cryptexcode/MPST huggingface dataset:
Saint Ralph

Plot synopsis:
This fictional story centers on Ralph Walker, a teenager attending a Catholic private school. His father was killed in World War II and his mother is hospitalized with an unidentified illness. Ralph is naturally prone to mischief and often finds himself an outcast among his classmates. He tries to emulate the conduct of grown ups, and is caught smoking cigarettes and masturbating by headmaster Father Fitzpatrick. Already labeled a troublemaker, Ralph is forced to join the school's cross country team to relieve him of his excess energy.
When Ralph's mother falls into a coma, he is told it will take a miracle for her to survive. When running coach Father Hibbert, a former world class marathoner who was forced to quit running when he injured his knee, claims it would be a miracle if a member of his team won the Boston Marathon, Ralph decides to train for it in the hope his victory would fulfill the miracle needed to save his mother's life.
At first, Ralph cannot even keep up with his teammates in practice. He reads books to learn about running, uses the new techniques, and gradually improves. Father Hibbert decides to train him despite disapproval from Father Fitzpatrick. Ralph begins to win the respect of his classmates, and eventually wins the attention of the local media when he wins a prestigious regional race.
When Father Fitzpatrick learns Ralph intends to run the Boston Marathon, he threatens to expel him if he participates, as well as remove Father Hibbert from the priesthood should he try to interfere. Both Ralph and his mentor must then decide how deeply they believe in miracles, and what is possible when a person risks everything without promise of success.
Both he and Father Hibbert defy Father Fitzpatrick and decide to go to Boston. Ralph ends up winning second place after a close race with the previous year's winner and gives the medal to his mother who wakes up from her coma.

Tags: psychedelic, sentimental, prank

Review:
Ridin' on a Rainbow

Plot synopsis:
Singing cowboy and rancher Gene Autry (Gene Autry) arrives in the town of Riverton and helps his fellow cattlemen sell their herds for the first profit they've seen in four years. Gene convinces the cattlemen to deposit their money into Eben Carter's bank for safekeeping before going out to watch the parade. Captain 'Lijah Bartlett (Ferris Taylor) has just arrived on the riverboat Jolly Betsy with its troupe of entertainers who are now parading through town. While the townspeople are distracted, Matt Evans (Byron Foulger), a washed-up dancer looking to provide for his young daughter Patsy (Mary Lee), reluctantly assists Blake and Morrison rob the bank. Evans is shocked when they gun down Carter, but still agrees when the men order him to bring the money to them in nearby Colesburg.
Feeling responsible for the loss of his friends' money, Gene sets out to find the bank robbers and recover the stolen money, with the help of his sidekick Frog Millhouse (Smiley Burnette) and Sheriff Jim Mason (Guy Usher). They track Evans to the showboat, but Evans is able to elude them after telling Patsy to meet him later in Colesburg. With Patsy as their only lead, Gene persuades the sheriff to go easy on her. As part of their investigation, Gene and Frog are hired as performers by Captain Bartlett, who does not know they are working with the sheriff. Genuinely concerned with Patsy's welfare, Gene tries to befriend the youngster, who is torn between telling the truth and her loyalty to her father. Patsy is able to convince Gene to let her go ashore alone at Colesburg, but when she sees the sheriff, who has arrived without Gene's knowledge, she assumes that Gene is going to double-cross her and informs the captain of Gene's identity.
Patsy gathers the stolen money her father had hidden on the boat and sneaks ashore to the inn where he is hiding. There she pleads with her father to turn himself in and return the money. Before they can leave, however, Blake and Morrison arrive at the inn. Patsy locks herself in the next room and listens in horror as the bank robbers shoot her father after he tells them where the money is stashed. Patsy gives her dog Spotlight her room key, helps him through a window, and tells him to go to the showboat, where the dog gives the key to Gene. Knowing what has happened, Gene, Frog, and the others rush to the inn and rescue Patsy just as the bank robbers are about to kidnap her. After giving his farewell performance on the showboat, Gene takes Patsy to live with him on his ranch.

Tags: comedy, murder

Review:
Where Are the Children?

Plot synopsis:
On her birthday, San Francisco resident Nancy Harmon's two kids Peter and Lisa disappear, later to be found dead. The police wrongly accuse a devastated Nancy of being the killer. Nancy is found guilty and sentenced to the gas chamber, but her attorney manages to get her conviction overturned. Much to the District Attorney's dismay, Nancy can't be put back on trial because key witness Rob Legler has left the country. And Nancy's husband, college professor Carl Harmon, commits suicide. Seven years later, Nancy has relocated to a town in Cape Cod in Massachusetts. Nancy has changed her identity, re-colored her hair, and has married a realtor named Ray Eldridge, with whom she has two kids named Michael and Missy, and the terrible pain from what happened to Peter and Lisa has begun to heal. But today is Nancy's birthday. She has allowed Michael and Missy to go out to play in the back yard. Nancy opens the newspaper and is stunned to find, in the local section of the paper, her picture and all of the details of the murders of Peter and Lisa. Nancy rushes out to the back yard to get Michael and Missy and bring them back into the house, but Nancy finds only one of Missy's red mittens...and Nancy knows that the nightmare is beginning again. Because of the disappearance and murder of Peter and Lisa, Nancy is understandably concerned about finding Mike and Missy before they are hurt the way Peter and Lisa were. Local police chief Jed Coffin, who has read the newspaper, wrongfully sees Nancy as a suspect in the disappearance of Michael and Missy. When people in the town read about Nancy in the newspaper, virtually everyone suspects her of murdering Mike and Missy. But Mike and Missy have been kidnapped by a man named Courtney Parrish. In the desperate search for Mike and Missy, everyone will discover the devastating truth as to who Courtney Parrish really is. And there is also another question—was it Parrish who killed Peter and Lisa years ago?

