Peter Ustinov

A commitment-phobic man goes in search of a bride, including his fed-up girlfriend, to inherit his grandfather's one hundred million dollar inheritance. James Shannon III (Chris O'Donnell) is seeing his single friends get married one by one. He isn't too worried until his girlfriend Anne Arden (Renée Zellweger) catches the bouquet at his friend Marco's (Artie Lange's) wedding. Suddenly, his wild mustang days are numbered. He finally decides to propose to her, but he sticks his foot in his mouth and botches the proposal. Being insulted by the defeatist proposal, Anne leaves town on an assignment. After she's gone, he finds out that his recently deceased granddad James Shannon's (Sir Peter Ustinov's) will stipulates that he gets nothing of a multi-million-dollar fortune unless he's married by 6:05 p.m. on his 30th birthday: tomorrow. Not being able to find Anne, Jimmie begins backtracking through his past girlfriends to find a wife. —Tony B James Shannon III (Chris O'Donnell) is a man who is somewhat gullible at keeping relationships with his girlfriends. But one day, he meets Anne Arden (Renée Zellweger) and suddenly his life is changed. It is then that the night he was supposed to propose to her that he returns back to his old self again. This upsets Anne completely. Soon, his Grandad James Shannon (Sir Peter Ustinov) dies and leaves Jimmie an inheritance of one hundred million dollars with one huge condition: Jimmie must get married on his 30th birthday by no later than 6:05 p.m. Pacific time or else his San Francisco-based pool table company goes under, and/or will be sold, his bank accounts will be frozen, and employees will be laid off completely. Jimmie must now use every attempt to learn from his foolish mistakes, find his true love, get married, and save the company in one day. James Shannon III (Chris O'Donnell) is a man who has had dozens of girlfriends and they all break-up with him because he is unwilling to commit. But when he meets Anne Arden (Renée Zellweger), he starts to loosen up a bit, but is still a little hesitant. Even his blustery Grandad James Shannon (Sir Peter Ustinov), who is concerned of the fate of the Shannon line, is nagging him to get married and have children. So he decides to take that step, but he is so nervous, that he botches the proposal. Anne is disappointed in him. When his grandfather dies and the will is read, they discover that he has left Jimmie one hundred million dollars, but only if he gets married by 6:05 p.m. on his 30th birthday, which is the next day. Jimmie then decides to propose to Anne again, and this time does a little better, but when Anne questions his eagerness and if he truly wants to marry her, he freezes, she then gets on a plane for Greece. She gets off the plane at the last minute and goes to visit her parents. Jimmie then learns that if he doesn't get the inheritance which includes the business, a company that has a reputation of buying a business and then stripping it for all that it is worth and then laying off the employees, will buy it and lay off all of the employees. Jimmie is adivised to find someone else to marry, so he goes through his black book and proceeds to ask every girl he has dated to marry him, only some of them are still stinging from his breaking up with them, others think that it's a travesty what he is proposing, or he just continues to propose badly. —rcs0411@yahoo.com

Lorenzo Odone, a Virginia 5-year-old, develops a degenerative nerve disease so rare that nobody is working on a cure, so his parents decide to immerse themselves in research and tackle the problem themselves. Until about the age of seven, Lorenzo Odone was a normal child. After then, strange things began to happen to him: he would have blackouts, memory lapses, and other strange mental phemonenons. He is eventually diagnosed as suffering from ALD (adrenoleukodystrophy): an extremely rare incurable degenerative brain disorder. Frustrated at the failings of doctors and medicine in this area, the Odones begin to educate themselves in the hope of discovering something which can halt the progress of the disease. —Murray Chapman <muzzle@cs.uq.oz.au>

