Katharine Hepburn

Marshal Rooster Cogburn unwillingly teams up with Eula Goodnight to track down her father's murderers. A band of drunken thugs overruns a small village in the Indian Nation that is run by Minister Goodnight and his daughter Eula and proceed to violate and kill the villagers. Miss Goodnight teams up with ruthless Marshal Rooster J. Cogburn to go after them and bring them to justice. —Christopher D. Ryan <cryan@direct.ca>

A daughter brings her fiance home to meet her parents, not having told them he`s black.

At the end of a long and hot summer day, members of one family gather in a large house. Everyone has something painful and offensive to say, and their silence is even worse. Over the course of one day in August 1912, the family of retired actor James Tyrone grapples with the morphine addiction of his wife Mary, the illness of their youngest son Edmund and the alcoholism and debauchery of their older son Jamie. As day turns into night, guilt, anger, despair, and regret threaten to destroy the family. —Marc Andreu <mandreu@mediapark.es> The film spends one day and night with the dysfunctional Tyrone family. Mary Tyrone is an unstable mother addicted in morphine that recalls moments of her life in the past to escape from her reality. The Irish patriarch James Tyrone is a cheap and alcoholic man and former successful actor. The older son Jamie Tyrone is an alcoholic idle man that loves and envies his brother and is blamed by his mother for the death of his younger brother. Edmund Tyrone is an aspiring writer that has consumption (tuberculosis) and tried to commit suicide. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil One day in the early twentieth century in the life of the outwardly "loving" yet dysfunctional Tyrone family - parents James and Mary, and their two surviving adult sons Jamie and Edmund - at their Connecticut seaside summer home is presented. Mary has recently been released from a sanatorium for addiction to morphine. She got hooked on it during the difficult pregnancy with Edmund. As such, she secretly blames him for her addiction. Although Mary is purportedly clean, the male members of the family can't help but believe that she is still getting her fixes when she is alone. Edmund, a mariner, also recently arrived home. They are all aware deep in their hearts that Edmund is suffering from consumption, and not a summer cold as they all say it is, as they await the official diagnosis. James, formerly an actor, is a spendthrift despite having money. He, however, is not unwilling to spend money on whiskey or get rich quick schemes, largely buying what ends up being worthless real estate. Jamie largely blames his father for not spending the money early in their illnesses for Mary and Edmund's health/medical problems. Otherwise, Jamie has largely been aimless in his life. He has followed in James' footsteps in becoming an actor solely because James gave him the opportunity, but places no effort in it as a career. In addition to these issues, all three male members of the family drink to excess. These family issues are played out as the long day turns into night... —Huggo Against the backdrop of a hot, humid, early-1900s August day, and the eerie sound of the foghorn, the tortured Tyrone family gathers at their summer house in Connecticut. Little by little, through an interminable series of bitter quarrels, unpleasant mood swings, and cruel love/hate alternations, the parsimonious former actor patriarch, James Tyrone Sr., watches the inevitable disintegration of his already dysfunctional family. More and more, as the emotionally unstable, substance-dependent mother, Mary, is on the verge of a mental breakdown, and her two boys, the embittered, resentful wastrel of a son, James, and his tuberculosis-stricken younger brother, Edmund, can't stay in the same room without a battle, an insidious undercurrent of lost faith and crippled happiness is tearing the family apart. And the long day's journey into the night can only bring pain, despair, and sorrow. —Nick Riganas

