Nigel De Brulier

King Louis XIII of France is thrilled when his son is born--an heir to the throne. But his Queen has actually delivered twin boys. Cardinal Richelieu sees the second son as a potential for revolution, and has him sent off to Spain to be raised in secret to ensure a peaceful future for France. Alas, keeping the secret means sending Constance, lover of D'Artagnan, off to a convent. D'Artagnan hears of this and rallies the Musketeers in a bid to rescue her. Unfortunately, Richelieu outsmarts the Musketeers and banishes them forever. Richelieu enlists D'Artagnan to look after and protect the young prince. Meanwhile, de Rochefort learns of the twins and Richelieu's plans, and kidnaps the twin, raising him in secret. Many years later, with Richelieu dead and the young prince crowned King Louis XIV, Rochefort launches his plan. The king is kidnapped, replaced with his twin, put in an iron mask so as not to be recognized, and led off to a remote castle to be held prisoner. Louis XIV is able to alert D'Artagnan, who realizes that only his friends Athos, Porthos, and Aramis can help him, so he reunites the Musketeers to derail Rochefort's nefarious plot but at a heavy toll. —Theron Trowbridge <Tmonk@concentric.net>

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>

A Jewish prince seeks to find his family and revenge himself upon his childhood friend who had him wrongly imprisoned. Erstwhile childhood friends, Judah Ben-Hur and Messala meet again as adults, this time with Roman officer Messala as conqueror and Judah as a wealthy, though conquered, Israelite. A slip of a brick during a Roman parade causes Judah to be sent off as a galley slave, his property confiscated and his mother and sister imprisoned. Years later, as a result of his determination to stay alive and his willingness to aid his Roman master, Judah returns to his homeland an exalted and wealthy Roman athlete. Unable to find his mother and sister, and believing them dead, he can think of nothing else than revenge against Messala. —Doug Sederberg <vornoff@sonic.net> Young Arrius, the adopted son of Roman nobleman Arrius, is known as the most accomplished chariot racer in all the Roman Empire. Arrius is one of only a few people who know that his adopted son is really a former Jewish slave, more specifically Prince Judah, Ben-Hur, who was thought to have perished as a Roman galley slave. Young Arrius decides to accept the offer of an Egyptian to race his horses in an upcoming chariot race, but only on the condition he be identified as the Unknown Jew, so that he can exact his revenge on a Roman Tribune named Messala. Messala was a childhood friend of Ben-Hur's, but an action by Messala as a Roman Tribune led to Ben-Hur losing his wealth, being split from his family and being imprisoned as a galley slave. Ben-Hur's other priorities in life are to find his mother and sister, to reconnect with Esther, the daughter of the Hur's steward, Simonides, who he loves, and to free the Jews from the oppression of the Romans through the insurrection as King a young man believed by many to be the Messiah, he who was born in a manger in Bethlehem. —Huggo In this silent classic, Judah ben-Hur (Ramon Novarro) discovers that he has been betrayed by his childhood friend Messala (Francis X. Bushman), leading to separation from his family. Punished for an accident, Ben-Hur is unjustly forced to serve on a Roman ship, where he becomes a friend to the vessel's admiral, Quintus Arrius (Frank Currier). Eventually, Ben-Hur has the chance to compete against Messala in a chariot race, providing him with a shot at vengeance. —maschzentertainment