. So, Donner decides to hide it by covering it with mud so Rudolph will fit in with the other reindeer. One year later, Rudolph goes out to the reindeer games, where the new fawns will be inspected by Santa to pull the sleigh when they grow up. During flight practice, Rudolph meets a beautiful doe named Clarice, who tells him he is cute, making Rudolph fly. However, while celebrating with the other bucks, Rudolph's fake nose pops off, causing the other reindeer to mock him and Coach Comet to expel him. He then meets Hermey, an elf who ran away from Santa's workshop because he wanted to be a dentist instead of making toys, so they run away together. They then meet a prospector named Yukon Cornelius, who has searched his whole life long to find silver and gold, but never does. After escaping the Abominable Snow Monster of the North, they crash land on the Island of Misfit Toys where unloved or unwanted toys live with their ruler, a winged lion named King Moonracer who brings the toys to the island until he can find homes and children who will love them. The king allows them to stay one night on the island until they can tell Santa to find homes for them by Christmas when they get home. However, Rudolph leaves the island on his own, still worried that his nose will endanger his friends. Time passes and Rudolph grows into a young stag, still enduring mockery from others. He returns home to find that his parents and Clarice have been looking for him for months. He sets out once again to locate them and finds them all cornered in a cave by the snow monster. Rudolph tries to save Clarice, but the monster hits him in the head with a stalactite. A few minutes later, Hermey and Yukon return and try to save Rudolph. Hermey, oinking like a pig, lures the monster out of the cave and pulls out all his teeth after Yukon knocks him out. Yukon then drives the toothless monster back, only to fall over the cliff. Mourning Yukon's presumed death, Rudolph, Hermey, Clarice, and the Donners return home where everyone apologizes to them. After hearing their story, Santa promises Rudolph that he will find homes for the Misfit Toys, the Head Elf tells Hermey that he can open his own dentist's office a week after Christmas, and Donner apologizes for being hard on Rudolph. Yukon returns with a tamed snow monster, now trained to trim a Christmas tree, explaining that the snow monster's bouncing ability spared their lives. Christmas Eve comes and while everybody is celebrating, Santa reluctantly announces that the big snowstorm won't subside in time, and has forced him to cancel Christmas, but is soon inspired by Rudolph's red nose. He asks Rudolph to lead the sleigh. Rudolph accepts and they fly off to the island where the Misfit Toys, sad about being left alone and unloved, are suddenly cheered up when Santa arrives to pick them up. Santa wishes everyone a merry Christmas as he and Rudolph fly off into the night. ===== For his seventh birthday, Joe receives a mysterious blue book (known only as "The Book") from his magician uncle and namesake, "Joe the Magnificent". Using a number of often unpredictable and/or unintentional voice and print cues, The Book frequently transports Joe and his friends, Fred and Sam, to a variety of different times and places, from Camelot's medieval court of knights and dragons to the year 2095, where they meet their own great-granddaughters. The only way they are able to return to present-day Brooklyn, New York is to find The Book again within whatever time period they are in. Anna, Joe's sister, is also always eager to have the book (which is quite annoying to Joe). During their travels, Joe and his friends learn that The Book will eventually be inherited by Joe's great-granddaughter, Jodie, who time travels with The Book with her friends who are Sam and Fred's great-granddaughters, Samantha and Freddi, and occasionally save the boys from trouble when their paths cross or come to visit. The Time Warp Trio faces lots of challenges during their travels and their learning of how to use The Book. ===== Melanie Beeby is killed in a traffic accident on the day after her thirteenth birthday. She then finds herself transported to Heaven. The Heaven of this universe is a lively and vibrant city, populated both by dead humans- turned-angels and Heaven-born beings known as pure angels. This city is also where the headquarters of the Agency are situated. The Agency is an elite group whose job is to counter the Opposition, informally known as the PODs or Powers of Darkness – the polar opposite of the Agency. Upon arrival, Mel discovers that she is to be a trainee at the Angel Academy. She also discovers a best friend and soulmate, Lola Sanchez, good friend Reuben Bird and on her first mission bad boy Brice de Winters. Each book features time travel of some kind, where Mel is tasked by the Agency to unravel various celestial problems involving humans and the Opposition. ===== Rebeca, a television news broadcaster, is at the airport in Madrid, anxiously awaiting the return of her mother - Becky del Páramo, a famous torch song singer - whom she has not seen since childhood, and is coming back to Spain after a fifteen-year stay in Mexico. While waiting, Rebeca recalls incidents from her early life when Becky, preoccupied with her career and romantic life, left her daughter in the background. For fifteen years, Rebeca has longed for her mother to come back and for the love and affection of which she had been deprived. Nevertheless, her love is accompanied by a deep resentment. Rebeca has since become a newsreader for a television station owned by her husband Manuel. The intensity of the family reunion is heightened because, many years ago, Manuel was one of Becky's lovers. On the night of her return, Becky, Rebeca and Manuel have supper and then go out to see Letal, a female impersonator whose drag act is based on Becky. For some time, Rebeca has been coming to see the concerts whenever she misses her mother. Backstage, Rebeca helps Letal to remove his costume and, kneeling in front of him, she is impressed by his manliness. Letal takes advantage of the situation and they make love. Manuel, who no longer loves his wife, wants to sleep with Becky again and divorce Rebeca. A month later, Manuel is murdered in his villa. He had spent the evening first with his mistress Isabel (also Rebeca's sign language interpreter on the news) and then with Becky who, having become his lover again, had come to announce it was over between them because she had learnt about his other mistress. It was Rebeca who discovered the body. The investigating magistrate, Judge Domínguez, knows that their relationship has not recovered since Rebeca found out Becky was seeing Manuel, and centres his suspicions on both mother and daughter. On the day of Manuel's funeral, Rebeca confesses to his murder live on television, while reading the news. She is immediately imprisoned, but the investigating judge seems desperate to prove her innocence despite all the evidence. Becky makes her return to the Madrid stage while Rebeca spends her first night in prison. In jail, she listens on the radio as her mother dedicates the first songs of her triumphant concert performance to Rebeca. A social worker, Paula, takes a special interest in Rebeca; like her, she is heartbroken, grieving the loss of her boyfriend Hugo. Rebeca sees a nude picture of Hugo that Paula carries with her, and thinks that Letal and Hugo are the same person. The judge arranges for Becky to see her daughter, and Rebeca now denies the murder of Manuel. Mother and daughter confess their lack of love, their jealousy, and their secrets to each other. Rebeca draws a comparison between herself and the daughter in the film Autumn Sonata, in which the girl's mother, an outstanding pianist, asks her to play the piano and then humiliates her by telling her how to improve her performance. Rebeca suggests that she too has always felt inferior to Becky, and has been forced to compete with her, winning only once by marrying Manuel. But even this victory was finally denied her, when Becky started an affair with Manuel. Rebeca admits that fifteen years ago, her desire to be closer to Becky led her to murder her stepfather, and also played some part in her murder of Manuel, whom she saw as usurping her mother's affection. The extent of Rebeca's fixation and the limitlessness of her adoration are too much for Becky's frail heart, and her condition worsens. Back in prison, Rebeca discovers she is pregnant – carrying Letal's child. At once, the judge releases her from prison despite the lack of any fresh evidence. Rebeca goes to see Letal's final drag performance. In the dressing room, she discovers that he is the judge, with Letal being one of his disguises and Hugo being another. He explains that his dressing up was just an investigative strategy and, knowing about her pregnancy, asks her to marry him. As Rebeca struggles to take this in, they see a television broadcast relating to Becky's sudden heart attack. They rush to the hospital, where Rebeca confesses to murdering Manuel, but Becky decides to take the blame in order for her daughter to go free. When Becky is taken home to die, Rebeca gives her the gun and Becky leaves her fingerprints on it, thereby incriminating herself and establishing Rebeca's innocence. When Rebeca hears the high heels of the women passing in the street, she tells her mother the sound reminds her of her mother coming home when she was little. She turns around, and realises her mother has died while she was talking. ===== ===== In a clock tower, investigator Lemony Snicket begins writing a documentation regarding the whereabouts of the Baudelaire children. Fourteen-year-old inventor Violet Baudelaire, her twelve- year-old bibliophile brother Klaus, and their mordacious baby sister Sunny are orphaned after a mysterious fire destroys their home and kills their parents. Mr. Poe, the family's banker, manages their affairs and leaves them in the care of their geographically-closest relative and stage actor, Count Olaf. Olaf is intent upon obtaining their family fortune, which will remain in the custody of the bank until Violet comes of age. He forces them to do unnecessary chores and belittles them. Driving back from the court where Olaf has legally obtained custody of the children, he stops to go into a general store, leaving them in the car parked directly on train tracks with a train heading towards them. They manage to divert the train by building a device to remotely turn the switch controlling the tracks. Mr. Poe arrives and takes them away, thinking that Olaf was allowing Sunny to drive. The orphans are taken to their uncle, Dr. Montgomery, an eccentric but kind herpetologist. However, Olaf arrives disguised as Montgomery's assistant Stephano. The orphans attempt to warn Montgomery, but he believes Stephano is after the Incredibly Deadly Viper, a giant misnomer snake, in his laboratory. Montgomery is discovered dead shortly after, his death blamed on the viper. They are almost placed in Stephano's care by Mr. Poe, but Sunny proves Stephano's guilt by showing the viper is harmless. Stephano escapes. Mr. Poe leaves them with their Aunt Josephine, a grammar obsessed widow with panphobia. Olaf appears disguised as Captain Sham to interfere with their plans again. One day, Josephine is not at the house, leaving an apparent suicide note entrusting them to Captain Sham. Klaus deduces that Olaf forced her to forge the note, but she left a hidden message revealing her location. They sail to the cave where she is hiding and rescue her but attract leeches. Olaf appears and takes the children, throwing Josephine off the boat to the leeches. Mr. Poe finds Olaf with the children, and Olaf pretends to have rescued them. Mr. Poe is fooled and gives the children back to Olaf. Olaf plans a play titled "The Marvelous Marriage", that stars Violet and Olaf as a bride and groom, respectively. Klaus's suspicions reveal that Olaf is planning to take advantage of the play to really marry Violet in an attempt to get the fortune by using legally recognized vows and a bona fide justice of the peace. He has Sunny locked up in a bird cage, threatening to drop her to her death should Violet refuse to take part in the play. Klaus manages to escape and finds a hidden tower in Olaf's house, where he discovers a large window with a set of lenses which, if positioned correctly, can focus the rays of the sun. He realizes that this was the method used to set fire to the Baudelaire mansion and that it was Olaf who was the real mastermind behind the crime. Using the window, Klaus manages to burn the marriage certificate, leading to Olaf's arrest. However, Snicket reveals that Olaf vanished after a jury of his peers overturned his sentence. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny are taken to visit the charred remains of their old home one last time. A lost letter from their parents finally arrives, and inside is a spyglass announcing their family's secret society. Snicket finishes writing his documentation and hides the papers in the clock tower for his publisher to find. He concludes that despite the sibling's recent unfortunate events, they were still fortunate to have each other. The Baudelaires are driven by Mr. Poe to their next location. ===== Larry Lipton (Woody Allen) and his wife Carol (Diane Keaton) meet their older neighbors Paul (Jerry Adler) and Lillian (Lynn Cohen) House in the elevator in a pleasant encounter. But the next night, Lillian is found to have died of a heart attack. The Liptons are surprised by the death because Lillian seemed so healthy. The Liptons are also surprised by Paul's cheerfulness so soon after his wife's death. Carol becomes suspicious and starts to investigate, even inventing an excuse to visit him. An urn she finds in Paul's apartment contradicts Paul's story that Lillian had been buried. Larry becomes frustrated with Carol, telling her she's "inventing a mystery". Carol sneaks into Paul's apartment while he's away and finds more telling signs. Lillian's urn is missing, there are two tickets to Paris and hotel reservations with a woman named Helen Moss. Carol calls Ted (Alan Alda), a close friend who agrees with Carol's suspicions and urges her to keep snooping. When Paul returns unexpectedly, Carol hides under the bed and overhears Paul's conversation with a woman whom she suspects is Helen Moss. Later, Ted tracks down where Helen Moss lives, and with Carol and Larry, they follow her to a theater owned by Paul. They discover that Helen (Melanie Norris) is a young actress. The three eavesdrop on Paul and Helen talking about money. A few days later, Carol spots a woman who's a dead ringer for the supposedly dead Lillian House on a passing bus. Upon Larry's suggestion that Lillian has a twin, Ted investigates but finds Lillian has none. Larry and Carol trace this mystery "Lillian" to a hotel and, under the pretense of delivering a personal gift, they enter her hotel room, but find her lying dead on the bedroom floor. They call the police, who subsequently find no trace of the dead body. The Liptons search the room for clues. While leaving, they get trapped in the lift and accidentally stumble across Lillian's body inside the emergency exit panel. Upon exiting to the street, they spot Paul putting the body in the trunk of his car. The Liptons follow him to a junk yard, where they see him dumping the body on a pile of scrap metal that's dropped into a melting furnace. With the help of Larry's friend and client Marcia Fox (Anjelica Huston), they hatch a plan to bring Paul to justice by telling him they retrieved Lillian's body from the furnace. They also trick Helen into a fake audition where her voice is recorded, edited, and later used to harass Paul, by demanding he give Larry and Carol $200,000 or kill them if he wanted everything covered up. They knew he'd go for the latter, and hoped the police would catch him in the act. The plan backfires as Paul kidnaps Carol and calls Larry, demanding Lillian's body, in exchange for Carol. Paul and Larry meet in the theater and get into a scuffle. Larry breaks free and searches for Carol, with Paul in pursuit. An array of mirrors and glass behind the theater reflect the movie being screened (Orson Welles' The Lady from Shanghai) and mislead Paul several times. Suddenly, Paul's loyal assistant Mrs. Dalton, an older paramour earlier brushed aside by Paul in favor of Helen, shoots him in an exchange of gunfire. Larry rescues Carol and they call the police. After the cops arrive, Marcia explains that the dead body in the apartment was actually Lillian's rich sister, who bore a passing resemblance to Lillian but was not her twin. The sister had suffered a heart attack while visiting them, and the Houses decided to take advantage of the situation by claiming that it was Lillian who had died. Lillian would then assume the identity of her sister (a recluse living at the hotel) in order to manipulate her sister's will, naming Lillian and Paul as sole beneficiaries. But Paul then double-crossed and killed Lillian, so he could run off with Helen. ===== The "Brethren" are three former judges who are incarcerated at Trumble, a fictional federal minimum security prison located in northern Florida. The trio embark on a scam to deceive and exploit wealthy closeted gay men. None of them are gay, but they write convincingly as two young vulnerable gay men, developing friendships and then asking for financial help. In some cases, they also try blackmail. With the help of their lawyer, Trevor Carson, they transfer their ill-gotten money to a secret Bahamian bank account. Carson takes one-third and employs private detectives to investigate the victims of the scam. This takes over from Carson's normal legal business, which had been making very little money for him. Meanwhile, Teddy Maynard, the ruthless and soon-to-retire director of the CIA, is orchestrating a scheme to tip the United States presidential election in the favor of Aaron Lake, a hawkish congressman supported by arms manufacturers. However, Lake, who is closeted, is hooked by the unwitting Brethren in their scam. Realizing that Lake stands to be exposed, Maynard scrambles to stop them from finding out the truth. After the Brethren fire Carson, he is killed by CIA agents in the Caribbean. The CIA plant a man inside Trumble, who tells the Brethren that he knows about the scam. A deal is worked out, money changes hands and the judges are pardoned by the outgoing president at Maynard's insistence. The judges leave the country and travel to Europe, where they later restart the scam. Meanwhile, Lake is elected and Maynard, eager to finish the cover-up, selects for him a suitable First Lady. ===== This story of only 338 words focuses on a young boy named Max who, after dressing in his wolf costume, wreaks such havoc through his household that he is sent to bed without his supper. Max's bedroom undergoes a mysterious transformation into a jungle environment, and he winds up sailing to an island inhabited by malicious beasts known as the "Wild Things." After successfully intimidating the creatures, Max is hailed as the king of the Wild Things and enjoys a playful romp with his subjects. However, he starts to feel lonely and decides to return home, to the Wild Things' dismay. Upon returning to his bedroom, Max discovers a hot supper waiting for him. ===== The flight of Madeline and Porphyro, painting by William Holman Hunt On a bitterly chill night, an ancient beadsman performs his penances in the chapel next to the castle of Madeline's warlike family. Meanwhile, in the castle, an alcohol- fueled revelry has begun among the family. Madeline pines for the love of Porphyro, sworn enemy to her kin. She has heard 'old dames full many times declare' that she may receive sweet dreams of love from her lover Porphyro if, on this night, St. Agnes' Eve, she retires to bed under the proper ritual of silence and supine receptiveness. Later that night, Porphyro makes his way to the castle and braves entry, seeking out Angela, an elderly woman friendly to his family, and importuning her to lead him to Madeline's room at night, where he may but gaze upon her sleeping form. Angela is persuaded only with difficulty, saying she fears damnation if Porphyro does not afterward marry the girl. Concealed in an ornate, carven closet in Madeline's room, Porphyro watches as Madeline makes ready for bed. Beholding her full beauty in the moonlight, he creeps forth as she sleeps, to prepare a feast of rare delicacies. Madeline wakes and sees before her the same image she has seen in her dream and, thinking Porphyro part of it, receives him into her bed. Waking in full and realizing her mistake, she tells Porphyro she cannot hate him for his deception since her heart is so much in his, but that if he goes now he leaves behind "A dove forlorn and lost / With sick unpruned wing". Porphyro declares his love for Madeline and promises her a home with him over the southern moors. They flee from the castle, passing insensate, drunken revellers and rush into the night. Angela's death is revealed in the poem's final stanza and the beadsman, "after thousand aves told, / For aye unsought for slept among his ashes cold". ===== Fortune favours Justin Alastair, the uncanny and notorious Duke of Avon, casting in his way, one Paris night, the means to revenge himself on his enemy, the Comte de Saint-Vire. Avon literally collides with an abused boy, Léon Bonnard, whose red hair, deep blue eyes and (improbably) black eyebrows proclaim him a child of the Comte. Not knowing the exact relationship between the boy and Saint-Vire, Avon purchases him from his brother, a tavern keeper. He takes the boy as his page, and as such can parade the boy throughout French high society, even at a party at Versailles held by Louis XV. The Duke displays Léon before the Comte's wife and his son and heir. He notes the resemblance of the son, Henri, to Léon's brother, Jean Bonnard, a tavern