Denholm Elliott

A group of troublemaking boys decide to take a stand when terrorists seize control of their boarding school. After federal agents arrest a drug czar and put him on trial, the cartel leader's vicious son storms a prep school and takes its students hostage. They rebel against the armed intruders and try to take back their academy by any means necessary. —yusufpiskin Billy Tepper is the leader of a group of rebellious boys at The Regis School. He has already been expelled from three prominent private schools. His best friend, Joey Trotta, is the son of the Head of the New York Mafia; Billy, all their friends and many other kids at the school have equally influential and prominent, if more law-abiding, parents. When Luis Cali's father is put in jail, he heads for the Regis School to put the son of the judge in charge of the case under hostage, only to find he has been removed. However, once he realises who the parents of the rest are, he decides the entire student body of the Regis School would be an even better bargaining chip. —Liz Jordan <c9310494@alinga.newcastle.edu.au> In Colombia, terrorist Luis Cali has taken over the Palace of Justice. Luis throws a woman off a balcony to her death and dumps a judge from a helicopter in order to make his point. Luis is angry because the US government has kidnapped his drug kingpin father Enrique Cali and transported Enrique to the USA to stand trial. The Regis School, in Virginia, is a boarding school where the wealthy dump their delinquent teenagers when they've been kicked out of everywhere else. These troubled heirs are presided over by their superiors -- Dean Parker and the headmaster. Phil Donoghue, one of the students, is the son of the federal judge who is presiding over Enrique's trial. A pair of deputy United States Marshals take Phil out of the school so Phil and his family can be placed somewhere safe while judge Donoghue presides over the trial. When Luis later takes the school hostage, looking for Phil and demanding Enrique's release, problem student Billy Tepper and his friends Joey Trotta, Hank Giles, Ricardo Montoya, Jonathan "Snuffy" Bradberry, and Derek decide to fight back against Luis. Snuffy's father Steven is the chairman of the First Empire Bank of New York, and vice chairman of the republican party. Hank's father is representative Henry Giles Jr, chairman of the Armed Services Committee. Joey's father is New York mob boss Albert Trotta. Ricardo's father is a senior partner at an elite law firm, and is a former president of the California Bar Association, and Billy's father is the owner of the third largest construction company in the world. Luis has had his men place explosives all over the school, and Luis has vowed that he'll blow the place up if Enrique is not released. —Todd Baldridge

At a summer house in Vermont, neighbor Howard falls in love with Lane, who's in a relationship with Peter, who's falling for Stephanie, who's married with children. Everyone is gathering at Lane's place for the weekend, and everyone's in love. Unfortunately, each beloved loves somebody else, and no one seems to realize it. —Cleo <frede005@maroon.tc.umn.edu> For the past couple of years, Lane has been living at the acreage located in rural Vermont given to her by her larger than life boozing ex-actress mother, Diane, the property which Diane and Lane's now deceased father Richard bought before Lane was born. Lane moved there in an attempt to get well following her latest suicide attempt, her depression which in large part is the result of not being able to get over shooting Diane's abusive lover, the man Diane left Richard for, dead when Lane was fourteen. Lane spends much time with two of her neighbors: Howard, a French teacher, who is in love with her, and Peter, an ex-Madison Avenuer and aspiring writer, with who in turn Lane is in love. It's nearing the end of the summer, and Lane's best friend, married Stephanie from Philadelphia, has been staying there for much of the summer both to support Lane and to get away from her unsatisfying marriage for a while. During Stephanie's time there, Peter in turn has fallen in love with her, of which Lane is unaware and which Stephanie plans not to act upon in light of Lane's feelings for Peter. As Lane feels she is ready to move on with her life, she plans on selling the acreage to pay off her medical debts, using the remaining moneys to move back to New York City to start a photography business. Lane's plans could be thrown for a loop with the arrival back for a few days of Diane and Lloyd, Diane's supportive physicist husband. Diane's plan for Peter to write her memoirs and a pronouncement by Diane end up dredging up that painful part of Lane's past that she thought she had placed behind her. —Huggo Lane is selling the family home in Vermont and moving to New York. At the moment she has her mother (and famed entertainer) Diane and step-father Lloyd living with her, as well as her sister Stephanie. Lane has been through a lot but now things seem to be getting back on track. She is in a relationship with Peter, an author. However, Peter is in love with Stephanie, who's married. Meanwhile, Howard, a neighbour, is smitten with Lane. How will things work out? —grantss