New Orleans, 1937. Catherine Holly (Elizabeth Taylor) is a young woman institutionalized for a severe emotional disturbance that came about when her cousin, Sebastian Venable, died under questionable circumstances while they were on holiday in Spain a few months earlier. The late Sebastian's wealthy mother, Violet Venable (Katharine Hepburn), makes every effort to deny and suppress a potentially sordid truth about her son and his demise. Toward this end, she attempts to bribe the state hospital's administrator, Dr. Hockstader (Albert Dekker), by offering to finance a new wing for the underfunded facility (in Sebastian's name) if he will coerce his brilliant young surgeon, Dr. John Cukrowicz, (Montgomery Clift) into lobotomizing her niece, thereby removing any chance that the events surrounding her son's death might be revealed by Catherine's "obscene babbling". Mrs. Venable meets with Dr. Cukrowicz in the primordial garden ("like the dawn of creation") at her estate to discuss her niece's case, and their conversation eventually turns to Sebastian. Mrs. Venable describes him as a poet whose art was his sole occupation... even though he only wrote a single poem each year during the summer months and never published his work... and recounts her own previous vacations with him and of the poems that he kept in a poetry book that she reads from time to time. Mrs. Venable then reads out loud to Dr. Cukrowicz one poem from the book which tells of one particular voyage to the Encantadas a few years ago where her son forced her to witness the horrific sight of birds feeding on newborn turtles emerging from the sand, a ghastly scene in which Sebastian believed he saw the "face of God". Cukrowicz agrees to visit Catherine and begin his evaluation. Catherine has been confined to a private women's mental institution since her return from Europe several months earlier. At first remaining out of sight, Cukrowicz watches as she is caught smoking by Sister Felicity (Joan Young), one of the nuns who staff the facility. When the nun confronts Catherine and holds out her hand, demanding that she turn the cigarette over, Catherine responds by extinguishing the lit cigarette into her palm, burning her. The nun then tells the doctor that this can be seen as proof of her mental instability. Cukrowicz dismisses Sister Felicity and goes on to interview Catherine in her room. She claims that her memory does not extend any further back than an incident that occurred just before she left for Europe with Sebastian, when she "lost her honor" while being driven home from a Mardi Gras ball. Beyond that, she struggles to recall the events that led to Sebastian's death and her subsequent breakdown, but expresses her desire to do so. Beginning to doubt that she has lost her mind, Cukrowicz decides to move Catherine into the state hospital for continued observation. Catherine's mother (Mercedes McCambridge) and brother George (Gary Raymond) pay her a visit and reveal that Sebastian has left them a considerable sum of money in his will. Unfortunately, Mrs. Venable will not give them the inheritance unless they sign papers to commit Catherine to the institution and allow a lobotomy to be performed. Alarmed by this prospect, Catherine tries to escape. She accidentally wanders onto a catwalk suspended over the men's recreational area. With the door at the other end of the catwalk locked, she is forced to fight her way back past the men who are trying to climb up onto the catwalk and grope her, and returns to her room in defeat. Later, Mrs. Venable drops by the hospital to check on the status of Cukrowicz's evaluation. The doctor persuades her to meet Catherine face to face. In the ensuing confrontation, Catherine tries to get her aunt to reveal the true nature of her relationship with Sebastian and the reason why she was left behind and Catherine chosen to take her place as his traveling companion, vaguely hinting that Sebastian used them as "bait" and that they "procured for him". Mrs. Venable responds to these allegations by fainting. Catherine uses this opportunity to slip away again to find another way to escape from the hospital. Catherine finds another catwalk that runs above a rec room filled with women who initially stare at her in silence as she walks overhead. She climbs the railing and leans out precipitously, considering jumping to her death as the women start cackling below, but before she can release her hold, an orderly (David Cameron) comes up behind her, drags her back to her room and sedates her. In a last-ditch effort to help Catherine, Cukrowicz brings her to the Venable estate where he administers a truth serum that will allow her to overcome any resistance to remembering the details of what happened that summer. Before an audience consisting of her aunt, mother and brother, Miss Foxhill (Mavis Villiers), Dr. Hockstader, and Nurse Benson (Patricia Marmont), all of whom have gathered on the patio in the jungle-like garden, Cukrowicz begins questioning Catherine: In a long silent flashback sequence, Catherine recalls how she and Sebastian spent their days on the beach in the Spanish town of Cabeza de Lobo at a posh resort hotel on the beach. On one occasion, he drags her reluctantly into the water, which causes the fabric of her white bathing suit to become transparent. A group of local young men, who had been watching her from the neighboring public beach, start to approach but are intercepted by Sebastian. Catherine gradually realizes that he is using her as bait to attract these local teenage boys in order to proposition them for sex. Since the boys are desperate for money, Sebastian is successful in his efforts; however, he gradually becomes "fed up with the dark ones" and, being "famished for blondes", makes plans to depart for the northern countries of Scandinavia. On one scorching white-hot day, Sebastian and Catherine are having lunch at a local cafe near the beach when they are beset by a team of ragged street boys playing cacophonous music on instruments of scrap metal and begging for money (some of them being the same teen boys he propositioned to earlier). When Sebastian rejects them, they take up pursuit through the streets of the town. Sebastian attempts to flee, but the boys swarm around him at every turn. He is finally cornered among the ruins of a temple located on a hilltop. In the meantime, Catherine has been frantically trying to catch up with Sebastian, but she reaches him only to see him overwhelmed at last by the group of boys. To her horror and revulsion, she realizes that the starving street teens are literally tearing him apart and eating his flesh. She screams for help, to no avail. The film returns to Catherine, who has collapsed upon the ground, sobbing, and then runs outside the house. Mrs. Venable closes Sebastian's book of poems... the pages of which are blank (there were never any poems in the book, for Mrs. Venable clearly made them up as her own deluded way to deny her son's homosexuality to herself). Mrs. Venable then slowly rises from her seat and takes Cukrowicz's arm. Calling him Sebastian, she tells him not to be out in the sun for too long and that they should go inside the boat and inform the captain that they want to leave. Now clearly insane that the truth has come out, Mrs. Venable is led away and Cukrowicz returns to check on Catherine, who has recovered, having learned the truth. They both walk into the house together.

