Sidney Lumet

In the mid-1980s, New York has declared war against Organized Mafia. Mafia soldier Jackie DiNorscio (Vin Diesel) and 19 of his peers have been waiting a year for their federal racketeering trial to begin under The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). While out on bail, Jackie is shot by his drug addict cousin Tony Compagna (Raúl Esparza). Jackie was in his home, sleeping, when Tony entered via the front door, walked up to Jackie's bedroom and pumped 4 bullets into him. But Tony was so nervous that his aim was all over the place and Jackie survives. At the hospital, Jackie refuses to name Tony to the cops as the shooter. He claims that he never saw anything. Afraid of being killed by the extended mob family run by Nick Calabrese (Alex Rocco), Tony agrees to be a government witness for district attorney Sean Kierney (Linus Roache). Shortly after, Jackie is arrested and sentenced to 22-30 years in prison after being set up in an unrelated drug sting by the DEA. Kierney tries to pressure Jackie into cooperating with the government against his co-defendants in order to get an early release date, but Jackie flatly refuses. Upset over the results of his previous trial, Jackie fires his lawyer (who had already charged him $250,000 for his last trial and had already spent $60,000 on the RICO case) and decides to represent himself. Nick Calabrese (Alex Rocco) is the most senior mafia figure on trial, which includes Carlo Mascarpone (Frank Pietrangolare) (undereboss of Lucchese crime family in New Jersey), Gino Mascarpone (Paul Borghese) (Ran day-to-day operations of gambling, extortion and loan sharking for his boss Nick), Danny Roma (Family soldier and enforcer), Alessandro Tedeschi (Nick Puccio) (loan sharking and gambling), Tino Bellochio (numbers and gambling), Dominic Crespi (gambling) and Jackie (cocaine distribution). This adds to the burdens of the court, already having to deal with 20 defendants and their lawyers. Judge Sidney Finestein (Ron Silver) strongly advises against it but lead defense attorney Ben Klandis (Peter Dinklage) agrees to assist Jackie. Both Klandis and Kierney recognize Jackie's ability to charm the jury, but his arrogant, vulgar behavior eventually starts irritating everyone. The defense lawyers in particular believe that Jackie is ruining their chances by defending himself at the trial. Klandis still believes that Jackie was able to get the jury to laugh and a laughing jury is not a hanging jury. As revenge, Kierney arranges for Jackie to have all of his prison privileges revoked. Specifically, Jackie's lounger is taken away, and he cannot sleep as he needs to be half sitting due to his bad back, to get any kind of sleep. Jackie even gets Ben to get him permission to have lunch with the fellas at the court. No one is more upset than Nick, who believes Jackie will cost them the trial and threatens to sever himself from the case. Nick tells Jackie that he is only sucking up to the jury so he can walk and tells Jackie he doesn't trust him one bit. Nick won't allow Jackie to have lunch with the family. As weeks turn into months, the court case evolves into a marathon affair. Jackie badgers an FBI agent who claims that he saw Nick at an Italian restaurant with Italian males, kissing his ring and he is the boss. Jackie gets aggressive to prove that there was no way that the agent knew that all males in the restaurant were Italian. The judge warns Jackie multiple times, but he continues to speak his mind. The Judge fines him $10,000 for contempt of the court. Kierney wants Jackie kicked off the case, but Judge Finestein reluctantly agrees to keep the trial going. Jackie realizes he has gone too far and apologizes to the judge. Agent McQueen (Domenick Lombardozzi) testifies that he worked undercover as a mafia soldier at the New Jersey sea ports for 2 years. He testifies that he witnessed Tony hand over $7000 to Nick as his cut from a drug deal, and Nick accepting the money. Nick's lawyer gets McQueen to accept that the payment could have been for an outstanding loan that Tony owed Nick. Jackie cross questions McQueen and establishes that he was responsible for Jackie's brother's death, by giving him access to alcohol, even though he knew that Jackie's brother was an alcoholic. Wanting to remove the possibility that even one defendant gets acquitted, Kearny offers a final plea deal to all the defendants. In return for pleading guilty, they will all get shorter sentences than they would be facing if found guilty. Jackie tells his co-defendants that he refuses to take a deal even though he is already serving a long sentence for drug trafficking. This convinces Nick and the others to turn down the deal too. The final witness is Jackie's cousin Tony. Klandis is able to use Tony's heavy drug use to discredit him as a witness and Jackie emotionally cross-examines his cousin and asks why he betrayed his love for him. After 21 months of testimony, the trial concludes with closing arguments. The prosecution and defense teams return to their homes expecting the jury to deliberate for at least a week. However, after only 14 hours of deliberation the jury returns a verdict of not guilty on all charges. While the rest of the defendants leave the courtroom with their families, Jackie returns to prison to finish his sentence. He receives a hero's welcome at the correctional facility, where fellow prisoners chant his name and reach out to shake his hand. The end title cards explain that the real Jackie DiNorscio served 17 and a half years before being paroled in 2002. He died of natural causes.

