From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ===== Mad scientist Dr. Machino has sent his robots to pollute the earth and endanger the wildlife. Aided by Killer Bee and Rad Rhino, Awesome Possum sets out to destroy the robots, put a stop to the mad scientist and save the world. ===== It is a suspense novel which tells of the experiences of a young architect, Edward Westray, who is sent to the remote town of Cullerne to supervise restoration work on Cullerne Minster. He finds himself caught up in Cullerne life, and hears rumours about a mystery surrounding the claim to the title of Lord Blandamer, whose coat of arms in the Minster's great transept window is the nebuly coat of the title. When the new Lord Blandamer arrives, promising to pay all the costs of the restoration, Westray suspects that the new lord is not what he seems. The Telegraph said the book "could strike the careless reader as no more than a curiosity, a bit of amateur work. Yet this would be a mistake." ===== Ajay Mehra (Joy Mukherjee) is on a secret mission to Kashmir to counter Kashmir rebels right after Independence. While on the mission, he is injured due to a bomb blast. A young girl, Asha (Sadhana) from a poor family, is forced to flee for her own safety following an attack on her house by Kashmir rebels. She comes across Ajay, who is injured. She nurses him back to health over a period of time and they start falling in love with each other. But after the bomb blast, Ajay has lost his memory. Hence they both decide to go to Srinagar to get treatment for him at a hospital. But Ajay gets some clue from his things and decides to go to Bombay to find the truth about himself. In Bombay, while searching for some more clues, Ajay sees bank robbers fleeing after robbing a bank. He tries to stop them and is hit by their car. In the process, he recognises the robbers to be from Continental Hotel, where he was looking for clues. He is then taken to a hospital where his brother comes to meet him. Due to this accident, he starts regaining some parts of his memory. But he has completely forgotten about the last six months. The robbers decide to kill Ajay as he has recognised them. They send a group member's wife to Ajay's house and there she claims to be his wife. Looking for Ajay, Asha also reaches his home. But Ajay fails to recognise her. Finding it suspicious, Police keep an eye on both women. The robbers try to kill Ajay several times, but are unsuccessful as he comes to know about their plans. The police and Ajay draw up a plan to fool the robbers. They fake Ajay's death and, relieved by that, the robbers stop hiding and are then caught by police. In the last fight, Ajay again loses consciousness, but regains his full memory later on. Ajay and Asha get married in the end. ===== The book opens in the autumn of 1558, just after the death of Mary I, and bells are heralding the fact that Mary's half-sister, Elizabeth, is now queen. The book is told from four main perspectives: Elizabeth I's; William Cecil's, the queen's main advisor; Robert Dudley, the queen's favourite; and Amy Robsart's, who is Robert Dudley's wife. Robert Dudley returns to court upon Elizabeth's coronation, and Amy hopes that his ambitions will not get him into trouble. During Mary's reign, Dudley was kept in the Tower of London, his father and brother were executed, and another brother died in Calais. However, her hopes for the quiet life soon die, as Elizabeth and Robert become closer and more intimate. Elizabeth has inherited a bankrupt and rebellious country, in turmoil as a result of the previous two monarch's reigns. Her advisor, William Cecil, warns that she will only survive if she marries a strong prince, but the only man that Elizabeth desires is her childhood friend, and married man, Robert Dudley. Robert is sure that he can reclaim his destiny at Elizabeth's side. And as queen and courtier fall in love, Dudley begins to contemplate the impossible – setting aside his loving wife to marry the young Elizabeth... ===== The play is set in the interrogation room of a downtown New York City police station in the early hours of July 5. Two hardened cops (Sergeant Kelly and Jack Delasante) have arrested two suspects for the murder of an old woman. During the interrogations, the police try to get confessions from the two suspects, Sean and Jimmy. As they do, they reveal far more about their own vulnerabilities than they intend. The tension of the play is increased by constant updates, by phone, of the state of mind of one of Kelly's daughters. Lonely and unstable, she becomes increasingly suicidal during the play. *Jimmy (Alan Rosenberg) *Sgt Kelly (George Dzunda) *Jack Delasante (Jeffrey DeMunn) *Sean ( Laurence Luckinbill) ===== After five years of marriage, chemical engineer Lorenzo Xavier Vega (Desi Arnaz) tends to neglect his wife Susan (Lucille Ball) in favor of his work. When she wishes aloud that she had a more attentive spouse, her Guardian Angel – coincidentally the mirror image of her favorite movie star (James Mason) – appears. The angel advises Susan to take a greater interest in Lorenzo's career, so she agrees to accompany him on a camping trip to test the revolutionary new insecticide he's developed. Susan's dream of a second honeymoon turns into a nightmare when everything that possibly could go wrong does. She becomes determined to save her marriage before it's too late. ===== Tiska (Dorothy Appleby), Taska (Mary Ainslee) and Baska (Ethelreda Leopold) Jones, three snippy society girls, are willed a huge inheritance so long as they are married by a certain time and date, but their fiances postpone their engagements as they, along with the Fleet, are bound for Honolulu. Their shrewd lawyer Diggins (Richard Fiske) suggests they marry three death row inmates, the Mushroom Murder Gang (the Stooges) to retain the dough; once they are married, they get their inheritance, the convicts are hanged, and the girls can marry their fiances free and clear. The girls soon show up to the Stooges' cell and marry the three inmates, then the girls depart. (Moe and Curly, disappointed that they did not receive a wedding kiss, give each other a kiss instead.) The Stooges are brought to the scaffold at Hang-em'-all Prison as other prisoners watch from the stands. But the ropes break during the hanging attempt, and the Stooges and the warden are tangled in a mess below the scaffold. A message arrives saying the governor has pardoned the Stooges after Mickey Finn and his gang confessed to the Mushroom murders, and the boys are freed. As the girls celebrate their new bout of widowhood, the Stooges make their way into their house and make themselves at home. Mortified, the devious debutantes try to think up an excuse to divorce their new beaus and decide to force them to become society gentlemen, something they feel the Stooges will be unable to accomplish. However, the Stooges realize what their wives are up to and decide they need to succeed so their wives cannot throw them out. After enrolling the Stooges in an ill-fated dance lesson, and after finding them to be more accommodating to entering society, the girls turn to their lawyer again for help. They demand Diggins fix this mess they're in because he was the one who got them to marry the Stooges in the first place. He suggests that the girls throw a formal party, hoping the Stooges will make shambles of the evening. They do, and Diggins bribes the maître d’, Williams (John Tyrrell) to hit Moe with a large cake to make it look like Moe was guilty. However, his plan fails as the girls' society friends sympathize with Moe and blame Williams for setting him up. The evening ends with the Stooges' first genuine pie fight. Diggins chastises the boys for their social ineptness and threatens to annul their marriages at once. However, the girls have had enough of Diggins and decides to keep the Stooges as their husbands. They, along with the Stooges and the other guests in attendance, strike back at Diggins by covering him in pie from head to toe. ===== Silvia is a young peasant girl who loves and is loved by Arlequin. Prior to the opening of the play, the prince meets her and instantly falls in love with her. He pretends to be a simple officer of the prince and befriends her. He is required by law to marry a commoner, so he sends his forces to kidnap her. The play opens with Silvia in the palace, pining for her lover, Arlequin, who has also been brought to court. A female servant of the prince, Flaminia, devises a plan to separate the two lovers. She appeals to Silvia's vanity, by suggesting that she needs a more worthy lover. The prince, still disguised as the officer of the palace, continues to be her friend; and Silvia soon realizes that he is a better catch than Arlequin. Meanwhile, Flaminia befriends Arlequin and gradually seduces him away from Silvia. However, both Arlequin and Silvia feel indebted one to the other and are reluctant to separate. When the prince finally reveals himself, both Arlequin and Silvia are relieved to know that they have an excuse to call off their engagement. The play ends with the union of the two couples: Silvia and the prince, and Flaminia and Arlequin. ===== Jimmy Morrell (Charles Farrell) and Norma Nelson (Bette Davis) who plan to wed as soon as their neighborhood pharmacy begins to show a profit. The opportunity arises when former bootlegger Dutch Barnes (Ricardo Cortez) offers Jimmy a job duplicating name brand toothpaste and cosmetics that can be made cheaply and then sold in the bottles and jars of reputable pharmaceutical companies at regular prices. When Dutch asks him to copy the formula for a popular brand of antiseptic, Jimmy refuses, claiming he's unable to get a key ingredient, but when Dutch offers him a bonus hefty enough to allow Jimmy to marry Norma, he agrees. Dutch's ex-girlfriend Lily Duran (Glenda Farrell) jealous over his attentions to another woman, notifies the antiseptic company about the deception, and is murdered by Dutch. Without their key witness, the company is forced to drop their lawsuit against Jimmy. Now beholden to Dutch, he is forced to make fake digitalis drug. Norma is given some of the drug during childbirth, causing her to lose the baby. Jimmy seeks vengeance against Dutch, but before he can achieve his goal Sheffner, who formulated the antiseptic Jimmy manufactured, shoots Dutch. Jimmy confesses everything to the district attorney and is exonerated, allowing him and Norma to return to life as they once knew it. ===== Invasion of the Sea takes place in a future 1930s and follows the story of European engineers and their military escort who seek to revive an actual 19th century proposal to flood the Sahara desert with waters from the Mediterranean Sea to create an inland "Sahara Sea" for both commercial and military purposes. The French military escort, led by Captain Hardigan, meet with conflict from Tuareg Berber tribes who fear the new sea will threaten their nomadic way of life. The Berber tribes, led by the warlord Hadjar, begin an insurgency campaign against the Europeans in an effort to derail their plans for the inland sea. Captain Hardigan attempts to retaliate against the Berbers and bring Hadjar to justice. Ultimately, however, a disastrous earthquake strikes. This earthquake floods the Sahara to an extent beyond even limits which were proposed by the Europeans, and drowns the insurgent Tuaregs. ===== The residents of a small Texas town fight back against the mythical chupacabra, after multiple farm animals and several human residents are killed. ===== As the story of Father Tim's Episcopalian Mitford parish continues, he finds himself in the very thick of things. Far from the bachelor life he knew for 62 years, he now finds himself opening his home to a myriad of friends, neighbors, and other lost souls, each giving new meaning to his God-centered life. Category:1999 American novels Category:Novels by Jan Karon Category:Novels set in North Carolina ===== A young American man arrives in Palermo by plane. A taxi driver at the airport immediately gets word to Frank Ginetta (Kirk Douglas), who hides, armed with a gun, until he realizes that the visitor he's been warned about is actually his younger brother Vinnie (Alex Cord). Frank happily welcomes his brother and takes him home, catching up on old times. But his wife, Ida (Irene Papas), reminds him that "they're going to send someone," suggesting that perhaps Vinnie is the one. In a flashback, Frank recalls better times in New York City, beginning with Vinnie's homecoming from military service and subsequent marriage to Emma Bertolo (Susan Strasberg). The father of the bride, Dominick Bertolo (Luther Adler) is a Mafia don, as is the groom's brother, Frank. And among those paying their respects as guests at the wedding are mob leaders like Egan (Murray Hamilton), Rotherman (Val Avery) and Levin (Alan Hewitt), who are the equals of Frank and Dominick in the New York region's organized crime. These capos within the Organization meet as a board to coordinate their business. The majority becomes increasingly unhappy with Frank's position, as he seems opposed to every new idea. Frank also dispenses justice on his own in the old Sicilian fashion, without seeking approval from the others. They, not being of Sicilian origin, are trying to leave behind the old traditional methods, such as when two of Frank's hit men kill a stool pigeon in the marshes and leave him tied to a chair with a canary stuffed in his mouth, as a warning to others who might talk too much. Frank still fondly remembers his father, who also was a mafioso who was assassinated in a hit. Vinnie is more of a businessman, and takes sides with the other board members in ventures they intend to pursue without his brother. Frank resents this, striking Vinnie for defying him and insisting to the board that Vinnie will have no part in what they have planned. Older members of the organization who are no longer involved in decision-making tell Frank that it was Dom Bertolo who made it possible for outsiders to spot and find members of their Mafia family, resulting in 41 murders, Frank's father included. Bertolo had taken up outside of the family 35 years earlier with Irish and Jewish outsiders who wanted to get in the Mafia, and by doing so secured his own power in the larger, expanded outfit against older members like Frank's father. Frank is conflicted because Bertolo is his brother's father in law, but the Sicilian code of honor decides what he must do. Pretending to reconcile with Dominick for past differences, he offers to submit to the new deal, while in reality he is taking him to a deserted warehouse to be executed. As he realizes what his fate is, a terrified Dominick collapses from heart failure. Frank hides out in Sicily, but knows his days are numbered and that the Board plans to have him killed. Realizing that it is Vinnie who has been forced under threats by Egan to do the job of killing him, Frank bitterly accepts this fate in the hope that it will save his brother's life and that of his family back in America. Vinnie realizes at last that he has been played like a puppet all along against his well-meaning brother, who in order to protect him lays down his own life, handing Vinnie their father's shotgun with which to shoot him. ===== The story takes place at St. Mark's, a Catholic boarding school for girls. One day, a young student, Elizabeth, is studying in a classroom on the third floor when, without warning, she is attacked by unseen evil forces. One of St. Mark's priests, Father Drake, attempts to save Elizabeth from the apparently demonic aggressor, but he quickly proves to be powerless against it, and the girl vanishes without a trace. The school is immediately shut down, and all of the students are removed from campus by worried families. Five years later, the school reopens. A harsh headmistress, Miss Pearce, rules the girls with an iron fist; Father Drake remains at the school as a teacher, but, because of Elizabeth's disappearance, he has become a drunkard, and was found by Miss Pearce at a bar. Five troubled and unwanted girls are left by their families at the school: Alex, Mara, Cecilia (who is blind), Leah, and Connie. The girls are strictly forbidden to go to the third floor (the site of Elizabeth's disappearance). Cecilia and Mara enter the third floor, prompting Miss Pearce to punish the responsible party. Alex takes the blame and is severely beaten with a ruler. Alex begins to have visions of Elizabeth being possessed by a demon. Other strange things begin to happen, revealing that all five girls possess supernatural gifts. Connie is a "conduit", or a magnet for spirit activity, Leah can pass through objects (though not doors or walls), Cecilia has "second sight" or what the viewer could interpret as ESP, Mara can heal recent wounds (she heals Alex after her beating), and Alex has telekinesis. It is revealed that Miss Pearce has brought the girls to the school for a very specific reason and is seen conjuring them to a pentagram on the third floor, after which Connie appears to be possessed. Connie attempts to drown Leah and the demon passes into her while Connie falls dead. The possessed Leah (who can now pass through doors) goes to confront Father Drake, at which time the name of the demon is revealed: Legion. They argue, Father Drake attempts to exorcise her, and Leah uses her newfound demon powers to stab him with gold crucifixes. Alex, Mara, and Cecilia have been reading Elizabeth's journal, which appeared after Connie's possession, and have learned enough about Legion to know that they need to escape. They split up to search for the others, Mara finding Father Drake, Alex finding Connie, and Cecilia running into the demon. After a prolonged fight where Cecilia is severely bloodied and Leah's head is smashed in with a book, Legion moves on to Cecilia and grants her "first sight". Terrified, Mara and Alex try to flee, but Ms. Pearce locks them in and breaks Mara's healing hand. It is revealed that Ms. Pearce is Elizabeth's sister, and is trying to save her from Legion. Mara and Alex then hole up in the bedroom and use Connie's spellbook to create a protective circle. Cecilia/Legion finds them and, while she cannot initially penetrate the circle, uses her own blood to cover over the lines and then possesses Mara. Miss Pearce is in another part of the building, chanting. Elizabeth's body slowly begins to appear before vanishing again. Mara is chasing Alex, who gets stabbed in the stomach. Miss Pearce begs Legion to let Elizabeth go, but is told that they only have four girls and the deal was for five. Alex then uses her own powers of telekinesis to force Legion out of Mara and into Miss Pearce before ramming the demon's head through a crucifix. Mara and Alex collapse and, presumably several hours later, Mara awakes and heals herself, but is unable to heal Alex in time. She begins to leave and encounters Virgil (a man in monkish robes, who appears to be a type of groundskeeper and is seen briefly throughout the movie). Elizabeth comes running down the stairs, whole and alive, and greets him as father (cue Mara's exit). He is happy and excited, until a bloody Miss Pearce grabs him by the throat and transfers Legion to him. Elizabeth screams and cries as the film ends. ===== The Hadley family lives in an automated house called "the Happylife Home", filled with machines that aid them in completing everyday tasks, such as tying their shoes, bathing themselves, or even cooking their food. The two children, Peter and Wendy, become fascinated with the "nursery", a virtual reality room able to reproduce any place they imagine. The parents, George and Lydia, begin to wonder if there is something wrong with their way of life. Lydia tells George, "That's just it. I feel like I don’t belong here. The house is wife and mother now, and nursemaid. Can I compete with an African veldt? Can I give a bath and scrub the children as efficiently or quickly as the automatic scrub bath can? I cannot." They are also perplexed and confused that the nursery is stuck on an African setting, with lions in the distance, eating an unidentifiable animal carcass. There they also find recreations of their personal belongings and hear strangely familiar screams. Wondering why their children are so concerned with this scene of death, they decide to call a psychologist. The psychologist, David McClean, suggests they turn off the house, move to the country, and learn to be more self-sufficient. The children, reliant on the nursery, beg their parents to let them have one last visit, who give in and allow Peter and Wendy more time in the nursery. When the parents come to fetch them, the children lock George and Lydia into the nursery with the pride of lions. Shortly after, David comes by to look for George and Lydia. He finds the children enjoying lunch in the nursery and sees the lions eating carcasses in the distance, which are implied to be George and Lydia. ===== In the midst of the economic decline — following drought and the end of slavery — in the province of Bahia in Northeastern Brazil, the poor of the backlands are attracted by the charismatic figure and simple religious teachings of Antonio Conselheiro, called "The Counselor", who preaches that the end of the world is imminent and that the political chaos that surrounds the collapse of the Empire of Brazil and its replacement by a republic is the work of the devil. Seizing a fazenda in an area blighted by economic decline at Canudos the Counselor's followers build a large town and repeatedly defeat growing military expeditions designed to remove them. As the state's violence against them increases, they too turn increasingly violent, even seizing the modern weapons deployed against them. In an epic final clash, a whole army is sent to extirpate Canudos and instigates a terrible and brutal battle with the poor while politicians of the old order see their world destroyed in the conflagration. ===== An elderly woman prepares to celebrate the anniversary of her marriage to her late husband. She steals what she needs and ends up taking home a baby that she finds at a bus stop. ===== A sweet-natured guy enlists his best friend, and an engineer who lost his job and has an attitude problem, to help him create and market his idea for a rocket-powered belt. The entrepreneur never loses his confidence the idea will work even though he runs into problems that include finding investors and disagreements with his engineer. ===== Armelia is an orphan girl who is part of a music group who sings for work. One day, while the group was at Governor- General Lanceman's mansion, she meets Luce Lanceman, the Governor-General's nephew, who lost his parents when he was young and would inherit the Governor- General's position after he passes away. Armeria fell in love with Luce, but unfortunately, he was kidnapped by the notorious pirate, Skulls, while he was showing her the armeria flower for which she was named. Seeing Skulls' 'God of Death' tattoo on his chest, Armeria swears to herself that one day she'll rescue Luce from the hands of the pirates. Eight years later, she disguises herself as a boy and joins Skulls' crew to search for Luce, but the truth of what happened to her childhood love is not what she thought it was. While singing to herself, Armeria is shot by a crew member who mistakenly believes that she is a mermaid come to sink the ship. Skulls rescues her, but as the crew are examining her wound, they discover her to be a woman. Her true gender exposed, she reveals that she has come to find Luce, only to be told by Skulls that Luce is dead, having killed himself long ago. She refuses to believe him, and vows to keep searching. That night, the pirates attack a treasure ship, and Armeria is disgusted by the blood and murder involved in the pirate trade. Although Skulls points out that the treasures were being sent to the king to finance war, Armeria insists that he cannot justify his actions, as they are for his own ends. At a nearby port, however, she is surprised to see the townspeople welcome the pirates. While singing at a brothel, she discovers that Skulls rebuilt the town, does not rob the poor, and helps towns pillaged by pirates and peasants suffering under unjust landowners. When she confronts Skulls about this, he tells her that the stories are fake, and that she will not find Luce in the town. At that moment, the ship is attacked by the Marquis of Glenger, who has come seeking revenge for his ship being ravaged. When Skulls attempts to fight, the Marquis uses Armeria as a human shield, and despite her belief that Scars will not care if she is taken hostage, he offers his life in exchange for her safety. Armeria breaks free and Skulls calls her by her true name when he protects her from the Marquis' blade. While hiding in a storage room, Armeria realizes that Skulls IS Luce, as she never told anyone her real name. When she questions Doc, the ship's doctor, he reveals that Luce, having regretted being unable to help the peasants his uncle stole from, decided to become a pirate who would help the weak, eventually taking the name "Skulls" away from Doc. Despite her shock at Luce having become such an awful person, Armeria decides to stay with him and become a member of the crew. After an attack by the navy, Luce decides that they need to find out if the navy are patrolling the area they are currently in. Armeria offers to find out in the next town, reasoning that as she is not a pirate, the townspeople will tell her, but Luce refuses. Angered by this, Armeria takes a boat and rows to the port, where she gets a job in a brothel patronized by Naval officers. She is accosted by a drunk, and saved by another officer, who turns out to be Luce in disguise. He takes her upstairs and demands to know how she planned to find the information they need. When she refuses to answer, telling him not to interfere, he threatens to "buy" her every night until she gives up. Furious with him, she storms out of the room, only to witness an argument between a navy officer and a member of the pirates about Skulls. When another officer suggests that Scars is in town, she yells out that he isn't, drawing the attention of a naval commander. Armeria is imprisoned by the Navy. While she manages to escape her cell by faking a fainting fit and locking her jailer in, she runs into the commander and his men. Upon being seized and questioned, she claims that Skulls is far out at sea, only for him to come crashing through the window, having been informed of her capture. His crew, having disguised themselves as naval officers, keep the commander at bay while Luce and Armeria escape onto the pirate ship by swinging out of the window. The navy is unable to follow them as the pirates have destroyed the rudders of their ships. During a celebration that night, Armeria learns that Luce sold his treasured golden goddess statue for money to buy her at the brothel, and she realizes that he cares for her more than he is willing to let on. Some time later, Armeria learns that Luce possesses a map leading to the legendary "Devil's Score", a piece of music so beautiful that it is said to truly be the music of Heaven. However, it is also said to be cursed, as when the composer performed it for a noble, the noble's entire family died of a mysterious illness and the paper wouldn't set alight when he tried to burn it, so it was hidden away on an island. Armeria tries to convince Luce to find the score so that she may sing it but he refuses, only changing his mind when she points out that he would be able to sell it for a lot of money. On the island, Armeria and Luce search for the score in a cave, only to run into the same commander who captured Armeria previously. He has been sent to the island to find the score for an aristocrat, and uses Armeria as a hostage to get Luce to accompany him to where the treasure is. He wants Luce to fetch the treasure for him, as the chest is booby-trapped, but a cannon is fired above ground, causing the roof to cave in. A falling rock triggers a booby trap of poisoned arrows, and Luce is struck protecting Armeria. It is revealed that the commander is Luce's childhood friend, Reid. The boys were orphaned by pirates at a young age and vowed to avenge them, and Reid is disgusted to learn that Luce has become the pirate Skulls, claiming that Luce is pretending to be Robin Hood while committing crimes. Luce collapses from the poison, and asks Armeria to sing the Devil's Score. The sound of her voice helps the crew find them. They take Luce back to the ship to be cured, and Reid lets Armeria take the Devil's Score. ===== Queenie Kelley (Oberon had been known earlier in life as "Queenie O'Brien" and "Queenie Thompson") is an extremely beautiful girl of Indian and Irish descent, fair enough to pass for white. Growing up in Calcutta, however, Queenie is made all too aware of her "chee-chee" (mixed) background by her enemies, specifically wealthy Prunella Rumsey. One of Prunella's mother's lovers, however, is Queenie's uncle, Morgan Jones. When their affair is discovered by Sir Rumsey, he fires Jones from his musician position at the cricket club. Queenie visits with Sir Rumsey to plead for her uncle's job back, but he does so under the condition Queenie sleeps with him. When she realizes that he has lied to her, she storms out of the mansion, but not before he falls over a balcony and falls to his death. Once at home, Queenie tells her mother and uncle what happened, Jones and Queenie depart for England. Lost in London, Queenie finds a career as a stripper. Later, she makes her way to Hollywood, where she is renamed Dawn Avalon. Avalon becomes one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. During this time, Queenie deals with complicated relationships while trying to conceal her true identity and avoid jail due to the ongoing investigation of Sir Rumsey's death. ===== On Planet 51, green extraterrestrials live peacefully in a society reminiscent of the United States during the 1950s. One day, a mysterious spacecraft lands in town. NASA astronaut Charles "Chuck" Baker emerges from it and is shocked to find the planet inhabited. Chuck escapes to the town's planetarium, where he meets teenage alien Lem, who works there part-time. Realizing Chuck is not a threat, Lem agrees to help return him to his spacecraft before command module Odyssey in Planet 51's orbit departs for Earth and leaves him stranded. Planet 51's army, led by the paranoid General Grawl, arrives to inspect the spacecraft. Grawl, after Baker's MP3 player is accidentally started, deduces that the astronaut is an alien invader bent on turning the planet's population into zombies, and a manhunt ensues. Lem enlists the help of his best friend Skiff, a science fiction aficionado with conspiracy theories about the so-called "Base 9", to hide Chuck away from the army. During his efforts to conceal Chuck, Lem inadvertently upsets his neighbor and crush Neera, who believes the alien is friendly, and is also fired from his job when his boss discovers Chuck. In Lem's room, Chuck reunites with a dog-like NASA probe called Rover, which freed itself from the army's base after tracking Chuck with a GPS and headed for the city and which befriends a small, domesticated xenomorph. After the army searches Lem's home for traces of the alien, Lem and Skiff move Chuck to a comic book store Skiff works at, where the news station manages to capture Chuck acting out references to Earth's pop culture, which is misinterpreted as alien threats. After escaping the store from the invading army, Grawl has Chuck's spacecraft moved to a secret location. Chuck is later captured by Grawl's forces during a festive movie premiere in town, and is slated to have his brain removed by alien scientist Professor Kipple. When Lem defends Chuck, Kipple deems him a zombie minion. Resigned to his fate, Chuck pretends to release Lem from his "mind control" and is taken away with Rover to Base 9. Lem gets his job back, but is determined to rescue Chuck. Joined by Skiff, Neera, her younger brother Eckle, and Rover, Lem tracks down Base 9's location in the desert to a gas station where Skiff inadvertently opens a gate to the underground base. They free Chuck from Kipple and find his spacecraft, but they are cornered by Grawl and his forces. Bent on eliminating the human, Grawl reveals he has the base rigged to explode; Lem accidentally activates the countdown. Enraged, Grawl attempts to shoot Lem, but misses and ignites an explosive, causing him to be trapped under debris. Chuck rescues him before launching his spacecraft into Planet 51's orbit, escaping Base 9's destruction. After admiring Planet 51's view from space, Lem successfully asks Neera out on a date, while Grawl expresses his gratitude to Chuck for saving him. Chuck returns his friends home and allows Rover to stay behind with Skiff, who has bonded with the probe, and bids Lem and the rest of the town farewell before launching back into space, but the last seconds of the film reveal that the little Xenomorph pet befriended by Rover is on board. ===== The films begins at a ceremony in which anthropologist Étienne Sembadel is honouring his co-worker and longtime friend Octave Clapoteau. At the event, a young veterinarian named Esther Bouloire – with whom Sembadel had previously spoken at one of his lectures—approaches the two men and insists that they dine together. After revealing that she thinks her brother-in-law murdered her sister Genevieve and burned the body, the two academics inform Esther that it's crazy to assume her sister's disappearance for 2 years means she's dead and they promptly check her into a mental health clinic. Upon her release, Sembadel and Clapoteau accompany the heavily medicated Esther as she recklessly drives to her veterinary practice, shoots up the office of her late father's law business, and shows them her house and the house of her “evil” cousin Muriel. Esther explains that her father and her Uncle Leopold – Muriel's father – went into business together as the Bouloire Brothers and that both men and their wives died recently in mysterious car accidents. The business was taken over by the hunchbacked third brother, Jocelyn, whom Esther believes arranged the death of her sister at the hands of her brother-in-law. At Esther's request, Sembadel and Clapoteau visit the brother-in-law but find that he's nothing more than an eccentric sports enthusiast. The two academics decide to take the initiative and visit Jocelyn Bouloire-Haussmann. Jocelyn assures them that his niece Genevieve just ran away and that the man mentioned by Homecourt—Munoz—is dead and not a lead worth pursuing. Less than two hours later, Clapoteau's recently arrived Roman lover, the Countess Renata Palozzi, is beaten up by thugs. The two academics, suspecting Jocelyn, angrily confront Esther but are scolded for visiting him without being asked. The next morning, Jocelyn calls Sembadel to tell him that he's remembered Genevieve was fond of a Swiss lawyer named Bongrand. Sembadel and Clapoteau fly to Geneva and Mr Bongrand tells them that he doesn't know anyone called Genevieve but she might’ve been an acquaintance of his son, Paul Bongrand Jr., who died in a climbing accident in the Dolomites a fortnight ago. Soon after, the two academics are arrested by the police on suspicion of involvement in the death of Bongrand Jr., also known as Munoz. Back in France, Homecourt comes looking for help from Muriel but finds Esther instead. He reveals to her that three killers are after him because someone told Jocelyn that he revealed the name Munoz to Sembadel and Clapoteau. He admits that he and many others were collectively responsible for Munoz's murder but that he doesn't know where Genevieve has gone. Esther kicks him out of the house and he is shot dead as soon as he passes the driveway gate. Three days later, Jocelyn approaches Sembadel's wife and tells her that Esther and her husband are responsible for the death of the Viscount of Homecourt. Mrs Sembadel throws her husband out. Shortly after, the two academics are run off the road by a car. They decide to strike back at Jocelyn with an article in Left-Weekly detailing the 12 murders: the 6 by Homecourt in Europe, Esther's 2 aunts and 2 uncles, and Homecourt himself. Esther presents the journalists with documents found in her sister's safe that incriminate 41 people, including 3 ministers. Esther, feeling victorious, confronts Jocelyn. He is initially unshaken but his advisor warns him that the article might embarrass him by making him seem incapable of controlling his own niece. The next day, Muriel is shot dead by 3 assassins while leaving the Bouloire- Haussmann offices. Esther and Leon (Muriel's husband) collect Sembadel and Clapoteau from their apartment and flee the city. Leon decides that he must return for his wife's funeral but he is shot on his way home. Sembadel, Clapoteau and Esther head to the Countess’ chateau but arrive to find that it has been burned down. They follow the now-homeless Countess to Rome where she somehow arranges for the safety of all four of them. Unfortunately, moments after receiving this guarantee of safety, Sembadel and Clapoteau are gunned down near the Vatican. The film ends with the two academics happily dancing around in Heaven. ===== In 1956, Bud Corliss is an ambitious university student who is wooing fellow student Dorothy Kingship purely for her father's mining fortune. When he discovers that Dorothy is pregnant with his child, he realizes she is quite likely to be disinherited by her father, Leo Kingship. She does not care about that, saying she feels "like me" for the first time in her life, free of her father's control. Bud assures Dorothy that he will take care of her, hesitates when Dorothy insists on marrying, but then seemingly agrees to it. After she experiences a fall on some bleachers, Bud spends the days leading up to their arrangement establishing an elaborate staged plan for what would appear to be her suicide. He is stunned into near panic when this fails. On the day they are to be married, Bud purposely has Dorothy meet him at the municipal building within the lunch hour when the pertinent office is closed. He suggests they go to the roof for some air. There, he manipulates her into position and pushes her off of the building; her death is considered a suicide because of a letter he had forged and mailed in anticipation of his original plan working. After a couple of months, Dorothy's sister, Ellen, is dating Bud; he is giving himself a second shot at ingratiating himself with Leo Kingship. Ellen has no idea of Bud's previous relationship with Dorothy; she has, however, always had doubts about the death. She has an idea that if she can find out who her sister's boyfriend had been, it will be proven that he killed her. For help, Ellen contacts Gordon Grant, who tutored Dorothy. Shortly, Ellen believes she has identified the boyfriend, Dwight Powell. Bud learns of the investigation and manages to eliminate Powell from the equation. This, too, is taken to be a suicide. Ellen is satisfied that Powell was the man who killed Dorothy. Bud and she become engaged. Gordon shows up during the engagement party to tell her that he has discovered that Powell could not have committed the crime. On his way out, he is introduced to Bud; while driving home, he stops at a phone booth to call his uncle, the chief of police, to reveal that he believes he had seen Bud with Dorothy at the university. Gordon returns to Ellen's and informs Leo Kingship that he is certain Bud was dating Dorothy and is likely a murderer. They give Ellen this news, which she rejects outright. The next morning, the couple drive to the Kingship mine so Bud can see the family fortune being made. Meanwhile, Gordon's uncle confirms that Bud was Dorothy's boyfriend. During casual conversation, Bud lets it slip both that he knows more about the smelter than he should, considering he supposedly has been talking only with Ellen about her family, and that – concurrent with Dorothy – he had gone frequently to concerts in the university town. He admits to Ellen that he knew her sister, that he "even had a few dates with her". He tries to tell Ellen that he was being considerate of her emotions by keeping it a secret; they argue and Bud stalks to the edge of the open mine pit. Ellen goes after him, still hoping he is not a murderer. They continue to talk and since he uses "Dorie" for the victim's name, one only he called her by, it becomes obvious that he, indeed, is guilty. Her father and Gordon arrive and witness Bud struggling to throw Ellen into the pit; in a desperate attempt to kill her, he shoves her in front of an oncoming truck, which swerves and instead hits him, knocking him over the cliff. ===== Tom Betancourt (Robert Powell), a student at Cambridge University, leaves after having watched his best friend commit suicide by slashing his wrists. On principle, Tom refused to interfere, having discussed the matter with his friend, who had insisted that the suicide was his choice and that he did not wish it to be prevented. Tom then visits his friend's parents under an assumed name, and falls in love with the dead boy's sister (Gayle Hunnicutt). A complicated affair ensues. Gregory Mcdonald's original novel takes place between Harvard University and Long Island. The film switches the location from Cambridge, Massachusetts to Cambridge, England. ===== That is the emotional story of "the murder of a child’s soul" by a Jesuit priest, a teacher at the private school for boys of Saint-François-Xavier in Vannes, Brittany, where Mirbeau spent four painful years as a pupil, before being expelled, at the age of fifteen, in suspicious circumstances. At age eleven, Sébastien is sent to boarding school by his father, an ironmonger and terrible snob. The boy does not fit into the school and its aristocratic and wealthy students. He is ignored by nearly everyone until an abusive priest starts to befriend him. The innocent 13-year-old boy is seduced, then sexually abused, by Father de Kern. Sébastien is expelled along with his only friend Bolorec, the boys having been accused of indulging in inappropriate sexual acts. The charges have been trumped up by Father de Kern. Sébastien's life is ruined and he is unable to hold down a job or make friends. He cannot even build a relationship with Marguerite, his childhood sweetheart. Aged twenty one, Sébastien is absurdly killed during the 1870 Franco-Prussian War, his body being carried from the battlefield by Bolorec. ===== After the passing away of her parents, Shanta lives a wealthy lifestyle in Bombay along with her grandfather, Rajabahadur Murthy Sagar, who is kind-hearted and generous to a fault. Due to his pampering, Shanta has grown up to be headstrong, and rude. In order to teach her a lesson, Rajabahadur appoints Allahabad-based Shyam Kumar Saxena, who turns on his charm, and both fall in love with each other much to the delight of Rajabahadur who quickly arranges their marriage. While Shyam returns home to inform his wheelchair-bound sister, Beena, and widowed stepmother, Rajabahadur and Shanta prepare for the marriage. Then their lives are turned upside down when they receive a wedding invitation announcing the marriage of Shyam with Kamla. The question remains who is Kamla and why is Shyam rejecting Shanta and marrying her? ===== In 1871, troubled by a strange recurring dream and mourning the loss of her father, 19-year-old Alice Kingsleigh attends a garden party at Lord Ascot's estate. There, she is confronted with an unwanted marriage proposal by Lord Ascot's son, Hamish, and the stifling expectations of the society in which she lives. Unsure of how to proceed, she pursues a rabbit wearing a blue waistcoat and carrying a pocketwatch and falls into a large rabbit-hole under a tree. She enters a small door by drinking from a bottle labeled 'Drink Me' (called Pishsalver) and emerges to a forest in a magical place called Wonderland where she is greeted by a White Rabbit, a Dormouse, a Dodo, Talking Flowers, and identical twins named Tweedledee and Tweedledum who all apparently know her. Alice suggests that it is all a dream while the others argue over whether Alice is "the right Alice" who must slay the Red Queen's Jabberwocky on Frabjous Day and restore the White Queen (who is the Red Queen's sister) to power, as foretold by Absolem the Blue Caterpillar and his Oraculum (a scroll-like calendar which tells Wonderland's history and future). The group is then ambushed by a ravenous beast called a Bandersnatch and an army of playing-cards called Red Knights led by the Knave of Hearts (the Red Queen's tall general and lover). Alice and the Tweedles escape into the woods. The Knave steals the Caterpillar's Oraculum. The Dormouse leaves the others behind with one of the Bandersnatch's eyes in her possession. The Tweedles are then captured by the Red Queen's large Jubjub bird. The Knave informs the Red Queen that Alice threatens her reign, which makes her order him, the Red Knights and a Bloodhound (who has a wife and children imprisoned) to find Alice immediately. Meanwhile, Alice enters the Tulgey Woods where she is greeted by a grinning vanishing Cheshire Cat who guides her to the Mad Hatter, the March Hare and the Dormouse's tea party. The Hatter explains to Alice that he joined the resistance because the Red Queen destroyed his entire village and killed his family when she first ruled Wonderland. He later helps Alice to avoid capture by allowing himself to be seized instead. Later, Alice is found by the Bloodhound, but Alice insists upon helping the Hatter. At Salazen Grum castle, the Red Queen notices Alice when she ate Upelkuchen (a cake labeled 'Eat Me' which makes the consumer grow) during a game of Croquet with flamingos and hedgehogs, but is unaware of her true identity because Alice pretended to be called "Um" and therefore welcomes her as a guest. Alice learns that the vorpal sword, the only weapon capable of killing the Jabberwocky, is locked inside the den of the Bandersnatch. The Knave attempts to seduce Alice, but she rebuffs him, causing the jealous Red Queen demanding for Alice to be beheaded. Alice obtains the sword and befriends the Bandersnatch by returning its eye. She then escapes on the back of the grateful Bandersnatch and delivers the sword to the White Queen. The White Queen gives Alice a potion that returns her normal size and rewards her with a suit of armor when she battles the Jabberwocky. The Cheshire Cat saves the Mad Hatter from the executioner by disguising himself as him in exchange for borrowing his beloved hat. The Hatter calls for rebellion against the Red Queen, which all her subjects agree to by starting to shout out "Down with Bloody Big Head." The rebellion is quickly put down when the Jubjub bird begins to kill the disloyal subjects, but the resistance manages to free the Bloodhound's family and flees to the White Queen's castle; both armies prepare for battle on Frabjous Day. The Caterpillar finally gets Alice to remember that she has been to Wonderland when she was a little girl, and advises her to fight the Jabberwocky just before completing his transformation into a pupa. On Frabjous Day, the Queens gather their armies on a chessboard-like battlefield and send Alice and the Jabberwocky to decide the battle in single combat. Encouraged by the advice of her late father, Alice fights the Jabberwocky among a demolished spiraling tower surrounding the battlefield. During this fight, a catapult stone kills the Jubjub bird; Alice finally defeats the Jabberwocky by jumping from the top of the tower onto its neck and beheads it. Frabjous Day has finally ended and the Red Knights turn against their ruler. As punishment for their crimes, the White Queen banishes her sister and the Knave into exile together. The Knave attempts to kill the Red Queen because he grew sick of her affections, yet the Mad Hatter protects the Red Queen from his attack. After the Hatter performs a celebration dance called Futterwacken, the White Queen gives Alice a vial of the Jabberwocky's purple blood whose power will bring her whatever she wishes. She decides to rejoin the everyday world after saying farewell to her friends. Back in England, Alice refuses Hamish's proposal and impresses Lord Ascot with her idea of establishing oceanic trade routes to Hong Kong, inspiring him to take her as his apprentice. As Alice prepares to set off on a trading ship, a light-blue butterfly with dark vein markings lands on her shoulder, and Alice recognizes him as the former Caterpillar. ===== The work - which has little in the way of plot - tells the story of Jean Folantin, a downtrodden Parisian civil service clerk whose quest for even a modicum of happiness or material comfort always ends in failure. The book chronicles Folantin's everyday disappointments, typified by his search for a decent meal (there are numerous descriptions of the disgusting food he has to eat). At the end of the novella, Folantin pessimistically resigns himself to giving up hope and "going with the flow": > "...he realised the futility of changing direction, the sterility of all > enthusiasm and all effort. 