keeper. He also notes that the boy, Léon's age, prefers rural life, and wants to be a farmer. After this excursion to Versailles, the Comte becomes greatly interested in Léon and attempts to purchase him. Meanwhile, both Avon and his friend, Hugh Davenant, have realised that Léon is actually a girl, Léonie. Léonie is wildly devoted to Avon, seeing him as her savior from a life of abuse, rather than as dissolute and scandalous, as the rest of the fashionable world views him. The Duke journeys into Champagne, where Léonie grew up, to meet a childhood mentor, the village priest who educated her. This discussion confirms for Avon what he had suspected: Léonie is the legitimate child of the Comte and his wife and was switched at birth with the Bonnard's newborn son, who has been raised as the Comte's heir ever since, as the Comte feared his wife would not bear any other children and he was eager to prevent his younger brother Armand from becoming his heir. The dissipated Avon has come to care for Léonie so while he continues his scheme of revenge on the Comte, he takes Léonie to England with him where he pronounces his intention to make her his ward. He teaches her to be a lady, while letting her be known as Léonie de Bonnard. The Comte has become increasingly desperate and kidnaps her and carries her to France. Léonie escapes from him with the help of the Duke's younger brother, Lord Rupert. The party is then joined by Fanny Marling, the Duke's sister, and her husband, Edward Marling. Once in France, the Duke introduces Léonie into Parisian society, where she makes a big splash. A rumour comes to Léonie's ears that she is the Comte's illegitimate child—the family likeness is very striking. The Comte then persuades Léonie that her illegitimacy is destroying the Duke's reputation, as society views her as his lover. Her distress at this leads her to flee to live with the kindly village priest of her childhood. This event catalyzes Avon to complete his revenge. At a large party, he tells the true story of Léonie's life, then embellishes it by adding that she has drowned herself in the Seine. This breaks her mother, whose open grief betrays the Comte's guilt. Knowing he is ruined in society, the Comte shoots himself. His despised brother becomes the new Comte. Avon reunites with Léonie, they express their true feelings, and they marry. Devil's Cub follows These Old Shades with the adventures of Avon's and Léonie's son Dominic, a shockingly selfish and indulged young man who elopes with a poor relation of one of his father's friends. An Infamous Army completes the story with the Duke of Avon's great-granddaughter, Barbara, marrying the hero of An Infamous Army. An Infamous Army is also a sequel to Regency Buck. ===== On board an ocean liner to America, four stowaways are involuntarily pressed into service as toughs for a pair of feuding gangsters while constantly trying to evade the ship's crew.Monkey Business trivia at the Internet Movie Database. Prior to this development, the film has no real plot, with the Brothers merely causing unending uproar. Except in the credits and in the screenplay, the Brothers' characters have no names in this film. They are referred to simply as "the stowaways". After arriving stateside, one of the gangsters kidnaps the other's daughter, leaving it up to the brothers to save the day.Plot summary of Monkey Business at the Internet Movie Database ===== The film features a sheep that lives in the American West. His elegant dancing is popular with the other animals. One day the sheep-shearers arrive and shear him for wool. Having lost his coat, the other animals laugh at the sheep and he becomes shy and loses the confidence to dance. It is whilst in his bare state that a benevolent jackalope comes across the little lamb and teaches him the merits of "bounding", not just dancing (that is, getting up whenever you fall down). The sheep is converted and his joy in life is restored. The sheep's wool eventually grows back in the winter, only for it to be cut again, but his pride is now completely unshaken and he continues to "bound." The moral of the story is to never feel bad about yourself. ===== While on a flight from Toronto, Ontario, to Vancouver, British Columbia, the pilots at the controls of a Canadair North Star, a large commercial airliner, fall victim to food poisoning. Approximately half of the passengers have also been incapacitated by eating the same fish served to the pilots. After the stewardess (Corinne Conley) asks for help from the passengers, George Spencer (James Doohan), an ex-Second World War Spitfire fighter pilot, is forced to take over. His wife (Kate Reid) is able to help him at the controls, but he is worried about his sick son. A storm over Vancouver makes matters worse, with George not only having to overcome harrowing wartime flashbacks, but also struggling with the controls of an unfamiliar aircraft, in order to bring the airliner down safely. ===== ===== On V-J Day in 1945, a massive celebration in a New York City nightclub is underway, music provided by the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. While there, selfish and smooth-talking saxophone player Jimmy Doyle (De Niro) meets small-time USO singer Francine Evans (Minnelli), who, although lonely, still wants nothing to do with Jimmy, who keeps pestering her for her phone number. The next morning, they end up sharing a cab, and, against her will, Francine accompanies Jimmy to an audition. There he gets into an argument with the club owner. Francine, to get the audition back on track, begins to sing the old standard, "You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me"; Jimmy joins in on his sax. The club owner is impressed and, to Francine's astonishment, they are both offered a job—as a boy-girl act. From that moment on, Jimmy and Francine's relationship deepens into a mix of obsession and love. But there are problems—mainly, Jimmy's tendency to fight with his co-workers, and his increasingly violent arguments with Francine, who becomes pregnant with his child. An especially bad shouting match between them results in Francine going into labor. Jimmy rushes her to the hospital, where she delivers a baby boy. But Jimmy is not ready to be a father, or a good husband, and he abandons his wife, declining even to see his newborn son as he leaves the hospital. Several years later, in a recording studio, Francine records "But the World Goes Round," a powerful anthem which makes the charts and turns her into a popular entertainment figure. In the years that follow, Jimmy and Francine both find success in the music industry; he becomes a renowned jazz musician and club owner, while she becomes a successful singer and film actress. Jimmy records a song of his on his saxophone which tops the jazz charts, and Francine cements her stardom after singing that same song, "New York, New York," for which she has provided the lyrics. Her performance, received by a wildly appreciative audience, takes place in the same nightclub where, years earlier, she and Jimmy had met. After the show, Jimmy telephones his ex-wife, suggesting they get together for dinner. Francine is tempted, heads toward the stage door exit, but at the last moment changes her mind. Jimmy, waiting on the sidewalk, realizes he has been stood up and heads off down the street, accompanied by the song he has written—the "Theme from New York, New York. ===== Centuries ago a cruel and insanely tyrannical warlord was defeated by the two elite Samurai but had sworn to return in the future. When he does he unleashes undead forces of feudal Japanese warriors to destroy the world and its people. The warlord is opposed only by the two protagonists, a ninja and a Western cowboy (named Ninja Dave and Cowboy Kev in the Neo-Geo version and named Dan and Bill in the SNES version), who turn out to be descendants of the two elite Samurai responsible for vanquishing the wicked warlord centuries ago. ===== Dr Martin Ellingham (Martin Clunes), a brilliant and successful vascular surgeon at Imperial College London, develops haemophobia – a fear of blood, forcing him to stop practising surgery. He obtains a post as the sole general practitioner (GP) in the sleepy Cornish village of Portwenn, where he had spent childhood holidays with his Aunt Joan (Stephanie Cole) and Uncle Phil, who owns a local farm. Upon arriving in Portwenn – where, to his frustration, the locals address him as "Doc Martin" – he finds the surgery in chaos and inherits an incompetent receptionist, Elaine Denham (Lucy Punch). In series 2–4, she is replaced by Pauline Lamb (Katherine Parkinson), a new receptionist, and later also a phlebotomist. In Series 5, Morwenna Newcross (Jessica Ransom) takes up the post. The programme revolves around Ellingham's interactions with the local Cornish villagers. Despite his medical excellence, Ellingham is grouchy, abrupt, and lacks social skills. His direct, emotionless manner offends many of the villagers, made worse by his invariably unpleasant responses to their ignorant, often foolish, comments. They perceive him to be hot-tempered and lacking in a bedside manner, whereas he feels he is performing his duties in a professional and by-the-book manner, not wasting time chatting. Ellingham is very deadpan and dresses formally in a business suit and tie, regardless of the weather or the occasion, and he never takes off his jacket, even when delivering babies. He does not smoke and has no hesitation in pointing out the risks of unhealthy behaviours, both in private and in public gatherings. Doc Martin is filmed in the Cornish village of Port Isaac The villagers eventually discover his fear of blood, and the frequent and debilitating bouts of nausea and vomiting it causes. In spite of this handicap, Ellingham proves to be an expert diagnostician and responds effectively to various emergencies in his medical practice; thus, he gradually gains grudging respect from his neighbours. Ellingham does not get on with his parents, but has a warm relationship with his aunt, Joan Norton (Stephanie Cole), who provides emotional support. When she dies after a heart attack, her sister Ruth (Eileen Atkins), a retired psychiatrist, comes to Portwenn to take care of her affairs, and eventually decides to use the village as a permanent retreat, offering Martin the support Joan had provided. A major theme throughout the series is Ellingham's relationship with primary school teacher Louisa Glasson (Caroline Catz). Due to his difficulty in expressing feelings and his insensitive nature, the relationship has many ups and downs; though they eventually have a child and later marry. Other series regulars are father and son Bert and Al Large who are always trying to run a small business of some type; pharmacist Sally Tishell who is infatuated with Martin; and Mark Mylow, a quirky police officer who is replaced in series 3 by the bumbling Joe Penhale. Regular cast members have characterised Ellingham's personality thus: ::Joe Absolom: "The Doctor is ... slightly autistic, probably, on the spectrum." ::Martin Clunes: "Lots of people say that he is Aspergic or something to some degree—which yes, I think he is.""Script to Screen," a behind-the-scenes featurette on the Series 8 DVD (2017). He has also said, "He's clearly wired the way he's wired, but growing up being loathed by both your parents is going to leave a footprint. That's why he's so dysfunctional with relationships, 'cause there's gaps in his makeup. There's a sad little boy in there that comes out a lot, and that's what a lot of that frowning is." ::Eileen Atkins: "He's unable to connect with people. He just can't understand why people can't just take the truth, in a rather rough manner. If your parents have been very cold towards you and just factual, then that's very hard for you to grow up being—'loving' is too strong a word—an affectionate person.""Dame Eileen Atkins," a behind-the-scenes featurette on the Series 8 DVD (2017). ===== The Detroit Tigers travel to New York to play a season-ending series against the New York Yankees. At 63–97, the team has long since been eliminated from playoff contention and are playing for nothing but pride against the Yankees, who have a chance to clinch the American League East with a win. For 40-year-old pitcher Billy Chapel, however, this may end up being the most significant 24 hours of his life. In his Manhattan hotel suite, Billy awaits his girlfriend Jane Aubrey, but she doesn't show. Jane is also a single mother with a teenage daughter Heather that Billy got to know. The next morning, Billy is told by Tigers' owner Gary Wheeler that the team has been sold and that the new owners' first move will be to end Billy's 19-year tenure with the Tigers by trading him to the San Francisco Giants. Billy also learns from Jane that she is leaving that same day to accept a job offer in London. Billy is a famous, accomplished pitcher, but has a losing record this season, is near the end of his career and is also recovering from a hand injury. Wheeler hints that Billy should consider retiring rather than join another team. As he goes to Yankee Stadium to make his last start of the year, Billy begins reflecting about Jane, detailing how they met five years prior. These flashbacks are interspersed within the game, along with glimpses of Jane watching the game on a television at the airport. As the game progresses, with friend and catcher Gus Sinski aware that something is on Billy's mind other than baseball, Billy dominates the Yankees' batters, often talking to himself on how to pitch each one. While in the dugout resting between innings, Billy also reflects how his relationship with Jane was strained by his shutting her out of his life after he suffered a career-threatening injury in the off-season. The pain of pitching is getting worse as the game goes on. Billy is so caught up in his thoughts that he does not realize he is pitching a perfect game until he looks at the scoreboard in the bottom of the eighth inning. Gus confirms that no one has reached base, and says that the whole team is rallying behind Billy to do whatever it takes to keep the perfect game bid alive. Billy's shoulder pain has become intense by this point, and after he throws his first two pitches of the inning well out of the strike zone, Tigers manager Frank Perry makes the call to warm up two relief pitchers in the bullpen. The count goes to 3–0 before Billy recalls pitching to his father (now deceased) in the back yard. He rallies and throws a strike, then gets the batter out on the next pitch. Before the Tigers take the field for the bottom of the ninth inning, Billy has final ruminations about his career and his love for Jane. He autographs a baseball for Wheeler, who has been like a father to him for many years. Along with a signature at the end, Billy inscribes the ball with "Tell them I'm through. For love of the game." After finishing the perfect game, Billy sits alone in his hotel room as the realization sinks in that everything he has been and done for the past 19 years is over. Despite his amazing accomplishment, Billy weeps not only for the loss of baseball, but for the other love of his life, Jane. The next morning, Billy goes to the airport to inquire about a flight for London. Jane had missed her flight the night before so she could watch the end of his perfect game. Finding her there waiting for her plane, they embrace and reconcile. ===== Hunter "Patch" Adams (Robin Williams) is suicidal and admits himself to a mental institution. Once there, he finds that using humor, rather than doctor- centered psychotherapy, better helps his fellow patients and provides him with a new purpose in life. Because of this, he wants to become a medical doctor, and two years later enrolls at the Medical College of Virginia (now known as VCU School of Medicine) as the oldest first year student. He questions the school's soulless approach to medical care, particularly why students don't work with patients until their third year, as well as the methods of the school's Dean Walcott (Bob Gunton), who takes an instant dislike to Patch and believes that doctors must treat patients his way and not befriend them. Because of this and incidents such as setting up a giant model papier-mâché pair of legs in stirrups during an obstetric conference, he is expelled from the medical school, although he is later reinstated when it becomes apparent to the school that his unconventional methods often improve his patients' health. Adams encourages medical students to work closely with nurses, learn interviewing skills early, and argues that death should be treated with dignity and sometimes even humor. Patch begins a friendship with fellow student Carin Fisher (Monica Potter) and, during their third year as medical students develops his idea for a medical clinic built around his philosophy of treating patients using humor and compassion. With the help of Arthur Mendelson (Harold Gould), a wealthy man who was a patient whom Patch met while in the mental hospital, he purchases 105 acres (42.5 hectares) in West Virginia to construct the future Gesundheit! Institute. Together with Carin, medical student Truman Schiff (Daniel London), and some old friends, he renovates an old cottage into a clinic. When they get the clinic running, they treat patients without medical insurance and perform comedy sketches for them. Patch's friendship with Carin soon turns into romance. When she tells him that she had been molested as a child, Patch comforts her and reassures her that she can overcome her pain by helping others. Encouraged, Carin wants to help a disturbed patient, Lawrence "Larry" Silver (Douglas Roberts). However, Larry murders Carin, then commits suicide. Patch is guilt-ridden by Carin's death and begins to question the goodness in humanity. Standing on a cliff, he contemplates suicide again and asks God for an explanation. He then sees a butterfly that reminds him that Carin had always wished she was a caterpillar that could turn into a butterfly and fly away. The butterfly lands on his medical bag and shirt before flying away. With his spirits revived, Patch decides to dedicate his work to her memory. Walcott eventually discovers that Patch has been running a clinic and practicing medicine without a license and attempts to expel him again because of this, as well as complaints that he has made his patients uncomfortable (which is obviously not true). Desperate to prove Walcott wrong, Patch files a grievance with the state medical board on the advice of his former medical school roommate, conservative Mitch Roman (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Patch succeeds in convincing the board that he must treat the spirit as well as the body. The board, although they still find some of his methods questionable, allows him to graduate and he receives a standing ovation from the packed hearing room. At graduation, Patch receives his diploma and, bowing to the professors and audience, reveals his naked bottom. ===== Graduate student Teri MacDonald has trained a chimpanzee named Virgil to use sign language. When her research grant is not renewed, she is forced to sell Virgil. He is taken to an Air Force base to be used in a top-secret research project involving flight simulation, though she's told that he's been sent to a zoo in Houston. Airman Jimmy Garrett is assigned to the same chimp project. Virgil and Jimmy quickly bond, and Jimmy discovers that Virgil has been taught sign language. Unbeknownst to Jimmy, once the chimps reach a certain level in operating the flight simulator, they will be exposed to a lethal pulse of radiation to determine how long a pilot may survive after a nuclear exchange in carrying out a second-strike. When Jimmy becomes aware of the chimps' fate, he contacts Teri, who comes to the base. Teri tells Jimmy that she is going to inform the National Science Foundation of the deception. Jimmy tells Teri that she does not have enough time because Virgil is scheduled to die soon. Jimmy challenges Dr. Carroll and others about the value of the project by pointing out that the hypothetical pilot, knowing of the implications of the second-strike scenario, would know that he is dying, and would, therefore, be affected by that knowledge. However, the chimps would not have the same awareness; thus, the project is flawed. This enrages Dr. Carroll. Meanwhile, in the vivarium, some of the chimps have unlocked their cages and have stacked crates and boxes in an attempt to escape through a skylight. Jimmy and Teri walk in to see the chimps escaping. Virgil, at the top of the stack, is about to break the skylight with a crowbar when the authorities enter. Goliath the chimp becomes very angry and fights with Dr. Carroll. The authorities are chased from the room, and Goliath and Virgil end up in the flight simulator room. A jammed fire extinguisher moves the radiation generator into an exposed condition, potentially leading to an uncontrolled radiation blast. Jimmy gets Virgil and some other chimps out, but Goliath continues smashing the simulator and is caught inside. Jimmy and Virgil convince Goliath to yank out the extinguisher, but Goliath dies from radiation. Jimmy and Teri steal a military plane to help the chimps escape, but they are stopped by military police. While the police are holding them, Virgil pilots the plane, and the chimps fly away. They eventually crash in the nearby Everglades and evade a search. Just as the search is being abandoned, Jimmy and Teri see Virgil hiding in the bush with his chimpanzee girlfriend. Teri signs to Virgil that he and the others are now "free", and the chimps disappear into the Everglades. ===== In the 1890s a group of "Harvey Girls" – new waitresses for Fred Harvey's pioneering chain of Harvey House restaurants – travels on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway to the western town of Sandrock, Arizona. On the trip they meet Susan Bradley, who is travelling to the same town to marry the man whose beautiful