During the Depression, a con-man promises rain to a desperate drought-ridden Kansas town and marriage to a local desperate spinster. Lizzie Curry is on the verge of becoming a hopeless old maid. Her wit and intelligence and skills as a homemaker can't make up for the fact that she's just plain plain. Even the town sheriff, File, for whom she harbors a secret yen, won't take a chance --- until the town suffers a drought and into the lives of Lizzie and her brothers and father comes one Bill Starbuck - profession: Rainmaker. —A.L.Beneteau <albl@inforamp.net> This is the story of a family...and the daughter specifically who both feel hopeless about two things. The family is concerned about the drought that is effecting the family farm, and about the future of their sister Lizzie. Since she hasn't met a man at her stage of life...the family and she thinks it's because she's too "plain" looking. Until a stranger comes along an convinces both that there is hope. —Ray Betterbid During the Great Depression, Lizzie Curry is the sole female in a household of males on the Curry ranch in rural Three Point, the males being her widowed father H.C. and brothers Noah and Jim. Considered plain, Lizzie is close to being classified a spinster, something she doesn't like, she wanting to be loved for herself and not wanting to act flirty i.e. helpless or silly, to attract a man, or to be paraded as desperate for a husband. H.C. and Jim in particular will push her into situations to be with eligible men, inexperienced Jim who himself is susceptible to ploys of such flirty girls as Snookie Maguire. Of the men in town, they all believe that recently arrived Deputy Sheriff File has the most potential as a mate for Lizzie, he who tells people he that he is widowed, while in reality his wife left him for another man, arguably the reason for he being relationship-shy. The lives of the entire family are turned upside down with the arrival into town of Bill Starbuck, a proverbial snake oil salesman who they are unaware is on File's radar as the con man heading their way. What Starbuck is selling to the Currys is rain in the current drought decimating their cattle stock. For $100 up front, he guarantees rain within twenty-four hours. While H.C., with naive Jim by his side, is willing to pay the money seeing the amount as what he may routinely lose on a gambling night anyway, Noah but Lizzie in particular can see Starbuck as the charlatan that he is. But Lizzie may have a different view of this stranger when he convinces her that she is indeed beautiful. —Huggo

Assistant District Attorney Adam Bonner is assigned to prosecute a woman who tries to shoot her unfaithful husband. The DA and Bonner both expect a quick win. But neither planned on Bonner's wife and fellow attorney, Amanda Bonner, of defending the woman on the basis of "equal rights under the law," which Ms. Bonner insists would vindicate a man who would try to kill the lover of his unfaithful wife. Ms. Bonner shows throughout the court case that the law and society treat women different from men, and that any person would resort to violence if pushed sufficiently far. Mr. Bonner insists that regardless, no individual can take the law into his or her own hands, or chaos would ensue.