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

The Belgian detective Hercule Poirot travels to what appears to be an idyllic vacation island in the Adriatic Sea. The Evil exists anywhere.... even in paradise islands. A former actress (Arlena Marshall), who alienates everyone around her, is found strangled on the beach. Everyone in the resort had a motive to kill Arlena, but all seemingly have an alibi. Poirot will investigate the murder. Poirot discovers that the murderer is Patrick Redfern, Arlena's lover, who had been having an affair with Arlena while seemingly flaunting it in his wife's face. He wanted to steal back a diamond he had given her, which had itself been stolen before Arlena came into possession of it. It turns out that not only did Patrick's wife approve of the affair, but was in cahoots with her husband. An elaborate ruse had been set up to throw Poirot off the track with Patrick's wife temporarily impersonating Arlena after Arlena had been killed. The murder turns out to be linked to a previous murder case, in which it was assumed that a vagrant had committed the crime.

As Hercule Poirot enjoys a luxurious cruise down the Nile, a newlywed heiress is found murdered on board. Can Poirot identify the killer before the ship reaches the end of its journey? Based on the Dame Agatha Christie novel, our favorite Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot (Sir Peter Ustinov), is on a cruise up the Nile. He is surrounded by an interesting assortment of characters, including a wealthy heiress and her husband, on their honeymoon. It appears that everyone hates the heiress. —grantss As brilliant Belgian detective Hercule Poirot enjoys a lavish cruise down the Nile, an arrogant, newlywed millionairess is found in a pool of blood, murdered on board. With every one of the eclectic passengers on board the luxurious SS Karnak having a good reason to want the wealthy heiress dead, meticulous Hercule Poirot arms himself with patience and dogged perseverance to ferret out the killer in their midst. Surrounded by clues hidden in plain sight, can Poirot shed light on the knotty case of the death on the Nile before another one ends up dead? —Nick Riganas Almost everyone on the S.S. Karnak, cruising the Nile, has a reason to want spoiled, selfish and beautiful heiress Linnet Ridgeway Doyle (Lois Chiles) dead. Her jewels are coveted by elderly Mrs. Van Schuyler (Bette Davis); her maid, Louise, is upset because Linnet won't give her a promised dowry; writer Salome Otterbourne (Angela Lansbury) is facing a libel suit brought by Linnet; Salome's daughter Rosalie Otterbourne (Olivia Hussey) wants to protect her mother; Andrew Pennington (George Kennedy) has been embezzling from the Ridgeway family; and former friend Jacqueline De Bellefort (Mia Farrow) is more than a little angry and upset that Linnet stole her fiancé, Simon Doyle (Simon MacCorkindale). Renowned Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot (Peter Ustinov) must unravel the mystery when Linnet (and some others) turn up dead. —Ron Kerrigan <mvg@whidbey.com>

The slave Spartacus leads a violent revolt against the decadent Roman Republic.

