"Lantern Hill" (29August1989) TV-Movie
12 year old Jane Stuart (Mairon Bennett) has long been told by her Grandmother Kennedy (Zoe Caldwell) that her father is dead. When her mother, Robin Stuart (Patricia Phillips) returns home after recovering from a long illness, Jane learns that her mysterious father, Andrew Stuart (Sam Waterston) is still alive. When Jane finally meets her father and travels with him to Prince Edward Island to stay at Lantern Hill, their family home, she discovers that he is a kind man that cares deeply for both her and her mother. Determined to reunite her parents, Jane enlists the aid of Hepzibah (Colleen Dewhurst), a powerful mystic, to help her solve an old mystery that has torn apart her family. In a subplot, Jody Turner (Sarah Polley) is an abused servant girl who lives next door to Jane. They become best friends. Jody follows Jane on her journey and winds up working hard labor for several different people. Jane and Hepzibah convince Hepzibah's sisters to adopt Jody, which they oppose to at first because they want a boy. Later on they agree to adopt Jody {It's inferred that Hepzibah somehow made them change their minds.} Later on, Hepzibah dies with Jane and Jody by her side.
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"Bigfoot" (8March1987) TV-Movie
A family goes to the mountains for a few days, and there they meet... Bigfoot!
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"The Beyond" (1981) Horror Flick
In 1927, artist and warlock Schweick works on a painting in Room 36 of the Seven Doors Hotel, in New Orleans, Louisiana. He protects one of the seven gates of hell, which if opened, will bring about the end of the world and the death of mankind. He is dragged from his room by a lynch mob to the hotel basement and killed for practicising black magic. Meanwhile, a white-eyed woman reads from the ancient tome "Eibon", prophesizing the opening of one of the seven gates of hell.
In 1981, Liza Merrill inherits the hotel and moves from New York City to refurbish and reopen it. A worker later glimpses a white-eyed woman through a window and falls off his scaffolding. Local doctor John McCabe takes the injured man to hospital. The bell for Room 36 rings, but as the hotel has yet to open, Liza dismisses it as malfunctioning. A plumber, Joe, later investigates the lack of running water. In the flooded basement, he uncovers a bricked off area and accidentally opens the gate to hell. He is attacked by a ghoul, blinded, and killed. The bodies of both Joe and Schweick are discovered by a maid, Martha, and are taken to the local hospital morgue.
While driving to town, Liza encounters a blind woman named Emily and her guide dog, Dicky. Emily warns Liza that reopening the hotel would be a mistake and she should return to New York. At a bar, John urges Liza to give up on the hotel project. However, she refuses, thinking that it is her only remaining chance at financial success.
Later, Emily tells Liza about Schweick and Room 36, warning her not to go up there. Upon examining Schweick's painting, she states it was part of his seance, and his own assassination counted as a sacrifice to curse the land. After Liza scoffs at the warnings, Emily's hands begin to bleed causing her to run with Dicky from the hotel in terror. Liza notices that neither of them made audible footsteps as they left. Despite Emily's warning, Liza enters Room 36 and discovers the Eibon, as well as Schweick's corpse nailed to the bathroom wall. She returns to Room 36 with John, but both the Eibon and the corpse are gone. Liza also tells John about her encounter with Emily but he is skeptical, insisting that there is no blind woman living in town. Furthermore, he says that the house where Liza claims Emily lives has been abandoned for years.
Meanwhile, Liza's architect, Martin, visits the town library to inspect the hotel's blueprints. The blueprints reveal a large, unexplained space in the basement. Upon discovering this, Martin is knocked off his ladder by an unseen force, breaks his neck, and is paralyzed. As he lies helpless on the floor, spiders eat him alive. Back at the hotel, Martha is cleaning the bathroom in Room 36 when Joe's corpse emerges from the bathtub water and kills her. John breaks into the old house where Emily is supposed to live. It is abandoned, but he finds the Eibon and begins to read it, learning that the hotel is apparently one of the seven gates to hell.
Emily is confronted in her home by the animated corpses of Schweick and the other recently deceased. She commands Dicky to attack and although the dog chases away the undead, he next turns upon Emily, killing her.
Liza returns to the hotel basement and is attacked by an undead worker. In her escape, she runs into John again at the entrance. Upon investigating, there is no sign of the undead worker, and Liza begins to question her own sanity. They drive to the hospital and find it deserted except for a Dr. Harris, Joe's daughter Jill, and a horde of the undead. Harris is killed by flying glass and John dispatches Jill when she transforms and attacks Liza.