Tags: murder, melodrama

Review:
Moody, atmospheric thriller with Frederic Forrest a standout. A moody, atmospheric thriller based on a novel by Mary Higgins Clark, with Jill Clayburgh in the lead as a woman-with-a-past who just might have murdered her own children.  Max Gail (remember him from *Barney Miller*?) has a thankless role as her husband; but the real treat is that under-rated chameleon of an actor, Frederic Forrest, who will probably be remembered as the best character actor of his generation. Besides Forrest, the most memorable character here is the setting--a small New England village on a lush autumn day with a storm brewing.  How wonderful it would be to have Max and Jill's house . . ... Extremely Boring. This movie is extremely boring and very slow-moving.  It is also rather discontinuous and disjointed.  The acting isn't terrible, but the lack of plot movement ruins any effort.  Badly in need of better editing.  The worst movie I've ever seen.
The Girl in the Book

Plot synopsis:
Alice Harvey, a 28-year-old assistant book editor and aspiring writer, is tasked with handling the re-release of Milan Daneker's book Waking Eyes. Alice, the daughter of two successful, but neglectful, agents first met Milan as a teenager at one of her parents' parties. As she is forced to interact with him again she repeatedly flashes back to their interactions when she was a child when he forged a relationship with her under the guise of reading her work. When he later incorporated both her writing and intimate moments from their sexual relationship into his book she told her mother what had happened. Both her parents confronted Milan and chose to believe that she had an over-active imagination and a crush on Milan after Milan denied anything ever happened.
In the present Alice finds herself feeling jarred and out of control as Milan keeps inserting himself in her life. At her birthday party she meets Emmett, a community organizer, and the two begin dating. However, when her best friend's baby sitter makes an off-handed comment about how Waking Eyes doesn't interest him she has sex with him and is quickly caught by her best friend Sadie. Emmett also finds out and dumps Alice. In order to convince Emmett to give their relationship another shot Alice creates a blog listing 100 reasons why Emmett should take her back. In the meantime she confronts Milan about what he did though he continues to insist that the relationship was what she wanted. She later skips Milan's book re-launch party to talk to Emmett who finally agrees to take her back. Afterwards he figures out that she is "the girl in the book" and Alice tells him that she isn't any more. Newly inspired she begins to write again for the first time since Milan betrayed her and titles her work, The Girl in the Book.

Tags: flashback

Review:
Westbound

Plot synopsis:
In 1864, Union army officer Captain John Hayes is asked to take charge of the Overland stagecoach line, which makes eastbound gold shipments from California that aid the Union's war effort.
Hayes travels to Overland headquarters in his hometown of Julesburg, Colorado. He meets a Union soldier, Rod Miller, who has lost an arm, and Miller's wife, Jeannie.
Clay Putnam has quit his position with Overland and is now secretly working for the Confederacy. He has the support of a quick-draw bandit, Mace, and also has married Hayes' former love, Norma.
Mace's men pick a fight with the one-armed Miller, calling him "half a man" and raising Jeannie's ire. Rod is distraught at his condition, unable to even cock a pistol now. Hayes decides to ask the Millers if they would agree to run the local Overland station out of their farm.
Mace wants to kill Hayes, but is talked out of it by Putnam, who fears the Union's response. He orders Mace's men to destroy Overland's stations and property instead and steal its deliveries of gold.
Putnam is jealous of Hayes, though, believing Norma is still interested in him. He decides to kill him, but mistakes Rod for Hayes and shoots the wrong man.
Mace drives a stagecoach off a cliff, killing passengers, including women and children. A disgusted Norma decides to leave Putnam and warns she will see him hang if anything should happen to Hayes.
A final confrontation in town results in townspeople offering Hayes their help. Putnam also comes looking for Mace, but is shot, whereupon Mace is killed by Hayes.
Norma hopes to rekindle Hayes' love for her, but he appears more likely to have a future with Jeannie.

Tags: romantic

Review:
The Paleface

Plot synopsis:
Crooked "oil sharks" led by a man named Hunt have stolen an Indian tribe's lease to their land and given them 24 hours to vacate. Furious, the Indian chief orders that the first white man who enters their encampment be killed. A butterfly collector (Keaton) unwittingly wanders in while chasing a butterfly. They tie him to a stake and collect wood. When he frees himself, the Indian warriors give chase. During the pursuit, he finds some asbestos and fashions himself some fireproof underwear. As a result, when they catch him and try to burn him at the stake, he remains unharmed. Awed by this, the Indians adopt him and give him the title "Little Chief Paleface".
He subsequently leads the tribe in a confrontation with the crooks. When a brawl breaks out, the crooks' leader Hunt flees. The Indians give chase, with Little Chief Paleface bringing up the rear. Hunt captures the hero, forces him to switch clothes and gets away in disguise. After being nearly skewered by arrows from his own tribe, Little Chief Paleface finds the deed to the land in a pocket. As his reward, he chooses a pretty Indian maiden.

