Michael Winner

When a former prison wardress who dominates the lives of her three adult stepchildren and her daughter is found dead at an archaeological dig near the Dead Sea, there are a great many suspects. Emily Boynton (Piper Laurie), stepmother to the three Boynton children, and mother to Ginevra (Amber Bezer), blackmails the family lawyer, Jefferson Cope (David Soul), into destroying the second will of her late husband, which would have freed the children from her dominating influence. She takes herself and the children on vacation to Europe and the Holy Land. In Jerusalem, Hercule Poirot (Sir Peter Ustinov) meets up with a woman friend, Dr. Sarah King (Jenny Seagrove), who falls in love with Raymond Boynton (John Terleskey) to Emily's disapproval. Lady Westholme (Lauren Bacall), her secretary, and Cope are following them too. The children learn about the second will, and Emily succeeds in rubbing the rest the wrong way, causing much hatred toward her. At a dig, everybody wonders about the camp, and Emily is found dead, poisoned. Poirot investigates. —Lee Horton <Leeh@tcp.co.uk> When Emily Boynton (Piper Laurie) is found dead at an archaeological dig near the Dead Sea, there are a great many suspects. Boynton is a harridan, a former prison wardress who dominates the lives of her three adult stepchildren and her daughter. She is loud and rude, much to the dislike of Lady Westholme (Lauren Bacall), a transplanted American Anglophile, and member of the British government, and Miss Quinton (Hayley Mills), the archaeologist in charge of the dig. Also present is Jefferson Cope (David Soul), the family attorney who she blackmailed into destroying her late husband's most recent will, thereby ensuring she would inherit everything. By the time of her death, Hercule Poirot (Sir Peter Ustinov) has been travelling with this group for several days, and already knows a good deal about them. He is more than happy to accept a request from his friend, Colonel Carbury (Sir John Gielgud), to assist the authorities in their investigation. —garykmcd 1938. A disparate group of travellers become acquainted during a Mediterranean cruise to the Holy Land and during what ends up being their extended stay there. They include: controlling American-born Lady Westholme (Lauren Bacall), a British Member of Parliament on an unofficial inspection of Palestine; Miss Quinton (Hayley Mills), Lady Westholme's secretary and a budding archaeologist; Dr. Sarah King (Jenny Seagrove), a newly minted physician also from Britain; and the American Boynton family and their lawyer, Jefferson Cope (David Soul). The Boynton family matriarch, Emily Boynton (Piper Laurie), is recently widowed and blackmailed Cope into executing an earlier will that left all of her husband's substantial estate to her, rather than the last will he wrote which divided the estate equally between his four adult children, only the youngest Ginevra (Amber Bezer) being Emily's biological daughter. The offspring are all aware that there is another will that left the estate to them but cannot prove it, leaving them under Emily's strict and self-serving control. Oldest offspring Lennox Boyton's (Nicholas Guest's) wife, Nadine Boynton (Carrie Fisher), is secretly or not so secretly having an affair with Cope. And second oldest son, Raymond Boynton (John Terlesky), is immediately attracted to Dr. King, his pursuit of her which may not sit well with his stepmother. The stay of this collective in Jerusalem is extended due to one of them being murdered there, the murder which was staged to look like an accidental death. Beyond Colonel Carbury (Sir John Gielgud), who is stationed in Palestine for the British government, another of the travellers on vacation is asked to lead the investigation, namely famed Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot (Sir Peter Ustinov). In the course of the investigation, Poirot finds that most of the others within this collective would have had the opportunity and motive to commit the murder, he having to dig a little deeper below the surface and undercover the context to some of the deceased's comments to discover the identity of the murderer. —Huggo Long Island, 1937. Emily Boynton has, under dubious circumstances, just inherited her late husband's vast fortune, much to the dismay and suspicion of her child and step-children. To ease the tension she takes them on a holiday to Europe and the Holy Land. In Trieste they meet the famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot and end up on the same ship as him, heading for the Holy Land. Ms Boynton rules the family with an iron fist and it is clear that she is not like by any of her children, step-children or children-in-law, all of whom stand to inherit vast amounts upon her death. Poirot suspects that the murder of Ms Boynton is imminent. —grantss

Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) has arrived in Brooklyn to visit his longtime Korean war buddy friend Charley (Francis Drake), who is attacked by a gang in his apartment. The neighbors hear the commotion and call the police. Paul arrives as Charlie collapses dead in his arms. The police arrive and mistakenly arrest Paul for Charley's murder. At the police station, chief Richard Shriker (Ed Lauter) recognizes Paul as "Mr. Vigilante". Shriker lays down the law on Paul, and the two get into a scuffle before Paul is taken to a holding cell. In the same cell Manny Fraker (Gavan O'Herlihy), the leader of the gang who attacked and killed Charlie, is held. Fraker and Paul get in a fight before the police break it up. A few moments later, Fraker is released from the jail after his fellow gang members post his bail. Before walking out, he threatens Paul and states: "I'll tell you what, I'm gonna kill a little old lady, just for you. Catch it on the six o'clock news." Manny arrives back on his gang turf to take his place as leader, slashing fellow gang-member Hector (David Crean), possibly for betrayal (and later he and his gang kill either a resident or a member of a rival gang when he accidentally enters Manny's turf). Manny's gang is also responsible for the recent thefts in the apartment where Charley was staying. The police receive daily reports about the increased rate of crime. Shriker arranges to talk with Paul and offers him a deal: Paul can kill all the punks he wants to kill, but has to inform Shriker of any gang activity he hears about so the police can get a bust and make the news. Paul agrees and moves into Charley's apartment in a decaying building in the middle of a bombed-out gang war zone. The building is populated by a group of elderly tenants who are absolutely terrified by Fraker and his gang. Kersey befriends some of them: Bennett Cross (Martin Balsam), a World War II veteran and Charley's good buddy; Mr. and Mrs. Kaprov (Leo Kharibian & Hana Maria Pravda ), an elderly Jewish couple, and young Hispanic couple Rodriguez (Joe Gonzalez) and his wife Maria (Marina Sirtis). After a few violent muggings, Kersey decides to go into action: he uses money to buy a car from a used car shop as bait. When two gang members try to break into the car, Kersey protests, and they reply "What's it to you man?" Kersey says, "It's my car!" Whereupon they laugh and say, "now you're gonna die!" and advance towards Kersey. Kersey quickly pulls out a revolver and shoots them dead. Kersey protects Maria twice from Fraker's gang but is unable to save her a third time as she is raped (she later dies as a result of her injuries). Kersey orders an automatic gun for protection, a .475 Wildey Magnum, and spends the afternoon hand-loading ammunition for it stating "Nothing's good enough for our friends". He then tests the gun later that night when he kills another gang member, The Giggler (Kirk Taylor), who steals his camera bag and tries to make a clean getaway. He immediately becomes applauded in the neighborhood as Shriker and the police become involved in the violent acts. Kersey also throws a gang member off a roof (landing on the hood of a car) during a nightly chase sequence. There is also a subplot involving a possible love interest in public defender Kathryn Davis (Deborah Raffin) in which we learn why Kersey is hesitant to get back in the dating game. Kersey later goes back to say goodbye to her, as she is going out of the city to visit her sister. Kersey offers to take her out for dinner on her final night. While waiting in Paul's car, Kathryn is knocked unconscious by Fraker and the car is pushed into oncoming traffic. The car slams into another and explodes, killing Kathryn. The police arrive and Shriker places Kersey under protective custody because Kersey is now in too deep. Bennett takes matters into his hands, after his taxi shop is blown up, in an attempt to drive out Fraker's gang with one of Charley's machine guns, a MG-42. The gun gets jammed as the gang cripples Bennett. Shriker notifies Kersey and takes him to the hospital. Kersey escapes after Bennett notifies him of the one remaining gun. Kersey and Rodriguez spend the day collecting weapons. At the climax, both Kersey and Shriker attack a group of gathering gang members. They mow down many of the criminals with a Browning M1919 A4 machine gun before running out of ammo. Kersey then uses the Magnum while Rodriguez uses a zip gun, while many neighbors begin fighting back as Fraker sends in more reinforcements. Shriker decides to help Kersey and together they kill many criminals before Kersey runs out of cartridges for his Magnum. He goes back to the apartment to collect more ammo, with Fraker in pursuit. Fraker tracks Kersey down to the apartment and Shriker arrives just in time, resulting in Shriker getting wounded in the arm and Fraker shot (however, he wears a bulletproof vest). Kersey obliterates Fraker once and for all with a mail-ordered 66mm LAW rocket launcher. They both hear sirens, and Shriker gives Kersey a head start. Kersey gives a look of appreciation and leaves as the remainder of Fraker's gang retreats.