After serving three years in prison covering for her gangster boyfriend, Kevin, Gloria returns to New York City for the money she was promised. Inside Kevin's base of operations, she finds 7-year-old Nicky, whose family has been killed. After serving a prison term for her boyfriend, a streetwise, middle-aged moll named Gloria stands up against the mobs, which is complicated by a six-year-old urchin with a will of his own, whom she reluctantly takes under her wing after his family has been gunned down. —BOB STEBBINS <stebinsbob@aol.com>

A hospital resident is put in the middle of a legal battle between two half-sisters on whether to pull their comatose dad's life support. But more seems to be at stake than dad's life - his inheritance. Dr. Werner Ernst (James Spader) is a young hospital resident who becomes embroiled in a legal battle between two half-sisters who are fighting over the care of their comatose father. But are they really fighting over their father's care, or over his ten million dollar estate? Meanwhile, Werner must contend with his nutty supervisor, who insists that he only care for patients with full insurance. Can Werner sidestep the hospital's legal team and do what's best for the patient? —Martin Lewison <mlewison@utk.edu>

The story is narrated in first person by Porter Wren (Adrien Brody), a columnist and crime reporter for a New York City newspaper with a reputation as a good listener. One night, he attends an after-work party hosted by publishing magnate Hobbs (Steven Berkoff), who has just purchased the newspaper. He is approached by socialite Caroline Crowley (Yvonne Strahovski), whom Porter recognizes from headlines regarding the death of her husband, Simon (Campbell Scott). Simon was a successful movie producer obsessed with capturing authentic life, often disappearing at night to film random things. His body was discovered in the rubble of a demolished building (with little pieces of jade found next to his body). No one could figure out how the body got there, as the site was fenced off and locked up. Caroline invites Porter to her apartment where she shows him confidential police reports related to Simon's still-unsolved death. She asks Porter to investigate and, over a series of meetings, gradually seduces him. Porter, whose relationship with his wife Lisa (Jennifer Beals) and children has become stale, soon gives in. Caroline reveals how she met Simon at a bar, and he proposed to her after a few hours of talking. Caroline had no money or prospects in NYC and said yes. Caroline wants Porter to help find how and why Simon died, as he is the guy that people talk to and tell him all sorts of things. It's been 17 months since Simon died. It is not clear is Simon was in the building before it was demolished. Going through Simon's belongings, Porter forms an image of him as an eccentric and controlling man. He filmed his own life almost obsessively, sometimes with hidden cameras, and subjected Caroline to cruel pranks and mind games for the sake of capturing authentic reactions. She has a vault filled with thousands of memory cards containing footage of these incidents. None of it, however, gives Porter any insights into his death. Hobbs learns of Porter's affair with Caroline and forces him into an investigation on Hobbs' behalf by making threats against Porter's family (He threatens to fire Porter and initiate a medical malpractice suit against his wife, who is a doctor). Hobbs is looking for a particular memory card he believes Caroline is using to blackmail him. When Porter questions her, Caroline admits she is also looking for the memory card. Simon, after beating her in a drinking game, dared her to have sex with a stranger and record the encounter with a hidden camera. She randomly crossed paths with Hobbs and decided to sleep with him. When Simon watched the video, something about it infuriated him and he hid the memory card; after his death, Hobbs began threatening her. Porter, forcing Caroline to admit she only seduced him to enlist his help, leaves in disgust. Outside his house, he is accosted by thugs working for Hobbs, who beat him up and promise to do worse until he finds the video. Porter goes to see Simon's father, who is in a nursing home, but he is unresponsive. Porter discovers a video camera in a bedside table, but the memory card in it only has footage of Simon visiting his father. Meanwhile, Hobbs' men force their way into Porter's house and accidentally shoot and wound his son, causing a distraught Lisa to take the children and walk out on Porter. After attacking Hobbs' lawyer in revenge, Porter watches the nursing home video again and realizes Simon's father had regular visits from a lady named Mrs. Segal (Linda Lavin). He breaks into her house and finds financial records indicating that she has been billing Simon's estate for the visits to Simon's father but also for unknown services at $5000 per month. Before he can find the memory card, Mrs. Segal returns to find him there. After explaining himself, he learns that she is a friend of Simon's family, who became a surrogate mother to Simon after his own mother passed away when he was a child. Wanting to repay her kindness, he arranged a monthly allowance for her once he became rich. Mrs. Segal felt obligated to earn the money and became a caretaker of sorts to Simon's father. Questioned by Porter about the charges to the estate, Mrs. Segal reveals she was asked by Simon before his death to send copies of a memory card to Hobbs every month. Never having seen what is on it, she gives her last remaining copy of the card to Porter. Watching it, he sees that Hobbs and Caroline had a long and intensely personal conversation (where Hobbs revealed that his penis was butchered by random thugs in France, when he was 20 years old. Caroline also whispered a secret about her stepfather to Hobbs, but this was not audible in the video) before they had sex. Porter returns the video to Hobbs, ending the threat against him and his family. In a show of good faith, Hobbs gives him a key his men found when searching Caroline's apartment for the video. Porter figures out the key is for the basement lock of the building where Simon was found. He goes there and discovers another hidden camera. The memory card in this one reveal Simon took Caroline to the building the night he died. Having watched the sex tape, he demands to know a dark secret about her stepfather that she revealed to Hobbs. Caroline refuses to divulge the story to Simon. So, Simon puts a padlock around Caroline's ankle and swallows the key. Caroline kills Simon during the interrogation and since the building is to be demolished the following morning, Caroline has no choice but to cut into Simon's stomach to retrieve the key and get out of the building. The next morning, Porter meets Caroline and reveals the recording. He gives her a copy, with the original as insurance against her contacting his family (something she had previously done for her own enjoyment). She in turn reveals the secret she told to Hobbs but kept from Simon. Basically, as a little girl, Caroline wanted a horse, and her stepfather never gave her one. She begged and begged and then her stepfather starting sexually abusing her with the promise to get her a horse by her next birthday. On the birthday, the stepfather drives Caroline to a farm to present a horse to her, only to shoot him right in front of her eyes. Porter wishes her well and leaves. In voiceover, Porter expresses guilt for all that happened, including his divorce, while admitting that the experience has both corrupted him and revealed an inner darkness that was always there. In the final scene, Porter drives by the house of a now-remarried Caroline and they look at each other one last time.

