Cyril Cusack

A poor Irishman and a wealthy landlord`s daughter become two unlikely travel companions who find love and new possibilities in the dangerous frontiers of America.

Set in a dystopian April 1984, nearly 40 years after the end of the second world war, and a few years after the so-called Atomic Wars, Winston Smith (John Hurt) is a middle-aged man who endures a squalid existence in the totalitarian superstate of Oceania under the constant surveillance of the Thought Police. The story takes place in the decaying city of London, the capital of the territory of Airstrip One (formerly Great Britain). Winston is just another lowly Politcal Party official in the Ministry of Propaganda. He lives in a small, dirty flat, and works in a small office cubicle alongside dozens of other men and women at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history in accordance with the dictates of the Party and its (probably mythical) supreme figurehead, Big Brother (Bob Flag), a Joseph Stalin--esq leader who is never seen in public and whom appears only on propaganda posters, advertising billboards, and television monitors. Winson's task, like many in his office, is to "erase" anyone who has fallen afoul of the government from the official histories whom becomes "unpersons". Automaton-like, he goes through his daily routine, under constant surveillance from the "telescreens" (two-way TV monitors) and his fellow citizens. Winston occasionally attends public rallys at Victory Square where the citizens are shown propoganda films of the current war situation as well as contraditing and false news stories about Oceana's war effort to unite the civilized world under the rule of Big Brother. While his co-worker and neighbor, Parsons (Gregor Fisher), seems content to follow the state's laws, Winston, haunted by painful childhood memories and restless carnal desires, keeps a secret diary of his private thoughts, thus committing thoughtcrime: the crime of independent thought either contrary or superfluous to the aims of the Party. The so-called 'Party' is the former English parlament which follows Ingsoc (Newspeak term for "English Socialism"); the political ideology of the government of Oceania. His life takes a fatal turn when he is accosted by a fellow Outer Party worker; a mysterious, bold-looking young woman named Julia (Suzanna Hamilton) a print machine mechanic who works in the Ministery of Truth, and they begin an illicit affair. Their first meeting takes place in the remote countryside where they exchange subversive ideas and have a sexual encounter in the woods out of view and earshot of the nearest telescreen. Shortly after, Winston rents a room above a pawn shop (in the supposedly safe proletarian neighborhood) where they continue their liaison. Julia, a sensual, free-spirited young woman, procures contraband food and clothing on the black market, and for a brief few months they secretly meet and enjoy an idyllic life of relative freedom and contentment together. It comes to an end one evening in June 1984 when the Thought Police suddenly raid the flat and arrest the two of them. It is revealed that there is a small telescreen hidden behind a picture on the wall in their room, and that the elderly proprietor of the pawn shop, Charrington (Cyril Cusack), is in fact a covert agent of the Thought Police. Winston and Julia are then separated and taken away to be detained, questioned and brutally rehabilitated. Winston is brought to a fortress-like building which is called the Ministry of Love, where he is systematically tortured and brainwashed by O'Brien (Richard Burton), a high-ranking member of the Inner Party whom Winston had previously believed to be a fellow thoughtcriminal and agent of the resistance movement led by the archenemy of the Party, Emmanuel Goldstein (who, like Big Brother, perhaps does not exist). O'Brien instructs Winston about the state's true purpose and schools him in a kind of catechism on the principles of "doublethink" the practice of holding two contradictory thoughts in the mind simultaneously. Doublethink entails the willful denial and destruction of all self-evident truths, memories, and/or physical proofs which run contrary to the supreme "reality" that is invented by the Party at any given time. For his final rehabilitation, Winston is brought to Room 101, where O'Brien tells him he will be subjected to the "worst thing in the world," designed specifically around Smith's personal phobias and traumas. When confronted with this unbearable horror which turns out to be a cage filled with vicious, carnivorous rodents, Winston's psychological resistance finally and irretrievably breaks down, and he hysterically repudiates his allegiance to Julia. Now completely subjugated and purged of any rebellious thoughts, impulses, or personal attachments, Winston is restored to physical health and released. Winston returns to the Chestnut Tree Café, where he had previously seen the rehabilitated thought criminals Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford (themselves once prominent but later disgraced members of the Inner Party) who have since been "vaporized" and rendered unpersons. While sitting at the chess table, Winston is approached by Julia, who has also been brainwashed and rehabilitated. They share a bottle of Victory Gin and unemotionally exchange a few words about how they have betrayed each other. After Julia leaves, Winston watches a TV news broadcast of himself on the large telescreen confessing his "crimes" against the state and imploring forgiveness of the populace in the humbled and remorseful manner of a prodigal son come back to the fold. Upon hearing a news report declaring the Oceanian army's utter rout of the enemy Eurasian forces in North Africa, Winston silently and tearfully professes his gratitude and love for Big Brother as he anticipates the date of his execution. Having been deprived of his freedom to think and feel for himself, and reduced to a mere shell of a man, Winston is soon to be deprived of his very physical existence as well. He now welcomes his final subjugation to the absolute power and supremacy of the state as he says "I love you" to the glowering, ever-watchful visage of Big Brother on the telescreen.