letters she received when she answered a "lonely-hearts" ad. Unfortunately, when she arrives, the man turns out to be an "old coot" who does not at all meet her expectations – and he also wants not to get married as much as she wants not to marry him, so as they continue to express personal faults not mentioned in their letters they quickly reach a mutual agreement to call it off. When she learns that someone else, the owner of the local saloon, Ned Trent, wrote the letters as a joke, she confronts him and tells him off, in the process endearing herself to him. Then Susan joins the Harvey Girls, and she soon becomes their leader in fighting against the attempts by Trent's business associate, Judge Sam Purvis, to scare them off in order to maintain the thriving business of the large saloon in town – and against the animosity of the perhaps euphemistically called "dance-hall girls" led by Em, who is in love with Trent, and who sees Susan as a rival. Trent visits to see the value of the Harvey House and other trappings of civilization, then he tells Purvis to leave them alone, but Purvis continues with his campaign of intimidation, finally burning down the restaurant. Trent offers his saloon as a replacement, and Em and the dance-hall girls leave town. Susan, thinking that Trent too is leaving, gets on the train, but Em, seeing that Susan loves Trent so much that she is willing to give up everything for him, stops the train and points out Trent, riding toward them on his horse. Ultimately, they are wedded in the desert, surrounded by the Harvey Girls. ===== The story is narrated by Lisa Janusch (Marla Sokoloff), the bitter and jealous head cheerleader of Lincoln High School's B-squad. Diane Weston (Marley Shelton), the popular head cheerleader of Lincoln High School's A-squad, becomes pregnant by the star football quarterback Jack Bartlett (James Marsden). The two are kicked out of their parents' homes and find an apartment of their own. Jack initially has problems keeping a job, due to his tactless personality, but finally gets hired at a video rental store. In spite of their problems coming up with the rent money, Jack and Diane try as hard as they can to survive while going to school at the same time. Lisa, Diane's bitter rival, occasionally runs into Jack at the rental store. She is interested in winning Jack's heart, but fails to get his attention. After struggling with the rent and anticipating the financial hardship of supporting a family, Diane and her four cheerleader squadmates, Kansas Hill (Mena Suvari), Cleo Miller (Melissa George), Lucy Whitmore (Sara Marsh), and Hannah Wald (Rachel Blanchard), plan the perfect bank robbery. They promise each other not to tell Jack about their plan, because of his inability to lie to others. The squad watches heist films to learn how to rob banks, and Kansas visits her mother at the women's penitentiary for tips on where to find weaponry. Following the women's advice, Diane and her friends visit a bug exterminator, "The Terminator" (W. Earl Brown), who sells illegal arms and ammo. He refuses to sell them the guns unless they accept his awkward daughter, Fern Rogers (Alexandra Holden), on the squad. The squad agrees to do so and they begin rehearsing the robbery, as well as their choreography for the winter ball. During winter break, they order masks to hide their identities. Lucy backs out of the heist because she receives a scholarship to Harvard. At Christmas, Diane receives an engagement ring from Jack. She then finds out he sold his GTO in order to buy her the ring. The squad is forced to obtain a new get-away vehicle, prompting Fern to volunteer her father's work van with bad brakes. At their first robbery at a supermarket, Lucy returns to the group having decided to help them after all. Lisa happens to be in the store at the time of the robbery, and notices that they perform cheerleader stunts in order to cover up the security cameras. The squad robs the bank and come close to shooting a customer after one of the guns discharges. They make off with armloads of cash and celebrate their success after burning their costumes. The robbery is reported on TV. Neither Diane nor her friends expect Lisa to suspect them until they are confronted by her and the B-squad in the high school cafeteria, followed by the FBI. Diane and her friends are jailed and need an alibi, so Diane promises to promote Lisa to captain of the A-squad in order to keep Lisa silent, since she is approaching her third trimester and can't do rigorous activity. The group is outraged, but come to appreciate this decision. In order to cover up her actions, Diane tells Jack she won the lottery and after they have their twins, Jack wins his senatorial campaign, and Diane's squad lead successful lives after high school. ===== Jazz chases his nemesis Devan Shell through time, in order to retrieve the ring with which he planned to wed Eva. ===== The film consists of four parts ("A Premonition", "Erosion", "Visitation", and "Transmigration"). High school student Kirie's first glimpse that something is awry in the small town of Kurouzu-cho comes when the father of her boyfriend (Shuichi) begins to film the corkscrew patterns on a snail; he is also in the process of making a video scrap book filled with the images of anything that has a spiral or vortex shape to it. His weird obsession threatens to go out of control. He proclaims that a spiral is the highest form of art and frantically creates whirlpools in his miso soup when he runs out of spiral patterned Kamaboko. He then becomes one with Uzumaki when he decides to crawl into a washing machine to get a 'point-of-view' shot for his film. It is not long before the entire town is infected by the otherworldly whirls. Tamura, a reporter, is intrigued by Shuichi's father's suicide and becomes obsessed with the case. Meanwhile, in the hospital, Shuichi's mother, who was hospitalized after her husband's death, cuts off her hair and fingertips in order to get rid of anything spiral-shaped on her body, and grows fearful of spirals that Shuichi is forced to tell the hospital to eliminate anything spiral-shaped so his mother may not encounter them (even going so far as to throwing away the cakes that Kirie had brought for her mother, since the frosting on the cakes were like whirls). Eventually, Shuichi's mother succumbs to her phobia and kills herself when a millipede tries to crawl into her ear to inhabit her cochlea and causes her to hallucinate about her husband, who tells her that "there's another vortex in the deepest part of your ear". Meanwhile, Kirie's high school is populated by a host of twitching teachers, preening pretty girls, and the slimy Katayama, who begins to walk at a snail's pace and only comes to school when it rains. Making matters worse, the student body is starting to sprout shells, drink water in copious amounts, and crawl on the walls of the school. Kirie's classmate, Sekino, begins to grow her hair in medusa-like curls that eventually take over not only her mind but the minds of all the girls in the school (save for Kirie). It is not long before even the sky itself is cursed, with whirl-like clouds and the eerily smoky, ghost- like faces of the victims who perished in the grip of Uzumaki appearing during funerals. Soon, everyone in Kurouzu-cho has been caught in the curse of the vortex—Kirie's father, who takes a drill to his eye after obsessively creating spiral shaped ceramics; the reporter who gives a special report on the horrors of the town and her crew, all of whom lose themselves in a tunnel only for their corpses to be found as an humanoid snail; Sekino, whose chokes and her body has been and devoured by the snake-like curls; Kirie's stalker, who throws himself in front of Inspector Tamura's car and is twisted around the axle, the impact by Tamura's head leaving a spiral crack in the windshield; a police officer, who while he was admiring the spiral rifling in the barrel of his gun, shot himself in the eye, leaving a spiral hole in his head; and even Shuichi himself, whose body twists into a spiral and becomes possessed by it. Only Kirie is left in the cursed town of Kurouzu-cho, and, in the end, her final fate is remained unknown as to whether or not she lives or dies. ===== Julius and Vincent Benedict are twins, the result of a secret experiment carried out at a genetics laboratory to combine the DNA of six fathers to produce the perfect child. To the surprise of the scientists, the embryo split and the twins were born. The mother, Mary Ann Benedict, was told that Julius died at birth, and not told about Vincent at all. Vincent was placed in an orphanage run by nuns in Los Angeles and believed his mother abandoned him. With no one but himself to rely on, Vincent seduced a nun, escaped from the orphanage, and later became an indebted, small time criminal. Julius was raised on a South Pacific island by Professor Werner, one of the scientists from the experiment, who put him through intense physical training and extensive study. Both believed Mary Ann died during childbirth. Each twin was unaware of the other's existence. On Julius' 35th birthday, Werner finally tells Julius about Vincent. With Werner's blessing, Julius proceeds to Los Angeles to find his brother. Julius eventually tracks Vincent down in jail, where he is being held for unpaid parking tickets and driving with an expired license. Julius bails Vincent out, but Vincent does not believe his story and abandons him in a parking lot. Julius pursues Vincent to his workplace and finds him being beaten up by Morris Klane, one of three loan shark brothers that Vincent owes $20,000. Julius subdues Morris, earning Vincent's trust and respect. He later meets Vincent's girlfriend Linda Mason and enters a romantic relationship with her twin sister Marnie. Over dinner, Vincent shows Julius a document he stole from the orphanage that shows their mother is still alive, but believing that she abandoned him at birth, Vincent shows no interest in finding her. Believing that their mother may have also been lied to, Julius tracks one of their six fathers to the address on the document. The father directs Julius to Dr. Mitchell Traven, Werner's colleague, in New Mexico. Vincent steals a late model Cadillac from a parking garage run by his buddy (to sell to a chop shop) and finds a prototype fuel injector in the trunk that was to be delivered to industrialist Beetroot McKinley in Houston, in return for $5 million. Vincent decides to pose as the delivery man, Mr. Webster, and deliver the fuel injector himself so he can collect the money and pay off his debts. He reluctantly allows Julius, Linda and Marnie to accompany him to New Mexico to find Traven, while Webster begins pursuing Vincent. In the process, he encounters the Klane brothers and shoots them in the legs as a warning to keep away from Vincent. In New Mexico, Traven reveals the truth to the twins, pointing out that Julius resulted from the best genes, and spitefully denouncing Vincent as having come from the "useless" genetic material, leaving Vincent distraught. After Julius threatens him, Traven directs them to Santa Fe, where their mother lives in an art colony. Julius convinces Vincent to regain his spirits and they continue their journey. On the way to Santa Fe, the twins are accosted by the Klane brothers, but they fight them off for the last time. At the art colony in Santa Fe, a gardener informs Julius and Vincent that their mother has died. They leave, unaware that the gardener was in fact Mary Ann, who did not believe their story, having been told she only had one son who died at birth. Abandoning Julius and the girls in New Mexico, Vincent heads to Houston alone to deliver the prototype to Beetroot. Julius chases after Vincent, sensing his whereabouts thanks to twin telepathy, and finds him seconds after the exchange with Beetroot. Webster appears and kills Beetroot and his bodyguard, demanding the money from Vincent. Julius intercepts Webster, allowing Vincent to escape, but Vincent returns and agrees to give Webster the money to save Julius. Webster decides to kill them anyway for seeing his face, but Vincent, at Julius' subtle prompting, kills him by dropping a heavy chain onto him and burying him. Julius and Vincent return both the prototype and $4 million (with Vincent skimming $1 million) and use a $50,000 reward to pay off Vincent's debts and start a consulting firm. Their publicity reaches the art colony, and Mary Ann learns that her sons are alive. She violently confronts Traven for concealing the truth and then tracks Julius and Vincent down to their workplace, where they share a warm reunion. Sometime later, Julius and Vincent marry Marnie and Linda. Both marriages produce twin children, and the couples are last seen meeting their mother and Professor Werner on an outing. ===== Martin Springfield and Rachel Mansour return to Earth to recuperate following the events of Singularity Sky. However, Rachel is quickly called upon to explain the administrative expenses she incurred during her previous assignment. Shortly thereafter she finds herself negotiating with a lunatic believing himself to be a reincarnation of Idi Amin and in possession of an armed nuclear device which, in the black humor typical of the series, he has threatened to detonate after receiving an eviction notice from his apartment. Meanwhile, a young and hopeful planetary civilization is murdered by the apparent use of a causality violation device which causes their sun to explode without warning (the "iron sunrise" of the title), and their defense systems to deploy automatically against the homeworld of the suspected perpetrators of the atrocity. Rachel and Martin set off to investigate these events and prevent the assassination of the remaining members of the murdered civilization's leaders, who can abort the retaliation strike. In the background the Eschaton continues to play its own game. ===== Set in Casablanca shortly after World War II, escaped Nazi war criminal Heinrich Stubel (Sig Ruman) has steadily murdered three managers of the Hotel Casablanca. Disguised as a Count Pfferman, Stubel's goal is to reclaim the stolen art treasures that he has hidden in the hotel. However, the only way he can do this undetected is by murdering the hotel's managers and running the hotel himself. The newest manager of Hotel Casablanca is former motel proprietor Ronald Kornblow (Groucho), who is very much unaware that he has been hired because no one else will dare take the position. Inept Kornblow takes charge of the hotel, and eventually crosses paths with Corbaccio (Chico), owner of the Yellow Camel company, who appoints himself as Kornblow's bodyguard, aided and abetted by Stubel's valet Rusty (Harpo). In his many efforts to murder Kornblow, Stubel sends beautiful Beatrice Reiner (Lisette Verea) to romance the clueless manager. Before Stubel can make his escape to the airfield with the loot, Kornblow, his friends, and Miss Reiner invade his hotel room and sneak from suitcase to closet and back again to unpack his bags, which serves to drive him thoroughly mad. Arrested on false charges, Kornblow, Corbaccio and Rusty eventually crash Stubel's plane into a police station where the brothers expose Stubel as an escaped Nazi. ===== The events in the novel take place between March 9 and March 13, 1971. Harold Franklin "Harry" Benson, a computer scientist in his mid-thirties, is described as suffering from "psychomotor epilepsy"This was changed to Acute Disinhibitory Lesion (ADL) syndrome in subsequent reprints. following a car crash two years earlier. He often has seizures followed by blackouts, and then wakes up hours later with no knowledge of what he has done. During these seizures, he severely beats two people; the day before his admission, he was arrested after attacking a third. He is a prime candidate for an operation to implant an electronic "brain pacemaker" in the amygdala region of his brain in order to control the seizures, which will be performed in the Neuro-Psychiatric Service (NPS) of University Hospital. Two NPS surgeons, John Ellis and Robert Morris, are to perform the unprecedented surgery. The ramifications of the procedure are questioned by the NPS's staff psychiatrist, Janet Ross, and later by her former teacher, Manon, an emeritus professor. Manon raises concerns that Benson is psychotic and predicts that the crimes he commits during the blackouts will not be curtailed. Ellis admits that what they are doing is not a cure, simply a way to stimulate the brain when the computer senses a seizure coming on. It would prevent a seizure but not cure Benson's personality disorder. Ellis rationalizes his approach by pointing out that he is not convinced that not operating on Benson will do him any favors; his condition threatens his life and those of others, has already undermined his legal status three times, and is worsening. Despite the concerns voiced, the team decides to go ahead with the operation. Forty electrodes are implanted into Benson's brain, controlled by a small computer that is powered by a plutonium power pack in his shoulder. Benson must wear a dogtag that says to call University Hospital if he is injured, as his power pack may emit radiation. While he is recovering, a woman identifying herself as Angela Black gives Morris a blonde wig for Benson, whose head was shaved prior to the operation. Morris refuses a man who volunteers to have electrodes put into his brain to stimulate pleasure, but realizes that people like Benson could potentially become addicts. He recalls a Norwegian man with schizophrenia, who was allowed to stimulate himself as much as he wanted, and did so much that it actually gave him brain damage. Roger A. McPherson, the head of the NPS, interviews Benson and realizes Manon and Ross were right about his psychosis, ordering nurses to administer thorazine to Benson. After resting for a day, Benson goes through "interfacing". The electrodes are activated one by one to test which ones would stop a seizure. Each electrode produces different results; one stimulates a sexual pleasure. Gerhard, one of the technicians administering the test, shows his findings to Ross, who discovers that the seizures are becoming more frequent. She explains that Benson is learning to initiate seizures involuntarily because the result of these seizures is a shock of pleasure, which leads to him having more frequent seizures. Ross further discovers that, due to a clerical error by the nurses, Benson has not been receiving thorazine. She then finds out that Benson, using the wig and disguising himself as an orderly, has evaded the police officer assigned to guard him and escaped from the hospital. Ross goes to Benson's house, where she finds two girls who say he has a gun and possesses blueprints for the basement of the hospital, where the computer mainframe is located. Morris meets Benson's boss, who tells him that Benson disliked University Hospital because of its ultra-modern computer system, an upgraded IBM System/360. After Benson's dogtag is found at the murder scene of Angela Black, Ross is questioned by police. Benson confronts Ross in her house and attacks her upon having a seizure. Just before losing consciousness, Ross manages to turn on her microwave oven, the radiation of which affects the power pack in Benson's shoulder and forces him to flee. Morris uses a book of matches found on Angela's body to track Benson to an airport hotel. Morris finds a mechanic who has been beaten by Benson, and is himself attacked and injured. Back at the hospital, Ross receives a phone call from Benson, which is traced to somewhere inside the building. The hospital's computers begin to malfunction, as if somebody was disturbing the mainframe. Ross and Anders go down into the basement, where Anders exchanges fire with and injures Benson before becoming lost in the maze of corridors. Benson goes back to the computer room and finds Ross. Ross picks up Benson's gun and, after an internal struggle, shoots and kills Benson unintentionally. ===== Michael Gallatin, a werewolf, is a British emigrant that is a top spy for Britain during World War II. In 1942, he overtakes Rommel in North Africa and foils the Nazis plan to control the Suez Canal. This vital waterway would ensure that Nazi Germany could choke off Allied shipping and continue their march east into Russia. In 1944, the war still rages on and the Nazis are forced toward Berlin by the Soviets, but Western Europe is still in Hitler’s grip. Gallatin, in seclusion since 1942, is called back for a vital mission: the first part of the mission has him parachuting into Nazi-occupied France to retrieve vital information from an informant named Adam. Adam is in Paris under tight Gestapo security (the Nazi’s official secret police). Gallatin contacts Adam through a Nazi deserter called “Mouse”. He slips a note in Adams pocket that informs Adam to go to an opera at the third act, so Gallatin can receive the information. The Gestapo had followed Adam and shoot him in the head just after the information was disclosed to Michael. Michael escapes by faking suicide using cyanide; he does not swallow the pill. This fake-out allots him time to turn into a werewolf and he kills the fleeing Gestapo. Gallatin and Mouse must make their way east to Berlin, the heart of the Nazis lair, in an attempt to foil a top- secret Nazi plan, “Iron Fist”. ===== ===== The Real Story On her first mission, Morn Hyland, an ensign in the United Mining Companies Police (UMCP), discovers that she suffers a rare psychosis called "gap sickness," which begins manifesting after the first time she travels faster than light through the "gap." Now, whenever her ship experiences heavy g, she falls into a trance and experiences a compulsion to initiate a self-destruct sequence upon any equipment within her reach. When her ship hits heavy g for the first time after she is stricken with the illness during pursuit of a criminal, she destroys the cruiser upon which she is