A New York policewoman probes a murder in the Hasidic district. Detective Emily Eden is a tough New York City cop forced to go undercover to solve a puzzling murder. Her search for the truth takes her into a secret world of unwritten law and unspoken power, a world where the only way out is deeper in! —Anonymous In New York, Detective Emily Eden is a tough detective and daughter of a former cop. When her partner Nick is stabbed during an arrest of two drug dealers, Emily is assigned to a case of missing person, Yaakov Klausman, in a Hasidic community. However she discovers that Yaakov, who worked cutting diamonds, was murdered. Emily concludes that Yaakov knew the killer and asks the rebbe permission to work undercover in the community. The rebbe brings Emily to his home and his stepdaughter Leah and his stepson Ariel help her to know people in the community and understand their habits and rules. Emily works in a department store with Leah, Ariel and Yaakov's fiancée Mara, who was former drug addicted embraced by Yaakov and the rebbe, and her partner Levine gives support to her. Meanwhile Emily falls in unrequited love with Ariel. When the gangsters Tony Baldessari and Chris Baldessari threaten the group to sell protection to them, Emily believes she has resolved the case. But soon she has a discussion with Ariel and she concludes that the killer is another person from the community. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil When a brutal murder occurs among the Hasidic Jewish community and looks like an inside job, tough New York cop, Emily Edith (Melanie Griffith), goes undercover as a Hasid to find the culprit. —Reid Gagle

A shy, twenty-four-year-old school teacher named Dorothy (Diana Ross) prepares a holiday supper at the New York City apartment of her adoptive parents, Aunt Em (Theresa Merrett) and Uncle Henry (Stanley Greene). While her family enjoys the festivities, Dorothy wonders why she is unable to share their happiness. Later, Aunt Em encourages Dorothy to accept a new job and venture out of Harlem, but Dorothy is afraid to leave home. Just then, her dog, Toto, runs outside into a snowstorm. Dorothy chases after Toto, and the two are swept up in a magic tornado, created by Glinda, "The Good," (Lena Horne) a sorceress who lives in the mystical Land of Oz. When the storm subsides, Dorothy finds herself a sandbox at a dark playground, where children are embedded in the concrete of city walls. Peeling themselves free, the youths show Dorothy that her arrival in Oz killed Evermean, the Wicked Witch of the East. Her surviving sister, Evillene (Mabel King), is the Wicked Witch of the West. Evermean was the city parks commissioner, and she turned the young "munchkins" into graffiti when she saw them painting on the playground walls. As Dorothy is praised for liberating the youngsters, a shopping bag-toting sorceress named "Miss One" (Thelma Carpenter) arrives and magically transfers Evermean's silver shoes onto Dorothy's feet. The young woman is terrified and wants to go home, so Miss One advises her to keep Evermean's slippers on her feet and seek help from the miraculous "Wiz," who lives in Emerald City. She tells Dorothy to follow the yellow brick road, but she does not know where it begins. Miss One and the children disappear, leaving Dorothy and Toto alone. As the sun rises, Dorothy discovers a Scarecrow (Michael Jackson) near a burned out housing project. Ridiculed by four crows, the Scarecrow begs to be released from his perch and laments that he does not have a brain. Dorothy shoos the birds aside, helps the Scarecrow down, and invites him to the Emerald City so he can ask the Wiz for a brain. When the Scarecrow discovers the beginning of the yellow brick road, the friends follow the avenue to an abandoned amusement park resembling Coney Island. There, a Tinman (Nipsey Russell) calls for help, explaining that he is rusted and cannot move. As Dorothy and the Scarecrow carefully move his joints, the Tinman regrets he is unable to feel. They encourage him to ask the Wiz for a heart, and the three continue along the yellow brick road. At the deserted facade of the New York Public Library, a stone statue Lion (Ted Ross) breaks free and terrifies the companions, but he sobs when Toto nips his ankle. The Lion explains he is not brave, after all, and the friends persuade