At an RAF base the control tower reports one aircraft is missing as a squadron returns from a nighttime sortie. A title screen takes the viewer back 15 hours earlier. Veteran officer George has volunteered for one last mission, he replaces an American sergeant as tail gunner. The crew have their lunch, the officers in the wardroom and the non-coms in their mess. The Yank is upset and gives his $3 nylon stockings to another airman Wellington medium bomber B for Bertie takes off at 21:40 hrs to bomb the Mercedes-Benz plant in Stuttgart. The crew settles in for the long flight. Gunners load their weapons. They joke about German girls, a few familiar with Stuttgart from before the war. They pass over the Dutch coast. Flak guns rock the plane. They pass over the railroad to Cologne and dump a load of leaflets. They fly into searchlights, the gunners shoot down at the lights. They watch a city in flames being bombed. They open the bomb bay doors and lower altitude, drop the load and turn to home. The starboard engine is hit, the navigator plots a straight route home over Mainz. The pilot tries to evade the constant ack-ack. They make it to Holland. Now the port engine dies, they decide to bail out. They plan to follow the rail-line and join up later. The pilot John gives the jump command one by one, he slips out last. All bail out. The plane recovers and flies on by itself. In the morning the crew gather in a wooded area. They have a smoke, George takes command as Bob is missing, John seems to be in over his head. They check a map and look to the coast. George prepares and strips off his uniform tunic. Some local kids arrive, their dog barks. One flyer knows some Dutch and is able to determine the kids are friendly. The kids show their resistance symbol safety pins, and offer to take them to the school marm who knows English. In the village the crew are left in one room while the locals discuss. Els Meerten comes in and introduces herself. She grills them and says no plane has crashed nearby. She asks for proof they are who they say, suspecting they are a German trick. Frank shows a news clipping of his wife's upcoming broadcast. She leaves and they then note the orange flowers and the hidden picture of their queen, indicating their national loyalty. They are taken in to see the others. It's friendly and a pile of food is on the table, the men tuck in and are given Bols aqavit. Everyone wonders where Bob is, Els is worried if the Germans find him. They are 58 km from the coast. The Dutch offer to take them to their Catholic Church, part of the way there, two Brits are hesitant as they are Protestants. The Dutch will also dig up the parachutes and hide them better. A couple of the men are disguised as Dutch women with clogs. George gets a proper suit. They make fake travel papers. The large group bicycles down a road past windmills. A German armored car tears past with a siren. They arrive at church and sit in the pews. A man comes in and passes the word Bob's parachute has been found. A vehicle approaches, noisy Germans are outside. The priest continues the Latin rites as an Officer enters. A woman has a bit of RAF parachute under her skirt, they manage to hide it. The German looks around then leaves without a word. The organist starts up and all sing loudly. They make up another travel pass to be a wedding party. The Aircrew have a nice meal and drinks at a large house. Their host complains about quislings, upset his son is earning money from the traitors, bringing phonograph records to the Germans. The quisling DeJong comes in talking tough. George pulls his gun and the Dutch man is taken prisoner. Outside they hear their anthem playing from the German barracks. De Jong is worried the Germans will be after him for slipping the Dutch records . The older host is happy now realizing his son pulled a trick on both the quisling and the invaders. Another travel pass is made to attend the football game. The crowd surrounds a pitch but a German patrol car announces only 200 can gather. As the crowd mills about the German loudspeaker retracts and allows the Dutch to watch their game. The Brits see their lost mate Bob there. The six ride in the back of a lorry with a cow, they arrive by the North Sea. The truck drives through a heavy fortified area. Jo de Vries meets them to guide, the Germans trust her as an ally. The men sneak in a warehouse loft above a group of singing and laughing Germans. It is a barracks for 200 soldiers. de Vries takes them to her quarters, they drop in from the attic. They all relax, she has a radio and tells them to only open the door to her special V code knock. The men listen to Frank's wife singing on the BBC. The men get dressed in their uniforms. de Vries returns, Frank kisses her hand in thanks. She asks them to see her husband in London, he is an announcer for Radio Orange. She explains they just need to wait for an air raid so they can escape to a rowboat. They have to wait. The next day de Vries dresses up and toasts the men with drinks. Her family motto is We Can Take It. George graciously thanks her on behalf of the crew and promises they will sweep out the Germans. Suddenly the air raid sirens wail, the Germans run for shelter. Jo heaps scorn on the Germans wishing the rest of Europe could see how they duck and cover. The crew head downstairs for the rowboat. The Dutch woman needs to distract a couple of Germans. The Brits silently take out another enemy officer arriving in the cellar. George goes and takes out the other two Germans. de Vries gives some final guidance and says she will take care of the three bodies, wishing the Bertie crew good luck. In the dark they row down a river and must pass a guardpoint. The Germans open a swing bridge to let out fishing boats. As the bridge starts to close George gives the order to row, the German guard above whistles away his troubles. He then notices the rowboat and fires his rifle. They make it far enough away but George has been hit. They then make it to a rescue buoy out at sea. Two MTB approach. The Brits have two prisoners in the floating container but think the boats are Germans. It's the RN though, and after some inter-service ribbing they take the buoy in tow to Dover as George is too weak to be moved. Three months later PO George Corbett is OK and assigned to a Lancaster, ready to fly a sortie to Berlin.