'You have to let yourself go with the flow; > Schopenhauer is right', he told himself, '"Man's life swings like a pendulum > between pain and boredom". So there's no point trying to speed up or slow > down the rhythm of its swings; all we can do is fold our arms and try to get > to sleep...'" (Brown translation p.57) À vau-l'eau is a key work in Huysmans' literary development. It is the last book written in the author's early Naturalist style, with its unflinching depiction of sordid everyday reality, but several features point the way forward to the radical departure marked by Huysmans' next - and most famous - novel, À rebours. Huysmans later noted the similarities between Monsieur Folantin and Des Esseintes, the aristocratic hero of À rebours: > I pictured to myself a M.Folantin, more cultured, more refined, more > wealthy, than the first, and who has discovered in artificiality a specific > for the disgust inspired by the worries of life and the American manners of > our time. I imagined him winging his way to the land of dreams...living > alone and apart, far from the present-day world, in an atmosphere suggestive > of more cordial epochs and less odious surroundings". (Quoted in the > introduction to Brown, p.xii) ===== The story begins in Watergap which is the twelfth village along the Watercress river. Beginning with Glocken, the village bell ringer, the villagers begin to notice that their village is flooding. The flooding is unnatural even taking into account the recent heavy rains. The villagers soon realize that they must flee their village to escape being drowned by the flood. During the evacuation a group of five villagers come together who will become Kendall's central heroes. First of these is Glocken, the town bell ringer who has become obsessed with adventure after reading the account of the battle against the mushrooms; Scumble, the town fish presser and sluice gate keeper; Crustabread the loner; Gam Lutie, a village elder who is overly concerned about her family treasure; and a minnipin woman name Silky. These five minnipins travel down the flooded river to Slipper on the Water, the town in which the heroes of The Gammage Cup live, Glocken is excited that he will finally meet these heroes at last. When they arrive at Slipper on the Water, they are taken in by the villagers. During the beginning of their stay, he briefly meet each of the heroes but fails to recognize them for who they are. After being fed soup he is taken to the house of Mingy and Muggles to sleep. The next morning, Glocken meets with his four other companions and the five heroes from The Gammage Cup. They are tasked mistakenly given the task of finding out what is blocking the Watercress River and removing it. They also discuss an ancient relic called The Whisper of Glocken, a bell supposed to have magical powers. A stone with a map on it that Glocken has brought with him that has been passed through his family leads Walter the Earl to believe that The Whisper is hidden in Frostbite near where the blockage is. Glocken finally realizes the identity of the five heroes and is rather disappointed because they seem too ordinary and flawed. The Old Heroes take The New Heroes to the knoll to begin there quest. Together they travel through the tunnel in the Sunset Mountains which was mined by the Mushrooms in The Gammage Cup. They roll away the stones blocking the entrance and seeing that they can no longer assist the New Heroes, The Old Heroes leave them to their quest. The Old Heroes leave them with a supply of fishcakes, medicines (including the magic salve of the Mushrooms), a book of maxims created by Muggles, and a bag of gold coins. Crustabread is also given Mingy's sand colored cloak that he used to hide from the Mushrooms. Finally left to their own devices, the New Heroes begin to prepare for the journey through this forbidding desert. While the others are busying themselves looking for water or examining the items that have been left behind for them by the Old Heroes, Scumble goes off to look for anything that might be edible in the desert. He attempts to dig up a root which has put forth a few stems however fining the ground to be "iron hard" (70) he goes off for a spade to dig it up with. When he comes back, however, he finds a hole with the root lying at the bottom of it. The others find him with the root and ask what happened. They dismiss his conjecture that an invisible animal dug the hole and tell him that he only got confused and went to a different place the second time. They use a sword to cut the root, which they call a "moon melon", find out that the inside smells strongly like rotting vegetation. Scumble, who is the only person willing to try it, finds it to be cooling and refreshing. The others are disgusted and refuse to eat the moon melon. Before they go back into the cave to spend the night, Scumble scrapes around the base of every moon melon he can find. Category:1965 American novels Category:American children's novels Category:American fantasy novels Category:Children's fantasy novels Category:1965 fantasy novels Category:Sequel novels Category:1965 children's books ===== Priya has married a handsome young Indian man living in America. Though she has moved from Delhi to Los Angeles - land of Hollywood excess and celebrity craziness - she still lives the life of an obedient Hindu wife: cooking, cleaning and obeying her in-laws in all things. So when her mother-in-law suggests that she goes out to work, Priya is a little surprised. But not half as surprised as her husband and his family would be if they knew the reality of her new job. Because Priya has just become the hottest, most in demand and most envied showbiz reporter in Hollywood. And her husband and his family would NOT approve. ===== Joe's accidental snapshot of a paper plate blown by a breeze, is mistaken for a picture of a UFO. However, Moe and Larry take the credit for the photo, and are paid a huge sum while Joe is reduced to the status of their servant. Moe and Larry are arrested when their UFO picture is revealed to be a fraud by the government. Angered, the older woman servant, banishes joe for causing the arrests of both Moe and Larry, Joe isolated himself with a camping trip, only to meet two genuine and beautiful aliens from Planet Zircon who allow Joe to photograph them. Moe and Larry are released from jail briefly on probation to allow themselves to pay back the government for the fraudulent photo, when Joe arrived with the great news, in which the other stooges don't believe, and repeatedly strike Joe, until joe manages to strike both stooges and the older woman unconsciously. Joe becomes a national hero, celebrating his photo achievement while riding with his new beautiful aliens in a ticker-tape parade; Moe and Larry are put in straitjackets and incarcerated in a psychiatric hospital. ===== Larry is a womanizer who is having an affair with Moe's wife, Belle (Mary Ainslee) while making eyes at Shemp's fiancée, Millie (Angela Stevens), as well. Moe, however, tracks down the conniving Larry at his pet shop, and gives him the works. Larry is able to think fast and convinces Moe he is innocent, which calms him down. Realizing he needs to cover his tracks, Larry looks for a "fall guy" in the form of Shemp. Larry then gets Shemp a job as an underwear salesman and the first place he goes is Moe's home. While Shemp is modeling his ware for Belle, Larry calls both Millie and Moe and lies to them about Shemp's advances on Moe's wife. Both of them go storming over to Moe's, with Moe carrying a loaded gun. Looking to avoid being killed, Shemp flees up the chimney. After he fools Moe with a Santa Claus disguise, Shemp makes a quick getaway. Shemp then spies Larry coming. Now aware that Larry set him up, Shemp knocks Larry out and dresses him in the Santa outfit and sends him to Moe, Millie, and Moe's wife. Moe unmasks Larry to the surprise of them all and chases him out of the apartment. Moe shoots Larry in the buttocks times before accidentally shooting himself in the foot while celebrating. ===== The members of a gang, especially Sid, grow impatient as their incompetent leader, Fingers, botches the robbery of a fur store, the latest in a series of disasters. Fingers then comes up with the idea of robbing businessman William Gordon. Gordon bluffs them into believing the police are on their way. Fingers refuses to give up, plotting to kidnap Gordon's daughter. However, he errs yet again and ends up with Gordon's meek wife Lucy instead. Thinking she will do just as well, Fingers demands £25,000 ransom for her safe return. To his surprise, Gordon gleefully refuses. The philanderer has been carrying on an affair with his secretary and would like nothing better than to be rid of his dowdy wife. Fingers desperately lowers his price over and over again, finally offering to give her back for a mere £200, but is turned down. When Lucy learns of this, her love for her husband is extinguished. She decides to get revenge and soon takes charge of the gang (her wartime training in unarmed combat coming in handy). Knowing of Gordon's tax dispute with the Inland Revenue and his distrust of banks, she figures out where he has hidden much of his money. She leads the gangsters in stealing the cash and, for good measure, the furs and jewellery Gordon had lavished on his mistress, taking half of the proceeds for her share. On leaving Gordon's house through the bedroom window a lit cigarette is left, which unintentionally burns the house down. Gordon returns and, thinking his money is burning, repeatedly jumps into the burning building. By coincidence, the next day, the newspapers report a gruesome murder, just like the one Fingers had threatened. Gordon jumps to the wrong conclusion, and Lucy makes him pay some more for his mistake. She has Sid and Fingers impersonate policemen investigating her disappearance. Fingers extorts most of the rest of Gordon's ready cash in exchange for letting the matter drop. When a real Scotland Yard inspector shows up soon after, Gordon loses his temper and raises suspicions of murder. Desperate, he decides to flee the country. Fingers's ex-stripper girlfriend offers to provide a forged passport. He agrees to meet her later, after visiting his mother. Lucy guesses that he is going there to pick up a final stash of money. The gang shows up and finds him with a suitcase. When the police come to question Gordon further, Fingers takes the suitcase (containing £50,000) and leaves, Gordon being too afraid to raise a fuss. Then Lucy walks in on her now-penniless husband. Fingers and his gang decide to keep all of this last windfall and not split it with Lucy, but as they drive away, the suitcase pops open unnoticed and the money is scattered on the road. ===== Anthony and his sister Sarah Walker go to an estate sale at Morley Manor after the death of old man Morley (Martin Morley) and buy a small mysterious box. When Anthony manages to get it open he finds five little monster figurines inside. After an incident with a monkey and a bath tub, they discover that the figurines can be brought back to life by just adding water. Once the monsters are revived they reveal themselves to be the owners of the house and kin to Mr. Morley. They are Gaspar, Melisandre, and Ludmilla Morley as well as Albert and the were-human Bob. Anthony and Sarah agree to help them get back to the house and to their appropriate size (and eventually shape). Once that's done Anthony and Sarah are about to leave when a mysterious friend from Gaspar's past appears, the Wentar. He reveals that Gaspar's twin brother did not in fact die, but was abducted by aliens and replaced by a clone when they were young. The characters just start to ask why when the Wentar hears someone coming and they escape through the starry door to a water planet where the Wentar thinks they will get some answers. After a spell and deep dive they meet an agent of the deadly Flinduvians, Chuck. Chuck tells them that the Flinduvians kidnapped Martin Morley to study human life and gain an agent on earth. Their findings have led them to want to use earth's ghosts for batteries for some kind of deadly weapon. What this weapon is he can't or won't say. Once back at the starry door they decide to split into two groups, one who will go to the Land of the Dead to warn the dead, and the other to rescue Martin Morley. The Wentar, Ludmilla, and Albert decide to go to Flinduvia, the rest back to Earth. They say their goodbyes and then make their separate paths. Once back on Earth Anthony remembers that the new owner of Morley Manor was going to tear it down that morning. They then rush to change Gaspar and Melisandre back to their human forms, find them decent clothes, and find a lawyer to stall the Manor's destruction. Anthony and Sarah can't keep their eyes open and go to sleep at their house. The next day Anthony wakes and wonders if it was all a dream. Everything is normal. His Grandma is even cooking in the kitchen. There's a knock on the door and Grandma Walker goes to answer. She comes back with Gaspar and Melisandre- not a dream then. After a moment Grandma Walker recognizes Gaspar as the fiancée that disappeared fifty years ago. After explanations are given Grandma Walker insists on going with them to the land of the dead. That night they all descend deep into the basement of Morley Manor and then go to the Land of the Dead by focusing on the recently deceased Grandpa Walker. Once there they eventually meet up with the Angel of the Land of the Dead, Ivanoma. This being confirms that it has felt souls being ripped from its care, and promises that it will warn the people that it can. With nothing more to do they leave the Land of the Dead, sent along all the faster by the angel. Unfortunately- or perhaps fortunately- the angel made a mistake and sends Grandpa Walker along with. Grandpa lands with Anthony and pleads with Anthony to not reveal his presence, and Anthony doesn't. The group ends up wandering upstairs where they find the group that had gone to Flinduvia for Martin. They have succeeded in grabbing Martin- who is still a child. The reunion is somewhat painful, especially for Martin who is eventually knocked out by the Wentar. Both groups share their information, but are left still with the question of how the Flinduvians intend to use the earth's dead. Suddenly a terrible voice offers to explain. Apparently Martin has betrayed them and helped Flinduvians follow them. The Flinduvian reveals the plot to use earth's dead to power the bodies of dead Flinduvians, making them zombies that can pass in unlimited numbers through the starry door and can conquer any planet. The Flinduvian has a device that can sense ghosts and it picks up on Grandpa Walker. The Flinduvian points a collecting gun at Anthony, but instead of collecting Grandpa Walker he collects Anthony himself. Anthony's spirit is put inside a dead Flinduvian and after a while he realizes that he can, with effort, take control of the body. When he hears the Flinduvians threaten first his grandma and then his sister he is finally given the impetus he needs to take control of the body and fight back long enough that the Wentar can get help from the Coalition of Civilized Worlds. Afterwards Martin manages to help Anthony back into his own body and offers himself as a secret agent on Flinduvia- using the Flinduvian body Anthony had been put into. Grandpa Walker goes back to the Land of the Dead and everyone else goes home. In the epilogue it is revealed that Gaspar won the legal battle to keep his home. He and Albert fix it up and he invites the Walkers to dinner every once in the while. Anthony also helps him with his experiments. Ludmilla and Melisandre live on the alien planet Zentarazna and occasionally visit. Anthony comes out of the adventure more mature with a healthy dose of respect and appreciation for life and family. ===== Alexa Daley is sailing on the Warwick Beacon with two of her closest companions, Roland Warvold, and Yipes. As the story progresses Roland decides to tell Alexa and Yipes of his and his brother, Thomas Warvold's, past. Going into detail of how they escaped from the House on the Hill, how they crossed the Lake of Fire, how they climbed to the top of the Wakefield House, and lastly how they came to be travelers by Land and by Sea. He tells them of Sir Alistair Wakefield and of the knowledge and years they spent him, and he also tells them of a very close friend called [Thorn], a mountain lion. As the story ends Roland finally tells Alexa and Yipes of the Five Stone Pillars and the Lost Children who live on them. Roland tells them that Abbadon is in the form of a sea monster and that he has followed them to the Five Stone Pillars to take control over them, thus ending the story and starting on Stargazer. ===== The Stooges play janitors who work at a newspaper office, begging to be given a chance to become reporters. The managing editor (Charles C. Wilson) promises to think about it over dinner. The phone rings while he is out and Moe answers. The person on the other end is one of the boss's reporters, Smitty (Emil Sitka), who relays a scoop to Moe that some important documents have been stolen by foreign spies. Coincidentally, the spy with the microfilmed documents, Mr. Borscht (Gene Roth) lives next door to the Stooges. He and the boys wind up as stowaways on an ocean liner. Stranded on a freighter on the high seas, and sustained by eating salami, the boys eventually overtake Borscht, recover the microfilm, and are thrilled with their newspaper scoop. ===== Lionel Q. Devereaux and his alluring girlfriend, Brazilian singer Carmen Navarro, have been engaged for ten years. They are highly unsuccessful nightclub performers, due to Lionel's total lack of talent. They stay at an upscale hotel in New York. One day they get a twenty-four-hour notice to pay their bill, but needless to say they lack the funds to oblige. They hurriedly try to convince the big shot producer Steve Hunt to give Carmen a job at the Club Copacabana, and with the help of the easily convinced, gullible singer Andy Russell, posing as an agent, they achieve their goal to get her an audition. When the producer asks Lionel and Russell whom else they represent, they invent out of thin air a veiled mysterious beauty from Paris and call her Fifi. They persuade Carmen to play the part of Fifi. The producer hires both ladies for the job, but Fifi is the new big sensation who gets mentioned in the press. Steve is very attracted to the girls, and to protect Carmen from the producer, Lionel tells him that he is engaged to be married to Carmen. Steve then turns to Fifi and asks her out instead. Desperate to solve the troublesome situation, Lionel asks Carmen to play Fifi and go on a date with the producer, veiled as usual. Another complication to add to the plot is that Anne, Steve's secretary, is in love with the producer, and not very keen on him going on a date with Fifi. Andy tries to fix up Steve and Anne, to save both himself and Carmen from discovery. He gets Anne to sing her feelings towards Steve, in an attempt to make him more attracted to and aware of her. The plan doesn't work, as Steve shows no interest in Anne. A Hollywood movie producer, Anatole Murphy, takes an interest in Fifi, and makes a generous offer to Steve, to take over Lionel's contract for the sum of $100,000, which he refuses. At the same time an agent named Liggett persuades Lionel to sell Fifi's contract to him for the lesser sum of $5,000. Murphy in turn pays $100,000 to Liggett. But Liggett becomes suspicious, since he sees how the veiled Fifi get into a taxi, and then Carmen comes out of it. Anne reveals to Carmen that the mysterious Fifi has made it impossible for her to get Steve's attention. To help Anne out, Lionel and Carmen stage a fight between Carmen and Fifi in Carmen's dressing room. The fight ends with Fifi disappearing. Lionel reports back to Steve that Fifi has been found dead in the river, but he also expresses his feeling of joy over "killing" her. The conversation is overheard, and he is blamed and arrested for Fifi's murder. Lionel tries to explain to the police during the investigation that he only made Fifi up. In the meantime, Steve confesses to Anne that he only expressed an interest in Fifi because of his business, and that he is in love with Anne. Carmen enters the scene, dressed as Fifi, but removes her veil in front of everybody, showing that Carmen and Fifi are one and the same. The film producer Murphy offers to sign a contract with Carmen, to use her as an actor in his productions, and also wants to buy the story for a film. Lionel becomes involved in the following film productions, and gets credit for almost everything, from casting to storyline. The picture opens with a song about the Club Copacabana.http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/71506/Copacabana/ ===== Claidi is a teen girl who has been raised as a maid within an isolated palace-city called "the House." The main buildings are surrounded by a manmade jungle called "the Garden." All this is cut off from the outside world by the giant "Wall." Claidi steals a journal and begins to record her unhappy existence in the House, writing to the reader as if her journal was a long set of letters. Amongst the things Claidi notes is the House's residents' fear of the world beyond the safety of their Wall, as they believe outside is a poisonous land known as "the Waste." Life changes for Claidi when a stranger crashes his hot air balloon into the Garden. Captured and imprisoned, he is revealed to be a handsome young man named Nemian who is clearly of foreign royal blood. The House's eldest princess calls upon Claidi and tells the girl that she is no ordinary slave, but a child born from a slave father and royal mother. The elderly princess requests that Claidi help Nemian escape. Happy to leave the House, Claidi and Nemian steal away into the Waste. They travel on foot until they hitch a ride on a caravan of chariots. They arrive in Chariot Town, a place inhabited by people who can speak the same language as sheep, and therefore communicate and live as equals with their four-legged friends. While Nemian and Claidi's stay is pleasant enough, it is ended by bandits who raid the town. Claidi and Nemian escape into the Waste once more, but are chased and caught by the bandits. However, the leader of the frightening group allows our heroes to go on their way unharmed. The Sheepers bring Claidi and Nemian to a village where the residents worship in a bird cult. In a religious ceremony, the locals offer up Claidi as a sacrifice. As Claidi is about to be thrown from a cliff, the bandits arrive and save both Claidi and Nemian from their murderous hosts. Claidi and Nemein begin travelling with the bandits, who call themselves the Hulta. It is soon revealed that the Hulta aren't true bandits, but instead are a nomadic village of traders. They are led by a young man named Argul, who becomes a love interest to Claidi. The Hulta arrive in a technologically advanced city called Peshamba. In the city Claidi begins to fall in love with Argul. Claidi, however, is afraid of being indecisive with love and decides to leave the Hulta. She continues travelling with Nemian. Nemian and Claidi eventually arrive in his home city, a dark and dreary metropolis ruled by the dominating Wolf Tower. The city's ruling family has been led to believe Claidi is of royal blood, so she is trained to fill the important position of the "Wolf's Paw." The Wolf's Paw is a lawmaker who creates orders by methods of dice and books. Claidi soon figures out the whole process is non-sensical. The Hulta arrive in the city to spirit Claidi away. Claidi is overjoyed to see Argul, as she is now positive she truly loves him. Argul reveals to Claidi that when they first met, after she and Nemean fled from Sheep Town, he gazed into a magical trinket and it showed him that Claidi was his one true love. As both are sure of their feelings, Argul and Claidi become engaged to be married. Before leaving the city, however, Claidi destroys the Wolf's Paw's tools, effectively ending that method of law making. As Argul, Claidi, and the Hulta ride away from the city, fireworks begin to go off. The people of the city, Claidi realises, are celebrating the end of the repressive laws. ===== Claidi prepares for her wedding to Argul, and is living quite comfortably with the Hulta. While bathing with the other Hulta women, she is kidnapped by men from the City. After a long journey across a sea with two men, She arrives at a place called "The Rise". The palace is full of strange creatures and mechanical slaves; rooms move at their own will and create a maze. She is told that The prince Venarion Yllar Kaslem-Idoros has brought her there at what he thinks to be her own request. Venn was given a letter saying that her name 'Cladis', and is given to fits, rages, and inventing very convincing versions of her own life. After failing in an attempt to convince prince Venn that she is telling the truth, Venn makes the terrible decision to steal Claidi's book and read it. This enrages Claidi, but ultimately bonds the two characters and puts them on a level of trust. Venn tells Claidi everything she wants to know about the palace, and she learns a great deal about his mother Ustareth and her magic/science abilities. Ustareth left her son Venn when he was nine, and stopped speaking to him when he was two. After a while in the palace, Venn suggests the two take a journey to the library, to learn about Claidi's supposed mother, Twilight Star. When they finally arrive at the library, Venn gives Claidi Ustareth's diary. She discovers that Ustareth was sent to the Rise to create the jungle that is now spreading in the major cities. They also discover that the ring which Argul gave to Claidi has Ustareth's magical properties, and that Argul is Venn's brother. Venn creates a plan to get Claidi back to Argul and the Hulta, although Claidi starts to have feelings for Venn, she decides that she truly does love Argul and goes through with the plan to take Ustareth's ship, The Wolf Star, and search for the Hulta. ===== After weeks of flying in the Star-ship with her servant/companion Yinyay, Claidi finally reaches the Hulta. She rushes to greet them only to find that she has been tricked – after her kidnapping, the Wolf Tower had sent Nemian to the Hulta to tell them that Claidi had arranged the balloons herself. The lie is that she was in love with Nemian all along, and wrote love letters to him asking him to take her away from Argul and bring her to the City. Because Nemian brought a fake imitation of Claidi's diary containing long passages about how much she loves and misses Nemian, and also of her "plans", the Hulta are convinced that she is a cheat and liar. They receive her with disgust and anger, and inform her that after reading her diary Argul left the Hulta forever. Blurn is now leader. Claidi is devastated, but vows to find Argul and tell him the truth. After being informed by Dagger, who visits her in secret, that Argul went north to a town called Panther's Halt, Claidi sets out in the Star-ship. Before she reaches the town, the Star-ship abruptly loses its power. Yinyay shrinks down to a molecular size, leaving Claidi to travel the last distance to Panther's Halt herself. Here she sees Argul during an enormous ceremony, and rushes across town to meet him. He disappears for the night, and in the morning Claidi finds out that he has ridden off on his horse. She races to follow him on a graff. While riding she realises that she is being followed by a mysterious, seemingly friendly, slightly disconcerting man named Jelly whom she met at Panther's Halt. The two of them finally stumble upon Argul camping in a field. Claidi finds that he is completely cold and indifferent with her, and refuses to hear what she has to say. He has a short confrontation with Jelly, who reveals that he is a Wolf Tower man, culminating in Argul knocking out Jelly. Then Argul tells Claidi that she may come with him to a town further north, where he will tell her when she can talk to him. He warns her to not to touch him, and the two set off. Their trip is lonely, sad, and desperate for Claidi. Once they reach the snowy north, Claidi finally tells Argul the whole story. Much to her displeasure, he does not react at all, simply sits where he is without reacting whatsoever. Angrily Claidi leaves him to go back to her hotel, where her crying is interrupted by the entrance of a young, beautiful, powerful woman named Winter Raven. Claidi dislikes her at once, but agrees to go with her. She finds out that Winter is from the Raven Tower – a tower originally from the City that was destroyed and later rebuilt at a different location. Winter and her men have Jelly captive, for he is from the Wolf Tower which the Raven Tower despises. During the journey Jelly tells Claidi that the Argul she had travelled with wasn't Argul at all; it was simply a mechanical doll made to look like Argul. The doll was a creation of the Raven Tower, who were apparently taught by Ustareth. Although the doll was able to move and communicate, in a complicated and emotional situation like when Claidi told her story it was unable to respond. The Raven Tower had set the whole thing up to bring Claidi to them. Claidi is made to stay with Winter although she wants to leave, and finds out that she is being taken to the Raven Tower to meet Winter's mother – Twilight Star. The group reaches Chylomba, a town near the Raven Tower, where Claidi waits for days to meet with Twilight Star. One evening Jelly comes into her hotel room through her window, badly injured and bandaged, and gives her a letter from Ironel Novendot at the Wolf Tower. It begins by summing up the history of Ironel's family, and then informs her that, while the Wolf Tower had planned to have her kidnapped and imprisoned, Ironel had "saved" her by sending balloons of her own to take her to the Rise. Though their original plans were thwarted, the Wolf Tower still carried out the second half of their plan, tricking the Hulta into believing that Claidi was a traitor. Ironel also reveals to Claidi an even bigger surprise – upon reading her fake diary, Argul had not believed a word of it. He had such strong faith in her that he guessed the Wolf Tower's plan and left the Hulta to rescue her. He had allowed the Hulta to believe Nemian's lies to protect them from the plots of the Wolf Tower. Argul had travelled all the way to the City, where he had met Ironel and demanded the safe release of Claidi. Jelly tells Claidi that Ironel and Argul sent him to deliver the letter to her. He leaves abruptly. The very next day Claidi is called to the Raven Tower by Twilight Star. Before she leaves, Heepo, an old servant of Venn's who was kidnapped from the Rise by lords of the Raven Tower, warns her that lords and ladies of the Raven Tower can fly using their special necklaces that cancel out gravity using magnets. Claidi meets with Winter Raven and Twilight Star in a magnificent hall at the splendid and intimidating Raven Tower. Here Twilight Star tells her a terrible story that reveals the truth about Claidi's past: Twilight was the daughter of Jizania Tiger and Wasilwa, and grew up a lady at the House. She disliked all the rules and rituals of the place, and strove to rebel when she had the chance. As she grew up, she fell in love with her slave, Fengrey Raven. He was not just any slave; he was a Raven slave, meaning fallen royalty of the Raven Tower, whose many inhabitants were enslaved by the City and the House. Against the House's will, Twilight and Fengrey were married and had a baby. Because they violated some of the most important rules of the House – no having children without permission, no relationships between people of different rank – Twilight and Fengrey were banished to the Waste. But their unborn child was sentenced a harsh life of service in the House as a maid. To save her baby, Twilight and her mother Jizania devised a plan. When Twilight gave birth, a slave-woman did as well. Jizania took the slave's baby and forced her to lie and say it died. Twilight then made out the slave-baby as her own, allowed it to be taken from her, and then secretly brought her real child with her into the Waste. Winter Raven is Twilight's daughter. Claidi is the unknown slave's child. The revelation is confusing and angering for Claidi, although in the end she decides she does not care about her blood. Later Twilight tells Claidi the rest of the story. Apparently she and Ustareth were good friends in their youth when Twilight and Fengrey were rebuilding the Raven Tower in the north. The two friends both admired each other for their great feats and rebellions, and also of each other's brilliance. They created a dream-plan together to "breed" a sort of super-human, a woman of incredible powers and abilities. It was that Twilight's daughter, obviously possessive of even greater prowess of Twilight, should marry one of Ustareth's sons, Argul or Venarion, once she had grown up. Their child would be great by far than Ustareth, Twilight, Winter, Ironel, or Jizania – a Queen of the Wolves. This is the reason why Winter disliked Claidi so: Claidi had won over not one but both of her intendeds. But Twilight assures her that everything will work out fine in the end – Claidi will marry Argul and Winter will marry Venarion, and one of their children will be the Wolf Queen. Claidi finds the notion of being bred and used revolting. The story's climax occurs when Jelly bursts once again into Claidi's room, this time quickly catching her into an embrace. The moment this happens Claidi knows that Jelly is Argul. The two share a whispered conversation, saying "darling" periodically to fool any Raven Tower people who may be watching through hidden cameras. Argul tells Claidi that they must convince Twilight that they trust the Raven Tower, must lie and make it seem like they will do as they say. At last they break apart, and Argul explains to Claidi how he secretly left the City and disguised himself using chemicals and creations of Ustareth. He also subtly advises Claidi to keep her wedding ring on. Twilight, Winter, and Fengrey Raven soon join the scene, greeting Argul with admiration and pleasure, commending him on clever hoax. Fengrey Raven informs them that their wedding is very soon – Twilight wants to see her Dream-plan continued. The wedding, as Claidi calls it, is an "over-marriage", with too much extravagance and pettiness and unkind notions. It takes place in a glass hall floating in the sky, which all the Raven Tower people reach by flying. Argul tells Claidi his plan under the cover of the cheering and chatter: he tells her to touch the Raven-god-icon at the altar and then to jump over the fountain. She does so, and both Argul and Claidi suddenly fly through the ceiling and escape. Argul explains that the Raven is what is used to "recharge" the Raven Tower's flight-inducing jewellery, and that when she touched it her wedding ring was recharged. He also tells Claidi that Ironel gave him a small sapphire attachment to his glass charm that allows him to fly as well. After a day of rest Claidi flies back to the Raven Tower to confront Twilight briefly. The two argue, and Twilight attempts to murder Claidi. Claidi's ring deflects the blow, her power leading Twilight to believe that she is the Wolf Queen. On her way back to Argul, Claidi bumps into Winter Raven, who apologises for the tricks and games of her mother. Winter also tells Claidi that her mother had ordered her to plant another Tag into Claidi's diary. Although Winter was able to access the diary, she chose not to attach the Tag. Claidi advises Winter to use her flight necklace to fly to the Rise and meet Venarion, whom she believes will be powerless against falling in love with Winter. The story closes with the return of Yinyay, who has turned herself into a full-fledged seven floor Tower. Argul and Claidi decide to fly south in Yinyay to marry in Peshamba beneath the CLOCK. ===== The book begins in Yinyay's Tower, in which Claidi and Argul are flying south towards Peshamba to have their wedding. They reach Peshamba and find that they cannot be married beneath the CLOCK, for this is a custom reserved for native Peshambans. They instead are married in a quick, cold ceremony by a doll. Argul makes up for the disappointment by getting horses for Claidi and himself, and a dog named Thu for them both. While wandering about one of Peshamba's parks, Claidi comes across the Mask Grove, a place filled with hidden statue-dolls with masks. While going back to her hotel she find that they are silently following her. She is frightened, but manages to make them stay put in the square. Claidi and Argul soon decide to fly in Yinyay back to the House to try to rescue Claidi's old slave-maid friends, Daisy, Patoo and Dengwi, from a lifetime of brutal servitude. But upon entering the Garden, they find out that after Claidi's rescue of Nemian a great Revolution had taken place among the slaves and maids of the House. Led by Jizania Tiger and Dengwi, the servants had exiled all the royals to the Waste and established a new regime. Claidi is regarded as a heroine. That evening at a Lion Night celebration of the Revolution, Claidi finds out that Jade Leaf had been kept at the House and used as Jizania's servant. It is also revealed by Jizania Tiger to the entire House that Dengwi's father was Prince Lorio, a savage royal who had been exiled during the Revolution, and her mother was a slave. This revelation hurts Dengwi deeply, for she finds association with any of the royals as an insult. Dengwi decides to fly away with Argul and Claidi. Back at the Human Tower, Yinyay tells Claidi and Argul that a flying letter had arrived for them. It turns out to be a message from Ironel Novendot, Argul's grandmother, beseeching them to come quickly to her private house near the City so that she may tell them some crucial news. The letter tells them to make sure to bring Dengwi, and Claidi and Argul decide to go. The three arrive at Ironel's house soon, only to find that she would spend the next days refusing to tell them the crucial news. After a few days Nemian and his wife Moon Silk arrive from the City, much to the distaste and astonishment of Argul and Claidi. Mere minutes after his arrival, Prince Venarion from the Rise, his supposed girlfriend Winter Raven, and Winter's "bodyguard" Ngarbo enter through a window, windswept, weatherbeaten, and exhausted. They too had received a flying letter, and had made a long, gruelling journey from the Rise to come. Ironel now tells the eight of them the crucial information – her daughter Ustareth is in fact alive, living in a country she had built across the southern sea. Ironel herself had found out recently, and had received instructions from Ustareth to invite Venn, Argul, Winter, Claidi, Dengwi, and Ngarbo to come to her country in Yinyay and visit her. She tells them that once they reach Ustareth's country their Power jewels, including Claidi's ring, will stop working. Ustareth also provided them with a gem encoded scientifically with the route to her country that Yinyay could read and follow. The six begin their long journey south. During this time Venn reveals to Claidi that he came to Ironel's house to confess that he was still in love with her. Despite the fact that he and Winter were meant to be a perfect match, he found her "ridiculous" and wanted to be with Claidi. Venn also develops a prickly and argumentative relationship with Dengwi. Halfway across the sea, Yinyay's tower stops functioning and comes down in the middle of the ocean. The six stragglers are rescued by an enormous ship-tower of Ustareth's make inhabited by Sharkians. Sharkians are shark-like mammals capable of speech and living above water. But the six friends are separated as soon as they are brought aboard, and are kept apart throughout the journey. Once they reach the shores Ustareth's continent, they are dropped off at different locations. Claidi journeys towards the center of the country with her horse Mirreen and Thu. She passes through a mysterious door in a cliff, and finds that Ustareth's country is in an enormous place of many types of landscapes. She encounters many wonders, including marble trees that provide water and strange fruit, and forests that supply meals. At one point she is nearly drowned by a river that abruptly changes course, but her ring reactivates suddenly and carries herself, Thu, and