Michael Constantine

A single mother becomes embroiled in a dangerous game when she is chosen to serve on the jury in the trial of a powerful mobster.

A New Yorker heads to California to find the look-alike brother of his conman dad. After he accidentally kills his father, Mike, during a sting, Joe tries to carry out Mike's dying wish by recovering valuables that Mike's twin brother Lou stole from him years earlier. But Uncle Lou is also a confidence artist, and Joe is soon drawn into his increasingly dangerous schemes. —Marg Baskin <marg@asd.raytheon.ca>

A farm girl nurses a wounded reindeer she believes is one of Santa's, hoping to bring it back to health in time for Christmas. Her holiday spirit inspires those around her, something her disheartened father is having trouble understanding. Jessica, the daughter of an impoverished farmer, still believes in Santa Claus. So when she comes across a reindeer with an injured leg, it makes perfect sense to her to assume that it is Prancer, who had fallen from a Christmas display in town. She hides him in her barn and feeds him cookies, until she can return him to Santa. Her father finds him and decides to sell him to the butcher, not for venison chops, but as an advertising display. —<Vertigus@aol.com>

In 1905, a train rolls into a quiet and happy Mississippi town where Lucius (Mitch Vogell), a boy of 11, is about to begin his journey to manhood as his grandfather, Boss (Will Geer), has the town's first car delivered - a yellow Winton Flier. The family's handyman, Boon Hogganbeck (Steve McQueen), immediately takes the automobile under his eager care. His friend Ned (Rupert Crosse) steals it to try to impress a woman resulting in a fun chase and resulting in an innocent accident. Lucius' other grandfather dies requiring the family's attendance out of town. Boss leaves the young boy in the care of Boon - after cautious warnings of Boon's predilections of immoral tendencies. Boon immediately teaches Lucious how to smoke, drive and lie to his other relatives so he can go on the road trip. Boon talks of the benefits and beauty of a trip to Memphis and as they start Ned talks his way aboard. They get stuck in a muddy ditch where they must pay for a farmer to use his mules to free them, then they make it to the big highway - a two-lane dirt road. They make it to their first stop, a Memphis brothel where Boon's girlfriend Corrie (Sharon Farell) works, piquing Lucius pubescent curiosities. After Lucius gets into a manly brawl with another youngster regarding the reality of Corrie's adult profession, she is determined to change her path and quits to join Boon and the boys on the road. That same night, Ned drunkenly trades the automobile for a questionable racehorse leaving them all without transportation and a racehorse that doesn't race. In order to figure out how to get the horse to run they regroup at Mr. Possum's (Juano Hernandez) farm, a black man who's mortal enemy, Sherriff Lovemaiden (Clifton James), threatens racial calamity. Some of the ladies of the evening and other friends hear about the race and show up from Memphis to root for the cause. Lovemaiden comes back with his deputies and after a barnyard brawl he arrests the lot. Corrie arranges for their release with a private liaison with Lovemaiden, causing Boon to give her a black eye. Lucius, abhorred by the realities of adulthood, wants to quit and go home but after considering what his grandfather would do decides he will finish the task. Lucius will be the jockey and if they win they can get the car back. After the first race ends with controversy he wins the second race. Grandfather Boss shows up after witnessing the win and the return of the car. Lucius, Boon, Ned, Corrie and Boss go back to Mississippi. In lieu of corporal punishment from his father, Boss interrupts with and opportunity for Lucius to learn the valuable life lesson of accepting responsibility for one's actions regardless of cause - a large lesson indeed.

An up-and-coming pool player plays a long-time champion in a single high-stakes match. "Fast" Eddie Felson is a small-time pool hustler with a lot of talent but a self-destructive attitude. His bravado causes him to challenge the legendary "Minnesota Fats" to a high-stakes match, but he loses in a heartbreaking marathon. Now broke and without his long-time manager, Felson faces an uphill battle to regain his confidence and his game. It isn't until he hits rock bottom that he agrees to join up with ruthless and cutthroat manager Bert Gordon. Gordon agrees to take him on the road to learn the ropes. But Felson soon realizes that making it to the top could cost him his soul, and perhaps his girlfriend. Will he decide that this is too steep a price to pay in time to save himself? —<jgp3553@yahoo.com> With his friend Charlie Burns, "Fast" Eddie Felson has long earned whatever money he has as a pool shark, he and Charlie traveling the country hustling new unsuspecting targets at each stop. Against Charlie's wishes, Eddie wants to give up his anonymity to prove that he is the best by taking on the best, namely Minnesota Fats whose home pool hall is the Ames in New York City. Eddie knows he's talented, but gambler Bert Gordon, who Eddie meets at the Ames and who can also see that Eddie is talented, believes that Eddie needs more than talent to beat Fats. Bert wants to take Eddie under his wing to finance Eddie's challenge, not only against Fats, but against all comers, in turn showing Eddie the character that he is inherently missing to be the best. The price?: a seventy-five percent cut. As Eddie decides what to do with regard to Bert's proposal, Eddie begins a relationship with Sarah Packard, a woman who has as self-destructive tendencies as Eddie, she who is not averse to imbibing first thing in the morning. Being involved with Bert and Sarah may be incompatible in Eddie's current life, especially as Bert and Sarah see different things that Eddie needs for fulfillment, which do not include the other person. —Huggo Pool-hall America: a merciless macho world where success demands absolute ruthlessness and coming second means a personal hell of inadequacy and doubt. Fast Eddy is the young hopeful on the way to challenging past master of the green baize Minnesota Fats for his world title. —J.Arnold Free <arnold@mayahtt.ca> Eddie Felson is arrogance personified. He is an expert pool player and spends his time along with partner Charlie Burns hustling a few dollars from unsuspecting dopes. He decides that the time has come to play in the big leagues and challenges renowned pool player Minnesota Fats. In a forty-hour marathon, Felson hits both highs and lows: part way through the match he's up $18,000 but doesn't know when to quit. He drinks too much and loses everything, including his confidence in his game. Slowly, he regroups and with the help of his girlfriend, Sarah Packard, builds up his self-esteem. Ignoring Sarah's advice however, his driving ambition once again takes over leading to tragedy in his personal life and a re-match with Minnesota Fats. —garykmcd