aboard, killing the crew which includes her entire family. She survives the destruction only because the pursued criminal, a vicious pirate named Angus Thermopyle, finds her when he boards the wreckage looking for salvage. In order to neutralize her gap sickness and exploit her for his own ends, Angus places a "zone implant" in her brain — a remotely controlled electrode which allows Angus to control Morn's every feeling and action. Angus uses the zone implant to repeatedly rape and abuse her. Although misuse of a zone implant is a capital crime and Angus risks execution if he is discovered, he hopes the zone implant's control will prevent Morn from exposing him. When they arrive at Com-Mine, the nearest space station, Morn makes contact with another pirate — Nick Succorso, captain and owner of the ship Captain's Fancy, who she sees as a potential rescuer. Morn and Nick collude to frame Angus for stealing station supplies. However, before he is arrested, Angus asks Morn to smuggle the implant's remote control off the station. During her captivity, Morn has become addicted to the artificial stimuli only the implant can provide; because of her addiction, she is unable to turn down Angus' offer. Rather than turn herself in to the police for treatment, she conceals the existence of her implant. With her own controls in her possession, Morn is effectively a superwoman and is able to disregard fear, pain, or fatigue; however, by continuing to use the zone implant on herself, she, like Angus, breaks the law against unauthorized use. Morn joins Nick's pirate crew to escape from police oversight, even concealing her implant from Nick himself. Because she left no evidence of Angus' real crimes, he is imprisoned for the theft of which he was framed, but is not executed for what he did to Morn. Although the series has at least one chapter each from over a dozen viewpoints, Morn, Angus, and their son Davies are the primary protagonists of the entire series. Forbidden Knowledge Morn's story picks up when Nick's pirate ship leaves the station. Morn secures her place on his ship by becoming Nick's lover, using her zone implant to conceal her disgust for him and her rapidly escalating grief. Already mourning her lost family and her lost position in the UMCP, she also loses her faith in the institution when she learns that Nick is actually a secret UMCP agent, whose thefts and murders are overlooked in exchange for deniable operations in alien space. After this, Morn quickly discovers that despite his dashing reputation, Nick is almost as cruel as Angus. When Morn discovers that she is pregnant, he pressures her to abort the fetus. But she opts against it because she has been the last survivor of her line ever since she killed her family with the self- destruct. Although she knows that Angus is the father, she convinces Nick that she is carrying his child. He appears to relent, but is unwilling to tolerate her pregnancy or raise a child aboard ship. Instead, he takes Morn to Enablement Station, a station run by an alien civilization called "the Amnion," who possess biotechnology far beyond anything humans understand. The Amnion are engaged in a cold war against the United Mining Companies; the Amnion hope to control humanity by injecting "mutagens" which can convert any non-Amnion life-forms into Amnioni; Earth is defended only by the UMCP that keeps them at bay. Nick asks the Amnion on Enablement to "force-grow" Morn's fetus, producing a physically mature 16-year-old within a matter of hours. She names him Davies, after her late father. The humans learn that the force- growth procedure has a significant flaw: although the Amnion can create a mature body, they have no way to create a functional adult personality or mind. Instead, they copy the mother's memories onto the child, typically destroying the mother's mind in the process. However, Morn's zone implant allows her to preserve her sanity. As soon as Davies is born, he and Morn are threatened from two sides. First, Nick discovers Morn's lies. Nick can see immediately that he is not Davies' father because Davies looks just like Angus. Hoping to find out why Morn survived the force-growth, the aliens run a scan which reveals her zone implant. Angry and betrayed, Nick wants revenge against Morn and her son. An opportunity arises when the Amnion demand that he sell Davies back to them. He gets his opportunity when the aliens demand they return Davies into their custody, but doesn't account for the extreme lengths to which Morn will go to protect her son. While Nick negotiates with the Amnion to trade Davies for engine parts, Morn escapes from a locked room and rigs a self-destruct large enough to destroy the ship itself and most of Enablement Station. Morn is successfully able to threaten both sides. She orders Nick to keep Davies on the ship rather than sell him to the Amnion, then forces the aliens to give them the engine parts anyway. When the Amnion hold Nick accountable for Morn's actions and declare him an enemy, he flees from their warship back toward human space. The alien ships pursue him across the border, breaking the treaties that had until then prevented outright war between the Amnion and the UMCP. Meanwhile, Angus' alleged theft of station supplies has become a political crisis. All humans are citizens of one federal democracy, but that state has no military or police force equipped to operate in space. Instead, they delegated human interests in space to the UMCP. Although the United Mining Companies Police is a wholly owned subsidiary of a for-profit corporation, their charter grants them full police powers anywhere in open space. However, each space station has maintained its own security force with jurisdiction over the station itself. Although Angus was convicted of theft when Com-Mine security found the stolen cargo on his ship, they never found out how the actual theft was committed. This seeming incompetence provoked widespread outrage and destroyed public confidence in local security. The legislature responds by passing the "Preempt Act," giving the UMCP the power to override station security essentially at will. The truth about the theft is that Warden Dios, the director of UMCP, and his boss Holt Fasner, CEO of the UMC, engineered the crisis in order to get the Preempt Act past the legislature. Hashi Lebwohl, Warden's director of Data Acquisition, bribed a Com-Mine Officer named Taverner to steal the supplies, intentionally provoking the outrage that justified the Act. Fasner realizes that because Morn was on Angus' ship, she must know that he was framed. Fasner orders Warden to have her killed, but because she has left human territory, Warden can't send the UMCP. Instead, he uses his new power to take custody of Angus Thermopyle and ship him to UMCP headquarters. Through several months of surgeries, Hashi turns Angus into a cyborg agent, equipped with a variety of hidden tools and weapons. Angus is given multiple specialized zone implants, and an implant computer to manage them. The zone implants are so powerful that the computer can control his body completely, and the computer is so sophisticated that it can understand and react to events so naturally that no one will know Angus is being controlled. As Holt and Warden instructed him, Hashi programs Angus to go to alien space, find and kill Morn, and destroy an infamous pirate shipyard. However, at the last moment before Angus leaves, Warden secretly replaces his program with alternate orders: go to alien space, destroy the pirate shipyard, rescue Morn, and bring her safely back to Earth. Warden explains that although as a naive young man, he helped Fasner build up the UMC's power, he now believes Fasner to be irredeemably evil. Rather than continue to allow Fasner to rule space through his private police, Warden wants the government to nationalize the UMCP, making them answerable to the state. Fasner's political influence is so great that Warden doesn't think the government can be persuaded by ordinary activism, and he fears that Fasner will have him killed if he supports a reform movement openly. Warden believes the only thing that could persuade the government to reform the police would be a scandal so devastating that it utterly discredits their moral authority and implicates the CEO, Fasner, and so Warden has decided to make that happen. His plan is to manipulate Fasner into using the police for a variety of heinous crimes—such as bribing station security, working with pirates, or murdering witnesses—and then deliberately fail the cover-up, without allowing Fasner to realize that he is trying to fail. ===== Jim Harris goes with his partners to steal $300,000 from a Mafia- controlled policy bank in Harlem, disguised as police officers. The robbery goes wrong and results in the deaths of seven men — three black gangsters, two members of the Mafia, and two police officers. Lieutenant William Pope, a strait-laced black police officer is assigned to work the case with aging Captain Frank Mattelli, a street-wise but racist Italian-American cop. Although Lieutenant Pope works strictly by the book and states that he is in charge of the investigation, he struggles to restrain Mattelli, who receives money from Doc Johnson, the leader of black organized crime in Harlem. Over the course of roughly twenty-four hours, Pope and Mattelli race to get to the criminals before they can be hunted down by the Mafia, which is also searching for Harris’ crew. The Italians are led by Nick DiSalvio, a savage capo who plans to torture the robbers, when he finds them, to deter others from trying what they did. ===== The Federation starship Enterprise encounters a ship disguised as a large asteroid, which is on a collision course with planet Daran V. Captain Kirk and First Officer Spock beam to the ship's interior, along with Dr. McCoy, who is suffering from a fatal disease called xenopolycythemia. They are attacked and subdued by a group of humanoids, whose High Priestess, Natira, welcomes them to the "world of Yonada" and orders them to be taken before the "Oracle". This Oracle demonstrates its power by administering a powerful electric shock. As they recover, an old man approaches them and tells them that he has climbed the mountains of his world and discovered that "the world is hollow and I have touched the sky". He then collapses and dies, and his temple glows red. Natira enters and expresses regret at the man's foolishness. She then gives the three permission to explore Yonada, but McCoy elects to stay with Natira. Spock notes that Yonada's writing system resembles that of the Fabrini, a race that was destroyed by a supernova 10,000 years ago. The people of Yonada are evidently their descendants, but are unaware of the nature of their world. McCoy and Natira have fallen in love, and Natira asks the Oracle for permission to marry McCoy, which the Oracle grants on condition that McCoy accept an "instrument of obedience". Kirk and Spock are then discovered, having secretly entered the Oracle Room. Natira says she must execute them for their transgression, but McCoy persuades her to relent. As Kirk and Spock prepare to return to the Enterprise, McCoy declares his intention to stay behind with Natira. McCoy marries Natira, and an instrument of obedience is implanted in his temple. Natira shows him their sacred text, the "Book of the People". McCoy suspects it holds the key to setting Yonada back on course, and calls the Enterprise to share this information, which causes his obedience device to be activated. Kirk and Spock transport back to Yonada, and Spock removes the device from McCoy while Kirk tries to explain the truth to Natira. When Natira's own device is activated, McCoy removes it while Kirk and Spock again deal with the Oracle. Spock learns from the Book how to enter the control room behind the Oracle's altar, where they discover the ship's navigational controls and correct Yonada's course. Spock also discovers the Fabrini archives, which contain a cure for McCoy's condition. McCoy returns to the Enterprise where he is successfully treated, hoping to see Natira again when Yonada arrives at its new homeworld in about a year. ===== Timmy Gleason is the estranged son of ex-con Ray Gleason and has been living with his aunt Kitty and her fiance since the death of his mother some years earlier. Ray works as a baker designing cakes for a bakery. When Kitty goes on her honeymoon, she dumps Timmy on a reluctant Ray, leaving him to look after his son in San Francisco for the next week. Timmy is hoping to spend time with his father, but is largely ignored by Ray, who is the midst of planning a rare-coin heist with his two cronies Bobby and Carl. The robbery is successful, but Timmy learns of it and hides the stolen coins from them. He uses it to blackmail Ray into spending time with him, promising that he will return the coins afterwards. Thus father and son spend the next few days fishing, playing miniature golf and visiting amusement parks, with an amiable Carl and angry Bobby tagging along. The police are suspicious of Ray, so Detective Theresa Walsh is assigned by her superior to go undercover and surveil him. By chance, Ray and Timmy get talking to Theresa, unaware of who she really is, and invite her for a coffee and then to dinner. Theresa and Ray develop a mutual attraction, causing her boss concern over her willingness to do her job. Timmy and Ray have also gotten closer, so Timmy decides that he wants to stay with his dad permanently. He urges Ray to forget about the stolen coins, because he will probably be caught and sent back to prison. Ray refuses, so Timmy prepares to return home. At the last moment, Ray has a change of heart. Bobby, however, appears at the bus station, where at gunpoint he forces Ray to open the locker containing the coins. Ray and Bobby are set upon by the waiting police and arrested. Ray is crushed to discover that Theresa is a cop. However, it turns out that the bag in the locker was full of pennies, so Ray is released again. At Timmy's prompting, Theresa finds the rare coins in a gym bag in a department store held by a mannequin. The coins are returned and all charges against Ray are dropped. Father and son then prepare for a new life together. ===== Larry Wilson (Andrew McCarthy) and Richard Parker (Jonathan Silverman) are two low- level financial employees at an insurance corporation in New York City. While going over actuarial reports, Richard discovers a series of payments made for the same death. Richard and Larry take their findings to the CEO, Bernie Lomax (Terry Kiser), who commends them for discovering insurance fraud and invites them to his Hamptons, Long Island, beach house for the Labor Day weekend. Unbeknownst to Larry and Richard, Bernie is behind the fraud. Nervously meeting with his mob partner Vito (Louis Giambalvo), Bernie asks to have Larry and Richard killed. However, after Bernie leaves, Vito decides Bernie has been attracting too much attention with his greed and his relationship with Vito's girlfriend, Tina (Catherine Parks), and orders that he be killed instead. Bernie arrives at the island before Larry and Richard and plans the murders with Paulie (Don Calfa), the hitman, on the phone, unaware the conversation is being recorded on his answering machine. Bernie then plants cash and a fake confession note implicating Larry and Richard in the insurance fraud. Paulie arrives and kills Bernie with a heroin overdose. When Larry and Richard arrive at Bernie's house, they are shocked to find Bernie's body. Before they can call the police, guests arrive for a party that Bernie used to host every weekend. To Larry and Richard's amazement, the guests are too engrossed in their partying to notice he is dead, with the dopey grin from the fatal injection and his sunglasses concealing his lifeless state. Fearing implication in Bernie's death, and wanting to enjoy the luxury of the house for the weekend, Larry proposes he and Richard maintain the illusion that Bernie is still alive, a notion that Richard finds absurd. Only the arrival of Richard's office crush, Gwen Saunders (Catherine Mary Stewart), a summer intern for the company, convinces him to go along with Larry's plan. Later that night, Tina arrives at the house, and has Larry and Richard direct her to Bernie. There, she also fails to realize he is dead. At that moment, Marty, one of Vito's mobsters witnesses the two of them apparently making love. Fooled into thinking Bernie's assassination failed, he notifies Vito. The next morning, Richard is appalled to discover Larry furthering the illusion of Bernie being alive by manipulating his body's limbs. Richard attempts to call the police but instead activates the phone message detailing Bernie's plot against them. Unaware of the circumstances of Bernie's death, they mistakenly believe they are still the targets of a mob hit and decide to use Bernie's corpse as a prop for protection. Richard and Larry make various attempts to leave the island. All attempts are thwarted, as they repeatedly misplace and recover Bernie's body. Finally, Larry and Richard are forced to return to Bernie's home. Meanwhile, Paulie, unhinged by his apparent failure to kill Bernie, returns to the island. At the house, Gwen confronts Larry and Richard, who confess that Bernie has been dead since before their arrival. Paulie then appears and opens fire at Bernie, then turns his attention to Larry, Richard, and Gwen. Chasing after the trio, Paulie corners Larry, who clumsily manages to subdue him with a phone cord and a punch. The police eventually arrive and place Paulie under arrest, taking him away in a straitjacket as he continues to insist Bernie is still alive. Bernie is loaded into an ambulance, however, his gurney rolls away and topples off the boardwalk, dumping him onto the beach right behind Richard, Larry, and Gwen, who run away after noticing him. Eventually, a young boy comes along and starts scooping buckets of sand over the body, burying Bernie. ===== The film begins with a narrated map showing the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, commanded by Robert E. Lee, crossing the Potomac River to invade the North in June 1863, marching across Maryland and into Pennsylvania. On June 30, Confederate spy Henry Thomas Harrison reports to Lt. Gen. James Longstreet, commander of the First Corps, that the Union Army of the Potomac is moving in their direction, and that Union commander Joseph Hooker has been replaced by George Meade. Longstreet reports the information to General Lee, who is concerned that the army is moving "on the word of an actor", as opposed to that of his cavalry chief, J. E. B. Stuart. Nonetheless, Lee orders the army to concentrate near the town of Gettysburg. At the Union encampments near Union Mills, Maryland, Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain of the 20th Maine is ordered to take in 120 men from the disbanded 2nd Maine who had resigned in protest, with permission to shoot any man who refuses to fight. Chamberlain speaks to the men, and is able to persuade all but six to take up arms. In Gettysburg, Brig. Gen. John Buford and his cavalry division spot elements of Henry Heth's division of A. P. Hill's Third Corps approaching the town and recognizes that the Confederate army is approaching. Buford recognizes that, with precedent from previous battles, the Confederates will arrive at Gettysburg first and entrench in strong positions, forcing the Union to charge them and suffer heavy casualties. To prevent this, he opts to stand and fight where he is, judging the terrain to be "lovely ground" for slowing the Confederate advance. Buford sends word to I Corps commander Maj. Gen. John F. Reynolds to bring up reinforcements. Heth's troops engage Buford's cavalry the following morning, July 1, with Richard S. Ewell's Second Corps moving in to flank them. Reynolds brings his corps forward, but is killed by a Confederate sharpshooter. The Union army is pushed out of Gettysburg to Cemetery Ridge, and Lee—rejecting Longstreet's suggestion to redeploy south of Gettysburg and go on the defensive—orders Ewell to take the Union position "if practicable". However, Ewell hesitates and does not engage. The armies concentrate at their chosen positions for the remainder of the first day. At Confederate headquarters at Seminary Ridge, Maj. Gen. Isaac R. Trimble angrily denounces Ewell's inaction to Lee, and requests another assignment. On the second day, July 2, Col. Strong Vincent's brigade from the Union V Corps is deployed to Little Round Top, and Vincent places the 20th Maine at the end of the line, warning Chamberlain that he and his regiment are the flank, and that if they retreat, the Confederate army can swing around behind them and rout the Union forces. Lee orders Longstreet to deploy his two available divisions to take Little Round Top and the neighboring Big Round Top. As Longstreet's corps deploys, Maj. Gen. John Bell Hood, commanding one of the divisions, protests to Longstreet; with the Union holding the high ground, he would lose half his forces if he attacked as ordered. Longstreet, despite his own protests to Lee, orders Hood to attack; Hood is later wounded fighting at Devil's Den. At the summit of Little Round Top, Chamberlain and the 20th Maine fight off wave after wave of advancing Confederates, and begin running out of ammunition. Colonel Vincent is mortally wounded, and none of the other three regiments in his brigade are able to provide support. Chamberlain orders his men to fix bayonets, and charge in a right wheel down the slope against the attacking Confederates, which Chamberlain describes as "we'll swing it down like a door." The attack successfully drives the Confederate assault back, and the Union flank holds. That evening, Stuart finally arrives, and Lee reprimands him for his being out of contact. At the same time, Longstreet's remaining division, under Maj. Gen. George Pickett, arrives on the field. For the third day, July 3, Lee decides to send three