Tags: murder

Review:
The Invisible Man Returns

Plot synopsis:
Sir Geoffrey Radcliffe (Vincent Price) is sentenced to death for the murder of his brother Michael, a crime he did not commit. Dr. Frank Griffin, the brother of the original invisible man (named John instead of Jack), injects the prisoner with an invisibility drug. As Radcliffe's execution nears, he suddenly vanishes from his cell. Detective Sampson (Cecil Kellaway) from the Scotland Yard guesses the truth while Radcliffe searches for the real murderer before the drug causes him to go insane.
The Radcliffe family owns a mining operation. The recently promoted employee Willie Spears (Alan Napier) is promoted within the company, stirring Radcliffe's suspicions. After forcing Spear's car off the road, Spears is scared into revealing that Richard Cobb (Sir Cedric Hardwicke), Radcliffe's cousin, is the murderer. After a confrontation, a chase scene ensues during which Radcliffe is struck by a bullet from Sampson. Cobb is killed falling from a coal wagon, but not before confessing to the murder.
Radcliffe, dying from blood loss and exposure, makes his way to Dr. Griffin. A transfusion of blood makes Radcliffe visible, allowing the doctor to operate and save his life. (Vincent Price actually only appeared in the film for one minute, and spent the remainder of the movie as a disembodied voice.)

Tags: insanity, murder

Review:
Freighters of Destiny

Plot synopsis:
John Macy runs a wagon train caravan which supplies a remote settlement. His son, Steve, helps him in running the caravan, as well as dating one of the local girls in the town, Ruth. Randolph Carter is a local banker who covets the commerce created by the wagon train. Carter hires gunmen to attack the caravan, who in a raid, kill Macy, and take possession of the wagons and their supplies. Steve, who was not with the caravan at the time of the attack, takes over running the caravan. Due to the losses inflicted by the gunmen, Steve is forced to go to the local bank for a loan, in order to keep the operation running. However, Carter is the banker and refuses to provide him with the necessary funds. Two of Steve's friends, Rough and Ready, go to the bank in an attempt to convince Carter to change his mind. When the opportunity arises, the two friends help themselves to the needed funds from the bank's safe.
Steve takes the money, not knowing how it was obtained. When Carter accuses Steve of stealing the money, he is forced to flee. When he and his two friends take refuge in a cabin in the mountains, they uncover the true gunmen who have been plaguing the caravan, who are plotting to attack the next caravan, as well as disclosing where they have hidden the wagons they have stolen previously. As Rough and Ready head out to recover the stolen wagons, Steve heads into the town to expose Carter. However, Carter has already convinced the town leaders that Steve is not to be trusted, and that he should be given the contract to run the caravan.
Steve, hiding from the townspeople, now that Carter has turned them against him, manages to convince Ruth of his innocence. He escapes from the town and joins Rough and Ready, who are bringing the stolen caravan and the much needed supplies into town. The caravan is once again attacked by Carter's henchmen, but this time they are ready, and defeat the gunmen. The caravan arrives in town, at which point Steve exposes Carter as the mastermind behind the attacks. Steve remains in control of the caravan, and wins the hand of Ruth.

Tags: murder

Review:
Super Metroid

Plot synopsis:
Super Metroid opens with a narrative by bounty hunter Samus Aran. Samus describes how a Metroid larva hatched from an egg and immediately imprinted upon her, believing her to be its mother. She brought the larva to Ceres Space Colony, where scientists believed that they could harness its power. Just after she left the colony, she received a distress call and returned to find the scientists dead and the larva stolen by Ridley—the leader of the Space Pirates. Samus escapes from the space colony when its self-destruct sequence is activated, and follows Ridley to the planet Zebes. There, she searches for the stolen larva in a network of caves, and finds that the Space Pirates rebuilt and expanded their base on Zebes.
Along the way, Samus defeats four of the Space Pirate bosses, including Kraid and Ridley, and arrives in Tourian—the heart of the Space Pirate base. There, she encounters the Metroid larva, which has now grown to an enormous size. It attacks Samus and nearly drains all of her energy before it realizes who she is, and then departs. Samus recharges her energy and confronts Mother Brain, the biomechanical creature that controls the base's systems and all the enemy forces on Zebes. Mother Brain nearly kills Samus, but is then attacked by the Metroid larva, which drains it of its energy and transfers it back to Samus. Mother Brain recovers and destroys the Metroid in retaliation, but is in turn defeated by Samus with the Hyper Beam—an extremely powerful weapon created from the energy given to her by the Metroid. Afterward, a planetary self-destruct sequence begins, which Samus narrowly escapes. If the player rescues the Dachora and the Etecoons—the creatures Samus encountered earlier in the game—during the escape, they are shown leaving the planet in the distance.

