The Ring (1927 film)

At an expensive English boarding school for boys, Roddy Berwick (Ivor

Novello) is School Captain and star rugby player. He and his best friend
Tim (Robin Irvine) start seeing a waitress Mabel (Annette Benson). Out of
pique, she tells the headmaster that she is pregnant and that Roddy is
the father. In fact it was Tim, who cannot afford to be expelled because he
needs to win a scholarship to attend Oxford University. Promising Tim
that he will never reveal the truth, Roddy accepts expulsion.
Returning to his parents home, he finds that his father (Norman
McKinnel) believes him guilty of the false accusation.[1]
Leaving home, Roddy finds work as an actor in a theatre. He marries the
leading actress Julia (Isabel Jeans) after inheriting 30,000 from a
relation. The unfaithful Julia secretly continues an affair with her leading
man (Ian Hunter) and discards Roddy after his inheritance is exhausted.
He becomes a gigolo in a Paris music hall but soon quits over selfloathing at romancing older women for money.
Roddy ends up alone and delirious in a shabby room in Marseilles. Some
sailors take pity on him and ship him back home, possibly hoping for
reward. Roddy's father has learned the truth about the waitress's false
accusation during his son's absence and joyfully welcomes him back.
Roddy resumes his previous life.

Script notes

The Farmer's Wife

Tibby, the wife of Samuel Sweetland (Jameson Thomas) dies, and shortly
afterwards his daughter marries and leaves home, leaving him on his
own with his two servants. His wife had told him that he should remarry
after her death, so he pursues some local spinsters who were at his
daughter's wedding after he and his housekeeper Minta (Lillian HallDavis) make out a list of possibilities.
First is Widow Louisa Windeatt, but Sweetland is shocked and mad when
she rejects his advances and says she is too independent for him. Next,
he attempts to court Thirza Tapper, a nervous wreck who almost collapses
when Sweetland proposes to her. She, too, rejects him because she says
she has no need for a man, and he is furious yet again. He wanders
outside as other guests arrive for her party. Hisbolshie servant Ash is
helping at the party, wearing an ill-fitting coat and trying to keep his
trousers up while doing his work at the party.
While the others are outside listening to some singers, Sweetland
proposes to Mary Hearn, but she rejects him as too old, and then bursts
into hysterical laughter when he angrily tells her that she is "full blown
and a bit over."
Later Sweetland tells Minta that he is not going to finish the list of
women because he is so dejected. He leaves the room and Ash returns
and tells Minta what an embarrassment to men that
Sweetland is by going around and practically begging any woman to be
his wife. Sweetland overhears this and orders Ash to saddle his horse
3

because he is going to try number four on the list, Mercy Bassett, a

barmaid at a local inn. After he leaves, it is revealed that Minta is in love
with him. Bassett rejects him too and he comes home dejectedly.
Meanwhile postmistress Hearn and Tapper compare notes and Hearn
decides she should marry him after all and she goes to his house with
Tapper.
Having run through the women who have turned him down, Samuel
sees Minta for the first time as more than a housekeeper and decides that
she is the woman for him, if she'll have him. He tells her he has got used
to being rejected and will not be angry if she rejects him, too. She accepts
him and he tells her to put on the dress Tibby gave her. As she goes to the
room, Hearn and Tapper arrive. Hearn says she is now willing to be his
wife. Samuel says all should drink a toast to his wife to be and Hearn is
sure it is her, until Minta comes down the stairs in an attractive dress.
Hearn lapses into hysterics as Sweetland reveals that Minta will be his
bride.

Script notes

Easy Virtue (1928 film)

'Virtue is its own reward' they say -- but 'easy virtue' is society's reward for
a slandered reputation.
Larita Filton (Isabel Jeans) is on the witness stand testifying regarding her
pending divorce. In a flashback, her husband, a drunken brute named
Aubrey Filton (Franklin Dyall), is getting drunk in an artist's studio, as
Mrs. Filton's portrait is painted. His drunkenness prevents her from being
able to sit for the portrait. Meanwhile, the painter, Claude (Eric Bransby
Williams), is smitten with Larita. He sends her a letter professing his
desire that she leave the physically abusive Mr. Filton, and allow him to
be a good husband to her instead. Later, he attempts to kiss her when her
husband is not present. She rejects Claude's advances and is pushing
him away, when Aubrey walks in on them appearing to be embraced.
Aubrey confronts Claude. Claude runs for a gun he has hidden, and
shoots but misses Aubrey. Aubrey begins to beat Claude severely with his
walking cane. In the struggle, Claude shoots Aubrey, who falls to the
floor, still alive. Larita rushes to her husband's side. Two servants enter
separately and each see Claude standing with the gun, and run for police.
As Claude watches one servant beckon a policemen to follow her, Claude
realizes what he's done and looks terrified. Presumably, he shoots
himself, as police in the next frame are kneeling over Claude's lifeless
body. Larita seems completely disinterested in Claude, and is holding her
non-mortally wounded husband lovingly in her lap on the floor. He
reaches over, and picks up the note from Claude to Larita, which asked
her to leave her husband, presumably seeing it for the first time.

Aubrey files for divorce on the grounds of adultery, which is why Larita is
testifying her innocence in court this day. The jury rejects Larita's
testimony that she was never inappropriate with the artist. The jury
instead decides in Aubrey's favor, in large part considering the "proof"
that Larita is quite attractive, and Claude had written a will leaving her his
entire fortune ("to another man's wife! "). As Larita leaves the courtroom
in shame, photographers rush to try to take her picture, and she hides her
face and rushes away.
Since she is now a disgraced woman of "easy virtue", Larita leaves for the
French Riviera to avoid continued unwanted attention. As she registers in
the hotel that will be her new home, she remembers all the media frenzy
around her, and at the last second, changes the name she writes in the
registry to Larita Grey.
She is happy there, living anonymously. One day as she is watching a
tennis match, she is struck in the eye by the tennis ball of a rich younger
man, John Whittaker (Robin Irvine). He rushes to her aid, apologizes
profusely, and takes her to be tended to medically. He checks on her
again the following day, and soon asks Larita to marry him. She protests
that surely he must want to know more about her first. He responds that
all he need know is that he loves her. They marry, and return to England
to meet his family. While John's father likes Larita very much, his mother
strongly disapproves even before meeting her. When they do meet,
John's mother believes she recognizes Larita, but cannot place from
where. She questions John about where Larita comes from, and chastises
him for marrying someone about whom he knows nothing. John begs
his mother to be kind to her for his sake. But his mother is only kind to
Larita in public. Privately, she is cold and unwelcoming, and tries to turn
everyone against Larita.
7

As John's mother remains suspicious and cruel regarding Larita, and

makes her life privately miserable, Larita begs John to go back to the
South of France where they were happy. He asks why she cannot be
happy in England. She tells him his family hates her, and that they are
teaching him to hate her too. Later that day, John admits to his old
girlfriend that his mother has helped him see that he made a huge
mistake marrying Larita. Unknown to him, Larita overhears him.
After a family outing to a society event, John's sister sees Larita's picture
with the Whittakers in the papers. In the caption, Larita is identified as the
former Mrs. Filton. John's sister shows her mother, and Mrs. Whittaker
digs up the old magazine articles about Larita's notorious adultery
scandal. Mrs. Whittaker confronts Larita in front of the family,
condescendingly stating, "In our world, we do not understand this code
of easy virtue", as she thrusts the gossip magazine under Larita's nose.
Larita responds that indeed they don't understand much of anything, and
excuses herself to her room.
Mrs. Whittaker, fearing scandal and gossip about her family, tries to
intimidate Larita into staying in her room during the large party the
family is hosting that same evening. Instead, Larita makes a grand
entrance, and disallows Mrs. Whittaker to lie about her having been
indisposed with a headache. Meanwhile, realizing how hopeless her
situation is, she has her servant upstairs packing all her things to leave.
Larita steps into a private room during the party to confide to a friend that
she will leave John so he may seek a divorce, and she will not contest it,
in hopes it will make it easy for John. Before leaving, she tells the old
girlfriend Sarah (Enid Stamp Taylor), a local girl whom his mother had in
mind as a suitable match for John, and who has been quite kind to her,
8

"Sarah- YOU ought to have married John" , and then kisses her cheek
before leaving.
In the final scene, Larita is sitting anonymously in the court gallery,
weeping, as she watches John's uncontested divorce. A reporter
recognizes her, and runs outside to alert the others. As she exits the court,
still having not identified herself to anyone there, photographers are
waiting for her. For the first time since her previous court appearance,
Larita is dressed all in black. This time she doesn't run from the reporters.
She stops, looks at the throng of photographers waiting hungrily for her,
and exclaims, "Shoot! There's nothing left to kill." And the movie ends.

Script notes

10

Champagne (1928 film)

The Heiress Betty (Betty Balfour) draws the ire of her father after using his
aeroplane to fly to her boyfriend (Jean Braden) on an ocean liner headed
to France.
French customs obviously, at the time, were not favorable to such
behaviors. Even for daughters of wealthy men in the
Champagne business. Marriage, in France,
Has always been preferred to casual relationships.
Always uneasy due to seasickness, Betty's boyfriend is unable to dine
with her. She realizes notices a man watching her. He had
Been (briefly) watching her from a far, and sits to talk with her. Betty
receives a telegram from her father who disapprovingly warns her the
boyfriend is not going to be
Admired by her friends. To prove her father wrong she asks the boyfriend
For his hand in marriage. A quarrel ensues during the trip and the two
part company when Its over. The boyfriend regrets the fight and goes to
Betty to apologize. He finds her
Excellence in chess, during a game with the mysterious man, to be quite
surprising (he never took interest in her hobbies.) Another quarrel
between the two is interrupted by the arrival of Betty's father (Gordon
Harker). He tells Betty the family fortune, earned in the "champagne"
business, has been wiped out in the stock market. The boyfriend leaves

11

after hearing the news of their fortune. The father sees this as proof the
boyfriend is only after money.
Betty decides to sell her jewellery but is robbed en route to the jewellers.
Now penniless Betty and her father move into a small shabby apartment.
Unbeknownst to Betty her father sneaks out to eat at an expensive
restaurant after her cooking proves to be terrible. Once again her
boyfriend tries for a reconciliation but is rebuked by Betty, who now
thinks her father is right about the boyfriend, vows to get a job.
Betty finds work at a swank restaurant. Soon the mysterious man shows
up and invites Betty to his table. She becomes uncomfortable with the
stranger and is relieved when her boyfriend once again arrives. The
mysterious man leaves after handing her a note that advises her to call
him if she ever needs any help. The boyfriend openly disapproves of
Betty's job. He leaves after a still angry Betty dances wildly to provoke
him.
The boyfriend soon returns with Betty's father. He is outraged at Betty's
"unseemly" job and confesses he lied about the loss of their fortune to
teach her a lesson. Rather than being pleased, Betty is further angered by
both the father and the boyfriend. She turns to the mysterious man who
offers to take Betty back to America. Betty gladly accepts but is later
horrified to find she has been locked in her cabin. She imagines the worst
about the mysterious man's intentions and is both relieved and
delighted when her boyfriend arrives yet again and releases her from the
cabin. They soon reconcile.
The boyfriend hides in the bathroom when they hear the mysterious man
approaching. He enters with her father who confesses he hired the man
to follow and protect her. The boyfriend is furious and comes forth to
12

attack the man. Betty's father pacifies the boyfriend's anger by telling
him he no longer disapproves of their wedding. The reunited couple start
discussing the wedding when once again another argument starts.

13

Script notes

14

The Manxman
The film tells the story of two close childhood friends, a handsome but
poor fisherman, Pete Quilliam (Carl Brisson), and a well-educated
middle-class lawyer, Philip Christian (Malcolm Keen); Both the young
men are smitten with beautiful and lively Kate (Anny Ondra), the pub
owner's daughter. In Pete's case, Kate is also interested in him, or at least
she enjoys having him as a suitor.
Pete proposes, asking Philip to make the case to Kate's tough father, Old
Caesar (Randle Ayrton). The father refuses to consent to the marriage,
because Pete is penniless. Pete decides to go
to Africa to make his fortune, so he will be considered eligible to marry
her, and he asks Kate if she will "wait for him". At first she jokes around,
but finally she says yes. Pete then asks Philip to take care of Kate until he
returns.
In his absence, Philip starts calling on Kate almost every day. Kate and
Philip become strongly attracted to one another, and start an affair while
visiting an old mill.
News reaches the village that Pete has been killed upcountry in Africa.
Philip and Kate are shocked but Kate is relieved to realize that they can
now plan their lives together. Philip's career has been going well, and he
is preparing to assume the powerful position of Deemster, the island's
chief magistrate.
However, it then turns out that Pete is still alive, and has been successful
in Africa. He lets Philip know via telegram that he is returning. Pete
arrives and is extremely happy to be back to his village and to see his old
15

sweetheart. Philip and Kate are shocked and appalled, but they do not let
anyone know what has passed between them. Old Caesar is now
delighted to agree to Kate marrying Pete. The wedding reception is
celebrated in the old mill, where Old Caesar sternly warns the newlyweds
to remember that God will punish anyone who violates the vows of
marriage.
Kate is still in love with Philip, and can hardly bear to be married to Pete.
As the weeks pass, Pete is thrilled to find out that Kate is pregnant, and
he naturally assumes he is the father. When Kate's daughter is born, not
long afterwards Kate is desperate and decides to leave Pete. She walks
out, leaving her baby behind, and a note saying that she had loved
another man, and still loves him. Pete is appalled and does not know
where Kate went, but he tells the villagers that Kate needed a vacation, so
he sent her to London for a while. During the weeks she is gone, Pete
proves himself to be a wonderful father, taking care of the baby very well,
and comforting himself by believing that although Kate has gone, he still
has their baby to love.
Kate persuades Philip to hide her at his law offices, hoping she can still
somehow have a life with him. However, Philip is about to become the
Deemster, and he is unwilling to ruin his career by running off with her.
Frustrated and distraught, Kate returns to the house to take the baby. She
tells Pete he is not the baby's father. Pete is stunned and refuses to
believe her. He also refuses to give up the child. In desperation, Kate
leaves the house and tries to commit suicide by throwing herself off the
quay.
Kate is rescued by a policeman. Attempted suicide is classified as a crime,
and Kate is brought to trial on the first day that Philip serves as Deemster.
16

Now Philip is stunned and hardly knows what to do. When Pete appears
in the courtroom to plead for his wife, Philip agrees to hand Kate over to
him. But Kate refuses to go. Kate's father, Old Caesar, who is watching
carefully, finally understands that Kate and Philip had an affair. Old
Caesar gets up and loudly condemns Philip for being the "other man".
Philip publicly admits his extreme moral failings. He removes his wig
and surrenders his official position, and then leaves the court.
In the final scene, Philip and Kate sadly prepare to leave the island. They
arrive at Pete's house to take away the baby. Kate picks up the child, while
Philip and Pete stand at opposite ends of the room. She brings the child
over to Pete to say one last goodbye, and he breaks down, having finally
lost everything. Philip and Kate leave the cottage to the jeers and
condemnation of the villagers, who have been watching the scene
through the windows.

17

Script notes

18

Blackmail (1929 film)

Scotland Yard Detective Frank Webber (John Longden) escorts his
girlfriend Alice White (Anny Ondra) to a tea house. They have an
argument and Frank storms out. While reconsidering his action, he sees
Alice leave with Mr. Crewe (Cyril Ritchard), an artist she had earlier agreed
to meet.
Crewe persuades a reluctant Alice into coming up to see his studio. She
admires a painting of a laughing clown, and uses his palette and brushes
to paint a cartoonish drawing of a face; he adds a few strokes of a
feminine figure, and they both sign the "work". He gives her a dancer's
outfit and Crewe sings and plays "Miss Up-to-Date" on the piano.
Crewe steals a kiss, to Alice's disgust, but as she is changing and
preparing to leave, he takes her dress from the changing area. He
attempts to rape her; her cries for help are not heard on the street below.
In desperation, Alice grabs a nearby bread knife and kills him. She angrily
punches a hole in the painting of the clown, then leaves after attempting
to remove any evidence of her presence in the flat, but forgets to take her
gloves. She walks the streets of London all night in a daze.
When the body is found, the killing is assumed to be murder. Frank is
assigned to the case and finds one of Alice's gloves. He recognizes both
the glove and the dead man, but conceals this from his superior. Taking
the glove, he goes to speak with Alice at her father's tobacco shop, but
she is still too distraught to speak.
But as they hide from her father in a telephone booth, Tracy (Donald
Calthrop), the model for the clown, arrives. He had seen Alice go up to
19

Crewe's flat, and gone in and taken one of the gloves. When he sees
Frank with the other one, he attempts to blackmail the couple. His first
demands are petty ones and they accede. Then Frank learns by phone
that Tracy is wanted for questioning: he was seen near the scene and has
a criminal record. Frank sends for policemen and tells Tracy he will pay for
the murder.
Alice is apprehensive about Tracy being prosecuted for what she did, but
still does not speak up. The tension mounts. When the police arrive,
Tracy's nerve finally breaks and he flees. The chase leads to the British
Museum, where he clambers onto the domed roof of the Reading Room,
but slips, crashes through a skylight, and falls to his death inside. The
police assume he was guilty of murder.
Unaware of this, Alice finally feels compelled to give herself up and goes
to New Scotland Yard. She writes a confession letter and goes to see the
Chief Inspector. Before she can bring herself to confess, the inspector
receives a telephone call and asks Frank to deal with Alice. She finally
tells him the truththat it was self-defense against an attack she cannot
bear to speak ofand they leave together. As they do, a policeman walks
past, carrying the damaged painting of the laughing clown and the
canvas where Alice has painted over her name and Crewes.

20

Script notes

21

Juno and the Paycock (film)

Barry Fitzgerald, who played Captain Jack Boyle in the original stage
production, appears as an orator in the first scene, but has no other role.
In the slums of Dublin during the Irish Civil War, Captain Boyle (Edward
Chapman) lives in a two-room tenement flat with his wife Juno (Sara
Allgood) and their two young children Mary (Kathleen O'Regan) and
Johnny (John Laurie). Juno has dubbed her husband "the Paycock"
because she thinks him as useful and vain as a peacock. Juno works
while the Captain loafs around the flat when not drinking up the family's
meager finances at the neighbourhood pub.
Daughter Mary has a job but is on strike against the victimisation of a coworker. Son Johnny has become a semi invalid after losing an arm and
severely injuring his hip in a fight with the Black and Tans during theIrish
War of Independence. Although Johnny has taken the Anti-Treaty side
during the continuing Irish Civil War, he has recently turned in a fellow
Irish Republican Army (IRA) member to the Irish Free Statepolice who
subsequently kill him. The Paycock tells his friend Joxer (Sidney Morgan)
of his disgust at the informer, unaware that his son was responsible. The
IRA suspect Johnny and order him to report to them for questioning; he
refuses, protesting that his wounds show he has done his bit for Ireland.
Mary is courted by Jerry Devine (Dave Morris) but dumps him for Charlie
Bentham (John Longden) who whisks her away after telling Mary's family
the Captain is to receive an inheritance. The elated Captain borrows
money against the (as yet un-received) inheritance and spends it freely
on new furniture and aVictrola. Family friends are invited to an
impromptu party at the once shabby tenement.
22

The Captain soon learns the inheritance has been lost because Bentham
made an error in drafting the will. The Captain keeps the bad news a
secret until creditors show up. Even Joxer turns on the Captain and
gleefully spreads the news of the nonexistent inheritance to creditors.
The furniture store repossesses the furniture. The tailor demands money
for new clothes. Pub owner Mrs. Madigan (Maire O'Neill) takes the
Victrola to cover the Captain's bar tab.
The worst is yet to come, however. Mary reveals that she has shamed the
family by becoming pregnant by Charles, who has disappeared after his
blunder was discovered. Her former fianc Jerry proclaims his love for
Mary and offers to marry her back until he learns of her pregnancy. While
his parents are absent dealing with the situation, Johnny is arrested by
the IRA and his body is later found riddled with bullets. Realizing that
their family has been destroyed, Mary declares, "It's true. There is no
God." Although completely shattered, Juno shushes her daughter, saying
that they will need both Christ and the Blessed Virgin to deal with their
grief. Alone, however, she laments her son's fate before the religious
statues in the family's empty tenement, deciding that Boyle will remain
useless and leaves with Mary.