Two dim-witted New York street peddlers, Jake Bateman (Michael O'Keefe) and Barney Bonar (Paul Rodriguez), have grown tired of the frozen cold. They head to a car place where drivers are hired to transport vehicles. When they are denied driving a Cadillac to Palm Beach, Florida, Jake flirts with the car place owner (Mary Joy) and threatens to eat her goldfish until she agrees, to which she does. Upon arriving in Palm Beach, the duo find themselves accidentally crashing a party held by a rich elderly couple who lost their dog, Ralph. Barney's attempt at befriending a Navy admiral and his wife doesn't go too well while Jake meets Olivia (Lucinda Jenney), an heiress who runs a local orphanage. When Jake and Barney leave to find the Cadillac had been towed, Olivia offers to take them in in exchange for help at the orphanage. Olivia and Jake begin to get a little close when she drops a bomb on Jake. She is to be married to someone her uncle approves. Her uncle will only accept those whom he considers "perfect gentlemen". If she cannot marry in 30 days, she will lose her orphanage to a real estate developer, Strobe, who just also happens to be Olivia's ex-boyfriend who can't seem to let her go. When Jake offers to marry Olivia, she is convinced that Jake is not going to be good enough for her uncle. Upset, Jake turns to Barney, who suggests they go to a charm school run by Henrietta Phelps (Carole Shelley), a well known expert in etiquette. Taking the back route to the school, Jake and Barney are joined by their new classmates whom make up of the nerdy Eddie Lipschitz (Eddie Deezen), aggressive police officer Marsha White (Marsha Warfield), neurotic Shelley (Elizabeth Arlen), Indian man Roy Rajmataj (Andy Bumatai), and Clorinda Antonucci (Karen A. Smythe), the pregnant wife of local Mafia boss Guido Antonucci (Joe Spinell). At first, things don't bode well for anyone in the group. One night, Jake and Barney sneak off to a local bar where they find Henrietta's husband Colonel Phelps (Denholm Elliott). The Colonel reveals he is part of a secret society similar to the Illuminati in terms of learning how to be a perfect gentleman. The duo splits their time between the couple, learning proper etiquette from Henrietta while the Colonel has the boys take mock photos with royal figures and government politicians to make themselves established in high society. Having finished both courses, Jake intends to win back Olivia. However, he must deal with the likes of Strobe (Stephen Davies) and his two right hand men, Whitey and Tipper (Taylor Negron and Greg Germann). To impress Olivia's uncle, Judge Sternhill (Dan O'Herlihy), Barney brings in his friends from the charm school to help Jake. For instance, Officer White gives Barney a machine gun to help Jake shoot skeet successfully with Barney actually pulling the trigger. When at a party, Jake manages to make Strobe look foolish, the Judge is disappointed with both men and suggests a game called "cross courts", the two get Eddie to join in. However, when Eddie unwittingly confesses to Whitey about charm school, the ruse is up and Olivia is forced to marry Strobe. At the wedding ceremony, Jake and Barney sneak in with the help of their charm school friends. Clorinda arrives as an invited a guest and has Jake and Barney be her bodyguard escorts. Officer White distracts the priest and "arrests" him. Roy disguises himself as the priest with Eddie posing as an altar boy. When Strobe unveils the bride, it is actually Barney in a wig and totally embarrassing Strobe. Jake and Olivia finally get Sternhill's approval and Strobe is arrested by Officer White. Jake and Olivia drive off while Barney meets two women coming out of the church. The finale scene sees Judge Sternhill finding Colonel Phelps and they both give off the secret sign that they were both members of the "secret society" that Jake and Barney had become the newest members of.