John and Liza escape down a staircase but discover they have once again arrived in the basement. They proceed through the flooded labyrinth and stumble into a wasteland—the same landscape in Schweick's painting. No matter which direction they turn, they find themselves back at their starting point. They are ultimately blinded just like Emily, and disappear.
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Unscoped Aircheck Tape WJBC 1230AM (26July1974) Ken Behrens Audio Archives
Recorded live from an on air broadcast of THE KEN BEHRENS SHOW; WJBC AM; Bloomington IL; Friday Morning, July 26th, 1974.
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"Anne of Avonlea" (19May1987) Megan Follows & Colleen Dewhurst
Plot
After two years of teaching at the Avonlea school, Anne Shirley dreams of being a writer, but her story "Averil's Atonement" is rejected by a magazine. Her best friend Diana Barry has become engaged. Marilla's eyesight has also improved, opening an opportunity for Anne to follow her ambitions, which have been on hold since giving up the Avery Scholarship.
Anne's misadventures in Avonlea continue. Unbeknownst to her, Diana submitted "Averil's Atonement" into a contest to introduce the new Rollings Reliable baking powder to the public, and it wins first prize. Anne is grateful to her friend for trying to boost her spirits, but finds the widespread recognition humiliating. She later sees her jersey cow Dolly in Rachel Lynde's field, which she had promised would never happen again. After unsuccessfully trying to get Dolly back to her field, Anne sells the cow to Gilbert Blythe and his father. She laments about her "Jonah day" to Marilla, who offers encouragement and plum puffs, only to discover she actually sold Rachel's cow instead of her own. When she and Marilla pay a visit to the Lyndes to explain her mistake, Rachel's ailing husband Thomas passes away, which Rachel fears will force her to sell her farm and leave Avonlea.
At a clambake for Diana's engagement, Gilbert proposes to Anne, but she rejects his offer, convinced that their marriage would be unhappy and unsuccessful. She later runs into Morgan Harris, a traveling businessman whom she had previously met at the beach and who shows interest in her. At Diana's wedding, she sees Gilbert with a young woman named Christine Stuart. Gilbert insists they are just friends, and offers to wait for Anne, but she affirms she will never marry. Back at Green Gables, Marilla reveals that Rachel will be moving in with her. Anne decides to accept a job offer from her former teacher Miss Stacey as an English literature teacher at Kingsport Ladies' College in New Brunswick.
Anne initially finds her job difficult. Kingsport is dominated by the wealthy Pringle family, who resent that she received the position over one of their own. The students in her class, led by Jen Pringle, delight in causing trouble to make Anne look like a bad teacher. Anne must also endure the cold and sarcastic principal of Kingsport Ladies' College, Katherine Brooke. She grows close to Emmeline Harris, a motherless student who also happens to be Morgan's daughter. After Anne and Emmeline get on Katherine Brooke's bad side, Morgan withdraws both his daughter and his financial support from K.L.C. He sends Emmeline to live with her stern grandmother Margaret Harris and repressed aunt Pauline at their mansion, Maplehurst. Anne convinces Mrs. Harris to let her tutor Emmeline at home, and let Pauline attend a friend's wedding anniversary overnight. Meanwhile, Anne and Miss Stacey organize a play to raise money for the school, with Jen Pringle playing the lead role of Mary, Queen of Scots. When Jen calls off sick on the day of the show, Anne convinces Morgan to let Emmeline star in the play, which they have been rehearsing during tutoring sessions. The show is a success and Anne finally wins the Pringles' support. After returning from a trip to Boston, she runs into Gilbert and finds out that he is engaged to Christine Stuart. Inspired by his suggestion, she publishes a series of short stories entitled Avonlea Vignettes. During a hospital benefit ball, Morgan asks her to marry him, which she declines.
After Mrs. Harris dies, Pauline accepts a marriage proposal and Morgan decides to sell Maplehurst and return to Boston with Emmeline. Anne resigns from K.L.C. and persuades Katherine to come back to Avonlea with her for the summer holidays. Upon arriving at Green Gables and meeting Diana's new baby, Anne discovers that Gilbert has fallen ill with scarlet fever, which he contracted at medical school in Halifax. Finally realizing her true feelings for Gilbert, Anne rushes to his bedside, where he tells her that he has called off his engagement to Christine because Anne is the only one for him. After recovering, he proposes once more, and Anne accepts him with a kiss.
Timeline of events (1902–1903)
Late spring 1902 – Anne, now 18, finishes teaching at Avonlea school.