23

Script notes

24

Murder! (1930 film)

Diana Baring (Norah Baring), a young actress in a travelling theatre
troupe, is found in a daze with blood on her clothes, standing by the
murdered body of another young actress, Edna Druce. The poker used to
commit the murder was at Diana's feet, but she has no memory of what
happened during the minutes the crime was committed. The two young
women were thought to have been rivals, and the police arrest her. Diana
withholds some important information deliberately, to protect something
about the identity of a man that she will not name.
At her trial most of the jury are certain she is guilty. One or two feel that
she may have a severe mental illness which meant that she really did
have no memory of killing the other woman, but they are convinced that
she should still be hanged lest she strike again. One juror, Sir John
Menier (Herbert Marshall), a celebrated actor-manager, seems sure she
must be innocent, but is brow- beaten into voting "guilty" along with the
rest of the jury. Diana is imprisoned, and awaiting hanging.
Sir John feels responsible, as he was the one who had recommended
that Diana take the touring job in order for her to get more life
experience. It also turns out that Diana has been a fan of his since
childhood. She is beautiful, and seems far too honest and straightforward
to be a criminal of any kind. Using skills he has learned in the theatre, Sir
John investigates the murder with the help of the stage manager Ted
Markham (Edward Chapman) and his wife (Phyllis Konstam). They narrow
the possible suspects down to one male actor in the troupe, Handell Fane
(Esme Percy), who often plays cross-dressing roles.

25

Sir John tries to cleverly lure a confession out of Fane, by asking him to
audition for a new play that Sir John has written, on the subject of the
murder. Fane realises that they know he committed the crime, as well as
understanding how and why he did it. During the interaction we learn
Fane's secret: he is a half-caste, only passing as white. Fane leaves the
audition without confessing, and goes back to his old job; he is a solo
trapeze performer in a circus. Sir John and the others go there to confront
him again. During his performance, from his high perch he looks down
and sees them waiting. Despairing, he knots his access rope into a noose,
slips it over his head and jumps to his death.
We then see Diana, free, and gloriously dressed in white furs, entering a
beautiful room and being welcomed warmly by Sir John, who receives
her as if he loves her. The camera pulls back and we realise we are
watching the very last scene of a new play, possibly the new play, in
which Diana stars opposite Sir John.

26

Script notes

27

The Skin Game (1931 film)

The plot tells the story of a feud between two affluent families, the longestablished (upper class) Hillcrists, played by C.V. France, Helen Haye, and
Jill Esmond, and the nouveau riche (formerly working class)
Hornblowers, played by Edmund Gwenn, John Longden, and Frank
Lawton. Two underlying themes in the story are class warfare and the
urbanization of the countryside.
The Hillcrists are upset by the actions of Mr. Hornblower, whom they
consider to be ostentatious and crass, in buying up land, evicting tenant
farmers, and surrounding the area with factories. The Hillcrists make
every effort they can to preserve the last large piece of open land that
adjoins their beautiful rural estate.
After being tricked out of the land in an auction, the Hillcrists learn a dark
secret about Mr. Hornblower's beautiful daughter-in-law Chloe (played
by Phyllis Konstam). It turns out that she had previously earned a living
by playing the professional "other woman" in pre-arranged divorce cases.
When Mr. Hornblower learns of this secret, and that the Hillcrists have
discovered it and are prepared to use it against his family, Mr.
Hornblower agrees to sell the rural land to the Hillcrists for less than half
the auction price, on the condition that the family swears to keep the
information secret. However, the news starts to leak out, precipitating a
crisis in the family.

28

Chloe Hornblower goes to the Hillcrists, begging them to help keep the
secret from her husband, who is aware that something is going on. She
hides behind a curtain when her husband unexpectedly storms into the
Hillcrist home, demanding to know the secret.
Keeping his promise to Chloe, Mr. Hillcrist makes up a story, but the
young Mr. Hornblower is not convinced, and declares that he intends to
end his marriage, even though Chloe is pregnant with his child.
Upon hearing this, Chloe runs to the lily pond outside the Hillcrist home
and drowns herself. When her body is discovered, the elder Hornblower
concedes that Hillcrist has destroyed him and his family completely.
Hillcrist attempts to apologize.

29

Script notes

30

Rich and Strange

A couple, Fred (Henry Kendall) and Emily Hill (Joan Barry), living a
mundane middle class life in London, receive a telegram informing them
that an uncle will give them, as an advance against their future
inheritance, as much money as they need to enjoy themselves in the
present. Immediately Fred quits his job as a clerk and they leave on a
cruise for "the Orient". Fred quickly shows his susceptibility to seasickness while crossing the English Channel. While in Paris, both are
scandalised by the Folies Bergre.
As they cruise the Mediterranean, Fred's sea-sickness keeps him in bed.
During this time, Emily begins a relationship with a Commander Gordon
(Percy Marmont), a dapper, popular bachelor. Finally feeling well enough
to appear on deck, Fred is immediately smitten with a German
"princess" (Betty Amann), who hits him in the eye with the rope ring used
to play deck tennis (a combination of tennis and quoits which was at the
time widely played shipboard). Both begin spending their time on board
with their new paramours to the virtual exclusion of each other, and each
plans to dissolve their marriage. In Colombo, British Ceylon, the couple
accidentally and awkwardly end up next to each other in a rickshaw, not
knowing the other had even gotten off the ship.
When the passengers disembark in the final destination of Singapore,
Emily leaves with Gordon for his home. When he reveals that the princess
is a sham only out for Fred's money, she realizes she cannot go on with
Gordon and returns to warn her husband. Fred does not believe her at
first, but soon discovers his lover has absconded with 1000 of his
money to Rangoon. He learns that she was merely the daughter of a
Berlin laundry owner and a commonadventuress. The couple have only
31

enough money to clear their hotel bill and to book passage home to
England on a "tramp steamer".
However, Fred and Emily's troubles have not ended, as the ship is
abandoned after a collision in the fog. They are trapped in their stateroom
and prepare themselves for a watery end. In the morning, however, they
awake to find the ship still afloat, and extract themselves through their
porthole. A Chinesejunk arrives, and the crew proceed to loot the ship.
When Fred and Emily board the junk, they are left unmolested and even
fed. They finally return home, with their love for each other appreciated
and seemingly wiser for their experiences. In the last scene, back home
in London, the couple are seen arguing in a manner reminiscent of their
bickering immediately prior to the arrival of the fateful telegram.

32

Script notes

33

Number Seventeen
Detective Barton is searching for a necklace stolen by a gang of thieves.
In the beginning, the gang is in a house in London, before going on the
run.
The film starts off with Detective Barton (John Stuart) arriving at a house
marked for sale or rent. The door is unlocked and he wanders in. An
unknown person with a candle is wandering about and a dead body is
found. When confronted the mysterious person claims innocence of the
murdered person. Barton (who introduces himself as Forsythe) asks the
stranger what he has in his pockets (handkerchief, string, sausage,
picture of a child, half a cigarette), before the shadow of a hand is shown
reaching for a doorknob. The stranger (who later introduces himself as
Ben) searches the body of the dead person and finds handcuffs and a
gun which he takes.
The detective returns from investigating the weird sound and finds the
handcuffs which the stranger left on the ground. A person is seen to be
crawling on the roof through shadows, who then falls through the roof.
This is a woman called Miss Akroyd (Ann Casson) who is revived and cries
out for her father. She explains that her father went onto the roof and that
they are next door in number 15.
The bell tolls half past midnight and the dead body has disappeared.
Three people arrive at the windswept house, Mr. Ackroyd (Henry Caine),
Nora (Anne Grey) (who is deaf and dumb) and a third person. Ben draws
out the gun. Ben accidentally shoots the governor. Mr. Ackroyd draws out
a gun and asks him to search the gentlemen, Ben and Miss Ackroyd. The
telegram is revealed to Mr. Ackroyd. Sheldrake (Garry Marsh) gets the
34

diamond necklace, which he has hidden in the upper portion of a toilet.

Ben causes a commotion and is locked away with Sheldrake.
The two hands of Sheldrake reach out and appear to strangle Ben who is
only pretending to be knocked out. More members of the gang arrive.
They suggest tying up Miss Akroyd and 'Forsythe'. The three thieves all
have to catch a train. However, one of the "thieves" is Miss Akroyd's
father--a police officer--who locks away two of the thieves and frees Miss
Akroyd and Doyle. He opens the door where Ben is locked away with
Sheldrake and gets into a fist fight with Sheldrake.
The other man reveals himself as Sheldrake (the supposed 'corpse' from
earlier) and frees the others. Miss Akroyd and 'Forsythe' are tied up again.
Nora reveals herself to be able to speak and says "I'm coming back". She
comes back and frees Miss Akroyd and Doyle. Miss Akroyd faints but
recovers. Nora returns to the basement to allay the suspicions of the
other thieves and buy time for the rest to get away. They free Ben and
Miss Akroyd's father. The thieves arrive at the train yard, and board a
freight train that is departing. The train says Deutsch-Englischer
Fahrverkehr Ferry Service between Germany-Great Britain.
The train departs with Ben aboard and he stumbles onto crates of wine.
The thieves, after dispatching the conductor, go to the front of the train,
shoot the fireman, and catch the Driver as he faints. 'Forsythe' failed to
get on the train before it departed and commandeers a bus. Ben is
revealed to have the necklace. Sheldrake discovers he doesn't have the
diamond and the thieves fight each other. Sheldrake claims that 'Barton'
a detective posing as a thief. A chase scene occurs on the train as the
thieves go after Barton. Barton escapes and handcuffs Nora. The bus that
'Forsythe' is on races after the train. The thieves, realising the train is
35

accelerating, try and find the brakes. They turn dials helplessly and notice
the bus that 'Forsythe' is on.
Pushing levers and turning dials does nothing, indeed, it only makes the
train go faster, leaving the thieves unable to escape. At the dock, the ferry
pulls up. As 'Forsythe' watches, the train hurtles through the dock,
crashes into the train currently on the ferry at full speed, and pushes it
out to sea, dragging the remaining cars into the ocean. People are
rescued from the water. Henry Doyle tells Forsythe that he is posing as
Detective Barton. But Forsythe is actually Detective Barton, who says to
Doyle, "You can't be Barton because I am." All of the thieves are
apprehended by the police who are on the scene. Nora asks Barton,
"What are you going to do about it?" Barton replied "You better come
along with me." Nora says "Where?" "To breakfast." Barton says, and they
laugh. Ben then reveals he has the diamond necklace.

36

Script notes

37

Waltzes from Vienna

Waltzes from Vienna begins the sound of the fire brigade horn and the
clip-clop of horses hooves, as the firemen race towards a fire at
Ebezeders Caf. Upstairs from the caf, Rasi and Schani are oblivious to
the danger, lost in a love duet that concludes with Schani telling Rasi that
he has dedicated his newest song to her. At the same time, Schanis
music attracts the attention of the Countess Helga von Stahl, who is
shopping in the dressmakers store next door. Schani and Rasis romantic
interlude is interrupted by Leopold, a baker in Rasis father's caf who is
in love with Rasi, as he awkwardly climbs up the ladder to save her.
Schani and Leopold argue over who will save Rasi from the fire, but
Leopold eventually wins and hauls Rasi over his shoulder and down the
ladder, causing her to lose her skirt on the way. Rasi races to the
dressmakers shop to get away from the laughter of the onlookers. Schani
retrieves Rasis skirt and then stumbles into the dressmakers in search of
Rasi, where he meets the Countess. When the Countess learns that
Schani is an aspiring musician, she proposes that he set some of her
verses to music. As the Countess offers Schani her card, Rasi enters the
room and becomes immediately suspicious of the Countesss intentions.
With the romantic triangle set up, the next scene sets up the conflict
between Schani and his father. At orchestra rehearsal, in which Schani
plays second violin under his fathers baton, Schani gets himself in
trouble when he insults his fathers music to his stand partner. The elder
Strauss overhears and demands that Schani perform one of his own
compositions for the members of the orchestra. Strauss Sr. then ridicules
his sons waltz and tells him he could never have a career as a composer,
inciting Schani to quit the orchestra.
38

Excited by his newfound freedom and the commission from the

Countess, Schani visits Rasi at her fathers bakery to tell her his news. Rasi
initially berates Schani and informs him that, if he wants to marry her, he
will have to give up music and take over the bakery. However, when she
reads the Countesss lyrics, she is drawn into the music, singing the
opening of The Blue Danube waltz to Schani. Their moment of
composition is interrupted when Rasis father arrives to give Schani a tour
of the bakery. As Schani and Ebezeder walk into the basement, a
memorable and unusual scene of musical composition begins. While
Schani looks around, the tune that Rasi sang begins to evolve. Two men
throwing bread back and forth inspire the second phrase of the melody; a
man tossing croissants into a box creates the offbeat rhythm of the waltz.
The rhythm of the dough mixing machine provides Schani with the
second main theme of the first waltz. As he tells the begrudging Leopold
to go faster, this second theme turns into the beginning of the second
large section of piece, at which point Schani runs upstairs, exclaiming to
Rasi that he has finished the composition. He then rushes off to tell the
Countess that he has composed the perfect waltz to accompany her
verses.
The next scene opens with Schani playing the final measures of the waltz
to the Countess. After he finishes, she kisses him and then apologizes
profusely, explaining that she was overwhelmed by his wonderful music.
Schani then plays the second section of the waltz while her hand rests
possessively on his shoulder, which, through a dissolve, becomes Rasis
hand. After thanking Rasi for coming up with the phrase, Schani agrees to
dedicate the song to her. As the scene fades away, the page with Schanis
dedication to Rasi flips up to reveal another page with the same title, but
dedicated to the Countess.
39

The duplicitous dedication is discovered when Rasi hears Schani and the
Countess playing the waltz for the publisher, Anton Drexler. Schani runs
after Rasi to explain and they reconcile only when Schani tells her that he
will give up his music to work in the bakery. However, Schani is clearly
miserable in his new job and he fights with Rasi when he receives an
invitation from the Countess to attend St. Stephens Festival. Rasi tells
Schani that, if he attends, it will mean the end of their relationship.
Meanwhile, the Countess plots a ruse that will cause Strauss Sr. to be late
for the festival so that Schani can take his father's place to conduct his
new waltz.
As Schani conducts The Blue Danube at the festival, all of the films
conflicts come to a climax. The Countess detains the elder Strauss by
asking the dancers at the festival to play to his ego, requesting that he
play his waltzes over and over for their pleasure in a back room. Strauss
Sr. finally arrives to find that his son has taken his place, performing for
an enthusiastic audience. Meanwhile, Rasi laments that Schani betrayed
her by coming to the festival at the Countesss command.
Following the performance, the elder Strauss angrily tells his son that he
had not authorized the performance, as the Countess had led him to
believe. Schani leaves the festival in confusion and the Countess follows
him home where they share another kiss. However, the romantic
moment is interrupted by the Count, who, upon learning where the
Countess had gone, left the party in a rage. Fortunately, Rasi arrives in
time to sneak in the back and replace the Countess, who then walks back
up the front stairs to surprise her husband, as the crowd outside hums
The Blue Danube Waltz.

40

Script notes

41

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934 film)

Bob and Jill Lawrence (Leslie Banks and Edna Best) are a British couple
on vacation in Switzerland, with their daughter Betty (Nova Pilbeam). Jill
is participating in a clay pigeon shooting contest. They befriend a
foreigner, Louis Bernard (Pierre Fresnay), who is staying in their hotel.
One evening, as Jill dances with Louis, she witnesses him being killed.
Before dying, Louis passes onto them some vital information to be
delivered to the British consul.
To ensure their silence, the assassins, led by Abbott (Peter Lorre), kidnap
the Lawrences' daughter. Unable to seek help from the police, the couple
return to England and, after following a series of leads, discover that the
group intends to assassinate the head of state of an unidentified
European country during a concert at the Royal Albert Hall. Jill attends
the concert and distracts the gunman with a scream.
The assassins are then tracked to a working-class area of Wapping in
London, near the docks, where they have their hide-out in the temple of a
sun-worshipping cult. Bob enters and is held prisoner, but manages to
escape. The police surround the building and a gunfight ensues. The
assassins hold out until their ammunition runs low and most of them
have been killed. Betty, who has been held there, and one of the
criminals are seen on the roof, and it is Jill's sharpshooting skills that
dispatch the man, who is revealed as the man who beat Jill in the
shooting contest in Switzerland.
Abbott seems to commit suicide rather than be captured, and Betty is
returned to her parents.
42

Script notes

43

The 39 Steps (1935 film)

At a London music hall theatre, Richard Hannay (Robert Donat) is
watching a demonstration of the superlative powers of recall of "Mr.
Memory" (Wylie Watson)a man with a photographic memory
when shots are fired.[3] In the ensuing panic, Hannay finds himself
holding a seemingly frightened Annabella Smith (Lucie Mannheim), who
talks him into taking her back to his flat. There, she tells him that she is a
spy, being chased by assassins, and that she has uncovered a plot to steal
vital British military secrets, masterminded by a man with the top joint
missing from one of his fingers. She mentions the "39 steps", but does
not explain its meaning.
Later that night, Smith bursts into Hannay's bedroom, fatally stabbed in
the back, and warns him to escape. He finds a map of the Scottish
Highlands clutched in her hand, showing the area around Killin with a
house or farm in Glen Lochay named "Alt-na-Shellach" circled. He sneaks
out of the watched flat disguised as a milkman and boards the Flying
Scotsman express train to Scotland, pulled by locomotive 2595. At
Edinburgh Waverley railway station he learns from a newspaper that he is
the target of a nationwide manhunt for Smith's murderer, and as the
train continues over the Forth Rail Bridge he sees the police searching the
train. Quickly, he enters a compartment and kisses the sole occupant, the
attractive Pamela (Madeleine Carroll), in a desperate attempt to escape
detection. She frees herself from his unwanted embrace and alerts the
policemen, who pull the communication cord stopping the train on the
bridge. Hannay jumps from the train onto the girders of the bridge and
escapes.
44

He walks toward "Alt-na-Shellach", and still 14 miles (23 km) short of his
destination pays to stay the night in the house of a poor crofter (John
Laurie) and his much younger wife (Peggy Ashcroft) who sees the
newspaper headline and realises that Hannay is accused of murder. Early
next morning she sees a police car approaching in the dark and warns
Hannay, the crofter accuses her of flirting with Hannay who pays him to
fend off the police. As Hannay flees she gives him the farmer's dark
Sunday coat to wear. Large numbers of police pursue him in a wild glen
(filmed
in Glen Coe at The Studywith views of the Three Sisters massif) and he
hides
as Weir's autogyro searches for him from the air. He flees along the river,
and at a bridge finds a sign for "Alt-na-Shellach". Hannay presumes that
this must be the house of Annabella's contact, whom she was trying to
meet and tell of the "39 steps". He arrives at the house of the seemingly
respectable Professor Jordan (Godfrey Tearle) and is let in after saying he
has been sent by Anabella Smith. He is introduced to Jordan's guests,
including the local Sheriff. The police arrive, but Jordan sends them away
and listens to Hannay's story. Jordan reveals that he is missing part of a
finger, and as Hannay realises his mistake, Jordan shoots him and leaves
him for dead.
Luckily, the bullet is stopped by the farmer's hymn book, left in his coat
pocket. Hannay drives into town and goes to the Sheriff, who disbelieves
the story since he knows Jordan well, and brings in the police. Hannay's
right wrist is handcuffed but he jumps through a window and escapes by
joining a march through the town. He tries to hide himself at a political
meeting, but is mistaken for the introductory speaker. He gives a rousing
impromptu speechwithout knowing a thing about the candidate he is
45

introducingbut is recognised by Pamela, who gives him up once more.