Mirreen to the surface. After this episode, Claidi is able to make herself, her horse, and Thu fly. Halfway through her journey she finds out that three of the statues from the Mask Grove are following her, and that if she looks through their eyes she can see her companions. In this way she finds out that Venn and Dengwi are travelling together, apparently friends, as are Winter and Ngarbo. Argul, like herself, is travelling alone. At last Claidi reaches a deep valley containing Ustareth's palace – a huge golden face on the side of a mountain. Ustareth greets her and explains many things, including why she faked her own death to the Hulta. She had contracted a rare, fatal, slow-acting disease. She believed that with her talents she could cure it, but the cure would be very complicated and almost worse than the disease itself. She knew that she could devise the cure better if she was not with the Hulta. In order avoid worrying the Hulta by allowing them to see her go through the pain of the cure, she took a special potion that made her fall into a deathlike sleep and had herself buried with a mechanical servant. Later, when she woke, her mechanical servant dug her a tunnel out of the grave. She was able to cure herself, but since the disease was long term and could kill her anytime, she did not return to the Hulta for fear of getting their hopes up only to die later. Claidi finds out that Jade Leaf is at Ustareth's palace, brought there through mystical scientific means. Ustareth also tells Claidi that her ring had never activated. Many of strange occurrences during the trip had been because her very strong and potent power. Claidi had saved her companions when Yinyay had fallen into the ocean, had caused the mysterious door to appear, and had saved herself from drowning. She had caused the marble trees to move towards her, can fly at will, and had woken up the statues. It was her own power that made it possible for see her companions. Ustareth tells Claidi that Argul is the same in some ways, like being able to make the door appear and to fly. He arrives shortly later, and Claidi has Yinyay reactivated and sent to retrieve Winter, Ngarbo, Venn, and Dengwi. When they arrive, Dengwi tells Claidi something Jizania Tiger had told her – that they share the same mother and are half sisters. Claidi is also told by Ustareth that Jade Leaf is the half- sister of Winter Raven, for Fengrey Raven is their father. It is also revealed that Venn and Dengwi have fallen in love when they share a kiss. The story ends with Argul and Claidi deciding to return to the Hulta, whom Claidi believes will make Argul their leader again. Ustareth also explains to Claidi the origins of her name. It comes from the roots "claaii" (wolf), "i" (on the), and "dii" (wing). So "Claidi" means "Wolf on the Wing" – Wolf Wing. ===== Catherine Cornelius and Una Persson (usually supporting characters in the Jerry Cornelius novels) grow bored of their current tranquil existence together as lovers and separate in search of adventure. Their stories are told in parallel from this point until the end, where they rejoin and the story begins again. Catherine, generally portrayed in a saintly and/or martyred role moves through a series of relationships in which she is abused or dominated by her partner. She attempts at one point to get Jerry Cornelius (her brother and sometimes her lover) to beat her, but he is unable to satisfy her. Una Persson, who ordinarily fills Jerry's role as the eternal revolutionary when he is unwilling or unable to, embroils herself in a series of revolutionary wars - always on the losing side. At the end, Una begins to despair of the situation in which she has found herself, and is rescued by Catherine who takes her back to the cottage they shared at the start of the novel to recuperate. This is an inversion of their roles throughout the book, as up until that point Una has been an active combatant and Catherine has been increasingly dominated. ===== A grandfather reads a bedtime story, chronicling the lives of the citizens of an imaginary town called Chewandswallow, which is characterized by food raining from the sky. The sky provided the townsfolk with all of their food by raining food. The town of Chewandswallow was devoid of malls and food stores. Unlike typical weather, the weather of Chewandswallow always came three times a day, at breakfast, lunch, and dinnertime. The town of Chewandswallow had a sanitation department (known as the Sanitation Department of Chewandswallow). It fed the fallen food to the animals (including stray pets, birds, sea creatures including fish, sea turtles, and cetaceans, and wildlife on land). With the devoid of malls and grocery stores, this for the town's residents was a much better arrangement. The food in the weather for the town's residents was at first delicious. But after a couple of millenniums had passed and when all the excitement of the food in the weather had died down, the town of Chewandswallow gradually (but inexplicably) took the residents a turn for the worse. Then the people began to realize that they were not happy about it as they thought. Too much food or unappetizing food for the residents of Chewandswallow came down. The sanitation department of Chewandswallow gave up and shut down service operations (shut down worldwide) forever due to the crisis, and the weather continued to worsen. Houses and other structures were damaged. The townspeople (left to suffer the oversized food) began to fear for their lives. As for schools for the children, there was no more school for them because the schools closed and ceased school operations (for good). There was no question in the people's minds about what to do in Chewandswallow. Finally, a decision was made to abandon the town. It was a matter of survival. The residents decided to permanently abandon the town and escape on ships (built from giant peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwiches; they cemented together the giant pieces of stale bread-sandwich style with peanut butter and marshmallow fluff). They landed in a town with normal weather and started a new life. In the permanent new land, the children restarted school (since the schools had now reopened after being discontinued in the town of Chewandswallow, but were now open in the new land as new schools) and life returned to normal, other than the need to purchase and cook food (as for food) rather than eat it from the sky. For food, the biggest change was for the townspeople in the new land to get used to buying food from supermarkets and shopping malls (which were in the new land) instead of eating it from the sky. No one ever got hit by a hamburger again nor ever dared to go back to Chewandswallow to find out what happened to it. They were too afraid. The grandfather finishes his story. The following morning, the grandchildren awaken to discover snowfall. After hurrying outside to play, the granddaughter imagines the rising sun reflecting on the snow is mashed potatoes and butter. ===== American-born Israeli spy Helen Mason (Mariel Hemingway) is sent to Iraq to coerce an Iraqi pilot into hijacking a Soviet-made fighter jet for Israeli defense research. She seduces Munir Redfa (Ben Cross) in order to blackmail him. There are unexpected results when Helen finds herself falling in love with him, endangering the mission, while he is torn between his love for her and his loyalty to Iraq. ===== The American Civil War plot centers on the exploits of a British merchant captain named James Playfair who must break the Union blockade of Charleston harbor in South Carolina to trade supplies for cotton and, later in the book, to rescue Halliburtt, the abolitionist journalist father of a young girl held prisoner (the father, not the girl) by the Confederates. Verne's tale was inspired by reality as many ships were actually lost while acting as blockade runners in and around Charleston in the early 1860s. ===== When the Manhattan investment firm of Sherwood Nash (William Powell) goes broke, he joins forces with his partner Snap (Frank McHugh) and fashion designer Lynn Mason (Bette Davis) to provide discount shops with cheap copies of Paris couture dresses. Lynn discovers that top designer Oscar Baroque (Reginald Owen) gets his inspiration from old costume books, and she begins to create designs the same way, signing each one with the name of an established designer. Sherwood realizes Baroque's companion, the alleged Grand Duchess Alix (Verree Teasdale), is really Mabel McGuire, his old friend from Hoboken, New Jersey, and threatens to reveal her identity unless she convinces Baroque to design the costumes of a musical revue in which she will star. Baroque buys a supply of ostrich feathers from Sherwood's crony Joe Ward (Hugh Herbert) and starts a fashion rage. Sherwood then opens Maison Elegance, a new Paris fashion house that's a great success until Baroque discovers Lynn is forging his sketches. He has him arrested, but Sherwood convinces the police to give him time to straighten out the situation. He crashes Baroque and Alix's wedding and promises to humiliate the designer by publicly revealing who his bride really is unless Baroque withdraws the charges. The designer agrees and purchases Maison Elegance from Sherwood, who assures Lynn he'll never get involved in another illegal activity if she returns to America with him. ===== In a small town, the bully Luke and the troublemaker son of the sheriff Rodney are very aggressive with the outcast Frank and his moron brother, Donnie while dating the waitresses Katie and Beth, but Sheriff Greene resolves the situation. On the next day, Luke, Katie and Rodney are having a threesome in Luke's car and Donnie watches them; Luke and Rodney leave the car and beat up on him. However, Frank arrives and defends his brother, defeating the two guys. They drive away leaving Katie who had to run to the woods. Later, Sheriff Greene arrives in the cottage of Frank asking for Katie; but Frank glances at his brother arriving in the house with Katie's body covered with blood. Frank does not allow the sheriff to enter his house and later Donnie explains that Katie dropped in the woods and died. When Beth calls Katie's cell phone, Donnie answers the call and Frank decides to kidnap the girl. Then Luke and Rodney decide to investigate Frank's house and they are murdered by Frank in the beginning of a bloodshed in his real estate. ===== Jack Clay, an ex-Royal Air Force military transport makes a threadbare living flying charter cargo flights of dubious legitimacy around the Mediterranean and other parts of Europe in an old Douglas DC-3. His dreams of having his own aeroplane and own charter company are rapidly fading due to age and lack of money, but at least he is flying. While in Athens, Greece he has a chance encounter with an old wartime friend and rival pilot, Ken Kitson, when the latter lands in a luxurious private Piaggio P.166. Kitson is personal pilot to the immensely wealthy former-Nawab of Tungabhadra in Pakistan, who is searching the world for his family's heirloom jewels that had been stolen by a British charter pilot during the Partition of India. However, the Nawab is not the only one looking for the missing jewels, and is not the only one who would cheat, steal or murder to find them first. ===== Geoffrey Sherwood, rejected by Valentine French in favor of wealthier suitor John Marland, watches her wedding from outside the church. Inebriated, he becomes increasingly louder, drawing the attention of two policemen as well as Miriam Brady, a shopgirl on her lunch hour, who takes Geoff to a cafe to spare him from arrest. There they encounter Hugh Brown and Tony Hewlitt, two of his society friends, who offer Miriam $100 to keep an eye on Geoffrey and make sure he stays out of trouble. The following morning the couple discover that while under the influence of alcohol they were married by a justice of the peace. Miriam offers to give her new husband his freedom, but he decides to remain with her. They set up housekeeping in an apartment in a lower-class neighborhood, and while Geoff starts his own business, Miriam tries to improve herself with the assistance of Mrs. Martin, her landlady and a former showgirl. With his bride helping him to stay sober, Geoff succeeds and the marriage remains solid until Valentine decides she wants him back. Miriam confronts the woman in a restaurant and their ensuing argument is reported in the newspaper. Miriam leaves Geoff who, realizing he truly loves her, tells Valentine they have no future together, finds his wife, and gives her a wedding band as a sign of his commitment to their marriage. ===== The Federal Government seeks to imprison gangsters due to their financial crimes, tax evasion and violations of Internal Revenue Service regulations. Newspaper reporter Bill Bradford is deputized as a treasury agent by the Internal Revenue Bureau and assigned to find enough evidence to charge gangster Alexander Carston (who has the same initials as Al Capone) with tax evasion. He learns that Carston's ledgers are kept in a code known only to his secretary, Julie Gardner. When she witnesses the murder of a man who double- crossed her boss, Bill begs her to quit her job, but Julie realizes she knows too much for Carston to let her go. District Attorney Roger Quinn pressures the murdered man's partner into testifying, but Carston learns of the plan and the witness is murdered and Carston is acquitted. Julie is arrested as a material witness and decodes the books, but is kidnapped by Carston's henchmen before she can testify. Bill tricks Carston into taking him where Julie is being held, and the police trail them. A shootout follows and Julie is rescued. Her testimony sends Carston to Alcatraz, and she accepts Bill's marriage proposal. ===== The Stooges are con men who are selling phony racing forms to everyone especially they sold one to a man which he said that the racing form was expired and the Stooges stole his money and threatens to call the cops. After evading the policeman they help a destitute mother and her daughter by utilizing the money from the child's piggy bank, and ultimately winning a horse race. Riding high on their win, the boys come across two swindlers who trick them into buying retired race horse, Seabasket (a play on Seabiscuit). Broke again, the Stooges start taking care of the old horse, with Curly managing to accidentally swallow a Vitamin Z pill meant for the horse. However, the error allows Curly to give birth to an Equidae, which they crown as another winning race horse. ===== Vasanthi (Bhavana) is the daughter of a man (Lal) who does a lot of help for the refugees. She instantly falls for Jeevan (Jiiva), a Tamil refugee staying in the camp in Rameswaram. Jeevan, nurturing a dream to go back to his homeland, keeps on discouraging the girl, who is stubborn in her love. Jeevan’s heart, influenced by the pure love of the girl, starts melting slowly. Enters Vasanthi's cousin (Bose Venkat), who is full of dreams on marrying her. He joins as an inspector in the local police station. The whole family is eagerly awaiting their marriage. Problems arise when the family comes to know about the love. Vasanthi's cousin and his uncle try to eliminate Jeevan. They keep on troubling him, without much success. Meanwhile, the refugees get a chance to go back, and Jeevan has to go with them. He promises Vasanthi that he would come back to marry her. The family is determined to stop him. Vasanthi decides to end her life if Jeevan does not turn up. ===== Spook Louder is told in flashback by Professor J.O. Dunkfeather (Lew Kelly) in an interview with a newspaper reporter (Stanley Brown). The Professor relates to the reporter the story of Graves, the master spy (Ted Lorch). As the tale begins, we see the Three Stooges as traveling salesmen, trying their best to sell their "Miracle Reducing Machine", which essentially shakes and rattles off the pounds (as Curly demonstrates). Upon failing to sell any of their machines, they trudge onward, needing money to pay their rent. As luck would have it, the boys stumble upon the home of Graves, who assumes the Stooges are the new caretakers. Graves is on his way to Washington, D.C. to test his new death ray machine, and leaves his eerie, spooky mansion in the hands of the trio. Naturally, spies disguised in Halloween costumes show up once Graves departs. The Stooges are on edge the entire time, particularly because mysterious cream pies continuously come flying out of thin air. After being cornered by the spies, the Stooges detonate a bomb given to them by Graves before he departed; they end up subduing the thieves, thus assuring that Graves' secrets remain in good hands. Back in the office, the reporter is desperate to know who was throwing the cream pies. Dunkfeather confesses that he was throwing the pies; however, this claim is compromised when, out of nowhere, a pie flies into his face. ===== Lewis Cane is an ex-SOE operative who worked with the French Resistance against Nazi Germany. He stayed in Paris after the end of World War II, making a somewhat precarious living as a business expediter. One day he is approached by a lawyer, Henri Merlin, a former resistance comrade, with a job: a wealthy international financier, Maganhard, needs to be driven from Brittany to Liechtenstein in secrecy and within three days. The fact that the French Sûreté have an open arrest warrant out on Maganhard seems like a simple problem. However, when half the hit-men in Europe start gunning for them, things get complicated quickly. As Cane races the clock, the police, and the assassins across France and Switzerland, whom can he trust? Maganhard's alcoholic and troubled bodyguard? Maganhard's mysterious private secretary who seemingly goes out of her way to create problems? Or his former Resistance contacts, who might or might not sell him out for the highest price? ===== The Stooges are bellhops at Hotel Snazzy Plaza, and pound each other in order to get some face time with an attractive woman (Christine McIntyre, in her debut appearance with the team). Unfortunately, she has an evil mean-tempered husband (Vernon Dent) who happens to excel in knife throwing. The husband is also secretly importing Lupe the Wolf Man (Duke York) who goes berserk when he hears music. Later on, when Curly is cleaning their room, he snaps on the radio, and the wolf man goes on the rampage. The stooges head for the elevator back to the lobby which contains the Wolf Man inside who is playing with the elevator switch which cause to crash through the roof and sends the trio and the Wolf Man high into the sky. ===== The film follows the saxophone player Clyde, who busks on the San Francisco Bay waterfront. One night, he meets Flowers, and teaches her to dance, but finds that "Blackjack" (Eddie Gribbon), the leader of a ruthless gang, is also in love with her. Despite the intense turf war between "Blackjack" and a rival gangster named Mike Luego (Walter Long), "Blackjack" wins the heart of Flowers and marries her, but without consummating the marriage. Clyde is eventually able to win "Blackjack" over however, and "Blackjack" sacrifices himself to protect Clyde and Flowers from Luego. ===== Dana Lynn Yarboro's parents meet in Atlanta when her father is buying an anniversary present for his wife. Her mother, a young divorcé named Gwen Yarboro, becomes James Witherspoon's mistress. Dana is born shortly before the birth of James's daughter Chaurisse, from his marriage to his wife Laverne. After Chaurisse's birth, Gwen pressures James to illegally marry her which he consents to though he does not leave Laverne. Dana grows up in the knowledge that her father is married to another woman and has another daughter. Dana and her mother are kept secret with the only one from James's other life aware of the situation James's childhood friend and adopted brother, Raleigh. Dana is prevented from participating in certain jobs and going to certain schools in order to protect Chaurisse, however while attending a high school science competition she runs into Chaurisse who she notices is wearing the exact same fur jacket as her, both presents given by their father, James. While still a teenager, Dana becomes involved with a young adult man, Marcus McCready, and while her father is displeased he does nothing to stop her as he knows McCready from his married life. In her final year of high school Dana is introduced to her paternal grandmother, Bunny Witherspoon, as she is dying. Her grandmother bequeaths her her favourite brooch as a parting gift. Bunny Chaurisse Witherspoon grows up the protected and beloved daughter of James Witherspoon and Laverne Witherspoon. Her parents met at the age of 14 when her mother lost her virginity to her father and subsequently became pregnant and was forced to marry James and leave school. Their son was a stillborn but Laverne remained with the Witherspoons. They managed to claw their way to being middle-class business owners with James and his brother Raleigh running a chauffeur business and Laverne running a beauty salon out of their garage. While out shopping Chaurisse meets a young girl and saves both of them from being caught shoplifting. The girl is named Dana, and Chaurisse grows infatuated with her believing she is a "silver" girl who is beautiful and leads a charmed life. The two become friends with the shy Dana eventually meeting and befriending Laverne as well. When the girls are seventeen they go to a party together but the tire on their car blows out before they can make it. Chaurisse calls her father and Raleigh for help and is confused when Dana subsequently panics and calls her own mother before locking herself in a gas station bathroom. When James arrives Chaurisse is shocked that he insists on leaving her friend behind. However Gwen arrives before they can leave and is infuriated that James intended to leave their daughter alone. Gwen and Dana subsequently visit Laverne's beauty parlour where she presents her marriage certificate and also presents Bunny's brooch as proof that James is Dana's father. Laverne throws James out of their home and falls into a depression. After two weeks James and Laverne reconcile. Some fifteen years later Dana has a daughter and though she does not marry her daughter's father he publicly claims his daughter as his own which Dana considers progress. She is visited by Chaurisse who asks Dana if James continued to see her and her mother after reconciling with Laverne. Dana reveals that after reuniting with Laverne she only saw James briefly at his vow renewal to Laverne where he told her she had finally achieved what she wanted; recognition of her paternity at the cost of her private relationship with him. She understands that nevertheless Laverne and Chaurisse have never been able to believe that they have won. ===== The Moffats are a fatherless family in Cranbury, Connecticut, which Estes modeled after her hometown of West Haven. Mama is a dressmaker with four children: Sylvie, Joey, Janey and Rufus. The two youngest, ten-year-old Janey and five-year-old Rufus, are the focus of these stories. When the book opens Janey watches as a strange man nails a For Sale sign on their house. They have lived there since shortly after her father died, and Janey cannot imagine living anywhere else. Mama tells the children not to worry about it until it sells. Each chapter in the book tells of one simple adventure the children had. For instance, when the first day of school arrives and Rufus goes to kindergarten, he takes very seriously the instruction to watch over his young friend Hughie. When Hughie runs away from school and hides on a train, Rufus follows him, and a helpful engineer gets them back just in time for lunch. Another time the children decide to rig up a ghost in their attic to scare the neighborhood bully Peter Frost. They use their Mama's dressmaker's form (called Madame-the-Bust), a pumpkin with real teeth and a scooter. When they take Peter Frost up to see it, they get a big scare themselves, and only later realize their cat Catherine had made the 'ghost' move. When Rufus gets scarlet fever, the doctor puts a quarantine sign on their house. Mama, who can always find the good side of any situation, reminds the children that no one will try to buy it while someone inside has scarlet fever. In the meantime she entertains them all with stories of when she lived in New York City as a young girl. Eventually Rufus recovers and the scarlet fever quarantine sign comes down from the Moffats' house. Soon one family, the Murdocks, becomes interested in the yellow house, but they cannot make up their minds to buy it or not. The Moffats get very tired of having one or more of the Murdocks always coming by to pester the family with questions and inspections about their home. Finally the house does sell, and the Moffats move to a little house with a long front yard and a tiny back yard. The Moffats' new house turns out to have a girl Janey's age right next door. The girl, Nancy Stokes, is friendly and tells Jane Moffat that they might turn out to best friends one day. In the end, "Estes celebrates variety as the source of pleasure and growth."Cech, John (editor), American Writers for Children, 1900-1960, Gale Research, 1983, pg. 148; ===== In the marshes of Camargue, France, a herd of wild horses roam free. Their leader is a handsome white-haired stallion named White Mane (Crin Blanc in French). A group of ranchers capture the wild stallion and place him in a corral. Yet White Mane escapes. A boy named Folco (Alain Emery), who lives with his fisherman grandfather, watches intently as White Mane escapes, and he dreams of one day handling White Mane. The ranchers once again try to capture White Mane and fail. Folco asks the men if he can have the white horse. Yes, says one of the men, "but first you have to catch him, but your fish will grow wings before you can manage that." Later Folco comes across White Mane in the marshes, and he tries to rope him. However, White Mane gallops and drags Folco in the water for quite a while. Folco refuses to let go of the rope and almost passes out. White Mane relents and the two become friends. White Mane returns to his herd and another horse challenges him for dominance. White Mane loses the fight and returns to join the boy. The ranchers return and try to spook White Mane by setting fire to the area he and his herd live in. Folco jumps on White Mane (for the first time) and rides him bareback across the marshes of Camargue, over the sparse dunes to the sea. The ranchers give chase and surround them, but they refuse to be caught. With Folco on his back, White Mane rides into the sea. The film ends as the narrator states that White Mane took Folco to an island where horses and children can be friends forever. ===== Cyril (Tony Ranasinghe) is dissatisfied with his introverted fiancée Sujatha (Punya Heendeniya). He starts a relationship with the more out-going Sarojini (Anula Karunatilleke) and gets her pregnant. Sujatha meanwhile is fascinated by a wandering Buddhist nun. Due to the pregnancy, Cyril breaks off the engagement having no intention to marry Sarojini. Till the birth of the child he supports her and then leaves her for an older rich woman. Sarojini is distraught and contemplates suicide. Sujatha by this time is planning to become a nun. Sujatha takes in Sarojini. By the conclusion, they have switched roles with Sarojini becoming a nun and Sujatha becoming infatuated with a young man. ===== Sena (Milton Jayawardena) is sent to a boarding school at a well-to- do city university by his family who mortgage everything they own to pay for his education. Their future well-being is thus in the hands of Sena. Sena however succumbs to the temptations of city life and fails in his venture. The impoverished family takes on the titular scheme offered by the government to settle the North Central province. ===== Nirudaka (Joe Abeywickrema) is an ugly man who is only loved by his mother (Denawaka Hamine) and taunted by others. He falls in love with blind Sundari (Sriyani Amarasena) and they get married. The mother then feels obliged to cure Sundari's blindness much to Nirudaka's chagrin and takes her to a hermit (Ravindra Randeniya) with healing powers. Nirudaka does not wish her to regain her sight, but against his underlying wish he and his mother accompany Sundari to get her healed with the aid of the hermit, who resides atop a mountain. ===== While passing through small- town Ohio during a cross-country lecture tour, notoriously acerbic New York radio personality Sheridan Whiteside (Monty Woolley) breaks his hip after slipping and falling on the icy steps of the house of the Stanleys (Grant Mitchell and Billie Burke), a prominent Ohio family with whom he's supposed to dine as a publicity stunt. He insists on recuperating in their home during the Christmas holidays. The overbearing, self-centered celebrity soon comes to dominate the lives of the residents and everyone else who enters the household. He encourages young adults Richard (Russell Arms) and June (Elisabeth Fraser) Stanley to pursue their dreams, much to the dismay of their conventional father Ernest. Meanwhile, Whiteside's spinster assistant Maggie Cutler (Bette Davis) finds herself attracted to local newspaperman Bert Jefferson (Richard Travis). When Bert reads her his play, she is so impressed she asks Whiteside to show it to his contacts and then announces she will quit his employment and marry Bert. However, her boss is loath to lose such an efficient aide and does his best to sabotage the blossoming romance. He also exaggerates the effects of his injuries to be able to stay in the house. He suggests actress Lorraine Sheldon (Ann Sheridan) would be perfect for one of the leading roles, intending to have her steal Bert away from Maggie. Lorraine convinces Bert to spend time with her to fix up the play. When Maggie realizes Whiteside is behind the underhanded scheme, she quits. Somewhat chastened, Whiteside concocts a plan to get Lorraine out of the way, with the help of his friend Banjo (Jimmy Durante). They trap Lorraine in an Egyptian sarcophagus, and Banjo ships her off to Nova Scotia. Finally fed up with his shenanigans, meddling, insults, and unbearable personality, Mr. Stanley swears out a warrant ordering Whiteside to leave in 15 minutes. However, with seconds to spare, Whiteside blackmails Mr. Stanley into dropping the warrant, and allowing his children to do as they please by threatening to reveal Stanley's sister Harriet's past as an infamous axe murderess. As Whiteside departs, he falls on the Stanley's icy steps again and is carried back inside, much to Stanley's consternation. ===== The plot is based on an actual homicide case from Victorian England. Blanche Fury (Valerie Hobson) is a beautiful and genteel woman, forced into menial domestic service after the death of her parents. After a succession of failed positions, she receives an invitation to become governess for Lavinia, granddaughter of her rich uncle Simon, whom she has never previously met due to an unspecified dispute between him and her father. On arriving at the impressive country estate, she first encounters Philip Thorn (Stewart Granger), whom she mistakes for her cousin Laurence. In fact, he is the illegitimate and only son of the former owner of the estate, Adam Fury. Thorn tells her the legend of the founder of the Fury family, killed in battle, his body defended by the ghost of his pet Barbary ape. The ape of the Furies is said to protect the family and wreak vengeance on anyone who crosses them. Desiring position and security she marries her weak and insipid cousin Laurence. Dissatisfied with the marriage, she and Thorn begin a love affair. They conceive a plan for him to murder her husband and uncle, leaving evidence to blame local gypsies, whom her uncle had antagonised in the past. After the inquest Thorn becomes increasingly possessive, and she fears he will murder Lavinia, heir to the estate and final obstacle to his ambition, by encouraging the child to make a lethal jump with her pony. Blanche intervenes, and, fearing for the child's life, goes to the police, implicating Thorn in the murder. She confesses to their love in court, and he is executed for the double murder. As the day of his execution arrives, Lavinia goes out alone to try the jump she'd been denied, and is killed. Months later, Blanche gives birth to a son, whom she names Philip Fury, after his father, Thorn. She dies, leaving her infant son, a true-blooded Fury, as sole heir to the estate. So the curse of the Furys is fulfilled. ===== As described in a film magazine, Joan (Glynne), a poor rector's daughter, marries a bounder and, after she discovers his true character, leaves him to make her way in London. She meets and falls in love with Sir Henry Bond (Powell), a wealthy collector of antique books, and marries him after reading of her husband's sudden death. Later it is discovered that her husband was not dead, and that he had the notice printed to throw creditors off his trail. Joan goes to his hotel room and a struggle ensues in which her husband falls dead from a heart attack, leaving her free for happiness with her book connoisseur. ===== As described in a film magazine, dour Scottish shepherd Lachlan Campbell (Crisp) is exceedingly harsh with his daughter Flora (Glynne). Flora and Lord Malcolm Hay (Fraser), the son of the Earl of Kinspindle (Robertshaw), marry secretly according to Scottish custom, and parental objection leads to misunderstandings followed by separation and misery. A logical resolution leads to a satisfactory ending. ===== Mayor Tommy Carcetti's plan to rejuvenate the Baltimore Police Department has been halted by funding cuts necessitated by the city's education deficit. Carcetti and Council President Nerese Campbell meet with a Republican U.S. Attorney who promises to lend a dozen FBI agents to the BPD in exchange for the corrupt State Senator Clay Davis. Carcetti fears that the U.S. Attorney will use the case against the Democrats, while Campbell sees State's Attorney Rupert Bond's case against Davis as a means of eventually running for mayor. Carcetti's cuts cause the Major Crimes Unit (MCU) to shut down, effectively ending the investigation into the vacant murders. Detectives Lester Freamon and Leander Sydnor take over the Davis investigation. Colonel Cedric Daniels is outraged that City Hall is prioritizing Davis over 22 murders. Detective Jimmy McNulty is despondent upon his return to Homicide and falls back into his old habits of alcoholism and infidelity. In the Western District, Sergeant Ellis Carver struggles to keep up morale following pay cuts. Herc is now working for defense attorney Maurice Levy. Marlo Stanfield intimidates other drug dealers into buying his product and causes unrest in the New Day Co-Op. He gets Chris Partlow to find Sergei Malatov as a connection to the Co-Ops' suppliers. Partlow visits the courthouse, where he unwittingly approaches Daniels, Bond, and Rhonda Pearlman to ask for directions. Michael Lee is acting as an enforcer under Partlow, while his friend and cohabitant Duquan "Dukie" Weems runs their drug dealing crew. Dukie has not gained the respect of the crew, and Michael suggests paying him for looking after his younger brother Bug instead. The Baltimore Sun also faces budget cuts, but editor Augustus "Gus" Haynes remains principled and efficient. The Sun breaks a story about Campbell's relocation of drug dealer Ricardo "Fat-face Rick" Hendrix's strip club out of a redeveloping neighborhood at a considerable cost to the city budget, linking the plan to campaign contributions from Hendrix and Campbell's associates. Ambitious reporter Scott Templeton remains dissatisfied while his colleague Alma Gutierrez, who got a choice quote from Hendrix for the story, is happy with her work. Bubbles lives in his sister's basement and no longer uses drugs, but leaves each evening as his sister does not trust him enough to leave him alone in her house. He works as a rush hour distributor for the Sun to commuters. He sells a copy to Campbell, who is outraged by the Hendrix story. ===== EVE VIII is a military android created to look and sound exactly like her creator, Dr. Eve Simmons. When the robot is damaged during a bank robbery, it accesses memories it was programmed with by her creator. The memories used though are dark and tragic ones. The robot is also programmed as a killing machine if anyone tries to stop her mission. Colonel Jim McQuade is tasked with eliminating the unstoppable machine. With the help of Dr. Simmons, he tries to outthink the intelligent and emotional robotic doppelgänger. ===== Peggy is a college student and aspiring artist who works as a housekeeper in the mansion of mysterious recluse Mrs. Elliott and her oddball sculptor son Jeffrey. She becomes suspicious when George Thornton comes to the house looking for his missing daughter, who once worked in the position she now holds, and even more so when she learns Jeffrey's sister, whom she was led to believe was on an extended European vacation, actually is mentally deranged and living in the apartment above the garage. Undaunted by warnings from her employer, Peggy is determined to befriend the girl, a decision that leads to a lot of mysterious doings and a Psycho-inspired climax. ===== Trafford Sewell, the novel's protagonist, sets off for work on a rare "Fizzy Coff" (a day he must be physically present in his office; like most people he usually telecommutes) and, in the short distance he has to travel, he is confronted by the numerous maudlin "tributes" to dead "kiddies", massive overcrowding, and oppressive heat that are typical of his world. His "Confessor", Bailey, confronts him about his lateness in posting an explicit video of Caitlin Happymeal (Trafford's daughter) being born on the "WorldTube". Trafford's given excuse is forgetfulness, rather than the illegal desire for privacy that is his true reason. A "Fizzy Coff" colleague, Cassius, begins to take an interest in Trafford and invites him to lunch at an "old- fashioned" falafel restaurant. There he tells Trafford that he is a "Vaccinator" who belongs to the "Humanist" group. This group believes in reason and science, opposing the Temple's message of blind faith. Having already lost an earlier child to a "plague" as all epidemics are called, Trafford tries to find a way to get Caitlin Happymeal vaccinated. Trafford's wife, Chantorria, is a devout Temple member and is against the idea. Trafford ignores her wishes and secretly vaccinates Caitlin against measles, mumps and tetanus. Vaccination is banned under the "Wembley Laws" as interference in "God's will" and as a result, half of all children born die of preventable diseases such as measles, mumps, rubella and tetanus. When a measles epidemic comes to London, thousands of children die, including all the children in the Trafford's apartment building, but Caitlin Happymeal survives. Chantorria is aware of the fact that Caitlin Happymeal has been vaccinated, but rather than accepting this cause and effect, she sees Caitlin Happymeal's survival as God's will. The Sewells become stars in their parish and Chantorria becomes the centre of attention, which she relishes. She gradually becomes convinced that she is one of God's chosen few and begins an affair with Confessor Bailey. During this time, Trafford has fallen in love with Sandra Dee, another "Fizzy Coff" colleague. He has been "Goog'ing" her and discovers that the videos that she "tubes" are not of her and her blog entries have been lifted wholesale from other people's blogs. This fascinates Trafford as he sees a kindred spirit in her: someone else who values privacy in a world where everything is made public. Trafford introduces Sandra Dee to the books that Cassius has lent him from the Humanist group's library. The relationship between the pair develops. The Sewells' world is then shattered by the death of Caitlin Happymeal due to a cholera epidemic, a disease against which she was not vaccinated. Chantorria becomes angry, telling Trafford that Caitlin's death is a punishment from God for his heresy in having her vaccinated at all. They are rejected by their community and arrested by the Temple and are tortured into implicating others. Chantorria accepts the torture as her "just punishment". As Trafford finally breaks and implicates Cassius, the Inquisitor tells him that they already knew everything, the torture was simply to test his endurance. In his cell, Trafford is visited by Sandra Dee, who turns out to be an undercover police officer, and the reason that the Temple knows all about the Humanists. She tries to recruit Trafford. He refuses and he and Chantorria are taken to the stake to be burned as heretics. On his personal PC, Trafford has set up an email bomb (containing a précis of the Theory of Evolution) which he tricks Sandra Dee into releasing under the pretense that it contains a love-letter from him to her. When being tied to the stake, Trafford notices a girl waving an Ev Love ("evolve" backwards) banner, showing that she received the e-mail. He goes to his death in hope of a better world, reasoning that a society which promotes ignorance over knowledge and values mediocrity will inevitably die out and "evolve" into one that values knowledge and excellence. ===== At its core is feisty matriarch Elizabeth Winfield, a New England teacher recently retired after a fifty-year career. She uses an unlimited bus ticket received as a gift to visit the distant members of her long-estranged family. During her absence, her small hometown, which bears her family's name, falls prey to dishonest relatives colluding with corrupt shopping mall developers. She returns in an effort to halt construction on the project and, armed with the moral integrity she has instilled in her students for the past five decades, she manages to resolve the situation in time for the annual Founder's Day festivities. ===== Porky Pig is the supervisor of the Flockheed Eggcraft Factory, where dozens of hens lay eggs for the war effort (in this case, World War II). The hens suddenly get distracted from their egg laying when a handsome rooster (who resembles and sings like Frank Sinatra) is heard singing outside. Frankie's renditions of "It Can't Be Wrong" by Dick Haymes and "As Time Goes By" (from Casablanca, 1942) causes all the hens to swoon. When egg production comes to a halt, Porky rushes to investigate and finds all the roosts empty; all the hens have gone to listen to Frankie. Soon, he is auditioning for a crooner of his own to start production up again; showing up are rooster caricatures of Vaughn Monroe ("Shortnin' Bread"), Al Jolson ("September in the Rain"), Jimmy Durante ("Lullaby of Broadway") and Cab Calloway ("Blues in the Night"), none of whom apparently work out. Porky is on the point of despair when a Bing Crosby rooster (who introduces himself as "The Old Groaner") shows up and provokes a competition with Frankie ("When My Dream Boat Comes Home", "I'll Pray for You", "Trade Winds", "Always in My Heart", "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby").IMDb soundtrack listing Between the two of them, the overexcited hens' egg production shoots to a level beyond what Porky can handle, including a just-hatched hen chick laying an egg many times her own size. Surveying literal hills and mountains of eggs all over his farm, Porky is impressed and asks the two roosters, "How did you ever m-m-make 'em lay all those eggs." The roosters demonstrate their technique by crooning at Porky, who lays a mountain of eggs himself as a result. ===== The Sniper is about a tough New York City Police Department Sergeant named Joe Ryker and his pursuit of a murdering sniper named Homer Cyrus. (In the later reprints of the book, the antagonist's name is changed to Henry Cyrus.) The sniper chooses his victims at random, killing with the cold skill of a professional. Detective Sgt. Ryker is going after him in a deadly battle; only one will survive! ===== A supersonic passenger jet flying over the Pacific Ocean is struck by an errant missile. Due to the effects of decompression and oxygen deprivation, all but a handful are incapacitated. Three survivors must attempt to land the airplane, despite attempts to cover up the disaster. ===== Vishal (Pankaj Dheer) is a respectable and honest officer. One day Vishal is abducted and killed in the presence of his younger brother, Jugnu (Salman Khan), who is missing and considered to be dead. In reality, he is taken in by a jungle tribe, where the chief (Puneet Issar) trains him. Honest and diligent Gandhian Raghunath gets very angry by seeing this situation, and demands from the Chief Minister, Omiji, to step into the picture. When Omiji attempts to inquire into this, his son is incriminated for selling tainted glucose in hospitals, which caused