A young man in love with a girl from a rich family finds his unorthodox plan to go on holiday for the early years of his life met with skepticism by everyone except for his fiancée's eccentric sister and long-suffering brother. Free-thinking Johnny Case finds himself betrothed to a millionaire's daughter. When her family, with the exception of black-sheep Linda and drunken Ned, want Johnny to settle down to big business, he rebels, wishing instead to spend the early years of his life on "holiday." With the help of his friends Nick and Susan Potter, he makes up his mind as to which is the better course, and the better mate. —Terri A. Mabry <tamabry@uci.edu> While each is on a respective vacation in Lake Placid, New Yorkers Johnny Case and Julia Seton meet, fall in love and decide to get married as soon as possible. Johnny, a happy-go-lucky working stiff who has worked most of his life to gain modest financial success, had no idea that Julia came from an extremely wealthy banking family, which ends up being solely an unexpected surprise, no more, no less. For them to get married, they will have to work hard to get the blessing of Julia's father, Edward Seton, who ultimately does give his approval, as he sees in Johnny what Julia sees: a man with potential. Johnny doesn't need to work hard to impress Julia's free-thinking sister, Linda Seton, who sees Johnny as a breath of fresh air into the Seton home and into Julia's life. Linda is truly happy for Julia to have met Johnny. What Linda is aware of but which Johnny has yet to tell Julia is that Johnny, who doesn't want to live on the Seton's money, plans on quitting work when he is financially able to do so, so that he can take a holiday to find out where he fits in life. Linda admires both his plan and his conviction in what he wants. He may be able to achieve his goal sooner than planned as a financial deal pays off. Julia, who doesn't agree with or understand this plan, doesn't believe Johnny will go through with it, but Linda tries to convince her that he will and should and that she should go with him. Johnny may come to his own realizations concerning if and if so where he really does fit within the Seton family. —Huggo Jonathan "Johnny" Case is a self-made man who has spend much of his life at work. He dreams of taking an extended holiday to search for the meaning of life. During a short vacation in Lake Placid, New York, Johnny meets Julia Seton, and falls in love with her. The two are soon engaged, despite Johnny knowing nothing about her family and background. To his surprise, Julia is the youngest daughter of the banker Edward Seton, and her family is extremely wealthy. Julia introduces him to her family, and Johnny is somewhat impressed with her vivacious sister Linda. Julia and Johnny have an elaborate New Year's Eve engagement party, but Johnny leaves the party to comfort an upset Linda at "the playroom". Johnny has a more intimate party with Linda and a few close friends. On New Year's Day, Johnny attempts to kiss Linda. She rejects his advances, and reminds him that she is his future sister-in-law. Johnny leaves without greeting the family. While Johnny plans on going on a European vacation, Julia pressures him to take a new position in her father's bank. Edward already has plans for his son-in-law's professional live, future residence, and even the servants that will work in this residence. Johnny refuses to let his father-in-law gain full control over his life, and plans to travel to Europe with or without Julia. Julia gives up on their relationship, but Linda is genuinely in love with him and decides to join him for his trip to Europe. The new couple have their first passionate kiss. —Dimos I

A chronicle of the lives of sisters growing up in 19th-century New England. Little Women is a "coming of age" drama tracing the lives of four sisters: Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy. During the American Civil War, the girls' father is away serving as a minister to the troops. The family, headed by their beloved Marmee, must struggle to make ends meet, with the help of their kind and wealthy neighbor Mr. Laurence, and his high-spirited grandson Laurie. —Liza Esser <essereli@student.msu.edu> Josephine March and her three sisters Meg, Amy, and Beth grow up with their mother's guidance while their father is a chaplain in the American Civil War. The vivacious quartet are very close and happy despite limited means. Laurie Laurence, the well-off boy next door, takes a liking to Jo, and his tutor John Brooke eyes older sister Meg during a party. Meg marries Mr. Brooke, but Jo rejects Laurie's proposal and moves to New York for new adventures. When Beth starts to lose her battle with scarlet fever, Jo returns to her deathbed. Sister Amy returns married to Jo's one true love, Laurie. Will she ever find someone for herself? —Gary Jackson <garyjack5@cogeco.ca>