He is taken away by "policemen" who ask Pamela to accompany them.
They drive off, and her suspicions are aroused when they pass the town's
police station. The "policemen" say they have orders to go directly to
Inveraray, but Hannay realises they are agents of the conspiracy when
they take the wrong road at a junction. Hannay is handcuffed to Pamela
while the men try to disperse a flock of sheep blocking the road, but he
still manages to escape, dragging the unwilling Pamela along.
They make their way across the countryside and stay the night at an inn.
While he sleeps, Pamela manages to slip out of the handcuff, but then
overhears one of the fake policemen on the telephone; the conversation
confirms Hannay's assertions. She returns to the room and sleeps on a
sofa. The next morning, she tells him what she heard. He sends her to
London to warn the police. No secret documents have been reported
missing, however, so they do not believe her. Instead, they follow her to
get to Hannay.
Pamela leads them to Mr. Memory's show at the London Palladium.
When the performer is introduced, Hannay recognises his theme music
the annoyingly catchy tune he hasn't been able to forget for days.
Hannay puts two and two together and realises that the spies are using
Mr. Memory to smuggle the secrets out. As the police take him into
custody, he shouts out the question, "What are the 39 Steps?" Mr.
Memory compulsively begins to answer, "The 39 Steps is an organisation
of spies, collecting information on behalf of the Foreign Office of ..." Just
then, Jordan shoots him and tries to flee, but is apprehended. The dying
Mr. Memory recites the information stored in his braina design for a
silent aircraft engine.
46

Script notes

47

Secret Agent (1936 film)

British Captain and novelist Edgar Brodie (Gielgud) returns home on
leave during the First World War, only to discover his obituary in the
newspaper. He is brought to a man identifying himself only as "R", who
asks him to undertake a secret mission: to identify and eliminate a
German agent on his way to Arabia to stir up trouble in the Middle East.
Upon agreeing, Brodie is given a new identity (Richard Ashenden), a fake
death, and the assistance of a killer known variously as "the Hairless
Mexican" and "the General" (Lorre), though he is neither bald, Mexican
or a general.
Brodie's late "predecessor" thought that the enemy agent was staying at
the Hotel Excelsior in neutral Switzerland. When "Ashenden" arrives
there, he is surprised to find that "R" has also provided him with an
attractive wife, Elsa Carrington (Carroll). Entering their suite, he also
encounters her new admirer, fellow hotel guest Robert Marvin (Young),
who is only slightly deterred by the arrival of her husband (and continues
to flirt with Elsa for much of the film). When they are alone, Ashenden is
displeased when Elsa reveals she insisted upon the assignment for the
thrill of it.
Ashenden and the General go to contact a double agent, the church
organist, only to find him dead. In his hand, however, they find a button,
evidently torn off in the struggle. When they go to the casino to meet
Elsa, the button is accidentally dropped onto a gambling table. Since it
looks the same as his own buttons, Caypor assumes it is his.
48

The agents persuade experienced mountaineer Caypor to help them

settle a concocted bet: which one of them can climb higher on a nearby
mountain. As the moment approaches, Ashenden finds he is unable to
commit cold-blooded murder, but the General has no such qualms and
pushes the unsuspecting Caypor off a cliff.
However, a coded telegram informs them that Caypor is not their target.
The General finds it very funny, but Elsa becomes terribly distraught
when they are told. She decides to quit, despite having told Ashenden
that she fell in love with him at first sight. In the lobby, she encounters
Marvin. With no destination in mind, she persuades him to take her
along with him. Meanwhile, the other two bribe a worker at a chocolate
factory (the secret "German spy post office") to show them a very
important message received the day before. They discover that it is
addressed to none other than Marvin.
They set out in pursuit, taking the same train as Marvin and Elsa. Before
they can arrange anything, they cross the border into Turkey - enemy
territory - and a large number of soldiers board. Despite this, they
manage to get Marvin alone in his compartment. Elsa tries to persuade
them not to kill Marvin. Before Ashenden can do anything, one way or
the other, the train is attacked and derailed by airplanes sent by "R".
Marvin is pinned in the wreckage, but manages to fatally shoot the
General before dying. The "Ashendens" quit the spy business.

49

Script notes

50

Sabotage (1936 film)

Suddenly, London goes dark and loses all of its electricity. There is
commotion at a cinema, with people demanding their money back. The
owner of the cinema, Karl Verloc (Oscar Homolka), enters through a back
entrance to the living quarters above, and pretends to have been asleep
and not know anything of the blackout. His wife, Mrs. Verloc (Sylvia
Sidney) comes to get him and is surprised to see him, but he informs her
that he had been sleeping the entire time. He instructs his wife to return
the money to the customers -- against her protests -- because he has
"some money coming in." As the money is about to be disbursed to the
customers downstairs, the lights go back on. It is revealed that sand was
put in the boilersas an act of sabotage on London's electricity grid.
The next day, Verloc meets with his contact and it is revealed that he is
part of a gang
of terrorists from an unnamed European country who are planning a
series of attacks in London, though, their exact motives are not made
clear. Verloc's contact is disappointed that the newspapers mocked the
short loss of electricity, and instructs Verloc to place a parcel of
"firecrackers" at the Piccadilly London Undergroundstation. Verloc tells
the contact that he is not comfortable with any act that would cause the
loss of life.
Meanwhile, Scotland Yard suspects Verloc's involvement in the plot and
assigns Detective Sergeant Ted Spencer (John Loder) to investigate
Verloc. Spencer is initially undercover as
a greengrocer's helper next to the cinema, and befriends Mrs. Verloc and
51

her little brother, Stevie (Desmond Tester), who lives with them, by
treating them to a fancy dinner. At this point, Spencer and Scotland Yard
are unsure whether Mrs. Verloc is complicit in the terrorist plots or merely
innocently unaware.
Verloc goes to a bird shop to meet his contact, who is actually a bombmaker. The contact tells Verloc the time and place of where he is must
deliver the bomb -- all Verloc has to do is place the bomb at the Tube
station at 1:45 on Saturday, as it is actually a time bomb that will already
be set. Later that night, the associates of the terrorist group are having a
meeting in Verloc's living room above the cinema. Detective Spencer
attempts to eavesdrop on the conversation, but he is found. His cover is
blown by one of the terrorist associates, and Verloc realizes that the police
are investigating him. The meeting ends abruptly and the members
scatter, worried that they are all being followed. Verloc tells his wife the
police are investigating him, and he confirms with the greengrocer that
Spencer was with Scotland Yard.
The next day, the canaries are delivered to Verloc -- a present for Stevie -and the bomb is located within their cage. Detective Spencer shows up
with Stevie and tells Mrs. Verloc of Scotland Yard's suspicions that he is
involved in sabotage. Verloc sees his wife and Spencer talking, and
becomes nervous. Before Spencer comes to question Verloc, he tells
Stevie to deliver a film canister to the cloak room under Piccadilly Circus,
but he was unknowingly carrying the time bomb for Verloc. The boy had
become distracted along the way by street sideshows, which had delayed
its delivery, and thus, the bomb exploded en route to its final target.
Verloc confesses to his wife, but then blames Scotland Yard and Spencer
for Stevie's death, saying that they were the ones who prevented Verloc
52

from successfully carrying out the bomb delivery himself. Soon

afterwards, as Verloc and his wife are preparing to eat dinner, she stabs
him to death with a knife. When Spencer arrives to arrest Verloc he
realizes what has happened, but insists that she shouldn't admit that she
killed her husband. Nevertheless, she starts to confess her crime to a
policeman. Meanwhile, at this very moment, the terrorist bomb maker
sneaks into Verloc's room to retrieve the birdcage that had been used to
deliver the bomb out of fear that it might incriminate him. But as the
police surround the building, he detonates a bomber-coat he wears in
the event he is about to be caught. The explosion and fire interrupts Mrs.
Verloc's confession, destroying all evidence of her crime and effectively
preventing the policeman from remembering whether it was before or
after the explosion that she told him, "My husband is dead!"
At the end we see an uneasy Mrs. Verloc and Ted Spencer walk away
together through the crowd.

53

Script notes

54

Young and Innocent

Christine Clay (Pamela Carme), a successful actress, argues passionately
with her jealous ex- husband Guy (George Curzon), who makes particular
reference to Robert Tisdall, a young man staying near her at her retreat on
the English coast. Christine slaps him several times across the face, but
he hardly reacts, choosing instead to depart without a word.
The next morning, Robert Tisdall (Derrick De Marney) happens to be
walking along the seaside cliffs when Christine's body washes ashore. He
runs to get help and call the police, but two young swimmers arrive just
in time to see him racing away from the corpse. A belt from his raincoat,
which had just recently gone missing, is found next to the body, further
implicating him in her strangling. He is subsequently arrested and
becomes the main suspect, partly because of a large sum of money
Christine left to him in her will, a gift he was unaware of. Saddled with a
despondent barrister, Tisdall doubts if his innocence will ever be
established. He elects to take advantage of a crowded courthouse and
make his escape.
Tisdall coerces Erica Burgoyne (Nova Pilbeam), daughter of the local
police Chief Constable, to give him a ride in her Morris car. Though she is
initially unsure about her passenger, Burgoyne eventually becomes
convinced of his innocence and elects to help him in any way that she
can. They are eventually spotted together, forcing both to stay on the run.
Tisdall tries to prove his innocence by tracking down the stolen coat.
The duo succeed in tracking down Old Will (Edward Rigby), a sociable
china-mender and bum that was known to have received Tisdall's coat.
He agrees to help them find the man who gave him the coat;
55

unfortunately, all that Old Will can remember about the man is his
distinctive eye twitch.
Upon searching the pockets of the coat, Erica finds a box of matches from
the Grand Hotel, a place Tisdall has never been to. She is separated from
the group, however, and taken in by the police. Upon realising that his
daughter has fully allied herself with the murder suspect, her father
chooses to resign his position as Chief Constable rather than arrest her
for assisting Tisdall. Nonetheless, Erica and Old Will go to the Grand Hotel
together, hoping to find the true murderer. In a memorably long,
continuous sequence, the camera moves forward through the hotel
ballroom, finally focusing on the drummer in a dance band performing
in blackface. Recognizing Old Will in the audience, and seeing policemen
nearby (unaware that they have followed Old Will in the hopes of finding
Tisdall), the man performs poorly due to fear and a drug he has been
taking to try to control the twitching, and is berated by the musical
conductor. Eventually the drummer faints in the middle of a
performance, drawing the attention of Erica and the policemen.
Immediately after being revived and confronted, he confesses his crime
and begins laughing hysterically.

56

Script notes

57

The Lady Vanishes (1938 film)

English tourist Iris Henderson (Margaret Lockwood) arrives at the
"Gasthof Petrus" inn in the fictitious country of Bandrika, "one of
Europe's few undiscovered corners". Iris is returning to Britain to marry a
"blue-blooded cheque chaser", but an avalanche has blocked the railway
line. The stranded passengers are forced to stay the night at the inn,
including Charters and Caldicott, cricket enthusiasts who want to return
to England to see the last days of the Test match.
That evening, Iris complains about loud folk music coming from the room
above her. She has Gilbert (Michael Redgrave), the guilty musician,
thrown out of his room, only to have him move into hers, forcing her to
capitulate.
Miss Froy (Dame May Whitty), a former governess and music teacher,
listens to a tune performed by a folk singer under her window. Unseen by
her, the singer is killed.
The next morning, before catching the train, Iris is hit on the head by a
planter apparently aimed at Miss Froy, who then helps Iris onto the train.
Also on board are Charters and Caldicott, Gilbert, and a lawyer named
Todhunter and his mistress "Mrs. Todhunter". As a result of her injury, Iris
blacks out. After the train is moving, Iris wakes up in a compartment with
Miss Froy and several strangers. She joins Miss Froy in the dining car for
tea. Unable to be heard above the train noise, the elderly lady writes her
name on the window with her finger. Soon after, they return to their
compartment, where Iris falls asleep.

58

When Iris awakens, Miss Froy has vanished. The strangers in her
compartment say they know nothing about an English lady. Even
Todhunter in the next compartment, who spoke with Miss Froy earlier,
pretends not to remember her. Iris searches, but cannot find her. She
meets up with Gilbert, who agrees to help. Dr. Hartz (Paul Lukas), a brain
surgeon, says Iris may be suffering from concussion-related
hallucinations. Charters and Caldicott also claim not to remember Miss
Froy, because they are afraid a delay would make them miss the cricket
match.
Another lady appears, dressed exactly like Miss Froy, but Iris and Gilbert
continue to search. They are attacked by a knife-wielding magician,
Signor Doppo. They start to suspect that Dr. Hartz's patient, whose face is
covered by bandages, is Miss Froy. Dr. Hartz tells his fellow conspirator,
dressed as a nun, to kill the couple; convinced they will soon be dead, he
admits to being involved in the conspiracy. The false nun does not follow
Hartz's instructions out of loyalty to her fellow countrywoman; Gilbert
and Iris escape, free Miss Froy and replace her with one of the
conspirators.
When the train stops near the border, Dr. Hartz discovers the switch. He
has part of the train diverted onto a branch line, where soldiers await.
Gilbert and Iris inform their fellow passengers what is happening. When
the train pulls to a stop, a uniformed soldier requests that they all
accompany him. Todhunter attempts to surrender, waving a white
handkerchief, and is shot dead. Another soldier fires and wounds
Charters in the hand.
During the gunfight, Miss Froy reveals to Gilbert and Iris that she is a
British agent who must deliver a message to the Foreign Office in
59

Whitehall. The message is encoded in the tune that the folk singer sang.
Gilbert memorises the tune. With his help, Miss Froy slips away into the
forest. Gilbert and Caldicott then commandeer the locomotive, and the
group escape across the border.
In London, Charters and Caldicott discover the Test Match was cancelled.
Iris jumps into a cab with Gilbert in order to avoid her fianc, and Gilbert
kisses her. They arrive at the Foreign Office, but Gilbert is unable to
remember the vital tune. Then he hears the melody on the piano; they
are joyfully reunited with Miss Froy.

60

Script notes

61

Jamaica Inn (film)

Jamaica Inn is the headquarters of a gang of wreckers led by the
innkeeper Joss Merlyn (Leslie Banks). The wreckers are responsible for a
series of engineered shipwrecks in which they extinguish coastal warning
beacons to cause ships to run aground on the rocky Cornish coast. Then
they kill the surviving sailors and steal the cargo from the wrecks.
Young, beautiful Mary Yellen (Maureen O'Hara) is travelling to Jamaica
Inn in a carriage, but the driver is afraid to stop there and drives a long
way past the inn in spite of her repeated demands that he stop. Instead,
he drops her off near the home of the local squire and justice of the
peace, Sir Humphrey Pengallan (Charles Laughton). She meets him and
requests the loan of a horse so she can go back to Jamaica Inn. Pengallan
warns her not to go there. Nevertheless, Mary says she just came from
Ireland, and as the orphaned niece of Joss's wife Patience (Marie Ney),
she intends to live at Jamaica Inn. The next day, Pengallan accompanies
Mary to Jamaica Inn.
When Joss meets Mary, he tries to kiss her and push himself on her.
Patience is distraught to learn her sister, Mary's mother, has died. When
Mary tells Joss that Pengallan has accompanied her to Jamaica Inn, Joss
goes upstairs and reports to Pengallan. We learn that Pengallan is the
secret criminal mastermind behind the wrecking gang, who finds out
when well-laden ships are passing near the coast, determines when and
where the wrecks are to be done, disposes of the stolen cargo, and uses
the booty to support his lavish lifestyle, passing a small fraction of the
takings back to Joss and the gang.

62

In another part of the inn, the gang convenes to discuss why they get so
little money for their efforts. They suspect Jem Traherne (Robert Newton),
a gang member who has been with them for only two months, of
embezzling goods. They hang him from one of the rafters of the inn, but
Mary cuts the rope afterwards and saves his life. Together, Traherne and
Mary flee from the gang. They are almost recaptured and have to swim
for their lives in order to escape.
They seek the protection of Pengallan, unaware that Pengallan is the
secret leader of Joss's gang. Traherne reveals to Pengallan that he is
actually an undercover law-officer on a mission to investigate the wrecks.
Pengallan is alarmed, but he maintains his composure and pretends to
join forces with Traherne. Mary overhears this conversation and goes to
the inn to warn Patience that law enforcement knows about the wrecking
gang and that she must flee in order to avoid being arrested as an
accomplice. However, Patience refuses to leave her husband. Traherne
and Pengallan also go to the Inn to search for evidence. While Traherne is
searching the Inn, Joss and the gang return. Pengallan takes Joss aside
and tells him a wreck must be performed immediately because he needs
the money to escape to France now that the gang's activity has come to
the attention of law enforcement. He advises Joss to go into hiding as
well as soon as the wreck is complete. Joss and the gang go to do the
wreck, leaving Traherne tied up. Joss also pretends to tie up Pengallan as
a ploy to fool Traherne, but he secretly leaves Pengallan's hands free.
After the gang leaves, Pengallan releases himself from his bonds and
reveals himself to Traherne. He gives Patience a loaded pistol and
instructs her to shoot Traherne if he gets loose. Pengallen then leaves.
Traherne reasons with Patience, and promises to let her and Joss escape
if she releases him. She agrees and unties him. He sets out for a nearby
military camp to get backup. Meanwhile, Mary goes to the wrecking site,
63

and re-lights the warning beacon which the wreckers had extinguished.
The crew of the ship see the beacon and turn away; the ship does not
wreck. The gang capture Mary and resolve to kill her for preventing the
wreck. Joss rescues her and the two escape by horse-cart, but Joss is shot
in the back while escaping and collapses when they reach Jamaica Inn. As
Patience is about to tell Mary that Pengallan is the secret leader of the
wrecking gang, Pengallan shoots and kills Patience from offstage. Joss
then dies of his wound as well. While Mary is reeling from the shock of
witnessing these two violent deaths, Pengallan reveals himself to her,
takes her hostage, ties her hands behind her back, gags her, and tells her
that he plans to keep her and take care of her now that she has no one
else in the world. He drives her, still tied up and covered by a heavy cloak,
to the harbor and they board a ship bound for France.
The gang returns to Jamaica Inn to find Joss and Patience dead. Just
then, Traherne arrives with a posse of soldiers, who take the gang into
custody. Traherne goes to the harbor with some of his soldiers to rescue
Mary, and Pengallan is cornered on the ship. He climbs to the top of a
mast, where he clumsily drops his gun. As Traherne's soldiers climb up
after him, he jumps to his death, shouting "Make way for Pengallan!" As
Traherne leads Mary away from the scene, Pengallan's horrified butler
(Horace Hodges) is left wondering to himself, with a memory of
Pengallan's voice ringing in his ears.

64

Script notes

65

Rebecca (1940 film)

A nave young woman (Joan Fontaine), whose name is never mentioned,
is in Monte Carlo working as a paid companion to Edythe Van Hopper
(Florence Bates) when she meets the aristocratic but brooding widower
Maximilian "Maxim" de Winter (Laurence Olivier). They fall in love, and
within two weeks they are married.
She is now the second "Mrs. de Winter"; Maxim takes her back to
Manderley, his country house in Cornwall. The housekeeper, Mrs.
Danvers (Judith Anderson), is domineering and cold, and is obsessed
with the beauty, intelligence and sophistication of the first Mrs. de
Winter, the eponymous Rebecca, preserving her former bedroom as a
shrine. Rebecca's so-called "cousin", Jack Favell (George Sanders), visits
the house while Maxim is away.
The new Mrs. de Winter is intimidated by her responsibilities and begins
to doubt her relationship with her husband. The continuous reminders of
Rebecca overwhelm her; she believes that Maxim is still deeply in love
with his first wife. She also discovers that her husband sometimes
becomes very angry at her for apparently insignificant actions.
Trying to be the perfect wife, the young Mrs. de Winter convinces Maxim
to hold a costume party, as he had done with Rebecca. The heroine wants
to plan her own costume, but Mrs. Danvers suggests she copy the
beautiful outfit in the ancestral portrait of Caroline de Winter. At the party,
when the costume is revealed, Maxim is appalled; Rebecca wore the
same outfit at the ball a year ago, shortly before her death.