several deaths. Powerless to act, Omiji hesitates, and as a result, Raghunath is killed. Thereafter, Jugnu returns, now a one-man army, willing to avenge his brother's death. ===== Tony Abrams, a former police detective who served at the NYPD's Intelligence DivisionNelson DeMille, "The Talbot Odyssey", Warner Books, 1984, page 15, "You were in police intelligence, weren't you? The Red Squad". is working as the office's investigator for the O'Brien, Kimberly, and Rose law firm of New York. He stumbles upon a swirl of intrigue that leads to discovery that for over forty years a there is an active mole, code-named Talbot, within the CIA. Talbot's mission is to carry out a secret plan devised by rogue elements in the USSR government, to attack the United States with a first- strike weapon, an unprecedented attack that would cause a mortal blow to the country. It is up to Abrams and the lawyer Katherine Kimberly to stop him. ===== The novel's hero is U.S Air Force Colonel Sam Hollis, a former F-4 Phantom Fighter pilotNelson DeMille, The Charm School, Warner Books, 1988, page 67: "There were times when he wished he were in his old F-4 Phantom with nothing more to worry about than MiGs and missiles converging on his radar screen". who fought in Vietnam. Hollis was shot down during the warNelson DeMille, The Charm School, Warner Books, 1988, page 110: "I spent four years at the Air Force Academy. I graduated and went on to fighter school. I did a tour in 'Nam in 1968, then another in 1972. That's when i was shot down over Haiphong". and was disqualified from flying. Later on he was transferred to US Air Force Intelligence and served as an intelligence officer and air attaché at the American embassy in Moscow. A young American MBA graduate driving in the Russian countryside encounters another American, claiming to have escaped a secret Russian POW camp—leaving numerous others behind who are still captive and being used to "Americanize" Soviet spies. When the information reaches Hollis, he begins to investigate and discovers a secret so dangerous that might cost him his life. ===== Welcome to the Gold Coast, that stretch on the North Shore of Long Island that once held the greatest concentration of wealth and power in America. Here two men are destined for an explosive collision: John Sutter, Wall Street lawyer, holding fast to a fading aristocratic legacy; and Frank Bellarosa, the Mafia don who seizes his piece of the staid and unprepared Gold Coast like a latter-day barbarian chief and draws Sutter and his regally beautiful wife, Susan, into his violent world. Told from Sutter's sardonic - and often hilarious - point of view, and laced with sexual passion and suspense, The Gold Coast is Nelson DeMille's captivating story of friendship and seduction, love and betrayal. ===== Sixteen-year-old Sybel lives alone on a mountain, with only the mythical creatures that her deceased father Ogam summoned for company. Sybel cares for the creatures and shares a type of telepathy with them. However, in the dead of night, a man named Coren of Sirle gives her a baby to care for. Coren believes the baby is none other than the child of Rianna, the now deceased queen of Eld, and her dead lover, Norrel, although it is later revealed that he is the son of Rianna and Drede, king of Eldwold. Sybel accepts the baby, Tamlorn, on Coren's conditions that she love it, and cares for Tamlorn with the help of the witch Maelga who lives near the mountain. Twelve years later, Coren comes back for Tamlorn. Sybel refuses to return him, believing that Coren and his brothers would use Tamlorn in their plot against Drede, the king of Eld. She later reluctantly gives Tamlorn to Drede along with the mythical falcon Ter, to watch over Tamlorn. As a result Sybel falls into a depression and resumes her quest to summon the Liralen, a legendary white bird. Instead, she not only finds the Blammor, a creature of shadow that induces fear, but the wizard Mithran who has been paid by Drede to destroy Sybel's will and hand her over to him. However, Mithran desires Sybel and Sybel manages to escape by summoning the Blammor who crushes every bone in Mithran's body to splinters. Upon returning to her home, where Coren is recovering from his injuries caused by one of the creatures in Sybel's care, Sybel induces Coren to marry her, knowing he loves her and she can use him and his love as a tool for revenge against Drede. They journey to Coren's home and get married. Later in the book, Sybel and Coren transport the mythical beasts and Sybel's books to Coren's home. Sybel plans to start a war between Coren's people in Sirle, who oppose Drede, and Drede. Coren discovers this and is upset with Sybel. The Blammor, whom Sybel held on condition of her fearlessness, comes to Sybel in the night, and she sees in her mind, the Liralen with its neck broken. Sybel flees to the now deserted Eld Mountain and sets all the creatures free. They choose to lure Drede and his army, and the Sirle lords and their army, away from each other, thus defusing the war (although it is unknown at the end of the book whether the lords and armies will return, other than Coren). Tamlorn wakes Sybel up and tells her that Drede had died, that he thinks that whatever killed the wizard Mithran also killed Drede, and he is now king of Eldwold. They go to Maelga's house where Sybel meets Coren, who asks her why he should return to her. She tells him he is the only person who can bring her joy, and they reunite. On a hunch, Sybel summons the Blammor which reveals itself to be the Liralen. Sybel asks the Liralen to take her and Coren home. ===== Felix brings his nephews Inky and Winky to the park for a picnic. However, they always seem to be delayed. While they say their grace, a rabbit gets a snake to steal their meal. When they try to get it back, it rains so they must go back home. The rain stops and the three continue to the picnic. It rains again for a short while, but then it gets better. They say their grace again before eating, and someone else steals their meal. Felix runs after the culprit however, he can't catch him. At the end of the story, a stork comes with a picnic basket. Hoping the stork has found his meal, Felix opens the basket with joy, but he finds out it is just more kittens. ===== Captain Ann Campbell is a West Point graduate, the daughter of legendary General "Fighting Joe" Campbell. She is the pride of Fort Hadley until, one morning, her body is found naked and bound on the firing range. Paul Brenner is a member of the Army's elite undercover investigative unit, and the man in charge of this politically explosive case. Teamed with rape specialist Cynthia Sunhill, with whom he once had a tempestuous, doomed affair, Brenner is about to learn just how many people were sexually, emotionally, and dangerously involved with the Army's "golden girl", and how the neatly pressed uniforms and honor codes of the military hide a corruption as rank as Ann Campbell's shocking secret life. ===== ===== The film opens on an Egyptian archaeological dig in 1961.Cowie, Susan D. and Tom Johnson. The Mummy in Fact, Fiction and Film. North Carolina: McFarland & Company Inc., 2002. Print. Three of the main characters are introduced: Matthew Corbeck (Heston), his wife Anne Corbeck (Jill Townsend), and Jane Turner (Susannah York). Matthew and Jane are discussing their efforts to uncover the tomb of an ancient Egyptian queen. Anne is distressed by the relationship between her husband and his assistant. It is later proved that her distress is justified. Corbeck and Turner discover a long hidden tomb that bears an inscription: "Do Not Approach the Nameless One Lest Your Soul Be Withered."The Awakening. Dr. Mike Newell. Warner Brothers, 1980. VHS. They continue on to discover the burial chamber of Queen Kara. As Corbeck prepares to breach the entrance, Anne begins a painful premature labour. Corbeck and Jane return to the camp and find Anne lying on the floor in a trance-like state. Corbeck takes her to the hospital and leaves her there so that he can return to the dig. Anne's pregnancy ends in stillbirth. As Corbeck and Turner open the mummy's sarcophagus, the stillborn infant is restored to life.Muir, John Kenneth. Horror Films of the 1980s. North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2007. Print.Maslin, Janet. "Film: 'The Awakening.'" The New York Times. 31 Oct. 1980. Web. 8 Mar. 2012. Corbeck neglects his wife and daughter Margaret, and Anne takes the baby and leaves him. Eighteen years later, Corbeck is a professor at a British university and married to Jane. Corbeck learns that traces of bacteria have been found on the mummy that threaten to destroy it. Corbeck tries to have the mummy brought back to England because he disagrees with the methods used by Egyptian professionals to preserve it. One of the specialists opposing Corbeck is killed in a freak accident, allowing Matthew to transport the mummy to England. Margaret (Stephanie Zimbalist), now eighteen (the age of Queen Kara when she died), goes to England to meet her father against her mother's wishes. Corbeck and Jane tell Margaret all about Kara, the violent murders she committed, and the myth that she could reincarnate herself. Corbeck's obsession with Kara grows and Margaret exhibits personality changes. People who resist Matthew and Margaret mysteriously and violently die. Margaret begins to notice the changes in herself and believes she is the one responsible for all the deaths. While visiting Kara's tomb, she and her father discover the jars that contain Kara's organs. Corbeck wants to try the ritual to resurrect the ancient Queen. He believes that the spirit of the queen possessed his daughter at the moment of her birth, and that she intends to resurrect herself through the girl's body. He proposes that the only way to save Margaret is to perform the ritual. He realises too late that Kara tricked him, and that the ritual enabled her to completely take over Margaret's body. The reincarnated Queen kills Corbeck and leaves the tomb, her intentions unknown. ===== The notorious attempt by swindler James Reavis to claim the entire territory of Arizona as his own before it was granted statehood in 1912 is recounted years later by John Griff, who works for the Department of the Interior. In 1872, Reavis went to great lengths to forge documents in Spain and create the illusion that he had a legal right to claim all of Arizona his own. He began by seeking out Pepito Alvarez to inquire about Sofia, an infant abandoned by Reavis many years before. Reavis decides to take Sofia home with him, hire governess Loma Morales to refine her, then marry her, using fabricated proof that identifies Sofia as the rightful "baroness" of Arizona. A suspicious U.S. government, unable to disprove Reavis' claim, offers him $25 million for the rights to the land. He declines. The surveyor general, Miller, is sure Reavis has somehow doctored the documents. He brings in Griff, an expert on forgery. In the meantime, Reavis orders settlers and families off "his" land. A displaced rancher, Lansing, tosses a bomb into Reavis' office. It still does not discourage him, so Pepito finally threatens to reveal that Sofia's parents were not Spanish land barons at all, but native Indians. Reavis is revealed as a charlatan. He manages to talk his way out of a lynching, but ends up behind bars. After serving time, he is released and reunited with Sofia ala horse carriage in the rain. ===== Anthony, in his thirties, charming and broke, is back in London from the Far East after being fired from every job, kicked out of every club and left by every woman. His twin sister Kate comes over from Stockholm to rescue him. She is secretary and mistress to Krogh, a self-made millionaire who owns a multinational financial empire. The austere Krogh likes Anthony's devil-may- care attitude and hires him as a personal bodyguard. But Anthony always lets people down. He lets down Kate, who hoped for his company as an antidote to Krogh's, by chasing women. And he lets down Krogh by failing to protect him from an embittered employee, upon which an old associate of Krogh's called Hall beats the man up. Unhappy with the job, Anthony betrays both Kate and Krogh by resigning. When a further betrayal emerges, that Anthony has been leaking secrets of Krogh's private life and business to the press, Hall quietly kills him and tips the body into the sea. Losing brother, lover and job, Kate decides to move on 'like Anthony' heading for Copenhagen. Krogh has lost his right-hand woman and bedmate, but his fraudulent empire continues. ===== As described in a film magazine, three Allied soldiers escape from a World War I German prisoner-of-war camp and arrive as stowaways in London on Armistice Day. Of the three returning soldiers, one is an English nobleman suffering loss of memory as a result of shell shock, the second is a Cockney who, because he was listed among the dead casualties and his mother took the insurance money, must remain "dead," and the third is an American who must remain "dead" due to troubles with the young woman he loves. Hence, the three live ghosts. The nobleman, given to fits of kleptomania, enters a mansion and attires himself in fine raiment and jewelry and then carries off a baby from a perambulator. Returning with a lamb gathered while crossing Hyde Park, the nobleman returns to the Whitechapel home of the Cockney where the three ghost soldiers have stopped. After a series of entanglements, there is a resolution of all issues. The English nobleman learns he has robbed his own home and taken his own child, the American and his sweetheart are reconciled and he is freed of a charge unjustly made against him, and the Cockney and his insurance matters are squared up. ===== Chung Siu-Hor, discovered that her husband Gan Tai-Cho was having an affair with their employee Yan-Hung. Siu-Hor and Tai-Cho owned a confectionery together known as the Moonlight Bakery. Yan-Hung forces Siu-Hor and Tai-Cho to declare divorce. After this divorce, Yan-Hung and Tai-Cho take on the Moonlight Bakery name and prove successful, resulting in a family asset totaling HK$1 billion. Meanwhile, Siu-Hor struggles to make a living at the modest bakery she once owned with Tai-Cho. Over the next ten years, Yan-Hung manipulates the family to keep relations hostile. When Yan-Hung has a miscarriage with Tai-Cho's baby, she blames Wing-Yuen to make him feel indebted to her. Meanwhile, Siu- Hor's sister Chung Siu-Sa comes to Hong Kong after divorcing her husband. Siu- Sa is very angry that Siu-Hor let Tai-Cho take the Moonlight Bakery name and decides to sue Yun-Hung and Tai-Cho for the Moonlight Bakery franchise. However, Siu-Sa ultimately loses the court case. Wing-Ka lacks interest in managing the bakery; instead, he is addicted to the stock market. With Siu-Hor and Hou-Yuet's encouragement and support, he is able to quit gambling. Wing-Ka eventually falls for his cousin, Siu-Sa's daughter, Ka Mei. When she comes back, the two fall in love again. However, the appearance of Dr. Ling Chi Shun causes So-Sum to abandon her feelings for Wing-Ho. She and Chi-Shun begin a relationship, but as it turns out, Chi-Shun already has a girlfriend named Wing-Lam. Despite Chi-Shun not having feelings for Wing-Lam, he feels indebted to her because she had helped him so much in the past. However, she sees how concerned her family is about her and apologizes and returns home. Later, she begins developing feelings for Wing-Ka, however the appearance of Ka Mei causes Yuet to become jealous. Wing-Yuen is the one child that sided with Yun- Hung, due to him believing that he was the one who caused her miscarriage. After breaking up with Wing-Ka, Ka Mei begins dating Wing-Yuen, despite the protest of his siblings and mother. He later has a baby with Ka Mei, but, unsure if it is his, Ka Mei gets an abortion to avoid complications. Wing-Ho constantly tells her to find a real job, and she finally gets a job as an office clerk. There she meets Kelvin, who begins to fall for her. Initially, Kelvin's mother is against the relationship, but she eventually accepts Wing- Hing and allows them to get married. Wing-Chung was separated from his family at a young age, being sent with So-Sum to England. His grades were very poor and he did not like university. Siu-Hor, seeing how much her son dislikes school, allows him to drop out. Yan-Hung becomes jealous and finally decides to take legal action against Siu-Hor and Tai-Cho, wanting to take 90% of the family assets, leaving them with a mere 10%. To prevent Gwan-Lai from gathering evidence for the court case, Yan-Hung kills her. Despite losing the lawsuit, the family is still very happy. Wanting to destroy their happiness, Yan-Hung tells Ka Mei to hold a meeting to reveal that Wing-Yuen killed someone. However, seeing the error of her ways, Ka Mei instead reveals the Yan-Hung killed Sheh Gwan-Lai. Due to the turn of events, Yan Hung faces murder charges. She tries to convince So Sum to lie and give false testimony and So Sum pretends to agree. Yan Hung later gives Sum 70% of her shares of the Moonlight Bakery as a present for So Sum and Dr. Ling's "marriage". Sum subsequently returns the shares to Tai Cho and Siu Hor and tells Yan Hung she will tell the truth behind Gwan Lai's death. Yan Hung is convicted and sentenced, while Tai Cho tells her that he will give her 50% of the shares once she finishes her jail sentence. Wing Ho and So Sum finally get together, while Hou Yuet marries Wing Ka. In a scene taking place four years in the future, it is revealed that Wing Ka is alive in his late thirties. Yan Hung, now living abroad in New Zealand, refuses to take her half of Moonlight Bakery's shares and approves of So Sum and Wing Ho's relationship. ===== James Sanchez is a 29-year-old gay man who feels he has reached a dead end in his life. While his best friend Roxy, an actress-turned-activist, struggles to show him there is life beyond the glitz of the disco ball, his other friend, Brandon works on getting James to socialize. Feeling out of place in the world and caught between his Hispanic-American heritage and his homosexuality, James grows, realizing that life is in the journey, not the destination. Throughout his long journey to find a partner, James dates many different men, many of whom he meets in gay bars. He attempts to find a man online, which leads him to Mike. They go on a date, which seems to be "perfect," but Mike never calls back. Throughout his relationship troubles, James also deals with his parents, who try to be much too accepting (they buy him overly stereotypical gifts such as musicals and a sex swing for special occasions), a lack of a job, a lack of inspiration for his talents as an actor and his lack of confidence to approach the man he has a crush on, the hot and sexy coffee barista in the cafe down the street. After going through friendship troubles, all too depressing moments and losing his apartment's electricity, he struggles his way back into life by getting an acting job and perhaps finding the man of his dreams. ===== The special focuses on an old Norwegian holiday legend regarding the birth of Jesus. The plot focuses on a simple stable, which suddenly is showered with light from the star that guided travelers to the Christ child. The animals stir, and when they awaken they realize they can communicate with each other. At first, the animals use the ability to disparage each other and to establish superiority over each other, especially over the two hogs who are not allowed into the stable. An ox, the apparent leader of the animals, is angered by such behavior, as it reveals they are acting like humans. The animals realize the error of their ways, and attempt to make amends when word reaches them (through the donkey carrying Mary) that an expectant couple desperately needs shelter. At first, the animals refuse to allow the humans into the manger, as they look down on them and their behavior. But, the animals relent, and Mary and Joseph are allowed into the stable for the night. That night, as the Christ child is born, the animals are overwhelmed with love for each other—even the hogs are allowed into the stable for the first time to see the baby. Then, the animals come to the realization that they have been given the gift of speech to tell the world of the "miracle"--the birth of Christ. However, as they run through Bethlehem, each animal loses his gift, and they return to the stable in silence—but with newfound respect and love for each other. The ox, the last to lose his speech, is left to wonder if humanity will ever understand the miracle it has been given. ===== The novel tells the life story of a group of friends, from preaching in Harlem, through to experiencing 'incest, war, poverty, the civil-rights struggle, as well as wealth and love and fame—in Korea, Africa, Birmingham, New York City, Paris.'John Romano, "Just Above My Head" (review), The New York Times, September 23, 1979. ===== The Stooges bid a fond farewell to their girls, Tizzy, Lizzy and Dizzy and join the war effort by enlisting in the Merchant Marines. While aboard ship, they have a brief altercation with Lt. Dungen (Vernon Dent), a secret German Nazi officer, and then mistake a torpedo for a beached whale. Moe says they have to kill it, and it promptly explodes. After being lost at sea for several days, they come across the SS Schicklgruber and climb aboard. Now with fully grown beards, they encounter Lt. Dungen again, who does not recognize them. After realizing they are in with a nest of German sailors, they eventually overtake the crew and toss them overboard. ===== The Stooges are poster hangers who manage to destroy one of the main posters when Moe pushed Curly into the poster just as their boss Herman (Stanley Blystone) comes by to check on them and they just got fired. The boys soon realize that their pay consists of tickets to the circus, but when Curly finds a huge roll of tickets, the trio start scalping them at discount price. After being caught by the circus owner (Herman as well) and the local sheriff (Bud Jamison), Herman decides to hire the Stooges as human targets for the spear-throwing "Sultan of Abudaba" (Duke York). ===== The Stooges want to fly for the Royal Air Force, but end up as mechanics working in a motor-pool garage. When given the assignment of getting a 'squeak' out of the Colonel's car from his assistant Kelly (Duke York), they get sidetracked after Moe's head gets stuck in a pipe. After several painful attempts, they finally unscrew Moe from the tight quarters, and he eventually chases Larry and Curly around the vehicle, breaking the windshield in the process. The Stooges disassemble the entire engine, and are still puzzled, as they are not exactly certain what a squeak looks like. Kelly comes to retrieve the Colonel's car, with the Stooges still hoping to be airmen. The trio promptly evacuate the garage after Kelly realizes what they have done, only to end up hiding out in a bomb mistaken for a sewer pipe. The bomb is then dropped behind enemy lines (reflecting the recent British bombing of Cologne, Germany in June 1942Solomon, Jon. (2002) The Complete Three Stooges: The Official Filmography and Three Stooges Companion, p. 230; Comedy III Productions, Inc., ). Moe and Curly quickly disguise themselves as German officers and Larry disguises himself as a woman (Moronica). Marshalls Bommel (Dick Curtis) and Boring (Vernon Dent) (parodies of German generals Erwin Rommel and Hermann Göring) then enter, and go about flirting with Moronica. The Stooges eventually steal enemy secrets from under the nose of the Nazi officers, knock them cold, and escape. During their escape, a photo of Adolf Hitler gets stuck on Curly's behind. A bulldog wearing a "U.S. Marines" coat and helmet runs in and bites Curly where Hitler's photo is, and Curly runs off with the bulldog still hanging from his hindquarters. ===== The town of Peaceful Gulch is under attack by bandits and thugs. The mayor devises a plan to scare them out of town by creating a false report of the arrival of three dedicated marshals, using the picture from a wanted poster for three vagrants (the Stooges). Despite this, the boys are almost chased out of the town themselves after nearly poisoning the town's sheriff (Snub Pollard) who is suffering from lumbago, by concocting a miracle medicine. Marching themselves into a saloon, the leader of the thugs, Red (Bud Jamison), tries to placate them with drink and dance, but is soon informed of the ruse. Testing Curly's marksmanship, the trio successfully outwit them and escape. The sheriff finally puts them in charge of guarding the bank, which gets robbed while their backs are turned. To avoid being hanged, the Stooges search the area, with Curly as the bloodhound. After momentarily getting sidetracked by hunting a skunk, Curly taking the hide for a hat, the Stooges eventually discover the stolen money, just as the gang returns to the cabin they stashed it in. Through a series of mishaps, Curly ends up in a stove with the money, however, as Red lights a fire inside it accidentally, the flames igniting Curly's bandolier, sending bullets flying and scattering the outlaws. ===== Leo Proudhammer, an African-American actor who grew up in Harlem and later moved into Greenwich Village, has a heart attack while on stage. This event creates the present tense setting for the novel, which is mostly narrated in retrospect, explaining each relationship with a story from the actor's life. Barbara, a white woman, and Leo, a black man, are artistic partners for life--sometimes sexual partners, sometimes not. Jerry, their white friend, was Barbara's partner for a while, before Barbara revealed her love for Leo. Their life stories are intertwined, but not joined, due both to the racial pressures of society and Leo's bisexuality. One of Leo's lovers, "Black Christopher", is a significant political and emotional figure in the novel. Christopher's friends are all African-American, and his life centers on the struggle for racial justice. Barbara and Christopher have one sexual encounter, but, like much of the sex in the book, it is exploratory, and only significant for what it reveals to each of them. Barbara, Leo, and Christopher remain friends throughout the novel. Caleb, Leo's brother, a World War II vet, was falsely imprisoned when he is a young man, and eventually conquers his anger at white society through his conversion to fundamentalist Christianity. He judges Leo harshly for choosing "the world" over "the kingdom of God". Caleb's religion painfully isolates him from Leo. Black Christopher, the foil for Caleb, advocates violent revolution as the means for creating a just society. Leo recovers from his heart attack and returns to the stage at the end of the novel. ===== The Stooges are janitors in a doctor's office working the night shift. The usual antics occur, first with Moe getting an electrical shock down his pants, leading to a cossack dance. Then, Curly gets his head wedged inside a fish bowl, containing a live fish. Though Moe and Larry eventually slide the bowl off, Curly starts to feel the swallowed fish tickling his insides. Moe manages to fish the aquatic critter out of Curly. Outside, a crook on the lam is shot in the arm while trying to make a getaway after a robbery. The thugs bring their hurt leader (John Tyrrell) up to the Stooges, thinking the doctor's office is open for business. The boys play doctor and promptly anesthetize the wounded crook with a rubber mallet. Then, the wounded crook slides off the gurney and out the window while the Stooges' back are turned. As luck would have it, the crook lands right into a police car waiting below at street level. The other crooks flee when they see the Stooges mangle the situation, only to be captured by the policemen. The trio, meanwhile, take cover in a spooky storage area, replete with a huge jack-in- the-box, and a scared night watchman (Dudley Dickerson). Curly is so terrified that he stumbles into a trough filled with fast-drying plaster, making him virtually immobile. As a consequence, the poor, ghostly-looking Stooge ends up scaring all involved. ===== ===== The Stooges are mediocre paperhangers. Their boss Mr. Beedle (Robert Williams) advises the boys to do a good job, but the end result looks like it was quickly cluttered with paper towels. Beedle is fuming, and threatens the boys, who make a quick escape across the hallway into the laboratory of the insane Professor Panzer (Vernon Dent) and his assistant Nikko (Frank Lackteen). Panzer is searching for a human brain puny enough to place in the head of his gorilla Igor (Art Miles). Curly becomes the prime candidate, and Panzer locks the boys in his lab in order to secure Curly's "contribution." Then Igor gets loose, but takes a liking to Curly, which the feeble-minded Stooge reciprocates. Eventually, the boys destroy Panzer's lab and quickly depart, taking Igor with them. ===== Ravi Yadav (Vinod Khanna) is the servant of Manohar Singh (Rajiv Verma). He has a younger brother, Rohan Yadav (Salman Khan), whom he wishes to see as a successful and good lawyer. Manohar's wife starts to teach Ravi English so he can get a good job when he goes to Mumbai and that he can afford Rohan's school and college expenses, but Manohar feels insecure and plans to jail Ravi. Ravi is falsely accused of raping his lover, Parvati, and sentenced to 12 years in prison because the real rapist killed Parvati and then told the court that Ravi has raped her. Manohar's wife Renuka (Moushumi Chatterjee) assures Ravi that she will help Rohan in becoming a lawyer. 12 years later, when Ravi comes out of prison, Rohan's whereabouts are unknown. Rohan, in the meantime, has been adopted by famous lawyer Gujral (Saeed Jaffrey), and his wife Yashoda (Reema Lagoo), and is now known as Vasudev Gujral, a lawyer by profession. Vasudev falls in love with Payal Singh (Karisma Kapoor), who happens to be Manohar's daughter. Ravi finds out that Renuka is alive, but her memory is diminished after Manohar tried to kill her. Manohar is unaware of Renuka being alive. He starts medical treatment for Renuka. To earn the needed money, he accepts a contract to kill Vasudev Gujral, because he is told that Vasu has raped and then killed a woman and by killing Vasu he is helping the women's mother in revenge, little knowing that he is about to kill his own innocent long-separated brother. When he enters Vasudev's room he sees a picture and gets to know that Vasu is Rohan. He returns, but Vasu catches him and starts beating him, and Ravi is arrested. In the police station, Renuka comes rushing because her memory has returned. Everyone gets to know about what happened and Payal is reunited with her mother, whom she was told had died. Payal goes to her house to confront her father, Manohar. Manohar traps her own daughter. Then comes some action. Ravi is shot by Manohar, Renuka wants to kill Manohar, but Ravi who is taking his last breaths tells her not to. Ravi dies and the story ends. ===== Demaris Tertiary has been assaulted by Waaagh! Gorgutz, and the Ork Nobz Ardnock, Knutta and Skyva are under threat from Gorgutz - whoever is last into the fortress the Ork horde is attacking is to be fed to the Warboss's prized collection of exotic squigs. Colonel Izraell Honor Castillian and his 96th Tallarn Desert Raiders desperately try to fight back the Ork Waaagh! at the garrison of the Senshu factory hive. Izraell's backup is defeated and his own armoured vehicle platoon is captured by the Orks and used against the garrison. The garrison is quickly destroyed, and the colonel falls down in the debris only to survive by falling into a sewage pipe. Ork Nob Skyva finds that he is the last to enter the breached garrison, much to his frustration, but then discovers Izraell and mistakes the sewage-covered human for some kind of exotic squig. Hoping to bargain for his life, Skyva captures Izraell and takes him to Gorgutz, along with Knutta and Ardnock. As they walk, Izraell, reaching through the bars of his cage, picks up a discarded plasma pistol from a pile of garbage and attempts to kill the three Nobz. Skyva, however, survives and Gorgutz believes that Skyva killed Knutta and Ardnock in order to avoid being fed to his squigs. Impressed, Gorgutz spares Skyva and suggests he keep Izraell as a lucky charm. ===== The story centers around Gioachino Rossini, a composer whose friends never lose faith in him—even when things go wrong. With an invisible 9 year old girl as his assistant, overcomes the disastrous opening night of The Barber of Seville to give the world one of its most beloved operas. ===== A self-centered polo player (Haines) has to redeem himself after he is kicked off the U.S. team. ===== Jimmy Valentine is the alias of an infamous safe cracker who has just been sentenced to prison for four years for his crimes. He does not stay locked up for long, though, as he is released after ten months. When he is released, he packs his state of the art, custom robbery tools and commits several more robberies. Ben Price, the detective who put him away the first time is called to the case, but although he knows it is Jimmy (because of the style the crimes were committed with) he cannot find him. Jimmy has actually fled and he is currently in the small town of Elmore, Arkansas, with plans to rob the local bank there. However, he finds himself love-struck by the banker's beautiful daughter, Annabel Adams, and begins to fall in love with her. In order to get such a beautiful girl, he decides to turn over a new leaf and give up his criminal career and take another alias, Ralph D. Spencer. "Ralph" opens a shoe-making store and is very successful in doing so. He even begins to like his new life, and easily wins Annabel's heart, becoming engaged to her. He writes a letter to an old friend, and tells him to meet him in Little Rock, where he will give him the robbery tools he doesn't want anymore. On the day of the exchange, however, the banker shows the town his new safe, that cannot be broken into. Annabel's nieces are amazed at the sheer size of it and begin to walk in and out of it. Unfortunately, one accidentally shuts the door, locking the other inside. Everyone panics, as the banker has not set the combination yet, and Annabel begs "Ralph" to do something. This is hard for Valentine, as Ben Price has also tracked him down, and watches to see his decision. As Jimmy has tried so hard to start over, he finds himself making a very difficult decision. However, he decides that there is only so much air in the safe, and if he does not take action, the terrified child may suffocate. Valentine pulls out his bag of tools and breaks the safe open in a matter of minutes, surprising the people "Ralph" was with, and saving the child. (He ironically broke his own record in his haste.) Jimmy knows that since he has revealed his identity, he must leave. As he is leaving, he decides that he may as well go to prison and he surrenders to Ben. However, Ben, who knows that Valentine has truly changed, tells Jimmy he should go to Little Rock, and leaves, pretending that he never met him. ===== Across the restrictions of time and space, the goddess Lasirén experiences and aids the struggles for freedom of the Ginen, the enslaved African people. The story is told through the eyes of Lasirén and the main three women whose lives become intertwined with her consciousness: Mer, an 18th-century slave and respected healer on a plantation in St. Domingue, Jeanne Duval, the 19th century Haitian actress/dancer and mistress to the French poet Baudelaire, and Thais, the fourth century prostitute-turned-saint. Each of the women is on her own life journey, and the goddess interweaves and influences their sexual, personal, and religious experiences. ===== The Salt Roads tells a story of the Ginen fertility god, Lasirén. Lasirén moves through both the ethereal space of the Loa and the physical space of humans. She often does the latter by possession of the bodies of other characters, especially females. While inhabiting them for varying periods of time, Lasirén helps the three main human characters find their place(s) in the world, and she influences their lives and the outcomes of their decisions through direct and indirect means. The novel weaves together the stories of the three women with the common thread of Lasirén's consciousness and her efforts to help the Ginen's struggle for freedom. The novel begins with the introduction of Mer, a slave and healer on a sugar plantation in St. Domingue. In the opening chapter, Mer and her helper/lover Tipingee deliver the stillborn child of a slave woman named Georgine. The three women later bury the body at the edge of a nearby river, and their songs and prayers deliver Lasirén into being. Lasirén subsequently appears to Mer to inform her that the salt roads are drying up, and tasks Mer with clearing them. This task underpins the majority of Mer's story - her struggles to both understand and undertake the work of clearing Lasirén's path to the minds of the Ginen drive the progression and development of the novel's plot during her lifetime. As the Haitian slaves around her, called to violent revolution by the demagogue Makandal, begin to rally against the "backra" (white slave owners), Mer struggles for a more peaceful path to freedom. Her service to Lasirén puts Mer at odds with Makandal's method of obtaining freedom, and Mer's eventual possession by Lasirén at a key point in the story results in the failure of Makandal's revolution, the killing of Makandal, and the loss of Mer's tongue. Though she is later given the chance to escape her own enslavement, Mer chooses to stay with the slaves on the plantation. It is understood that Mer embodies one of Lasirén's aspects - her duty will be to heal the Ginen, and to fight for their freedom by preserving their heritage and thus keeping the salt roads clear for Lasirén. The second main human character in The Salt Roads is Jeanne Duval, also known as Lemer and Prosper. She is a Haitian actress and singer in Paris who becomes the mistress of the author and poet, Charles Baudelaire. Jeanne's story is a struggle for economic freedom. She seeks joy and comfort, not only for herself but also for her ailing mother. Jeanne's relationship with Charles is tumultuous, and Lasirén's influence varies over the course of Jeanne's lifetime. As wealth comes and goes for Jeanne, the novel explores the importance of love, contentment, and money, as well as their relationship to one another. Ultimately, despite a long life of physical, emotional, and economic detriment, Jeanne finds herself loved and content at the end of her life as a result of Lasirén's influence. If Mer's life is a struggle for freedom from physical enslavement, Jeanne's can be understood as the struggle for freedom from economic and intellectual enslavement. Thais, also known as Meritet, Mary, and Pretty Pearl, is the third main human character. She is a Nubian slave and prostitute living in Alexandria, Egypt. Thais' journey begins when she and her fellow slave and prostitute, Judah, decide to run away in order to see Aelia Capitolina (present-day Jerusalem). The decision to go to Aelia Capitolina is somewhat influenced by Lasirén's mental influence on Thais. Upon reaching their destination, Thais and Judah find themselves with few resources aside from what their bodies can offer. When she arrives at the famous Christian church that was the motivation for her journey, Thais has a miscarriage in the courtyard. The resulting trauma drives her to wander the desert with Judah for months with little water or food. The experience makes Thais acutely aware of herself and her surroundings, and allows her to interact with Lasirén's consciousness. Her communion with Lasirén drives her eventual sainthood through interactions with a wandering priest named Zosimus, and Thais and Judah go on to wander the desert for the remainder of their lives. Thais's open-ended story can be considered the struggle for freedom from sexual and emotional slavery. Though the lives of the three human characters are distinct and independent, they are woven together by Lasirén's consciousness and influence. Often, prayers to Lasirén (or one of her other forms) are the catalyst for her possession of a character and the Loa's influence in the physical world. Additionally, each character's life is a facet of the Ginen's struggle for freedom, and the results of their story arcs are each a form or measure of success in that struggle. ===== The game takes place on a series of islands (the titular archipelagos). These islands were created by a mysterious race known only as the Ancients. The Ancients also created another race, the Visitors, who ended up being their downfall, as the Visitors rebelled against their creators, ultimately killing them. As the blood of the slaughtered Ancients soaked into the land, the worlds they had created became twisted and poisoned. This is the world the player now finds themselves in, with the task of restoring the islands to their former, uncorrupted glory. ===== ===== White American soul fan John Carloff (John Shea) arrives in Liverpool on a tourist coach: he's there to answer a help ad placed by black Liverpudlian Ritchie Lee (Lenny Henry) regarding setting up a mobile soul disco. Both unemployed, they nonetheless both have something to offer: John has a five-foot-high stack of original soul singles, and Ritchie has disco equipment plus an old ice cream van which has been converted into what he describes as "the Popemobile with attitude." Although the duo bond over the music and the sense of adventure, things start off badly after they are mistakenly booked for a geriatrics evening entertainment (Ritchie: “How was I supposed to know? The bloke just asked if we were a '60s disco...”) Despite hoping that their next booking will be at "a posh house party in a Wirral mansion", it turns out to be a wedding reception in a Kirkby pub. Ritchie predicts trouble ("a wedding reception in Kirkby is a disaster! There’s always some knobhead going through your records... and there’s always a fight!”) but the pair turn up. As Ritchie predicts, the reception degenerates into a huge punch-up, and as John and Richie make their getaway, the van breaks down. Ritchie then introduces John to Kecks (Pete Postlethwaite) a British Rail buffet car attendant with high ambitions who sold the van to Ritchie. After a quick drink (and a "French Revolution"), Kecks tells them to “take it to our kid's in the morning and he will fix it free of charge.” He then offers them a bit of paid work moving some gear from his lock up. The following night Ritchie and John arrive outside Kecks's lock up to find a strange noise coming from within. ”What’s he doing in there, drilling for oil?” Ritchie queries. Kecks appears with a number of parcels that they load into the van and take to Kecks's flat. When they arrive, Kecks tells the lads to go on up to his flat while he locks up their van, but while they're not looking he sneakily hides a parcel in the freezer compartment. When the parcels are safely in Kecks's flat he gives the lads £20 and says, “er... and if anything else goes wrong with the van, tough shit!