Tags: revenge, flashback

Review:
River's End

Plot synopsis:
In remote northern Canada, Sergeant Conniston (Bickford) seeks to capture escaped convicted murderer Keith (also played by Bickford). He is accompanied by O'Toole (J. Farrell MacDonald), a guide who is constantly drunk. When he finally catches his quarry, he is shocked to find that they look exactly alike.
On their way back to the RCMP post, however, their sled overturns. Keith takes Conniston's gun and sled and leaves the policeman and his guide to die in the snow. Keith starts to feel guilty about what he has done. He turns back and takes the men to an emergency cabin. In spite of this, Conniston dies of a frozen lung.
After talking to Keith for a while, O'Toole becomes convinced of his innocence. He coaches Keith so that he can pass himself off as the sergeant. O'Toole is not well enough to travel, so Keith goes to the RCMP post alone.
Once he arrives, Keith tells McDowell (David Torrence), the post commanding officer, that it was Keith who died. McDowell then informs him that Keith was innocent; the real murderer confessed. Worried that he will be accused of Conniston's murder if his true identity is discovered, Keith plans to escape across the border.
There are complications. Miriam (Evalyn Knapp), McDowell's daughter, had been Conniston's girl, but she decided to break up with him. Keith is very much attracted to her, and proves to be much more romantic than Conniston. Miriam finds herself falling in love with him. Mickey (Frank Coghlan, Jr.), O'Toole's young son, had adopted Conniston as a substitute father. He eventually realizes that Keith is not the sergeant, but Keith manages to persuade him to keep his secret.
Keith goes to see McDowell to ask for his daughter's hand in marriage, only to discover that a jealous rival had made inquiries. Conniston, it turns out, was married. McDowell orders him to leave the base in disgrace. Before he goes, he confesses the truth to Miriam. Then, refusing to sneak away, Keith braves a beating from a gauntlet of angry Mounties and boards a ship, accompanied by Mickey. At the last minute, Miriam boards as well.

Tags: violence, murder

Review:
The Seasoning House

Plot synopsis:
Angel is a young girl who is forced to work in a house that specializes in supplying kidnapped women forced into the sex trade to various military personnel. Initially planned to be put to work as an unwilling sex slave, Angel, a deaf mute with an "unattractive" birth mark on her face, instead becomes the assistant to Viktor, who runs the brothel. During the day she is given the duty of putting makeup on the kidnapped women and drugging them. After they have been violently raped by various men, Angel has the duty of cleaning them up.
At night Angel wanders the walls and crawlspaces of the house, which is when she befriends newcomer Vanya who understands sign language. The squad that brought in Angel comes for a visit. The commander, Goran, brings his squad into the brothel, including his beloved brother, Josif, and another soldier, Ivan. Angel crawls through the vents from her room to Vanya's room and sees Vanya being raped by Ivan. When Ivan kills Vanya, Angel uses a knife to attack and kill him. The shuffling noises inside the room alert Goran, Viktor, and the rest of the squad who come to find Ivan and Vanya dead, with Angel gone. The rest of the men start looking for Angel. Goran sends one of his men into the vents, but Angel is able to outmaneuver and kill him. Viktor kills one of Goran's men because he has been losing so many women from the brutal rapes.
Angel escapes the house and runs into a nearby forest. As Goran, Josif and Viktor start looking for her, Angel sees all the dead women decomposing in the forest. Viktor catches up to Angel and convinces her that he isn't going to harm her, and she gives up the knife. Viktor, being caught by Goran and Josif, offers Angel in exchange for their mercy. The three men are at a standstill with their weapons drawn with Viktor using Angel as a human shield. Viktor convinces Goran and Josif to call a truce by offering half of his profits. As the men slowly put down their weapons, Angel grabs the knife from Viktor's belt and stabs him in the foot causing him to inadvertently shoot Josif. Goran is enraged and shoots Viktor. Josif then dies and Goran kills Viktor by shooting him several times.
Angel escapes to a woman's house, but soon realizes the woman is Ivan's wife, Lexi. After Lexi gets a call from Goran and hears the tragic news of Josif, she unsuccessfully attempts to kill Angel. Angel kills her and starts running to the nearest factory. Goran catches up and they start climbing the tubes. When Goran gets stuck, Angel stuffs his mouth with a rag so he would be unable to speak or call for help. Angel proceeds out of the tube leaving Goran behind to suffocate. Finally free, Angel runs to the nearest house and is helped by an elderly couple. It is the doctor's house which Viktor calls for help regarding his girls.

Tags: violence

Review:
Bin-jip

Plot synopsis:
Tae-suk (Jae Hee) is a loner who drives around on his motorbike, taping takeout menus over the keyholes of front doors and breaking into apartments where the menus have not been removed. He lives in those apartments while their owners are away, washing their clothes and mending their broken appliances. When he breaks into one large home, he is unaware that he is being watched by an abused housewife Sun-hwa (Lee Seung-yeon). Tae-suk leaves after making eye contact with Sun-hwa, but then returns. He witnesses Sun-hwa's husband abusing her and proceeds to catch his attention by practicing golf in the yard. He hits Sun-hwa's husband with golf balls and then leaves with Sun-hwa.
The couple begins a silent relationship, moving from one apartment to another. At one home, after drinking, they are caught by the returning owners, sleeping in their bed and wearing their pajamas. They also get into trouble with the law when they break into the home of an elderly man who died alone. They proceed to give him a proper burial. When the man's son and daughter-in-law arrive at the apartment, they assume that Tae-suk and Sun-hwa killed him. The couple is interrogated by police, but remain steadfastly silent. An investigation reveals that nothing was stolen from any of the houses and the old man died of lung cancer. Sun-hwa's husband arrives to take her home, and bribes the policeman in charge of the investigation to allow him to strike Tae-suk with golf balls. Tae-suk ends up attacking the police officer and is sent to jail. There, he practices golf with an imaginary club and balls and develops his gifts for stealth and concealment, frustrating his jailers by remaining out of sight.
After being released from prison, Tae-suk rejoins Sun-hwa in her house, using his skills to evade her husband's detection: standing behind the man and moving as he turns, even kissing Sun-hwa over her husband's shoulder (as seen in the poster). Sun-hwa appears to say "I love you" to her husband, but reaches out for Tae-suk. The husband leaves on another business trip, after which Sun-hwa and Tae-suk embrace.

