Paul Newman

A woman discovers a tragic love letter in a bottle on a beach, and is determined to track down its author. A woman finds a romantic letter in a bottle washed ashore and tracks down the author, a widowed shipbuilder whose wife died tragically early. As a deep and mutual attraction blossoms, the man struggles to make peace with his past so that he can move on and find happiness. —CJ Based on a Nicholas sparks novel, "Message in a bottle" is the story of Theresa who finds a message in a bottle along the shore. The message is from a man who deeply loved his wife and has lost her. She slowly begins to fall in love with him and embarks on a journey to know him better. —Keith Francis A divorced single mother finds a bottle on the shore whilst out jogging. Much taken with the sentiments of the message inside she uses the resources of the Chicago paper she works for to track down the sender. When she meets him an affection quickly forms between them, and his cantankerous father is also taken with her. But it is obvious something in the past is casting a terrible shadow. —Jeremy Perkins {J-26} Who meets by Fate, shall be sealed by Fate. Theresa Osborne is running along the beach when she stumbles upon a bottle washed up on the shore. Inside is a message, reading the letter she feels so moved and yet she felt as if she has violated someone's thoughts. In love with a man she has never met, Theresa tracks down the author of the letter to a small town in Wilmington, two lovers with crossed paths. But yet one can't let go of their past. —Ann Nonymous.

A retired detective accepts a simple task, unaware that it will tear open old, forgotten, but deadly wounds. Retired ex-cop and private detective Harry Ross (Paul Newman), who lives with rich actor Jack Ames (Gene Hackman), who is dying from cancer and his actress wife Catherine (Susan Sarandon) gets mixed up in murder when he is asked to deliver blackmail money. He walks into a twenty-year-old case involving the mysterious disappearance of Catherine's former husband. Raymond Hope (James Garner) is another ex-cop who also does occasional errands for the couple. —John Sacksteder <jsackste@bellsouth.net>

Donald "Sully" Sullivan (Paul Newman) is a worn yet spry 60-year-old hustler and con-man living in the peaceful, snowy northern New York state village of North Bath. He works free-lance in the construction business, usually with his dim-witted friend Rub Squeers (Pruitt Taylor Vince) by his side. He is often at odds with Carl Roebuck (Bruce Willis), a local contractor, suing him at every opportunity for unpaid wages and disability. Sully's one-legged lawyer Wirf Wirfley (Gene Saks) is inept, and his lawsuits are repeatedly dismissed. As a way to irritate him, Sully flirts with Carl's wife Toby (Melanie Griffith) openly at every opportunity (which she enjoys). He is a regular at the Iron Horse Saloon, where he often has drinks and plays cards with Wirf, Carl, Rub, and the town sheriff. A running joke is the repeated theft of Carl's snowblower. Sully steals it to get back at Carl for his latest failed lawsuit. Carl steals it back, placing it in the yard at his construction business guarded by his doberman pinscher guard dog. Sully, after drugging the dog, steals it a second time. Carl takes it back a final time, and leaves the dog, who is now skittish due to his drugging, at Sully's childhood home for him to find. Sully is a tenant in the home of the elderly Miss Beryl Peoples (Jessica Tandy), whose banker son Clive Peoples Jr. (Josef Sommer) strongly urges her to kick him out and sell the house. Family complications of his own develop for Sully with a visit from Peter (Dylan Walsh), his estranged son who is an unemployed college professor at odds with his wife. While Peter and Sully try to reconstruct their relationship, Sully begins a new one with his young grandson Will (Alexander Goodwin). Peter's sudden everyday presence does not sit well with Rub, but Sully tells him that although Peter is his son, Rub is still his best friend. Meanwhile, Clive is on the verge of a lucrative deal to build an amusement park in North Bath. However, the deal unexpectedly falls through when the promoter turns out to be a con man, and Clive quietly skips town in shame since he used his bank's resources to help finance the amusement park. After being jailed for punching a police officer named Raymer (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) who has been persecuting him, Sully's luck seems to be all bad. But his son, Peter, bails him out of jail and both him and Sully's grandson start to warm up to him. Sully later attends the funeral of an elderly resident named Ms. Hattie (Alice Drummond), an Alzheimer's stricken elderly woman whom he frequently sees wondering the streets of the town in a daze and whom Sully always helps walk her back to her house where her children are caring for her her. Soon, Sully's fortune takes a turn for the better when his horse racing trifecta ticket wins a some of a few thousand dollars. Even the lovely Toby expresses a willingness to leave Carl, mostly due to his constant womanizing, and run away with Sully to Hawaii. Sully realizes he can't leave his grandson and thanks Toby for considering him, just before she leaves for the airport. In the final scene, Sully is pretty much back where he began, boarding at Miss Beryl's. But now he is a little richer, both financially and in his soul, he's a new dog owner, and he has become the picture of contentment.

This film reenacts the Manhattan Project, the secret WWII project, and the first atomic bombs designed, built, and tested in Los Alamos. In real life, Robert Oppenheimer was the scientific head of the Manhattan Project, the secret wartime project in New Mexico where the first atomic bombs were designed and built. General Leslie Groves was in overall command of it. This film reenacts the project with an emphasis on their relationship. —Anonymous

Michael learns he is the subject of a criminal investigation in a newspaper`s front-page story. He confronts the writer and together they find that everything is not as it seems.