him to ask the Wiz for courage. In a subway train station, the foursome is followed by an eerie peddler and pursued by various monsters made up of support columns, but the Lion chases them away. Continuing along the road, the friends come to the "red light district" of Oz, where "Poppy Love Perfume" is pumped into an alleyway of half-dressed women. The Scarecrow realizes they have fallen into a trap, but Dorothy and the Lion are drugged by the poppy scent and become unconscious, whereas the Scarecrow and Tinman (who do not have internal organs, such as lungs to inhale the scent, are immune). Believing his friends to be dead, the Tinman cries, but his tears drip onto their faces and awaken them. Just then, the sun rises in the shape of an apple and the Emerald City appears in the distance as the skyline of New York City. The four cross the yellow brick road along the Brooklyn Bridge, only to find a heavily guarded vault door entrance to the city. A doorman refers them to the service entrance but notices Dorothy's silver slippers and quickly lets the travelers in. There, a cluster of enormous jewels are illuminated in green light between the twin towers of the World Trade Center. As finely dressed citizens carouse in the jade glow, the Wiz makes an announcement over a loudspeaker, declaring that Emerald City's color has been changed to red. When the city takes on a scarlet hue, the Wiz changes his mind again, and announces that yellow is the new fashion. The courtyard turns gold. The Wiz demands to see Dorothy, but she refuses to meet him without her friends. Taking an elevator to the top of the building, the companions see an enormous, fire-breathing mask. Terrified, they ask the Wiz for a brain, a heart, courage, and a way home, but the Wiz wants Dorothy's silver slippers in return. When she protests, he orders the team to kill Evillene, the Wicked Witch of the West. Outside the gates of Emerald City, the guards lead the companions to a sewer where Evillene runs a "sweat shop" and rules her slaves from a bejeweled toilet. She summons her foul-smelling flying monkeys to capture Dorothy and her friends, and the creatures go after them on motorcycles. When they are brought back to Evillene's warehouse, the witch demands the return of her dead sister's slippers. Dorothy refuses and the Scarecrow is cut in half by a power saw. Meanwhile, the Tinman is flattened by a steam press and the Lion is hung from the rafters by his tail. When Evillene threatens to throw Toto into a furnace, Dorothy agrees to surrender the shoes. As she sits to remove them, the Scarecrow nods toward a fire extinguisher. Dorothy sets off the overhead sprinklers and the warehouse is showered with water. Evillene is sucked down her toilet bowl throne. The witch's servants repair Dorothy's mangled friends, celebrate their freedom, and peel off their sweatshop costumes to discover human bodies beneath. The flying monkeys drive Dorothy and friends back to the Emerald City, and leave them at the "back door." Inside, they find the Wiz's mask head toppled over and realize they were manipulated by a false prophet. Apologizing, the Wiz (Richard Pryor) explains he was never powerful, but rather a failed politician named "Herman Smith" from Atlantic City, New Jersey. As part of a campaign to be elected Dog Catcher, he hovered above the city in a hot air balloon to distribute fliers. However, he was swept away by a storm and landed in Oz many years earlier. The residents of Emerald City had never seen an aircraft and proclaimed him "the Wiz." He has lived in solitude ever since, fearing his true identity would be revealed. Dorothy's friends lament they will never have a brain, a heart, or courage, but she reminds them that they had these qualities all along. Just then, Glinda, "the Good," appears in a starry sky. She tells Dorothy that home is not just a place. It is the understanding of one's own mind, heart, and courage. Glinda promises the girl that she can be at home anywhere in the world as long as she believes in herself. When Dorothy learns she can return to Harlem by clicking the heels of her silver slippers three times, the Wiz asks for help getting home. She advises him to go on his own journey of self-discovery. Dorothy bids her friends farewell, clicks her heels, and returns to the snowy street outside her apartment building.