66

The heroine confronts Danvers, who tells her she can never take
Rebecca's place, and almost manages to convince her to jump to her
death. An airborne flare reveals that a ship has hit the rocks. The heroine
rushes outside, where she hears that during the rescue a sunken boat has
been found with Rebecca's body in it.
Maxim admits to his new wife that he had earlier misidentified another
body as Rebecca's, in order to conceal the truth. His first marriage, until
now viewed by the world as ideal, was in fact a sham. At the very
beginning of their marriage Rebecca had told Maxim she intended to
continue the scandalous life she had previously lived. He hated her for
this, but they agreed to an arrangement: in public she would pretend to
be the perfect wife and hostess, and he would ignore Rebecca's
promiscuity. However, Rebecca grew careless, including an ongoing affair
with her "cousin" Jack Favell. One night, Rebecca told Maxim she was
pregnant with Favell's child. During the ensuing heated argument she
fell, hit her head and died. Maxim took the body out in her boat, which
he then scuttled.
Shedding the remnants of her girlish innocence, Maxim's wife coaches
her husband how to conceal the mode of Rebecca's death from the
authorities. In the police investigation, deliberate damage to the boat
points to suicide. However Favell shows Maxim a note from Rebecca
which appears to prove she was not suicidal; Favell tries to blackmail
Maxim. Maxim tells the police, and then falls under suspicion of murder.
The investigation reveals Rebecca's secret visit to a London doctor (Leo G.
Carroll), which Favell assumes was due to her illicit pregnancy. However,
the police interview with the doctor establishes that Rebecca was not
actually pregnant; the doctor had told her she was suffering from a latestage cancer instead.
67

The coroner renders a finding of suicide. Only Frank Crawley (Maxim's

best friend and manager of the estate), Maxim, and his wife know the full
story: that Rebecca told Maxim she was pregnant with another man's
child in order to try to goad him into killing her, an indirect means of
suicide that would also have ensured her husband's ruination and
possible execution.
As Maxim returns home from London to Manderley, he sees that the
manor is on fire, set alight by the deranged Mrs. Danvers. The second
Mrs. de Winter and the staff escape the blaze, but Danvers is killed when
a floor collapses. Finally a silk nightdress case on Rebecca's bed, with a
beautifully embroidered "R", is consumed by flames.

68

Script notes

69

Foreign Correspondent (film)

The editor of the New York Globe, Mr. Powers (Harry Davenport), is
concerned about the "crisis" in Europe, the growing power of Adolf
Hitler and Nazi Germany, and the inability of celebrated foreign
correspondents to get answers about whether or not war will ensue.
After searching for a good, tough crime reporter for a fresh viewpoint,
he appoints Johnny Jones (Joel McCrea) as a foreign correspondent,
under the pen name Huntley Haverstock.
The reporter's first assignment is Stephen Fisher (Herbert Marshall),
leader of the Universal Peace Party, at an event held by Fisher in
honour of a Dutch diplomat named Van Meer (Albert Bassermann). On
the way to the party, Haverstock sees Van Meer entering the car that is
to take him to the party, and runs to interview him; Van Meer invites
him to ride along. At the party, Haverstock meets Fisher's daughter,
Carol (Laraine Day). Van Meer disappears mysteriously. Later, Fisher
informs the guests that Van Meer, who was supposed to be the guest
of honor, will not be attending the party; instead he will be at a
political conference in Amsterdam.
At the conference, Van Meer is shot in front of a large crowd by a man
disguised as a photographer. Haverstock commandeers a car to follow
the assassin's getaway car. The car he jumps into happens to have in it
Carol and Scott ffolliott (George Sanders), another reporter, who
explains that the capital letter in his surname was dropped in memory
of an executed ancestor. The group follows the assassin to a windmill
in the countryside.

70

While Carol and ffolliott go for help, Haverstock searches the windmill
and finds a live Van Meer; the man who was killed was an impostor.
The old man has been drugged and is unable to tell Haverstock
anything. Haverstock is forced to flee when the kidnappers become
aware of him. By the time the police arrive, the villains have escaped
with Van Meer in an airplane.
Later, back at Haverstock's hotel room, two spies dressed as policemen
arrive to kidnap him. When he suspects who they really are, he escapes
out the window and into Carol Fisher's room.
Haverstock and Carol board a British boat to England, and while a
furious storm thunders overhead, he proposes to her. In England, they
go to Carol's father's house, where Haverstock sees a man whom he
recognizes as one of the men at the windmill. He informs Fisher, but
Fisher ignores him and promises that he will send a bodyguard to
protect him. The bodyguard, Rowley (Edmund Gwenn), repeatedly tries
to kill Haverstock. When the assassin tries to push him off the top of
the Westminster Cathedral tower, Haverstock steps aside and Rowley
plunges to his death.
Haverstock and ffolliott are convinced that Fisher is a traitor, so they
come up with a plan: Haverstock will take Carol to the countryside, and
ffolliott will pretend she has been kidnapped to force Fisher to divulge
Van Meer's location. After a misunderstanding with Haverstock, Carol
returns to London. Just as Fisher is about to fall for ffolliott's bluff, he
hears her car pull up.
Fisher heads to a hotel where Van Meer is being held with ffolliott on
his tail. Just as Van Meer is being forced to divulge the information the
organization wants, ffolliott distracts the interrogators. When
71

Haverstock arrives, Fisher and his bodyguards escape, leaving Van

Meer behind. Van Meer is rushed to the hospital in a coma.
England and France declare war on Germany. While Haverstock, ffoliott
and the Fishers are on
a Short Empireplane to America, Fisher confesses his misdeeds to his
daughter. Carol believes Haverstock does not really love her but only
used her to pursue her father. Haverstock protests that he was just
doing his job as a reporter. Seconds later, the plane is shelled by a
German destroyer and crashes into the ocean. The survivors perch on
the floating wing of the downed plane. Realizing that it cannot support
everyone, Fisher sacrifices himself by allowing himself to drown. Jones
and ffolliott attempt to save him, but are unsuccessful. They are
rescued by an American ship, the Mohican. Jones, ffoliott, and Carol
surreptitiously communicate the story by phone to Mr. Powers over the
objections of the captain, who refuses to allow this abuse of ship's
communications. In London, Haverstock and Carol broadcast via radio
to the United States a description of London being bombed, warning
them that the war will affect them all.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941 film)
Ann (Carole Lombard) and David Smith (Robert Montgomery) are a
married couple living in New York who, though happy, often have
fights that last for days before they lovingly reconcile. One morning,
Ann asks David if he had to do it over again, would he marry her? To
her disappointment, although he is very happy with her now and
wouldn't marry someone else, he answers that he would not. Later that
day, Harry Deever (Charles Halton), an Idaho county official informs
72

David that due to a jurisdictional mishap, their three-year-old marriage

license from Idaho is not valid. Since Deever is a family acquaintance
of Ann's from Idaho, he stops by their apartment to tell Ann and her
mother (Esther Dale) the same thing. Ann does not mention this to
David, and thinks he will remarry her that very night, as he just invited
her out to a romantic dinner at the fancy restaurant they ate at before
they were married. When they arrive at the restaurant, however, they
realize that the restaurant has turned into a seedy joint, and they head
home. When Ann feels she has given David long enough to propose
and leave to get married, she confronts him and accuses him of not
wanting to marry her again. While David protests and says he was
going to ask her shortly, Ann dismisses that and kicks him out of their
apartment.
David spends the night at his club, but when he goes home after work
the next day, he is not allowed entry by her maid. David waits in the
lobby and sees Ann return with an older gentleman suitor. An angry
and disheartened David takes to following Ann around, telling her he
will not support her, then getting her fired from a new job she has just
taken (as it turns out, the older gentleman suitor is her boss). Ann tells
David she has no intention of ever marrying him.
David's friend and law partner, Jefferson "Jeff" Custer (Gene
Raymond), tells David he will talk to Ann and persuade her to remarry.
However, when David shows up later that evening, he finds that Jeff
has instead decided to "represent" Ann in the separation. To add insult
to injury, Jeff asks Ann to dinner the following night in front of David.
David tells Ann if she goes on the date, "We're through," but Ann
accepts the invitation.
73

After dinner, Ann and Jeff leave and go to the fair, but become stuck on
the parachute ride and are forced to sit through hours of rain many
feet up in the air. When they get back to Jeff's apartment, he dresses to
go back out, but Ann gives him a lot of liquor to drink "medicinally"
even though he is ateetotaler. As Jeff becomes increasingly more
drunk, Ann leaves for the night.
Ann and Jeff begin to date seriously, and Ann meets Jeff's parents.
They decide to take a vacation with Jeff's parents at a Lake Placid skiing
resort the same resort where Ann and David had earlier been
planning to holiday. Upon arriving at the resort, they find that David
has rented a cabin right next to them, but when confronted, David
simply faints. David spends the next few hours pretending to be sick
and delirious while Ann fawns over him, but when Ann discovers his
deception, she yells at him and leaves. They argue once again, and
while yelling at each other, Jeff walks in. He knows Ann and David are
meant for each other, as Ann, still playing out her scheme, then insults
and berates Jeff for not beating up David.
Ann decides she wants to get away to the lodge by ski, even though
she does not know how to ski. Seated while she puts on the skis, David
offers to help her, but instead lifts up her legs so that she cannot stand
up from being on upright skis. As she struggles while threatening him
in anger, she frees one ski, but then she is feigning helplessness, by
reattaching the ski to her foot. David sees this too, and while she
pretend rants at him, he bends down and kisses her, silencing her.
Suspicion (1941 film)

74

Handsome, irresponsible playboy Johnnie Aysgarth (Cary Grant) meets

dowdy Lina McLaidlaw (Joan Fontaine) on a train, and charms her into
running away and marrying him, despite the strong disapproval of her
wealthy father, General McLaidlaw (Sir Cedric Hardwicke). After a lavish
honeymoon and returning to an extravagant house, Lina discovers that
Johnnie has no job, no income, habitually lives on borrowed money,
and was intending to try to sponge off her father. She talks him into
getting a job, and he goes to work for his cousin, estate agent Captain
Melbeck (Leo G. Carroll).
Gradually, Lina learns that Johnnie has continued to gamble wildly,
despite promising to quit, and that in order to pay a gambling debt he
sold two antique chairs (family heirlooms) that her father had given
her as a wedding present. Beaky (Nigel Bruce), Johnnie's goodnatured but naive friend, tries to reassure Lina that her husband is a lot
of fun and a highly entertaining liar. She repeatedly catches Johnnie in
ever more significant lies, discovering that he was fired weeks before
for embezzling from his cousin Melbeck, who says he will not
prosecute if the money is repaid.
Lina writes a letter to Johnnie that she is leaving him but then tears it
up. After this Johnnie enters the room and shows her a telegram
announcing her father's death. Johnnie is severely disappointed to
discover that Lina has inherited no money, only her father's portrait.
He convinces Beaky to finance a hugely speculative land development
scheme. Lina is afraid this is a confidence trick or worse, and tries to
talk Beaky out of it, but he trusts his friend completely. Johnnie
overhears and angrily warns his wife to stay out of his affairs, but later
he calls the whole thing off. When Beaky leaves for Paris, Johnnie
75

accompanies him partway. Later, news reaches Lina that Beaky died in
Paris. Johnnie lies to her and an investigating police inspector, saying
that he stayed in London. This and other details lead Lina to suspect he
was responsible for Beaky's death.
Lina then begins to fear that her husband is plotting to kill her for her
life insurance. He has been questioning her friend Isobel Sedbusk
(Auriol Lee), a writer of mystery novels, about untraceable poisons.
Johnnie brings Lina a glass of milk before bed, but she is too afraid to
drink it. Needing to get away for a while, she says she will stay with her
mother for a few days. Johnnie insists on
driving her there. He speeds recklessly in a powerful convertible (a
1936 Lagonda LG45[2]) on a dangerous road beside a cliff. Lina's door

unexpectedly swings open. Johnnie reaches over, his intent unclear to

the terrified woman. When she shrinks from him, he stops the car.
In the subsequent confrontation, it emerges that Johnnie was actually
intending to
commit suicide after taking Lina to her mother's. Now however, he has
decided that suicide is the coward's way out, and is resolved to face his
responsibilities, even to the point of going to jail for the
embezzlement. He was in Liverpool at the time of Beaky's death, trying
to borrow on Linas life insurance policy in order to repay Melbeck. Her
suspicions allayed, Lina tells him that they will face the future together.
Saboteur (film)
During World War II, aircraft factory worker Barry Kane (Robert
Cummings) is accused of starting a fire at the Stewart Aircraft Works in
76

Glendale, California, an act of sabotage that killed his friend Mason

(Virgil Summers). Kane believes the real culprit is a man named Fry
(Norman Lloyd) who, during their efforts to put out the fire, handed
him a fire extinguisher filled with gasoline, that he passed on to
Mason. When the investigators find no one named "Fry" on the list of
plant workers, they assume Kane is guilty.
Earlier, on the way to lunch, Kane and Mason had seen Fry's name on
an envelope he dropped. Kane remembers the address, and heads out
to a ranch in the High Desert. The ranch owner, Charles Tobin (Otto
Kruger), appears to be a well-respected citizen, but reveals that he is
working with the saboteurs. Tobin's young granddaughter hands mail
to Kane that reveals Fry has gone to Soda City, while Tobin has called
the sheriff. Kane escapes the police, taking refuge with a kind blind
man (Vaughan Glaser) whose visiting niece, Patricia "Pat" Martin
(Priscilla Lane) is a model famous for appearing on billboards.
Although her uncle asks her to take Kane to the
local blacksmith shop to have his handcuffs removed, she attempts to
take him to the police. Kane kidnaps Martin, protesting his innocence.
When she stops the car and threatens to stop the first car that comes
by, he uses the fan belt pulley of her car's generator to break apart his
handcuffs, causing the car to overheat and break down.
As night falls, the couple stow away on a circus train. The circus
performers recognize them as fugitives but decide to shield them from
the police. Kane and Martin reach the Soda City ghost town, where the
saboteurs are preparing to blow up Boulder Dam. Kane is discovered
by the saboteurs, but conceals Martin and convinces the saboteurs that
he is allied with them. After finding their plan to destroy the dam
77

foiled, Kane convinces the saboteurs to remove his manacles and take
him with them to New York. He learns of their plan to sabotage the
launching of a
new U.S. Navy battleship at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Kane's
performance fooled Martin as well; she contacts the authorities,
hoping to get to New York to foil the saboteurs' plans.
The saboteurs reach New York but find the phone at their office
disconnected, indicating the police are on to them. They meet with
New York dowager Mrs. Sutton (Alma Kruger) and other conspirators at
her mansion, during a grand society party. Kane finds the captured
Martin, who was betrayed by a corrupt sheriff. As Kane attempts to
signal her to escape, Tobin arrives. He recognizes Kane and exposes
him. Tobin has Kane knocked out and locked in the mansion's cellar.
Martin is imprisoned in an office at Rockefeller Center. The next
morning, Kane triggers a fire alarm at the mansion and escapes.
Martin drops a note from the office window, which is found by some
cabdrivers.
Kane reaches the Navy Yard, but only a few minutes before the
launching. Rather than wait to explain to the Yard authorities, he
rushes out to search for the saboteurs. He spots Fry in a
fake newsreel camera truck, prepared to blow up the slipway during
the launching. Their struggle prevents Fry from detonating the
explosion until seconds after the launch of the
USS Alaska battleship. [Note 1]
Fry takes Kane prisoner, and with his two accomplices returns to the
Rockefeller Center office. The police and FBI, alerted by Martin's note,
78

are waiting for them. The accomplices are caught, but Fry dodges into
the back of an adjacent movie theater (Radio City Music Hall). He
shoots a man in the audience, and escapes in the panic. In front of the
theater, Kane sees Fry get into a taxi. Still holding Kane in custody, the
FBI refuse to follow Fry, so Kane tells Martin to shadow the saboteur.
She follows Fry onto the ferry to Liberty Island, attracting his attention,
and then to the Statue of Liberty. She calls the FBI, and at their
direction, goes into the statue to find Fry and distract him. In the
viewing room in the statue's head, She strikes up a conversation with
Fry, stalling him until Kane and the FBI arrive.
Kane escapes his escort and encounters Martin, who tells him that Fry
is escaping. Kane pursues Fry onto the viewing platform on the torch.
When Kane emerges from the tunnel he confronts Fry. Falling over the
platform's railing, Fry clings to the statue's hand. Kane climbs down to
apprehend Fry. As the police and FBI agent reach the platform,
watching from the railing, Fry's grip slips. Kane grabs the sleeve of
Fry's jacket. The stitching gives way, and Fry falls to his death. Kane
climbs back up and embraces Martin.
Shadow of a Doubt
Charlotte "Charlie" Newton is a bored teenager living in the idyllic
town of Santa Rosa, California. She receives wonderful news: her
mother's
One night, when Charlie's father and Herbie discuss how to commit
the perfect murder, Uncle Charlie lets his guard down and describes
elderly widows as "fat, wheezing animals"; he then says, "What
happens to animals when they get too fat and too old?" Horrified,
79

Charlie runs out. Uncle Charlie follows and takes her into a seedy bar.
He admits he is one of the two suspects. He begs her for help; she
reluctantly agrees not to say anything, as long as he leaves soon, to
avoid a horrible confrontation that would destroy her mother, who
idolizes her younger brother. Detective Saunders tells Charlie that the
photo they took of Uncle Charlie was sent for identification by
witnesses. News breaks that an alternative suspect was chased by
police and killed by an airplane propeller; it is assumed that he was
the murderer. Jack tells young Charlie that he loves her and would like
to marry her, and leaves.
Uncle Charlie is delighted to be exonerated, but young Charlie knows
all his secrets. Soon, she falls down dangerously steep stairs which
were cut through. Uncle Charlie says he wants to settle down, and
young Charlie says she will kill him if he stays. Later that night, she is
trapped in the garage with a car spewing exhaust fumes, and almost
dies.
Uncle Charlie announces he is leaving for San Francisco, along with a
rich widow, Mrs. Potter. Young Charlie boards the train with her
younger sister Ann and their brother to see Uncle Charlie's
compartment. As the children disembark, Uncle Charlie restrains his
niece Charlie on the train, hoping to kill her by shoving her out after it
picks up speed. In the ensuing struggle, he falls in front of an
oncoming train. At his funeral, Uncle Charlie is honored by the
townspeople. Jack has returned, and Charlie confesses that she
withheld crucial information. They resolve to keep Uncle Charlie's
crimes secret.
Lifeboat (film)
80