The Charlestown Chiefs, a minor league hockey team, need to drum up attendance for their upcoming game with a team from Hyannisport. Television host Jim Carr (Andrew Duncan) interviews Denis Lemieux (Yvon Barrette) on his show "Sports Talk" about the "finer points of hockey." English is the French Canadian player's second (and not best) language, but Denis gamely describes penalty moves like hooking and slashing, using his stick on Jim to demonstrate. Reggie "Reg" Dunlop (Paul Newman) is the team's aging player/coach, and the team is dead last in the second-rate Federal League. He meets opposing player Nick Brophy (Jon Gofton) at center ice to start the Hyannisport game, and Nick reveals he is drunk and resents that his coach put him in the game. In the broadcast booth, Chiefs player Dave Carlson (Jerry Houser), who supposedly was injured in a previous game, reveals that he isn't playing because he actually has a cold. The lone quality player for the Chiefs is Ned Braden (Michael Ontkean), who is not only the highest-scorer in the Federal League (he makes his record shot during the Hyannisport game), but he is also a Princeton grad who plays for the love of the game. Joe McGrath (Strother Martin), the team's manager, seems to be receiving encouragement by the mysterious team owner to come up with publicity stunts for the players. Some of the men are put into a fashion show, and Johnny Upton (Allan Nicholls) has had it: he warns McGrath that he plans to flash the audience so they won't have to do such degrading things again. Joe blows him off to make a phone call to locate Reg and Ned, who should be at the show as well, but has to stop the call short when cries of shock and disgust greet Johnny when he makes good on his threat and flashes the audience as he takes the runway. Ned and Reg pass the mill, which Ned tells him is going to close and lay off 10,000 workers. The Chiefs will have difficulty filling the stadiums with most of the town's residents suddenly out of work. Ned's wife Lily (Lindsay Crouse) drives them home from the local bar, uptight about being a hockey wife with a troubled marriage in a town she can't stand. Ned gives his attention to their St. Bernard dog Ruby and doesn't seem interested in his wife's attitude. Joe is training Reg for a future in an office job and tells him to pick up the three new players he obtained from the Iron League -- the Hanson Brothers (Jeff & Steve Carlson, David Hanson). He finds them at the bus station by the noise of one of the boys trying to force a lost quarter out of the vending machine by shaking it down. He takes them to their hotel where the team will pick up their expenses for a week and, as they go down the hall for sodas, he notices toy cars and tracks in their suitcase. Reg is less than impressed with the new acquisitions, and rails at Joe for picking up any discarded players he can find at rock bottom prices; his plan is to refuse to play them. At the bar Reg meets his (eventually) ex-wife Francine (Jennifer Warren), with whom he still has a good friendship. Before the bus leaves for an away game, Lily offers Ned a book with all the sex scenes highlighted, but he refuses to take it, though Reg is impressed. On the bus, Ned runs a betting pool and says that he will earn enough money to buy the team so he can run it his way. The team worries about a crazy player named Oggie Oglethorpe (Ned Dowd), but learn he was suspended and won't play. As Reg leaves the hotel for the game, he spots the Hansons playing with their racing cars. In the locker room, he sees them wrapping their knuckles with aluminum foil and tape prior to the game. Reg has a roll in the hay with Suzanne Hanrahan (Melinda Dillon), who reveals that she discovered she is a lesbian after a night of drinking and exploratory sex with another player's wife. On the ice, Reg decides to sneak a goal and approaches Tommy Hanrahan (Christopher Murney) in the goalie cage, skating by and egging him on about his wife being a dyke; Hanrahan chases Reg and leaves the cage open for a Chiefs goal. Ned is disgusted and calls the team's win "garbage." Reg, however, wants the team to be fired up and have hope for the future, so he works with reporter Dickie Dunn (M. Emmet Walsh) to suggest that a Florida retirement community may buy the team. The next day Reg sees Lily in the town square and talks with her; she is in a bad mood and even cusses over a statue of a dog in the square, supposedly a canine hero credited with saving the town during a 1938 flood. Reg tries to bolster the team's morale one player at a time, and talks with Dave Carlson about aging and suggests it may be time to quit hockey. Dave idolizes Reg, and when Barclay Donaldson (Ross Smith) from the Broom County team suggests that Reg shouldn't be in the league, Dave goes after him, and the fight puts him out of the game. Finally, desperate to win, Reg releases the Hansons on the rival team. The Hansons immediately assault and brutalize the opposition, much to the delight of Charlestown's working-class fans, who create a booster club and begin following the team on their own bus to attend away games. At a game against Peterboro, the teams begin fighting before the game begins and with no officials on the ice to stop the ruckus. The boys are mutilated as they finally stand at attention for the National Anthem. An official breaks ranks to yell at the Hansons, but one of them points out that they are at attention because the song hasn't finished, and the official cools off. By the time the team goes to an away game against Hyannisport they are winning, but their reputation has preceded them, and mobs of people boo them at their arrival. They stop jeering when the bus drives by with all the Chiefs and boosters mooning them out every bus window as they pass. The other Chiefs players soon take their cue from the popularity of the Hansons and become "goons," fighting as much as (if not more than) actually playing hockey. At Peterboro a fan throws something and hits a Hanson in the face, and all three brothers take to the stands to find and pummel him. After the game the police arrest the Hansons. Peterboro still loses the game. When the bus arrives back in Charlestown and Ned is not on it for Lily to pick up (he gets off and walks the last few miles), Lily is upset and tears out of the lot in her van, but not before Reg climbs aboard and starts talking to her about getting her head straight. She drops him at his place and drives off in tears. Francine tells Reg she has a job offering in Long Island and will be moving away. Reg goes on Jim Carr's radio show to announce that he wants to put a $100 bounty on the head of Syracuse player Tim McCracken (Paul D'Amato). Dave (who has taken the name "Killer") Carlson calls Reg, anxious to claim the money, which Reg says will have to be earned. Reg tries to get some sleep before the game, but Joe calls to read him off for putting a bounty on a player's head, and suddenly Lily has arrived with the dog (who takes over Reg's bed) and her belongings, anxious to straighten herself out. Reg passes out in the remaining bed space left by the St. Bernard. Before the game, Reg yells at the organist for playing "Lady of Spain" and rips up the sheet music. The game is going well, with plenty of beatings between goals, but Ned refuses to play dirty, so Reg benches him (first in his career) and Ned goes to the broadcast booth to gripe to Jim Carr, going into an uncharacteristic tirade and discovering that Jim wears a toupee (and announcing it on the air). Finally, Reg finds out that the team is owned by somebody named McCambridge, so he goes to the owner's home to talk with him. It turns out he is a she: widow Anita McCambridge (Kathryn Walker) tells Reg that she abhors violence and won't let her kids watch hockey. She plans to fold the team to take a tax write-off as her accountants have recommended. She realizes the Chiefs can be sold, but chooses not to. Disgusted, Reg insults her and leaves, then drives to Ned's house to find he is out in the woods trying to avoid talking to him; he yells to Ned that he can play however he wants and, since the team is folding, he wants to go out in style. Reg takes Lily to Francine's beauty shop for a makeover at his expense. She says Lily is pretty and could look like Cher with the right hair and makeup. At the championship game, Reg tells the guys that he wants to play "old time hockey" and not be a goon for what might be his last game. The Hansons are all for it, so they take the ice and wait for the Syracuse team to come out, but the ice remains empty. Then the announcer receives the roster for the opposition: they have brought out the top goons to play against the Chiefs, including McCracken and the dreaded Oglethorpe. The moment the puck