A bank robbery goes haywire one hot August day when two optimistic losers, the frantic master-mind Sonny, and his slow-witted buddy Sal, attempt to rob a Brooklyn bank.

The murder Having sorted a matter out in the Middle East, detective Hercule Poirot (Albert Finney) is returning to England aboard the Orient Express. During the journey, Poirot encounters his friend Bianchi (Martin Balsam), a director of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, which owns the line. The train is unusually crowded for the time of year: every first-class berth has been booked. Shortly after the train's departure from Istanbul, a wealthy American businessman, Ratchett (Richard Widmark), tries to secure Poirot's services for $15,000 since he has received many death threats, but Poirot finds the case of little interest and turns it down. That night the train is caught in heavy snows in the Balkans. The next morning Ratchett is found stabbed to death in his cabin. Poirot and Bianchi work together to solve the case. They enlist the help of Dr. Constantine (George Coulouris), a Greek medical doctor who was travelling in another coach with Bianchi as the only other passenger and thus not a suspect. Pierre Michel (Jean-Pierre Cassel), the middle-aged French conductor of the car, also assists the investigation, as well as being a suspect. Poirot soon discovers that Ratchett was not who he claimed to be. The victim's secret past indicates a clear motive for murder, even justification, but who was the killer? Clues Dr. Constantine's examination of the body reveals that Ratchett was stabbed 12 times. Some wounds were slight, but at least three of them could have resulted in death. The stopped watch in the victim's pocket, as well as Poirot's reconstructed timeline of passenger activities the night before, indicate that Ratchett was murdered at about 1:15 a.m. The train had stopped, surrounded by fresh snow, before that time. There are no tracks in the snow and the doors to the other cars were locked, so the murderer is almost certainly still among the passengers in the coach in which Ratchett was killed. Most importantly, Poirot realizes that Ratchett was in fact a gangster called Cassetti. Five years previously, Cassetti and a henchman kidnapped and murdered Daisy Armstrong, the baby daughter of a wealthy British Army Colonel who had settled in America with his American-born wife. The body was found after the ransom had been paid. Overcome with grief, the pregnant Mrs. Armstrong went into labor early and died while giving birth to a stillborn baby. A maidservant named Paulette who was wrongly suspected of complicity in the kidnapping committed suicide. Colonel Armstrong, consumed by these tragedies, later killed himself as well. Cassetti's accomplice was arrested and executed, but Cassetti himself fled the country with the ransom, as he was only revealed to be the leader on the eve of the execution. Having established these facts, Poirot, Dr. Constantine and Bianchi summon the other passengers one by one and proceed to interrogate them. (The fictitious Armstrong case was inspired by the real-life kidnapping of aviator Charles Lindbergh's child.) Suspects The thirteen suspects are: Hector McQueen (Anthony Perkins), a tall, young American man, the victim's secretary and translator; Edward Beddoes (Sir John Gielgud), the victim's British valet; Mary Debenham (Vanessa Redgrave), a young British woman, returning home to England after working as a teacher in Baghdad; Colonel Arbuthnott (Sean Connery), a British officer in the British Indian Army returning to England on leave; Princess Natalia Dragomiroff (Wendy Hiller), an elderly Russian royal; Hildegarde Schmidt (Rachel Roberts), a middle-aged German woman, the Princess' personal maid; Count Rudolf Andrenyi (Michael York), an aristocratic Hungarian diplomat; Countess Elena Andrenyi (Jacqueline Bisset), née Grünwald, his beautiful young wife; Greta Ohlsson (Ingrid Bergman), a middle-aged Swedish missionary returning to Europe on a fund-raising trip for her mission in Africa; Mrs. Harriet Belinda Hubbard (Lauren Bacall), an older, fussy, very talkative American pluri-widowed socialite; Antonio (Gino) Foscarelli (Denis Quilley), an exuberant Italian American car salesman from Chicago; Cyrus B. "Dick" Hardman (Colin Blakely), a Pinkerton's detective masquerading as a talent agent; Pierre-Paul Michel (Jean-Pierre Cassel), the French conductor of the sleeping car. Motive Poirot soon comes to realise that all the suspects were connected to the Armstrong family and had reason to seek revenge for the tragedies that followed the kidnapping. Some openly admit their connections to the Armstrongs, while other ties must be uncovered by Poirot. McQueen was the son of the District Attorney who prosecuted the case and was very fond of Mrs. Armstrong; Miss Debenham was Mrs Armstrong's secretary; Beddoes was Colonel Armstrong's army batman and the family butler; Col. Arbuthnott was an army friend of Col. Armstrong; Princess Dragomiroff was Sonia Armstrong's godmother; Miss Schmidt was the Armstrongs' cook; Miss Ohlsson was Daisy's nursemaid; Foscarelli was the Armstrong's chauffeur; Hardman was, at the time, a policeman who was in love with Paulette; Michel was Paulette's father; Countess Andrenyi was Mrs Armstrong's sister; Mrs Hubbard was Mrs Armstrong's mother; Count Andrenyi was Mrs Armstrong's brother in law. Ratchett was sedated by Beddoes and McQueen. Each of the passengers then stabbed him in turn. Poirot presents this explanation for the murder to the assembled passengers, describing it as the "complex" solution to the crime. Yet he also offers another explanation, a "simple" one. In the course of the inquiry evidence has been found of an intruder on the train, who may have murdered Ratchett and then escaped evidence planted by the suspects. Poirot suggests that Ratchett/Cassetti may have been involved with the Mafia and murdered as the result of a feud. He leaves it to Bianchi, director of the line, to decide which explanation to present to the local police. Bianchi decides that this "simple" solution will be enough for the local police and that Ratchett deserved everything he got. A cover-up is therefore instigated. Poirot is satisfied that justice has been done, though he does admit to a struggle with his conscience.