The film opens with a grand view of Los Angeles, with a news broadcast in the background detailing an increase in crime in the city. The overview of the city goes on until the end of the opening credits where we zoom in on the new house of Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) where the maid, Rosario (Silvana Gallardo), is preparing dinner. He seems to have picked up the pieces of his life to move on, as his girlfriend is KABC news/radio reporter Geri Nichols (Jill Ireland) and they both go and pick up Carol (Robin Sherwood) from the hospital and spend the day with her. Paul talks to the doctor, who says that despite her traumatic catatonia, she has begun to speak again. Her husband, Jack Toby, though not seen or mentioned, presumably divorced Carol. Paul, Geri, and Carol spend the rest of the afternoon at a carnival, where Paul offers to buy ice cream while the girls look around. While waiting in line for some ice cream, he gets mugged and his dollar bill is stolen by five gang members. At first Paul does not mind but realizes they also took his wallet. Paul manages to catch up with one of them (Jiver (Stuart K. Robinson)), but Jiver exclaims that he was not the one who took the wallet. Geri heads to do an interview with the senator while Carol and Paul go on a boat ride. The same five muggers who stole Kersey's wallet arrive at his house determined to kill him. The thugs break in, tightly bind, and gag, and then gang rape Rosario. Paul arrives home with Carol, only to get beaten unconscious when he walks in the door. Rosario tries to call the police, but the thugs hear the sound and quickly kill Rosario by bashing her head in. They then take Carol to their hideout, where one of the muggers rapes her. After the attack, she runs away from the thugs and jumps from a window, becoming impaled on the railings below. Geri arrives at the house as Paul regains consciousness and the police arrive. Lt. Mankewicz (Ben Frank) is one of the first on the scene, asking Paul about the identification of the muggers because the description was "a little vague". A short time later, Paul learns about the death of his daughter and is sent to the station to ID her. Later, Mankewicz asks Paul to view some photos at the station to jog his memory since Paul is the only witness. Paul declines by saying: "it won't do any good." The next scene is at a funeral that Paul and Geri both attend. That night, Paul pulls out a .32 caliber semi-automatic handgun he kept hidden in his closet, changes clothing, and rents a low-rent apartment in the inner city as his forward base of operations. After wandering around most of the night through the rough part of downtown L.A. Paul returns to his own house. Geri arrives the next morning and lets herself in, where she nearly discovers Paul's gun laying on a dresser. Paul quickly gets up and hides it. After Geri leaves, he calls a locksmith to have the locks on his house changed. The next night, Paul spots one of the muggers, Stomper (Kevyn Major Howard), and follows him into an abandoned hotel building as a drug deal is about to be made between his partner and two buyers. Kersey tries to be quiet as he can, but the others notice his presence when he knocks over a can. Kersey kills Stomper's partner, then orders the other two out of the room where he kills Stomper. The following evening, as he is patrolling the streets, Paul hears a scream coming from an underground parking garage where a man and a woman are being assaulted by four muggers. One of the muggers is Jiver, whom Kersey chased down the alley the day of his daughter's death. Paul opens fire on the muggers, killing two of them. Jiver is wounded, but he and the fourth mugger manage to get away. Taking a .45 caliber pistol off one of the dead muggers, Paul follows the trail of blood and manages to wound and kill Jiver at a warehouse across the street. Paul flees before the police arrive. The L.A. police quickly hear about the murders, as does the NY Police Department. Detective Frank Ochoa (Vincent Gardenia) is called by the LAPD to help. The Police Commissioner (Anthony Franciosa) thinks the vigilante killings may be done by Kersey again. Fearing that Kersey, when caught, will reveal that they let him go instead of prosecuting him, the NYPD sends Inspector Frank Ochoa to make sure that does not happen. Ochoa meets with Lt. Mankewicz, who suspects that Frank is hiding something. That night, Ochoa breaks into Geri's apartment where he meets Geri and tells her about Paul's past and recent vigilante spree. But when Geri confronts Paul, he quickly denies it, ascribing the tale to Ochoa's imagination. Paul drives Geri to work the next morning, where Ochoa is waiting. In order to keep tabs on Paul, Ochoa calls Mankiewicz and asks him to park his car near Paul's apartment (but he doesn't tell Mankiewicz about following Kersey himself). Another night later, Ochoa follows an unknowing Kersey from his house to his low-rent apartment and from there to a local square where Kersey spots the three remaining gang members who attacked him: Cutter (Laurence Fishburne), Punkcut (E. Lamont Johnson), and Nirvana (Thomas F. Duffy). Kersey follows the trio on a bus to an abandoned park, where a major drug deal goes down. Ochoa follows Kersey and sees him from a distance hiding in a bush, but decides to help Paul after detecting a spotlight heading in his direction. Ochoa warns Paul with a shot by shooting a gang member who tries to shoot Paul. Paul runs behind a tree as the gang members grab their guns and fire back. Ochoa gets shot by a hail of gunfire, but Paul manages to kill Cutter (who vainly tries to shield his head with a boom box) with a bullet through the face. Punkcut is also wounded by a gunshot to the chest, as is another gang member. Paul also shoots and kills the getaway driver and seller of the firearms, who plummets