divisions—Pickett's, Trimble's, and J. Johnston Pettigrew's—to attack the center of the Union line at Cemetery Ridge. Longstreet expresses his belief to Lee that the attack will fail, as the movement is a mile over open ground, and that the Union II Corps under Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock is deployed behind a stone wall, just as Longstreet's men had been at Fredericksburg. Lee nonetheless orders the attack to proceed. Longstreet then meets with the three division commanders and details the plan, beginning first with Colonel Edward Porter Alexander's artillery clearing the Union guns off the ridge, before deploying the men forward. Despite heavy Confederate fire, Alexander is unable to make an impact upon the Union guns. When Pickett asks to move forward, Longstreet simply nods. The Confederate divisions march across the open field, and Hancock is wounded as he commands from the front line. One of Pickett's brigades, commanded by Brig. Gen. Lewis Armistead, makes it over the stone wall, but Armistead is wounded and captured by Union troops. The Confederates rout or retreat due to high casualties. Lee asks Pickett to send his division back out, but he replies "General Lee, I have no division": Pickett's Charge ultimately fails. Meeting with Longstreet that evening, Lee finally decides that they will withdraw. The film ends with the fates of the major figures of the battle. ===== A young man, Dan, takes a young woman to hospital after she has been hit by a taxi; they flirt as they wait for the doctor to attend to her bloodied knee. Larry, a dermatologist, inspects her leg briefly and leaves. Dan and the young woman introduce themselves—he is Daniel Woolf, an obituary writer and failed novelist who tells her how he and his colleagues use euphemisms humorously in their work in obituaries. At the girl's prompting, he says his euphemism would be "reserved" and hers would be "disarming". She is Alice Ayres, a self- described waif who has a scar along her leg shaped like a question mark. Wanting him to spend the rest of the day with her, she calls in sick for him. More than a year later, Dan is on the verge of publishing a book based on Alice's past as a stripper, and Anna is taking his photograph for publicity. Dan falls in love with Anna, though he is in a relationship with Alice, having left his former girlfriend for her. He begs Anna to see him again, and she rejects him. Alice overhears his conversation with Anna. She asks Anna to take her photo, and when Dan has left, confronts her; Anna insists she is "not a thief" and snaps a photo of a tear-stricken Alice. Six months later, Dan and Larry meet in an adult chat room. Dan impersonates Anna and has Internet sex with Larry. He tries to play a practical joke on Larry by arranging for Larry to meet him (Dan pretending to be Anna in the chat room) in the London Aquarium the next day. When Larry arrives, stunned to see Anna (who Dan didn't know would actually be there), he acts under the impression that she is the same person from last night and makes a fool of himself. Anna catches on and explains that it was probably Dan playing a practical joke on him. She reveals that it is her birthday and snaps a photo of Larry. They become a couple. At Anna's showing, Alice stands in front of her photo, looking at it; Dan is watching her. They have an argument over Alice's presentiment that Dan will leave her. Larry meets Alice, whom he recognises as the woman in the photo, and knows that she is Dan's girlfriend. Meanwhile, Dan convinces Anna to carry on an affair with him. They cheat on their partners with each other, even through Anna and Larry's marriage. Finally, one year later, they tell their partners the truth and leave their respective partners for each other. Alice, devastated, disappears from Dan's life and goes back to stripping, going by the name Jane. Larry finds her at one of the seedy strip clubs in London, where he pushes her to tell the truth about her name. In a poignant moment, he asks, "Tell me something true, Alice." She tells him, "Lying is the most fun a girl can have without taking her clothes off - but it's better if you do." They share a connection based on mutual betrayal and heartbreak. He asks her to meet him later for sex. She declines, but we later learn she does go home with him after all. A month after this, Anna is late meeting Dan for dinner. She is coming from asking Larry to sign the divorce papers. Dan finds out that Larry had demanded Anna have sex with him before he would sign the papers. Dan becomes upset and jealous, asking Anna why she didn’t lie to him. They have a candid, brutally truthful conversation, and it is revealed that Anna did have sex with Larry and he did sign the papers. Alice meanwhile has been sleeping with Larry. On his birthday, she summons him to the museum and sets up Anna to meet him there. Larry and Anna exchange words, as Anna discovers Alice and Larry have been having a casual relationship. Larry asks Anna if their divorce will ever become finalised; he leaves when Alice emerges. The two women share a heated exchange in which their mutual animosity is revealed. Anna calls Alice "primitive", a description Alice accepts. The younger Alice paints a pathetic picture of Larry's emotional state and gleans from Anna that Dan still calls out for "Buster" (Alice's nickname) in his sleep. Anna goes back to Larry. Distraught, Dan confronts Larry at his office and has to come to terms with the fact that Anna no longer wants him. Larry recommends Dan go back to Alice and reveals that he had seen her in the strip club. He lies for Alice at first and tells Dan that they did not sleep together, since Alice feared that, if Dan found out, he would not want her any more. At the end, Larry decides to hurt Dan and reveals the truth—that they had slept together. Dan and Alice, back together, are preparing to go to America. They relive the memories of their first meeting, but Dan is haunted by their encounters with Larry and Anna and pushes Alice to tell him the truth. In the moment when Alice becomes caught between telling the truth (which she refuses to do) and being unable to lie to him, she says, "I don't love you anymore. Goodbye." (She had told Dan in the beginning that these are the words she tells her significant others when their relationship is over and she is going to leave.) She tells Dan to leave. Dan struggles with her; she spits in his face, and he throws her back on the bed, grabbing her neck. She dares him to hit her, and he does; she leaves. Later, Anna and Larry meet again, only to reveal that they have broken up once again and Larry is dating a young nurse named Polly. They are meeting because Alice has died the night before in New York, having been hit by a car while crossing the street. Larry leaves as Dan arrives because he has patients to see. Dan talks with Anna and says that no one could identify Alice's body and he is flying over to America to do so. Before Dan leaves, he tells Anna that Ruth, his ex-girlfriend whom he left for Alice/Jane, is now married, has a child, and is pregnant with a second. She married a poet, having fallen in love with him (without ever having met him) after reading his book of poems, Solitude. Dan and Anna bid each other a cold goodbye, and Dan leaves to catch his flight, leaving Anna alone. ===== On 26 April 1929, Scotland Yard Detective Frank Webber (John Longden) escorts his girlfriend Alice White (Anny Ondra) to a tea house. They have an argument and Frank storms out. While reconsidering his action, he sees Alice leave with Mr. Crewe (Cyril Ritchard), an artist she had earlier agreed to meet. Crewe persuades a reluctant Alice into coming up to see his studio. She admires a painting of a laughing clown, and uses his palette and brushes to paint a cartoonish drawing of a face; he adds a few strokes of a naked feminine figure, and guiding her hand, they sign the picture with her name. He gives her a dancer's outfit and Crewe sings and plays "Miss Up-to-Date" on the piano. Crewe steals a kiss, to Alice's disgust, but as she is changing and preparing to leave, he takes her dress from the changing area. He attempts to rape her; her cries for help are not heard on the street below. In desperation, Alice grabs a nearby bread knife and kills him. She angrily tears a hole in the painting of the clown, then leaves after attempting to remove any evidence of her presence in the flat, but accidentally leaves her gloves behind. She walks the streets of London all night in a daze. When the body is found, Frank is assigned to the case and finds one of Alice's gloves. He also recognizes the dead man, but conceals this from his superior. Taking the glove, he goes to see Alice at her father's tobacco shop, but she is too distraught to speak. As they speak privately in the shop's telephone booth, Tracy (Donald Calthrop), arrives. He had seen Alice go up to Crewe's flat, and he has the other glove. When he sees Frank with the other one, he attempts to blackmail them. His first demands are petty ones, and they accede. Frank learns by phone that Tracy is wanted for questioning: he was seen near the scene and has a criminal record. Frank sends for policemen and tells Tracy he will pay for the murder. Alice is apprehensive, but still does not speak up. The tension mounts. When the police arrive, Tracy's nerve finally breaks and he flees. The chase leads to the British Museum, where he clambers onto the domed roof of the Reading Room and slips, crashing through a skylight and falling to his death inside. The police assume he was the murderer. Unaware of this, Alice feels compelled to give herself up and goes to see the Chief Inspector at New Scotland Yard. Before she can confess to him, the inspector receives a telephone call and asks Frank to deal with Alice. She finally tells Frank the truth—that it was self-defense against an attack she cannot bear to speak of—and they leave together. As they do, a policeman walks past, carrying the damaged painting of the laughing clown and the cartoon canvas where Alice painted over her name. ===== 12-year-old orphan Anne Shirley is living in servitude with the cruel Hammond family in Nova Scotia. However, when Mr. Hammond dies, Anne is sent to an orphanage where she eventually receives the news that she has been adopted by a family in Prince Edward Island. Upon arriving in the small town of Avonlea, Anne is met at the train station by the elderly Matthew Cuthbert who is surprised to find her there instead of the boy he was expecting. Matthew and his sister Marilla had requested a boy to help them on their farm, Green Gables. When Anne Shirley arrives at Green Gables, she is a precocious, romantic child desperate to be loved and highly sensitive about her red hair and homely looks. In her own unique headstrong manner, Anne manages to insult Marilla's friend and the Avonlea town gossip Rachel Lynde, in a dispute over her looks; smash her slate over Gilbert Blythe's head when he calls her "Carrots" on her first day of school; and accidentally dyes her hair green trying to salvage her wounded pride. Marilla is shocked and beside herself to know how she will ever cope with this sensitive, headstrong child so desperate to fit in but shy, gentle Matthew is always there to defend Anne and hold her up on a pedestal. Anne becomes "bosom" friends with Diana Barry from across the pond, but accidentally gets Diana drunk by serving currant wine instead of raspberry cordial at a tea party. Mrs. Barry forbids Anne and Diana from seeing each other again, but relents when Anne saves the life of Diana's sister Minnie May. Anne moves from one mishap to the next as her wild imagination and far- fetched antics combine to constantly land her in trouble. Anne finds her element in the academic world, ultimately competing neck and neck with Gilbert Blythe who becomes her arch opponent. Anne and Gilbert go on to win the highest academic accolades, constantly vying for honors at every level. Eventually their fierce rivalry turns to a secret affection, which blossoms into love. Marilla tries to prevent Anne from seeing Gilbert because Anne is still quite young and Marilla wants Anne to continue her education. In the end, however, when Matthew dies and forces Marilla into considering selling Green Gables, Gilbert gives Anne his teaching post in nearby Avonlea so she can stay at Green Gables and continue to support Marilla. ===== The story begins on the 75th birthday of identical twin sisters, Dora and Nora Chance. By what Dora, who is also the narrator of the story, describes as a bizarre coincidence, it is also the 100th birthday of their natural father, Melchior Hazard, and his fraternal twin brother, Peregrine Hazard, who is believed to be dead. The date is also Shakespeare's supposed birthday – 23 April.Book choice: Wise Children – Telegraph Dora and Nora's birthday gets off to a dramatic start when their half-brother, Tristram Hazard, who believes himself to be the nephew of the twins, arrives on their doorstep. He announces that Tiffany – his partner, and the goddaughter of the twins – is missing. Dora and Nora soon discover that Tiffany is pregnant with Tristram's baby, but he is unwilling to take on the responsibility. Once this bombshell has been dropped, it emerges that a body has been found and it is believed to be Tiffany's. Most of the novel consists of Dora's memories. As well as providing the backstory of her natural father, Melchior Hazard, her legal father, Peregrine Hazard, and her guardian, Grandma Chance, Dora describes key events of her life. As Melchior becomes a renowned Shakespearean theatre actor in the 1920s, he refuses to acknowledge his daughters, who are publicly and legally believed to be the daughters of Peregrine instead. Dora is deeply hurt by Melchior's rejection, contrasting the loving nature of Peregrine, who becomes the twins' father figure. She recalls her early theatre performances and her first sexual experience, in which she impersonates Nora and sleeps with her unknowing lover. Melchior marries Lady Atalanta Lynde, who Dora calls "Lady A", and has two legitimate twin daughters, Saskia and Imogen. In the 1930s, he goes to Hollywood and produces a film version of A Midsummer Night's Dream in which Dora and Nora play Peaseblossom and Mustardseed. The production ends in disaster as Melchior leaves his first wife to elope with the wife of the film's producer, who plays the Titania to his Oberon in the film. After the Second World War, during which Grandma Chance is killed in the Blitz, Dora and Nora attend the 21st birthday party of Saskia and Imogen. Melchior announces, to Saskia and Imogen's fury, a third marriage to the best friend of Saskia, who is playing Cordelia in his King Lear. The announcement sparks a family argument in which Peregrine disappears, never to be seen again. The same night, Lady A falls down a flight of stairs and becomes confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life; she moves in with Dora and Nora. It is implied Saskia and Imogen may have pushed her down the stairs in their rage. Melchior has two more twins, Tristram and Gareth. Saskia, in an act of vengeance, enters into an incestual sexual relationship with her half-brother Tristram. Gareth, meanwhile, becomes a priest and vanishes. Dora, Nora and Lady A attend Melchior's 100th birthday party, where most of the novel's expansive cast of characters are in attendance. Melchior acknowledges Dora and Nora are his children for the first time in their lives. Peregrine makes a dramatic entrance accompanied by Tiffany, revealing both are still alive, and Lady A reveals that Peregrine is the true father of Saskia and Imogen. While Melchior and Nora share a dance together, Dora has sex with her paternal uncle Peregrine upstairs. She asks Peregrine if she is her father too; Peregrine strongly denies it, but suggests Grandma Chance may have been Dora and Nora's true mother. The novel ends with Dora and Nora being presented with the twin babies of the missing son Gareth to look after – a gift from Peregrine. They realise that they "can't afford" to die until they've seen their children grow up. The final line of the story is a message constantly conveyed throughout the novel: "What a joy it is to dance and sing!" ===== A young African- American orphan is sheltered by a Los Angeles brothel in the 1940s. Working as a towel boy, he is raped by one of the prostitutes. The women name him "Sweet Sweetback" in honor of his sexual prowess and large penis. As an adult, Sweetback performs in the whorehouse sex show. One night, two white LAPD officers come in to speak to Sweetback's boss, Beetle. A black man has been murdered, and there is pressure from the black community to bring in a suspect. The police suggest arresting Sweetback to appease their superiors, blame him for the crime, and then release him a few days later for lack of evidence. Beetle agrees, and they arrest Sweetback. On the way to the police station, the officers also arrest a young Black Panther named Mu-Mu after some trouble. They handcuff him to Sweetback, but when Mu-Mu insults the officers, they take both men out of the car, undo the handcuff from Mu-Mu, and beat him. In response, Sweetback fashions his handcuffs into brass knuckles and beats the officers, putting them into comas. Sweetback returns to the whorehouse for help, but Beetle refuses out of fear of being arrested himself. As Sweetback leaves, he is arrested and beaten by order of the police chief, seeking information about Mu-Mu's whereabouts, but escapes when a black revolutionary throws a molotov cocktail at the police car transporting him to the station for more severe interrogation. He next visits an old girlfriend, who similarly refuses him aid but cuts his handcuffs off in exchange for sex. Sweetback then asks his priest for help, but he refuses for fear of the police shutting down the church's drug rehab center. Police officers interrogate Beetle, seeking to discover Sweetback's whereabouts, rendering him deaf by firing a gun against each ear. Sweetback meets up with Mu-Mu and black gangsters drive them through South Central Los Angeles to the outskirts. Stopping overnight at a seemingly abandoned building, they discover it is a safe house for the Hells Angels. Their helmetted president challenges Sweetback to a duel: asked to decide the weapon and discovering she is a woman, he chooses sex and is judged to win. The bikers leave the men in their club to await a member of the all black East Bay Dragons who will get them to Mexico. During the night, the club is raided by two policemen with drawn guns. Sweetback resists arrest and kills both officers in self-defense, but Mu-Mu is badly wounded. The next morning, the Dragon arrives, but his motorcycle can only carry one; Sweetback asks him to take Mu-Mu, as the activist is their future. As Sweetback and Mu-Mu continue to evade arrest, pressure mounts on the police; the police chief warns his staff that the fugitives' example could prompt a black uprising. The police badly beat up a black man sleeping with a white woman, believing him to be probably one of the fugitives, and that he deserves a beating in any case. Later, Beetle, now in a wheelchair following the police brutality, is brought to the morgue to identify a body believed to be Sweetback and smiles when he sees it is someone else. As the police trawl black areas for him, they find Sweetback's biological and rather confused mother, who reveals that his birth name is Leroy. Sweetback pays a hippie to switch clothes with him, deceiving a police helicopter which sends a patrol car in pursuit. Sweetback was also wounded in the shootout and both stows away and hitches rides on trucks and a train heading south. Running through arid country, he survives by drinking from a puddle and eating a lizard. When police hear he might be at a rural hippie musical event, he successfully disguises himself by simulating sex in the bushes. He is later spotted and police borrow a farmer's hunting dogs to track him. Realising he will cross the border before they reach him, a policeman releases the dogs, expecting them to catch and kill him. However, at the Tijuana River, Sweetback stabs the dogs and escapes into Mexico, swearing to return to "collect some dues". ===== After dropping off his two young sons at Catholic school, an unnamed NYPD police lieutenant (Harvey Keitel) uses cocaine and drives to the scene of a double murder in The Bronx. The Lieutenant finds a drug dealer and gives him a bag of drugs from a crime scene, smoking crack during the exchange; the dealer promises to give him the money he makes from selling the drugs in a few days. At an apartment, the Lieutenant gets drunk and engages in a threesome with two women. Meanwhile, a nun is raped inside a church by two young hoodlums. The next morning, the Lieutenant learns that he has lost a bet on a National League Championship Series game between the New York Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers. He tries to win back his money by doubling his wager on the Dodgers in the next game. At another crime scene, the Lieutenant rifles through the car and finds some drugs which he stashes in his suit jacket. However, he is too impaired to secure the drugs, and they fall out onto the street in front of his colleagues. The Lieutenant tries to play it off by instructing them to enter the drugs into evidence. At the hospital, the Lieutenant spies on the nun's examination, and learns that she was penetrated with a crucifix. Later that evening, he pulls over two teenage girls who are using their father's car without his knowledge to go to a club. As they have no driving license, the Lieutenant tells one of the girls to bend over and pull up her skirt, and the other to simulate oral sex while he masturbates. The following day, he listens in on the nun's confession to her priest, where she says she knows who assaulted her but will not identify them. While drinking in his car, the Lieutenant listens