Anne Bancroft

Z, a worker ant, dreams of winning the heart of beautiful Princess Bala so he switches places with a soldier ant. But he may turn out to be the biggest little hero of them all!

A Senate Armed Services Committee interviews a candidate for the position of Secretary of the Navy. Senator Lillian DeHaven (Anne Bancroft) from Texas criticizes the Navy (Secretary of the Navy Theodore Hayes (Daniel Von Bargen)) for not being gender neutral. Behind the curtains, a deal is struck: If women compare favorably with men in a series of test cases, the military will integrate women fully into all occupations of the Navy. The first test is the training course of the U.S. Navy Combined Reconnaissance Team (similar to the SEALs UDT/BUDs) Senator DeHaven selects topographical analyst Lieutenant Jordan O'Neil (Demi Moore), because she is physically more feminine (& hence would look good on the cover of magazines) than the other candidates. Jordan is known to speak her mind and not take shit from her superiors in operational situations. Jordan is dating Lieutenant Commander Royce Harper (Jason Beghe). Royce thinks Jordan won't survive the course and discourages her. This makes Jordan more determined to make it through. To make the grade, O'Neil must survive a grueling selection program in which almost sixty percent of candidates wash out, most before the fourth week, with the third week being particularly intensive ("hell week"). Captain Salem (Scott Wilson) is in charge of the program. The enigmatic Command Master Chief John James Urgayle (Viggo Mortensen) runs the training program that involves 20-hour days of tasks designed to wear down recruits' physical and mental strength, including pushing giant ship fenders up beach dunes, working through obstacle courses, and hauling landing rafts. His fellow trainers are Instructor Max Pyro (Kevin Gage) & Instructor Johns (David Warshofsky). trainees include Sergeant First Class Cortez (David Vadim), Ensign F. Lee 'Flea' Montgomery (Josh Hopkins), 'Slov' Slovnik (Jim Caviezel), Newberry (Angel David), Stamm (Stephen Ramsey) & Lieutenant 'Wick' Wickwire (Boyd Kestner). Lieutenant Blondell (Lucinda Jenney) is the medical officer on the training program and the only other female on base. Jordan has to shave her head to make sure her hair doesn't interfere with the physical demands of training. Slovnik has the hots for Jordan and makes several attempts of sexual harassment at her. Given a 30-second time "gender-norming" allowance in an obstacle course, O'Neil demands to be held to the same standards as the male trainees (she gets the same barracks and same everything as the rest of the batch). The master chief observes O'Neil helping the other candidates by allowing them to climb on her back to make it over the wall obstacle course. Cortez sabotages Jordan by refusing to pull her up (she was the last one) and Urgayle chews him out. Eight weeks into the program (She has already missed her period, as an nasty knee injury and jungle rot on the foot), during SERE training in Captiva, Florida, the Master Chief ties her to a chair (Jordan is captured with her team, after Cortez and Slovnik refuse to obey her orders and get caught, forcing the rest of the team to retreat) with her hands behind her back, grabs hold of her and slams her through the door, then picking her up off the floor he repeatedly dunks her head in ice-cold water in front of the other crew members. O'Neil retaliates and is successful in causing him some injury, despite her immobilized arms. In so doing, she acquires respect from him, as well as from the other trainees. Navy leaders, confident that a woman would quickly drop out, become concerned. The media learn of O'Neil's involvement, and she becomes a sensation known as "G.I. Jane." Soon, she must contend with trumped-up charges that she is a lesbian and is fraternizing with women. O'Neil is told that she will be given a desk job during the investigation and, if cleared, will need to repeat her training from the beginning. She decides to "ring out" (ringing a bell three times, signaling her voluntary withdrawal from the program) rather than accept a desk job. It is later revealed that the photo evidence of O'Neil's alleged fraternization came from Senator DeHaven's office (Chief of Staff (John Michael Higgins) figures it out as all faxes have the same smudge marks on the papers). Royce informs Jordan, who confronts DeHaven. DeHaven never intended for O'Neil to succeed; she used O'Neil as a bargaining chip to prevent military base closings in her home state of Texas. O'Neil threatens to expose DeHaven, who then has the charges voided and O'Neil restored to the program. The final phase of training, an operational readiness exercise, is interrupted by an emergency that requires the CRT trainees' support. The situation involves a reconnaissance satellite powered by weapons-grade plutonium that fell into the Libyan desert. A team of U.S. Army Rangers is dispatched to retrieve the plutonium, but their evacuation plan fails, and the trainees are sent to assist the Rangers. The Master Chief's shooting of a Libyan soldier to protect O'Neil leads to a confrontation with a Libyan patrol. During the mission, O'Neil, using her experience as a topographical analyst, realizes when she sees the team's map that the Master Chief is not going to use the route the others believe he will in regrouping with the others. She also displays a definitive ability in leadership and strategy while rescuing the injured Master Chief, whom she and McCool (Morris Chestnut) pull out of an explosives-laden "kill zone." With helicopter gunships delivering the final assault to the defenders, the rescue mission is a success. Upon their return, all those who participated in the mission are accepted to the CRT. Urgayle gives O'Neil his Navy Cross and a book of poetry containing a short poem, "Self-pity", by D. H. Lawrence, as acknowledgment of her accomplishment and in gratitude for rescuing him.

A hospital resident is put in the middle of a legal battle between two half-sisters on whether to pull their comatose dad's life support. But more seems to be at stake than dad's life - his inheritance. Dr. Werner Ernst (James Spader) is a young hospital resident who becomes embroiled in a legal battle between two half-sisters who are fighting over the care of their comatose father. But are they really fighting over their father's care, or over his ten million dollar estate? Meanwhile, Werner must contend with his nutty supervisor, who insists that he only care for patients with full insurance. Can Werner sidestep the hospital's legal team and do what's best for the patient? —Martin Lewison <mlewison@utk.edu>

25 year old Finn decides to leave her fiancee Sam working on remodeling their home while she spends the summer at her Grandmother's country estate working on her master's thesis. Finn has been working on her thesis for a long time because each time she gets near finishing it she decides to start it over with a different topic. Her current topic is the ritual importance of country arts and crafts in various societies. Her Grandmother's home (an old country mansion surrounded by orchards) actually belongs to Grandmother's sister, Glady Joe, but Grandmother moved in with the sister after her husband died. When Finn arrives she finds a quilting bee group there working on a patchwork quilt. This group has for years been working on quilts together. The women all know Finn, and she is comfortable with them. Finn has her favorites but there is one who has an unhappy reputation for not well-tolerating children, and there is another one who is nosy about and critical of Finn. We learn that Finn's own mother and father were divorced when Finn was a child and that the mother has had a long succession of men she dumped. Neither of Finn's parents are in the film except that the mother appears near the end to reveal that she and Finn's father are getting remarried. The theme of both the movie and the quilt the ladies are making is love and marriage and the question of whether monogamous life long marriage is a realistic goal. As the film develops we learn via flashbacks the infidelity difficulties that affected the lives of the quilting ladies, some of which are still impacting their lives and are unsettled, including one younger member of the quilting bee who was recently widowed and is now involved with the husband of another member who has long suffered from her artistic husband's infidelity. Finn's fiancee visits and shows Finn a floor-plan that omits a separate room for Finn's writing that they had agreed to, but includes instead a guest room that he says they can also use as a baby's room. This start an argument and the fiancee leaves upset that the two have different ideas of how Finn will occupy her time after marriage. Finn gets further confused about her own desires as she learns of marital difficulties she hadn't suspected of the women she grew up knowing. One of the flashback stories is about an ancestor of a black woman in the group at the end of the Civil War. She started out searching for her parents who had been sold away years earlier, sees a crow that seems magical to her, and follows it because she thinks it will lead her to information about her parents. Instead she realizes later that it led her to the man who is her soul mate. Later, when Finn is struggling to decide whether she should continue a romance with an extremely handsome young farm boy she met at the neighborhood pool or whether she should break that off and marry Sam, she finds her own crow to follow. The story lines all are happily wrapped up by the end of the film.

