Ian McDiarmid

In 1799 America, Peter Van Garrett writes and seals a series of documents, before fleeing the small Dutch hamlet of Sleepy Hollow with his son, Dirk. On the road, their carriage is overtaken by a lone rider who beheads Dirk, and follows Peter into a cornfield, where he is slain as well. Elsewhere in New York City, mild-mannered constable Ichabod Crane (Johnny Depp) comes at odds with his superiors due to his persistent arguments in favor of integrating modern scientific procedures into the American justice system. Crane, who suffers from severe religious trauma (caused by the torture and murder of his mother, a practitioner of benign witchcraft, at the hands of his father, a sadistic religious fanatic) abhors the torturous methods used to solve crimes, and advocates for early forensic science in its stead. To this end, the Burgomaster (Christopher Lee) dispatches him to Sleepy Hollow to investigate the Van Garretts' murders, as well as the murder of the local widow Emily Winship, who was also found beheaded. Arriving in Sleepy Hollow, Crane meets Katrina Van Tassel (Christina Ricci) and her suitor Brom (Christopher Van Dien), and is welcomed by Katrina's father, Baltus (Michael Gambon), and stepmother, Mary (Miranda Richardson). Upstairs, Crane discusses the murders with Baltus and the other town elders: Reverend Steenwyck (Jeffrey Jones), Doctor Lancaster (Ian McDiarmid), Magistrate Samuel Philipse (Richard Griffiths), and Notary James Hardenbrook. The town believes that the murders are the work of Sleepy Hollow's local ghost story, the Headless Horseman. Baltus explains that the Horseman was once a bloodthirsty Hessian mercenary (Christopher Walken) who fought in the American revolutionary war, riding a great black steed and beheading his victims with a sword. When the Horseman was finally beaten, he was beheaded with his own sword and buried in the Hollow's western woods. The town believes the Horseman to have returned from the grave to slaughter its inhabitants, but Crane remains confident that the murderer is a mortal. The next morning, a fourth victim is found: Van Garrett's servant, Jonathan Masbath. Investigating the scene of the crime, Crane discovers that the wound was instantly cauterized, which the elders believe to be a sign of demonic force. At Masbath's funeral, Crane accepts his son, Young Masbath, into his service, and exhume the bodies of the Horseman's victims on a tip from Magistrate Philipse. Discovering a stab wound on Winship's body, Crane performs an autopsy on the widow and discovers that she was pregnant. That night, Crane is attacked by a headless rider in black, who turns out to be Brom playing a prank on him. Katrina takes Crane to the ruins of her family's old cottage, where the two begin to bond, and gives him a small spell-book for protection. Magistrate Philipse tries to flee, but is confronted by Crane, who interrogates him regarding his knowledge of Winship's pregnancy. The Headless Horseman suddenly appears and kills Philipse in front of Crane, riding into the woods with his head. Despite his initial terror, Crane volunteers to lead an expedition to the western woods, with Young Masbath the only one volunteering to accompany him. In the woods, Masbath mentions an argument that his father overheard between Peter Van Garrett and his son, and the two stumble upon the home of an old crone, who directs them to find the Headless Horseman's grave beneath the Tree of the Dead. Encountering Katrina along the way, the three reach the tree, which Crane deduces to be a gateway between the worlds of the living and the dead. Finding the Horseman's grave disturbed, Crane exhumes the body to find the skull missing. At that moment, the Horseman bursts from the base of the tree and rides for Sleepy Hollow, where he kills midwife Beth Killian (Claire Skinner) and her family. Unable to kill the Horseman, Brom is killed and Crane is stabbed. Recovering at the Van Tassels' house, Crane deduces that someone is using the Horseman's skull to summon and control him, and opens up to Katrina about his religious trauma. Suspecting a conspiracy, he confronts Notary Hardenbrook, and discovers that Peter Van Garrett secretly married Emily Winship, and made a new will that named the widow and her unborn child his sole beneficiaries. Realizing that Baltus stands the most to gain from the murders, Crane names him