to the final moments of the Dodgers game and shoots out his car stereo when they lose. Despite being unable to pay the $30,000 wager, he doubles his bet for the next game. Eavesdropping on the nun's confession, he hears her state that she has no anger about what happened, and begins cursing at God before breaking down in tears and sobbing that he wants to redeem himself. The Lieutenant drinks in a bar when the Dodgers lose again. After scoring cocaine in a nightclub, he tries to double his bet yet again. His friend refuses to make the wager, insisting that the bookie would kill him. The Lieutenant picks up his $30,000 share from the drug dealer and calls the bookie personally to place his bet. They arrange to meet in front of Madison Square Garden. He then visits a woman (Zoë Lund) and does heroin with her. At the church, he tells the nun that he will exact vengeance upon her attackers, but she repeats that she has forgiven them and leaves. In the resulting emotional breakdown, the Lieutenant sees an apparition of Jesus and tearfully curses him before begging forgiveness for his crimes and sins. The figure is revealed to be a woman holding a gold chalice, which turns out to have been pawned at her husband's shop. With the help of the woman, the Lieutenant tracks the two rapists to a nearby crack den in Spanish Harlem and cuffs them together. He holds them at gunpoint and smokes crack with them as the Mets win the pennant. Instead of booking the rapists, he drives them to the Port Authority Bus Terminal and puts them on a bus with a cigar box containing the $30,000. He demands that they never come back to New York. After he leaves the terminal, he parks on the street in front of Penn Station. Another car drives up beside him, and the driver, presumably the bookie with whom the Lieutenant had arranged to meet, shoots the Lieutenant dead. ===== When the famous Pink Panther diamond is stolen again from Lugash, Chief Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) is called on the case despite protests by Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Herbert Lom). While on the case, Clouseau is pursued by the Mafia. Clouseau first goes to London to interrogate Sir Charles Litton (having forgotten that he lives in the South of France). Traveling to the airport, he accidentally blows up his car trying to fix a pop-out lighter, but mistakenly believes it an assassination attempt, and disguises himself in a heavy cast on the flight, which causes complications in the air and on land. He then is led to an awkward introduction to the Scotland Yard detectives at Heathrow. Meanwhile, Dreyfus learns from Scotland Yard that Libyan terrorists have marked Clouseau for assassination, but permits him to continue. At the hotel, Clouseau has a miscommunication with the hotel clerk (Harold Berens) and gets knocked out a window several times, trying to get his message from Dreyfus. Clouseau's flight disappears over the ocean en route to Lugash, and Marie Jouvet (Joanna Lumley), a television reporter covering the story, sets out to interview those who knew him best. Among the people she interviews are Dreyfus; Hercule Lajoy (Graham Stark); Cato Fong (Burt Kwouk); and former jewel thief Sir Charles Litton (David Niven) who is married to Clouseau's ex- wife Lady Simone (Capucine). All of these interview scenes provides flashbacks to scenes of earlier Pink Panther films (The Pink Panther, A Shot in the Dark, The Return of the Pink Panther, The Pink Panther Strikes Again, and Revenge of the Pink Panther); but Jouvet also interviews Clouseau's father (Richard Mulligan), at his winery in the south of France, providing glimpses of Clouseau's childhood (wherein he is played by Lucca Mezzofanti), and his early career during college, nearly leading him to commit suicide after a girl of his dreams marries another person, especially in the French Resistance (in which he is played by Daniel Peacock) involving him failing to detonate a bridge full of crossing Nazis. Jouvet also questions Mafia don Bruno Langlois (Robert Loggia), a mafia boss antagonist who would appear in the next film, and tries to file a complaint against Langlois with Chief Inspector Dreyfus; but Dreyfus refuses to press charges. The film ends with Marie hoping that Clouseau might be alive somewhere as she states: Did Inspector Clouseau really perish in the sea, as reported? Or for reasons as yet unknown, is he out there someplace, plotting his next move, waiting to reveal himself when the time is right? I am reluctant to believe that misfortune has really struck down such a great man. Clouseau (played by John Taylor, only seen from behind) is seen glancing over a seaside cliff, when a seagull flies over and defecates on the sleeve of his coat. The words "Swine seagull!" are heard in the distinctive exaggerated French accent of Clouseau. The next shot shows the animated Pink Panther in trench coat and trilby hat is then revealed in place of Clouseau watching the sunset; he turns around to face the camera and flashes his coat open, but his trench coat reveals a montage of funny clips of Peter Sellers from his five Pink Panther films as a tribute to him, while the end credits roll. ===== After Riverside, Illinois couple Luther (Tim Allen) and Nora Krank (Jamie Lee Curtis) see their daughter, Blair (Julie Gonzalo), depart for a Peace Corps assignment in Peru on the Sunday following Thanksgiving, empty nest syndrome sets in. Luther calculates that he and Nora spent $6,132 during the previous year's holiday season and, not looking forward to celebrating Christmas without their daughter, he suggests they invest the money usually spent on decorations, gifts, and entertainment and treat themselves to a ten-day Caribbean cruise instead. Luther insists that they completely boycott the holidays, and eventually Nora agrees. The Kranks are amazed to discover they are considered pariahs as a result of their decision to skip the holidays. Most vocal in their objections are neighbors Vic Frohmeyer (Dan Aykroyd) and Walt Scheel (M. Emmet Walsh). Vic, who is the self-proclaimed leader of the street, organizes a campaign to force the Kranks to decorate their home. Walt does not seem to like Luther, so his efforts are primarily personal. However, it is revealed that Walt's wife Bev is suffering from cancer, perhaps dampening his holiday spirits. Children, led by Vic's son Spike (Erik Per Sullivan), constantly force them to put up a Frosty the Snowman decoration, and Christmas carolers try to revive the Kranks' holiday spirit by singing on their lawn, which Luther stops by freezing his front lawn. Even the newspaper gets into the act by publishing a front-page story complete with a photograph of the unlit Krank house. Still, Luther and Nora continue to stand their ground. The two are in the process of packing on Christmas Eve morning when they receive a call from Blair, who announces that she is at Miami International Airport, en route home with her Peruvian fiancé Enrique as a surprise for her parents. When Blair asks if they are having their usual party that night, a panicked Nora says yes. Comic chaos ensues as Luther and Nora find themselves trying to decorate the house and coordinate a party with only twelve hours to spare before their daughter and future son-in- law arrive. While Nora scrambles to find food, Luther goes to buy a tree, but is unable to get anything but a small, dried-up tree that quickly loses what few leaves it has. Luther then attempts to borrow the tree of neighbor Wes Trogdon (who is going away for a week with family to visit his in-laws) with the warning that he is not to break a single ornament or damage it. Luther enlists Spike's help to transport the tree across the street, but the neighbors spot him and, assuming he is stealing the tree, they call the police. Spike comes to Luther's rescue by showing that Luther has Trogdon's keys and thus was given permission to borrow the tree. Nora comes home, having only been able to obtain smoked trout, and orders Luther to put up Frosty on the roof of their house, which fails miserably when he and Frosty fall off the roof. Once it is established why Luther is trying frantically to decorate his home, the neighbors, led by Vic, come out in full force to help him and Nora ready it for Blair. Blair calls to say she landed from Miami, and the neighbors send the police to pick her up and stall long enough to let everyone finish setting up. The party starts off strong, with Blair having no idea of the earlier drama. Enrique thanks everyone for the warm welcome, and Nora thanks her neighbors for being a strong community. Luther, to everyone's disappointment, offers only a half-hearted toast. When Nora confronts Luther, he tries to convince her to still go on the cruise, but Nora refuses, disgusted that he is not happy that Blair is home. Having a change of heart, Luther sadly slips out of the house and goes across the street to the Scheel home. Bev's cancer, once in remission, has returned and, knowing this may be their last holiday together, Luther insists they take the cruise in place of him and Nora, going so far as to offer to take care of their cat, Muffles. At first Walt and Bev decline, but ultimately decide to accept his generosity; as a result, Luther, whose holiday spirit has been renewed, realizes skipping Christmas wasn't as good an idea as he had originally thought. Nora suggests doing it again the next year, much to Luther's perplexment. ===== Joe Kenehan (Chris Cooper), is an organizer for the United Mine Workers. He arrives in Matewan, West Virginia in 1921 to organize miners against the Stone Mountain Coal Company. His introduction to the town is his witnessing of a mob of miners angry at wage cuts beating up black miners who intended to cross the picket line. He takes up residence at a boarding house run by a coal miner's widow, Elma Radnor (Mary McDonnell), and her 15-year-old son, Danny (Will Oldham), who is also a miner and a budding Baptist preacher. The miners are reluctant to bring the imported workers, both black and Italian into their union, a cause not helped by C. E. Lively, a spy for the company within the union, who tries to goad the miners into violence and secretly informs the Baldwin–Felts Detective Agency of the "red" Kenehan's presence. The next day, two Baldwin–Felts men, Hickey and Griggs, show up in town and take up residence at the Radnor boarding house. Danny at first refuses to give rooms to Hickey and Griggs, but Kenehan voluntarily moves to the hotel, freeing up a room for the two men and averting trouble for Mrs. Radnor. Hickey and Griggs then start their campaign against the union by forcibly evicting miners from company-owned houses in town. Mayor Testerman and Police Chief Sid Hatfield refuse to let them be evicted without eviction writs from Charleston. Hatfield deputizes all the men in town and tells them to go home and come back with their guns. The Baldwin–Felts men then turn their attention on the strikers' camp outside town, where the miners and their families are living in tents. At night, the armed strikebreakers fire shots into the camp, injuring some strikers. The next day, they enter the camp to demand that all food and clothing purchased at the company store with scrip be turned over to them, but are thwarted by the arrival of armed hill people, whose land was taken by the coal company. Expressing disdain for the noise caused by the gunmen's automobile the night before, their presence and sympathy for the miners compels the Baldwin–Felts men to leave empty-handed. The slow arrival of the union's thinly stretched strike funds tests the patience of Danny Radnor and other miners who become disillusioned and turn to violence in spite of Kenehan's warnings. The miners are involved in a night- time shootout with the agents and Sephus is wounded. He is rescued by some hill people but not before he recognizes Lively as the infiltrator. Lively tries to drive a wedge between Kenehan and the miners by convincing a young widow, Bridey Mae Tolliver, to falsely accuse Kenehan of sexual assault, and he plants a letter which makes Kenehan appear to be the infiltrator, leading the miners to plot to kill Kenehan. Danny overhears Hickey and Griggs talking about the scheme and is discovered and threatened by Hickey. That night, while preaching at the Freewill church, Danny relates a parable about Joseph that convinces the miners that they have been deceived by a false story, taking advantage of the now-inebriated detectives. Lively silently slips out of the back of the church while a miner runs to the camp to stop Few Clothes (Jones) from killing Kenehan. Meanwhile, Sephus has made his way back to town and informed the others of Lively's betrayal, furiously burning down his restaurant. Lively flees town by swimming across the Tug Fork River. Later, while Danny and his friend Hillard Elkins, are stealing coal from the mine, they are confronted by the detectives. Danny hides, while Elkins is tortured for information. He provides five names, and is killed by Griggs anyway. Lively mentions that the men he has named died in the mines years ago, and muses that the death of a young boy will complicate things. The situation between the Baldwin–Felts men and Chief Hatfield reaches a boiling point with the arrival of reinforcements with orders to carry out the evictions. The mayor tries to negotiate as Kenehan comes running to try to stop the fight. The sudden movement sets off a climactic gunfight between the exposed mercenaries and the armed townspeople firing from barricades and rooftops. Hatfield shoots two men and survives the battle, but Kenehan is killed and the mayor is shot in the stomach. Griggs is brought down, while Hickey escapes to Elma Radnor's boarding house, where he is shot and killed by Elma Radnor. Seven Baldwin–Felts men and two townspeople are ultimately killed. In the epilogue, the narrator (revealed to be an elderly Danny recalling those days in "Bloody Mingo") recounts that Mayor Testerman succumbed to his wounds and the mayor's wife married Chief Sid Hatfield. But Hatfield was later gunned down in broad daylight on the steps of the McDowell County Courthouse in Welch, with Lively stepping up to deliver the coup de grâce. He recalls the event as the start of the Great Coalfield War. ===== J.B. Ball (Edward Arnold), the third richest banker in America, has a fight with his son John Jr. (Ray Milland) over breakfast which ends with the son leaving, determined to prove that he can make his own way. Ball becomes infuriated after learning that his wife Jenny (Mary Nash) bought a $58,000 sable fur coat by Kalinsky, without his knowledge. After finding many fur coats from the same designer in her closet, Ball grabs one which turns out to be, in fact, the offending coat. She grabs it and a chase takes them to the roof of their New York City penthouse. He throws it over the edge. It lands on Mary Smith (Jean Arthur) while she is riding to work on a double-decker bus. When she tries to return it, he tells her to keep it (He tells her that Kalinsky is a maker of faux fur.) He also buys her an expensive new hat to replace the one damaged in the incident, causing Van Buren (Franklin Pangborn), the owner of the salon, to mistake her for Ball's mistress. He loses no time in getting on the phone and spreading the word. When she shows up for work, her straitlaced boss suspects her of behaving improperly to get a coat she obviously cannot afford and fires her to protect the reputation of the Boy's Constant Companion, the magazine he publishes. Mary is down to her last pennies, forced to break her precious china bank. She begins receiving offers from people eager to cash in on her notoriety. One firm gives her an expensive sixteen-cylinder car, and hotel owner Mr. Louis Louis (Luis Alberni) installs her in a luxury suite, hoping that this will deter Ball from foreclosing on his failing establishment. When Mary goes to an automat for a meal, she meets John Jr. He is determined to make it on his own and is working anonymously at the restaurant. However, he is fired for giving Mary free food. When Mary finds out he has no place to stay, she invites him to share her enormous suite while he looks for a new job. They quickly fall in love. Meanwhile, as time goes on, her supposed connection to J.B. has disastrous consequences for the stock market. Stockbroker E.F. Hulgar (Andrew Tombes) asks her for inside information about steel from Mr. Ball. The only Ball the confused Mary knows is John Jr., so she consults him. He jokingly tells her it is going down and she passes it along to Hulgar. As a result, everybody begins selling, just as J.B. starts buying, causing J.B.'s company to teeter on the brink of bankruptcy. When Mary, John, and J.B. finally get together and figure out what is going on, John comes up with a bright solution - getting Mary to tell Hulgar that J.B. has cornered the market. Prices shoot up, rescuing the beleaguered financier. The delighted father gives his son a job. John Jr. then asks Mary to be his wife. ===== Her sister, Caroline, and their mother have gone to France, and eventually Alicia's suspicions are confirmed that Caroline has become engaged to an artist named Charles. Charles keeps postponing the wedding. Alicia's mother dies. Due to the death of their mother and the coldness and procrastination of Charles to her, Caroline is dying. Also, Alicia tries to leave them alone to catalyse the romantic process and to avoid charming Charles. Charles catches a glimpse of Alicia, and they soon fall in love with each other. Needless to say, Alicia feels very guilty because of her incestuous feelings toward the fiancée of her sister. Alicia and Charles make a deal that Charles should marry the dying Caroline, but not tell her it wasn't a legitimate marriage. If Caroline dies, Alicia and Charles can be married. If Caroline lives and does not want to marry Charles (after they tell her it wasn't a legitimate wedding), Alicia is free to marry Charles. The third option comes to pass, so Alicia must sacrifice her love for Charles and yield to her sister marrying Charles. Caroline and Charles marry. Shortly following the wedding, Charles leaves and does not return. Four months later, Alicia informs us that Charles drowned himself. Five years later, Alicia adds a final note that Caroline married a man named Higham, who was the one who pretended to marry Caroline and Charles. Alicia ends the short story by concluding that everyone involved in deceiving her sister have now repented (Higham by love, she says). "[M]ay she be deceived no more." ===== Jerry Ryan (Mitchum) is a lawyer from Nebraska who has recently separated from his wife. To get away from it all, he has moved to a shabby apartment in New York. He is struggling with the divorce, which has been filed but is not final, and takes long walks at night. At a party, he meets Gittel Mosca (MacLaine), a struggling dancer. They instantly get along, and begin to fall in love. But the relationship is hampered by their differences in background and temperament. Jerry gets a job with a New York law firm and prepares to take the bar examination. He helps Gittel rent a loft for a dance studio, which she rents out to other dancers. But their relationship is stormy, and Jerry has difficulty separating himself emotionally from his wife. They prepare to move in together nevertheless, but Gittel is upset when she learns that the divorce came through and Jerry did not tell her about it. Jerry explains that even though he is divorced from his former wife on paper, they remain bonded in many ways. He and Gittel decide he needs to return to Nebraska. ===== Windrush chats with his father at the Sunnyglades Nudist Camp, and is persuaded to seek a job: he interviews at the "Detto" company making washing detergent and making a very unfavourable impression fails to get the job. He then interviews at "Num-Yum" a factory making processed cakes. Although it tastes good the process for making the cakes is very disturbing. An excess of samples causes him to be sick into a large mixing bowl of the product. Again he fails to get the job. The recruitment agent tells Windrush by letter that after getting 11 interviews in 10 days and making a singularly unimpressive impression that industry isn't for him. His uncle, Bertram Tracepurcel and his old army comrade, Sidney DeVere Cox, persuade Windrush to take an unskilled blue-collar job at Tracepurcel's missile factory, Missiles Ltd. At first suspicious of Windrush as an over-eager newcomer, communist shop steward Fred Kite at first asks that Stanley is sacked for not having a union card. However, after a period of work-to-rule, he takes Stanley under his wing and even offers to take him in as a lodger. When Kite's curvaceous daughter Cynthia drops by, Stanley readily accepts. Meanwhile, personnel manager Major Hitchcock is assigned a time and motion study expert, Waters, to measure how efficient the employees are. The workers refuse to cooperate but Waters tricks Windrush into showing him how much more quickly he can do his job with his forklift truck than other more experienced employees. When Kite is informed of the results, he calls a strike to protect the rates his union workers are being paid. This is what Cox and Tracepurcel want: Cox owns a company that can take over a large new contract with a Middle Eastern country at an inflated cost. He, Tracepurcel and a Mr Mohammed, the country's representative, would each pocket a third of the £100,000 difference (£ million today). The excuse to the foreign government is that a faster contract costs more. The union meet and decide to punish Windrush by "sending him to coventry" and he is informed this in writing. Stanley's rich aunt visits the Kite household. Mrs Kite decides she is going on strike. Things don't work out for either side. Cox arrives at his factory, Union Jack Foundries, to find that his workers are walking out in a sympathy strike. The press reports that Kite is punishing Windrush