Tags: revenge, boring, psychedelic

Review:
Si può fare... amigo

Plot synopsis:
Coburn is pursued by the gunfighter and pimp Sonny, who wants to kill him for seducing Sonny’s sister Mary, but not until they have married so she is made an honest woman. When they confront, Sonny usually gets knocked out. Coburn meets the boy Chip, whose father has just died, and follows him to his hometown. They settle in Chip’s house. Franciscus, the town priest, sheriff and judge – who is rumoured to be responsible for people being run out of the area – offers to buy the place and so does eventually a stranger who buys pieces of clay and tastes them. Chip does refuse the mounting offers, to Coburn's consternation. Franciscus allies with Sonny, and they capture Coburn and marry him. However, when Sonny is about to shoot Coburn Mary says that she is pregnant, so Sonny decides to postpone the killing until the child is 21. Franciscus protests and is knocked out. He sends his secret partner, the horse thief Big Jim (who earlier received a good thrashing when he tried to rob a bank where Coburn was to make a deposit) to shoot Coburn. But Sonny, who is promised one third of the house by Chip, shoots off his pants. Franciscus and Big Jim return in force when the wedding party has started, and there is a big brawl. The fireworks explode and oil gushes from the well. The bandits are flattened, but Franciscus leaves together with Sonny and the whores. Mary reveals to Coburn that she lied about the pregnancy, and he sets about to redress this so enthusiastically that the whole house falls down, while Chip smiles.

Tags: western, good versus evil

Review:
Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown

Plot synopsis:
Linus is fond of his teacher, Miss Othmar. To prove his point, he buys her a huge heart-shaped box of chocolates. However, Violet warns him it is probably not smart to fall in love with a teacher. But Linus says that he is fond of the ground she walks on. When he leaves Sally believes that Linus bought the candy for her, and decides to make him a valentine in return. Later, Lucy goes to a puppet show held by Snoopy. At the concession stand, Lucy asks for popcorn. However, because Snoopy cannot understand Lucy he gives her candy, then soda, and finally (as having been requesting all along) popcorn. With Charlie Brown narrating the show, Snoopy tells a story about true lovers that is a little too interactive for Lucy's taste.
Valentine's Day then comes and the gang brings valentine cards for everybody. At Birchwood School, Schroeder explains a box labelled "VALENTINES FOR THOSE WE LOVE" with a slot for putting the cards in. Charlie Brown brings a briefcase hoping he will get lots of valentines. However, after the cards are passed out, it turns out Charlie Brown got none except for a very small candy heart reading "Forget It Kid." Linus also never gave his candy to Miss Othmar because she left with her boyfriend. Sally who still believes the box of candy is for her, is dismayed when he attempts to go after the teacher to give her the candy. Charlie Brown and Linus vent their heartbreak in different ways: Linus throws his chocolates off a bridge ("This one is for love! This one is for valentines! This one is for romance...!"), not knowing that Snoopy and Woodstock are under it, catching and eating every chocolate he throws off; Charlie Brown kicks his mailbox, only to have Snoopy pop out of it and kiss him. ("I hate Valentine's Day!" Charlie Brown says). The next day, Violet gives Charlie Brown a used valentine (she struck her own name from it) as an apology, despite Schroder berating her for dropping by the day after Valentine's Day and acting out of guilt. ("Don't listen to him; I'll take it!" Charlie Brown says). As Charlie Brown and Linus meet at the brick wall later, Charlie Brown expresses hope that Violet's pity valentine will start a trend, and he will get even more valentines the following year.

Tags: psychedelic

Review:
Double Deal

Plot synopsis:
After a dice game one night in the Oklahoma oil town of Richfield, out-of-work engineer Buzz Doyle is broke. Another gambler, Reno Sebastian, has been cleaned out, too, but hostess Terry Miller tips them off that her boss Walter Karns, the big winner, was cheating with loaded dice.
Reno has a ranch and an oil well that has not yet produced. He invites Buzz to come work for him, and Terry, who is close to Reno, thinks it's a good idea because Reno's got just 45 days to strike oil or the well will go to his sister Lilli, as stipulated in their father's will.
Lilli has hated Reno ever since he killed her fiance during a fight while they were gambling. Lilli is determined to get all his holdings now and will stop at nothing. She even tries to seduce Buzz into abandoning Reno and working for her, and when that doesn't work, Lilli threatens that something bad will happen to Buzz if he stands in her way. The corrupt Karns is in love with Lilli and will do her bidding.
Reno is found dead. Lilli is found by the body. But in his will, Reno has left his ranch to Terry, not to his sister. To sort out who's entitled to what, Terry and Buzz seek the advice of Corpus P. Mills, a tipsy attorney who represented the father of Reno and Lilli before he died.
Next it is Lilli who is found dead. Terry now stands to inherit everything, the ranch and the oil well both, but Buzz warns her this means Terry also could be the next victim. Karns comes along, but to everyone's surprise, Karns is killed, too, by a totally sober Corpus Mills, who has been masterminding this scheme from the start, eliminating family members so that he can claim the well for himself. His crimes don't pay, however, and in the end, Terry and Buzz get each other and a gusher of oil.

