Sherilyn Fenn

While on a stakeout at an amusement park in Los Angeles, California, police detective Ned Ravine (Armand Assante) is approached by a flirtatious, sultry blonde woman (Sean Young). However, he must leave her to pursue culprit Milo Crumley (Blake Clark), known as the "pantyhose bandit." After arresting Milo, Ned, who is also a defense attorney, offers to represent him in court. At his law office, Ned relies on his devoted secretary, Laura (Sherilyn Fenn), who is always efficient except when tortured by flashbacks of her abusive husband. After successfully defending Milo in court, Ned receives a surprise visit from Lola Cain, the blonde woman from the amusement park. The beautiful seductress asks Ned to meet her the following evening to look over some papers that she cannot understand. While workaholic Ned is on police duty at night, his wife, Lana Ravine (Kate Nelligan), has been having an affair with auto mechanic Frank Kelbo (Christopher McDonald). Lana asks Frank's advice about her husband's accident insurance policy, and learns that it contains a triple indemnity rider worth $9 million, if Ned is shot with a pistol, falls from a northbound train, and drowns in a freshwater stream. Undaunted by the complications, Lana plots to murder Ned that weekend while he travels to a legal symposium in Santa Barbara, California, and agrees to share the insurance payout with her lover. She instructs Frank to tamper with Ned's car, so he will be forced to take the train. At his office, Ned receives instructions to meet Lola at Le Hot Club and from there, the two proceed to her mansion. After looking over her "papers," a laundry receipt and a lottery ticket, Ned succumbs to Lola's sexual advances and engages in various erotic scenarios with her throughout the house. In the morning, Ned reminds Lola he is married and cannot continue their affair. The rejection shocks Lola, and she gives Ned a deranged look. Meanwhile, criminal Max Shady (James Remar) is released from prison and is determined to take revenge on Ned for losing his case seven years ago. Laura shows Ned the multiple death threats Shady has faxed to the office, but the attorney believes the criminal just needs to vent his anger and is not concerned. At home, Ned wants to make amends with his estranged wife and buys her a pet skunk, but she is unimpressed and remains focused on killing him. When Ned treats Laura to shopping and dinner for her birthday, she looks at her handsome boss with affection, hoping he will take an interest in her. At the restaurant, an obsessive Lola interrupts them and threatens Ned with an ice pick, giving Laura another reason to worry about her boss's safety. Unable to use his car after the engine goes missing, Ned initially considers flying to Santa Barbara. He is fearful about taking the train since several members of his family have been killed in train wrecks, but Lana persuades him and advises that he stand in the vestibule between cars to calm his nerves. Lana and Frank secretly get on the train with Ned, who is also being followed on board by Max Shady. As the train leaves the station, Ned is anxious and sweating. After he gets up from his seat and walks toward the vestibule, Lana follows. She enters the area and shoots a man in the back, who is standing by the exit door and wearing a suit similar to Ned's. She believes she has shot her husband, but the man who falls out of the train, riddled with bullets, is Max Shady. Ned appears from the adjacent bathroom and is grateful to his wife for risking her life to protect him. However, as a police officer, he must arrest her for Shady's murder, but agrees to serve as her defense attorney. At the murder trial, Ned succeeds in convincing the jury that his wife should be acquitted. As soon as she is free, Lana kills her accomplice Frank over concerns he might betray her. Lola witnesses the deed and blackmails Lana. Ned walks in the house as Lola is talking to his wife, and denies knowing the blonde woman. Later, an angry Ned goes to Lola's mansion and warns her to stay out of his life. During their altercation, Lola reveals that Lana is her identical twin sister, who stole her boyfriend Dwayne, the love of her life. When a confused Ned remarks that the two women look completely different, Lola explains that Lana destroyed her original face with a shovel and she had to endure fifty-three plastic