Summer 1902 – Diana marries Fred, Anne takes a teaching position at Kingsport Ladies College.
September 1902 – Anne begins teaching at Kingsport Ladies College.
November 26, 1902 – Production date of Anne's play at Kingsport Ladies College.
Summer 1903 – Katherine Brooke spends summer break with Anne at Green Gables. Anne commits to Gilbert.
109
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"The Last Run" (1971) George C Scott & Colleen Dewhurst
Harry Garmes (George C. Scott) is an aging American career criminal who was once a driver for Chicago's organized crime rings. He is living in self-imposed exile in Albufeira, a fishing village in southern Portugal, where he owns a fishing boat and seeks occasional companionship from Monique (Colleen Dewhurst), a local prostitute, as his wife has left him after the untimely death of their son.
Unexpectedly, Harry receives a job, his first in nine years, to drive an escaped killer Paul Rickard (Tony Musante) and the man's girlfriend Claudie Scherrer (Trish Van Devere) across Portugal and Spain into France. Rickard was imprisoned in Spain for an unrelated crime, but he originally had been hired to assassinate the French President DeGaulle by the OAS, which failed; it appears that the OAS is attempting another hit, and has arranged his escape and transport. Without knowing this, Garmes accepts the job as a chance to prove to himself that he can still make the grade, despite premonitions that it will end badly for him as he gives Monique money to hold, which she may keep if he doesn't come back.
In the course of the trip, made in a BMW 503 modified with a hidden smuggling compartment and supercharger, Harry and his passengers are pursued by both the Spanish police and the French Security Service, who in fact arranged the escape to eliminate Rickard. Upon returning to Portugal, and apparently having been betrayed by Monique, Harry gets shot on the beach in Albufeira, moments away from escaping on his boat with Rickard and Scherrer.
72
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"In Memoriam 1958: Famous Faces We Lost in 1958!"
In Memoriam 1958: Famous Faces We Lost in 1958
50
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"Anne of Windy Poplars" (1940) Anne Shirley
Anne Shirley arrives in the town of Pringleton, where she will be vice-principal of the local school until her marriage to Gilbert Blythe. At the train station, Mrs. Stephen Pringle tells Anne that she cannot board with her as expected. Left to fend for herself, she gets a ride from the school janitor, Jabez Monkman. He takes her around town hoping to find boarding with one of the other Pringle families, but they all turn her down. She eventually finds a place to live at Windy Poplars, a lovely house owned by Kate, her brother Matey, and their housekeeper Rebecca. Anne learns that Hester Pringle, the bitter old widow of Pringleton's founder, is the one blackballing her in town. She also meets Betty Grayson, an orphaned girl who lives next door with her cruel aunt Ernestine Pringle, and who changes her name depending on how she feels.
Meanwhile at Maplehurst, the grim mansion across the bay where Hester Pringle lives, the determined matriarch gathers the Pringles to discuss how to remove Anne from her job. Tony Pringle wants nothing to do with it and leaves. Hester wants her adopted daughter Catherine to have Anne's position, despite Catherine's assertion that she would rather continue teaching. When she finds out Anne is living at Windy Poplars, Hester is furious.
The school principal, Mr. Gibson, tells Anne that she will teach an English class, direct the Dramatic Club, and instruct girls' gymnastics, in addition to vice-principal duties. She finds teaching difficult on account of Jen Pringle, who does what she pleases and is a bad influence on the other students. Jabez and Anne eavesdrop on Jen through the school's air vents and find out she is drawing a caricature of Anne on the blackboard. Anne shocks Jen by knowing who is responsible, which she credits to being psychic, and the class agree to behave themselves. Anne also tries to be friends with Catherine Pringle, but Catherine brushes her off and claims Anne hates all the Pringles.
Anne talks with Betty Grayson, who says she prays for "Tomorrow", when her parents will come and take her away, but her aunt tells her tomorrow never comes. Back at Windy Poplars, Matey shows Anne a log book from his days of sailing with Captain Isaac Pringle, the founder of Pringleton and Hester's late husband. Anne realizes the diary is why Hester fears the residents of Windy Poplars, as it shows that Isaac was a smuggler and pirate. She takes the diaries to Maplehurst, where Hester plays innocent about turning the town against her. Anne insists she could make the Pringles like her if they gave her a chance and storms off. She runs into Tony Pringle, who insists that she would get along with Catherine, but Anne does not know why Catherine dislikes her. Tony deduces that it is because she received the dramatic society, a job which Catherine loved. Anne requests Catherine's help with producing a play for Christmas, and Catherine suggests that they do Cinderella. Anne picks Jen to play the lead, and convinces Ernestine to let her take Betty to see the show. Gilbert returns and takes Kate, Matey, and Rebecca to the school while Anne goes to get Betty. She finds out that Betty is sick, but Ernestine believes it to be a tantrum and refuses to call a doctor. Anne puts Betty to bed and promises to visit in the morning and tell her all about the play.