“ and closes the door on them. Ritchie and John then head for the nearest pub, commenting how "one minute you're down and then you're up again." As they order their beer, the bartender notes “and then you're right back down again!” as he shows the £20 note as an obvious fake. They hurry back to Kecks's flat and arrive just as he is trying to leave (wearing a poor- quality disguise). They force Kecks to tell them what's going on. He tells them that he has stolen some printing plates for £20 notes from "a heavy-duty villain" in London and is about to skip the country with his own little bundle of counterfeit notes, but he's hidden the plates in the van and was going to ring the lads when he was abroad to ask if they would deliver them to a contact in Parkestone. However, since the contact won't be there in till later in the week, they will have to sit on the plates for a few days. When Ritchie protests “That’s great, that is! You piss off out of Liverpool and we have to hang about and listen for cockney accents!”, Kecks replies, “You’re a mobile disco - stay mobile." After being offered £1000 for delivery and another £1000 on arrival, John and Ritchie reluctantly agree to the scheme; but deny Kecks a lift to the airport. On the way out, they pass a couple of guys on the stairs, who make a comment about the weather. After a few moments, John and Richie realize that these men had cockney accents, so they jump in their van and head off to Parkestone. The two men - the gangster Kecks is trying to swindle (Johnny Shannon) plus his enforcer and torturer The Chiropodist (Peter Vaughan) - continue up to Kecks' flat, where they kill him. As John and Ritchie have a few days to travel, they decide to zig-zag to their destination because they are worried about being pursued by the cockney gangsters and the police. On catching a news bulletin, they are startled to discover that the police are looking for two men in connection with Kecks' murder. En route they stay at a small hotel, complete with reluctant racist landlord (Tim Barker) and a llama in the garden. Richie implies to the landlord's pretty daughter Susan (Cherie Lunghi) that he and John are musicians travelling with Earth, Wind & Fire. Although Richie is obviously very attracted to Susan, it is John's bed that Susan visits in the night. After a passionate encounter, John admits to Susan that he and Richie aren't anything to do with Earth, Wind & Fire and are currently working as DJs. He also reveals that he is actually a pilot with the United States Air Force, but has gone AWOL. He tells Susan that if he remains absent for much longer he will be classed as a deserter. After leaving the hotel and stopping off to refuel, Richie offers a lift to an American soldier named Curtis (Al Matthews) whose car has broken down and who needs a lift to a US Air Force base. Mindful of his AWOL status, John becomes increasingly agitated, particularly when Curtis insists that he and Richie join him for a beer inside the base. Curtis then invites them to perform a DJ gig in the soldiers' canteen bar. Richie is very excited to perform there, but cannot understand John's reluctance and sourness. Rebuffed by John, and with his feelings hurt, Richie performs alone: during the gig, he takes to the stage as singer with the TAC Wing R&B; Allstars, singing Knock on Wood. Revitalised by the music, John begins to enjoy himself and to relax a little. Curtis invites volunteers to perform with the Allstars and Richie persuades John to join him on stage where the two sing Drift Away to rapturous applause, and reconcile. One of the soldiers in the audience comments that he recognizes John. John and Richie leave the base with their two-week friendship clearly strengthened by the experience. They continue on their journey to Parkestone only to discover that the two gangsters have arrived first and murdered the recipient. The gangsters threaten them with a sawn-off shotgun, but when Richie blunders into a nearby lever, they are plunged into a vat of grain and suffocate. Their feet are seen shortly afterwards, protruding from a lorry- load of grain leaving the processing plant. The police arrive: Richie realizes that they have come for John when he sees military personnel getting out of the police car. John gets into the car without fuss, asking Richie to look after his records. Richie then discovers the plates that Kecks hid in the fridge in their van, and smiles to himself. The last scene occurs months later at the Military Detention Centre in Massachusetts, USA, where John has been detained as a punishment for going AWOL. Having completed his sentence, he leaves the centre and is astonished to find Richie is there to collect him. Richie is resplendent in white, with a cowboy-style hat, fringed leather coat and boots, and driving a very large white American car. Astonished by the change in his friend's circumstances, John asks what has happened: Richie explains, enigmatically, that he was "left some money", and that they have a gig in Pasadena. John points out that Pasadena is 5000 miles away, so Richie replies that they had better get a move on, playing some fantastic Motown tunes on the way. The two friends depart and the car is seen driving away into the distance as the credits roll. ===== Times were once serene in the lush lands of Lorin, long before technology and evil. The evil necromancer Demiwind has appeared. As a child, this seemingly harmless soul spent his time idly whittling away the hours with magically insignificant spells. Young Demiwind would make an egg float here, a chicken there, or simply conjure a lizard man or two to do this chores for him. Then disaster and puberty struck, rendering young Demiwind a walking testosterone magic machine with an eye for mischief. Some would maintain that wiping out entire villages by accident on purpose was more than mischief. ===== This historical fiction entwines the fate of two upper-class females, Rose, a British immigrant and wife to powerful native business man Ram with Sonali, a highly educated young civil servant. The former struggles to find a sense of home in this foreign society, filled with ancient customs, including the sati, and exotic social standards. She is entangled in a three-pronged marriage, as she is the second wife of Ram’s. Rose suffers to understand the Indian culture, and its ramifications on the female spirit. As Ram’s health deteriorates, she realizes her rights as wife are in question. Dev, Ram’s son from his other wife, Mona, schemes to take all Ram’s assets by disposing of Rose. In fear, Rose turns to Sonali, her friend and niece. Sonali is an anomaly to the average Indian, aristocratic woman. She deals with the living and working in New Delhi during the political upheaval of the Emergency and is divided between two worlds, one representing her ideals and longing for progression and the other that embodies her upper- crust, conservative culture. From these two characters branch off numerous other tales, which provide a deep and thorough overview of life for all people during this critical historical period. At root of these stories lies the duplicitous role of women in the dynamic, chaotic, new India of the mid 20th century. ===== The first act is set on 11 June 1987, the day of the third consecutive Conservative general election victory. Four of the characters jump into the River Thames in despair, and in the second act wake up 700 years in the future, in a utopia where no one has to do anything they don't want to. ===== In 2034, [computer programmer] Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall) invents self- replicating nanites that replace brain tissue and allow humans to control other humans' actions and see through their eyes. The first application of Castle's "Nanex" technology is a virtual community life simulation game, Society, which allows gamers to manipulate live actors as their avatars. Society becomes a worldwide sensation, making Castle the richest man in the world. He then creates Slayers, a first-person shooter where the "characters" are death-row prisoners using real weapons in specially created arenas. Unlike Society actors, Slayers participants are not paid; instead, they volunteer in exchange for the promise that any Slayer who survives 30 matches will earn his freedom (though no one ever has). John "Kable" Tillman (Butler) is the crowd's favorite, having survived a record 27 matches (no inmate before him has managed to last more than ten). He is exclusively controlled by Simon (Lerman), a seventeen-year-old superstar gamer from a wealthy family. An activist organization called the "Humanz" hacks a talk-show interview with Castle and claims that his technology will one day be used to control people against their will. The Humanz also disrupt Society play, but Castle sees both these actions as trivial. However, Castle feels threatened by Kable's winning streak, and introduces a new inmate into Slayers, Hackman (Crews), specifically to kill Kable. Unknown to anyone else, Hackman will not be controlled by a player, and thus not be handicapped by the "ping" that causes a small but dangerous delay between the player's command and the Slayer's action. Kable/Tillman's wife, Angie (Valletta), works as a Society character, but in spite of her earnings, she is refused custody of their daughter Delia, who has been placed with a wealthy family. The Humanz contact Kable and Simon separately, warning them that Castle has no intention of letting Kable survive, and offer to create a mod that will let him escape, but only if Simon relinquishes control during the game. The escape is successful, and news outlets report that Kable has been fragged, which puts Simon in a difficult position: he is labeled a "cheater", locked out of his bank account, and investigated by the FBI for helping Kable escape. Tillman is brought to the Humanz' hideout; he refuses to help their fight against Castle, but learns of Angie's current location in Society. He rescues her, escaping from both Hackman and Castle's security forces. They are met by Gina (Sedgwick), the talk show host, secretly assisting the Humanz. The Humanz deactivate the nanites in Angie and Tillman's brains, and Tillman remembers that the original nanites were tested on him while he was still in the military. Under Castle's control, Tillman shot and killed his best friend, and was imprisoned. Upon learning that Castle is the wealthy father who adopted Delia, Tillman infiltrates his mansion to get her back. He locates Castle, who reveals that his henchmen have already tracked down the Humanz' lair and killed all of them. He also reveals that 98% of his own brain has been replaced with nanites, but this allows him to control others, rather than be controlled. He plans to release air-borne nanites which will infect the entire United States within six months, giving him ultimate control. Hackman attacks Tillman, who easily kills him. Tillman then attacks Castle, but is frozen in place, as Castle explains that his men have reactivated his and Angie's nanites. Unknown to Castle, Gina and Trace (Lohman) escaped the murder of the Humanz, and patch into the Nanex, revealing the confrontation to the world and exposing Castle's plans. It also unblocks Simon's account and restores his control of Tillman. Castle tries to manipulate Tillman into killing his own daughter, but he resists, and then Simon's control allows him to attack Castle. He and Simon wrestle for control over Tillman, but Tillman tells Castle to imagine Tillman's knife stabbing him. Castle unconsciously does so, allowing Tillman to kill him and removing his control over everyone. With Castle dead, Tillman convinces his technicians to deactivate the Nanex, freeing all the "characters" in Society and Slayers. The film closes with the Tillman family taking a trip down a country road, ending with the words "Game Over". ===== Victoria (Sossamon), an anxiety-ridden young woman, receives an invitation from her sister Carolyn (Pink). The first line of the film is a voice-over: "My sister sent me a postcard, all it said was 'Come to Paris. It'll be good for you.' 48 hours after I arrived, she and everyone I'd met were dead." Victoria arrives in Paris and Carolyn takes her home, where one of Carolyn's friends scares her with a mask. After settling in, the sisters' tour Paris and shop. During a break, Carolyn tells Victoria about a secret rave in the Catacombs of Paris that night. There is a long line of people at the catacombs, but Carolyn is friends with the bouncer and they are allowed in without waiting. Victoria is given a flashlight and follows Carolyn to the rave, where they arrive to hear an introduction by host Jean-Michel (Mihai Stanescu). During the rave, Victoria begins to have an anxiety attack and needs water for her medication. Jean-Michel escorts her to the private VIP area of the party, where they find Carolyn and a group of friends. Jean-Michel pours Victoria a large glass of absinthe and tells her of a killer living in the catacombs. Raised by a Satanic Cult, the killer, "Antichrist," feeds on people who get lost in the Catacombs. Most of the group dismisses the story as a myth and they decide to go skinny dipping. Victoria declines to join them and becomes lost as she heads back to the rave. She is joined by Carolyn, and as the sisters attempt to find their way back, someone grabs Carolyn and drags her off into the darkness. Victoria finds Carolyn dead and panics. A man in a goat mask begins to chase her, and she finds shelter hiding in a storage room. When the man arrives and starts a generator, it appears that the storage room is his home. Victoria escapes and runs back toward the crowd. She has scarcely returned when the Prefecture of Police burst in and interrupt the rave. Victoria is caught up in a mob and hits her head, and when she regains consciousness she is alone in the catacombs. She encounters a man named Henri who tries to help her, but every exit they come to is blocked. Henri falls through a rotted walkway while they are searching for a way out and injures his leg. Victoria tries to help him, but eventually gives up; she takes his map and leaves him in the dark, striking out on her own. When she finds an exit she is frightened by someone on the other side trying to get in, and she flees, fearing it is the Antichrist. After a chase through the tunnels, she hides behind a wall column, armed with a mining pick. When the pursuer approaches, she strikes out blindly with the pick and hits him. Shortly after, Carolyn and her friends show up and tell Victoria that it was all just a prank. They wonder why Victoria is crying until they notice Jean-Michel lying dead, felled by the blow of Victoria's pick. Carolyn severely scolds at Victoria, who then kills Carolyn and her remaining friends out of spite. Escaping at last from the catacombs, Victoria returns to the airport in a taxi and repeats the voice-over line which started the film. ===== The novel begins just after the main character, Joss Moody, a famous jazz trumpeter, passes away. After his death, there is a revelation that his biological sex was female, causing a news rush and attracting paparazzi, leading his widow, Millie, to flee to a vacation home. The truth was unknown to anyone except Millie; the Moodys lived their life as a normal married couple with a normal house and a normal family, and not even Colman, their adopted son, knew the truth. When Joss dies and the truth is revealed, Colman's shock spills into bitterness and he seeks revenge. He vents his rage of his father's lie by uncovering Joss's life to Sophie, an eager tabloid journalist craving to write the next bestseller. After time, and a visit to Joss's mother Edith Moore, Colman eventually finds love for his father muddled in his rage. With his new-found acceptance of both his father and himself, Colman makes the decision not to follow through with the book deal. All the while, Millie deals with her grief and the scandal in private turmoil at the Moodys' vacation home, and a variety of characters whose paths have crossed with Joss's give accounts of their memories and experiences. All the characters aside from Sophie seem to either accept Joss's identity or to perceive it as irrelevant. ===== A ship collision results in four survivors from an ocean liner winding up on a desert island: spoiled heiress Sadie, lecturer Professor Gibble, journalist Jimmy Carrol and ship's stoker Pat Plunket. Carrol falls in love with Sadie and she kisses him. Gibble falls in love with Sadie. This causes conflict between Carrol and Gibble that results in Sadie wanting to move to the other side of the island to live alone. Gibble gets the wrong impression that Pat and Sadie are intimate. Pat finds a bottle of rum and gets drunk. Sadie takes over as leader on the island. When the men threaten to strike, she declares that the group will never function until she marries one of the men. They draw straws and Gibble gets the short straw, but tries to back out in favour of Pat. Then a ship appears and the group is rescued. Safe on the ship, Gibble falls in love with Sadie again and asks her to marry him. So does Carrol. However, Sadie is in love with Pat, but he refuses her marriage proposal, saying they are too different. But Sadie persuades the ship's captain that Pat is obliged to marry her, but before it can happen that ship goes down. Sadie wades ashore at the same island where Pat has already arrived. ===== A narrator explains that according to Buddhist belief the evolution of birth can be divided into three forms: *Sangsethaca: To be born amongst rot and decay, as a worm or maggot. *Anthaca: To be born from an egg, in the various forms of birds. *Chalaphucha: To be conceived in the womb as a human or other mammal. Then there is a fourth form, Opapatika, which goes against Buddhist beliefs because it involves suicide: a class of supernatural beings who are born out of suicide. However, the powers that they gain also have a negative effect. The narrator, it is revealed, is Thuwachit (Pongpat Wachirabanjong), the loyal mortal henchman for the elderly Sadok (Nirut Sirijanya), an Opapatika who is quickly decaying and needs to feast on the flesh of other Opapatikas in order to sustain himself. He sends Thuwachit out to capture others. Four Opapatikas remain: *Paisol (Chakrit Yaemnam), a ruthless assassin who must bear all the scars and wounds of his victims. *Jiras (Somchai Khemklad), an immortal Opapatika, and the most powerful of them all. He considers his immortality a curse. *Aruth (Ray MacDonald), an invincible fighter by night, but weak in the daylight. *Ramil (Athip Nana), an adrenaline-fueled daredevil who can project a monstrous, ghostly creature to do his bidding. Investigating the Opapatikas is a private detective, Techit (Leo Putt), whom Sadok transforms into an Opapatika. Techit has the psychic powers of a mind reader, but his power costs him the use of his five senses. Techit is teamed up with Thuwachit, who leads a vast paramilitary army against the four Opapatika. The four immortals are also mysteriously drawn to a woman, Pran (Khemupsorn Sirisukha). ===== Vishwanath Mahajan is a multi-millionaire industrialist, living in a palatial house with his only child, a son named Vijay. The pampered Vijay has completed his education and now indulges in life's temptations to the extreme. Vishwanath would like his son to get married and become responsible. Megha is Vishwanath's personal assistant in his office. She is a hardworking girl struggling to support her family. Vishwanath asks Megha to quit her job and marry his son, but she refuses when she hears Vijay's strange condition. Vijay wants the marriage to be on a contract basis for a year and, if he does not fall in love with his wife in that duration, the marriage will be annulled. However, Megha's family is in dire financial straits and, so, she has to reconsider this offer. In return for marrying Vijay, she asks for financial support for her family, which Vishwanath readily provides. Vijay and Megha are married. After the marriage, they become friendly with each other, and Megha goes out of her way to look after Vijay when he meets with an accident. At the end of the year, however, Vijay decides to annul the marriage, as had been agreed upon. Megha leaves Vijay and returns home. After the separation, Vijay seems to be enjoying himself; but slowly and eventually, he starts to feel a longing for the presence of his devoted wife. Complications arise when Megha finds out that she is pregnant with Vijay's child. People in her neighbourhood start to question her stay at her mother's house and the identity of the child's father. In order to support herself, Megha gets a job in a new company; to her surprise, when the company's managing director arrives, he turns out to be Vijay. He later confesses to her that he is a changed person and wants her back. But, even after repeated persuasion, she disagrees because her faith in him has been shattered. Vijay continues to pursue her and leaves no stone unturned to show her that he cares for her. Later, Megha and her family hold a ceremony for the well-being of her to-be-born child. Vishwanath and Vijay attend the ceremony as well and give her presents. Megha reveals Vijay to be her husband and tells all the guests about the marriage-contract. An argument follows; Vijay and his father walk out, followed by all the guests. Near the completion of her pregnancy, Megha learns that troublemakers Khairati Lal and Yeshwant Kumar, who had once attempted to kill Vijay, have escaped from prison. They are out looking for Vijay, who had fired them from his father's company for cheating and fraud. Megha gets anxious and tries to reach Vijay as soon as possible. On the way, she learns that the whole thing was a set-up by Vijay's friends to lure her back to her husband. Enraged, Megha goes to confront Vijay. As soon as she meets him, she accuses him of this shameless act. Vijay then staggers towards her, with his stomach pierced by a piece of glass and blood pouring from the wound. It turns out that Khairati and Yeshwant have attacked him in reality. Megha runs toward him, slips and goes into labour. Vijay, summoning up all his strength, takes Megha to the hospital. There, he is treated for his injuries and she delivers a healthy baby boy. Megha and Vijay recover and get reconciled. ===== Sitaram runs his family in an authoritarian manner. He has planned the marriage of his son, Vasudev, only to be told that Vasudev loves another woman, Suman, who he plans to marry. Sitaram tells his son to forget about his love and marry the woman he has chosen for him. Vasudev instead marries Suman and brings her home to introduce her to his family. While the rest of the family welcome Suman, Sitaram makes it clear that she is not welcome. Shortly thereafter Vasudev and Suman leave the household and re-locate to the U.S. Several years later, Sitaram receives a letter informing him that Vasudev and his family will be coming to visit them in India. Sitaram looks forward to seeing his son and his family after all these years. He is enraged when he finds that the only one sent to visit him is Sita, his granddaughter, and the excuse for Vasudev and Suman not attending is that "they are busy". Old wounds surface and Sitaram will have nothing to do with his granddaughter, who has brought a special gift for her granddad, from her dad. But Sitaram will not accept this gift, until and unless his son himself comes to deliver it to him, and it is then he comes to know the truth behind his son's absence. ===== Deva (Ajay Devgn) has been raised by ACP Siddhant (Vinod Khanna) and his wife Pushpa (Navni Parihar). Karan (Ronit Roy) is their biological son who often feels jealous of his mother's attention to Deva. Deva is a loving and responsible son while Karan is a constant source of stress for his parents due to his reckless lifestyle. Shobraj (Amrish Puri) is a rich and powerful businessman whose son is arrested by ACP Siddhant on charges of rape and murder. Shobraj tries to bribe Siddhant into releasing his son but fails. In the meantime, Karan is arrested on charges of murdering his girlfriend. Pushpa is heart broken at the thought of losing her son. Deva vows to prove Karan's innocence for the sake of his foster mother. Shobraj approaches Siddhant again and promises to save Karan if Siddhant rescinds his testimony against his son. Siddhant refuses his offer and Shobraj's son is sentenced to death. Deva, with the help of his girlfriend Sharmili (Kajol), discovers that Karan's girlfriend was actually murdered by Rocky. It is revealed that Shobraj had paid Rocky to frame Karan for the murder. Deva catches Rocky and takes him to the police station. However, Shobraj has Rocky murdered before the latter can make his statement in front of a judge. In the meantime, a higher court rejects the appeal of Shobraj's son and the latter is executed. Shobraj vows to kill Siddhant's entire family to avenge the death of his son. He kidnaps Karan and Pushpa and tells Siddhant to come and meet him. Deva goes to rescue Puspha while Siddhant goes to meet Shobraj. A fight ensues in which Shobraj and his men are killed and Karan, Puspha, Deva, and Siddhant are reunited. ===== Born and brought up in a small village by foster parents, Vikram, alias Vicky (Saif Ali Khan) comes to Bombay - the big city - to find his fortune. He wants to get rich soon, and he does get lucky when fate, his confidence, courage and good looks land him a job with a politician-cum-criminal named Masterji (Dalip Tahil). He also meets a bar dancer named Anita Vaishnavi Mahant and love blossoms. Masterji starts him off with petty crimes, just to ensure his capabilities. Through his hard work and dedication, Vicky soon wins the respect of Masterji and his colleagues, especially one trusted man of Masterji named Vinayak More (Viju Khote). He soon becomes Bambai ka babu. Then Vicky is entrusted with the task of subduing Masterji's rival, Jaya Shetty (Vishwajeet Pradhan), which he does easily. Then instead of being disposed of, Jaya is asked to make friends with Masterji, so as to benefit the latter. But soon Vicky comes to know of Masterji's plan with Jaya to incite communal violence as a means of indirectly winning the elections, so he decides to sabotage their plans. Angered at this, Masterji orders the death of Vicky at any cost. Vicky has nowhere to turn to, except to live in fear for the rest of his life, as sooner or later Jaya and Masterji's men will track him down. Amit (Atul Agnihotri), Vicky's step brother in his village, in the meantime, hears of all that is taking place in Bombay, and decides to come to find Vicky and take him back home. He meets Neha Kajol, a freelancing press photographer, with whom love blossoms and he teams up to find Vicky. They soon learn that everyone believes that Vicky is dead, killed in communal violence, with his charred body and belongings in the mortuary. But Amit does not agree, as he does not find a chain there that he had given Vicky before the latter had left for Bombay. They find Vinayak More and Anita, from whom they learn that Vicky is actually alive and in hiding. The four soon decide to expose Masterji and prevent any more communal violence in the city. Neha and Amit lodge a complaint against Masterji, which infuriates him and he gives orders to kill them. Jaya and his men attack them, but Vicky intervenes and kills all of them except Jaya, who immediately tells Masterji that Vicky is alive. The all-the- more infuriated Masterji now orders that Vicky be killed. Vicky and his friends decide that Masterji's conversations must be brought to the light, so Neha manages to sneak into Masterji's house and fixes microphones in his telephone receivers without being noticed, but soon gets caught. At this point, it is revealed that Neha is actually Masterji's illegitimate daughter. This softens the criminal, but he still locks up his daughter. From their hideout, Vicky and Amit record all of Masterji's plots on the phone, and also get to know that Neha is captured. With the help of More, they manage to bring Masterji alone to a deserted house on the pretext of having to meet the ruling party CM for discussions. And in the meantime, More fools Jaya into destroying Masterji's house completely, saying that it is to fool the public into believing that "Masterji was also affected by the riots" and thus remove any suspicions from the public. Vicky and Amit in the meantime run to Masterji's crumbling abode and rescue Neha. Masterji returns to find his mansion burnt down. But he finds More and tortures him into revealing the whereabouts of Vicky and Amit. He soon find them, shoots More before them, and orders that they be beaten and killed. Neha and Anita are forcefully taken away. Beaten badly, Amit and Vicky are chained and the place is set on fire by the goons. But they manage to free themselves amidst the fires and escape. The goons take the girls to an abandons village and bind them with time bombs ticking away. But Amit arrives on the scene and kills all of them one by one, lastly killing Jaya. Finally the climax reaches a point where Masterji is giving a speech to a crowd to win their support for elections, and Vicky appears and plays the tape with the former's wicked schemes. The people are aroused. Vicky thrashes Masterji and makes him confess to his crimes, which he does. The enraged public then gang up the criminal and rough him up. Amit arrives at the scene with Neha and Anita. Neha's eyes are filled with tears on seeing her father, but Amit says "there's no need to grieve over something that was never found". The film finally ends with all the four returning to the heroes village happily. ===== Atul aka Bunty (Atul Agnihotri) and Pinky (Kajol) meet and fall in love with each other. They want to get married. However, their parents are against this and in fact, both sets of parents have arranged for them to marry other people. Finding no other option, Atul turns to his aunt, Buaji (Aruna Irani) to help him and Pinky find a way out. Buaji suggests that Atul and Pinky marry the spouses that their parents want them to marry. However, after their marriage, both Atul and Pinky should torment their respective spouses to the extent that their spouses get frustrated and seek divorces, which will then leave them free to marry the person they love. Atul and Pinky decide to go along with Buaji's plan. Accordingly, Atul marries Shobha (Ayesha Jhulka) and Pinky marries Arjun (Jackie Shroff), as per the wishes of their respective parents. After their wedding, Atul and Pinky try to torture their spouses with numerous shenanigans. Atul claims to be a womanizer and leaves his wife alone on their wedding night, pretending to go to a brothel. The next day, he tells his wife that he is in the habit of drinking heavily. Meanwhile, Pinky also leaves her husband alone on their wedding night, visits a nightclub and nurses a bottle of booze. Their spouses are disturbed, but instead of reacting, they both try to adjust themselves to the difficult situation and try to make their spouses happy. Shobha and Arjun meet by a chance encounter and realise Atul and Pinky's plan and try to make them jealous by meeting with each other on the sly. Atul and Pinky realise this and try to hurt Shobha and Arjun as well. Eventually, Atul and Pinky realise that they have fallen in love with their respective spouses. Will Atul and Pinky decide to walk out on their spouses and marry each other or will they go back to their respective spouses and live happily ever after? ===== As described in a film magazine, young Perpetua (Fosse), an orphan, is adopted by Brian McCree (Powell), an artist. The two go on a holiday tour through France where they meet Monsieur Lamballe (Byford), the owner of a circus. The circus elephant has been pawned by Lamballe, and the artist, seeking the discomfort in the eyes of Perpetua, buys the claim against the animal. The two wanders join the circus troupe. For several years the artist and girl travel with the circus, leading delightful vagabond lives. Later, Perpetua is sent to a convent and the discovery is made by the criminal Russell Felton (Miltern) that she is his abandoned daughter. The crook has been leading a youth, who is heir to some wealth, to physical destruction, and sees in Perpetua (Forrest) an opportunity to further assure himself of the fortune. The youth falls in love with the young woman who, urged by her father, marries him. Now Felton seeks to strengthen his scheme by forcing liquor on the youth, while Perpetua seeks to cure him of his cravings for drink. Hoping to hasten things, Felton poisons a drought which the young wife gives to her feverish husband. She is charged with murder and Felton's testimony results in a verdict of guilty. The dead youth had changed his will in Perpetua's favor, and Felton writes a confession and prepares to flee when a convict to whom Felton had promised money confronts him. In a gun duel both are killed. McCree, secretly working for Perpetua's freedom, meets her on her release, and they both realize their love for each other. ===== Siddhant Rai (Rishi Kapoor) is a wealthy architect, living a comfortable lifestyle with his three children Rohit, Rahul and Rani. Also living with them is their butler Banky Bihari Chaturdevi also known as B.B.C. (Tiku Talsania). Because they have no mother, Siddhant has arranged for many governesses or teachers to take care of them, but the children always drive any of these governesses and teachers away. Siddhant soon decides to send his children to boarding school but changes his mind when B.B.C. reminds him that when Siddhant threw his younger brother out of the house, he never came back again. Siddhant, however, arranges for another governess. Meanwhile, a con man named Shekhar (Ajay Devgn) and his friend Jadu (Johnny Lever) have just robbed a bank and are on the run from police. Shekhar comes across the beautiful Anna (Kajol) who is to be the governess of the Rai children. Shekhar tries to woo Anna with no success. Shekhar and Jadu follow Anna to the Rai household; Shekhar now believes he has met a rich girl and believes he has hit the jackpot. Although the children initially try and drive Anna away, they come to accept her as an older sister. Shekhar continues to woo Anna and she eventually returns his feelings. With Siddhant's permission, the two get married. On the wedding day, Siddhant learns that Shekhar is a criminal: he stole the wedding rings and only married Anna to gain Siddhant's wealth. Shekhar is sent to prison and Anna decides to leave the house. Siddhant is soon killed in a car accident. The children are placed under the care of their cruel maternal uncles, who only have interest in Siddhant's fortune. The children are in a terrible situation-- the court decides that they need to be separated. Just as the magistrate intends to sign their adoption papers, a young man comes in and claims that he is Rajit Rai, Siddhant's younger brother-- the man is none other than Shekhar. The magistrate believes that the man is truly Siddhant's brother, so refuses to sign the adoption papers, however, he sets a date for a hearing in which the appropriate guardian shall be granted custody of the Rai children. The children are at first unhappy to have Shekhar back in their lives-- however, B.B.C. and Jadu explain that Shekhar is the only one who can help the children. The children warm up to their new 'Raj Chacha.' Anna soon returns to the house and is angry to see Shekhar again as she believes he is attempting to rob the children. Problems arise when another man (Sanjay Dutt) enters the house and says that he is Rajit Rai. The uncles are now confused as this man looks and acts more like the real Rajit Rai. Shekhar makes a deal with them - if they prove to the magistrate that Shekhar is the real Raju Chacha, he shall only take 25% of the share. The uncles agree but soon learn that Shekhar tricked them and that the 'real' Raju Chacha they met is none other than a fellow conman of Shekhar's. The relatives have driven away. Anna reconciles with Shekhar when she learns his real intentions. Anna and Shekhar start to look after the children. However, their happiness is short-lived when the relatives return and expose Shekhar, who is sent back to jail. Meanwhile, the children are shocked to learn that their father was killed by their relatives, all for his money. The children's lives are again in danger until Shekhar breaks out of prison and kills the relatives in the same way that killed Siddhant. Shekhar and Anna get married and are given custody of the three children. However, they are still on the lookout for the real Raju Chacha. ===== The Stooges are carpet layers working at the home of Professor Sneed (Emil Sitka) and his daughter (Christine McIntyre). Sneed is developing a rocket fuel in secret for the government. Anemian spy Captain Rork (Philip Van Zandt) watches the professor through his front window, with hopes of kidnapping him. The Anemians accidentally capture the Stooges instead, mistaking Larry for the professor. Trouble brews when the Stooges are required to quickly create some of the fuel, and then write down the formula. It does not take long for the Anemians to capture the real Professor Sneed, along with his daughter, and throw them in jail until the formula is disclosed. Thanks to a shy prison guard (Jacques O'Mahoney) who cannot help but flirt with Sneed's daughter, the group make a quick exit. ===== "Many people ask what the meaning of life is. I know: it's tango." So says Virtanen, the hero of Tango on intohimoni, or Tango is my Passion, the definitive Finnish tango novel. Virtanen is a tango obsessive, with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the subject, which he insists on sharing with everybody he meets. He goes dancing every day in the various dance halls of Helsinki and sometimes Turku, but he only dances the tangos. But Virtanen also has principles. At the age of 15 he had read that Plato recommends 24 as the ideal age for sexual intercourse for women, and 35 for men. If Virtanen can hold on to his virginity until the age of 36, he will have beaten the old fraud. But this is difficult for someone with such a passion for tango: "My penis rises and interferes with the dance. So, immediately after the dance, I hasten into the woods, break a handful of twigs off a birch tree, and punish my penis with many sharp little blows. The chastisement makes it calm down, and I can then go and invite a new girl onto the floor."(page 8) Virtanen manages to avoid the blandishments of the various women he meets in the Helsinki hot spots, but when he falls in love with Anja his troubles really start. Interspersed with Virtanen's adventures is a history of Finnish tango, sometimes given by Virtanen himself, and sometimes by an anonymous third person voice, identified by a different typeface. Written by the Finnish bandleader M.A. Numminen, Tango on intohimoni has been translated into German, Swedish, and Italian; but there is no official English translation. ===== The Stooges are private eyes at the Alert Detective Agency who are called upon by the wealthy Mr. Goodrich (Emil Sitka). Goodrich reports that the Phantom Gang, of which his own niece (Christine McIntyre) is a member, has been murdering socialites, with Goodrich as their next target. By the time the Stooges arrive, Goodrich is out cold and locked away, with the butler (Charles Knight) (also a member of the Phantom Gang) greeting the trio. Goodrich's niece flirts with Shemp, ultimately trying to poison him. Finally, a towering goon named Nikko (Duke York) chases the Stooges from room to room. After Shemp knocks Nikko cold, he literally bumps into an unconscious Goodrich, who spills the Phantom Gang's plot. A fight then ensues with the lights out, and the Stooges ultimately get the baddies. ===== A photographer (Atom Egoyan) is sent to Armenia to take pictures of churches for a calendar. He slowly begins to realise that his wife (Arsinée Khanjian), an Armenian translator, is falling in love with their driver and guide, Ashot (Ashot Adamyan). They grow more and more distant from each other and finally separate. In a few parallel sequences of flashforwards, the photographer uses an escort agency to invite a number of women, all from countries culturally or racially related to Armenia, to dinner in a similar setting at his home in Toronto. It is suggested during the last date that the ritualistic phone usage during the dinner was pre-arranged and the photographer uses the occasion to see if he feels comfortable with his date in such a domestic setting and whether she is in some way similar to his estranged wife. ===== In 1989, 17-year-old star athlete Mike O'Donnell's girlfriend Scarlet Porter tells him that she is pregnant, just moments before his likely scholarship-clinching high school championship basketball game. Mike plays the first few seconds of the game, then walks off the court and goes after Scarlet, abandoning his hopes of going to college and achieving a career that could support their future. Nearly twenty years later, 37-year-old Mike finds his life stagnant and boring, abandoning any project he starts. Scarlet, now his wife and mother of their two children, has filed for divorce, forcing him to move in with his geeky, yet extremely wealthy, best friend, Ned Gold. He has quit his job after he is passed over for a promotion he deserves for his sixteen years at the company in favor of a younger female co-worker named Wendy with only two months experience, and his high school-age kids, 17-year-old Maggie and 16-year-old Alex, want nothing to do with him. Later, while driving, an encounter on a bridge with a janitor transforms Mike back into his 17-year-old self. After convincing Ned of his identity, Ned believes that Mike's transformation was caused by a mystical spirit guide who is trying to steer him on a better path. Mike enrolls in high school posing as Mark Gold, Ned's son, and plans to go to college on a basketball scholarship. As he befriends his bullied son and discovers that his daughter has a boyfriend, Stan, who does not respect her and frequently torments Alex, Mike comes to believe that his mission is to help them. Through their kids, Mike spends time with Scarlet, who notes his remarkable resemblance to her husband, but rationalizes it as an odd coincidence. Deciding to also try and fix his relationship with Scarlet, Mike begins to finish (under the pretense of getting "volunteer credit") all of the garden projects he abandoned as an adult. He does his best to separate Stan and Maggie while also encouraging Alex to be more confident so he can make the basketball team and go out with a girl he has a crush on named Nicole. Mike has difficulty resisting his desire for Scarlet despite the relationship's clear inappropriateness. Ned, meanwhile, begins to pursue the school's principal Jane Masterson through increasingly extravagant stunts in order to win her affections, which she adamantly rebukes, though she agrees to a date after he offers to buy laptops for the school. On their date, Jane is completely unimpressed with Ned until he drops the "sophisticated rich-guy" persona and admits he is actually a geek. Jane then reveals her own enthusiasm for geek culture by speaking to him in Elvish, and the two hit it off. Mike throws a party to celebrate a basketball game win at Ned's house while Ned is out with Jane, where he confronts Stan, who had recently dumped Maggie for not sleeping with him. Mike gets knocked out and wakes up to Maggie trying to seduce him. Mike tells his daughter that he is in love with someone else and Maggie leaves, much to Mike's relief. Scarlet arrives at the party worried about her kids attending, but Mike shows her that Alex has finally managed to get together with his crush. The two have an intimate conversation where Mike, caught up in the moment, tries to kiss her. Disgusted, she storms off as Mike tries unsuccessfully to explain his true identity. On the day of the court hearing to finalize Scarlet and Mike's divorce, Mike makes one last attempt to win her back (as Mark) by reading a supposed letter from Mike. He states that although he couldn't set things right in the beginning of his life, it doesn't change the fact that he still loves her. After he exits, Scarlet notices that the "letter" is actually the directions to the courtroom and she begins to grow curious. As a result, she postpones the divorce by a month. Frustrated that he could not salvage his marriage, Mike decides to once again pursue a scholarship and move on with a new life. During a high school basketball game, Mike reveals himself to Scarlet. As Scarlet runs away, Mike decides to chase her down, just like he did in 1989, but not before handing the ball off to his son. Mike is then transformed back into his 37-year-old self, and happily reunites with Scarlet, saying that she was the best decision he ever made. As Mike prepares for his first day as the new coach at his kids' school, Ned, who has successfully started a relationship with Jane, gifts him a whistle, both happy with their new starts in life. ===== The novel's plot concerns Lord Montfallcon and his contest for courtly influence against Captain Quire. Each man exploits Albion's shadowy network of espionage and deceit for his own ends, with Gloriana caught in the middle. Montfallcon has maintained peace throughout Gloriana's 13-year reign using terror, oppression, and a network of informants. He is the power behind Gloriana's throne, one of the few survivors of King Hern's court, where he saw most of his family killed to entertain that tyrant king. Montfallcon's sole purpose in life is to keep Gloriana's Albion free of tyranny and corruption but, in so doing, he repeats the worst practices of Hern's henchmen. His own best henchman is Quire. But when Quire feels Montfallcon has insulted him, he seeks revenge through seducing the frustrated Gloriana. He goes into the walls to spy on the court, to muster the rabble there into his personal army, and to make sorties into the court to commit murders and leave evidence that points to other courtiers. Finally Quire exits the walls and claims the role of Gloriana's court champion, later her lord chancellor, and ultimately her lover—threatening her place as sovereign and symbol of Albion. Ultimately, Una and Gloriana discover Flaya, Gloriana's long-lost mother, thought to have been murdered by Hern VI during one of his episodes of insanity, but still alive in an unexplored