In 1925, in Bastrop, Texas, Gid Frye (Anthony Perkins) narrates in voice-over as he watches his best friend Johnny (Beau Bridges) kiss Molly Taylor (Blythe Danner) outside a schoolhouse on election day. When Molly leads Ikey, a farmhand, inside to vote, Gid teases Johnny and suggests that he date Sarah Peters. After Johnny leaves, Gid takes a walk with Molly, kisses her, and asks whose girl she is. Molly thinks she is too silly for Gid, commenting that Johnny is silly but only Eddie White (Conard Fowkes), another boyfriend, is as silly as she. After Gid compliments her beauty, she suggests that maybe she is Gid's girl and they embrace. Ikey rides past on his mule and Gid suspects Johnny paid the farmhand to spy. Gid complains that he and Molly must keep their relationship secret. One day, Johnny and Gid work on a farm together, and Gid presents Johnny with a new saddle. Gid's father, Mr. Frye (Ed Binns), forces Gid to plow a field despite his protests. He tells his father he wants to go to the Texas Panhandle with Johnny to find work. Sometime later, Gid visits Molly at her house and asks her to go fishing. Molly says she received a postcard from Johnny, but Gid doesn't care to see it. Kissing Molly in a field, Gid suggests they get married. Resisting the idea, Molly tells Gid she will do anything but marry him. Molly undresses and runs into a pond, but Gid stays behind and she accuses him of being too careful. One evening, Gid visits Sarah Peters (Susan Sarandon), who tends to several illegitimate children inside her home before joining him for a walk. They kiss, and Sarah mentions marriage, but Gid does not respond. At her home, Molly shows Gid her black eye, explaining that her father, Mr. Taylor (Claude Traverse), hit her, but only because she provoked him. Gid apologizes for not swimming with Molly and says he loves her. As she undresses him, he walks away to latch the front door. Upset that he left the room, Molly yells at Gid not to leave her again. Waking up in her bed the next morning, Gid asks Molly why there is no blood on the sheets, and she casually confesses she was not a virgin. Heading to a livestock market, Gid and Johnny ride a train. Gid wants to know if Johnny plans to propose to Molly, conceding that, because Johnny made love to her first, he should have the first chance to marry her. Johnny says he thought Molly lost her virginity to Gid, and the men realize that Eddie must have slept with her first. Gid claims he will marry Molly despite being her third lover. Back in town, Gid asks Molly to accompany him to a dance but she has promised to go with Eddie. At the dance, Johnny fights Eddie, and the sheriff intervenes. Johnny and Gid work on a ranch outside town, but Gid becomes homesick and returns, finding his father ill but unwilling to go to the doctor. One night at Molly's house, Eddie crosses paths with Gid upon his arrival and informs him that Mr. Taylor accidentally drank lye and died. After Eddie leaves, Molly rushes outside to vomit. That night, Gid lies in bed with Molly and comforts her. Johnny sends word to Gid from the ranch, promising to visit Molly soon. One day, Eddie surprises Gid with the news that he and Molly were married one week ago, warning Gid to stay away from her. Mr. Frye consoles his son, asserting that a woman's affections are random and he shouldn't sulk. Gid later finds a suicide note from his father and realizes he has gone to shoot himself. At Mr. Frye's funeral, Molly asks Gid to visit her soon. Sarah approaches after Molly leaves, and Gid takes her hand. Sometime later, he and Sarah marry. Gid describes his new wife as proud and scared, but not generous, and admits he is still in love with Molly. At a secret rendezvous, Molly tells Gid she has always wanted him to be whole hog in love with her. She says she wishes he wouldn't worry so much about what others think, but Gid wonders if he is incapable. They make love, and she tells him she is ready to have a baby and wants Gid to be the father. He agrees to impregnate her. Returning home, Johnny joins Molly and Gid on the Frye farm. Gid helps a cow birth a calf, and Molly kisses the newborn animal. Months later, Molly shows Gid a bump on her abdomen, confirming she is pregnant with his child. Twenty years later in the year 1945, the voice-over narrative shifts its focus to Molly's point of view, as she recounts the events of the past two decades: Eddie died two years after they married; Matt, the son belonging to Molly and Gid, joined the US Navy and went to war in the Pacific; and Molly's second son, Joe, whom Johnny fathered, died in action in Germany a few months ago. Outside her house, Johnny tells Molly that Gid is buying another ranch. After Molly asks for his help planting tomatoes, Johnny says he came to court her and they make love. One night, a tornado hits and Molly retreats to an underground shelter. The next morning, Gid, who is still married to Sarah, checks on Molly and they embrace. Before she prepares breakfast for the two of them, Molly receives a letter from Matt and hides it from Gid. When he comments that their son may be tougher after the war, she cries, aware that Matt hates her for being an adulterer. Molly recalls that her alcoholic father instructed her to marry Eddie because, though he didn't have any money, he drank and would treat her like a wife should be treated. After she was married, everyone in town became aware of her affair with Gid. In town, Molly receives a telegram that Matt has died. Gid drives by, offers her a ride, and takes her home where they mourn in silence. That night, Gid announces to Molly that he cannot see her romantically anymore, though hes still madly in love with her. Molly wants to continue to sleep with him, believing he and Sarah no longer have sex. She asks if Gid is ashamed of her, like Matt was. Gid responds that he is ashamed of them both. Molly wonders why she does not feel shame and says she believes that love justifies adultery. Gid demands to know why she wouldn't marry him years ago. Molly admits she thought Eddie needed her more, but she was wrong. Gid agrees to come by when he can risk it, but Molly angrily sends him away. Molly reads the letter she received from Matt before his death, in which Matt reacts to the news of his brothers death and says he hopes he is killed as well. He writes that he will never forgive her for sleeping with Gid out of wedlock, and promises she will not hear from him again. Molly burns the letter, saying she knew it would break Gid's heart and cause him to stick by her. Sometime later, Molly asks Johnny if he disapproves of her. Johnny says he is not the type of person to be ashamed and assures her they raised a good son. Molly wishes that Gid felt the same way. One day, Gid delivers a puppy to Molly. Afterward, she says she badly wanted to touch him, seeing that he needed it, but did not want to tempt him. In 1964, the voice-over narrative shifts again, this time to Johnny's point of view, as he visits a terminally sick Gid in the hospital and presents him with a prank toy that shoots a fake snake out of a can. Teasing his friend, Gid pretends to have a heart attack. Johnny helps him break out of the hospital early, and Gid asks to go to Molly's house. Two days later, Gid leaves to go back to the hospital despite Molly's attempts to make him stay. While working on a windmill, Gid tells Johnny he might leave Sarah to live with Molly for the remainder of his life, believing it will give him peace. Johnny agrees that it would be good for both of them. Moments later, Gid falls off a ladder on the side of the windmill. As Johnny drives him to the hospital, Gid dies from his wounds. Later, Johnny consoles Molly at her house. When she sees that he is sexually aroused, she tells Johnny not to feel ashamed and they make love. The next day, Johnny asks Molly how she would feel about getting married. She turns him down but says he is welcome in her home every night. Johnny recalls that, in his will, Gid left Johnny one thousand acres and a pickup truck; however, he only left Sarah a pocket watch. Johnny remembers the day when he and Molly kissed outside the schoolhouse and confesses that he sent Ikey to spy on her and Gid.