Tony reveals to Catherine that Hester has Jen locked up at Maplehurst to ruin the play, so Catherine heads there to free her. Hester is being treated for a heart condition but she ignores the doctor's orders and throws her medication away while Catherine takes Jen's place in her bedroom. Meanwhile, Anne discovers that Ernestine has left Betty alone and rushes to her side. Jen arrives and the play goes on successfully. At the same time, Gilbert diagnoses Betty with pneumonia, so Anne tries to boost the girl's spirits by acting out the entire show just for her. The effort pays off and Betty's fever breaks.
Hester finds Catherine in Jen's place. Outraged, she locks Catherine in the room before suffering a heart attack and falling down the stairs. She drops a lantern which sets the house ablaze. Anne and the others hurry to Maplehurst, where Tony runs into the house and rescues Catherine. With no way to put out the fire, the residents of Pringleton watch in silence as Maplehurst burns with Hester's body inside.
In the spring, a picnic brings the town together the day before Anne and Gilbert's wedding. Anne and Gilbert tell Betty that "Tomorrow" has come because they plan to adopt her. She is overjoyed that her parents have finally arrived and now she can be "Betty", her happy name, forever.
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"Night Nurse" (1931) A Warner Brothers - William A Wellman Photoplay
Lora Hart applies for a job as a nurse trainee but is rejected when the hospital's superintendent of nurses, Miss Dillon, learns she does not have a high school diploma. After a chance encounter with the hospital's chief of staff, Dr. Arthur Bell, Hart charms him and he tells Dillon to hire her.
Lora and Miss Maloney, a fellow nurse, become roommates and best friends. After they violate curfew, Miss Dillon assigns them night duty in the emergency room. When Lora treats a bootlegger named Mortie for a gunshot wound, he persuades her to not report the wound to the police as required by law. He wants to know Lora better, but she resists him at first.
After she passes her training, Lora is hired as a private nurse for two sick children, Desney and Nanny Ritchey. She moves into the Ritchey mansion, site of frequent parties. Mrs. Ritchey, the children's socialite mother, lives in an alcoholic stupor and is infatuated with her brutish chauffeur Nick. When a drunken guest tries to molest Lora, Nick knocks him out. After Mrs. Ritchey gets soused, Nick demands that Lora pump her stomach; when she refuses, he knocks her unconscious with a telephone receiver.
The Ritchey family physician is "society doctor" and drug addict Milton Ranger. Lora is alarmed by Dr. Ranger's treatment of the children after she sees that they are being starved to death. When she is unable to persuade anyone to take her seriously, she quits and tells Dr. Bell of her suspicions. At first, he is reluctant to interfere with another doctor's patients, but eventually he advises her to return to her job to gather evidence of the children's mistreatment.
Nanny becomes so weak that Lora fears she will die. Lora is unable to get Mrs. Ritchey to show any concern. When Mortie delivers liquor to the perpetual party at the mansion, Lora sends him to get milk. He steals some from a delicatessen to allow Lora to give Nanny a milk bath, a folk remedy recommended by Mrs. Maxwell, the frightened housekeeper.
Maxwell gets drunk and confides her suspicions to Lora. Nanny and Desney have a trust fund from their late father. Nick killed their sister with his car; with Dr. Ranger's help, he is deliberately starving the girls. With their deaths, the trust fund would go to Mrs. Ritchey, and Nick plans to marry her for the money.
After being threatened by Mortie, Dr. Bell arrives and examines Nanny. When he tries to take her to the hospital, however, Nick knocks him out. Mortie stops Nick from interfering further, and Nanny's life is saved when Lora provides her an emergency blood transfusion.
The next day, Mortie gives Lora a lift in his car. When they pass several police cars, Mortie tells Lora that Nick will not be arrested because he told his criminal associates of his dislike for him. An ambulance delivers a corpse dressed in a chauffeur's uniform to the hospital's morgue.
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"Celebrity Deaths of April 1949"
Famous Celebrities of Motion Pictures who died in April 1949:
John Morley, Neal Hart, George Graves, Arundel Nixon, Seymour Hicks, Morland Graham, C. V. France, Wallace Beery, Will Hay, Barney Gilmore, Ethyle Cooke, Charles Middleton, Olga Slade, Malcolm Waite & Alfred Drayton.