the prime suspect, as all those beheaded are either witnesses or beneficiaries to Van Garrett's will. That evening, Crane discovers the sign of the Evil Eye under his bed, and follows a hooded figure into the woods, who he discovers to be Lady Van Tassel in the middle of a sexual rendezvous in which she ritualistically cuts open her hand. The next day, Katrina burns the evidence against her father, and spurns Crane when he confronts her. Crane learns that Notary Hardenbrook has taken his own life. Reverend Steenwyck holds a meeting to discredit Crane, when Baltus rushes in declaring that the Horseman has killed Lady Van Tassel. The townsfolk shelter in the church, as the Horseman cannot enter. Steenwyck kills Doctor Lancaster when the latter confesses their conspiracy to Baltus, who shoots and kills Steenwyck in self-defense. The Horseman impales Baltus with a makeshift harpoon and drags him out of the church, beheading him. Crane finds that Katrina has drawn a large Evil Eye sigil on the church floor. Believing her to be in control of the Horseman, and unable to bring himself to accuse her, Crane leaves Sleepy Hollow. Crane discovers that the Evil Eye is actually a sigil of protection, and discovers the wound on "Lady Van Tassel's" body to have been inflicted post-mortem: the real Lady Van Tassel, having faked her death, abducts Katrina. At the town's old windmill, she reveals her true heritage as the daughter of an impoverished family who had been evicted by the Van Garrets. Making a pact with Satan, she summoned the Headless Horseman to kill those who had wronged her, and manipulated her way into the Van Tassel family while coercing the other elders into her plot. Having killed all beneficiaries and witnesses - as well as her sister, the crone who aided Crane and Masbath - Lady Van Tassel summons the Horseman to kill Katrina, the final obstacle between her and both the Van Garrett and Van Tassel estates. Crane arrives in the nick of time to save Katrina and Young Masbath, and the three destroy the windmill in an attempt to kill the Horseman. Fleeing to the Tree of the Dead, they are intercepted by Lady Van Tassel, who shoots Crane. Crane survives thanks to Katrina's spell-book taking the bullet, and manages to retrieve the Horseman's skull from Lady Van Tassel's possession. He returns it to the horseman just as Katrina is about to be killed, freeing him from his curse. The Horseman's head is restored, and he rides back to Hell, taking Lady Van Tassel with her. With the Headless Horseman's rampage ended, Crane, Katrina, and Young Masbath return to New York City.

The exiled royal doctor to King Charles II devotes himself to helping Londoners suffering from the plague, and in the process falls in love with an equally poor woman. An aspiring young doctor, Robert Merivel found himself in the service of King Charles II and saves the life of a spaniel dear to the King. Merivel joins the King's court and lives the high life provided to someone of his position. Merivel is ordered to marry one of the King's mistresses in order to divert the suspicions of another one of his mistresses. He is given one order by the king and that is not to fall in love. The situation worsens when Merivel finds himself in love with his new wife. Eventually, the King finds out and relieves Merivel of his position and wealth. His fall from grace leaves Merivel where he first started. And through his travels and reunites with an old friend, he rediscovers his love for true medicine and what it really means to be a doctor. —P. Wong <pwong@nt.net>

Lawrence Jamieson (Michael Caine) is a cultivated and suave British master con artist who operates in the deluxe hotels along the French Riviera under the watchful and approving eye of French Inspector Andre (Anton Rodgers), the resident chief of police who receives a cut of his take. Their only concern is a mysterious, anonymous character known only as "The Jackal" who has been preying on other wealthy victims of late. When small-time American hustler Freddy Benson (Steve Martin) decides to search for easy marks in Beaumont-Sur-Mer, Lawrence's home base, Lawrence recognizes that the Jackal has shown his face. He briefly has Andre arrest Freddy for conning a gold digger and release him on the promise of a bribe, but Freddy encounters one of Lawrence's past victims on his plane and realizes who Lawrence really is. Freddy