A young college coed is leaving school for the day. She jumps on her bike and heads home. Upon arriving, she calls out to her cat to come for her meal. She spies the cat cowering under a table, growling softly. Just as she comes close to reassure her cat, a mysterious figure comes out from the shadow and violently attacks her. Quick cut to college professor Andy Safian (Bill Pullman) and Detective Dana Harris (Bebe Neuwirth) at the hospital discussing the ongoing problems with campus security. Jed Hill (Alec Baldwin), the new surgeon at St. Agnes hospital works feverishly to save the girl, even though he is told "we're going to lose her." The surgery is successful. In the locker room, Hill tells the surgeon who made the comment that while he wants to make new friends, if he ever says something like that again, he will remove his lungs with a ice cream scoop. Andy and Jed meet to discuss the girl's condition. After a moment, Andy realizes that he knew him from their old high school, Van Buren. They hope to see each other around. Andy goes to see his wife, Tracy Kessinger (Nicole Kidman), at work. As they talk in the elevator, Dr. Hill steps in with a colleague. They are invited to a reception to welcome Jed to the hospital. They politely decline and leave. As they walk along the street, they talk about the new plumbing for their Victorian house will cost them $14,000. Tracy suggests renting out the third floor to a tenant, but Andy refuses. He also suggests that she be very careful coming home from work, a maniac being on the loose. When she arrives home. Andy notices his wife getting out of the car with a man, who gives her a gentle peck on the cheek. She had told him she was coming home with a woman. She claims the man is a lawyer who is handling old business with her mother's estate. Andy apologizes. Later, they are eating Chinese food in bed and she seductively feeds him and she gently gyrates on his lap. They begin to have sex, when Andy quickly turns off the light, noticing their next door neighbor's young son is watching them. (He assumes this because of the silhouette in the window). Tracy doesn't seem bothered by it, since the mother works nights and the boy might just be lonely. The next morning, Andy is sanding the stair railing, and is surprised by Jed's appearance in the front doorway. They have a pleasant conversation and Jed invites him to go out for a drink. Jed happens to point out a Degas statue and asks if it's the real thing. Andy assumes it is. As they are drinking, Andy lets it slip that his wife has been having trouble getting pregnant. He mentions a doctor named Lillianfield that Tracy has been going to. Jed says he "is a good man." When he gets home, he suggests to Tracy that Jed take the third floor as a tenant. Tracy does not seem thrilled with the idea, even suggesting that Andy is doing it to relive his high school years again, hanging with the star quarterback. When she finds out that Andy discussed her problem with Jed, she is annoyed, but not mad. She gives in and says it's OK for Jed to move in. The doorbell rings and she asks Andy if he wants to bet if it's Jed. He says no. "Because when money is involved, you take me seriously," she mutters. Detective Harris comes in while Andy is in the middle of a session with Paula Bell (Gwenyth Paltrow). He asks his secretary to make sure she gets a wake up call in order to not miss her next class. Harris tells Andy that not much progress is being made on getting the rapist. Andy laments that he is tired of seeing students leaving the school for fear of their safety. She asks for a list of people who have access to the student's schedules. Tracy comes home and prepares to take a bath. Her pain shoots up again and she is startled when Jed appears in the bathroom to check on her. They share a long glance as they hear Andy announce that he is home. Later that night, Jed is involved in a sexual marathon with one of the nurses from the hospital. Tracy is extremely annoyed because the noise is keeping her awake. As Andy is about to go ask him to hold it down, the noise stops. The nurse jokes with him that the only reason he is a doctor is for the money and women. He laughs, and jokes about his tolerance with alcohol. After coming out of the bathroom, Tracy stares coldly as the nurse runs naked to the upstairs bathroom. The next day. Andy is annoyed that Paula still has not shown up for her appointment. After talking to his secretary, he decides to go to her house to check on her. He arrives and the house is completely quiet. He calls out for her, but gets no answer. The front door is open, so he lets himself inside. He then notices the back door is slightly ajar and that a lock of her hair is on the floor. He walks out back and notices one of her shoes. He then approaches the hedges and finds her brutalized body hidden inside. Detective Harris says he will need to provide a statement. Leter, Jed tries to cheer up Andy at the bar. He relays a story about the first time he saw a dead body in medical school. After Jed makes a comment about pro athletes not being able to stay clean for a million dollars, Andy says he would "give his right arm" for a million. Jed presses him on it, saying what if was a surgical procedure. Would he do it? Andy says no, as does Jed after cracking an ice cube in his mouth. Andy heads home as Jed decides to check on the local women playing darts. Andy comes home and Harris is waiting for him. She tells him there is circumstantial evidence tying him to the rapes. He is outraged at being considered a suspect. She then tells him he needs to come to the station to provide some sperm to rule him out. Reluctantly, he agrees to go. Tracy comes home and her pain is now unbearable. She calls out for Andy, but he is still at the station. She calls 911. While chatting it up with the dart ladies and drinking bourbon, Jed is paged to the hospital, where he sees that Tracy is the person he needs to operate on. Back at the station Andy is ruled out as a suspect and as he is leaving, is told his wife called 911. He rushes to the hospital. It turns out one of her ovaries has ruptured and needs to be removed. They discover that she was four weeks pregnant, but she miscarries due to the trauma. A doctor notices a problem with the second ovary and Jed says they need to get a histology report to make sure it isn't still a live ovary. They realize they don't have the time to do it. Jed goes out and tells Andy the options. They can remove the ovary and she'll be fine (but never able to have kids). Or they can leave the ovary in and hope she does not die from toxic shock. Andy says to do whatever he needs to. He tells Andy that she was four weeks pregnant, but the baby is gone. Jed goes in and against the advice of fellow surgeons, he removes the other ovary. Later, it comes to light that he removed a healthy ovary. Jed has the chance to bury the report, but declines. He stands by his judgement call. The turn of events destroys Tracy. She tells Andy she is leaving him, and she files a lawsuit against Jed Hill, for $20 million. At the deposition, Jed is made out to be a top notch surgeon, but has a "God-complex". He states that when people go into the chapel and pray to God that their loved ones will be alright, who does the lawyer think they are praying to. "You ask me if I have a God complex. Let me tell you something. I am God." He then gets up and walks out. Tracy's lawyer then mentions they know he was drinking the night of her surgery. They decide to settle. Tracy doesn't seem to care about the money. As she exits the building, she notices Andy across the street. She shoots him a cold stare and then leaves in her lawyer's car. Back at work, Andy is working late into the night, when one of his bulbs goes out. He goes downstairs and finds the janitor (Tobin Bell) has a makeshift place and is living down there. He finds a lock of hair on the night table as well as in a cigar box. He is startled when he appears behind him. He explains that he got kicked out of his old place and this is just temporary. Andy says not to worry about it and leaves. As he is walking away, he is jumped from behind and he ends up fighting him off and rendering him unconscious. At the station, Detective Harris invites Andy to get a drink. While there, she talks about how her family accuses her of wielding her honesty like a blunt instrument. She tells him that there is something he needs to know about his wife. Something important. He goes back to the station with her. Later, he goes to Jed's hotel to tell him that the baby was not his. It turns out that Andy is sterile (which cleared him of the rapes). Jed tells him it doesn't change anything regarding his situation. He feels bad for Andy and says that bad things happen to good people all the time, for no good reason. Andy, suspecting that maybe Tracy's lawyer is the father, goes to confront him. Andy barges in and accuses her lawyer (Peter Gallagher) of having an affair with his wife. He says he did not. But since he cannot give him any information about where she is, he should talk to her friends or mother. Andy says he should know her mother is dead, since he handled her estate. He says he never did. As he is leaving, he suggests that Andy bring her a bottle of scotch. Andy arrives and uses the bottle of scotch to entice Tracy's mother (Anne Bancroft) to open the door. They talk about Tracy's childhood, how she always stashed away any money she had, how her father abandoned her and took her hidden money. As she is drinking, she laughs about how gullible Andy is. He says he knows she has been there because of the Degas statue on her mantle. She laughs and say you can get one of them anywhere. She then tries to get him to do a card trick, and asks him to bet. He says no. "Because when money is involved, you take me seriously." She then tells him he should just "get into the game" and go for the $20 million himself. When he brings up Dr. Lillianfield, she smiles and tells him "Welcome to the game." He finds Lillianfield's address through a ruse using a change of address excuse. He finds out the address and lies in wait inside the house. He hears Tracy as she comes in the door. To his horror, Dr Lillianfield turns out to be Jed Hill. They kiss passionately as she orders him to take her upstairs and have sex with her. After they go upstairs, Andy leaves the house, devastated. He goes home and knocks a bunch of items from her dresser to the floor. But, he notices something odd. There is a syringe with some liquid still inside of it. He then notices the neighbor's son's silhouette again, playing on his keyboard. As they walk along the beach the next morning, Jed laments about how his mentor wrote him a letter saying he was sorry about everything. While Tracy finds it amusing, Jed is upset that his mentor never apologized about not giving him the chief of staff job at Mass General. They kiss and head back to the house to make love again. While she is laying on the bed, a syringe sticks her. Jed realizes that now Andy knows what it going on, that he has been in the house. Jed rehashes the plan and lets Tracy know the improvised part of her getting pregnant was what tipped Andy off. He figured out there was no Dr Lillianfield. Tracy says to let her handle him. At a bar/restaurant, Tracy acts all loving and seductive with Andy, trying to convince him that things can go back to normal. She runs her foot up his leg, until Andy tells her that she dropped her shoe. She realizes that her ploy is not working. She then goes on the attack, trying to intimidate him, saying that if he goes to the police, that will make him look crazy. She gets up and wishes him "happy hunting." Andy then tells her to sit down. He tells her he knows what was in the syringe and that the lab guys told him that the substance in the syringe could cause the ovarian cysts she got if injected in massive doses. He then suggests that maybe he should have put curtains up in the bedroom because someone might have seen her injecting herself to cause the cysts. Enraged, she shatters a wine glass in her hand. He then warns her that if anything is to happen to him, the police will go to her neighbor's son. He wants half the money. Back at the house, Jed suggests strongly they give him the money and they should leave the country. He tells her they don't have a choice. She then suggests that without the kid, there is no case. He is horrified by the suggestion. He then slaps her and tells her not to bring it up again. If something happens to the kid, he will be the state's star witness against her. She then pulls out a gun and kills him. Tracy waits outside her former neighbor's house and waits for her to leave. She calls Andy and tells him she has his money. He gives her a meeting place and then heads out in his car. After he leaves, she approaches the neighbor's house. She then silently walks upstairs and slowly approaches the boy with plastic wrap, while he is playing his keyboard as usual. She puts it around his head, only to find that it is really a CPR dummy from the police station. Tracy goes ballistic, smashing the dummy on the keyboard. Andy turns out the light and taunts her saying, "Like shooting tuna in a barrel, huh?" She lunges for him and they fall through a bannister and land on the floor. As she is about to get up, Detective Harris, dressed as the neighbor (she is a nurse), stomps on a piece of wood Tracy is preparing to pick up saying "I won't mind shooting you." She tells Andy he may need a doctor. He laughs. Tracy is led out to the police car and sees the neighbor and her blind son go back into the house. She is stunned. She looks at Andy with a mixture of sadness, shock and, belatedly, respect. The car drives off and Harris and Andy sit on his porch. She suggests he needs ice. He says he'll take his with some scotch. They head off in her car.

