H.B. Warner

Foreign correspondent Pete Garvey has 5 days to win back his former fiancée, or he'll lose the orphans he adopted. Pete Garvey, foreign correspondent, has been running an impromptu adoption agency for war orphans in Paris, when an ultimatum from his erstwhile fiancée Emmadel Jones draws him back to Boston, complete with two adopted orphans to melt her heart. Too late! She's now engaged to rich, handsome Wilbur Stanley. And if Pete's not married within five days, he loses the kids. He'll have to work fast... —Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>

6-year-old Jenny rescues a collie dog slated for animal experiments. Dr. Webster adopts them both, to his fiancee's chagrin. An outbreak of spotted fever sends the town into panic and Jenny is infected and about to die. Six-year-old Jenny rescues a collie dog, the only survivor of a plane wreck. A tag on the dog's neck states that it is en route to a medical laboratory where its blood will be used for spotted fever vaccine. Dr. Steven Webster meets Jenny and the dog and "adopts" them both. His fiancée Susan isn't too fond of either the girl or the dog. Webster wants to get a hospital for the town but he is suppressed by the town mayor. In the arguments that follow, Webster's lab is wrecked and ticks infected with spotted fever escape. The town is in a panic and all want to be vaccinated. Jenny is infected and is about to die. —Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>

American correspondent Mike Malone uncovers a Nazi plot for an uprising of the Arab tribes in Lybia. Pursued by Sheik David and his men, Mike takes refuge in the suite of Nancy Brooks, who is in the British Intelligence. He asks her to hide a gun and escapes through a window. Reporting the affair to British Consul Herbert Forbes, the latter tries to discourage him from further investigation, as the British are aware of the plot and are planning on staging a coup. He goes with Mike to Nancy's apartment, and she denies having ever seen him before. Sheik Ibrahim, next in command of the Arab tribe to Sheik David, is plotting with Nazi agent Yussof Streyer to kill David who is friendly with the British. Mike and Nancy have gone to David's camp, escape from Ibrahim's henchmen, and get back to El Moktar before the Arabs attack the garrison. —Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>

A naive idealist fights the corrupt political machine that engineered his appointment to the U.S. Senate.

The son of a snobbish Wall Street banker becomes engaged to a woman from a good-natured but decidedly eccentric family not realizing that his father is trying to force her family from their home for a real estate development. Stenographer Alice Sycamore is in love with her boss Tony Kirby, who is the vice-president of the powerful company owned by his greedy father Anthony P. Kirby. Kirby Sr. is dealing a monopoly in the trade of weapons, and needs to buy one last house in a 12-block area owned by Alice's grandfather, Martin Vanderhof. However, Martin is the patriarch of an anarchic and eccentric family where the members do not care for money but for having fun and making friends. When Tony proposes to Alice, she states that it would be mandatory to introduce her simple and lunatic family to the snobbish Kirbys, and Tony decides to visit Alice with his parents one day before the scheduled get-together. There is an inevitable clash of classes and lifestyles: the Kirbys spurn the Sycamores and Alice breaks with Tony, changing the lives of the Kirby family. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Tony Kirby Jr., vice president of Kirby and Company, and his stenographer Alice Sycamore are in love with each other and want to get married. They both realize that a major problem in doing so is the incompatibility of their respective families. Tony's father, the company's owner and president Anthony P. Kirby, is a cutthroat businessman who doesn't care who he steps on to earn the almighty dollar, the amount of which being how he measures his worth and the worth of others. Tony's mother is a pretentious snob. Both his parents openly but quietly disapprove of the union. Alice's extended family, on the other hand, are an eccentric lot. They all have a "do whatever you want to do because you like doing it" mentality, which was initially fostered by the family patriarch, Alice's maternal grandfather, Martin Vanderhof, in whose house they all live. With the exception of Alice, they are somewhat blissfully unaware that their lives are unconventional. However, their attitude of openness and inclusion has reaped them the rewards of a multitude of unconditional friends, some who live with them solely because they came one day, liked what they saw, were welcomed with open arms, and have never left. Tony and Alice want to deal with the incompatibility issue head-on, although they both take differing paths in how to deal with it. Another problem is that A.P. Kirby is working on the biggest deal of his career - cornering the munitions market, especially lucrative in the lead up to probable war--that requires a massive land acquisition, which includes Grandpa Vanderhof's house, but he refuses to sell. Grandpa is unaware of who wants to buy his house, while A.P. is unaware that Grandpa is the one hold-out who could ruin his entire plan. —Huggo Anthony P Kirby is a wealthy banker. In order to clinch his next deal, his company, Kirby and Company, is buying up all the properties in a neighborhood. Everyone has sold, except one. Martin Vanderhof won't budge, not for any offer. He is happy where he is, living with his daughter, son-in-law, two granddaughters, grandson-in-law and a few other people in a community largely free of life's pressures. Mr Kirby's son Tony, is a new-appointed Vice President of Kirby and Company and is in love with his secretary, Alice Sycamore, Mr Vanderhof's granddaughter. Their relationship, and the property issue, puts the two families, the Kirbys and Vanderhofs, on a collision course. It's more than a clash of families but a clash of outlooks, ideals and what's important in life. —grantss Sweet-natured Alice Sycamore falls for banker's son Tony Kirby. But when she invites her snooty prospective in-laws to dinner to give their blessing to the marriage, Alice's peculiar extended family--including philosophical grandfather Martin Vanderhof, hapless fledgling ballerina sister Essie and fireworks enthusiast father Paul--might be too eccentric for the staid Kirbys. —Jwelch5742