off a cliff to a fiery doom below. The final mugger, Nirvana, gets away. Paul goes over to Ochoa and asks him why he saved his life. Ochoa responds he had to side with Paul against the criminals, and tells Paul to kill Nirvana for him. Ochoa dies as the police arrive, and Paul escapes into the night. The police get the name of Ochoa's killer from a badly injured Punkcut by inflicting pain, who succumbs to his injuries and dies. A few days later, Nirvana (whose real name is revealed to be Charles Wilson) is found by the police hiding out in an apartment. Paul, monitoring the police radio frequency from an acquired radio scanner, tries to get to Nirvana to kill him before the police do. But in the apartment building hallway, Paul narrowly misses his opportunity for a kill when he gets slashed on the arm by Nirvana during a chase. Nirvana runs outside when he sees the police approaching and gets tasered, but with no effect due to the influence of PCP. He is finally arrested after stabbing several officers. Tried and found criminally insane, Charles 'Nirvana' Wilson is sent to McLarren State Hospital. Paul comes along with Geri to the hospital where she is interviewing Charles Wilson's doctor. The visit allows Paul to secretly steal a facility ID card and a white doctor's lab coat. Despite his plans for revenge to kill the last surviving thug who assaulted him, Paul has lunch with Geri the next day and proposes to her. Geri accepts. The night they plan to go to Mexico for their wedding, Paul uses his altered doctor ID and stolen lab coat to gain access to the hospital and confronts Wilson in the hospital meeting room. They have a violent fight and Kersey is stabbed repeatedly by Wilson with a scalpel. But when Wilson slams Kersey up against an electrical device, Kersey ducks the oncoming punch. Wilson's hand smashes through the machine and Kersey turns the power up, electrocuting Wilson. Donald Kay (Charles Cyphers), the head orderly on duty, witnesses Wilson's death, but sympathizes with Kersey and gives him three minutes to escape from the hospital before sounding the alarm. Geri goes to his apartment later that night and finds the scanned copy of the stolen ID. She realizes that Paul is actually the vigilante after she hears a report of Wilson's death on the radio. She puts the paper and the engagement ring on the table and drives off. Paul arrives home minutes later to an empty apartment. Five months later, Paul is at his office speaking to his clients about a party in celebration of a new architectural design. His boss Elliott Cass (Michael Prince) invites him to a party that very evening, and when Paul is asked if he's free, he answers: "What else would I be doing?" The movie ends with gunshots heard on L.A.'s skid row, implying that Paul will continue his vigilante spree undisturbed.

In northern Italy, a group of Roman Catholic clerics led by a shadowy robed figure (Jose Ferrer) meet and Monsignor Franchino (Arthur Kennedy) portends danger. Meanwhile, in New York City, elite fashion model Alison Parker (Cristina Raines) seeks her own apartment, but her boyfriend, lawyer Michael Lerman (Chris Sarandon), wants to get married. In Baltimore, Maryland, Alison's father dies suddenly and she returns home, where she recalls being so traumatized from walking in on her father participating in an orgy that she attempted suicide. She collects a cross that her father tore from her neck during the incident. Alison's mother tells her she stayed with Mr. Parker because she had nowhere else to go. Back in New York City, Alison meets with real estate agent Miss Logan (Ava Gardner) who shows her a "perfect" apartment to rent. Alison rents a furnished apartment in Brooklyn Heights. On the top floor of the building lives a blind, senile priest named Father Halliran (John Carradine), who stares blankly out of his window. After fainting during a photo shoot, Alison is visited by an eccentric neighbor, Charles Chazen (Burgess Meredith), who drops by with his pet cat and bird and tells Alison about the other tenants in the building. When he leaves, she notices a photograph of Charles in her apartment. That night, at a party in the apartment, Michael again presses Alison for marriage. In the morning, Alison meets two more neighbors, the wisecracking Gerde (Sylvia Miles) and the mute Sandra (Beverly D'Angelo), who are lovers. At a commercial shoot, Alison again collapses, frustrating Jack (Jeff Goldblum) the photographer. Charles throws a birthday party for his cat and Alison meets more of her strange neighbors. Later, she has a disturbing dream and is awakened by noise from the supposedly empty apartment above her. Alison meets with Miss Logan and learns that aside from the priest, the apartment building has been empty for years and the building is owned by the Holy Diocese of New York. Meanwhile, Father Halliran is visited by Monsignor Franchino. (In some versions, Franchino meets with a group of priests who are a secret order to protecting the world from evil to give them an update them on the events unfolding.) Elsewhere, Michael Lerman asks private investigator James Brenner (Hank Garrett) to check out Alison's building. Alone the next night, Alison hears more noises and investigates. She sees Chazen's cat eating the pet bird and is pursued by an apparition of her father, whom she stabs repeatedly. Alison flees into the street, where she is found, covered in blood, by residents of nearby buildings. The next day, two police detectives, the veteran Gatz (Eli Wallach) and his rookie partner Rizzo (Christopher Walken), visit Michael and question him about his dead wife Karen's suicide and a second suicide attempt by Alison, implying that he is involved in the previous night's incident. Meanwhile, police find nothing suspicious in Alison's apartment and match the blood type on her nightgown to her own. Michael