He had everything and wanted nothing. He learned that he had nothing and wanted everything. He saved the world and then it shattered. The path to enlightenment is as sharp and narrow as a razor's edge. Larry Darrell returns from the battlefields of World War I to America a different person. His fiance (Isabel) resigns herself to a delay in the wedding plans when Larry heads off to Paris. There he finds he prefers a simpler existence and begins to read. One book inspires him to visit India and on to Nepal where he finds spiritual help from a lama. On returning to Paris he finds Isabel and some old friends. Everyone has changed. —Rob Hartill Second filming of W. Somerset Maughan's classic novel about a World War 1 veteran (played by Bill Murray) who travels the world from Tibet to Paris in an attempt to find some meaning in his life. —Jonathan Broxton <j.w.broxton@sheffield.ac.uk>

Philadelphia is a bustling commercial center of the USA. People go about their daily lives, which are controlled by the actions and decisions of the few rich who act from behind the scenes. Due to income disparity the poor African American neighborhoods of the city exist next to the neighborhoods of the Uber rich. Duke brothers Randolph (Ralph Bellamy) and Mortimer (Don Ameche) own Duke & Duke, a successful commodities brokerage in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Even with a rich lifestyle, the brothers are shown to be misers, as they give a $5 Christmas bonus to their regular waiter at their club. Winthrope is their managing director, very well-mannered and educated. Louis lives in an opulent mansion and has a full-time butler named Coleman (Denholm Elliott) at his disposal. He is served breakfast in bed and receives a private shave in his saloon. He has an endless row of expensive and tailored suits and would not even open the door to his own car (the butler has to open it for him). Louis has a keen business sense and his trading tactics on Pork Bellies futures makes the company an extra $347,000. Louis notices that Mortimer has authorized a check for $50,000 to a person named Clarence Beeks but would not clarify what the payment is for. Holding opposing views on the issue of nature versus nurture, they make a wager and agree to conduct an experiment switching the lives of two people at opposite sides of the social hierarchy and observing the results. Randolph says that Winthorpe is the product of a good environment, but Mortimer argues that Winthorpe would succeed in any environment that he is put into. They witness an encounter between Louis Winthorpe III (Dan Aykroyd), engaged to the Dukes' grand-niece Penelope (Kristin Holby)-and a poor street hustler named Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy). Valentine runs into Winthrope in the street and as a result Winthrope's briefcase falls to the ground. Valentine picks it to and tries to return it to Winthrope. Valentine is arrested at Winthorpe's insistence that Valentine tried to rob him. The Dukes decide to use the two men for their experiment. Randolph says that Valentine could run their company as well as Winthrope. He also argues that if Winthrope was to lose his job, his home, his fiance and his friends, he would take to a life of crime very easily. Winthorpe is publicly framed as a thief and drugs are planted on him (via Coleman who was briefed about the wager) when he is arrested. He is fired from his job, his bank accounts are frozen, and he is denied entry to the Duke-owned town-house where he resides. He befriends a prostitute named Ophelia (Jamie Lee Curtis) who allows him to stay at her apartment on the condition of receiving a reward once he re-establishes himself in society. Winthorpe soon finds himself ostracized and abandoned by Penelope and his former friends. Meanwhile, claiming to operate an assistance program for the underprivileged, the Dukes bail Valentine out of jail, install him in Winthorpe's position at the company and give him use of Winthorpe's home. Valentine is given a salary of $80,000 per year. Valentine quickly becomes well-versed in the business and acts well-mannered, even applying his street smarts to the job. During the firm's Christmas party, Winthorpe is caught planting drugs in Valentine's desk in a desperate attempt to get his job back. After Winthorpe flees, Valentine hides in a bathroom stall to smoke a joint he took from the desk. The Dukes enter the bathroom and, unaware of Valentine's presence, discuss in detail the outcome of their experiment and settle their wager for $1. Valentine overhears this exchange and seeks out Winthorpe. Winthorpe attempts suicide by overdosing on pills. Valentine, Ophelia and Winthorpe's former butler Coleman (Denholm Elliott) nurse him back to health and inform him of the Dukes' experiment. On television, they learn of a Clarence Beeks (Paul Gleason) transporting a secret report on orange crop forecasts. Winthorpe and Valentine recall large payments made to Beeks by Duke & Duke and realize that the Dukes are planning to obtain this report to corner the market on frozen orange juice. The group agrees to disrupt their plan as revenge. Learning of Beeks' travel plans, the four get aboard his train to switch the report in Beeks' possession with a forgery. Beeks uncovers their scheme and attempts to kill them. He fails and is subdued, and the group dress him in a gorilla costume and lock him in a cage with a real gorilla. They deliver the forged report to the Dukes in Beeks' place and collect the payment intended for him. After sharing a kiss with Ophelia, Winthorpe travels to New York City with Valentine, pooling the money with the life savings of Ophelia and Coleman to carry out their plan. On the commodities trading floor, the Dukes commit all their holdings to buying frozen concentrated orange-juice futures contracts; other traders follow their lead, inflating the price. Before the real crop report is broadcast, Valentine and Winthorpe sell futures heavily at the increased price. After the forecast that the orange crop will be normal, the price of orange-juice futures plummets. As the traders frantically sell their futures, Valentine and Winthorpe buy at the lower price from everyone except the Dukes, fulfilling the contracts they had short-sold earlier and turning an immense profit. The Dukes fail to meet a margin call, being left owing $394 million. The exchange manager orders their seats sold and their corporate and personal assets confiscated, effectively bankrupting them. Valentine and Winthorpe explain to the Dukes that they had made a wager on whether they could get rich while making the Dukes poor simultaneously. Valentine collects $1 from Winthorpe while Randolph collapses holding his chest and Mortimer shouts angrily at his brother about their failed plan, demanding the floor be reopened in a futile plea to recoup their losses. Beeks and the gorilla are loaded onto a ship heading for Africa. Meanwhile, Valentine, Winthorpe, Ophelia, and Coleman vacation on a luxurious tropical beach.