Several British and US civilians, service members and merchant

marines are stuck in a lifeboat in theNorth Atlantic after their ship and
a U-boat sink each other in combat. Willi (Walter Slezak), a German
survivor, is pulled aboard and denies being the U-boat's captain.
During an animated debate, Kovac (John Hodiak) demands the
German be thrown out to drown. However, the others object, with
Stanley (Hume Cronyn), wealthy industrialist Rittenhouse (Henry Hull)
and columnist Connie Porter (Tallulah Bankhead), who speaks German,
succeeding in arguing that he be allowed to stay. Porter, initially alone
in the boat, had managed to bring her luggage with her, and her
primary concern at first is a run in her stocking. She is thrilled at having
filmed the battle between the two vessels, but her movie camera is the
first in a series of her possessions to be lost overboard in a succession
of incidents.
Among the passengers is a young British woman (Heather Angel)
whose infant child is dead when they are pulled from the water. After
being treated by a U.S. Army nurse, Alice (Mary Anderson), she must be
tied down to stop her from hurting herself. The woman, to whom
Porter had loaned her mink coat, sneaks off the boat while the other
passengers sleep, drowning herself in the night, taking Porter's fur
with her. Willi is revealed to be the U-boat captain.
The film then follows the lifeboat inhabitants as they attempt to
organize their rations, set a course forBermuda, and coexist as they try
to survive. The characters start out being good-natured, cooperative,
and optimistic about rescue. However, they descend into desperation,
dehydration, and frustration with each other. The back stories of the
characters are examined, and divisions of race, religion, sex, class, and
nationality are brought to the surface. The passengers also cooperate
81

through this stress, such as when they must amputate the leg of one of
their boatmates, the German-American Gus Smith (Bendix), due to
gangrene.
Kovac takes charge, rationing the little food and water they have, but
Willi, who has been consulting a concealed compass and reveals that
he speaks English, wrests control away from him in a storm. One
morning, while the others are sleeping, Smith, who had resorted to
drinking seawater, catches Willi drinking water from a hidden flask.
Too delirious to be taken seriously by the drowsing survivors, Gus is
pushed overboard by Willi and drowns. Upon waking, the others
discover Gus missing and Willi is questioned. When they notice that
the German is sweating, the other passengers discover the hoarded
flask in his jacket. In a spasm of anger led by Alice, they descend upon
him as a group, beat him, and throw him overboard. Rittenhouse
strikes him multiple times with Gus's boot to prevent him from reboarding and, utterly disillusioned by Willi's behavior, laments, "What
do you do with people like that?"
The survivors are subsequently spotted by the German supply ship to
which Willi had been steering them. Before a launch can pick them up,
both it and the supply ship are sunk by gunfire from an Allied warship
over the horizon. A frightened young German seaman is pulled aboard
the lifeboat. The surviving passengers debate whether to keep him
aboard or throw him off to drown as they await rescue by an
approaching Allied vessel. The German sailor pulls a gun on the boat
occupants but is surprised and disarmed. He asks in German, "Aren't
you going to kill me?" Kovac muses, "'Aren't you going to kill me?'
What do you do with people like that?
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Aventure Malgache
Paul Clarus, a French actor (played by "Paul Clarus") is chatting with his
fellow actors (the "Molire Players") as they put on their makeup
before a performance. He reminisces about a very unpleasant Vichy
official, the Chef de la Sret, (Paul Bonifas) that he knew when he was
part of theResistance on the island of Madagascar during the Second
World War. The events on Madagascar are shown in flashback.
Paul Clarus pretended to be loyal to the Vichy official, while he
simultaneously worked as the head of the Resistance movement. He
ran an illegal pro-Resistance radio station "Madagascar Libre", and
helped arrange numerous boats to take loyal Frenchmen out of the
island to safety. Finally when the Vichy government falls, we see that
the Vichy official is nothing but a turncoat; in his office he rapidly
replaces a portrait of Marshal Philippe Ptain with a portrait of Queen
Victoria, and he changes his bottle of Vichy water for bottles of Scotch
and soda water.
Bon Voyage (1944 film)
The story is told in flashback, once from the perspective of the
protagonist, and then a second time with a deeper understanding that
is provided by the intelligence officer in London.
A Scotsman, a downed Royal Air Force air gunner who was previously a
prisoner of war explains how he travelled with great difficulty through
German-occupied France. He was accompanied most of the way by a
companion who was another escaped prisoner of war, and they were
both aided by various courageous Resistance workers. His companion
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gave him a letter to deliver once he reached London, supposedly a very

personal and private letter.
However, when we see the Intelligence officer's explanation of the
same events, it becomes clear that the gunner's companion, who was
supposedly helping him along, was in fact a Gestapo spy, who
murdered several of the Resistance fighters and reported the rest to
the authorities, and that the "personal letter" the gunner was going to
deliver in London contains secret information that would have helped
the enemy.
Spellbound (1945 film)
The Fault... is Not in Our Stars, But in Ourselves...
William Shakespeare
The film opens with Shakespeare's proverb, and words on the screen
announcing that its purpose
is to highlight the virtues of psychoanalysis in banishing mental
illness and restoring reason.
Dr. Constance Petersen (Ingrid Bergman) is a psychoanalyst at Green
Manors, a mental
hospital inVermont, and is perceived by the other (male) doctors as
detached and emotionless. Another one of the doctors tries to kiss her
to no effect. The director of the hospital, Dr. Murchison (Leo G. Carroll),
is being forced into retirement, shortly after returning from an absence
due to nervous exhaustion. His replacement is the much younger Dr.
Anthony Edwardes (Gregory Peck).
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Dr. Petersen and others notice that there is something strange about
Dr. Edwardes. He has a peculiarphobia about seeing sets of parallel
lines against a white background, first displayed after seeing a
diagram drawn with the tines of a fork on a tablecloth. Dr. Petersen
soon realizes, by comparing handwriting, that this man is an impostor.
He confides to her that he killed Dr. Edwardes and took his place. He
suffers from massive amnesia and does not know who he is. Dr.
Petersen believes that he is innocent and suffering from a guilt
complex.
'Dr. Edwardes' disappears during the night, having left a note for Dr.
Petersen saying that he is going to the Empire State Hotel in New York
City. At the same time, it becomes public knowledge that 'Dr.
Edwardes' is an impostor, and that the real Dr. Edwardes is missing and
may have been murdered.
Dr. Petersen goes to the Empire State Hotel to try to track him down.
Finding him, she starts to use her psychoanalytic training to unlock his
amnesia to find out what had really happened. Pursued by the police,
Dr. Petersen and the impostor (who now calls himself 'John Brown')
travel by train toRochester, New York to meet Dr. Brulov (Michael
Chekhov), who is Dr. Petersen's mentor and former teacher.
The two doctors analyze a dream that 'John Brown' had. The dream
sequence (designed
by Salvador Dal) is full of psychoanalytic symbolseyes, curtains,
scissors, playing cards (some of them blank), a man with no face, a
man falling off a building, a man hiding behind a chimney and
dropping a wheel, and being pursued by large wings. They deduce
that Brown and Edwardes had been on a ski trip together (the lines in
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white being ski tracks) and that Edwardes had somehow died there. Dr.
Petersen and Brown go to the Gabriel Valley ski resort (the wings
provide a clue) to reenact the event and unlock his repressed
memories.
Near the bottom of the hill, Brown's memory suddenly returns. He
recalls that there is a precipice in front of them, over which Edwardes
had fallen to his death. He stops them just in time. He also remembers
a traumatic event from his childhoodhe slid down a hand rail with his
brother at the bottom, accidentally knocking him onto sharp-pointed
railings, killing him. This incident had caused him to develop amnesia
and a generalized guilt complex. He also remembers that his real
name is John Ballantyne. All is understood now, and Ballantyne is
about to be exonerated, when it is discovered that Edwardes had a
bullet in his body. Ballantyne is convicted of murder and sent to
prison.
A heartbroken Dr. Petersen returns to her position at the hospital,
where Dr. Murchison is once again the director. During a casual
conversation with her, he lets slip that he had known Edwardes
slightly, and didn't like him very much, contradicting his earlier claims.
Now suspicious, Dr. Petersen reconsiders her notes from the dream
and realizes that the 'wheel' was a revolver and that the man hiding
behind the chimney and dropping the wheel was Dr. Murchison hiding
behind a tree, shooting Edwardes, and dropping the gun. She
confronts Murchison with this and he confesses, but says that he didn't
drop the gun; he still has it. He pulls it out of his desk, threatening to
kill her. She walks away, the gun still pointed at her, explaining that
while the first murder was committed under the extenuating
circumstances of Dr. Murchison's fragile mental state, her murder
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would certainly lead him to the electric chair. He allows her to leave,
then turns the gun on himself. Dr. Petersen is then reunited with
Ballantyne and they honeymoon together from the same Grand
Central Station where they first tried to pursue the mystery of his
psychosis.
Notorious (1946 film)
Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman), the American daughter of a
convicted Nazi spy, is recruited by government agent T. R. Devlin (Cary
Grant) to infiltrate an organisation of Nazis who have moved to Brazil
after World War II. When Alicia refuses to help the police, Devlin plays
recordings of her fighting with her father and insisting that she loves
America.
While awaiting the details of her assignment in Rio de Janeiro, Alicia
and Devlin fall in love, though his feelings are complicated by his
knowledge of her promiscuous past. When Devlin gets instructions to
persuade her to seduce Alex Sebastian (Claude Rains), one of her
father's friends and a leading member of the group, Devlin fails to
convince his superiors that Alicia is not fit for the job. Devlin is also
informed that Sebastian once was in love with Alicia. Devlin puts up a
stoic front when he informs Alicia about the mission. Alicia concludes
that he was merely pretending to love her as part of his job.
Devlin contrives to have Alicia meet Sebastian at a horse riding club.
He recognizes her and invites her to dinner where he says that he
always knew they would be reunited. Sebastian quickly invites Alicia to
dinner the following night at his home, where he will host a few
business acquaintances. Devlin and Captain Paul Prescott of the US
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Secret Service (Louis Calhern) tell Alicia to memorize the names and
nationalities of everyone there. At dinner, Alicia notices that a guest
becomes agitated at the sight of certain wine bottles, and is ushered
quickly from the room. When the gentlemen are alone at the end of
the dinner, this guest apologizes and tries to go home, but another of
the Nazi group insists on driving him (to his death).
Soon Alicia reports to Devlin, "You can add Sebastian's name to my list
of playmates." When Sebastian proposes, Alicia informs Devlin; he
coldly tells her to do whatever she wants. Deeply disappointed, she
marries Sebastian.
After she returns from her honeymoon, Alicia is able to tell Devlin that
the keyring her husband gave her lacks the key to the wine cellar. That,
and the bottle episode at the dinner, lead Devlin to urge Alicia to hold
a grand party so he can investigate. Alicia secretly steals the key from
Sebastian's ring, and Devlin and Alicia search the cellar. Devlin
accidentally breaks a bottle; inside is black sand (later proven to be
uranium ore). Devlin takes a sample, cleans up, and locks the door as
Sebastian comes down for more champagne. Alicia and Devlin kiss to
cover their tracks. Devlin makes an exit. Sebastian realizes that the
cellar key is missing yet overnight it is returned to his key ring. When
he returns to the cellar, he finds the glass and sand from the broken
bottle.
Now Sebastian has a problem: he must silence Alicia, but cannot
expose her without revealing his own blunder to his fellow Nazis.
Sebastian discusses the situation with his mother (Leopoldine
Konstantin) and she suggests that Alicia "die slowly" by poisoning.
They poison her coffee and she quickly falls ill. During a visit from
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Sebastian's friend Dr. Anderson, Alicia realizes both where the uranium
has been mined and what is causing her sickness (Sebastian and his
mother prevent Dr. Anderson from drinking from Alicia's cup). Alicia
collapses and is taken to her room, where the telephone has been
removed and she is too weak to leave.
Devlin is alarmed when she fails to appear at their next rendezvous,
and attempts to make a social visit. He sneaks into Alicia's quarters,
where she tells him that Sebastian and his mother poisoned her. After
confessing his love for her, Devlin carries her out of the mansion in full
view of Sebastian's Nazi cabal. Sebastian goes along with Devlin's
story that Alicia must go to the hospital. Outside, Sebastian begs to go
with them, knowing that the Nazis suspect the truth, but Devlin and
Alicia drive away, leaving Sebastian to face his erstwhile friends.
The Paradine Case
Maddalena Anna Paradine (Alida Valli) is a very beautiful and
enigmatic young foreign woman, currently living in London, who is
accused of poisoning her older, blind husband, a retired military man,
at their grand home in the Lake District. It is not clear whether she is a
grateful and devoted wife who has been falsely accused, or whether
she is instead a calculating and ruthless femme fatale.
Mrs. Paradine's solicitor Sir Simon (Charles Coburn) hires Anthony
Keane (Gregory Peck), a brilliant and successful barrister, to defend her
in court. Although Keane has been happily married for 11 years, he
instantly becomes deeply infatuated with this exotic, mysterious, and
fascinating client. Keane's kind-hearted wife Gay (Ann Todd) sees his
infatuation, and although her husband offers to get off the case, she
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presses him to continue. She knows that a guilty verdict, followed by

Paradine's hanging, will mean that she will lose her husband
emotionally forever. The only way that she can regain her husband's
love and devotion is if he is able to obtain a "not guilty" verdict for
Mrs. Paradine.
Meanwhile Keane himself starts to focus his legal efforts on Colonel
Paradine's mysterious servant, Andr Latour (Louis Jourdan).
Consciously or unconsciously, Keane sees Latour as a suitable
scapegoat on whom he can pin the crime of murder, but this strategy
backfires. After Keane has pressured Latour in court, triggering an
angry outburst, word comes that Latour has killed himself. Anna
Paradine is coldly furious that Keane has destroyed Latour, who was in
fact her lover. On the witness stand she tells Keane she hates him, and
that he has murdered the only person she loved. She goes so far as to
say that she poisoned her husband in order to be with Latour.
Keane is overwhelmed, physically, intellectually and emotionally.
Attempting to sum up, he improvises a brief and faltering speech,
admitting how poorly he has handled the case, but cannot continue
speaking, and has to leave the court. He stays overnight at Sir Simon's
office, feeling that his career is in ruins. His wife finds him there; she
offers conciliation, and hope for the future.
Rope (film)
Two brilliant young aesthetes, Brandon Shaw (Dall) and Phillip Morgan
(Granger), strangle to death a former classmate, David Kentley (Dick
Hogan), in their apartment. They commit the crime as an intellectual
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exercise; they want to prove their superiority by committing the

"perfect murder".
After hiding the body in a large antique wooden chest, Brandon and
Phillip host a dinner party at the apartment, which has a panoramic
view of Manhattan's skyline. The guests, who are unaware of what has
happened, include the victim (David)'s father Mr. Kentley (Cedric
Hardwicke) and aunt Mrs. Atwater (Constance Collier); his mother is
not able to attend. Also there are his fiance, Janet Walker (Joan
Chandler) and her former lover Kenneth Lawrence (Douglas Dick), who
was once David's close friend.
In a subtle move, Brandon uses the chest containing the body as a
buffet table for the food, just before their housekeeper, Mrs. Wilson
(Edith Evanson) arrives to help with the party. "Now the fun begins,"
Brandon says when the first guests arrive.
Brandon and Phillip's idea for the murder was inspired years earlier by
conversations with their prep school housemaster, publisher Rupert
Cadell (Stewart). While at school, Rupert had discussed with them, in
an apparently approving way, the intellectual concepts
of Nietzsche's bermensch, and De Quincey's art of murder, as a
means of showing one's superiority over others. He too is among the
guests at the party, since Brandon in particular feels that he would
approve of their "work of art".
Brandon's subtle hints about David's absence indirectly lead to a
discussion on the "art of murder". Brandon appears calm and in
control, although when he first speaks to Rupert he is nervously
excited and stammering. Phillip, on the other hand, is visibly upset
and morose. He does not conceal it well and starts to drink too much.
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When David's aunt, Mrs. Atwater, who fancies herself as a fortuneteller, tells him that his hands will bring him great fame, she is
referring to his skill at the piano, but he appears to think this refers to
the notoriety of being a strangler.
Much of the conversation, however, focuses on David and his strange
absence, which worries the guests. A suspicious Rupert quizzes a
fidgety Phillip about this and about some of the inconsistencies that
have been raised in conversation. For example, Phillip had vehemently
denied ever strangling a chicken at the Shaws' farm, but Rupert has
personally seen Phillip strangle several. Phillip later complains to
Brandon about having had a "rotten evening", not because of David's
murder, but over Rupert's questioning.
As the evening goes on, David's father and fiance begin to worry that
he has neither arrived nor phoned. Brandon increases the tension by
playing matchmaker between Janet and Kenneth. Mrs. Kentley calls,
overwrought because she has not heard from David, and Mr. Kentley
decides to leave. He takes with him some books Brandon has given
him, tied together with the rope Brandon and Phillip used to strangle
his son.
When Rupert goes to leave, Mrs. Wilson accidentally hands him
David's monogrammed hat, further arousing his suspicion. Rupert
returns to the apartment a short while after everyone else has
departed, pretending that he has left his cigarette case behind. He
hides the case, asks for a drink and then stays to theorize about the
disappearance of David. He is encouraged by Brandon, who seems
eager to have Rupert discover the crime. A drunk Phillip is unable to

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take it any more; he throws a glass and says, "Cat and mouse, cat and
mouse. But which is the cat and which is the mouse?"
Rupert lifts the lid of the chest and finds the body inside. He is
horrified but also deeply ashamed, realizing that Brandon and Phillip
used his own rhetoric to rationalize murder. Rupert disavows all his
previous talk of superiority and inferiority, realizing that there is no
way to objectively define these concepts, then seizes Brandon's gun
and fires several shots out the window in order to attract attention. As
approaching police sirens get louder, Rupert pulls up a chair next to
the chest and the film's end credits appear on the screen.
Under Capricorn
In 1831, Sydney is a frontier town, full of ex-convicts. The new
Governor, Sir Richard (Cecil Parker), arrives with his cheery but indolent
nephew, the Honorable Charles Adare (Michael Wilding). Charles, who
is hoping to make his fortune, is befriended by gruff Samson Flusky
(Joseph Cotten), a prosperous businessman who was previously a
transported convict, possibly a murderer. Sam says that because he has
bought the legal limit of land, he wants Charles to buy up land and
then sell it to him for a tidy profit so that Sam can accumulate even
more frontier territory. Though the Governor instructs him not to go,
Charles is invited to dinner at Sam's house and discovers that he
already knows Sam's wife, Lady Henrietta (Ingrid Bergman). She is now
a hopeless alcoholic who is socially shunned, but she used to be a
good friend of Charles' sister when they were children in Ireland.