for working hard. When Windrush decides to cross the picket line and go back to work (and reveals his connection with the company's owner), Kite asks him to leave his house. This provokes the adoring Cynthia and her mother to go on strike. More strikes spring up, bringing the country to a standstill. Faced with these new developments, Tracepurcel has no choice but to send Hitchcock to negotiate with Kite. They reach an agreement but Windrush has made both sides look bad and has to go. Cox tries to bribe Windrush with a bagful of money to resign but Windrush turns him down. On a televised discussion programme ("Argument") hosted by Malcolm Muggeridge, Windrush reveals to the nation the underhanded motivations of all concerned. When he throws Cox's bribe money into the air, the studio audience riots. In the end, Windrush is accused of causing a disturbance and bound over to keep the peace for 12 months. He is last seen with his father relaxing at a nudist colony, only to have to flee from the female residents' attentions. Unlike in the opening scene this time he is naked. ===== The story takes place on the rapidly advancing frontier of New York State and features an elderly Leatherstocking (Natty Bumppo), Judge Marmaduke Temple of Templeton (whose life parallels that of the author's father Judge William Cooper), and Elizabeth Temple (based on the author's sister, Hannah Cooper), daughter of the fictional Templeton. The story begins with an argument between the judge and Leatherstocking over who killed a buck. Through their discussion, Cooper reviews many of the changes to New York's Lake Otsego and its area: questions of environmental stewardship, conservation, and use prevail. Leatherstocking and his closest friend, the Mohican Indian Chingachgook, begin to compete with the Temples for the loyalties of a mysterious young visitor, a "young hunter" known as Oliver Edwards. The latter eventually marries Elizabeth Temple. Chingachgook dies, representing European-American fears for the race of "dying Indians", who appear to be displaced by settlers. Natty vanishes into the sunset. ===== The novel is a political, social, and ethical commentary on the nature of good and evil and takes place in the Land of Oz, in the years leading to Dorothy's arrival. The story centers on Elphaba, the misunderstood green-skinned girl who grows up to become the notorious Wicked Witch of the West. Maguire fashioned the name of Elphaba from the initials of Lyman Frank Baum, L-F-B. The story is divided into five different sections, based on the plot location. A prologue presents Elphaba spying on Dorothy and her friends, and hearing their gossip about her. It also shows how Elphaba wants the shoes that Dorothy is wearing. ===== Eugene is fired from his job as a college professor after having several of his witticisms surreptitiously recorded by the daughter of a popular conservative commentator. Eugene then becomes a teacher at a nearby overcrowded prison run by a Japanese corporation. His employer, and occasional acquaintance, is the prison's warden, Hiroshi Matsumoto. After a massive prison break, Eugene's former college is occupied by escapees from the prison, who take the staff hostage. Eventually the college is turned into a prison, since the old prison was destroyed in the breakout. Eugene is ordered to be the warden of the prison, but then becomes an inmate, presumably via the same type of "hocus pocus" that led to his dismissal from his professorship. ===== The novel's main character, Rudy Waltz, nicknamed Deadeye Dick, commits accidental manslaughter as a child (he carelessly shoots a gun out of a window and fatally strikes a pregnant woman) and lives his whole life feeling guilty and seeking forgiveness for it. He was so traumatized by the events directly after the woman's death that he lives life as an asexual "neuter," neither homosexual nor heterosexual. He tells the story of his life as a middle-aged expatriate in Haiti, which symbolizes New York City, until the end, when the stream of time of the story catches up with him. At this point, he confronts an event that has been suggested and referred to throughout the novel. The generic Midwestern town of Midland City, Ohio (also the setting of Breakfast of Champions) in which Rudy was raised is virtually destroyed by a neutron bomb. At the ending of the book, it appears that Rudy, while he may not have fully come to terms with his actions, has at least come to live with them. Another key theme throughout the book is the relationship between Waltz and his parents. His father, as a young man, lived in Austria, and was one of the few people who was actually friends with Adolf Hitler before his rise to power. ===== A video for the short. A dog-faced prospector drives to the hills to dig for gold. A local gas station attendant warns him that he is wasting his time, then goes on to tell the story of his own fruitless chase for gold; since 1849, he pursued strikes around the world and never had any success. The cartoon shows the attendant's various stops including the California Gold Rush, the Comstock Lode, and various other efforts globally that never (literally) pan out. Then, as the attendant finishes his story, a fellow rides up with news that there has indeed been gold found in the hills. The attendant steals the prospector's car to chase this rush, telling him he can have the gas station. Included in the film is a short, farcical musical number, “My Sweetheart Needs Gold for Her Teeth." ===== The Ultimates capture Electro and Kraven the Hunter. They detain them in a maximum-security S.H.I.E.L.D. superhuman prison beneath the Triskelion, along with Flint Marko (the Sandman), Otto Octavius (Doctor Octopus) and Norman Osborn (Green Goblin). Nick Fury informs the five captives that they are detained because they have illegally altered their genetic code. Osborn is convinced that "There will be six" prisoners.Ultimate Six #1 Otto Octavius wants to cooperate with his captors and is granted access to a laboratory, where his metal tentacles are held. He wills his tentacles to attack and then shuts down the prison's power, releasing the others.Ultimate Six #2 Nick Fury immediately sends agents to collect Peter Parker, in case Osborn goes after him. Fury introduces him to the Ultimates, who do not believe that Spider-Man is a teenager, and reminds them that he has defeated all five escapees on his own. From a secret retreat, Norman Osborn places a call to the Chief of Staff in regard to Nick Fury.Ultimate Six #3 The President chews out Nick Fury in regard to the call from Osborn, who blackmails the government or he would publicize his treatment at the hands of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Fury dispatches the Ultimates, however, the five escapees then attack the Triskelion.Ultimate Six #4 S.H.I.E.L.D. takes Spider-Man's Aunt May into protective custody while Fury and the Ultimates pick up the pieces at the Triskelion. The escaped villains have abducted Peter Parker who was in costume, and unmasked. They tie him to a chair, and Kraven attacks Peter but Otto subdues him. Osborn humiliates Peter by recounting the accident that created him, and that he and Otto were Peter's parents in a way. Osborn then tells Peter that they will attack the White House and he wants Peter to join them. Peter refuses, and breaks free. Osborn then threatens Aunt May and Mary Jane if Peter does not join them. The six attack the White House, but a S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier arrives on the scene.Ultimate Six #5 The six and the Ultimates battle it out on the White House lawn. Captain America tells Parker that his aunt is safe, and he turns on the Green Goblin. Goblin attacks Captain America, when his son Harry appears on the lawn, asking him to stop.Ultimate Six #6 While Harry talks to his father, the Ultimates bring him down. Harry tells Peter that he will kill all of them for what they did to his father. All villains are detained again and Peter Parker is reunited with his Aunt. Captain America and Nick Fury talk about how the next war will be a genetic war, and that the people in power decide what the wars will be fought over.Ultimate Six #7 ===== Previously, the X-Men defeated Magneto and pronounced him dead. Rather than turning Magneto over to the authorities and virtually ensuring the death penalty for him, Professor X secretly brainwashed his old friend and tried to rehabilitate him. However, the Beast inadvertently leaked this plan to Magneto's Brotherhood, believing that he was chatting with an online girlfriend. The Brotherhood used this to entrap Beast and gained enough knowledge to free their leader. Meanwhile, Iceman has left the X-Men, forced out by his worried parents after he sustained injuries in the fight against Proteus, while three more X-Men, Wolverine, Cyclops and Kitty Pryde, are on a mission to the Savage Land. The US government is irate over Magneto's reappearance and demands explanations from Nick Fury. Fury and his Ultimates track down the Xavier Mansion, whose location was hitherto unknown, and find it empty, the X-Men having relocated. Nick Fury comes to the incorrect conclusion that the X-Men have joined forces with Magneto to fight mankind. In preparing to battle the X-Men, Captain America reveals he knows more about Wolverine; they fought together in World War II, when Logan went under the name James "Lucky Jim" Howlett. The X-Men's plane returns, with only Logan and Kitty on board. Wolverine claims Cyclops has died heroically in the Savage Land. The truth, which Jean later learns, is that Wolverine tried to kill Cyclops and left him for dead so as to be with Jean. Charles Xavier meets with Magneto to negotiate a truce, intending to use the meeting as a diversion to allow Wolverine to track down Magneto's base. Magneto anticipates Xavier's double-cross, tracks down the X-Men's new base in turn, and anonymously tips off their whereabouts to the Ultimates. The Ultimates track down the X-Men and have an all-out fight. The Ultimates nearly defeat the X-Men, who are only saved by the timely return of Iceman. All of the X-Men escape except Charles Xavier, who stays behind to delay the Ultimates and is captured by Nick Fury. ===== In the mid-1920s in a small rural town in the "southernmost section of the Midwest," a man, Jeff Myrtlebank, returns to life at his own funeral, causing the grievers to flee the church. The townspeople believe that the man must be possessed by a haint (country people's pronunciation of haunt, meaning a ghost or demon), even though the town doctor declares it was more than likely a medical condition that imitated death; his heart stopped days prior after fighting influenza. Jeff seems normal enough, yet he has changed: he has suddenly become a hard worker with exceptional strength, yet consistently eats less since his return. Discussing the puzzle, his mother says she is real concerned at how he's behaving: "He's different. Not like he was at all,... And the way he goes at that hard work. Why, he was never that friendly with work before." His father agrees with her. "I recollect worrying many times that he leaned just a shade tow'rd this side of shiftlessness." "Not lazy, exactly, but..." his mother says, and his father completes her sentence with, "No, no, just uninterested." The townsfolk and doctor discuss it further, where the doctor reveals that not only did Jeff's heart completely stop, but that he did not respond in any way to a sharp pin prick. Everyone seems as interested in what transpired during the days Jeff was dead as in how he came back to life. When he goes to visit his girlfriend Comfort, he takes a bouquet of roses, but the roses are all dead. Afraid, Comfort will not let him touch her after she sees them. As he leaves, her older brother confronts him and tells him to never come back, and they fight. Myrtlebank defeats him readily, punching him in his jaw. This is the first time that Myrtlebank has ever done so, after losing many past fights, and that gains Comfort's sympathy. "Poor Jeff," she says. "He hasn't got anybody." After the fight, the townsfolk gather and start saying they need to take care of this evil amongst them. Comfort races off to warn Myrtlebank and to avow her love for him. He proposes to her, but before she can respond to his proposal, angry townspeople arrive to confront the demon they believe is possessing Jeff. They demand that he leave. He insists that Comfort answer his proposal first, and she tells him yes, and that she is willing to go anywhere to be with him. Myrtlebank then makes an inspired speech in which he tells them that they are wrong and have nothing to fear from him. He also slyly threatens that if they are right, it might be in their best interests to be nice to him. They nervously accept the wisdom of this, and promise to attend Jeff and Comfort's wedding. After they leave, Comfort asks him, "You couldn't really do all that, could you?" He says he hated lying to them, but when something comes up, "You gotta cope with it." As he speaks, he pulls out a pipe and a match, which lights by itself. When Comfort asks how he lit the match, he laughs and says, "Comfort, honey, first thing you got to learn is not to imagine things." He puts his arm around her shoulders to take her inside. As they walk toward the house, the fence gate closes behind them on its own. ===== In this short, the rotund early-1940s version of Elmer Fudd is portrayed as a Mountie, earnestly attempting to arrest Bugs Bunny, who is, according to several posters attached to forest trees, wanted dead or alive (preferably dead). After following the rabbit tracks to a burrow, Elmer tries to lure Bugs out with a carrot; this works, at least with Bugs' hand, and Elmer initially succeeds in getting a handcuff around the rabbit's wrist. Somehow, though, Bugs works his arm free of the cuff – out of sight in his burrow – and attaches a bomb in its place. Elmer, attached to the bomb via the other handcuff, panics when he pulls it from the burrow. He frantically searches for his keys, only to find that Bugs has them and, leaning against a nearby tree, is nonchalantly twirling them around his finger while munching a carrot. He then deliberately takes his time going through each and every key, and does not find the correct one until the moment the bomb explodes offscreen. Elmer, who remains completely unharmed, tells Bugs that he has been found guilty of committing a litany of crimes. The crimes (corrected here for Elmer's rounded-l-and-r speech) are listed below: "Resisting an officer, assault and battery, trespassing, disturbing the peace, miscellaneous misdemeanors, public nuisance, traffic violations, going through a boulevard stop, jaywalking, triple parking, conduct unbecoming to a rabbit", and (once again) "violating traffic regulations." As Elmer reads, Bugs takes his Mountie hat and impersonates a superior officer: "Attention! Why, look at you! You call yourself a Mountie! You're a disgrace to the regiment! I'm gonna drum you out of the service!" He then tears off Elmer's uniform, right down to his polka-dot undershorts. When Elmer realizes he's been tricked, he begins to give chase - after pausing to put his miraculously refurbished uniform. The chase eventually involves a path beneath the snow, which ends abruptly when Elmer runs into a pine tree. The impact causes all the snow to fall off the tree, which reveals Christmas decorations, and Elmer emerges from underneath with snow on his face that gives him a Santa Claus appearance. The song Jingle Bells plays in the background, and Bugs says to the astonished Elmer, "Merry Christmas, Santy!" and burrows his way out of Elmer's path. Elmer rediscovers Bugs's footprints and follows them; he finds Bugs taunting a snow effigy of Elmer the Mountie. Bugs announces he is going to punch it square in the nose. Elmer has crept up behind Bugs and is tapping his foot, waiting to catch the rabbit by surprise. However, as Bugs finishes his wind-up for the punch, he turns around at the last moment and slugs the real Elmer square in the nose, propelling him backward into an ice-wall. Bugs again burrows away. After some more hijinks and another failed chase, a weeping Elmer Fudd gives up and labels himself as a "disgwace to the wegiment" for failing to catch the rabbit, at which point Bugs willingly turns himself in. At headquarters Bugs is blindfolded and sentenced to death by firing squad. As the firing squad prepares to execute Bugs, Elmer tells him that he can make one last wish, which prompts Bugs to say, "I wish, I wish," and to break into the song "Dixie". The scene then, in a non sequitur, transitions into a minstrel show in the south (a commonly censored scene on televised airings of this short), where Elmer, Bugs and the firing squad, now all in blackface, perform the chorus of "Camptown Races", with Bugs on banjo and Elmer on tambourine, to which Bugs asks the audience, "Fantastic, isn't it?" ===== The story, loosely based on actual events, takes place in March 1943, when the Second World War was at its height. The cryptanalysts at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, have a problem: the Nazi U-boats have changed one of their code reference books used for Enigma machine ciphers, leading to a blackout in the flow of vital naval signals intelligence. The British cryptanalysts have cracked the "Shark" cipher once before, and they need to do it again in order to keep track of U-boat locations. The film begins with Tom Jericho returning to Bletchley after a month recovering from a nervous breakdown brought on by his failed love affair with a coworker named Claire Romilly. Jericho immediately seeks to see her again and finds that she mysteriously disappeared a few days earlier. He enlists the help of Claire's housemate, Hester Wallace, to follow the trail of clues and learn what has happened to Claire. Mr. Jericho and Miss Wallace, as they formally address each other, work to decipher intercepts stolen by Claire and determine why she took them. Jericho is closely watched by an MI5 agent, Wigram (Jeremy Northam), who plays cat and mouse with him throughout the film. Meanwhile, U-boats are closing in on a convoy of thirty seven ships from America, giving the code-breakers less than four days to find a solution to reading the changed Shark cipher. But someone else at Bletchley has a personal interest in the stolen intercepts, and may be responsible for Claire's disappearance. ===== Captain Charles W. Morgan (William Walcott) is a well-respected businessman who owns a fleet of whaling ships in the Quaker town of New Bedford, Massachusetts. He is very close to his shy, obedient daughter, Patience (Marguerite Courtot), and tells her that she must marry a man who is a whaler and a Quaker, like him. His son and daughter-in-law were lost ten years before while on a whaling expedition; eventually, their baby, his granddaughter Dot (Clara Bow), was found floating near shore on a raft made of branches. He has raised her ever since. Dot is a mischievous, rebellious child, who wants to be a whaler when she grows up, an ambition that is not acceptable for a female among her people. One day, a childhood friend of Patience's, Allan Dexter (Raymond McKee) arrives in town, recently back from college. He and Patience renew their acquaintance and fall in love. He goes to ask Captain Morgan for permission to marry Patience, but Captain Morgan turns him out of the house, informing him that he is not a suitable husband for her because he is neither a Quaker nor a whaler. Meanwhile, Samuel Siggs (J. Thornton Baston), an effeminate Chinese man masquerading as a white man, connives to steal Captain Morgan's ships to transport African gold. He dresses up as a Quaker and acquires a position of authority in Morgan's business by pretending to be an experienced whaler. After spying Morgan's pretty daughter Patience, he also plans to finagle his way into marrying her. Learning of Dexter's love for her, he has his fellow con artist Jake Finner (Patrick Hartigan), "fearless, lawless and godless", drug the young man's drink and has him kidnapped, tied up, and placed on the next outgoing whaling vessel, hoping never to see him again. Also on the ship is Dot, who has dressed as a boy and stowed away below deck. Because of their disappearance, it is rumored that Dexter and Dot joined the Oregon Wagon Train and have gone west together. Miles out to sea, Dexter is untied and immediately put to work. Wanting to prove himself to Morgan, he decides to put all his effort into working long hard hours to win his chance to harpoon a whale, which would make him an accomplished whalesman. Meanwhile, Jake Finner, who has killed the captain and taken over the ship, finds Dot, discovers she is a girl, and attacks her. Because he has been treating the men on board like slaves, they mutiny against Finner, appointing Dexter as captain, while Dot's friend Jimmie, the cabin boy, rescues her from Finner's clutches. After harpooning a whale and learning why he was abducted, Dexter arranges to have the vessel return to port. Meanwhile, Captain Morgan has fallen ill, fears that he is dying, and commands Patience to marry Siggs as his last wish. She reluctantly agrees. Dexter arrives just in time to save Patience, and the lovers are reunited at the end. ===== In 1993, Erin Brockovich is an unemployed single mother of three children who has recently been injured in a traffic accident with a doctor and is suing him. Her lawyer, Ed Masry, expects to win, but Erin's confrontational courtroom behavior under cross-examination loses her the case, and Ed will not return her phone calls afterwards. One day, he arrives at work to find her in the office, apparently working. She says that he told her things would work out and they did not, and that she needed a job. She asks Ed for a job, which he reluctantly gives her. Erin is given files for a real estate case where the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E;) is offering to