48
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"Let’s Kill Uncle" (1966) A William Castle Photoplay
Following the death of multi-millionaire Russell Harrison in a car crash, his $5 million estate falls to his only child, 12-year-old Barnaby Harrison, who will receive the money when reaching his age of majority. In the meantime, Barnaby will live with his uncle, Major Kevin Harrison, who resides on a remote, sparsely populated island, located 8 mi (13 km) from the mainland. During World War II, Kevin was a James Bond-type British Army Intelligence Commando and has published an account of his war exploits entitled Killing the Enemy, detailing his multiple accounts of extreme close combat killing of various Germans.
Barnaby is escorted by Police Detective Sergeant Frank Travis on a cruise to the island. Aboard the boat is Chrissie, who is Barnaby's age. The two children constantly argue, with Chrissie believing Barnaby is telling fantastic lies about his uncle's exploits, though Frank does reveal himself as a policeman to her. Chrissie has come from a broken home and will be living with her Aunt Justine, who lives on Uncle Kevin's island.
Barnaby's bad behavior continues on the island, with Frank chastising him for playing with his detective revolver, Barnaby leading Christine astray by visiting a dangerous decrepit hotel and Barnaby keeping up a constant litany of tall tales to impress or frighten Chrissie. Barnaby, however, worships his heroic Uncle Kevin and enjoys reading his book. One night, Uncle Kevin, dressed in his wartime military beret and battledress (as he does on the cover of his book), visits a sleeping Barnaby and wakes him to go on an adventure with him. Leading Barnaby to high cliffs overlooking the crashing surf, Uncle Kevin hypnotizes Barnaby to walk in specific directions with the aim of having Barnaby fall off the cliff to his death, whilst Kevin is home in his bed. The next day, Justine sees Barnaby perilously close to the edge of a high cliff and shouts at him, waking him out of his trance.
A shaken Barnaby believes that he was walking in his sleep until Uncle Kevin later jovially explains that he intends to kill Barnaby for his inheritance. Though his first attempt at eliminating him in a manner appearing accidental failed, he vows to try again. Kevin also explains that his home is "Switzerland", an area of neutrality where he will not harm Barnaby, and adds that he will also not harm Barnaby when he is with Justine or Sgt. Travis, the latter of whom still remains on the island as Uncle Kevin's guest.
Based on Barnaby's previous lies and hysterical behavior, no one believes him, until Chrissie discovers the truth and gleefully suggests they kill Uncle Kevin first. The trio begin a series of cat and mouse assassination attempts against each other. When Uncle Kevin discovers that Chrissie stole Sgt Travis's revolver and came up with an unsuccessful assassination attempt, Kevin includes her in his game.
103
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"The Magus" (1968) Michael Caine & Anthony Quinn
Nicholas Urfe is a young Englishman, who has taken a teaching position on the Greek island of Phraxos, following the previous instructor's suicide. For Nicholas, it is a chance to sample different surroundings and an opportunity to escape from a relationship with his emotionally unstable lover Anne.
At first, Nicholas' life on Phraxos is uneventful but peaceful. However, he soon becomes involved with a reclusive man named Maurice Conchis, who owns an estate on the opposite side of the island, and has a beautiful young woman named Lily as his companion. On being introduced to the couple, Nicholas' life begins to unravel, and he tries to find out who the mysterious Conchis really is.
Is he a psychiatrist? A film producer? A Nazi sympathiser? Or a magician who controls the lives and destinies of those around him? Nicholas quickly begins to lose his grip on reality, sinking deeper into Conchis's game.
During visits to Conchis's estate, Nicholas has a series of experiences which gradually become more unexpected and bizarre. Many are related to (or are re-enactments of) past events from Conchis's life. Ultimately, these events begin happening off the estate as well at unexpected times and places, raising questions as to how much power and control Conchis can actually exercise over others' lives.
The story climaxes with a "trial" directed by Conchis, with Nicholas (and many others) participating.
The final scene, which may be interpreted as a coda, concerns Nicholas' relationship with Anne, and whether or not it will continue.
65
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"Bonjour Tristesse" (1958) Otto Preminger
Cécile is a wealthy, free-spirited, idiosyncratic young woman. While she loves her playboy father Raymond dearly (and he loves her dearly), she is bored by suitors and the activities that interest them. While dancing to a performance of "Bonjour Tristesse," she wonders if she will ever find happiness again after what happened a year ago when she was 17 that summer on the French Riviera. The rest of the film chronicles the events of that summer in flashback.