discovers that Mrs. Clark, one of the supposed guests at Chazen's cat's birthday party, was the name of a convicted murderer, who was executed in 1949. Later, Brenner, the private eye, is found stabbed to death in his car and his blood type matches Alison's. Detective Gatz connects Brenner to Michael and suspects that Michael hired the investigator to kill Karen and is now trying to drive her insane. When the detectives arrive at Michael's apartment to confront him, Alison leaves her boyfriend's home for a walk and stops by a Catholic Church. There, she confesses to Monsignor Franchino that she has committed adultery, twice attempted suicide, and is feeling suicidal again. The monsignor assures her that if she embraces Jesus and returns to the church, the feelings will vanish. When Alison returns to Michael's apartment, he suggests that she may not have imagined the events and they visit her apartment in Brooklyn Heights. There is no evidence that Alison killed anyone there, but she says that some of the things in the room, such as the carpet, are different. In a book, Alison sees the same Latin phrase on every page, but Michael only sees English. When Alison writes the text, Michael takes it to Professor Ruzinsky (Martin Balsam), who reports that it is a passage from Milton's Paradise Lost. Alison returns to the church and meets the rector, who tells her he does not know of the priest she claims to have met there earlier. Meanwhile, Michael visits Monsignor Franchino under the pretense that he has a bequest for Father Halliran. Franchino tells him that Halliran has been retired since 1952, suffers from palsy and is unable to accept visitors. Michael shows Franchino the excerpt from Milton, but the monsignor claims not to recognize it. Franchino refuses Michael's request to make a copy of Father Halliran's file. That night, Michael asks Alison's friend, Jennifer (Deborah Raffin), to stay with her while he attends to business. Michael meets a man named Perry (William Hickey), an ex-convict that he represented in the past and bribes him some cash to assist with breaking into the diocese to look at the official files on Halliran. Michael discovers that Father Halliran was originally named Daniel O'Rourke, and, after a suicide attempt, disappeared and re-emerged as Halliran. Michael finds files on several more people who attempted suicide, gained new identities and became priests or nuns and all have lived and died in the very same apartment building in Brooklyn where Alison lives. When one dies, another takes his or her place. A file for Alison states that Halliran will die the very next day and Alison will become a woman named Sister Theresa. Meanwhile, detectives Gatz and Rizzo determine that the eight people Alison claims were at the birthday party for the cat were murderers executed long ago. Michael has Alison attend a party at Jennifer's while he investigates the apartment in Brooklyn Heights. At the party, Alison faints and her friends put her to bed, but at midnight she sneaks away. In Brooklyn Heights, Michael discovers a hidden portal behind a wooden wall of the building which reads: "Through me you go into the city of grief. Through me you go into the world of pain. Through me you walk among people lost. Abandon hope all yee who enter here". Father Halliran appears and tells him that this whole building is the entrance to Hell. Michael pursues the priest upstairs and demands answers as he attempts to strangle him. Alison arrives at the building and is met by Michael, who calmly explains that the Latin they found was a warning from the angel Gabriel to the angel Uriel, stationed at the Gateway to Eden. Since that time, a series of sentinels have stood watch, guarding the world against evil. Currently, it is Father Halliran, but that night, Alison is to become the next sentinel upon his passing. The people Alison met in the building, the murderers, were actually reincarnated devils, who could only stop her from becoming the next sentinel by driving her to suicide. Michael goes on to explain that he is dead, killed by Monsignor Franchino minutes earlier for trying to strangle Halliran. He is damned to eternal hell for his sins, including hiring Brenner to murder his wife, Karen. Michael turns his head, revealing a gaping wound, and his head splits open. Alison flees downstairs where Chazen and the demons confront her. She returns upstairs and sees Gerde and Sandra feasting on Michael's dead body. Just then, all of the demons of hell come forth from behind doors and walls. Among the demons, Alison sees her father and Chazen. Cornered by the deformed and hideous demons in Halliran's apartment, Chazen approaches Alison and urges her to join them by killing herself; he gives her a dagger. Franchino and Halliran appear bearing a cross and drive back the demons. Chazen exhorts the demons to fight, but Alison takes the cross. The devils fade back into the walls and the monsignor leads Father Halliran away. The next morning, Gatz and Rizzo arrive at the apartment building where Father Halliran is carried out of the building in a body bag, with the medical examiner's report that he just died of a heart attack. A search of the building leads to no other people around. The building is later demolished. Some time later, Miss Logan, the real estate agent who is still working for the shadowy priesthood in protecting the new apartment building, shows a young couple (Tom Berenger and Nana Tucker) an apartment in the new building. They ask about the neighbors and are told that there are only two: one is a musician and the other is a reclusive blind nun who lives on the top floor. In that apartment, the blind Alison, now known as Sister Theresa, sits silently, wearing a white habit and staring blankly out the window, holding the cross... now the new sentinel and protector of the entrance to Hell.