purchase the home of Donna Jensen, a resident of Hinkley, California. Erin is surprised to see medical records in the file and visits Donna, who explains that she had simply kept all her PG&E; correspondence together. Donna appreciates PG&E;'s help: she has had several tumors and her husband has Hodgkin's lymphoma, but PG&E; has always supplied a doctor at their own expense. Erin asks why they would do that, and Donna replies, "because of the chromium". Erin begins digging into the case and finds evidence that the groundwater in Hinkley is seriously contaminated with carcinogenic hexavalent chromium, but PG&E; had been telling Hinkley residents that they use a safer form of chromium. After several days away from the office investigating, she finds her possessions missing from her desk. She is then informed by Brenda, Mr. Masry's secretary, that she has been fired for missing a week of work. Later, Ed visits Erin because he needs the documents she found while investigating, and she takes the chance to request her job back in return. Rehired, she continues her research, and over time, visits many Hinkley residents and wins their trust. She finds many cases of tumors and other medical problems in Hinkley. Everyone has been treated by PG&E;'s doctors and thinks the cluster of cases is just a coincidence, unrelated to the "safe" chromium. The Jensens' claim for compensation grows into a major class action lawsuit. Unfortunately, all direct evidence is linked solely to PG&E; Hinkley and not to PG&E;'s corporate headquarters in San Francisco. Knowing that PG&E; could slow any settlement for years through delays and appeals, Ed decides to arrange for disposition by binding arbitration, but a large majority of the plaintiffs must agree to this. Erin returns to Hinkley and persuades all 634 plaintiffs to go along. While she is there, a man named Charles Embry approaches her to say that he and his cousin were PG&E; employees, but his cousin recently died from the poison. The man says he was tasked with destroying documents at PG&E;, but, "as it turns out, [he] wasn't a very good employee". Embry gives Erin the documents, which include a 1966 memo proving corporate headquarters knew the water was contaminated with hexavalent chromium, did nothing about it, and advised the Hinkley operation to keep this secret. The judge orders PG&E; to pay a settlement amount of $333 million to be distributed among the plaintiffs, $5 million of which goes to the Jensens. Erin brings her boyfriend with her when she tells them about it, and he is happy when he understands what it was all for. In the aftermath, Ed hands Erin her bonus payment for the case, but warns her he has changed the amount. She begins complaining loudly that she deserves more respect, but is astonished to find that he has increased it—to $2 million. ===== Originally Bain introduced an element of fantasy to the stories, with Angus befriended by a 'wee man', a fairy-like spirit who helps him become a pop star chanter player. However, after joining the Daily Record, Bain was persuaded to ground the stories in more real-life situations, often featuring topical issues such as the change from and to British Summer Time (an issue of considerable controversy in the Highlands) and featuring figures such as the Prime Minister of the day.Bain, Sheila (1990) The Best of Angus Og, Introduction, Mainstream Publications Bain himself was politically a nationalist, and many of the strips satirised Westminster politics. Following publication of The Kelpie between November 1983 and January 1984, a story involving the return of salmon to the upper Clyde, Bain was presented with a certificate from the Clyde River Purification Board in recognition of his awareness-raising of the issue river quality.Bain, Sheila (ed.) (1999) Angus Og: From the Og Logs, Zipo Publishing Some of the other memorable storylines included Drambeg being towed away to the Caribbean one night, and the islanders experiencing their own version of Whisky Galore. ===== Dream Story is set in early-20th-century Vienna. The protagonist of the story is Fridolin, a successful 35-year-old doctor who lives with his wife Albertina (also translated as Albertine) and their young daughter. One night, Albertina confesses that the previous summer, while they were on vacation in Denmark, she had a sexual fantasy about a young Danish military officer. Fridolin then admits that during that same vacation he had been attracted to a young girl on the beach. Later that night, Fridolin is called to the deathbed of an important patient. Finding the man dead, he is shocked when the man's daughter, Marianne, professes her love to him. Restless, Fridolin leaves and begins to walk the streets. Although tempted, he refuses the offer of a young prostitute named Mizzi. He encounters his old friend Nachtigall, who tells Fridolin that he will be playing piano at a secret high-society orgy that night. Intrigued, Fridolin procures a mask and costume and follows Nachtigall to the party at a private residence. Fridolin is shocked to find several men in masks and costumes and naked women with only masks engaged in various sexual activities. When a young woman warns him to leave, Fridolin ignores her plea and is soon exposed as an interloper. The woman then announces to the gathering that she will sacrifice herself for Fridolin, and he is allowed to leave. Upon his return home, Albertina awakens and describes a dream she has had: While making love to the Danish officer from her sexual fantasies, she had watched without sympathy as Fridolin was tortured and crucified before her eyes. Fridolin is outraged because he believes that this proves his wife wants to betray him. He resolves to pursue his own sexual temptations. The next day, Fridolin learns that Nachtigall has been taken away by two mysterious men. He then goes to the costume shop to return his costume and discovers that the shop-owner is prostituting his teenage daughter to various men. He finds his way back to where the orgy had taken place the previous night; before he can enter, he is handed a note addressed to him by name that warns him not to pursue the matter. Later, he visits Marianne, but she no longer expresses any interest in him. Fridolin searches for Mizzi, the prostitute, but is unable to find her. He reads that a young woman has been poisoned. Suspecting that she is the woman who sacrificed herself for him, he views the woman's corpse in the morgue but cannot identify it. Fridolin returns home that night to find his wife asleep, with his mask from the previous night set on the pillow on his side of the bed. When she wakes, Fridolin confesses all of his activities. After listening quietly, Albertina comforts him. Fridolin says that it never will happen again, but Albertina tells him not to look too far into the future, and the important thing is that they survived through their adventures. The story ends with them greeting the new day with their daughter. ===== In September 1942, Rommel's Africa Korps is only 90 miles (144 km) from the Suez Canal, but running dangerously low on fuel. The British approve a plan to destroy German fuel bunkers at Tobruk in an attempt to cripple Rommel's attack. The author of the plan, Canadian-born Major Donald Craig (Rock Hudson) of the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) had been captured by Vichy French forces and is held prisoner, along with captured Italian Army soldiers, on a ship in the port of the French city of Algiers. As his expertise is considered essential to the success of the raid, Craig is rescued by Captain Kurt Bergman (George Peppard) of the Special Identification Group (SIG) and some of his men, German Jews serving with the British. They then join up with commandos of the Long Range Desert Group, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel John Harker (Nigel Green), at Kufra in southeastern Libya. Colonel Harker explains they have eight days to get to Tobruk and destroy the fuel depot and German field artillery pieces protecting the harbour, before a scheduled amphibious landing and a bombing raid on the city by the Royal Air Force (RAF). They are to drive there through enemy territory posing as prisoners of war escorted by the SIG pretending to be guards. Once they reach Tobruk they would then link up with a full British naval and RAF assault on the city and their primary objective, Rommel's underground fuel bunkers. Craig is highly skeptical of the operation, claiming that "Staff has a genius for sitting on its brains and coming up with perfect hindsight", stating that "When I submitted the plan we could have blown up the fuel bunkers with a handful of men. How in hell are we supposed to get through their defenses now?" While warning Craig not to let personal differences of opinion interfere with the operation, Colonel Harker also reveals that he was the genius with perfect hindsight who convinced Staff to approve Craig's original plan which would now be "maximum effort, land, sea and air". On the way, they encounter a patrol of Italian tanks, which stops a short distance from where they are resting in a gully. Later that night, Sergeant Major Jack Tyne (Jack Watson) spots a tank column approaching from the opposite direction. After Bergman and three of his men kill the Italian sentries, Colonel Harker, surmising that the approaching column "must be German -- the Italians are too fond of comfort to travel this late", tricks the two units into attacking each other by firing mortars, first at the Germans and then the Italians, enabling the raiders to sneak away. To avoid detection the next day, Craig safely guides them through a German mine field, before they are attacked by a British Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighter. They manage to shoot it down, but eight men are killed and one troop transport truck, their auxiliary fuel supply, and both of their radios are destroyed. The fighting attracts Tuareg tribesmen, who are friendly with the Germans. Craig, who speaks their language, exchanges some guns and ammunition for two prisoners. The prisoners turn out to be British traitors Henry Portman (Liam Redmond), who has an Irish accent, and his daughter Cheryl (Heidy Hunt), who were shot down while flying from Benghazi to Cairo. They have papers signed by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem (Mohammad Amin al-Husayni) and German Field Marshal Albert Kesselring: an agreement for "a group of important" Egyptian army officers to rise up against the British in a "holy war." The belief of the Germans is with Egypt conquered other Arab states such as Turkey will then side with the Axis; Cheryl Portman states that the Turks could put four million men into the war against the Soviet Union. That night, the Portmans are told by a mysterious SIG member about the British masquerade and where to find a gun and a map to an underground telephone cable nearby where they can contact German command in Tobruk and alert them to the British column and upcoming attack. When they reach the telephone, however, they are spotted by an Italian patrol. Henry Portman fires at the patrol and is killed, while his daughter is seriously wounded. Harker sends Bergman and Sergeant Krug (Leo Gordon) after the Portmans where they retrieve Cheryl from the Italians. When Krug asks how they knew about the telephone, Bergman replies, "Very simple. One among us is the enemy". Harker has Bergman and his men disarmed and then gives Bergman two hours to identify his traitor. The traitor kills Cheryl Portman so she cannot reveal his identity. Lieutenant Max Mohnfeld (Guy Stockwell), Bergman's second in command, appears from the tunnel the Portmans used to escape. He states the traitor is down the shaft. They find Corporal Bruckner (Robert Wolders), one of Bergman's closest friends for ten years, stabbed to death. Cheryl Portman had died from cyanide, and Bruckner's suicide tablet is missing. Bergman, however, is not convinced his friend was the traitor. The group passes through checkpoints just outside Tobruk and after traveling through the city, they discover to their surprise that Rommel has amassed his total reserve strength at Tobruk undetected: two full panzer divisions. The discovery of Rommel's tanks puts the planned Naval assault in jeopardy, though without their radios the group have no way of warning Staff without taking the German transmitter located in the city which would alert the Germans. The RAF then bomb Tobruk as scheduled. The LRDG blow up two of the harbour guns, and Harker orders Sergeant Major Tyne to signal the ships to abort the landing before the German tanks, which have pinned down Harker's troops, can "cut them to pieces". Harker also orders Lieutenant Boyden (Anthony Ashdown) to capture the German transmitter in the city in order to abort the landing and inform Staff of the Kesselring document. However, Boyden is killed during the bombing raid, as are Privates Alfie (Norman Rossington) and Dolan (Percy Herbert) when they discover millions in English pound notes the Germans had taken after capturing Tobruk from the British and attempt to steal the money, while Mohnfeld, who volunteered to join them as Lt. Boyden did not speak German, is knocked out. Bergman and three of his men escape on sidecar motorcycles and manage to destroy a tank and use flame throwers to buy Harker time; however, Bergman and his men are eventually killed. Meanwhile, Craig, Krug, and two other SIG men use the distraction to escape and seize a German tank well inland. After they use the tank to destroy the fuel depot, Harker and his men surrender. After surrendering, Mohnfeld then appears where he reveals that he is really a German intelligence officer named von Kruger, explaining that he had told the truth the night before, only altering that "The Jew found me in the tunnel" and asks Harker for the Kesselring document. However, upon seeing the destruction of the fuel bunkers, Harker had burned the paper knowing its importance to the Germans. Harker then kills von Kruger with his pistol and is himself shot dead. Craig, Krug and the two others manage to escape and exhausted after traveling over 70 miles on foot, make it to a scheduled back up rendezvous with a Royal Navy ship at Sallum just over the Egyptian border. ===== Manon is a precocious 13-year-old girl living with her mother Michelle and intellectually challenged uncle Ti-Guy in the Laurentides. Manon wants to quit school and obtain the true love of her mother, whom she accuses of not loving her. Michelle is pregnant with the child of Maurice, a police officer who tries to convince her to give up caring for Ti-Guy, by placing him in an institution. Ti-Guy is frequently stealing from Michelle, drinking excessively, driving dangerously and stalking the family's wealthy female neighbour. Maurice also pressures Michelle to get an abortion. Michelle is determined to have the child, and insistent on keeping Ti-Guy with her. Manon strongly dislikes Ti-Guy for his misbehavior and Maurice for being a cop, and when Michelle tells Manon of her pregnancy, Manon becomes upset. Manon prefers Gaetan, Michelle's former lover who gives her marijuana, and also steals the book Wuthering Heights from their neighbour and starts reading it. On her birthday, Manon runs away for a time and phones her mother asking for her exclusive love, which Michelle takes as hurtful. After Manon comes back, she tells Michelle that Maurice molested her, at which point Michelle angrily chases Maurice away. Michelle consequently begins dining with Gaetan and Manon, with Manon promising to no longer hurt her. Confronting Ti-Guy in his vehicle, Manon screams at him and convinces him to commit suicide by crashing the vehicle. While sleeping with her mother, Manon receives Maurice's call about the death, but shields Michelle from the news. ===== Set in modern-day Japan, the series centers on 13-year-old extrovert , who uses astrology to solve crimes, and manages her missing mother's fortune-telling business on the side. Her childhood friend, , assists her, after he returns from the United States, where he studied criminal psychology. As Detective Spica, Lili uses the magical star ring, left to her by her missing mother, to aid her in solving crimes by consulting with one of the twelve astral spirits in the ring and learning the victim's horoscope. Her father, , disapproves of her actions. Periodically, she encounters rival private investigator , who tests her mystery-solving skills. While solving cases, Lili eventually learns from Hiromi's elder sister, , that Hiromi's allergy to girls resulted from her: ten years ago, he waited in the rain for Lili to show after he left her a love letter. Lili encounters , a fortuneteller and hypnotist who kidnaps her father. After Hiromi rescues him, Zeus takes Hiromi captive and demands the star ring in exchange. Realizing that Sirius is her missing mother, Lili frees her from Zeus's hypnosis. Lili learns that her mother disappeared to protect her family from Zeus, who hates Sirius, as he believes that she kidnapped his girlfriend and caused her to become comatose. Lili uncovers the truth: his girlfriend feared that he desired the star ring more than her love and asked Sirius to stage a kidnapping and have him decide between her or the star ring. When he hesitated, she was devastated and threw herself off the cliff. After learning this, Zeus loses his desire for the star ring and lets Lili, Hiromi, and Lili's mother leave. Lili accepts Hiromi's love for her. In the conclusion, Lili's mother takes over her fortune-telling business, and Lili continues to solve crimes with Hiromi's assistance. ===== In Los Angeles, 1970, Katie Standon (Tarra Steele), a girl who has been imprisoned in her room (and without any human contact) since the age of one, is now thirteen years old. Her mother Louise (who has cataracts; Kim Darby), has taken enough abuse from her domineering husband Wes (Jack Betts); she gets her son, Billy (a few years older than Katie; Michael Azria), to help her and Katie escape their home. At a welfare office a social worker notices something peculiar about Katie and guesses her age to be about seven while, in fact, she is thirteen. Katie is taken to Children's Hospital, and Louise and Wes find themselves being arrested for "what authorities are calling the worst case of child abuse they've ever seen". Shortly before his trial begins, Wes kills himself. The doctors and psycholinguists investigating the case form the "Katie Team", a group of experts dedicated to helping Katie learn to speak and interact with others. One of the team members, Judy Bingham (Sean Young), a special education teacher, sees Katie as a pawn whom she can use to attain international fame. She claims Katie will make her "the next Anne Sullivan." UCLA graduate student Sandra Tannen (Melissa Errico) is one of the people who appear to have Katie's welfare at heart. Katie comes to live with Dr. Norman Glazer (Joe Regalbuto) who works at Children's Hospital, and his family, where she stays for four years. His family helps Katie become a civilized human being. Although Katie shows outstanding progress in some things (such as learning vocabulary words and sign language, preparing hygiene, showing off anger, and certain other activities), she never really learns grammatical structure. Meanwhile, Louise has surgery to remove her cataracts and visits Katie off and on. When Katie turns eighteen, the funding for her help is cut off and she returns to Louise's care. Soon, it comes to the point where Louise does not know how to handle Katie herself and Katie gets placed in another foster home. One day, Katie is physically punished for vomiting and responds by never eating or speaking because she was afraid if she opened her mouth she would vomit and be punished again. Sandra does all that she can to make sure that Katie is handled in the proper way and even has Norman help her. Katie is taken back to Children's Hospital, and Sandra is suggested by social services to have Katie live with her. Before any decisions are made about this, Louise takes Katie out of the hospital and puts her in another foster home. Sandra is not allowed to say goodbye to Katie. Louise even threatens to take legal action on Sandra if she ever sees Katie again. Sandra finally asks Louise why Katie was placed in extreme isolation before her discovery. Louise tells the entire story; Wes loved his mother very much, and when she died due to an accident, he projected his feelings for her onto Katie. After a doctor examined Katie sometime later, she was diagnosed as being retarded and Wes locked her up, afraid that the doctors might take her away, and because Louise was starting to go blind, Wes took care of Katie. Sandra then leaves the house, running into Judy again. It is now clear that she knew Louise for a long time. Sandra and Judy have a quick argument, after which Judy enters Louise's house, leaving Sandra almost crying. At this point, different kinds of footage of Katie appear on screen; Sandra looks at tape recordings of Katie on her TV. She then is seen writing something on a typewriter, while her voice addresses the viewers; she's hoping to see Katie once more. The camera then turns to her and her boyfriend, now holding a baby of their own. The screen fades while she sings the "Hush, Little Baby" lullaby. The screen fades, and footage of Katie on the beach can be seen. Messages appear, saying what has happened to everyone after the movie: Judy continues to harass the "Katie Team" until her death in 1988; Louise, who is now once again blind, resides in a nursing home in Southern California; Sandra Tannen is now a professor of linguistics at UCLA and has two teenage daughters, however, she is still not allowed to have any contact with Katie, who lives in a foster home nearby. The last message before the screen turns black and the credits appear, reads: "Katie's inability to learn a language proved the legitimacy of the Critical Period Hypothesis". =====