drops, the Syracuse men launch upon the Chiefs in a massive fight. Ned doesn't get involved, and Joe sits in amazement in the stands as his boys don't fight back. At the half-time break, Joe hollers at the mangled Chiefs that he has gathered every major NHL talent scout to the game to watch them and offer contracts. Back on the ice, "old time hockey" is gone, replaced by the Chiefs' old ways. While Ned sits on the bench, he suddenly spots Francine escorting the new, improved Lily to the stands; he is overcome with the sight of her, and suddenly he skates out to center ice and begins removing parts of his uniform. Jim Carr is stunned and disgusted, but the band launches into "The Stripper" as Ned continues his striptease and the other players slowly cease their fighting to watch. McCracken yells at an official to stop Ned, but he finds nothing wrong and won't interfere. McCracken then strikes the official, who declares the Syracuse team has forfeited the game and takes the winner's cup to Reg, who passes it to Ned as they skate off the ice (Ned stripped down to his skates and jockstrap) to thunderous applause. The Chiefs win the Federal League and receive a heroes' welcome back in Charlestown Reg is pleased that the NHL's Minnesota Nighthawks want to hire him as their coach, and that several key Chief's players will be part of the bargain. Reg and Ned sit atop a convertible in the victory parade, and Lily is by Ned's side. Reg says farewell to Francine, who interrupts the victory parade in town as he lets her drive through with her things in a trailer, and he tells her to stay in touch through his new team.

In this disaster epic, 135 floors below the opening gala of the world`s tallest skyscraper, a fire ignites a conflagration that traps hundreds of partygoers in a Towering Inferno.

It is about May of 1948 in a small northern Florida town. As the film opens, Lucas Jackson (Paul Newman) is using a pipe cutter to cut the tops off of parking meters. He is drinking, possibly drunk, but not violent. When the police arrive, he is peacefully arrested. Luke and three other men arrive at a rural Florida prison where they serve on a road gang performing hard labor. When he arrives at the prison, the warden reads his record. He remarks that Luke had been in the Army, attained the rank of Sargeant, was awarded several medals, but was discharged as a private. Something he did got him busted back down to the same rank at which he entered the Army. Luke is sentenced to two years. Dragline (George Kennedy) is clearly the leader of the prisoners. He is uneducated and illiterate, but smarter, stronger, bigger, and does not hesitate to exercise his power over them. Most of the prisoners willingly submit to Dragline, but Luke does not. There is no open opposition to Dragline, just a casual refusal to change his behavior in order to please others. Nevertheless, Dragline sees this as a threat to his power and dominance. The men leave at sunset and perform over 12 hours daily of grueling hard labor under intense heat and humidity on the side of the road cutting grass with a sickle or shoveling dirt. One of the new prisoners passes out the first day and another one tries to get out of the detail by sweeping, which was a trick played on him. Luke makes it the first day, but exhausted and barely able to get back into the truck. At the end of the first day for the new men, Alibi, the one who tried to get out of the hard labor by sweeping, is made to sleep in the box the first night, a cramped isolation unit outside to learn a lesson to not challenge the guards. After Luke says something that Dragline takes as a challenge to his authority, Dragline arranges for he and Luke to have a boxing match. Being much larger, Dragline simply pounds Luke into a pulp, but Luke will not give up, or stay down on the ground. What begins as a boxing match with enthusiastic prisoners and guards watching slowly turns into a sad spectacle. Prisoners begin to plead with Luke to lay down and refuse to get back up, and eventually Dragline himself pleads with Luke to simply stop fighting back, but Luke will not stop. The prisoners begin to walk away, unable to watch the sad scene any longer. Dragline himself wants the fight to end, and at one point has to catch the beaten and exhausted Luke from falling down, carrying him across his shoulder and gently setting him on the ground, only to have Luke use what little strength he has left to tap Dragline with one last punch. Finally, even Dragline cannot continue. The only men who are still watching are the guards and the warden, but the warden seems concerned about Luke's stubbornness and the guards remain indifferent. Luke becomes the prisoners' hero, and even Dragline is now respectful of Luke during a card game that night of having tricked a fellow opponent on betting with a bad hand dealt, giving him the name "Cool Hand Luke." On the chain gang, Luke encourages the other prisoners, by his own attitude and energy, to excel at their menial tasks. This not only encourages camaraderie among the prisoners, it deprives the guards of a stick to hold over the prisoners' heads. The prisoners are forced to shovel sand over a freshly tarred road, and they perform the job so quickly and with such a sense of competition that they complete the job early, and thus by default earn a few hours of relaxation, because there is no more road on which to work. On a Sunday, Luke's mother comes to visit him, visibly ill and dying of cancer or emphysema and still chain-smoking, and it is clear that Luke gets his independent streak from her. He admired her ability to live life on her own terms, and has tried to emulate that, but with much different results. During one very hot and rainy night, Luke decides out of the blue that he can eat 50 eggs. Most of the other prisoners oppose and that it's impossible or will kill him, but Dragline begins to take bets. Luke barely succeeds at it and collects all the money from bets. Soon after, Luke receives a telegram that his mother has died. The warden uses the death of Luke's mother as an excuse to lock him in "the box," solitary confinement in a hot wooden shed. The warden claims that men will often run away when their relatives die, so he locks Luke up until after Luke's mother is buried. This has the opposite effect, and Luke promptly escapes after being released from solitary. Luke is later caught, after mailing a picture and magazine back to his former fellow prisoners. He is double-chained, but escapes a second time. Again, he is recaptured. While Luke is becoming the "hero" of his fellow prisoners, it is a role he does not want. He admonishes them to "stop feeding off me," to stop living life vicariously through his acts. The guards and warden determine to break Luke's will. They force him to dig and bury, then re-dig and re-bury, a ditch. He is beaten and tormented, until he finally begs God to spare him from the warden and guards. They take this as a sign that he is finally a broken man, and Luke himself later admits that it did break him. A few days later, the guards have now made Luke a trustee. Nonetheless, when he is later given an opportunity, he seizes it and escapes again, stealing one of the prison trucks to make his get-away. This time, Dragline decides to go with Luke. Only later, after their escape, does Dragline weigh out the consequences. He had only two years left on his sentence, but now - if caught - will probably have many more years in prison. Dragline wants to team up with Luke, but Luke tells him that he wants to go alone. Luke has always been an individual, not a conventional leader, and does not want to take on that role now. Luke goes into a church, after being completely irreverent to God through the entire film, and asks God to help him escape. But the warden and guards arrive, and when Luke mocks them from the church window, he is shot. The local police want to take Luke to the hospital, but the warden insists that they take him back to prison instead. It is clear that Luke will not make it that far, but the warden heads off with Luke in his car. The one guard who always wears sunglasses is attacked by Dragline, and though Dragline is subdued, he managed to take off the guard's mirror-like sunglasses (and the warden runs over them with his car). In the final scene, Dragline is regaling the prisoners with stories of Luke's final moments, and it is clear that Luke is dead. He is the true anti-hero, never wanting to be anybody's role model, just wanting to live life on his own terms. But like the guard's sunglasses, Luke managed to unmask the injustice and hypocrisy of the system in which he was confined. Basically, he gave up his life over a parking meter, but in the final analysis he could not be broken by the system.