"Child's Play" is about the destructive goings-on at a boy's school and the friction between two faculty members. Joe Dobbs, English teacher, likeable, charming, favored by his students, is the junior class leader. The senior class leader, Latin and Greek instructor Jerome Malley, is feared and despised by the boys in his class. He is a strict disciplinarian with the nickname of "Lash". Dobbs is constantly trying to get Malley to "ease up" on his pupils. In fact, the only thing standing between Dobbs becoming the senior class leader is Malley's imminent retirement. Layered on top of this conflict between the two men is the increasingly bizarre and distructive behavior of the boys themselves. Malley also seems to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown due to the stress of dealing with his dying mother compounded by the receipt of anonymous threatening phone calls and messages. Malley's prickly personality wins no friends or sympathy when he claims Hobbs is the source of these hectoring calls and letters. Into all of this turmoil comes Paul Reis, the new PE instructor, who was formerly a student at the school. As an outsider bringing a fresh perspective, he first sides with Hobbs, but, getting to understand Malley's torments on a more personal level, he begins to have doubts about Hobbs' motivation. The end of the film is both tragic and bizarre.

Released after ten years in prison, Duke Anderson decides to steal from every apartment in a luxurious Manhattan building, unaware that he is being video taped throughout.

A British agent sets out to uncover the hidden facts behind a British government employee's suicide. After security officer Charles Dobbs has a friendly chat with Samuel Fennan from the Foreign Office, the man commits suicide. An anonymous typed letter had been received accusing Fennan of being a Communist during his days at Oxford and their chat while walking in the park was quite amiable. Senior officials want the whole thing swept under the rug and are pleased to leave it as a suicide. Dobbs isn't sure as there are a number of anomalies that simply can't be explained away. Dobbs is also having trouble at home: his beloved wife keeps having affairs. He's also pleased to see an old friend, Dieter Frey, whom he recruited after the war. With the assistance of a colleague and a retired policeman, Dobbs tries to piece together just who is the spy and who assassinated Fennan. —garykmcd

Warren Black lives in New York City and suffers a recurring nightmare about attending a bullfight that ends in a piercing shrieking noise. The nightmare fills him with doubts about his job as a Brigadier General in the US Air Force who is assigned to nuclear weapons. Walter Groteschele is a professor with some audacious ideas about nuclear warfare - namely that the common conception that any exchange of nuclear weapons will inevitably and imminently lead to an all-out exchange and the annihilation of the world is wrong. He is a civilian advisor to the Defense Department and Defense Secretary Swenson. Frank Bogan is commanding general of Strategic Air Command, the nuclear weapons arm of the Air Force, and he possesses faith in the vast array of high-tech equipment at his disposal, enough that he leads a short-notice tour of a visiting Congressman, Hubert Raskob, of SAC headquarters - though he must roust his executive officer, Colonel Warren Cascio, from an unplanned visit with his elderly father, a drunken hillbilly who lives in a basement apartment and whose alcoholism periodically leads to violence. Jack Grady, a Colonel in the Air Force, leads Group Six, a squadron of Vindicator nuclear bombers, supersonic jet aircraft derived from the B-58 Hustler bombers of the latter 1950s and based near Anchorage, AL. Grady and his wingman Billy Flynn debate the utility of their fellow pilots, young men who seem more like machines than the pilots they flew with in the Second World War. All of these men are soon caught up when a computer malfunction at SAC headquarters results in replacement of a faulty control piece. The replacement is routine but momentarily freezes up SAC's mainframe as the array of computers reboots. It appears of no concern - except the glitch activates the Fail-Safe box aboard Group Six; at the same time all radios aboard Group Six are jammed by Soviet Russia, and when the fail-safe signal aboard the planes is verified, it leaves Grady and his men thinking that nuclear war has broken out and they must execute their final order - penetrate Soviet Russia from the North Pole and launch multi-megaton explosives onto Moscow. The President Of The United States now must become involved as he and his translator, Peter Buck, travel deep underground to the White House command bunker, where a "Hot Line" direct voice communicator with the Soviet Premier awaits, with Buck hearing the Russian's voice and translating his words to the President. The President, the Secretary of Defense, and General Bogan work to try and stop Group Six, but the power of the planes and the crews' unshakable working orders - orders that include disregard of all outside voice communication on the suspicion of enemy disinformation - means that the six bombers penetrate Soviet Russia and overcome the Soviet Empire's vast antiaircraft grid. Making matters worse, when The President innocently asks the Soviet Premier about jamming of Group Six's radios, the Russian initially lies about it, and when he finally tells the truth the President still cannot convince Group Six to disengage. A direct communication link to Soviet air defense headquarters is opened and General Bogan is forced to dragoon one of his technical sergeants into telling the Russians how to detonate nuclear-armed air-to-air missiles, thus blowing up their own planes. With all indications being that the bombers will reach Moscow, the President makes a deal with the Soviets - a deal so stunning as to shake even the Soviet Premier into realizing that the President's pleas that the attack is an accident are manifestly the truth, but with the sickening realization that the President's proposal is the only way to avoid omnicide.

