Una O'Connor

A few years after War War II, in London, Leonard Vole (Tyrone Power), is accused of murdering a rich widow, Emily French (Norma Varden), who has recently changed her will and bequeathed him a substantial sum of money. Sir Wilfred Robarts (Charles Laughton), a skilled lawyer who has Just be released from hospital, is asked to defend Vole. Sir Wilfred's doctor has instructed him to avoid excitement. After his hand-picked replacement barrister expresses doubt over Vole's innocence, Sir Wilfred decides to handle the case himself, despite protests from his nurse (Elsa Lanchester). After a conversation with Mrs. Christine Vole (Marlene Dietrich) and assessing her attitude, Sir Wilfred decides not to call on her to testify in defense of her husband. In the courtroom, Christine Vole surprisingly appears as a Witness for the Prosecution. A parade of circumstantial evidence points to Vole being the likely murderer. Christine's testimony does not provide an alibi for her husband. All seems lost as the defense concludes its case. But a late night phone call reveals new evidence that Christine wrote letters to an anonymous lover named Max about purposely denying her husband an alibi to get her freedom. This evidence changes the jury's opinion and Leonard is acquitted. However, Sir Wilfred suspects something is amiss with this sudden reversal and dramatic convenient evidence. All is revealed in the last dramatic court scene, as Christine admits to deliberately sabotaging her own testimony with the letters, to get her guilty husband freed. But in the penultimate twist, Leonard shows his true stripes and reveals his intention to leave his "wife" for a younger woman. Christine seizes the knife used as evidence of an accidental cut causing Vole's bloody jacket and, in full view of Sir Wilfred, his nurse (Miss Plimsoll), and the other woman, stabs Leonard, killing him. Miss Plimsoll cancels Sir Wilfred's planned trip to Bermuda and announces he will defend Christine Vole in her trial for murder.

After an Englishwoman dies, leaving behind two children, her devoted friend decides to take the children to find the woman's husband, an American serviceman who had returned to the USA. But the father, now a successful architect, claims not to remember ever having gotten married or having any children. —Snow Leopard

A food writer who has lied about being the perfect housewife must try to cover her deception when her boss and a returning war hero invite themselves to her home for a traditional family Christmas. Journalist Elizabeth Lane is one of the country's most famous food writers. In her columns, she describes herself as a hard working farm woman, taking care of her children and being an excellent cook. But this is all lies. In reality she is an unmarried New Yorker who can't even boil an egg. The recipes come from her good friend Felix. The owner of the magazine she works for has decided that a heroic sailor will spend his Christmas on *her* farm. Miss Lane knows that her career is over if the truth comes out, but what can she do? —Mattias Thuresson In her Smart Housekeeping column, Elizabeth Lane provides amazing recipes and homemaking hints. However, Elizabeth's got a little secret: SHE needs a recipe to boil water! Elizabeth has no cooking skills, no Connecticut farm, no adoring hubby and no baby-makes-three as suggested in her column. Something her boss, the magazine publisher, doesn't know when he decides to invite himself and a recently returned war hero to her home for a traditional family Christmas. Watch as Elizabeth tries to be a good wife and doting mother, with absolutely NO experience. —Carolyn Weiss The destroyer of Jefferson Jones and his partner Sinkewicz is sunk by the Germans and they float adrift in a raft for eighteen days. When they are rescued, they are sent to a hospital and Jefferson has to follow a stringent diet imposed by the doctors. He seduces his nurse expecting to get solid food and she decides to write to Alexander Yardley, who is the owner of the Smart Housekeeping magazine where the famous journalist Elizabeth Lane writes a column about recipes and food, asking him to allow Jefferson to spend Christmas with Elizabeth and her family in her farm in Connecticut. The prepotent Yardley sees the chance of free promotion of his magazine and forces Elizabeth to invite the hero Jones. However, Elizabeth is single, does not have a baby and lives alone in a small apartment in New York and she made-up a perfect married life for her fans. Further, she does not how to cook and the recipes belong to her Hungarian friend Felix Bassenak, who owns a restaurant in New York. The architect John Sloan, who has been wooing Elizabeth for a long, proposes to marry her in his farm in Connecticut and she brings Felix with her to help to proceed the farce. The things get complicated when Yardley also decides to spend Christmas with Elizabeth while she falls in love with Jones. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Elizabeth Lane is the perfect homemaker in so many ways. She's an outstanding cook and interior decorator who lives in a beautiful house in the countryside, is happily married and recently had a baby - as her regular column in Smart Housekeeping magazine recounts to her wide readership. There's only one big catch: she isn't any of those things - she can't cook, doesn't know the first thing about decorating and lives in a tiny, dingy apartment. It all begins to unravel when her publisher, Alexander Yardley, arranges for recently rescued sailor Jefferson Jones to spend the weekend at Lane's country home. To top it off, Yardley invites himself to spend the weekend there as well. Elizabeth scrambles, getting her friend Felix Bassenak to cook for her and borrows her friend John Sloan's country house. She even gets a baby from a neighbor. As if she doesn't have enough to deal with, she and Jones become quite attracted to one another. Somehow it all works out in the end. —garykmcd