surgery operations. Ned is amazed at the beautiful result, but Lola disagrees, calling herself "ugly." She says Dwayne abandoned her for Lana after he saw her transformation. Lola's attempt to destroy her sister's marriage to Ned was part of her revenge. She also tells Ned that Lana murdered the mechanic. When Ned informs Lola that the mechanic's name was Frank Kelbo, she is devastated, realizing that Frank was the son of Dwayne, whose last name was Kelbo. Returning home, Ned finds hot water running in the bathtub, but his wife is absent. Laura, who has been conducting her own investigation, arrives to alert Ned that his wife and Frank were plotting to murder him so they could collect on his insurance policy. She also confides about her difficult past and fleeing from her obsessive-compulsive, abusive husband. As Ned and Laura talk in the kitchen, Lana saws a break in the upstairs handrail, but Lola surprises her sister and drowns her in the bathtub. When Ned goes to investigate the faucet noise, he discovers his wife's dead body and is assaulted by Lola. Meanwhile, downstairs, Laura's sadistic husband sneaks into the house and confronts his wife. After Ned and Laura subdue their attackers, they embrace and share a passionate kiss. Suddenly, the two apparently dead sisters recover and rush at Ned and Laura with sharp objects. However, Laura proves to be a skilled sharpshooter as she simultaneously kills Lana and Lola with two pistols, but blowing out Ned's eardrums when she fired the guns close to his head. In the final scene, Laura and Ned propose marriage and spend their first night together, as the pet skunk watches from his hiding spot in the dresser.

Two itinerant farm workers, George Milton and his simple-minded friend, Lennie Small, are forced to flee armed men after Lennie rips a woman's dress while trying to feel its material. They jump on a train and arrive at Soledad, California, where they take jobs as ranch hands. As they walk, George sees Lennie is carrying a dead mouse. George throws the mouse away, causing Lennie to cry that he misses the woman who gave him mice to play with. George reminds Lennie that the woman was his Aunt Clara, who stopped getting him pets because Lennie kept killing them by petting too hard. George promises Lennie a puppy if he stops crying. At nightfall, George tells Lennie to gather firewood so he can cook some beans, and becomes irate when Lennie whines about not having ketchup. George yells that Lennie has ruined his life by always getting into trouble. A contrite and confused Lennie offers to run away and live in a cave, but George mutters that Aunt Clara would not like him wandering off on his own. That night, George recites an oft-told dream of him and Lennie buying their own ranch, with lots of rabbits for Lennie to feed. Commanding Lennie to look around and remember where they are, George instructs him to return to this spot and hide in the bushes if he gets in trouble. In the morning, they arrive at the Tyler Ranch, where they meet an old, one-handed man named Candy. He takes George and Lennie to meet the "Boss," who yells at them for being a day late. During the interview, George explains that Lennie is his cousin and was kicked in the head by a horse when he was child. After stepping out of the ranch house, George admits to Lennie he lied about the horse and being cousins. Candy shows them the bunkhouse, where they run into the boss's son, Curley, a short man wearing one black glove. Curley demands to know why Lennie is late, and orders George to shut up and let Lennie talk for himself. After Curley leaves, Candy explains that Curley is a boxer, but still has a little man's dislike for anyone bigger than he is. George warns Lennie to keep clear of the boss's son. Curley's young and attractive wife pretends to look for her husband, but it is only an excuse for her to check out the new ranch hands. Her flirting turns George away, and he warns Lennie to stay away from her. At noon, the laborers arrive, including Slim, their foreman, and another ranch worker named Carlson, who asks Slim about his dog's puppies. When Slim says he drowned three because the mother could not produce enough milk, Carlson suggests they kill Candy's old mongrel and give him one of the surviving pups. After a hard day of haying, George asks Slim if Lennie can have one of the puppies. Impressed by how