dungeon adjunct to the castle. After killing his insane daughter, Montfallcon battles Quire in a duel, leading to Montfallcon's death. Able to provide the queen with an orgasm, Quire ultimately weds her, serving as her new consort, Prince Arthur. ===== Raúl Fuentes, a brooding police officer prone to violence and alcohol, is placed on unpaid leave after he has beaten Moncho Tristán, the son of a local drug trafficker. Mazuera, a snitch from a drug mafia ring, tells Raúl that members of the drug clan are looking for him to kill him. Mazuera strikes a deal with Raúl. He would give him some documents that prove the involvement of the Tristán family in drug trafficking and prostitution if Raúl agrees to reveal the story only after Mazuera has left the country. Raúl decides to leave the incident on hold and travels from Pontevedra to Alicante where his family lives. Raúl's visit, the first in two years, takes his family by surprise. His father, José, is not thrilled to see him. Their relationship has become tense due to the fact that Olga, José’s young wife, was originally Raúl's girlfriend. With the exception of his twin brother, Valentin, Raúl does not care about anybody. Valentín, who is mentally disabled, is the opposite of his brother: sweet, soft and well liked by everyone. When Raúl finds out that his brother is working in a nightclub and has fallen in love with one of the prostitutes, he gets very upset and goes in search of Valentín at the bordello, called Lolita's Club. In Lolita's Club, Raúl confronts Milena, the prostitute that is his brother's love interest. The beautiful Milena is an immigrant from Colombia, who has left behind her daughter under the care of her mother and works to provide them with a better life, sending them money frequently. Although only twenty five years old, Milena is the oldest and the most popular of the girls at the club. The other girls are mostly under-age, like Nancy, who is from Cuba, and Jasmina, who is from Ecuador. A hard nocturnal life of prostitution and drugs has taken its toll on Milena. She is goodhearted and really cares about Valentín. Valentín works at Lolita's Club doing the errands for the girls and is liked and protected by all. Raíl threatens Milena if she does not break off her close attachment to his naive brother. Valentín, traumatized by the relationship that his brother had with Olga, is afraid that Raúl might get involved with Milena. Indeed, a sexual tension begins to arise between Raúl and Milena. Things are further complicated with the links that the policeman and the prostitute have with the mafia. Raúl hatches a plan to have sex with Milena and have his brother catch them in the act. The scheme unfolds accordingly, with Valentin storming out of the club after he catches his brother engaged in sexual activity with Milena. While outside the club, Valentin imagines he is storming off in Raúl's car, even though he cannot drive. Two hit men sent by the mafia have previously discovered the location of Raúl's whereabouts, and mistakenly shoot and kill Valentín while he is still sitting behind the wheel of his brother's car. After Valentin's funeral, Raúl is a broken man with no one to turn to for understanding. Even Olga is now indifferent towards his pain. He has joyless sex with Maria, a female coworker, who comes to inform him of the killing of Mazuera by members of the mafia ring. Raúl confronts Tristán but he is not looking for revenge. Instead, he demands Milena's passport and freedom from the net of prostitution. Back at Lolita's club, Raúl offers Milena her passport and freedom and declares his love for her. She rejects him and only retains her documents. She wants to keep making money. Raúl reminds her of Valentín's tragic end. Of the two brothers it was Valentín who she liked and loved. Later, Raúl enters Milena's room at the club just as Valentín used to do, taking over his brother's personality. ===== As Karn and Klygon (betrayed by Delgan on a deserted islet) wait for either an inevitable end by drowning (for the Green Star has risen, and a tide with it—threatening to swamp the islet), they hear the swish of oars. Karn then calls out to the ship (just prior to losing consciousness) and the two are then taken on board. The ship, named Xothun (after a large, inland-sea- dwelling reptile) is captained by Blue Barbarians led by the nasty, brutish Hoggur, who sends the two belowdecks as slave-rowers. Their companions include select citizens of Komar, a peaceful mercantile kingdom recently conquered and ravaged by the Barbarians (under the chieftainship of a mysterious "warlord" immune to their racial madness) including its ruler Andar; the ship is on its way to Komar's ally Tharkoon to espy it out for conquest—which Eryon deems as foolish due to Tharkoon being ruled by a wizard. One day, Eryon states that they approach the Angzar Reefs, an area of unpredictable storms—which prompts some of the desperate Komarians to hope for a quick death. However, it gives Klygon some hope, and he asks Karn if he should pick the locks (a skill Karn did not know Klygon possessed). The prospect pleases Eryon and Andar, who figure on using their release and the storm to retake the Xothun. When the storm strikes, the Komarians (released by Klygon's lock-picking) storm up the decks and attack the Blue Barbarians. When Karn runs up to enjoy his first re- taste of freedom, Hoggur crashes into him; Karn jumps on Hoggur and strangles him—strengthened as a residual effect of the "Elixir Of Light", and further by sheer rage—and is then swept overboard. Shortly after the storm the zawkaw carrying a woman (Arjala) lands on the stern—and Arjala alights while the tired zawkaw takes off elsewhere. The zawkaw carrying Ralidux and the two women lands on an island. The two flee in opposite directions to escape Ralidux—Niamh, into a structure and Arjala into jungled-area. Inside the structure, Niamh disturbs a large serpent or ssalith and flees promptly outside. Ralidux has meanwhile pursued Arjala, who escapes after scratching him to create such opportunity; she jumps on the zawkaw to escape, then hears a voice calling—and wonders whether it is Niamh (whom she doesn't really like) or Ralidux (from whom she is fleeing in terror). Niamh manages to grab the bridle of the zawkaw as Arjala takes off. Ralidux, finding the zawkaw gone, explores further and finds a tubular craft which can fly—and energises it. In the seawater, Karn hears a voice claiming to be Shann, a young boy from Kamadhong (another treetop city), and swims to Shann's rescue; Shann guides Karn to an island. Due to certain reactions of Shann, Karn deduces that Shann is an adolescent girl; he starts loving her (at least platonically, feeling guilty for deserting Niamh). The two construct a hut and survive for a time. One day, Shann sees an airborne craft coming towards her—as Karn asks for its description, Shann is kidnapped by the craft's occupant. As described in the ending of the article By the Light of the Green Star, Janchan has stopped the sky-sled. Unfortunately, he stopped it suddenly and struck his head on the windshield—knocking him unconscious alongside Zarqa. When he comes to, he finds Zarqa conscious—and Nimbalim warning them they are in serious danger, as the sled is held in a xoph's web. Janchan tries cutting through the strands, but they are too thick, and prepares to face the xoph with his sword (no mean task, due to the xoph being about elephant-sized). Zarqa then reminisces that it would be nice if he had the zoukar, whereupon Janchan remembers another Kalood weapon, a vial of liquid flame. When Zarqa tells him that Karn had taken it, Janchan tells him of another which he had brought on board. he takes it out, and aims it at the xoph, incinerating it and setting its web on fire—which weakens it enough for the re-energised sky-sled to part. Zarqa then follows the mind-trail of Ralidux to the inland sea, and a small island where they continue searching till Zarqa loses the trail. The liberated Xothun has, meantime, reached Tharkoon where Andar asks its ruler Parimus for aid against the Blue Barbarians. Parimus confesses that he has no great fleet, but does have one large Kaloodha-manufactured advanced airship. The two then plan the invasion, from the Komarians by sea and the Tharkoonians by air. Two delays are then caused when a small aircraft comes in front of Parimus' airship and is shot down. Parimus lands the airship on an island looks to see if any have survived, and is reassured by Janchan and Zarqa that only some of the enamel was scratched—and then dispatches a group of warriors to help them extract the sky-sled. Travelling further over the island (named Narjix) with Janchan, Zarqa (and Klygon who has boarded the Tharkoonian ship), Parimus spots a young boy—whom Klygon recognises as Karn. As the Tharkoonians set down to rescue him, he is attacked by the ssalith--and rescued when Zarqa pursues the monster and makes it attack (and destroy) itself. Parimus then treats Karn's eyes, bandaging them with medicines, in hope of restoring his eyesight. Meanwhile, the Komarians aboard the Xothun, disguised as Blue Barbarians (but not with disguises that will pass muster under strong light) enter their capitol's harbour. Andar attempts to bluff his way past the harbour sentry and finds out (to dismay) that the Warlord has returned. He quickly kills the sentry, and fights his way to the palace where he meets the Warlord—finding the Warlord's swordplay skills to be as good as his own (unlike the rudimentary skills of the Blue Barbarians as a whole). Andar is almost killed by the Warlord, but narrowly escapes due to his own slipping—during which the Warlord slips behind a panel leading to many catacombs (where Andar does not pursue him, as this would take too long). The Komarians fight their way to the palace roof, where there is an idol of their god Koroga. At that point, several of the Komarians, including Ozad (from the Xothun) are killed by lightning blasts from a weapon (the zoukar) held by the Warlord—who forces Andar (and surviving supporters) to drop their weapons. However, at that moment, Parimus' airship arrives, and uses a combination of the airship's laser/electric cannon and his archers to inflict a reverse on the Barbarians—converted to a crushing defeat as the Komarians now re-grab their weapons. After the battle, Karn tests whether the treatment worked—and is able to see the Green Star rising through a gap in the planet's cloud-cover. Just then a tubular aircraft comes in over Komar with two occupants fighting in the cockpit. Janchan recognises one as Ralidux (shouting his name) and Karn recognises the other (by voice) as "Shann"—to be corrected as Janchan also sees her and shouts her real name, "Niamh". Niamh finishes the struggle by stabbing Ralidux with a small knife, the "Avenger of Chastity" (carried inside their garments by all Laonese women), and attempts to land the craft. Just then, Karn sees Delgan (the Warlord) jump inside, and a new struggle between Delgan and Niamh—but is too far away to help. However, one of the Tharkoonian archers, Zorak, jumps into the cockpit to see if he can kill the Warlord. As the craft flies out of Komar into the trees, Janchan and Zarqa follow at a distance in the sky-sled. They see a body fall from the craft, but cannot identify which of the three occupants fell. Arjala tells Karn and Janchan that Niamh had lost her grip on the zawkaw's bridle. Arjala, being inexperienced at controlling the huge bird (and also needing, in any case, to flee from Ralidux) was unable to rescue her from the water. The 1976 sequel to this novel, In the Green Star's Glow was the conclusion of the Green Star Series ===== Daria and Tisa, two nubile female prisoners, clad only in rough-cut rabbit skin bikinis, break out of their cell in a space gulag, overpower their guards, and escape in a shuttlecraft. The ship mysteriously malfunctions and the girls crash land on a nearby habitable world where they become the guests of Zed, a man with a scarred face who lives in a large fortress. He is the planet’s sole sentient inhabitant and is guarded by two robots who also act as the fortress' keepers. Given new clothes, the girls are invited to join Zed for an evening meal at his table. At dinner, the two girls meet two other survivors from another crash-landing who are also Zed’s guests, Rik and his sister Shala. They warn the girls that something is not right about Zed and that other survivors of their crash have disappeared. A late night visit to Zed’s secret trophy room reveals all. The walls are lined with the heads of dozens of Zed’s previous guests whom he hunted for sport. Realizing they're next, Rik and Daria sneak out into the jungle several hours before dawn to set traps and survey the area. In the meantime, Zed takes Shala prisoner and forces himself on her to goad Rik into participating in the hunt. Zed sends an android to ensure the guests are in bed where they're supposed to be, but Rik and Daria are still out. Tisa intercepts the android on its way to check the rooms and distracts it by going skinny dipping. Eventually, Zed goes up to check the rooms himself. As Rik and Daria are coming in the window, they hear Zed approaching, strip, and jump into bed, pretending to have been having sex. Once Zed leaves, the pretend sex becomes real lovemaking, and the two lie in bed talking about having found purpose and contentment. The next morning, Rik is forced into the hunt and becomes Zed's trophy. Daria and Tisa attempt to escape and are captured. They are chained to a column with Shala and told the rules of the hunt. The trio is then turned loose by Zed, to be hunted as game; he warns them to stay away from the "Phantom Zone". Shala sacrifices herself to save Tisa from Zed. Using a map, the remaining two find their way to the Phantom Zone, an ancient temple inhabited by zombie-like creatures. They find a cache of laser weapons, and return to the jungle to fight Zed, pursued by one of the creatures. Zed knocks Daria off of a bridge over a chasm to her apparent death; unbeknownst to him, she saves herself by grabbing hold of a vine. He returns with Tisa to his fortress where he attempts to rape her. Daria interrupts and fights him; the monster that was pursuing her shows up, mortally wounds Zed, and attacks the women. They manage to kill the creature and find a spaceship to escape the planet. Zed, dying from his injuries, initiates a self-destruct of his fortress but Daria and Tisa escape in time, and decide to explore the universe. ===== Upali Giniwella is a boy living in a village in southern Sri Lanka. He had lost his mother at a young age about 7 years old, and is under the care of a stepmother. Jinna is the servant boy of their house, and is a close and devoted friend to Upali. The two boys get into a lot of mischief in the village with their boy gang, and is severely punished by Upali's father as a result. Upali is eventually sent to away to a new school, and has to live with a school teacher. When he returns home, the two boys are caught trying to raid an orchard. Afraid that they will be sent away to work or given up to the police, Upali and Jinna run away from home and end up working for a farmer named Podigamarala. While working, the two boys see an island covered by dense forest, and decide to go and live there. They learn that the deserted island, Madol Doova, is believed to be haunted, but start farming there with the help of Podigamarala. After spotting a mysterious light on the island, which was supposedly the ghost haunting it, they follow it and find out that it is in reality a fugitive hiding from the law. Meanwhile, another man named Punchi Mahattaya arrives on the island and later helps them with their work. When Upali hears that his father is taken ill, he returns home and helps out his stepmother and stepbrother. After settling up a legal issue for farming on government land, he finally returns to the plantation on Madol Doova, which had now developed into a prosperous venture with the help of Jinna. ===== The beginning of The Phoenix describes the Garden of Eden as a Paradise, meant only for believers, in “eastern lands,” of sweet smells and means of extremes; the weather is mild: it never snows, rains, nor is the sun hot. There are no distinguishing geographical features whatsoever, like mountains, or valleys. However, the “plain,” as the poem refers to the Garden, is resplendent with blooming foliage that never dies. In this environment, there are no extreme emotions at all: no death, sickness, or misery, but on the flip side of that coin, readers get the sense that there are no extreme positive emotions either. Biblical events are occasionally referenced, including the flood, God’s creation of the world, and the Judgment at the end of time. There is also a recurrence of certain numbers, particularly the numbers three and twelve, which are also recurrent in Biblical literature. It is not until line 85 that the actual Phoenix bird is introduced, as a resident of “that forest,” and it seems to be primarily employed in watching the eternalness of the Garden. Its other activities include bathing, nest-making, singing, ruling over its fellow fowl as a prince, and perpetually growing old, dying, and then undergoing rebirth from its ashes, a glorious fiery death, which symbolizes giving of the self; and finally the resurrection from the ashes, symbolizing eternal life. The second part of the poem becomes allegorical, where the bird symbolizes Christ's death and resurrection, his ability to return and raise the dead, and take the living followers on flight to the beautiful home (Paradise) of the phoenix. The phoenix also symbolizes the faithful followers through the baptismal altar where the sinful self dies and the new hope within Christ comes to life. There may be, as well, two more possible symbols of the bird, as Carol Falvo Heffernan discusses, that the phoenix represents the Virgin Mary and the Catholic Church.Hefferman, "The Old English Phoenix: a Reconsideration." The lines below show the living followers – as symbolized phoenixes – on flight to the beautiful home of the phoenix (Paradise). :"Now Just so after death, through the lord’s might, souls together with body will journey- handsomely adorned, just like the bird, with noble perfumes-into abundant joys where the sun, steadfastly true, glistens radiant above the multitudes in heavenly city. :Then the redeeming Christ, high above its roofs, will shine upon souls steadfast in truth. Him they will follow, these beautiful birds, radiantly regenerate, blissfully jubilant, spirits elect, into that happy home everlasting to eternity. There the fiend, outcast, importunate, cannot treacherously harm them by his evil, but there they shall live for ever clothed in light, gist as the phoenix bird, in the safe-keeping of the Lord, radiant in glory. Each one's achievement will brightly sparkle in that joyous home before the face of the everlasting Lord, perpetually at peace, like the sun. There a bright halo, marvelously braided with precious stones, will rise above the head of each of the blessed. Their heads will glisten, crowned with majesty. The rare and regal diadem of a prince will adorn with light each of the righteous in that existence where enduring joy, everlasting and fresh anew, never wanes; but rather they will dwell in beauty, surrounded with glory, with lovely adornments, together with the Father of the angels." (lines 583-604) ===== The Day Boy and the Night Girl begins by telling of a witch named Watho who, in her pursuit of complete knowledge, undertook an experiment to mould two people from birth by strictly controlling their environments. Watho convinced two expectant mothers to visit her castle. Lady Aurora (whose ambassador husband was away on business) was given spacious, sunlit rooms to stay in; she gave birth to a boy. The witch promptly whisked him away, sending his mother back to her home burdened with the lie that her son had died shortly after birth. The other woman (who had recently been widowed and become blind) Watho settled in windowless, tomblike chambers elsewhere in the castle. Vesper died in childbirth, leaving her daughter to the witch's keeping. Watho did everything in her power to ensure that the boy Photogen grew up strong, able, and fearless. However, her foremost concern regarding the boy was that he should never see the night. Watho desired the opposite for the girl Nycteris, who knew no other world than the stony chambers she had been born in and no other light than that provided by the single dim lamp. Watho, however, taught her music, which she became good at. It came about that Nycteris, in her sixteenth year, found her way out of these chambers into a night lit by a full-moon. Nycteris was filled with wonder at this glorious new light and the rest of nature; she returned to her rooms before daybreak, desiring to see the outdoors again and not wanting to spoil her chance by arousing Watho's suspicions. Around the same time, Photogen (who spent his days hunting) one morning spied a big cat of some sort slinking off to the forest and took it in his mind to hunt this skilled hunter. As the sun went down, Photogen left to hunt the nocturnal beast, violating the witch's constraint. Once darkness fell, Photogen was beset with terror. He came across Nycteris in one of her outings, and gathered some measure of comfort from the strange girl's calm. She agreed to watch over him while he slept, and so it was that she was for the first time yet outdoors when the sun rose. Photogen regained his courage immediately; assuring Nycteris that there was now nothing to fear, he went on his way, despite her terrified pleas that he stay and protect her from the blinding light. Photogen (wishing to prove his courage) stayed up for another night, only to experience similar results. Photogen and Nycteris eventually learned to use their strengths to bear the other up through their weakness. In this way they were able to defeat the witch Watho. Photogen and Nycteris married; they continued to rely on and rejoice in each other's strengths, to the point that Photogen came to prefer the night and Nycteris the day. ===== Ralph Rinkelmann is a writer, who is selected by fairies to be the king of the fairies. While he is ill, they carry him off and crown him as king. The strange Shadows spend their existence casting themselves upon the walls and forming pictures of various sorts: mimicking evil actions of those who have done wrong in the hopes of causing their repentance, playing a comic dumb-show to inspire a playwright and dancing to inspire a musician, nudging a little girl to comfort her grandfather, and playing with a sick little boy as he waits for his mother to return home. For all that their forms are black, their hearts are of the whitest. The story ends with Ralph Rinkelman being comforted. ===== The game casts the player as Jack The Jester, in the fictional kingdom of Allegoria. According to the story, Jack has fallen in love with the Princess Grizelda, but knows the king would never allow his daughter to marry a lowly court jester. Unless, of course, he were to perform some kind of noble and heroic act. That chance comes for Jack the day a gang of dragons attack the kingdom, stealing the magical black lamp which protects the kingdom from harm. Without the lamp's protection the kingdom is soon overrun by monsters, so Jack sets off to recover the black lamp, save the kingdom, and hopefully win the hand of the fair princess. ===== Bugs Bunny pops out of a hole, wondering what all the 'racket' is. He quickly finds out that he is at a greyhound track. Bugs decides to check out the dogs, commenting positively on dog #7, a large grey greyhound named Gnawbone, whom Bugs inadvertently angers. After this, Bugs goes outside to see the race from trackside. Before the race begins, the announcer announces some of the dogs that are racing, including "Bill's Bunion", "Pneumatic Tire", "Father's Moustache", "Motorman's Glove", "Bride's Biscuit" and "Grandpa's Folly" (the latter of which has been "scratched" from the race, as in uncontrollable itching), in an homage to Spike Jones' "William Tell Overture." Bugs watches as a rabbit lure is led out. Not realizing the rabbit is a mechanical fake, Bugs instantly falls in love with it ("Wow! What a hunk of feminine pulchritoodee!"). Upon seeing the dogs being released from their starting boxes, declaring that "chivalry is not dead", Bugs decides to "rescue" the lure and jumps into the track, taking down some of the dogs one at a time. During this sequence, the announcer, shocked at what he sees, kills himself off-screen. Bugs eventually teases the dogs enough that they start chasing him out of the track and into a taxi, which speeds off towards the Dog Pound. However, Gnawbone was not fooled and is waiting for Bugs. Bugs then faces off with Gnawbone through trickery, first using a balloon decoy, then using a dynamite stick. Finally, Gnawbone has had it and starts to charge at Bugs "like a bull" in attempt to kill the rabbit once and for all, but Bugs plays matador and causes Gnawbone to charge into a fire hydrant, putting the dog out of commission, with a white flag of surrender on his tail. After defeating Gnawbone, now free to pursue "Dreamboat" unhindered, Bugs gives the lure a kiss, getting a large electric shock, just before the lure goes back into its starting box. He goes for another kiss and gets electrocuted again. ===== The film covers a later part of Gauguin's life (Kiefer Sutherland) from 1880 to 1897, when he resigned his job as a stockbroker to paint full-time and journey to Polynesia. It documents how Gauguin befriended Pissarro, felt compelled to paint, abandoned his family and then chronicled his love of Tahitian life. ===== El Brendel plays the dual role of Silent McGee, a tough gangster, and Mr. Oscar Lemon, a mild-mannered Swede who coincidentally looks exactly like the gangster McGee. Silent McGee disguises himself as a Swedish immigrant while running from the law, causing Mr. Lemon to be mistaken for the wanted man. Fifi D'Orsay stars as Julie LaRue, a comedic vamp who pursues the comparatively innocent Mr. Lemon. ===== Time and place: At the Hungarian border and in Vienna, 1764 In short: The title character (Christine) impulsively falls in love with a handsome stranger, never suspecting that the man is really the Austrian emperor Joseph II. Upon learning the emperor's true identity, Christine pleads with him to save her former boyfriend, rebel leader Franz Földessy, from the firing squad. ===== The series tells the story of a witty and cunning fox Mykyta, his adventures and relationships with his fellow animals. ===== Fuller Bull (Vernon Dent), the head of the ailing Daily News, confronts the reporters he hired for not getting him a story to keep up with a competing newspaper called the Daily Star Press. Bull catches three shirtmen (the Stooges) outside; thinking they are reporters from the Daily Star Press, he immediately hires them to get a picture of visiting Prince Shaam of Ubeedarn (Dick Curtis). Word has it that Shaam has plans to marry local wealthy socialite Mrs. Van Bustle (Symona Boniface). The trio disguise themselves as servants, and work their way into a party being held at Mrs. Van Bustle's home in the honor of the prince. The Stooges all but sabotage the festivity by serving hors d'œuvres consisting of peas and dog biscuits (canapés/can-of-peas), along with a turkey stuffed with a live parrot. The prince leaves in disgust, with the majordomo, Flint (Bud Jamison) following close behind. Undaunted, the Stooges manage to expose both the prince and his majordomo as crooks who were planning to rob the house. The next day, the Stooges tell Bull that the man claiming to be Prince Shaam is not a prince, but a crook, and they had both him and Flint arrested. As a result of their findings, Bull becomes overwhelmed with joy, and tells the people printing the paper to stop the presses for an extra. He gives the boys a large bonus, and Mrs. Van Bustle thanks the boys for saving her from being robbed by Shaam by deciding to marry Curly. ===== The Stooges operate the Jive Cafe and are enduring significant debt. They reluctantly take a second job hanging posters (à la Three Little Twirps), earning a penny for each poster hung. Moe takes notice of one particular poster advertising a cow milking contest that pays $100 to the winner. Without hesitation, Moe and Larry nominate Curly for the contest, and go about looking for a cow to practice milking on. They coincidentally find a "cow" (a bull) behind the fence. Curly is no match for the wild animal, and he is quickly booted over a fence twice, then up onto a telephone pole. When the contest day arrives, Curly (nicknamed 'K. O. Bossy') cannot squeeze an ounce of milk from the cow's udder. While fresh cows are being brought in for the second round, Moe and Larry jump into a cow costume with a jug of milk. The scheme works until Curly yanks the mock udder off the jug, and the milk comes gushing out until the jug hits the bucket, which causes Curly to be disqualified. After the contest's champion throws all of the stooges off the stage, they are left helping each other leave while being booed at by the audience because they were cheating. ===== The Stooges wish to marry their sweethearts, but are forbidden by Old King Cole (Vernon Dent) until Princess Alisha (Virginia Hunter) weds Prince Gallant III of Rhododendron "when the flowers bloom in the Spring." Unfortunately, evil magician Murgatroyd (Philip Van Zandt) has his own plans to marry Alisha, and promptly abducts her. The Stooges do their best to foil his plot. ===== The opening begins with Avey "Avatara" Johnson packing her bags aboard her 17-day cruise on the Bianca Pride, during the late 1970s. The reason for her sudden departure began three nights before, when she had a dream about her great-aunt Cuney and a disturbing encounter in the Versailles dining-room with a peach parfait. Her first since the 1960s, the dream consists of Avey's aunt in Tatem attempting to convince Avey to follow her down the road in Tatem, South Carolina, a childhood vacation spot. When Avey resists, the two have a physical brawl. The next morning, Avey wants nothing more than to be alone, and yet cannot get away from anyone on the cruise ship, no matter where she goes. At this point, she makes the decision to leave the ship. The next morning, she packs her bags and leaves to the next port-of-call, which is the island of Grenada. On Grenada, the atmosphere seems to be festive, as people dressed in bright clothing, carrying packages, are getting onto boats. Confused, Avey Johnson is later informed by her taxi driver that it is the annual excursion to Carriacou, a nearby island. At the hotel, the sick feeling in Avey's stomach returns, and Avey spends her last moments of consciousness painfully reminiscing about her relationship with her late husband, Jerome "Jay" Johnson, and for the first time in four years, she mourns his loss. Avey wakes up the next day in the home of Rosalie Parvay, the widow daughter of Lebert Joseph. Along with Milda the maid, Rosalie washes Avey and feeds her a typical Carriacou breakfast, during which Lebert enters the home to see how Avey is feeling. Despite her sickness of the previous day, Avey decides to go to the dances that will take place that night. That night, Avey, Rosalie, Milda, and Lebert all go to the "Big Drum" dances. There, Avey is at first happy merely to be a bystander and watch Lebert and other elders of the community sing and dance for the ancestors. However, by the end of the night, Avey is dancing along with the other people celebrating their cultural roots to Africa. The next morning, Avey leaves on a plane back to New York, but decides to sell her home that she no longer needs and move to Tatem, in the home left for her by aunt Cuney. There, she will demand that her grandchildren come to see her, so that she may teach them about their heritage, like Cuney did for her. ===== The Stooges are detectives who have nearly mastered the game of gin rummy. They are frequently interrupted by a very loudly ringing telephone. Shemp brings in the pickpocket Slick Chick (Connie Cezan) who manages to talk her way out of the station. Shemp joins the Gin Rummy game before the three of them tangle with a very stubborn filing cabinet. After nearly finishing the game, the Stooges police chief B. A. Copper (Ferris Taylor) has just about had it with their goofing off, and demands that they find the murderer of Slug McGurk within 24 hours. Right from the start, the trio have Chopper (Phil Arnold), a prisoner who attempts to confess to the crime. Unfortunately, his sesquipedalian confession ("I am the culprit who perpetrated this heinous incident!") confuses the simple-minded Stooges, who insist he is avoiding the question. Frustrated, the Stooges throw Chopper back in a jail cell. Larry kisses a female officer who promptly slaps him. A pedestrian, (Murray Alper), shows up wanting to talk to them, but is thrown out by an angry Moe, (who has apparently warned him several times before that they were too busy to listen) and warned to get out and stay out. The next man they bring up is a witness, an organ grinder with a monkey named Antonio Zucchini Salami Gorgonzola dePizza (Benny Rubin). The witness begins to download his information to the Stooges, but his Italian looks do not match the English cockney accent that comes out of his mouth. When Moe asks him what he was doing at the time of the murder, dePizza flees in terror at the thought of blood. Next, Shemp takes a call regarding a dismissed bootlegging charge, stating "The D.A. says we can't make a case out of 11 bottles" (!). Just when all seems lost Larry returns with Chopper who says he wants to confess to the murder. However, while taking down his confession, the pedestrian shows up again and in fury that Chopper is going to take the credit of the murder, he confess outright that he's the actual killer and pulls out a gun and starts shooting everything in site. The Stooges take cover in their office, as the killer shoots over 60 times without reloading. Everyone is trapped until dePizza's monkey drops several bowling balls on the killer's head, knocking him cold. Shemp who got shot close-up look to be unharmed, only for the bottle of "Old Panther" alcohol he starts drinking to pour out of the holes in his stomach and Moe and Larry decide to take a shower. ===== ===== A connection between Dr. Hass and the West German intelligence was killed at an airport in one of the European countries. Encryption was discovered in the pocket of the murdered person for the purchase of raw material for mass production of RH gas. The possibilities of gas are such that in small doses it stimulates the intellectual potential of a person, in large ones it turns them into a joyous idiot and a laborer-robot. The case of Haas is handled by the Soviet intelligence colonel Konstantin Ladeynikov. The main difficulty is that Ladeynikov has fallen into the sight of the intelligence services, but the intelligence officer asks for permission from his leadership to stay in the country and continue work. However, Ladeynikov has no portrait of Hass so he needs a person who can identify him. The KGB leadership appeals to the actor of the children's theater, the father of two children, Ivan Savushkin, with a request to draw a portrait of Hass. In 1944, Savushkin fled from a Nazi concentration camp, where Hass conducted his fatal experiments, turning people into meaningless animals. Over time, Savushkin understands how much he depends on him in the operation with Haas and agrees to go to help Ladeynikov. In addition, he knows German well. ===== Wealthy Edwin Peter Brewster disowns his son Robert when he marries Louise Sedgwick, a woman of modest means. Many years later, when Robert dies, however, E.P. Brewster leaves one million dollars to their son Monty, a bank clerk. Shortly thereafter, Monty learns that he has inherited seven million dollars from his Uncle George on the stipulation that Monty divest himself of his grandfather's fortune within a year, without revealing why. A further stipulation is that the money must be used only for personal expenditures. Monty spends lavishly, invests in stock and makes a bet on a prize fight, but the bet and the stocks pay off. In desperation he rents and repairs a yacht to sail around the world. At one port, Monty saves Peggy Gray, his childhood sweetheart, from abduction by an Arab sheik. On the eve of gaining possession of the money, Monty proposes to Peggy, who eagerly accepts, thinking that Monty is a pauper. Then a cable informs Monty that Swearengen Jones, his uncle's executor, has absconded with the fortune. Unperturbed, Peggy and Monty marry but then are presented with the inheritance as a wedding present by Jones, who turns out to be a practical joker. ===== On a foggy night, Michael Starkwedder enters the home of the Warwicks through a window in the study. He finds the dead body of Richard Warwick, and finds Richard's wife, Laura, holding a gun that supposedly killed him. Michael does not believe she killed him, and she soon tells him she is innocent. The two decide to place the blame on an enemy from the past, MacGregor, a man whose son was killed when he was run over by Richard's car while Richard was driving drunk. As the story progresses, it is revealed that Laura was having an affair due to Richard's cruel nature, and was vouching for the man she was cheating with when she claimed to have killed Richard. ===== Jane, a vicar's wife, lives a very different kind of life from her friend, the single and independent Prudence. The book details the period in Nicholas and Jane’s life when they take over a new parish in an (anonymous) English village and encounter the widower Fabian Driver, who Jane decides will make an excellent husband for Prudence.For an evaluation of this setting see Chapter 4 Jane and Prudence in "Reading Barbara Pym" Donato, D. Ch 4 pp81-101 Maddison, N.J Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2003 Prudence has an imponderable attraction to her older and completely impervious employer, the head of an unspecified academic foundation. There is, however, competition for Fabian - Jessie Morrow, another spinster in the parish who seeks escape from her low-paid job as a companion to the domineering Miss Doggett. ===== Eat a Bowl of Tea begins by describing newlyweds Ben Loy and Mei Oi sleeping peacefully in their bed in New York City. They are abruptly awakened by a prostitute ringing the doorbell. Ben Loy, ashamed of his pre-marital history with prostitutes, lies to protect his secret from his "innocent, pure" wife. The story then jumps backwards several months to the "Money Come" gambling house and the men who spend their days there: Wah Gay, Lee Gong, Chong Loo and Ah Song. The text depicts the close friendship between Wah Gay and Lee Gong (both Chinese immigrants with wives back in Guangdong (Canton)), and a conversation concerning their unmarried children ensues. Upon learning that Wah Gay has a marriageable son (Ben Loy) here in the States, Lee Gong spies on him at his restaurant and decides that he is the right man for his daughter (Mei Oi), who is still in China. He and Wah Gay decide that Ben Loy will go to China and bring back Mei Oi as his bride. The two men write their wives (Lau Shee and Jung Shee) in anticipation. Although Ben Loy seems to be the epitome of a "good boy," he has a secret life. When he is not busy working at the restaurant (in the fictional suburb of Stanton, Connecticut), he and his roommate Chin Yuen visit white prostitutes in New York City, a habit Ben Loy picked up while serving in the Army during World War II. Ben Loy becomes addicted to these sexual flings, often sleeping with numerous prostitutes in a night. Without the permission of his father – who wants Ben Loy to stay in Stanton, away from the temptations of New York – Ben Loy and Chin Yuen move to an apartment on Manhattan's Catherine Street. When Wah Gay approaches Ben Loy about going to Sunwei, China to find a bride, Ben Loy is skeptical and unwilling. But he eventually warms to the idea of bringing a bride with him back to America and raising a family, and he assents to his family's wish. When he meets Mei Oi in China, he decides that he made the right decision – he is immediately enthralled by her beauty and pleased by her modesty and courtesy. After such ceremonial practices as the employment of matchmakers and the approval of the Fourth Uncle, the families plan a traditional wedding. Their Chinese wedding is mirrored by a Chinese wedding banquet back in Chinatown. Her arrival in New York should be a happy time for Mei Oi, as she is finally able to meet her father and to experience life in a big city. However, she feels lonely in the city and spends her days sobbing over her deteriorating marriage, not understanding the causes of Ben Loy's impotence. Although they made love during their first few weeks of marriage, since their arrival in New York he no longer appears to desire her affection, even when she attempts to arouse him. This rejection deeply hurts, frustrates and confuses Mei Oi, and she concludes that Ben Loy no longer loves her. It is not long before the novelty of living in Chinatown and marrying a gimshunhock ("Gold Mountain sojourner"—someone living in America) wears off. Mei Oi insists that Ben Loy consult a doctor about his impotency – he tries both an American doctor and a Chinese herb specialist, but to no avail. In July, an unexpected visitor appears at their apartment: Ah Song, a frequent Money Come guest who flirts shamelessly with Mei Oi while Ben Loy is at work, claiming to be deeply in love with her and divulging Ben Loy's secret shameful past. Confused and overpowered, Mei Oi is raped by Ah Song. In spite of the rape, they kindle a relationship and a secret affair begins. Mei Oi soon discovers that she is pregnant, but does not know who the father is (since she and Ben Loy had successfully slept together during a visit to Washington, D.C.). She continues her affair with Ah Song, oblivious to the increasing gossip that she is "knitting Ben Loy a green hat" – sleeping with another man. Eventually Soon Lee Gong, Wah Gay, and finally Ben Loy learn of the affair. The tong mocks the family and Mei Oi realizes the magnitude of shame she has brought upon them. The neighborhood eventually assumes the identity of the man as Ah Song, and Ben Loy and Mei Oi move to Stanton to avoid further embarrassment. Even the affections of Chin Yuen, Ben Loy's closest companion, cannot distract Mei Oi from the pain she feels away from Ah Song, and she eventually convinces Ben Loy to move back to New York. Back in the old apartment, the affair resumes right where it left off. Wah Gay, crazed by the shame this affair has brought upon his family, lurks near the apartment and attacks Ah Song as he leaves, slicing off his ear. When Ah Song presses charges, Wah Gay flees to a friend's home in New Jersey. However, because he is so well-connected in his tong through multitudes of devoted and powerful family members, he is not penalized for his actions. Ah Song, on the other hand, is exiled for five years. But Wah Gay and Lee Gong are too embarrassed to remain in the community and leave New York, heading their separate ways in solitude. Ben Loy and Mei Oi decide to free themselves of all family and community ties by starting anew in San Francisco. The birth of their child, Kuo Ming, and a new environment allow them to grow closer and mend previous wrongs. Ben Loy visits another Chinese herb specialist and decides to take the doctor's advice and "eat a bowl of tea" to treat his impotence. Whether it is the herbs or the increase in Ben Loy's independence, his masculinity is finally restored in all senses of the word. ===== Chang Yi and his sister, Hon Seung Kam, live on their farm with their blind mother Wang Li. Their father was murdered by Wong Tung Shung. Seeking revenge when he learns his father's killer has returned, he finds himself arrested at attempting to avenge his father's death. Informing the officer who arrested him they join forces and finally bring the evil warlord to justice in an expensive fruit battle. ===== Two British nationals are killed by a ferocious tiger in Corbett National Park in India. This incident is followed by several other tiger attacks, and many deaths result, prompting National Geographic to send a correspondent, Krish Thapar (John Abraham) to the national park and ascertain what really happened. Thapar is accompanied by his wife Riya (Esha Deol). A group of youngsters, consisting of Dev Malhotra (Vivek Oberoi), his girlfriend Ishika (Lara Dutta), Sajid (Kushal Punjabi) and Vishal (Vishal Malhotra), are on a hunting trip in the hopes of sighting and