In 1948, Reverend Desmond Spellacy is a young Roman Catholic monsignor in the Los Angeles Archdiocese. His older brother Tom is a homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. Des is skillful at developing church projects while keeping down costs. He sometimes cuts a corner, overlooking the shady side of construction mogul Jack Amsterdam, a lay Catholic who uses his ties to Des for the congregation's benefit but mainly for his own. One day, Lois Fazenda, a young woman, is found murdered in a vacant lot, her body cut in two. Tom and his partner Frank Crotty are in charge of the case. Fazenda is labeled "the Virgin Tramp" by the press for apparently being both a Catholic and a prostitute, turning it into a sensational case. Tom's investigation leads him to Brenda Samuels, a madam. Tom was acquainted with Brenda years earlier while working as a bagman for Amsterdam, whose corruption extends to the local prostitution ring. Brenda called the police to report the death of a Catholic priest who was having sex with one of her prostitutes. While there, Brenda reproaches Tom for doing nothing for her while she was sent to prison for running one of Jack's whorehouses. Tom later believes that Fazenda appeared in a stag film and obtains a copy. He and Frank notice that a girl in the movie was at Brenda's brothel when they came to retrieve the philandering priest. Tom wants Brenda's help with tracking down the girl. Frank spots her days later when she is being taken to jail after a roundup. They learn that Fazenda was a favorite of Leland Standard, a pornographic movie director, because of her tattoo. Standard did his filming in a deserted army post in El Segundo. At lunch with his brother, Tom provokes Amsterdam with secret facts about Amsterdam's dark side, which makes Des uncomfortable. Des tells the Cardinal that the church needs to cut ties with Amsterdam for good. Des discusses "getting rid of Jack" with his cronies, who remind him that it would not be easily done. Sonny, a corrupt City Council member and mortician, proposes that they give Jack a salutation dinner. Des organizes a Catholic "layman of the year" banquet for Amsterdam as a gesture of appreciation before ending the church's relationship with him. Furious, Tom walks up to Amsterdam at the banquet and pulls off his sash while shouting, "Were you wearing this when you were banging Lois Fazenda?" Jack attacks Tom, and they scream at each other. Tom goes to Standard's "studio" and finds the floor and a bathtub covered with dried blood. He also finds Chinese food, which the medical examiner had found in her stomach. Tom and Frank look for Standard but learn that he had been killed in a car accident twelve hours after the murder. Tom wants to drag in Amsterdam for questioning to humiliate him in public, but Frank talks him out of it. Tom starts digging around and discovers that Fazenda was having sex with community leaders. Amsterdam's lawyer Dan Campion warns the Monsignor that Tom should lay off unless they want it revealed publicly that Des also knew Fazenda. She met Des only once in passing, whereas she had a sexual relationship with both Amsterdam and Campion. But the fact that Des had any kind of involvement in such a lurid case could permanently stain his reputation with the church. Tom will not be talked out of it. His determination becomes complete when Brenda is found dead, an apparent suicide. He decides to have Amsterdam picked up and taken to headquarters, which leads to Des being treated the same way. His rising career curtailed, Des asks to be relocated to a remote parish in the desert, the same place to which his mentor in the diocese, Monsignor Fargo, was exiled. Years later, in 1962, Tom visits Des, who is now dying. Tom feels that everything is his fault, but Des calls him his salvation, tells him that he is at peace, and absolves his brother of all blame. He shows Tom the plot where they will be buried together.