Drummond, his girlfriend and his butler set out to rescue a high-ranking Scotland Yard officer who has been kidnapped. On the eve of his wedding Captain Hugh Drummond is off to Morocco when Scotland Yard's Colonel J.A. Nielson is kidnapped by international criminal Richard Lane. With his fiancée Phyllis Clavering, friend 'Algy' Longworth and his trusty valet 'Tenny' Tennyson, Bulldog flies his own plane 1200 miles only to find the local British Consul ordering him home without delay. Drummond isn't an easy man to get rid of however and they soon mount their rescue plan. —garykmcd As his wedding to Phyllis Clavering approaches, 'Bulldog' Drummond has taken extreme precautions to avoid getting caught up in another adventure that would delay the wedding. But even as they make their final preparations, their friend Colonel Neilson is being kidnapped by a gang headed by the traitorous Richard Lane. Phyllis witnesses the abduction, and quickly finds Drummond to tell him. They track the gang to Morocco, where they will face many obstacles to their goal of rescuing Neilson. —Snow Leopard

When a revered diplomat's plane is diverted and crashes in the peaks of Tibet, he and the other survivors are guided to an isolated monastery at Shangri-La, where they wrestle with the invitation to stay. British diplomat Robert Conway and a small group of civilians crash land in the Himalayas, and are rescued by the people of the mysterious, Eden-like valley of Shangri-la. Protected by the mountains from the world outside, where the clouds of World War II are gathering, Shangri-la provides a seductive escape for the world-weary Conway. —Marg Baskin <marg@asd.raytheon.ca> In 1935, seasoned diplomat Robert Conway is sent to rescue a group of British nationals who find themselves in China the midst of a rebellion. Conway manages to get them all out and also to escape with his brother George and several others on the last airplane only to find that they are being flown far into the Himalayas. They eventually find themselves in Shangri-La, a Tibetan monastery in a beautiful mountain valley. It soon becomes clear that they are not there by chance and that were in fact kidnapped. Conway and his fellow travelers are keen on leaving but slowly, they all come to appreciate their new surroundings. Everyone that is except George Conway who is desperate to leave. As Robert learns the true secret of Shangri-La and his reason for being there, he is faced with having to leave in order to protect his brother who will be setting off with or without him. —garykmcd Brit Robert Conway is a writer, humanitarian, diplomat, and former military man, all of which have made him a public hero. But he is remarkably unfulfilled in his life, something he does not tell anyone. On March 10, 1935, he is in Baskul, China, where a violent revolution is taking place. It is his job to evacuate the ninety British subjects in the area, before he himself heads back to London to become British Foreign Secretary. He is able to complete the evacuation, with him, his overly pragmatic brother George Conway, paleontologist Alexander Lovett (a fussbudget of a man), secretive Henry Barnard (who later states why he is so secretive about himself), and terminally ill American Gloria Stone his fellow passengers on the last flight out. What they are initially unaware of is that the plane has been hijacked, and eventually crash lands high in the Himalayas, killing the hijacking pilot. But instead of what seems a probable death for them, they are rescued by a band of men who take them back to their community hidden behind the mountains, a seemingly Utopian community named Shangrila, where the overall belief is to be kind. Aging is also a seemingly unknown concept. Each of the five has different feelings about their new sanctuary, where they eventually learn they were not brought by accident. On one end of the spectrum is George, who does whatever he can to get back to civilization as he knows it, despite the probable hardship of doing so, especially since there is no means of communication in and out. He believes what they have been told are all lies and that they are being held prisoners against their will. On the other end is Bob, who believes that Shangrila is exactly what he's been looking for in life. With no proof one way or another, the five have differing views of staying in Shangrila forever or trying to make their way out. It may be not until they receive that "proof" that a definitive decision can be made, but by that time it may be too late for some. —Huggo On 10 March 1935, the pacifist British diplomat and future Foreign Secretary Robert Conway helps a group of ninety Westerns white people to escape from the Chinese city of Baskul after the beginning of a revolution. He leaves the airport in the last plane with his brother George, the geologist Alexander P. Lovett, the rogue trader Henry Barnard and the sick and bitter Gloria Stone. However, the plane is skyjacked and crashes in a remote area in Tibet. When they have no further hope of surviving, they are rescued and brought to the utopistic paradise Shangri-La, a peaceful and plentiful place without illness, war or any type of dispute. Their first sensation is that they are prisoners but along the days, each survivor loves and has no intention to leave the place except George that tries to convince the group to leave Shangri-la. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

A unassuming greeting card poet from a small town in Vermont heads to New York City upon inheriting a massive fortune and is immediately hounded by those who wish to take advantage of him. Longfellow Deeds lives in a small town and leads a small-town kind of life, including playing the tuba in the town band. When a relative dies and leaves Deeds a fortune, Longfellow picks up his tuba and moves to the big city, where he becomes an instant target for everyone from the greedy opera committee to the sensationalist daily newspaper. Deeds outwits them all until Babe Bennett comes along. Babe is a hot-shot reporter who figures that the best way to get close to Deeds is to pose as a damsel in distress. When small-town boy meets big-city girl, anything can, and does, happen.