Cécile and Raymond are enjoying their vacation on the Riviera, the latter's latest mistress being Elsa, a flighty, superficial, vain woman. Cécile meets another vacationer, Philippe, a mysterious but attractive young law student, and the two quickly take a liking to one another. One evening, Raymond receives a letter from Anne, an older woman, a dress designer, and a friend of Raymond's late wife, who will be staying at the villa. Anne and Raymond become close, but Cécile finds that Anne threatens to reform the undisciplined way of life that she has shared with her father.
Despite his promises of fidelity to Anne, Raymond cannot give up his playboy life. Helped by Elsa, Raymond's young and flighty mistress, Cécile does her best to break up the relationship with Anne. The combination of the daughter's disdain and the father's rakishness drives Anne to a tragic end.[
45
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"It Started In Naples" (1960) Clark Gable & Sophia Loren
Only a few days before his wedding, Michael Hamilton, a Philadelphia lawyer, travels to Naples in southern Italy to settle the estate of his late brother, Joseph, with Italian lawyer Vitale. In the opening narration, he states that he "was here before with the 5th US Army" in World War II. In Naples, Michael discovers that his brother had a son, eight-year-old Nando, who is being cared for by his maternal aunt Lucia, a cabaret singer. Joseph never married Nando's mother but drowned with her in a boating accident. Joseph's actual wife, whom he had left in 1950, is alive in Philadelphia. Michael discovers to his dismay that his brother spent a fortune on fireworks. After seeing Nando handing out racy photos of Lucia at 2 a.m., Michael wants to enroll Nando in the American School at Rome, but Lucia wins custody of the boy. Despite the age difference, romance soon blossoms between Michael and Lucia, and he decides to stay in Italy.
55
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"I Saw What You Did" (1965) A William Castle Photoplay
When teenage friends Libby Mannering and Kit Austin are home alone with Libby's younger sister Tess, they amuse themselves by randomly dialing telephone numbers and telling whoever answers: "I saw what you did, and I know who you are." Libby places a call to Steve Marak, a man who had just murdered his wife Judith and disposed of her body in the woods. Believing he has been found out, Marak wants to track down the caller in order to silence her.
Marak's neighbor Amy, who is in love with him and had been trying to woo him away from his wife, listens in on the line while Marak is speaking with Libby. Intrigued by Marak's voice, Libby takes Tess and a frightened Kit along on a drive to Marak's address. Amy discovers Libby and chases her off, thinking that Libby is Marak's lover, inadvertently saving Libby from being murdered by Marak, who has seen her and grabbed a knife. Amy snatches the registration card from the car before Libby drives away and gives it to Marak, telling him to keep it as a souvenir of his last fling. Amy tries to blackmail him into marrying her, telling him she knows about the murder, but he stabs her to death after they have a drink. With Libby's address and phone number from the car registration, Marak calls to ask if her parents are home and then sets out to the Mannering home.
Libby's mother, 90 miles away in Santa Barbara with her husband, is frantic with worry when no one answers the home phone and has her husband call the police to check the house. A patrolman visits and finds that the three girls are safe.
Libby, afraid of losing her driving privileges, swears Kit to secrecy over their misadventure. While Kit's father is driving her home, a news report over the car's radio announces that a woman's body has been found in the woods and provides a description of a man who was seen leaving the burial site.
Marak arrives at the Mannering home and questions Libby and Tess about the call. Libby convinces him that it was just a prank. He returns her mother's identification and leaves, but waits outside. When Kit calls, she tells Libby that Marak matches the description of the killer about whom she had heard on the radio. Marak overhears and enters to silence Libby and Tess, but they evade him. Libby tries to escape but cannot start her parents' car. Marak emerges from the back seat and starts to strangle Libby, but he is shot by a police officer who had come back to the Mannering house after Kit revealed the secret to her father, who phoned the police.
50
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"House on Haunted Hill" (1959) A William Castle Photoplay
Frederick Loren, an eccentric millionaire, invites five people to a party he is throwing for his fourth wife, Annabelle, in an allegedly haunted house he has rented. He promises to give each guest $10,000 with the stipulation that they stay the entire night in the house after the doors are locked at midnight, all the windows are barred, and there are no phones or radios to use. The guests are test pilot Lance Schroeder, newspaper columnist Ruth Bridges, psychiatrist Dr. David Trent, who specializes in hysteria, Nora Manning, who works for one of Loren's companies, and the house's owner, Watson Pritchard. All are strangers to both the Lorens and each other, their only commonality being their lust for money.