returns to Beaumont-Sur-Mer and confronts Lawrence, demanding training in his art of the con in exchange for keeping silent. Lawrence agrees, but only as a way to get rid of Freddy since Lawrence does not want a lowly competitor infringing on his territory. Freddy's roles in subsequent cons are limited, and much to his chagrin, he is forced to play Lawrence's mentally disabled younger half-brother, Ruprecht, whose extremely socially subnormal traits are used to repel women that Lawrence has recently conned, and to whom they believe they will be wed. When Freddy decides that he's had enough of Lawrence's humiliating tutelage and wants to go out on his own, the two agree to a challenge to see who will remain in Beaumont-Sur-Mer, since there is not enough room for the two of them in the same small town. The first one to con $50,000 out of a selected mark will be allowed to stay, while the other must leave and never return to Beaumont-Sur-Mer. The two select Janet Colgate (Glenne Headly), a naive and wealthy American heiress, as their target and embark on their separate strategies while at the same time ruthlessly sabotaging each other. Freddy poses as a Psychosomatically crippled soldier who needs to borrow $50,000 for treatment by a celebrated Liechtenstein psychiatrist, Emile Shauffhausen. But when Lawrence discovers this scheme, he pretends to be Dr. Shauffhausen, insisting Freddy's condition is one he can cure with the stipulation that Janet pay the $50,000 fee directly to him. Lawrence discovers that Janet is not wealthy after all but on vacation as a contest winner. She plans to sell the remainder of her prizes and combine the proceeds with her father's savings to finance Freddy's treatment. Lawrence has always taken advantage of wealthy and corrupt members of society, but he does not take advantage of the poor and virtuous. Impressed and emotionally touched by Janet's innate goodness, Lawrence calls off the bet. Freddy suggests they change the challenge and make Janet herself the bet, with the first to bed her declared the winner. Lawrence refuses to try to "win," agreeing only to bet that Freddy will fail to do so. Scheming with a group of sympathetic English sailors (who pity Freddy and think he really is disabled), Freddy has Lawrence abducted and taken to a transport plane to Honduras. He goes to Janet, who admits that she is in love with him. This "cures" Freddy of his disorder. Lawrence is in the bedroom hidden from view, and Janet reveals that he had told her how to handle Freddy's return, and that he would be 'cured'. Once a member of the Royal Naval Reserve, Lawrence had told the sailors the true story. Frustrated at being played for fools, they strong-arm Freddy into joining their party and glue his palm to a wall to stop him from escaping while Lawrence puts Janet on the next plane out of France. Despite being trapped, Freddy enjoys the party greatly. The next day however, Janet does not board her flight. She instead returns to her hotel room to find a remorseful Freddy there. They kiss, close the door and begin to undress. The news reaches Lawrence as he swims, and he accepts his defeat with grace. He is later seen struggling to retain composure as he waits for Freddy to return and gloat over his victory. Janet later goes to Lawrence in tears. She tells him that Freddy has stolen the money her father sent. Lawrence compensates her with $50,000 of his own and takes her to the airport. At the last minute before she boards the plane, Janet tells Lawrence that she cannot take the money and gives the bag back to him. As the plane leaves, Freddy, in handcuffs, appears claiming that Janet robbed the both of them. Puzzled, Lawrence finally opens up the bag and finds a note from Janet instead admitting that she indeed took the $50,000 and that she was The Jackal all along. Freddy rants his head off, while Lawrence smiles in admiration at Janet's cleverness. Freddy and Lawrence assess their loss. They are about to part company forever when Janet, under a new disguise (as a loud New Yorker named Paula), suddenly arrives at Lawrence's villa with a yacht filled with wealthy people. While the guests refresh themselves, Janet takes the two men aside and announces that as The Jackal she has made a fortune, but she had great fun during her time with Lawrence and Freddy. Joining arms, they set out to fleece their latest victims.