This tale about a deadly assassin bent on killing French president Charles de Gaulle takes one on a cat and mouse game through the streets of Paris.

Harold is an eccentric young man. His hobbies are attending funerals and faking suicides. He became interested in death after he nearly escaped it in a chemical explosion at school one time. Ever since, he's been staging fake hangings, drownings, gunshots, you name it. Harold pulls these stunts to irritate his mother and satisfy his markedly warped sense of humor. He's from a wealthy household and has nothing better to do. He even performs these stunts in front of the dates his mother arranges for him, all of whom run out the door as a result. The mother is trying to keep him from being a dejected loner. Harold doesn't care. Harold likes Maude. Maude is an unorthodox woman. She's an enlivened 79-yr-old old lady that lives without any hangups. She isn't preoccupied with judgment. She makes risqué sculptures, poses nude, plays a variety of instruments, steals cars-and goes to funerals too. That's where she and Harold meet. As much as she loves life and takes it like a breath of fresh air, she accepts death and isn't afraid of it. To her, death is a part of the cycle of life. And when it comes to living, sky's the limit. That's what she wants to teach the rather melancholic Harold. Harold and Maude are drawn to each other despite their considerable age gap. They are a "yin-yang" relationship of her optimism and his pessimism. Harold is more of a subdued individual. Maude encourages Harold to explore the positives of life. She wants him to open up to all the world has to offer, develop the zeal for it that she has. Maude and Harold enjoy the days together, living in the moment. Harold is so smitten that he proposes to marry her, much to the abhorrence of everyone else. But this joy and romance won't last forever as Maude has another plan in mind. She's going to commit suicide on her 80th birthday, and she does just that by overdosing on pills. When she tells Harold about it, it's too late. Maude dies at the hospital. Harold then takes off in his car and it is seen going off a cliff, though when the camera pans up, Harold is standing there playing the banjo Maude gave him. Maude taught him a valuable lesson that obviously made him think twice. She taught him to appreciate his life.

Set in the late 1590s, the film opens when Lucentio (Michael York), a young nobleman, arrives in Padua, Italy to attend the local university with his servant and best friend Tranio (Alfred Lynch). After attending a graduate ceremony with outbound students graduating, Lucentio catches sight of the young and beautiful teenage Bianca (Natasha Pyne) the daughter of a wealthy merchant named Baptista (Michael Hordern). Bianca is eyed and courted by a number of good-looking and well-to-do young men who follow her to her home. However, Baptista announces that Bianca cannot be courted or marry until her elder sister, and his older daughter, Katharine (Elizabeth Taylor) is wed. As Katharine is out-spoken and far from demure, none of the men in the town want to marry her, so Bianca remains unwed even though many suitors hover to woo her. Lucentio sees the competition and devises a plan in which he disguises himself as a Latin tutor, named Cambio, in order to woo Bianca behind Baptista's back and at the same time has Tranio pretend to be him. Meanwhile, two noblemen named Hortensio (Victor Spinetti) and Gremio (Alan Webb), plot to try to woo Katharine hoping to either marry her or find someone to marry her off too. Their debate changes when Petruchio (Richard Burton), a rough-and-ready land owner, arrives in Pauda, accompanied by his personal servant Grumio (Cyril Cusack), having left Verona (the same city which 'Romeo and Juliet' takes place). Petruchio explains to Hortensio, an old friend of his, that since his father's death he has set out to enjoy life and wed. Hearing this, Hortensio recruits Petruchio as a suitor for Katherina. He also has Petruchio present him (Hortensio) to Baptista disguised as a music tutor named Litio (complete with a fake beard and eyeglasses). Thus, Lucentio and Hortensio attempt to woo Bianca while pretending to be the tutors Cambio and Litio respectively. The next day, Petruchio and his entourage, whom are Grumio, Hortensio, Gremio, Lucentio and Tranio, arrive at the Baptista household where he meets Katherine for the first time and falls in love with the fiery femme. After a furious, aggressive, and combative courtship he proposes to her. Katherina agrees to marry Petruchio after seeing that he is the only man willing to counter her quick remarks. However at the wedding the following week, Petruchio makes an embarrassing scene when he strikes the priest and drinks the communion wine. After the wedding, Petruchio takes Katherina to his home outside Verona against her will and through