After being arrested during a manic episode, a man who suffers from bipolar disorder is treated by a psychiatrist who begins to develop romantic feelings towards him. The story about the relationship between a manic depressive man, Mr Jones, and the female doctor who takes more than a professional interest in his treatment. —Rob Hartill

In 1985, Jack Singer (Nicholas Cage) swears to his overbearing and possessive mother, Bea (Anne Bancroft), while she is on her deathbed, that he would never get married because Bea is the only woman who will ever love Jack. Over the next seven years, Jack, who works as a New York private detective that handles divorce cases, begins dating Betsy (Sarah Jessica Parker), an elementary school teacher, but is reluctant to commit. By the present day in 1992, Betsy finally tires of Jack's reluctance and threatens to leave him. Fearful of losing her, Jack suggests a spontaneous trip to get married in Las Vegas, Nevada. They check into the Bally's Hotel during a convention of Elvis Presley impersonators. Before the wedding, however, a high-stakes gambler named Tommy Korman (James Caan) sees Betsy from a distance in the hotel lobby and notices a striking resemblance to his beloved late wife Donna. Tommy, an eternal and ruthless romantic, determines to romance Betsy and marry her. Jack is very nervous about getting married and decides to relax by gambling first. Tommy lures him into a high-stakes poker game. Up in Tommy's hotel suite, he arranges a crooked poker game (with Jerry Tarkanian as one of the other players) where Jack borrows $65,000 after being dealt a straight flush (7-8-9-10-Jack of clubs), only to lose to the gambler's higher straight flush (8-9-10-Jack-Queen of hearts); Tommy, however, promises to erase the debt with a proposal: Tommy offers to accept a platonic weekend with Betsy as payment for the debt, and Jack reluctantly agrees. Betsy is furious when Jack tells her about his predicament, but Tommy charms her and she agrees to the arrangement. Tommy Korman meets Betsy for drinks and reveals they will be spending the weekend at his beachfront estate in Kauai, Hawaii. As Betsy packs for the trip, Jack realizes the magnitude of his mistake, and asks her to marry him immediately. However, Betsy does not believe his proposal is sincere, or he would have married her upon their arrival in Vegas. She plans to honor the deal with Tommy, and informs Jack that they will return from Hawaii mid-week. Tommy flies with Betsy to his estate, where she meets his family and is impressed by his thoughtfulness. Upset, Jack returns home to New York to wait. One of Jack's clients, an emotionally erratic man named Sydney Tomashefsky (Robert Costanzo) tells Jack about his crazy suspicions about his wife cheating on him with boxer Mike Tyson. Meanwhile, Tommy continues to court Betsy at his island paradise house, trying to woo her to replace his late wife whom he confides in her about. Jack becomes more agitated when he sees a television news story about a volcano erupting in Hawaii, and spots Betsy and Tommy among the excited onlookers. Jack flies to Hawaii, but his efforts to see Betsy are thwarted by Tommy's men. When Tommy learns that Jack has left New York and is heading to Hawaii to try to get Betsy back, the gambler hires a local taxi driver friend, named Mahi Mahi (Pat Morita) to keep Jack as far away as possible from him and Betsy until he manages to persuade her to marry him. When Jack arrives on Kauai, Mahi Mahi intercepts him and takes Jack on an aimless drive around the island, leading them to an old Hawaiian chief's house who is Chief Orman (Peter Boyle), where Mahi Mahi tries to stall Jack. At the same time, Tommy begins feeding Betsy lies about Jack, first claiming that Jack lied to her about the gambling bet by claiming that Jack only lost $3,000 instead of $65,000 and that Jack has used Betsy as collateral, which makes Betsy feel more hurt and betrayed. He tries to calm her down by proposing marriage. Believing Tommy's lies, Betsy accepts his proposal. He insists they return to Las Vegas and get married immediately. At Chief Orman's house, Jack eventually figures out that Mahi Mahi must be on Tommy's payroll, so he distracts Mahi Mahi for a minute where Jack steals the taxi and drives off looking for Tommy and Betsy. After learning from Tommy's son and wife that Tommy hangs out at the Kauai Club, Jack drives over there that evening, and sees Betsy outside the club. But before Jack can approach her, he is attacked by Tommy and arrested. Jack calls his bookie dentist friend Dr. Molar (John Capodice) in New York who pays for Jack's $5,000 bail. Mahi Mahi meets him outside and admits that Tommy Korman left for Vegas with Betsy and has convinced her to marry him. Mahi races Jack to the airport. As Betsy and Tommy arrive back in Las Vegas, she tries to contact Jack to inform him about her choice, but cannot reach him anywhere. This slowly leads her to have second thoughts about marrying Tommy. Meanwhile, Jack cannot get a connecting flight to Las Vegas and ends up in San Jose, California where another one of Tommy's employees (a ticket agent) tries to stall Jack again from getting a flight to Las Vegas. Jack tries frantically to find a flight to Vegas. Finally, he finds a group about to depart for Vegas, but, much to his surprise, finds out mid-flight that they are the Utah chapter of the "Flying Elvises" - a skydiving team of Elvis impersonators led by the flamboyant Roy Bacon (Burton Gillam). Jack now realizes that he will have to skydive from 3,000 feet in order to get to Betsy. Back in Las Vegas, Tommy tries to rush Betsy to a wedding chapel, but she hesitates and asks to wait a few weeks. Tommy, sensing that he is losing control of the situation, offers her $1 million to marry him right away. She is disgusted by the offer and starts to leave. However, Tommy snaps and threatens that she agreed to the marriage... and no one breaks their word to him. Intimidated (and finally seeing the gangster that Tommy really is), Betsy asks to use the ladies room before leaving for the wedding chapel. As Tommy waits, Betsy follows several showgirls to their dressing area, dons a showgirl's costume, and sneaks out of the hotel. As Tommy and his men search for Betsy, she hides among the crowds lining the street to see the arrival of The Flying Elvises. Although Jack is afraid of dying, his love for Betsy overcomes his fear, and he jumps out of the plane with the other skydivers. Betsy hears Jack's name announced as he lands, and she runs into his arms. He declares his love, and asks her to marry him. From a short distance away, Tommy sees the couple together and realizes he has lost Betsy. Tommy tells his henchmen to let Jack and Betsy go and then heads back inside the hotel to his suite to set up another poker game with some of the guests. (Note: even though Tommy is the villain of this film, one can't help it but feel a tiny bit sorry for him.) The final scene shows Jack and Betsy getting married in a small Las Vegas chapel with the Flying Elvises as guests, Jack still in his white illuminated jumpsuit and Betsy in her stolen showgirl outfit.

Based on the true story of a transatlantic business correspondence about used books, which later developed into a close, long-distance friendship that evolved over the course of two decades. When a humorous script-reader in her New York City apartment sees an ad in the Saturday Review of Literature for a bookstore in London that does mail order, she begins a very special correspondence and friendship with Frank P. Doel (Sir Anthony Hopkins), the bookseller who works at Marks & Co., 84 Charing Cross Road. —Kathy Li 1949 marks the beginning of the nineteen year (1949 to 1968) unconventional and long distance love affair between Helene Hanff (Anne Bancroft) and Frank P. Doel (Sir Anthony Hopkins). Straightforward Helene is an aspiring New York City-based writer who works as a script editor. She is a voracious reader, especially of non-fiction. Frank is the efficient and knowledgeable head clerk at Marks & Co., a second-hand bookstore located at 84 Charing Cross Road in London. Unable to find the out-of-print books she wants at New York City bookstores without having to pay an arm and a leg, she writes to Marks & Co. hoping they can fill her order for a reasonable price. Frank and the bookstore staff are able to provide Helene most of what she wants at an acceptable price, including shipping. As such, she provides them with standing orders for more and more books. But as time goes on, their correspondence not only deals with Helene's orders, but what is happening in their lives and in the world around them, including Frank's loving marriage to his wife, Nora (Dame Judi Dench), and their two children. Helene dreams one day of being able to travel to London to meet Frank and the other Marks & Co. staff; the people who have been able to fulfill a great need in her life. —Huggo

Mother and daughter Thelma and Jessie Cates spend a night together after Jessie reveals that she will kill herself by the end of it in this cinema adaptation of Marsha Norman's Pulitzer prize-winning Broadway play. What would you do if someone you loved sat down with you one night and calmly told you that they were going to end their life before morning? This is Thelma Cates' dilemma. Her daughter Jessie has had it. A middle-aged epileptic unable to drive or hold a job, with a failed marriage and a drug-addicted runaway son on the wrong side of the law, Jessie can find no reason to keep living. Adapted from the play by Marsha Norman, "'night, Mother" is the story of a parent's worst nightmare. How can Thelma convince her daughter that life is worth living if she can't feel her pain? How can she end her daughter's embrace of death before morning? —Mark Fleetwood <mfleetwo@mail.coin.missouri.edu>/Reid Taylor

Norman Jewison's adaptation of John Pielmeier's stage play. When naive novice nun Agnes is discovered with a dead newborn baby in her convent quarters, court-appointed psychiatrist Dr. Martha Livingston investigates her case. When a dead newborn is found wrapped in bloody sheets in a wastebasket in the bedroom of a young novitiate, psychiatrist Martha Livingston is called in to determine if the seemingly innocent novice, who knows nothing of sex or birth, is competent to stand trial for the baby's murder. While searching for the answer that her supervisors want, Dr. Livingston finds herself inevitably drawn into searching for the truth about the baby's conception and death. Despite the lack of cooperation that she receives from her own organization and the church itself, she eventually discovers more than she may have bargained for. —brado.3

A Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man who is mistreated while scraping a living as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous facade, there is revealed a person of intelligence and sensitivity.