In 1924, Estie comes to Hollywood to become an actress but the dog that followed her becomes the star. Hollywood has its own rules of success.

During the Cold War, the CIA orders free-lance operative Scorpio to assassinate his former CIA mentor Cross and a deadly cat-and-mouse game ensues. Cross is a CIA field agent, most of his tasks as an assassin. He has just returned to Washington DC from working on a case in Paris, he accompanied by Jean Laurier, code name Scorpio, a Frenchman who has long been mentored by Cross and who works as a freelance assassin. Scorpio pulled the actual trigger on the target in the just completed Paris case, and because of the nature of their work, Cross and Scorpio part company at Dulles Airport, neither having ever seen the other if questioned. Scorpio currently also lives part-time in DC with his girlfriend Susan and his flight attendant sister Anne. Cross' superior McLeod is surprised to see both Cross and Scorpio return to DC as the agency, through McLeod, had unofficially contracted Scorpio to eliminate Cross in Paris as it is well known within the agency that Cross plans on quitting, the threat that he could sell out to the Communists with the amount of knowledge he has too great a risk for the agency to take. Scorpio was seemingly the best man for the job in knowing Cross better than anyone else professionally. Scorpio is able to absolve himself in not carrying out that Paris mission on Cross on a loophole, he further able to renegotiate the contract to meet his goals more fully, namely to take over Cross' position within the agency. Cross discovers not only about there being a contract hit on him, but also that Scorpio is the hired gun. With a wide, loyal and diverse network both domestically and internationally, Cross is at least able to make it out of the country, he using that network to set up somewhere undetected and hopefully to bring his wife Sarah by his side once his new life is established. In the process, Cross will discover just how loyal his network is to him, with some former adversaries in his work, such as now Vienna-based Sergei Zharkov a former Soviet Communist agent, or if some are not who they purport to be in having a separate agenda. If it gets to that point, another question is whether Cross or Scorpio can pull the trigger on the other, each who may see the other as a mirror image of himself. —Huggo Cross is an old hand at the CIA, in charge of assassinating high-ranking foreign personalities who are an obstacle to the policies of the USA. He often teams up with Frenchman Jean Laurier, alias "Scorpio", a gifted free-lance operative. One day, the CIA orders Scorpio to eliminate Cross -- and leaves him no choice but to obey. Scorpio is cold-blooded and very systematic; however, as a veteran agent, Cross knows many tricks. He can also rely upon a network of unusual personal contacts, some dating back to the troubled years preceding WWII. A lethal game of hide-and-seek is programmed, but what are the true motives of every single player? —Eduardo Casais <casaise@acm.org>

"The Mechanic"is a different twist on the "hit man's last job" movie, presenting Charles Bronson as solitary and stoic as ever, yet forced to realize he's aging and can't do what he once did. Rather than try to retire or get out of the business, he chooses to train someone else to thin his workload. At least that's how it appears on the surface. Arthur Bishop (Charles Bronson) is the best hit man or "mechanic" around. We see his meticulous methods right away, opening the movie with Bishop on the job. After learning his target's daily routine and securing an apartment with a window facing his target's window. He takes pictures of the man's apartment and scrutinizes his information at home for the perfect way to kill him. He breaks into the man's apartment and prepares it for the hit by placing a malleable explosive in a book in the man's bedroom rigging the gas oven to leak and drugging his tea. From the facing apartment, he watches the target drink his tea, and get drowsy, He waits until later that night, before shooting the book in the bedroom with a sniper rifle, causing a big and fatal explosion. Bishop next meets with Harry McKenna, (Keenan Wynn) a longtime friend of his father. Harry explains the the Organization says that Harry broke "the agreement" and won't take his calls any longer. He would like Bishop to talk to them on his behalf. Bishop doesn't see what difference that will make, but Harry explains that the reverence they had for Bishop's father, might make them more agreeable. Over a drink, Harry reminds Bishop of a story about Harry, Bishop's father, and Bishop as a boy on a fishing trip. Bishop had fallen overboard and couldn't swim, which prompted his father to say "he'll learn" not moving a muscle to help him. Harry recalls that he himself had to reach out and pull him back into the boat. Harry: "Your old man, he laughed like hell!" Bishop: "That was a long time ago." Their visit is interrupted by Harry's son Steve (Jan-Michael Vincent) who shows up looking for money. Harry initially gives him a hard time before handing him the $1,000.00 he wants and Steve remarks, "My father gets uptight when I ask him for money he steals from other people." Harry apologizes for his son's manner and asks Bishop to call when he knows something. Bishop gets a delivery which is the contract on Harry. He pins up all of Harry's personal information and plans out the hit. He scouts a remote beach location and tells