Robin Hood, aging none too gracefully, returns exhausted from the Crusades to woo and win Maid Marian one last time. It is twenty years after Robin Hood's heroics against Prince John and the Sheriff of Nottingham. Since then, Robin (Sir Sean Connery) has spent all his time outside of England, fighting as Richard the Lionheart's right-hand man in the Crusades and in France. His only connection to his past life in Sherwood Forest is his faithful companion, Little John (Nicol Williamson). However, Richard the Lionheart is now dead and a war-weary, middle-aged Robin decides to return to England. His first priority: rekindle his relationship with Maid Marian (Audrey Hepburn). However, if he figured on a peaceful life, he didn't bargain on the machinations of the Sheriff of Nottingham (Robert Shaw) and King John (Sir Ian Holm). —grantss A sort of tragicomedy/adventure movie, this story picks up the Robin Hood legend around twenty years after most versions of the story, with Robin and his sidekick Little John returning to their old Sherwood haunts world-weary from the Crusades and their sickening brutality. They're informed by former cohorts Friar Tuck and Will Scarlett that Maid Marian now lives at the nearby priory, where she has become an abbess. Marian greets Robin's return with mixed feelings, but after he rescues her from his longtime enemy, the Sheriff of Nottingham, who tries to arrest her on religious grounds, the two become lovers once again. —alfiehitchie

Unrepentant ladies' man Alfie Elkins gradually begins to understand the consequences of his lifestyle in 1960s London. For Alfie, the only real life is sex life. Only then, can he kid himself he is living. Sex is not used as the working-class boy's way to "the top". Executive status has no appeal for Alfie. Nor has class mobility. He is quite content to stay where he is, as long as the "birds" are in "beautiful condition", as he assures us they are in one of the candid, over-the-shoulder asides to the camera which this movie carries over from Tom Jones (1963). This movie shows how much of the "swinging 60s" quality of London life was a male creation, and through the dominance of the fashion photographers, a male prerogative. —alfiehitchie Alfie is a young man from the working classes of London. He is confident, charming, totally self-centered and very successful with the ladies; using them for his immediate pleasure without emotional involvement and leaving a trail of emotional devastation. His callousness toward these women contrasts with the delusion that he causes no harm; he is just teaching life's lessons. —Joe Jurca Showing total disregard for the consequences of his actions, stylish chauffeur Alfie Elkins, a handsome Cockney Lothario and incorrigible skirt-chaser, thinks he is God's gift to women. And in his endless pursuit of happiness, Alfie is used to charming his way out of trouble in hedonistic 1960s London, carving a path of sexual promiscuity and heartbreak along the way. However, as women of all shapes and sizes fall prey to his casual cheekiness, sooner or later, egotistic Alfie will have to face the music and pay the price for his insatiable sexual appetite. But has it ever occurred to Alfie that women have feelings too? —Nick Riganas