The film begins with wild African elephants killing Merrick's mother to death. After Merrick's mother was dead, we see the smoke rising upward, with a baby wailing in the background, resembling John Merrick being born. In 19th-century Victorian England, Dr. Frederick Treves (Anthony Hopkins) wanders through an urban carnival in search of freak shows. He happens on a hideously deformed creature called The Elephant Man (John Hurt), and pays the owner Mr. Bytes (Freddie Jones) to examine it. Treves purpose is to present a paper to the Pathological Society and enhance his medical reputation. The Elephant Man returns from the seminar to Bytes and is beaten severely for wondering off. The man's injuries, as well as an attack from bronchitis, leads Treves to admit him to the hospital. In an attempt to convince the authorities to allow the man to stay, Treves endeavors to communicate with the person. During a meeting, Treves discovers that the man can talk and is educated. The Elephant Man's name is John Merrick and he reveals that he has had this strange disease since he was 14 which benign tumors grow all over his body, face and hands, in which he must sleep sitting up or he will die from suffocation. Merrick is given a room to live in and gradually becomes accepted by most members of the hospital staff. But one hospital night porter (Michael Elphick) sees a money spinner and each evening gathers a drunken crowd of people who will pay any price to see the freak. Treves attempts to introduce Merrick to London society and brings him over to meet with his wife (Hannah Gordon), who hides her shock at Merricks appearance. Soon the local newspapers run articles on Merrick. One is read by actress Mrs. Kendal (Ann Bancroft) who visits Merrick, tells him about her life in the theater and gives him a copy of Shakespeares plays. However the night porter is still in business in displaying Merrick. One evening, Bytes joins the throng and after a particularly humiliating brawl, kidnaps Merrick and takes him to France. Severely neglected and very ill, Merrick is once more put on display as the Elephant Man for the local crowds. Bytes' son (Adam S. Gottbetter) tells his father that he can take no more of seeing him humiliate a human being, but Bytes tells his son to mind his own business. That night, Bytes' son, with the help of other carnival freaks, releases Merrick and assists his escape back to England. In Liverpool Street Station, three boys harass him. Merrick flees and accidentally knocks down a girl, prompting an angry mob to chase him. Defenseless, he cries out, "I am not an elephant! I am not an animal! I am a human being! I am a man!" and faints. Reunited with Treves, it appears that Merrick does not have long to live. Merrick visits the theater with Treves and his wife where Mrs. Kendal has her performance dedicated to him. Treves prompts Merrick to show his face to the crowd, which gives him a standing ovation. After the theater scene and before the hospital scene, we see the peacocks sitting outside the hospital. Back at the hospital, Merrick thanks Treves for a splendid evening and afterwards discards all pillows from his bed, determined to lie down like everyone else. Merrick lies down and sleeps one final time before quietly passing away, where his late mother welcomes him to the bright glory of Heaven.

May, 1937. Kathie Rauch from Milwaukee, Wisconsin sends a letter to the German Embassy in Washington, D.C. claiming the Hindenburg zeppelin will explode after flying over New York. In the meantime, Luftwaffe Colonel Franz Ritter (George C. Scott) boards with the intention of protecting the Hindenburg as various threats have been made to down the airship, which some see as a symbol of Nazi Germany. Ritter is assisted by a Nazi government official, SS/Gestapo Hauptsturmführer Martin Vogel (Roy Thinnes), who poses as official photographer. However, both operate independently in investigating the background of all passengers and crew on the voyage. Ritter has reason to suspect everyone, even his old friend and former mistress, Countess Ursula von Reugen (Anne Bancroft), who vehemently opposes the Nazi regime. Other prime suspects include card sharks Emilio Pajetta (Burgess Meredith) and Major Napier (Rene Auberjonois), Edward Douglas (Gig Young), a suspicious German-American ad executive, as well as several crew members and even the Hindenburg captains Pruss (Charles Durning) and Lehmann (Richard A. Dysart). As the Hindenburg makes its way to Lakehurst Air Field, events conspire against Ritter and Vogel. They soon suspect the rigger Karl Boerth (William Atherton), a former Hitler Youth leader who has become disillusioned with the Nazis. Ritter attempts to arrest him. Boerth resists. He requests help from Ritter, whose son was killed a year before. Boerth's girlfriend, Freda Halle, was killed while trying to escape arrest as the Hindenburg crossed the Atlantic. Boerth, upon hearing the news of Halle's death, plans to commit suicide by staying aboard the airship as the bomb goes off. Ritter eventually agrees with Boerth to set the bomb to detonate at 7:30 p.m., when the airship should have landed and passengers disembarked. While setting up the bomb (a small C-4 plastic explosive), Boerth drops a knife, which was later revealed to have been stolen from Rigger Ludwig Knorr. Vogel starts to work behind Ritter's back, arresting Boerth and confiscating the Countess's passport. As the airship approaches Lakehurst Naval Air Station at 7:00, Ritter now realizes the landing has been delayed and searches for Boerth to ask where the bomb is. Vogel is caught by Ritter torturing Boerth and gets into a fight with Ritter and is knocked unconscious. An injured Boerth tells Ritter the bomb is in the repair patch of gas cell 4. Ritter attempts to defuse the bomb, but is unable to do so in time and is spotted at the last few seconds by a now awakened Vogel. The bomb explodes, killing Ritter instantly and sending Vogel flying down the walkway. Vogel survives, being carried by ground crewmen, while Boerth dies of his burns. At this point the film changes to monochrome in order to match up with the actual newsreel footage of the disaster. Passengers and crew struggle to survive the fire. The disaster scene ends when the camera pans over wreckage, towards a strip of burning fabric that says "Hindenburg" on it. The following day, with the fire cleared, a list of passengers who died or survived is described briefly, while the wreckage is examined for the inquiry before being cleaned up. The film ends with a tribute to Herbert Morrison's radio commentary, with the memorable quotation, "Oh the humanity," as the Hindenburg flies once again, only to disappear again in the clouds.

Complex family relationships, as well as a combat experience, form the personality of the future world-known politician. This historical drama is an account of the early life of the future British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill (Simon Ward), including his childhood, his time as a war correspondent in South Africa during the Second Boer War, and culminating in his first election to Parliament. —Matt <matt@measham.force9.net>