Harry the Organization has asked him to meet there. When they arrive, Bishop drives up to a hill overlooking Harry on the beach. He takes shots at Harry from his hidden location and then acts as if he's discovered a sniper and is attempting to help Harry get away. Harry runs to the car, exhausted and Bishop approaches him gun in hand revealing his intention. Bishop then suffocates Harry in the car. Bishop visits a girl (Jill Ireland) who role-plays a rather mundane drama with him, playing his neglected girlfriend, including reading a letter she wrote, requiring him to comfort her. After they spend the night together, she announces that the letter was difficult and will cost him another hundred. He agrees, remarking that the letter was a good touch, and recommending something like it for next time. Bishop runs into Steve again at Harry's funeral. Steve isn't too bothered by his father's death, describing his father to Bishop as "Harry McKenna, fixer extraordinaire, pusher, pimp, thief, arsonist..." Bishop asks, "You liked him a lot?" Bishop tells Steve that Harry had worked for his father years ago. Steve realizes that this means Bishop's father was in the Organization and he asks Bishop if he's in himself, surmising that he is although Bishop tries to change the subject, reminding him to pay attention to the funeral. When Bishop remarks on Steve being sure of himself he responds "I live in my mind, Mr. Bishop." Bishop: "Sounds like something I read someplace." Steve: "And so do you." Bishop leaves the service and Steve asks him for a ride home. Bishop agrees and finds that Harry's (now Steve's) house is full of Steve's friends having a party. Wading through the crowd, Steve tells Bishop, "My father never really liked my friends, and I'm not so sure I do either." Steve gets a phone call from a girlfriend, Louise, threatening to kill herself. He asks Bishop if he'll come along to visit Louise. They find Louise with razor blades, preparing to slit her wrists. Steve makes a show of not caring and Louise cuts one of her wrists to prove she will, still getting no reaction from Steve or Bishop, other than Bishop telling her how long it will take her to die based on her weight. Louise insists that Steve will stop her before she dies, but Steve says "Listen, if you don't care anything about your life, then why should I?" Steve throws her some car keys and tells her she might live if she heads to the Sheriff's station in Malibu right away. Discussing the situation, and the idea of watching someone die, Bishop he tells Steve "It just means you have your own rule book." Steve: "I can dig that." Bishop: "It takes a very special kind of person to pick up the tab for that kind of living. You say you dig it, but you're talking about something you really know nothing about." Steve: "And you do?" Bishop: "Do I?" Bishop attends to his routines including martial arts, and knife throwing as well as talking a lot of pills. Visiting an aquarium he passes out, and wakes up in the hospital. The Doctor at the hospital recommends he see his own doctor, and says it sounds like he's experiencing "Acute Anxiety Reaction" adding that if it isn't that, he may want to try a psychiatrist. He wakes up the next morning to find Steve parked outside his house. Steve is impressed with his place and Bishop explains he inherited a lot. Steve tries to convince him to let him in on his "action." Bishop takes Steve out in a plane, letting go of the controls and forcing Steve to take over, which he quickly does. At a bar later, Bishop explains that his father was a "Judge" who had the final word settling Organization disputes, until someone didn't like a decision and put a contract out on him when Bishop was still in school. Steve shares that his father never let him in on anything, although he wanted to know the business. Bishop lets him witness a karate match which turns pretty brutal. Steve remarks "He practically murdered that guy." and Bishop answers "Murder is only killing without a license and everybody kills, governments, the military, the police." Steve: "Do you think Yamato's a killer?" Bishop: "He's a killer that doesn't kill. It's funny. No, for him, the rules are important." Steve: "That's your expert opinion?" Bishop: "That's my opinion." Steve points out that Bishop is being evasive about giving real answers. Bishop reminds him that he better be sure he wants the answers he's asking for. He asks Steve what he knows about the term "Mechanic" and Steve tells him it can be used as synonymous with hit man. Bishop reveals that's what he is and tells Steve that sometimes he could use a backup. Steve asks, "You do this for money?" Bishop: "Money is paid, but that's not the motive. It has to do with standing outside of it all, on your own." He offers to teach Steve all he can, and confirming he's in, Steve says "You've got a partner Mr. Bishop." Bishop corrects him, "Associate." Steve demonstrates an aptitude for the work and they start training for real. Going through a museum Bishop tells Steve "There are killers and there are killers, to tell you the truth they all have a different book of rules. To get away with it depends on the book of rules you have in your pocket at the time, your own country, somebody else's country, or your own personal book of rules. All this (waves at the museum figures) heroes, half of them are killers. Napoleon was one you know, Pancho Villa, Genghis Khan, and we have our own domestic brand, like Billy the Kid, Jesse James, and John