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Sam invites Charles to stay at his house, hoping it will cheer up his
wife, who is on the verge of madness. The housekeeper, Milly
(Margaret Leighton), has taken over running the household and
secretly feeds Henrietta alcohol, hoping to destroy her and win Sam's
affections.
Gradually, Charles restores Henrietta's self-confidence. They become so
close that they even share a passionate kiss. Henrietta explains that
she and Sam are bound together profoundly: when she was young,
Sam was the handsome stable boy. Overcome with desire, they ran
away and married at Gretna Green. Henrietta's brother, furious that
aristocratic Henrietta had paired up with a lowly servant, confronted
them. Her brother shot at Sam and missed; she shot her brother fatally.
Sam made a false confession to save her, and was sent to the penal
colony in Australia. She followed him and waited six years in abject
poverty for his release.
Sam becomes furious at Charles after listening to Milly's exaggerated
stories and tells him to leave. Taking Sam's mare in the dark, Charles
has a fall and the horse breaks a leg. Sam has to shoot her dead and, in
a struggle over the gun, wounds Charles. At the hospital, Henrietta
confesses to the Governor that Sam was wrongly convicted of the
original crime; she was the one who killed her brother. By law she
should be deported back to Ireland to stand trial.
Milly, still plying Henrietta with drink, is inducing hallucinations by
using a real shrunken head. Milly then tries to kill Henrietta with an
overdose of medicine; she is caught in the act and leaves in disgrace.
The Governor, Sir Richard, has Sam arrested and charged with the
attempted murder of Charles. Sir Richard ignores Henrietta's claim that
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Sam is innocent of both crimes. However, Charles decides to bend the

truth; he says, on his word as a gentleman, that there was no
confrontation, and no struggle over the gun. It was all an accident.
Finally we see Sam and Henrietta together smiling. They bid Charles a
fond and grateful farewell; he is going back to Ireland.
Stage Fright (1950 film)
Eve Gill (Jane Wyman) is an aspiring actress at RADA. She is
interrupted in rehearsal by her friend (andcrush), actor Jonathan
Cooper (Richard Todd), the secret lover of flamboyant stage actress/
singer, Charlotte Inwood (Marlene Dietrich). Via a flashback he says
Charlotte visited him after killing her husband; she was wearing a
bloodstained dress. Jonathan claims he went back to her house for
another dress, but was seen by Charlotte's cockney dresser, Nellie
Goode (Kay Walsh). He escaped the police and needs help.
Eve takes him to her father's house on the coast to hide. Commodore
Gill (Alastair Sim) notices that the blood on Charlotte's dress has been
smeared on deliberately; he and Eve think that Jonathan was framed
by Charlotte. Jonathan angrily destroys the dress and thus the most
useful piece of evidence.
Eve starts to investigate. She hears Charlotte's dresser Nellie Goode
boasting about the notoriety in a bar. While she is there, Eve meets
Detective Inspector Wilfred O. Smith (Michael Wilding), and they
become friendly. Eve then poses as a reporter; she bribes Nellie to tell
Charlotte she is ill, and to introduce her cousin, "Doris Tinsdale," as a
replacement. Using her acting skills, Eve becomes "Doris" and starts
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working for Charlotte. Eve discovers Charlotte is having an affair with

her
manager Freddie Williams (Hector MacGregor).
Eve and "Ordinary" Smith become more friendly. When Smith visits
Charlotte, Eve has to disguise the fact that she is also "Doris" the maid.
Smith makes a courtship visit to Eve and her mother at home, where
the Commodore drops subtle hints that Jonathan has left the seaside
house.
Despite her widowed status, Charlotte continues to perform her West
End musical show. Jonathan comes to her dressing room asking her to
accompany him abroad. She casually tells him no, but he says he still
has the bloodstained dress. The police search for Jonathan, and Eve
again helps him escape. He hides out at the Gill's London residence.
He is grateful to Eve, but she is starting to fall in love with Detective
Smith.
Smith and Eve kiss in a taxi on the way to the RADA garden party,
where Nellie Goode confronts Eve, demanding more blackmail money.
Eve does not have enough, so Eve's father comes to give Nellie more
cash. Freddie Williams spots Eve (thinking she is "Doris") and orders
her to help Charlotte, who is to sing on stage in a tent. During the
performance, Commodore Gill gets a small boy to carry a doll wearing
a bloodstained dress up onto the stage. Charlotte collapses and "Doris"
has to help.
Seeing this, Smith confronts Eve and the Commodore, but Eve
proclaims her true affection for Smith as well as Jonathan's innocence.
They persuade Smith to set Charlotte up. Once the theatre has closed,
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they use a hidden microphone and "Doris" tells Charlotte she has the
bloodstained dress. Smith and his men listen using the theatre
loudspeakers. Charlotte admits planning her husband's death, but
says that Jonathan actually committed the murder. Charlotte offers Eve
10,000 pounds to keep quiet.
Eve sees that Jonathan has been brought to the theatre by the police,
but he escapes. Charlotte realizes her conversation with Eve was
broadcast to the detectives, and that she will be charged as an
accessory to murder. Detective Smith tells the Commodore that
Jonathan really did kill Mr. Inwood, and that Jonathan has killed
before, though he got off on a plea of self-defense.
Hiding below stage, Jonathan confesses to Eve that Charlotte goaded
him into killing her husband. His flashback story was all lies, and he
was the one who smeared more blood onto the dress. He threatens to
kill Eve to give a reason for pleading insanity, but she escapes, and in
the confusion, Jonathan is killed by the stage's falling safety curtain.
Strangers on a Train (film)
Amateur tennis star Guy Haines (Farley Granger) wants to divorce his
vulgar and promiscuous wife Miriam (Laura Elliott), so he can marry
the elegant Anne Morton (Ruth Roman), the daughter of a senator, and
hopefully have a career in politics. On a train Haines accidentally meets
Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker), who recognizes Guy. Bruno tells Guy
about his idea for the perfect murders: Bruno will kill Miriam, and in
exchange Guy will kill Bruno's father. They have no identifiable motive
for the crimes, and therefore they will not be suspects. Bruno pretends
to describe the scenario as hypothetical, sure that Guy understands
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that Bruno is 100 percent serious about the plot. Guy has no idea that
in Bruno's mind, they have struck a bargain, and hurriedly leaves, but
not before Bruno pockets Guy's monogrammed cigarette lighter.
Guy meets with Miriam, who is pregnant by someone else and now
does not want a divorce. He calls Anne and tells her he wants to
"strangle" Miriam. At Bruno's home, his doting mother and unpleasant
father live in luxury. Bruno telephones Guy to follow up on what he
thinks is their agreement. Frustrated by his situation to be more
talkative with the oddball then he would have ordinarily, Guy explains
that his wife refused the divorce and hangs up. Bruno sees that as his
green light. He follows Miriam and two young men as they gallivant to
an amusement park. After stalking her through various rides, Bruno
approaches Miriam and strangles her to death on the amusement
park's "Magic Isle".
Bruno waits for Guy and gives him Miriam's glasses, also reminding
him that he is now obliged to kill Bruno's father. Bruno sends Guy his
house key, a map to his father's room, and a pistol.
Senator Morton (Leo G. Carroll) informs Guy that Miriam has been
murdered. The police question Guy; his alibi fails when the drunken
college professor he met on a train does not remember him. Guy is
given a police escort who follows him. Bruno also continues to follow
Guy, around
the Jefferson Memorial, at the National Gallery of Art, and at his tennis
match at Forest Hills.
Bruno introduces himself to Anne, and sees Barbara (Patricia
Hitchcock), Anne's younger sister, who reminds him of Miriam. Soon
afterwards, Bruno appears at a party at Senator Morton's house,
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hobnobbing with the guests, much to Guy's apprehension and Anne's

increasing suspicion. Using another guest, Bruno demonstrates how to
strangle someone. He again sees Barbara; her resemblance to Miriam
triggers a flashback, and he distractedly begins to really strangle the
woman. He blacks out and Barbara tells her sister, "His hands were on
her throat, but he was strangling me." Anne confronts Guy, who
explains the truth about the crime.
According to Bruno's original plan, Guy creeps into Bruno's home at
night. He reaches Bruno's father's room hoping to warn him, but
Bruno is waiting for him. Because Guy will not complete his end of the
bargain, Bruno says Guy must instead take responsibility for the
murder which "belongs" to him; Bruno will see to that.
Anne visits Bruno's house explaining to his befuddled mother (Marion
Lorne) that her son is responsible for a murder, but the woman does
not believe her. Bruno overhears the conversation. He lets Anne know
that he has Guy's lighter and will plant it at the scene of Miriam's
murder. Anne and Guy devise a plan to finish his tennis match, evade
his police escort, and reach the amusement park before Bruno plants
the lighter.
Guy eventually wins the long match at Forest Hills. Bruno is also
delayed when he drops Guy's lighter down a storm drain and has to
recover it. Guy arrives at the amusement park. Bruno is waiting for
sunset and tries to stay out of sight until he can plant the lighter, but
one of the workers recognizes him from the night of the murder and
informs the police.
Guy and Bruno struggle on the carousel. A shot fired by the police hits
the carousel operator. The ride spins wildly out of control and crashes.
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Bruno is mortally wounded. The worker tells the police chief that Bruno
is the one from the night of the crime, not Guy. Guy explains that
Bruno is at the amusement park to "plant" Guy's lighter there. With his
last breath Bruno lies to the police, but after death Bruno's fingers
open to reveal Guy's lighter.
I Confess (film)
Father Michael Logan (Clift) is a devout Catholic priest in Ste. Marie's
Church in Quebec City. He employs German immigrants Otto Keller (O.
E. Hasse) and his wife Alma (Dolly Haas) as caretaker and housekeeper.
Otto also works part-time as a gardener for a shady lawyer called
Villette.
The film begins late one evening, as a man wearing a priest'scassock
walks away from Villette's house, where Villette lies dead on the floor.
Shortly afterward, in the churchconfessional, Keller confesses to Father
Logan that he accidentally killed Villette while trying to rob him. Keller
tells his wife about his deed and assures her that the priest will not say
anything because he is forbidden from revealing information acquired
through confessions.
The next morning, Keller goes to Villette's house at his regularly
scheduled gardening time and reports Villette's death to the police.
Father Logan also goes to the crime scene after hearing Mrs. Keller
mention that her husband is there.
At the police station, two young girls tell Inspector Larrue (Malden)
they saw a priest leaving Villette's house. This prompts Larrue to call
Father Logan in for questioning, but Logan refuses to provide any
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information about the murder. Now suspecting Logan, Larrue orders a

detective to follow Logan and contacts Crown Prosecutor Robertson
(Brian Aherne), who is attending a party hosted by Ruth Grandfort
(Baxter) and her husband Pierre (Roger Dann), a member of the
Quebec legislature. Ruth overhears Robertson discussing Logan, and
Larrue's detective discovers her identity by following her home the
next day after she meets with Logan to warn him that he is a suspect.
Larrue calls Ruth and Logan in for questioning, and Ruth explains what
happened, narrating a series of flashbacks: She and Logan fell in love
when they were childhood friends, but he went off to fight in World
War II with the Regina Rifle Regiment and eventually stopped writing
to her, so she married Pierre. The day after Logan returned from the
war, he and Ruth spent the day on a nearby island. A storm forced
them to shelter for the night in agazebo, and Villette found them there
in the morning, recognizing Ruth as being Mrs. Grandfort. The next
time Ruth saw Logan was several years later, when he was ordained as
a priest.
Villette recently asked Ruth to persuade her husband to help him
escape a tax scandal, and when she refused, he tried to blackmail her
by threatening to publicize the night she spent with Logan. She met
with Logan on the night of the murder, and they agreed to visit Villette
in the morning.
Ruth's meeting with Father Logan almost provides him with an alibi,
but Larrue has evidence showing that the murder occurred after their
meeting, and the blackmail suggests a possible motive for Logan to
have killed Villette.

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Knowing he will be arrested, Logan turns himself in the next day at

Larrue's office. Keller has planted the bloody cassock among Logan's
belongings, and when Logan is tried in court, Keller testifies that he
saw Logan enter the church after the murder, acting suspiciously.
The jury barely finds Father Logan not guilty, but the crowd outside the
courthouse harasses Logan as he leaves. This upsets Keller's wife so
much that she starts to shout out that her husband is the murderer, but
he shoots her, resulting in her death. He then runs away pursued by
police officers. Larrue finally guesses that Keller is the murderer,
corners him in the grand ballroom of the Chteau Frontenac, and tricks
him into confessing. A police sharpshooter kills Keller when Keller tries
to shoot Logan, and Keller calls out to Father Logan in extremis and
dies immediately after Logan absolves him of his sins.
Dial M for Murder
Tony Wendice (Ray Milland), an ex-professional tennis player, lives in a
ground floor flat with his socialite wife, Margot (Grace Kelly). Tony
retired after Margot complained about his busy schedule and she
began an affair with American crime-fiction writer Mark Halliday
(Robert Cummings), which Tony secretly discovered. Tony devises a
plan to have Margot murdered.
Mark visits, and Margot introduces him to Tony as an acquaintance.
Tony sends the two lovers out for the evening and meets at the flat
with an acquaintance from Cambridge University, C. A. Swann
(Anthony Dawson), who has become a criminal. Tony has secretly been
following Swann so he can blackmail him into murdering Margot. Tony
tells Swann about Margot's affair, including a love letter from Mark
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which she once kept in her handbag. Six months prior, Tony stole the
handbag and anonymously blackmailed her. After tricking Swann into
leaving his fingerprints on the letter, Tony offers to pay him 1,000
(24,500 today) to kill Margot; if Swann refuses, Tony will turn him in
to the police as Margot's blackmailer.
When Swann agrees, Tony explains: he will take Mark to a party,
leaving Margot at home and hiding her latchkey outside the front door
of the flat. Swann must sneak in when Margot is asleep and hide
behind the curtains in front of the French doors to the garden. At 11
pm Tony will telephone and Margot will go to the phone. Swann must
kill her, open the French doors, leave signs suggesting a burglary gone
wrong, and exit through the front door, hiding the key again.
Swann enters the flat using the hidden key and waits behind the
curtains for the phone to ring. Tony's watch stops, so he phones the flat
later than intended. Swann tries to strangle Margot with his scarf, but
she stabs him with a pair of scissors, killing him. She picks up the
telephone receiver and pleads for help. Tony tells her not to do
anything. At home, he calls the police and sends Margot to bed. Tony
then moves what he thinks is Margot's latchkey from Swann's pocket
into her handbag, plants Mark's letter on Swann, persuades Margot to
hide the fact that he told her not to call the police, and destroys
Swann's knotted scarf, replacing it with Margot's own stocking in an
attempt to incriminate her.
The next day, Chief Inspector Hubbard (John Williams) questions the
Wendices, and Margot makes several conflicting statements. When
Hubbard says Swann must have entered through the front door, Tony
falsely claims to have seen Swann after Margot's handbag was stolen,
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and suggests that Swann made a copy of her key. Hubbard does not
believe that story because no key was found on Swann. Hubbard
arrests Margot after concluding that she killed Swann for blackmailing
her. Margot is found guilty and sentenced to death.
On the day before her execution, Mark tells Tony to save her by
claiming that he hired Swann to kill her. Tony says the story is too
unrealistic. Hubbard arrives. Mark hides in the bedroom and Hubbard
asks about money Tony has been spending, tricks him into revealing
that his latchkey is in his raincoat, and asks him about an attach case.
Tony claims to have lost the case, but Mark sees it on the bed, full of
cash. Mark stops Hubbard from leaving and explains his theory.
Hubbard says he prefers Tony's story, but after Mark leaves, Hubbard
discreetly swaps his own raincoat with Tony's, and as soon as Tony
leaves, he uses Tony's key to re-enter the flat. Hubbard had already
discovered that the key in Margot's handbag was Swann's latchkey,
and realized that Swann had put the key back in its hiding place after
unlocking the door.
Mark returns, and police officers release Margot. She tries to unlock the
door with the key in her purse, then enters through the garden,
proving she is unaware of the hidden key. Hubbard has the handbag
returned to the police station, where Tony retrieves it after discovering
that he has no key. The key from Margot's bag does not work, so he
uses the hidden key to open the door, proving his guilt. His escape
routes blocked by Hubbard and another policeman, Tony makes
himself a drink, and admits defeat.
Rear Window

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After breaking his leg photographing a racetrack accident, professional

photographer L. B. "Jeff" Jefferies (James Stewart) is confined to his
Greenwich Village apartment, using a wheelchair while he recuperates.
His rear window looks out onto a small courtyard and several other
apartments. During a summer heat wave, he passes the time by
watching his neighbors, who keep their windows open to stay cool. The
tenants he can see include a dancer he nicknames "Miss Torso", a
lonely woman he nicknames "Miss Lonelyhearts", a composer-pianist,
several married couples, a middle-aged sculptor, and Lars Thorwald
(Raymond Burr), a traveling jewelry salesman with a bedridden wife.
One evening Jeff hears a woman scream "Don't!" and a glass break.
Later he is awakened by thunder and sees Thorwald leaving his
apartment. Thorwald makes repeated late-night trips carrying his
sample case. Jeff notices that Thorwald's wife is gone and sees
Thorwald cleaning a large knife and handsaw. Later, Thorwald ties a
large trunk with heavy rope and has moving men haul it away. Jeff
discusses these observations with his much-younger socialite
girlfriend Lisa Fremont (Grace Kelly) and his insurance company homecare nurse Stella (Thelma Ritter), and becomes obsessed with his
theory that Thorwald murdered his wife. He explains his theory to his
friend Tom Doyle (Wendell Corey), a New York City Police detective, and
asks him to find out whether anyone actually picks up the packing
crate. Doyle looks into the situation but finds nothing suspicious, and
discovers that "Mrs. Thorwald" picked up the packing crate. After Doyle
leaves, Jeff asks Lisa if she thinks it was ethical for him to spy on his
neighbor with binoculars and a telephoto lens; Lisa replies that she
does not know much about "rear window ethics" but comments on
their morbid curiosity by asking, "Whatever happened to that old
saying, 'Love thy neighbor'?"
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Soon after, a neighbor's dog is found dead, its neck broken. When the
owner sees the lifeless body of her dog she screams to the courtyard:
"You don't know the meaning of the word 'neighbors'. Neighbors like
each other, speak to each other, care if anybody lives or dies! But none
of you do!" and cries in grief. During the woman's hysterics, the
neighbors all rush to their windows to see what has happened, except
for Thorwald, whose cigar can be seen glowing as he sits in his dark
apartment. Convinced that Thorwald is guilty after all, Jeff has Lisa slip
an accusatory note under Thorwald's door so Jeff can watch his reaction
when he reads it. Then, as a pretext to get Thorwald away from his
apartment, Jeff telephones him and arranges a meeting at a bar. He
thinks Thorwald may have buried something in the courtyard flower
patch and then killed the dog to keep it from digging it up. When
Thorwald leaves, Lisa and Stella dig up the flowers but find nothing.
Lisa then climbs the fire escape to Thorwald's apartment and squeezes
in through an open window. When Thorwald returns and grabs Lisa,
Jeff calls the police, who arrive in time to save her. With the police
present, Jeff sees Lisa with her hands behind her back, wiggling her
finger with Mrs. Thorwald's wedding ring on it. Thorwald also sees this,
realizes that she is signaling to someone, and notices Jeff across the
courtyard.
Jeff phones Doyle, now convinced that Thorwald is guilty of
something, and Stella heads for the police station to post bail for Lisa,
leaving Jeff alone. When the phone rings, Jeff assumes it's Doyle and
quickly informs that the suspect had left the apartment. But as no one
answers, he soon realizes that Thorwald himself had called him and
was coming to his apartment. When he arrives, Jeff repeatedly sets off
his camera flashbulbs, temporarily blinding Thorwald. Thorwald grabs
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Jeff and pushes him toward the open window as Jeff yells for help. Jeff
falls to the ground just as some police officers enter the apartment and
others run to catch him.
A few days later, the heat has lifted and Jeff rests peacefully in his
wheelchair, now with casts on both legs. The lonely neighbor woman
chats with the pianist in his apartment, the dancer's lover returns
home from the army, the couple whose dog was killed have a new dog,
and the newly married couple are bickering. Lisa reclines on the
daybed in Jeff's apartment, appearing to read a book on foreign travel
in order to please him. As soon as he is asleep, she puts the book down
and happily opens a fashion magazine.
To Catch a Thief
John Robie (Cary Grant) is a retired infamous jewel thief or "cat
burglar", nicknamed "The Cat", who now tends to his vineyards in the
French Riviera. The modus operandi of a recent series of robberies
leads the police to believe that the Cat is involved; they attempt to
arrest him, and he adeptly gives them the slip.
He seeks refuge with the old gang from his French Resistance days, a
group paroled based on patriotic war work as long as they keep clean.
Bertani, Foussard, and the others blame Robie while they are all under
suspicion while the Cat is at large. Still, when the police arrive at
Bertani's restaurant, Foussard's daughter Danielle (Brigitte Auber)
spirits her old flame to safety.
Robie's plan is to prove his innocence by catching the new cat burglar
in the act, so he enlists the aid of an insurance man of Bertani's
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acquaintance, an Englishman H. H. Hughson (John Williams), who

reluctantly obtains a list of the most expensive jewels currently on the
Riviera. Jessie Stevens (Jessie Royce Landis) and her daughter Frances
(Grace Kelly) top the list. Robie strikes up an acquaintance with them
delighting Jessie even as Frances offers a pretense of modesty. Robie
and Frances meet Danielle at the beach, and Robie must keep up the
pretense of being a rich American despite Danielle's preference that
he be separated from Frances.
Frances is not afraid of a little mischief. Although she sees through
Robie's cover as an American industrialist, the considerable charms of
this thief are worth catching. She dangles before him her jewels,
teases him with steamy tales of rooftop escapades, exposes herself as a
feline of a special breed: an accomplice who might share his passion
and be available to his sordid desires. Fireworks fill the night sky.
The next morning, Jessie discovers her jewels are gone. Robie is
accused by Frances of being used to steal her mother's jewelry. The
police are called but he is back on the lam.
To catch the new burglar Robie stakes out an estate at night and finds
himself struggling with an attacker who loses his footing and tumbles
over a cliff. It is Foussard, who dies in the fall. The police chief publicly
announces that Foussard was the jewel thief, but, as Robie points out
to him in the presence of the abashed Hughson, this would have been
impossible: Foussard had a prosthetic leg and could not possibly climb
on rooftops.
Foussard's funeral is marred by Danielle's open accusation with
Robie's quiet attendance that he is responsible for her father's death.
Outside the graveyard, Frances apologizes to Robie and confesses for
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him her love. Robie wants to continue his search, for the Cat, and asks
that she arrange his attendance at the masquerade ball the coming
weekend during which he believes will strike again.
At the ball, Frances is resplendent in a gold gown, Robie
unrecognizable behind the mask of a Moor. The police hover nearby.
Upstairs, the cat burglar silently cleans out several jewel boxes. When
Jessie asks the Moor to go get her "heart pills", Robie's voice tips off
his identity to the authorities. Upon his return the police wait out
Frances and the Moor as they dance the night away. Finally, Frances
and the Moor go to her room, and the mask is removed: it is Hughson,
switched to conceal Robie's exit.
On the rooftop Robie lurks. His patience is finally rewarded when he is
joined by another figure in black. But just as his pursuit begins, the
police throw a spotlight on him and demand he halt. He flees as they
shoot at him, but he manages to corner his foe with jewels in hand.
Unmasked, his nemesis turns out to be Foussard's daughter, Danielle.
She slips off the roof, but Robie grabs her hand before she can fall. He
forces her to confess to the police of the father-daughter involvement
and that Bertani was the ringleader of this gang.
Robie speeds back to his vineyard and Frances races after to convince
him that she has a place in his life. He agrees, but seems less than
thrilled that she intends to include her mother.
The Trouble with Harry
The quirky but down-to-earth residents of the small hamlet of
Highwater, Vermont, are faced with the freshly dead body of Harry
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Worp (Philip Truex), which has inconveniently appeared on the hillside