The film explores the life of 21-year-old Ben Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) shortly after earning his bachelor's degree from an unnamed college in the Northeast. The school is widely believed to be Williams College, Webb's alma mater (in the opening sequence of the movie, Dustin Hoffman, playing Benjamin Braddock, is wearing a Williams College tie). Benjamin is seen arriving at LAX International Airport over the opening credits. The movie really begins at a party that same evening celebrating his graduation at his parents' house in Pasadena, a suburb of Los Angeles. Benjamin is visibly uncomfortable at the party attended by his parents' friends. He remains aloof while his parents deliver accolades and neighborhood friends ask him about his future plans. Benjamin escapes from each person who comes to congratulate him, exposing his seeming embarrassment at all the honors he had won at college. Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), the neglected wife of his father's law partner, asks Benjamin to drive her home, which he reluctantly does. We never learn Mrs. Robinson's first name (or, indeed, the first names of any of Benjamin's and Elaine's parents) during the course of the film (in the novel, we are told that the initial of Mrs. Robinson's first name is G). Arriving at her home, she pleads for Benjamin to come inside, saying that she doesn't like to enter a dark house alone. Once inside, she forces a drink on him, and later exposes herself to him offering to have an affair with him. This scene, known as the "Mrs. Robinson, you are trying to seduce me" scene, as said by Benjamin, is said to be one of the most iconic scenes in the film. She, for no clear reason, does attempt to seduce him, removing her clothing. Mr. Robinson arrives home a few minute later, but does not see or suspect anything. Initially flustered and shocked by her advances, Benjamin flees into the night. A few days later Benjamin contacts Mrs. Robinson and clumsily organizes a tryst at a hotel beginning their affair. A now confident and relaxed Benjamin spends the summer drifting around in the pool by day and seeing Mrs. Robinson at the hotel by night. Benjamin is clearly uncomfortable with sexuality, but he is drawn into the affair with the older, but still attractive, Mrs. Robinson. Their affair appears to last most of the summer. All of their scenes pass in a musically-backed montage, showing the endless pass of time. One scene is edited so that it appears Benjamin is walking directly from his parents' dining room into the hotel room he shares with Mrs. Robinson. This seems to accent the separation of he and his parents, though they still live under the same roof. Benjamin discovers that they have nothing to talk about but, she refuses to talk and only wants sex. After pestering her one evening, Mrs. Robinson tells Benjamin that she was forced to give up college and marry someone she didn't love when she became pregnant with her daughter Elaine. Meanwhile, Benjamin is hounded by his father to select a graduate school to attend. Benjamin, clearly not interested in pursuing his studies, shrugs off his father's wishes and spends his time lounging about and sleeping with Mrs. Robinson. His affair may serve as an escape from his lack of direction or ambition, and his fear and anxiety of his impending future. Mr. Robinson, unaware of his wife's budding affair, encourages Benjamin to call on his daughter, Elaine (Katharine Ross). Benjamin's parents also repeatedly encourage him to date her. During one liaison, Mrs. Robinson forces a promise from Ben to never date Elaine. Whether out of fear of Mrs. Robinson, or sensing that getting involved with the daughter of his lover could be disastrous, he tries to avoid it. However, because of the three parents' persistent intervention, he is essentially forced to date her. Therefore, he tries to ensure his date with her will be a disaster so she would not want to pursue a relationship with him. He drives recklessly, practically ignoring Elaine, and then takes her to a strip club where she is openly humiliated and silently begins to cry. After making her cry he relents and explains he was mean only because his parents forced him to ask her out. He awkwardly kisses her to try and cheer her up and they go and get a burger at a drive-in. Benjamin discovers that Elaine is someone he is comfortable with and that he can talk to her about his worries. From here, Benjamin's life falls apart. The jealous Mrs. Robinson threatens to reveal their affair to destroy any chance Benjamin has with Elaine, so Benjamin rashly decides he has to tell Elaine first. Upset over hearing about Benjamin's tryst with her mother, Elaine returns to Berkeley refusing to speak with Benjamin. Benjamin decides he is going to marry Elaine in order to have a future with her and goes to Berkeley where he rents a room in a local flop house, and begins to stalk her. He contrives a meeting on a bus while she is on her way to a date with her classmate Carl. The next day, an angry Elaine bursts into Benjamin's room and demands to know what he is doing in Berkeley after he "raped" her mother by taking advantage of her while she was drunk that evening of his graduation party. Shocked by what Elaine said, Benjamin tells her it was her mother who seduced him that night, but Elaine refuses to believe him and doesn't want to hear the fact that her mother is a crafty vixen. Benjamin says he will leave Berkeley and go somewhere else for her sake. Elaine tells Benjamin not to leave until he has a definite plan at what he wants to do with his life. The next day, Elaine comes into Ben's apartment in the middle of the night and asks him to kiss her. Over the next few days, the two hang out in Berkeley while Benjamin keeps pressing her to get blood tests so that they can get married. Elaine is unsure about this and tells him she had told Carl she might marry him. Mr. Robinson, who has found out everything about Benjamin and his wife's affair, goes to Ben's apartment in Berkeley where he threatens Benjamin with violence and forces Elaine to drop out of school and takes her away to marry Carl. Benjamin tells Mr. Robinson that his wife is the bad person and she manipulated him into having an affair with her. But Mr. Robinson also is skeptic and refuses to belive Benjamin. Benjamin is left with just a note from Elaine saying that she loves him but that her father is really angry and it can never work out. Benjamin drives back to Pasadena and arrives at the Robinson house that evening looking for Elaine. After getting no response by knocking on the front door, goes around to the back of the house and forces open a screen door. Benjamin quickly sees that Elaine is not there, but finds Mrs. Robinson instead. She coldly tells him he won't be able stop Elaine and Carl's wedding and she immediately calls the police and play-acts by claiming that a man broke into her house and is assaulting her. Finally seeing the sociopath that Mrs. Robinson really is, Benjamin flees and drives back to Berkeley to hide out there. The next morning, Benjamin goes to the Delta Chi Fraternity house to look for Elaine or Carl where he learns from Carl's frat brothers that the wedding is in Santa Barbara that very morning. Benjamin then speeds off towards Santa Barbara, stopping only at a gas station to ask for directions to the church. Benjamin is in such a hurry that he rushes off without refueling. Consequently, Ben runs out of gas and must sprint the last few blocks. He arrives at the church just as the bride and groom are about to kiss. Thinking he is too late, he bangs on the glass at the back of the church and screams out "Elaine!" repeatedly. Elaine turns around, hesitates by looking at her parents and her would-be husband, but then screams out "Ben!" and starts running towards him. A brawl breaks out as everyone tries to stop her and Benjamin from leaving. Elaine manages to break free from her mother, who claims "It's too late!" for Elaine apparently already said her marriage vows, to which Elaine replies, "Not for me!" Benjamin holds everybody off by swinging a cross ripped from the wall, then using it to jam the outside door while the pair escape. They run down the road and flag down a bus. The elated and smiling couple take the back seat. But in the final shot, Benjamin's smile gradually fades to an enigmatic, neutral expression as he gazes forward down the bus, not looking at Elaine. Elaine also seems unsure, looks lovingly across at Ben but notices his expression and turns away with a similar expression as the bus drives away, taking the two lovers to an uncertain future.