hard Lennie worked, Slim agrees. However, George informs Lennie that the puppies are too young to be separated from their mother, so Lennie beds down with the dogs. The next day, a mule throws a shoe and Slim orders George to take it to the barn. He arrives to find Curley's wife waiting, but her attempt to seduce him is interrupted by the arrival of "Crooks," a hunchbacked African-American stable man, and Curley. When Curley demands to know what George is up to, he answers that he is minding his own business. Curley warns he will beat George if he ever finds him minding his own business with his wife again. That night, Carlson and Slim pressure Candy into letting Carlson put his old dog out of its misery. When Candy hears the shot, he curls up on his bunk and cries. The next day, George tells Slim he lived near Lennie's Aunt Clara, and picked on Lennie when he was a boy. One day, they were playing near a river and George ordered Lennie to jump in. Lennie did, but could not swim, and almost drowned. When George got him to dry ground, Lennie forgot it was George who told him to jump in. From that moment on, George felt responsible for his friend, and when the aunt died, the two hit the road together. That night, George tells Lennie he knows of a farm they could buy when they get a few more dollars. Candy overhears and offers $350 dollars out of the $600 they need if they take him with them, because he is getting too old to work. George agrees. When Curley accuses Slim of sleeping with his wife, the foreman threatens to beat the little man. Seeing Lennie smiling about the farm, Curley thinks he is making fun of him. He punches Lennie in the face. The large man refuses to defend himself, until George yells for him to "get him." Lennie grabs Curley's hand and crushes it. Slim orders Curley to tell the boss he got his hand crushed in a harvester, and threatens to expose what really happened if he refuses. As George cleans the blood off his friend's face, Lennie asks if he can still feed the rabbits. The next night, George goes to town with the other men and leaves Lennie with the puppies. Later, George returns and finds Lennie talking to Crooks in the barn. As he walks Lennie to the bunkhouse, they meet Curley's wife, who wants to talk to someone, but George refuses, and she runs away in tears. The next morning, Curley's wife finds Lennie crying over the corpse of a puppy he accidentally killed while petting it too hard. Instead of leaving, she talks to Lennie about her dreams of being a movie star, and how she married Curley to be free of her mother. When Lennie states he likes stroking soft things, she suggests he touch her hair, but Lennie cannot control his strong hands. As he musses her hair, Curley's wife screams, and with his attempt to silence her, he accidentally breaks her neck. Lennie runs to the stream and hides in the bushes where he earlier agreed to go in times of trouble. Candy later finds the dead woman, and informs George. He believes Curley will lynch Lennie, but George vows he will not let anyone hurt his friend. The other men form a posse, and Slim tells George he can let Curley shoot Lennie or watch his friend go to jail. George steals a pistol and goes to the stream, where he finds Lennie. Hearing dogs approaching, George stands behind Lennie and regales him with dreams of a ranch full of rabbits, then shoots him in the back of the head.

Petty criminal Dean struggles to raise his autistic son alone, and his life appears to be going off-track until psychologist Stevie arrives to help them both. Backstreet Dreams is the story of a man, who has a disturbed child. He and his wife take their son to a clinic, where he is diagnosed by a talented psychologist (Stevie), as being autistic. After catching his unfaithful wife with another man, Dean tells Lucy to leave, and is faced with the task of raising Shane on his own. Stevie believes that she can improve Shane's condition, going back to Dean's apartment and later convincing him that he can provide a better world for his son. Angelo, who lives in the same apartment building and is like a father to Dean, urges on the relationship, sensing that Stevie is luring Dean away from backstreet dealings, and giving him courage to face life in a positive way. Together, they build a foundation for a better life outside of the violence and danger of the backstreets where they live.

