Mary Astor

A ruthless college student resorts to murder in an attempt to marry an heiress. Student Bud Corliss is wooing Dorother Kingship purely for her father's mining fortune. When he finds she is pregnant he realises she is likely to be disinherited, so cleverly stages her suicide. After a couple of months her sister back home finds evidence to question the suicide verdict, but by then has a new boyfriend of her own... —Jeremy Perkins {J-26} State-run Stoddard University students Bud Corliss and Dorothy Kingship are secretly dating, they not having told anyone for fear of working class Bud not being accepted by Dorothy's hyper-critical father, wealthy businessman Leo Kingship, owner of Kingship Mines. Mr. Kingship's hard and critical nature led to he divorcing his wife solely for a "mistake" on her part years earlier, and has led to a strained relationship with both Dorothy and her sister, Ellen. Bud even calling her Dorie instead of Dorothy is one thing she loves about him in distinguishing him from anything in her past life. Bud aspires to get out of his working class situation. Their relationship hits a major bump when Dorie informs him that she is pregnant with his child. While Dorie wants to get married, she seeing it as an inevitability in they loving each other, Bud, stating the problem of her father, sees, unstated, almost anything else as preferable to marriage, especially at this stage of his life in it jeopardizing getting out of that working class life. Without any viable option that Dorie would agree to, Bud ends up with the idea of murdering her. While he seems committed to killing her, what happens is affected by Mr. Kingship in his relationship both with Dorothy and Ellen, Ellen in falling under the spell of a man herself, and Gordon Grant, Dorie's math tutor who has another part-time job which makes him naturally questioning and suspicious. —Huggo Bud Corliss is an ambitious college student with big plans for himself and an heiress, Dorothy Kingship. But then Dorothy goes and gets herself pregnant. It's his child, too, of course; but this ruins everything. Her moralistic father will disown her and will certainly never accept him. It seems he's trapped. Bud's mother knows something is troubling her son, but he won't talk to her about it. All she knows is that Bud doesn't want to turn out like his father, with holes in his shoes. He doesn't have to worry. As his mother says, when he turns his mind to something, he does it. Unknown to her, his thoughts have turned to murder. —J. Spurlin