College volunteer Alan Newell is working alone at the crisis center one evening when he receives a telephone call from suicidal caller Inga Dyson, who has swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills. Can Alan save her? Alan is a Seattle college student volunteering at a crisis center. One night when he's at the clinic alone, he takes a call from a woman who tells him that she needs to talk to someone. She informs Alan that she took a load of pills, and he secretly tries to get help. During this time, he learns more about the woman, her family life, and why she wants to die. Can he save her in time? —Pat McCurry <ccgrad97@aol.com> Alan Newell is a Seattle university student who works at a phone-in crisis clinic. Most of the calls he receives are routine, such as an unhappy barber who feels he gets no respect. But then he gets a call from Inga, a suicidal woman who claims that she has deliberately overdosed on barbiturates. Flashbacks reveal the events that have led her to attempt to take her own life: her marriage is on rocky ground after her husband learned that their child is not his. As the telephone company attempts to trace the call and the police try to locate her, Alan works desperately to keep her on the line. —garykmcd

Beautiful mother of five Jo leaves the banality of her marriage to second husband Giles to wed her passionate screenwriter lover, Jake Armitage. As her suspicion of Jake's philandering grows, Jo's sanity spirals. Screenwriter Jake Armitage (Peter Finch) and his wife Jo (Anne Bancroft) live in London with six of Jo's eight children; the two eldest boys are at boarding school The children are spread over Jo's three marriages; only the youngest is Jake's biological child, but he treats them all as his own. Jo left her second husband Giles (Richard Johnson) after meeting Giles' friend Jake; the two were immediately attracted to each other. Their upper-middle-class life is very different from Giles and Jo's; who lived in a barn in the English countryside. But Jo is ruminating about her strained marriage to Jake, with issues on both sides. Jo suspects Jake of chronic infidelity, only confronting him with her suspicions whenever evidence presents itself. Jo's psychiatrist believes that she uses childbirth as a rationale for sex, which he believes she finds vulgar. The combination of these issues has placed Jo in a fragile metal state. Both state that they love each other, but neither seems to like the other much. As they prepare to move back to the English countryside, into a new house within sight of Jo's old barn, both Jo and Jake come to their own unspoken individual conclusions of whether their marriage can withstand these strains.