shooting some big prey. The youngsters' car breaks down and Bagga (Vineet Sharma), a passing by driver, gives them a lift. Bagga's car accidentally hits Krish's, which also breaks down and is at the middle of the road. The two groups decide to travel together in Bagga's car, leaving a mechanic repairing Krish's car. Just a few seconds they set off, the mechanic disappears and they believe a tiger just took him away and decide not to risk their lives to look for him. Bagga finds them a place to stay -- a guesthouse owned by Pandey. Pandey is a guide who agrees to lead them the next day to the core area, inhabit of tigers, for hunting. Pandey disappears the very night and his body is found in the wild the next day, with his head chopped off. Krish starts to be suspicious about the real cause of the recent rising deaths in the jungle, as he is an animal expert and recognizes Pandey is not killed by a tiger or any animal. Warned by an officer and scared, the group decide to leave the jungle. Before they depart, they find Sajid missing. Dev, close friend to Sajid, assumes the latter is going to the core area alone for hunting. However, the group decide to leave without Sajid. Expectedly, Sajid joins the series of mystery deaths. The rest are soon confronted by three tigers on the way. Kaali Pratap Singh (Ajay Devgan), who claims to live in the jungle, saves them from the upcoming tiger attack. On their continued way out of the jungle, they find the road is blocked by rocks due to the landslide caused by rain. Kaali shows up again and agrees to lead them out of the jungle. Kaali appears to be very knowledgable about the jungle. Krish, who is now more curious about the mysterious deaths, asks him if he knows what's behind those deaths. Kaali answers that there was a mad guide in this jungle, who always led tourists to wrong places to make them killed by animals. Angry villagers later found about it and beat him to death. But his spirit -- the ghost -- remains in the jungle and keeps killing tourists. But none of them believe Kaali's story. Bagga later disappears when repairing his car, rising the fear among the rest. Vishal is also killed by their car explosion a few moments later. The rest carry on and reach a deserted guesthouse in the evening, outside which there is a well. All go to sleep after being warned by Kaali not to get close to the well. Riya wakes up thirsty in the night. She decides to get water from the well despite Kaali's warning, and is later accidentally hanged in the well and dies. The rest find out Riya's death and try to pull out her body, while Dev suddenly realizes that Kaali does not have a reflection in well's water. He also sees that Kaali is not visible in any of the videos that had been recorded by Vishal so far. He realizes that the story Kaali told them is true and he is the ghost referred in the story. Dev makes an excuse to push Kaali off and convinces the others that Kaali is a ghost. They decide to escape from Kaali. They encounter several accidents on their way out of the jungle, apparently arranged by Kaali, but finally manage to escape. Krish now knows what's behind those mysterious deaths but he is not going to tell anyone because no one is going to believe him. Meanwhile in the jungle, Kaali keeps killing tourists. ===== A letter informs the Egyptian Sebastian Affad that he will die; a mix up has caused major ructions within the Gnostic sect in Egypt. Affad is called back to Egypt for admonishment. Before leaving Switzerland, however, he has asked Constance to use her psychiatric skills to treat his son, who has become autistic. She is gradually successful in working with the boy. After Affad returns to Switzerland from Egypt, the couple renew their relationship. The psychopath Mnemidis intervenes. After escaping from the institution where Constance works, he goes to her flat, intending to kill her, but murders Affad instead. The book finishes in a surreal manner. Affad seems virtually to disappear from Constance's memory; and two chapters give conflicting accounts of Constance's action upon the death of her boss Schwartz. Unexpectedly Sylvie reappears, for the first time since Monsieur. (She is said to be a fictional creation of author Aubrey Blanford, also introduced in the first novel as a character). She begins an affair with Constance. ===== Kim Du-han lost his mother at the age of eight, and he survives on the streets as a singing beggar. His natural-born fighting skills places him on the mean streets of Jongno with the kisaeng house Wumigwan at the center. He is soon recognized for his incredible strength and ability. He finds out through Shin Ma-jeok, the head of a student gang, that he is the son of General Kim Jwa-jin who fought against the Japanese army. Meanwhile, the Yakuzas expand their sphere of influence and try to take over the Jongno streets but Du-han protects the Korean vendors of Jongno and wins their respect. When the head of Wumigwan, Kim Gi-hwan is arrested, Du-han becomes the leader of the Jongno gang. ===== In Tudor England, two boys are born on the same day in the most different circumstances imaginable. Tom Canty (Billy Mauch) is the son of vicious criminal John Canty (Barton MacLane), while Edward Tudor (Bobby Mauch) is the Prince of Wales and the son of King Henry VIII of England (Montagu Love). One grows up in poverty, hungering for something better for himself and his family, the other in isolated luxury, with a strong curiosity about the outside world. They meet and are astounded by their striking resemblance to each other. As a prank, they exchange clothes, but the Captain of the Guard (Alan Hale, Sr.) mistakes the prince for the pauper and throws him out of the palace grounds. Tom is unable to convince anybody except for the Earl of Hertford (Claude Rains) of his identity. Everyone else is convinced that he is mentally ill. When Henry VIII dies, Hertford threatens to expose Tom unless he does as he is told. Hertford also blackmails the Captain into searching for the real prince to eliminate the dangerous loose end. Meanwhile, Edward finds an amused, if disbelieving protector in Miles Hendon (Errol Flynn). An attempt to assassinate the boy on the instigation of the Earl of Hertford, who fears for his power if the real king lives, changes Hendon's opinion of Edward's story. With Hendon's help, Edward manages to re-enter the palace just in time to interrupt the coronation ceremony and prove his identity. Edward becomes King Edward VI while Tom is made a ward of the new king, Hertford is banished for life, and Hendon is rewarded for his services. ===== Hartraft's Marauders, a band of kingdom raiders have come across a Tsurani patrol at a garrison overrun by moredhel (dark elves). This forces them to band together to survive. ===== Detective Johnny Blake (Edward G. Robinson) is a New York City cop who has made his reputation by cracking down on racketeers. When Blake gets kicked off the force, a powerful crime boss named Al Kruger (Barton MacLane) hires him in an attempt to gain fresh ideas about sidestepping the law and expanding his criminal empire. Masterminding the mob are three very powerful bankers, who are only known by the crime boss. Blake soon gains Kruger's trust and rises through the ranks of the criminal organization, much to the distaste of Bugs Fenner (Humphrey Bogart), who believes Blake to be a police informer.http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/66/Bullets-or-Ballots/articles.html To compensate for a reduction in the mob's revenue, Blake suggests to Kruger that they go into the numbers racket, currently run on a small scale by Blake's girlfriend, Lee Morgan (Joan Blondell). Kruger follows Blake's proposal, and the mob's money flow is so great that Kruger ignores the other rackets. In reality, Blake is cooperating with Captain Dan McLaren (Joseph King) in order to find the leaders of the crime ring. With Blake's information, the police engage in a series of raids on the crime syndicate's operations. Fenner, unhappy with the focus of the rackets, kills Kruger in an attempt to take over as the head of the mob. But, Blake has already been granted the title as boss by the leaders, and he takes over control, meeting up with the three bankers. When Fenner's produce racket gets raided by the police and Blake is seen as the fingerman by a spotter, Fenner attempts to kill Blake, while he waits to deliver money to the bankers. During a gun battle, Fenner is killed and Blake is mortally wounded. He is able to arrive at the bank, leading McLaren to the bankers, who are subsequently arrested. ===== A professor of astronomy gives a lecture instructing on an impending solar eclipse. The class rushes to an observation tower to witness the event, which features an anthropomorphic Sun and Moon coming together. The Moon and the Sun lick their lips in anticipation as the eclipse arrives, culminating in a romantic encounter between the two celestial bodies. Various heavenly bodies, including planets and moons, hang in the night sky; a meteor shower is depicted using the ghostly figures of girls. The professor of astronomy, shocked by all he has witnessed, topples from the observation tower. Fortunately, he lands in a rain barrel, and is revived by his students. ===== Steve Case (Pat O'Brien) has to deal with trouble at his tropical fruit company's Central American banana plantation. A revolutionary, Rosario La Mata (George Tobias), is stirring up unrest among the workers, and the only man who can handle the situation, foreman Nick Butler (James Cagney), has just quit. Steve manages to persuade Nick to stick around (for a big bonus). Adding to the complications is Lee Donley (Ann Sheridan), a woman whom Steve has ordered out of the region for causing a different kind of trouble among the men. ===== The plot focuses on two disparate characters. Henry Bell is a 42-year-old executive, divorced and recently fired from his job, and Karen Knightly is 25 years old, wealthy, very eccentric, and recently abandoned by her lover Anthony Staxton-Billing, who opted to return to his wife Imogen. Both are intent on committing suicide by leaping from the Albert Bridge in London. When neither succeeds, they strike a bargain whereby each agrees to exact revenge on behalf of the other. Karen finds employment at Lembridge Tennit, the conglomerate for which Henry worked, and in short order two of her bosses meet violent deaths and a third has a nervous breakdown. Henry, meanwhile, is finding it difficult to keep his end of the bargain, since he has fallen in love with Imogen. Instead of planning her demise, he begins an affair with the beguiling woman. After accidentally killing her husband, Henry finds himself torn between marrying her and fulfilling his promise to Karen by disposing of her. In the end, love prevails, and a thwarted Karen hurls herself into the Thames River. ===== The film is essentially a shaggy dog story, leading up to a single play-on-words joke based on "beaver" also being a euphemism for female genitals. At the film's climax, the vampire is frightened by the Beaver; in his delirium, he begins seeing double, thus seeing two images of the Beaver. He cries, "Split beaver!" and disintegrates. ===== The Stooges try to join the army but are labeled 4-F by the draft board due to Curly having water on the knee. After they decide to go on vacation until a job comes along, their father (Robert McKenzie) insists they aid the war effort instead by becoming farmers. Inspired, the trio sell their dilapidated car and buy an equally dilapidated farm. The farm contains no livestock except for one ostrich, which eats gunpowder. The boys then spot some pumpkins and decide to carve and sell them. In the interim, several Japanese-Americans escape a prison camp (known during World War II as relocation centers), and work their way onto the Stooges' farm. Curly is the first to notice some suspicious activity (one of the escapees places a carved pumpkin on his head, spooking Curly). Eventually, Moe and Larry believe him, and realize that the farm is surrounded by the Japanese-Americans (whom they mistake for Japanese invaders). Moe then throws an ostrich egg (laden with digested gunpowder) at the escapees, killing them. ===== The film opens with Angus Barrie (Anthony Hopkins), an Irish Republican Army member, walking through hills, and coming to rest on a beach, where there is a little hut. Meanwhile, Nancy Gulliver (Rebecca Pidgeon) having just left school, burns all her books in happiness. It is her birthday, and her aunt (Jean Simmons) has invited over Harry (Hugh Grant), with whom she’s desperately in love, to tea. However, during the course of the film, as a result of Harry’s behaviour with another girl and the way he treats Nancy, she realises that her love for Harry was nothing more than childish infatuation. One day, Nancy goes down to the beach, and notices that her hut has been slept in. She leaves a note requesting that it be left alone. Soon after, she is on the beach reading, when Barrie comes up to her. Over the course of the film, the two develop a relationship, despite her not really knowing and understanding his job: he is one of the first people that became part of a group named the IRA, and is on the run from the government. Nevertheless, she grows fond of Barrie, and dubs him "Cassius" ("because you have a lean and hungry look!") After Cassius asks her to pass on a message to a colleague, several Officers of the British Army are gunned down at a horse race show. Later that day, Captain Rankin (played by Adrian Dunbar) of the Black and Tans comes to see the Family, and asks if anyone knows where Cassius is. The officers' suspicion is aroused when Nancy's grandfather (played by Trevor Howard) says he saw her talking to a man on the beach. She denies any knowledge. When they leave, she runs to the hut on the beach where Cassius was staying to tell him to flee, only to find that he has already packed. As they walk out, a light shines on them: the Black and Tans have found him. He is gunned down, much to Nancy's distress. The film ends with Nancy back at home, considerably older and wiser than when the film started. ===== Charlie Cox (Matt Frewer) is a divorced magazine writer based in Los Angeles. Charlie and his daughter Joleen (Drew Barrymore) are on their way home from a cross country vacation when they run out of gas in the small Nevada town of Banco, on the day before Joleen's 14th birthday, where their car is being taken care of by mechanic Duckett (Richard Masur). When they stop in a local supermarket, they find no one in the store except Sheriff Bill Childers (Dick Miller). Joleen stumbles upon the body of the store's owner, Ferrell Hovis, in a pool of blood. Charlie and Joleen later discover that the nearby gas station is out of gas, forcing them to check into a trailer park owned by a surly woman named Agnes Reed (Susan Tyrrell). They meet Agnes's troubled teenage son Jimmy (Andras Jones) as well as their neighbors, fellow travelers Louise (Karen Austin) and Amy (Jennifer Tilly). Meanwhile, as she swims in the trailer park's pool, Joleen hears two people loudly having sex in a nearby trailer. While watching through a window, she's startled by Jimmy watching through another window. That night, Agnes is killed when a hand reaches in through her bathroom window and pushes a small fan into the bathtub water, electrocuting her. Amy discovers Agnes's body, and Sheriff Childers responds the murder. The next day, when Jimmy tries to rape Joleen, she is rescued by Pinky Sears (Anthony Rapp), another local teenager. Charlie and Joleen agree to carpool with Louise and Amy. Meanwhile Joleen's journal is stolen by the killer. As Charlie, Joleen, Louise, and Amy are about to leave the trailer park, Louise and Amy's car is blown up with Amy in it, to prevent Joleen from leaving. The next day, when Jimmy tries to take money from Agnes's office, he is accused not only of trying to rob the office, but also of the murders of Ferrell, Agnes, and Amy. Duckett goes to Pinky's trailer, where he discovers that Pinky's mother has been dead for some time, and her body is covered with bags of ice. Pinky, who is revealed to be the killer, stabs Duckett with a screwdriver and leaves. An unwitting Joleen accompanies Pinky to an abandoned building and expresses attraction to him, to which he responds awkwardly. When Pinky then produces her diary, she realizes that he is the killer. Joleen tells him that he needs help, and she runs from him. When Duckett radios Sheriff Childers to notify him that Pinky has Joleen, Childers and Charlie head to the hideaway. Pinky kills Childers by cutting his throat. After Joleen takes her diary back, Pinky chases her up to the top platform of a nearby radio tower. Charlie tries to get up on the platform, but Pinky stops Charlie by cutting his hand. Pinky says that he thought Joleen loved him. Duckett, who is sitting in a nearby vehicle with a rifle in his hands, fires a shot that causes Pinky to fall off of the tower. Pinky is killed when he lands in a large satellite dish far below. Later, Duckett explains that Pinky started slipping over the edge before he ever met Joleen. Pinky had been keeping ice on his mother's body and leaving her TV on because he really didn't want to believe she was gone. When Pinky went to the supermarket to get food on credit, and Ferrell denied him, he killed Ferrell. He killed Agnes when she demanded payment of overdue rent and blew up the car to stop Joleen from leaving. Charlie, Joleen, and Louise leave Banco, and they head home to California. Afterwards an angry Jimmy, who had escaped from Sheriff Childers's car, is seen walking along some railroad tracks, to parts unknown. ===== Fatal Deviation tells the story of Jimmy Bennett, a disenfranchised young man trying to rebuild his life. On returning home after a ten year stay in St. Claude's Reform School, he aims to discover who he is, what it is he should do and what happened to his father. Shortly after his return to his hometown, Jimmy gets on the wrong side of a local gang, beating up two of its members who had been harassing local shop worker Nicola, in an attempt to force her to date gang member Mikey (played by Mikey Graham of Boyzone fame). The fight is witnessed by a monk in a local secret kung-fu group, with mysterious links to Jimmy's father. This order organises the Bealtaine tournament, an underground 'no-rules' fighting tournament, in which Jimmy is invited to partake. The gang leader, known only as Loughlan, who happens to be the father of the aforementioned Mikey, decides they should add Jimmy to their group ("Why not? Wouldn't it be ironic to have the son of the man I killed working for us?"). When Jimmy refuses to join them, they turn on him. Loughlan arranges for henchman 'Seagull' to return from his successful mission in Hong Kong on a direct flight to Trim Aerodrome in order to take part in the festival. Meanwhile Mikey has Nicola kidnapped and leaves Jimmy a note warning him to "Loose [sic] or else". Jimmy's fortunes begin to change when he is brought under the tutelage of a group of mysterious local monks who had trained his father, a martial arts champion, many years before. Under the guidance of the mysterious head monk, Jimmy undertakes an intensive training programme in preparation for the tournament. Jimmy goes on to reach the final, where he faces Seagull. After remembering that he had witnessed the local drug lord kill his father with a sword in the front of him, back when he was a child, he defeats Seagull with a well-timed use of the mysterious "Fatal Deviation" move as taught to him by the head monk. Having triumphed over Seagull, Jimmy then takes on the gang and rescues his girlfriend. In doing so, he kills Mikey. On hearing of his son's death the gang leader seeks bloody vengeance ("You killed my son, now I'm going to kill you, just as I killed your father"), but Jimmy ultimately dispatches him too. Jimmy reunites with his girlfriend and looks forward to a happy and peaceful future in Trim. ===== The young and beautiful January Wayne, daughter of stage and film producer Mike Wayne, returns home to New York City after being hospitalized in Switzerland for nearly three years. But home is not what it used to be: the world which January knew has changed considerably. As the naive January finds her way in this brave new world, she encounters such mortal souls as Deirdre Milford Granger, the fifth richest woman in the world, as well as Deirdre's virile young cousin, David Milford; Linda Riggs, the vulgar but successful editor of Gloss magazine; Tom Colt, the macho novelist who harbors a secret; and Dr. Preston Alpert, the dirty but invigorating "Dr. Feelgood." Also in the mix is Karla, the reclusive former movie queen who has more than one secret of her own. It's a world of money and spiritual incest, of drugs and frontal nudity, in a complex story which reflects the social upheavals of the late 1960s and early 1970s. ===== ===== Placed in the early 1930s, Diksha is the story of a guru and his widowed daughter, the head disciple and the novice; the lowly-born "Koga", who dreams of learning the intricacy of scriptures. In a weak moment, during the long absence of her father, the young widow falls for the temptations of the flesh. When she becomes pregnant, her lover refuses to accept his parental responsibility so the widow is forced to have an abortion. In the ensuing commotion, the father is called back. He is forced to give his decision. He pronounces her dead and performs her "Ghata-Shraddha" (a ritual where an immoral person is ex-communicated, pronounced dead and her last rites performed when the accused is still alive, thus depriving her of all worldly relations). While the Brahmin society praises the guru, individuals revolt. The head disciple leaves the town; the child-novice goes back to his parents; and the Koga refuses "heaven" and "salvation". ===== The Stooges are small-time song-and-dance performers who are having trouble rehearsing due to loud tapping that is going on one story above them. When they go to give the rowdies a piece of their mind, three lovely ladies named Flo (Lindsay Bourquin), Mary (Laverne Thompson) and Shirley (Betty Phares) come to the door. It turns out the girls are performing their tap dance routine. The six become friends and go to a talent agent, Manny Weeks (John Tyrrell), to show off their stuff. However, he is at first unimpressed with the Stooges' act, but hires them anyway to perform at the Noazark Shipbuilding Company to entertain defense workers. The Stooges, as "Two Souls and a Heel", slay the audience with their hilarious "Niagara Falls" routine ("slowly I turned, step by step, inch by inch..."). When the boys receive word that the headliners (The Castor and Earl Review) have to bail, they and the girls offer to take their place. Weeks is so enthralled with the boys' performance that he offers to send the trio to Broadway. The Stooges nearly leave their ladies, but end up getting married first with a honeymoon planned for — where else? — Niagara Falls. Curly ends up running for his life from a carload of fellow Stooges Moe; Larry and their brides. ===== Yogi leads his friends on a tour of the "Spruce Goose", built by billionaire Howard Hughes. While touring, they were accidentally locked inside the plane. To make matters worse, the dome where the plane was located closed up for the night. Augie Doggie tripped over and opened a door. The gang came to the cockpit. Yogi accidentally pushed a button which magically activated the plane. Soon the gang exited the dome in the plane. In an attempt to avoid a bridge, Yogi pulls back the wheel, causing the Spruce Goose to lift off. After narrowly avoiding colliding with the Hotel, the Spruce Goose leaves Long Beach to take the gang on a magical flight. Yogi and his friends listen to the radio about a group of arctic animals down at the South Pole trapped by a snowstorm and unable to reach the open sea. So they fly down there to help. While flying over to the spot where the animals are trapped, they meet Bernice, who had been on the Spruce Goose tour with her mom before getting lost herself. Soon they arrive to save the animals. They did that by having the Spruce Goose plow through the ice like a giant icebreaker and open a channel to the ocean. They succeeded, but their mission wasn't finished yet, as the penguins were attacked by sharks. So they got the plane to act as a bridge to get the penguins safely across the water. Bernice slips off the wings and nearly is eaten by sharks before being rescued by Yogi and Quick Draw McGraw, only for Snagglepuss to start the propellers and knock them off the wing onto an ice floe. Luckily, a whale arrives to scare off the sharks by threatening to eat them due to being the bigger fish. Next, Yogi and his friends listen to the radio about a bunch of animals trapped on an ocean liner at the Zelman Sea, long after poachers kidnapped them and left them on the boat to die. At the same time, two aliens, who were scared off from launching their invasion back in Long Beach, attempt to try again with the stranded animals. They transform into "Earth animals" in an attempt to mingle among them. The gang arrives to save the animals and scare off the aliens again. They tried to tow the ship by tying the ropes to the ship, but the doors opened up and caused the water to enter the ship. Quick Draw McGraw as El Kabong tried to rescue the animals himself but with little success. Then Bernice found a way to save the animals using the Spruce Goose itself due to having been designed as a cargo plane for use in World War II, but they couldn't find the doors since the nose of the plane was altered after its only flight years ago. The doors were finally located and opened up for the animals to enter the Spruce Goose. They then locate an island where they could drop the animals off safely at, noticing the word "HELP" carved in the sand. Afterwards, they realize that the "HELP" was from someone stranded on the island in need of rescue. The gang starts a search party, but unbeknownst to them, something is lurking in the bushes listening in on them. The thing in the bushes is revealed to be Mumbly, who has crashed on the island along with the Dread Baron. Mumbly awakens The Dread Baron and attempts to tell him of the plane. The Dread Baron realizes the plane is the Spruce Goose, and that with it he can become rich. He notices Yogi and his gang and realizes his plans could be foiled by them. But after seeing Bernice with the gang, he devises a plan to get on the Spruce Goose and try to take it over. After being rescued from quicksand, the Dread Baron pleads his case to Yogi, asking him to be merciful and take him and Mumbly off the island, but the rest of Yogi's gang are against it, so Yogi offers the Dread Baron and Mumbly a test: If they can return a bird's egg to its nest, as it was knocked out of the nest earlier, that will prove to Yogi and his friends that they want to become good, and Yogi will agree to take them back to the United States. Dread Baron and Mumbly succeed in their task, and Yogi agrees to take them aboard, but the Dread Baron and Mumbly have other intentions in mind. On the Spruce Goose, DB and Mumbly did some cleanup work, so that they won't raise any suspicions when Yogi checked up on them and find that they were doing a great job. Then DB throws a party for the gang supposedly as a matter of thanks. But the party was a trap as DB traps them in a cargo hold where the party was held. So now Dread Baron takes over the plane and he and Mumbly flew off to where they were supposed to go a long time ago: The island of Moolah Moolah. They reached Moolah Moolah, which is filled with natives who worship an idol that looks like Dread Baron. They called it, "Malagula." Dread Baron, posing as Malagula, parachuted down to the ground and surprised the natives. Malagula wanted gold, so they gave tons to him. Meanwhile, the gang, still locked in the cargo hold, found a way to get out by tricking the native guarding the door. The gang confronted Dread Baron, but he captured them and sent them to a hut to imprison them. Malagula and the natives surrounded the gang after they landed on the ground following escaping the hut and were about to decide what to do with the gang next when the volcano started to erupt. With the natives and Malagula in shock, the gang escaped back to the plane. The volcano caused a fault to crack and destroy the Malagula idol. This caused the natives to believe the volcano was mad at Malagula and stop worshiping him and chased Dread Baron and Mumbly back to the plane. After that we get one last look at Merkin and Firkin who flew to Moolah Moolah and again failed to invade Earth. But the plane wasn't out of danger yet; for the weight of all the gold that's in there started to bring it down, stalling the engines. So the gang pushed & shoved the gold out of the plane. Naturally, Dread Baron disapproves, and he and Mumbly jumped out to get it. DB tried to parachute down, but the parachute was taken by Mumbly as the new leader and Dread Baron this time as slave to the natives. The gang flew back to Long Beach, California and the dome home of the Spruce Goose. The next day, the gang went home. Yogi and the gang ran into Bernice and her mother and went to say good-bye to them. Driving home, they hear the stories on the radio of how animals were saved at the South Pole and at the Zelman Sea, to which he claims nobody knows how it happened. Yogi claims he knows how it all happened as he and the gang cheer for the Spruce Goose. ===== The Albatross centers around Duncan, an intellectually disabled 18-year-old who has grown up with his domineering wheelchair-using mother in Heype, a Suffolk seaside town based on Aldeburgh.Author's afterword in the 2000 Penguin edition of the book Duncan finds it difficult to cope with anything outside his daily routine but is forced to interact with the wider world when his claustrophobic relationship with his mother reaches a breaking point. ===== Manhattanite Connie Fuller (Ann Sheridan) secretly acquires a dilapidated house in rural Bucks County, Pennsylvania, without her husband Bill's (Jack Benny) knowledge. The couple were forced out of their New York City apartment after their dog damaged the carpets. The house Connie buys is believed to have served as George Washington's temporary home during the Revolutionary War. Connie takes Bill on a tour of the countryside including the house, hoping that Bill will fall in love with it. Connie's plan is to surprise her husband with the news that they own the house but is frustrated when he announces that he hates it. Bill only sees the poor condition of the house, and its poor location for commuting into the city. Having nowhere else to live, they move into the house anyway. Connie's sister Madge (Joyce Reynolds) moves with them. They hire Mr. Kimber (Percy Kilbride) to help with the renovations. They uncover evidence that it was not Washington who had slept there, but Benedict Arnold. Connie's spoiled nephew Raymond (Douglas Croft) also moves in during the summer. Connie's wealthy uncle Stanley (Charles Coburn) plans to visit also. One rainy day, married actors Rena Leslie (Lee Patrick) and Clayton Evans (John Emery) seek shelter from the downpour. Madge falls in love with Clayton and plans to run away with him, abandoning Rena. Bill suspects Connie of infidelity with local antiques dealer Jeff Douglas (Harvey Stephens), and confronts her. Connie explains that Jeff helped her determine that they own a well and an access road - facilities that their unfriendly neighbor Prescott (Charles Dingle) claims as his. Prescott uses the poor state of the Fullers' house to engineer a foreclosure against them, intending to buy their forfeited property at auction afterward. The Fullers desperately seek funds to finish the renovations and stave off the foreclosure. They ask Stanley to finance them, but he reveals that he has been secretly bankrupt since the Depression in 1929. Instead, he helps them with their lawful claim to the well and service road. Everything changes for the better when the Fullers' dog digs up a boot on the property, containing a letter written by George Washington. The valuable historical find is worth enough money for the couple to complete the renovations, and stave off Prescott's attempts to buy them out. The arrival of the expected 17-year locusts leads to the accidental discovery of the well that the couple need. ===== A burglar joins the circus to escape the police. Yet, he continues his thefts during his off-hours and gets involved in the problems of people around him, while also romancing one of the other circus performers. ===== Sanjana Patil, who has imagination and a great sense of humor. She is modern in her thoughts despite being born in a middle-class joint family. Like any ordinary Indian family, Sanjana's family also pressurize her to get married since she is nearing her 30s. But Sanjana has been in love with her childhood sweetheart Siddharth who is in the US, pursuing his further studies and is waiting to marry him. Like any other love story, this story also has twist when Sanjana comes to know that the guy she loves (Siddharth) has been married to her boss Anuradha. Now, she is completely shattered and unable to face the reality. She wants to know to a great extent that why did Siddharth break his promise and marry someone else? How will she face the man who she is in love with, now married to someone else? The story takes off when caught between her modern feelings and traditional values, Sanjana refuses to move on and chooses to live in her past. The questions remain: Will Sanjana ever forgive and forget Siddharth? Since she doesn’t have age on her side, and she belongs to a conservative, middle-class upbringing… will she be able to live life on her own terms? ===== In the small Midwestern city of Zenith, Samuel "Sam" Dodsworth (Walter Huston) is a successful, self-made man: the president of Dodsworth Motors, which he founded 20 years before. Then he sells the company to retire. Although Tubby Pearson, Sam's banker and friend, warns him that men like them are only happy when they are working, Sam has no plans beyond an extended trip to Europe with his wife Fran (Ruth Chatterton), who feels trapped by their dull small city social life. While travelling on the to England, Sam meets Edith Cortright (Mary Astor), an American divorcee now living in Italy, who is sympathetic to his eagerness to expand his horizons and learn new things. Meanwhile, Fran indulges in a light flirtation with a handsome Englishman (David Niven); but when he suggests it become more serious, she hastily retreats and asks Sam not to spend time in England as planned, but go on directly to Paris. Once there, Fran begins to view herself as a sophisticated world traveler and tries to develop a high-class social life, also pretending to be much younger than she is. Sam says that people who would socialize with hicks like either of them are not really high-class, but she sees him as increasingly boring and unimaginative; he only wants to see the usual tourist sights and visit car factories. She becomes infatuated with cultured playboy Arnold Iselin (Paul Lukas), who invites her to Montreux and later Biarritz. She suggests Sam return home and allow her to spend the summer in Europe; feeling rather out of place in the urbane Old World, he consents. Sam is happily welcomed by his old friends, as well as his daughter (Kathryn Marlowe) and new son-in-law (John Payne), who have moved into his and Fran's mansion. Before long, though, Sam realizes that life back home has left him behind—and he is tormented by the idea that Fran might have, as well. He has a Dodsworth manager in Europe confirm that she is in fact seeing Iselin, and returns to Europe immediately on the to put a stop to it. Fran tries to deny the affair, but Iselin confirms everything. She breaks down and begs for forgiveness. He still loves her and agrees to patch up their marriage. However, it is soon evident that they have grown far apart. In Vienna, news of the birth of their first grandchild arrives; although initially excited, Fran is displeased with the idea of being a grandmother. She eventually informs Sam that she wants a divorce, especially after the poor, but charming, young Baron Kurt von Obersdorf (Gregory Gaye) tells her he would marry her if she were free. Sam agrees. Sightseeing aimlessly throughout the Continent while the divorce is being arranged, Sam encounters Edith by chance in an American Express office in Naples. She invites him to stay at her peaceful, charming Italian villa. The two rapidly fall in love. Sam feels so rejuvenated that he wants to start a new business: an airline connecting Moscow and Seattle via Siberia. He asks Edith to marry him and fly with him to Samarkand and other exotic locales on his new venture. She gladly accepts. Meanwhile, Fran's idyllic plans are shattered when Kurt's mother (Maria Ouspenskaya) rejects his request to marry Fran. In addition to divorce being against their religion, she tells Fran that Kurt must have children to carry on the family line, and Fran would be an "old wife of a young husband". Kurt asks Fran to postpone their wedding until he can get his mother's approval; but Fran sees that it is hopeless, and calls off the divorce. Feeling a duty to Fran, Sam reluctantly decides to sail home with her on the , leaving Edith. However, after only a short time in Fran's now critical and demanding company, Sam realizes their marriage is irrevocably over. "Love has to stop somewhere short of suicide", he tells her. At the last moment, he gets off the ship to rejoin Edith. Sam sails back to Edith's villa where she is standing on the balcony overlooking the water looking very sad. When she thinks she sees Sam on the sailboat her eyes light up with anticipation and when the sail moves to the side revealing it is indeed him with a huge smile on his face, Edith's face changes to an equally brilliant smile. ===== The film is divided into three parts. The first takes place prior to the war. Cocky Philadelphia steel worker and "man's man" Al Schmid despises the idea of marriage and losing his independence until he meets his match in Ruth Hartley. Ruth takes no nonsense from Al and impresses him by enjoying a hunting trip he takes her on. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Al joins the Marines. Before he departs on a train to join the war, Al proposes marriage to Ruth on the station platform. Part two is set at the Battle of the Tenaru River on the Pacific island of Guadalcanal on August 21, 1942. Schmid is in the crew of a M1917 Browning machine gun at a gun emplacement with his buddies Lee Diamond and Johnny Rivers of "H" Company 2nd Battalion First Marines. The onslaught by the enemy is particularly heavy, but the men are able to kill some 200 of the enemy. Rivers is killed by a bullet through the head, Diamond is wounded in his right arm, and Schmid is blinded by a Japanese soldier dropping a hand grenade at the front of the gun pit. The third part is Schmid's humbling rehabilitation, in which he resents being dependent upon others. He hopes that an operation will restore his sight, but the medical procedure isn't successful. He doesn't want Ruth to know that he is almost completely blind, so he attempts to break up with her. Schmid is aided in his recovery by Diamond, hospital rehabilitation officer Virginia Pfeiffer, and the other wounded veterans. Schmid is to be awarded the Navy Cross but is dismayed that the ceremony will take place in his home town and that he will be permanently transferred to the Naval Hospital in Philadelphia. He is angry and afraid of being forced to confront his fiancée; he believes she will pity him. He insists that he will get his sight back someday and until then will not be dependent upon family and friends. Ruth comes to the station and begs Diamond to help her deceive him into coming home before going to the hospital. Diamond tells Schmid he has a Navy car with a WAVE driver. Going up the steps to the house, he realizes he is home. Unable to escape Christmas with his family, he eventually listens to what Ruth has to say. During the award ceremony, he re-lives the events on Guadalcanal. As they leave the Navy Yard, he tells Ruth to get the cab with the red top on it"it's fuzzy, but it's red." Al warns her that there is no guarantee he will see well again.Al Schmid recovered partial sight in one eye. "Whichever way it is, we'll do it together," she replies. Al tells the cabbie to take them home. ===== Tommy Gordon (Edwin Phillips) tells his friend Eddie Smith (Frankie Darro) that he is going to drop out of high school to look for work to help support his struggling family. Eddie offers to speak to his father (Grant Mitchell) about getting him a job, only to discover that his father has himself just lost his own job. Eddie sells his beloved car and gives the money to his father, but when his father remains unemployed, the bills keep piling up, and the family is threatened with eviction. Eddie and Tommy decide to leave home to ease the burden on their families. Eddie leaves a note, then they board a freight train, where they meet Sally (Dorothy Coonan), another teenager, who is hoping her aunt in Chicago can put her up for a while. They have to jump from the train, and end up in a milk transfer station, where many teens in similar dire straits hop aboard another train. When they reach Chicago, they are met by the police, who inform them and other hobos that the unemployment crisis has hit Chicago as well. Most of the transients are sent to detention, but Sally has a letter from her aunt, so they let her through. She claims her companions are her cousins; the kindly policeman is skeptical, but lets them go. Sally's Aunt Carrie (Minna Gombell) welcomes all three into her apartment, which is in reality a brothel. She warmly welcomes the three, and starts to feed them, however, before they even have a chance to eat, the place is raided by the police. The trio hastily depart, climbing out a window, and continue their rail journey east. Nearing Columbus, one girl (Ann Hovey), caught alone in a railcar, is raped by the train brakeman (an uncredited Ward Bond). When the others find out, they start punching the assailant. By accident, the brakeman falls out of the train to his death. A little later, as the train approaches the city, everyone jumps off. Tommy hits his head on a switch and falls across the track in front of an oncoming train. He crawls desperately towards safety, but his foot gets mangled and his leg has to be amputated. They live in "Sewer Pipe City" near Cleveland for a while, until the city authorities decide to shut it down to discourage vagrancy, prompted in part to Eddie's theft of a misfitting prosthetic leg for Tommy. Finally, the three end up living in the New York Municipal Dump. Eddie finally lands a job, but needs to find $3 to pay for a coat which the job requires. They panhandle to raise the money. When two men offer Eddie $5 to deliver a note to a movie theater cashier across the street, he jumps at the chance. The note turns out to be a demand for money. Eddie is arrested, and the other two are taken in as well when they protest. The judge (Robert Barrat) cannot get any information out of them, particularly about their parents. However, Eddie's embittered speech moves him. He dismisses the charges and promises to get Eddie's job back for him. He also promises to help the other two, and assures them that their parents will be back to work soon. ===== Coal miner Hagon Derk (Charles Bickford) is sentenced to hang for murder. His only concern is for his young sister Katie (Muriel McCormac), who will be left all alone. Frivolous socialite Cynthia Crothers (Kay Johnson) has her own troubles. By the terms of her grandfather's will, if she is not married by her twenty-third birthday (only a month away), she will not inherit his millions and will be left penniless. She is "engaged" to Roger Towne (Conrad Nagel), but he is married to Marcia (Julia Faye). Marcia has her own lover, Marco (Joel McCrea), and is willing to grant Roger a divorce ... for the right price. The two women haggle behind Roger's back and settle on $100,000. Hagon, desperate to provide for Katie, offers his body for $10,000 in a newspaper ad. Cynthia sees it and goes to see him. She offers him the money in exchange for him marrying her. He accepts. Just minutes before Hagon's execution though, the real killer is goaded into attacking a man with a gun and is fatally shot. He confesses before dying, and Hagon is released. Hagon goes to see his stunned wife. When her friends show up to party the night away, he sees Cynthia writing a $25,000 check as down payment to Marcia and discussing the terms of their agreement. In a confrontation between the group, Hagon grabs the check stashed in Marcia's garter, showing it to Roger as proof that he's been made a pawn. Roger tells Cynthia that he will settle with Marcia himself but if Cynthia gives her the check, they're through. Cynthia rips up the check as Marcia threatens to expose the plot. The pair go downstairs where Cynthia reveals to the party happening that she married another man. Hagon reveals himself as her husband and the party devolves into a crude mockery of the marriage, realizing Cynthia's fear of being made a laughingstock. Having had enough, Hagon throws out the partygoers, which frightens the men and arouses the women. Cynthia shows little appreciation for his saving her from the mockery and locks herself in her room. Hagon resolves to return her money and breaks down her door to speak to her. After a brief confrontation, Hagon flings $10,000 at her and leaves. When Cynthia is informed that she must actually be living with her husband on her birthday, she drives to his mining town. He refuses to go back to her palatial apartment, so she persuades him to let her stay with him. He agrees on condition that she cook and clean, just like a real wife, and locks up her fancy car in his tool shed. Her first attempt at preparing a meal is a dismal failure. Katie kindly helps out and keeps it a secret from Hagon, but Cynthia confesses on her own. Hagon tells her it is the first honest thing he has seen her do. The next day, while shopping at the local store, Cynthia buys a gift for a young boy. His mother objects, but the child runs away with his present and is hurt in a traffic accident. The doctor says that only a brain specialist in the city can save him, but the boy only has hours to live. Cynthia breaks into the tool shed, speeds away in her car and returns with the specialist. The child is saved. Hagon returns from work to find the door of his tool shed demolished and learns that Cynthia withdrew $2,000 from the bank (to pay the specialist). He assumes that she got tired of his way of life and went to see Roger. When Hagon demands an explanation, Cynthia is too disheartened to reply. She telephones Roger to come for her. However, the child's mother tells Hagon what Cynthia has done. When Roger shows up, he insists on seeing Hagon before leaving. They go down into the bowels of the mine to find him. A cave-in traps the trio with only fifteen minutes' worth of air. Hagon finally confesses he loves Cynthia. Then he realizes there is a way out. He quickly packs a stick of dynamite into a wall; there is another chamber on the other side with enough air to sustain them until they can be rescued. However, without a fuse cap, someone will have to strike the dynamite with a sledgehammer to set it off. After arguing, the two men toss a coin for the privilege. Roger "wins", but Hagon wrestles the sledgehammer away from him. After Cynthia whispers something to Roger, he tells Hagon that Cynthia loves Roger wants to say goodbye to him. When Hagon goes to Cynthia, he asks her to get on with saying what she needs to say. Confused, she reveals that she said she loves Hagon. With the two safely out of the way, Roger sets off the dynamite and is blown to pieces. ===== Danielle Steel explores finding love when, and from whom you least expect it in Special Delivery. Jack Watson was a man hardened to the idea of love. The death of his one true love followed by a messy divorce led him content to lead the ultimate bachelor's life. Written about in the society pages, and despite his reputation, he never had trouble finding a date. It didn't hurt that he owned one of the most successful women's boutiques in Beverly Hills. Amanda Robbins was a successful actress who had already claimed an Academy Award when she met her husband Matthew Kingston and fell in love. Amanda gave up her acting career to be a devoted mother of two children. Her husband Matthew wasn't interested in a working wife and Amanda was happy to oblige, until his sudden death from a heart attack. With the center of her life suddenly gone Amanda fell into despair and depression. Jack and Amanda didn't travel in the same social circles however, the marriage of their children, Paul and Jan, created an undeniable connection. In the past, while Jack and Amanda were cordial with one another they didn't go out of their way to spend much time together. One day Jan offers to take Amanda to one of Jack's infamous parties. Amanda surprises herself when she accepts and has a great time. This sparked a new beginning as she and Jack began spending more time together, initially just to talk about their children. However, they soon discover that they have more than just children in common. This new relationship helps Amanda heal from the loss of her husband and causes Jack to realize that life isn't as fulfilling when alone. An unexpected pregnancy nearly destroys their love, but ultimately brings them closer together. They end up seeing this new life as an opportunity to support Jan and Paul who have had trouble conceiving. At the last moment Jan finds out she's pregnant and have decided not to adopt Amanda and Jack's baby. Interwoven throughout Special Delivery are the stories of family challenges for both the Robbin's and the Kingston's. Tension between Amanda's daughters, the difficulties of starting a family, and healing from the loss are all included as we watch Jack and Amanda fall in love with each other and learn how to make both of their families stronger in times of need. ===== The book begins with the Narrator living on a remote Greek island with Nessim's illegitimate daughter from Melissa (now either four or six years old – marking the time that has elapsed since the events of Justine); however the tone is very dark and opposed to the light and airy reminiscence of Prospero's Cell – Durrell's travelogue-memoir of his life on Corfu. The prolonged nature-pieces, which are a highlight of Durrell's prose, still intervene between straight linear narrative – but are uniformly of askesis and alone-ness – and have a more pronounced "prose-painting" feel to them pre-figuring Clea. ===== The novel's tensions begin with young David Mountolive on the Hosnani estate, where he has begun an affair with Leila Hosnani, mother of Nessim and Narouz. This leads to a recollection of Mountolive's maturation and career as a diplomat, a career which in time returns him to Egypt, leading up to the present day of the novel series, at which point Mountolive recontextualizes the materials that appeared previously in Justine and Balthazar. Mountolive retains Pursewarden as his chief political adviser. Mountolive then introduces a Coptic gunrunning plot in support of Zionism. This plot development has been criticised as unrealistic, pp. 248-260. but more recently scholars have demonstrated the intensely political and well-informed background for Durrell's notions. Pursewarden kills himself; Nessim is warned to act to curb his brother Narouz, whose subversive rhetoric has become dangerously extravagant. The novel ends with the Copt wake for Narouz. The Pasha has disingenuously pretended to believe he is the Hosnani in the incriminating papers so he can continue to receive bribes from Nessim. Mountolive, meanwhile prepares to turn his back on Egypt, totally disillusioned. ===== During the late 1970s, as the Rhodesian Bush War reaches its height, arms dealer David Swansey (Richard Harris) is a "sanctions busting" specialist, one of many who keeps the Rhodesian Security Forces supplied through black market purchases despite an extensive international arms embargo. Swansey's latest assignment is to arrange the illicit purchase of military helicopters, which he acquires in the form of surplus Bell UH-1s being auctioned from a United States Air Force base in West Germany. However, word of this transaction is soon leaked to a foreign office of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), which applies strong political pressure in an attempt to kill the deal in its cradle. Due to this, the helicopters are barred from reaching Rhodesia and instead diverted to neighbouring South West Africa, then administered by South Africa. Meanwhile, Gideon Marunga (Roundtree) is a guerrilla fighter in the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA), ZANU's armed wing. Marunga learns that the South African authorities are going to allow Swansey and the Rhodesian Special Air Service to stage a mock raid on the airfield where the helicopters are being stored, with the intention of loading them onto Douglas C-47 Dakotas bound for Rhodesia. On the day of the raid, Marunga arrives at the airfield and stalls the Rhodesian troops, while his accomplices succeed in destroying half of the helicopters. In the ensuing battle he comes face to face with Swansey, and the two men share a weary moment of reflection on their stalemate before abruptly parting ways. The international fallout from the helicopter affair exposes Swansey's illegal activities and he finds himself unable to continue conducting business outside Rhodesia. He decides to permanently settle there and pursue a normal life, but is immediately conscripted into the security forces. The film closes as Marunga and Swansey confront each other on the battlefield again--this time through the sights of their rifles. ===== In 1851, Roy Whitman (John McIntire) decides to bring marriageable women west to California to join the lonely men of Whitman's Valley, hoping the couples will put down roots and settle there. Roy hires a skeptical, experienced wagon master, Buck Wyatt (Robert Taylor), to lead the wagon train along the California Trail. In Chicago, Roy recruits 138 "good women", after they have been warned of the journey's hardships and dangers by Buck, who flatly states up to a third of them might not survive the journey. The women range from Patience (Hope Emerson), an older widow from New Bedford seeking a new start after losing her sea captain husband and sons when their clipper went down while attempting to round Cape Horn, to Rose Meyers (Beverly Dennis), a pregnant, unmarried woman running from her shame. Telling the women about his valley, Roy encourages them to pick their prospective mates from daguerreotype pictures he has tacked to a display board. Two showgirls, Fifi Danon (Denise Darcel) and Laurie Smith (Julie Bishop), hastily change their flashy clothes when others like them are rejected, and return to try and sign on again. Whitman is not fooled by their disguise, but convinced their wish to reform is sincere he adds them to the group, bringing the number of women on the wagon train up to 140. Roy and Buck take the women to St. Joseph, Missouri, where Conestoga wagons, horses, and mules are awaiting them, along with the men Buck has hired to protect the wagon train. Their number includes Ito (Henry Nakamura), a wiry Japanese man who signs on as Buck's cook and personal assistant. Before setting out, Buck warns the trail hands that, "On most wagon trains, the penalty for bundling is 30 lashes. On my train, it's a bullet." He has seen wagon trains torn apart by unmarried men taking up with unmarried women and won't tolerate it on this crossing. The four women who have experience handling teams teach the others how to harness up the animals and drive the wagons, assisted by the men Buck hired. After a week's training, Buck leads the train west. Buck is as good as his word about bundling. During the journey, he shoots one of his men as punishment for raping Laurie. As a result, all but two of the trail hands desert the train in the middle of the night, taking eight of the women with them. This leaves only Buck, Roy, Ito, and Sid Cutler (an uncredited Pat Conway), who has fallen in love with the pregnant Rose, to lead the train. Roy, feeling he cannot continue without more experienced hands, decides the group must turn back. Buck, knowing that they've already come halfway to their destination, and not wanting the reputation of a wagon master who turns back, believes the women can learn to "do a man's job," and starts training them to shoot so they can defend the train. However, young Tony Maroni, the only boy on the train, is accidentally killed during firearms practice. When his mother (Renata Vanni) refuses to leave her son's grave in the desert, Buck knocks out the distraught woman, hogties her, and puts her in Patience and Rose's wagon. The problem is worse than it looks: Mrs. Maroni speaks only Italian, and no one else on the train does. The wagon train continues on its way. The women perform heroically, persevering through hardships including a stampede and a wicked descent down a steep, rocky trail that kills one of them when an iron hook attached to the restraining lines straightens under load and sends the wagon plunging out of control. An Indian attack kills Roy, Sid, and six of the women. When a rainstorm causes flooding and undercuts the riverbank her wagon is parked on, Laurie is trapped inside and drowns. However, Fifi's bravery and determination begin to thaw Buck's attitude towards women in general and her in particular, and they fall in love. On the edge of the desert, Buck orders the women to lighten the wagons, explaining how difficult the crossing will be. Reluctantly, the women leave everything from furniture to fancy clothing behind. As they proceed, Rose goes into labor and delivers a male baby. The train is nearly at the end of its tether when they come to a small lake that marks the border of Whitman's Valley and slake their desert thirst. Buck rides on ahead to inform the men of the valley that their brides are nigh. Now that the survivors have finally reached their destination, the women balk at entering the town where their prospective grooms are waiting. They refuse to go any further until Buck brings them decent clothing and "pretty things" so that they will look presentable, telling him to warn the men anyone approaching the wagon train will be shot on sight. The men of the valley gather together curtains, tablecloths, Indian blankets, any material they can find, for the women to make into new clothes. Back in proper dresses instead of the pants and working skirts they had worn crossing the continent, the ladies drive triumphantly into town and pair up with the men whose pictures they carried across the country, with Patience warning the men that it is the women and not the men who will be doing the choosing. All of them find mates, including Mrs. Maroni, who pairs off with a citrus farmer born in Milan, and Rose, who is chosen by a gentleman who does not care she has an infant son. Some of the happy couples get in line before the preacher, while others dance inside a large open air gazebo. Ito coaxes Fifi to swallow her pride and go to Buck, who is preparing to ride out, instead of waiting for him to come to her. Fifi and Buck join the line to be married as Ito watches the weddings. ===== A veteran of World War I, Thomas Holmes (Richard Barthelmess), struggles to make his way in civilian life in almost every way imaginable. In the opening scene of the movie, Tom and his friend are on a mission to gather intelligence by capturing a German soldier. Tom's friend, the banker's son Roger Winston (Gordon Westcott), in terror, refuses to leave the shell hole so Tom volunteers to go alone. He captures a German but is apparently killed; in fact, he has only been wounded, and the Germans take him to their hospital to recover. His friend Roger Winston returns to the safety of American lines with the captured German soldier and is rewarded with a medal for it; his feeble efforts to refuse credit are dismissed as modesty, and he comes home a decorated hero. During Tom's captivity, German doctors treat his pain with morphine and he becomes addicted to the drug. After Tom returns from the war, Roger offers him a job at his father's bank out of shame. But Tom's addiction costs him his job. Exposed as an addict, confined and cured in an asylum, he comes out in 1922, unemployed and alone; his mother has died, apparently of shame and grief, while he was away. Heading to Chicago, he happens upon an apartment over a diner, run by kindhearted Pop Dennis (Charlie Grapewin) and his daughter Mary (Aline MacMahon). Tom finds a job in a laundry, and a romance with Ruth Loring (Loretta Young). Always the go-getter, Tom makes good, better than the other drivers on his route, and earns a promotion. A fierce radical inventor (Robert Barrat) devises a machine that will make washing and drying clothes easier, and Tom induces his fellow employees to raise the money to pay for patenting it. The laundry company adopts the machinery, but only on Tom's stipulation that none of the workers at the plant lose their jobs because of it. Success and marriage are his. Then the president of the firm, the kindhearted Mr. Gibson (Grant Mitchell) dies. The new ownership decides to break the deal and automate the laundry, throwing most of its employees out of work, Tom included. Furious and resentful, the fired employees march on the plant to destroy the machines, as Tom does his best to stop them. In the riot with police that follows, Ruth is killed trying to find him, and he is arrested as a ringleader of the mob. Tom is put away for five years in prison; in the meantime, the invention he helped finance continues to sell nationwide, throwing countless other people out of work. When Tom gets out, it is 1932, the heart of the Depression. Unimaginably rich, he refuses to take the proceeds, which by now amount to over fifty thousand dollars. Instead, it goes to feed the endless line of hungry and jobless that come seeking a handout at the diner that Pop Dennis and Mary run. When "Red Riots" break out, the local city "Red Squad" arrests Tom and drives him out of town. Without work, at the mercy of a society in which unemployed men are turned into hobos and every community orders them to keep moving on, Tom finds himself in one hobo shantytown, next to Roger, his old army comrade. Roger Winston, too, has been ruined; his father stole from the bank and when exposure came, killed himself. Roger served time in prison. Now neither of them has any prospect, any future. The difference is that Tom, in a stirring speech, asserts his faith that America can and will restore itself, that he can lick the Depression. Still driven on by authorities, with no prospect in sight, he marches ahead, determined that this is not the end. And back at the diner, the line of needy continues to stretch down the street, all of them being fed by the funds he provided, and on the wall a plaque honors him for his gift. The movie closes with his son looking at it and declaring to Mary that when he grows up, he means to be just like his Dad. The message is clear: a hero in war, Tom is a hero still. ===== Feluda along with Topshe and Topshe's father decide to visit Dhirendra Kumar Sanyal (or Dhiru Kaka, as called by Topshe), who lives in Lucknow. Feluda now works for a bank. They reach Dhiru Kaka's house. In the evening, while having tea, they have a visitor named Dr. Srivastav, who is an osteopath and a good friend of Dhiru Kaka. Dr. Srivastav tells Dhiru Kaka that last night a daku or a dacoit had broke into his house. He believes that the dacoit must have come to rob a precious ring given to him by Pyarelal Seth, because he had saved the life of his only son. He further tells that when Pyarelal had his second heart-attack, Pyarelal tried to tell Srivastav something. He said - a spy ... .a spy ... . Then he died. Dr. Srivastav tells that robberies do not happen much in his neighborhood due to the presence of Bonobihari Sarkar, who owns a private menagerie with various poisonous animals. Dhiru Kaka tells Feluda that the ring once belonged to the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. Dhiru Kaka offers to keep the ring with him. Later, when Dr. Srivastav leaves the house, Feluda sees a car following the doctor's car. Feluda tells Topshe that somebody had been listening to their conservation, because Feluda finds a half-burnt cigarette in the garden. Next day, Feluda, Topshe, his father and Dhiru Kaka go to the Imambara. There, they find Bonobihari Sarkar, who invites them to his private zoo. In the Bhoolbhulaia (The Labyrinth), Feluda was keeping close to the wall. In the roof of the Imambara, they find a man. Dhiru Kaka introduces him as Mahavir Seth, the son of Pyarelal. In the evening, they come to Mr. Sarkar's house. There they see three of the most poisonous creatures - rattle snake, a blue scorpion and a Black Widow Spider. There they meet Mr. Sarkar's assistant, Ganesh Guha. They also learn that Mr. Sarkar knows about the ring. When they came back to Dhiru Kaka's house, his servant informs him that a sadhu baba was waiting for him. He left a while ago. Dhiru Kaka rushes to the cupboard where he kept the ring but he finds that there is no ring. Feluda and Topshe rush out to find the sadhu baba, but to no success. While coming back to the house, someone throws a rolled up paper on Feluda. But Feluda could not catch him. Feluda later tells Topshe that the paper warns Feluda to stop investigating. He also learns from Dr. Srivastav that Mahavir is an actor. Feluda also shows a tin of toothpowder to Topshe. When Topshe enquires what is the use of this, Feluda tells that it is Churnamrito Brahmastra. That night, someone tries to make Feluda and Topshe unconscious by using chloroform. But Topshe wakes up Feluda and prevents them from becoming unconscious. Next day, Dhiru Kaka informs Inspector Gargari of the robbery. After lunch, Bonobihari Sarkar visits them and invites Feluda and Topshe to the Residency. While going to the Residency, Feluda informs Sarkar about "the spy" which was spoken by Pyarelal. In the Residency, someone tries to attack Feluda and Mr. Sarkar with stones. Next day, Feluda and Topshe travel to Hazratganj, where they meet Mahavir in a book store. They go to coffee shop. Mahavir reveals to Feluda that his father used to get palpitations when he used to see any insect. He says that on the day of his father's death, his bearer tells that he had shouted very loudly. Mahavir believes that there is a foul play is behind his father's death. They also meet Ganesh Guha. Ganesh tells that he has left Bonobihari's job and will return to Kolkata. Ganesh also warns Feluda that Bonobihari is not a very good man. Next day, Feluda, Topshe, Topshe's father, Bonobihari Babu, and Dr. Srivastav travel to Haridwar by the Doon Express. Before going to Haridwar, Feluda goes back to the Bhoolbhulaia. In the train, Bonobihari questions Dr. Srivastav about Pyarelal. Dr. Srivastav realizes that Bonobihari is suspecting him of the robbery. Feluda tells that Dr. Srivastav is not the thief. In Hardoi station, while drinking tea, someone throws a paper at Feluda's direction. The paper contains the same warning - Be careful. Next morning, they reach Haridwar. After reaching the dharamshala, Feluda and Topshe travel to Har-ki-Pauri. While Feluda was lighting a cigarette, Topshe sees something shining. When questioned, Feluda says it is nothing but phosphorus. Topshe is not convinced. After returning to the dharamshala, they find Bonobihari talking with another Bengali man, Bilash Babu, who was an astrologer. Later in the night, Feluda reveals to Topshe that he was the one who took the ring. He tells that there was someone who wanted to take the ring and that he wanted to catch him. Thus he hid the ring in one of the passages of the Bhoolbhulaia. Before coming to Haridwar, he went back to Bhoolbhulaia to recover the ring. Next morning, they travel to Laxmanjhoola. Feluda, Topshe and Bonobihari Babu travel in one taxi, while Topshe's father, Dr. Srivastav and Bilash Babu travel in another taxi. Topshe sees that a sadhu baba, who was following them from Lucknow, passed the taxi. Bonobihari Babu tells the driver to go down the forest on one side because he had news that there was a 12-foot python. They reach a loghouse. In the loghouse, Bonobihari Babu asks Feluda to give him the ring. Bonobihari tells them that he recorded what they had talked last night. When Feluda enquires why, Bonobihari tells that he had bought the ring from Pyarelal Seth. Feluda tells that it never happened. What happened was this - Bonobihari wanted to take the ring. But Pyarelal did not want to part with it. So on the day of Pyarelal's death, Bonobihari took his dangerous Black Widow Spider and showed it to Pyarelal. Since Pyarelal had palpitations by seeing insects, he got a heart attack and died. Feluda reveals that the "spy" which Pyarelal uttered at the time of his death meant "spider", and his assistant Ganesh was following Dr. Srivastav from the day one. Ganesh was the one who threw warnings to Feluda and he was the one who threw stones at them at the Residency. The driver who was traveling with them today was actually Ganesh Guha. Angry, Bonobihari calls Ganesh and tells him to leave the rattle snake in the loghouse, while they will be escaping. Feluda throws the tin of toothpowder, which contained black pepper powder. Both Bonobihari and Ganesh fall down the house. Feluda shoots the snake dead, but Topshe becomes unconscious. Ganesh tries to escape but is shot by the sadhu, who actually Mahavir in disguise. Bilash Babu, who is actually Inspector Gorgori, arrests Bonobihari Sarkar and Ganesh Guha. Topshe regains consciousness and sees that Feluda is wearing the emperor Aurangzeb's ring. ===== Dr. Flávio, a rich archeologist, is married to Rebeca and he has a daughter, Beatriz. He also has a romance with the young daughter of an employee, Cidinha. Before the main storyline begins, he sets out on an expedition to find traces of Atlantis. An accident occurs and it is reported that Flávio died. However, his body was never found. Years pass, and Beatriz inherits Flávio's fortune. She is a beautiful, young, rich, but stubborn woman. For her, life is an eternal search for pleasure. She takes care of her mother Rebeca, her stepfather Anselmo, her grandmother Corina, half-brother Ariel and half-sister Daniela with her inheritance. One day, she meets a high- school friend, a taxi driver named Dante, who is a simple and ethical man. In a moment of crisis, he offers her help. She decides to flirt with him, but he is not interested in her. Her pride prevents her from admitting that she is in love with a man who does not want her. Beatriz sets out to win Dante over. She meets "Baron", a guru who is connected to a secret society, run by a mysterious woman, Agatha. Beatriz offers her soul to be with Dante, but Baron says that if she wants Dante she needs to change him. Dante is a man with a golden heart and unwavering sincerity. To change Dante's life, he needs to practice the Seven Sins, one by one. Only then will he leave his ethical principles and abandon his wife Clarice and his children Isabel and Laerte. The secret society has a hidden goal. Flávio left his whole fortune to his daughter, as well as a mysterious statue. Agatha wants to steal Beatriz's fortune and the statue by manipulating Beatriz through her passion for Dante. Beatriz doesn't suspect Agatha's real interests, and invites her to be the director of her nightclub. ===== In the summer of 1945, Helen Michel is living in the south of France in the difficult aftermath of the Second World War, grieving for her late husband, a French collaborator called Maurice Michel who was mysteriously drowned in the final months of the German occupation of France. Helen is beautiful, lazy, the daughter of an Irish peer, a painter and scholar who is fond of gambling. Her seventeen-year-old daughter Barbary Deniston (Helen left her first husband, an English barrister) and her fifteen-year-old step-son Raoul Michel have run wild, associating with the Maquis, helping a guerrilla band with schemes of sabotage and harassing the Germans. Helen also has a two-year-old son by Maurice Michel, whom Barbary dotes on, but mother and daughter have grown apart. Helen is visited in Provence by her English son Richie Deniston, Barbary's brother, who after fighting in the War is now a Cambridge undergraduate. When he returns to England, Helen sends Barbary back with him to live in London with her father, Sir Gulliver Deniston KC, and to attend the Slade School of Art. Sir Gulliver has a new wife, the ultra- conventional Pamela, and she and Barbary take a dislike to each other. At the same time, Raoul's grandmother Madame Michel also sends him to London, to live with an uncle who is in business there. Barbary has no wish to adjust to the respectable life of her father and stepmother. She discovers the bombed but flowering wasteland of the City of London in the shadow of St Paul's Cathedral. Here she and Raoul find an echo of the wilderness of the Maquis and make friends with the spivs and deserters living on the fringes of society. Barbary and Raoul adopt an empty flat in Somerset Chambers and a bombed-out Anglican church, St Giles's, where Barbary paints a mural of the Last Judgment and confronts the fear and emptiness within herself. Poetic descriptions of the past and present of the City of London and its ruined churches are intertwined with Barbary's moral and religious confusion. On a family holiday to the Scottish Highlands, staying with an uncle who is a leading psychiatrist, Barbary becomes alarmed by his wish to question her, steals money from her aunt, and runs away back to London. There, she takes to shoplifting, but in running away from the police she has a terrible fall among the ruins of the City and is nearly killed. With Barbary hanging between life and death, her mother returns to London, staying with her former husband. The novel reaches its conclusion with a reconciliation between Barbary and her mother (Barbary explaining that she had nothing to do with the drowning of Maurice) and with a revelation about her conception. ===== The movie tells the story of a middle aged Muslim woman Gazala (Shabana Azmi), who is ill-treated by her husband and sent back to her parents’ home, just because she is unable to give birth to a son. Gazala does have a daughter Salma (Rajeshwari Sachdev). The plot revolves around Gazala's stay at her mother's home and the problems faced by the women of the house, namely her mother and sisters-in-law. The film is a beautiful description of the problems faced by women in the name of fertility, or in a different sense the urge to have a male child, especially in rural India. Shyam Benegal provides a masterpiece, reflecting on the sorrowful plight of rural Indian women. The irony lies in the point where the movie begins with a scene which shows a bull being brought to impregnate a buffalo. Five different women, each with a different story depicting the harsh realities of a woman's life. ===== The United Artists release includes most of the sequences familiar to readers of the book, including the fence-whitewashing episode; a wild raft ride down the Mississippi River; Tom and Huckleberry Finn's attendance at their own funeral, after the boys, who were enjoying an adventure on a remote island, are presumed dead; the murder trial of local drunkard Muff Potter; and Tom and Becky Thatcher's flight through a cave as they try to escape from Injun Joe, who is revealed to be the real killer. ===== The background of the plot is based on the Statement on Intellectual Freedom in Libraries that went into effect in Japan in 1954 (amended in 1979), and the terms are a little different from the Freedom of the Library Law that appears in Toshokan Sensō. The simplified declaration: > It is the most important responsibility of libraries to offer collected > materials and library facilities to the people who have the Right to Know as > one of their fundamental human rights. In order to fulfill their mission, > libraries shall recognize the following matters as their proper duties, and > shall put them into practice. # Libraries have freedom in collecting their > materials. # Libraries secure the freedom of offering their materials. # > Libraries guarantee the privacy of users. # Libraries oppose any type of > censorship categorically. When the freedom of libraries is imperiled, we > librarians will work together and devote ourselves to secure the freedom. In Library War, the fourth chapter of the Freedom of Library Law states: > 30. Libraries have freedom in collecting their materials. > > 31. Libraries secure the freedom of offering their materials. > > 32. Libraries guarantee the privacy of users. > > 33. Libraries oppose any type of improper censorship categorically. > > 34. When the freedom of libraries is imperiled, we librarians will work > together and devote ourselves to secure the freedom. The details will be amended anytime according to the Media Betterment Act and its enforcement. ===== Sam Staziak, a rookie cop with the Los Angeles Police Department, is also a 'Scanner' (a person born with telepathic and telekinetic abilities). When a string of murders begins to decimate the police department, Sam faces sensory overload and possible insanity as he uses his powers to hunt the man responsible for the killings. ===== Betsy Brown is released from an orphanage into the care of Pop Shea, her parents' friend who runs a boarding house for theatrical performers. Sarah Wendling, the curmudgeon owner and next-door neighbor of the building, detests "show people" and their noise, and demands Pop pay the $2,500 back rent he owes or move out immediately. Her nephew Roger is in love with Pop's daughter Barbara and files suit against Sarah in order to gain control of the building and his inheritance, with which he plans to stage a show starring the hotel residents. Sarah questions the soundness of Roger's investment in the show, and Betsy convinces the judge to see the production before he decides the case. With the assistance of her friends, the little girl presents a lavish musical revue in the courtroom that so impresses one of the observers he offers the troupe $2,500 a week to star in his International Follies. Having had a change of heart, Sarah insists the show is worth $5,000 and convinces the impresario to double his offer. Roger and Barbara then announce their intent to wed and adopt Betsy. ===== Portrait in Sepia is the sequel to Daughter of Fortune and follows the story of Aurora del Valle, the granddaughter of Eliza Sommers (Hija de la fortuna). The daughter of Lynn Sommers (the daughter of Eliza and Tao Chi'en) and Matías Rodríguez de Santa Cruz (son of Paulina del Valle and Feliciano Rodríguez de Santa Cruz) has no memory of the first five years of her life. She has recurring nightmares of men in black pyjamas looming around her and losing the grip on the hand of someone beloved. Lynn died giving birth to Aurora, known also by her Chinese name Lai Ming, in Chinatown, San Francisco, while Aurora's biological father never acknowledged that he had a child until the end of his life; he died a slow and agonizing death of syphilis. After Lynn's death, Aurora's maternal grandparents raised her until the death of Tao Chi'en. After these events, Eliza approaches Paulina to raise Aurora while Eliza goes to China to bury Tao's body. Paulina makes Eliza agree to cut all contact with Aurora so that she will not become too attached to the girl only to have her taken away later on in life. So, Paulina del Valle tries to hide Aurora's true origins. Nevertheless, when Aurora talks to her real father, Matías, he tells the truth about her past. In this first part, the writer also describes the War of the Pacific in which Severo del Valle is involved as a soldier. The description of the war is very cruel; this can be seen in the scene where Severo del Valle loses his leg to gangrene. The second part is about the transition of Aurora's childhood into adulthood. She learns to be a photographer and becomes an expert artist in the field of photography. The family moves from San Francisco to Chile and Frederick Williams becomes Paulina's husband, so that he will be accepted in Chilean society. Everyone there sees him as a true English lord, but no one knows that his origins are not noble. Allende also describes a civil war which affects them directly, as well as the way in which Paulina del Valle endlessly creates new businesses such as growing French wine and selling cheese, in Chile. The Del Valle family then travels to Europe because Paulina has a tumor and needs an operation. The operation is successful and Paulina becomes healthy and strong once more. She is more than 70 years old, but does not show signs of being tired, ill or soft; she imposes her will on her body and thus continues to rule the family as a matriarch. Thus, the novel is divided into three parts plus an epilogue. The first part describes Aurora's infancy and family members, and in the second part, Aurora's life comes more into play. The third part is where Aurora grows up, becoming a photographer, marrying Diego Domínguez and eventually leaving him. She takes a lover, Dr. Ivan Radovic, and their relationship is explained more fully in the epilogue. In the end, the mystery of Tao Chi'en's death is revealed and it plays an important role. ===== Graehme Stewart is accused of adultery and killed although he was innocent. His son Ned decides to avenge his father, but gets captured and sent on the long journey to death "la longue traverse". Virginia saves his life and the film's villain confesses Ned is innocent. ===== A young man named Eric Marshall goes to teach a school on Prince Edward Island and meets Kilmeny, a mute girl who has perfect hearing. He sees her when he is walking through an old orchard and hears her playing the violin. He visits her a number of times and gradually falls in love with her. When he proposes she rejects him, even though she loves him in return, believing that her disability will only hinder his life if they were married, despite his protests that it wouldn't matter at all. Meanwhile, Eric's good friend David who is a renowned throat doctor, comes to the island and visits Eric. He examines Kilmeny, and says that nothing will cure her but an extreme psychological need to speak. ===== A prison ship on its way to a remote island prison runs aground on rocks and sinks. Mixed survivors of cons and prison guards struggle ashore, only to discover to their horror that another survivor has made it ashore before them. Murderous psychotic Leo Rook not only had a hand in the ship's sinking but has decapitated all but one of the island's lighthouse crew. Stranded, with no means of escape or way to call for help, the survivors must face a night of terror. They know Leo does not want anyone to learn he survived the shipwreck and is hell-bent on adding their severed heads to his collection. ===== After poisoning his wife, the master of the house Stephen Lowry (Stewart Granger) is blackmailed by his Cockney maid Lily Watkins (Jean Simmons), who demands promotion. As she steadily takes the place of his dead wife, he again attempts murder. While attempting to murder Lily, by following someone who looked like her through the fog, he mistakenly kills Constable Burke's wife and gets chased by an angry mob, which he evades. Lily returns home and Stephen learns of his mistake. Some local bar goers saw him murder Mrs Burke and Stephen is put on trial, but their claims are dismissed after it is revealed they drink a lot and Lily lies to provide an alibi. Stephen now wishes to remarry and decides to finally rid himself of the maid. He feigns illness and sends the maid to fetch the doctor. She says she will return urgently with the doctor within five minutes. He calculates this will be enough time for him to frame the maid by drinking the poison that he used to kill his own wife and planting it and his wife's jewelry in the maid's room. Lily is, however, detained by the police as a "tell-all" letter she has written to her sister, to safeguard herself after the master's failed plot to kill her, surfaces. The master's plan does not work as Lily returns too late and the doctor declares it is too late to save him. Lily pieces together the situation realising that Stephen never loved her, then is arrested by police at the scene. ===== Leonard (Phoenix) is walking along a bridge over a stream in Brooklyn, when suddenly he jumps into the water in an attempted suicide. He changes his mind and quickly walks home to his parents' apartment. His mother, seeing him dripping wet, tells her husband their son has tried it again and it becomes evident that Leonard has tried to kill himself before. His parents tell him that a potential business partner and his family are invited for dinner that night and ask him to be present. When they arrive, Leonard finds that he had been set up with the other family's daughter, Sandra (Shaw). She inquires about his interest in photography and notices a photo of a girl above his headboard. He explains he had been engaged to the girl for several years, but the relationship was broken off when it turned out both he and his fiancée carried the gene for Tay–Sachs disease, which results in diseased children who generally don't live beyond age 12, so they would be unable to have healthy children. Leonard meets a new neighbor, Michelle (Paltrow), and is immediately attracted to her, choosing to ignore that she is a drug addict. He learns that she is dating a married partner in her law firm, Ronald (Koteas). At her request, Leonard agrees to meet Ronald and Michelle for dinner at a restaurant. The couple leave him later that evening, as they have plans to attend the Metropolitan Opera. Leonard returns home dejected, but to his surprise, Sandra arrives, sent over by Leonard's parents. She is under the impression that Leonard wanted her to come by, but realizes by his shocked expression that she was set up. She apologizes for the misunderstanding and says that, if he isn't interested, a lot of other guys are. Leonard says that he likes her, and they kiss and eventually make love, and with time, his relationship with Sandra deepens. Michelle calls Leonard and says she is sick. He takes her to the hospital, where she has a D&C; for a miscarriage. She had not known she was pregnant and is even more angry that Ronald didn't respond to her calls. Leonard takes her home but Ronald arrives. Leonard hides while Ronald apologizes to Michelle for not having come to her aid. Michelle coldly asks Ronald to leave. She then asks Leonard to write something on her forearm with his finger while she falls asleep. Leonard writes "I love you". Two weeks later, Michelle meets Leonard on the roof of their building and tells him that she has broken up with Ronald and is going to San Francisco. Leonard tells her not to leave and professes his love for her. They have sex and plan to leave together the next day for San Francisco. On New Year's Eve, Leonard buys an engagement ring for Michelle. He is then summoned by Sandra's father and is offered a partnership in the family businesses, with the assumption that he is going to marry Sandra. Noticing the jeweler's gift bag Leonard is holding, the father assumes it is for Sandra; Leonard lies that it is. During his parents' New Year's Eve party, Leonard hides in the courtyard to meet Michelle. Michelle arrives late and tells Leonard that she isn't going to San Francisco, because Ronald, having learned Michelle is leaving him for California, has decided to leave his wife and children for her. Disheartened, Leonard breaks things off with her for good. Feeling depressed, Leonard heads to the beach, intending to kill himself. When he drops a glove that Sandra had bought for him, he realizes that, in Sandra, he has found someone who loves him and with whom he can build a happy life. He picks up the glove and sees the boxed engagement ring lying on the sand, where he had thrown it from the boardwalk earlier. He returns to the party, where he gives Sandra the ring and embraces her in a tearful passionate hug. ===== Jack Deth (Tim Thomerson) is now a successful private detective, catching cheating lovers in the act. However, Jack's life with Lena (Helen Hunt) has gotten rocky and he faces divorce if he can't clean up his act. Before he can mend his troubled relationship, he's jacked back up the line to 2252 because of the 6 years timeframe of trancers part 2 by Alice (Megan Ward), to save Angel City from its future destruction in a massive trancer war of . His mission—find the origin of this new wave of trancers and end it with extreme prejudice. The only problem is that Lena, now remarried, is the only tie to Angel City's impending doom. Jack learns that the US government has sponsored a new trancer training program, run by the maniacal Colonel Daddy Muthuh (Andrew Robinson). With the help of R.J. (Melanie Smith), a camp escapee and Shark (R. A. Mihailoff), a crystal-powered mandroid sent by Ruthie Raines (Telma Hopkins), Deth will have to find a way inside the trancer program and shut it down for good. =====