At the end of a long and hot summer day, members of one family gather in a large house. Everyone has something painful and offensive to say, and their silence is even worse. Over the course of one day in August 1912, the family of retired actor James Tyrone grapples with the morphine addiction of his wife Mary, the illness of their youngest son Edmund and the alcoholism and debauchery of their older son Jamie. As day turns into night, guilt, anger, despair, and regret threaten to destroy the family. —Marc Andreu <mandreu@mediapark.es> The film spends one day and night with the dysfunctional Tyrone family. Mary Tyrone is an unstable mother addicted in morphine that recalls moments of her life in the past to escape from her reality. The Irish patriarch James Tyrone is a cheap and alcoholic man and former successful actor. The older son Jamie Tyrone is an alcoholic idle man that loves and envies his brother and is blamed by his mother for the death of his younger brother. Edmund Tyrone is an aspiring writer that has consumption (tuberculosis) and tried to commit suicide. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil One day in the early twentieth century in the life of the outwardly "loving" yet dysfunctional Tyrone family - parents James and Mary, and their two surviving adult sons Jamie and Edmund - at their Connecticut seaside summer home is presented. Mary has recently been released from a sanatorium for addiction to morphine. She got hooked on it during the difficult pregnancy with Edmund. As such, she secretly blames him for her addiction. Although Mary is purportedly clean, the male members of the family can't help but believe that she is still getting her fixes when she is alone. Edmund, a mariner, also recently arrived home. They are all aware deep in their hearts that Edmund is suffering from consumption, and not a summer cold as they all say it is, as they await the official diagnosis. James, formerly an actor, is a spendthrift despite having money. He, however, is not unwilling to spend money on whiskey or get rich quick schemes, largely buying what ends up being worthless real estate. Jamie largely blames his father for not spending the money early in their illnesses for Mary and Edmund's health/medical problems. Otherwise, Jamie has largely been aimless in his life. He has followed in James' footsteps in becoming an actor solely because James gave him the opportunity, but places no effort in it as a career. In addition to these issues, all three male members of the family drink to excess. These family issues are played out as the long day turns into night... —Huggo Against the backdrop of a hot, humid, early-1900s August day, and the eerie sound of the foghorn, the tortured Tyrone family gathers at their summer house in Connecticut. Little by little, through an interminable series of bitter quarrels, unpleasant mood swings, and cruel love/hate alternations, the parsimonious former actor patriarch, James Tyrone Sr., watches the inevitable disintegration of his already dysfunctional family. More and more, as the emotionally unstable, substance-dependent mother, Mary, is on the verge of a mental breakdown, and her two boys, the embittered, resentful wastrel of a son, James, and his tuberculosis-stricken younger brother, Edmund, can't stay in the same room without a battle, an insidious undercurrent of lost faith and crippled happiness is tearing the family apart. And the long day's journey into the night can only bring pain, despair, and sorrow. —Nick Riganas

A guitar-playing drifter wanders into a small Mississippi town and inflames two troubled women. Having fled New Orleans to avoid arrest, Valentine "Snakeskin" Xavier (Val), a trouble-prone, guitar-playing drifter, wanders into a small Mississippi town aiming to go straight and lead a quiet, simple life. He gets a job in the dry goods store owned by a sexually frustrated middle-aged woman named Lady Torrance, whose sadistic elderly husband, Jabe, is dying. With an obscure past and passions of her own, Lady finds herself attracted to Val, pulsating with passion anew, as he presents an arousing antidote to her bitter marriage and small-town humdrum life. Also vying for Val's attention are the alcoholic, sex-crazed Carol Cutrere and the unhappily married Vee Talbot. Each brings her share of problems into Val's plans, himself equally tempted by these women, though he succumbs to the charms of Lady. But the jealous Jabe is friends with Sheriff Talbot, Vee's husband, and things can't possibly end well for Val and Lady. The screenplay by Meade Roberts and Tennessee Williams is based on Williams' own 1957 play, "Orpheus Descending". —pdlussier1 Having been in and out of trouble with the law from his fast living, Valentine Xavier, a drifter and musician who played primarily in New Orleans, decides to turn over a new leaf when he reaches Two Rivers County in the American deep south. With the help of the sheriff's wife Vee Talbot, Xavier is able to get a job as a clerk at Torrance Mercantile in Vee knowing that Jabe Torrance will soon be coming home from the Memphis hospital, and will likely never be able to get out of bed in the apartment above the store on his own, leaving his wife, Lady Torrance, to run the store by herself. Xavier, in his trademark snakeskin jacket, exudes a masculine sexuality, which increases business at the store by all the admiring young women of the county now frequenting it. Who lets him know in no uncertain terms that she is interested is party girl Carol Cutrere, whose fast ways has had her banned from Two Rivers, period, plus a number of other businesses outside of the county line. The one female in the county openly stating that she is not interested is Lady, despite not loving or ever having loved hard and violent Jabe, she putting any past infidelity in search of happiness behind her. The interactions between Xavier and Lady lead to them once again striving for happiness in their lives, which is interrupted by many of the men, including Sheriff Jordan Talbot, looking out for Jabe's interests, they who, as a collective, have an equally violent outlook as the answer to life's problems. —Huggo Valentine Xavier is a traveling musician who has decided to change his lifestyle and do away with haunts and nightclubs. By the will of fate, he ends up in a provincial town, where he gets a job as a salesman in Jabe Torrance's store. Between him and Lady Torrance, the wife of the owner of the store, there is sympathy. But the young and eccentric Carol Cutrere also claims the guy's heart. Under the circumstances, he will have to make a difficult choice. —Tango Papa