In the small town of Concord, Massachusetts during the Civil War, the March sisters--Meg, Jo, Amy and Beth--live with their mother in a state of genteel poverty, their father having lost the family's fortune to an unscrupulous businessman several years earlier. While Mr. March serves in the Union Army, Mrs. March, affectionately referred to as "Marmee" by her daughters, holds the family together and teaches the girls the importance of giving to those less fortunate than themselves, especially during the upcoming Christmas season. Though the spoiled and vain Amy often bemoans the family's lack of material wealth and social status, Jo, an aspiring writer, keeps everyone entertained with her stories and plays, while the youngest March, the shy and sensitive Beth, accompanies Jo's productions on an out-of-tune piano. The spirited Jo, a tomboy in search of male companionship, strikes up a friendship with Theodore "Laurie" Laurence, the grandson of the March's wealthy, but cantankerous neighbor, James Laurence. Later that winter, Jo so impresses Mr. Laurence with her forthrightness and her beneficial effect on the brooding Laurie, that he invites the March sisters to a fancy dress ball at his sumptuous home. At the ball, Meg is courted by John Brooke, Laurie's tutor, and Jo consents to dance with Laurie while Amy and Beth breathlessly view the scene from their perch atop the staircase. Mr. Laurence's gruff demeanor is softened upon meeting Beth, who reminds him of the beloved granddaughter he lost, and when he learns of her musical talent, he offers her the use of his grand piano. The beautiful evening ends on a sour note, however, when Amy and Beth overhear the snobbish Mrs. Gardiner and her daughter gossiping about Marmee. As the weeks pass, Laurie's affection for Jo grows, but Jo rebuffs him as a suitor, claiming that although she loves him as a friend, she will never marry. Meanwhile, Jo attempts to discourage Meg's deepening feelings for Mr. Brooke, fearing that a marriage will break the bond between the sisters. Spring arrives, and Marmee receives word that Mr. March has been wounded and sent to an Army hospital in Washington, D.C. Jo asks her wealthy Aunt March for Marmee's train fare, but the two have a heated argument when the impatient Jo refuses to address Aunt March with the decorum the proud woman demands. As usual, Aunt March comes through for the family, but not before Jo has had her beautiful chestnut locks cut off and sold in order to pay for Marmee's trip. While carrying out Marmee's work for the poor in her absence, Beth contracts scarlet fever, and the distressed and frightened sisters realize how much they depend upon Marmee. Just as Marmee returns, however, Beth's fever breaks, and the entire family is reunited when Laurie arranges for the surprise return of Mr. March. A few months later, Meg marries Mr. Brooke and Laurie asks Jo to marry him, but she turns him down, explaining that she is uncomfortable in high society and wishes to devote her life to writing. Greatly disappointed, Laurie leaves for Europe, and Jo, saddened by the seeming loss of both Meg and Laurie, who she considers to be her best friend, moves to New York to pursue her career. While boarding at the home of the Kirke family, Jo meets Prof. Bhaer, the Kirke children's German tutor, who introduces her to art museums and the opera. Prof. Bhaer agrees to read Jo's stories, but Jo is devastated when he later criticizes her work, dismissing it as sensationalist. Bursting into tears, Jo reveals that she feels abandoned by Laurie and hurt that Aunt March, who had long promised her a trip to Europe, has taken Amy instead. After consoling Jo, with whom he has fallen in love, Prof. Bhaer advises her to write from her heart, and Jo decides to return home where she is needed, for Beth is again very ill. Upon her return to the now nearly empty March household, Jo learns that her beloved Beth is dying and spends the next few weeks caring for the courageous girl, who bears her suffering without complaint. After Beth's death, Jo assuages her grief by writing a novel entitled My Beth , which she sends to Prof. Bhaer for his opinion. Later, Meg, now the mother of twins, gently informs Jo that Laurie and Amy have fallen in love in Europe and are to be married. Although Jo is happy for the couple, she realizes for the first time how lonely she is and how much she wishes to be loved. A few weeks later, Laurie and Amy return as husband and wife, and the Marchs's joyfully celebrate the family's reunion. The festivities are interrupted when Prof. Bhaer arrives with Jo's novel, which he has had published. However, when Laurie answers the door, Prof. Bhaer mistakenly assumes that Jo has married her friend and politely declines Laurie's invitation to join the party. After Jo catches up to her departing suitor, the two embrace and Prof. Bhaer proposes marriage. Jo happily accepts, then leads her future husband back to the warmth of the house, where her family awaits them.