On a night in 1882, at the Alabama home of Captain and Mrs. Keller, a doctor examines a baby in a crib while her parents stand anxiously by. At last he smiles, and tells them the crisis has passed, she will recover from the illness. Her parents respond with joy and relief. Captain Keller (Victor Jory) goes with the doctor to see him out. Mrs. Keller (Inga Swenson) stays with the baby, smiling, talking, gently tucking the covers around her. Something about the baby's face catches her attention. She is at first puzzled, then frightened. She calls out for Captain Keller, who returns at a run. She blurts out her fears to him, he grabs up the lantern, and waves it before the baby's eyes, and screams her name in an attempt to get a reaction...all without effect. As a result of her illness, Baby Helen is now irrevocably blind and deaf. By 1887, Helen (Patty Duke) has grown into a healthy, but extremely difficult, child. The adults in the household--Captain and Mrs. Keller, Great Aunt Ev (Kathleen Comegys), Helen's older half-brother James (Andrew Prine) and the domestic help--have all given up trying to communicate with her or control her. She is allowed to wander wherever she wants, and do as she pleases. But after an incident in which she flings her new baby sister violently out of her cradle so she can use it for her doll, it is clear something must be done about her, and soon. Mrs. Keller can't bear the thought of having her shut up in an asylum, so Captain Keller reluctantly agrees to find a teacher/companion for her. Annie Sullivan (Anne Bancroft), a 20-year-old Irish-American girl, newly graduated from the Perkins Institute for the Blind in South Boston, is recommended for the position. She is still recovering from a series of operations that have only partially restored her own vision, she has a reputation for being stubborn and is haunted by a tragic childhood. But she has a plan, and is greatly determined to make a place for herself in the world, and a better world for her new student. At the Keller's home, her first meeting with Helen is promising. She quickly recognizes Helen's intelligence and curiosity. She has brought a doll for the little girl and Helen is delighted with it. Annie seizes the opportunity to introduce Helen to the finger alphabet for the deaf by spelling the word "doll" against Helen's palm. Intrigued, Helen spells it back to her, imitating the letters perfectly. Pleased, Annie tries another word...but Helen is more interested in the doll than the new finger game. Annie makes the mistake of trying to take the doll away from her, and Helen uses the doll to lambaste her in the mouth. While Annie is surveying the damage, Helen quickly locks her in the bedroom, takes the key and runs away. Annie is able to get her employers' attention and alert them to her dilemma. In the uproar that follows, Mrs. Keller searches Helen for the key, but doesn't find it, so Captain Keller decides the best way to effect a rescue is to put a ladder up to the bedroom window, climb it, and carry Annie back down. Despite Annie's protests that she can climb down herself, she makes the descent seated precariously on Captain Keller's shoulder. Crisis averted, Captain Keller orders everyone back inside to sit down to lunch. Annie stays behind for a moment or two to watch Helen, who is sitting quietly by the water pump on the well cover, holding her doll. After a moment, she gets up and furtively feels around for anyone else who might still be present. At last, satisfied that she's alone, she takes the key to Annie's bedroom door out of her mouth, and drops it into the well through a crack in the well cover. Annie observes this with mingled amusement and irritation...and she promises Helen (and herself) that she won't be gotten rid of so easily. Next day at breakfast, Annie watches in disgust as Helen wanders about the table, taking food from each person's plate with her hands, and cramming it into her mouth. The adults pay no attention to her, obviously accustomed to this behavior. When Helen reaches for Annie's plate, Annie quietly fends off her hand. Helen is shocked at first, considers what has happened--and reaches again, all the more determined to take something from this stranger's plate. A scuffle ensues...Captain Keller intercedes, explaining to Annie that they've found this to be the easiest course, and the only way they can have a relatively civilized meal. But Annie decides it's high time to begin her student's education...starting with ordinary table manners. She chases the family out of the house, and the battle is on. It's a long and violent process...Helen is as determined as Annie, and both girls know this is more than just a fight about plates and napkins. After a struggle which lasts into the afternoon and leaves both girls battered and bruised, Annie emerges as the victor...barely. Afterward, Helen runs outside to her mother for comfort, and Mrs. Keller angrily asks Annie what happened. "She ate from her own plate," replies Annie, softly. "She ate with a spoon. Herself. And she folded her napkin." Mrs. Keller receives this news in complete wonder, her anger gone in a moment. "Folded her napkin?" she repeats. "The room's a wreck," Annie says, wryly, "but her napkin is folded." Annie turns wearily back into the house. "Folded her napkin," Mrs. Keller murmurs, "My Helen folded her napkin," as she holds Helen close in her arms Captain Keller is in a thundering rage. He wants that "half-blind Yankee schoolgirl" gone immediately, but Mrs. Keller persuades him to let her stay. Nevertheless, he tells Annie, there are a number of conditions that must be met. He begins to lay down the law, but Annie interrupts him. She tells them that she has no hope of being able to make any progress with Helen under the current circumstances. Mrs. Keller pleads with her not to give up on Helen. She tells her how bright Helen was when she was a baby...able to ask for water (to say wah-wah) at a remarkably early age...and how heartbreaking it has been to feel her slipping farther away with each passing year...and how like the lost lamb in the parable, she loves her all the more. Annie listens, not unsympathetically; nevertheless, she tells her bluntly that she thinks Helen's greatest handicap is not deafness and blindness, but her family's love and pity. "Why, even a dog you housebreak," she scolds. But Annie has no intention of giving up on Helen..."Why, only today I saw how much needs to be done," she declares. She has been exploring the grounds, and has found a little cottage that isn't used, except during the hunting season. She asks that they furnish this cottage with a couple of beds, a table and a couple of chairs, and let the cook's young son, Percy (Robert Darden), sleep there to be available for errands. She instructs them to bring Helen there after a long buggy ride, so she won't know where she is, and leave her there, completely in her care. "She must be dependent on me for everything...for food, for water...even for the very air she breathes," she says, because any of these might be an avenue through which she can reach her. Mrs. Keller eagerly agrees, and after a while so does Captain Keller...reluctantly...for two weeks only. After that, whether she has been able to reach her or not, they must both return to the main house. Preparations are made, and Helen arrives at the cottage. She is pleased to find some of her favorite toys and clothes waiting for her, in a basket in the middle of the floor. Then she has a sudden premonition of something amiss, and begins to make the sign that means she wants her mother. Her parents quickly withdraw, and as Helen gropes around the room, she encounters Annie. In rage and horror at being left alone with this hated person, Helen goes wild, trashing the house and its contents. Physically and emotionally exhausted, she finally falls asleep, clutching her doll. Annie hits on a plan