Tags: romantic, murder

Review:
Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos

Plot synopsis:
Vadinho (José Wilker), Flor's irresponsible husband, drops dead while dancing in a street carnival party. Only Flor (Sônia Braga) expresses remorse after his death. Flor's friends and family see Vadinho's death as a chance for Flor to find happiness after the misery brought upon her by Vadinho's spendthrift ways and near-total lack of respectability.
Roughly the first half of Dona Flor recounts Flor's marriage with Vadinho in an extended flashback. What is made clear is that Vadinho was a great lover who admired his wife's respectability, but enjoyed protracted foreplay until she begged him to continue. Not only was he generally an inattentive husband who would rather go to the casinos and whore houses, but he beat Flor and stole the savings she made from her cooking school. Despite this, he changed a formerly inhibited girl into a wife who experienced carnal joy regularly.
The second half of Dona Flor involves Flor's meeting the respectable but extraordinarily dull pharmacist Teodoro (Mauro Mendonça), his courtship of her, and her marriage to him. Flor's friends consider Teodoro the exact opposite of Vadinho. Teodoro belongs in superior circles within Bahia's society, dresses elegantly, and treats Flor like a lady. What Flor's friends do not know is that Teodoro is also the opposite of Vadinho in one more respect: in bed, Teodoro is as lacking as Vadinho was accomplished. Flor finds herself unfulfilled, and wishes for her late husband to return.
On the anniversary of Vadinho's death, Vadinho reappears to Flor in the nude and explains that she called him to "share her bed" with him. Only Flor can see and hear the nude spirit of Vadinho, but he still manages to create chaos through his spiritual presence at casinos. She protests because she is now remarried and has pledged to be faithful to Teodoro, but after Vadinho laughs during Teodoro's pathetic attempts at love-making that night, Flor gives in and lives happily with both husbands. The last two shots depict Flor in her new marital bliss. A shot toward the end of the film shows Teodoro lying in bed next to Flor, who kisses him on the cheek. The camera then pans to the left to show Vadinho on Flor's other side and she kisses him on the cheek too. Then (presumably the next day) as a large crowd exits Sunday Mass, we see Flor linking arms with both Teodoro and Vadinho, thee latter of who is completely in the nude without shame. Flor is seen to be very content.

Tags: humor

Review:
Drum

Plot synopsis:
During the British Raj, Captain Carruthers (Roger Livesey) works under cover to track smuggled shipments of arms on the restless Northwest Frontier of India, the modern day Pakistan-Afghanistan border. He fears a full-scale rebellion is brewing. To forestall this, the British governor (Francis L. Sullivan) signs a treaty with the friendly, peace-loving ruler of Tokot, a key kingdom in the region, which is described as four days' march northward from Peshawar. In real life the British held a fort at Abazai near this location, not far from the famous Takht Bhai ruins. Meanwhile, the king's son, Prince Azim (Sabu), befriends Carruthers and a British drummer boy, Bill Holder (Desmond Tester), who teaches him how to play the instrument.
However, the king's brother, Prince Ghul (Raymond Massey), has the king assassinated and usurps the throne; Azim escapes a similar fate thanks to two loyal retainers. They hide out in Peshawar, where the British are based. When one of Ghul's men finds and tries to kill the prince, Azim is rescued by Carruthers' wife (Valerie Hobson). Although he is offered sanctuary, Azim declines, believing it to be safer to remain hidden among his own people.
Carruthers is then sent to negotiate with Ghul, who pretends to want to honour the treaty. In reality, Ghul is the mastermind behind the rebellion. He plots to kill Carruthers and his detachment of men on the last day of a festival to signal the start of the revolt. Prince Azim learns of the ambush. When he is unable to convince the governor, he chooses to risk his own life to warn his friends. After Azim leaves for home, the governor receives confirmation of the plot and sends four battalions to the rescue.
Azim manages to warn Carruthers of the impending massacre by playing a danger signal on the "Sacred Drum of Tokot", saving many British lives. Ghul is killed in the ensuing battle and Azim is installed as his replacement.