When Prince John and the Norman Lords begin oppressing the Saxon masses in King Richard's absence in 1190s England, a Saxon lord fights back as the outlaw leader of a resistance movement. Sir Robin of Locksley, defender of downtrodden Saxons, runs afoul of Norman authority and is forced to turn outlaw. With his band of Merry Men, he robs from the rich, gives to the poor and still has time to woo the lovely Maid Marian, and foil the cruel Sir Guy of Gisbourne, and keep the nefarious Prince John off the throne. —Little Pine Weasel <kristinat@cerritos.edu> With King Richard the Lionhearted away fighting wars in the Holy Land, his brother Prince John seizes the Regency. The Normans are hard on the Saxon peasants, and when Prince John learns that Richard is being held for ransom in Vienna, he taxes them beyond all reasonable limits supposedly to pay for his release. Sir Robin of Locksley, a Saxon lord, rebels against the Prince and his principal henchman, Sir Guy of Gisbourne. Declared an outlaw, he takes up residence in Sherwood Forest and begins to surround himself with those who are loyal to King Richard: Little John, Friar Tuck, Will Scarlet and all the rest. When the Prince and Gisbourne manage to capture him by staging a archery contest, it's the beautiful Maid Marion who arranges his escape. When Robin and his men learn that Richard is in England, they protect him and ensure his evil brother is removed from power. —garykmcd In the late twelfth century, King Richard the Lionhearted of England is fighting in the Holy Crusades, leaving the Regency of the Kingdom to his trusted friend, Longchamps. When Richard is captured by Leopold of Austria, Richard's brother, the treacherous Prince John, with help from his supportive Norman barons and his primary henchman Sir Guy of Gisbourne, seizes control of the Regency. Under the guise of getting money to free Richard, John, in pillaging from the Saxon commoners, uses the money instead to fatten his own coffers in gaining control of the throne. The Saxons turn to one of their own, Sir Robin of Locksley - also known as Robin Hood - who, often recklessly, fights on their behalf against Norman authority in an effort to restore what is rightfully the Saxons until Richard's return, Richard to who Robin is loyal. As such, Robin is viewed as an outlaw by Prince John and Sir Guy. Robin's refuge is Sherwood Forest, where he recruits men to fight for what he believes is right. Generally matching Robin's happy-go-lucky temperament, that band of merry men includes Will Scarlet, John Little (renamed Little John because of his hulking physical size), and Friar Tuck. Also seeing Robin and his men as outlaws is Lady Marian Fitzswalter, a Norman and a royal ward. It isn't until Marian meets Robin and sees first hand what he is doing that she changes her allegiances. Prince John and Sir Guy hope to use what they see as the growing attraction between Robin and Marian to capture Robin and sentence him to death. Robin and Marian, the latter she believes clandestinely, work against Prince John and Sir Guy until King Richard's return, when they hope all will be right with England. But the return of King Richard, if it does happen, does not automatically restore him to the throne, especially if Prince John can crown himself king in Richard's absence. —Huggo In 1191, King Richard joined the Crusades and then he is captured by the Duke of Austria. His ambitious and evil brother Prince John takes over the throne and oppress the Saxons increasing the taxes and hanging those that cannot afford to pay. The Saxon nobleman Robin of Locksley hides in the Sherwood Forest and defends the people against the tyrannic John and his right hand Sir Guy of Gisbourne and is considered outlaw. When he meets Lady Marian, they immediately fall in love with each other. But Robin Hood and his men are hunted down by Sir Guy and the notorious Sheriff of Nottingham. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

An American boy turns out to be the long-lost heir of a British fortune. He is sent to live with the cold and unsentimental lord who oversees the trust. After the death of Cedric's ('Ceddie') English father, he and his mother live together in Brooklyn. Cedric's grandfather, the Earl of Dorincourt, had disowned Cedric's father when he married an American, but when the Earl's remaining son dies, he accepts Cedric as Lord Fauntleroy, his heir, and sends for Cedric and his mother. Cedric uses the first of his newly-found wealth to do some favors for his old friends, then heads to England, where he must try to overcome the Earl's dislike for Cedric's mother. —Snow Leopard

Dr. Frankenstein and his monster both turn out to be alive, not killed as previously believed. Dr. Frankenstein wants to get out of the evil experiment business, but when a mad scientist, Dr. Pretorius, kidnaps his wife, Dr. Frankenstein agrees to help him create a new creature, a woman, to be the companion of the monster.

A scientist finds a way of becoming invisible, but in doing so, he becomes murderously insane. A mysterious man, whose head is completely covered in bandages, wants a room. The proprietors of the pub aren't used to making their house an inn during the winter months, but the man insists. They soon come to regret their decision. The man quickly runs out of money, and he has a violent temper besides. Worse still, he seems to be some kind of chemist and has filled his room with messy chemicals, test tubes, beakers and the like. When they try to throw him out, they make a ghastly discovery. Meanwhile, Flora Cranley appeals to her father to do something about the mysterious disappearance of Dr. Griffin, his assistant and her sweetheart. Her father's other assistant, the cowardly Dr. Kemp, is no help. He wants her for himself. Little does Flora guess that the wild tales, from newspapers and radio broadcasts, of an invisible homicidal maniac are stories of Dr. Griffin himself, who has discovered the secret of invisibility and gone mad in the process. —J. Spurlin