pouring rain where she gets soaking wet. Petruchio and Katherina move into his rustic mansion where their combative relationship continues challenging Katharine's sense of honor. Back in Padua, Lucentio confesses to Bianca that he is not a student, but the son of one of the most respected men in town, and the couple decides to marry with Baptista's blessing. In Verona, Petruchio begins the "taming" of his new wife. She is refused food and clothing because nothing - according to Petruchio - is good enough for her; he claims that perfectly cooked meat is overcooked, a beautiful dress doesn't fit right, and a stylish hat is not fashionable. He also disagrees with everything that she says, forcing her to agree with everything that he says, no matter how absurd; on their way back to Padua to attend Bianca's wedding, she agrees with Petruchio that the sun is the moon, and proclaims "if you please to call it a rush-candle. Henceforth, I vow it shall be so for me." Meanwhile, Hortensio has married a rich widow. In the final scene, there are three newly married couples; Bianca and Lucentio at their wedding party; the nameless widow and Hortensio, and Katherina and Petruchio. Because of the general opinion that Petruchio is married to a shrew, a good-natured quarrel breaks out amongst the three men about whose wife is the most obedient. Petruchio proposes a wager whereby each will send a servant to call for their wives, and whichever comes most obediently will have won the wager for her husband. Katherina is the only one of the three who comes, winning the wager for Petruchio. She then hauls the other two wives, including Bianca, into the room, giving a speech on why wives should always obey their husbands. The film ends with Baptista, Hortensio and Lucentio marveling at how successfully Petruchio has "tamed the shrew".

In West Berlin in the early 1960s, at the height of the Cold War, Alec Leamas is a spy in charge of British Intelligence operations in the city. However, his operatives have been hunted down and killed by Mundt, the head of East German counter-espionage. Leamas himself is present at Checkpoint Charlie near the Berlin Wall when he witnesses the last of his agents, Karl Riemeck, being killed as he attempts to escape to the West. Leamas is recalled to London by Control, the head of the "Circus" (slang for MI6, the British Intelligence service). Control makes little secret of the fact that he sees Leamas' career as over, however he is willing to keep him on for one last operation: to destroy Mundt, something which Leamas is only too happy to do. Leamas is later seen apparently out of the service and unemployed. He gets a job at a reference library and starts an affair with Nan Perry, another librarian and a member of the British communist party. Leamas gives the impression of a bitter, broken man and an alcoholic. He later assaults a grocer and spends time in prison. After his release from jail, Leamas is approached by a man called Ashe who claims to be part of a charity that supports ex-convicts. Leamas is quick to realise that Ashe and his associate Carlton are East German agents who want him to defect and provide information. Still a heavy drinker and desperate for money, he agrees. Leamas later visits George Smiley, another leading official in the "Circus", and there he meets Control who briefs him on what he is to tell the Germans. Leamas' defection is part of a long-term plan hatched by the British that will lead the East Germans to believe that Mundt is a traitor and will be executed by his own side. Travelling on a false passport, Leamas goes to Holland where he meets Peters, an East German Intelligence official. Leamas tells Peters about what he knows about the "Circus" and specifically about Operation "Rolling Stone" during which he made payments into Danish and Finnish banks under a false name. The money was later taken out by a "business partner", actually an agent working behind the Iron Curtain. Leamas later reads a newspaper article which shows that he is wanted by the police in England. He has no choice now but to agree to actually go to East Germany itself and is taken there by Peters. Leamas arrives at a compound where he meets Fiedler, Mundt's deputy in counter-espionage. It's well known that there is little love lost between Mundt, an ex-Nazi, and Fiedler, who is a Jew. Fiedler questions Leamas further about "Rolling Stone" and suggests that it was all about secret payments to a spy even higher up in the East German government than Karl Riemeck, who worked for the Presidium of the East German Communist Party. Leamas himself rejects this theory on the grounds that, as head of British Intelligence operations in Germany, he would have been told about all the agents working there. Meanwhile in London, Leamas' girlfriend Nan Perry is visited by George Smiley who claims to be a friend of Leamas. She is