Tags: violence, sadist

Review:
The Adventures of Jim Bowie

Plot synopsis:
The series stars Scott Forbes as the real-life adventurer Jim Bowie. The series initially portrayed Jim Bowie as something of an outdoors-man, riding his horse through the wilderness near his home in Opelousas where he would stumble across someone needing his assistance. He was aided by his ever-present weapon the Bowie Knife, something he designed in the first episode The Birth of the Blade. Although Bowie used the blade quite a bit in early episodes, its prominence was downplayed as the show went on.
Gradually the series shifted from the country to the city, having Bowie instead spend the majority of his time in New Orleans. He was frequently shown looking to invest his money in real estate, or coming to the aid of someone who had been swindled.
Story lines focused on the exploits of Bowie before he moved to Texas (then part of Mexico), and his death at the Alamo in 1836. During the series' two season run, Bowie encountered many historical figures of the era, such as President Andrew Jackson, Jefferson Davis, John James Audubon, Sam Houston, and Davy Crockett.
Among the actors and actresses who guest-starred more than once on the series were William Schallert, Denver Pyle, Michael Landon, Chuck Connors, Walter Coy, June Carter Cash, and Lurene Tuttle. Jimmy Noel made walk-on appearances in six episodes. Those making single guest appearances included Yvonne Lime Fedderson, Douglas Kennedy, and Carole Mathews.
Jim Bowie did not appear in the last episode of the series. Instead, he was said to be away on an important assignment, and the attention was placed on criminal Jess Miller. Miller was given the task to retrieve a great sum of money, and the episode focused on whether Miller would complete his assignment or take the money for himself. At the end there is an indication that Miller would join up with Bowie on further adventures, but no further episodes were produced.
Douglas Brode wrote in his book, Shooting Stars of the Small Screen: Encyclopedia of TV Western Actors, 1946–Present, that Scott Forbes, who had the title role, "stormed off the set" when he learned that the series was being canceled after two seasons, when he had understood that it would run for five seasons. He added, "In desperation, the writers fashioned the final script" without the star.

Tags: violence

Review:
Avanti!

Plot synopsis:
For the past ten years, Baltimore industrialist Wendell Armbruster, Sr. has been spending a month at the Grand Hotel Excelsior in the Island of Ischia on the Bay of Naples, in Italy allegedly to soak in the therapeutic mud baths for which the resort island is known. When he is killed in an automobile accident, his straitlaced son Wendell Armbruster, Jr. journeys to Italy to claim his father's body. Upon arrival he discovers his father was not alone in the Fiat he was driving; with him was his British mistress, whose daughter, free-spirited London shop girl Pamela Piggott, also is on the scene, though she clearly knew of their parents' clandestine romance beforehand. Hotel manager Carlo Carlucci attempts to smooth things over, taking on all the arrangements for the body to be taken back to Baltimore in time for burial in just three days time.
Complications arise when the bodies disappear from the morgue. Wendell suspects Pamela, who has expressed a wish that they be buried in Ischia; however, it is revealed that the actual bodysnatchers are the Trotta family, whose vineyard was damaged when the elder Armbruster's car drove into it during the fatal automobile accident. The Trotta brothers have stolen the bodies from the morgue, holding them for a two million lire ransom.
This is not Wendell's only problem. Bruno, the hotel valet, is determined to get back to America after being deported and has compromising photographs of Wendell's father and Pamela's mother swimming nude in the bay. As the Italian atmosphere begins to affect them both and animosity gives way to friendship, Bruno manages to get pictures of Wendell and Pamela swimming naked as well, and tries to blackmail his way to an American visa. This displeases the maid Anna, with whom Bruno was co-habiting, and in a fit of rage she lures Bruno to Pamela's room, kills him, and then runs off. Carlucci moves Pamela's belongings into Wendell's room to prevent an international incident, and the two are thrown together.
Appearing in a U.S. Navy helicopter to speed the repatriation is State Department official J.J. Blodgett who, by posthumously appointing the deceased man to an embassy post, allows the U.S. government to recover his body. Finally, Carlucci, Wendell and Pamela find the perfect solution - their parents are buried side by side in Ischia (in the Carlucci family plot) whilst Bruno takes his place in the repatriated coffin, finding his way back to America after all. Wendell and Pamela part, with a vow to return next year, just as their parents did.

Tags: murder

Review:
In nome del papa re

Plot synopsis:
In October 1867 the papal Rome, led by Pius IX, is shaken by a bomb attack carried out in the sewers of the barracks of Palazzo Serristori, which kills twenty-three French pro-papal Zouaves. A countess, mother of secret revolutionary Cesare Costa, accused with friends Giuseppe Monti and Gaetano Tognetti to have organised this massacre, goes to a judge of the Holy See, Bishop of Priverno Colombo, asking him to help her. To overcome the resistance of the Prelate, she tells him that he is the father of the accused, born during their short affair in 1849. The prelate is able to release him, hiding him in his house along with his girlfriend, but he is not able to intervene in favor of the other two arrested to be sentenced to death by the ecclesiastical court, despite an eloquent speech ponounced in front of the court. This speech causes a severe reprimand by the Pope and the General of the Jesuits, at that time called "the black pope" due to the strong power exercised by this order on the papacy.
At the end, however, Cesare Costa will be killed in an ambush by the husband of the countess who believed him to be his wife's lover. Finally, Colombo cites a letter full of bitterness and resentment that would like to write to the Pope, but to no avail, because his perpetual cry for sorrow. The movie ends when Colombo breaks with the general of the Society of Jesus, since during a holy Mass who is celebrating him does not grant him the communion.
The film describes how advanced the decrepitude of the temporal power and its laws in papal Rome. As an example, after the above-mentioned speech of Monsignor Colombo, one of the old cardinals is awakened from sleep long enough to vote for the death penalty of Monti and Tognetti. This power will fall three years later with the breach of Porta Pia.