Dillinger. Yeah, they're about as famous as our own honest-to-goodness heroes." Bishop gets an assignment to kill three men, who are in the habit of riding around on dirt-bikes but live behind heavy security with constant guards on watch. Bishop includes Steve in the job, including the surveillance. Bishop surprises Steve by watching one of the men in a conversation via binoculars and reading their lips to discover a "Chicken Licken" truck set to arrive at the guarded compound for a delivery. Bishop finds vats of acid at a plating plant to dump the bodies afterwards. Steve and Bishop take the Chicken Licken truck and enter the compound. The hit is messy though and one of the men escapes forcing Bishop to chase the man on a dirt-bike. Although the man ends up dead, the chase causes quite a commotion running through backyard parties and causing car accidents. Bishop is called to meet with one of the Organization heads. He takes a plane to meet a chauffeured car which brings him to the estate. The man (Frank DeKova (as Frank De Kova)) is paining a leopard which he has tied in the yard. The man comments that the last job was very messy and asks about Harry McKenna's son and how he's involved in things. Bishop takes exception at the thought of having to ask permission. The man reminds him that there are rules in place which ensure the Organization survives, implying that Bishop has broken a rule. He gives Bishop a new assignment saying it has to be done fast. Bishop: "I'll handle it the way I always do." Man: "There may not be time enough for that. The word is he's getting ready to talk to some people. The problem is considerable." Bishop: "I'm not some wild Cleveland shooter. I don't cowboy!" Man: "If he talks, things could get complicated, sloppy. That would disturb a lot of us. It's not really open to discussion, Mr. Bishop. This business of McKenna's son has upset a few of our associates." The man tells him that the target is in Naples, where they have him a room already. Bishop gets home and heads to Steve's place. Finding Steve is out, he looks around and finds that Steve has taken a contract to kill him. He puts the papers back and goes home. When Steve shows up at Bishop's house later, he fills him in on the Naples job, telling him they want it "Cowboyed" He also tells Steve that he is nevertheless going to do it the way he's always done. They head to Naples and start watching the target, discovering that the man is very unpredictable, rarely doing the same thing twice, with the exception of returning to his boat. Bishop shares a local wine with Steve, explaining that it doesn't travel well and they don't export it. He reminds Steve to savor it and the time he has. He also gives Steve advice about planning hits, telling him, "You've got to be dead sure, or dead." Bishop tells Steve he'll pick up some scuba gear and they'll use it to get on the boat undetected to kill the target. They succeed and Bishop plans an explosive before they leave. As they get off the boat, some Organization men show up after them in speedboats. They watch as the men get blown up with the boat. Steve asks who the men are and Bishop explains that they're Organization men, after him because he broke a rule by not asking them to start training him. More men show up soon, leading to a car chase. Bishop blows up a car chasing them and then sends an exploding car into a roadblock set for him, and pushes the last pursuing car off the mountain road with a bulldozer he finds on the side of the road. Back at their room, Steve offers Bishop a glass of the local wine he likes. Steve watches with interest as Bishop has a sip. Bishop insects the glass himself suspiciously before picking up his bag to go, only to double over in pain. Steve says "Brucine! You'll be dead in a few minutes. Listen, you'll really appreciate this. This stuff is absolutely clear when it's in solution. I just coated the inside of the glass with it and let it dry. When the wine hit it it went right back into solution. No trace. Looks just like a heart attack." Bishop keeps struggling on the ground in agony. Steve continues "You said every man has his jelly spot. Yours was you just couldn't cut it alone." Bishop: "Was it because of your father?" Steve: "You killed him? I thought he just died. You see? There you are. They told you who to hit. Kept the whole idea from being what we talked about. You needed a license, their license. I'm gonna pick my own mark, hit when I want. Just like you said, standing outside. See Naples and die." Steve heads to Bishop's place, as if making it his own. He picks up the ball Bishop would squeeze to strengthen his fingers and then gets into his car and finds a note taped to his rear view mirror. We hear Bishop reading it to him " Steve, if you read this it means I didn't make it back. It also means you've broken a filament controlling a thirteen second delay trigger. End of game. Bang, you're dead."

In 1870s New Mexico, a half-breed kills a bigoted sheriff in self-defense but the posse that eventually hunts him finds itself in dangerous territory. After a deadly confrontation with the racist local sheriff in the town's whites-only bar, the half-Apache, Pardon Chato, flees into the unforgiving desert. Hell-bent on making Chato pay, the famed former Confederate officer, Captain Quincey Whitmore, assembles an angry posse of blood-thirsty men; however, who is the hunter, and who is the hunted? Do Whitmore's toughs stand a chance of surviving in Chato's dangerous land? —Nick Riganas