Michael Armstrong (Paul Newman), an esteemed American physicist and rocket scientist, is to attend a scientific conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. He takes a cruise ship to Copenhagen along with his assistant and fiancée, Sarah Sherman (Julie Andrews). Armstrong tells Sherman that he did not want her to come along, and en route to Copenhagen, he receives a radiogram to pick up a book once in Copenhagen. The book, allegedly a first-edition of one of Armstrong's book, actually contains a message that says, "Contact in case (of emergency.)" He tells Sherman he is going to Stockholm, but she discovers he is flying to East Berlin, and she follows him there. When they land, he is welcomed by representatives of the East German government, and Sherman realizes that Armstrong has defected to the other side. Sherman, however, is extremely uncomfortable with this move, realizing if the apparent defection is in fact real, given the circumstances of the Cold War of the period, she would likely never see her home or family again. They are constantly accompanied by Professor Karl Manfred (Günter Strack), who took part in arranging Armstrong's defection to the East. The next day, Armstrong sneaks out of the hotel in East Berlin of his temporary residence, visits a local art museum and sneaks out of a side door to prevent himself from being followed. He takes a taxi to the countryside outside the city and to a local farm where he visits a contact, a 'farmer' (Mort Mills), where it is revealed that his defection is in fact a ruse to gain the confidence of the East German scientific establishment in order to learn just how much their chief scientist Professor Gustav Lindt (Ludwig Donath) and by extension, the Soviet Union, knows about anti-missile systems. While Armstrong has not informed the U.S. government of his plan, he has made preparations to return to the West via an escape network, known as (Pi). However, Armstrong is followed to this farm by his official body man, Hermann Gromek (Wolfgang Kieling), an East German security officer assigned to him. Gromek realizes what is and that Armstrong is a double agent when he sees the Pi symbol in the dirt outside the front door that Armstrong made. A Gromek is calling the police to report his suspicions, a tortuous and violent fight scene commences that ends with Gromek being killed. So as to not arouse the suspicion of the taxi driver who brought Armstrong to the farm, a gun is not used to kill Gromek, but instead he is choked, stabbed, hit with a shovel, and, ultimately, gassed to death by Armstrong and the farmer's wife (Carolyn Conwell). Gromek and his motorcycle are then buried by the 'farmer' and his wife, while Armstrong's blood-stained coat is burned. Armstrong then takes the taxi waiting outside the farmhouse back to East Berlin and to his hotel. However, a few days later, the taxicab driver (Peter Lorre Jr.) who drove Armstrong to the farm, reports Armstrong's behavior to the police when he later sees Gromek's missing person ad in the newspaper. The local police and a team of volunteers search the farmhouse, and begin to dig up the grounds around the farmhouse. The remains of Gromek are found; the fate of the farmer's wife is not shown. Meanwhile, Armstrong visits the physics faculty of Karl Marx University in Leipzig, where his interview with the scientists is abruptly ended when he is questioned by security officials about the missing Gromek. At the same time, the faculty try to interrogate Sherman about her knowledge of the American "Gamma Five" anti-missile program, but she refuses to cooperate and runs from the room even though she had agreed to cooperate and defect to East Germany. At this point, Armstrong secretly confides to her his actual motives, and asks her to go along with the ruse. Desperate and aware that time is running out for him, Armstrong finally goads Professor Lindt into revealing his anti-missile equations in a fit of pique over what Lindt believes are Armstrong's mathematical mistakes. When Lindt hears over the university's loudspeaker system that Armstrong and Sherman are being sought for questioning when Gromek's body is found, he realizes that he has given up his secrets while learning nothing in return. Armstrong and Sherman escape from the university with a little help from of the university clinic physician Dr. Koska (Gisela Fischer). They travel to East Berlin, pursued by the Stasi, in a decoy bus operated by the escape network, led by Mr. Jacobi (David Opatoshu). Roadblocks, highway robbery by Soviet Army deserters, and bunching with the "real" bus result in the police becoming aware of the decoy bus and everyone flees off the bus and scatter in the streets. While looking for the Friedrichstraße post office, the two encounter the exiled Polish countess Kuchinska (Lila Kedrova) who leads them to the post office in hopes of being sponsored for an American visa. The police find Armstrong and Sherman at the post office, and Kuchinska throws herself in front of the police so they can go to their next destination, a travel agency. That evening, when Armstrong and Sherman arrive at the travel agency, however, the police were performing a raid. Two men from the travel agency walk up to them on the sidewalk - one is the 'farmer' - and give them tickets to the ballet, with the plan being to travel with the troupe to Sweden later that night. While they are attending the ballet and waiting for the pick-up, they are reported to the police because they were spotted by the lead Russian ballerina (Tamara Toumanova), who bears a bit of a grudge; Earlier in the film, she flew to East Berlin on the same airplane as Armstrong, and mistakenly believed the press were there to greet her, rather than Armstrong. Armstrong and Sherman escape through a crowded theater by shouting "fire". With the help of the escape network, Armstrong and Sherman hide in a crate of props belonging to a traveling Czech circus troupe. They cross the Baltic Sea to Sweden on a freighter. The ballerina makes a mistake in uncovering where Armstrong and Sherman are hiding on the ship, and the wrong crates are fired on when already dangling over the pier (thus, Swedish crane operators technically have control over the property once it was off an East German boat), and Armstrong and Sherman are able to escape by jumping overboard and swimming to a Swedish dock, safe at last.