Tags: romantic, avant garde

Review:
Chain Gang Women

Plot synopsis:
Parole officer Sandra Parker (Lois Nettleton) becomes aware of the death of one of her cases, Ginger Stratton, at the hands of brutal prison guard Claire Tyson (Ida Lupino). All too aware of Tyson's impeccable record, Parker and her friend, Assistant District Attorney Helen Anderson (Penny Fuller), come to the conclusion that Tyson is basically untouchable.
Parker hatches a scheme to expose Tyson by going undercover in prison herself. Helen attempts to persuade her that this is foolish but there is no stopping Sandra. She adopts the name Sally Porter, bleaches her hair and gives herself some needle marks as if she were a drug addict.
Helen gives her boss Barney Fielder (John Larch) the appropriate papers for transporting "Sally Porter" to prison, where she finds herself on Ginger's "ward" and begins asking questions of her other inmates.
Outside the prison, Helen Anderson (the only person who knows Sally's real identity) is shot and killed by a boyfriend of one of her cases. Sally must therefore prove Tyson's true credentials before she can escape.
Life in prison moves on and Tyson's "henchwoman" Leila (Barbara Luna) becomes suspicious of all of Sally's questions. At first Tyson is angry with Sally's insolence but begins at one point to warm to her as she shows spirit. However, as Sally attempts to protect Melinda (assigned to the same ward at the same time but innocent of the crime she was convicted for) – so Sally and Melinda find themselves in an impossibly small room for a prolonged period.
Just before lights out – Leila informs Sally that "the word's been passed" and Sally is due to be killed tomorrow. Sally is all too aware that she must escape and makes a run. Initially unaware of the escape attempt, the prison closes for the night – until Tyson does the usual number checks and sounds the alarm.
A chase ensues with Sally still within the prison grounds, where taking one wrong turn brings her face to face with a furious Tyson. The two exchange blows before Sally pins Tyson to the floor putting Tyson's own truncheon across Tyson's throat and kneeling on it.
The struggle is interrupted by the prison governor. As the pair of frantic women are separated, Sally cries out to the governor that she is in fact Sandra Parker, asking him to contact Barney Fielder (Helen's boss) to confirm her identity. As this is taking place, Tyson is frantically explaining to the prison governor that Sally had tried to kill her. Accusing her repeatedly of being "a dirty lying lousy little con". In the film's penultimate scene, the governor looks somewhat disbelievingly at Tyson as Sally (realising she has been believed) cries out "Oh my God". The film ends with Sally walking triumphantly down the corridor which led to her ward – dressed in her ordinary clothes (as opposed to prison uniform).
She promises to reopen Melinda's case.

Tags: murder

Review:
The Riddle of the Sands

Plot synopsis:
In the Spring of 1901 Arthur Davies is sailing around the Frisian Islands, remapping the sand banks, when he encounters a German ship, the "Medusa" out of Hamburg. He is invited by Clara the daughter of Cpt Dollman (Jenny Agutter) to join the family for dinner and this he does. A relationship begins with the daughter. But he is concerned when the daughter invites him to shore to buy supplies, when he sees a crew member of the German ship exploring his yacht.
He has been invited on a yachting and duck-shooting holiday by an old University acquaintance called Carruthers (Michael York), and he meets this old friend. Davies explains to Carruthers that he has a hidden agenda for the trip.
He narrates further that whilst sailing together along the coast in a gale Dollman had, when Davies had tried to put into a particular estuary for shelter, inexplicably prevented him from entering by executing a deliberately hazardous sea-manoeuvre, to the degree that both their lives had been endangered by it. Davies then reveals to Carruthers that his real interest in the area is that he suspects that the Imperial German Navy is engaged in covert military activity of some nature in the Frisian Islands, with the intention of threatening the security of the North Sea from the British perspective, which the Royal Navy is strategically misdirected to meet, and this is why he has invited Carruthers' presence, given his linguistic ability in Deutsch and professional contacts within Whitehall, on a pre-text of a holiday.
Carruthers and Davies go on, amidst cryptic warnings-off from circling German naval officers, sailing expeditions among the Frisian isles and inlets, and fights, to carry out covert surveillance at the estuary in question, to discover that the II Reich is using a naval base hidden in the islands to carry out rehearsals for a seaborne passage across the North Sea of a German army with the aim of militarily invading England, and that Herr "Dollman" is in fact Lieutenant Thomas, an embittered former Royal Navy officer who is treasonously assisting their preparations with his detailed knowledge of England's coast and naval defences.
After sabotaging one of the rehearsals, whilst escaping to Holland by sea in 2 roped yachts with the information about it, along with a badly wounded Thomson and his family as prisoners, Davies abandons Thomson with his wife in Davies' boat to allow him to return to Germany to seek medical assistance for his wounds at the insistence of Clara, who agrees to accompany Davies and Carruthers back to England in her father's yacht with his papers revealing the German plans in detail. Thomson and his wife are murdered by the pursuing German authorities - led by Kaiser Wilhelm II, in person - when their vessel is rammed and destroyed.
The film ends with the yacht bearing Carruthers, Davies and Clara bound for Holland, with a Carruthers' voiced narration detailing how their return to England with the information would lead to a shift in England's sea defence strategy towards the II Reich, that would avert the threat of war.

Tags: intrigue

Review: