Question: Build a movie plot around this: How old is Todd Bowden? TEENAGER
Answer: In Southern California in 1984, 16-year-old high school student Todd Bowden (Renfro) discovers that his elderly neighbor, Arthur Denker (McKellen), is in reality Kurt Dussander a former Sturmbannfuhrer in the SS who is now a fugitive war criminal hiding from justice. Todd blackmails Dussander by threatening to turn him in to the police. However, the teenager is fascinated with Nazi atrocities perpetrated during World War II, and forces Dussander to share disturbing stories of what it was like working at Nazi extermination camps, and how it felt to participate in genocide.To complicate things even further, Todd even purchases an SS uniform from a costume shop, and forces Dussander to wear it. When he spends more time with the old man, his grades suffer, he loses interest in his girlfriend, and he conceals his bad grades from his parents. In turn, the Nazi blackmails the young boy into studying to restore his grades, threatening to expose the boy's subterfuge and his dalliance with Nazism to his parents. Dussander even poses as Todd's grandfather and goes to an appointment with Todd's school counselor Edward French (David Schwimmer). Talking about the war crimes affects both the old man and the young boy, and an intoxicated Dussander attempts to kill a cat in his gas oven but fails when it attacks him and escapes. Dussander also takes great pride in Todd's unbelievable turnaround, going from near dropout to straight A's in a matter of weeks.One night, Dussander tries to kill a hobo who earlier had seen him in the uniform. When Dussander has a heart attack, he calls Todd, who finishes the job, cleans up, and calls an ambulance for Dussander. At the hospital, Dussander is recognized by a death camp survivor sharing his room and he is arrested, prior to being extradited to Israel. Todd graduates as his school's valedictorian and gives a speech about Icarus, saying, "All great achievements arose from dissatisfaction. It is the desire to do better, to dig deeper, that propels civilization to greatness." The...
[Q]: Build a movie plot around this: What does Barney do to his wife and her lover? Murders them
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[A]: Edward L. Cahn's "Laughter in Hell" (1933), a pre-code flick by a director I've loved since his Z-Grade but very affecting "Runaway Daughters" (1956), made specifically for Florida drive-ins and starring grrrls on the verge and their having-crossed-over parents (alcoholic, "inappropriate," cruel, deluded, unfeeling). Then there's Italian second cuz Fabbio, who envisions them 'daughters' as a stable of working girls.Laughter in Hell stars serial priest portrayer Pat O'Brien at an early, almost good-looking stage wearing suiting cut to the quick like it's 21st Century Japanese couture. Depths of the Depression, but everyone wore suits, especially the poor, with scads of material saved under a "trim" silhouette. Pat's tie looked like Lou Costello's in his 1950s TV show with Abbott.Remember waiting waiting waiting for the thing to get going at its MOMA screening and boy did it get going. I've rarely seen a murder scene more affecting as that of Pat's slutty wife and his childhood nemesis, who are making a sorry cuckold out of Pat. Still, the fast-cut edit (think "Psycho" shower scene) showed barely a punch, and none of the wife's demise. And yet it was all too horrible. The theme was within-and-without the pre-Code pix of the time, which often showed too much and which spurred the Breen commandments. But what Laughter in Hell didn't show, the unseen but feared, made more of a wallop than anything more clinical.
input: Please answer the following: Build a movie plot around this: What is the name of the island Eckland goes to? Matalava
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output: It's 1942, and the war in the Pacific is not going well for the Allies. At the moment, the Australians are evacuating the island of Salamaua, taking what they can and destroying the rest. In all the confusion, scruffy beachcomber Walter Eckland (Cary Grant) arrives, ties his launch to the pier and begins helping himself to cans of Australian Navy petrol.A young officer, Stebbings (Jack Good), spots him and indignantly asks what he's doing. Walter pauses long enough to look at Stebbings, and say, portentously, "Do you know who I am?" Taken aback, Stebbings admits, "Well, no, I don't." "Well...we'll let it go this time," says Walter, magnanimously, and resumes stacking cans by his boat.In the harbormaster's office, Commander Frank Houghton (Trevor Howard) is talking on the radio to the admiral, reassuring him that everything will go as planned. Stebbings bursts in and asks if Frank knows the cheeky Yank at the far end of the pier. Frank motions him to hush, then tells the admiral that yes, all the coast watcher positions have been assigned...all except for Matalava. But at that moment, Frank catches sight of Walter and his face brightens. He tells the admiral he has found his man for Matalava. As they walk down the pier, Frank tells Stebbings that Walter is a hard-drinking drop-out from civilization, but he knows the islands like the back of his hand and is as sharp as they come.Frank and Walter greet each other in a way that suggests they share a certain amount of history. Frank explains the coast watching service to Walter, and asks him to go Matalava, just for a while...until they can find someone permanent. Walter cheerfully refuses. Frank immediately turns to Stebbings and orders him to confiscate all the small boats on the pier (although Walter's is obviously the only one). At first Walter protests, but he soon realizes Frank will indeed follow through on confiscating the launch, so he cheerfully agrees to go to Matalava. Frank is not fooled. In the next scene, Walter arrives at Matalava...escorted by a...
input: Please answer the following: Build a movie plot around this: Who shot Jack down? the military
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output:
Pumpkin king Jack Skellington (speaking voice Chris Sarandon, singing Danny Elfman), an elegantly attenuated skeleton, has delivered another scary Halloween. But he receives the adulation of Halloweentown with no enthusiasm -- something is missing from Jack's life and he's tired of doing the same old Halloween thing year after year. The missing something might well be Sally (Catherine O'Hara), an animated rag doll who yearns for Jack, but he doesn't notice. (Sally was created by Halloweentown's evil scientist (William Hickey), who keeps her locked up except when she knocks him out by slipping deadly nightshade in his soup.)After pondering his ennui in a cemetery (disturbing Sally, who's replenishing her supply of deadly nightshade), Jack takes his ghostly dog Zero for a walk in the woods. They come upon a strange circle of trees, each with a door representing a holiday. Jack opens the Christmas door and they're sucked in, landing in Christmastown. Jack is curious about everything he sees there, but finds it all delightful and wants to be part of it.Back in Halloweentown Jack calls a town meeting, where he describes what he saw in Christmastown. His people don't seem very impressed, so to draw them in, he makes some elements of Christmas -- including "Sandy Claws" (Edward Ivory) -- sound scary. Then he announces that they're taking over Christmas and starts assigning jobs. The evil scientist must whip up some reindeer, Halloweentown's top trick-or-treaters are to kidnap Sandy Claws, and Sally's task is to make Jack a red Santa suit. She tries to tell him that co-opting Christmas is a terrible idea, but he's too wrapped up in his enthusiasm to listen.The three trick-or-treaters return triumphantly with the Easter Bunny; Jack sends them back and eventually they bring him Sandy Claws (who surprises Jack by having hands rather than claws). Jack directs the trick-or-treaters to take Sandy Claws away and make him comfortable, but they give him to Oogie Boogie (Ken Page) instead.Meanwhile, Sally has produced a red...