The fashion industry and Paris provide the setting for a comedy surrounding the mistaken impression that Samantha Blake is a high-priced call girl. Steve Sherman is the journalist interviewing her for insights on her profession. Having once played and lost in love, twenty-five year old Samantha Blake has immersed herself in her job as the chief ladies fashions buyer for discount J. Bergner's Fifth Avenue in New York. In other words, she scowls the high end shops at night stealing their designs which Bergner then produces and sells for a fraction of the cost. She has placed as much space between herself and romance by dressing like a man and going by the moniker Sam. Steve Sherman could be a great journalist, but his womanizing always seems to get in the way. Steve and Sam meet on the same New York to Paris flight, Sam who is travelling there with her boss Joe Bergner and her wisecracking colleague Lena O'Connor, who is secretly in love with Joe, to visit the Paris design houses under the guidance of vivacious Felicienne Corbeau, while Steve has been exiled there by his boss, International Press chief Bertram Chalmers, as Steve's iron-clad contract won't allow Chalmers to fire him until the expiry of that contract, Chalmer's hope being that Steve kills himself among the bevy of French beauties in the process. Sam and Steve immediately butt heads being the antithesis of each other when it comes to love and romance. Lena has her own romance problems as she can see that she will have to fight Felicienne for Joe, which is made all the more difficult in Felicienne being a truly nice woman. But being in the city of love opens Sam's eyes to the fact that she really wants love in her life. Making herself over to an extreme, she meets Steve, who out of circumstance doesn't recognize her as Sam and who believes she is a prostitute named Mimi. Steve's initial interest in Mimi is purely as a source for stories, he using her background to equate the French view of love and sex with sport. But as they spend more time together, they begin to fall for each other, the question then being if they can love each other as plain old Steve and Samantha. —Huggo

Hud opens on a wide open Texas landscape, which turns to a highway while spare and lovely guitar music plays. We then meet Lon (Brandon De Wilde) an impressionable teenager catching a ride into town to retrieve his Uncle Hud. The driver lets him out and asks how he'll look for Hud and Lon explains he just has to find Hud's pink Cadillac.Seeing a bartender sweeping up window glass from the sidewalk, Lon asks what the trouble was, the bar owner explains his trouble was Hud being there the last night. Lon soon finds the Cadillac outside a local married couple's house. Honking on the Cadillac's horn, he manages to get Hud to come out, although Hud is clearly angry about being disturbed as he was in bed with the wife and isn't quite dressed. Lon explains that Hud's father Homer (Melvyn Douglas) needs him right away. Ready to leave he peeks in the door and says "Thank you honey." Lon and Hud are both surprised when the woman's husband, Joe, pulls up to see them leaving. He asks which of them is leaving his house at 6 in the morning. Hud claims that he found Lon there and came to take him home. Joe threatens Lon, but Hud reminds him of his diabetes, and promises to "cool his temperature." Driving away, Lon's upset, but Hud tells him "Relax, you could charge a stud fee by the time that story gets around town." Hud asks what Homer wants and Lon says he needs advice on something. Hud is surprised as Homer hasn't asked for advice in fifteen years. Hud speeds home and parks in a flower bed which Alma (Patricia Neal) the Bannon's live in housekeeper, isn't pleased about, remarking that he does it every time. Homer brings Hud and Lon out to see one a heffer who has died of unknown causes with no signs. Alma asks him why he parks on her flowers and Hud tells her "Don't plant them where I park." She offers him some eggs asking if he had breakfast in bed. Hud tells her, "Nope hadn't gotten around to breakfast." which makes Alma grin as Hud leaves. Homer has hands watching the corpse to keep the vultures away. Reaching the site, Hud starts shooting at the vultures, prompting Homer to scold him, saying "Don't do that, Hud; they help keep the country clean. Besides, it's against the law." Hud tells him "Well, I've always thought the law was meant to be interpreted in a lenient manner. Sometimes I lean one way and sometimes I lean the other." Hud has no idea what killed it and Homer mentions wanting to call in the state vet to check it out. Hud has a problem with that and tells Homer the government shouldn't have any business on their land. Homer appears decided however, and tells Hud and Lon to stay with the steer and wait so the ranch hands can take a break. After a few minutes, Hud gets bored and takes a nearby horse back to his car, leaving Lon to do the watching. Soon after getting his car Hud finds Alma with one of the ranch hands on the side of the road with a blown tire. He leaves the hand to fix it and takes Alma back home as she has groceries to get back before dinner. She teases Hud about the smell of Chanel #5 in the car saying "You sure weren't riding the range this afternoon, were ya?" Hud responds "I sure wasn't." Alma tells him she doesn't know how some women have the time for Hud in the middle of the day. He tells her "They just drop everything honey." and she tells him "I suppose it does beat housework." Alma also tells him that a checker at the grocery store told her that Hud is seeing Truman Peter's wife. Homer and Lon eat dinner with Alma serving them, and then go sit on the porch to wait for desert. Hud, meanwhile yells at Alma to bring him a shirt. Hud flirts with her when she brings it to his room although she rebuffs his comments. Lon talks with Homer on the porch. When Homer asks what he's thinking about, Lon tells him, the future, having a car, and girls. Homer tells him "You'll get your share of what's good. A boy like you deserves it." Lon takes a look at a fading picture of his deceased father, Homer's son, from Homer's wallet. Lon asks him if he doesn't carry a picture of Hud in his wallet. Homer says "No, I don't" Lon says Lon: But he's your son, same as my Dad was. Homer: Yeah, he is. Lon: What are you holding against him Granddad? Homer: He knows and you don't need to. Alma brings them desert and sits on the porch with them. Hud comes outside ready to leave and Homer asks him to try and be home for the vet in the morning. Hud asks ALma to get a drink with him, but she declines, although he flirts with her about it. Lon asks Hud if he can go along and Hud agrees to take him into town. Homer tells Lon to be careful and glares at Hud, who tells Lon to drive. Lon asks "What was that all about?" and Hud says "It's a story I'll tell you one day when I'm drunk." In town, Lon tries to get a drink with Hud but Hud tells him to get a Dr. Pepper instead. Lon heads to the corner store and looks through paperback book rentals, then catches up with Hud, who now has beer. Hud gives Lon a hard time for following him and reveals he's on his way to "Mrs. Ruben Fletcher's house." Lon protests Hud treating like a kid and and Hud asks "How old are ya, Fantan, a fast 17?" Hud tells him "When I was your age, I couldn't get enough of anything." He tells Lon that's the year he was born and tells him about going out with his father, adding "Boy, we dossie-doed and chased a lot of girlish butts around that summer." Lon is fascinated at the talk and tells Hud "I wouldn't mind going that route myself." prompting Hud to tell him to come along, although Lon declines. Alma comes into Lonnie's room to wake him the next day. She asks him "Are you sleeping in the raw again?" to avoid pulling the sheet off of him. He says he is, and asks Alma what she sleeps in. SHe tells him "In my own room with the door locked." He asks "Do you ever wear any of those little shorty things." Alma: What kind of question is that? Lon: Just wondered. Alma: Does your mind usually run that direction? Lon: Yeah, it seems to. Alma: Boys with impure thoughts come out in acne. Lon: Oh, that's all bull Alma. Alma: Keep it up, you'll see. SHe tickles him to make him jump before leaving the room. Homer and Hud are out at the dead heifer, meeting with the vet, who tells Homer to get all of the cattle together for inspection. Homer asks why and the vet explains "I hope I'm wrong, but I'm afraid you've got the very worst kind of trouble a cattleman can have. I think that cow died of foot and mouth disease." Homer is surprised. Homer realizes that the vet may have to kill every animal he owns to prevent outbreak. After the vet leaves Hud remarks, "You gonna let them shoot your cows out from underneath you on account of a schoolbook disease? You getting that old Homer?" Homer: I wonder if a long quarantine wouldn't satisfy them? You think they'd agree to that? Hud: They don't have to agree to nothing. They're the LAW. You can agree with 'em 'til Hell freezes over for all the good it'll do ya. Hud proposes that Homer sell all the cattle before the inspector comes back. Homer: Would that be your way of getting out of a tight? Hud: Ship the whole herd out before they begin the tests! Homer: You mean, try and pass bad stuff off on to my neighbors who wouldn't even know what they was getting? Hud: You don't know it's bad stuff. I'd ship 'em out of state. Load them up north before the news gets out. Homer: And take a chance on starting an epidemic in the entire country? Hud: Why, this whole country is run on epidemics, where you been? Epidemics are big business, price fixing, crooked TV shows, income tax finagling, souped up expense accounts. How many honest men you know? You take the sinners away from the saints, you're lucky to end up with Abraham Lincoln. Now I say let us put our bread into some of that gravy while it is still hot. Homer: You're an unprincipled man Hud. Hud: Don't let that flush ya. I mean, you got enough for both of us. While the cattle are rounded up, Hud notices Homer is having a tough time. He suggests Homer go take a nap but Homer insists "I'll hold up my end of it." Lon comes out to help with the round up. Lon talks about the rarity of a couple longhorn steer that Homer keeps for nostalgic reasons, and suggests they turn them loose. Homer insists that they have to go with the rest. Homer and Lon go out to see a movie and Homer keeps dozing off. After the movie they go to a diner for desert and Hud happens to walk in with Mrs. Peters. Homer asks Lon if he's with Truman Peters' wife. Lon says yes and offers to call Hud over, but Homer tells him to leave him alone. Hud walks over with her anyway, introducing Mrs. Peters to Homer, who shakes her hand and then looks at his plate. Hud points out that Homer hasn't asked them to sit down, explaining that her being married offends Homer's "high priciples and what have you." WHile Hud is talking Homer suddenly slumps and looks ill. Hud and Lon get him to the car right away to go home. Lon reasons that he must have got too much sun. Homer falls asleep and Hud and Lon talk. Lon: I forget how old he is. I just don't want to think about it. Hud: It's time you started. Lon: I know he's gonna die someday. I know that much. Hud: He is. Lon: Makes me feel like somebody dumped me into a cold river. Hud: Happens to everybody, horses, dogs, men. Nobody gets out of life alive. Lon helps Homer into the house and Hud sees Alma come home. He goes to her room to visit her, looking through items she's won in contests to make conversation. He tells her "You're a good housekeeper, a good cook. You're a good laundress. What else you good at? [sitting down and leaning on her bed] Alma: [sitting on the other side of the bed] Taking care of myself. Hud: Shouldn't have to, a woman that looks like you do. Alma: That's what my ex husband used to tell me before he took my wallet, my gasoline credit card and left me stranded in a downtown hotel in Albequerque New Mexico. Hud: What'd you do to make him take to the hills, wear your curlers to bed? Alma: Ed's a gambler. He's probably up at Vegas arena right now, dealing at night, losing it all back in the daytime. Hud: A man like that sounds no better than a heel. Alma: Aren't you all? Hud: Hony, don't go shooting all the dogs because one of em's got fleas. Alma: I was married to Ed for six years. The only thing he was eve good for was to scratch my back where I couldn't reach it. Hud: You still got that itch? Alma: Off and on. Hud: Well, let me know when it gets to bothering ya. Alma smiles and Hud makes his exit. The next day the vet starts injecting fresh cows with specimens taken from Homer's herd. From there they have to wait 6 days to look for symptoms to develop. Lon ends up getting kicked in the head by one of the cows, passing out when he tries to get back to work. Hud carries him to the house and puts him in bed. Alma suggests they call a doctor but Hud insists they don't need one. She checks on him in bed and he tells Alma how beautiful she is. She encourages him to go to sleep. The cattle are penned in for quarantine and signs put up around the property. Lon wakes up the next day ready to work, but Homer tells him there isn't anything to do until the quarantine is over. Hud takes exception, telling Homer they're just letting the government throw dirt in their faces. He mockingly refers to the family as "poor but honest." Hud asks Alma where his Jack Daniels is, although he already looks drunk. She tells him he already drank it. He comes up behind her and nuzzles her neck. She tells him she "doesn't like sudden passes." He warns here that "there's another one coming up on your right." before moving to the other side of her neck. She says "Don't you ever ask?" Hud says "The only question I ever ask any woman is 'What time is your husband coming home?'" He suggests they "get their shoelaces untied." ALma says she's "been asked with a little more finesse." She doesn't tell him to stop, but Hud quickly moves away and says "I wouldn't want to come on crude." He offers to bring her some perfume and she adds a few items to the list, including colored beads and wampum. Hud says "Whatever it takes to make you trade." Alma replies "No thanks. I've done my time with one cold blooded bastard. I'm not looking for another." Hud replies, "It's too late honey. You already found him." The next morning Hud invites everyone to watch him at the "pig scramble." making a dig at Alma in the prcess saying "They're letting ladies in free. You might just qualify." She doesn't answer the remark but Lon tells Homer it's the first time Hud's ever asked him to go anywhere and he wonders why. Homer says "Lonesome I imagine, just trying to scare up a little company." Lon: Hud, lonesome? He can get more women coming in than anyone else around. Homer: That ain't necessarily much. It ain't necessarily company neither. Women just like to be around something dangerous part of the time. Even Hud can get lonesome once in a while. Alma listens to the conversation silently while washing dishes, but when Homer and Lon decide to go, she says "I'll stay home. I don't like pigs." At the pig scramble, Hud joins a contest to catch greased pigs and wins. Afterwards Hud invites Lon and Homer to go out with him. Homer declines but Lon takes him up on it. Hud offers to buy Lon a drink. The two sit in a diner together and Hud offers to spike Lon's drink with whiskey, which he eagerly agrees to even encouraging Hud not to be sparing about it. Lon notices an attractive woman. Hud encourages him to approach her, but Lon says he wouldn't make a move at her. Hud asks "Well why not? You ain't nailed down, are ya?" He encourages him more saying "Get all the good you can out of 17 because it sure wears out in one hell of a hurry." Lon: My trouble is I need to like a girl a lot before I can work up to anything. I mean like her as a person." Hud: Honcho, you're a regular idealist. Lon: What's wrong with that? Hud: I don't know. I just ain't never tried it. Lon: I suppose you think I'm a jerk. Hud: WHat do you care what i think? Lon: This is probably gonna hand you a big laugh... but I do. Hud: Then have another little drink, and I'll have another little drink. Then maybe we can work up some real family feeling here. Lon gets up to put change in the jukebox, and while he's doing that he makes a point of looking at the lady they were admiring. This isn't appreciated by her boyfriend, who starts threatening him. Hud gets involved and ends up sucker punching the man. Both Lon and Hud end up getting into it and get the bar into an uproar. The two head home afterwards and Hud tells Lon it felt like old times mentioning Lon's dad. Hud tells Lon "When you ain't bein' a pain in the tail, you remind me a lot of him." Hud starts talking about Norman (Lon's dad) remembering an episode where they got drunk and Norman convinced him that he could hear the grass grow. He tells Lon that was the night he crashed a car, killing Norman and walking away without a scratch himself. Hud expects the story will change Lon's opinion of him, but it doesn't. The two of them walk into the house singing loudly. Homer hears them and can tell they're drunk. He asks Lon "What else has he give you a taste for?" Homer tells Hud he doesn't have a problem with Lon having a drink, but Hud Hud asks what's bothering him. Homer: You, Hud. Like always. Lon: Hey, waht are you climbing on Hud foor? Homer: Yo think a lot of Hud, do ya? You think he's a real man. Well, you're being took in. Hud: You listen to him honcho. He's my daddy and he knows... Homer: I know ya. You're smart. You got your share of guts. You can talk a man into trusting ya, and a woman into wanting ya. Hud: I got it made ain't I? Homer: To hear you tell it. Hud: Why don't you get it off your chest. What's been griping ya all this time is what I dne to Norman, Homer: You were drunk and careless of your brother. Hud: You had fifteen years to get over it, that's half of my life. Homer: That's not our quarrel and never has been. Hud: The hell it isn't. Homer: No, boy. I was sick of you a long time before that. Hud: Well, isn't life full of surprises? All along, I thought it was because of what I done to my big brother. Homer: I took that hard, but I buried it. Hud: Well alright I'll bite. What turned you sour on me? Not that I give a damn. Homer: Just that Hud, you don't give a damn. That's all. That's the whole of it. You still don't get it, do ya? You don't care about people Hud. You don't give a damn about em. You got all that charm going for ya and it makes the youngsters want to be like ya. That's the shame of it, because ya don't value nothin'. You don't respect nothin'. You keep no check on your appetites at all. You live just for yourself and that makes ya not fit to live with. Hud: My Momma loved me, but she died. Hud leaves and Lon tells Homer he shouldn't pick on Hud, as everyone around is like him in some way. Homer tells him "That's no cause for rejoicing. Little by little the look of the country changes because of the men we admire" Lon: I still think you nailed him pretty hard. Homer: Did I? Maybe. Old people get as hard as their arteries. You're just going to have to make up your own mind one day, about what's right and what's wrong. Lon goes to check on Hud who's upset that Alma's asleep when he wants to eat something. Lon offers to cook something but Hud yells at him to leave while he has another drink. The next day Lon is out watching the rodeo. Hud stops by and finds him offering Lon ten dollars to get himself a good seat, and promises there's more money to come. Hud reveals that he's talked with a lawyer who told him "There's a law that says when old folks can't cut the mustard anymore, you can make them let go, whether they like it or not." Lon is disgusted with the idea and tries to return the ten dollars. Hud tries to explain that he just wants what he's worked for for years and says "You don't look out for yourself, the only helping hand you'll ever get is when they lower the box." Later on, Hud sits in his room drinking and watching TV. Homer comes in and confronts him about Lon has told him.Hud is proud to tell Homer that when the cattle situation is over, whatever happens "you better get yourself a rocking chair and get out of my way." Homer tells him there's no way he can get control of the property while he's above ground. Homer admits he might have made some mistakes and been too hard on Hud. Hud tells him "You ain't never been wrong." painting Homer as uncompromising and holier than thou, and the concluding "So I just naturally had to go bad in the face of so much good." Homer wonders how a man like Hud can be his son and leaves the room. Hud follows him yelling "You've got the same feeling beneath your belt as any other man, that's how you got stuck with me for a son." Lon hears the yelling and comes out of his room but Hud runs past him and heads to Alma's room when he sees her outside. SHe sees he's in rare form and runs inside, locking the door as fast as she can, but Hud kicks the door open and grabs her and starts kissing her forcibly, escalating as she struggles, meaning to rape her. Lon interrupts before that happens. Hud easily bests him, but can't bring hiself to punch Lon, so leaves instead. The next day the vet tells them that it is foot and mouth disease which means all of the animals have to be killed and quickly. The vet tries to cheer up Homer telling him he might sell some oil leases anyway. Hud speaks up about it saying "My Daddy thinks that oil is something you stick in your salad dressing." Homer says "If there's oil down there, you can get it sucked up after I'm under there with it. But, I don't like it and I don't aim to have it. There'll be no holes punched in this land while I'm here. They ain't gonna come in here and grade no road so the wind can blow me away. What's oil to me? What can I do with a bunch of rotten oil wells? I can't ride out every day and prowl amongst 'em like I can my cattle. I can't breed 'em or tend 'em or rope 'em or chase 'em or nothing. I can't feel a smidgen of pride in 'em 'cause they ain't none of my doing. Hud says "There's money in it." Homer answers "I don't want that kind of money. I want mine to come from something that keeps a man doing for himself." They then have a big pit dug to herd the cattle into. Homer gets all of the help together with guns and they shoot all the cattle from above until they're all dead while Homer forces himself to oversee it. Lon remarks "That didn't take long." And Homer says "It doesn't take long to kill things, not like it does to grow." Bulldozers start filling in the hole with dirt. Homer still has his two Longhorn steer and is watching them and one of the government guys notices them as well and moves to enter their pen. Homer tells him he's going to kill them himself, but the man says "There's no guarantee that you'll do it." The vet hears the argument and calls the man off, willing to take Homer's word. He apologizes to Homer who remarks "He ain't such a bad fella, just got a cruddy job." Homer next lets all of his ranch hands go and asks for his rifle. He tells Lon "I've chased them Longhorns many a mile. I don't know if I can kill 'em, but I guess I can." He tells Lon to go somewhere else and shoots them both, needing a couple shots for each. Hud listens a little ways away and tells Lon "Them old bulls are hard to kill." Alma is packing her things to leave. Lon gives her a ride to the bus station and tries to talk her into staying. She tells him to take care of his grandfather and not to be lazy and gives him a hug. Hud happens to be passing the bus stop and sees her there. He apologizes saying "Looks like we're losing a good cook. Maybe we should've boosted your salary a little. You ain't letting that little ruckus we had run you off?" Alma: As far as I can get on a bus ticket. Hud: You telling me i'm the first guy who ever stuck his foot in your door? Alma: No. Hud: First one who ever got rough huh? Well, I'm sorry. It ain't my style. I don't usually get rough with my women. I generally don't have to. Alma: You're rough on everybody. Hud: So they tell me. Alma: You want to know something funny? It would've happened eventually without the roughhouse. You look pretty good without your shirt on you know. The sight of that through the kitchen window made me put down my dish towel more than once. Hud: Why didn't you speak up sooner? The bus pulls up and Alma gets on. Hud calls after her :I'll remember you honey. You're the one that got away.The bus takes off. Lon is driving home in the dark and Hud comes up speeding behind him. Hud bumps into Lon's car to nudge him. Lon sees Homer crawling across the road and slams his brakes sending his car off the road. Hud doesn't know what happened and yells at Lon telling him he'll be paying to fix the car for a long time. Lon tells him he saw Homer in the road and Hud rushes out to check.Homer is still conscious and tells them he fell off his horse. Hud tells Lon to take his car and go call for an ambulance, but when the car won't start Hud tells him to bring the whiskey. Homer tells them he feels like giving up. He tells Hud "They're waiting on me. And he ain't a patient man." Hud tells Lon that Homer's gone. Hud tells Lon that "he couldn't have made it another hour, any way in the world." Lon answers "He could've if he'd wanted to. You fixed it so he didn't want to anymore." Hud: You don't know the whole story. Yeah, him and me fought many and many a round together, but I guess you could say that I helped him about as much as he ever helped me. Lon: How did you help him Hud? By trying to sell him out? By taking the heart out of him? By making him give up and quit? Is that how you helped him? We next see Lon and Hud at Homer's funeral service. One of the mourners tells Lon "Look at it this way, he's gone to a better place." Lon says "I don't think so. Not unless dirt is a better place than air." Lon walks away. We then see Hud pulling into their property with his car still damaged. He sees lon walking around and tells him they buried Homer. Lon is carrying his things and Hud asks him where he's going.Lon tells Hud he's going somewhere else to work for awhile. Hud expresses concern that Lon's too green to make it on his own. He tells Lon a story about his grandfather giving him a Mars bar when he joined the army and telling him, "Character's the only thing I got to give you. Be a man." Lon answers "Well I guess he was kind of worried, your trying so hard to get out of the draft and all." Hud tells Lon that if he isn't succesful he can come back and work for him, but Lon says he won't be back. Hud tells him " I guess you've come to be of your Granddaddy's opinion that I ain't fit to live with. That's too bad. Yeah, we mightta whooped it up some, you and me. That's the way you used to want it." Lon: I useta. So long, Hud. Lon starts walking again and Hud yells after him "You know something Fantan? This world's so fulla crap, a man's gonna get into it sooner or later whether he's careful or not." Hud walks into the empty house and gets a drink. He lights a cigarette, looking out the open door in thought. He then waves and closes the door behind him as he goes back in the house.

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