to get Helen to tolerate her: She wakes Percy, and brings him in from the other room, and has him stand near Helen. Helen recoils at first, then recognizes him, and is overjoyed to have him there. Annie sits on the other side of Percy, takes his hand, and begins to show him how to spell using the finger signs. When Helen discovers what's going on, she tries at first to keep Percy away from Annie, then curiosity overcomes her and she tries to "eavesdrop" on the new signs Annie is teaching...but Annie lightly flicks her hand away. At last, consumed with jealousy, she pushes Percy out of the way, and holds up her own hand defiantly, to be taught the new signs herself. Annie signs the word "milk" against her palm, and Helen repeats it back to her. Annie gives her a glass of milk, and helps her into bed. Detente has been reached, and the work can begin. In the days that follow, Helen learns many new things...how to wash and dress herself, how to feed and clean up after herself...how to climb a tree, how to wade in a creek...how to play hide the thimble. She also learns many new words. But she still doesn't understand what she's doing, and in quiet moments it's clear she misses her mother and her old way of life. Mrs. Keller has been missing Helen, too. As previously agreed, she comes to the cottage each day to watch her without her knowledge, and to learn from Annie the alphabet Helen is also learning. She is pleased with Helen's progress and shares Annie's hope that some spark of understanding will eventually ignite in Helen's brain. But the two weeks Annie was given to teach Helen without family interference is drawing to a close, and Mrs. Keller is not willing to persuade Captain Keller to give her an extension. On the last day, when Mrs. Keller comes for her, Annie must hand her over. Annie feels that she has failed. She watches sadly as Helen goes through the house gathering all the keys from all the doors. She takes them to her mother and puts them in her pocket...a gesture that clearly indicates she wants everything to go back to the way it was. Just before dinner, Captain Keller calls Annie into his study, and hands her a check for her first month's wages, with a little speech of congratulations and gratitude. Annie confides her fear to him, that Helen will slip back into her old habits, and asks his help to keep Helen to what she's learned. He readily agrees...and then invites her to a special homecoming dinner for Helen, featuring all her favorite foods. They sit down, and grace is said, and Annie hands Helen her napkin...and watches as she drops it on the floor. It was very subtly done...could have been an accident. Annie picks it up, and puts it back on her lap...Helen removes it, and drops it on the floor again. Annie rises to take Helen from the table, but she flees to her mother for comfort. Mrs. Keller tries to smooth things over, saying that it's only a napkin, nothing breakable. "And everything I've taught her is?" retorts Annie. Mrs. Keller hesitates, then relents, handing Helen over to Annie. But Captain Keller intervenes this time, saying there is no need to discipline the child on her first night back. He sits Helen down, and fills a plate for her, hands her a spoon, and goes back to his own place. Helen throws the spoon across the room, grabs a handful of food and tries to stuff it into her mouth. Annie grabs her and drags her away from the table. In the struggle that follows, Helen douses Annie with the contents of the water pitcher, and Annie grabs the pitcher and Helen, and storms majestically out of the room. Captain Keller begins to follow, intent on intervening again, but his way is blocked by his son, James...who finally finds the courage to tell his father he is wrong...that he must back down and allow this Yankee girl to teach Helen the discipline she needs...so that she can go on learning. Outside, Annie drags Helen to the pump, to make her refill the pitcher. Helen is desperately making her sign for her mother, and Annie says coldly, "She's not here." She makes Helen hold the pitcher under the pump, while she works the pump handle. As the cold water pours over the pitcher and Helen's hand, Annie automatically spells the word "water" against her free hand. "W-A-T-E-R, water," she says aloud, a lesson she has repeated many times. "It has a name, and the name stands for the thing..." She stops, noticing that Helen is standing transfixed, a look of profound realization dawning on her face. The pitcher drops from her hands and shatters. Something is coming to her out of the past. The water from the pump is dripping on her hands. "Wah.....Wah...." she says, with great difficulty...."Wah....Wah." The water has stopped flowing. Helen hits the faucett frantically, to indicate she wants it to flow again. Annie pumps, and the water flows over Helen's hands again. "Wah....Wah..." she says...and reaches for Annie's hand to spell the word against her palm. Annie puts Helen's hands on her face and nods to confirm that she is correct. Helen grabs the pump handle and pumps wildly herself, then holding Annie's hand under the stream of water, she spells the word against her palm again. With Helen's hands on her face, Annie nods again: this is, indeed, water. She knows! The connection has been made, the spark has ignited, and now Helen knows! And suddenly she realizes that this is only the start...that there is much, much more for her to learn, and she wants to know it all, everything, all at once! In a frenzy, she runs around, dragging Annie after her, touching things and then holding out her hand for Annie to spell their names. Annie follows, spelling to her as fast as she can, and she calls out for Mrs. Keller to come out. The whole family spills out of the house, and when Helen bumps against her mother and father, Annie spells each of their names to her in turn, and cries out to them jubilantly that Helen finally knows! As they embrace her, Annie goes back to sit by the pump on the well cover, overcome with emotion. After a few moments, Helen pulls free from her sobbing parents, and finds her way over to Annie. Shyly, she points toward her...she wants to know her name...this wonderful stranger who has turned the light back on in her mind, and put the world into her hand. Annie spells the word "Teacher" against her palm. Helen goes back to her mother, reaches into her pocket for the door keys she cached there earlier. She spells "Teacher" against her mother's palm, and brings the keys back to Annie. Later that night, Annie sits alone in a rocker on the upper porch of the house. A door behind her opens, and Helen comes out to her. She kisses Annie and cuddles into her lap. Lost and found...rescuer and rescued...combatants and companions...two turbulent souls, at peace with each other, and themselves, at last.

A trapper and his two partners work as scouts for a remote army fort where they witness an incompetent colonel's decision to throw his small unprepared garrison against Red Cloud's sizable Sioux force. Crude and uncivilized backwoods trapper Jed Cooper and his two partners sign up as scouts in a remote Oregon army fort, manned chiefly by untrained rookie soldiers. Jed, flirting with the idea of leading a more settled life, decides he needs a woman to start the process, and selects Corinna Marston, the beautiful young wife of Colonel Marston, commander of the next fort down the line. Marston arrives and announces to commanding officer Captain Riordan that he has lost his fort and most of his men to an Indian attack and that he, as ranking officer, is assuming command. Riordan, a young, but sensible officer, is outraged when he learns that Marston, posted out west for having lost his 1500-man command during a Civil War battle, has ordered the entire fort's complement, totally unprepared for combat and outnumbered, to march out against experienced Indian warriors. —Doug Sederberg <vornoff@sonic.net>