In St. Louis, Missouri in the summer of 1903, seventeen-year-old Esther Smith fantasizes about meeting John Truett, the shy boy-next-door, while her older sister Rose frets about her beau, Warren Sheffield, who is off at Yale. Sure that Warren, who is calling Rose at 6:30 p.m. that evening, is finally going to propose to her sister, Esther arranges with Katie, the Smiths' housekeeper, for the family to eat dinner early, so that Rose will have some privacy while talking on the telephone. Esther's cantankerous father Alonzo, who has not been told about the expected call, ruins her plan, however, when he insists on eating at the usual time. During dinner, everyone, including Esther's five-year old sister "Tootie," tries to hurry Lon along, but the phone rings just as the main course is being served. As her family eavesdrops on the entire conversation, Rose attempts to prod Warren into a proposal, but he gets mired in small talk and hangs up without uttering a single romantic word. Later, at Esther's urging, Rose invites John to a farewell party for her older brother Lon, Jr., who is going to Princeton. At the party, Esther at first feigns indifference to John, but hides his hat to keep him at the house and then asks him to help her turn off all the lights. Although John is clearly attracted to the flirtatious Esther, he is too shy to kiss her, and instead gives her a hearty handshake. Before he leaves, Esther invites him to join her family that Sunday for a tour of the St. Louis Exposition fairgrounds, and he tentatively accepts. On Sunday, Esther waits eagerly for John at the trolley stop, but he has not arrived by the time the trolley is scheduled to leave. As the trolley is pulling away, however, John appears and, to Esther's joy, hops on next to her. Several months later, Tootie and her slightly older sister Agnes dress up as goblins and go out to celebrate Halloween with the neighborhood children. Anxious to prove herself, Tootie, who is preoccupied with death, insists on calling feared neighbor Mr. Braukoff to his door and, following the local custom, blows flour in his face. After Tootie is declared the "most horrible," she throws her family into a panic when she returns home, crying, bruised and cut. Tootie claims that John hit her by the trolley tracks, and although Esther at first refuses to believe her, she changes her mind when a clump of hair is discovered in Tootie's hand. Enraged, Esther storms over to John's house, accuses him of being a bully and then beats and bites him. Later, however, Tootie and Agnes confess that John actually saved them from being arrested after they almost caused an accident on the trolley tracks. Esther rushes back to John's house to apologize, and John not only forgives her, but flirts with her as well. Later that evening, Lon, a lawyer, returns home to announce that his firm is transferring him to New York. Although Lon is enthusiastic about the transfer, which involves a promotion, Anna and the children react with shock and worry. Eventually, however, Anna agrees to the move, and the Smiths plan to leave St. Louis after Christmas. Several weeks later on Christmas Eve, Rose is upset because the visiting Warren has invited Lucille Ballard, an Easterner, to the local Christmas dance instead of her. Back from Princeton, Lon, Jr., also is frustrated because he wanted to ask Lucille to the dance. After Katie convinces Lon, Jr., to escort Rose to the dance, Esther's plans are disrupted when John is forced to break his date with her because he did not get to the tailor's soon enough to pick up his tuxedo. Although Esther assures John she is not upset, she later breaks down in tears and refuses to be escorted by Lon, Jr. When Esther's grandfather, however, offers to take her, she gratefully accepts. At the dance, Esther and Rose scheme against Lucille, whom they have never met, by filling out her dance card with the names of clods. Their plan backfires when Lucille turns out to be nice and insists that Rose be with Warren, while she goes with Lon, Jr. Embarrassed, Esther gives Lucille her dance card, then braves the clods. To her delight, John eventually shows up and, under a wintery moon, kisses her and proposes. As soon as Esther starts to think about being separated from her family, however, she has second thoughts about marrying. Later, at home, Tootie cries to Esther about the impending move and, as her bewildered father watches from a window, runs outside and angrily begins smashing the snow people she helped build. After calling the family together, Lon then announces that that they are staying in St. Louis. Months later in the spring of 1904, the Smiths and John head for the just-opened Exposition and are thrilled by the thought that such incredible sights are in their very own town.

After being dressed down in a court-martial and dishonorably discharged from the United States Army in December 1941 for misappropriation of funds, Lieutenant Rick Leland (Humphrey Bogart) tries to get into the Canadian Army but is blacklisted. Deciding to take a Japanese boat via the Panama Canal to China, Rick meets lovely Alberta Marlow (Mary Astor), a slightly mysterious woman travelling alone whom he immediately falls for. He also meets the rotund sociologist Dr. Lorenz (Sydney Greenstreet) whose Japanese connections are far more involved than normal. When on one particular night Rick saves Lorenz from an assassin's bullet, the good doctor begins suggesting that the ex-Army man may have valuable information to sell to the right people for the right price. Leland delivers the goods but is waylaid by Lorenz' henchman, and recovers just in time to get to a mysterious plantation where some harsh anti-American activities against the nation are in motion. Along the way he runs into happy-go-lucky Joe Totsuiko (Victor Sen Yung) who's a little too friendly for the wrong reasons and Rick discovers why Lorenz, Alberta, and a host of Japanese operatives are convening in a desolate location and finds he's in for the fight of his life.