above the town. The problem of who the person is, who was
responsible for his sudden death, and what should be done with the
body is "the trouble with Harry".
Three of the main characters in the film each believe that he or she is
the person who killed Harry. Captain Wiles (Edmund Gwenn) is sure
that he killed the man with a stray shot from his rifle while hunting,
until it is shown he actually shot a rabbit. Spunky and independent
young Jennifer Rogers (Shirley MacLaine) is Harry's estranged wife.
She, along with her small son Arnie (Jerry Mathers), ran away from her
loveless marriage, and she believes she killed Harry because she hit
him hard with a milk bottle after he tracked her down. Miss Gravely
(Mildred Natwick) is certain that the man died after a blow from the
heel of her hiking boot when he lunged at her out of the bushes (still
reeling from the blow received at the hands of Jennifer). Sam Marlowe
(John Forsythe), an attractive and nonconformist artist, is open-minded
about the whole event, and is prepared to help his friends and
neighbors in any way he can. In any case, nobody is upset at all about
this death.
However, the principal characters are hoping that the body will not
come to the attention of "the authorities" in the form of cold,
humorless Deputy Sheriff Calvin Wiggs (Royal Dano), who earns his
living per arrest. The main characters conceal the body by burying it,
and then have to dig it up again for various reasons. The interment and
reinterment happens several times. The body is also concealed by
being hidden in a bathtub before being placed back on the hill where
it first appeared.
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Finally it is established that Harry died of natural causes; no foul play

at all was involved. In the meantime, Sam and Jennifer have fallen in
love and wish to marry, and the Captain and Miss Gravely have also
become a couple. Sam has been able to sell all his paintings to a
passing millionaire, although Sam refuses to accept money, and
instead requests a few simple gifts for his friends and himself.
he Man Who Knew Too Much (1956 film)
An American familyDr. Benjamin "Ben" McKenna (James Stewart), his
wife, popular singer Josephine Conway "Jo" McKenna (Doris Day), and
their son Henry "Hank" McKenna (Christopher Olsen)--are vacationing
in Morocco. Traveling from Casablanca to Marrakesh, they meet
Frenchman Louis Bernard (Daniel Gelin), who seems friendly, but Jo is
suspicious of his many questions and evasive answers and thinks that
he is hiding something. Louis offers to take the McKennas out to
dinner but cancels when a sinister-looking man knocks at the
McKennas' hotel- room door claiming to be looking for another guest's
room. Later, at a local restaurant, the McKennas meet English couple
Lucy (Brenda De Banzie) and Edward Drayton (Bernard Miles), who
strike up a conversation with the McKennas, who are surprised to see
Bernard arrive and sit at another table apparently ignoring them.
The next day, exploring a busy outdoor market in Marrakesh with the
Draytons, the McKennas see a man in Arab clothing being chased by
police. After being stabbed in the back, the man approaches Ben, who
discovers it is actually Louis in disguise. The dying Bernard whispers
that a foreign statesman will be assassinated in London very soon and
that Ben must tell the authorities there about "Ambrose Chappell".
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Lucy offers to return Hank to the hotel while the police question Ben
and Jo. An officer explains that Louis was a French Intelligence agent
on assignment in Morocco. While at the police station, Ben receives a
phone call from a mysterious man who informs him that Hank has
been kidnapped but will not be harmed if the McKennas say nothing
to the police about Bernard's last words.
After arriving in London, Scotland Yard's Inspector Buchanan (Ralph
Truman) tells the McKennas that Louis was trying to uncover an
assassination plot, and that they should contact him if they hear from
the kidnappers. Leaving friends in their hotel suite, the McKennas
attempt to question a man named "Ambrose Chappell" but finally
track the kidnappers to a church named "Ambrose Chapel", where
Drayton, posing as a minister, is leading a service. While Jo calls police,
Drayton ends the service early. Ben confronts him and is knocked out
and locked in the chapel. The Draytons take Hank to a foreign embassy
just before Jo arrives with the police at the now seemingly deserted
chapel. Jo learns that Buchanan has gone to a concert at the Royal
Albert Hall and goes there to get his help. There, she sees the sinister
man who mistakenly came to her door in Morocco. When he threatens
to harm Hank if she interferes, she realizes that he is the assassin sent
to kill the foreign Prime Minister (Alexis Bobrinskoy) who is now also
at the concert hall.
Ben escapes the locked chapel and follows Jo to the hall, where she
points out the assassin. Ben frantically searches the balcony boxes for
the killer, who is waiting for a cymbal crash to mask his gunshot. Jo
sees the barrel of the assassin's gun and screams right before the
cymbals crash. The assassin misses his mark and merely wounds his
target. Ben finds and struggles with the would- be killer, who then falls
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to his death from the balcony. The grateful Prime Minister invites the
McKennas to the embassy.
The McKennas learn that the Draytons are in the Prime Minister's
embassy, where Hank is being held, and where the ambassador
(Mogens Wieth) has led the plot to kill his own Prime Minister.
Hatching a plan to find their son, Ben and Jo are welcomed as heroes,
and the Prime Minister asks Jo to sing. Jo loudly sings "Que Sera, Sera
(Whatever Will Be, Will Be)", which Hank is familiar with, so that he
will hear her voice and respond. Lucy, who is guarding Hank but is
unwilling to harm him, tells Hank to whistle along with the song,
which draws Ben to the room where he is being held. Drayton catches
them and tries escaping with them as hostages, but when Ben strikes
him, he falls and kills himself accidentally when his gun fires.
The McKennas return to their now-sleeping friends in their hotel room,
where Ben says, "I'm sorry we were gone so long, but we had to go
over and pick up Hank.
The Wrong Man
For the only time in his many films, Alfred Hitchcock starts this picture
talking to the camera and says that "every word is true" in this story.
Manny Balestrero (Henry Fonda), a down-on-his-luck musician at New
York City's Stork Club, is in a money crunch. His wife, Rose (Vera Miles),
needs to have her wisdom teeth extracted at a cost of $300, but the
couple does not have that much money. Though he has already
borrowed against his life insurance policy, he goes to the life insurance
company to attempt to take a loan out against Rose's policy. He is
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immediately recognized by the clerical workers in the store as the man

who had twice held up the insurance office. They inform the police, and
he is taken to the 110th Precinct by detectives. Without being told why,
Manny is instructed to walk in and out of a liquor store and
delicatessen, both scenes of a robbery earlier that year. He is then
asked by police to give a handwriting sample, writing the words from
the stick-up note at the insurance company. Manny misspells the word
"drawer" as "draw"the same spelling mistake the robber made in the
note. After being picked out of a police lineup by the women from the
insurance company, he is then arrested and charged with robbery, and
his family finds out that he will be in court on the following morning.
Attorney Frank O'Connor (Anthony Quayle) sets out to prove that
Manny cannot possibly be the right man: at the time of the first holdup he was on vacation with his family, and at the time of the second his
jaw was so swollen that witnesses would certainly have noticed. Manny
and Rose look for three people who saw Manny at the vacation hotel,
but two have died and the third cannot be found. All this devastates
Rose, whose resulting depression forces her to be hospitalized.
During Manny's trial a juror, bored with the minutiae of one witness's
testimony, makes a remark which prompts the judge to declare a
mistrial. While Manny is awaiting a second trial he is exonerated when
the true robber is arrested holding up a grocery store. Manny visits
Rose at the hospital to share the good news, but as the film closes she
remains clinically depressed; a textual epilogue explains that she
recovered two years later.
Vertigo (film)

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After a rooftop chase, where his acrophobia and vertigo result in the
death of a policeman, San Franciscodetective John "Scottie" Ferguson
retires. Scottie tries to conquer his fear, but his friend and ex-fiance
Midge Wood suggests another severe emotional shock may be the
only cure.
An acquaintance from college, Gavin Elster, asks Scottie to follow his
wife, Madeleine, claiming she has beenpossessed. Scottie reluctantly
agrees, and follows Madeleine to a florist where she buys a bouquet of
flowers, to the grave of Carlotta Valdes at Mission Dolores, and to an art
museum where she gazes at Portrait of Carlotta, the subject of which
Madeleine resembles. Finally, she enters the McKittrick Hotel, but
when Scottie investigates, she is not there.
A local historian explains that Carlotta Valdes tragically committed
suicide. Gavin reveals that Carlotta (who he fears is possessing
Madeleine) is Madeleine's great-grandmother, although Madeleine
has no knowledge of this, and does not remember where she has
visited. Scottie tails Madeleine to Fort Point, and she leaps into San
Francisco Bay. Scottie rescues her.
The next day Scottie follows Madeleine; they meet and spend the day
together. They travel to Muir Woods and Cypress Point on 17-Mile
Drive, where Madeleine runs down towards the ocean. Scottie grabs
her and they embrace. Scottie identifies the setting of Madeleine's
nightmare as Mission San Juan Bautista. He drives her there and they
express their love for each other. Madeleine suddenly runs into the
church and up the bell tower. Scottie, halted on the steps by his
vertigo, sees Madeleine plunge to her death.

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The death is declared a suicide. Gavin does not fault Scottie, but Scottie
breaks down,
becomes clinically depressed and is in a sanatorium, almostcatatonic.
After release, Scottie frequents the places that Madeleine visited, often
imagining that he sees her. One day, he notices a woman who reminds
him of Madeleine, despite her different appearance. Scottie follows
her and she identifies herself as Judy Barton, from Salina, Kansas.
A flashback reveals that Judy was the person Scottie knew as
"Madeleine Elster"; she was impersonating Gavin's wife as part of a
murder plot. Judy writes to Scottie explaining her involvement with
Gavin's murder of his wife. Gavin had deliberately taken advantage of
Scottie's acrophobia to substitute his wife's freshly killed body in the
apparent "suicide jump". Judy rips up the letter and decides to
continue the charade, because she loves Scottie.
They begin seeing each other, but Scottie remains obsessed with
"Madeleine" and asks Judy to change her clothes and hair so that she
resembles Madeleine. After Judy complies, hoping that they may
finally find happiness together, he notices her wearing the necklace
portrayed in the painting of Carlotta, and realizes the truth. He insists
on driving her to the Mission.
There, he tells her he must re-enact the event that led to his madness,
admitting he now understands that "Madeleine" and Judy are the
same person. Scottie forces her up the bell tower and makes her admit
her deceit. Scottie reaches the top, finally conquering his acrophobia.
Judy confesses that Gavin paid her to impersonate a "possessed"
Madeleine; Gavin faked the suicide by throwing the body of his wife
from the bell tower.
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Judy begs Scottie to forgive her, because she loves him. He embraces
her, but a shadowed figure rises from the trapdoor of the tower,
startling Judy, who steps backward and falls to her death. Scottie,
bereft again, stands on the ledge, while the figure, a nun investigating
the noise, rings the mission bell.
North by Northwest
Advertising executive Roger O. Thornhill (Cary Grant) is mistaken for
George Kaplan and kidnapped by Valerian (Adam Williams) and Licht
(Robert Ellenstein), who take him to the Long Island estate of Lester
Townsend. He is interrogated by a man he assumes to be Townsend,
but who is actually spy Phillip Vandamm (James Mason). Vandamm's
"associate" Leonard (Martin Landau) intends to get rid of Thornhill
once they finish questioning him.
Thornhill is forced to drink bourbon, but manages to escape a staged
driving accident. He is unable to convince the authorities, or even his
mother, to believe his account of the events, especially after a woman
at Townsend's home (Josephine Hutchinson) tells police he got drunk
at her dinner party; she also identifies Townsend as a United Nations
diplomat.
Thornhill and his mother go to Kaplan's hotel room, where Thornhill
answers the phone; the caller is one of Vandamm's henchmen.
Avoiding recapture, Thornhill goes to the U.N. General Assembly
building to seek Townsend, but finds that the diplomat (Philip Ober) is
not the man he previously met. Valerian throws a knife which hits
Townsend in the back. He falls dead into Thornhill's arms. Without
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thinking, Thornhill removes the knife, making it appear that he is the

killer, and he is forced to flee.
Knowing that Kaplan has a reservation at a Chicago hotel the next day,
Thornhill sneaks onto
the 20th Century Limited. He meets Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint), who
hides Thornhill from policemen searching the train. Unknown to
Thornhill, Eve is working with Vandamm and Leonard, who are in
another compartment with Valerian. In Chicago, Kendall tells Thornhill
she has arranged a meeting with Kaplan. Thornhill travels by bus to an
isolated crossroads. A crop duster dives toward Thornhill, narrowly
missing him. He hides in a cornfield after the assailants fire at him with
an automatic weapon, but the airplane dusts it with pesticide, forcing
him out. He steps in front of a speeding tank truck, which stops barely
in time. The airplane crashes into the tanker and Thornhill escapes to
Kaplan's hotel in Chicago.
Learning that Kaplan had checked out before Kendall claimed to have
talked to him over the phone, Thornhill goes to Kendall's room. While
he is cleaning up, she leaves. From the impression of a message
written on a notepad, he learns her destination: an art auction. There
he finds Vandamm, Leonard and Kendall. Vandamm purchases a
Purpecha statue and departs. Thornhill tries to follow, only to find the
exits covered by Valerian and Leonard. Trapped, he places nonsensical
bids so that the police will be called to escort him away. Thornhill
identifies himself as the fugitive wanted for Townsend's murder and
demands to be jailed, but the arresting officers clandestinely take him
to the Professor (Leo G. Carroll) instead. The Professor reveals that
Kaplan does not exist. He was invented to distract Vandamm from the
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real government agent: Kendall. As he has inadvertently put Kendall's

life in danger, Thornhill agrees to help maintain her cover.
At the Mount Rushmore visitor center, Thornhill poses as Kaplan to
negotiate Vandamm's turnover of Kendall for her prosecution as a spy.
The deal is derailed when "Kaplan" confronts Kendall; she fires a
handgun (later revealed to have been loaded with blanks) at him and
flees. Paramedics load Thornhill in an ambulance then take him to a
forest where he gets out of the ambulance uninjured. Thornhill and
Kendall have a romantic goodbye in the forest, but Thornhill discovers
she must not only return undercover, but go with Vandamm and
Leonard on a plane to rendezvous "over there". The Professor has his
driver stop Thornhill from preventing Kendall from returning, but
Thornhill evades the Professor's custody and finds Vandamm's lair to
rescue Kendall.
At Vandamm's house Thornhill overhears that the sculpture holds
microfilm, and learns that Leonard has discovered that Kendall's gun
was loaded with blanks when Leonard reveals the fact to Vandamm.
Vandamm implies that he will kill Kendall during the flight. Thornhill
is able to inform Kendall that they plan to kill her, but is captured. As
Vandamm and Kendall are boarding the plane, Thornhill's sudden
escape from the house provides a distraction during which Kendall
takes the sculpture and runs to him. Thornhill and Kendall attempt to
flee, but realize they are on top of Mount Rushmore and begin to
climb down the mountain sculpture, pursued by Valerian and Leonard.
Thornhill fights Valerian, who falls from the cliff, but Leonard pushes
Kendall over the side. While Thornhill is holding onto Kendall and the
cliff face, Leonard stomps on his hand. Leonard is killed by a gunshot
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from a park ranger in a group including the Professor and the captured
Vandamm.
Later, Thornhill invites Kendall, as the new Mrs. Thornhill, onto the
upper berth of a train that then enters a tunnel.
The Birds (film)
Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren), a young socialite, meets lawyer Mitch
Brenner (Rod Taylor) in a San Francisco bird shop. He wants to purchase
a pair of lovebirds for his sister's eleventh birthday, but the shop has
none. He recognizes her from a previous encounter, but she does not
remember him, so he plays a prank by pretending to mistake her for a
salesperson. She is infuriated when she realizes this, even though she
also likes to play practical jokes. Intrigued, she finds his address in
Bodega Bay, purchases a pair of lovebirds, and takes the long drive to
deliver them. She secretly deposits the birdcage inside his mother's
house, with a note. He spots her on the water through a pair of
binoculars during her retreat, and manages to talk to her after she is
attacked and injured by a seagull. He invites her to dinner, and she
hesitantly agrees.
Melanie gets to know Mitch, his widowed mother Lydia (Jessica Tandy),
and his younger sister Cathy (Veronica Cartwright). She also befriends
local school teacher Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette), who is
Mitch's ex-lover. When she spends the night at Annie's house, they are
startled by a loud thud; a gull has killed itself by flying into the front
door. At Cathy's birthday party the next day, the guests are set upon by
seagulls. The following evening, sparrows invade the Brenner home
through the chimney. The next morning, Lydia visits a neighboring
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farmer to discuss the unusual behavior of their chickens. She discovers

his eyeless corpse, the result of a bird assault on his house. She flees
the scene in terror. After being comforted by Melanie and Mitch, she
expresses concern for Cathy's safety at school. Melanie drives there
and waits for class to end, unaware that a huge number of crows are
massing nearby in the playground area. Horrified when she sees the
jungle gym engulfed by them, she warns Annie, and they evacuate the
children. The commotion stirs the crows, and they attack, injuring
several of the children.
Melanie meets Mitch at a local restaurant. Several patrons describe
their own encounters with strange bird behavior. A drunken
doomsayer believes the attacks are a sign of the apocalypse, and a
traveling salesman suggests exterminating them all. An amateur
ornithologist dismisses the reports of attacks as fanciful and argues
about it with Melanie. A young mother becomes increasingly
distressed by the conversation and chides them all for frightening her
children. The birds begin to attack people outside the restaurant. A gas
station attendant is attacked while filling a car with gasoline; he is
knocked unconscious by a flying gull and the gasoline pours out onto
the street. The salesman from the restaurant, unaware that he is
standing in a puddle of the gasoline, attempts to light a cigar. The
gasoline ignites, killing him. The flash of the explosion attracts a mass
of gulls, which begin to swarm menacingly as townsfolk attempt to
tackle the fire. The birds begin attacking the town as people pour from
the restaurant to survey the damage; Melanie is forced to take refuge
in a phone booth as the gulls create chaos outside. Mitch rescues her
and they return to the restaurant, where the young mother becomes
hysterical and accuses Melanie of causing the attacks, as the birds did
not start their vicious behavior until she arrived. The ornithologist sits
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in stunned silence. Melanie and Mitch return to Annie's house and

find that she has been killed by the crows while ushering Cathy to
safety.
Melanie and the Brenners barricade themselves inside the Brenner
home. It is attacked by waves of birds of all different species, which
several times nearly break in through the sealed doors and windows.
During a night-time lull between attacks, Melanie hears the sound of
fluttering wings. Not wanting to disturb the others' sleep, she enters
the kitchen and sees the lovebirds are sedentary. Realizing the sounds
are emanating from above, she cautiously climbs the staircase and
enters Cathy's bedroom, where she finds that the birds have broken
through the roof. They violently attack her, trapping her in the room
until Mitch comes to her rescue. She is badly injured and nearly
catatonic; Mitch insists they must get her to the hospital and suggests
they drive away to San Francisco. When he looks outside, it is dawn and
a sea of birds ripple menacingly around the Brenner house as he
prepares her car for their escape. The radio reports the spread of bird
attacks to nearby communities, and suggests that the National Guard
may be required to intervene because civil authorities are unable to
combat the attacks, which continue to remain unexplainable. In the
final shot, the car carrying Melanie, the Brenners, and the lovebirds
slowly make their way through a landscape in which thousands of
birds are perching.
Marnie (film)
Margaret "Marnie" Edgar (Tippi Hedren) steals $10,000 from her
employer's company safe and flees. She had used her charms on
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Sidney Strutt (Martin Gabel), a tax consultant, to get a clerical job

without references. After changing her appearance and identity, she
makes a quick trip to a horse stable in Virginia, where she keeps a
horse named Forio, and then to Baltimore for a surprise visit to her
mother, Bernice (Louise Latham). Though Bernice seems to care more
for a young neighbor named Jessie than she ever did her own
daughter, Marnie shows her love for her and gives her money.
When Mark Rutland (Sean Connery), a wealthy widower who owns a
publishing company
in Philadelphia, sees Strutt on business, he learns of the robbery. He
recalls Marnie from a previous visit. Unaware of this, Marnie applies for
a job at Mark's company; intrigued, he hires her as a typist, and they
see each other socially. When Marnie has a panic attack during a
thunderstorm, he hugs her and quietly kisses her. Marnie also has bad
dreams and a phobia of the color red.
Marnie repeats her crime at Marks company, stealing a large sum of
money and fleeing. Mark tracks her down at the horse stable where
she keeps Forio. Shockingly, he blackmails her into marrying him.
They marry, much to the chagrin of Mark's former sister-in-law, Lil
(Diane Baker), who has had an eye on him ever since her sister's death.
Lil learns that he is spending extravagantly on Marnie and becomes
suspicious. On her honeymoon cruise, Marnie admits to Mark that she
cannot stand to be touched by a man. Mark starts to respect her
wishes, but then rapes her. The next morning, she tries to drown
herself in the ship's pool, but Mark gets there in time to save her.
Upon their return home, Mark discovers that Marnie's mother is still
alive; he hires a private investigator to find out all he can about the
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woman. Meanwhile, Lil overhears that Mark has "paid off Strutt" on
Marnie's behalf, so she mischievously invites Strutt to a party at Mark's
house. There, a furious Strutt recognizes Marnie, but does not expose
her after Mark threatens to take his business elsewhere. When Marnie
later admits to additional robberies, Mark offers to pay back all her
victims to keep the police away.
Invited to ride in a fox hunt, Marnie enjoys herself, but becomes
perturbed when the hounds corner the fox and begin to pull it from its
den. When another rider wearing a traditional scarlet coat comes into
view, her phobia kicks in and she bolts on her horse Forio. After a wild
gallop, the horse falls and suffers a catastrophic injury, forcing Marnie
to shoot him. Crazed with grief, Marnie goes to Mark's office to rob his
safe again, but this time, she cannot bring herself to do it. Mark
surprises her and eggs her on to take the money, but still she cannot.
He then takes Marnie to Baltimore to see Bernice. Mark confronts
Bernice about her past as a prostitute, and demands the truth. When
Bernice attacks Mark hysterically, Marnie's long- suppressed memories
suddenly surface. She remembers that when she was a child, a
drunken sailor (Bruce Dern), one of Bernice's clients, had tried to
comfort her during a thunderstorm. Bernice, thinking he was
molesting Marnie, attacked him. Frightened, Marnie struck him with a
fireplace poker and killed him. Bernice calmly admits everything, and
she tells how she got Marnie, and how much she has always loved her.
Now understanding the source of her fears, Marnie asks Mark what to
do; he lets her know that he is on her side and will defend her. She
responds, "I don't want to go to jail; I'd rather stay with you.
Torn Curtain
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Michael Armstrong (Paul Newman), an esteemed American physicist

and rocket scientist, is to attend a scientific conference in Copenhagen.
He takes a cruise ship to Copenhagen along with his assistant and
fiance, Sarah Sherman (Julie Andrews). Armstrong tells Sherman that
he did not want her to come along, and en route to Copenhagen, he
receives a radiogram to pick up a book once in Copenhagen. The book,
allegedly a first-edition of one of Armstrong's book, actually contains a
message that says, "Contact in case [of emergency.]" He tells
Sherman he is going to Stockholm, but she discovers he is flying to
East Berlin, and she follows him there. When they land, he is
welcomed by representatives of the East Germangovernment, and
Sherman realizes that Armstrong has defected to the other side.
Sherman, however, is extremely uncomfortable with this move,
realizing if the apparent defection is in fact real, given the
circumstances of the Cold War of the period, she would likely never see
her home or family again. They are constantly accompanied by
Professor Karl Manfred (Gnter Strack), who took part in arranging
Armstrong's defection to the East.
Armstrong visits a contact, a 'farmer' (Mort Mills), where it is revealed
that his defection is in fact a ruse to gain the confidence of the East
German scientific establishment in order to learn just how much their
chief scientist Gustav Lindt (Ludwig Donath) and by extension, the
Soviet Union, knows about anti-missile systems. While Armstrong does
not inform the U.S. government of his plan, he has made preparations
to return to the West via an escape network, known as . However,
Armstrong is followed to this farm by his official body man, Hermann
Gromek (Wolfgang Kieling), an East German security officer assigned
to him. Gromek realizes what is and that Armstrong is a double
agent, and as Gromek is calling the police to report his suspicions, a
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tortuous fight scene commences that ends with Gromek being killed.
So as to not arouse the suspicion of the taxi driver who brought
Armstrong to the farm, a gun is not used to kill Gromek, but instead he
is choked, stabbed, hit with a shovel, and, ultimately, gassed to death
by Armstrong and the farmer's wife (Carolyn Conwell). Gromek and his
motorcycle are then buried by the 'farmer' and his wife. The taxicab
driver (Peter Lorre Jr., uncredited) who drove Armstrong to the farm,
however, reports on Armstrong's behavior to the police when he sees
Gromek's missing person ad in the newspaper. The remains of Gromek
are found; the fate of the farmer's wife is not given.
Armstrong visits the physics faculty of Karl Marx University in Leipzig,
where his interview with the scientists is abruptly ended when he is
questioned by security officials about the missing Gromek. The faculty
try to interrogate Sherman about her knowledge of the American
"Gamma Five" anti- missile program, but she refuses to cooperate and
runs from the room even though she had agreed to cooperate and
defect to East Germany. At this point, Armstrong secretly confides to
her his actual motives, and asks her to go along with the ruse. He
finally goads Professor Lindt into revealing his anti-missile equations
in a fit of pique over what Lindt believes are Armstrong's mathematical
mistakes. When Lindt hears over the university's loudspeaker system
that Armstrong and Sherman are being sought for questioning, he
realizes that he has given up his secrets while learning nothing in
return. Armstrong and Sherman escape from the school with the help
of the university clinic physician Dr. Koska (Gisela Fischer).
They travel to East Berlin, pursued by the Stasi, in a decoy bus operated
by the escape network, led by Mr. Jacobi (David Opatoshu).
Roadblocks, highway robbery by Soviet Army deserters,
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and bunching with the "real" bus result in the police becoming aware
of the decoy bus and everyone fleeing. While looking for the
Friedrichstrae post office, the two encounter the
exiled Polish countess Kuchinska (Lila Kedrova) who leads them to the
post office in hopes of being sponsored for an American visa. The
police find Armstrong and Sherman at the post office, and Kuchinska
throws herself in front of the police so they can go to their next
destination, a travel agency.
When Armstrong and Sherman arrive at the travel agency, however,
the police were performing a raid. Two men from the travel agency
walk up to them on the sidewalk - one is the 'farmer' - and give them
tickets to the ballet, with the plan being to travel with the troupe to
Sweden later that night. While they are attending the ballet and
waiting for the pick-up, the are reported to the police because they
were spotted by the lead ballerina (Tamara Toumanova), who bears a
bit of a grudge: she flew to East Berlin on the same airplane as
Armstrong, and mistakenly believed the press were there to greet her,
rather than Armstrong. Armstrong and Sherman escape through a
crowded theater by shouting fire, and after Armstrong and Sherman
hide in a crate of props belonging to a traveling Czech troupe, they
cross the Baltic Sea to Sweden on a freighter. The ballerina makes a
mistake in uncovering where Armstrong and Sherman are hiding on
the ship, the wrong crates are fired on when already dangling over the
pier (thus, Swedish crane operators technically have control over the
property once it was off an East German boat), and Armstrong and
Sherman are able to escape by jumping overboard and swimming to a
Swedish dock.
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Topaz (1969 film)

In Copenhagen in 1962, a high-ranking Soviet intelligence officer,
Boris Kusenov (Per-Axel Arosenius), defects to the West with his wife
and daughter after a chase through the streets to the US embassy. In
Washington DC, CIA agent Mike Nordstrom (John Forsythe) debriefs
him and learns that Russian ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads
are to be placed in Cuba. Needing physical evidence of the missiles, he
contacts an old friend, French agent Andr Devereaux (Frederick
Stafford), at his house in Georgetown. Nordstrom discloses Kusenov's
name to Devereaux, asking him to bribe Luis Uribe, a member of
Cuba's U.N. delegation, to provide photographs of documents
confirming the missile bases in Cuba (knowing that Uribe hates the
United States and would never cooperate with an American agent).
Devereaux decides to accompany his daughter Michle (Claude Jade)
on her honeymoon with journalist Franois Picard (Michel Subor) as a
reason to go to New York City. His wife Nicole (Dany Robin) is worried
and tries to dissuade him.
In New York City, Devereaux entrusts a familiar contact, a recently
retired French-Haitian agent named Philippe Dubois (Roscoe Lee
Browne), with executing the operation. Uribe is the secretary to Cuban
official Rico Parra (John Vernon), who is in New York to appear at the
United Nations and staying at theHotel Theresa in Harlem to show
solidarity with the African American community, which the Cuban
Communists and their Soviet masters frequently propagandize as "the
masses". Dubois, taking the identity of a black journalist from Ebony
magazine, sneaks into the hotel, which is seething with visitors and
surrounded by an enthusiastic mob. He bribes Uribe to take the
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documents from Parra's office to photograph, but Parra realizes the

plans are gone and catches Dubois photographing the documents.
While being chased and shot at by Cuban revolutionaries, Dubois
purposefully bumps into Devereauxwho was watching events from
the other side of the streetand slips the camera into his hand. A
Cuban guard helps Devereaux to get up, stares at him, and lets him go.
Dubois escapes from his Cuban pursuers, melting into the crowd
around the hotel.
Dubois' photos confirm that the Soviets are secretly transporting and
placing missiles in Cuba. Devereaux, ignoring his wife's fear and
accusations of infidelity, jets off to Cuba to find out more details. He
catches up with his mistress, Juanita de Cordoba (Karin Dor), who is a
widow to a wealthy "hero of the Revolution". As leader of the local
underground resistance network, Juanita works undercover to collect
information as Parra's lover. Upon his arrival, Devereaux finds Parra
leaving Juanita's mansion, and Parra indicated he was just in New York
City, but the visit was routine and uneventful. During a scene of
intimacy in the mansion, Devereaux asks Juanita to take photos of the
missiles as they are unloaded from Russian boats at the harbor.
Juanita instructs her loyal domestic staff to help take the photos.
Carlotta and Pablo Mendoza pose as picnickers on a hill overlooking
the harbor and photograph the unloading of Soviet missiles. They are
discovered when hungry seagulls descend upon their lunch and give
their position away. The two are able to hide the incriminating film in
the railing of a bridge. Soon after, Parra's man, during a mass rally and
lengthy speech by the "lder mximo", recognizes Devereaux's face
from the incident in front of the hotel. Parra, who has heard from the
maimed and tortured Carlotta Mendoza that Juanita is their leader,
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confronts Juanita and, hugging her in his arms, shoots her to save her
from being tortured to death. Her dress spreads beneath her
collapsing body like a purple bloodstain on the black-and-white
pavement tiles.
At the Havana airport, Devereaux is searched thoroughly at the
departure gate, but the Cuban authorities are unable to find the
carefully hidden microfilms, which provide crucial information for the
CIA about Soviet activities in Cuba. When Devereaux arrives back in
Washington DC to deliver the microfilm to Nordstrom, he finds his
home empty: his wife has left him due to his Cuban love affair and
returned to Paris.
At this point, the film changes course as Devereaux is also recalled to
Paris, but before he leaves, he is informed by Kusonov (in Nordstrom's
protection) about the existence of a Soviet spy organization called
"Topaz" within the French intelligence service. He is given the name of
one certain member,NATO official Henri Jarr (Philippe Noiret), who
leaked documents to the KGB.
When he arrives in Paris, Devereaux attempts to get to the bottom of
the leak, while his daughter Michle wants to reconcile her parents. He
invites some of his old friends and colleagues, including Jarr, to a
lunch at a fine restaurant under the auspices of helping Devereaux
prepare for his inquiry. While Jarr eats, Devereaux tells the others
about Topaz in order to provoke some reaction. Jarr answers that all
this is a piece of misinformation, since he knows that Kusenov, the
Russian official, in fact died a year ago.
Soon after, Jarr begins to panic, and visits the man who is the leader
of the spy ring, Jacques
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Granville (Michel Piccoli), who answers the door in his night gown,
"waiting for somebody." Granville tells Jarr that it was a mistake to
say that Kusenov was dead, as the Americans will just check and realize
that Jarr is lying. As Jarr is leaving Granville's house, Devereaux's
wife arrives to meet Granville. As they kiss, we see a photo on a stand
of Devereaux, Nicole, and Granville, who were old friends from their
days together in the French Resistance.
Devereaux sends his son-in-law, Franois, to interview and extract
information from Jarr. Franois calls Devereaux from Jarr's home,
but the call is cut short. Devereaux and Michle rush together to Jarr's
flat and find him dead, a staged suicide as if Jarr had jumped out of
the window; Franois has disappeared. Devereaux and Michle return
to Nicole's, and a short time later Franois arrives. After being clubbed
and kidnapped, he recovered and managed to escape from his captors'
car. He has overheard a phone number and shows a sketch of Jarr.
Nicole, who was staring at the window then turns around and tells her
family, with tearful eyes, that the phone number is Granville's, so he
must be the leader of the Topaz organization. Granville is exposed and
then commits suicide (in the USA and French versions) or flees to the
Soviet Union (in the British version).
Frenzy
n London, a serial killer is raping women and strangling them with
neckties. Most of the film takes place inCovent Garden, which at the
time was still the wholesale fruit and vegetable market district. Fairly
early in the film, the audience sees that fruit merchant Robert Rusk
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(Barry Foster) is in fact the murderer. However, circumstantial evidence

has already built up around his friend Richard Blaney (Jon Finch).
Blaney's ex-wife, Brenda (Barbara Leigh-Hunt), runs a matchmaking
service that Rusk used until he was blacklisted for beating up his dates.
One day, Rusk shows up at her office and tries to seduce her; when she
spurns his advances, he rapes and strangles her in a fit of rage.
Suspicion falls on Blaney, who is previously seen threatening his exwife in public, as well as being seen leaving her building shortly after
her murder. The subsequent murder of Blaney's girlfriend, Barbara
"Babs" Milligan (Anna Massey), occurs off-screen: the audience sees
her entering Rusk's apartment with him, but the camera then pulls
back down the stairs all the way out to the other side of the street.
The audience next sees Rusk at night carrying a large sack and lifting it
into the back of a lorry among sacks of unsold potatoes bound for
Lincolnshire. Rusk soon finds that his distinctive jeweled tie pin (with
the initial R) is missing, and realises that Babs must have torn it off as
he was murdering her. He climbs into the back of the lorry, but it starts
off on its journey north. The killer desperately scrabbles through the
sack of potatoes to find the dead woman's hand. Rigor
mortis has set in, and he has to break her fingers in order to prise the
pin from her grasp.
Owing to fake evidence set up by Rusk, Blaney is gaoled while
protesting his innocence. Chief Inspector Oxford (Alec McCowen), the
detective investigating the murders, reconsiders the previous events
and begins to believe that he has arrested the wrong man. He
discusses the case with his wife (Vivien Merchant) in several scenes of
comic relief concerning her pretensions as
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a gourmet cook.
With the help of his fellow inmates, Blaney escapes from prison.
Oxford knows he will head to Rusk's flat for revenge, and immediately
goes there. Blaney arrives first, to find that the door to the flat is
unlocked. He creeps in and sees what appears to be Rusk asleep in
bed, and strikes the body three times with a metal bar. However, we
see that the body is in fact the corpse of another of Rusk's female
victims, strangled by a necktie.
Oxford bursts through the door. Blaney is still standing by the corpse
holding the metal bar, and begins to protest his innocence, but then
they both hear something or someone banging heavily coming up the
staircase. The two men wait in the flat and witness Rusk dragging a
large trunk inside to cart away the body, only to come face to face with
two determined witnesses. The film ends with Oxford's urbane but
pointed comment, "Mr. Rusk, you're not wearing your tie.
Family Plot
A fake psychic, Blanche Tyler (Barbara Harris), and her boyfriend,
George Lumley (Bruce Dern), attempt to locate the nephew of a
wealthy and guilt-ridden elderly woman, Julia Rainbird (Cathleen
Nesbitt). Julia's deceased sister gave the baby boy up for adoption, but
Julia now wants to make him her heir, and will pay Blanche $10,000 if
the heir, Edward Shoebridge, can be found. George Lumley discovers
that Shoebridge is thought to be dead, but he tracks down another
criminal, Joseph Maloney (Ed Lauter), who paid for the tombstone over
an empty grave.
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Shoebridge murdered his adoptive parents, faked his own death and is
now a successful jeweler in San Francisco known as Arthur Adamson
(William Devane). He and his live-in girlfriend, Fran (Karen Black),
kidnap millionaires and dignitaries, returning them in exchange for
ransoms in the form of valuablegemstones. Arthur conceals an
enormous diamond in plain sight in their
crystal chandelier.
Arthur enlists Maloney, who had helped murder his adoptive parents,
to kill Blanche and George. Maloney initially refuses to help, but then
contacts Blanche and George, telling them to meet him at a caf atop a
mountain. He cuts the brake line of Blanche's car, but the couple
manage to survive a dangerous high-speed descent. Maloney then
tries to run them over, but another vehicle causes him to lose control
and drive off a cliff.
At Maloney's funeral, his wife (Katherine Helmond) confesses to
George that Shoebridge's name is now Arthur Adamson. George has to
go to work, so Blanche tracks down various A. Adamsons in San
Francisco, eventually reaching the jewelry store as it closes for the day.
Arthur's assistant Mrs. Clay (Edith Atwater) offers to let Blanche leave a
note, but Blanche says she is Arthur's friend and asks for his address.
Arthur and Fran are bundling a kidnapped Bishop Wood (William
Prince), into their car when Blanche rings their doorbell. They attempt
to drive out of their garage, but Blanche's car is blocking their way. She
tells Arthur that his aunt wants to make him her heir. Blanche sees the
unconscious bishop, and swears she will not tell, but Arthur drugs her,
leaving her in the cellar while they drop the bishop off for ransom.
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Searching for Blanche, George finds her car outside Arthur and Fran's
house, but no-one answers the door. He breaks in and searches for her.
Arthur and Fran return home; George hides upstairs. He overhears
Arthur's decision to kill Blanche and frame her death as a suicide.
George manages to talk to Blanche, who is faking unconsciousness in
the open cellar. Arthur and Fran enter to carry Blanche out to the car,
but she darts out and George locks the kidnappers in.
Blanche then goes into a "trance", climbs the stairs into the house and
halfway up the next stairs, where she points at the huge diamond
hidden in the chandelier. Blanche then "wakes" and asks George what
she is doing there. He excitedly tells her that she is indeed a real
psychic. He calls the police to collect the reward for capturing the
kidnappers and finding the jewels. A smiling Blanche looks at the
camera and winks.

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