later invited to East Germany as part of an exchange program between the British and East German Communist Parties. One night, Fiedler and Leamas return to the compound where they are arrested by Mundt himself. However, Fiedler has already reported his own findings to the Presidium and Mundt is himself later arrested as a spy for the British. A secret tribunal is convened to determine Mundt's guilt. At the hearing, Fiedler outlines his case: in 1959, Mundt was part of a trading mission in London, a cover for intelligence work. He killed a man and escaped under the noses of the authorities. Fiedler claims that his escape was too easy and that he only got away when he agreed to supply information to the British, for which he was paid. Fiedler also points out that Karl Riemeck, a proven spy, rose high in the East German civil service thanks to Mundt, thus enabling them to gain access to secrets. When Riemeck came under suspicion, Mundt had him killed to protect himself. Another point is that the money from the bank accounts set up by Leamas in Helsinki and Copenhagen was withdrawn at times when Mundt is known to have been in those cities. When Leamas is asked to give evidence he again rejects the idea that Mundt was a spy for Britain because he - Leamas - would have been told. In answer to Mundt's lawyer, he denies ever meeting George Smiley. Mundt's lawyer, Karden, claims Leamas was set up by his boss, Control, to defect in order to frame Mundt and get him executed. He further reveals that Mundt's agents actually followed Leamas during his last days in London and that, although he gave them the slip, it was in the neighbourhood of George Smiley's residence. Leamas' girlfriend, Nan Perry, then appears in the court, having been lured to East Germany. Without knowing exactly what is going on, she is quizzed over her involvement. It's revealed that she now owns the lease on her rented flat due to an anonymous benefactor and that she was visited there by George Smiley. Karden persuades the court that Leamas did meet Smiley before he left London and set in motion a plan to discredit Mundt. In an attempt to try and get Nan out of trouble, Leamas quickly steps forward and admits that Karden is right about the British plan. Mundt is cleared and Fiedler and Leamas are arrested. Although Leamas hoped to get her released, Nan is also taken into custody. Leamas is taken back to his cell, but later hears the door being unlocked. Making his way out of the building to a back exit he meets Mundt. Nan is also there waiting next to a car. Mundt gives Leamas instructions on how to get to East Berlin and meet a contact who will get him over the Wall. His escape will give Mundt extra excuses to purge Fiedler and his associates and have them executed. During the journey by car, Leamas tells a confused Nan what's really been going on, the truth that he himself has only just realised: Mundt is a spy for the British and Fiedler was closing in on him. Rather than just have Fiedler killed, Smiley and Control decided to discredit him and his evidence as well. Leamas was used to make Fiedler's case and Nan to undermine it. Thus Fiedler will die for trying to incriminate a senior intelligence officer and Mundt will be able to resume his work as a double agent. When Nan berates him for causing the execution of Fiedler who was guilty of nothing, Leamas tells her that London needs Mundt in order to protect the West and the freedoms people like her take for granted: "What the hell do you think spies are? Moral philosophers measuring everything they do against the word of God or Karl Marx? They're not. They're just a bunch of seedy, squalid bastards like me. Little men, drunkards, queers, hen-pecked husbands, civil servants playing cowboys and Indians to brighten their rotten little lives. Do you think they sit like monks in a cell, balancing right against wrong? Yesterday I would've killed Mundt because I thought him evil and an enemy, but not today. Today he's evil and my friend. London needs him. They need him so that the great moronic masses you admire so much can sleep soundly in their flea-bitten beds again. They need him for the safety of ordinary crummy people like you and me." He also points out that her own Communist beliefs have their own share of evils: "There's a few million bodies on that path." In East Berlin, Leamas and Nan meet a contact who directs them to a section of the Wall over which they can escape to the West. But as they climb over it, the contact takes aim with a rifle and kills Nan, who now knows too much about Mundt to be kept alive. A shocked Leamas sees Nan collapse to the bottom of the Wall on the Eastern side. At that moment, Smiley himself calls from the Western side for Leamas to hurry and get over the Wall. Leamas instead climbs back down to the East German side and goes to Nan's lifeless body where he himself is shot dead.