This story begins with the wedding of Gerry (Claudette Colbert) and Tom Jeffers (Joel McCrea), and the wedding follows with the caption, "And they lived happily ever after... or did they?" Time then flashes forward about four years to the Jeffers apartment where the Wienie King (Robert Dudley) is touring the Jeffers apartment as a likely rental because the Jeffers aren't able to make their bills. While the Wienie King and his wife tour the apartment, an embarrassed Gerry hides in closets and the bathroom, ducking away from touring eyes. The Wienie King happens upon Gerry hiding in the bathtub behind a shower curtain and takes an immediate liking to her so much that he decides not to take her apartment and gives Gerry $700 to pay her bills. Meantime, Tom is meeting with a hopeful investor to discuss his idea of building an airport that stretches over the city. The investor doesn't seem very keen on Tom's idea. When Tom gets home and finds out that Gerry has taken money from a stranger, he's upset. Gerry calms him down, but then suggests that they get a divorce because she feels as a single woman she can get him the money he needs to build his airport. Gerry takes Tom out to dinner with the last 14 dollars they have after she finished paying the bills that day, and they both get pretty drunk. When they get home, Gerry is still discussing divorce, but discussions stop as Tom helps Gerry remove her dress. The next morning, Gerry packs her suitcase and writes Tom a good-bye letter. She tries to pin the letter to the blanket but accidentally pokes Tom waking him up. Tom chases Gerry to the streets, but a penniless Gerry manages to get away in a taxi and thanks to the kindness of strangers, in this case the members of the Ale and Quail Club, she manages to get a ticket and a private car on a train to Palm Beach. The Ale and Quail Club get a bit drunk and decide to shoot up their train car, so Gerry sneaks away for some peace. She climbs into a berth which happens to be the berth above the berth of millionaire John D.Hackensacker III (Rudy Vallee) who comes to Gerry's rescue with loads of clothes, jewelry, etc., after Gerry loses her belongings due to the fact that the Ale and Quail Club train car has been disconnected from the train and abandoned. Gerry and John decide to abandon the train themselves and take John's yacht to Palm Beach. As this is happening Tom meets the Wienie King who has decided to take a different apartment in the building. The Wienie King gives Tom money to catch a plane to Palm Beach to stop Gerry from getting a divorce. When Tom meets the train, he finds out that Gerry has dumped the train for a yacht. Tom then waits for Gerry at the dock. Tom then meets John and John's sister the Princess Centimillia (Mary Astor) who takes an immediately liking to Tom. Gerry introduces Tom to everyone as her brother, and a slightly disagreeable Tom goes along with this plan solely to get time to convince Gerry to come to her senses. Gerry talks John into investing in Tom's airport. The Princess wants to marry Tom and John wants to marry Gerry. In the end, Gerry and Tom realize that they love each other and can't divorce. They both confess to the Princess and John. John decides to invest in Tom's airport anyway even though he loves Gerry. John then says, "If only you had a sister." Gerry says, "I do. A twin sister." As they express surprise over this revelation, Tom further reveals that he also has a twin brother. The movie then ends with Gerry and Tom standing side by side at the wedding of their twin siblings to the respective Hackensacker siblings where the movie ends as it begins, "And they lived happily ever after... or did they?"

Private detective Sam Spade gets involved with a band of international thieves who lie, double cross and commit murder for a jewel-encrusted statue known as The Maltese Falcon.

Philo Vance, accompanied by his prize-losing Scottish terrier, investigates the locked-room murder of a prominent and much-hated collector whose broken Chinese vase provides an important clue. Archer Coe has been found dead in his locked bedroom. The cops consider it suicide, but Philo believes otherwise. When the Coroner shows up, he finds that Archer had been hit with a blunt object, stabbed and shot - making suicide unlikely. When the evidence points to his brother, Brisbane is found stabbed to death in the closet. Archer had a number of enemies, any one of which would have been glad to knock him off, but which one did and how did the murder occur in a room looked from the inside. Only one man, the keen, fascinating, debonair detective Philo Vance, would be able to figure out who is the killer. —Tony Fontana <tony.fontana@spacebbs.com> Debonair private eye Philo Vance cancels his sea voyage to Europe when he hears that the wealthy Archer Coe was found dead in his home, an apparent suicide. Philo is soon on the scene of the crime and is quite dubious about suicide as the cause, despite the fact that Coe was found in a room that was locked from the inside. He had run into Cole the previous day at the Long Island Kennel Club and Coe was very much looking forward to the next day's competition and the possibility of his dog winning. It takes only a few minutes for Philo to convince Det. Sgt. Heath that it's murder. Finding the murderer isn't as easy however as Archer Coe was ruthless and had many enemies. —garykmcd

In 16th-century Italy, devil-may-care playboy Don Juan runs afoul of the despotic Borgias. If there was one thing Don Juan de Marana learned from his father Don Jose, it was that women gave you three things: life, disillusionment, and death. In his father's case it was his wife Donna Isobel, and Donna Elvira who supplied the latter. Don Juan settled in Rome after attending the University of Pisa. Rome was run by the tyrannical Borgia family consisting of Caesar, Lucrezia, and the Count Donati. Juan has his way with and is pursued by many women, but it is the one that he could not have that haunts him. It will be for her that he suffers the wrath of Borgia for ignoring Lucrezia, then killing Count Donati in a duel. For Adriana, they will both be condemned to death in the prison on the river Tigre. —Tony Fontana <tony.fontana@spacebbs.com>