The Lorens have a tense relationship. Frederick is convinced Annabelle tried to poison him to acquire his wealth, which Annabelle somewhat evasively denies, attributing his suspicions to paranoia and jealousy. Watson believes the house is genuinely haunted by the ghosts of those murdered there, including his own brother; he claims to have spent one night there before and "was almost dead" when found the next morning. He gives a tour of the house, including a vat of acid in the basement, which a previous resident used to kill his wife. When Lance and Nora remain behind to further explore the basement, Lance is locked in an empty room and struck on the head, while a menacing ghost confronts Nora.
Annabelle privately warns Lance that her husband is scheming something and that she suspects him of murdering his second and third wives after his first wife disappeared. The guests learn the party's rules downstairs, and each is given a Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammer for protection. Having encountered further apparitions, Nora decides against staying the night, but the caretakers lock the doors five minutes early, taking that option out of the guests' hands.
Hearing a scream, Lance and David find Annabelle's corpse, suspended to suggest she hanged herself, but the absence of a perch immediately arouses suspicions of murder. Nora confronts Lance and tells him an unseen assailant strangled her and left her for dead. In light of Annabelle's warnings, they both suspect Frederick. He tells her to remain out of sight so that her attacker will still think she is dead. Lance and David propose that everyone stay in their rooms and shoot anyone who enters to survive the night. Thus the innocents will have no reason to leave their rooms (and a good reason to stay inside them) and the killer must stay put or admit guilt.
Nora is chased from her room into the basement by Annabelle's ghost. Aroused by the ghostly sounds, David concludes that the killer is about and proposes he and Frederick split up to search the house. Lance uncovers a secret room at the end of the second-floor hall, but the door shuts behind him once he enters, trapping him. David instead meets with Annabelle, who had faked her death using a hanging harness and sedatives. Secretly lovers, the two of them have orchestrated the various mishaps to manipulate Nora into killing Frederick. Nora, seeing Frederick enter the basement with a gun in his hand, does indeed shoot him. After she flees, David slips in to dispose of Frederick's body in the vat of acid, and the lights go out.
Annabelle walks to the basement to confirm her husband is dead. A skeleton rises from the acid, accuses her in Frederick's voice, and shoves her into the vat. Frederick emerges from the shadows, holding the puppeteer control unit that he used to manipulate the skeleton and revealing he had known their plot all along.
After Nora, Watson, and Ruth release Lance from the secret room, Nora tells them that she shot Frederick. When they arrive in the cellar, Frederick explains that he loaded her gun with blanks, that his wife and David plotted to kill him, and that they both met their ends in the vat of acid. He says he is ready for justice to decide if he's innocent or guilty. Watson remains convinced the house is haunted, with David and Annabelle now added to its ranks of ghosts, and that he will be the next victim.
57
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"In Memoriam 1959: Famous Faces We Lost in 1959!"
In Memoriam 1959: Famous Faces We Lost in 1959
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"Leave Her To Heaven" (1945) Gene Tierney, Cornel Wilde, Vincent Price
While traveling by train in New Mexico, novelist Richard Harland meets Ellen Berent, a beautiful socialite from Boston. She is particularly drawn to him, as he reminds her of her deceased father, to whom she had an obsessive attachment. Ellen is visiting New Mexico to spread her father's ashes, accompanied by her aloof mother and her cousin Ruth, who was adopted by Mrs. Berent (Richard is surprised when Ruth tells him this, and wonders why she did not say "Mr. and Mrs. Berent" adopted her).
Richard and Ellen discover they are staying with the same friends, and begin a whirlwind romance. He is fascinated by Ellen's exotic beauty and intense personality. The couple's affair is interrupted when Ellen's fiancé, attorney Russell Quinton, from whom she is separated, arrives unexpectedly. Ellen announces at that time that she and Richard are to be married, to Richard's surprise.
Ellen and Richard marry in Warm Springs, Georgia before staying at his lodge on a lake in northern Maine. Their domestic life is copacetic at first, but it becomes gradually apparent that she is pathologically jealous of anyone and anything he cares about, including his family and career.
During an unexpected visit from Ellen's family, her mother attempts to warn Richard that Ellen is prone to obsessiveness and a compulsion to "love too much". Ellen's resentment only grows when Richard's beloved teenage brother, Danny, crippled by the effects of polio, comes to live with them. One afternoon, Ellen follows him on the lake in a rowboat as he attempts to swim from one end to the other. She knowingly encourages him to press on, even as Danny begins to struggle to stay afloat. Ellen watches from the boat as he sinks below the surface and drowns.