A young Southern débutante temporarily abandons her posh lifestyle and upcoming, semi-arranged marriage to have a lustful and erotic fling with a rugged drifter who works at a local carnival. April has just graduated from an exclusive Southern college. She's just returned home to her family mansion to prepare for her semi-arranged marriage to "the right man", a man approved by April's father, a Senator. During a trip to the local fair, April meets Perry, the kind of man she always wanted but never knew. Her parents are aghast, as Perry is exactly the kind of man they don't want her associating with. April must reconcile the expectations of her family and her fiancée with the passion she feels for Perry. —Murray Chapman <muzzle@cs.uq.oz.au> April is a shy, beautiful young southern girl who is engaged to a handsome wealthy man named Chad. April loves him, but one day, April and her sisters go to a local carnival and meets a muscle bound worker named Perry. April doesn't think much of him at first. April parents who are both respected politicians, leave town for a few days and April stays with her cankerous grandmother Belle, but April is more closer to Belle's housekeeper Delilah and asks her to cover for her while April goes back to the carnival. Belle, aware of what she is going to do, asks Sheriff Hawkins to spy on her. April returns to the carnival to find Perry, drunk and disordered. Perry's friend, Patti Jean asks April to go with her on a night on the town, so Perry can sober up. While April and Patti Jean are gone, Perry's enemy and carnival gambler Smiley! —Anonymous

In a small town in Arizona, a mysterious man/spirit descends from the sky and manifests in a sports car and targets a local violent road-racing gang of motor heads, headed by a ruthless bully who'll do anything to get what he wants. Packard Walsh and his motorized gang control and terrorize an Arizona desert town where they force drivers to drag-race so they can 'win' their vehicles. After Walsh stabs the decent teenager Jamie Hankins to death for being intimate with a girl whom Walsh wants for himself, the mysterious Jake Kesey arrives, an extremely cool motor-biker with an invincible car. Jake befriends Jamie's girlfriend Keri Johnson, takes Jamie's sweet brother Billy under his wing and manages what Sheriff Loomis can not - the methodical and otherworldly elimination of Packard's criminal gang. —KGF Vissers A small desert town has been harassed for months by a gang of drag racers, but so far no one has done anything to stop them. One day, a ghostly black car shows up, challenging members of the group to race, then killing them one by one. Neither the gang nor the police can catch the car or its driver, but some investigating into the gang's past may reveal just who's behind all this. —Jean-Marc Rocher <rocher@fiberbit.net>

Terry feels discriminated against when the summer jobs at the Sun Tribune go to two guys. She decides to do something about it. She dresses like a guy and gets a haircut. Will students at the other high school notice? Girls notice "him". Terry Griffith has got it all--looks, popularity, the perfect college boyfriend, and an article that's a shoo-in to win her a summer internship at the local newspaper--or so she thinks. When Terry's journalism teacher passes her article up in favor of a couple of pieces written by boys, Terry is convinced that sexism is to blame. Determined to win the internship at any cost, Terry goes undercover at a rival high school to resubmit her article--as a boy. But Terry gets more than she bargained for when she finds herself fending off a bully and the advances of an oversexed female admirer, and falling for her new friend Rick. —Faith Teenager Terry Griffith is an aspiring journalist who believes she was discriminated against by her high school teacher in a competition for an internship at a local newspaper because she is a girl. She decides to disguise herself and pose as a boy in another high school to see if she gets the internship. Her brother Buddy Griffith and her best friend Denise help her and she hides the situation from her boyfriend Kevin. She befriends her schoolmate Rick Morehouse and helps him to be successful with the girls. But the problem is that she falls in love with Rick while she learns that she had not been discriminated against. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Utterly convinced that gender discrimination was the real reason that she lost out on a summer newspaper internship, the aspiring high school journalist Terry Griffith summons up the courage to do the unthinkable. Bent on proving her worth as a reporter, Terry switches schools and assumes a male identity with the assistance of her younger brother, Buddy, hoping to pass herself off as a boy and to prove her point. Before long, the new, swaggering and short-haired Terry arrives at the rival campus to turn the tables on her journalism teacher, completely unaware that an obnoxious bully and an unforeseen teenage love affair await her. But what will it take to be just one of the guys? —Nick Riganas