Danny's death is presumed an accident, and Ellen feigns sympathy. After settling at their home in Bar Harbor, Richard is despondent. At Ruth's suggestion, Ellen becomes pregnant in an attempt to please Richard, but later confesses to Ruth that she does not want the child, likening it to a "little beast".
One afternoon, Ellen throws herself down a staircase to induce a miscarriage. She succeeds in terminating the pregnancy, and after recovering in the hospital, accuses Ruth of being in love with Richard, citing a dedication in his new novel that alludes to her. Ruth rebukes Ellen by accusing her of causing the misery that has befallen the family. Richard overhears the argument, and begins to suspect Ellen is responsible for the deaths of Danny and of their unborn child.
When Richard confronts Ellen about Danny, she admits without remorse to having let him drown, and cruelly tells Richard she would do it again if given the chance. Following the confession, Richard leaves Ellen, but does not pursue criminal action as he does not believe there is sufficient evidence.
After Richard departs, Ellen sends a letter to Russell—now the county district attorney—in which she accuses Ruth of plotting to murder her. While on a picnic with Ruth and her mother several days later, and unbeknownst to them, Ellen deliberately ingests sugar laced with arsenic. The poison causes her to go into multiple organ failure over several days, and doctors are unable to save her. When Richard visits Ellen on her deathbed, she requests in his confidence that she be cremated, and that he scatter her ashes where she spread her father's in New Mexico, to which he agrees.
After Ellen dies, Ruth has her remains cremated at Richard's instruction. She is subsequently charged with Ellen's murder, prosecuted by Russell. During the trial, Russell proposes that Ruth plotted to kill Ellen so she and Richard could be together, and frames Ruth's cremation of Ellen as a calculated decision to prevent an autopsy.
A recalcitrant Richard testifies regarding Ellen's psychopathic jealousy, insisting that she made her own suicide appear as a murder to punish him and Ruth. Ruth is ultimately acquitted, but he is sentenced to two years imprisonment as an accessory in Danny's death, as he withheld his knowledge of Ellen's actions. After completing his sentence, Richard returns to his lodge, where he is welcomed lovingly by Ruth.
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"Safe In Hell" (1931) A Warner Brothers - First National Picture
Gilda Karlson (Dorothy Mackaill) is a prostitute in New Orleans, accused of murdering Piet Van Saal (Ralf Harolde), the man responsible for ending her former job as a secretary and leading her into prostitution. Her old boyfriend, sailor Carl Erickson (Donald Cook), smuggles her to safety to Tortuga, an island in the Caribbean Sea from which she cannot be extradited. On the island, Gilda and Carl get "married" without a clergyman to officiate, and she swears to be faithful to him. After Carl leaves on his ship, Gilda discovers she is the only white woman in a hotel full of international criminals, all of whom try to seduce her. Especially persistent is Mr. Bruno (Morgan Wallace), who describes himself as "the jailer and executioner of this island". He intercepts letters Carl sends to her and steals the support money he includes. Bruno's intention is to make Gilda think Carl has abandoned her, hoping she will seek his assistance once she becomes desperate for cash.
Later, Gilda is astonished and relieved when Van Saal suddenly arrives on the island. He explains that he had faked his death and enlisted his wife to collect on his $50,000 life-insurance policy. After receiving the money, Van Saal abandoned his wife, who then revealed his fraud to the authorities—forcing him to flee the country. Bruno, now pretending to be concerned for Gilda's safety, gives her a pistol to protect herself. When Van Saal comes to her room and attempts to rape her, Gilda shoots and kills him. She is tried for murder and seems destined for acquittal by a sympathetic jury. While awaiting the official verdict, Bruno tells her that even if she is found innocent, he will arrest her for possessing the "deadly weapon" he had given to her. The sentence will be at least six months in his prison camp, where he will provide her with very comfortable living conditions in return for sexual favors.
Gilda rushes back to the judge and falsely confesses to killing Van Saal "in cold blood", preferring to be executed rather than break her vow to Carl. As Gilda awaits her execution, she is surprised by Carl's return. He happily tells her about his new job and begins making plans for their life together back in New Orleans. Rather than telling him the truth about her circumstances, Gilda tearfully bids him goodbye and leaves him with the impression that she will join him soon. After he departs, Gilda, followed by two policemen and Bruno, slowly walks to the gallows.
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"In Memoriam 1971: Famous Faces We Lost in 1971!"
In Memoriam 1971: Famous Faces We Lost in 1971
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